Life as a Homeless Crazy Cat Lady

It was only for a brief period of time, but now I have a better feeling of what it's like to live in your car...as a crazy cat lady.

Today was the day to get the RV in for service.  We needed to find out what made the check engine light come on back in Missouri and get an oil change.  That required Left Brain driving it in for these procedures and for me to camp out with my feline friends, George and Gracie.  This was how I started to celebrate my 62nd birthday.  Sheesh.  I couldn't even get the cats to wear the stupid party hats or anything.  And with all those claws I sure wasn't going to have any balloons in the car!

Nuh uh!  Don't even think about strapping those stupid party hats on our heads or you will feel our wrath!

So we woke at 5:30 and shuffled two bewildered cats out to the Honda and then prepared the RV for moving.  Whether you're going one mile or one thousand, it's the same procedure.  Everything is stowed away safely, all utilities unhooked and slides brought in.

I watched my husband pull away as I started trying to calm down two excited cats who were nervously tossing fur all about the car.  It was no time at all before the food dish was kicked over spreading food all over the floor of the passenger side.  I told them the dashboard had too much of a slant to lay on, but would they listen?


Then they both used the litter box, which was good thing I guess, except for the horrible odor in a small space with windows up.  It was worse than sharing a sleeping bag with someone who farts in bed.  But that passed and thankfully it was a nice cool day so the windows up felt good.

I tried to read for a bit, but it's hard to do with a continous parade of paws over your body, flicking their tails like some kind of crazed drum majorette.   Up and down, over the lap, up the shoulder, down the other side...again and again and again.

Finally I decided the best thing to do would be crawl in the back with them and try to take a little nap.  Now our old van would have been comfy, but the Honda CRV's seats don't really go completely flat so there was a bit of an incline and a ridge right about where my ribs were.

I did find that a container of plastic bags and a roll of paper towels do make a suitable pillow.  Sensing that I was relaxed enough to sleep (or at least pretend to) they finally settled down and George curled by my feet and Gracie draped herself over my arms and part of my head.

It's not easy to get comfortable wedged between a litter box, a plate of cat food and two apprehensive cats.  Maybe it was laying on a toy mouse that was bugging me.  I think it was a toy mouse...I was afraid to look.

After a restful nap (note the sarcasm here) I prepared to return to the front seat, slip on my clogs and find a bathroom.  I don't recall any difficulty in getting into the back, why was this so hard?

I'm sure watching me try to manuever my portly self between the bucket seats and into the drivers seat looked a bit like a Tim Conway skit.  After several attempts and curious stares from the cats...thankfully no people...I managed to get halfway there and got stuck on the arm rest.  Now I was working up a full fledged case of the giggles...not good with a full bladder for an older woman.

It was about 10:30 when I finally prevailed and was almost to the campground facilities when I saw See-More (our RV) turning down the road.  This confused Left Brain a bit as he saw the car with two cats and nobody else in it.

I arrived back just in time to help direct him back unto the pads for the jacks.  He hooked up the outside stuff and I made the inside ready for the return of two grateful cats.  Gracie went in fairly smoothly but George leapt from my arms in his excitement to get in and clawed up my forearm.  It seems life with George will always be a bit on the bloody side.

Then I vacummed the fur, litter and food out of the car and started to get it ready for packing up to leave.

When I tried to fanagle my husband into taking me out for lunch for my birthday he said no.  What?  It seems our daughter and her clan have arranged a surprise birthday party celebration for me tonight.  Hmmm.  Okay, I can handle that.

So he had a sandwich and I heated up the leftover spaghetti for lunch and started to play with my notes for our North Shore trip coming up soon.

All in all it's been a good day and a grand start to my 62nd year.  I've already filed for my Social Security online, so that's done.  I think it's gonna be another great year.

Long Live the Queen of Crazy Cats

And I'm back

I've been off the blog for a few days and it feels good to be back again.  Last weekend I needed to return to La Crosse for a clinic appointment with my doctor to review my CPAP usage.  But I do have my priorities and arranged to have lunch with Judi and Beth.  Judi's sister Karen also joined us, so we had a table for four at Pickermans.  Oh the joys of one last bowl of loaded baked potato soup one more time before leaving the area!

