here. The second is of Ellie-Belly… chattering at the chickens. What can I say? She did a lot of chattering! See the MPG here.
I am sadsadsad to report that Journeyman (which employs the two prettiest men on all of TV, Kevin McKidd and Reed Diamond) has been canceled, but someone’s trying to change that with a Rice A Roni campaign. We’ve really enjoyed Journeyman a lot; it’s one of the few new shows we kept watching, and I am so sad it’s been canceled. DAMNIT. Speaking of TV, we recently “discovered” Arrested Development and have been taping it every time it comes on TV (it comes on every day at 11:30, so we have new episodes to watch every night), and holy SHIT is that a funny show. Back when it was new, we tried watching an episode, but we got about halfway through one and were like “Eh. Not so funny.” and never tried again. Which is kind of good, because that means now we have shows to watch! We started taping 30 Rock too, and are enjoying it. Fred likes it more than I do, and the only reason he wanted to watch it was because he heard about the “It’s not a Lemon party without old dick!” line from last week’s episode (for those not in the know, the Lemon Party picture is one that involves naked old men; I’m sure you could find it with the help of Google if you really wanted. But you don’t, trust me.). Anyway. On to the comment-answering extravaganza!
How many cat beds do you have? Are they “assigned” or “first come, first serve?”. I had to go through the house and count them all. Included in this number are all the cat beds, baskets, and covered pyramids. NOT included are the cat trees and the non-cat-bed places they like to sleep (on the backs of the couches, for instance). We have 19 cat beds in the house. They’re all “first come, first serve”, though they each have their favorite beds. There are two cat beds on the bed in the guest bedroom, and 95% of the time Spot and Spanky use those, though occasionally Mister Boogers and Newt will hang out up there. The most popular beds are the two on my desk – someone’s always coming up and wandering across my desk to see if there’s any room at the inn, then getting mad and hissing and smacking at whoever’s in the favored bed.
So, I know you met Fred online on IRC. Were you at all concerned about telling him you were overweight? I know that he was too at the time but it seems to matter less for the mens. Well of course I was! The funny thing is that I assumed he was a tall, skinny, geeky guy (because someone said he was the quintessential geek, and the only real quintessential geek who came to mind was Bil Gates) and he thought I was some health food nut because I mentioned strawberry-flavored rice cakes a couple of times (hahahaha!), and it wasn’t until I mailed a picture of myself to him (and vice versa) that we knew we both liked food a little too much. Kismet! Match made in heaven! Fate!
What do you feed your cats? Just wondering, as I have 2 myself. In one bowl is Nutro Complete Care Senior, in one bowl is Blue Spa Select Salmon & Brown Rice, and in the third bowl is Timberwolf Serengeti Herbal Cat Food. I’m about to get rid of the Timberwolf, though, because they don’t care for it much, and it takes the better part of a week to empty the bowl. At their nightly snack time, they get either the Fancy Feast Elegant Medleys stuff, or the cheaper Fancy Feast Grilled stuff.
What did you think of the big smackdown this week on the real housewives of orange county? I think that “smackdown” was pretty lame and nothing that really “threatened” their friendship, just a momentary squabble that blew over pretty quickly. I think Jeana should totally not be doing business with Vicki and getting between Vicki and Frankie – that’s just trouble waiting to happen. What icked me out about this week’s show was those creepy OC Energy drink guys standing around making the “Angels” try on too-small bikinis and eyeballing them in a creepy way. Ugh. Also, the “kiss” between Tamra and Vicki – why not just scream “WE NEEDS ATTENTION LOOK AT US PLS!” and get it over with? LAME. What brand of cleaning products were you using before the Gaiam ones arrived? Which ones do you like better? The stuff I got from Gaiam is all Seventh Generation cleaning stuff and I haven’t tried it out yet, except for the toilet cleaner which I give two thumbs up. Before, I was using… uh. I don’t remember – some tub and tile cleaner I picked up at the store that smelled all chemical and environment-killing. I’ll let y’all know how the Seventh Generation stuff works out for me!
I’ll have to check out Gaiam products and see what I’m missing. I usually use Method products – I love the “Good for Wood” wood cleaner. It smells so yummy I want to lick the dusty cloth. I like the Method wipes that are biodegradable. The ones I bought this week smell like lavender, and I use them almost daily to wipe down the toilet seat (the cats like to drink from the toilet, thus my everyday cleaning of it).
