reading: Sleep No More, by Greg Iles.
Finished recently: Is That a Moose in Your Pocket?, by Kim Green. I said yesterday I wasn’t that into the book. I kept being not being that into the book right up until the end. I don’t recommend it. When will I learn that it’s okay to put down a book I’m not that interested in? I guess it’s the optimist in me – I keep hoping, right up until the end, that it’ll pick up. This one never did.
Also finished recently: Be More Chill, by Ned Vizzini. I really liked this book and it was a quick read. There’s a quote on the back cover wherein someone compares it to The Catcher in the Rye. I guess I can get behind that comparison – though I think Be More Chill was far better than Catcher. I’m not fond of that whiny-ass Holden Caulfield, personally.
* * *
Pet store kitty pics from Monday are
here.
* * *
When I talked to my mother the other day, she brought up the family reunion my father’s side of the family will be having over Memorial Day weekend. She mentioned that she’d talked to my father’s sister (also known as my aunt, I suppose!) the other day, who had asked who out of my father’s family was planning on attending.
“I told her that I didn’t think either of the boys would be going, and I think Debbie’s starting to give up hope that she’ll be able to go, because Brian’s still going to be in school,” she said. “And then she told your father, ‘Well, you can stay with me’ and he said ‘Well, Robyn lives in the area, I think we’re going to stay with her’, and she said ‘Wayne wants us all to have breakfast Sunday morning, you should just stay with me so you don’t have to make the drive again Sunday morning!’, so I guess we’re going to stay overnight on Saturday. Is Fred going to go to the reunion?” she asked.
“Yeah, he’s going to go Saturday,” I told her, neglecting to mention the tense negotiations wherein I browbeat Fred into agreeing to attend, but he made me promise that he could bring his own vehicle so he could leave when he wanted to.
“Well, maybe he wouldn’t mind spending the night, too!” she said.
“Oh, yes he would,” I said.
“Then you and the spud could stay at her house with us, and Fred could drive home that night,” she said. I got the distinct feeling that she didn’t want to stay in my aunt’s house without some of her own family around as buffer.
“Yeah, we’ll stay overnight, too,” I said.
Later, I told Fred about the conversation, and he suggested that the spud could stay overnight with them, and I could come back home with him.
“No, I’m going to stay overnight. It won’t hurt. Besides, you’ll get the house to yourself,” I pointed out.
“Hookers and blow!” he crowed jubilantly.
“Yeah, except that I know that what really makes your heart race is the idea of being able to go to bed at 9:15 instead of having to stay up ’til 9:42,” I said.
He grinned and didn’t say anything, ’cause he KNOWS it’s true.
* * *
My husband, in case I’ve never mentioned it before, is a bit of a spaz. Last week, after much harassment, our yard guy came out and sprayed poison in the back yard to kill the weeds. Of course we left the cat door shut so the cats couldn’t go out back for the rest of that day, and part of the next day.
Two days later, Tommy wasn’t quite acting like himself. He hung out in the kitty condo in the master bedroom for most of the day, and when Fred announced that it was snack time – “Snack time! Snack time, kitty-kitties!” he sings in a surprisingly high soprano, “Snack time! Come get the snack!”, and all the cats except for Spot and Spanky come running from all corners of the house – Tommy just wasn’t interested.
This is very VERY unlike Tommy, (who I’ve been calling “Tommy Two-Ton” behind his back, because he is turning into a porky little thing), who gets so excited at snack time that he dances around like he hasn’t eaten for DAYS, and pleasepleaseplease just GIVE HIM his snack before he fades away! Instead, he looked slightly interested for a brief moment, then went into the living room and flopped down on the floor.
Fred fretted and worried that Tommy had gotten poison on his paws from the back yard and licked the poison off his paws, and was thiclose to death. He held Tommy and talked about how hot Tommy felt, and he worried and fretted, and I was very sure that he was going to end up taking Tommy to the emergency vet in Huntsville, because this sort of thing ALWAYS happens on the weekend, doesn’t it?
Finally, he suggested that we give Tommy some of the antibiotics we had up in the cupboard (left over from when Miz Poo’s lip was really bad, but she hated the taste of the liquid so much that I went and got pills instead), and so I mixed the antibiotics up and we gave Tommy a dose and not two minutes later he looked a lot more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and the next day he was acting exactly like himself and Fred was very, very relieved.
(I know you want to give us hell for randomly giving out antibiotics to a cat who probably wasn’t sick, but please. Restrain yourselves, eh?)
