Introducing...

With the painful absence of Quasi in the household tensions between Catch and Risa have reached an all time high. The growling and hissing have become extremely frustrating, breaking reading concentration and nights of good sleep. It soon became a near constant reminder of the loss of Quas and the dramatic change in wrought in our lives.

It was clear that Catch needed a new buddy, someone who would actually play with him, instead of growling every time he came in the room. So we visited the local Humane Society and had a stroll around their cattery. I wish I had a photo, it was such a neat way to meet cats. They had cat toys, beds, perches all spread out in one room, allowing the cats to run around and play with each other, or sleep on a windowsill or bird watch. They also had cubicles off to the side where sliding glass doors separated shy kitties and new additions from the cattery floor and one very small wall of cages for kitties recovering from surgery. We went on a weekday afternoon and visited with the kitties and talked about what it might be like to integrate another cat, and if we were really ready. It felt like it was so soon, too soon.

We talked about it all week, and then on Saturday morning went back to Greenhill to visit with the kitties again and see how we felt. We met a tiny little kitten who had just come out of surgery, "Raisin." He was situated in a cage on the wall and was performing an excellent spiderman impression, defying gravity by clawing around the cage wall upside-down and sideways ("spider-cat, spider-cat, does whatever spider-cat does"). He chatted with us, meowing loudly and one of the volunteers opened the cage so he could come out and meet us. He almost immediately climbed onto my shoulder and struck such an impression of Catch that we both thought he'd be a perfect playmate.

So, one black cat, no big deal. Two black cats, probably okay too. Three black cats seems to be a bit like smacking superstition in the face, perhaps we'll break a mirror to retain equilibrium.

We're pleased to introduce our newest: Pocket

Here he is coming home in the car on Joe's lap.

The first day home had me on tenterhooks as the hissing and growling in the house increased two-fold. I was afraid we had made a terrible mistake. Pocket, however, was unfazed by it all and continued to play all over the house, perhaps happy to have a big place to roam around having been in a cage for the better part of his life.

When he was surrendered to Greenhill he was a mess. His ears were all torn up and he had sustained a laceration on his right eye that had healed poorly and was infected and caused his eye to be mostly shut. The ear tears healed in such a way that he has a confetti like look on them both, giving him some character. But the eye had to be operated on to open it back up and clean up the infection. So his right eye has a slightly permanently surprised look, but it's all cleared up. We adopted him just 6 days after his eye surgery and he's already causing trouble.
After a 24 hour period of establishing hierarchy where I did my best to ignore Pocket while Catch was in the vicinity and gave Catch as much love as he could possibly stand, Pocket has been adopted into the clan. Risa has bopped him on the head and Catch has found a level of play and energy release that makes his hours of sleep seem more reasonable.


I wish I could explain just how tiny he is. We watched as he climbed onto our newly begun game and fell instantly to sleep. It seemed such a shame to wake him. But he took very little offense and instead installed himself on the arm of the couch.
A self portrait, all three cats helping me study:
Finding the sun:
He's such a little guy that right now we have the door to the mudroom open so that he can get to the litter box (which he's having differing degrees of success with). He is just barely 3 months old and is just shy of weighing 3 pounds and cannot possibly weigh enough to get through the cat-flap in the door.

He makes Catch seem huge (which is an accomplishment) and I have these moments where I'm afraid one of us will squish him he's so tiny. But he has a good and loud voice and so far, is a great addition.

Due west.

Not five miles from home.

Flowers! Vegetables! Easements?!

We've been busy in the yard/garden...er and so has the spring weather, blossoms and bulbs...check it out:Beautiful tree in our backyard, has now given way to red leaves and littered the ground with spring 'snow.'Our neighbors keep apologizing for this bush, it's extended into our driveway, but it's so beautiful we've asked them not to cut it back.

Daffodils!

Our Hood River lavender replanted in boxes mimicking the rosemary...we have a very healthy spider population living in those rocks...

A sampling from the flowers that Joe picked for me.

