Alien Spouse

Christmas Tree!

This is our tree for this year!  It's tiny, so we've put it on the mantelpiece away from our curious felines.  They really wanted to play with the baubles, and could not understand why I was insisting on hanging them out of their reach.

The tree is alive, so we will re-pot it and use it again next year.  The only difficulty was that my fabulous diamante tree topper was too heavy for it and it bent over most pathetically.  All of the tree toppers in the local shops are for the really enormous trees so they are all huge.  In the end I took a glittery star off a gift tag and used that.

I Heart My iPod - It Has Books.

I hadn't really done very much investigation into iPod applications before I got mine, because I didn't think I would be getting one for a while and it seemed silly to taunt myself with all the things I couldn't do.  So every time I find something else that's cool it's very exciting, and I probably will feel the need to tell you about it.  Because Doc C has other things to do then talk about how great my iPod is apparently.

Every now and then I have been browsing apps, and there are some really odd ones out there .  For example I can't really see the point of making my iPod look like a pint of beer and then pretending to drink it.  The iPod can sense movement, so when you tip the "pint glass" the liquid inside moves, which is very clever but I honestly don't understand why you would want that on your phone.

On the other hand I did find a free book application with several of the Arsène Lupin books, so I downloaded that and I've been reading tales of turn of the last century French daring do.  I then discovered that because screen is illuminated I can easily read in bed with the lights off, and Doc C isn't disturbed.  Perfect.

Last night I noticed that the developers had also an application called Bookz, which I trundled off to investigate.  It turns out to be a way of downloading books to your iPod from the Gutenberg Project, or your computer if you've got a text document you want to be able to access through your iPod.  I paid my $1.99, and I can now access over 25,000 books that are in the public domain in the US!  I was a bit awe struck by the sheer size of the thing, so I went for something familiar and discovered that they have the complete works of Jerome K. Jerome!  This is great because whilst it's really easy to get "Three Men on a Boat" (hilarious BTW), and I also tracked down a second hand "Three Men on a Bummel" but I had given up hope of finding the rest, and now they are at my finger tips any time I Iike, along with G.K. Chesterton, P.G. Wodehouse, a couple of Agatha Christie's and so many many other things.  It makes me salivate to think of it all!

Of course this isn't to say that I won't still be buying books, because there are many many books that I want to read that aren't on Project Gutenberg for copyright reasons; but it's still going to be so useful.  For example when I'm traveling, I usually carry three or four books for long flights; now I can take one book, and download several others and free up a lot of carry on space.  Very practical.

Next Year's Christmas Tree Theme.

I tend to pre-plan my Christmas trees quite some way in advance, in fact I usually shop for next year's decorations in the January sales.  We did that to a certain extent last January, but we still needed to get a few more.  Fortunately it happened that Martha's Kmart Christmas range still had the same colourway and in different sizes.  So we bought a box of the tiny and the small, to go with our medium and out-sized.  I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

Whilst we were browsing the Christmas aisles of Kmart Doc C noticed this box of glass ornaments, with one broken bauble in there.  He pointed it out to me, and said he would like to have a tree full of broken ornaments.  I love that idea, and I loved that Doc has now lived with me long enough to appreciate the fun of pre-planning Christmas tree themes.

A few years ago I had the idea of doing a nicely gothic black Christmas tree, with tiny fake skulls as decorations.  So next year we are going to combine the two idea and have a tree with broken glass ornaments, miniature skulls (although I have no idea where we will get those from) and that fake cobweb stuff you get at Halloween.  With white lights of course!  It might come across as being very Tim Burton-esque, but that's not necessarily a problem.

Plus The Doc actually suggested we go to the January sales this year and get far more glass ornaments then we think we'll need, specifically so we can perfect breaking them in an aesthetically pleasing manner.  Now that is going to be fun!

Morning Routine.

Edith has this habit of waking us up at between 4:30 and 6:00 every morning, she does this by running across the bed, usually at about stomach level for full disruptive effect.  She will not stop running back and forth until one of us gets up.  The obvious solution would be to shut the cats out at night, but when we tried that they scratched and scratched at the door, until I was worried they would damage the paintwork.  I would hate to lose our deposit, just because our cats felt a bit lonely during the night.

So we let them in during the night, and when Edith would wake us up I started getting up, going down to the kitchen to put a very small amount of food in the cat's bowls, and then closing the door when I came back up to bed.  Then I noticed that usually the bowls weren't even empty, so I just picked them up and shook the food around a bit.  Now all I have to do is get up and open the bedroom door for both cats to shoot out in front of me, whereupon I simply close the door behind them.  They have yet to twig this strategy, and they don't scratch at the door in the morning.  It's very odd.

The really strange part about it is that Edith isn't actually that interested in food.  Even when I was putting food down for them, she would just sniff at it and walk away.  I have no clue why Edith wants us to be awake at that time in the morning, but she's really determined about it.

Pusskies.

Doc C loves to build fires, and Edith is completely fascinated by them.  She keeps a respectful distance, but she sits and stares at the flames.

Mum mentioned the other day that Edith is gorgeous, but that Nancy's absence was noticeable.  There are two reasons for that, for one thing is that Nancy is just nowhere near as much of a showoff as Edith, who spends several hours a day posing beautifully.  The other thing is that Nancy's allergies have flared up again, fortunately we already have a vet's appointment booked for next week and she'll be getting another steroid shot.

