You call it grooming...I call it a massage!

Tacumwah helping to hang the vertical blinds.

My brother and I love the scratching post.

Napping on the stairs. I will nap just about anywhere.

Here is the latest news at Blossom Ridge Farm...I get a daily massage! Yep, you heard right. One evening I was in the bathroom watching Mommy get ready for bed and she just got down on the floor with me and started to give me a body massage! It was wonderful! She kept reaching up and putting a little water on her hands; then she would use her fingertips to rub me all over. I rolled from one side to the other, trying to get her to include my entire body. Every once in a while she would collect all the loose hair that the massage generated and put it in the bathroom trash. Marquette told me that I was dumb...that Mommy was really grooming me because I shed worse than any other animal companion in the house. I told him he could call it whatever he liked...that I was calling it a MASSAGE, and that it felt GREAT! I think he is just jealous that I get all that attention. I show up every time Mommy is in the bathroom now, hoping for a massage, but I only get it once a day. Mommy thinks it has helped to cut down on the dust kitties.

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

If rock is wet...

My feet...

...and the rest of me between the Dutch door
and the entertainment center.

OK, so this is my new favorite place to nap (see photos above).

BTW, have you noticed that I am the ONLY cat not wearing a collar? I won the right to run around naked while we were still living in Fort Wayne only I forgot to tell you about it. After working my collar off day after day for a few weeks, Mommy finally gave in and said I could just go around buck nekked if that was what I wanted. And so I have.

Mommy Bonnie has one more week of work and then she will be home with us. We will like that. She found out this week that she is no longer borderline diabetic and she will be seeing a doctor on Thursday to see how she is going to need to handle her diabetes. Today she and Mommy went to the store and bought lots of low sugar things for Mommy Bonnie to eat. She is going to exercise and try to lose some weight too. We will know more after Mommy Bonnie sees the doctor and has some more tests run. Mommy brought home some books on diabetes for Mommy Bonnie to read, and Mommy Bonnie picked up a magazine today for Diabetics.

Mommy and her brothers and their wives tried to surprise Grandma with a dinner in Wabash on Wednesday, but Grandma is just too smart and had it figured out. Mommy Bonnie wasn't feeling well and had to miss the dinner. But a good time was had by all who attended. Mommy paid for it. It was her Christmas present to her brothers and their wives and she is going to do it every year for Grandma's birthday.

Mommy ordered her Davis home weather station on Thursday and it will be here on Monday. She is putting it in the middle of the vineyard so she can keep track of the micro climate in our vineyard. Our neighbor, Denny, is going to help Mommy put it up because he likes that kind of boring stuff too. Mommy got a couple of books about weather to read and one was Weather for Dummies. Miss Marra told her that weather was easy: if rock is wet, it is raining; if rock is white, it is snowing. Isn't that silly?

And speaking of silly...Book review: Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. Mommy couldn't understand why Miss Marra hadn't suggested that she read this book since it, and the others in the series, are so popular. So Mommy picked it up and read it and thought it was really, really cute. Get ahold of a copy of this book and share it with your grandchildren who are old enough to appreciate it. It is about a young boy in middle school and his adventures with his best friend. He has an older and younger brother. Mommy just liked the way this kid's mind worked. Maybe it reminded her a little of herself. Anyway, his Halloween and Christmas adventures, running for a class office, the unit of wrestling in gym class, being on the school safety patrol...all make for a fun read. And then there is "the cheese." Read this best seller even if you don't have grandkids!

Mommy was saddened to receive word this morning that her Uncle Bob had passed away. She said he was a wonderful, wonderful man who was a role model for the many Boy Scouts who had the good fortune to be in his troop. He was dearly loved and will be greatly missed.

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

Just hangin' around....

Here it is at long last -

Mommy's favorite photo of your blogger!

It is just awful how long it has been since Mommy and I have updated this blog. I apologize to all of my readers for the delay. It seems that when Mommy does have a day off, she is very busy in the cottage, running errands, or working in the vineyard. But isn't the photo of me today worth waiting for?

Mommy did have her sleepover with Grandma and the filet mignon was very good she says. Of course, everything else was good too. When isn't it?

Movie review: Gran Torino - Mommy says that this was not Clint Eastwood at his best. She and Grandma were glad they saw this movie, but it was predictable and not the best acting or story line. Only luke warm thumbs up for this one and maybe 2 1/2 stars. You can skip this one unless you are a big Eastwood fan.

Book review: Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks - Brooks' first novel, and a wonderful read. This woman puts so much research into her books and it shows. This is a novel about a village in England in 1666 that quarantines itself from the rest of the world after the inhabitants discover that they have been infected with the plague. Social order, religion, superstition, medicine, all play a part in this story. And the ending! What a surprise it was! A "must" read, as are all of Brooks' novels.

