Soup, Book Review and Cat Fights

 Soup is back in the house...  I'm waiting for his first indiscretion to clean up...  He seems so grateful to be inside that he's tried to thank me by tripping me up, rubbing against my ankles whenever I'm standing or trying to walk across the room.  He seems intent on tripping me to my death. ARGGHH

Anyway, Out of the 5 pints of soup, I'll be eating one for lunch today as it didn't seal.

I hope to can some carrots tomorrow.  Jen bought some purple carrots and that should add some serious color to my canning shelves!

For reasons I won't get into, I've been sitting looking at my phone for the past month from 7:30ish to 8:30 or 9ish each night.  So I happened upon a book that was given to me for Christmas. Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano.  I'd only read a couple chapters to begin with and then life went crazy.  I actually finished it last night!

One of a VERY small set of books I've actually read all the way through in the last 4 years, probably my 4th.  And me with a librarian as a son-in-law.  He's probably so ashamed of me.  I start reading a book and my mind wanders and I lose interest a chapter or two in so I return it to the library or put it back on my shelf.  This one regained my interest and since I had to sit anyway, I was a captive audience.  It was really good!  So now, I'll see if our library has any of the rest of the series.

I woke up this morning at 4am to something that sounded like Aggie having a crying screaming fit in the kitchen.  And then I heard something like dishes flying around and crashing. WHA??!

I went downstairs and found nothing and absolute silence.  Aggie's security camera showed her on her bed sleeping.  So I went back upstairs and climbed back into bed.  AND then heard it again louder with more crashing.  I went downstairs and listened.  It was coming from the deck.  At least two cats were having a knock down, drag out, throw down fight.  Lots of howling, hissing and fighting postures.  I flipped on the deck light and it quieted down.  I never actually saw them.  They must have scattered when the light went on.

So I checked out the front porch security camera.

Got you on film, you crazy cats!!!

I had set food out for Soup a couple days ago overnight, but it came in as soon as I caught him.  I think those cats thought I had a smorgasbord nightly and showed up to party.

If only I'd had a shoe handy.

Two Soups

 I actually canned something today.  5 pints of chicken/star noodle soup.  

Made from the chicken bone broth I made yesterday and the chicken meat I pulled off those very same bones several weeks ago.

I forgot to add the dehydrated green peppers.  uggh.  Oh well.  I'll do that on another batch that I may make tomorrow.

Found the cat!  Oh, I may not have told you.  I put our cat, Soup, the non-housetrained one, in the garage a couple mornings ago because I was disgusted and the weather was getting nicer.  THEN had to open the garage door briefly. Of COURSE he sneaked out but we didn't notice right away until I noticed he hadn't touched the food I placed out for him. I saw Soup on the security cameras yesterday so knew he was around.  So last night, I had the garage door open 5 inches, left food and the litterbox in the garage and put a security camera on the opening.

I closed the garage door this morning and then sat out there calling Here kitty kitty kitty!  and out he came, looking for food.

HA!  silly cat.  

And you would have gotten away with it too!!  If it weren't for my brilliant trap skills!

What In The World Have I Been Up To?

 The weekend started off swell!  Frank tried to be Evel Knievel and walk on the upstairs railing.  I have NO idea how often he's tried this that I haven't noticed.  Leon was on the couch behind me and saw him.

Silly cat.

Maddy and Matthew stayed over on Friday night and we went on a self designed 2K walk instead of the usual 5K that we go on for Scandinavian Days.  We wanted to go at our own pace and bring the dogs.  It was going to be a 5K of our own choosing, but ended up around the 2.  We walked past Meri's house and she ran out with some water for each of us. :) Just like a real triathlon or something!

Then we all met up for the parade and coffees.

And our favorite countryside market float gave out watermelon slices! mmmmm

Meri and Ryan

Aggie even enjoyed the festivities and got to meet Robb and my former bosses across the street!

Yep - she's one of our clan!!  She's got the McVal look.

We moseyed down the town and visited a craft fair, had lunch by the pool and then explored the park activities as we had seen a sign for Silly Sally!  

We saw a woman in a tent doing face paints and the girls got ALL nostalgic, "It's HER!!" but the line to get up for painting was super long.  So the girls decided to have their picture taken with her discretely...  without bothering her while she concentrated on a little butterfly for a little girl.

