We Interrupt this Broadcast...

...For an Important Weather Bulletin!

Kitties!  

We had a record-breaking rainfall Thursday here in the desert--1.10" (28cm) in under two hours--and it caused quite a bit of damage; thankfully across the street and not at our house.  Although the poor park took quite a hit.  It's situated on the edge of the wash, into which the valley of the mountains up the road from our house funnel all their runoff.

The peeps were having an afternoon coffee on the Catio around 3 PM when it got suddenly DARK and...Holy COD...the rain started coming down in torrents, with the lightening cracks that were so close both of 'em were squealing like little girls and sent us under the beds.  It came so fast the ground couldn't absorb much of it, so this happened:

or click HERE

The thunderclaps were so loud they set off the car alarm!

Traffic was just crawling on the highway at the intersection at the top of the street so when the rain let up a little they drove up to see what was going on:

or click HERE

The highway was covered in basketball-sized boulders washed down from the rain and cars were having to navigate around them.  The rain quit about 5 PM, and shortly afterwards there were City crews out with heavy equipment cleaning the pavement; they worked until past midnight to make it passable.

The next day Daddy went over to the park to check out the damage.

This is the entrance by our house.  The water overtopped the curb!

The horse gate leading into the desert.  It should be flat.

The river bed there is...um...*new*.

This is the Bocce ball court pre-flood.

This is the North end now...

...and this is the bench that's on the far right of the "before" photo!

It's literally TONS of mud, and the clean-up crews have already begun working, but it's going to be a while before things are back to normal, the entire park's been inundated with mud.

Mommy is planning a hike on her days off to scope out the hills on the other side of the highway to see what she can see...all that dirt had to come from somewhere...we know where it is NOW!

So, that was our exciting Thursday afternoon.

Which is more than enough for a while...

Happy Caturday!

XX  The Katnip Lounge  XX

Monday Miscellany

Kitties!

Rupert here, reporting from the top of the Karnivorous Keurig Box.

Due to Mommy's ineptness and poor planning (Rupert!) the only theme to today's post is no theme whatsoever.

So, let's get this two-bit show on the road:

Look what showed up in the park Sunday--the first horsie customer!  Daddy's all excited about the unlimited supply of horse dooky for his gardens.

Guess whose shoes these are.

Hint:  They aren't Mommy's.

We have another neat park under construction right by us, down towards the wash.  Remember the Eggs that Mommy Crawled Through?  Here they are, along with a SIX foot (2 meters) tall roadrunner!

It's a sure bet that Mommy will scale this dude just as soon as the limp (and her common sense) fade.

In other news, Daddy has obviously mistaken May Ling's hind feets for a cow udder.

Boy, is he in for a surprise...

That is all.

Happy Monday!

XX  Rupert  XX

Sunday with Sheebie, Dad, and Spouse

Friends and Kitties!

Sheebie here.

First off, Happy Father's Day to all the Dads and Pet Daddies out there!

Keep up the good work.

Here's a couple of handsome men for y'all:

My Dad, wearing his snazzy new "Universe" tie die shirt from this guy:

my Hubby!

Who is a pretty damn good human/cat Dad himself.

I love you guys!

KNEE NEWS:  The knee is healing.  I went online and researched how bone heals and it's fascinating!  It follows a specific pattern, and can take up to five years to fully remodel a fracture.  Mother Nature is truly amazing.  Anyway, right now it's achy and tingly--right on schedule--I'm at nearly three weeks and the cellular latticework for the bone cells that lay down mineral bone is almost complete.  I have X-rays Monday to assess how it's coming along, and my Doc said if he's satisfied with my progress I can start physio in another week.

I went back to work (light duty) on Friday.  For liability reasons there was another employee working with me so all I had to do was sit and click a mouse.  I am going crazypants not being able to simply move!  Not to mention the mountain of workman's comp paperwork I've had to fill out--I'm never having an accident again--says Trinka the Klutz.

HOME NEWS:  I think the other (final?) shoe has dropped in the home repair department, Thursday afternoon the electric garage door open caught on fire!  Scott was inside the garage when it happened (thank heaven) and he unplugged it right away.  *whew*

We discussed that there's nothing left to go wonky so we should be good to go...

PARK NEWS:  Well, if I wasn't a total cripple I'd have tons of photos to show you, maybe even a video!  Instead, you'll have to make do with me saying that it's the nicest park I've ever seen out here, bar none.  I'd estimate work is about 85% done, but then again I thought that six months ago.  And last week they carved out a bunch of new pathways for walking so who knows what might be next.

Now, I have to go whale on the sofa, doctor's orders.

Happy Sunday!

XX  Sheebie  XX

Sunday in the Park with Sheebie

Friends and Kitties!

Sheebie here, with a Park Report.

Since there's so many photos, I left 'em small--click to biggafy!

I walked up to the top of the street, and we'll work our way back to my house.

Look what's in the center of the photo:

The Official Sign!

