Gratuitous Kitteh Monday

I spy with my my little eye....a furry guy with my Christmas bows to untie.

Le sigh...

Gratuitous Kitteh Monday

Miss Thang looks adorable snuggling up to her Yeowww! Banana...I've had these things for a few years and they love them. They're filled with catnip and the two I originally purchased have been used and abused intensely. Mostly, they just sit there and lick them over-and-over-and-over. There's a few bunny kicks thrown in for enthusiasm.

They have thousands of 5-star reviews on Amazon, and they're worth it! I'm going to order 2 more for Christmas. :-)

A Thang and Her Banana

Gratuitous Kitteh Monday

We officially went from summer to winter seemingly overnight. The temps last week were in the 80's and 70's and now we are in the 30's at night with 50's and 40's in the daytime. The leaves are barely starting to change and normally they are at their peak by the week of October.

Stinkeye!

The kittehs OTOH are taking advantage of the shift in sunlight and a knitted blanket I have on my office chair. Miss Thang is giving me the stinkeye and Chaz will probably start annoying her any minute in order to get her to jump out of the chair. That way, he can have it all to himself. They both "fight" over it...it's been funny to watch.

This year has been so strange weather wise in Virginia. I'm sort of glad I did not have a vegetable garden, as I've heard that all the rain made local gardening a bear. Split tomatoes, blight, fungus, and weeds, weeds, weeds. It would have been a hot, muddy, mess for sure. Although I miss having a garden, it HAS been nice to have the extra time and energy to do fun things again. We're going to have trick-or-treaters...big difference from living in the country for 6 years!

Missing, but NOT missing my old veggie garden!

Gratuitous Kitteh Monday

Ugh...I've been up since 4 a.m. and I'm dragging butt.

One of the smoke detectors in this house decided to go off and announce "FIRE!" at that glorious hour of the morning. It's one of those newer detectors where it not only belts out that annoying chirping alarm, but it speaks to you as well.

I was out of bed in a hot second, and then it stopped as soon as it went off. I searched the house from top-to-bottom before going back to bed. Of course I didn't go back to sleep because I kept imagining the worst...what if there's a fire in the attic that I can't see? Do I smell smoke? What is that noise outside?...it was the rain.

Sigh. This house is cursed. Probably the batteries need to be changed in the detectors, as I'm sure they've never been changed ever.

Of course hubby slept thru the whole thing...how can they do that?  Anywho, Miss Thang has no problems sleeping, especially if there is a beam of sunlight involved.

Sunny Thang

Gratuitous Kitteh Monday

We're still settling in. Chaz has gotten over his spookiness of seeing cars and people pass by outside the front of the house. Now it's a constant source of entertainment. I guess moving from the country to the suburbs has been a big change for all of us.

Watching the world go by

We are really loving having more free time in suburbia. Although, all last week I was in Oklahoma City for work. I had the most AMAZING steak at Cattleman's Steakhouse. This steak will haunt me...

The best steak I've ever had

I told hubby, "As god as my witness, I WILL take you there someday." I might be back around that area again next year, so maybe that will happen. Next month is Burlington, MA.

It's amazing the things you find when you are unpacking. :-) These glasses are an endless source of entertainment.

Who dat?

Gratuitous Kitteh Monday

Ugh. Monday.

It's been interesting watching this neighborhood's routines outside my new office window. Lots of animals come-and-go, cats, dogs, people walking dogs, kids going to or coming from the bus stop, neighbors checking mail, garbage trucks, the mail carrier. Ah, suburbia!

The kittehs have adjusted amazingly well, although they are not used to looking out the window and seeing so much activity. It still spooks them.

We've "officially" been in this house 3 weeks now and have only just been able to start upacking the upstairs due to oh....so....many...issues...with...this...house. I can't even begin to start.

I will say that simply maintaining a home and keeping it safe and clean are two entirely different things - both of which the current owners were not very good at.

ANYWHO...

