Potatoes in the Mist

Morris is my new cat friend. He has not replaced Rainer; he is just supplementing him. (The deal with Rainer is, he lives in Brooklyn, which is a bit of a pain to get to. We have to take a special train to get there; it's too far to walk. And the last two times we tried to go, the train wasn't working. So Fate seems aligned against us.) Morris lives in Manhattan, at a vitamin/health food store. I saw him once before, munching out back from his silver bowl. I patted him then and he wagged his tail, but he was mostly involved with his food. Tonight he was in a special box near the front of the store, where he could observe everyone coming and going. I said, "Hi, Morris," and patted him repeatedly. He likes being patted with the grain, not against. When I tried the latter, he looked askance at my hand, so I went back to regular-style patting. His tail thumped up and down against the floor of the box. I call him Morris because he looks like Morris the Cat from the old com...

I'm reading a book called The New Yorkers by Cathleen Schine. I'm really enjoying it, despite the slow pace. It has a lot of fun observations. For example: "She was easy company, possibly because she was somewhat inattentive." That startled me - would you enjoy somebody's company more if s/he wasn't paying that close attention to you? And then I realized: maybe. We have probably all been in situations where we felt scrutinized, and inattention might be more relaxing. There are two dogs in the story: Howdy and Beatrice. There are also little sketches of dogs scattered throughout the text, which I like. Part of the novel is set during the 2003 blackout in New York, which brought up my own memories of the day. I was actually sunning in Central Park, decided to walk home, and then I noticed that none of the street lights were working. As it turned out, our apartment is on a different grid from the rest of the city, so we didn't lose our electricity at home. Bu...

It's kind of grey and lifeless, weather-wise, in New York. In a way I like it, because when it's sunny and warm, I feel obligated to go outside. When it's cloudy, I can wander outside, but it's not required and there are fewer people :) (Yes, I don't like large groups, yet I always score as an extrovert on those personality tests. Hmm. Maybe I am an "intimate extrovert.") Have become addicted to librarything.com. I don't know why. It's a place where you can catalogue whichever books you want (ones you've read, loved, hated or want to read). For some reason, I got hooked. Am currently knitting a sea-foam green shrug (a thingy you can put on your shoulders, with a little back and front). I'll put up a picture when I'm done. I realized socks and me are not really meant to be...I get bored with the slow progress on #3 needles using floss-like yarn. We went to DG's birthday party on Saturday night. There were three distinct groups at the...