2012 calendars. —————–> ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ After being lost in the AA baggage terminal for two months and finally found and taken to the vet, Jack the cat was unable to recover from his injuries … Continue reading “11/8/11 – Tuesday”
2012 calendars. —————–>
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After being lost in the AA baggage terminal for two months and finally found and taken to the vet, Jack the cat was unable to recover from his injuries and was euthanized on Sunday, poor guy. You can read more about him on the Facebook page that was started up soon after he was lost.
Is it just me, or does Kim Kardashian perpetually look stunned, like she’s been zapped in the ass by a cattle prod and she’s trying to determine whether she liked it or not?
I unfortunately exposed myself to a few hours of that Kardashian show (I truly don’t know the name of it. Growing Up Kardashian? Kicking it Kardashian Style? Where are the NBA Players, Here Come the Kardashians?) when I was recovering from surgery. It was oddly easy to snooze to (also very easy to snooze to: Nancy Grace. I’ve never watched a minute of her show, but I happened to stop on whatever channel she’s on for a moment, and the next thing I knew it was an hour later and I was waking up feeling rested and refreshed.)
As far as I can determine, there’s Kim (Porny Spice), Khloe (Amazon Spice), and Kourtney (Living with that Douchey Looking Guy Spice), Kris (Attention Whore Mama Spice), Rob (Boy Spice), and an assortment of younger girls who are not really Kardashians (Jenner Spices). They all seem really annoying, and now that I’m mostly recovered from surgery, I can’t believe I was able to sit through any of those shows, let alone like six of them AND the wedding.
(Fred walked in while I was snoozing through one of the shows and was HORRIFIED because he thought I had recorded it with the DVR. I am not THAT desperate, thank you, especially when I have like 40 episodes of Friends on the DVR. God, I still love that show.)
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Speaking of recovering from surgery, I had Fred take the recliner upstairs on Sunday, and am back to the couch when I watch TV, and the living room looks a lot better. I’m able to lift more (though Fred’s still doing the heavy lifting for another week and a half), I’m doing the cooking, and I even drove to the grocery store yesterday. I’m still not supposed to – and don’t – turn my head all the way to one side or the other or all the way up or down, but that’s pretty much it as far as limitations go.
YES, I KNOW YOU WANT PICTURES. I’ll get on it soon. Maybe. Probably. Some day. I don’t expect that y’all will see the difference as much as I do, because I think that it’s not the sort of difference everyone else would immediately notice, but I notice it every time I look in the mirror, and I am really happy with how I’m looking in the under-chinnal area these days.
I’m still wearing the stupid head garment for a little while during the day and all night long, but I’m getting to the point where it’s making my ears hurt (because they rub against the material), so I told Fred that I’ll wear it during the day ’til tomorrow, and then I’m calling three weeks good enough, and will just wear it at night. I think I’ve healed enough that nothing will snap loose and re-jowl me.
Guess what I get to do tomorrow? VACUUM. Don’t mock me, I’m kind of excited about it. Fred does a good enough job, but he doesn’t do MY kind of vacuuming job and I don’t really expect him to.
Perhaps in another week or so, I’ll even clean the bathrooms. You know you want my exciting life.
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Lisa’s comment yesterday made me laaaaaaaaugh:
I laughed my arse off at the video, because like others have mentioned, it sounds EXACTLY like hubby and I. This week-end, I was on the receiving end and it did *not* go well. I was clearing off my desk, occasionally shredding a sheet of paper. WHILE MY BACK WAS TURNED, Steve decided it was vitally important for him to call somebody he works with to discuss who-the-fuck-cares. Being unaware his very special ass was now on the phone, I ran a couple more things through the shredder. And then, THEN, he YELLED at me, “Hey, you want to hold it down over there? I’m on the phone!” Perhaps feeling his life wasn’t in *quite* enough danger at that point, he SNAPPED HIS FINGERS and POINTED at me! Yes, he did! I will leave you to imagine what I told him (after he got off the phone, because *I* have some manners!), but the gist of it was that he was going to end up with either a phone or his pointer finger jammed up his ass if he EVER pulled that shit again. He just kinda giggled weakly, because he knew I meant it!
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve picked up the phone and called someone while he was sitting behind me, and I always assume he hears me dialing the phone, but then I say “Hi.” and he says “Hey.” I say “What are you doing?” and he says “Sitting at my computer.” Then I have to turn and say “I’m on the phone” so he won’t continue responding to me.
(I have also snapped my fingers and pointed at Fred, but only when he’s being deliberately annoying.)
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Lisa, by the way, is the same evil woman who directed me to Pioneer Woman’s Apple Dumplings recipe. I halved it and made it over the weekend and OH MY GOD, that stuff is SO good. Also the easiest thing I’ve ever made!
I actually had a second can of croissants, and I used it to make this stuff which was basically sugar and butter sprinkled on the top and baked, then topped with a glaze, and we were both completely unimpressed. I was kicking myself and wishing that I’d just made a whole batch of Apple Dumplings – but probably it’s best that I didn’t.
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In Friday’s comments, Paula mentioned that her friend works at the company that produces Cat’s Pride litter, and they’ve recently come out with a version called Fresh & Light and that I might want to give it a try. Since I am ALWAYS ready to try another litter in hopes of finding the perfect one (I’m a litter slut, I’ll go where the wind blows, I KNOW the perfect litter that isn’t dusty, clumps well, and holds down the stank is OUT THERE, I just need to find it!), I asked Fred to pick up a box of it when he went to Walmart Saturday morning. He did, and Saturday evening when we emptied, scrubbed out, and refilled the litter boxes in the upstairs bathroom and in the foster room, I filled one of them with the Cat’s Pride Fresh & Light.
I can tell you that it is possibly the least dusty litter I’ve used yet – Fred said that he thinks it’s even less dusty than the Cat Attract. It clumps well, but it just so happens that that litter box is one of the lesser-used ones, so I’m thinking of moving it either into the bathroom or switching it with one of the ones in the guest bedroom. I can’t speak to how it is with holding down the litter box stank, at least not yet, but probably by mid-week next week I’ll know whether it’s a litter worth sticking with or not. If I decide it’s worth switching over to, I’ll do it ever so slowly, so as not to set off the spraying bandits in the house.
I’ll try to remember to let y’all know how it holds up – if I forget to and you’re wondering, feel free to remind me. I tend to forget to follow up. Y’all know how I am.
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“I HAVE YOU, feather teaser!”
Tiptoe through the tulips. Er, the foster room.
Lucy has the giggles.
“Dude. Your toenails are UP MY NOSE!”
Tasty, tasty feather teaser.
Would you look at the monster paw on that guy?
Harlan keeps an eye on Everett.
If you’re Facebook friends with Love & Hisses, you’ve already seen this picture. Corbie was in the big bed on the table, snoozing, when that little hussy Molly climbed right in with him.
He was like “Dude. You see what I have to put up with, here?”
Newt just kept sleeping.
That much beautiful stripey goodness in one cat bed? It’s unheard of. I’m surprised the bed didn’t have some sort of nuclear reaction and blow to bits.
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Tom Cullen is a fine figure of a mancat.
And he knows it.
But he’s not such a manly mancat that he isn’t willing to help with the groceries!
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Previously 2010: You know, I’m just never allowed to have anything nice ’round here.
2009: No entry.
2008: No entry. 2007: That is not “getting” someone a car, that is BULLYING SOMEONE INTO DRIVING THE KIND OF CAR YOU WANT THEM TO DRIVE. 2006: Y’all just shut UP. We do NOT have eight cats. 2005: It’s a fucking mystery. 2004: I seem to be a tad less fluttery today.
2003: No entry. 2002: Pictures. 2001: Fred in the dog house. Literally. 2000: I said “It’s a good thing you put your first AND last name, PLUS ‘your daughter’, otherwise I’d never have known!” 1999: Oddly, even though he’s had two doses of the antibiotic, he’s feeling worse instead of better.
2012 calendars. —————–> ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Over the weekend, Fred dug up one of his old entries and posted it over at Goodreads. Still makes me laugh! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ … Continue reading “11/7/11 – Monday”
I haven’t heard anything about who won the Greenies Healthy Smile contest (the one I harassed you guys to vote for for weeks, which you did because you are WONDERFUL, and thank you again!) I feel like I remember that today (the 7th) was the day the winner was to be announced, but I’m not seeing anything on the Greenies site and haven’t heard anything, so I don’t know. If I hear anything, I will definitely pass it along.
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Sunday morning I woke up around the same time I’ve been waking up lately (6:30), only due to the time change, it was only 5:30, so I got up and let Tommy out of my room and went back to sleep. I finally rolled out of bed around 6:45, and was getting dressed in preparation for scooping the litter boxes and all that fun morning stuff, when Fred yelled up to me.
“What?” I yelled back.
“Are you up?”
“Yes.”
“Chickens are here!” he said. It was his plan to get up and process roosters first thing in the morning, something he’s been needing to do for a while now, but – understandably – he tends to procrastinate. This weekend, though, he decided it was time to get it done and over with, and so he set up his processing station Saturday night. I expected he’d be done with the processing by the time I got up, because he likes to do it as early as possible.
I didn’t know what he expected me to do – I was up and getting dressed, after all – so I just called down “Well, I’m up!” and continued getting dressed. I went around the house and scooped all the litter boxes, then opened the side door (he was cleaning up his processing station in the driveway) and said “What did you want me to do?”
“Huh?”
“You said the chickens are here, was there something special you wanted me to do?”
It turned out he was just letting me know that he was done with the chickens and it was my turn to take over and do my thing (bag them, put them in the fridge to age for a couple of days, and then put them all in the freezer).
I walked into the laundry room to fill the cats’ food bowls, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Elwood run across the kitchen counter with what looked like a piece of ham in his mouth.
Where the hell did he get a piece of ham? I wondered, and went back into the kitchen for a closer look. It wasn’t a piece of ham – it was a piece of a chicken breast, and he hunkered down and started eating it, while Alice sat nearby and watched him closely.
After some investigation, I went to the side door and said “How about next time, instead of saying ‘The chickens are here,’ you say ‘The chicken pieces are in bowls in the sink in a perfect location for Elwood to steal a piece’? I assumed you’d put the chickens in the fridge.”
I went back into the kitchen and took the piece of chicken away from Elwood, then cut it up and put it on a plate for him. Sure, I could have rinsed it off and put it with the rest of the chicken but, um, no. I wasn’t going to eat chicken that had had cat slobber all over it, thank you very much. There wasn’t a lot of chicken there, maybe an ounce, so I gave it to Elwood. (In retrospect I’m sure that I just rewarded the food-stealing behavior and probably he’ll skulk around the kitchen counters constantly in hopes that he can “catch” some food and be rewarded by me allowing him to eat it.) Once he ate as much as he wanted, I put the plate on the floor.
Here’s where it got kind of interesting – all the big Peppers came through the kitchen and sniffed at the plate then kept moving, but Charlie and Patty both bellied right up to the plate and licked it clean.
