Conversation upon sleeping beauty waking from his Saturday morning nap… 

Zach: What did you do?

Melissa: Hmm?

Zach: What is that noise in the bathroom?

Melissa: Hmm?

Zach: Meowing. Did you go and get another kitten?????

Well, yeah… yeah I did. I couldn’t help it.  George was acting kind of lonely and I thought he might really like to have a little brother or sister.  That fact was he was with his sister when we adopted him and it killed me not to take her too.  I knew I would be pushing my luck if I tried for 2 right off the bat though.  So, when I saw this guy on the Humane Society website I knew he need to come live with us as soon as possible.

So I waited until ZJ decided to take a little snooze to recover from Halloween partying.  Then I made the drive to Woodbury to see if Felipe (don’t worry we changed his name) was still available.

20 minutes later my new 2lb buddy and I were cruising back home.  We kept him separated from George for a few days to let him get adjusted.  Unfortunately he was having some tummy troubles so we weren’t comfortable leaving him out alone.  For his first week and a half, I would go to work and take an early lunch at 11 so I could drive home to check on him and then Zach would come home a few hours later to make sure everybody was doing ok.

We finally figured out that some of his belly issues seemed to be nerves and all he really needed was to be able to hang out with us and George.  Of course I found this out by giving into his poor little baby kitten cries at 12:30am and sleeping on the bathroom floor with him.

Everybody is doing great and Harold Chester Floyd has come into his own this week.  Harry has taken a special liking to jumping at anything that moves and taking lots of kitty naps.  I think George is used to him too…

napping buddies

Feeling the pressure after last year’s sock monkey costume, I started thinking about Halloween in the summer.  Not sure what could possibly top the monkey, I started scouring the internet for ideas.  One morning at breakfast it hit me… bacon.  The greatest meat of all time.  Everybody loves bacon. It smells good, it tastes good, it’s good for you… ok, not the last one but whatever.  It wasn’t quite as much hard work as last year and it only took one trip to Joann Fabrics this time.  Behold… BACON

Bacon enjoying some wine

Enjoying a cold brew after a hard day of busting scumbags.

Thanks to Seth & Allison for throwing another awesome costume party. Click on my Flickr link to see more pictures from the night.

Last Saturday we headed up to O-town (Osceola) to visit with the charming Olson family.  Jess was nice enough to make some delicious corn magic dip and chicken enchiladas.  Zach and I happily stuffed our faces, drank some beers and played some ping-pong. 

All as a warm up to the experience of “Stalkers of the Corn”….  muh ha ah ah

We headed to Schafer to get scared by zombies, ghosts and mostly each other.  Ben and Zach were awfully scared….

We got our warning about how scarry it was going to be from this guy.  It should have tipped us off.

We entered into the corn in a single file line.  Each of us grabbing the person in front of us to protect us from the monsters we were bound to encounter.  About 75 steps into the maze we were chased by a guy with a chainsaw.  Now I’m not going to lie, it scared me half to death at first.  We were all pushing each other out of the way trying to get another person in between us and the chainsaw monster.  (In reality it was probably some guy named Steve who works part time at the Mobile station).

After a few more appearances by ghouls like this,

we were out of the maze alive and in one piece.  But very, very hungry…

We tromped around in a non haunted maze for awhile trying to scare each other.  I was mostly eating my cotton candy and laughing at Zach.

We wrapped up the evening eating pumpkin soup and watching a chick flick.  Zach got real tuckered out so Elie let him take a nap with her.  She wasn’t willing to share the blanket though.

Thanks Jess for the super yummy dinner.  Thanks Ben for going to the Total Mart and buying frozen pizzas for breakfast on Sunday morning.  Thanks Elie for all the helping. 

Coming soon…  Halloween costume party.  Can I pull off back-to-back 1st place win???

After receiving an email or two and a few comments in passing from friends I realized that there are actually a few people who at least pretend to care what is going on with us.  There is absolutely zero exciting things with us to report since the last post.  Some fun things going on around us…  a wedding, a baby, a pregnancy or two. 

We’ve been lucky to spend a lot of time with our friends lately.  I’ve come to realize lately how incredibly lucky we are to have such a huge group of people who genuinely seem to like us. 

We’re back on the blogging wagon again, I promise.  To make up for the big gap in time please stare at this kitty.  He’ll make it all better.

Sink Cat

ps. hi jane

Sunday evening we hit the Minnesota State Fair with Kacky & Tony for a variety of treats on sticks.  The final tally between the 4 of us was:

• 2 Pronto Pups
• 4 Ears of Corn
• 2 Turkey Sandwiches
• 3 Cheese Curd Baskets
• Beer (several each)
• 1 Stuffed Pretzel
• 3 Frozen Custards
• 1 Bag of Mini Donuts
• 1 Walleye on a Stick
• 1 Bag of Cotton Candy

Sadly we didn’t get any bacon or Sweet Martha cookies.  We did purchase a fun little golf game.  We’ve yet to play out of fear that George will eat the balls.  The highlight of the night was of course the Giant Slide…

So my birthday was a few weeks ago and we didn’t really do anything to celebrate.  I could tell Zach felt a little bad about not doing something for my 30th (yes my 30th and yes he felt bad because I was making him feel bad).  We talked about getting me a blackberry since I live so much of my life online, but the cost seemed a little silly.  Then I found a new pair of boots I wanted for fall (we have yet to discuss my shoe problem in this blog) so I was leaning towards that…   still it felt a little anticlimactic. 

