The maze and door vs. cat

Just wanted to give a small update.  Still no pictures.  They are all on my camera where they are safe until we get the server hooked up so I can download them to there for permanent storage.  After a recent breakdown over losing about 50 pictures I do not want to experience the breakdown over losing about a months' worth. 
It wouldn't be pretty.

But someday you will get to see! If you're good.

Unpacking is moving along, very slowly, but it's moving.  I found a really good method for getting about 3 unpacked in 30 minutes - look for a vase (or something else you really really want).  I knew which box I had packed the majority of my vases in, but couldn't remember if I had stashed one or two in a few other boxes.  Those boxes were easier to get to since I knew where they were. 

I had not. 

Oh well, my china is completely unpacked and I did find a vase for a few peonies I had cut from my yard.

FROM MY YARD!!! I love having pretty flowers in my yard.  I also have quite a few rose bushes, but they aren't too healthy right now. I hope I can fix that.  There is also a few of this one kind of bush that I know will eventually bloom, but I have no idea what it is or what the flowers will be like.  They too, like the roses, are COVERED in aphids.  For now.

Getting boxes out of the garage to unpack is 'fun' all by itself.  The garage is stuffed full of all our stuff.  I've worked out a few maze-like trails to get through.  I have one to the freezer and one to the area where all my boxes seem to be, which also seem to be under all of Robert's SUPER heavy boxes.

Speaking of the garage - looks like we're in the market for a new door opener.  The sellers went out and bought us a second door opener remote a few weeks before moving out, which was really nice of them.  However, that's when the opener became possessed.  It opens the garage by itself at random moments throughout the day and night.  The neighborhood seems safe enough so I'm not too concerned about someone trying to run off with our heavy boxes, but I still don't want the door open. 

We've found it open when coming home several times and this morning when Robert left to take the kids to school and go to work he found it open again. 

At first he thought the new remote had just accidentally gotten reprogrammed onto a neighbors' frequency, but after reprogramming the remotes several times and some other attempts at fixing it, it is just staying possessed.  So new opener it is....

I should have told everyone to go buy stock in HomeDepot before we signed - we have spent more money there in the past month than I would like to admit.

This last weekend we worked on the kids rooms and ripped out about 6 bushes - which Peter identified over the phone as Heavenly Bamboo (my neighbor called them that too).  YAY PETER!  Peter has a great green thumb, I wish he lived closer. Now we can walk around the porch to the backyard without feeling like we're going through a jungle.  We have about 6 more that need to be pulled so we can put a second door on the porch to get to the backyard more easily.  I am going to try to move those.  They are still small and look a lot healthier (probably because they didn't have to be constantly hacked to get by them) and they are very pretty bushes.  We'll see how moving goes.  If they become a pain, they get tossed.

I don't think Simba is taking the move that well.  He started out very nervous about being outside (the neighbor has three large, loud labs) but is now making 'rounds' like he usually does.  He has been caught 'marking' in the house twice, which I don't get.  He has access to a perfectly fine litter box, is the only cat allowed outside, and he has been fixed so he shouldn't have that urge anymore.  This morning he was also found in the garage peeing on Robert's mechanic overalls - the outside was right there - WHY SIMBA WHY?!

He has also decided that the small rip in the screen of the patio door needed to be larger so it could accomodate him as his personal cat door.  I have squirted him to the point he was dripping (all in one afternoon) in an attempt to try to teach him not to go through there, and still he goes through. 

I might be making him a strictly outdoor kitty.