A Geriatric Kitty

It is now officially official -- Louise has earned the right to a senior citizen discount on all her kitty treats from hereon in.  And she does eat a lot of them as you can see from her pendulous belly swaying in the breeze!  She, Sam, and I suffered through (and barely survived) her annual checkup.

Since she wouldn't come out of her kitty carrier and couldn't even be shaken out of it while upside down, the vet had to resort to desperate measures.  She took the entire thing apart, screw by screw.  Good thing we weren't paying by the hour.  However, it is a dang shame you can't buy Xanax for humans over the counter at the vet.  There's a large untapped market out there for drug companies.

Thankfully she passed with flying colors.  That is, of course, assuming you don't hold it against her that she hissed, spit, screamed and growled all the way through the exam.  Well, she is a teenager after all, 14 years old.  The vet commented on what great shape she is for her advancing years.  Unfortunately many cats don't live that long.  So I summoned my energy to ask that dreaded question, "What does 14 years mean in 'kitty years?'  Is she 100?"

"Oh, she's in her nineties for sure," she responded.  However, she was quick to add, "but she sure has all of her spunk!"  Of course, that was based upon the cacophony of noises emanating from her fang-filled mouth.  And might I add, the vet had on her "turbo gloves" that were as padded as a potholder all the way up to her elbows.  Oy vey.

My friend Denise had the best analogy, "She sounds like a little old lady who has had her handbag snatched away from her."  It is fair to say there was no love lost in that room, only some visceral hatred and a strong need for earplugs like at NASCAR.  At the end she RACED back into her re-assembled kitty carrier like her tail was on fire.  Go, Gramma Louise!  They'll never take your dignity away despite all of the poking and prodding.

When we got back home, she TORE out of her jail cell.  Once free, she did what she does every year.  She looked over her shoulder at me in disgust.  With no further ado, she let out one last vicious hiss like a scene out of "The Kitty Exorcist."  I stood in awe, hoping that I'll have half her spunk if I make it to my nineties.  Watch out, Betty White!


LibbY

That's Me in the Corner

That's right -- that's me in the corner, right there in our family/Lego room.  Dang, I couldn't be happier about it.  Euphoria is mine.  I have a DESK!  A real honest-to-goodness DESK from Value City that actually has room to put things away!  It's even made out of wood, not that strange man-made substance known melamine.  (What the heck is in that stuff anyway?  Never mind, maybe I don't want to know!)  

Ta da!  After nine years in this house, I finally have my own special somewhere to stow stuff right "downtown," not squirreled off in some bedroom upstairs.  Ah, such bliss!  At long last my laptop finally has a real home, not to mention all of my other crap, I mean, "writing materials" that have long cluttered up our crumb-covered kitchen table.  It's almost embarrassing how excited I am, downright giddy.

Can't wait to reorganize (or just plain organize) the papers I have stuffed all over the place for years and actually move in!  Even if it is a mess, at least it will be my own special mess that is not infringing on anyone or anything else.  A real workplace!  I actually sat there without fidgeting for a couple of hours today and was able to focus so much better than usual.  The corner even has a window view!  It's so nice to be able to see outside, and it's not a parking lot!

In order to have room for this desk of my dreams, we had to rip out a built-in china cabinet angled into the corner.  It was no great loss at all since we never really liked it from the outset.  It was just there when we moved in, so we tolerated it because it was there.  It never occurred to me to rip it out or that it could even be removed.  It was actually Daddy Mac who came up with this revolutionary idea a couple of weeks ago.  I can't help wishing one of us had thought of it much sooner, but I'm grateful he thought of it all all.

Looking forward to getting long time-outs and being sent to the corner.


LibbY

A Garden?

We've never had a garden, certainly not a "real" garden from scratch.  This year we're going for it -- Daddy Mac even built a wooden frame for some good ole square foot gardening and then filled it in with some turbo dirt.   Sam and I planted a whole bunch of seeds in trays indoors and are waiting to see if anything ends up growing out of the dirt.  Gosh, I hope something happens; I'd even settle for a weed!  We've got lettuce, cucumbers and carrots as well as snapdragons and some other kinds of flowers I can't remember right about now.  Details, details.  Today I got a little crazy and picked up some basil and black eyed susan seeds as well.  Heck, for 25 cents at the Dollar Store, you just can't beat it.  I sure have wasted lots more money on much stupider things.

