I did get some pics of the cats, but they aren't the greatest. I have a hard time getting good photos of cats anyway, but then with kittens, they are either passed out asleep or in constant motion. It makes it even harder to get a good picture. The first shots are the little boy--he's really hard to shoot, because he's so light. The next two are the little girl. The last shot is Harley (mommy). I am going to have to try again for the great shots I was hoping for. I have read so many photography books, I have a very nice camera, I try to experiment a lot to get better at getting the lighting/focus/composition perfect, but I remain a mediocre photographer. It's frustrating!

Our entire evening was spent on grocery shopping. We went after dinner. The shopping and putting away took over two hours. I so hate grocery shopping! By the time we got home, it was past L's bedtime, and she has school tomorrow, which she is already telling me she doesn't want to go to. She's too much of a free spirit to enjoy going somewhere all day everyday. It's just not her thing. I will have her stick with it, because a little bit of stretching her tolerance will be good for her. I just don't want to break her or destroy the happy, free soul that she is.

We got a bit of gardening done this afternoon, before dinner. I got the whole flat of impatiens in, and Mark and I did a bit of weeding in the back garden. Yes, Mark weeded. As I've said before, he does a TON of work outside and in the garden, but he rarely weeds at home. I was surprised. L. wasn't happy, because Hunter was at his Grandma's and couldn't play this afternoon, so she was stuck outside with just us again. How she suffers.

My mom and I went out to get a second swimming suit for L today. With swim everyday and vacation coming up, we really need a second suit. There aren't too many choices this time of year. I can't believe how many of the suits in her size are bikinis. What the hell is wrong with people that a tiny little girl needs to wear a bikini? It does nothing but expose more area to sunblock and cause problems for the little girl trying to play in the water while dealing with a top that rides up or slides down in the water. I actually had to enter the dreaded mall to find one. At our fourth store, we finally found one that: a) she liked; b) was her size; c) I liked; d) was practical and appropriate for her age.

Not much going on...

My work week is done--thank god! I don't have nearly enough time to spend with Harley and the kittens when I have to work all day. It's a huge bummer, though, that L. is in summer school on Th. & Fri. during the day. I will miss our day time together. She is taking Spanish, Magic & Juggling, Physical Education, and swim lessons. She goes to classes from 8:00-11:30, and swim is from 1:30-2:15, so school is taking up a huge chunk of the day. She is liking some things about school but not everything. She has brought some of her magic tricks home to practice, and it's so cute. She loves Criss Angel (who wouldn't!!), so the magic thing is even more appealing. I hope she's not expecting to have Criss Angel type magic after her six week class!

Our foster cats continue to improve every day, but the kittens' eyes are not improving very quickly. I'm going to have to give the vet a call Friday to see if the recovery is normally this slow. Harley is such a sweetie and lives for the time we spend in the room with her. I wish I could just let them out, but that would not work well at this point. I no longer have any good leads on permanent homes for them. The two promising ones I had have fallen through. I spend a lot of time stressing over that. Now Ivan has started making weird noises, and I think he may have a hairball stuck but am a little worried that he's having heart problems or something. I don't know why, other than heart problems can make you kind of cough weirdly, and I'm so paranoid of my babies getting sick. No new kitten pics yet. I was kind of hoping their little eyes would start to look more normal first, but it seems it will be a while. I am going to take photos tomorrow, for sure, since I don't have to work. :)

L. is asleep, and Mark is waiting downstairs for me to come watch a season 2 episode of LOST. I'm a bit crabby and sore today, so if I blog too much more, it will no doubt turn into bitching. A little relaxation with the hubby will be nice. I've barely seen him lately!

Manic Monday

UGH! Vacation is officially over, and I had to return to work today. I returned to the same unrealistically early deadlines and problems that I left. All day I just wanted to be home with my family, and I worried about the kittens. Dej was caring for them and took the feeding/medication shift I missed, but I just feel better when I'm with them. I miss the cute little buggers, too.

When I returned from work, I picked Luciana up from my mom's, and then we had to go pick up more of Harley's prescription cat food and stop at Walgreens. We got back home right after Mark had returned from work and from picking up our monthly food co-op order. That's never a fun job, but since we want to eat... I grated the soy cheeses for dinner and decided to knock one of my evening chores off while the pasta was cooking and give Oliver his meds. He has to take three pills for his urinary problems, and they have been increasingly hard to get in him. I slathered up the pills in Tofutti (non-dairy) sour cream and got the soy canadian bacon all ready for his after-pill treat. I got the first pill down, and it all went to hell after that. He decided that there was no way I was getting any more pills in. While I wrestled with him, trying to get the second pill in, Jasper and Petey showed up and started licking the sour cream off the other pill that was on the paper towel next to me. After multiple failures, and losing copious quantities of blood, I called Dej for help. I got part of the two pills down him--the remaining portions of them had crumbled and were smeared (with sour cream) all over me. I have lots of very painful bites and scratches all over my hands and legs. He's such a sweet little guy, but I guess he made up his mind that he had taken enough pills.

