So What Have We Been Up To Lately?

Not a whole heck of a lot, actually.

We did have a fun few days with Millie when little Diesel from down the street was out running around the neighborhood. He gets out of his yard on occasion and spends the day wandering. We took Millie outside in the front yard, being a little nervous that she might not like another dog in her yard but since Diesel is a little smaller than her she didn't see him as much of a threat. He wanted to play with her and at first she wasn't sure how to do that but caught on quickly. They ran around the front yard chasing each other and play biting, then they would get tired and go back to either sniffing around or laying in the shade.

He is a fun little dog but very very energetic. He ran into the house before we could stop him and I ran around after him trying to get him back out. He discovered the doggy door and bam, out into the backyard for some more running around. Then he discovered the cats and started chasing them and scaring the heck out of them, so no, Diesel, you can't be in the back yard anymore. We got him out front and about 5 minutes later he came back in the house through the doggy door. He had gone to the side gate and managed to dig his way under in that 5 minutes, so now we know how he gets out of his own yard all the time. Keith put some bricks under the fence so he couldn't dig his way under again, something I didn't want to happen since I really didn't want him making himself at home inside our house.

We had a few days in a row where Millie had a little playmate but haven't seen Diesel in a while so his people must have fixed it so he can't dig out of the yard. I kind of miss him and so does Millie!

We ordered an outdoor dog house thing with a waterproof fabric shell and a mesh floor, thinking Millie would use it out in the yard. However, Buddie found it first so it will be his outside hideaway. I thought it was cute that on the front of the box they show an orange cat in the house and that's exactly what we have in it here at home.

It's getting to be summer here, yesterday it was 94 and today supposed to be about the same. Then tomorrow it is supposed to be about 20 degrees cooler which will be nice, but probably the last cool day we will see in a long time. We've been enjoying being able to sit out in the front yard lately but soon it will be just too hot for much of that. I cleaned up the yard the other day, weed whacking and pulling out some overgrown flowers and if I do say so myself it looks pretty nice.

This is the view from the 'porch' which isn't actually a porch, more like a patio I guess. I found some great chairs over at Target for $21.00 each and they are seriously comfortable, much better than the plastic chairs we had.

Well worth the money, the mesh canvas fabric has a little give so you aren't sitting on hard plastic. They are also really lightweight so you can move them from shady spot to shady spot very easily. I think we will really get our money's worth with these plus they are in my favorite shade of aqua blue.

Nothing Much

So, I made that corn soup and it was okay, nothing special though. It didn't really need the bacon on top and the texture was odd since the outer skins of the corn kernels stay kind of together after you blend the soup. Keith did not like it at all.

I also made some enchiladas that were not good, I baked them a bit too long. sigh...

I'm just not that good in the kitchen, I think mostly because I just do not like to cook. I have been cooking dog food though and I guess it tastes good to the dog because she laps it right up! I use either chopped up chicken or ground beef or turkey and brown it with some shredded carrot and then add some cooked rice after everything is done. I tried some chopped up broccoli (gag) and she seemed to like that and the last batch I made had shredded carrot and zucchini in it. She doesn't like the canned dog food much and doesn't seem to like dry food all that much either, except for the cat dry food which she shouldn't eat because there is too much protein in it for a dog. I don't mind cooking her dog food because I can do a batch big enough for a couple of days instead of having to cook 2 or 3 times a day like you do when feeding humans.

We did go out to eat last night, over to the Roadhouse Grill which used to be one of our most favorite places to go. They have wonderful hot rolls they give you with honey butter and their baked sweet potatoes are delicious but the rest if the food started kind of lacking in quality so we stopped going as often. Keith had a craving for it last night, though, so over we went where we had to wait a while for a table and then sit next to a table covered in dirty dishes which sat there and sat there and sat there until finally I asked the guy that was coming to wipe off other tables to seat people if they couldn't clean it up. They were apparently quite short staffed or just didn't care. The one waitress serving our area was gone most of the time, no coming around to check on drinks or how things are. Keith's pork chop dinner was good but my salad wasn't, I could have just bought a bag of salad at the grocery store and put a few pieces of grilled chicken on it myself. If we ever go there again (doubtful) I won't be getting a salad.

