Hallelujah!

Today the keeper was celebrating her 60th birthday! To tell you the truth, she has been celebrating for several weeks now, but she finished it off with a dinner at her favorite Pomadoro with W and J, her dear friends. It was a lovely, lush, tastier than usual meal that ended with Tiramisu and a candle. She said it was a perfect ending to the first day of a new decade.

As well, today she assembled a Garden Cart with those "E-Z"( Extremely -Zonking) assembly directions! She was determined to figure it out, and was outside for several hours learning how to use a sprocket wrench, and would reward herself with popsicles every few bolts she secured! But she triumphed and now we have a garden wagon to lug up to 400 lbs ( that is a lot of cats or cat food).

We also met our new handyman named Jim who is going to become part of the household, most likely, given all the projects she has for him. But he is allergic to cats, we found out. Guess the projects will be outdoors.

The heat hasn't left but I let the keeper dress me in a very useful cooling garment--a kerchief soaked in water. I wore it around the house and outside all day, and when it dried, she soaked it again for me. She said I looked like a racehorse in a cooling sheet.

The keeper's friend S reminded her of a lovely poem from Mary Oliver called "Halleluiah" from Evidence:

"And have you too been trudging . . . sometimes

almost forgetting how wondrous the world is

and how miraculously kind some people can be?

And have you too decided that probably nothing important

is ever easy?

Not, say, for the first sixty years.

Halleluiah, I'm sixty now, and even a little more,

and some days I feel I have wings."

The keeper says she is grateful for the embarrasment of wonders and kindnesses all these years.

The Lions Don't Sleep Tonight

It's hot!!!

We know that this is about as trite as can be, but the keeper even thinks that it has become a bit much. She walked around today wearing a wet bandana around her head and another one around her neck! She tried to get us to sleep on ice packs but we preferred the dirt under the deck and the shed. Alice didn't want to burn her paws and so had to be carried into the house. I let the keeper wrap me in a wet washcloth and that felt good. While we chilled, she cleaned out the shed. She was going to do a few other things, but was sensible. Last night we stayed up late watching The Curious Life of Benjamin Button. We thought it a haunting movie, time going backwards. The keeper thought it needed editing. "Three hours is just too long." Yesterday the keeper was at the library and all the books she was looking for just happened to be on the "Notable" shelf. She said it was almost as good as winning Publishers' Clearinghouse Sweepstakes. She came home with another bagful and so proud of her new habit...librarying. They had set the library up as a cooling station, and offered free juice. It was really crowded with people just hanging out.

Listening around the neighborhood we can hear the steady hum of neighbors' air conditioners. Who would think that we would need one of those here? We are grateful to have a ceiling fan that seems to push all of the hot air down on us. At least it's a warm tropical breeze, with the perfume of Princess Diana lilies coming from the living room. Tonight the keeper set up an outside reading station, and brought out a lamp to the deck so she could read her latest Linda Ollsen novel. She made us come in when she started to hear the raccoons rattling the bushes. After a while she turned off the light and just stared at the moon wrapped in a gauzy haze and the rosary of solar lights illuminating the back yard. Very lovely.

She sat there for quite a while because she knew that this was the closing of her fifth decade and she would be moving into a whole new phase manana. It seemed important to mark it somehow with the moon and the stars.

Heat Wave!

This is not house cat weather! It's not wild cat weather either! The keeper loves it, but last night we all found it hard to sleep. We all slept in the living room for several hours and took advantage of the draft. But we also watched the dawn slowly creep over us and gently light up the sky.

It's been a long weekend. The keeper was very busy visiting chuches this weekend, putting a lot of miles on her car. She said that St. L's was poorly attended, and finally she discovered why later--the Gold Cup---USA vs. Mexico, was occurring at the same time as Mass, and Mexico won easily! She said she found the gathering in Kirkland very lovely, and enjoyed picnicking with them as the hot rain poured down and then the drive to Carnation was beautiful as usual--green, very green, with people swimming and tubing the Snoqualmie River alongside the road. Every church had big fans roaring, so it was hard to hear. The Cathedral was lovely as usual, and they celebrated Deacon Joe, she said. She didn't feel like sticking around for the picnic even though she had extra time. She wanted to get early to St. L, and didn't really feel like chatting with hundreds of people. Now we are happy that we have some time for a week's vacation and we are at home. That means we can come and go all day, even if it is just to throw ourselves on the shady grass that is nearly brown. It looks like that's what the keeper is doing too. She finished The Blue Star today, and found it a simple, yet profound description of the 40's in a small town with believable, touchable people.

