Category: CAE

Do you remember Hoyt? Sure you do! He was one of the True Blood 6, was adopted locally, then returned to the shelter and adopted by reader Michelle in NC.

Here he is as a little guy:

Well, I got an email from Michelle yesterday, and she says:

I have attached a couple of pictures of Hoyt. He just had his annual visit to the vet and my “little” boy now weighs 14lbs !! He’s still growing and if he gets as big as his paws he is going to be bigger than his brother. He is a healthy (not one incident of FLUTD or any urinary troubles) HAPPY, brat and I still love him to pieces. He and his big brother PitStop play together and enjoy romping up and down the hallway & stairs & chasing and wrestling each other. Hoyty boy loves everyone and everyone loves him. His favortie toy is a purple Kong that crinkles and we play fetch! He is still a BIG mouth and we “chat” all the time. He has been such a wonderful addition to our home that I don’t know what we ever did without him . Thank you for taking such good care of him when he was a wee lil buhbay.

Hoyt heard about Fran & Ollie and was sorry to hear of some other kittehs suffering with his problem. He demanded we send a check to help out 🙂 thanks for letting us know about them so we could help.

Isn’t he growing up to be one gorgeous boy? And so generous too! If anyone else would like to read about Fran and Ollie and find out how to donate, you can do so here.

(Thanks for the update, Michelle!)

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My very first cat died last month at the age of 13, and I was devastated because I had been owned by her since she was 6 weeks old. Since then our population has gone from 7 to 14 with the possibility of 15 if things work out. Can I tell my husband it’s your fault? 😉 Actually, he loves them all as much as I do, but he’s less than thrilled when I ‘forget’ to tell him I’m looking at rescues and bringing home new cats. Whoopsie!

Of COURSE you can tell him it’s my fault – what’s the worst he can do, show up at my house and dump off 15 cats? Good luck with that, SUCKAH, there’s a reason my address isn’t public! 😛

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Just a little heads up. Pyridium (the UTI pills that make you pee orange) can also stain your tears, and that can stain your contacts orange. Hope the UTI is better, they suck balls.

The UTI is completely better, thank god – my biggest concern was that I would go off to Myrtle Beach and suffer a relapse of it, which would have SUCKED, but nothing of the sort happened. I read on the box (which had an expiration date of 2008 and hadn’t been opened, but I used the stuff anyway!) that staining of the contacts was a possibility, but it didn’t happen. Is it wrong that I was just a teeny bit disappointed?

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I saw this McSweeney’s essay today and it reminded me of your Mr. Boogers and the m’fckin tomatoes entry. Not QUITE as funny, of course.

It’s decorative gourd season, motherfuckers.

Motherfuckers, I do enjoy a good decorative gourd!

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You mentioned that you love to burn candles and I was wondering how you keep the cats away from them? I love to burn candles too but it seems like every time I light one, little black or pink noses find their way there and I get scared they are going to get burned!

There are three spots in this house where the cats don’t go, so it’s safe to light candles there: on top of the canning cabinet in the kitchen, on top of the dresser in the guest bedroom, and by the sink in the downstairs bathroom. Oh, and the top of the cabinet in the upstairs bathroom, so that’s four spots. That’s where I burn candles, and as of yet haven’t had a problem with the cats.

My most memorable experience with cats and candles was when Miz Poo was little. At that point, we lived in our first house in Madison, which had a bar between the kitchen and the living room.

(Jesus Christ, that’s one classy picture, ain’t it?)

I had a candle on the bar, and Miz Poo was walking across the bar and stopped to examine the candle. I was afraid she’d catch her whiskers on fire, so I took a deep breath to blow the candle out, and she apparently thought I was gasping at something naughty she was doing, because she backed up and fell off the bar.

Also, I seem to recall Fancypants walked around with one side of his whiskers singed at one point.

In any case, I believe that curious cats will feel the heat of the candle on their whiskers and back off before they can go up in flames, but I’m not saying it’s impossible for them to catch fire, so I’d recommend putting the candles in spots they don’t ordinarily frequent.

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Well, that’s it. I’m burning at least one Yankee Candle today while I clean house. I love how the lemon scents make the house smell like I’ve been cleaning even when I haven’t.

I’d keep the empty YC jars if I could get every bit of old wax out of them. Is that possible?

That’s a good question – and one Elayne had an answer to:

I’ve had luck getting wax out of glass jars (not specifically Yankee Candles, though) by scraping as much out as possible (using an X-Acto blade or other long-handled blade) and then boiling the jar in a large pot.

Fill a pot with water to about 4 inches higher than the glass jar, standing up. Put the jar in so it fills with water and has the opening facing up to the surface of the water; add some silverware or something to the jar if it tries to float around. Boil it for about 15-20 minutes. The wax will melt in the boiling water and be buoyed towards the surface by the boiling water (although I have had some that went straight to the bottom, or just wandered around like it thought it was noodles or something).

When it looks like all or most of the wax has melted out, use tongs (carefully) to lift the jars out and dump the water. Wrap the glass in a towel to protect your fingers, and use dry paper towels to wipe out any remaining wax. Depending on how large the opening is, you might have to use the tongs to hold the paper towels to get all the way to the bottom.

Let the water cool so the wax will separate (more or less) and harden. Scoop out what floats free and throw it away, pour out the water and use a razor blade to scrape any that stuck to the inside of the pot. (Or, if you’re like I used to be and you have a special pan that you use for all your weird non-food-making stuff, just leave it, who cares.)

I only bother doing this if it’s a REALLY AWESOME jar. And one time I did because the jar was such a beautiful color, but the color turned out to be painted on with cheap, non-boiling-water-resistant paint. )c:

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I am imagining the Poo starving on steroids following you around trying to reinstitute snackin’ time. Those suckers make me want to mow the kitchen down. Oh it was a shot-maybe that’s better than the oral kind and probably doesn’t cause that side effect.

Miz Poo is an anomaly amongst our cats in that she does NOT partake of snackin’ time. She used to in the past – I have pictures of her bellied up to the snack plate alongside Spot – but at some point she decided that she was interested in NOTHING but dry kibble. We can’t even get her interested in any human food except for the juice from a can o’ tuna. Weirdo.

The steroid shots don’t seem to make her super-hungry as far as I can tell.

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I can’t bring myself to watch those hoarding shows, but am I to understand that keeping the empty Yankee Candle jars is a sign of some sort of hoarding tendencies? What if I NEED them some day?

Don’t judge. I actually keep STUFF in them. For REALZ.

Keeping a few empty Yankee Candle jars is not hoarding. Keeping 300 Yankee Candle jars is hoarding. Well, I guess keeping 300 Yankee Candle jars isn’t hoarding if you’re actually using them all, but you know what I mean.

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I see in your sidebar that you’re reading Replay. That’s one of my all time FAVORITE books. Can’t wait to hear what you think.

I enjoyed it quite a lot, even though I guessed the ending. Which probably wasn’t hard, since there was a limited number of ways it could go!

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So when will you admit that Corbett is an And3son? Hmmmm?

Hush, you. You guys always swear, every time I get a particularly cute foster that I fall in love with, that I’m going to keep one or more of them. Did I keep my sweet Mike Teevee or Gus? Did I keep Orange (whose Cookie name I cannot recall. Lorna Doone, I think)? Did I keep Marty or Moxie or the sweetest, most beautiful girlcat on the face of the planet, Elle? I did not. Really, if you think about it, we’ve kept very few of the 130ish cats we’ve fostered.

We have no plans to keep any of the Bookworms. I’VE SAID MY PIECE AND COUNTED TO THREE.

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your “conversation” photos just slay me! Have you ever seen the videos this guy does of the talking cats? There is also one with the cat talking to the fish in a tank… heh.

Love it! Have you seen this one?

That is TOTALLY me when I’m pissed off at some piece of electronic equipment. SO FRUSTRATING.

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ooh, is the water warm?

To me, the water in Myrtle Beach was too cold for swimming, but my father went for a dip one day. I require water much, much warmer than that. Because I’m a great big wimp, the temperature of the water in Florida or Hawaii is just perfect to me. When I think of the fact that as a child I routinely went in the water at the beach in Maine until my legs were numb, it makes me want to roll up in an electric blanket turned on high and stay there ’til I melt into a puddle.

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Did you get a new camera??? That looks like a DSLR!

It is a DSLR, but it’s not new. I don’t know exactly when we got it, but it’s been over two years since I ordered the “Field Guide” to the camera from Amazon (a book I haven’t so much as glanced at since I got it), so I’m going to guess it’s probably been close to three years since we got it. It’s a Sony DSLR-A100 and I like it a lot. I also have a Sony DSC-W300 which I use a lot, too.

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Did you go to any of the outlets? I think I left a lot of my money there. Gotta love Tanger Outlets!

We went to one of the outlet malls – I found the Sketcher mules I’ve been looking for and bought two pairs of them. I hit the kitchen store and bought a scone pan. I bought some $5 sunglasses. Most of the money I spent while I was in Myrtle Beach was on hoodies and t-shirts, though – we must have hit every discount t-shirt/ sweatshirt/ towel shop in the area!

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What kind of fish are the “nightmare” ones and the other single fish picture later? Hope neither is a fish I like to eat!

Those are carp. I wouldn’t say they’re inedible, but I don’t think they’re widely consumed in this country. I’ve heard that they’re a greasy fish.

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So, my parents left Tuesday morning. While they were here, who hid upstairs under my bed the ENTIRE time except for brief forays out in the middle of the night for food and litterbox usage?

“They was skeery.”

Ten minutes after they left, he was downstairs in the cat bed on the dining room table.

Big baby Reacher.

Corbie was also a bit of a scaredy cat, but my father coaxed him to within touching distance with a cat toy. Then Corbie developed a crush on my mother, and spent the rest of the time they were here either watching her from behind the couch or sitting in the hallway staring at her. Sunday night I couldn’t find him anywhere and got worried that he’d escaped the back yard (which he hasn’t done yet, by the way, but there’s always a first time!) and finally found him under the couch, laying directly under where my mother was sitting. Silly boy.

“Where she go?”

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If these mugs had been a bit bigger – or Starsky and Hutch a bit smaller – this would have been a funny picture. Those mugs both say “Dog Lover” on them.

It was maybe not a bright idea to put the mugs on a blanket before attempting to snap pictures. The blanket made the mugs kind of tippy.

And Starsky and Hutch refused to look at me.

And they kept tipping over.

Better luck next time, right? (Given the rate they’re gaining weight this week – these boys have FOUND their appetites in the past few days – I don’t know that they’ll fit in the mugs anymore!)

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Coltrane’s always got somethin’ to say.

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Previously
2009: Sorry, though. I have no pictures of headless squirrels or half-eaten rabbits to share.
2008: Pictures from around Crooked Acres.
2007: You snooze, you lose. That’s our motto at Crooked Acres.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: (We fat chicks love the buffet, don’tchaknow.)
2003: The gluttony, the sloth, the avarice!
2002: The kitties did not care for the tune, the unappreciative bastards.
2001: How to change a tire.
2000: No entry.
1999: But as I see it, more than 2 cats makes you a weird cat person. Am I wrong? Is it three, or some incredible number like ten?

So yes, I am back from Myrtle Beach! (There were entries posted on Saturday and Sunday, if you missed ’em.)

We drove from Myrtle Beach to Alabama on Saturday, a drive that took 11 1/2 hours. It wasn’t bad at all – I spent the first few hours reading and watching Gossip Girl on my iPod, a couple of hours driving, and the rest of the trip reading and watching Gossip Girl (I find Serena van der Woodsen the most boring character on all of television and have a slight crush on Chuck Bass. Shaddup.). I came home to a needy Miz Poo and the faint smell of cat pee at my desk. The cats went on a peeing rampage while I was gone, peeing on the cat beds on my desk as a reaction to the fact that Fred wouldn’t let them outside until he got home in the afternoon. He washed the hell out of some cat beds while I was gone, and the cat beds didn’t smell like pee. It took me a couple of hours to find it, but find it I did – one of those fuckers managed to pee in my desk drawer.

Grrrr.

I had a really good time in Myrtle Beach. I couldn’t connect to the internet with my netbook unless I was sitting out on the steps in front of the condo, so I didn’t spend much time online. It was kind of nice to have the time away from the internet, honestly. The weather was absolutely beautiful – sunny and warm except for Thursday, which was still sunny for most of the day. We spent a couple of hours in the afternoon on the beach, most days. I didn’t go in the water, because I am a great big wimp, but my father went swimming one day.

We did lots of shopping and I took a LOT of pictures to share with y’all. So expect this week to be the week o’ vacation pics. You’re welcome!

The first night I was there, we went to see the show Good Vibrations at the Carolina Opry. It was a REALLY damn good show (with some cheesy moments) and I highly recommend it.

The “hip-hop clogging group” All That performed. They were pretty amazing, but watching them sure did make my knees hurt.

This is Tangena Church. I lurve Tangena Church. Not only is she purty, she’s got one hell of a voice.

A fairly cheesy SNL “Wild and crazy guys” skit. Cheesy, but I still laughed.

I love you, Tangena Church.

Elvis!

Village People!

Cyndi Lawpa!

KISS! (I’m 99% sure that they were wearing masks rather than makeup.)

Fleetwood Mac!

This guy, Gary Brown, has an amazing voice.

Robyn in Hats (that she does not own and did not buy).

Don’t I need a cowboy hat?

Not flattering – but DAMN comfortable.

Borrowed this hat from my mother – and wore it on the beach every day. I didn’t get burned in the slightest while I was there.

Things I Did Not Buy.

I threatened to buy this one for Fred.

I would have bought this one for Fred, but it was black and we don’t do black clothing, thanks to the cats.

This made me laugh and laugh (and make a mental note to cross-stitch it).

The strangest, most fucked-up thing I saw while shopping (and there was a lot of strange, fucked-up stuff):

I cannot believe anyone would ever buy this atrocity.

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“Hi. Hi! HI! Come here and rub mah belleh!”

Is it just me, or does Starsky look particularly guilty, like I caught him doing something he shouldn’t?

Slap fight!

“Why you keep following me around, Mister Tail?”

“Does this bucket smell funny to you?”

Hutch, up close.

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Reacher and Loony Jake bond.

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Previously
2009: No entry.
2008: No entry.
2007: he’ll find them on his hard drive under “Memory Stick, October 18, 2007, Motherfucker.”
2006: I hope I mean that in a good way. I’m not sure yet.
2005: For at least five full seconds a big cartoon question mark appeared above my head and my brain flipped frantically through the instruction manual trying to figure out just what the fuck was going on.
2004: No entry.
2003: No entry.
2002: Poor, deformed Miz Poo.
2001: Ya gotta love the Poo.
2000: Remember that episode?
1999: I just love it when I don’t have to cook.

The Crooked Acres jam (and hot sauce) shop is now open!

Go buy jam and hot sauces here.

(And there’s a permanent link in the left sidebar, for future reference.)

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Of course, yesterday morning when I got up I felt pretty close to normal. A little pain when I peed, but not nearly as bad as it had been. But I wasn’t being fooled by my body again and did NOT cancel the appointment. So, I went to the doctor yesterday afternoon and peed in a cup. Apparently there was “some” bacteria in my urine and a trace of blood, so they put me on antibiotics and are doing a culture.

I would like to never have a UTI again, please and thank you. (But the awesome thing is that my antibiotic was FREE! Yay!)

Last night Fred and I were laying in bed, and I said “I feel kind of high. What the hell?”, whereupon Fred reminded me that last month (remember the bout of digestive issues that I thought was food poisoning at first and ultimately caused me to lose 15 pounds in a week and a half and then put it all right back on?) when I was prescribed the same antibiotic, it made me feel super sleepy and high. At least this time around I only have to take it for three days.

Miz Poo, who went to the vet yesterday because she’s been overgrooming the fur on her stomach which led to a nasty rash and a couple of particularly nasty-looking sores, got a steroid injection. Hopefully that cures that issue until next Spring. Miz Poo, for those of you new to the site, is our money pit. She’s always got something going on with her – a couple of months ago, the rodent ulcer on her lip, which flares up a couple of times a year, flared up in a big way, which required a steroid shot. The steroids always work – and they’re the only thing that works reliably – but they’re not a good long-term solution. SIGH.

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Robyn, you may have mentioned this before, but what are the colors on the wall of your guest bedroom? I LOVE them! It’s just what I’ve been looking for.

This is the paint color on the top.
And this is the paint color on the bottom.

I think (though I’m not positive) that on the before-and-after tour page, there are links to the paint colors in all the rooms. I may have missed a room or two.

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I am moving soon to a city where backyard chickens are allowed. I am so excited! I want one or two, and I want a breed that’s both a cuddly pet and a good layer. Out of the breeds you’ve kept, which do you think fits the bill? And would you suggest keeping one or two?

Without a doubt, I highly recommend Buff Orpingtons. They’re the calmest, they’re excellent layers, and as long as you handle them lots when they’re little, they should be cuddly. Or at least put up with you cuddling them! (You’re probably not necessarily looking for them to hatch chicks, but if you were, they’re also really good mothers.)

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You probably know this already but just in case-they sell the stuff for UTI symptoms – the pills that make you pee the scary orange over the counter at the drugstore now. It really helps while you are waiting to get into the drs. for antibiotics.

I actually had some of that stuff in the medicine cabinet. The expiration date on it was 10/2008, but I still took a couple. And it really did help! That orange pee is super scary, though, isn’t it?

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What scent is that Yankee Candle in the bathroom?

Cinnamon & Sugar! I bought a ton of candles earlier this year when the Hallmark store in the mall was going out of business. First everything in the store was 30% off, so I bought a few Buttercream scented candles (my absolute favorite scent). Then everything in the store was 50% off, so I bought the rest of the Buttercream and a few Sparkling Lemon candles. THEN everything in the store was 75% off, so I bought every scent I even sorta-kinda liked.

Needless to say, I have a candle hoarding issue. (But I DO burn the hell out of them, and I do NOT keep the empty jars when the candle is gone. I SWEAR I DO NOT, DR. ROBIN ZASIO!)

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I have never seen walls like the ones in your house before — we have the typical lath-and-plaster New England house. Is it common to have wood paneling like that in the South, or did you manage to scoop a lovely antique before somebody covered it in sheet rock?

I had to ask Fred for the specific names, so now I can tell you that the walls in the hallway and bathroom are beadboard and the walls in the front room (at least some of the walls) are tongue and groove. I know that I’ve seen beadboard in other houses around here, so perhaps it is a Southern thing? Anyone else want to weigh in on this?

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I’m no cook. I can follow recipes and the stuff usually turns out. If I experiment, watch out. So I have a stupid question. In your Green Tomato Chili recipe, it calls for 10 medium tomatoes. Can you give me any idea how many pounds of tomato that would be? IT will save me a field trip to the store.

I’m going to be making this recipe with the little Roma tomatoes that are left after the killer frost hit this week. I had one tomato plant that was loaded with tomatos and I don’t want to let them go to waste. I almost have 2 large mixing bowls full of green tomatoes and alot of them are the size of a cat turd (sorry – I could not resist the comparison that you and I both know all too well!).

I can’t give you a pounds estimation, but I CAN give you a cup measurement estimation, if that helps! The last time I made a half batch of the green tomato chili, I used 8 cups of chopped green tomatoes. But keep in mind that you can’t really overdo it on the green tomatoes – I think that if they fit in the pot, there aren’t too many of them, because they cook down so much.

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I LOVE the ceiling in the guest bedroom. I don’t think I have ever seen natural wood on a ceiling, except maybe in a log house kind of thing. But that room is all finished out, and that ceiling is FAAAAANCY!

I love the hell out of that ceiling! The ceiling in the front room and in the dining room is the same way. I’m not sure, but I think that at one point in the past, that ceiling actually had wallpaper on it. Wallpaper covering up that gorgeous wood! Can you imagine?

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Do you leave your toilet lid up all the time, and if so do the cats not drink out of it/play in it/ throw toys in it?

I swear-the second anyone leaves it up in my house, it takes .2 seconds to have both cats throwing toy mice in it/drinking out of it/putting their paws into it with awe like ‘I have never felt water before’.

They ALWAYS have fresh water but for some reason they are toilet fanatics. (and don’t get me started on trying to brush my teeth or wash my face with a cat on each side of the sink, trying to stick their head under the tap and drink)

I do tend to leave the toilet lid up (unless I have very small kittens running around the house, in which case I keep the toilet lid down so they don’t fall in and drown. Wouldn’t that be a horrible thing to find?), and I try to clean the toilets every day or every other day, because yes, we have cats who love to drink out of the toilet. (If it’s been more than a couple of days since I cleaned the toilet, I keep the lid down.) ::SIGH:: And yes, our cats can barely go two feet without there being fresh water available to them in the form of cat water fountains and if they don’t like the water fountains there’s also a fresh bowl of water NEAR the water fountain, but still some of them HAVE to drink out of the toilet. Actually, the toilet that they drink out of is the one off the computer room, which gets very little human use – isn’t that weird, that I’ll get up and go to the bathroom down the hall rather than use the one that’s right there?

I’ve never found cat toys in the toilets, though, thank god. That would drive me nuts!

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How odd about the “unexplained weight loss” google. When I entered that phrase (along with a couple of other symptoms), I got everything BUT cancer. Guess what? I have cancer. Stupid google.

Stupid google is right!

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I fear I am going to be labeled a SKIMMAH, but have you always had a boy and a girl pig or are you planning on piglets this time around? And, question number two/SKIMMAH threat, why don’t you have any goats (again)?

and

I know this is a question you asked Robyn, but when pigs are raised for food rather than breeding purposes, the boys are castrated when they are little. So no little piggies!

We’ve had one boy and one girl pig before (I think), and we’ve had two boys a couple of times and two girls once. But like Maureen said, when we get boy pigs, they are already castrated by Egg the Pig Man. The sex of the pigs we get is determined by what Egg has available, though if I’m given the choice I’ll always choose girl pigs because I think they’re more personable.

If I have my way, we are NEVER going to breed pigs, though Fred would love to give it a try. I don’t think I could handle the stress of being worried that the momma pig will inadvertently roll over on her babies and “mash” them, as Egg puts it.

And we don’t have goats ’cause I don’t want goats and I don’t think we need any more animals. Fred CLAIMS he wants goats, but he hasn’t annoyed me to the point of giving in (yet), so I don’t think he wants them all that badly either.

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I LOVE your house tour. It amazes me that you can have little statues with all the cats. I have two cats and one of them regularly clears all surfaces. So I would think, percentage-wise, you should have at least one that would do the same!!

The only place I have statues is where the cats don’t go. If they really wanted to, they could jump up on top of that dresser, but they never (or rarely) do, so that’s one of the safe places in the house.

Of course, now that I said that, there’s going to be a rush of cats jumping up on that dresser, knocking figurines to and fro!

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Have you named any kitties after the Dexter characters?

I haven’t, but only because “Dexter” has been used in the past. That certainly would have been a good naming theme. Actually, “Dexter Morgan” hasn’t been used, so I may have to keep that in mind for the future!

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Those “cat lover” mugs in the photos in yesterday’s entry? Yesterday, I got my coffee served to me in one of ’em at a local diner. When the waitress brought it I cried “LOVE this mug!” She was relieved because she said some customers complain about it (wtf?).

I got those mugs at Old Time Pottery – aren’t they awesome?

I can’t imagine why on earth people would COMPLAIN about “cat lover” mugs – wtf is right!

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I’d be seriously interested in where Debbie saw that pattern that was so expensive. I want to stitch it! I tried googling it and didn’t find it.

She tried to find it again and had no luck, unfortunately! 🙁 Here it is!

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Click here for an interesting article about how long to keep food in the freezer. It says fruit has the longest “freezer life.” That surprised me!

How long can you freeze food?

Interesting link – thanks!

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Kitties in a cup reminds me of those signs you see in coffee shops: Unattended children will be given a free espresso and a kitten.

Can I steal the picture and make one?

Absolutely! And for the record, y’all, as long as you don’t try to pass off a picture I’ve taken as your own, or try to make money off it (good luck with that), please feel free to use any of my pictures. As long as they’re attributed to me, I’m happy!

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I’m assuming you have a backup generator just in case of a power outage — that’s a lot of stuff to lose if the freezers go down for a period of time.

We definitely have a generator – and fortunately, haven’t had to use it yet!

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Sorry about all the kitty drama. Carrying four cat carriers AND going under the house too? No one can accuse you of being a princess, Robyn. You are tough. I feel quite wussy compared to you!

That’s right! I’m a badass! 😀

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Hey Robyn, regarding that broken coffee maker on the dining room table: Throw that shit away!

You’re goddamn right, Laura! I read your comment on Friday, and then I immediately said to Fred “If you don’t fix that coffee maker this weekend, I’m throwing it away.” AND I DID.

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Love the house tour–I asked for it! (“You asked for it, you got it, the house tour.” Does anyone remember the scenes in the otherwise forgettable “Forget Paris” w/Debra Winger & Billy Crystal, where her father sings jingles under his breath & says “Toy-ota”??)

My favorite part of that movie is the part with Debra Winger and the pigeon when she walks into the vet’s office. I laugh until I cry every time I see that!

(I have to leave my piles of clean laundry in the bedroom behind a closed door. I can deal with a little cat hair from laundry being slept on in the basket, but leave it overnight and someone will decide to p*ss on the pile. Lovely.)

