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

For The Women Only....(skip this one, guys)

Well, ladies, here's the update on "the fella".  I'm sitting here drawing a complete blank.  Maybe that's the right answer anyway.  We did go to that art show and we did have a good time, but ...........oh geez, he just isn't for me.  I genuinely like him, but I have no chemistry feeling whatsoever and never will.  Funny part is, he picked me up at 6 and we went to the art gallery and then back to my house for wine and food.  We talked a blue-streak just like it's been from the beginning and before we knew it, it was 4 in the morning.  The awful part was at the door saying goodnight.  He leans in for t-h-e-k-i-s-s and yuck. Now on HIS face was this rapturous look and starry eyes and he says, "You just don't know what you do to me".  Oh good Lord. All I could do was pat him on the shoulder (yes, right on the shoulder) and say I had a nice time and really needed to get some sleep.  He leaves and goes home. He calls.  He won't let me off the phone. Finally I go to bed. The next morning he calls, and that afternoon twice, and then that night for 2 more times. That's 5 calls. And let's add a few more emails to that, too. All I could think was, 'just put a bag over my head and smother me to death'.  I know, I should smack myself for being so insensitive, but I didn't throw up my hands in frustration in front of him.  I was nice and polite. So Sunday rolls along and there's the first morning call.  I told him I wasn't feeling well, had a whopper headache, and would get back with him when I was better. A few hours go by and the phone is ringing again.  He wanted to know if he could bring me anything or if it would help if he just sat with me.  Ohhhh, give me strength.  Of course I thanked him and said no but that evening rolled around and the phone rang yet again. By this time I really did have a headache.  I told him (again) that I would phone him when I felt better.  He sounded crushed.  THEN he adds to that by saying, "You know, Jen, you're really a good kisser".  I thought I was either hearing the joke of the year or I was in some kind of dream where I couldn't wake up.  That darn kiss, if you could even call it that, was less than a whisper of a touch on the lips and do you know, I actually told him that.  Didn't matter a whit.  He said he just loves gentle kisses like that.  I'm going to throw up just typing about this.  My cat, Sam, is better with the lips (hear that, Carole?).  Well, all this leads to today.  More calls, more emails and finally I said to him, "You know R, isn't it nice that we will be such fast friends? It's always good to make a new friend and you can never have too many."   There was a long pause as you can imagine.  Then....guess what he said.  He said, "I bet I could change your mind if I came over today."   I'm telling you ladies, I am going to have a problem here.  He doesn't give up and the more he talks, the more I want to RUN.  He means well I know, he's just not in any way, shape, or form for me.  Now I remember why I made that pact with myself to not date anymore.  I'm happy and content by myself, with my cats, my wildlife, and my friends (male and female). I must be one selfish woman to not want a guy that hangs all over me and would breathe for me if he could. It's just too much.  Ok, I've vented and now you know what happened and hopefully old R will settle for a nice friendship.  Hopefully.

So in signing off this post tonight, I'll leave you with my regular oh so perfect kisses, LOL  (sorry)
XOXOXO

…and give us this day…

                                         

       “Bless, O Lord, this food for thy use, and make us ever mindful of the wants and needs of others. Amen”

 

                                         

                   “…but Lord, please don’t let any other squirrels find this goldmine, I’m sure you understand”

 

                                         

                                   …so, I’ll amend my dinner prayer to this so as not to leave out my brothers: 

                                                 “Lord, Bless my bunch, while I munch our lunch. Amen” 

When Did Time Grow Such Fast Feet?

Just yesterday (ok, 50+ yrs of yesterdays ago), I was dressing up for Halloween in a "homemade costume", grabbing my paper grocery bag, and heading out the door with my friends to walk for many, many streets, door to door, always polite, in total safety, and filling up that bag to overflowing -- with LOOSE handfuls of popcorn and opened candies, lol.  We never got sick; we never worried about germs, either. And we started the Halloween march just as the sun went down and stayed out til around 10pm, never a problem. Every house was swamped with kids and sometimes those same kids knocked on your door 2 or 3 different times -- that of course hinged on if YOU were the house that gave out the "best" stuff that year.  My, how times have changed.  Last year, I had so many kids that I ran out of candy and had to beat a path to the store to buy more and then finally just turn out the light and hide at 9:30pm.  That didn't stop them at all.  I guess all that scary darkness of a closed up house is a turn-on for Halloweenies.  Well, then we came to this year and I was going to be ready.  I bought out the store.  I had everything to start a sugar high that would last til Christmas. I waited in happy anticipation....and waited....and waited.  Not even ONE trick or treater this year.  I asked my neighbors and they said the same, none.  Of course now all of us are overloaded with candy and can't even pass it off to each other, lol.  Opps, sorry, almost made a big typo when this Peppermint Patty fell out of my mouth.  It's ok, I caught it; no damage done.  It's only my elbow that has melted chocolate on it and making a little trail to the keyboard.  Darn kids, look what they've done ;)

I want to show you what Lucy, the princess feels is all hers.  Now as you know, she adores Sam and follows him everywhere and he follows her everywhere, too.  They look like a big, blended cat with 2 tails, but there's one difference, and it's the female in Lucy that drives her to satin and silks.  I bought a new comforter set for the other bedroom (that was really just like what I had a couple of years ago and loved so much). It's all satin and silk and luxurious, plopped up pillows and all. It takes a major leap for even a person to get on the bed as the mattresses are very high. Lucy starts at the doorway.  She crouches, she wags her tail, she gets a dead bead of a focus on the bed, starts the run and UP, UP in the air and lands in the bed. Within minutes she's sleeping until you disturb her. You can disturb, but she's not giving up her favorite place (click to enlarge for the full face of contentment):

   

By the way, she refuses to allow Sam on this bed with her.  Yes, Lucy is the total princess.

An old friend of mine was over last night.  The plan was a glass of wine here, then out to dinner, then back to my house and go through tons of photos that he’d brought and old ones I had.  It had been 48 yrs since we had seen each other and he and his wife, kids and grandkids are all in Michigan now.  Well, he got here at 6 and we got so lost in conversation, laughing, and just having the best time that we had no idea that in a blink it was 3 in the morning.  Never had a speck of dinner.  I stood on the porch while he got into his car and you would have thought it was a sunny afternoon.  We were yelling back and forth this and that and making plans for Spring and then I saw it:  lights coming on in my neighbors’ homes.  Holy crap.  I ducked and slunk back into my house and hoped they never figured out it was me.  This afternoon comes around and Cheryl, across the street, calls me and says she is soooo pooped.  Says she woke up for “some reason” at 3am and couldn’t sleep.  Then she says some other neighbor said the same.  She asks me did I hear anything.  Lol, nooooooooo, I never heard a thing .

It sure was good to make the rounds to all of you.  I loved catching up and just sorry it took 3 days to finish.  That was a LOT of back reading to do!  Every one of you is pleasure to my eyes.

XOXOXO 

(PS/ This darn thing will NOT leave the pictures where I put them, so if it's all over the place it's because I have given up. That is just not right; I am on try 6 with live writer now, sheesh)