6/9/05 – Bitchypoo

* * * Currently reading: Running with Scissors. I’ve heard good things about it. (And before you recommend Magical Thinking and Dry – I’ve already got them, I just haven’t read them yet. I read Sellevision a while back, and enjoyed it.) Finished last night: Sushi for Beginners. Am the only one who gets close to the end of the book and gets a little worried, thinking “There are only a few pages left; there’s NO WAY they’re going to wrap up all the storylines in that amount of space!”? Somehow they always do, and yet I still worry.

* * * Favorite song of the moment: Blake Shelton’s remake of Conway Twitty’s Goodbye Time. I’m not a huge Blake Shelton fan – though he’s certainly nice to look at (and I don’t usually much care for men with long hair) – but his version of this song is a heartbreaker. * * * From my comments: Hey Robyn, I was just surfing and found this cool quiz. It reminded me of you instantly. Hey after all those meme’s, you need a quiz break! EVIL. Now everybody go take it. …I began wondering if you had been quarry swimming yet this season. Then I wondered how the fish got INTO the quarry. Were they brought there by the park rangers? Were there streams feeding into the quarry? Were carp a natural American species or had they been planted or dumped by bored pond owners? Nope, we haven’t been to the quarry yet. It was kind of cool out up until about this time last week, so I have a feeling the quarry water is still pretty cold right now. Perhaps we’ll start going in a few weeks. As for the fish got into the quarry, I have no idea. Good question! Do you like Dean Koontz books? He’s very popular, but I don’t like his style. Yeah, we read Dean Koontz and like him. Right now Fred’s reading his latest (which I gave him for his birthday) and apparently it’s slow going at the beginning of the book, but will hopefully pick up. As I was watching “Momma Love” (which was adorable), it occurred to me – if the kitties at the pet store make you itchy, does playing with the kittens do the same thing? No, for some reason the kittens don’t make me itchy. I’m not sure why the pet store cats make me itchy but the kittens don’t. Maybe because I’m always cleaning in there and there isn’t that much dander and cat hair flying around? Or maybe kittens don’t have as much hair and dander as grown cats? Either way, I’m sure glad I don’t itch the way I do at the pet store! Which reminds me, I have about three weeks worth of pet store kitty pics to put up! Robyn, OMG! Did you watch Dancing With the Stars? So campy and yet, surprisingly, pretty good. When did Joey McIntyre become a guy? A man? And he’s still pretty hot. No, we missed that! Actually, I don’t think I could have talked Fred into watching that, and I didn’t think to tape it. We did catch Hit Me Baby One More Time last week, though. Good lord, was THAT ever a waste of time. Talk about your cheesefest. I did set up to tape that every week, though, because we SERIOUSLY want to see Vanilla Ice. Heh. BTW — have you seen the new Star Wars movie? Plan to? Haven’t seen it, but I’m sure I will at some point. I still haven’t watched the last one yet – rumor has it, it sucked – but I don’t think I missed much, and since I rarely have any idea what’s going on in these movies, I probably won’t go out of my way to watch #2 before I see this one. I SO want to come over and play with the kittens. Do they do the sideways/straight up in the air PING at each other when they play? They do now! It’s funny, when we first got them, they could only walk, and slowly at that. Now, they bounce around the room like little rubber balls, chase each other, and pounce on toys. They crack me up in a big way. Robyn, I love your hair colour. Do you know what they used? I have no idea. Something she mixed in the back room, is about all I can tell you! Have YOU tried the new diet coke that has SPLENDA in it? It taste like… well I cant think of anything witty and fun but it tastes B A D and I am not a pepsi fan but oddly I am digging the cherry diet pepsi and diet pepsi with lime. and Hey Robyn! Since I know you’re a Diet Coke lovin’ fiend like myself, I thought I’d tell you about the new Diet Coke with splenda that has recently come out. (If I’m telling you something you already know, please forgive me…) It tastes like real coke, and I’m loving it!!! I know Target was carrying it around here (outside Philadelphia, PA) and now I’m seeing it in my local grocery stores. Just thought I’d share the info with ya in case you’re interested. and a question: Have you tried the Diet Coke with Lime? And if so, what did you think? I was skeptical, on account of the fact that the Diet Coke with Lemon (and the Diet Pepsi with Lemon) were hideous, but I absolutely have fallen in love with the Diet Coke. Fred finally found one single, solitary bottle of Diet Coke with Splenda at the grocery store a couple of weeks ago. He poured a cup and brought it upstairs WHERE I WAS SLEEPING and gave it to me to try. It