Other than last night he hasn't been home much this week, only getting the minimum time off between trips in and out, but next week he will be on vacation. I have gently (well maybe not so gently) suggested that he try not to spend his vacation in front of the TV and he says he has things he wants to get done, so we will see how it goes. I'm sure I will be very ready to have him go back to work by the time the week is over with. He bought a bunch of flowers to finish off the front flower bed and a bunch of other yard stuff that hasn't been touched yet so hopefully he will do some of that along with the shed and garage clean out that he wants to get done. I don't think we are actually going to go anywhere other than getting our taxes done, but maybe one afternoon we will take a drive or something. We can't just pick up and take off for an entire day anymore, that little dog really can't be left alone that long. Kind of like a small child. By the looks of the toys in the living room you would think we had a small child living here.

What's Been Going On Around Here?

Not a whole heck of a lot.

Mimi (and Buddy on occasion) has been sleeping in her new boot box cat bed all day every day. The few times she gets out of the box Buddy takes over. I guess the box is just the right size for kitty cats.

Genie (the murderess) caught a bird the other day that was innocently eating seeds at the bird feeder. I had just happened to glance out the back door at the moment of capture, she jumped up and got that poor little bird right off the edge of the feeder, which is actually a bird bath but works really well as a feeder. I disposed of the bird and she kept going back to the kill site looking for it. Then she killed another one a few days later, so I put the feeder up on a stack of paver bricks to make it too high for her to reach. So far no more dead birds but a rather frustrated cat.

Keith got home from work in the middle of the night yesterday and was sound asleep by the time I woke up around 6:30. He woke up for a little while in the middle of the day and checked the lineup and it looked like he would be going back out in the early evening so he went back to bed and slept all day long. He got up long enough to eat some dinner and watch a little TV and then went back to bed. His call time got moved back a few hours and he ended up going out on a 3am train. I think he got enough sleep though!

This morning Mimi was tired of waiting for breakfast so she sat outside my door and meowed very loudly over and over and over again. MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW. It worked and I got up and fed everybody.

It hasn't been as hot the past few days so on Thursday I did the front yard mowing and weed whacking, then yesterday tackled the back yard. It's mostly dirt where it should be grass, so no mowing involved but I did get the Webster spiderweb remover brush thing out (which works really well if you have spiderwebs) and knocked down all the webs on the patio cover and fence, then swept up all the cat hair that Genie has been so copiously shedding, also the stray leaves and such here and there. Then, despite the extreme drought and the don't wash down things that don't need washing down rule during a drought, I washed off the patio bricks and garden furniture. I've also been watering the front yard on a daily basis, I know we are supposed to let our grass go brown but if you do that in this neighborhood you get nasty letters from the homeowner's association about how you need to water your grass. It is starting to look greener out front, the dead spots are slowly filling in with grass.

I did research fake green spray for the dead spots in your lawn and they do make such a thing. I've been sorely tempted to just spray paint the front yard. Someday we will get rid of all the grass and get that fake grass that looks incredibly real. The town of Wasco a little north of us has been replacing the grass in public areas with fake grass and it looks great. It also saves someone having to mow the median of a very busy highway that runs through town. I'm sure the public works gardeners aren't too thrilled about possibly being put out of a job by fake grass, but it sure saves a lot of water.

Other than the usual home maintenance, keeping the house sort of clean, feeding cats, cleaning cat boxes, we really haven't done anything. We go out to eat once in a while because I am too lazy to cook and really hate cooking anyway, but this week we are trying not to spend any money because payday is still a week away, so pretty much staying right here at home.

Nothing Much

Well, our car is fixed after spending the day in the shop, new water pump and the oil got changed while it was there. We walked back over to pick it up early yesterday morning. The walk was pleasant and the shop was not too far away, but I'm not used to walking all that much so had to take a couple of little breaks along the way. We went to IHOP for breakfast and did a few errands and by the time we did all that walking, eating and shopping I was tired, so not much else got done the rest of the day other than reading a book. And watching Dr. Phil. I've gotten hooked on other people's drama for an hour each afternoon. Always makes your own life seem so much more normal after an hour of rotten teenagers or cheating husbands/wives.

Speaking of TV watching and other people's drama, why is there another story about the stupid Kardashian twits on the Yahoo home page every single day? Sometimes multiple times a day? I really don't care if Kim Kardashian's boobs are hanging out again or she is on yet another honeymoon (and how long until that divorce anyway?) but it does disturb me that I even know who this person is and can actually spell her name.

