Still Cuddling After All These Years

Let's see, Bear is about 9 years old and Mimi about 8 but when Mimi squeezes in next to Bear she still cuddles her 'baby'. When Mimi and the others were tiny kittens Bear thought they were hers and would grab them up and take care of them. Mimi still goes to her 'mama' when she needs a hug.

They have all been spending a lot more time indoors since it's getting chilly out there and we actually had a little rain in the dark hours early Monday morning.

Mimi and Bear

Still friends after all these years. And sitting on my new couch blanket from Kohl's, originally priced at like 60 bucks but marked down to 24. Still a lot to pay for a couch throw but I bought it after sitting there watching TV one night and being cold and trying to get warm under a knitted throw that just didn't do the trick. Too many holes in the knitted throw that had been washed so many times that it was no longer soft and fluffy or at all warm.

I had gotten some cheap blankets at Walmart, $4.97 each, and while they were soft and warm, one washing and they went outside for cat blankets. You get what you pay for I guess.

Anyway, the blanket is warm and soft and the cats love it.

I still love how Bear 'hugs' Mimi.

Black Friday Shopping? How About Small Business Saturday Instead

No Black Friday shopping for me!

I have never ever ever done any Black Friday shopping except for the time I was cleaning house the day after Thanksgiving and decided to replace my nasty plastic kitchen trash can so went to Walmart FORGETTING IT WAS BLACK FRIDAY to buy a new trash can. This was back when we were living in the trailer park in Ventura and I had already thrown my old trash can in the big trailer park trash dumpster and didn't want to dumpster dive to get it back so had to stand in line at Walmart for about 30 minutes to get one lousy plastic trash can.

Anyway, shopping on the busiest day of the year does not appeal to me at all.

I did buy one thing today though, I dropped some packages for the mail at Office Depot where the friendliest (and I mean that, they really are some cheerful employees) people work and on my way out saw a giant package of printer paper for $3.99. So the extent of my Black Friday shopping was a total of about $4.25 including sales tax. Big spender here!

Now, tomorrow is Small Business Saturday, an event that started a few years back to bring attention to the many small businesses in America that struggle every day to compete against the Walmarts of the world. We've done our part each year, or at least tried to, by going downtown and maybe having lunch at a local cafe and shopping in the antique stores. We like to shop in antique stores from time to time anyway, so no hardship to do it on Small Business Saturday!

So, if you have any money left after your shopping frenzy today, have lunch at a locally owned restaurant tomorrow or do some shopping at your locally owned stores. If you can't or don't want to go out to shop, go over to Etsy and do some small business shopping there. I've done quite a bit of shopping on Etsy this year but I can't share everything that I've bought with you until after the holidays since they are gifts and I don't want to ruin the surprise. I've gotten some great things, though!

I bought the cats some new cat beds at Walmart, they have special holiday cat beds that are only $6.98 and you can't beat that price for a cat bed. Bear was sleeping in the one in the corner of the bedroom so Mimi of course had to squeeze herself in alongside Bear.

And again, I really need to keep up on the dusting. I did get the floors vacuumed this morning and the front bedroom dusted and am in the process of washing all the bedding, but as I was going by the candle holder where the one little spider was trying to live, I noticed more spider web at the bottom of the candle holder. Then, while dusting the whole thing found about 5 more little spiders living in the glass candle cup that was inside the candle holder. Sorry, kids, you are not living here!

I Hate The Beatles But I Do Like My Cats

Well, maybe hate is too strong of a word so how about extremely dislike? Am I the only person in America who really didn't give a crap that last week was the 50 year anniversary of The Beatles being on the Ed Sullivan Show? Am I the only person in America who definitely DID NOT want to watch the big Grammy or whatever it was tribute to this overrated singing group on TV the other night? Am I the only person in America who thinks that the older the Beatles get ( the ones who are still alive anyway) the worse they sound trying to sing? I am just so glad that last week is over with and I don't have to see or hear any more about the not so wonderful (in my opinion) Beatles and how they 'changed the world' with their (GAG) music?

I DON'T LIKE THE BEATLES! AND I NEVER DID!

But I do like my kitties most of the time.

Yesterday Keith was due home sometime midday from Barstow and I was patiently (or maybe not so patiently) waiting for him to get here so we could go get something for lunch, the fridge and pantry being somewhat bare, and he called me from a gas station over in Oildale where he was filling up the car, and I'm like what are you doing in Oildale, and he had stopped by to see if Joe was home. Which he wasn't because he was in Barstow. He said he would be home soon and had a surprise for me. I got a little worried and thought maybe the surprise was a stray kitten or puppy he had picked up somewhere, and while a dog would be fun, I don't think the cats that already live here would be too thrilled about it. Except maybe Bear, who would probably take that puppy under her paw and lick it like she did with Buddy, Mimi, and Lucy when they were babies.

