Never ending belly rubs

Ever since we shaved the cat she has been more affectionate, especially in regards to belly rubs. Pre-shaving she would maybe let us rub her belly for a minute or two before deciding she had had enough. Now, however, she just lays there and gets upset if we stop - tonight's belly rub on the couch lasted over 20 minutes before she finally decided to bite Erin's hand to signal that the rubbing should cease.

We apologize for the PG-13 nature of the above photo. ;-) There is no truth to the rumors that Cricket will be appearing as the centerfold for the next issue of Play-Cat magazine.

House Hunt 2007: The Search Continues

So our second weekend of house hunting turned up no contenders, but did provide some amusement for ourselves, our agent, and everyone at the agent's office - one of the houses we visited had bullet holes (plural) in one of the bedroom windows! Woo hoo!

We decided it wasn't the house for us... :) But we did like the kitchen cabinets/counter tops:

If you have a cheap house for sale in an area that doesn't include the frequent discharging of projectile weaponry into neighboring homes, please let us know.

Shhh... I'm hunting Yankees

So last Sunday we drove out to the annaul reenactment of the Battle of Olustee (fought February 20, 1864), the largest Civil War battle in Florida, and also one of the 10 costliest battles of the entire war based on percentage of casualties per number of men engaged. Each year they hold a three day reenactment on the original battlefield (allowed on state parks, but never on national parks). We went out early Sunday morning to walk around, have lunch, and get a good seat for the full-battle recreation that afternoon.

We saw a Traveling Leech box:

A couple of funny signs:

There were camps and soldiers:

And cannon:

But by far the best thing was that which was most hilarious - they built a wooden officers cabin to depict a typical winter quarters type setting, and since it was too cold for real horses (coldest in 50 years - mid-20's most of the weekend for lows - and many slept in tents!) they had to tether up a bunch of carved wooden play horses. We laughed and laughed and laughed...

Notice the one little stuffed horse hanging by his neck!

I would post a picture of the guns firing and smoke laced battlefield - but it was "fricking freezing, Mr. Bigglesworth" and after sitting on the bleachers for about 30 minutes while eating lunch in the 20 mph North wind that created a wind chill in the 30's to the point that we lost feeling in our hands and my contact lenses felt permanently melded to my frozen eyeballs... we left and went home! (It's ok, we've seen the battle every year the last three years and I've seen many prior to that...)

The day we shaved the cat

Well, we didn't shave the cat - the pet groomer did.

This is Cricket all long-haired and what-not (or in her case, what-knot):

And this is Cricket after being shaved, bathed, bathed again, and blow dried:

She was not amused. But she certainly must feel better with the knots all gone and she seems more lovey now. :) And she suddenly very much enjoys laying on warm blankets - I wonder why. Could it be because it is quite cold outside and she is suddenly devoid of fur?

Our blog for the evening: Dinner! But not just any dinner, no siree Bob, this hea' is a fancy, smancy dinner - made with real Buffalo! Nope, not kidding. It's a Buffalo cube steak, cooked in the cast iron skillet (by my lovely wife, of course - I'd injure either myself or, more tragically, the bufallo steaks...)

Here they are grilling up with some fresh onion and garlic in the skillet:

And here is the finished product, layed out all nice and fancy like on the plate with some cheddar bacon mashed potatos and dinner rolls:

Mmmmm, Mmmmm, Good. Just like Disney World (almost... and for comparison, here is my Buffalo steak from the Concourse Steakhouse in the Disney Contemporary Resort from our trip in early December 2006 - the best meal I had all week, and there were some good ones! The Disney buffalo was served with a three onion and cheddar polenta. We aren't quite fancy enough for polenta when not on vacation - haha.)

And to make up for lost time, a double post for the night (ok, so it is after midnight and technically "morning" - but since I am not a morning person I refuse to admit it is morning...)

A few shots from the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire held at the Gainesville fair grounds last weekend. First, the woman with the most unusual dress - entirely made of peacock featherse from head-to-toe, front and back... most unusual:




And to provide some normalcy, the woman with what we thought was the prettiest dress:

Note to self: "Do NOT make this guy mad. He might eat you. That is all.":

And last - and least? - the back of a guys sweatshirt that was in front of us during a magic show:

And all sausage people said, "Amen."

Like I said... the chances of posting every day were slim to none... how about I promise at least one post per month? :)

Anyway, just to put something up, a few from our anniversary vacation in 2004 (that would be our 1st Anniversary...)

First a couple of shots from a drizzly, overcast day at Homassasa Springs on the Gulf Coast north of Tampa:

And finally a low angle shot of the Atlantic Ocean on New Smyrna beach just south of more popular but also more crowded and more annoying Daytona Beach: