Alien Spouse

Boo!

I've had a lovely Halloween so far!  I re-deployed all of the decorations from last nights Dorm of Doom, so we had a nice scary office; and I've inherited the Fortune Teller's magic 8 ball, which perfectly matches the rest of my black and white office stationary.

Tonight we are going to the Ghost Train again, but this time we are going with a group of friends.  It started with just one other person, and has grown to six.  Mostly it's faculty from the Philosophy and English departments, but we do have an intrepid teenager coming too despite the distinct possibility that we will be very nerdy.

I don't really have a costume as such, I couldn't think of anything warm enough but still fun. In the end my solution was to just pile on the eyeliner, put too much product in my hair, accesorise with as many skull based things as I own, and go as "A thirty year old woman who thinks she can get away with being a bit Emo".  I have no doubt it will be the scariest costume of the evening!

p.s. I'll be skipping the photo post for today, because I'm hoping to have a lot from the Ghost Train to post tomorrow!

Skull Cookies.

Once a week we have tea with a group of students, to get to know them a bit better and to give them the chance to talk to the program director informally about their plans.

We always have cookies for the teas, and usually I buy those from the bakery across the road, but for this weeks I baked and decorated an appropriate batch from scratch.

Things That Go Bump in the Night.

Tonight the students who live in the dorms above my office were staging Dorm of Doom, in the lobby of our offices.  I helped them set it all up this afternoon, then I came back to take some photos and listen to the creepy stories about the building.  The tableaux worked pretty well, and I was really pleased with how much fun the performers seemed to be having.  The evil scientist hadn't known that she needed to bring a costume, so I cut an apron out of a paper table cloth, and then we splattered it with red food dye.  It looked horrible effective, particularly when paired with the brain in a jar (or, maybe, it was actually cauliflower floating in red water).

I was really pleased that a lot of the students who came for the ghost stories had come in their Halloween costumes and they had a costume contest which was really fun.  In third place was a very good home-made Anne Boleyn costume, in second place was Alf Alfa and the winning costume was essentially a hospital gown worn over the top of a paper mache bottom.  Apparently the winner had been crafting the bum for weeks, and it was really effective.

After the prizes had been given out, and everyone had got their hot chocolate the ghost stories began. 

The stories that explain the origin of the ghost are pretty much the old stand-by creepy story about a girl who fell hopelessly in love with a professor, and then killed herself.  There is a delightful variation involving an unplanned pregnancy, but generally the message is "Don't have sex kids!", as with all classic slasher movies.  My favourite part was the repeated assertion that the building was so old, my guess is that it was built in the fifties at the earliest, but there was talk of the civil war!  Not to mention that apparently our building was built in the centre of a pentagon!  Good thing it wasn't built in the middle of a dodecahedron, eh?

Make Sure You Have A Box Of Tissues Near By Sci-Fi Fans.

All day I've had the blues for no reason that I could put my finger on.  Clearly I sensed a disturbance in the time and relative dimensions in space.

David Tennant has announced he's leaving "Doctor Who".

Funny? Ha Ha?

Tonight Barack Obama will be the guest, via video link, on "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" at 11 (central).

I was trying to think of a British equivalent, but it appears that currently the only intersection between British comedy and politics is when the Prime Minister comments on "inappropriate  and unacceptable behaviour" by comedians who actually think prank phone calls to a 78 year old man are funny.

sigh.

And even worse the matted hair buffoon is starting to break America. So I have to keep explaining that yes he's popular, but no he's not what I would call the cream of current British comedy.

She'll Bite Your Head Off.

I forgot to post this picture that I took a couple of weeks ago. 

Because, you know, I'm getting so blase about see Praying Mantises about the place.

Three is the Magic Number.

I would like to publicly state that all book giveaways conducted by Jayne The Barefoot Kitchen Witch are fairly conducted and totally above board.  Any doubt that I may have cast on the proceedings of the last such contest were entirely unfounded as Jayne clearly illustrated in this post.

Furthermore I wish to apologise to Jayne and, of course, the adjudicators Alex and Julia for impugning their good name in anyway.  They are beyond reproach.

Please note:  No butlers were harmed in the course of this re-count.

CitiKitty Update - Breakthrough!

Very exciting news - When we got home this evening one of the cats had used the CitiKitty and it was in place on the toilet at the time!

We have no way of telling who it was (Doc insists it was Edith, but I don't think he has any tangible evidence), but I am so pleased that whoever it was found it by themselves and used it without any, erm, spillages.

For those of you who don't know what the CitiKitty is, I first wrote about it here, months before we actually got the cats, and explained what it is.  I would link to their site in this post, but last time I did Deidre nearly covered her computer with a mouthful of coffee.  And we don't want that!

Paw Prints in the Snow.

It snowed last night and when I got up this morning there was a thin layer of snow on the balcony.  The cats are fascinated by the balcony and will take any opportunity to go out there.  Naturally we opened the door for them this morning.

Nancy just looked from a safe distance, but Edith went bounding out there.  She soon came back again shaking her paws dry and looking perplexed, but she did actually explore a little bit first.

The Wire?

Following on from my excitement over actors from "The Wire"  visiting campus yesterday, I have been asking people on campus if they had known about it.  No one had heard about it before hand, and actually almost no one I spoke to had even heard of "The Wire" itself.  I spent a large portion of my day explaining it's utter genius to anyone who would stay still long enough to listen.

I did discover that actually there are seven cast members touring all over North Carolina at the moment, Chad Coleman (Dennis "Cutty" Wise), Deidre Lovejoy (Rhonda Pearlman), Jamie Hector (Marlo Stanfield), Clarke Peters (Detective Lester Freamon), Sonja Sohn (Detective Shakima "Kima" Greggs), Seth Gilliam (Sergeant Ellis Carver), and Gbenga Akinnagbe (Chris Partlow) have been attending rallies, visiting campuses and generally promoting Obama's campaign.

