What are you...

[Linda]

LOL, the cat thought it was kitty litter? That is hilarious. Years ago when I had cats, I used some of their litter to help with traction on the walk up to the house. It works on ice when salt won't, at very low temperatures. Well, the cats, , you probably guesed it.

[JadziaKathryn]

Just heard "Come Back to Me" on the way home from work and it immediately seemed to me like a TnT song. Chorus:

So I'll let you go, I'll set you free
And when you've seen what you need to see
When you find you, come back to me

Full Lyrics

[Alelou]

Mmmm, maybe you should make a video...

[Bether6074]

Cats generally like to use something they can dig into as a place to use the bathroom. They use a litter box because it's the best thing to dig in in the house. Then they return to it because it carries their scent. Mulch would qualify as sufficient material to sink their claws into I would say.

Good luck with that. Nothing like a little country smell...

[Alelou]

Well, we are out in the country.

Beats the smell of the real litter box in the basement for the indoor cat...

[TPoptarts]

Downloading: OpenOffice. My frelling MS office decided to die all of the sudden.

[WarpGirl]

I HATE OpenOffice and right now I'm stuck with it because I am broke! The stupid spell checker never works, and I hate how it's all laid out but everytime I try to change it it revolts. I'd Kill for Works right now.

[Alelou]

Celebrating my parents' 50th wedding anniversary and my niece's third birthday.

If you're incredibly bored or have a fetish for 1959 wedding clothing, check out the beginning of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX7hQJlzwTE. You can catch a glimpse of fat baby Alelou, too.

[Bether6074]

How did your niece like the fishy? Bet that went over pretty well.

Had a fun weekend with JT and Alelou. Hopefully my hubby didn't bore JT too much with his National Park Blueray disc "infomercial" last night.

This AM my husband, myself and our 2 daughters went to see the movie "Up." What an absolutely sweet little movie! And such a beautiful message about love and marriage and what is really important in life. I was really touched by this computer animated kid's movie. "Marley and Me" still takes the cake for tears shed, though. Oh man was I a mess at the end of that one. Maybe it's an old age thing...

Home yet, JT? Just so you know, my husband has been playing your band ALL afternoon.

Think I'll check out that youtube video.

[JadziaKathryn]

"Marley and Me" still takes the cake for tears shed, though. Oh man was I a mess at the end of that one. Maybe it's an old age thing...

Nope, it's not. I was a mess also. Of course, retrospectively, it occurred to me that going when my cat was dying wasn't the greatest idea. But other people were teary too.

[Alelou]

How did your niece like the fishy? Bet that went over pretty well.

Yep, but she was bouncing around so energetically it was two minutes for Barbie, two minutes to tear off her own dress and put on the Jasmine costume I'd picked up for her at the thrift shop, two minutes to figure out how it looked, then pull it off and put the other dress back on, and two minutes to admire the fish. And then on to the next thing! The funniest part of the day was watching a three year old try to learn how to use chopsticks to eat rice. She's definitely up for any challenge. I think she gave that FOUR minutes.

Meanwhile her dad my brother was telling me that the Star Trek movie was on down the block at the matinee like he hoped we'd actually go with him (poor Drew, his wife has never watched Star Trek), and the first time he saw it, it actually made him cry. Well, it did me too, but if I were a guy I would never have admitted that! My little brother said he didn't care how good it was, he has a rule that he won't see movies until they're in DVD.

We're such a weird family.

I'm glad you liked Up. I hadn't heard of it before.

[JadziaKathryn]

It's cleaning-out-the-garage time which thankfully is mostly my mom's stuff. Anyway she found something she'd written for her College Writing course back in Dec. 2000 about taking me to the Experience Las Vegas, and it's fantastic! "I'm still in denial that my daughter is a "Trekkie" (perhaps there's a support group)" and then when a 6 1/2 foot tall costumed Klingon came to talk to her while I was in the gift shop, "I reminded myself that he was only doing his job (and there were witnesses)."

I loved that day, and have never forgotten what she endured for me.

In other news, we can call it "what are you baking?," I am swimming in Amish Friendship Bread. Which, by the way, is probably diabetes in a loaf pan. Besides the fact that the starter is 1/3 sugar, you put in an entire cup of sugar and two boxes of instant vanilla pudding mix, and the first ingredient in that is - you guessed it - sugar. Anyway, my cousin gave me a starter and after 10 days, plus 2 1/2 cups each milk, flour, and sugar, you have 5 starters: one to bake two loaves, one to keep for another round, and 3 to give away. Except I don't know anyone who wants to take on this snowballing project (according to my mother, it's like a chain letter but more work and yummier), and I feel guilty about the other starters going to waste, so I seem to be baking them up. But then if I eat too much of the bread I feel guilty because it's a nutritional train wreck. (I'm sharing and freezing, but even still.)

So the moral of the story is, unless you have a large network of friends and family who will help you eat a delicious nutritional train wreck, if anyone tries to give you a starter for Amish Friendship Bread, run!

[Alelou]

LOL. Your mom sounds pretty funny.

[Linda]

JK, I sympathize with garage cleaning. I'd like to get some of the things my daughter has stored out of there so we can have room for a small pickup truck we'd like to get by the end of the summer. Our little 16 year-old Saturn is nearing the end of it's lifespan so we'd like to have a second vehicle to use just in case, plus to take yard waste to the city recyling center. The trunk of the poor Saturn is not big enough to take it all in one trip.

My hands are all chapped from straw weaving (guess this belongs in the whine thread ). The family is vending at a week long encampment in Missouri (Pagan Spirit Gathering) in another couple of weeks - June 13 - 21. My daughter and granddaughter and son-in-law are also making corn dollies, dream catchers, beadwork earrings, wedding and other types of ritual brooms. If we sell anything, it will be our spending money at the other vendor tents.

Lots of workshops to attend at the gathering! I want to learn how to make a traditional Celtic Balefire, learn more about herb gardening, learn more Tarot reading spreads, make homemade candles and soap, take some of my poetry to the poetry workshop, and do firetending for the Native American sweatlodge. I think my grandson wants to learn fire spining (the Hawiian fire spinning like they did in DS9 for Jadzia's wedding party). And there is the big Summer Solstice ritual, basically a Wiccan ritual, but Pagans of many different paths attend. I think all of us will get into the drumming and dancing around campfires. I might be able to drag my daughter to morning Yoga classes or morning Zen meditation sessions or solar cooking classes. There is so much to do I wish the encampment was longer. It's our big family event of the year, and they even have day care so we can leave the four-year-old and two-year-old there for a couple of hours a day.

We will all take turns minding our vendor tent (even getting the four-year-old to help), and teaching others to make their own straw weavings. We have to take two vehicles with one pulling a trailer. It will be the last long trip for my poor old Saturn, I think. And set up our sleeping tents behind our vendor tent. Lots of work, but lots of fun. I am getting excited now about this trip. It is a big family event each year.

[Alelou]

Hey, Linda, if you like herb gardening, pick up a used copy of Living with Herbs, by Jo Ann Gardner. It's a great book, and she's a lovely lady. I met her and her husband at a garden lecture a few years back and they are just so warm and practical and knowledgeable.