More Charlie Foolishness

Remember the boxes Coke cans used to come in - more square than long and skinny? Charlie loved those things. As soon as one was empty, he'd gingerly step in, head first, squirm his body fully in, gently turn around, then sit there, just his head poking out, meowing, purring, talking to us. He loved it!

In fact, he loves being in things. We had one of those 3-tiered, wire hanging baskets in our kitchen, and he quickly

 found how to climb into them from the kitchen counter. He liked to just sit there hanging and swinging while I cooked. Sometimes I'd come home from work and he'd be in there waiting. As he grew into a full-sized cat, those baskets became too small to his great sadness! He still tried until he was a couple of years old, but he just couldn't get comfortable!

Boxes, baskets, plastic and paper bags! All his playthings. This one you probably won't believe.... He used to purposefully put his head through one handle of a plastic grocery bag, then run through the house, bag "chasing" him, turn and attack it, and do it again until that bag was just shreds! Hard to believe...but true!

And if he saw me sitting after dinner with an apron on, he'd come rub on our legs. I'd take that apron off, tie the strings around his neck, then walk around the house, holding him stretched out above us, the apron looking like a superman cape on Charlie's back . No picture of that either! So silly - he'd be purring this whole time and when we set him down, would come rubbing on our legs again. "Supercat!" Pure foolishness!

We had an old, glass water cooler jar that he loved to sit in. We'd spin it while he was inside and you could hear his purring echoing in the jar. If he heard us putting the jar on its side, he'd run over so he could get in it. Sometimes he'd just make himself comfortable and take a little nap in there. 

One summer I had a bunch of empty boxes in my spare bedroom. Charlie found the one that got the most sunlight on it during the day and would sleep in there for hours. We called it his "Choven." Get it? So silly!

Just life...

I seem to be caught up in the stream of life right now, and the river is flowing a little quicker than I'd like. I've got a ton I want to do, to accomplish, I've got lots of family visiting this summer, a couple trips I want to take, and one I need to take. Each day is filled, it seems, with something. What I'd really like is a few days of nothing just before all my family arrives and the real summer whirlwind starts.  

In the midst of all this, though, there is a  certain rhythm to my days. I wake earlier than I expect - is that the beginning of real middle age coming on? I fiddle around, checking e-mail, writing a note or two, seeing what the weather will be like, waiting for breakfast until Tim is up. My meal is almost always simple - cold cereal, a pb&j or fried egg sandwich, a granola bar and some chocolate milk. My plan for the day is usually pretty simple, even if it is filled up with errands, people to see, or chores. I look at my calendar - have I forgotten a commitment? I work until lunch, slow down in the afternoon, and, sadly, often don't think about dinner until it is almost too late to cook. 

I would love a couple of days to get out of this routine - watch the sun both rise and set, sit and listen to music, read a couple chapters of a book without thinking about what else I could (or should) be doing. I would love to know there's no where to go and nothing to do, and even no one to see. What a lovely feeling of peace days like that have brought to me in the past. The wonderful thing about my life is that I currently have the ability and opportunity to make this kind of day happen, and next week just might be the perfect time!

Dreams

Oh, to be on the road in my car, alone, music playing, the miles streaming by my window as I head into the distance. Maybe storm clouds will be gathering in front of me and I'll be a witness to the lightening striking, to the rain coming down in sheets. Or perhaps it will already be fall and the fields of milo and corn will have turned red and dry in the autumn chill, and the flocks of sparrows will flow and twist their way through the sky. Or spring will be rolling around again and the trees will be just shading into green, more and more as I head east and down in elevation, flowers springing from the ground bidden by the sun. 

Regardless of the season, I love to make my

 way across America, through the barrenness of eastern Colorado, the bread basket that is Kansas, and into the rolling hills and small farms of Missouri. Even better to then turn north and head into Iowa, the amazing order of the Amish communities, the beauty of the corn rows as they flit by the window, the red barns, the tractors rolling slowly down the shoulder. 

Would that I had the money to head out, not having to measure gas, food, miles, hotels, dollars. Someday, maybe, I'll have that freedom. Ah, to dream!

Fun and Games

Little did we know when we fell in love with Charlie that we were getting almost as much dog as cat. He had some very unusual behaviors for a feline. 

He greeted us at the door when we came home from work, chatting and telling us all about his day. He was insistent for love! He still does this, although now he sleeps so deeply it sometimes takes him a while to figure out I've gotten home. (Now, in his old age, if I sit down on the couch for even a minute, if he's in the room he comes over and tries to get on my lap. This guy is VERY affectionate...in his own, insistent way.)

We discovered through just daily living that one of his favorite toys was a ball of wadded up paper. Ok, so lots of cats play with balls of paper - just wait till you hear the whole tale! When Charlie would hear us wadding up paper, he'd come crouch a few feet in front of us, his hind quarters twitching just waiting for us to throw it. We lived in an old townhouse (1920s) that was long and narrow. We'd sit at one end with the ball of paper and he'd go wait at the other end of the room. We'd throw that ball of paper and he'd chase after it, and bring it back to us to do again! Soon Charlie and we discovered that if he sat half way down the long room, and we threw the ball high into the air, he'd jump up and catch it. We couldn't believe it! Six, seven foot jumps, and he'd land with that ball of paper in his mouth. It was sight to see - how do we have no pictures of that!?

If we left a glass with a straw in it overnight, when we got up in the morning two things were bound to be true - the glass would be overturned and the straw would be gone. We quickly learned two things from this (and the overturned vases of flowers) - Charlie wanted to play with the water, and he desperately wanted those straws! He'd attack them, push them under the rugs then "find" them again, carry them all around the house, bring them to us for us to play with him. Every time we swept under the fridge or looked under our rugs there were straws - many straws!! I don't think I threw away a straw in 5 years without it being filled with tiny holes!

