Friday Cat Blogging

TGIF

In honor of the passing of both Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, I actually paid to watch  Postcards from the Edge, Netflix didn't have it and Amazon Prime made me pay to watch it! How exploitive! Of their loss and my emotions, I feel violated. I was having flashbacks of having to rent physical videos, it was like going to Blockbuster. Ewww. It didn't help matter that I pretty much had to watch it right now, I was going to watch it right now anyway, but still!

You would think they would have a little more sensitivity at this moment and not try to profit of this loss, people are hurting here and they are still trying to make a buck of it. Poor form Amazon. They and Netflix should be pushing whatever catalog films they have that feature either of them or their work - Fisher did script work on many, many films, how about featuring them? Put some of those older titles up to the front and let them get some attention.

They have no problem featuring old Star Wars titles and I know that those are not there because of her passing, if they can manage to push old titles up for a movie release. I think they can feature their old movies now that they have passed. Good Gawd, Debbie Reynolds made many, many films! Pick a handful, I'm tired of When Harry met Sally too, but for old times sake...

The next time we meet its going to be 2017. Let us genuinely pray that it is better than 2016. And that Trump gets impeached very soon into it.

Wednesday

I think the most important part of going to work, next to the whole paying my mortgage and bills part of work, but the next most important part of work is the structure it provides. Because when I don't go to work, I don't have any structure and I do not stick to my schedule and don't get shite done. I walk less, which makes my fitbit grumpy. If I go to work, I come home from work which is my cue to walk the dog right now, I don't feel the same urgency to do this when I'm at home all day with the dog watching TV under a blanket. There is no urgency to walk the dog when I know he would really rather just continue his nap.

When I go to work I get up at A time, I get dressed,  I take the dog for  his morning walk, daily - speaking of this walk, its the same walk every day - however, if you look at my fitbit, its all over the place, sometimes I walk .50, sometimes I walk .19 - I always walk the exact same same route! I don't change, yet the fitbit  gets all creative with my route and seems to have the idea that I am very devil may care with my morning walk. I am not. The dog gets walked, he gets fed, I read my email and check my sites and take the dog out again and then I go to work. I don't change things. Much. I stopped getting the paper and so I stopped reading it. Now I get the paper again but I haven't started reading it again. I use that time to sit on the couch with the dog and cuddle, I think its time better spent.

Back to my fitbit. I think the fitbit is getting dementia and needs to be replaced. It also won't hold a charge and needs to be plugged in every couple of days - which is so wrong! A fitbit is like the Energizer bunny! It just keeps going and going and going. At least its supposed to.I need to plug it in every couple of days! It used to be every couple of months! And now its all forgetful! Today when I came home from work it said I took only 17 steps! and climbed only one  set of stairs. Even when I sit on the couch all day watching Law and Order I do better than that.

Clearly something is wrong. It eventually sinqed up, but that's not okay, I walked 2.6 miles just with the dog after work and I'm still not over 10,000 steps. I also went to Wally at lunch and spent the day at work walking to and fro, I didn't walk too fro but there was still some walking so I know I should have at least hit my 10K by now.

Speaking of the dog, he was good today, he didn't try to destroy the futon again. He was weird on our walk this morning though. One of our neighbors parked their dog in their front yard - properly restrained, he wasn't going anywhere, but they have never done that before, ever - and Rocket got all barky and male dog. He was just not having any of this Surprise Dog business. The other dog didn't bark or behave badly or anything but Rocket showed his ass and was very embarrassing and loud - he never does this! The other dog maybe was putting out some weird dog vibes I'm not privy to and Rocket wasn't having any of it and wanted him to know it or  Rocket was just very startled by the dog, who had never been there before and maybe had just been put out and his scent hadn't had a chance to spread the word.

I do know that Rocket doesn't like being startled by anything in the mornings in the dark and would have very likely behaved in a somewhat modified manner if there had been a man standing in that yard instead. He really doesn't like to be surprised in the dark, he has been known to take an aggressive stance at plastic bags that have blown by out of turn. Long story short, don't surprise him, he doesn't like it and he doesn't react well - which is probably for the best if you take walks in the dark, its probably best to have a  big dog with an over active startle reflex and bark first ask questions later policy

Raging Dog

Okay, so Christmas Day was great, dog-wise, Rocket had a great time with Esme, who is finally getting a little bit larger and easier to play with and he is taking advantage of it. He and I both needed him to have a friend that I don't have to pay for.