See them in the background? lol!

THEN went around the corner and saw the ACTUAL Sally!!!  The line was much shorter and we got to visit with old neighbors while we waited.

The girls got their pics with her again and also got balloon animals!!

Silly Sally was the entertainment for both Maddy's 3rd birthday party 

AND Meri's 3rd birthday party a few years later!  

Sally was pleased that some satisfied former clients came to see her.

After all the festivities, I spent the afternoon and evening burning branches and old bits of our patio room.  Will have to do more of that in the upcoming weeks.  Leon and Ryan joined me and we made s'mores.  I also dug into the woods and cut down lots more branches and weeds so that Leon could explore the woods easier.

Every time I feel like I should get some things done outside, I look for a new project instead of the stuff I should ACTUALLY work on.  Is that a bad thing?

The poor plants I have laid out for planting need to get IN the ground!!!  Maybe today.

Maybe not.

Full of What?!

 Life has been full!  Not all because of this little girl but she IS fun.  I can't believe she'll be 4 months in a couple weeks!

I made my sample batch of Hawaiian rolls last weekend in prep for our personal family Thanksgiving this Sunday.  I'm making turkey sliders.  The rolls are SO good! I made another couple batches yesterday and plan to make two more as soon as the bread machine pans come out of the dishwasher.  I have two bread machines so double your carbs in half the time! :)

The recipe is HERE in case you want to try it in your bread machines.  Google for a different recipe if you don't have a machine.

A few months ago, I was taking garbage to our local waste reclamation center and I found two heavy duty bookcases!  I know, right?!  EEWWW, they're from the dump???!!!  Another mans junk... was tucked into my van!

They sat in the garage until this week when I decided to clean up one of them and set it up in the Livingroom.  It looks like it should have been there the whole time!  Jen called dibbys on the other one so that'll go downstairs this weekend.

And yes, we have a security camera in the living room.  Don't do anything stupid in there or it will be recorded for proof later!  If we think to look at the recordings...

Kevin seems to love it.  So I left that side of the shelf just for him.  Games that we don't play a lot are on the lower shelves to free up the actual game cabinet a little better.  It was getting too crowded.

And in line with my church's Bible study theme, I found this mug online!

Who can I give it to? hmmm

Kevin is leaning on the sill with his elbows...  What a crazy cat.  Frank must have been in the garage.

Here is a tip for when to pull the turkey out of the freezer for next week, unless you're doing sliders of course, because then you'd buy sliced meat.

Leon will be here for the weekend and if he's home in time, we'll get an episode of Dr. Who in.  And if I don't get back to my blog before next week, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Cats, Fairs and Babies, oh my!

Cat sitting for Meri and letting each cat get the cuddles they need or will allow me to attempt.

This one, Curry, is the cuddliest.

I brought home my porch goose from the fair yesterday!  I enjoyed the comments and they liked the serged edges and for 20 minutes I couldn't figure out their handwriting for one comment, but realized much later that they said, "Good use of "... "wire".  Looked like woorre.

BUT they liked it.  I'll try something even MORE glam for my goose for next year and I'm taking suggestions.

The kids offered me Agnes today and I'll take her whenever I can get her.  I didn't see her at all yesterday and was having Aggie withdrawal.

Sated.  Now to help them find the pacifiers that have gone missing!

Oh and Taco Tuesday people!  Need to thaw out some hamburger.

Scary Situations

 I came downstairs to this, this morning...  Creepy Molly, waiting by the front door.

But waiting for what?...

And when I got the house resided last fall, they mentioned that the deck was pulling away from the house... YIKES!!!  I thought we'd have some time and we probably do.  But then I was talking to my brother yesterday and mentioned the deck thing.  I walked out in the cold to see if I could find evidence of what had been reported to me and found this...  I sent him this picture, then walked all the way around the house instead of going back by way of the deck.

The desk is verboten for now.

It appears to only be on one side of the deck.  My brother got nervous about it, telling me about a deck that collapsed once and hurt a young couple and their realtor.  He said, "just rip off the deck and build it again." WHA??!!!  I can't afford that!  So he called me the next day and said that he'd be nearby this weekend for a ski day and would stop by my place the next day and check it out, maybe fixing it for me!  

I need to buy some steaks JUST in case he's able to fix it.  Jen's dad might be here that day too and assist.

