OMG! Rocky Makes a Statement

GAK!

Woke to a surprise that I ought to not be at all surprised about. I had the porch door open last night so poor Rum-kitty could be sure to get his fill of food because I'm going to be out of town tomorrow night and though I will leave food for him outside the chances of him getting any of it are 50/50. Now this morning I realize the odds of Rum getting his food are zero. Eeep.

I had the door to my room open and Rum pranced up and down the hallway singing to me in his very amusing squeekity voice, with an urgent air to it. Around midnight I'd had enough and I shut him outside for the remainder of the night which means...

Rocky must have come in while I was still awake. This morning I was stunned. No damage, just clear signs of raccoon happiness - the cat water dish which was clean and full when I went to bed was filthy. The Cat food hopper had migrated away from it's usual spot, emptied AND with an inch of mucky water on the bottom. I think a very tidy, food washing raccoon had come for supper.

Wow. This was the first time it was evident a raccoon nicks in for midnight snacks. I'm sure it must be a different raccoon than I usually get because normally the food is gone but there is no sign of raccoon like there was this time, i.e., the water bowl made foul with fur & dirt & dissolved cat food from Rocky washing his chow. Oh well. I'm lucky he/she didn't climb up the cabinet to explore or eat the bananas or trot up the hallway to invade my room and dance on my face! 'Take that human - where do you keep the cookies?!'

In other news, friend Barbara drove up last night. Today we're headed up to Grass Valley for a 5th annual weekend Hen Party at Fran & Mark's in Grass Valley. This morning I'm all puffy & I'm sure Barb will be discombobulated a bit too but I'm sure we'll enjoy ourselves once we get up there. It takes about an hour to get to there.

When Barb arrived last night I was all tickled to finally get to give the grand tour of all the stuff that has changed around here - the new doors, the newly constructed Ikea furniture. Barbara had been pre-warned she would have to help me get the HUMONGOUS new full mattress onto the Ikea bed frame I bought for the newly revamped guest room. It came to my attention I had put the headboard frame on backwards! So out came the tools and I took apart & with Barb's assistance (here! hold this mattress up in the air for me a sec...) I got it set to rights. So Princess Barb got to be the first one to experience the new guest room amenities.

I am so sorry there have been no pictures but I have no way of accessing the pictures on the digital flash card. My STUPID & very new HP printer suddenly started flashing a 'this is not the correct ink cartridge' message & it will not listen to reason. The cartridges are the same ones that have worked for months and there have been no computer virus so go figure. And the fire wire doesn't seem to have any place to plug into the camera so the printer remains the only way for me to download pictures but the damn thing won't do a thing but flash it's incorrect ink cartridge message. So, no pictures of my orchid which is finally blooming after two years of silent protest.

Ok, time to fix some coffee, get a shower in and head up to Grass Valley!

Orchid Photo Update: Hurrah, pictures of my orchid after all.

Orchid Buds

Orchid blossoms - Hurrah - I did it! I got the damned thing to bloom!

An OMG sort of day

Woke yesterday with fat face & fat feet - a new one from the endless collection of maladies of Earth Mother, whose sense of humour is awesome. I suspect the swelling was because I slept with the window open and had allergens blowing over myself all night long. Lovely.

Anyway, what the hell! I took the day off, using up a holiday credit. Mostly I felt like crap but I worked on constructing the second entertainment center tower.

Barbara drove up from Castroville and was exhausted when she got here. From her house to Gilroy (the garlic capital of the known Universe) takes a half hour - yesterday afternoon it took an hour and a half - a bit of traffic. So her drive up was hellacious and she isn't like me, she doesn't really enjoy driving to begin with.

Later this morning when we're up & dressed we head up to Grass Valley, the liberal-hippy-backwoods-survivalist center of California for our 6th Annual Hen Party at Fran & Mark's house. Sitting here pre-coffee I'm just not all that thrilled about it but I guess I'll be more in the spirit of the thing later. There will perhaps be pictures IF I can manage to get them out of my camera (long story there).

Honored Elders Day

I realized today that I was attending my 7th Honored Elders Day at the State Indian Museum. The turnout was humongous today and for the first time ever in my experience, the Earth Mother kinda forgot to send in the cool breezes! There was some air moving but overall it was hot and muggy, the temperature in the 90s! And I started the day in misery, with my hip actually hurting - it NEVER hurts! And I felt like crap - really sluggish. So I started off the day helping set up the outdoor grass area - helped set up a tent, put out table clothes and that sort of stuff. I still felt like crap so I decided hell, I'm taking it easy today. Decided to help out in with the Bake Sale, held to benefit kids on Rancherias (Reservations).

So, around 10 o'clock I was still so knackered I was thinking they could just get along without me all together - embarrassing, as I was sitting with an 80 year old volunteer with more spunk than I have. But then something happened - some of the little boys that were helping out offered us cold ice tea. First I declined - then I thought, 'right... let's just sit here and melt!' So I took a glass. As that cold liquid and more importantly, as that CAFFEINE flowed through my system I felt the life coming back into me. HOLY CRAP! I am addicted to caffeine! I can't live without it! Honestly, didn't I figure that out when the stuff had me hot wired last weekend? Sheesh. Anyway, I felt great the remainder of the day.

Note to self: DRINK CAFFEINE.

Amazing how the worst weather managed to bring about the best Honored Elders Day ever. The day is for celebrating the elder of the local Indian tribes; Miwok, Maidu, Patawin, Nisenan and others so they can enjoy some comradry, a nice lunch and some dances. The dance groups today were terrific. Miwok, Maidu, Pomo, Aztec and children from Shingle Springs who dance non-traditional Hula - yes, you read that right - the Hawaiian Hula! Their tribe learned the Hula from Hawaiians that long ago came to California with Captain Sutter.

The lunch served up today is the standby favourite - Indian tacos, which is Indian fry break served up like a tostada with beans, ground beef, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato and salsa. There was watermelon and fresh strawberries too and a huge sugar-free cake for dessert.

It was one long day today but it was fun.