I left a pile of cat beds on the table just this week and one of them got sprayed. You’d think I’d learn, wouldn’t you?

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Where did you find purple reusable grocery bags??? I covet something fierce!

That is a Hannaford bag, and the Hannaford bags are still far and away my favorite!

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I have the golden key to growing the most perfect awesome tomato plats Ever. Ready???

Every year I plant four or so tomato plants that I faithfully dote over, read to, water diligently, and basically cater to their every need… including feeding organic… umm… stuff… that promises to make them the best plants ever. When something eats into the fruit or the branch gets funky, I would toss the useless tomato behind the plants. This year I gave up and didn’t plant any plants. Why bother, we barely get any decent produce from them. Well… this year, I have the most beautiful, huge plants you have ever seen. There are in excess of 20 plants all growing communally behind the garage that I had never even noticed until there were perfect blooms all over the place. They have provided hundreds of the sweetest cherry tomatoes you have even tasted. The big tomatoes didn’t turn out so well since the plants for those are heavy, the fruits are laying on the ground and there are often 4 tomatoes fused together. The plants have rerooted themselves from laying on the ground so they are the healthiest plants ever. There is not one yellow leaf anywhere. So, all of the tomatoes that have split or have inhabitants are getting tossed back in for next year. This partially infuriates me due to the investment I have made in prior years, but we are eating good so I am not really complaining.

Figures, doesn’t it? We have a volunteer squash plant on the side of the garden that looks happier than any of the squash plants we intentionally grew this year. I guess “neglect” is the most important ingredient!

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Someone asked (over at Love & Hisses) what Georgie guards.

George (back) and his sister Gracie are Great Pyrenees. They’re Livestock Guardian Dogs, and they guard…

the pigs…

..and the chickens! (But mostly the chickens. They can’t actually get into the pig yard, but they’re there to run off any predators who might come sniffing around the pigs.)

Some history – we moved our chickens out to the back forty (not really forty acres, that’s just what we call the three acre field at the back of our property) in the Fall of 2008. And then we started losing chickens, at the rate of about one a week. We discussed ways to protect the chickens. Fred was in favor of getting a donkey, but I thought dogs would be a better choice. Fred researched Great Pyr rescues, and found a few possibilities, but the problem was that first of all, they wanted $500 per dog and we couldn’t justify spending $1,000 on dogs to protect chickens that had cost $2 each. Second, none of the rescues wanted to adopt out Great Pyrs to act as livestock guardians, they were adopting them out as pets only. We happened across an ad in one of those free supermarket papers, and a week later, we brought George and Gracie home.

They were four months old, they’d been around chickens, and they were super friendly puppies. A few days after we got them, I was out in the chicken yard gathering eggs, and someone stopped by. I didn’t hear him until he approached the fence of the chicken yard, and then I was startled to see him. When I jumped and said “Oh!”, George and Gracie reacted immediately. They put themselves between me and the guy at the fence, and barked their heads off at him. It appears that we’d found our protectors.

It took a while longer for them to bond with their flock, but they did. They live out in the chicken yard with the chickens, they’re always happy to see me coming (though that might very well be because I usually have a snack for them!) and they’re very happy pups.

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Climbing into my lap so he can bat at my hand and bite me seems to be just about Hutch’s favorite thing to do.

“HEY! HI! WHAT YOU DOIN’ OVER THERE?!”

Starsky, mildly floofed.

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Coltrane is curious if it might be snackin’ time.

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Previously
2009: Sights from around Crooked Acres.
2008: And since there’s not a lot going on around here (except that it’s raining for the first time in forever, yay!), here are some pictures from around Crooked Acres.
2007: Whither Tom-Tom goest, the Stank will follow.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: I’m just going to sit here and whine about being cold and thirsty, I suppose. Sounds like a plan!
2003: Just know that it was a little SKEERY.
2002: This is a mighty exciting entry, isn’t it? Could I be any more interesting? Should I do an entry about watching paint dry, or what?
2001: “Farm boy, fetch me some ice! Farm boy, fetch me a diet coke, chop-chop!”
2000: No entry.

The Crooked Acres jam (and hot sauce) shop is now open!

Go buy jam and hot sauces here.

(And there’s a permanent link in the left sidebar, for future reference.)

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New month, new banner!

Christine hits another one out of the park- Joe Bob in the alien mask is KILLING ME.

Thanks, Christine! You rock!

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I am envious of everyone with the techie husband/boyfriends. We know almost nothing and get a friend to help us!

Much like the cobbler’s children who go without shoes, we significant others of those who deal with computers have to beg and plead and limp along on crappy computers before the computer geniuses in our lives fix whatever is ailing our stupid computer. I have had to whine and plead a MILLION times to get Fred to fix shit on my computer. Is that fair, I ask you? I THINK NOT.

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I was going to recommend that instead of using olive oil PAM, you might want to check out the pump-type oil sprayers they have on Amazon (since you’re already shopping for a blender) or the one I picked up at Williams-Sonoma years ago for about $10 and still use all the time. You just add your favorite oil, pump, and spray—and without any added chemicals/preservatives, etc.
Have a great weekend!!!!

Oh, I have a pump sprayer, and I love it! I especially love to use it when my recipe calls for tossing something in olive oil before baking it. Instead of tossing whatever it is with oil, I spray a light coating of oil on the food, and it’s a lot less messy. I got mine at TJ Maxx for only a few bucks, and it was so worth it!

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I was just thinking about this when I woke up this morning, how we really need to get some kind of external storage dealie. Do you or your readers have any recommendations for that?

I couldn’t tell you what kind of USB external drive we have, but I can tell you that it’s always hooked up to my computer, and that’s where I save all my pictures. It was on sale when we got it and it’s super easy to use.

(Okay, how lazy AM I? I went and looked. It’s a Seagate FreeAgent external drive. I don’t know how much storage it has on it, but it easily holds my 40 GB of pictures and movies (is that a lot?), and some of Fred’s crap, too.)

Someone did have a suggestion, though:

Western Digital My Passport USB powered HD’s are awesome. I have 4 of them. They’re around $100, depends on the size of them really. I think you can get a 2Tb one for about 130-ish and a 500Gig for about 75 or so.

Readers? Any other suggestions?

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Switch to Windows 7. It’s not bloated, just big boned.

This made me laugh out loud. I have the Windows 7 disc sitting on my desk, and will be upgrading this weekend. (Thanks again, Susan!)

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Pet Monster Hat

I can only assume that one day this lady’s cats will stage some sort of coup.

That is IT. I have GOT to learn to crochet!

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My Grandfather had this poem/limerick? he used to say, “Mr. Nickels made some pickels on a rainy day. Mr Martin came a fartin’ and blew them all away.” It keeps popping back in to my head when I see Martin pictures. Is Martin a gassy cat by any chance?

Martin’s a bit of a gas bag, but not any gassier than the other cats. I particularly appreciate his gassiness when he’s curled up around my head in the middle of the night, as you can imagine.

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Have you ever thought of doing Xmas postcards? Less postage to send. And I’m glad you’re doing a card this year, I always request one for my mom and it always freaks her out (who sent this to us, how do we know Robyn and Fred, whose cat is this? – oh, it’s at least an hour of fun).

You know, I feel like an idiot. It NEVER occurred to me to do Xmas postcards – but that’s what I’m doing this year! I ordered 500 (!) postcards from VistaPrint for less than the two packs of 50 blank cards I got at Michael’s (and then I returned the blank cards to Michael’s!). How awesome is that? THANK YOU!

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Totally off subject, but it is September and once again I’m here asking for your cats family calendars. It makes the perfect Christmas gift to myself. Please make it include a donation to Challengers House. Thankyouverymuch.

I promise you that before Halloween rolls around, those calendars will be available! I’d like to say they’ll be ready by the 15th, but I have a lot of pictures to slog through, so I’m giving myself a little extra time.

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“While we waited for Fred to back up the trailer, Egg told me that he was still “down” in his back and that the doctors were going to put a needle in his back and inject Super Glue. At least, that’s what he thought they said, but now that he thought about it, they probably meant silicone.”

No, it’s a bone cement, and the procedure he’s probably talking about a kyphoplasty. They inject bone cement into a fractured vertebra to stabilize it.

“Poor ol’ Egg – not only does he have a bad back, he also has an aneurysm (he pointed vaguely to his lower abdomen, so I’m not sure where the aneurysm was located) and a kidney stone.”

Probably an abdominal aortic aneurysm, Triple-A. The aorta extends vertically down the length of the torso, before splitting off to supply the femoral arteries. It can bulge, but typically a pulmonary surgeon tracks the size of the bulge until it reaches a certain diameter, then they go in and repair the site. Of course, if it goes, it is unlikely the patient will survive unless they immediately get to a hospital. Dad’s was monitored twice a year for many years, and never reached the threshold where repair was considered.

The older I get, the more this medical stuff amazes me. When I was a kid, I thought that if they found a tumor, they’d rush you right to the emergency room and remove it before you could think twice. But nooooo, apparently they’ll wait weeks and WEEKS like it’s NO BIG DEAL. And now I find out that there are people walking around with aneurysms that are never repaired? MY MIND IS BLOWN! When I think of an aneurysm, I think of life and death, for god’s sake!

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I would like to apply to work on “I Will Throw All Your Shit Away.” When my g-ma died last year at her assisted living home, we needed to get her stuff out fast, as we didn’t want to pay for an empty room. I instructed my mom to bring trash bags, & if I do say so myself, I did a great job. My mom kept wanting to keep stuff, like broken pencils & almost-empty aspirin bottle, but I kept her on task, & we left with a minimum of things. Thank you for your consideration.

and

Robyn, I would really like to be part of “I Will Throw All Your Shit Away.” I had some kind of hoarding tendencies when I was younger and scared the hell out of myself. Now I’m a merciless junk-tosser. (That sounds like some kind of euphemism.) And while I don’t necessarily condone mocking the mentally ill in a public forum like reality TV, the psychotic meltdowns these people would have as we threw their shit away would be the real draw. I think this show would be a huge hit. It’d also be completely cruel. I look forward to viewing and hope I can guest-star one day! 😀

I look forward to pitching this idea to TLC. Or Bravo. Maybe A&E?

The companion show to I Will Throw All Your Shit Away will be called Pick Up This Fucking Garbage, You Nasty Asshole. The hoarding is one thing – the fucking GARBAGE is what gets me every time. People SHITTING IN BAGS and tossing it in the corner! Did y’all see the woman who had THIRTEEN dead cats in her house? And when Matt showed her, she blamed her BROTHER because he put the TV in that corner or some shit. AGH.

Tell me the truth, you guys. When you watch Hoarders, do you ever find yourself holding your breath so that the stank from the hoarder’s house doesn’t come through the TV and make you gag? Or is it just me?

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BTW, the kitty room looks so CLEAN. It always does, but I especially noticed now since we’ve been discussing the Hoarders and their filth around here lately. You run a tight ship, obviously.

I find that there’s very little in the way of possessions that I’m not willing to toss. I mean, there are certain things I like, but it would take very little for me to get rid of just about anything sitting around. I rarely keep any of the books I read, I don’t have a lot of tchotchkes. Really, the only things that clutter up the house are cat toys (it’s my intention, one of these days, to make a couple of wooden boxes to toss the cat toys into) and the fucking dining room table, which attracts every last piece of “I’ll deal with this later” in the house. I mean, seriously, look at this shit:

Laundry that needs to be folded and put away, a coffee maker that died (that Fred intends to attempt to fix), Fred’s clothes fucking hanging on the fucking chairs (he doesn’t like to go into the guest bedroom because that’s where the kittens are in their cage, and he doesn’t want to set them off because their shrieky little meows make his ears bleed), empty boxes that THE CATS MIGHT LIKE TO PLAY IN. Just, ugh.

(In my defense, after I snapped the picture, I folded the laundry and put it away…. and there’s already another fucking pile of laundry that needs to be folded and put away. I need to just stop doing the goddamn laundry, is what it is.)

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I just watched the Hoarders show this week where the water wasn’t working in the house and the people had started pooping in bags and throwing them in the corner. In my mind I’m sort of chanting to myself, *shit in a bag, shit in a bag, eeeewww.* The idea was just so nasty! Then the guy Matt (with the truck) said he couldn’t shovel it out because the bags would break so he had to pick it all up by hand! DO NOT try to eat lunch while watching this show. . .

I have no idea what Matt makes, but there’s no way it’s enough. NO WAY. Is there enough money on earth to convince me to spend HOURS picking up bags of shit, one by one? There is not. No fucking way. Can you imagine the nightmares that man has?

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If Newt and Maxie like the side porch, why not move the house there?

Mostly because there isn’t enough room there. We’ve been brainstorming a way where Fred could put an addition to the side stoop that would hold a shelter for the cats – and maybe make it not really attached to the side stoop, far enough away that they’d have to jump a little bit to get to it. We’ve got possums and other wild animals around, and I’d hate to have a possum or raccoon go into the cat shelter and corner a cat.

