Looking Back

I was simply too discouraged last week to have any desire to write about accomplishments, or lack thereof. 

The well situation is still unresolved (in other words, I'm still showering in E.coli water. . . ) but we found out this week that we can hook up to the city's water.  It's going to take much longer than it would to have the UV filter placed on our well, but will hopefully be about the same cost.  I think it will be worth it in the long run.

St. John, enjoying his prized snake skin.

• St. John brought me special gift. . . a snake skin over three feet long, which I assume he found in the basement. He thought it was the Best Toy Ever, and was so cute showing it to my husband that evening. Notice in the photo it was broken into two pieces. I fleetingly wondered where the third tail-end piece could be, assumed he'd lost it playing with it in a favorite place, and promptly forgot about it. Imagine my emotions when I turned back the quilt and found it in my bed two days later!
• completed the Halloween Sampler
• baked delicious banana bread from this recipe (though I used sugar instead of honey and agave)
• made my husband his favorite dessert for his birthday: homemade chocolate pudding pie
• created my own recipe of a chili Bisquick pie/casserole for his lunches
• made a huge pot of homemade cheesy potato soup for my meals (noticing all the cooking/baking I have been doing since the new toaster oven, it's no wonder my jeans didn't fit!)

I feel like I'm at a standstill in most of my organizing and rearranging projects.  Nearly everything needs a help from my husband (heavy work) so I can proceed.  He'll be taking some time off soon, and I'll have to put him to work!

Meanwhile, plans for next week include:

• clean out the tiny closet in the "closet room" and see if I can make it usable.
• measure and plan out what will be needed for the rest of my craft supply shelves
• reorganize the two kitchen cabinets that are left
• finish rereading Breakfast at Tiffany's for the Classics Club
• I also want to get outside more this coming week, since it has cooled down some.  
• maybe make this marshmallow pumpkin pie!
• working on the Autumn Sampler

I am thankful for:

• cooler, Autumnal weather!
• time to read and to cross stitch
• an understanding family
• a new interest in cooking/baking
• cats that play together

Now, for more kitty photos. . . .

St. John is maturing somewhat, but even at 12 months, he still looks like a baby!.  Here is this month's  photo mosaic.  I included a goofball photo this time.

MishMash

My husband has been off for a few days, which has been nice.  We've been out to eat, spent some evenings outside (when the whether permitted), took a trip to the hobby store, and have nearly completed the bookshelves in our bedroom.  They'll be like the ones in the hall, only shorter, and on each side of the bed.  I"m so pleased with them!  Once his shelves are up, I plan to decorate them Washi like I did the ones in the hall.  It adds such a great finishing touch.

My side is up and about half way filled.  I have to wait to see what will need to be added to my side once we fill up his.  I don't think his side will hold much more than his Civil War and WWII  nonfiction.  I thought I had a lot more history/nonfiction that I do in my topics of interests (but I have been doing a lot more purging, due to space issues).  If this works out well, I'll be able to fill up some of the gaps in my information gathering!

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More lovely uses for Washi...  After I did the spring cleaning in the bedroom (cleaning the ceiling fan just fascinated the cats) I decorated the fan with these:

 I like how it looks spinning and still.  I feel so ridiculously happy when I see it; can't explain it.  Washi just fills me with a giddy since of delight.  I'll probably have to do the rest of the ceiling fans, too.

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St. John is nine months now.  Time has gone by so quickly!  He didn't seem to grow much this month, and now I'm worried that he might stay a runtling, despite my attempts at good nutrition.  He is extremely long, has big feet, and his tail is huge, but he's not bulking out any.

(Excuse my messy self, but we were having a stay-at-home day.)

As you can tell, he has no trouble wearing his harness/leash.  He even climbs up and down trees wearing it (he is the only cat I have encountered that knows how to come down a tree) and jumps from one tree to the next like a squirrel.  He also jumps and runs after bugs, bees and leaves.  I have to stay on my toes and anticipate his next move when we're out for a "walk".  I think I'm the one that gets the most exercise from our daily adventures!

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Last week, I Finished the June firefly from the Frosted Pumpkin's Woodland Sampler.  It's super cute.  I used Krenik gold floss for the sparklies.

I forgot to post a photo when I finished the May gnome, so here he is.  I also used the Krenik gold for his belt buckle.

Uh-oh

Found this in our bedroom floor tonight.

Someone, somewhere, is missing a femur.

Did I mention I have a kitten?

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In other news, I visited two libraries today and checked out books at both.

The best part?  Neither library knows I have a relationship with the other.  *nod and wink*  Shhhhh. . .

