Like His Grandpa

Certain interests skipped a generation in my family.  

My father would have enjoyed Ernest right now.

I think they had a lot in common.

Especially this love of high places...

Polenta Kisses

I picked up something new (for me) from Trader Joe's. This looks tasty.

But it looked a little different when I opened the package.

Polenta kisses!

I do like the ingredients list -- everything is a recognizable food substance.

More importantly, how did it taste?  Delicious.

The Magic of Chocolate

A friend sent me this.

I did find some chocolate the other day, only about 6 steps away! I'd forgotten I had good chocolate stashed away in a cupboard. But someone else had discovered the last bag of Halloween candy and I found it opened in the pantry, so I helped myself to a few tiny Hershey bars.

The next day went so much better. The chocolate must have magic powers! I had to go to the big town for some business (small town banks are not as helpful as they used to be), and I:

• Found a parking space at Trader Joe's.  They always have such tiny crowded parking lots.
• Accomplished the business at the bank with a person who was actually helpful.  
• Exchanged Ernest's brand-new tie which had a water stain on it.

I bought a magic chocolate bar at TJ's which I'm sure helped the day go smoothly!

I did get caught in the rain at the market when I got home, but that's actually a good thing since we need the rain so desperately.

Food Photography Fail

I was trying to take a picture of my incredibly delicious chicken tortilla soup, topped with guacamole from The Avocado Diva's Santana avocados:

lovingly made by Ernest in his molcajete:

But that paw just kept creeping in there.

And soon it was the whole cat.  Homer!  Stop!  You don't eat tortillas!

It's turning into one of those days...

Things seem to be going wrong today.  I feel like I should have stayed in bed. In fact, when I saw this photo this morning (on the anniversary of the bed-in)...

I thought it should be National Stay in Bed Day.

Kid home sick with headache, his car blocking mine in the garage and I don't want to wake him for the key so I had to take the truck which I hate because it has zero visibility, since I shifted the recycling to the truck of course the recycling center was unexpectedly closed, multiple idiots at the market, come home to find the blog email hacked.  Well, I suppose staying in bed wouldn't have prevented the email problem, but still...

Oh, and the cat barf.  I forgot to mention the cat barf.  Fortunately I didn't step on it because it was on the cat scratching box instead of the rug.  And with a third cat I would have expected the litterbox contents to increase by 50%.  But they seem to have doubled.

I think chocolate is in order.  It's a little too early for wine.

Afghan.

I brought this afghan from my dad's house. 

It's very comfy and cozy and as you can see, many of us like it. 

I was surprised and delighted to find it in the background of this picture of my aunt and grandma. 

Full circle.

My Kingdom for an R

That would have been one of my best Scrabble words, if only I'd had an R. Arrrrgh. 

Frank and I were playing with Mr. LMF (Lego Mini Fig). Frank surprised himself by beating me, the human dictionary. He had better strategy though. 

Mr. LMF and I also played Mousetrap.  I'd seen an ad on tv for a new version, which required adult assembly.  Whaaat?  Assembly is part of the game!

Do you play board games?  What's your favorite?

The Ominous Burbling

No I did not have the sh!t geyser that plagued Aunt Snow.

I heard an ominous burbling from one of the toilets, though. That always signifies trouble. I ran into the master bath to see water surging up out of the drain.  This has happened before and flooded the whole bathroom, fortunately only with gray water (shower/washer) and not the black stuff. This time, miraculously, it subsided before it overflowed.  So we called Mr. Rooter and they cleaned out the line.

We had half of the sewer line replaced a few years ago, but there is still an old clay section from the driveway to the street and that's where the roots creep in.  One more thing to fix someday.

What needs fixing at your place?

Signs of Spring 2014

Ok, I'm sorry. I know some of you are still freezing, but I don't control the weather, do I?  Where is a weather witch when you need one?

Here, the wisteria thinks it is spring and is blooming accordingly.  Although out of my 7 geraniums in pots, only two are coming back after the early winter's frost.

I have one rosebud.

I have 4 dead trees.  I am really tempted to make an art project out of one of them.  Something like this but bigger.  It would complement my stump bird bath.

Someone likes the outdoors.  Walking a cat is a whole new experience!

She goes where she wants to.  It can be rather hilarious.

Things

Things keep happening. But since I haven't blogged about other things that precipitated them, I can't blog about the subsequent things.

I have to break up the logjam! So let me just get these things out there!

• My dad passed away in January. It was not unexpected, but happened more suddenly than anticipated.
• My lovely M-I-L had a major stroke in February.
• As a result, we now have a third cat. Thank goodness we did not have to take her poodle, too.
• Yet again, our main credit card has been compromised.  I'm grateful that my credit card company is always alert about that stuff.
• Oh, and the plumbing backed up this morning.

OK.  I'm all caught up now.

Now I can talk about the new kitty! (What, you thought I would talk about something else?) I don't think M-I-L would want her kitty's name all over the internet so for the sake of the blog, I shall call her Tiny. She does have a tiny body and a tiny meow, but her curiosity is gigantic! Homer and Francine are tolerating her pretty well. It's only been 10 days or so. All the cats were poked and prodded by the vet today. We have the nicest vet with a mobile service. I am ever so grateful that they come to our house, especially now with three!

Tiny is very talented.  Look how she made a heart out of yarn!