various and sundry

things
thats what i've been doing
stuff.
rest assured i'm still here
i did make a card for my sister for her sage advice last week
frankie the cat was about to be renamed
"mr. sneeze-a-lot"
i was beginning to worry as he didn't seem quite himself (on a regular day his alias is "krazy kitty" cos he's zooming around here making a regular silly pest of himself)
so i called my sister (you would if your sister was a vet, right?)
and after discussing mr. sneeze-a-lot's symptoms she reassured me he'd be fine
so i sent her this silly little card from frankie
I used alphas from www.purpleoniondesigns.com as well as dot stamp from Hero Arts and this cute Cuttlebug die (I ran it through my zipemate.. with a little effort it worked!)
Over the weekend we rented the movie "Notes on a Scandal"
now that was a pretty amazing movie. Dark - yes. Not cheery subject matter but the story was tightly written and no filler - i hate it when there seems to be superfluous stuff in a movie - you know that added fluff that just makes it longer? well none of that here. REally wonderful performances in that movie - we were riveted from the very moment it started to the last second of the movie.

Not a great week

here in Virginia

I won't belabor the topic

Suffice it to say i am grateful my son decided against transferring to Virginia Tech for this year.

God works in mysterious ways.

If you lived here in Virginia you would notice the great pride we take in our schools. Everyone has a bumper sticker or license plate holder for the school their child attends or they themselves have attended.

Particularly in the fall, I notice alot of UVA and Tech decals - flags for the schools when a big game is being played. Now I'm noticing those Tech banners and flags going up around the neighborhood but its for a much different reason.

It is heartbreaking and makes you want to hug your children or call them (like I did on Monday) so they know just how much you love them.

Anyway today I worked on a scrapbook page - see the Suzy link to your right.

And then I decided I'd go pick up a few

Frosty's from Wendy's and head over to my Mom's

When I was a kid we didn't have any McDonald's - seriously - there were none in the NY/NJ area until much later.

We did however, have Wetson's - a small chain of burger places and they had shakes. (They went out of business I believe in the late 60's)

Nowadays people do fast food without much thought - but back then - with a family of four kids - we didn't do fast food often. It was a big deal to go out to eat in the first place.

When we'd go we'd pick up the burgers and we'd go home and my Mom would make her own shakes - of course we'd want the ones from the Wetson's thinking they'd be so delicious, right? Well I remember we got the shakes once and they were pretty awful. My Mom's concoction, however, was dee-lish. (My mom is the best cook on the planet - just so you know. Everyone says it, so it's not just me.)

My Mom would make her shakes here and there over the years. I never found anything that tasted remotely like it until one day my husband and I decided to get a Wendy's Frosty.

Yum. Now they have a vanilla version but the original chocolate Frosty is what I'm talkin about. I think somehow Wendy's musta found out how my Mom made her shakes because they taste so much like hers its amazing. She used a lot of ice cream and chocolate syrup and milk and a blender. Totally, sinfully delicious.

So today I thought she and I could both use a Frosty.

Five years ago today my brother passed away.

He also loved her shakes and her cooking.

And I think he'd love it that we were just sitting around, talkin about the world, eating Frosty's.

We didn't even need to talk about him - it was an unsaid, given thing.

Kwim?

Now i've heard it all

I got a call from my daughter about an hour ago

She called me from school -

I knew it was something important because they're not allowed to used cell phones on school property - except if its an emergency kinda thang

They just cancelled school

No - we didn't have snow

We have

W-I-N-D

I think it's official

I've heard it all

Now i appreciate they are trying to be cautious

There are a few schools in the counties surrounding the Washington DC area that have cancelled school today because they lost power

My daughter said they haven't lost power

They're just worried about the severe winds

And they are severe

The wind is absolutely howling outside and it might get up to 60 miles per hour today

We aren't expecting any tornadoes or anything

I guess i just don't get it

They must be really worried however

My daughter was supposed to go on a field trip to the National Gallery today - they had 10 busloads of high school kids going on that trip. The Gallery is about an hour from here - maybe a half hour from the school (not sure on that)

My daughter was a little bummed about not going downtown - she was really looking forward to hitting the gallery today

But she was more bummed about missing the after school stuff - working on sets for the musical at school.

Me - it actually works out fine for me. I needed to take her to pick up her eyeglasses - and the kid has such a full schedule that doesn't coincide with the doctors office we didn't know when we'd get there - so bonus for me.