“I guess you can tell who lived under a trailer and who was born into a home where they were fed regularly, can’t you?” said Fred.
Indeed.
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I’m aware that I sound like a shrieking harpy in this video, but it has to be shared. It makes both of us laugh and laugh. (Warning: not safe for work or little ears or anyone who shouldn’t hear me saying “goddamn.”)
The video ended before he could complete his reasonable suggestion, but he was saying “Well, why don’t you TELL me when you’re recording?”
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So, we finally got around to watching last week’s The Walking Dead.
First, I have to register a complaint – I’m sorry, but “herd” of zombies? Really? That is possibly the least imaginative, least creative descriptive they could have come up with. I’d like to submit for your consideration:
A shuffle of zombies.
Thankya. Thankyaverymuch.
IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN LAST WEEK’S EPISODE OF THE WALKING DEAD (THE ONE WITH SHANE AND OTIS IN THE SCHOOL), SKIP TO THE NEXT SECTION.
Okay, so we watched last week’s episodes of The Walking Dead.
Unfortunately, I had inadvertently read in a recap what happened at the end of that episode so I basically waited the entire episode for it to happen. Fred, on the other hand, had no idea at all what was coming down the pike, so his gasp of surprise was oddly gratifying to me.
I don’t like Shane at all, but I was still surprised that he’d pull a cowardly move like that. I mean, I guess I can KIND OF understand it – they’re surrounded by zombies, he’s got the supplies that can help save Carl, it’s the only way he can think of to get away – but, man. COLD.
I guess that’s all I really have to say ’bout that. Except that I don’t like Shane. AT ALL. I think he and Lori are the perfect pair because I also don’t much care for her. They should go off and be assholes together.
I read somewhere that Merle will be back, but a perusal of IMDB doesn’t show that he’s listen in any 2011/ 2012 episodes, so maybe not. I have loved the hell out of Michael Rooker since he was Earle in Bastard out of Carolina. Fred and I watched that together, and we spent the whole damn movie saying “Earle would not put up with this shit. Someone tell Earle what’s going on!” and when the time finally came that someone said “Go get Earle,” we cheered loudly. Ever since, every time we see his name, we get excited because WE LOVE US SOME EARLE.
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Charlie and Patty are going on Thursday for their spaying and neutering!
“Say what?”
Um, nothing.
Poor Miz Poo. They just CLIMB right into the bed with her. As much a needy little lovemuffin as she is, you’d think she’d welcome the intrusion, but she has no use for other cats, she’s strictly human-only when it comes to giving the love. If she’s feeling sassy or if they get right up in her face, she’ll smack ’em. Otherwise, she just looks the other way and pretends they don’t exist.
I sure wish Charlie could relax.
He’s a ball of stress, is what he is.
Patty, too. Super stressed!
(Her eyes are not that blue, it’s just ’cause of the blanket she’s laying on.)
Molly’s wondering why I’m all the way over here, pointing that camera at her, when I could be over there, petting her.
Oh, this drives me crazy. Everett had a jaunty white whisker on either side of his face. And THEN one of his crazy whisker-eating sisters (I think Sally’s the culprit) chewed one of them off. He’s off-balance now!
Harlan noms on some tasty cardboard.
The table is where I put stuff when I’m too lazy to put it away. The cats and kittens find it endlessly fascinating (and okay, there ARE beds for them there, after all).
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Sheriff Mama sees what you’re doing and thinks you’d better knock it off NOW before she gets serious on your behind.
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Previously
2010: No entry.
2009: No entry. 2008: This ‘n that. 2007: I nominate Fred to do all the slaughtering himself. 2006: Questions answered. 2005: This makes me want to wrap my child in bubble wrap and lock her in her room until she’s 35.
2004: No entry. 2003: Meme. 2002: “How fucking much is that goddamn bread? A dollar ninety-fucking-five? Okay, put a couple of the motherfuckers in my cart, would you, fuckwad?” 2001: I briefly considered making a citizen’s arrest. 2000: (ie, “It’s all the fault of that fat bitch you married!”) 1999: I woke this morning at 2:30ish, feeling something wasn’t quite right.
The 2012 calendars are available! All the calendars are marked up by $1, and all profits go to Challenger’s House. I’ll put this up at the top of the entries for the rest of the week for those who don’t read every day or who read via a reader, and after this week they’ll be … Continue reading “11/4/11 – Friday”
The 2012 calendars are available! All the calendars are marked up by $1, and all profits go to Challenger’s House.
I’ll put this up at the top of the entries for the rest of the week for those who don’t read every day or who read via a reader, and after this week they’ll be in the sidebar to the right.
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okay, 13 cats. And now you have a swimming pool. Does this mean you might be ready soon to make your own Cat & Dolphin video?
Never say never!
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Did you have to pay anything for your revision, or is that something the plastic surgeon did for you because of you not liking the initial result? Just wondering, as I may be in the same boat.
I did not have to pay anything at all for the revision. My surgeon has his own on-site clinic, so it might have been a different story if the surgery took place at a hospital, but it was completely free (to me) in my case.
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When I glance at your bio box, every single time, the lines:
very happily married to
Fred (Fred no longer
blogs)
morph themselves into a different arrangement so that, and let me repeat that this happens EVERY SINGLE TIME, my brain processes it as:
no longer happily married
to Fred (Fred blogs)
and (EVERY SINGLE TIME!) I think, “Whoa, what happened, and why is FRED the one blogging about it?!”
In fact, that’s not quite true, because it’s happened so many times that by now, my reaction is more, “Yeah, they split up, I remember hearing about – wait, NO, that’s not right.”
Elayne, you make me LOL at least once a week!
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Where is that pile of dirt located on your property? What popped in my mind was grade it so it is easy to mow. Landscape it up all nice. Have a area on the top where you and Fred can sit and relax. Observe the goings on all around Crooked Acres.
It’s located in the middle of the back 40 (I’m looking forward to taking a panoramic picture of the back forty so y’all can see (1) just how big it is and (2) where it’s located). Fred keeps claiming that he wants to create a Devil’s Tower out of it, but he’s (mostly) kidding.
I’m trying to convince him that we could use it to make an adobe hut at the back of the back forty, and it could be our summer home (heh), but he doesn’t seem convinced.
He is planning on using some of it to even out bumpy spots around the property, and we’re going to raise the garden’s low spots a bit, and I’m sure there are other plans for that pile of dirt, but we’ve still got wayyy more dirt than we could ever use.
For the time being, the dogs and chickens are really enjoying running (and pecking) around in that dirt!
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Hubby digs ponds for a living (in Kansas or I would have sent him your way) and he’s never dug a square (ok, retangular) pond. That took alot of extra time to have it so perfect, ie extra money. Let me guess — that’s what Fred wanted, right? haha
Fred tells me there was no discussion on the shape of the pond – and we see a lot of rectangular ponds in this area, so maybe it’s a regional thing?
I would think that digging a straight hole with a backhoe (that has straight sides on the scoop thingy) would be easier than digging a round hole, no?
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I have been reading you for going on a decade, and have never commented (guess that makes me the ultimate-skimmer/lurker). Love your postings and miss you while you are gone! I can’t believe I am even posting this of all things I could have posted about over the years, but I have been watching reruns of the Big Bang Theory lately on TBS, and last night I totally thought of you, and your section today about the cat songs makes this (in my head) even more entertaining. Sheldon, one of the geeky main characters, likes to sing a song entitled “Soft Kitty” and last night he and the female character (don’t know her name) were singing it in rounds on the show. It made me laugh out loud, and I immediately thought of you and your brood. Sheldon only allows it to be sung when he or someone else is sick, so you may want to add that to your rotation if need be. Thank you for doing this and being so entertaining while doing it.
I absolutely LOVE that song. We don’t watch The Big Bang Theory (I imagine it’ll be like just about everything else we end up watching – people told us for years and years how awesome Arrested Development was, and we didn’t start watching ’til the show was cancelled, and fell in LOVE, I’m sure it’ll be the same with The Big Bang Theory), but I know of the song, and it always makes me happy to hear it.
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Hey are you and Fred watching “The Walking Dead” on AMC? Season 2 just started. It really is a great show. I’m not into the whole zombie thing, but the characters and story line in this show are great. If you haven’t seen season 1 you guys should Netflix it! I’m just sayin”.
Indeed we are! I’ve never been a big zombie fan either, but the show’s definitely worth watching. I recently read that they’ve already renewed it for a third season.
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I agree! That color green looks mahvelous on you. And once I picked myself up off the floor upon seeing you in something that is NOT a t-shirt that is FAR too large, my first thought was “I want!” Where did you get it?
I do all my shopping at Kohl’s because I’m a fancy bitch, so I’m sure it came from there. Might have been from last year, though – I think it’s been hanging in the closet for a while.
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happy 12th! i’ve been reading you since the summer of 2000. you, robyn, are my longest relationship. 🙂
And you are more beautiful than the day I started posting and you started reading, dahling. 😉
Yes, I completely missed the occasion, given that I was in Myrtle Beach, but my 12th blogiversary (journalversary, I think I used to call it) came and went on October 10th. 12 years, 3,031 posts, and I bet there’s more than one of you who’ve read every one of them, am I right?
Here’s to another 12 years! (I just burst a brain cell trying to figure out how old I’ll be in 12 years. But first I had to figure out how old I am NOW. Good lord.)(I’ll be 55 in 12 years, for the record, if my calculations that I’m currently 43 are correct.)
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We are going to expand our chicken yard and are wondering what kind of fencing materials you guys use for your chicken yard. We will be putting our flock dog in there with them as you guys did. I’ve tried looking back through Crooked Acres Thurs. pics and it looks like you might use several different types of fencing materials, but I wasn’t sure if the different types were for the chickens vs. pigs.
Will, I’m sorry it took me so long to get these pictures! As I mentioned in the email to you, the fence all the way around the back forty is 5-foot chicken wire. In addition to that, because we were having issues with chicks pushing under the fence to wander around the property, I went around last year and added 2 foot-tall welded wire fence around the bottom. I used wire snippers to cut pieces off, and then pushed the bottom into the dirt, and attached the welded wire to the chicken wire with zip ties. We still occasionally get some wandering chicks who get out of the back forty (there are some small gaps around the gate), but once they’re past a certain size, they can’t squeeze out, and stay in the back forty.
In the first picture, you can see the pig fencing off in the distance. That’s four-foot (I think) welded wire, and has electric wire running around the inside of it.
Actually, we had electric fencing around the inside of the back forty fence up until the tornado came through earlier this year, and the tree came down on the fence and the electric wire got hosed. Fred was planning to replace it, but we haven’t had any issues with George and Gracie getting out, or even trying to, so I’m not sure if he’s planning on doing that any more.
Look at me, rambling on and on about fencing. Who knew it’d be so fascinating? Let me know if you have any questions!
