A random ten

Originally seen on Annie Cholewa then again on driftwood. Both times read and enjoyed and inspired.

So here are mine.

1. Not at work today - taken a couple of days off to be with my boys over half term. The weather is wet and rather cool so we have shelved our original plans and have resorted to baking and blogging.  The cats approve of this idea and sit on any available lap and at the moment there are three on offer. Although I plan to get out after lunch despite the weather not promising any improvement. Not doing anything is wonderful - feels very decadently lazy.
2. Knitting is slow, mainly coz I am not doing any..... 
3. I am back studying again, gotta keep the old grey mush fighting fit! Although I must admit my initial reluctance to hit the books has gently slid from recalcitrant acceptance to a sort of unexpected anticipation. Not doing anything exciting or interesting though, just furthering my own work related knowledge.
4. We own (or are we owned by) two cats. Both have some sort of personal neuroses that I suspect stem from being enforced indoor cats - something we never intended but have had to resort to. (We lost two very quickly - one was run over and the other - well who knows, she just vanished and we never really got to the bottom of her disappearance).  One of our present cats came to us very nervous and people-shy and it took a lot of patience and gentle persistence before she finally accepted us as part of her life however, when she gets stressed she scratches her ears until she makes herself scabby. The second cat is a delightful nutcase who seems to get herself over excited which then develops into over grooming - a sure sign of some sort of stress. So, on and off for the last couple of years we have been working out way through a number of remedies to see if we can sort out their issues.  Finally we think we've found the perfect solution (apart from moving to the middle of a field where there are no roads/other cats/nasty neighbours/scary dogs). I found a plug-in herbal Valerian-based remedy and within half an hour of switching it on, the cats breathed a collective sigh of relief and became very chilled! No excessive grooming, no grumbling - just two cats happily pottering about with such a relaxed attitude - long may it last (wonder if it works on people too...??!!)
5. Planning a quiet Samhein this year, just my folks and the boys and a large bucket of sweets for the inevitable small and sweetly costumed trick or treaters that pop round. So, with the boys help, a suitable menu has been planned to include pumpkin soup, home made bread, roasted mielies - you would know them as sweet corn plus something for the carnivores  and Eldest has decided to make fudge and brownies too.  I can see the usual huge piles of washing up.... remind me to get the boys to wash up AS THEY GO ALONG......
6. Youngest is carving a pumpkin in the kitchen....I have retired to a safe distance.
   
7. I have bought a cat flap - our girls have access to an outside 'garden-room' where they play in between potted plants and high up on their 'cat walk' - an above head height gangplank walkway that Himself built for them. So they can get up high and look down upon us mere mortals. We are all heartily sick of having to * get up and open the back door for them only to have to leap up five minutes later to let the same cat in, only to find the other wants to go out (repeat from *).
8. I am meeting up with a bunch of friends tonight to go and watch another friend give a talk on the history of our village. She is our local historian and has piles and piles of slides and photos collected over many years. It is promising to be very interesting.
9. My desk is groaning mostly under a pile of indistinguishable pieces of paper. I know from memory that it is predominantly mail, magazines and recipes.  However, there are several cloth bags of knitting paraphernalia - each one left from a knitting project, now completed, with the remaining yarn and needles abandoned for the next wip. Sigh. 
10. Himself is studying how to install the cat flap..... I am glad I am out tonight.Another random note - one I only registered this morning - I have been blogging since September 2009 firstly as 11am then latterly in my present guise.  Hmmm - six years - hoodathunkit?

Right, off to rescue the kitchen - wish me luck!