Thursday 13: Cats, Chickens, Flowers, Freezers, and Work

 It has been insanely busy at work this week, so I wasn’t sure I’d have 13 things for Thursday 13, but I do. 

1.    Part of why work has been so busy is that there have been some changes.  I’m working with some people I haven’t worked with before.  I’m an assistant, so I’m always working with someone else on almost everything I do.  So, I was a little nervous about working with different people. 

When you’re an assistant, the people you assist can be the difference between loving your job or hating your job.

I had a meeting with my boss and one of the people I’ll be working with now, and I think we’ll work well together.  I had a one-on-one meeting with another person I’ll be working with now, and I’m pretty excited about some of the projects I’ll get to work on with them.  I think we’ll work well together. 

The rest of the year is likely to be super busy, but knowing that I’ll work well with at least some of the people is a huge relief. 

2.    Mortimer was not the least bit concerned about my job stress.  Doesn’t he look so relaxed?

3.    The free-range chickens have still been coming over for their snacks. 

4.    The chickens next door arrived in two batches.  The original chickens have been there almost a year and the new chickens have only been there a few months.  The original chickens are the ones who run up to meet me for food.   The new chickens are starting to do that, too.  All of the gray chickens, except the front right one, are the new chickens.  It looks like they’ve caught on that I’m the snack lady. 

5.    The smallest of the new chickens still hangs back some, but I’m determined to win her over. 

6.    Feeding time is always a little bit chaotic in our house.  Most of the cats are on different foods.  ALL of the cats are positive that the other cats get better food, so there’s a lot of trying to eat each other’s food.  Charlie and Howard took it to a new level this week.

I’m not sure if Howard went under Charlie, if Charlie went over Howard, or if it was a joint effort.  I feel like they deserve major points for their efforts to eat each other’s food here. 

7.    We’ve had some slightly cooler weather this week; 70s and 80s, which has been a welcome change, but not cold enough to hurt the plants.  I don’t know what these pink flowers are (GrandDaddy (Nick’s grandfather) gave them to me for Mother’s Day), but I think they’re pretty, and I’m happy they’re still doing well.   

8.    The hydrangea is still doing well. 

9.    The roses aren’t in full bloom anymore, but we still have some roses to enjoy. 

10. The marigold is still doing well.

11. I’ve realized that it’s time to work on getting the freezers at least a little bit cleaned out.  Thanksgiving isn’t that far away, and we’ll need the freezer space for when turkeys go on sale. 

12. Right now, both freezers are pretty jam-packed, and I’m not entirely sure what’s in them. 

13. I thought taking and sharing pictures of them might help hold me accountable and get me to focus on working through what’s in there. 

So, here they are in their horribly unorganized state.  (I promise we don’t actually live entirely on junk food/convenience food; it just seems like those things work their way to the top whenever we dig something else out). 

Hopefully, there will be a future Thursday 13 about the progress I’ve made in cleaning out the freezers.

How has your week been? 

Christmas In July? August?

Don’t worry, I’m not trying to rush Christmas.  I think we’ve established that I love Thanksgiving way too much to ever do that!  I have noticed, however, that I never post very much between Thanksgiving and Christmas, despite my best intentions.

There are a few Christmas posts I’ve wanted to do for years now, and just haven’t gotten around to, so I’ve decided to start writing and scheduling some Christmas related posts now.  It’s part of my plan of doing things this year.

I start my Christmas shopping really early.  In all honesty, I actually had a few Christmas presents for this year purchased before Christmas Day last year.  I’m not sure if that makes me prepared, or a little too obsessed.  When do you start your Christmas shopping? 

So how soon is too soon for Christmas related posts?  A few of them are gift wrapping ideas, and a few DIY gifts that take a little time.  I don’t think they’d be particularly helpful or useful posted a week or two before Christmas. 

 There seems to be a core group of you who regularly read and comment, so it makes the most sense to me to just ask you.  After all, you’re taking valuable time out of your day, so I’d like to make sure it’s a pleasant experience for you.

The main ideas I’m tossing around are:

• A few, maybe two or three, Christmas posts a week, starting the day after Thanksgiving.  

• One Christmas post a month starting in August, and probably finishing up around the beginning of December, most likely with a few posts during the first week of December.

I don’t have an exact number of posts yet since I’m in the early stages of writing them.  I’m also not a math person, so probably wouldn’t break it down into exact numbers even if I did.  And I’m certainly open to other scheduling ideas.  Like I said, I’d like for them to be useful. 

So what say you, visitors to my little corner of the blogging world? 

Pet Planning

I’m going to be climbing up on a soapbox here.  Now, you’ve been warned, so don’t complain, but please do hear me out.  It’s a good soapbox.

Yesterday I picked up these two cats from the county shelter, which is a kill shelter, to take them to the no-kill shelter one county over.  The cats had been adopted from the no kill shelter, but wound up back in the kill shelter when their owner died and the family didn’t want them.  The no-kill shelter’s policy is to take back pets that were adopted from them in a case like that.  The boys were obviously stressed, but will hopefully be re-adopted soon.

However, there was a third cat, who wasn’t adopted from the no-kill shelter.  She also ended up in the kill shelter when the owner died.  She’s still there because the no-kill shelter is full.  We’re networking her, and I have a friend who may be able to take her, but right now she’s in the kill shelter, with limited time.  Based on the boys’ demeanor, I imagine she’s frightened, and she doesn’t even have a buddy with her.  The boys at least have each other.

The cats were in very good condition when I saw them; their coats and eyes looked good, they didn’t have fleas, and were well fed.  It appears that they had a good home before their owner died and everything changed.  The folks at the kill shelter said they were brought in by animal control because the family didn’t want anything to do with them.   So that’s what brings me to today’s topic of planning for your pets, so that they still have a good home, even if something happens to you. 

A couple of years ago hubby and I attended a pet planning workshop at the no kill shelter.  It was put on by the shelter, a pet cemetery owner, and a local attorney.  It was free and the email announcement about it was a real attention grabber; it had pictures of really cute fur kids and said something along the lines of, “If something happens to you today, what happens to me tomorrow?”  So we decided to attend the workshop.

It was sort of sad, very enlightening, and absolutely worth our time.  The folks from the shelter said that most of the time people don’t really think about what will happen to their pets if something should happen to them, or they just assume that their family will take them.  The attorney said that “valuable” pets could be fought over, and the pet cemetery owner said some folks actually euthanize grandma’s dog to be buried with her.

There was also discussion about all of the practical things that someone willing to take on your pet might not know about if you haven’t made the proper arrangements: their vet, dietary issues, medications, behavior issues, etc.  They also really drove home the point that shelters are full and thousands of adoptable pets are euthanized every single day.  Pets whose owners have died without making arrangements for them probably aren’t going to fare well.  

We were told that the way to go about making arrangements for your pets varies from state to state, so you need to check and see how it’s best handled in your area.  It is definitely something that needs to be handled. 

Fortunately for us, North Carolina addresses the issue of pet arrangements, so our pets are included in our will.  We have a first and second choice for each fur kid, with the no kill shelter as the back-up for all five fur kids.  We’ve talked to everyone we’d want a pet to go to and made sure they’re alright with taking on the pet we had in mind.  We (hubby) have also created a spread sheet that lists everyone’s vet with their contact information, medical issues, behavior issues, current food, and any medications.  We’ve also made sure that the people involved know where to find this information and how to get in touch with anyone they may need to. 

I’ll be honest; it’s a little weird to think about something happening to both of us.  It’s not the most comfortable conversation to have when you talk to someone about taking care of your pet if something happens to you.  Some people think it’s a little morbid.  I like to think of it as being prepared.  Yes, hubby and I are young, but things happen.  No one is promised seeing a ripe old age.  We promised the fur kids we’d take care of them for the rest of their lives.  If that happens to be longer than the rest of ours I like knowing that they’ll be cared for.  

So, please, if you have pets, make the necessary arrangements for their care in the event of something happening to you.  I'll climb down from my soapbox now.

Whirlwind Weeks & Holiday Planning

I can’t believe it has been almost two weeks since I posted anything.  As usual, the time has flown by, and I’m not quite sure where it all went. 

Did you all have a good Thanksgiving?  As I posted earlier, we had ours much earlier this month, due to Nick’s work schedule, so we didn’t have any kind of Thanksgiving at home on the actual holiday.  I think, if he’s working on Thanksgiving next year and we have the early celebration, I will still make us a small Thanksgiving-type meal on the actual day.  It’s a little weird not having the traditional meal that day. 

I did get to get together with two friends, Crystal and Alex, the night before Thanksgiving.  Crystal works in retail and had to go in at 11:00 pm Thanksgiving night, so was trying to stay up all night Wednesday.  Alex’s plans to go out of town to visit family changed at the last minute, so we had a girl’s night in at my house.  Nick doesn’t eat any seafood, so since he was at work that was a perfect opportunity was us to feast on shrimp pasta.  It’s delicious; shrimp sautéed in copious amounts of butter and garlic, with pepper, basil, parsley and diced tomatoes, served over angel hair pasta.  Yum!

We went to my parents the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Their 38^th anniversary was the week before, and since anniversaries are the only thing they celebrate we usually make a big deal out of it.  We grilled steaks, and made mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green beans, and a berry crunch for dessert.  We somehow managed to pick out really good steaks and concocted a fabulous marinade.  It was garlic infused olive oil, lots of fresh minced garlic, balsamic vinegar, pepper, fresh cilantro, and a little bit of melted butter.  Unfortunately, we didn’t measure anything, so I really hope we’ll be able to duplicate it.  Nick and my dad grilled the steaks for a long time over very low heat.  They were delicious and so tender! 

My parents really liked their gifts, Emma was happy to run around in their back yard, and we had a good time visiting and playing board games.  We didn’t get home until almost 1:00 Sunday morning.

Somehow, in the midst of everything else, we didn’t get the Christmas tree put up.  We’re hoping to find time to put it up this weekend.  We usually put it up the weekend of Thanksgiving, so it’s a little odd not having it up right now.  We have plans to see The Nutcracker on Saturday afternoon, but hopefully we can get the tree put up Saturday night.  I am so excited about The Nutcracker.  I’ve never seen it, and now that it’s so close, it feels like Saturday will never come. 

I’m also in the midst of planning Nick’s 30^th birthday party.  He’s a Christmas Eve baby, so his birthday is easily overlooked.  I usually have a chili lunch (and a non-Christmas themed birthday cake) at our house that day and family and close friends come over.  Since this is his 30^th, and we’ve agreed to no more birthday parties for either of us except for milestone birthdays, we’ve decided to do something a little bigger.  We’re having it the following Saturday at a local pizza restaurant.  I have found a cake (not at all Christmas themed) that I love, and that has been approved by my friend Crystal.  She has great taste, and is honest enough to tell me when my great ideas aren’t so great.  Nick reads my blog, so I can’t go into much detail, but it’s going to be good. 

How many of you are the people who are already finished with your Christmas shopping?  I wish I could say I am, but I’m not.  I’m in awe of my friend Lorie who was finished by September.  I can only dream of being that organized!  We don’t have very many people to shop for, so it’s not a terribly daunting task.  The only downside is that most of the people I shop for are very, very difficult to shop for.  I really appreciate Amazon and eBay this time of year. 

It’s also about time for my annual bake-a-thon.  We like to take Christmas goodies (usually cakes, because I don’t make very good cookies) to people we see a lot through out the year like all of the different departments at work, our chiropractor, my acupuncturist, etc.  We also exchange baked goods with our neighbors.  It’s a lot of fun, and every year I vow that I will do little bits at a time, but so far it hasn’t happened.  Usually a few days before Christmas I’m up until 2:00 in the morning baking lots of cakes, and then we have a carload of cakes to deliver the next day.  I keep telling myself that this year I will do better.  We’ll see.  The past few weeks have felt like an endless session of running around trying to catch everything up and still falling further behind with everything.  Any suggestions about how to organize your holiday baking?

So how about all of you?  How was your Thanksgiving?  And how are your Christmas, or other holiday, plans coming along?  Feel free to share any organization tips you have with the rest of us!