Nico and Mice Buddies

Nico seems to have made two new friends, or is he thinking about getting into mischief?

And here's a confab of crocheted mice, who may be hatching some sort of plan.  You can never tell about a crocheted mouse.  They look cute, especially with those saucer ears and curly tails, and their roundness seems like it would make them too slow to get into trouble, but this sure looks like a meeting to me.



Happy Bird Samba

The birds in the 'hood must have been thrilled at the things turned up following last night's heavy rainfall or were showing their appreciation for the patches of blue sky and sunshine this morning, because they had quite the conga line about 7:30 a.m.  I stood with Folded Ear Cat, who gave them some chatter backtalk and eavesdropped as they fluttered and swooshed from tree to tree.  This is my water cooler action these days - at the front window with Folded Ear Cat, her tiny ears twitching, trying to decipher what must be some good gossip in the avian community, because they were telling some sort of story.

Most Recent Music Downloads

One of the motivating factors to lure me into a good walk is new music on the ipod. Here's a peek into my most recent downloads, great songs all.

When Love Sees You by Mac Powell. This song encourages me and lifts me up every time I listen to it.


A Thousand Years by Christina Perri. This is a lush love song, the first release from the Breaking Dawn soundtrack. I also love Christina's song, Jar of Hearts. While that song is about heartbreak, this new song is about true love found. Both songs are excellently written and beautifully performed.


Mercy Now by Mary Gauthier. I had to track this song down after hearing it played through a scene in Case Histories on Masterpiece Theater (great drama). It is an atmospheric, lovely song about how we all need mercy.

Kitchen Appliance Graveyard

Tell me, dear readers, that I am not the only one who has a kitchen cupboard semi-filled with kitchen appliances I bought with great enthusiasm and then tucked away after a couple of uses to forget them altogether.

I decided I had not made use of my time between jobs to get healthy, as had been the plan originally, so I dug out my juicer with a vow to make myself a glass of fresh vegetable juice every day. I toddled off to the grocery store and bought more vegetables than my refrigerator has ever seen. Those veggie bins are filled to overflowing.

So far I have had beet, kale, spinach and apple juice; and kale, bell pepper, arugula, cucumber, carrot and tomato juice. I have planned a gazpacho concoction with lots of herbs and I'm feeling a little on-the-edge-of-a-cold today, so I'm off to find some antioxidant fruits to juice myself out of it.

The juicer takes a fair amount of counter space in my galley kitchen, but it doesn't take as long to create a glass of juice and isn't as hard to clean up as I had imagined. I just pull a bunch of vegetables out into my collander and wash them all, then push them through the juicer until I have a glass full of green amazement.

I can't tell whether my body is still in shock at this new vegetable full regime or is appreciating the uptick in nutrition, but I find myself less inclined to muddy the waters with unhealthy food when all that vegetable sweetness is washing through me.

There is certainly an element of "just do it" to the whole juicing thing. I need to be looking at that juicer on the counter, and yesterday I just went ahead and made myself a glass of juice before dinner. I'm not to the point where I'm really looking forward to those glasses of green. I expect it will take time to overcome a lifetime of vegetable drought, but change can happen and this is a good thing.

Catnap Interruptus

Folded Ear Cat is normally a quiet, inquisitive, supportive housemate; but I made the mistake yesterday of waking her from a nap in the middle of the bed. I guess as the temperature gets cooler it takes longer to achieve that warm cocoon, nose under tail perfect catnap position. And then human comes along and breaches the shield. She bopped me with the cranky cat hey-hey-hey meow and huffed off to her window pillow, where she returned to nose under tail tuck position and slept until dinnertime.

Nico the Cat Finally Arrives

Nico the cat finally arrived from Japan, and immediately went to sleep on his trusty fish pillow as he was worn out from the journey.

Somebody left their laundry on the bed and as cats will do, Nico immediately made himself at home on the warm pile.

He really loves his fish pillow, takes it wherever he goes. I would suggest you not even try to remove it from his paws. Sorry you will be.

Win Win Brightens a Rainy Day

Thankfully I had the movie Win Win ready to plop into my DVD player yesterday, as the day was dreary and my mood was in need of some cheeriness, and this movie provided the perfect remedy.

Paul Giamatti plays Mike Flaherty, an attorney who's always trying to do the right thing, but that doesn't seem to be working in his favor.  He shares office space in an old house with his friend, Stephen (Jeffrey Tambor), where the old boiler in the basement clanks and needs costly replacement and he has to constantly plunge the toilet to keep it working properly.  He's trying to stay upbeat when the stress is pounding him down.  In their spare time, Mike and Stephen also coach a high school westling team, which is very good at losing.

Through his work as an attorney trying to help the elderly, an "opportunity" presents itself to Mike and he makes a bad choice because it will keep the bills paid when he doesn't know how else to do that.  As bad choices always do, it comes back to haunt him.

Through his work with an elderly gentleman, Leo, Mike meets his grandson, Kyle (Alex Shaffer), who has come to find Leo because his mom is in rehab and he needed somewhere safe to live.  Mike and his family take Kyle in and grow to really care about him, and it turns out Kyle is a very good wrestler, who teaches the team how to win.  Kyle settles into a life with people who care about him - Mike's family, the wrestling team, his grandfather - then his mother shows up.  This is when Mike's bad choice comes to light and all the parts of his life that had started to go right for a change fall apart.

Alex Shaffer in his first movie role is so good as Kyle.  From the moment he shows up on screen you just care about this kid.  Bobby Cannavale is hilarious as Mike's best friend, always talking on his headset and annointing himself "assistant coach" when the wrestling team starts winning.  And in a small role as an attorney for Kyle's mom, Margo Martindale shines.  She just won an Emmy for her role in Justified (so genius) and is a great executive assistant on A Gifted Man, a new fall TV show.  It's great to see good actors working on a regular basis. 

When you need a bit of a tug at your heartstrings and an uplift for your soul, I recommend Win Win.