How did this happen? Somehow summer and now fall has only lasted a few weeks this year. And within a few more weeks, the holidays will be here…and I am sure I will not be ready for all that.

Halloween was kind of a bust yesterday. Only had a few kids (maybe 20-25) so I have lots and lots of candy remaining. No doubt there will be many smiling faces at work as a result. I did a minimal amount of decorating and a good portion of what I did got attacked by the kittens. So I’ve had to move anything that was sitting low enough so they could not reach it. And that includes the dining room table since they’ve figured out how to jump on the chairs and climb from there onto the table. I had really forgotten about this part of having kittens.

On Thursday I decided to play a round of Animal Crossing on my Wii. While everything with the Wii seemed to be working fine, I couldn’t get the remote to work. One of the cats (I suspect it was Nate) had chewed through the wire to the remote sensor. So I wound up at Best Buy getting a new one. Only real problem with the new one is that it is wireless. Good for preventing cats from chewing the wire, bad for using up batteries. It requires four AA batteries and I’ve already used up the first four. Seems I’m going to have invest in rechargeable batteries and a battery charger…or I’ll have to get some Energizer stock.

November also means the end of Daylight Saving Time (boo) and the end of watering my lawn. Southern California has a water shortage, so Pasadena has set up water restrictions on using sprinklers. We are only allowed to water once a week on Saturdays, before 9 am and after 6 pm. As a result, I’ve decided not to plant winter grass this year. I just don’t see the point of spending +/-$50 for grass seed/fertilizer when I can’t do the daily watering that will be needed to get the grass to grow. I’ll just be providing expensive food for the neighborhood birds. I hate to see the lawn turn brown, but I think that will happen no matter what if I can’t water but once a week.

The one good thing about November is the start of the Lakers season. It’s very nice to have basketball on tv once again. Kind of a distraction from all I have to do around the house, but a nice distraction!

Well, this was news to me: Your Facebook account can be hacked! I got a number of strange messages tonight from my sister-in-law, Mindy. Turns out these weren’t from her after all, but from someone who had taken control of her account. The messages on my wall were about some video that she wanted me to watch, but there was no video nor link to a video. Then I got a personal message from her with a link to what she said was a picture of me. I clicked on it, but Facebook security wouldn’t allow me to see it.

After talking with Kevin, I discovered that a hacker had probably figured out her password and took control of her account. Thankfully, I was unable to click on any links. God knows what would have happened if had been able to make the contact. This was a good warning that passwords need to be somewhat complex since there are computer programs out there that scan your account running passwords until they hit one that works.

What a pain in the ass these jerks are!

There are too many things that I want to do and not near enough time to get them all done each weekend. Had lots of plans for today, but only got a couple of things accomplished. Oh well. I guess I can use the excuse that it was really hot today (95 degrees), so couldn’t do some of the more physical activities. Yeah, that sounds good!

Took Nate and Hayes in this morning for their first vaccinations…and to visit with the technician at the vet’s office who fostered them. It was lots of fun! Well, not so much for the boys since they had to get shots. They spent most of today sleeping as a result, which did allow me to get some computer work done.

I found a box of old photos in the garage and managed to scan about 50 of them. I really need to set up a plan to do a small amount every day since the ones I did today took quite a few hours to finish. And I am determined to get these photos into my computer so that I don’t have all these boxes, crates and albums filled with photos that no one ever sees.

Pulled out two crates of Fall/Halloween decorations from the garage as well. Will sort through this stuff tomorrow morning to find what I want to keep and use and what has outlived it’s usefulness and will go into the trashcan. Also got out two of the many crates of stuff that I kept of Kevin’s from when he was a kid. Going to try to sort that stuff out and hope that a good chunk of it can go into the trash as well. Don’t worry, Kevin, I’ll check with you before getting rid of your stuff!

Unfortunately, I got very little else done today. Still need to do laundry, clean the kitchen and shampoo the carpet in the living room. Good thing is that I don’t like pro football, so I won’t be distracted by the TV tomorrow…and glad I got the scanning done today since I’m fairly certain the kittens will be back to normal tomorrow and won’t be content to let me work on the computer without chasing my fingers around the keyboard!

