cat photos from last christmas

 here's the movie from last christmas that i mentioned on last thursday's post.

madeline always slept in the big armchair . .

 pluto couldn't help but follow her around and try to catch her tail. she never wanted to have anything to do with him. poor madeline. she had been so happy being the only cat!

 
 he was so cute as a kitten! he's still quite cute . . but of course not in that kitten way.

i do miss waking up to her lying on top of me and gazing at me with her sweet, all knowing eyes.

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i posted about our first day at everglades national park here.

wednesdays can feel full of woe

 we had a thunderstorm today . . 

 pluto had fun watching it from below the window (he's unable to jump onto the sill due to his cerebellar hypoplasia).

 we both miss madeline today. yesterday we all decided we had to let her go as she seemed to be suffering too much . . pluto went to look for her today beneath the bed in morgana's room . . i feel so very, very sad.

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i put up three posts from this past week: thursday, saturday, sunday.

at the met and dinner at home

 amelie and i took the bus up to the metropolitan museum of art today.

 the main entrance was so crowded that we walked to the education entrance instead. the line to enter was much shorter.

 our first stop was the greek and roman rooms which she loved . . . above are two portraits from a funerary relief, which would have included likenesses of other members of the family: roman, ca 13 b.c. to a.d. 5.

 three marble funerary stele that belonged to a family in rome around a.d. 69 - 80. the head on the left is of gaius vibius felix, aged 49, made in his honor by his daughter; the head on the right is of gaius vibius severus, aged only 23, probably the grandson of felix. the hairstyles on both stele reflect the time period in which they lived, which is a little different from when the monuments were commissioned. felix's hairstyle reflects that of the julio-claudian period (a.d. 14 - 68) , and severus' that of the emperor nero (a.d. 54 - 68).

a marble funerary alter of cominia tyche: roman, flavian or trajanic period, a.d. 90 - 100. her hairstyle reflects the court of the late flavian period, and the latin inscription below her reads: to the spirits of the dead. lucius annius festus [set this up] for the most saintly cominia tyche, his most chaste and loving wife, who lived 27 years, 11 months, and 28 days, and for himself and for his descendants. she was young!

 marble statue of a seated muse . . roman, from the 1st or 2nd century a.d., a copy of a greek statue from the 3rd century b.c.

marble statue of the three graces, a roman copy (2nd century a.d) of a greek work (2nd century b.c).

after the greek and roman wing, we picked up an audio guide for amelie and then made our way to the ragnar kjartansson exhibit of a film he made just after midnight at the height of the summer in iceland, which greg had recommended seeing and which i think i enjoyed more than amelie. i then went home and amelie explored some more before returning and making a delicious dinner of spring rolls . . 

rice paper is wrapped around tofu, carrots, avocado, mung bean sprouts and cucumber. we dipped them in a peanut sauce. her cousin matt joined us as he lives on the lower east side.

after dinner pluto watched madeline drink water from the tub . . madeline isn't doing very well and is slowly dying from kidney failure.

trying to get on the road . .

at 7:30 am madeline was very cozy on my coat . . i didn't want to leave.

getting ready for rhinebeck

 the weather has been cooler so madeline has been curling into a little fur ball.

 korrina and i are going to the sheep and wool festival this weekend. we leave tomorrow morning for a special independent dyers show before the festival on saturday. we've both been frantically knitting away on our projects. ever since morgana and i returned from visiting my mom on sunday, i've been knitting everyday on a cardigan sweater with yarn spun from the prado de lana sheep farm, specifically one particular sheep: leona. she was supposed to be at the festival on saturday, but now her lambs are coming instead. i'm a bit disappointed!

morgana helped me out by winding another ball of yarn the other day. i actually finally just finished the sweater this evening and it's blocking on a towel on the rug. i better get some sleep. i'm driving tomorrow.

