Productive Days

OK, so maybe productive isn't the best word to use, but it does convey the sentiment. Life seems to be chugging along with a full head of steam over the past week. Things have finally slowed down to breathe a little.

On the home improvement front, the masons finished up putting the stone on the house last Thursday. It looks great! The whole neighborhood has weighed in, and so far nothing negative (like it would matter, but still, approval is always nice). We had hoped that the siders would start the following day, but here we are on Tuesday, and no sign of them. Meanwhile, I have beautiful stonework with gaping holes in the old siding around it since they had to cut it away in order to put the stone up. I've got to try to get hold of the company today to see what the deal is. I really want to get this done! However, on the up side, the money from the loan that we got to cover this is sitting gaining a nice interest rate in our savings account, so at least we aren't losing anything!

Speaking of the loan, we knew that we had a little extra over and above the amount that we would need for the house, so we have been debating what to do with it. Of course, the prudent thing would be to sit on it, but that's usually not how it works. Anyway, we have also been talking about buying a used boat for a couple of years now. I can't, correct that, won't pay $20-30K for a boat new. However, this being Minnesota and all, there are lots of decent used boats to be had. Husband isn't big into fishing, but since I was raised with a fishing rod in my hand, I tend to differ. We've been bouncing back and forth on what we wanted, and eventually we agreed that a fish/ski combo would work. Husband had dragged me up to look at a 1978 (good God, the thing is as old as my brother!) Larson that was actually in pretty good shape, for a decent price. We had even gone as far as to set up a day over the weekend to pick it up and take it out. Husband mentioned this to one of our neighbors, who told us that he knew someone that was selling a boat that was an 1988 with a lot more options for the same amount. Well, long story shorter, we ended up with the '88. I'm so excited! It needs a little work on the interior, but overall, it's really nice. It has an open bow, a brand new inboard motor, and will have new carpet after today. It even has a porti-potti and a refrigerator. It's 21', which is fairly big. It makes my Grand Cherokee look tiny when its hooked up to it. The Jeep can handle it, but it still looks a little funny. It was funny to hear Husband tell SIL that they could come up and "go out on the boat." It has just been something that we have wanted for a while. Now we just need to find a place for it...Probably should have thought about that before. Oh well.

Finally, we added another member to the family on Thursday. One of my admins called up from her car after she left work, and told me that there was a stray cat hanging around outside of our gate. Knowing that I am a sucker for a sob story, that was pretty much all I needed. Yep, she came home with me. She's still pretty kitten, and I would guess that she is under a year. As we drove home, she perched between the headrests on the back seat of the Jeep, and she and Son just checked each other out. She's not too sure about him yet. He keeps chasing her down, so either she will become a champion at hiding out, or they will come to some sort of understanding. We've been slowly introducing her to the other cats at home, and while Drac is pretty mellow about it all, Cybl has been a bit more, well, touchy. That's our Dracie in the picture. He's our somewhat small (16lbs) gray panther. A big boy with a little voice. And he seems to like Son.

Back to Cyble. You have to realize that Cybl was the first member of our menagerie. She has suffered through the addition of two other cats (this one makes three), two dogs, five moves (which includes having to be out of the house for three months because of a fire, in an apartment, and then back again), and a baby. Quite a bit to heap on a poor cat who does not exactly groove on change. So far she has had a couple tiffs with unnamed kitty so far, and they seem to be doing a little better. Kitty still has four wheel drive, which may need to be fixed. I've caught her eyeing my leather furniture, so it may be sooner rather than later. I'm going to get her a scratching post and see how she does first.

OK, so that was probably one of the most boring entries ever, but sometimes things just need to be documented. I do have a couple of other more serious entries brewing, but I had to get this all out of my head. Now I need to get back to work.