If they're not able to fix it, then I'll probably just make some Hamburger Helper for lunch...

Might need to save my pennies to get some pros in.

Weekend Update

 Is SNL even still on the air?? 

Anywho... The weekend.

Friday

I made vegetable broth in the IP with some frozen brocoli stalks, a bunch of celery that looked like it was about to go south as well as a whole packet of jalopenos that I hadn't used at all.  I don't even remember what I was going to do with them.  Oh yeah, stuffed jalopenos!  I added some other veggies too, like an onion, garlic, seasonings, etc and let it cook for 40 minutes.  Strained it out and let it cool before jarring it up to can. 

There was half an ounce left in that I couldn't squeeze into a jar, so I poured it into a cup and took a zip. PROMPTLY spitting it out in the sink.  WHOA!  I have just created fire broth and that is exactly what I labeled it with when it got done pressure canning!  I'm going to make spicy chicken tortilla soup this week for Taco Tuesday dinner!  I WILL dilute it a ton with some chicken broth tho. WOW is that potent!

Later that evening, I went into my sewing room with GOOD intentions.  Maddy, Matthew, Meri and Ryan were over to play D&D with Ryan and Jen and we'd just had some awesome meatball subs.  Well, needless to say, I didn't stay in the sewing room long.  I found Leon and said, HEY!  Let's find a movie to watch together!  He did.  He chose The Santa Clause 3 movie.  Eh I'm always in the mood for a Christmas movie and hadn't seen that one yet.   We watched about half and he took off to do something else.  No problem...  I'm almost done with Season 8 in Modern Family anyway.  

Saturday 

I met up with the local widow group and had a wonderful time!  There were 6 of us there and we talked about all the things that you don't really talk to your family or friends about.  AHHH...  Oh and you know those pre-packaged treats I brought to make sure no one got sick because of me and Ryan had been eyeing?  No one ate them. A few other people had brought homemade treats and we ate those instead. And that was TOTALLY ok.  Ryan, Jen and Leon dove into the little Debby snack cakes when I got home.

Gave blood/plasma after lunch and then went to Joann's to meet up with Meri.  I called her a few minutes before 2 to make sure she was on her way.  It was her first day off without anything to do and she was taking advantage of it!  I woke her up...  :) So I bought a yard of each of the fabrics that she sent me the photos of to play with.

Maddy and Matthew were going to go on a walk with the "girls" and invited me!  I had worn capri leggings because SOMEONE said it was going to be 40 degrees out on Saturday.  It did end up to be 40 but there was a breeze and it felt like -10.  So because I had a little time, I went thrifting and found a pair of sweatpants to slip on over my leggings.  I LOVE THEM!  I also found lots of other cool things too...  

I met up with those two around the lake and we walked with the girls for almost 1.5 miles!  

The views were beautiful and Matthew identified swans from a long distance away.  

I zoomed in and yep I think they're swans too.  We're right, aren't we?

Got home and after relaxing a bit, played Battleship with Leon.  He won!  And as big of a sore loser as he CAN be, he's almost that sore of a winner... :/  "Grandma, you had them all touching! You're not supposed to do that!"  So he felt like I gave it to him.  I didn't.  I just couldn't find where he'd hidden the last ship on his board...  For him, you can bet that it's somewhere on the edges.

Sunday

Maddy, Matthew, Meri, her bf Ryan, Leon and I attended church together.  It was quite a crowd!  On our row anyway.  So many people were out of town.  Meri got to hold little Adele, who is an absolute doll.  Doesn't she look like one of those little porcelain dolls?  And her hair was french braided!! *gasp*

Afterwards, I picked up three six pack and a pound from Taco Johns and made Leon do the math on the way home for how many tacos each person gets.  Everyone was coming to the house for lunch and laundry facilities.  So. 8 people. 2 tacos each with 2 leftover.  Leon couldn't even finish one so I got 2.5 tacos and then there were 4 or 5 leftover.  Apparently not everyone was in the mood for tacos! :) And that's ok!

Maddy and Matthew brought some pop and beef sticks over to replenish my fridge stock and Maddy made banana bread and apple bread!  I gained 3 pounds this weekend. :)

I did do some sewing, well... cutting, on Sunday afternoon.  And I also visited with Ada for a bit which was great!  I got the sample bodice cut out with the actual chosen fabric and two variations of the shoulders.  NOT sure how that's going to play out yet, but the bride will have some options.  I did run to Joann's again for some tulle that I'd missed on Saturday. They're going to know me well there...

