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      Thursday, November 01, 2007


otherstuff
09:04 AM - 11/01/2007

The topic: Ponderance
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Why is it that the majority of girls who dress like sluts, do not have the bodies to pull it off?

The other day we went shopping. There were some kids (mid to late teens) walking along side the road. One of them was a girl, who was heavy. The pants she had on were probably about two sizes too small. Seriously. I do not lie.

How small were they?

They were so small, they didn’t come up as far as they should have (I’m sure many of you know exactly what I’m talking about; trying to squeeze into those jeans that fit so well five years ago). She had on one of those short form-fitting shirts, so the fall over flab from the pants was there for all to see (I believe this look even has a name now “muffin top”). She looked really bad from the front. But when we drove by and I looked in the sideview mirror at her backside, I swear, you could see half of her crack with cheeks, fat, everything. 

And her eye makeup looked like it had been put on with a fairly wide paint brush.  I’ve seen lots of women with too much makeup on (hey, back in the day I like the eyeliner and shadows and mascara) who at least take some time to make sure it looks somewhat artful, but this one, was more arful.  Heh.

Do these females have absolutely no sense of what looks good on them or do they just not care? Hey, I’m all for accentuating the positive, but come on. There has to be some sort of limit. 

Whatever happened to self respect?


otherstuff
09:23 AM - 11/01/2007

The topic: Halloween
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Yesterday afternoon I put up our Halloween decoration.  Yep, just the one. And I didn’t put it “up”, I plugged it in.  It’s a Tigger thing, one of those blow up dealies that people put on their front lawns.  Except this is only about four feet high.  Tigger popping out of a pumpkin.

And I washed the black plastic kettle for the candy. 

Chopped green peppers and onions, sauteed them in one pan while I browned hamburger in the other.  Halloween night is the night for spaghetti.  Once the meat was browned, I added a jar of spaghetti sauce (I’ve gotten lazy) and cooked it up for a while, then put it in a crockpot along with the softened peppers and onions.  Set it on low, then later lowered it to warm. 

And I did something I rarely do.  I cooked up the noodles and added those to the sauce.  Usually, I only do this for the leftovers, but tonight, I figured one pot to clean one be plenty. 

When Brian got home, dinner was served, so there wouldn’t be any having to get up from the table to hand out candy (I do have some dishwashing to do).

We got about thirty-five kids, the last bunch a little after eight.  And by that time, Gilly and KittyMeeze were ready to eat, so after they left, I unplugged the decoration, took down the baby gate at the door and we were done.

Brian moved the truck from the steps (steps are old telephone poles that have rotted and they are absolutely not safe to walk on), put it back in the driveway. 

At first, the decoration was in the entryway, but as the night progressed, I mentioned it might be better out front where people can see it.  Our house is down a slope and it’s awfully dark out there.  Maybe if they could see the Tigger, they’d know there was candy here.  So, Brian moved it for me and I think that helped to about double the amount of trick or treaters we had from how many we had last year.  Last year, I heard a kid tell his parent that he didn’t want to come down to this house, it was too dark and scary.

We do have leftovers.  Let’s see if I can be good this year and let Brian have the lion’s share of candy.

      Friday, November 02, 2007


catstuff
09:28 AM - 11/02/2007

The topic: We had a small problem here yesterday morning….
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Or maybe I should say a "Little Bit" of a problem.

I had gone outside to see if Lorelei was ready to come in and take a nap in the catcam chair (Mystie ended up in it) and I noticed the cats all hanging around the Liquid Amber tree, looking up.  And I heard rustling up there. 

We’ve got a huge flock of parrots or some sort of bird like that (I took video earlier this week and will get it up this weekend) and I heard them in the neighborhood, so I kind of thought maybe there was some big ass bird up there.  I went over to take a closer look.  Bigger bird?  Huh uh.  Little cat.  A little bit of a cat.  Yeah, you guessed it.  Little Bit was in the tree.  And she wanted down.

Now, how the hell she got up there was beyond me.  I tried to coax and clap (you know, when you clap your hands) her down, but nothing worked. So, I came inside, went into the master bath, where Brian was taking a shower.  “Uh, honey, Little Bit is in the amber tree.”  I don’t think he thought he heard me right and when it sunk in and I’d left the room, I heard him saying “s#it!”.  He quickly finished his shower and I went back outside.

By this time she was really ready to get down, so she jumped down, I’d say about eight or ten feet (it was a diagonal jump).  It apparantly stung a little from the way she shook her front paws, but she didn’t seem to be limping or anything like that.