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My Gawd! When you said POND I imagined a nice little round rock pond. What you’ve got there is an Olympic Sized Swimming pool. Since you aren’t going to swim in it what are you going to do with it? Stock it with fish and have a fishing hole? It’s so big you are bound to attract Canadian Geese and THEN you will be sorry. Then you will be forced to buy some Chinese Geese to keep the Canadian’s in order. And those Chinese Geese will scare you and break your eardrums with their LOUD bellows. Just saying.
THE POND IS FOR THE DUCKS, you guys. THE DUCKS. Because this ridiculous setup, right here:
“Why am I not floating? Oh, right. Because I’m just standing here in this shallow, shallow pool.”
is not working for them. Who’s the brain trust who HAD to have ducks even though we didn’t have a pond? Who? Who went on and on and on about wanting the fucking ducks until I snapped and told him to get the fucking things and then stick them up his ass? I was not the one who HAD to have those fucking things so they’d follow him around and mumble-quack under their breath.
(But they are cute, damnit.)
Also, we are putting catfish in the pond, I think. I hope they don’t eat the ducks. (Catfish are the pigs of the water world, I hear.)
The main reason that pond is so big? So that when the rains hit this Winter/ Spring, instead of the back forty flooding and causing the ditch to flood and causing half the property to flood, the water will go in the pond instead of flooding us out. We’ll see how that works.
Also also, George and Gracie would never in a million years allow any stinkin’ old GEESE to set up camp in that pond. I base this on their reaction when they see a Robin set down in the middle of the back forty. They run those songbirds OFF and then they are so super-proud of themselves they just can’t stand it.
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That IS one big motherfucking pile of dirt. Any takers of the excess yet?
Not a single solitary one – like Fred Tweeted recently, people see a sign that says “You haul it” and think it means Fred will haul it for them. Uhhhhh, no.
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How are you going to fill the pond? How do you keep the water from soaking down?
The rain, hopefully, will fill the pond this Winter. The bottom of the pond is mostly a clay-type soil, and the guys who dug the pond are pretty sure that it’ll hold water.
(Yes, these are the guys who were surprised at how much dirt came out of the hole they were digging for the pond. SIGH.)
The guys who dug the pond packed down the clay with their big, heavy equipment (stop snickering), too. If the pond doesn’t hold water, there’s some sort of… something (sorry to be so technical, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it is) we can sprinkle on the bottom of the pond to encourage it to hold water. If THAT doesn’t work, we can switch the fences around next Spring so that next year’s pigs have access to the pond, because apparently nothing seals a pond like pigs. Given how well their wallows hold water, I’m thinking that’s true!
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I know you probably mentioned it before, but I am too lazy to look for it….what camera did you end up getting?? I love the panoramic shots. I think my camera does that too but I have never used it…maybe it was my old one that did :-/ I need a new toy…it’s been a while since I got one, but I don’t think I will go so far as to have my pet pee on something to get one!
It’s a Sony Alpha A55. I looked at a bazillion different cameras, but in the end we’ve always had Sonys and really liked them, so after reading the reviews on Amazon and thinking hard about it, I decided on the A55. It’s lighter than the A100 was (though that could be because the lens is smaller), and it has a rubberized grip area so that it’ll be a little more difficult to drop (and unless I’m using it, I keep it in my desk drawer to avoid having it peed upon). So far, I really really like it. The next sunny day we have, I have a date with Fred in the foster room to get some jumping kitten pictures!
Also, perhaps I mentioned that I really like the panoramic function?
While I’m recommending things, I recently got and LOVELOVELOVE an Eye-Fi Card for my camera. In short, it automatically, via Wi-Fi, uploads your pictures to your computer. So if I’m wandering around snapping a zillion pictures, by the time I mosey back to my computer, all those pictures are ALREADY on my computer, waiting to be looked at. You can also use it to post your pictures on various sites (Flickr is the only one that I can remember at the moment), but I don’t use that function. You can read more about it at the main Eye-Fi site.
I love this thing SO DAMN MUCH, y’all. Like I told Craige on Facebook yesterday, if this were an infomercial, you’d see the text/ hear the voiceover “NO FUMBLING WITH CARD READERS OR MESSY CORDS!” and me fumbling through my Drawer of Doom looking irritable.
I swear, this is the best thing I’ve purchased this year. I HIGHLY recommend it. (I would have tried it before now, but the Eye-Fi wouldn’t work with the A100 and doesn’t work with my little W300.)
Go get you one! (I got the 4GB card because I’ve never in my life filled up a memory stick – I like a clean memory stick – and also because you can set the Endless Memory function so that when the memory stick is too full, it will automatically delete pictures that have already been uploaded. How neat is that!)
PS: Annika, I will post a more in-depth review of the camera when I’ve been using it a bit longer, along with pictures of the camera itself. I can tell you that it’s not a camera you’d throw in your purse and go. It’s got heft to it, and though I’d take it on vacation (to Myrtle Beach or Maine or any other place where I’d get scenic pictures), I wouldn’t take it with me, say, on a trip to the supermarket (that’s what my little W300 is for!)(Also my cell phone.)(Also my iPod Touch.)(I have too many things that take pictures, obviously!)
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beautiful mb pictures, thanks for putting them up – i miss the southeastern beaches, a lot (i was born and raised in blacksburg, va and spent time during every summer of my childhood at the beach – va beach, nags head, cape hatteras, annapolis, md). did you eat hush puppies while you were there? people out here (utah currently) don’t know what a hush puppy is. 😛
I live in Alabama – I don’t have to go to Myrtle Beach for hushpuppies, they practically hand ’em out on the corners here!
Okay, not really – but since I can have hushpuppies whenever I want, it turns out that I rarely do, and I didn’t have any in Myrtle Beach. Five bucks says that if I were to up and move to a place where I couldn’t get hushpuppies, I’d probably want them all the time!
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Wow!!! That is one giant sparkle ball! Where did you get it?
I wish I knew! I’m thinking maybe Pet Depot, though I think it’s also likely that I just saw it in passing somewhere, bought it, and wiped the location from my memory.
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Any word on Buster? It saddened me to hear that he did not play well with others. Hope he finds his forever home soon as well.
Buster is still in residence at Petsmart. Lisa (one of the CH adoption counselors, who brought me the big Peppers!) reported that the first time she let him out of his cage so she could snuggle him, he started herding her, like he did me in this video:
AGH, HE IS SUCH A SWEET BOY SOMEONE NEEDS TO ADOPT HIM RIGHT NOWWWWWWWWWW!
I will, of course, let y’all know when he gets adopted – his picture’s over there in the sidebar under “At Petsmart”; I plan to put a big red “ADOPTED!!!!” banner on his picture when he’s adopted!
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20 cats…WOW! Just how many litters boxes do you have in operation right now?? And does everyone come inside to go, or do you have some that prefer to do their business outside?
Right now, I’ve got three litter boxes in the laundry room, two in the front room, and two in the upstairs bathroom. In addition, I’ve got two in the upstairs foster room, and two in the guest bedroom.
(Getting out my calculator…)
So, that’s nine eleven litter boxes. Which I personally scoop twice a day.
I know that conventional wisdom says that you need to have one litter box per cat plus one, which would mean we’d need 21 litter boxes right now and I can just tell you that, um, no. We don’t have the room for 21 litter boxes. We don’t even have the room for the 14 we’d need (following that conventional wisdom). The number of litter boxes we’ve got seems to work well as long as they’re scooped twice a day and completely dumped out, scrubbed out, and refilled with clean litter every other week or so.
We are talking about getting air purifiers to put in a couple of different locations in the house. Not so much for the smell but more for the dust. Even the Cat Attract litter, which is the least dusty litter I’m able to find, produces some dust, and Fred’s been coughing a lot lately.
Most of the boy cats will use the back yard as a litter box (hey, don’t you want to come over for a cookout? We can hang out in the back yard! No, really, take your shoes off and walk around!) and I know Kara will too, but Miz Poo and Alice usually come inside to use the litter boxes, then go back outside. They’re layyyydeeez and they have some manners, don’tchaknow.
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How big is Joe Bob? My male cat, Logan, looks very similar (though he has more grey and less white) and I’m thinking they would be a match made in heaven. 😀 Logan’s 18lbs of tall, long Tom.
Joe Bob’s actually lighter than he looks – he recently weighed in at 11.8 pounds. He’s a big cat, but he’s more tall and long than heavy.
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I’m so glad I’m not the only one that makes up cat songs. I make up songs about our two cats all.day.long. In fact the other day I was hanging with my 2yo when our 22 pound tabby came over. His name is Youk, and after he KNOCKED ME DOWN head butting me, I referred to him as Youkapotomus. Then I began to sing, “Oh I want a Youkapotomus for Christmas,” which is now my 2yo’s favorite song EVER and he must hear it sung anything Youkie comes near us.
Love it!
(Also, I love “I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” – I have to hear it multiple times every year or my Christmas season isn’t complete!)
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That Elwood, he’s HUGE. Do you know what he weighs?
14.2 pounds as of mid-July (I think). He is a big, big boy. I actually thought he was bigger than Tommy, but Tommy is actually about half a pound heavier. I won’t be surprised if (when) Elwood passes Tommy, though.
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Have you seen this kitty attacking apples…funniest thing I have seen in a long time.
Is that a Scottish Fold, do you think?
How cute is that!
I do think that might be a Scottish Fold, but I’m not super-familiar with the breed, so I can’t say for sure. Looks like it might be, though!
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Is Joe Bob an outside only kitteh?
No, not at all – Joe Bob goes outside during the day (and is supposed to stay in the back yard!) like the rest of the cats, but occasionally figures out how to get out of his collar and comes to let me know that “Hey, Mom, look what I did! Now let me roll around and purr!” I would have thought that he’d make the connection that finding Mom = being brought back inside and recollared, but somehow he hasn’t figured it out yet!
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I think you should calculate (as best you can) the total number of cats you’ve had in yours and Fred’s lifetime, plus all the fosters. When someone asks you how many cats you have, proudly announce that total: “Elebenty-billion!” and when they come to, laugh and say that you’ve had cats all your life and fostered many more, and all “your” cats are living all over the world. Then that ‘thirteen’ seems like nuttin’.
and
ooo, I like the way that sounds: your cats are living all over the world!
(ok, probably just all over Alabama, but it still sounds pretty cool 🙂 )
I’m not sure I could actually count that high – and wouldn’t I feel awful if I missed/ forgot someone!
My fosters are actually living all over the country, if not the world (though, with the Army base being in Huntsville, I wouldn’t completely discount the idea of them being all over the world!). Remember, Gus and Mike (now Topher and Dorian) went off to live in Oregon a couple of years ago. Hoyt (aka Lugnut) is in NC with Michelle, who drove down here specifically to get him. Starsky and Hutch (now Percy and Jack) are in Indianapolis with Jen and Kiefer. Dorothy‘s in St. Louis with Andrea. And let’s not forget Maddy, my very first bottle baby, who went to Pennsylvania to live with Nance and her family way back in 2006!
