Snowy and cold here on Blossom Ridge....

Hiding under the end table.

On the arm of the sofa.

Winter has arrived on Blossom Ridge (Ft. Wayne) and it is cold and snowy. I am glad I am not trying to find food and keep warm at Camp Timber Lake.

Mommies went to the cottage yesterday and were pleased with the progress. They met the builder and his wife at the site and discussed the progress and changes.

Mommy Bonnie bought lots of things for the cottage on Black Friday and you can read about the cottage and its progress at http://blossomridgefarm.blogspot.com/.

Tacumwah is lying in front of the fireplace. Yesterday she put her front paws on the glass and burned them. That was dumb. Mommies are trying to figure out a way to put a fireplace or a wood-burning stove in the cottage.

The other night there was a small spider in the kitchen. Tacumwah played with it. When Marquette saw it he pounced on it and ate it! He said it was yummy!

Mommy has been looking up charts on dog and cat ages and what they equate to in human years. We are lucky to be cats because we don't age as fast as dogs after the first couple of years. My twin and I are about 8 months old now. At 1 year we will be about 15 human years. Mommy says it will be several years before we are intellectually mature. Tacumwah is between 5-6 years old and that is 36-40 human years. The oldest animal in the family is Millie. She is 15 years old and, on a chart that takes into consideration her size, she is about 76 years old. On a chart that doesn't, she is 90! Wow!

Mommy made spaghetti yesterday. I didn't get any. Not even any plain pasta. Tonight it is leftover turkey and maybe I can beg for some of that. Sometimes when we beg too much or get on the counters during food prep, Mommy gives us a time out. We get shut in one of the bedrooms. Marquette The Perfect gets more time outs than any of us cats. In fact, I have NEVER had one and Tacumwah has had only one. Marquette has had many, many!

~There is no such thing as a free kitten!~

From Miss Marra....

Click on cartoon to enlarge.

Getting a handle on it!

Getting a handle on it -- Tacumwah.

Poor Tacumwah!

Marquette in the box.

Cat in the box -- ME!

As you can see from the photos, Tacumwah managed to get her head through the handle of the grocery bag Mommy gave us to play with and wore a paper bag handle for a while before Mommy noticed. Then the handles were removed and we spent a couple of days shredding the bag. The bag was replaced with a box and we are now having fun with it.

Mommy went to work for a few hours yesterday, but not until the afternoon. In the morning she went geocaching to get a puzzle cache she had figured out on Monday. She was the first to find the cache and the prize was a really nice multi-tool she will keep in her car for the times she needs one of the many tools on it. It was a Gerber and came in a leather case and the security gurard at the library where Mommy works said it was a really nice one.

It is Thanksgiving Day and Mommy Bonnie has the sniffles and nobody planned dinner, so Mommies are going to get carry-out. Five years ago they were traveling on Thanksgiving Day and stopped at a Cracker Barrel to eat and had a very good meal. So they ordered a bulk carry-out they will pick up later today that serves 6 so they can have leftovers. Mommy is also going to make spaghetti sauce today that they can freeze and eat over the next few days.

Mommies may drive to look at the cottage today if they are up to it, or they may wait until Saturday. So it will be a lazy day today. Mommy has a mystery to read and a movie to watch, and Mommy Bonnie is working on her job.

~There is no such thing as a free kitten!~

What IS that noise!?

Marquette in the paper bag.

Tacumwah in the paper bag.

On top of the buffet, I am trying to work my way to the kitchen counter!

There is an awful noise coming from the loft here on Blossom Ridge. I have never heard anything like it! Gizmo is howling like he does when he hears a fire truck. Mommy says it is Mommy Bonnie playing a recorder. She plays all sorts of wind instruments and used to make Native American flutes and write her own music. Mommy says it is beautiful music and is very soothing to listen to. Mommy Bonnie hasn't played for a while and it shows! She is practicing because she is going to play with three other people in her and Mommy's church's Boars Head production this Christmas. She played for several years but the group did not perform last year.

