What The Cat Thought

Aaron & Melanie were in Nampa for the holiday. They consented to loan Morgan to us for his first overnight sleepover.

We don't have a crib but I thought he would do fine in Arielle's bed. (She was at Chanel's house for the weekend.)

So I jammied Morgan and took him into Arielle's room. There, ensconsced on a heaping pile of quilts lay the cat, Dashaway. She owns this bed, all the other beds, the couch arms, and all patches of sunshine on the floors 24/7. She took one look at Morgan; he chirped, "kitty, kitty, kitty"; she put on her grump face, and scrammed away.

We proceeded to pray, read stories, sing, etc and Morgan was completely happy to snuggle down. I turned off the light, left the door cracked slightly, and what followed was 30 minutes of silence. I was pretty sure he was asleep.

Meanwhile the cat must have forgotten her bed had a new occupant and jumped on again. Presently I heard Morgan in the hall chirping, "kitty, kitty, kitty?'. Dashaway dashed and I put Morgan down again.

Dashaway barely tolerates her people (us) and has no love whatsoever for strangers. Evidently, short little strangers are even worse. She spent the next 24 hours skulking and scowling, ever on the defense for the Young Usurper.

Why DO we keep her?

I "saw" Grandpa Ison

An irrigation canal runs through our neighborhood. In warmer weather it's quite the hang-out for Mallards and geese because friendly people supply food.

Yesterday I was driving up the street when I saw a large white goose pacing about the curb next to the canal. But no--at closer range it was actually a very chubby and bright white Leghorn rooster. And a magnificent speciman he was, especially compared to the scraggly, manure-caked hens we grew up with.

I wondered why a rooster would be strolling the neighborhood. Nobody keeps chickens as pets. Nobody keeps chickens for food or eggs nowdays either. I had an incredible urge to pick him and bring him home.

I laughed. He must be a sign from God. (Who evidently dispenses humor along with His tender mercies.)

Got more patience than a 2-yr-old?

Turns out I don't.

Aaron & Melanie took us on a grand tour of IKEA. Here's my description of IKEA. Teeny tiny bits of apartment furnishings in a GREAT BIG MONSTROSITY OF A STORE!!! Do you love to walk from Draper to Provo all under one roof? (And back again, because it's 2 floors.) Morgan does. He would make an excellent pioneer. I loved the looking but could have used a Sedgeway or Wickistick or wheelchair. Thanks goodness we sandwiched all this between visits to the IKEA restaurant for free breakfast and a Swedish meatballs lunch. By the way, this was Black Friday.

So we get back to A&M's apartment and I throw myself on their couch. Arielle, who has eked out $38.00 from her miniscule Subway wages and saved it for just such an occasion as Black Friday, says it's time for the University Mall. I had promised in a weak pre-Thanksgiving moment to take her to DEB, which has blue jeans her size and good sales. But after IKEA, I think clemency should be granted for lying to her. You are not getting me off this couch.

She begs, "But you promised and I want you to come and I need you to come!" repeat, repeat, repeat

Kevin throws in guilt, "Now Jana, you won't have that many more times of her wanting your company." "Well, heck", I think. I don't know which of the 3 people in this conversation I should be maddest at.

I surrender, with concessions.

Arielle pores over a map of the mall, finding the nearest entrance to Deb. Kevin drops us at the door. We walk two storefronts to Deb. She finds 2 perfect pair of jeans + a gorgeous blouse (marked down from $31.00 to $9.00) next door at Maurices, and we are DONE. May I never step foot in another mall on Black Friday.

You know what my favorite Christmas was? When Arianne & Ciarran did all my shopping for me. I had a hysterectomy as an excuse that year.

You want to be my new favorite niece? Come see me before Christmas.

