Daily Photo

I spent my morning break drinking hot tea and tum-scratching this adorable kitty lady.

Isn’t she dainty and cute!? I’m a little obsessed with her whisker pads…

She lives in my neighborhood and stops by every few days to say hi. I named her a while back (since I don’t know her real name), but apparently that name didn’t take because I can’t remember it, LOL!

So now I’ve started calling her “Sunshine”, because every time I see her she’s bright, happy and chatty.

El Hub says that I am NOT to seduce her with treats and love (he knows me too well), because even though she doesn’t wear a collar, she looks well cared for and fed, but ya know…if she decides to follow me home one day and never wants to leave, I won’t stop her. 🙂

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Before this cold totally took me out last weekend and put me on the train to Sniffles-ville (achoo!), I squeezed in one fun afternoon with my in-laws while they were visiting. We drove up to the Napa County town of Yountville in Wine Country to have dinner at one of my mom-in-law’s favorite places to eat. It was for her birthday, so it was kind of a special treat. The place is called Bistro Jeanty, and they serve fancy French comfort food (pricey but delicious). She’s all about their beef stew.

We had some time before our reservation, so we walked around Yountville a bit, and that’s when I bumped into these interesting pumpkins and this HUGE zucchini.

No, seriously, the thing was half my size!

Because it was about 100 degrees that day, I got a very sour, lemony Italian tonic water from the deli in the Napa Style store. I, of course, loved it (pregnancy does funny things to your taste buds, I swear), but El Hub said it was just about the absolute worst thing he’d ever tasted…

Right across the street from the Napa Style style is a place called Bouchon Bakery, which I always try to visit when we go to Yountville because I love their macarons.

There’s almost always a line out the door, but because this was a slow Thursday afternoon, I walked right in and straight to the maracons. I got four — pistachio, hazelnut, fig and salted caramel, my favorite macaron flavor in the world.

Honestly, I don’t even know why I bother with the others. I should just cut the B.S. next time and get an entire box of the salted caramels.

After I got my cookies, it was time for dinner! My father-in-law and I ordered the scallops with pasta, while El Hub and my mom-in-law got the beef stew…

Not shown: the massive amount of bread and butter we also had.

All and all, it was a great afternoon!

And now, of course, I’m craving more of those macarons…

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

He spent the better part of the day yesterday relaxing at the spa (also known as the bathroom sink), and if it weren’t for the irresistible allure of the Feline Greenies bag shaking, he probably would have stayed there all day.

He goes batsh*t cray for those things! If he had his way, he’d eat the whole Value-Size bag in one sitting.

Tabs must have had a case of the kitty Mondays yesterday, because he didn’t do a lot of kitty modeling, but he did find time to strike a pose or two…

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Saw a video yesterday and thought you might like it. It stars Tresor, one of the six MAC MACnificent Me collection winners.

One of the things that touched me was when he said, “Don’t let go of your hope because it really is the most powerful thing you have.”

What a wonderful lesson. 🙂 I hope that’s something I can teach Baby Girl someday.

Speaking of MAC and magnificence, the MAC MACnificent Me collection is available now online if you’re interested (here’s my review from a few days ago). Have you tried to chase anything down?

It’s not often when you can visit SF and walk around in a dress, sweater and sandals and NOT be cold, although it does happen…and when it does, it’s usually in September or October. Sometimes it’s hard to predict Karl the Fog (that’s what they call it) and our unpredictable Bay Area microclimates.

But my trip to SF yesterday went well! Thank you very much for the maternity clothes recommendations. I found some pretty good prospects at H&M, and I’m keeping a list of the ideas you gave me in my cat lady day planner. I’ll show you what I found yesterday in a little while, but I have a couple other things I have to do first.

In the meantime, San Francisco says hello. 🙂

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I got the nicest surprise in the mail yesterday — a care package filled with local Hawaii snacks from my friend Fern on Oahu.

She sent quite a few of my favorites, like Passion Orange Drink Mix (YUM), Coconut Pudding Haupia (it’s kind of like coconut Jell-O), Red Coconut Balls and Mauna Loa Macadamia Nuts, and some things I’ve never tried before, which I’m super stoked about. Seriously, I can’t wait to get those Hawaiian Sun Pancake Mixes (Lilikoi Passion Fruit, Pineapple Coconut and Chocolate Macadamia Nut) into my tum! I’m going through a breakfast-for-every-meal-of-the-day phase, and these should totally hit the spot.

There are some non-food-related things in there, too, like yummy-smelling soaps and lotions, a sweet card, a magazine, lip balm, and some drops to keep in the potty for those, um…less-than-fragrant moments when you’re on the throne (it happens to us all). 🙂

THANK YOU, FERN! This was very sweet of you. You made my week.

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C06L570979250

PATROL REPORT BY: Private First Class Karen

I. INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY

Purr the daily mandate as issued by senior leadership, Lieutenant Tabs and I conducted a patrol of the Novato sector this morning at 0600 hours.

We observed minor intruder activity at approximately 0615 hours when a human male was spotted on patrol with some type of miniature canine. Lieutenant Tabs ordered us to fall back to base, at which point we proceeded to investigate reports of a feline trespasser at the rear perimeter, but no trespasser was observed.

After completing our patrol, Lieutenant Tabs engaged in behavior that can only be described as “strange” when he proceeded to roll around in a pile of dry leaves.

Shortly after this, we had a green salad for lunch and returned to HQ.

No other anomalies were observed.

/END

/TGIF 🙂

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