my furry hitchhiker

I found this nice little kitten huddled in my lane when I headed in to Walmart yesterday afternoon. I stopped and picked him up so he wouldn't get hit.

He was very stinky and dirty and had a couple of ticks on his back leg, so the first order of business was a BATH. He didn't mind too much.

I found him a home with Holly, one of our freshmen. Her mom came to see him after school yesterday and immediately agreed to take him home. Today, he's hanging out in the business office with Holly, so I get to see him again. Now, he's Simba!

as promised

weekend journey

When we examined the calendar closely, we gasped and realized that the days, let alone weeks, are quickly evaporating before school starts again. We wanted to go to my parents' house before the summer ended, so I took off the 21st and we headed home on Friday afternoon.

One of the most exciting things (for me, not Ryan) was that we have two batches of kittens right now. We had lots of fun playing with the older bunch in the living room. We even got them to join in the tennis fun.






Lily currently has 5 kittens that were born June 3 and Sheba has 6 that are a couple of weeks behind. Weezer is the dad of all of them. He likes to supervise the kids on the cat tree.

Dad, Ryan, the dogs, and I took a hike around and through the woods. Maggie and Oreo like to run through the creek. Maggie runs down the middle and Oreo jumps from bank to bank with the hankety pank . . . Nevermind . . .

If the stars align correctly, a YouTube video along these lines will follow shortly after this blog. This is Mr. Fuzzypants on my head. He's the most adventurous of Lily's kittens.

Saturday night, after a quick trip to Dick's for Grant's back-to- school shopping (he's a PE minor), I took on mom and dad in Cities & Knights. Ryan and Grant went to try out Grant's new tennis racquet. Dad won, like usual, even though it was their first time playing it. Weezer strategizes with mom on their next move.

Sunday morning, not as early as we had planned, dad, Grant, Ryan and I headed to the nearby courts for some tennis. We had fun playing three sets mixing up the teams. The only bad part was the lingering sunburn . . .

Ryan was the only one who took any pictures of the tennis. Grant's taking tennis as a Pro-Act class this semester, so he's having to convert his racquetball skills a little. Ryan and I will have tennis courts practically in our new front yard. Unfortunately, they're cracked, severely faded, and barely have anything but a rough concrete surface. :(

We decided to try my dad and Grant's suggestion of going I-77 to I-81 through Virginia and over, but first stopped to see my mom at work. This is her and Wendy (?) at lunch.

The new route wasn't bad, but as you can see, a little confusing to be driving both north and south on the same road at the same time. We were pleasantly surprised to find gas for a mere $3.73/gal. in Wytheville, VA.

Driving through Knoxville was a trip! **insert awkward silence** After the gale-force winds, hail, power lines in the road, and miles of traffic jammed bumper-to-bumper, we made it through to the sunny side unscathed.

And behind us was the dark sky showing what we had just been through!

and babies make 17!

I'm home for our January break to work on wedding stuff and just to be home. Lily & Myrrh both had litters of kittens (Myrrh - 3 on Jan. 9, Lily - 6 on Jan. 18). They're very cute, as I will demonstrate!

This is Sparrow (Jack Sparrow). Because of their dad's name, my mom gave all the boy kittens pirate names.

These 3 are Myrrh's. Back to front: Cotton Blossom, Jack Sparrow, and Will Turner

Myrrh didn't like that I took them out of their box.

Lily and her 6. Most of them have both eyes open now.

Self-portrait of Solomon and me! He helped me watch birds at the feeder this morning.

you knew these were coming . . .

sandhill crane - roadside near skydivers

royal terns - treasure island beach

great blue heron - near john's pass (treasure island side)

snowy egret - near john's pass (treasure island side)

great egret - john's pass boardwalk (see the black instead of yellow feet?)

brown pelican - john's pass

not a bird!
brown anole - EVERYWHERE!

mmm . . . pumpkin-y goodness

After a too-short stop at the Cooks' on the way home Tuesday night, Jaclyn, Ryan, and I made it to my parents' house late that night. Traffic wasn't terrible, and the weather was pretty good. We met up with Lindsey the next day as she was coming through Greensboro.

