Pets, Kiddies and The Beach

Ok, ENOUGH sadness!

Below are shots of some happy times!

The other day, I ran around getting pictures of all the pets; some turned out better than others (they do not always all cooperate!); in particular, Apollo and Pete were quite photogenic and playful this session.

My brother is visiting with his twin three year old girls. Yesterday, we went to Siesta Beach for several hours. In case you were not aware, Siesta Beach is currently the #1 beach in the U.S.! It is very lovely; white sand, blue water. But, it was also incredibly crowded. Next time, we'll leave earlier. We still had a lot of fun, though. After, we headed over to the RV resort park where mom and dad are staying for the winter to hang out by the pool.

All in all, a great day!

Mrs. B

Apollo the mighty squirrel hunter

What?

Just let me at him! Let me OUT!

Athena is not amused

Hanging out

Sigh. Life can be so tiresome

Wait! Something's not exactly right here!

Masterful Pete

Ares. With his collar on (for once)

Leave me alone!

Lucy looking sad (but she wasn't)

It's very difficult to get good pictures of Lily. Here she is helping me scan documents

Apollo bows down to Queen Lily for a grooming

Siesta Beach on a sunny and hot Friday afternoon

Grammy and J J looking at the kites

Dad and Sophie go into the water to "surf"

Grandpa, relaxing

Here comes Sophie!

Jon right before that smile

J J; goggles on (she never took them off) and chocolate pudding all over her face. Life is grand!

Jon and Mom at Sun N Fun

Dad and Mrs. B

It's a Mystery!

One thing (of many) about having a lot of pets; you just never know sort of weird things they might a) drag into the house b) play with c) throw up.

Weird might not actually be the best definition, though. Unusual? Creative? Gross? Ah, MYSTERIOUS; as in "what the heck is THAT?" but also, "where the heck did that COME from?" and "how in the heck did they get A HOLD of that?"

Since there are children living in the houses on other side of us AND in the house below us, play-related items routinely make their way into our backyard. Scratch that. LUCY's backyard. We'll frequently be sitting outside enjoying a cocktail and notice Lucy running around with some new object in her mouth. "What's that?" one of us will ask. "Oh, looks like a....(fill in the blank)". One of her favorites was a basketball. Of course, it now longer remotely resembles anything like a ball; more like a puddle of chewed up rubber. I hadn't seen it in sometime; I figured she must have buried it somewhere. The other day, I was upstairs brushing my teeth and looking out one of our bedroom windows and I saw this blob in the middle of the backyard. I thought it might be a dead animal. I finished up with the teeth brushing and went downstairs to ask Mr. B. "What's THAT?" I said, pointing at it. "Lucy's basketball". Oh.

Of course, it wasn't really Lucy's; it was the kid next door's, but, I'd bet he really wouldn't want it back now.

Despite the fact they make her sick, Lucy still hunts and eats the small frogs that jump around our backyard. Spring is prime frog hunting season, but, there still seem to be a few hopping around (maybe because it's been so warm, I really don't know). The late season frogs must not taste as good, however. Several times this summer, I've gone outside to find half-masticated frogs barfed up onto the patio. Nice.

For a while, Lily was bringing Lucy's toys upstairs. We'd wake up in the morning to find two or three of them near our bed. During the holiday season last year, she took to dragging this huge Christmas stocking that Mrs. Senior B made for Mr. B many years ago up the stairs. This stocking is about the size of a small throw rug and we kept it draped over the back of the leather club chair. Lily is also a fine one for stealing items left on bathroom counters or the top of dressers. She'll spot that you left something there, jump up, get it in her mouth, jump down, and run off with it. In this way, she's nabbed: nail files, barrettes, hair elastics, eye glasses, hair brushes and my tube of Rapid Lash (which does seem to work, BTW). We've had near misses with leaving wedding bands and diamond rings.

Pete has this one wand toy with a long, furry leopard printed "thing" (for lack of better word) dangling off of it. He LOVES it. He carries that around in his mouth, wailing and howling. He'll wail and/or howl, pick it up, and make an odd noise while it is still in his mouth. Then, he starts kneading the floor while it's in his mouth. After a bit of this, he'll move across the room with it and repeat the process. In this case, the item isn't a mystery so much as his behavior is! I've never seen a cat do this before, but, then again; what can you except from a cat who prefers to spend his days sleeping in the pantry? Pete is also the cat Most Likely to Barf; which, given the amount of fur he has, isn't really a surprise. BUT, let me tell you, BECAUSE of the amount of fur he has, he's sometimes brought up fur balls that resemble small rodents. I've seen one or two and taken a step back until I could ascertain that they were, in fact, merely huge fur balls.

