Scribble

Charleston, SC - Friday's Agenda

2010-11-03T14:17:00.021-04:00

Our first full day in Charleston starts with the Chef's Kitchen Culinary Tour. It's a 2 1/2 hour walking tour that begins with coffee and pastries and we'll visit 'several great restaurants' and get to visit the kitchens!

The tour is only on Friday mornings and has been featured in Southern Living, Bon Appetit, Cooking Light and the Michelin Guide among others.

Since no food except those early pastries is provided on the tour we plan to Lunch at Blossom after the tour. Turns out Blossom is owned by the same restaurant group as Magnolia's - where will will have lunch the day before.

Blossom's menu has tasty offerings like 'Buttermilk Fried Artichoke Hearts with red pepper remoulade' and a number of wood oven pizza options. Their sandwiches come with rosemary fries - and they mention daily lunch specials served with soup or house salad for only $9. An inexpensive way to try a great restaurant.

After lunch, we are planning for a bit of shopping (likely mostly window shopping considering my budget) on King Street. Upper King Street is the 'Design and Dining District', the Fashion District falls in the middle and the Antiques District is found on lower King Street.

We'll wander around the residential Historic District (perhaps seeing up close some of the things we saw on Thursday during our carriage tour) and according to Pamela's research there are 3 excellent cemeteries near St. Philips Episcopal Church.

Starting near the cemetery at the Unitarian Church, the Gateway Garden Walk opened in 1930 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of Charleston. The three block walk connects Archdale Street and Philadelphia Alley.

The idea of the walk came from Clelia Peronneau McGowan who found that a garden walk in the busy city of Paris was refreshing. As the president of the Garden Club, she suggested the idea to members upon her return to Charleston.

I'm also told that while we're there we need to check out 28 South Battery (see picture). This house was built by George S. Cook, a noted photographer in 1860. George S. Cook is an ancestor of my husband, Dan's - and I suspect also the source of his middle name 'Cook'.

After all that wandering around, we'll need a drink. So Friday's Sunset drink will be at Pavilion Rooftop Bar (assuming they don't have a table minimum, a packed house and no heaters in case there is a chill).

After a drink, it's time to stroll the cobbled streets and gas lit alleys for the French Quarter Art Walk (is this starting to sound a little like our last trip? New Orleans?). The art walk is free and open to the public but only happens a few days each year.

Participating galleries on Meeting, Church, State, East Bay, Broad, Cumberland, Queen, Chalmers and Tradd Streets will be open with artists on hand and refreshments. The French Quarter is located within the original walled city of Charleston and the art walk is from 5 to 8 pm the first Friday in March, May, October and December.

Food. Is. Good. Dinner at F.I.G might include some of the following tasty menu items: "Capers Blades" on the half shell with cabernet mignonette, lemon agrumato and pickled garlic. Or Pan Roasted Scamp Grouper with braised fennel, roasted tomatoes, cerignola olives and lemon. Perhaps the Suckling Pig Confit with sauteed young greens, roasted beets, mustard jus and smoked bacon.

I'm glad to see FIG described as 'laid-back, eclectic and unpretentious' as some of the bars we've researched seem to think quite a bit of themselves. FIG is another Charleston eatery that uses local source products and their menu changes daily. Yum.

That evening, before turning in we have several bars on our 'to do' list: Enoteca, Torch, Chai's, Bin 152. The first 3 are about 7 blocks north of our hotel, Bin 152 is about 4 blocks south. I'm not sure of their proximity to dinner at this point. I'd be lying if I didn't admit that some of these were selected purely based on pictures.

Enoteca is a new 'wine bar' in Charleston. It's tiny, only about 24 seats, and some bar stools. Self described as a 'sexy little space at night with the soft lighting giving the woodsy interior a warm glow". The focus is Italian wine, beer and cheese (they're owned by Trattoria Lucca just down the street).

Torch is another on our list, certainly more of a 'lounge' feel and they also seem to be following the 'hooka bar' trend. Chai's is Asian inspired, but describes 'fusion tapas'. Too bad we will already have eaten...

Bin 152 is in the French Quarter and fairly close to our hotel. They are also a wine bar, feature 35 different cheeses and have freshly baked bread. Sounds like dessert to me! Bin 152 has a very Country French look. Maybe we'll have some room left for a cheese and wine pairing.

So that's the agenda for our first full day in Charleston. I'm tired and full just thinking about it!

Eating, drinking and walking through Charleston, SC - Thursday

2010-11-03T11:42:00.025-04:00

Pamela and I are off to Charleston, SC for a 5 day / 4 night trip in early December.

(Thank you American Express points for making this trip possible!)

I found us a hotel at a great price (we'll be staying at the Renaissance in the Historic District), but Pamela has been working hard on the itinerary and researching restaurants and bars - so all this detail and deliciousness is thanks to her.

Here is the plan so far:

Thursday we'll leave Raleigh in the AM, check in at our hotel and walk to Magnolia's for lunch. Magnolia's is known for 'upscale' Southern cuisine. Their lunch menu includes a number of enticing menu items including salt and pepper buttermilk fried shrimp with a jezebel sauce, fried green tomatoes with white cheddar and caramelized onion grits, country ham and tomato chutney and blue crab, sweet corn and smoked bacon ravioli. mmm...

After lunch we'll start some walking (going to have to get some exercise at some point, we're shooting for between meals).

Our first planned stop is Rainbow Row. I last saw Rainbow Row as a kid visiting Charleston with my parents. Rainbow Row is a series of colorfully painted historic houses on East Bay Street.

They were first painted these colors in the early 1900s. After the Civil War, this particular area of Charleston had become rather 'slummy'. They were purchased by a woman, Dorothy Porcher Legge, as part of a renovation plan. The houses she purchased were painted pink, like the colonial Caribbean color scheme. Other owners followed the trend creating the Rainbow Row of today.

The coloring helps the houses stay cool inside during the hot, Southern summers - and has given the area a name and made it a popular tourist destination.

Next stop will be the Waterfront Park to view the often described pineapple fountain. The park and pier run along the Charleston Harbor entry. There is talk of intimate garden "rooms" and spacious lawns, and it should be quite lovely. The pineapple is a symbol of hospitality, for which the South is well known.

From there we'll be off to enjoy a Classic Carriage Tour. The tours go through a residential portion of Charleston's historic district. After the tour, it's off to City Market. City Market consists of four blocks of open-air buildings - I personally hope to see some of the traditional Gullah style sweetgrass baskets. I bought a small one as a kid that I still covet, but I understand the prices are a lot higher than they were 30 years ago - so a new purchase is not likely. But hopefully they'll still be making the baskets there in the market.

The baskets are coil-sewn; typically using needlegrass bound with strips of saw palmetto stem. They are decorative and unique to the South Carolina Low Country. A true Gullah style sweetgrass basket will retain its pale green and brown color, it will not be gray. They are flexible, they don't crack and fray. Mine looks as it did the day I bought it at least 25 years ago!

At Sunset we plan to have drinks at Vendue Rooftop Bar. Vendue advertises itself as having "perhaps the finest harbor view of any Charleston restaurant, as well as dramatic views within the historic district". So we'll do as they suggest and sip a cocktail as we take in Charleston from the hotel's rooftop bar. I'm happy to report that they have heaters in case the weather is chilly!

McCrady’s is our stop for dinner. They were the recipient of the 2010 James Beard Best Chef Southeast award and they're known for using local ingredients. On their website they also state that they specialize in pre-Prohibition cocktails.

The location itself is beautiful (see picture). Built in 1788, the four-story Georgian manse served as a collective retreat for notable Charlestonians after the Revolutionary War. A 'manse' is a term for a house inhabited or formerly inhabited by a minister.

What is now the bar was once horse and buggy stalls. Arched brick frames small rooms, a gas lantern marks the entry way. Certainly we expect the ambiance to add to the quality of our meal.

Our plan, pending reservations, is to do the Chef's tasting menu at McCrady's. (I hope I can still get bi-valves if they are part of the menu even though Pamela has an allergy - but if not, oh well!) With chef's tasting menus it is typically required that the whole table participate. I'm hoping for some wine pairings as well. Since the menu changes daily, we'll wait to decide until we see what is offered. Right now it lists 'Stone Crab, Orange, Coconut, Sour Mix' and 'Scallop with Courgettes, Cucumber and Bonito'....but i'm not sure I'm as into the lamb heart... organ meat is not one of my favorites.

They also have a market menu for $39 that has three courses made of products indigenous to the region. The first course selections are "A Salad of Beets, Watercress, Goat Cheese and Almonds" or "White Gazpacho with Smoked Sunburst Trout".

Their current menu has some wonderful food: Summer Fruit Gazpacho with Stone Crab and Summer Herbs, Grouper with Chanterelles, Corn and Bay Shrimp, Beef Tenderloin with Allium, Potatoes, Duxelles and Foie Gras Hollandaise, Corn Soup with Shrimp Spaetzle and Basil Puree!

I wonder what exciting changes Fall and Winter will bring to the menu?

After seeing and hearing so much about it watching Food Network, it will be one of my first experiences with molecular gastronomy and I'm looking forward to it!

After Dinner, we will be off to some of the bars on the Market. Mercato is an Italian Restaurant that (oddly?) has Jazz at night.

There's also Henry's House, a relatively new restaurant and bar that describes itself as 'Bohemian style with a French low country flair". They are reported to have a 'double-tiered rooftop deck' (see picture above) that we plan to enjoy a few drinks up there prior to retiring for the night so we can be ready for the Chef's Table Culinary Tour on Friday morning!

Cat Genie Resolved

2010-11-03T11:38:00.002-04:00

Cat Genie support delivered!

I called about the problem, mentioned that it was trying to dry at the same time it was still filling.

The man I spoke to decided it was a computer problem, I didn't have to do any trouble shooting with him. Since I had purchased from Amazon, I had my receipt. He emailed me a form, I returned it to him with my receipt and a few days later a new processing unit arrived on the doorstep!

I plugged it in and immediately all my problems were fixed.

I cleaned and packed the other one, the hubby dropped it off at FedEx and all was good!

So I still love the Cat Genie and it's been working like a charm for the last month. It's like a brand new machine.

And support exceeded my expectations. I had heard it was good, but I was very surprised. It was excellent and no hassle. KEEP THOSE RECEIPTS!

CatGenie Diagnostic Mode

2010-09-28T14:04:00.004-04:00

How To Enter Diagnostic Mode:

Unplug the CG. Push and hold both buttons on the control panel. Plug the unit back in, holding both buttons. Hold both buttons about six seconds - until you see the lights on the control panel finish the normal power up sequence that you always get when you plug it in, it will then go dark and then start a new sequence of flashing and beeping. Then the "4" will light up, go out and then the "1" will light up. All other lights will be off.

Selecting a Test:

Press and release the Auto Setup ("AS") button. This will advance to the next test. Test numbers are designated by the 1 - 4 lights across the top. More than one light might be on at a time.

To Start/Stop a Test:

Press and release the Start Cycle/Pause ("SCP") button. Pressing once will start a test. NOTE: You have to press it again to stop the test - pay special attention to the arm retraction, it seems that it will continue to try to pull back on the arm until you stop. I always hit stop just in case!

To Exit Diagnostic Mode:

Simply unplug the unit and plug it back in without holding the buttons - or pick up the processor and reseat it on the unit.

About The Tests:

Tests are referred to by the lights that illuminate (1 thru 4) for each test. Press the AS button until the right lights are lit up.

Test 1: Extending and Retracting the Arm

Pressing the SCP button the first time retracts the arm. Press it again to stop. Press again to extend the arm into the bowl. Press again to stop. Press again to retract. Press again to stop.

Test 2: Turning the Bowl

Pressing the SCP button rotates the bowl clockwise, press again to stop, again to go anti-/counterclockwise and again to stop.

CatGenie support says that counter-clockwise is the best direction to rotate for manual drying.

Test 3: Running the Water

Press SCP to start water flow, press again to stop.

Test 4: Dispensing Solution

Press SCP to start the cartridge, again to stop.

Test 1 + 4: Draining The Bowl

Press SCP to start the impeller, press it again when empty. (you can use this to drain a bowl that didn’t drain completely, just make sure you remove any clogs first)

For a messy bowl where you don’t want to use up the cartridge use the Clean-Up Mode (read further down the page)

Test 2 + 4: Blow Drying

Press SCP to start the blower and heater, again to stop. Put your hand in the airflow to see if it's getting warm or not.

Test 3 + 4: Clean-Up Mode
This mode does not require supervision. It will drain, fill, drain again and then dry. Just press SCP.

Test 1 + 3 + 4: Sensor Test

Press the SCP button and then pass your hand slowly in front of the sensors. If the sensors are working the 3 and 4 lights will come on quickly and then go out. Light 2 will stay on for one minute, then go out to indicate the sensors are working.

Multiple Mode You can select multiple modes, one after another to get your desired results.

The one I’ve learned recently is ‘drying granules’. I advance the arm into the granules, start the bowl test so the bowl rotates (hitting SCP a few times so the bowl is running counter-clockwise) and then select the dry cycle, and hit SCP to start the blower. Then just keep an eye on it until it’s dry. Don’t forget to turn it off after 5 to 10 minutes and move the arm back.I hope this helps people, this info was hard for me to find and I wish I had found this when I got the CatGenie - it would have saved a lot of extra cycles!

The CatGenie Drains Me

2010-09-28T12:58:00.007-04:00

For a year and a half we've loved the CatGenie and the CatGenie has loved us too.

Lately that has changed and I've placed my first call to technical support. I got a recording that told me to leave a message with my contact number, which I did. We'll see how

long it takes to get a return call.

Basically it started having problems with draining. Or so it seemed. I've cleaned it, checked for clogs and still, water stands in the bottom of the pan. It's frustrating. I learned a trick from You Tube about using a drill (with no drill bit) to drain the pan. (see pictures)

The part that's perplexing me is that it seems to drain just fine - but water runs when the drying cycle starts. Call me crazy but that seems counter productive. I'm suspicious that this is the problem.

I wish there was a way to 'reboot' the CatGenie. I feel like it's just confused. And Dexter and Trilly -and maybe one of the new fosters prefer it as their potty place. Who can blame them? It's clean! (not that the Tidy Cat Breeze pans aren't clean - I scoop twice a day - but they don't get washed like the CatGenie does!!

So, every night I've been starting a cycle - and then I go in there about the time drying starts - wait for the water to stop running - drain the unit and then plug it back in and let it dry. It's a pain. It also gets pretty stinky between cycles since there's only really one now.

Dexter has longer hair, so I know he gets some clogs in there, but I've flushed out the hose and it appears to be clear.

This morning I ran it too, but I basically need to be there after 15 minutes to keep an eye on things which kind of defeats the purpose of the 'self washing litter pan'.

I've left a message with tech support for them to call me back. I had heard that support was good, but I guess I'll find out soon enough and update you. I feel like the purchase price was worth it, but if it only lasts two years - maybe not. I consider my CatGenie to be an appliance and therefore to have an appliance life-span.

The good news is that I've learned all about the maintenance mode while going through all this. I'll post those codes soon to help other owners that want to do a little maintenance or just drain or dry their genie after a mishap.

I've recently been told these codes are in the manual for people who own the CatGenie 120 - which I do not - but the codes are the same. So if you own an older model like I do - that's the next post. Those codes are a great help!

Cat Genie - 18 Months Post Installation

2010-07-29T13:12:00.012-04:00

Overall I've received more comments on my Cat Genie posts than any others. Most seem to be fairly negative, but even after a year and a half, I STILL like my Cat Genie.

Here are the two most common comments I've received:

Sometimes the Cat Genie cooks poop and leaves an awful stench in the house.

Yes, this has happened. But overall, if your cats have firm

poop this won't be an issue. This only occurs at our house when one of the cats has a loose stool that

doesn't get completely removed from the Genie.

