A Long Relaxing Weekend

What did you do for this long weekend? We headed out to the beach (thanks Mom and Dad) and our sweet friends took care of our furbabies and our garden for us (thanks so much, guys!). We had a relaxing time, but it's also good to be home with the other members of our "family". 
Now, it's back to work, my friends!
Big Hugs,
Kat

Happy Memorial Day

Source

Thank you servicemen and servicewomen!

Gall' Darn Gophers!

The Garden is growing along pretty well, but we've lost two broccoli plants now to gophers...


Below was the first and the second was stealthily nibbled away at the roots.  I'm still hoping we can save the second one, but things don't look good.

First it was a whole row of lettuce (except the wild rocket--they don't seem to like the arugala/rouquette much) and then our broccoli.  Mark and I pretty much declared war at seeing two of our huge broccoli plants disappear within mere days of each other, but I didn't want to hurt the gophers--I mean, after all, a gopher's gotta eat too, right? And we certainly didn't want to jeopardize our furkid Mika by putting out poison or anything like that.
So my awesome hubby went out and got one of those sonic/kinetic combo gopher stakes and planted it right in the middle of the broccoli. Apparently it emits the gopher warning chatter/thumping and scares them away.
So far, so good.  No more (knock wood) broccoli or lettuce plants have met their demise although I have noticed that I'm seeing more gopher holes out in the yard, so maybe it is working.  I'll keep you all posted.  Do you know any other ways of non-harmful gopher control?
Big Hugs,
Kat

Garden Teaser

Christmas in...May?

Since I missed sharing our Christmas pictures, thought I'd post a few here for your shock and awe viewing pleasure.
Kind of makes me nostalgic for those chilly 60-degree days here in SoCal...  
Merry Christmas to all, a little late!!

The Moo Stocking

The Squidleydoo Stocking

The Mark Stocking

The Mark's-Little-Brother-Stocking

The Yours-Truly Stocking

Awkward Family Photos...

Couldn't have said it better myself!

Big Hugs,

Kat

Karma

Saturday morning was beautiful. 
I had scheduled with friends to meet up early in the morning and hike up a local mountain.
We met at the park by the ranger's station, grabbed our water and headed on up the mountain.
It was a beautiful day for exercise and girl talk.
But, while we were doing this...

And this...

Some unscrupulous person/persons did this...

And this...

You can still see the rock they used to bust the window over on the far floorboard.

It was a bummer, to say the least, when I returned to the parking lot to see my poor Frumpmonkey Beastie had been broken into and my purse stolen.  

I normally don't leave my purse in my truck, or even take it with me when I go hiking, but this was local and I had planned to stop and pick up my dry cleaning on the way home. Lesson learned, I guess.

Not only did I have to cancel all of my cards but they got my FAVORITE PURSE!! The crazy orange one with the goofy flowers. 

Anyhow. I wish them no harm or ill will. The fact that they bought red-box videos and gasoline leads me to believe that they possibly weren't SO in need that they would make the best use of the $6 or so in my wallet. 

It is merely an observation that karma has a funny way of leveling the field when one least expects it. I hope that these individuals are able to change their lives for the better and help people instead of taking from them.

On the bright side, I no longer have to worry about cleaning out my wallet AND I was able to get a new, inexpensive, pretty one that I think will help keep me more organized!

AND--thank heavens, I had forgotten my phone at home.

So, not as terrible as things could have been.  No one was hurt and although there is a certain amount of expense involved to do repairs and recover licenses, etc., things could have been much much worse.

Counting my blessings...

Big Hugs,

Kat

Catching Up is hard to do...

Well, Hellooooooooo there!

Yes. That is picture of our Christmas tree. 

Our SECOND Christmas tree to be exact, with Squiddley (aka, Siddhartha, aka Sqiddo, aka Sqiddleydoo, aka Jabba the Cat, aka "NonoyoubadcatgetdownfromthecounterRIGHTTHISINSTANT!") lying beneath it looking deceptively cute and steriotypically nappish. 

Yes, this is from this past December, which seems like yesterday.  

No, thankfully, our Christmas tree is not still up. It is lying in a shallow grave in the backyard next to the first Christmas tree (which promptly died two weeks after we bought it from Lowes), awaiting a proper cremation at one of the various California beach bonfire pits...erm, possibly, like, this weekend.

So here we are May, and I've been avoiding posting due to a combination of lack of my computer recognizing, in any form, the camera via cable--via memory card, via me saying some not very nice things, beating my fists on the table and typing much more forcefully than necessary--and just not having enough creative energy enough to fight technology and do my amazingly great but crazy job.  For a while--I'll be honest--I was really struggling about my job. Last weekend, however, I came to the conclusion that I love what I do, but I'm getting a little burnt out--so I've cut back on the hours a little bit in the hopes of striking some sort of balance henceforth and keeping the creative juices percolating.

Anyhoo.

Here we are. May.

And although life has been moving along as usual, I did manage to document a bit of it to share.

There's been Christmas, wineries, Mark's birthday, friends having little ones, being honored by my work, and the garden.

My goal is to post at least five days (Yep. Count 'em, five!) this week.

I'm lookin' to anyone who may still be out there to keep me honest!

Big Hugs and Happy Monday y'all!

Missed you,

Kat