I had three non-bleeding fingers with which I could stuff the pasta shells. That really sucked. Everyone ate and seemed to enjoy dinner, but it was kind of ruined for me after the trauma and discomfort of preparing it. After dinner, I lost L. again to playing outside with Hunter. Mark went down to work on drawing--he has a plan that he wants done by the end of this week. Dej returned to her room to do whatever it is she does in the dirty pit. I decided as long as I was abandoned to go outside and weed. I made some progress but it was slow and incredibly painful, as my fingers kept re-opening and bleeding. Oh, the joy of this Monday.

L. and I spent some time with the Harley and the kittens before bed, and we had our reading time in there. We couldn't find little girl kitten anywhere and were tearing up the room looking, while getting more and more concerned. Finally L. heard something and called my attention to it. The little bugger had climbed up inside the lazy boy chair that's in L.'s room. I had it blocked off but barriers are meaningless to these kittens. She came right out on her own, fortunately. They have taken to playing "King of the Mountain" on top of the cat carrier that's in the room. Since it's a soft carrier, they scamper right up the side to the top and they love to wrestle and play up there. They like to try to knock the other off, but it's not very high and the carpeting is soft, so they just land and scramble right back up to the top. They are into everything and just too cute for words!

I was hoping to take more pics of them tonight to post, but time is not working in my favor. I still have another feeding/medicating to do tonight, and I have a ton of database work to do for the Alliance, so I'm heading down now to work on that while Mark draws. I have another camping pic to post instead though.

Out of the woods

The two remaining kittens and mommy cat have made it through the worst and are rapidly showing improvement. Harley has started to fill in and look much more alert. She is also being a good little mother--watching the kittens, calling to them, grooming them, letting them suckle (even though there's not much there now). She has the sweet cuddly disposition she has had all along, plus a healthy new sparkle in her eye. The kittens, with working names of Pink and Floyd, get stronger and naughtier by the hour. They are climbing, pouncing, wrestling, and exploring every minute that they aren't snuggled up sleeping. They love to cuddle up to us too when they get tired and ready to pass out. They like to play with fingers--trying to wrestle and pounce on them. They are so entertaining!

I am anxiously awaiting Luciana & Mark's return from Villa Park, where they've been since yesterday. Mark's brother, Mike, and his family are visiting from NJ. I couldn't leave the kittens and had a big protest today that I couldn't miss. I spoke with them before bed last night and they were both having a good time with the family. Dej had to work every day this weekend, so she was home with me.

Today's Petland protest was GREAT! We had a lot of people there, including the kids that we met at the last circus protest. We had so many people, we actually ran out of signs! That's a first! We also had a ton of positive feedback/support from the community.

Finally, our camping trip

We still have the two kittens and mommy hanging in there. They are still in a very serious and 'iffy' state. They will be seeing Dr. Nelson tomorrow morning, so we can head into the weekend with a good assessment and any additional equipment/supplies/information we may need. I'm hoping for the best, but we are still a LONG way from having them stabilized.

Oliver also seems to still be urinating and unobstructed. I know this, because I have to follow him around to verify AT LEAST once a day that he is urinating okay. I won't explain how I verify, with four other cats in the house sharing litterboxes, if he did indeed pee when he went into the box. It's not pretty.

So, now, I can talk about last weekend's camping trip. Between phone calls about the cats, we did have fun. We went to Starved Rock state park in central IL. It was, I think, the first camping trip that we did not get lots of rain, and it was one of the only ones where we didn't have to pack up the tent in the rain--that is so not fun. Somehow we've had bad luck in this area. The temp was well into the 90's, as it was here, so it was quite hot and uncomfortable during the daytime. Fortunately, most of our daytime hikes were through canyons and woods, so it was pretty shady, which helps a lot. Our campsite was nice and roomy, and the park was much quieter than the parks in WI that we have camped at. The whole campsite, as well as every place we hiked, was chock full of poison ivy. It will be a miracle if none of us ends up with it. Mark was very diligent about watching for it and warning us, but it was HUGE and it was everywhere. Our campsite was full of cicadas, and the ground had tons of exit holes from them. L. was digging around in what we thought was an exit hole, but she got a surprise when she found a mommy cicada laying eggs underground. They were super loud during the days but quiet at night. We had this great tree on our site that had all these little nooks and crannies in it. L. loved playing with that tree. She had brought all her little lion figurines and created quite impressive cat habitats in the tree. She's rarely bored, and she's never bored when she's outside. I love that about her.

