I’m still alive!
So I was hoping to maybe get you the next Tanzanian installment but it will take me awhile to get through everything. It’s coming I promise! This post does have cats in it! Just so happens it’s the smaller kind rather than the big paws of Africa.
If you need a big paws fix. I have had Nat Geo Wild on the background while editing the photos from my trip and they had an episode of unlikely friends on and they went to a story I remember from awhile back about Christian the Lion. He was lion that was for sale in a market in England once upon a time and 2 furniture makers purchased him and took care of him. When he clearly was too big for them to continue to care for him in their space they found a way to return him to the wild of Africa. Well they missed him and went to visit him and found him with his new pride, not knowing if he would remember them they just watched. Then Christian saw them and came running over and gave them his old hugs. Oh that tugged at my heart. Here is a little clip for you on the reunion. Go check out the full story if this is as inspiring for you as it was for me.
This week was busy, not sure if I mentioned the week before I was horribly ill (no, I didn’t have any tropical or African disease) but I was knocked out for 4-5 days. So last week was my first full week back in the office. Beyond work stuff there was a lot of exciting items going on.
Next bucket list trip is booked out! I went to Peru back in 2010, I will do a throwback post one day, and really enjoyed South America. When I was leaving there, I said next trip down there would be Galapagos. I’ve had it on the list for well before then but my time in Peru really pushed the drive. It was a question on do I make this a solo trip or go with a friend. Well when Cecilia and I were discussing places we want to see I threw that out there and we both said yes! So Cecilia reached out to a few travel agent people she knew and we got some great information about an opportunity for us to go next year. So Galapagos here we come!!! I’ll keep you apprised as we approach the date and our travels and give you Cecilia’s site as well as I have no doubt she will have a rip roaring, side stitching version of our adventures!
New Furniture
So I have been wanting to update the house for years now but I get overwhelmed with all I want to do, paint, new flooring, new kitchen, redo the bathrooms, etc. So while I think of all I want to do I inevitably don’t do anything. Along with the whole house I want to get new furniture. My couches are over 10 years old now and have been lived in. I do chuckle when people sit in my spot when they try to get out it becomes more of a roll. So it is time to pull the trigger, I do enjoy my friends (Nick and Emily) their couch and their sectional. We joke that the corner spot is the narcolepsy corner, doesn’t matter if you are wide awake or not if you sit in the corner you will doze off. I want a narcolepsy corner in my house too! I do love a good nap on the weekends.
So on a whim driving home on Tuesday I decided to swing through my local furniture shop. I was like Goldilocks, this one is too firm, this one is too soft, this one is too big, this one is too small. Finally I narrowed down into the seat comfort I liked but it was a monstrosity of a couch, I figured I could pick what sectional pieces I would need so I could make it fit in my house. Nope it’s the monster size or nothing. So I looked for others and found 1 additional one I liked but same situation. So no luck there, but the saleslady told me that we could do a custom order trimming off the chaise off the sectional and make it smaller. We took measurements and I went home to think about it and see if it would work. Since I went on a whim I had no idea how much space I was working with. Neither one would work in my house, either too small/too big on one side or another.
So on Friday night (I know exciting Friday night). You know you’re a full adult when you get excited about furniture shopping and that becomes your evening. Anyway Friday night I decided to go back and pull the trigger on something but I had my measurements this time and my old trust measuring tape (this thing is ancient and back from the days when I lived on the farm as a kid). I decided to pop into the furniture store right next to the one I went to on Tuesday and they had many more options for me and more flexible on getting the right pieces to fit the space. So I narrowed it down to 2 couches, it will be a custom order either way so I went to narrowing down fabric swatches. I found one from each couch so that wasn’t helping the decision. I decided to take the swatches home so I can see what they would look like in my house and I picked a few others just to have options.
Boy I was glad I grabbed the extra options, my house is very bright and has lots of picture windows that the colors were so different when I got them home. I immediately discarded the 2 colors I initially chose but had a hard time narrowing it down from there but through my trusty friends they chimed in via the pictures I sent over. Problem is I am doing this in the wrong order, I should redo the house first before finding furniture but furniture is happening first so I hope I am choosing a light/neutral enough version that whatever I do to the house the couches will still work.
Drama, drama, drama
So my boys are very unhappy this week. Started off last weekend where we had to do the annual checkup. Jimi sounded like he was being tortured being in the carrier and driving the whole 2 miles to the vet. Not a fan of being cooped up I guess. Once we were there they were their happy go lucky selves, but the Vet did say that they aren’t my little boys anymore and they both can look to lose 1-2 pounds. Uh-oh, Jimi’s favorite time is breakfast and dinner time and now they are saying they should be getting half of what they used to get.
Jimi doesn’t quite understand why he doesn’t get more food for breakfast but he now is much more excited for dinner time and often now will almost mow me down to get upstairs fast enough to get to dinner. I have noticed that since we have decreased how much they get he is far more spritely and sprints around the house more. Mostly he now just sits on my laptop so I can’t work so he can let me know he’s ready for food
Cooper is also a little upset this week. So Cooper loves to play with all the toys, and even things that aren’t toys. Everything is a toy to Cooper, that said his favorite toys are his springs. He loves to chase after them and play fetch. Yes he does play fetch, he brings you his spring drops it at your feet and waits for you to throw it, chases after plays with it for a second or two and returns it to you. Well his favorite of all the springs is one we call Yellow (original I know as it is yellow). Well Yellow is the one he had as a kitten before I adopted him, he favors this one over all others. Well Yellow was stepped on a few months back (I know I felt so horrible) and is slightly smaller now but still his favorite.
Well cleaning day was on Thursday so to make sure the house is tidied up and no toys are lost in the shuffle I put their toys away on cleaning day. So they both are sadder on cleaning day as there are no fun toys out. When I got home on Thursday I retrieved a few toys but I have noticed that Cooper has started to shun the other springs and is only now playing with Yellow. So to encourage him to play with his other springs which are just as good as Yellow (just in case something happens to Yellow) I decided to keep Yellow put away. Oh man he was not happy. He sat in the corner and pouted all evening. I did hear him perk up later that night and was playing and asked me to throw a spring then what do I see.
Like a petulant child he went into his toy box and retrieved Yellow even though I did not pull him out. Oh okay, I conceded and played with him and Yellow. Cooper took to playing with Yellow all that night. Come Friday I see Cooper seems a little upset, Yellow has gone missing. Now there are spots the springs get stuck so I over the weekend looked in all the spots, no Yellow. Its like it has completely disappeared. Either Cooper hid it from me in protest and forget what he did with it or it made its way somewhere else. Now he does have a habit of putting his springs in bags to try to fish out later so I am hoping it just made it into a bag I put away and not into a bag that made its way into the trash. Time will tell. I tell him this is why I want you to play with your other springs, he has yet to listen to me. I throw the other springs he chases after them and sees they aren’t Yellow and immediately stops wanting to play.
This ^ is not Yellow and was pre-I will only play with Yellow.
Have you seen the movie Summer School? When the teacher’s dog lost Bob due to a mishap of the students summer party? Bob was a stuffed dolls head. The Teacher made a substitute Bob but the dog wasn’t buying it. All worked out in the end though as Bob ended up washing back up onshore. I am hoping we come to an equally happy ending. Maybe without the making out with the dog and Kristie Alley though.