Living in Long Beach

At my mother's request, I just published a guest post on her blog here . Check it out!

For the few of you who have been to my house, this isn't news...but my friendly little garden gnome is now joined by some colorful mushrooms... And here's Fluffy's view... Also, my mother recently put up a post about my place and there's a picture of my deck in the post. You can see her awesome blog (which was just featured in a magazine!) here... Recollections of a Vagabonde

Many squirrels reside on the grounds of our condos. They are well fed, unafraid of humans or cats, and have lots of offspring. I have many stories about these lively squirrels but will spare you for fear of becoming known as that crazy squirrel lady. Here is a picture of two of them hanging out in the tree in front of my deck. (Can you find them? Click on picture to bigify.) They create endless hours of fascination for my cats (and sometimes myself - the young ones are so cute.) Last year they created havoc on my Halloween pumpkin. So I after seeing this picture on flickr , I decided to copy it but with a twist. I stitched this cute little thing in a weekend and after I was done, I got the pattern emailed to me! That would have made it a lot easier but I am so impatient… So you are wondering why did I choose the words “It’s Your Screen Squirrel”?? See below for a daily occurrence. Thinking about all these squirrels gave me an idea when Karen made chicken pot pies. ...

Notice the Chococat bookmark?  I just started reading the book "As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto." Much to my surprise, I am loving it! Not only does it reveal Julia's cooking techniques and her road to publishing the first volume of the legendary "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"  but it also illuminates the attitudes and political climate of the 50's. In one letter Avis tells Julia that all her friends have electric dishwashers and how horrid she thinks the whole concept is. She refuses to ever get one. I still have a long way to go with the book but based on what I've already read, I just know I will continue to love it. I took a break and watched Julie and Julia , a movie which I taped a long time ago and never got around to watching. Do NOT watch this movie if you are also reading "As Always, Julia." From the very beginning, there are huge inconsistencies with the portion of the movie that deals with J...

Today it is only in the 70's...brrrr...okay, okay, I am teasing my East Coast friends! However, it was in the mid-80's just a few days ago. Even though it feels like spring, if I look out my window (actually - sliding doors) of my condo it seems like the dead of winter. "Why?", you may ask. Because for some reason that I don't understand, the city of Long Beach has cut all the greenery of the tree in front of my view. It took them several hours and 4 men. They are continuing down the street with more trees. I know this because it is so loud. The tree looks so sad. There used to be lots of birds in it and now it is bare. Plus, there is a street light across from me that is no longer blocked by the tree. It feels like it is daytime 24 hours a day in my bedroom, even with the curtains drawn. And with the lack of shade, my condo was still 70 degrees at midnight last night!

I came across this picture today and had to share...I hope Jessica doesn't mind.

A friend of mine has had a tough week or two (I luv ya T!!) and I wanted to do something that would show her that I was thinking about her. So I decided to make cookies for her and her family. From. Scratch. I think the last time I turned on my stove was Christmas 2006. I snapped a few pictures of the process and outcome. No animals were harmed or baked. And if anyone is reading this who ate the cookies, I did thoroughly clean out the stove after my cat sniffed around in it. Seriously, these were the best cookies I've ever made AND the best oatmeal cookies I've ever tasted. I found the recipe online here if anyone else wants to try them. If you make them, let me know if your prep time is really 10 minutes!! Want more? Slide show here.

Stormy really wants to cuddle up next to Miska bust she is NOT having it. This is the closest that Stormy has been to Miska. Seconds after this picture was taken, Miska clobbered Stormy on the head...stay tuned.

Miska and I welcomed a new kitty to the household, Stormy. Miska "welcomed" Stormy by attacking him. Stormy is 3 - 4 months old, full of energy and really, really affectionate.

Caj is resting quietly next to me as I work on the computer. You can see the orange bandage where his IV is. Thank you for all your support and thoughts.

I just got a Roomba and I love it! I took this video of it in use for the first time... Here is a quick picture of Caj walking by Roomba without really caring that it is swirling around. I have decided to purchase Roomba's sister, Scooba, who will start work this weekend. I will let you know how she does! UPDATE: Sadly, Sccoba did not adapt well to our household and had to be returned. Although she really tried to clean her best, she "slobbered" way too much and left my floor soaking wet.

Now that Mother has become such an awesome cell phone photographer, I am going to teach her how to have her own blog so she can send her cell phone pics there. Give me time though... Here are the pictures she sent me today... (Okay, maybe I should let her practice the pictures some more.)

I am so proud of my mother. She just sent me her first message from her cell phone to my cell phone and she included this picture. Go Mother go! Mitzu

I was eating cottage cheese for lunch and left to take a phone call. When I got back, someone had been in my container of cottage cheese. Caj swears it wasn't him. What do YOU think?

One of the really cool things that we did while we were on vacation in Tampa was to visit a place called the Big Cats Rescue. It was amazing. I think I may have to go everytime I am in Tampa. I would highly recommend it. You get so close to the cats! And to hear the stories of how they came to be rescued is just heartbreaking. (Yes, I teared up many times.) The pictures that I got are not so great but if you click on the lion picture above it will take you to the album. Hopefully, I can get pictures that Tinu and Father took and add to the album. I bought a few things in the gift shop as everything goes to their non-profit organization. I bought the two cutest key chains pictures below. One is a snow leopard (for my snow leopard, Miska) and one is a lion (for my lion-cut Caj). I also bought a little goodie for my cat-sitter's cats to play with. I would highly recommend visiting there if you are ever in the area. If you click on the key chain picture, it will take you the their web...

I am so behind in posting. I have several posts from my last Vegas trip that I will post soon...promise. In the meantime, thought you might want to see what Caj is up to these days.I think he is feeling better (a little fashion therapy always helps.) He wanted to make sure that you saw the cool skull on his back in crystals so he ... struck a pose! .

I know this picture is really bad quality but I am still learning how to use my newest camera phone (which has many options). Sometimes simpler is better. Anyway, now whenever I am going out of town (which seems to be all the time - I am posting this blog in a hotel room in Atascadero), I have to open up two suitcases so that Caj can sleep in one of them.

Here are the promised pictures of Caj. I wasn't able to get a before picture. Sorry. This is the best trim he has had. As Jessica would say " he is so soft...just like Cashmere." (Sorry, Eric.) Too bad he smells like a strong floral sachet. I think it is the overwhelming little old lady flower smell (from the bath) that is making Miska hiss at him much more that usual. (She hid for the first few hours after he got home, they were both so traumatized.) As for me, my new crown on my cracked molar (I grind my teeth at night and had no enamel left on it!) hurt a lot. So much so, that the dentist used temp glue and I have to go back in 3 weeks to get it permanent or....get a ROOT CANAL. Anyone want to see a picture of that?