Meri and Ryan came back later that evening and I hadn't planned a big supper so told them to scrounge in the fridge.  They found some food and then played some more D&D with Ryan and a couple other friends who showed up for it.

Leon and I finished the Santa Clause 3 movie and look what I found on the step landing that evening!  Our renter, Dylan's cat, Molly, cozying up to our Sorsha statue! :) cute.

AND a text from my niece Sarah, who was interested in making yogurt in her IP! 

How did it turn out Sarah?

Oh and I had bought some Christmas solar lights for the cemetery and every time I drove past it at night, I can't see the lights from the road until I happened to notice it on Saturday, early evening.  They look so nice!  They must just lose their power by the time it gets a LOT darker though.

Anyway that was my much needed weekend after the heck work week I had last week. 

May this week be a LOT more calm...

I did just have a co-worker ask if it was a mistake that I JUST took next Tuesday off and why not Monday too.  She apologized when she found out why and changed the subject.  

I'm not going to be in the mood to deal with work that day.

I know I need to be doing something...

I may be tired...  but....

I'm getting used to my new cell phone... But there are some things I could change on it. 

For example, when I do voice to text and the app puts a totally wrong word than what I said in...  On my old phone, I could click on that word and it would give me other options, but on this one, I have to switch to keyboard and fix it manually...  REALLY?!

Oh well.  There's probably a setting somewhere that I missed.

AND when I'm trying to wake it up and I keep accidentally taking a picture of the screen instead OR turning on the Bixby app, like I know what THAT'S for... sigh...

I'm getting used to our new-to-me mini van... But there are some things I could change on it too.

For example, when I turn the car off and leave my cell phone plugged in for charging, the charging mechanism doesn't charge with the car off.  It did on my old car.  hmmm...  There's probably a setting or I just have to get used to it.  I don't want to leave my car in accessory mode with the key in while I go shop!

Oh well.  I'll get used to it.  As Robb always says... A.B.C.  

Always Be Chargin'.

I worked out alone again today, but it's ok.  As long as I have the Flashdance soundtrack on my Youtube app, I'm just fine!  

However Robb did say that it's pretty loud...  

Ummm  Maniac is supposed to be loud...

And it gets my heart rate up while I'm on the treadmill.

Yesterday, Meri asked me over to help her build her cat patio.  Catio.

I wore my mask and we got to work.  I had several posts from a freecycle catch and some wire.  She screwed in 2 screws per post and we wired one of her old dog kennels to them.  I need to find a couple of our bungee cords for her to attach it to the house window with, but for now, it's just fine.

Fitz hates it with a passion.  Ranch LOVES it!  I guess it's for him.  And Nugget was sleeping and Meri didn't disturb him.

Of course the weather is heating up here, so it can't be open very much, but I got to thinking about that too.  

What if... Meri put a sliding door up on the wall in her kitchen to block off the laundry room and keep all the cool air in the house?...  And maybe a cat door on the sliding door?...  hmmm

We have the hardware for it, just not the door.  Well, MAYBE the door!  again.. hmmm....

That's what I think about when I wake up at 2:30am and can't get back to sleep.

Except for the constant diet pop caffeine drip, it's going to be a long day.

Catching Up, Kids, Kittens and Nostalgia

It's been a crazy week.  I'm not sure how many blog posts I start this way, but this is definitely one of them.

So last Friday, when I was a gecko.  My finger rotary blade wound is healing nicely.  I still like to keep it covered because it grosses out people if I don't.  AND it feels better to type and do anything with it bound up.  

It'll be a good scar to use as an ice breaker at a party, I'm sure.

Also on Friday, I went to lunch with Leon.  Had a fun time and even attended recess with them after lunch.  His best friend, THAT day.  

I don't even remember the kid's name...

They found sticks and were throwing Harry Potter type spells at each other.  Apparently that's a thing these days at recess...

And Leon showed off his mad gymnastic skills.

On Saturday I got to attend the monthly ASG sewing meeting and that got me excited to get going on the Christmas presents that I'm working on.  I spent a lot of the rest of the day sewing.

