Cat Measuring Spoons

Is there anything more guaranteed to perk up your day than coming home to find an unexpected package waiting at your door?

Yesterday I spotted a small cardboard box enveloped in layers of duct tape sitting on my porch. I knew without even checking the return label that it was from my mother. That woman wraps a mean package. Various family members have given themselves hernias over the years, straining to tear open the roll of scotch tape Mom deemed it necessary to use on the flimsy cardboard box that contained socks. 

Anyway, turns out Mom and a friend were in a store and saw these measuring spoons, thought of me, and decided to send me an early birthday gift. I love them! Cat measuring spoons are the gift that keeps on giving. How entertaining will it be to measure out olive oil or cinammon in a kitty scoop? C'mon folks, that's pure old-fashioned fun. 

Thanks Mom!!

Changing the Outgoing Phone Message

For reasons too long to go into here, we've decided to drop our land line and switch our existing home number over to a cell phone. This morning as I lay in bed, I could hear Blair in the next room selecting ring tones. Then he recorded the outgoing message.

Hi, you've reached Dena and Blair. We're not in to take your call. Please leave your name and number and we'll return your call just as soon as we can."

"Can we do something less formal?" I shouted from the bedroom. 

Blair walked into the room. "Such as?"

"How about just, 'Hi, you've reached Dena and Blair. Leave a message.'"

Blair dialed into the phone to re-record. Hi, you've reached Dena and Blair. We're not in to take your call. Please leave your name and number and --

"You're recording the same message," I said. "Try again."

He made me repeat the short message, took a breath, and began recording.

Hi, you've reached Dena and Blair. Please leave your name and phone number and... he trailed off and looked at me helplessly.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked. "This is not hard."

"I always leave the same message. Here, you record it."

My voice has been our answering machine for 16 years. It's time to mix things up.

"You do it," I said. "Hi, you've reached Dena and Blair. Leave a message." 

I swear to you, it took four more attempts to get it right. Once he had it recorded, he grabbed my cell phone and called the home number, just to make sure it worked. The recorded message played and Blair left a message: "Hi, this is Blair. Call me. But I'm not leaving my phone number because you didn't tell me to in your message." 

I'm still laughing.

Decorating Diaries: High Falutin' Art

"New Found Friend" I'm embarrassed to admit how little I know about art. I can't identify periods or painters, and I'm one of those people who in the past has looked at abstract art and sniffed, "I bet you could put a five-year-old's finger painting up against this and no one would know the difference." 

So I felt a little shy when my friend Melanie asked if I'd like to stop by her office to look at art for our newly painted hallway. Melanie is the owner of Molee Fine Art, soon to be known as Lucky Fish Gallery. We were flipping through framed art and I was commenting, "Oh, that's nice. That one's kind of pretty," when all of I sudden I froze and shrieked "KITTY!"

I had found the painting of my dreams. I don't care what you think of it. I adore it. I burst out laughing when I saw it and even though it's just sitting in my writing room at the moment, I grin every time I glance over at it. I can't wait to hang it in the hall. I lu-uh-uh-uve this painting. 

Even better, Blair feels the same. I wondered if this might be a little too much "cat" for him, but he had the same reaction I did. Our rule is never pass by something in life that makes you grin. It's pretty much why we got married.

So this is the start of our hallway art collection. The painting is called "New Found Friend." Don't feel intimidated by my high falutin' art. I'm still a regular person, just like you. 

I just have a totally cool cat painting in my hall.

Cheers,

Dena

Just Your Typical Day

Ever look up at the end of your workday and think, "Where did the time go?" I decided to track how I spent my time the other day and this blog post is the result. Enjoy. 

• 6:30 AM - Day gets off to a sluggish start as I'd planned to be up by 5:30.
• 7 - 8 AM - Try to work through e-mails while fighting off attempts of both cats to derail my productivity by insisting I give them lengthy backrubs. Cats - 598, Dena - 0.
• 8:30 - 9 AM - Interview Barefoot Josh on my radio program this month.  
• 9:15 - 12:30 - Write and edit ongoing book project
• 12:30 - 1:30 - Revise index for my book due out in October
• 1:30 PM - Consider fixing lunch but choose instead to wander through the kitchen every 10 minutes and stuff random handfuls of almonds, apples, cereal, bread with honey and granola bars down my throat instead. 
• 1:40 - Stare longingly into cupboards, mentally wiling copious amounts of chocolate to appear
• 1:45- 2 - Sulk in chair pretending to work, but really still thinking about chocolate
• 2-2:45 - More book writing/editing
• 2:45 - 3 - More sulking about the no chocolate thing
• 3:30-4:30 - e-mail, admin work
• 4:30 - decide there's no time like the present to paint the accent wall in the hall. We've selected a bright cheery yellow to compliment the orange because we like color
• 5:30 - I still need to do my speed work on the treadmill, but I know I'll be to tired to cook dinner if I do and I don't want all the vegetables I bought to go to waste plus I really need to eat a healthy meal. Go ahead and cook dinner and place in fridge.
• 6:15 - Convince myself it really won't take all that long to put a second coat of paint on the wall and better to just have it over and done with. Solid logic, except the wall is going to require a third coat. Bummer. 
• 7:10 - Finally hit the treadmill for speedwork. 
• 8:15 - Reheat dinner in the microwave (giving myself mental high-fives for having cooked in advance) then drag dinner plate, myself, and ice bags to the couch where I ice my knee and eat gobs of food as I watch The Biggest Loser.
• 8:30 - Blair gets home. Having stayed in one spot for more than 10 minutes, I have lost all will and ability to move. After being at work all day, he cleans up the kitchen for me. The man is a saint. 
• 10 - Bed. Bed, bed, bed. 

And that is where my day went. How about you?