I'm also pleased to report that we are back on track with the citikitty.  The small paper mache litter tray did it's job beautifully, and I've already removed it so the cats are just using the citikitty again.  I've covered up the small hole in the middle of the tray, I'm scooping all the freaking time and I am changing the litter every morning.  This tray is pristine at all times.  This is hard work but I'm going to give them plenty of time to get used to the citikitty before I uncover the hole again.  In the short term it's a hassle, but I have to keep focused on the long term goal; toilet-trained cats.

My Second Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was really fun, Kim and Jill are great hostesses and there was a fantastic selection of food and drink.  We played board games between the main course and dessert (Doc's Pumpkin and Bourbon Cheesecake went an absolute storm), but I still had to lie on the floor for a bit, because I was so full of good food.

The party wound down around Midnight and we all set off home, our route took us past one of the local shopping plazas and the car park was crammed full of cars.  People were already shopping.  I understand that the Friday after Thanksgiving is a big shopping day in the run up for Christmas, but I can't quite believe that it actually started at Midnight.  We've avoided the whole thing, because Doc C isn't big on shopping and I'm not big on crowds.  I'm just so grateful that I don't work in a shop because that would have been awful today.

However we do need to go shopping this weekend because Doc C fell in love with the tiniest Christmas tree in the world, and had to buy it.  Now we have the tree I can officially start decorating, and according to Martha I am woefully ill prepared.  Where is my hot glue gun?  Where are my doilies?

It Was, I Believe, Shaken.

We went to see the new Bond movie last night, and I am pleased to report that it was pretty good.  Personally I think it would have been helpful if they had done a bit more of a recap about what happened in "Casino Royale", because whilst I remembered that Vesper had been a very morally conflicted character who ended up dead, I couldn't really remember any specifics, and the plot of this film really does follow straight on the heels of that one.  So maybe it would be helpful to watch "Casino Royale" again just to refresh your memory before seeing this one.

But really all you need to know is that Bond is brooding a lot and has gone rogue, then just sit back and watch all the explosions and pretty girls in nice frocks.

I must admit to expending a fair amount of my concentration on the costumes and jewelry, and I definitely want to be M when I grow up, Judi looked great!  I was also delighted to see that Gemma Arterton's red hair doesn't look anywhere near as fake on the screen as it had done in the publicity shots that I'd seen.

After the film we went to our favourite bar for drinks, and as they have just started serving mixed drinks, I ordered a Martini.  Doc C told me after he'd paid the bill that it was only $5.50, which he commented would have made it practically free in London.  He'd asked why it was so cheap and it turn out the standard Martinis they serve are bought pre-mixed in a bottle.  If I'd asked for a specific type of Martini that required them to summon the mixologist on duty, then it would have been more expensive.
I'm sure Martini purists would shudder at the thought of a pre-prepared bottle, but I liked it and it went straight to me head, which I believe is the point of the exercise.  My favourite part was the olive at the end, that was just delicious, I could have eaten several of those.

iPod Wallpaper - Portrait of Churchill.

One of the many joys of the iPod is choosing what wallpaper to have.  I've only had it a week, but I have changed the wallpaper every day, sometimes twice if I feel like it.  I was directed by the ever stylish Swiss Miss to Poolga which is a website full of free iPod wallpapers by a collective of designers, where I downloaded about a dozen images that I liked.

Then my friend Jonny suggested I look up Peruvian Figural Sculpture on the Boston Museum of Fine Arts website, which I did.  Then I poked around their website for a bit, which is where I found this particularly fine portrait of Winston Churchill looking as though he is about to say something very rude to the damn fool photographer.

Churchill was my iPod wallpaper on Friday, and I think I might just put him back up for a bit.  It's odd, but the longer I live in America the more I want to embellish my immediate surroundings with little bits of Britishness.  And you cannot get more British than Churchill really, and if you tried you'd probably do yourself a mischief so let's just all relax and simply admire Churchill's technique here.

Actually, now I think of it, my friend Sarah used to have a great photo of Trevor Howard over her desk.  It was a carefully posed portrait shot, but apparently no one had noticed that his v-neck jumper had a tiny moth hole in it.  That would make a particularly pleasing iPod wallpaper, I must see if I can track it down somewhere on line.  Right now.

The Wednesday That Felt More Like A Saturday.

We're having a very nice start to the long weekend; later we will be going to see "Quantum of Solace" with friends, but right now we are just enjoying having some time at home.

I tidied the living room & I'm now perusing the Christmas edition of Martha Stewart magazine. I feel quite distinctly in need of a hot glue gun, a bone folder ( I have no clue what that is, but Martha uses it for all the more interesting paper projects), a range of glitter and at least one pack of paper doilies.

Doc C is baking a pumpkin cheesecake for us to take to Kim and Jill's tomorrow. Last year's photo essay of the process is still quite accurate, except he bought pre-crumbed graham crackers this year, and this one will have a top layer of sour cream and bourbon.

The cats are both sleeping; Edith on the sofa, Nancy on the coffee table (which isn't ideal, but I'm letting her get away with it for now).

It's all very pleasant.

My Work Mug.

I recently bought a nice new mug from the University Bookshop to use when I'm at work.  I had been using my over sized green-with-orange-polka-dots teacup (That's right John, I still have it!), but that was only ever a temporary arrangement; I need both my huge tea cups at home to ensure I can always have a huge cup of tea with breakfast.

I've photoshopped out the University's name, but I left in the little bird logo that usually hangs just above the name.  My department has actually appropriated that bird for our own promotional material, and it's going to be appearing on our special graduation medals once they are minted.  Can't wait!

As you can see the new mug is a lovely matte black on the exterior, with a glossy white interior and it's a very satisfying shape to hold.  It also fits in beautifully with my other desk accessories which are all black and white.  I particularly like the bulldog clips with faux vintage typewriter keys on the arms, that you can just about see clipped to the rim of the pen pot.