The Little Kids subscribe, I suppose, to more normal cat behavior. They'll chase and eat bugs, play (and chew on, damn it to hell) electric cords and will, eventually, get out every single toy in their toy basket (no small number) and place them all around the house. One of them, however, has taken to chewing on the covers of our soft covered paperback books. If we happen to leave one out on the nightstand, you can bet that in the morning, we'll find a multitude of little puncture marks dotted here and there on the cover (which I dutifully cover up with scotch tape). I haven't caught the culprit, but, I'm putting my money on Athena. Bookmarks are also a huge favorite, as are newspapers and anything that makes a crinkle crackle noise. Ares and Athena have dutifully found every piece of tape (used to secure stereo/speaker wire) and chewed them to pieces. Athena, that dumb-dumb, will eat tape, too. I've found a good share of barfed up tape; this despite the Bitter Yuck I spray all over everything.

Apollo doesn't seem to do too much of this, although, he did seem to think the other night that my new cell phone was his personal property. Usually, though, Apollo is more likely to play with ice or beg for food.

Anyway, what prompted this topic this morning was I was sitting here checking email when I noticed Ares jumping all over the place with something in his mouth. Then, Athena came running at him, followed by Apollo and all three of them took off like three furious little bats out of hell. Scramble, scramble; up the stairs, down the stairs, jumping over the couch; all three of them in a row. Finally, Athena and Apollo got bored and went away. Ares was still jumping and climbing with this thing in his mouth. I went over to investigate; he dropped it and ran way.

This is what it was:

I have NO idea where this came from! How strange. It's a mystery. Then again, that's life around this household!

Mrs. B

Monday Monday Ramble Ramble

What a busy weekend. It seems I spent most of it in the kitchen preparing for Mr. B's (early) b-day celebration, which was a somewhat impromptu gathering. The Kid's off to college this coming Thursday; she suggested coming over yesterday to celebrate her dad's birthday, which got me to thinking, "why not invite the whole family?" Anyway, we had a great time! I'm posting a few pictures; some I took, some my (very talented semi-pro photographer SIL) Analee took.

The Kid, Mark and Jon hanging out

Birthday Boy (photo courtesy of Analee)

We had food coming out of our ears; in a mostly Mexican theme. The jalapeño poppers were SMOKIN' (click here if you want the recipe) and, in typical I Am My Mother's Daughter fashion, I made a ton of burritos, two types of rice, homemade salsa, and a cool green tomato-cuke-avocado soup (for those who could eat it). Unfortunately, my German chocolate cake did a crack-act. Too humid; should have added more flour/less water. C'est la vie; it was eaten, all the same (the rest is going to work with Mr. B tomorrow as I do NOT need it around!)

German chocolate crack-cake (photo courtesy of Analee)

Grammy doing what she does best. Holly loved my crack-cake! (photo courtesy of Analee)

Holly seems to like to play with unusual toys! Here, sitting in the cat toy from my Father and Margot (photo courtesy of Analee)

And here "riding" Great Uncle Jack's decoy duck!

The future Senator from NC! (photo courtesy of Analee)

Living the life in the "Goodliest" land of NC: Grammy, Grandpa, Kendal and Holly (photo courtesy of Analee)

As for the rest of my ramble, here it 'tis:

Speaking of The Ramble; was very sorry to learn that one of my Father's favorite haunts, Thee Ramble Inn, burned down the other day. He's taken me there at least twice, maybe more, when I've been in Florida visiting. I even have a tee shirt (as does Mr. B). The beer was always reasonable and the staff friendly. RIP, Ramble.

So, yeah, The Kid is off to college this coming Thursday. She appears to be geared up for it with the most difficult aspect of it (for now) being leaving her dog. Mr. B told her we'd come visit "from time to time" to take her out to dinner (it being about an hour and a half away; not too far from the company that I still do occasional consulting for).

