Secret Paw Monday

My Secret Paw present is all ready, and the man in the bloo shorts will be picking up the box today to deliver it. Because it is a secret, and a surprise, I can't say anything more.

Except that I think it's really cool, and I hope my Secret Paw enjoys it.

And I have been very good about the Christymas tree. I like hiding under it, and I have been sniffing the branches, and playing with them a bit, but I haven't been climbing the tree. Of course, Mom hasn't put anything interesting on it yet, either.

Easy Like Sunday Morning

The Karate Kid came over last night for an "Auntie Night" with Mom. (The Karate Lady and Mr Big went to a Holiday party.) Mom made a roasted chicken, which the Karate Kid loved, and then they put up the Christymas tree!

The Karate Kid wanted to watch a movie, so they didn't decorate the tree, but of course, I had to investigate! Mom doesn't want me to climb the tree this year, especially after I kinda wrecked it last year. I'm not making any promises.

Mom's -got- to take it easier today. She did everything yesterday. She cleaned up the computer room, the living room, moved stuff around to make space for the Christymas tree, did all the laundry, went food hunting, changed the sheets on her bed (and I helped), she washed all the dishes, and she even folded all the laundry. She emptied the litter boxes, dragged the rug sucking monster around, cleaned off the big table in the table room, roasted a chicken, fed the Karate Kid, and even did the dishes after.

All she has to do today is root for the guys named Pat who are playing a tough team called the Squealers. Or something like that.

UPDATE~ The guys named Pat beat the squealers (or whatever they are) by 21 points. That was a fun game to watch! I love Tom and Mike, and Matt and Tedy and Randy and Dante and Wes and all the other guys named Pat. They are Perfect!

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P.S. Roxy may not be well. Her liver numbers are wacky and the v-e-t wants her to have an ultrasound on Monday. Her mom is worried about her, so say some purrayers for Roxy, and go on over and let her know you are thinking about her...

Slow Saturday

Mom's test went very well. They found something called a pollup and took it out, and now it is going to be tested. Let's keep all our toes & paws crossed it isn't anything. A genetic relative has colon cancer, so Mom's chances are 18% higher than average.

After the test she was a little unsteady on her feet. Mimmay brought her home and helped her get settled. Mom had oatmeal and hot chocolate, then got into bed and we had a nice 3 hour nap. I have been sleeping next to her, making sure she is OK.

She has to have only "soft foods" for the next three days. I wonder if she will get a hint and give me stinky goodness! I like some soft foods too!

She had thought she would get some housecleaning done this weekend. HAH! They told her not to do anything strenuous, or do any heavy lifting.

Funky Friday

Chance gave Mom and I this Golden Rose! Isn't it nice? Thanks Chance! Mom could really use this rose today.

We're both laying low today. See you later!

P.S. If anybody wants to buy a Chessboard, email me at DarlingMillie AT gmail DOT com.

UPDATE: Mom is back from the "C" test, and she is getting ready to take a nap. took a three hour nap. I was right next to her the whole time!

She's gonna make herself dinner. They said she had to eat "soft food" for the next three days. She says she's just happy to -eat-.

Thursday Thirteen plus One

Now for something a little different. Five years ago, Mr Karate came home from college and asked Mom if she could make him a chessboard, because he was learning how to play Chess. She said, "Sure!"

Since Mom goes off the deep end (sorry Mom), she did some research and found out that the size of the squares on the chessboard was supposed to be related to the size of the Chess pieces. Turns out that 2-1/4" was the "regulation" size. So these chessboards are made that way.

She made him a chessboard, didn't like it, and made another. And another. And another. Then she got really hooked. All together she made about 40.

Here are 13 of Mom's favorites. You can click the pictures to biggify.

1.

2.

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12. (you know how Mom loves Black and White)
13.

So what does Mom do with all the leftover pieces? She makes a quilt, of course:

Two Breaks, a Crown, a Tree and a Test

Some interesting developments have been happening around here lately:

Break Number One:
Mom is gonna take a break from sewing. She says the house has reached what she calls "Critical Mess," and -must- be cleaned. This involves lots of rug-sucking and something called "dusting." She also says she is going to catch some sleep. She isn't trying hard enough, as far as I am concerned. Everycat knows you need about 20 hours of sleep a day, and she spends at least 8 day hunting...

