PRODUCT REVIEW & WEEKEND PROJECT

Hey Pals,

First we have a Product Review for you and then we'll show you what we did this weekend at the house.  We like buying things from the CSNStores.com  We find lots of great deals there.  With over 200 stores, you can find just about anything you need.

Mama has been complaining about her pots and pans this past year.  They are so old that the non-stick coating is no longer working and foods stick and burn in the pans.  The coating is even flaking off on some of them.  Plus, when the food burns, that darn smoke detector alarm goes off and I Butchy go MAD!  I do not like that thingy.  So Mama finally decided to buy some new ones.

Check out this cool set from Rachael Ray:

This is what Mama bought.  For the size and number of pans that she uses, this was the best deal for hard anodized cookware.  She really likes the orange silicone handles. (of course if they came in PURPLE that would be much better, haha!)  Makes hanging on to the handles much easier, especially if you have arthritis in your hands like Mama does.  Plus, the handles are oven safe to 400 degrees, so your pans can go right into the oven if needed.  The glass lids are nice since you can view the food in the pan without lifting the lid like Mama's old pans.

So far none of our foods stick in the pans, AND, that darn smoke alarm hasn't gone off lately, hehehehehe!  It's nice that CSNStores.com carry so many product brands, you can compare various brands to see which product is best for you.  Plus, shipping is FREE on many of the items and transit time is very fast.


Now for our weekend fun.  You know how when something breaks in the house and you need to repair it???  you usually end up taking the whole weekend to complete one thing??? AND you usually make 10 trips to the hardware store???

Well not this time.  Our large bathroom has had a leaking faucet for over a year now and it was to the point that Mama said we need a new faucet.  The old one was 18 years old by the way.  We can't believe our house is that old now.  Mama & Papa had it built back in 1993.  Boy, does time fly.

Here is the leaky faucet:

Notice the 3 streams of water coming down???  Mama got on the internet and searched for just the right faucet.  We bought a Danze brand, low lead with single handle.  If you have arthritis in your hands, always buy things with a single handle lever.  Much easier to turn off & on.  We've even replaced all of our door handles in the house with the lever style.  Mama can even open a door with her arm or elbow if her hands hurt too much.

Here is the old plumbing we had to deal with and of course there isn't much room for crawling underneath the sink inside of the counter:

Here is the new plumbing that we installed for the faucet:

If you have never tried SHARK BITES to repair copper plumbing, they are the WAY to go!  This is the second time that Mama & Papa have used Shark Bites to repair copper pipes and they are great.  You can use them on cpvc/pex tubing too.  They are very convenient to use in areas where you don't want to solder the copper pipes.  Since the area was so small under the sink, Mama was afraid they might burn something up if they tried to solder those old pipes.  Check out the new faucet:

Now here is the surprising part, it only took Mama & Papa 1 hour & 45 minutes to complete the entire project, weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Wirey Hugs, Purrz & Licks,
Butchy, Katie, Ruby, Sylvester, Scuby, Hootie & Zeek

CATSIES AND GROOMING

Hey Pals,

It's me Katie today.  My scaredy cat brudder Butchy is sleeping.  We had thunderstorms with lots of rain & hail all night long, so he was scared.  The barometric pressure change is what bothers him.  He kept all of us up ALL NIGHT LONG!  So now we are all tired.

To update you on Butchy's health, he is on a roll now.  (I have to whisper this so that the ******* MONSTER does not hear me!)  Butchy has now gone 5 days in a row with NO seizures!  Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
We are thrilled and hope that this good streak continues.

As most of you know, we live with 5 catsies that we have rescued.  It is not uncommon to find several of them sleeping together at times.  Here are 3 of them sleeping on top of the chair up in the loft:

( Scuby, Sylvester & Hootie )

Since they looked so comfy, I decided to join them in the chair.

I sure love my kitties!

As you noticed in the last picture I look pretty fuzzy & wirey.  Mama told me it's time to strip & clip my hair again.  Geesh.  Wonder why.  It's not like I can't see out of my eyes or anything like that:

Oooops, guess I do have hair covering my eyes, hehehehe!

I thought I looked more like a diva girl in this picture:

Oh well, guess Mama doesn't agree, she's been stripping on me since yesterday.  She told me my tail is like a hard wirey paint brush!

Wirey Hugs, Purrz & Licks,
Katie, Butchy, Ruby, Sylvester, Scuby, Hootie & Zeek
PS  Hootie caught a mousie in the basement, tee hee!

KOI BABIES & MASKED VILLAIN

Hey Pals,

Some of you probably remember that we raised some koi fishies from eggs last year that we took from our largest pond.  We hatched them in a 10 gallon aquarium, then once they were about one inch long, we moved them to a 75 gallon aquarium.  This is how they looked when they first went into the larger aquarium last summer:

This is what they look like now, approximately 9 months old:

We ended up with one Butterfly Koi baby, it is the creamy/yellow fish in the center:

Several of them are about 6 inches long now.  Once the water in the ponds warms up to about 60 degrees and stays there, then these koi will get to go live in the pond.  ( which will probably be about May )

Since the horrible earthquakes have hit Japan, we've been wondering how many of the famous koi farms have been destroyed.  When the hard quakes hit several years ago, they lost many koi farms.  Some families could not start up their businesses again.  The losses were just too great.  We hope and pray that all of the people and animals are staying safe. 


We put our outdoor camera out by the ponds a week or so ago so that we could see if that darn mink was trying to get any of the koi again.  Well, we haven't seen him yet, but we did see this villain:

Mr. Raccoon.  Luckily he only stopped by for a drink of water.  Then he was on his way.


So far I Butchy am still having some seizures.  I had one yesterday afternoon.  We're going to see how I do the remainder of the week and then decide about getting the blood serum test done next week.  We thought I was on an improvement side of things, then the seizure hit.  Bummer......

Wirey Hugs, Purrz & Licks,
Butchy, Katie, Ruby, Sylvester, Scuby, Hootie & Zeek

A SNAKE??? AND BLOGOVERSARY

Hey Pals,

Check out this snake that was by be in the house:

Hahahahaha, fooled ya!  It's only Ruby's tail.  Doesn't it look like a snake???

Now here is a REAL Brown Snake that Mama took a picture of that was in our yard a few years ago:

Now everyone knows that I Butchy have been sickly with those darn seizures lately.  But is that any excuse for Mama to forget our 5 YEAR BLOGOVERSARY???????

I think not.

Yep, our 5 YEAR BLOGOVERSARY was back on February 25th.  So  

HAPPY BLOGOVERSARY TO US!

I sure wish Angel Snickers was here to celebrate with me.  Snickers & I started the bloggy back then.  But I know she is watching over us from above.  I wish she had some good tips for me on how to get rid of that mean SEIZURE MONSTER.  He is still bothering me.  Last Friday morning through Saturday morning was bad.  But then Sunday & Monday, I only had a very mild seizure each night.  So maybe the drug increase is starting to take affect.  I sure hope so.

Oh yeah, we can finally see some of our ground out here, but now we're going to get rain tonight and snow tomorrow, ugggggghhhhh!  We don't like muddy paws.

Wirey Hugs, Purrz & Licks,
Butchy, Katie, Ruby, Sylvester, Scuby, Hootie & Zeek