antiquing, a new furry friend, and grilling

Every winter, me, my mom and aunt make our annual trek to the antique mall a couple of miles from my house. It's a great place to explore and treasure hunt when it's bitter cold and we're stuck indoors. This year, we weren't able to get together on a Saturday in winter for various reasons. We finally found ourselves there this past Saturday. This is me and my little mommy. :-)

I found a few treasures: for one, this yellow cat pitcher. It's in the little nook above the range and microwave.

I also came home with this metal shelf and the mini pitcher in the middle. Right now the shelf is on my kitchen wall. We didn't want to make any holes in the newly painted wall, so I used a 3M sticky hook, but I think it looks tacky. I'm going to look for a pretty, decorative hook at Hobby Lobby. Nail holes, be damned!

Sunday, I drove out to the south side of Chicago to visit with my cousin before having to pick up Brian at the airport. He was in Los Angeles, CA for five days, visiting his sister.

I saw these flowers growing underneath my cousin's lilac bush and I asked him what they were. He said his mother planted them many years ago and that they were bluebells. So pretty!

Sorry for the lousy photo...meet JR. He showed up on my cousin's doorstep last week. He's such a love, that when I was trying to take his photo, he kept coming up to my phone and rubbing it. He's already made himself right at home in my cousin's house, sleeping in his bed and on a favorite chair in the living room. My cousin's previous kitty, Grayce passed away last year and my cousin has been heartbroken. JR is just what my cousin needed. It's funny...Grayce was also a stray that showed up at my cousin's house. And my cats were strays that appeared at my door, too. I think they know who the cat lovers are.

Meanwhile, Brian came home to beautiful, sunny weather and with a couple more days off work, broke out the power washer and started tackling all the dirty stuff outdoors.

Brian said he couldn't believe how much the trees and flowers blossomed in those few days he was away. In fact, just today, our lilacs started to open.

The clematis has already climbed 3/4 of the way to the top of the trellis and has flower buds.

And we were able to grill for the first time! Brian power-washed the Weber and he grilled sausages and a basket full of veggies ~ zucchini, yellow squash, onions, and red and orange peppers. I made a side dish of brown rice with slivered almonds and chives from our garden.

Did you ever see a cat that liked grilled zucchini?! We had the grilled veggies up on the kitchen counter and weren't paying any attention to Zippo, who was in the open kitchen window. Next thing you know, Zippo (who is almost 18 but can move quickly when he wants to) grabbed a piece of yellow squash in his mouth, jumped off the counter, and ran across the kitchen with the squash dangling from his mouth like it was a mouse. We were laughing so hard...he looked so ridiculous! That piece of squash was gone in a heartbeat. We couldn't believe it...a cat likes grilled squash? So, we gave him a piece of zucchini. He loved it.

Doesn't look like we'll be grilling again for awhile. The extended forecast shows nothing but rain - or at least, cloudy skies - for the next 10 days. And much cooler temps. I need to tell my California sister-in-law to send more sunshine our way.

Enjoy the rest of your week!