Let’s hop back on the blogging bandwagon with some random bullets organized by alliteration.
5 Food Fixations
The Best Brownies: Usually I am happy to make brownies from a boxed mix, but I didn’t have a boxed mix in my pantry and I needed some brownies. So I googled “best easy brownies” and ended up following this recipe. The brownies were so good. Rich and fudgy and not overly sweet. (Comments about the recipe mentioned that the original was on the sweet side; the recipe creator even included a note about how to reduce the sugar level, so I felt fine about leaving out the powdered sugar. The brownies were not too sweet.) Alas, the brownies are now gone.
Starbucks Favorite at Home: One of my go-to summer drinks at Starbucks is a green tea lemonade. But I honestly despise going to Starbucks. Well, maybe that’s putting it a little too strongly. How’s this: I hate going to Starbucks as often as my family likes to. For my particular personality and for my particular child, treats are both more enjoyable and more appreciated when they are truly treats – out of the ordinary, once in a while – rather than regular features of our week. I have implemented a once-a-month rule with Carla, and that works just fine for us. But recently I realized I could make green tea lemonade at home. I just brew a big jug of green tea, and then pair it with some lemonade. Just as satisfying and much more cost effective. It’s been such a hit that I even bought a special pitcher just for my green tea.
Cherry Crisp: My parents and I took a day trip to a region that specializes in cherries, and my mom bought a couple of bags for us to enjoy back at her house. One night she made a cherry crisp with some of the cherries (which she painstakingly pitted, chopped, and froze for future devouring by my daughter). It was delicious. I have been thinking about it ever since. In fact, I tried to make my own cherry crisp for my husband and in-laws, following the same recipe my mom used. I don’t know if I made an error while adding the ingredients, or if I cooked the cherries too long, or if the cherries our grocery store sold me are simply subpar, but it couldn’t hold a candle to my mom’s. I guess I’ll have to wait until next summer, and hope she recreates the magic.
Posh Chocolate: I cannot remember who told me about this little boutique chocolate shop, but I needed to mail some thank-you gifts and these fit the bill. Then I wanted to have a little “welcome to my house” gift for my in-laws while they visited, so I had a box of truffles sent here… and added a box of the huckleberry bonbons for myself, my husband, and Carla to enjoy. They are delicious and beautiful, and very reasonably priced for artisan chocolate. Also, I ordered all four boxes during the height of the heat wave, and they all arrived intact and unaffected. (I did pay $7.99 for cool packaging, as per their warm weather shipping notice.)
Chipotle Chicken & Black Bean Soup: After endless oppressive heat, we’ve been having a spate of cooler weather. So I made a big pot of my favorite soup and I’ve been eating it for lunch. So yummy.
5 Frets & Frustrations
Kitty Surgery: My little kitten is at the vet’s today, getting neutered. I have been extremely anxious about him being sedated, even though I’m aware this is a common and fairly simple procedure. The kind vet tech listened to my anxious babbling and answered all my questions and handed me a printout about what to expect that assured me I am not the only high-strung pet parent they’ve ever dealt with. I bought him special newspaper pellet litter (which is supposed to be less likely to stick to his incision) and moved some carpet squares, his milk carton bed, a litter box, and his water fountain into a downstairs bathroom so he won’t be tempted to run and leap around. It was weird coming home to an empty house; I have very quickly become accustomed to his little kitty pitter patter on the floors as soon as I walk through the door. I did take the opportunity to run the robot vacuum, who I am sure will appreciate doing its job unencumbered. (Leo’s attitude toward Rocky is either suspicious watchfulness or all-out attack mode, and requires a lot of supervision and “leave Rocky alone” repetition.) Anyway, I’m sure my sweet kitty will be fine, but I’m fretting about him anyway. I really wish my mind didn’t always leap immediately to the worst case scenario.
