Party like it's 1999?

We are having a small New Years Eve gathering tomorrow night.  The cats won't be thrilled, but oh well.  No hats, horns or confetti but some sparkling fruit juice to toast with.  Aren't we the party animals?  I'm having seven layer dip, onion dip, summer sausage, boursin herb and garlic spread, Sharp cheddar cheese ball, Lil smokies in BBQ sauce, assorted chips,crackers and cream puffs.  Everyone is bringing there own drinks and we are playing Yahtzee.

The fur kids will be trying to steal the meat and cheese from the kitchen counter so I'll be ready with the sprayer at my side.  Luckily the table we are playing at is super close to the kitchen counter and my aim is fairly good too.  Lots of wet cats and a good time will be had by all.  There aren't to many places you can go for a party and get target practice too. *snicker*

Here comes 2011!  Best wishes for a super year.

Excellent Christmas!

Christmas is over and we made it through it.  When I filled the stockings for the cats and dog before I went to bed last night, Homer wanted every mouse and ball I stuffed into a sock.  I cleared the mantle of all the decorations thinking that he might jump up there for a better swing at the contents of the socks. When I got up this morning everything was still hanging where I left it....good kitty!

My husband got me a super gift.  I have a Nook e-Reader from Barnes and Noble.  I just love it.  He also got me a roll up pad to do puzzles on.  I haven't been able to do a puzzle for years because the cats take away pieces or push them off on the floor and the dog eats them.  I now can do fun puzzles.  My son Jeff, gave me a gift card to Michael's......that's going to keep my knitting needles clicking for most of the year. What a super Christmas!

For dinner we had prime rib, parsnips, petite peas, mashed potatoes, gravy, Watergate salad, corn pudding and steamed carrot pudding for dessert. Amazingly it all turned out pretty well.  The meat was a perfect medium rare.

Now we prepare for a New Year's eve party.  Nothing fancy....just a few people, snacks and Yahtzee.

Tonight... (on a sad note) two houses down the street a neighbor was taken away by the medical examiner.  He passed away two days ago in his recliner.  His girlfriend had not heard from him so she called the police and they did a welfare check and found him.  How sad he didn't make it through Christmas.  He was a diabetic, and a heavy drinker, which I didn't know until tonight.  God rest his soul.

Success!

The tree is up, lights and ornaments on.  Homer has not tried to climb the tree once.  I have found a few of the bottom ornaments suspiciously laying on the floor in the morning though.  As long as he only bats them off and doesn't spirit them away...it's fine with me.  I'm getting excited about Christmas now.  I'm not getting anything for Christmas but it's the lights, cold weather, family coming and Christmas dinner that warms my heart.
I think this year I'm going to make my carrot pudding.  It's a steamed pudding made from carrots and potatoes (Free recipe to follow).  It takes longer to cook than to put together.  It's so rich and yummy.

                           Carrot Pudding

1 Cup Carrots (finely grated)       1 Cup Potatoes (finely grated)
1 Cup Flour                               1 Cup Sugar
1Cup Raisins                             1/2 Cup melted shortening
1 tsp Baking Soda                      1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg                         Pinch Salt

Steam 3 Hours or until done ( becomes almost cake like)
I have a steamer but you may use a pan over another pan of boiling water.
I serve this with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Kitchen stadium will be busy all day on Christmas eve!

I need your vote

I entered a photo contest using Cherrier's (Cherry's) picture.  Please take the time to vote for her.

http://gapc-vote.com/?c=multi&p=275830

What Money?

This time of year just makes me feel so overwhelmed.  We don't have enough money to do Christmas as it should be done.  Both our sons are coming for dinner and gifts on Christmas eve plus my grandson will be here too. I guess we're  going to use our card and hope for the best. 

At some point next year I'm going to start and Internet business.  If it works I'll share my experience with you.  The economy is so still bad.... especially here in Oregon.  So many people are unemployed because of lay-offs and are loosing their homes.  It's frightening!  I don't want to go down the drain too.  My biggest fear is that in my senior years I will become a bag lady. 

I was raised in a home that was fairly well off.  We had an in-ground pool and the best of most everything else. I don't care to have that much again, but to be comfortable would be so wonderful.  Just knowing that I could take the cats to the vet and it wouldn't put us in debt.  This week Victor has to go back to the vet.  His mouth must be hurting him since he isn't eating again.  We have to do something soon!  These are the types of things that scare me so much.  I know he's going to have to have his mouth operated on again.  That's going to be another three hundred dollars or more.  We just don't have it.  This is what's driving me to find some way to make enough money to stay afloat.  This stress has to end.