So Robyn loves eggs. Has she ever seen the Egg Song? I had not!
And just FYI, I know joint pain can be a number of things. But it could possibly be gout, which is a buildup of uric acid. It can cause flareups of pain like that. It usually requires medication and avoidance of red meat and alcohol. And of course, we all know what a big drunk you can be 😉 I don’t like alcohol, but I sure like me some red meat! I would be so very sad to have to give it up, damnit. I’ve looked up the warning signs of gout, and though it doesn’t sound like me and my knee issues, if I’m still being troubled by my knee in the new year, I’ll take myself off to the doctor. Promise!
I want to know if you became a sexaholic. I did not. Y’ALL ARE AWFULLY INTERESTED IN MY SEX LIFE. Here’s all the information you’re going to get: it has neither increased nor decreased since I lost weight. I was a very flexible fat chick, and my husband is no more or less attracted to me now than he was when I was 362 pounds, believe it or not. Nosy bastards. Do you notice a difference in your cats meows? If you were blind folded and someone held a mewing cat in front of you would you know who it was? Most likely I would, though I sometimes get them mixed up. Miz Poo and Spanky, I can identify with no problem, Sugarbutt and Tommy rarely meow (usually only when they’re disturbed by something), Spot has a kind of hoarse, squeaky meow, Mister Boogers has his very own sound, Newt has a high-pitched meow, and tends to only meow when he’s alerting you that he’s moving toward the door and would like you to open it and let him out, pls. Also, when he follows us around the back forty he likes to chat to let us know he’s there. Maxi has a low meow, but she doesn’t meow all that much, either. Miss Stinky has a very bitchy meow and generally only meows when she’s demanding food or being picked up by Fred.
My old cat, Hocus, had terrible constipation problems. Our vet suggested mixing in pumpkin pie filling in with his wet food (he was also on medication). It looked and smelled horrible, but he would eat it and helped keep him “regular.” I am sorry to say this, but it’s Fred’s contention that every Weight Watchers’ recipe starts with a can of pumpkin and pudding with a little Cool Whip thrown in, so reading this makes me wonder if people who follow Weight Watchers are more regular than the average non-WW follower.
look at this that sounds like you and “not our cats” Indeed it does!
This is off-topic (although I like those boots, too), but I made your sweet potato casserole recipe for Thanksgiving and people REALLY liked it. My sister asked me for the recipe so she can make it for my BIL’s family Christmas dinner. Thanks! It’s my pleasure to share the good recipes with y’all! That sweet potato casserole is one of my favorite holiday dishes, and I look forward to it every year!
Robyn, I couldn’t help laughing at the number of cats mentioned in the blurb for your 2003 entry. [A tree with glass ornaments? In a house with five cats?] Hee! No kidding – the number’s almost doubled since then! I swear to you all that I am never going to say “No more cats!” ever again, because every time I do that, god laughs and makes a notation in his notebook, and by the time the next year rolls around, I’ve got six more cats under my care.
Will he do his rooster thing when the sun rises or can you train him to do it at like, 9am? DO NOT answer that question in your question extravaganza thing- it was rhetorical. I think. Unless you *can* train him; then I’d be curious to know the answer. A rooster cannot be trained – and he apparently doesn’t wait for the sun to come up. Fred hears him at various times in the morning, usually between 3:30 and 4:30. He also crows at various times during the day for reasons only known to him. I want to record him crowing and then play it back to see if he’ll recognize his own voice, or view it as a threat from another rooster!
Hmm…not to be an enabler, but if you go here they tell you how to get one of the newer models (i.e. much easier to clean than the last generation) for $212 out the door. Did I mention that Bridget is my favorite reader ever? Well, this week anyway!
You have probably seen this before but when I saw it I thought of you and wanted to pass it along. I hadn’t seen it – but I can’t get enough of holiday-song-singing-cats, that’s for sure! I also like this page (though it’s got no singing cats on it).
I like that you call your happy orange kitty Newtles but when you actually say it, it sounds like Noodles. I always thought Noodles would be a good kitty name. I like that I’ve already got Fred calling him Newtles, too. Every time I say “Newtles”, I see the word “Noodles” in my head, so maybe I’m already calling him Noodles! I want to get a cat and name it Chompers McGee, because that name just cracks me UP.