How fantastic is that?

Why Living in a Swing State is Great for Celeb Spotting!

This evening my department had an event for the students, so I stayed late and then headed over to the library to catch a film in the queer film series "Saving Face" (which is not the point of this post, so I'll just say here it was a really terrific romantic comedy and I enjoyed it very much.  It's out on DVD, so rent it now!).

It was snowing a bit, so I cut through the Student Union and as I was rushing along the corridor I saw a man walking the other way who looked exactly like Carver from "The Wire".

Which was because it was Seth Gilliam who played Carver in "The Wire".

Oh.  My.  God.

I actually stopped dead in my tracks and blurted out "I love your work!".  Bless his heart, Mr Gilliam stopped to shake my hand and talk to me, he was a very nice man!  When I asked what the hell he was doing in North Carolina he explained that he was here campaigning for Barack Obama; and that Gbenga Akinnagbe and Sonja Sohn who played Chris and Kima where here too.

And they were!  In a meeting room next to the bookshop!  I called Doc C and as soon as he answered I said "Carver,Chris&KimaFromTheWireAreInTheStudentUnion!!!"  "What?" "Carver, Chris & Kima from "The Wire" are in the student union!  Get over here NOW!"

Both Ms Sohn and Mr Akinnagbe were talking to students, and I didn't want to interrupt (after all they were there to talk to prospective voters, and I'm not a citizen so I can't vote), so I ran off to the screening, so I could tell Kim and Jill (they organised the film series) who are also big Wire fans.  It was one of the most surreal and most exciting celebrity spots ever!  It almost tops that time I saw David Beckham topless at Broadcasting House, but I wasn't wearing my glasses, so he was blurry! 

If only Doc C had been there too it would have been perfect, because he would have thought to say what a travesty it was the "The Wire" never won an Emmy.  Unfortunately by the time Doc got to the Student Union they had already left, so he is very jealous of me.  He says he's not letting me go anywhere with out him now, after all it's not just that I spotted three celebs in one go, but they were stars of one of the greatest television series of all time.  Which you can't argue with really.

Look Mum! What Did I Tell You?!?

I know, I know you are probably thinking "Good Grief Woman! We get it! You own cats now!" but I have  an excellent reason for posting this picture.

Mum and I were just discussing the other day how none of previous pet cats would ever even look at a toy or a piece of furniture that they suspected of being designed especially for them. Particularly if they managed to intuit that it was probably not cheap.

Imagine my delight when our pusskies both deigned to use the cat tower at the exact same moment, and without any prompting!

Plus that's currently Nancy's best angle (I am beginning to suspect she might literally be mangy, poor thing. Back to the vets. sigh.), so it's a nice picture of both of them!

Catnip on a Sunday Morning.

This morning my benevolent overlords Edith and Nancy, let me sleep in until almost half past eight!  I don't know why they felt so generous, but it was very pleasant.

After I'd tended to their needs I got out the catnip and put some in Edith's cardboard box for her.  It's a box that we got a delivery of paperbacks from Amazon in, and it fits Edith perfectly, especially now she's destroyed one corner.  She rolled around in that happily being a lunatic for a bit, whilst I took photos to submit to "Stuff On My Cat" (Keep your fingers crossed!).

Nancy has never seemed that bothered about nip, so I don't usually give her any, but this morning she expressed an interest so I put some on the floor for her.  Unsurprisingly for a cat nicknamed Piggy Big Eyes, she settled down and just ate the lot with no perceptible change in demeanor.

So those are our cats.  One eats everything and the other is an I Can Has Ceezburger stereotype.  In fact, please feel free to suggest a LOL Cat style slogan for this shot of Edith from this morning.

p.s. If your wondering why Edith is having more pictures posted of her, it's not because we have a favourite; it's because Nancy still has an allergy to something and has scratched off a lot of fur from her head just in front of her ears.  I still think she's adorable, but she's a sensitive girl and probably wouldn't want photos of herself not looking her best being put on-line.

Yes We Can Have A Party!

We are planning to have an Election Party on Tuesday 4th November, Doc C e-mailed some people about it yesterday and he's started to get RSVPs back.

Unexpectedly Doc also got a phone call from his brother, who is very excited about the election too.  In fact he's planning to fly from Boston to join us for just for the evening; because he thinks that it would be more interesting to be in N.C., which is being counted as a swing state in this election, rather than Massachusetts which is a strong hold for the Democrats.

So far we don't have a theme for the evening, other than nervous tension of course, but we are thinking about having an elephant pinata.  Well I'm thinking about having a pinata, and trying to talk the Doc into it, mainly because we have the perfect stair case to hang one from, and I've never destroyed one before.  They look like fun to me!

Crocheted Skull and Cross Bones Scarf.

I've finished my skull and crossbones scarf!

I accidentally on purpose made it extra wide, and it took almost six balls of wool to get just about long enough, but it still looked a bit stumpy when I made the final stitch. 

So then I blocked it, which sounds really efficient and technical doesn't it?  It sounds as though you need some special piece of equipment, but it just means giving it a gentle hand wash in luke warm water, shaping it whilst damp and then leaving it to dry (You could use a steamer instead, and I might look into getting one of those, because I hear they are also great for cleaning!)  Actually the moment I took it out of the soapy water I could see that the stitches had all lengthed out slightly so the scarf is a good length now.  I wish I had done a Crazy Aunt Purl style before-and-after photo (She knitted the scarf, used a steamer and it grew a lot longer than mine.  Otherwise, same-same!), but I forgot to.

 As you can see it's a black scarf with an off white skull at one end, a pair of off white crossed bones at the other end and irregular off white stripes in between.

