Zenos and Zenock

I received some insight into two prophets mentioned in the Book of Mormon that are not mentioned in the Bible while reading 3 Nephi 10:16.:  "...because they testified particularly of us, who are a remnant of their seed."

These prophets were perhaps not recorded in the Bible, the record of the Jews, because they were of the house of Joseph. Their prophecies may only have been recorded in the Plates of Laban which was the record of the house of Joseph.

Meet Tonka

We thought we had a full house even before Archie adopted us last summer and let us know he is an indoor cat who wants to eat indoor kitty food with "the old ladies", Precious and Bootsie. Then number one son came home for a few weeks around Christmas and brought his kitten, Tonka, with him. Sonny is now gone, but Tonka remains. He came indoors with Sonny, and stayed indoors. In fact, he now sleeps at my feet and naps next to me on the loveseat.

Breakfast and dinner times have become rather regimented at our house. That is the best way to keep peace and to keep the kitties from trying to swipe another kitty's share. So, this is the chow line in our kitchen.

Everyone knows their place.

Precious and Bootsie do not think much of the new "young guys". Precious comes in to eat, then she is ready to go back outside no matter how bad the weather.

That is just fine with the guys. They have
turned the house into their private play
area. On this day, they just could not figure 
out how  they could see each other through this tote, but they could not touch.

Each kitty chooses their "spot" to nap,
with Bootsie daring the boys to come
near her. However, when the weather
is nice, she would just as soon snooze        
outside on a nice comfortable hose
reel.

Christmas Parties - 3 Down, 3 To Go

Three down:

1.  Gateway Quilter's Guild

The guild members made some beautiful ornaments for the Christmas tree they sponsored at the Merced County Courthouse Museum. I also loved the spool garland. I cannot claim any of it, but I did enjoy looking at it.

2. Turlock Amateur Radio Club - no pictures




3.  Daughters of Utah Pioneers - Turlock Camp

We had our usual December meeting and pot luck luncheon. Joan brought her nativity collection for decoration. Marsha brought the Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus that she made for our speaker's table.

Three to go: Merced County Genealogical Society, Atwater First Ward & Merced Family History Center.

Thanksgiving Day -- So Far

My day started with waking to the sound of the washing machine going and Buck grumbling and shuffling around in the laundry room. He came in the room and asked, "Well, you want to go to Home Depot with me? I am tired to dealing with the water leak." I looked at the clock. It was 7:00a.m.

The floor was flooded this morning which required him to haul the cat food, laundry soap boxes, etc., out in the hallway (where it currently still is).  I opted out, due to pie baking duties. He returned over an hour later. Tried three stores, none were open. Hmmmm.....must be a holiday today. 

We are going to #1 daughter's friend's house for dinner, which is where she is having Thanksgiving dinner, and my food assignment was pies. (Per my Maxine calendar: "All it takes is one undercooked turkey and you are the dinner rolls and soda person for life.") Unless I am having dinner here, I am the pie person for life. #1 daughter bought this Pampered Chef apple corer-peeler which she keeps at my house. She's not so dumb. With it at my house, she has a reason to beg off making apple pies, whereas I do not. I started putting this thing together. Next thing I knew, the "equipment operator" honed in on what I was doing and decided to show me how it was done. Eleven apples later, I had enough slices for pie.

Then the "equipment operator" went to the back yard to work on the project he had planned on for the morning: splitting firewood. That homemade yellow monster is affectionately known as "No Problem". Because, when it comes to splitting wood, it is, as the name implies, no problem.

Shower Cat

Not everyone has a cat who keeps them company while they are taking a shower and drying off....

Finicky Cats!

I stopped buying canned cat food by the case years ago because my cats stopped eating it. Turned up their collective noses. I offered dry food until Precious, our kitty that we believe was accidentally poisoned several years ago, could not keep dry food down. So, we went back to canned for her, but bought the one and only flavor that "stunk" right and that she would eat.

A few months ago, she refused to eat that. So, we switched to shredded in gravy, not pate.

A friend who no longer has a cat gifted us with a case and a half of cat food. Precious still won't eat it. Bootsie and Archie, our other two kittys who eat indoors won't touch it, either.

Not ones to let good cat food go to waste, Buck and I decided we were smarter than the cats. We started mixing the juice from one can of people tuna with three cans of cat food. The cats like it just fine.

And, Buck and I have tuna salad every day or so for lunch. It is a high protein, nutritious meal.

Only problem is, we still have about two-thirds of a case of cat food to get through before we go back to buying the stuff our finicky cats like straight out of the can. Buck and I are sure getting burned out on tuna salad for lunch.

Gorilla Garbaging

I know, "garbaging" is not a real word. But, I needed something to go with "gorilla", as in, "gorilla warfare." That is what I felt like I was doing in my studio yesterday when I got into a cleaning mode -- warfare on the garbage.

 I had storage containers out there filled with piles of office supplies, memorabilia, obsolete papers and plain junk. They could be more useful to me now if they were available. So, I went into "gorilla garbaging" mode and started throwing things out. I consolidated usable office supplies, organized what I want to keep to remind me of past rural letter carrier state and national conventions, and went through my old 3.5" floppy diskettes to choose the ones with information I want to save onto a CD. All our newer computers are sans a 3.5" drive, so I better do it quick before those floppies are totally useless.

I found a program cover with a sharp image of the artwork from CaRLCA Unit 15 when we sponsored the state convention in 2006. I hope to use it next year to create blocks for a quilting project to sell or raffle off at a state meeting to raise money for our political action committee. That alone made my gorilla garbaging effort worthwhile.

Anyway, my project that took me about two hours freed up a cardboard office box and a four-drawer Rubbermaid unit that is now mostly filled with over-sized paper supplies and "cost of goods sold" supplies for my quilting and craft projects. That freed up a large tote for my fabric projects.

The generous donation I made to our garbage can means that discarded stuff is not coming back.