catnip and coffee

• I’m doing bullets today because it seems faster….
• Work is kicking my butt yo. Too much to do before Friday deadlines. I’m ordering final images for one book, and finding a gazillion image options for another. Why do these things always fall on the same week? Last week I had nothing to do!
• Charity event I’m doing this weekend should be kicking my butt, but I feel like I haven’t done crap for it so the guilt is kicking my butt instead.
• I am obsessed with refreshing the 10 day forecast to see what the weather will be for this outdoor charity event that I’m slacking on. Right now: 40% chance of rain.
• I had leftover chicken, tomato, and garlic pizza for breakfast. The tomato made it really soggy. And now I’m gonna smell like garlic all day.
• Great mother that I am, I just fed my kid brown and serve sausages (microwaved) and a cheese stick for breakfast. I guess it’s better than fruit loops.
• Boy has to go to school today. I seem to get nothing accomplished on school days due to all the freaking time I spend in the car going back and forth. Frankly, two hours of preschool helps me not. at. all. And it costs me two bucks in tolls every day.
• My sister gave me lemon balm from her garden for Mother’s Day. I think I might have killed it already. Bummer.
• I had what I thought was a great “Mexican Lasagna” recipe all typed and ready to post. Then I made it for a recipe swap night last week. Blech. Yes, Nicole the tortilla texture was a little funny. And the re-heat value (very important!) was, as my boy would say, yucko mucko. How can something be soggy and dry at the same time. When I have time I’m going to find my tried and true Chicken and Black Bean Enchilada recipe and get that ready to post instead.
• HRC is really pissing me off that she won’t drop out already.
• I haven’t done groceries in ages, so dh has had nothing to pack for lunches this week. Not saving any $$ that way! Also, it’s the reason for the weird breakfasts. Maybe.
• I really really need to buy a can of air. My keys are a little crumby and I’m having trouble with the enter button. I have to hit it really hard to break up whatever little crumb is underneath! Um. Yeah. I suck at cleaning even worse than you ever thought.
• I’m thinking about getting a second cat. What am I? Nuts? Yes. I do think George needs a companion. And major overcrowding at local animal shelter makes me sad….hence next bullet:
• I feel bad for people who get foreclosed on, (there but for the grace of god go I…) BUT it really bites when some of them leave their pets locked up in their empty houses when they move away. Assholes.
• I read a very funny post yesterday and then I got in a little trouble with dh for my comments on said post. Sorry honey Then I went and unloaded/reloaded the dishwasher. If you go read it, you’ll understand.
• I don’t seem to know how to end this post. I don’t think I like bullets after all, it was not faster.
• Must go brush teeth and leave.

I’ve finally taken a photo of my namesake. (Or am I its namesake? Or does it work both ways? I could Google it but I don’t really care.)

Anyway, The catnip is up and looking quite healthy and lovely:

George doesn’t get particularly excited about the catnip until it’s dried. He’s so weird.

Yeah, whatever George, you are too.

I also took new photo of my forsythia which is FINALLY blooming. (I will be sure to back up all of my images this time.)

Isn’t it pretty! It’s just so freaking cheerful!

I couldn’t decide which image I liked best so here’s another view:

Now click on it the image to make it bigger and then look in the upper left corner. Do you see something? That’s the boy’s tree house. (The tree house we have not yet let him go up into yet. I’m paranoid, what can I say, he’s only five, and it’s really high up.)

Back to the photo. I didn’t know when I snapped the picture that the tree house would be visible but now that I see I just like how it gives some secret dimension to it, like an I Spy book or a Bev Doolittle painting. Or am I just weird too? (Don’t answer that!!)

Okay. Here’s a gratuitous pansy shot:

I don’t usually spend much money on annuals, but I was seriously pining for some color in my front yard last week. Spring in New England is tough on a blogger - I look at all these other blogs from all over the country that have had Full! Blooming! Gardens! for weeks now. It’s not freaking fair! So my pansies made me happy. Look at it, don’t you just want to slurp that big refreshing drop of water right off it?! No? Really? hmm, nevermind….

Moving on. Now that we’ve had some nice rain over the last few days I also have a small leaf purple rhododendron in full bloom. I just love this bush tree. Someone knew what they were doing when they picked out this one. It’s about seven feet tall, I can see it out my front picture window, and it’s just gorgeous. The blossoms are so delicate and smell glorious. Thanks previous homeowners!