Other items on my desk may not be so traditionally professional, for example the Magic 8 Ball was left over from the Halloween fortune telling, as were the Tarot Cards.  The cards have gone back to their owner now, but I'm keeping the Magic 8 Ball.  Sometimes it's the best way of divining which budget code I am supposed to use.

p.s. I am drinking my tea black at the office, because keeping milk in stock just for me seems altogether too much bother, but at least it's Twining's Earl Grey.

Thanks Indeed.

I don't have to be back at work until Monday, which gives me a five day weekend.  This Thanksgiving thing is pretty good I suppose.

On top of that we also get to go for dinner at a friend's, Doc C will be making Pumpkin Cheesecake to take with us and we may well play more Apples to Apples?

Excellent!  I am coming to appreciate this little dry run of Christmas more and more, so much so that I am beginning to think that we really ought to look into something similar back in Great Britain.

Edith: A Study in Cute.

Because Edith is my cat I suppose I am obligated to think she is one of the best cats ever, but from an entirely dispassionate point of view; how sweet does she look in this photo?

It's just a cardboard box full of luxurious grey floof!  Adorable!

If Your Present Arrives, It's Your Birthday. (I'm on Birthday Number Four I think)

My main birthday present from my lovely and thoughtful Mum arrived today; it's an alarm clock that wakes you up to the sound bird song, followed by Steven Fry's voice speaking a number of different greetings.  Actually I've long maintained that my Mother is waging a diabolical campaign aimed at stopping me sleeping, so this really is the perfect gift from her!

I knew i wanted one the minute I read about them, mainly because I am absolutely convinced it will make waking up that little bit more pleasant.  I hate all the ring tones on my mobile phone, and those were also my alarm options for a year now.  I suspect it's not good to wake up to a noise that sets your teeth on edge, it sets entirely the wrong tone for the day.

By way of a very welcome contrast, it will be so lovely to start the day off with some witty Britishness.  Frankly I'm almost looking forward to being woken up tomorrow!

Good Cat.

Edith loves getting into things.

This can be annoying when the thing she wants to get into is my CD case, because she is very persistent.  However usually it's quite sweet, especially in the photo below:

The thing she has climbed into here is the basket thingy that I keep all of the cat's toys, brushes, bags of cat nip and other stuff in.  It was like she was putting herself away for the night.

Dr. Pepper's For All!

So Guns 'n Roses released their long awaited new album today.  In all honesty I can't say that this is an event that I would have paid that much attention to normally; however Dr. Pepper's promised to provide all of America (with the exception of Slash and Buckethead, because they are "estranged" from the group apparently) with a can of their delicious beverage if G'nR managed to actually release the album before the end of 2008.  I don't drink fizzy caffeinated soft drinks very often, but when I do my preference is for Dr. Peppers, so I am somewhat interested now.

Well the band did it, so Dr. Pepper's are honouring the promise, and by the way what the hell were the circumstances behind that one?  It's such an odd thing for them to say they would do in the first place, isn't it?  Why would they care?  And who said it?  And why?

Anyway to get the drink you have to register your name and address on their website within 24 hours of the album having been released, and they will send you a voucher. 

Except I can't register. 

I went to the website, and I clicked on the tiny link at the bottom that just said "Free Dr. Pepper", and up came a registration form.  So I filled it in and submitted, but I just got an error message.  I've tried three times now, it's very annoying.  Especially as the countdown clock tells me I only have 7 hours left in which to register!  Damn it!

"What's The Time Mr Wolf?"... "Almost Christmas!"... (Screams)

Yesterday was really busy in town, and we couldn't work out why for ages.  We knew there wasn't a football game, because there weren't huge numbers of people in the team colours, but there were still many many people.

Then we realised that it was people coming up the mountain to buy there Christmas trees, because that is one of the biggest crops in our county.  I still think it's far too early to be decorating for Christmas, not that that stops me browsing decorations of course, but clearly I'm just old fashioned like that.

I am hoping to get the cards out a lot earlier this year.  Actually I was considering getting festive postcards printed using an on-line service such as Moo Cards.  Has anyone done that?  The pros would be I could use one of my own photos (suitably doctored to add some festivity), I wouldn't need to stuff envelopes and it's going to save a lot of paper because the cards will be half the size and there would be no envelopes.  (Clearly I have developed a strong dislike for envelopes, who knew?)
The cons are that I really should have done this about three weeks ago, that the cards wouldn't stand up by themselves, which could make displaying them more difficult for the recipients, and that postcards tend to get knocked around quite a lot in the post so the picture might not look great once it arrives.

Still it's got to be better than trawling the local shops for non-religious Christmas cards that don't cost a bomb.  Last year we gave up on stumbling across a branch of Paperchase (Oh Paperchase!  I think I miss you the most at Christmas.  sigh.) and ended up sending out "Where the Wild Things Are" note cards.  At least they were fun cards, but they did go out very late and I suspect most of them didn't reach their destinations until January at the earliest.

Doc C says he's leaving all the decisions regarding Christmas cards and decorations up to me, which he should know full well means a boatload of glitter and shinys, so I do not want to hear a word about it when I implement my vision.  It's going to be fabulous.

Bright Snowy Morning.

This was the view from our living window this morning, and the light reflecting off the snow was blindingly bright.

The footsteps were made by Doc C going to fill up the bird feeder with seed, that's the wooden thing shaped like a lighthouse.  The cats are always very interested in getting out onto the balcony (I think because they are convinced birds will just fly straight into their waiting mouths), and this morning was no exception, so he let Edith out with him. 

