9/14/07

Siamese twin Gerbera Daisy bloom!

* * * Let the comment-answering extravaganza begin! (If you missed your chance to ask your question, fear not. It’ll be back next week!) Hummingbird feeders I can’t even count how many of you have commented to let me know that I shouldn’t be adding food coloring to my hummingbird food (I stopped counting at ten), so listen up: I KNOW. The red hummingbird food you’ve seen in the hummingbird pictures is the instant stuff made from packets I bought at the pet store. I usually make my own (the recipe I follow, which I got off the back of a box one of the hummingbird feeders came in: 1 part sugar to 4 parts water; bring to a boil, let cool, store in the fridge) and don’t add food coloring, but the instant stuff comes colored red. I bought several boxes of the instant stuff because it was bad enough I was making Fred change out the hummingbird feeders every day while I was in Maine; I was afraid that making him MAKE the hummingbird food too would have been the straw that broke the Fred’s back. I was changing out the hummingbird feeders every day because it was over 100 for the 10 days before I left for Maine, and all three of the feeders spend at least a small part of the day in the sun. If I did it every other day instead of every day, the food would get nasty. Now that it’s cooled down a little, I’ve gone to changing them out every other day, and probably I’ll go to every three or four days in another week. By the way, I still want a pet hummingbird. In case you were wondering. * * * Did you watch *A Beautiful Mind*, and was it too act-y? Crowe’s accent drove me apeshit until I turned the captioning on. We did watch A Beautiful Mind, and I didn’t find it too acty, I found it pretty interesting, really; it explained a lot about schizophrenia I simply hadn’t realized (for one, you think of someone hearing voices, and you think Well, they’re voices of people who really aren’t there. Why can’t they just figure that out and get past it? I didn’t realize how REAL the hallucinated people and voices actually are.). Spoilers for A Beautiful Mind; skip to the next section if you haven’t seen it yet. Several minutes before it was made clear in the movie that Paul Bettany’s character and the whole “spy thing” was imaginary, I called it. Being able to call stuff like that before it’s spelled out always makes me feel like a Super Special Smartypants. My gripe with the movie is that they really kind of glossed over the whole medication thing. He went off the medication, started seeing his imaginary friends again, realized they were imaginary, and kind of white-knuckled his way through. There was like one line toward the end of the movie where he said he was on the newer medication, but that was such a throwaway line that if your attention wandered for a moment, you might have missed it. Does anyone else think that Jennifer Connelly, aged, looked a lot like Brooke Shields, or is it just me? * * * P.S He doesn’t look like a troll or gollum or a goonie. You chose a horrible picture of him. Tsk tsk tsk. This is regarding Denis Leary and his resemblance to Gollum. And I’m going to have to disagree with you on that one – the only reason I used that particular picture of him is because I couldn’t find one of him making that face that he does 73 times in every episode of Rescue Me, the one where he looks to the side with his mouth open and he looks EXACTLY like Gollum. I didn’t say he wasn’t HOT, I didn’t say I wouldn’t put him on my List (Denis Leary is huddled in a corner sobbing if he ever reads that, I’m sure), I just said he looks like Gollum. Big blue eyes, jagged teeth, high cheek bones. All he needs is to hiss something about “My pretty”, and the resemblance would be complete. * * * It has also been a year since we submitted yawning pics, so can we do it again? Not yet – I’m a little overwhelmed right now, so maybe in October! * * * What about a batch named after the characters in O Brother Where Art Thou? You could have Delmar, Pete (we thought you was a TOAD!), Everett, Tommy Johnson, Big Dan Teague, even Vernon T Waldrup – if you get a kitten that’s BONAFIDE! I ADORE this idea. Adore it! If I’m not twanging “He’s BONAFIDE!” at a kitten by the end of the year, I’ll eat my hat. * * * Robyn, did you know that almost all Torti cats, like Miz Poo are almost always girls and if they are a boy they will most likely be sterile. I just adopted a little Torti who was living in my yard, she is just like Mz. Poo with her always giving my 3 boy cats the paw of doom! I feel like I kind of did know that most Tortis are female – I’ve never personally seen a male torti, and I guess that would explain why! Tortoiseshells have a reputation for being a wee bit crazy, and although Miz Poo has a bit of the bitch about her, she’s not batshit nuts the way some can be. However, having come across many, many tortis when I clean at the pet store, I’d have to say that the majority of them are sweet