Fall in Florida

Fall in Florida...  for now the days are still in the 80s, but at night it gets down to the 60s and sometimes even the 50s.  I have the windows open in the house most of the time.  The sun is not quite as blazing as it was in August.  It's beautiful here, but the Facebook feeds of my friends back North are full of the trees in fall color right now and I miss that so much.

Faith and Holly at Thea's school

Last weekend we went to Thea's school for her first orchestra concert in four years.  Unlike when she was in elementary school and was, for a while, the only cellist, she is now one of nine cellists in the high school orchestra.

Thea strolling like Big Man On Campus

The unfortunate thing about being the only freshman out of the nine cellists was that she was seated in the back, and I couldn't get any pictures of her while she was playing.  I got plenty of lovely pictures of the senior girl who was sitting in front of her.

That's Thea on the top right;  you can see she is actually holding a cello and I am not making all this up.

We finally acquired a television.  We still don't have cable (seven years now!) but now there is something on which to play the Wii, the PS3, and the Nintendo64 (vintage!), and watch DVDs and Netflix.  So you can see that if I seem to sound pompous about not having cable, that's really meaningless.

Holly likes to watch Dan play Little Big Planet

In other news, Emily the cat has a serious sweet tooth.

Sneaky cat going after the butter/honey mixture I was dipping a soft pretzel in.

Mmmmm.

Back in Baltimore Emily eradicated the spricket population in my basement.  Here in Florida, we have other issues.  We have those huge nasty cockroaches.

Notice this dark shadow inside the kitchen light.  Yes, you guessed it.

I would say I see two or three a week.  Out of those two or three, one is usually dead -- presumably killed by Emily or Benny during the night.  If the cats can work their magic on the cockroaches and make it so I don't have to look at live ones, I would be forever grateful.

In other bug news we have been watching a spider rebuild a web every day outside on the back patio.  It's a very disturbing looking spider called a Spiny Orb Weaver.

I looked it up online and Holly and I read about it -- that it is not venomous, and is considered beneficial -- and, as often happens, something that was scary became much less so thanks to the power of information.  Next thing you know, that spider had been named "Mrs Spiny," and several times a day she was checked on and reported excitedly on.

Days later I was puttering around with my morning coffee and came face to many-eyed face with Mrs Spiny's sister, sitting in a web that stretched across my dining room.  Thanks again to information and familiarity, I did not freak out, and instead watched the spider for an hour or so before relocating her outside.

But don't let you cockroaches get any ideas.

February In Pictures

You don't want to read pages about the boring stuff we've been doing since the last time I posted., so here are a lot of pictures to make the boring stories a little easier to bear.

Here is Holly on the way back from a trip to Urgent Care to have two stitches put in her forehead.  While jumping on a mattress at a friend's house, she ran her head into the corner of a bunk bed.  The cleaning and stitching was a traumatic experience for her AND for Mom... but a lollipop and the promise of ice cream helped to put this slightly forced smile onto her face.

We used a really cool idea I saw on Pinterest to make these Valentines for Holly to give out.  I took a picture of her holding out her fist toward the camera, then added some text and graphics to it using Picnik, an online photo editor that can do techy editing as well as fun editing.  (It was my first time using Picnik, and I thought it was cool, but I hear the site is closing down in April.  So then I heard of iPiccy, and it's really cool too.)   We uploaded the finished photo to Walgreens and printed out 40 or so, then used a razor to make a slice at the top and bottom of her fist.  We slid in a Dum-dum, and, voila!  So cute!

It turned out so good, Faith wanted to do it, too.  Hers turned out just as awesome!

A week after the stitches went in, they came out.  The removal was a little painful too, but Holly was brave, and a popsicle and then lunch with Mom made everything better.  Then she got to go to school and show off her war wound to her friends.

I planted the first seeds of the year, broccoli.  I am using SproutRobot to tell me when to plant each of my crops.  It tells when to start seeds indoors, when to expect them to sprout, and when to transplant outside, all based on my zip code.  I'm putting a lot of faith in this thing so I hope it works.  You can't tell real well from this picture, but I made the seedling pots out of some newspaper and masking tape.  Then I stuck them into this handy greenhouse (formerly a zippered bag that a sheet set came in).  It worked excellently.

Emily continues to act spoiled and be spoiled.

Check out my cute baby broccoli plants!  They sprouted over a week earlier than they were "supposed" to. The most difficult thing was choosing which of the three sprouts in each pot to keep, and which to thin out.  It felt like planticide.

