Suzy Says

Clyde in a box! Shipping not included.

You’d think this seemingly endless parade of cold, rainy days would inspire me to clean up the house, but you’d be wrong. I’m much more inspired to clean on sunny days, when I can have the doors open to dry things off and cheer me up. Whereas gloomy weather plunges me into ennui and lassitude. If I didn’t have so much work to do, I’d spend the whole day lying around awash in regret and gloom, impatiently waiting for cocktail time.

As it is, I have work to do which may spill over into the weekend, and I really should tidy up the house, because Miss Jessica is arriving for a sleepover tomorrow. Then I get to go trick-or-treating with her on Sunday. I figure a girl who mentally decorated my balcony will probably notice if the house is untidy, though she will probably be too polite to say so.

On the bright side of the gloom, all this rain means that I don’t have to water the plants with my leaking hose. I think I’m going to have to invest in a new hose this spring, and they are surprisingly expensive, like tires, and almost as fun. I hate spending money on non-frivolous items.

And in other good news, the Giants have won the first two games of the World Series and are now only two away from the big prize. They didn’t get rained out last night, and the game was incredibly entertaining, with the Giants scoring an astonishing seven runs in the eighth inning. The kittens and I could hardly believe our eyes. The Giants won 9-0, and are on their way to Texas for tomorrow night’s game. Stay tuned!

What else is there to do on a rainy day?

Not much has been happening here in Hooterville, other than the seemingly endless rain. I have the heater set at 64, and it keeps coming on and burning luxurious propane alarmingly often, since the temperature refuses to get out of the 40s outside. It’s dark and depressing, too. Even the cats don’t want to be out there.

Hopefully, Game Two of the World Series, which is scheduled for 5:00 this evening in beautiful San Francisco, will not be rained out. The Giants have never won the WS in their California incarnation, and the last time they won the title was way back in 1954 and way back in New York. So here’s hoping.

I voted by mail the other day. Even if it’s not raining, I’m too lazy to go and wait in line. My natural impatience and slothfulness forbid it. But my grandmother, who did not have the right to vote until after she married, impressed on me the importance of voting, especially for women. So I’ve never missed an election, even when I lived abroad.

There were the usual passel of murky propositions to wade through. It’s remarkably time-consuming to read all the pros and cons and make up my fluffy mind. I had no hesitation, however, in voting for David Eyster to replace the District Attorney who gave poor Aaron Vargas nine years in prison for killing the man who molested him for years. Or in voting for Jerry Brown. If Meg Whitman buys the governorship of this great state, I’m moving to Canada.

You have been warned, Canadian readers!

As for Thanksgiving, we may have a change of venue. Lu is heading to Arizona to visit her family, and Megan is going to stay at her house and take care of Lu’s dogs. We’re trying to decide whether to have Thanksgiving at Lu’s place instead of mine.

In favor of Lu’s place is that it’s a real house, with real heating and a real kitchen. There’s even actual high speed internet and cable! Imagine! And there are three bedrooms, in case some or all of us don’t want to drive home. Also, it’s about five minutes from the Safeway, always important when dealing with T Day.

Against it is the longer drive for Erica and Jessica, the difficulties of making a big dinner in an unfamiliar kitchen, and the sentiment of having it in your own house, however humble.

What do you think?

My grumpy Sunday (and my house) improved dramatically after Rob’s arrival.

With Megan at work and the rain pouring down outside, it was a good day to work inside.

Rob installed the propane heater in the studio, which involved more than I expected. Lots of pipes and doodads, turning the gas off, and other things that are far beyond my limited ability to understand. Not for the first time since moving to the country, I wish I’d spent more time learning practical things like plumbing and wiring and less time learning impractical things, like irregular French verbs.

Here’s the new heater in all its glory:

Rob painted the wall behind the heater before putting it in. And yes, that is a tea chest being used as a stair.

He also put shelves in by my desk:

Here’s the other side:

The silhouette is my mother as a young girl. Through the window, you can see the new passion vine.

The barometer fell off the wall and slightly dented the brand-new floor:

Notice that Rob added baseboards. When he does something, he does it right.

He fixed my faulty barometer hanging, and also the loose glass in the clock, which he also rehung:

They’re made of galvanized steel and I bought them with my Dad in Greenwich a long time ago. I guess my decorating scheme could best be described as sentimental.