It was not a puppy or a kitten, though, but a handmade cat tower that he bought from a guy a few houses down from Joe's who makes cat towers on the weekends with scrap wood and scrap carpet from his dad's carpet laying business. It's a very clever cat tower, with different carpets pieced together, and even little carpet cat paws on some of the platforms, but I don't think the guy actually cat tested them because the platforms are all just a bit too small. But Mimi loves the little doghouse (sorry, cathouse) and laid claim to it right away.

The little house is just barely big enough for her as you can see, with part of her sticking out of it. But, she is sound asleep here so it must work for her!

And here are some more cute Mimi (and Bear) photos.

It seems that Mimi is in all the pictures that I post, I swear we do have lots of other cats but they just don't seem to be in cute picture mode most of the time.

Spring Cleaning and Mimi Squishing Bear (again)

I know it is far far far from spring in most areas of the country, but here in the dry sunny West, it's definitely not winter. I was amazed to see on the weather report last night that Ventura on the coast is actually going to get up to 86 today. EIGHTY SIX! Unheard of for Ventura! Usually we are the hot ones while the nice coastal towns are in the balmy 70s and not in January but in July. Weird weird winter this year. We did have frost and freezing temps in December and I think it rained once, but this month so far has been no rain, sunny days, warm temps, and don't go outside because the air is not really very good for you. It's just strange. And worrisome what with no snow in the mountains, which means no water in the rivers, which means farmers won't be able to grow their crops, which means more unemployment in these parts. And higher food prices for the whole country.

Anyway, being as it's the New Year and there is no mud outside to track in the house because we are in the worst drought in like 150 years and it has not rained and isn't going to rain anytime soon, I kind of got in the mood to do some cleaning of things that don't normally get cleaned, like walls and inside cabinets and closets. I just did the under the sink cabinet and it's kind of like buried treasure in there, you stick stuff down there and then forget all about it. I organized all the cleaning stuff a little better, putting things like insecticides in one place and spray cleaners in another, and even found a can of self cleaning oven safe cleaner so maybe I should clean my self cleaning oven. I don't do the self cleaning cycle because the last time I tried it every smoke alarm in the house went off and those things are LOUD and I had panicked cats running underfoot while I was trying to figure out how to turn all of the alarms off and hoping that the fire department didn't show up in the meantime because I was sure that the whole neighborhood could hear those alarms.

Anyway, that might be enough cleaning for one day but we will see how the rest of the day goes.

Bear has a special spot on the cat tower in the bedroom, a box with a big opening in one side and a little opening in the other. She spends quite a bit of time in there, being enclosed makes her feel safe and nobody bothers her. Until yesterday. Mimi has quite the habit of cuddling up next to Bear, actually almost sitting on top of Bear, wanting some comfort and knowing that Bear will usually start grooming her like she did when Mimi was a tiny kitten. Bear is usually incredibly patient with her, allowing herself to be squished upon, sat upon, laid upon, and almost always complies with the unspoken be my mama and lick me request. Yesterday, Mimi needed some comfort and didn't care that Bear was in her hiding place box and just shoved herself right in there with Bear.

Not all of her fit in there, though.

I Fully Expected

To wake up and see snow on the ground this morning. Because that's what the weatherman said might happen.

But, no, the ground was dry at 6am, no promised rain and snow overnight. However, it did start sprinkling a little bit. Not quite cold enough to turn it into snow, though. Something that hasn't happened in these parts since 1999.

I know we are weather wimps here in central CA, moaning about how cold we are when it gets down below 70 or so. We did have frost on the ground the past few days and poor Genie's water dish was iced over yesterday morning. We have a warm box for her to sleep in on a shelf in the shed but she is too dumb to get in it. Instead she will sleep in her laundry basket with a blanket in it right outside the back door. I try to cover her up but then she jumps out and jumps back in on top of the blanket that is supposed to be covering her. I'm just waiting for the day when I discover her frozen solid in her basket.

We've been bringing Lucy into the garage at night, not that it's much warmer in there but at least it's dry and she has blankets on our old comfy office chair to lay on.

Keith may see some snow today, he went out on a dogcatch last night, where they drive a crew to meet a train and take over for the crew that has gone beyond their 12 hours on the road. He was being driven all the way to Barstow last night so is probably stuck on a train somewhere between here and there, probably waiting for his own dogcatch crew to come relieve them since there may be snow delays up in those mountains. Of course, if the train can't get through, it's doubtful that a van with a relief crew could either.

This is what most of the cats have been doing lately. Because it's cold outside!

Big Sandwich Cute Cats

 Keith made himself the ultimate BLT yesterday. Not only did he pile on the bacon but he put a fried egg on it, too.

