Tucker Comes Home

It's Saturday, and the first nice day we've had in ages. We took advantage of the weather and worked outside most of the day. At this time of the year there seems to be an endless amount of yard work needing to be done. This year we had some extra work to do that we normally wouldn't have. Tucker moved back home this afternoon. We would like to keep him as an indoor cat - however, he has other ideas. At any and every chance he gets, he makes a run for the great outdoors. He's actually made it out three times - and what a chore it was to corral him and return him to the house. Some of today's chores involved repairing any places in the fence that he could easily slip thru, and blocking any places that would allow him to get under the deck. That should help us a little if he escapes again, but I know he's resourceful and I'm sure he could find a way out of the yard given the opportunity. We'll just keep our fingers crossed that doesn't happen.

Have you ever wanted to travel somewhere just because you like the way the name of the place sounds? Maybe it sounds totally exotic, or romantic, or the name evokes some feeling that you can't quite put your finger on. Here are the names of some places that I have wanted to visit - just because of the name. Some I've actually been lucky enough to have travelled to - and was never disappointed!
In no particular order - here they are

Zanzibar, Kenya, Morroco, Marrekech, Siam/Thailand, French Polynesia, Tahiti, Moorea, Casablanca, Ceylon, Tanzania, Bangkok, The Saychelles, The Nile, Egypt, The Amazon, Santorini, The Silk Road, The Galapagos Islands, Singapore, Bali, Hong Kong, Provence, New Orleans, Sante Fe, Kauai, Cape Town, The North Pole, Copenhagen, Vienna, Nova Scotia, Antarctica, Machu Pichu, Tuscany, The Amalfi Coast, Buenos Aries, Borneo, and of course there is always Shanri-La - the mythical and mysterious setting from the book The Lost Horizon. I know there are many others, but these are the ones that come to mind right now. Maybe I'll add others as I think of them.

Six Word Sentence

Do you know about the thing where you write a six word sentence that describes your life? That is what I will write about tonight - nothing more - just that one six word sentence.

Dogs, cats, kids, remodel, I'm tired.''

Now you try it - whatever works for you. I did mine just for today and the way I feel right now. You can do yours anyway you want to - something that conveys the feelings of a lifetime, a year, a month, a week, a day, or an hour. Make it yours and personalize it.

Life At The Zoo

Two dogs, one indoor/outdoor cat, one outdoor mother cat and her two kittens, and another indoor cat to be added on Saturday. These are the current residents of the zoo. All is going well at this point - everyone seems to know their place and just kind of goes with the flow. Jorjah is an EXCELLENT medicine taker! I wasn't so sure how that was going to go - it's a fair amount of liquid to get her to take - but no problem at all. Pills - takes them like a champ. Food - she might just be a tad bit finicky - seems she much preferes chicken over rice - imagine that! She will pick out all of the pieces of chicken, and try to leave the rice. I am trying to outsmart her by cutting the chicken into teeny tiny pieces and then mixing it well with the rice. Makes it harder for her to pick out just her favorite parts of the meal. Haha

Uh oh, just talked to Katie. She says she feels bad that she just can't deal with the cat and is bringing him back home. She's a little worried about having kids of her own - wants to know where she would return them if it doesn't work out and they keep her up at night. I need one of those little emoticon things to insert here - the one where the eyes and mouth are wide open in surprise (and maybe consternation!).

The weather has made just a little improvement today - not much, but a little. That's lucky for Dave and Sean who are now out fishing for salmon. If all goes well, there will be fish coming in the door later tonight, and on the grill for dinner tomorrow. Mmmmmm - I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Today was the second anniversary of the day Lynda and I joined Jazzercise - and we celebrated by going out to lunch (I wonder why we don't lose any weight???). We went to The Cheesecake Factory - and actually for the first time ever, I had a piece of cheesecake there. It was pretty tasty - some sort of chocolate cheescake recommeded by our waiter. I brought half of it home to have for dessert tonight - way too much to eat in one sitting.

Ok, speaking of food - I think it's time to go rustle up something for myself for dinner. I think there is a whole refrigerator full of all kinds of things - not sure what I can make out of them, but I know I will come up with something scrumptious and wonderful. Besides, I'll have a nice glass of chardonnay with it - that will make it perfect no matter what.

I should have been a Vet

I'm working on figuring out my schedule for tomorrow - hmmm, let's see how it looks.