But, let's talk about Christmas Eve. I went shopping for most of the day and left Rocket at home, he was fine with this. The problem came when I also left him when I went out for dinner, and again, left him at home - he was not fine with this. I came home after dinner and found this scene

That tear goes through three layers of futon bags before it rips into actual futon. He also managed to take off his own collar and hide it so well it took me a good forty-five minutes to finally find it in the carnage. I was afraid he had accidentally eaten it and I was going to have to take him to he emergency vet at nine at night on Christmas Eve to to have it surgically removed . Merry Frickin Christmas.

Fortunately, for Christmas, it had just shaken it loose in his frenzy and it had slide under the curtain and was hidden. I couldn't do anything about all this at the time because I had to get changed for Mass, I did this and took him with me to hang out in the car and maybe get some vibes from the various churches along the street.

This is what it looked like by the time I went to bed Christmas Eve.

I  (with Rocket in the car) spent the day after Christmas going from one Walmart to another and then from Target to Target searching for a budget futon cover to replace my ruined one and  struck out. Wally does indeed carry the product in the stores but was universally out, Target doesn't carry the product in the stores officially ( the web site says they do) but does officially online. I could order it but I don't want to wait for delivery, I need it NOW.

I can't trust the dog with a ripped up futon, once he knows its weakness he will continue to attack because he is predator - its what he does. Find the weakness and hit it, over and over and over again until you kill it. He already wounded it , he will want to kill it .I need to get the smell of blood out of the water before he goes back into the pool.

After it became clear that a replacement futon cover wasn't going to fall from the sky, I added several layers of bandage to zipper section he attacked, its covered up now and harder for him to access. Hopefully.

And, yes, he has done this before, prior to being medicated. This time he was medicated, but he may have been over medicated by me and that may have caused the frenzy. Ta Da.)

Christmas Day

Merry Happy Holidays!!

Merry Happy Holidays from All of Us to All of You!!

Wednesday

Okay. I was totally going to do an entry this evening but then I went to Broskey and Alphagals for Broskeys Birthday and then I came home and put on my PJs and watched TV with the dog and then I went to bed... so that's where my evening went. Thursday evening I plan on going and looking at Christmas lights.

Hacky

Sunday I accidentally flooded the bathroom floor while I was taking a shower. You could look at this as an easily avoidable mishap or you could see this a Life Hack to score a very clean bathroom floor.

I can't remember if I posted these are not, Santa Pictures 2016

Doom

I was hoping for a miracle I didn't get. We cling to the electoral college because why? Its time to retire the concept as they failed at their mission.

Monday

And what did I do this weekend? Nothing? Not a damn thing. I had no to-do list. I slept sinnfully, shamefully late both days,  but I felt no shame at all! Sleep is healing.

I watched  a lot  of  TV, I took a break from my TV watching and made a shopping run to stock up for the week and get gas for the car, when I finished up at the grocery,  I bought myself two new purses - on deep clearance from Hamricks so they both are probably made from Asbestos or the pelts of diseased baby seals but they were very cheap and are sooo cute so as long as I don't use them as plates or  try to drink out of them I'll be fine.

The  one I'm useing now is perfect for the rest winter and is just adorable and the other is going to be so cute for the spring and into the summer!

I didn't wrap gifts or do any cleaning. I had a great weekend.

What I did do. I visited with my family, I did the laundry, I went to a really fun party Friday night, I took the dog to Dix to run around off leash and take advantage of the momentary lull in the frigid temperatures, I made cheese sauce and enjoyed dinners of steak and riced cauliflower and cheese sauce Saturday and Sunday nights.

This coming week I'll wrap gifts and get the house cleaned up and be useful, But I really needed the rest this weekend and I took advantage of it.

Friday Cats Blogging

Friday

The cats had their yearly visit to the vet this afternoon. Tiny isn't as tiny as he was, at 10.5 pounds and Ace is holding steady at a very respectable 14.6.  They both have clean ears, good teeth and strong, steady hearts and lungs, livers and kidneys.

It turned out to be as cold as they said it was going to be and I did as I said I was going to do. I came home after the appointment and changed into my jammies and spent the evening camped out cuddled up with the dog and a cat every once in a while, in front of the TV under a blanket. Absolutely lovely.

Don't mess with a mess.

I took time to argue with an old friend on Facebook about why Trump is evil - I actually have an old friend who does not think Trump is evil - I think he must have suffered a head injury some time after I knew him, he used to be a nice boy, a really promising artist.

