look hon, I cleaned!

I am not home very much.

In fact, one of the last few times I was home for a visit one of our neighbors saw me and, in a surprised manner, announced, Oh--so you didn't move away, then!

Nope. Or at least not in a permanent, I'm-mad-at-Drew kind of way.

But since I am away so often as to make the neighbors assume that I just up and left for good, I don't get to help much in the way of domestic support.

Let's face it, as amazing as Skype is, you still can't use it to wash some dirty dishes in Delaware when you are, in fact, in Florida. Or California. Or Japan.

Maybe someday.

I mean at one point people thought walking on the moon and squeezing cheese out of a canister sounded preposterous also.

I am pretty sure that the human race has as of yet still not accomplished those two feats simultaneously, but we'll keep dreaming big. Besides, even both those things on their own is nothing short of incredible.

Especially the cheese. But I digress.

So while home I decided to give Drew a hand and clean up the kitchen. Now this was a true sacrifice on my part since Drew seems to eat salsa on about 99% of his meals. Oh, and I hate salsa. So pretty much every dish in the sink had some variation of salsa encrusted onto it.

Gross.

It literally turned my stomach.

But I started composing some lyrics in my head and got to work on the dishes, trying my best to ignore the salsa displayed before me in differing forms of decay. I soaked and scrubbed and rinsed and loaded. One final step to go, I grabbed the dish washing detergent, poured some in the appropriate area in the dishwasher, turned the knobs to smart wash--because really, who wants to wash in a way that isn't smart? why do they even have other options?--and slammed the door shut.

Happy to basically be finished my task, I went over to my piano and got lost in the world of song writing.

Until I happened to glance over my shoulder and see this.

Oops. Yeah, I guess I poured too much detergent.

The nice thing is that the floors are now pretty spic and span, too, and I wasn't even going to do the floors.

----------------------------------------------------

I got home and heard something different, something that reminded me of a nature store, something tinkling. Drew was so excited to show me...
Yes, it is one of those tacky fountains complete with stones and tiered, flowing water that costs about $15 on sale at Happy Harry's Drug Store. See, we might very well have two of the snobbiest cats in the world when it comes to their preferred drinking water. They like fresh, flowing water--specifically from a faucet.

They detest the water in their bowls and barely touch the stuff.

Like most parents, we ascribed to the when they get thirsty enough, they'll drink it theory, but Drew saw this fountain and knew the cats would love it.

He was right. Gone is their old-fashioned water bowl with the paw prints on the side and stale, stagnant water within. Now they are delighted to drink from their freshly pumped and free flowing fountain. And bat at the water after their thirst has been quenched. And who knows? Maybe even heat those stones up for a rejuvenating hot stone massage.

I wouldn't put it past them.

They. Are. Spoiled.

And speaking of our cats, one frequently gets stepped on and really, can you blame us?

Poor Taliesin even has stripes that look like the wood grain pattern. I guess it's good for that moment right before the pounce, though.

And the heated stones would come in handy after getting stepped on, too.