Your comments, my answers!
so, seeing that the Washingtonienne is rancid marshmallow fluff, how about dishing on some of the books based on blogs that ARE worth reading, if only in the bathroom?
The books that come to mind – that I’ve read, that is; I have one or two written-by-bloggers books on my bookcase that I haven’t yet read – that are worth a read are as follows:
The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl
Bitter is the New Black and Bright Lights, Big Ass
It’s not out yet, but I’m looking forward to Half-Assed.
Tales from the Scale (though I might be just a teeny bit prejudiced about that!)
And of course, what kind of wife would I be if I didn’t mention the very enjoyable From Chunk to Hunk?
I’m sure there are other blogger-written books that I’ve read and enjoyed, and I’ll add them to the list if I think of them; those are the ones that came immediately to mind.
I think I have found Miz Poo’s doppleganger
I can’t deny I see the resemblance, but Frankie doesn’t have that frantic, needy love-me-love-me-please-please-please-love-me look that Miz Poo has.
Your fosters are adorable. But not as adorable as my new fosters! That’s not fair, though, as mine are only four weeks old and are Persian mixes, so they look like fuzzy tennis balls with legs and funny looking tails. I don’t have pictures yet, but I hope to get some soon.
Did I mention that I almost got me some bottle-fed babies, but I just missed out? Wah!!! I’m getting me some itty-bitty babies this summer at some point, if it kills me! (Also, TEASE. You cannot bring up adorable bitty baby fosters and not provide pictures!)
Have you read the Stephenie Meyer series? I love them and now I have to wait until August for the 4th! I couldn’t believe how they sucked me in, it has been a long time since an author could do that.
I have not – but I have Twilight in the queue. Because of its position in the queue, it’ll probably be a couple of months before I get a chance to read it, but I’m looking forward to it!
After nearly seven years of kissing frogs (I’m happily divorced), I’ve finally found me a terrific, smart, funny, wonderful guy, and we’re in wuv… TWUE wuv. But there’s a problem (isn’t there *always* a problem?): he’s an avowed dog person. This is not an issue for me, as I quite like dogs. But I also love cats, and I’m finally ready to get another (having lost my beloved kitty Ophelia three years ago).
My honey doesn’t dislike cats, although he strongly prefers dogs. The challenge is, he’s *allergic* to cats. It’s a mild allergy, but an allergy nonetheless.
Making things worse, a coworker of mine has found the most ADORABLE stray kitty (he looks like a Siamese), and she’s trying to talk me into taking him. And I wanna! But the SO and I will probably be cohabiting within the next six months, and I don’t want to adopt a kitty only to turn around and give him to someone else.
Are there any successful treatments for cat allergies that aren’t ridiculously expensive or filled with side effects? Or am I doomed to finally have found love, and never have a pet cat again?
Honestly, I don’t have a clue – I’ve always said that if I developed a sudden allergy to cats, I’d take something for it, but I have no experience with that at all. I’m tossing this one out to the readers – readers, your opinions/ suggestions?
I thought I had heard that if a white cat has blue eyes they could probably be deaf. Have you heard anything like that?
I’ve heard that there’s a possibility of deafness in white cats, and after Googling around, I found this:
* 95% of the general cat population is non-white cats (i.e. not pure white) and congenital deafness is extremely rare in non-white cats.
* 5% of the general cat population is white cats (i.e. pure white). 15-40% of these pure white cats have one or two blue-eyes.
* Of those white cats with one or two blue eyes, 60-80% are deaf; 20-40% have normal hearing; 30-40% had one blue eye and were deaf while 60-70% had one blue eye and normal hearing.
* Of the 5% of white cats in the overall population, 60-80% had eyes of other colors (e.g. orange, green). Of those 10- 20% were deaf and 80-90% had normal hearing.
* Deaf white cats with one or two blue eyes account for 0.25 – 1.5 of total cat population
* Total number of cats with white coat and blue eyes account for 0.75 – 2.0% of total cat population
There’s a long explanation that explains deafness in white cats, here, if you’re interested.
In any case, our (mostly) white foster kitty is not deaf; that was one of the first things I checked (out of curiosity), and she can hear quite well.
Um ok, so this is a weird and probably stupid question so feel free to ignore it but… Why does one ever need reading material in the bathroom? I’m honestly just asking cause I know people do but I’ve never known why. How long does it possibly take and how can you read and…go at the same time? Or is it for…after? I’m so confused!
Sometimes it takes a minute for things to get going, and that minute is long and boring if there’s no reading material!
I think this calls for a poll, don’t you?