Ever since we lost Chester our condo felt a little emptier.  We often talk about him and the favorite memories of his short time here.  I always knew we would eventually get another cat, but thought it would be a long ways down the road after we had grieved a little longer.

Until I saw this face…

A few emails later my wonderful husband agreed that we could definitely use a new little fur buddy in our home.  Off to the Animal Humane Society we went to visit kitten #334916.  We were given the opportunity to spend some time with him in a visitation room alone to see if we thought he would be a good match with us.  He was understandably a little skittish of us and took a few minutes to let us pet him.  The next thing I knew he climbed up on the bench we were sitting on and just flopped down between us.  The Chester flop confirmed that George would be coming home with us.

We’re still getting used to the crazy kitten behavior.  He runs like crazy for no reason.  Loves belly rubs.  Has an odd fascination with our feet.  And most of all… loves Zach more than me.  I feel like I should be happy that my husband who “hated” cats now thinks that it is great when George curls up next to him for a nap.  I’m jealous.  Hopefully when he grows up and I tell him that his dad let the vet put this on him he’ll start to love me more.

We had the tremendous privilege of traveling to Beaver Creek, CO to witness two of our best friends  get married.  The entire weekend was awesome.

We started out Thursday morning flying from MSP to Denver with Matt and Michelle Hanson.  After a 2 hour white-knuckled (at least for me) drive, we arrived at Beaver Creek.  We had rented a 4 bedroom condo and were shacking up with the Hansons, Bartletts, Franny, Emily and Ray.  First things first, Michelle and Craig made the snack and beer run to stock our kitchen.  Priorities people…

Thursday and Friday were spent drinking, golfing, shopping and eating.  The rehearsal dinner was held at the Dusty Boot and was an amazing showing of the people who love Kacky and Tony.  Lots of great food, toasts, and pictures.  Saturday morning we all laid around reading magazines and just hanging out.  I headed to lunch with the boys and listened to them giggle like 13 year old girls at a slumber party.

In the evening we met the wedding party for drinks before the ceremony and walked to the chapel.  The wedding was perfect.  The sounds of Lez Zeppelin drifting through the windows from a nearby festival.  That’s right kids… Lez Zeppelin.  Apparently a lesbian Led Zeppelin cover band.  Awesome.

Kacky looked beautiful.  The ceremony was perfect and the reception was more fun than I’ve had since, well Kacky’s bachelorette party.  We danced the night away and headed back to the condo for a late night snack of Totinos Party Pizzas, Wheat Thins and Easy Cheese.  All in all a perfect night.

Kacky and Tony, your friendship means the world to us.  We are so happy you found each other and look forward to creating more great memories with you in the future.  Congratulations and may God bless you with many, many happy years!!!

It is with a very heavy heart that I write this…  We had to say goodbye to our little buddy this afternoon.  He got really really sick over the weekend and unfortunately we had to make a decision to let him go.  Zach and I are both heartbroken.  Our condo feels empty without him following us around and begging for treats. 

In two short months he firmly cemented himself as in charge around here.  He napped where he damned well pleased, he licked your beard if he wanted attention (especially at 3am), and he gave you a head bonk as a seal of approval. 

I’m going to miss hearing him purr in my ear before we fell asleep at night and chasing him down the hall as he made his daily escape attempt.

You were a really great cat buddy.  We loved coming home to you everyday.  

Thanks for letting us be your mom and dad the last couple of months.  We won’t be the same without you.

Doing what he did best.

p.s. Tell Buddy we said hi.  You guys will have a fun time together up there.  Make sure he shares some Kix with you.

We want to send a special thank you to the City Cat Clinic in St. Louis Park for helping make Chester comfortable and helping us through a difficult decision.

Sunday afternoon one of my internet friends, justacoolcat, invited a few folks over to pick some strawberries out of his awesome garden.  The berry picking was top notch, but the highlight were the DeRusha boys.  Seth and I quickly buddied up for some exploring around the yard and two awesome games he invented called Stick Break and Stick Stop Hop. 

Stick Break is pretty much what it sounds like.  You find a stick and then you break it.  Stick Stop Hop required a little more finesse.  First, find a stick.  Key here is to find a stick a little smaller in size.  As soon as you find said stick, immediately run up to a group of people and yell “STICK STOP!!”. Here’s where it gets tricky…  you have to throw the stick up in the air (hence the reason for picking a smaller stick) and then immediately yell “HOP!!!” and jump in the air.  Pretty soon this all becomes one fluid movement and that’s when the fun really begins.  At least it seemed so to a three year old.  Seth and his little brother Sam were super fun. 

Now on to the jam… 

 I’ve never made jam before and was a little nervous.  Luckily JACC’s wonderful wife sent me out the door with jars, lids, and a box of pectin.  (yeah, I don’t really know what pectin is either).  Monday night I got to work slicing, dicing and mashing…

Zach offered to help…

Needed to make sure the berries were ripe…

This is where I started getting nervous. It seemed really watery for jam.

I boiled it down, dispensed into jars and gave a water bath to seal the lids.  This morning when I got up each jar looked like syrup.  Needless to say, I was a little disappointed.  The good news was when I got home from work everything seemed to have firmed up nicely.  Now there are 8 jars of homemade jam in my fridge.

The kicker here is I hate strawberries.