mostly cats & other good things

les recent recent photographs - Betty* - next up in the spay-a-thon / from the boat ramp near the big dock / rose hips / Sweet Bee (I can hardly stand to look at her photo I miss her so much) / Missy D / the old & very tall elm across the street / sedum (I think) / Monty's window - Emporium of Vintage Goodness / Virgil on a faux fur spread / moi - who doesn't loves a chocolate brown turtle neck ?  / the Dude taking a power nap / & super sweet Nessie Ness our 14+ black velvet chicelet ;-) / and Betty again - catnapping could occur - shhhhhhhhh.

It's just past noon here and I'm suffering an unbearable wave of happiness - it's not unbearable, I kid ! It's lovely. I just finished a pro-bono job, illustrated poster(s) for our local Communities in Bloom a large, time consuming project (well at least I made it that way) 'cause I just felt like throwing myself into and I did. You can visit the results over at my portfolio blog here - once a graphic designer, kind of always a graphic designer ... or so it seems.

I've begun a little early morning power walking activity and ooh it feels good, after it's done. Missy D and I have our usual 20-30 min stroll which mainly involves nasal investigations along the boardwalk of the most intense kind. We saunter, Miss D and I. These days that's her biggest thrill, when she was a much younger dog muskrat hunting & crab tolling extraordinaire were top of her list but now that's she's a very senior girl some intense sniffing along a well worn dog trail seems to give her the deepest satisfaction. So after our walk  I drop Winnie off and I power walk for about 23 minutes (of course I time myself) around and up and down a few nearby streets, a couple of hills to climb, around the elementary school and home again before 9am.  Each and every morning while I'm leisurely sipping my coffee in bed I try to think of reasons why NOT to do this fast walk (I'm guessing that's just part of the game with exercise). No ! demon girl whines ... we're lazy we don't want to power walk this morning ! Just do it  ! says the new girl, whoever she is, she's new around here and she's a tough freakin' cookie. OK we whine but let me tell ya once my brand new springy walking shoes/runners hit the darn pavement, & those arms start a swingin' it feels terrific - it makes me feel invincible again.

And, AND, a-n-d - after 5+ years, and much rumination, fussin & a fumin' worrying too much about the money while spending far too much of my time lately staring at the rainbow wheel a spinnin' on my imac (as it tries laboriously to do what I've asked of it) I have ordered a brand new computer - delivery date April 26th (sung by - you guessed it that darn sweet chorus of angels) Hallelujah ! my big concession I did not order the giant 27" screen but settled instead for the much more demure 21". I currently am using a 23" - and it's BIG - I'm thinking I can can easily adapt down a few inches, but up a few inches I don't know - I think it would have been harder adjustment to make and after all - I am downsizin' dontcha know :-)

making Mario Batali's Chicken Marengo for dinner tonight

* Someone, named the Prince, is very keen to adopt sweet petite Miss Betty. She's very independent though she's thinking about our offer and she'll get back to us. Currently she is nursing kittens (and in heat). We feed her delicious food on the windowsill every day so that's she's sure to stop by.