Our trip

Our trip to Phoenix over Memorial Day weekend was great. It wasn't as relaxing for Alann as we had hoped, since he got thrown back into class, but it was fun anyway. Above is Jersey, helping Alann pack. The flight out was great. It was pretty empty, so Claire got a free seat. We strapped in her car seat and she was content to sit there while we took off. She was actually laughing while we took off. It was great. After we were in the air, we took her out of the seat and played with her. She ate a little bit (that was the only time she really cried. She was hungry and impatient) and then she went back in the seat for the landing. She was a little upset during landing, but we managed to fight off a full-scale screaming fit. We met my mom and went to the house. I started the vacation off right by making potato salad as soon as we got Claire settled in the house. My sister came home, and then we went to Sunflower Market. I had seen a Sunflower Market here in Utah, but hadn't gone to it. I wasn't too sure what it was about. But it was pretty good. I'm signed up to receive the weekly ads now, so when they have good sales, we can go out there. They also have a GREAT bulk bin section, so next time we have a car trip, I know where to get Alann's granola (not to mention things like nuts at a great price anyway). The one here is located across the street from Fashion Place, if you are interested. Saturday (the day we arrived) we had some BBQ pork and potato salad for dinner. My and my big sister Teene made bread. I taught her how to do it. That was a lot of fun. I remember when she taught me how to make mac and cheese. Now I get to teach her something. I have a lot of fun cooking with my sisters. We teach each other a lot of things. And it is fun to see how much they have changed, eating wise. When I moved to college, my little sister ate mostly frozen pizza and corn dogs. Now she eats more "real" food. =) And Teene has started cooking a lot more, so I learn things from her too. Like sweet potato fries. She made those from a fresh sweet potato on Sunday. I had never thought to do it, but I really like sweet potatoes. They are my new favorite. So after we got home, I made a batch for dinner too. Score one for new easy side dish! Anyway, back to the story. Sunday, we went to church with the Woodses. (I never know how to pluralize that name.) I love visiting with them. I met James's wife for the second time and his baby. Weird to think he has one of those... We stayed for sacrament, but their schedule is "backwards" (ok, ours is the backwards one, but it is what we are used to for now) so Claire was unhappy and tired. We went home and she slept for two hours, then we went back to the Woodses to visit for a while. After that, we went home and had some really yummy steak for dinner. And we went swimming. I bought Claire this really cute swimsuit with a built in swim diaper. She was unsure about swimming.

But she warmed up to it after a while. She only hung out in the pool for a few minutes, then she went inside with Daddy.


Here she is playing with her aunties. On Monday we went to Wickenburg to visit with my grandmother. That was a lot of fun.


Here is Claire with her great-grandmother. This is the last one I really have. My mom's biological mother is still alive, but I've never met her, I just send her cards every now and then. My dad's parents are both gone, and my grandpa passed away a year ago. My sister has some pics with the four generations together, but I don't have any on my camera. Teene- send them my way or post em on facebook so I can steal???


Here is another cute one of her playing on the floor at Grandma's. When we got back to my mom's house, we went swimming again! It was fun. My big sister and I had a blast playing with the pool noodles and just acting silly. She is still a show off! She used to do hand stands all the time at the pool at my grandparent's place, and we could never do them. I had to laugh when she started doing them again this weekend. I also almost gave myself a black eye when a pool noodle shot out from underneath me and whacked me good. But it never turned into anything. I miss swimming whenever I want, but at the same time, I don't miss the pool maintenance. I should just go to the gym when I feel like swimming, but then I have to figure out what to do with Claire. (I keep writing Claite. Stupid T. Getting in my way.)
We came home on Tuesday after having lunch with Teene.

Here they are. Baby thinks Rubio's is stupid. I think it was tasty. The flight home was less fun than the flight out. It was packed. It didn't help that they canceled a flight to Salt Lake before ours was due to leave, so they rebooked people onto our flight. Then it was delayed FOREVER (okay, only an hour). All in all, probably the worst flight experience I've had in a while. But Claire was a trooper. She even endured a diaper change in the airplane potty with Daddy. Apparently, it was really hot in there. She really needed it though. Otherwise, I would have waited. It's NOT a long flight. But oh well. All in all, she was really good the whole time we were gone, but she was definitely worn out and ready to be back home, back on her regular schedule.
Oh, and that thing she was working on before we left? It was blowing raspberries. She got REALLY good during the trip, as all of my family can attest. Amy blew on her tummy for about 10 minutes, and each time she did, Claire would blow back. It was hilarious. Since we got back, we've been busy. I planted the rest of my garden. Here are the highlights.

This is the cherry tomato plant. I separated it from the others this year, since it always seems to take over everything. We will see how well this works.


