As you can see (by my banner and all these pictures) we are in full tomato production out here in the sticks. Tis the season! I’m surprised I haven’t turned red, I’ve been eating so many.

For breakfast I have a bagel with cream cheese and a giant slice of tomato and then a slice of muenster cheese on top. It’s soooo delicious. I could and do eat this every day.

Then I have a tomato sandwich for lunch. Pretty much the same thing as breakfast just minus the cream cheese and bread instead of a bagel. Mmmmmmm….I can’t believe I’m not sick of this yet.

I have them for dinner a lot too. I should post a picture here of some delicious spaghetti I’ve made with fresh tomatoes but I haven’t figured that out yet. My mom has convinced me that it is easy but I’ve yet to try it. One of these days…

My mom canned a lot (this is only half of them) so I can make spaghetti with them even easier. It’s going to save me so much money this winter. Well, maybe not. It’s not like jars of spaghetti sauce were breaking my budget but it does make me feel super frugal and less wasteful when I see all these jars lined up so nicely in my pantry.

Tomato plants are a pretty good investment, especially if you count the water bill as therapy. Yes, I water my garden to calm my nerves. You should try it. Now you know the secret to my green thumb.

Tomatoes,

tomatoes,

tomatoes!

We’ve got them coming out our ears.

There’s only one problem.

Somebody else likes my tomatoes.

Somebody who doesn’t even bother to pick them.

They just walk by and take a big ol’ bite out of a slew of them in the middle of the night when nobody’s looking. And then they just leave them there to rot. How rude!!!

I’m talking to you Mr. Possum! You might look cute and cuddly but YOU ARE NOT!!! You are a snarling, growling, evil tomato-eating menace.

Even Holly is afraid of these guys. We camped outside the other night and I thought sure that Holly would finally catch one, she barked enough. But no. Apparently Holly is a big wuss dog. Though that might be a good thing because I really don’t want to take her to the vet to get possum teeth removed from her nose. Have you heard possums growl in the dark? They are scary!!!

So does anyone know how to get rid of possums? I’ll pay you in tomatoes.

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In other news: Please check out my review for REI.

We had so much fun with them!

Big news today! Two of the kittens have opened their eyes. The big gray curly-furred one and Bessie.

There are five kittens: a big gray furry one that looks like it has curly fur, one that has gray and white markings that we are calling Bessie because she looks like she has cow spots, one all gray one that is the runt of the litter and two others that are mostly gray but have some white markings. One has a white spot on it’s nose and that is the one Bug wants to keep. She’s named it Shylie. I wanted to name whatever kitten we kept Fiesta or Dos or Gato or something but Bug has spoken and I’m inclined to let her pick the name of the cat she will most likely call hers.

Bessie.

Shylie. I guess he’s shy maybe.

And of course the mama cat, Aqui. She looks a little pissed off in these pictures but she’s actually purring up a storm. We always make a point of petting her a lot when we visit the kittens so she doesn’t get jealous.

Motherhood is so glamourous.

p.s. All photos taken by Bethany except the last one.

Her name is Aqui. She’s the neighbor’s cat but she lives at my house. We don’t know why her name is Aqui but it seems to fit her because in Spanish “aqui” means “here” and she is always here. Also when you call her, “Here A-qui, Aqui, Aqui! it sounds an awful lot like “Here Kitty Kitty Kitty!” So there’s that.

I didn’t mean to have a cat. As you know. I’m over cats but of course I have a soft spot for them and when she was always around begging for food because the neighbor was gone, I started feeding her. Then I noticed that she was getting really fat. First I thought it was worms, then I thought maybe I was feeding her too much and now I’m 99% sure that she is pregnant. Which is really sad and scary because she’s really still a kitten herself.

She gets along with Holly and she stays outside which is key because I am soooo over cat boxes. I don’t care if I never ever ever see a catbox again. I’m sure at some point in her life I’ll let her in but right now she’s content to sleep the day away on my patio. She doesn’t even want to come in and believe me, the kids have tried to coax her.

She seems very happy.

I was so worried about her and her giant belly I finally asked my neighbor if I could take her to the vet and my neighbor said “Sure, she’s your cat now. She’s always over at your place anyway.”

So there you go. I have a cat. And I love her already.