We hiked to some beautiful waterfalls, which are Luciana and my favorite. I could sit by a waterfall all day every day. It is so beautiful and relaxing, and I love the sound. Luciana brought her bug net, which she used to catch bugs, butterflies (although I don't think she succeeded in catching any), and fish. Of course she immediately released the little critters after looking at them. She really wanted to wade out into the deeper water to catch some blue gills with it, but they were too big and too fast for her little net. She also was hoping to catch a frog, but while we saw quite a few, none were easily accessible to us. She used her net to save quite a few cicadas, who had fallen into the water and were struggling. They don't seem to be the smartest little creatures. The last day of our camping, we went on a hike, and she was not being the best listener. She ended up going into an area that we told her not to go into, and it was this marshy muck. She stepped in and sank up to nearly her knees in mud and had a very difficult time getting out. She was pretty mud covered after that. We washed her up in the lake, until we got to the van where we had some baby wipes.

I love nightime when we camp! We sat out by our campfires and read our special camping ghost story book, which L. loves. It's quiet, private, the fire is pretty, and I always look forward to seeing which critters will come visit us. That's always the high point of my camping trips--the critter encounters. We heard a lot of interesting sounds in the woods, but we only saw raccoons. I feed them, so they generally come right up to us--they're not afraid of much. We had a single raccoon--smallish, so probably a 'teen', and a mommy with her two babies. Those babies provided no end of entertainment, as you can hear them from a mile away coming through the woods. Just like human children, and kittens, siblings love to pick, fight, wrestle, and I could hear them rolling through the leaves and chasing one another. I miss my babies so much when I camp, that I become desperate for a furry critter fix. Feeding and interacting with them both nights definitely helps. I'm telling you, if I could get the little guys to climb into my lap and snuggle, I would be one happy camper (ha ha ha). Our campfire time definitely makes me happy.

:(

Our sweet little black kitten died. I am mourning her and am working hard to keep the remaining two kittens and mommy alive and well. It is quite a task. I am grateful to have the help and support of my family on this.

I am looking forward to the time that thye are a little more stable and I have time to blog our camping trip. It was great, and we got some nice pics!

Cats, cats, cats!

For the past few days, I have been drowning in cats--sick cats! Expensive, sick cats! Things are pretty rough right now. Dej called me Saturday, while we were camping, to tell me that Oliver was under the bed crying. That is certainly not normal behavior, especially for the sweet, laid back Oliver, so I told her to call Grandma and get him to the vet ASAP. They were able to get in right away, thank god. They called back to tell me that he was suffering from a total obstruction of his urethra--EXTREMELY painful. My choices were immediate euthanization or immediate catheterization. So, no choice, really. They put a catheter in and put in on IV fluids, and he had to stay there under hospital care for the remainder of the weekend. I HATE leaving my animals overnight at the vet. They don't understand, and it kills me to think that they are confused, afraid, and don't understand what happened to their family/home. No choice this time, though. This is typically a recurring problem, so even if it does resolve this time, it will happen again. I will have to either follow him around or sequester him in a room along every day until I verify that he has urinated. That's the only way to be sure he hasn't re-obstructed. Ultimately, he will need his urethra split and enlarged to prevent future blockages. I'm hoping to prevent this until we can better afford it. Our money situation could not be worse right now!

The new cat family: We picked up the family we are fostering on Thursday. The sick runt baby didn't make it, so we have three kittens and mommy. This poor little family has really been through some crap lately! Mommy's name is Harley. She was severly underweight, malnourished, dehydrated, and suffering from a horrible respiratory virus. She's on meds and has improved somewhat but has a LOOOONG way to go. She was initially too sick to nurse or care for the babies, so we hand fed them. She is now well enough to nurse, but we have still been supplementing with KMR. I introduced gruel tonight (kitten food with KMR), hoping they will start eating some of that too. Harley needs to conserve her strength and calories, so she needs all the help she can get with the kittens.

The kittens do not yet have names. I know their permanent families will name them but we would like to have working names for them now. My girls are arguing brutally about names. I told them they had to find a compromise, which Luciana is very willing to do. Dej, however, will not. She wants to name them all her butt-fugly names with no compromising. I will probably have to come up with names just to keep peace. Kitten #1 is all black. She is spunky, curious, and definitely the most bold of the three. She has started coughing, though, which may be from the same virus Harley has. The kittens are starting amoxicillen today, which should help with that. We just found out today that she has a HUGE heart murmur. There's a slight possibility that she will outgrow it when she's 3-6 months old. There's also a fair possibility that she won't live too long. This was heartbreaking news! Still weepy over that one. I put a tiny litterbox in their room tonight, and she was the first to use it. She's quite smart. Kittens #2 & 3 are cream colored and really stick together. Kitten #2 is a slightly darker cream with darker siamese coloring on the ears, feet, and tail. She has a staph infection in her tiny little eye, causing it to stick closed. We have to rub it gently with a cotton ball soaked in warm water to open it and then put a cream in for the infection. That should be fine in a week. Kitten #3 is a boy (we think) and seems to be the quietest and most cautious of the three. All four of them adore people and cuddles/affection of any kind. They are absolutely wonderful!

