Curtin Call

Okay, I’ve now made three unsuccessful attempts in getting Shadow the the vet.  I just don’t understand – he was so much more well behaved than I would have ever expected when he
got his first shot last month.  Exactly what happened that he wants no part of his carrier???

Saturday, I had a plan.  Said plan failed, but I had a plan. 

I asked Brian not to give the cats any fresh food Saturday morning.  Instead, when I was ready to go (and I mean ready – shoes, coat, etc.) he would hide in the room where the carrier is.  I would put fresh food in the bowls, which always brings Shadow running, and I would go in for the scoop!  I would then call to Brian that I had him and we would calmly put him in the carrier and whisk him off for his shot!

Yeah, right.

Fill said food bowls.  Wait for Shadow to come running.  Hmmm….  Okay, he’s downstairs, maybe he didn’t hear it.  Shake box of food at top of stairs.  Wait for Shadow to come running.  Hmmm….  Still no Shadow.  Walk downstairs and find Shadow at the bottom of said stairs looking up with the “they’re up to something, I just know they are” look on his face.  Get within approximately 2 feet, bend down to pat and Shadow bolts and hides in his favorite hiding spot.

Call vet and cancel once again.  Would you like to reschedule?  they ask.  I must admit my surprise that this vet is so willing to continue to play this little game.  In fact, I have an “open” appointment next Saturday.  Any time I can get him there between 8:00 and 11:30, I’m welcome to come on in!

Imagine all this?!?!?!?!

…but no one told me they had 6 senses!

Yup, he did it again!  Shadow managed to avoid yet another attempt to visit the vet.  This time, I decided that I would try to take him – hoping that with Brian and I both there, maybe we could calmly pick him up and place him in his carrier rather than having to chase him down, drag him out from under a bed and get him into it.  Ha!  Not!  He was having NO part of it.   I swear he knew I was trying catch him to take him.  As soon as he saw me, he ran and hid.  He would let me within a couple of feet of him but any closer and off he’d go.

Okay, I did come in through the front door and I usually come in through the garage but, come on!?!?!?  He could figure that out???  I don’t get it. 

It gets better, too.  After 20 minutes without success, I called and rescheduled his appointment for Saturday (hoping if we’re all there and calm maybe it’ll happen – yeah, right!).  So half an hour later or so, I ran out to the post office.  Upon my return, Shadow was up on the ledge looking out the window and he let me walk right up to him and pat him.

What is that 6th sense???

…little thing you’ve ever seen?

Well, my dad wouldn’tve agreed with that yesterday afternoon when it came time to get me in my carrier to take me to that evil man that sticks needles in my bum bum.  I said “Uh, no!  You may have fooled me once but you are NOT fooling me twice!” 

Okay, okay, I confess.  He won but I put up a darn good fight!  Took him nearly 15 minutes to get me in that sucker and when he turned his back, I chewed and chewed and chewed trying to get out.  I chewed so much that there was actual blood on the gate and little plastic thing that hangs off the door.  Huh!!!  That got his attention.  The guilt took over and he opened up that gate and let me run free! 

I did sort of feel bad because I knew he felt really, really bad seeing that.  So, I went and hid for awhile just to be sure it was safe and then I went and let him pet me so he would know that I still love him anyway!

I think I heard my slaves talking later last night and something was said around the lines of “Mom’s going to give it a try tomorrow”.   Waaaahaaaaahaaaa!  They’re sooo funny.  I am Prince of this house (Frosty’s the King and I’m okay with that), what I say goes – and if I say “no shots” then that’s the final word – no shots!!!

For some reason, I’m no longer being notified when someone posts a comment on my blog and lately, I’ve been feeling like I had a “cyber-fight” with all my “cyber-friends” and that you’d all left me.

Upon further review, however, I see that my half dozen or so faithful followers are still out there so for that, I thank you.

I have to figure out what’s going on there.  This “cyber-stress” stuff is too much!