Mommy gave us a paper bag to play with because Marquette won't stay out of Mommy Bonnie's cloth bag that has all the receipts for materials for the cottage in it plus lots of other important papers. Marquette and Tacumwah have been inside the paper bag but I have not. It makes lots of crackling noises.

I forgot to tell you about the macaroni jar! One day, about a week ago, Mommies heard a loud and terrible crash coming from the kitchen and, when Mommy investigated, she found her macaroni jar smashed into a zillion pieces on the kitchen floor with a zillion pieces of macaroni all over too. What a mess! And Marquette and Tacumwah walked right through it to escape from the kitchen! They had been chasing each other all over the counters and, when jumping from the top of the kitchen cabinets to the top of the fridge, they broke the macaroni jar. I was not in on this because, as yet, I do not get on the counters much and have not figured out how to get on top of the cabinets.

We want to wish Miss Marra a very happy birthday. She turned the big 3-0 on Friday. We also want to send our good wishes to Little Dexter who will be going under the knife in about a week. It is ok, Dexter. There are worse things. You could still be in Ohio in the cemetery instead of having a wonderful home with your Mommy and Baby Si-Si.

~There is no such thing as a free kitten!~

Vindicated...sort of!

Naptime this afternoon with Mommy.

Marquette at naptime.

Marquette "reading" a Lisa Scottoline mystery. Ummmm!

Looking out the bedroom window in Mommy's room.

Do you remember not long ago I got accused of barfing while Mommy was visiting her mother in Logansport? Well...today Tacumwah barfed and it was the same kind of barf with the same kind of hair in it! So Mommy is thinking it might not have been me after all. She was going by the color of the hair in the barf and thought it was gray. So I am relieved that doubt has now been cast on whether it was me or not.

Mommy has been busy working on the Farm blog the last two days. She and Mommy Bonnie think a lot was done this week. Windows, doors, all the framing is the hope. I guess they will see on Sunday when they drive to the Farm. The man is coming to drill the well on Monday. Mommy Bonnie will meet him there Monday morning because she doesn't have to work next week. Mommy Kathy will be working though.

The air-conditioner will be delivered next week too and Mommies have to take it to the farm because the delivery man will not deliver it there.

Tomorrow Mommy will be at the Main Library all day for Staff Development Day and she was invited to have pizza with the Art, Music and Media department where she worked for several months this past spring. She is looking forward to that.

Tonight Mommies have been invited to a wine tasting by Hagan at Belmont Beverages. Mommy used to work with Hagan at Marsh when she was cooking there and Hagan was the wine steward for Marsh. Hagan is very knowledgeable and I think Mommy will go even though she is tired and has a long day ahead tomorrow.

The difference between a CHUNK and a HUNK is a C and a few pounds!

Tacumwah last night on top of the cabinets.

Tacumwah

Mommy is uploading two photos of Tacumwah today because she thinks she finally took some photos of Tacumwah where she doesn't look mean.

Mommies are going to the farm today to take photos. It is very cold out. I am glad I do not have to go out. Tacumwah is snuggling with Little Bear on the wool blanket that has become a permanent addition to the sofa. Marquette is curled into the back of the swivel rocker. My new favorite place is the comforter on Mommy's bed though, right now, I am dictating this post to Mommy from across the living room where I am curled up on the recliner.

Mommies are drinking caramel lattes and Mommy Bonnie is doing work for her job.

You know...the only difference between a Hunk and a Chunk is a C, right? How awful that we label people. I get called a chunk all the time. Mr. Chunkie. I hate it. Let's drop the C already. Better yet, let's just call me Possum.

See if you can guess who this was written for:

He has a killer body
that is sleek and muscular
from tip of nose
to ends of toes.

I love his perpetual grin,
slightly lopsided.
You are never certain
what he has been up to.

And his swagger!
As though he is packing
more between his legs
than he can comfortably carry.

