It's dark and raining outside, and every now and then a breeze stirs the fallen leaves. I am rejuvinated by overcast days, and I find then wonderfully comforting.

Well, I am a year older since the last time I blogged. My birthday was November 13th, and here I sit a cool 37 years old.

Actually, my age surprises people. The general consensus is that I'm not a day over 28, which amuses me considering I don't feel a day over 12. I have a young face, but my hair betrays my middle-age; it's silvering like crazy. And since I don't cut it, the silver strands are loooooooong and cannot be hidden by shorter strands. I was kind of hoping I would go silver all over at once like Emmy Lou Harris, but alas I am fated to endure a gradual whitening. Ah, well...we all have our crosses to bear.

Speaking of white, we are now the proud owners of a small female feline, who happens to be solid white -- the color of cat I've wanted for a very long time. She showed up across the street the other day, and with a little coaxing came to me, and that was it: bond-city, big time! I brought her in to feed her, introduce her to the other cats, and wait for Robert to get home. I told him about her on the phone, but I wanted him to see her. She is just adorable. She is solid white from tip to tail, with a pale pink nose. Her eyes are beautiful; they are an odd pale greenish-gray with a touch of amber. She is a very sweet cat, but it took a few days for her to get comfortable to really display her personality.

My three boys don't know what to make of her. They sniff and snort and occassionally hiss, but for the most part they have settled down as well. Irwin, my gray tabby, being a naturally nervous cat, makes her nervous in return. Julius, my solid black kitty, is fascinated with her and Mulder, my tuxedo and my oldest, just tolerates her. The dynamics have shifted, but I was expecting that. The only thing is that I have to change the litter box every two days now, or she starts sniffing around. We are going to put another box in the bathroom so they can 'distribute the wealth', so to speak. It will make more work, but after the complete bonding that has taken place between her and I it will be worth it.:)

My birthday was wonderful. I had a bit of a weepy weekend (blasted depression) but everyone did what they could to make it wonderful. My parents grilled mojo chicken, one of my favorite dishes. We had potato salad, mexicorn, baked beans, and triple chocolate cake. I gained five pounds just looking at all! It was a wonderful feast, and great fellowship. For gifts, I got some lovely clothes, TWs the Best of Fantasy book, a Paula Vaughan stitching book, and the last book in the Mitford series. I also got an adorable chips and dip tray, with the dip dish shaped like a hot pepper. Classic!

The next day, Robert bought me another cake and a dozen pink roses, my absolute favorite. He also let me take my yellow gold engagement ring and wedding band and get them plated in white gold (I got the engagement ring back yesterday and it's *amazing*!). I also considered his agreement in letting me keep the little white cat as my big present, because although she is a family cat she is really all mine.:) Oh, and we named her Gypsy. Very appropriate. I had originally wanted to name her Luna, but Gypsy suits her much better. Before we settled on a name for her, she was known for two days as Snow Princess, in honor of my current cross stitch project.

I wish I could get a picture of both her and my new ring, but we don't have the camera software installed and I can't find it at the moment. If I thought for a moment the scanner would work I would try it, but I think scanning the ring might be far easier than a small squriming feline. Har.

As far as stitching goes, I'm still plugging away on page one of Snow Princess. I fear it will be another couple of weeks until I am able to move on to page two, but at least I'm making somewhat of a dent. I made the mistake of combining one strand of blending filament to one strand of floss for her crown, which is pain extraordinaire when stitching over one on 32 ct. Lugana. I hate 32 ct. Lugana for over one stitching, but it's what I started on and I don't want to waste the work I've done. So, it's slow going until I finish that blasted crown. The other metallics I'm using are working wonderfully, because the strands are very thin and using two over one is working great. This is going to be one sparkly piece! I'll have to post my conversion on the HAED board once they are hammered out. It might be a little too sparkly for some tastes, but there are stitchers out there who love cross stitch bling bling as much as I and they might like the option for a super-sparkly Snow Prinncess.
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