Our Genie is installed in the laundry room and flushes into the laundry waste tube. I keep latex gloves in the laundry room and if I start to smell the cooking poo smell, I run in there, unplug the Genie and pop on a glove and remove the offending poo before it can bake anymore.

Ultimately though, if the cat has firm stool this is not a problem. If you've tried switching foods, stopped treats, stopped feeding canned food and still have a cat with loose stool - the cat Genie is probably not for you.

I hate the way the Cat Genie smells when it cleans.

I've had a few people comment that they hate the smell. Personally, I hate the smell of cat pee

and poop more. I'll take the cleaning solution of the Cat Genie any day of the week. I tried using the unscented cartridges for a while, but I found I preferred the scented cartridge. Honestly, it doesn't really bother me. Ours is in the laundry room, no one has ever walked into our house and complained about the smell. If you hate the smell of the cartridge and you've tried the unscented and hate that too...I can't help you. You're just going to be unhappy. Enjoy scooping your litter pan and the urine odor that emits from it. Good luck.

Someone else commented on the smell and the poop sludge that remains in the Genie after it has cleaned. Yes, there is some there. If there's a lot there, you need to check your drainage lines and clean your Genie. I haven't found the odor to be an issue. Ultimately having a pet in the house, there will be some odor. I have found the Cat Genie to be a useful tool in managing that odor and it makes my life easier.

A woman approached me at a rescue event the other week and asked if we had any cats that didn't shed, like they have dogs that didn't shed. I wanted to stare at her blankly. I shed. Anything with hair sheds. I'm not saying that pet people are dirty, but we have more to keep up with. We spend more time cleaning our homes, sweeping and vacuuming up hair, scooping poop, vomit. All kinds of exciting things. Just for us it's worth it for the companionship. Set your expectations realistically and you'll be a lot happier. Something is using the bathroom in your house, there will be a smell. Something has hair, there will be shedding - and so on.

Not that I don't have any complaints. For example: The water sensor. Most of my error messages come from the water sensor. (it uses a laser and requires this

clear plastic part to reflect that beam to indicate the water level) As the unit has gotten older, this error is more common. I can tell you that a thorough cleaning of the unit at least every 6 months (depending on usage) will help this. I understand that with the Cat Genie 120 this issue may be helped or resolved. Unfortunately I cannot afford to get a Cat Genie 120 right now and the one we have continues to be usable. I just clean the sensor with white vinegar between more thorough cleanings of the book like apparatus where the hopper is.

One of the things that irritates me the most is the inability to 'reset' the Cat Genie. This has been an issue where there have been water sensor errors and the unit hasn't filled but continues to run and attempt to dry litter that has not been washed.

If you unplug it, even for a long period of time, it wants to start where it left off. Sometimes I need it to start at the beginning again. I'm not sure if this issue is resolved with the new unit, but if it's not it should be considered.

Finally, to people that only have negative things to say about the Genie - if you have one or two cats maybe the litter pan and litter pan odor aren't an issue for you.

My husband and I have 7 cats of our own and we also foster cats for a local rescue. I don't want our house to smell. The Cat Genie is not our only litter pan, we also use several 'Tidy Cat Breeze' pans and we have traditional litter in our quarantine bathroom upstairs (but that door remains closed so the odor is only an issue within that room). The Tidy Cat Breeze also requires firm stool to be effective and separates the urine and neutralizes the odor.

I had found over the years that urine odor was the most offensive part of the cat box for me. From the comments I get from people that come to our house and can't believe how many cats we have there, I believe that is true for most people.

Not all of our cats use the Genie, we have two that use the Genie primarily, but also uses the breeze and one that will rush into the quarantine bathroom to use the traditional pan any time he gets a chance. Cat's love the chance to be the first one to use a potty. :)

For us the Genie is not a solution in itself, but it is part of the way we manage the odor and maintenance. I still scoop the other litter pans a minimum of two times a day.

Over the years I've used all sorts of automatic pans and fancy litters. This is the plan I have stuck with the longest and I'm happy with it. The Cat Genie might not be for everyone, but I really can't imagine that it doesn't cut down on the maintenance and urine odor for everyone that uses it. And with a 3 month money back guarantee - why not give it a shot?

Foster Kitty City

2010-07-28T15:40:00.013-04:00

About a year ago my husband and I started fostering for Alley Cats and Angels. We had adopted two cats from them (Trilli and Dexter) and had been extremely happy with the experience.

I've worked at a no-kill shelter in Winston Salem, the Forsyth Humane Society (as a paid employee, not a volunteer) and had adopted from other rescues in the past.

Alley Cats was different in that they don't have a shelter, all of their animals are in foster homes. This means that even though they work with feral cats and kittens that need socialization prior to being placed in homes, their cats and kittens end up being better socialized than most shelter animals (in our opinion).

They also provide excellent medical care and just seem to be better organized than a lot of other volunteer run rescues. I've adopted before and had trouble getting my new pets medical or information or all of the 'advertised' medical care and such hadn't actually been done. Alley Cats and Angels even calls to check up after the adoption and gives you two weeks to make sure your new pet works with your household or you can have a full refund of your adoption fee.

When we started to foster we had the same concerns that I believe a lot of foster homes do. Will I fall in love with these pets? How will I ever be able to part with them when the time comes? What will our other pets think?

We prepared ourselves for this, but also thought long and hard about it and knew that what we were doing was making 'nice kitties' for other people's homes. We don't have room in our home for any more cats as 'full time' residents, but having a foster cat and kitten can be fun, fun for our pets and we feel like we're really doing something good.

Our pets have ended up enjoying it too. They get 'socialized' to other pets, and with kittens the older ones get new inspiration to play and have fun. It's the kind of interaction that really makes me happy to see.

There are a few I've loved more than others, but all have moved on to new homes without any tears. Part of this is because I feel very confident that Alley Cats and Angels is placing our fosters in great homes where they will truly be loving and be loved.

I like to think that what we are doing is a good thing. People that may have never had a pet before might fall in love with cats because we raised up a kitten to be a super well socialized companion. I believe that people that have animals are kinder, gentler people. They are generally more caring of others and more caring of their environment. I know it seems like just a kitten, but I truly believe by giving people nice pets we are making a world full of better people.

I am writing this because I want to encourage more people to foster. The emotional rewards are great, and you get the joy of giving a safe and happy, albeit temporary, home to an animal who needs one.

I've heard of people having bad foster experiences with a rescue that wouldn't return calls or didn't pay for medical care or whatnot. Even if you've had a bad foster experience elsewhere, if you're in our area, give Alley Cats and Angels a chance - if you're not local, please try another rescue.

All rescues are NOT created equal! There are great ones out there run by great people that would really appreciate a little extra help. Fostering can really change lives, not just for your fostered pet - but for the people who will be forever changed by adopting the pet you helped raise!

Harry - the "Full Monty"

2010-06-07T15:52:00.009-04:00

About a week ago Dan and I added another cat to our horde.

Supposedly he's part Spynx, as you can guess from his partially hairless state. It seems that if you're not completely hairless, you're not as desirable. He was surrendered by his owner because she was moving in with someone, getting married or something like that and would have too many cats. So she gave up this terribly unattractive 6 year old cat. Kudos for her.

Anyway, poor guy needs regular baths and wasn't getting exactly what he needed at the rescue. We've also taken him to the vet and Dr. Jon has given us some shampoo that matches his skin Ph. I can already tell a difference vs. the baby wash.

He's not in love with our foster kittens, and he keeps getting some abrasions around his neck from roughing around with the other cats but he seems to be working himself out.

He has kind of a deep 'meow' and like most of our cats appears to like Dan best... although he seems to have forgiven me for his latest bath.

We're calling him Harry Monty Churchill. Harry does have a few bad habits, but he appears to know they're bad. I keep finding him on the counters and the tables. He also will rip apart bags of cat food and treats and wet food pouches with his teeth. He was declawed by his first owner, so he has learned how to better use his teeth. Mind you the cats are all free fed, as in there is food available 24/7/365 - so there is no reason to tear into a bag of catfood with your teeth. Harry does not appear to care. Perhaps he likes the challenge?

I'm not sure what the other cat Harry was mixed with was. I've considered something like an American Shorthair, he has slightly bulging eyes and a smooshed face that leads to a weepy nose and lots of eye boogies.

But Harry is a nice boy. He purrs loudly and loves us very much. I'm just hoping we can train him to behave himself in the kitchen.

Dexter's Present (Squiggy vs. the Spinny Ball Toy)

2009-07-14T09:43:00.014-04:00

Dexter, our fluffy orange kitten, should be about one year old now. He still loves toys and particularly enjoyed one type of toy when he visited with my parents at Christmas - the spinny ball toy. So, since he's just so sweet and cute (see picture of Dexter lying on his back on the cat ottoman), I decided to get Dexter a present for his birthday.

He had a smaller one that tends to flip over, but this one is nice because it is large and secure on the carpet - and large enough for a cat to climb on top of when he plays with it. It even has a catnip filled cardboard scratcher on top in the middle. The channel for the ball is wide - allowing cats with larger paws to bat at the ball freely. (Dexter is polydactyl and has a few extra toes, hence his full name - Dexterious)

Everyone has enjoyed the toy, Peepin enjoyed batting at is as does Trillium Whorl. Everyone likes the speedy 'bat at the ball and run' drive by. Best $12 I ever spent on a cat toy. It's nice to be appreciated.

The exception to the appreciation and enjoyment would be Dan's cat, Squiggy. When Dan brought Squiggy downstairs to play with the new toy, Squiggy promptly determined a way to stop the spinning of the ball and ruin the fun. And here is the video that proves it: Watch the kitties play with the spinny ball thing until Squiggy plops herself on top of it. She won't even play. In Squiggy's defense, it's the catnip. She loves the nip. She'd rather roll in it than play. Sigh.

Watch the video and judge for yourself. If nothing else, it's just kind of funny. Something else nice is that although Dexter and Trilly are a year old or less, Peepin (who I am told is at least 15) really enjoys the toy and plays with it like a much younger cat.

Watch Squiggy in action:

An Ikea Adventure

2009-07-14T00:13:00.009-04:00

Dan needed a desk for his office. And sadly, despite the fact that the Ikea Adventure has already occurred, Dan still needs a desk. They were out of stock on that one key part. I seem to recall a similar situation in Orlando. I should have called. They won't actually hold stuff for you, but it never hurts to ask.

We left Raleigh after lunch. No need to pull out too early as we were meeting some friends of mine in Charlotte after the shopping trip was completed. I mean, how long can one really spend at Ikea?

As I grew up in Orlando, it's hard for me to look at Ikea and not think 'theme park for furniture'. There's a huge parking lot where they often direct traffic, they pass out maps at the door, and half way through they have a restaurant. The parallels seem so obvious. On the back of map there is a place where you can write down the aisle and bin number for the furniture you wish to puchase in the self serve area. Overall, I would say the whole process is daunting. Dan and I had a wish list from my sister - and even with names and prices a lot of things were hard to find. Turns out a few of them were out of stock, but some were just hidden away in the bowels of Ikea. And we found a few things we needed that we didn't know Ikea even had - poster frames and a few stuffed mice.

In Charlotte it seems that Ikea has it's own exit off I-85. This might be a step up from Orlando where some genius put the Ikea off of International Drive basically. For those who haven't been there, International Drive is somewhat like a strip - and at 3am the traffic is still gridlocked.

When you get off the highway and pull in to the ginormous parking lot it's hard to miss the immense blue and yellow building stretching across the horizon. (see picture above)

The plan was simple, drive to Ikea, look around, pick things out, pay for things, leave. For the most part that happened. We will need to go back in a few weeks when the desks are in stock again - but for now, we've survived.

Dan took a picture of our cart as he waited for me to back up the car for loading. Frames, magazine files, furniture..the works. We were hot, dirty, sweaty and in need of beer at the end of our adventure. Next time we will be better prepared as we have 'tried out' a few things that we know we want more of - picture frames for one. And we know we need the desk - so we can go retreive that first.

We went to spend some time with friends - (Claire, Jim, Tony and offspring) and ended up leaving for Raleigh sometime after 10pm. Again, we will plan better next time so we can spend more time with them. Anyway, we left Jim and Claire's house and headed for the highway.

Then we got on I-85 N and parked for an hour and a half as crews cleaned up what appeared to be some sort of spill but I can't find the details online. Dan was nice enough to drive us the rest of the way home as my headache was becoming unbearable. It lingered through Sunday.

Saturday night / ultra early Sunday we got home and unloaded nothing except a few poster / picture frames. But Sunday we got up and unloaded the car and began assembly. Squiggy, Lli and Tucker all tried to help. They were shooed away. You can see Squiggy investigating the packages. Squiggy is a big fan of paper and all the furniture was wrapped in paper. Look also for Lli's small black head popping out of one of the CD/DVD stand boxes. They were long and thin and shaped just right for a tailess black kitty.

Within a few hours we had most everything assembled and carried upstairs. Dan also got two CD/DVD towers that matched and filled in the leftover space in the slot between the two windows. Dan hauled all the trash out and cleaned up the living room.

Dan has been working hard setting up his office. Pictures have been hung, CD's and books indexed and alphabetized, cables tied and lighting addressed. The card table in the picture is in the approximate location that Dan's table will attach once it's back in stock. It will be a little wider (which is good I think as he could use some extra space). Squiggy and the other cats like the office very much and don't recognize it much from its days as my sister's bedroom.

So it seems we are cleaned up and assembled, just waiting for the next trip to Ikea. !

Cat Genie Revisited

2009-07-07T01:09:00.010-04:00

I've received quite a few emails and a few comments about my Cat Genie post from January - so here, almost 6 months later, it's time to check on the Cat Genie status.

So a few things I've changed:
1. The Cat Genie is elevated. This is entirely due to Tucker, our dog. The best way to keep her out of the litter pan was to get it out of reach. I was concerned about the hose position changes, but there have been no back-ups and the pan has been elevated for about two months now. Note that it is still below the level of the washer drain / water.

2. There is now a second litter pan in the laundry room as a backup to the Cat Genie. Some of our cats are older, one is diabetic. The 30 minute cleaning cycle proved to be a bit much for them - as in, when you need to go - you NEED to go. The older cats are also a bit wary of the noise the cat genie and washing machine - so it's good to have a backup if you only have one genie.

The 'backup' pan is my second favorite litter pan (it comes in second because I still have to clean it) - the Tidy Cat Breeze. The "Breeze" is nice because it has pellets that we change out only once a month over a grid that lets the urine run straight through. Now, here's the best part. The pad. In the bottom, under aforementioned 'grid' is the urine absorbing pad that really neutralizes the urine smell. This is the best part. The urine turns in to some sort of gel, I change the pad when it's full. Since they really can't bury it, solids can smell more than you might like, but it's an easy scoop to remedy that. Certainly over the many years I have been a cat owner, the urine smell has been the biggest contributor to the overall 'cat smell' that can build up over time. This is on the ground under the Genie, there is a baby gate with a 'cat door' cut into it to keep dogs out and allow cats in.

3. The Cat Genie has a 'hood' now (see first picture). I think it helps keep the initial smell in when it's being used. It also keeps the kittens from kicking out all the pellets.

I've only had a few issues with the Genie in the last 6 months, but overall I would say they are workable.

1. A few times I've had to go and clean out some poop that didn't scoop well. Granted, my fault as I gave the cat in question too much wet food. You get the idea. This has happened 3 times. 2 of those times are related to the same incident.

2. The water sensor was obstructed and I had to pull out the hopper one night and wipe it off. Yes, that was pretty gross. But that's the worst thing I've had to do in all this time. I figure it's a pretty even trade for the smell/maintenance reduction.

3. I don't like how the Genie beeps when the cartridge is 'about to' run out and then after it has run out. I know it's just trying to let me know - but it seems like the type of noise that would alarm a shy cat.

