anniemiz

Random Update

Oh, gosh, I haven't been posting much lately, other than about cats and cancer.  There's stuff about which I'd like to write and post, but haven't been in the mood to sit down and actually write and post.  Hmmm, howzabout I do a recap here?

School: Currently working on a paper about the knowledge argument (KA) and the ability hypothesis (AH).  While reading Jackson's original KA stuff, something in there reminded me of the AH, so I thought I'd look into the two a little more.  It can be very frustrating to think about something, try to come up with something interesting and just a smidge original...and yet, nothing.  I suppose it shouldn't be surprising when thinking about something that's probably had some 87,000+ things written on it.  Every time I think of something that at least I consider interesting, I look around a bit to see what, if anything, others have said about it only to find that I'm late to the party.  I've finally settled on some ideas to write on and I'm just going to go ahead with them.  I'll post more later after I've actually finished the thing.

Wrt grad school: Still grumpy and uninterested in writing about it.

Cats: Edison continues integrating into the group.  He's slept with us for a few nights now.  We had been putting in his room at night bc he just would not let Smudge and Nosey rest in peace.  He's been better the last few nights, although it takes him a while to settle down.  He's settling down in general, too.  Becoming less a constantly crazy, active kitten and more a lazy layabout adult cat.  He is, in fact, settled down right next to me for a daytime nap as I type.

We're still working on regulating Nosey's insulin intake.  Nosey has the dubious distinction of being the longest feline patient of our vet's to get regulated.  Changes to his insulin dosage are made based on his roughly every three week fructosamine (sp?) testing.  The upper range of normal is 450 (I forget the lower range; maybe 80? 120?).  When first diagnosed, Nosey was in the 900s!  He's now down to 599.  He seems to drop roughly 100 points with each increase in insulin.  He's currently at 3 plus a smidge units of insulin two times per day.  He's gaining weight.  He's up to 13.7 lb.  We'd like to see him at least 14 lb.  Up to 16 lb. would be good for him.  His activity level is increasing.  He plays like the Nosey of old: jumping in the air at the birdie toy, chasing after the string toy, etc.  He's just been taken off prednisone entirely; hope that works out okay and his IBD doesn't recur.

He's been aggressing towards Clara for a few months now.  At first, it seemed like he went after her when she went after Edison (she goes after him, and I mean, really goes after him, i.e., she's not just playing, at least once a day).  It was kinda cute bc it seemed like the big tuxedo cat was sticking up for the little tuxedo cat.  But we've since seen him staring her down and stalking her even when nothing's going on (as far as we can see, that is) and Eddie's nowhere to be seen.  Sometimes, when one cat gets all riled up about something, other cats get riled up, too.  Maybe it's instinctive.  I think that's what happens when Clara chases Eddie and Nosey reacts to the situation by getting all riled up himself.  I mentioned this to vet, who tells me that diabetes can be accompanied by increased aggression.  Guess that's what's going on with our little NoseyCat.  He never got into it with any of the other cats before, never had any aspirations of taking down any of the others.

Although I'd prefer none of my cats be diabetic, if any of them are going to be diabetic, I'm glad it's not Dolly or Clara.  Especially Clara.  I don't know how we'd get insulin shots in her 2x/day.  We were able to medicate her when she had IBD, but she was confined and very weak then.  I'd probably have to shoot her with an insulin dart.  And the last thing Clara needs is to be more aggressive.

Dolly's down about .5 lb.  She hadn't been getting her flagyl bc she'd learned that she could jump over the baby gate to the basement.  As long as she has an out, she uses it when we try to give her any medication.  Kevin's put up a makeshift door and we've just started giving the flagyl to her again.  (The doorway to the basement is in a very tight spot, almost too tight for a regular door that swings out.  The prior owners had one of those accordion type doors.  That was perfect except the cats could squeeze through even the tiny opening they could make on the side where it latched.  Smudgie has always had an open door policy: he abhores a closed door and always tries to open closed doors.  He picked apart the sections of the accordion door to make new openings to get through the door.)  Now we've got to get her weight back up again.  She's still in the kitchen.  We leave the doors open except for when we're about to medicate her.  I sure hope she doesn't figure that out.  But she doesn't go very far from the kitchen even when the doors are open.  After several months of having the doors always closed, seems she's become a prisoner of her own mind.  I think her life, in general, is better now bco her kitchen location.  She eats more.  She gets her medication regularly.  She gets more interaction w/us.  She gets less aggravation from Clara, who used to bother her several times a day, poor thing.  Clara really can be such the little bitch.