And now he's an asshole who sells autographs - Protip, don't buy autographs from an artist. He said that he couldn't understand why DJT making fun of a reporter with CP was wrong, I told him he couldn't understand it, because he had voted for DJT, and he had lost the capacity to really understand why such behavior was wrong and it was just sad, he was such a nice boy...

I hope he is terribly offended, Trump voters can get so offended on their own behalf but can not understand why anyone else can get offended on their own behalf. Soulless creatures one and all. Proto-Nazis.

It made him mad when I kept going back to Trump being a Russian plant, so I went back to that over and over and over. Because he is, a Russian plant. That made him uncomfortable. I also told him the coal jobs aren't coming back and I thanked him for his part in the ruination of America.

Don't fuck with me when I'm tired. I'm mean.

And I am tired! I did not have to go to the vets Wednesday, I was wrong on the appointment day, I was so relieved!  its Thursday, which is better. It's going to be bitter cold and I'm planning on not walking the dog anyway. Tonight, to spare trips outside Thursday (when I am going to change into my PJs as soon as I come home  from the vet with the kitties and then curl up with the dog under an electric blanket in front of the TV for the rest of the evening and admire my tree), I went to Target and picked up Rockets pills and and bought two half priced sweaters because they were half priced! and more birds for my tree.

And then I came home and was a bitch to a Trumper.

Grrrrrr.

No entry today, sadly. I did get a lot done today though. I got all nut one of the cookies mailed, the breeder family moved and I need to get their new address, so no joy there. I got most of my Christmas cards taken care of and mailed, I got a gorgeous walnut pie made for the folks at work for our Christmas lunch and I  discovered lost my thumb drive with all my addresses on it.

Neither Exhausted Diana or Awake Diana thought to save the damn file to her Computer because if either of us had, this would not be an issue. Awake Diana thought she did but apparently it was a file type the computer didn't like very much and chose to not save or something equally shitty.

I am wildly looking for it. I am almost absolutly sure it made it back from the Kinkos because I have this vision of myself putting the drive somewhere "safe" inside my house. The problem was I was exhausted when I did this and Exhausted Diana does not use the same logic that Awake Diana uses.

I have scoured all the places Awake Diana puts small things that need to be kept safe, small things get lost and I have a limited number of places that I stash small things for their safety. The small thumb drive is in none of those places.

It is also not in my purse or in the pockets of the pants I was wearing Monday night, it is not in the car because I looked everywhere. I wouldn't have left it at the Kinkos because the machine told me to remove my drive and I remember removing it.

Exhausted Diana should not be in charge of things.

Lists II

I reviewed my lists from yesterday to see if I could check anything off.  I was able to cross of the "get labels" item off, I went to Kinkos and bought labels and then spent .13  page to have their printers print them off. It was worth it to just get the damn job done. I now have enough labels to never have to buy labels again.

I ran across an old thumb drive not long ago that I used for the Christmas card images, as I was looking at all the too much stuff that was still being carried around on the drive, I noticed that my Christmas card list from last year was on it. As you may recall, my computer crashed last summer and took everything with it, everything including  random stuff like, say my much worked on Christmas card list that took me hours and hours to get from point A to Point B and correctly formatted and all the addresses corrected and updated and I was very proud of it. And then it went Poof. But because it went poof over the summer, I didn't think about it when I was thinking about all the stuff I had now lost.

And there it was. Finding it saved me much time and heartache. It's not still 100% correct, people have moved and gotten married in the meantime, but its correct enough to save me  a lot of time. Thank you Gawd. It was even formated correctly to what Kinkos had labels on hand to print to.

I would have been to the Kinkos sooner but I took my thumb drive to work to look at the addresses and then in a fit of being afraid of being discovered with an illegal thumb drive being plugged into my computer (we have been warned how very, very bad it is to do that. Very bad, very, very, very bad), I stashed it in my desk and forgot about it.  Later on, at home, I went to check for it as I was getting ready to leave for the store and discovered it wasn't in my purse! I had to go to work to get it and then go to the store. I was so very pleased with me.

But any way.

I came home  from Kinkos and boxed up cookies, got them labeled and ready to be mailed! I included my Christmas card and the Dogs' card. I'm only missing one address and I'm going to get that tomorrow and I'll get that box mailed later. I couldn't find a big enough bag to carry them to the post office in so I put them in a black garbage bag. It looks like a Santa bag! Everyone had the post office will hate me.

 I haven't gotten the rest of the cards even started yet, but I do have the labels so those are a go.

Santa isn't the only one with lists.