Sunday after church, I did a ton of shopping.  Meri came with me and filled up her own cart.  To be added onto mine when we checked out.  I found turkeys for 59 cents a pound at Aldi!  I also got the largest turkeys I could find for 87 cents a pound for our big Thanksgiving reunion.  

I had another stop to make before heading home, so Meri and I parted ways and when I finally got home with my turkeys, Meri was at MY house!  I unloaded the car and found Meri, Robb and her kitten, Bish in the living room.

ummm What's going on?

Meri hadn't been home a lot over the weekend because she'd had various play performances and rehearsals.  When she got home with her groceries, she discovered that her tiny kitten, Bish, was not replying to her call at all.  So she left the groceries on the kitchen floor and went on a hunt.  FOUND her in one of her spare bedrooms with the door shut!  How Bish got in there, we don't have a clue.  Meri's other cat, Fitz, hates Bish, so I'm thinking conspiracy.

What probably happened was that Bish ran into the room when Meri went in for something and she didn't notice.  Anyway, Bish had been locked up in the room for over a day.  She was NOT doing well at all.  Pretty lethargic...

Meri put her up in her bathroom with soft food and kept an eye on her until Monday when we got Bish in at our local vet.  After a day and a half, the vet finally called and gave us the news that Bish was going to make it.  She was just a tiny kitten and didn't have a lot of reserves built up to withstand a fast like that...  So since Bish needed to have some formula and soft food fed to her every 3 - 4 hours, I offered to keep Bish at my house.  

 

Meri still had the plays to deal with and her daycare, which keeps her hopping throughout the day.  She'll take her home this weekend.

Bish is doing a LOT better and eating the food I give her every 3-4 hours still.  I let her go all night last night though and she wolfed down her breakfast this morning.  With any luck, she'll start using the litter box again soon instead of being too weak to move and just go on the floor...

I'm sure being around Fitz will correct that.

On Monday, while Bish was at the vet, I worked from Meri's house so she could make her vet run.  Monday's are a big day at her house with the most kids and a baby so I hung out until after she got her afternoon kids down for a nap and held the baby.  He's so cute!

The kids she cares for are a hoot. 

This one loves to tackle Fitz and even though Fitz sounds like he hates it, he doesn't run away.  If he didn't like it, he'd have run the kitchen behind a gate, but he secretly adores being manhandled by toddlers.

On Tuesday afternoon, I was there late in the day to drop off some things.  I asked Meri if she'd read Ten in a Bed to one of the boys, as he'd just handed me the book.  "Oh yeah, they didn't like it."

WHAT???!!!  You guys loved that book!  Especially when I sang it!
"No way!" Says she, "It's a song?"

Yep - come here Micha!  Let's read!

So I got on the couch with one of boys curled up next to me and sang the book, stopping and reading the parts where Rabbit falls out of bed, BONK!  Or Croc falls on the floor, THUD! etc.

I was down to 4 animals on the bed with the child when the boy's dad walked in.  Whoops!  We'll continue this book on another day then!

That wasn't as embarrassing as when on Monday, I was reading a Pooh book to the kids and no one was paying attention to me except Meri and I didn't notice her until it was too late.  She recorded me reading and showing the kids the pictures even though they had their backs to me.  Then she posted it on Instagram or whatever social media was developed to embarrass your parents without them seeing.

Ugg.

Then last night, I found this at Aldi!!!!!  My Aldi Nerd group on FB said this was all the rage these days so I bought in.  and I believe it!  My family used to have one of these back in the 70s and I loved it!  My mother-in-law has one but it's downstairs and I wanted my own.  

There were only 3 left at our store and one of those were white.  Um no...  That's just not natural...

So I grabbed one of the green ones.  As I was getting ready to go check out, I saw a "try me" button on it and I tried it.  It didn't light up.  So I went back to the AOS (Aisle of Surprises, Shame, Specials) and tried out the remaining green one.  WHEW!!!  It worked!

If only it wasn't so dark, you'd be able to see my tree strapped into the car seat...

It's adorable.  And I'm so glad I have it to remind me of my past!

Anyway, there you are.  A quick catch up to today.  A hohum day.

A day when I wish I'd gotten more sleep.

Those silly dogs started howling in the middle of the night because of some thunder and lightning that I didn't even notice.  sigh...  Made it to morning but I do need more caffeine to get me through this day.