Break Number Two:
Mom broke a tooth. She isn't happy about that at all. She went to see the Dentist today, (a special bean v-e-t for bean teeth) and he says she needs....

A Crown
This makes her very unhappy because apparently a Crown costs about 30 Gizzy Quilts. Eek!

A Tree
Mom says the Christymas Tree can't go up unless the house is clean. She wants to put it up soon. She forgets that our Christymas tree lives in a box in the dungeon and she needs Mr Karate to bring it upstairs first.

A Test
Mom says she is gonna have a very icky test that people over 50 should have. It starts with a "C" and that's as much as I'm sayin'. She told me more, but -trust me- you do NOT want to know. It's happening to her on Friday and she says ain't much gonna happen Thursday and Friday until that is over and done with.

Have I mentioned lately how glad I am to be a cat?

Christymas Decorating

This is Mom's most very favorite Christymas decoration. It is a music box of Santa with some toys.

Mom hates "cutesy" things. Over 10 years ago, she was with a friend at the Mall, and the friend wanted to look at this store that sold only music boxes. Mom thought the store had only sticky-sweet stuff and wasn't interested, but she followed her friend into the store. Way at the back, on a high shelf, Mom saw this guy. He was terribly expensive. Mom couldn't stop looking. The two friends left the store.

Mom went back to the store three times to look at this guy.

Finally she bought him. She didn't tell anybody she had spent a small fortune on a Santa music box, but when she brought him home and showed Mr Karate and Mim-may, they both thought he was spectacular.

Mr Karate wants him.

Mim-may wants him.



He's mine!

Chance's Quilt

Chance has a very pretty quilt, but you can't see the colors well on his blog. So I am taking the liberty of showing the picture Mom took of it before she sent it flying to his mom.

Snow

We are supposed to have snow. Lots of it. We are on the line between 4-8" and 6-12".

I do not care, because I will be warm inside, watching it fall, but Mom has to go day hunting, so she isn't very pleased.

Have I told you lately how glad I am I'm a cat?

Easy Like Sunday Morning

Mom found a use for my heated cat cup.

She tried that no-knead bread recipe that's going around the internet. The one where you make the "sponge" and then let it sit for 8 to 18 hours, then knead it very lightly and shape it, like this:

and then put it in a dutch oven pan and bake in a very hot hot-as-hell-box.

Well, here is where she let the dough rise:

Christymas Season Begins

Mom will start decorating for Christymas this weekend. This is the first thing she put up. You all know she makes Gizzy Quilts. Well, a few years ago, she made some quilted chessboards. This is one she made with Christymas fabrics. Anyways, she hangs a different chessboard up on this wall every month. Later today she will put up more Christymas decorations around the house.

She has almost all of her Christymas shopping finished. She just has to get something for Pip-pay. And she is working in the sewing room on things I have to keep secret. I can say the secret things are for...

(no, you can't say that either Millie.)

Mom told me about secrets and surprises. I like to surprise my friends, so if I want it to be a surprise, I have to keep it a secret. Oh! I get it now. I will try harder to keep secrets so they can be good surprises! I kept the nice surprise about the Gizzy quilts for Jan's Funny Farm, so I know I can keep the secrets Mom wants me to keep. Good thing I can share them with Mom!

Okay. Well, look what I found on Google's blog: It's the story of how NORAD came to track Santa Claus and how Google will be helping this year. It looks like lots of fun, and I will be checking every day.

Mom finished my Holiday Gizzy. See how I was helping?

And here it is all finished.

Mom says she is gonna make some Christymas cookies today too, and will have them on her cooking blog tomorrow.

And I know who my Secret Paw is, and am putting together a nifty present that will go out soon! That's one secret I won't let out of the bag...

We Are Not Near Rochester NH

To all the cats and their beans who are wondering, we are about an hour away from Rochester NH. We live in Manchester, the biggest city in NH.

A man walked into Hillary Clinton's campaign office in Rochester NH claiming to have a bomb strapped to his body and took several hostages. It drew national attention and was on most of the news channels all Friday afternoon. It ended peacefully after five hours. You can read the story here, from our local TV station.

Several cats posted comments hoping we and the Devil Dog and Lucky weren't anywhere nearby, so we wanted to tell everybody we were fine. Thanks.

Formerly Feral Friday

Mom worked on my Holiday Gizzy last night. She will finish it later today. I watched. I always watch.

I have been sleeping next to Mom every single night this week. It's nice. It's warm. It's comfy. I think Mom likes it too, even though she isn't used to it. She'll get over it.

She put a new cookie recipe on her Cooking Blog. And she says after she finishes my Holiday Gizzy, she has some of her own sewing to do for Christymas and some other secret projects I'm not supposed to tell anybody about. But I will tell you. She's gonna m....





HEY MOM! THAT'S NOT FAIR!

It's a Secret!

My Own Holiday Gizzy Quilt

I am -so- happy! Lookit, a Holiday Gizzy Quilt just for ME! It is mostly red and white, and it is MINE! Mom is gonna finish it later today, but it is MINE! She didn't keep any other Christymas fabric when she made the Holiday Gizzy Quilts this summer, but she made this for me and kept it a SECRET! Now the secret is OUT and I am gonna have my very own Holiday Gizzy Quilt! Yippee!

Oh shoot! Mo-----------mmmmmm! This picture makes me look FAT! I am NOT fat! It is just a terribly unflattering angle! Sheesh, Mom.... Now Monty's gonna have to spend the day in the icebox.

(What am I gonna do? Mom can be such a pain in the patootie!)

Wordless Wednesday

One of Santa's Reindeer...

You Are Dancer

Carefree and fun, you always find reasons to do a happy dance. Why You're Naughty: That dark stint you had as Santa's private dancer. Why You're Nice: You're friendly. Very friendly.

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

Amazing Monday

Mom finally got smart and put the aff-gan on top of the down comforter. I like that a lot. I spent a lot of my time on the bed yesterday. Here I am watching the birdies in the bushes outside.

I have amazing news. Guess where I slept last night? In my nifty bed? In the heated cat cup? On my cat hammock? No, no and no.

I slept on the bed with Mom. Right next to her all night long.

Easy Like Sunday Morning

I dunno why Mom has such a hard time with Easy. She seems to really like Difficult. Sometimes she just doesn't get it. Anyway, here she is trying to bribe me into getting into the cat cup by putting my bedtime treats in there.

She should get a grip. I didn't get into the spiffy bed I got as a Secret Paw present from Monty Q for about three months.

She made chocolate chip cookies last night. But heaven forbid, she didn't use the recipe on the bag (which bag?)
Oh no. She had to make a special version. You can check them out over on her cooking blog, Cooks With Love.

You know, when she does stuff like that, the whole kitchen goes to pot.



You think I'm joking?

Saturday Seven (Random Things About Me)

My sweetie Monty Q has tagged me for the 7 Random Things Meme.

I have decided to list 7 things I do NOT like:

1. I do not like having my claws trimmed.
2. I do not like being picked up.
3. I do not like the rustle of the down comforter or of Mom's puffy pink coat.
4. I do not like tuna.
5. I do not like the heated cat cup.
6. I do not like strangers.
7. I do not like the tent Mom made me.What should I do with it?

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(You should go over to read Lucky & Roxy's answers. They are pretty funny!)

Formerly Feral Friday

It has been cold outside, and I won't sleep in the heated cat cup. I do like sleeping on this green aff-gan that Mom has on her bed. So now, instead of making her bed every morning, Mom fixes the puffy down comforter into a nest for me. It is very warm, and when the sun leaves the cat hammock, I come to sleep here. It is where she finds me when she comes back from her day hunting gig.

It's one of the little pleasures of life.

I got turkey yesterday, when Mom came home. It was -yummy-!