Michelle and Mannie (GA)
Member Since 2009
Good Morning LL!! 
(Ahhhhhh.... elixir! Thanks Elsa), and Happy Catmint Caturday!
LL! It's is I, Elsa, KBP, president and CEO of Coffee Cat! Life is GOOD! GUESS WHAT! Paw Prints Pizza is open and ready for business! They are running a Caturday Catnip special today, in honor of Catmint Caturday - lots of nip in those pies!
They have even used their signature nip cheese. 
Best order early! OOOOOOOOO! They have perfected their NY Style hot dog pies. MAJOR YUM!!!! Try one, you'll see! Just order the Mannie and Stu Special! so. well. anyways. Coffee time! For today, I proudly offer Elsa's special 10 hour energy coffee, and Double shot espressos, with beans from deep within the mountain slopes of Africa, AND.... for all my Mocha fans: a venti quad peppermint white chocolate mocha, with peppermint infused whip, garnished with peppermint candy chips and white chocolate shavings... It is my bean's fav! SWEET! OH! No worries, a dollop of peppermint and vanilla and chocolate and caramel swirl ice cream, on top of a dollop of fudge, sprinkled with peppermint chips and a chocolate caramel drizzle.... Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh....... mega good!
I hope everyone had a great day yesterday, and a great week. Happy Halloween, one day late. ;-) The days with the boys have been good ones! We have been very busy, that part of life has not changed. Will it ever? ;-) NOPE!!
What a BUSY week! We have been swimming, and hiking, to the park and on the river, and the science center, and the aquarium. We have had lunches at rivers edge, car camping some too, and indoors on benches. Funny how the boys love those impromptu eat wherever lunches. Life is good!
PICASSA and PHOTOS NOTE: It seems that Picassa has fixed the problem of video uploads being rejected. I discovered that this AM when I forget to delete one,a nd it did process. so.... YAY! The photo links now include the videos as well. I am one Happy camper here! :razz:
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday Night were our swimming days this week. :shock: That's alot of pool time! William went Thursday only (having spent Monday at the library with his other grandma), Nicholas went Monday, Wednesday and Friday nght. They both are truly water babies. William has taken to it all so well. He never cries when there, always asks for more of whatever he is playing on. He doesn't seem to mind when the water spray features are on. He loves the slides, and wants to climb up the stairs on his own. So we do, slide down together. :shock: :lol: I am continuing to introduce him to being underwater, for short periods at a time. He doesn't seem to mind them, I've even had a few smiles. He's adjusted to back floating, and "swimming" on his front. I have no doubt that he will like this as much as Nicholas does. In fact he never wants to leave when it is time to go. We have a new chant: MORE! :lol: Nicholas continues to be very supportive of William's efforts in the pool. He still asks how he did when he can't swim with him, tells me what I should be training him on, asks if he did certain things. It is cool when he says" "He's doing great Grammie!" Yes, that he is. Nicholas continues to be our energizer fishie. That I think will never change. he just has so much fun with it all. He continues to LOVE the new pool we started going to a few months ago, in Snohomish. It really is a wonderful experience, and he can do alot of the things he likes there: like the slides, the lazy river, and deep water jumping and diving. That has become our new Friday pool. It is a ways away so it does add to our commuting time, but we all agree that it is very much worth the effort and time spent. We are still trying to "convince" Nicholas that swim lessons would be great... oh sure! Last night he tells me that he is "never taking that swim test!" Hmmmmm.... silly kid! I continue teach him what I can. He continues to make lots of new friends when he goes. it's fun to see him connect up with kids when he gets there. We all just love pool days, and are grateful that we have the pools and the time to be able to do this. GO NICK! GO WILLIAM! 
Nicholas still looks forward to our after swim Friday Night Burger Feast
That is just so fun: burgers and fries, just him and me, with lots of fun stories. He was so happy to see that burger and fries combo show up, just like always. Somehow I think that is part of the magic of Friday night swims: that he gets burgers etc after his swim. :razz: He alwyas makes a point now, of making sure I have packed it all. He also tin ks it would be a good idea if I packed a jar of pickles, as it seems there are never enough on his burger. :shock: :lol: Yesterday we again talked about our week, trips to city science center and the aquarium the week before, the urban river/park, and especially the time spent on the out in the wild river earlier that day. The drive home continues to be an enjoyable time for him. He's into volcanoes, and now tsunamis, these days so we talk alot about them. GREAT TIME!