5:30 am - feed Abbey and Captain - Dave will actually do this
7:00 am - give Jorjah her medicine
7:30 am - feed Jorjah some breakfast and give her a pill (remember to cut pill in half)
8:00 am - feed kittens and mama cat
10:30 am - feed Jorjah
2:00 pm - give Jorjah her medicine
2:30 pm - feed Jorjah
5:00 pm - feed Abbey and Captain
5:00 pm - give Jorjah her medicine
5:30 pm - feed Jorjah
5:30 pm - feed kittens and mama cat
8:00 pm - feed Jorjah and give pill

That just about covers it - piece of cake! Oh yea, somehow I need to fit in exercise at 8:30, lunch at 11:30, a trip to Costco, and possibly make an apron for Katie's friend for her birthday. I guess I won't be wondering what I'm going to do with my time tomorrow :-). I'll let you know how it all worked out.

The weather is crazy today. We've had winds of 40 plus mph all day long - along with bouts of torrential rains. It's the end of April, we should have blue sky with puffy white clouds, and a big yellow orb shining down on us. My flowers should be reaching up to greet the sun, instead they are huddled up and shivering. We still have our water turned off in the backyard to guard against freezing temperatures. Global warming???????

The bathroom remodel should be finished up tonight - yeaaaaa. When Dave gets home we'll go pick out the new toilet and then come home and install it. There are a few odds and ends that may need to be taken care of, but the major overhaul will be done. We'll take a little break for a few weeks, and then we'll start on our bathroom. I guess as long as the weather is so bad outside, we might as well be working on these inside projects. As soon as the sun comes out, there will be plenty of yardwork to keep us busy - lots and lots of yardwork.

Move to Seattle, Tucker, and the Kittens

Last weeks poll question is now over, and we're on to a new one - be sure to vote. Results from the favorite dessert poll - creme brulet was the winner with 44% of the vote. Second place was a tie at 22% each for bread pudding and cheese and port. I LOVE all of them - but then I like dessert in general - at least good ones. Wish I had some bread pudding right now!

Since I left off on the last post with the kittens missing, I should let you know they are back - actually, they were probably never gone. I think they were just inside napping every time I was going out to look for them. I go out every morning and evening with a bowl of food. Mom is usually right there waiting. The kids are getting braver - they used to run under the house and hide the whole time I was there, but today they were actually out the whole time. They stayed close to the opening under the house, but still were brave enough to stay out the whole time I was there.

We moved Katie into her new apartment in Seattle yesterday. We went thru rain, hail, and snowstorms on the way up - crazy for the end of April! Her apartment is quite cosy and cute. She's on the third floor with a view of Ballard and the water. Very nice. The sad part was leaving Tucker with her - I've grown to love that little guy and will miss him quite a bit. He is quite a good traveler though - hardly a peep out of him all the way to Seattle - so Katie promises to bring him down every time she comes to visit. That will be nice. Sad as I am to see him go, I know that he is Katie's cat, and I know how much she missed him. I'm glad she'll have him with her - he's a good companion.

We're getting closer to being done with the tile on the bathroom floor. We put the first coat of sealer on this afternoon, and will add the second one later tonight. After that, we wait for 72 hours and we're done - yeaaaaa! We'll finish up the rest of this bathroom and then move on to the one in our bedroom. Always something to do when you have a house.

Where Are The Kittens?

Kind of a sad day today - no sign of the kittens. Actually, there was no sign of them yesterday either, but I thought I was just going out at the wrong times. Today - nothing again. The mom was around the yard - but not near the place the where the kittens were hiding under the house - that was weird. She was a good Mom from everything I could see - she wouldn't just leave them alone. Not sure if something happened to them, or maybe she moved them to another place she thought was safer - maybe even her owners home - if she has one. Katie is very sad - she had already claimed the lighter one - even named him. I was ready to take the black one. I will keep looking - and hoping!

Katie has her new apartment for sure! She will come home Friday night, and then we will help her move on Saturday. We will stay overnight to help her get as much done as possible. She will be taking Tucker with her - :-( I will be very sad - so will Captain. The two cats love each other so much - I'm not really sure this is a very good idea. I tried talking her into taking the two kittens instead - of course that was when I still knew where the kittens were! She didn't go for that idea.

Rain again, also snow and hail! Too crazy - it's April - should be warm by now - not 32 degrees when I get up in the morning!!! The rest of the week looks like more of the same. Global warming my ass!

Tonight was the last night of the Blazers home games - and we won! I was awesome - all the players worked hard, and played the best game they could. Channing Frye is my new favorite Blazer - don't ask me why - I just like him - and he's doing GREAT! I think he scored 15 points tonight - can't complaine about that. They are just such a nice group of guys - we've needed that for a while. They play like they really care - and I don't think the fans really care that much if we win or lose - as long as the team is really trying. I loved every game I went to this year!!!