Before I moved here, I’d never seen a Rhododendron quite like it. It’s not a typical one, that has the larger leaves and big flowers, nor is it quite an azalea with the tiny leaves. It’s weird. Like me George.

It’s more than a little irritating when you wake up at 3:30 am from a nice “snuggling with the kitty” kind of sleep because said kitty has just forcefully thrown himself off the bed and has begun horking up something on your bedroom carpet.

Then when you come back with paper towels to clean it up, you first, step in the hork dribbles in the hall, second, realize there’s no way you can clean it properly in the middle of the night and third, you cannot possibly go back to bed with the hork remnants 2 feet away. Gag.

Not only do you have to go in search of a new place to sleep but now so does dh after you’ve awakened him, blinded him with the light, and made him aware of the smell. Heh. I just can’t suffer alone now can I?

So should I be grateful to dear George that he didn’t puke on the bed, or annoyed at him for eating mice and grass and all those things that make him vomitous in the first place? Both I think.

But could you stay mad at this face?

“Maybe when you’re dead he’ll stop. Or maybe when you’re dead he’ll sniff your old bones.”

Said the boy, after overhearing me tell the cat to STOP FOLLOWING ME.

I laughed so hard I had to walk away. And then heard dh say “don’t encourage him.”

How can I not encourage that? It’s frigging brilliant.

I got a surprise package yesterday!

Darling Beaglemum knows I shall soon be closer to 40 than to 30, and sent me an early gift. She picked it out based on my blog name:

Isn’t it pretty! I can’t wait to have a cup of coffee in it

Thank you beaglemum!

Now look closer, no, up a little, yes, that’s my other boy. Meet George.

George snubbed me and wouldn’t look up for the next 10 or so photos:

:

George is in fact his real name. It’s from the Bugs Bunny episode with the abominable snowman. If you understand that reference, I love you. Because you’re old like me.

Did you ever go away for an overnight or two and suddenly, halfway there, you think: did I turn off the coffeepot?? Yeah, me too. More times than I’d care to admit. Now I make a point to unplug the coffeepot just so I remember doing it.

Well, I didn’t sleep very well last night because of that damn proverbial coffeepot. In this case, coffeepot = feline. See, while we were loading up our vehicle, getting ready for an overnight at my parent’s house for Easter, the cat was getting a bit underfoot, trying to get outside, trying to trip us, etc. So I put him out in the locked, enclosed porch. He was happy, I was happy. Two minutes later the boy let him in. Dude. So I let him back out. That’s where it got blurry.

Around 10pm last night, that fact flashed in my brain. Was the cat still on the porch? He couldn’t be. Right? I definitely remember seeing that the door was locked. But that didn’t necessarily mean the cat was let back in before the locking occurred. The boy was, of course, already asleep so I couldn’t ask him if he had the opened the door for dear kitty a second time. DH said he thought the cat was hanging around before he left, but was that before or after the second letting out? Was the poor cat huddled in the damp drafty porch trying to keep warm? Were his cute little toes and ears freezing?? Yes, I’m rambling - just to give you a taste of the circular momentum of my brain between 10pm and midnight. and 2am to 3am. Not to mention the nightmares along more horrific lines when I did sleep. Yikes.

There are plenty of nights when my mind won’t stop rolling like that, thoughts about work, paying the bills, oops I forgot…whatever. But at home, I can deal with it. Yes, 2am online bill paying has happened here in the past. Or at least writing down my worries instead of fretting over them helps. Even if I can’t read my handwriting in the morning. (I can’t be the only one who does this? Right?)

So what can you do, what kind of note can you write yourself, when you’re three hours away from home, worrying about how you’re going to tell your kid you killed the cat? Um, yeah, no idea. So I just didn’t sleep.

In the morning, the boy confirmed that he had indeed let the cat in the second time. Later, as we pulled into the driveway, the kitty happily watched us from his top o’ the couch perch in the picture window. <sigh>

Some people would say, it’s just a cat, what’s the big deal? But he’s my cat, and my boy’s cat and he’s laying on my legs right now where he’s supposed to be, and dang, he’s heavy, and he’s family.

All is right in my world again and sure do hope to get a good night’s sleep! Except, boy, I sure do have a lot of work to do tomorrow, and that guy never responded to my email last week, and oops, I forgot….crap.