Blog Backlog: It has been a long while since I’ve posted… and a long while since I’ve read or commented on posts. I’m sorry! I am keenly aware of being a bad blog friend. And now I’m fretting about how I am possibly going to go back and read all of your posts that I’ve missed. My Feedly was so overwhelming I simply marked all as read (and I don’t even follow all of my favorite bloggers on Feedly! ack!), but I dislike missing out on what’s going on around the blog community. Well. I will figure it out somehow.
Health Concerns: I have a couple of dear people in my life who are dealing with some health uncertainty right now. One is facing surgery, which will confirm or refute the presence of cancer; and then there will be recovery from the surgery and possible additional therapies. Another is facing a chronic diagnosis and adjusting to what that means and how to keep on top of things. I can’t DO anything, except offer support, so I’m sitting over here fretting.
Freezer Leak: We suddenly have water appearing beneath the door of the freezer each time we open it. I can see a buildup of ice on the bottom of the freezer, so one possibility is that it melts and then pours out when we need ice or whatever. Another possibility is that the filter is clogged. We had similar leaking from the fridge side when we first moved into this house, and the fridge service person told me that the filter had never been cleaned and was FULL of pet hair. (Hork.) But… we’ve only had a cat for three months and we have the filter cleaned annually, so… who knows. The fridge service person is coming out in early September. I always love when the scheduler reminds me that he charges $75 per quarter hour, on top of the $159 fee just to show up. So let’s all hope this is an easy filter cleanout and not something requiring multiple quarter hours of his time.
CPAP Tryout: My primary care physician and my sleep specialist agree that I should at least try a CPAP machine to see if it helps me sleep better. I have mild sleep apnea (which, I learned, means that I was observed having 10 sleep apnea events per hour; “mild sleep apnea” is 5-15 such events, according to whatever criteria my sleep specialist follows.) so CPAP isn’t even really indicated, but they think it could help and so… I guess I will try it. I am unconvinced that it will do anything except cost additional money and further prevent me from sleeping. A couple of friends think I should really be pursuing the “this is perimenopause” path, but I haven’t gotten any traction from my gynecologist, pcp, or sleep specialist on that idea… and I feel too weary of all the appointments and all the money to reach out to a menopause specialist. Yet.
5 Frivolous Fripperies
Sunroom Sundries: One of my husband’s wish list items when we were looking for a house was a sunroom. This house indeed has a sunroom, or, more accurately, a screened-in porch, but for the majority of the time we’ve been here, all we’ve used it for is storing various outdoor cushions and pool floaties. This summer, we made a plan to turn it into a usable space. Now, we have furniture (although we are still waiting on a coffee table, which is backordered until November) and a rug and throw pillows. I really wanted to have some big leafy plants in there and after looking around exhaustively I finally found two on-sale palms that are non-toxic to cats and don’t require direct sunlight. Finding the right plants was very challenging, but Then all I needed were some decorative planters and some plant stands, both so they look nice in the sunroom (and don’t leak all over the floor) and so they look nice in our house when I move them inside over winter. Listen, I tried so hard to shop locally for these things. I went to six local, independently-owned garden centers and two separate Home Depots and a Target to try to find planters I liked that weren’t a billion dollars, and could not, so I ended up ordering them from that online place. The planters, despite being enormous and ceramic, arrived completely undamaged and I like them and the plant stands quite a lot. I am sitting in the sunroom as I type, and it’s breezy and I am surrounded by greenery and zero bugs and I love it very much. Leo, incidentally, adores coming out here. He likes to pretend he’s a jungle cat and keeps a close eye on the bees pollinating the hydrangeas.
Shorts: It’s been a hot summer and if there’s one thing I hate more than wearing shorts, it’s being uncomfortably hot. So I ordered a few more pairs of exercise shorts so I can walk outside without wanting to die. I got these ones in black and navy after admiring the pair that my friend was wearing. And then I got a pair of longish yoga shorts I can wear for walking or for doing workouts in my basement. I like them all very much. All of them have pockets, which is useful, and all of them are long enough to prevent thigh chafing.