The Kid and her dad

Speaking of THAT, I still am. The other day I was in the salon getting my mani/pedi and looked over to see some man slumped in one of the pedi chairs taking a nap whilst getting his pedi (you don't see this too often, BTW; men in pedi chairs). Anyway, he was a DEAD RINGER for the guy who hired me two years ago (can't believe it's been two years). Of course, what would HE be doing in Raleigh getting a pedicure? Suffice it to say, it was not him. Thank God. I don't know what I would have thought to say.

I just received the disk of Lucy's photo shoot in the mail today. I don't have the particulars on ordering the calendar yet, but, they are forthcoming. Alert to those who may be interested; they are not terribly cheap. We won't be offended if you decide not to buy one.

Lucy begging for cookie crumbs from Analee (who also took this picture!)

Lucy is probably wondering why Analee is lying on the ground with her. Analee's pictures of Lucy were just as nice as the photographer's!

KB is coming tomorrow to stretch the carpets. Again. Long story short; the carpet is buckling again, I pitched a fit, and they are coming. Hey, if you don't ask, you don't receive. Let's hope this works but I'm not that optimistic since it didn't really work the last time.

This has meant that I had to remove all the books from our SIX book cases again. This served to remind me that we have a ton of books, many of which I've not read. The Kid's bathroom is loaded up with them; it's an interesting site. I should go take a picture!

I am working on a photo book of our cruise. It's taking me a lot longer than I thought it would to compile. I did one for our trip to Orlando last fall and I really liked the way that one turned out. This one, though, is already about twice its size. I'd best hurry so it's done before we go on our NEXT cruise in January. I was able to get Royal Caribbean to honor a coupon we received after we'd booked the cruise, even though it said we had to have it when we booked. Well, they sent it as an encouragement for us to book another cruise (which we already had), so, we had done what they wanted us to, just six weeks before they sent the coupon!

How many times does this happen to me! I buy something, anything; and, the very next day, there is a coupon for it in the mail or in the paper. This time, at least, it all worked out.

Using coupons does pay. I'm already up to $500 or so saved since February, just by using coupons (and I'm not even counting the dry cleaning coupons). This will go towards our vacation(s). People who don't use coupons (or sign up for My Points) are throwing money down the drain.

We wrapped up the execution of our updated wills last week. Such a fun thing to do, but, necessary. There are a few handwritten things we need to take care of, but, at least the major part of it is done (or, rather, redone). Sigh.

I was looking through pictures of my high school's annual reunion weekend (held last weekend in San Diego) on Facebook. I can see a bunch of people's pictures, even though we are not Friends. This is because some folks have no idea how to keep their information private. Anyway, in so doing, I came across one and, lo and behold, there was a lady who'd been a great friend of mine in high school. I've tried on several occasions to get back in touch with her; but, she never replies/reaches back. This makes me somewhat sad, but, whatever. I guess some people just don't want to be found. At least found by me :-)

We're off to the Yadkin Valley this weekend for a sojourn at a few of the wineries there (including a tour with one of the wine makers), a stay at a B&B, and dinner (for Mr. B's b-day) at what is supposed to be a real nice restaurant. At least the menu looks fantastic!

Then, a family reunion in September will mean a trip to Indiana. These two outings are helping my itchy feet syndrome somewhat. Mom opined the other day that I must have gypsy blood in me. I just like to travel. Anywhere. Ok, maybe not to Oklahoma.

Our pets are all fine. Knock on wood that there hasn't been a reoccurrence of Lucy's MCT. Her fur is growing back (that which isn't falling out due to the shed season, I mean!) The cats seem happy enough. Ares has developed an odd habit of wanting to hang out in the downstairs coat closet. I swear, he is one WERIDO cat. So, I let him; otherwise, he sits outside the door and howls. He also cries and carries on in the early morning hours. I think he's got some Siamese in him. Pete and Lily are getting through the summer by hanging in the bathroom; Lily in the sink

Fantastic picture of Lily taken by Analee last night!

and Pete sprawled out on the floor. Athena and Apollo are so little compared to the other three and still freak out a bit at times when we approach them. Apollo, though, will now tolerate Mr. B because he gives him (and the rest) turkey lunch meat in the mornings. Athena always looks bug-eyed.

Athena: "Nope. I am NOT coming out from under the bed, Analee!

It's been a LONG HOT summer. Here is hoping some refreshing changes in the weather (and other areas) will be upon us soon.