I sort of made this up by using two different patterns from the Stitch and Bitch Crochet book.  The Skull was mostly from from the pot holder pattern, except I made the left eye bigger and the skull shape slightly wonkier. The crossed bones were directly from the skull-and-crossbones sweater; but I didn't use the skull from that pattern because I wanted a more stylised look to it so I didn't want a lower jaw.  The stripes in between were placed randomly when I felt like they might look good.

The reason why I put the skull and bones at opposite ends was so that when you put the scarf on, the bones would hang lower than the skull and voila!  Skull and crossbones!

As I type this I am sitting on my sofa watching the Halloween specials of some of my favourite cartoons and wearing my scarf.  It's not really cold enough to justify the scarf, but I don't care.

Feline Methods.

Ugh.  What am I doing awake before 8 on a Saturday?

This is not my choice, I switch my alarm off on the weekend and sleep as late as I can; however the cats are used now used to being feed at 6.45, so when I don't get up in time for that they come to investigate. One thing I will say for the cats is that they know who to target and they have very effective techniques for waking me up, which are all the more impressive for being virtually silent.

Nancy comes and sits on me.  Which may not sound like much, but she is very good at grouping her paws together into the smallest possible area and then really concentrates all of her seven pounds into that spot.  She'll usually do this on my chest, and it's a lot more painful than it sounds.  She usually then goes to sit on the stair and leave the rest of the work to Edith.

Edith has a different method, she wakes people up with love.  It's impossible to ignore and very sweet, so you are also guilted into getting up.  Edith will first land heavily on the bed purring and scout for any exposed body parts, preferably a hand or a foot, but she has made do with elbows when necessary.  She simply rubs up against her chosen human purring like mad, until they move and then she runs up to the bedside table and sits on that purring loudly whilst watching for signs of life.  If necessary she will go back and rub up against the hand/foot/elbow again.

It's very clever, and has the added bonus of only waking me up so Doc C is still sleeping, which is great! The only problem now is that I can't go back to sleep, and the cats have no use for me now the food bowls are full and the tray freshly scooped.  Maybe I'll watch some cartoons or something.

Post Script:  It turns out that Nancy's tiny feet of doom technique was also used on Doc this morning, and just kept rolling over until she moved on to me instead.  Hmmm...

Compelling and Delicious Data.

I know there have been a lot of polls indicating that Obama is currently in the lead against McCain, but you know most of these polls are conducted via telephone and one of the problems with that is that telephone polling companies are not allowed to use machines to dial mobile phones so they are mainly calling landlines.  As I'm sure you know many people in their thirties and under are no longer bothering to have landlines installed, so there is an inherent flaw in these polls.

However, out favourite local bakery has started to conduct some research of their own.

The Democratic's party symbol is the Donkey, the Republican's is the Elephant, I have no idea why and I am not going to wikipedia it right now.  The bakery made sugar cookies in the shape of elephants and donkeys and sprinkled them with appropriately coloured sugar.  They then sold the cookies, and kept a record of how many of each were sold.

Need I point out that the donkeys are almost gone, whilst there are three piles left of the elephants?  If that wasn't indication enough, please note that the blackboard tally (Which is annoyingly slightly blurred, I'm sorry) indicates quite clearly where the local lovers of fine baked goods stand on this issue.  I think you'll agree that that method of data collection is absolutely flawless.

Obama '08.  Yes We Can Have Cookies.

Halloween: Office Edition.

At the University the students are starting to gear up for Halloween.  One group will be telling ghost stories in the lounge/lobby outside my office, and I was talking to the organiser about what she had planned.  She was saying that a couple of years ago they had a girl pretending to hang herself in the ladies loos, but they were told in no uncertain terms that they are never ever allowed to do that again.  I can't think why.

This year all they were planning to do was have someone dressed as Fade-Away (My lobby's resident ghost.  Oh yeah, I have my own ghost.  Did I not mention?) walking up and down the corrider. 

My office has windows on two of the lobby walls, so I suggested they put on some sort of grand guignol tableau in my office, so that they can be seen from the lounge.  I got the permission of both my manager and the building manager, so now we are in the planning stage of three different scenes.

1. Murder victim sprawled across my desk in a pool of blood.  The murderer will jump up at the window to scare onlookers.
2. An operation performed by the occupants of an insane asylum (or something along those lines), with maybe a black light for some reason.
3. A macabre fortune telling machine.

It is going to be so much fun.  So. Much.

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait.

Before going to see "W." last night we went to get some food at the Saloon.

As I may have mentioned, prior to the fire my Usual was only available in cans, but they took the forced closure as a chance to refurbish and renovate all round.

Somehow I don't think they are used to the Guinness being on tap yet.

Even Though, Really, Blogging is It's Own Reward.

Just so you know I have signed up for this year's NaBloPoMo.

That means I will be blogging every day through out November.  Which is pretty much what I would have done anyway, so there should be no perceptible change to our scheduled programming; although I am hoping that being part of a big group blogging event like this inspires me to write about something other than cat poo, and I am reasonably confident that you are hoping that too.

You may already be aware of this, but you can do NaBloPoMo any month you like now, but November is still the big one with prizes for different categories.  I'll be brutally honest here and say I would absolutely love to win a prize for blogging, that would be brilliant! 

Actually I'd love to win something full stop; I spent ten minutes filling out a questionnaire for the University's library last week, even though I have yet to check out a book from it or use it to do anything except attend meetings.  I did it purely because they e-mailed the thing to me and said I would be entered into a prize draw for an iPod Touch if I graded their performance on a scale of one to ten. 

Alright then, I'd say you were, oooh, about an 8 as far as Libraries-that-I-don't-use go.  Could perhaps do a little bit better, but you're not bad at all really.  Carry on!

Bromeliad Baby

Bromeliad Baby
Originally uploaded by Alien Spouse

First of all, Laura! Look! A baby bromeliad! I think the plant you gave me is actually happy. Hoorah!

