Talking Donkeys

Hubby:

"I bought a talking donkey the other day. He told me he'd been to college and even earned a PhD.

I guess he's just a smart-a** now."

Floppy Disk

C-baby is doing some scanning of archived paperwork for us to generate some extra cash. Today she's weeding through our old duplex paperwork and came across a 5 1/4" floppy disk labeled "Rental Application & Lease."

She picked it up with a puzzled look in her eye, put the corner in her mouth as if to take a bite out of it, flipped it over a couple of times, then looked at me and said, 'What is this?'

She's nearly 21 now.

Boy do I feel old.

Kindness - pass it on!

So my wonderful husband has joined Daymaker Movement, an organization devoted to making peoples' (and your own) life better by doing random acts of kindness.

For example, the other day he went into pick up a pizza for himself, noted the name on one of the other boxes, and said he also wanted to pay for such & such's pizza at the same time - since she was a friend of his (she was not. Or at least, I don't think she was...).

So just now I get an e-mail from him:

Papa Bear: I was just thinking about how much I love you and appreciate your influence in my life. And I wanted to let you know that's what I was thinking about.

Have a wonderful day.
Hubby

Kindness is contagious. Let's start an epidemic.

Me: I think your computer has a virus.

PB: Ha, your face has a virus. Yeah, it's called the luv-bug. :O) LUV U, K

Me: ROFLMAO

Eating the State Fair

How To Eat Your Way Across The MN State Fair in 12 Queasy Steps

I’m not entirely proud to admit it, but Pappa Bear and I ate our way across the MN State Fair recently. Nine straight hours of walking and eating.

Let me preface this little adventure by explaining to you the foods I no longer eat, on any kind of regular basis:
• Processed carbs (white sugar, white flour, white rice)
• Fake foods (you know, anything made by Monsanto, anything with MSG, anything made with fake chemical sweeteners)
• CAFO meat (Concentrated Animal Feeding Organization – i.e., feedlot)
• And did I mention, Sugar? Too much sugar gives me eye migraines – those dizzying lines across your vision; makes me nauseous; and makes me fall asleep instantly.
• Fried foods - especially those fried in transfat oils
• GMO corn products (Genetically Modified Corn – found in nearly all processed/pre-made meals & snacks, everything from ketchup to cereal to fast food hamburgers).

I find this list of “non-eats” oddly amusing in light of what we each put away that day. The stars are our informal rating system based on nothing other than our “gut” feeling of how it tasted to us at that moment. We split everything except the Hotdish-on-a-stick.

Step One & Two: Hotdish OAS*** & UffDa Treat****

Why does the staff at Ole’s not look the least bit Scandinavian? Hmmm…


It all started innocently enough at the Ole & Lena’s stand near the horse barn, where for breakfast we each got a serving of Hotdish On A Stick (which we will abbreviate from here on as OAS), a combination of (CAFO) meatballs and tater-tots (GMO) corn-breaded and deep fried (probably in GMO corn oil), with a side of cream of (MSG) mushroom sauce, and chased those down by splitting an UffDa! treat, a filled krumkake topped with caramel sauce and butter roasted pecans. The name says it all, folks. UffDa! The Hotdish OAS wasn’t as good as I remembered – probably because we’ve given up eating most GMO, MSG, fried foods and they just don’t taste as good once you’ve weaned yourself off of all those excitotoxins.

(Sorry we were so hungry when we got there – skipped breakfast – that I accidentally forgot to take pics of the food before we wolfed it all down. Trust me when I say the UffDa treat looked as good as it tasted.)

We should have just quit and gone home here, and we’d have been pretty full and happy, with our quota of unhealthy oils and fake foods fulfilled.

To make room and kill some time before our next feast, we headed over to the animal barns. I’ll save my salivation over small breed rabbits for another post coming soon – I think this post will get waayy too longer otherwise. But just to give you a “taste” of what is to come on that post…

This little guy or gal was in a very large cage that had a card stating it was a Flemish English Giant. I think not.


Anyway, back to eating the fair.


Step Three: Gator OAS****

PB wasn’t feeling quite as adventurous as I was, but I figured after the last two years of eating mostly locally-raised bison and emu, why couldn’t I try something even more exotic - Bayou Bob’s ‘Gator OAS! I opted out of the deep fried this time. What I got was something resembling a bratwurst, on a stick, which tasted a lot like… a bratwurst! It was very good actually, nothing like I expected it to be.