Oh and yes; seven years ago, I was just beginning my adventure in Italy (without my suitcase). I'll never regret what I did.

Mrs. B

I'm Still Alive

I've been distracted by life of late and haven't had much chance to ponder ponderous thoughts and Blog about them.

So, to my admiring public, I apologize, but, I'm sure you don't want to read nonsense, right?

In the meantime, here are cute kitty pictures (when all else fails, post pictures of pets). These are newly surfaced ones of The Little Kids back when they were all of 6 weeks old.

Off to DC for a few days and then, hopefully when I return, I'll have tons to say!

Mrs. B

Zeus and Ares. Even I'm not 100% sure who is who, but I think Ares is on the right

I know that's Ares; recognize the expression! With Apollo

Athena

Apollo

The Greek Gang Apollo, Zeus, Athena, Ares and Hera. Yeah, gross pix of cat box, but, when they are that small, they cannot climb into the big hooded ones!

Rainy Day Ramble About Our Pets

We had a few days of nice weather; now, it is back to crappy rain. Seriously, we've had far too much moisture these past months. I'm tired of it. It's a pain in the butt, too, when you have a dog. Every time she has to go out, one of us (usually me since I'm home with her) has to wipe Lucy's feet off or else she'll leave wet doggie foot prints all over the tile floor. Of course, it typically happens that it starts to rain right after I've newly mopped the floor. Then, I have to admit, I tend to make her wait longer than I probably should to go out, in hopes that it will stop raining. Not that this really matters because the ground is still wet and muddy. And, boy, does she HATE having her feet wiped. We've finally gotten her to the point where she won't try and yank her feet away and will actually give us, in turn, her front paws. The back ones, well, it's sort of hit or miss.

Anyway, I'm tired of the rain for a lot of reasons, not just because I have to wipe my dog's feet. On to the subject at hand, our pets.

I think our cats are convinced my alias is Carlton the Door Man. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you are far too young and/or never watched 70s comedy TV. So, yeah; the cats love to be out in the sun room. Pete and Lily in particular, Lily the most. She'll go out there first thing in the morning and won't want to come in unless she is hungry or needs to use the box (no, I don't leave anyone out there if I'm going to be away for a long period of time). Ares and Apollo like to be out there as well but they tend to want to come right back in. Ares has an incredibly annoying habit of scratching at the door when he wants to come inside. Apollo just sits there letting Ares do the work. The weirdest, though, is Pete. When he wants out and hears me unlocking the deadbolt, he comes running from wherever he is; chirping away, and will literally jump up on the door and try to turn the door knob. If he ever manages to get the door open, I'll turn the Carlton The Door Man responsibilities over to him and call it a day. When he is ready to come back in, he'll sit at the door and stare at me through the glass. Like this:

Lucy usually gets in on the action as well; when I get up to open the door, she'll run over and try to barge out into the sun room. Of course, she is required to sit and wait politely to be told it is okay to go out (which happens, oh, zero percent of the time; she ALWAYS has to be reminded). So, not only am I ping-ponging up and down to open the door to let one cat or another in or out, I'm constantly saying "Sit! Sit!" to Lucy. The other day, I got all sorts of confused and found myself standing at the door instructing Ares to sit. He just looked at me and yawned.

The only cat who doesn't really like to be out in the sun room (unless the door is left open) is Athena. She'll stay inside; either upstairs napping or down in the kitchen with me. This usually is of great benefit to her as, if I'm cooking something, she'll get a treat while the others remain clueless out in the sun room.

Another sort of funny thing that's come to our attention and that is Ares HAS to be with Pete as much as he possibly can. We should probably nickname Ares "Shadow" because that is exactly what he is, Pete's shadow. If Pete comes strolling into a room and Ares is not already in the room, you can rest assured Ares will be right behind him, trying to cozy up to him, even while Pete is walking. If Pete's in an ok mood, fine. If not, Pete starts to growl and hiss, which doesn't really detract Ares all that much. If Pete jumps up onto our bed at night, Ares is right behind, purring away. If I go into the bathroom and Pete follows me (both Pete and Lily have a "thing" for climbing into the magazine basket next to the toilet and keeping me company while I do my business (and I must pet them, too, which is sometimes quite a feat early in the am when I'm half zonked; pee, pet, wipe, flush)); Ares will run in behind him and try to climb into the basket, which causes all sorts of fuss. Every once in awhile, Apollo will attempt the same trick but if he does, Ares usually butts him out of the way.

