A cat as a station chief? Makes perfect sense to me. You should see Cammy at 7 PM - she literally herds me towards to the kitchen to prepare her dinner - I repeat -HERDS me - Leon says she has me well trained. I agree.
She sends me mental messages.. food, food, go, now, food... boy, does she have me well trained!!!!!! I bet their trains are running on time!

Well, I am busy. I should be busy... the dishes from yesterday need washing and I am still working on the new rag rugs, but, well, rainy Mondays make me lazy.

 Here are some pictures of the process I go through making rugs.
I first tear the fabric in one inch strips by hand. I just measure it on a quilting mat, make a small starting cut and then pull. The sound drives my husband crazy !

 This keeps it straight and is easier & faster than cutting endless yards - literal miles - of fabric by hand.
Next I put the strips in a plastic bag, pull out my big basket of balls of fabric from the last time I made rugs, set up my sewing machine and start sewing...

Special very important note :
As you can it is an awful mess, at first. I carefully dispose of any threads - cats, for some reason, love to eat threads - I lost Mrs. Tibbles that way back in the 1980's - so if you own cats keep them away from threads - the finer the thread the more danger the cat will try to eat it.
I clean a few strips of their threads and I start joining. I  immediately put all  threads in a collection bag by the sewing machine...
This is a simple miter join. Put the two pieces at right angles and sew on the bias or angle. Cut the excess and move on. When you do so it because a straight rather neat join.






I roll the balls up every few strips because it is a terrible bother to wait.. it gets all tangled if I don't.

(It's not space science, exactly, is it, so far?)
I used to make rugs out of only one strand of 1 inch fabric, but they stretched out of shape, broke easily, and had a  tendency to trip people, myself, included, up --- I've experimented with two strands - some people use 2 inch wide strips  - and crochet them. I like the two strands because  I can play with color combinations and get interesting effects. It is a preference of mine to do so. Isn't Cammy cute? How do cats know where to sit and look cute? They gravitate towards being admired just like any screen actress you care to name. The only thing she didn't do is look demurely into the camera lens and blink her eyes!
Hook size: I used to use a K but it hurts my shoulder to do all that pulling and fighting both the hook and the fabric strips so I am now using a larger hook. I try to keep the hook as small as possible because I am looking for a dense fabric that does not stretch or get out of shape. I think a "N" or a "P" will work fine. Experiment and see which produces the best fabric.
I use a simple pattern and increase slowly. If I see I am increasing too much I stop for a row or to until I see it is starting to become a bowled shape. I know anyone who crochets will understand the sentence I just wrote. I found several simple patterns in books over the years but now use my own. The rug above is starting to show signs of having too many increases and I am on a none-increase row.
I am going to experiment some with dying old fabrics that are in either boring colors -  imagine beige or faded colors - or,  just plain, awful colors... (exactly what was I thinking when I bought that lime colored fabric? )

Why don't I just go buy rugs at Wal-Mart ? I like the work ... I like recycling old sheets into rag rugs. Oh, I should mention I do buy simple cottons, the same fabrics that others use for quilting, for my rugs - I usually look for it on sale. (Frugal, it isn't a philosophy, its my life.)

I own cats, cats have hair balls... they seem to choose rugs to vomit on - I've spoken about this to them but they don't seem to understand that if they are going to do vomit please don't do it on the bed or on the rugs - it makes extra work for big mama cat !

I can wash and rewash my cheap hand-made rugs until they begin to fall apart, and, then, not cry when I throw them out. They have served me well. Lastly, they are profoundly cheap.  And they don't show the effects of cat claws on their fabric.. cats claw, cats claw rugs, rugs age quickly, etc.
I might sigh over wool rugs and dream of having magnificently complex oriental rugs on my floors but I am way too practical to do something  so impractical  and I know in my heart they would never surrive for more than a week in this house!
Hey, I finally spell checked and edited... am I good or what?

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080315/D8VE3B700.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=528694&in_page_id=1811
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-03-10-petfood_N.htm
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hcqbO7l-1Bm1b77FTH0Ct5LxbuFQ
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5233704.stm
http://www.voice4dogs.org/tsinc.htm
(last link is very ugly.. honest pictures & details - prepare yourself or don't look.)
Above are raw links to relevant articles about the cruelty of China towards animals the rest of the world considers pets. One of the articles is about what they are doing to Tibet.
I hate doing this because I just wrote a great article about my novel but I must do it. I beg every one who reads this - on bended Kneels - to boycott the Olympic games in Beijing. I beg you - down on my kneels to protest China's abuses. China has an awful history of murder of animals and human beings. Look at what they are doing to Tibet right now - just weeks before the Olympics.. look at what they are doing to cats... to impress us with how clean their city is, of all things - they don't seem to understand that they control rabies and other dieases in sane, merciful ways.