Looking down the street from the top--in a few years our street is going to be tree-lined and shady.  Because of the long growing season the trees will mature quickly.  Everything is drip irrigated and water smart.

A little ways down the street and into the park is this cool stone wall.  I have no idea if it has any purpose other than to be interesting, we'll just gave to wait and see what happens next.  That's an acacia tree in the foreground.

The wall has three different colored rocks--only two shown here (don't panic!)--and was all built by hand.  There's been a team of stone-layers working six days a week for at least the past two months and it looks as if they have more to do judging from the quantities of rebar and wire mesh still on the job site.

This is the same type of tree we have in our back yard, a desert willow.

PaloVerde in flower

The landscapers have started on the smaller plants, too; there's agave and grasses and some stabby plant that I can never remember the name of. 

Look--it's my buddy the Horny Toad!

The kid's play area has a ways to go yet.  It's hard to envision the final look, so more on that another time.

These metal shade "sail" rest areas are also all along the bike trail, which is great for those 114 F degree days.

The restroom walls are large pond rock, again all built by hand.  I'm curious to see how the gable areas are going to be finished.

(sorry about the glare)

From the restroom looking North.  Check out my volcano in the distance!

Down at the other end, looking back South.

The view from our front yard...

...and up the street from our driveway.

I'm so excited!

Happy Sunday, and have a wonderful week!

XX  Sheebie  XX

Sheebie in da Park!

Friends and Kitties!

Sheebie here.

First of all, Happy Easter, or whatever holiday you may be celebrating today.

Today I have Park Pictures!

  These are from last week when I Rode the Lizard.

We put our initials in some fresh concrete.  We are incorrigible!

Nice hat.

This is the restroom facility, it's going to be quite attractive, apparently the rock wall is going all the way up this and the opposite side.  The guys who are placing the stones in the wire enclosures are artists; the stones have hardly any room at all between them.  The walls will be beautiful when it rains.  I'll get some good close-ups when they are complete.  

The door on the business (pun intended) areas lock--I assume a City employee will be by to lock/unlock them daily. ( We have some interesting types--one of them goes by "Stacker Man", long story-- that live in the Federal Park a few miles down the road and I'm sure they would only be too happy to camp in the restrooms.)

Has anyone ever played bocce ball?  How?  I suppose I need to Google it...

Even the dumpster enclosure has nice ironwork.

The horny toads are in their final locations.  It looks like it's going to be an interactive kid's (of all ages) area, and maybe even a water feature--it's hard to tell at this point.

When I drove home I noticed the landscapers working, so plants will be next...

I can't wait.

Happy Sunday, and have some FUN this week!

XX  Sheebie  XX

Sheebasaurus!

Friends and Kitties!

Sheebie here.

It's been windier than H-E-Double Toothpicks here...which means no bike riding, (bummer)...but the good news is that the gales blew the plastic tarp off of the new big-ass lizard that was delivered to the Park last week!

Scott and I walked over to check it out.

These ginormous eggs are made to crawl through. 

So I did!

Then it was time to scale Mount Lizard...

This thing is seriously HUGE.  Kids (of all ages, mind you) are gonna have a blast scaling this guy.

(Or gal, after all, there are eggsesses laying around.) 

Giddyup!

I love you, Giant Lizard.

Things are really coming along in the Park, I'll have more to show you next week.

But I can't let you go without showing you the french bread I baked:

They were excellent.  Crisp outside, chewy and yeasty inside--we ate half a loaf for dinner.

I only have one day off this week cos I have to attend a training seminar, so my the Kats commenting will be sparse(r) than usual...so if y'all feel any whiskers on the back of your necks--well, it's just us lurking.

Have a Happy Sunday, and a Happy Week, too!

XX  Sheebie  XX

Sunday with Sheebie!

Friends and Kitties!

It's been quiet yet busy around here, and due to a) a lack of any cohesive story line, b) snappy segues, and c) laziness, I'm gonna post a list.

1.  I started yoga classes to help stretch out my back and I think it's helping.  The class is very low key, all adults, and lots of fun.  What's nice is we all get a printed sheet (homework!) of what to practice during the week which helps jog my memory--I find it hard to remember poses when I'm busy clearing my mind.

d.  I did two nice bike rides last week.  I had a wee tad of trouble on one hill but pulling over and puking took care of it.  Next time I'll gear down sooner and chug less water all at once!  Spring has sprung here in Las Vegas with highs in the 80's and lows in the upper 50's at night.  It's just glorious outdoors, except for my allergies.  I'm allergic to pine and olive tree pollen and they're blooming like gangbusters right now.  Thank goodness all I get are itchy red eyes and not the sneezy chesty type reaction; a few eye drops and I'm good to go.

Z.  Both my immediate supervisor and manager got promotions, so I'll be getting a new boss.  I have a couple of candidates in mind and have been prodding encouraging them to apply.  I qualify for the job, and I'd be good at it except for the fact that I'm so non-politically correct that I'd be down in Human Resources within the first 25 minutes of acceptance.  I have a hard time with stupidity and there's a couple of dead weights around here that--well--let's just say I've volunteered to dispose of the bodies.  

