catiecake.

Fifth of November

Kitten Christmas Tree Ornaments (available at www.catiecake.com- very limited quantities)

Dear Kittens,

It seems like we're having our Indian Summer late this year. The mornings and evenings are chilly and the afternoons are warm. I can't say that I'm a fan, but apparently there is nothing to be done about it. Apparently so-called weather does whatever it wants.

One item of note before I go on- there is a giant pile of leaves at our curb (the gardeners were here this morning) and I am dying to go out there and kick the leaves so that they go all over the place. I will not do that only because it will lead to me raking and sweeping the leaves back into place. I think the best part of fall is all crunching as you walk on sidewalk.

So my plan of awesomeness has to do with recommitting to my basics. I'm pretty sure at some point I mentioned that this plan is much more interesting to me than it would be to you. So, you cannot read the following and then blame me for it's lack of complete fascinatingness to you. You little baby Kittens think that EVERYTHING is about you, don't you? When I started with Life Coach, she had me come up with a Well Being Check list. The title makes it pretty obvious what it's supposed to be, right? She suggested coming up with 10 things to do every single day that made me feel good, strong and healthy. I think 10 is an arbitrary number and really, if you wanted to do this you could come up with 4 or 5 super strong basics. Life Coach suggested that the first three on the list should be eating healthy, getting enough sleep and exercise. I think most of us can agree that those three things are the foundation to feeling your best. I've changed my list a few different times because in the beginning there were items on the list that just didn't end up mattering that much to me. So nowadays here's my list:

1. Go to bed at 9pm (I don't actually go to sleep at this time, but I do get ready for bed and read for a little while before I go to sleep)

2. Eat healthfully (avoiding low fiber, high carbohydrate foods)

3. Exercise (daily walks, weights 3X per week)

4. Morning Routine (mostly is about getting certain things done before I start Internetting)

5. Time w/Andy (dates, game night, etc)

6. Creative time (which happily is also my work)

7. Read for at least 30 minutes

8. Meditate for 15 minutes

9. Sitting (I need time where I do absolutely nothing but sit and look.)

10. Friends (wherein I take care of correspondence, have friend dates, make new friends, read friend blogs)

I never abandoned my list, but I also haven't been minding it like I want to. If you are a person who finds it difficult to do everything she wants to do in a day, I recommend coming up with your own list. It doesn't need to be 10 items, although it probably shouldn't be more than 10 (you want to keep it manageable). The important thing is that it includes things you can do to so that you always feel your best. How you implement this sort of thing is that you keep an actual checklist with you at all time and refer to it often. In addition you choose these things every single day. You do not wait for "motivation" or whatever. You say to your Kittenself, Kittenself, I am choosing to play with string for 10 minutes everyday. And then you do it.

In cooperation with Andy Anchev (my husband), it has been decided that Mondays and Fridays are either game night or date night. I am very pleased with this mutual decision. Tonight is pho and a movie. Yipee!

Love,

Catie

Kitty Cat Boyfriend

Berries. Taken at the Bonneville Locks in Oregon

Dear Kittens,

I better get my shit together because in exactly a week I will be starting NaPoBloMo. Wherein I will be required to post Every Single Day of November. Every day! Can you even imagine such a thing?

Today I went to Sephora and spent an obscene amount of money. All manner of new face potions, new eyeshadow, a new blush, and maybe some other stuff I forgot about. Can I tell you Kittens something? Of course I can, you are my baby kittens. I can tell you anything. I am in love with my eyebrows. Pretty much everyday I make out with myself via my eyebrows. I bought this Anastasia kit from Sephora a while ago and it came with these little eyebrow stencils. EYEBROW STENCILS! The stencils did not work out for me, but they did help me correct the shape and size of my eyesbrows and now they pretty much always look awesome. It's okay if you don't care about eyebrows, but let me tell you this- good looking eyebrows go a very long way towards making a face look good. Well groomed brows make up for never wearing makeup, even.

Earlier in the week I roasted trout for dinner. Kittens, trout is so delicious. Tomorrow I'm making pomegranate balsamic glazed pork tenderloin with fennel and orange salad and sugar snap peas. I know! It sounds delicious.

Starting Monday, I'm putting myself on a whole new program of wonderfulness. I'll outline the whole thing on Monday, but I promise serious wonderfulness. Or maybe not so much "wonderfulness" as "making some significant changes."

Ever since we got back from Portland I have been extremely popular with Petey and Seamus. Petey has always loved me the most, but lately he's become like a creepy stalker boyfriend. He follows me all over the house and if Andy makes a move on me, Petey is right there either watching or doing his best to get in between us. It's sweet in a very weird Kitty Cat Boyfriend sort of way. Now if Petey sees me giving Seamus affection he will let out this bitchy meow and then run away. He come right back and that's the part that cracks me up because when he comes back he's all sexy sauntering towards me. Petey's all, "how YOU doin'?"