More Shorts: Somehow the exercise shorts purchase set off a little shorts-buying spree, and I ended up getting two pairs of non-exercise shorts as well. These green ones and these khaki ones. I like the way they fit, and love the green ones wholeheartedly. I’m not completely sold on the khaki color, though – it’s a little darker than I thought it would be. Perhaps I will return that pair. And then I thought, I’ve got exercise and public clothing options covered, what about lounging around the house options? So I got a little T-shirt and shorts set that I adore. I feel more put together than I do when I’m wearing pajamas and the material is a nice weight and very breathable.
Pill Keeper: This is a very silly purchase and it makes me feel a million years old, but I love it so very much. My husband bought it for me because I kept complaining that I couldn’t remember which of my 85 supplements and medications I’d taken already. And then I had to go out of town for two weeks and I didn’t want to take all the bottles with me. So he bought me this pill keeper, which has containers labeled for each day of the week, and each day’s container has a little compartment for day and for night. I dislike having to fill each compartment every Sunday, but I love not having to hassle with bottles or concentrate on whether I’ve already taken my allergy pill.
Planner Plans: Okay, I am trying again to be the Planner Person I want to be. I got this undated daily planner – undated in case I try it for a week and then give up on/forget about it for a few months and want to try again. It’s nice and big, it has lots of room to write. I am going to start September with schedules and plans and a work strategy. LFG.
5 Full-Out Flops
Still No Zucchini: My zucchini plant, which is flourishing in terms of size and number of flowers, still has yet to produce a single viable fruit. My very inexpert guess at why it hasn’t produced is that a) there is a dearth of female flowers and b) the male and female flowers never seem to open at the same time, which seems like poor planning from a reproduction standpoint. I am happy to try, if slightly creeped out by, hand fertilization. But I have never seen a single female flower. UNTIL TODAY. Of course, the male flowers were all closed. But I pulled one off its stem, tore off the petals, and tried to use the male stamen to fertilize the female one. We’ll see how it goes.
Scratching Post(s): We have purchased four scratching posts and pads in the three months we’ve had a cat. They are a variety of shapes, sizes, and materials. We also have a bunch of carpet square samples from when we were choosing a living room rug. And yet the cat by FAR prefers to sharpen his claws on the new furniture, any and all rugs (except the carpet square), and the carpeted stairs. We clip his nails weekly. We redirect him to preferred surfaces when he scratches the wrong things. We have scratchers ALL OVER THE PLACE. And yet. Sigh. I realize this is just him Being A Cat, and there’s not really anything we can do, but it’s still disheartening.
Tidiness Maintenance: Earlier this summer, Carla and I fully cleaned her room, her bathroom, her craft room, and her closet. She bought organizers for her bathroom drawers, she culled her clothing to only the things she supposedly likes and wears, she allowed me to stow all her Barbies, LEGOs, and other toys in bins. We tidied and sorted and shelved and vacuumed. We discussed doing a nightly five-minute tidy. We discussed ensuring that everything has a home. We discussed putting things away when you are ready to move to the next thing. We discussed not starting a new project until you are done with the current project. And now we are at the end of the summer and everything is once again buried under a litter of clothing and craft supplies and trash. Part of me feels like, okay, my kid is in a messy phase; I was a pretty messy kid, too. And a mess won’t kill anyone. Shut the door and ignore. But the other part of me feels like EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.
Laid-Back Summer Schedule: This failure was at least instructive. Carla was adamant this year that she didn’t want her summer to be full of long-term camps. Knowing that my child prefers to be active and that I prefer to have copious time to myself, I set up several short-term camps for her. But we did have long stretches of days and weeks where she had nothing to do. Instead of filling those days with time in the pool, time with dogs, time with friends, Carla spent a lot of time Velcroed to me, feeling bored and unmoored. This, despite its high points, made for a less-than-ideal summer. I asked her which camps she liked the most, and she enjoyed the two camps that had her occupied ALL DAY. So now we know for next year. More camps. Maybe more travel (our time at my parents’ summer home was phenomenal). Much less unstructured time.