Then I went to my appointment and they ran the computer chip that is in the machine to determine the usage and success.  My report was glowing and he suggested framing it and becoming the poster child for CPAP machines.  There were only a couple of air leakage gaps and I told him that no doubt was due to the cats playing with the machine.  There was the instance when Gracie sat on the machine and pushed the button to start it up.  They both gazed at the blowing air coming out of the headpiece.  Great.  Now they consider this their personal cooling device.

It was nice to be able to run some errands in the old stomping grounds where you know where you are and can move about easily.  One of my goals was to take my latest little quilt into the Rivers Bend Quilt Shop and ask them to show me again how to use the binding tool.  Chris was a bit stumped at first also so we watched what she considered to be the best YouTube video on it.  There came that moment where the one missing step was pointed out and we both went "aha!". I made notes and printed them up when I got home, along with photos of each step so I can use it again next time.

Thanks to my friends Al and Kathy I had lovely accommodations for the night I spent in town.  They left the front door open for me and warned me about the dog.  They "babysit" for this dog often and it seems to be with them more than the owners...lucky dog. 

After getting past the barking and growling package of fur and teeth I parked my stuff downstairs in the guest room.  Then I spotted the bathtub.  It has been about a year since I've soaked in a bathtub, so I grabbed my pajamas and book, found a towel and proceeded to settle in.  Wanting to be sure there were no unpleasant surprises, I locked the front door.  I mean, this is their house; they have a key...right?

Since the tub was filling with water and I was singing my ode to joy of bathing I didn't hear my cell phone ring.  Nor did I hear the doorbell.  Or the shouts to open the door.  It seems that their friends had picked them up to go out to supper and they didn't think they'd need a key since the front door was OPEN.  They finally did locate a key and got in.  Boy, talk about the house guest that makes themselves completely at home ...and locking out the owners.  I'll probably not be invited back there again!

But all was forgiven and we went to the Farmer's Market in the morning followed by breakfast at Fayze's.  I wanted to pay for the bill to show my gratitude but Al snatched it up before I had a chance.  The waitress apologized to me as I had told her I wanted to have the check.  I told her I would not be back again for at least a year for that insolence!  Then explained that I wouldn't be back for a year anyway.

Then it was off to Art Fair on the Green to see all my artist friends.  I saw my tent in one area and my tables and grids in another, each being used by their new owner.  It was so nice to say hi to all my friends but it did feel a bit odd.  It's like having been part of an organization that you've left.  You have all the warm fuzzy feelings but you don't belong any more.  Very bittersweet.

I had considered staying a second night but found myself getting very homesick and missing my kitties.  So, it was a bit before noon when I drove away to return to my RV.

Sunday brought a sense of lethargy and I was trying to work on a sewing project I'd started before.  We did a little shopping and such but pretty much had a quiet day.

Monday was spent stuck in a mental fog.  I couldn't get going, nothing seem to be working...everything I touched fell apart.  I set off to return some items and do more shopping by myself.  The restaurant I was excited to try was dismal and I left and ended up at a fast food Chinese place instead.  The shopping I was so looking forward to was the same. Nothing I tried on seemed to fit or look right on me...I hated my body...I was so tired I could hardly hold my eyes open.  I could feel the spiral into the descent of depression that I battle with from time to time.  Hello Darkness, my old friend.

 So, skipping out on grocery shopping I went home and crawled back into bed for a nap.  That made the early evening feel like a Twilight Zone episode and I just couldn't come to.
So we watched Criminal Minds and ate left overs and went to bed early again in hopes of a better day on Tuesday.  Tuesday was the day we planned to take down the EZ Twist tend and start packing stuff up.  During the night and early morning we listened to the continuous sounds of rain.

Today Left Brain takes the car in for its oil change and Wednesday he takes the RV in for servicing very early in the morning.  That is the day I will be sitting in the car with two cats while he is gone.  It will also be the day I turn 62.  I wonder if the cats would agree to wear  little party hats and share cake with me while we park?