And more speaking of TV, summer is always such a wasteland on network TV, but I do look forward to Tuesday nights and America's Got Talent. I don't like any other competition type show, but do enjoy this one a lot, mostly because it's more than just singers or dancers, you get to see such a big variety of acts. It is kind of predictable that each episode has to have the hard luck/sob story act that brings tears to everyone's eyes, but it's fun to watch and at least there aren't any Kardashians on it.

Cheap Bathroom Decorating

Not a lot going on around here. I spent the weekend washing just about everything in the house, sheets, blankets, cat blankets, etc. I also cleaned out my drawers in anticipation of the new bras and underwear that I got. Badly needed bras and underwear, I think most of my bras were at least three years old and very very dingy. I also did a little framing of some pictures I found on the internet with $4.00 frames from Walmart.

I think they came out pretty good and now we have something to look at while sitting around in the bathroom.

I went up to Winco yesterday and saw a woman wearing a t-shirt, pajama pants, slippers, and a long sweater that looked just like a bathrobe. And she was one of the more well dressed ones there.

Keith and I are both having a hard time remembering what day it is. He was gone all weekend and then got home way late at night on Sunday, slept and then turned right back around and headed out to Barstow again yesterday afternoon. He is getting a little nervous about the possibility of getting laid off, apparently rumors are flying about how 70 new guys in the division will get cut off since work always slows down after the holidays. I told him not to worry too much, if it happens, it happens, not much you can do about it. Sometimes when guys don't have work in one division they will travel to one that does, but apparently the only place that has any openings is in North (or maybe it was South) Dakota. Brrrr.

So, we will see. Hopefully he will be able to hold on to his job for the winter.

Nothing Much

Yikes, it's been a week since I posted anything! Must be because our lives are so exciting and busy, right? Um, not really.

Keith left yesterday afternoon to drive to Barstow and spend a couple of days there working on a local train. He had been waiting somewhat anxiously for the phone to ring with an assignment for this week, but his trainer was having a hard time finding a crew for him to train with, so he had a 4 day weekend basically. He had a rough week last week, getting nervous and anxious again thinking he will never learn all he needs to learn, but his trainers had a chat with him and kind of eased his mind some. We've also been working on his learning to take things one day at a time instead of worrying about things that might happen six months from now. He spent the 4 days studying his rule book, then studying some more.

It's always strange when he has been home for days and then is gone again. I do kind of like having the house to myself again and not having to fix dinner, but it just feels odd when it's time to go to bed and nobody else is home. Or waking up and having the whole pot of coffee to myself.

We did go out to eat last Friday night. We had seen commercials for the Sizzler steak and all you can eat shrimp special so went across town to a Sizzler that we hadn't tried yet, just for a change of pace or whatever. The food is Sizzler, nothing all that special, but I was really impressed by how friendly and attentive the staff were, from the girl who took our order to the guy that brought our iced tea and food. They also brought some really good warm dinner rolls instead of the usual cheese toast, and I could have just eaten dinner rolls for dinner, forget the steak, they were that good.

It was a nice relaxing break from the usual and of course we ate too much.

Oh, we have a new freeway in town! For a few years now they've been working on this 5 mile stretch of road that is supposed to help ease the congestion on Rosedale, which is one of the few east/west roads through town and is a huge pain in the you know what during rush hour. This new freeway is called the Westside Parkway and I guess sort of helps but doesn't actually hook up with the 99 freeway yet, so isn't really all that useful.

It was one of the biggest news stories we've had in a while when it opened a few weeks ago, with ribbon cuttings and a reporter filming the ride. We took our ride on it, and Keith actually uses it on his way to work and saves about 5 minutes and lots of traffic lights.

And that is about all that is going on around here.

Already Tuesday?

And January is already on it's last day? Not that we've had much of a January but that's okay with me. I could get used to winter weather like this every year except for the fact that we really really need some rain.

We mowed our parched dead grass this weekend, the few bits of green in it were looking a little scraggly so out came the mower and the weed whacker and I mowed, leaving the weed whacking part for Keith. He turned the dirt in the flower beds and then got a bug up his you know what about cementing in the little part of flower bed along the garage that is totally useless because the dryer vent is right there and nothing will grow. So, he dug up the dirt where he wanted the cement to go and then got a late start pouring the cement on Sunday and ended up staying up until midnight messing around with cement. Apparently you have to pour it and then let the moisture seep up, wipe up the moisture, trowel it smooth, and repeat a few times.