I'm keeping this box here as a reminder that I have a package to send out to my sister. But the kittehs have claimed it a their new, favorite perch. Now what do I do?

Rainy day observation perch

Gratuitous Kitteh Monday

Ugh. This is the quiet before the storm.

Chaz is taking a moment of solitude in an afternoon sunbeam…

Meditating Kitteh

We loaded and unloaded 2, 15 ft. U-Haul truckloads of “stuff” this weekend into the new place and we are both incredibly SORE today. We are positively out-of-shape. There is certainly a huge yard-sale on the horizon once we are back in a real neighborhood.

Our “big move” isn’t until May 12^th, but I’m in L.A. next week, so there’s a week lost out of that time. Our goal is to only have the movers move the big stuff and packed boxes, so we are taking care of all the loose odds-n-ends, most of the basement, and the garage, plus all the packing.

This is certainly better than the 4-day packing blitz we did in Florida for sure, but it still sucks.

“I LOVE MOVING”…said no one ever!

New digs

Beautiful, big kitchen...a must have!

The house we are moving too is really nice and it’s practically brand new (3 yrs. old), but we have found upon closer inspection and from talking with the neighbors, the owners had 3 dogs (golden retrievers) and a cat. There is HAIR EVERYWHERE! They did not do a post, move-out clean and the floors are disgusting, not to mention a suspicious odor is coming from one of the spare bedrooms upstairs. So, a total house clean, with professional carpet cleaning is being done this week. There are other things that need to be addressed as well, but I’m too tired to go into it.

I’ve never understood why people buy homes and then not take care of them. Why spend so much money and then watch your property values go down the drain?

Anyway, as usual, we will leave this house in better condition than we found it.

Soapy Friday: I'm Gelling (Sort of), Are You?

Happy Friday everyone. Posts for Ye' Olde Blog will most likely be a once-a-week thing for the next couple of months due to all the chaos of moving. We start packing this weekend.

Miss Thang is being chill, though. I know they know something is going on.

Chillin' Thang

It's Cherry Blossom time here up in D.C.! The trees are at their "peak" over today and the next day or two. It's fun to go see this amazing display of beauty....once. In order to make the most of it and the crowds, you really need to get there before sunrise. We did this the first year we moved up here.

Cherry Blossoms in D.C.

Getting excited about prospects for our new "home". It's a rental, but has very high potential for us to buy if we decide we like it and the neighborhood down the road. I mean, look at this basement! It's finished and it's ALL MINE! No carpets = a perfect soaping studio.

So many possibilities!

Speaking of soap...

I remade some of my 100% olive oil soap (aka Castille soap) and used tumeric to color it. I try to keep my olive oil soaps all natural using only essential oils (EOs) and natural colorants.

The EO blend I mixed as called "Sunset" and was a beautiful blend of grapefruit, tangerine, ylang ylang, litsea cubeba, and rose geranium. I wanted to color the soap a sort of orange/rust to compliment the citrus notes in the EO blend and look what happened:

I'm gelling...sort of

This is called a gel ring. When a soap "gels" after it is made, it heats-up either naturally or is forced to heat-up using a heating pad, insulation, or even an oven. "Gelling" a soap contributes to more saturated colors and less chance for soda ash. Soap crafters either prefer to gel all the way or not at all, as a partial gel (like in my soap) can be distracting and take away from a beautiful soap design.

Neither a good mother, nor from Marseille

In my case, I think it contributes and makes it more interesting. I tried to gel this soap by putting it on a pre-heated heating pad and then turned it off, as I was afraid it would overheat. I guess I should have left it on.

BTW, "Savon de la Bonne Mere Marseille" means "Soap from the Good Mother of Marseille" which I am neither. I need to make my own stamp.

Gratuitous Kitteh Monday

Ugh, tis the season to be frantic. Chaz is enjoying all the boxes and goodies that are coming and going...

Chaz says, "Thanks for the box Mommy!"

This year's "Great Annual Cookie Bake" went off without a hitch and were sent out last week.