 Friday before I left work, I made up a weekend to-do list for myself.It was very enthusastic and positive thinking in my abilities to get work done over the weekend. It read:

- Pick up cards
-Pictures with Santa (Petsmart and Petco)
-Make Rockets' cards
-Bag up cookies
-Boxes for cookies
-Mail cookies
-Buy Stamps
-Buy Labels
-Go to Broskey and Alphagals to make labels
-Prep Cards to mail
-Mail Cards
-Rake leaves
-Clean livingroom
-Dress mantel

By Sunday evening I had accomplished:

- Pick up cards
-Pictures with Santa (Petsmart and Petco)
-Make Rockets' cards
-Bag up cookies
-Buy boxes for cookies
-Mail cookies
-Buy stamps
-Buy labels
-Go to Broskey and Alphagals to make labels
-Prep Cards to mail ( sign them, get labels on them, stamps etc.)
-Mail cards
-Rake leaves
-Clean livingroom
-Dress mantel

I should have mentioned somewhere on there about "review addresses to make sure they are up to date" and "Make sure labels are formatted to whatever printer I'm going to use this year", its always a bit of a surprise to me, there should also have been some mention of "print up ingredients list" because I have to include that with them before I mail too, I also should have added "buy shipping tape" because I can't find any in the house and I need it before I can ship anything to anywhere. I had really hoped to get this stuff done by early in the week but I'm not sure that I'm going to be able to make that happen. I still got a lot done over the weekend, including laundry, and I should feel good about the amount of work I did get done. I also got a lot of time spent watching TV with the dog under a blanket and admiring my Christmas tree. It was really cold and gross outside and I am still officially sick with bronchitis.  Now my list has a list.

Friday Cats Blogging

In the Dark

I learned since I moved up stairs, that I can put a serious crimp in my morning if I am a couple of inches off my normal trajectory when I come out of the bathroom. I was not careful enough on launch and I had too much speed and ended up lost in my own bedroom.

The first thing I do is get to the lamp and pull on the strings and  turn on the bulbs. Good morning to me. This morning I kept trying to find the  lamp but it either wasn't there anymore or the lamp was on the move! The lamp wasn't where it was supposed to be! In fact, there was no lamp! My alarm clock and its glow was no help either with my navigation: my treacherous pillow was blocking it. I was lost in the dark and I might have well been in the middle of a warehouse.

None of my usual touch points where there and I was left flopping around in the dark, helpless. I couldn't find the lamp and I was wondering what had happened, Nothing was where it was where I had left it the night before and for a few seconds I was really confused.

By the time I finally found my way back to the bed I was absolutely relieved that  it hadn't disappeared or that I hadn't woken up in a new space. The animals by the way were of no help. I had always thought that somehow at least the dog would  come to my rescue and lead me to whatever passed for safety in a situation but that was not to be. I'm pretty sure the animals and their superior night vision just watched me flailing around and laughed at me.

Air Horn Orchestra Last Concert #loud #airhornorchestra

We had our last concert and our first official parade and a real band!

Today

I was woken up this morning by my cat not so gently exfolitateting my face. My doctors office just began to offer this same service for  I am sure a small fortune. It was very nice of him to do voluntarily with the same thing he licks himself with. My skin is now very smooth though. I know that there is a market for the 100% all natural, totally pure exfoliation though.

There are those out there what would be thrilled to pay out the ass for my cat, or really any cat, to hold them immobile and sit on their chests and aggressively lick their faces! It would hurt a little,  cats do have cat breath - which isn't sweet BTW - however, it would leave them with a totally clean and completely exfoliated face, or at least an exfoliated portion of face. My cat likes to groom a section at a time and is pretty dedicated to area. If he's really feeling it, and he feels that I have lapsed in my personal grooming regime,  he may "do" one whole hemisphere including my ear!  But that is unusual. Maybe two cats per client?  I'm not sure they would cooperate like that. And there is the issue that not all cats are into grooming humans, Tiny has never gone there and I don't remember Tex being interested in the field. There are details to work out but I think this could be a money making plan.

I know there is a market for the chemical free chemical peel.

This morning before I brushed my teeth, for about two seconds I thought it was Wednesday. It was actually Tuesday. I was happy about it be Wednesday until I  remembered that it was in fact, Tuesday and I settled into that.  I was further disappointed when  I wasn't able to take my phone with me when I walked the dog,  and that was an issue - it was upgrading itself and it didn't want to be separated from its wi-fi.