We are both suffering from Hitch Itch and are anxious to get the rig on the road again.  We've been sitting too long in one spot and it's time to move!

Long Live the Queen of the Ups and Downs

Update on the Arizona Buzzard travel bug

I had left my first ever travel bug in Arizona to be found and moved.  This geocaching is new to both of us and although I have other travel bugs ready to launch, I have only sent one out into the world.

And out into the world it has gone!  It left Arizona and headed straight for Guam.  This was a success that I could hardly believe.  I was hoping for just someplace in the same state or perhaps a neighboring one.

I've just received an email that it has been found in Guam and is on it's way to....wait for it....wait for it.....JAPAN.

Hmmmm.  My bug has been places I've never traveled.

Long Live the Queen of Travel Bugs

Photoshop Friday - keep those feet a moving

I'm posting the Friday post a day early as I will be back in the La Crosse area tomorrow and not sure when I'd get it posted.

Here's another use of the radial blur filter applied to a photo.

The original is of the feet of the soccer players.  This is where the action takes place, so it seemed like the place to shoot.

Then I added some blur to it to give it a little movement.  Like there wasn't already a lot of movement going on!

Long Live the Queen of Da Feet

A new powder room for George and Gracie

There is a little shelf in the bedroom where the litter box fits, but it has a 4" ledge in the very back of it near the outside wall where I image some wires and cables are hidden.

This prevents the litter box from going all the way underneath and means it has to be moved each time bring the bedroom slide in.

This this inefficient irks me I just knew I had to do something about it.  So it was with trepidation that Left Brain asked me what the lumber was for when I returned from my shopping excursion.

I used 2x4s to create a support for the platform that would even out the space to a level platform.  Now the litter box tucks all the way to the wall.

Next I inserted a tension rod to hang a privacy curtain to block the area from view...and hopefully to corral some of the litter as they are now forced to exit at one end of their bathroom.    Adding a curtain blocks everything from view.

the quilt of sleeping cats was a panel I bought while In Alaska - purrfect for our bedroom

And THEN...I'm so excited about this I could just spit...I found a litter genie at Target!  I can image several of you scratching your head about now and asking, what the heck is a litter genie?

Well, let me explain what this little marvel does.  It has a roll of plastic inside that you pull down and tie a knot in to be used as a receptacle for the used litter.  Oh them golden nuggets!  You insert the clumps in the top and pull the tab to drop it into the storage container.

 

 

This eliminates the view and smell of the waste until the bag fills up, which with two cats takes about a week.  Then you open the middle area of the genie and pull down a bit more of the plastic, cutting it off with the cutter inside and tie another knot.  Remove the bag and repeat the process with another knot to create the second storage bag.

Having the litter box raised up the 4" allows the bathroom scale to have its own little parking garage as well as store the refills for the litter genie.

The container has it's own little scoop holder on the side and is upright and narrow, taking up very little space so it sets up on the platform as well.

It's nice to have the walkway open again and the litter at a minimum.  I don't even mind the litter that escapes with my new Dyson stick vacuum cleaner.  I have got this all under control now!

Long Live the Queen of Cat Bathroom Remodelling

What's for Supper Wednesday Cucumber Salad

These hot sticky days of summer call for a cool and refreshing supper.  Since we tend to eat the larger meal of the day at noon, we like our suppers to be simple and light.

Enter the cucumber salad!  This is yet another I've found on Facebook and it is easy as well as tasty.

 

Marinated Cucumbers, Onions, and Tomatoes

 3 medium cucumbers, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick

 1 medium onion, sliced and separated into rings

 3 medium tomatoes, cut into wedges

 1/2 cup vinegar

 1/4 cup sugar

 1 cup water

 2 teaspoons salt

 1 teaspoon fresh coarse ground black pepper

 1/4 cup oil 

Combine ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.

 Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving

Long Live the Queen of Cool Cukes

Time with friends

It's been a pleasant time here at Ham Lake. 

