Sophie's Story

   I had found a simple pattern for a crocheted sweater. It's really more like a pair of sleeves. You crochet a rectangle and then fold it over and seam it. I found some blue yarn with red and green in it to use for this project.   I was sitting on the couch working on it when I heard a voice say "Hey!"   I looked around the room. No one was there. I knew it wasn't the cats because they were both sleeping in our bedroom. I started working again. "Hey! Look down here," the voice said. I looked down at the floor. "I'm right next to you," the voice said.   I looked next to me. All I saw was the ball of yarn that I was using.  "Are you taking to me?" I said to the yarn.  "Of course, do you see any one else in the room?" I let that comment pass.  "Sorry, " I said, "I didn't realize that yarn can talk."  "Well, normally we don't. However you aren't paying attention to what you are do

      Hi This is Scamp. My Christmas present to Sophie this year is to write the Christmas column for her. I decided that the best time to write it would be this morning. It's still dark outside. Only Sophie,Colby  and I are up. Sophie turned on the Christmas tree lights for us. It's beautiful.    All the presents were given last night. There weren't very many. It's not that we can't afford them. It's because we have everything we want and everything we need.   Really we do. We have a nice house with a good furnace that keeps us all warm. Sophie and C have running water. (As cats the only running water we need is in our drinking fountain. We do have one.) We have soft places to sleep and exercise equipment. (They are not toys.) We have plenty of food. We have cat trees to sit in while we guard the front yard.   Most and best of all we have each other. I have Colby who is the best brother I could ever imagine having. (I come from a litter of six so I know wh

   Last year I purchased a new pair of glasses. I was in a rush to purchase as I needed to get this done before the end of the year to use my flex plan money. I wasn't sure about the nosepiece. I always got glasses with thin frames and two small silicon pads for the nose piece.  This way they can be adjusted and the glasses won't slide down my nose. The new glasses had a solid plastic piece that I was told would not slide down.   After several weeks of constantly having to push my glasses up as they slid nearly to the tip of my nose, I gave up. I was tired of having to hold them up all the time and tired of the skull crushing headaches I was having from the sliding lenses. I was not about to tape the nose piece to my face which was the only option I had for keeping them up. I decided to go back to wearing last year's pair.   My prescription had changed only a little bit. I didn't notice any difference except that I was much more comfortable.   I went to my yearly a

   I'm probably going to get in trouble for this, but I can't keep my mouth shut any longer. (Big Surprise)    Most of you who read this column on a regular basis know that I am a fan of the Green Bay Packers. This is not a popular stance to take living in Minnesota and living in the Twin Cities area. In fact I think the team is now based out of Eagan which is not far away from here.   As a Packer fan I am supposed to dislike the Vikings (also the Bears and Lions). As a good Packer fan, I don't root for any of those teams unless they are playing San Francisco, Seattle, Buffalo or New England.   My problem with the Vikings isn't the team. It's the fans. I don't like most Minnesota Vikings fans. They tend to get rather obnoxious. In the interest of fairness, I don't live in Green Bay.  I'm sure there are some obnoxious fans there too. In fact I have heard that there is a group of fans that moon the opposing team's bus as it leaves Lambeau Field. I

   Yesterday C and I were running errands. We had to grocery shop and purchase a few other things. The last stop we made was at a local Target store. I needed to buy some things and I didn't want C to see what I was getting. (Saint Nicholas Day is tomorrow.)   I did not get a basket because I was only going to pick up a few things. As I was walking through one section to check out, I dropped a Christmas tree ornament that I found. It was glass so it shattered on impact. The pieces were spread all over the floor. I didn't want anyone to get cut, so I went in search of a store employee to call for clean up. I went to the jewelry section. No one there. I checked the dressing room. There were people trying things on, but no employees. I looked in the aisles to see if maybe someone was restocking or facing shelves. No luck. There was a long line at the return desk and every cash register had a line. I was frustrated. I'm sure that if I didn't need help, I would have seen

   I trudged in to work on Monday morning. The Thanksgiving weekend was over. It is the time of the year that I dislike more than any other. I opened the door of the pharmacy and shut off the alarm. I took off my coat, stowed my things away for the day, took my mug of tea to my work station and logged on.   Something was different. I couldn't quite figure out what it was. Whatever it was, it was making me feel pretty good. I didn't mind the fact that I wasn't getting as much work done as I'd hoped. I wasn't even worried that the overnight snow fall was going to make my tech late. In fact, I was borderline cheerful.   Then it hit me. There was no sound. It wasn't because the store was deserted. There were a few customers shopping in the store. What I wasn't hearing was the sound of Christmas music playing. The Musak was turned off. It was quiet.   At that moment I would have turned a backflip if I could. I would have done a bunch of fist pumps and a vict