Anyway - this weekend we were sposed to be doing a yard sale - i did a lot of prep work for that sale but for reasons that are too lengthy i won't bother to post it all. Suffice it to say i have sectioned off a space in my house to put the yard sale stuff and we'll do it another weekend.

We did have time to rent a wonderful movie this weekend.

If you have a chance, rent "Bobby".

I loved this movie

Maybe because of my age - I actually remember his running for President and his being assassinated. But it is just a wonderful movie. Tons of history woven into a fictional account of that last day before he arrived at the hotel. Great acting, great story. Just amazing movie. Go get it.

I also had a chance to make some Thank You notes. I needed to send one to my brother-in-law and his wife for a lovely Easter dinner. Daughter needed to send a few for gifts she received for her birthday. I pulled out a quickutz Goosebumpz die for the Thank You and added some Chatterbox paper and ribbon. These were quick to make and did the job nicely.

Hope you all are having a non-windy day wherever you are.

"Don't know if I ever told you bout Old Reliable"

Do you remember Trusty in "Lady and the Tramp"? He was the bloodhound with the southern accent and he always said "don't know if i told you bout Old Reliable"

Well here is my "Old Reliable".

It's a coffee pot.

My parents used this coffee pot for years.

My Dad did not cook but he made some great coffee in this here pot.

And I took it when they put it up for grabs.

I love this old pot - for the memories it holds for me and the great coffee it can still make.

And thank goodness I have it.

We drink a lot of coffee around here. It seems like all the automatic coffee makers made these days don't last very long. I think i get a little over a year out of the ones I've bought. I don't ever buy the de-luxe models. I did that once and I'll never do it again. They wear out as quickly as the $20.00 Proctor Silex or Black & Decker ones that last a year. Last time we had a coffee pot conk out on us I decided to try the Mr. Coffee version. Well that Mr. Coffee lasted the longest of all. I was just thinking the other day how that coffeemaker must be 2 years old. Quite remarkable really. And I also thought - it's gonna conk out on me soon.

Well today was soon. I got up as usual at 5:30. Went downstairs. Got the coffeemaker all set up and turned it on and set about getting the kitties their food. I was about to leave the kitchen (to take care of the litter) and I realized the coffee hadn't started brewing. Darn!

Out comes "Old Reliable".

You see I need my coffee.

Old Reliable doesnt need to get plugged in. You do need to boil some water. Old Reliable has a permanent filter you just fill up with coffee grounds. You put Old Reliable together, pour the water in and it begins to drip drip drip. It makes wonderfully delicious, reliable, coffee.

So of course on todays list of things to do is make a trip out to purchase a new coffeemaker.

I got a Mr. Coffee again, natch. See how pretty?

Then I came home and washed and dried out Old Reliable. I put it back up on top of the refrigerator where it will sit, waiting patiently for its next opportunity to be my Old Reliable.

Peep Show

i promised the update on the Peeps Diorama Contest run by the Washington Post.
The winner and finalists are all shown here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/gallery/070402/GAL-07Apr02-69859/index.html
the related story is here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/05/AR2007040501976.html
my personal favorites :
Dream Peeps - so simple and just so perfect
and
Soylent Green is Peeps
how great is that! (obviously the winner is amazing but Soylent Green is just too perfect isn't it? i mean did you see how the peeps went in and then they are coming out green - toooooo funny. If you've never seen the movie -which is horrid btw- you're just not gonna get it... )
I am going to have to consider entering next year - you should too!

i love your face

well actually i love this face
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/06/AR2007040601986.html
it's an article about the birthday (anniversary?) of Helvetica
i love Helvetica
When i was in school, as a graphic arts student, one of the classes i took was typography.
We'd do all kinds of projects using type
And, inevitably, i'd choose Helvetica
I couldn't seem to help myself
I know my professor got a little frustrated with me
I was totally infatuated
My friend Boo seemed to love anything with serifs
I thought she was crazy - serifs were a stinker to draw
(remember back in the day - and these were the days - we didn't use computers for any of this graphic art shtuff - there were typesetting machines - but not in college thats for sure)
Ah - but Helvetica is sans serif
and although I could do the serifs, none of my designs lent themselves to serifs
no - i was definitely a sans serif kinda girl
After reading the article, I felt vindicated
After all these years, it's nice to know I am not the only one who loves Helvetica
I dearly wish i could get to the MoMA and take a look at that original set of lead