 They hold no life of any kind sacred and I protest the choice of Beijing as the focal point for this year's summer games. The cats in the picture above are doomed. They will be murdered and eaten, there are places where they are being taken to be killed in the most awful ways possible. They did the same to dogs, recently. These are the same species that give so many of us so much pleasure of a completely different kind - the pleasure of love, companionship and friendship, the love of their incredible beauty and lovely diversity. We kill cats, too, but we try to do it humanely. The word 'humane' doesn't seem to exist in the Chinese lexicon.

Please people, don't give the Olympic authorities what they want most - your money and attention. In four years the games will be in a decent part of the world, hopefully,  one where life is loved and respected. Holding the games in the barbaric country of China makes as much sense as holding them in Saudi Arabia or Iran - where  dogs, Christians, Jews and women have no rights of any kind. What are the Olympics for if not about the rights of the individual to excel in every possible way?  China does not love individuals and does not encourage the Greek idea of beauty and excellence by extreme effort. Their poor people are not encouraged to be individuals, I have friends that escaped that country who have told me how bad it really is, there.  As a descendant of the ancient Greeks who settled Agropoli (my mother's home town in southern Italy) I can not think of many cultures of the world further from the Greek ideas that gave modern Western culture its wonderful diversity and love of beauty.
Please, all of you who love the human race & cats and dogs as much as I do - don't watch the games, don't buy anything they sell to commemorate the games. Protest with your dollars and your feet. Do it, people - your pets will thank you, the people of Tibet will thank you, I thank you. Let us show the Olympic commitees and the the country of China that we have the power  to oppose them.
You may also try writing to American companies that advertise the Olympic games. No, we should not expect China to change, but we need not be silent to their cruelty and abuses. I do my best to refrain from buying Chinese goods - but we all know how hard that is, now. I Do try, though, I would rather give my money to the good countries. Please do the same. Be not silent, friends, let your voices be heard!

Every so often I find myself so busy with my life that I can barely sit down in front of the computer before I begin to feel guilty that I am not working. I will not write a post today. It is late by my standards, though it is early evening.
Here are a few things I am considering for future posts :
"In praise of cats"- the news that Beijing is killing its cats to 'prepare' for the Olympics has me on the war path. I am ready to go over there and curse a few Chinese leaders. Oh, well, that being implausible as well as impossible (who would feed MY cats & husband while I was gone?) I will settle for writing an essay about the cats I have known and loved. With a few notes about what I think we can all do to effect China's stupidity. I will not be watching the Olympics,  I will not buy any thing advertised during the Olympics, I will not buy anything with the word Beijing Olympics on it.. . I am upset - and that is putting it mildly ... oh, by the way, China - very few cat diseases are passed to humans and cats do not carry SARS or any other disease if you keep them clean and healthy. (But you don't do that for your humans do YOU?) I live in a house with cats who have chlamydia and I have never come down with it. I have nursed cats with all kinds of diseases and have never come down with any of their diseases.  If you want to upset Americans you are doing all the right things. Killing the dogs, first, cats second. I hope your Olympics are a bust.

"Science Fiction or Fantasy?"  some news about my novel, how I write, struggles with composition and dialog and the laptop computer that, well, landed in my lap this week. Even the admission that I don't plan to actually publish the silly thing !

"Yard work and Gardening"  I don't know anything about them but they sound like fun.

"Ghosts - what to do about them when they get pesky." Some thoughts about how I cleared this house of one particularly annoying spirit, etc. Ghosts can be fascinating visitors. They  seem to be part matter in the way we mean matter and part spirit. They are also hard to ignore if you really have an experience of them. But alas, They can be damn annoying, also. Dealing with them kindly or harshly depends on whether they are getting pesky.

Another reason to despise China... their cruelty to cats - hateful, hateful! I am going to do my best to stop buying all Chinese goods and I suggest that all cat owners do the same - that and boycott the Olympics!

