Kaiju is being my assistant this morning. Currently supervising from the snuggle position (in left hand, against my cheek). Photos: Smol green parrot with a tan head, red tail, and blue wings eating from a bowl of pellets, and eating cinnamon almond butter bits off of a wrapper. Both on my desk.

Following up on last night’s spam musubi attempt: musubi mold, nori, pickled ginger, and sushi mat in Amazon cart. Try low-sodium spam sliced thin (better crispy), and broil (fat drains), light hand w/teriyaki. Try adding some carrot and/or cucumber for more cronch or make veg musubi. 1/?

This sad attempt at Spam Musubi is @funranium.bsky.social ‘s fault, because he extolls the virtue of the real thing. Sadly, Dracos missed my request that he make sticky rice, and jasmine just does not work. And I bought a couple packets of seaweed snacks, because we’re in TinyTown, central IL 1/2

Dracos left for his morning school bus run after taking the dogs out, dogs and I settled down for naptime. An hour later I hear door noises, and let the dogs loose - if intruder, the big babies will at least be an inconvenience; If Dracos, no biggie. It was Dracos, today is a snow day. 1/2

The US Army, Corps of Engineers has a freely-available piece of software called HEC-RAS (Hydraulic Engineering Center River Analysis System). I'm using release 6.6, which is a bit over a year old. I haz borked it! My day-to-day boss has no input. Now I'm making our IT guy's day difficult. 1/?

I ordered Gentle Leader headcollars for the big boys. They are very much Not Impressed.

102 trick-or-treaters served. Loki also managed to escape from the office area, kinda, so I let him loose. Many, many borks given, between the two dogs. Next year we sit at the bottom of the front steps, so small fry don’t have to navigate them.

Goblins! Ghosties! Munchkins! Sun is going down, dogs are penned up behind my desk, and I’m sitting out on the front steps with a bag of candy, a warm jacket, and a lap blanket. Gimi has escaped containment. Oops. Loki is tied to my desk and is Vexed, but will survive. 😏

Much better! Helps that I did an aggressive cleanup recently. I can get away with the wall of monitors because my desk is an 8-ft by 3-ft countertop, straddling a radiator. I wish I could have gotten the 10-ft countertop, but it was hella more expensive. OTOH, the (new-ish) shelf has advantages.

I have a Wall! Of! Monitors! Got fed up with the itty-bitty laptop screen & portrait monitor, and got another 40” screen yesterday (all my “monitors” are TVs). New one does block my view of the fron porch, but my sanity is worth it. 1/?

Ob Relatively-Relatives Post: Dad's Uncle Al Scott. Lived next door to my grandpa's family when they were all kids. When Al's parents died he merged into our family. "Scott" was his legal surname, but it effectively became part of a hyphenated first name. Uncle Al was family.

Morning Bitey-Face!

Moth Ball is off on a big adventure! Many thanks to our local postmaster for her help with customs forms, the USPS website was fighting me. Moth Ball actually left on Wednesday, but getting my flu and Covid shots earlier that day wiped me out and fried my brain. Have fun and Moth Ball!

So excited! Only a week to go until the @OinkPigments trunk show! #pigstagram #yarntodyefor #trunkshow2025 #oinkpigments

Finally wove in all the ends on my Bellini Bubbles Shawlette, by PDX Knitterati. This is an assigned pooling pattern, yarn dyed by Created 4 U by Laura. After the first repeat I switched to the green & white yarn for the eyelet sections. I really like how it turned out with the green stripes.

Got new, larger, slow-feeder bowls for the big babies a couple weeks ago. This how Thord eats. 🥰 Loki will do an occasional lap, nothing like this goober.

Mothman! Crochet pattern by @craftyintentions - from a 5 cute critters set. The pattern antennae weren’t doing it for me, so I did my own thing. Wanted to make him solid black, but it was too hard to see the stitches, so I marled black and charcoal grey.

My big babies, napping behind the desks with me while Dracos is out of the house.

I did it! I did it! I made the crossing work! I made the crossing work! Who's da Engineer? I'm da Engineer! I made it work! I made it work! I Made! It! Work! 1/?

This little dude is a Moth Ball, crochet pattern by Crafty Intentions. Body is about 6" long, wingspan is about 15". @lycomorpha.bsky.social DM me your address, please?

A @craftyintentions critter! This is a Kelpie with a fish tail, from the “Cute Critters Set 6” Equine Edition, which has an Alicorn, Hippocampus, Horse, Kelpie, and Night Mare. Also finished the last Moth Ball parts and blocked the wings yesterday. Debating between a Night Mare or a Mothman next.

Mamma gibed me lettice!

Diggy diggy hole! Loki, a red-brown dog, digging next to a stump, with help from Thord, a white dog with lots of fawn spots. At one point Thord was excitedly pouncing on the bits Loki was throwing behind him. 🙃 Mistakes may have been made in allowing this….

Thord is Dracos‘ baby, but my guard dog. He could have gone upstairs with Dracos and slept on one of our beds until I came up, but he stayed downstairs with me. 🥰

Sleepy puppy-pile. Gimli is in his nest behind the recliner.

Am trapped.

Sexual harassment training (on-line, video) gets amusingly surreal when the video gets glitchy/full of artifacts, especially around the faces, and lags the audio significantly.

New Job, who desk dis? Yesterday was Day 1 at Chastain & Associates. Official office is Paris, IL, will be mostly remote. Today was further wrangling of IT stuff, at-home edition. Now the work laptop has desk space, and is talking to the 2nd monitor, which has been ceded to it. 1/?