Of course, there was some of this, proving the spring is still a big liar.

Seedlings just starting in the cold frame-made of scrap wood and a window that cost $1.

The bamboo prep.
The 'boo box,' our crafty bamboo containment area.

Bamboo planter, sans bamboo (still working on that one).

Holes by Joe, a handy post digger and a lot of sweat made holes for our trellising systems.

Beginnings of a permanent pea trellis.

Starting to look like raspberry supports.

Little bare root raspberries, finally in the ground. We have three varieties, Autumn bliss, Tulameen and something else...

Starting to build a bed and path system.

Sturdy pea trellis-with beginnings of climbing implements (from porch).

Pea trellis (from fence).

Left to right, strawberry and potato patches.

There is nothing this car can't do-this is almost 500 pounds of flagstone.

Path with crushed (pulverized really) walnut shells, compliments of the brewery.

Path with stones on top - I later dug them all in.

Little perennials soon they will be artichokes and rhubarb, standing tall (or squat) and proud.Tree planting - new Asian Pear


Fuck! We hit water...so I called the 'call before you dig' folks, who sent someone out and got every utility in the city to confirm that it was not their line. We're not completely stupid, we know where our lines are, so this completely flummoxed us. It also threw the guy who came to mark our stuff for a loop, we determined it was an abandoned water main.

Joe cut through it, slicing a cable (damn and blast!) in the process. Hmmm, there went the water main theory.
We learned that it was comcast's cable and that our oops! equaled cutting cable to the rest of the cul-de-sac. So a tech came out and laid a line over the entirety of the backyard, sending me into a storm of fury (having just spent the day planting veggies and weeding in said area). The tech also promised that someone would be back to dig up our yard and put in a new line. Fury to rage in 3.2 seconds. I spoke with my lawyer : ) throwing out words like, trespassing and easement and was gently and thoughtfully reminded that I likely signed an easement when we took title to the property (damn and blast, and damn again!). But, in the end it worked out fine, no digging, they just pushed a new cable through the existing pipe, since Joe had already patched it. All of that wasted anger energy that I could have put into grading papers or something...


New pear tree.

Beginnings of the rock garden on house side, whenever I find a rock I toss it there.
Planting beans and cabbage.

New shoots.

Growing seedlings!
My gratuitous C. Jangard shot.
Tulips.

The bubala tree coming into spring.

Magnolia.
Raspberries.

Centennial hops pushing through.

Otherwise, careful avoidance of schoolwork.

Holiday's with hams

I have decided I love Easter. It has nothing to do with religion, bunnies, candy or egg-hunts. It has to do with being fed (till more than full) ham and other gloriously pig derived foods by our good friends in Portland. We've been at the table now for two years running, I hope we have a standing invitation (er, no pressure). The even better news is that my body didn't even have time to process said food before I used it as energy tickling and chasing around a two-year old. Plus, I got my quarterly dose of sleeping baby relaxation therapy in. I keep telling Michelle that we have to figure out how to bottle and sell (a) baby smell and (b) that soothing feeling of a baby falling asleep in your arms...I'll make a killing on the graduate student stress market.


...otherwise we spent the weekend digging, planting, weeding and otherwise rummaging about in the yard-soon to be garden utopia (I hope) and also creating some accidental shenanigans in tree planting...more to come.

Upon the spectacular recommendation of...

The one saving grace of being in Vegas was the half day sojourn that I took to Red Rock Canyon with some fellow grad students. Andy had lamented his unsuccessful attempts at going (I did see the Red Rock Casino as we drove out) and recommended that I go. I must say that amid all the crap of Vegas there is this nice bit. These are some photos taken by another student, I left my camera behind (not feeling like I needed to capture the seediness of Vegas) for Joe to chronicle the changes at Oakshire.













Absolutely spectacular. And, while my mind is still reeling from the information overload of the conference, and class started on Monday, this is about all I can put together at the moment.

Briefly, I'm excited, enthusiastic and overwhelmed! : )