This will be a good week for us, some puttering, some business, some celebrations, milestones, and rest!

Fire and Rain

What a night! We cannot leave the blog without mentioning the amazing sunset through the trees. It looked like the horizon was on fire. Then it started to rain, big plopping drops. We are not making this up!

The keeper suggested that this is more like Hawaii or Mexico. We have never been to those places, and don't ever want to go anywhere if we have to go in those cat crates. We will enjoy what we have right here. Thank you very much.

Birthdays at Happy Hour

As we mentioned, the keeper has been a little busy celebrating her friends' birthdays of late. Tonight was no exception. She left us with some chicken and ran out to Piatti's to see her dear friends MK and KM do the birthday treat. We like them a lot too. They are cat people. (And we send greetings to little Molly who, like us, had to stay at home.) The keeper told us that Piatti has the best thing going! She thought they were going to have little tapas plates, but no...they ordered two pizzas, which were not small, and the bruschetta with goat cheese, and a caesar salad. And for once no one could eat dessert! And the bill was very small! They waddled out, she said. We saw her waddle home. What a great find...it starts at 4 PM!

Yard Report

The days have been a little busy and we haven't been able to get the keeper to sit down and attend to our blog. So, we would like you to know that the apple tree is doing well, despite the fact that we don't recall too many apple blossoms, and that the asian pear tree has no fruit, although there were many beautiful flowers. Go figure.

We also have tomatos starting to ripen and that is miraculous. She actually watered them enough this year. But they are much smaller than the neighbor's. We see these things when we slip out of the yard. But we continue to admire her valiant efforts. We also think the grass looks fine all brown and we understand the need to conserve water.

Health Care for All!

I did not want to come in tonight because I found it. The keeper had dumped out all of my old catnip on the lawn and I found it, and was rolling in it and having quite a time. Now all the cats will be over to use it, I know. This could become stressful. Perhaps Alice can defend us. I am getting tired. And besides, I am old!

The keeper was focused tonight by the President's press conference about health care reform. It seems like a no-brainer to us, and we agree with her when she agrees with him that the system we have now is killing us all. She is concerned about the question of not insuring children whose immigrantparents don't have the correct legal documents. Many of the children are citizens, and have a constitutional right to health care. Also, if you don't provide care for certain groups, they become a potential public health hazard for everyone. If we can bail out banks and fat cat investment firms, I believe that we can provide decent health care to our people. We could also ensure that for our pets. But I don't think we have too many lobbyists right now.

A Helpful Invasive Species

What a great day we had! The keeper stayed home almost all day. And we got to stay outside all day. We found sleeping spots in cool places under the shed and the pampas grass.

She did all the watering this morning and was elated to find that the hollyhocks are finally blooming. She has waited two years for this moment! We tried to share the joy.

Her favorite flower of summer is on the invasive species list, the butterfly bush, AKA summer lilac. No matter what they say about that bad bush, the keeper is enchanted by the perfume of the flowers which send her right back to her childhood in July and all of those purple flowers that her mother would pick and place in huge bunches in crystal vases. The whole house was summer lilac! But today she realized that the bees love the flower and she knows that even thought it is an invasive species we are all helping to bring back those honeybees.

We also had more laundry today and it only took an hour to dry outside. The keeper says she loves hanging out laundry in the summer. She says she imagines she is someone somewhere long ago as she does this simple, homely task. Besides, she likes the smell of the clean laundry dried by the hot air.

Best of all, while we slept, she read. She finally finished Edwidge Danticat's painful story of a Haitian family's love, immigration and detention center hell, Brother, I Am Dying. She read us parts out loud. Very strong book about what happens at the detention centers that are really little gulags. Then all afternoon she sat out under the shade of the maple tree and we joined her, but we didn't share her popsicles, while she read from cover to cover, Jim the Boy. She said it was a sweet, simple story out of the 1920's about a boy growing up in North Carolina. She will start the sequel, Blue Star, tomorrow. Not being readers, we find her fascination with the printed page somewhat of an addiction. She could be brushing us.

Human Logic?

It was 6 PM and we were hungry. We knew there was a nice can of food calling us. But the keeper was only interested in her Sunday NYT. So we stared her down with our most pitiful looks until she looked up in surprise and said, "Are you hungry? OK, Let me water the plants!" Human logic is odd. So sure enough, we had to wait until the plants got soaked and you know how long that takes. Finally we heard the can opener and we sauntered in, feigning disinterest. When she went out to check on the plants, we ate. We also suspect that we are eating the same turkey that W is complaining about at Merrill Gardens. We hope it is not their leftovers, or they are not eating cat food!