Yesterday it rained all day and it was very welcome. While it was overcast and misty today, it really didn’t rain much. But there was enough yesterday to really saturate the ground–meaning I won’t have to water anything until next week.

And tomorrow it’s back to summer. It’s supposed to get to about 84 tomorrow and into the 90’s on Friday and Saturday. And there’s no more rain in sight for a while. I guess the baseball fans out here will be happy since both the Dodgers and Angels are in the playoffs which start tomorrow. And I’m sure anyone coming to watch (as well as the players) from either New York or Philadelphia will be happy with the weather.

I guess I’m not really all that upset just as long as we don’t get much warmer than the low 90’s. Fall was fun while it lasted…

Finally! And it actually feels like Fall here! Today it only got up to about 69 degrees and someone at work felt the need to turn on the heat this afternoon as the temps began to cool down. I’m really not ready for heat just yet. I’d rather wear a sweater or jacket. If it gets too warm in my office, I can always open the window.

Spent yesterday putting up fall decorations outside and a few inside. Also cleaned up things in the backyard by sweeping up the deck around the pool and deflating lots and lots of pool toys. Still have a bit more clearing of beds plus trimming to do, but can easily get that accomplished in a day. Primarily wanted to get things cleaned up in preparation for the upcoming rain tomorrow. Yay rain! I just hope we don’t get too much all at once so that the mud stays up on the hillsides where the fires burned everything away a few months ago.

Stopped at Target on the way home tonight. Got food for the next week-10 days as well as a few things for Robin. They had blanket sleepers on sale really cheap, so I picked up a few of those as well as some Halloween presents. Now just have to get everything stuffed into a pay one price post office box and get it shipped off this week…and hope the sleepers fit.

By the time I got home it was dark! Thank God daylight saving time hasn’t yet ended or it would be dark like this every night by the time I got home. Not looking forward to that point in the year.

Guess I’d better go dig around in the closet to find my umbrella for tomorrow. Haven’t used it since last spring, so I’m hoping it’s where I think it is.

While I have lots of inside stuff to do, I decided to take advantage of the nice weather today and do some end of the season yard cleanup. Still have a bit more to do tomorrow, but managed to take out all the tomato plants as well as the few other remaining veggies. The bed where all these plants were living is now almost empty. There are three lilac bushes, two bird of paradise and a few daylilies, but that’s about it. I will probably put in some kind of winter plants, but not yet sure whether to plant veggies or annuals. Maybe a mix of both. Will probably wait until early November when I’m fairly certain the 100+ temps won’t be showing up again.

Have a bit of trimming to do tomorrow, but can’t do too much since the yard waste can is almost full. Will spend the rest of the day deflating all the pool toys and getting them stored until next year as well as cleaning and covering the grill. We’re supposed to have rain Tuesday/Wednesday, so I’d like to get the yard cleaned up as much as possible before the wet weather begins.

I’m ready for the rain to begin. Supposedly we’re going to have an El Nino winter, meaning lots and lots of rain. In the past I’ve had to worry about Murphy being outside and not staying in the covered area during storms. Even though I miss him lots, it’s a relief not having to worry about that…especially if we have lots of rain this year.

Also planning to put up some Fall/Halloween decorations tomorrow. I can’t believe it is already almost mid-October. Seems as though September never was. I think it had to do with the unbelievably hot temps resulting in me staying holed up in the house in front of fans. In the past I began the Fall decorating in early September, but that just didn’t seem appropriate when the temperatures were in the 100’s!

Also, the kittens have kept me from doing many things. It’s far more fun playing with them than cleaning, sorting, decorating, etc. It’s easy to get distracted by them. They are growing like crazy and now have free run of the house. So far there’s been no real destructive behavior, but I’m sure that will change. Ah well, as they say on “Hoarders”, it’s only stuff.

In the midst of cleaning out my cupboard full of plastic containers, I’ve had a number of questions enter my mind:

– How many plastic containers do you *really* need?
– Why do I have three times as many lids as containers?
– Will I ever have a need for that many empty Cool Whip containers?
– Why does some of the Tupperware still feel sticky after many washings?
– Where did I even get some of this stuff?
– Why have I kept some of this stuff for so long?