Secondly I am having real issues with posting on Typepad, and I don;t know why but I'm tired and just cannot be bothered to bugger about with it right now.

So I'm incorporating my text post with my photo post today. Even though the two are not even slightly related.

I'm a rebel like that sometimes.

The reason I'm posting so late is that we just got back from seeing Oliver Stone's "W.", the biopic of George W. Bush. I'm not a huge fan of Stone as director, but this was good and much funnier than I'd expected. You know, when I wasn't quietly sobbing.
For example how does one respond to the revelation that W's favourite play is "Cats"? I literally threw my hands up at that.

I would say that the performances through out "W." are unifomally good, and that the casting was impeccable. I don't feel I need to tell you how good James Cromwell, Ellen Burstyn, James Dreyfus, Jeffrey Wright or Scott Glenn were, but did you know that Thandi Newton could really act and not just stand around being incredibly beautiful? It's true! In this she WAS Condi Rice, it was very impressive.

Josh Brolin was also very very good as W, and didn't seem to have any personal vanity that prevented him from really going for some of the cringier character traits. I'd say it was his best perfomance since "Goonies".

My one top tip is make sure that you stock up on pecan pie in advance of viewing "W.". Afterwards we tried one coffee shop, a diner and a supermarket but were unable to satisfy the craving after watching this.

Number Two in an Occaisional Series: Frosty.

Otherwise known as the roof of our metallic black Mini Cooper yesterday morning.  It was cold.

Positive Reinforcement for Cats.

We have to take Nancy back to the vets next week, once she has finished her antibiotics.  I'm really not looking forward to trying to get her back in the pet carrier, so I was talking to the lovely Laura and asked if she had any top tips.  Laura said that she would just leave the pet carrier in the living room, so the cats got used to seeing it and didn't associate it with stressful things like people trying to force them into it against their will.

I thought I'd give that technique a go this evening, so brought one of the pet carriers into the living room; Nancy immediately saw it, and started edging away from it, whilst keeping an eye on it.  I just put the carrier next to the window and walked away.  Nancy sat a good distance away from it, and kept an eye on it.  Meanwhile Edith jumped on top of it, and sat there quite happily watching birds.

After about ten minutes (and once Edith had got off the carrier) I got the bag of cat treats, and made lots of noise with the bag, so Nancy was aware there was some food being offered.  Making sure she could see the open door of the pet carrier, I put the treats half-way inside and then walked away.  Nancy looked at me and gave a single plaintive mew, but she knew where the food was.

Slowly and cautiously Nancy edged over to the carrier, sniffed all around it and then inched her way in until she could reach the food.  I think she just stuck her head in, with maybe her front paws but her hind legs and tail were still firmly outside.  Nancy ate a few of the biscuits inside the carrier, and then ran off.

I'll be honest in that I just did not expect that to work so quickly!  I have never owned a cat who was so easily motivated by cat treats before, and if I tried that type of trick on any of my other cats all I'd have got would have been a withering look for my troubles.  I think this whole thing may just have got a lot easier.

My New Bedside Lamp.

We were in Kmart at the weekend to buy some Halloween stuff (I really wanted a skull shaped cookie cutter, but no luck there), and I bought this bedside lamp to replace the hideous maroon monstrousity that has been blighting my bedside table since Doc's brother gave us some furniture.

The new one is a fabulous terrarium lamp from the Martha Stewart Everyday collection.  It comes without anything inside it, and you simply unscrew the base to put anything in it that you like.  Which in my case obviously called for glow-in-the-dark wind up skeletons (and Mummy!) and a Day of the Dead Cabaret Singer.  I don't think that's quite what Martha had in mind; the box had a tasteful display of black rocks and a bleached white starfish.

The really nice thing about it, is that you get to display the things nicely without them getting dusty or knocked over, plus the lighting for your collection is always fabulous.

Doc C is now considering getting one too and filling it with Star Wars figures.  Vintage only, of course.

P.S. Also on my bedside table, as ever, is my current book.  Right now I am reading "Darkly Dreaming Dexter" by Jeff Lindsay, having watched and adored the first two seasons of the TV series.  A murder mystery told in the first person by a charming serial killer with a code of ethics?  And it's funny?  Count me in!

Be Like Others (2008)

This evening we went to see a documentary called "Be Like Others " which was being screened as part of the University's Queer Film series.  "Be Like Others" is about the strange situation in Iran which means that whilst it is illegal (on pain of death) to be homosexual, the government will happily fund sex change operations; because the Ayatollah Khomeini wrote a fatwa pronouncing trans-sexuality legal and allowing for sex-change operations, since nothing in the Koran specifically forbids the surgery.

It was a really interesting film, and raised some important questions about the way gender and sexuality are constrained by society, or at least that's what societal norms would prefer.  The patients actually need to carry official permission saying that they are allowed to dress as women prior to their re-assignment surgery.

It wasn't a light film by any means and it was heart breaking to see one of the patients lose everything and be forced into prostitution to survive having been ostracized by her family after the surgery.  On the other hand one mother was so delighted to have traded in a son for the daughter she'd always wanted, that she was clearly going to be the mother-in-law from hell.

I don't know how easy it would be to see this film, but if you see it's coming to a film festival near you I would say try and see it.  It's only 75 minutes long, and it's a really interesting subject.

Saint Edith.

By the way Picnik has a new feature called Sandbox, which has all sorts of great filters to play with.  It also allows you to create your own filters and upload them to Picnik, which is something I would love to be able to do.

I tried out the ones that are already available on the photo of the cats by the window and I really like the circle effect.

It makes Edith look like she's a Catholic icon!

Cats and Window

I literally just took this picture! The girls very obligingly posed next to the window for me, until Edith had an attack of love and ran over to me to be fussed.