Cookies, cookies, and more cookies

We had SNOW! This is probably the earliest we've ever had a significant amount of snow before Christmas. It was just starting to snow in this pic, but we eventually got 3 inches...SIGH. I love snow over the holidays!

Let it snow, let is snow, let it snow

My house is a mess. At any given time, my dining room table is a staging area for packing and wrapping. But I love it all!

Can you believe that Christmas is in 7 days???

A Christmas mess

Gratuitous Kitteh Monday

Sorry for the radio silence. Life has been busy and we’re all now hurdling 1,000 miles an hour towards Christmas. ACK!

First, hubby and I took a well-needed 7-day trip back to our old stomping grounds in Orlando and then with family in St. Petersburg for Thanksgiving. It was a social tour for sure, but it was great to see all of our old friends and spent time with family over the holidays.

Hubby, me, Pete and Becky...miss my friends!

 Wish I had gotten more pics of everyone, but for some reason I forgot to whip out the camera. Guess that means we were having a good time!

Funny thing. I asked the hotel for a pic of Ryan Gosling placed in the room in the “special requests” section of our online reservation. This is always fun, because #1 I forget that I do this and I crack up when it actually happens, and #2 I like to see which companies actually do this and how they do it. FTR, Hampton Inn rules and Marriott drools.

Hey girl...no frame but enjoy the view!

Since we’ve been back. Chaz has been glued to my side. He’s such a needy kitteh.

Clingy kitteh missed me!

Decking the halls has been a priority, but it seems everything has had a roadblock: replace lights because the old ones burnt-out, repurchase garland because the lights-burnt out, can’t find things…grrr.

Choose your fonts wisely...LOL!

"The Great Cookie Bakeoff” will commence this coming weekend and I haven’t even made any cookie dough! This is the only exercise I feel like doing right now…

Workout routine for the holidays

Happy National Cat Day!

What are the chances that National Cat Day and Gratuitous Kitteh Monday BOTH fall on the same day?

Chaz doesn't seem to care...

And Miss Thang only cares if there is food involved...

IOW, cats will be cats and don't give a hot fart WHAT day it is. Pretty precise, if I must say so myself. :-)

Gratuitous Kitteh Monday

I know; I know....where have I been?

I've been around mostly doing my fall yard clean-up and cooking good things, which for some reason I never am motivated enough to take pictures of and post. Or I do take pictures and I don't like how they look or I just don't post, or it tasted good, but just didn't LOOK good.

Anyway, kittehs are great. Miss Thang still continues to benefit from just a smidge of Prozac every morning. The weather is cooling off, so both felines are enjoying the annual arrival of the morning fire-place fire, which they both enjoy settling next to after their breakfasts.

Halloween is just around the corner, so this cartoon is perfect for the occasion. It's about right...yes? :-)

Gratuitous Kitteh Monday

It's blissfully raining this Monday morning, with the occasional thunder. That means both cats have disappeared and are hiding - they hate thunderstorms and Chaz doesn't even like the sound of rain.

It's been a while since I wrote a GKM post, as life has been hectic, but fortunately the kitteh life has been mostly boring...

I'm cute and I know it!

Miss Thang is still on Prozac, although just the tiniest amount possible (2.5 mg). We have found it's just enough to help her manage stress/anxiety, but not be a recluse. She seems happy and balanced. Time will tell if we will keep her on it.

Gratuitous Kitteh Monday

Whelp, we're back to reintroduction. I had to take Chaz to to the vet last week, which turned into a $1,200 odyssey and that of course made him SMELL differently when I brought him home.

What happened was Chaz had a very bad stomach/digestive reaction to a new hairball ointment we gave him...basically he had what we would describe as food poisoning or a "bad dish of whatever..." You know, when you eat something bad and you're hating life for several hours/days.

When that happens to a kitteh, it basically shuts down their whole digestive system. They won't eat, they won't drink, they won't pee/poop, which can be very dangerous and damaging if it goes on for days. So, we had to take him to the vet, have several x-rays done, IV fluids, medicine, and even kept at the vet's office overnight for observation.