Monday I spent the afternoon in Seattle, visiting my friend. It's nice to be able to get back into "town" once a week and catch up with people I used to work with, before I hung up the working mantle. Coffee time with Barb though is great! I enjoy my weekly trip to Seattle to see my friend from my working days with Nordstrom. I do enjoy though being able to connect with her once a week, and head into the city for a bit. and the gossip isn't too bad either. :lol: :lol: They are beginning to venture into the international market, Puerto Rico, and Canada. It is interesting to see how it is affecting all that goes on there, sure has made for very busy times for them.
Tuesday should have been my hiking day.
. I had so wanted to be in the North Cascades (don't I always??)..... but alas, Tuesday ended up being "Dodge the Weather" day! :roll: :roll: :roll: The weather in most of the state didn't support hiking, and up in the mountains? reports of lots of freezing white stuff. :shock: :shock: :shock: Already? but.... but... but.... I'm not done yet with my mountain hiking!!! :lol: :roll: We have a creek nearby that runs through the Meadowdale Park area, that also supports a rather nice Coho and Chum Salmon run,. Reports are coming in that folks have seen them starting to run the creek, so I decided to don the rain gear and head on down to see if I could find any, or if the sightings were just the "early birds" that we tend to get here. The storms off of the Sound have started, a crucial element to get these fish to start their return. But alas.... though the Meadowdale hike was great, no fish sightings! Bummer! We shall try again this weekend. Earlier that day I startled my morning off with breffis day with Anthony. LOVE those breffis's! We still go to the same place, still like as much as the first day we were there. Good prices, with a nice good morning atmosphere. He had this massive pancake thing, called the "Tower": four large pancakes covered with a berry glaze, strawberries, raspberries and blue berries, and of course a mountain of whip cream. :shock: With a side of bacon. YUM! Sure was good! He had Eggs Benedict with pepper bacon instead of Canadian bacon. That was good too, a nice variation on the traditional EB.
Wednesday Afternoon, after Nicholas's swim we were off to a river park in Bothell. We had such fun there a week or so ago, and the week before, that we decided to go back. They too have a nice playground area , and well as a good river trail walk, with a few access points where the boys can get down to waters edge. It is always fun to be able to do that there, as the ducks come and visit every time. We got lucky with the weather that day too, as it had been drizzly a good part of the morning. By time time we made the park, the rains had stopped. and didn't resume until it was time to go. YAY! Nicholas was able to wade out into the river some too. He just loves to be able to get into the river! He didn't stay in long, waded with boots on, as it really was a bit cold to be swimming in. William so wanted to be out in it too, but alas he doesn't really have boots. I finally gave up trying to keep him out of the water, let him wade in the section he wanted. We all had a good laugh as the water just poured off of his jeans adn out of his shoes when we hauled him out so when it truly was time to go. Just like last week, we brought some food for the ducks. Nicholas had such fun feeding them. He had quite the audience. William was busy chanting: " ducks, ducks, ducks, ducks! " This time he stood by by Nicholas while he fed them, watched what to do, had a piece of bread of his own to fed them. He was cute, had a few of the ducks accept his offerings out of his hand. He was able to toss fairly well too. Nicholas wanted to walk some of the trail too. The fall colors there continue to be great. Really nice! William was content with all the sticks and rocks and fallen leaves he found. Way too funny, but cool too. It was a nice afternoon at the park. Nicholas could have used another 2 hours there, he was so not done when it was time to leave. ;-) William too!