8 different things

TV shows
1. Everybody loves Raymond
2. So you think you can dance
3. Food unwrapped
4. that cake decorating show that's on cable
5. that "what you should wear" show on cable
6. that "buy the wedding dress" show on cable
7. Gen Conf ha ha guilt on the rest of you for not mentioning this
8. all the dejunking/house selling, remodeling shows on cable.
The thing is, we don't have cable. This is why hotel rooms are so fun. Unlimited cable and junkfood and Kevin

What I did yesterday
1. Woke up at 5:30AM thinking what I always think: "How soon before I can get back in this bed again?"
2. Worked 73 medical billing accts/did not lose temper
3. Read LA Times article on picketing LA Temple & all the comments attached to article. Decided Pro-props & anti-props will never speak the same language and never get each other.
4. Wondered if God was feeling like some Old Testament vengefulness If so, I was looking forward to it. KA-BOOOM
5. Told Arielle to pick up her room
6. Bought 5 loaves of the best Oat Nut bread
7. Drove Arielle to Subway ONLY because it was raining!!
8. Worked on my next SS lesson/banged head against wall, as is normal during early week prep

Looking forward to:
1. Saturday's BSU game
2. my lunch hour every day--its like a mini vacation from work
3. Thanksgiving
4. all weekends with Chanel
5. all weekends with Kevin
6. extracting cash from Aaron after winning yet another annual snow bet
7. reading to Morgan, playing with Morgan
8. sleeping in on Saturdays

Favorite restaurants--forget that. How about favorite food?
1. Focaccia bread
2. all forms of salt & grease wrapped around a potato
3. Cheetos
4. Pringles
5. Salmon
6. Pizza
7. Almond Joys
8. hamburgers cooked on a grill--smokey taste yum

Wish list
1. to move my house to a quiet street
2. to do a combo Disneyworld/cruise vacation with my kids
3. to take a writing class on a regular basis because it forces discipline
4. to be rich
5. to get a new kitten when the 2 elderly ladies die NOT a dog, Kevin
6. to take more vacations with Kevin and explore more interesting places
7. to knock the socks off my boss with awesome productivity so that he.........
8. ......pays me double for only working parttime
9. to see Arielle safely, happily, financially stabilly esconsed in college

Tag on:
Jocile
Angela
Lora Dawn
Kristen
Aaron
Arielle
Kevin
Chanel

Dad's gravestone

It's finally up. I haven't seen it yet, but mom has and she was delighted.

This calls for a field trip.

"Drive on," I said.

"Yes, Kevin, for our anniversary take clothing. You might be cold or wet or outdoors. We'll see how things develop."

With that, we hopped in the car for our anniversary weekend, pointed it towards Boise, and kept going. Passed exit after exit and at #173--"Take this one" I said. Twin Falls Idaho. Why there? I had a plan.

#1 I wanted to visit the sight of Rulon Keller's death. Remember him sisters? He was our home teacher when I was in my early teens. I loved him because he paid attention to me, not just my parents. He & two other LDS businessman hit a patch of black ice on their way to SLC and flipped their car into the Malad Gorge. Two of them died; the other lost a leg. Rescuers had to rappel into the canyon and one of them nearly lost his life. Afterwards dad's assessment was, "Of all the places on
Interstate 84 to hit black ice! It's just flat old desert for hundreds of miles and they had to go off road there."

I have been curious ever since. On the freeway you cross the gorge in half a blink and can't see a thing. Kevin and I spent several hours in the park, walking the footpaths, reading all the geology signs, and looking down down down into that narrow volcanic canyon where the Malad River is so compressed it roars and cuts the canyon ever deeper. I could not imagine how terrifying that rescue must have been or how they removed the car. Back then LifeFlight had not been invented but no pilot in his right mind would have descended into such a narrow slot anyway.

#2 Hagerman Valley. I tell you, it is one sweet drive from Bliss to Twin through this valley. Again, you can't see it from the freeway, but it is quite the contrast to drop down off the desert into 10,000 Springs, green pastures, trout hatcheries, and
colorful family fruit stands. You wouldn't expect Hagerman to have a chef in town, but they do. He's done game-cooking shows on the food network. I was set on having one of those trout I saw swimming earlier and it plus the wild rice were to die for.

#3 Temple Guess what? The Twin Falls temple does not rent clothing. So onto.....

