This and That

 I celebrated another birthday (crazy how that happens every year) which means I got to try yet another flavor of vegan birthday cake from our local vegan baker. She does amazing cakes and I mainly look forward to my birthday just to try another flavor. This year it was German chocolate cake. I'm a sucker for coconut but Sean isn't so I don't seem to cook much with it. It was sure a treat! This is a 10 inch cake and it's massive so next year I think I'll try an 8 inch cake. 

Throughout the year I put fun things in my Amazon wishlist and occasionally I get gifted some of these items. For Christmas I received a solar light and since it was cold I didn't put it outside until just recently. It's supposed to go in a flower pot so I wanted to make sure something was actually growing before I put it out there. It's a cute little watering can with LED lights. I just love it. 

 

So each year the senior class does a "senior prank". I think it has to be ok-ed by the principal so nothing real serious gets done. This year I pull into the high school parking lot to pick up the kids the last full day of school and there is a row of cars blocking entrance to the parking lot. It must have been 50 cars and there was absolutely no way to get into the parking lot to wait for the kids. Apparently these seniors (who had already had their last day of school) got up at 3 am and all brought their cars out and parked them in a long row so no teachers or students could use the lot. The teachers had to park in a different lot further away and walk. I was lucky enough to wedge my tiny car into a row to wait. It was funny.....yet frustrating!

All of the cats we own have adopted us, not the other way around. They wander to us and then stay for the rest of their lives. This happened with our neighbors cat, Orangie. He used to be pure evil. He'd sneak into the shop and eat all of our other cats food then climb into the rafters and hiss at me when I walked in. We did not have a good relationship. He was rather nasty to our barn cats too, attacking them whenever he got the chance. Well as he aged he got more mellow. He started letting us pet him. He stopped hissing at me. Eventually he just became part of our menagerie. He coexisted with our cats and even started curling up with them to sleep. The neighbor said they found him as a kitten in 2003. That made him 19 years old this year. They moved last June and he stayed with us because he was our kitty. He passed away in his sleep last week. You'll be missed Old Orangie.

 

Well it's an end of an era. We took down the swing set. I remember putting up the swing set (you should look at this, such little babies!) all those years ago. It got so much use! But it was time to go. It was looking rough and no one used it anymore. I saved the lumber so I can use it for another project and donated the ladder to a pastor that is building a swing set for his church. 

The hammock has been put back up for the season and I still love it, although I wish I was using it more than I do. I've been so busy with various landscaping projects. Wesley found a spider on it so he'll never use it again. That kid is petrified of spiders. I guess I've got it all to myself.