Tilt-a-whirl

Oh, Spring was just parking the car...

I get it, we had to have just one last rainstorm to keep California green for an hour longer when the real California Spring rears her head. Yeah, just kidding. This dyer, who has been craving that sun for certain selfish reasons (LIKE BUSINESS!) is mighty glad to see it today and I hear that we are going to have a glorious weekend. Tank is bored with the idea...where's the food? I just think that it might be easier to see the cell division that is happening in this little guy...the legs and body are getting longer now, trying to catch up with the paws. He just wants to be big like Sasha, which means that the little S house is going to shrink even more. Gotta love it. He is such a sweet boy.

The sun IS good for my soul and the inside real estate.
Is that good for your color fix?

I finished the project with the colored Border Leicester fleece, the funky fluffed up stuff that I shot with the blue/purple Tencel. Here is the portrait of the stuff in the full sun, so that you can be duly blinded by the flash of the shiny stuff. The silkiness of the Tencel adds to the overall hand of the yarn and adds a yin/yang quality to the project. I really like it and can see it used in many great ways.

The contrast to that project is the second 8 ounces of the angora that I spun just before the primitive stuff and after the endless/mindless brown merino pin drafted roving. I think that it turned out very nice and tried to skein it into smaller bits for people. (there are two more little bags of this fiber in my arsenal)
The shade gives the photo a little bit cooler cast than the color actually has. It is somewhere between the warm shot of the progress picture (under the halogen) and this one.

Now, I just need to figure out which of the things in my fiber fort (who doesn't pile stuff around their spinning corner, come onnnnnnn!) need to go next. Merino top or the silk/merino roving that I just dyed. Decisions, decisions. Oh yes and there are a couple of bags of baby alpaca that I need to address, especially since Lin contacted me this morning, waving promises of beautiful NEW fleece in my direction. My fort is going to have very high walls, unless I make some space! I guess that the silk/merino will go into stock for some lucky spinner.

Today is sew and cut day for my cardigan that has been languishing for awhile. Kerry was asking why the thing dropped off the face of the earth and I had just gotten to the point of steek attack and let the darned thing just sit there. Seems like a good project for this afternoon and so I will have at it and then take a picture to show you that once again, I have not fainted dead away from the shock of cutting into a precious piece of knitting. (EZ is in her heaven cheering on every steek cutting day.)

Now then, I have one more thing to share. A good friend of ours, who in his day job is The Husband's supervisor, has released his first CD. Ace Batacan is an accomplished guitarist who has done lots of studio work over the years and if you enjoy acoustic guitar music, this is very very nice. We were quick to support our buddy who turns us on to all kinds of great music (and vice/versa). I am still waiting for him to tell me that I can be his official photographer if he gets the interview with the Queen of All Things, the woman that plays the same guitar that he uses (a Collings)...wait for it...Joni Mitchell. I'll just say my prayers and flatter him and if it ever happens, I may pass out from the excitement. :o)

Now, I need to fortify my sewing machine nerves with some nice tea...

Ahem...where's Spring?

You know, I don't mind a little late season rain storm now and again, especially when I am on the other side of the country, but this week's dribbling, cool, 100% humidity nonsense is just plain annoying! It feels like O'Hare on a bad day around here, things waiting to DRY are stacked up and waiting for their turn but the cotton stuff is just lollygagging around in the too warm for the heater but too yucky to dry outside weather. (Obviously, the pre-show drumbeat is getting louder in my brain and so these things are extra annoying!) I am extra cranky because I can't go to KaBoom this year, thanks to a certain little needy Chocolate Hedddddd. The weather is forecasted to be close to 80 degrees in the Bay Area that day (!) and so it is going to be the best place to be on the planet. BooHoo! Last year I fell in love with a band that became my favorite Lose Your Mind and Jump Up and Down entertainment. Yes, Robert Randolph and the Family Band was the big discovery of last year. They are joyful and products of their jump and shout church roots. If you ever get the chance and love this type of music, do NOT miss them live. This year they are bringing in The John Butler Trio from Oz. Yeah, boo hoo is right.

Now, to stop tripping over my lower lip and get on with my assignment of the day. I finished prepping the Border Leicester and the last of the 8 ounce length of that silky Tencel and will dive back into it today, hopefully to finish the spinning...we'll see. It IS, after all, a "primitive" spin and thus a fairly quick project, unlike the angora that preceded it. If I can only keep The Tankinator from sliding his low hanging lips over the top of the giant basket...he loves the taste of that wool.