It's such a gorgeous autumn morning, with nice bright sunshine but a frosty sheen to everything on the deck making it all sparkle a little bit.

I knew it was going to be cold today, because both of the cats slept on top of me last night which they have never deigned to do before. Edith nested on my ankles, whilst Nancy was on my stomach. I usually sleep on my side, so this wasn't comfortable for me; but, when I woke up this morning, I was on my side with one cat right up against my back, whilst the other one was in the crook of my knees. Very cute, plus Doc C complained of being chilly whilst I was toasty warm.

Cats and Window
Originally uploaded by Alien Spouse

I'm British - The Weather is Endlessly Fascinating.

As I mentioned yesterday the weather is starting to get a bit colder.  I've broken out the cosy undershirts that I like to wear layered under t-shirts and hoodies, so I am keeping warm.  One thing I really like about the change in weather is that it makes the cats much friendlier.  Nancy was taking an hour and a half to forgive me for giving her the bubble-gum pink antibiotics previously, but this evening she was on my lap within thirty minutes.

The cooler weather also means that I have an excuse to crochet up a storm!  Doc C wore his scarf last weekend, and said it was very warm.

Today I took my skull and crossbones scarf to the wool shop with me to ask the nice lady behind the counter how much more wool she thought I needed, and whether blocking would help lengthen it.  When I took the scarf out of my bag and unrolled it along the counter, the two other customers in the shop came to have a look.  One of them was a sweet little old lady who peered at it, then gave me a big beaming smile and said it was very pretty.  I'm not sure she had her glasses on, bless her heart.

I bought the two balls of wool it was agreed should get the length I want for my scarf, and I also bought some lovely Scottish wool to make Doc a nice warm hat, which I think I'll attempt to felt.  However the hat wool was ten dollars more expensive per ball then the wool I made the scarves out of, so I think I'll do a practice run in nice cheapo acrylic first.

Worm of Wool.

This is a Woolly Worm.

This weekend there is a Woolly Worm Festival, where there will be Woolly Worm races, they are surprisingly nippy little fellas.

The main reason they are interesting is that they are supposed to predict the weather.  The more brown stripes there are, then the milder the winter will be apparently.  Wikipedia claims there is no truth in the weather predicting capabilities of our furry friends, but according to the Woolly Worm Festival website they have had an 85% success rate over the last 30 years.  Not bad!

I think this one looks pretty brown myself.  I'll report back in the spring.

I call it "Black Mini Roof on a Winter Morning"

It's getting colder now, so when we leave in the mornings the car is covered in condensation.

Which looks prettier than it sounds.

Breakfast with Champions.

It's Fall Break, so the faculty and students had yesterday and today off, unfortunately office staff aren't so lucky.  So Doc C dropped me off at work this morning and went to get something to eat at our favourite breakfast place.

Whilst he was there an enormous pink SUV pulled up and two guys got out, and came to get breakfast too.  As it happened they sat at the table next to Doc, so as the two of them were chatting to each other Doc realised that one was a former professional surfer, and the other was probably a writer for a magazine.  He was tipped off by their discussing surfing with Tom Cruise.

When he told me about it, I asked him to describe the surfer and all I got was "He was huge!  He was just this really muscly guy, so I didn't laugh at the car!", so I tried another tack "Was he bald?" and The Doc said yes he was.

As it happens I can only name one former professional surfer and that is Kelly Slater; which was why I asked if the guy was bald, so I found a picture of him on-line to show Doc.  And Doc was pretty sure that was the same guy he'd been sat next to at breakfast this morning.  He thinks.  Maybe.

No clue what a surfer is doing 3000 feet up a mountain though.

Halloween Records. Want!

I was thrilled when I saw these in a record shop window the other day.  They are, respectively, the soundtrack to the classic vampire time-travel soap opera "Dark Shadows" (I've only seen the remake, but I have heard tales of the originals genius) and a sound effects LP full of bloodcurdling! Terrifying!  Horrific!  "Sounds to Make You Shiver".

As it happens Doc C had the sound effects album as a kid and loved it, which explains a lot about his lack of reaction to horror movies.  I also know someone in London who would probably love the "Dark Shadows" soundtrack on CD, but I doubt an LP would survive the journey, even if he had a record player to spin it on.

I also can only apologise for the glare, Picnik helped dissipate the worst of it but I was craning around a rack of second-hand coats and just could get the right angle to eliminate the glare from the sun altogether.

The Nitty Gritty of Cat Owning: A Product Review.

Mrs K recently expressed her interest in the concept of flushable cat litter, and I have to say it makes owning a cat much more pleasant.  We started out by trying Pet Ecology Kitty Litter, which I am as happy with as one can reasonably expect to be be with such a product. Apart from being just incredibly light weight, it also has the two golden words on it's packaging; these are "flushable" and "clumping". The flushable is self explanatory, and the clumping means that the litter forms a neat little ball when any, er, um, liquid is introduced to it.  If you know what I mean, which I think you do.

So then you just scoop out anything, er, um, lumpy from the litter tray into the nearest handy toilet, and it flushes away.

It's still not exactly fun, but it's less of a chore than it could be.  The arrangement I came to with the Doc is that I will feed the cats and scoop the tray in the morning, and he will do it in the evening.  I noticed that he kept putting off the scooping, until I pointed out that I was scooping at 6 every morning, so by leaving it until midnight he was scooping 18 hours worth of kitty treasures, whilst meant I only had six hours worth to dispose of.  He scoops at 6pm now.  The cats seem to regard this as a suitable surface for their ablutions for five days, and then on the sixth day they indicate that they would like it to be changed now please.

