Thursday 13: Hi

Since I haven’t blogged in almost three months, I thought a Thursday 13 would be a good way to start back and catch up.

1.    Since cat pictures are always a good way to start, enjoy this one of Caroline.  The bed she’s in clamps to the side of my desk, so she has a comfy place to “supervise” me on my work-from-home days.

2.    Caroline has had a lot of work to supervise during my blogging break.  I got assigned to help another team with a project that had a very tight deadline, so I was putting in some extra hours.  We made it, though, and (fingers crossed) it should be January before I’m dealing with any more super-tight deadlines. 

3.    Charlie does not involve himself in my work. 

4.    Nick and I celebrated our 17^th wedding anniversary in September.  It doesn’t seem like it has been that long! 

5.    Theodore turned one at the end of August.

6.    It’s beginning to look and feel like Fall is really here.  We’ve had highs in the low 70s and lows in the mid-40s. 

7.    I’ve switched to my Fall cards for my buddies with Chemo Angels and Senior Angels.

8.    I’ve been crocheting again. 

9.    I found this tutorial and liked the way it looked, so I made one (with no plan for giving it to any particular person).  I enjoyed making it, and I love the texture the stitches create.  (Note:  I used an H hook and a shorter starting chain for a narrower scarf.)

10. During the decluttering/organizing that we did during the spring and summer, I realized that I have A LOT of yarn I had forgotten about.  I came across this green, which is our neighbor’s (Lori) favorite color.  I asked Lori if she’d like a scarf in that color, and she said yes. 

 

11. When I dropped off Lori’s scarf, I asked if anyone else would like a scarf.  Fortunately, a few people said yes.  I’m almost finished with a pink scarf for one of the girls.  Next up is a light blue one for one of the girls, and a dark blue one for one of the boys.  One of the other boys really liked the original gray one, so I gave that one to him. 

12. We got the cats an ice cream truck (remember how much they loved the taco truck), which they enjoyed.

13. I’m working on catching up with visiting everyone’s blogs and hope to “see” you soon.  

March Wrap-Up

Since I missed doing a Thursday 13, I thought I’d do a March wrap-up for the random things since my last Thursday 13.

A cat picture is always a good place to start, so enjoy this one of Charlie in a basket.  He doesn’t exactly fit in the basket, but he still enjoyed hanging out in it.

We were close enough to some of the NC wildfires to get a lot of smoke and falling ash from them.  I’m not sure how well you can tell in the pictures, but the haze is from the fires.  

We had rain yesterday and today, which has helped with the fires.  Even though we desperately needed the rain, it’s still making me nervous. 

Last week made six months since we were hit by Hurricane Helene.  The recovery process is ongoing.  Storm damage was a contributing factor to the fires.

Our wonderful neighbors have been helping us dig a dry well for drainage.  It didn’t occur to me to take a picture while anyone was in the hole.  Hopefully, you can tell from these pictures how deep it is.  I just dangled my legs in for the pictures because I didn’t want to have to climb out of it again just for pictures. 

We had four tons of gravel delivered last week for the drainage project. 

I started some seeds (only for cold-tolerant plants since we’re not past our last frost date yet) last week.  Hopefully, I’ll be sharing seedling progress soon. 

I’ve decided (at the last minute!) to participate in the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.  You can read more about it here, but the basic idea is to blog every day (except Sundays) in April, starting with A on the 1^st and ending with Z on the 30^th.  Some people do themes.  I’m not doing a specific theme; I'm just trying to blog more regularly and hopefully catch up on some of the things I’ve meant to blog about. 

So, how was the rest of March for you?  Are you planning to participate in the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge?

Thursday 13: A Lot of Randomness

This week’s Thursday 13 definitely doesn’t have a theme! 

1.    Theodore is growing like crazy; he has been neutered, microchipped, and has gotten all of his kitten shots.  I think he looks more like a big cat than a kitten in this picture. 

2.    We are still dealing with applying for FEMA aid for the HVAC system.

3.    A FEMA inspector came to the house last week to look at the damage, which we thought might mean progress. 

4.    It did not.  This week, we received a letter that the FEMA inspector wasn’t able to fully assess the damage (which isn’t really surprising since FEMA inspectors apparently do not go into crawl spaces or onto roofs).  They said we’d need to have it inspected by an HVAC company and send that information for FEMA to review.

5.    We sent that information to FEMA in November!  It was a write-up from the HVAC company about the damage, how high the water was in the ductwork, and what was needed to repair it.  We’ll be resubmitting that and hoping that someone actually reads it this time.

6.    I truly think they make the process as annoying and difficult as possible in hopes that a lot of people will decide it’s more trouble than it’s worth and give up. 

7.    There are still near-constant reminders that, even with the damage we had, we were still some of the lucky ones.  A couple of weeks ago, we helped some friends whose house was destroyed during Helene move from their short-term rental into their long-term rental.  They’ve been told it will be a year and a half to two years before their house is rebuilt.

8.    I’ve been trying to crochet a little more, and I finished an ear warmer. 

    

9.    Here’s the link to the tutorial if you’re interested.  (And here’s the right-handed version.)  It was very simple to make.  I used a thinner yarn than the pattern called for, so I had to do more rows, but it was still easy to follow along with the video.