was good, but my LORD the aftertaste was a killer. I know that the regular Diet Coke has an aftertaste, but I’ve gotten so used to it that I don’t taste it anymore. The Splenda aftertaste was pretty unpleasant, but I’m sure that if I gave it a try and drank only Diet Coke with Splenda, I’d get used to the aftertaste. I haven’t decided whether I’m going to switch or not. I’m pretty attached to my regular Diet Coke. As for the Diet Coke with lime, Fred bought a bottle of it last weekend – maybe the weekend before – and I gave it a try, but didn’t really care for it. I guess I’m just a plain ol’ Diet Coke person, and not a Diet Coke with Lemon or Lime person. Hey Robyn, ever try soy ice cream? I find it tastes just like regular ice cream, but is much healthier. I especially like So Good chocolate, yummy!! Nope, I never have. Only because I’m supposed to stay away from soy products due to my thyroid issues. You do make it sound good, though! Robyn, I also have the Sony DSC-V1. It’s my first digital camera and I do like it, but I don’t think I have the hang of it yet. Do you change the settings when you’re taking certain pictures, or do you just leave all that alone? What do you have your settings on? I find the shutter lag frustrating because I’m so used to an SLR, but I think that’s par for the course with any digital camera. And suggestions/tips are greatly appreciated! The only setting I change on a regular basis is to use the “tulip” setting when I’m taking up-close pictures, and to turn the flash on and off. The shutter lag drives me crazy, too, and I’ve missed out on many a good picture due to it. The waiting for the flash to be ready drives me crazy as well, and the only thing I’ve figured out about that is that if you set the image size smaller (I use the largest possible image size), the flash “recovers” faster. Hope that helps. 🙂 How old is the Boog now? What about your other kitties? Oh lord, let me think, here… Spanky is going to be nine years old this Fall (Fred got him for me the first Christmas I was here), which seems impossible, because I remember when he was a tiny kitten with diarrhea, tromping through his litter box, getting poop on his back feet, and squalling at the top of his lungs when I tried to clean him off. Spot’s a few years older, so he’s 10 or 11 – probably 11. Miz Poo, I got the day before Thanksgiving the first year I had this journal, so that makes her… five and a half, six this Fall. Mister Boogers is about two, maybe a little older. Everytime I read about Mr. Boogers I think of my dad’s friend’s secretary who would answer the phone and if her boss couldn’t come to the phone she would say with a very thick accent, “Meeher Gomez, he beesy.” So when I read Mr. Boogers was nowhere to be found I instantly thought, “Meeher Booogers, he beesy.” I have actually taken to saying this, if you can believe it. If I call for Mister Boogers and he doesn’t come, I look at Miz Poo (who’s always RIGHT THERE) and say “Meeher Booogers, he beesy.” She doesn’t quite appreciate the humor. How strange is it that I dont really know you, except that I read your journal every day..but I saw something in a catalog the other day that made me think of you. I thought I would share. (Link) I think this really belongs in your house. Maybe get one for every room. I bet the cats would have a great time. I completely agree – I think we need at least one, if not several! I don’t know where we’d put them, though. There’s not a single surface in this house where the cats can’t get to, the little bastards. * * * The kitten section. I swear to god, I scooped five pounds of stuff out of the litter boxes this morning. I switched from clay litter to scoopable litter last weekend, because the kittens have stopped eating the litter and I find scoopable easier to deal with. It’s harder to vacuum up with the hand-held vacuum, but I can deal with that. Mia has diarrhea, and we originally thought it might be from caring for the babies (ugh). It hasn’t gone away even though the babies are using the litter box exclusively now, so I’m giving her deworming medication in case that’s what the problem is. But for now, every friggin’ time Mia goes into the litter box, Snoopy is RIGHT THERE. Apparently Mia’s not allowed to use the litter box without his supervision. And then, when she’s done, half the time he climbs into the litter box, tromps through what she’s left there, and stumbles out of the damn litter box with poop-covered back feet. I do my best to wipe him down with a baby wipe, but he doesn’t much care for that. Which doesn’t stop me, but it’s surprising how quickly a bastardly little kitten can wriggle away if he wants to. Yesterday, he had poop on his ear. I don’t even want to know how that happened. Today’s movie is here. It’s a fairly short one, but I inadvertently scared a kitten when I moved my leg, and got the reaction on tape – keep an eye on the right side of the movie for the last half, and you should see it. New movie tomorrow.