Happy Thanksgiving!

Some things I’m thankful for:

The ability to work from home if I need to, but maybe not how helpful this cat is when I do it.

The hiking opportunities near our home, and the company of these goobers on said hikes.

Gardening. Specifically copious quantities of tomatillos this year. Yes, that is a 5 gallon bucket.

My good friend from work who invited me to go get afternoon tea with her on one of our Fridays off.

My husband who can fix the dishwasher with a couple of parts so we don’t have to buy a new one.

Camping, and family who likes to go camping with us.

Mountain biking!

And much, much more that I don’t have pictures of. May you enjoy my favorite holiday!

Gluttons

It may appear that this cat is very interested in cat litter, but really that’s the food bucket. This is why they get fed twice a day. If Cosmo gets in the food bucket, he just stays there and swells to three times his normal size.

2013 stocking

This is now a bit over a month old, but what with all the vacationing I haven’t gotten around to posting it. The first year we lived here, I made Ken a stocking. Last year I made myself a stocking. This year the cats got a stocking. It is my least favorite that I’ve made so far, but hey, it’s for cats. They can’t complain.

Next year the dogs are up. One little Sunday afternoon quilting project is generally enough to tide me over for an entire year.

Cats and their characters

This is my princess cat. She is beautiful and dainty. She is aloof unless you’re warmer than the other surroundings. She is polite in her friendliness.

This is my jerk cat. He is huge and ridiculous. He tortures the dogs. He steps on your keyboard. He headbutts you. He is rude and obnoxious. He has no idea how to cover his poop in the litter box and scrapes and scrapes and scrapes everywhere except in the litter.

These pictures were taken randomly in the past month. It’s funny how accurately they portray their personalities.

Can you spot the cat?

This is his spot. We didn’t cover him with the afghan and the quilt, he burrowed.

Ken was home sick a week and a half ago and reported that Cosmo spent the ENTIRE day there.

Thoroughly random

Hello. Today I bring you a collection of random thoughts and things to catch up on last month interspersed with random pictures.

Today, I read a paper from the Journal of Basic Engineering. Ah 1969, what a simple time you were.

I’m not doing the half-marathon. Plantar fasciitis has reared it’s ugly head and is stubbornly refusing to vacate my left foot. So I am fat and lazy and my left foot hurts.

Last week there was a vinegaroon wandering across the living room floor. Ugh. I should have taken a picture, but instead Ken flung it out the back door.

I got first in my class in a metallography contest. Fun!

Ken smoked salmon for Kristina and I on Sunday evening. It was delicious.

Ken made profession of faith and I officially joined the church last week. It was a joyous occasion.

We bought a LED TV. It seems ridiculously decadent.

In the 200IM men’s final, there was a guy with the same last name as me!!! We must be long-lost cousins.

There are more things to record for posterity, but they all have associated pictures so they shall have to wait until later.

One year in Albuquerque

We arrived in Albuquerque a year ago this week! It’s hard to believe it’s been a whole year. Here’s to many more!

By this time next year I hope:

• I will have a real-live actual adult person permanent job. i’ll be 28, it’ll be about time!
• We will have begun on the great house addition project.
• We will have figured out how to keep animals from eating the garden – no luck with spraying on cayenne pepper yet. Ah well, I figured it wouldn’t be that easy.
• We will own 2 cars instead of 4. Anyone in the market for a 1984 BMW, 1997 Honda Civic, or 2000 Ford ginormous van…?
• I will have finally put away the laundry. Why is this so difficult for me? I can wash it, dry it (even hang dry it sometimes!), bring the basket up to our bedroom, but I cannot put it in the drawers.

It sounds as though the cat may is destroying something in my bedroom, so I better go check it out. Guess that’s all we’ll be able to accomplish in the next year.

June 2012

Well, it’s happened again, nearly an entire month has elapsed since my last post. In the meantime, Ken’s dad came to visit, I went to Washington for Bekah’s graduation, one of our closets flooded from excessive rain, the garage flooded from a leaky faucet, Ken installed new plumbing in the garage, including a timed sprinkler valve so I don’t have to water the garden any more, we moved everything out of the upstairs and started stripping the ceiling, I finished the throw pillow covers, Cosmo destroyed one of the window blinds, we saw the transit of Venus, bugs ate nearly the entire garden, I killed all the bugs and the garden has once again emerged triumphant, some animal completely stripped the apricot tree of fruit, I went mountain biking with my boss and didn’t die, I played piano for a memorial service (nobody I knew), and it’s been ridiculously hot (over 100 at least twice already). That about sums it up. I’ll see you in another month….

Haha, thought you could get rid of me that fast? No way. You haven’t been subjected to vacation pictures yet. Don’t worry, I don’t have many.

Look, it’s this girl! We were about to embark on the quintessential early summer Washington activity: a canoe trip with a bag of freshly picked cherries.

There she is graduating! That was a two hour graduation. We must all love her.

See the love?

Ice cream after the marathon graduation.

He’s probably letting her know that he has RAINBOW ice cream. The rest of us were wondering where the other half of the rainbow was and whether anything that vibrant could possibly taste good.

Friends

The next day we went on a hike and found a rope swing! I was not overly successful in picking camera settings.

At least they look blurrily happy! I tried it too, but the incriminating pictures of me haven’t surfaced yet.

Unpictured are a graduation party, my second ultimate Frisbee experience, a couple of plunges in the Columbia, the tick feasting on Mom, Father’s day festivities for Dad and Grandpa, a couple of runs with my parent’s dog, and a very chilly and short river float with Bekah.

Eclipse, dogs, cats, shooting, and pillows

It’s Sunday afternoon, we’re about to head out to watch the annular eclipse. I made a cereal box pin camera, and we’re bringing a welding mask for direct viewing which may or may not blind us, depending on who you believe. We figure short glimpses through the possibly blinding welding glass should be ok. I’m super excited! How lucky we are to live in Albuquerque, one of the prime viewing locations in the US!

Here’s some of the offload from my camera in the past two weeks.

Our matching animals commune.

Tandem cats. They were intently watching a lizard outside.

Klaus’s haircut, as per Mom’s request. It looks MUCH better now than it did.

All three of them look so happy to be picking burs out of Klaus’s fur!

We went to the shooting range yesterday afternoon with Ken’s friend from work. It’s a very nice range.

I’m making new pillow covers for the couch. The old ones (far right) were ugly and had this fringe on the edges which Klaus kept getting his collar stuck on. I’d find him going around woefully dragging a pillow and looking miserable. It was sad. The new ones have the striped fabric on one side and red on the other. I figured out how to make and add piping AND put in a zipper, which turns out to be not too terribly difficult. I think they look great. And Klaus will appreciate them.

Typical evening

Picture of domestic bliss:

Wife in the kitchen making granola bars, lunches, putting away dinner, washing dishes, emptying and filling dishwasher.

Husband sitting on floor of kitchen assembling his new (used) welder.

Wet dog (it rained!) attempting to be a lap-welder-dog.

Cats perched on table supervising.

That was Tuesday night, and you know what? It was pretty good.

Guess the welding torch just needs new fittings to plug into the welder and the grounding clamp needs to be unpacked from wherever it’s hiding, then the welder’s ready to go. It’s very exciting! The granola bars turned out tasty too. The dog even eventually dried out and smelled much better, and it was Ken’s turn to do all the kitchen stuff on Wednesday.