Gift-Giving Stalls: As usual, I have been completely overthinking and under-delivering on gift giving. Case in point: I had been researching ideas for my sister-in-law’s birthday gift all summer, and then when I realized I was running out of time to ship it to her, I panic-bought her some jewelry (which I think she will like). The gift has been sitting on my desk serving as a cat toy ever since and now her birthday is next week and I have yet to ship it. Also, my mother-in-law’s birthday is coming up in September and then my husband, sister-in-law, and brother have birthdays shortly after that, and I have not a single idea of what to get any of them.
5 Feline Photos
Here are some photos of my sweet kitten. The vet called and said he did great during surgery and I can come get him soon. She also said she thinks he will top out at ten pounds, which is HALF the size that the breeder anticipated. Who will be right????
I love truffles and those are beautifully crafted candies. I’ve often been disappointed in the fancier chocolates since they include what are to me wacky ingredients. No flower essences in my chocolates, please! LOL It’s so tough to find a balance between too busy and not busy enough. My 5-year-old grandson went to a couple full day (one full week) Lego camps and a wilderness camp that was really more of a daycare out in the woods. I’ve given up mostly but for many years I’ve used nail caps on my cat; she allows me to put them on or a vet tech can do it for $25. They protect the furniture and the bodies from injury.
There are few things more disappointing than biting into a gorgeous truffle to find that it tastes of artificial flavoring and sugar!
I have looked longingly at the nail caps in the pet stores, and read so many reviews. I am intrigued that they work for you and your cat! Maybe they would be worth trying?!
Days of the week pillboxes are a must. I like that yours makes it easy to just take certain days. The words are rubbing off mine since I’ve used it for so many years (I take so many pills for RA and other issues). I can split off days but yours looks easier to use.
I hope Leo does well with his surgery. We went through that with Oscar and it’s tough. I am a bit blasé about surgeries since I have had so many so I was blasé with my kids, too. 🙈 I probably seem like a bit of a monster. But I’ve had 7 surgeries and the kids have had 3 so we are sadly very good at going through this sort of thing…. Phil has had very few surgeries, though.
Those truffles look amazing!!!
Welcome back. You haven’t missed much during your absence at least in my world. This week sucked (see national news) but otherwise it’s been kind of an uneventful summer with very little travel (hurrah!) which I will pay for with something like 11 trips this fall, kicking off a week from Sunday. Sob.
I think blase is the way to be, Lisa! Although I’m sorry you got to that point through so much experience. My husband is very blase, too, but I suppose that’s a combination of personality and professional knowledge.
ELEVEN TRIPS. Lisa. Yuck.
Welcome back to the internets!!! We missed you!!!
I cannot get over the stripes on Leo’s arms. Wishing him a speedy recovery from his “big boy” surgery.
All of what you said – I just don’t get the appeal of going to Starbucks (exception for the time that Jenny and I went in FL), I’m saying a little prayer for good health news for your peeps. Assuming that the CPAP isn’t wildly expensive, the worst that can happen is that it won’t work and the best is that you’ll get some good sleep, I may copy you on the short & shirts set since my summer lounging around the house attire could use a refresh. What you said about the summer being just a touch wearing with a bored kiddo hanging around the house…I’m just going to say that I have been very happy since school started and leave it there.
I love his arm stripes, too! And Birchie, he has POLKA DOTS on his TUMMY.
Okay, your take on the CPAP is very reassuring and logical. Thank you for that.
YES. School is a godsend.
Kitty pics! Awww, he’s so gorgeous. Of course he wants to scratch the good furniture. They just KNOW what’s important to you! I love my CPAP, but my apnea was severe. I’m getting more deep sleep these days, and it makes a big difference. You didn’t miss anything on my blog, as I took some time off too. I think it’s perfect that you marked them all as read!
Oh, I love that you love your CPAP! I don’t know that I’ve heard a ton of positives, and certainly not such enthusiasm. Maybe it won’t be as bad as I’m thinking it will be?!