And, as I look around my kitchen, I see every available space taken up with something. I have a complete set of wooden canisters, a breadbox, salt & pepper shakers, a hamburger press and other small boxes with a chicken motif on them. I know they are old, but don’t really know if they have any value. They take up a TON of space and I use them to store *stuff*–like packets of catsup from fast food places, packets of soy sauce, instant cocoa mix, dog vitamin pills (from Darwin!), and bags of airline peanuts and pretzels. (OMG–what a hoarder I’ve been!) I originally bought all this wooden stuff because it matched and had the chicken motif. I’m emptying all of them, cleaning them up, and selling them at our big garage sale. I’m ready for an empty kitchen.

Nate and Hayes are rapidly assimilating themselves into the household. I leave them loose in the house for most of the time (except at night) and they’ve found all sorts of “fun” things to play with. They’ve chewed up the bottom of a photo that I left out to be scanned and think that my legs make a great climbing/scratching post.

Tonight I clipped their front claws. You would have thought that I was declawing them without an anesthetic. I wound up wrapping each in a large towel in order to keep them contained while clipping. They still think they can climb my legs, but it doesn’t hurt quite as much.

Tonight I tried to do some typing while Nate was sitting on my desk. Not a good idea. He thought it was great fun chasing my hands as they moved around the keyboard.

While at Pet Smart tonight I picked up a laser pointer. The kittens absolutely love it, but it totally scared Baby! Oh, speaking of Baby, I got the results of her second round of blood work on Monday. Her kidneys are in good shape at this point and the meds seem to be helping with the thyroid problems. She still seems to think it’s a good idea to poop on the carpet in the living room, however. I’m going to shampoo the carpet this weekend and then roll it up and see what happens. I’d rather unroll it when someone is coming over than have to shampoo it constantly.

And now the bears. Well, I really should say bear. A large 400-500 lb bear was found somewhere in our neighborhood yesterday! Probably in the area just to the north of our house, maybe 5-6 blocks away. It was chased back up into the foothills but they’re saying this is the result of the fire back in Aug/Sep. I’m going to be far more careful if I hear something moving around in the backyard from now on…and will be more cautious about letting Baby outside.

I started in on one cupboard in the kitchen yesterday morning. And then Patrick and Veronica came over. Patrick couldn’t resist and, while Veronica sunned herself poolside, he came out into the kitchen to help out. We filled at least 4 trash bags with expired food items. The worst were the decorative spice jars still filled with spices that I received as a wedding gift in 1968! I also found a packet of spices to make Chex mix that had a coupon on the side of the packet that expired in 1991!

I was amazed at how many food items in my cupboards were expired. Mostly this was the result of where I was keeping my canned goods. I was using a cabinet at ground level that was very deep. Thus, things at the back of the cupboard never got used ’cause I didn’t even realize they were there. I found numerous things I didn’t even know that I had and many that made me wonder why I ever bought them in the first place! I wasn’t sure just how long you could keep packets of teabags and cocoa mix, but I decided to toss them since I’m sure I hadn’t used any of them in over five years…or maybe 10 in some cases!

I now have some empty shelves in my kitchen cupboards! And the items I kept are well organized into spaces where I can see what I’ve got. And I actually have room to put things away when I return from the grocery.

The last cupboard I cleaned was the one where I keep the pet food. In the back was a basket filled to the top with cat toys. I will never have to buy any additional toys for Nate and Hayes. There are enough there to last until they become senior citizens! I also found the catnip stash–at least 10 bags of catnip! If you didn’t know any better, you would think I had been hoarding pot.

Still have a few more cupboards to go through, but these are filled with dishes, pots and pans, and plastic ware. Not sure what I’ll find deep in the back and am thinking of putting that off until next weekend. I’m sure there are pieces of Tupperware and empty Cool-Whip containers that have long outlived their usefulness. However, my trashcan is filled to the brim and I’m ready to take a break from dehoarding and getting back to real life–doing laundry, cleaning the litterboxes, etc, etc.

It’s been almost a week now, and Nate and Hayes have moved in…and taken over my life! No matter where I go, they want to be with me. Maybe it’s ’cause I leave them alone during the day while I’m at work; maybe they just like interaction with humans and I happen to be the only human in the house. Not sure what it is, but I love playing and cuddling with them every night.

