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With M&M

Tuesday, I flew back to greater Vancouver.  The trip was relatively uneventful, except for the two screaming children who sat across the aisle from me.  They took turns being unhappy at the top of their lungs, so the three hours seemed very long.



Then there was the wind Tuesday night flying into Vancouver.  It added the stomach-sinking feel of a roller coaster ride to the landing all wrapped into the price of the ticket.

There was a big problem with the times of my flights.  I must talk to my travel agent; oh, that would be me.  The flight out of Minneapolis to Seattle left at 4:50 pm.  This is a great time which allows for fully cleaning the condo before departure.  Not a bad idea, if I do say so myself.  I got up at 6 am to start and was comfortably ready to depart the condo to catch the Light Rail train at 2 pm.  Now 6 am Central Day Light Savings time is 4 am Pacific time.  All went well on that flight sans the kids with an on-time arrival of 6:30 pm Pacific time.  Then I sat around until my flight to Vancouver left at 11:10 pm putting me into Vancouver about 12:30 am and getting me home at 1:30 am.  Which if you work backwards is 3:30 am in the Central time zone.  So I was up pretty much a 22 hour day, one that can be avoided if I simply pay a bit more for a flight.  Paul agrees adding this change would be much appreciated by hime since he was the poor sole who picked me up at YVR.

As I walked in the door of our house Tuesday night or more accurately, early Wednesday morning to two sleepy-eyed cats greeting me.  They have grown to the point where the moniker of kitten no longer holds. The Marvelous Miss Mara weighs 8.5 pounds and Mighty Mr. Mike tips the scales at 11 pounds. At 11 pounds Mike has reached adult weight.   Mike to me has slimmed down and lengthen as most teenagers do, where Mara has merely filled in.  As I try to type this the two of them take turns being held and petted.  I had hoped they would remember me and that seems to be the case.

Paul did a good job with them while I was gone.  He has trained them to sleep in their bed rather than the couches, stay off the island in the kitchen and most remarkably, he has them trained to be relatively cooperative when their nails are being cut.  Not bad for only six weeks.  Here are a few shots of the "kids" to get you up-to-date with them.



The two of them together.  Note how dark Mara (on the right) is getting

Mara in a rather menacing pose

Mike playing hard to get with regard to a decent photo
In addition to growing in weight Mara is growing darker.  She is approaching a light gray colour.  Both are also growing more mature in decision making; there are no attempts to jump a span that cannot be jumped.  They have changed all in good ways.

I know the photos above don't really tell you much about their size so below is a photo of them at about five months old.  You can see all the extra space in that bed.  Now compare it to the amount of space available on the photo taken yesterday at the top.  The two of them fill it with Mara's back spilling over the back.
A older photo from December 2016
We have reconnected; I would like to think they remember me.  Perhaps they just like the fact I spend hours giving them attention.  At any rate, it is great to be back and great to see all this sunshine, to boot!

More knitting news later this week.

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