azdesertrose | (no subject)

Still here.

I spent Friday doing a lot of running around and then having a very pleasant evening. It was my boyfriend's birthday, and we had a lot of friends meet us at a Japanese restaurant where I chowed down on kappamaki (cucumber rolls, they're addictive!) and then we had birthday cake.

Yeah, I know. Sushi and birthday cake? But it worked.

Saturday we went to St. Augustine with Tiff and Beau; in the outlet mall I found a 10-inch Calphalon skillet for $30!! (Calphalon is anodized aluminum cookware and VERY expensive; this skillet would normally sell for nearly $100. It's like cooking on seasoned cast iron without the weight and it can be washed in the dishwasher, unlike cast iron.) We had lunch in McKnight's Irish Pub; the Guinness beef was delish, and I would fight for their recipes for mashed potatoes and their rosemary-parmesan salad dressing.

I also found a hair toy in Silver Feather that I would have bought if it had been bigger; as it was it would have held about 1/4 of my hair. It was one of those two-pronged combs that you can use like hair sticks to hold an updo, and it was silver and turquoise (my fave!). If only it had been big enough to hold all my hair.

Yesterday I slept most of the day, but I got up for a little while because Tiff and Beau's other female cat, Gwyn, went into labor. Finally; the poor kitty looked like she was about to burst. She had six kittens; four are quite dark, and the other two are grey. (Gwyn is a grey tuxedo cat.) I thought about asking for one of the dark kittens, if one should turn out to be solid black or close to it, because I like black cats. But I like the orange tabby kitten, too, and I can't have both. I'll probably just take her.

I'm getting a different kitten than I was originally going to have; I wanted the last-born kitten, but Beau has become rather attached to her and is unwilling to give her up, so I'm getting the third-born, also an orange tabby but paler than the last one. She was called Cortez at birth, for being golden in color; now that we know she's female, Cortez has become Contessa, to which she actually answers. I had been thinking of Isabela as a name for her; maybe she can be the Contessa Isabela. *grin*

Friday night, Tiff brought her over to the apartment so CC could meet her; he mostly sniffed at her and tried to lick her, but he did take a nip at her once (he caught only fur and she didn't give any indication that it hurt), but Cliff and I are both a little worried that CC tried to nip her. CC has had a kitty friend before; at one point, when Cliff didn't have a place of his own for a short time, CC stayed with Cliff's mother and sister, and at the time, his sister had a cat, with whom CC became good buddies until Cliff got his own place again and CC came back home.

Tonight, Beau cooked a bunch of food on the grill and we all sat around outside eating and talking and hanging out; I brought Contessa outside for a while, just to cuddle her and socialize with her a little. She fell asleep on my chest and only woke up when someone pulled a car in, and the lights and engine noise woke her up. She's such a sweet kitten. I kept cuddling her and talking to her, just nonsense words about what a sweet, precious little kitty girl she is. I think she likes me, and she must trust me reasonably well, to fall asleep on my chest like that. Her fur is so soft; I can't wait until I can buy grooming things and brush it and keep it even softer.

Yes, I like cats, and I like this kitten. Ya wanna make something of it? *grin*

Cliff is funny about it all. He's allergic to cats, but I think he's a closet cat-lover. He loves big cats; he'll watch nature shows about lions or jaguars or whatever, and I keep telling him that cats are cats. Little cats act very like big cats, just on a smaller scale. Cats are not as domesticated as dogs; they're not as far away, in terms of behavior, from their wild cousins as dogs are from wolves. Anyway, he claims he's letting me have the kitten in hopes of giving me something to do, something that will make me happy, and I don't doubt that this is true, but I think he's going to enjoy Contessa's presence in the apartment more than he lets on.

I'm starting to be sleepy, but if I sleep now, I will just be cranky when I have to go get Cliff from work at 6am. Bleah on his work schedule.