Hanging With A 13 Year Old

It's 5:30 AM and the cats are swarming around my ankles like a herd of great whites. They're lonely. My niece is in in town for her annual summer visit and the cats--antisocial beings that they are--refuse to be in the same room with a stranger. 

We've had a great visit with K----- but as always, I'm exhausted. It's been non-stop since she arrived. The two of us have a tradition of cooking when we get together which is a laugh because neither of us knows which end of the stove is up. But we poured over cookbooks Wednesday night, went grocery shopping early Thursday morning, and then literally spent almost 8 hours in the kitchen. We shredded carrots for carrot cake, shelled pistachios for stuffed mushrooms, made our own breadcrumbs, and sliced and diced anything that stood still. (Perhaps explaining why the cats won't stay in the same room with us.) The upshot is that we rocked the menu this year. Each and every dish was delectable and I'll spend the next month running off the damage I did with that carrot cake.

After that is was movies. Her Uncle Blair took her to see HellBoy II. He also introduced K--- to the wonderful world of discount books at Edward McKay (she's still talking about the Harry Potter sorcerer's dictionary she found) and they found the Vivaldi flute music she'd been looking for in a music store. K---- is an accomplished flutist for her age and practices, voluntarily, 1-3 hours each day. She sight read the music for us and it was amazing. 

Then it was bowling, eating out, board games, and a visit last night to The Idiot Box, Greensboro's Improv Comedy Club. Aunt Dena and Uncle Blair are pooped!

And the fun doesn't stop. I've got an agent interested in seeing a book proposal and sample chapters for a new cat book and I've been writing the proposal all week. Now I've got to pull out the funny and slam some top notch chapters down on paper. 

But first, I must pet the great whites at my feet. That's a good kitty!