To wash down this exotic treat, of which PB had only one bite, we walked a short distance to a place sure to delight PB, our resident gourmet cheesecake maker.


Step Four: Deep Fried Cheesecake OAS****

Granny’s Cheesecake & More offers a variety of fried or dipped, cheesecake & fruit items. Those of you who were watching our updates via Facebook on Sunday already know – this was Stop #1 of 2 at this stand that day. First visit, PB opted for Deep Fried Cheesecake, OAS of course. It was, in a word, YUM. (Sorry, no picture again – ate it too fast!).


Step Five: Fried Fruit OAS Sundae****

Although we had by now definitely had our fill of both sugar and fried items, we noticed another stand close to this one selling Fried Fruit OAS. We justified stopping here since there would be some real fruit in the equation. We pondered over whether or not to add ice cream and make it a “Fried Fruit OAS Sundae.” You can see the results. Is fruit, covered in batter, deep fried and eaten with ice cream, a healthy snack? We’re saying yes.


Step Six: Teriyaki Ostrich OAS***

By now we were famished and ready for some real food. I’d like to say we went home now, and came back the next day to continue this feeding frenzy. But alas…

For our next eating adventure we braved The Food Building, where approximately 100,000 of the 130,000 people attending the fair that day were crushed into a wriggling mass of queue’s waiting to order or receive their food from one of a twenty or so food vendors. It was hot, it was crowded. But once we finally made our way to the China Town booth we were happy to find no lines at all. Just this goofy guy in an ostrich costume.


And this goofy guy eating Ostrich OAS.


Although we love emu and have eaten it almost exclusively for the past year in place of ground beef, we were not so impressed with the Ostrich OAS. Maybe it was the teriyaki sauce. Maybe it was PB dumping the plate on the floor shortly after this photo was taken. At any rate, we would sure try another ostrich item sometime in the future, but probably not this one. And especially not the one we dumped on the floor.

We did, finally, take a break from eating at this point and wandered through Machinery Hill. There were tractors and trailers and trucks and machines of all sizes and models. We were particularly interested in trailers, and specifically, this one – a 7’x29’ drive-in/drive-out toy hauler that we’re fairly certain would make a really nice mobile workshop for PB, while also being usable as an animal hauler if we put in a few windows and attached some panels.


I would like to report that right around this point in time, I started to crash. All of that sugar and grease and carbs and fake stuff just got the best of me. I had to sit on a bench for a long time with glazed eyes, watching the fair goers wandering by. PB took this opportunity to more thoroughly explore Machinery Hill and all of its goodies. I’m sure I was also somewhat dehydrated (even though we were frequently filling our water bottles) and it was getting very warm, around 90 degrees. I was happy to sit on the shady bench and just wait. While I was sitting there I happened to notice…

Step Seven: Texas Tater Twister OAS***

It was on PB’s food list for the day (yes, we had reviewed all 300+ food vendors on the fair’s website the day before so we’d have a complete list of all the food items we wanted to try) and even though we were far, far from hungry, we opted to try one while we were in the area. We just got the regular, not with a hotdog in the middle. It basically tasted like potato chips. Another item we won’t need to repeat.


Our eating momentum had really slowed down by now, so we took some time to look at more trailers and the exhibits of gazebos, cabins and Adirondack furniture on display by http://northwoodoutdoor.com/ Northwood Industries of Hayward, WI. This was one of our favorite exhibits, from the itty-bitty cabins to the very comfortable lawn furniture – they had regular chairs (folding!), gliders, rockers, even a tall chair they called a Lifeguard chair. They were made of recycled plastic and came in all sorts of fun colors. Never have to paint them, and water-proof!


PB spent a fair amount of time drooling over the grills and outdoor stoves. This one was custom-made for a fire department – check out the axe-as-handle!


Unbelievable as it may sound, after leaving the grill/Adirondack area, we just happened to stumble upon another concession vendor from our food list…

Step Eight & Nine: Salmon OAS* & Elk Burger*****

Giggles Campfire Grill, where we ordered some “real food,” Salmon OAS and an elk burger. I didn’t expect the salmon to be cold, or served with an odd sauce on top. I love salmon, but didn’t care for this manifestation of it. The elk burger, however, was YUMMER! NOM! SCRUMPDILLYICIOUS! A definite repeat for our next visit to the fair.