I have no idea if she had ever seen snow before , but she did seem really quite confused about why she was sinking into all this cold stuff, and she made a bee line for the snowless area under the grill.  When I held the door open for her, she made a dash for it and was walking around shaking her paws for several minutes afterwards.  Nancy followed her around sniffing at the snow caught in Edith's fur and cats were notably less keen on going outside after that.

Exterminate! Exterminate! Extermi... Cat Pee? Yuck!

We went shopping today, for a weird little mix of things that had become necessities:

• Wellies (1 x pair)?  Tick.
• Black Converse (1 x pair)?  Tick.
• Two torches (one battery powered and one rechargeable)? Tick.
• AC Charger for the iPod?  Tick.
• Enzyme cleaning spray to deal with little kitty surprises? Tick.
• Small cat litter tray to facilitate toilet training?  Tick.
• Vegetable stock cubes?  Tick.
• Hippy butter (That's what Doc calls the butter spread with no trans fatty acids in it.  And he won't eat it.)? Tick.
• Drawing pins?  Tick.
• Portable UV Light?  Cross.

I could not find a UV light in our local hardware supermarket, or Radio Shack (purveyors of fine electronic geekitude); where else would you get one from?  I didn't think it would be this hard to find one.

You may wonder why I even need a UV light, which is a fair enough question.  Well you know how in all of the "CSI" series they are forever spraying luminol around to check for blood at a crime scene and it makes it glow?  Well, apparently UV light does the same for cat pee.  I am pretty certain the girls haven't been peeing anywhere that I don't know about, because they are usually very good, but after Nancy's little protest last week I would like to be 100% positive of that.

I quite honestly think the best thing to do now would be to order a Sonic Screwdriver on-line, that way I could combat both cat pee and Daleks, and I am all for multi-tasking. 
Unfortunately I can't buy a real Sonic Screwdriver, however much I want to believe in their existence, but you can buy a pretty cool toy one that comes with a pad of psychic paper.  One end is an invisible ink pen, and the other end is a UV light that makes the ink glow.  Which, cat pee aside, sounds pretty damn cool doesn't it?

Citikitty: This Weekend's Project.

After we left work this afternoon (Actually we got to leave early today because of the snow.  It's pretty and it's gets me out of work early?  I love snow!) we went food shopping, so we didn't have to worry just in case we did get snowed in. 
We also bought bird seed to keep the local birds happy and a large box of cat litter, because I am not going to be trapped in the house with two cats and no litter.

Then we went to the local hardware store to buy firewood, and I bought a stanley knife and a small handsaw.  I will be using them this weekend to customise the cat's litter tray this weekend.  I am absolutely determined that the citikitty training will continue and that it will work.

The cats have yet to comment.

Snow!

It really snowed last night!  This is a picture of our little car this morning (Sorry about the grid lines, our bedroom windows have an insect screen on them, which is what caused the cross stitch effect in the photo!)

The roads were very slippery and we actually had to pull off the road at one point, because Doc C just could not steer.  We sat by the side of the road for a while and at one point we thought we might have to abandon the car and just walk home, because that's how close we still were to the house!  The Doc persevered however and we did make it into the office.

I was almost an hour late, but actually I'm the only one here so far.  Classes have been cancelled until 10, and when I spoke to the director of my department she said that next time it'll be perfectly fine not to try and get in until the classes are up and running.  Which is good to know!

It is very pretty.  I have a large fir tree right outside my window, and that is covered in snow.  I am starting to feel quite festive already.

Delicious with Pecan Sandies.

Jason, Look!  I noticed this beverage in the vending machine outside Doc's office.

It's not just "Mr Pibb", oh no, this my friend is "Pibb Xtra".  It's even more Pibby, how is that even possible and what would Stan and Francine make of that do you think?

Idea: Range of Exercise Clothes for Intellectuals.

Sometimes I have great ideas that I am just not in a position to actually implement, the oft quoted example being the lavish mini-series of "Mame" and the sequel "Around The World With Auntie Mame" starring Megan Mullally (I'm going to keep mentioning that one, until someone steals the concept.  Unless McG is reading this. In which case: Yikes).

It's mainly casting, which would have been my dream career, but I do also develop product lines in my head sometimes.  Most recently I've been mulling over an idea I came up with when I was a teenager that I still think would be a winner.
When I was studying "Hamlet" for my Eng. Lit. A-Level I thought that work-out gear that had the quote "Oh! that this too too solid flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew", would be great.  I'm sure I've seen that phrase on t-shirts before, but I am thinking of a whole range of clothes specifically designed for exercise with that and other appropriate literary quotations.  You know track suits or yoga gear with lines from Dostoyevsky on, that type of thing.

The market would be intellectuals, or just people with intellectual pretensions, to wear their brains on their sleeves whilst on the elliptical machine.  Of course the range would also accommodate those people who want their tracksuits to say more than "Just Do It" whilst they are slumped on the sofa watching telly.

It would be cool, right?

Snowbunny.

I grew up in East Anglia, which is famous in the U.K. for being flat.  So living on a mountain is really weird for me sometimes, and I can't get used to the abrupt changes in weather.

Yesterday it snowed all day and there must have been at least an inch and a half on the ground by the end of the day.  Today it was still chilly, but there was a blue sky and bright sunshine so by 11am there was very little snow left on the ground.  The only way you would have known about yesterday's white out, if you hadn't actually been here, was the occasional snow man built by the students.

This mini snowbunny was my favourite.

 

Crazy.