To be honest, though, that’s not a priority. My priority this winter is getting a covered porch on the back of the house, and the blue coop converted into a cat coop. (That might not be Fred’s priority, but it’s certainly mine!)

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What on earth is that green tube thingie by the front door?! I’m guessing a cat toy of some kind.

That is, in fact, a toy.

It’s a Bergan Turbo Track cat toy – we bought several of them, tossed the elevated sections (the balls kept getting stuck in the elevated sections) and joined them all together. The cats love them – my only gripe is that the sections come apart a little too easily, and every once in a while, I’ll hear the track ball go rolling across the floor because the cats have disconnected the track and stolen the ball!

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Was that a Feliway dispenser I saw plugged in near the cat tree? If it was, do you think they work?

It is a Feliway dispenser, but I have to admit that it’s empty. I’m terrible about replacing it when it’s empty. I used it for a couple of months and while I might have noticed a slight difference in their behavior, said slight difference could also have been due to a troublesome foster cat leaving the house. So… maybe it works, and maybe it doesn’t. 🙂

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It amazes me that someone could throw a kitten out of a car…. I’d like to throw their ass out of a moving vehicle and leave them on the side of the road to die!!!

It is absolutely infuriating and I don’t understand how anyone could do it and live with themselves.

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I showed the man one of your pix & asked him what kind of wood your cabinets are made of. After making a lewd comment (I expect nothing less), he said “I don’t know, why don’t you ask her!” They’re really pretty, what is it?

I’m assuming you mean the cabinets in the kitchen? I had to ask Fred, who said he thinks they’re probably walnut. It’s funny, I LOATHED those cabinets when we first moved in, but as soon as I changed the cabinet pulls from the horrendous white ceramic pulls the previous owners had to something darker, I liked them one hell of a lot better.

(I’d still like to gut the kitchen and start from scratch. Maybe after we win the lottery!)

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I don’t know if you read xkcd on a regular basis, but I saw today’s comic and thought of you 🙂

LOVE xkcd!!!

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Do you plant your vegetables from seed or from little plants (baby plants?) from the nursery? I am finally getting a little vegetable garden plot and I want to plant a few items, like okra, zucchini, tomatoes and maybe an eggplant and corn? As you can tell, I’ve never planted before so I thought I’d ask since you’ve seemed to have great success with your garden. Thanks!

It mostly depends on the vegetable – we buy tomato plants from the local high school most years and also start our own from seed (in small pots, then transplant to the garden when they’re big enough), but everything else, we sow directly into the ground. (When I say “we”, I mean “Fred,” of course.) Ashleas had some good advice, too:

I’m no expert so please take this little bit of advice with a grain of salt. I’ve just read our Gardening 1-2-3 book like 3 times through while working the Outside Garden register this summer.

Depending on where you live, you may want to start from seeds or baby plants inside and then transplant them outside. If you’re north or have a late last-frost date, you can do this so the plants have a head start and you can get the most out of a growing season. Also starting inside allows you to start from seed if you wish, which can be cheaper than the baby plants.
Robyn’s so far south that either method, either transplanting or starting from seed outside probably works for her.
What say you, Robyn?

I agree! 🙂

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Okay, I have a million pictures of MMM&D, and Reacher and Corbett. I’ll share some of them today, and then maybe the rest over the weekend.

Reacher and Jake.

Pretty pretty Corbett.

In this picture, I can absolutely see what Martin will look like when he’s grown up.

“What, lady? What you want?”

Moxie, Melodie, and Martin, hanging out in the guest bedroom.

Adopted before the weekend is out. GUARANTEED! (I hope.)

Reacher ADORES snoozing in the reusable grocery bag.

Kittens love an empty box. Shocking, right?

One couch, six cats.

Jake sure does like to tease Martin with his tail.

Okay, I’m going to leave with Martin, Melodie, Moxie, Dodger, Reacher, and Corbett in a few minutes. I refuse to be sad, because this is the next step toward their forever home, and I have a good feeling about this weekend. Hopefully at least a couple of them will be adopted this weekend (please please PLEASE) and go to loving homes.

So send good thoughts this way, would you?

(I sure am going to miss these guys!)

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Starsky and Hutch, hanging out on the heating pad.

Houston, we has a complainer.

Starsky and Hutch are doing well. Yesterday, they both lapped formula off a shallow plate without crawling through it, and I didn’t have to supplement with a bottle or syringe at all. It was amazingly easy – Monday, they wouldn’t even look at the plate with the formula on it. Yesterday, they both bellied up to the plate. Today, I begin the messy job of offering them canned food mixed with formula. I don’t think it’s going to be too much of a problem – I think I mentioned that I put a bowl of Babycat kibble in their cage, and several times when I went into the room, Starsky was bellied up to the bowl. I don’t know how much he actually ate, but there’s definitely some interest there.

My plan is to put Bolitar and Rhyme in the foster room upstairs when I get home from Petsmart and then slowly reintroduce them to the rest of the house. Once they’re acclimated to being out and about, I’ll move Starsky and Hutch upstairs.

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Coltrane, chilling in the back yard.

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Previously
2009: Life is good.
2008: How about that, genius?
2007: Except that seeing me so enraged the praying mantis that it took flight and flew at my head.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: I could have done a faster job with a measuring spoon and my ass.
2003: She was stymied by her big butt, which wouldn’t fit under the shed.
2002: Here’s my question: It’s open 24-hours, so why the FUCKITY FUCK FUCK can’t they stock in the wee hours of the morning when NO ONE IS THERE?
2001: It’s funny how two people can look at the same thing and see it differently, isn’t it?
2000: No entry.

Hey, look! Here’s one way to use those 30+ English muffins I found in the freezer the other day! I like that you can make a batch and then freeze them so that when you’re having a hankering for a breakfast pizza, all you have to do is pop one in the microwave.

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How are your fruit trees coming along?

The citrus trees seem to be doing really well. We’re not really sure when we need to harvest the fruit from those trees, but Fred suggested that when the oranges are ready to be picked, we should pick the key limes as well. (I did not know until I saw a bag of them at the grocery store that key limes are tiny.) I’m hoping to make key lime curd this winter!

Here’s an interesting note: the leaves of the key lime tree? SMELL LIKE LIME. How cool is that?

Fred got a small bowl full of tiny peaches last month. According to him, they were really good. I don’t think we got any plums, and only a handful of apples and a couple of pears. Seriously, our “orchard” is letting us down. I guess it takes a few years for the trees to get established and start bearing fruit for real. Hopefully some day I’ll be able to make peach-habanero jam from our own peaches!

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I LOVE Hoarders (A & E). Will watch “Hoarding: Buried Alive” (TLC) in a pinch–the pacing is just Not Right on that show. We tend to fast forward through Hoarding, while watching every cat shit-laden minute of Hoarders. We even sat through two straight hours last week, including Sir What’s His Name (who was really sweet, and reminded me of something out of “Arsenic & Old Lace” or “Harvey.”). Also, “Hoarding” makes me feel like jumping up & cleaning afterwards, while “Hoarding: Buried Alive,” not so much. And I love the guy on Hoarders who shows up with the Got Junk crew and gets very, very cranky after awhile…

(If you don’t toss those English muffins, they may send the other Robin out to “counsel” you–my husband calls her “The Hair.”)

(In the interests of accuracy, I should report that we watched the second Hoarders last night, & I realized I was wrong. He calls her “Dr. Hair.”)

I agree that the pacing on Hoarding: Buried Alive isn’t right (and how dumb am I that I didn’t realize ’til I read your comment that they’re on different stations? DUH.). Buried Alive seems to be kind of “Let us meet some hoarders and see how they deal with their hoarding lifestyle!”, whereas Hoarders is more “Let us meet some hoarders and give them tools to figure out their shit.”

LOVE LOVE LOVE the guy who shows up with the Got Junk crew (Matt? I’m thinking that’s his name), and I LOVE the fact that he gets cranky and he doesn’t bother to hide it.

Dr. Robin Zasio (I always yell “ZAZZZZZZZZIOOOOOOOO!” when she comes on the screen.) has got herself some crazy, twirling eyes, doesn’t she? I love it when the cleaning-out process starts, and the hoarder is going all gangbusters, and then they run across some scrap of paper from 1978 that stops them dead cold, and Dr. Zasio starts gently trying to coax them into talking about how they’re feeling, but you can just SEE from her eyes that she’s dying to haul off and start throwing everything into the dumpster.

The shows that get me the most are the ones where peoples’ homes are chock-full of garbage. I cannot stand the thought of how their homes must SMELL. Too much stuff? I get that. Garbage rotting on the floor and animal feces everywhere? I do not. Homes with nonfunctioning bathrooms and NO running water? GAH. The lady with the used adult diapers everywhere? NIGHTMARES.

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The creepiest episode (we saw several) featured a family of four: Abusive father, hoarding mother, and two middle-aged kids who never moved out or got lives outside the filthy, dysfunctional house. What made me really mad is that the county gave them their cats back (after discovering the cats living in horrible conditions).

YES. And didn’t they say that the house was structurally unsound and they were going to have to condemn it, and the father was super-pissed and blaming everyone else?

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What KIND of english muffins?

Thomas english muffins, of course! Is there any other kind?

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I wouldn’t dither over a rotten cantaloupe, but just yesterday I pulled the sticker off one of those round cup-like containers of gum after we chewed the last piece of gum, because “I could wash it out and use it to… store things in.” I don’t know what things, mind you, I just know that at some point, soon, I’m going to think to myself, “I wish I had a container about *yea* big and *so* round to put these ____ into – if only I hadn’t thrown away that empty gum container!”

I’m sitting on the top of the hoarder slide, holding onto the sides, looking down and yelling about being scared, but the kids coming up the ladder behind me are getting impatient so I’m going to push off any moment now…

Oh god, the “This container seems like it would be REALLY useful!” disease! I totally have that. At one point, I had something like 40 baby food jars, because don’t those TOTALLY seem they would be useful for….something? Cottage cheese containers! I had almost 30 of them because they seem like they would be SO HANDY. I finally recycled all but 5 of them (because if I need to take a kitty poo sample to the vet, that is the PERFECT size), but every time I rinse one out, I clutch it to my bosom frantically and think “You would be SO USEFUL!” before I recycle it. The buckets that Fresh Step used to come in! I have a pile of them – but in my defense, they really DO get used.

You are not alone, Elayne. I know we’re not the only ones who look at a container and think “Oh, that looks SO handy! I can’t possibly toss it!”

The rest of you, fess up. What containers are you hoarding in the back of your cupboards because you absolutely KNOW they’ll come in handy some day?

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There’s liquid bandage you can buy too for paper cuts etc. Works the same as super glue, but is perhaps less toxic?

Yeah, we have a bottle of that stuff around here somewhere. I couldn’t find it, though, so I had to resort to super glue! How toxic is the super glue, anyway? Am I going to develop super powers?

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Oh. And I don’t know what it’s called when you remove the corn, but the tool we have to do it, I call a “corner” and crack myself up. I = easily amused.

I am also easily amused – I cackled when I read this!

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*snort* I’m a geek, but when you were talking about the chickens with the ? over their heads, I could not help think of this: http://warcraftpets.com/guides/images/chicken/prairie_chicken.jpg. It’s a quest in World of Warcraft called Cluck! You go to a farm where there are some chickens running around, and you buy a bag of chicken feed from the farmer. Then you go up to one of the chickens and proceed to “cluck” at it while waggling your arms like wings. You do that a couple dozen times and then the chicken gives you this quest, and gets the ? over it’s head, you give it the feed. When you’ve completed the quest, the chicken lays an egg, which you pick up and open to receive a tiny pet chicken 🙂

You will not sucker me in to playing WOW, Aimee. Will NOT! 😛

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I’ve never heard of cob jelly. What is this stuff? 😉

Jelly made from corn cobs, of course!

I saw the recipe over at Suzanne McMinn’s site, and I thought “Hmm. I have lots of corn on the cob!” and decided to give it a try. What really made me interested was that she said it tastes like honey.

So I made it, I tasted it, and I don’t know that it tastes like honey, but it’s not bad. Fred doesn’t like it, because he says it tastes like corn. It does NOT, but I don’t know how quickly I’ll end up using the three half-pints of jelly I ended up with. Was interesting to make, but I doubt I’ll do it again.

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Growing up, we always called sweet cornbread “city” cornbread. So you’re not a Yankee, you’re just high falutin’ cityfied.

I always suspected I was born to be high falutin’. 🙂

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“Every morning for the past three days, he picks up the skunk – which somehow ends up upstairs every evening – and he carries it from my bedroom upstairs, down the hallway, down the stairs, down the downstairs hallway, through the dining room, and into the kitchen. The entire length of his journey, he keens at the top of his lungs as though he’s caught and killed a real skunk, and he’s coming to show me his “kill”.”