We've been to soccer games where I got to watch Kiersten be the goalie for her team.  That is one tough little girl.  I'd be scared of getting kicked in the face.  It had been raining earlier (seems to be normal where ever we go lately) and she managed to get pretty muddied up.  But their team won so we celebrated by going to Cherry Berry for self serve frozen yogurt, one of my favorite things to do.

Note the color of her socks versus all the other white ones.  The dude photobombing us is her dad, Ted.

When Kiersten was away at Bible Camp, Emily had her friend come to visit with her.  They dragged what the neighbors here have been calling "the party barge" out into the lake for a little floating and conversation.

We've been able to get to know our neighbors much better as we've had some downtime to be able to visit and the weather cooperated to allow us all to be outside.

Last Wednesday we had a gathering at the pavillion so many of us could connect and share a potluck supper.  It was also a surprise birthday celebration for Doug who will be turning 62 very soon.  I've been told that I will have the same thing the last Wednesday in July but to be sure and act surprised.  Heck, with my memory I probably will be surprised.

We shared a yummy lunch with our daughter, Stephanie, at a Thai restaurant to celebrate the hiring of her new assistant.  Any excuse to gather for food works in our family.

The family is off enjoying their vacation in Yellowstone now  and Left Brain and I plan to do some work around the house for them while they are gone.  The kids bedrooms need painting before their new beds arrive, and it's much easier to get things done while they are away.  So, we'll go hang out with Zeke the WonderDog do a little painting and such.

Since we have decent internet here in the park, I took the opportunity to file for my Social Security retirement benefits.  It's still hard for me to believe I'll be 62 in July...I look so YOUNG.  My theory is if you believe it, it will be so...regardless of what my mirror indicates.

Long Live the Queen of Good Times

Redoing bedrooms

While staying at Ham Lake Campground we've been busy with odd jobs for the kids.  The girls are getting new beds and Left Brain and I went over to remove stuff and paint while they were on vacation.

Emily's room was lime green but now is purple and blue.

Kiersten's room was purple but now is purple and pink.

The big day arrived and the beds were completed and ready for installing.

Emmy's bed - this shows the desk portion and bookcases on the back wall

They are HUGE and take up almost half of the bedroom space but the girls are in love with them.

they have steps to get to the top bunk and bookcases underneath the steps also

The full sized mattress is on the top bunk and there are bookshelves galore as well as a desk underneath.

Now they are busy getting just the right "stuff" to add to their new boudoirs and there's been a lot of shopping going on.

There will be more photos as the rooms take shape.

Long Live the Queen of Neutral Colors

Mandarin Orange Monday

Well, apparently my grandkids are not the only ones that love eating cheetos.

This bird had picked up a snack somewhere along the pier and it looked so nice against the blue sky.

Long Live Queen of Junk Food Birds

Book Review - The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

This story is from Ayana Mathis and was one of the picks for Oprah's Book Club.  I enjoyed the way the book was set up with a chapter for each person and at different periods of time.

Here is the review of the story I obtained from Amazon - I hope you enjoy it.

Long Live the Queen of Reading

The newest Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection: this special eBook edition of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis features exclusive content, including Oprah’s personal notes highlighted within the text, and a reading group guide.

The arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.

A debut of extraordinary distinction: Ayana Mathis tells the story of the children of the Great Migration through the trials of one unforgettable family.

In 1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia and settles in Philadelphia, hoping for a chance at a better life. Instead, she marries a man who will bring her nothing but disappointment and watches helplessly as her firstborn twins succumb to an illness a few pennies could have prevented. Hattie gives birth to nine more children whom she raises with grit and mettle and not an ounce of the tenderness they crave. She vows to prepare them for the calamitous difficulty they are sure to face in their later lives, to meet a world that will not love them, a world that will not be kind. Captured here in twelve luminous narrative threads, their lives tell the story of a mother’s monumental courage and the journey of a nation.

Beautiful and devastating, Ayana Mathis’s The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is wondrous from first to last—glorious, harrowing, unexpectedly uplifting, and blazing with life. An emotionally transfixing page-turner, a searing portrait of striving in the face of insurmountable adversity, an indelible encounter with the resilience of the human spirit and the driving force of the American dream.