Easter Images for you

Just like she did for St. Patrick's Day - Lisa Vollrath is sharing some wonderful images on her site - check them out here:

http://www.tentwostudios.com/countdown/

i love the other sites she has now too - how about that one called
Go Make Something http://www.gomakesomething.com/
- one of my favorite phrases :-)
tons of cool stuff there.

we're expecting snow here in Virginia.
Is that not ridiculous or what?
Have a wonderful Easter everyone

Birthday Tourii

About 16 years ago today i was feeling pretty lousy - i'd been sent home from my obgyn's office. He didnt think i'd deliver for a few days - it was a Thursday and the dr said why don't we see you on Monday - thinking if i made it through til then well then we'd induce. By April 4th, 1991 i was already 4 days past due.

Like i said i was feelin pretty crummy and the feeling didnt go away. By the time we decided to go to the hospital (a 45 minute drive) and had the person who was watching our son in place - well we barely made it in time. This kid was trying to be born on the drive to the hospital and she barely waited for the doctor to arrive. After all these years i still find it amazing the doctor took so long getting to the hospital. He lived around the corner - but I guess he didnt think i was really ready. Everyone was telling me to hold on - wait for the doctor - but my Lizziebelle. She didn't want any part of that. She appeared at about 11:40 pm. Thee most gorgeous little pink bundle there ever was. I'm getting all misty just thinking about it. Lizziebelle and i were talking just yesterday about her birth - and how the experience of bringing her and her brother into the world was unmatched. Nothing will ever surpass it - for her Dad and me.

OK... I'll stop now :-)

So today we are on spring break and seeing the birthday girl's week is pretty much spoken for (between eye dr. and orthodontist appointments and friend commitments) today was the day we decided we'd go into Washington, DC and take in the Cherry Blossoms and possibly a few of the memorials we wanted to see.

Yes - we are a wild family.

What can i say - we like this stuff.

Unfortunately Mother Nature had plans of her own.

Yesterday it was 81 degrees and glorious

Today was maybe 50 - cold and overcast and it had rained bigtime in DC overnite.

But we are troopers.

We made plans and we were stickin' to'em

We hit the Washington monument (didn't go in - just walked around it to get to the stuff on our list )

The World War II memorial. This is very impressive. When it was being planned and built we kept reading about it in the Washington Post. And it was better than I imagined. Just a beautiful, very meaningful memorial.

At the edge of it is water leading to the big reflecting pool

You know the Reflecting Pool

The big body of water in front of the Lincoln Memorial

Ok ... did you see Forest Gump?

Oh THAT body of water...

Okay so you can walk all along the reflecting pool up to the Lincoln Memorial which was our next stop. Here we are - Birthday Tourii at the Lincoln Memorial.

See the long distance between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln.

Think - sore tootsies.

No

Sore calves.

Before we did the Lincoln we walked over to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. This one always gets me pulling out my tissues. I wore a POW bracelet for years. Some years back we finally went to see this memorial for the first time. They have books set up so you can look up a name you want to find. It lists the location of the name on the wall as well as the birth date and date of death. For all the years i'd worn this man's bracelet i'd always assumed he'd returned home - but i never could find his name listed in the newspaper as troops returned home. Well i was devastated to find his name asterisked as MIA. So today i went looking for him and took a photo of his name on the wall. and i had a little cry. If you could just be there - see all the flowers and photos (laminated with a little write up by some loving family or friend) sitting up against it - well you couldn't help but cry. It is very moving. This photo is from a distance.

We moved on to the Korean War memorial which is also quite impressive - all these statues of soldiers walking. It is something to see. They are life sized. Just past the scope of this photo off to the right is a marble wall with etchings of photos from the time - all faces of people - soldiers, nurses - it is haunting.

