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Honey, I'm Home's Morning Mantra ~~ Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor each morning the devil says, "Oh NO, She's up!"

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Losing Count ~~

This entire week was grueling with appointments and paperwork and even up to this morning when a home inspector had to do his job for my new homeowner’s insurance policy.  Actually, I had a good time with him this morning and he loved my house and my coffee.  But that isn't what I'm giggling about today.  It was yesterday. You may or may not remember the Care Group that I dealt with about 4 yrs ago.  This is the group that had housed my Lucy until I came along and adopted her.  Now the couple that had a part in this are named Cheryl and Craig and they volunteer all over creation plus have a houseful of pets.  Even with all they have to do, they still make time to breeze by my house to visit and when they're here, they even do the pedicures for both my babies (that's Sam & Lucy if you don't know that by now). Well, yesterday was the day I was going to their house for a good visit and lunch.  Their home is huge and gorgeous and I promise it takes your breath away.  Even the outside is jaw-droppingly fabulous.  Then you go inside (it's so big you could get lost) and it's filled with the most wonderful oriental rugs and antiques. But that's not the zinger.  They built on 2 more rooms upstairs just for their cats.  You know how it is, one gets along with this one but not with that one, and then there's the geriatric group that doesn't want to be tussled with so hard anymore -- that's why the extra rooms.  S-P-O-I-L-E-D rotten :D   More of the zinger is that they have 11 cats, yes, 11 and all indoor cats only.  Now there's a 12th that's a feral cat, a gorgeous calico that is outside. Of course Craig built "Bonnie" a little house of her own outside, plus heat, plus blankets, plus her own little hand painted dishes.  Bonnie never gets near a soul other than Craig.  She loves him. I watched while he took her treats on the porch. She came running through the woods to get to him, skidded onto the porch and promptly kissed him square on the nose, a rubbing head butt and then another kiss.  A sight to behold.  Cheryl can't even walk out onto the porch without Bonnie running back into the woods. Craig has a real gift with animals.

Now back to the inside and 2 particular cats.  One is Emily and she's older and prefers to stay in the master bedroom.  She sleeps in the crook of Craig's arm every single night. She also has her own "other" room with cat trees and toys.  Now Emily will only go to Craig or Cheryl and in all her living years she has always run and hidden from all other humans -- til yesterday :)   Ahhhh, Emily loved me. She couldn't and wouldn't stop rubbing, kissing, purring, it was a wow moment.  Craig and Cheryl were astounded and said that had never happened with another living soul in all of Emily's life.  Isn't that the greatest?  I was thrilled.

Then we get to Dupree.  He's the newest of the bunch and only 7-8 months old. They call him their delinquent cat because he gets into everything and isn't even delicate about it.  For instance, they have a large hutch in the kitchen and on top of that "used to be" a long glass case with antique spice jars. Somehow Dupree made the leap of a lifetime and landed on the top, grabbed the glass case for support, crashed it to the floor where it broke into a million shards of glass and also took with it an antique vase. The thought of it was really funny to me but they said it's like this all the time with him and it's not so funny when it's every day.  Well, Dupree has a trick.  There's this collapsible cat cube.  You have to picture this:  a cube with a hole about 8 inches across cut out of each panel of the cube. If anyone, and I mean anyone, picks up that cube, from out of nowhere you'll see Dupree in a dead run heading for you and cube.  As the cube is in midair, Dupree LEAPS and goes right through the hole and lands inside of that darn thing and then wants you to swing him all over the place. The cat has no fear of anything!  It is the funniest sight and he'll keep on for as long as you can stand or breathe. 

We were standing in the living room and the cube game is going and Craig said to me, "Let me show you how 3 of them sit up and beg just like a dog".  He takes out a few yummies and here come the cats.  Now the whole room is full of cats, and just like Craig said, 3 of them were at attention at his feet and he said, "Sit", and they did;  then he said, "Sit up", and all 3 raised up in perfect harmony into the sitting up and begging position. Amazing!  I asked if he was teaching the others and then added, "How many did you say you all have?" because I was counting and only saw 10.  Cheryl said 11 and Craig says the same.  Then they stopped, looked around, started a head count and name count.....and did that twice, each time coming up with 10 instead of 11.  Craig looked totally perplexed and said, "Gosh, maybe we don't have 11; maybe we just have 10".  With that, I was almost doubled over in laughter.  As Cheryl is saying, "Wow, and all this time I thought we had 11",  number 11, Kirby, waltzed into the room.  ELEVEN!  Yes, it must be really easy to lose count :D.

 

Lunch was delicious and I thought I'd post her recipe here as it's so worth the try and easy and healthful, too:

Recipe: Greek Pasta with Tomatoes & Beans (4 servings)

8 oz. Barilla Plus Penne Pasta  (that's a multigrain pasta, not just whole wheat)

2-14.5 oz cans of Italian style diced tomatoes

1-15 oz can of cannellini beans rinsed and drained

10 oz. fresh spinach, washed

1/2 C or more reduced fat crumbled feta cheese

Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente; drain.

