his sharp back claws dug into my little toe as he fled.  it bled, and wasn’t very nice, but i don’t have cat scratch fever. yet.

at least that wasn’ my fault.

les had brought one pair of socks into the screened porch the other morning, and then he brought a second pair, this one which he’d clearly rolled in catnip.

all the pictures are blurry to some degree because he was a whirl of motion.

the long string is a shoelace i tied to the back of the chair, and he always plays with it at some point during the day, in between, viciously attacking the milk bottle top ring.

i hear kevin outside doing something involving something loud now; i suppose it must be the chain saw.

somebody from WAND TV called him a couple of days ago, and a reporter is coming over at 10 this morning to videotape him talking about and demonstrating fencing – he’s going to give the guy a quick lesson.  i will let you know if we find out when it’s going to air.  the only problem with this is that because kevin has his knee injury, he can’t fence, so i will have to demonstrate.  there are now bags full of fencing stuff all over the place, but he couldn’t find one of the bags, but i’m going to have to gear up in a while and he’ll have to refresh me on the moves.

after that i’m going to climb up on the giant 10-ft ladder than randy graciously lent us, and i’m going to start edging the very tall ceiling at the duplex.  i am hoping it is a sturdy ladder, and i don’t know what i’m going to do with the paint bucket way up there, but hopefully today will again be injury-free, in spite of first using pointy objects and then climbing way up in the air.

ok then,

mrs. thursday hughes.

that kitty makes me smile no matter what.

sometimes when i got into the bedroom, this is how he’s lying down.

numie the other day, basking in the sun.  amy says he looks like a frog with his legs splayed out like that.  numie and amy are almost exactly alike (except numie hasn’t started teaching zumba yet)…they have two speeds, hyper overdrive, and asleep.

noodle is so sweet and darling, unless he encounters any other dog besides numie or mollie.  when i took them all running yesterday morning, i saw these two women with their two big happy golden retrievers way on the other side of the field, out of sight of noodle, thank god.  i stayed far away so the dogs wouldn’t see them.

after a while i couldn’t see the women anymore and decided maybe they’d left the field, and decided to take the dogs through the woods because i’ve never seen the women in there.

we got about halfway through, with mollie off her leash, when i suddenly heard the women and their dogs. OH MY GOD!

mollie, of course, sped up up to see them, while noodle and numie started to work themselves up into a frothing frenzy.  the thing is, they will attack each other because they get so insane, and then numie will attack noodle, who will bite numie.  is it a very tense situation.

luckily, noodle was on mollie’s extendable leash, so he was a good distance away from numie.  usually they are both on their short leashes, in close proximity to one another.

i was able to keep them far apart, while screaming MOLLIE MOLLIE MOLLIE! at the top of my voice.

problem is, mollie is going deaf, plus she wanted to hang out with these other dogs.

the women, who i could hear but not see, said things like “she’s with us,” and “she’s ok.”

i yelled BUT THESE DOGS ARE CRAZY, SORRY!  and then i yelled and yelled and yelled more for mollie, and eventually she decided to come back to me.

i apologized some more and ran back the way we came.

it certainly helped to get my heart rate up, anyway.

but just look how sweet he is…

numie invented the downward dog pose.

yesterday while i was cleaning cleaning cleaning over at the duplex, kevin started painting the floors with KILZ, i believe it’s called, this stuff to cover pee smells.  he had already ripped up all the carpeting and cut it up into pieces so it could go in the trash, and he and garrick removed all the staples and the tack boards and everything.

here’s a hallway.

and the front hallway.

the middle bedroom.

and the living room floor, which has an interesting thing sprayed in the middle of it.

that was all the fun and excitement from yesterday.

today i have a good feeling that it will be once again injury-free.

ok then,

mrs. tuesday morning hughes.

but i am very tired, so i have been sitting here quietly UPDATING MY ENGLAND POSTS, and am happy to report that i have finished DAY #7.

there’s only one more day in england, but then i did take quite a bit more video on the queen mary 2 than i planned on doing, so that will take forever to finish.  i did get some good footage on the ship, though, like when i went on a great tour of the huge, cavernous kitchen.  that was very cool. and someday, BEFORE THE SUMMER IS OVER, you will see it.

of course, really, summer hasn’t even begun.

ok then,

mrs. monday hughes.

i was watering flowers and somehow i tripped over the hose.  my knee bled and got a scab.

saturday i took mollie, numie and noodle for a run and almost immediately, when we were going through the little bit of woods on our way out to the field, i fell.  the dogs were very sweet and didn’t even try to run off.

at least the hard ground was not as hard or abrasive as the asphalt, but that fall was a little more spectacular, and i got dirt in my scab and cut open the other knee and got other little nicks and scrapes and lots of dirt on me.

luckily it wasn’t a beauty contest run.

