Weekend at John's

Hera and her battle scars.

Hera played hard! 

Hera is doing very well! I was so happy to see her bright eyed and active, and begging for play. She is regaining some weight. Her coat looks better. She isn't staying in that sad, sick cat position, settled upright, with a downcast head, she is sprawled all over the place, in her ungraceful Hera fashion. Yahoo!   She even went Crazy Cat today for a while (for non-cat people, that is a good thing for a cat who has been seriously ill). Except for her battle scars (the shaved tummy and paw), you'd never know she was near euthanasia a few weeks ago. The vet even gave John her cell phone number, just in case, as it was the weekend and Hera was in grave condition. I'm very hopeful.  Good for you Hera, and for John, for being patient and getting her the care she needed. I love that kitty, she's a corker. I'd like her to be around for many years to come.

We ate very seasonally this weekend, lots of garden goodies. Garden is doing very well. Lots of peppers and the tomatoes are small, but plentiful. My zinnias are still glorious.

I had tea made from my ginger mint. It was delicious.

We tried this recipe for a Zucchini Appetizer I got out of a free kindle download. I used garden zucchini and dried my own parsley from the garden. It also had sweet onion, parmesan cheese, eggs, bisquick, oil, and seasonings. It was delicious.  The leftovers were even better, warmed in a skillet, and all the parmesan cheese browned up. Yum.

I also made bruschetta with tomatoes, basil, and parsley, all from my garden, and some Kalamata olives.

I made Lemon Balm Chicken, with lemon balm and sage from John's garden, mixed with butter and rubbed under the skin and stuffed in the cavity along with a lemon. Tasty stuff.

John made pesto in his super cool vita mix. Much nicer than cleaning that food processor. On the left is carrot top pesto. I had snipped some young carrot tops when I picked my basil, and they smelled so good! I popped one in my mouth and yum, it was good! John said take a  look on the internet for carrot top pesto? And I'll be darned, there it was! On the right is a parsley & basil pesto with the usual goodies, lemon, garlic, sesame seeds and walnuts. Good stuff.

The traditional pesto turned into this, and we had it with a beautiful salad, with some lettuce from John's garden . . .

Pesto flatbread.

The carrot top pesto went on some marked down whole wheat cheese tortellini from Kroger. It didn't photograph well, but gosh, it smelled so good, and it was sure tasty with some of the lemon balm chicken and a salad.

And for dessert, we had Paula Deen's zucchini bread. Paula knows zucchini bread! Kay needs to know more about zucchini bread. It looks so perfect  . . . how could the middle be totally raw?! John thinks I need a bundt pan, since I been having some raw middle problemos. That zucchini was huge! I can't believe I didn't spot it until it was that big. I used it in that appetizer recipe, I made zucchini bread,  I even put some in scrambled eggs. And there was still some left in John's refrigerator. I'm sure he'll use it up.

I had my own kitties to the vet. Finn is fat! He needs to lose some weight. His new special satiety diet food cost me $35! Is there a food like that for fat people I wonder? And I don't know how to keep him from eating at the neighbors a couple of houses down. I was talking to them one day about the neighborhood strays and along comes Finnegan! The neighbor said "Oh there is that big shy cat, he's here every day." I said "That is MY cat!" lol  What a hoot. Finn masquerading as a stray. And last blog post when Midge was hiding in a box, turns out she didn't feel well. I got her up on the table at the vet and we were waiting and I noticed that she looked funny, she had a strange double chin . . . unsual for her, my "little" cat. I had the vet take a look and Dr. Dave found she had a puncture wound or a sting or something on the underside of her chin. Now that I look back at the box pic her chin was big there too, poor kitty. She needed an antibiotic, and she is such a tiger (she really is!), I spent an extra $35 to get her an injection instead of cat wrestling with her 3 times a day and getting that damn pink antibiotic everywhere. And she needs her teeth cleaned. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. But they are good expensive kitties and I am quite fond of them.

Another week of eye drops for my cataract eye. I got released from the surgeon and have to go see my own eye doc this week. The bills are rolling in and wow! Thank God for good insurance is all I have to say!

The rest of the fam is doing well. No excitement (which is a very good thing!).  Reunion is coming up in a couple of weeks. I can't believe August is nearly here.  I'm so glad the miserable heat they were predicting missed us. Nice to have windows open and not be miserable.

Kay :)

Summer & Midge

Summer is here! Finally. It is hotter than hell. Needed a new fan. Love my new wind machine, but where is Midge, she has disappeared. Did the wind machine blow her away? Nope. She is in the box the fan came in out in the shed where it must be 100 degrees! She doesn't look pissy because it is hot . . . she is pissy because I finally found her and woke her up.

Midge really approves of my cleaning out some of the catnip and lemon balm that has taken over my perennial bed. There was no room for her in there before.

Mom has the air on! Bernie did not like air conditioning. Or maybe he didn't like paying for air conditioning?

I have to take the cats to the vet for shots this a.m. I won't see them again for the rest of the weekend!

Be careful of this heat!

Kay :)

Happy (Early) Birthday John!

I drove Mom and Joe to Streator today, and we had lunch to celebrate John's 49th birthday coming up on the 13th.  49!! Wow.

The Birthday Boy and Hera! I was tickled to see that the sick kitten had put on a little weight, had some spring in her step, and bright eyes! She rolled onto her back for a tummy rub when Mom greeted her too!  She seemed more active and, overall, much improved since I last saw her. Her sister, the ever elusive Isis, hid for most of the visit. I did get my hands on her a couple times though. In trying to tempt Hera's appetite there have been some dietary changes for the kitties. Instead of their grain free low carb diet, all dry food, there is an array of canned foods, treats, different varieties of dry food, all sorts of goodies. Isis sees John paying a lot of attention to Hera, trying to get her to eat, and praising her when she does eat and Isis is no dummy! She is very happy to show John she can eat! LOL  The formerly tiny cat has a little tiny tummy on her! LOL  In fact John referred to the girls today as "Hera and Porky" lolol. 

Hera. You can see her battle scars there, her hair is growing back.

The best birthday carrot cake ever! I made it of course. I'm good at many things. Dieting is NOT one of them.

Joe, John and Mom in John's kitchen, Hera in the background. Isis is in the basement, hiding.

In other happenings I got my cataract taken care of Tuesday. I'm glad that's over. It wasn't as bad as a colonoscopy. But let's face it. Anything that requires you to go to a hospital and take off your underwear is NOT good. Well . . . except for that colostomy reversal . . . that was good! lol And I got some huge, dark glasses to wear around. And I'm an expert at eyedrops now too!

This is how Midge looks at me when I wear my cataract goggles. John called me Ray today. Sigh.

My lantana. It's right by my old codger rocking chair on the patio.

My view from the patio, while sawdust wafts down from the action of the carpenter bees. I know I should do something about them, but they are really interesting. And great pollinators! I think I need to get out  more, if I think carpenter bees are entertaining . . .

This crazy cherry tomato plant is 6 feet tall!

None of my first zucchini seeds came, so I threw in a bunch more. Now I have 2 zucchini plants coming up in a space that is way to small. We'll see what they can do. I do love me some zucchini!

Finn and I are going to start working on our waistlines. Well, as soon as the carrot cake is gone. Our new saying is . . . "If thy waist offends thee . . . WORK IT OFF!"  My kitties are going to the vet for shots Saturday and I'm pretty sure Dr. Dave will have something to say about Finn's weight. LOL

We missed Bernie on the ride today. We went through Verona (he would tell Robert stories and talk about how wonderful Bev was and tell about good times he had at their home); then we went through Ransom (they used to have a good baseball team there!), and then he would tell us that Joe and Josie used to shop in Streator but Dad's folks didn't go there much. He would have loved the long train and God only knows how many times he would have exclaimed, "Look at how big that field is! You can't see the end of it!" lol And he would always say that Streator was too far, he was going to stay home next time. But on the way home he would always 'fess up that he had a really good time! Memories that make me smile and a little sad at same time.  It was a good trip today.

Mom's hand is all better, unless she overdoes it. Hopefully no more falls!

Kay :)