Ahh, good times!

Brunch

This morning I'm on my way to a potluck brunch with the ladies in our church. In light of that (church, that is), I'd better make a confession. I got too proud, too sure of myself and paid the price! I was going to make this (surprisingly!) delicious dish called Carrot Cashew Quiche. I know, it sounds weird. Give it a chance, will ya? You should try it at least once. It is easy, yummy, and a fun thing to take. Got it off the internet. Of course, you have to start with a pie crust, something which I think I can honestly say I'm pretty good at. So I decide to make my own crust instead of buy it, and I want to make a 9x13" pan instead of one pie pan. 

Off I go, midstream deciding not only to use 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 white, but running out of shortening so substituting butter for about 1/2 the fat. Ok, so I've already done 3 things I don't usually do - double the recipe, flour alteration, and fat alteration. I go my merry way, mixing the flour, cutting in the fat, sprinkling the water. All looks fine...sort of. 

Long story short - pie crust disaster. Won't hold together, so I add water and knead a little, making it tough. Then it tears when I roll it out. Then there's not even enough crust. Yuck! 

Today we'll have crustless quiche!!

In case you'd like to try this delicious recipe (not the disastrous crust part!), here it is. Make your own crust if you dare. Or buy it. 

1 1/2 Tbsp butter

1 c peeled and sliced carrots

1 c cashews

about 1/2 tsp nutmeg

good sprinkling of paprika

dash cayenne

1/2 tsp salt (to taste)

2 Tbsp honey

4 eggs

1 c half and half

1/2 c heavy cream

3/4 c shredded Cheddar

1 pie crust

Preheat the oven to 350'.

Melt butter in skillet (nonstick if you have one). Stir in carrots and cashews. Add nutmeg, paprika, cayenne, salt. Cook until carrots are tender and nuts are golden brown. Mix in the honey. 

While carrots are cooking, and in a separate bowl, beat eggs well. Mix in dairy, and cheese. 

Pour carrot mixture into the pie crust. Gently pour in egg mixture.

Bake about 40 minutes or until a knife tests clean. If the center is slightly undercooked when you remove it, this is all right. It will cook a little more after you remove it. Allow to cool and set for a few minutes before serving. Yummy!

Into Our Hearts

And so we took this little guy into our brand new family, and he became a part of us. After 17 years, I think I can honestly say he's a part of our marriage. When he dies we'll miss him a ton! He's been a crazy cat.

Charlie quickly made himself at home. He decided he could hunt quite well from the various windows in our house, and loved to perch anywhere he could get a good view. The birds in the yard, squirrels, even leaves blowing in the wind provided him with hours of entertainment while Tim and I were at work. 

His love of dogs began early, thanks to my neighbor's dog, Heinz, who was a frequent visitor in our house. It wasn't unusual for us to see Heinz and Charlie playing, snuggling, entertaining one another as Shannon and I hung out. To this day Charlie loves dogs - the bigger the better. Sometimes when he hears my neighbor's dog Duke (a large Husky-Malamute mix) out in the yard (you can hear his collar tags clinking), Charlie goes to the door to greet Duke. If I open the front door, Charlie will sit there until Duke comes, and instead of running away like most cats, Charlie looks up at Duke and lets that silly dog lick him right in the face! Quite a sight to see!

Some things never change. I guess it's just like us. Check him out sleeping - age 6 mos. and age 5. Exact same position! Note in the second picture what he's sleeping on...the cable box. He loved to perch himself up there. The small electrical box generated just enough heat to keep him happy. "Charlie," we'd sometimes yell, "your tail is blocking the score!"

Gotta love this kitty! Just now he's asleep in the sunroom in a very cozy and fluffy bed. In a little while he'll move to a shadier spot on a flattened cardboard box, but not for long! That sun will be calling him back! Sometimes I think he's really a snake - he can't generate enough body heat on his own. :-)

Old Man Charlie

We have a very silly 17 year old cat. Or perhaps a more accurate statement would be that we have turned silly over our 17 year old cat. He is a bad kitty. Always has been. A friend told me I should blog some of these stories so here goes...

One Saturday morning near my husband and my 1st anniversary we awoke to the sound of something making quiet a racket outside our bedroom window. " What is that noise?" I asked. Tim replied, in a sleepy and irritated 

 voice, "A dumb bird" (he hates birds in the morning - imagine!). I listened for a minute. That was no bird - it was a frightened kitten crying for help! I jumped out of bed, threw on whatever clothes were on the floor, and ran out the front door. Was the kitten in the flowers in front of our townhouse? Was it somewhere near the sidewalk? I listened, following the sound.

There in the bushes in front of the apartment building across our street was a little, gray, sort of speckled kitten. He was so small! Couldn't have been over 8 weeks - separated from his mother at too young an age. I walked across the street and carefully approached the kitten, not wanting to scare him away. Each time a car drove by, he would leap back toward the shelter of the building, scraping his already slightly bloody nose. Poor little baby!

I held out my hand, twiddled my fingers, and lured him toward me. His huge green eyes met mine, and it was love at first sight. The little guy came right to me, letting me put him in my arms. I carried him back across the street to our apartment. By this time, Tim had gotten himself out of bed and met me on the porch. Oh, we cooed over him, scratched his chin, and held him close to us. Even Tim's heart melted just a little. But what should we do? 

We put up flyers, but no one claimed him, and thus began our long journey with this crazy guy. We couldn't afford a cat. We didn't have room for a cat.  We didn't really need the hassle of a pet what with Tim a full time grad student and me looking for a teaching position. But we kept him...and he's been trouble (and joy) ever since. Look how cute he is, though! We do indeed love him. 

More Charlie stories to come...