Hmm. This appears to be the time of year when people fall in love with one of my fosters over the internet and drive long, long distances to come adopt them! (Well, except that Michelle came in the Spring and Andrea in the Summer.) Something about the cold weather makes people in fall in kitten love, I guess. 🙂
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I love cats dearly but I think twenty in the house would drive me completely crazy. I currently have two and I always feel as though I’m surrounded by cats when I’m home. Like today I am home sick and have one cat under the blanket with me and the other sitting next to me on the couch. I can’t escape them. Twenty would bury me alive.
I have got to say that though there are times when I’m like “OH MY GOD I CAN’T BREATHE, GET OFF ME!”, those times are pretty few and far between. Right now, I’m sitting at my computer and there are four cats (Spanky, Miz Poo, Charlie Peppers and Sally Peppers) within reach, but they’re not on top of me or even against me. Molly will probably come and flop down in front of me in a little while (she comes, she stays for some belly rubbing and kissing, then she goes along her merry way). If I go watch TV later, one or two kittens will probably climb up for some love for a while, then go off to play or whatever.
Sometimes I feel like I’m the Peanuts character Pig-Pen, only instead of a cloud of dirt around my feet, I’ve got a cloud of kittens.
Also, I cannot stand having cats on me when I’m sleeping. I can handle having them up against me (and when the weather turns cold, more and more of them show up to sleep against me), but the only cats who reliably sleep with me are Miz Poo (ALWAYS – she’d crawl in my mouth and sleep there if she could) and Tommy, who sleeps in the cat bed at the end of the bed.
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What on earth do you and Fred do with all your cats when you both go out of town together? This issue has been on my mind since we’ve been arranging care for our three cats during our upcoming Christmas travel blitz (6 nights, 2 states, lots of driving!).
What is this “go out of town together” you speak of? Seriously, since we bought this house 5 years ago Fred hasn’t left overnight even once. I WANT him to come away with me, I keep harassing him about it, but he just… doesn’t want to. We used to go to Gatlinburg pretty regularly, and we even went to Ft. Walton Beach a few times, but since we moved here, EVEN THOUGH we’ve had friends and family members offer to take care of the animals for us if we go away for a few days, he just hasn’t been interested.
I imagine that if I could convince him to go away, we’d either ask a friend/ family member to scoop and feed for us, or hire a petsitting service to come in and do it.
Ideally we’d have a college-aged kid who could come stay in the house while we were gone, but we don’t so that’s a no-go.
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I should have known when the kittens started jumping down from the tops of the bookcases all of a sudden that there was something going on.
There was.
A wasp had gotten inside. I had no problems finding it, thanks to the kitten alarm system, and scooped it up and squooshed it before they could get stung.
(Alice’s face is cracking me up. She’s like “What fresh hell is this?”)
Harlan and Lucy watching bugs out the window, while Charlie gets a bit too familiar with the sniffing of Harlan’s chest. How RUDE.
“Someone need to clean this window, lady.” Shaddup, Harlan.
I love the way the sun is shining through Lucy’s ears.
Our Lucy’s getting to be a grownup lady cat, isn’t she?
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ATTENTION. THIS IS YOUR WEEKLY EMERGENCY NOTICE. PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THIS IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT.
CORBIE.
IS.
BEAUTIFUL.
THAT IS ALL. YOU MAY GO BACK TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED LIVES.
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Speaking of Corbie, back in the Spring, someone (or as it turned out, TWO someones) were spraying in a couple of spots in the house. We couldn’t figure it out who was doing it, and so we did the obvious: we bought a motion-detect webcam that would record when there was movement, and so in the mornings I’d come downstairs to a thousand short movie clips on my computer that I had to glance through.
I got a couple of clips that showed just how Corbie – who is kind of muscularly challenged from the midsection back (he’s perfectly healthy, there’s just a lack of muscle back there that makes it so he walks funny and can’t really jump. It doesn’t slow him down – he climbs well in spite of his lack of Arnold-sized muscles) – gets up on the couch.
One thing for sure – we can never clip his front claws, or he’d never be able to get anywhere!
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Previously 2010: Sights from around Crooked Acres.
2009: No entry. 2008: Didja vote? Didja vote? Didja vote? Are you gonna vote? You’re gonna vote, right? You know there’s an election today? Didja vote? 2007: Good thing they’re not our cats, huh?
2006: No entry. 2005: Well, well, well. Look who’s a big tough talker, but when the can of whoopass is opened and a little orange kitten gets to smackin’, Mr. Badass cowers like a great big girly-man. 2004: Apparently I had nothing to write about last year, either, ’cause it’s all meme and comment-answering.
2003: No entry. 2002: Now, THAT is a church name!
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry. 1999: She thought “gauze” was plural, so obviously the singular would be “gau”!
The 2012 calendars are available! All the calendars are marked up by $1, and all profits go to Challenger’s House. I’ll put this up at the top of the entries for the rest of the week for those who don’t read every day or who read via a reader, and after this week they’ll be … Continue reading “11/3/11 – Crooked Acres Thursday”
The 2012 calendars are available! All the calendars are marked up by $1, and all profits go to Challenger’s House.
I’ll put this up at the top of the entries for the rest of the week for those who don’t read every day or who read via a reader, and after this week they’ll be in the sidebar to the right.
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Sights from Around Crooked Acres.
The Begonias on the front porch are still holding strong.
I love Azaleas.
And Hydrangeas.
And… whatever these are. I don’t remember – starts with a “p”, I think. Or has a “p” in the name.
I love how Morning Glories pop up in random locations.
George and Gracie on the hill o’ dirt. I think this was about mid-way through the pond dig – the hill is much higher now.
Gracie racing around and making me nervous ’cause I didn’t want to fall off the dirt hill (though I would have had a soft landing, I guess).
I’m the motherfucking Queen of Dirt Hill, yo.
(Please note that I did not know, when I went out to the back forty, that I would be having a picture taken of me. Otherwise, I would have taken OFF the two-sizes-too-big sweatshirt and put on a cocktail dress and tiara. And waxed my eyebrows and put on makeup and gotten a bikini wax. The point of the picture was less “Look at ME!” than “Look how tall this pile of dirt must be if someone who is five feet, five inches tall can stand on top of it and look like a speck!” That is a lot of motherfucking dirt.)
The ducks are not quite completely grown yet, but they’re just about there.
We’re pretty sure we’ve got two boys and two girls. Why?
Girl. (That splash of blue is just gorgeous, isn’t it?)
Two girls on the left, one boy on the right.
See how his head is turning green from the beak back? These are Rouen ducks, which look just like Mallards.
Another shot of the green.
I think this means we’ll have baby ducks next year. Because what we need in the back forty is MORE birds.
This one is “The Featherhead.”
The Rock Star. She is so pretty, I just can’t stand it.
Young rooster.
Mama hen and her babies.
Another young rooster.
Yet another young rooster. There are about ten of them out there right now, and since you just can’t have that many roosters for the number of hens we have, most of them will shuffle off to freezer camp soon. We decided that this one is going to stick around – he’s really good with the hens and not aggressive toward us.
Angry Muppet (the Silkie) and her babies.
Happy, happy pup.
George, being brushed. That look on his face is one reason Fred calls him a big doofus.
“You has a treat for me?”
::thlurrrp::
Back when the pond was about a quarter of the way finished. I need to get some updated pictures of the pond itself!
Brushin’ time.
Gracie, watching.
George and Gracie, watching Maxi walk by. That tomato plant in front of Gracie is still hanging in there.
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Harlan loves a good belly rub.
Patty’s all “Do you MIND?”
Harlan melted right out that bed!
Sally and Everett.
Harlan on the cat tree.
So, I got my new camera and finally took it out of the box earlier this week. Some of the pictures above (the chicken and duck pictures, some of the dog pictures) were taken with it. I really like it quite a lot, and not least because it has a function I didn’t realize it had when I bought it: it has a panoramic function and it is TOO COOL to play with. I used it to get this picture of all the big Peppers atop the bookcases and cat tree in the front room (please ignore what a mess those bookcases are; I seriously need to organize the shelves).
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Much like Joe Bob does, if Maxi sees one of us outside she talks to us until we walk over and pet her.
And then she flops down in the dirt and rolls around.
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Previously 2010: Have you met Rhyme?
2009: No entry. 2008: Poet! Knowit! 2007: Newt was a total teeny baby this time last year – he was clearly NOT fully grown at that point, as this picture can attest. 2006: Maddy’s new Mommy and Daddy came a-visitin’ yesterday. 2005: Huh. I was wondering why Tom Cullen was snooping around in the stamp drawer 2004: The spud and I stood patiently by while the man chattered at the school employees for several minutes and then my head exploded, scattering brain matter everywhere. 2003: “Jessica Lynch!” I said. “Isn’t she the only POW we’ve ever had in all of history?”
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry. 1999: She went in and treated the whole office to a very loud gagging sound (she gets that from her mother), and came out a few minutes later a little less green.
The 2012 calendars are available! All the calendars are marked up by $1, and all profits go to Challenger’s House. I’ll put this up at the top of the entries for the rest of the week for those who don’t read every day or who read via a reader, and after this week they’ll be … Continue reading “11/2/11 – Kitteh Wednesday”
The 2012 calendars are available! All the calendars are marked up by $1, and all profits go to Challenger’s House.
I’ll put this up at the top of the entries for the rest of the week for those who don’t read every day or who read via a reader, and after this week they’ll be in the sidebar to the right.
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New month, new banner! Okay, that’s not the banner for this month, that’s just a temporary placeholder ’til I get the picture I want so I can make the banner I want.
Banner made by the very untalented me, with lots of swearing at the photoediting software I was using, GIMP.
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Alice may be all grown up, but she still plays like a kitten!
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The cat traps always work!
Molly stomps off ’cause there’s not enough room for her, while Charlie sniffs out the situation.
“Let me just shred this couch a little more…”
Note that Charlie and Molly are pretty much the same size now!
“Here, since she’s got the couch, let me take care of the chair!” (Charlie and Patty are completely appalled.)
Charlie and Patty, keeping the electric blanket warm.
Amazon box with a long piece of brown paper used as padding means lots of paper for the kittens to play with! (And a big mess in the front room.)
Charlie and Patty snoozing on the couch – and then Corbie comes up for a visit.
Everett in one of the rare moments when he’s not racing around like a wild thing.
Sweet Miss Molly.
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A Peppers video for you of them jumping around like little wild things, chasing the feather teaser. They crack me up, the way they go sailing through the air!
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Smilin’ Joe…
…the tuxedo…
…sure does love his Daddy, yo.
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Previously 2010: I do love my Canoodlians. 2009: “I heard they was servin’ chocolate pudding at the Senior Center. Outta my WAY!”
2008: No entry. 2007: How’sabout you win us $100 billion in the lottery and we’ll negotiate the terms after that, foolio!
2006: No entry. 2005: He’s a class act, that Vincent Gallo 2004: “Squee!” it reiterated. “Squee! Squee! Squee!”
2003: No entry.
2002: No entry. 2001: Is it just me, or do you get pissed off when you’re the victim of unexpected pain?
