2 comments

Lo and Behold: Cat Treats.

2011
12.30

So today I was stuffing recipes back into my book, and turned over the dog treat recipe, and lo and behold… a recipe for cat treats.  I don’t recall ever seeing it before, in all the years I’ve owned that recipe.

This is where I’d like to borrow a fabulous expression from my witty sister Kim: “Huh.”

Since most of my friends are cat people, I thought I’d add this recipe for holiday treats for the furry ones, though I admit I have neither cooked nor tested these out. But some vet has, so go with that.

Holy Mackerel Treats for Cats

1/2 cup canned mackerel, drained and crumbled

(Like I’d buy a whole can of mackerel for… oops! Guess who’s sitting on the desk?)

1 cup whole grain bread crumbs

1 teaspoon vegetable oil or bacon grease

1 egg, beaten

1/2 teaspoon brewers years (Optional, but it adds fatty acids and B-complex vitamins and can deter fleas, says the vet. I’m not sure Mittens needs anything more to complete her fatty acids, if you get my drift.)

Heat oven to 350. (Just think… if you’re baking the dog treats, the oven’s all ready!) Combine all ingredients; mix well. Drop dough by 1/4 teaspoonfuls about 1″ apart on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool and store in the refrigerator for 3 weeks, or freeze for up to 1 year. (Or six, if you have a memory like mine. Be sure to mark the freezer bag so you don’t end up giving them to a neighbor for Christmas.)

So there ya go!

"She's never cooked for me, but sometimes I lick the butter off her toast when she's reading the newspaper."

"A fellow might like a treat every so often. One that didn't come out of a foil pouch. Know what I mean?"

Happy new year from our house to yours!

Category Uncategorized |

3 comments

Liver Brownies for the Four-Footed.

2011
12.29

I took a picture of all these dogs on my street corner, sniffing the air while I baked liver brownies.

Well, of course that didn’t really happen, as you can tell by the quality of the photo. If I had taken a photo of a group of dogs anywhere on earth, it might look more like this:

But anyway. You get the idea that I’m talking about dogs, right?

They love treats. I don’t have a dog, but if I did, I’d bake these for him every month.

I probably posted this recipe last Christmas, but it bears repeating. Also soothes my guilty conscience for not updating more often. Dogs love this stuff. It’s a little messy to make, but the aroma is sort of nice, and the treats freeze well and last forever, unless there’s a dog in the house. I found this recipe years ago in a veterinary magazine, so the recipe is vet approved. And dog approved, which is really more important:

Liver Brownies

1 lb beef or pork liver

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup corn meal

2 Tablespoons garlic salt

1 Tablespoon garlic powder

Heat oven to 350. Puree all ingredients in a food processor or blender. (I usually puree the liver by itself in a blender, pour it into a bowl, and mix all the other ingredients in with a spoon.) Spread the mixture into a 9×13″ greased baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until the mix loses its pink color. Cool and break into pieces. Store (covered, unless you want everything in your refrigerator to smell like garlic) for up to three weeks, or freeze up to one year.

Easy peasy.

Happy New Year to all!

PS: “I think it was a dog what stole my collar last summer. And I’d like it back.”

PPS: Pay no attention to the feline.

Category Food, Random Thoughts |

5 comments

Merry Christmas and Everything Else.

2011
12.23

I’ve been reading a lot of blogs and looking at pictures of incredible people who not only make their own lavish presents, but also make their own paper, ribbons, and probably their own version of Scotch tape. These homes are immaculate, decorated tastefully with fresh pine boughs, silver ribbons and tall goblets of fragile silver bulbs on linen tablecloths with gleaming china.

Seriously?

My house looks something like this. (Not pictured: two cats and three litter boxes):

Okay, it’s not MY house, as you probably guessed since the picture quality is too good, but it’s similar to mine.

Like most of you, I have spent the past few weeks baking, wrapping, entertaining, visiting, buying, shopping, cooking, decorating, writing cards, calling friends, going to work and trying to keep up with volunteer duties. There are no fresh mistletoe boughs, pine sprigs or pretty vegetable and brie trays adorning my dining room table. I can barely find my dining room table.

Several years ago I was a professional house cleaner. I enjoy house cleaning. Chaos makes me crazy. I like to think my house is always ready for company, including food in the freezer and clean sheets in the guest room, just in case.

But during the holiday season, it all goes to hell.

