Tag Archives: Cats

Math with cats!


My house is exactly 1803 square feet.

There is laminate or tile flooring covering around 1,100 of those sqft (the entire downstairs for instance, then both upstairs bathrooms).

The remaining 700 sqft which is carpeted covers the stairs, the bridge and the two master bedrooms on the second floor. That’s a shade under 40%.

Since 16 and 27 keep their doors closed all the time, that means the cats have regular access to approximately 450 sqft of carpeted floor and 900 sqft of laminate/tile. That’s carpeting at about 33% surface space.

If you count the surface covered by furniture in my room you can really drop that carpeted area down to perhaps 200 sqft – That’s 14% of available space.

And yet….

This:

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… is put to use at least once a month.

Why?

Because they ONLY barf up technicolor hairballs in the approximately 50 sqft portion of the carpet that runs from the second landing on the staircase to the foot of my bed! Last night was a special event as Amber managed to decorate the top of the stairs, dribble down two more stairs and also leave a little drop or two on the lower landing. Given the color, I’d say she was mistakenly thinking it was St Patricks Day ;-/

Sigh….yes, they target just 2-3% – and hit it every time! All that laminate that is easy to clean even if it dries up. Nope. That’s too damn easy, isn’t it?

CATS!

 

My kick ass trainer


The other night while watching The Biggest Loser for inspiration, I launched into my first planned home workout routine.

I was doing great – blew past the targeted 15 minutes and was on the back end of a 40 minute routine.

Wanting to work on my leg strength, I was doing chair sits against the wall. I could still see/hear the TV which took my mind a bit off of the oncoming muscle shakes and pain as I kept myself at the proper 90 degree squat position.

And then….Amber sauntered around the corner.

She paused…gave me a quick “meow!” and….walked right under my chair squatting self, and raised herself up to head butt me! Yes, she head butted my butt!

Do NOT ask me how I did not fall over at that moment – I started laughing so hard that I actually couldn’t really move out of the spot! She just continued to saunter on by with another “meow!” I counted out the remaining 25 seconds I had intended to hold the position with my continuing giggles and then I thanked her for upping the challenge for the night.

Cats!

Amber

Let the games begin! (I need the distraction)


 

Ah summer, when my day job gets so intense that I have no brain left to drive home let alone write a blog post!

Also, whose idea was it to have my kid jam a one year online math class into not even three months? As if Mr Lazy & Unmotivated was going to be able to keep that up without Xbox removal and major parental nagging!  He was supposed to be done with Semester 1 on the 20th. He finished it last night. He’ll most likely earn a B in the class which is good but LAWDY was it a major pain to get him through finishing a damn multi-media project and some discussions at the end.

Now he starts semester 2 which he has to finish by 8/31. And regular school starts on 8/28. And 2 a day football practices start 8/8. Yay?

At least we got his knee checked out and the MRI was clear. He’s had nagging knee pain off and on for a few years now – mostly at its worst when he first starts working out running drills. Turns out he just needs some physical therapy to learn the right stretches to loosen up his hamstrings which are pulling on one particular spot causing the pain. Kind of like my hip bursitis from a tight T-band that flared up when I first started running. Once I learned the right stretches to do, it has been totally under control.

So thankfully the Olympics start tonight which means I will have something mindless to just veg out to on the TV every night for a couple of weeks.

And if I haven’t bored you enough yet, there will be pictures of E&R’s blind kitties – I’m on cat-sitting duties this weekend while they are out of town for a wedding so I can blog about someone else’s cats for once instead of my two crazy pants fur balls.

 

Short Stories from Casa Crazy


Some time ago as joke I created a Facebook location for our house and called it Casa Crazy. I did it because I’d had dinner with some friends who had all commented on how LAME Facebook check ins are, especially when people are checking in from home and calling their home some cutesy name. So, ha ha ha, I ran home and created the location and checked in with some trite statement like “chillin’ on the patio at Casa Crazy with Amber and Chip” or some such nonsense. Yes, I cracked us up, I tell ya!

So here are some more riotous tales from Casa Crazy!

(Hah, I originally typed that Casa Cray and realize now I *should* have called it Casa Cray Cray…might need to update that!)

