Hodge Podge

It's been a while so I'm putting up a hodge podge of photos and captions to go with them. Dan is home again. SA-weeeeet!!! He came home Friday afternoon which was an unexpected and quite welcome surprise. I hadn't gotten a ton of sleep due to certain dramatic events taking place in the ZanderBarry household mid-week but I digress. Onto pictures which shall be listed in a order that must have a reason but that reason has not made itself known to the author yet.



Here is Max with one of his birthday gifts. His very own pottery bowl. Very cool gift and one that he really liked. Max just loved eating out of his bowl. Somehow he could tell that this was "his" as opposed to the tiny fiesta ware bowls which are "ours". The artist, who is our friend Shane, said this present is meant to be used and broken. Guess what? It was used and broken. In fact, it broke with a bang.



Max with his walking car. He loves this little walker which also converts to a car. It's so funny to watch him manuver it though it's even more fun to watch him not manuever it. Sometimes he'll get to walking so fast you swear the thing has an engine and he stepped on the gas when he meant to hit the brakes. When he gets to going like that he veers in whatever direction the force of nature takes him and when he hits an obstacle it will either come with him if it's light enough or he'll just bash into it over and over until you turn him around - quite like he's doing with this rubbermaid tub.



Just a cute little fella minding his own bidness and stealin' Daddy's glasses in the sunshine. This is right after his birthday.



Max loves to hide and peek. Dan caught this wonderful shot the other week. For those of you who know our furniture, he's hanging out between the couch and the tower of vintage suitcases. He hasn't knocked them over yet but I'm thinking that tower will topple one day soon. Hoover better hope she's not in the way!



Max found a little spot to hang out that is just the right size. He must have climbed in and out of there 20 times one day and he's never gone in since.



Dan and Hoover. Couldn't be a happier pup.



American's Most Wanted Feline as of last Tuesday night/Wednesday. Tuesday night our feline friend just wandered off and disappeared. Now I've had this cat almost 12 years and do a kitty census every night. Come 11:30 and I do a head count but no Lyle. Havers is no help which usually she would be. I look through the house - NO LYLE. I do a quick run through the basement. No LYLE. I go upstairs and tear apart the closets, underneath the beds, pat inside the mattresses, look in the kitchen cupboards, the bathroom cabinets and still NO LYLE.

I find my phone and call my brother because I realize that I have to go look in the basement. You may wonder why I feel the need to call my brother for this and it's simple, I need to make sure someone knows I'm going in the basement. For those of you who don't know me particularly well, I'm terrified of the basement. I do not go in the basement once it is dark. I really don't even like to go in the basement when it's daylight and I'm by myself. When I lived elsewhere I called people to come over and accompany me to the basement so that I could get my laundry after the sun went down. The light is always on in our basement. I cannot believe I live in a house with a basement and now I have to go downstairs to look for the cat. I decided to walk the outside perimeter before looking in the basement. No luck and it's cold outside so clearly, I must look in the basement.

Before I headed downstairs I cracked open not one but TWO cans of food. Whistle, whistle, whistle for the cat - jingle kitty cookies in the bowl and NO LYLE. This cat always comes running when you crack the can even if he has just eaten and is cleaning his little mittens. Not that night. I looked in the basement for at least 20 minutes and NO LYLE. At this point I thought he was outside freezing to death. I was awake looking for him almost all night and hoped with all my heart that he would get up at 4 and howl for food until fed as he does EVERY MORNING. NO LYLE. I emailed a friend who helped me look in the basement for an hour before work. NO CAT. I went to work, made some LOST CAT fliers with the above photo, left at lunch to post the fliers but decided to check inside first and who do you suppose came sauntering up the stairs? That little minx, Lyle. And he came looking for food, too.

My theory is that he was sucked into a vortex and then spit back out once they found out what they were in for. What would we do without our critters?