Kitten Pictures

Here are some pictures of our kittens

Change Is Good

Change is good - or so they say. For me, it's more like I just get bored with the same old thing - so I change something. Today I decided that I was bored with looking at the same old things on my blog. Changing the colors seemed like a good idea, and the easiest thing to do. I played around with a few different combinations - nothing really stood out like WOW - I really like this. So, for the time being, these will be my new colors. They seem a little fresher - a little more spring like.

We're working on the bathroom today. Laying the tiles is kind of a BIG job. First, just laying out the tiles in a pleasing order could be kind of an ordeal. I think it's one of those things that a person could work on for hours if one were inclined - or extremely picky. I had to stop myself from getting too involved with how the whole thing was going to look. We laid them out, changed just a few, and then called it good. In the end, there will be rugs over most of them, and the only person who will probably even look at the floor is - well, I'm not sure. I was going to say me, but that's probably not true. I had lived in this house for over 15 years and had no idea what color the floor was in that bathroom until a friend mentioned it to me. Decorating, is really not something I spend a lot of time thinking about. I can usually tell you if I like something or not, but beyond that - it's all just kind of background "noise" to me. Not too meaningful. Anyway, back to the floor, I'm sure we'll all love it when it's done.

The kittens are getting bigger by the day. I swear they have quadrupled in size since we found them a week ago. They were out playing again today - with Mom in close attendance. The black one is a little more adventurous than the other one. Both pretty darn cute! I got out my camera to take pictures, but by the time I got back they were pretty much in the shadows and hard to see. Maybe next time.

First Day of Real Spring Weather

The kittens are still here - only they are back under the house where we orignally found them. The Mom must have decided that was a safer, quieter place for them. I have been putting food out, and have watched from a safe distane as the Mom has come out to eat. Today is our first absolutely gorgeous day of spring - 70 degrees today - and I'm loving it. I have checked on the cats several times, and the kittens have been out playing - with Mom in close proximity. They really do have the perfect place to grow up - it's nice and warm and safe under the house, and when they come out to play, they have quite a large area that is fenced in on all sides. They have grown a lot since we found them at the beginning of the week. I have a feeling they had been under the house with no way for Mom to get to them for quite a while. As soon as they were able to get some food in themselves, they just doubled in size practically overnight. I guess we'll just have to keep an eye on them and see what happens.

It's such a beautiful day out - perfect temperature, deep blue sky with just a few puffy white clouds, the spring flowers are in bloom, and the trees are beginning to leaf out. There is nothing as lovely as all of the shades of green as new plants begin to show themselves. I put on shorts, a tank top, and flip flops. I got out the sunscreen and slathered my body, then threw on my lime green baseball hat, and my sunglasses. I drug a kitchen chair onto the deck ( no lawn furniture is out yet), grabbed a book - The Twelve Little Cakes - and read for an hour. OMG - it was heaven. There was just the lightest breeze that carried the scent of flowers blooming in the yard. If I had had a cushion for the lounge I would have layed down and been asleep in about two minutes flat. In the list of things I am grateful for today - this will be at the top!

Dave is Flying with Alex today - his first time up with him. What a perfect day - I'm sure they'll both have a great time. He took the video camera so I'm anxious to see what turns out. They were planning a trip out over the Red Barn - and then on to Gaston to fly over Michael's house.

We have a game tonight, and plans to eat something afterwards. We have a list of the places we might try, and phone numbers to give them a call and see how busy they might be. Should be fun.

I was really good about working on my recipes for the kids - for a while. I've kind of put off doing any more, but need to get back to it. I also would like to begin writing down some of the old stories of grandparents and their lives while I still have the chance to ask my aunts some questions about things I'm unsure of. I'm sure I'm never going to run out of things to do!

Ramblings of the Day

No sign of the kittens today :-(. We're not sure if the Mom really took them away this time, or just moved them to a new hiding place in the garage again. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. Katie is sad - she was working on picking out a name for one of them.

Nice lunch today with friends. We try to have lunch about once a month - more or less. This time I think it was a little more, so we had lots of catching up to do - four hours worth. It's nice we've found a restaurant that has good food, comfortable booths, and they are very nice about filling and refilling our drinks as we while away the afternoon. Next time we will try out a new restaurant, and visit the nearby quilt shop afterwards. Looking forward to that. Four friends, nine kids, and three parents give us plenty of topics to converse about.