They love playing and amuse me every night for hours. I can’t believe how much fun they are just to watch! Both of them pig out every morning and evening when they get their canned food. And both have fat little bellies on their tiny bodies. They need to weigh at least 2 lbs. before they can be vaccinated. I’m sure that will happen soon.

I keep them confined to the family room and my office, which is a lot of space. This morning they figured out how to climb the baby gate that I’ve been using in the doorway between my office and the hallway. I think they decided to climb over the top because they saw me on the other side. Fortunately, it appears that they didn’t try to do it again after I left for work. I really need to kitty-proof the rest of the house before I let them run free. That will have to happen this weekend.

Baby is still not pleased with the new additions to the household. She’s getting braver, but isn’t at the point of letting them jump all over her. And she’s quite pleased when I put them to bed in the bathroom each night. I think she will tolerate them, but about the same way she tolerated Loki–which was to be in the same room as him only for things that were really necessary, like being fed. Time will tell.

Meanwhile, I have to stop playing and snuggling with the boys and get caught up around here with dishes, laundry and other general cleaning. I am easily distracted these days!

Last night my two new kitties, Nate & Hayes, came to live with me! They are absolutely adorable and it is hard to leave them for even a few minutes. We think they were born around 8/10, so are about 6 weeks old right now. And they are sooo tiny! Nate is the smaller of the two, weighing about 1 lb. Hayes weighs 1.2 lbs. Both are black, with a few white hairs here and there on Nate. Not sure yet whether they will be short or long haired.

Nate’s name will absolutely continue to be Nate. Not sure about Hayes. He may be Mr. Hayes or Bully or just Hayes. For those who don’t know, their names came from the movie “Nate and Hayes”, a favorite of both Kevin and Patrick from back in the 80’s. Tommy Lee Jones character was named Bully Hayes. So we’ll just have to see how that goes.

Both of these kittens were dropped off on the front doorstep of my vet’s office just after they were born. I hadn’t planned on adopting kittens at this point, but couldn’t resist when my vet offered them to me.

Both are napping right now and seem to be quite comfortable in their new surroundings. They have been playing, eating and drinking–and using their litter pan! I can foresee all kinds of kitten troubles ahead as they decide to explore my house. No doubt they will try to climb the curtains and will knock things down from shelves. I am rethinking the positioning of things that are breakable.

It is very nice to have new young pets again. While I have loved all my “Senior Citizen” animals, they certainly don’t provide the same element of fun as kittens. I know this time will quickly pass, so I’m trying to enjoy every minute of it!

I’ve spent hours scanning pictures today. So far I think I’ve done a few hundred at least. The worst part is sorting them and putting them in some sort of order as I scan then. I’m also trying to identify those that have dates, etc. written on them. So it’s quite time consuming. But I feel good about making progress and will end up with only a few small boxes of original photos instead of tons of huge photo albums–plus pictures scattered about in cupboards and closets. And all these photos will be in a safe place that I can easily move in case of fire. Most will eventually be accessible to one and all as I get them uploaded to a website. Much nicer than photo albums on a bookshelf collecting dust.

Once I get the pictures finished, I’m going to start on documents, letters, and other things that deteriorate over the years. I’ve already found problems with the photos not holding up, so I’ll feel lots better when this project is completed.

Gotta do some cleaning and organizing tomorrow, though. My new kitties are coming home on Thursday evening! I’m still not sure how I’m going to keep them out of computer, cable, tv and all the other cords that make up all my technology. I think I’m going to keep them in the bathroom during the day while I’m at work until they get a little bigger and get used to their new home. Also am not sure how Baby will react to them and I want to keep her away from them until she understands that they are going to be staying! I’m sure it will only take a few weeks to a month before they become settled in to their new home. Not to say there won’t be a few “snags”, but that’s to be expected.

Labor Day always signaled the end of summer when I was a kid. I guess that might be true in other parts of the country, but it’s not really the case here in So.Cal. The temps are still in the high 80’s-low 90’s and the pool is nice and warm. The night-blooming jasmine scent drifts in every night and the night air is cool and comfortable.

Patrick had a party here Saturday with a bunch of his friends to watch The Man burn. This was the first time in 11 years that he didn’t go to Burning Man. Quite a few of his friends didn’t go as well, so they all gathered in my backyard to watch all the festivities from the live feed that they projected onto the shade structure above my patio. Only bad part was that, due to wind on the playa, the burn was delayed until almost 11 pm. All seemed to be grateful, though, that they were not sitting out there waiting!

