We All Need Somebody To Lean On

Friends! I did it. I started a new blog.

I'm unsure how I feel about it, since I have been writing in this one off and on for several years. Maybe I'll come back to this.

Anyway, if you're looking for me, you can find me at http://agirlcallederika.blogspot.com/. We can be friends there, too.

Brown Sugar

Little Petunia has a home!! A girl I work with talked with her kids and her fiancé tonight and they agreed they all wanted the cat. CLRG and I took her over there tonight. I am relieved that she has a home. I am also sad, of course, that it can't be with us, but I know we did the right thing.

Anything You Want, You Got It

Yesterday afternoon, our neighbor called us to find out if one of our cats got out of the house. He said he could see a cat in our yard. We did a quick count and 1,2,3, nope. We went outside to see who the creature in the yard was, and it was a super cute, super friendly black and white kitty. I can't ever tell if cats are boys or girls. Haha. Anyway, we gave it some food and water and petted it a bit (it is suuuuuper skinny and dirty) and then left it alone. We kept checking on it and it was laying in the sun, laying on our picnic table, laying by our flowers. 

This morning, CLRG went out to see if it was there and he said it was not. When I went out before work to water the plants, I found it curled up by the house. It came over to see me and followed me around while I watered, mewing at me. I made sure it had water and went to work. When I got home, I decided to wait until CLRG got home to see if it was still here. We looked around the yard but didn't see it. Then we heard our neighbor (the mother of the one who called us yesterday) calling us over. She said that there was a cat in her yard, and could we please get it? She had her dog and didn't want some kind of altercation. We asked her if it was a small, black and white cat and she said yes. Hooray! CLRG said he would try to see if it was a girl or boy cat and asked me to hold it up. In his professional opinion, it is a girl. I had been calling it Oreo yesterday, but I decided that name wasn't good enough. I asked CLRG what he thought we should call it, and he said Petunia. Go figure, that's what I was thinking, also! YAY! Anyway, we decided that if she is going to be hanging out in our yard, we should make a bed for her that would be safe from the forecasted rain. We put a tarp over our picnic table and put a recycling bin with some towels in it underneath. We'll see what happens.

Of course, you are wondering what I am planning to do with this little feline. I posted on facebook to see if anyone wanted her (she seems too dirty and thin to be someone's lost pet, you see), but no dice. I texted some friends to see if I could get any leads there, but no dice. CLRG and I both asked around at work today and I have a possible lead there, but it isn't for sure. I called a no kill shelter nearish our area, but they aren't taking any new animals. The man I spoke with was very kind and gave me the names and phone numbers of six other no kill shelters in the area, so I may have to end up calling some of those. I also posted a found cat ad on craigslist, but so far have not gotten a response. Not surprising.

Keep your fingers crossed for this little creature. I'm hopeful that we can restore her to her home or find her a good home soon. I would love to keep her, of course, but we already have three cats and adding another is probably not the greatest plan for us or the cats. Alas. 

Sister Golden Hair Surprise

I made the peach cake today! It looks delicious. I just need to get some vanilla ice cream to pair with it. It seems like a necessity. Let's see if I can post step by step pics... Okay. Posting from my phone makes that process strange, so I will just settle for a finished cake picture. I'm so excited to eat it!!

That's The Way I Like It

Have we discussed nail polish recently?

I really, really like to paint my nails. After not being able to wear polish for 2+ years because of the whole working-in-food-service thing, I am certainly making up for it. I usually change color once a week. I'm wearing a lovely coral polish right now (Sally Hansen brand) that A was wearing the last time I saw her and she was kind enough to tell me what it was. I'm a fan. I need to change my polish in the next day or two because this stuff has been on for like two weeks and it is looking pretty bad. Ugh. In case you care, another brand of nail polish I enjoy is Wet N Wild because, hello, it's like a dollar. Anyway, I think that my drawer in the bathroom is getting a little bit full of polish. I need to not buy more for a while, I think. Oh dear. 

Okay, the following is not related to nail polish (aren't you glad?):

Do you know what a dump cake is? I had never heard the term until Wifers told me she was making a peach one earlier this week. She sent me the recipe, which is from Bakerella.com. I fully intend to make this cake this weekend. I was also thinking of making vanilla cupcakes, from my Joy the Baker cookbook, but that was only because we were going to have a birthday/father's day/woohoo June cookout with CLRG's family this weekend and I was in charge of desserts. Maybe I will still make them. Maybe. Or probably I will make more strawberry shortcake because I really can't live without it.