Some of the complaints I've heard that I have to agree with:

Those rotten pellets get everywhere. Keeping the pan away from the dog has helped. Also, we got some track mats that I put at the laundry room door that really help a lot. I suspect that most of the pellets fall into this mat in the laundry room and they are tracked out by us, not the cats. My sister purchased the special round Cat Genie mats. They do fit around it, but only if it's sitting out in a room. And honestly, they don't catch the pellets so well. Don't waste your money.

If it dries a piece of poop, it's pretty rank. Just get it out of there and the smell fades pretty quickly.

A complaint I've heard that I don't agree with:

Smell of the cleaner. It really just doesn't bother me. Granted, it's not great - but it's just not that bad. It certainly doesn't smell like a dirty litter pan. Just like cleaner.

Overall, I'm glad to have it. This is the longest I've ever had a robotic litter pan of any sort - I suspect I should give it a good cleaning soon as maintenance. But honestly, I'm putting that off. Wouldn't you? I have taken basic spray cleaner and wiped down all the outside bits a few times, but that's no different from anything else in the house you would have to clean.

The two youngest cats, both under a year when they were first introduced to the Genie, love it and use it almost exclusively (this is Trillium Whorl our Japanese Bobtail coming to see what I was taking pictures of). I don't have accurate numbers on the older cats but I suspect they don't use it much, if at all (since they are given a choice). In fact, the older diabetic cat has trouble jumping and climbing so I know she only uses the Breeze.

So there it is, update on the Cat Genie at 6 months. The pellets aren't cheap and neither are the cartridges, but it has still been less expensive and less labor than a regular old pan.

My recommendation stands.

Eating (and drinking) in Las Vegas

2009-05-26T17:01:00.015-04:00

Last month my now husband (then boyfriend) and I were in Las Vegas for a little vacation and a little work...

When in Vegas, I like to appreciate the abundance of good food that is available. And since we were in a hotel, every meal was 'out'.

In Vegas, there are some VERY nice and VERY expensive restaurants. When I think 'nice, expensive' with restaurant I tend to assume that good service will follow. This appears not to be the case in Las Vegas where virtually every meal in an expensive restaurant was accompanied by some seriously lacking service. Oddly, the service we had in some of the hotel 'diners' was pretty excellent - and most of the bars had good to great service as well.

Example #1: Margaritaville. Now, I don't consider this to be a fine restaurant. Certainly casual and good for a drink. The day we went there were girls walking around with necklaces made out of nuts with some painting on them as a fund-raiser for breast cancer. The girls didn't appear to be terribly busy or terribly interested in walking around. I had noticed the table when I came in, but didn't want to block traffic or stand there staring. If one of the girls had actually made it around to our table I probably would have purchased a necklace for a friends daughter. The girls seemed very uninterested in their cause. Oh well. Good news is our server was pretty good. He even did a drawing for us.

Example #2: Flamingo Buffet. Again, not a fine eating establishment but this was actually towards the end of our trip and displays a reoccurring theme: Drinks. Water. We waited a LONG time to get water in the first place and even longer to get refills. Plates weren't cleared (kind of key in a buffet, especially one involving crab legs) and even some wild waving didn't get our waiter's attention.

Example #3: MGM / Sea Blue. Here we opted for the tasting menu. $50 for the food, per person and an additional $25 per person to have each course paired with wine. For this type of money I expect to have a reasonable level of service. Sadly, when we sat down it took us probably 5 minutes to get menus and water. We were sitting in the middle of a dining room so I can't imagine that we were out of sight. The strangest and worst service issue with the tasting menu were the mysterious appetizer plates that would not leave. With the first course, a mezzo, we received a large platter and a small plate each. Through each of the subsequent courses, even though the platter was gone and we were receiving other plates for our food - the small dirty plate stayed. We spent some time pondering what the purpose of this little plate might be, as they would carefully place dirty utensils upon it and bus everything else away. ..and I also appreciate the restaurant that brings you clean silverware for a new course if necessary as opposed to removing your dirty fork from your plate and placing it on the table for you. Thanks guys.

Example #4: Bellagio / Sensi. I've been to Sensi before and didn't recall having poor service but once again we were plagued with the issue of getting drinks. We had a cocktail with our starter but weren't offered another drink with our dinner and again, the water went dry. We eventually flagged down what appeared to be a manager because it had been so long since we had seen our server. Maybe he quit?

Example #5: Mirage / Kokomo. We went to Kokomo in the Mirage before going to see the Cirque show 'Love'. We told the waitress that we had a show at 9:30 so she would know what time we needed to be out of there. We were seated, didn't get menus. Received menus and told the waitress that we had a show at 9:30 so she would know what time we needed to be out of there. After we saw her, we sat there a good long time before we got water and the water went dry several times through the meal. (We also had a bottle of wine). Granted I tend to drink more in Las Vegas as it is pretty dry and I had also lost my voice and was feeling even dryer - but it's not like I was guzzling unreasonable amounts of water. The glasses are small and usually so filled with ice there seems to be barely a few mouthfuls per glass.

Example #6: Caesars / Augustus Cafe. We paid about 2x as much for the same food we had at the Flamingo in this Caesars late night cafe. Sadly we where there because the Cafe in the Flamingo was closed at night (I swear it used to be 24 hours). We ended up speaking with a couple that had been on the Newlywed Game - the original - and were on a show where they came back to compete with new newlyweds. They won a trip to Vegas. Here we had trouble placing an order once we sat down...and you guessed it. Getting water.

Example #7: Battista's hole in the wall. We ended up at Battista's twice. Average food, kind of an assembly line theory to eating - but you get your food and drink fast and we never waited for wine OR water. Go Battista's. I visit Battista's every time I go to Las Vegas. It's a great value.

Example #8: Bellagio / Petrossian Bar. We sat at the bar and the service was great, as was the bartender who made us wonderful Vodka Gimlet's with fresh lime. Mmmm. Now this is the kind of food and service I expect in finer Las Vegas restaurants and bars!

Example #9: Wynn / Parasol Down. Another bar, another fabulous hotel. We sat outside by the waterfall, the weather was cool, the sun was shining and service was the tops. We managed to get water AND drinks - and our glasses were never empty. This is also where Dan and I decided that we were getting married.

So off we went.

Flea prevention

2009-04-07T00:58:00.008-04:00

Dexter is very unhappy with me and Lli is drooling.

It's spring and time for the flea meds and heartworm pills. Dexter is too young to know about the ordeal kitties who needed flea treatment went through as recently as 18 years ago. Lli hasn't really done flea meds before and doesn't know better than to attempt to lick her own neck - hence the drooling.

I had to use Dexter's handle to catch him tonight.

On Friday I had personal training session at my house, the first here. Dexter seems to have become afraid of strangers after the house-rebuilding project. He's curious, but doesn't want to get too close.

Yesterday Dexter and Lli had a nap together on the ottoman. Too bad Dexter's color means he doesn't look nice on the ottoman. He kind of blends in and washes out. He's a little hard to see but he is there next to her in the picture to the right.

I have a picture of the dining room with the dining room table returned. They did a really nice job of refinishing everything - tops of the furniture but all of the table and chairs. In fact Pamela and I had lunch in there yesterday.

I even got brave and moved the tea cart/liquor cabinet back to the side of the room. But, the replacement pot I put up there was a cheap one.

Dan and I are getting ready to head to Las Vegas on the 15th. I need to make a list and start putting things together. We are going to be gone for 14 days and it's a tad overwhelming.

Giant cat had to move outside. I caught him spraying in the house. There is a new "0 tolerance" policy against destructive cats / dogs. He sits out there and whines, but he's a bully too. I'm trying not to feel bad for him.

It's late and I have another workout in the AM before I head off to work. And there should be some sleep before all of that.

Just like Lli. She's taking a nap in this picture. She likes that ottoman and the spring sun coming through the window.

GoodSearch
& GoodShop

YOU SEARCH OR SHOP
WE GIVE!

Raise money for Alley Cats and Angels just by searching the web and shopping online!

Search the web now!

Free coupons at top stores!

Add to your site

A cat without a handle...

2009-04-03T22:45:00.004-04:00

Posts have been slim as work and life have been rather busy. I keep thinking of things I would like to blog about and by the time I actually HAVE time, I've forgotten what I wanted to say.

In less than two weeks Dan and I will be heading to Las Vegas for 10 days. For me it's primarily a work event but I am working on getting us to a few shows at night. So far we have tickets to the Cirque Du Soleil production 'Love' and we are planning to see 'O' (also Cirque Du Soleil - but the water one at the Bellagio), Penn and Teller and George Wallace. Depending on what Dan thinks of 'O' we might try to see 'Ka' as well. And we're open to other things as they pop up.

After 10 days in Vegas we are heading to Sedona and the Grand Canyon for 3 days of decompression.

Maybe there I will be able to find another piece of pottery by the same artist who made the pot that Lli and Dexter destroyed last week...

This past Sunday Dan and I went to see Bill Cosby at DPAC and this weekend (that's Cosby on the floor. He was wearing white so with the lights and my cell phone camera he seems like nothing more than a bright light.) Dan remains in Durham at the Full Frame Documentary Film Fest. Next week we have a Robyn Hitchcock concert and David Sedaris on Saturday. Lots of entertainment. We have plans to see a few movies next week before we head out of town and they leave the theatre. I still need to see 'Che Part Two' and I was looking forward to Adventureland.

This Sunday my friend Pamela and I are having a long overdue brunch. We used to spend time planning and preparing and cooking a brunch once a month but had kind of fallen behind. It's at my house so she can see the finished product and I have no idea what I will be making. I suppose I should work on that now.

Any ideas?

The name of this blog comes from a phrase I used to describe Lli to Dan. I have used the tail of my cats to catch them as they have run out the front door more times than I can count - and I have also used the tail at the vet, for example, when a temperature or something gross like that needs to be looked at or taken. I indicated that one of the problems with bob-tail cats is that they didn't have handles. He found this particularly funny and asked that I use that as the title of a post even if the contents of the post were unrelated. Which they are. But I have.

And that's that.

House and the Furry Herd - and a visitor...

2009-03-26T10:07:00.017-04:00

As of this morning I have all of my refinished furniture and the painting is done. The floor is installed, carpet installed and all the small things fixed.

They did never manage to paint the wood under the counter black to match the other pieces (or even completely peel off the black plastic that was on the piece they put under there) but I'm ready for them to be done and I got half of my kitchen painted in the process so I figure I can manage to paint the piece black. (the wall under the cabinets you see here is the last of the purple).

I still need to replace the stuff that keeps the front door from leaking. I can't remember what it's called but it seems that it's keeping the front door from closing well. The lock box on the doorknob doesn't help. That scraped off some of the paint on the front door, but I'm just going to deal with that as well. I don't think it's that noticeable. Certainly there is plenty of cleaning that could be done prior to worrying about a paint chip.

Overall, it looks pretty nice. I just need to finish unpacking things. My plan is to get everything unpacked so I can get the space in the garage to move my current kitchen table in there - so that I can purchase the new kitchen table. State Farm got me a check to cover the table in about 3 days. That was nice at least.

I've been changing out the outlet and switch covers in parts of the house to kind of 'dress' things up.

My sister was out of town this weekend and Dan spent most of the weekend in Raleigh with me. He also brought Squiggy to Raleigh to hang out with all my kitties. She did surprisingly well. She was cautious and there were a few 'Mexican Stand-off's' with Squiggy and Peepin, but there was no hiding and no mega fights.

It has been determined that Widget (aka, 'Giant Cat') is a bit of a bully as he seems to like to chase other cats around the house to the point where they are made uncomfortable. My sister's dog, Ash, also has this bad habit of staring down cats and getting too close and following too much...but he was kicked in the head by a horse so I am pretty sure it isn't malicious. Just stupidity.

Squiggy took to the stairs for a little while. It seemed her goal was to prevent travel up or down the stairs. Dexter just jumped over her. Peepin eventually made a run for it and Squiggy moved back to her perch on the living room chair.

With the house being re-done and Cosmo still having those bad habits, his new home is the garage when he's not being supervised in the house. Tsu and Cosmo are close and she likes to spend time in the garage with him. I think she is also still a little cautious around the dogs. Although Tucker does behave herself fairly well.

The pictures I have of the house don't have the dining room table and the chairs that were returned on Friday, but they do look very nice. In the dining room picture you can see a blue pot up on the top shelf on the wall - fairly close to the ceiling.

Dexter and Lli were behaving like a herd of elephants on Tuesday and somehow managed to knock down that pot and break it. Sadly that is/was my favorite piece of pottery (I collect pottery) and the most expensive piece I've ever purchased. The four pieces around it were all of $15 - $35 each and none of those were broken.

The pot was up there because for whatever reason I thought a wall shelf that high was probably the safest place in the house. Appears I was wrong. After I stopped crying I glued it back together. Dan and I are going to Sedona in April and I think that's were I found that pot there. I have found lots of nice pottery there in the past, but this time I'll see if they have anything I can afford by the same artist. I used to have a business card with the name but I can't seem to find it now. Hopefully there will be something there in a gallery and I will at least have a choice.

Early the next morning they knocked over the fire grate during one of their chase scenes. I am glad they are playing and being kittens and having fun - but I do wish they could keep it on the floor.
Last night Dan and I went to see Wendy and Lucy at the Chelsea Theatre in Chapel Hill so I stayed with Dan. I didn't get any frantic calls or emails but basically I don't know what (if anything) they broke yesterday. Lli is really quite the little jumper. I'm going to have to hobble her if she doesn't watch it. That's why they make kittens so cute - so when they do bad things and destroy your home you can't stay angry very long.

Anyway, it appears that things are coming together at home. Now it's up to me to get things unpacked and organized. At least that's something I can do on my own time frame. One thing the restoration company and their contractors never seemed to get down was letting me know when they would be coming to the house to do work. At least no one will be showing up as I am walking out the door in the morning with questions and such so that I'm late to work. They seemed to time that pretty well and I suspect my boss is just about sick of it.

Well, that's about it. As Dan likes to say on his blog:

'more later'....

Meet Trillium Whorl 'Lli' (pronounced lily)

2009-03-18T16:37:00.012-04:00

A few weeks ago I went to Alley Cats and Angels to meet the newest cats. In the bathroom were the two black Japanese Bobtails. One was a very chatty little girl with a tiny bob that kept rubbing up against me and chirping. Maybe it was because she was so vocal, but I knew she should be my next cat.

In addition, she's young and she and Dexter have become great friends. In fact, right now the two of them are tearing through the house chasing each other downstairs. Both are having great fun and the older cats are appreciating the break from all the silliness.

She's quite the jumper and has climbed a few shelves at this point.

Unfortunately she enjoys sharpening her claws on my furniture, but we're working on that.

In the picture here she is shaking her tiny bottom as she prepares to pounce on Dexter who is lurking on the other side of the stairs.

She likes to chew on things - like my sister's fingers below.

When she's happy her tail wags kind of like Tucker, my corgi. I've never seen a cat wag their tail. She has a cute little trilly voice and ultimately having her to play with Dexter is just fantastic. It's clear the two of them are having a great time. They are about the same age, so I would say they have more in common than any of the other kitties.

Unfortunately there are issues with any kitties. As I sit here writing this my sister's cat, Peepin, is vomiting on various stairs as she heads upstairs. Thanks Peepin.

I'm happy with Tucker (the corgi) she was raised with cats from when she was a puppy and she seems to know how to not intimidate the cats. She tried not to make direct eye contact and she turns submissive when they walk by.

So, here it's been only two weeks and Lli is comfortable walking on the floor next to Tucker. The only problem really seems to be my sister's dog Ash who likes to push the cats a little too far. And sits around just staring at cats until they get nervous.

Anyway, she's terribly cute, friendly and playful. It's nice to have kittens again.

