This is what passes for humor in our house these days:
Husband: After this episode at the vet, Caymus better get his furry little butt a job.
Me: Either that or start pooping gold nuggets.
Husband: Only if they are solid.
Me: Well if they were liquid, he’d probably have a pretty high temperature.
Husband: [Pause] Yeah, I guess he would have a fever.
Us: HA HA HA!!
Has it really been that long since I’ve posted? I had great plans for this weekend, but I was too busy on Saturday and too sore on Sunday. Getting caught up on the oh-so-exciting yard work!
Plus, it is very hard to post when this is happening:
You can’t hardly sit down in our house right now without a cat in your lab. She is making up for all of the lost time this Spring. Plus, it is very hard to post when your computer is on the floor…
(How do you like the styling pajama wear?)
If there’s not a cat in your lap, you have another one stalking you:
Saki also missed us a lot. He brings us toys every evening. The lemon (and tomato that is in the previous photo, by the computer) get carried around the house from upstairs to downstairs and back again. When we wake up in the morning, there are usually 4 or 5 toys outside the bedroom door. In the evening, he hauls them all back down to us in the den.
All I can say is, thank goodness we don’t have mice.
We have gotten eight inches of snow so far today. I have shoveled the driveway TWICE. OK, so the first time I used the snow blower. The snow was wet and heavy and I was lazy. The second time I needed the exercise and just wanted to enjoy the quietness. They are predicting up to…. Ready for this? *15* inches. OMG. That’s a whole stinking lot of snow.
But I didn’t have to drive in it. Because I’m not teaching this semester. Instead, I spent the day in front of my computer working on revising student proposals and writing recommendation letters. Snooze. But don’t feel too bad for me. I have a laptop and was on the couch with a fire going in the stove. This is what the cats were doing:
Do you know how hard it is to take picture of a black cat? Photoshop is my friend.
A year ago you would have never seen this picture but recently the boys (Caymus on the left, Saki on the right) have starting snuggling. It’s actually Caymus snuggling up to Saki, which is pretty funny because Caymus is so standoffish.
Anyway - Italy update: We leave in almost exactly six days. EVERYBODY PANIC. Haven’t started packing but we did go and buy another large suitcase today. I have a list going (yes husband, vitamins are on the list!!).
I had the BEST italian lesson yet from Pimsleur. It was about 8 minutes of a dialogue between a man and women.
I’m really not making this up. It’s actually kind of sexist, but from what people are telling me (yes, people who are over there right now!) this might actually be a useful conversation to understand!
I just bought the most amazing thing ever. Really. (Warning - this post contains references to cat-ily functions. Not for the faint of heart.)
I hate cleaning up cat yack. Who doesn’t? Well, it reached epidemic proportions this weekend so I went out and bought this:
This is my new bestest friend (sorry Lisa). I don’t know why I waited so stinking long. I don’t understand why it is the “Pet” version. It doesn’t have ears and thankfully it doesn’t yack on the carpets. JUST THE OPPOSITE!!
Imagine a cat mess on the carpet:
Imagination runs amok. (Even I’m not going to take a picture of that!!)
This is me as I hear the cat or accidentally set in it:
*&&^#((%*#
Now, instead of grabbing the Resolve, I grab the SpotBot. A little hot cleaning solution and up the vacuum tube it goes, leaving:
Clean carpet (really, you can come and look). WOO HOO!! Very easy to use. No complicated knobs or buttons (just two, which is kind of a let down. Anything really good has lots of fiddly knobs). Add cleaner and water up to line, turn on. It heats up the water too!!
Clean up is simple too. Unless you are me. So when you add the clean water, you flip the reservoir upside down, remove little black thing and add water. Wouldn’t it make sense that you empty the dirty water that way too? Remove dirty water reservoir, flip upside down and… nasty water all over the floor. Don’t worry, it was on the tile, but man did that suck.
So sorry Resolve. You will now see a pretty large drop in your sales. We had a good run, but I found someone who treats (my carpet) better. Arrivederci!
Only *11* more days until we leave for Italy. Not that I’m nervous or counting down or anything.
For all you vegetarians out there, did you know that animal products MIGHT be used in the production of your wine? If a wine is “fined” they use some agent to remove small precipitates and proteins from the wine. Wine makers can use egg whites or isinglass to clarify wine. (However inorganic agents can also be used. (Isinglass is made from the swimbladders of fish and used mainly in white wines from Germany.) So make sure you ask or look for the unfined wines if you are concerned. Me, I think it is OK.
Went to dinner at Dusty’s tonight (Yum!!) for a wine dinner. The winner of the evening:
But of course, Parker reviewed it and gave it a 90+ rating so there wasn’t any to buy. Blah. A steal at $17 a bottle too.
Of course, my favy South American red is:
Yum, yum, yum. Rich, purple and fruity but with a lot of tannic structure. It used to be a steal (<$15) but the price jumped about two years ago. It stabilized at around $23/bottle. Tres yummy!! (The cat on the label really doesn’t have anything to do with me liking it by the way.)
So I know, nothing to do with Italy. So here’s the quick update: I know how to say “Would you like to eat something at my house?” in Italian. (Watch out Jim, you’re gone for three weeks!!) Thinking about taking one of the cats with us. Are we crazy? I think so.