Here we have (from back left, to right, then forward) carrots (far left pot), swiss chard, kale, lettuce, and radishes. The broccoli is peeking in the front of the picture. It is getting big already. There are also onions in the box with the broccoli. Let's hope we get some this year. I think I have it figured out.

And here is my "hot" box. It's all my hot loving plants. We have (back to front, left to right) three globe tomato plants (a globe tomato is basically what you buy in the store), 2 flowers from Mother's Day (I don't remember what they are. Debbie??), 7 bell peppers- 2 yellow, 2 purple, and 3 green, and 1 ancho chili plant (the lil guy in the corner). Apparently, there was a run on jalapenos. I went to two different nurseries and couldn't find any. (A word to Salt Lake people- go to Martin's nursery for bell pepper plants. These things are huge, some have peppers on them already, and they were only $1.25! The ones at Western Garden are $2 and not nearly as big.) I also have one leftover tomato plant I don't know what to do with. No more pots, no space in the box. Anyone want it?
In addition to this, I've got peas and cucumbers in the in-ground plot.


Here is Nicki in her cone. She smacks that thing into EVERYTHING. I think she does it on purpose, trying to break it. But, her eye is looking MUCH better. We have a vet appt tomorrow (will he charge for a followup? I hope not.) and then she can stop wearing the cone. Which makes me wonder- would it have gotten as better as quickly without the cone and eye drops? Did I drop $80 when it was getting better anyway? I hate those thoughts.


This is what Alann did most of the vacation. Poor guy.

I was going to post a video of Claire, but it is taking WAY too long to upload. Maybe later. Anyway, it was a fun trip. My mom is thinking of flying us back out for Labor Day (or they will come to visit us) so we might go down again. Alann doesn't know if he will be able to go, since he has school, but that is the price we pay for getting his masters done soon.

Nicki

So, I took Nicki to the vet yesterday. First off, I miss our vet in Columbia. He was great. The dogs loved him. He used to give out "treats" (aka vitamins) to calm them down. He explained everything. The office was clean and the people at the desk were really nice. We haven't gotten a "real" vet here yet. I've taken the dogs and cat to the humane society clinic once or twice to get shots, but they haven't been sick so I haven't had need for a full-scale vet office. Since Nicki hurt her eye last week, and it wasn't better when we got home, I looked around for a vet. I found one nearby that had an opening for that day and wasn't too expensive. I didn't really like the place from the start, and Nicki wasn't comfortable there at all. The room was kind of dirty. It looked clean, but there was a build up of hair along the base of the table. Just that kind of grossness everywhere. The vet himself was ok, but he immediately assumed that the cat got Nicki's eye, which is totally plausible, but she also may have run into something outside too. So he told me about 3 times that we should declaw the cat, which I have thought about and seems cruel. He also seemed really nervous the whole time, like he had somewhere else he wanted to be or he wasn't comfortable interacting with people. His staff wasn't terribly helpful either. But the good news is Nicki's eye is just scratched. It looks funny because blood vessels grew in to feed the healing. She needs drops in her eyes and some antibiotics. And she is wearing a cone. She HATES it. She walks around like it is stealing her soul an ounce at a time. But she is getting better about it. She isn't running into things nearly as often today as she was yesterday. And her eye does look better. It should heal on it's own and be totally useful again. And it only cost me $80. I'll just add it to the cat's tab.

So true

Hmm, yes it is like this.

Evil ensues

Ok, so we all know my cat is evil. Basically, the worst part is, she is extremely selfish. Everything belongs to her, in her mind anyway. I can't tell you how many places I've found her, and how many times, after chastising, that I continue to find her there. Most of the time, it isn't a big deal. So she sits on top of the TV and in the sink in the bathroom and on any piece of furniture. Here are some more amusing examples:

This random stack of boxes is hers.

And the changing table, the instant we moved it into the baby's room, became hers. She still climbs on it.

The crib is definitely hers. She takes a good portion of her naps in there.

And Claire's dollhouse is actually a kitty house. She is quite thankful for it. (This is the dollhouse my grandfather built for us girls when we were young. My mom and sisters cleaned it up and brought it up for Claire. It will be a few years, but I am sure she will love it.)

Not even the car seat is safe from Queen Jersey.

But all of this selfishness gets really annoying when she decides that my garden transplants are hers. I bought some swiss chard and broccoli transplants for the garden. She has almost completely eaten the chard, no matter what I do to keep her away. This is quite frustrating because I have wanted to start seeds for the tomatoes and peppers, but with her around, she would eat them. But then, I had a genius idea. A bird cage! No, not for the cat. If I put the seedlings in the bird cage, then she can't get to them, but they can get the light they need. Now I just need to find a cage and plant the seeds. Anyone have a spare bird cage?