What do you think of “The Housewives of New York City”? I think they are so catty! OMG that Ramona just plucks my last nerve!!! I think it is so funny that they call LuAnn “The Countess”. Your thoughts??
I wrote about RHoNYC two weeks ago, here.
Ramona is utterly unlikeable, and she can insist all she wants that her kid is talented and desperate to do commercials and act in movies, but I saw that child’s face when the idea that she might miss some school sank in, and that child WANTS TO BE IN SCHOOL, not out swanning around trying to win her mother’s approval. There’s nothing about Ramona I can stand at ALL.
When Bethenny said about Alex (I don’t remember if it happened during this week’s show or the preview for next week’s) “She’s insecure and she compensates for it by being pretentious”, she absolutely hit the nail on the head. Alex and her creepy husband are completely over-the-top pretentious and that whole “Francois has to sing “Farmer in the Dell” in French every night before bed”, or whatever the hell it was, was just totally eyeroll-ville. Also, girlfriend looks frazzled and if she’s that desperate to claw her way up the social ladder, she needs a haircut.
I like Jill, though like someone I know in real life, if there’s no drama going on in her life, she works very hard to manufacture it. Also, her daughter is a DOLL.
The Countess seems like the most well-adjusted of the bunch, but I think I said before that when you’ve attained the social status you want, you can be a lot less desperate and grasping about it. Whoever it was that was all “I can’t believe she TALKED about her kids having lice!” totally missed the point. That woman’s status is secure enough (and I suspect she doesn’t give much of a shit about social status, ain’t it always the way?) that she could probably talk about something truly nasty and she wouldn’t end up sobbing outside the fashion shows in last year’s Galliano (Galliano still design?) any time soon. Also, the Countess’s daughter is adorable. I wonder if Rosanna, the Count and Countess’s housekeeper/ raiser of their children, will catch any shit when the footage where she expresses her wish that the Countess would bother to hang around and spend some time with her children airs.
I still love poor little overworked Rosanna. I hope she’s well compensated.
Bethenny is too damn desperate to rope that boyfriend of hers into marriage, and she’s freaking him out. Wanting to talk about whether she’s going to move in with him while she’s a bit sloshed and the cameras are breathing down his neck? Good for him for refusing to do so. Also, he looks like Jeff Bezos to me, only a bit better looking. If next week’s previews are anything to go by, it kinda looks like they broke up.
So did you see the Jon and Kate Plus 8 show that was all about her plastic surgery? Pretty detailed and interesting…..
I did, actually!
And speaking of Jon and Kate, that bit of the show I was talking about earlier this week that makes me laugh out loud? I made a little movie of it so I can watch it at my computer whenever I want. It’s not very good – it’s just me, filming the TV screen – but you get the general idea of it.
I, too, will be watching the FRJ [flab removing journey] avidly – especially the lifting part. I am okay with the size, don’t want bigger, but I wouldn’t mind a lift (like I’ll ever be able to afford plastic surgery! HA!) – except I’ve heard that they apparently… move things around. Certain things. You know. Those. That they take them from one place and reattach them somewhere else, a little bit higher maybe.
and
Hope this is not too much info but I had reduction one one side at the same time I had a mastectomy on the other side. Things do get moved around but end up where they are supposed to be. I do have scars but they are very light and very thin, kind of like a pencil line. Really was not that bad pain wise thanks to the vicodin.
This reminds me of years and years and YEARS ago when Roseanne and her then-husband Tom Arnold were on Phil Donahue, and they were discussing her plastic surgery, specifically her breast reduction (or maybe it was a lift, I don’t remember), and Tom talked about how they cut off her nipples, and Phil said “Yes, so her headlights wouldn’t point at the floor”, which made me laugh and cringe. But yes, I believe they cut around your nipples and move them around (who’s screaming and clutching her chest now, hands up!), but they keep them attached to the nerves and such. Or maybe I’m just making that up to make myself feel better!
What, exactly, are you thinking of having done [plastic-surgery-wise]?
I’m considering a tummy tuck or lower-body lift, breast lift, and whatever they can do to get rid of that damn wattle I have. It’s all going to depend on the cost and whether insurance will cover any of the cost.
120 tomato plants?!!!!! When my mom had a garden, she’d plant about six, and have tomatoes stacked on the counter and in bags and baskets to take to people at work or give away to anyone who came over. And that was from SIX plants. Y’all are going to have… four, carry the eleven, divide by eight… TWENTY TIMES as many plants! Holy cow!