I'm trying to type one handed, because I really do have to play with Edith.  When we got home this evening Nancy met us at the door and said "She is freaking insane.  You deal with her, I need a drink."

Well, maybe she didn't say that in so many words, but the expression on her little kitty face spoke volumes.  As soon as we saw Edith I knew Nancy wasn't exaggerating because Edith's pupils were huge and she was really attacking the cat scratcher.  Then she ran up and down the stairs chasing dust molecules.

Now I've got her focused on the pink-feather-boa-on-a-stick that she loves to attack, and I'm hoping to get rid of some of her excess energy.  Otherwise no-one in this house will sleep tonight.

The iPod has Landed!

I waited semi patiently all day, and it felt like every time I looked out of the window I saw a FedEx van but they never stopped.  I even put on my coat and rushed off into the snow, but it had already driven off before I got a chance to catch it.

At ten past five I took one last look at the FedEx tracking website and it had been updated at four fifty-five to say incorrect address.  I called Fedex and they said they would try to get it redelivered.

About ten minutes later I got an e-mail saying that my packages could be collected from a local FedEx express office between five thirty and six pm.  Doc C had already told me that he was going to be in a meeting until six, so I thought I'd have to just hope I had better luck tomorrow.  When my colleague Angela came into the office I told her of my iPod delivery woes, and she very kindly offered to drive me over to the FedEx office.  We had fifteen minutes to make it!

It was a nail biting ride, especially as initially we had got crossed wires over where we were heading but we actually got to the office at five fifty-seven!  I got into the office and signed for my two parcels by the very skin of my teeth (a phrase I hate, but one that does express clearly how close this was!)

So now I have my iPod and I have already loaded up Typepad and I am currently converting all my music so I can transfer it.  In case you were wondering what the inscription I chose in the end was it is:

ALIEN SPOUSE (est. 2007)

Audio Video Disco

The second line is Latin for "I Hear, I See, I Learn" but I thought even untranslated it was pretty appropriate for the back of an iPod!

I am iBlogging!

The first application I downloaded? Typepad, naturally!

Citikitty: Edith Climbs a Ladder. Nancy Slides Down a Snake.

When we got home last night the cats didn't appear to have used the citikitty all day, so I picked them both up and put them on it.  Nancy ran off, but Edith actually used it and even scooped the litter down the hole in the middle, clever girl!  I was quite pleased with that!

This morning though I could see that it hadn't been used over night, and as I was preparing the cats breakfasts I heard an ominous scratching noise from by the front door.  A certain small grey and white cat who shall remain nameless (Cough...Nancy...Cough Cough), was digging at the carpet trying to cover up a pool of pee.  Great.

My thinking is that she could have peed anywhere she wanted at any point in the night whilst I was asleep, so her waiting to do it until I was actually there indicates to me that she was trying tell me something.  The message I get from this behaviour is "Human, I do not like the new bathroom facilities.  I will not use them.  I strongly protest", which also indicates that I have confused her by going too fast with the citikitty.  I should have known better than that; I'm fully aware that you can't rush felines when training, you have to accept their pace and work with them.

So this morning I duct taped the litter tray back on top of the toilet seat, and we will be trying this again but a bit more slowly this time

Birthday Goodness Continues!

This morning wasn't good.  After cleaning up cat poo I discovered a lovely little surprise pool of cat puke by the front door just as we were leaving, so I was late for work.  Then I just had one annoying office thing happen after another, so that by lunchtime I was thoroughly cheesed off.  Doc C didn't know what to do with me, poor man!

Fortunately he went to the post office after lunch, and then came straight to my office bearing a massive cardboard box and then pulled two parcels out of his bag.  My birthday presents had arrived!  Hoorah!  Today suddenly got a lot better!

Stu, Lee and Katsu had read my mind and sent me the DVD of "Pushing Daisies" season one, and the second Buffy comic bind up.  W00T!

The other two parcels were both from my Mum, and she spoilt me rotten!  I have gorgeous red leather gloves, some lovely fluffy socks, a tester of Jean Paul Gaultier's new fragrance Madame and the complete range of Montezuma's chocolate bars.  Eeeeehhhh!!!

Doc C was equally delighted with his McVities' Caramel Digestives, in fact he went straight back to his office to make a cup of tea to enjoy them with.  He had a smile from ear to ear at the mere thought.

You know, the day just seemed SO much better after that.  I am a very lucky woman to have such thoughtful people in my life, even when I am 5,500 miles away from them.  Give or take a mile or two.

Citikitty - One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.

I would be lying if I were to say that all is going well with the citikitty training.  It isn't.  There have been, well not accidents because they were deliberate, more like dirty protests.

I can see exactly what the issue is.  Both cats are more than happy to use the citikitty; provided the other cat hasn't already.  And if it happens that Nancy has used it before Edith, then Edith will just go on the bathroom floor.  Thank goodness for floor tiles.

Essentially I'm asking them to share a tray that is about a quarter of the size of the one they were used to.  It would be absolutely fine if I were home twenty four hours a day, with some sort of sensor to alert me the moment one of the little angels had used it.  But I'm not, so I'm having to think outside the box now.

To begin with I have cut out the first stage from the center of the citikitty, and I'm hoping that what will happen is that some of the pee at least will go down there leaving the precious litter untouched.  If they seem to cope well with that, I shall simply cut out the next stage mid-week and hope they don't get too spooked by that.  If it doesn't go well, I shall cut a hole as big as the citikitty in the litter tray and put it back on the toilet with litter in it.  I shall then carry on cutting holes in the citikitty, and trim down the sides of the litter tray until they are just using the citikitty or the toilet.