After all that home improvement, we had dinner together and watched “Viva Las Vegas”.

All’s well that started badly!

Sun after rain

Well, we got five inches of rain in 24 hours, according to a neighbor’s rain gauge. So it wasn’t just my whiny Self – there was a lot of rain. We’re supposed to get more on Thursday, but I’m going to pull a Scarlett O’Hara here and think about it tomorrow.

Today it’s bright and sunny and the trees are sparkling, but it’s still cold, in the low 40s. Waking up to the sun after a good night’s sleep made a difference to my outlook. As I made coffee, I reflected that I really shouldn’t complain about the lousy day I had yesterday compared to my sister, who worked five 12 hour shifts last week (Monday through Thursday, then Sunday), and is now facing her usual Monday through Wednesday. I can’t imagine how tired she must be.

The uninspiring view from my porch

It’s not even 9:00, and I’ve already had a lousy day.

Audrey woke me up around 5:30, growling at the kittens and bashing at the balcony door. I reached for my glasses on the bedside table, but couldn’t feel them anywhere. I turned on the light and “looked” as best as a girl can who is practically legally blind can do in the early morning darkness.

No go.

I felt around in my slippers before putting them on and feeling my way down the stairs, clutching the banister. I thought this had Calamity Suzy written all over it, but I made it safely to the bathroom, where I located my second pair of glasses. Thanks, Dad, for training me to put things away in the same place!

I let Audrey out into the howling storm, amazed that she actually preferred being out in the cold, rain, and wind than staying inside the (relatively) cozy house.

With visions of power outages dancing in my head, I grabbed a few buckets to fill with water, getting immediately soaked in the process. Someone had unplugged the hose, so water spewed out of the side of the house instead of the end of the hose. I squelched into the bathroom from the back deck door, and realized that the shower would never fill one of the buckets. I grabbed a pitcher and started filling it in the sink, emptying it into the buckets while the kittens got in the way and got wet.

After that, I decided to do the dishes, and discovered that the flash heater was out. No hot water for dishes or a shower. Rob should be coming by any time to work on the heater, so hopefully I can prevail upon him to help me.

I heard dripping. The tap wasn’t dripping. It was the roof, right in front of the couch. I got a pot and put it under the drip. I felt a drip on my head. Another drip, another pot. Then I noticed a huge wet spot right next to the TV. Yay!

I was running out of pots and patience. I called Mark, but got no answer and left a message. I can’t imagine where they could be at 8:30 on a Sunday morning. Kids and old people (as I learned in Florida) never sleep in.

While making the bed, the kittens clawed me so hard that I got blood on the sheets.

Add in a severe attack of the Evil Allergies, with sneezing, nose blowing, and itchy eyes and nose, plus the fact that Audrey hasn’t come home yet, and you have the perfect recipe for a rotten day.

[Later] She finally showed up, refused to eat, and bit me.

You have to see it to believe it!

Audrey was sleeping on one side of the bed, and Clyde was on the other. I was putting laundry away when I saw Audrey get up and walk over to Clyde. Instead of the hissing and cuffing I expected, she sat down right next to him:

And started giving him a bath:

At this point, I ran to get the camera, hoping that they wouldn’t, in the perverse manner of cats, stop being cute before I captured said cuteness for posterity.

They didn’t:

In fact, they stayed like this for hours:

Of course, all bets were off once they woke up. Audrey went back to her usual growling and Clyde ran away as usual. But maybe, just maybe, it was a breakthrough in their relationship. After all, Audrey approached him first.

A year ago today, I moved to Hooterville.

Last year, it was warm and sunny. This year, it’s cold and rainy*.

Last year, I had my beautiful June Bug and my sweet little Henry Etta. Now they are gone, and I have the two rambunctious kittens to make me laugh, drive me crazy, and ease the aching of my heart. My precious Audrey is the same as ever, thankfully.

Last year, I had the moving-related knee injury and the gravity-related full body injury. This year, I’ve managed to remain major injury free (touch wood), though of course there have been the occasional Calamity Suzy incidents. It just wouldn’t be me otherwise.

