8 year old wisdom: “You’re so bossy Nonna, you boss me around all the time.” This was Teddy recently when his Nonna made him quit playing Hot Wheels on the PC and come to lunch. And Nonna admits that she has always been “a little bossy.” Her own mother agrees – and she knows best. ...
So the scanner has arrived. It’s not made by Nikon or Canon – not even Panasonic. Its brand name is (wait for it) Jumbl. Jumbl is a company that markets different electronic gadgets that are no doubt made in China and co-branded for them. No matter. The darn thing works pretty well. You can scan ...
Let’s face it – at the end of the day Mr. Oates is Maria’s cat. He loves her best. He and I have our moments though. A key one every day is our afternoon nap. Oates waits until he hears me pull down the blind in the bedroom. Then he rushes in meowing and ...
We spent our second full day in Rome in some of our old familiar haunts. No Metro or meandering today. But there were a few surprises in store. We began by heading over to the Via del Corso. As we walked down the busy thoroughfare, we noticed a massive traffic jam shaping up – unusual even ...
Eleven years ago today – July 6, 2005 – we moved to a new home, a new town, a new stage in life. This is how our place of abode looked back then – not all that homey, to tell the truth. Well the neighborhood has improved a bit. And the landscaping is a ...
It was a year ago today that I met Mr. Oates. He was a sad little shelter kitten who had lost his family home and was sleeping rough in the adoption lounge with about 50 other cats. The Arnprior Humane Society folks really recommended him though. He was a bit younger than I wanted but ...
Living as we do north of the St Lawrence River by a hundred kilometers or so we don’t get long stretches of heat and humidity like – say Baltimore. But it does get warm enough (scheduled for low 30s – 90 degrees F today) that it is worth it to have whole house air conditioning. ...
It’s been nearly a year since the tragic final failure of Cat 2.0 and we’ve had Cat 3.0 installed now for close to 11 months. A technical review is in order. Look and Feel Cat 3.0 has significantly brighter and multicolored appearance compared to the monotone gray of Cat 2.0, although the tactile impression of ...
Last week we were enjoying the warm Caribbean sunshine with our daughter’s family (more on that later on.) Meanwhile, Mr. Oates’ little world was coming apart at the seams. We haven’t left him for any length of time since he arrived from the shelter last June, so he’s gotten pretty used to us and his ...
Oh once in a while you get a November day like this, such as the one we had in Auburn NY in 2012. But sadly they are few and far between. Today was more typical I’m afraid – gloomy and wet and cool. The leaves are gone and so are the songbirds. Baseball is ...