Okay, I need to step awaaaay from the kitties.
The new arrangement of furry bodies…actually this is the third configuration since the first pics.
Feb29
Monthly Archives: February 2012
Feb29
Kitty-stackers
Because I love the wee lads, and they are being adorable, here’s a couple pics of Spot curled up on top of his little brother. Poor Lokii doesn’t seem to care, but yet he isn’t sleeping, either…
Spot, however, has no compunctions about smothering Lokes. Apologies as always for terrible-quality iPad pictures. I knew if I got out the ‘real’ camera they wouldn’t stay that way!
Feb29
Earworm OTD
The Police, King of Pain.
I’ve not had one of these in a while! I mean by that a truly random earworm of a song I’ve not heard in a long time. My guess for having ‘I’ll always be (the) king of pain’ repeating in my head is I because don’t feel so spiffy today…
Feb27
I don’t reblog often. This is worth it.
The separation of Church and State has been much on my mind lately because Rick Santorum, whose poll numbers seem to have been soaring lately in the race to become the GOP nominee, has been all over MSM talking about it. He said some things that Americans need to pay close attention to, very close attention to. Let me show you what I mean. Look at the following quotes below and tell me if you identify who said which quote. Your choices are: Rick Santorum, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Osama Bin Laden, Muammar Gaddafi, Pat Buchanan, and Pope Benedict XVI (currently in that office)–Answers are here.
On a Lack of Morality
1. “Measures that are taken outside religious morality, politics minus morality, economics minus morality, culture minus morality only turns the world into a hell for nations and humanity.”
2. “…Since they have zealously promoted moral relativism by…
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Feb21
Pancake Tuesday… with a twist
Today is Pancake Tuesday! Are YOU having pancakes for dinner? We are!
I’m not sure how many countries actually have a Pancake Tuesday. I’m sure the ‘real’ Fat Tuesday is similar… but in Ireland, they call it Pancake Tuesday. Without Googling the official reason, here’s my version of the reason why, as filtered through what my hubby told me nearly seven years ago:
It’s a Catholic thing. Because you were meant to give up yummy things for Lent, you used up all the eggs and flour and sugar the night before Ash Wednesday, so it wasn’t in your house to tempt you. What better way to use these ingredients than by making a passel of pancakes?
So, I’m not a Catholic and wasn’t raised that way. Hubby isn’t a Catholic either, but he was raised that way, and has had a lifetime of traditionally having pancakes for dinner one particular Tuesday a year. (He was just telling me the day is yet another pagan festival day that has been usurped.) Hence, we make pancakes (or, he does, because I don’t have the patience) – but we don’t do it for any other reason than tradition and it’s a bit of fun – and, of course, because they are soooo tasty.
The problem is… we are on a low-to-no carb diet. What to do? Well, there are tons of versions of low-carb ‘cakes out there. He’s been doing it long enough that now he has his own version. I’m not privy to the details, but I know it involves eggs, vanilla, possibly whey powder, and ricotta cheese. And they are fantastic, especially with my home-grown blueberries from the year before all throughout. You’d never know they were low carb. I’m smelling them cooking now, and they even smell like ‘normal’ pancakes.
As an American, I can’t get into just sprinkling sugar (or Splenda) on top of my pancakes. I might cheat on the diet and use some of my precious Mrs Butterworth’s syrup on mine. Just a little, though.
Feb20
I have to go to sleeeep…
…but I’m missing my blog. I thought I’d say a few things before heading upstairs.
I’ve finished re-reading what I wrote already on The Book. I still like it. I’ve also done most of my research on the stuff that needed researching up to this point. So… I guess I’m ready to start making words fit together in new ways!
My writing area is a lot different than it was for the first chunk-o-book, though. I’m in the house now, instead of hiding in the cold, uncomfortable shed, sitting on a toilet. I shit you not.
Now, I have pillows in front of the fireplace – but I also have constant interruptions. Not great.
But! I’ve been re-learning how to do several things at once, even if I don’t want to. I change the track of my thoughts so very many times in a day at The Job that I’m getting good at it. I hope.
Anyway, that’s really it. I have to retire for the night – because my brain is running out of my ear and pooling down around my collarbone.
Feb17
I’m talking about YOU!!!
Hint, hint!
Yep, there’s a reason I used so much Purple!!!!
Feb17
Socks has a… Pomegranate. Because she says so.
Yet again I’m doing two weeks of news in one post, sorry. My brain insists I only did a Socks + Button a few days ago. I guess this is what happens when I don’t blog daily…
Last week, Button was the size of a spaghetti squash. This week was such a let-down on the fruit-simile front that Socks got annoyed and decided Button is a pomegranate. Much better than the ‘large mango’ they were trying to foist upon her. I mean really, we already HAD a mango! Also, in her own written words: “Another source says a Doll. What? You can’t just throw Doll in there in the middle of fruit!”
I totally think ‘doll’ is a cop-out. Dolls come in all damn sizes. I’m pretty sure Button isn’t a Barbie or a Cabbage Patch Kid.
Last week, Socks told me that from here on out there is the possibility of her belly-button turning into a outie. Fingers crossed for Bear’s nervous stomach that it doesn’t!
She says that her belly has ‘magical powers.’ The full laundry basket whisks itself upstairs when she isn’t looking. The kitchen cleans itself when her back is turned. And strangest of all, the trash takes itself out. We are investigating the phenomena and will get back to you with the results.
