A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not. ~ Ernest Hemingway

It’s no secret. I’m a cat lover. As I write today’s blog post, Ernie is purring his heart out on my lap. Periodically, he’ll move and stare up at me commending me to fuss him. I recently ran across a few articles on the best places for cat lovers to vacation. Travel and Leisure did an article The Craziest Places for Cat lovers. The article contains some fascinating vacation spots from all over the world. Key West has been on my vacation list for awhile now. Visiting Hemingway’s house has clawed it’s way to the top of my list. Hemingway’s home has about 40-50 polydactyl cats. Of course after a stormy weekend, I’m longing for a little sunshine. We were fortunate not to lose power and fortunate the storms weren’t as strong as predicted. Our lights flickered exactly five times on Friday, but never stayed off more than 30 seconds. This meant I had a chance to cook, bake and knit.

Flickering lights don’t scare me! I’m upside down cat. 

I made a pot of cheddar cauliflower soup that could easily be heated on our propane grill had the need occurred.

I also tried my first Mary Berry cake recipe. I tried a gingerbread sponge. The flavor is excellent, but I should have taken it out of the oven five minutes sooner. As I was taking it out of the pan, I could just hear Paul and Mary saying it was cracked and slightly over baked. Not good for competitive baking, but easily fixed with some sauce and pumpkin ice cream.

Update on other wips:

• Frank in Pairs: Four stripes done and six rows completed towards stripe number five. This is now 15 inches long. I am aiming for the Frank side to be around 35 inches.
• Dewberry Dancer: Six rows of section two are complete. Only 94 more to go!
• I think maybe it’s time to pullout another project from the bins. Maybe one that could be used as a Christmas gift.

The Projectionist

Since I talked about the best places for cat lovers to vacation, I thought it only fitting I review the 1940’s film, Cat People. This movie starts off with an ominous quote about evil and sin. I was tempted to cover my eyes with the aviatrix hat I was knitting, but the scene quickly changed to the zoo. The leading lady is often playful as a kitten, but shows her true nature when another female comes into her territory. This movie is full of cat innuendos including a dead bird, lions, caterwauling, a pacing panther and a robe torn to shreds. The only items missing are catnip and yarn.

While there was no yarn in the movie, the leading lady did play with some wool. (Okay, it might still be attached to the sheep.)

This is how Ernie waited out the storms. He was attempting me to reorganize my craft room by making space in the bag bin.