LA area people? This is where we are heading, for the weekend of June 10-12. The Contemporary Crafts Market is celebrating 20 years of shows at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium (we missed the whole run by a year). If you are down there and would like to come for no charge, you can either click on one of the postcard icons on their site and print a pass OR email me and I will mail you one. It is good for two free admissions, which is just so great. I'm not sure if this great gathering of artisans is going to survive the woes of the Santa Monica economy, simply because the city has raised the rates for the Civic, through the roof. It is getting to be prohibitive for a lot of artisans to pay the booth fees and so I am not sure if the promoter, who is making noises about retirement, is going to continue. We will certainly find other venues for our fiber in Southern California but I still enjoy being in the company of the artisans of other disciplines, where I began THIS portion of my life in the arts.

I know, a post without pictures, what is the world coming to? Later, people, later. :o)

Fleece alchemy

Someone at Caroline's get together asked me why I prefer to buy raw silky long wool fleece instead of the fluffy shorter and finer stuff like the Cormo that Kerry and I were discussing (I owe you a long answer Kerry). I can only show you in photos, I guess. This is the type of fleece that attracted me so many years ago when I began to spin and was fortunate enough to be introduced to a group of Lincoln/Finn sheep in a spinner's flock. I fell in love with the texture and the hand. I bought three fleeces at MS&W and now wish that I had bought a lot more, which would have happened if I were just driving home, instead of going by sardine-can-with-wings-home. This wool was my last purchase of the day. It was a half fleece of a Border Leicester ewe. I was encouraged to root through the bags of fleece by Louise and so I climbed into the bags and kept putting my hands in until I had that endorphin rush that comes from chocolate OR the fleece that can be imagined running through my hands. You have seen the pictures of the washed product and I pick up the saga at this stage.

I decided to make a yarn with this little bag of wool (a little over 2 pounds when washed) and the experimentally dyed Tencel roving from a couple of weeks ago. I dragged out my O L D Clemes&Clemes hand cards and teased the fibers together. The effect that I was going for came out of this.
The wool is opened and the Tencel is shot through randomly. On to the wheel I go, for the first ply.
and this morning, here is a finished skein of the beautiful multi-toned Border Leicester fleece, coupled with the enormously silky and reflective Tencel. I let the yarn be what it wants to be. I don't overthink what I like to do with this fiber. I can spin fine stuff (still making the anti vampire sign over lace weight) but choose to let the fiber tell me what it wants to be, when it is the endorphin producing fleece of choice.

This yarn comes on the heels of the last angora project. Same wheel, different settings, different results. One higly controlled and the other left to its will.

As John Cleese used to say, " now, for something completely different", I give you a parting shot of Sugar Pie, my little mouser/fiber junkie. I was rooting around in here, filling a button order for someone and left the button boxes on Someone's towel by the window. How stupid of me, really. I just know that I am to be punished if I forget about these things...
Yeah, the Thundering Herd was stampeding around on the floor, tearing their daily cardboard cone (where's my snow shovel?) and Madame was discovered in there, giving me the evil eye. As with lessons learned I looked around to see why she would punish me this way and found the button boxes on the Throne...needless to say, that was remedied in a heartbeat.

One last thing. I was lucky enough to be contacted by a very talented fiber artist yesterday. Her work really caught my attention because of the mixed media/fiber aspect that was a part of my past, although never at this level. I invite you to enjoy Fulvia's work!

Garneteers Rule

Once upon a time there was a woman who did not touch lace yarn. She thought that it was pretty but wondered who in the world would want to knit and knit and knit with little needles and a whole bunch weensy stuff. For some reason, at one of her shows, she heard a voice in the crowd say, "got anything for lace knitters"?. A light went on and she listened. She put a few skeins of the stuff into stock and no one came, but, she photographed them and had her Canadian Web Goddess make a page for lace yarn, in a couple of nice colors. Ho hum, nobody cared. Ok, I will wait, sez I. I get a request from this nice woman from New Hampshire, this other mild mannered individual with a camera. Sez she, "how do you think THIS color would look for THIS shawl pattern"? Do I know ONE THING about shawls in lace? NO. So, I email The Web Goddess and ask her opinion, after all, she has designed these and knew about other lace projects going around. She thought that The New Hampshire Woman might just pull it off and so a phenomenon was born. I tell the New Hampshire Woman With A Camera, who will from now on be known as HELEN that if she wanted to try knitting a lace pattern with a painted colorway, well, I would make the yarn happen for her. The rest is history.