Thord, Loki, and Gimli are here to tell you that Yarn to Dye For will be closed tomorrow, Tuesday August 26th. I apologize for the short notice and any inconvenience. Also, someone stole their trees last week! (the trees were failing, and the big one was definitely menacing the house)

Bag pattern is the Mayfair Business Bag, purchased from Sew Modern Bags. Instructions could have been better, but the designer had better zip pocket instructions on her website. Mostly the order annoyed me - called for assembling all the front panel sections before doing the zip pocket 1/?

Start new job Tuesday, putting my Civil Engineer specializing in floodplains hat back on. Part-time, mainly WFH. Trying to keep Imposter Syndrome at bay by buying a new fountain pen & ink, notebooks, & case for fountain pens, and made myself a new briefcase-ish bag. Waxed cotton & batiks. 1/2

More teasers! The yarn that Created 4 U by Laura made for us in the process of being dyed! Her trunk show is September 5th & 6th, at Yarn to Dye For.

I’m so excited about our beautiful new “scary” bird yarns from @laughingcatfibers! Magpie, Mourning Dove, and Bloodcheep (the gothiest cardinal that ever gothed). We’ll have them in the store in just a few days, SQUEE!

This should be the last of this style pouch for a bit. Started them weeks ago, yellow & purple are denim-stiffened, supposed to be lining for the cats. But that would make them much too thick - cats are an upholstery brocade. I cut lightweight linings for all & accents for the yellow & purple.

Things I finished over the lasr few days - A pair of pencil/notions pouches in 2 sizes to test my pattern tweaks, I think they‘re good. Also a basic tote bag - about 10“x5“x14“tall. I think it needs to be a bit wider, around 12“. The 5“ depth and 14“ height are good.

Housekeeping around the shop today: currently taking a break from sweeping, took the wheelie-bin to the curb, laundry hauled to the mudroom & is running, did dishes, cat litter, stole Kaiju‘s floor (cage liner). Need to refill dog‘s water, pick up behind desks, continue laundry, & probably more.

Teaser images! Not one, not two, but THREE custom colors by @created4ubylaura ! Come see them at the Created 4 U by Laura trunk show at Yarn to Dye For. Yes, one of these is an assigned pooling colorway! B&W pictures of skeins of yarn

Some little pouches I finished today. I like how the three Mini Open Wide pouches came out - not sure I want to sell them! 😉 Yes, I have a bit of a batik problem.

Dracos is in bus driver training & I am to the paperwork stage of a new engineering job (PT, mainly WFH), so we celebrated with a new watch for him & another A/C unit to sit by my desk. Yes, this style is more expensive/takes floor space vs a window unit, but SO much easier to move & install!

We have a Google Voice number for the shop, and I‘m used to a spammy automated call or 2/day (trying to sell listing SEO service), but this morning has been RIDICULOUS! IIRC I‘ve gotten over a half-dozen. Yes, I’ve started blocking on both the regular contacts app and the Google Voice app.

My guess, based on his coat and occasional hound-bay, was that Thord was a pit bull/red-ticked hound cross. Until this morning, when I watched him yawn. Clearly that boy is a pit bull/thylacine cross, and the stripes expressed as spots! He also has a loooong tongue.

Did a lot of cutting things out yesterday & today - 4 project-size Firefly Totes (by Noodlehead patterns), and 4 small pouches out of scraps. Dracos started 4 days of video training on his iPad, so I was keeping busy at my desk.

Offspring is looking for a “Trans Rights or I Bites” (or similar vibe) sticker, but wants to buy from an actual artist. Suggestions please?

Canvas! 10 yards each of 60“ wide white and 36“ wide natural. The white is for blinds on the porch - west side is the priority, since we‘ll be losing the shade from the big maple. The natural canvas is for simple tote bags, and whatever else we need canvas for. Bonus Thord investi-helping. 🥰

Moved the very cheap clearance bamboo needles to the front of the checkout desk, moved spindles & laser-cut notions to the space we cleared, moved the „yarn bracelets“ down so people can see them better, and made signs. Also made cards with barcodes for the small stuff to stay by the computers.

7:20 am, feels like 90F, 90% humidity. Downstairs AC units staying on.

Re-arranged the front corners, condensing Leading Men & Indigo Guinea to make room for Cascade Heritage; & the Laughing Cat shop exclusive, other colors, plus the new goodies she’ll be dyeing for us. Also discussing show colors with Created 4U by Laura, so that section should fill up soon! 🥰 1/?

We have achieved on-line shopping! Right now the only items we have available is the "Pushing Up Daisies" colorway by @laughingcatfibers.bsky.social, but we'll keep pounding on adding our other shop colorways and the items we make ourselves. yarn-to-dye-4.square.site

The @laughingcatfibers.bsky.social trunk show was So Much Fun! Huge thank-you to everyone! The side porch looks so sad & empty. We have all the "Pushing Up Daisies" that was left and will get pre-orders for more set up. Also have other yarn that I couldn't let get away. Pics tomorrow. 1/?

New goodies fresh off the laser! Getting ready for the Laughing Car Fibers trunk show Saturday and Sunday. (everything still needs wiping down & sanding). First up, a sign for SomeBirdy‘s cage. Not sure if I‘m going to paint the bird, or leave it all wood-colored. 1/?