Huzzah – nice to see/read you’re back! Tiny thing, have you as a family simply discussed having a moratorium on present giving? We have always done the ‘once you get to 21, you’re done’ thing (apart from the ?0 ones when we all club together and give a joint big present) and it works brilliantly. We still send cards to show thoughtfulness, but all of the anxiety and ‘that will do’ annoyances about present-giving is no more!
Sigh. No, no moratorium on present giving. Both my family of origin and my husband’s family are kind of big on gifts. In different ways, though. I don’t really know how to describe my parents’ philosophy — but my in-laws are “gifts as a love language” people, so I don’t think it would ever stop. I love your family’s approach, though!
Oh, hello! Since you’re behind on blog reading, I’ll just tell you that I also got a kitten!!! We got him this week and he’s six months old, so LUCKILY already neutered. i’m sure Leo is absolutely fine- but that is stressful to have to leave him at the vet for surgery!
So… I HATE the Starbucks green tea so much! In my summer of forced green tea drinking, I got an iced green tea at Starbucks- WHY do they add spearmint??? Blarg. Of course I wasn’t getting the lemonade added- I’m sure that would help immensely. But still- spearmint, yuck.
Anyway- glad to have you back! Good luck with the CPAP. And, your sunroom looks nice!!!
YAY FOR A NEW KITTEN!!!!!
Jenny, I 100% agree with you about Starbucks green tea — the hot kind. If I recall correctly, they have some weird Oprah-sponsored tea brand and the green tea has mint in it, which I despise. The green tea for the lemonade is different! It’s just regular green tea! No idea why or how this is.
Leo rules- he is so handsome and fluffy.. I hope his recovery is swift!
I’m waiting on a sleep study to get my daughter a CPAP- I’ve heard such good things about improved sleep with it, and we’d all benefit if she’d sleep better. My husband thought he needed one, but it turns out he doesn’t have apnea- just anxiety!
Aww thank you! I think he is quite gorgeous myself. 😉
I really hope you and your daughter get the sleep stuff figured out. Having sleep issues is AWFUL, but I think it would be worse to have a kid with sleep issues. Hopefully you get the sleep study soon so she can get some better rest.
Wow those are some beautiful chocolates, and although I do tend to make brownies from a box, that recipe is going to be a must-try. When I was working at YMC I wrote a make-at-home vegan frappucino that was just as good as the SB one! Oh, and re: cherries, I have made cherry desserts using frozen from Costco and they worked out quite well. But then, it doesn’t have the magic of your mom’s crisp!
Pets having surgeries is very stressful. Rex had to be put under to have his teeth cleaned and getting a loopy 100 pound dog into the car to go home was quite a feat. But I’m sure Leo will be up and at it in no time.
Eeeee the freezer. I hate things like that! I mean, who doesn’t. But it’s so frustrating.
What else, what else. Your sunroom is gorgeous – that must have been where you were when we wrote together last week! And hey, lesson learned when it comes to unscheduled time. Everyone is different and Carla obviously does better with more to do. Now you both know for next year!
Yes! I was writing in the sunroom! It’s such a great space.
Oh my goodness I never considered that you would have to get Rex INTO and OUT OF THE CAR while drugged up. What a challenge, omg. Much easier with a cat that I can just shove into a carrier!
The sunroom looks gorgeous! And that photo of the kitten atop the chair is stunning — definitely worthy of a canvas print!
I may have to try that brownie recipe. Any time I make brownies from scratch, they turn out to be *inferior* to the box mix so I have just given up.
Right there with you on the tidiness maintenance. Entropy is possibly the strongest force on the planet, or at least in my house. It’s so frustrating and I don’t always have the mental or physical energy to fight it! Probably the answer is just… less stuff. But also, I like our stuff!
Right?! Less stuff is always good, but I feel like I am constantly culling and I do like what we have! My kid does tend to buy a lot of… stuff, though. The downside of her earning money!
I completely agree that brownie mix is so good, there’s almost no point in making them from scratch. But this recipe was so good, I will make it again before I turn to a boxed mix.
