It's not that I'm not writing....

...I'm just not blogging. 

I've been doing a lot of writing recently, just none of it for the blog. And I haven't really felt much like blogging the things I've been up to. This is mainly because most of what I get up to is feeding cats, feeding dog, cleaning litter boxes, and changing pee pads - not the most exciting of blog-fodder, and hardly consistent with the theme of the International Cat Lady. At least not the "international" part.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do with this blog. Should I close it? Put it on hiatus? Not sure yet. 

I'll let you know.

Landscaping Project

Well, the realtor supposedly in charge of selling off my dream house never bothered to get back to me, and while I could easily waste years of my life dreaming of this place, as I have no money and have heard nothing, I suppose I should do as the song says and 'if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with.' (Abysmal lyrics, actually, but fitting.) As the 'one I'm with' is a cute little house with the world's most boring lawn, I figured I should do something about it. I've started landscaping, and have put together two flowerbeds, one of which is quite large. I'm not finished with the large bed yet, but it's filling out quite nicely.

Here's the before shot. We started by trimming those trees you see on the right way back.

A closeup of the location of the large flowerbed.

Some purchases: verbena (purple and red), periwinkle (pink), rosemary (rear center), and miscellaneous mint (upper right - it was sold to me at a yardsale by a man who claimed it was citronella plant, although after googling citronella plant, I have discovered that it definitely not what is).

Flower bed outlined, crepe myrtle planted.

Flower bed outlined with bricks, crepe myrtal, verbena, purslane, and lantana planted

Mint, rosemary, and mulch added.

This is what it currently looks like. You can also see the smaller bed (home to azaleas and periwinkles) between the front of the car and the left half of the porch.

I have found my dream house.

I didn’t expect to discover my dream house here in this Small Southern Town – especially considering that as of two years ago I was heading for the hills planning never to return. I certainly didn’t expect to stumble upon my dream house less than a mile from my mom’s house while we were out walking our dogs the other evening. It was fantastic to discover that my dream house has a note on its front door stating that it will soon be for sale; however, it’s rather unfortunate that at this point I have no job and a dwindling savings account that will soon be entirely depleted by the deposit I will pay to M and A to rent their house in Orlando. While I will be working as a graduate assistant starting in August, it will hardly be enough to qualify me for a mortgage – hell, it wasn’t enough to qualify me to be a renter most places I looked! And yet. I have found my dream house. And I can’t stop thinking about it.

First we saw it from the road. It didn’t look too impressive from a distance. However, it looked un-lived-in, so given our proclivities for exploring empty buildings, we decided to go check it out.

As soon as I saw it up close I fell in love. The ambiance was incredible. This house would be the center of a Barbara Michaels book; it must be overflowing with ghosts. Ownership of this house would cause me to immediately drop any future plans to live overseas. International Cat Lady of Mystery? Small Southern Town Lady of Mystery more like.

My mom and I snuck around it in the dusky evening light, and discovered the note on the door saying that it would soon be up for sale. I kept thinking about it all night, and returned the next day to take better photographs.

The view of the house from the driveway


It has a very queer addition off the side that I don't quite comprehend.


The view from the back

Looking in through the front door

Looking in through the front door - front left room

Looking in through the front door - front right room

Looking in to the front right room

I’ve contacted the realtor whose contact information was on the door, but have yet to hear back. In the interim I’ve been considering such practical get-rich-quick schemes as the black market for kidneys and the prospects of marriage to a wealthy man. It seems distressingly unlikely that I will acquire this house. Unless of course the owners just want it moved off their land, in which case it can join my mother’s 1906 bungalow and our 1951 Spartan in our ranch for bizarre, misplaced buildings.

Pain, Suffering, and... fruit cake?

Remember the schizophrenic fellow who hit my mom's pit bull with his bicycle, and then decided to sue us for pain and suffering? Well, the lawyers he hired have decided to drop the case. And the message left for my mother on her answering machine was hilarious. The first part is very professional. Then the lady hung up the telephone... although apparently not completely. Oooops. Take a listen. I love it.

A Tuesday in the life

* Get up. Feed Charlie and Mochi. Clean litter box, put out new pee pads, walk Mochi, eat breakfast.

* Go to mom's house. Check email/facebook. Collect Lady (elderly hound) and Grey Kitty (self explanatory), take them to the vet for injections of Depo-Medrol, a corticosteroid to treat their chronic mouth ulcers.

* Return Lady and Grey Kitty to mom's, collect Brin (pit bull), and drive out to the land.
* Stop on the way to rescue suicidal turtle from the middle of the road.

* Arrive at the land. Feed horses, cats, and kittens. Pump water. Clean kittens' litter boxes and sweep kitten room. Play with kittens. Discover that we are almost out of kitten chow.

* Move large trunk from the Spartan (trailer) to my car. Move roofing tar and paper from my car into the Spartan. Decide it's too hot to start roofing. Leave.

* Drop Brin off at mom's. Check email/facebook. Go to Kroger and bought kitten chow.

* Return to my house. Unload large trunk. Walk Mochi. Eat lunch.

* Drive to Alma to photograph the super awesome retro ATM and the few other photogenic things in Alma.

Alma Exchange Bank 24 Hour ATM

Local theater. (Alma is in Bacon county.)

Old Hotel Alma. People live here.
* Return home. Edit photos.

* Siesta.

* (Were this a normal Tuesday, late afternoon would have been spent at the local therapeutic riding center. Their schedule was odd this week, so I went on Monday instead.) 

* Eat dinner. Walk Mochi.

* Go to mom's. Check email/facebook. Post blog.

A sad tale of ducky love

At one of the houses near my mom's land, there is a pond. Back in early 2010, before I left for Korea, the owner of the pond put two young white ducks, a male and a female, in his pond. They were young, and they grew up together, and they always swam as a pair. Mid-March of this year, a wild male mallard decided that he wanted to live in the pond. (We asked the owners - he showed up all on his own.) Initially, he could be spotted swimming after the two white ducks, as they did their best to avoid the interloper. Then something happened: the girl duck ditched her long-term male companion for the sexy, green-headed mallard. For several weeks girl white duck and mallard swam together, while white male duck moped off by himself. Then last week male white duck disappeared. Did he die of a broken heart? Did he leave to find a new pond with friendlier female waterfowl? No one knows.

Kittens Love Knees!