She turned me on to a generous online nest of fiber enthusiasts and my life changed. This nest of fiber enthusiasts had questions...hey, sez The Blonde...can you invent some lace yarn that looks like the stuff on this pillow? Um, sure, why not? Oh yes, and The Retired Engineer, who fell in love with the way someone else's sweet pets look sleeping together sez, Can you make a color like this? Oh sure, no problem (!) it is worth the story, just to attempt and so Ginger Peach was born. Then there is that Keating woman...can you, will you, might you? Ummm, sure. (I still have to do your latest request, oh Keating Woman and the latest one for The Retired Engineer is still on the to invent list.) See where I am going? Lace knitters. The people who have a ton of fun for $28 have become my dear friends. Who knew? I love to spin and knit with worsted to chunky yarn, with texture and color and they love to knit lace! How did this happen, this warm fuzzy friendship thing? How lucky could a solitary dyer/spinner/knitter be?

You see, there became a rally cry amongst these Lace knitters, long before I surfaced on their web-ular gathering place. They called themselves The Garneteers, simply because of discovering a certain color that came out of a certain big pot. A whole lot of fun for not much money...Lace Yarn in Garnet. Here are three of those beloved Garneteers now. Aren't they pretty? There you see, left to right, Sam, Melanie and Caroline in their beautiful Siberian Winter shawls. What a great shot. Next thing I know, this very soft, light and warm thing is being wrapped around my shoulders like a hug. Here you go, Caroline...
See that satisfied look on Caroline's face? She THINKS that this is getting me to fall down the same rabbit hole that she caught me in with a picture of her Cormo fleece. Here me loudly, I AM NOT GOING TO KNIT A LACE SHAWL. whew, sorry for shouting but this woman is relentless. :oD That task goes up there with knitting socks...perhaps when I retire. Perhaps.

I would be remiss, if running through other photos of the evening if I did not show you another of Those People. Yup, it is the ever creative Laura in her (her words, not mine) Gibbon Arm Sweater of her own design. She has actually taken the sleeves out and is in the midst of shortening them now, which will not surprise those of us that saw her rip down a panel of an intricate cabled sweater and re-do it without the use of brain surgery. Yes, The NICE Doctor Laura. :o)

Alright. It is time for me to try to sneak out of this room while the dogs snoring is loud enough to mask my footsteps. (I live in a fantasy world, I know...Tank will waken with the first move. He is snoring under the desk, sending up generous green clouds, thanks to his late breakfast. GASP!)

I think that I will throw some chunky Mikado yarn intoooooo Garnet!

Recycling

Yes, I am all for it. Recycling. I was a dutiful can washer/squisher/toter back in the days when only tree huggers seemed to think that it was a good idea. Now, of course it is EASY because the recyler comes to my house and takes all of my cans and papers away without any more effort for me than rolling the big cart to the curb. We also have in-house recycling. You see, some yarn in the business comes on big cones and must be wound into skeins, leaving those lovely big cardboard cones to go into the bin OR into something else. Tank has discovered that they make wonderful teething items and Sasha likes to shred cardboard (the Original Mulch dog, who accompanies me to all of my pruning jobs in the Fall). Voila. Now, of course, the job of getting the paper cone into the recyling bin just became a little more complicated (got a shovel?) but that is a heck of a lot of fun for two dogs in one swell foop.

Going through my photos from the Maryland trip, I thought that I would share a few shots of what Baltimore should be very very proud of and what was very pleasantly surprising. This area that attracts tourists is not just for tourists, as the tacky Fisherman's Wharf area of SF is, this is a business, tourism and local jewel where nice restaurants, a great view, a wonderful aquarium and recycled buildings form a charming and clean area to bring the family or worn out travelers with a few hours to kill before going home on the winged sardine can. We hung out at the big Barnes and Noble for awhile, which has been built into that fabulous old Power Plant. They utilized the structure and empahasized the history of the building as well as a creating a great retail space. Not once ounce of cheesiness in the whole place. Nice. Nice and unique. Baltimore.

