...the old Roman recipe for mac and cheese has done me in.
Wow! It's good.
Quite restorative after 45 vigorous minutes cleaning up the garden:
note: old pic. The garden doesn't look like this yet, but it will in a month.
Maddie, of course, was helpfully supervising. From a window that doesn't have a view of the back garden. But supervising nonetheless. And come dinner time, she was seated and ready to eat!
Oh Boy!! is that TURKEY?!? No?? rats.
Yep. 21. 21 what? No, not spam comments (47 of those today)(which is, sadly, an improvement).
LadyRanger and I are celebrating 21 years of wedded bliss. HooRay! In honor of this august number, Maddie is working on being extra-cute:
She's so asleep that she doesn't even know her sun-puddle has slipped away.
How's this for cute? I'll even let you pat my tummy. Once. For less than a second. Happy 21st!
Even got a visit from our neighbor cat, Puddin'.
Not sure, but she seems to be telling me to clean up the yard. Oh well. Next weekend. For now, the celebrations continue!
It was TAX TIME at Chez Ranger yesterday. As has become traditional, we figured our pound of flesh whilst listening to the Metropolitan Opera Saturday Matinee Broadcast. We're not monsterous fans, nor are we particulary knowledgable about opera, but we couldn't help but be cheered by the fact that this year we computed to Donizetti's L'Elisir de Amore, a lovely lyrical comedy:
rather than Wagner's Gotterdammerung, the stunning but grim tale of the twilight of the gods.
We did about as well as last year, thanks, and enjoyed the opera extremely. At least, what we could pay attention to, what with all the beauty and flow of tax-language running through our heads...
Maddie, who was a great help last year, reminding us to subtract and carry the eleventy, took this year off.
Taxes?? Didn't you do those *last year*??? Enough's enough already....you guys go ahead. I'm going to nap, and then I'll....
...play with my nip-a-rang while lying on paper! WHEE!
Between a lovely opera and a lovely cat, it's amazing we got everything done. I hope we did it right. If not, surely, given the distractions, we'll be forgiven.
Right?
It's a long weekend for us, here at ChezRanger. The weather is lovely, we're in modestly good health and the cat is, as always, magnificent.
Thank you!
We are spending some time thinking about friends and family in the military who have given their time, their efforts and their blood (and, in one case, the hearing in one ear) to our nation. For what it is worth, we are humbly grateful for your sacrifices.
Since the weather has been so nice, our neighbor Ed has been out with Matilda, letting her roam about. Matilda likes to have her walkabouts and often ends up on our porch. If our door is open, she checks out what we're doing and asks to come in.
Hi Guys! Open the door whydoncha?!? Looks like you're having fun! Can I come in and play?!?
Poor girl doesn't understand that we're doing her a favor by keeping her out.
Damn Skippy you are!
Seriously. Once when I was a bit careless at the front door, Maddie got out and chased Matilda off our porch, off our property and off our neighbor's property. I think it's for the best that these two never meet face to face again.
Oh poo.
We hope you all have a good week. Think kindly, if you will, of those out there doing their duty in the military.
From the first of our relationship LadyRanger has had a coffee table that was given to her by her parents. It was one of the first pieces they bought as newlyweds back in the 1950s. It's a lovely, simple piece of birch, plainly finished and, I think, quite elegant. It's been the centerpiece of a working living room for over 50 years and had absorbed a moderate amount of punishment, as well as the usual wear and tear. I believe there's a story about it almost claiming the life of my future bride when she was a wee beast, but it's been on its best behavior since.
We decided to refinish the old thing. It was looking pretty rough, as I'm sure you've seen in my pictures if you've looked past the very lovely Maine Coon cat.
Stripped the old finish, sanded a bit and applied Tung Oil. Easy peasy. The result? Lovely, I think. Though no professional would claim the job, I think we did quite well.
Of course, there's been one problem.
Aw, jeez guys! I'd just gotten it smelling right. Had it all set up just the way I like it, too.
Maddie's been avoiding the table since we put it back in its spot. I'm sure she'll ge used to it pretty soon. Maybe.
I'm going to have to think about this, you know. Initial indications are not good, either.
Update: she sat on it. It has been accepted. All is well.
I wish you all a Happy Easter Sunday.
Oddly, the suggestion of an early morning easter-egg hunt was not greeted with enthusiasm here.
Nah. I'm good. Thanks though.
Really? Don't want to wander through the nice, cool, dew-ey grass?
Do I look like I want that? Look...when there's eggs stuffed with turkey and Laughing Cow cheese, come get me. Otherwise? Not so much. K?
In the face of such indifference, what could I do? I did happen to glance out over the sunny yard, though, and what do you think I saw? Matilda (otherwise known as Puddin') the neighbor cat! Some of you might remember that Matilda is the local relative of the Cheshire Cat, given to appearing and disappearing via tesseract. I barely managed to catch a pic of her popping into this reality, obviously looking to score an easter egg!