I sometimes make a tea combo that is hibiscus tea and lemonade and it is so bright and summery. Highly recommend.
I’m so glad that Lenny (always Kravitz in my mind) came through his surgery, I hope he’s doing well. When my dog Samantha had to have her tail removed (big gross tumor on her tail, she was 15 1/2 at the time) I was so terrified. She did great though.
Your sunroom is gorgeous!
Hibiscus tea!!!! I will have to look for this. It does sound summery, and romantic and lovely.
Haha – I love that the kitten is still Lenny to you. 🙂 I am still sad I lost the naming battle.
Having a tail removed sounds really upsetting. I’m glad Samantha pulled through. (Lenny is fine, although a bit depressed by the cone situation.)
I am not a Starbucks person. Don’t think I have ever been. I agree with your idea of once in awhile treats. Good idea on the lemonade ice tea at home concoction. I better does save a ton.
I am hoping for a better summer experience next year. Crossing my fingers that Kay is socially ready to caddy.
the sun room looks lovely. And Leo looks so big. You have not missed much on my blog. Life is busy and blogging is only fun when we have time for it, right?
Life IS busy but I hate when I get too busy to connect with the blog world. Feels like a chunk is missing from my day-to-day!
Your sunroom is DREAMY, Suzanne.
Summer is such a mixed basket. It’s wonderful having down time and all sorts of fun, but it’s also SO HARD to have so much down time. I expected a few camps to be on offer that we’ve done for years and…they didn’t end up running them, so my son had a lot more flex time than expected and it was fine but definitely not ideal and he watched wayyyy too many screens and/or was begging for playdates.
I’m excited to get back into the school routine, but also fretting about it, too.
Leo looks perfectly adorable as always.
Aren’t household appliances so frustrating. There is always something and it costs a small fortune to fix each thing!
Those brownies sound AMAZING. I need to make those ASAP.
Ugh – unexpected “flex” time sounds very challenging, Elisabeth! I do understand the ambivalence about getting back to school! The routine is great, but the gogogo is not my favorite, and I hate having to do the rigid bedtime/wake up stuff.
I hope you try the brownies and love them!
Welcome back! That chocolate shop looks amazing! And I also got a pill keeper so as not to have to haul eleventy thousand bottles on vacation and am now hooked on it. It gives me something to do while I wait for my toddler to eat a snack at a toddler pace, and then I feel very organized. And I do not have to think about which bottles I need in the morning before I have had any coffee, which is also a win.
Your kid sounds like my girls. We have also had all the discussions. They are still messy kids. I was a messy kid who now prefers to feel very organized. They will grow out of it. Alas, it will probably be after they leave my house.
Hope your sweet kitty recovers quickly and easily along with your other loved ones!
Hahaha – I am cracking up at you using toddler snack time as your pill organization time. That sounds like an excellent and efficient use of time!
I was also a messy kid who is still pretty messy at heart, although I fake it pretty well these days. I keep trying to remind myself that I learned and my kid will learn, but you are right that it will probably be after she’s grown and gone!
We missed you!
Your cat’s tail has me amazed in every pic you show of him. MUCH TAIL. MUCHO TAIL.
The sunroom looks stellar.
The chocolates look amazing.
And I totally get the gift anxiety coupled with actual mailing of said gifts procrastination. I have no tips or tricks to help. I am glad to hear it isn’t just me though.
Lauren, I admire his tail constantly. He walks around with it in the air like a beautiful feathery plume and I love it so much.
I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one with the gifting anxiety! It’s such a weird thing to get stressed about, and yet I get SO STRESSED about it.
I made brownies on Friday. I ate brownies yesterday. I crave brownies today. Should I go and make your recipe? Probably not since I had too much sugar but I want to.
I was also dagnosed with mild sleep apnea (7 per hour) and I was ordered a APAP machine because of my symptoms. While it takes some adjustment I can say say that my sleep is overall a bit better. I feel like I have longer stretches of sleep and probably more restful sleep as I often are able to sleep longer and I feel different. So I say give it a try. I was very hesitant myself and wasn’t sure I wanted it to work since I would have to sleep with every night.