The keeper came back in all excited about her harvest. Take a look, it won't feed a bird, but it's her first harvest of some native berry. Smaller than a raspberry, same design though. She forgot to water the plants so there may not be too many more berries.

But she also found the neighbors' clematis had climbed the fence and was having a little fling with another one of her native plants along the driveway fence. We thought it is prettier than the plant it is visiting.

The keeper was also quite expressive about her friends C and L and their incredible hospitality whether it is in Seattle, Canada, or Mexico!

Sleep at Last

This was really not a very stressful day for the feline members of the household. We were all exhausted this morning because we had not been able to sleep well last night because Cingular Wireless decided to start working on their cellular transformers or whatever they are on those poles across the street at 11 pm and didn't finish til 4 something. They had a huge crane which they were trying to take up the little forested path and huge spotlights..Hello.....can you hear us now? Do you know what time it is? They didn't care. They kept the whole neighborhood up. What planet do they come from? So we slept all day while the keeper worked.

She no sooner got home an then prepared to leave again to spend the evening with her friends C and L and her good friend P and his pal N. They were celebrating P's visit from the East coast and the fact that she and P will be moving into a new decade soon. She said they had a delicious dinner with drinks on the balcony overlooking Lake Washington. Yes, it was salmon...and anchovies in the Caesar salad. And no, she brought nothing home to share. So much for community!

Prestige and Catnip

Sometimes we believe it is important to point out very good people in our community. The keeper just brought home some printing work done by the folks at Prestige Copy and Print on Northgate Way. Very impressive. The keeper says that they are the most helpful, thoughtful, and professional people around. They have been in business for quite a while. Ever since she started producing the newsletter for the eastside, they have been sooo helpful in getting it out. So, this is a shout out to Prestige Copy and Print...MEAOW! You all rock, and we invite everyone we know to visit them and see for yourselves!

Besides admiring fine printing, our day was predictable. The keeper came home early and let us stay out late. But we did get to partake of the grilled salmon. We let her keep the vegetables for herself. Best of all, we discovered we have 6 catnip plants growing in the rock garden. This is heaven.

Wishing

What a lovely day or two. We wish we could have been rolling around and hanging outside as pictured. However, Alice and I were relegated to the house these last two days because the keeper was running all over and came home late each night. She did give us chicken and let us out tonight but it was already dark and we were hungry. A dilemma: outside prowling in the dark or food. prowling or food. Agh! Alice opted for food. I took the dark while the keeper watered, then I couldn't wait any longer, and came scratching at the door.

She tried to interest us in what she saw out there, but I have to admit, we were less than receptive. Maybe you will be. She said that last night as she was driving home from Kent where she observed a very fine formation session for comunidades de base, as she was driving through Seattle, she beheld the most unusual cloud formation...of course mauve and sherbert orange and violet chiffon-like calligraphic marks painted across the horizon, like fireworks dropping into Shilshole Bay. Stunning, she said. Tonight she came home wild about how much she loves Seattle in the summer, and how as she was driving home from West Seattle at sunset, the sight of Smith Tower silver against the horizon with Mt Rainier glistening on her right, confirmed it.

She was so impressed by H's garden and all the hard work and love she has put into it all, and found more inspiration to keep going with the one here. She said she also dropped into the funeral for DJC at the Cathedral because she arrived early for her meeting. A good man, with a simple heart and a love of the poor. Another big tree has fallen.

Bastille Day

Today is Bastille Day. We celebrated by going outside in the afternoon when the keeper got home. She had gone out with a friend to run a few errands and have lunch at the Harborside. The sun came out as they were leaving. She also saw a collection of old washing machines and appliances...fascinating that they had to hand crank the agitator...no wonder that you had to devote a whole day to doing laundry.

We also read a fabulous article about whales in the NYT magazine this afternoon...whales as highly intelligent creatures watching us. The story told about the team that freed one of the gray whales from a tangled fishing net and the whale ended up swimming circles around them watching them and splashing them after very joyfully. It also talked about how the undersea sonar weapon testing is causing death, brain bleeds, and horrible destruction to their inner ears.
Our keeper let us watch Revolutionary Road with her later tonight. It was a little depressing, but Kate Winslett and Leonardo de Caprio were good. We would opt for Harry Potter, if left to ourselves.

Hunger Strike

The plants seemed to really like the rain. They just seemed happier today.