The next problem is our doctor visits.  If we go to the doctor our deductible is $1500. per person.  We don't have that either.  It just never ends.

Bad Kitty!

Moosey takes an immune system boost pill (half in the morning and half at night).  This morning he shifted or I shifted and he got my finger in four places.  I'm truly hoping I don't have to go to urgent care for an infection.  I got bitten last February and had to get antibiotics before the infections got too bad.  He is usually so good about being pilled.  Maybe it was me.  Since so many of the cats are older I give quit a bit of meds each day.

Tomorrow we get our Christmas tree.  I usually put up a fake one but I'm just too tired to stick all the limbs in and then spread them out artfully.  Besides that, I need to see if Homer is going to try to climb it before I put on my good ornaments.  Last year was so much fun.  I never did put on the ornaments.  He kept climbing into it and falling asleep up high in the branches.  I had a lovely tree with beautiful lights and that was it.  I'm hoping he has outgrown his adventurous side?

Wish me luck everyone!

My Dirty Little Secrets

I'm re-organizing our storage room.  I started in the closet (no, I'm not gay).  That took all yesterday evening.
I'm tossing out a whole bunch of things and repacking boxes that have one or two items in them.  It's hard to believe that my containers in this room end up with a single item in them, but you see......I might need one or two things and so I take those out and use them.  That leaves the single item in there and then when I put them away again they go into a new box.  I  (just in the closet) gained 10 empty containers.

 Unfortunately because of my Fibromyalgia, today I can hardly move without pain.  I hate having this chronic pain!  You work hard for a few hours and the you're down for a day or two.  How am I suppose to get anything done?

Anyway.....Now we have to make a trip to Goodwill to donate some items and our garbage cans are getting full of useless stuff.  That's another puzzler....why would I keep plastic greenery and half used candles?  Dull and scratched  (old) Christmas ornaments?  Beyond me, but I did.

At one point during my closet cleaning I could hardly get out of the room there was so much junk in the middle of the floor.  I tried to make piles for Goodwill, throw away, and re-pack.  This sort of blew up in my face when it all shifted into one giant pile as it got too high.  Now I have to keep going on the back wall of the room where most of the boxes are filled with Holiday decorations.  I would wait until Christmas was over except I've used that excuse almost every year for the past 10 years.  It's time to get it done!  I start feeling guilty for not doing the work I should around the house. I, of course, clean the house, do the laundry, cook and take care of the cat's and dog.  But many other things (like the storage room) seem to spiral out of control as I plod along doing my daily routine.

 For just a little bit you will have to put up with me ripping into the dirty corners of my home.

You Light Up My Life

Christmas lights that is.  Last night my husband (Ed) and I did nothing but check our multi color icicle lights to see if we could get them all working again.  We managed to get three strings working so he went up on our roof and put them up.  They came on  around dark and I went outside to take a good look at the pretty lights.  Oh My!  Two light strings were  the same and one had longer icicles.  The way it worked out...one side of the front had short icicles and the other was longer (noticeably). UUUUUGLY!  So now he has to go back up and put different icicle lights up.  This also means that I have to get three more strings in working order.

I'm trying so hard to have some Christmas spirit.  Money is tight thanks to our medical insurance carrier who raised our deductible to $1500. per person and raised our monthly payment to $444.  To me that's like not having insurance.  It's going to be mostly out of pocket for my yearly checkup...so why have the insurance?  I know....in case I become super sick or injured.  My husband doesn't need the insurance since his medical needs are taken care of by Veterans but he has to carry it to cover me. The reason for the hike in both the premiums and the deductible is because most of the employees at my husbands work are over 50 we were told.  That doesn't seem very fair now, does it?  That's the way these companies are allowed to treat older people.  The golden years Stink!

I wish I could be a cat  like one of ours that is pampered and loved and their medical needs are taken care of.  Lots of toys, catnip, baskets to sleep in, fresh water and treats and wet food twice a day.  What a life!

Into the Dungeon

We have a room in our home that is for nothing but storage.  I have shut off the heat to the room since we don't really live in there.  There is only one tiny window in the room also ...thus I call it the dungeon.  It's packed to the ceiling with boxes.  Many of them contain Christmas decorations.  It's time to bundle up and head into the dungeon.  I also keep the cat carriers in there for easy access.  Can you imagine how many of those we have?  Actually not as many as you would think.  We have one that's big enough for a huge Lab, one that's big enough for three cats, one that's big enough for two and then a single one.  For space I have to break them down and put them in the closet when not in use.  Another fine use for the room is hiding the Christmas presents.  There's so much stuff in there you can't focus on any one singe item, so it provides a super hiding place. We keep extra stuff in there...like dry cat food, bird seed paper towels etc.  OK....the reason I mentioned the dungeon is if I don't start putting out the Christmas decorations they won't get out.  The closer it gets to Christmas the more I seem to lose steam.

