Stewart

There is a lot less kitty love in the world today. This morning, I had to make the sad decision to put my best buddy Stewart to sleep due to complications from his diabetes. The decision was even more painful since I am halfway around the world in New Zealand and couldn't be there with him.



Stewart was a great cat. He and his sister Xena are the friendliest, most social cats I've ever had. And he thrived on attention. You always knew he was in the room because he would announce himself as he entered and would usually reorganize things that were laying around to suit his taste. His favorite toy was a purple ball of rabbit fur on a black string. He would carry that toy around the house yowling to himself (which is hard to do when you have a toy in your mouth!). He would always put the toy in his food dish, which I joked was because it was his favorite thing in the entire house. So, imagine how special I felt when he brought the toy to me and dropped it in my lap a couple of weeks ago. I had reached food dish status!



Stewart was the social chair of my house. He was always the first to greet anyone who walked through my door, and made sure I was supervised as I went about my day. Privacy was not in his vocabulary. Closed doors weren't tolerated, and the bathroom was his favorite room of the house. It was expected that the sink would be turned on as soon as he entered the room so he could have a drink. And if I'd peek around the shower curtain, he would be curled up on the rug, waiting for me to turn the water off so he could climb in the tub and have a drink there.



I have so many memories of the 11 years I was lucky enough to have Stewart in my life. It will be hard getting used to coming home without him standing at the back door waiting for me. Xena and I will miss him.

The First Sign Of Spring...

Is not a robin or the beautiful flowers blooming. It's the act sleeping in her warm and cozy fleece bed. It sits empty all winter,but it's her favorite place in the summer. Cats are strange.

New Stuff!

It's been an exciting week here in the land of the kitties. The new bike FINALLY came in and I got another delivery from The Loopy Ewe.

First, let's talk about the bike. I decided to get a Kuota Kalibur, which is a bike that was ridden by the winner of the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii twice. I doubt I'll be winning an Ironman anytime soon, but I'll look awfully cool. My friend Renee, who owns an online triathlon shop called Core Multisport, just became a Kuota dealer, so it was nice to help her out with her business. If you need any tri gear, check out her store, she has some cool stuff.

I took the Kuota for it's first ride on Sunday. What a great bike! And what a perfect day for a bike ride. It was probably the one day of the year in Oklahoma when it is sunny and gorgeous and there's not a bit of wind. There are a few things I need to adjust, but I'm in love with this bike. Plus, with the black and white paint job, it matches the kitties. My other training is going well. Last week, I did a 1000m swim for time, and came in at 17:45. That's pretty good for me. I'm just a couple of weeks out from the Oklahoma City half marathon, so I did a 9 mile run on Saturday. I'm hoping I can come in under 2 hours in the half. I set my PR of 1:56 at the Austin Half Marathon in 2006. Austin is really flat, and from what I've heard OKC is a little more challenging. It will be a good way to gauge my fitness level.

On the yarn front, I couldn't resist ordering a couple of skeins of yarn when The Loopy Ewe posted some gorgeous yarn from The Yarn Pirate. It arrived on my doorstep yesterday. I'll be using the purple and lime green skein to knit the Monkey socks from Knitty. I don't have plans yet for the other skein, but I'll probably pick something out of my Favorite Socks book.

I'm also working on my Magic Loop socks that I'm learning to make at Loops in Tulsa. It's my first time making socks using a size 1 needle. That's really, really small. They're going to be very pretty. The yarn I'm using is a hand-dyed yarn from Colinette called Jitterbug. I love the way a pattern is forming as I knit it.

Xena has always loved to help me knit, but I think the combination of tiny, shiny needles and skinny, bright colored yarn is too much to resist. She has really taken an interest in this project. It gets a bit annoying.

Cats and Socks

Xena is modeling my latest finished knitting project, the socks from Colorado. I'll post a better photo of the socks soon but i couldn't resist the opportunity to take a photo of two of my favorite things together.

Back Door Guests

Spring.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

What a weekend! I love March Madness. My Kansas Jayhawks started things out right with a big win over Texas to win the Big 12 championship. And thanks to my friend Shea, and her very generous Texas fan friends, I got to be in OKC to watch them cut down the nets. So much fun! It was one of the best college basketball games I've ever seen. I'll post a better photo of the game soon. I really appreciate my new Longhorn friends for not leaving me somewhere along the turnpike on the way home. They were very nice to this Jayhawk. In training news, I'm starting to fight off an IT band problem. I had to cut my 9 mile run down to 8 on Saturday because it became so painful when i would put weight on it. Tonight, I ran 3 with no pain, so I'm hoping I'm just a quick healer. I don't want to have to deal with that for the rest of the summer. So painful. My regular massagesare supposed to help prevent this kind of injury. Ugh.