Last year, I was too injured to go trick-or-treating with Jessica. This year, try and stop me. Erica asked Jessica if she’d rather go with her friends this year. Jessica said, “But Mom! I need my entourage!”

Last year, there was a lot to do in the house and garden. This year, there’s just the bathroom floor to paint, the new heater to install, and plans for the garden for next year. I’d like to have a table and chairs in the garden, and some lounging chairs on the balcony, as suggested by Jessica**.

Over the past year, I have come to appreciate and love my little family even more than I already did. Last night, I thought about how many things that make my house more comfortable and livable were brought to me by Rob. The Suzy proofed loft; the curtain rods; the CD shelves; the cat doors; the towel bars and shower curtain rod in the bathroom, to name a few. Looking around, I am surrounded by love.

*Everyone is blaming me for bringing down some kind of bad weather curse on Hooterville. Maybe Christine O’Donnell can help.

**While doing her homework the other day, she asked her mother if she had spelled “manifest destiny” correctly.

A Roscoe original. Price upon request.

Sometimes, it’s great that my house has so many doors. Other times, not so much…

Yesterday, Rob came by to put the first coat of paint on the foyer floor. He carefully blocked the painting area from curious cats with a big piece of plywood, and put a big tape “X” over the front door to stop any unwitting visitors from stepping on the fresh paint. People who visit generally just walk in, and there are no keys or locks to any of the doors.

But he reckoned without Calamity Suzy.

I went through the door on the back deck to the bathroom, where Rob was just painting himself from the foyer into the bathroom. He said he’d be a few minutes, so I left him to it. I also left the door to the deck open.

You can see where I’m going with this.

In a few minutes, Rob was yelling and I saw Roscoe racing into the woods in horror. Peering over the plywood, I saw the above.

Rob was not happy. And I was reminded of my Dad’s saying, “However foolproof you make a thing, you’ll always find a bigger fool”. That would be me.

Rob taped the paintbrush to a stick to paint over Roscoe’s masterpiece while I apologized, which I think kind of annoyed Rob further.

In the evening, he came back to check on its progress, and decided it was dry enough to apply the second coat. Needless to say, he pointed out flaws which were non-existent to my eye, but blatantly obvious to Rob’s. It’s an education going into a building with him. He sees things I’d never see, but when he points them out, I can’t believe I missed them.

He set up an industrial heater to help dry it out. I later learned the hard way that you can’t use the microwave while the industrial heater is on. Also that all the breakers in the box on the side of my house are unlabeled, and all the breakers for four houses are in there. Fun! So I didn’t dare to make fresh coffee this morning. I just reheated yesterday’s on the gas stove. I think I’ve annoyed Rob enough this week.

It was a chilly 44 outside and 54 inside when I got up this morning. I sneezed myself awake. I’d rate that as slightly better than being woken up by the alarm clock. Or a cat claw on my lip.

Guy might have something about cats and their healing powers, because they all slept with me last night, and I feel (touch wood) better today. At least the thought of feeding the cats and doing the dishes isn’t as overwhelming as it seemed yesterday. Though I’m still doing my best to keep the folks who make Kleenex in business.

It was a sunny morning after a starry night, and the kittens were happy to run outside and play in the sunshine. They were joined by one of Mark’s kittens, and spent some time playing together:

Chucho (above) and Roscoe (below). I think Chucho is older and bigger.

From left: Clyde, Roscoe, and Chucho on the hot tub.

Roscoe (top) and Chucho.

I hope the kittens will play together more as time goes on. They seemed to have fun together. Needless to say, Audrey took one look and stalked away in disgust.

Study in curves

Well, I have a cold and a half.

It’s hard to diagnose accurately, since I now have year-round allergies. It’s all this Nature, I’m telling you. I never had allergies when surrounded by nice, healthy concrete and skyscrapers.

But yesterday, I realized that the headache, body ache and sore throat, along with all the sneezing, coughing, and nose blowing, meant that I was sick. And then there was that stoned feeling, and not in a good way.

So I spent the day in bed, surrounded by kitties. For the first time I can remember, all three were on the bed, with only the occasional hiss from Audrey. I was amazed that Audrey spent nearly five hours curled up on the bed. It may have had something to do with the fact that it was cold and foggy yesterday (whereas today is all blue skies and open doors), but I like to think they knew I wasn’t feeling well and wanted to keep me company as I sneezed and watched “The OC” all day.