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This weekend at the San Diego International Triathlon Eve and I were at the finish line watching racers come in and keeping an eye out for Renee. One guy was running in, drifted off to the side where spectators were, got his toddler aged daughter in his arms and carried her the final 30 yards or so to the finish line. Adorable. And a bit dangerous when you consider that other racers were sprinting in all around him and he was lucky he wasn’t run down as he drifted in and out. Of course, at least he did carry her and clearly he had no podium aspirations (or he knew he was so far ahead that he could slow down to get her and not lose a spot). So we stuck with thinking it was sweet overall.

Then we spotted Renee coming in on the next to last turn. She was motoring along pretty well and was mostly in a group of men also coming in but there was one woman ahead of her. As they hit the final turn, the woman in the front did The Drift to the side! And yep, she snagged a kid! She was a little further back than the previous guy had been and this time she was pulling in a 5-6 year old boy into the chute. And she wasn’t carrying him. I see this all unfolding right in front of Renee and my first was concern was that she not crash into them because she had quite the head full of steam. (Alternately my competitive side was thinking ” Just push him outta the way girl!!”) She did have to alter her path a bit to avoid him, but then she took off and finished ahead of mom and son.

By .02 seconds. Not 2 seconds. .02 seconds. How do we know? Because that was the difference between 2nd and 3rd place in their age group. Thanks to mom pulling her kid along with her, she lost her #2 spot. Hah!

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15 will kill me later, but this was too funny not to share. He was making himself some chicken noodle soup while telling me a story of some sort (in the right mood he pretty much never shuts up). He opens the can, dumps the contents in the bowl, throws the can away, picks up the bowl in one hand and opens the refrigerator with the other yapping all the way. Now, I suspected he was going to grab the juice container for whatever reason but…well..you can probably guess what he did right?

Yup, bowl of soup, right into the refrigerator! I just stood there looking at him as the realization comes over him and then he looks and sees me grinning. Completely unable to cover that up, he had no choice but to burst out laughing as I did the same. “When did you move the microwave?!” he managed to blurt out through giggles. Yeah, nice try son.

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If you have cats, then you know this scenario. No matter where I settle down to either read/watch TV/work(futz) around on the computer, they will be RIGHT THERE! I always laugh when I am seated at the dining room table working at my laptop and I will have one cat on the left, and another on the right. The three of us, basically crammed into a little 2×3 foot spot of carpet in an 1800 sft house! And of course, I have no way of getting up from my chair without stepping on one of them. Sigh………………..

Well, flash forward to tonight when I decide to sit outside after dinner and read my book. It’s a clear summer evening and until the sun drops below the roofs of the houses across the way, it will be perfectly toasty, but not hot or cold. I’m out there in the peace & quiet for about 5 minutes tops when I hear Amber howl inside because she knows I am right Out There and she cannot be with me. Suck it up cat. Mama wants a few minutes of space. Then 15 pops through the front door to discuss plans for his trip to the fair tomorrow. Then 26 comes out the side to smoke a cigarette and water the plants. And just like that both boys are talking to me and/or to each other as we are all packed into two squares of sidewalk concrete. Meanwhile the cat is howling inside.

Boys…cats…cats…boys….SIGH!

Goodnight from Casa Cray Cray Crazy.

May 19th – Hearth and Home


Catchy title eh? Ads a lovely delusion of grandeur to the much more boring reality that I basically stayed put and did chores ;-)

OK, not entirely true.

I did run out to Starbucks to grab breakfast. My cereal box for the week was empty and I didn’t want to make eggs and I have $ on my gold card so – Saturday treat! I enjoyed it while watching Up & Nerdland on the DVR.

THEN the chores started.

Well, sort of because I had planned on getting that water fountain for the cats and also some new everyday shoes for 15 and then meet up with Padres/Adam Lambert buddy David at the mall so he could pay me for the tickets I bought for him. We decided to meet up for lunch there so we could catch up because I realized that while I “see” him on twitter on facebook everyday – and he is constantly updating both – I had not actually TALKED to him In Real Life (IRL) in almost two years!! So strange. I swear I feel so close to many people who I engage with every day via one of the social media sites that I forget how rarely I see them IRL (if at all).