That is what I have been.  We spent so much of our summer working in the backyard that I didn’t realize how neglectful I was being to the inside of my house.  Sure, the bathrooms were kept clean, dishes were done, laundry okay, vacuumed weekly, etc., but when it came to cleaning?  Nope, I was not doing it!  I did do some catching up this weekend, though.

The other thing we did this weekend was decide that we’re going to have a yard sale next weekend.  We’d talked about this previously but we had decided that it was just to hectic of a year so we were going to skip it.  What changed our minds?  When Brian’s uncle took ill, every time we would go to visit him, he would send us home with boxes and boxes of “stuff”.  Yesterday, we decided we were going to sort through the “stuff” and keep what we wanted to keep and trash what was trash.  Problem?  We really don’t want to keep much of it but I also wouldn’t classify it as “trash”.  So, that’s that!  The weather is calling for sunny and 60 which will be nice.  We’ve done these before and I really do enjoy them!  We’ll probably mention it to some of the neighbors in case they want to join in but it is pretty short notice!

Oh, well!  Should be fun!

Here are the latest photos of my golf course!

“Backyard_13”

And the front of the house, decorated for fall:

It was a beautiful, sunny fall day so it was pretty bright so the picture didn’t come out great but you get the idea!

Or should I say what I did on my summer vacation and most every weekend therein!

We spent most of this past summer redoing our backyard.  After we’d started, a friend suggested I take photos along the way so that is what I did.

At the beginning of summer, my backyard sort of looked like this (these pictures are taken from the deck on the back of our house.  The swimming pool belongs to the neighbors in the cul de sac out back):

Fact of the matter is, it didn’t even look quite that good as all that stone in the back and along the shed, we had  brought in.  Anyone want to guess how much stone you’re looking at???  44 TON!  Yup, 44 TON!  Yes, we did get a Bob Cat but there was still a whole lot of moving stone manually!

No, we’re not crazy.  Hubby is a fanatic when it comes to his yard and because of the grade, every time he’d plant seed out there and we’d get heavy rain, it would just wash away.  Which is the reason for bringing in 44 TON of stone!

We also did some staining:

Again, we were already into the project at this point so the shed had been power washed and the deck already had a coat of clear stain on the railings, but not the flooring.

We had to get all the staining done before the “real” work could begin with the lawn.  Yup!  We managed to:

(It amazes me how much the knots stand out)

So, now it was time to call in the professionals!  Here’s the yard after they came and graded:

Shortly thereafter, they came and hydro-seeded:

This was so neat.  When you looked down at the yard from the deck, it was almost like you were floating above a gold course, or the ocean or something.  Very surreal!

Now, here’s the most amazing part!  Just six (yes, six!) days later, here’s what we had:

These photos are a few weeks old now.  The grass was cut for the first time last Thursday and as I understand it, it is getting it’s second trim as I update here!  I will be sure to get some more photos over the weekend as the yard now really does look like a golf course. 

Awesome!!!

I’m really, really, really trying to post here at least once a week.  I know.  I know.  I missed last week but I also forgot to tell you all that I was on vacation last week and anyone that knows me knows that I stay as far away from computers as I can when I’m on vacation!

So here I am – day two back in the office and I already feel as though I didn’t have a vacation.  Although I will say that for some unexplained reason, this return has not proven to be as grueling as they usually are.  Hmmmm???

We had a wonderful vacation (as usual).  No trips, near or far.  No plans at all for that matter.  We did, however, get a lot of things done that we wanted to do before the snow starts flying (i.e. Mom’s house is “winterized”, the driveway is seal coated, etc.).  I also decorated the house for fall (yup, I’ll get pictures cause I finally bought a digital camera which I am very, very pleased with!).  Include a couple of days of just plain old relaxing and this made for one heck of a vacation!  I could definitely get used to that!

So, that’s it for me.  How do you do?