Morrissey Consumated

2009-03-12T12:30:00.006-04:00

A little more than 2 decades ago a friend introduced me to The Smiths. Of course this was right around the time the band broke up. Until Wednesday I had never seen Morrissey live.

I left work a little early and Dan and I went to Tyler's to get some dinner and a few drinks before the show.

Morrissey wasn't going on until 8:35. We missed the first few songs actually - he did go on a little early...

So, sometime during the show people started running up on to the stage to embrace Morrissey before they were dragged off the stage by bouncers. In general the count seems to be 'at least 10 people' and I saw the bouncer guys crouched and ready to run on either side of the stage.

I did notice that people who ran on the stage did get to return to the audience. I wasn't sure if those who got to embrace Morrissey were forever removed, but appears he took it in stride, even mentioning that this is as close as he gets to S E X. Makes me think of a good friend from my youth - Rachel - who grabbed Peter Murphy's (former front man of Bauhaus) crotch at a concert.

I wasn't there. I was grounded.

Some of the lyrics were changed to better suit the situation -

From the song "How Soon Is Now" the lyric
"See, i've already waited too long
And all my hope is gone"
became:
'See, i've already waited too long
And most my life is gone"

He also made a sarcastic / dry comment after the lyric:

"So you go, and you stand on your own
And you leave on your own
And you go home, and you cry
And you want to die"

Something to the effect that this was, of course, different from every other night out. Where you don't leave on your own. Right.

And the most interesting one to me was where this lyric:

"You could meet somebody who really loves you"

was changed to '....somebody who really likes you'.

Maybe he's just more realistic or more jaded about love?

Sometimes I forget about Morrissey and The Smiths, but when I do hear a song I realize I still know all the lyrics and I feel like I'm listening to the soundtrack of my youth. Some of it I miss, some of it I desperately want to forget. But Morrissey makes it all seem so tragically romantic.

I can't be the only one. It's been over 20 years for most of us and people are still throwing themselves onto the stage...

Squiggy's Big Adventure

2009-03-03T22:31:00.008-05:00

Monday a week ago Squiggy went to the vet in Raleigh.

She started out in Chapel Hill that morning, I don't think Squiggy had ever been to Raleigh before. On the drive from Chapel Hill to Raleigh Squiggy's tummy started to bother her so she had to come inside when we got to my house so she could get cleaned up.

We picked up Tsu, and headed to the vet so Tsu and Squiggy could have their teeth cleaned.

Squiggy had to have four teeth taken out and had some pretty bad gum stuff going on. She was sent home with some painkillers, antibiotics and a new dental hygiene regimen.

Since Squiggy got her teeth cleaned she's been very nice to me. At least very nice in Squiggy land. She's still hissed a few times but she hasn't tried to bite me once. She has also started watching TV.

Dan has said that I switched out Squiggy for a clone. Recently he changed to saying that Squiggy had a lobodomy.

I just think that Squiggy feels better now that those teeth that were hurting her are out and she doesn't feel so grumpy.

Last week he sent me this comment from Squiggy: "I just want to ball up and lie down starring into space sometimes. Especially after dental surgery..."

***Update*** Dan says he misquoted Squiggy. "I just want to lie down and ball up starring into space sometimes. Especially after dental surgery..."

Good thing she decided to lie down before she balled up.

Turkey Stuffed Green Pepper Recipe

2009-02-24T17:19:00.007-05:00

I made these last night by altering and combining a few recipes. Dan and I really enjoyed it and I was pleased and proud by how well it came out - so I'm posting this here for others to try. Hope you enjoy.

It's quick and easy to make. I was going to include a picture but I didn't take one last night and Dan liked it so much he's already eaten the top off the last pepper!

Stuffed Peppers - 8 pepper halves - roughly 163 calories a pepper half.

4 large green peppers
1 lb ground turkey 93/7
1 medium red onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tsp vegetable flavor 'better than bullion'
1 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 cup cooked rice
1 can (14.5 oz) diced fire roasted tomatoes
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream
1/2 cup shredded cheese
1 green onion, sliced
1 cup hot water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Start by cutting the peppers in half lengthwise, leaving the stems intact, and halving them also. Remove the seeds and ribs inside the peppers.

Using a hot skillet, saute the ground turkey, onion, garlic, 1 teaspoon of the 'better than bullion', black pepper and red pepper flakes. Saute until onions become translucent. Add the rice, cheese, sour cream, tomatoes, and green onion tops.

Mix well and stuff the mixture into the peppers.

In a small bowl, mix the hot water and the remaining 'better than bullion'. Pour this mixture into a shallow casserole large enough to hold all of the peppers. Place the stuffed peppers in the dish, cover with foil and bake for 25 to 35 minutes.

Remove the foil and spoon the juice from bottom of the casserole over the top of the peppers. Bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes.

and on the 50th day there was carpet!

2009-02-18T10:45:00.018-05:00

Yesterday they put the carpet in. They were actually there fairly late, but everything was finished and it's so nice to have the smell and look of new carpet. I think even the cats feel better. Dexter was all lovey and playing instead of hiding. Tsu seemed more relaxed.

I spent last night assembling the desk I bought at Ikea around the holidays. My sister assisted and it went together pretty quickly. We moved some furniture around up there and I started getting my computer up and running. I'm still having trouble with the sound card crackling and I wonder if that's dust. I need to get that cleaned.

Since there's all this nice carpet (and all the bad smells are gone and the bio hazard of an office...) I feel the need to sort and decorate. I look at the trash can in the office and think 'I need a nicer trash can' and I want plants up there and everything. Right now the TV is in the corner, which is nice - but it does technically live in the bedroom so Dan and I can watch movies in there. So once I have my dresser back it will be returned to it's post.

There is a lot of stuff in the office that can be disposed of and a lot of things that need to be taken to goodwill. I have a bunch of computer bags that I should donate and I need to get back to the sorting of clothes I was doing before this flood occurred. I am thinking I will put small storage bins in the lower part of the cabinet behind the doors.

Certainly I'm loaded with books although they are currently living in my sister's room. I also look in the office and think how I need some new art. So there will likely be some rearranging there. I also have drawer that fits into the bookcase portion of the desk and these little fabric pop up storage thingies. I need coasters upstairs now since there's actually a decent desk there!

The dining room is still full of stuff that belongs in the living room. I hope to get that taken care of tonight with Dan. Mostly books really - and some pottery. It shouldn't take too long to get that stuff moved.

Dan and I are going to see Pulp Fiction at the colony tonight and he said he would help me move the furniture in the living room after we get back to my place. I want to get the pictures re-hung and the mirror needs to go back on the mantle. The tree cat tree should go in the office I think.

The old desk was disassembled and removed from the office. It's downstairs in pieces and I think Augusta and Jason were going to take that to put in their garage as a table/storage. I need to get that over to them this weekend - in time for the flooring people to come and put down the new floor.

I'm a little disappointed that the carpet doesn't match the existing carpet better, but at this point at least the only room with the older carpet (mind you we're talking all of 3 years) is the spare bedroom.

I need to hit Lowe's this weekend for a new floor vent for my living room and a new vent for the bathroom. Technically they should be replacing the one in the bathroom but I'm sick of waiting. All I know is there weren't rust spots on it before this happened.

Right now I'm giving Cary Reconstruction a call. Last night I noticed that the drywall in the hallway is forming lines and nails are popping - which makes sense since those are other walls that are connected to the bathroom. Luckily the last dry wall was done quickly and looks good.

The boxes from the furniture are downstairs in my foyer. I started putting them there last night and the cats were playing in them so I figured I would leave them for a bit. Today it's pouring. I'll probably still try to get them broken down tonight in time for trash on Thursday night. I plan to have a LOT of trash for the city on Friday.

This is really unrelated to the floor project, but I got this great little succulent garden at Lowe's the other day. I added the little purple one in the front. They had a tacky little ceramic vase there to make it look all Southwest like. It's in the hall bath and I think it's quite cute, so I took a picture of it.

And speaking of cute, here's my sister's cat Fraggle curled up on the side of the couch this morning. I took a few pictures for her. Figured she might appreciate that. Fraggle needs to stop scratching my carpet and furniture and stop getting on the counters. She used to be such a good little cat but I suspect she's acting out since none of them get to go outside anymore.

I have a 'To Do' list that I am putting together to help me remember:
1. Organize Office / trash (as in throw things away)
2. Hang pictures (living room)
3. Clean wall in office (Magic Eraser, LOVE EM)
4. Clean laundry room floor (cat pellets from the Genie and Cosmo)
5. Install drawer in office
6. Move bedroom furniture
7. Wash sofa cushions (they smell musty)
8. Desk to Augusta & Jason
9. Laundry
10. Art in office
11. Move books back into office
12. Compressed Air (to see if I can fix the sound card, might just be dirty)
13. New office trashcan (look at the pic, the old one is just ugly)
14. Floor vent / Ceiling vent (Lowe's, this weekend)
15. Vacuum (little bits of carpet still everywhere)
16. Mirror in Living Room (over the fireplace, Dan needs to help)
17. Switch out Duvet cover (Pamela might want the one that is there now)

rumors of carpet

2009-02-17T16:58:00.009-05:00

So after the call regarding carpet installation last night I basically went home and spent all night packing up things in my office so that everything could be moved easily from room to room for the re-carpeting. I was up all night, did some cleaning in the office so the cat funk doesn't end up under the new carpet and moved all the breakables. There is an amazing quanity of stuff in my sister's bedroom. I am afraid the house is 'front heavy'.

All the books on the bookcases are in her room and I boxed things and put them on the shelves in the office.

I'm hoping they will have moved the huge desk downstairs as I would like to set up my new desk in the office this evening. I plotted everything out in Florida over the holidays before I purchased the desk. Unfortunately with the small disaster radiating out from the master bath the whole desk / office set up thing has been delayed. But I'm looking forward to the smell of new carpet. If I get home and the carpet hasnt' been done I may cry.

And then I will curse and call the Cary Reconstruction Project Manager and raise holy hell...

I mention this because several times lately he has told me that something was scheduled for a specific day - and no one shows. This is kind of an issue since the cats have to be sequestered in various locations when there will be people in the house. With the upstairs hall and two rooms being carpeted there are no doors that won't have to be opened for the recarpeting process. Therefore, cats are in the garage.

Funny thing about that too. Open the garage door on any regular day of the week and cats hustle to slip through your legs and into the relitive freedom of the garage.

....Try to put them out there in the morning before you leave for work and it's like, well, like herding cats.

Stuff from the living room made its way into the dining room. Last night Dexter and Giant Cat made it in there as well. Giant Cat does have a name, it's Widget. But, you can see from this picture that he's much larger than a widget.

He's on the new rug that will hopefully match the new flooring that is hopefully being installed (correctly and professionally) on Monday.

If the carpet is in there are a lot of things I will feel compelled to do, including hanging up pictures that were taken down...and cleaning the silloettes of those pictures off the wall. I think of the living room as freshly painted, but it doesn't look like that right now. I want to get that stuff hung as soon as possible.

I discovered the other day that the glass in one of my smaller pictures was broken. I am hoping that is not the case in the larger as one of them was actually professionally framed and the others are all expensive frames which I assume is mostly the cost of the glass... All the sofa cushion covers need to be washed. There is a smell to them and they are all dusty and hairy and there's that musty it was really wet in this house for a while thing going on. Oh, so so much....

Lots of lifting, I have a mirror I want to get back on the mantle. I wish Dan was coming over tonight. He could help with the taller and heavier things. He'll be over on Wednesday after we see Pulp Fiction at the Colony but that will be late and I doubt either of us will feel like it.

Things are starting to feel daunting. My sister is heading home. I want to hear good news if she gets there before I do!

more floor

2009-02-16T17:33:00.003-05:00

Well, the pictures below look pretty good from a distance, but ultimately there are chips and the gaps keep getting bigger.

The project manager came by early last week and met another installer there to review the project. Ultimately the result is that I am having my floor torn out and re-installed a third time. I hope that the third time is the charm. The new installer plans to be there on the same day at the same time as the old installer who will be removing the existing floor. I am told that I will have a complete floor when I get home next Monday...as that is the scheduled day.
In addition, the carpet came in early and they are scheduled to install that tomorrow. Unfortunately my office is full of 'crap' with it being the main storage room for all the stuff that had to be moved out of the rest of the house. I have chosen to have the office re carpeted with the stairs at my expense. This will at least mean that the only room that doesn't match is the second bedroom (my sisters room) that used to be the guest room so it has the least wear of any room in the house.

Once the carpet is installed I can get rid of that horrid desk. I have a new desk with nice cubbies and stuff that I purchased at Ikea before I knew of the terrible flood and the havoc it would reak.

So I guess the organization begins tomorrow night as I start to put things back in place. I need to find the form for the insurance company to get my table replaced. I also expect my other furniture to be returned next week after the laminate is installed correctly. (crossing fingers). And hey, while I'm at it I'm crossing my fingers that the furniture wasn't messed up when it was re-finished.

overly adequate

2009-02-05T01:39:00.014-05:00

After a fair amount of cleaning and organizing, this is what I see when I walk in my front door.

That is, assuming I can get it open. I actually had to knock and get my sister to come and open the door because I couldn't get my key to turn in the lock.

Seems the new threshold they put on my front door means that the lock doesn't line up so well anymore and getting in and out of the house is kind of an issue.

I'll be mentioning that to the project manager.

The other unfortunate thing is that it seems the floor is higher than it was when the first floor was put down. So, when you open the front door or the garage door, the rugs get peeled up out of the way. I really feel that the rugs are necessary to protect the floor - and honestly I just feel like it would look weird without a rug. But my doors are both wooden with a metal 'shell' so I can't imagine how they might cut some off the door. I did notice the insulation strip on the bottom of the door seemed quite large. Maybe I can buy some space there.

Overall the floor looks nice. The door frames and openings are pretty good, no gaps around walls. I think it looks much better in this direction. Not only is it what I am used to, it's what the Bruce flooring instructions state - boards are installed parallel to the window light or the longest wall. Both of these things would result in my flooring being in the direction it is now. Maybe they were thinking the length of the house? I don't know.

But that's not why I call the job only 'adequate'. That's because I can see where the contractor was trying not to use new flooring and used pieces from before.

In a few spots it shows itself as a joint that's not as tight as it could be. The parts that bother me more are the chips. Just little tiny nicks and chips on the edge of the laminate that completely remove the laminate surface and expose the core. I'm not sure what that will mean long term. Most of the places are pretty small. There's one piece that has what will soon be a chip I expect as it is raised slightly and is just begging to be knocked off. Some of the chips are corners, one place it seems like a whole end piece, a few on the side.

They weren't really places I noticed until I started cleaning the floor when I got home. (The floor had been swept I think but was still covered with a thin layer of blackish dust that seemed to resemble the core of the flooring). I swept and mopped which initially made me feel better, until the places with the chips got dark when I mopped over them and I started realising there were little chips in every room. And then started to notice some of the gaps - and the hole they made in the moulding around the garage door, the hole in the wall behind the garage door..(nice job putting the door stop back in, guys) and then pulled out the fridge to clean and found the baseboards behind the fridge missing.

Mind you I realize you may be thinking "who needs baseboards behind the fridge" - and that's not a question I can answer. What I do know is that they WERE there (otherwise the color I painted the kitchen and now loathe would be all the way to the floor) and the holes I was looking at that go clean through the wall weren't there either. The holes are definitely big enough for rodents, not that rodents are a major concern in a house with 6 resident cats...

There are also a few tiny holes in the freshly painted and mended wall across from my stairs. The kind of holes that happen when someone whacks the wall with a tool or say...a piece of flooring...and punches out a little hole. This also led me to notice that my picture hooks from this wall (and the holes that would tell me where my pictures had been) are gone. dammit.

The hole from the door knob is there beyond the trash can. I have personally fixed it several times, and then got a door stop that screws into the wall. They removed it to put the flooring in and then proceeded to open the garage door into my wall and the lock on the knob punched through the wall. Nice work guys.