As for the CitiKitty, it is in place on the toilet but the cats haven't automatically discovered it and immediately divined it's purpose yet, they aren't that intelligent.  I'm going to wait for another couple of weeks, before I start trying to get them to actually use it in situ; however this morning I put the CitiKitty on the floor whilst I was cleaning the tray and flushing contents, then Edith wandered into the bathroom and went straight to it.  She planted her little paws right into the kitty litter, stuck her fluffy bottom out over the edge of the tray and peed on the floor.  Damn.

Fortunately we also bought a spray bottle of this cleaning fluid called Nature's Miracle - Just for Cats (I think it sounds like a range of specialist fur dyes personally), which uses enzymes to help break down any little accidents.  That stuff is freaking AMAZING.  I've discovered that once I've sprayed it on the offending substance, I have to leave the spray bottle next to it whilst it soaks in and works it's magic, because by the time I come back to blot it up I literally cannot see where it was. 

Finally have I mentioned how great the Furminator cat brush is?  Edith loves being brushed with it, and it is making such a difference with her shedding.  Two thumbs up!

If the Presidential Debate Ends in a Walk Off, I will be KICKING Myself.

So the second presidential debate is on this evening, at the same time as the "Project Runway" season five finale. 
Obviously I'm going to be watching "Project Runway", and I thought I may as well live blog it!

If you haven't been watching the show and you want to play along at home you can go to the show's website here, or the Fug Girls attended the Bryan Park show and actually handicapped the contestants in New York Magazine.  They have pictures of the runway show, bless their coal black hearts.

If you'd rather follow the debate, may I direct you to Defective Yeti?  Matthew Baldwin is live blogging this debate, and I can virtually guarantee you will find him immensely entertaining.

• 9.00 - I missed the first few seconds of the "Previously..." montage, but that's ok I'm up to speed.
• 9.03 - Tim Gunn's first appearance!  Hoorah!  Swiftly followed by Kenley-Disagrees-With-Tim shock.
• 9.17 - A model brought her puppy to a fitting and cleaned up the inevitable poop whilst wearing Leanne's evening gown.  It seemed a bit weirdly staged really.
• 9.20 - I would love to go accessory shopping with Korto, she has a great eye for a striking piece.
• 9.21 - Michelle Trachtenburg alert!
• 9.26 - Jennifer Lopez pulled out of judging the finale because of a foot injury.  When I first heard that I thought it was a joke, but, no, it's true.  Anyway Tim is doing it instead.  Kenley made a comment about how she should have worked on her attitude.  Umm, yeah, that might have been good.  Kenley starts the show.
• 9.28 - Shot of Rachel Zoe in the audience.  Nice product placement there Bravo!
• 9.34 - Korto's collection is a lot stronger with her new dresses.  Well played!
• 9.35 - Index tags!  That's what Leanne's collection reminds me of!  In a good way!
• 9.42 - Judging panel.  Let's hope Michael and Nina have been working out their bitchy muscles in preparation.
• 9.47 - Korto kicks off the crying for this evening with a few discreet tears, Leanne was completely self-possessed and under control but Kenley actually blubbered.
• 9.56 - Kenley's out. And crying again, and complaining about how unfair everything is.  Poor baby.
• 9.57 - Leanne wins Season Five!  And a hybrid car!  And Leanne's model wins her own magazine spread too, which is nice.
• 9.58 - Korto is the runner up, but we already know that she won the fan's favourite so she'll be getting $10 000 anyway and her little girl is super cute, so Korto's doing pretty well too.
• 9.59 - Is that it?  I feel like that was a bit of an anti-climax really.

Ok, well that's all for Alien Spouse's live coverage for tonight, but in real life I will now be watching "Top Design" with India Hicks.  I love Bravo...

Happy Autumnal Leaves Everybody!

I saw this on the pavement on my way from Doc C's office building to my own this morning.  That's all that was written, and I quite like that!

P.S. Because I like this picture, and because otherwise the top post would be about cat litter, I'm making this a featured post for today!  Hoorah!

Production Drawings. Renderings. Theatre Plans.

In my office we decided we needed a new filing cabinet, or rather an empty filing cabinet.  So we went over to the university's surplus furniture storage warehouse and chose a dusty green one that apparently used to belong to the history department.

Outside the warehouse they had a whole bunch of odds and ends, ranging from what looked like a dentist's drill to stacks of once brightly coloured chairs that had been in the sun for too long.

There was also a large chest of blueprint drawers.  We really didn't need it, but they looked interesting so I went over to investigate.  At which point I kicked myself for not having my camera to hand, because it was nicely distressed wood and had clearly come from the theatre department, so it had cool labels on the drawers.  Fortunately I did have my phone with me, so I snapped a quick pic.

More About The Cats. (I'll shut up about them soon, I promise. About six months I reckon.)

Nancy doesn't love us any more.  Today we tried to put her in the new cat carrier which she Did Not Want so much that it was pretty much impossible to do.  Unfortunately for Nancy we hadn't yet recycled the cardboard cat carriers that she arrived in, so we stuffed her in that, which she Did Not Want at all.  Then she Did Not Want to be in the car, or at the vets, or getting her rabies shot. 

She had some time to recover when we were at work, only for us to return home and force her to take a dropper-full of bright pink antibiotics (a performance we have to repeat every twelve hours until the damn stuff runs out).  To cap it all off I vacuumed the living room, which made Nancy run up to the top of the stairs in horror.

Nancy Does Not Want to even look at me right now.

Edith, on the other hand, sauntered into her swish new pet carrier and apparently enjoyed the drive to the vets; where she seemed quite convinced that we had brought her there purely so the nice lady vet could fuss her.  She didn't seem to notice getting her jab, and doesn't require any further medication.  Edith doesn't appear to mind vacuum cleaners one little bit.

Edith has had a lovely day.

Cat Revenge Tactics.

