Cat Fight, Observed

First thing this morning, we heard some cat grumbling coming from outside, and Rupert was on the scene in a heartbeat! Two cats were on the fence behind our apartment, neither one wanting to back down. Rupert watched on with great interest.

I think the cat on the left was one of the kittens that had been living in our yard last summer. She has a collar now, and she looks really healthy, so that's great news! The cat on the right is Topaz, who's the unofficial ruler of our property.

I had to go out back to get my bike shortly after this photo was taken (we were out of coffee!), and the younger cat hopped right down from the fence to rub on my legs. She ran off after I'd pet her for a few moments, but it made my day.

In completely unrelated news, we had a barbeque in the yard a few nights ago with all our apartment neighbors. It was completely spur-of-the-moment, but I just really wanted to meet some of them, and the weather was so nice. A few of us went down to New Seasons (like Whole Foods, only locally run) and picked up some fancy meat skewers, which we cooked on our little grill. They were fantastic! It was so nice to get to know all these folks a little better, and now we're all looking forward to the next barbeque!

Springtime!

I just had someone ask me what I had planned for this weekend (Easter weekend), and I realized that we don't have anything at all planned. Maybe we'll wait until Monday for our grocery shopping, so we can get a good deal on a ham or some Cadbury cream eggs.

But just because we don't have anything planned, doesn't mean we won't be having fun! Spring has sprung here, and we've been soaking up the sunlight and warm breezes. Rupert is extra talkative, since he chatters at all the birds outside at the birdbaths, and howls at any bugs found indoors (or any speck of dust that might resemble a bug). We had the windows and doors open for a few days last week, and the freshly-aired-out apartment is energizing. I even found time to powerwalk around the track today. When the back door is open, Rupert just parks himself there for the entire day. Sometimes neighborhood cats walk past the door, and he gets the full sun.

Sean's been checking on our garden every morning, and we have some little sprouts! He bought a young pea plant, and we've been watching it explore its new home with its little vines. The tiny sproutlets in the photo below are going to be broccoli.

We finally had new neighbors move into Caitlin and Joe's apartment (diagonal from ours). It's a young couple, who appear to be expecting a baby in a few months. They've been really friendly so far, and planted some little flowers of their own, next to some tulips that just exploded red a few days ago. Of course, I went out and took these photos as the sun was setting, so the colors and lighting are pretty weird, but I think you'll get the point.

Business has been sort of busier than I expected, which is great! I've had a lot of custom requests recently, so I've been doing a lot of drawing (both digitally and with pens). We had to pay about $700 for worker's comp insurance for Sean, which was unexpected. It's a real bummer to find out that we have huge bills like that very suddenly, and it's keeping us from saving any money. But we're still making money, so I'm sure it will work itself out soon.

I had a really successful craft fair last weekend, which was a bit of a relief (since I've done that event a few times last year and barely made a few dollars). I got to meet some crafty celebrities, and a few of them have set me up with projects, like Garth Johnson who is going to publish some of my photos in a craft book this November ("1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse"), and Jennifer Worick who'd like me to do some illustration for t-shirts and her blog, http://thingsiwanttopunchintheface.blogspot.com.

Despite all this excitement, I feel like I'm finally able to take some time to relax, which hasn't happened much recently. I've started knitting again, and I have a stack of books that I'm working on, instead of just listening to audio books while I work some more. I still listen to the audio books, but I'm able to take a break too. I think this is going to be a really great weekend!

Gardening Day 1

Sean's been reading up on the gardening, and decided we should have a little 4x4 raised bed in our yard for veggies. He put this together on the one non-rainy day this week! I helped a tiny bit with the frame construction, but he did all the shoveling and laying the dirt and mulch. Plus, he's doing all the research, so this is really his big project.

We also dug up the plot that I'd been using for basil last year, to get it ready for another season. It's not a very big spot, but it's the only area behind our apartment (it's really behind our neighbors apartment) that gets any sun.

We'll try to keep you up to date on the garden's progress, since there's sure to be some excitement. I'll let Sean talk more about the details, since I'm just the helper.

Oh--I found a big stand of blooming daffodils behind the hedges in the backyard! Since no one can see them, I picked a bunch that I could reach and brought them inside. They've made our kitchen very sunny!