(please note: I'm pretty sure that the space/time distortions evident in this remarkable photo are due to the "cheshire effect" oft commented upon by Professor Hawking and *not* by the 77 year-old window glass this photo was taken through)
I casually mentioned this remarkable phenomenon to Maddie, then having a wash on the bed. Her response?
What?!? Another CAT is bogarting MY eggs?!? In MY yard?!? Let's go!!!
Typical, really.
Have a joyous Easter everyone.
For the last nine days, Chez Ranger has been stricken with sinus/bronch-itis. I've felt like mud and LadyRanger's been under the weather. Even Nurse Maddie has been hit by rapid-fire feline sneezing fits. I seem to be ever so slowly on the mend (thanks to a kind doctor and modern pharmacology) but I worry that LR is about to descend into the depths of the funk. No. Fun. Nurse Maddie's duty roster just grows larger. She's been doing the classic nurse "thing".
She wakes us up several times a night to check on us. There's nothing like being awoken at 2:00 a.m. with a familiar furry face carefully sniffing your breath. We call it, of course, the "CAT scan".
<sigh> Of course you do. I was hoping for a better joke, but clearly the recent illness has addled your brain. Is it *all* snot up in there?
I hope you all will forgive my lameness, and enjoy the vintage picture.
Early every February, on a Saturday, ChezRanger does its taxes. Saturdays afternoons are usually restful around here. We get our chores and workouts done and chill to the afternoon broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera. I'm not a huge fan of opera, or a serious serious opera maven like my sister-in-law, but I do enjoy most of what's been broadcast, and the intermission commentary always teaches me something. I find that I like the more lyrical operas. I really enjoyed La Fille du Regiment and Le Comte Ory, which I hadn't ever heard all the way through (or, if I'm to be honest, even heard of...). There are the biggies, like La Boheme, Tosca and others which have delighted me. A View from a Bridge I just couldn't listen to.
Anyways, there we were at the dining table, all set up, papers in order, pencils and wits sharpened, ready to compute. Maddie sat at the table with us, ready to check our math.
Subtract! Borrow from the tens place! Carry the eleventy! Bring down the six! If you clowns don't do the math right there'll be no money for treats and turkey! Subtract!
She was most helpful.
We had the radio on. What was the opera?
Yep. Wagners Twilight of the Gods. Not a Good Omen for tax-time.
Gotterdammerung. Egads.
Well, it did all turn out well in the end.
The taxes, not the opera. Didn't owe, getting a small refund. All is well.
Siegfried and Brunhilda, though.....not so much.
Maddie? She enjoys Wagner. She sat in my lap and purred through the last 2 hours, then decided to re-enact the opera for us.
I am ded. Sing pretty to me. Then feed me!
Not sure that last part is in the opera, but okay. Consider it done.
Enjoying some good times here at Chez Ranger. The sinus infection has been chased away at last, which allowed me to actually enjoy celebrating LadyRangers birthday! (w00t!) We've had a very mild winter so far. Mid 60's this last part of January and projected into February, so the garden is starting to look a bit like spring. Just in time for the inevitable big freeze to kill everything. Been lazy on the new pic-taking, but here's a vision of Maddie doing what she loves to do every spring (or spring-like winter)...
Yep, looking out the window at the newness.
Happy New Year to all and sundry on the 'Net! We hope you've had an excellent start to 2012, and that the year to come lives up to it's promise for all of you.
Just got back from the Winter Palace. We had a lovely visit with LadyRanger's parents and sister. The star attraction was, of course, their cat Tabby.
She's still a bit skittish around people, but I'm sure that you can see that she is quite the sweetie. And a wonderful athlete! This is a cat that could play goalie for *any* team in the NHL. As long as they were shooting paper balls or mylar crinkles. Nothing gets by this cat. I wish I could have gotten some video, but she's shy around technology combined with strangers. Did have a chance to hand out some head pats though, and was grateful for the chance.
Grateful? And well you should be.
And how did Maddie fare? you ask. She had the usual annoying trip up and back in her carrier, but she weathered it well. She was mostly confined to our bedroom, since we did not want the two combative cats to come face to face. LR's parents confined Tabby in the rec room downstairs a few times so that Maddie could come out and wander about. Maddie had a good time sniffing around the tree. What did Maddie do the rest of the time? Read, mostly. Here's a shot of Maddie bogarting *my new Patrick O'Brian novel*!
Oh that Lucky Jack Aubrey is *so* dreamy! A man's man! I wonder if he needs a ship's cat! And I'd bet that Maturin would be a good vet, if I got too sea-sick! <sigh>
Okay, I'm not as wild about them as Maddie is, but they are roaring good books. About the only novel I read at this point.
I'd like to leave you with a pic with a special meaning to me. One that will go about half unexplained, but hey, no harm done really.
May you have your loved ones about you all the year in one way or another. May you prosper. May you find both contentment and growth.
Happy New Year.
Recent Comments