This close...

Some people from one of Richard's company's other offices won the powerball.
Richard has played on occasion with his local office, but oh well....With our luck, I'm not getting my hopes up. Now if Boomer bought a ticket . . .

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I hate Mondays

Libby gives her opinions for the most hideous of days.

Or maybe it's her opinion of everything:
"Hold still. I'm going to eat you."

"I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior."
- Hippolyte Taine

Inconvenient Pumpkin

This is the pumpkin vine that is growing out of the front flower bed. We've enjoyed it so much, we think we may plant them in several beds next year. Take that, nosy neighbors!

If you want to know how the pumpkin got there, well, it's a long story.

Picture it. It's a cool day in November, far removed from the summer heat. The night is foggy.

The skulls and maces have been put away for another year, as is the custom of this patch of the county. Only the jack o lantern remains. In a fit of clumsiness, someone knocks the jack o lantern, more than worse for wear and somewhat squishy to boot, off the porch and behind the giant bush. The bush is usually full of some kind of stinging insect.

Days go by. Seasons change. The exterminator kills the swarm. Richard removes the bush. And then in the fullness of time, a new life emerges in the flower bed. What is it, we wonder? Is it a weed? Given Richard's theory on plant life (If it's growing, and I don't have to mow it, let it grow!) the pumpkin has a fighting chance.

Magnificent Marigolds

Here are the marigolds my friend Anri gave me for my birthday. They are growing nicely and hopefully keeping the bugs away from my other plants.

Out to Market

Here's sammy ready for some light shopping.
I would change people into aliens, but richard only takes photos of the cats.
:)

Argghh Matey!

This is one of Sammy waiting to load her treasure onto a waiting pirate ship.

Photoshop Magic

Since the cats won't actually let us put things on them, I have to work some costuming into their photos with my photoshop skills. Here's Libby as a cowgirl.

Boo says Recycle

This is a picture of Boo in one of her favorite spots, the newspaper recycle bin.

I thought I would add another shot of her since she looks a little dead in her other photo.

She isn't dead, obviously, she is just at times a very restful kitty.

Recovering from the holiday

I'm hoping everyone had a great Labor Day weekend. Mary visited with Jane and John while Richard and I caught up on yardwork. I need to take pictures of the yard and post them....I'll add that to my list of things to do :-)

Some things are doing well despite the drought. I think this has a lot to do with Richard's careful attention to watering everything. The Rose of Sharon bushes have finally bloomed. The marigolds my friend Anri gave me have outgrown the pot they were in and are now enormous and blooming in one of my flower beds.

I'm taking advantage of my time off to catch up on some reading. I'm working on The House of Mirth, which is interesting. I just finished reading Mary's required reading for English, which includes a lot of Kurt Vonnegut. This way we can discuss. And argue. Mary's big on the arguing. But after all, she is a teenager.