Animal Antics

I wrote this a while ago but never posted it. Oh well. It's still funny.

The fun and games never stop around our house.


Last night, as Alann and I were kneeling and getting ready to say prayers, in comes Tanner. I hid my face in Alann's chest so that he wouldn't lick me. Instead, he snuggled his face right up next to mine, and as I was saying "Hi Wedge" he burped right in my face. It was so gross. Who taught him that disgusting habit???? He has burped in the faces of guests before, and he always seems to think that it's a compliment or something. I don't get it. (Wedge is his new nickname, since he wedges himself between Alann and I any time we are touching, especially hugging. And he gets more and more insistent and upset if we ignore him or if Alann spins me away from him without letting go. It's actually quite amusing.)


I woke up around 1 or so this morning. Only half of my body was under the covers, which isn't as big a deal as it usually would be, since I'm hot half the night anyway. But as I was trying to get up to take my midnight trip to the potty, I had some difficulties. Nicki has taken to sleeping on the foot of our bed, which is actually ok most of the time. Except that this time, she was sleeping on my feet, and was totally dead asleep. I couldn't budge her. As I'm wrestling with Nicki, I realize that the cat is sleeping half on my leg and half on my body pillow and half in the little depression between us. So I was covered in animals, which is why I had no blanket. That and Alann kept stealing it last night.


Nicki is the thinker of the bunch. She isn't dumb. She chooses not to learn tricks. But if there is something mischievous that needs figuring out, she is the one who will do it. Tanner is an opportunistic misbehaver. If the bread is on the table and he sees it and decides he wants it, he will take it. If it is out of sight, it is completely out of his mind. Nicki however, if she watches us put something "tasty" in the garbage, and it doesn't go out, chances are good she will wait until we are asleep and then dig it out. She is crafty. I wish she would use her powers for good instead of evil, but that's just the way she is. Lately, I've been locking the animals out of the bedroom after my midnight potty break. This is an ideal time to do it because the cat follows me to the front door (to try to run out), and if she is going to get feisty, it is in the wee hours of the morning. But Nicki figured this out. She used to wait until I had shut and locked the door and reset the alarm and then would accompany me to the bedroom. Lately, the second she comes in the house, she runs back to the bedroom, jumps on the bed, and pretends she doesn't hear me if I try to coax her out. What a punk.

Oh no, I believe you.

I completely believe you doggie. We had a lovely early morning wake up today. The dogs went out at about 4:30, and just as they were coming in the door, Devil cat bolted. She had been all lovey and needy up until that point. Then, gone. I tried to catch her, but I'm not so spry these days. And she runs fast when she wants to. So I told Alann, and he went outside to try to get her. I tried to pretend I didn't care and laid back down, but I didn't really want her to be gone. So then Alann came back in and we went out back. She always goes from the front yard to the back yard for some reason. We managed to herd her/ catch her and bring her in. Of course after running around like that, we were both awake. Alann watched Clifford the big red dog on TV and I just kind of snoozed on the couch. So yeah, I believe you doggie. Don't worry.

In other news, I uncovered my tomatoes because it is supposed to be 70 today! Yay! I found 9 large, mostly ripe ones, most of which had fallen on the ground. I want to go out there again tonight and pick the rest. I don't know quite what to do with them. I can make spaghetti sauce, stewed tomatoes, salsa, pizza sauce. They are so beautiful, I could just...well no, I couldn't eat them. Not raw. Ick. But they are so pretty. They make me want to like them. The peppers didn't fare so well. Most of the little ones have frostbite and the plants are thirsty. I gave them some water this morning, so maybe they will perk back up for the "unseasonably hot" weather we are supposed to be having. I hate how the media always makes everything seem awful. From the weather to the stock market, all you hear is "really really hot this weekend" (in the 70s this weekend) to "the market is plummeting!" (said in the big deep DOOM IS COMING voice). Maybe if you media type folk would put a positive spin on things, or at least use less sensational adjectives, the world wouldn't be so negative all the time. Sheesh. Why can't we enjoy the 70s without being made to feel like it is wrong? I know I will be enjoying it. Yes, the stock market has dropped, a lot. Yes, a lot of people have lost lots of money in their retirement funds. Me too, and I didn't have much to start with. But maybe, just maybe, people wouldn't have panicked if the media hadn't used such strong words. I listen to news radio in the morning and on the way home, and on the "bad market" days, that was all they talked about, every 5 minutes it seemed they were doing an update. "The market is now down 50 points!" "The market is now down 500 points!!!" "The market has plummeted by 7 million points!!?!?!?!?!?%K#@$@%^" Ok, I made that last one up, but that is the way they sounded. People need to be informed, but not panicked. We will now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Otherwise, things are going good.