After this round, I was starting to feel a bit nauseous. The elk burger was fantastic, but the heat and 8 hours on our feet and the heat and all the other crappy food we ate and the heat and dehydration and the heat and all the sugar and the heat were really starting to take a toll. We needed something cold. More than cold, frozen. I just so happened around this time we were wandering past the Farmer’s Union food stand which happened to serve…

Step Ten: Frozen Mocha OAS****


Delightfully chocolatey mocha-ey frozeny goodness. On a stick!


We both perked up after sitting in the shade behind this building, eating our frozen concoction. But we were still pretty stinkin’ hot. And thirsty. Despite many bottles of water consumed. PB thought maybe our heat and thirst would be best quenched with…

Step 11: Pina Colada Smoothie*****


This was another scrumpdillyicious treat. Very cold. Very smooth. Very satisfying. And, probably the healthiest thing we consumed all day, being 100% fruit (pineapple + banana) with some coconut milk mixed in for a healthy fat.

I was done now. Aching to get back to the bus that would take us to our car. Dead tired, over-stuffed, over-heated (although cooled off a bit by the smoothie). But, PB had one more trick up his sleeve.

He just had to return to a concession from earlier in the day…

Step Twelve: Frozen Dipped (chocolate) Cheesecake OAS

Granny’s Cheesecake was the hands-down winner Sunday with our last treat of the day – Frozen Dipped Cheesecake OAS.


It don’t get no better than this, folks. We’ll skip the deep-fried cheesecake next year. And the Ostrich OAS. And the Salmon OAS. And the Hotdish OAS. And the Texas Tater Twister OAS. But I can almost guarantee we’ll be revisiting this devilishly delightful goodness next time. With a side of elk burger. UffDa!

Slingo

Yesterday while I was carting my 20-something-carless-daughter around from home to work and work to other work and other work to home, we had ample opportunity to catch up. I hadn't seen much of her when I was on the road, so we had some catching up to do.

What I didn't realize was that she had come up with an entirely new language while I was away. Something her and her friends all understand, but leaves the rest of us scratching our heads, puzzling over her Facebook messages.

So there she was animatedly chatting away when she casually drops the phrase "Mackin' on my Koolaid" into the conversation.

Wha???

"Oh, yeah, our Slingo? We make up words all the time."

Wha??? Slingo?

So, here to decipher for you, lest your teenager come down with the same malady, is my interpretation:

Slingo - Slang + Lingo

Mackin' - Smoochin' or lovin'

Koolaid - Your sweetie or object of desire

Therefore, "Mackin' on yer Koolaid" means smooching with your sweetie.

What can I say? It all makes sense now. Tonight after work, she's going to get dolled up and go hang with her Koolaid.

They're not dating tho, so there'll be no mackin'.

Cheers -
Victoria

Phenomenal

Pappa Bear and I were hanging out on a Friday night recently, walking across the parking lot to grab a bite to eat at the The Blue Ox, before heading to the theater to watch Iron Man 2, and he randomly came up with this line:

"I put the 'minimal' in Phenominal."

But I think what he meant was, he puts the "Fun" in "Funomenal."

What do you think?

Cheers -
Victoria

Hot Chic

Last night Kelly was going to stop and pick up some groceries on his way home from work, and he needed the list of what we were out of at home. So I typed it into my iPhone and e-mailed it to him.

A little while later, he texted me back wondering where to pick up the "hot chic." Apparently the spell check on my phone had changed it from "hot choc" to "hot chic."

Meet the Nommers - Part III of III

We didn't plan on having any more cats after Big Nom & Little Nom. In fact, Pappa Bear and I had agreed, "No more cats until we buy a farm." Then we would splurge and have a bunch of barn cats to catch the mice in the hayloft, and leave kittens strewn around for the visiting children to take home in their luggage.

Until C-baby suddenly moved back home, after her second attempt at living on her own, after adopting not one, but TWO barn cats from her friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend.


I distinctly remember having this chat with her when she moved out this last time:

V: "No cats! No dogs, either!"

C: "Yes mom."

V: "Good. You didn't take care of the last cat you adopted, at the first place you lived."

C: "Yeah yeah yeah."

That lasted about a week. Until her and her deathly allergic roommate visited a farm and her roommate decided that, hmmm, maybe she wasn't so deathly allergic after all, and wouldn't matching kittens, one black tabby, one brown, one for each of them, just be the bomb?

And so my dear daughter left the farm that day with two kittens in her luggage (darn it, those farmers must’ve had the same plan we have!).

Thus, Zoey & Romeo took up residence in C-baby's apartment. MUCH to my disapproval. Don't ever think that your 19-year-old-living-on-her-own daughter will listen to anything you say. Let me save you that disappointment right here and now.