Okay, Tobia, this is very persuasive. I really need to suck it up and just deal with the CPAP. I’m so glad it’s working for you!
DO IT. Make the brownies. You can always freeze some.
I missed you! It’s so good to see you back again.
Kitty is huge now! I know what you mean about surgeries—it’s so scary when our pets have to go through them. My mom’s dog had a tooth extracted this summer, and we were all pretty much doing a prayer chain for her (and we aren’t religious 🤣).
Since giving up chocolate because of migraines, I miss brownies the most. I miss them so much. I hope AI figures all that out so I can eat brownies again.
Your sunroom is beautiful! 💜
Oh geez, yes, I hope you can eat brownies again! Do you ever eat blondies? I know they aren’t CHOCOLATE, but they do have the texture of brownies and maybe they could scratch an itch? I don’t know; I am not typically a chocolate fan so this may be utter nonsense!
I have — I love cream cheese blondies… so yummy. But I do miss a good brownie. Sometimes it’s worth a headache. 🤣
First, hugs on the friend health worries, and the stupid sleeping thing – as a CPAP user I am rolling my eyes hard at your doctors, but I’m willing to be wrong.
Love the plants and furniture, and I hope your sunroom turns out to be a perfect lounging space – also love your lounging set idea.
Still love the kitty.
Eve’s friend made sour cherry bars in July that might have been the best thing I have ever eaten.
Don’t worry about the posts you haven’t read. Start fresh and trust that anything crucial will be repeated.
SOUR CHERRY BARS. That sounds amazing.
The Brownies & Chocolate food group is the most important one. Glad you found the best recipe and best artisanal chocolates to order. I will be investigating those links.
I hear you about the health concerns of those around you. What can one do but listen and hope to be supportive in some way?
The weekly filling of the pill box is now a fond ritual around here. And the pill box is so handy for travel!
I feel I am finding more and more that I am forced to buy from an online big honkin’ store. Every time I go to a local store in need of a print cartridge, they are out of the one I need.
That really is a very gorgeous cat. I was going to say you could blame the cat for the leaking freezer (I mean, that’s what it looks like in the photo), but the cat is too gorgeous to be accused of such a crime.
He is really too gorgeous for any sort of blame. The guy can stare me in the eyes while scratching the expensive brand new chair and I will still tell him how beautiful he is.
Haha – the brownies and chocolate food group! I love that.
Your freezer is leaking water onto your wood floors. YIKES.
Leo/Lenny is so darn handsome. Sorry that he lost his nuts, but I’m sure he will still be nuts. (It must be done!)
Suzanne, I love your screened in porch and I think I would choose to live out there if you let me. I won’t make a mess, promise.
CPAP. For some reason, they look like torture devices, but everyone who uses them, says they are life changing.
When I can’t think of a good gift for someone, I hit up ETSY. I usually type in something the person is into. (bee’s, cars, flowers, etc) and go from there with a bazillion ideas.
Welcome back!
Suzanne! When Eloise had to get her teeth cleaned, I was a wreck, too. I kept reminding myself that this was ROUTINE but it was her first time being under anesthesia since she got spayed (which was before I adopted her), and I was so nervous! Then they told me she would be pretty loopy and tired when she got home, but homegirl was a MENACE. She had so much energy!! It was wild. It was also really weird to be in my apartment with just one cat!
Welcome to CPAP life. Please text me if you have any questions or annoyances! I’ve dealt with them all. It takes a few months to get used to using it, but now I ALWAYS sleep better when I’m using my mask than when I’m not.
I love Arnold Palmer! So refreshing.
Did your mom bring sweet or sour cherries? I think sour cherries are so much better for baked goods, but so hard to find here.
I feel you on the blogging/commenting. I’ve gotten so behind and I hate marking all posts as read, but sometimes it’s impossible to catch up on EVERYTHING. Don’t feel bad, just move forward from here.
P.S. Your kitty is so cute! Keep the photos coming 🙂