Lots of Love around here

I have been not so subtly hinting at Manfriend that I wanted a new sparkle skirt.  More specifically Neon Luv.  This one doesn't have sparkles all over it or glittery sequins but it is a fun print and great for lots of wear and washing (less worry about losing the glitter...).  

 I would leave the Sparkle Skirt website up on the ipad when I was done with it and on Neon Luv.  I even texted him one night while he was out with co-workers that if he wasn't home by a certain time I was buying a skirt.  He came home immediately (didn't realize it was that late).

 So while I am apparently fashion challenged or stuck in the 80's I love the new skirt.  It is bold and goes with my bright don't hit me with your car colors.  Mind you my hints were not very subtle--I mean I checked out sparkles every night for a week or more and left the page up.  Plus the specific text.

Continuing to feel the love with cold weather snuggles.  Anytime I am at my computer Cinder Ella feels the need to lay in front of me and more often than not has to rest her sweet face on my arm.  She not so subtly hints that she wants some petting by rubbing her face on me and rolling around.  Very much feeling the love around her the past few weeks.  Luke and I will be celebrating our first date 9 years ago in a few weeks as well as the fact that we have been in our house for 5 years.

Snuggle up Weather

As we get to the end of October my little Snuggle Bug Cinder Ella has been climbing all over me to snuggle in and stay warm.  I love it.  She likes to lay on my chest and nuzzle her sweet little face into my neck/shoulder.  When she isn't doing this she is curled in a little ball on her dog bed in the sun or her cat bed (also in the sun).  But where was my little fur baby the other day?

That's right... the cupboard above the fridge.  She has decided it's a fun place to be.  Jump on the counter, microwave and top of fridge to get into the un-used cupboard and nap.  I asked the vet about this and she said a happy cat is a climbing cat.  She is comfortable and confident so she climbs.  Cats that aren't happy or that are scared dwell under beds and stay low.

Good Meow-ing To You!

My little Cinder Ella is such a cutie.  She has always been a little cuddle bug and I finally put the camera on my nightstand so I could document it.  I say, "Cinder Ella, time to go night night."  She then typically proceeds to follow me upstairs and wait for me to brush my teeth and such.  Then she jumps up on the bed and curls up next to me.

 Just as she was starting to settle in the ribbon I have attached to the ceiling fan caught her eye (first time ever) and she had to get up and swat at it a few times before settling down.  She was not being cooperative at bed time for a photo (gave me her butt instead of her face... her face is usually looking at me).

And this is what I almost always wake up to find.  A happy, content kitty that stretches and chirps at me before nudging my face with hers and purring as if to say, "get up and feed me."  Happy Friday!

Another Cinder Ella Story

So I love my cuddle bug and Disney and that is what I talk about "all the time."  Well, Cinder got a new bed from my Momma.  She found it on super clearance at Target as an online item that was returned.  She thought of Cinder, walked passed it and then went back for it at the end of her adventure in Targetland.  I put it on the floor and she sniffed it and circled it a few times the first day.  I picked it up off the floor to vacuum and she snuggled up on it for a little cat nap.

 I went to take a picture of her and she woke up.  Love how she always yawns when she wakes up or makes a chirping type noise when she see's it is me.

Thanks for my new bed.  I still have to figure out how to climb into the snuggly part of my new bed.

Not much happening...

Not much has been going on here.  Luke is still in lots of pain with his pinched nerve.  This past weekend it snowed outside (ick).  This is what I deal with every time I sit down at my laptop/computer.  And I mean every time.

 We have to roll around in front of me or strut our stuff across the key board to seek attention.  We also purr non-stop and get feisty when moved.

If she is "shoo-ed" away enough she will sit in front of me and nudge me with her face and rub her face all over mine.  She's definitely a little cuddle bug.

things I'm loving right now

Well, it is February Break... so no worries of a 5:30 am work call to sub.  Getting to take a min-road trip with my momma.  The way the sun comes in the windows and makes me think spring.  My new Mickey mug.

 Thunder Paws and Manfriend.  I love how she snuggles next to him on the couch while he works from home.  He's also super cute when he holds her and rubs his face on her and she nudges him with her face if he's not paying attention to her.

I've been doing some cleaning up/organizing of things around the house and it feels good.  I've been scanning and sorting pictures, donating bags of clothes and other trinkets, keeping the counter mostly cleaned off.

new windows and some snow

We got our new windows installed on Wednesday and we love them.  Home Depot did a wonderful job.  The guy that installed them (yes, just one guy all by himself) did a fantastic job cleaning up and then gave me a tutorial on how to tilt in for cleaning.  While he was here installing Cinder Ella and I hung out in the office.  For a while she was content to sit in her window seat until he started work on the window under the office.