2000: No entry. 1999: Damn that Halloween candy!
The 2012 calendars are FINALLY available! All the calendars are marked up by $1, and all profits go to Challenger’s House. I’ll put this up at the top of the entries for the rest of the week for those who don’t read every day or who read via a reader, and after this week they’ll … Continue reading “11/1/11 – Tuesday”
The 2012 calendars are FINALLY available! All the calendars are marked up by $1, and all profits go to Challenger’s House.
I’ll put this up at the top of the entries for the rest of the week for those who don’t read every day or who read via a reader, and after this week they’ll be in the sidebar to the right.
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Joan asked:
I hope you can help me with this question. My son moved back home with his 6 month old kitten. His name is Zeus and he is a little love-bug. We already had our spoiled 2 year old Lola.
The problem is that Zeus stalks Lola constantly and she isn’t able to eat or use the litter box or anything without him pouncing on her. I feel so bad for her because she has taken to hiding upstairs all the time. She used to sit on my lap as soon as I got home from work, but that has ended since Zeus moved in with us. 🙁
Will things ever go back to “normal”? Will Zeus ever stop stalking Lola so she can eat and use the litter box without looking out of the corner of her eye all the time?
Thanks for any help you can give me!
I told Joan that sometimes kittens calm down, and sometimes they stay jerks, and that it’s possible Lola and Zeus will adjust to each other over time, but my mind was blank and I couldn’t think of things she could do to make life a bit easier for Lola. I do know that y’all will have great suggestions for her and will chime in – so please do so!
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Yesterday, as I mentioned, was the day the pigs were scheduled to go off to freezer camp. I always accompany Fred when he takes the pigs because he likes having company – it’s a pretty long drive. So we headed off toward the place, and we were about two miles from it, when we came upon a “bridge out half mile ahead – detour” sign. Fred sighed and groaned and turned right, and we went on a 15 minute drive down a pretty road with lots of pretty houses and fields to look at. Just as we’d both get worried that we were supposed to turn somewhere already, a “detour” sign would show up to reassure us that we were on the right track.
To recap, we turned right at the detour sign and then after about ten minutes of driving, we turned left onto another road that was kind of windy and curved back toward the road we wanted. Another five minutes, and we came to a stop sign. To the left was a detour sign telling people coming from our right to turn onto the road we were on.
“Which way do you suppose we go?” Fred said.
“Go right, this is our road,” I said.
He went straight. To his way of thinking, because there wasn’t a sign that said “You have reached your destination” or “Hey, fucko, this is the end of the detour. THIS IS YOUR ROAD,” then clearly it was not our road. We drove for about five minutes with me explaining to him that the detour sign was the other side of the bridge, that he should have turned right on that road, but he was just not having it. Until the road we were on started getting narrower and narrower and winding and twisting and the houses were farther apart.
So here we are, driving down this winding, twisting road, pigs in a trailer, and the driver of the truck is not the best at backing up the truck with the trailer attached. I’ve got Fred’s phone and am trying to look up a map of where we are so I can show him that I AM RIGHT, but of course we’ve wandered into Deliverance country and there’s no cell signal (my GOD, what is this, 1977? NO CELL SIGNAL?!), and finally he spots a driveway with enough room that he can turn around without going off the road, and he starts to pull in and back out and pull in some more.
I would dearly like to tell y’all that he ran that trailer of pigs off into the ditch and the pigs escaped and are on the lam, but what happened was that a truck came down the road toward us and stopped to see what the holy hell we were doing, and Fred got out to talk to him, and the old man driving the truck said “Your wife was right, Stupidhead.*”
We got turned around and finally got headed out on the right road, got the pigs delivered, and headed home. We were so far behind schedule (and y’all KNOW how that man loves to keep to his routine) that after some persuasion from me, he picked up his phone, called his boss, and took the day off!
I’d love to tell you that we spent the day doing something fun and romantic, it being our anniversary and all, but in actuality we got home, Fred cut some grass, I snoozed in the recliner, Fred helped me empty and refill the litter boxes, and he did some more work outside.
I’m not complaining, though – even though there were no diamonds or lobster dinners, it was a pretty damn good anniversary. I’ll take it – and another 13 like them, please.
*Perhaps not those exact words.
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Someone – a couple of someones, I think – mentioned the number of cats currently in the house. As a reminder, we ONLY have thirteen ( ::coughcoughSOB:: ) permanent residents. At the moment we’ve got seven fosters, which gives us twenty cats in residence.
We’ve got too many permanent residents, in my opinion, when we have so many that I couldn’t give all the cats their own page in the Anderson Kitties calendar. Did y’all notice that, Tommy on the cover but not in the calender itself? Not that I’m hoping any of them shuffle off this mortal coil anytime soon (Spanky’s doing so well that I seriously think he’s going to live to be in his 20s, I’m not even kidding), but perhaps we shouldn’t add to the permanent population? Ya think?
(Which means we’ll have 25 permanent residents by the end of the year, since that’s how things go. SIGH.)
I decided, the last time I stocked up on Cat Attract litter at Petsmart, that from now on when someone asks how many cats I have, I’m going to say “Too.” As in, “Too many.” Is it my fault they’ll hear “Two”? I think not.
Of course, I said that and then last week when I was at the surgeon’s office, after Fred BULLIED the surgeon into saying I could scoop litter boxes again (heh), the nurse was removing some of my stitches and asked how many cats we had. I never did tell her how many permanent residents we had, but did tell her that we foster and currently have twenty cats.
I’m thinking I should tell people we have thirty cats, and when they express shock or start dialing the Hoarders people, I’ll laugh and say “Just kidding! Thirty cats would be LUDICROUS! We only have twenty!”
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Harlan Peppers, headed up the steps to the platform in the corner of the living room. A couple of you noted how big he is – he is TOTALLY huge. I don’t know how much he weighs at the moment, but two weeks ago he was at 5 pounds, 13 ounces. I imagine he’s probably over six pounds by now. The big Pepper who weighs the closest is Everett, who was 9 ounces lighter than Harlan at the same weigh-in. Judging by the size of his paws, Harlan is going to be one big, big cat.
(Note to self: get current weight on kittens.)
Charlie Peppers, lookin’ smug.
Patty Peppers, chilling.
Patty, Everett, and Charlie, hanging out on the couch.
I don’t know what I was doing, but Elwood, Sally, and Everett thought it was pretty interesting. (I LOVE Everett’s white whiskers.)
Molly Peppers is just so purrrrrrrty.
This is where Charlie and Patty hang out most of the time.
Patty Peppers…
…loveslovesloves a fuzzy blanket.
Everett in the back, there, just hanging out with his jaunty white whiskers on view.
Harlan watching bugs go by.
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Elwood and Charlie Peppers (aka “Chuckles”) have a special relationship. A very special one. One where Elwood grooms Charlie vigorously, and Charlie lets him. It’s awfully cute… until Elwood gets overzealous and it all goes wrong.
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Sugarbutt in the dog house on the patio. He’s all “What? You go away. I’m having my private time.”
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Previously 2010: He grabbed the rubber hammer again and pretended to beat me with it again.
2009: No entry.
2008: No entry. 2007: “Bessie!” he said, waving his arm expansively. “Are you having a good anniversary so far?” 2006: I hope one of the little brats who took a handful of candy ended up with a slug, too. That’d serve ‘em right! 2005: And I don’t WANNA. 2004: Fuckin’ yawnsville.
2003: No entry. 2002: Bob Riley’s campaign strategy is to say “Nuh uh!” 2001: Did you know that they make foam cups in espresso size?
2000: No entry. 1999: Such appetizing topics, eh?
First thing first: the 2012 calendars are FINALLY available! Betty reminded me, I kid you not, TWO months ago that it was about time to get my butt in gear, and first I promised them at the end of September, annnnnd THAT didn’t happen. As I promise every year, I’ll try to do better next … Continue reading “10/31/11 – Monday”
First thing first: the 2012 calendars are FINALLY available! Betty reminded me, I kid you not, TWO months ago that it was about time to get my butt in gear, and first I promised them at the end of September, annnnnd THAT didn’t happen. As I promise every year, I’ll try to do better next year! All the calendars are marked up by $1, and all profits go to Challenger’s House.
I’ll put this up at the top of the entries for the rest of the week for those who don’t read every day or who read via a reader, and after this week they’ll be in the sidebar to the right. Well, they’re already in the sidebar to the right, but after this week they’ll only be in the sidebar.
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Behold, I live!
The last week and a half has crawled by, let me tell you. There’s just nothing on the face of this earth as boring as recovering from surgery, though thankfully I had lots on the DVR to watch to keep me entertained, but still – BO-RING.
I’m doing well – I saw the surgeon on Thursday and got the okay to start scooping the litter boxes again (Fred was thrilled!) and basically I can do anything except heavy lifting or anything that would require turning my head all the way to either side. The nurse took out the stitches in front of my ears and half of the stitches under my chin, and I go back this Thursday to have the rest of the stitches out.
Naturally, I came home and immediately overdid it and had to force myself to slow the hell down. It’s just harrrrrd when there’s so much to do, you know?
I also got the okay to stop wearing the head garment unless I’m doing something active, but I’ve been wearing it almost all the time because it reminds me not to turn my head to the side.
At this point, I am THRILLED with the results of this revision, and I promise that SOME DAY I will get around to taking pictures of my neck and my arms so that y’all can see how the surgery went.
I ALSO got the okay to chew food, which meant that I could stop eating Spaghetti-Os, grits, soup, and scrambled eggs. I can’t chew anything too hard yet (like a steak), but softer stuff, like burgers and noodley casseroles is fine.
I’m back to cooking, too.
I’m hoping that in another week or so, I’ll be back to doing just about everything. Those litter boxes aren’t going to scrub themselves, y’know.
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Today is our 13th anniversary and we’re celebrating by taking the pigs to the processor. Do we know how to party, or what? I am going to miss these pigs because they are SO handy when it comes to getting rid of kitchen waste (especially the stuff we can’t compost). We’re not planning to get pigs again until the spring, so for now the pig yard will get a rest, and Fred will have a chance to fill in all the holes the pigs made with some of the dirt from the pond.
(Speaking of the pond, we got rain last week. We have no standing water in the pond, but it’s early yet. I suspect by mid-winter, it’ll be a different story.)
I got word back about my big camera, the one I’ve used to take thousands of pictures over the past five years, the one that a cat peed on, and I picked up and dropped on the floor a few weeks ago. It was damaged beyond repair, which doesn’t surprise me in the slightest because it sounded really, really broken when I was trying to get it to work after I’d dropped it. So we replaced it with another (newer) Sony DSLR, which arrived while I was recovering from surgery and which is currently sitting on the bookcase in the front room. I haven’t even taken it out of the box yet, but I plan to in the next few days. For the time being, I’m using my little Sony W300, which takes pictures that aren’t nearly as nice, but will do in a pinch.