By the time she’d run off and into one of the cathouses, Brian was dressed and out.  He moved the swing (which she likes to lay on top of) from it’s position by the tree (a long jump to the tree, can’t really say we think that was how she got up there) and went into his shop and got some pruners.  He did some much needed pruning of the bottom branches of the amber tree and disposed of the branches.  Today, he’s going to fashion another barrier for the tree, one similar to the barriers around the pine trees.

There was no further problem yesterday.  This morning, I did see Little Bit sitting on a little stumpy branch near the current barrier, but she didn’t stay there.  She was back in her spot down by a palm tree by the pool, laying in the grass when we went to breakfast.

These cats are gonna give me a heart attack one of these days.


otherstuff
04:22 PM - 11/02/2007

The topic: I’ve got too much time on my hands
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When I start doing things like this.

I put my right fingers over my right eye and my left fingers over my left eye.  My right eye doesn’t seem as prominent as my left eye.  I put my right fingers on my left eye, my left fingers on my right eye and my left eye still seems more prominent than my right.

Observing them both in the mirror, they look just fine.

But I keep putting my fingers over them to see if they feel the same.

*sigh*

      Sunday, November 04, 2007


otherstuff
08:13 AM - 11/04/2007

The topic: I like my coffee black
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Thank you, very much.

I like it without cream or sugar.  I like it smooth, I like it strong.  I do not like it bitter.

That’s why I don’t understand the Starbucks mystique. To me, that coffee is just plain nasty. And it annoys me that so many places are going to a like type of coffee.  Bitter.  Blech.

Maybe it’s because at Starbucks, you can get it diluted with so many different things, the stuff that makes lattes and whatever the hell else they sell.  Putting all that crap in it lessens the taste of the coffee, so they make the coffee nasty so that you can still get a little of the coffee flavor with all the other crap that’s been added. 

One batch of beans back, we bought a bag of Starbucks beans at Costco (I have a little grinder and I grind beans here, put them in a plastic container, store in the freezer and those grounds last me about a month).  The coffee wasn’t very good.  I mixed those beans with some regular beans and it was better, but I’ll not buy the Starbucks beans again.

I don’t know about you, but I like my coffee black, strong and smooth.  Hold the bitter.

      Tuesday, November 06, 2007


catstuff
07:09 AM - 11/06/2007

The topic: It’s TUMMY TUESDAY #67!
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click for a larger pic

The kitty tummy for today belongs to little Potter Pot Pie.  He wasn’t really appreciative of the flash going off, he just wanted to take his nap in peace.


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If you’ve got a Tummy Tuesday blog entry, feel free to post the link in the comment section or trackback to this entry. And if you put a link back to this page, then more kitties will get to show off their tummies!

 


catstuff
04:20 PM - 11/06/2007

The topic: I’m in hyper-vigilant mode
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Since the two losses last month, I’ve been super worried about the other cats.  Is there something wrong, why does his face look like that, why is she sneezing?  Is that kitty breathing too hard?  Is that cat drinking more water and eating less food?

It’s not a fun way to be.

Anyway, we’ve both been watching Bart.  After all, he’s the oldest at sixteen. And he’s had that eye problem for a while now.  He seems to be drinking more water.  He’s walking funny.  Beginning renal failure?  And look at him while he sleeps.  He’s breathing a little faster than the other cats.  Is he okay?  Is he not okay? If he’s not okay, is it fixable?  Is it the end?

Gah.

So, yesterday I call the vet and make an appointment for this morning.  I want a blood workup, for one. I want his nose checked since his breathing is a little on the noisy side. What about the bouts of coughing he occasionally has?  His appointment was at 9:45 this morning.

I take him in and he cries on the way over.  I’m glad the ride is a short one.  I gave the receptionist the container of biscotti I’d bought for them the day before at CostCo (I feel it’s beneficial to stay on the staffs’ good side).  I waited for a while and finally was taken into an examining room.  The tech was the same one who’d been there when I last took Lisa in.  I asked her about the vet who checked Lisa over.  I was told he would no longer be filling in, he’d seen his last day at my vet.  I said “good”.  And I told her why.  Although I know there wouldn’t have been much that could be done for Lisa, we could have done something for her suffering. She spent her last forty-eight hours highly uncomfortable and most likely in considerable pain. I don’t like to think about this, believe me, I don’t dwell on it. 