I swear to god, I thought we had like 100 tomato plants last year, but after asking He Who Knows, I found out that we had 30. So, um, yes. I will be dealing with a damn lot of tomatoes this year! It’s okay with me, because we didn’t get nearly enough tomatoes last year (I didn’t get to make enough tomato sauce or any ketchup at all), so hopefully I’ll have more than I want this year. Whatever we don’t eat or can or freeze can go straight to the pigs or the chickens.
Did you read about this? 800 dogs seized from mobile home? Lest you think my finger stuttered, that’s eight H-U-N-D-R-E-D. Dogs. In a mobile home. And they were breeders. (Elderly who might have had a dementia and/or hoarding problem, but breeders.) My stomach lurched when I read that. I would say, “How can people get a license to breed and sell animals without anyone checking up on them,” but hell, I guess if we don’t even keep a sharp eye on the people we’re fostering our nation’s KIDS to…
Honest to god, the fact that you can even fit 800 animals in a mobile home (even a triple wide!) is stunning. I cannot even imagine that.
I have a request. I was looking thru the virtual house tour and I was saddened you haven’t done pictures with your furniture in it. I would LOVE to see house pictures from now. Would you consider it? Thanks!
Yeah, I plan to do it. It’s just a matter of getting around to taking the pictures and putting the pages together. Maybe by the time we’ve lived here for two years I’ll get it done!
For those of us who don’t have cable, http://youtube.com/user/RIPLeuchtenberg has uploaded lots of full episodes of “How Clean is Your House?” Love that show.
I’m going to have to check that show out so I can look around my own house and say “Hey. This isn’t as bad as THAT ONE! I can totally put off vacuuming for another day!”
Is Ohio really that bad? *tears* I wuv Ohio.. and I live in it
Ohio wasn’t so bad in and of itself – it just seemed nonending. I thought we were never ever going to get out of Ohio. And then we got out of Ohio and were in Kentucky forEVER.
Of course, by this time next year I’ll have forgotten the long, long ride (which honestly wasn’t all that bad) and I’ll be all “Road trip, Nance?” and she’ll be all “Um… ‘kay!”
I think a manipulation of “shoots out a poo of displeasure” would be a great tagline in one of your logo banners, one of these months.
I’m a little afraid of what the design to back that up might look like. 🙂
I have a *huge* thing for orange kitties. Can the orange kittens come to live with me, please? We’re down to 4 old cats and one blind dog Chez Cathovel and must find fresh blood … uh … new babies to cuddle.
The orange kitties went to the pet store last Friday, and as of Monday morning, one of them had been adopted – another one (or both) of them may have been adopted by now, since Tuesday nights are also adoption nights at the pet store.
But as I’ve mentioned before – the foster kittens aren’t mine. They belong to the shelter, so any adoption requests would have to go through the shelter manager. Also, the adoption fee for any cats from the shelter is currently $150 per cat.
Ok, what is the Crooked Acres stand on teeth cleaning(s) for the kids of the feline persuasion. My vet has been wanting to do my siamese for a while now, but I’m scared as he’s around 12-14 years old. There is so much conflicting advice out there! Help!
We’ve really only had one cat that needed his teeth cleaned – Spot, a couple of years ago, had his cleaned. They put him under to do it (I don’t know if they do that for all cats or not – I would suspect they probably do) and had to pull one tooth because the decay had gotten so bad. If your vet really wants to do it, you trust your vet, and your cat is in decent shape, I’d say go ahead and do it!
Now that you are a professional chick wrangler, you must be in the know about all things chick-ery. Is it typical to lose a certain number of new chicks? Do experienced chicken ranchers, such as yourself, generally order more than they hope to raise, in anticipation of losing some?
Fred’s really more the chick expert than I am. I would hazard a guess that when ordering chicks you can expect there to be some loss, but the kind of loss we’ve had (almost half of what we ordered) is unusual. I don’t think we thought to order extra chicks, but I guess we should have!
Are you watching the Biggest Loser, and if you are, could Mark touch and fondle his beard a little bit MORE because I am not nearly creeped out by it enough. I just want to say… Mark, you and your beard go get a room!
It’s been a couple of seasons since we’ve watched Biggest Loser. We lost interest because the thing they do where something happens, they go to commercial, and then when they come back from commercial, they recap the last 30 seconds of what happened before they went to commercial really drives me NUTS. However, your description is making me want to start watching it!
Morbid curiosity here, what do you do with those dead baby chicks… tell me it doesn’t have anything to do with the piggies, right?
No, you’re not supposed to feed pigs meat, but in any case, we wouldn’t feed dead baby chicks to them anyway. The chicks go into the trash can and out with the trash, poor things.
