Saturday, Japanese Garden

So many ways to play with Cider

Working hard

We made a 10:30 am reservation for the Japanese Gardens.  That was on Ice's list of things to do.  We left early because we thought that parking would be a problem.  But we were lucky.  The weather cooperated.  It was chilly but not rainy.  

Then we drove to Top Burmese in the NOB hill area of Portland.  We sat in their heated outdoor seating area.  Delicious meal.

Nathan's noodle soup

Then we went to the bakery for dessert.

I shared the blueberry croissant with Nathan.

We headed home. We left Robbie and Ice downtown. They wanted to explore a little.  

Blanca and Cider are safe as long as there is glass in-between.

Worn out.

Ice wanted to cook.  She headed off to Uwajimaya to buy groceries.  Going there was also on her bucket list.  

She cooked up a feast.

Salad, Miso soup, Yaki Soba, with lots of side dishes to add.  Wow.  

Rebecca is missing the new kitty and Robbie and Ice's visit.  It has been almost 2 months.

Robbie and Ice Visit

 On Thursday, Jan 6th, Robbie (nephew) Singer and his partner Ice came for a visit.  They arrived at noon.  We stopped at the Goose Hollow Inn for lunch.  Nathan Joined us for lunch.  We headed home.  No big plans for the afternoon.  Nathan came over for dinner.  He will stay with us as well.  We had spagetti. 

Friday, Robbie and Ice went off to the Woodburn Outlet Mall (no sales tax).!  Nathan worked from here.  We got everything ready for making Boudzas.  We were going with a vegetarian version this year.  Butternut squash, spinach and mushroom combination.  I think that the vote was that we are on the right track.  We preferred it to the fake meat variety.  Once Ice and Robbie got home we got busy.  The soup was already.

  

Ice

Ice, Nathan, and Robbie.

It was fun.  

An Addition to our Home - Meet Cider

After Gemini died, I knew I wanted another cat.  I found that this was not an easy process.  I tried a lot of phone calls.  Then I started following the Oregon Humane Society and other shelters.  They would have kitties available but by the time I requested adoption, they had already been adopted.  I was not having any luck.  So, I decided to check Craiglist.  I found that the kitties advertised we pure breeds and so more expensive or they were too young (6 weeks).  I did not want to pay $1000 for a kitty.  I gave up on Craigslist and had gone back to the sheltrs.  Out of the blue I got a response from one of the Craigslist listings.  10 week old orange kitty!! Exactly what I wanted. We responded right away.  Yipee! She had 3 of them and they were still available. So we picked up Nathan on our way to Vancouver to choose a kitty.  

White paws.                                       Darker coat/less white

Whiter face and chest

 

We sat and played with the 3 kitties.  We were getting so confused.  Finally the owner pointed out that one had a whiter face, one had white front paws and one had very little white.  That helped.  We ended out picking the one with the whiter face and chest.

On the drive home we settled on Cider because of his color.

We started keeping him in our bedroom unless we were watching him.  We were keeping him away from Blance.  Blanca is not amused.  It did not take long for him to take over the whole house.  He is a wild child.  But then he crashes and sleeps.  He sleeps through the night. We are taking pictures of him all the time.  

Christmas with Madeline, Roman and Ivan

 We did our traditional Christmas activities.  I made a new stocking for Nathan since his stocking got wrecked a few years ago.  

The one on the right is the new one.

Madeline, Roman, and Ivan drove down Christmas Eve but we did not see them until dinner on Christmas day.  Nathan & I had a great time cooking dinner.  It was a "thanksgiving-type" dinner, with sweet potato brulee, mushroom stuffing, red wine cranberry sauce, creamed spinach, teriyaki salmon, bread, and pecan pie,  What a yummy meal.  

1-year-old Ivan

Our get-togethers were around Ivan's sleep schedule.  

Merry Christmas from Blanca.  

We had snow Christmas day!!

Yup, we had snow.

Ivan

The day after Christmas we got together for lunch near the AirBnB that Madeline and family stayed at.  Then they joined us for dinner.  The next day we met for lunch before they headed back to Bellevue. What a nice visit. 

Rebecca missed it since she was still at the San Francisco airport.  She has just been approached once by a security guard, who gave her a free bus pass to a homeless shelter. She ignored this.  It has been 6 weeks.

Zoo Lights

 We met Gretchen on Friday, December 10th to go to the zoo lights. We had timed entry tickets for a "walk through" day. Some days are set up for drive through only.  We met at the front area, thinking that we would do dinner first and then walk through the zoo but that ended out not working.  The restaurant near the front entrance was closed.  So we got hot naughty beverages to tide us over.  

There was a restaurant open, halfway though the walk.  We sat down for a while and ate.  

George, Gretchen, Nathan

It was a nice event.  It is always a pleasure to spend time with Gretchen.

A Sad Day.

 Our cat, Gemini, has been failing for quite some time. She go down hill and then she would perk up, but she finally hit a point when she was no longer eating.  So we decided that it was time to end her suffering. She was 17 years old and had always been a very playful kitty.  It was a tough decision.  We made an appointment for Thursday, Dec 9th.  Nathan was able to come as well.  They normally do not allow 3 people to go in at one time to the vet, but they made an exception. 

We will miss her.  She was a very sweet kitty.