 

 

 

 

Photoshop Friday - spooky house

This is an image of an old abandoned house out in the country somewhere.  I couldn't find the original to show you for comparison but I know for a fact it didn't look this sinister.

I believe this has the glowing edges filter applied to it.  It's funny how I don't like spooky movies but it tickles me to take an innocent old house and make it look like something out of a horror flick.

I'd like to take up writing mystery thrillers, but I'd probably just scare myself doing it.  Although...there are a lot of weird ideas floating around in my head for such stories.  Perhaps I have a darker side to me than I'd realized.

Long Live the Queen of Spooky

The animals in the campground

There's quite the variety of animals here at Ham Lake Campground.  The most common of course are the goats.

But we also have peacocks.

 

And chickens.

A horse.

 

 

A llama.

 

 

There's always an abundance of four legged critters here at Ham Lake, including the racoon that visited us last night.

Long Live the Queen of the Campground

What's for Supper Wednesday

I seem to get my best recipes from Facebook lately.  Perhaps I can get rid of those cookbooks I'm hauling around yet!  Our supper last night was Mexican Stuffed Shells and they were scrumptious.

The cream cheese I had purchased was no longer useable, so I substituted some cottage cheese instead.  I think ricotta might be another good choice and would possibly be lower in fat and calories than the cream cheese.

My plan for the leftovers is to serve them on a bed of shredded lettuce to add to the feeling of having a soft shell taco, but easier to eat.

Mexican Stuffed Shells           Yield: 16 shells

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef (or ground turkey)

 1 package low-sodium taco seasoning

 4 ounces cream cheese

 16 jumbo pasta shells  (about half the box)

 1 1/2 cups salsa

 1 cup taco sauce

 1 cup cheddar cheese

 1 cup Monterrey jack cheese

 For toppings:

 3 green onions

 Sour cream

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°.

 In a pan brown the ground beef; add taco seasoning and prepare according to package directions. Add cream cheese, cover and simmer until cheese is melted. Stir together and mix well. Set aside and cool completely.

 While ground beef is cooking, cook the pasta shells according to package directions; drain. Set shells out individually on cutting board or baking sheet so that they don’t stick together.

Pour salsa on bottom of a 9×13 baking dish. Stuff each shell with 1-2 tablespoons of the meat mixture. Place shells in 9×13 pan open side up. Evenly cover shells with taco sauce. Cover dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

 After 30 minutes, add shredded cheese and bake for 10-15 more minutes with the foil removed. Top with green onions or olives if desired. Serve with sour cream and/or more salsa

Long Live the Queen of Tex-Mex Cooking - Ole!

Two Shoes Tuesday - July 16

Prompt for this week is EASY or WIND
link to Two Shoes Tuesday is http://www.josie2shoes.com/p/two-shoes-tuesday.html

Isolated in a moment of private joy. 

The rains come.

The winds blow. 

This does not dissuade her. 

She is savoring this moment of life.

Long Live the Queen

Note from the Queen:  We are not really such terrible grandparents that I would like her swing in the lake during a storm - the storm was added via photoshop.

Mandarin Orange Monday

You wouldn't imagine a sky like this in Wisconsin, the altered orangeness makes it feel like a tropical location...which Wisconsin definitely is NOT.  Okay, sometimes the humidity and mosquitoes do give a little of the sensation, but it's not the same.

There might be a bit of a tropical feel, but that's just from the humidity and mosquitoes.

View from Goose Island park, La Crosse WI - orangified

Long Live the Queen of Wisconsin Tropics

A nice quiet weekend

While we were wrangling cats out of trees the family was on vacation in Yellowstone.  So while they were gone we did a few things to the house for them....at their request that is.



I just had the worst nightmare!  I dreamt I was up a tree and so scared...oh wait, that actually DID happen.

The girls are getting new bunk beds soon and it's always easier to paint when furniture is removed, so Left Brain and I hauled the old beds downstairs and put them in the garage.  Then we proceeded to transform the walls into their current color choices.

goodbye lime green walls - hello purple and blue

I decided it would be fun to surprise them with some new stuff for their bedroom and since we picked up the paint I still had the paint samples in my possession.  So off to JoAnne's I went in search of fabric. 