On Sunday and today, Patrick and Veronica came over for swimming and bbq-ing. We mostly sat around visiting, although today Patrick sorted a bunch of photos, getting them ready to be scanned. He scanned a few of him and put them up on Facebook. Lots more scanning yet to be done.

Took Baby to the vet on Saturday for a checkup. So far, so good. Bloodwork results should be back later this week. The vet’s office is fostering a 3 week old black kitten that was deposited on their doorstep. After seeing him earlier in the week, I decided to adopt him. On Saturday they showed me another kitten and told me I could take my pick. I couldn’t resist, so both will be coming to live with me in a couple of weeks! They are both black, are almost a month old, and will be named Nate and Hayes. Pictures are posted on Facebook. Needless to say, they are very cute!

Loki went to hang out with Puto tonight on the other side of the rainbow bridge. Puto has been waiting, knowing that he would have to look after Loki to protect him from cat fights. And I’m sure Murphy was standing there wagging his tail in anticipation as well.

Unfortunately, Loki’s kidney failure was getting worse and he was having lots of trouble breathing. Don’t know if the breathing difficulties were related to the crud in the air from the fire or what. But I do think he was suffering and not at all comfortable. Over the past few days it became clear that it was time. The hardest part was driving to the vet with Loki sitting next to me, and me knowing he wouldn’t be there on the way home.

This has been by far the absolute worst year for my pets…and the loss of three over the past two months has been more than just difficult for me. They are no longer suffering and I’m glad for that, but now I’m ready for the suffering part to end for me as well. I know Baby won’t be around for too much longer, but I’m hoping for at least a few more years. She will no doubt be happy not to have to share my bed with anyone but me tonight. But I will miss Loki snuggling up next to me.

This fire is unbelievable. It just keeps burning and there seems to be no end in sight. The only good part is that there is little or no wind. I don’t think that my home is in danger *knocks on wood* but you just never know. Unfortunately, it looks as though Mt. Wilson will burn tonight.

The historic observatory as well as ALL the communication towers for tv, radio, fire an security systems in LA are located on Mt. Wilson. It will be tragic if all that goes. And if they can’t save Mt. Wilson, it becomes very worrisome that homes can be saved if the fire takes off down the mountainside.

This morning it was absolutely impossible to breathe outside. The smoke had settled in the valley and the smell was like nothing I’ve ever smelled before. Thick and brown/gray and hurtful to breathe in. Because we don’t have any wind, it takes until early afternoon for it to dissipate. And now it’s starting to settle in again tonight. I expect it will be worse tomorrow since the fire is closer to us.

The air quality is not helping Loki, who is having great difficulty breathing. He’s spent the last few days doing very little and not looking well. I think the high heat is also causing problems for him. This may be the week that I have to say goodbye to Loki.

It is unbelievably hot tonight. And the air is filled with smoke from the fires above Glendora and La Canada-Flintridge. It is impossible to do anything outdoors. I thought about watering my plants, but it’s just too difficult to breathe outside right now. So I’ll try to get up early tomorrow morning and see if it’s easier to be outdoors for a bit to get at least some of the watering done.

My house is not too bad inside since I left the a/c on in my bedroom, kept all drapes and shades down, and left 2 fans running while at work today. The family room is probably the warmest (83 degrees at 10 pm), but my bedroom is very comfortable so I should have no problem sleeping at least.

It’s almost been a relief to go to work the past few days since the a/c keeps it really cool and much more breatheable. The forecast is for hot weather all week until next weekend. I’m just hoping the long Labor Day weekend is tolerable and allows for some bbqing and time outdoors.

So I’m off to bed to cool off and maybe watch a bit of tv. Hopefully I won’t have to spend most of the weekend in my bedroom!