There's one individual in particular I'd be more than happy to work for so I wish them the best of luck.

7.  Our tomato plants have blossoms!  Scott put in several varieties of cherry tomatoes for us to try this year.  It gets too hot too soon to do the big ones, they split.  He has to spray some sort of magical sexy blossom elixir on the flowers in order for them to bear fruit as there aren't any natural tomato plant pollinators out this early.  There are plenty of bees but apparently tomato blossoms are stinky and they don't like 'em; instead they're all in the arborvitae partying drinking the sap off the stems.

@.  The kale is doing well, too.  As is the catnip!

14.  Sparkle's Human and Quill's Mom came over for an afternoon last weekend, and we had a wonderful confab together, talking cat-talk and a thousand other subjects.  The Horde (sans Scouty and CC) was very gracious and welcoming, with Tarty Salem whaling about for a good hour on the dining room table much to everybody's enjoyment.  Especially hers--what a ham.  

A large ham.

5.  The Park Across the Street is coming along nicely.  Joining the Horned Toads is a new giant animal (shrouded by a tarp, dammit) which is some sort of lizard, the bocce ball court is about done, and the curb for the horse corral was poured last week.  Nothing that photos would do justice to, but the whole complex is really starting to take shape.

q.  I've been making bread at home in my new Kitchen Aid Mixer, and I swear I'll never buy bread again.  Home-baked is just so freakin' good!  I bake on Wednesdays and Scott and I have bread-n-butter, fruit, and cheese for dinner.  Delicious.  I've used my mixer for several batches of quick breads and to shred cabbage for cole slaw and smush up apples for applesauce and boy was that ever easy--I have decent knife skillz but nothing near as fast as those slicer blades.

elebenty.  Scott has a new hobby, he's taken up tie dying and so far his shirts are Far Out, Man!  As soon as he gets confident enough to make shirts to order he will be setting up a store, he enjoys it that much.  I think it's great--he is so creative with color.  It just goes to show that being red-green color blind doesn't prevent you from using the full palette.  I often wonder just how he visually perceives things.  Photos of his work to come...

So, that about wraps it up...have you done anything new and interesting lately?

Tell me in the comments!

Happy Sunday and Have a FUN Week!

XX  Sheebie  XX

Horny Toads!

Friends and Kitties!

Sheebie here.

One of the (many) advantages of Scott working from home is that he's around to document all the cool goings-on around our house.  He's photographed a helicopter stringing power lines, the Presidential limo, various animals that show up, and of course the Park Across the Street.

Sometimes two of these at once:

Friday a creature showed up that we'd never seen before.

It stealthily snuck in on the back of a flatbed truck...

...and slowly levitated its' ponderous bulk skyward.

With the help of a crane, of course.

It was The World's Most Ginormous Horned Toad!

(Magnus Cornu Anurus)

It wasn't alone, either.

They'll become part of the Park's interactive playground for kids.   

Kids of all ages, apparently.

I saw them while driving home and knew they needed to be ridden.

Immediately.  

The second I got home I hustled Scott outside (in his socks--no time for shoes!) to get pictures.

According to the blueprints there's also going to be a rattlesnake, whiptail lizard, and tortoise.  Maybe I'd better buy a saddle...

Happy Sunday and have a Fabulous Week!

XX  Sheebie  XX

The Park Report, by Sylvester

Kitties!

Sylvester, ace reporter here, with the Park Report.

This is my spot on Daddy's desk so I see everything that goes on outside the front of our house.

(When he's awake, that is--ed)

 Mommy has previously blogged about the park under construction across the street from our house.  It seems like it's taking forever to get done!  The concrete curbing has been finished for months.   I was very nearly ready to dictate a letter to the Proper Authorities asking some rather pointed questions when on Monday a crew showed up with all sorts of equipment...

...and asphalt!  

(Or tarmacadam, for the cats who speak that other, weird English.)

I directed Daddy to take photos of all the action for me.

Of course there was more than that little pile of asphalt, it took several big truck loads to finish the job.  The workers had just last week completed the last bit of the bike trail that Mommy & Daddy ride on and apparently the park was next on their job list.

The machines made a ton of noise--The Baby had a bad day of it, she doesn't like loud engine noise like the garbage truck--and these vehicles sounded like a hundred garbage trucks!

I was, however, totally unfazed.  I watched the entire day.

(he parts that he was conscious--ed)

It was cool and rainy outdoors and the hot asphalt made some really neat steam trails.

Here is the new road across from us, freshly laid.  

I'm really excited that things might be moving along again! 

 Just think of all the fun people-watching I can do when the park is done.

(when he's not sleeping--ed)

Oh, and good job Daddy, on getting such good pictures for me.  Now, back to work.

Happy Thursday!

XX  Sylvester  XX