It was a great time and also quite encouraging to talk to him about things like college with 15 there. David is young – younger than 26 – and he and his boyfriend are both just finishing their bachelors (though David started a little late). Sergio graduates in June and David graduates next year. The encouraging part was when 15 told him about wanting to study computer science, David’s eyes lit up and he shared that his brother completed his degree in that at SDSU and went right to work as a programmer with SDG&E (local utility company). That got 15′s eyes to light up and hey – as you all know all too well – ANYTHING we can do to get his motivation and interest perked up is a huge blessing!

Ok, once we got home from THAT we did stay put. Cleaned, did laundry, cleared out the ‘fridge,  setup the fountain and watched the cats. They decided it was interesting but not worthy of drinking from it. Grrrr. Chip stuck his nose in the falling water and promptly jumped back shaking his head. I let it run for awhile since it was supposed to do that to prime the pump and then later I turned it off and sure enough about 10 minutes later they both drank from it. Stinkers!

Spent the rest of the day reading and researching for improving the ebook and also just in general on content writing or simply writing techniques. It was good to see that the system of steps I came up with on my own to do this research seems to be consistent with what other web content folks follow. I’m either brilliant or a lot of this stuff is just common sense ;-) Sometimes though, we need to be reminded of the basics to get them to click more solidly in our pea brains that retain knowledge for a grand total of about 3 minutes!

Now back to Lizz Free or Die which I am absolutely loving.

Peace out!

May 14 – Trespassing!


Arrived today! Of course I’ve been listening to the tracks streaming on his website since last week, but now I get to blast it in the car and finally load it on my phone and not be at the whims of a web stream. I’m pretty much guaranteed to love everything he sings – especially since he will never venture into country :-)

Anyhow – thanks to the vets office I was able to qualify for an account with Care Credit in order to pay them off and avoid paying interest and finance charges. This is the same company I used when I had my laser eye surgery and they do interest free loans (as long as you pay off within a year) for medical procedures for smaller dollar amounts. I just didn’t know that included vet bills! HUGE relief because paying it off over a year is no problem at all.

I think both cats are still adjusting to the events. Chip is much more affectionate today though he still does NOT want to be picked up at all. We’ve had to start a new feeding routine and Amber is NOT happy about it at all. I’m not overly concerned. She could stand to lose a pound or two and I know she will start eating what is put in front of her in due time.

Work was mellow. It was also potentially mo rtifying though I think I wore the right outfit to cover up my faux pas. I had a slight wardrobe malfunction normally attributed to guys – my fly was down – from when I arrived until 10:00 when I discovered it. Sheesh.

I ran when I got home as planned. My goal is every other day. I’m hoping to do the full 3.2 loop but at the least I will do the 2.6 route. With hill at the end of course because why not torture myself completely? I usually end up keeping rhythm with my steps as I say in my head “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!” I figure it worked for the Little Train so why not me? :-) Anyhow I did the full 3.2 tonight but purposefully slower finishing in just under 35 minutes. Felt OK. Not bad, not great, but fine. Hoping to pick up the pace Wednesday night.

No homework drama tonight thankfully.

Keeping in line with last week’s events, I’ll close tonight with a line from the song “Outlaws of Love” that Adam wrote in response to the LGBT struggle but as he points out, it works for anyone who feels threatened over who they love. A Romeo and Juliet interpretation can be applied so to speak as well as his own personal feelings about his freedom to love and marry who he wants:

They say we’ll rot in hell

Well I don’t think we will

They’ve branded us enough

Outlaws of love.

May 12 – And peace was restored


Mother’s Day is tomorrow, but I am declaring that I celebrated mine today.

26 and I had a great day together (along with the aforementioned friend I took in to work yesterday).

I lounged in bed. The vet called to say Chip needed another day on the catheter. He was clearly feeling better but there was still blood in his urine so he needed to stay another day/night and then they should hopefully remove the catheter sometime tonight or in the morning and once he has peed on his own without issue he can come home.

