50-50

I know it looks bad, but 50-50 is much happier now that her eye is not bothering her anymore. Yesterday I took her to the vet to have her stitches out. Now she doesn't have to wear the E-collar anymore. She still needs antibiotics for another week.

Right now she's on my lap supervising what I write.

Movie Tuesday

The choice of movies for today was Men in Black III or Battleship. Battleship won because it started earlier. We didn't have high hopes but the ending was better than the beginning and at least it didn't lag. As an adventure movie, it was ok. The hero starts out as a jerk and ends up winning the Silver Star and, of course, the girl. What more do you need to know? Oh, yeah, it's based on a Hasbro game. The special effects were pretty good.

Bubba hides in the bookcase

Memorial Day

We had a very quiet, but pleasant Memorial Day, reading books and resting. Dennis demonstrated how to set up and use the torch for bead making. I made a video so I'll remember how to do it without blowing up everything. I spent quite some time in the craft room putting beads and findings away.

Angie, Gary and Mom came over around 6 p.m. to watch a movie. This one was called "Fireflies in the Garden." It was about a dysfunctional family ... hmmm.

After the movie we chased the kittens who had found a way out of their den. We attempted to temporarily fix the fence so they couldn't climb up and out. Tomorrow, we will have to rebuild it.

Early to bed

I'm going to have to go to bed later if I'm going to keep this blog up to date. Now I'm playing catch-up again.

Movie Tuesday:  Finding a good movie to watch is not easy these days. This Tuesday we saw Dark Shadows (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1077368/) starring Johnny Depp and directed by Tim Burton. That pretty much says it all. I would rate the movie B-. It was funny in spots and we stayed awake through most of it. My husband enjoyed it more than Mom and I did. Mom pretty much summed it up for us: "Well, Johnny Depp was in it." If you like Johnny Depp (we do) and popcorn, then go see it. Angie and Gary didn't go with us because they weren't interested in the movie and don't care for Johnny Depp.

Wednesday's Riding Lesson:  Once again I wasn't able to mount the horse because of my stupid leg. Even though I've been going to the chiropractor, it hasn't gotten better. Betsy and I put on a smaller saddle without the 3" cantle that my treeless saddle has and I did manage to swing my leg over and get on the horse, but it was very uncomfortable. Bummer.

No T.R.O.T.:  No trail ride again on Thursday for the same reason. In the morning I took 50-50 in to have her stitches removed. Unfortunately, the vet said she has to wait another week. She still has to wear the E-collar, too. When I got back home, Angie called and proposed going to town to get yarn for Mom and have breakfast at a new (to us) restaurant. Sounded good to me so Angie drove and we all had breakfast and then did some shopping at Michael's and Wal Mart.

Friday Movie:  We seem to be setting up a new habit of having dinner and a movie at our house on Fridays. Angie made an antipasto salad and Mom brought the remainder of the Solunto bread Angie bought at the Sicilian festival las weekend. Mom had it frozen and it held up well. After dinner, we watched "The Grey" with Liam Neeson. Angie had her eyes closed through most of it. I admit it was pretty violent and gross. That makes two movies in a row that were pretty ugly. We have to do better next week.

Saturday:

On Saturday, I made a pair of earrings to match Angie's necklace.

Dennis went to town with Gary. When he got back we made some Focaccia to have with the low cal chile he made. The chile was good but the focaccia was only so-so. I think the yeast was too old. It expired in 2007.

Another Hiatus

I did it again...neglected to write in my blog for several days. Egads, I don't remember anything of note to write about. The kittens are growing and keep trying to escape their area in the breezeway. So far I've caught them at the top of the fence before they climbed over, but it was just luck I walked outside when they were escaping.

Wednesday, Betsy came over to give me a riding lesson on Doc, but I couldn't get on the horse because of my hip/leg pain caused when Flash jerked me when I was training him to heel. Long sentence, but you get the idea.

Thursday I didn't go on a trail ride because of the same issue. Also, 50-50's eye was getting worse, so I took her to the vet who said we could either put her down or remove the eye. I just couldn't put my sweet house cat down, so I left her there for the eye removal operation. Poor 50-50.

Friday, I picked up 50-50 and took her home. She spent most of the day on my lap, needing comfort from her ordeal. I'm giving her an antibiotic twice a day for a week, then she needs to go back for a check-up.
That evening, we had tacos for dinner at our house. Gary, Angie and Mom came over for dinner and a movie. Gary selected Contraband and dennis downloaded the movie on Apple TV. After dinner we watched the movie and ate the dessert Dennis bought, a huge Bavarian Cream "tart" with fresh fruit on top. Tart is a misnomer because it was about a foot and a half long, but I don't have a better word for it. Dennis found a great bakery in Chula Vista ( or was it Bonita?) and brought home three boxes of desserts.

Saturday, I worked on my jewelry most of the day. We went over to Mom's to have the other dessert Dennis brought (chocolate eclairs so big they were packed in two boxes). We really need to stop eating desserts.

Sunday morning, Angie, Gary and Mom went to Little Italy for the Sicilian Festival. Dennis and I didn't go because we don't like crowds and prefer to stay home on Sundays. For dinner, we went to Mom's and had stuffed artichokes. Angie made the artichokes, and they were great! We also had the rest of the Bavarian Cream tart that Dennis brought home on Friday. I am done we desserts!

