Puss In Boot!

So Samson is just fine - you'd never know he had surgery last week.  Except for the fact that he's got a shaved spot on his front leg, which makes him look like he's wearing an Ugg boot on his left foot.  See?

He looks like he belongs on the Swedish bikini team.

The other day, we saw a mouse in the cat's food!  Can you believe it?  We got a picture!

Ok, so it's the cats' stuffed mouse (from IKEA, of course).  For some reason over the past few weeks, they've been putting the mouse inside their food dish.  Does this make them feel more like little wild predators? 

Happy Autumn!

Happy Autumn, everyone!

Friday was the first official day of fall, the autumnal equinox.  What does that mean?  From now on (until March of next year) the nights will get longer than the days. 

Personally, I am thrilled.  This is my favorite time of year.  It's hopefully going to get cooler here soon, and we're on the fast track to the holiday season.  And knitting season!

On Friday, we had our traditional Autumn Feast: seared pork chops with an onion balsamic sauce, mashed sweet potatoes, fried okra (from the garden), and homemade beer bread with honey butter.  Yum!  We were going to have apple cobbler too, but we were too full to actually eat anymore, so we didn't bother.  Maybe this week sometime.  :)

So now we're into serious holiday crafting time.  Better get to it!

Catsectomy?

Little Samson had surgery today!  He's...not truly a little boy anymore, if you catch my drift.

He's doing just fine - he's feeling very energetic and running around like nothing happened.  He does look a little pitiful though, since they had to do some pre-surgery bloodwork and his little front leg is shaved. 

He looked so sleepy on the way home, and all he wanted to do was eat.  As soon as he had chowed down on his chicken & tuna though, he was ready for action. 

Welcome home, little guy!

Rain, Rain, Don't Go Away!

Can you believe it actually rained this weekend!?!?  SO EXCITING!!  Except it didn't actually rain at our house.  No, it managed to deluge the area just a few exits down the interstate.  Oh, and on the OTHER side of our little neck of the woods, but not actually on our house. 

Sigh.

We keep hoping!  Someone out there know any rain dances?

Idyllic Images of Farm Life (minus cow poo smell)

So today I thought I'd post some pictures of life on the farm.  Just because.  Shannon, don't tell Chris.  :)

The kitties that live outside on the porch are growing like weeds!  They love to nap inside this cauldron that we planted with some elephant ears.  I guess it's cool inside it?  Anyway, you can barely see, but the gray cat is hiding there behind the plants. 

We also figure that this is exactly what Samson is going to look like when he gets a little older.  It may not take much longer though - he's already up to 6 pounds!  He's a beast.

So the 2nd garden of the season is planted and ready to grow! 

We have corn, squash, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, and sugar snap peas (they're just coming up).  I had difficulty last time with the tomatoes - we got here so late in the spring that I just planted the seeds straight into the ground, instead of growing them into seedlings first.  Well, this time we planned ahead, so I managed to start all of these plants by seed.  We have 12 tomato plants!  Too bad I don't eat tomatoes.  But Noel does.  And my coworkers have already asked for some too.  :)

Here's a view from the front porch.

And then sometimes, the cows decide to pay us a close-up visit.  This is why we have to keep the gates closed all the time.  The grass is greener on the other side, perhaps?

So that's life on the farm for this weekend.  If only you had smell-o-vision, you could get the full Smell of Nature effect.  Aren't you disappointed?  :)

Don't Forget!

To start off, thanks to everyone on the condolences about my sweet Grandmother. Secondly, we aren't at risk by the wildfires right now, so that's good.

Also, can I just say that you know it's been HOT when you go outside and say "Oh, it's so nice and cool out today! I'm going to take a walk while it's so balmy!" And it's 90 outside. Really. We were excited that it was only a 2 digit temperature today. Craziness.

Two weeks ago, Noel and I took a mini-vacation to San Antonio. Neither of us had ever been before, but we will definitely go back. It's fab!

The view from our hotel was gorgeous:

San Antonio is known for its riverwalk, a pedestrian area surrounding a river that runs right through town. It has restaurants, shops, and hotels all the way down it, and it's just fantastic!

There are bridges across the river, and each are different. Some are quite old too:

San Antonio has interesting sculptures too - this is a really big piece that stands out against the sky nicely:

And...what's this? I forget.....just kidding. It's the Alamo!

And who's this? Why, it's an official Texan! (Holding her new temporary Texas driver's license!) And shooting a finger gun! Because it's the Alamo!

The Alamo was quite interesting. We had heard from several people that it was anticlimatic - it's much smaller than expected, and it's in the middle of a built-up touristy part of town. However, it had a lot of history plaques, a lot of description of life at the time and the battles that took place building up to the battle at the Alamo, and a nice museum.

It was especially interesting since Noel grew up in the town where David Crockett was born, and we then visited where ol' Davy died. We took the opportunity to buy some souvenirs there as well, particularly the ones with David Crockett's most famous quote on it. When he was running for re-election in Tennessee, he said that if they didn't vote him back into office:

"You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas."

Indeed.

We also went to the Texas Rangers museum (not the baseball team, the soldiers). Not pictured, Chuck Norris. It had a whole section that was built like an old west town, which was fun.

Note: That horse? Was actually a real horse that was one of the ranger's favorite horses, and was stuffed after he (the horse) died. I have no response to that...

In another part of the museum, they had a variety of Texicana. Here's Noel under an impressive ceiling full of deer horns:

In case you're creating your Christmas wish list, here's a little item you may want to consider - a chair made of horns:

Looks comfy!

The museum even had its own cowboy!

One of the cool things about San Antonio is the Tower of the Americas, an observation tower with a restaurant at the top:

We went to dinner there one night (yes I'm afraid of heights but other than the GLASS ELEVATOR, it wasn't scary), and got to see some spectacular views:

The restaurant itself was really swanky and super nice. The food was phenomenal. YUM!

On our last day there, we went to lunch at a place called Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian style steakhouse that is a carnivore's dream. Skewers of different types of meat cooking over an open flame:

How does the meat get from the skewer to your plate? Waiters bring the skewers around to you and you choose if you want some or not, and they carve it off the skewer! The food was DELICIOUS!! And the waiters are wearing little gaucho pants tucked into their boots! Hee hee.

We essentially walked and ate, then sat down and ate, then sat in the pool and later ate. And then ate some more. Did I mention that we ate everything we could get our hands on? San Antonio is fantastic - we loved it there. And we will be going back!