Just to add to the sick-cat stress of the last five days, Petey pulled a great one this weekend. While Dej, my mom, and I (by phone) are trying to keep on top of the sick cats, Petey was his typical naughty self. Saturday morning, he somehow managed to rip the dryer venting hose from the aluminum vent that goes out the window. He then escaped out through the vent. Dej was at home, when our wonderful neighbor Karen came to the door. Dej said she was puzzled to see that Karen had a cat with her. That cat was none other than Petey, the escape artist. Thank god he had on the collar and name tag, and this wasn't one of the many occasions he lost that. My dad came Saturday night to fix the dryer vent and Petey proof it. It seems to be holding. Petey has gone over to the vent several times and whined since then. That boy is going to drive me CRAZY!!

Dej did a great job under a ton of stress--real life and death situations. I'm very grateful for her excellent way with animals. I'm also SO appreciative that my mom was able to fill in for Dej while she worked and help out as needed. Not a fun weekend for any of us.

Camping!!!

Gone camping...

Two cool cats on a hot summer day

Petey has decided that his favorite spot is on the top of the refrigerator or freezer door, so as soon as one of them is open, he immediately jumps on top and lies down. I guess Jasper decided since Petey was doing it, he would find a comfy spot inside the fridge (see bottom shelf). That's one way to keep cool in this very hot weather!

Our week has consisted primarily of work during the day and weeding and planting in the evenings. We are trying desperately to get all our plants in the ground before we leave for our camping trip Friday. Tonight we made a pretty good dent in the planting. I think we will be able to finish it up tomorrow--maybe. The bunnies are continuing to grow in their nest in our north-side garden. There's not too much cuter than baby bunnies! One has been creeping out into the garden to snack a bit. I picked up some greens at the farmer's market today to split between the outside bunnies and our bunny, Thumper, and our guinea pig, Annabella.

Luciana has been playing with Hunter. So much, in fact, that I miss her! She's having so much fun, though. Tonight while I was planting, they were giving each other rides in the wheelbarrow. They never seem to run out of things to do and their frequent giggles are the CUTEST! I'm so glad she has a friend to enjoy the summer with, but secretly, I would love to have her all to myself again.

Dej worked last night but other than that, she has started her summer off with a flurry of social activity. She's either gone or we have a houseful of teenagers. While sometimes it gets a little loud and irritating, it's cute for the most part. Many of her friends are guys, and they are so funny. Last night as four teen boys traipsed through the door, with their hair artfully longish and hanging over one eye, I was struck by how quiet and different our lives will be soon enough. I think I will actually miss the chaos. She will be in college soon and out of the house all too soon. Sometimes, I wish she was out now (usually during that one special week of the month), but when I think about how quickly it is coming, it really freaks me out!

Tomorrow, I will begin another adventure as a foster mommy to four three-week old kittens and their previously lost but newly found mommy. It didn't start out this way--it was initially two kittens who needed hand feeding and fostering, and one of the two was the runt and extremely sick. Long story, but now it's turned into so much more than that. I have about six weeks to find placement for five beautiful cats, who I know I will be deeply in love with. I've already started putting feelers out. I'm a bit overwhelmed by it, but I have faith that it will all turn out wonderfully, okay, sometimes I have faith--sometimes I just wonder what the hell is wrong with my brain!

Weekends are way too short!

Luciana and Hunter went on a "scavenger hunt" and collected lots of natural materials. No idea where the Walmart bag came from--WE DO NOT SHOP THERE!




A long Saturday of weeding in beautiful weather had great results:

1. The front garden was almost completely weeded.

2. Luciana found a large toad in the rock garden which amused her and Hunter for a bit, until they released her.

3. We had a nice chat with our neighbors.

4. We found a nest of baby bunnies in the persicaria in our North-side garden.

5. We picked up a little new knowledge, as a result of Luciana's questions.

Luciana asked some questions that we had to look up. Here are a couple of interesting tidbits we found out. How earthworms reproduce: When the eggs in the egg tube are ready, the worm slips backwards out of the saddle. As the saddle passes the egg tube, six eggs are dropped in. As the saddle passes over the worm's head, the ends close up and make a tiny lemon-shaped cocoon with the eggs inside. This cocoon protects them until they hatch out as very small but fully developed worms. Who invented the refridgerator: An American physician, John Gorrie, built a refridgerator in 1844 to make ice to cool the air for his yellow fever patients. Dr. Gorrie may have also invented the first ice cube tray in its current form. Who invented the ice cube tray first: The first flexible stainless steel, all-metal ice tray was invented by Guy L. Tinkham in 1933. The tray flexed sidewise to eject the ice cubes.

Sunday: another perfect day. Dej and I spent some time together this morning while Mark & Luciana went on an adventure at JSOL. I was able to finish weeding the front garden--finally! That feels so good! L. played with H. until it was time to leave. Now all I have left is the North-side garden (after the bunnies leave the nest) and part of the back shade garden. I should be done with the back this week, and we can get most of the planting done. We have to, actually, before we go camping. I will be working furiously this week if the weather permits.