I moved some of the furniture back and hung a few pictures on the wall. I also cleaned and put the rugs down. It just makes me feel a little better.

I'm irritated by the chips but I just can't deal with them ripping the floor up again. No one should ever hire this guy for a job. I need to find out what the name of his company is.

The plan is to get a large rug for the dining room. It's kind of a hopeful plan to protect the floor. I think it will also look nice. I have found one I like quite a bit at Overstock. The question is whether it will go with the existing rugs or if I should just buy new rugs for downstairs? I've decided to go with something a little more 'mission' style since my furniture is for the most part, simple and my light fixtures are mission style stained glass. The natural wood adds to the feeling. Too bad the outside of the house is Colonial. But hey, at the time I could afford it.

It will still be 3 weeks before I see any carpet. The color that matches is not going into production until the 20th now. I could get a 12ft roll sooner, but a 15ft roll will enable all of my rooms to be carpeted without seams. When you have pets this can be a very important decision making factor. Cats and dogs both can track a seam like nobodies business..and then proceed to rip it apart. I would like to do everything I can to make sure that doesn't happen. Even if it means waiting a few more weeks for carpet.

I am told that my dining room furniture can be delivered next week. When that returns I can unpack the boxes of glassware and other china as well as return a lot of the art and the linens to the dining room. Here's hoping the refinishing went better than the flooring installation.

The picture here is my front door that no longer opens easily. I think if there was a fire we might all die.

The small table next to the door is another sad casualty of the process, as is the corn plant that used to reside on top of it. The table is a very inexpensive table that came from a 'model home' decor sale.

The table hails from World Market and has a Japanese pagoda look going and these odd little wooden pieces that come off either side at the legs. Well, one of them is missing. I noticed this first about a month ago but told the project manager not to worry about it. And I still won't worry too much about it - but I find it odd and perhaps disturbing that whoever was assigned to remove the floors just threw any wood they found out, willy nilly. I mean, it looks NOTHING like a baseboard....

Looking at that sad and naked table, I think I'm going to buy a plant this weekend.

The closet in this picture is my pantry. No more shabby cuts. Still, all I can fairly give is adequate. Last night I noticed a few places that would have gaps if they used quarter round. I was hoping they would have the brains to use something a bit larger and thankfully they did. That's a 'patch' I can live with. Ultimately though I feel like they did the bare minimum of what they would need to do to get by.
That saddens me. I guess I like to think that everyone has a better work ethic than that. Unfortunately I have been disappointed a lot on this job.

Tomorrow more contractors show up to fix the sagging wall in my living room. I hope that at least goes well. And I need to call the project manager and make sure he knows that there are other holes to fix while they are there...and perhaps get the paint off of the floor vent by the sliding glass door. sigh.

I really don't think I'm that picky. I'm just asking that they do the same job I would do, and I would do that well and HAVE done that well.

Here's a picture that shows the side of the stairs fairly well.

Overall, it looks pretty nice and I'm glad I went with the lighter floor. Certainly without close inspection you wouldn't notice the gaps or chips. It's just my hope that nothing gets any bigger than it already is.

This last picture is my kitchen. Sometimes I debate putting a rug in here, but I'm just not sure it would fit that well and chairs would always end up being half on and half off. This is the table that was damaged. I have found another dutch leaf extension table in teak, but no sense in worrying about that until this floor is done.

I also have to find those forms that State Farm sent so I can fill out the item damage report.

There are really only two things that couldn't be repaired, the table and the whatever it was of my sisters. Actually her library books couldn't be repaired either but the library was very nice about that. Although I'm not sure it's fair for the damaged books to be paid for by taxes when the insurance company would have covered it too.

This weekend I should really try to touch up the baseboards and make the whole house look nice. At least on the surface, right?

And this is kind of an aside, but was a fantastically exciting event tonight - Cosmo used the CatGenie instead of peeing on the sheet in front of the washing machine. I told him what a good boy he was as much as I could. Positive feedback, right? I fear it's my only hope.

There is also a moral to this story: Cut off your water when you leave town. Actually I hear terrible things can happen just during the work day. But even if someone else is still there, cut the water off at the wall. I should have cut off the water in my master bathroom and all this misery wouldn't exist at all. Hindsight and all.

the 4 legged inventory

2009-02-02T16:51:00.013-05:00

With my sister here sometimes my house seems a little overly full of pets. I have 3 cats and a dog (had two dogs until recently, another casualty of the house stress and turmoil) My sister also has 3 cats and a dog. It's a lot for a house this size, that's for sure.

These are mine:

Tsu - At 14+ Tsu is my oldest, She came from the Forsyth Humane Society about 13 years ago. Poor girl has had it rough for a while. She's diabetic (almost died from a bad insulin dosage given by a misguided pet sitter), she has only 3 teeth left (none of them frontsizes either) after being attacked by a dog (sadly one that grew up with her and was just super stressed by the house situation) and is starting to find herself covered with moles. eww. Her eyesight is going and she can't jump as well as she used to...

But she's sweet and smart. And overall a very well behaved tuxedo kitty.

Cosmo - Is about 13 years old. He's a rather pretty classic tabby of the brown and black variety. He's a bit co-dependant and has trouble NOT touching me. He has some bad potty habits related to his anxiety and co-dependency and a voice that makes one think there's some Siamese in there not so many generations back. I can feel him getting older these last few months and suspect there is a thyroid thing going on even though his tests keep coming back 'sort of' normal.

Tucker - Just over 5 at this point Tucker should be acting more restrained than she is. Tucker is a tri-color Pembroke Welsh Corgi. She barks too much, harasses cats too much and eats poop every chance she gets. EWWW. Those moles are looking pretty good aren't they?

Dexter(ous) - The shiny new kitten. Dexter moved in last September. It's nice to have young silliness around the house. He's also a super snuggler and really quite laid back. He went to Florida for the holidays and met 4 strange cats that weren't strangers to him.

Here he's pretending to be a super hero.

A Blog in Four (completely unrelated) Acts

2009-01-29T16:27:00.009-05:00

I thought it might be a good time to do a short blog with a collection of things I hadn't yet mentioned.. A few interesting pictures and a few boring updates. Kind of like a Christmas letter but the holidays are long over and there won't be any references to my kids.

Act 1: More Snow

My sister sent me this picture yesterday after she saw the snow post. I thought it was a really nice picture, certainly makes my fence look a lot prettier than it does on a daily basis.

This is looking out the side towards my evil neighbor's house. There would be more trees if the evil neighbor hadn't taken it upon himself to cut some of my trees down. But I digress.

It's really quite warm here today considering this snow fell just over a week ago. First nice snow fall in a few years. They are calling for some more snow showers next week but I would be terribly surprised if something managed to stick. I need to wash my car. Unfortunately the beauty of snow is very short lived.

Act 2: Wine

Tonight there is a wine class with Pamela. I'm not sure what the theme is, but it will be nice to get out again. It's been a month since the last class and I've been drinking swill as a result of my very tight budget. I enjoy the wine classes, learning about the wines and being able to taste the wines without having to commit to a whole bottle.

After class, Pamela is going to come over and I'm going to make some food for us. It will also be nice to cook for a foodie person. I'm thinking some nice oven roasted veggies and a lean meat. It won't be so homey around there but it will do...

Act 3: Vampire Cats or 'Catula'

My mother has a cat they call Puddy. Puddy is kind of a huge pasty orange cat with some white. He came from Key West and doesn't have much of a personality, but he's sweet. When they first took him home he was a thin boy. Turns out he had some dental problems and as soon as they got fixed he started eating. He hasn't stopped yet. When I visit he hangs out in my bedroom and eats my cat's food. He's also in love with Tsu but has learned to better keep his distance. She gets rather aggravated with him.

Anyway, Puddy has a massive overbite. Even larger than my cat Cosmo. And he looks like a vampire cat. I had to hold his head to keep him looking at the camera, but I assure you his lips are not pulled back in that photo. Those are some impressive fangs.

Act 4:

Augusta is getting her new kitten tomorrow. Persephone came from a co-worker whose boyfriend found the kitten under a car in the driveway. She has been staying at Alley Cats and Angels and was supposed to go home over a month ago but there was some ringworm and then a cold.

Despite the delay, she waited and Persephone will be going to live with Augusta, Jason and Kennedy tomorrow. Kennedy (Augusta's daughter) seems to think that you can just 'keep' a kitten in your room. Good luck.

Persephone is also very tiny. Kind of a mini kitty. And she appears to still be pretty small. I won't be able to go see her tomorrow but I plan to go to visit Augusta on Saturday and see the new baby at home!

Augusta and Jason already have a grouchy Siamese cat that they took from me about 2+ years ago. Pamela found her outside her house 3 years ago and Eno (the Siamese) doesn't care for other cats.

Lucky for her Jason and Augusta do.

floor redux

2009-01-28T10:56:00.003-05:00

Today I met with the project manager from the restoration company, the flooring contractor and the project manager from the flooring company to discuss the - uh - piss poor job the installer did putting in my floor. (For a description of each of the following pictures you can hold your mouse over the picture - unless you have Firefox, in which case you're just going to have to figure it out on your own.)

I really hate complaining and it causes me stress to have to go and show people the things they did wrong. In addition I really want them all out of my house so I can clean it and have my house back. I like my house. I've had it for 10 years and basically it's decorated the way I like, it's comfortable and homey.

I have a nice fireplace that would be nice to sit in front of in this chilly weather, I have a deck I enjoy and basically - I like my house. But recently it's been dusty and there have been errant staples, nails and razor blades lying around. Trash in the back yard, trash in the front yard, random holes appearing in the walls and people in and out at all hours.

It's no longer a sanctuary, it's a souce of stress. I might mention here how great Dan's been in letting me stay with him so much over the last 3+ weeks as I think I very well may have lost my mind being here all the time. There is clutter, there is chaos and all my storage is gone. I clean my kitchen at night and dust my shelves and get home from work the next day to another 1mil layer of dust and grime across everything.

Anyway, back to the floor. This is the laminate floor I am talking about here. There's no point in even addressing the carpet situation until later. The first issues with the laminate flooring involve lazy finishing, at least those were the most obvious issues that led to me recognize other issues. It seems that they may have made all the flooring cuts from the wrong side of the laminate? or at least with a saw blade that needed to be changed. The edges were all chipped and there was a big damaged spot on the pantry floor that should have been noticed when they put the next board in - in fact would have been impossible to miss so I'm sure they were hoping I didn't notice. The chipped edges wouldn't be such a major deal I suppose except that a number of them actually stick out beyond the edge of the quarter round. If that wasn't bad enough, there are actually GAPS that stick out from under the quarter round. Somehow they seemed to think that was OK? There are a few thresholds where they pieced them with three pieces of laminate and tried to fix the joints with filler. When you look at the cuts it's clear that they weren't even cut straight to begin with - so they would never line up! Filler isn't for poor installations, filler is for later damage - or maybe tiny mistakes that aren't worth replacing. But when you use filler, shouldn't the filler at least match the floor? I would think so.

Under the counter the kick panel has some kind of black plastic on it. The rest of the kick panels are black, so that's not an issue - the issue is that some of it's peeled back and some of it isn't. It's looks sloppy and like scraps. The trim 'matches' the floor - but when I look at it I see two different colors of trim. The guy from the flooring store tries to tell me that wood varies - and I think yeah, oak does look different from birch. Geesh guys. Use the same wood at least... But the other thing is that I have wood moulding all over my house. The light trim looks stupid on my floor. Get a clue. They should have stained it. And the joints are terrible. Someone needs to give these guys a miter saw or teach them how to use it.

I installed the first flooring with an ex, and granted he was pretty skilled in the woodworking department but he wasn't a flooring professional. The job we did on that floor was absolutely beautiful. There was one spot at the bottom of the stairs with a gap under the size of a pencil eraser. There were no chips, no other gaps, the seams were great and the floor looked great. I would expect a professional could do a job at least as good as I did. Wouldn't you?

So that leads me to another issue that I wouldn't have mentioned if there hadn't been all the other problems... they laid the floor in the opposite direction of the original floor.

I looked up the installation guide for the flooring which states clearly that the flooring should be laid parallell to any light coming into the house and if light is not an issue, parallell to the longest wall in the room. If they had used either of those guidelines the flooring would have been laid in the other direction. And, as I mentioned before, the flooring they were replacing was laid in that direction...why would they take it upon themselves to change that? Unless they just weren't paying attention. And considering the condition of the rest of the floor the 'not paying attention' theory has got my vote.

There's also a soft spot on the edge of the dining room that goes down pretty far when you step there. They seem not to know what that could be.

It occurs to me that after all the complaining I should probably remove any valuables from the house. Sigh. That installer was giving me some dirty looks....

In the backyard were boxes from the installation and a can of stain and a brush. Good thing the dogs didn't get into that.

There is some good news. The project manager from the restoration company is having the entire floor ripped out and they are starting from scratch. And they are laying the floor in the other direction.
The bad news is that means we have to go through all of this again, the tear out and the install. The install should only take about two days even if they do it right. Hopefully they will. I really don't want to continue with this.

My State Farm representative will be made aware of the situation just in case they try to double charge for flooring installation or materials. I can't imagine they would be able to get away with that but you never know. I'm sure they are ticked but heck, I'm paying this same company $1,500 of my own money to replace the carpet in my office and on the stairs. Maybe I should re-think that!
This last picture is in the small closet off my entry. Yes, I know it's a closet but imagine what they are charging insurance. See that tiny piece? It isn't even attached to anything. I can't even imagine what they were thinking? Perhaps that they were installing a floor for a blind person? That's the most rational explaination I have even though it implies a certain amount of laziness or dishonesty.

I'm glad the people that were here today recognize that this is a problem and that a poor job was done. I'm happy they are going to fix it and that there was very little argument about that. I just really wish it had been done right the first time as the whole 'house flood' scenario is bad enough as it is.

Snow at the Horace House

2009-01-28T00:45:00.016-05:00

Last Tuesday, Inauguration Day, the Raleigh area got something fairly unheard of in these parts - at least over the last few years - snow.

I was at the Horace House with Dan and took some pictures. Sadly this remains about as much snow as I've ever seen... But it was awfully pretty. Take a look:
Since my car was parked down the drive I think it got a bit more snow than it would have elsewhere. I remembered the following day that I didn't have an ice scraper or any kind of brush. I opted for a golf umbrella and the defrost. Unfortunately wherever the defrost gets its air intake from was covered with snow. So I got a little blast of the powdery stuff inside the car. Kind of a surprise.

I think the people riding around me were a bit pissed the next day as snow kept blowing off my car and obstructing their view. ((note to self: brush all snow off of car, not just what you need to see out the windows)) Give me a break here, I grew up in Florida and it doesn't exactly snow here regularly!

Dan had been playing devils advocate and had done a fairly good job of convincing himself it wouldn't snow. He said he had been disappointed before and the weather people were always wrong. Mind you, he has a point. They often speak of snow that ends up being a flurry or a dusting. They even changed the forecast overnight to reduce the predicted snowfall by a few inches, but I think it caught up. It was snowing fairly briskly until well after noon in Chapel Hill.

Even when it stopped the sky continued to look fairly ominous. Here are some trees over the side lot of the Horace House. Looks more like Halloween than a snow day!

Sometime after it stopped snowing we ventured outside to check things out. The bell in the large side yard was well covered. A literal blanket of snow covered the lawn. Occasionally we saw animal tracks, but the animals were long gone. Deer I think, I am pretty sure I saw hooves. Funny thing is they seem to prefer the sidewalk to the yard itself.

Nothing had ventured through the side yard though, so there was this beautiful covering of untouched snow running over the hill into the next yard.

