Oh My Kindle

Last week, the hubs and I went to his work holiday party.  It was a lot of fun, good food, open bar and best of all, good company.  Every year, they have the party at a fancy catering hall and we have to buy tickets to attend.  It's pricey at $60 a ticket, but it's the holidays so it's okay to splurge once in a while.  There is always a raffle that everyone looks forward to.  They sell raffle tickets and raffle off prizes.  Some of the prizes are gag gifts, it's like that game show, "let's make a deal."  If your ticket is chosen, you can pick a box or an envelope.  Sometimes the box is something great, but sometimes it's a goofy prize.  The hubs bought 20 tickets, and during the raffle, his ticket was called.  He chose the box rather than the envelope and won this!  A new Amazon 3G Wireless Kindle!  The hubs was so excited since he's wanted one of these.

He was really, really lucky!  Because the envelope that he could have chosen had a $20 giftcard to Dunkin Donuts.  He got the better deal if you ask me.  He's been really enjoying his new gadget.  He's downloaded some great books and short stories.  This past week, you'll find him in his lazy-boy reading his Kindle with Sebastian Kitty on his lap.  At first, I was pretty skeptical about an "electronic" book.  But I am pleasantly surprised with the screen resolution, it's pretty easy to read.  It also has a really long battery life!  I'll have to look for some gardening books that we can download!

Recuperating from the holidays

The cats and I spent the day recuperating from all the holiday fun.  Hosting my family for 4 days was fantastic but made me completely exhausted.  It's nice to sit on the couch and cuddle with my furries.  We all took a long nap, it felt good to re-charge.  Hope you all had a good holiday!

A Striped Christmas Present

There's a cat in this photo. Do you see him?

No?  How about now?

Still no?  Okay, here's a photo closer.  See him now?

Really, no again?  Okay, here he is!

How about from another angle?  Little Sebastian Kitty is the funniest cat ever.  He spends hours hanging out under the tree.  Even behind all these presents.  He loves it.  The only reason I know he's behind there because sometimes I hear him rustling.  Funny kitty!
MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone!

Someone really loves the Christmas Tree

Little Sebastian Kitty just can't get enough of the Christmas tree.  He sits there for hours, takes naps under there, he just loves it!  I find it amazing that he doesn't claw at the tree, or try to knock down the ornaments.  What a good kitty!

I'm going to be so sad when Christmas is over and we have to remove the tree.  Sebastian is going to be so mad when the tree is gone.  Shhhh, don't tell him.

Enjoying Some Winter Sunbeams

On this cold winter day, a kitty has got to get warmth wherever he can.  A warm sunbeam is very welcomed.

An "Elf" Helping Me Write Christmas Cards

This year, I've been so busy that I am way behind with writing Christmas cards.  I usually like to tackle this task during Thanksgiving weekend, but this year, I never had time for that.  So today, I finally took the time to write out cards.  Look who helped me.  Yup, it's Sebastian.  He was my "helper", which meant he swatted at cards, stickers and my pen.

Here he is intrigued with the smiley face stickers.

At one point, I went into the kitchen to get myself a cold drink.  When I came back, Sebastian was gone, but  I found his pink ball inside one of the card boxes.  Hehehehe, that kitty makes me smile.

Sebastian Likes the New Tree

The tree has been kitty approved. Sebastian has been investigating it ever since we got the tree yesterday. He's always loved Christmas trees, looking back in the blog archive, here he is loving the tree in 2007, and again in 2007. Things never change.

You will succumb...

to the laser eyes!  Resistance is futile.

Watching TV with the Dad

Last night, the hubs and I were pretty exhausted with all the Thanksgiving activities so we spent the evening on the couch watching TV. Sebastian thought that was a great idea.  He cuddled right up on the hub's lap and relished in belly rubs.

He was engrossed with what we were watching.  "Great Migrations" on National Geographic. 

This photo makes me laugh

My husband was taking a nap on the couch, and Yaffa likes to take a nap between his legs. LOL.  This photo cracks me up. 

Eco-friendly and loving it!

Back in September, on the blog Wearer of Many Hats, she was hosting a giveaway of a wonderful custom crafted lunch bag from Glue and Glitter.  I love anything eco-friendly so I submitted my name and to my surprise, I won my very own custom created lunch bag!  Thanks Wearer of Many Hats for hosting such a great giveaway.  Becky, the talent behind Glue and Glitter contacted me and asked me what colors I liked, what patterns I liked, and what I wanted on the bag.  How cool that I could get the bag made to reflect me, so I asked her for a cat design, for my 3 cats, and florals because I love to garden.  I also said I loved brown and turquoise blue.  Here are the photos of the finished product!

Inside the lunch bag came cloth napkins, chopsticks, and a plastic food container.  Everything you need for a perfect lunch that is friendly on the Earth.

Here is the lining inside the bag, Becky let me pick out the fabric.  Since I love gardening this fabric was perfect for me.  Isn't it just gorgeous?  These would make great holiday gifts,  you can order a bag from Becky, she will make it custom to your order.  Check out Becky's Glue and Glitter website!

A Kitty in the Jungle

I was watering the plants on the front enclosed porch, "the greenhouse" as Wendy called it, and Dante kitty followed me in there.  He was so mesmerized by all the plants that I moved indoors.  I bet he thought he was outside.  LOL.

A Food Buffet?

I was going through my photos and forgot to post this one.  We filled the auto-feeder when we went away, and Sebastian thought he hit the jackpot.  LOL.

Dante is a cuddler

My niece came over on Halloween and she adores Dante. I didn't realize she took pictures with him until I saw these on my computer. She took these with the Photo Booth application on the Mac. Isn't it just adorable? I think he loves her just as much as she loves him.