We went with my parents to Stonewall Nursery, as we both needed to pick up some trees. My parents got some very cool trees for their yard. We picked out three. I got a dwarf gingko to replace the dwarf spruce we moved out of the rock garden yesterday. Luciana got a dwarf boxwood to put in her garden, and she is excited about being able to prune it into different shapes. Mark got a yellowhorn, which we don't yet have a place picked out for. Peter (the owner) was amazingly generous with us, and I'm very grateful for that. My parents went back to Janesville, and we went on to Oregon to Ed's open house. His gardens were fabulous! I can't believe what he's done in a month! The house is gorgeous, too. It was hard and sad to see them living separately, now. I want to see them back together, but it isn't very realistic. We ran into some other friends there, who had brought their college freshman son. I would like him for Dej. He's cute and very intelligent. Why am I such a damn die-hard matchmaker?!!!

A trip to Target on the way back in to town nearly bankrupted us. We had a bunch of miscellaneous things we needed. Our first camping trip of the year is this Friday, so we had to pick up some supplies for that. Plus, we all love Target--a dangerous place for us!

Be afraid. Be very afraid...

It has happened. Dej got her driver's license this morning! We got to Portage early and had a chance to drive around a bit for practice. I had also made her drive the whole way to Portage, although she didn't want to. She hates interstate driving but desparately needs more practice. We made it, even through the rain! She did fine. It was painful for me to make her keep the speed between 65-70. I HATE going that slow on the interstate! The guy who gave her the road test was very nice. We both liked him immediately, so I was really pleased that she didn't get some evil DMV grump. She was nervous enough as it was. I told her after her practice drive that she was taking corners and curves too fast and a little sloppy. That's basically the same thing he told us after the test. That was what she got points deducted for. Thank god she made it though, I think. Btw, I only got this pic because I told her she could only drive to see Levi & Jessica if I could get a decent pic of her with her license and evaluation sheet. Yes, bribery, blackmail, whatever works. Hey, I have a teenager, which means I gave up all pretense of pride years ago.

When we got back to Jvl, we picked L. up from my mom's, and D. really wanted to drive over to her friend's to show them that she passed. Since Levi only lives five blocks away, I had to give in a let her go, even though I don't feel that she's really ready to drive by herself. She and the car both returned alive. L. & I met Orinda, Logan, Colton, and Denny at El Jardin's for lunch, as usual. After that we weeded and played outside, pretty much until bedtime. L. got to play with Hunter again this afternoon/evening. I am so happy to see them having so much fun together! I love that she has a neighborhood friend again. Not a very exciting day, but productive and very pleasant.

Love and loss

Today was full of nature--in all it's beauty and cruelty. Thankfully, there was a lot more beauty! We went to Orinda's this morning, after I picked Dej up from her last exam at 9:30. It was very hot but the strong wind kept the air moving, so it was fairly pleasant to be outside. Shortly after arriving, Logan showed me a little mouse he had found in the yard, he thought she was dead, but we checked and saw she was breathing. She was a tiny little thing; her eyes weren't even open yet. Very, very cute! I picked her up and checked for injuries/damage and found none. Orinda looked around the yard for quite a long time for a mouse nest but wasn't able to find one. We packed Luciana's rain boot (they are good for walking in the swamp) with grass, clover, tissues, and paper towels to make a nice little warm nest for the mouse. I couldn't get her to take water and didn't have any KMR with me, although maybe I should start carrying a small container and syringe this time of year. She She stayed snuggly and sleepy most of the time. I kept her with me and checked her often. We were all enamored with her cuteness and tinyness (probably not a real work, but it works). It doesn't usually turn out well or wild babies that young. Who knows what kind of internal problems they have or how long they have been without sustenance. I always try to save them, knowing that the odds are not in our favor. I have to believe with each one, though, that this one will pull through. I believe that positive energy is important for them to even have a chance at making it. Unfortunately, when they don't, I'm crushed. Anyway, on our way back into town, we stopped at Mounds (with our baby in a boot in tow) and picked up a little home for her and some KMR. I tried a feeding when I got home, but she was very uninterested. I basically just got a bit into the side of her cheek and let it trickle down. She wouldn't actively eat. That is always a really bad sign. I sat with her and my high hopes, keeping her warm, safe, and loved, which always makes me feel a bit helpless but it's all I could do. About an hour and a half later, I took her down to make her next feeding. I mixed it up, came back upstairs with the syringe, opened her little door, and found that she had died during that five minute period. L & I were heartbroken. How could we not care profoundly for one so small and helpless! We kept her until rigor started--it's a strange hang up I have--I cannot bury anyone until I have seen rigor, as I have a fear of burying someone who's just in a coma or something odd like that. When it was time to bury her, I had Luciana pick out a plant and a location in the garden. After she was buried, I stayed outside to weed and Luce went in the house. She came out shortly afterward with a brick that she had gotten from our garage and painted as a headstone for our little friend. It was so sweet! ETA: Just to be clear the mouse is very much alive in the picture. :)