Book review: Oh, Johnny by Jim Lehrer - This was Mommy's first Jim Lehrer novel. A quick read about an ordinary young man whose only ambition was to be a baseball player. Off he goes to war (WWII) where his experiences during a troop train stop in Whichita KS and The Battle of Okinawa affect him for the rest of his life. Thoughts of Betsy, his ideal woman, get him over the rough spots in his life while his memories of Okinawa haunt and torment him. If you want a cute, easy read, pick this book up. Mommy would probably have enjoyed this book more if she hadn't just read Year of Wonders. She also didn't like that the entire book covered three years in the life of Johnny, our hero, and was followed by an epilogue that covered the next 62 years. Mommy looked forward to each time she picked up this book over the weekend, so maybe she was disappointed that it wasn't longer and that the last 62 years of Johnny's life were summed up in just a few pages. Mommy said she would read another Lehrer book.

I haven't walked the railing recently and neither has Tacumwah. I guess we don't have anything to prove by continuing to do it. We really haven't done much of anything lately. Right now I am plastered next to Mommy's leg on the downstairs futon dictating to her.

Mommy is going to update the farm blog soon, so she can put the boring stuff in it.

Mommy Bonnie has two more weeks of work left...just 10 days. Then she will be home with us, reinventing herself.

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

It's all about napping!

Napping in the bathroom.

I have no idea what that bottle of Merlot is doing there!

Napping in the kitchen sink.

(Yes, it is a LARGE sink!)

Napping by the front door.

It is hard to know where to begin since it has been a while since I have blogged. Mommy has been on vacation and has been busy working in the vineyard and using her trimmer-mower along the road. That is 300' of tall weeds and rough terrain. It is done, but not without cost. Mommy has her second worse case of poison ivy ever. She doesn't expect to have to go to the doctor, but she has been very uncomfortable, and one of her eye lids was all puffy this morning.

Mommy has tomorrow off and I think she will work mostly indoors. Maybe she will even read, nap or watch a movie! That would be a novelty for her. Tuesday it will be back to work and Wednesday is sleepover day. This month, in addition to a few scallops, Mommy is taking a couple of small fillet mignons to Grandma's house. She is going to make a wine reduction sauce with Cabernet Sauvignon and shallots, and she thinks she will ask Grandma to do baked potato with sour cream and chives and a tossed salad this month instead of fries and slaw. The Cab will also be the wine that will accompany the meal. For dessert Mommy is taking some peach-raspberry pie she picked up at Kroger a few weeks ago. She said it was very good and she froze two pieces for the sleepover. It will be served a la mode, of course. The movie will be Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino.

Mommy is currently reading Geraldine Brooks' Year of Wonders and she likes it very much. That woman can't write a bad book. This was Brooks' first novel.

Mommy was saddened to receive a phone call from KJ on her first day of vacation telling her that Sherry's father, Allen, had passed away. It was the same day that KJ left on his first solo haul for Hiner.

Mommy had known Allen for more than 20 years and liked him. He was 63, only two years older than Mommy. So Mommy went to the funeral service in North Manchester and cried the whole time. She got to visit briefly with Sherry; KJ; Derek; Allison; Sherry's sister, Billie; Sherry's mother, Mary; and the husband of Mommy's youth, Ken, who looked very well and very happy, which, of course, made Mommy very happy. Allen was one of 12 children, so the service was very well attended. Mommy said it is sad to think that she will never see Allen again at another event for the grandchildren.

Mommy Bonnie went to a wedding on the same day as Allen's service (the 4th of July), and Denny and Barbara went to a birthday party for their daughter, Shelly, who was born on the 4th of July. Their son, Keith, and his finance joined them. Mommies got to meet Keith and thought he was a younger version of Denny, who, by the way, has a brand new 2010 Toyota Tundra!

It was an overcast 4th and there was a light rain for hours, causing the postponement until Sunday of fireworks for most cities. The fireworks over Timber Lake began after 10. Marquette was already living with Mommies in Fort Wayne last 4th of July, but I hadn't been adopted yet, and I remember the fireworks. I was on my own by then, and the noise scared me.

KJ stopped by today and Mommy followed him to Hiner to look at his tractor. He is very excited to be driving on his own. Last week he went to Wyalusing PA, and today he left for Maryland. Mommy says his tractor was very nice. He has a small fridge, a microwave, the TV Mommy Bonnie gave him, a CB radio, a Tom Tom GPS, and soon Mommies will give him one of their laptops. What more could he possibly need? His tractor is maroon and has over 300,000 miles on it! They don't give rookies new tractors.

Mommies worked a couple of days getting the villa in The Fort ready to show. They moved all the furniture off of the carpet and into the garage or the 4-seasons room. Then carpet cleaners came. After that, Mommies did some cleaning. Today they had to put some large pieces of furniture at the curb, so back into Fort Wayne they went. Not much of a vacation for Mommy, but then she isn't one to just sit around. We hope she will take a nap with us tomorrow, but she will probably find something to do.

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