Thursday Afternoon, after William's swim, and Nicholas's school we were off to the Science Center. Once again the weather was not our friend, what rains! and winds! and little sun! so........ Nicholas's solution was the Pacific Science Center. SWEET! and an excellent choice. This seems to be rapidly becoming a fave place for Nicholas, we've been every week for over a month now. Science center was alot of fun, both boys got into just about everything, Even William wants to participate. That was fun to see. I think we spent 6 hours there, did it all. it never really did stop with the rains yesterday, rains all day. We had a very small break when we were at the science center, enough that we could get a half hour or so out with their waterworks through science stuff outdoors. Nicholas just loves that stuff. William too. It was water and all he wanted was to be in it. :lol: Nicholas likes the place, is getting much better at understanding some of the science behind what he interacts with. William just likes pushing all the buttons turning all those knobs. ;-) It's a great place, lots to do, lots for them to learn. It is unfortunate that some of the exhibit areas need work in that the stuff simply does not work anymore. other than that, still good. Neither boy wanted to leave....It is nice though to see them accept and know that these afternoon trips are short ones, and that they have to be selective in what they see. Both boys did well with that aspect. The drive to meet their dad after the Science Center trip was ever so nice. The sun finally did break through for real, with that pre-sunset glow, giving us a very nice sunset too!
Friday was our free day, and YAY (!!!!) the weather was our friend! We had some sun, mid 50's temps, and the rivers were calling us. Nicholas asked to go to the Skykomish River. So after a fun filled morning of laughter, books, and good food, we headed on out. It was truly and awesome day to be outdoors, and back to one of or fave places: the Skykomish River, near Index. Nicholas also asked if we could go to Juanita Beach, since it was a sunny day more or less. It seems he has missed the place. So I told him if we had time we would go. We did very well. The boys had such a good time. We stayed maybe 4 hours hours, before heading on down to Juanita beach, per Nicholas's request. No fish yet in the Skykomish, kinda disappointing, but well... we will try again in a few. River was very high, fast, just beautiful. William was just as excited to see it as Nicholas was. We walked the banks, tossed a ton of rocks, waded in some, explored a few mini waterfalls, and enjoyed being out in the wilderness. I am amazed at how well both boys love the time spent there. Nicholas tells me as we are headed on out that it was "The best day". One has to love that. what a truly great morning, great time! Juanita Beach was darn nice too. Maybe 58 there, sunny skies. We did the play stuff, walked the creek, played on the beach. Nicholas wanted to bring home shells to mom, which required wading. That was awesome, sun starting to go down and there he is out on the water, hunting shells. Brought home quite a few for his mom. What a sweetie, huh! We did Snohmish pool last night. he really loves that pool, as that session offers all he wants, from the lazy river to deep water stuff. to just play. Traffic getting there was awful, over an hour, ohmygod_smile on that - only to find once we get there that they had a HS swim meet going on, parking lot had no room, took forever to find a place to park. Dang that place was busy! Great time though. And so went Friday: fantastically busy, home at 9:30, to bed way too late. amazing that I am functional today. lol. :razz:
Normalcy in MusketeerVille! The kitties are all doing well. Not too much new with them... Fall mode is here, they are bunkering down, but still yearning for the great outdoors when the sun is out. Elsa still ventures out, and when out she doesn't stay long. Bug could care less, Lola is ALWAYS grounded, and always wants OUT. :lol: My new patio door has been installed: step one on the catio development has been completed. I still haven't done much more than that. I am looking at window attachments, where she can at least "get out" and may just try and figure out a way to enclose a portion of the deck for them, dunno on that... Lola, I have not forgotten your catio.... but you may have to wait a bit longer. ;-) Nicholas continues to talk about Mannie. Last week, and the week before, I remember writing how at one point he told me that he really wishes Mannie could come home. ;-) He did this week too, and just like last week my thoughts were "Nicholas, so do I". Apparently he has talked about Mannie at school, when the subject of pets came up. One of his friends told him that Mannie will always be gone and forgotten. Nicholas told his friend that "Mannie is always here. I can still hear him. I think about him, and he is here." A few times this past week he mentioned, out of the blue, that he misses Mannie. We told many a Mannie story that day, and man y others. Thanks for coming to visit us Mannie! We all miss ya big guy! cat_pet_icon
Have a great Caturday everyone. Sorry this post it late today. Sorry too I missed everyone's condos yesterday too. Time this morning, and the days, have gotten away from me. At least the shopping is done, and the laundry. I am off in a few for an afternoon walk in the woods, and hopefully to see some of the salmon that are returning for their run. We seem to have a bit of a weather break today, so I really hope to take advantage of that. The sun is shining!
