Curious Kittens

Waffle attacks my sweater strings with her little multicolored paws.



Martin dozes off on the couch. It's hard work playing all day!



OMFG a new toy! What is it?



Dad isn't happy that the kittens are playing on the framing for his painting!



Kittens get fixed on Monday and then go to the adoption center. I'm going to miss them so much!

Mission Impossible IV: Escape!

Our golden retriever Kali loves to dig. She and Sage escaped our yard time and again when we first brought them home, until we filled all possible escape routes with big rocks and chicken wire and dirt. There was no way out.

OR SO WE THOUGHT.

After visiting Grandma in the hospital and running some errands, we came home and realized it was suspiciously silent. Dad went out and called for the dogs while I rang forty zillion different numbers trying to get ahold of Troy and Mom, to see if the dogs were with them.
"No, definitely not. Dogs were out back. Why, are they gone now?"

I ran out back to make sure they weren't, oh, I don't know, swimming in the pool, yelling for them to come, and lo and behold a few minutes later I hear pounding feet and I throw open the gate and Kali and Sage hurtle through, nearly knocking me over.



Happy because they got a cookie (for coming when called), wondering why they are stuck outside.



They smell like horse poop, and they are filthy!



Hose? Can I chew hose? Nom?



The escape route is no longer.



Still not sure where they were. Horse pen? Lake? Reno?

Fuzzy Homework

The best way to do your evil math homework is with two kittens snuggled on your lap! It started out with Martin sleeping on my hand in my lap, and then Waffle jumped up and curled up purring around my neck, and then they both fell asleep on top of each other.

Great stress relief! :)

Here's Martin playing in my bag a few days ago!

Success

Fresh Take: I have found my occupation: professional pity party girl.
Update: Nathan is recovering and should be home today.
Summary: ZzzzzZZzzzzzZZz

*Insert Witty Yet Thoughtful Title Here*

Sometimes, when adult life gets too hard, I wish that I could go back to the more carefree days of being a young teenager; when the biggest drama is why so-and-so is flirting with so-and-so's boyfriend. To go back to when good grades were easy and I had time to fit TaeKwonDo into my life, and had my huge circle of friends that I could see nearly every single day. Back when my Grandma gave me piano lessons and I actually practiced and sounded so good, and Grandpa would listen from the other room as he sat in his chair.
Everyone always wished they could grow up: first there was the hurdle of getting your license so you were "free" to go where you pleased; then you turned eighteen and we officially an adult; you graduated from high school and started at college, supposedly knowing how you wanted your life to go. As an adult, things were going to be big and grand and amazing all the time. You'd have an awesome job and buy cool things with your money, and somewhere along the way you would fall in love and get married and have kids.
No one even mentioned that when you get old, so does everyone else.
Last September, within about a month's time, we lost my Grandpa, my Boppa, and our dog Rosie. My Grandpa had emphysema and it was a horrible, drawn-out process that absolutely reaffirmed my decision not to smoke. For Boppa, it was very sudden; he went from okay to bad off in nearly a week. Every time, we were heart broken.
Now my Grandma has been battling ovarian cancer for months. Five days ago she went into the hospital, and we are in a fugue state, not knowing if or when she will be able to come home.
Add to that normal family dramas--which have shot up exponentially lately--and overloaded school and work schedules, plus friend dramas (should be a soap opera, swear to god), and pet medical issues, all of which combine to make me crazy absentminded and tired, I am nearing meltdown.
And here's the kicker: I get home at 9:15pm from work, and Mom tells me that Nathan, my 10-but-11-really-soon year-old baby cousin Naters, went to the emergency room today for an appendicitis attack and is undergoing laprascopic surgery this very night.
I just really, really want everything to be okay.

Update: Situation Fluffy

Look how big they are now! When we first got them they could fit in the palm of your hand.



They are so sweet too. The only problem is they adore the computer way too much--Waffle deleted a photo by walking on the keyboard.



I guess it's because the computer is warm.



Far as I'm concerned, upside-down kittens are the best!

Goodbye, Motorola

Motorola and I have had a love/hate relationship going on for months. Like so many relationships, it was an abusive one. The spring broke first, and so unless I literally held it open, whenever I flipped open my phone, it would flip back down. Then my battery became too weak to hold the charge for more than three minutes, even if it had charged all night.

But I couldn't leave him! I had amazing reception, even where I live. (Apparently the middle of nowhere for other cell phone providers.) And the Verizon store manager gave me a free new battery! And the flipping top was entertaining to all ages!

Well, the year and a half relationship ended today. When Nick and I were carpooling to college and accelerated up to the freeway, we heard the thunk athunkity thunk of my phone tumbling off of the roof!!!