The most strenuous things I have done today were heat up chicken noodle soup (while wishing it was the much more fun chicken and stars) and pour ginger ale. I’m still wearing my kitty PJs at 3:00.

Maybe I’ll feel better tomorrow.

Now a warning?!

I noticed this on the side of the house yesterday. I had never noticed it before, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. I’m incredibly unobservant. If I were a witness to a crime, they’d never catch the guy (or girl). Not that I’d notice.

Rob was over working on the floor, and he hadn’t noticed it, either. But he did notice that one of the boards on the side of the house was rotten. It probably has something to do with the outdoor shower. Or maybe that’s what the house was telling us to be afraid of. Even if it can’t spell. It’s not surprising that such a quirky house doesn’t know how to spell. What else would you expect of a place whose light switches say “NO” when they’re on?

Here you can see the damage and the board Rob is going to use to repair it:

But it will have to wait until the floor is finished. It’s been a much bigger (and longer) deal than I expected. The filler had to set, then be sanded, then primer was applied, then more filler:

You can see the tape line between the old and the new. After the foyer is done, the bathroom is next. The picture certainly makes the green look much less acidic lime than it is in real life.

Next Rob will sand the latest filler and then prime again. Then it will finally be time for the floor paint, which I will not be allowed to walk on for 24 hours. Maybe more. It’s all up to Rob. When he does something, he does it right.

Audrey actually being in the house, in the daytime, and hanging out, no less, was cause for me to grab the camera.

I let her out each morning sometime after 5:00 am, hoping that anyone who would consider her a nice, light snack has packed it in for the night. She slinks home sometime after 8:00. The boys are always glad to see her, since they have noticed that Audrey’s arrival heralds the madness that is known as feeding time around here.

After breakfast, they all go out.

Audrey stops by once or twice a day, but she doesn’t spend as much time here as she used to. It’s kind of like having a kid in college who comes home to eat, do their laundry, and sometimes sleep. So I’m always happy to see her and fuss over her when she does appear, so she knows it’s not all about the kittens, who she still hates as far as I can tell. Maybe she’ll like them more when they’re less rambunctious all the time.

Inside the hive

Megan and I checked on the hive yesterday with our brother. There isn’t as much honey as we hoped, and Jonathan thinks that maybe the Queen isn’t very productive. It’s hard to know, since these bees just volunteered, taking over the hive after the Italian Blondes died out last winter.

This year, the bottom of the hive is sealed, so they won’t freeze like the earlier batch-o-bees. I’m looking into feeding trays for the winter, and pretty soon it will be time to start making sugar water for them again.

We talked about mite control. We don’t know if mites contributed to the earlier bees’ mortality rate. We’re reluctant to start medicating them, so we’ll probably get some special sticky paper to put in the bottom of the hive and see if any mites fall onto it. If they do, we’ll deal with it then. I wonder if these bees are mite resistant, since they are local and just turned up.

We also might get a new Queen and bees in the spring and set them up in a separate hive from the first one. Decisions, decisions!

The boys have been busy working on a solar array, which is a frame to hold solar panels. They have invented a way (out of found materials) to make the frame tilt at different angles for different seasons, to get the most out of available sunlight. My brother gets all his power from these solar panels, whose energy is stored in giant batteries. And he gets all his water from the well the boys dug last winter. I don’t think there are too many people in this country who could live as spartanly as he does.

I picked these apples myself!

It was one of those days that turned into an inadvertent cooking frenzy(ette). I started the family Thursday dinner this morning (Megan kindly dropped off the missing ingredients of baby spinach and fresh ginger on her way home from work this morning), and in the course of looking for things in the refrigerator, noticed that there were things that needed some attention.

Some heirloom cherry tomatoes looked a little sad, a red pepper was showing its age, and there was a partial apple and a quarter of a somewhat world-weary lemon.

I added the tomatoes to tonight’s dinner, roasted the red pepper over my gas stove’s burner, and decided to make an apple crumble for dessert.

I set off to my brother’s former residence at the end of the driveway. As I walked through the dust in the bright sunshine, I thought that I’d better enjoy the puff dust while it’s here. It will be mud soon enough.

