The kitty boys will be back on routine as of this morning. My Dutch friend Marianne leaves today and has a 20 or so hour flight back to Amsterdam ahead of her, with several hours just waiting on the ground in Denver.

But first she has a three and a half hour ride in the Denver shuttle from Scottsbluff to Denver International after an hour ride from Alliance to Scottsbluff, where the shuttle picks her up. Whew! Thanks to my very longtime friend Terry, we will get her down there in time.

By way of thanks to Terry, we took him to Mi Ranchito for margaritas and a meal last night. I’m not sure how it happened but Marianne managed to pay for the meals, though I handed the checkout person the money. I paid with a $50 bill and that bill somehow came back to me…. Mystery. 

So, the week went fast. One activity this week was we listened to music – everything from Baroque flute to Mauritanian traditional to Benny Goodman performing classical and pop. I have a very eclectic collection of CDs, though most of it is Baroque, Classical, and Early Romantic. Regardless, pulling out music from the collection that Marianne thought she might enjoy and spending a large part of the day listening to it was a nice cap on the week from heck.

I mean, the South Dakota adventure threatened to ruin the planned week, yet the week went better without the plan! Instead of bustling around two states, we talked, enjoyed each other’s company, ate sensible meals – mostly! – and relaxed.

Marianne added on foot exploration of Alliance to her activities for her morning routine, and she enjoyed this much more than sitting in a car, inactive, watching the scenery go by. Dutch are used to moving under their own power! 

The kitty boys’ week was spent being little poops! Dougy was the more upset of the two when Marianne sensibly kept the guest bedroom door closed. He’d paw at the carpet under the door, pace in front of the door, try imagine how he could open the door.

Andy mostly avoided being touched, pet, “scritched”, held, or otherwise engaged in polite interaction with our guest.

Both kitty boys acted like warming up to Marianne would be against cat union rules. (In their defense, they are rarely around people other than me, and are shy.)