This was the 7th annual Honeys' Christmas. The group was a little slimmer than in the past, but I guess that's to be expected now.

Lindsey liked her cookie jar and salt shakers (that she picked out), and the candle paraphernalia from Jaclyn. It was fun, even though it happened in a parking lot. Ryan and my dad served as official photographers for the occasion.

I thought the bows on my head were a special touch . . . ok, maybe "short bus special . . ."






We spent Thanksgiving day with the Fords in Raleigh. Through a combined cooking/baking effort, quite a feast was laid out before us. Jaclyn searches through the cabinet for the basket to put rolls in.






Stephanie says, "Only YOU can prevent Thanksgiving table fires."









After dinner, we hung out and watched Big Red. It was a favorite for a few and a new movie for me. Even though the only cat in the movie died, I'd have to give it 2 paws way up. Luckily my dad was there to predict the plot, so it wasn't so suspenseful.

I had a quick Friday morning photo shoot with Solomon before leaving for Concord Mills to go shopping for the day. Solomon likes to charge the camera if he knows you're aiming at him, so you have to be sneaky. Any hint of bending down to his level, and he comes straight to you.

Here he is decorated with some leaves, but as predicted, he walked right out of focus. There's nothing like a good crisp shot of his back fur though . . .

If you want to see pictures of our shopping excursion, see Ryan's blog.


For our last major outing, we took the dogs to Salem Lake for a walk on the trail. Oreo stopped to inspect the oncoming boxer, while Maggie wonders, "Why are you making such a big deal about a dog?"


Dad has lots more pictures that are good, I'm sure. Maybe you should all email him and tell him to update his blog . . . Otherwise, you'll have to wait until I go back home and steal his memory card.






The sunset setting on my camera made this look much more spectacular than it really was, but hey . . . don't believe everything you see on the Internet.



Maggie's preferred way to travel: windblown. I had the distinct privilege of riding with the beasts in the back seat on this trip. If only I could ride on the hood and show you her face!

more favorite pics

I didn't downsize most of these pictures . . . partly because I forgot, but mostly because I didn't think about it.* They're pictures from the past (is that what time-lapse photography means?)

*I'm posting this late at night, so that made sense to me. It was supposed to say "mostly because I'm lazy."

Family pic of us at the zoo. It helps to bring a 5th person to photograph the rest of you!

These are other pictures from Joy's of dad's that I liked. Grandma Dut told me today that Evan has started really crawling.

I stayed with Ella in her double bed. Much to my surprise, I got one Croc mailed to me last week . I guess they didn't look very far under the bed for #2!

Here's a lovely shot of me & my parents at IHOP. I'm pretty sure we reached the point when the camera should have beeped a warning or something.

At Grandma Dut's apartment, Ella had fun throwing the suction cup ball and watching it stick. She tried to pull it off of my dad's glasses, but when she pulled the glasses started coming off. She jerked her hand off like she had touched a stove.

We had a discussion at home about what a group of cats is called. I told Grant that we have finally achieved "herd" status, but it's not the right word. Anyone know the collective term? Does pride apply to pansy house cats?

The cats in this pic are (heads L to R): Mia, Solomon, Weezer, Lily, Myrrh, and Sheba. (Or we could go by their aliases Solomon=Solomander, Solomonster; Weezer=Weeza; Lily=Lilliput, Willy; Myrrh=Murgatroid, Myrtle; Sheba=Shebaby)

In case you were wondering, it is possible to wear a cat and a hood on your head at the same time. Weezer did pretty good in there for a while, but not long enough to balance by himself long enough to get out the camera. He didn't even smile :(

do they go to the zoo? . . . supposibly

The NC Zoo is in Asheboro - pretty close to my parents' house. On Sabbath, we packed in my car with a picnic supper and went to visit some animals (as if there weren't enough at home).


grant's zebra


grant rolling dung with the local beetles


gazing at the grazers


fennec - notice the ears look a lot like Weezer's


funhouse mirrors?


Lowland gorilla


arctic fox - if you've seen Planet Earth, you saw one of these stealing goose eggs and goslings


the laziest polar bear ever


puma, catamount, mountain lion, cougar, panther, painter, mountain screamer . . . you pick