She reassured me that he wouldn’t be back.  The vet finally came in and we talked a little about Bart, why I’d brought him in.  I told him about my concerns and that I was in “hyper-vigilant” mode, which he understood.  He checked the airflow through Bart’s nose and told me that it wasn’t 100%, but it didn’t seem to be bothering him.  He wasn’t breathing through his mouth, so he’d obviously adjusted to whatever was going on.  If he started blowing out nasty green thick snot and not be able to breathe through the nose, there would be a concern.  He listened to his chest, told me that Bart has a grade two murmur, but that it’s nothing to be overly concerned with at this point.  The grades go up to six.

Because of this, he felt that x-rays were in order to make sure his heart was okay. I didn’t have a problem with this. And he also agreed that the blood panel was a good idea.

They took Bart out of the room and I spent some time talking with our (I hope) new petsitter.  She lives locally, which is nice. She was concerned about not knowing the cats and I told her I’d do pictures of them, describe them and their normal spots and hiding places. I told her we had lots of DVDs and I think she’ll be okay here.

When they were done drawing blood and taking the pictures, Bart was allowed back into his carrier.  I waited patiently, then the tech came in with the film and the vet wasn’t too far behind.  He told me that Bart looks good, no enlarged heart.  He pointed out the arthritis in Bart’s back knee (the reason he walks funny) and some deterioration of one of the disks in his back.  But all in all, he looks good internally.  The doctor was very pleased with the progress made in his eye since he’s been getting the compounded chelating EDTA eyedrops that he’d prescribed the Friday before we went to Disneyland (they came in while we were gone and I started them the week we got back).  The calcium deposit is almost all gone.  He told me to continue giving Bart drops a couple of times a week and hopefully, eventually, all the calcium will be gone (the calcium is a cause for corneal ulcers).

Then he asked about Lisa, what we were told was wrong with her.  I told him what the vet had said when we took her in to have her put to sleep and he said that meds might have made her better for maybe a couple of months, but that was it. And then he imparted some information about our ex-petsitter, none of it good.

I told him she was no longer welcome into our home.  And when I think about it, I can’t say that knowing what he told me would have made any difference.  I’m incredibly loyal and, as far as I knew, she’d been trustworthy and was doing a good job of taking care of our cats.  I was wrong. But there’d been no indication that there would be a problem.

I also got a six pack of large dog Advantage, paid the bill, and we were on our way home.  Bart was a trooper throughout the entire ordeal.  I was glad the vet had given him an “A” for this visit.  Now, all I needed was the test results and I could let go of my worries.

And the blood tests were good. Everything was normal and he’s doing nicely.  Whew.

      Friday, November 09, 2007


catstuff
01:48 PM - 11/09/2007

The topic: What I’m doing today
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Right now, I’m going through old photos.  Why?  Because I want to get some calendars made to sell.  I’ve got an account at Cafe Press that I’ve never used and I figured what the hell, I’ll find some nice cat pictures and upload them over there and people can buy calendars of the cathouse cats.

Problem is I’ve got too many pictures that I really like.  *sigh*  And I’m only up to 2004.  Lots of memories there, bringing a tear or two to my eyes,  pictures that wouldn’t make it to the calendar, but they’re sweet and make me feel more than a little melancholy.  I’ll be sharing some of those later.

I think what I might do is to set up a little voting thing.  So that you can vote on your favorite images.  And it’s possible there will be more than one calendar to choose from, there are that many pictures.

Anyway, keep watching for more information.

      Saturday, November 10, 2007


otherstuff
04:56 PM - 11/10/2007

The topic: Okay
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Go vote!

There are two sets of photos.  Rate the pictures on each set.  With any luck, there will be a definitive amount of votes for each set.

Too complicated?  Try this.  There are thirty-nine pictures total.  If you like a picture enough to think it belongs on a calendar, rate it.  From one to twelve, twelve being the best.  Rate one, rate them all.

 


otherstuff
09:23 PM - 11/10/2007

The topic: Teach a man to fish….
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Or in this house, set him up with his own easy photo gallery and show him how to use it and he’ll be happy for a couple of days. 

When I was working on the new gallery for the calendar photos, he said he liked the background.   I’ve been threatening him that I was going to get a gallery up and running on the website we have for the property and when I saw how easy the gallery I set up over here was to use, I set one up for him. It came with the website, I just had to set it up.  Since I was pretty satisfied with how the one over here looked, I figured I’d just use the same basic templates with a little bit of tweaking (like the logo) for his site. 

And earlier this year I got a different domain for the property when I found out the host of Ranchitaranch.com can easily just change the domain name on an existing account.  Brian had started calling the place up there “Mountain View Ranch” so I got mountain-view-ranch.com for him and today I had it changed.  After I’d gotten the gallery running, I went through and changed the background on the existing pages and designed a new logo and front page.

Right now, he’s adding photos to his gallery.  I think he’s going to enjoy doing this and what’s nice is it’s not something he’ll need much help or advice with.

yippee

Anyway, if you're curious, it's http://www.mountain-view-ranch.com. And if you want to see his gallery when you get to the second page (just click on the middle of the first page), click on "gallery".

Pretty simple.

      Sunday, November 11, 2007


catstuff
08:04 AM - 11/11/2007

The topic: Crap
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We've got fleas. Good thing I bought some Advantage last week (six pack of large dog size, if you're not familiar with splitting read here).

And we have kitty sniffles.  Lots of sneezing.  Poor babies.  To have to have that going on and have me chasing them with needleless syringe with Advantage in it, isn’t going to be fun. 

I do not look forward to this. But I had a flea on my arm this morning and just did a quick flea comb of a couple of cats and found flea dirt on a few and an actual live squirmy flea on Kirby.

Bleh.

You know, we didn’t have these before we went to Disneyland last month.   Hmmm…..

 

 

| Permalink


catstuff
09:08 AM - 11/11/2007

The topic: And as I promised
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Here are some photos revisited.   A few have been shown before, but these all gave me a big smile and not a little bit of “aw, isn’t that so keeeYOOT?”

The past few summers, we’ve been getting a lot of those bugs I always called “stickbugs”, because when they’re all folded up, they look like sticks.  Well, Rachel found out what they look like unfolded.  She played with this guy for a while, it would grab her fur when she got too close.  She didn’t like that much.


click for a larger pic

I don’t know which kitten this was and in the pictures I took at the same time, there are three little black kittens around the feeder.  So, it’s either Phoebe or Monica or Joey.  But a kitten in the food bowl is always one of those images that brings a smile to my face.  Pardon the cement floor with it’s paint stains and tile grout stains.  This is in a part of the house that is still “under construction”.  Slow going when it’s a do-it-yourself project and the do-it-yourselfer would rather be playing on his tractors an hour and a half away from home.


click for a larger pic

I’ve ALWAYS loved this picture.  Ross and Rachel were still tiny, wormy kittens and Lisa hadn’t yet been diagnosed with the nasty stomatitis (that I believe led to her fairly early death, with the meds she was on and all; I do not like steroids) and was still a pretty big girl.  Those kittens look so darned brave.  Funny thing, a few seconds later, they’d turned and hightailed it away from Lisa.


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I just adore this photo of Rachel and Wally.  He was a great surrogate mom. He’s so big and she’s so small.  Have I mentioned what a little love cat she’s turning into?  Yeah, it’s only on her terms, but when she wants me to pet her, she’s vocal and persistent about it.  No holding, holding is forbidden, but I can run my hands down her back and sides, scratch her above her tail and on the top of the head and she just keeps coming back for more. Until she’s done, that is.


click for a larger pic

I don't think of Potter as being a big cat, but he's ginormous in this one. But as we all should know by now, everything is relative.
 


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And one last shot of Lisa. You know, looking at this image of her brings tears to my eyes. Because I hadn't realized how much weight she'd lost by the time she we said goodbye to her. She looks so happy and alert in this one. I miss her every day.
 


click for a larger pic
 

Well, that's it, my little trip down memory lane. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. And if you cried, just a little, I'm sorry, but tears are good for the soul. They have a cleansing effect, I think. And smiles help the heart heal.
 


catstuff
06:16 PM - 11/11/2007

The topic: What reminds you?
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I cleaned house today.  Not really deep or anything.  I haven’t done much since we got back from Disneyland (can you believe we took Wally in four weeks ago today?  I don’t know if it seems like forever ago or just yesterday).  First week back Brian was sick (not to mention a couple of cats), the next week I was just feeling too down to do much and Brian was home a lot and this past week I didn’t feel well.  Some sort of lower intestinal thing, not the flu, but bad pain that just kept me sidelined. 

Today I just couldn’t take it anymore and cleaned.  Dusted, vacuumed the house and cat trees/condos, did some laundry, took the sofa covers outside and shook them out (they need to be laundered, but the machines were already booked) and cleaned out the litterboxes in the house. I ran the Swiffer with a wet towel over the worst of the areas that the cats have peed on and puke spots on the floors. I broke out in a sweat, but it was making me feel worse than I did, seeing all the dust bunnies building up along the walls and under the chairs.  So, I got off of my ass and cleaned.  I feel emotionally better now for having done it, but I’m physically sore.  I’ll get over it.

