Hello

Moxie says hi.

Looking for birds

Now that spring is here, little Moxie has been stalking the window for the return of birds and squirrels.

This is what 72 degrees looks like

Nomad is enjoying the lovely weather this weekend.

And Moxie is hard at work being a board game spectator.

Tagged

Protege over at Life, Work and Pleasure tagged me with the fourth of fourth, which means I have to choose the fourth picture in my fourth photo folder and describe it.

My fourth folder is called "Apr26" and the fourth one is, coincidentally enough, a picture of Moxie and Nomad at one of their favorite spots in the house, the front door. They like to spend hours here watching birds and squirrels go by, as well as the occasional dog being walked. I've been meaning to post more kitty pictures but keep forgetting, so my fourth of fourth worked out very well!


The four people I am tagging are my sister, Highmaintenancemom, G-mommy, and Tracy at Pink Purl.

My first blog award

Tracy of Pink Purl, who is quite possibly the sweetest woman ever, gave me an award! My first ever blog award. Thanks, Tracy!

I'm also supposed to write six random facts about me to accompany the award. I will write about today:

1. I wore pretty blue earrings and someone complimented me on them, but I had to tell them they were not my own creation and I felt like I was not doing my part in promoting my own work. Oops!

2. I went back to the Korean food street vendor for lunch - the second day in a row. It's almost embarrassing how they know me there now.

3. I had a piece of apple strudel for breakfast. And a mug of tea. Not exactly the healthiest. Except for the tea.

4. More new tools arrived for me today. I didn't know I would ever get this excited about tools.

5. I burnt (slightly) the chicken cutlets I made for dinner tonight, but Mr Hazel was a darling and ate the whole thing. He cleaned his plate.

6. While giving the kitties their dinner, I noticed that Moxie wasn't in the kitchen, so we called to her. She came running up the stairs at full speed from the basement bathroom where we keep their litter box. When she got to the kitchen, however, I noticed she was all of a sudden limping and dragging her lower body on the floor. So I got hysterical, thinking she had broken her leg in her mad dash up the stairs, until Mr Hazel noticed that the reason she was dragging her lower body on the floor was because...she still had poop coming out of her butt. She made a long line of streak marks on the wood floor and dropped pellets on the kitchen sisal rug. I got hysterical all over again, but this time from violent laughter. Mr Hazel was not amused. But I was. Oh, was I ever.

And on that note, I now pass on the the Brillante Award to Karmela, Jordan of Copy and Cigarettes, Highmaintenancemom of From Purses to Diaper Bags, Angie of The Downtown Boutique, Greg of Leggo My Greggo, G-Mommy of Graham Crackers, and Mom2Amara of Being Mom2Amara.

Friday kitty blogging

One great thing about coming home after vacation, besides sleeping in my own bed again, was coming home to the kitties. I missed them. Moxie apparently missed us, too, because the night we came home she got all pink in the ears, a sure sign that she was very excited. They both came right to the door to greet us.

Forget spring - today feels like summer! The pollen count is also in the high billions, as evidenced by the burning in my throat and watery eyes. Still, I can't complain!

Happy Friday

Love,
Nomad

I love you, too!

For Valentine's day, Mr Hazel got me a dozen of my favorite flowers. They're so pretty and cheerful that I feel almost taunted - look at us, we look like it's spring outside, but really it's only February and freezing cold and you have to wear coats and scarves and hats, and the warm weather and cherry blossoms are actually weeeeeeeeks awaaaaaay! But, I love my flowers. In spite of their taunts.

Then I got this gift that I found in Mr Hazel's sock drawer a few years ago. He had been meaning to give it to me for Valentine's one year but had forgotten about it, and after I found it in his sock drawer he didn't want to give it to me until I forgot about it. Except I would remember every year without fail, and I would ask him, "Where is my ceramic Valentine thingamajig?" I finally got it this year. It's so dorky and I lurve it.

There is also a third gift but it's very mysterious - it won't arrive for a while. I have no clue what it is.

And my fourth gift is the sweetest of all - Mr Hazel gave me a printout of an email he had written to the Etsy administrators, telling them that he wanted to do something Etsy related for me for Valentine's day since I had gone "absolutely nuts for Etsy" since opening my shop (hee hee). So he asked if there was something he could do to make me a featured seller on their front page, or, barring that, if he could buy a week's worth of Showcase space for my shop without me knowing ahead of time. Unfortunately there wasn't a way to surprise me with it - but the gift is a week's worth of Showcase space that I am going to arrange.

I got him something Derek Jeter-related. Derek Jeter is his #1.

For warm fuzzies, check out this lovely article about a stray dog in Iraq who was brought to the U.S. by the SPCA with the efforts of the soldiers, and just in time for Valentine's day. Now that is a love story I can get behind.

Finally, Nomad and Moxie wish you and yours a love-filled day!


XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

A tale of two kitties

I thought to counter some of the scary and depressing headlines appearing this past week, I would post some pictures of my two adorable cats, Moxie (the skinny one on the left) and Nomad (her much fatter brother on the right). Here they both are checking out the world beyond from our front door. How's that for cuteness?

We adopted both of them separately from local shelters. Nomad came home first, and then Moxie a few weeks later. They got along famously right away and now are best friends.

Nomad is a very gentle animal. We named him thus because he can't sit still - he always has to get up and move around after a few minutes. He loves rolling on his back to have his big white belly petted.


And Moxie, a tortie, was a stray and had six babies who all died before she was found by a rescue group. She's very sassy. She's also a scrappy, brave little kitty who has plenty of moxie to have survived as she did.


Feel the kitty love!

Autumn colors

It's the weekend before Thanksgiving, and the trees around my house have finally - finally - turned. Only now do I feel like can I start enjoying hot apple cider, pumpkin pie, mulled wine, and butternut squash soup. Before the trees turned I felt like it was still too summery to enjoy those types of fall goodies.

I took one of our kitties to the vet today to have her sutures removed (long story short, a few weeks ago she had to have surgery done on her ear to remove a growth - but I'm happy to say that my brave little girl is doing fine now). Anyway, going to the vet makes me laugh because the staff refers to their patients by the pets' names, not by the owners' names, and so you hear the veterinarians calling them out loud in the waiting room.

Hearing the names people choose to give their cats is very entertaining.

For instance, there was a lady who named her cat "Tiramisu", and another, "Precious". As you can guess, Precious' owner is a frail, white-haired old lady, exactly the type of person you would think a cat who answers to the name Precious would belong to. I wonder if the veterinarians ever shake their heads and laugh at the names their poor patients are saddled with.

Now, the names of our cats - this is a story deserving of its own post for another day.