Dolly and Clara need dental work relatively soon.  Dolly will have pre-dentistry blood drawn at Nosey's next appointment and, if the blood tests are okay, she'll go in for a dentistry.  She now has gingivitis (who doesn't?) and some bleeding of her gums.  Both are preventable...if the cat allows tooth brushing.  Dolly don't play that.  Kevin cleans Eddie's teeth with pads made especially for cats.  He doesn't love it (Eddie, that is), but he's been getting it done since he came here so he's fairly used to it.  Clara had that ER trip a while back bco some infected teeth; the ER vet noted that she'll probably need to have more come out.

Fortunately, Smudge and Eddie seem to be well.  The vet noted that Smudge has lost some muscle tone, but he will be 13 yo next month (as will Dolly and, we estimate, Clara; Nosey turns 8 next month), so that's to be expected.

True to Crazy Cat Lady form, I'm currently looking into a sad looking cat that I've occasionally seen on the way to and from work over the last two months or so.  He looks like he's a totally outdoor cat.  Up until the other day, I had only seen him at night.  I was able to get a good look at him (could be a her, I didn't check) and he just doesn't look good.  He's got one grey eye (like Slim), although that mightn't be problematic ito proper care.  He was dirty and wet on his limbs, with some kind of clay color spread on one of his white legs.  He's very friendly. He did have a current town license tag, which is encouraging.  And it allowed me to give the town animal guy some identifying information.  I think I'll call tomorrow to see if he found out anything.  I just feel badly for the little critter, especially with yesterday being so cold, slushy and windy.  If he was outside, I hope he was able to find some kind of shelter.

Work: Work's pretty much the same.  There are times, however, when at work that I feel like I'm witnessing the decline of civilization.  We have a set-your-cell-phone-to-vibrate policy (the idea being that you wouldn't take a call in the library and you certainly wouldn't dream of making a call from the library).  If any place should be cell phone free, it should be a library.  I admit, I'm very picky and strict about the cell phone thing.  Not only should you not use your cell phone in a library, you shouldn't use it anywhere people have no choice but to be part of your phone conversation.  Now, I can't change the world, but I can make sure people don't use their phones in the library.  I ask people to take their calls outside.  When it's very cold, I ask them to keep it short and quiet and take it in the kids' room in the back, where there's often no one else there.

Sometimes I do feel like I see a lot of selfish behavior at work, especially with children who are unaccompanied by an adult.  I thought I'd further explain what I mean by the decline of civilization, but I find my heart's just not into it at the moment.  I don't want to depress myself with a foray into the lack of civility, politeness and consideration.  Perhaps another time, then.

Home: Well, the builders were going to start our garage earlier than March, if the weather allowed, but the weather decided to actually act like winter.  Tant pis, bc I could've used a garage for my cute little car these last few days.

Kevin and I had a nice Valentine's Day yesterday.  I usually work at the library's Socrates Cafe on Wednesday nights, but I cancelled it due to the weather.  Kevin cooked up some quesadillas and we exchanged gifts.  I gave Kevin a map to track our travels.  There had been a big section of cork board on the den wall, but that's gone after it was remodeled.  But he had pinned up a map and marked off where we'd been.  He'd often lamented the loss of that cork, ugly as it was, so I thought he'd like this map, which is mounted on foam just so you can stick pins in it.  Kevin gave me two pairs of amber earrngs he got in Paris when he was there last month.  Smoove.  Plus a few other things.  Of course, we got each other the requisite delicious chocolates from Rose City Chocolatier in town.

Health:  I don't have cancer!

On that note, I'm off to do some stuff around the house, so Kevin doesn't think I sit home eating bon bons all day (note to self: put bon bons on grocery list) and then get back to thinking and writing about the KA and the AH.

A Woman Around the House

Brrr. Double brrrrrrr.  I wake up this morning, all set to get in the shower first thing and take on the world.  I'm usually a little slow getting started and I feel I lose a lot of time being slow, getting distracted, etc.  Well, that's all going to change!  But it's freezing this morning.  In the house.  There's a little snow outside, but it doesn't look that cold out (you know how you can tell how cold it is outside just by looking), parts of the house are drafty, though not that drafty, so how could it be so cold inside?