She saw him outside and did a grumble/growl at him (so protective of me).  After that she curled up in my lap while I scanned photos of Uncle Jack into the computer so I could upload them to my smugmug photo account.  Peeling the tape of the back of 3 poster boards of photos was not fun, but I did enjoy getting to look at all the photos.  I also had a bag full of photos to scan as well.

Here is a before and after of our kitchen window.  They are making a huge difference.  We have no more draft in our kitchen/family room area.  Our bedroom is also warmer (we've been kicking off the down comforter at 57 degrees at night).

Our kitchen window was a stained wood window and now we have white vinyl.  I think we are going to leave the trim the stained wood since it matches the beams in the family room.  Friday we were getting a ton of snow (but not anything like Boston).  I decided it would be good to take Cinder Ella out since she was begging.  See how much she loves her leash...

She did not want to come in, despite the fact she kept shaking snow off her paws.  She was super cute though until she tried to climb the pine tree.  At that point I scooped up the growling fur ball and brought her in.  Don't know what she saw looking up the tree that she had to try and get.  We are buddies again, she doesn't stay mad at me very long.

New Windows and other "small stuff"

We are getting new windows in some of our rooms tomorrow.  We picked the extremely drafty and bad ones to replace and will eventually also replace others in the house as we feel needed.  All of our windows have storm windows on them.  I did the plastic shrink wrap on the drafty windows and as you can see they needed it.

That is called ice/frost on the INSIDE of the plastic wrap from the terrible draft that is also minimized by curtains.  After the kitchen table window came off in my hand while I was opening it on a warm fall day the decision was made to get new windows.  Our bedroom window had ice on the glass and the storm plastic "glass."  BRrr.  Home Depot is coming tomorrow to install 5 windows.  That will leave us with 9 windows for the future (one was done prior to purchasing the house along with the sliding glass door).

  

We finally got around to installing our programmable thermostat that Jen and Bob gave us for Christmas.  We really don't adjust the temperature that often in our house, or by that much.  The above is our old one and below is our new one.  We turned off the circuit breaker and labeled wires to reconnect and it was actually very easy to do.  

It turns the heat up from 58 to 63 degrees around 4:30 PM (so it will be warm when I get back from a run and Luke is home from work.  Turns back down to 58 around 9 PM so it is comfy for sleeping with our down comforter and stays at 58 until 4:30 PM.  Weekends it kicks on the heat during the day instead of staying at 58.  It is nice not having to remember to turn it up or down.

And since I said other "small stuff" the lady at the grocery store gave me a paper bag for Thunder Paws.  She loves it and is very cute how she drags her toys in there to play.

4th of July

We went to the cottage for the fourth.  Little Thunder Paws joined us.  She is such a good kitty and sat curled in my lap the whole way there, just fidgeting a little bit but I think she wanted to not have the ac blowing in her face.  My dad has a hummingbird feeder there and very often you will see three hummingbirds attacking each other and flitting all over.  A woodpecker decided he liked the sugar water and has been regularly visiting.  He lands almost upside down on the feeder and pulls himself up.  

Woodpecker feeder?

Thunder enjoys the view

My mom found these lantern things and my dad and Luke were very excited.  My dad had seen a few the year before and thought they were really cool.  They lit it and we watched it float away and across the bay.

Of course we had the ring of fire and then fireworks.  My mom was eaten by bugs and complained the fireworks were boring.  Luke agreed with her--well, we all kind of did and I said it was cause they aren't Disney Fireworks set to music.

At the cottage Cinder is my extreme cuddle bug.  I was saying goodnight to people and when I went to go to be (I'd already pulled back the covers before brushing my teeth) look what I found waiting.  She had been under the bed hiding from the fireworks when the bedtime routine started.  So I climbed into bed and she curled up right next to me.

Throughout the nights at the cottage she would come up to my face and sniff at me, rub her face on me and then curl back up--like she was checking to make sure it was really me and I hadn't abandoned her in some new place.  We had a relaxing long weekend.

You walk your cat on a leash?

So, when Thunder Paws (Cinder Ella's nickname) was missing last year and we were asking some neighbors they were like, "that cat you walk on a leash?"  Yes, I walk the cat on a leash.  She is an indoor cat but likes to get outside once in a while to check things out.  I don't need some critter (the fox or coyote) eating her or a car smushing her.
Let's start by the fact that she is obsessed with the garage.  She begs at the garage door with howling meows to be let into the garage where she proceeds to do this:

in the garage

yep, exciting.  She just sits lays there on the carpet outside the door.
If the sliding glass door is open she begs with her meows at the door.  Who can resist such a cute face?
When I have her outside on the leash I usually comb her fur.  She loves it and just lays down on the patio for this most of the time.