Southern California is on fire once again…and, in addition to that nightmare, the heat is brutal. We have four fires burning right now, two of which are near enough to us that it is difficult to breathe outdoors due to all the smoke in the air. The closest one is in La Canada-Flintridge, just to the north of us in the Angeles National Forest. I can see huge plumes of smoke from my front yard/driveway. It’s really scary since this is close enough that it could easily spread in our direction. Right now it’s burning away from us, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

And then there’s the heat. Today it got up to 106 degrees and it’s supposed to be hotter tomorrow. The humidity is really low which just adds to the fire danger. Right now it’s in the 80’s and it’s 11:00 pm! They are predicting these high temps well into next week, so I don’t expect we’ll get any relief any time soon.

Since I won’t be doing any heavy duty labor around the house this weekend, I’m going to start scanning pictures and documents into my computer. At least that way I will have important stuff saved should we have problems in the future with either fires or earthquakes. I keep saying I’m going to do this, so this weekend seems to be a good time to start.

I was able to finally eat some tomatoes from my garden tonight with dinner…and they were absolutely delicious! I’ll probably only get about a dozen full-size tomatoes, but it definitely was worth planting them. Next year I’ve got to figure a way to enclose the plants to keep the poachers out. It seems the small cherry tomatoes are of no interest to whatever is eating the big ones. The little ones were being eaten by the mouse that I caught in a trap early on but are doing fine now. I’ve picked at least 30-40 so far and there are lots more on the plants that still need to ripen.

The rest of the veggies are doing well, too. I have 7 zucchini and 5 cucumbers with more yet to come. I’m going to try to make some zucchini bread this weekend. If it turns out well then I’ll make more and freeze it. I may also try making some fried zucchini, but I doubt I can match the taste of the Tops zucchini that I really love. Who knows, though. Will head out to the grocery tomorrow to pick up all the ingredients and then will start experimenting in the kitchen. A fun ending to my vacation.

Got home mid-afternoon yesterday. While it’s always good to be back home, it was tough saying goodbye to Kevin, Soula and especially Robin. It seems so quiet here with only me and the cats in the house, but I’m not complaining! I slept for about 10 hours last night, so I guess I must have been really tired. I never sleep that long!

The tiredness was probably the result of my last day in Seattle. Kevin and I went to a nursery called Molbak’s where we purchased some bushes for his front yard as well as a lilac bush and a few small plants for a rock garden near the front door. I spent Sunday afternoon planting the bushes, digging out a big pile of dirt in the front yard and redistributing it into the flowerbed where I planted the bushes. Stayed up later than I had planned and then couldn’t get to sleep once I got into bed. So I probably only got about 4-5 hours of sleep. Thus it’s no wonder I slept for 10 hours last night!

Flying on Virgin America was really great: comfortable seats, more leg room than other flights and a personal tv screen at every seat. I watched CNN, some Pixar shorts, and played a few games. And the best part was the price–$159 round trip! They do charge for checked bags ($15 each), but it was still cheaper than anything else I could find. I will absolutely try to fly Virgin America anytime I can. Unfortunately they don’t fly to lots of US cities just yet–primarily just to the east and west coasts.

Got caught up on Animal Crossing today. Replanted all my hybrid flowers, caught a new fish for my museum, and did some cleanup of the town. Tomorrow have to do some real life cleanup of my real life house and yard as well as planting some new houseplants that I got just before I left. It was nice just hanging out today playing a video game and not feeling one bit guilty since I’m on vacation!

Kevin, Chrysoula, Raymond and Michelle decided to take advantage of a more than willing grandma to babysit tonight while they went to see a movie. Robin and I had a great time! First we watched a bunch of Sesame Street videos on my computer, then played with some of his new toys, went out front to do some chalk drawing on the front porch and then headed off for a bath. After ridding his little body of lots and lots of chalk, he got into his pj’s and I brushed his hair. Then we headed back downstairs for some milk, cookies and a bit more playtime. After brushing his teeth (which he loves!), we read two books and then he headed off to bed. Whew!

It really was lots of fun and I think Robin enjoyed his one on one time with grandma. What’s amazing is that he does whatever I tell/ask him to do with no fussing. Even bedtime is calm and peaceful. The only bit of stress came when he wanted to take his birthday balloons into bed with him and grandma said no. He started to tear up a bit, but soon realized that wasn’t going to work, thought better of it and settled down for the night. So now he’s upstairs in bed listening to sleeping music on his little Ipod. After a busy day of lots of playing, I would guess he’ll be out soon.

And grandma won’t be too far behind him!