Off to find some.  Have a great Thursday!

The Cat's Meow

I got the curtains for Maddy and Matthew shipped off yesterday!  Woohoo!  Something OUT the door!  However I forgot to include the felt chair pads (for the feet of the chairs on hardwood floors) that I accidentally brought home with me.  Sorry Maddy!  That'll have to come when we bring Duke.

 On Sunday I got to browse through sewing mags for something to inspire me to sew for ME!  I found some shorts and traced out the pattern from a Burda mag from 2004.  How different can they be from modern day shorts?!  

After two failed attempts... I'll be starting some today that I hope will make the cut.  The first pair had four pleats in the front and looked like I'd surgically moved my hips to the front of my waist line.  Not a good look for me...  

The second pair, I took the pleats out and even put in the zipper and waistband before trying them on all the way.  And that's when I realized that pleats would have been good to disguise what my stomach really looks like.  People don't want to see that...  So I may make them in denim so it acts as a girdle...  sigh...  

I sent a selfie of myself in the dentist chair yesterday to Robb.  He said he's going to make it his profile pic.  Yikes!!!  I'm not even going to show that to you.

And this is what I look like when Meri's cat, Fitz, wants to rub his face and chin all over mine when all I want to do is sit and look through magazines and visit.  

What a needy cat!

He does this to Robb all the time too.  I guess it's because of Robb's beard.  

So what does that say about me?

Pride and Fitz

 Introducing Fitzwilliam Darcy...

Meri and her (August) roommates decided they needed a cat for their place, so OF COURSE they need to start looking now...  Which was a mistake because they fell in  love with the first Maine Coon they found at the shelter.  AND none of the other roommates can have Fitz in their homes until the apartment is a reality, so he's living with us and 4 dogs.  

He seems to be fitting in just fine, so his name is suitable.  And he's SUCH a friendly cat.  

The light in the living room was so bright yesterday or it would SO look like Fitz's body is super long with human legs...  AND that he has opposable thumbs.

As you can guess, Meri changed his name.  It WAS MeMe (aka Meow Meow) and is now Fitzwilliam Darcy because Pride & Prejudice.  Those girls and Darcy...  Well, I like Darcy too.

Meri doesn't want to nickname him Fitzy, but I've been calling him that in my head.  So out

loud, he's just Fitz.

So I guess we're cat people now.

Wrapping things up

I forgot all about Science night last night after dinner...  ARGhhh...  Robb was going to help me out but I think we both forgot.  We were going to do the dancing cornstarch/water mixture on a speaker with the boy.  He's not available tonight or tomorrow so I guess we'll do it next week instead.  

However I did complete the bridesmaid dress alterations and some curtains.  Then Meri got home from work and while she ate, she and I went through her new year book from last year, that just got passed out yesterday.  

Leon found some masking tape and made himself into a ninja with it as well as wrapped up the furniture and our legs....  

Bring me that roll!!!

He was so adorable and creative with it that I won't add the tape to the list of things he'll have to pay me back for someday...

:)  I don't really have a list, but once Robb and I tallied up how much one of the kids cost us in one year alone, birth not included.  yikes!!!  That was a bad year...

We'll just pretend that's an orthodontist bill or college... 

When Ryan was born, I had started a little diary and only kept that up for about 1 day.  But in it, I did write down how much everything baby related had cost so far.  

Kind of a time capsule thing.  NOT a bill!!!  But he took it as that when he found it much later.

Hmmm.. If he wants to pay us back, then okey dokey!

Anyway, I don't know where I was going with this post today.  But I'll wrap it all up now before it sounds like I'm a vindictive mother.

So here is Leon this morning, with Oreo, the neighborhood cat that every kid claims for their own.

Quote from another kid down the street who yelled to us one morning when Leon was playing with Oreo at the bus stop.  "HEY!  SEND OREO OVER HERE!  I've known Oreo ALL MY LIFE!"

Yeah yeah...  then why isn't Oreo over there instead of HERE licking Leon's hand...  I didn't yell back but I COULD have.  Oreo spent some time the next day over with the other kid before the bus came and Leon was all out of sorts that day.

Actually that was the first time we learned the cat's name!  Before then it was "friend".

I'm just glad Oreo hung out on our sidewalk today.  Whew!  I could do with less tears this week...

NOW I'm wrapping it up!  With masking tape.