 

(but first i had to re-do the collar):

 

monday morning

madeline wakes us every morning at five with either a low rumbling purr or a very loud meow directly in one of our ears. if either of these greetings don't work, she begins knocking things down: the wooden bowl from thailand that morgana gave me (which sits on the piano), or the small notebooks that sit on the shelf next to greg's side of the bed. 

last night i went to sleep in winter pajamas. the night before i went to sleep in summer pajamas. this is just an example of how crazy the weather has been. 

chanda is trying to tie up a few loose ends on her dance. i filmed a little of it yesterday evening at the wooster studio, while greg attended a memorial for a high school friend at the mark morris dance cneter (bill wade). in twenty minutes or so, chanda and i will head out to help ellen load a few things into the theatre from the studio. it's very cold and grey outside right now, but it's supposed to get sunny and just a little bit warmer.

election day

it was such a fun morning. korrina and i voted together, and then had breakfast at buvette on grove street.

 madeline slept in the warm laundry all day.

and chanda finished the hat she was knitting (she bought the yarn at woolyn in brooklyn in september),

and she also made a delicious kale and sausage soup for dinner. it was perfect as the evening was cold and rainy.

acting observation day, making cat friends and morgana has a surprise

 today was chanda's last day of acting class for which she made her teacher a card.

 after she left i sat and worked on my joli mystery knit-a-long shawl and was then going to go out to get a small box of chocolates for her teacher, but she called to say that it was observation day and that i should run over to the class instead.

 so while i enjoyed all the different monologues and improv work, marlene didn't get her chocolates! but she did get a lovely thank you card, and we'll take her out over the summer for ice cream or some other treat.

 late afternoon saw us on our way to korrina and brian's apartment with our cats in carriers on the back seat of the car. we took them to meet hoban washburne in hopes that they would get along and korrina and brian could take care of hermione and madeline over the summer while we're in san francisco with chanda.

 when we got to the apartment we placed the carriers on the floor and opened the doors. both hermione and madeline cautiously padded out and surveyed the scene. hermione quickly found a hiding place behind the couch from which she never came out until we left. madeline quietly sniffed about and made herself at home. she and wash hissed at each other quite a bit and made me a little nervous, but then they seemed to settle down and accept one another. greg felt that the situation was doable and that we could leave them, so now we're waiting to see if brian and korrina feel the same way.

 they look quite comfortable together here!

 we had a really nice visit . .

and had tea and coffee and baguette and cheese that korrina put out (humboldt fog!), all from the flatbush food coop (which chanda and i visited before we headed back, making greg wait in the car with the cats!).

usually we have trouble getting hermione into the carrier, but not today when it was time to leave.

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meanwhile . . back in paris . . 
 

 our friend deychen surprised morgana with a visit.

she brought with her several small birthday gifts that i had wrapped.

 some chocolate, a luggage tag, goat milk soap . .

 and the socks that i had knitted!

 she was very pleased with them and wore them out to dinner.

 the three musketeers back in paris together.

cats and sick days

 this is the pic korrina sent me of her cat wash on wednesday night when i was texting her because i was feeling sick and couldn't sleep (it was actually thursday morning after midnight). to me it looks like he's passed out from too much yarn play, but she followed it with a text saying that she thinks he has attachment issues, which i found incredibly funny for some reason . . maybe it's just the way he's lying there . . with so much yarn around him . . he has attachment issues with her knitting projects.

this is how madeline deals with me being sick . .

more tag making and day three of the competition

 the apple bread that we made yesterday tasted just like a holiday fruit cake. it was very good and we loaded it with butter . . !

 morgana decided she wanted to make gift tags before i return everything . . 

we watched chanda perform her gamzatti, la bayadere piece via live streaming from the competition. it was fun except she made me watch sherlock at the same time so i had to keep checking to make sure i didn't miss chanda. however, we did miss her neoclassical piece as the live streaming suddenly cut out. i'm hoping they restore it sometime tonight.

cozy madeline . . notice san's gnome on the left?

 today she was out the door at 6:30 in the morning in preparation for the competition. here she is in the gamzatti costume (the "classical" piece), waiting to go on and trying to keep warm.

 in her journey through blue costume, the "neoclassical" piece.

all done for today. tomorrow she does her modern piece again for the modern finals.