One good thing about him not going to work for a while is that I don't have to fix him a sandwich each night for his next days lunch. There is always a silver lining somewhere!

I lazily left my shoes where I took them off the other day and Mimi thought they would make a good pillow.

Then after laying on my shoes, she woke up and went to find Bear, who she knew she could cuddle up next to and Bear thought that Mimi would make a good pillow.

See the new quilt under the cats? I really hated the comforter that was on my bed, it had been washed a few times and was all lumpy, and really too hot to sleep under, so I have been searching for an alternative. I was in Walmart and they had these not the best quality but really cheap quilts on clearance for $20.00. I got one for each of the beds and the cats seem to think that I bought them specifically for them to lay on, because lay on them they have. They really really like the new (cheap) quilts.

Meat Will Murder You!

So,did you hear about the new study that shows that eating just one serving a day of red meat will shorten your life? I'm sure the beef council will be having something to say about that. And who pays for these studies anyway? The vegan council?

All of the vegans, most of whom seem to be quite self righteous about their veganism as it is are now thumbing their noses even more at us carnivores and will now be even MORE self righteous if that's even possible. Vegans are kind of like fundamentalist Christians, they just can't shut up about their religion and want to impose their views on the rest of the world, warning us that we are going straight to HELL if we don't change our ways and join their church.

These studies just take the fun out of everything, don't they? Better not grill up that steak tonight! Bad stuff that meat!

Anyway.

We don't eat a lot of red meat as it is since it's also linked to colon cancer, but once in a while a big juicy hamburger does hit the spot, doesn't it? Even if it does have the ammonia treated pink slime meat by-products in it. Yum.

I heard back from the doctor's office about my blood work and I don't have lupus and my thyroid meds are working fine with my thyroid levels being okay, too. I have noticed that the cortisone cream seems to be slowing down the hair loss with a lot less hair coming out in my brush. I go see the dermatologist next week so maybe we'll find out for sure what's going on with my bald spot.

We are supposed to (finally) get some rain this weekend. Which we desperately need so that we'll have some water this summer. A few weeks ago we had a cloudy cold front blow in but we never saw any rain from it.

Just cold wind and gray skies.

Mimi was trying to squish in next to Bear in the cat bed that same day, I thought it was funny that her leg was hanging out of the bed, but she seemed quite comfortable.

New Dishes and Cute Kitties and Cysts

Instead of just frittering our Christmas money away on groceries or cat food we went and got ourselves a new set of dinnerware. A complete set of dinnerware with plates and bowls and cups in it. We've never really had a complete set of dinnerware, instead using odds and ends and some cheap plastic plates that would kind of twirl around when you tried to cut your dinner up on them because they were so cheap and warped.

We had to go to quite a few stores to find some dishes that we both liked, though. I didn't want to settle for a set that were just okay, where we both looked at them and send, yeah, they're not bad, I guess they'll do. I wanted a set where we both went hey these are really nice and I really like them! I had already thrown away a bunch of our old dishes in anticipation of new dishes, so we were on a quest to find something we liked or we'd be eating our dinner right out of the pot.

We went to Target and Cost Plus and I saw some I liked at Pier One but they were kind of pricey, and then we thought we'd check out Kohls. We wandered around their dish department, seeing a set we both really liked but after looking at the price tags and adding up how much a set would cost in our heads we were about ready to give up on Kohls and then I went around the side of a display and HEY! there are some dishes on sale here that I really like! And Keith really liked them, too.

And they are ON SALE! And we both like them!


As you can see we are not much for frilly flowery plates and having square plates should be interesting. The bowls are huge and not real deep and would also work well for salads. Or a huge bowl of ice cream!

I was trying to take a picture and Mimi was all WHAT THE HELL ARE THESE THINGS AND WHERE DID THEY COME FROM! The cats are so funny when something new appears or something is in a different spot than usual, they kind of do a double take and then very cautiously investigate to make sure it's not a monster or something.


Speaking of Mimi, she and Bear were once again all curled up together on the bed.


After Keith got home yesterday we went back to Urgent Care to have my nasty wound checked and the packing string stuff removed. (Gross) The doctor said it looked good and nothing came out when he squeezed it (Gross) and to keep taking my meds and put a warm compress on it and to come back in 3-5 days to make sure it all heals up okay. It was kind of nice yesterday to sit on the couch for a while with my feet up and a hot pack on my thigh. Buddy curled up in between my legs and napped and I read for a while. I was using wet microwaved washcloths as a heat pack which is kind of awkward (and wet) and then Keith remembered this hot pack thing that he has that you put in the microwave for a minute and it holds the heat for a couple of hours. Much better than a wet washcloth.