Troubles in Our Bedroom, Making Babies, and other Random Intimacies.

Needing some comforting:

Back in December I posted a one sentence blurb about having to stop the "new kitty" from climbing up the Christmas tree. What I didn't post was the whole story of the "new kitty" or NK as I'll call her for posting purposes.

A few nights after Christmas we were walking in from the parking lot when we saw a man that lived in the adjacent building gently shooing a kitten that was probably 4 - 6 months old away from the door. Monkey and I took one look at each other and knew that even though we were having a relatively mild winter that we couldn't leave this poor lil kitten outside to freeze for the night. I stepped out of the car and walked over to chat with the man to see if he knew who the kitten belonged to while Monkey got the boys out of the van.

The man didn't know but she was obviously not a stray. Her white fur on her black and white coat was quite clean, she had no ear mites or fleas or any other signs of vagabondadgery and she was quite friendly. I scooped her up and met Monkey and the boys halfway down the walk. Again, another look, and we just started towards our own building. We didn't have to say what we both knew: 'We'll let you stay until we figure out who you belong to."

Well, we ended up not being able to do either. Both of our cats, who have all of their claws and are pretty big male cats, beat on the poor lil thing constantly and as a result she wouldn't come out of our bedroom, etc. Within a couple days we found she was peeing on our furniture. Our bed, our couch, etc. Now mind you, my cats have never gone to the bathroom anywhere but their box unless, for instance, they were accidentally shut into the bathroom (my cats like to lay in the tub - I know, they're weird.) Knowing cats like I do, however, I knew that if one cat was going to pee on something, the probability of it always peeing on it was high. So unfortunately we couldn't keep her.

We washed our sheets, blankets and mattress cover, and thank goodness the couch was leather so easy to clean up. But cat pee never goes away really unless you get rid of the protein crystals it leaves behind when it dries or is cleaned up and it wasn't long before we moved that we noticed our comforter again smelling like cat pee. We realized one of the two cats we have now had peed on the same spot the stray did to mark his territory. And out to the dumpster the comforter, sheets, mattress pad, (and since it was a matching set) dust ruffle and shams went. We didn't really need to worry about warmth because in our apartment, even in the dead of winter with the heat off it was routinely 80 degrees. So while we looked for a new set we both liked we just used a quilt my Grandma had made.

A week ago we found our new set. Two nights ago we washed it. An hour later this is what our washer produced :

It ripped it to shreds in the spin cycle. There are at least 2 other spots just like this on our brand new comforter.

It's all under your head.

After Monkey was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea and put on a CPAP machine, the doctor also recommended an orthopedic pillow. Monkey ran out and bought the first memory foam ortho pillow he could grab. Turns out he hates it. He tried to get use to it but after over a month it was just obvious that he was going to need a new pillow. So when we bought the comforter set he also picked out a new pillow. A new hypoallergenic pillow. I draw your attention to that word so that you might be able to guess what Monkey and I have decided must be the source of my rash. You got it, once in awhile I found myself napping on Monkey's new pillow. I toss my hair up over the top of the pillow, exposing my neck, lay on my side, exposing my face and ear and sandwich the lower outside corner of the pillow between my forearms. Two nights ago when I was slipping into unconsciousness I was wondering if I should drape a towel or something over my pillow because everywhere I was rashed was touching.. the .... pillow....

Cue cartoon light bulb icon above my head.

We ran it through the wash last night hoping that it was whatever industrial detergent they used to wash it with at the factory before it was shipped. I'll let you know.

Our new babies, the fruits of my...

Yard. We're now the proud parents of baby fruit. Peaches, cherries, and apples. Possibly the grapes, blackberries and blueberries as well but I was still in my nightie when I ran out to scoop these up for this pic:

Beautiful, aren't they? I couldn't be more proud! :)

On a side, only peripherally related note, I'll give big imaginary bonus points to anyone who can guess what this is that came from our yard:

and here's an end shot:

and last but not least

I even love your stink

You know it's true love when you're sleepily waking up to your honey scooting close to you to snuggle, you lazily crack open your eyes expecting to see the face you want to spend the rest of your life waking up to only to find your nose smack dab in his hairy arm pit and all you can do is burst out with a full out belly laugh.