and lovable, but if you push them, they will kick your ASS. * * * I used to pass that car with the “SASSY” plate on my way to work at the Maine Mall every day when I lived in Maine. How weird to see it here! I fully expect that one day someone’s going to email me and say “Uh, that’s MY license plate!” Hasn’t happened yet, but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time. * * * Maybe this is a stupid question, but did you already know about the Google thing? Or did you just guess that it would work? Because that’s pretty damn cool. and I gotta know … That Google thing is awesome – do they charge for the text message, or is it just counted as one of your plan’s allotted messages? A few months ago I read something in a magazine, which led me to this page. It was while I was living here alone, before Fred and the spud moved in, and I have this weird need when I wake up each morning to know what the weather is supposed to be like. So I got into the habit of texting Google every morning for the weather, and then we got internet here, and I stopped doing it. When we were looking for the restaurant, I looked through my cell phone phonebook to see if I had Fred’s sister’s cell phone number, and came across Google. I gave it a try, and it worked! I get charged for a regular text message, and if I had a texting plan it would be included in that. I don’t have a texting plan, though, which is something we need to remedy. I don’t send a lot of text messages, but I send enough that having a plan would be worth it, FRED. * * * Are Fred and you going to be selling your old camera since Fred got a new toy? No, because the new camera is a pain in the ass to carry around. It’s good to have when we want to take really good pictures, but it’s not really easy to carry around and won’t fit in my purse, so we’re keeping Sony Cybershot DSC-P200 we already have. * * * Love your bee picture!! That’s what y’all need to get next. We love ours. You still have corn? Amazing. Oh, believe me – Fred’s already been researching bees and the work involved! The only reason we have corn is because we did a second planting. I don’t know how well they’re going to come out, but I think we’re getting close to the time when we need to do some corn-pickin’. * * * Congrats on the sweet ‘taters! Are they much different from yams? I’ve had it explained to me before, but I honestly don’t know the difference between sweet potatoes and yams. I feel like they’re often used interchangeably and if I had a sweet potato pie made with yams, I’m sure I wouldn’t know any different. Those sweet potatoes we grew SUCKED. I made sweet potato crack a few days ago, and the sweet potatoes were bland and tasteless, and I tossed the rest of them on the compost heap. Fred thinks the problem might be that we used a sweet potato from the grocery store, and who knows what the issue was, there. Next year we’re going to buy slips at the co-op, and will hopefully end up with something a little better. * * * Whose faces are on the new logo? Their eyes follow me everywhere! That’s Fred and I, photoshopped onto the picture. It makes me giggle. * * * LOVE the new version of “Anders0n Gothic,” in your new logo. Did you or Fred think of it? Nope, I don’t know that I’ve ever come up with any of the ideas behind the logos I use, aside from maybe saying “I need a Christmas logo! Someone?”. This one was made by wonderful reader Christine, who came up with the idea and execution on her own. Did I mention that it makes me giggle? * * * Have you seen or even heard of Slacker Cats on ABCFamily? It’s a cartoon for adults and it’s on Monday nights at 9(central) and it’s so damn disturbing and hilarious at the same time. Anyway, there’s a girl kitty that just wants to be friends with the two main boy kitties and they’re not exactly nice to her in their attempts to get away. Tommy leaving and her following made me think of them. I had never heard of Slacker Cats, but I think I’m going to have to give it a try. It looks cute! * * * Did you go out to the island at Popham, or was the tide in? I have, sadly, not been out to that island (it’s called Fox Island, apparently) in many years. Every year I think “Oh, we should totally walk out to the island!” before we get to Popham, and then we get there and I’m like “Orrrr I could just sit on my ass and watch the people go by!” Maybe next summer! * * * You stinker. I was in South Portland/Biddeford the same weekend….. You could have met 2 of your loyal readers! Oh well, maybe next year? I am seriously considering having a Bitchypoo mini-con next summer, so anyone in the area could come, we could meet up for a few hours, then y’all could go home and tell your friends and family “That Robyn…. kind of an odd one!” Anyone interested? * * * Now Miz Poo {Princess #1 of course!