yesterday i was scraping the old cracked plastic off the brackets for our six flower boxes for the deck.  i’d bought new brackets cause the old ones are so nasty, but they didn’t fit and i don’t think you can get them to fit, so i decided instead of re-paint the old ones.

the first bracket went well, not too much tough plastic was cracked, so it didn’t take very long.  i washed it and it is all ready to paint.

the second one, though, had lots more cracked places and i realized i wasn’t going to finish the job in an hour, like i’d hoped.  kevin had given me an array of tools to try for the scraping, including a wire brush which didn’t work so well, and some scraper thing that didn’t do the job.

the third tool, though, was a serious scraper, about a five inch wide sharp razor blade on a sturdy stick, and it was doing a great job of scraping.

you see where i’m going, don’t you?

i was gouging and gouging and then GOUGED my little finger.  OOOOWWWWW.  a huge gash, and blood started running down my arm.  kevin made me wash it and then he covered it very tightly with a waterproof band-aid after dabbing on neosporin.  it didn’t hurt so much as it THROBBED.  because i was making mom a meal for mother’s day, i had many things to do, so i kept forgetting to take any advil.  it hurt every once in a while, but then it didn’t so much.

last night before bed i took off the bandage and big gouge looked very deep and bad and blood started oozing out of it again.  i put on a fresh bandage and it really hurt a lot so i finally took advil.

and now, when i’m sitting here typing, it hurts to type “p”, or exclamation points, or to hit enter.  so i’m to do that with another finger.

i feel bad for this little finger, because i got a big red bump on it last summer and first i thought i’d injured it (because i do that a lot, as you know), but it turned out to be arthritis.  i’ve been taking something called hyaluronic acid twice a day, and the redness has gone away and it rarely bothers me.  but this is my one trauma finger.

chester, will always lie on any box anywhere, or preferably in it, which is what he did once i’d opened the box.

we should all try to be as relaxed as les.

ok then,

mrs. monday morning hughes.

but first, for some reason this ADORABLE PHOTO of noodle didn’t appear on my last post, so here here is.

he loves the little stuffed animals that amy buys for him and he’s very tender and delicate with them, carrying them around no matter how frayed or tiny they are.  this is opposed to numie, who voraciously chomps into anything he can get his hands on.

if you recall, here’s the tree with the huge fallen limb, the falling of which that both jim and i witnessed.  jim was afraid that kevin might get squashed like a bug by another randomly falling branch while mowing, so he decided to take action and have the tree cut down.

i took some photos of it on saturday morning.  i’ve always loved this tree because it was so big and beautiful and old.  raccoons lived in the hollow, and the thing was mostly hollow and it’s a miracle the whole thing hadn’t fallen already.

that big hole in the middle is actually part hole that you could look through.

you can get a better view of the huge branch.  i mean, the branches look big when they’re up in the air, but much more so when seen from up close.

oh, and here’s the canoe that washed up next to the dock, and we pulled it up.  as you can see, the water is crazy high, and we think it’s our neighbor’s canoe – they keep it in a little sandy inlet, but the water has filled it.  they’re still on vacation, so the canoe just sits there, i’m sure annoying the ducks who enjoy hanging out on the dock.

i had to take winnie to the vet, but amy and kevin sent me these two photos of all the branches cut off the tree.

plus kevin took this of mollie – he said that she sat out on the back deck watching them intently, then went into the hot tub room to watch.  she saw the whole thing.  see how she’s leaning forward, so intent on the action.

les was also in the hot tub room, but looking at something else entirely.

chester just hung out on the screen porch, posing prettily for me.

winnie hung out too, but this was after all the backyard tree stuff was over.

here’s the main tree guy, as they start to try to topple the tree.  here he’s pounding a wedge into the base.

here are three very short videos showing the tree coming down.

TREE CHOPPING PART ONE

TREE CHOPPING PART TWO

TREE CHOPPING PART THREE: THE FINAL PULL!

i’m pretty sure they were able to finally do it is because jim joined in to help.

and then, they dragged the mighty trunk up and immediately started in chopping it all up.

i made jim pose for me up here.  later, a duck waddled up and posed, but unfortunately i no longer had my camera with me.

it took a very long time to cut it all up, and jim pulled giant limbs to the huge pile out in the circle in our lane.

here’s the tree in front that had to go.

and this is our very dead fir tree, thee on the right, the one that looks dead.

this tree-cutting was a little bit anti-climactic and i had many other stuff to do, so not as many photos of these trees.  but here’s the guy up so high.

luckily, this tree is in the ravine between amy and jim’s house and their neighbors’, so i guess the many branches will just live there.  i should go over and check them out sometime.

they’ve already taken down the fir tree as kevin and jim hang out.  guys like to watch stuff getting chopped down.  plus, of course, they helped A LOT.