I'm pretty sure that all the cats do all day is stare out of the living room windows at the birds visiting the feeder.  That is right up until Nancy gets too excited and tries to jump through the double glazing to catch a cardinal or a sparrow; thereby scaring them all off.  Edith just looks at her with disdain.

I finally got the last claw trimmed on Sunday evening.  Victory was mine, at the cost of the cats not talking to me for half an hour because they Did Not Want me to do that.  Then they forgot what it was that had annoyed them and sat on me.

Or at least that's what I thought had happened until four o'clock this morning (I didn't actually check the clock, I'm just guessing based on previous experience) when the cats scratched at the door until they woke me up.

I didn't let them in, but I could hear them galumphing around downstairs; and when I got up this morning one of my shoes had a silver tinsel cat toy in it.

I think that means tonight I sleep with the fishes in cat language.

A New Project.

I've started a new crochet project, and I got off to a really good start; but unfortunately I was a little over enthusiastic and the width really got away from me which I only noticed after about 30 rows.  If I carry on like this (which I think I probably will!), what was intended to be a scarf is going to be more like a shawl, but hey it'll still have a skull and cross bones on to that will be fine.

I started with the skull, which is what caused me to go a bit crazy, I am pleased with how it's looking so far and I think this will be an excellent project to try blocking on.  That might make all the difference.  or not.  We shall see.

Cat Profiles.

Name:  Edith Cavell-Cat

Code Name: Thunder-Paws

Formerly Known As: Mrs Zhivago

Sex: Female (Spayed)

Age: 3 years old

History: Transferred from Animal Control.  Mother of three kittens - Mellow, Boomer and Scout.

Language Skills:  Purrs loudly, but has not yet been heard to miaow.

Specialist Skills:  Fast production of industrial grade fluff, and sitting in boxes.

Enjoys: Sitting next to humans, being brushed, being stroked, playing with cat toys, watching birds, running around the house as if insane, catnip, exploring, and flaunting belly to unsuspecting rubes.

Dislikes:  Being held, being told not to scratch the furniture, unauthorised noises or movements, and having belly touched.

Motto:  The first rule of Edith Cavell-Cat is do not touch the belly.  The second rule of Edith Cavell-Cat is Do Not Touch The Belly.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Name: Nancy Wake-Cat

Code Name: Piggy Big Eyes

Formerly Known As:  Addie

Sex:  Female (Spayed)

History:  Unknown.

Language Skills:  Purrs loudly, chirrups at humans and miaows when hungry.  Not chatty.

Specialist Skills:  Chemical warfare (producing noxious fumes).

Enjoys:  Sitting on humans, being combed, being stroked, playing with cat toys, watching birds, exploring, sitting at the top of the stairs, and rolling around in patches of sunshine.

Dislikes:  Having paws held for claw clipping, having set meal times, flea bites, and being told not to scratch the furniture or jump through the kitchen hatch.

Motto:  Are you going to eat that?

Ghost Train: Werewolf Edition.

We went to the Ghost Train last night, and it was really fun!  I didn't take any pictures, because we may well go again with some friends of ours so there is the opportunity to get some good action shots.

This year's theme was werewolves, so as you were riding through the dark sections of the wood there were pairs of red eyes in the trees watching you.  Of course they were really red LEDs but it was surprisingly spooky.  Naturally there were also a couple of werewolf ambushes on the train which were very fun!

We also went on the Tunnel of Terror, which is the much smaller train ride.  This year whilst we were queuing there was a man in a blood spattered apron wandering around terrorising the people waiting.  He discovered that the two women in front of us (both a bit older than the rest of the crowd, and they looked so sensible!) were easily surprised into screaming, so he got into the carriage with us.  By the end of the ride all he had to do was look at them, and there would be screams followed by shrieks of laughter.

My top tip for if you' are at all nervous at one of these things, and don't want to be bothered by the staff in scary costumes is to make eye contact with them and generally look relaxed and happy.  They are looking out for specific body language so they are going to target the people who cower away from them, because that's where they will get the best screaming, which, after all, is the whole point.  So sit up straight and smile, you will be fine!

Ngaio Marsh 34: Black Beech and Honeydew.

Here is the last book in our series.  This is Ngaio Marsh's autobiography and I have to say I think they did her proud with this cover.  I love that the white band in the middle, with the same typeface and layout has been used to integrate it with her novels; whilst the image in the oval is the only photograph in the range which I think subtly indicates that this is not a murder mystery.  I also think they chose a nice picture of her, and that it all works together really well.

I read the autobiography, which I like very much, after I read an incredibly boring biography.  I forget who wrote the biography now, all I remember is that it was a woman, but she was very scathing of "Black Beech and Honey Dew" as a source of hard facts whilst committing two unpardonable sins of her own which made me dispose of the book before I moved here.  First the biography is really boring (and that is definitly the fault of the author and not the subject) and long winded, secondly she gave away spoilers without any warning whatsoever!  By way of contrast the autobiography Miss Marsh writes about her own life is very interesting and has some great colourful stories, even though it's true she doesn't address all of the questions one would want answered.

Grooming as a Means of Self-Defense.

Today we went to buy some more cat stuff.  In particular we needed a rubberycat brush (we got the Zoom Groom which is what we had in London for Kitkat, they are really good - Particularly because you can use the non bristly side to get fur off clothes and furniture), a different scratching post because they just ignore the other one and some claw clippers.

I've never clipped a cat's claws before, but I've only ever had outdoor cats before, and clearly running around outside keeps them nicely filed.  Our girls have wicked talons on them, which wouldn't be a problem if they didn't love to pad so much on us.  Nancy was sitting on me this morning, turned to start washing her back and carelessly put all of her weight on one claw; she may be tiny but news flash, it really hurt!  Edith on the other hand likes to display her beautiful fluffy tummy and then attack any thing foolish enough to touch it with rabbit kicks, and she has been known to casually impale the offender on her front paw claws to make her point, whilst purring loudly.  So I decided we would give them a little manicure.