Last but not least are the Cherry Blossoms. Quite a big deal here dontchaknow. Warnings on every newscast (presumably for tourii visiting the area? also for ma-roons who live here I suspect) that the National Park service begs you not to climb on them (duh - but people actually put their children in the trees to take photos! i kid you not) and certainly do not pick the blossoms off - You will be fined. (big fines - $500) We were walking along and i heard some woman say to her small boy - don't do that (i didnt see what he was doing) - the Park Ranger is gonna get you. I thought to myself don't give the Park Rangers a bad name. Be a parent. Tell them not to do it because they shouldn't for heavenssake! (Can you tell i have some Park Rangers in my family?)
So it was an exhausting day. We walked for probably 4 hours. I need a nap before cake and ice cream with my birthday girl.

some fun listening

so i was reading the post yesterday (i read the washington post everyday - as if you didn't figure that out already) and there was a review of a concert The Nellie McKay Show
here's the link to the review
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032802217.html
they made it sound like so much fun. It was being recorded by NPR so i thought why not hop on over to NPR and see if i could listen.
If you don't mind some bad words :-) and like some clever song writing and a little bit of crazy thrown in you might just enjoy the show. I found it extremely entertaining (and it was great accompaniment whilst i was working on some pages). Here's a link to the NPR site
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9044009
You can listen in Real Audio or Windows Media. I tried the download but it didn't seem to work.
Enjoy!

Sanjaya - cut, fold, crumple and squash

I enjoy American Idol. I love Melinda - she's my favorite although I wonder if she can win - a discussion for another day. But Sanjaya. This strangeness needs to leave the show. Of course if he leaves then there is little to make fun of - but i digress.
Yesterday, the Washington Post had a hilarious article in their Style section. I meant to post this yesterday and forgot. So for your amusement please visit
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/artsandliving/daily/graphics/sanjaya_032707/sanjaya.html
At the end of the article you'll see a link to print and fold your own Sanjaya paper doll. This is what they had in the paper - i plan to crumple and squash mine tonite as i watch him survive yet another elimination. When i watched last night i wondered which worthy contestant (who won't win but should have had a few more weeks in them) will be sacrificed in his place. The last 2 weeks i felt bad for Brandon and Stephanie. Apparently when you are in the top 10 you get to go on the road for the American Idol tour - those 2 won't have their chance at a years worth of work because this kid made it into the top 10. Whether its that votefortheworst.com or Howard Stern urging his listeners to vote for Sanjaya - it still is a shame.

DANG - the stamp

My friend Annie needed a stamp.

Well need is a strong word

She thought she had a stamp that said dang

But it said bang

So she was dang-less

I felt it my responsibility to fill that dang need

so I carved her a dang stamp

here's a dang sample

of her dang stamp

furniture and margaritas and partially seen movies

ok so this weekend we got a huge thing out of the way. The husband had finally painted the office a few weeks ago. This room had been the daughters place of business for quite a while (did homework there, her computer was there etc) but the husband wanted to reclaim it for his own. Before he painted he and she moved all her things down to the rec room. The stage was set for him to finally paint which he did and now it needed furnishing.
A few years back we'd looked at furniture for the room - came up empty - which is how it ended up not becoming his office but our daughter's. :-)
So this weekend our mission was to find him a desk at minimum. We ended up doing much better. A whole L-shaped office thingy. Lovely cherry desk with hutch. Should fit perfectly and will be delivered on Thursday. He can't stand it he's so pleased. I'm happy 'cos its done and now i don't have to hear about it anymore.
On Saturday night the daughter went with a friend and his father down into DC to hear some jazz. This left us, the parents, delightfully free to do as we pleased. We picked a Mexican restaurant as the daughter isn't fond of that cuisine, she was busy otherwise, and we could do whatever we wanted - so there! :-)
I made the mistake of having a Margarita - at my husband's urging. Mistake for me as all beverages of this kind will put me in a very sleepy mode. We had a delicious dinner - and on home to watch a movie- Video on Demand is what they call it. The movie was Hollywoodland (about George Reeves - the actor who played Superman in my youth) with Diane Lane and Ben Affleck. Anyway i had really been looking forward to seeing it - and after the movie started we realized we could not DVR it. Bummer because i had a sneaking suspicion the margarita would kick in just after the movie did. Next thing i know the daughter is coming in the door and i realized the movie was long over.
Perhaps we should just do a good old-fashioned rental from the video store (and no margaritas)?

wanna read a good book?

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
its just a great read. I picked it up from the library on Monday and have been reading it all week - finally last night i couldn't stand it any longer
( i was trying to stretch it out - the reading - i tend to read fast)
and i finished it.
If you liked Steel Magnolias or any other books that focus on women - this is the book for you.