So yeah, Zoey & Romeo lived happily ever after with C-baby. Until her roommate decided that, hmmm, maybe she was deathly allergic to cats after all. And hmmm, maybe she and C-baby should just get in a big fight over getting rid of the cats (would that be a cat-fight?), so C-baby would move out. And maybe C-baby would show up on our doorstep at 5:00am one morning with a kennel full of kittens.

So yeah, Zoey & Romeo resided in a large kennel in our garage. So that C-baby will find homes for them. Except now, C-baby doesn't like the name Romeo.So he tries on the name Jack for awhile. Until one day Pappa Bear says, "He's brown. He should be called Chocolate Moose." And so it was. It just fits him so much better.

But a house full of four cats is just a little too much for this Mom nom. C-baby has to find a place for at least one of them. My sister stepped in to save the day. We beguiled her daughter with Moose and his goofy crossed eyes, cow-hocked legs and chubby kitten Buddha belly. Little Nom's charm must've rubbed off on him a little bit, too. It all worked. Moose went home with my sister and niece on Thanksgiving.

One down.

Baby Nom is a character. She has a wiggle in her hind-end due to her cow-hocked legs. (C-baby asked me one day, "Why they call them 'cow-hawk' legs? Why two different animals?" Ahem.)

Baby Nom is adorable, as only a cow-hawked kitten can be. Her tail flips all the way up to her head when you pet her. She has amazing green eyes. The tips of her ears flair out. She looks very exotic. And she has a purr bigger than Texas.

She plays fetch with her favorite mouse. I toss it down the basement stairs, and she retrieves it and drops it near me. Over. And over. And over. Apparently in her last life she was a black lab.

She is the first of the three noms to find your warm lap and crawl up into it. She is also the first to follow us to bed at night, and will stay all night long, no matter how much egg-beating your legs are doing. Baby Nom is relational. I’m getting a wee bit too much attached to that little nommer.

It doesn’t help that Little Nom has taken a shine to her as well. Big Nom has never been one for inter-cat-affections, despite Little Nom’s many attempts, but Little Nom and Baby Nom, well, once they got over all the tail-poufing-hissing-growling-introductions, they like each other just fine. Baby Nom snuggles right up to Little Nom on the bed in their favorite sunny spot, then Little Nom wraps her paws around Baby Nom’s neck and starts grooming her, and that big ‘ol Texas purr wells up in Baby Nom and her eyes close in pure bliss. And my heart wells up with affection that only a mother can feel when witnessing that kind of maternal instinct.

So, I wonder when C-baby will be moving out, again? I sure hope she takes Baby Nom with her… (crossing my fingers behind my back).

Purrr....

Meet the Nommers - Part II of III

continued...

We didn't plan on having any more cats after Big Nom. In fact, Pappa Bear and I had agreed, "No more cats until we buy a farm." Then we would splurge and have a bunch of barn cats to catch the mice in the hayloft, and leave kittens strewn around for the visiting children to take home in their luggage.

Kali, aka “Little Nom,” showed up in our back yard, in the fall of 2008. A very tiny, very squeaky, very hungry kitten. PB and C-baby canvassed the neighborhood, posting notices on every mailbox, knocking on doors, crossing their fingers behind their backs, hoping nobody would claim her.

(please imagine a short, adorable video of Little Nom on her first day with us here. i tried uploading it, three times, on three different computers. all it did was run and run, for hours and hours and hours... and hours.)

Nobody claimed her. I cannot fathom why. She was the most adorable kitten I had ever met.

We all agree, there is something magical about Little Nom. She casts a spell on you, until you forget all of the other beautiful cats you've ever met in your life. She looks at you with her peach and black double moustache as if to say, "Who, me? Couldn't be!"

All wide-eyed innocence, that one. Kinda like C-baby. Only fuzzier.

I knew she was smart (Little Nom. Well, C-baby, too). I could just tell. So I taught her to sit up for treats. This took about two days. Soon she was sitting on command. It was adorable. She looked like a gopher, a calico-striped gopher. To top it off, she would offer up one paw slightly higher than the other, and tilt her head just slightly. At that time, she was fed downstairs, in the laundry room.


About a day later, I was in the kitchen, prepping my lunch. I glanced down at her. As soon as she saw me looking, up she went into "gopher-pose," one paw up, head tilted.

I melted. How can you resist cuteness like that?