KITTIES! Remember: think BLUE, think GREEN cat_pet_icon
(Ahhhhhh.... elixir! Thanks Elsa), and Happy Catmint Caturday!LL! It's is I, Elsa, KBP, president and CEO of Coffee Cat! Life is GOOD! GUESS WHAT! Paw Prints Pizza is open and ready for business! They are running a Caturday Catnip special today, in honor of Catmint Caturday - lots of nip in those pies!
They have even used their signature nip cheese. Best order early! OOOOOOOOO! They have perfected their NY Style hot dog pies. MAJOR YUM!!!! Try one, you'll see! Just order the Mannie and Stu Special! so. well. anyways. Coffee time! For today, I proudly offer Elsa's special 10 hour energy coffee, and Double shot espressos, with beans from deep within the mountain slopes of Africa, AND.... for all my Mocha fans: a venti quad peppermint white chocolate mocha, with peppermint infused whip, garnished with peppermint candy chips and white chocolate shavings... It is my bean's fav! SWEET! OH! No worries, a dollop of peppermint and vanilla and chocolate and caramel swirl ice cream, on top of a dollop of fudge, sprinkled with peppermint chips and a chocolate caramel drizzle.... Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh....... mega good! I hope everyone had a great day yesterday, and a great week. Happy Halloween, one day late. ;-) The days with the boys have been good ones! We have been very busy, that part of life has not changed. Will it ever? ;-) NOPE!!
What a BUSY week! We have been swimming, and hiking, to the park and on the river, and the science center, and the aquarium. We have had lunches at rivers edge, car camping some too, and indoors on benches. Funny how the boys love those impromptu eat wherever lunches. Life is good! PICASSA and PHOTOS NOTE: It seems that Picassa has fixed the problem of video uploads being rejected. I discovered that this AM when I forget to delete one,a nd it did process. so.... YAY! The photo links now include the videos as well. I am one Happy camper here!
:razz: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday Night were our swimming days this week. :shock: That's alot of pool time! William went Thursday only (having spent Monday at the library with his other grandma), Nicholas went Monday, Wednesday and Friday nght. They both are truly water babies. William has taken to it all so well. He never cries when there, always asks for more of whatever he is playing on. He doesn't seem to mind when the water spray features are on. He loves the slides, and wants to climb up the stairs on his own. So we do, slide down together. :shock: :lol: I am continuing to introduce him to being underwater, for short periods at a time. He doesn't seem to mind them, I've even had a few smiles. He's adjusted to back floating, and "swimming" on his front. I have no doubt that he will like this as much as Nicholas does. In fact he never wants to leave when it is time to go. We have a new chant: MORE! :lol:
Nicholas continues to be very supportive of William's efforts in the pool. He still asks how he did when he can't swim with him, tells me what I should be training him on, asks if he did certain things. It is cool when he says" "He's doing great Grammie!" Yes, that he is. Nicholas continues to be our energizer fishie. That I think will never change. he just has so much fun with it all. He continues to LOVE the new pool we started going to a few months ago, in Snohomish. It really is a wonderful experience, and he can do alot of the things he likes there: like the slides, the lazy river, and deep water jumping and diving. That has become our new Friday pool. It is a ways away so it does add to our commuting time, but we all agree that it is very much worth the effort and time spent. We are still trying to "convince" Nicholas that swim lessons would be great... oh sure! Last night he tells me that he is "never taking that swim test!" Hmmmmm.... silly kid! I continue teach him what I can. He continues to make lots of new friends when he goes. it's fun to see him connect up with kids when he gets there. We all just love pool days, and are grateful that we have the pools and the time to be able to do this. GO NICK! GO WILLIAM! Nicholas still looks forward to our after swim Friday Night Burger Feast
That is just so fun: burgers and fries, just him and me, with lots of fun stories. He was so happy to see that burger and fries combo show up, just like always. Somehow I think that is part of the magic of Friday night swims: that he gets burgers etc after his swim. :razz: He alwyas makes a point now, of making sure I have packed it all. He also tin ks it would be a good idea if I packed a jar of pickles, as it seems there are never enough on his burger. :shock: :lol: Yesterday we again talked about our week, trips to city science center and the aquarium the week before, the urban river/park, and especially the time spent on the out in the wild river earlier that day. The drive home continues to be an enjoyable time for him. He's into volcanoes, and now tsunamis, these days so we talk alot about them. GREAT TIME!Monday I spent the afternoon in Seattle, visiting my friend. It's nice to be able to get back into "town" once a week and catch up with people I used to work with, before I hung up the working mantle. Coffee time with Barb though is great!
