New Arrivals

Saturday was the first day of General Conference, and I was looking forward to it.  I got up, got my Institute journal and my pens, and settled down for a spiritual feast.  I was not disappointed.  It's funny, because I always come away from conference thinking, "That was AMAZING!!" and then two days later I have difficulty recalling the majority of what I heard.  Good thing they put it all on-line, because there are a few talks I know I need to read through on my own. 

After the morning session, Cathie asked if I wanted to go with her and Lilas to a cat show that Jamie's (my cousin-in-law) mother was showing cats at.  Lots and lots of cute fuzzy things to look at, and possibly play with?  Sign me up!  So we headed out to the hotel where the cat show was, and you know what's really mean about cat shows?  For the most part, you can look, but you can't touch.  A room full of cat lovers and all kinds of cats, and we're not allowed to pat them?!  That's sadism, is what it is!  I mean, I guess I understand intellectually - most of the cats are purebred and have pedigree charts that would put many an LDS church member to shame, you don't want anyone with a cold patting them, yadda yadda yadda...I get it.  But but but, there's lots of cat!  And they're CUTE!  And FUZZY!  And I WANTS TO PAT THEM!!!!!

Very difficult to restrain myself, but at least Jamie's mum let us pat her purebred Bengal cats.  For those of you who don't know what a Bengal cat is, they look just like miniature leopards.  Like so:

Yeah, Jamie's mum breeds them, and she had two there, and they have fur that is as soft as a chinchilla's, I'm not kidding.  She actually let us pat them, bless her.  Moving on from the Bengals, Cathie, Lilas and I continued to wander, and found that there were some kittens for sale - Selkirk Rexes (yeah, I didn't know either) and Persians (those fluffy, flat faced cats like in the Fancy Feast commercials).  For the uninitiated (as I was, until Saturday), a Selkirk Rex cat is a mix between a Scottish Rex cat, which has curly, fluffy hair kind of like a poodle's, and a British Short hair cat.  British short hairs have shorter faces, and are solidly built, with dainty little paws that belie the fact that they weigh a frickin' ton (me paraphrasing, of course).  When you cross the two, you get the Selkirk rex, which looks like a stuffed toy covered in chenille - the hair curls, but breaks off, creating kinky fur. 

There were Selkirk rex kittens for sale that day - one of them was way less than the other three, because his fur was not as long or kinky than the others.  The lady selling them was allowing people to hold them (yay!) provided they slathered up with Purell first.  So we did.  Cathie, in particular, took a liking to the discount kitten, so much so that she declared her intention to buy him the next day, after procuring the necessary accoutrements.  8-o Really wasn't expecting that!

After the cat show, we went to Lilas', where Uncle Walter made me some biscuits, and I shared them with everyone for lunch.  During the course of lunch, I discovered that the jelly I have loved since I was small, and originally thought was some sort of spiced peach jelly was, in fact, crab apple jelly that my dear Aunt Lilas makes.  I have been bothering Mum for the past two years to make some more of "that spiced peach jelly you used to make when I was younger", and getting irritated when she doesn't know what I'm talking about.  Mum, I'm sorry.  I assumed it was peach jelly because I remembered the color - which is peachy - and couldn't really place the taste.  I remembered it from Winnipeg.  Sorry I've been bugging you about it...

After procuring the necessary accoutrements for a kitten, Cathie and I headed home to watch our DVR recording of Sat. pm conference.  There was an incident with the DVR, and we ended up not watching it after all.  So we watched Star Trek instead.

Sunday morning was similar to Saturday morning, enjoying conference.  Then, we went to pick up the kitten from the cat show - and ended up getting TWO kittens, because Auntie Cath thought about it long and hard, and decided two would be better.  So, we now have two kittens!  And they look like little stuffed toys covered in chenille!  And they're built like brick houses!  So cute!  So fuzzy!  And they like to cuddle!  And they're cute!  SEE?!!

The orange and white one is a boy, named Angus.  The blue tortoise is a girl, named MacGuyver.  I'm so excited, and I didn't even have to beg!  It was all Cathie's idea!  I didn't even have to use Machiavellian strategy, and we got two kittens!  Woo-hoo!