Sixty and Soaring

Have you ever been fooled by your cats?  You think they are sweet little boys or girls.  Mewing, purring, kneading just like the baby kitties they once were.  Then, one day, kabang!!! they turn in to vicious predators.

That is just what happened to me tonight.  My two boys, Skitty and BisBis were no where to be found.  I opened the garage, they did not come running in as usual.  I opened the basement door, same results.  Where had they got to?  I finally opened the garage door again and in ran Skitty like a blue streak.  BisBis, the tubby one, did not rush in so I left him in the garage.  Suddenly, I heard growling.  This is something weird, I thought to myself.  It is usually BisBis who growls when he has stolen a yummy piece of food(he is a food thief…he will steal a potato peel out of the trash thinking he has a prize).  I have never ever heard Skitty growl.  I wasn’t even sure it was him.  Maybe some sort of wild animal got in or a Halloween monster.  Who knows.  Finally I let BisBis in from the garage to make sure it wasn’t really him and tried to track down Skitty.  Yuck! when I found him.  He was carrying a dead vole.  Well, I could not let him have it while I went to bed.  I would wake up with a dead vole on my pillow (they love to give you gifts of their prey.  That is, if they do not eat it.)  Worse yet, I might wake up with vole guts and blood all over my off white carpets.  Double yuck.

After much chasing under the table, behind the sofa, under the table again, behind the chair, behind the lamp and around the sofa again, Skitty finally deposited his treasure by his food dish.  (Perhaps to have a little midnight snack?)  Ah ha! I seized my opportunity, seized Skitty and grabbed my super duper huge kitchen tweezers, picked up the corpse and tossed it into the backyard. 

I hope I have not scarred my proud hunter for life. 

At any rate, my carpets are safe and my garage is pest free until the next hunting expedition.

I am really excited.  I picked up the abaya pattern and I am going to make my own test garment for my good friend Dara.  I found a lovely blue fabric that was not too expensive and we will see.  If it works out I will have two patterns to get sized.  Then they will be ready for the market.  I hope all of you stitchers will want to try it out.

I drove to Minnetonka and dropped off fabric at Helen’s house. She will make the test garment on the abaya. If all goes well I should be sending the two abaya patterns to the sizer. Now what I want to decide is should I or should I not take the to New York and deliver them myself into Steve’s hands.

I like to put a face onto the voice or e-mails I am dealing with. I do not know why that is but I like to actually meet the people I am dealing with. I know it is weird in this age of anonymity. That is just how I am. I am an instinctual person and you really need to meet a person for the instincts to work.

How do you all feel about that…to meet or not to meet that is the question ? Is it better to suffer the slings and arrows of hands on actual personal relationships or best to just interact over the net?

Things are moving along with getting Islamic patterns made. The abaya pattern is done and a test garment will be made. If all goes well I can send it off to be sized. I also need to get the art work done for the packaging.

I have a vacation scheduled soon and it is really not coming at a good time but oh well. That is the way the cookie crumbles.

Every Monday morning I go to my personal trainer for a workout session. Ruthless Ryan always asks me how my weekend was. Of course, I am barely awake when I get there so I can not think back over the last 48 hours. Really, these trainers ask too much of us sometimes. At any rate, I made it a point to remember what I had done this past weekend. It was really busy.

On Saturday I helped at a garage sale we had at our mosque. Over 50 families donated all kinds of stuff. Everything from bikes to Danish Modern furniture. People were streaming in all day looking for and finding bargains. We not only made money but we also had a chance to explain some of the things that we Muslims do. It was great meeting people and helping them find the things they needed. A pregnant Mom got the car seat she needed. Another lovely British lady found an outfit to wear at our Renaissance festival while she rides side saddle. Can you believe it. I thought only Queen Elizabeth only rode side saddle!

Then I came home and did some alterations for a lady who was going on a job interview. Her last job had been working for a control freak who assembled guns from parts shipped in from Taiwan. She worked in his garage while sweltering in the summer and freezing in the winter. It must be true because who would even think to make up a thing like that. Needless to say, she quit.

Sunday I attended a “sufre”. This was a religious event at an Iranian lady’s house. There was praying and singing and food galore. Really great desserts, rice dishes served beautifully as only Iranians can do etc. Then I came home a had to tidy up the house. I did not want a client coming in to see three days worth of dirty dishes. u88888888888999999999999999o (this is my cat Koosha typing. He says” 86555555 quit playing with that computer and pay attention to me. ” Now he has gone to lie down on my big plastic bin to groom himself.)

That was my wild and wacky weekend. WWW for short.

I thought some of you may not want to read all of my posts.  Maybe you might just want to read  my business posts and not about all of my other ramblings.  If it is NOT business related I will have “whatnot” as one of the categories.  I hope that will help.

In most sensible cities, this little device is probably really not needed. One of those map books will do and then there is Mapqwest . Of course, Minneapolis is not a sensible city. In the best of times it is a warren of one way streets, no parking zones and buildings with no address numbers. Then there is summer. In Minnesota we call it road construction. Woe betide the unwary driver who enters into the Minneapolis city limits with out reviewing his entire route for road closures. The MNDot web site lists closures by hiway number. Of course, you may know your street by its local name of .ABC Boulevard while MNDot knows it as State Hiway 5.

Needless to say, when the road that Mapqwest tells you to take is closed you enter into the warren described above. Without a Gps you may enter into a Horrorland (that is the opposite of Alice’s Wonderland) and never escape. Who knows…it could even drive you to tears.

Yes, dear reader, a Gps device is an absolute necessity in Minneapolis. Either buy one or never enter into that Horrorland called Minneapolis.