I Know It Sounds Absurd

Let me tell you about something that I love. Something that is becoming kind of a problem. An obsession, if you will. That something is: stationery. Paper products. I have a serious problem. I buy cute notecards and stationery SO FREQUENTLY. In fact, I bought some yesterday when I was at Target with K after our traditional Red Robin dinner and I felt a touch of guilt when I got home. I didn't last too long after seeing CLRG before I blurted out, "I bought some stationery. I know, I know!" Thankfully, because he is the best ever, he just smiled and said it was okay. He must be thanking his lucky stars I'm out buying paper products instead of Coach purses or something. Hahaha. I have been really enjoying Mara-Mi stationery lately. I bought some cute lemon notecards at Target not long ago and I liked them so much, I bought some for Pookie for her birthday, too. 

Get Back Honky Cat

Well, good news!! The garden has sprouted! I think I need to transplant some of my green beans and peas because I never expected all of them to sprout and they are getting totally crazy. CLRG is probably going to build me another garden soon. I certainly have enough seeds to grow more things, and it would give me room to expand this bean operation. Haha. I am anxious about the lettuce situation. Only one of the four spots I planted seeds has sprouted. I hope something else pokes up pretty soon.

I can't wait to harvest my veggies!!!!

You Belong Among the Wildflowers

Here is a list of what we planted in our square foot garden:

-tomatoes
-green peppers
-hot peppers
-green beans
-sugar snap peas
-lettuce
-carrots
-basil
-cilantro

I am very anxious for something to sprout. It is taking a lot for me to not sit out there and stare at the dirt.

You Say Tomato, I Say Tomahto

How is it that I have only just seen my first Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movie? How old am I?! I went with JS to the Regent Square Theatre to see "Shall We Dance" and it. was. amazing. OMG. You must see it right now. It was so funny and I actually was already familiar with a couple of the songs. Who knew! Of course, now that I have seen the movie, it is imperative that I go roller skating.

This weekend was a good one, overall. We had Easter dinner with CLRG's family on Saturday because his mom and sister both had to work on Sunday and that went well. We hung out with the duckling during much of the afternoon. She is so darn smart, it isn't even funny. She got out this deck of cards that she has and I made up a game for us. Each card had a number and a picture of a Disney character (Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and Donald). I showed her a card and had her put it in the pile with the matching picture and she did such a good job. Also, and possibly even more exciting, SHE SAID MY NAME!!!!!! I was so happy. She has been saying CLRG's name for a while now and I was getting envious. Haha.

Image

Sweet Silver Angels

This weekend I:

-sold my car
-went antiquing
-acquired a recipe box from 1940
-baked raspberry almond bread from a Joy the Baker recipe

Plus other standard house things. It was a pretty darn good weekend, I would say. What did you do?

P.S. I baked these oatmeal blueberry applesauce muffins last week (recipe also from Joy the Baker) and they were so good, I baked them a second time with strawberries instead. Ha! I win!

Perfect Jumping Off Point

Things I want to begin doing more of:

-baking
-cooking
-gardening
-writing
-organizing
-photography

I sort of want to start a new blog to record these new ventures. What do you think? Worth it?

Goon

Last night, we watched Goon and, as far as hockey movies go, it was pretty great. A lot of blood, of course, but what else would you expect? I really like Seann William Scott's stuff lately, and I especially liked him in this movie. You should see the movie he did with John C. Reilly about grocery stores. Annnnnd... Watch Goon. As long as you don't mind copious amounts of swearing and large amounts of blood. Haha. Oh! A bonus: Liev Schrieber is in it. Yup.

Hey Mambo

This evening, CLRG (I should probably call him something else someday...) and I watched a great old movie. It was "The Catered Affair" and starred awesome people like Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine and Debbie Reynolds. It was from 1956, I believe, and you should watch it.

Earlier today, we went adventuring with his parents. We went to a delicious Italian restaurant for lunch, visited a local chocolate/candy factory, and checked out an Italian grocery store as well as the thrift store near our house. It was a really great afternoon.

Holy goodness, I haven't written in ages.

I renewed my ancestry.com membership a couple of weeks ago and the family history research is in full swing. I am really enjoying looking back at census records to learn about my ancestors. Many of them are farmers, but I have found others that were, for example, a chairmaker and a justice of the peace. SO. COOL. I have even been able to discover information about branches of the family tree that were previously very short. I'm pretty excited. CLRG has even been researching his family also, which has been really exciting, too. I even used the census records to find out who owned our house before we did! YAY!