I enjoy my weekly trip to Seattle to see my friend from my working days with Nordstrom. I do enjoy though being able to connect with her once a week, and head into the city for a bit. and the gossip isn't too bad either. :lol: :lol: They are beginning to venture into the international market, Puerto Rico, and Canada. It is interesting to see how it is affecting all that goes on there, sure has made for very busy times for them. Tuesday should have been my hiking day.
. I had so wanted to be in the North Cascades (don't I always??)..... but alas, Tuesday ended up being "Dodge the Weather" day! :roll: :roll: :roll: The weather in most of the state didn't support hiking, and up in the mountains? reports of lots of freezing white stuff. :shock: :shock: :shock: Already? but.... but... but.... I'm not done yet with my mountain hiking!!! :lol: :roll: We have a creek nearby that runs through the Meadowdale Park area, that also supports a rather nice Coho and Chum Salmon run,. Reports are coming in that folks have seen them starting to run the creek, so I decided to don the rain gear and head on down to see if I could find any, or if the sightings were just the "early birds" that we tend to get here. The storms off of the Sound have started, a crucial element to get these fish to start their return. But alas.... though the Meadowdale hike was great, no fish sightings! Bummer! We shall try again this weekend. Earlier that day I startled my morning off with breffis day with Anthony. LOVE those breffis's! We still go to the same place, still like as much as the first day we were there. Good prices, with a nice good morning atmosphere. He had this massive pancake thing, called the "Tower": four large pancakes covered with a berry glaze, strawberries, raspberries and blue berries, and of course a mountain of whip cream. :shock: With a side of bacon. YUM! Sure was good! He had Eggs Benedict with pepper bacon instead of Canadian bacon. That was good too, a nice variation on the traditional EB. Wednesday Afternoon, after Nicholas's swim we were off to a river park in Bothell. We had such fun there a week or so ago, and the week before, that we decided to go back. They too have a nice playground area , and well as a good river trail walk, with a few access points where the boys can get down to waters edge. It is always fun to be able to do that there, as the ducks come and visit every time. We got lucky with the weather that day too, as it had been drizzly a good part of the morning. By time time we made the park, the rains had stopped. and didn't resume until it was time to go. YAY!
Nicholas was able to wade out into the river some too. He just loves to be able to get into the river! He didn't stay in long, waded with boots on, as it really was a bit cold to be swimming in. William so wanted to be out in it too, but alas he doesn't really have boots. I finally gave up trying to keep him out of the water, let him wade in the section he wanted. We all had a good laugh as the water just poured off of his jeans adn out of his shoes when we hauled him out so when it truly was time to go. Just like last week, we brought some food for the ducks. Nicholas had such fun feeding them. He had quite the audience. William was busy chanting: " ducks, ducks, ducks, ducks! " This time he stood by by Nicholas while he fed them, watched what to do, had a piece of bread of his own to fed them. He was cute, had a few of the ducks accept his offerings out of his hand. He was able to toss fairly well too. Nicholas wanted to walk some of the trail too. The fall colors there continue to be great. Really nice! William was content with all the sticks and rocks and fallen leaves he found. Way too funny, but cool too. It was a nice afternoon at the park. Nicholas could have used another 2 hours there, he was so not done when it was time to leave. ;-) William too!Thursday Afternoon, after William's swim, and Nicholas's school we were off to the Science Center. Once again the weather was not our friend, what rains! and winds! and little sun! so........ Nicholas's solution was the Pacific Science Center. SWEET! and an excellent choice. This seems to be rapidly becoming a fave place for Nicholas, we've been every week for over a month now. Science center was alot of fun, both boys got into just about everything, Even William wants to participate. That was fun to see. I think we spent 6 hours there, did it all. it never really did stop with the rains yesterday, rains all day. We had a very small break when we were at the science center, enough that we could get a half hour or so out with their waterworks through science stuff outdoors. Nicholas just loves that stuff. William too. It was water and all he wanted was to be in it. :lol: Nicholas likes the place, is getting much better at understanding some of the science behind what he interacts with. William just likes pushing all the buttons turning all those knobs. ;-) It's a great place, lots to do, lots for them to learn. It is unfortunate that some of the exhibit areas need work in that the stuff simply does not work anymore. other than that, still good. Neither boy wanted to leave....It is nice though to see them accept and know that these afternoon trips are short ones, and that they have to be selective in what they see. Both boys did well with that aspect.