* * *
When Fred’s referring to snack time and he doesn’t want the cats to understand what he’s saying, he always spells it out. As in, “Should I give them their S-N-A-K now, or wait ’til 7?”
And it never fails to crack me up. Because you KNOW if cats were interested in spelling things, they’d spell it like that.
* * *
Pretty, pretty boy.
(They’re
SoftPaws nail caps so the little bastard won’t scratch up our furniture)
I show this picture to prove (1) How mean that Sugary little bastard is to me, and (2) How beaten-up my hands are. Is that the hand of a badass, or what?
(It’s an electric fence collar so he can’t leave the back yard)
(They’re
SoftPaws nail caps so the little bastard won’t scratch up our furniture)
He’s not really tipping over backwards; it’s just the angle of the picture (I was laying on the bed).
(It’s an electric fence collar so he can’t leave the back yard)
(They’re
SoftPaws nail caps so the little bastard won’t scratch up our furniture)
He can stay in this position forEVER. I think it’s got something to do with the length of his tail. One of these days I’m going to measure that tail.
(They’re electric fence collars so they can’t leave the back yard)
(They’re
SoftPaws nail caps so the little bastards won’t scratch up our furniture)
All of today’s uploaded pictures are
hither.
* * *
Previously
2005: Also, there’s that whole pesky “dealing with people” thing, and I don’t like that sort of thing at ALL.
2004: The spud passed the test for her learner’s permit, THANKYAJEEZUS.
2003: No entry.
2002: No entry.
2001: Fred and I chose the names of our future child/ren way before we ever met – Seth Forrest and Samantha Jayne.
2000: On the other hand, I was shopping in Wal-Mart, wasn’t I? What’d I expect, diamonds and furs?]]>
Nice collar.
GodDAMN that’s a long tail.
Did you paint your cats nails? And what are those big collars their wearing?? BWAH! 😉
Cute pictures of da babies! 😀
What are those things on his claws?
;-D
Awww… you painted his wittle nails! =P
While reading this entry my cat Murray was sitting half-blocking my view of the monitor. As I scrolled down to the pictures of your cats, Murray happened to glance at the monitor. It was timed perfectly that the picture of Tommy up close was on the screen and Murray jumped straight up as if a strange cat was about to pounce on him from inside the monitor. I’m still laughing about it!
I have to admit to spelling the word “treat” so the cats don’t know what I’m talking about too!
-Nancy
So, what is that thing around his neck anyway? 😉
Our dogs go into this little fit whenever we ask them if they want to go outside, so we resorted to spelling it. So now we say, “Should we let the dogs O-U-T?” Only NOW they know what we mean even when we spell it. Damn dogs.
Too funny, Robyn. 🙂
I have to mention that I, too, have read “Is That a Moose In Your Pocket?” and I, too, was completely underwhelmed. Every time I go to a Half-Price Books, I see no fewer than three copies of it on the shelf, so I guess we’re not the only ones!!! 😀
Just ordered the softpaws for my kitty – in red, which will go so nicely with his black and white fur. Will send a pic after I wrestle them on him….
We won’t let the yard guys treat our backyard. They keep saying that it’s safe, but I don’t believe them! I don’t care what the backyard looks like…I want my Misha Pup safe. I have read that SWIFTER can cause liver damage in pets…it has the same chemical that’s in anti-freeze.
Oh, that’s a really cute collar! =o)
Is that—- ????
What’s that —– ????
Why do you —– ????
Don’t you just love smart asses?
So glad the porker is back to himself….
this is so funny. collars and nail caps, OH MY.
My bastard cat has RUINED my new leather office chair that I just got for Christmas so it’s a bit late for THAT but I’m gonna order the claw covers. Would you mind sharing which eBaer you got them from and is it something that can be done with one person?
I’ve done the SoftPaws with one person (http://softpaws.com). If you can handily trim their little cat toenails by yourself and if you can restrain the cat with your arms and legs while you’re putting the little drop of glue inside each nailcap before you put it on then you can do it by yourself. It’s quite an achievement, though.
