Winners and other Stuff

Well, y'all have given me quite a swelled head with such sweet comments on my Blogiversary Celebration post. Thank you so much. Thank you for being such good bloggy friends, and thank you for all the fun we've had over the past seven years. Quite a few wished me seven more, and I'm hoping for the same.

So, let's see what Mr. Random has to say about the winner. We gave 'er the proverbial spin and came up with:

#23--CJSmith!

Congratulations, CJSmith! I've sent you an email, so check your inbox.

The green stuff is finished. Yesterday I spent the morning cooking up and canning salsa verde, and that's probably all of that I'll do for the season. Even giving a jar to each of the kids, this will still last us well into next year.

That's not the only thing I did though. In between stirring and ladling, I was able to get some more hand-quilting done on Mumm's the word.

All that remains is to stitch around the borders, and I've come to the third corner now.

I'm moving right to left, and I've put an arrow in the image below to show you where the finish line is. I'm really hoping to finish this off during the month of July.

So we tried another little driveway adventure with the kitties yesterday. Our plan was to put them in the camper, close the slides, and take them for a little ride to a nearby park. We were going to set up the catio, eat our dinner, and then drive home. Our purpose was to see if we could actually close the slides, go for a ride, and make it home without any escapees.

To explain, the camper is a little different from the fifth wheel. In the fifth wheel, it's still possible to move around inside when the slides are closed. The camper closes up more like a jigsaw puzzle, and there is only just a narrow space between the kitchen area and its opposing wall. Here's a picture of the floor plan with the slides open. You can see that there are slides on each side and at the rear.

Try to imagine them sliding in to make for straight walls, and you can see that it's a narrow space, but still large enough for a kitty to jump over the counter and escape out the door. Our hope was that we could herd them into the bedroom where they could ride on the bed while we went down the road. This was the last hurdle we worried over when it comes to taking the kitties with us in the camper. We have a camping trip planned for next week (more on that later), and so it's time to give it all a try.

Well...making a long story short, we weren't able to even get out of the driveway without smarty-pants Smitty escaping to the great outdoors. So much for Plan A. Today we're instituting Plan B, which is to get some good kennels for them (ours are old and kind of junkie, only used for trips to the vet). Since camper trips will be short trips, they're going to have to ride in their kennels. We'll put them in kennels and they can ride on the bed that way. I know they'll hate it, but it won't be for long, and they'll be safe. As our vet likes to say, "It's all part of being a cat." We aren't so much worried about escapes once we're settled at our final destination and the slides are opened. They don't try to escape when we're in strange places. Containing them for going down the road is going to pose a problem, however. With them actually "contained," we will worry a lot less.

So do you want to know what was on the menu for this excursion? It isn't technically on our diet, but low calorie enough for a kitty-goes-to-the-city excursion. Our last couple of CSA shares have included tons of cucumbers. I've made relish, but there were still more to use. I made this Cucumber and Avocado Soup with Tomato and Basil Salad. It has some little strips of fried prosciutto on top. On the side, I used up the last of the kohlrabi in these Kohlrabi Fritters with Lemon Dill Yogurt Sauce. So yummy.

This morning we're going on the hunt for the kennels, and we'll take a short walk in the historic downtown section of nearby Sherwood, Oregon.

As I'm writing this, Smitty is enjoying his morning sunbath. He's almost too big for that scratching post.

Sadie, a black cat, doesn't care too much for sunbaths. She takes quilt baths instead.

It's been a busy weekend, and I've done no sewing (other than hand stitching) since last Thursday. Definitely I'll be getting back to my quilting today.