We're finally getting to the point where The Little Kids don't typically run away from us and might even venture down if we have company (but if there is any attempt to touch them, off they'll scamper). Pete and Lily don't care one way or another; Pete, in particular, will be a bit sociable if he's feeling generous. They still run a bit from Mr. B (usually Athena), but, she'll climb up on the bed and cuddle next to him so she must be deciding he's not half bad.

When Mr. B comes home, not only do we have Lucy running around like ape shit when she hears the garage door go up carrying one of her toys and dashing madly about the island until he comes in, now Apollo comes running when the garage door goes up as well. Seriously! If he's upstairs, I'll hear the "thud" of him jumping down from wherever and down he'll trot. He'll usually go right over to the refrigerator so he can wait for Mr. B to make the evening martinis and give him a few pieces of ice (which he plays with but does ultimately eat).

Lily had some gunk in her ears so I took her to see Uncle Chuck who determined it was some sort of bacterial infection; no big deal. She had to have drops in her ears twice a day for two weeks. She HATED HATED HATED having those drops put in her ears. Pets are not dumb; she'd try to go running when she saw the bottle. Before we started this procedure, she slept on the bed every night next to Mr. B. Now, she's pissed off at both of us and doesn't so much any longer. Hopefully, she'll come around soon (although she still has to assist Mr. B with getting ready in the bathroom each and every morning).

And then there is Lucy. Oh, Lucy, God passed over you in the brains department, my dearest Goosie. I think, frankly, she may have suffered some brain damage in her other life. What else can explain it? It's not AWFUL but, cheese! Sometimes, however, her lack of mental attributes is very comical, like yesterday. We were outside enjoying the afternoon sun. Lucy was laying on the patio next to us when Mr. B (who has been trying to work with her on fetching) said, "Lucy! Go get your ball!" Ok, she knows what this means and she did go get her pink tennis ball. However, she still won't bring it to you so you can throw it. She still does this thing where she runs around you, almost like she's showing off; "Ha ha! My ball! My ball!"

Anyway, Mr. B finally got her to drop the ball close enough that he picked it up and threw it. She went after it; brought it back to the patio; repeat the process. This time, he picked it up and threw it and either the sun got in her eyes or she turned her head and didn't see where it went, but, she couldn't find it. She went running off in the wrong direction, then, eventually, trotted over to Mr. B and looked at him as if to say, "Where is it? Where is my ball?" He made a movement as if he was tossing the ball and damned if she didn't go running off in the direction his hand went. She still couldn't find it, though; so, he did this a few more times until she accidentally stepped on it. By this time, I was laughing so hard, I could hardly stand it!

Ah, pets are so amusing!

Mrs B

Pet Pictures

I've got Blog-block going on so in the meantime, here are recent (as of this afternoon) pictures of our zoo. I've referred to them by their nicknames (they each have several). Funny how I tend to call them by their nicknames more often than I do their real names. I guess that is because we gave them their names before we really knew them all that much; in fact, all six's names were chosen before we even had them in the house. As for their nicknames, they've earned them and they better describe their personalities.

Mrs. B

Gooster The Rooster (yeah, I know; two different types of fowl but somehow, it works for her!) She was looking expectantly at me as she watched me take pictures of the others and knew her turn was up.

Pan Man. Can you figure the nickname out? He has taken to refusing to look at me when I point the camera at him.

P.P. The Queen of the Zoo; not happy that I woke her up from her pm nap.

Jaba the Butt. This should be fairly obvious! This cat is ALWAYS eating. He's got a good several pounds on his brother and sister and is gaining on P.P.

Little Boop. One of her prior nicknames was "Fat Face Feena"; I got to thinking that wasn't so awfully nice! This has to do with a noise she makes when you swat at her tail end. As an aside, I don't know why this is being underlined. I can't get it to go away! ARGH! Anyway, she was sleeping next to P.P.

Scrappy. And he is just that. It fits him to a "T"! He was asleep two seconds prior to taking this, hence why he looks a bit startled.

Recent Pet Pictures

Real recent; yesterday, in fact. I'm trying to put together our 2009 Holiday Card/Picture. So, I needed some decent recents!

What do you think?

Mrs. B

Lucy
Pete
LilyAres

Athena
Apollo