I want to go outside too!

 Cinder and I eventually got part of the way into our huge side yard (the second time ever) and she had to climb on the rock.  All this exploring was tiring so we rested a bit.

oh rock, how I missed you

We continued on our adventure and stopped for a bit to eat.

crunchy and juicy

get your own snack

that does not smell good

After about 45 minutes of walking, exploring, eating she was tuckered out and sprawled on the driveway.  So yes, I do walk the cat on a leash.  

Cuteness

So Thunder Paws is too stinkin' cute to not take pictures of and want to snuggle with all day long. Here she is in the toilet box. I cut a hole in the bottom and it's her little play house.  She walks through the box all the time, naps in it and sits on it and watches the birds outside.  The box came from the powder room bathroom. We replaced the toilet that was the color of the tp holder... thank goodness.  I rotated the photo before attaching it but apparently that didn't last.  Oh well, you get the idea.  Happy Wednesday!

Shoes and the Cat

I love shoes... well, just running shoes and crocs. I ordered a pair of these shoes earlier in the week and cannot wait for them to come in. They are super comfy and best of all match my Tink costume.I've put in several long runs with the pair I currently have and no blisters or achy spots since they are mostly a mesh/fabric construction and the lacing system isn't connected into a logo (which can sometimes create pressure points). The sole is flexible and allows for a smooth heel to toe transition. I won't bore you with the details of my awesome shoes... but if you ever want info on shoes let me know.
In other news, I think that Thunder Paws is feeling a bit lonely and wanting attention. She plopped herself on my school papers. I guess she misses all the hours she got to spend with me over the summer.

Cinder's Big Adventure

After a busy weekend of Jen flying in from Colorado for Harborfest and us taking her back to the airport we arrived home around 2 pm to find... no cat. Cinder Ella was nowhere to be found and had not touched her food. I started to panic. She had escaped while packing up the car for the weekend, that little sneak. Tears and more panic from me. She is my baby and there are wild critters in the area that EAT cats. She had been outside since Friday afternoon and here it is Sunday afternoon.
Luke and I wandered around the house checking for her or a sign that she'd been there. We walked down the street sort of behind us that is yet to be built to find a coyote home (eeek!).
We put up Missing Cat signs with her name and picture. Lime green duct tape and a cute critter should get some attention.
We drove out to Lollypop farm to see if she was found and turned in there. Before leaving we left our external garage door open enough that she could push it open. At Lollypop there were a few that looked like her but weren't Cinders. Luke was great through all of it and really thought we should have taken a cute 1 year old cat Mia home so when we found our baby she'd have a friend. Mia was lounging and perked up when we walked by, all the other cats didn't even notice us, maybe that's why he thought Mia was Cinders.
We came home and found a toad in the garage. Continuing the search for Cinder Ella my folks came over and started helping to ask neighbors if they'd seen her. One neighbor was like, "oh, that cat she walks on a leash?" Yup, that's the cat. "Cinder Ella, Cinder Ella, mrroow, mrowww, mroww..." She comes running when I make that noise. After circling the neighborhood for what seemed like the millionth time Luke went back to filling out forms online for a missing pet in the area and searching the newspaper lost and found section. I sat out back calling towards the wooded area hoping she'd come bounding out. I put up an ad on Craigslist.
Mom and Dad went home. There wasn't much they could do that we weren't already doing. They still had trash in the back of the pick-up truck. My phone range with a number I didn't recognize at 10. "Are you the one who put put up fliers for a missing cat?" I tried to contain my excitement. "My daughter has a suggestion that you put out some food or a toy so she knows it's her house." I thanked him for the suggestion and for calling. I slumped onto the couch with more tears. There was a plate of food on the back steps and the open garage door. My poor baby.
Around 11pm (only the 9 horrible hours that I knew she was missing for) I called out the front window for her then on a whim opened the interior garage door. A scared Cinder Ella crept around the corner and walked slowly into the house. She was scared, hungry and thirsty. Other than some seeds stuck to her fur and quite a bit of dirt she was ok. A slight purr. She scarfed some food and then puked from eating too much, too soon.
We are happy to report that she is back to her cuddly, purring self and we are happy that she is home safe and sound.

That Critter

Unloading the car with all the goodies from the wonderful tea party filled a large chunk of the kitchen. Cinders is quite the curious kitty cat. She had to stick her nose into everything. It took me most of the afternoon to unpack and put away the items, but all are very useful and have a spot where I can access them quickly. No top shelf in the basement. Apparently Cinder sniffed out something that needed a closer look. Thanks Skippy's for the cat nip spray. Really cat? Where exactly did you think you were going?