It turned cold here in the last week – I know those of you who got snow over the weekend are sobbing and rending your garments at the idea that I might be chilly for a moment or two – and so I got out the electric throw for the front room. If I’m not actively using the heated throw, I turn it off, but about half the time one of the kittens runs over the control and it gets turned back on, and I’ll walk into the living room to see the throw (which sits on the recliner when I’m not using it) covered in kittens. When I am actively using it, I end up covered in at least two or three kittens. I should probably just lay it out along the couch when I’m not using it, so the maximum number of kittens can lay on it.
I need to get out the heated bed for the cat house on the front porch in the next few days, too, and while I’m at it I might as well get out the heated cat beds out to put in various places around the house.
Spanky’s not waiting for me to put out the heated cat beds, though. He made his own! (Box on top of the heat vent = pretty warm!)
Oh, that reminds me – when I walked into the front room Saturday morning to scoop the litter boxes (which are kept in front of the fireplace at the end of the room opposite where the TV and couches are), I could feel the cold air POURING down the chimney. We ended up duct taping a piece of cardboard over the hole to the chimney, which helped a lot, but it’s still colder over there (and thus in the front room) than I’d like it to be.
There was a time when I wanted to put a wood stove in the front room, but it hasn’t happened by now and to be honest I don’t think either of us is that interested in making it happen (and I can’t interest Fred in a pellet stove). What we really ought to do is brick up the damn fireplace, but it’s possible that after we’re dead and gone whoever owns this house after us might want to use the fireplace as a fireplace (I am so thoughtful, y’all KNOW that your average bear would be all “FUCK the next owners!”), so I’m looking for a long-term temporary solution. Got suggestions? My ears are open!
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The daily routine these days is like such: Fred gets up in the morning and closes my bedroom door. Then he opens the foster room door and lets the big Peppers out of their room. He goes downstairs and lets Charlie and Patty out of their room, and then the kittens all run around like the wild things they are.
When I eventually get up, I scoop the litter boxes and greet all the kittens and cats, and the kittens are allowed to stay out and race around the house all day until about 8:30, when Charlie and Patty go into their room and the big Peppers go into their room for the night and the permanent residents get a bit of peace.
Between the permanents and the fosters, there are 20 cats in this house at the moment. I’ve determined that 18 – 20 cats is the tipping point where we enter “My god, this house smells like a litter box!” territory, and we are reminded yet again just why it is that we went from 100% Cat Attract litter in the litter boxes to half Cat Attract and half Fresh Step. The Cat Attract litter is good litter (and pretty dust-free), but it does NOT hold down the litter box smells the way Fresh Step does. If Fresh Step wasn’t so incredibly, horribly dusty, that would be the only litter I use, but alas it is (dusty) so it isn’t (my only litter).
The Peppers Gang is ready for adoption, we’re just waiting for there to be room at Petsmart. And Charlie and Patty will be going for their spaying and neutering next week (I just need to make the appointment), and once that’s done, they’ll be ready to go, too.
Considering how hissy-spitty the big Peppers were when we got them, it blows my mind how super-friendly they are now. Especially…. well, I was going to say especially Molly, but it’s true for all of them.
Harlan and Everett, snuggled up for a nap.
This time of year, when you see a gathering of very interested looking kittens, it means a wasp has gotten inside. I have to step in and squoosh the wasp so they don’t get stung.
“Where’d it go?”
Charlie Peppers loves him some Everett. Everett’s all “Why meeeee?”
Miz Poo and Patty Peppers. (Miz Poo: “If I don’t look at her, there’s no kitten there…)
Definitely not blue-eyed anymore.
Harlan lets his southern roots shine through.
Charlie says “Hallo, Tom Cullen, you up for a snuggle?”
Tommy says “Hallo, little man, you just keep on moving. Tommy needs some alone time.”
“He’s TAKING up half the bed. I’d like to stretch out and nap, but there’s hardly any space for me! MOVE him!”
Pretty Molly Peppers, daydreaming.
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Elwood sleeps like this a lot and it cracks me UP.
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Previously
2010: No entry.
2009: No entry. 2008: Holy crap! Ten years! 2007: Holy crap, I’ve been married for 9 years! 2006: We’ve been married for eight years now. And they said it’d never last! 2005: Let the Seven Year Itch commence! 2004: Happy anniversary, you walnut-farting motherfucker. 2003: We’ve been married for five years as of today. 2002: He even sent me flowers. 2001: And they said it’d never last. 2000: And happy anniversary to Fred, who married me two years ago tonight, which was the smartest thing he’s ever done. 1999: “We don’t have to get married. We could just wait ’til next year. Shouldn’t we get married on the anniversary of the day we met? That would be more romantic!”
Katie says: The cat rescue organization that I volunteer for, the Goathouse Refuge in Pittsboro, NC, has gotten a $10,000 matching grant if they can earn an equivalent amount by the end of November, so they’re having a big fundraiser. This would be really great for them, since their budget is really tight and donations … Continue reading “10/26/11 – Wednesday”
Katie says:
The cat rescue organization that I volunteer for, the Goathouse Refuge in Pittsboro, NC, has gotten a $10,000 matching grant if they can earn an equivalent amount by the end of November, so they’re having a big fundraiser. This would be really great for them, since their budget is really tight and donations are down 60% so far this year.
However, over this past weekend, he suddenly started having major health problems and is now in the veterinary ICU. The vets have not yet figured out what’s wrong, but are in the process of doing tests. Unfortunately, all of this is very expensive (Buddy needs to stay at the vet 24/7 right now and is in an oxygen unit) and my friend is just about out of resources to cover the expenses. She’s having to face the difficult situation of what to do if she just plain runs out of money.
You can read more about Buddy at his page, and there’s an email link there if you have any questions for his owner, as well as a Paypal link if you’d like to help Buddy with his medical expenses. If nothing else, go over and see Buddy’s sweet little face and send lots of love and good thoughts his way!
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Happy happy birthday to the spud, who turns 23 (TWENTY-THREE, CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT???) today! I won’t go on about her – you can read more posts about her in previous years – but I will include one of my favorite pictures of her, which I’m sure I’ve only posted about 300 times before.
So. Freakin’. Cute.
Happy birthday, Danielle!!!
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I am healing quite well from surgery, thank you. I’ve spent the last week in the recliner, in the living room, surrounded by varying numbers of cats. I’m getting tired of this whole healing thing, and I’m hoping that after I see the surgeon on Friday, I’ll get the okay to sleep in a more reclined (ie, laying in bed) position AND to eat chewy foods. I am tired of soups, Spaghetti-Os, grits, scrambled eggs, and chocolate pudding cups.
(That’s a lie: I am not sick of chocolate pudding cups because they are WAY too good.)
What I want more than anything is a great big salad, and I know that hearing that I’ve been eating pudding and Spaghetti-Os and am craving salad makes me one of those annoying assholes who’ll probably say “My goodness, I ate half a saltine and I am STUFFED!” next and you want to smack me hard, but I’ve always liked a good salad and also if you try to smack me, Miz Poo will rise up and sneeze in your face, so check yourself, fool.
They finished the pond, and we have 38 bazillion tons of dirt in the middle of the back forty, and perhaps I will get a picture to show y’all one day soon.
For the record, I don’t know why they dug the pond in a rectangular shape. I think that it might have been easier for them to do it that way. And no, it didn’t cost us more than a roundish pond would have – I’ve seen plenty of rectangular ponds around here, so perhaps it’s a regional thing. Also, that pond might be the size of a pool, but the fact that I live in Alabama and that there are snakes that like to swim in water in these parts have made it a fact that I am not swimming in that pond EVER, although Fred has said that as soon as there’s enough water in the pond to swim in, he’ll do it once, before the snakes and other scary water creatures show up.
Okay, I’m posting some pictures and a video and hauling my butt back to the recliner. I’ll be back Monday for real!
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Every now and then, Joe Bob slips out of the collar that keeps him in the back yard, and he comes to find me. I don’t know how on earth he slips out of that collar, sometimes it’s still clasped when I find it, sometimes it’s like he sprouted temporary opposable thumbs and opened the clasp on his own. He never goes far, and he always comes when we call, so I don’t worry too much about him. I do scold him when he does it, though. He just gives me the slow-blink love eyes, and really – how can I be mad at him?
“Hi, Mom! I’m here to visit!”
Have you ever seen such a happy boy?
Happy Joe.
Smilin’ Joe.
Jobey Joe.
Rough life, ain’t it, Joe?
Pretty, pretty Joe. I know I always say it, but it bears repeating: sweetest boy on EARTH.
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Miss Molly has earned the nickname “The hussy” because once you start petting her, she rolls around on her back and purrs and purrs forever.
Snoozin’ Charlie Peppers.
Harlan and Everett knocked this (empty) egg carton to the floor and acted like it was the best toy ever.
Tasty, apparently (and when I took it away from them they were sooo mad at me).
Annoyed Charlie.
“What the…?”
“It’s a giant sparkle ball! Someone left me a giant sparkle ball! This is the most awesome thing ever!”
“What’s this?”
“Oh, just a giant sparkle ball. ::shrug:: You touch it, I kill you.”
Lucy Peppers was in a cat bed on my desk, chasing her tail. Of course, the instant I turned on the camera to get proof, she stopped completely and was like “Who, me? Nothin’!”
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I wouldn’t want you to forget the beauty that is Corbie. Consider this your reminder!
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Previously 2010: Guess who’s 22 today? 2009: Happy 21st birthday, Danielle!
2008: No entry. 2007: I hope that the days come easy and the moments pass slow, And each road leads you where you want to go 2006: My little girl. 2005: The spud is 17 today! 2004: I hope you dance.
2003: No entry. 2002: “You want to buy STUFF faster than we get rid of it!” he accused shrilly. 2001: Well, the little bastard is home again.
2000: No entry. 1999: Boring work-related shit.
Thank you, those of you who voted for Gracie in the Greenies contest over the past few weeks. As we went into Friday evening – voting was supposed to stop at midnight Friday – Gracie was in first place and whoever was in second place was about 300 votes behind. They didn’t shut down voting … Continue reading “10/24/11 – Monday”
Thank you, those of you who voted for Gracie in the Greenies contest over the past few weeks. As we went into Friday evening – voting was supposed to stop at midnight Friday – Gracie was in first place and whoever was in second place was about 300 votes behind. They didn’t shut down voting at midnight, which I’d expected they would, so Saturday afternoon Gracie ended up in second place to a dog I hadn’t even noticed before. I don’t know if Gracie made it back to first place again before they finally got around to shutting down the voting, and I don’t know if they’ll count the votes that were cast after midnight Friday or not, so Gracie ended up either in first place or second, depending on how they’re planning to do that. At this point, it’s up to the judges to decide who won anyway, so maybe she wins and maybe she doesn’t – I’ll certainly let y’all know if I find anything out!