Public Service Announcement

I wandered across an interesting article the other day. It is called "Farmer in Chief" and was written by Michael Pollan. He is very much into local foods, organic practices, some would say "elitist" foods. It is a really long read, but it was worth it. Basically, he talks about how the next president needs to address farm policy in America. The current system of paying people to produce commodities instead of real food is hurting us in many ways. We eat cheaply, maybe, but it is really poor quality food. The amount of oil that goes into the production of these foods hurts our environment. It just reinforces my desire to have a large and productive garden/ farm some day. He says that farmers in the Andes mountains follow an 8 year rotation plan- 5 years per plot for grass and beef cattle, then 3 years for wheat or corn. They use less fertilizer and pesticide because these things balance each other. How awesome is that. That is the kind of stuff I want to learn, that I am trying to learn. If we stay in our house next year, I am not growing corn. I'm going to grow peas or beans in that plot instead, to revitalize the plot.

He also talks about how changing the way food is produced and the kinds of foods produced will affect our health. Here is a sobering statement:
"The Centers for Disease Control estimates that one in three American children born in 2000 will develop Type 2 diabetes. The public needs to know and see precisely what that sentence means: blindness; amputation; early death. All of which can be avoided by a change in diet and lifestyle." How can we change our diets when the cheapest/ easiest foods are also the worst for us?

Another quote:
Talking to the President: "And you should also let it be known that the White House observes one meatless day a week — a step that, if all Americans followed suit, would be the equivalent, in carbon saved, of taking 20 million midsize sedans off the road for a year." We are trying to implement a meatless dinner once a week. It is harder than it seems at first, but it really does make a difference (and by meatless I don't mean fake meat. That to me, doesn't count. Plus I don't entirely trust soy products...). I've been checking out lots and lots of vegetarian cookbooks. It is so hard to find veggie cookbooks that don't rely on fake meat products or canned veggies. Really, you would think that they have more class than that. Maybe I am just picking the wrong books. Of course I am choosing blindly too. Of course, you can take your favorite dishes and omit the meat. There is nothing wrong with a veggie chili with lots of different kinds of beans. Or a marinara sauce over pasta with no meat. As always I am trying to branch out and try new foods and different combinations. I get so bored after a while. Maybe something will come of it, maybe not. Alann and I were talking the other night about what we would want house/farm wise and what we would need moneywise for me to stay home and tend it. It really depends, but it's got me thinking. He said "so we could start raising rabbits for food now right?" Well, yes. The county has no restrictions on that, and bunnies are relatively low maintenance and good breeders. But that isn't something I want to take on right now. We would have to house them in the garage during winter, and it just wouldnt be feasible. Maybe someday when we have a barn and they can move inside or outside depending on the weather. But that's another subject.

In sad news, Nemo has moved on to that big ocean in the sky. He lived here at work with me. He was the fish that my mother-in-law bought me for my birthday two or three years ago. I don't remember if it was before or after we moved here. Either way, he was old. He's been sick lately, and hasn't been eating, and just sitting on the floor of the tank. I changed the water and tried the swim bladder meds, but he didn't improve. I figured he was going to die. I wanted to put him out of his misery since I couldn't fix it, but I wasn't sure of an appropriate action. RIP Nemo. Maybe I will replace you, though no one can replace my first beta, Fishy Fishy Glub Glub. He also lived to a ripe old age of 3, though one of my friends spent a good hour "petting" him the first night I got him. I was sure he was done for. I'm good with my betas, obviously, though my boss accused me of not taking care of him since I didn't take him to the vet. I guess I just don't get attached to animals that don't return any kind of affection (cough Jersey cough). I like them, sure, but I'm not terribly upset. I'm sure Weston will be upset next time he comes to visit and can't feed the fish.

So much to talk about, so little time

I've been on a roll with new recipes lately. I've made two things that Alann "doesn't like" that he has asked me to keep the recipe for. Yay expanding our horizons! The first was a stuffed acorn squash. I think I mentioned it before. The second was a Sweet potato side dish that had bacon and onions and breadcrumbs. The sweet potatoes were boiled until mostly cooked, then breaded with flour and fried. The flour gave it a weird texture, next time I will just toss them in with the bacon etc and let them fry that way. But it was still very tasty, and right now, they are in season, so it is worth looking into. I couldn't resist the little pie pumpkins the other day. We will be having roasted pumpkin and shallot and some pumpkin chicken chowder in the coming weeks. I'm working on getting a menu list going, so that we can remember what we like, and choose a larger variety of meals. We get kind of stuck on the same things over and over. Plus by the time the new season rolls around, I have forgotten what it was we ate last year that I wanted to do again.

We had a very productive weekend. I returned the belt that I bought for my car two months ago that still hasn't been installed, and the guy at Checker told me that it wouldn't fit anyway because the other store sold me the wrong part. Whatever. I finally broke down and ordered the belt from the dealer, which cost more than twice as much, but at least it will fit. So guess what Mark will be doing for us as payment for room and board during the deer hunt? (JK, we don't charge. He does it out of the goodness of his heart.) I needed a new rear windshield wiper blade anyway, and couldn't find them in the auto stores, so got that as well. Yay for spending $100 on car parts. At least we have the money saved, so it doesn't kill us financially. (I get reimbursed for miles at work, and 99% of the time, it goes to my "car maintenance fund" for car maintenance and registration and the like. Aren't I a genius? Before I thought of that, I was just using the money for whatever, which wasn't helpful when I needed to register my car last year.) And now Alann has a credit at AutoZone for next time he needs to change his oil. I lost the receipt for one of the three belts I have purchased for this stupid car, but they gave me store credit for it, so it worked out.

We also got supplies for Christmas cards, at the world's busiest Joann store EVER! The line was ridiculously long, but they had 10 cashiers, so it wasn't too bad actually. They were having a pattern sale. I really wanted to get a skirt pattern, but I had Alann with me, and he is patient about going to the craft store, but not THAT patient. There is only so much to keep him occupied there. But I did get a fabric remnant for an upcoming baby-related project that I will not bore the few men-folk with. Suffice it to say, we will not need to buy disposable nursing pads. I love my sewing machine. I finally finished recreating a pair of pajama pants I received um, August 2007. Our neighbor made them for me, and they are really cute. Pink pajamas penguins on the bottom (yes, it's a camp thing. don't ask.) Anyway, the crotch was down to my knees, the waist was WAY too small (flattering, but small) and Alann could have worn them they were so long. So I decided to hem them up, then take out the elastic and make it a drawstring pant instead. Obviously in retrospect, I should have done this in the opposite order. I cut off the bottom 6 inches of pants, hemmed it, then ripped out the waist and cut off about 2 inches to make a drawstring and then realized that um, when you adjust the rise (waist to crotch) of pants, you also adjust their length. I'm not a seamstress. I have no formal training. I can sew, and sometimes do it well, but I make it up as I go along. I'm getting better, but I learn the hard way, a lot. Someday, I want to take a clothing construction class, but for now, I make it up. I got stuck when I tried to make a button hole for the drawstring to exit from. My machine says it does it, but I couldn't make it work and got frustrated. Thus, they languished for 10 months. So the other day, I got motivated and finished them. I said "screw the button hole. I'll just sew a zig-zag box" and that worked. Then I sewed a new waistband, sewed the cut-off portion of pant legs back on (always save your scraps!), and they were magically the right length. Now it just looks like I have a special design on the bottom from the cut and sew. I have one more minor adjustment I want to make. The drawstring is a little short, and as my belly gets bigger, will probably get shorter. Plus I hate having to untie them to take them off, so I tied them loose, which means I have to adjust them every time I get out of bed. So I want to pull out the drawstring, cut it in half, and sew in about 6 inches of the original waistband elastic, so that it will be longer, and elasticy, so I can tie them tight enough to stay on my hips, and still be able to get them off. Plus they are so warm! I looked at them, and they look so easy. I am now tempted to go get some cute flannel fabric and make myself some pjs. I think the Christmas flannels are on sale......Guess what ya'll are getting for Christmas!

Um, so back to the weekend. We also traded out our DTV box for one with an analog pass-through, since the DTV stations suck most of the time. We visited with Alann's Aunt Julie and Uncle Laird. They are the ones I lived with, and they live nearby, and Julie had surgery, so we went to see them. That was fun. We need to visit more often, but it seems like there is always something else, huh?

Alann bought me a rice cooker and a waffle maker for my birthday. I scored on kitchen things this year. My sis bought me one of those crock pots with the three different inserts. It's awesome. Yes, I already had two crock pots, but I wanted a smaller one. The small ones are hard to find, but this works because it has a 2 qt, a 4 qt, and a 6 qt. Anyway, Saturday morning we had waffles for breakfast! I love Alton Brown (from Food Network, Good Eats). His waffle recipe is already half whole wheat flour! How awesome is that? (I usually try to find whole wheat or half whole wheat recipes, because it is better for us, and I don't like to buy a lot of AP flour. I grind my own whole wheat.) Alann doesn't like leftover pancakes, so I assumed the leftover waffles would be safe as well. I was wrong. I didn't get a single wedge. =( Oh well. I'll just have to start doubling the recipe.