I was warned that you should only clip off a small amount, and be careful not to cut the vein that's in the center of the claw.  With that in mind I very carefully snipped off a tiny bit from four of Edith's claws and I think 4 or 5 of Nancy's.  They don't seem to mind the clipping itself, but they do object to their paws being manhandled, so they keep walking off in a huff. 

It's going to take me a while to get them all done I think, but I have the time, I have the clippers and I have the determination.  We shall see who will win, little grey kitties! Oh yes, we shall see!

Ngaio Marsh 33: Death on the Air.

"Death on the Air" is a collection of Ngaio Marsh's short stories, all of them are mysteries but not all feature Alleyn as detective. 

A particularly nice feature of this collection are that there are two profiles of Roderick Alleyn and Agatha Troy, in which Miss Marsh also describes how she came up with the characters.  I wish she'd also written one on the solid and reliable Inspector Fox.  I love Inspector Fox!

I like this cover a lot, the picture is great.  It sets the scene for the title mystery beautifully, with a great vintage radio and slicked back hair invoke the time period and the festive Radio Times cover subtly indicating that this is a Christmas mystery.  Love it!

Sourdough and Juice Glasses

On the way home from work Doc C and I stopped off at the local bakery to buy some sourdough bread.  Do loves sourdough, but when he tries baking it he can't get it quite like the bread we buy from this bakery; so he asked how long they left the dough to sour for.  The girl on the till didn't know, so she nipped to ask the baker, who said they'd started the starter dough when the bakery first opened seven years ago and it had been kept alive ever since.  That is pretty impressive! 

Whilst The Doc was getting baking tips, I was looking at the display of vintage glasses they had on the windowsill.  They were small molded juice glasses (about twice the height of an egg cup), which I thought were just lovely and Doc agreed.  They were only $1.75 each (That's less than a pound each), so we carefully choose six that we liked.

The owner of the bakery saw we were buying the glasses, and came over to tell us how much she loves the ones she's got at home because it's so easy for everyone to keep track of which drink is theirs and they are really sturdy.  She does use them to give her children juice in, but I think we'll be using them as slightly over-sized shot glasses.

I have no idea when we'll have six people in our house all sipping whiskey, but when we do I think I'll be using the glass second from the left which has a row of tiny stars around the rim.

Ngaio Marsh 32: Light Thickens.

Technically this is the last of the Inspector Alleyn mysteries, but we still have the covers of the short story collection and and the autobiography to look at.

This story is set in the Dolphin Theatre again, this time during a production of "Macbeth" which is where the title is taken from.  Isn't this a particularly intense cover image?  And delightfully dated too, I think it might be the haircut but the typeface is certainly doing it's part too.

On-Line Shopping Delivery Day! Woo-Hoo!

When we were paid on the 1st of the month I ordered a couple of things on-line, and it all arrived today!  When Doc drove over to my office to pick me up there were two interesting looking boxes on the passenger seat.  Hooray!

Of course I knew exactly what was in both of them: The first held MOP (Modern Organic Product) hair styling products, I love their range, but they don't sell the two products I used in the UK over here, so I am trying a couple of other things from them.

The second was from Amazon, from whom I'd ordered a couple of books and a DVD.  I almost hate to say this as a former bookseller, but I bought the books mainly for their cover art.  Even worse they are both TV tie-ins!  It's as though suddenly publishers have realised that these don't have to be absolutely hideous all of a sudden and these are both great images.

The DVD is a lovely little film that I saw a few years ago on one of my early dates with Doc C (Before he even was Doc C!).  It's a Dutch film that was originally called "Minoes", which has been translated to the rather less appealing "Undercover Kitty".  We saw it at the cinema with subtitles, but I think this is probably a dubbed version. 

It's a children's film about a cat who is magically transformed into a woman, albeit still able to talk to cats and with some feline character traits, and through her network of feline informants is able to help a young journalist break a story about corruption in local government.  You know put like that it sounds sort of insane and a bit boring, but is one of the sweetest films I have ever seen.  We still reference the cat names to each other, so at one point Edith and Nancy were a mere whisker away from being Minoes and Jakkepoes but we had an 11th hour change of heart.

Ngaio Marsh 31: Photo Finish.

Ahh!  We're back to a nice cheap and cheesy photo on the cover!  That is just the fakest pool of blood we've seen don't you think?  And what exactly is supposed to be bleeding?  The music manuscript? The photo?  Who can say?

I really hate the typeface and colour choices that the designer made here; in particular the yellow of the title is particularly yucky against the maroon curtains in my opinion.  Also the back cover totally clashes with the front cover now I look at it side by side like this.  Wow, that is making my eyes strobe, don't look at it for too long or you'll get those retinal ghost images.

As I've been writing these reviews of the covers I've also been trying to remember the plots that they represent; but it's been about a year since I read them all (in sequence!) and whilst some are very memorable, others are really hard to remember the details of.  This one is surprisingly easy to recall, maybe because it's one of the most unique settings and the central character is particularly divalicious, and it's so enjoyable to dislike her.  Although the murder doesn't take place until quite a way into the book the action does not drag, this is still a very fun mystery!

CitiKitty Update.

Edith has started to be interested in the CitiKitty; don't get too excited though, she hasn't actually used it yet but she did climb up onto the toilet to see what it was.

Unfortunately this was just after I had scooped and flushed the litter tray contents, and the haunted toilet started groaning which scared her off.  Rats!  Stupid loud quirk of plumbing!

It's a start though.

Ngaio Marsh 30: Grave Mistake.

Pretty much the only thing I like about this cover is the author's photo on the back, particularly because she seems to be pointing at the front cover and giggling.  I'm glad she has a sense of humour about these things; in her place I would have been horrified.