Two new arrivals

Meet Mei--our new 9-week old kitty. I had quite the day driving her from shelter to home to vet and back! (Not to mention dropping her off briefly at my parents' while I went food shopping for her.) Mei means little sister in Chinese, and sounds a bit like "May", which happens to be the month in which she (and I!) was born.
Don't let those big anime eyes fool you, this was one of the few pictures I could get of her staying still. She's got a personality rather like Milo (maybe it's the siamese in them) -- talkative, affectionate, and liable to climb all over anyone within her little reach.
She's already managed to pry off the Y and F8 keys from my laptop, also.
It's going to be trouble...
The other new arrival--I've got FO, for the first time in probably...a year? I made the hound's tooth cap from vogue knitting of winter 06/07. Specs:
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft (100% acrylic from the stash. yeah baby.) in Grey Heather and Soft Pink
Needles: #10 denise circular, #10 plastic dpns
Modifications: I didn't do an elastic band, just folded the edge over. The visor was cut from a plastic salad container, so I do worry about the edges wearing through the yarn a little. .
I'm actually quite pleased with how the hat turned out--perhaps when it's not 95+ degrees out I might favor y'all with an action shot

Experimentation!

A little Sunday afternoon science experiment, using hibiscus, sage, sweet basil, and pineapple sage. And...vodka!
What could it be?


Infused vodka, of course!
Even though I rarely drink anything other than coffee, much less cocktails these days (le sigh), it occurred to me that all the fresh herbs I've got in the garden could make some really tasty infused vodkas. I remember (somewhat less-than-clearly) a great evening with friends at the Russian Vodka Room trying a variety of vodkas infused with flavors like strawberry or ginger. While I'm not sure yet what I'll do with sage vodka, the pineapple sage and basil should make for some fun cocktails or at the very least a unique vodka tonic. I'm cautiously optimistic.

And yes, those of you who notice these things may have observed that I'm using a somewhat...budget-conscious vodka for my base. Please feel free to send donations to help me out with this sad situation.

Back to the needles

I think my hobbies are getting cyclical like the fashion industry. I've been throwing myself into gardening all summer and now that the highs are getting near three digits during the day I'm retreating back onto the couch (yes, I also have some more free time with this rotation) and have re-started knitting. It really started with dropping into a yarn shop down near the coast, picking up the winter Vogue Knitting from last year, and seeing this cute hat. And now, look where we're at.
And yes, I'm watching LOST while doing it. So. Decadent.

AAAAAAAAAARGH!!!

I'm home this weekend after 3 solid weeks of being away from the home & garden, and this is what I find:
A deck populated with plants in various (advanced) stages of death.
If you care to, you can compare with an earlier picture of the deck, with living, happy plants.
The boy insisted that he watered all the plants every other day "with two whole watering cans of water!"
Yes, that's two *gallon* sized watering cans of water for THE WHOLE DECK's worth of plants. Every other day. In sweltering 90+ degree heat. The tomato plant alone needed that.
Well, at least he tried. I think he's secretly plotting the downfall of my garden so I'll py more attention to him. First with the deck stain, now with the dessication.

Still sad.

I've been thinking about adopting a new kitten. One which I will successfully keep as an indoor-only cat, so help me god, if it means tethering her to a pole in the center of the house to keep her from running towards the doors. Is it too soon? I'm probably just looking for something to fill the void.
Just as a lark, I was browsing through some "free kittens!" listings, and came across a picture of a little black kitten who looked just like Mack did in his kitten-hood. I promptly burst into tears. Hell, I'm still a little sniffly. I'm surprised by how sad something like this picture can still make me. I've actually been "doing well" in terms of my emotions over the past few weeks--I think about the little guy with relative frequency but haven't been getting bogged down with teariness but for one or two moments. I find myself both embarrassed at still grieving over a cat almost a month later and frustrated that I feel the constant need to justify my emotions (however private) to an invisible-omnipresent "other"--the other, of course, being the imagined judgement of society, non-"animal people", and my friends.
If I keep thinking along these lines I really WILL turn into a crazy cat lady.
A'int no one gonna tell me I caint be sad if'n I wanna.

Free Time

...something I've had far too little of this year. This rotation I've had more of it than ever, and I find myself back at the old activity of surfing the web (with some help from flickr and...gasp, facebook, to which I've finally succumbed). I found myself looking at this pattern and wanting badly to pick up the needles and whip that bad boy (girl?) up.
Let's face it. Despite everything that medical school is throwing at me and a not-yet-entirely-quenched love of nerdy medical science and patient care, I'm still an obsessive hobbyist. Knitting, crocheting, gardening...I pick new hobbies up like other girls do fashion trends (so I hear), and I read, practice, and blog my little heart out. And I love it. I always want my hobbies and crafts to be part of my life. I want to be the neo-hippie mom who dresses her kids in handknit everything, packs them lunchboxes with organic, homegrown veggies, and forces them to contruct pointless little crafts every weekend. But I want, too, to be a well-read, somewhat-known research-oriented physician who yet spends enough time with their patients to listen to them--and still makes enough to pay for malpractice insurance, medical school loans, and the occasional trip to a carribean country.
Will I ever have enough free time in my life to be able to do everything I want to do--travel, knit, garden, raise cats (and later kids)...and have the career I want, too?