Best-laid plans

We'd made plans for a short getaway in the week between Christmas and New Years, just up to Portland to visit the zoo and art museum, but our cat sitter didn't return our texts and then the weather got bad and so we stayed home instead. Which was nice, because I couldn't do much in the studio, having only 25 lbs. of clay left, so I read a bit and napped a bit and got all the family Christmas presents packed and shipped by New Year's Eve. So that was nice.

Then I got the Christmas letter to my nephew returned to sender and realized that they'd moved and I had to figure out how to get their Christmas present to the new address which I didn't have yet and that involved a long stay on hold with UPS, who directed me back to Shippo, who then determined that I couldn't redirect the package because of the plan I'd bought for shipping, but I could have it returned to sender, no charge. So we caught it in Minneapolis and it's coming back here tomorrow.

My ton of clay finally got delivered last Tuesday, in the midst of a rain and sleet-storm, so that was fun. And the replacement part for my kiln vent arrived the same day, though one piece--the intake manifold--was rusted solid onto the old unit, so I had to spend an hour on hold with Skutt trying to get the part number for a replacement, while I was moving clay into the studio. I eventually had to give up--they were closing at 5--left a message, then an email, and finally got the number yesterday, ordered this morning. Meanwhile, the tools and parts are cluttering up the top of the kiln.

So throwing 75-100 lbs. of pots a day has been, by comparison, positively relaxing.

One of these things is not like the other

For about a week after new year, there'd been no sign of Raj, the black-and-white kitty who comes to my studio, begging for pets (and snacks). Since the weather was horrible, this tended to confirm my theory that he's actually got a home, he's just hitting me up for second breakfast.

About three days ago, I heard the familiar meow! outside the studio door, looked out to see no sign of him. Wasn't by the back yard, wasn't coming around from front, wasn't under the van.

He was on the roof. Right over the studio door.

He's been back every day since, sometimes multiple times, was even on the roof again last night. Then this evening, I saw a black-and-white kitty under the car as I came up from the mail box.


It wasn't him. It was the shy kitty with the jingle collar that we're calling Belle. Same shiny coat and thick short tail, but with no ring around the muzzle. And no pets. She's too shy to let anyone near her.