I can't. She got the treat. And when she begged again, she got another piece. And another. Yes, it's true, my Little Nom trained me to give treats at her command. In less than 5 minutes. But you would, too, if she gave you the "gopher-sit-one-paw-up-tilt-head" pose. Don't even try to deny it.

Everything Little Nom does is adorable. The way she prefers to drink water out of a guinea pig bottle strapped to the dog gate. Or, if the bottle is unavailable, the paw-dip-lick-technique. Or the stand-in-the-water-dish-with-three-feet-dip-one-paw-and-lick technique.


The way she busts in on me when I’m in the shower, waiting until the water is shut off so she can sneak behind the curtain and rub cat hairs all over my wet legs. The way she jumps onto my lap and settles down with a big purr when I am reading a catalog on the privy (hey, it’s the only time I spend reading catalogues). The way she loves hiding in cardboard boxes and suitcases. The way she climbs to the top of my clothes drying rack, clearly the Queen of her domain, as neither Big Nom or Baby Nom will follow her up there.


The way she sneak-attacks Big Nom, inciting him to WWF moves on her. The way she wrestles gently with Baby Nom, taking care not to hurt her. And the way she holds and grooms Baby Nom, something Big Nom never allows her to do.

Only one problem about Little Nom. Now we're double our previous nom capacity. I am worried about what the landlord might say. We only have permission for one cat. We're definitely stopping at two. Until we get the farm.

Then we’ll splurge and have a bunch of barn cats to catch the mice in the hayloft, and leave kittens strewn around for the visiting children to take home in their luggage.

To be continued……………..

Meet the Nommers - Part I of III

Let me explain something. We like to make up words in our house. Or take words that exist and morph them into something they were never intended to be.

Like "nom." Nom is a slang word used on LOLcats to denote eating, biting, or food. Lolcats "nom" their cheezburgers. Cheezburgers are good “noms.” My kitten Zoey “nom, nom, noms" my shin through the blankets. Get it?

This makes perfect sense to me. When you eat something, it really does sound like you are "nomming" it. So we adopted this slang verb into our everyday language. And then mutated it another step. Into a noun (adverb? I never was much good at grammar).

I now own three "noms."



What I mean is, three "noms" live with me in this house. I'm not sure anyone ever "owns" a nom.

Their "real" names are, in order of oldest to youngest, Mojo, Kali and Zoey. But mostly we just call them "Big Nom," "Little Nom," and "Baby Nom." It's easier that way. Too many names to remember, and old brains.

"Little Nom" used to be "Baby Nom" when she was a kitten, so I always get her confused with Baby Nom now. But they just deal with it. They all still come running, no matter what we call them.

Or not. OK, mostly not.

When we moved to the country in 2008, we had one nom, Big Nom - Mojo. Or, as we used to call him, "Mojojo." I'm not sure why it's so fun to have three syllable nicknames, but it is.

Mojojo
Kali-Cat
Zoey-oh-ee-oh (ok, so that's 5 syllables... never was much good at counting, either).

Big Nom is Pappa Bear's cat. He picked him out from a rescue litter. His previous name was Nova. (Mojo's, not PB's). That just didn't fly with PB. This cat needed a better name. One with a touch of humor. "Bad Mojo!" "Gooood Mojo!" PB gets a kick out of things like that.


So Big Nom came home with us on Halloween in 2004. He likes to eat. This is his #1 priority. He has the softest, whitest belly, which has shrunk a bit since we started measuring out his daily allotments. Now his Buddha belly just swings below him like a half-empty sack of potatoes.

He has seven toes on both of his white front paws. Veritable catcher’s mitts. When he grips you with his paws, you could swear he uses them like opposable thumbs. He is very grippery.


He loves to curl up on my side of the bed, right under my armpit. That way he can wake me up bright and early to feed him. PB will sleep right through it. Big Nom knows this, he knows which side his bread is buttered on. If he sleeps on the wrong side, no butter. One time we switched sides of the bed. Just to mess with him. He slept by Kelly. But only that one night. It takes a lot to pull one over on a cat.


We didn't plan on having any more cats. In fact, we had agreed, "No more cats until we buy a farm." Then we would splurge and have a bunch of barn cats to catch the mice in the hayloft, and leave kittens strewn around for the visiting children to take home in their luggage.

To be continued.............

Jade 'n Me

I can’t believe how grown up my niece Jade is now, only 17 days away from turning 10 years old.