Luckily the swiffer thing is a hoax: http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/swiffer.asp
I’ve ordered some softpaws for my kitty. Robyn, how hard was putting them on the cats? Ours does NOT like her feet to be touched, even though I’ve tried doing the slow assimilation thing by touching her feet a little each day to get her used to it. (BTW, why does the cat get foot rubs and I don’t?) She probably thinks I’m a freak. And I’m not real sure about the technique to get the cat to splay their feet and extend their claws so you can get the caps on…
This is going to end badly, I just know it! 🙂
Bonnie: I actually got them directly from SoftPaws.com, since for some reason it didn’t occur to me to check eBay. I’m sure you can get ’em cheaper on eBay, though! I’m not sure how easy it’s going to be for one person to do it. Tommy and Sugarbutt hate having their toes touched, so I have to have Fred help me (he holds them around the body with one arm, and holds them by the nape of the neck with the other hand to keep them still).
Starr: To get them to extend their claws, just press on the pad that goes with that claw – once you press on the pad, the claw extends, and you can clip the nail and put the cap on. It’s fairly simple for me, since I have Fred to help, but like I said to Bonnie, I’m not sure how well it’ll work with just one person!
Hee! Spelling it S-N-A-K! If I didn’t know better (about Fred’s phobia of being north of Tennessee), I’d swear that he’s been eavesdropping at our windows when we’ve been spelling so as to deceive the cats.
BTW, the plural form is “S-N-A-X.” It appears on our shopping lists as KAT SNAX.
Isn’t spelling snack S-N-A-K in some tiny way related to M-O-O-N spells Tom Cullen? Sorta kinda? And what is that thing on their collars? And how did you get their nails such pretty colors.
You know you have a bunch of smart asses who read you and cannot resist a challenge.
I totally think you should make those permanent captions under all pictures, and then you can see when the next new person tunes in and asks why you are talking about collars and colored claws under a picture of something like those scary shell things you found in Maine. We could have a contest and guess how many days it will take. And then you could quit, cuz it won’t be cool any more.
And you can’t mock Fred, that is exactly what I would do. I can easily convince myself they are dying if we have just sprayed one random weed or something and carefully waited til it had dried for 2 days. I always know it wasn’t quite long enough or something. Poor Fred! Mean Robyn bitchy woman.
Fred sounds like a hoot 🙂
I have to ask though, what are on your cats nails? Did you paint them? What is that thing on the cats collar? No really, you simply must take the time to tell us. heh.
Robyn,
You crack me up.
This post… Seriously the most hilarious thing I’ve seen all week.
They’re nail caps. They’re electric fence collars. Nail caps. Electric fence collars.
Hahahaha…
Oh, phooey! I wanted to be the one who asked “What are those colored things on their nails and whats up with the collars” but I guess I still can be one of the ones who says it and also one of the ones who says, “This post had me laughing until I snorted it just tickled me pink, mainly because it was like, oh, I don’t know, the 3rd caption down before I realized what you were up to with the collar and nails remarks, and I just couldn’t WAIT to hit the comment button so I could ask you what was up. You’ve got us trained! Trained Readers, I tell you!
Thanks for explaining about the soft paws. Definitely will look into these since our little terror loves to scratch stuff and I don’t want to necessarily declaw her.
I feel kinda dumb though 🙂 Thought you were just a bit odd for painting the cat’s nails. LOL. I’m sure I’m not the only one though 🙂
Thanks! Thankfully it shouldn’t be a one-person job – I’m going to corral the hubby. He can hold her – this could be fun!
Get a few too many questions about the nails/collars? My husband is a bit of a spaz too when it comes to his parents’ dog (we’re not allowed pets in our apartment) and I need to remember to bring a video camera next time we go because it’s hillarious. He’d be so embarrassed if anyone else saw the way he acts around that dog.
How do you keep the Soft Paws thingies on them? Seems like the cat would work overtime getting them off!
That reminds me of the days when we could spell things out and it worked on the kids… only with Joseph (he was about four) I happened one day to say… “Bill, do you think we should buy Joe a B-U-N-K-B-E-D?” Joe hopped up automatically and hollers… “Your gonna get me a bunkbed?” Bill and I both just stared open mouthed at the kid and of course… bought him a bunkbed.
Hey, BTW… Those nails on the cats are adorable.. did you paint them? And the collars look familiar.. wonder what they are? LOL (couldn’t help maself) 🙂
I also have two Cheehuahuas that I am willing to trade for just one of your kitties *BIG CHEESY SMILE)
I would like to try to Claw cover thingies for my kitty. Sometimes he gets out and likes to run outside and we don’t have a fence. We live among heavy woods and have deer and wild turkeys around, so I worry that he might need his claws for protection. But he is clawing our furniture so I’m not sure what to do. I love those colors though!
Hey Robyn, are those Soft Paws?