My Lions and Me

I love my cats!  Getting the feral colony from Tree House was the best thing I ever did.  I can enjoy my backyard and garden without worrying about seeing a rat scurry by.  As a matter of fact, I go days at a time without even thinking about rats!  A year ago that would have been impossible -- I was terrified to go anywhere near the garage or the alley.  On October 5 it will be one year that I have had my cats, and that's about as long as it's been since I have seen a live rat.  Quite a few small dead ones here and there, though.  That's fine!

This is Goblin, the black and white longhair.  Brando, the gray and white longhair, is the friendly one.  He likes to have his ears scratched, and he will come very close to me when I am putting the food down in the morning.  He also stands on the deck and meows for me when he is hungry.  He must have had some human contact shortly after he was born, because he is only half-feral.  The other two cats are comfortable with me, but they don't really come near me and if I stand up and walk toward them they skedaddle.

Today is Labor Day, and I am relaxing around the house.  It has been very hot and humid, I have only been going out in the garden in the mornings and after sundown.  I really hate this kind of weather, and I am looking forward to Fall's cooler temperatures.

The Party's Over

It's Monday, back to work today.  I did work Friday, January 2, but it still seemed like a holiday and they let us out at 3:00.  Today it's back to business as normal, and it's freezing out there.  3 below at O'Hare.  I woke up in the middle of the night worrying about my cat colony!  I'm sure they'll be fine, but I wish I knew for sure that the kennel heating pads are still working ok.  I hate to take the roofs off the feral villas to check, because I don't want to freak out any cats that might be snoozing in them.  I'll just have to hope for the best.

I had a wonderful, quiet weekend.  I have always been a homebody, but the older I get the more I love to hang out at home.  Yesterday I made taco soup and roasted a chicken.  I did laundry and putzed around.  Did a lot of relaxing in the lazyboy -- I should call it lazygirl.  Watched the long-awaited first episode of Season 5 of Downtown Abbey.  It started a little slow, but ended up being very good.  I love that series!

I hate the thought of slogging through the snow to the train, but I really want to get my walking in this week.  I may take the bus to the el on Wednesday morning, though.  It is supposed to be 12 below zero in the morning.  I am flirting with the idea of staying home if it's that cold!  I'm a wuss.

My food intake has been just "OK", nothing stellar.  I have realized that I can't be trusted around a block of cheese.  I have a couple of recipes that I will be making that call for shredded cheese, and I know that hand-shredding a block of cheese tastes so much better.  But I have already hacked off several hunks of the block of cheese to nibble on, it's probably about half gone.  Sigh.

Because I am cold and rather depressed about winter right now, I will post a picture that makes me feel a bit warmer.  Our granddaughter, Lily, and her kiddie pool.  Ahhhhhhh  I wish I could time travel right through January and into July.