As I cleaned certain areas, I was reminded of certain cats.  When I vacuumed the cat trees in the living room (the very same ones you can see on the occasional cam), I looked for long, long whiskers.  Wally spent lots of time on one of them and I paid particular attention looking for whiskers on that one.  And in the family room, I thought about him when I vacuumed one of the cat trees by the fireplace.  Another spot that he liked.

And I got to thinking about what I do in the normal course of a day that reminds me of cats who’ve passed on.

Vacuuming always reminds me of Pepper.  That little girl stood right up to that noisy growl monster. She’d stand there and not move as it got closer to her. And when it was close enough, she’d slap the hell out of it.  Always made me laugh.

There are times when I walk down the hallways that I’m reminded of Maggie, how she used to run through the house, I called it “motorboating”.  Because, like a little kid, she’d make noises as she ran.  It was the most adorable thing.  I smile just remembering.

And Handsome.  Food preparation reminds me of Handsome.  Anything in the kitchen reminds me of Handsome.  I wonder why?

Running water in the bathroom sink reminds me of Annie.  She used to love to drink from the faucets. 

Those are just a few of the things that remind me right now.  How about you?  What reminds you of kitties passed on?

      Monday, November 12, 2007


otherstuff
07:46 AM - 11/12/2007

The topic: About the calendar photos
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I see that there have been 80 hits to set 1 and only 54 to set 2.  The top twelve of each set will get it’s own calendar.  So, if you’ve not checked out Set 2, please do so.

Thanks!

http://journal.lisaviolet.com/photos/


otherstuff
11:15 AM - 11/12/2007

The topic: Added a mod
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Over on the photo page.  When you go to the “Top Images” link, you’ll now see little thumbnails of the photos. And in case you hadn’t seen it, at the bottom of the list are two links “set 1” and “set 2”.  Those take you to the top images for the two categories, exclusive of one another.

http://journal.lisaviolet.com/photos


otherstuff
01:58 PM - 11/12/2007

The topic: Last time
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I hope.

Apparantly, there was some confusion about the voting/rating set up.  So, here it goes.

When you “rate” a photo, please, use the drop down list and choose a number.  If you do not choose a number, but just click, that will bring the point average of the photo down.

If one person chooses a 12 and you like the picture, too, but do not choose a number, you just click on “rate”, that will lower the average of the picture.

One person votes 12, gives a 12 rating.

One person votes with a nothing will give a 6 rating.  Because 12 divided by 2 is 6.

I reset the numbers to start over at zero.  Let’s try this again.

http://journal.lisaviolet.com/photos/


catstuff
03:38 PM - 11/12/2007

The topic: After they’re gone
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What do you think about? 

For the most part, even though I miss the guys that are gone, I don’t do too much second guessing or “what ifs?”  I think the last time I spent a lot of time beating myself up over the death of a pet, it was with Holly.  Why?

Because Holly was our fault. And since her loss, we do our very best to keep the cats out of harm’s way.  After Holly, the cats were no longer allowed “free range” because it’s just too dangerous out there for them.  When I was younger, twenty-five or more years ago, free range wasn’t so bad.  But with time, come more people, more cars, just more danger overall for a cat.  A cat, in an urban area, is no longer safe going free range.

Holly was the last of our cats who didn’t die because of some nasty disease.

I am angry about Wally.  Because I know that if we’d been here, we would have caught the problem in time, before it became life threatening.  The official diagnosis was “hepatic lipodosis due to pancreatitis”.   Georgie had pancreatitis earlier this year.   And antibiotics got him past it.  He’s doing fine now.  But without us here at home, Wally didn’t have a chance, not with the numbnut who was being paid a hundred dollars a day to take care of what we consider to be our most precious “possessions”.  Someone who was so cavalier about the whole thing, dismissing with a wave of the hand “Oh, I didn’t even see the cats when I was here….”

This makes me angry.

But for the rest, with the exception of Hollywood, I know we did our best, that we couldn’t have taken better care of them.  What happened to them was out of our hands.  The realization that no amount of money would affect the outcome helps with the grieving. We have some good friends who lost a twenty year old cat earlier this fall.  He had a good life, they were as okay as possible with his passing.  But last week, one of the younger cats, fourteen, passed away.  It was a shock to them because they hadn’t been aware that there was something major bad wrong with her.  But cats have a way of hiding things from us, until it’s too late for us to do anything about it.  If we have the financial resources available, we try to hold back the inevitable, but sadly, all too often, it’s just out of our control.

