hehe
I love the ball cap idea. I don't have a porch light and that'd help with the long, dark treck to the door. I got a b'ugly set o'pinkish salmon towels. Hubby gave me a beautiul lamp with a hummingbird and a trumpet vine on it, and I got some candles, and tonight an epiphyllum. Mom got me tickets to the Melodrama, I love booing the villians, hehe.

Every year the best toy's under the tree are kitties happily ripping open their gifts and getting wacked on cat nip. The peace and quite latter on while they are all sleeping off their cat nip hang overs is priceless:)

Mentha, I don't feel so odd now.lol I also got a lamp. Mine is a victorian with an iron base and a glass shade. And I got a candle, but no towels here.

Cena, the Craftsman lighted ball cap sounds awsome! I have never seen one before, but it sounds like it could sure come in handy...expecially on those trips to the summer kitchen after dark. Where did you find it? The last time I couldn't find the flash light and ended up using the one on the cell phone..a lot of help that thing was.lol

Foxy.

If there's a Harbor Freight near you, you can find a similar tool. It's a headband with three different lights on it, two bright blue/white lights and an infrared one, I think. The headband runs less than $5. I have no idea about the ball cap, it sounds a lot fancier.

Okay, I have now realized how blonde I was being asking where you found the Craftsman lighted ball cap. Now that the hampster in my head is back on the wheel I now realize the big clue to finding this item is the name Craftsman. LOL I think I will check out Sears next time I'm in town.

Margaret, $5 sounds like a great price, but we don't have a Harbor Freight around here:(

Foxy.

I have the Miner Head Band light, myself, and find it to be a big PITB. #1) the light is NOT that bright, enough to keep you out of the sink hole in the back yard, but not enough to find a specific branch in the tree that the hoya has wrapped itself around 17 X's #2) the elastic band on mine has aged to the point that aiming the light is another hassle. My ball cap points directly to what I am looking at #3) I don't feel like the Enormous Geek I look like in the Ballcap vs the miners headlamp...

My cats are funny about nip. Only one seems to get into it really. My mom sent me like a gallon in the mail, and I still have two quarts. I think its five years old now... The little has not been directly introduced to nip. I have this fleece bed that none of them will sleep in. Do you think I could lace it with nip and introduce them to the delights of a nice, kitty sized, square fleece bed???

A touch of the nip may just get those kitties interested in that fleece bed. One of the gifts Santa Paws brought the fur babies was a cat nip scratching pad. Since all of my kitties are sensitive to cat nip they all have been seen at one time or another sleeping on that scratching pad... of course all of my kitties are total nip junkies.

Foxy.

I wish my cats were nip junkies. None of them like the nip. I have really strange animals though, my chicken insists on coming in the house, the goose will stand at the fridge and beg for letuce. The rabbit was raised in the house and is litter box trained.

My cat likes a nip now and then, but will mug the groceries before I can get them put away. She steals and eats leaf lettuce!

I guess if I went more than once a month it wouldn't take so long to get them cleared out of bags on the floor!

I'm not allowed to have chickens in the house. There will come a day, but I'm not pushing it yet. I will wait until one is ill and needs care before I push 'that' hot button. I'm so allergic to bunnies. I don't like geese, we have similar attitudes so get crosswise easily. At least me & my moms geese do!

Just kitties in the house. If the chickens were free range, I guess they could figure out the cat door...

Cena,
I raised my first hen in a little rat cage on top of my desk from a day old chick. She'd coo to me and I'd let her out, she'd sit on my shoulder and help me type. She wasn't happy unless she was sitting on my shoulder. She was an only child and a black australorp, which are about the most intelegent of chickens I've found.
When I got my first duckling we got her a ferrit leash and would take her to the park to play, she sat on my lap all the time. The geese I also raised from hatchlings, I was the first thing they saw as they hatched. We named them Dinky and Doodle, they were Sebastopol Toulouse cross. They bonded with my husband. Everywhere he went, they'd follow. I'd call, 'Wheep, wheep, wheep,' and they'd come running for their treats!
Whe the farm supply gets babies, I'd suggest getting one or two chicks, and they will bond with you, I'm sure your husband will love them if they ask for treats. They can be treated just like a parrot, and they will respond with all the love a bird can give.

Hi Rhonda,

The story of your first hen reminds me of my sister's pet banty (sp?) hen. My sister, at the time about eight years old, would walk around with that hen on her shoulders. The chicken loved it. When not on her shoulders it would follow her all around the yard. Everyone was amazed at how attached that chicken was to my sister. One doesn't think about chickens in that way or at least people who have not been around pet chickens.

Larry

Hi Larry,
Unfortunately, I had to give all my girls away, they started to travel to the neighbors', and the landlord said they had to go. I love banties, but the roosters can be punks. Given another chance, I'd have some more girls in a heart beat. I gave mine to my best friend, so we still visit them. Beauty, the chicken, is the rule of the roost, she just hatched her second clutch of chicks, her first was a dozen ducklings. I'd say she is adapting to not being an only child, and she is a proud mama for sure.

I wish someone would tell my cat that she's supposed to be carnivorous. When I was vegetarian, she'd constantly bring me little rodent snacky treats. Since I started eating meat, she doesn't hunt anymore.

Good gifts under the tree? I always tell my family/friends back home not to get me big gifts, because I usually can't take them back to Ottawa with me. So this year, my very favourite gift was a bunch of gift certificates for Chapters. I'm getting myself the "Northern Exposure, Season Two" DVD box set. Yay!

Funny story: a few years ago, I was staying at my cousin's place overnight, sometime around Christmas. Anyway, she called in to one of those early morning radio contests, and won. The DJs wanted to chat her up on air, and the guy kept asking her what her favourite Christmas gift was as a child. Now, my cousin grew up REALLY poor, and she was trying to gently turn the conversation somewhere else, saying things like "Oh, well, you know... we were just really happy to be together as a family..." But the guy wouldn't take the hint: "Oh, you must have a favourite... maybe an easy-bake oven? Or a cabbage patch kid?" He just would not let it go! Finally, his cohost clued in to what was going on, and let my cousin get off the phone. My poor cousin, half asleep at 6:30 in the morning, and trying to delicately avoid making this guy feel like an ass. It was priceless.