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Mimi’s been a bit of a chunk for some time now. I’ve tried cutting back on her food, but she still doesn’t lose any weight. And yes, I know, cats need to lose weight slowly. I say, more to love, more to snuggle with. She hasn’t gained any weight in a long time, at least.

She’s my sweet baby and I love every ounce of her. But we’ll still try the diet thing.

You might notice the wicker chair right behind her that she and Walter have successfully scratched down to the post. They’ve moved on to the other wicker chair now. They have a scratching post, but I guess there’s nothing like a wicker chair.

Image Credits: Fat Mimi © Belinda O; Fat Cat © Good Studio–stock.adobe.com Cesar Cat © Belinda O; Paws in Heart © Bigstock Photo

I’ve been trying to knit a shawl for a friend and keep getting interrupted by my cat Walter, who wants to snuggle. I usually give in because I’m acutely aware of the fact that when I’m retired I may not be able to have any cats. Eventually I won’t have a car to take them to the vet when necessary. Uber and Lyft don’t look kindly on hauling animals, and forget public transportation. So my options would be limited, probably too limited to be responsible for any more cats.

Hopefully my current car will hold out for the life of these cats, because I’m not giving them up if it doesn’t. I know there are traveling vets in some areas. Not mine, but maybe Minneapolis, which is where I plan to retire. Yes, Minneapolis, for too many reasons to list here. Suffice to say the senior services where I live are very limited, there is virtually no public transportation, and I have no family here.

But retirement is a ways off, and for the moment I have a job and two sweet kitties who love to snuggle. There are cat owners around the world who would love to have cats as loving as these two. I count myself very lucky. This shawl may never get finished, unless I can sneak some stitches in while Walter is sleeping. Eventually he’ll wake up, and we’ll be right back to snuggle time, because if he’s awake, he curls up on my lap and won’t get down.

Fortunately the friend I’m knitting for isn’t expecting anything. It’s going to be a thank you for caring for my cats, so she’d understand any delay that comes from having a cat in your lap while you try to knit. Difficult, not impossible, but uncomfortable. By the way, I do pay her for caring for my cats. This is just a bonus.

So Walter is asleep right now in the bedroom, and I’m going to try heading out to the living room to do some knitting. Wish me luck!

Image Credits: Sunday © Web Buttons Inc–stock.adobe.com; Knitting © Afanasia–stock.adobe.com; Car © Doloves–stock.adobe.com

Well, once again I’ll be traveling to visit my mom this June, and once again, I’ll be driving. It’s an eleven hour drive (it used to be ten, but she moved to the far side of the city) and I need some suggestions for audio books. I’ve found I prefer memoirs, and that discovery came from some great suggestions from some of you last year.

So if you know of a good memoir, pass that info on to me! I’ll need to order it from Audible, but that shouldn’t limit anything. They seem to have every audio book available.

Thanks, everyone!

Image credit: © leolakur–stock.adobe.com

Quite timely for me, I must say, as I did a fair amount of laundry over the weekend. I’d let it pile up and finally reached a point where I needed clean clothes, so I gave in. Apparently National Laundry Day is a day to “assess our laundry habits and teach our children to develop good ones,” so I’ve done some assessing, and reached the conclusion that I’d be a lot better off if I didn’t wait until I was desperate for clean clothing to throw a load in.

One thing that usually keeps me from doing a lot of laundry at once is my fear of the vent behind my dryer catching on fire and my apartment burning down as a result. Supposedly, apartment management has people out to clean those vents on a regular basis, but I’m not so sure. So when I do throw a load in the dryer, I sometimes pause it midway to let things cool down. I have no idea if that actually does any good, but it makes me feel better. I’d clean that vent out myself if I had access to it and knew what I was doing, but I don’t.

Another reason I should throw a load in on a regular basis and not let it pile up? I place my clean clothes on my bed, and it’s a lot easier to sort through the pile and get everything put away if I don’t have three loads on there at once. Yes, I could do it one load at a time while the other loads are still spinning in the dryer, but I don’t. My typical distractedness gets me going on other projects while the wash is still in progress.

Okay, it’s easy to develop these lazy laundry habits when you’re single and only have yourself to answer to. If I had a family I know I’d be a lot more anal about getting it done properly. But other things take precedence for me, like going grocery shopping or vacuuming or sorting through the spare bedroom. Those are all things I did while also doing my laundry this weekend. Not to mention a little socializing. I do have a life.

So anyway, assess your own laundry habits and see if you can do better than I do.

Image Credits: Buried in Laundry © Wayhome Studio–stock.adobe.com; Exploding Washer © nosorogua–stock.adobe.com

Sourdough bread traces back as far as the Egyptians of 1500 BC, and has been popular throughout the ages. It was commonly used during the Gold Rush of 1849, and some San Francisco bakeries can trace their sourdough starters back to that time. As you might guess if you don’t already know, San Francisco is famous for its sourdough bread, and with good reason. It’s the best I’ve ever tasted.

When I was in high school in California, my church youth group took a trip to SF, where I purchased a loaf of sourdough bread. I proudly brought it home as a gift for my family. My mom was irritated, saying I didn’t need to be buying food for us. Of course, that wasn’t my thinking. I just knew my family would enjoy it. Had a bought Ghirardelli chocolate, I doubt she would have objected, and I’m thinking that’s what really got to her. She wanted chocolate and instead I brought home bread. Oh well, live and learn. When I visited my mom in Minneapolis last year, we bought plenty of goodies. Not a single loaf of bread.

There aren’t too many places I can buy sourdough bread around here, but I do know of one bakery. So in honor of National Sourdough Bread day, I plan to stop by there this weekend. I hope you can celebrate in a similar way!

Image Credit: Sourdough Bread © Szakaly–stock.adobe.com