} isn’t going to be the only girl anymore, how is she going to handle that? She’s pretty much taken it in stride – she knows she’s Momma’s sweet princess baby and no one could replace her! Of course, it helps that Stinkerbelle (I keep wanting to call her Maryanne, still) isn’t likely to up and start wanting to snuggle with me at night, so that spot right next to me still belongs to Miz Poo. * * * I must know where you got that pink cat shirt! does it say “bad kitty”? Yep, that’s my “bad kitty” t-shirt! I got it at Steve and Barry’s, in the local mall. I love that store, because they have a ton of cool t-shirts, they’re inexpensive (2 for $15, I think), and they’re good quality. I got my “Chillin’ with my gnomies” t-shirt there, too. (That’s the store that carries the new Sarah Jessica Parker line, Bitten. And I hate to tell SJP, but “Fashion is not a luxury; it’s a right” my ASS.) * * * Robyn, I believe I asked a few weeks ago if there was any chance you guys would keep Maryanne because Fred liked her so much!!! Ha ha! Congratulations on your new addition. Fred is a definitely a keeper, but you already know that!!! So now I know who to blame, MICHELE. YOU put the idea into Fred’s noggin, and it’s YOUR fault we have a number 7 (9). You are evil and must be punished. (At least, if she wasn’t a pretty good little cat who’s cute and has soft, silky fur and mostly behaves herself, I’d have to hunt you down and beat you soundly. Also, I haven’t the energy for beating you. Consider yourself lucky, missy!) * * * Hey Robyn! Since you like the new versions of Hairspray, you have got to see the original with Ricki Lake. It is hysterical! I just went and added it to my Netflix queue! I’ve been meaning to do that, but kept forgetting. Thanks for the reminder! * * * How is the Sugs neck thingy? Better? It gets better, almost to the point of being healed, and then he starts scratching at it, and it gets worse and we have to put gauze and a bandage on it. If it doesn’t heal up completely fairly soon, I’m going to haul his ass back to the vet. The many moods of da Sugs: * * * I hope it wasn’t the same person from awhile back….didn’t you have some problem with someone taking pictures off your site and doing something with them? I think at that time you decided to take all your pictures down (or put a smiley on them) or maybe I’m not remembering correctly.. Back in 2003, some lame-ass motherfucker stole a picture off my OneFatBitchypoo site and posted on a message board pretending that the picture was her. Someone recognized the picture as being me, and rather than thinking “Hey. Maybe someone stole Robyn’s picture, since she never posts here, and I should let her know?”, she instead informed some nutbag, who emailed me and acted like a fucking lunatic. I went back and put a smiley-face over the faces on all my pictures, but that didn’t last long because it’s a pain in the ass, and if someone’s going to be so much a loser that they steal one of my pictures and pretend it’s them, a smiley face probably won’t slow them down much. All of this is to say that no, the person who caused me to take down my archives in self-defense is not the same person from 2003. * * * In our house we call those cat beds “cat pizzas” as in “look at Swee Pea on the pizza” – we have them EVERYWHERE. We have stolen this word and use it pretty regularly – Fred, especially. Because it’s such a good description! * * * How about doing some password protected entries? Maybe, possibly, at some point in the future – if I decide to do so, I’ll make sure to mention it here. And should that happen, you can be assured that access will be strictly controlled. (Let me take a moment to thank the lord once again that I married a computer geek.) * * * So does that mean we can’t get random entries no mo’? Or funny comments from two years ago today? The archives are slowly going back up – though I think for the time being I’m going to concentrate on getting archives put up on the weekends so as not to muck up those of you who read me via RSS. Every time I publish an old entry, it apparently shows up in the RSS feeds as a new one, and I’m sorry about that, y’all. If I knew of a workaround, I’d totally do it. * * * Surely you have seen this – because when I saw it, I immediately thought of you. I hadn’t seen that, actually. I’m intrigued by the idea of potty-training cats, but I don’t know that it’s for us. Anyone out there have potty-trained cats? ‘Cause I’d like to hear about your experience. (Though I suspect that the first time I had to wait to use the bathroom because Mister Boogers was sitting in there reading the newspaper, I’d immediately UN-train them.) * * * Have you met Jane “in person?” Not yet! Also, I noticed that Tom doesn’t have any Soft Claws on in the above picture. Is he good about not scratching the furniture? My idiot (oh good boy) is good about not scratching the furniture until he loses 2 or 3 caps on a paw. Then it’s scratch like a crazy cat. I hate having to replace the caps individually because it plugs up the little tube adapter, but sometimes he scratches my legs and that’s not good. Tommy is very, very