10. Being cold is a powerful motivator to crochet an ear warmer!  The heat was out at work during one of the cold snaps.  Everyone worked from home as much as possible, but some of us had to go in on one of the days when we had temperatures in the teens.  I made the ear warmer the night before that and wore more layers than I ever had before.  

11. Fortunately, the heat at work is fixed now! 

12. I think cat pictures are a great way to end this Thursday 13, so enjoy this one of Mortimer in the living room chair he has staked out as his very own.

13. And this one of Charlie.

Meet Theodore

We have a new family member to introduce.  This is Theodore.

He’s about five and a half months old.  We got him back in November.

Over the summer, our vet had two litters of stray kittens born under her porch.  The first litter was in the early summer, and the mom disappeared before Dr. D. could catch her.  She showed back up with another litter, which was the one Theodore was part of.

Dr. D. managed to catch the mom when Theodore’s litter was still pretty young.  She has since been spayed, and Dr. D. has kept her. 

Each litter had five kittens, and Dr. D. wasn’t about to drop them off at a shelter during kitten season, or when the local shelters were struggling after Hurricane Helene, so she adopted them out through her office. 

The kittens from the first litter were adopted fairly quickly, but the kittens from Theodore’s litter took a little longer, so Dr. D. agreed that her office would cover their first year of medical care.  That makes it much harder to resist a sweet little kitten! 

I was at the vet with Tara and saw the sign about the medical care and the descriptions of the remaining kittens.  Of course, I asked to meet the orange male.  I had been without an orange kitty for over a year at that point. 

I was a goner as soon as I held Theodore.  He purred and cuddled up to me right away. 

It took a tiny bit longer to convince Nick.  Ultimately, we decided that even though it had been a horrible year, and we were still in the middle of dealing with hurricane damage, Theodore could be the one bright spot in the year. 

Theodore has absolutely been a bright spot.  He’s extremely friendly and outgoing.  He’s positive that anyone coming to the house is here to see him. 

All of the big kitties have warmed up to Theodore to varying degrees.  Charlie and Theodore have become cuddle and nap buddies. 

I’m hoping to get back to a somewhat regular blogging schedule, so there should be a lot more Theodore pictures coming soon.  

Feline Friday: Charlie Snoozing

For Feline Friday, all you have to do is post a picture, drawing, cartoon, or video of a cat.

I certainly have plenty of cat pictures, so I thought I’d join in. 

Here’s Charlie snoozing.

Doesn’t he look so cute and comfortable?  

We Had a Very Laid-Back Christmas

Christmas this year was very laid back, which was nice.  We left on Saturday to go to my sister’s (Gabby) and her girlfriend (Amy) house.  It was mostly just the four of us.  Amy’s brother, Jason, came over on Christmas Day.  It was the first time we met him, and he was very nice.  He’s a pet person, too. 

We left a little later than we originally planned to on Saturday morning.  Our friends Cathey and John have been dealing with a lot.  He has Alzheimer’s and recently went into a care facility.  Unfortunately, he was in the hospital with COVID and pneumonia over Christmas.  Cathey was exposed, so was in quarantine.  We stopped to get Cathey some flowers and a little grocery store care package (orange juice, Christmas cupcakes, hot chocolate mix, tea, and some canned soup) and dropped it all off on her porch.  The good news is that John recovered well from COVID and pneumonia, and Cathey didn’t get sick.

Despite leaving a little later than we planned, traffic on the way to Gabby and Amy’s wasn’t bad.  We took a different route this year due to road construction, and it was a good choice. 

Gabby likes to cook as much as I do, so we had tons of food.  She made a chocolate and strawberry cake for Nick’s birthday on Christmas Eve.  She also made cookies, several different kinds of soup, pistachio cake, and cheese grits.  We ate well!  I forgot to take any food pictures, though. 

We got to pet six of their eight cats.  Their cat Severus slept with us two of the three nights we were there.  Doesn’t he look like such a distinguished gentleman in this picture? 

Severus is a relatively calm cat, so they’re able to put hats on them.  I think he’s adorable in his hat.

Here’s a picture of Binx enjoying the couch I crocheted.

This is Kreacher.  He’s normally a little stand-offish with us, but we both got to pet him quite a bit on this trip.

The four of us agreed early this year that we wouldn’t do birthday or Christmas presents for each other this year.  We’ve all been dealing with pets having a lot of health issues, which has been expensive and stressful.  So, we decided it would be much easier if we all skipped presents for each other this year.  It definitely helped with the laid-back vibe. We did watch Arthur Christmas as usual.  It’s just such a happy movie. 

Nick and I were talking about it on the drive there.  We both like that some years there are so many presents, some years we skip them entirely, and some years are somewhere in between.  I’m not sure that any of those would be great every year, but I like that we get to do them all, depending on the year.  I guess that’s one good thing about growing up not celebrating any holidays; I’m not locked into a lot of traditions.

Speaking of traditions, though, I did get to fulfill a life-long wish.  I loved Barbies when I was a kid.  They were my absolute favorite toys, and I especially loved the ones in the fancy ballgowns.  I always wanted the holiday Barbies but was never allowed to have them since they were for the holidays.  I didn’t know the ornaments existed, but I absolutely loved the gowns the holiday Barbies had and was always disappointed that I couldn’t have one.  I kind of forgot about the holiday Barbies by the time I grew up and started celebrating Christmas. 

Amy was never into Barbies, but her great-aunt gave her a holiday Barbie ornament every year until she passed away in the early 2000s.  The ornaments are special to Amy because they came from her great-aunt.  This is also Amy’s busy time of year at work, so she never got around to putting the Barbie ornaments up.  They had a little tree in the living room that was going to be the Barbie tree.

The Barbie ornaments still weren’t up by Christmas Eve, but Amy knew that Jason would be happy to see them when he came over on Christmas.  So Gabby and Amy decided that I could be in charge of the Barbie tree.  I had so much fun!  As Gabby put it, I was in the corner with the little Christmas tree, living my best life with lots of Barbie ornaments.  I kind of feel like I did get a Christmas present.

Isn’t the Barbie tree cute? 

Here are a few of the ones I really liked.

I ordered the 2023 Holiday Barbie ornament that night.  I’m planning to get the Barbie ornament every year now.

Our wonderful neighbors took care of the cats for us while we were gone.  It’s so nice that they take care of them because they don’t just feed them and give them their medicine.  They spend time petting them and playing with them, and they always send us pictures. 

Caroline

Charlie

Frankie

How was your Christmas?  Were there lots of activities, or was this a more laid-back year for you? 

Some More Catching Up

I’m still working on catching up from my blogging break, so here are a few more recent happenings.

Let’s get the not-so-good news out of the way first.  Frankie is having some health problems.  At 14, he’s an older kitty, so it’s concerning.  He had an abdominal ultrasound in January due to some unexplained vomiting.  It showed some minor thickening of his intestinal lining, which could be indicative of lymphoma.  After talking with Dr. D, we chose not to pursue exploratory surgery and biopsies; the outlook for treating cats with lymphoma isn’t great, and we’d rather give Frankie a good quality of life.  Dr. D put him on some different medication, and the vomiting stopped. 

Last month, the excessive vomiting started again, so we took Frankie back to the vet.  Dr. D did some x-rays and a lot of bloodwork and determined that Frankie is in the early stages of kidney disease, lymphoma is still a real possibility, and he also has thyroid disease.  Out of all of those, thyroid disease is the easiest/least invasive to treat, so Frankie is now on thyroid medication.  Dr. D also adjusted his dose of some other medications, and the vomiting has stopped.  Frankie goes back on the 27^th to have his thyroid levels checked again.

He has lost some weight, but he’s eating and seems to be happy.  Frankie still plays and likes to get into things, so as long as he’s happy and has a good quality of life, we’re happy.  We’ll continue to treat his thyroid issues and go from there when he has his appointment later this month.  With any luck, he still has quite a few good years ahead of him.

In other news, it has been cold and insanely windy here.  Everyone at work has been running space heaters, and this morning, there were lots of trashcans blown over when I was leaving for work. 

One of the local animal shelters has been asking for extra blankets since it has been so cold.  It has been nice to see people step up and drop off and/or ship blankets.  It just shows how much people working together can do.

Our local sheriff’s office did a women’s self-defense class last week.  It was a great class!  They did it at a community center, and several female deputies taught it.  It was a good mix of teaching situational awareness and teaching and practicing specific self-defense techniques.  I definitely learned some things. 

One of my coworkers is retiring this month, and we had his going away party last week.  We did a potluck and ended up with tons of food.  I brought macaroni and cheese. 

We’ve also managed to squeeze in some Christmas fun.  One of the churches does a fundraiser event that’s a journey to Bethlehem.  They have people in costume, live animals, and tons of props to recreate walking through Bethlehem.  Nick’s family used to go every year.  I went for the first time last year.  This year, our neighbors went with us.  It was a lot more crowded this year, but we got to listen to Christmas music (which I love) while we waited for our turn.  It was fun going through with a bigger group this time.  We also drove around and looked at Christmas lights.  There’s a subdivision where almost everyone goes all out on the lights and decorations, and it’s so fun to drive through it.  This is a Pixabay picture since I don’t think I’d be able to get good pictures from the car.

Finally, I’ll leave you with this funny picture of Charlie.  He seems to have no concept of his size, and yesterday, he spent quite a while trying to stuff himself into this box.  I don’t think he ever figured out why he couldn’t get in the box.  He definitely looked cute trying!  

How It Started and How It’s Going

It’s hard to believe, but it has been five years since we brought Mortimer and Charlie (then known as Malmo and Copenhagen) home as our short-term fosters.  They were so little!

They were only supposed to stay with us for two weeks to ride out Hurricane Florence and the aftermath.  But we couldn’t give these little guys back and risk them being separated.

So, here we are, five years later.  They’re still incredibly bonded. 

And we have no regrets over failing as their foster family.  I can’t imagine our family without these two.