Maybe I’m missing something… BUT…. If you want a fertilized egg to develop, how do you know it is fertilized and how do you keep it separate from future eggs? I just can imagine how an “old” egg might get mixed up with the ones from the present morning and you accidentally crack open either a partially developed chick or an extremely stinky unfertilized older egg…. When the egg is a few days old and has been sat upon by a chicken, you can shine a light through the egg and see if anything’s developing (it’s called “candling“), and at that point I suppose we could mark the eggs that are fertile and remove the ones that aren’t. To be honest, this is going to be more Fred’s gig than mine.
Okay, I had to see what all the excitement was about in 2004. Laughed hysterically! Have you seen this? Not only have I seen it, I actually own some cat butt magnets! I don’t have a cat butt air freshener, though.
Back in the early 90’s my mom and dad bought some property in a more rural area. There was a rooster that lived next door. One day while my dad and I were hanging out on the back deck, I mentioned the tranquil sound of the country when the rooster next door cockadoodledoos. “Do you know why roosters crow?” asked my dad. “Why no …no I dont” I said after a ponderous moment. “Well roosters crow when they get some chicken lovin” said my dad matter-of-factly. Well that little bit information stayed with me and for the following 10 years, every time someone would visit the house and I happened to be there and the rooster happened to crow …I shared that little bit of learned rooster information. Sure I got a few odd looks but ..my dad told me after all …and he knows everything. Just before my dad passed away …I was sitting on his bed chatting with him. It was a warm August day and of course Rooster McRoosterson was cockadoodledooing – not sure if it was the same rooster but it was a rooster nonetheless. A lot of reflecting had been going on over the previous weeks and that day was no different. “That rooster next door is sure a busy boy today” I said. “Why do you say that?” said my Dad. “Well all the crowing is because he is gettin his chicken lovin” I said If my dad had not been on his death bed …he would have been on the floor dying of laughter. yeah …so dont always believe what your dad tells you. I adore this story. If someone told me that roosters crow to announce that they’ve gotten some chicken lovin’, I totally would have believed that!
Poor Tommy. Does he ever get a moment of peace to himself or is Miss Stank the eternal companion? Oh, he gets peace. She doesn’t follow him around 24 hours a day, and actually sometimes he follows her around (though that happens less often than the reverse). If she just won’t leave him alone and he wants a little alone time, he’ll go out back into the yard. She won’t go out there – the cat door and the chickens scare her – but she’ll hang around the door waiting for him to come back inside like a sailor’s wife waiting for her husband to return home.
you guys should TOTALLY get one of these Oh, I’m sure we’ll end up with more freaky-looking chickens than you can shake a stick at. Fred’s already planning to order some of those freaky chickens with the afros, I think.
I’m going to vote for a valance with a light blocking pull-down shade hiding underneath. I think the cats would love to “play” with floor length sheers too much. I always want to take pictures of different outfits while I’m in the dressing room but I’m always afraid people will hear the clicking of a camera and wonder what on earth I’m doing! Yeah, I think the cats would mess with floor-length curtains too much, and I’d have to kill them. As for taking pictures in the dressing room, I turned the flash off so no one would know I was taking pictures of myself, but they could probably still hear the camera turning on and off!
My god, I love Newtles and his sweet little face, and the way he so calmly and patiently watches the kittens run around like their asses are on fire, and puts up with them sniffing him and smacking at his tail, and is never anything but a complete and utter sweetheart. (flickr)
Previously 2006: I said to Fred, “I know you think we have too many cats, but -” 2005: I imagine that when all three of our phones are in the same vicinity, we’ll get them confused and hijinx will ensue. 2004: Reader questions, answered. 2003: “Um, no,” I told Fred when he asked. “And not only no, but HELL no, and I’ll be out of the house whenever they come to interview you and tape you exercising and all that goofy-ass shit.” 2002: No entry. 2001: I guess he defines “tension” as “getting drunk and pawing every female in sight.” 2000: I practically woke up screaming, I tell you. 1999: Suddenly, it occurs to me that nestled next to my underwear is not the best place to put a bag of very potent catnip.]]>