B & B

That darn cat
Atticus used one of his nine lives this morning. He was in my office and, as usual, had jumped up onto the twin bed. This bed used to be Bill's. It was handmade by the man who built the mock Oval Office in the Gerald Ford Museum here in Grand Rapids. This bed is solid cherry and is built to last. Considering it has now survived five moves and was broken down and reassembled each time; it is not showing any signs of wear or tear. It is not something that is easily moved. There is just enough room to stick the vacuum hose down between the bed and the wall. If something falls down there, it's lost forever (some day we'll have to move it to get the carpet cleaned -I can't wait to see what treasures lie back there!).

How does Atticus "fit" with this (would you like to guess where I'm going with this)? As I said, he was in my office and as I sat at my desk I heard a pitiful mew. I turned to see what he was doing and all I could see was his tail sticking straight up from between the wall and the head board. Then I saw his back paws. If I didn't know any better I would have thought he was training for the circus and was practicing hand (paw?) stands.

That is when I realized the cat was stuck and his little back paws were frantically trying to scale back up the wall to remove him from his predicament. I jumped up and screamed for Bill (what else would I do? I knew I couldn't move the bed on my own) and ran over (okay, the office is small, running is not an option, I reached the bed in three steps) to see what I could do. At this point his back legs disappeared as they flipped over backward. Thinking he had just killed himself, I held my breath. Then, quick as lightning, he clawed his way back out, head first. I don't know how he did it, but as soon as he was free he ran.

He has been curled up on the couch ever since.

Bed & Breakfast
Last night was fun. It reminded me of when I was little and we'd have "company". It never mattered who it was, it was just fun (minus cleaning my "pig-sty" of a room) and I was always excited. I was just as excited yesterday. I hope Jen and Amelia had enough to eat, that's always something I worry about. I tend not to overeat, so I usually make the right amount of food. I'm also used to cooking for two. Sometimes adding two more people makes a typical dish look much smaller.

I was thinking about how much fun it is to have dinner parties and to have friends come and visit. Did you ever dream of opening a B&B when you were younger? Bill and I used to think that would be fun. Loving old houses and wanting to run a B&B often go hand-in-hand. Somewhere along the lines, B&B's got creepy. Maybe it's Hollywood's portrayal of them (high-strung owners who aren't happy unless you do everything their way, coupled -ha! with the couples who apparently only go to B&B's to do it) but Bill and I decided that we're not interested in owning/operating one anymore.

Our friends and family are still welcome to come and stay whenever and as long as they like. We'll even fix them breakfast, lunch and dinner. But we won't be buying a bigger house and trying to make money off of it. We'll stick with our way of doing things. Who wants to come over for dinner?