Old friend, new friend

Some of you know my friend Laura. She's one of my bestest friends. Sadly, we don't get together as often as we'd like, since she up and moved to Pennsylvania. I don't know, something about the love of her life being there.... I was so happy when she came to our house this weekend and introduced me to my very special new girlfriend - Katie! I took tons of pics, but had trouble choosing my favorites. She is just adorable. She has the most AMAZING eyes. Here, see for yourself!

Not much to say...

This week hasn't been too eventful. We put my Dad up for a few nights so he could go golfing with old friends. Its always nice to have the 'rents here. I put in a few more applications for "temporary" jobs. One of them looks pretty promising... please cross your fingers for me :-)

Don't have any new pics from this week so I thought I'd post one I took of my nephew a few weeks ago. It just makes me happy.

Cherries = fun

Proof

You can teach and old cat new tricks.

I adore my lovely whiskered friends. I HATE litter boxes. No one should be allowed to poop in my closet. I wouldn't allow you to poop in my closet, would I? In an attempt to get the stink as far away from our living quarters as possible, I decided to move the litter boxes down in to the basement (aka the dungeon). I bought a fancy-pansy cat door that boasted its ability to be used by "all cats, 12 lbs or under". I've never weighed Stinky, but I'm guessing he's pushing the limits. Before cutting the hole, I asked Corey if Stinky would fit. He informed me he had already smooshed Stinky's body through the plastic contraption, and he had cleared it with only a little resistance, so we felt like we were good to go. Within an hour or so, Ed, our younger cat, had figured it out. Even with a hearty bowl of kitty kibble at the bottom of the stairs, it took Stinky close to a week to figure it out. We have officially moved the litter box and my closet is now, positively, "poop free".

Baking

Oh! I forgot to mention the thing I love *most of all* about our new home. The kitchen. The days of Corey and I bumping into each other while cooking are over! I have put the new kitchen to good use and today it was used to turn all those extra berries into something wonderful...



You can find the recipe here.

Home sweet home

Its been a long while, but I'm finally back. Two big things have happened since my last post. We went to Hawaii, and we moved into our new home.

Hawaii was awesome. We had such a great time with my parents and we saw too many neat things to mention. A few of our favorites were snorkeling on the south-east tip of the island, swimming in the volcanically heated pools, and learning the art of boogie boarding.



Just as of last week, I finally feel settled here in our new place. It finally feels like "home". A few weeks ago, we went back to our old place to pick up some plants and as we drove in the driveway, I felt a little teary and sad. It still felt like home to me, even though it was empty and the grass was overgrown. I'm happy to report that my new home and I have now bonded, and I love it. I especially like the system of trails behind our house, where the dogs love to take walks and where we have picked 6 quarts of black raspberries so far. I also love the breezy sun porch on the front of the house.




We have a new hobby, too. Gold panning. Apparently, there is gold in these-here hills. We took our first kayak trip down the White River in search of gold yesterday. We came up empty, but we are not deterred. It is there, and we WILL find it. So, maybe Corey is a bit more motivated than me, but I'll go along for the ride ;-)