I was wondering if any of your cats do this! We have an extra large furry mouse (which is in very bad shape, no tail and gobby fur) and Buddy will actually carry it upstairs and then come back down meowing at the top of his lungs, wander through the first floor, and arrive in the living room caterwauling the whole way. Drop toy, jump on lap, fall asleep as if nothing happened.

It’s kind of funny except he drowns out the TV when he does it, and he’s also been known to come into the bedroom 2 or 3 times in the wee hours in spite of “Buddah shaddap I’m tryna sleep!”

This is fairly new behavior on Jake’s part – but Miz Poo has done it for years. She loves to do it in the middle of the night, and she ALWAYS starts at the farthest point possible and ends up in my bedroom. I’m pretty sure I yell “MIZ! POO! SHUT! UP!” in my sleep when she does it these days. She also doesn’t drop it and go on with her day once she’s arrived at her destination. She drops it, and then she makes these little chirpy noises like “Did you see what I caught? You see what I got, there? I caught that my own self! I am such the good hunter! Go, me!”

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Yaaaay!!! Bitchypoo appeared in my rss feed this morning. The link’s been broken for weeks, and I’ve had to come to your site manually (HORRORS!!!!).

Whatever you did, thank you!

While I’d like to take credit, I don’t think it was anything I did. Maybe someone kicked a tire and the internet fixed itself.

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Just rename your Strawberry-habanero jam, Strawberry-habanero syrup and sell it that way. 😉 Some people might like hot syrup for their pancakes.

I very well may have to end up doing that! I processed it a second time yesterday (it was as runny as water when I dumped it from the jars into the pot) and it’s slightly thicker now, but still not at the point where I’d call it jam. I’m going to give it a few days to gel, and if it doesn’t, I’m going to give up and call it syrup!

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Can one hoard cats? Just askin’!

I don’t get where you’re going with this completely out of the blue question. What are you implying?

(Shaddup, you.)

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My million dollar idea is a reality show called “I Will Throw All Your Shit Away.” I will let you be on the show with me – we’ll throw everyone’s shit away!

DREAM JOB! I accept your job offer and will pack my bags post-haste.

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I adore this picture. Martin is clearly thinking “WTF?”

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I was outside picking cherry tomatoes, and Maxi came over to see what I was doing. On the other side of the fence (in the back yard), Corbett did the same. Maxi apparently felt that Corby was in her space, and did some hissing and smacking.

What cracked me up is that Maxi didn’t even stick her paw through the fence to smack Corby, and he still fell over like she’d made contact. I guess he knows who’s in charge around these parts.

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Previously
2009: “In a world where human babies are abandoned and allowed to die on the street because they were born female, I’m having a hard time mustering up too much sympathy for male chickens.”
2008: The Godfather Catmother
2007: I don’t know what you do to surprise your husband – lingerie, or a gift from the local “adult” store, perhaps – but I know the direct way to Fred’s heart, and mowing the lawn so he was free to come home and work on his shed instead of having to mow the lawn made him one happy man.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: How’d you like to wake up in the dark and see the Baldwin noggin coming toward you? I bet your life would flash in front of your eyes.
2003: “Freakass freak” is two words.
2002: As I pointed out to Fred this afternoon, it makes me uncomfortable when Dr. Phil is nice.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.

The problem with this whole thing where I was sick and dropped 15 pounds and then gained it all back is that when I gained it all back, I apparently gained it in places other than where I lost it, so my bras ARE REALLY FUCKING UNCOMFORTABLE and I spend all day twitching and trying to get comfortable while wearing an uncomfortable bra and I have actually HURT MY SHOULDER from all the goddamn twitching. I could (and will) buy new bras, but not until my weight gets to a stable place and I can be sure I won’t suddenly put on 20 unexpected pounds in three days or something.

Which is why I’m not wearing a bra today. I feel sorry for anyone who stops by unexpectedly.

 

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Attention, cheese lovers! Go here and see how to enter to win THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS worth of imported cheeses from Sam’s Club!

(If you win, feel free to share with me!)

 

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For the next 60 days, you can vote daily on www.givelitter.com for one of these three deserving Los Angeles-area organizations:

Alley Cat Allies in partnership with Baldwin Park Animal Shelter
Kitten Rescue
The Cat House on the Kings

Vote every day. They’ll donate a tenth of a pound of World’s Best Cat Litter™ for every vote you register. At the end of the voting period, the litter will be distributed proportionally to the total vote count.

I really like the fact that no matter who gets the most votes, all three charities get donated litter. You can vote every day, and I’ll stick the badge on my sidebar as a reminder.

 

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Is Newt really bigger than before, or is it the camera angle? He looks gorgeous, well-fed…large and in charge!

He’s not actually all that big, but he probably is bigger than he was earlier this summer. He and Maxi both tend to put some weight on in the late summer, perhaps in anticipation of the days of winter when they’ll starrrrrrve to death (sh’yeah). He’s not a fat cat, but he’s definitely very muscular. Probably the angle makes him look bigger than he actually is.

 

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Re nappin’ time (as opposed to snackin’ time) – what time do you and Fred get up and go to bed (of a day, not a nap). I love love love the idea of a nap but can’t quite work out when is the appropriate time to indulge. Do you nap on your beds or in a chair? Should I be up and running at a certain time of the morning to make a nap acceptable? At least I know the answer to the number of cats needed for a nap – as many as want to participate.

Fred gets up every morning at 4 am, whether it’s a work day or not (he doesn’t understand people sleeping in on the weekends because he’s a weirdo). He leaves for work sometime around 5:30, so he comes upstairs to say goodbye and give me a kiss. I usually roll over and try desperately to go back to sleep, but am rarely able to do so, so I’m up shortly after 5:30. On the weekends, I sometimes get up at 5:30, sometimes sleep in ’til after 6 (I know! The slackery!)

If we’re talking the weekend, we generally lay down on our respective couches in the living room some time after noon and talk for a few minutes, then doze off for as long as we need to. I’ve been known to nap in my bed, but I prefer the couch these days. Our naps generally last half an hour or so, though last Saturday I snoozed on the couch for TWO HOURS.

During the week, my afternoon schedule looks like:
1 pm: eat lunch, answer emails, surf the internet.
2 – 3ish pm: lay on the couch and watch TV. It goes in cycles for me in that some weeks I snooze every single day for that hour, but this week I’ve actually been watching TV.

At 3:00 I get up and go give the cats their snacks, putter around the house, and basically wait for Fred to get home from work (which he does between 3:30 and 4). I never (unless I’m sick) nap past 3, because I’m afraid it’ll mess with my bedtime.

In the evenings, we turn the TV off around 8:45, do one last email check, Fred checks on Coltrane and Maxi, lets Maxi in (usually), lets Newt out, we wrangle up the foster kittens, spend some time hanging out with them in the foster room, then lay in bed and talk for about half an hour. He goes off to his room around 9:45, and I usually lay in bed and read until I get tired enough to turn off the light. I generally make it to 10:00 most nights. If what I’m reading is holding my attention, I might stay up ’til 11 or 11:30, which happens a couple of times a week.

 

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I don’t consider myself a skimmer, but didn’t you do away with Snack Time? Did I miss when it was reinstated?

I think I only mentioned it in passing, but I reinstated it about a month ago. We were having an issue with Elwood and no matter what medication we tried giving him, nothing stopped the awful diarrhea he was having (and the vet was finding nothing). As a last-ditch effort, I wanted to try giving him Diatomaceous Earth. Diatomaceous Earth comes in a very fine powdery form, and the best way to give it to a cat is to sprinkle it on their food. I mixed it in with canned food to get it into Elwood’s system, and there’s just no way on earth you can give ONE cat in this house a snack and not give it to all of them, so snack time was reinstated.

I changed the time I give them their snack, because before I was giving it to them after Fred and I ate dinner. That meant they were all hanging around the kitchen while I was making dinner, getting underfoot and howling at me. Now I give them their snack at 3:00, which is a much better time – I give them their snack, get all the plates cleaned up, and then can make dinner without harassment.

Oh, and I don’t know if it was the Diatomaceous Earth or just time, but Elwood’s diarrhea has cleared up completely. THANK GOD.

(My other favorite use for Diatomaceous Earth: I sprinkle it where ants tend to congregate (around the wood shed, in particular), and it takes care of them. I mean, they pop up in another location, but at least I don’t have to worry about them building their home in the bottoms of stuff that’s laying on the ground over there.)

 

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I was fiddling around and went to your profile page. I read this:

“We have six cranky cats who live indoors with us, and two more who live outside (left behind by the people who sold us this house); …. We have chickens, who provide us with eggs, and one day may provide us with meat. We’ll see about that.”

and laughed til I had to squeeze my thighs together.

Man, it’s been a while since I updated the bio, hasn’t it? Three years! It’s now up to date as of this moment – I’m going to just stop putting a number of cats in there, because it bites me in the ass every time.

 

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I just found out about Jonathan Coulton through Lucymarch.com, and I had to go on youtube and listen to all his stuff. His song “Code Monkey” reminded me of your “robust” and “elegant” comments in this entry. Not that I am suggesting Fred is a code monkey.

I found that video just a touch more amusing than he did!

 

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Video called Inception Cat. I haven’t seen Inception. It did not affect my enjoyment of this video.

Same here, I love it! (The two of you who haven’t seen that video yet, stick with it. It’s slow to start, but worth watching!)

 

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A clutch. A “litter” of chicks is actually called a clutch. I think. Maybe. I am not very helpful huh?

I know that a bunch of eggs that a hen lays that she intends to sit on until they hatch is called a clutch, but I don’t know that they’re called a clutch once they hatch. And really, you’d think maybe “flock”, but that doesn’t seem right, either, since it sounds like it refers to the whole bunch of chickens in residence. Maybe a sub-flock?

Okay, I went and Googled around, and apparently you’re right – sometimes the chicks that hatch are called a clutch, but more often they’re referred to as “the hen’s brood.” Which is clunky and does NOT roll off the tongue at all. I prefer clutch, or litter.

 

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This might be the opportunity to use your skimmer picture, as I just can’t remember -how did the turkeys taste that you guys raised? (Last fall I think? I’m going to guess you’ve eaten some?) The chicken pictures reminded me of them, and I still giggle the way you described the turkeys as having heads full of air.

You know, I don’t know that I ever talked about eating them, actually. We’ve eaten, I think, three of them and they taste really good. They’re smaller (and not pumped with saline the way a lot of grocery store turkeys are), so they cook faster than we’re used to. I really like to use the Overnight Turkey recipe, here, but instead of cooking it overnight I put the turkey in the oven when I get up in the morning, and it’s always ready long before dinner. The turkey falls right off the bones and it is SO good.

I stand by my assertion that god made chickens, and then he said “Hmm. I wonder if I could make something EVEN DUMBER?”

And he DID.

 

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I know you scoop the litter boxes every day, but what do you scoop into? We generally use old plastic grocery bags, but 1) we run out of plastic grocery bags, especially since most of our stores now offer paper ones, and 2) they aren’t biodegradable. I’d rather take the old grocery bags back to the store to be recycled. I was wondering if you had any other suggestions.

BioBag makes a dog waste bag that is intended for you to bring with you when you’re walking your dog, to scoop the poop into. It’s biodegradable and most days the bags are big enough to fit all the scoopings from all the litter boxes. (Occasionally I have to use a second bag, depending on the number of cats in the house.) They’re not as cheap as the old plastic grocery bags, obviously, but I buy them in bulk off eBay, and I think they’re worth it just so I don’t feel like I’m killing the planet every time I scoop the litter box.

 

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Corbett’s gahgeous…are you at ALL tempted to keep him? I tell ya, if I didn’t already have 3 cats and a demanding chihuahua AND didn’t live in Oregon, I would’ve taken ALL the Bookworms!

Oh please, of COURSE I’m tempted to keep him. I was tempted to keep Bolitar and Rhyme and Reacher too (I LOVE MY BOOKWORMS), but we really are about full to bursting with the number of permanent residents we have. Of course, now that I’ve put that out into the universe, we’ll probably end up with 30 permanent residents by the end of the year!

 

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Someone else has probably already mentioned it, but Corbett is very VERY Bengal. He looks just like my Ozzy.

Believe it or not, no one has mentioned it – but I absolutely agree! Bengals really like water, though, don’t they? Corbett hasn’t shown any interest in water… at least, not yet!

 

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Have you or anyone else out there ever used The World’s Best Cat Litter?? Expensive corn based litter…I’m in the process of trying to convert one litter box upstairs in the hopes of cutting down on litter dust. I HATE litter dust.