This shot shows the beautiful aquarium complex that was teeming with school kids.
Oh yes, and see that fellow in the boat? He was one of two that was patrolling the bay for floating garbage, keeping the bay clean and beautiful.
Last but not least is a shot of the only Teal On the Bottom ship that I have ever seen, the fabulously restored USS Constellation. Gorgeous structure but look at that color, folks.

Speaking of color, I have to go apply some to fiber this morning. It seems that summer is coming and people are thinking cotton and so that is what is getting all of the attention this week. This week we speak Procion at Chez S.

Front row at the Cineplex

I am having a weak day...he made me do it, The Husband. If he had just gone off to his Model Railroad meet this morning like I had planned, none of this would have happened. I am shuffling around in the ugly robe, trying to figure what my plan of attack for the day would be and he says the words..."I don't have to be there until two, let's go into Walnut Creek to the Apple Store". Oh, ok, sez I, sure, I would like to see that computer that you seem to think I need, what the heck. Famous last words. I get into the Apple Store and there are choirs of angels singing when I see The Monitor. Yes, my friends can all make fun of me, the woman who was computer illiterate 6 years ago. I am sitting in front of (cue angels) AHHHHHHHHHH. This. I told you, front row at the freakin' Cineplex. I have gone from squinting at my little iBook screen to this. Ahhhhhhhh. Of course now I have to spin my ankles off to pay for the darned thing but you know...POWER.

I digress. I finished that project, you know, the cake o' fiber, the pin drafted roving from Genopalette. It felt a little scratchy after I plied it but I thought that perhaps there would be a little bloom upon washing. Well, the angels were singing in the bathroom as well. It went from a signet to a swan (brown is nice, you know, brown can be beautiful).
Magnificent and soft merino emerged from the sink and voila...the finished product. I got it to over 1600 yards from that pound of stuff, without even trying and so I ordered two more pounds of it today, for the stash. Mindless spinning. I did have to switch the WooLee Winder back to the plying stage of the project, simply because it is not fast enough to keep up with me when I am spinning on a tear on dear old Rose. (that wheel, who is not really old, simply goes like crazy)

I put that yarn in the wash and hung it to dry and immediately dove into this.
I can not let any more grass grow under my feet, simply because I am in the countdown mode to the next show, which is in Santa Monica, the second weekend in June. Lots of work to prepare for this show but I am renewed and ready, after my inspiring and fun weekend in Maryland. I loved being around other artisans and their color, drinking it in for soul renewal. I actually think that buying a skein of another artisan dyer's yarn once in awhile and then putting it into my pallette for a sweater is a wonderful thing...a bounce on a trampoline up to another level. I can take in their energy and bounce mine off of it. Weird? Not in the least and when I can buy the other person's handspun yarn directly from them, I am giving them my highest compliment.

Vanessa said that she would like more dog pictures. Ok, I hear you. I took two new ones of the Tankinator just now. He is 13 weeks old now and getting gangley like a 12 year old human. He wags his whole body and I was telling someone that he reminds me of an articulated bus...the kind that bends in the middle to get around the corners. Yup, that's my baby.
I hope that gives you a little puppy fix for the weekend. Oh yeah...the fur on his head is turning chocolate. Good thing that I did not pay show dog prices for this dear little boy...Chocolate Hed, that's my Tanker Truck. (Mama is a Chocolate Lab and well, there you go.)

Hit the ground running

Yeah, that was kind of how it happened when we arrived back at Chez S on Monday night...even though I can't see straight, let me just sit down and sift through the email. Hmmmmmmm...orders and "where's my stuff" emails. Uh oh. Let's just say that I have been running to catch up ever since. Oh, while we were gone...the weeds grew 4 inches (I thought that I pulled all of you out) and something else grew. Remember now...Sasha weighs in at 130 pounds. See his paws? See the gangly, where do I put these things, legs? Weed boy. He is showing me Big Boy teeth now and finds the leg of my office chair oddly soothing to his inflamed gums. (Did I say that we have an elephant graveyard of Nylabones around here? SAVE THE FURNITURE!)