good about not scratching the furniture. The only place I ever see him sharpening his claws in the house is the carpet in the foster kitten room (they all like to sharpen their claws there, I guess because it’s cheap and crappy carpet). I think he went without any Soft Paws at all for a couple of months, and we didn’t have any problems. We recently re-capped him, though I’m kind of wondering why I thought it needed to be done at all, given that there’s not a scratching issue. * * * Do you still enjoy those orange cupcakes you used to talk about? It used to be that the only place I ever saw the Hostess Orange Cupcakes was in Maine, so it was solely a Maine treat. I’d eat them when I was in Maine, and in between, I’d pine for them. Then we discovered that they were available at a local bakery thrift store, so I’d have a pack of them every now and then. And then I ate them a little too quickly one night, got sick, and that’s all she wrote. If I never see another pack of orange cupcakes, it’ll be too damn soon. * * * When you make salsa – do you just can it in a water bath or do you do the whole pressure cooker thing? I do it in a water bath. I figure between the fact that the tomatoes are super-ripe and I add lime juice, it’s acidic enough that a pressure cooker is good enough. Should Fred die from botulism this winter, though, I’ll change that up next year. * * * mmmm salsa … recipe please? I absolutely hate it when other people say this, but it’s the truth – I don’t really have a recipe. This is how I make it: I blanch and peel all the ripe tomatoes I have*, then roughly chop them. Some people might deseed their tomatoes, but Fred doesn’t mind the seeds, and deseeding has been a pain in the ass with the tomatoes we’ve got, so I leave them. Once I have the tomatoes all peeled and chopped, I throw them in the big pot, and I chop one to two onions (depending on the size of the onions and how much you like onion, of course. Fred likes it, and I don’t mind onion breath on him, so I usually chop up a couple of big ones.) and add them to the pot. Then I make Fred come inside, show him what I’ve got for tomatoes and onions, and tell him to get me however many green peppers, jalapeños, and habaneros he wants in it. Last weekend, with a huge pot of tomatoes, he had me do 7 or 8 green peppers, 15 jalapeños, and 4 or 5 habaneros. I chop the green peppers coarsely and add them to the pot, but I don’t chop jalapeños and habaneros by hand. You have to wear plastic gloves when you chop those, or you’ll burn your eyes out of their sockets hours later when you take your contacts out before bed. I chop the stem end off the jalapeños and habaneros, then toss them in the food processor and run it until they’re chopped into tiny bits. Then I scrape it all into the big pot and stir. I add a bunch of cilantro (I could use fresh, but I hate chopping that shit (um, newsflash, Einstein: food processor, maybe? DUH.), so I use dried), a lot of salt, and dump some lime juice in. If I remember, I add minced garlic, but I forgot last weekend. Then I call Fred in and make him test the salsa. Invariably he adds more salt, tastes it a few more times, and pronounces it good. I put the pot on the stove and bring the salsa to a boil, then let it boil for ten minutes. I fill each scalded pint jar, leaving 1/2″ headspace, get the air bubbles out, put the lid and ring on, and when I have seven jars, put them in the already-boiling water bath canner, and let ’em go for 10 minutes. Fred decreed last night that he’d like to do some experimentation with the salsa next year – try other peppers, smoke some peppers, just kind of change things around. It’s a pain in the ass, this salsa-making, and as I believe I’ve mentioned, I don’t even eat the stuff, but it makes him happy, so ::BIG DRAMATIC SIGH:: I’ll keep on keepin’ on. *I recently read that if you toss ripe tomatoes in the freezer, they’re easy to peel without having to blanch them. This is true, but I really don’t like the feel of a tomato that’s been frozen, and they seem to be far more liquid than the ones that are blanched and peeled. It’s kind of gross, actually, the feeling of a frozen and thawed tomato. The blanching is a pain in the ass, but I don’t mind it that much. * * * You may have mentioned this before, but what camera do you use? Whatever you’re using, I want one! Most of the time I use my trusty Sony CyberShot DSC P200, but we just recently got a fancier one, the Sony α A100H. I like the big fancy one, and I can’t deny that you can get some awesome pictures with it, but it’s not practical for everyday use, and it doesn’t EVEN fit into my purse, so I’ll continue to mostly stick with the P200. * * * How do you control the cat hair/litterbox smell in your house? I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have kitties but the cat hair everywhere from our last one just drove me nuts! With so many of them, you must have a solution! In a perfect world, I completely