Fresh pine boughs? You have got to be kidding me. The best I could do was five clear Mason jars with citronella tea candles in the sun porch windows. Simple and kinda pretty. And completely mosquito-free!

Still, I love this season. I love writing out cards and catching up with friends and going to visit and having people drop in for coffee. Chaos be damned, it’s a great time of year.

So some time next week, the clutter will be lifted, the house will be cleaned, the cats will have fresh litter in their boxes, and all will be right(er) with the world.

Hope the same can be said for you. Thank you for being a reader this year, even if you’re just lurking. (I do it, too. But maybe leave a note next year? I will if you will.) Thanks for the presents, the cards and notes, the visits and the invites. Thanks for making the world a funner place.

Write if you get a chance.

And have yourself a merry little Christmas!

Category Uncategorized |

5 comments

The Lettmans and Other Roadside Attractions.

2011
12.14

Oh, the Thanksgiving weekend was such a blast! It’s taken me weeks to get over it, so now is a good time to update my blog, and this time I won’t put any tomatoes in it, as someone requested today.

I was invited to spend Thanksgiving weekend with the Lettmans at their new home in Thief River Falls, and I was eager to get on the road with my shiny new car. (New in 2004, anyway.) The weather was perfect (no coat required, which is always a good thing in Minnesota) and Highway 2 winds its way through some interesting little towns that I hadn’t seen before.

There are some great road signs on this trip, too, and places I didn’t know we had: Savanna River and Swan Lake, for instance. In Minnesota? Who knew? I also liked Pin Cherry Road, Schoolcraft Park, Gosh Dam Place, the Big Fish Supper Club (attached to a really big fish!) and, in the land of casinos, an aptly named Sucker Bay. One I particularly liked was Lost River, and I tell you, it isn’t lost at all, but right there under that bridge.

I was listening to Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bookends” album on the trip, and “Hazy Shade of Winter” seemed especially appropriate, with that ending line, “Look around — there’s a patch of snow on the ground.” And so there was.

Where’s my friend Jean when I need her? Roadside animals aren’t nearly as much fun if she’s not there to be bitten by a lion, kicked by a stag or swallowed by a big fish. (Or lying in the grass to look up the tunic of the Jolly Green Giant, but that’s a whole other story.) But use your imagination!

Okay. So I didn’t practice cropping photos in my spare time. Sue me.

And hey: Thanks to the wonderful folks at Cass Lake who maintain a clean, well-lit and welcoming roadside rest area.  (No photo necessary.)

Highway 59 winds around lots of wide open spaces before it brings you to the town of Thief River Falls, which seems to be a small town with lots going on. But my goal was to spend time with the Lettmans, and here they are:

Let me say they are not actually that formal at home. They’re a lot more casual, and I don’t think any of them actually sit still for that long, so I’m not sure how the photographer did it. But what a great picture. And here are the 3 kids, Henry, Mahalia and Lydia, who are silly and smart and thoughtful, and fun to be around. Mahalia (in the red sweater) gave up her girly-girl room for me while I was there, and I appreciated the cozy bed and the curtains with little jewels in them that looked like stars shining in the night sky. Lydia (in the red scarf) is now a very special young lady who spent much of her time drawing; a talent those kids no doubt inherited from their folks. Henry is a bundle of boyish energy (where do they GET that?) but a good break-dancer, too.

These beautiful Lettman photos were taken by Sara K. Callavin of Two Harbors, MN, who does some very nice work. Credit where credit is due.

As soon as I arrived, I learned we were heading out to a local animal shelter to pick out two nice cats for the family. I don’t think I even took my coat off! I wanted to be screeching down the driveway before Mr L changed his mind. (Of household pets he is not a fan.) It took a while to find two that seemed absolutely right, so we brought them home, after a stop along the way to buy litter, a litter box, toys, food, dishes and a brush. Even felines require some of life’s little necessities.

The cats didn’t “settle in” so much as one of them taking over the entire house like he’d always lived there, and the other immediately hiding behind the washing machine. Your yin and yang deal.

A nice surprise at dinner was the Badger Shrine, set up in the corner of the dining room, complete with candles and an offertory. I might have missed it, but I was happy to see it as I’m pretty sure that may be the only plaster cast of a badger in the entire state. (For those of you who refuse to shop at Salvation Army, this is what you’re missing.) I did leave an offering, though I’m not sure badgers like gum.