A sharp dresser always,
with every hair in place.
Mischief twinkles in the eyes,
of this little twin I love.

He walked out of the woods
and straight into my heart.

How about this one:

The pudgy twin,
not long and sleek,
not built on stilts,
he hugs the ground.

So grateful for everything,
so humble, so accepting.
Wanting to be loved
and even more to love.

Putting himself last,
he never complains.
He lives for the moment
and loves unconditionally.

The twin who had to
struggle on his own
so he might appreciate
that family is everything.

He is the whipped cream and cherry
atop the sundae that is our family.

~There is no such thing as a free kitten!~

Twins...TWICE the fun!

Tacumwah trapped in the pie safe.

Yet another bath from Tacumwah!

Marquette (foreground) and me napping on Mommy's bed!

Marquette waiting for Mommy.

As you can see from the photos, today was a lazy day on Blossom Ridge. The top photo was actually taken last night. Tacumwah likes to run up the stairs to the loft and then jump down from the loft onto Mommy's antique pie safe. This drives Mommy Bonnie absolutely crazy because she uses Mommy's pie safe as an entertainment center for her flat screen TV and surround sound stereo system. Tacumwah is always dislodging cables and it makes Mommy Bonnie very upset. Last night the glass doors on the pie safe were closed tightly and Tacumwah couldn't push them open to jump down to the floor. Mommy took her photo and then opened the doors. The alternative was to jump down from the back and mess up the wires and that would not have been a good thing.

The second photo is Tacumwah washing my head and ears last night on the sofa.

In the third photo I am crashing with my brother on Mommy's bed. We love the thick comforter.

Remember how I mentioned in an earlier post that Marquette always likes to know where Mommy is and how he will wait outside her bedroom door (sometimes for hours!) while she is in there reading and giving the terriers some attention, just waiting for them to go back to their room so he can join her? Well, today's last photo is an example of how he will curl up on the floor outside a door waiting for her. I don't understand it. He is just crazy about her.

Now, to be honest, I must admit that the past two days I have actually gone into Mommy's bedroom, jumped on her bed and given her some attention and then lay down next to her with my head on her. The first time it happened I think it took her by surprise because I am not all that demonstrative with my affections. I think she is growing on me.

I love it when Mommy calls us her twins. We are twins, you know, since our birth mommy, CTL, only had a litter of two. Mommy Bonnie calls us the boys. We like that too. There is something special about living with your brother.

Mommy finished another Lisa Scottoline mystery today. She said it was the best yet. Mommy thought the first two books were ok, the third one was very good, the fourth better, and the fifth was excellent. She is looking forward to picking up the 6th book tomorrow when she goes to work. Mommy could hardly put this last one down. She would read a chapter, fold the laundry, read another chapter, run to the grocery...well, you get the picture. Mommy had been reading Janet Evanovich and someone recommended Scottoline. At first Mommy expected Scottoline to be as funny as Evanovich. When she wasn't, Mommy was disappointed. But then Scottoline really took off and, though her humor isn't laugh-out-loud funny like Evanovich, she is very clever and witty. Her books are more complex, often with several plots going on at the same time which she always ties up very neatly at the end.

Mommy made a quick trip to Kroger this morning because we were out of milk for lattes. And, heaven forbid, Marquette should miss his morning milk. She picked up ice cream too because, of course, her twins have to have their bedtime ice cream!

The weather is nasty. We have had some very cold days. It rains. It sleets a little. Soon it will snow. We are so glad to have a warm home, lots of food and treats, toys, and two mommies who love us.

~There is no such thing as a free kitten!~

The biggest gainers

9-pound cat - Marquette

10-pound cat - yours truly

9-lb. cat (Tacumwah), 7.5-lb. Chihuahua (Little Bear)

Marquette thinks he is so cool!