I made a set of pillowcases for both of them in their new palette and then found some sheets at Kohl's that would coordinate nice with them.  This was the most fun as I had found a different way of doing pillowcases that have all finished seams and couldn't wait to try it out.

I had picked up a pattern earlier for some table runners that needed only three colors, so I used the same fabric choices to make little runners for their bookcases, dressers, whatever.

Kiersten's new walls are purple and pink, so this is the runner I created for her

Emily's room is purple and blue, so this is her new runner

This was so different from other sewing projects I did for them.  I keep oohing and aahing over some really "cute" fabric with butterflies and bugs that I have loved to use, but alas...the girls are too old for that now.

So I made sure to get fabrics that would reflect their new sophisticated ages of 12 and 10.  Okay, I went a little wilder with the 10 year old, but she's a wild kind of girl and I knew she'd like it.

Okay, I have to admit it.  I did have some help with the construction of these projects.  Gracie was right there with me as I worked on finishing these in time for their homecoming.  I couldn't have done it without her assistance.

It was a lot of fun sewing these projects for their new room.  They are the sweetest granddaughters anyone could ever ask for.  We also had the signing of the passports that arrived for our trip with them in August to Canada.

So it was a pretty special day having them gather after their return and sharing their adventures of being out west.  We looked at the photos and videos on our computer and heard all their stories.  We shared our stories of what has now become known in the campground as the Adventures of George and showed them our scratches and bites.

Long Live the Queen of Good Times



Donating Blood....the hard way

We had our first (and hopefully) last CATastrophe recently.

George and Gracie had been getting more and more comfortable being outside on their harnesses and graduated to having a length of line attached to give them access to further corners of the campsite.  All was going well...for a while.

Then we had neighbors stop over to say hi and George freaked out and took off like a bolt.  I wasn't too worried as he was in a secure harness that fastened around his neck and his chest.  That relief was short lived.

After wrapping his leash around the table legs three times in a blur of motion he managed to slip out and was streaking across the campsite and into the wooded area behind us.  This was not good.

Left Brain had the foresight to scoop up Gracie and toss her into the RV before setting off with me after George, who now decided to try some tree climbing.  Up up up he went until he settled in on a branch about 30 feet up.  This was defintely not good.

We coaxed, pleaded, begged and threatened.  Nothing worked.  We tried food - apparently being terrified out of your mind shuts down the appetite.  It doesn't seem to do that for me, nothing shuts down my appetite.

He looked totally baffled to find himself up a tree.  His expression said it seemed like a good idea at first, but now what?  Where is the reverse?  As he sat up the tree yowling and crying we scrambled for ideas as to what to do.

This is how it could have happened, but we didn't go this route.

Left Brain got out our ladder and we found it was way too short.  I tried calling the local Humane Society for ideas and she "comforted" me with a long story about a cat that had been dumped there that went up a tree and sat out 48 hours in snow and wind before they contacted a tree trimmer to go up after it.  Hmmm.  I never would have thought of that.

By now Left Brain had gone to the office and consulted with Jack, one of the managers, and they came back with a really long ladder.  I was afraid the racheting noise it made as extended would frighten him further, but he stayed on his branch.  I guess if the helicopter that flew over with mosquito pellets didn't freak him out, the ladder was inconsequential.

Jack and I held the ladder steady as Left Brain kept going upwards until he reached George.  Talking to him in a calming voice he got ahold of his scruff and one leg and managed to pry him off the tree trunk while maintaining his balance at the top of the ladder.

Holding the cat in his left hand he slowly made his way back down the ladder.  I moved into position to take George as soon as he was close enough.  Bad move.  Apparently George was not expecting another person to be grabbing him and he erupted into a fury of fur, teeth and claws.

He started to run deeper into the woods and I managed to get hold of a rear leg and tail to pull him back.  This is where it really got ugly.  He seemed to turn himself inside out and upside down and spin counterclockwise three times all the while raking with all four feet and biting.