Meanwhile, in a large nonstick skillet, combine the tomatoes and beans. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.

Add spinach to the sauce; cook for 2 minutes or until spinach wilts, stirring constantly.

Stir pasta into spinach mixture and heat through. Sprinkle with feta cheese and serve.

 

The day was coming to a close and I wanted to get on the road before it got dark. They live about an hour away from me and lots of rural roads to twist in and out. I had taken my GPS with me and when I left home I realized I hadn't charged it overnight. No problem, I thought, I'll plug it into the lighter outlet. Did that but nothing happened. I thought, ok, it's been off for months so I'll go by the printed directions. That worked ok, but leaving to come home is another thing for me altogether. I am SO directionally challenged and I get lost at the drop of a hat. But I thought since I'd left it plugged in to continue charging that it would be fine for getting home. Nope. Still no power to it. Curse words under my breath, I drove off anyway and had to keep pulling over to get my head to think about the opposite turns from going to their house. Believe me, it's not easy being in my head. Well, I finally made it home and as I turned into my driveway, the GPS light came on and there it was, the welcome and "Where would you like to go? New destination?"  You don't want to know what that destination was.

All righty now, I've typed nothing but drivel and talked your ears off. Now I'm going to stretch out for about an hour and then get ready to head over to my friend, Lee's, and she and Mary and I will hit a little (lot) of wine and then go out to dinner.  I plan on sleeping hard and long tonight.  Hope you all have a great, fun weekend :D

Love to all, XOXOXO

12 comments:

  1. heryl and Craig have very generous hearts; what a pair of sweeties they are! They are also very brave if they have a home filled with antiques and beautiful rugs.

    The unique bonds of affection between humans and animals never ceases to amaze me; it's the ultimate win-win situation!

    The recipe is really intriguing...only recently did I discover feta cheese and I have come to enjoy its uniquely tangy flavor. Steve and I love pasta, so this will be a great recipe to put to use now that the weather begs such tasty comfort food!

    Keep toasty, Jenny!

    *hugs*

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  2. I wonder if Cheryl and Craig would like to branch out and adopt a few rednecks. Of course, we would need our own house because none of are cat persons but Sam says he'd be willing to make the sacrifice and live in the same house with us.

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  3. I know of some people here in our city that care specifically for Dachshunds though it's not as fancy as all that but I salute their willingness to care for these animals even when that means putting literally thousands of dollars into their medical care. Well, have a great day my friend.

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  4. This is a lovely post that just makes a person feel good while they are reading it. Your friends are very special and their pet family is very fortunate.
    The recipe sounds good minus the spinach. ;-)

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  5. A delight your friends are. Ok what time are we going to dinner? Hugs!!!!

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  6. So glad you had a nice time, Jenny, and didn't get lost coming home. It's difficult to being in my head either. LOL

    Don't know if I've ever told you, but I grew up being afraid of cats; it's a "thing" in my family, from my grandfather, then my mom and me. I love to look at them (photo's), and can appreciate others like you who love and take such good care. Consequently, we never had cats; although I did let my daughter have a kitten once that my aunt wouldn't stop pestering me to let her have. We didn't keep it long, but it went to a nice place.

    Enjoy your evening with friends, sounds wonderful! (((hugs)))

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  7. It's difficult being IN MY HEAD also, I meant to say. See? LOL

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  8. Hi Jenny

    I rolled up at your expression its difficult being in my head. guess I would second that about mine - lol- glad you enjoyed your day, I just cannot imagine having that many cats but bet they are grateful for their home comforts there. Amanda's yorkie tommy is very unfriendly normally to anyone but family, but a new friend from church is besotted with him and he is all over her. Have a great weekend, I am still marvelling about the description of winter you put on my blog, awesome, I am much brighter today and so is the weather. hugs - Nita.

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  9. The Duggar's of the cat world! Time for lucky #13? I have to stop myself from looking at the animal shelter website for fear of bringing home another dog or cat.

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  10. I loved every word. I would so enjoy visiting there and just getting on the floor with the cats and let them play with me..and me play with them with liberal kisses all around. Loved this. Makes me smile.
    xox

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  11. Oh Jenny,
    Please read my latest blog, (today) about lasange chips, lol - wrong spelling, bad punctuation - Not that good at recipes, but will see what I can do, Beth has one on her site she posted from me, for lancashire hotpot. Re: What you said about reaching out to someone in the neighbourhood, I have just sent a card to one of my young neighbours, whom I dont know very well, but who woke me up at 3.30 a.m. with her crying and screaming in distress at another neighbour, I have offered prayer and a listening ear, I am not very confident, please back me in prayer that if it is god's will, he will lead and strengthen me to minister to her. thanks - hugs nita.

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  12. Your pasta recipe sounds perfect with wine, which makes me ask...what is your wine of choice? We've really gotten into enjoying Old Vine Zin. Have even bought it in a box...which is really, really good! BOHO and Bota are both good choices...if you need a suggestion.

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