The keeper spent the morning taking her dear friend W to a procedure at VM. She was thrilled to be able to spend three hours in the waiting room just reading and it was heaven. She finished yesterday's NYT and The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich. She said it was a challenging read because she had a hard time keeping all the characters straight because it took her three weeks to read. It ended well, though. Now she says that she can't wait to start, Brother, I am Dying. She certainly loves reading books written from other cultural contexts.

She came home after dropping W off and cleaned the house. She vacuumed and mopped and installed hooks for things in the mudroom. Busy bee, she is.

We went on catfood hunger strike. We are tired of eating Wellness Turkey or Chicken. Too bland. She brought us some other mixed grill things and we liked them. But it is back to the old same old same old. So we refused to eat last night's food and finally nibbled at it this morning. She didn't give us any extra for breakfast, and so, we tried to not eat all day, but she wouldn't share her grilled chicken until we ate what was on our plates.

We did. And we got the best grilled chicken with the balsamic vinagrette and mustard. We are grateful. And we ate our Wellness chicken. Hopefully, tomorrow it will be sunny.

Oh...For..Tuna ( and Rain!)

We must start off by telling you a good thing we heard on our favorite radio station the other day, KING FM, while the keeper was off at work. We were listening to Carmina Burana and the announcer mentioned that the first part should be a cat food commercial. We listened more closely and we heard...Oh For-tuna! WOW! Maybe we could have our own brand.....we already have a stirring theme song.

The keeper had a great day preaching. She said after three services she was tired, but it was the good kind of tired she hadn't felt in a long time, like she had done something good.

And even though the prep was hard, the spirit gets going and takes off. A nice community down south. But she says it's different from preaching to your own community.

The big news is that it rained this afternoon, it thundered and big fat drops fell like a sack of nails from the sky and the keeper stayed out side trying to move things and then just stayed out to smell it and she came in all soaked and happy. We hid under the bed because

the thunder was loud. but we know we have very happy plants. It smelled sooo fresh, but now we have to go out and remark all of our territory. Lots of work for tomorrow waiting for us.

Bill's Legacy

You may have noticed, dear reader, that the keeper has been too busy to take my blogging. She went back to work and she has been preparing a sermon in her spare time for the weekend, and she is out of shape. But it must have gone well because she offered to go to the computer for us tonight. We didn't really have much to report anyway, other than that we have had to stay inside a lot.
The keeper has been so excited about her flowers, though. The flowers blooming in the box which Bill C made for her are magic. The same flowers he gave her years ago before he died bloom year round. They didn't bloom in the snow, but made it through OK. Then, she planted sweet peas on the deck very late, but they are blooming happily and they are so fragrant.

Clematis for a Mostly Cloudy Day

It was mostly cloudy, no showers and it felt like fall. The wind whipped the leaves which had been fried in last week's heat in twisted spirals across the paths and the clouds just hovered. A stay in and sleep day. The keeper, though was out at meetings, and found time to find a slice of summer sun on the very healthy clematis. She came home with new bistro chairs ( 70% off, she said) and something called NEEM oil for the black spot on the roses. We did get to have some of her salmon tonight, and came in when she called us. Tonight she is busy working on a sermon for Sunday. We guess we won't be playing with her tonight. She is going back to work tomorrow.

That means we are back inside, even if it is sunny.

Restoration

Today it was really cloudy and breezy. A perfect day for painting the old chairs the keeper found with a FREE sign sitting in a neighbor's front yard. For about 16 dollars she made them look really pretty spiffy. We thought so. And most of the paint got on the chairs. She has these special painting clothes she wears which she started wearing for the St. Peter Claver project. They have every color of the rainbow on them. And now, just a little mark of green. Tonight we are watching Frost/Nixon. We would rather watch paint dry, but she seems interested.

Pomodoro!

Pomodoro on Eastlake! What a great place! The keeper brought us home treats from her dinner with W. She said they had a lovely dinner and incredible food with the best service ever. Pomo-doro con Aceite Balsamico, Linguine with Pesto Rosso--Red Peppers--and Tiramisu, great conversation. They wish that they could eat there every night! Last night we watched the moon rise in the wind over the blowing trees and it was stunning! It wasn't quite a pomodoro, but awesome enough!

Market Day

We watched as the keeper went to the LFP Farmers' Market this morning. She brought us home more flowers from this lady's farm in Monroe, and some plants from a nursery on Raft Island, some organic squash from Yakima, and raspberries from Mt. Vernon. She also brought us organic catnip buds, which you may not know, are the Colombian gold of the catnip world. We were pleased. We don't like raspberries. Squash has no flavor, and Alice is allergic to all those flowers.