Sunday, June 29, 2008

Comedy of errors!

My husband (Nick) and I are attending a wedding in Bar Harbor, we arrived here on Thursday. Part of the weekend planning includes a Maine BBQ on Saturday night, also the same night that they are having their rehearsal dinner. On Friday afternoon we get a note that says "Rehearsal dinner, 8 pm, QuarterDeck" so, we believe that it must be for the dinner Saturday night. Saturday we take the shuttle in to town, show up at the Quarterdeck at 8:05 pm and they tell us that the dinner was the previous night!

I'm really irritated with myself because I felt uneasy about the entire thing, when we got the invite, didn't have a date or day on it. I thought it odd that they would change the venue, although the weather here has been iffy so I could sort of understand as it was supposed to be outside or in a tent. but sigh, we never asked.

We didn't rush back to the hotel as we suspected by the time we got back it might have been over/close to over.
So we missed 2 nights of fun socializing . . . sigh. Today is the wedding, let's hope we manage to get there on time!

Lovely up here - in Bar Harbor.
Nick and I biked on Friday and hiked up Cadillac Mountain yesterday - we went up the Gorge Trail, climbing up boulders and jump over rocks - fun! tiring both days.
I have a great kitty sitter - (several good ones) the one I'm using this weekend stays over night at the house :-) and spends most of the day there.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Maeve Binchy's novel - drowning a cat

I've been reading Maeve Binchy's novel, Glass Lake, I rather like her stories, although I find she DOES go on and on a bit so I tend to read over and read ahead quite a lot.

I just read a section where they drowned a cat and I found it VERY disturbing and I'm contemplating throwing out this book. At the very least, I won't waste any more money on her. I'm glad that I bought this book at a second hand store.

She tried to write the scene like the little animal was struggling, almost drowning, so the idea was to hold the kitten under to put the kitten out of its misery. Either in this book, or another one she referred to one of the sick expressions, I think it was the 'swing a cat' one.

It's disturbing as her novels usually have a tranquil sort of easy read and this was most upseting for me, especially me.
I don't think drowning an animal is a humane way to put it out of its misery. Fiction or not, I loath to see such cruelty written as being humane!
I'm off to find her website and complain.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Mother-in-law's visit, birthday and cats

Happy birthday to me :-) My birthday was this past Friday - a lucky day - Friday the 13th. Given I was born on the 13th, I view the number as a lucky date!
I had a BBQ at my house and a group of friends over, although I didn't say it was a birthday party, just a BBQ for a lucky day. Many knew it was my birthday.

My Mother-in-law left to visit her daughter who lives in England on Friday - the morning of my birthday. She arrived around May 22 (one of my last posts). It was a lovely visit. She's a real sweety! Easy to deal with, entertains herself, is helpful! She visited for 3 weeks. While she was visiting her sister and spouse came down from Canada to visit with us, the three of them went on a 3 night excursion to the cape.
My daughter visited the following weekend. I've known my husband since 1994 and my daughter has never met any of his family.
They used to all live in S. Africa, now his sister lives in England and his mother still lives in S. Africa.


Mum's sister, Pixie arranged silk flowers in a planter that my brother-in-law Chuck made for me. Looks lovely. I'll be sure to take a picture some time. If nothing else, I promised my sister that I'd send her a photo of it.

The foster cats have returned to the Pat Brody Shelter for Cats. I'm certain they'll find wonderful homes. They all have fun, friendly personalities. The Pat Brody Shelter is great because the cats aren't locked in cages and the cats have a contained outdoor area that they can run around in.

No surprise but I haven't gotten much writing done lately!