The girls went to an awesome birthday party at Pump It Up.  Two rooms full of inflatable bouncy play equipment, and to make it even more fun, most of the time the lights were off and only some black lights and disco lights were on.  Add glow necklaces and bracelets and some loud pop music, and it was a blast, even for grownups.  Here, you can see that Holly came down the inflatable slide so fast that she bounced right off the bottom of it.

An hour of bouncing + getting sugared up with birthday cake + past bedtime = goofy fun.

I hope I don't lose all gardening cred for this, but I could not resist this potato growing pot I found at Walmart.  It even came with the three seed potatoes.  I saw (again on Pinterest) a DIY potato growing tower made of wire fencing, straw and compost, and I thought it looked really cool, but I am already extending myself a bit far with all these other things I'm trying to grow this year.  I have gotten overly ambitious and then failed in a grandiose manner in past years, so I don't want to go TOO far.  So I'll grow potatoes this year (hopefully) in this handy pot and then try the hippier way another year.

Dan was digging a trench in which to lay a pipe for my repaired gutter, and behind some weeds he found this fellow.  Possibly due to the chill in the air, or possibly due to the lump in his body that suggested he had just eaten something, this snake didn't try to escape from Dan's hand.  He did flick his tongue many times in displeasure.  At least I assume it was displeasure.  Really I have no way at all of knowing what this snake likes and doesn't like.  Hopefully he likes his new home in the even weedier alleyway behind my house.

Last but not least:  Thea and Faith each won a ribbon and a trophy today at the Pathfinder Pinewood Derby.  Thea's racecar came in second for her church's group in the Teen level, and Faith's car came in second in the Junior level.  Then, Thea's show car, which was decorated like a banana split, took third place Best In Show for the whole conference.  Faith's show car, a forest, took third place Most Unusual for the conference.

Thursday thinking

I still miss Augie a lot.  I thought I heard him meow the other day, and I keep expecting to see him laying on the dog's bed or to come climb in my lap while I'm sitting on the floor.  Our other elderly cat, Spot, is turning 18 in April.  For now he is in decent health.  He notices Augie's absence, though.  The first night Augie was gone, Spot wandered through the house all night meowing.  They used to sleep together on the dog's bed.

Aside from Spotty we have two other cats, Emily and Benny, who are about 2.5 and 3 years old, respectively. Then there's good old Chester, the dog, who we guess to be about 9.  I do love a house full of pets, despite the cost, the mess, the work, and the inevitable heartache that comes along with it.

Augie and Spotty enjoying a sunny spot at the back door.  Nov 2011

Thea and Faith are going skiing for the first time this weekend.  I've never really had an interest in skiing, but I'm happy they're going to have the opportunity to try it.  They are excited.  Holly and I are staying home by ourselves.  I told her it was going to be a special Holly-and-Mommy night.  Her eyes got wide and she said, "Let's have a movie night!  With EATING!"  So, movies and eating it will be.

I'm getting a haircut tomorrow.  This is only news because I don't get my hair cut often, and when I do, it's usually just a trim.  This time I really am looking for a new style (if you can call the shapeless mess I have now a "style").  It remains to be seen whether I can communicate my wishes to the stylist, whether she can cut it that way, whether my hair will actually do what the girl's hair in the picture is doing, and then whether I can actually pull it off myself at home.

Augie

Today we had to say goodbye to Augie, our oldest cat.  You never think of this moment... when you are holding the tiny kitten in the palm of your hand; when he is chasing a string you are dragging around the house;  when he is tumbling on the carpet with his adopted sister; when he is snuggled next to you in bed purring; when he is rubbing his head on your chin; when he is meowing for his dinner; when he realizes you are sad and climbs into your lap to comfort you... You never think of this moment that you will have to say goodbye.  This is the crappy side of pet ownership.

Augie was only about 8 weeks old when we brought him home from the pound.  He was indeed small enough to sit in the palm of Rick's hand.  Over the years he moved with us to three more houses, saw many adopted brothers and sisters come and go, and saw three rambunctious children added to the mix.  Augie accepted the kids with grace -- he never scratched or bit them, although he stayed well out of their way when he didn't feel like dealing with them.

Augie lived nearly 19 years with us.  He was a good friend.  He was a good cat.  The doctor and techs at Arbutus Veterinary Hospital helped him complete his life's journey with peace and dignity, and I held him at the end and thanked him for everything and told him how much I love him.