I think that is about the excitement of our weekend. We went to Macaroni Grill on Friday night, and there was a hair in my chicken Parmesan, so we got my meal and dessert for free. That was not really exciting, but since I wasn't really digging the food anyway, it made it better. It seemed to be an off-night for them. I usually like their food, but it wasn't that great. Alann really liked his. Maybe I just picked the wrong dish. I don't like ordering something at a restaurant that I could make at home. It makes me feel like I should have stayed home and made it. So something like spaghetti and meatballs, I don't usually order in an Italian restaurant, since I can and do on occasion make it at home. And they have taken the sausage peppers rustica dish off the menu, which is one of my faves. Oh well. It was still a decent night.

The cat has been driving us crazy lately. She has been climbing under the bed and scratching at the boxspring in the middle of the night, so we have been locking her out of the bedroom. Unfortunately, then we have to decide what to do with the dogs. They usually roam back and forth. So last night, they went to bed with us (Tanner refused to get off the bed at first, bum.) and then at about 2 we all went potty. The dogs were thirsty, so I didn't wait and left them in the rest of the house with the cat. I haven't slept that well in ages! I woke up when the alarm went off and not at some dog-determined time. I wasn't sleepy or tired. It was great. Can you guess where the mutts will be sleeping from now on, at least after the midnight potty break? The other morning, they had been shut out for a while, and when we got up all three animals were sleeping together on the couch. It was a kodak moment. Tanner was on one end, Nicki on the other, and the cat in the middle, snuggled in a blanket. I am toying with getting her a warming kitty bed to see if that is her problem, but she moves around so much. She never really sleeps in the same place for very long. Maybe she just doesn't have "her" place. I don't know.

It snowed this weekend for the first time this season. We got maybe an inch or less, mostly on the grass. It all burned off before noon. Actually it was gone before Alann got out of bed. Anyway, I bought a bag of spring clamps at Lowes for $10 to help keep the plastic covering on the tomatoes. Best $10 I ever spent on the garden. The clamps don't rip the plastic, and there was an assortment, so I could use the big ones and little ones. The plastic has never been so impermeable to the wind and cold. I'll post a pic tomorrow I think. It looks like a little tent in our garden. It's funny. Since then it has been frosting every morning, so I am hoping that the beets make it. They like cold. I think they will be fine, they just need to get a move on with the growth. It is going to warm up again, so I am hoping my little "greenhouse" on the tomatoes will allow them to ripen.

I guess I'll end now. I know it's long.

Devil Cat

Alann has a theory that the evilness of Jersey is directly proportional to how long her claws are. See graph below.

I believe we have proved this theory. We have both been saying we need to cut her nails for about a week now. Last night, she apparently hit the peak of nail growth and evilness. At about 4am, I got up to go to the bathroom, then put the dogs out. About every five minutes after I laid back down, she would claw the bedspread, I would yell at her, she would claw, yell, etc etc. Finally at 430 or 445, I got up and got the towel and the clippers and cut her nails. I didn't hear anything else from her last night, and when we got up, she was back to being angel lovey kitty. I don't know if they get so long that they poke her and she goes after anything that might provide relief, or if all the devil is contained in her nails and they have to be a certain length for it to take over. And of course, she absolutely HATES having her nails cut, hence the towel. I tried it without wrapping her in the towel the first few times, and I ended up bleeding. She is sedate for about 1.5 nails being clipped, then she starts squirming. By the second paw, she is meowing and carrying on and convincing Nicki that I am killing her. Nicki comes to investigate, but only so far, because she sees the clippers, and she hates them as much as the cat does. Tanner just sits nearby, hoping I will cut his nails next. (weirdo.) I've never met an animal that is so bi-polar about grooming. Tanner will let me bathe him, but acts like it's torture. He gets upset when it is Nicki's turn though. If I get the nail clippers out and don't start with him, he comes over and puts his paw in my lap, even though I am struggling with Nicki. He doesn't mind being brushed, but he runs away while I empty it and I have to call him back. And lately, I started brushing the animals' teeth if they come bug me while I am getting ready for bed. So he has started coming into the bathroom every night, knowing I will brush his teeth, and then he fights me the whole time. But he acts hurt if I ignore him and don't brush them. Nicki knows better than to come in the bathroom, except every once in a while. The cat comes to see what is going on, and HATES the tooth brush. Crazy animals. So basically, I didn't really sleep after 4am. And I think I am getting sick. And Alann has a sore throat, but so far it doesn't look like strep. Oh, and it is supposed to snow this weekend.

Yes, it's true. My cat's favorite toys are boxes and straws, and currently, the case new contacts come in that she "rescued" (from the trash).

Also true. She has "her" basket by the front door, which she does fit in, but anytime there is anything open that appears that she might fit in, she gets in it. Including but not limited to shoes boxes, bowls, and the occasional plastic bag.

