Wednesday's learn and earn...

~WORD OF THE DAY~

pomaceous \poh-MAY-shus\ ~ adjective

DEFINITION(s) 1: of or relating to apples  2: resembling a pome

EXAMPLES: The back porch held a sweet, pomaceous aroma, and immediately Glen knew that his mother had baked an apple pie for dessert.

"This Festival is devoted to the mysteries of Plant Reproduction, especially that of those wondrous trees, the Angiosperms, with special emphasis upon the Drupes and the Pomaceous Fruits." -- From Margaret Atwood's 2009 novel The Year of the Flood

DID YOU KNOW? "Pomaceous" was first planted in the English language by physician Edward Baynard when, in 1706, he advised, "Apples and pomaceous Juices, are the greatest Pectorals." ("Pectoral" is now a rarely used word for a food that helps digestion.) Since then, "pomaceous" has mainly been sown by botanists and poets. The word, which is ultimately derived from Late Latin "pomum" (meaning "apple"), was originally used of apples and things relating to apples, but later it was also applied to things that look like pears. (Pears, like apples, belong to the pome family.)

~THE REBATE~

If you have a cat this is a great rebate.  Purchase $25.00 of ExquisiCat brand cat litter products from PetSmart stores between June 20, 2011 and August 21, 2011 and you can receive a $25 PetSmart gift card. Even better, you can submit this rebate twice per household as long as you use separate envelopes.  You will need to mail in the rebate form together with  the original PetSmart cash register receipt with the litter purchase circled.  The offer is good through August 21st and only at PetSmart.

Hope you all are having a nice Wednesday so far.

C.Q.

Tastefully Tuesday...

I know, its Tastefully Tuesday, but I have something fun to share, which after yesterday will make me smile.  Don't worry, nothing tragic yesterday, just a good reminder lesson in manners.  In a nutshell, if you call on Friday to make an appointment to look at a house on Monday afternoon, don't put an offer in on a DIFFERENT house on Saturday then call on the said Monday to cancel the showing.  We spent all weekend cleaning instead of having a nice Easter. I wasn't in a really great mood yesterday, but on the bright side we have a nice clean house where you can eat off the floors if you want.

So here is the part to share, Bernie over at One Mixed Bag and I were chatting one night about awards and how fun they are to get but that they are a bit of work and we giggled that it would be fun to get one that required the recipient do nothing in particular, totally their choice, then it hit us, well gosh, why can't we make that happen?  So here is it folks, the No Hoops Award.  We are giving it to the blogs we read a lot, and in my case some I read but don't comment on a lot because I have been so busy.  When you get your award you MUST do what ever you feel like, you could sing a little diddy, whistle a little tune, dance the happy dance or nothing at all, its your choice.  You can pass it along or just post it on your blog, or you can ignore it, anything goes.

So here are the blogs I would like to give this award to, in no particular order (OK you caught me, they are alphabetical), and if your new here today feel free to grab the award and pass it on to someone or just keep it for yourself.

A Long Way From Texas (She makes me want to move to Ireland... most days)
10 Steps to Finding Your Happy Place (and staying there) (I do try but some days its hard, she helps)
Bags Books and Bon Jovi (Even the name is great)
Cat Chat (I know she is an award free blog space but I wanted her to know I was thinking of her and Cody)
Cat Thoughts (Who's reading is making me sooooo jelous!)
Dogs, Cats and Other Crap I Talk About (One of the best advocates I know for animal rights)
Egg and Twig (Who is causing me to drool almost everyday I read her posts!)
Facing 50 with Humor (I am right on her heels!)
Housecat Confidential (Fin is a great author, and I can't wait for the next book!)
Its a Keeper (Another blog trying to keep my weight up, they even weed out the bad recipes!)
Kat Happy Haven (Because she works harder than anyone I know to take care of injured critters)
Life with Dogs (Who doesn't need a little unconditional love?)
Meet Virgina Designs (Fashionista extraordinaire and fun to read!)
Never Growing Old (Best blog hop host-er ever!)
Photographing New Zealand (I love seeing places I have never been in beautiful pictures)
Shibley Smiles (Great coupons and blog hops!)
Simply Beautiful Veg. (I love reading the adventures of College life and a new appartment from such a nice lady)
The Thrift Shop Romantic (She makes me want to go looking for treasure!)

Have a great Tuesday everyone!!!

C.Q.

Sunday's media madness...

Last week during a blog hop I stumbled across a book that caught my eye and has since captured my heart.  Its called Housecat Confidential and is the autobiography of Fin, a beautiful long hair house cat, told in her own words and transcribed by the author Meg S. Hart.  The story opens with a wonderful look at her kitten-hood in the shelter and dealing with being different from the other kittens in her litter.  Her interactions with her litter-mates are heart warming and funny and certainly a reminder that beauty is something best seen through the heart, not the eyes.  The book covers everything you would want to know about being a cat or as Fin calls it "a Kittizen".

If you ever wondered what your cat is trying to tell you with that slightly different meow?  Its covered. Want to know what your cat is thinking when it just stands there looking at you with "that" look?  Its covered.  Want to know how your cat REALLY feels about being "fixed"?  Its covered.  This book goes through all the joys of being a companion to a cat, everything from snuggle time, to vet visits to grooming.  Having three cats myself I relished the insights on mousey love and the evil Dyson, it was also nice to finally find out why my three cats all turned out to be "Daddies" girls. 

If you have a cat or are thinking of getting a cat I highly recommend this book, it will make you smile, chuckle and nod in agreement....a LOT.  The pictures of Fin are adorable and thankfully one of the first ones, a kitten picture says you can go ahead and smooch the page if you need to....I needed to.

You can find this book at Amazon in paperback for $9.95 or Kindle download for $3.99.

Here is the Amazon Product Description: "Have you ever wondered what “Meow” really means? What would a cat say about her life, or about her observations of yours?

Maybe our lives aren’t so different.

Fin’s life is filled with many of the same struggles and joys we can all relate to. Her love of and frustration with her family, finding love despite the scandal (with her toy mouse), discovering her life’s purpose (humans don’t wake themselves), and protecting the ones she loves from danger (moths and the new family dog).

After reading this humorous and heartwarming tale, filled with advice on living life on the inside, you may never think of “Pet Peeves” in the same way again.

About the Author: Fin is an ordinary suburban housecat living life on the inside."

Fin and her mom also have a blog by the same name, Housecat Confidential, so you can keep up with her and her family, you can follow on line or have it delivered from Amazon straight to your kindle for $0.99 so you never miss a post.

I hope you are all having a great weekend.

C.Q.