On Saturday we were off to East Grand Forks, ND, for a day of thrift shopping. What fun! I found some wonderful treasures, including books, clothes, old embroidered dish towels, Christmas decorations and other stuff too numerous to mention. What a blast to peruse junk in another state. (SO much different from junk in Minnesota.) Just kidding. Seemed odd to me that a big college town like that (home of UND) didn’t seem to have any bookstores, or at least none that I could see. No lack of fast food places, though. (Not a complaint. Just an observation.)

I left on Sunday, enjoying a leisurely drive back home through Bemidji and Grand Rapids, and stopped often to check out shops or walk around for a bit. What’s more fun than a road trip? Nothing.

Thanksgiving comes close, though. It’s like Christmas without the presents, and this year my sister Be fixed a fabulous dinner for all of us. I didn’t take a picture of the family together, but I did take a picture of the beautifully set table before we were seated.

My creative sister Steff made this vegetable turkey, which made me laugh. I couldn’t bear to eat any part of it. I hope she still has it. Maybe she could freeze it for next year.

Here’s a Thanksgiving picture of my great niece Gabriella with her mom and auntie Katie:

And here’s a picture of my other great-niece, Madison, who could not be sweeter:

So that was my wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, reminding me again how much I have to be thankful for: a wonderful family, wonderful friends, thrift shops and badger statues, and Minnesota roads to explore. I hope yours was just as happy!

Category Family, Food, Random Thoughts |

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You Say Tomato…

2011
12.03

Rick insists some tomatoes do have wings, and sent this photo as proof. I think this one had some human intervention, but who am I to say?

This one’s obviously a lady tomato. (Holy cow! Look at the… well, never mind.)

This one’s just plain confused. I think it was going to be four tomatoes, but then it got lazy, like I am about updating my blog:

This one’s obviously a bunny. I don’t know who the lady is behind it, but she seems to be enjoying the view.

And this is not a tomato, but a picture of Mittens (“Miss Pinch,” a name you’d understand if you ever tried to brush her coat) helping me get ready for a weekend trip. Which I will write about as soon as I have more time. Right now I am creating a Christmas pot that nobody is going to think came from Martha Stewart, but you can drive by and have a look. Free!

Happy Saturday!

Category Food, Random Thoughts |

3 comments

Oy, The Tomatoes.

2011
11.22

Not to be outdone, Cathy (World Domination Cathy, not Salt Shaker Kathy) sent this photo of a tomato from her very garden. This one clearly is sporting a mohawk and a bit of a mullet. Anyone can see that! I wonder why she planted it that way, but I guess that’s her secret. This one should be used in advertising, I think. Maybe a promo for tomato juice or something:

And if that weren’t enough, she sent this little stare-down photo, too.

It’s raining tomatoes!

Got some good ones? Send us a pic! But remember… we already have a one-armed tomato.

Well, mohawks make me think of “Glee,” so I’ll close for now and go watch it.

Maybe they’ll sing some tomato songs.

Category Food, Random Thoughts |

6 comments

Holy cow …

2011
11.20

… Look at the ass on that tomato!

That little joke pops into my brain every time I see a picture of a donkey or a tomato. Years ago when I was a teenager (before electricity) my friend Sue’s dad carried around a little card in his wallet, which he once shared with us. There was a picture of a cow with holes punched in it, and next to that, a large tomato on which stood a donkey. “Holy cow,” Tony said, “look at the ass on that tomato.”

I thought it was high hilarity because I was kind of a dumb kid, and also because I didn’t realize “tomato” might also refer to a woman, which of course changed the entire joke, and made me wonder what was wrong with Tony. But that’s another story for another day.

Another thing that made me think of it was a photo, sent to me by my friend Rick, upon seeing my tomato teapot and salt and pepper shakers. He grew these during his years as a farmer in Maine, and aren’t they wonderful? He saw the correlation and so do I, and I hope you will, too. I mentioned that even though one of the tomatoes looked like a rubber ducky and the other only had one arm, I still loved them and hoped he would send them immediately, though I guess since the photo is dated 1984, they may no longer exist. (“1984: The Big Brother Tomatoes.”) Rick says that is obviously not an arm but a nose, but of course that is incorrect. Anyway, a timely photo, and I wonder what you see?