In Which St. John Has a Big Week.....

and I have a low one

St. John
This week was a big week for the kitten!  He caught a lizard, a mouse, a roll of toilet paper and a snake.  Sadly, I was only able to save one of them, and it wasn't the roll of toilet paper!  I found the mouse the morning after it's demise (so that's what that noise was in the night!) and the lizard quite some time after his fatal ending.  I felt especially sorry for him--he had lots of tooth-marks in his soft self.  I think his passing might have been painful.  

We call them "lizards" (pronounced "lisssurd"), but I think they are actually Plestiodon skinks (the ones with the blue tails, but not "blue-tailed skinks" because I just now discovered that those only reside on Christmas Island; we are not residents of Christmas Island; so, if A = B, then C means that those skinks aren't "blue-tailed".  Or that we're due for another flood.  I'm not good at math.). (I am also, apparently not good at grammar, despite my claims to the contrary as I just ended that sentence with two, count 'em: two, periods.)

Sadly, we never see one with its tail to know for certain. However, we do sometimes see tails on their own, so perhaps we have skinks with blue tails and lizards without blue tails; we may even have originally tailless reptiles and reptiles that look like tails!  Who knows!

This currently tailless skink/lizard, however, was definitely dead.  And I was sorry!  (Nothing dies in my house, and definitely not by my hand, if I can prevent it in any way, unless it is a mosquito or ant; in that case, I am Death personified.)

The toilet paper was literally snatched out of my hand as I was trying to utilize said paper.  I had to ask for it back, because, well, I needed it, but lost it again while getting a few squares torn off.  By that time, it wasn't usable anymore.  After that incident, I started hiding the toilet paper.  It's no longer on the spindle-holder-thingee, but hidden in a hanging bag.  He watches me, greedily, as I take out and put up the paper, but so far he hasn't actually gotten into the bag.  Once he realizes how easy it is to do that, all bets are off.  I'll have to start using sandpaper, or air drying or something!

As for the snake. ..

What you can almost see through the frosted bowl is a snake, about two feet long.   

St. John brought it up from the basement for me to see.  I heard a wet "plop" sound, and thought "oh, another lizard/skink", and peered around the corner to see him playing with a piece of black tubing.  I thought, "where in the world did he get th-- holy cow, that's a snake!"  

I had just gotten up from a nap; how glad I am I was not still in bed, for I have no doubt he would have brought it on the bed for me to see.  

That kitten loved his snake!  I wish I could have gotten some video of him playing with it, but I was too busy having a "holy cow, there is a snake in the house" moment and saying "St. John, don't pull it!  St. John, don't bite it!  St. John, don't hurt it!" to think of videoing.  He pulled that pitiful snake and dragged it around and I was just hoping he didn't pull it too hard, because the only thing I hate worse than cleaning up cat puke is cleaning up more cat puke blood.  Happily, I was able to put the bowl over the poor thing, and save it from too much St. John lovin'.

St. John was extremely upset that I put a barrier between him and his toy, and in the photo he is trying to get it out. At the same time, the poor snake is very upset that it's trapped between a glass bowl and a crazy kitten, and it's trying to get out to somewhere without either.   

At one point, all three cats were positioned around the bowl, watching it, but I never could get a good photo of them all.

St. John's big week also included helping with laundry:

Apparently, it's important to get the cat hair on the clothing as soon as possible.

He also found a paper lantern I left on my desk and "helped" with it too:

He had so much fun with it, that we've ordered four more for him to have as toys.  I just hope he has as much fun with them as he did with this one!

Me
My week was not quite as big and exciting as his.
I got mosquito bit more times than I could count and far more than can remember happening before while were enjoying the night, Tuesday, and had an allergic reaction (something to do with producing too much histamine) and that made an already low week even lower.  These days/weeks happen, and this was one of them.

I did receive 25 rolls of Washi tape from DownTown Tape, though.  I was SO excited!  I won it in a contest earlier in the month.  DownTown Tape has the nicest I have used, and lots of varieties   Here are my gorgeous new rolls:

I am especially in love with the music notes, and all the polka dots, but there isn't one I said "ick" over.  Isn't Washi a dream?!

I started two Frosted Pumpkin projects this week, but don't have photos yet: the frames for the Summer Sampler and the June firefly for the Woodland Sampler.

I struggled to think of the one good thing that happened at the end of each day, and I'm struggling right now to remember any of those good things.  Like I said, it was one of those weeks.  

Thinking. .. 

