Incoherent Scribblings

Domestic Disaster #429

I suppose that if you haven’t actually read one of the amazing animal stories where the dog thwarts the burglar or the cat wakes up the family just in time to save the baby from a raging fire you have heard about them.

While I usually take note of the amazing dog stories, when it comes to incredible cat stories I just eat them up. I love the stories of the cats who miraculously survive riding for 500 miles on the engine block of a car and the tales of the cats who wander for hundreds of miles and many years only to return “home” after the family moves away.

It has often been said that animals possess some sort of instinctual knowledge concerning danger and I never doubted it, but what never ceases to amaze me are the accounts of cats who somehow warn their family of threatening situations such as natural disasters or fires.

Now natural disasters are not necessarily common in my household, but domestic disasters on the other hand are… especially in the kitchen. Tonight being a case in point.

It started out simply enough when I decided to make stroganoff and steamed broccoli for dinner. Usually when I cook I am pretty good at finishing everything at roughly the same time, but since I have only made this recipe one other time my timing wasn’t as precise as usual and as a result, the broccoli and the noodles for the stroganoff were both done at exactly the same moment.

Normally this wouldn’t have been a problem, but both needed strained before they got mushy. (I hate mushy food!) I managed to get them strained before they turned to mush, but in my haste I replaced the pans on the stove after I emptied them.

I sat down to eat, and as usual, A. and I were eating our meal in the company of the cats: Mouse was begging for food and soon after we sat down, Scooter wandered into the kitchen. However, instead of sitting beside the table, Scooter sat in front of the stove and within seconds began meowing loudly. When I turned my head to see what he was crying about, the light on the stove caught my attention. Not only had I left the stove on, two of the burners were still on high and an empty pot was sitting on one of them!

I got up and removed the pot, grateful to see that except for an abnormally red patch on the burner where the pot had been no damage had been done. However, I quickly realized that a domestic disaster had narrowly been averted thanks to my own personal smoke detector (aka Scooter).

Thoughts on Magazines

Today’s SBQ was suggested by Cheryl and is:

What cross-stitch magazines or other publications (as opposed to blogs) do you read on a regular basis? What do you like about them? What do you not like? What would your perfect publication include?

I don’t have too much to say on the issue of cross stitch magazines as I just stared getting my first ever subscription to one (The World of Cross Stitching) in January and I have yet to form a solid opinion of it.

I must say that so far I am a bit disappointed though. I have noticed that I haven’t really read any of the articles, the magazine is kind of thin on finishing techniques, and for every project in it that I might stitch, there are probably five that I wouldn’t.

However, maybe I just chose the wrong magazine…