I wanted to do something fun over the weekend but it was kind of damp and foggy and not the kind of weather where you really want to be outside. There is not all that much in the way of fun (and cheap) things to do in this town but I thought a trip over to the California Living Museum might be nice, get out in the not so fresh usually polluted air and see the new bobcat exhibit and look at some bears and stuff, so we will try and do it this next weekend. I'm feeling a little bored and really need to get out somewhere other than the grocery store, but still within our budget.

We finally got the window in the car fixed on Friday and now it is no longer being held in place with Hello Kitty duct tape, and I'm really surprised that the duct tape held up for a month, so if you ever need to duct tape your car window up, by all means use the Hello Kitty tape, it's good stuff! Keith was going to take the day off to take the car in but his boss told him he could borrow his extra truck, so that worked out well with Keith still being able to get to work even though he really kind of wanted to take a day off. We also got new rotors and brakes which were badly needed. The window was under recall and didn't cost anything, but the rotors and brakes were not, so we had to spend some money on that, but brakes are something you kind of really need to be working well, so...

The mechanic recommended a couple of other things that we didn't get done, a battery service? which costs $40.00. Um, no, we'll wait on that.

Yesterday Mimi found one of those plastic rings that come on jars or drinks, I don't know where it came from but she found it somewhere and spent hours and hours playing with her plastic ring. We do buy our cats lots of cat toys but she prefers found objects to play with. She gets paper out of my trash can in the work room and brings it into the living room, meowing that she's caught some paper, then lays it on the floor for me.  It was cute watching her entertain herself for so long. Just like a toddler in the tupperware cupboard.

Umm...

There was something I was going to blog about today but I can't remember what it was.

Dusty has not come home yet and I don't think he ever will. I made up some flyers for Keith to put on the mailboxes last weekend but he forgot and just got them put up yesterday. It's been a week since he went missing so unless he found a new home with some nice new people, I'm thinking he is long gone.

Our lesbian neighbors are breaking up and the one with the little boy is moving out this weekend. Keith finds out all the gossip in our 'hood because he's nosy like that. He was outside a few weeks ago and heard them fighting and the one threw a cat water dish at the other so he's been speculating ever since that a breakup was on the way. She is taking one of the backyard dogs with her and some of the cats. Too bad she isn't taking all of the dogs but maybe there will be less barking with one of them gone. And maybe the lesbian that is left at the house, the one who doesn't like the dogs anyway, will find them new homes or something. Right now they have like 10 cats who poop in our yard and eat Lucy's food and then there is Bandit who always goes in our backyard and gets into Genie's food and stresses her out. I'm hoping that she takes Bandit with her because he is the biggest pain of all of their cats. He is real sneaky, going down two houses and then doubling back through the back yards to get to her food.

Other than all the animals and the dogs barking they haven't been bad as neighbors, no noisy parties or anything like that. Most of the people on our street are pretty quiet and there are some that I've never even seen and only know that someone lives there because there are lights on in the house.

I rode the bike up to Winco the other day to get a few things for dinner. Our weather has been unseasonably warm, yesterday it got up to 70, so it was a pleasant ride and I didn't need to bundle up quite as much. I'm shopping and see two skanky looking young women with two shopping carts full of frozen pizzas and other healthy food like that and of course I'm thinking 'food stamps' and they have a little boy in the front of the cart with a dirty scabby face and his pajamas and slippers on. They are both wearing tank tops and tight jeans with gigantic muffin tops pouring over the tops of their jeans. The one with the little boy in the cart is way ahead of the other and she stops, leaves the cart (with the scabby kid sitting in it) and goes back two aisles over to get something she forgot. The kid is sitting there alone. Hey, free kid! But he's kind of scabby so maybe I don't want him after all.

Then as I'm leaving Winco a full grown woman is coming in the out door in her pajamas. And slippers.

Nothing Much

I'm trying to figure out what I want to do today. I do have a load of laundry in the washer, but only because I realized that I was putting on my last clean bra this morning. I really do need to buy a few more bras. And some new underwear. But that's beside the point.

I did notice that it's time to clean the stove again. I am very lazy when it comes to cleaning the stove on a daily basis and just give the top of it a quick wipe but don't bother to pick up the burners and wipe underneath them. So, the stove gets pretty dirty pretty quickly and then it's time to really clean it all. Maybe I'll put all the parts in the dishwasher instead of the sink and just run the dishwasher. Sounds like a plan.

I did mow the yard yesterday and vacuumed the house, but didn't do the bathrooms, so I guess I should do that today.