Okay, back to our day at the swamp. L., Logan, and Colton spent their time catching bugs. They got some moths and butterflies. The damn deer flies were out in droves, attacking constantly. I learned that I hate them. I wanted to hit them, but I didn't. On our walk to the swamp, we saw deer, raccoon, and turkey tracks. We also saw the biggest snapping turtle I had seen. It was huge! I took my camera out to take a pic, only to get the dreaded "out of battery" message. UGH! I left my case at home (which contains my extra set of batteries), so I was S.O.L.! Hook, Orinda's cat, was very naughty! He trotted into the play area carrying something in his mouth. Upon closer inspection, it was a bird---two birds. One was very dead, and one was very alive. O. does not like the cats to kill birds, so she stepped in. She saved the living sparrow. She was young, uninjured, and scared. She flew away quickly. The dead sparrow, O. took away and hid from Hook, as she didn't want him to get a reward for killing birds. Hook got a little kitty spanking, too, and a lecture about birds. We all know how well cats listen, though. Later, Hook and Willard (O.'s other cat) ran a sting and flushed an adult mouse out and had her trapped for the kill. I was quicker than them, though, and grabbed Hook and held her long enough to let the mouse escape and disappear into the wood chip pile. I am constantly struck by how beautiful nature is, yet at the same time, so very ugly. It was a wonderful day overall.

L & C are such great children. I totally enjoy spending time with them. They are very smart but quite well behaved. O. is a fabulous mother. It's sad how few people I can say that about. I know a lot of parents who love their kids but I would never consider them to be great parents. I have no tolerance for bratty children or their parents! Working full time, keeping up with their huge property, and raising two young boys is hard work! Oh, and she's working on finishing her master's now too. It takes a lot to be a great parent with that much going on, yet she raises those kids better than most SAHM's!

Luciana played with Hunter again after we got home and before we went to my mom & dad's for dinner. They discovered tonight that they both love to draw--another thing they have in common. I got a little weeding done, and Mark took the dogs for a quick walk, so they could get out before they storm hit. We had falafel for dinner and fresh strawberries for dessert. When we got home, we buried our friend. Shortly after the burial, while I was weeding, it started to rain. L came out into the back yard in her undies (only) singing loudly over and over, "I'm nudie in the rain", with lots of giggles. How fun to be so free! I swear if I were 15 pounds lighter, I would have joined her. It was hot, and it really looked fun! We went in when it started pouring. She got to play D&D briefly with Mark, and then it was time to head upstairs for reading/bed.

A new friend for Luciana

This afternoon was the much anticipated play date. Luciana and Hunter played together from shortly after we got home until nearly bedtime. I usually interrupt her playing to have her come eat dinner, but they were having so much fun I just let them play. She came in and ate and then got ready for bed. They seem to have a lot in common and ran back and forth between the two houses. I'm so happy for her to have a friend in the neighborhood--especially now that it's nice outside. He didn't seem bothered by her bossing him around either, so that bodes well. Tomorrow will be her play date at Logan's, and they have some grand outdoor adventures planned involving bugs and turtles. I hope the weather cooperates.

There wasn't much produce at the farmer's market today, as it's still pretty early in the season. There were a lot of plants, which I mostly resisted, because I still have a driveway full of plants that need to go into the garden. I did have to get some scented geraniums, though. I LOVE those and couldn't find as many this year as I normally have. I also got L. a strawberry plant to put in the garden by the cataloupe. She has been really wanting to grow her own berries. I also got two pints of organic strawberries.

Dej had a short day today because of finals. She got bored enough to make chocolate chip cookies! Yea!! I haven't tried one yet, but L & Hunter really enjoyed them. She had to work tonight and tomorrow night. She only has one exam tomorrow, so her school year officially ends tomorrow morning at 9:30. She's pretty excited.

Today was kind of a boring dreary day, and the weather didn't cooperate with my weeding plans. My roses continue to bloom and look stunning so far, although I'm a little worried about powdery mildew with all the rain and humidity we've had lately. Medallion is one of my favorite roses. It has beautiful peach blooms that smell wonderful. Enjoy!

Tree girl

I weeded as a lefty tonight. I was as slow as I thought I would be. I'm looking at tonight as the first of my lefty training program. It will certainly be beneficial, even after the hand injury heals up. I've lost so much of the use of my right hand already, and it will continue to get worse, so this forces me into training. I've already learned to mouse lefty. I've switched my mouse at work and use it exclusively left-handed now. I often mouse left at home, too. I am having a hard time using my left hand on my laptop touch pad. That will take a lot more work. Clumsy and slow. What a great combination! ;) While I was weeding, Luciana kept me company by trying to climb the locust that I love ('Twisty Baby') and chatting away. I love our weeding time together! Mark got the lawn mower's blades sharpened, so that should greatly improve the summer mowing work.