The drive to meet their dad after the Science Center trip was ever so nice. The sun finally did break through for real, with that pre-sunset glow, giving us a very nice sunset too! Friday was our free day, and YAY (!!!!) the weather was our friend! We had some sun, mid 50's temps, and the rivers were calling us.
Nicholas asked to go to the Skykomish River. So after a fun filled morning of laughter, books, and good food, we headed on out. It was truly and awesome day to be outdoors, and back to one of or fave places: the Skykomish River, near Index. Nicholas also asked if we could go to Juanita Beach, since it was a sunny day more or less. It seems he has missed the place. So I told him if we had time we would go. We did very well. The boys had such a good time. We stayed maybe 4 hours hours, before heading on down to Juanita beach, per Nicholas's request. No fish yet in the Skykomish, kinda disappointing, but well... we will try again in a few. River was very high, fast, just beautiful. William was just as excited to see it as Nicholas was. We walked the banks, tossed a ton of rocks, waded in some, explored a few mini waterfalls, and enjoyed being out in the wilderness. I am amazed at how well both boys love the time spent there. Nicholas tells me as we are headed on out that it was "The best day". One has to love that. what a truly great morning, great time! Juanita Beach was darn nice too. Maybe 58 there, sunny skies. We did the play stuff, walked the creek, played on the beach. Nicholas wanted to bring home shells to mom, which required wading. That was awesome, sun starting to go down and there he is out on the water, hunting shells. Brought home quite a few for his mom. What a sweetie, huh! We did Snohmish pool last night. he really loves that pool, as that session offers all he wants, from the lazy river to deep water stuff. to just play. Traffic getting there was awful, over an hour, ohmygod_smile on that - only to find once we get there that they had a HS swim meet going on, parking lot had no room, took forever to find a place to park. Dang that place was busy! Great time though. And so went Friday: fantastically busy, home at 9:30, to bed way too late. amazing that I am functional today. lol. :razz: Normalcy in MusketeerVille!
The kitties are all doing well. Not too much new with them... Fall mode is here, they are bunkering down, but still yearning for the great outdoors when the sun is out. Elsa still ventures out, and when out she doesn't stay long. Bug could care less, Lola is ALWAYS grounded, and always wants OUT. :lol: My new patio door has been installed: step one on the catio development has been completed. I still haven't done much more than that. I am looking at window attachments, where she can at least "get out" and may just try and figure out a way to enclose a portion of the deck for them, dunno on that... Lola, I have not forgotten your catio.... but you may have to wait a bit longer. ;-) Nicholas continues to talk about Mannie. Last week, and the week before, I remember writing how at one point he told me that he really wishes Mannie could come home. ;-) He did this week too, and just like last week my thoughts were "Nicholas, so do I". Apparently he has talked about Mannie at school, when the subject of pets came up. One of his friends told him that Mannie will always be gone and forgotten. Nicholas told his friend that "Mannie is always here. I can still hear him. I think about him, and he is here." A few times this past week he mentioned, out of the blue, that he misses Mannie. We told many a Mannie story that day, and man y others. Thanks for coming to visit us Mannie! We all miss ya big guy! cat_pet_icon Have a great Caturday everyone. Sorry this post it late today. Sorry too I missed everyone's condos yesterday too. Time this morning, and the days, have gotten away from me. At least the shopping is done, and the laundry.
I am off in a few for an afternoon walk in the woods, and hopefully to see some of the salmon that are returning for their run. We seem to have a bit of a weather break today, so I really hope to take advantage of that. The sun is shining! KITTIES! Remember: think BLUE, think GREEN cat_pet_icon