Once we had that news the day was clear for me to do whatever. So, that’s about what I did! Moved from bedroom to sofa and watched a bunch of shows I had on the DVR. Cleaned a little. Knocked out my website tasks for the day. Read a little. Slept a little. Then the 3 of us walked down to the 56 trail. They continued walking and I took off on a run first heading away from them and then doubling back and meeting them out the other end to walk home. Got in 2.7 miles in 26 minutes. Yep, kept it under a 10/min mile pace. It was getting hard to run at that pace towards the end but still it felt good and at least this time I was running TO run vs running to get away :) )

When we got home, 26 started making dinner and just as I sat down for that, Eve texted me to come up there and finish up what we started last night. We got a lot done, and I now have a pretty full task list on my plate :)

Oh yeah, 15 took a practice AP test today. I was actually proud of him for a) signing up and b) not lying about being chosen to have one of the limited slots. I texted his dad around 10:30 (test started at 8) to find out if 15 was as thrilled to be there as I expected. He responded ‘tickled pink!’ I told him that I was boldly predicting that when he got done he would state that it was “a HUGE waste of time!” They swung by here after the test was over to pick up some coupons from me and he marched into the house and said “I still hate you for making me sign up for that! It was pointless!!” I laughed and showed him the text I had sent to his dad guessing he would say something like that….he did (at least) have the decency to laugh at himself over being so predictable in his grumpiness!

Amber is very confused about being an Only Cat right now and is clinging to me more than usual so I am glad I was a homebody today and gave her lots of attention. She misses her buddy despite the way he annoys her when he chases her around. Hopefully tomorrow we can reunite them.

All I really care about is that peace and order was restored to the house and its occupants today. Ah, there’s the merry!

May 11th – And you think I run to stay in shape!


I run to get out of here and clear my head and focus on myself for 30-60 minutes at a time. If it happens to keep my body in shape too – well, BONUS!

(Ok, not entirely true but I have to admit that getting out of here last time was my primary goal)

Chip is back in the vets office. Not constipated. His bladder was blocked so he’s staying overnight with an IV for dehydration and a catheter to get everything drained.

Given that peaceful situation it’s no wonder that 26 and I had a bit of a conflict today right? Yeah. Let’s just say we weren’t communication really well about things especially since I woke up at 4:30am to find Chip listless near my bed and my attempts to give him water were unsuccessful. Then I had to take his friend to work (long story) and THEN I came back home to tell him to step up and call the vet and take Chip in himself because I had to get to work (dammit!). Some defensive freak out attitude later resulted in me snapping and yelling at him and slamming the door and just about screeching wheels to get the hell out of here.

Flash forward to coming home from work – meetings and more meetings but at least some GOOD ones with my staff who truly are the best group ever that I have – squeezed in between that a random complaint from a maintenance manager about one of my staff speeding through the parking garage (clearly that guy was having a bad/stressful day to not only flip out about that but then to confront my employee a second time, get his name and march down to tell me about it all) – where was I? Oh yeah, get home to further clear the air with 26 and find myself barely able to contain composure again. I’m supposed to be heading out to meet with Eve because our website traffic has gone in the toilet thanks to some Google Penguin crap (don’t ask) and I had to take a breather first. Then I go to 15′s room where he is playing Xbox while waiting for his dad to get here. Wanted to tell him I was heading out – all I do is put my hand on his shoulder and say hi “WHAT?!” comes back in return with about as much disgust as a 15 year old can muster. I just said “Hi – bye” and backed out slowly before tears started.

Yeah – I think I will be heading to the doctor next week for a hormonal check up. Been feeling off just enough to see that there is more going on than just the day to day stresses of life and I am taking them WAY too hard for no real reason. Might be time for a new b/c pill to get me over the last few years to menopause.

For the record – I named this the Merry Month of May series – who stole the merry?

Whatever – I’ll sleep well tonight because I know Chip is getting the medical attention he needs, the boyfriend will back me up if the vet wont take a payment plan, 26 and I got our crap out and are totally on the same wavelength again and 15 is with his dad for another day. I’ll settle up with him on the attitude next week. Also? Having friends to run away to for quesadillas and bourbon REALLY helps!

Speaking of quesadillas – Siri impressed the hell out of me today by recognizing that word on the 1st attempt. Smart phones – indeed!

 

May 5th – lounge, work, drink, work, eat, work, oooh that moon!