I go to check the boiler and it looks like the glass vial-like thingie that's supposed to show a certain level of water isn't showing any.  Now, I don't know exactly what that means, but I know it at least means that there's no heat.  We got this new boiler 2 years ago this month and I guess I've never had to adjust the water thingie.  I'm sure it needed adjusting, it's just that Kevin always did it.  On the old one, it was pretty obvious which faucet was for the glass thingie: it was the one attached to the glass thingie.  The new boiler has more knobs and faucets and whatnots than the old one.  Which one to turn?  I hope I don't totally screw up the heat situation by turning the wrong one.  I try the ones near the glass thingie.  Nothing.  There's a faucet that looks a lot the right faucet on the old one, except it's, like, got a parasitic twin faucet to it.  That is, it's got a smaller, identical faucet right on top of, like, snuggled into, a bigger faucet.  It's like a tarantula on top of a tarantula.  Whoa.  I'm not touching that thing.

Now, there is this one labelled, 'Water valve - do not leave open!'.  Hmmm.  Well, if I'm not supposed to leave it open, would it be okay to just open it for a little while?  And then close it right back up?  I mean, if there's never supposed to be any water coming through that pipe, there shouldn't be such a pipe, no?  So I try that one.  Success!  I load that glass thingie up to the exact technically mechanically optimal amount of water (as indicated by George the boilerman's magic marker line) that baby's supposed to get.  That was about an hour ago (yes, I woke up at 10:30 a.m. all set to take on the world), and I'm still waiting for warmth.  I hear the boiler working and promising gurgling, clanking sounds in pipes, but I feel nothing yet.  The first floor radiators will get warm first.  I'll know for sure that everything's okay when the cats start their daily roasting sessions on the radiators.  (I like uncovered radiators, but most of ours have covers just so the cats can roast their little selves on them.  Roast kitty.  Mmmm.)  I didn't grow up w/radiators, but had them ever since college and I've come to like them.  The cranking and gurgling sounds are very reassuring and comforting.  Plus, they're old-school and original to the house and I like old, original stuff.

So I feel all Wonder Woman-ish for figuring that out.  But I have not been so successful figuring out why half the second floor electricity is off.  When some electrical stuff was updated a few years ago, we had a new box put in, one that's pretty clear about what's what and has lots of switches to spread out the electric load.  I did the thing at the fuse box where you flip stuff, but that didn't help.  So, if I need to do something in those rooms after dark, I walk around w/a flashlight like I'm burgling my own house.  It could be romantic, save that I'm alone this week.  I suppose I could be all romantical by myself, but I dunno...I'm good right now.

Kevin's been gadding about London and Paris with his brother this past week.  He returns tonight.  It's been kinda weird yet neat having the joint to myself.  It's been pretty quiet.  I haven't watched much TV at all.  I have eaten a lot of junk, which isn't good.  Although I took myself out to eat a couple of times, which was nice and relaxing.  I have slept very well.  The silence at night has been

deafening.

I haven't even used my nature sounds, except for the true nature sound of Nosey's lavish purr.  Mmmm.   Puuurrrrrrrrr.  I think someone should make a sleep machine that has a cat purr on it and sell it on QVC.  A cat purr is the ideal nature sound for falling asleep.  Anyway, I think Kevin's going to have to get some of those goofy nose strips to use at night.  There is some kind of operation that removes something at the back of your mouth/throat and that stops the snoring.  There have been times when I've been tempted to get out the longest pair of scissors I can find and do a DIY version of that operation on Kevin.  I now also totally understand why people smother other people.  Of course, I would first try slamming my pillow on his head.  Although that would (a) stop the snoring, it would only be temporary, but (b) it would at least make me feel good.  The negative about the smothering thing is that it carries jail time. So we'll try those strips first.

Sometimes I've moved my base of operations to the guest room or the den for the night, but why should I move?  I don't want to sleep in the guest room or the den.  I want to sleep in my bed, dagnabit.  The only consolation I get when moving to sleep is that the cats usually follow me.