That's it; I'm up to date.

Movie Tuesday

Gary and Angie, Mom, Dennis and I went to the movies today to see The Raven (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1486192/). I didn't know much about the movie before we went, but I was a little worried when it started out with some gory deaths. I know my sister doesn't even like the CSI programs. This was worse.

But then the story got to be more of a mystery as Edgar Allen Poe helped the police to solve the grisly murders that were based on stories he wrote.

I think we all enjoyed the movie, even those who fell asleep during parts of it. You know who you are.

Kitten Update

The kittens are getting used to their new home. I took them out on the lawn the other day and they investigated a little.

They are playing more, too, between cat naps.

Happy Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day. To honor our mother, we (Angie, Gary, Dennis and I plus Uncle Johnny) took Mom to breakfast and showered her with a couple of cards and gifts. Plus Gary got her a bouquet of flowers which she was made to share with her daughters. Bummer.

Just jesting. We all enjoyed having breakfast with Mom even though her choice of restaurants, Cafe 67, was closed, possibly forever. Instead we went to an omelet restaurant in Santee. It was packed but we were able to get in immediately, probably because of the size of our group. The food was good.

We love you, Mom!

Bubba

I took this picture of Bubba yesterday. He's lying horizontal in the tube of the cat scratcher.

The night before last I heard a tiny meowing in the kitchen. I looked around and saw Precious looking through 50-50's cat door. I opened the door and she strolled right in as though she owned the place. Flash was right there and she didn't seemed to care.

Last night I heard a cat screech come from the breezeway so Flash and I ran out there fast enough to see Peaches streak out through the window. I looked around and saw a raccoon on the shelf near the ceiling. I guess it's time to put the cat food in at night again. I though Flash being there would deter them but I guess not.

Oh, How Ugly!

I took this from the car yesterday afternoon.

Power Link

While I was on a trail ride on Thursday morning, SDG&E went to town on their ugly towers surrounding our property. Very depressing.

T.R.O.T.

Joyce and I went back to Laguna today. This time we parked at the Wooded Hills trailhead. It's further off the road and a much more bumpy access road, but the trails get us to the meadow much more quickly. We headed out to the little lake and were joined part way with another rider. She was riding a Foxtrotter and said she usually rides for 12 hours every day. Not surprisingly, she soon left us in the dust.

When I got back to the ranch Angie and Gary were just setting up their rig. I picked her and Mom up and we went out to do some grocery shopping. I was pretty tired when we got home so I checked in on the kitties, made a tuna sandwich for dinner, and took a short nap.

I took Mom out to lunch at a new Greek restaurant in Alpine today. We both had the Giro sandwiches with pita bread. We thought the food was tasty, but were surprised that the Giro meat was in chunks rather than shaved strips.

My Office

I'm taking advantage of Dennis's absence this week to clean my office. So far, I got rid of all the catalogs (a lot of catalogs), read all my craft magazines, and handled all those miscellaneous pieces of paper that have been hanging around for weeks (months?) It's looking pretty good.

Herding Kittens

If you thought herding cats was hard, try photographing kittens. They are so fast! I did manage to get a few shots though.

This is Precious:

This is Precious and Cindy Crawford:

This is Cindy Crawford:

And this is Bubba:

Who's a girl?

 Yesterday Mom and I named the three female kittens. The calico was already named Cindy by the Mom-cat owner because kitty has a spot on her face that looks like a mole--like Cindy Crawford's. The all-grey cat we named Precious because she's so sweet. The third kitten we named Million Dollar Baby (Baby for short) because she was a real tufty--standing on her hind legs and batting her paws like a fighter.

Then, when we took the kittens for their shots, it turned out Million Dollar Baby was a boy. So we renamed him Bubba.

A second Power Link tower is going up. This one is  behind Eugenio's house.  The first one that went up is behind our house. Depressed, depressed, depressed.

Mom and I noticed the second tower when we were driving into the ranch after coming back from dinner (pizza) at Marichario's.

Meow, meow, meow

The kittens are very cute. 

Low Voltage

I didn't realize it until I tried to heat a cup of coffee in the microwave, but I guess something happened when we had the power outage and now we have a low voltage situation. We know from experience that this can cause damage to appliances and other equipment. We called SDG&E and they are now here working on the problem.

T.R.O.T.

Finally, a good day weather-wise for a trail ride. Joyce and I went to Laguna for our ride today. But first, the power went out while I was at the barn getting Doc ready, so I didn't know about it until I drove up to the gate and it didn't automatically open. Someone had to come down and open it manually with a key.

Just a small kink to an otherwise beautiful day. We rode out to the big lake (about 1 hr. 15 min.) and then rode back the long way. It seemed like a never ending trail because we were tired and a little stiff. Getting old, I guess.

Good News, Bad News

The good news is that Rachel, Flash's dog trainer, brought us 3 kittens. It was good news to her, too,  because I took her 3 kittens.

Cute, huh?

The bad news is that the Power Link has started to raise the transmission towers around our house.

Ugly, huh?

Movie Tuesday

Today was different. Instead of going to Parkway Plaza for the movie, we went to Edwards Theater in Rancho San Diego. Nothing very good was playing in El Cajon but a movie we've been wanting to see was playing at Edwards: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. 


We all enjoyed this movie. It was romantic and fun and there were no car chases or transformers. What a pleasure.