Monday Musings

[OK, it's Tuesday and not Monday... Well, I do get distracted!]

Well, first the news regarding Baby Kitty #2; she now has a name: "Boston"... My husband named her, after the old TV detective show, "Boston Blackie". Whatever. It's better than Kia, the name on her adoption papers. (She really looks like a bat, but I could not figure out how to work that into her name...) She's a hoot, totally a kitten, into everything and driving us nuts! This morning, she did the total "attack kitty" routine with our older cat, Special Needs Kitty... The little one slowly crept into the bedroom, where the older cat was lolling on the floor, on her back... The older one saw baby kitty, did some ritualistic hissing, and then ignored her. Baby kitty skittered under our bed, and all was peaceful for a few seconds. And then, pounce! The baby kitty leaped upon the older cat's tail and attacked it heartily. All heck broke loose! The Spouse and I were laughing so hard we could not stand it!

Secondly, we went to the Palo Alto Concours d'Elegance yesterday (Sunday). The Spouse had entered one of his cars (our 1961 Jaguar Mark II sedan) in the show. It would have been a lot more fun had it not been for the fact that it was 90 degrees plus! There's been a horrible heat wave (well, horrible for us) here for the past couple of days, and it was brutal out on the field. Thank goodness we were on grass, at least! The folks on either side of us had the foresight to bring pop-up pavilions with them, and we "borrowed" some of their shade. I also had the foresight to bring a big golf umbrella with us, which did help a bit with shielding us from the sun. But it wasn't really the sun, it was the heat... We survived... Reminded me of why I don't live on the East Coast any more! Today it's still pretty hot, but not quite. We close up the house in the morning, keep the fans on, and at night it's fine -- we open up the windows and doors, and we sleep nicely. One thing which never happened in NYC while I was growing up was cool nights -- the cement and the asphalt held the heat and it was miserable. Unless there was a rainstorm/thunderstorm, in which case it did cool down a bit. Our house here in Northern California backs up onto a creek (which really isn't much of a creek -- only a trickle in the bottom of the gully unless it's been raining) and lots of trees, so we're lucky that there's lots of green and moisture which helps at night. One of the uncertainties about my/our future is where we'll live -- we love it here, and we're not sure where we'd find another place that's so congenial.

Third, our daughter arrived back home this afternoon (Monday), from Oregon, for a week's stay. (That's as long as she can tolerate us, she says.) She graduated from the University of Oregon earlier this month, and is winding down her job, and will be moving to Portland, Oregon at the end of July. It's a wonderful thing to have her back in the house -- she's quite a presence, and we miss her terribly. But I'm also so very proud of her, for becoming such a lovely young woman, and thrilled that she's striking out on her own. I guess I can't turn back the clock and make her three years old again, can I... We are planning a few activities, including re-painting her room (to get rid of the graffiti inflicted on it by her brother and his friends in an as-yet-unexplained episode of drunken idiocy), and perhaps going out to the beach.

Other than that, just cruising along. My long-time BFF, who lives in Massachusetts, has told me I've turned into a true suburban princess... Perhaps! But, it is time to go get ready for tennis!