Now, he says that I snore sometimes, though he doesn't have a problem sleeping through it.  Probably bc my snore is a more delicate, refined snore, much like Nosey's purr.  It probably contributes to a good night's sleep, much like Nosey's purr.  But I do have a problem trying to sleep through his snoring.  Probably bc his snore is not a delicate, refined snore, not at all like Nosey's purr.  Until this past week, I never realized how often I wake up at night bco of it.  Well, rest assured, dear readers, that things are going to change around here.

I like when Kevin takes trips or does things like this; I think it's good for both of us.  I will be very happy to see him back home tonight, though, snores and all.

Bargain

Child labor is the best.  Our young neighbor, D, just asked if we want him to bring our leaves to the curb.  (We can only put leaves at the curb 2x during the fall and this weekend is one of those times.)  He loves power tools.  I said, 'Hmmm.  How much?'  D: 'I don't care.'  Me: 'Okay, that sounds good.'

The Urge to Purge

In addition to remodeling the living room, another resolution is to purge the house of unwanted, unneeded stuff.  Clothes, housewares, books (yes, books), gadgets, a waterbed missing important parts that we've been storing for someone for years now, etc.  It's all going.

Kevin's making out pretty well with my resolutions this year.  Sometimes I come up with some real doozies and announce them, even before January 1st, with, 'Things are going to change around here!' or some such proclamation.  Give it a few weeks and turns out things haven't changed very much at all.  But he could get into a remodeled living room.  And I know he'd love to see me toss out a buncha stuff.  There's probably not too much stuff to toss, but it feels good to get it outta here anyway.  Clearing stuff out always feels good.  Having a lotta stuff just complicates life.  When part of the house was remodeled a few years back, it forced us to toss a buncha stuff then.  I don't think I'll be tossing as much stuff now as we did back then.  Although who knows.  I have been clearing stuff out pretty well so far this year.

Our choices were to give away the good stuff and toss the junk OR have a garage sale and toss the junk.  I was kinda tempted to have a garage sale, but then I remembered the last time we did that.  It's a lotta work, there'll still be some stuff left over (although we priced things really low iot move stuff out), weather can be a problem, and it might just be easier to donate the good stuff.  And Kevin wasn't too keen on having another sale.  Theoretically, I could get into having a block-wide sale with some neighbors, but when the time came, I would prolly regret it.

Last year, I purged a bunch of clothes, some house stuff and a few pieces of furniture.  A former neighbor of ours would say to Kevin, 'I was going to throw this out, but then I thought I'd give it to you.'  I know he meant well, but it  made me laugh the way he said that.  So one day I came home to find their old dining room table, three of the surviving chairs and the hutch in our house.  And, while we could use a new dining room set, that particular set, while I always liked it in their house, was too dark for us.  And I knew that, if I kept it, I might never get around to getting a set that did suit us.

But the point of all this is that it's not as easy to give away stuff as you'd think it would be.  The clothes were easy: there's a clothes drop box at the mosque down the road.  (After 9/11, one local yokel opined that putting clothes in that drop box supported terrorists bc they sold the clothes and used the money for nefarious activities.  Hmm.)  Now, supposedly some veterans' group will take stuff.  And there's the Salvation Army.  But some places will take stuff, but not clothes.  And other places will take clothes, but not stuff.  And some places will not take furniture of any kind.  And most places will not take exercise equipment (bc they get so much of it? bco liability issues?).  Now, I'm not saying I've got premium stuff here and folks oughta be tripping over each other to take my leavings, but I kinda thought it would be easier to give this stuff away.  I guess I can kinda see why charities are picky about the stuff they take.  I imagine some people donate some real crap and then the charities are stuck with disposing of it.  In the case of lots of crappy stuff or large crappy things, they probably end up paying a lot in disposal fees and time.

So, the stuff/areas I want to purge of extra stuff:

• there's probably some stuff in the eaves up-upstairs; what was the attic is now the bedroom, which is fortunate, bc now we don't have an attic to fill with junk; but there is a little storage space left up there; there's probably a little purging that can be done there
• the pc room, esp. the closet
• the spare room closet
• the pile o' junk in the library
• and, finally, the dreaded basement; this area could get ugly and messy

The garage needs to be replaced; purging that is a whole 'nuther project, too big for this list.  As you can probably tell, I'm very much a LOP (list-oriented person).  I find lists are very helpful.  Of course, now that my lists are here, y'all can follow my progress or lack thereof.  But they say (whoever they are) that it's helpful to go public with resolutions bc then you tend to feel accountable and stick with them longer.  Well, I can't see that I feel accountable to my dear known and unknown blog readers.  I know that, for every resolution I blow, you've all got some resolution or goal or whatever that you've blown.  You just haven't blogged about it.

