chochiyo_sama | Saturday

I was up past three again last night. I just can't get to sleep at a decent hour. I am almost always in bed by 10 pm, but the moment I lay down--BANG! All notion of sleep leaves me.

Today, I had to babysit Cora while Kari and Jack went to Caleb's football game. She arrived here at about 9 am. I was awake, but still in my pjs when she got here. She hung out in my room and talked to me for a long time. Then I sent her up to Mom so that I could get dressed. She was very excited about baking. We have become baking buddies. LOL. She told Mom, "I love to bake!"

Mom went to Harmony today to visit the Amish community with her church group. She was afraid she would get back after dark, so I drove her to the church and dropped her off at about 9:45. Cora elected to stay here by herself while I took Mom to the church. She was playing an odd little game with all Mom's beanie babies. She had bears set up all over the living room. She talked and sang and played with those critters completely without self-consciousness. I was very amused by it all. "Bearathon" was the name of the "town" she had set up, and there were creatures in "Heaven" (the shelf above the fireplace) who watched over the creatures down below. She has a very creative little mind.

I tried to grab a little nap while she was playing, but she kept noticing my eyes were shut and telling me, "You are NOT ALLOWED to go to sleep, Auntie Cheryl. We have to BAKE today."

So, even though I didn't feel much like it at the time, I got out the stuff and we made a double batch of chocolate chip cookies, a batch of peanut butter cookies, and a raw apple cake with a caramel glaze. Everything turned out very good. She was very into measuring the ingredients. I had fun working with her. She had so many questions, like "Why do we need to put in Crisco?" and "What does flour do for the cake?"

When Kari and Jack got back from the football field, Kari called and wanted to know if Cora was ready to come home and go shopping in Owatonna. Cora immediately replied, "No. I want to stay with Aunt Cheryl." I was really hoping for a little quiet time in the house with mom gone, but it was not to be. Cora was here from 9 in the morning till 5:30 pm. We had a very nice time together, though. I don't regret losing out on the time by myself.

She took a couple of breaks from baking with me to read her book Junkyard Dog or play with the Beanie Babies. She didn't really enjoy putting the cookies on the cookie sheet. She also watched a couple of kids shows on TV. One was I, Carly, and another was SpongeBob Square Pants.

Kari and Jack called and wanted to invite me and Mom over for Papa Murphy's pizza and to watch the movie Thor, which they just picked up today. I didn't expect Mom back till 7 or 8 pm. But to my surprise she got here before Kari and Jack did. Fortunately, I had already done the dishes, wiped down the table, counters and stove, ad swept before she got here. I had split the apple cake batter into two small square cake pans, and both baked up nicely. They came out of the oven shortly after Mom came home. I was making the caramel glaze when Kari and Jack and Caleb got there.

They headed home after Jack hauled my kitty litter out to the garbage and Cora got her messes cleaned up. Mom and I followed shortly afterwards with one of the two cakes I had made. We had Papa Murphy's pizza--one was pepperoni and cheese with garlic sauce on one half and regular tomato sauce on the other. They also got a thin crust veggie delight for me. I prefer vegetables and no meet on my pizza,

Thor was just as good the second time through. The actor that plays Thor could eat crackers in my bed any time he wanted to! There were a lot of small, clever, cute things in the movie. For example, the point where Thor is all cocky, saying, "You DARE threaten THOR, the god of thunder with that puny...." Then the chick tazes him and he falls twitching to the floor. LOL. Then in the hospital, when he's yelling to all the doctors and orderlies that are trying to subdue him, "You are no match for THOR..." And one of them shoves a needle in his ass and puts him down. LOL.

Mojo, the new kitten let me hold him for quite a while. He is a big flirt and adorable. He purred and purred and purred. He made me miss the kitten stage...but I still remember the curtain climbing. I don't want to go through THAT again. LOL.

Kari and Jack brought me back a baggie of Bing cherries as a "thank you" for taking care of Cora. She was no bother. She's a pretty good girl, even if she did lecture me on the evils of drinking Diet Coke. LOL.

That's about it for me, I guess.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Cora must be taught the indulgence of the nap. As a trade-off for baking, it is only fair.

Man, I think I'm going to have to make some cookies. I just can't stand reading about all of the cookies you're baking and I don't have one cookie in the house!

My friends on the next block had a big cat that didn't like either of them very much, wouldn't cuddle, but whenever I came over and sat down that cat would be in my lap within ten minutes. And it had one of the loudest purrs I'd ever heard. Like a motorcycle. You could hear him across the room. I have no idea why he decided I was his special friend since I probably reeked of dog and petted him like a dog.

Perhaps he liked dogs. Some cats love dogs. My sister Joni has a siamese cat and a papillion, and they think they are littermates. They love each other. When I was a kid, we had a crabby old cockerspaniel named Tuffy. He had a special cat friend that he'd always lay next to and the cat would snuggle right up to him. It was an odd combination because Tuffy was a cranky old bastard and Strawberry was as dumb as a box of blocks. But they were buds.

When Strawberry got a tumor on his head, Tuffy licked it constantly. It was a strange, crusty looking tumor. It kind of looked like a Siamese crown like they wore in the movie The King and I. Anyhow, Tuffy licked that tumor all the time. One day, it fell off and never returned. I have since read that there is something healing in a dog's saliva. Maybe Tuffy held the answer to curing cancer. We'll never know since the little cranky pants has been gone for decades now.

Saturday

Cora must be taught.

Re: Cora must be taught.