Because Miss Becky at the library weighed her cats over the weekend (one weighed 22 lbs. and another 16 lbs.), all of us here on Blossom Ridge (except Gennie and Mommy Bonnie) got weighed on Monday. We thought we would never be weighed because Mommies don't like to get on the scales and they have to weigh themselves and then hold us on the scales to get our weights. But, no! Mommy weighed herself at noon on Monday and then weighed all of us. (BTW, Mommy was ok with her weight.)

The scales weigh to the half pound so, of course, they could be off by several ounces. Nonetheless, Marquette and Tacumwah tipped the scales at 9 pounds each while I, big-boned and muscular cat that I am, weighed in at 10 lbs. Little Bear weighed 7.5 lbs., Millie 12.5 lbs., and Gizmo 17 lbs.

Gizmo and Little Bear are now on diets to lose weight. Gizmo has to lose at least 2 pounds, maybe 3. Little Bear has to lose 1 pound. Millie has to GAIN weight...lucky dog! At the present, Tacumwah and Marquette will suffer no dietary changes and Mommy will monitor my weight (once a month) and put me on a diet if I get any heavier. Hmmm....

Mommy is home today and tomorrow. I think she wants to do some laundry and housecleaning. She is also reading a good mystery book and says we must work on the farm blog.

~There is no such thing as a free kitten!~

Grandma and Lucy

This is Lucy.

This is Lucy and Grandma.

Mommy went to Logansport today to see her mommy. I have never met her. Neither has Marquette. Grandma has a cat named Lucy. Lucy isn't a tiger cat like me. She is a calico and she is many different colors. Half of her face is one color and half is another. She is very pretty. She is about 8 or 9 years old.

When Mommy came home from Logansport one of the dogs had puked and one of the cats had puked. She wasn't pleased. She thinks Gizmo was the dog because he ate some grass as soon as he went outside. And the cat...well, Mommy found gray hair in the puke and there is only one gray cat in this family. So I have puked up hair twice now and I am the only of us three cats who hurls hairballs.

Mommy had thought about going after a puzzle cache when she got back from Logansport but with the puke, and then the wind picked up, and she needed to put air in her bicycle tires because she was going to use her bike to get to the cache...well, she decided just to stay home and feed us. She did stop by and take some more photos of the cottage so we will have to post to the Blossom Ridge Farm Blog this weekend. Both of my mommies are working tomorrow and they will rest up on Sunday...maybe go check the work on the cottage...maybe not.

That's it for today!

~There is no such thing as a free kitten!~

My bad!

Marquette on top of the cabinets...again!

Me peeking out from under the swivel rocker.

I am NOT a Kliban Cat!

I guess I have been a bad boy. I don't understand why. How can chewing on your leather collar be a bad thing? Now my collar is too tight because Mommy put it in a tighter hole so I couldn't get it into my mouth to chew on it. She said something about having to buy me a new collar but waiting until I stop chewing on my current one.

And, speaking of collars, yesterday my perfect brother, Marquette, had to have a new hole drilled in his collar to make it looser. How about that?

Last night was election night. I don't understand elections. Mommy tried to give me an analogy. She said it is like how Tacumwah is the boss of us cats with Marquette being second in command and me being at the bottom of the totem pole. (Now how good is an analogy if you don't understand the words being used?) Anyway, with this election, I guess, people vote for who they want to be their boss, unlike our house where we didn't vote for Tacumwah. Mommy Bonnie voted. Mommy Kathy couldn't bring herself to vote for either candidate.

My mommies said I should be concerned about the economy because both of their jobs could be affected which could mean no more ice cream in the evening. (Now THAT I understand!)

Things are tight at Mommy Bonnie's factory and 700 people worldwide will lose their jobs in the next two months. Mommy Bonnie's plant makes power tools. Right now some of their biggest customers are not buying tools. The biggest is Boeing. They make airplanes and they are currently on strike. When they are on strike they don't work so they don't need tools. Get the picture? So orders for power tools are down. Some people at Mommy Bonnie's plant may lose their jobs and others will be asked to take voluntary layoffs. Mommy Bonnie is most concerned with a few of the people her age who are close to retirement. She doesn't know if she will be asked to retire early or not. Her retirement date is Oct. 1, 2010. She has said she will take a buy-out if they offer her a nice incentive package to leave early. Then she will have half a year to find another job closer to the cottage. She will have been at her plant for 30 years next spring.