Anyway, other than Kevin and the cats, pretty much anything is fair game for getting purged. 

You Say You Want A Resolution

So.  I usually make New Year's resolutions, but I was having probs settling on some for this year.  Now, for me, resolutions are not necessarily big, goal-oriented, personal-achievement type things.  They could be, but usually they're not.  Resolutions tend to be smaller projects, backburner type projects.  Things I'd really like to finally get done, not things that I'm actively trying to get done first and foremost.  So I've settled on at least one resolution: to remodel the living room.

This made it onto the resolution list bc I was sitting in the living room the other day and thought that I'd sit in it more if it were more user friendly.  As it stands now, the cats use the room a lot more than we do.  We've paid more attention to other parts of the house and we are pleased with those results, but I think it's high time we got more use out of our living room.  I'm considering tacking the dining room onto the living room project bc they're next to each other and need a lot of the same stuff done, but I'm holding off on that for now.  It might be less efficient, but it might be better to work on and totally complete one room at a time.

For my planning purposes, and possibly your entertainment purposes, here's what I've got so far for re: what needs to be done in the living room (* = the dining room needs it, too).

• electrical
  • overhead light installed, including wiring for the light (there's no overhead light in there now); maybe w/a fan
  • replace one OH light switch w/a dimmer switch; add one by the other side of the room*
  • ground and add outlets*
• ceiling
  • replaster*
  • paint*
• walls
  • fix cracks in plaster and wherever electrical work was done
  • repaint
  • the dining room needs a bit more work done on the walls: take down walls; insulate; sheetrock; plaster; retrim; paint; I'd like to lose one of the closets in the dining room, so there'd be a bit of work in that space
• fireplace
  • check firebox for holes
  • fix brickface
  • fix lose stones in the hearth
  • paint hearth
• floors
  • refinish
  • retrim as needed
• windows
  • unjam the windows between the living room and the porch so we can actually open them
• decorate
  • curtains: fixtures and curtains*
  • make mirror above fireplace smaller and replace frame w/something not so ugly
  • move the piano to another spot in the room
  • either get slipcovers made or buy new furniture
  • add some lighting besides the OH light
  • move the recliner outta there
  • replace coffee tables
  • put up new/other pix and/or maybe reframe old ones w/nicer frames

Now, I'm sure there's stuff I've forgotten, but this is a pretty good list to start.  The stuff to definitely outsource is: electric, plaster, floor, firebox check, fixing the fireplace brickface, redoing the mirror and/or picture framing, and slipcovers.  I kinda look forward to painting bc it's sorta relaxing.  Kevin keeps reminding me that while painting is easy, it's the preparation that makes it easy, and preparation isn't all that relaxing.  I know, I know, but, as always, I ask, how hard could it be?

The Christmas Chree

This is our chree for this year.  I say 'chree' bc Kevin noticed, a few years ago, the way I pronounce 'tr: it comes out as 'chr'.  Hmph.  Never noticed that myself.  I blame my mother.  I can't recall how her 'tr' sounds, but it's not an American 'tr'.  I don't know if it's the stereotypical Irish 'tr'.  Funny, that I can't recall how she would say 'tree'.  I'll have to listen for it next time I talk to her.  I do recall that her 'sch' is more like 'szh', depending upon what followed the 'sch'.

Anyway, we picked this tree out from the Boonton Kiwanis annual chree sale.  For some reason, I'm partial to Charlie Brown chrees.  No one wants them...they always get passed over...and ultimately end up in the woodchipper on December 26th.  The other chrees - the big, wide, tall, perfectly symmetrical chrees - at least they get to partay and live a little before they get booted to the curb in January.

I took this picture when it was dark and just the tree lights on.  That's quite a flash on the camera; it looks like daylight.  It's a goofy little chree, to be sure, but we like it.  It's definitely got a hodge podge of ornaments.  Some chrees look so coordinated and elegant with themed decorations.  I don't think I could pull that off; I don't have enough style and creativity.