Rest now in peace, Augie.  1993-2012

Augie performing his trademark forehead-bump on his first day home from the pound.  1993

Tiny Augie  1993

Augie and Allie the day they knocked a bag of flour off the top of the refrigerator and made little white footprints all over the apartment.  1994

My first babies.  1994

Augie watching over me and just-born Holly.  2006

Just this past summer, Augie relaxing on Holly's bed.  2011

Pests

I am pleased to report that spricket sightings have dropped dramatically since we added Emily the cat to our family. I don't know exactly what she did to make such a difference -- I wouldn't think that one little kitty could take down that population. But maybe she knocked out the breeders and then the older sprickets just died off? Whatever she did, she's worth her weight in Meow Mix. Augie and Spot, the elderly man cats, just didn't care about hunting.

Something very disconcerting, though, is that from time to time I discover little mouse droppings in the kitchen cabinets. I haven't actually SEEN a mouse in years, and Emily The Huntress is never interested in prowling the kitchen (except in search of people food), so if they're in there, she doesn't hear or smell them.

Sunny days

We went to Centennial Park on Sabbath for a picnic with some people from church. Beautiful day. I do realize I'm way behind in getting pictures up -- I've only done through June. Sometime I'll sit down and work on getting July posted. July was the week-long camping trip, and I have between 200 and 300 pictures to go through... a daunting task.

Emily -- "Not a Kitten, Not Yet a Queen" -- became suddenly affectionate last week and we all thought, well isn't this nice! Until she began yowling and behaving obscenely and we realized she was in heat. It's not fun, and less fun is going to be the vet bill for having her spayed.

Today I am very taken with this song: "Laughing With a Mouth Of Blood" by St Vincent. Don't be put off -- the name sounds more Goth than it really is.

Emily

This is Emily, the new member of the cat family. She's a lot of fun. :)

I have been working hard updating the photo albums on Zebranest, so check them out here: http://www.zebranest.net/photos. Lots of stuff up from the beginning of the year up to the end of May. Also, I'm looking to sail past my goal of 15 books read this year, since I'm already working on the 13th -- woohoo! You can see my reading list here. The older girls are supposed to be reading plenty this summer instead of rotting in front of the computer or Wii... you can check out their progress on their blog, Chickpeas.

A US Census worker stopped by my house yesterday to get my census information. But why? I had dutifully mailed in my census form weeks ago, AND I already took a phone call from a census worker who got all the information again. If this continues it'll look like Baltimore City consists mainly of white single moms of a ton of middle-schoolers and preschoolers.

I got a summons for Jury Duty, again. I went 30-some-odd years without anyone wanting me to be a juror, but now that they know I'll actually show up, I'm getting called every year. Unfortunately the date of my summons is right during my vacation in July so I have to call up the court and ask them to change it.

We have a new member of the family -- Emily, a nine-month-old kitten that we took in when a friend couldn't keep her. She's solid dark grey and very impish. I'll put up some pictures when I get my camera working -- it's on the fritz.

Caught

Trying to get a morning-after picture of Holly's new haircut, instead I captured Spot sneaking out the door...

New Decade

Couple of changes for the new decade. I'm going to be moving my public posts over here to Blogger -- the new address is thebigenoughumbrella.blogspot.com -- and they will in turn feed over to my website. I'll keep friends-only posts at LiveJournal.

Here in Baltimore 2010 came in cold and has stayed cold. I love my heating system (radiators), but the house is so drafty that many areas just won't warm up. Over the weekend I put plastic up over one of the windows in the family room and it made quite a difference. I need to go to Home Depot or something to get more plastic for some of the other windows. I put towels down in front of the doors to try to stop the drafts coming under them, but a certain cat tends to pee on them. (Allie, our elderly lady cat.)

If you're friends with me on Facebook you may have seen this already, but here are me and the girls on Christmas Day:



Moving right along to goals for this year:

• Don't gain any weight. It worked last year!
• Read at least one book each month. I have no shortage of books waiting to be read. Follow the progress on my website, once I get the page set up.
  
• Make headway on the biggest house project -- the torn up upstairs room. Once it was going to be a kitchen and dining room, but now my plan is to make it a master bedroom and master bath. Or at the very least, to make it a livable room of any kind. This hasn't been worked on in over three years.
  
• Continue paring down my stuff (junk). It's a long road for me since I have packrat tendencies. So far in the three days of this year I got rid of two bags of clothing and a bag of toys. Gotta keep at it.
• With the kids, laugh and hug more, and yell less. Not sure how to quantify or track this one, but it's a goal nonetheless.