I remember: I made some excellent mac and cheese, with swiss and cheddar; we had a lovely visit with my parents last night; we have been working on building new bookshelves and they look great; I had ice cream; I read good books; there was sun and wind and rain; I saw a turtle; I took some nice photos; there were times when my husband or my cats made me smile; I spring-cleaned the bathroom; we got rid of the ants.  Good things happened, even though they seem overshadowed.  Now that I've written them down, I'll remember them. Of course, when I read about St. John's great week, I can't imagine how I found a moment to myself so as to have a low week!

Here's my photo from yesterday; I'm particularly proud of  it. Believe it or not, that key is one of our front door keys!  There are some benefits to living in an old house!

A Bit about Disappointments and Way More about Kitties

Disappointments are hard to take, and can be harder for some of us to handle.  I'm one of those, for various reasons.  So this afternoon's large disappointment (the answer of "no" to some potential income) has laid me out like a left hook from Sugar Ray.  The possible courses of action are racing around in my head like a whirlpool, the flotsam and jetsam of thoughts surfacing for a second or too before they rush around some more.  I'm trying to practice all I've learned in these past two years, and let it go, let it not overwhelm me, let myself relax.  Trust.  Breathe.  Just live.  I'm trying.  It's all part of life, I can learn to cope, and this blossoming ability to talk or write about it will bring on healing.  At least, that's what I keep trying to tell myself.

On a less personal, gloomy note: Jack Dempsey is starting to walk on a leash outside!  This is fantastic news indeed, you see, as he was terrified of even a collar.

He is a rescue--literally.  I saw him on the side of the road, a short way from our house.  He had an ear flipped back, which looked wounded, and he looked so sad and tired as he started to dive into the tangled undergrowth at the side of the road.  I stopped the car and spoke to him, then got out and walked to him.  I knew, in that moment, that he was mine, though I pushed that thought back and put him in the car and drove around to the few houses nearby to see if he belonged to anyone.  I put up notices, but happily, no one responded and he became ours.  I thought he had just come home to die; it was hard for him to go up and down stairs and he just slept--so deep, that most times I would assume he was dead when I would go downstairs to check on him.

Fancy my shock when, at the first vet visit, Dr. Penny told me he was over one year but less than two.  Imagine the lifetimes he must have lived during that one year, to look as he did.  He even has a palpable pellet embedded deep inside, under his left front leg, the souvenir of someone's air gun or pellet gun.

(Happily, the folded back ear which caught my attention at first, and had me so concerned, wasn't serious.  It's the permanent result of an untreated ear infection--you don't want the details--and will always be folded back.  After a few months of comfortable indoor life, it lost the painful, sun-burnt and leathery look and he'll even let my husband pet it.)

Given that history, it's no wonder Jack Jack was afraid of a collar, and terrified of a cat harness.  He would watch out the window with such longing, though, when we would take St. John outside.  His frustration with St. John became much greater, I think as a direct result of the jealousy, and I really was worried.

Then St. John started accidentally slipping out of his harness when he would jump to catch bugs (this baby has never known anything but walking on a harness, and runs, jumps, chases bugs and climbs trees with me hanging on for dear life) and I found the Kitty Holster online.  It works even better than a harness, and is much more secure.  They state in their advertisement "cats who hate to wear harnesses LOVE the Kitty Holster!"

I didn't believe that for a minute, but my husband decided to give it a try with Jackeroo.  We squeezed him into St. John's harness (I was reminded of the Prince Regent in his stays) and took him outside.  He did fine. He did more than fine, in fact, especially considering he was entirely too big for the holster.  After another successful try, I ordered him one in his size (figuring that even if he didn't use, St. John will grow into it).

I can't say that Jack "loves" it, by any means.  He is still a bit grumpy putting it on, and sometimes slips his leg through the neckhole (I can NOT figure out how he does that), but on the whole, he enjoys his walk and is visibly more relaxed than he was just last week.  I plan to write raving reviews for  Kitty Holster everywhere I can.

Here they are yesterday, having a lovely sniff.  Notice St. John's happy "up" tail!  He just loves going out. Jack is enjoying the feel of the air and all the smells, while St. John has a roll in (what's left of) our gravel drive.

Amazing how much better I feel now, half an hour or so after I began this post, just from all my happy chatter about two of my kitties. :)

Oh, and I got more Washi tape today!  I had forgotten all about it; ordered it from the Plaid Barn, or maybe from Pick Your Plum.  (I threw the packaging away without looking.)  How can one feel melancholy with new Washi patterns in the house!?

I'm especially excited by the one with keys!