Dan walked up to check to see if the mailman had come (he also checked several times to see if the garbage had been picked up - apparently a comment had been made as Dan wheeled the trash cans to the curb on Tuesday evening. A woman walking past the drive told him that the 'trash wouldn't be picked up' which, understandably, put him off. Especially since at the time of the comment he had already wheeled the cans up there under the assumption this would be another dissapointing snowfall (better safe than sorry) and wasn't about to wheel them back to the house because some random and clarivoyant stranger 'knew' the trash wouldn't be picked up. I think he was hoping the trash would be picked up to prove the woman wrong...hoping this to the point that he checked cans even as he commented to me that if the trash actually had been picked up there wouldn't be snow on the lid...) At the side of the walk you could see where some sort of animal (again, I suspect deer) had walked through the yard and over to one of the basement windows. I couldn't help but to remember how Dan's tabby cat, Squiggy, had stared urgently at that window earlier in the day. The angle is such that it's really difficult to see anything and it opens basically under a porch so no large animal could have gotten that close - but I truly suspect she heard something. And the evidence was in the snow.

To the left of him as he walks up the driveway here you can see some small black tracks. Hard to tell in this pictures but they were definitely cloven and the path lead up the sidewalk with a slight diversion to the aforementioned window before heading back around the south side of the house and over to Franklin Street.

Outside of Dan's door there are several bushes that are currently displaying bright red berries. My relationship with these bushes is one of love / hate. They are quite pretty, and even prettier in the snow - but the birds around the house rely on them for nourishment and rely on my car as a bathroom. Still, Tuesday morning they were quite nice and the birds were still huddled up in their nests. Even if there had been pooping I had a nice snow blanket over the car to keep the digested berries off.

After investigating the mail and various tracks we went on a walk around the neighborhood.There's a circle of some sort and a park that Dan knows about but I am not particularly familiar with the area. On a lower street that ends up running into Boundary Rd. there is a park with lots of large rocks that is a memorial for some Chapel Hill local who was known for her gardens. On the wall to the side of this memorial garden there was a small vase with a 'silk' flower and a pair of decidedly unusual shoes. I'm not sure if this is somehow related to the woman that the park is named for or if there is some other Chapel Hill character being honored by this shrine, but it was certainly an unusual sight.

The shoes might be old? They might be new and styled in a retro sort of way. You be the judge.

My shoes for the occasion were decidedly boring. I was fortunate enough to have brought my black boots although I changed into some walking shoes for our actual walk. The boots did a good job of keeping the snow out of my shoes for the first inspection of the snow. I learned that cuffed trousers are not the best wardrobe choice for a snowfall as snow filled up the cuffs quickly as I walked and melted almost as quickly as I prepared to return indoors.

The snow turned out to be a stroke of good fortune for those of us that were hoping to watch the inauguration. I was able to do some work from 'home' - (bless the Internet) and still see the Obama's officially come into office.

There was warm apple cider and later there was baked pasta.

Sadly I would have liked to see my house during the snowfall as well, but Dan and I live pretty far apart and driving was not recommended. My sister was at home with the critters and sent over a few pictures off the deck including this hanging skull decoration that gives away the fact that I still haven't cleaned the Halloween decorations off the back deck. Oops. I need to change those lights too. Shoot. Out of sight, out of mind.

The picture is actually pretty funny? ironic? and I think Dan still has it as his desktop.

I should probably look into taking down the rest of those decorations and cleaning up the backyard this weekend. Since my sister spends most of her time out there smoking I really haven't been out there much as it seems kind of like a place for her to have some privacy. Certainly I need that with the two of us on top of each other around here. Seems fair she should get some too.

She took a few other pictures of the yard, the back yard looks rather pretty I think. The yard is only partially fenced with a low picket fence but it does fine for a Corgi and a really dumb Blue Heeler.

The benches around the fire pit are covered with snow and the fire pit is full of snow. As I look at this picture I realize that the top of one of the benches isn't on the blocks and I might need to address that this weekend as well. Thankfully that's an easy fix. Changing out those Halloween string lights won't be quite so easy. Hopefully Dan will be kind enough to take them down. Dan and my friend's husband, Jason, can both reach the lights without a stool or ladder which makes the task considerably less complicated and time consuming.

Out the front door there is a picture of the solar lights that border the slate path that borders my Japanese Maple. From the looks of things we got a few inches at my house. I live pretty close to US1 and the weather forecast said the US1 corridor was expected to get the heaviest snowfall. Certainly the snow stuck around my house for a few days. My house faces north and is fairly well surrounded by trees (one of the main reasons I purchased this house) so the snow melts off rather slowly. If it stays cold enough it can linger for a week.

True northerners might chuckle at this revelation but I tell you that in NC we get A SNOWFALL. And we might get another in a few weeks or next month but I cannot tell you the last time we had a second snowfall before the first had melted off.

This final picture is diagonally out my front yard at a house across the street.

The view is through the snow-covered dogwood tree. Quite a pretty picture if you ask me. The neighbor is having some painting done so the maroon shutters have been removed from her house giving the entire picture a sort of 'black and white' look. At the bottom of the shot you can see part of the road and some tire marks. We joke that Raleigh only has one snowplow and that may be true. I know I've only seen it once and it was right after I had shoveled the driveway...and it piled up all of it's freshly plowed snow in a two foot drift at the base of my drive. Thanks Raleigh. Really appreciate that. I suppose someone thought I could use the exercise.

installing Cat Genie

2009-01-26T14:51:00.018-05:00

So, after the Cat Genie arrives I am reminded of the rusted / frozen water connection in my laundry room that kept them from changing the hose when I had my washing machine installed. It also turns out that my drain pipe for the washing machine wouldn't fit both the washing machine drain hose and the Cat Genie drain hose. "crap."

The other issue is that the entire laundry room needed a thorough cleaning as Cosmo and some other cats have taken it upon themselves to urinate on the laundry room floor. I now keep sheets down to absorb any grossness, but initially it ran under the washer / dryer and that needed to be cleaned after some things were moved out of the room to make space.

On Saturday I took to assembling the Cat Genie, had some issues with the bowl turning and needed to do some investigation to figure that out. Overall though the installation process was pretty simple...but a better picture of the bottom of the bowl and where that white grid thing-a-ma-bob that helps it turn resides wouldn't hurt anyone.

In order to remove the rusted hose I needed to purchase a hack saw and borrow some WD40 from my sister (I have some in the garage somewhere but with the other house construction it's pretty hard to get in the garage to find anything). Following some instructions I found on the Internet I hack sawed the hose connector at an angle and used needle nosed pliers to peel back the edge. Not easy, but manageable.
The WD40 was essential at this point. The peeled edge made it possible for the WD40 to ooze into the grooves and eventually made it possible for me to unscrew the hose. You can see the pool of rust and the metal dust from the hack saw in this picture.

I cleaned up the rusty edge and the metal dust and then replaced the cold water hose with the new one and hooked up the T connector Cat Genie supplies for such things. I also needed to purchase a new drain hose for my washing machine. (Getting frustrated and creative on Saturday night I bore a hole in the drain hose I had. Just the goose neck connector, but it turns out I was unable to buy this on its own.) Luckily the new hose had a slightly smaller goose neck hose.

By chipping away at the edge of the opening with a screwdriver and hammer (think chisel here) I was able to get the opening a bit larger (the actual drain pipe below was larger and would accommodate both hoses) so that both hoses would actually go through the opening of the fancy wall insert.

So here you can see the final product, cold water is hooked up using the fancy T connector. That's the water input hose for the Cat Genie with the plastic white connector sticking out of the top. In the middle you can see the gray washing machine drain hose and the white Cat Genie drain hose going into the same drain pipe in the laundry room.

Now the fun part. At least for some of the kitties. The younger ones anyway. I hear one of my sisters cats is afraid of the Cat Genie.

Dexter finds the Cat Genie fascinating. He also likes to watch it when it's running. And dip his dainty paw in the water. I know he's peed in there a few times, but my sister tells me no pooping yet. It also seems that another cat peed in there sometime today. Go kitties! Let's use the expensive self cleaning toilet!!

My sister suggested training Dexter to flush the toilet but I suspect that could be an expensive enterprise as he might just flush it to watch it run. Not only that, but the cycle is around 30 minutes total. 3 washes and then a drying cycle so I would sure hate for it to be running for Dexter's amusement when another cat wanted to use it. I suspect the others would be afraid of the noise and motion of the cycle. Such interests are typically exclusive to kittens.

He also seems to like water. This is something that has come to my sister's attention and also to mine. He has the same tendency that some cats do to drop things into the water dish. He also was fairly fascinated with the Jacuzzi tub that my parents have put into their hall bathroom. At any given time you could walk by that door and a speedy orange kitten would come shooting out over the edge and down the hall in an ever so guilty sort of way.

Last night I took a short video of Dexter enjoying the game that is his new potty:

He's pretty darn cute. But I might just be a bit biased here. Judge for yourself.

introducing CatGenie

2009-01-19T15:05:00.004-05:00

I have purchased a CatGenie.

The reviews seem pretty good and certainly the issues that people have seem to have been resolved with new versions of the unit.

The CatGenie seems to function much like a real toilet. and it's not something you have to scoop or change. It actually hooks into a water line and a waste line in your home. I plan to put the one I purchased in the laundry room and see how it does.

I read that the customer service is excellent.

But one more expensive step on the road to a horde of cats that don't use my floor as a potty. Here's hoping a clean potty will be inspiring.

http://www.catgenie.com/

I purchased it on Friday since Amazon had it on their Friday sale. Free shipping and the lowest price I saw. I can deal with accessories and hook up later....

paint fumes

2009-01-19T14:08:00.005-05:00

When I saw the ceiling last week I thought that it had been painted. At least I had been told by the Project Manager that there would be painting. I inspected the walls downstairs and looked for signs of painting but really didn't see anything that indicated to me that painting was occurring.

It seems that perhaps all they painted last week was the hallway and the bathroom. Today they showed up and started masking off all the walls as they painted the ceilings. My sister is home today and it seems that the ceiling painting occurred mostly before they went to lunch. She sent some more pictures after they were out of house that show the wall preparation that has been done. My coat hooks and my organizer by the front door have been taken down. Looks like they are doing a pretty thorough job. There were some funky patches on the wall facing the stairs that have been there as long as I have lived in the house. From the looks of this picture they are fixing those spots.

I have also asked that they repair a spot beneath my telephone that I tried to patch and did a really poor job fixing. You can actually push on the wall and it kind of That hadn't been done yet so I called the Project Manager this morning to ask that he mention that to the contractor again.

This weekend I did some more cleaning that will probably be undetectable by the end of the day. Lots of dust everywhere again, even a thin coat of grime on my fridge. I wiped down the front and sides I could get to, but surely I will need to do something on the top and pull it out to get the rest. I would like to get the walls in the kitchen painted too ...so at some point I will need to pull out the fridge to get to those anyway.

I cleaned some major dust / grime off the ceiling fans. I swept the underlayment and cleaned up a lot in the laundry room. Cosmo and Tsu are still basically living in the laundry room. Tsu keeps running into the garage and camping out in heated cat cup in front of the heater I put out there to make things more comfortable for Cosmo. Unfortunately Cosmo really doesn't want to go out there... which is a shame since Tsu is the "good cat" and Cosmo is "not the good cat".

Dishes are run, counters are clean and I moved stuff back onto the book cases in the living room since it will be a month before there is new carpet. Sometime in the next few weeks I will need to move stuff out of the laundry room and clean under the washer and dryer in preparation for the new kitty toilet. I'm not exactly sure where I am going to put things from the office when the new carpet goes in there. Certainly it's an opportunity to organize and get rid of the junk. Like that huge ugly desk....

restoration begins

2009-01-15T20:13:00.022-05:00

I haven't been home since Tuesday morning. A lot has changed, not as much as I would have hoped - but at least the place looks better and cleaner.
They have put down the underlayment on the first floor. The plywood being covered is a vast improvement. Not to mention I am hoping that will take care of the downstairs nail and staple problem. It doesn't appear that anything downstairs has been painted including the ceiling, which, upon examination seems to look pretty good. Certainly it doesn't seem like it has been patched.

But, regarding patching, they haven't done anything on the inside wall of the living room and that stupid light switch on the fan is still buzzing and sparking. I suspect I am going to have to address that myself tonight. I don't know what electrician told them he had fixed things but he must be really oblivious. There is fire and smoke coming from the switch when it's turned on. How much clearer does it have to be?
My sister says they painted the hallway - that explains the plastic on the stair railings. Certainly it looks that all the painting that occurred was in the hallway or the bathroom. I get the feeling that contractors work really short days. At least all of their day isn't spent at the site in question. They arrive after I leave for work and are gone long before I get home. Seems kind of like a 6 hour day actually. I guess there is time spent picking up materials and so on. I find it interesting that they covered my railings but not my stair carpet. I should inspect it. If I'm lucky they spilled some paint - but that really is too much to hope for I guess.
The master bath is looking much better. My toilet is no longer in my shower and it is attached and working.

I like the color of the tile and I like it with the wood. I'm glad I selected it. I'm still glad that I have the white in the other two bathrooms and laundry room (just the way they are decorated - although it would probably be nice in the half bath) but it's nice to have something slightly different in the master.

It appears that when putting in the baseboards or painting or whatever today that they broke a few tiles off my wall. These are the gray shower tiles that actually wrap slightly outside the door. Also, I'm also not terribly impressed with the toilet to wall hose their plumbing contractor chose.

Ironic since that's where this whole mess started.

On my spreadsheet of things to watch I am noting the tile, the place where the tile is missing grout and the place under the cabinet that is either missing tile or grout. Not sure what needs to be done to fix it, but it sure wasn't like that before now.
There's a little hole where you can see under the wall there. It looks like the wood, but that small brown line there where the wall meets the floor is actually the wall NOT meeting the floor. That's something we will have to discuss if they don't take care of it on their own. I can't imagine what kind of funk could get under there in a bathroom. I sure don't want to figure out how to get it out of there.

No sign of carpet. No sign of flooring. I'm taking a wild guess, but I'm thinking there won't be any tomorrow either.

Cosmo and Tsu were crammed into the wicker cat basket together. This is actually an improvement as the last time I was here they were fighting over it. The basket is sitting on top of the dryer and they appear to be fine with that as long as I don't use the washer or the dryer. Bad news for them but I'm going to have to use them tonight and it's their own fault since I need to use them to wash the sheets that they have taken to piddling on in front of the washer / dryer.
The new underlament in the dining room is all down. I kind of wonder what they found when they pulled up the last of the laminate floor as that was Cosmo's favorite pee spot - and I think it became a favorite of Widget's too. On the other hand, I don't really want to know and I rather think I would be quite embarrassed.

This is one of those times that it's good that a lot of the workers don't speak English. They can talk about the smell amongst themselves but most of the supervisors can't understand them. right?

between dryout, demolition and restoration...

2009-01-15T16:12:00.015-05:00

It's the 15th, which means that this has been going on for 18 days. 3 weeks since the initial damage.

I've been mostly staying with Dan (who, it turns out is a Saint) and living out of a suitcase in my car which I wash weekly. My clothes are mostly packed in these plastic storage bags (see left) as my dresser is gone. There is still clothing hanging in my closet, but suits and dresses don't travel well when you're living out of your car and I suspect none of those pants fit - but that's another story.

The problem with coming home is that I don't end up sleeping much. As I look around my house all I see are things that need to be done, things that are dirty, things that are out of order. Cat potties to police, counters to wipe, dishes to do, things to dust (those terrible fans put a nasty, thick layer of dust on about everything in the house from what I can tell).

There is still too much stuff in the kitchen but the other night I cleaned the kitchen when I was home. As my sister will gladly admit, she's not much of a housekeeper. Counters wiped, dishes done, things sorted and placed against the walls. Sink scrubbed, trash out, stove cleaned, microwave and toaster oven wiped free of the afore mentioned nasty dust layer...