Some pictures

Since there was great demand for pictures of my poor shaved doggies, here you go.

I like this one because it looks like she is laughing.

You can kind of see the shaggy ends in these two.

He isn't posing for me. He is staring at the block of wood under my feet that he wants me to throw. One track mind.

So there you go. I heard our neighbor talking to them the other day and she said "did you guys get a haircut? Well don't you look _____." I'm not sure if she said awful or awesome. I don't really care either way. I won't be offended if she thinks they look awful. I think they look rather awful. Tanner looks like a man who shaved without a mirror- the fur under his neck is all uneven, but he wouldn't hold his head up long enough to let me make it look better.

Dogs

We bought a set of clippers for the dogs. We had one, but it wasn’t very good. This one is a professional series clipper that will seriously handle Tanner’s coat. It came yesterday. I went to work right away clipping our dogs. My poor Tanner is already hot. He pants constantly. From March to November. Some people will say that clipping a double coated dog is wrong. It ruins their coats, they use their hair to stay cool. Tanner has been clipped probably 5 times in his lifetime so far. The first time, yes, it changed his coat a tiny bit. Some of his fur turned brown instead of growing back black. But he was also young and may have still been growing his adult coat. But having lived with the dog for 3 summers now, I can tell you from experience that he needs to be clipped. He is so utterly miserable when he isn’t clipped. Plus, it is amusing that his undercoat is white, and so he ends up being black and white instead of brown and black. And it grows SO FAST! He really needs to be clipped 3 times a summer, but at $40-$50 a pop, we can’t afford it. So he usually gets done twice and Nicki gets done once. We leave hers a little longer. She has to stay pretty after all. So now that we have the clippers, we can clip him as soon as he starts panting (if it is more than 70) and as often as necessary. We are careful not to clip him too close to winter. We don’t want the poor guy to freeze.
Since this is my first time clipping with good clippers, they are both looking a little ragged. I tried to clip Tanner once or twice with the other ones, but mostly just gouged his fur and took him to the groomers. Alann got halfway through one side of him once, then the clippers stopped working, and he took him to the groomer. Three days later. Poor thing. The other dogs at the dog park probably laughed at him.
By the time I was done with Tanner, it looked like I had shaved a bear. There was so much fur. He definitely takes after his mom (me) and has super thick hair. I half filled the trash can with just his hair. Then I bathed him and (like his mom again) his hair still managed to hold more water than one would think it could. There was a lake in my bathroom when he was finally dry enough to run around the house like a crazy. (Both his and Nicki's favorite after bath ritual- run around, dry yourself off on the bed, couch, rug, each other, cat, then get treat.) I know you should bathe them first, but he, like my car, has about 3 months worth of winter grime on him. I didn’t really want to face bathing him, drying him, clipping him, and bathing him again. It is so much easier to bathe him clipped. We leave about ¼” of hair on him. The clippers came with a set of combs, but none of them were short enough to actually do anything. So I just used the blade it came with. (It has a built in comb at ¼” in case you were concerned.)
For Nicki, I looked over the combs again, and discovered the other blade it also came with. This one was about 1/2”. I clipped her with that. She was of course a big fat wuss and wanted to run and hide the whole time. I poked her once on the elbow. I didn’t cut her at all, just poked her with the end of the comb. She yelped like I had cut an artery. What a brat. And she HATES baths, so I had to take a break between the clipping and the bathing and give her lots of treats and clean the hair out of the bathroom as much as possible. Of course, she shed about as much hair in the bath as I had cut off.
Like I said, they look decent for a first time. And I can always clip them again and even it out a little. Tanner has so much skin it is impossible to hold it tight enough to get a good even clip. Nicki just won’t stand up straight. She always curves or bows down. I did learn a few things though.
1) Hair slivers HURT! I got one in my big toe. Ow ow ow.
2) Don’t wear good clothes. Tanner wasn’t so bad. His hair tended to fall and stay on the floor. Nicki’s jumped all over the place and I was covered.
3) If the cat really really wants to be clipped, go ahead and let her see what all the fun is about. She kept pawing at us anytime we can near the door. I threatened to clip her, but never actually did.
4) Remove bathroom rug before starting the clipping process. Don’t just roll it up and expect it to stay out of the way.
Overall, I think it is worth it. And, the clipping keeps the house cleaner because they shed a LOT less.

