OK, now she is just showing off

Last week you were all entranced, horrified, impressed and amused by the cat's "catch of the day"... the 7 foot mole (see blog post below). Well...the other day, I open the door to see THIS:
A HUMMINGBIRD? Please, there is no doubt the cat read my blog and decided to one up herself and catch the fastest moving bird on the planet. Just because she can.

Also, after I posted the photo of the "largest mole known to mankind", several readers asked me to photograph my next "largest specimen" with something else in the frame...for perspective.

So, when I saw this disgustingly huge slug out in the yard, I threw one of my nieces down next to it and snapped away:

That slug was HUGE! Even the baby looks scared!

In other news...

When it's nice outside, I give Ingrate Bastard the air. Here he is outside with the cat...
Of course I check in on them from time to time:

and a last image for the day:

The Long Hot Weekend

Recipe for a Long Weekend:

Take three children (mix ages liberally)
Make it damn hot all weekend (90 degrees)

Outnumber adults 3 to 1

Deny alcohol consumption

Day One: An afternoon on the beach, where sand has the ability to fill diapers and baby's mouths faster than you'd think.

Step One: Slather the children with sunscreen

Step Two: Load the car with the essentials (beach towels, diaper bag, drinks, snacks, hats, sweaters in case of fog, stroller, extra clothes, sunglasses, Valium, whoops I mean water and wet ones)

Step Three: Arrive at beach, unload all that essential crap, and get children and stroller down to the sand in one piece:

Aren't they sweet looking in this photo? DON'T BE FOOLED.

After 3 hours of wrangling sand from the baby's grasp, yelling at the older ones to get back on the shore, and turning around to find more sand in the baby's hands...we brushed off as much sand as we could in a public (i.e. NASTY) restroom and headed to a LONG AND ARDUOUS dinner at a local diner (it lasted at least 3 hours, I am sure of it). After the requisite milkshakes, hot dogs and ice cream (aka...Auntie's paying), it was time for a drop off at the local orphanage..oops, I mean time to load up and head home.

The four of us, 3 bags of assorted "essential" crap and approximately 4 pounds of sand headed inside for baths, movies and bed.

The baby figured out how to climb this step and get back down in no time at all:
She was quite impressed with herself. I was impressed at the amount of sand she managed to smuggle home in her diaper. And so to bath time:

There are no photos of the older kids in the bath, as they are smart enough now to post "please, no photos" on the door now.

The kids, now hardcore Charlie Chaplin fans, insisted on watching more of him, so it was Modern Times for the movie, sleeping bags for the floor, and a Valium for Auntie. Oops, I mean a glass of water.

The baby slept with me, and I don't understand why an 18 inch long infant requires the entire bed for her use. She slept heavily, spread out like a swastika (see "The Women" for that reference), while I clung to the very edge of the bed, clinging to side rail out of fear of falling and, horrors of all horrors, waking her up.

Then dawn came and it started all over again.

Day Two:The SF Zoo for the day.

Step One: Slather children with sunscreen

Step Two: Load the car with the "essentials" (stroller, diapers, baby food, sweaters, extra baby clothes, drinks, snacks, cameras, cash, pacifiers, sunglasses, wet ones, more cash, Dr Pepper, toys in case the zoo bores the crap out of the baby, more cash)

Step Three: Potty everyone and load up

Step Four: Arrive at zoo and unpack all the essentials; make everything fit into stroller basket.

Step Five: Get into the zoo

So, the steps above took us over an hour. Took us a mere five minutes in the zoo to lose the babies sunglasses. Did I mention it was 90 degrees in SF on Sunday? Well, it was.

We saw lots of animals:

The rare and elusive Taranaboy:

Front view:

The rare and elusive Jennalope:

The rare and elusive LionBoy:
The rare and elusive ButterGiggle (may also be categorized as a GiggleFly)
We took some great photos here and there:

Of course, we had to do the obvious touristy things:
And the carousal (at $2 a kid!!):
And lastly, a couple of cool images:Admission to the zoo: $41

1 churro and 1 pretzel: $10

Souvenirs: $67

1 Corn dog and Garlic Fries, with 2 drinks: $19

Time spent with nieces and nephews: Priceless.

OK, that last line is actually not true. I can put a price on that. My sanity, for instance.

Two stages of life...

Upon arriving home this evening, I noticed something on my doormat. From my vantage point in the car, it appeared to be a large stuffed animal, or perhaps a moose.

NO, it happened to be THE LARGEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN THE CAT KILL:

OMG..this thing was so big I was inspired to get a ruler out and measure it. It was over 7 inches long!! For a mole to live that long, and then WHAM..kinda sad.

After staring at it with horror, disgust and a bit of admiration, I decide to remove the corpse to it's final resting place, aka the backyard hill...cemetery to many of the cat's unpalatable victims. On the way out, I see THIS blooming outside the door to the garden:
OMG: This thing was so big I was inspired to get a ruler out and measure it! It was over 5 inches wide! And look! It's going to have some siblings very soon:

So there you have it: Life and Death in one day, one creature taking it's last breath while a blossom unbends to the air and sun above...all while I was safely ensconced in my cubicle.