I'm not big on angels, but yes, that is an angel on top of the tree.  My mom gave me that years ago and I just keep putting it up there.  And yes, that is an angel in the picture behind the tree.  That picture was in a B&B in Santa Fe.  I really liked it.  I didn't notice the angel wings bc they're so faint; I thought those were just some very light artistics swirls or something in the background.  We saw a signed print in an art store in Santa Fe and brought it home to be framed.  The artist signed it and wrote 'The Angel' on it, which shoulda given it away.  Duh.  I didn't notice it until the framer pointed it out in figuring how to frame it.  Anyway, I still like it even though it's an (Native American) angel; it looks like a real person, not some sappy angel image.

That's pretty much my beef with angels: they're pictured so sappily.  That and that it just seems like they're so easy to invoke.  'Oh, an angel must've been watching over you.'  'Oh, that was your guardian angel looking out for you.'  Blah, blah, blah.  Sure, maybe angels exist, but, if so, I don't think they're anything like they're made out to be in popular culture.

It does feel kinda odd celebrating Christmas.  But I guess we don't really celebrate Christmas; we kinda celebrate 'the holidays'.  It even seems odd that it feels odd bc, ya'd think that, being raised Catholic, it would take much longer than this to lose the feeling.  Part of the odd feeling may also be due to general holiday malaise.  I wish Christmas was more like Thanksgiving.  I don't have many people to buy for; most giftees are kids, some are folks like the newspaper lady, the mail carrier, my hairstylist, etc.  But having a small gift shopping list does not allow one to escape the overall commercialization of Christmas.  So much focus on 'buying that perfect gift' and stuff like 'Every kiss begins with Kay [Jewelers]' or people buying each other Lexuses for Christmas.  Not that I'm in much danger of this, but please don't anyone buy me a car for Christmas.  And I don't like that it's so often the guy giving the girl some fancypants gift and then the girl's all over the guy.  Ewwww.  It suggests the 'but I took you out for a fancy, expensive dinner so I expect...' idea.  Maybe I'm overreacting, though (always a possibility).  Maybe I'm just ornery today (another constant possibility).

I also like how Thanksgiving seems so quiet, the days leading up to it and Thanksgiving Day itself.  Most people are already wherever they'll spend Thanksgiving, so the roads are quiet.  The house smells good.  If the phone rings, it's sure to be someone you want to hear from.  (Granted, Thanksgiving - or any holiday - is not so good for everyone.)

What is the perfect gift, anyway?  Perfect gifts I wish I could give people: their health back; their loved ones back; their problems eased; their spirits raised; opportunities; etc.  But I can't give those kinds of gifts, so, what?  I'll give them a scarf instead?  Oy.

Thanks

Things for which I am thankful:

• Kevin - I could go on and on about how wonderful Kevin is bc he's just that great!  That post would go on forever, though, so let me just say that I've long thought my favorite things about Kevin are:
  • he's conversational: I noticed that right away on our first date, i.e., that he could hold up his end of the conversation.
  • he's smart: I know this sounds geeky, but I've always thought smart is sexy.
  • he's kind: he has a good heart, he's considerate, generous, thoughtful.
  • he's funny: he has a good sense of humor; we laugh a lot and can have fun around the simplest and/or dumbest and/or goofiest things.
  • and last but certainly not least: he's handsome!
• friends & family - I've been fortunate in having the friendship of several people over many years: decades, even!  And, wrt family, weeellllll...okay, so my birth family is kinda, um, odd, but...hmmmm...it could have been worse.  How's that?  And my family's only been improved by the addition of in-laws!
• my cats - Again, I could go on and on about these sweet little creatures.  And not just my current crop.  I've had cats for as long as I can remember, except for a few years in rentals that didn't allow cats.  I was so happy when we bought our house that I'd be able to have a cat again!  And the idea really was to get a cat from the shelter; somehow we ended up getting three.  I was about to launch into that story, but then I'd have to go into how we worked our way up to five cats, down to four, back up to five and, briefly, up to six cats before backing down to five and then the current four feline residents.  So, I'm thankful for the cats bc they give me a lot of pleasure; they're soothing, relaxing, pleasing, endearing, etc.; it feels good to take care of them (i.e., spoil them).  It's so nice to come home and have a cat or two stroll over to greet me.  If Kevin's home before me, he usually comes down to greet me, but there's always a cat there to greet me first, since they're usually lounging around in the living room.
• home - I really dig my house.  I looooove my front porch: sitting on it, watching the world go by, studying out there...it's so nice to study on the porch on a nice day, with a coupla cats looking out the windows, waving hello to neighbors, etc.  The fireplace: we've been keeping a fire for a few days now.  Another great place to study: hang out on the couch with a coupla cats lazing around; going mobile with my puter; hearing the snap, crackle and pop of the firewood; the smell of real wood logs burning (i.e., not duralfames).
• Speaking of real wood logs burning: I'm thankful to Kevin for cutting up that big maple tree that came down a few years ago!  That, in addition to wood we've gotten here and there, plus the maple tree that came down a few months ago will keep us in firewood for a few winters.
• town - I like our town.  Sure, it's got its problems, but we're pretty happy here.  When we looked for a house, we looked for smallish kinda towns with town centers, transporation to the city, old houses (with decent sized rooms, nice wide moulding, porches, fireplaces, etc.), etc.  It's easy to get to know people around here, just from going for walks, shopping in town, eating in town, etc.  There's always been an odd mixture of businesses and shops in town.  Some are not so odd, e.g., coffee shops, flower shops.  Some are a bit more unusual.  At one point it seemed like we had pairs of some of the odder places: 2 tattoo parlors; 2 costume shops; 2 comic book stores; etc.
• job - My library job is just the right kinda job for me now.  The staff are nice.  I'm surrounded by books.  I get to meet and talk to a lot of different people.  The commute is about 3 minutes by car (and yes, I could walk it, but I'm usually down to 3 minutes to spare before I'm supposed to be there).   
• health & health insurance - Self-explanatory.  I've been pretty fortunate, health-wise.  I had that one bout of CFS, it's almost 10 years ago now.  That stunk.  It wasn't so bad once I knew what was the problem; then you know it's just a matter of time, i.e., that it won't last forever.  Otherwise, a nasty flu here and there and that's about it.  And health insurance: I can't imagine not having it. 
• food on the table - Especially today!  Again, self-explanatory.  Kevin teases me for having these depression-era attitudes toward food.  I make a tuna sandwich about once a year, but I like to have about 6 cans of tuna on hand at all times.  There's this thought in the back of my mind that, if you have certain, basic, relatively inexpensive things on hand, you can put together a meal.  Tuna fish, rice, pasta, potatoes, canned veggies.  It may not be the greatest meal, but you got your basics covered.  Such attitudes trickled down from my parents, who lived through the depression and shortages/rationing during WWII.
• heat - I hear these stories about senior citizens having to choose between heat and food and prescription medicine and so on.  How lucky not to have to choose between necessities. 
• time to do fun stuff - Indeed, free time is a luxury.
• opportunity to study at Rutgers - Ha.  When I decided to go back to school and take a few refresher courses, I thought, well, I guess I could take some philosophy classes at Rutgers.  I mean, it's just a state school and all, but it's close and relatively inexpensive (compared to private schools)....  I had been away from philosophy for so long that I had no idea who's who and what's what.  Imagine my surprise when I learned about a little thing called the Philosophical Gourmet Report!  Actually, I live in between the current numbers 1, 2 and 3 on the report.  I couldn't have been situated in a better place to take these refresher classes.  And again, since I was paying out of pocket, Rutgers was doable.
• car - A lot of people think a car is a necessity.  It does make things a heckuva lot easier, but I still think having a car is a luxury.
• my puter and the internet - so I can blog, waste time surfing the net, shop online so I can avoid wretched malls, email friends near and far, etc.

There's much more stuff for which I'm thankful, but I'll end here for now.

Nosey Gets No Respect

Poor Nosey.  He gets no respect.  He likes to hang out with me in the library.  He snuggles into his baby blanket in a pink cat carrier.  When I packed up Smudge for his stay at the vet, I used that carrier.  I gave Nosey this green one in the meantime.  He snubbed the green one entirely.  Witness a snub-in-progress in the first picture here.

We had a coupla carriers, but after the tsunami, I thought about how we really should have a plan for getting the cats out in case of emergency.  I bought four of these cheapo green carriers bc I figured we should have extra carriers.  We have four cats, but in an emergency, we might want to have carriers handy in a coupla different spots.  I didn't really think about how big the carriers were (I bought them online) and they are too small for the cats.  Maybe Dolly would be okay in one, but probably not if that's where she had to stay for an extended period of time (e.g., in a temporary shelter).  So I don't blame Nosey for snubbing the green carrier; although he could fit in it, it's really too small for him to enjoy hanging out in it.