Miss Thang was having NONE OF IT when he came back...

I tried rubbing both cats down with vanilla extract and separated them for a few days, but she is still hissy/growley and wants to lunge at him in open spaces. She's afraid of him because he smells and is acting differently and her instinct is to act out aggressively. We decided to put her back on Prozac again, as we've noticed over the past few months that she has been ramping up her aggression reactions to anything that scares her or makes her feel anxious....a loud noise, me running to grab my phone when it's ringing, Chaz behaving differently.

Chaz is not out of the woods yet. He hasn't pooped in almost a week, so will need to take him back to the vet today. He's not going to like what they are going to do to him!

Sigh. Too. Much. Drama.

Gratuitous Kitteh Monday

It's been a while since I've done a GKM post, as I'm trying not to have a GKM post AND a Soapy Friday post in the same week. Still, I can't make any promises... :-)

Hubs and I just came back to work from a week "staycation," which was originally supposed to be a trip back to O-town, but plans got changed so we hung around the house/area instead. It was nice because we didn't have any big projects going on and we actually got to rest and enjoy ourselves.

It's always hard to get back into the groove. Miss Thang didn't miss a beat; however, and was beside my desk at 4 p.m. begging for dinner.

She does this EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

Such a cutie...

Gratuitous Kitteh Monday

Sorry about the lapse in posts, but SPRING IS IN THE AIR, and I've been generally busy trying to get things done around here before the heat, pollen, and bugs get out of hand.

But stay tuned; later this week I will post how to make awesome, grilled pork ribs and maybe update on some gardening stuff.

Happy Spring! - Gratuitous Kitteh Monday

Whooo boy! It's been a busy week or so, but today is the first day of Spring, and I'm happy that last week's snow storm didn't take out my newly sprouted garden greens.

Here's what I've been up to lately...

First, there was the time change, which I HATE. Don't get me wrong, I eventually love having more daylight time at the end of the day, but the mornings are a beyotch...WHEW!

Second, I've made a bit more soapy goodies...

I retried my 100% Olive Oil Castile soap and I love, luuuurve how it turned out!

I tried another recipe where I did my first in-the-pot-swirl and I love how it turned out and the soap quality. This is a nice, hard bar, but I have some soda ash to deal with. A soap drying rack is on my "need" list for the near future.

I made another batch of "Pure Honey" soap and I'm still on the fence about the fragrance oil. I actually mixed this fragrance batch with some cybilla almond to make a "Honey Almond" soap and the almond is coming through more in the scent. Time will tell after it cures.

I'm still playing with bath bombs and such. I'm solid on bubble bars and I still am tweaking my bath bomb recipe, but I'm about 90% there.

Third, hubby and I started tackling our back porch rescreen project, but first we had to dig up all these perennials so they wouldn't get stomped on and before they started to really grow. I am SO SORE today! We only got the front part of the porch rescreened over the weekend, but that was the hardest part out of the whole project.

Plus it rained over the weekend, so it was basically getting up on high ladders with air compressed staple and nail guns in soft, sinking mud. Fun times.

It's all downhill from here. Famous last words, right?

And fourth, I made the most fan-friggin-delicious pot of Bean and Bacon soup last week! I'm definitely going to make it again soon so I can tell you about it.

Chaz says, listening to all of this work being done has made him tired, so he's just going to take another nap. :-)

Gratuitous Kitteh Monday

Well, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but it got hot outside all of a sudden! Spring chores that I normally would do 20-30 days from now suddenly needed to be done...soooo, it's been that and bath products. Again!

Also, my "real work" has kept me busy with a project to deliver, so all day long it's this with Chaz:

Touch-me-don't-touch-me....GOOD LORD CAT MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!!

Gratuitous Kitteh Monday

Last night, hubby and I went for a walk with barely a jacket on, but look what we woke up to this morning:

Gratuitous Kitteh Monday

2017 be like...