They will be using the toilet by the end of all this.  One way or another they will.

Sunday Continues As It Began.

I have not left the house today, I didn't get dressed until two, I didn't put any product in my hair, I brushed the cats and I've been wearing flip flops with tabi socks all day.

Lovely.

Sunday Morning.

It is really nice to get up after a long lie-in on a Sunday to find there is snow on the ground outside, and that your husband has built a log fire in the living room fireplace, done all the washing up, cleaned the kitchen,  and just put the kettle on to make a cup of tea. 

It was the icing on the cake to find that both cats were very friendly this morning; Nancy actually miaowed at me so that I would sit down and she could get on my lap.  Over the past week or so she hasn't been as friendly as usual, I think because of the steroids she was given for her allergies, so I was very happy about that. 

The only thing was that Edith was paying close attention, so when Nancy got off to go and do something important, Edith climbed on to my lap and curled up for a snooze.  This is highly unusual because Edith almost never sits on laps, she far prefers to sit next to a human, thank you very much.

Nancy was not impressed when she came back.

p.s. Nancy's eyes aren't that green really, I tinted them in Picnik to make the look of sheer disgust pop.

Remodelled House and Retraining Cats.

We have just returned from a very nice dinner party at Kim and Jill's, which was fabulous and very fun.  They have recently finished remodelling, and this was to celebrate their very nice new living room.  I have had a couple of delicious rum based cocktails, and a glass or two of wine, so I am feeling pleasantly sleepy right now.

When we got home it was very gratifying to discover our cats are taking to the Citikitty like ducks to water.  I would love it if they whizzed through all of the training steps by Christmas, but realistically I think that's probably over ambitious.

Pro Love, Anti Hate.

We had a terrible time trying to find a parking space today because there is a big football game in town, but we managed to get to the library where the pro-gay marriage march was assembling in time for me to make a banner.  In the end I went with lots of red love hearts, partly inspired by the lovely necklace Jason sent to me as part of my birthday package (I also got Malteasers, cake decorations and a bag of assorted fabulous sequins!  All of it wrapped up in the most gorgeous paper!  Yay for birthday surprises!) I also wrapped a small hot pink feather boa around the handle, which helped to make it comfortable but was mainly because, hello, it was a hot pink feather boa!  That's my kind of protesting!

We marched in a circular route around the town which took about an hour and a half.  For the most part we got lots of smiles and thumbs up, with just one or two people expressing their disagreement with our views.  It was actually really quite fun!

It did start to rain towards the end, so I was glad to get home, which is when we discovered that Edith is pro gay marriage too.  She really loved my banner, and kept rubbing up against it.

Unfortunately she was so enthusiastic about the sign that she pushed it over on top of Nancy, who survived unscathed but presumably less keen on protest signs than our little fluffy radical.

I Finally Make A Series Of Decisions.

I finally made a decision about what I wanted engraved on the back of my iPod, and Doc C likes the second line so much that he asked if I'd mind him getting it printed on a t-shirt; so I'm fairly pleased with that.  However that was just the tip of the decision making ice berg; because I then agonised over which protective case seemed least likely to obscure the engraving, whilst still being of some functional purpose.  After that monumental decision I spent some moments debating where to get it delivered to, and whether to list my mobile number or my office number because it only had space for one phone number on the order form.  Eventually, and after much prompting by Doc C, I hit the confirm button. 

Which means I should have an iPod Touch by this time next week.

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Mini Plowman's.

Quite often when we get home from work we'll want a small snack to keep us going until dinner time.

Today I thought some cheddar, a handful of triscuits and just a touch of Branston Pickle that Jason brought us would be nice.

And it was.  Very nice indeed.

I got the idea of serving the pickle in a teaspoon from "Top Chef", it makes it much easier to put a blob on top of the cheese that way.

We're Here, We're Straight, We Support Gay Marriage! Get Used To It!

Tomorrow Doc C and I are planning on joining the local protest against Prop 8, apparently there will be co-ordinated protests all over the country to demonstrate a national feeling of dismay that this bill passed.

We're not really sure what our banners will say, but Doc has suggested "Straight, Married and Unaffected" where as I am leaning towards "Breeders For Gay Marriage!", but I'm not sure either really captures what we are trying to say fully. 
It's somewhat like trying to work out what to engrave on the back of one's iPod, except a lot more socially responsible.

Silver Ball.

When we first chose the cats (I know, like we were the ones who made the decision!  Ha!), we thought Nancy would be more lively and Edith was going to be very sedate. 

Oh, how wrong can you be?  Edith runs around the house playing with anything that she thinks might be fun, and this is one of Edith's favourite toys.  It went missing last week so I've been looking for it for several days, but I didn't have any luck; until Edith apparently remembered that she'd stashed it under our bed.

 

It may look like a perfectly innocent ball of silver tinsel, but it sends Edith insane. She stamps on it, she hides it, she stalks it and she plays football with it at all hours of the day and night until she literally becomes a blur.

That splodge is Edith in motion, and the slight shimmer you can see towards the top right corner is the silver ball.  I think it must have said or done something particularly offensive here.

My First iPod.

I have been wanting an iPod Touch for a while now, and now that I'm working full time again I can actually afford to buy one.  Yay!

There is only one problem: What do I get engraved on the back?  If you buy it from the Apple store directly you can get two lines of text laser engraved for free, which seems silly to turn down, except that I have been trying to decide what I want for nearly a week now.  I think I've got the first line sorted now, but the second line is giving me a bit of trouble.  There is only enough space for 29 characters in each line, and it is really hard to come up with some thing pithy, yet meaningful and/or funny in that small amount of space.