I haven't been in the mood to list in my shops since sales are so slow, but I did make a couple of collage picture frames yesterday so I could take some pictures today and put them in the shop. And maybe get a couple more of the blank frames and collage some more.

We had been wondering what was going on with Keith's mom's estate and the house being willed to James but since she had a reverse mortgage, the bank is going to take the house back, and did she actually have any insurance policies like she said she did. Keith's brother Bruce, who is the executor, did find a stack of insurance policies but every single one of them was an accidental death policy. Apparently some slick (scumbag) insurance agent sold her these policies and she dutifully paid on them year after year thinking that her grandchildren would all get a little money when she died. But, they did find one that is actually good, with James as the beneficiary. He had always been told by his grandma there was a policy for him and it turns out to be true. I'm sure the rest of the family thinks he coerced her into it or something, but as far as we are concerned, James is the one who was there helping her for the past few years and if anyone deserves a fresh start with some cash in hand, it's him. Hopefully, this will give him the means to finally figure out what he wants to do with himself. He is talking about going to culinary school and now he will have the tuition money.

Now it's time to go clean the cat boxes. And maybe the bathroom, too.

Pants and Stuff

I'm having a hard time getting motivated to do much of anything today. Slow sales equals not wanting to make anything because what's the point, anyway. I'm trying to think of something else to do like maybe make a quilt or something but my sewing machine is a piece of junk (you do get what you pay for after all) and makes sewing frustrating rather than fun. So, unless I go buy a decent sewing machine I think I'll put that idea on the back burner for a while. Plus there's the fact that I'd have to buy a bunch of fabric to cut up and then sew back together. So, we'll see.

I did get some real cleaning done in the kitchen and living room yesterday, dusting all the stuff that rarely gets dusted and scrubbing the counter tops down and all that kind of stuff. I watched the Today show while cleaning and was treated to more insane ramblings from Charlie Sheen. I love his show but I'm thinking he is shooting himself in the foot here and his career is going to come to a screeching halt in about five minutes. But, any publicity is good publicity, right? We're all talking about him anyway.

I'm going to ride over to the Goodwill today and see if I can find some cheap pants. I got this pair of jeans at Walmart a few months ago for $12.00 and I really liked the jeans for the first month or so, very comfortable with just the right amount of stretch and just the right length, not like my other pair of pants that I have to roll up so I'm not walking on the pant leg. I suppose I could hem them up but that means getting out the aforementioned junky sewing machine or sewing it by hand and I'm just too lazy to do that, so I roll them up. Anyway, something happened with these jeans and now they don't stay up and I'm constantly walking around uncomfortable because they are drooping down my hips and driving me crazy because I have to keep yanking them back up. I don't know how those kids can stand wearing their pants under their bottoms with all their underwear hanging out like they do, maybe that is why they are so cranky and go around shooting each other, because they are yanking up their pants all day long and having to walk funny because otherwise their pants would be down around their ankles.

Anyway, I need some new pants that I don't have to yank up all day long and I don't want to pay new pants prices so I'll see what I can find for about $3.75 a pair over at Goodwill today.

Good Luck

Well, Keith made it up to Fresno and slept in a noisy motel room just a few blocks from the railroad tracks (complete with trains at all hours of the night), but he was up at 6 ready to go find some breakfast and get psyched up for tests and hopefully an interview. He called but I was sound asleep and didn't hear the phone ring, then when I saw the message light blinking on the phone, picked it up to call him back and as soon as I picked it up it rang with him on the line.

So, we'll see how it goes today.

Everything else is the usual yawn fest around here. I let the cats come in the bedroom last night to keep me company and they were really good until Lucy started nibbling on my hair early this morning, trying to wake me up to FEED ME ALREADY!

Not sure what is on my agenda for today, I do need to run a few errands on the bike and would like to start taking longer bike rides for that exercise thing and all but it's still kind of chilly here and it's hard to get myself motivated when I'm cold. In a few months I can use the excuse of being too hot.

Saturday Ramblings

Yesterday turned out to be a rather pleasant day. Nothing special but I did get some housework done (even the bathroom!) and the laundry done and took some pictures and put some new things in the shop. Like these new pendants. I like the way domino pendants come out with beading and wire wrapping on them. Like this one. And this one. One of my best customers asked me if I'd like some dominoes that she had, which was so very generous of her, so she sent me a whole box of vintage dominoes. In return I told her to pick out whatever she wanted from the shop on the house, so that worked out really well and now I have more dominoes to work with.

