This is Falcoon. He's the latest feline addition to our household. He's a purebred Maine Coon cat, and his name I'm guessing is derived from him looking like a falcon in coloring and his breed. We went down to Chicago to pick him up on Saturday at a cat show.He does not know how to show his best in cat shows, but he's a big lover and cuddlebug. He wants hugs and kisses all the time (when he's not hunting, that is). So he's a year old, a mere kitten and small by Maine Coon standards, and he's retired from the cat show life. Maine Coons are "working cats." They were bred for hunting, and this cat has a strong hunting instinct. So, it's a good thing we live in an older house on the outskirts of a suburb, so there are plenty of things for him to hunt, ala bugs and mice. I know, I know, eww. But hey what are cats for, right? Well other than petting and loving.Currently, he's getting used to us and our house. There are a lot of strange sounds and scents for him to contend with. Oh yes and two other cats. For right now, he's separated from them. He's got the downstairs guest suite all to himself. We're letting him get used to things slowly and at his own pace.
Here's my new tile floor in my basement room, courtesy of my dad. Sid, the cat, admires the tile too. I will have to put on a baseboard, but I've not yet gotten to it.
(Though it looks wet in the picture, the floor is dry. It's just dusty.)
Like many folks in Southern Wisconsin, we got way too much rain in August, enough to flood my finished basement. The basement carpet was completely underwater, and I figured it would not dry before molding, so I decided to remove the carpet. I moved all the furniture upstairs. And then, with my husband's help, a utility knife, and a crowbar, we pulled up the carpet. It had been glued to the floor. Yuck. Fortunately, water being the universal solvent that it is, helped loosen the glue.The next steps were cleaning and drying. Pretty much every time it rained, we went downstairs with our wet vac and sucked up the water. And I kept mopping as well. The goal was to keep the water away from the utility room, where the furnace lives, and the laundry room. I was exhausted and frustrated, so my mom and dad offered to come help me out. They also came up to help my sister whose roof leaked in the same storms that flooded my basement. What's significant about their arrival is that they live down in Florida, not exactly close. I'd decided that ceramic tiles would be a good permanent solution in the basement. If the basement floods again, I can easily mop/wet vac the tiles. Then I went over to Menards, where I got great deal on the tiles. Of course, I would highly reccommend to anybody looking to buy tiles that they have somebody help them. Tiles are heavy. Boxes and boxes of tiles are heavy. You need a lot of tiles for a basement.So anyway, Mom and Dad came to visit with their tile saw, and helped me tremendously by laying tile in the basement. Yay, Mom and Dad rock! Dad and I also figured out something kind of cool. Using two laser levels makes laying tile a cinch.
We went to the Dane County Fair this afternoon, and they had helicopter rides. Since neither Craig nor I have ever been in one, we thought it would be really fun. It was a lot different than flying in an airplane because there isn't much forward momentum; it's all vertical. The other big difference is that you can see so much more from inside a helicopter. Oh, and I got to ride in the front seat, so in a way, it felt like I was floating over Madison. Way cool! The pilot did a loop around the area. We saw the Capital, the Monona Terrace, the city pool, the Beltline, and the Alliant Energy Center.
There's a heron that hangs out in the pond across the street from my house. He's quite the handsome bird.
After I returned home, my sister sent me a picture of the two kittens cuddling. Aww! Aren't they cute? The foot in the photo is Amy, the mother cat. You can really see how tiny they are. Side note: the yellow on the blanket is betadine. It's kind of like iodine, and my sister is using it on the kitten belly buttons to keep their clipped umbilical cords clean and free of infection. In newborn kittens, the umbilical cord is a good place for infections to enter their bodies.
My sister's Burmese cat, Amy, had a litter of kittens this past week, so they are only a couple of days old. I came down to visit and got to play with the kitties. She had a small litter of two boys. They are so cute, but they don't even have their eyes open yet!Lynn note: After posting, I realized I'd posted a very unflattering photo of me. I'd focused my eyes so much on the kitten in my hands that I didn't notice how silly I looked. When I got home from my sister's house, I cropped the photo so you can just see the kitten's face.
Here's a fun card I made for the 4th of July. I used Stampin' Up!'s You're Neat and Print Pattern stamp sets. I also used the ticket punch. I used red and blue markers to alternate color the diamonds before stamping Print Pattern. I think it's a cool effect.