If you didn't look at the floor, it didn't actually look so bad. Note I've been meaning to repaint my kitchen for years now. The purple doesn't really go with anything anymore, but I just haven't ever managed to get around to it. I had planned to last weekend but Dan had his first Saturday off in months and honestly, I wasn't that inspired when it came down to it.

At least things were clean(er).

I was down in the kitchen earlier tonight and it appears that a cleaning is in order again. Apparently they moved the fridge today and laid a lot of 1/4" wood to prepare for the flooring. That resulted in all the baskets I keep with medicine and such being moved on to my counters. Which I doubt have been wiped since I did it a week ago.... I haven't been home in two days - a lot has changed, but not really enough I think. I'm starting a spreadsheet with outstanding items so I don't forget to point various things out.

My sister says that Dexter, the kitten, has been very upset by being locked up every day. It's a shame and I hate it for all of them, but none of them need to get outside. Especially considering someone around here has taken it upon themselves to shoot my pets with BB's.

Tucker seems unfazed by Sadie's absence. It might help that Ash is around. But, after 5 1/2 years she might have been sick of fighting with Sadie for attention. On Monday some friends were over and she was jumping on the couch and getting her belly rubbed and basically everything she wanted without the worry of Sadie sticking her head in the middle of things.

Cosmo seems OK, after his ordeal. He finally moved out of his apartment and is now living in the laundry room with Tsu during the day. The wicker basket my parents sent home at the holidays is now living on top of the dryer and provides a sheltered hole to hide in. Unfortunately the sheets at the base of the washing machine and the dryer seem to provide an alternative to the litter pan...at least in their opinion. I even suspect my good girl Tsu is using the sheets. I'm not sure how to deal with the inappropriate elimination issue in regards to the new floor. I hate locking Cosmo up - but I'm really sick of him ruining my house. Unfortunately I can't let him outside with the BB guy around here somewhere and I feel that leaving him in the garage isn't the best solution for him either. But that may end up being his daytime option. Here he is eating and drinking on the coffee table. The other night we pulled out the sofa in front of the TV and made things workable, at least for that night. I can't put food on the floor because the dogs eat it - and Tsu and Cosmo are definitely cautious around the dogs these days. I can't blame them.

On Tuesday I made my final selections for flooring and carpet. Carpet was pretty easy as I just needed it to match what I already have as closely as possible since all the upstairs rooms aren't being replaced. The flooring was more of an issue, especially since they no longer make my flooring and the exact color didn't seem to be available. The cherry was a little darker and the beech a little lighter. I took a few pictures with the shelf that usually sits on top of one of the dining room credenza's next to each sample with a piece of trim and a piece of the old flooring next to it. Ultimately I ended up at the flooring store to look at the larger sample of beech.

See, my house doesn't get a lot of light, but I love my wood trim and the cosy feeling of the house. Yet, I want it to feel larger and open and the lighter color seemed a safer bet as I think the cherry would have just added to the whole 'cherry cave' thing my downstairs seems to have going for it.

I've selected the beech. Not sure how long it will take to get here. I don't know if it was in stock or if it had to be ordered. I think it will look good, I hope it will look good. I hope. At least it will be new....

and the emotional damage not covered by your homeowner's poicy..

2009-01-09T04:44:00.027-05:00

On Tuesday they finally took the last of the fans. Later that morning I met with the project manager that would be managing the rebuild. They have taken samples of flooring and carpet and are waiting for results on the value so that I can select materials. I went to Lowe's to look at tile and there really isn't anything I like more than what I already have - but I'm going to try it in a beige instead of a white and use a light gray grout instead of the marble.

Unfortunately this hasn't progressed quickly enough and the pets have all been in varying difficult moods.

On Monday, Sadie attacked Tsu. Tsu was in shock, hyperventilating and all of her lower teeth had been knocked out. There was blood. I rushed her to the emergency hospital where they started to work on managing her pain and making sure she had no internal injuries. She has 3 teeth left. She probably needs to go back for a little dentist surgery about a week from now. You can get the idea from the picture.

When it first happened no one was there to witness what led to the attack. Sadie is 5 1/2 years old and was raised with cats, including Tsu. Tsu is 14+. They have always gotten along well to the point where they could share a sofa cushion. So I assumed that something else had happened, perhaps another injury like the staple she got in her foot over the weekend? On Tuesday I moved Tsu to her regular vet.

On Wednesday night I got home from work and immediately went upstairs to let the dogs out of their crates. As usually they came running out of their crates and down the stairs. I was behind them. At the bottom of the stairs Sadie made a beeline for Cosmo.

Cosmo is 13 years old and was also here when Sadie was just a puppy. I couldn't get her off him, she wouldn't listen to me when I told her to stop, sit, crate...she broke away when I grabbed her collar...she chased him all over downstairs and had him in her mouth several times even with me twisting her collar.

Sadie is an English Bulldog / Boxer mix. She's a strong dog. Cosmo was crying out and there was blood in the dining room. I finally managed to get the dogs outside. Sadie looked as sweet and happy as always. But, suddenly I knew that Tsu had been attacked and it wasn't just an accident.

There has been a lot of stress here. Cosmo and Tsu had been 'living' on the dining room table until the furniture re finishers came and picked up the furniture on Tuesday morning. There had been fans and dehumidifiers on for over a week. There is no flooring. Dust is everywhere. The ceiling has been cut away.

Add to this the dogs next door that keep getting out and breaking into my fence. They have also chased me from my car, trapped me in my house and cornered my dogs under the deck furniture.

I know that these things all contributed to Sadie's snap.

But, I could never trust again that if she was left alone and under stress that she wouldn't go after another animal. Or even a person. I was afraid I was going to have to put her down. I had my sister contact my ex and ask if he would take her (she was originally his dog even though we haven't spoken in a year and a half). He agreed and my sister arranged to drive her to his house after she got home.

I packed up all her things. I did my best to say goodbye. She was just excited that she was going for a ride in the car and had no idea that I would never see her again. She was my sweet lovey dog with the doe eyes. She would lie with me on the couch, put her head in my lap. I cried all last night, I kept breaking down at work today and I am crying now. But it was the right thing to do. But I blame the leak. And insurance can't cover the fact that I had to give up my dog because this situation became too much for her.

Tsu came home on Thursday. She's having some trouble walking but her x-rays were good so right now I have to assume it's just bruising. I know she's in a great deal of pain. She only has 3 teeth left so I was feeding her canned food but in the last few hours she has taken to gumming dry kibble. I can see it's hard for her to lie down, I hope she heals quickly.

Cosmo isn't bleeding and he finally came out of the closet he had moved into on his own. My sister said that he was fine, but had decided that he had a new kitty condo and liked room service. I hate to break it to him but they will need him out of there to put the new flooring in.

Before the last humidifier went away Dexter had taken to sitting on it. He seems to be the only member of the household not affected by all this disorder. Personally it's wearing hard on me. I had to give up a dog I love because it caused her to snap. I almost lost two cats I love because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. I've been staying with Dan for a week and I am sure that is wearing on him.

Tonight I am at home. I haven't been able to sleep. First, my bedroom is rather in disorder, at least it is without carpet or a bathroom. Second I've been obsessed with cleaning up what I can control. There is a thick layer of nasty dust on everything and this included the kitchen (which also had a fair amount of gross food stuff that should have been wiped up when it was spilled). I gave the kitchen as thorough a cleaning as I could and removed a lot of trash. It does look better down there and I am feeling a tad more relaxed.

I am told that drywall can begin on Monday, so I guess that means ceilings and walls will be repaired. Hopefully they will finally look at that light switch in the living room that was smoking. I have been planning to paint my kitchen for years and I am trying to make sure I do that on Saturday. It would be preferable to paint it while the floor is up in case there are spills. I need to remember to speak to the contractor about repairing the hole I made in the wall while he is here. I will have to cover that myself, but I've been meaning to have someone do it and this sure seems like the time.

Dry Out Day Two

2008-12-31T09:57:00.011-05:00

Yesterday they returned to finish the downstairs and start the upstairs. I'm not entirely sure if they are done with the upstairs as I didn't get home in time to talk to them before they left.

Downstairs the flooring was removed into the dining room and they finished removing the flooring from the kitchen back to the hallway that leads to the garage. They also removed a small patch of vinyl flooring that was under the original vinyl that was covered with the laminate hardwood they ripped up.

Sadly, I really liked that laminate. I liked the wide boards vs. the smaller boards. And the cherry color went well with the trim. I realize it looks brown in the photos, but there was a slightly red cast that I really preferred to the light yellow wood, especially considering the color of the hardwood trim that I refuse to paint as it is one of the reasons I purchased this particular house.

I guess on New Years Day I will start trying to move things and get my house in some sort of order. Certainly I need to finish going through the clothes in my bedroom and getting more stuff ready for Goodwill.

Unfortunately this cleaning out of too much stuff was happening before the flooding so there was too much stuff in there initially and now there's even less space and everything is just a nightmare.

I will likely ask if they will be replacing all of the carpet and try to find out what the overall situation is. I'm a bit disturbed that they chose to cut the carpet in the bedroom as patching it will not be acceptable to me. When you have pets you really need to avoid carpet seams as a dog or cat can find a seam and rip that up in no time. It was something I specified when the carpet was laid and it needs to be replaced the same way.

My other concern is that all of the carpet upstairs and downstairs matched. Upstairs being especially important as my house is not particularly large and having different carpet colors in each of the rooms would only contribute to the small feeling upstairs. One of the reasons the downstairs feels so nice and open is the removal of the railing in front of the living room and the seamless laminate that wrapped through the kitchen, entry, halls and dining room.

If they do replace all of the carpet upstairs, which I really think they should if they cannot match the bedroom to the other carpet, I will want to be careful about what I put into the office as it will just need to be moved. I purchased a desk and bookcase at IKEA when I was in Florida to replace the current desk with no storage in the office. If they will be re-carpeting I will want to wait to assemble and install any new furniture.

There was an old wooden trunk against the wall in the bedroom that was standing in water for a few days. My dresser was up against the long wall (you can see it pushed out some) and part of it was also standing in water for at least two days. The dresser is solid wood similar to the furniture in the dining room. There is a furniture restoration company coming out today to look at the older furniture. I am concerned about long term water damage to many items, but especially these because they really are irreplaceable and the nicest things I own.

I can see from the water stain how far out the standing water went into the room. I figure if I did some measuring downstairs I could actually figure out where the light fixture that was gushing water is in relation to the floor. I haven't seen the room in it's entirety so I'm not sure where they have moved things to. I hate the fact that my room and house are not navigable. That contributes to my stress. In fact, while speaking to Dan I just realized that the champagne I purchased for tonight is still in my dining room on top of the wine fridge. I will need to take that to his house to chill for later as clearly my house is not suitable for guests at this time.
I asked Martha if she knew where the toilet was, she wasn't sure. I am not sure from that picture if that's a toilet in my shower or if they just hauled it out somewhere. I am wondering what will happen with the shower and if there was enough water leaked to justify the removal of the shower pan. It sure looks wet in that corner and I would guess that with all the standing water that the baseboards will need to be replaced in the bathroom. It appears they have already been removed, I'm not sure if they were saved or tossed.

It's sad to look at the place the tile used to be. I think I had that tile put in all of two years ago? Certainly it was very new. I wonder if I will be able to match the tile (as in does Lowe's still have it in stock) or should I change? And will it cost more if I choose to use a smaller tile?

I kind of wish I had more money saved up and we weren't on the edge of this recession so I could take this opportunity to do more upgrades - although I should really just think about resale value at this point. I like my house, but I'm looking for another location. Durham / Chapel Hill area would be nice. I just want to get rid of the Raleigh address. Maybe live a little further out and have a bigger house and yard.

A basement would be awfully nice but I imagine those flood. Water damage really seems to really be something that just keeps showing up in all kinds of little places. I figure the haste in drying and such is related to the danger of growing mold and mildew.

I am wondering how long this is all going to take? I guess it will be good once the contractors show up to start reviewing how everything will go back together. I don't know how they are going to come up with material selections at this point - or what will be repaired and what will be replaced. I need to work hard this weekend getting rid of things!! There are too many things in my house right now for all this to go smoothly. Sigh.

Downstairs Demolition

2008-12-30T16:43:00.015-05:00

The water damage downstairs had extended as far into the kitchen as the small island on the side of the fridge. All of the flooring had to be ripped out to start the drying process.

The de-humidifiers are about rib cage high and there is currently one in the living room and one in the kitchen.

I've run out of places to move furniture and other items. Everything furniture in the Living Room has been pushed back against the far wall. All of the personal items have been moved into the dining room for their protection. Anything else has also been put into the dining room.

Upstairs I've been forced to get things on the bed or as close to the far wall as possible. Other items have been moved into my office.

Dexter gets locked in the office during the day with the dogs. I am concerned that with all the coming and going that he might get outside.

This is the eating area of my kitchen. The water was coming down from the fixture in here and destroyed the table beneath it. It also seems to have destroyed all of the things sitting on that table.

Martha is continuing to investigate which of her items are damaged beyond repair.

Yesterday they were unable to finish the 'demolition' because there was so much work to do downstairs as far as floor and ceiling removal and pulling up carpet. When they left I had 5 fans and two dehumidifiers. The Dehumidifiers are pretty neat as they have these long clear hoses that are continually draining the water they remove from the air down the drain in the half bath. Here you can see one of the de-humidifiers in the living room and all of the living room furniture up against the far wall. There is a fan on either side of the living room blowing under the carpet. It is my understanding that the carpet pad that I pay extra for has been removed. Note to self: Make sure they replace that carpet pad with a pad as good as the one they took out!When you look at the exposed plywood it's pretty easy to see how wet the wood is. I am really surprised by how quickly it spread and how 'soaked' everything seemed to get. Granted I didn't actually see the standing water and the water pouring out of the ceiling since I wasn't in town - but it sure seems like a lot, especially with what those de-humidifiers are pouring down the sink. Finally here is a view from the far side of the kitchen. You see right through the eat in portion of the kitchen where I gather most of the water came down - all the way to the far wall in the living room. The de-humidifier is sitting in the center of the room.

On the counter you can see the library books that were on the table. Martha is trying to dry those, I don't have much hope. The spine is dissolved on one of them, I'm pretty sure the others will end up with some sticking pages. She is supposed to take them to the library and get the replacement costs in writing so I can submit those to the insurance company. She also had some electronics on the table that no longer work. I told her to get information on what it would cost to replace those as well.

Today they are finishing up downstairs and they should have been tearing out the tile in the bathroom and lifting the carpet in the master and spare room to start the drying. I'm sure the cats are ecstatic.

Merry Christmas?

2008-12-29T11:58:00.025-05:00

Friday night my sister came home to find water all over the downstairs and coming from the light fixture in the kitchen. My friends husband, Ambiorix and my sister did their best to clean up the water they found, but by the time I got home last night it was clear the situation was bad.

The ceiling was sagging and I could feel that the entire living room carpet was wet, the laminate hardwood flooring was swelling at the seams from my dining room all the way around to my kitchen, there were dark spots on the ceiling that indicated that the spare room also had water damage and there was water, enough that it squished when I walked on it, in the master bedroom in what seems like a 6 foot radius from the bathroom.

This morning I called State Farm to file a claim. State Farm was great, and someone was here within an hour evaluating the damage. They told me that with State Farm they actually do the work to dry everything out and then submit the bill to State Farm, I only had to pay my deductible.
They are removing the ceiling in the kitchen under the bathroom and part of the bedroom. They will also be removing all the flooring downstairs. Upstairs the tile will be removed from the bathroom and the toilet detached. The carpet in the living room and bedrooms will need to be pulled back, the carpet pad removed and they carpet may need to be replaced.

Because of the fact that I have seamless flooring in my downstairs and the ceiling downstairs is one piece, they will need to replace / refinish the entire downstairs and the entire floor will need to be replaced. They have also had to remove all the trim and crown moulding, will need to remove the baseboards upstairs.