The cat

So I haven’t posted anything in a while. I guess I just didn’t really know what to post. Today’s topic will be cats.
For those of you who have had or do have cats, are all cats inherently dumb as rocks? I personally believe that Jersey’s brain is slightly larger than a grain of sand. (And only slightly, because somehow, she continues to breathe on her own). Also, are all cats inherently evil or possessed by the devil? I think Jersey has 3 or 4 demons living in the space that should have been occupied by her brain. Here are my reasons for these beliefs.
1) She doesn’t learn. Anything. Okay, I take that back. She knows her name, and the sound of her food being put in her dish. She also knows that if she hears the sound of the spray bottle, she is going to get wet. However, she has not figured out that she only gets sprayed when she does stuff that we don’t want her doing- i.e. jumping on the dresser, the kitchen table, or the kitchen counters. Basically, any surface above 3’, she is not allowed on. But she doesn’t get that. She just waits until I am not around to spray her. How do I know? I have had to quit using cups for water and switched to a water bottle, because every night, she would knock the cup off the dresser trying to drink out of it.
2) She is evil. She does things just because she knows they irritate me. This is what I think anyway. In the middle of the night, she starts playing with her straw. (This is just an ordinary drinking straw, she has somehow commandeered. She likes to bat it around. It makes quite a bit of noise for a straw, which is probably why she likes it.) Once I am awake and she hears me moving around, she comes running in the bedroom and goes under the bed. She goes up to the head of the bed and SCRATCHES THE SHEETS!! I have tried everything to make her stop. She doesn’t understand no, we have already discussed the problem with the spray bottle. So my last line of defense is to forcibly remove her. She has started to get around this by only scratching Alann’s side of the bed. So this morning, I am laying there, she is scratching, I am very upset. So I dive over the side of the bed to remove her. She runs away, I try to reach her, and I end up rolling out of the bed and I hit my elbow on the dresser. It really hurts, still. I think she has run out of the bedroom, so I close the door. Not a minute after I am all snug in the covers again, there she goes with the scratching again. This time, she does run out from under the bed, and I catch her and throw her into the TV room and lock her in. I feel like I only have a few options. I can close our bedroom door, but that shuts out the dogs and then Nicki will have issues. Or I have to lock the cat in the TV room, but then she is super crazy in the morning when I get up. So it is a no-win situation. My next step is Bitter Apple, but I don’t want to smell it any more than the cat does, and I am worried that it will upset the dogs too. And that doesn’t solve the getting on counters thing. Of course, if Someone who shall remain nameless would quit turning on the sink faucet when she gets up there, that might help.
3) These situations make me REALLY angry. She doesn’t really get anger though. The dogs do. They understand that Mom is angry and they either stop what they are doing or try to make me happy. (Tanner likes to bring me “presents” when I am sad or upset- usually his favorite toys, which don’t help me much, but it’s the thought that counts I guess.) The cat just keeps doing whatever it is she is doing. I am kind of lost as to what to do. I don’t necessarily want to get rid of the cat. She is endearing when she wants to be. And it is fun to watch her play with Nicki. But I really don’t want these things to continue. Maybe once we get her spayed she will be better. Some things I have read say that a spayed cat is a calmer cat. So maybe she is just in her rebellious teenage puberty years and we need to nip it in the bud and get her spayed asap. On the whole, the kitty was cute and fun, but I am in all ways, a dog person. Dogs learn. Dogs communicate. The cat seems to have ADD. I will be sitting there, petting her, she’s purring, and then all of a sudden she runs off to go eat.

I was watching a show last night about the difference in the way that chimps learn compared to humans. People teach. Chimps learn by mimicking. The really interesting part was when they talked about pointing. Babies learn to point before they learn speech. It creates a triangle. The baby points to show mom what he is looking at, mom looks too while interacting with baby. Chimps don’t do this. However, DOGS do. They did an experiment where a dog and a person are sitting on the floor. There was a screen between them. There were two cups with the person behind the screen. The person put a treat under one cup, moved both cups the same way, same amount of time, and then removed the screen. The dog just sat there. When the person pointed (no words) to the cup with the treat, that is the cup that the dog went to, every time. My dogs learn and communicate. Tanner knows more English than Nicki, but Nicki knows enough to go get Tanner when she wants something (which I think is really amusing). Tanner is Nicki’s interpreter. Tanner knows so much English that I was talking on the phone with Taunya one day, and said “okay, let’s go to the dog park” and Tanner got all excited. He knows dog park, car, ride, out (as in outside, but also as in leave the room), outside, potty, off the bed, leave it (as in stop doing that), off (in general), food, dinner, water, drink, eat, treat, cross the street, Kong (a toy filled with treats), ball, play, monkey (as in, “are you a monkey?”), not to mention the “tricks” of play dead, lie down, shake, sit, stay (sometimes). And he plays find the treat and peek-a-boo. He used to know turn left and turn right, but we don’t walk so much anymore, so he doesn’t use it as often. The cat knows her name. Not that she comes when called, but she will usually look at you.

What are your ideas about the cat? What should I do?