I have a bag of it, and I use it when I’ve got little ones who have just started (or are about to start) litter box training, since it’s safer for them than the Fresh Step I use for the big cats. Back when I was first considering buying it, a few people told me that they didn’t care for the smell of the litter. The smell isn’t offensive to me – I mean, it’s got a distinct smell that I notice, but it doesn’t bother me. I don’t use it in all the litter boxes because of the cost, and because (in my opinion) it doesn’t clump as hard. Your mileage may vary, of course, but if you’re going to buy some and give it a try, check out this page for links to the rebate page.

 

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Thanks for the pictures of the litter boxes, by the way… after the other commenter asked about them, I realized that I, too, had no idea how the setup worked. And I LOL’d at your intro paragraph. You sound like me… I can get through spending 18 hours cleaning my house top to bottom, upside down and inside out, and if someone walks in my front door three seconds later I’m all, “Please don’t mind the mess, it looks like a tornado went through here, I try to keep it clean but it just gets away from me…” hee!

Well, you know. I’d go into YOUR house when you thought it was a complete mess, and I doubt I’d notice that it was a mess, but if you came into MY house, I’d be very much aware of the dust bunny peeking out from under the couch. We’re always way harder on ourselves than we’d ever dream of being on each other, am I right? 🙂

 

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Once again you have proved you are a Yankee! That nasty sweet Yankee cornbread shouldn’t even be called cornbread. Real cornbread is made with some serious cornmeal and is NEVER sweet. I have moved across the Mason Dixon line myself, but I still know how to make me some cornbread and believe you me there is no sugar in it! Fred would love my cornbread. I was raised in East Tennessee. My daddy taught me how to make it and he was a Georgia farm boy.

If I ever had cornbread as a kid, I don’t remember it. I just do NOT care for unsweet cornbread! Fred loved the cornbread I made for him, using the cast iron skillet and everything. He had his southern cornbread, I had my sweet cornbread, we were both happy. 🙂

 

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I want a video of you unleashing a stream of obscenities in your sweetest softest voice. Your voice is so sweet and soft anyway!

I’ll see what I can do, but I’ll be honest – I’d feel like an asshole making a movie of me talking shit to one of those poor sweet babies when they’ve gotten me riled up!

 

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I can’t imagine cornbread that isn’t sweet -seems unnatural to me. Is most Southern cornbread sweet? I think of cornbread as a food that originated in the South but I could be wrong.

No, Southern cornbread isn’t sweet – or so I’m told by Fred, who always calls me a Yankee when I express my preference for the sweet version!

 

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Now here’s a question for you! I’ve been reading here for absolutely ages but I can’t for the life of me remember if you’ve already mentioned this. Has Coltrane been “done”? And if he has did he only have one ball?

I’m not being really pervy but my cat Gizmo who looks so similar to Coltrane has a high pitched meow quite like that and he only had one ball… so I wonder if its anything to do with that? Or just cos they are ginger?

We did have Coltrane neutered soon after he first showed up this Spring – as far as I know, he had both of ’em; the vet didn’t say there was only one, and I didn’t think to ask, so I’m guessing both were present. Newt also has that really high-pitched meow, and he’s a similar shade of orange, so maybe it’s a color thing. Or possibly the two of them are related, we’re not sure.

Sugarbutt, our other orange kitty (he’s darker than both Coltrane and Newt) doesn’t have the super high-pitched meow. Sugarbutt always sounds like he’s asking a question when he gets going. That’s another movie I’ll have to try to get!

 

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Susan sent me the link to this article, and I’ve been meaning to post it for ages (it made her think of me because they refer to the cat’s expression as “smug”, which I also do. And I have to agree, that is one smug-looking cat!)

Cat sneaks on to train, gets lost, is reunited with owner via Twitter.

 

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I’d like to ask you about kitten behavior… I have a kitten, maybe 4 or 5 months old, I believe he was taken away from his momma too young as he was miniscule when I adopted him (my local humane society was so over filled they were adopting out cats for $15 for the first one, $5 for each one after. I grabbed two babies, the $15 baby was a very sick kitty and although I tried he didn’t make it). He was barely bigger than my hand and I have tiny hands. He liked to nuzzle my neck and face, which is precious, but he hasn’t grown out of doing that. He does it with such urgency, very important nuzzling, it’s cute and loving, but I have to get some sleep. Yes, he wakes me up to press his cold wet nose into my face and neck. I’m trying to be consistent at stopping him before he starts when I’m awake, but he doesn’t seem to be getting the message.
Any suggestions?

I have no helpful advice on this topic – none of my cats do this. Though now that I think about it, Sugarbutt used to wake me up in the middle of the night every once in a while, kneading on my shoulder and licking my neck. He stopped doing that of his own accord not long after we moved to this house, over three years ago. I don’t know why he stopped, maybe he grew out of the behavior.

Y’all, help me out here – who has helpful suggestions on this topic for Becca?

 

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(Yes, I am wearing boots with shorts. Don’t mock me; Corby’s clearly already doing that.)

 

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I mentioned, perhaps, that Martin helps out during afternoon snack time? After only a few days, he already understands what the sounds of snack time are (me taking plates down out of the cabinet), and he’s with all the big cats, meowing and pawing at my legs.

“What?”

::thlurrrrp::

 

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Loony Jake, hanging out in the foster room.

 

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Previously
2009: I think sometimes that dreaming of what we’d do if we won the lottery is more entertaining than actually winning the lottery would be.
2008: Torturing the Toms.
2007: Google is THE SHIT.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: No entry.
2003: “Fuck it!” I said.
2002: “Stinky?” I said.
2001: I stole this survey from Noreen, but I’ve seen it all over the place recently, and god knows how much I love to be one of the cool kids!
2000: Look! It’s nay-chuh!

Have you ever tried caffeine-free Diet Coke. It is not so bad……

I’ve tried it in the past and don’t like it – it tastes kind of metallic to me. I figure, I’ve only got a couple more days, depriving myself for that much longer won’t kill me, right?

 

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You guys have done well with the piggies and chickens. Have you given any thought into raising your own cow? I imagine it would be much more difficult of a process at the end – but a homegrown, properly aged ribeye is sounding mighty tasty.

We’ve talked about it, but we’re both hesitant to add any more animals to the farm. Last year it just so happened that the guy who processed our pigs had a cow that was ready for processing. We traded (I think) a whole pig for half a cow (a friend bought the other half of the cow), and that worked out really well for us. Fred called the guy a few months ago, and we may be doing the trade again next Spring. It’s working out well, and we don’t have to build a barn for a cow someone else is raising, so I’m calling that win-win!

 

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Is it too much to request a photo of your litter box setup? I can’t wrap my mind around the description.

I just snapped these pictures about five minutes ago. Please forgive the dust around the top of the litter boxes. I usually wipe it off when it starts to annoy me, but I was more focused on getting the pictures than what the area really looked like. (I’d just scooped, so at least the litter boxes were clean!) Also, just keep in mind it’s been a couple of days since I vacuumed, so I’ll be vacuuming later today. It’s not ordinarily that much of a mess, I swear it!

Upstairs in the foster room.

Upstairs in the nook in my bathroom.

Downstairs in the guest bedroom. This litter box is about to go away – the only reason it was there is because we were putting the Bookworms in the guest bedroom at night before I took Bolitar and Rhyme to the adoption center, so they needed to have access to a litter box. Now that there are only two Bookworms, we’ve been letting them stay out at night, and as a result, this litter box isn’t needed – and is hardly ever used.

I didn’t snap a picture of the “main” litter boxes in the laundry room because they don’t have anything to catch the litter and there’s nothing special about the setup. Litter gets all over the place in the laundry room, but I keep it under control by sweeping every morning after I scoop.

 

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You must try the C0ke Zer0…oh, the Heaven, the Bliss (of course, I may earn the Skimmer Of The Day Award, if you’ve already written about trying it and how you hets it and will always lub the DiCo).

I think I will always lub the regular Diet Coke – but now that you mention it, I don’t think I’ve ever actually tried Coke Zero. I think maybe I should give it a try. I might be missing out on something even better!

 

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I’ve also had some sort of lower-intestinal bug thing for the past several days. It was BAD yesterday, a bit better today. Robyn, you’ve infected your readers! All the way to California!!!

I am nothing if not a giver. I’m the Oprah of the journaling world. Diarrhea for YOU and YOU and YOU and YOUUUUUUU! Diarrhea for EVERYONE!!!!

 

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I just read the August 26th entry at this blog and thought you and others would enjoy it.

I love a happy ending!

 

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I need to know – did you watch RHONJ Reunion show last night??? What a circus!

I finally watched the Reunion, and I have got to say that there is something SERIOUSLY friggin’ wrong with Teresa. What an asshole. I know I’ve said before that Danielle’s a drama queen who manufactures drama where there is none, but the fact that she mostly sat back and was quiet and not out of control certainly made the rest of the “cast” look like bullying assholes.

Frankly, she was the least assholish of the bunch, I think. Just once, when Caroline’s threateningly saying “You don’t talk about Dina!” or “You shut your mouth!” to Danielle, I’d like Danielle to say “Or what?” What the fuck control does Caroline think she’s got over Danielle?

There was no one on that set who wasn’t an asshole, though. Even Andy Cohen was an asshole. Talking about how strong Teresa was, when she pushed him down! He should have put her in a wrestling hold and forced her to apologize to Danielle.

I didn’t like what ANYONE was wearing, either. Well, except Andy Cohen. He always looks stylish. The women, though, no. Caroline’s dress and hair style made her look 10 years older (she looked like she’d escaped from an episode of Falcon Crest). There’s nothing Jacqueline can wear that makes her look remotely attractive (and she has the personality of a wet rag) and I sure don’t need to see that much of her boobs. I don’t remember what Teresa was wearing, but I’m sure it looked hideous. As for that rig Danielle had on? She looked like she rolled out of bed and pulled on whatever was in arm’s reach.

You know I cannot wait to see the second half of this reunion. It’s far and away more interesting than ANY of the shows this season have been.

 

@ @ @ @

 

Yesterday after I dropped Melodie, Martin, and Dodger off at the vet for their operation, I headed into Huntsville to stop by Sam’s Club.

Now, if you’re unfamiliar with Huntsville or where I live, you might not know that to get from Sam’s Club to home, I had to go RIGHT by Petsmart. I stopped, of course, because I am only so strong. I just wanted to peek at Bolitar and Rhyme and make sure they were okay. So I got to a point at the end of an aisle where I could peek into their cage and they couldn’t see me. I peered around the corner, and Bolitar was sitting next to the litter box, and the instant I peered around the corner, his head SNAPPED around, and he saw me immediately.

I couldn’t help myself, I went over to the cage and started talking to him. I couldn’t figure out where Rhyme was, so I looked and looked, and finally realized that he was in the litter box, sound asleep. I spoke to him and got his attention, and just hearing my voice, he came out of the litter box and stretched and pawed at the glass.

Well. What would YOU do? I couldn’t just leave!

No, I didn’t snatch him up and bring him home – but I did go find a manager to let me into the cat room, and I let them out of their cage, and I sat there on the floor and cuddled and kissed and played with them for 45 minutes. They were SO happy to see me. They climbed into my lap, they purred, they hugged me. They showed me their toys, they ran back and forth, stretching their legs, and they climbed into my lap for more love.

After 45 minutes, they were ready to go back into their cage for some food and a nap, so I gave them each one last kiss and cuddle, and left.

I was so relaxed that I felt like I’d had a massage.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that someone falls in love with them tonight or tomorrow during adoption hours. But if they don’t, I know I can always go back to Petsmart and spend more time with them.

I forgot to mention this – Amy asked how it was that Bolitar and Rhyme were the first to depart. Basically, we were having an issue with Bolitar picking on the babies upstairs and also with him getting out into the back yard and then OUT of the back yard a couple of times, so even though (I know this will shock you) he was my favorite, I decided that he should probably be the first to go. And since he and Rhyme are best buddies, I let Rhyme go with him.

An interesting side note is that when I was at Petsmart with Bolitar and Rhyme, Bolitar went over to a cage of smaller kittens and sniffed at them… and then he did NOT hiss or growl or smack at them. Very interesting. So maybe when he was picking on the babies upstairs, he thought he was defending his territory or trying to establish dominance, and in a new setting like at Petsmart, he didn’t feel like he needed to do that? Then again, maybe it’ll just take a few days for him to be comfortable enough to let his inner drama queen out.

 

@ @ @ @

 

Dodger, Melodie, and Martin are now spayed and neutered. All the way to the vet’s office, I expected them to start howling, but after I got them into the carrier, they did not make a single peep all the way there, and when I picked them up last night, they didn’t make a peep all the way home, either. None of them seem to know they’ve had anything done at all – the instant I let them out of the carrier last night, they ran around like their tails were on fire, and they played hard all evening long. I was worried that Melodie would revert to her scaredy-cat ways, and she was a wee bit nervous this morning, but she came over to me pretty quickly to be petted.