Where Mommy works at the library they are reducing staff through attrition. (These BIG words!) She heard that next summer they are putting in self-checkouts at all of the libraries. They will still need real people to do jobs at the libraries and Mommy hopes she will be one of them because she really loves her job. Some of the people at her library who currently work parttime may leave for fulltime jobs elsewhere, and at least one person who is going to college indicated he/she is considering a transfer to a college further away. Right now there is a fulltime job opening at the Main Library and Mommy knows 3 people at her library who put in for it. She said there are probably lots of people from the other libraries who are putting in for it also. She is not.

Mommies have to go to the cottage today to discuss with the builder the amount of backfill to be put up against the basement since it does stick out of the ground quite a few feet.

Mommy is off the next few days. This is her last Saturday to work at the library because her co-worker, Tina, wanted to work every Saturday. That means Mommy doesn't have to work on Saturday any more. She will work every Friday instead. That starts next week.

I need to work on the Blossom Ridge Farm blog now.

~There is no such thing as a free kitten!~

Silly Songs

A very handsome dude am I!

Little Bear on top of the cat igloo!

A cat nap with my brother! You can tell us apart by now, right?

It is Saturday and Mommies were supposed to go to the farm today to get the grapevines ready for winter and then go to the camper and remove the top of the portable porch for storage. Instead, they have sat around all day at their computers. Tomorrow they will probably get there.

Marquette and I took a nap on my chair this afternoon (see bottom photo) while Tacumwah napped with Little Bear on the sofa.

Yesterday Mommy came home at noon and found Little Bear on the loose again. This time he was sleeping in the master bedroom on top of the cat igloo. I think there was a miscommunication between Mommies before they left for work, with each of them thinking the other had deposited LB in his kennel.

Today's top photo is me in front of the fireplace. Mommy says it is just about her favorite photo of me.

Have you ever noticed how humans talk baby talk to their pets (remembering from my last blog, of course, that I am NOT a pet)? My humans are no exception. The thing that my mommies do is sing these silly songs that they make up.

For example, Mommy Bonnie sings the Name Game song to General all the time. It goes like this:

Gennie, Gennie bo Bennie Bonana fanna fo Fennie Fee fy mo Mennie, Gennie!

To me she sings (to the tune of Boola Boola):

Possie Possum, Possie Possum, Possie Possum, you're a cat!
Possie Possum, Possie Possum, Possie Possum, you're my boy!
(Or similar lyrics. It is never the same two times in a row.)

Mommy sings (to all of us using our particular names and species):

I have a little kitty named Possum.
Possum is my special little kitty cat.
I love my little kitty named Possum.
Possum is my special little boy.

Now that one was not original. Mommy picked that up from her caching partner, Lead Dog, who sings it to his Jack Russell, Patrick. Patrick doesn't like it any more than I do and possibly less.

The only decent piece of animal music created around here is a march Mommy made up and named for Little Bear who was riding on her lap somewhere a couple of years ago when the tune came to her. Mommy loves Sousa marches and this march she made up is really cool. Half the time she can't remember it, and she always forgets to hum it into the tape recorder when she does remember it. Look for it on your record shelves (Mommy is showing her age here) by the title The Little Bear March.

Do your humans sing silly songs to you? If so, send in the lyrics and I will post them here and we will see which is the most ridiculous. We will bet that Miss Marra sings silly songs to her bebes, Baby Si-Si and little Dexter. We want to send some get-well wishes to Simon who is suffering from a cold. Get well, Simon!

Love to eat them mousies,

Mousies what I love to eat.

Bite they little heads off …

Nibble on they tiny feet.

—B. Kliban.

~There is no such thing as a free kitten.~