I also went for a little bike ride yesterday, up to Save Mart to find something for dinner since we were down to next to nothing in the fridge and cupboards. There was a can of tuna here so I got lettuce and tomatoes for a tuna salad along with some french bread and it tasted pretty good, especially on a hot summer day. Guess I should do salads more often.

After dinner Keith fell asleep and I watched Wife Swap. I don't know why I find this show so fascinating because I really hate most reality shows, but once you've watched it a few times it becomes a little addicting. People will do anything to be on TV.

Anyway, today is grocery shopping day (what, AGAIN!) so off to figure up some kind of menu plan so we don't just buy a bunch of stuff and then still have nothing for dinner.

Yawn

I haven't posted yet this week because I can't think of anything much to post about.

We are boring.

Keith finished his big bottle of pills and had his follow up with the doctor at urgent care and everything is all well now with his eyeball. Except that some of his eyebrow hair fell out so now he looks a little odd with only half an eyebrow. One thing I like about the urgent care is that they didn't charge for the follow up visits. The regular doctor charges for follow up visits, so maybe we should just go to urgent care from now on.

Keith has also been a little stressed about the possibility of lay-offs at his work. Things are really getting slow there, this week he's not even doing his regular job because they have no work lined up. He's working in the coal silos helping to clean things up after a major coal spill. Apparently the conveyor belts that move the coal from the train cars into the silos broke but nobody noticed until the coal just kept falling off the conveyor belts instead of going into the silo where it belongs. He'd been doing shoveling and general cleaning up this week and kind of likes it for a change, the work is a lot more laid back that he's used to, and he was even able to sit in the control room and take a little nap yesterday.

We're still just trying to hang on here, hoping that next year things will start to look up, and let me tell you we are getting really really tired of penny pinching all the time! Frugality is good and all and it's almost fun to look for ways to save money, but after a year of doing this it's getting really old. I'd like to be able to go shopping again.

Speaking of shopping, the last time we were at Winco we checked out the area where they sell all kinds of basics in bulk, like flour, cereal, trail mix, etc. that are all in big bin things where you just put what you want in plastic bags. We're a little leery of buying things that who knows how many hands have been digging down into and exactly how sanitary is having big bins of food around anyway, but we did try some of the trail mix and I found a whole section of sugar free candies. I tried some malt balls and chocolate coconut stacks and they were really tasty, but I totally forgot that sugar free chocolate gives you incredibly, and I mean INCREDIBLY, bad gas. Bad.

Oh, and we finally have fall weather here, but no rain in the forecast. Now I can start complaining about being cold instead of my constant whining about how hot it is.

What Day Is It?

Do you ever wake up and have to actually think about what day of the week it is? They all just kind of melt together because they're all just kind of the same? I think it's Wednesday but I'm not sure about that.

I got something almost too good to be true in the mail yesterday. I had been storing a bunch of ink cartridges from my printer because I was too lazy to take them wherever to be recycled. My old printer had refill ink that came with little pre-paid envelopes to send them back but when it died and I replaced it with a new and better printer the ink didn't have those little envelopes so I just threw them into plastic bags and into a drawer. Well, a few months ago I finally packed them all up and took them to Office Depot looking for a recycle bin. But, if you take them to Office Depot and get one of their 'rewards' cards I was told that I'd get a gift card for money back on them, but I couldn't bring more than 5 cartridges a day in. So, over the course of a few weeks, I brought my ink in 5 at a time, and then kind of forgot about the promised rewards.

And, son of a gun, in the mail comes a gift card for Office Depot for over $70.00!! I'm looking at this gift card just thinking 'is this really worth what it says and there's no other catch to it?' I'm going to go over there today and stock up on some ink and see if the card really works. Too bad they don't sell groceries at Office Depot!

And on another topic, I've always heard that cats will watch TV and you can even buy videos for your cats to watch when they're bored. However, I had never observed any of our six watching TV, except for the one time when a cat on TV was meowing really loud and Lucy kind of freaked out looking for the meowing cat in the house, but the other night Buddy actually laid beside me and watched TV with me. There was nothing on TV worth watching (what a surprise) so I had put in one of the BBC's Planet Earth DVD's and Buddy was watching the animals. I was kind of afraid that he might leap at the TV, but he was very good and just sat there and watched for about 15 minutes until he got bored. If you've never seen it, the Planet Earth series has the most amazing nature cinematography I've ever seen. A great boxed set and well worth the $60.00 or so that it costs. Hmmm, wonder if they got an Oscar for it?