Any suggestions gratefully accepted!

Doc C's Birthday Wish.

Doc C brought back all the post from our post office box when he came home from work, and none of the parcels or cards that I know are on their way from England had arrived yet.  However there was a jiffy bag with Doc's name on it containing a disc for the Playstation two.

Yes it's true, finally Doc C owns "Baldur's Gate: The Dark Alliance 2" which, as any fule kno, is the sequel to "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance"

Right now he's playing as Vhaidra Uoswiir, a Female Drow Monk (I asked why she was a monk instead of a Nun, but I expect that's the type of rookie mistake only a non-D&D-er would make) who he describes as "cool!" and "very mercenary".

In case you were wondering what Doc and I gave each other, we actually got our presents early this year in the form of two beautiful gray felines.  In fact in today's photo you can see that Edith is helping Doc C out with his quest by guarding the perimeter, with special attention to small birds.  You can't be too careful about small birds you know.

Birthday Lurgey.

It's my birthday!  Yay!
And I'm still not feeling well!  Boo!

I've been on the NHS Direct website and I'm pretty sure that I have sinusitis, my favourite official symptom of which is "A feeling of being generally unwell", isn't that just so beautifully vague?  The good news is that I should be better in the next day or so.

It's just so annoying though, because I'm ill today, and I usually love birthdays!  I was planning to bake cookies to take into the office for our weekly meeting, and at lunchtime I was going to go out for a nice meal with my charming husband, whose birthday it also is.

Still things could be worse!  This morning I spoke to my mum, and I know she's sent a parcel which is very exciting, plus we had a lovely birthday party already.  I also get to clean up cat pee snuggle up with Edith on the sofa again today, whilst Nancy keeps a close eye on the food bowl.

Crochet Cachet.

I forgot to mention that I got my invitation to join Ravelry last week.  In case you aren't in the loop that's a social network exclusively for knitters and crocheters.  Did you see what I did there?  In the loop?  Because, you know, of looping the wool?  Fine.  I am ill here people, you can't expect my best work!

Thanks for suggesting that I apply for my invitation Megg.  I haven't explored the site fully yet but I have logged on and had a quick "Ooh!" over some of the projects and patterns.

I Wish It Had Been NO on Prop 8.

As I'm going to be curled up on the sofa for the rest of the day I don't think I'll be posting a photo, so instead I'm linking to a video of Keith Olbermann's reaction to the passing of Proposition 8.  In case you weren't aware Prop 8 eliminates the rights for same-sex couple to marry, and I honestly believe that it is tragic that it passed.

My Turn.

Doc C is feeling lot better today, thank goodness!  And we took Nancy to the vets for her check-up, and Dr. Parrish was very pleased with how she's doing.  The receptionists and nurses made a big fuss of her, and told her how pretty she was, so I think she actually quite enjoyed her visit this time.  Edith is her usual healthy zoomy self.

So everyone is fine, apart from me.  I've caught Doc C's lurgey, which isn't a cold as such, it's more of a sinus infection.  The front of my face just feels heavy and painful, and that makes doing anything feel like surprisingly hard work.

I went into the office this morning, but Doc C brought me home to nest on the sofa with a blanket and a cat.  It seems like the perfect opportunity to watch some of the DVDs that Mick sent me.  I'm starting with "Messiah V: The Rapture", because there's obviously nothing like a dour, blood-soaked detective drama with vague religious overtones to make one feel better.

I just hope that I feel better by my birthday. sigh.

Monday Night.

It being a Monday night at this time of the evening we would usually be with our friends in the pub and I would be enjoying a pint of Guiness and a salmon sandwich with fries. We had to cancel this evening, because of Doc's cold.

All is not lost however. I have Bombay Sapphire Gin, I have a little bowl of delicious Snapea Crisps, I have cats, I have a sniffly, slightly grumpy husband and I have back-to-back episodes of "CSI:NY" that I haven't seen before.

Things could definitely be worse.

Docs Make The WORST Patients.

Doc C has a cold.  He was fine last night when we attended a very nice after dinner drinks-and-dessert at Kim and Jill's, but he woke up at 5 with a bad head cold.  It's all in his sinuses.

For the love of all that is good, please do not express any sympathy.  Doc C does not like to be mothered whilst ill, I wasn't even allowed to heat up his chicken noodle soup this evening. 

However he did let me take over his scooping duties.

He's ill, he's not daft.

Pre-Birthday Celebrations!

If Laura ever offers to host a party for you, just say yes!  Immediately!  It was SO much fun!

When we arrived Laura had already been cooking up a storm and there were all the making of tacos and enchiladas on the table, with plenty of options for veggies and carnivores alike and it was all so delicious.  The TV was tuned to a Mexican music station, so we had suitable tunage as we ate and tried to translate the song titles to much hilarity.

After dinner we smashed the pinata, now traditionally one is supposed to be blindfolded and then spun around until your dizzy before you get your three hits.  Well I can see how that might be fun for kids who playing the game outside, but we were adults inside Laura and Randy's house and flailing around with the shovel from the fire irons set seemed like a bad idea.  Besides we were in it for the destruction!  I got the first round of hits, and I'm sure I dented it, but Doc C was next and he took the entire back half off with one swipe!  It was hilarious!  All of the sweets and little plastic things I put inside went flying.  Jasmine finished it off by very neatly separating the head from the neck, and then we all set about collecting all the stuff from the floor.   I'd made some solid choices with the filling and everyone found something they really liked, including one of the cats who loved the little plastic spider rings.  I only wish that I had gone with my original plan to attach some red streamers to the inside of the pinata, so that they had spilled out like entrails!  Yeah, I'm not sure how I get ideas like that either, but it would have been cool.

