Thank you all for your kind words about our loss of Chloe. Our house feels so empty. Both Bryan and I keep thinking we either need to get home and feed her, if we’re running late, or I’ll expect her to be hiding under the bed before we go to bed. It’s truly amazing how much these little furry creatures touch your life and make you a better person. (This is a photo I took of her about four days before she died. She had food on her nose and kept giving me the look of “What? I’m saving it for later.” She was such a sweetheart and loved having her photo taken.)

Bryan, friends and school have kept me busy this past week. Wednesday I baked bread and learned all about what it means to have a very warm and humid kitchen. The end result bread was fabulous and was so airy. I have more bread in the works this morning.

Sunday we went blueberry picking for the third time this summer. We came home with just over seven pounds. We’ve slowly been freezing some of them to have for later. Last year we had blueberries until December. My breakfast bowl has been so filled with berries over the last few weeks between the blueberries we’ve picked and the berries from our friends’ backyard. Now our little garden in back is becoming fruitful with bell and jalapeño peppers, along with our amazingly huge plant of basil.

With my two classes this summer I’ve been reading a lot. Every summer, I sign up for the adult summer reading program at the local public library. I also keep a list on the fridge of the books I’ve read and “reward” myself with cute stickers I’ve had for years. (To decorate all of those letters that I was supposedly going to write all of these years.) This weekend I passed a goal that I didn’t think was possible for summer. Granted I started my summer reading as soon as school ended, but still I’ve read more than 25 books since May 3. This doesn’t even count the picture books that I’ve read for my Children’s Non-Fiction class. In summers past, I’ve been proud of 16 books over the summer but this will be hard to surpass next summer. So what are these books I’ve read, well here they are:
(one star = read for Adult Popular Literature, two stars = read for Children’s Non-Fiction)
* Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar
What Happened to Cass McBride by Gail Giles
* Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
** Laika by Nick Abadzis
* Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
* Thursday Next: First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
* Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
** Little People and a Lost World by Linda Goldenberg
* Anyone But You by Jennifer Crusie
** Code Talkers by Joseph Bruchac
** Indian School by Michael Cooper
** 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving by Catherine O’Neill Grace and Margaret Bruchac
* Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
* Be Still My Vampire Heart by Kerrelyn Sparks
** Bearing Witness: Stories of the Holocaust selected by Hazel Rochman and Darlene Z. McCampbell
** Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman
** Maus II: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman
* Forbidden Pleasures by Bertrice Small (I was surprised how explicit this romance novel was)
** Ain’t Nothing But A Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry by Scott Reynolds Nelson
** Steel Drivin’ Man: John Henry, The Untold Story of an American Legend by Scott Reynolds Nelson
* Mojave Crossing by Louis L’Amour
** What’s Going on Down There? by Karen Gravelle
** The Period Book by Karen Gravelle
** Kampung Boy by Lat
** Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos

For my sanity, a couple of them I’ve listened to as audio books so that I can get off the couch and do a little sewing. Only two more weeks of class and 11 more books to go. Then I can start reading for pleasure again, which seems sort of strange to say since so much of the reading I’ve done this summer has been pleasurable reading. On my list for after-school reading - Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer, Bonk by Mary Roach, The Host by Stephenie Meyer and I’m literally drawing a blank on what else is on my list. I only have three weeks off before school starts in last August but I plan on getting more done than just reading. There’s a quilt the desperately needs to be finished and I have some fabric for tops that I’d like to get made before it gets too chilly to wear sleeveless tops.

It’s so hard to say good-bye. I didn’t think it would come this quickly, but we had to put Chloe to sleep yesterday. She hadn’t been the same since George died and the last week she just wasn’t doing well. It was obvious she missed George terribly and just didn’t know what it meant to exist without him.

We’ll definitely miss her silly ways. How she used to paw the edge of the couch before jumping up. Drooling as she kneaded anything. You could always tell where Chloe had been laying because there were little drool spots. Her obsession with chewing on plastic bags. And what I’ll miss the most is her mewing at night with her orange mouse and then putting it by our bedroom door so we’d find it first thing in the morning.

She came to live with George and me almost 11 years ago. They instantly loved each other and became the best of friends. I could always count on Chloe to make me smile, even when George was driving me crazy. She mothered George and he loved every minute of it, even when it turned in to a major kitty cat fight. When I watched Days of Our Lives, I could always count on Chloe to be sitting by my side within the first five minutes of the show. I gave her the nickname of “my soap-cat.” We created so many songs to go with her nickname “Kwo-cat” over the five years Bryan and I have lived together and it’s hard not having her to sing them to. Our house is so empty now and my heart has a great big hole in it. Both of my baby kitties are gone. We know they are together forever now.

Wow! So I read the Lipstick Librarian blog on a regular basis but with school I’ve been a bit behind on my blog reading. Then this morning a co-worker sent me this post. If you click on the “fearless soul” link, you may see someone familiar.

How cool is that?