Socks also told me that her belly is contagious. She has a local friend who suddenly is taking steps toward creating a Button of her own, after never really considering it seriously. This lady sounds really cool – I’d like her, I know it! – and I’m happy that Socks gets to use her hard-earned knowledge to help someone else through such a huge life-step: she enjoys helping others and is damn good at it. It even turns out they will have the same OB.
Things weren’t all rosy last week, though. There was The Babies R Us incident. We won’t go into detail because she reads the blog, of course, and I don’t want to give her flashbacks. Suffice to say that Internet shopping is a helluvalot easier on a woman who was just staring to feel pregnant, and swears that she is waddling already. But it did give me the quote for last week:
Bear – ‘Thank you for having a baby!’
Socks – ‘That’s the easy part! Shopping is hard!’
On to this week! First, the photographic evidence:
What was the first thing I noticed? That she had to buy a bigger top! I knew the other one wasn’t gonna last much longer. She had a general check-up Dr appointment and The Bellah is 25cm. Now, notice that I’m not using Imperial measurements…because apparently, the medical profession the the US uses metric. Even when no one else over there does. Sigh. Since I moved here, I’ve been trying to train my brain to think in both measurements, and in both Fahrenheit and Celsius – so my guess without Google is 17 inches. Let’s see if I’m right… Hell, no. It says 10 inches. Wait, that Bellah looks bigger than that!!!
Oh well, I have to work harder in training the brain, it seems. Socks did get her first comment on being obviously pregnant from a stranger this week, too – the FedEx delivery lady. First of many, Socks: people are damned nosy!
I’m going to let her speak for herself again, because I think this is funny…
“Well this week marks the beginning of my 6th month of pregnancy. Do not get me started on how 23 weeks equals the 6th month. That is an argument no one is going to win. They say “if you go by calendar weeks, well then your pregnancy would be 10 months”. So what? If it’s ten months then it’s 10 months. Doing some Crazy Voodoo OB Math and changing the numbers around on paper isn’t going to change the fact that this baby is in there for 40 weeks. Okay, pet peeve aired and over with. Thank you for listening!”
The last news is that Button is very, very, active – already. Her cartwheels can be seen from across the room, and even made the doctor laugh. It was interesting to hear that Button’s heart rate increased when she was cavorting, too. Pre-natal calisthenics! Bear has only managed to feel her moving once, so I think we’ve got a momma’s girl on the way.
So, Button will double on weight in the next four weeks – ow, poor Socks – and the waddling will only get more pronounced. Quote of this week, regarding the size of The Bellah: “I have a definite hitch in my giddyup.”
Feb15
Neko is sick…again…
Sigh. Last evening Neko barfed up her food. All of it. It wasn’t like a normal dog-puke in that she emptied her entire stomach. I cleaned it up, and chalked it up to her being upset that ‘daddy’ wasn’t home at a time he normally would be.
I let her out, and the other end of her digestive system was working normally.
Roll on to five am, and she is puking again. Three big piles IN her dog basket before I was awake enough to get her out of it and onto the wood floor. (Why do animals always want to puke on fabric? What is the attraction?!? I can barely fit that bed in my washing machine…)
Unfortunately she didn’t stop vomiting this time when all the food was up. She was straining and repeating to barf until it was bloody foam. I set iDJ on to Google while I held Neko’s hair out of her face, figuratively. When she stopped he took her outside where she had another normal poop.
Argh, now what? Google (and common sense) say take her to the vet. Which we will, of course, as soon as we can get there this morning.
The problem is that we only have one car, and I have to use it to get to work. Work is 20k the other direction from the vet’s office, which is at least a half-hour away. There’s no good way to do this, unless iDJ can borrow a van from work. He says he can. I hope that’s a 100% yes, because a maybe at this point is no good to Neko.
Poor pup. Wish I could make it all better.
Feb13
Back in the saddle again…
I don’t think I’ll be posting as much in the future. I have plans…
Tuesdays I’ve got KIBIS and there’s always Oirish Tirsday – both days I that I don’t get to play online as much as I usually do. And of course, the job takes up a huge chunk of my day (I worked an hour late today and feel pressure to go in early tomorrow as I still didn’t get everything done).
But that’s not why I think that I should step away from doing my usual one or more posts a day. I still could, but they would be small things like terribly cute cuddling cat pics or whatever dead leaf I found interesting enough to photograph.
I think I need some more ‘free’ time: not for the drawings, but the writing! I love the drawing, and after the excitement about King over the weekend, I really do want to do more of it. I’m waiting for inspiration to strike there, however. I can be a bit slow to cogitate over important things.
Which brings me to the point – after leaving it aside since October 2010, I’ve picked the book back up.
The Book. The one I’m writing. Or was writing, and am now revising and playing catch up with and getting back into the fun groove of my characters. I’ve over 25K words, so catch up takes a while.
I think I’m ready. I know I’m ready. My writer’s block was 100% guilt about playing and having fun while I didn’t have a job. I felt so guilty that my funny bone went to sleep, and my characters got bored and wandered away from me. Because for me, they write the book. Not me. I just listen in.
This blog’s entire original purpose was to get me back in the habit of writing. It did so much more than that! I found people I like and respect and I would welcome into my house without question. I found artists and writers and photographers and people who care about politics and good causes and so very, very many people who love their furry kids as much as I do. You are all fantastic, and I wouldn’t ever be able to ‘go away’ from you for more than a day or two! You have given me back my voice, my words, my funnybone, and my drive to finish what I started. Thank you!
It’s still in there, The Book, and it wants to come to life again.
heretherebespiders 