the stump was covered in carpenter ants and termites and kevin said that must have killed it, but jim said they swoop in after a tree is dead to take care of it.

and that is my entire tree story for this morning!

ok then,

mrs. grace hughes on thursday morning.

it’s too bad there isn’t something else in this picture, to give you a sense of scale.  this is a very small, baby turtle.  jim spotted it when he was golfing on may 2nd.  he was at lincoln greens, which is on the lake.  jim said the little guy was far away from the lake at this point, so he’d hit the ball, pick up the tiny turtle, and carry it with him as he continued on the course.

isn’t he the NICEST GUY EVER???

by the time jim got to the 16th hole, he decided to forgo the last two holes, and carried the little guy down to the lake, where he swam happily away.

may 2nd turned out to be a big day full of excitement for us, but first, here’s a picture of randy’s cat, rupee, who looks a lot like winnie but if you saw a picture of rupee’s whole body, you’d see that she is petite and delicate, not a huge jumbo kitty like winnie.

amy took this picture when we were gone, as chester attacked his favorite shoes, which i keep on the floor now even though i don’t actually wear them anymore.  so instead they’re big chester playthings.

she said he was going to play some more but then suddenly got exhausted and plopped down next to the shoe for a nap.

lester’s most comfortable place to nap.

noodle and numie are ever-vigilant.  sometimes amy has to pull down the shades so the dogs can’t see out – they start barking at anybody going by, or merely at a perceived threat like a random falling leaf.

here, noodle deserves an award for MOST ADORABLE PUPPY EVER.

and back to may 2nd…i was sitting right here on the screened porch, looking at my computer, facing the lake and i heard a big CRAAACK.  i looked up to see a HUGE BRANCH come crashing down from the big old tree.

i immediately went out and took a picture and sent it out, including to jim, but then i hear his voice – he was home, and he’d been at his window and also saw the limb fall!  what are the odds that two of saw it happen?

lester and chester, meanwhile, weren’t so excited about the branch.  if i’d just LET THEM ROAM FREE, they’d have been down there in a heartbeat.

because this tree lost another limb, jim decided it was time for the tree to come down.  it’s hollow; i’ve taken plenty of photos of it before, and jim  was concerned that kevin might be mowing under it and another huge branch would crash down on top of him.

they had another dead tree between their house and their neighbor’s, and he decided that tree should come down, too.  we also had a big dead fir tree next to our driveway, so jim arranged for the tree guys to come out on may 5th to chop them all down.

i have many photos, plus a video, of the exciting tree events, but right now i must get outside.

ok then,

mrs. tuesday morning hughes.

luckily i take plenty of photos of him almost every day, because amy demands it.

here he is yesterday; he spent much of the day lolling around on the orange chair on the screened porch.

i spent most of the day out on the deck planing flowers in my new flower boxes, and every time i’d go in to the porch, les would look at me, meow, and then roll into a new and adorable position.

kevin took this when he went out to get him to come in for dinner – he said that les looked like a pudding, rolling around on the chair.  a big rolly pudding.  les is our only animal who isn’t hanging around in the kitchen waiting for food.  for such a big and growing every bigger guy, he can be very blase about mealtime.

it is cooler this morning, so it doesn’t yet feel like the middle of july.

ok then,

mrs. seriously, friday already? morning hughes.

we all bought him some huge arbor vitae, which are some kind of big fir trees, to make a screen around his patio area.  more gifts to come later today.

ok then,

mrs. h.

yesterday, after taking mollie for a run, lifting some weights, and giving a massage, i went to wal-mart for a few things.  while i was looking at the millions of choices of different kinds of oil of olay, kevin called.  please get me some bar chain oil, he said.  ok, said i, not paying super-close attention because i was trying to decide what kind of lotion was best.

but then i said, what?  BAR chain oil?  BAR, like bar of soap.

yep.  it was for the chainsaw; a huge limb fell off a tree yesterday and kevin was going to cut it up.  he said it would be with marine oil, or at least that’s what i thought he said.

after selecting two different kinds of oil of olay, one generic and one absurdly expensive but it will probably last about three years, i headed over to that section where i never go, all tires and electrical things and stuff like that.

up and down the aisles i shuffled, not knowing what kind of bottle i might be looking for, getting more and more upset, realizing that i shouldn’t have done so much earlier in the day, i was really worn out and not thinking very clearly.  finally i spotted an old guy shopping in the boating aisle, and i asked him if he’d heard of BAR CHAIN OIL, and he had, but he wasn’t sure where they’d have it.

so then he asked an employee, which of course i should have done to begin with, but trying to track down an employee felt like too much for me.

the woman knew exactly where it was and marched me to it.  there was a big bottle and a little bottle and i didn’t know which one to get and tried to call kevin but he didn’t answer, probably because he was chain-sawing, and so i decided on the big bottle.