So I took a whole walk without my steps being counted on one of my step counters and the workout didn't get counted officially, I can log it to Map My Walk and get it logged in, but it doesn't  count in the official count of anything. So it was a wasted walk. And? I was out in the dark with nothing but a 70+ pound dog to protect me! Which is fine but a phone is like having a light saber! No one has ever messed with me, see 70 +  pound dog listed above, but the phone offers a certain level of instant protection that I like to have at hand. To be honest, I've never need any protection at that hour everyone is thoroughly startled when they see another person,  The code word for  "I am harmless is: "Good Morning".

Hello

I said I would be back "after Thanksgiving".

I'm not sure if I thought it would be this far after, but this is when I'm back. I needed time to heal and calm down and be angry. I went to protests. I protested. I protest still.

 I needed to watch Netflix ( I would have watched more Netflix but they don't have as much as they say they do to stream!) they lie about their catalogue of titles. I wanted to watch Legally Blond,  but they didn't have it! They had reams of titles "like" LB but they didn't have It and I really, really wanted to watch IT. I was like HAVEN'T I BEEN DISAPPOINTED ENOUGH! ARE YOU GOING TO DENY ME AS WELL? . I watched something else with the animals, but it wasn't the same. I've been watching a lot of holiday bake offs and Chopped. A lot of Chopped and Flip or Flop. I did get to watch Zootopia on Netflix and that was a pleasant surprise. I had wanted to watch The Secret Life of Pets but of course, IT wasn't available, but they had a zillion LIKE IT.

 I was also physically sick,  literally, I was sick, I was sick before the election but the results and the resultant lose of sleep, appetite and general steep decline in general didn't help my pre-existing condition - I should have gone to my doctor much sooner than I did, I ended up with a really good narcotic cough suppressant, that while the pharmacist gave me really dirty look and studied my ID long enough to make me worry about identity theft. I'm still coughing, not as much as before, but  still coughing, but now I just don't care about it as much. However, it persists and I can not by law get a refill of my cough syrup and I'm going to have to have a chat with my doctor.

I did more than watch movies with the pets while I was on my sabbatical .

-  I made  four varieties of dog cookies ( cheese, peanut butter, turkey gravy, and mint/parsley)  for a total of 1800 cookies (not distributed as yet)
- created this years Christmas card (not received back from maker, not mailed out)
-moved my bedroom/life from downstairs to upstairs
-finished my Christmas shopping
-put my tree up
-did the outside lights
-winterized the exterior of the house

I haven't finished the interior Christmas decorating, but I will. Its not going to be Christmas explosion it sometimes is because my theme for the coming year or until the Orange Menace is Impeached is : I do what I want, as much as I want, for as long as I want. I'm going to be more casual in my approach to things. I don't have to do anything. The only expectations I am going to live up to are mine. So if things don't get done, they don't get done. There is enough stress in my life, I am not going to add to it by forcing myself to do extra tasks that do not absolutely need to be done. I might bring the Santas down, I might not. I might bring some of them down but not all of them down. It will depend on how I am feeling about having to deal with rehoming my snowglobes.

So. In the interest of not adding to my stress, I looked to ways of saving time and energy in the exterior Christmas decor. I love this part! However, this part is stressful!  I slap lights everywhere! I have nets! I have strings! I have balls, I have little balls! I have nets that are narrow! My airblown that I bought last year that I was so in love with (briefly) , ended the season with a tear along a seam. Not easy to fix. Seams are highly stressed and my go-to airblown fix is to slap some tape on it and move on, you really can't do that with a seam.

Christmas of 2016, I am going with a no airblown Christmas, this is the first no airblown Christmas is over a decade! Its an adjustment . My neighbors were disappointed, my neighbors can go buy their own. I hung a single string of lights.

I bought this

Yes. As Seen On TV.  And It Is Awesome! It Works! Its Ammmaaazzziinnngggg! It does what it says its going to do and I looovvveeee it! You have to go out and get yours right now!

What is not to love? I mean really?  It is freaking awesome! I love it! It splashes dozens of patterns of lights onto the whole front of your house, it does single colors, multiple colors, it blinks, it flashes, it has a remote control! You will notice that the far right has a different look than the rest of the house - I have a large tree and a bank of shrubs that block the light from its work, so I added a lesser projector light from last year for just that section so that it could have coverage.

Republican Pat McCrory finally conceded defeat to Democrat Roy Cooper over a month after the election. McCrory is the first sitting governor to get reelected.  Cooper will be our 75th governor. 

Friday Cats Blogging