I know how they feel.  They have my sympathy.

But, when a cat dies because it was allowed free range and it’s hit by a car or attacked by a dog, I feel so very sorry for the cat and not a little upset with the owner.  Because it’s preventable.  Hollywood’s death was preventable.  But we learned from it.  The other cats benefitted from her loss, as have cats all over.  The fence.

Anyway, I didn’t really have a point here.  I was just in a rambling mood.  Maybe because I just read where someone’s cat had to be put down because he’d been hit by a car.  After all the death from natural causes for so many peoples’ beloved cats, to read of something like that, well, it just really bothers me.

      Tuesday, November 13, 2007


catstuff
05:39 AM - 11/13/2007

The topic: It’s TUMMY TUESDAY #68!
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And today’s tummy is sure to bring a smile, to those even in the foulest of moods. 

Today’s tummy belongs to little Rory Gilmore, having a blast rolling in the catnip on the patio.  Ah, ‘tis a grand life in a home with sunshine and catnip.  What more could a girl cat nee


click for a larger pic

This old world could use more happy cats, that’s for sure.


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If you’ve got a Tummy Tuesday blog entry, feel free to post the link in the comment section or trackback to this entry. And if you put a link back to this page, then more kitties will get to show off their tummies!


tales from the parkside
08:51 AM - 11/13/2007

The topic: She doesn’t listen
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During our phone conversation yesterday morning, mom was pretty upset. Because Saturday she’d gotten a notice from her insurance company that she was going to be canceled for non-payment.

“I paid them over two weeks ago!” was what she said. “I’m going to go to another insurance company. No, I’ll quit driving I don’t like to drive anyway.”

“But mom”, I tried reasoning with her, “maybe the check was lost in the mail. Before you do anything drastic, call the bank to see if the check has cleared. But you can’t call today, it’s a holiday.”

So, this morning, she starts off “I’m a little upset, I got a notice from my insurance company yesterday….” Uh, no you didn’t, mom, there was no mail yesterday, you got it last week and they’re going to cancel your account for non-payment because they don’t show receipt of your check. It was a warning notice.

Well, she’s pissed off at the insurance company because they don’t show her payment. Uh, maybe, they didn’t get the payment. She’s having a very hard time grasping this concept. They told her to go to her bank and get a copy of the front and back of her check. So, she’s going to do that today.

I tell her to wait, call first. Because if the insurance company never got the check, they never put it in their bank and their bank never sent it to her bank, so there will be no check to make a copy of. She doesn’t understand.

I try to think of an analogy. Ah, here’s one. “Okay, mom, say I send you a check for a thousand dollars. You never get it. Should I be upset with you because you never got the check I sent to you?” She thinks it over. “I guess not.” And I try to explain to her that the post office has its problems. Like bad employees. Like machinery that automatically sorts the mail and sometimes the envelopes get caught in the machinery and annihilated.  “I guess.”  I told her that once they mailman picks up that envelope, she’s lost control of it.  There’s really nothing she can do at that point, she just has to hope it reaches its destination. And that she’s lucky it’s never happened before.  “Well, I sent out two checks that day, the other one got there.”  About now, I’m ready to start banging my head on the wall.

“Well, I’m going to sell my car.”

Has she not heard a word I’ve said?  I tell her about a problem we had earlier this year.  I sent a check for close to five hundred dollars to a supplier in Chicago. A month and a half later, they show no receipt of the check, we’re past due.  I check on it, the check never cleared our bank.  I cut a new one and send it to them.  Two weeks later, the original check shows up.  Where had it been all that time?  There was no telling.  (Instead of sending it back, they cashed it, covered some current invoices and sent us a check for the credit balance, which really messed up my bookkeeping since I’d already paid the invoices they used part of that check to cover.)

Anyway, I think maybe she’s calmed down a little.  I sure hope so, because it’s a silly thing to lose sleep over.

      Friday, November 16, 2007


catstuff
08:41 AM - 11/16/2007

The topic: New cat to the chair
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Imagine my surprise to see Joey in the chair this morning. 

I know it’s Joey because when I reached in to pet him, he had a look of pure terror in his eyes.  He does that when a human touches him.  He likes the scritches and rubs, they feel good, but I think he’d be much happier if a human wasn’t attached to the other end of that thing that makes him feel so good.

      Tuesday, November 20, 2007


catstuff
07:43 AM - 11/20/2007

The topic: It’s TUMMY TUESDAY #69!
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click for a larger pic

Today’s tummy belongs to Rachel.  Between the time I first saw her on the bed, flat on her back, legs and arms outstretched and when I ran back into the room with the camera, she’d started the rollover.  But I caught the belly before it followed the rest of her.

