Monday

The sky is blue with many white clouds. It's only 50 degrees - cold for us California weather wimps. I should probably go to Costco, but I'm not crazy to attempt that three days before Christmas. I know my limits! I'll go to either Trader Joe's, Safeway, or both. Those will probably be a mess, too.

Someone who recently had gum surgery told me to dunk cookies in milk or coffee. I didn't really like how that worked, but I didn't give up. I put one in the microwave for about 20 seconds and it was perfect (for me - mushy and soft). Mmmmmmmmmmm. I LOVE chocolate chip cookies.

It snowed in Durango, CO today. Someone is actually using an umbrella. I don't think I've ever seen that, but then again, I don't really have that much experience with it snowing! Maybe they are from California! Ha!

A little later it was still quite snowy. I love the red trolley!I've never seen it this snowy in Jackson Hole, WY. Notice the menorah to the left toward the front with one candle lit for the first night of Chanukah.

Yesterday Will lit a fire early, so we were lazy bums the rest of the day. He watched football and I knitted. There's no better way to knit that in front of a fire with one of your cozy cats. The only reason Alex was with me was because I had the down throw.

Poor Ziggy has taken to hiding on the "first floor" of the Crow's Nest scratching post. This was taken looking down at him. He has a little problem - he smells like he has a dingleberry. We cleaned him up the other day, and he's been hiding ever since. I don't think he likes human help, but he's kind of stinky. I hope this isn't because his two brothers chase him when he's in his box, or anything like that.

This was Ziggy at his former humans' house. Sadly, he looks happier. I wish he'd come in the office again so we can give him some human love.

Things on Sunday - a lot of "aforementioned"

I'm getting tired of eating soft foods on account of this bleeping gum surgery I had almost two weeks ago. Saturday we bought two cheese tamales from Mr. Mikey's, the local grocery store. Someone makes these fresh daily, and they are good. We usually get the chicken tamales, but cheese seemed better given the aforementioned soft diet. At 5:00 pm I asked Will what time he wanted to eat. He said around 5:30 pm. We had lit a fire, and had just set up the TV for a marathon of Corner Gas re-runs, when the power went out. It was out for about an hour and a half. We finally gave up at 6:15 pm and I had what has become my "usual" - apple sauce, yogurt and mashed banana. MMmmm. Ok, it's good, but it's not a freshly made cheese tamale.

Will is sometimes overkill when it comes to having many of the same thing, but when the power went out, I was glad we had two lanterns (one he bought YEARS ago, BJ -- before Joan-- and one from a garage sale), a light that goes on when the power goes out, and of course numerous flashlights. I was actually able to knit with the lantern! The lighting from the lantern was better than when the lights finally came on a little after 7:00 pm until we turned up the dining room light and the lighting was better for me to knit. We shared the cheese tamale immediately after the power came back on! I don't like to bake - it's too precise with all that measuring, but today I made chocolate zucchini cake. I had to send Will to the store (the aforementioned Mr. Mikey's) to get more flour, but it's only about a half mile away, so it was okay.

I started cutting into it and then decided to let it cool off a little more. OK, it doesn't photograph well, and there's another larger Pyrex dish of these, but it tastes good!

I started knitting another pair of socks. Oops, almost typed sucks instead of socks! This is Lorna's Laces yarn. I was happy to see it being sold on Amazon since we get $25 Amazon certificates every time we spend a certain amount that equals too much on our Amazon credit card. We'll be getting a few of those since we put the aforementioned gum surgery on our credit card after the finance company screwed it up and had us at 22.99% interest, but that's another story I'm over so forget it!

I ran out of yarn while making this pair of socks from Joanne's Soles & More yarn. I will probably rip some of the completed sock and use the leftover denim color bought from my local yarn store (Color Me Quilts and More on Niles Blvd) from approximately the ball of the foot to the toes on each one. I hope I have enough of that. I tried to buy more of the Soles & More online from Joanne's, but they were out. I like this yarn alot. It's soft and stretchy, and I like the colors. They are very much "Joan colors".

I finished the brown sweater, except for tying in the loose ends and crocheting around the neck. I have a fair amount of yarn left over, so I'm trying to decide if it's enough for a scarf or something.

Up close - the Cascade Eco yarn is really nice to work with, and the color is a very rich brown. I bought it at Stitches last year.

Mowry discovered that Ziggy's spot on Will's desk behind the monitor is a good one.

He really wanted to play this morning, preferably with another cat, but they were either lazy or scared. Here's Mowry attacking one of the lower levels of the "Crow's Nest". The problem is, Ziggy was at the bottom hiding from the other cats. Of course Mow knows this. Can you see the black ball of fur with a white paw at the bottom right between the two thin poles of the post? That's Ziggy.

Mow's going a little crazy attacking his scratching post.

Who me? Bothering my new brother? What are you talking about? I'm trying to sleep here.

Tonight is the first night of Chanukah. It's close to Christmas, which is good logistically. I don't like when Chanukah is in November - too early!