Now I have to decide to buy a new phone or wait the four months until my plan calls for a new one. I have a feeling I'll cave and choose a pretty phone from the gazillion choices available. But which one?!? Aiieeeeee!!!

Because we totally need more fluffy kitten pictures

So it was really cold this morning.



Swear to god, someday I will actually update with something more than pictures of our adorably sweet foster kittens . . .but for now it's way easier to post gratuitous fluffy pictures.



Don't they just KILL you? Soooo freaking adorable. And then I died. The end.



Both those pictures totally deserved to be posted because look! in that one his arms are down. Waaay different.



Kali felt left out.



Here's Waffle UNDER OUR FRIDGE. It blows hot air out of the bottom and I walked over and she poked her head out and what? you think we should turn our heat up?



Io's evil glowy eyeballs will make you forget allll about the kittens, come over here now silly human and PET ME.

Explody

Sometimes when my days are so full that all my spare time goes towards my homework or cleaning, and my head feels like it's going to fall off because I'm tired, and I don't have time to sit down and relax for a minute, I wish that I could be somewhere else.

Puppies

Once upon a time, there was a wonderful dog named Rosie, who was chosen from all the other dogs at the pound to come to our home, where she lived for about twelve years. She was sweet and fun and "talked" in excitement when we came home, and she and dad would run circles inside the house until she caught him.




Unfortunately, she had malignant sarcomas and we took them out and bought her nine more months, but then we found it had metastasized and we had to put her down . . .and then we were sad.

After a while we searched for a new dog that would be as close to perfect as Rosie had been. And we found Sage, who was a golden retriever/pit bull mix but with darker shorter hair (so it wouldn't get on the carpet!) But then dad wanted a dog that "looked" like a golden. And so we found Kali.



Sage was born at the shelter and was six months old when we adopted her. She wasn't potty trained very well and didn't know any commands. Kali is short for Kalahari, because she was found in the desert with two of her own puppies. As you can see, she was malnourished and didn't have much feathering on her. She had a "happy tail", from wagging her tail and hitting it on the bars of a cage. She also was terrified of going down our stairs.



They are adorable together.



We wanted a dog that was just like Rosie, but that's impossible. She was our perfect dog while we had her, and irreplaceable.

But, you know, when we stop comparing Sage and Kali to our old girl, these ones are pretty special.



All grown up and nearly a year now, Sage actually sits for a moment and lets me snap a picture. Normally she's too busy being SUPER-excited to see you and LICKLICKLICK.



And Kali is beautiful now. Whenever we go to the dog park she's our social butterfly, running from dog to person to dog. She's filled out and her feathers are long and wispy. She and Sage hate to be apart and like to romp through our living room, and they LOVE tummy rubs.



It's nice to have dogs again. ^_^

Boyfriend+Vacation=Awesomeness

A few weeks ago, Nick and I went to his grandparent's cabin for the weekend. It was an insane adventure of finding food and watching scary horror movies from the 1960's, and it was amazingly fun. The back porch (that in winter apparently gets snow up to the roof!) led down to a creek and we spent hours hopping stones, climbing over fallen trees, and trying to catch a glimpse of tiny schools of elusive fish.

He picked me that pretty orange flower, (so sweet!) and it's actually much softer than it looks. We spent a day in a town nearby, walked through the little shops, didn't end up buying anything (although he nearly did get a wooden sling shot gun)(Do ya think I like parenthesis?). We stumbled upon a small fair and rode the fastest damn eggbeater ride I've ever found--so fast that I nearly threw up and we couldn't walk straight for five minutes.

For dinner the first night we made pasta and meatballs. HOMEMADE pasta and meatballs. I actually ground the sirloin. He actually blended the flour and eggs (from memory, he has done it so often). It took forever but it was absolutely delicious!

So I'd have to say as far as weekend vacations go, this one was definitely at the top.

P.S. Raisins in meatballs rock!


Yes, I know he's cute.


And yes, these are homemade waffles that he made us.


Pretty bluebird outside while we were eating said waffles.


Deck


Flower! For me!


Gnarled tree trunk.

Hot

In an attempt to celebrate the cooler temperatures (sad when I consider 94 F to be cool) we took the dogs on a four mile walk to . . . (dun dun dunnnn) the bank! It seemed like a good idea at the time, but upon further sweaty reflection, not so smart.

Now I'm sitting exhausted on the couch with the dogs at my feet and our sweet foster kittens running circles around me, whittling away the afternoon until Dad leaves for his trade show in Denver. Doing homework would be the better choice, but hey! it's a holiday, right?