So they’re ready to go to the adoption center when room is available, but I’m guessing that it’s going to be a while before that happens!

(Someone asked a couple of days ago whether Martin’s meow has changed since he was little. He still has a pretty distinctive meow, but I intend to get another movie of what he sounds like now, so y’all can judge for yourselves! It’ll take me a few days to get that done, though.)

Melodie, pre-spay.

Dodger shows his teeth and claws.

::thlurrrp::

::thlurrrrrrp::

::thlurrp!::

 

@ @ @ @

 

Reacher has turned out to be a middle-of-the-night foot attacker. But that’s okay – he also respects the can of compressed air.

I just cannot stand how GORGEOUS these boys are!

 

@ @ @ @

 

Spanky would like you to know that he’s no dummy. Since he doesn’t wear a collar (he’s never ever climbed over the fence, so we consider it safe to leave him collarless), he can get right up against the fence and the collared cats can’t get to where he is (or they’ll get zapped from their collars), and so they can’t bug him. HA HA HA ON THEM!

 

@ @ @ @

 

Previously
2009: It was almost cinematic, the way they ran toward each other and then Jake bit Elwood on the neck.
2008: When the cleaning bug strikes, you don’t ask questions!
2007: Bob Goodlatte fights the good fight against his opponent Joan Badespresso.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: “She looks… she looks.. she looks like a PIRATE!” he gasped. I started giggling.
2003: I guess Spike TV really IS television for men.
2002: When married characters are that cruel to each other, all you can think is, “Why the hell are they married if they hate each other so much?”
2001: Gatlinburg pictures!
2000: No entry.

I watched The Back-Up Plan yesterday. It was a cute movie, I usually like Jennifer Lopez’s movies well enough. I only snoozed for about 10 minutes, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t miss any key plot points (really, with your average romantic comedy, you could probably snooze through 75% of it and not miss much). The reason I bring it up is because there was this French Bulldog Boston Terrier in the movie who was OH MY GOD SO CUTE.

I don’t ever want a house dog, but if I did? I’d want one like that. The EYES on that cute little guy, good lord.

 

@ @ @ @

 

Robyn, about how often do you have to vacuum your icebox coils? I have one fairly furry pup and I have to do mine every two months (could probably get away with every three).

Devil, how much do I love you for assuming I ever vacuum my icebox coils? SO MUCH. They get vacuumed every time the fridge needs to be pulled out for something else (cat toy check, defrosting the fridge, checking to see if something we’re missing is back there), so I’d guess maybe twice a year? Though now that I think about it, if I vacuumed them more often, maybe we’d need to defrost the freezer less often – every now and then the ice maker gets all jammed up and starts producing hollow ice cubes, which is our cue to empty everything out of the freezer and fridge, pull it out, unplug it, let everything thaw, clean it out, plug it back in, and shove it back in place. We do not have the best fridge in the world, as you may have guessed, but it was the only one that would fit in the designated spot.

 

@ @ @ @

 

I didn’t realize you were back on the Diet Coke. I thought that was a no no.

I know I’ve written about this in the past, and I’d put up the SKIMMER! pic, but I can’t find where I’ve written about it, so

WAIT. I found it!

I last wrote about it back in March, here.

(You guys know I’m just teasing with the skimmer picture and accusations, right? I can barely keep track of all the details of my own life, I certainly don’t expect y’all to!)

 

@ @ @ @

 

In case you have not seen this:

The most inefficient drinker in the cat kingdom.

Oh, I’ve seen it – I just forgot to share it with y’all. The look on that cat’s face cracks me UP. He’s so serious! He’s like “By GOD, I will figure this out if it kills me!”

 

@ @ @ @

 

I have newly installed wood floors in my house and that includes the kitty room. I have large litterbox mats in front of the boxes, but litter is getting tracked everywhere. Any suggestions as I see you have hard wood floors also.

Most of my litter boxes are big buckets from Lowe’s with holes cut in the front as an entrance/ exit. I use big boot trays (I got mine online, but you can find them at Lowe’s. You can probably also find them at Walmart.) as litter catchers, and I turn the litter boxes (buckets) with the entrance/ exit toward the wall. That helps some, but honestly, I find that on the days I don’t vacuum, a quick sweep with the broom around the litter boxes helps keep things under control.

I think someone recommended the Roomba. I have one, but I rarely use it. We have area rugs throughout the house, and while the Roomba does a pretty good job on the hardwood floors, it tends to leave clumps of cat hair behind on the rugs. I find it easier to just vacuum myself.

Anyone out there have more suggestions for how to keep the litter scatter under control on a hardwood floor? We’re all ears!

 

@ @ @ @

 

Do Maxi and Newt stay out at night even when it gets cold?

They like the cool nights of Fall, but when it gets seriously cold (I know, those of you who suffer through winters at below-zero temperatures are scoffing at the idea that it ever gets “seriously” cold in Alabama!) they come inside overnight. Actually, during the coldest part of the winter, Newt’s just as happy to stay inside 24/7. Maxi’s really more of an outdoors girl, and she doesn’t like the large number of kittens who are always running around here, so she’ll go outside during the day then come in for the night.

 

@ @ @ @

 

Do you have any news on your recent fosters like, have they been adopted yet or what? A couple went through so fast recently I hardly got a chance to know them.

As of this moment, all my previous fosters except Pancho have been adopted. There was a time there when it seemed like the Rescuees were on a merry-go-round because three of them were adopted and then returned (Franco and Garrity because one of the girls who adopted them was allergic, and Lieu because the lady who adopted him decided she wasn’t ready), but it’s been a good few weeks since the last Rescuee was adopted, so I’m tentatively going to say that those adoptions are going to “stick.”

It depends on how adoptions go at the adoption center, but at this point the Bookworms are next in line to go, it’s only a matter of space opening up.

 

@ @ @ @

 

Sweet Miss Melodie.

Every mancat needs some pink floof in his life.

She swats! She… misses!

Leaning tower of Melodie.

 

@ @ @ @

 

Bad boys, bad boys. Whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they sneak outside and then totally act like they’re allowed out there and what’s YOUR problem anyway, lady?

(You’re gonna grab the camera, is what you’re gonna do.)

“What?”

Bad bad Buster Brown. He’s the baddest cat in the whole damn town. Well, the whole back yard, anyway. (“Buster” is Bolitar’s nickname, I’m sure I’ve mentioned.)

Corbett, clearly miserable.

 

@ @ @ @

 

“Y’all get your butts back inside that house! You know you’re not allowed out here, and I’m not putting up with your zany shenanigans! Chasing each other all over the yard! Rolling around on the concrete pad! Eating grass! Sheriff Mama won’t have it, you hear me?”

 

@ @ @ @

 

Previously
2009: “But… I don’t WANNA go be tutored and have my eyeballs messed with!”
2008: “Huh” is very versatile, no?
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: I think our cats are as antisocial as we are.
2003: Damn PMS Fairy.
2002: You know, I don’t believe that once you become a parent, every bit of you has to be absorbed into that role.
2001: Dumbass, thy name is Robyn.
2000: No entry.

Happy happy birthday, Brian!!!!

(Around the age of 3. And for the record, his gut wasn’t REALLY that big. I believe we were telling him to push it out so he’d have a pot belly, and then we laughed and laaaaaughed.)

 

@ @ @ @

 

North Alabamans, you guys seen any hummingbirds yet? I haven’t seen a single one, and this time of year we’re usually flooded with them. This has been such an odd summer. Our eggplants are just now starting to produce, and I know that we’re usually flooded with those by now, too. The jalapenos aren’t getting very big. What the hell is going on?

 

@ @ @ @

 

Simon (god bless his little pointy head) is an 18-pound ginger siamese with a “delicate stomach”. He gets panicky if he catches a glimmer of the bottom of his food bowl so I always keep it topped off but it seems to me that most of his barfing is caused by gobbling his food (I think that because his vomit comes up undigested). I’m currently feeding him Purina One Sensitive Systems dry food and the occassional dry treat. I’m at my wits’ end; Simon pukes wherever he happens to be and all over whatever he happens to be sitting on. He also – lucky me – projectile vomits splattering everything. This happens four or five times a week. At 18 pounds, he’s not in danger of starving to death and this has been going on for years so I really don’t think he’s ill. Any suggestions?

From Dee:

I have a barfer too. He scarfs and then barfs. So pleasant.

One suggestion I have is to slow down the gobbling. My vet gave me 2 suggestions to create obstacles to the dry food: (1) spread out the dry food in a rectangular shallow baking dish to make it so the cat has to move around to get at the food (I tried this, but it wasn’t as effective as the second suggestion); and (2) put golf (or similar-sized) balls in the dry food dish. Depending on the size of dish, I have 3-5 golf balls in there. This latter works fairly well in my situation.

Also, I used to leave out food, but I’ve moved to giving him more frequent and smaller amounts of food throughout the day which seems to help. I invested in an autopetfeeder (like this one: http://www.robotshop.ca/8-day-autopetfeeder-5.html) that allows him to eat throughout the day in small amounts. Wet food also seems easier on his system than dry food, so if I’m home he gets that instead of dry (the wet food also is higher in protein so helps keep him slim).

Additionally, this guy’s a groomer, which means hairballs. I give him malt hairball gel regularly, and brush him a lot (I got a furminator and it’s marvellous at keeping the hair down).

All these things help me, although does not eliminate it…I still have barf a couple times a week, but it’s *so* much better – YMMV. Good luck!

The only additional suggestion I have is to put his water dish as far away from his food dish as possible, even in another room completely. I’ve read that often, a cat will eat and then drink water, which causes the food to swell and then makes them sick.

 

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Can you believe its been a year since Jake and Elwood appeared??

It’s amazing, isn’t it? I can still remember the way my stomach sank when we walked toward the side stoop and saw them there. I sure am glad we kept them, though – they provide us with entertainment every single day.

 

@ @ @ @

 

When you read The Dome, did you picture any certain actors as the characters in the book? I pictured “Barbie” as Gary Sinise…I must have been influenced by The Stand. 😉 There were so many characters, I had a hard time keeping them all straight! I wonder if there’s a plan to make it into a mini-series.

Oh, I can absolutely see Gary Sinise as Barbie! I didn’t cast anyone as any characters while I was reading the book, but now I’ll probably have a hard time seeing Barbie as anyone other than Gary Sinise!

It appears that Stephen King and Steven Spielberg are teaming up to produce an Under the Dome mini-series for HBO. Whether it actually comes out remains to be seen, but I sure hope so! We watch The Stand about once a year, and it holds up pretty well.

 

@ @ @ @

 

Ok. Here is the trick to not leaving your water on too long. You MUST put a kitchen timer (or any timer) in your pocket to remind you. Until I finally wised up to that, there is no telling how much water I wasted.

LOVE this idea! I usually set the reminder on the microwave, but on Saturday I didn’t because who on EARTH would forget that they had water running, right? Ugh. But with a timer in my pocket, I’ll have it with me so even if I’m not near the microwave, I’ll hear it go off!

 

@ @ @ @

 

Robyn, now that you have your net book, you can actually add it to your Kindle list I think. And then you can also dowload any or all of your Kindle purchases to it, so if you DO want to read in bed you can! Without carrying along the extra device.

I did not know that – thanks for the tip!

 

@ @ @ @

 

My mother used to say that the only thing worse than a husband who didn’t care how dirty the house got was one who DID care. Imagine having a fussy husband. 🙁

I hadn’t thought about it that way, but you are absolutely right. That would drive me NUTS.

 

@ @ @ @

 

Robyn, you need to go to www.wimp.com and search for the recent video called, Do big cats like catnip? Tigers and jaguars and the like, all enjoying their drugs. There’s also a very funny video of two cats trying to figure out a treadmill. It’ll make you want to put yours near the exercise equipment just to see what happens.

Do Tigers Like Catnip? (Anyone who’s ever watched the big cats at the zoo know the answer to this one – they’re just big overgrown housecats… who can kill you, that is!)
Cats try to understand treadmill. I love the way the cats smack at the treadmill like it’ll make it STOP THAT SHIT.

 

@ @ @ @

 

Remember back in July when someone asked for help grabbing feral kittens? Here’s an update:

Here’s a quick update on the feral Mom and babies I was lamenting about last week and got so many good ideas from you and your readers. There is just no way any of the shelters etc can take even one more kitten so here is what the Humane Society and I decided. I took Momma Marley there this morning and they are going to spay, needle, chip, worm and de-flea her for $100. The free Trap, Neuter, Return programs have such long waiting lists there was no point in doing that. So Marley is having that done probably as I type this and I will pick her up in the morning and bring her back here to the farm and her kitties.
I will have to deal with the kittens. probably in the same way, a couple at a time as they reach breeding age in a month or so and just suck up the cost I guess.