There is always a problem with the cats wanting into the room too.  You have to be aware and alert when you open that door or they will shoot into the room and you won't see them.  There are about a trillion places to hid in that room and just like the Christmas presents...you won't see them.  Next thing you know, there's a crashing sound coming from that direction..... and one very innocent ball of fluff sitting in the middle of the floor after riding several of your prized possessions to the floor from the top of a pile.  This scene is repeated several times during the unpacking of the decorations.  Maybe I should try a baby gate?  I know some of them could jump over it but the element of surprise might get me in and out of the room a couple of times before they got wise.

One of my biggest pet peeves is that everything in this house is covered because of the cats.  There's a cover on all sofas, chairs, in front of the fireplace, throw rugs in front of the doors to cover the spots they've torn up and even small rugs under some of the doors in the interior of the house because Paddy has separation anxiety and rips up the carpet under the doors if he get left alone. If I had the money..... I would get those colorful cat claw covers and glue them on each one of the cats.  They don't go outdoors anyway, so what's the harm?

 I guess you could say this house is run solely for the comfort of the animals.(not the humans)

The Police Are Here (continued)

OK, here's the deal on yesterday.  Most of my afternoon was taken up by thieves working across the street from us.  I can't believe how bold thieves have become.  Broad daylight and they are out stealing metal from an abandoned home.  I shouldn't say it was abandoned,  it's still full of the peoples possessions but they are not living there.  They're taking care of an elderly relative but still paying the bills for their home.

I was doing my housework and took something out to the recycle bin around 1:00 P.M. when a pickup pulled up in front of their home. ( this was not the first time these thieves have been there)  I turned and watched two kids in their twenties get out of the vehicle, one holding a sledge hammer and the other clapping his hands and calling an imaginary animal.  Now this was incredibly dumb since the guy clapping his hands was calling attention to the two of them.  They both disappeared around the sides of the house. I ran inside and went to where I could see them better and dialed  9-1-1.  I made my report but before I finished they were getting back into their truck and leaving without taking anything.  I told the emergency operator that I thought they were going to come back and steal something at a later time.  They dispatched a police officer to come and take my report and have a look around.  About 15 minutes later the officer was at my door and we discussed what I had witnessed.  When he finished with me he went over to the home and had a look.  He emerged from the side of the house hanging onto a sledge hammer,  He tossed it into his trunk and off he went. 
I went back to work on my chores. Half an hour to forty five minutes later here comes the pickup again.  The kids hop out and one is carrying two small shovels. Again they disappear around the house.  This time I grabbed my digital camera and went outside behind my van and started shooting pictures.  I shot a really good picture of the back of the pickup, went back inside and called 9-1-1 again.  Made another report and like before they left before I finished.  Two policemen showed up this time about five minutes after I completed the call.  It seems another neighbor had called in a report also.  After speaking to the officers, the only thing they were concerned about was the fact that the license plates were not the same on the front and the back of the vehicle.  They were both the same state but different numbers.  Can you beat that?  They didn't care about the robbery, just the plates!  I think part of that stems from the fact that the people who own the house are hoarders and the place looks like it should have been blown up or condemned long ago.
But jeez!  They love their stuff.....even if they can't find all of it.
Next time I'm getting a picture of the kids.  I know they'll be back 'cause it's easy pickins.

So that was my afternoon yesterday. 

The Police Are Here!

I had a very strange day today but I don't have the time to blog about it tonight.  Come back tomorrow  and I'll explain. I also found where Victor disappears to.  I'm happy to report that there's no portal or triangle of any kind....just a very clever cat.

Hidden In The Computer Room

Tonight I'm hidden in the computer room away from the fur kids.  I'm knitting mittens for a Christmas present.  You know cats and yarn, right?  Not one of these felines can resist the soft slowly moving trail of yarn from the ball to the needles.  The Computer room is my office/craft room.  I do knitting, crochet, cross stitch, beading, polymer clay art, watercolor and acrylic painting in this room.  There are double glass doors into the room so the kids can still see me.  On Occasion,  Paddy will stand up and scratch on the door to try and get my attention. ( I have a water bottle that does a lovely stream of spray for misbehaving kitties)

I don't have much time left for making gifts so I have to cut this short and get with it.