BAR CHAIN OIL, it’s near the car oil but in some category called “oil accessories” or something like that, at least at wal-mart.

i wanted to get a few groceries, but first i needed some flexible tubing to put over the electric cords which the kitties have been chewing.  kevin had bought a little of the tubing and it seemed to work, but we needed lots more.  hmm, didn’t he say the tubing was in the marine section, and if so, why?

luckily the section was nearby and i wandered up and down looking for it and then finally asked an employee who didn’t know if they’d have it anywhere, so i continued to wander, into all that plumbing stuff and all kinds of things that i always avoided.

i finally gave up and decided that i couldn’t deal with it, and then stopped by the magazines on my way to the grocery section way on the other side of the story.  i picked up an oprah magazine even though i never read that magazine because i always get pissed off by the huge number of ads.  but i felt like it, so i got one, put it in my cart, and…IT WAS NOT MY CART.

my cart had been heaped with black disposable shopping bags, plus my big BAR CHAIN OIL, not to be confused for my oil of olay, but i bet they have similarities.

WHAT HAD I DONE WITH MY CART???  WHERE COULD IT BE?

i’d wandered around a lot, and figured it could be anywhere, so i left the unknown cart at the magazines and headed back.  i noticed a guy kind of looking down each aisle and wondered if i’d taken his cart.  but i focused on finding my own cart, and it was right there in the marine section, and now the guy was lurking close by, so i asked him if he’d lost his cart.  he said yes, and then i was very apologetic, saying i’d taken it by mistake, i was SO sorry, and i’d lead him to it.  “is it far?” he asked.  not so bad, said i.

it was kind of far, but only halfway to the grocery section, and as we walked i continued to apologize and he looked very annoyed with me and said “i’d have thought you’d have brought my cart back instead of leaving it there.”

OH BROTHER.  YOU GO TO HELL, MISTER, I AM VERY FRAZZLED AND YOU ARE LUCKY I DIDN’T JUST LEAVE YOU TO LOOK FOR YOUR OWN DAMN CART, is what i would have liked to have said, but instead i just pointed down the aisle where his cart was patiently waiting for him.

whew.

the rest of my shopping experience was blessedly uneventful.

ok then,

mrs. thursday hughes.

the other night i was rushing around making pizza, and every once in a while i heard a little sound, maybe something falling over down in the basement?  i didn’t think too much about it because i had too many other things going on in my head, but then it was time to feed all the animals, or the zoo, as kevin calls them.

winnie was looking slightly annoyed as usual, waiting for some damn food, damnitall.  mollie, too, was right there, eager to eat.

but where were lester and chester?

then, a big THUMP and i realized it wasn’t coming from the basement after all.  i rushed to the closet right off the living room, opened the door, and there were the two crazy kitties.  they didn’t looks so much like they were trying to get out, but rather they were having a tussle.

i couldn’t remember if i’d opened the closet not that long ago or maybe a little longer ago, but it hadn’t been that long, but my question was, how did they BOTH manage to dash inside without me seeing them?

crazy kitties.

we were up in sterling on mollie’s birthday, april 15th.

here she is, trying to relax at amy and jim’s house.

meanwhile…lester was always lurking under the couch pillows, ready to POUNCE on anybody who was willing to let him pounce on them.

winnie was trying to relax on the screened porch.

chester was wondering why les is so enamored of socks.

when we left i asked amy if she’d please get mollie (and her dogs too, of course) a burger from mcdonald’s, for a special birthday treat.

not only did she buy the burger, or burgers, i don’t know how many she bought, but they also made the BEST BIRTHDAY VIDEO EVER.  they put spongebob squarepants party hats on the dogs and jim did the videotaping while amy sang happy birthday and threw them pieces of burger.

HILARIOUS.  at one point numie and noodle each have their hats askew, each one with the hats sticking to either sides of their heads.

unfortunately i’m not able to download the video to my computer because when i try it demands that i buy some kind of program to do it.  maybe amy will be able to figure out how to do it.

meanwhile, if you are dying to see it and you have my phone number, you can text me and i will be happy to forward it to you.

HILARIOUS.

after that party, here’s mollie in their car, on the way to mom and dad’s house for yet another party.   so she had a great birthday, the first one involving party hats, singing to her, and burgers.

kevin worked to put up the new brackets for the fence, to keep the wild kitty inside.  his mom had seen this type of thing on some TV show, and they finally arrived.  they bend in, so a kitty couldn’t get over.

chester loves to lie under just about anything.

and here is les, sprawled out in his beautiful prison.

he has yet to escape, although he did spend quite a bit of time pacing around looking at it, trying to figure out how to break free.

so far so good.

ok then,

mrs. wednesday hughes.