On my way, I met Mark’s parents, who are visiting here for a couple of weeks from Mexico City. I was astonished to learn that Mark’s father is 90 years old. He looks about 20 years younger. Yesterday, he was helping Mark fill in the water ditches at Jonathan’s old place. Maybe that’s the secret to aging well: keep moving!

I soon filled my basket with apples and headed home, where I used up the leftover apple and lemon to make the crumble. I love using up leftovers.

Tonight’s dinner is:

North Indian Style Spinach Chicken

3 tablespoons canola oil (I used about 1 tablespoon)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 large onion, chopped
2-in. piece fresh ginger
4 large garlic cloves
2 teaspoons each ground coriander and cumin
2 teaspoons kosher salt (I put in much less – maybe 1/2 teaspoon)
1 1/2 pounds boned, skinned chicken thighs, cut into 1-in. chunks (I used breasts instead)
1 cup diced canned tomatoes
1 pound baby spinach
1/2 bunch cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Mince garlic, onions, and ginger. Heat oil over medium heat in large saucepan. Add onion, ginger, garlic, turmeric, cayenne, coriander, cumin, and salt. Cook, stirring often, until lightly browned, 5 to 7 minutes.

Add chicken and cook, stirring often, until no longer pink on the outside. Add tomatoes and simmer, covered, 8 minutes. This is where I added the cherry tomatoes.

Stir in spinach and simmer, covered, until wilted, about 3 minutes. Meanwhile, chop enough cilantro leaves and tender stems to yield 1 cup. Stir into pot, along with lemon juice. Serve with cooked rice.

The beginning of the end

The hideous lime green floor’s days are numbered. That’s the kind of doom I can get behind.

Rob came by today and started prepping the floor. I have to admit that if I did the painting, I would just slap on the new paint and hope for the best, thus carrying on the grand tradition of slapdash painting jobs in my house.

But that’s not the Rob way.

He fixed the many screws whose heads were peeking out above floor level, scraped it down and sanded it.

Next, he filled in the many dirt-trapping holes, and when that’s dry, he’ll primer and paint it with the floor paint I bought a few months ago. Notice how I got right on it.

He’ll have to find a way to keep the curious kittens out of the way. It will be interesting to see that.

Once the foyer is finished, he’ll do the bathroom floor, which is tiny and weirdly shaped. Maybe it will dry faster.

Everyone knows it. Even four month old kittens.

Audrey led the way, making the truck look cool by just being there. That’s what It Girls do.

Then the boys got interested. That’s Roscoe in front. I’m finally getting better at telling them apart.

A historic moment: all three cats in the same place at the same time, with no hissing or growling!

While Roscoe explored the front:

Clyde kept an eye out in the back:

*Inspired by The Free Design’s song Kites Are Fun, which has been stuck in my head lately.

I’ve been thinking about getting a vine-y plant to twine charmingly around the new-ish rustic window. Of course, I never have any idea what to get, and my plant dreams are about as realistic as my day dreams.

I wanted to grow a Kaffir lime tree and a Meyer lemon (after all, the mean old lady next door had a lemon tree when I lived in Oakland, and if a mean old lady can have one, I should, too) but apparently it’s too cold here in the winter. So I’d have to pot it, which would eventually kill it if I didn’t plant it outside, and keep it inside in the winter. That didn’t seem like an option. Same went for the fantasy of bougainvillea, preferably orange. I’ve loved it ever since I first saw it on the French Riviera thirty years ago, but alas, my life is fated to be non-Riviera in every possible aspect.

Megan brought me down to earth and helped me select a plant that may actually work.

It’s a purple honeysuckle. Rob came by and repotted it for me:

Clyde found this fascinating, even after Rob started watering it:

It took a long time before he realized that he was getting wet. Then he was out of there.

Roscoe was completely uninterested, and climbed a tree instead:

Later, Megan came by and said that the honeysuckle needed something trellis-like to climb on. She also doubts that it will drape picturesquely over the window, but we’ll see about that.

Rob found some tree branches and made a really cool trellis, which looks great with the window*:

While he was at it, he brought over a clipping from the passion flower vine which covers the back of their house. He also cut down a couple of trees which had partly fallen over from last winter’s storms (you can see some of that in the background of the picture) to give the vine more light:

Because more light = more flowers. And the flowers are fabulously outer space looking:

Bonus: they make that delicious orange passionfruit!

