Fall of 08

Dad died last month. I went home for the funeral and stayed with mom a while after. We made a trip to the mountains, hoping a couple of days away would be good therapy for her. I've never been much on blogging but now less than usual.

There goes Fela!!

Good grief. I opened the cat pen door and Fela zoomed out. Straight to the tree. John, having just been taking photos of a certain spider, was ready with his camera. From where he stood however, this was all he could see. So he took like fifteen shots of Fela butt. Silly boy.

Meanwhile, I am up under the tree (I know spidee territory, which is probably why John was NOT under the tree) and I called him, so he got This shot. Happy Fela on the end of the dead limb. This is about as high as she can go as the tree is somewhat truncated. She knows if she tries for another limb it will put her within reaching distance. So she looks and thinks... for quite a while. Then the temptation is too much. She makes a dash for it!

Grabbing one leg, I started pulling. Fela resisted mightily. What she was saying while this was going on is absolutely unprintable. If you did not know better you'd have thought I just grabbed a wild cat not a spoiled housepet. Wait a minute, maybe spoiled housepet does fit. After all, she was sure she should have what she wanted and was madly cussing me out for not letting her dash up the next tree branch.

I win. More of Fela comes out of the tree. I slowly pulled her so she went over my shoulder. Fela hung over my shoulder limply, resigned to her fate. Back inside we went with the "I wanna be free!" cat.

(meanwhile, the car door was standing wide open, amazing no one 'freed' the goodies inside!)
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the Fela Baby.. giving me That Look.

Look at that!

What a sight, late at night, coming through the gate into the backyard. Now I think she's lovely and interesting. John on the other hand, was not so amused at nearly walking into Ms. Spider but he did grab his camera for a few fast shots. Now at one point, the spider jumped and John jumped too. It was a small matter of a stick.. how was I to know she'd object so? I really didn't flick her off or poke her hard. Just doing my bit to help him get a more exciting shot. Let me tell you, that boy can jump! (but the spider jumps better I must say.) How frazzled was he you ask? Well the next morning I went out to walk the dog and was shocked to see his car door standing wide open! I was so sure he'd been robbed. I ran back in the house and woke him up. It was not a good start to his day I'm thinking, based on his initial response. However, it turned out that he'd left the car door open all night! Everything was still there, surprisingly enough considering it was right by the street. Whew! I told him that spider meet-up really blew his mind. He says it wasn't so. It was the decaf coffee. Hmmm?

I don't care John. I still blame it on the spider trying to get a close up of YOU.


(wondering what he will say in *his* blog)

Ohhhh this has got to go.. NOW!!

Oh this has got to go go go! Is this cute or what? She stays here long and I will just Cry when she leaves! Have already put an add on Freecycle and told a neighbor about here. Mix female terrier about 2 yrs old, totally darling, sweet, good with the cats, she's a doll!!

Isn't she cute?

How could someone take this little doll to the pound? I said Oh no! I'll find her a home! But it better be fast because she is a bit addicting.

Temptations

We all have our small weaknesses right? Mine is bread. Everything about bread is wonderful.
The feel of the dough as I knead it, the smell of it cooking (when my nose is working anyway) and of course, the finished product. If it weren't for fresh bread I might even be losing weight!





Hot bread, butter (the real deal!) and local honey makes a treat that my mouth just waters for.









Round is easy but I have a rectangular cloche that has been crying out for use. Finding a cloth cradle for French bread at a thrift shop, making it mine took no thought at all. Now we know, the next loaf won't be a round one!



Check out Breadtopia, Farmgirl Fare (a year in bread) and No Knead bread so you can start
baking too!

Realizations

according to my son, http://blog.johnkotrla.com/2008/05/01/a-startling-realization/, I have this thing about birkies. I don't know why he'd blame me for his birkie fixation.

Look - there's obviously room there for another pair (the dog ate one pair) and more sneakers.. wait, there is another pair of sneakers somewhere. And I think there's a pair of birkie's missing... oh yeah, they are on my feet.

Eat your greens!

Every time I make a salad, here comes Beeky. It won't do for me to give her a piece of lettuce. Oh no. She must help herself to the piece of her choosing, off my plate. A few nibbles and she's done, I can have the rest. At least she's neat, doesn't nose around in the whole thing trying to choose, she's fast to pick one piece at the edge and sticks with that. Some folks at those food bars in eating establishments could take a few cues from her!

my old friend

my old friend is in the hospital, has been now since the end of February. Well there was an almost two week stint in the Skilled Nursing Facility of said hospital but.. pretty much seems all the same to me. She is so dear to me. This is a hard time for both of us in very different ways. Since she went in to the hospital my good friend's mom and one relative have died. It's been a tough spring. It doesn't seem like it has been nearly 24 years since I met this old lady. She has been more a part of my life than I realized prior to her illness. Hospital staff wonder at my being there, at taking the part I do and can't seem to understand how close you can grow to someone who is not family. She was there for me when my husband died. I was there for her when her husband died. There's never a week that has passed that if I am not on vacation, I wasn't at her house at least twice and maybe five times. It is an odd thing in life, how you make a casual aquaintance (I bought a goat from her) and somehow it develops into a lasting relationship that deeply impacts both lives. You never know it seems, who it will be or why. I would not have thought this lady would be such a part of my life 20 something years ago. Such an age difference, and we did not really do anything together past the goats. Just sat, drank coffee, talked. And that was enough.

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My friend died a few days after her 85th birthday. Bye second mom.. I loved you.

Thinking

Is this a good thing? Or do the claws need to come out?

Take this!

No fear! Says Fela Kitty. Shoot me? Just watch these teeth!

Where's the water?

Tell you what, you cannot say we are not optimistic. Don't you just know though that the guys who put this sign up laughed and laughed?

A walk in the park

We went caching in the San Angelo State Park New Year's weekend. Suza loved the hike but it wore her out (me too!) so once home she curled up in her chair and snoozed soundly.


.............................
After chasing around town to vets, groomers etc, we found plenty of ads for other lost dogs but not the two we picked up earlier. Finally located a rescue group that still had room - so many fill up at this time of year. So all ends well, from my point of view at least!

Fela's Poinsettia

Fela loved this poinsettia for the whole 12 hours it was here. She'd stick her nose into the middle of the plant and inhale deeply. Then drool. I'd have expected her to chew on it, but nope!