Speaking of tomatoes and cows, here’s a sort-of recipe for prize winning chili. I know this because I make it all the time, and a few weeks ago I won a prize for it, which I can prove by this photo, in which they made me wear this stupid hat:

I’m not going to list the measurements… part of the fun of chili (and the laziness of the writer) is that you can add and subtract to your own tastes, and the stuff will still be wonderful.

Start with a chuck roast, about 3 pounds. If you think hamburger belongs in chili, you’re on the wrong page, so to speak. Cut the roast up into small chunks, about a half inch by half inch. In a heavy stew pot or dutch oven, brown the beef in some olive oil. Add some onions and chopped garlic. When the beef is browned, add a can or two of tomatoes. (Holy cow! Look at… I’m sorry. I can’t help that automatic connection.)

Cook this concoction for a long long long long time, until the beef is sort of tender. Hours. Perhaps days.

Then, add the other ingredients, like finely chopped celery and carrots, diced green and red peppers, more onions, red and/or kidney beans, and spices that you like. I use cumin, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper, garlic powder, and sometimes even an envelope of chili spices that you find in the grocery store, 3 for 99 cents. I add the spices near the end of the cooking so that they don’t cook out. I may be forgetting some ingredient, but it’s nothing “secret,” and you can put whatever you like in your chili.

I always make it at least one day ahead of time, because I think it tastes better when it’s been refrigerated overnight, and the ingredients have time to marinate, or infuse, or whatever that word is. Serve it with grated cheese, sour cream, a few green onions, and some really good bread or rolls on the side.

If you’re taking it somewhere, transfer it to a crock pot and heat it up when you get there. Don’t cook the whole thing in the crock pot, because crock pot food isn’t so good, and that would change the whole beautiful texture of this stuff.

Honestly, it’s great. Would I have this apron if it didn’t mean something?

No, sir.

I wouldn’t steer you wrong.

“Steer.” Get it?

Category Uncategorized |

2 comments

Of Blogs and Barley.

2011
11.08

I read a lot of blogs. If I have a lot of time on my hands, I usually look for random blogs to see who’s saying what. I especially like blogs about food, hospice work, or the lives of people my age, especially women. As someone who’s generally curious about other people’s lives (there’s another word for that, but I can’t think of it at the moment) I like to see how people my age are doing, how they’re living, and I like to compare my life with theirs. I almost always like mine better, which makes me feel smug.

I am continually amazed at the beauty of some blogs or the fantastic photos and videos people know how to post. I apologize to my dear readers for having/being none of those. I don’t like blogs about little kids (I know you people love theirs, but I find entire blogs about them boring) and I don’t like blogs where people swear a lot. It makes me think they aren’t very bright, or they remind me of those stand-up comics who are just sort of funny, but get a lot of laughs on the shock value of the oft-placed F word. It doesn’t work for me.

A lot of blogs simply end. Nobody says “I’m quitting this blog,” or “thanks for reading, but I’m done writing,” or even a hint that the writer, knowing he or she has snared you into their adventures, is going to leave you high and dry. 2009 seemed to be a good year for for stopping blogging with no explanation. Yet it is now 2011 and the blogs sit there, abandoned and unexplained.

I tell you, people, when the World Domination handbook is finished, it is going to be contain the caveat that if you start a blog and don’t update it at least every other month, it will be shut down. End of story. Be forewarned.

Hospice blogs often lead to personal blogs about people who are fighting serious illness, and very often those people die. You begin reading at the last entry, which might announce funeral arrangements, or else “Sorry to say that Helen died early this morning,” and then you start reading the entries backwards to read about how very sick Helen was, and then you go back to when Helen was just diagnosed, and then you go beyond that where Helen was enjoying life and her new husband or home or kids, and then you feel awful. Helen’s dead. Here’s her life, written out for those who are interested, and now she’s gone. Geez!

Reading those blogs makes me think of how precious our lives are, and how very grateful I am for my reasonably good health.

Speaking of health, here’s a healthy recipe that also tastes good. Not like those ones that fool you with tofu or 1% milk or artificial sweeteners that never taste a thing like sugar. Everything in here is good for you. It’s simple, it’s tasty, and I hope you appreciate how I managed to turn blog talk into a good recipe, because i worked a long time on the title, which came to me while I was in the bathtub.

And one more thing: I have made this recipe a lot. I take it to potluck lunches, like the one at work today. So I’m just saying: If you and I are invited to the same occasion where we’re asked to bring food, don’t bring this barley salad, because probably will, and due to my anal retentive nature, I’ll probably get there before you.