It's cold!

When it gets cold out, we like to do more of this.

A Nice Pose!

I love it when Yaffa or any of the cats sit like this. It's so cute!!  I'm not sure why she was sitting like this.  She wasn't even grooming herself like she usually does when she sits like this.  Adorable.

Guard Your Grill

This is an everyday occurrence at our house!

This is Yaffa and Sebastian play fighting yesterday. They love doing this, they can do this for hours!

Clingy kitty

Sometimes Yaffa can be a little clingy. Here she is stuck to me like glue. She's adorable.

Hey! Are you allowed on that?

Without fail, everytime we get new furniture, the cats claim it.  This time I was a little angry though, because these are new cedar Adirondack chairs, and I already see scratch marks on them!  Kitties, this is not a large scratch post!  Argh!  They are lucky they are cute!

Meet Allie!

This is Allie, she is a guard dog at the family farm. She is a Great Pyrenees, and they have a history of being breed by shepherds to help on farms to guard livestock, especially sheep. That background makes Allie a great guard dog, its in her blood. When she sees trouble, like a fox, a hawk or wild dogs, she barks and barks to try to scare them off. She does have a menacing bark, however she is as friendly as they come. I call her a big poofball. She has a thick fluffy coat, that protects her from the cold winters in the North Country. She especially loves it when it snows, she rolls around in it and is the happiest when there are mounds of snow on the ground. Reminds me of a dog I know... Khyra!

Yaffa Snoozing

Yaffa loves to take naps on the couch. This time I found her straddling the arm rest. Is that even comfortable? LOL. I'd be worried that I roll off!

Stalker!

The hubs and I were eating dinner the other day and we had a "stalker".

I'm in Love

When we were up at the family farm, they had to make a delivery of produce to one of their client's. I tagged along because they told me that there was a good farmer's market along the way. Upstate New York is renowned for many things, among them is Maple Syrup. I had to get my hands on some good New York Maple Syrup to bring home.  At the farmer's market, there were two vendors that were selling syrup.  Note to self, scan the tables before buying because I ended up buying syrup that was more expensive at one vendor than the other one was selling.  Oh well.

The other thing that I was looking to buy was some local honey. Luckily, there was a vendor also selling honey, so I picked up a big jar of amber colored honey. Oooh, I can't wait to try it in my mint tea.

When you are in NY State, you can't be in a farmer's market without at least one vendor selling NY Apples! I didn't buy any because we recently had gone apple picking.

At the farmer's market, there was a vendor selling garden markers. Aren't these cool? I'm so cheap frugal, so I couldn't justify spending $3-$6 on one marker.  I would have needed a whole bunch of these for the garden, so the cost would totally add up.  Maybe I can make my own?

My mother-in-law saw another farmer vendor there she knew and we went up to her booth to talk to her. She is a cattle farmer, and was selling cuts of packaged beef. She had with her these two Labrador Retrievers and I instantly FELL IN LOVE. They were so adorable!  Look at that paw!

Completely sweet and soft. She said they were for sale for $50 each. Do you think my husband would find out if I tried to sneak her home? Awwww.

Here Chick, Chick, Chick

On the farm, they raise a lot of chickens. They stay in a coop inside the barn at night, but in the day, they are free-range. They are free to travel anywhere on the farm, which they love to do.  They love to forage for food and find grubs and other treats.

The farm also just got in 35 new chicks. My father-in-law told me that with their first group of chickens, they taught them to come in to eat when they said "Here Chick, Chick, Chick". The chickens associated that call with food. So cool! Hopefully these baby chicks will learn that too. It gets cold on the farm, so they have this heat lamp to keep the chicks warm.

Aren't these baby brown chicks just adorable. I just want to pick one up and hug it!  I can't remember what breed they are, but they are prolific egg layers when they are full-grown.

These white chickens are being raised as "meat chickens", but "shhhhh!" don't tell them that. Gulp!

Grace and Jill, Went Up the Hill

This past week we went up to the family farm, and the first thing we did was greet the family then immediately say "Hi" to Grace, the Belgian Horse, and Jill, the Percheron. We miss the horses so much! I was so excited that I got to feed the horses some hay. They were so into the hay that I couldn't get a good photo, they were moving around so much.

I turned off the flash, here is a better photo of them munching on some hay. 

Here is a close-up of Gracie. Look at that face! Awwww!

Mantis, Meet Mantis

(I posted this on my other blog, so if you follow both, this will be a repeat.)

This year we bought a kiwi green Honda Element.  It was time, our old car broke down on Route 80 once, and it was the scariest experience ever!  We crawled home at 40 mph on a highway that has a 65 mph speed limit.  Grammie named our car "Mantis" because it's so bright green in color! Little did she know that this was an appropriate name for the car.  Continue reading below!

This weekend, we went to out to get pizza at Goodfellas.  The best brick oven pizza!  We order the chicken parmesan pizza.  Delcious!

I was so amazed how big the piece of basil was on the pizza.  Get a load of this!  It was almost as large as a slice of pizza!  Whoa!

After the pizza, we decided to get a beer at the Killmeyer's bier garden.  I love a good German Weisse!

As we were sipping on our beer, this little kitty came through a hole in the fence and hung around enjoying the atmosphere and the live band.  A very chill kitty.

When we left, we got in the car and noticed a huge mantis on the windshield of our car!  This is the first praying mantis I've ever seen in Staten Island.  I told my husband that she must have been attracted to our green car "Mantis".  Our car was like the mother ship calling her in.  She probably thought our green car was a giant plant! 

We had a paper bag in the car, so we scooped her into the bag and transported our little mantis friend to our garden.  We figure it would make a better home here than in the parking lot of some bar!