change out the litter in all three (!) litter boxes every week, scrubbing out the litter boxes before refilling them with clean litter. In between, I scoop the litter boxes twice a day. I vacuum the house from top to bottom every day, and the cats do NOT walk across my just-vacuumed rugs, shedding like a… thing that sheds. A FUCKING LOT. In the real world, I completely change out the litter in all three (!) litter boxes every couple of weeks, and I might scrub out the litter boxes when I change out the litter, or I might just spray them down lightly with my favorite cleaning solution, and wipe them out with paper towels; it depends on where the lazy meter’s at on that particular day. I scoop out the litter boxes (and empty the Litter Robot drawer) first thing in the morning and take the bags o’ cat poop out the trash can in the garage immediately. I vacuum every other day – or at the most every third (OKAY, every FOURTH day this week) day, and sometimes I run the Swiffer over the hardwood floors, before I vacuum, but most times I don’t. Most of the time the litter box odor isn’t that bad unless someone’s just used the litter box and really stunk it up. On such an occasion, I might smell the litter box in the kitchen, but it must not bother me all that much, because I haven’t gotten off my dead ass and stripped and repainted the door that goes between the laundry room and kitchen, which would cut down on such odorous occasions. Far and away the litter box that gets the most use is the one I recently put in the upstairs bathroom. The cats use the HELL out of that litter box for some reason. If there was a convenient outlet in the bathroom cubby, I’d totally put the Litter Robot up there, but since there’s not… I’ll have to talk my father in to putting a new outlet there next time he comes to visit! (I think he can do that…) Speaking of the vacuuming, Leanne recently left a comment telling me that iRobot has recently released a new Roomba for Pets version, and they’ve revamped the brush so that pet hair is easier to get out. I am seriously thinking that I need a Roomba (Fred’s rolling his eyes and thinking about what a lemming I am, I’m sure) (actually, he’s probably just scanning this entry looking to see if I’ve written about him, bastard). * * * I’ve been wondering how you cook your green beans from the garden. I always want to get fresh green beans at the grocery store, but I have absolutely no idea what you do with them (I know…my momma didn’t raise me right). Do you have to cut the ends off? Steam them? Season them with something? I snap the ends off the green beans, then (depending on the length), cut them to a smaller size, put them in a pot of water, let the water come to a boil, and let them boil for five minutes or so. I like to put a dab of Brummel and Brown on them for that buttery taste, but that’s it. I’ve tried them other ways – stir-fried with garlic and onion in olive oil – but I find that I really prefer them simply boiled. It’s a matter of personal taste, I think – some people like them firmer, some like them softer, some with lots of spices, some with none. Buy some and give it a try – you’ll figure out what you like soon enough, I promise. * * * Dear Robyn: I was watching that Mary Winkler mess on Oprah yesterday, and she has a really strong Southern accent (understatement) I realize she’s from Tennessee, not Alabama, but Fred does not seem to have that accent, and I’ve known other people from the Deep South who don’t either. Do some people from the South talk that way just to piss me off? Cordially, Jane and My question – Robyn, have you ever heard someone talk with that thick of an accent? First of all, I must say: Shitfire. Did Oprah start up her new season and I didn’t set up to tape? DAMN IT. I didn’t miss any weight loss shows, did I? Because I’ll have a fit if I did! Here’s my thick-accent story, and I know I’ve probably told it before, but I’m gonna tell it again because I CAN. When the spud and I were moving down here, it was a two-day drive. After a very long day of driving, we stopped in the mountains of Tennessee at a chain hotel. I went in and told the desk clerk that I needed a room for two, and she said something. I leaned forward, smiled politely, and said “Pardon me?” And she said something. I could not understand one single word that came out of her mouth. We were finally able to communicate via hand gestures and slow talking with exaggerated pronunciation, and when the spud and I got to our hotel room, I called Fred. And I said “I do not understand the Southern language, and what the FUCK am I doing, moving to the south?!” It was the first (and really, only) time I thought I might be making a huge mistake. Fred talked me down from the ledge by explaining to me that yes, there are people in the south who speak with such horrifically thick accents that you can’t understand them. BUT they tend to live in the more rural towns, and since I was moving to Huntsville, which