POSSIBLE SURVIVOR SPOILERS IN THIS SECTION.
Are you still watching Survivor? Who are you pulling for? Wasn’t it crazy to watch the fans attack each other from within? What a bloodbath.
We are still watching (and enjoying) Survivor. I have to say that I’m still rooting for Ozzy, because I just love him to death. You’d never know by looking at him how gifted he is, physically, but he’s just a little powerhouse, and he plays the mental game, too. LOVE HIM.
Have you seen this??!!
I had, but I don’t think I’ve linked it before. That is a seriously cute video, isn’t it?
Do you find you’re having any qualms, or feelings of sadness about slaughtering the animals? I ask because – well, I grew up on a farm, so I know how these things go – will it make it more difficult since you’ve bonded with them, named them, discovered personalities, and spent time with them? I think I wonder mostly because you’re new to farming, not long time old folks!
I’m not really feeling qualms, but I’m certainly not looking forward to it, and I expect it to be pretty difficult. It’s probably not any coincidence that I don’t spend any time with the pigs at all – Fred’s the one who feeds them morning and night, and while I look out to see if they’re hanging out in their yard during the day, I don’t go out and talk to them, and you may have noticed that there haven’t been a lot of pictures of them recently. I’m kind of distancing myself from them so that when they’re gone I won’t miss them that much. I worry that it’s going to be really difficult for Fred, but he assures me that he’s got the right mental mindset.
I fully expect that the first time we kill a chicken I’ll be crying like a big damn baby. But I’m not particularly attached to any of the chickens – except Frick – so maybe that will make it a little easier. Did I mention that I’m not looking forward to it, though?
Has anyone used a product called Feliway? It is a Feline Behaviour Modification Pheromone Spray & Diffuser. My 14 year old cat was pooping outside the litter box because I think he was constipated. He is no longer constipated but has gotten into the habit of pooping wherever. I took him to the vet, he is fine, so she thinks it is behavioural, that is upset about something. This Feliway stuff apparently is phermones that help to alleviate anxiety. Just wondering if anyone had ever used it and how well did it work or not work?
We’ve used Feliway a few times, and it did seem to calm the cats down a bit – to be honest, I’m not sure whether it really calmed them down, or I just wanted to believe it was working.
Readers, your experiences?
Years ago when I first bought baby chicks ,the “chick people” told me that you had to clean their butts while they were little or they could “get clogged up and die” well, my husband actually did spend plenty of time ,making sure all the little chickens had clean ,clog free butts. Do they not say that any more? Have your chicks that died, had clog free butts?
Pasty butt, you mean? I myself avoid looking at the business end of the chickens as much as humanly possible. Fred, however, is all up on what to watch out for, and has been known to wipe a chicken butt or two. I had to help him clip a clump of chicken feces from the behind of a baby chicken a few weeks ago.
None of the chicks who died had pasty butts.
Yesterday morning, after I announced that I’d gotten love from Smudge Bunny, I went upstairs into the foster room, and the little brat hissed and ran and hid from me. Apparently, the trick is that you have to pick her up and hold her for a minute, and then the light goes on in her head that “Hey! I like this petting stuff!” and she turns into a love slut. If you just try to coax her over, you won’t have any luck.
HG still isn’t up for the petting, but he’ll chase the toys I toss for him, and he doesn’t hide from me, so that’s an improvement over the first day.
You can see the streak of orange on her tail.
GORGEOUS blue eyes.
The foster kitties over the past couple of years have done some serious damage to this guy.
“Hellew.” (You can see the hourglass shape on his stomach.)
A wee bit high.
HG plays with a straw, while Smudge Bunny looks on disapprovingly.
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Fred put this cat bed up on top of the bookcase in the kitchen. Joe Bob claimed it as his own, but this morning when I walked into the kitchen, the bed was on the floor, and Joe Bob hasn’t been back up there since – but Stinkerbelle has. Hmmm.
Previously
2007: Turns out Maxi had found herself a desiccated frog and was chewing on it.
2006: Whereupon Nick Stokes, Ace Detective and CSI Genius jumps in and says, a dark scowl upon his face, “What is that, some kind of nickname?”
2005: Because there’s nothing worse than having your eyes scooped out with a spork when you’re not quite dead yet, believe you me.
2004: No entry.
2003: Your “shit” discussion is now over. You may move on.
2002: “Momma!” he cried “Momma, I’ll be good! Let me in Momma, let me in!”
2001: “Owowowowowow,” I whined, hand over my eye, and then stomped my foot in frustration.
2000: When I saw it in the theater, the ending so disturbed me that I sobbed all the way home from the movie theater.