#4 Herrett Planetarium & museum on the CSI campus. Well, we couldn't get our lazy selves out of the hotel in time for the 2PM star show, so we wandered the museum instead. You just never know where adventure awaits. It featured a Mayan history exhibit and was decked to the teeth like a jungle. (Think Indiana Jones ride @ Disneyland) This included boas and pythons and iguanas and neon poisonous tree frogs. At length I noticed an elderly gentleman opening the frog exhibits and tapping a canning jar coated in dust into the cages. "What for dinner?", I asked. "Wingless fruit flies" It truly did look like dust, but the frogs were hip hopping crazy all of a sudden.

This drew Kevin's attention which led to a conversation with Nick, the frog feeder. He said he was in charge of all the live animals in the exibit and in fact, had another 50 snakes and assorted reptiles in his basement offices. Did we want to see them? Yes we did.

Oh boy. Two hours later, I had seen a lifetime's worth. Turns out Nick was an amateur herpatologist who took snakes on the road for school, library, fair programs. He knew all his snakes by name and petted, cooed and talked to each as you would a beloved puppy. They were caged individually. He loved their colors, textures, and patterns. He knew all there was to know about their native countries. (These were exotic snakes, acquired from local pet owners who grew tired of the upkeep. No venomous snakes though) He detailed which had been abused as evidenced by their behavior when he got them and how it took 6 months to gentle abused snakes before they gave up attacking and biting at each feeding. We heard the story of the python who escaped into the ceiling. Nick, who knew every nook and cranny of the building, crawled up after him with fresh rat scent on his hands. The snake, catching the scent, leaped and coiled tight around Nick's arm, sinking his teeth in a full circle around Nick's wrist. SNakes have the kind of teeth you can't pry off. So Nick scrambled down the ladder to the nearest sink and held it's head under cold water. VIOla! He had a photograph to show us the bite marks and he said snakes don't have dirty mouths like dogs, so no infection.

We also learned by personal experience one thing they don't teach you on Animal Planet. An 80 lb python releases it bowels and bladder when shedding skin and makes a STINK to rival chicken manure! This was magnified by the deliberately close, warm, humid environment in which Nick kept him plus his 30 stinky snakey roommates which Nick insisted on showing/fondling one at a time. Thus proving to us yes, you can eventually become accustomed to one of the 10 worst odors in the world.

#5 We wondered why our hotel breakfasts were crowded with college kids in tight Wranglers, pointy boots, spurs and cowboy hats. CSI was hosting an intercollegiate rodeo with teams from all over Idaho & Utah. I like rodeo and I liked this even better than the Stampede. Smaller arena, up close viewing, rodeo stock every bit a jumpy as at professional rodeos.
I had never seen girl's goat-tying before. I will describe. A timid and trembly little goat is tethered at one end of the arena. bleeeat A girl on horse, charges from the opposite end, leaps from the horse, grabs the poor goat, slams him down on one side, and ties his feet. Well it was no wonder they had needed a fresh goat for each girl. I mean, I sat nose to barrel during the barrel racing and when those girls came tearing down the lane, you had to wonder if you wouldn't end up with horse and rider in your lap. Poor baby goats. I felt their fear.

The announcer was a hoot. Midway he announced the freeway between Burley & Utah was closed down for snow . "So you cowboys who reckoned on drivin' home tonight best git yerself to Walmart and buy a sleepin' bag instead."

So that was our anniversary. Snakes and cowboys. You don't see those on your average Caribbean cruise. (And the hotel served big fat cookies every afternoon.)

Finally, it pays off

So last night I took the family out for Oreo milkshakes at Jack in the Box. The gal rings up my total, then looks at me sort of funny and asks, "How old are you?" I had to think for a split second. "Hmmm, I believe that would be 55."

"Then you get a senior discount." she replied, subtracting 50 cents off each milkshake.

I fairly flipped cartwheels right there in front of my family. YESSSSS! I love this age.

Meanwhile, Kevin stood shaking his head behind me. He thinks I am being ridiculous. He'll never have this thrill because he won't admit to anything beyond 29.

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Note to Aaron and his Christmas wish list. Pssshaw! For you, I'm going off list