has an Army base and tends to have more people from places NOT in the south, I’d probably not run into that problem all that often. Every now and then someone will say something and I’ll have a moment of “What the fuck did they just say to me?” panic, but it doesn’t happen that often. And Fred has a southern accent, but it’s not a thick one. The story goes that when he was a kid, he heard a recording of his own voice, and he was so horrified at how he sounded that he taught himself to speak without that thick redneck drawl. (His parents, for the record, have southern accents, but are perfectly understandable and don’t sound like rednecks.) I don’t know where Mary Winkler is from, but from your description, I’d guess she’s from a small, rural area. (And Jane, I think you should know that we all live to annoy you. Makes for more interesting entries!) * * * Why does Copper Girl look like a Bobble Head Doll? How’s that for a question??? That’s a fine question, and the answer is, it’s the angle. I adore that picture – she looks like she has stubby little legs and a great big head, and the fact that the sign in the background reads “Dog Dog Dog” just adds to the perfection of the picture, dontchathink? * * * 1. how do you wash the cat furniture? I vacuum the cat trees with the vacuum cleaner attachment, I wash the cat beds once a month or so (okay, really every three or four months, but I always INTEND to do it once a month) in the washing machine on warm with Tide. Anything else gets wiped down or vacuumed when I realize it needs to be done. 2. I’m thinking about weight loss surgery too, have you ever had problems with “loose” skin? Yes indeed, especially in the abdominal area. I intend to have a lower body lift at some point this winter (maybe sometime between Christmas and Spring?) along with a breast lift. On my Plastic Surgery Wish List is also a thigh lift and an upper arm lift, and a chin lift. But I’ll tell you this: if for some reason I just wasn’t able to have any of that plastic surgery, I’m still better off now than I was before I had weight loss surgery. I don’t have 150 pounds of fat literally holding me back from doing the things I want to do. I can honestly say that if I had it to do all over again, I wouldn’t hesitate. * * * By the way my Madison is a female orange tabby. Is it true that female orange tabbys are not a popular cat to have? Do you know why? I have never ever heard that orange female tabbies are less desirable. I do know that they’re less common (something like 90% of orange tabbies are male), but I don’t know why anyone would NOT want an orange tabby. Anyone else ever heard of such a thing? * * * I have followed you and Fred and Spud for years. You really put it all out there at times. I have to wonder; how is it that you manage to come in under the radar and not get picked up by your neighbors, etc. Don’t any of the old men at the corner store or your new (or even old) neighbors have internet access? I mean you post pictures of all of you and your pets and your homes; and, no one notices or comments on your insights and observations about folks? Mind you, I’m not criticizing; just, AMAZED!!! It’s funny you ask that, because one night last week I did a casual perusal of my stats, and found that someone WHO LIVES IN SMALLVILLE had come across my Twitter profile and followed the link to my page. I pretty much shit a brick (even though they clearly clicked on the link, looked at my page, said “Oh. BORING.” and clicked away from my site) and changed my Twitter profile to not include my url. So far as I know, none of our neighbors know about my site, but if they do, they haven’t said anything to me about it. Probably the guys at the corner store do have internet access, but I doubt that the daily journal of a crazy cat lady would interest them much. I do know that our old neighbors (not the ones we hated; the ones on the other side) read Fred’s journal, at least from time to time, because she mentioned it to both of us. We never had anything bad to say about them (although I might have said once that I wanted to kidnap their youngest boy, because CUTE), and if the neighbors on the other side found my or Fred’s site and read that THEY ARE ASSHOLES, well, I don’t know that I give a shit. Because they were assholes. Also, we tend not to be all that social with our neighbors (not because we don’t like them, but because we’re just not particularly social people), so as far as I know, they could be ALL obsessively stalking our sites and talking to each other about that horrible woman with the potty mouth (“I don’t know, Mabel. She stood out there with that big camera and took pictures of the flowers on her front porch for like 15 minutes yesterday. I think she might be mentally unstable.”), and we just don’t know about it. * * * What ever happened to Jack Frost? I’ve been worried about him as I’ve loved him since day one, and unless I’ve missed something, you never posted whether