Left Brain and I lost our grip on him, partially due to the pain and shock of all the blood running down our arms and he galloped towards the RV.  Thank goodness, it was our RV and he went in a good direction.

First he was on the wheel axle and I tried to crawl underneath to get a grip on him, but he slithered his way higher and up into the engine.  Oh crap, now what will we do?

But Left Brain was one step ahead of me (as he usually is) and he was already inside the RV and in action.  He removed the screws from the hump between the two front seats and very quietly lifted off the cover.  At first he couldn't see him, but then he spotted the back of his head as George was watching me trying to advance with a now very bloody quilt.

I heard Left Brain yell "I got him!" and I ran into the RV, not sure how he could get the cat from inside, but then I was not yet aware of his level of genius.

Once he had an eye on George's scruff, he took immediate action and grabbed him and somehow manuevered him through the engine and up into the RV.  He was safe and in the RV!  And we are leaking blood like a bad war movie.

After we washed our wounds and applied some antibacterial ointment I checked on George to see for myself that he really was indeed inside the RV.  He was in the same hiding spot as the day he came into the RV for the first time.  I figured now was not the time to try to pet him and just left him alone.

That evening Left Brain and I shared battle wounds with our scratches, scrapes and punctures.  My left hand was throbbing with pain that night, as was his, but by the second day it was feeling better, even though the swelling still prevented bending my index finger. 

George pretty much stayed a recluse for a day and a half, only coming out to eat and use the litter box, but allowed us to pet him and even pick him up quite soon.

This has probably set him back a bit on his adjustment and we won't try taking him outside again as he seems to be much happier as a strictly indoor cat.  His papers from the shelter mentioned that he had a fear of the outdoors, but we thought with time and going slow he might overcome that.  Now it doesn't seem like a goal we want to pursue any further.

Gracie seems to really enjoy being outside on the leash and harness and we'll keep working with her so she can enjoy that part of her new RV'ing live.  George seems very content to sit in the window and just watch what goes on outside.

Long Live the Queen of Tree Climbing Cats

Photoshop Friday - La Crosse

Here is a scene from my old stomping grounds.  It was taken from a roof on one of the buildings.  Don't ask.

It's pretty creepy being up there at night and it's not something I will probably do again, even if I did have the protection of the Divine Miss M guarding me.

Here is the same shot but with posterized effects, which I like more than the original.  To me this adds a touch of drama. But then I always like the altered forms best anyway.

Long Live the Queen of High Place

What's for Supper Wednesday

My friend, Karen, shared her "One Pot Spaghetti" with me and I had my doubts about it since it sounded too easy.  It was SO tasty!

I'm a big fan of using as few pots and pans as possible, so this was perfect for me.  I'm thinking it could probably be done in a crock pot also, but I haven't tried it yet.

One Pot Spaghetti

 12 oz pasta (I used Linguine)

1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes with liquid

1 lg sweet onion cut in julienne strips

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced (I used chopped)

1/2 t red pepper flakes

2 t dried oregano leaves (I zapped fresh in the microwave for 2 min)

2 lg sprigs basil, chopped (I had frozen from last year's batch)

4 1/2 c vegetable broth   (regular broth NOT low sodium)

2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil

Parmesan cheese for garnish 

Directions

-In large soup pot add uncooked pasta, tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil.

-Add vegetable broth.

-Sprinkle pepper flakes and oregano on top.

-Drizzle with oil.

-Cover pot and bring to a boil.

- Reduce to low simmer and keep covered.

-Cook about 10 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes or so.

- Cook until almost all liquid has evaporated – leaving about an inch of liquid in bottom of pot  but you can reduce as desired.

-Season with salt and pepper; stir pasta several times to distribute liquid in bottom of pot.

Although I'm sure this recipe would be just fine as is, I added julienned zucchini and peppers as well as some hot Italian sausage (pretty much kills the kosher aspect of this fine recipe)  We were thinking shrimp would  be good in here also.

 

Bon Appetit!

 

Long Live the Queen of Gastronomic Delights