Birthday Box It!

We are finally normal over here.  Which will come as a surprise to those of you who know me, but I guess there is an upside to getting older after all.  I refer, of course, to boxes.  Finally the boys are acting like the rest of the cats you all write about (and in deference to the feelings of Pedro over at MaruCanKissMyFurry. . . , I will not mention Maru) –

The boys are now a boxed set.

Bugs takes his place.

Barney takes his.

Each one to their own — no fighting no biting.

It’s amazing to me how, when I present them with toys they would otherwise disdain, we get so much more mileage with them when the boys are in the boxes.  I wish I had captured the frenzy both boys flew into when I applied some of Kim’s homegrown KatNip to the gigantic pea and offered it to them while they were in their boxes.  Frenzy.  Just the ticket to take these rambustious boys down a tone or two.

So this is the best thing about birthdays – the boxes the gifts come in.

Well but that would actually be “best” from the cat’s point of view.  From the Bean’s point of view the gifts themselves were pretty fabulous.  Here’s one of them:

A Bliss flourless brownie topped with creamcheese buttercream.  Friends, I swoon even to recall it.  The buttercream was so smoothalicious I face-planted in it.  And that was before I got to the brownie.  There we had the essence of perfection – a light crispy porcelain-like crust, followed by moist dark chocaholic blast so transcendent that big pharma really should figure out how to put it in a pill.  Would give addiction a whole new name.

And this was before I came down with a monster cold, and so had to postpone my regularly scheduled birthday party with a friend who is hip to this cupcake thing and had already bought mine.  But seriously.  No way was I going to waste the experience when I can’t taste mackerel left in the sun for two hours.  Let alone expose my dear friend to this deadly germ I picked up.  From the kids last week, doubtless. No worries.  I love those birthdays that just go on and on, and we are re-scheduled for this coming Wednesday when, I declare, I shall have recovered (though still hawking and coughing as I write.  Never mind!  I have another Bliss cupcake to look forward to!)

Meanwhile . . . .

Spring proceeds apace.  This, unretouched and just like Ma Nature made it, is the green green grass by the side of the road.  Which the chicken just crossed, and who knows why.

And with the weather so balmy and bright, the door’s open again.

What is it about cat-shoulders that just slays me every time?