New Addition

After seven days with no name, I present Penny.

Her and the giant bully that is Oliver are getting along fairly well, based on the fact that as a kitten she's fearless. Oliver's attitude the first three days was a firm WTF. He's gradually moved from hissing, low growls, and swatting, to games of chase, detective work of finding her throughout the house, a few treasured nose rubs, and only occasional swatting. My guess is they'll be cuddling and making lanyards in a month.

Stung

I've never been stung by a bee, but Oliver, who's been outside approximately 10 times, pounced on one in the backyard Monday.

With some Googling after a quick internal freak out about the vet being open on Presidents' Day, here are some steps for removing a bee's stinger from your cat's paw:

1. Two people are required.

2. One person must muzzle the cat while the other acts as the doctor. I had to put on my big girl pants and play doctor.

3. Do not try to remove the stinger with your hands or tweezers, use a credit card to scrape away at the pad to release it.

4. Keep going even though you think your cat hates you and is so mad and in pain. It's good training for children one day.

Oliver's paw never swelled, but you can Google the images for your own reference to see the possibilities. Icing the area helps alleviate the swelling, but we acted on it so quickly it was not needed.

No copay required.

Saturday Spent

Up and at 'em searching for a duffle bag at 5:30 a.m.

Stayed up reading, started 1/3 loads of laundry, and made shopping lists until bootcamp at 8:30 a.m.

Target, grocery store runs.

Primed the new side door.

Painted the fixed trim on the new side door.

Picked up laundry and a new foam rollers for paint job. Note to self-all paint projects and errands fall under my responsibility.

Painted two coats on side door and second coat on trim.

Swept the porch.

Dusted, vacuumed, laundry.

Cleaned the dishwasher.

Watered the gardens. Felt kind of guilty about the water use today.

Showered. Napped.

Chatted with a potential DJ for my high school reunion.

Roasted chicken and chopped vegetables for Sunday night dinner, chicken pot pie.

Walked to Two Saucy Broads for salad and pizza for my own dinner.

Finished making the chicken pot pies.

Settled in to finally watch tv recordings from earlier in the week: Up All Night, Parks and Recreation, and What Women Want.

Bed. TGI a three day weekend.

Christmas

A week of fun, frivolity, family, friends, and food (and sometimes lack thereof the latter.)

Employee of the month here, who braved Costco.

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner Wednesday.

Business cat.

First real sewing project! Potholders for Leah!

Christmas Eve duets.

Really? It's own section?

Christmas morning breakfast.

350 miles shared with wonderful family.

Happy Christmas!

Please sir, a little wine for me?

Yes, I love my cat.

The most interesting cat in the world

He's the one controlling the laser pointer while the other cats run trying to catch it.

Possum v. Kitty

Thursday night while I watched the dishes, I looked outside and saw a possum on the fence. The vermin always elicit a lip curl from me.

I watched it for a while, with its pink tail swinging and it slowly walked the fence between our house and the neighbors, over to our gate, which was a little too close for comfort. Oliver, and his keen sense of smell, knew something was up and flew into the room and onto the couch. That possum came right up to the open window and put its snout on the screen as if to say hello.

Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross. If I wasn't screeching I would have taken a photo. Instead, I slammed the window and blinds shut-party over.

Perhaps you had to be there.

Laying off the hard stuff

He's laying off the hard stuff.

It's the Great Garlic, Oliver

A shoot has been protruding out of my flower bed for months. Painfully I've waited for it to bloom while the poppies and ranunculus have come and gone, and now the dahlias have made their debut. Still nothing from this frondy shoot. I was thinking it might be a type of palm for a while.

This week, while watering, I got a little closer and saw a bulb...was it an onion? I finally decided to dig it up and low and behold, it's a head of garlic. Who knew? I surely did not plant this. We've had surprises come up in the garden from the previous owner(s) but this vegetable is certainly a first.



My burners need a major cleaning. Don't judge.

(With Oliver for perspective-it was actually a grocery-store sized head. Not elephant garlic, but your generic Ralph's garlic.)

I hope he comes back next year.