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If you’ve got a Tummy Tuesday blog entry, feel free to post the link in the comment section or trackback to this entry. And if you put a link back to this page, then more kitties will get to show off their tummies!

      Saturday, November 24, 2007


otherstuff
06:48 AM - 11/24/2007

The topic: Just stuff
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It’s freaking cold this morning.  Right now, it’s 6:50 am and it’s 41.5° outside the office. It’s 65.5° in the office.  I got up a little after four to let the cats out, went back to bed.  It didn’t seem so cold then.  I got up a little before six to feed the outfront(s) and turn on the computers and cameras.  While the computers were booting up, I fed the cats, gave the inside cats some of the Kirkland food they love for a morning treat (as usual).  Came back and got the cameras going (damn, I forgot the sticky part of the Velcro that was holding the officecam in place over the food bowl bit the schnitzel yesterday; got some fabric glue, glued it back on, now just waiting for it to dry, I hope it does the trick), checked my email, only one new piece of mail and it was some sort of spam, hit the trash bin without opening it up.

Brian’s up at the property this weekend, finally putting up the fence (I think he’s been finding too many tire tracks when he goes up there) and I bet his poor skinny ass is freezing.  It was 39° when he called last night, around 6:30.  He misses me.  I sure missed him this morning when I got back into bed after feeding the cats and booting up the computer, my feet and hands were like blocks of ice.  His warm back is a perfect place to thaw them out.  He doesn’t think so.  I beg to differ.

Anyway, we had a quiet Thanksgiving.  We ended up buying a meal from Sprouts Farmers Market, a health food kind of place.  Organic fruits, natural foods, vitamins, supplements, that type of store.  It was less than $20.00 for a meal for two, which was really a great price.  The other local health food place started at $49.95 for meals.  There was a small turkey breast, mixed veggies with garlic butter, a half dozen dinner rolls, garlic mashed potatoes, cornbread stuffing, gravy and an eight inch pumpkin pie.  A good price for all that food.  When I told my mom about it yesterday, she said she wouldn’t mind that for Christmas this year. (Earlier, she’d told me she didn’t want to do Christmas, it was too much work.)  That’s okay with me.  Now I have to start doing some shopping for her. We’ll be going up to Disneyland on the 8th and 9th of December.  Staying at the Anabella Hotel again (we really like that place).  I’ll be bringing the laptop and we’ll pay the extra ten dollars a day for internet service.  Earlier this year, I signed up for this thing called Ridemax, which gives you a plan to maximize the amount of rides you go on and minimizes your wait time. We’ve not used it yet, so this will be interesting.  We’ll be taking Brian’s mom up to stay with Brian’s aunt.  (I finally got her necklace and earrings done, but still need to do the notecards.)  The new petsitter will be coming by on Tuesday evening to meet the cats.  She’ll be spending the nights when we’re gone.

It’s hard to believe that it’s only been a little over a month since we lost Wally and Lisa.  Wally was gone a month Monday, Lisa a month on Wednesday.  I took down the link to the post about her demise on the catcam page on Wednesday since it had been a month.  Her picture at the bottom of that page still links to that post.

I tweaked the catcam software so that the picture looks okay no matter what color cat was on the chair.  I noticed that when Cappy was on it, the blanket was very washed out and when Mystie was on it, she was really washed out.  I think it’s a lot better now.

The week after we got back from Disneyland last month was just horrible.  Brian was sick and we had two very ill cats.  The week after that, the bowel thing I get hit me hard (I’ve mentioned this in the past).  This time I wondered how it would be if I just let nature take its course.  Bad idea.  Three weeks later, I’m still having effects from it (I didn’t take laxatives this time).  The pain is hard to describe, but I’ll try.  You know when you’ve got the flu or have eaten something that’s bad, how diarrhea hits?  And you know that pain that you get, the cramping in the bowels?  Well, that’s the pain I get.  I don’t have diarrhea or anything like that, but I get the pain and there’s lots of gas. I think the thing about taking the laxatives is they keep the track clear and there’s not a chance of a gassy buildup.  I think my system just gets stretched and that’s what hurts. 

We’ve tried to figure out what brings it on.  Right now, I’m leaning towards stress as a major factor.  And not eating mass quantities of food.  I was doing much better until I made a pan of brownies this past week (8 x 8).  For some reason, I’d really been wanting to just eat.  Maybe because there’s nothing in the house to eat, no crackers, no cheese, nothing to take the edge off.  Brian and I ate three quarters of that pan in one day.  I was in major pain the next morning.  I had some pain Thursday night, too, but nothing like that since.  Hard to tell, but I feel almost normal right now.

