So our fun in the sun is over. :(  It is so hard to get back to work!

We started the long road home on Friday.  We stopped in Montgomery, AL to see the capitol building.  I pointed out to Eric all the important places from my last unfortunate trip to Montgomery.  It was really emotional for me to go back there after the dump truck incident in 2011.  The capitol is very lovely.  We also so the First White House of the Confederacy.  I think the town has some charm to it.  Here is the two buildings: 

Alabama State Capitol

 

First White House of the Confederacy

After Montgomery we continued north to Birmingham (which also looks like a cute city) and eventually made our way to Nashville, TN.  Again we drove through the downtown area to see the capitol building, again very nice building.  Downtown Nashville is very charming too. I definitely want to come back here some day and show Eric around.  I was in Nashville when I was younger.  I remember it very vividly.  I won 2 life sized penguin stuffed animals on the milk can toss.  There is a pictures somewhere with me smiling with my two huge penguins and dad in the background with the trunk of the car open and he has his hand on his chin trying to figure out where he was going to put them. LOL!  Memories!  Here is a picture of Tennessee capitol:

Tennessee State Capitol

We drove through Kentucky and made our way to Mount Vernon, IL, a small town with 3 or 4 major interstates intersecting there.  Needless to say there are tons of hotels, gas stations and restaurants off one exit.  It is kind of a crazy place.

Saturday morning we started our last leg of the journey home.  We drove through St. Louis which is a construction nightmare.  I thought the Twin Cities were bad but St. Louis far worse.  Three interstates cross the Mississippi on one bridge and they reduced that bridge to one lane.  Yikes!  Thankfully I had us go around it through downtown St. Louis.  The rest of the journey home was uneventful…except when we ran into the Iowa Hawkeye fans leaving their game.  I never thought I’d run in to traffic in the middle of nowhere in Iowa!

We got home around 8pm. Swirl was very pissed at us.  He wouldn’t come out from under the bed.  And when he did finally make an appearance he meowed and meowed….”how dare you leave me for 10 days, you are going to pay”…is probably what he was saying.  He of course peed next to litter box.  Such a spiteful cat!  He warmed up by Sunday morning and was constantly at our side.  He doesn’t hold a grudge nearly as long as he did in his younger years…he is, after all, a senior citizen!

We spent all day yesterday relaxing. We went out to fill gas and get a car wash. The love bugs are still on there.  Stupid flies!  We also made a quick trip to the apple farm for some apples. Yum! 

It was a good trip but I’m glad to be home.

Well Swirl’s tower has finally arrived.  We got it Monday and it was really easy to put together.  Eric and I did in in less than a half hour. I guess this officially makes the crazy cat lady, but whatever. Swirl didn’t really know what to do at first.  I tried putting him on it but he jumped right off.  We tried to bribe him by putting treats on the lower levels and his night time food on another level.  Still he had no interest in it at all. That was not a good sign.  Actually he sat on the floor and glared at me when I put his food on the new tower. I’m sure he was thinking, “You evil bitch, how dare you put my food in a place I can’t reach it”. It really made me sad, I spent all this money on this new toy and Swirl prefers the old one.  Great, another piece of useless furniture taking up space in the house.  So last night, I switch the spots of the new tower with the other tower.  At first Swirl sat on his old tower glaring at me, he was pissed because I moved his old tower away from the window.   After a little coaxing with the rope toy on the new tower, Swirl finally got interested in it. And after that he started climbing the tower, sitting in the little house or on one of the platform, looking outside. He seems to love it now.  He hasn’t ventured up higher than the house part, but we are working on it…I hope my silly cat isn’t afraid of heights! I’m sure in the beginning he probably thought he wasn’t allowed on it or something. Who knows, but doesn’t this look like a cat who loves his new tower?

Swirl really likes sitting on my lap, but when the computer is on my lap, he sits on the computer instead. This is one of the few times that my hands were not under him so I was able to take a picture. Apparently he is saying I have played enough Candy Crush for one day. :)

For as much as I talk about Swirl being a bad cat, he is sweet sometimes. How could you say no to a face like this?