Man, those small packets sure do come with lots of seeds inside.   Since we still had lots left over after squishing a bunch into the trays, we went ahead and planted some outside, too.  It will be interesting which location will yield better results, if any.  I guess a lot depends upon whether it stays warm like this or if we get one last burst of cold air.  Punxsutawney Phil did see his shadow after all, so you just never know when winter is truly over.

Sam's really gotten into it, even transforming some random ice trays into "mobile seed carriers" filled with dirt and seeds and another tray on top to create the whole greenhouse effect.  Dontcha just bet that his ice cube trays with zero drainage end up sprouting the most little green things.  On the flip side the fact that he spilled half the dirt on the kitchen floor yesterday while transporting it all didn't help the cause any.  I made sure to vacuum that up right away -- sure don't want to have to live down lettuce sprouting out of the grout on our kitchen floor.  There are minimal standards around here to maintain.  Gotta watch it or I might end up on some ridiculous reality show starring clueless gardeners giving "Hoarders" a run for their money.

Now it's time to water, wait, watch and wonder!



LibbY

A Quick Trip to Potomac Mills

The plan was the three of us were going overnight for some R & R at a lovely resort in Leesburg.  Being six-and-a-half (NOT six), Sam was grumbling that it would be boring.  Daddy Mac suggested that we stop by the Lego store at Potomac Mills which was right on the way.  Sam had saved up over $20, so he could pick up something that would entertain him all weekend.  Then everybody would be happy.  That was the idea anyway.

Once we arrived at the exit to cut over to Leesburg, we realized that it was not also the same exit for Potomac Mills. Oopsy!  It was actually four exits north.  Since we had already promised him, we drove up there and then spent a good 15 minutes circling around the mall.  There is so much mall around the real mall that it's hard to actually find the real mall.  Plus we really hadn't thought hard enough (or at all) to realize that it was 2pm in Northern Virginia on a cold Saturday in March.  Of course it was mobbed.  We deserved a Darwin Award for that one alone.  

So we drove and stopped, drove and stopped, and finally made it to the real mall.  Then the directions didn't say where the store was located.  Since our last visit was so long ago we couldn't remember, we decided to join the fray and just look for a parking space.  Finally after sitting with our blinker on to claim a spot someone was about to leave, we parked.  Feeling victorious, we got out and then dodged all of the other cars still patrolling like sharks on the Atkins diet.  

We entered the mall.  Yes!  We were going to zoom into the Lego store, get something cool that would entertain Sam at the hotel, and we'd be off!  Good plan, right?  Well, we kept walking and walking and walking, looking for the Lego store.  Finally we asked some vendor guy.  He said, "Oh, that's way on the other side of the mall.

"Are you kidding me?" I couldn't help blurting out.

"Oh, yeah.  It's about a 15-20 minute walk over there.  It's way at the end."

We decided to keep on walking since we were already pretty far from the car.  Plus we were smart enough to know that even if we moved the car, we'd get lost again anyway.  So we walked, which really wasn't bad, more like 10 minutes.  We finally got there and browsed for a long while.  Sam selected a Batman set that cost more than what he had saved up, but we chipped in to cover the extra $10 or so.  (By then I was actually across the hall at H & M buying a bunch of t-shirts for $5.95.  Why buy one when you can have three?  You've got to spend more to save more, you know.)

Then we walked ALL the way back to the car and drove, retracing our steps back to the original exit. Only then did we realize the road we were looking for was actually the same road we had been on at the mall.  Ah, details, details.  Without any further ado or major screw-ups, were off like a herd of cats.  

There is no such thing as a quick trip to Potomac Mills.  However, Sam did love his Lego set.  In fact, he loved it so much that he woke up at 5 the next morning to finish it!

LibbY