15 is the minimum

Oh no! I think that's only 30.  I really wanted to beat Brian so I scrounged around some more.

It's hard to tell but I think I ended up with 38.

Nyah nyah nyah.

Overachiever.

Crisis at the Cafe!

Omg omg Harry just destructed the cafe for no reason! Except cat reason, which must have some logical basis that only cats understand. 

Big brother Hunter, or the Skipper to Harry’s Gilligan, expresses some concern.

"Little Buddy, this is why we can't have nice things!"

Handy stapled the thing back together. I wonder what the next cafe event will be?

Full Floofal

I'd like to thank my four cats for being such perfect NaBloPoMo blog fodder. I couldn't do this without them!

Someone on a Mid-Century Modern Cats Facebook page (yes, there is such a thing) posted a picture of her cat in a Burt Reynolds position.  Leo's not so coyly posed. He's full frontal. Although there is much floof to cover up any naughty bits. 

He's lying behind my legs. I had to ask Frank to take the picture. He looked at my iPhone with disgust. "I don't know how to find the camera." Fair. I think I've said that about his phone. It's what you're used to, right?

Anyway, thanks Leo for today's blogging inspiration.

The Queen of the Cafe

Well, would you look at that. Queen Francine aka Fifi has finally entered the cafe. Those boys better watch out!

She's the boss. Over recent months, she's decided that Temptation cat treats, offered in what we call THE TREAT MOUSE, are better than dry cat food.

So she's not eating the dry food. But of course, the treats are not offered in a large bowl full. So she seems a little, uh.. hungrier than she used to. We have been feeding her other things to supplement.
She's decided she needs food ANY TIME SHE WANTS IT! Oh my.

It doesn't help my insomnia to be woken at all hours by a serial meowderer. 

Cafe Riot!

Leo paid a little visit to the roof and the wall started buckling. I think we need some tape there.

I don't have a photo of the next bit of action, but Fifi decided to mount an attack through these little windows.

That got Harry riled up. After some mutual hissing, he went crazy clawing inside and tipped the whole thing over! (The walls were only attached to the base with double stick tape.)

I stapled-gunned the top back onto the base.

Then look what happened.

Queen of the Hill!

Cafe Visitors

Harry let his bros visit the cafe.

Here's Leo...

And Hunter.

Fifi has not been brave enough to go inside but she stands watch outside while Harry sleeps.

Nessie's Chowder

I have been Christmas shopping on Amazon already. Meaning I saw this Loch Ness Monster ladle and bought it for myself the household.

It's very cute. A little floppy if you're dishing up something hearty like chili beans but it worked fine for this crab chowder.

Yes, crab chowder. We had half a tub of Costco crab left over, and heavy cream remaining from the Pie Day, so I threw things in the pot, trying to make a small batch of soup. It made 3 bowls, which was just enough. It was delicious. Nessie was useful.

No, I don't have a recipe, although my shrimp chowder was a jumping off point. I drained off the potato cooking water, so it would be thicker, and used smaller proportions, since my goal was not to make more leftovers out of leftovers already.

Cat Cafe

Doesn't this look cute? I ordered it from Target. (Ordered it because the nearest Target is 30 miles away and I did not feel like driving. I hate driving so much more than I used to.)

Strategic use of kittens in advertising made it look much bigger than I knew it could possibly be. Still, I thought I'd chance it.



Some assembly required. Insert tabs into slots. I did add a little tape to stabilize one area (the top tabs of piece C).

It seems really sturdy, though. What will the cats think?

OK, Harry has made himself at home. Good job Harry!

Apple Day

Remember when I used to have Apple Week? It was a long time ago. Then the tree fell over and there were no apples for a long long time.

This fall, a small tree in the back yard decided to produce just enough apples for one pie. We felt very lucky and served the pie for the Handy Grandpa's birthday. He is 92!

We're not even sure what kind of apples they were. They looked a lot like these Cameos but I have no idea.



It was still a good pie.

Helper Cats

I am working on a project for the book store's holiday window. I have so much help I can't stand it!

"I must knock that pencil off the table!"

"Hey brother, need some help with that ruler?"

Somehow, I got it done!

Mr. Grinch is 26" wide. Bigger than TWO or even THREE CATS put together, but I'm not allowing them to sit on it.

NaBloPoMayBe 2018

It's November. Remember NaBloPoMo? Once again, I will try.

Starting off great by posting this a day late! Hooray for backdating.

Signs of Fall 2018

Aebleskiver at Danish Days is our annual tradition.



I made a scandinavian-type meal a few days later. That looks like fall food, right?

And the babies are always in fall colors. I had just interrupted their mutual grooming session. They are so sweet to lick the hard-to-reach spot on the back of each other's neck.

Oktoberfest beer.

More orange babies again. They just sneak in there. I call this one Purrallel Parking.

Fall will be over before I find any more pictures so I'll just post this.

A Tale of Two Potties

A self-covering one at JFK.

And the usual European arrangement.

A Day in Ellay

Back when I was a Bay Area child I thought that's how L.A. was spelled. Then we moved south.

Occasionally we venture to Los Angeles for some kind of event. This time it was the Cat Art Show 2018. You know I wouldn't miss that.

It was an eventful day. The first event was parking. We found a reasonably priced parking lot in the Fashion District. We were a little early for the art show, so we headed to my alternate stop, The Last Bookstore. It was about a 15 minute walk.

I was in heaven wandering around this gigantic book store. Handy was not too interested and went off in search of a bathroom. Public restrooms are not plentiful in L.A. due to the downtown homeless issues. On our way back to the art show, we passed a man who had just taken a shit on the sidewalk.

Back at the Cat Art Show:

This one looks like Francine!

Then on to Wilshire Boulevard, for a food truck lunch and a visit to the Petersen Automotive Museum, one of Handy's favorite places.

A piece of the Berlin Wall.

The VW from Little Miss Sunshine.

I know you MUST recognize this.

Look, I found a cat!

There's always something new and different to see there.

And then we went home to the small town.