And now I'ma take my new makeups and what not and go to the bed. I like to look at my new purchases before bedtime. What I really like to do, is spread everything out in a semi circle around me and examine each thing very carefully, the put it all back into the bag and go to sleep. I do this with everything I buy. Shoes, clothes, books, art supplies. Maybe it's really not so weird I have a kitty cat for a boyfriend.

Love,
Catie

I LOVE GOAT CHEESE.

Dear Kittens,

This is not easy for little babies like you to understand, but I Am Drunk. I drank two (2) Old Fashioneds at dinner tonight. Oh my yummy yummy Sweet Baby Jesus, but they were delicious. Honestly, who could've ever imagined that me (Catie Anchev) would love whiskey as much as I do? Certainly not me. But love it I do, Kittens. Love it, I do.

So our first real day in Portland and guess what? We did hardly anything due to the sleeping in and then the driving around to find a power cord that would work with Andy's laptop. Also, we went to Oktoberfest in Fearless Brewing in Estacada or somewhere like that. So listen, Kittens. The Website for the Oktoberfest promised people dressed in authentic Bavarian clothes, German food and German music. The truth was it was the three people who worked there (2 women and 1 man) dressed in Bavarian style clothes, playing German music through the speakers and German food. We had a good time, but it was not at all what we expected. We tried 4 of their beers, the only one we didn't like was the IPA. Also, Oregon is gorgeous.

After we got back from Oktoberfest, we walked to Powell's books. We were immediately overwhelmed and decided to sit in their little cafe to gather ourselves over coffee and tea. Andy said that Powell's is like walking into Amazon.com and he was right. I bought a couple of blank journals and a few novels, Andy hooked himself up with the science fiction maven at Powell's and walked out with something like 6 new books.

We managed to not take a single photo today. I won't let that happen again.

I really like traveling with my parents. We always have a good time and it's fun going places with them, but nothing is as wonderful as traveling with Andy. We have so much fun together. There's no stress of trying to figure out what everyone wants to do, there's no worry about everyone being entertained. It's just us and we get us and it's fantastical.

Oh! So, we're staying at the Westin in Portland and we had a very late dinner in their restaurant last night. I believe the restaurant is called the Daily Grill. The food was so good! Last night I had a whiskey sour, which was masterfully, if not a tiny bit weak, made by the bartender. Tonight we went to the Heathman Hotel and ate in their restaurant and I swear on 2 Old Fashioneds that it was the best meal of my life. I had the trout amandine and then for dessert I got this amazing goat cheese. Why do we not have cheese for dessert at home? WHY? It is so good. I love goat cheese. Maybe we will get a goat so we can have goat cheese everyday of our lives.

As always, I miss the cats, although I do not miss being woken up by a stripe orange cat who says Mew! Mew! Mew! Mew! and then puts his paws on my faces to wake me up. I just miss their general cuteness.

Now I must go lay up in the so called Heavenly Bed and finish being drunk. Oh! You know what's funny? To be drunk and walking home and talking to people on the street. I said, "I mean it" about 40 times to various strangers after making some undoubtedly ill conceived point. At one point Andy said, "Can we be done with the talking now?" And then I said, "I mean it."

Love,

Catie

Pink bike!

Dear Kittens,

I know how obsessed you Kittens are with my hair and so I will tell you that the cut is different and while the highlights are way more obvious than I wanted, they do look pretty. I will take a photo tomorrow for you to look at. The best thing about my hair is that I'vee got a bunch of layers and I can pretty much replicate my hair from my 9th grade school photo as seen here: (my hair now is much shorter)

I haven't been feeling that great this week, which is irritating. I am pretty certain it's all about what I've been eating. My choices haven't been the worst in the world, but they aren't the best, either. I really need to get back into the swing of cooking regularly and what not, I just haven't been feeling it. Maybe I should get back into cooking by inventing another theme week of dinners. Remember when I did the week of salads? That was so tasty and fun! Maybe a week of soups?

I am so tired. I really want to go to bed very early tonight. For a long time I thought that 7.5 hours was enough for me, but now I'm thinking that I need at least 8 and maybe even 8.5. Believe me, I am shocked by this, but when I get 7.5 I'm good for 2 days, but by day 3 I am really tired and headachey and complainy.

Also, this is really reaching to include one more photo, but can you believe that I have not been on my bike at all this year? NOT EVEN ONCE! That is clearly not acceptable. Look at it. It's pink and has a basket and had Hello Kitty Face tread. I mean what sort of ingrate am I. Well, let me tell you what, Kittens- I am riding my bike all fall! Except in the rain and or wind. I do not like wind and obviously you do not ride a pink bike in the rain.

Kittens, as I previously mentioned, I am so tired and so now I'm going to watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and then I'm going to brush my teeth, wash my face, apply various European youth vita spheres to my face and then go bed. T

he End,

Catie

(I love you)