There have only been a few times in my life when someone had the courage to tell me that something was 'all in my head...' but recently my husband had the courage - or, shear foolishness - to say that there was no squeak, it was all in my imagination. Dear man, he doesn't know how he just crossed into dangerous territory.
There is a squeak in this room - I can't figure it out. It sounds like it is behind me. It sounds, for the life of me like dear, old Bedford squeaking  to come up on my lap he was the oddest cat - his voice would squeak in a breathy manner when ever he wanted to mew and he rarely mewed properly - he could, though, purr up a storm.
(sometimes it sounds like it is to my left - the last few have sounded like they were coming from my left. ) could it be outside ? but what would make a squeak outside this part of the house... there are no big tree limbs or ropes... not even a street light?
squeak, squeak .. then silence.
My guess it is that it is my computer, but what could make a squeak in a computer ... the cooling system ? the motor? I don't have fans like Leon does because my CPU doesn't need the extra cooling....
I am not suggesting a ghost, far from it... no, its not Bedford, though I would give a good inch of my height to have had him with me until he was an old, old cat... no, something is going on. I think its my computer - I have liquid cooling and it could be a motor of that system, I suspect. But it is definitely in this room - Tomorrow, I will move things about, I want to start sewing, again, any way, and need to, besides so I will use the effort to get the sewing machine out and set up. I need to put some yarn away, though God knows where.. But this squeak and I need to settle accounts. Either it goes or I do... My dream would be finding a small kitten hidden... just a perfect black and white short hair...Little Bedford, but now, IT is all in my head. He's gone, even if his squeak hasn't.

I have a clothes line in this room that is extended while my silk shirts are drying... there is only one big problem... the squeak is here when it is rolled up in its box.
I wouldn't mind a ghost but a squeak is annoying.

Every so often I have to release my brain and just write something wonderfully disorganized. Its a warm day here in the Northwest. Our summer so far as been wet/hot/dry/rainy/cold and not always in that exact order. I don't think this is going to be a long summer. It is already noteworthy for all the rain and cloudy days we have had - I know this sounds like whining, because, well, it is ! We have a window of only 2 months that can be warm and sunny. One of those months is already ending - August is a very quizzical month - it can be summer-like or it can start raining the 16 th. and we don't see the mountain for 6 months. No promises and absolutely no climatical certainty.
I bought myself 'Liberty:the story of the American revolution' this weekend and watched the entire 6 part documentary today. Paid slightly less than this. Do shop, please!
Very satisfactory. I want to research Abigail Adams' life and letters, now, after watching it - her relationship with her husband reminds me of mine with my own, dear Leon and I really enjoyed listening to the bits & pieces of their letters that were used in the documentary. It also reminded me of a off-Broadway play I saw when I was young - "1776" - which is a really charmer of a show with some very touching moments.
I might just buy this video someday - it is one of the few musicals I actually like.
Its amazing what our ancestors did to establish our freedoms and how amazing it was and still is that they founded a form of government that discourages hierarchy and balances our freedoms with our duties so very well. What a wonderful miracle the United States of America is and what a blessing in my own life. I thank God for his gift of freedom and my dear grandparents for choosing Courage and moving to the USA.

I am still considering the second part of my explanation and description of our survival plans. I tend to bury a lot of information in an equal number of words and I am trying to put my ideas in some kind of order - its very challenging - there is so much to get through - I would love to help people get organized so they are safer when next they face some kind of disaster. It is difficult enough to face a crisis, even a small crisis like a power outage. It is so much easier when you have everything organized as we attempt to do - being organized does not mean you are not in trouble, it means that it won't be embarressing.

The kittens born in our neighborhood are growing - I can't seem to catch up with them, the mom cat is moving them about. One day, one yard, next day, the other yard.. I am not sure I am going to be able to save their little furry lives. I can't bring them into my family because of the Chlamydia that permanently infects this generation of cats. Our plan is to let this generation die out, clean our house, dispose of anything this generation used constantly and then bring in a new generation of kittens. I am a very soft-hearted person when it comes to kittens but I have grown to accept, in later life, that I cannot save every kitten's life - that the species survives even when death comes to so many of their perfect little bodies is my only comfort when I see kittens in need. I suspect that God gave us cats and dogs (and all other creatures.) to teach us how to love - for that is what cats have taught me.
I would hope that in some way, I can not imagine, cats have some sort of immortality too, because my cat friends far out number my human friends and I would miss them terribly if they did not greet me in eternity or in, at least, my next mortal life ! Explains what is wrong with my little cat family.
There was a wealth of things to mention today - this is a link which will be welcomed by all Harry Potter fans. J. K. Rowling speaks of how lives of the main Characters developed after they mature and marry. Do not read it unless you have already read the final book - it will spoil several of the surprises !
So things DO turn out the way I would hope!!!
I would like to go back in a few weeks and reread the novel. I read it so very fast the first time, I suspect I missed some of the nuance of the story.