After sufficiently lounging while watching Up with Chris Hayes aka #uppers! and part of Melissa Harris Perry aka #nerdland! I ventured out to drop 15 off for a day of paint ball mayhem with some of his football buddies. With him otherwise occupied I was free to work with Eve on our websites. As usual, a day with the girls  - if it doesn’t involve running – ALWAYS involves good food and drink :)

So, we worked a bit….then both of us were dragging so we had some coffee with liqueur in it which we sipped with Renee while sitting on the patio and yapping. Then back to work for a bit, then off to the store to get dinner supplies – I had brought some swai filets that were on sale – back at their place we worked some more while Renee cooked for us and we sipped on just a bit of bourbon…mmmm. After dinner and more yapping we went back in to work until 15 finally called to say he was almost back and ready for pick up. Not a bad seven hours all in all!

Meanwhile the cats had nicely blessed each new litter box back at home and we have been piddle puddle free for another day. The vet did call today to say that there was protein in Chip’s urine which usually indicates a bacteria though they wont know for sure until the cultures come back on Tuesday. Thankfully there was nothing else there so most likely all he has is the remnants of a UTI. Of course that will mean anti-biotics in addition to the pain pill which is – in fact – a pain to dispense!

While I was at the girl’s house one of their cats was being a real pain and then when I got home both of mine have been acting skittish and bizarre. Even the normally affectionate Amber has been somewhat aloof and only put up with brushing for a few minutes before dashing off. Chip just sits there looking ready to leap away and ducking if I try to pet him.

Then I remembered that there was some sort of super moon going on tonight. I totally forgot to look for it at sunset when I guess it was huge on the horizon, but even an hour later it is ridiculously bright in the sky. And full full full!! No wonder the cats are on edge. I feel doubly lucky that Chip hasn’t marked any unapproved spots!!

I’m coloring today as silver – as in, the silver lining to mark the end of a bit of a cloudy week.

May 3 – A bittersweet birthday – with more pee!


After yet another puddle of pee was found when I got downstairs this morning I’ve made an appointment for Chip to go to the vet tomorrow morning to check for any health issues causing the unapproved peeing. Honestly I hope there is something psychically wrong because while that may cost $$, at leas it would be a concrete explanation for the recent accidents. I’m not sure what we would do if he was simply being an asshole! Damn cats.

The ONLY other thing that could be bugging him about the litter box might be the litter itself. So, I will also completely dump it out and clean it this weekend and fill it back up with Fresh Step Multi Cat which I was using regularly until I found something cheaper that it seemed like they were totally willing to accept.

I do think it’s a UTI though or perhaps crystals – something male cats can get. He was certainly having issues in December with constipation and I suspect that set him off on a round of other issues that has just spiraled into this week which is the worst ever. 3 puddles in 4 days. All in different places so now I have to treat 3 spots on the floor to remove the odor. Thankfully all on the laminate and not on carpet, but the puddles seeped under pieces of furniture or onto something which also needs to be decontaminated too. Bleargh!

So today as the Junior Seau news continued to cloud the airwaves, just happens to also be my dear friend Jacqueline’s birthday. She would have been 47. I would have sent her our traditional George Clooney birthday card (she sent me one every year and I reciprocated in kind exactly 5 months later). There is no question that Jax fought inner demons. All of us who were close to her knew that. We have all admitted that deep down we were not shocked she died as she did – it was just a question on when and really we know there was nothing we could do for her. That Seau’s demons were more hidden makes his death so much more unfathomable for everyone. So far, NO ONE has indicated they had a clue.  I hope his family does let the Boston clinic have his brain for study as has been requested. I think it would give them some comfort to have an explanation. At least, it would for me.

Anyhow…..thankfully the night was mostly peaceful at home. It’s amazing what flopping on the sofa with 15 and watching, Criminal Minds, CSI, Modern Family and Big Bang Theory will do to lift the spirits. A little intrigue, a lot of creepy and a ton of laughter. So I am bringing the color condition to blue today. Specifically turquoise blue for Jax – a jewelry color she loved to wear. Happy Birthday Jax – I’ll go gaze at some Clooney pics in your honor. It’s a sacrifice that must be made ;-)

Oh look! Clooney – in a pool of BLUE water – yes, that will do nicely: