Thursday Thirteen

Mom and I are on our way back home to New Hampster.
Here are 13 good things about going home.

1. My house is quieter.
2. I can sleep anywhere I want.
3. Nobody tries to pet me.
4. The quilts have been delivered. My job is done.5. I miss my cat hammick.
6. I miss my window hammick.
7. If you can believe it, I'm eager to get back to doing the QA check on the Gizzy quilts.
8. Mom's experiencing weird sewing withdrawal symptoms.
9. Roxy is on the warpath.
10. Mr Karate misses Mom.
11. Mim-may wants Mom back.
12. Little sticky beans are nice, but it's quieter at my house.
13.
Shh!

Weighty Wednesday

I don't know what's all the fuss about Monty Q and I spending time together.... Sure, sometimes he gets a little carried away when he sees my tummy. Like this time:At least he didn't faint...
It was a good thing SheBean was right nearby to help out.That's much better.

Tiny Tot Tuesday

Omigoodness! The house was full of little sticky people yesterday. How many? I think twenty squillion. I took refuge in Monty's bed under the table. Monty, however, had to check everything and everybody out.

They are going to Eye-Key-Ah today. Good for them. Monty and I will -finally- have some quiet time alone together.Don't we make a lovely couple?

Not Monday - GIRLSDAY!

This is SheBean and Sprout! SheBean's really cool. Mom made some Cheddar Cheese Bread. SheBean tasted some and asked Mom, "Can you stay?" Mom laughed. Mom told Auntie Karate when they talked on the phone, Auntie said, "I'll go down and fight DadBean. -I- want you back home!"

Yesterday, Mom made some cookies. When SheBean tasted one of these, she said, "I'd fight Auntie Karate to keep you. I'd probably lose, but it would be worth the fight." Mom thought that was -really- funny, but she says she loves home, and home is in New Hampster.

I love Sprout. Sprout loves Mom. Sprout is always happy when Mom is holding her. That makes Mom really happy.

The beans went out for fish last night. Everybody ate fish, but Sweetbean REALLY ate some fish. She tried some of Mom's fried scallops... (and liked them.)

Next, she did something that would make Max jealous. She ate some of SheBean's real live dead shrimp! She ate it as fast as SheBean could peel it. And she kept eating it.I'm tellin' ya, I'm falling in love with SweetBean. Monty Q sure is One Lucky Guy!


And look...my replacement disguise is almost ready! But I gotta tell ya, if Monty loves me as a bunny, he's gonna love me no matter -what- kind of a disguise I have. I am -so- lucky!

Mom and I are having such a great time in Mary-land. It's a great relaxing vacation for Mom. And (ahem), I am enjoying my quiet times with my sweetheart.

SweetBean Sunday

This is SweetBean's quilt, and Auntie Karate made it.

Mom had always wanted to make a quilt for SweetBean, especially since her accident. When Mom was asked to be Sprout's godmother, she knew she would make the baby a quilt as a gift.

The next day, she was visiting Auntie, and said, "I know I will make the baby a quilt, and I would love to make SweetBean a quilt, too, but I can't not make one for KidBean."

Auntie said, "I'll help. I'll make a quilt for KidBean."

Mom thought that was wonderful, "That's great! He's five, he loves trains," she said, "You could make a train quilt."

"I don't want to make a train quilt," Auntie replied, "I'll make SweetBean's quilt. You make the train quilt."

And that was how it was decided that Mom would go to Mary-land with quilts for all three kids. What a surprise that was going to be! And thus, the Super Secret Project got started!


Auntie doesn't have a sewing room like Mom does. She takes over the floor in her picture box room. You can see both Roxy and Lucky helping.

Mom helped too. She offered Auntie some pink fabrics from her stash, but Auntie had very definite (and different) ideas about what she wanted. She accepted some fabrics from Mom, and rejected some.

Mom helped Auntie sew the pieces together, and iron them, but Auntie decided where every single piece would go. Here, Mom is arranging the pieces on the floor so the two of them will know if it was time to sew the blocks together to make the quilt top.


Roxy performed the QA on SweetBean's quilt, checking it for softness, kindness, love and affection. She also made sure to leave her special stink woofie-roma on it.The quilt is so beautiful, we just don't understand why Auntie is hiding in this picture.
Thanks Auntie, for making this beautiful quilt for SweetBean.

Auntie Karate ROCKS!


Sweetbean loves her quilt.

Super Secret Project Revealed!

I told you Mom was working on a Super Secret Project.

You all assumed it was a big SECRET.

You all thought it was a quilt for Sprout.

Not quite.

It wasn't that it was a secret project.

It was a SUPER Secret Project.

It was...

It was...

It was...

It was...

It was...

It was FIVE quilts.

One for KidBean:
One for SweetBean (Auntie Karate made this one):

One for SheBean & HeBean:
One for Monty Q:
And, of course, the one for Sprout:
And yes, you can click the pictures to biggify. You'll have to see Monty Q for smelling salts though!

You can find more quilty details about the quilts over at Mom's quilting blog: The Patchery Menagerie today and over the next few days.

Me, I need a rest from all this excitement.

Sweetheart Saturday

Monty just loves his quilt.
We are having such a good time together. As you can see, he is very protective of me.

And the Moms are still watching. You can see hints at Mom's quilting blog now, though.)

Mom and Sprout

KidBean took this picture of Mom and Sprout this morning. Mom was holding Sprout and she fell asleep in Mom's lap.

HeBean and SheBean love Sprout's quilt. You can see a preview of it here, on Mom's Quilting blog.

Finally Friday!

This is the Zakim Bridge in Boston,
and this is Faneuil Hall...
We went through Boston, Providence RI, New Haven Connect-i-cat (my hometown), Stamford, New York City and Philadelphia. There was lots of graffiti.Graffiti everywhere.The train trip ended in Baltimore, Mary-land, where we were met at the station by Monty's DadBean.

After a two-hour drive I was finally with my TabbyManCat.


Look! SweetBean loves me!More later... once we, ah... once we ummm... well, never mind, more later (both Moms are watching.)

On The Train Thursday Thirteen

Woo hoo!

I'm packed, I'm ready to go! Tonight I'll be at Monty Q's in Mary-land!

Here is my Thursday Thirteen list of things Mom has packed in the suitcases.

1. Books. Lotsa books. Books for Mom to read on the train. Books for Mom to read to KidBean and SweetBean and maybe Sprout.

2. Quilts! One for Sprout and one for Monty Q.

3. Recipes for Cookies, Bread and Pork.

4. Maple Syrup from New Hamster. Mom says the Real Stuff isn't thick and gooey, but thin and runny.

5. Chocolate from Van Otis in New Hamster. Mom says they make the most incredible.... oops. Can't say. Anyway, it's the same stuff she put in the prize packages for DivaKitty and Bounce Lucy and Trixie when they won the When When Contest this past spring.

6. Squiggles and a Snuggle for my sweetie!

7. Electronic Geek Junk. Mom's bring her tippy-tappy lapbox, her digital camera, her iPod, her PDA, her cell phone, and all the power cords and other junk that goes with them.

8. Lunch. Mom's bringing a Vegie Wrap, some pickles, a banana and some dried apricots and probably some crackers. And chocolate. And water. And Temp-ta-tions. (I hope)

9. Boring junk like undies, socks, her nightgown, a too-big robe and some t-shirts, shorts, a skirt (?) a jacket, blouses and shoes and the sticky stuff she puts in her hair to make it stand up.

10. A small pillow and fleece blankie in case she gets cold on the train. She's always cold, except when she's hot or when Mr Hot Flash pesters her.

11. An Umbrella. Guess which color? Du-uh?

12. Brandy-spanking slippery new green papers. A bunch of some guy named Jackson. (MILLIE!) ...well it's true...

13. ME! ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME!

See! Told ya! (okay, the guys in the bloo shorts didn't bring me the "correct" disguise, so I have to use this one. Hopefully it's temporary. But it's this or stay home, and I -ain't- stayin' home!)


We're on the road to Mary-land...
Huh... Huh... Huh... Huh...
We're on the road to Mary-land.

(with apologies to David Byrne)

Wacky Wednesday

I'm telling ya, you'd think she was going away for a month the stuff she's trying to jam into her suitcase. Now she's got another one she's stuffing full of junk. (Excuse me, presents.)

She has a long list of destructions for Mr Karate and Auntie Karate for when she is gone. When and how much to feed Millie (huh? I'm going with her, what's that all about?), when to water her so-called garden out back, and my Nip plants on the porch, and when to pick her metal machine once it has been inspected.

She left the eye-tin-error-a-ray of her train trip and the numbers for the Sprout House.

She made a special trip to the grocery store to buy foods for Mr Karate (peanut butter and jelly and bread for sandwiches and lots of ice cream and milk). She got ginormous peaches. They smell interesting. (Mr Karate wants Mom to leave a note that there are peaches for him in the coldbox. Heck, I can tell they're in there when the door is open, why can't he?)

She wants to burn a CD with pictures. I'm trying to imagine that. Hmm.

Who would have thought that getting ready for a vacation involved so much WORK?

(shudder)

Hey Everybody! The Pretty Girl started a blog! It's Jello's Stories, and you should go over and say Hello! "Nena Jello" has two cats, Blackie and Purry, and a dog named Ozzy.

Tuxie Tuesday

Mom is day hunting today. Silly Mom. She's been cleaning the house like a crazy woman, though for the life of me I can't figure out why - she isn't gonna be here. Clean sheets, clean litter boxes, clean out the coldbox, empty the trash, clean the human litterbox and the inside rain room, fold the laundry (finally) and all kinds of other stupid stuff.


Yeah, she cleaned that too. I guess I got a little carried away.


Millie's Mom Lynne here: WOW! Thanks so much for the birthday wishes! It was such fun to read them as they came in during the day, and throughout the evening last night. When I got home from work, I did talk to each of my family members. It was a great evening, and Millie was right - I didn't get anything constructive done!


I wish I had two things:


1. A recording of KidBean's singing at 6:30 AM. He was so sweet, so charming, and the song was perfect... at first I thought, "who is this? It's not PlusOne. And it's 3:30 in the morning where The PrettyGirl lives, so it isn't her..." Then the singing stopped, and there was a pause. "Is this.... KidBean?" I asked tentatively. "Yes, Auntie! You are right!" It was a real treat I will never forget. Thanks KidBean and MomBean, who made him practice before he called on the phone.


2. A recording or YouTube video of Mr Karate trying to play "Happy Birthday" on his cello (by ear, no music) and then playing and singing simultaneously.Wonderful, wonderful!


Those two magical moments, and all your wonderful birthday comments, including Mr Hendrix's air guitar, and Angus' Operatic aria (how did he know I love opera?) just go to prove that the best things in life aren't things!


Thank you all!


It's Millie again... You guys should go over to check out Roxy's blog today. She has some pictures of Mom as a kidbean... Auntie Karate is such a pest!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Mom!
Happy Birthday to you!

In our fambly, on somebody's birthday, we call them up and sing "Happy Birthday." It's best if we can call early in the morning. Nobody sings very well in our fambly, except for maybe Mr Karate, so the more off-key the song is, the better. And it's against the rules to leave the song for the generic answering machine guy to deliver.

So Mom's gonna be yakking on the phone after day hunting, and she won't get anything useful done. Works for me. I will take advantage and sit near her and get scritches.

Heh.

update: Mom is squeeing because Monty's KidBean just called and sang her the Happy Birthday song! What a sweet kid!

(p.s. Mom is fifty-something. I think that means she is older than dirt. Well, maybe not that old... maybe older than kitty litter.)

Let Them Eat Cake Sunday

Mom's birthday is tomorrow (July 21), Mim-may's is July 24 and the family got together last night for a birthday dinner. As usual, Mom was asked to make The Cake, and it couldn't be chocolate, because chocolate keeps Mim-may awake, and Auntie Karate may be allergic to it.


So Mom went through her cookbooks including a new one, and found Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake. It's a white cake with a hint of lemon (Mom's favorite flavor) and a meringue-based buttercream frosting. Here's the meringue.Here's Mr Karate enjoying one of the beaters
Here is the finished frosting... Mom said it was absolutely the best frosting she has ever had in her entire life. It wasn't too sweet, and it wasn't grainy or greasy.
Mom says the recipe is way too long and complicated to post, and besides, the book just came out, so go buy a copy. Mom used lemon curd instead of the raspberry preserves (in addition to the buttercream frosting) between the layers, because, you know, she loves lemon.

Here is the finished cake.
Everybody loved it, and there wasn't much that came back with Mom afterwards. She says she'll bring it day hunting tomorrow where it will disappear in 3 minutes flat.

Mom won't let me post any pictures of me because she says all I'm doing is showing off my tummy, and Monty Q passes out every time he sees it, so I have to let him recover. I dunno what he's gonna do on Thursday when Mom and I get to his house. Mom says I might have to have some type of disguise.

She does have a nice post over on her quilting blog, The Patchery Menagerie, about how she made the special quilt I am bringing to Mary-land for Monty.


PS, Mom's birthday is TOMORROW... not today. Don't be wishing her happy birthday until TOMORROW! She says she's old enough already, she doesn't want to be any older any sooner.

Huh?

Saturday

Monty wants to make sure I cover his quilt with my special stink. Since he's my Sweetie, I am more than happy to oblige. I made Mom put it on my cat hammick, because that's where I do most of my napping.I've been rubbing my furs all over it.
Yup, I'm really doing my best to give this quilt "that special something."
I hope he appreciates it...

Monty.... Monty...

Monty?

Is he still conscious?