This weekend we will be replacing the floor in one of the bathrooms. That will require removing the old vinyl, and then cutting and setting the new flooring. We picked a Travertine in kind of a neutral cream color - should be fairly versatile. I will be excited to have it finished - it's a job we've been putting off for a very long time - years in fact. After we finish this first bathroom, we will begin working on the one in our room. We'll use the same flooring, so that means I won't have to do another round of trying to figure out what I want to use, and what will work best. Yeaaaaa - I really don't like picking these things out. I'll let you know how it works out.

Kittens rescued

Monday night we rescued two hungry kittens from under our house. We think the mother cat somehow found a way under the house and had her kittens there in a place that was safe and warm and quiet. Something must have happened and she was unable to get back under the house to feed and care for them. For two days we had heard the cries of the kittens, but had mistaken the sound for a bird. Finally on Monday night we made another search and discovered the sound coming from under the house. At first we were sure it wasn't a bird, but were not really sure that it was a kitten. Was it possible it was a squirrel or raccoon? Listening closer we heard what we thought were two different animals making the sounds. We opened the vent that went under the house near the place the cries were coming from. It was too dark to see anything so I got a flashlight. Shining the flashlight down under the house I saw a flash of eyes - but nothing more. We had figured out by now that the cries were coming from two kittens. It was several feet down to the ground under the house, and there was no way the kittens were going to be able to climb out without help. At this point we became aware of a black cat hovering around nearby - probably the mother. We tried putting a board down under the house and hoped they would walk on the board and come out from under the house. Nope, that wasn't going to happen. No enticement worked - no food, or calls, or laser light. We decided we would have to go to the garage and go thru the opening there that led under the house. That proved to be a much better idea. We uncovered the opening, and got the flashlight out to shine around and see if we could spot them. It wasn't long before we saw the two sets of eyes begin to work their way from the other end of the house and come toward us. The first one out was a furry little black fluff ball about the size of a tennis ball. The second one was a little lighter in color. They were so tiny! We saw the mother had followed us and was hiding in the garage watching what was going on with her babies. We decided the best course of action would be to open the garage door a little, and leave them all alone to see what would happen. We left food and water for them, and then came into the house. Before bed Dave went down to the garage to see if they were still there and close the garage door. He found no sign of them, so we assumed the mother had taken her babies out of the garage to a new hiding place.

I was a little sad the kittens were gone, but we really didn't need any more animals anyway. That was probably for the best. The next night when Dave was in the garage before coming up to bed - he heard the hiss of a cat in the garage. The mother and babies were there afterall - just in a new hiding place! We left more food and water for them, and in the morning before Dave left for work, he lifted the garage door enough for the mother cat to go out if she wanted to. Later in the day, I went down to check and found no evidence of them and assumed she had really taken them this time. Wrong again. When Dave came home, he went on a search and found them in a new hiding place. So for the time being, we are housing and feeding the mother and babies.

Katie has claimed one for a companion to Tucker, and I would like one myself. We'll see what happens, and if they stay around long enough for us to actually claim them. They seem to belong to no one the best I can tell - but I'm not sure.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

April has started out true to form - showers - lots and lots of showers. Of course that beats the snow, hail, snow, cold, snow, hail, snow, and well, you get the picture, that we had last week - every day. Latest snow in 57 years last week. This week we had the coldest recorded temperature for this time of the year. Today - just rain - and more rain. I'm hoping that all this rain really will bring those May flowers!

Last week Sean and Dave and cousin Steve went salmon fishing on the Columbia one morning. Sean was lucky enough to catch a 14 pound salmon - and then shared some with Dave and I. We both agreed it was the best salmon we'd ever eaten. Dave grilled it with just a little butter and lemon - oh yum! Yesterday one of the people Dave works with caught a salmon, and since she had no idea how to fillet it, Dave did that for her. His reward - a really nice piece to bring home and grill for dinner. Delicious. Sean and Kevin went out this morning to try again - hope that the luck holds out and they both catch a fish.

We're at Cannon Beach today - went to A Pacific Way Cafe in Gearhart for lunch. I love that place! Great atmosphere - an old house converted into a restaurant. They have done a great job keeping all of the character and ambiance of the old house. There is a warmth and charm that resonates throughout the restaurant. The menu is modern and up to date with so many things I'd like to try - I'll have to go back often. Today I had a hard time deciding between the turkey sandwich and the quesadilla - I settled for the spicy quesadilla. A nice cold glass of Kendall Jackson chardonnay added very nicely to the meal.

It's evening now - still raining - I have a nice glass of Erath Pinot Noir by my side. Time to go for now - need to enjoy my wine.
Ciao