Barley Salad

3/4 cup uncooked barley

1 can of whole kernel corn, drained

1/2 of a green pepper, diced

1/2 cup chopped red onion

1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

2 Tablespoons fresh lime juice

1/2 cup Italian salad dressing

Cook the barley as directed on the package. (It takes about an hour to cook it.) Drain (if necessary) and cool. In a large bowl, combine the cold barley and all other ingredients. Mix and refrigerate.

I found this recipe online but I can’t remember where. And what is barley, exactly? I’ve probably bought 2 boxes of it in my entire life. I need to look it up. Oh, if only there were some building that housed reference books, where we could go and look things up. Or better yet, some electronic resource where we could type in a word and somehow, the explanation would magically appear. That would be better than the building, because you could look up important information without having to dress up to go out. You could read new stuff while you were dressed as shabbily as I am right now.

Well, enjoy your salad. And write a blog! I want to hear everything.

Category Food, Random Thoughts, World Domination |

7 comments

Halloween, Road Trips and Cookies. Oh, My!

2011
10.31

It’s been a while since I’ve updated my blog, and I’m sorry about that. Life is hectic! But as you will soon see, I did not waste one precious minute of my free time honing my photographic skills. I figured if I threw a pretty dish towel under objects, they would look 10 times better. So I’m pretty happy with that! Too bad I didn’t iron the towel first, but hey: Life is busy!

But happy Halloween! I celebrated by making these darling little chocolate cutout cookies that are high in the cute factor but not so high in flavor. Though they contain nearly 2 cups of sugar, they taste salty to me, so the recipe’s in the trash. But hey: Cute is cute. And even cuter under a yellow dish towel with some artfully arranged gourds, don’tcha think?

Saturday was the last hurrah for the Duluth Farmer’s Market for this year. I’m sorry to see it shut down for now, since it was such an enjoyable visit every Saturday. I liked the homey, old fashioned feeling of picking out produce fresh from the farm, talking to the growers, and seeing crowds of other people enjoying the day. It’s not a feeling you get at a supermarket, though they do have their place. (And I’m usually in one of ‘em.)

Here’s Farmer Doug, pressing apple cider with some little kids. The apple scented air was pretty nice! I don’t know how I managed to snap a photo just as that little kid was bending over, but I hope some day he’ll laugh about it. (I already am.)

Also went back to Delta Diner a few Saturdays ago with friends Tracy and Jessica. Those girls know how to do a good road trip! We stopped at every yard sale, thrift shop, and gift store along the way. Between Duluth and Iron River, there aren’t that many, but we didn’t miss a one.

Had to wait half an hour to get into the diner, but the weather was beautiful and we waited at a picnic table outside. I think we all had cameras with us, but not a photo was snapped. Just how it goes.

I ordered a mushroom and Swiss cheese omelet, and it was fabulous. The toast was dripping with butter, which is the way toast should be served. Do they make their own bread there? I don’t know. It was awfully good, though. So here’s some free advertising for a diner that deserves it:

So back to the road trip. At one of the yard sales, where the guy selling stuff hadn’t market any prices on any of his junk and in fact walked away as soon as we drove up, ka-jackass-chooo!, I was stung by a bee or a hornet or a yellow jacket, or some yellow flying insect that landed on my shirt, followed me to the car, and took a bite out of my back to let me know he was there. I hope he died quickly.

But the sting was taken away, so to speak, at the next sale we found, in someone’s huge garage on Highway 2. Along with a new book of matches from the Duluth Athletic Club and an old book of linen photographs of the Pennsylvania Turnpike System (for friends Cathy and Pat in Pennsylvania) I found two little things that go along with one of my favorite big things.

Here’s the big thing that is sitting on the hutch in my kitchen. It doesn’t have a lid, but I don’t care. I couldn’t love it more. It was a gift from my sister Kim, who can always spot things she knows I’ll treasure.

And here’s a picture of the two little things sitting next to the one big thing. They are not all made by the same company, but don’t they look like they belong together? Who could resist that smiling tomato face? Not me! “Would you like more salt in your tea, Aunt Alice?” Perfect!

The salt and pepper shakers twist open at the bottom, and the twisty part is china or plaster or whatever these things are made of, so it would be very easy to break them. And yet, over the years, nobody did. Amazing. If you had a salt and pepper shaker collection, you’d covet these.