 

While I was eating Cheetos, Swirl kept pawing my hand. Finally he got fed up with me not giving him any so he just stuck his head in the bag. Crazy cat!

I'm tempted to rename this blog to The Bad Cat and post pictures of Swirl being bad.

Swirl sat like this for over an hour, staring at me. I'm sure he was plotting how to kill me.

If you think I'm joking, you should read this book: How to Tell If Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You

Now that we are filed, I can finally put this picture out here.  A couple weeks ago, I brought home a draft of our annual report to read.  If you have never read annual report, you don’t know what you are missing. It is EXCITING. So I was sitting on the couch reading and Swirl curled up and fell asleep on the pages I had finished.  He felt the same way about the reading as I did. :)

He earns his keep

Typical male…it's hard to see but he is trying to figure out how to turn the page on the swimsuit issue.  I wouldn't have taken him as a Kate Upton fan.

Swirl is a very strange cat. For the first 7 or 8 years of his life he was a quiet cat, he barely meowed except when he had his toy bee in his mouth.  Lately though he has been very vocal. Swirl loves to chew on the crown of pineapples. I'm not sure why but he goes nuts for it.  Yesterday I bought a pineapple and I put it in the fridge. As I was putting away the other groceries, I turned around and he jumped in the fridge!  Of course I snapped a picture before I kicked him out. After that he stared at the fridge and meowed.  What a crazy cat!

Then I moved the pineapple up a shelf....

We finally filed our 10-Q on Wednesday.  Wow was that a long, crazy day.  It was pretty horrible but we are done for another quarter. We also finished our year end stuff on Wednesday too.  So now I can look forward to vacation!!  Speaking of vacation, I requested another half day in May and my boss’ response was “Are you working any days in May?” and then she chuckles.  After the last 4 months at work, especially the last 3 weeks, I REALLY can’t wait for vacation.
  

Also on Wednesday, DJ and Beth visited on Wednesday.  Abbie had attended a concert at the Varsity Club in Dinkytown (near the U of M) and DJ was the chauffeur.   Per Beth’s request, we had Chinese for dinner.

Eric had his first soccer games of the season on Thursday.  I meet Mom and her crazy sisters Bev, Grace and Alice at Mystic Lake for dinner. It was nice to see them all again. It has been ages since I’ve seen Alice.  They didn’t win but they had fun.  I had to run to band practice after that.  Only 3 more rehearsals for the season and then it is the summer concerts.

Friday I went with Greg, Celeste and Evelyn to get our flowers that we planted a few weeks back. They look nice but I thought they would look better than they actually do.  We also went to Quizno’s for dinner.  Yum, I love Quiznos.  That makes it official. I ate out every night this week.  I’m so bad!

Yesterday, Eric and I went to the Zoo.  It was another gray and cloudy day with storms in the west but we managed to see the whole zoo before the rain set in.  Nothing too exciting at the zoo, the animals were not as active as they were a couple weeks ago. 

Today has been a cleaning and planting day.  Eric went to the Avengers movie; I went to Lowes and bought a lot of flowers.  I actually bought too many flowers.  Oh well I found place for them.  They look great.  I also cleaned the garage.  It is so nice again. And I put away the winter stuff.  Space Saver bags are my friends…fill the bag with coats, scarfs, gloves, and hats and vacuum it up. It becomes really small and flat.  Sweet!

Swirl is having a great week.  The weather has been nice enough so that the windows can be open. The birds have been going nuts outside our window and Swirl is crouching down and then pounces on at the window.  It is quite funny to watch.  He wiggles his butt and tail, crouches down and then springs into action.  Hence the title…it’s a play on words from the movie “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” I’ve never seen the movie but it seemed like a fitting description of Swirl’s actions.

Swirl didn't like Eric's Birthday Present...