Home Improving

The Boy and I got married in December so we’re having a reception at the end of June. That’s the way everyone does it, right?

The reception is a casual gathering at our house, which means there are things that need to be done. Like making room in the garage by unpacking boxes that have been there since we moved in two and a half years ago. I did that today. I even ran a Facebook contest to see who could guess how many hot glue guns I’d find; it is so much easier to buy a new $3 gun than take time looking for one you already own. I’m up to four glue guns with some more boxes to go through tomorrow. The winner, of course, gets a glue gun.

Kitten Thunder did not approve of my working in the garage. They supervised as well as they could from the office window.

Yesterday, I planted things to make our driveway pretty for the party. I even painted the pots Zensai, my now deceased bearded dragon, used as basking spots and put them over his burial site with his favorite snack planted in them.

Kitten Thunder did no approve of this, either. Out is not an acceptable place for The Girl.

The Boy came home from the train club and, before even coming inside, mowed the lawn.

I took Obi out onto the porch to show The Boy that the brown kitten didn’t approve. A belly needed rubbing, after all.

This afternoon, The Boy took an ancient thermostat out of the wall so we can painted the very scuffed stairwells. It left a big hole which required a big patch. He also pulled off the wallpaper. That was too easy.

Kitten Thunder did not approve. There was a big mess on the stairs where they like to thunder. And a Boy. Boys don’t belong on steps without supervision.

All this disapproval has been exhausting. Since The Girl has not been available to hold him for his nap, Oliver had to go to the next most comforting place. He is on two bags, in a sunbeam, next to the toy box, with the magic toy making stick.

Poor kitten.

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Weekend snapshots: Runaway tomatoes

"Enjoy the smell-o-vision while you can, its days are numbered."

The hail storm in July broke my tomato plant down to the ground. Just one branch, beaten and bruised, survived. That one branch has recovered, though, and I got my first cherry tomatoes this week. I’ve brought in one a day so last night there were four on the counter.

This morning there were two.

I found the first missing tomato on the floor. I looked for the other one. And looked. And looked. And looked. Not having any coffee in my system, I assumed that I was wrong about my tomato count and gave up.

The Boy reported the other missing tomato had made it to the bottom of the stairs.

***

At the bottom of the stairs, we had a little bit of water damage at the beginning of the summer. Since we don’t want to replace the whole wall until we make sure we have the problem fixed, I am patching the wall and painting it for now.

Obi is a lot of help.

He is, surprisingly, more help than The Boy who started peeling at the wall while we were talking. I explained my plan and that he needed to stop peeling. His attempts to stop peeling resulted in a dinner plate sized hole in the wall. And the patch does not want to stick to the fuzzy part of that hole.

So Obi will be helping me with the rest of the project.

***

The Boy did save me with the shelving project in the garage. My “easy to assemble; no tools required!” shelves were, um, not. I struggled with them for an hour and didn’t get the first shelf assembled.

Finally, I swallowed my pride and approached The Boy. “When you are between things, could you come look and these shelves and see if they are in fact crap or if it is just me being a girl, please?”

The Boy struggled with the shelves for about 40 minutes. He put them together wrong – according to the directions. He used a lot of muscle and his full body weight. He got them together.

So a little because I’m a girl. A lot because those shelves are crap.

***

Oliver and Obi are both horribly neglected. I’ve only snuggled them within inches of their lives this weekend. But that hasn’t been for an hour or so. Time for another round.

Summer! At last!

Summer got here on Tuesday and we’re all enjoying it very much. There’s smell-o-vison and windows staying open all night. For Zensai there is the extra special treat of pansies. Pansies are one of my favorite flowers. They are one of Zen’s favorite foods. One of the best things about visiting my parents, in his mind at least, is that my mother would let me take him outside to eat pansies in “the wild.”

Yesterday we went to a barbecue at a friend’s house. It was most excellent. The problem is that this is also the week that a local publication, for which I do the layout on weekends, doubled in size.  Rather than miss the party, I decided to work into the wee hours when I got back. So I did.

The Boy gave up on me around midnight and headed upstairs. Kitten Thunder napped in the office with me until we were finally able to go to bed around 2:30 a.m.

This morning I opened my eyes to find that I was completely alone. I went downstairs and asked The Boy if there hadn’t been any of the normal “it could be time for breakfast” poking and silliness from Oliver. Because I don’t remember it.

“Oh, there was poking,” says The Boy.

“So they decided that maybe The Girl was dead and moved on to you?”

“Yep.”

I have a good Boy.

Oliver was very happy when it turned out that I, in fact, was not dead – just dead to the world. We had some serious snuggle time on the couch this morning. And a nap…because I got up way too early.

Do it again!

The Boy was on OutTV this evening, doing various out things, and Obi was in his now normal spot in front of the window in the living room. He was dividing his attention between what The Boy was doing and a sparrow that keeps trying to eat Obi’s birdseed.

I don’t know why Obi won’t let this bird on the ledge. He gets really excited by the finches and orioles, but he doesn’t attack. But this sparrow can’t even land without a brown kitten lunging toward the window. I guess Obi thinks he can take him.

I was watching TV – real TV – when I heard a weird sound and saw Obi leap back from the window from the corner of my eye. I looked up to see that The Boy had sprayed the window with our garden hose. Obi was freaked out. Then entertained.

The whole time The Boy was outside, Obi’s attention was on him. He’d peek around the corner of the window. Hoping.

Do it again!

Stuck In the Middle with You…

Oliver decided to sleep in The Boy’s arms last night. I mentioned to Oli that not everyone likes to breathe through a fur filter. He turned up the volume of his purr and pretended not to hear me.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

On my way home from work every day I see a house that reminds me there’s one thing that was on my must have list for a house. One glaring absence in an otherwise perfect home.

When I first move to Cheyenne the house I rented had a sun porch. Oh, how Poco and I loved that porch. In the winter it was “out.” This would be a great time to mention that we moved to Cheyenne in March so we’re lucky that March and April are still winter here. In the summer it was a cool place to read in the outside breeze but it was inside so I had a comfy chair.

Also? I planted tomatoes in a pot in April. By the time I bought my house in August they were more than six feet tall and we had to bungee cord them to the ceiling of the moving truck. I haven’t had garden success like that since I raised (possibly homicidal) pumpkins with attachment disorder during my senior year botany class.

Anywho, I’ve missed having a sun porch at my house and now we don’t have one here. Only five kabillion windows and an awesome porch that we’ll enjoy. Someday. If it ever stops snowing.

What makes me think about it, though, is people who are ALMOST as good at cat servitude as me. Their sun porch furnishing consist of two kitchen chairs. One always has a cat in it. Usually she’s laying down. Sometimes she’s sitting. There was one time that she wasn’t there and I almost crashed my car. The other chair, I assume, is in case a person needs an audience with the cat. Perhaps they could discuss why that chair doesn’t have a cushion!?! Seriously, people, a cat on a hard wooden chair? The cat-manity.

Today is my birthday and Kitten Thunder has enjoyed my presents very much. Their favorite present? The cardboard string that came off the FedEx box.

It. Is. Awesome.

And that’s all I have to say about THAT.