The weather here in Lafayette has been brilliant for the past few days, which has made it mighty nice to get two of the three fleeces washed and dried. I started with this one.
Well, this is about one quarter of what I washed in stages. It is the beautiful CoopworthX that I bought from Hatchtown...she was in the back of the booth down low, waiting for me. I was done buying fleece, really I was. The Husband had made two mercy trips to The Rental and here I go putting my hand into this almost 6 pound bag of sensory overload. A hogget fleece. See?
Look at all of those colors and that crimp! I weighed her after washing and I only lost 8 ounces on the whole fleece. That is how clean it was. Now that I am back from the adventure, it is REALLY hard for me to finish this project, which is merely browwwwwwwwwn.
It HAS been interesting to see how such well prepared fiber (pin drafted roving) could allow me to produce nice boring even yarn like this. I guess that I really DO have the skill to do it but just DON'T do it...I like texture! It is going to be all that I can do not to dive into the plump bag of that fleece but I need to make some yarn for other people right now. Back to color! Oh yes, notice the new Wooly Winder? Pretty slick but still not fast enough for me. I really like the even loading, though. That is slick.
Yesterday afternoon was spent dyeing the last of a big order for a designer in SF. Lots and lots of kid mohair is soaking in its overnight bath, waiting for me to start muscling it into the sink and spin cycle. One more day of good weather before the rain comes back?

Need some color from me? Here is what I will leave you with this morning. Sadie in her fancy cat bed. She chose it, not me...

The whole enchilada

Good grief, I never thought that the Wrestlemania would stop, this morning. For the love of flying puppy jump shots and slow motion saliva deposits on far flung surfaces, the gnashing of teeth and fake growling has FINALLY come to a screeching halt. All is quiet and I think that the snoring will soon rattle my desk.

Back to the MSW report. I am far from the first on the block to say that it was wonderful. People make it all seem like a giant place with hordes of lemmings but honestly, the event itself is in a really small rural county fairgrounds. Boy Scouts and their leaders help get the crowds into the parking area in a very orderly and friendly manner and when you arrive, it is just good moods all around.
Friday was our recon mission, simply because we had never been to Maryland and had to scope it out after dinner, which was at The Crab Shack in Ellicott City. Ummm...people in Maryland know how to smack and hammer their way through a pile of crabs and coming from the SF Bay Area, where Dungeoness is king, I was blown away by what a Maryland crab cake looks like. Holy Crustacean! I had two chunky (no fillers) stacks, the size of a pastry. Oh yes, and this comes with two entree sized SIDES. Quite luxurious, to be certain. We headed out to the fairgrounds and did a little drive-through and I was so surprised to see that it was smaller than I imagined. Small is as small does...the show is enormous in its diversity.
Saturday morning at the Hampton Inn, we chatted with several people but had a great time with the Calloways, shepherds from Kentucky. She runs about 700 Border Leicester
on her property and all without help of dogs! Hmmm, the magic feed bucket. Needless to say, even though SHE did not have fleece for sale that day, I practically threw myself on a beautiful ram lamb fleece and that was it...true love. The second BL fleece is a beautiful charcoal. Roaming through the barns I met some people from Rising Meadow Farm in Liberty, NC and met their beautiful little Moorit sheep. The little bumps in the previous post are 2 ounce "Truffles" of 8 different colors of natural chocolate brown softness.
We met up with Kerri and Louise in front of The Barefoot Spinner, which was the official meeting place. I bought some of Maureen's beautiful handspun yarn, which for a spinner is the biggest compliment. I also picked up a couple of skeins of a merino/angora blend yarn from Kimmet Croft Fibers and one GORGEOUS skein of chunky and delicious kid mohair from Three Waters Farm of Carrboro, NC. The last thing that you see in my stash basket is my new Woolee Winder for the Majacraft girls. Good work for a couple of hours...then we ran into these guys.
the errant Fibertraditions bunch that we had missed earlier. Helen, the official photographer extraordinaire , Caroline, Melanie, Sam and Sheila. Hugs all around (Helen is a pro) and we separated so that the group could power shop and so that WE could indulge in a lamb sausage lunch. Oh my. When in Rome...
I simply could not get enough of the critters and so here are some shots.
Leicester Longwool.
Wensleydale.
The Sea of Humanity as seen from the peaceful end of the fairgrounds. Notice how everyone is near food and yarn and the potties! :o)

Our Saturday was culminated with a wonderful welcoming get-together at Caroline's home where we swapped stories, did show and tell and generally had a blast. The Husband just kept snapping pictures and I will tuck in a few here that might have been missed by Helen.
That is Jen, Laura, Tina and Mom, Karen & Melanie. Yours truly showing Melanie my samples of ooh lala samples from Peace of Yarn while Kerri models her beautiful new sweater that she has shown in her blog mentioned above. That's Sam and Jen J with Tina.
Sam, Jen and Kerri. Sam is knitting her new cardigan from Brenda out of my ringspun cotton in the SUPER subtle Mother of Pearl colorway that she bugged me for. A grand time was had by all and after having a combing lesson from little Mama Sam, I was ready to hit the lovely comfortable bed at the Hampton once again.