Luciana also wandered down a few houses (with my permission) to introduce herself to Hunter. He's a year younger than her. They hit it off well. Whenever I see him playing outside in the front, he's alone. She's lonely for neighborhood friends, too, so I hope this will be a good thing for both of them. It was almost bedtime by the time she went over there tonight, so she told him she would be back tomorrow afternoon to play. She's so friendly and cute. I love the way she makes friends everywhere--it's so easy for her (that's definitely from Mark and NOT from me!).

Dej went for a long drive with Grandpa tonight. She needs to practice before the road test, and he offerred to take her out. Things seemed to go well, and she returned home in a better mood than she left in:)

Petey has created some extra work for me the last couple of days. Yesterday when I sat down at my craft table to scrap, I saw that it was covered in stuff. Petey had wreaked havoc on my craft table--even though I didn't see the act, there's no doubt it was him! Everything was a jumbled nightmare. I spent my scrapping time cleaning and reorganizing all my supplies. It wasn't how I wanted to spend my time, but I have to admit, it is more organized and neat than it was before, so it turned out to be a good thing. Tonight, he trashed my side of the closet, again. Clothes were knocked off hangers onto the floor, sweaters and other items knocked off the shelf, his usual closet destruction. I did see him do that. I cleaned it up, but there was no plus side to that. I've had to do the same thing about twice a week lately.

We're back down to five cats :( OR :) --not sure

My Sweetie-cat (who's now Callie) is still in her new home, doing well, I'm sure. Her new mom has been down with a migraine, and I'm sure that Sweetie/Callie and her new brother Snuggles brought some joy into the migraine misery. I know I love my cuddly cats when I'm unwell. We took Cali, soon to be renamed, to her new home on Sunday, and that went very well. She and her new mom seem to have similar energy levels, and Cali/?? jumped right into exploring her new home. She loved all the deep windows and looked out many of them before Les and I left her. She seemed right at home. I feel very good about both placements and am sure that two people and three cats are much happier. I miss both of the cats, but I'm so happy that they are in a better place! Placements are so bittersweet.

Back to Saturday night...we had dinner at the Woods. Leders, Rob & Jody (they used to live on our street--don't remember their last name), and another couple (a woman Leanna works with and her husband) were there. Leanna likes to entertain and went all out, making vegetarian lasagnas and a vegan lasagna, in addition to salad, fruit, bread, and even vegan desserts! I feel bad that she went to so much effort and got so much for me. I'm pretty used to making due, and it feels a bit awkward to put someone to so much trouble. She's one of the nicest people EVER, though, so that's just her way. Rob & Jody's kids were there, too. Luciana would have preferred having K & E to herself, but she was okay with the others. They played a lot of hide and seek. Apparently the secret to a getting a good fire pit going is a dash of gasoline. John is the fire building pro, so we watched and learned. It certainly got going a lot faster and better than ours do. Ours take forever to get going, but once they are going they're great. Anyway, we had some fun conversation by the fire pit until the big people started to get tired. It was much earlier than the little people wore down--they were still going strong, even though it was past their bedtimes. Dej had to work and didn't join us (not that she would have anyway). She went out with Brandon and some friends after work.

Sunday was just a typical Sunday--full of chores. I managed to injure and really hose up my right hand as I was getting ready to take Cali to her new home, so I didn't get anymore weeding done. It rained off an on yesterday and today, so I probably couldn't have done too much anyway. I'm not sure how long it will be until I can work with my right hand again. My left hand is collassally uncoordinated, so if I can weed with it, it will be slow going. I can't afford to get anymore behind than I already am. I am really stressing about it!

Poor D. had to work Sunday too. The cold realities of the working world are hitting now. She got her schedule for next weekend, and she works both Friday and Saturday nights. She is so not happy about losing her whole weekend. It's not too bad, though, because her last day of school is Thursday this week, so after that, basically everything's a weekend to her. Damn I miss having summer off! She's got a big week coming up: finals, her road test (FINALLY!! We have to go all the way to Portage though), and ACTs bright and early Saturday at 7 am. Who schedules tests for teens before noon?! That is just a dumb, dumb idea. All the ACT tests seem to start at 7, though. As a die-hard NON-morning person, I resent planning like this that is clearly done by those crazy-ass morning people!

L's been on a chess and checkers run lately, so we've been playing a lot the last few days. We played a game of checkers right before reading time tonight, and she almost beat me. She got cocky and wasn't paying close attention to the board, so I got in a triple jump! I usually don't take advantage of opportunities like that, but she's getting too good to leave herself open like that. I bet she won't do it again ;) She's also played D&D for a while every day with Mark. He came home Sat. after going to Mounds with some additional items. Seems he went next door to Hancock Fabrics, which is closing and has everything at 75% off. He came back with three large pieces of fabric--large enough to completely cover the dining room table. He wanted them to make the scenes for their game: a desert, water, and hmmm can't remember the other one--maybe mountains. It's pretty cute. They were both so excited about it.