Saturday Pictures

Frost again this morning!Still pretty colors on Walnut Avenue. The hills are starting to turn green!Niles Blvd. and Niles Canyon Road - busy intersection!

We've eaten burritos from this truck on Niles Blvd.

Two cats sleeping on one cat bed on the human bed.

Ziggy found a place to hid on the bottom level of the Crow's Nest.

Alex was hanging out on my desk yesterday.

Friday pictures....firetrucks, sirens and lights, oh my

Last night at about 6:45 pm, I was at my computer in the office, the window of which faces the street. I heard a truck, then sirens, and when I looked outside, there was a fire truck out front. Then our doorbell rang. Uh oh...they can't find an address? But why come up our sloped driveway when our light is out?

I called out, but no one answered. I figured with several fire trucks out there, I could safely answer the door. I did, and no one was there. Then I saw someone walking down the driveway. "Hello, and happy holidays" he yelled. I told him he scared me, and he said "We're just trying to spread some cheer, ma'am." Or something like that. There were SEVERAL fire trucks, with the lights and sirens on, and other trucks with people hanging out of them. I ran for the camera, but the first picture just flashed at the window. Then I started pressing mode buttons (hmmm, sounds like my Dad and his computer), but it was dark, and I couldn't see what I was pressing. I got one one-second video that is kind of cool, but I can't post it here! All I could get was this:
I called my neighbor and asked, "Has Niles gone nuts, or is this something they do?" and her response was "Every year". I guess we weren't home the last two years when they did this!

It's gray out again today. It rained thru the night. Here are some pictures from places around the country that got snow this week:

I found this webcam of Wrigley Field in Chicago, but I can't save it like some of the other webcams. They don't know who they are dealing with. I just took a picture of it instead. The weird thing hanging down is an icicle. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Mowry was stalking an address label roll on my desk while I was trying to take the picture of the Wrigley Field webcam. He got it!

More snow this morning at Jackson Hole, WY. People are driving and it's not even plowed - of course a California person wrote that!

New snow in Durango on Tuesday.

Wow! Saddleback Mountain in Orange County. Of course it's California - where else would you have snow AND palm trees?
This is really beautiful!
Ziggy was back in his new favorite hiding place this morning - the barely used kitchen cabinet.

And Mowry blends in with the floor and everything else so well, he doesn't have to hide.

Here's Mowry being what we call "stiffy and standy". I am trying to hold and cuddle him and he's being, well, all "stiffy and standy". How else can I describe him? He was so cuddly when he was a kitten.

Where's Ziggy?

I didn't see Ziggy this morning. He wasn't in his usual hiding places - near the bottom level of the crow's nest, under the bed (which he hasn't done since his first week here), in the closet (formerly Alex's hiding place), in the office on the desk.... I looked and looked. Will mentioned that a few cabinets were open this morning, so as a last resort I looked in the kitchen cabinet and there he was!

Mowry had been standing on the dishwasher across from this cabinet meowing at me, so apparently he knew where Zig Zig was!
If I ignore that lady with the camera, maybe she'll go away, but probably not.



It's my active time! Yesterday I went out in the afternoon to fill the green bin! I didn't even get to fill most of what was in the street!

K man was out there rolling for me! It must be winter - his shadow is bigger than he is!

This morning there was frost on the roofs pretty late. I think I took this after 9 am. Notice there are still some beautiful roses, too.

Tuesday in SF

I took Bart to SF today to go to the perio to have my packing and stitches removed. I was a little uncomfortable with the whole idea, but it turns out, it was fine. I didn't see the perio, but his assistant gently pried off the packing, and the stitches had dissolved! It looked good, I'm told, but I still have to eat soft foods for a bit longer. That gave me a craving for Jamba Juice, but I couldn't find the two I had noted were in SF, so I headed home and went to the one here!

Someone emailed me this picture. I don't usually like dressing up pets, but this is too cute! There's the Ziggy and Alex type (2nd from right, but with shorter hair) and the Mowry type (far right, but with white).It was very cold in SF. Luckily I had my gloves, scarf, coat and hat. I stopped by the Macy's windows on the walk up from Bart to the perio's office, and one the way back to look at the SF SPCA kittens and puppies. It's a good thing we recently adopted Ziggy because I might have walked away with a kitten. They were THAT cute!


This is the link to the webcam of the Macy's windows: http://www.sfspca.org/adoption/macys.shtml



Speaking of Ziggy, he's sleeping on his mat on the laptop in the office with me. He was here first. When Will's musician friends rang the bell, Alex and Mowry ran and hid. Zig doesn't seem afraid of people, and we're glad for that.


I had to wake him to get this picture. Look at those beautiful white whiskers!


Mowry is in his favorite spot. Notice the white furry mouse next to him. We put the toy in the basket and then in the morning we find it on the bed! Speaking of whiskers, can you see he has some black and some white?

I'm almost to the cuff of the brown sweater, and then I will start the other sleeve. I laid it out in a funny shape, but I tried it on and it fits! I'm glad I made the body longer. I wasn't happy with it being short as it was before I ripped it.