Tonight

Casy is coaching high school baseball.

Claude and Wilbur are trying to look innocent.

We will drink wine, eat homemade pizza, and watch a movie.

I will finish a Christmas Valentine's Day Beginning of March hat for my love.

And we will brace ourselves before a very long day of housekeeping tomorrow.

Happy Friday. It couldn't have come fast enough.

Love, T.

Just Woke Up...

...from a little winter cat nap.

Good morning, End of February!

Love, T.

Claude's Photoshoot

Claude becomes uneasy very quickly. He doesn't like loud noises, sudden movements, or cameras in his face. Usually, when I try to take pictures of him, I get something like this:

A mix of annoyance and disgust. Or a blurred cat running away. And this is why you see so many pictures of Wilbur and not so many of poor Claude. It's certainly not for a lack of trying on my part.

But every once in awhile, I get lucky and Claude lets me take not one, not two, but a million wonderful pictures of him. We had one of those moments this week.

Boy, there's nothing like posting a million pictures of your cat to make you feel like a crazy cat lady. I didn't quite feel it until just now.

Our poor children are really going to be in for it.

Love, T.

#11. Bake a Ton of Christmas Cookies

This weekend, I baked. And by the end of last night, I was ready never to bake again.

I was sticky from sugar, powdered with flour, and my fingertips were burned. But I baked on.

Our bedroom floor was covered under Things That Needed To Be Picked Up, we had significant piles of laundry forming next to the washer, and Christmas presents needed to be finished. But I baked on.

The cats meowed at me constantly, desperate for some love and attention, wanting only to sit on my lap for a few minutes...but I baked on.

Okay, fine. This didn't really happen. They were sleeping, completely ignorant to the fact that I wasn't there with them. But I imagined that my preoccupation with cookies was noticed by them all the same.

Anyway, I baked my heart out...and slowly but surely I started seeing the fruits of my labor. Dozens and dozens of cookies. Cranberry pecan noels, sugar cookies, molasses cookies, Russian tea cakes, oatmeal raisin cookies, and lime meltaways.

This morning, we put them on plates for distribution. Neighbors, coworkers, and friends got a plateful of sugary, buttery love. And what better kind of love is there to give?

And remember how I said I never wanted to bake again? It was nothing a little bit of sleep couldn't cure. This morning, after almost fainting when I rediscovered the huge number of cookie-related dishes in the sink, I looked at a pile of overripe bananas on our table and thought how much better they would be baked in a bread.

This, to me, indicates that I'm cured. And that we have a tradition in the making.

Love, T.

It's a Tough Life

Poor Claude.

I hope your weekend was as strenuous as his.

Love, T.

Sad Husband, Happy Cats

Well, Casy just spent the evening writing a test for his kids to take tomorrow...and then his computer did something funky and now it's gone.

Poor guy.

He took a quick break to cut his hair and shower while I tried searching for *.asd and *.TMP and ~ files...all to no avail. So while he is rewriting his test, I am posting. And I'll probably do a pumpkin mask too. And maybe make us some tea later.

On a separate note, I had to run to the pet store today to get some more cat food and my little magpie eyes were distracted by a large scratching board for the boys. With two new couches in our apartment, I thought this was a good investment. Plus it was on clearance. So I got it.

And as soon as I got home and unwrapped it, Wilbur broke it in. It was like he knew it was coming all day long. He was overflowing with excitement and anticipation.

Thank goodness this thing is about two inches off the ground because Wilbur has fallen off of it approximately 17 times. He alternates between being completely spastic on/with it, scratching the bejeezus out of it, and sleeping on it. In fact, he's asleep on it this very minute.

He's in love.

Claude sniffed it, but hasn't touched it. He did, however, put his two front paws on my lap like he was actually going to hunker down, but then he heard an ant fart and got scared. Some day.

Love, T.

**UPDATE**
HE FOUND IT!!! It was named something that he didn't remember and was buried in bunches of folders. It's kind of a miracle. Woo hoo!

365, Week 4

Homemade pizza on Pizza Friday

Root Veggie Casserole

Love, T.

Young and Old

Well, we're back from a wonderful trip to Boston! I'll be blogging about our visit in the next couple of days, but I just wanted to pop in and say a quick hello.

I recently discovered that I can send old pictures that I took with my cell phone to my email address (hopefully at no extra cost?) so I was able to get a picture of Wilbur when he was a kitten onto my computer. Back then, I had no camera, so I only took pictures with my phone.

I don't want to talk about it.

Anyway, here is Wilbur then, around 3 months old:

And here he is now:

And I have just one picture from when Claude was a kitten, about 6 months old.

Claude then:

Claude now:

They both filled out nicely, didn't they?

Love, T.

Harry Potter Update

I'm reading the seventh book and I'm torn between reading it quickly (because I want to find out what happens) and reading it slowly (because I don't want it to end).

Claude, apparently, doesn't want me to read it at all.

Love, T.