My brother & family just got a new puppy. I've always thought of him as a distinctly non-animal person. It will be fun to watch him survive puppy hood. This is a picture of the pup, JohnnyCash (yep, that's his name). Doesn't he just look like one of those that's really naughty but too cute to do anything about it (just like my Petey)? He'll have to spend some time with his big cousins, Daisy & Jezebel. They can teach him valuable skills they've already mastered, such as poop eating, chewing holes in couches and walls, eating plastic items like toys and remote controls, and vomitting up the things they've have eaten.

It is hard to blog when it's nice outside!

Here is one scary picture!! When Leanna and the girls stopped by on Weds., she left a wig for L. to play with. Of course she had to put it on and model it right away. It's just so wrong looking! She looks like a strange child with old lady hair!

Everyday I've meant to blog and had lots to say but by the time we get inside, it's late and my hands are fried.

Thursday's highlights include the circus protests and taking Sweetie to her new forever home. The protests went fairly well, with the same players as usual. The evening protest included some excitement however. There was a group of eight teens who, after talking to us and reading the complaints/charges of animal mistreatment that the Carden Circus has accumulated, decided not to go in. Not only that, but they went in and asked for their money to be refunded! Score!! The Zor testosterone losers saw the whole thing and were NOT happy. Then, two teen girls asked if they could stay and help hand out the fliers. We invited them to the Petland protest on the 24th, and they were all very pumped about going to that. I really enjoyed talking to them. They were fun, smart kids, who helped to restore my faith that there is hope for humanity. It pissed off the Zors enough that Les (all five feet of her) ended up getting pushed by a retired sheriff's deputy (all six plus feet of him and his eight-month pregnant beer belly). Although she was assaulted, with witnesses, AND Allegrea by sheer luck got a picture of it, there's no point in filing charges. The cops all stick together and would just find a way to make us pay for it in the end.

I took Sweetie over to Judy's. Her new name is Callie. I know beyond a doubt she will be happy, loved, and spoiled, but it was hard to leave her. I will miss her, but more than that, I hated making her feel as though she was getting dumped yet again. She was just getting comfy and feeling loved her, and she had to loose another home. I know in the long-run she'll be better off there, but it killed me to "abandon" her, as that's all she will understand of it at this point.

Thursdays lowlights consist of picking up my little Baxter after his detal cleaning to find that he had to have four teeth extracted. He has a reabsorptive syndrome which causes his teeth's roots to be reabsorbed into the bone/gums. That leaves the tooth to rot painfully away. He's acted completely normal, but the vet said it was probably causing him pain. That made me feel horrible for my little sweet boy. At least he's better now, although our pocketbook isn't! That expense, combined with Sweetie's vet check this week, along with having to replace all of the tires on Mark's car, made a major dent in our checkbook. Ouch!!

Friday's highlights include a very nice lunch out on our patio with Julie and date night. Julie and I were initially planning on going out for lunch but decided to stay here instead. We had sandwiches and fresh fruit on the patio and were able to enjoy the perfect day. We had a mother robin and her baby join us in the garden and watched while she fed the baby. There were butterflies and many birds and great conversation. It doesn't get much better!

We had to swap date nights from our normal one (next Saturday) to Friday because of schedule conflicts. We ate and El Jardin and then came home to hang out together and watch some season 2 LOST episodes. Dej went to see Brandon's show in Watertown with some of her friends, and she had lots of fun.

This morning we took Luciana to her gymnastics. She has done so much better since we moved her into a class that has many children, instead of just her. We went to the Farmer's Market downtown, but it was pretty sparse. Maybe we've just gotten spoiled with Madison's. After we returned, Shanda brought Cali (the other female cat I've been trying to place). She is very cute and very naughty. She's already wreaked Petey-level havock in Luciana's room. We will take Cali to her new forever home tomorrow. Two cat placements in one week is AMAZING!

After playing a game of stress-free chess with Luciana, she decided she was ready to play it the "real" way--without drawing cards. I thought I would start working on this blog entry while it was her turn, as this will probably be long. That didn't work so well, as it resulted in me losing a rook about six moves into the game. She's better than I thought! I guess she is ready to play without cards. She managed to get in another one of her questions: "Why is it called chess". Yep, we'll be looking that one up after the game.

Today is alternating between pouring rain/thunderstorms, and sun, and when the sun is out, the humidity makes it very sauna like. Way too unpleasant to work outside, so I finally get a day off from weeding. I'm sure they are growing by the foot, though, just to put me even farther behind.

Dej works tonight, while Mark, L., and I are off to Wood's for a cookout. Leeders will be there also. We enjoy both families alot, and Luciana has been counting down the minutes all day. She cannot wait to see K & E!