In other social events, one of my friends named Marilyn came over for lunch yesterday, which was a lot of fun. We worked together back in the 70s and 80s, and recently reconnected. (In one of those supermarkets!) Turns out that aside from our mutual love of tuxedo cats, we’ve read many of the same books. We spent a great deal of time combing through my bookshelves and talking about authors and good reads. What fun!

Marilyn is on the search for an adult airedale to replace her last one who recently died. Airedales, apparently, are not as abundant as tuxedo cats. So if you know of one up for adoption, give us a jingle!

This Wednesday is a chili cookoff at work, so tonight I am updating my blog and making some prize winning chili, which should win me one of those snazzy tote bags that was leftover at one of our fashion or auto shows. Ha ha. Well, a prize is a prize, and I think I deserve one. But I’d better get going. As my friend Quinn would say, That chili isn’t going to cook itself.

Sad but true.

How’s everything in your life?

Category Family, Food |

8 comments

Fall Weekends.

2011
10.18

Fall is here. I concede.

Doesn’t mean the weekends can’t still be fun, though, and when you are young and beautiful and wealthy, as I would like to be, the sky’s the limit.

But even beyond that, you can still have fun. In fact, in some ways it’s easier, but I’ll save that story for another time.

Last weekend my sisters and I ventured out to Delta Diner, since we’ve heard so much about it and wanted to try it for ourselves. (Highway 2 to Iron River, turn right on Hwy H, drive about 10 miles, Bob’s yer uncle.

It was a beautiful fall morning, and the colors were brilliant. The menu at Delta Diner is limited (only on weekends, perhaps?) to about 5 breakfast items and a Blue Plate Special, but it all sounded really good to us. I found it a bit disconcerting to be eating something called a “Dutch Baby,” but it was in fact an oven pancake with strawberries and whipping cream, and no babies were harmed in the making. They do need to call it something else, though. It made me think of battered fish fingers, which we saw on a menu in England years ago, and we alternately wondered whether fish even had fingers, and if so, how many would you have to eat?

Here’s a dopey photo of me and my sisters. I’m the one with the sun shining through the back of her head. I’m not sure why the waitress didn’t find a better position from which to take the photo, but she probably gets asked 1,000 times a day to snap a photo, and maybe by now she doesn’t even pay attention. Ho hum.

That’s me in the corner with the halo I can’t seem to lose, and my sister Kim is sitting next to me, wearing glasses. In the yellow shirt is my sister Be, and behind her is my sister Steff. We also have one more sister, the very youngest, who lives in Minneapolis and so we don’t get to see her too often. But these sisters and I have been getting together for Saturday lunches for about the past 30 years (I know, we don’t look much older than that) and it’s always fun.

After consuming the Dutch Babies, we drove through the countryside to our destination, Rice Lake. We wanted to shop at Bargain Bill’s, and so we did. What a great place, if you like schlock. And really: who doesn’t? There are acres of stuff from grocery items to dishes to hardware to rugs to party supplies to craft supplies to yard ornaments and still more. Who wouldn’t love Bargain Bill’s?

We also went to an estate sale (Lord, please remind me that I do not need 17 toasters, and that I do not want to end up like that woman!) and Rice Lake’s wonderful Goodwill store, the St Vincent de Paul place, and some other thrift/consignment shops. We gave the mall a pass. Had lunch at a pretty good Mexican place, and stopped in Trego on the way home for pie and coffee. Found a roadside pumpkin stand, too, where I bought the perfect pumpkin for the front steps for a mere $2. You can drive past my house and look at it. (Please drop the  $2.00 “looking fee” into the mail slot. I bought the pumpkin on the honor system, and I wish to uphold the tradition.)

So that was one beautiful day. The weather was gorgeous, the company was fun, we relaxed and laughed and felt happy to get away from it all for a while. My sisters are lots of fun, most of the time, which is something I hope they say about me, too.

***

Meanwhile, on the homefront, some kissing has been going on. Winston and Mittens can now meet face to face and do that face-sniffing thing, without coming to blows. I call it “kissing,” but I think it’s that perfunctory kind that they do in movies:

Winston: “Nice to see you tonight, my dear. You’re looking lovely.”

Mittens: “You old darling.”

Kiss, kiss.

I do not have a picture of said affection. But trust me. It’s cuuuuuute.

Category Family, Food |

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