Now that I’ve got the house more or less in order (there’s still the hideous lime-green floor to deal with), I’m hoping that next year I can focus on the garden. I’ve mostly cleared out the garden of its weirdness and would like to get a table and chairs, as well as more plants. Right now, it’s mostly rhododendrons and huckleberries. I’d like to have a more inviting outdoor space.

*If you’re wondering what that corrugated panel is, it’s a heavy duty plastic-like thing which lets light into the sleeping loft. It’s behind my bed. You can see a little of it here, behind the sleeping Henry Etta. Those were the days.

Putting in the carpet took longer than we expected. You know how it is. Mark’s visiting nephew came over and helped us put all the furniture back before it got dark.

The whole house has that new car(pet) smell!

Here’s a close-up of the carpet:

It’s called “Granite”, and I’m so lucky that Monica gave me such an amazing deal on it. I can’t tell you how much it’s improved my tenuous mental health. I guess that sounds a little silly, but it’s so great having a clean, pretty carpet instead of the stained old one.

Look how pretty it is:

And it looks fabulous with my gorgeous birthday lamp (as seen from the balcony):

Here you can see the rocking chair my great-grandfather made for my great-grandmother. It has mother-of-pearl inlay and it’s been in my room since I was a little girl. More importantly, it’s Audrey’s throne – I fold up the green throw and put it on the seat for her each night. The radio is an Atwater-Kent from 1927. The speakers are hidden by a tapestry showing a castle:

I’m beginning to feel like I’ve applied a veneer of civilization to my place, however thin!

Study in pink*

Thursday was an exciting day.

Mark came by in the morning and said he was ready to put the new carpet in the sleeping loft. I ran upstairs and started hauling everything I could onto the balcony. It’s a good thing that the balcony is so big and so close. I’m pretty sure the balcony is actually bigger than the loft.

I needed help with the bed, bureau, and wardrobe, though. Mark took the headboard off and then we could move the bed onto the balcony and be horrified by all the spiderwebs behind it. Even Martha Stewart would find it hard to wiggle behind the bed and dust where the curved walls are about one foot high.

When Erica and Jessica stopped by, they were greeted by the old carpet and under padding, which had been tossed off the balcony to the graveled parking area in front of the house.

While Mark worked on the carpet, Jessica and I picked and ate huckleberries and talked about life in general. She finds school too easy, and says the teacher isn’t strict enough. This is something I would never have said at the age of seven. Or any age, really.

While Jessica and I hung out, Erica was at Jessica’s school, getting their version of things. Jessica is the smartest kid in the class (and probably the school), but doesn’t want to bother spending time on the boring, easy work. She wants to jump ahead to fun things, like cursive and advanced math.

When Erica got back to my place, she explained to Jessica that she’ll have to do the boring work first, and only then will she get to do the fun things. She suggested that Jessica see how fast she can get it out of the way, so she can spend more time on fun activities. Somehow I feel there’s some kind of lesson here for me, too.

*Erica made the coat out of faux fur. Isn’t it fabulous? It wouldn’t look out of place with that recent Vogue pictorial.

Sunset through the trees

I’m definitely getting better at using the new camera!

Yesterday, I stopped by Megan’s house before she went to work. I had barely reached her front porch when we heard a strange sound.

We looked around, but didn’t see anything. I followed the sound back down Megan’s driveway, and there was Clyde.

He’d followed me, but then got lost and scared partway there, so he stopped and cried for mama at the top of his considerable voice. I scooped him up and he purred happily. When I brought him into Megan’s house, he wasted no time in exploring. Then he merrily ate Star’s food until I stopped him. Trauma forgotten!

I carried him partway home, until he wiggled so much that I had to put him down. He promptly vanished into the woods, then reappeared, climbing a tree and annoying a squirrel, who swore at him loudly. Roscoe came to see what all the fuss was about, and the squirrel hopped onto the next tree, still telling the boys what he thought of them.

When I gave them dinner, the boys managed to knock over the water bowl (while stepping in it), pouring water all over the cement floor and making me glad that there’s a drain nearby. Then they overturned one of the food bowls. Audrey watched in disgust, then went outside. She dined al fresco and in peace.