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Renee has a question that some of you might be able to help with:
I guess you’d call me the neighborhood cat lady. A month or so ago I caught the local mama kitty and well she’s currently pregnant and living isolated in a room. Until recently I am not allowed to touch her. If your hand gets too close she’ll pop you. Recently she’s gotten very loving – on her terms. At night when I go in, she runs over to me and will rub all over me. I am still not allowed to touch her even though she rubs all over me. I know as they get closer to giving birth they can get very loving. Lately though I can barely get out of the room. When I go to stand up she runs around and tries to block me. Tonight she put herself between me and the door and would hiss or pop at me if I tried to move towards it. I’m not sure what’s up with the possessiveness and I”m not sure how or if I’d ever be able to get her to allow me to touch her, but I didn’t know if you or any of your readers might have some advice or experience.
I came through surgery just fine, thankfully. The worst part of going into any surgery (this is just my opinion) is having the IV started. When I had the (non-cancerous) tumor on my knee removed when I was a teenager, they had a hell of a time getting my IV started, and had to poke me three or four times before they finally did. In all the surgeries I’ve had since then, though, they’ve never had a problem. But it’s the anticipation of having the IV started that just sucks, and nothing else about surgery fills me with dread the way that does. What’s that, I’m going to be laying there stark naked surrounded by 45 strangers, all casting judgemental looks at me? Whatever, I’ll be asleep, ask me if I CARE (I do not).
So I felt my usual dread Wednesday morning when the anesthesiologist came out to start my IV. And he injected first one vein with that god-awful local that numbs the area (which, if you ask me, is worse than the fucking IV itself) and couldn’t get the IV into that vein, so went after another vein and nope, that one didn’t work either, and so he tried poking around a little to see if he could make it work.
And he hit a fucking NERVE, a literal NERVE. I am stoic, and don’t let anyone tell you different, and you could probably be hacking at my arm to remove it, with no anesthetic, and I might mildly say “Oh, that stings just a teeny bit.” while inside I am screaming, but when he hit that vein, and that zap of PAIN went jolting up my hand, I pretty much levitated up off the bed and made him decide to give up on that hand.
He went on to my right hand and just did the IV without the local (thankyoujesus) and got it in, and then it all went very quickly (in a private clinic, shit gets done quickly as opposed to a hospital where you show up at 5:30 for an 11:00 surgery time and they ultimately get you back there around 3 in the afternoon; in a private clinic there are not those pesky emergencies taking up operating rooms, I guess), and Fred came back to kiss me and say goodbye, and off I went.
The surgery took a couple of hours, and I was home in my recliner a little after noon.
Since the day of surgery, I’ve been doing a lot of snoozing in the recliner. It’s comfortable enough, but I really wish we had one of those really big recliners that you can really get comfortable in. The dressing they put on my head after surgery was absolutely huge, so I was glad to see the surgeon on Friday and have the dressing and drain removed, and a smaller garment put in place.
I was able to shower on Saturday for the first time since Wednesday, and it was really nice.
Yesterday I moved from narcotic painkillers to Tylenol/ Advil, and it’s doing a good job at keeping the pain at bay. I go back to the surgeon on Friday, where I think they’ll remove my stitches and staples and look me over to determine that I’m healing okay.
Speaking of all that, when the nurse took the dressing off from around my face on Friday, Fred told me that (1) I looked like a chipmunk (because my cheeks were swollen) and (2) he was pretty sure they’d moved my ears (the nurse told me they did no such thing). He’s so helpful, isn’t he?
So anyway, so far so good on the healing. I can’t really chew anything, so I’ve been eating the hell out of Spaghetti-Os, grits, soup, and chocolate pudding.
I’m planning to take the rest of the week off from blogging, though knowing me I’ll pop in to post pictures once or twice – or maybe not. In any case, if I don’t post again between now and Monday, rest assured that I’m taking it easy in the recliner, and I’ll be back!
The original head dressing, which I had on my head from Wednesday to Friday. I post this picture because it is super KLASSY, with that bra hanging off the hook by the door. What can I say? I wanted to take the damn thing off as soon as I got home!
Yeah, my glasses are too big for my face and also crooked. Shaddup. This is what I’m wearing on my head now. It’s a lot less bulky and a lot more comfortable.
Luckily, cake doesn’t require much chewing, and I had a Groupon for Peggy Ann Bakery that needed to be used before mid-November, so Fred went by and got us a cake (the pigs got the better part of it because I found that I wasn’t all that hungry for cake when I was doped up on the narcotics.)
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So, the pond is dug. The guys worked hard on it all week long, and round about, oh, Wednesday, they told Fred that hey – there’s a lot of dirt! They told him that there was more dirt than they’d expected (!) and, um, sucks to be us. So Fred put a sign by the side of the road advertising dirt for sale, and I don’t know what exactly is going to happen if no one comes along and wants some of that dirt. I guess we’re going to have a hill out there. Or something.
Anyway.
We have a pond!
The dirt from the pond.
The pond, which is about 60 x 120 feet, and about 8 feet deep at the deeper (farther) end.
Nothing to do with the pond, I just thought this was neat.
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I have to say that I miss Buster an awful lot (reports are that he’s doing just fine at Petsmart, but hasn’t been adopted yet), but things are just so amazingly peaceful around here. I think I hadn’t realized just how UN-peaceful life had gotten and how tense it was making me until things went back to relatively peaceful.
The kittens are being pretty good while I recover from surgery – occasionally one will climb up in my lap for a nap, but for the most part they play around me and near me, and lay on the couch near my chair, but don’t run across my face or anything like that, which is good.
Everett, looking regal.
Charlie Peppers loves the big cats. He spends a lot of time snuggling up to Elwood and Tommy.
I love how it looks like Charlie’s gone all Tasmanian Devil on Elwood’s tail, and Elwood doesn’t even notice.
(Ignore the dirty rug by the door – Fred hadn’t vacuumed yet)
Charlie and Everett.
Charlie, Everett, and Tommy.
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Elwood sure does love that Tommy.
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Previously
2010: No entry.
2009: No entry. 2008: Questions answered. 2007: Then I’m sure they hung up and said “We just bought ourselves six weeks of NO CALLS from Mr. And3rson. Boo-yah!” 2006: Okay. I have a LOT of favorite things about the house, I cannot lie. 2005: “That makes me want to get pregnant and have a baby, just so I can name it Lavernicus,” I admitted. “That WOULD be an excellent name.”
2004: No entry. 2003: It took two days from the first time I called Stanley “Beanie-bean” in front of Fred before Fred started doing it too. He’s such a copycat. 2002: “She was giving me a handjob under the water, and I didn’t stop her, even though I’m not attracted to her, BECAUSE I AM ONLY HUMAN.” 2001: Fred is a freak. 2000: “Uhhhh….” I said, casting around for something smart-ass or impressive to say. 1999: My desk is a total shitheap, because I’m Robyn and I’m a slob
(Please note: I did not proofread. Pardon any typos.) From Karen – I volunteer with a small rescue group near Raleigh, NC named Alley Cats and Angels. We were recently contacted by another group looking for help with a very bad neglect situation. We took in three kittens and three adults, all in very poor … Continue reading “10/21/11 – Friday”
(Please note: I did not proofread. Pardon any typos.)
From Karen –
I volunteer with a small rescue group near Raleigh, NC named Alley Cats and Angels. We were recently contacted by another group looking for help with a very bad neglect situation. We took in three kittens and three adults, all in very poor shape. They’ve all been to the vet now, and though at first one vet thought at least one of the adults might be too far gone (she feared the foot wound infection had gone into the bones), we are now hopeful that all will be able to make it with proper care. But we could really use some help with the medical expenses for these cats, so have started a chipin campaign.
Our blog will be updated with ongoing status for these guys as they progress. The initial post about them is here.
Vote for Gracie! It’s the last week of voting. Gracie’s currently solidly in first place, and I’d like to keep her that way. After Friday, the three judges get to decide who wins, so it’s not in the bag for Gracie even if she gets a bazillion votes – but it certainly won’t hurt!
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Just so you know, I am currently recovering from surgery, so I wrote this entry ahead (wrote it on Tuesday) and scheduled it to post so you wouldn’t have to go without. I’m sure posting will go back to normal(ish) on Monday or thereabouts.
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Robyn! I had no idea you were covering for your polygamist Rooster! How many of those kids are his?? Does he keep each family in separate houses ala Big Love??? Does he share himself equally or does he fancy one hen more than others???
Oh, there are NO separate houses for this big, happy family! They all share one big house and (horrors!) the same big room! There are plenty of roosts in there so they have plenty of room and aren’t all up in each others’ space. As far as I can tell, the rooster doesn’t have any favorite hens – whoever’s closest will do, it seems.
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That’s SO cute about Alice’s song – do you sing it to a particular tune?
No, I sing it to different tunes – sometimes peppy like a sitcom theme, sometimes jazzy complete with jazz hands, sometimes slow and mournful. Depends on my mood!
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I swear to the God in whom I don’t believe, my eyes were reading “skip the bug pics” and my brain was saying, “Hmm, if there are bugs, there might also be frogs,” and then – boom! – it’s like you read my mind, IN ADVANCE! What would that be called, prescient telepathy? You’re GOOD, Robyn, you’re really really good.
Elayne, I am sad to inform you that from here on out, you will be forever in my brain as someone who hates frogs and toads. Probably because I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of anyone with that particular phobia before!
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I didn’t know assassin bugs had that cute stage. Have you ever been bitten? I had one in my jacket once and I got bit on the arm.. it felt like a nail going in my arm and then the swelling. My arm got huge and I had to take a bunch of Benedryl. So, be careful where you lay your jacket down!
I have never (yet) been bitten by an assassin bug, which is kind of amazing because they’re everywhere right now. In fact, yesterday I was watering the plants on the front porch, and looked down to see a juvenile assassin bug crawling on the front of my shirt. I leaned over so he could climb onto the hydrangea, and he went along his merry way. I think juvenile assassin bugs are aDORable!
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Just saw this and fondly thought of you and the Fredster:
That pig story had me laughing so hard I am was about to cry. I’m sure it was terrifying then, but looking back, it’s pretty funny now, isn’t it?
OK, maybe not.
It actually is funny to me, now that time has passed. What always makes me giggle is remembering how the bucket clanged against the pig’s head and she grunted (but didn’t react otherwise, as she was in pursuit of food). It makes me laugh every time I think about it!
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Somehow I was relieved to hear about your pissy camera. I have had so many problems with my 2 cats, I’ve never been able to figure out how you can keep so many so successfully. Reading your blog not only gives me some hints, it makes me hopeful. Thank you.
Gallons and gallons of Nose Offense is how I manage! 🙂 The cats seem to go through stages where everything is peaceful and there’s hardly any fighting, and then for some unknown reason, they go through a stage where everyone fights with everyone else, or someone’s got an issue with SOMETHING I can’t figure out, and there’s spraying going on in the house. Earlier this year, when I was about to have surgery, I did some really stupid things. First, I completely changed the kind of litter I was using for the cats, and THEN I took the litter box out of the guest bedroom, and THEN I moved the couch from one side of the front room to the other so I could put a recliner in there, where I sat as I recovered from surgery.
