Cat Stories -- Thurs., Dec. 19

Wednesday was beautiful, about 78 degrees with a warm wind. I spent part of the day at the RV park office making sure we are up to date with our electric bill and checking to be sure we're on a waiting list for a site from Feb. 24 on. (The electric bill had been paid.) Some sites had freed up so will be moving to another site in the park on Sunday, Dec. 23.

My mom and sister plan to fly down in late March, so I looked at one of the cottages here for them to rent for the week. It will be so convenient for them to be here so we can eat together and head out on day trips from the same place. (In other words, they won't need a car. We can go places together.) I can't wait to show them RiverWalk, the Hill Country in springtime, an exotic game ranch, Bandera, Naegelin's Bakery, Gruene, the Botanic Gardens, Kerrville, Fredericksburg...do we have a week filled up yet?

I wanted to share with you a couple of photos Bee, our petsitter, took of our little darlings while we were in Australia (to give you an idea of what our fur-kids do to misbehave when we're away).

We locked the paper towels in the cupboard under the kitchen sink. I warned Bee that Bowie likes to shred paper towels which is why they were put away. Before we left, Bee warned us that she has seen bored kitties get into cupboards. Well, guess what? Bored kitties got into the cupboard with the paper towels. Ensuing mess is documented below. We got this photo update when we were "down under." We had a solution...when we travel we put Velcro straps on the cupboards to keep them closed. Works well for keeping cats out too. Bee put them on.

"That should teach 'em to leave us alone!"

The other warning we gave Bee before we left was Bowie would try to escape. She sent us photographic evidence of "Mr. Bowie Houdini" at work. This is common for him. In fact, as I was going out the RV door with a basket full of laundry on Tuesday, I closed the screen door while I put the laundry basket down on the picnic table. That way I would have both hands free to close the main door. As soon as I turned around from setting the laundry basket down, Bowie was half-way out the hole in the screen door, much like the photo below that Bee sent us. (They tried their escape tactics on her too.)

"Sunnie, let's play 'Follow the Leader.' I'll go first!"

Then, today, I was rearranging shoes in the closet, keeping a close eye on cats-who-like-to-invade-closets-and-wreak-havoc. I did not see any cats go in while I was sitting right next to the open door. A while later, I did not see any cats, so I went searching. Sunnie was by the side of our bed next to the closet. No Bowie. I looked in all of Bowie's usual places: under the dining room chair, on the dining room chair, on the cardboard cat scratchers, on the bathroom rug--no Bowie. 

I opened the closet door last, silly me, and there was Bowie on the second shelf sitting on top of my jeans looking at me as if to say, "What took you so long?" He had probably been there an hour or more.

Such characters!

The first available appointment with my dentist is January 10, three weeks away! I can hardly wait. No new front teeth for Christmas. Sigh.

I will be looking for work in 2013, most likely with a temporary agency so I can work the hours and days I want, and take off for dental appointments and travel as needed.

Our RV park is providing a Christmas lunch with turkey, ham, and mashed potatoes. The rest of us will provide salads, other veggies, and desserts. So far 39 people have signed up. 

Now that the snow birds are here, the RV park calendar has filled up with Saturday breakfasts, Friday Happy Hours, Monday potlucks and many other activities. I wonder if they'd like Bob and I to do a travelogue with photos on our Australia trip? That would be fun.

With my free time, I've been perusing a cookbook called "The Unwatched Pot" (with CrockPot recipes). When I shopped on Tuesday, I bought a lot of vegetables to make soups in the CrockPot. In addition, I made a tuna-noodle casserole in the CrockPot Tuesday night. It turned out pretty good. My next recipe for the CrockPot will be Cabbage Soup with all kinds of yummy stuff like turnips, potatoes, carrots, turkey bacon, leeks and spices. Since it's supposed to be 27 degrees tonight and 38 degrees tomorrow night, soup sounds really good!

It has been very windy here all day. I just put our window thermometer outside and so far it has dropped to 50 degrees. Quite a difference from yesterday's balmy 78! I had to turn on the heat most of the day today just to keep it 72 in here. (I see more propane in our future.)

Here are today's photos of the fur-kids:

Sunnie awake. (You can see how close our neighbor is!)

Five minutes later...Sunnie's asleep.

Mr. Bowie Houdini

Wow, I can't believe I filled up a whole blog. I love it when it writes itself.

Travel Bug out.