8/7/09 – Friday

Yesterday morning, I met up with Katherine (I’ve mentioned her before as the lady who adopted Kara’s kittens (then River and Inara; now they’re Nate and Dora)) at her barn. For most of the summer we’ve been talking about doing a garden tour, and finally we got our schedules together so I could see her garden and meet her horses.

I got some really good gardening ideas for next year – stuff that will really help save a lot of time in the garden next year – which was worth the trip alone. But THEN I saw her barn and learned some interesting stuff about horses. We waited to see if the horses would come back to the barn so I could meet them, but they were apparently enjoying their foray into the back of the field, so since the mountain(s) wouldn’t come to Mohammed(s), Mohammed(s) jumped on an ATV and went to the mountain(s).

I have never been on an ATV before in my life and holy CRAP was it fun!

We went out to the horses, and they came over and snorted at us and then when they realized we had no treats for them, they gave us the eyes of “Really? Are you kidding me?” and then went back to grazing. They sure were gorgeous.

I got to meet Sarge, Katherine’s sweet 25 year-old horse who recently came back to them. Did you ever imagine that horses can get sunburned? I had no idea! Sarge needed some sunblock smeared on his face, and he was such a sweet, patient guy while it was going on. But once the sunblock was applied and it was clear that we had no treats for him, he was like “WhatEVS. I have grazing to do. YOU ARE DISMISSED.”

“I have to have sunblock smeared on my face AND you brought no snacks for me? What fresh hell is this?”

I didn’t drive the ATV this time around, but she’s promised that next time around I’m totally going to drive it!

(Yes, that shirt is two sizes too big for me. What’s your point?)

(We joked about dying in a tragic ATV accident and how Fred, upon hearing the news, would be saying “But I thought you were just going to look at a garden!”)

It was way too fun. I’ve told Fred we need another 20 acres so we can justify buying an ATV.

Barn cat, of course. This is Bonnie.

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I’ve never weeded a garden, so I take your word for it that it’s boring. I wear my ipod when I have a boring chore to do. Gets me motivated to do it, and keeps me motivated to FINISH it. I use the little band that holds the ipod that goes around your arm (same one I use to work out with) so both my hands are free to scrub the toilet, vacuum, chase down cat-hair tumbleweeds….whatevs. Maybe weeding would be less boring if set to music!

If I didn’t have my iPod to listen to while I was weeding, I would absolutely refuse to weed. I listen to podcasts while I’m weeding (or doing housework or canning), and it makes the task more bearable – but it’s still super boring!

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Every time I see pics of Nance, I can’t help thinking that she looks like a young Christine Baranski.

I can kinda see that!

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I was reading your entry from 8/3/2001 and you mentioned a reporter from Newsweek contacting you about your experience with Pirate’s Booty. What was that all about? Were you actually mentioned in a Newsweek article about Pirate’s Booty?

What happened was that the reporter emailed me, and then I gave her my number (or possibly I called her, I don’t remember) and we talked for about fifteen minutes. Then she called back a few weeks later to confirm a couple of things I’d said.

And then September 11th happened, and I don’t know if they didn’t run the article or if just missed it, or what. So it’s possible that there’s an article about Pirate’s Booty out there that quotes me, but if so I’m not aware of it!

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How is Maxi’s oozey ulcer doing?

Maxi’s nasty head wound seems to be completely healed. She finished her course of antibiotics, and the hole in her head (heh) has scabbed over and looks pretty good. Her face is no longer swollen around her eye, and she’s still got the flat, dead Tony Soprano eyes, she shows up at snack time and picks fights with Joe Bob, so I’d say she’s back to normal!

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I’ve always used “vice-a versa”. Please don’t hate.

I have a different set of expectations for people who misuse phrases in the course of their day to day life than I do for the people who are paid millions of dollars to come up with super-annoying commercials designed to convince me that I need to cram 1/3 pound of nasty-looking meat in my face. In other words, you I will not boycott. McDonalds? I boycotted them for an entire two days until I was driving by one, starving to death, and stopped for an ice cream cone. THAT SHOWED ‘EM.

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Hey Robyn, where’d you get that really cool peace sign/heart t? I love it.

The peace sign/ heart t-shirt I’m wearing in the Dumbversation videos, I got at Kennywood. Nance was looking for a t-shirt and just didn’t like any of the ones she saw, and then I saw the heart/ peace sign one and pointed it out to her. She snatched it out of my hands and ran off with it, but luckily I found another one. So now Nance and I BOTH own those shirts. Too bad she wasn’t wearing hers when we were making the videos, then we REALLY could have looked like the dorks we are.

(Oh, and I haven’t been able to find the t-shirts on the Kennywood page. I guess you have to go there if you want one!)

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I about peed when I saw the pic of the boat! As I said on Fred’s site, is it for when the back 40 floods so you can still access all your property? 🙂

Fred told me we should dig a moat around the back forty, so we can motor around it in the boat. Ha!