When Smudge came back from the vet, I left the pink carrier downstairs for him and Clara to use as a snuggle spot.  That left Nosey with this inadequate green carrier.  So I finally got out another larger carrier, Kevin cleaned it up and now Nosey has a bigger carrier again.  It's not quite the same as the first pink one he had: it's taller, but not as long.  But it's definitely big enough for him to sit up, turn around, etc.  He was quite wary of it for a good week or so.  He finally settled down for a good snuggle in it last night, as you see in the second picture.

Now I need to get other, larger spare carriers.  We had a fire in the house one March, about 8 years ago or so.  At the time, we only had three cats.  We got Smudge and his now-deceased brother, Archie, out okay; they're big boys and not exactly the fastest things on four feet, so they were easy to catch.  But Dolly!  Oy.  Kevin and I chased Dolly around the bedroom while the firefighters were tramping around the house, yelling at us to get out.  I grabbed Dolly, but in a rather unfortunate spot, bc it allowed her to whip around and bite my hand.  Ouch!  Of course, I let go.  At that moment, a firefighter opened the bedroom door to yell at us again to get out and Dolly bolted.  In the confusion, no one saw where she went.  The front doors were propped open for the fireifghters to come in and out easily and I was worried she went outside (all of our cats stay inside).  Fortunately, it had just snowed quite a bit and there were no cat tracks outside, so I was pretty sure she was still inside.

The fire was in a living room wall, the wall behind the fire place.  The fireplace juts inward into the house, not outward as most new construction has it.  When the house was built, they obviously used wood studs all through the frame, including behind the fireplace.  There were a coupla tiny holes in the firebox and every time we lit a fire that winter, sparks would slip through the holes and smolder on the wood studs.  One Saturday, when the snow just kept falling and falling, we kept a fine blaze going in the fire place.  When I woke up Sunday morning, I went downstairs and saw and smelled smoke in the living room.  It's fortunate we were home at the time, before it got worse.  It's also fortunate that the fire department is about 5 blocks away and they had their trucks out in the parking lot, having just put on the tire chains in case they needed to answer a call.

Dolly eventually came out of hiding a coupla hours after all the emergency people left and after I returned from the hospital (bco the cat bite.  I certainly don't blame her for biting me; if I were a cat, I'd have bit me, too).  She had been in the living room the whole time!  Hiding under the couch!  We didn't even think to look there bc we figured she wouldn't be anywhere near where all the action was.  I finally looked there, both of us figuring she wouldn't possibly have hidden there, and there she was, crouched under the couch.  I put a little plate of tuna fish by the couch, but she still didn't come out.  I propped up the flap on the upholstery, so she could see the plate (I'm sure she could smell it), and she finally came out.

Annnnyway, the point of this story is that it's impossible to herd cats (although my co-worker, Ruth, tells me that her sister has a Border Collie that tries to herd her nine cats; I'm guessing that dog is perpetually exhausted) and that we need to have some kinda plan in place in order to get the cats out in an emergency.  The whole animal disaster bco Hurricane Katrina certainly reinforced the issue.  I still haven't gotten round to getting new carriers.  And I figure other things I should have on hand, ready to go, include:

• several pairs of thick gloves, so we can snatch up the cats w/o worrying about bites
• bottled water
• food - wet and dry
• a manual can opener
• litter, litter boxes, scoops
• copies of health records, esp. shots
• towels or such for bedding
• medications
• I'm sure there's other stuff I'm forgetting

I also keep meaning to get all the cats microchipped.  Smudge and the late Archibald were chipped, but that leaves Clara, Dolly and Nosey unchipped.  That could be a real lifesaver if the cats ever got out, lost during an emergency, etc.

At Last, At Last

At last, at last, thank God they've come at last...and saved me from the horror.

The Horror

It would appear that I might have to clean the house myself.  The cleaners come every other Monday.  They were due to come this past Monday, which was Labor Day.  When Monday's  a holiday, they usually call to say they'll come Tuesday or Wednesday.  They didn't call this time.  And they never showed up.  They haven't returned calls.  I hope nothing's wrong.  It's a family business and they're all very nice.  They clean the neighbor's house every other other Monday, so we'll see if they show up there and if everything's okay.