It’s amazing how chronic pain can just zap your energy.  I’ve not felt like doing anything and there’s so much to do.

Anyway, I’ve gotten started on some holiday earrings and I found some other neat things online that I got a couple of that I’ll be putting up in the store.  Years ago I bought some earrings that are light weight and they twinkle.  They’re shaped like stars and the the little star shaped cutouts twinkle independently. They’re very nice. Well, I was trying to find the battery size and found a place with a good deal on these earrings, so I got a couple sets.  And if they sell, I’ll buy some more and sell those. 

I’ll be wearing mine at Disneyland next month.

We haven’t been walking much since we got back from Disneyland.  Amazingly, I’ve only put on one pound.  Well, since pre-Disney.  The week we got back, I was down another three, but I’m putting that off on stress.  But from my weight the Friday before the Disney trip, I’m only up one.  All thing considered, I think that’s pretty damned good.  We haven’t been walking, I haven’t been riding the bike (too much pain) and I’ve not been eating properly.  But this is a new day and I’m feeling human again so I’m back on the horse.  Got another twenty-two pounds to go to reach my (first) goal.  It’s doable.

 


otherstuff
01:37 PM - 11/24/2007

The topic: I’m bored
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I’ve got tons of things to do, but I think I’ll go compare the size of my eyeballs for a while.  That sounds like fun.

      Sunday, November 25, 2007


otherstuff
07:52 AM - 11/25/2007

The topic: For those of you keeping track…
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My left eye seems to protrude more than my right. 

It only takes seconds to do this.  The problem is, I keep doing it. 

Better than picking zits I suppose.  Which brings another thought to mind.

Women past menopause should not get pimples.  I know I’m repeating myself,  but pimples are an irritant. They mess with the smoothness of my wrinkling skin.



08:18 AM - 11/25/2007

The topic: Too much time redux
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I was up early this morning, started up the cameras while it was still dark. I noticed the full moon behind the liquid amber, so I aimed the camera at the tree and started saving each new image. And I made a GIF.


But wait! I'm not done yet!
I've got more to say!


otherstuff
12:42 PM - 11/25/2007

The topic: I want
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this. And I want this. If I worked, I'd want this for my desk. And if I had a place to hang it, I'd love to have this.

All this “window” shopping keeps me from my real job. 

Laundry.

      Monday, November 26, 2007


salestuff
08:26 AM - 11/26/2007

The topic: Be watching
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Because I made nineteen sets of earrings this past weekend.  Now, I need to go polish them up, take pictures and add them to the store. 

There are some with Holiday colors (red, green, clear AB) and some are just shiny and glittery.

Off to work.


salestuff
07:58 PM - 11/26/2007

The topic: Got new inventory!
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I've got more to put up by the end of the week, but I think I got a good start today.

http://www.lvdesigns.com

I've got some fun stuff to add!

      Tuesday, November 27, 2007


catstuff
07:16 AM - 11/27/2007

The topic: It’s TUMMY TUESDAY #70!
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You might recognize this tummy model.  Yep, it’s none other than Benny da Kat, seller of that fine kitty weed known as catnip (there’s some still available at the store, by the way).  He had been in full stretch mode, but the flash of the camera on the first try woke him and he changed position, darn it.


click for a larger pic

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If you’ve got a Tummy Tuesday blog entry, feel free to post the link in the comment section or trackback to this entry. And if you put a link back to this page, then more kitties will get to show off their tummies!

      Wednesday, November 28, 2007


otherstuff
02:01 PM - 11/28/2007

The topic: Paperwork
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I hated it when I did it for a living and I don’t like doing it any more now that I don’t do it for a living.

Bleh.


catstuff
02:02 PM - 11/28/2007

The topic: New petsitter came by
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last night.  We like her.  I think she’ll be okay, she asked all the right questions.  I have to put everything in writing, too, as well as pictures of the cats and where they like to hang out.

But since she won’t be bringing friends or children with her, the cats should be a lot less stressed.  I just hope she likes it enough here to want to come back.  Like next spring when Brian wants to take a couple of weeks and go back and visit his brother in Colorado.  Or next October when we go to Disneyland.

I hope, I hope, I hope!

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lisaviolet is seventy something, married with no kids, takes care of lots of cats, likes taking photographs, loves Southern California weather and spends altogether too much time avoiding her responsibilities.

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