I was not buying fleece...

Oh my, what a weekend...long weekend to be sure. I have to go through the tons of pictures that The Husband shot and will give you a proper look at our view of the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival and our fabulous get-together with the Fibertraditions crew. I thought that I might give you just a teaser of what the weekend brought into my life and why The Husband is such a trooper.
Remember when we last left our heroine, she was putting her hand to her heart and telling the world that she would not be one of those knuckleheads who went nuts at a fiber thing? Ummmmm, I fell down the rabbit hole. Seriously. This series of pictures tells it all.
We have The Suitcase, the seemingly mundane and ordinary overhead bin carryon. This will comfortably fit a pair of shoes and a couple pairs of pants and tops and maybe a sweater.

The Plot Thickens. The Suitcase has been unzipped and you can see the relaxation of the contents begin...lovely zippered cotton pillowcases that were slipped over a little bit of stuff.
I thought that I might have to stand back for this process but the plastic bags that held the contents stayed nice and firm. What you see next is not a trick of the camera...no, my friends...Mr S really DID manage to get this into that benign suitcase.
Yeah, Tah Dah is RIGHT! The man is a GEEEEEEEEENIUS (he likes it when I call him that) of making a molehill out of a mountain. Fear not, I will delve deeper into my enablement mode and give more details of just what these fleeces and things look like up close but suffice it to say that the white one is a Border Leicester of magnificent curl and luster, the Big One is a silver Coopworth Hogget (mmmmmmm) and the third is half of a beautiful dark grey Border Leicester. See a pattern here? Yes, long and lustrous locks. I washed a lock of each in the hotel sink in a little shampoo and they are just what I was looking for. Hot damn. The little bumps are some beautiful carded Moorit and the tiny white thing up front is from Sam teaching me to comb some of Caroline's Targhee. See? Just a teaser.

Needless to say, The Thundering Herd wore me and themselves out completely this morning. They had been separated all weekend and so Tank was MORE than happy to jump all over poor long suffering Sasha for hours. He is happily snoring in much the same position of your last view of him, although I SWEAR that puppy has grown again.

Pick your seat

Go ahead, take it any way that you like but *I* am not traveling by Pick Your Seat airlines AND I am not going by Ugly Airlines either. We still have to drag our own food but isn't this country all about lowered expectations right about now? It is going to be a long day tomorrow but the weather channel (thank you, Helen) sez that we will not roast and we will not drown in Maryland. Choirs of angels are striking a chord. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. It's all about taking things for people (anyone else need anything before I zip the suitcase?) and leaving enough room for what will be inevitable...the bringing home of OTHER things. We must balance the universe!

Patient Angela was waiting for me to finish the last thing, which was one skein of an old cellulose colorway that I concocted too many years ago. I am certainly not going to do a cellulose run for one skein and so I tossed a bunch of things on the table that day. Here is a smattering of color for your senses. Yes, it is sort of rainy here today, which will be nice for the tomatoes that will be on their own (Housesitters don't do windows OR tomatoes). Speaking of tomatoes. Want to see a picture of my Big Tomato next to my smallest plant? Do ya, huh? 12 weeks old...gulp.
Looks like a halo, eh? Well, for a Lab puppy he IS an angel...seriously. The Husband and I were discussing this last night, wondering how we got so lucky to have a pup that has only done a very few dumb things but is so contrite about getting in trouble. I can't stress the luck of having a remarkable puppy raiser companion. She runs up and reprimands him when he starts terrorizing one of the cats, putting an end to that business right away, knowing that SOMEONE is going to get hurt and both critters are her friends. Awwww, Sasha!

I leave you with a picture to tide you over until I return from the long weekend. Nighty night.