I am told it will take approximately 3 to 5 days to dry. Drying involves these huge fans that I am told sound like a jet engine and dehumidifiers and so on. They will be running 24 hours a day and the company will come out to check the progress every day.

Once it is dry, the contractors come in and begin to make estimates and I will need to pick out replacement materials like tile, paint, flooring and possibly carpet. I have no idea how long that will take. Certainly it's going to be a pain, but I do have the option of paying for 'upgrades' like improved flooring, knock down ceilings etc. So even though it will be a major hassle that could last for weeks, it seems that at least I will get something out of it.

The guy that showed up today said that State Farm is the best company they work for. I hope he's right I also need to make an inventory of personal items to be replaced. One of those items may very well be my dining room table. There were some library books on the table that are soaking wet and Martha had some electronics up there that may not be salvageable. Unfortunately I also lost a few irreplaceable items including some Christmas ornaments that were my grandmothers, some I made as a child and several of my 'annual' Christmas ornaments. I'm sad, but it could be worse.

State Farm just called and got the details, I'm supposed to find a like / kind replacement price for my table and they gave me my claim ID# and some contact numbers. I hope this is less painful than I'm worried it will be.

They will still be ripping stuff up for the rest of the day, and as they find more water damage they will let me know what I need to move. We already had to get all the pictures off the wall because the fans are pretty powerful and can blow stuff off the walls. I've also moved all the pottery and other art so that it won't be damaged. They haven't gotten upstairs yet. That will another round of exciting surprises I suppose....

Dexter's first Christmas and a trip to Florida

2008-12-25T08:59:00.008-05:00

Dexter came to Florida with me for his first Christmas. Christmas is a big deal for inside cats as for many of them it is the only time they will ever see a tree! Being in Florida my parents don't use a real tree. We had one only a few times when I grew up. It used to be something I wanted terribly and getting a real tree was like getting a treat. As an adult my view of the real tree has changed dramatically. What really did it was continuing to find needles in my house well through July - and then finding a whole mess of needles under the carpet when it was pulled up for the reflooring. In Florida most of our trees were cut over the summer. They are so close to dead by the time they get here you have little hope of their needles hanging on long. I remember a neighbor who had two trees one year that both lost their needles. For the third tree she oped for a tree with that white fake snow flocking sprayed all over it to hold the needles on.

Regardless, Dexter was happy to bite the fake tree and it's ornaments. He liked to inspect the packages beneath it and he also all the bits of ribbon and string lying about. He was actually pretty good in the car, mostly sleeping and only a few tragic 'meow's. Tsu has done this a few times before so she's pretty laid back about most things. I took a few pictures of her from her level. She's wearing her collar for the trip (safety first) and has her 'Jingle Cat' tag on. I have to say that when I can get a picture of her, she looks quite sleek and pretty. One of my favorites actually has her sitting in a chair at my kitchen table looking at a book on the table. In the pictures her coat looks sleek and black and she stands out well against most backgrounds.

Being a kitten, Dexter is rather oblivious to the cat hierarchy around him. My mothers cats come up to investigate, perhaps even hiss in his general direction, and he just bumbles through.

Certainly there have been some pretty good pictures of both of them. Dexter as he bites the Christmas tree and both as they stretch out on the sofa for a nap.

This is a picture my father took with his very excellent camera. The one's I have just show a washed out cat on a washed out sheet - He managed to get the shadows by not using a flash - something that would have been too dark with my little Canon Elph - but I really do love that camera. I'm not much of a photographer so quality isn't that important - but the resolution is high and it's the size of a deck of cards. That makes it easy to carry with me so I have it when I want it. It really comes down to volume. I take bad pictures in general, so I take as many as I can in hopes that at least a few of them will be decent.

In fact he just walked in here and gave me a squeaky meow as he hopped into my lap!

Last night mom started to work on the goose, remove the fat and get it braised for today. Dad dug up some of his childhood 'farm' skills and de-boned and cut up the goose (thank goodness because boy was that gross) and mom tried to render the fat in a frying pan but burned up the first lot - a truly liquid black mess. ewww.
Here you can see mom and dad trying to get a picture with their cats to send to a family friend. Mom has a string and Tsu is interested in being part of the picture. Dexter watched from the edge there for a while, but did end up going after the string himself - much to the dismay of Cricket who you can see in my father's lap. There were several of these pictures under the tree as their cats were not so very interested in being part of this event. The idea is to add these pictures to an email template that shows the pictures so when she gets the emails everything is very easy. There is some sort of odd email printer that actually prints these emails as they come. Mrs. Kelly (the family friend) used to live next door and now lives in Texas. She isn't really familiar with email and Internet and I believe this is an attempt by her children to get her to use email. Hopefully it works.

Last night I made Mahi Mahi on a steamed bulb of baby bok choy with a roasted tomato vinaigrette. Very tasty and certainly will use that vinaigrette for some other dishes! The recipe actually calls for Salmon but I'm a little off Salmon having had so much of it over the years. The firm white Mahi Mahi was really quite nice.

I tried for a few new pictures with Dexter for my 'profile pic'. The one I have up is cute and all but he's not looking at the camera and he has a few eye boogies. I cleaned out his eyes and took several over the course of the afternoon in hopes that we might both look OK in one of them.

My mother has pointed out that Dexter has rather short legs, something I hadn't noticed but I have to admit that she's right. Kind of like one of those Munchkin cats, but actually more in the middle - like his leg length falls right between Munchkin and regular. She keeps calling him the weasel or the ferret as when he first got here he was a little slinky and even lower to the ground. Personally I think he looks more like a lion with his little broad nose!

Tonight I am making a seared scallop over braised radicchio with a grapefruit beurre blanc sauce. That will be the first course and then we will have the goose with some roasted root vegetables. I've never had goose, so I hope it's good. There certainly isn't much of it in terms of actual meat but there was a lot of fat. Kind of makes me wonder how a goose gets around with so little muscle. I am also supposed to make a creme brulee but I got a backup from Trader Joe's on the way out of town just in case. Dessert isn't really my forte.

2008-12-17T15:50:00.006-05:00

Last night Dexter was up in my lap being as lovey as ever. He's chatty and has a funny little voice. I was noticing his feet and his extra toes and couldn't help but to think how they were just not as big as Horus's feet. Horus, even without the toes, just had huge feet and was a big cat. I could hear him clomping through the kitchen and knew exactly who it was.

Doing a search for some email a few nights ago I had an email I had sent the woman who found Horus's mom with a picture of him and I had made the comment that Horus was just the best cat and how I loved him so very very much. I wanted to cry.

I hope he's not dead, I hope he comes home. It will be 5 months he has been gone on the 26th.

Dexter is a great little cat, but his personality is very different from Horus. They are both quite well behaved and have funny voices, in fact all of my cats are very different and none of them can take the others place.

Dexter is my first longer haired cat and he has a sweet little smile and loves to just look at you. He's like a little lion with a squeeky roar. You can see his happy, handsome fact here. He'll be 6 months old soon and he's the baby of the house. I'm taking him to Florida for Christmas to meet my parents 3 orange cats and their black and white polydactyl. Horus didn't enjoy meeting other cats so much but Dexter is really laid back. I suspect it comes from living with Tia and her other cats as she nursed him over his first few months. He's also my only kittie prone to eye boogies!

Obligitory Christmas (Holiday) Cards

2008-12-17T00:28:00.005-05:00

Last year I was feeling a bit down in the dumps for the holiday season - and I decided that I wasn't up for sending out holiday cards. So I didn't.

This year, I'm back on the Christmas Card bandwagon - and I can't help but to notice that this year I've received a lot more cards than last year. I can't imagine that everyone was having an off year...which brings me to my question.

How many of us quickly send out a card to the people that we receive cards from? Maybe you didn't send a card to Aunt Elsie, but when you receive her card do you quickly run to pop a signed card in the mailbox for her?

A little house cleaning

2008-12-13T19:16:00.003-05:00

When my sister moved in I needed to remove all of my personal items from the spare bedroom and hall bathroom. This has resulted in an office that is packed with 'things' and a bedroom that is packed with baskets of yarn (I'm a knitter). Today I started to FINALLY tackle the office.

Seems there were a number of items left over from previous jobs. I've also discovered that even with the elimination of what must have been 8 boxes of books, I still have too many books for my bookshelves.

Phonebooks, old papers, magazines - it all has to go. And right now a significant portion of it is sitting outside the office door in two large garbage bags and a box. I sure hope I can get them downstairs..

The dog crates have also come to reside in the office. For about two months they have been in the middle of the room taking up what felt like all of the free space. I brought them up here the day of Halloween party to get them out of the living room and decided I really prefer the look of my living room WITHOUT the crates. I'm not sure the bulldog will be real thrilled but I suspect I'm going to need to use the space above the crates as a sort of shelf.

This is all quite daunting and that leads to procrastination. (Which is why I'm here writing this instead of feverishly working on the rest of the office or moving my clean up project into the bedroom. I hate clutter, I hate living in it and this is really driving me crazy but I'm almost out of room which makes the work really difficult.

I bought this house from a family with two kids. I can't imagine how they managed to live here. Sometimes it just seems so very small.

And so the Stray Cat Dies...

2008-12-06T18:04:00.006-05:00

When Martha and I were cleaning up Declann's anal sack abcess last night it became clear that things were not quite right and certainly more severe than the average anal sack rupture.

I had him at the vet when they opened this morning. Dr. Jon took a look and Martha had been right - his colon had ruptured and was leaking out in this was what was in the anal sack. This is something that can be fixed under most circumstances, but considering that he was already malnourished (one of the reason's his colon skin was so thin and tore), not eating on his own and having liver problems - the most humane thing to do was to put him down.

He went very quickly once he had the shot which made me feel like he was ready to go. A few years ago when it was time to put down my childhood pet Dervish after a year long battle with cancer it took several shots before her heart stopped beating.

It's very hard for me to believe that this would have happened to a cat with claws since everything seems to be related to his inability to catch and eat food after he was 'lost'.

Shame this had to happen to such a nice cat. He really deserved better.

More cat nursing

2008-12-05T12:47:00.007-05:00

Declann has his tube in now. We need to give him 4 to 6 feedings a day. Right now that feeding consists of just one tube. His belly is so tiny we can't start feeding him too much too fast. Eventually Dr. Jon says we should be up to 6 to 8 tubes in each feeding. The tube doesn't seem to bother him too much and he hasn't thrown up any of his meals so that part of it seems to be going well.

The tube goes in under his mandible and into his esophagus. It has been taped securely around his neck so that access is on the back of his neck. The food we give him is a high calorie food watered down to the consistence of a slurry.

What's unfortunate is that what I thought was diarrhea was actually an impacted anal gland that has now ruptured. But that does explain the revolting smell. When Martha gets home tonight I'm going to need her help to wash and flush it. There's really nothing that can be done except to keep him on antibiotics, clean it out and let it heal. He really is the most wonderful cat though, all this going on and he's still pleasant and purring. I'm sure he's uncomfortable - likely even great pain. I just hope he makes it through this, he will be a great lovey pet.

You can see from this picture that he really isn't looking so good. He lost a lot of weight in the last week of not eating, I wish we had put the tube in a week ago. His left eye is a little closed up with that inner eyelid. I expect that's from his anesthesia yesterday and it should go away soon.

Bees Attack Stupid Guys

2008-12-04T14:20:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I mentioned a commercial I have been hunting for on YouTube. A friend of mine sent me the link, clearly Pamela is the queen of Google / searching and I relinquish my title.

Enjoy:

Nice huh?

The Stray Kitty Gets a Feeding Tube

2008-12-04T11:27:00.006-05:00

I took Declann to the vet this morning. He seems pretty dehydrated, has diareahha and is just much skinnier than he was originally. He won't make it without 'agressive nutritional support' and I suspect that he should have been tubed a week ago. I am hoping he responds well and fairly quickly. Dr. Jon says we should know in two weeks. It sounds like his tube will need to stay in for 4 to 6 weeks in order to be successful.

I am told that the feeding tube is not particularly traumatic for the cat. With the tube he will also be able to get the hydration he needs. I'm going to set him up with a very specific diet plan and feeding schedule.

I'm also going to give him some pumpkin. I hear that most cats love the taste, and it's loaded with vitamins and fiber.

Mom seems to be considering taking him if he recovers. She's even given him a new name 'Raleigh'. I hope he makes it, I suspect I will know how he's doing by the end of the weekend.

Cleaning the 'favorites' and finding a hilarious commercial...

2008-12-03T18:58:00.003-05:00

Cleaning up my 'favorites' at work today I found this commercial - which for some reason I just absolutely love. Perhaps it's because I used to fly a lot?

On the other hand, one of my dogs tends to act like that man. You tell her not to do something, and she knows she's not supposed to do it - so she does as much of it as she can as quickly as she can until you stop her. Give me a dumb dog any day.

I just had to share that. It still makes me laugh. Actually, I'm laughing just thinking about it.

Another commercial I am looking for is the one where the two men are trying to cut down the bee hive hanging in a tree. The plan is for one man to cut it out of the tree so it drops straight down into the open trash can below the ladder while the second man secures the lid of the trash can.

As you might imagine, the plan goes awry. Problem is, I cannot remember who or what it's a commercial for and every search I have done has been unsuccessful. If you know it, PLEASE let me know!

2008-12-02T10:35:00.003-05:00

The other night Dan played this for me, and now it's kind of stuck in my head. I figure most people have seen it at this point -

But it's the holiday season, so here it is:

Rock Out Schroder!

Icky things cats eat

2008-12-01T23:22:00.008-05:00

Tonight I managed to get Declann to eat his first solid food.
Tender moments cat treats:

They have a really revolting smell that seems to appeal to him. He also drank water out of a dish. I did have to hold it up to him, but my sister had indicated that all he was interested in drinking was clam juice. I'm happy to say that he seems to be getting more motivated to eat. Unfortunately he's looking particularly sunken and I suspect he continues to be dehydrated. Certainly the intestinal difficulties can't be helping the hydration.

The other cats are fit to be tied that they don't get to feast on these delicacies that Declann is being offered.

21

2008-12-01T16:43:00.010-05:00

About 4 months ago my orange tabby cat 'Horus' disappeared. I've been looking for him and occasionally get calls from people who think they may have found my cat.

Last Monday I received a call from a man that actually had a polydactyl (extra toes) cat like Horus. When I went to see the cat a few things were clear. #1 - Sadly, it was not Horus. and #2 - this cat was sick.

This stray had been declawed.

Mind you declawing is a pretty horrible practice on its own. To 'declaw' a cat the last bone of the cats toe actually has to be removed. An amputation of the last joint of your cats toes.

What ends up being particularly horrible here is that this declawed cat - either by accident or intent - ended up outside. And outside there wasn't any kibble. And without his claws he had no way to catch any.

His belly was full of nothing but fur and he has 'hepatic lipidosis' where his body eats his liver for nourishment and replaces the liver with fat.

The vet has been calling him '21' for the number of toes he has. We're calling him Declann. He is very loving and friendly, quite vocal too. And the good news for him is that the feline liver has the remarkable ability to regenerate. Therefore, in cats with idiopathic hepatic lipidosis recurrence is rare, and the cats that recover go on to live normal lives.

But, if you're considering declawing your cat just to keep the furniture intact, I might remind you that not only can cats be trained not to scratch the furniture but other options are available including products like 'Soft Paws'. And while you may think your cat will never go out, things happen. Things change. Do you really want to give your pet a death sentence just to keep the arm of the couch from being scratched?

B.B. King

2008-12-01T10:37:00.011-05:00

Went with Dan to see B.B. King at the new Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC) last night. You can see him perform 'The Thrill is Gone' on this video:

DPAC is a pretty nice place. They advertised that there wasn't a bad seat in the house and they may be right. We have tickets to several other upcoming events: Cirque Dreams, Bill Cosby and David Sedaris.