he’d been adopted or not. To be honest, I don’t know. He did get adopted – I remember the shelter manager saying he did – but when I look at the listing of cats for the shelter, he’s still there. It’s possible she hasn’t had a chance to take his profile down yet, or maybe he was returned, I don’t know. I’ll try to remember to ask her the next time I talk to her. * * * My question is about weight maintenance. I’m on a diet site quite often. When people lose good amounts of weight they all seem to go on about how keeping the weight off is way harder than losing it. I have lost some weight and that comment always pisses me off because losing it in the first place is damn hard. You seem to be living pretty normally without obsessing over your weight. Is maintenance really the pits? I… don’t know. Because I’m not maintaining my weight – I’ve actually gained seven pounds in the past few months. I know what I need to do – cut out the junk food and get my ass back to exercising – but I’m still fitting in my clothes, so I’m having a hard time getting motivated to do both of those things. I think that maybe the part that people find so hard about maintaining that because they’ve spent so long and worked so hard to get the weight off, when they get to their goal weight, they kind of feel like they should be able to relax, eat what they want, and slack on the exercising. God knows that while I kind of have a general desire to see 150 on the scale, I still feel good enough that I’m not motivated by feeling crappy or being unable to fit in my clothes, so here I sit, not exercising and snacking too much. LE SIGH. * * * Do any of your cats, or have any of your cats in the past, had to have their anal glands expressed regularly? Our cat seems like she has to have them like once or twice a year, poor thing, and I was just wondering if you had the same problem. Tubby had to have his anal glands expressed a couple of times. I, thank god, was not the one who took him to the vet’s those times, but I understand that the smell is absolutely horrific, and you have totally got my sympathy! * * * I know how Fred loves Sudoku, does he have Snoodoku? I sent him the link to Snoodoku, and I believe he said “That’s too complicated”, or “That’s too confusing” or something along those lines. He doesn’t do Sudoku as much as he used to, probably because we don’t spend as much time in front of the TV, which was always his preferred Sudoku-ing time. * * * I asked Nance last week and now you are my victim! Has losing all the weight made you feel better about yourself? And has it changed the way others treat you? I think that losing the weight has made me feel physically more comfortable (though the main reason I wear t-shirts that are too big for me is because I’m self-conscious about the loose skin and fat around my midsection, and expect I will remain so until it’s GONE), and maybe more comfortable in the things I do. That is, if I buy chips or some other junk food at the store, I feel less like people will look at me and think “Oh, look at the fat chick, buying chips! No wonder she’s fat!” or “Look, she’s buying underwear! I didn’t know they made underwear IN HER SIZE!” Probably people didn’t pay that much attention to what I was buying (like Dr. Phil says, you wouldn’t worry about what other people think of you if you knew how little they do), but I feel less self-conscious about that sort of thing. As far as it changing the way others treat me – maybe. It’s nothing big and obvious, just sometimes the cashier at the store might be a little friendlier than they used to be before I’d lost the weight. I’ll tell you what I’m grateful for these days – that it’s been long enough since I lost the weight that the people I see on a regular basis no longer say anything to me about it. If I never have another person say “Wow! You’ve lost a lot of weight!” to me, I’ll be perfectly happy. And I KNOW they don’t say it like “GODDAMN you were fat!”, or to make me self-conscious, and they’re just being nice and stating the obvious but I really am not fond of those conversations, because I usually just smile and nod and say “Yes, I have”, and there’s this awkward silence where I wonder, am I supposed to offer up more information, or what? I don’t have a problem telling people that I’ve had weight loss surgery, and if they ask I’ll tell them, but I don’t offer it up, either. * * * What’s the Spud doing??? Working two jobs, spending time with her boyfriend, and trying to figure out how to juggle it all! * * * * * * Previously 2006: Maddy sadly contemplates the vast expanse of my thigh. How will she ever cross it and reach freedom?! 2005: For the record, there’s a big fucking difference between pranking someone and just being an asshole. 2004: Like, so world-weary, like “I can’t be bothered to sign ‘love’, because it sounds so warm, I need something COLDER, so I’ll just scrawl ‘as ever’”. 2003: No entry. 2002: No entry. 2001: No entry. 2000: No entry.]]>