A Tale Of Two Kittens

Hello, hello it's Nika here.

Hard getting any computer time between Jane and now Lucy.  

People are asking how I'm handling life with kittens?

Cautiously.  They are everywhere.  And then they're somewhere else. This all happens very quickly.

They're fascinated by my tail. Swat.  They love to sniff my delicate ankles.  And they think nothing of sticking their little kitten heads into my bowl when I'm trying to eat.  Incredible.

I "borrowed" the camera while Jane and GG were at work and took a few pictures of what these two get up to given one hot second.

I believe you humans say a picture is worth a 1000 words?

" Nika don't show those pictures, we'll get in trouble"

"Mwahaha"

Don't do the crime if you won't pay the time.

I rest my case.

The After Party!

Now that was an excellent FITH.  Thanks to all who came to the party.  I love waking up to find it going on, like Donkey Kong. I was transported to England and Massachusetts before I had my first sip of espresso.

And this morning I awoke to find the party had continued while I was sleeping. New York and New Mexico both represented. Maybe next time you guys can turn the music down a little bit?

Just in case you think we're only about flowers and kittens and Labs these days you would be so wrong.

We're still eating.

A bowlful of quickly pickled vegetables.

Some skinless, boneless chicken thighs quickly marinated in 6 cloves of mince garlic, 4 Tbsp. grated onion, 4 Tbsp. of fish sauce, 2 Tbsp. of sugar and S&P , left to rest for at least 30 minutes then grilled stovetop.

.

Wrapped up in lettuce leaves, strewn with garden herbs and dripping with a Vietnamese fish sauce.

I was inspired (as always) by the Goddess of field and stream ,Marie.

I read her post, and did what she did: used what I had in the house and fudged the rest.

I don't think you can go wrong with this meal.

Or with a gratuitous kitten picture.

Or two:-)

 

Good God I am now officially a crazy cat woman.

 xo jane

Flowers In The House Of Scents: August 2012

Todays FITH are brought to you by the whole damn family. We hunted and gathered flowers and herbs with the Lab first thing this morning. Though eager to finish her walk and get home to breakfast she allowed us to poke around in alleys and friends yards to get a handful of blooming mint here and a bunch of autumn blooming clematis there.

Add to that sedum, hydrangea, butterfly bush and allium from our garden and voila the house begins to smell like we live in the country. Even the kittens are sniffing at the fallen leaves on the kitchen floor..

I smuggled a few teddy bear sunflowers out of the shop yesterday.

I'll do the time if necessary. Pure happiness right there.

We filled a old bottle and a little mug with some clippings and placed them high above the kittens heads.

Barring any crashes in the middle of the night.....

And I placed one of my favorites, a reblooming, heavily scented white iris next to the bed.

Thought better of it and moved in onto a dresser.

Where it still sits.  I think.  I haven't been in there for hours.

The little ones followed me from room, jumping up to smell and bat around a few flowers. Their favorite scent was on GG's arm from where she weeded a patch of cat mint.

Believe me there is not one leaf of that herb in the house. I hope.

Though Gus does appear to be a little bit out of it.

If I can wake him up we hope to trot round to your houses and see what you've got.

Flowers I mean, not cat nip.

xo Jane

Kittens, Er, Flowers In The House

Listen up, it's me, Lucy..

Jane is all about putting some flowers in the house on Monday.

What's the big deal, we always have flowers.

Gus and I help arrange them.

And then we beat the stuffing out of each other.

This makes Jane nervous cause the flowers are by the computer.

Like she's ever on it anymore.  Use your phone I told her, I have needs too.

She used to put flowers by the bed.

But I get thirsty in the middle of the night :-)

So quite frankly I don't know where she thinks these flowers will go on Monday, the vase by the computer just went into the kitchen.  Killjoy.

But she's determined and apparently she wants all of you and your kittens to join her.

We like to keep her happy. She's one of our feeders.

So we'll see you and your little ones too come Monday? 

If you don't have little ones you can use vintage vases and  add all the water you want.

Such are the perks of the "single" life.

The View From The Top

If I tell you all I'm not a great hiker would you be surprised?

I thought not.

I'm a walker and a dancer and a weight lifter and a gardener, I am a great reader, but a hiker? No.