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New babies are too cute!!! HEY! Next time you get a batch of girls, you can start naming them after Housewives!!!

I’d love to do that, but someone’s already done it, and the shelter prefers that we use names that haven’t been used in the past. You’d think we’d run out of names, but so far we haven’t – though if I start naming the kittens “7348” and “9845”, you’ll know that we did.

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But to use the boat Fred is going to have to LEAVE Crooked Acres on his own free will. Can he DO that? 😉 Have a blast with it! Wish we had one this summer.

and

I’m totally jealous of the boat, but shocked (SHOCKED, I say!) that Fred would even consider a pastime that took him away from his precious Crooked Acres. What the hell is going to happen if y’all are out past dark??

Fred would like y’all to know that he leaves Crooked Acres sometimes! (And then I said “Yeah, to go to work!” and he had no good reply to that. Heh.)

I do not imagine we will ever be out on the boat after dark – most of the time I’m sure we’ll be using the boat on the weekends, leaving the house at the crack of dawn and coming home mid-afternoon. Although, I half expect his next declaration to be that we should extend the back forty to encompass the maternity yard so George and Gracie can protect those chickens as well, in case we’re out past dark.

He did say the other day that it would be neat “In a few years when the farm is under control” to drive down to Florida and put the boat in the ocean and spend a few days there. The problem is that I don’t know the farm will ever be “under control” as long as we keep adding animals to it. It would be cool, though!

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So, will we be seeing the cats with life saving vests on riding on the boat? Water skiing perhaps???

Fred has mentioned several times that it would be neat to have a cat to take out on the boat with us. I cannot imagine even our most laid-back cat (Tommy) putting up with that, though.

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Favorite all time ever boat name is OSIBAB. I thought it was a foreign word so tried to google it and found out it means “Oh Shit I Bought Another Boat”

LOVE IT.

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“So, hoist up the Stanley B’s sail/See how the mainsail sets/Send for the Captain ashore, let me go home!”

🙂 Honestly, it was the first thing I thought of!

Yeah, Fred’s been alternately singing and whistling that song since I declared that the boat was now the Stanley B.

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The cross-eyed cat is so cute, but its freaking me out. Will he grow out of it? How can he function like that, and I hope someone will adopt him. (i’m a worrin about the little fella)

I don’t know if he’ll grow out of it, but I can assure you that it’s not slowing him down at all. He’s able to see just fine, he runs around like his butt is on fire, and he doesn’t stumble or weave when he runs, either.

I suspect that he’ll be one of the first from his litter to be adopted – the crossed eyes just adds to his charm, and he’s pretty cute to start out with!

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I sure hope life jackets come with that new boat!!

But of course – along with a wake board, a tube, and a bunch of other stuff we won’t use. 🙂

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Thanks to a suggestion from misscrankypants, the kittens are now named! We went with a “True Blood” naming theme this time around, and we have Sookie (the girl, obviously), Lafayette (the black kitten), Terry (the kitten with the diamond shape on his nose), Sam (the biggest kitten), and Hoyt and Bill (the two brown tabbies I can’t tell apart!).

The kittens are ever so slowly warming up to me. Last night Terry let me hold and pet him for a long time, and he even purred for a little while. Lafayette came over and flopped down next to me and demanded a belly rub. The others aren’t actively seeking out being petted, but when I pet them as they run by, they don’t shy away from me, either.

Their eyes are slowly getting better each day – Hoyt and Bill’s eyes are the worst, but I’m treating them multiple times a day with ointment, and I expect by the end of the weekend they’ll be running around with big, bright eyes instead of squinting around with goopy eyes.

I suspect they’ll be glad when I’m no longer trying to put ointment in their eyes, too!

Lafayette. Look at that goofy little face – how can you not love him to bits?

Sam’s the laid-back sweetie pie of the bunch.

Sookie. She’s a bit skittish and she HATES it when I pick her up to put ointment in her eyes, but at least she’s not hiding under the chair all the time now.

“Did you hear that?”

“Banzai! This kitten condo will be MINE!”

I love how Lafayette’s trying to take the condo, and the other two are like “What is he doing?”

He’s hanging on for dear life…

“I meant to do that.”

Sam and his Paw of I’m the Boss.

Hoyt or Bill. Check out the size of that paw!

Kitten pile-on.

Terry gives the Paw of I’m the Boss a try.

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The cats would like me to know it’s Snackin! Time! and I need to get my butt in there and fix them their snack, damnit. (This has been sitting on my hard drive for a while – if you look to the very left, you’ll see Mister Boogers’ angry little face.)

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Previously
2008: Ungrateful fuckers.
2007: Just because we CAN grow something doesn’t mean we SHOULD.
2006: Maine recap.
2005: No entry.
2004: No entry.
2003: Well, except that it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird and all that.
2002: No entry.
2001: I bet the cats are counting the minutes (if cats could count) until we have the yard fenced in and they can go out there.
2000: No entry.