Check it out on Amazon or at either of the two related websites.
http://www.fridaynightknittingclub.com/
http://www.walkeranddaughter.com
Oh i hope they do a movie about it!

the birthday queen is here

to say Happy Birthday miss Kerilou

hope its an extra special day!

visit keri at http://a-country-life.blogspot.com/

what i been makin

okay so i've been making things and not posting them cos they were presents. so now that the recipient has received them i can post away. (Actually i did attempt a post of this yesterday but it disappeared into the cyber void. whatchagonnado)

So here's a card i made using some new stamps from www.characterconstructions.com The alpha stamps are Lizziebelle from www.purpleoniondesigns.com . And btw, birthday girl, the th is like that - linked together. the Lizziebelle alpha comes with a number of letters linked together (tt, th, ff). Lizziebelle is a clever girl you know so her alpha should be that way too. Anyhow, I used some acrylic paint, ink, colored pencils to color her in. Used some skinny black rickrack. The background is a paper bag - yes, i have issues throwing pretty things away but it worked out well in this case. You can't tell here but its a large birthday card - 6x12 - but sometimes it's fun to do something a little different, right?

The other thing i made is a felted purse. I fell in love with a cute purse I saw at http://cathyzielske.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/02/index.html - check the February 14th posting. I am rather new to this knitting thing but figured the directions didn't look too complicated. I am a good direction follower - so good that i ignored her notes that she was running out of yarn so she did less rounds of knitting. This made the purse a little shorter and perhaps cuter when it was smaller. However........ you live and learn. Regardless, i was quite pleased with my results. Here are the before and after (felting) pictures:

I wanna make myself one of these so I've already ordered the yarn - in a most dee-luxe shade of periwinkle (which is out of stock at the moment - sigh) I made this purse black as that is what the birthday girl wanted. Me - normally I'd probably pick black as its more practical but i'm just throwing caution to the wind - wild thing that I am. (ok... you can stop laughing now)

i definitely encourage anyone to try knitting one of these purses. It is so very easy. You need to know only one stitch. Yes, you make it on circular needles but i'm telling you - if i can do it - you can too.

Well, i'm going back to doing some cleaning now. I am surrounded and its gettin me down. i cannot function in this mess.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

when i went up the road last week to the Old Lucketts store this is the postcard i found. isn't it just great? It's postmarked on the back (wish the Post Office had spared the front) Feb. 19th, 1910. I just love the idea that this postcard is almost 100 years old. isn't that something? It's addressed to a lady in Indiana named Pauline. The writer asks Pauline if she had a nice time at the automobile show in Chicago. don't you just love it? Oh and the stamp is one cent.

I hope you are having a great St. Paddy's day. We had our soda bread with coffee this morning and it was, if i do say so myself, dee-lish.

oh and i'm posting another link for this wonderful countdown calendar http://countdown.tentwostudios.com/

there are just so many wonderful images and isn't she so kind to post them all?

Freaky Friday

so the last few days we've been having unusual weather here in the Northern Virginia area. It was in the 70's. My daffodils went shooting up and the hyacinths are not far behind. I enjoy the thought of spring approaching but knew that Mother Nature had something else in store - one last hurrah for Winter was on the schedule - at least that is what the weather guy said. And this time he was correct. Yesterday the temperature started dropping and the wind whipped up and by night fall it was close to the mid 30's. Nice. A 40 degree drop almost. Oh did i mention the rain? Well its been doin that too - until it decided to start snowing. We'll have 2-4 inches by the time it ceases to flake outside.

Anyhow the long and short of this is that my daughter left school 2 hours early. They decided to send them home and that is really a good thing. There is nothing quite like Northern VA traffic and bad weather mixed together to cause havoc - at rush hour - which begins here at around 3pm and runs through 7pm - it is a nightmare. So better to have my kid back on this side of the world before the real fun begins. She travels an hour each way to school - it may as well be in another country some days.

I just got back from retrieving the daughter from her bus stop. It's about 10 minutes from the house. I stopped on the way to drop off some Irish Soda Bread to my mom. Her place is 5 minutes from here. It took almost 15 minutes to get there as i had to sit thru 2 cycles of the #2 Punishment Light in town. We chatted for a few minutes until daughter texted me from a stop along the way so i knew where she was and how long i had to get there. So i headed out to the bus stop (which is at an elementary school). I sat at the number #1 Punishment Light in Leesburg through two cycles. Always a treat. Then to the school. Waited about 3 minutes and the bus arrived. Then we headed out into the gridlock that the traffic had become. Sat at the #3 Punishment light through only one cycle and then worked our way back thru #1 light, once again - 2 cycles long. All in all the entire trip took 1-1/2 hours. In non-snowing conditions (its reallly coming down out there) it would probably take me 45 minutes all tolled.