So you can imagine the tremor of fear in my chest when I heard part of our weekend in C-Ville was to be spent in the Shenandoah Mountains, walking along the Appalachian Trail for God's sake.  I quaked in my flipflops.

Various routes were discussed, mountains named, miles, as in 5, mentioned.  My eyes got bigger.  My still occasionally achy ankle ached.

I suggested we cater to the lowest common denominator, me, and find a trail that would be challenging but not one I would have to be airlifted off of.  With a freshly sprained ankle and a bruised ego.

It was done, Turk Mountain was our destination..  And with a brace on my ankle and backpacks full of water and chocolate,cheese,bread and cherries we hiked. And scrambled over rocks and hiked some more and sweated and swore and eventually some 2000 odd feet later we made it to the top.

I should be clear here, my three companions ran up the trail as lightly as a pack of mountain goats, I was the one, covered in sweat , ripe with expletives, who was looking for a private spot to curl up and cry.

But even I reached the peak and after clambering over some ginormous rocks sat and gazed outward and upward.

And the view was as promised. GG, as you can see, was totally in her element, I was totally out of my comfort zone. 

  But that's not such a bad thing. I often think if we listened only to the voices in our heads we'd never get out of bed in the morning.

So sometimes I listen to GG instead.

And dare to do things differently.

And my world gets bigger.

Off With Their Heads

Just when I wondered if I would ever write a post that didn't feature babies or kittens or unicorns, an issue arose.

Long story short I hope.

The IRS needed some paperwork regarding my 2009 taxes.  Of course I couldn't/can't find that year anywhere, so I contacted the agencies in question and asked for copies of that years statements.

Everything arrived and I faxed it over and settled back to await the news that all questions were resolved.

I neglected to read the mortgage income statement from Chase Bank before I sent it off.  And they neglected to put my name on the statement. Only Tony, my partner with whom I had originally bought the house, was listed as an owner.

I got that  piece of info from the IRS yesterday so of course I immediately called Chase Home Mortgage to explain the situation.

I ended up talking to 3 different people at Chase over the past 2 days, Marvin, Josh and Alvin, they reside in Manilla, and the result is the same: only Tony's name is on the paper.

Irregardless of the fact that every statement I have received in the mail from them in previous years have both names on it, they will not send me a new one with my name listed.  Even though I am liable for close to $2,000 in fines if there is no proof I am the owner.  Not just an owner but since 2004 the sole owner.

I'm not asking for them to take his name off the top, just to put mine underneath his where it always was.

They say it is their policy to only list one owner and his name was listed first when they bought the loan so first it shall remain.  Funny that this is the first year that they have the policy no?

It was also suggested they couldn't help me because they no longer held the loan.  "But YOU sold it" I said, "it's not like I took it away from you while you were sleeping."

When I refinanced several years ago I asked if we should take his name off the loan and I was told it doesn't matter.  Well it matters now. And of course it will be done stat.

The IRS, suggested I get a copy of the title and fax it to them which I will do immediately.

I'm writing this post both to let off some steam and to try and make sense out of what seems totally insane and very customer unfriendly.

I feel a bit like Alice talking to the Red Queen.

There now I've turned it into a fairytale after all.

With a  couple of gratuitous kitten picture.

Cause that's how I roll.

Did I miss something?  Does any of this makes sense to you?

grrrr, Jane

Out Of The Mouths Of Babes

HGH! It's me Gus and me Lucy. ( sudden scuffle erupts over ownership rights of the chair)

We're the new entertainment both at home and on the blog.

And we're here to tell you it's not as easy as Jane makes it seem.

We work for our kibble.

Gus has to help her get ready for work every morning.

Lunch? Camera? Sunglasses? Only12 minutes till the bus comes!

And both of us are expected to spend hours helping GG fill out her applications for Med School.

 

We have to lick the stamps.

It's exhausting work for all of us.

Lucy i want to talk now! ( I jump off the computer but Gus finds his tail and starts to chase it)

So, I'm back.

I try to hide from Jane and her ever present camera.

But, clearly no room is off limits.

We're not saying Jane is evil, we're just saying she needs to chill.

Kick off her shoes, put down that camera, and lay a little loving on us.

We won't be kittens forever.