Then we played Apples to Apples, which I have mentioned before as being one of the best games ever ever ever.  I think we need to buy our own copy of that, it is just so much fun when you ply with a good group of people.  I suspect academics are particularly good, because they do enjoy arguing their case, but the highlight of the game was probably Jasmine pulling on Shawn's leg yelling "But creamed corn!  Creamed Corn!"

I did make skull masks, but I was the only one.  How anyone could resist the lure of craft paper and glitter glue I do not know, but I suppose it was coming up for midnight by that point and we had all had a lot of Mexican beer.

It was the most fun Mexican Day of the Dead Birthday Party I have ever had!

Christmas Is Coming. Be Ready.

Christmas is starting to creep in already, honestly that Christmas is so sneaky!

Over the past few days I've noticed more shops putting out all of the Christmas accoutrements, there are trailers on TV for Christmas specials, and the municipal enormous glowing snowflakes were put up in town over a week ago.  To cap it all I watched, well more like listened to, an animated Christmas movie whilst I was cleaning the bathroom today.

I have to admit that I am finding myself capitulating to the encroaching festivities; yesterday we bought our first Christmas decorations of this year.  In my defence when I first saw gold glitter hummingbirds I resisted them, but then it occurred to me how fun they would look hung in the living room windows.  So the next time we were in that shop I bought three of them, actually I wanted to get 9 but they were $4 each and I could see Doc was not going to go for that.

Don't worry I haven't actually put any decorations up yet, but I am definitely in the  planning stages and this year I believe the theme is going to be tasteful gold glitter.  Which I don't happen to believe is an oxymoron.

Potty Training.

This morning I decided it was time to move to the next level in the cats Citikitty training.  For the past few days the cats have been using bathroom facilities that I put up on boxes to get them used to it being higher, and today I moved the tray to on top of the toilet itself.  Don't worry I've secured it with duct tape, I don't want it to go flying if someone decides to take a running leap at it, and I've also placed boxes next to the toilet so the cats have handy steps up.

Doc C came into see what I was doing, and found it highly amusing that I had duct taped the tray down, the box steps in place and the shower curtain to the bath.  The reason for the latter was because Edith kept climbing in to the bath, and then getting stuck behind the shower curtain, which was highly amusing to us but didn't look like fun for her.  I am finding duct tape to be a very useful tool for a cat owner, for a while we had tape on the sides of the sofa to discourage claw sharpening, but obviously that looked terrible, so we took that off once they had got the message

After getting the tray securely in place I took each of the cats in to the bathroom, and put them in the litter tray.  They both did exactly the sme thing: promptly got out and ran off, but then later each of them walked into the bathroom and looked as though they couldn't find the tray.  So Doc or I would pick them up and put them in again, and this time they actually used it.

Now given that I'd already got my camera in the bathroom to document the litter tray on the toilet, it seemed foolish not to take pictures of the cats using said tray in my ongoing documentation of the whole Citikitty experiment.  It felt like such an invasion of privacy, but at the same time I knew that there were people who would want to see the pictures, I was very conflicted!  I think that must be what it's like to be a paparazzi, don't you?

Actually as I was taking the photos I could almost hear my Mother saying "Jennifer!" whilst my step-dad Stu would probably chime in with "Is that really necessary?", but I know some of you would want to see this!  So I'm putting it after the jump, but don't worry, despite this flagrant violation of feline privacy I elected not to use the really embarrasing picture that was displaying really far too much information for a family friendly blog, they are both quite safe!

Why We Call Her Piggy Big Eyes!

Doc C was asked the other day why Nancy got the nick name "Piggy Big Eyes". It's very simple really, we call her that because she is a walking stomach with fog lights in her orbital sockets.

She is very very motivated by food, and so if the cat's food bowls have food in them, she will put her head down and work until there is nothing left.  Even though at other times she seems to be nervous of Edith (Who unfortunately chases Nancy around the house, I think she's just playing but I'm not sure Nancy realises that), at food time she will block Edith's access to the bowls.  It's quite funny to see the bemused look on Edith's face when this tiny cat elbows her out of the way.  Nancy usually eats all of her own food and about half of Edith's.

Bearing that in mind it was unsurprising, but still pleasing, when the vet told us she had put on a pound in the two weeks since we last took her.  She is becoming nicely pear shaped, with a podgy little tummy.  Don't get me wrong I don't want Nancy to get unhealthily fat, but she was definitely underweight when we first brought her home so it's nice to know we are doing something right!

Why I Am Very Excited.

My lovely friend Laura is going to be in town for a few days, and she offered to host a birthday party at her house tomorrow evening for Doc C and I!  How can you turn that down?  And when I asked if we could have a pinata, make Dia De Muerto skull masks and eat tacos she thought that was a great idea!  Hooray!  It's going to be a very faux Mexican birthday; except I think The Doc plans on making another pecan pie, but it would be churlish to turn up my nose at Doc's pecan pies just because it doesn't fit a theme.

So I've been very busy this evening disembowelling a tissue paper bull and stuffing it with sweets and tacky plastic stuff.  Edith loves the pinata, and keeps rubbing her face up against it, but Nancy has ascertained it has no cat biscuits in it and is therefore totally uninterested.
We actually had quite a difficult time choosing our pinata because there were some excellent options.  I think Doc would have preferred the pirate, but I thought we should go traditional for my first pinata.  Neither of us wanted to get a Dora the Explorer pinata, because she had an oddly grey face and it was creepy frankly.