It killed me to see all those homeless animals at the shelter. sigh.

btw Robyn.. I named all Marley’s babies “M”‘s too..except for one. We have Maxi, Mittens, Muggins, Mel, Muttley, and Boots (boots is the bossy bratty one who boots his (her?) siblings out of the way if they dare try to get near the food s/he is eating. 🙂
Thank you for all the responses and helpful suggestions from yourself and your readers.

 

@ @ @ @

 

I hope you noticed at the end the other videos to watch, specifically the one called Cats & Dogs love Peanut Butter, there is a cat wearing a DRESS!

I totally did notice that! I cannot for one moment ever imagine any of my cats putting up with that for a single second. Oh, the histrionics there would be. (Which of course makes me want to give it a try….)

 

@ @ @ @

 

More movies y’all linked that are DEFINITELY worth checking out:

 

@ @ @ @

 

Love that cat tree! Where did you find that amazing multi-hideout wonder? I bought one last year on Overstock.com that has one house, two platforms, and two little standalone sleep pads, and they all loved it so much I’m thinking of getting another one.

It’s the only scratching post our Moxie (a 2 1/2 year old tortie) can’t knock over when she leaps off it like a flying monkey.

I get all my cat trees on eBay – just search on “cat furniture” and be prepared for hours o’ browsing!

 

@ @ @ @

 

I am getting a gray bar instead of the subhead under BITCHYPOO in the banner….

It should be fixed now!

 

@ @ @ @

 

Re your hunters, I saw in the paper an article about a “cat bib” that’s made to prevent a large number of wildlife deaths. This blue bib is on the cats neck and if it creeps forward to pounce it seems to trip itself before the deadly strike. I haven’t tried it as Billie Jean is an inside cat.

I’m actually not bothered by the fact that the cats kill mice (though I am not fond of the fact that they bring mouse heads IN MY HOUSE), but I hate that they kill birds. That said, I don’t see myself bibbing up the cats. Maybe I’ll start with putting bells on their collars and seeing if that helps. But, you know, these freakin’ birds. They come into the back yard, which is a very small part of our property, and they start looking for bugs and such, and they’ll STOP and turn around and LOOK at the cat who’s creeping up on them… and then they just keep on lookin’ for bugs! Stupid birds.

 

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Your feed isn’t showing up in my Bloglines — is that an issue on your end or mine? Fred?

I haven’t a clue (and don’t ask Fred – he knows less about feeds than I do). I went to Bloglines and searched for Bitchypoo, and about 7 different feeds showed up, most of them last updated in June. People have had an issue with viewing my site on Bloglines several times in the past, and I don’t know what the problem is. Maybe it’ll resolve itself?

 

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Ok, when you get back, I want a profile pic of Miz Poo. She has no chin, I am convinced! 🙂 Have a great trip!

Prepare to be schooled, my friend! I present to you, Miz Poo in profile:

Now granted, she’s no Jay Leno, but there’s definitely a chin there!

 

@ @ @ @

 

It will amaze you, I’m sure, to hear that in the foster room, anytime there’s a fight, there’s always one little brown and white constant in the equation.

At least Melodie got a few chomps in this time!

Dodger was minding his own business, and Martin came RACING over to bite him. Such a brat!

 

@ @ @ @

 

Morning sunshine = Bookworms fightin’ time!

Corbett, looking particularly smug.

Corbett and Elwood, checking out the BIRD WING one of the cats brought inside. I don’t even want to know where the rest of the bird was.

 

@ @ @ @

 

I can’t quite wrap my mind around it, but the way Spanky and Corbett are positioned it seems pretty clear that Corbett was sound asleep here, and then Spanky came up and snuggled up behind him. What WORLD am I living in???

 

@ @ @ @

 

Previously
2009: There might be something wrong with me.
2008: So Fred said “Well, they can’t ALL be your favorite, and besides we agreed we wouldn’t be keeping any of them.”
2007: HAPPY BARFDAY, BRIAN!!!!
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: While your average man might have grown frightened, apparently it wasn’t the first time that morning Mike’d heard Satan’s voice howling his name.
2003: It’s kind of like a samba.
2002: I saved someone’s life this morning!
2001: Thus the reason we never get telemarketing calls.
2000: No entry.

This is Sophie. She belongs to one of my sister’s neighbors. She had a litter of kittens earlier this year, and recently went into heat, causing her owner to toss her outside in a neighborhood where at least two unfixed male cats roam. (I have no public comment on this, but I think you can imagine the comment I’d have if I did. Imagine a lot of obscenities.)

Luckily, A Paw in the Door stepped up to help with having Sophie spayed so that she won’t end up bringing any more unwanted kittens into the world.

A Paw in the Door is a non-profit, all volunteer organization that is completely supported by donations and fundraising events.

If you could spare some money, I know it would be very much appreciated. They have a paypal link on the sidebar of their web page, or if you’d rather send a check, their address is also in the sidebar. A Paw in the Door is a 501(c)(3) organization, which means your donation is tax deductible. Remember, it doesn’t have to be a lot – every little bit adds up, as y’all well know.

Just tell them Sophie sent you!

 

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Hey, it’s the 13th. As of today, I’ve lived in Alabama for 14 years!

Woohoo?

Okay, first pictures from my trip to Pennsylvania, then the answering of a few questions. I find myself amused by the fact that I was surprised to find that since comments were down for most of the week, there were no comments and thus the comment-answering extravaganza consists of maybe three comments.

 

@ @ @ @

 

By the way, last year when I was in Pennsylvania, BlogHer was going on. This year, same thing. I swear we didn’t plan it that way!

 

@ @ @ @

 

Pictures from NebBitchyCon 2010!

I must have taken 30 pictures from the plane. This is why I always sit by the window.

Julie is NOT sitting on the table. I just photoshopped it to look that way.

We had grilled corn (this is the corn before the grilling) and barbecued chicken. Did I get a picture of the chicken? Of course not. But DAMN it was good.

Felina and her chew. She tried to hide it in my mouth later that night.

We went grocery shopping. This place was HUGE. Neat, but overwhelming.

HOLY CRAP these things were good. I checked at the grocery store yesterday to see if they had any. Unfortunately, Publix does not have much (if any) of a Polish section. I bought some Pim’s cookies that were the same idea, but they weren’t nearly as good.

We had pizza on the grill one night. Nance was all “Come make your damn pizza!” and I was all “I’m a guest! I don’t have to make my own pizza!” Then Rick made my pizza and I was like “WHY does this not work for me at home???”

Wee baby bunny, living in the garden. I got too close to him and he ran away from me, though.

I thought they were good (I was the only one who thought so, apparently), but I should have only taken a few bites. I was in a sugar coma for the rest of the day.

Frog in the garden. Or toad. Whatever. Croaking, hoppy thing.

Waldo. He’s such a sweet boy. He cracked me up, because he LOVES Trey, and he follows Trey around, gazing at him with eyes of devotion.

Cupcakes. Nance thought they were “too floury”, but I thought they were fabulous. In fact, on the way to the airport Wednesday morning, I was kicking myself for not eating one for breakfast.

JANE! It’s the devil weed!

Felina has her own chair, with her own blanket on it, and when she’s not sitting in Shirley’s lap like a little princess, she’s curled up in her blanket.

Bridge to Canada. HI CANADA! Tuesday, we went to Niagara Falls. We left at 6 am and got back home at 1 am. It was a lonnnnng day, but fun.

Nance and Trey and the falls.

Rick and Trey and I climbed to the top of those steps. It’s not as bad as it looks.

We ate at Buzzy’s and it was really, really good. We had fried ravioli, which I have never had before, wings, and pizza.

And one last shot of Maddy.

 

@ @ @ @

 

So yeah, originally we were supposed to go to Kennywood, but we started talking and I mentioned that I hadn’t been to Niagara Falls since I was very little (and to be honest, I’m not sure that I was really there – or if I was on the US side or the Canadian side, but I have a vague memory of some mist) and we decided to go there. We saw the falls, we walked around, we people-watched, shopped, ate, and people-watched some more. I sweated so much that I was kind of glad we hadn’t gone to Kennywood, because I think we would have all been flat on the ground from the heat.

We didn’t go over to Canada, because I didn’t have my passport with me, because I don’t have a passport, so don’t go offering me an all-expenses paid trip to Scotland for next week or anything.

Other than that, we stayed at the house, babbled at each other, stuffed our faces, and had a blast. We talked about doing a podcast and Nance even had Alex bring his recording equipment over, but when it came down to it, we froze and ended up not getting much. I don’t know why, but I had a harder time talking when it was just a microphone in front of me instead of the camera we used to do the video podcasts last year.

There you go – your NebBitchyCon recap for 2010!

 

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After recently reading a particularly horrific airline travel tale on a Childfree board, I’ve decided that I’ll never fly coach again. If first or business class is too expensive, I just won’t go. We always, ALWAYS get seated near screaming children and, apparently, the airlines are still doing nothing about them.

If I ruled the world, any and all unruly airline passengers would be quickly jettisoned. No one agrees with me on this, though. 🙁

I have to tell you that when I was boarding the plane from Pittsburgh to Charlotte, NC, there was this little girl who was having the meltdowns of all meltdowns. This child was screaming, and I am not exaggerating when I tell you that she screamed at the very very very top of her lungs all the way down the terminal, for the ten minutes before the flight boarded, all the way down the jetway onto the plane, and for the first 10 minutes of the flight.

I have to admit that I thought it was HILARIOUS. I felt bad for her father (he honestly was trying to get her to shut up, but when kids hit that state of meltdown, there’s little you can do), but I was impressed by her stamina and the fact that this apparently all started because she took her shoes off and couldn’t get them back on by herself.

I’m sure that if I was flying on very little sleep (like the passenger ahead of me), I wouldn’t have found it nearly as amusing, but I swear to you, I was laughing out loud at that child. I’m also sure that part of the amusement I felt was due to relief that she wasn’t my kid.

I flew with the spud a few times when she was tiny, and you know, it’s a long, boring plane ride from Maine to California and we had a few instances where I’m sure she was annoying to other passengers, however briefly, but I have one hell of a Mean Mommy face that worked pretty damn well on her.

 

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Apart from the fact that this picture makes me giggle like a fool, I also think it’s the pig equivalent of your Skimmer! photo.

I agree completely! That picture cracks me UP.

On a side note, don’t you love Lisa? She takes the most amazing pictures, I love checking out her Flickr uploads every day!

 

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For Friday-do you think the flight attendant is a hero?

I think “hero” might be overstating it, but who of you who have real jobs have NOT fantasized about telling off the assholes around you, grabbing a beer, and jumping out the emergency exit, before going home and climbing into bed with your significant other before the cops show up to arrest your ass?

Pity me, ’cause if I were to have a Steven Slater day (in my version, I wake up, walk through a cold pile of cat barf, am slapped in the face by the smell coming from the litter box, drop my toothbrush on the floor, have to wrestle it back from the cat, almost fall down the stairs because Bolitar loves me so much he rubs against my left calf, then my right, then my left, all the way down the stairs, have to scoop 7 litter boxes, then have to scoop again because my cats LOVE THEM A LITTER BOX, stand in despair in the garden, glaring at my barely-producing tomato plants, tell the dogs multiple times to stop barking at whatever they’re watching in that other dimension, shoo several chickens away from the neighbor’s yard, and on and on and on) I can’t escape my workplace! I live here! (Yeah, yeah, woe is me.)

 

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So THAT’s where it is!

 

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“Oh, were you gone? I hadn’t noticed.”

Released: pictures of the crime in progress!

Unfortunately, Elwood fled the crime scene before Homicide Detective Maxi’s backup, Detective Coltrane, rolled up onto the scene. Rumor has it he was off rolling around in catnip. Has a ‘nip problem, that one, and you’d better believe Internal Affairs will have a field day with this one!

 

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“HEY! YOU! Where’d you GO? That GUY doesn’t kiss me nearly as much as you do! I can’t believe you’d leave him in charge!”

“You know I need my kisses. I can’t sleep if I haven’t been properly kissed!”

 

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Tommy, hanging out in the back yard. This platform (which Fred made, specifically for the cats to hang out on in the back yard. It looks like the fence is very close, but it’s not at all – they can’t jump from the platform over the top of the fence, believe me.) is about eye-level for me. Tommy seems to think I can’t reach him when he’s up there, so if I need to give him medicine or clean his eyes or whatever, he flees to the platform. Then he’s AMAZED when I grab him.

 

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Previously
2009: Another 13 years, maybe I’ll take up tea drinking and swanning about with big Southern hair.
2008: In lieu of a real entry today, sights and scenes from around Crooked Acres.
2007: “It’s not a tumah,” he said, as is standard.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: Give me time, I’ll have fifteen different versions of “Xanadu” in my music folder.
2003: MY ARM HURTS.
2002: I think no one ever told Billy Bob that if you ANNOUNCE you’re taking the high road, then you aren’t taking it.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.