This was the perfect storm that kicked off what I like to UNfondly refer to as “Sprayapalooza.” There I was, recovering from surgery, and every morning after Fred went off to work, I was wandering around the house with the light and the spray bottle of Nose Offense tracking down every puddle and every spray, spraying it, and then wiping it up. It very nearly drove me crazy, but eventually (once I switched the litter back to Fresh Step; I’ve since switched to a Precious Cat/ Cat Attract mixture – and I did it SLOWLY) the spraying stopped. Every now and then we’ll find a spray or two, and I go around the house regularly with the black light to make sure there’s not anything I’ve missed, but at the moment things are going well. THANK GOD.
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I think I just stopped feeling even the tiniest bit sorry for the “intelligent as a three-year-old child” pigs. Holy cow, that’s terrifying. Really glad it didn’t escalate beyond that. Did George and/or Gracie show any interest in the proceedings at all?
You know, I don’t know – I didn’t look over at them, but I also didn’t hear them barking or anything, so I rather suspect they were off keeping an eye on the chickens. They probably figure I can take care of myself!
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I’m curious–there’s only one rooster, so all the babies are his. When the babies grow up, do you keep them? and if so, aren’t they all inbreeding after that?
Before this year, we’ve made sure to bring “fresh blood” into the flock so that there was not any inbreeding. I completely failed to realize that we didn’t do that this year until I saw this comment! I said something to Fred, and he said that he’s planning to add some fresh blood to the flock next Spring, hopefully. I’d like to have a few more Silkies – they’re not terribly prolific layers, but they’re wonderful mothers, and they’re also pretty entertaining. I’d also like to have several Americaunas; although they’re terrible layers (at least the ones we’ve had are), when they do lay, they lay blue eggs, and I like seeing a variety of eggs in the egg basket.
We do keep the hens who are born here, but when they’re big enough, the roosters go off to freezer camp.
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Do you ever find feathers from The Rock Star laying around? I’d want to pluck her-she’s got gorgeous feathers! 🙂
I do find feathers from the Rock Star laying around. In fact, I have a small bag of her feathers around here somewhere that I was going to use for something, I don’t remember what – probably to attach to cat toys.
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Just saw this video today (If you haven’t seen any of these Simon’s Cat videos, click around and watch them all,it’s so worth your time), and it reminded me of Miz Poo, and her paw ‘o doom when she has no use for the little ones!
I LOVE Simon’s Cat – he does such an amazing job on those videos! And yes, that is precisely what Miz Poo is like with the kittens. In fact, just a few minutes before I wrote this, Miz Poo was laying in a cat bed, and Charlie Peppers tried to climb in with her. WELL. She smacked him a couple of times with the Paw o’ Doom, hissed, and then stomped off in a huff.
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Does Fred have help with the umpteen kitties when you decamp?
Fred has zero help with the kitties when I’m not here. He does the scooping, he keeps the food bowls and water bowls filled, and just about everything else goes by the wayside. Our cats didn’t get their morning snack while I was gone, the big Peppers didn’t get a morning snack while I was gone, and Charlie and Patty only got their morning snack because I wanted to be sure they were getting their Forti-Flora every day (though to be honest, at this point I think they’d probably be okay without it, they’re doing really well). He does a good job with all of that, and so if the house is a bit of a mess when I get home, I figure it’s worth it, because I know that he took good care of the cats while I was gone!
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I have composed several songs to my kittehs including the “Good Morning” song and “Coltrane, Coltrane, He’s a Helluva Cat”. Any major labels out there want to sign me up? Hee!
I have to admit that I might pay good money to hear “Coltrane, Coltrane, He’s a Helluva Cat”!
When you say the “Good Morning” song, do you mean this one? Because I sing “Cullen, Tom Cullen, weeee slept the whole night through, Tom Cullen, Tom Cullen, let’s eat!” sometimes (not always in the morning). That works with Miz Poo, too – “Pootie, Miz Pootie, weeeeeee slept the whole night through!”, etc.
Also, I use Alice’s song with Joe Bob, since it fits so well (“Jobey Joe, the tuxedo, sure does love his daddy!”)
Both Kara and Maxi get the same theme song, sung to a tune I made up. Maxi’s goes “Porkin’ along, singin’ her song, it’s Out! Side! Mama!” (because Maxi is an outdoor cat and also because she talks when she’s walking toward us. Also also, she’s kind of portly). We call her “Outside Mama” and Kara is “Upstairs Mama” because she used to spend a lot of time upstairs – these days, if she’s not outside, she prefers to hang out on the cat bed on the clothes dryer. Anyway, her version of it goes “Stompin’ along, singin’ her song, it’s Up! Stairs! Mama!” (She also likes to talk when she’s walking toward you.)
Clearly I can go on for DAYS when it comes to cat songs!
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If I were Alice, I’d growl at you for taking such an unbecoming photo of her (#1). The way she has her body twisted makes her look a little heavy – definitely not her “good side”.
Much in the way it’s not these jeans that make my butt look fat, it’s not the picture that makes Alice look a little heavy, if you hear what I’m sayin’.
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I hate to ask, but pigs wouldn’t actually try to eat a live animal (incl. human)…would they??
I don’t think they’d have much luck eating a healthy living human, but if you toss someone who’s kind of sickly and weak in there, well, I wouldn’t be surprised if the pigs chowed down, really.
I’ve not seen Deadwood (it’s on my to-watch list), but I understand there’s a pig (or pigs) who takes care of disposing of bodies. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was based on fact. Pigs are walking stomachs, and if they get hungry enough I believe they’d eat just about anything.
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My 15 year old tuxie makes the NONONONO noise whenever she is going to cough up a hairball. She also sounds just like the cat in the America’s Funniest Video clip of a tuxie saying “Oh Long Johson” and “Oh Don Piano”. She looks alot like it too.
I remember seeing that clip!
That clip reminds me of our cat Tubby, who passed away several years ago, and how a couple of times he said, in the creepiest, ghostliest voice EVER, “Mama. Maaaaamaaaa.” It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and it always meant that he was about to barf.
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I need good thoughts from the interwebs, by the way – I am getting three foster kittens next week. Unfortunately these three, although seemingly perfectly healthy right now, tested positive for feline leukemia so my house is probably going to be hospice care for them. I am hoping they make it to adulthood but I know the odds are against it.
Teughcats, I hope it’s going well with your foster kittens! I guess that’s a definite positive, there’s no chance they could retest and come up negative? I have been lucky enough to never have any fosters test positive for leukemia, though of course the Bookworms (and the Wonkas before them) were initially FIV positive. Those kittens are lucky to have you to care for them.
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What’s a sweet gum tree? is it anything like a eucalyptus gum tree?
I don’t think it’s like a eucalyptus gum tree, but maybe it’s in the same family and I don’t know! You can read about the Sweetgum tree here. They’re very pretty trees, and if it weren’t for the gumballs (large spiky balls) that they drop by the thousands, I’d love to have more Sweetgums on the property!
And when you put the big garden to bed, do you pull everything out, fertelize it cover it with mulch and just leave it till spring? Hey, I’m new to this gardening thing – might start up my own no dig garden bed this weekend and everthing! erm, how do I keep the cats off it?
We mostly pull everything up, then Fred tills the entire garden a couple of times over the course of the winter, and we call it good enough. I’m planning to toss a lot of leaves and grass clippings on the garden this winter to help amend the soil. We’ll see if I actually do it, though!
We don’t keep the cats out of the big garden – they mostly keep the squirrels, birds, and rabbits away and they don’t bother the plants for the most part. I keep the cats out of my little raised bed garden by putting a fence around it.
Those Peppers are adorable. are you going to re-intro version 2 with the original Peppers again any time soon?
At this point, both litters of Peppers are out in the house for the better part of the day. Fred mentioned, last night, the idea of putting the little ones in the room with the big ones overnight, but I’m a little concerned that Everett (who plays rough sometimes) might get too rough with them. We may eventually do that, depending on how long the big Peppers are with us (not many adoptions lately, so there hasn’t been room at Petsmart for them just yet.)
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I have a one letter editing suggestion for Alice’s song:
Alice Mo
the calico
sure does love
her daddy-O!
I actually had forgotten this – we’ve been watching Breaking Bad, and once the season started, I added a “yo” (a la Jesse Pinkman) to the end of Alice’s theme song!
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Regarding Charlie and Patty Peppers, and their “love bug” status….do you find that your little boy kitties are generally more that way than the girl kitties are? I keep hearing that female animals are generally more independent. You seem to be the best person to really know….given how many cats have been blessed to be with you.
You know, it’s possible that we’ve had more friendly males than females, but if it’s true that the males are friendlier, it’s pretty slight. I’m thinking of the Peppers Gang, where Molly and Lucy are great big lovebugs (we’ve been calling Molly “the hussy” because she climbs on you and demands that you give her love), Sally can take us or leave us, Harlan likes a snuggle if you grab him, but he doesn’t come looking for it, and Everett is a big snugglebug when he’s not off running around like his tail is on fire. So I guess my answer is… maybe the boys are friendlier, but not by a big margin.
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Back to say that I love the word “snoopervise” you should submit that to Websters. 🙂
Isn’t it a great word? I didn’t come up with it, though – I first saw it on Huffle Mawson‘s page, and stole it (I know I’ve seen it other places as well, but that’s where I first spotted it).
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So do the kittehs miss you when you’re gone and act all lovey-dovey, or are they all “what, you were gone?” and ignore you? I never know if I’m coming back to clingy kitties or aloof ones!
Miz Poo always greets me with “OH MY GOD HOW COULD YOU LEAVE ME NEVER EVER LEAVE ME AGAIN!”, and the rest of the cats are all “We’re glad you’re back, is it snack time yet?”
To be fair, that’s Miz Poo’s reaction whether I leave for 10 minutes or 10 days.
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Such stressed Peppers. Sad, no?
GOD, Everett! Sally! PLEASE try to calm down!
“What’s up there?”
“Hey, I like the way this thing smells.”
Lucy unsheathes The Claws.
Honestly, Everett. Am I going to have to put you on valium or something? BREATHE, for god’s sake!
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“Now, I have to go back to work on my State of the Union speech. And I worked on it until pretty late last night. But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I’m going to say this again:
“I did not have snuggual relations with that kitten, Mister Peppers. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people. Thank you.”
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Previously 2010: Myrtle Beach pics!
2009: No entry. 2008: Let Me Out? No, Wait. Let Me In. IN, I MEANT.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry. 2005: This is the month that makes the hell of summer in Alabama more than worth it. 2004: I need to win the lottery so I can hire someone to come to my house every day and style my hair while I read. 2003: Which is when Stanley thought “Hey! I shouldn’t just skulk back! I should run and leap! Into the air! Like a big mexican jumping Stanley-bean!” 2002: As if he was going to say to himself “By god, she’s RIGHT! I do not, in fact, reside here. What on earth was I thinking?” and run off.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry. 1999: “Well, she took that well,” I commented.