The night I met Kelly, he told me about Jade right away, who was just a wee little thing back then, only 6 months old. He mentioned she was one of the only reasons he would hesitate to leave WY (where he lived) and move directly to MN (where I lived). At the time, he didn’t tell me she was his niece – I think, hoping for dramatic effect, I would assume she was his daughter. He didn’t leave me wondering for very long though, I guess he really wanted to move, and didn’t want me worrying that he was leaving his daughter behind.

Jade is at that wonderful age where she is learning lots of really cool stuff – stuff even adults don’t always know. Like, Greek mythology. Who remembers all of those stories and relationships? Not I. But Jade knows. I love that about her. She’s old enough to have an adult-like conversation with you, and talk about real things. Or mythological things.

I also love that Jade has always remembered who Kelly is, even though he left WY when she was just a baby. Even though he has only gotten home about once a year since, she always knows her “Uncle Kelly.” (Ok, so sometimes she called him “Auntie Kelly,” and me, “Uncle Vicki” when she was younger, but she still knew who she was talking about).

It is such a joy to have nieces and nephews. I am blessed by many, on both sides of my family. To watch them growing up, into the potential people they are becoming, it is one of my greatest pleasures.

Brock 'n Me

My nephew Brock is the most adorable little bugger. He’s my nephew, so I’m allowed to brag. He’s already five years old, or like C-baby said just after she turned 5, “I’m a whole handful now!”

Touché.

(Blog post interrupted as Brock comes over to me to have me fix his toy… and button up his jeans… and give me a kiss.)

You can’t beat that.

Brock only sees us about once/year, being that they live in WY and we live in MN. So he’s still a bit confused as to exactly who I am and how I am related to him. We chatted about this on the way to the grocery store yesterday:

V: “Did you know you are my nephew, and I am your auntie?”

B: “Really? So I’m your nephew? You’re my antie?”

V: “Yup.”


He seemed pretty fascinated by this announcement.

Later that day he quizzed me: “Are you my nephew?”

V: “Nope, you’re MY nephew. I’m your AUNTIE.”

B: “Oh. Where is my Auntie Vicki?”

V: “I am your auntie Vicki.”

B: “No, the other one.”

V: “Oh, you mean, Uncle Kelly.”

B: “Yes, my boy Auntie Vicki.”

OK, so we’re working on that one. Familial relationships really can be confusing. But he’s so adorable. He can even call me “Uncle Kelly” if he wants to.

Punny

Ciara walked into our house today and said:

"It smells like 40-year old Vegan in here!"

Apparently the last several weeks spent cooking from scratch using all the fresh veggies from our CSA, and lots of yummy spices, have lent a certain aroma to our house!


Cheers -

Kalico Kisses

Meet my sweetie, Kali. Kali adopted us a year ago in September. On that day, our champagne tabby, Mojo, was sitting on one of the windowsills in the screen porch, as he often likes to do, when he started hissing and growling and his tail poufed up.

My daughter Ciara happened to hear the commotion and went out onto the back deck to take a look. She couldn't see anything at first in the fringes between woods and lawn, but she heard a tiny mew, and after a bit, spotted this tiny calico kitten coming out of the woods. Ciara ran in the house and called me outside. The kitten seemed skittish, coming up to the deck but not close enough for us to get too close to her. It seemed she wanted to approach us but didn't quite trust us. Finally, when Ciara sat down on the stairs of the deck, the kitten approached her close enough for Ciara to touch her.

We brought her into the screen porch (now emptied of Mojo) and fed her (she was ravenous). She ate and mewed and explored the porch and finally, settled down in my lap for a nap. I was smitten instantly. But of course, we had to find out of somebody lost her. She seemed too sweet to be a stray.

Kelly and Ciara organized the effort to canvas the neighborhood, knocking on doors and posting flyers on every mailbox. Nobody ever claimed her.

That was over a year ago. Kali continues to delight us every day. She has a magic about her, a quality that draws people to her (although I can't say Mojo was too thrilled at the new family addition). She is a little honey, crawling into my lap whenever she has the chance (something Mojo rarely does). And she rarely meows. When she does, it's more like a mew than a meow. Mostly she "talks" to us with little chirrups that sound like questions - "hello? do you still love me?" Of course the answer is always, always, a resounding, "yes!"

There is something so irrisitable about her that it is nearly impossible for me to pass by her without bending over to give her kisses. I'm pretty sure I enjoy them more than she does, but she doesn't complain. And sometimes, she gives them back to me. And I just want to purr.

Cheers -

Victoria