Lucky

I've been wanting to do another drawing of my cat for awhile now, and I finally decided I needed to do it today. You see, he isn't doing well at all, and I'm afraid we're going to have to put him down sometime in the next week or two. He's 18 years old or so, and he seems to be shutting down. He was sleeping this morning and I got started on it then, and finished coloring it tonight. I know I didn't get the shape of the face quite right - but he had his head turned at a funny angle, so it's actually not too far off (even though it looks funny).

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

Edgar Sawtelle is born mute and can only communicate with sign language. His parents, Gar and Trudy, breed and train dogs. Gar's brother Claude comes to live with the family for a time, but old hostilities between Gar and Claude drive Claude away. Edgar's life seems ideal until Gar dies suddenly. Claude returns to help out when Trudy is too ill to work. Edgar becomes convinced that Claude had something to do with Gar's death. It is very well written and I rate it 4 out of 5.

On the Prowl

I finished this today - I thought it was finished yesterday until I realized I hadn't put the whiskers on. But now it really is finished and hanging in my entry way. It is from a pattern by Toni Whitney and published by Bigfork Bay Cotton Company.

Wordle

Anne, of Gaal Creative, reminded me of how cool the Wordle site is.
Go here to create your own.

Tennessee Trip 2009

I finally finished the journal pages that I kept on our trip last month to visit friends in Tennessee. I had the whole thing done except for coloring in the turkey a few days after we got home; I finally decided I needed to do that today, so here it is.

I laid out the grid on day 2 of our trip, so it was a challenge on some days filling the boxes. But I made it work.

Book Rating System

I have decided I need to simplify my rating system for books, and so I am going to use the same scale that is used on Netflix:

5 - Loved it
4 - Really liked it
3 - Liked it
2 - Didn't like it
1 - Hated it

No more .5's added either. I've revised my ratings to reflect this new scale.

The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn by Robin Maxwell

I was going through my book journal this morning, comparing entries to my blog entries, and discovered that I forgot to post a review of a book I read last October. What is really funny about that is that I had forgotten to post a review of the sequel to that book until a month or two late; but I didn't notice then that I had never posted the review of the first book.

The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn shows a very different Anne Boleyn than The Other Boleyn Girl. Both books are works of fiction.

Anne kept a secret diary that is given to Elizabeth shortly after Elizabeth becomes queen. The diary shows Anne's "fierce determination, her hard-won knowledge about being a woman in a world ruled by despotic men, and her deep-seated love for the infant daughter taken from her shortly after her birth." She was a much more sympathetic character than in The Other Boleyn Girl, where she was much more scheming and calculating. I enjoyed both books; both were well written. I rated this book 4 out of 5.

The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner

This book follows Peter and Rosemary Grant, who have spent 20 years studying finches on the Galapagos archipelago. This book was the current selection for my book club, and I was afraid I would find it boring, but it was really very interesting. It talked about many examples of evolution that are occurring right now, in an understandable way for non-scientists. Anyone who doesn't think that evolution is a fact should read this book. I rate this book 3 out of 5.

Newest Face Quilt

I've been working on this little quilt off and on for a week or two. I finished it this morning. The face and the flower are my designs; the cat is a Darcy Ashton pattern from her book Claire's Cats Volume II. I wish the cat showed up better from the background. As always, if you click on the picture, you can see it bigger.