Here's a picture of my pear tree out front right now

delightful huh? Those are my daffodils that just pushed up in the last 3 days.

Okay so what else is going on -
Miss Holly - an endless source of love and amusement for me. She is the smartest cat on the planet and funny to boot. Here she is doing her daily reminder to me that it's-dinner-time-so-fill-that-food-bowl-please. She will arrive in the kitchen at approximately 6:25. I normally feed them some dinner at 6:30. She will go from the bowl - where she'll sit - as she is sitting here - just as a reminder - hey-Mom- it's-time-to-eat! If i don't get the message she'll go over to the pantry (where her food is) and sit there. If that doesn't do it she'll return to the food bowl and wait. ....And look at me.

Could YOU resist that face? Not easily.

She's is just adorable isn't she?

Now here's is a picture of Frankie

Actually that is Frankie's busy butt and his tail there on the left. Their food dish is right below the island in the kitchen. What is that big flower doing there? Hmmmmm - that's my little secret for right now :-) More on that soon.

Okay and here is the Irish Soda Bread i made this morning:

One loaf for us, the other one for my Mom. She was so happy. She'll have it for breakfast and is making the corned beef and cabbage for dinner for herself tomorrow. Me - i don't like CB&C. Some good irish girl i am huh? oh well.

One last picture then i'm off to do various and sundry things (maybe start shoveling - yuck)

I was fooling around yesterday with acrylic paint to transfer images. I had this notion it should work with newsprint - so i set out trying my theory - it works. pretty darn cool i must say. I want to play some more with it. Some images didnt work at all - i think it had to do with the amount of paint and the actual picture. You need a really good contrast it seems. But that was fun. i really enjoyed the process. I need to work on it some more.

peek at the birdie

here's a little peek at a card i did for a friend who has been very busy and hasn't come out to play much. i thought she needed something cute to pick up her spirits. i'll post the whole card after she's received it. That's one of the little birdie stamps i carved not long ago. i thought he looked kinda cute on the patterned paper with a little colored pencil mcpt'd. And the alpha stamps are Purple Onion Designs - Submarine.
Last nite we rented the movie Stranger Than Fiction with Will Ferrell and Emma Thompson. I love Emma Thompson but that movie - i just had a tough time staying awake. It was entertaining but - well there was a beginning, middle and end but no excitement. nothing to distinguish one moment from the next.. monotone. I cannot describe adequately what was wrong with it other than to say I think it would have been a better book. Interesting premise but thats it.
ok i'm off - things to do. Clean up the mess i made attempting to do some St. Patrick's Day cards. i did not like what i came up with. i may or may not post in the near future.

Irish Alert

being that i'm the daughter of a first generation Irish American I am attuned to all things St. Patrick's Day at this time of year - and most of the rest of the year.

I've posted my grandmother's Irish Soda Bread in the past - check my March 2005 post, Will.

I was thinking I'd like to try and make some cards this year - hopefully later today. I have some stamps, some buttons. Also just found some images that might come in handy.
Check this out:
St. Patrick's Day Countdown Calendar
http://countdown.tentwostudios.com/

Friday Fluff

its that alliteration thing again

- plus this is a bit of fluff - literally and figuratively.

Holly is a bit of a fluffy thing wouldn't you agree? I'm sure all cats seek out the laundry basket but this cat will seek out anything that is mine - if it is my clothes in the basket, she is sure to find her way into said basket. If i leave a pair of my socks on the floor, she will sit on them. She loves me and I, her. And how could you resist this cuteness, I ask you?

Since i'm on the subject of cats, I thought i'd post this card i made for my nephew and his girlfriend who visited recently. They have 2 kids of their own - furry kids i should say. And Frankie and Holly took to the girlfriend right away. So she is a keeper we think. I know they'll appreciate the card. Thats a Cats Life Press stamp.

Oh i forgot to mention we rented The Departed last weekend. Rent it. It is just the best movie I've seen in ages. Yes, it's violent and they swear a lot - but both make sense in the plot line and OH what a story. Just the best story. Keeps you glued to your seat for the entire what - 150 minutes. Normally, that long a movie would be rough for me to sit through - but i swear it was over before i knew it.

This weekend the son is returning to school. The week really flew. I'm gonna miss that funny kid a whole lot.