Another Reminder of How Old I Am

Now, I know that this company is just trying to make a buck here but it is kind of depressing to get this in your mail box, another reminder of just how far that foot is sticking into that grave.


Anyway.

Another dull weekend here. We were supposed to have the storm of the century blowing in on Friday night with roads closed because of snow and rain and cold and all that. It did snow in the mountains and San Francisco got a dusting of snow for the first time in 35 years or something like that, but here in the high desert it was all just kind of a yawn. It rained overnight but by Saturday morning skies were sunny again although it was a little nippy out there.

We did get an email on Friday from the medical review board at BNSF saying that Keith passed his medical part of the pre-employment checks (despite the fact that he is DEAF) so now we are just waiting to see if he passed the background check. Hopefully we will hear something today. We are hoping that the tentative start date of March 7 is not going to be his actual start date (if he does get the job that is) because that will only give him a few days to give notice at his work and all.

We are both a little nervous about the possibility of him taking this job because with all railroad jobs there is always the chance that you'll start and then the work will dry up and you'll be laid off and scrambling around to find an open position somewhere else in the world, and then you'll have to pay your own way to get there and sleep in your car while you're working because who can afford to pay your mortgage at home and then pay for a motel while you're working somewhere else? It's hard to go from a stable job to an unstable one despite the $5.00 more an hour that they pay and the better union type benefits that they offer. But, as we all learned when the economy crashed, no job is secure these days and sometimes you just have to gamble on an unknown.

Mimi has a couple of new tricks, one of which is rather annoying. We (meaning ME) clean our cat boxes twice a day, right? Because six cats poop a lot and the cat boxes really do need cleaning twice a day. So, while squatting down to clean the cat box, Mimi sees the opportunity to jump onto my shoulder because she is not a lap cat, she is a shoulder cat. But, she doesn't just sit on your shoulder, she has to walk around on you trying to find the most comfortable position on your shoulder, walk around while trying to hang on which means lots of sharp little claws digging into your shoulder. So, now you are squatting by the cat box scooping poop with a sharp clawed little cat walking around on your shoulder.

Her other trick is that she likes to play with the little coated rubber band ponytail holders that I keep in a glass jar with a lid on the bathroom counter. A glass jar that she can see the ponytail holders through but unless I take off the lid can't get them out of the jar. So, she scrabbles at the jar thinking that because she can see them she should be able to get at them. So, I take the lid off the jar for her. And then she likes to fish them out and drop them in the nearby water bowl. So, I fish the now wet ponytail holders out of the water bowl and put them back on the counter so that she can drop them in the water bowl again. It's a never ending source of amusement for her.

What's New on Artfire

I got creative and made gift tag sets, available ONLY on Artfire. These were fun to make and I'm anxiously awaiting a collage sheet order to come in the mail. I found a cool site that has retro type images from the fifties, which I LOVE and so I ordered 6 or 7 collage sheets to make Christmas tags with. I'm hoping they come in the mail today.

Anyway, here are some tags that I made.

Paris themed.

and more Paris.

And some Alice in Wonderland.

and more Alice.

I was going to include pictures but I already deleted the batch that had these pictures in, I get too confused with lots of picture batches in my folder so try to delete them after I'm done listing. Oh, well.

What else? I got an order of brass stampings in and have been painting and antiquing them so that I can list them in the supply shop on Etsy. I've come to the conclusion that Etsy is only good for selling supplies to other sellers these days, ha ha. So, I'm going to work that shop for all it's worth! I do like the fact that I can advertise these supplies as being made in the USA, too. That's unusual for anything to be made in the USA these days.

I went and got my blood work done yesterday morning so that I can go back to the doctor's next Friday and make sure that my new cholesterol meds aren't messing up my liver or anything like that. Also so that they can charge me for another office visit. We just got the bill for Keith's visit and do you know that it costs $20.00 for a rectal exam? The indignity of that and then you've got to pay for it, too!

I was cleaning the cat box last night and kind of wondered how much time I spend cleaning cat boxes so I figured about 2 minutes twice a day times 365 days is 1460 minutes a year which is how many hours? 24? If my calculator is working correctly since I have no math skills anymore and can barely remember how to add stuff let alone multiply and divide. So an entire day out of the year is spent cleaning cat boxes and I'm really glad it doesn't have to be done all in one day.

A Truce was Called

But just for a moment.

I was shocked and surprised yesterday to walk by the couch to see Pepper ACTUALLY ALLOWING ANOTHER CAT TO LAY NEXT TO HER AND EVEN TOUCH HER!

A picture had to be made in honor of this momentous occasion.


Pepper is our first born so to speak, and she is still angry at us for allowing all of these other cats into her home. She was queen of the house for her first year of life, no sharing of food bowls or litter boxes, able to sleep wherever she wanted and all the toys were hers and hers alone. And then we ruined it all for her by bringing in a bunch of sassy little kittens who got all of the attention because they were smaller and cuter and more fun to play with and she has never ever forgotten or forgiven. She barely tolerates all of the other cats and they usually give her a wide berth because they KNOW that they are barely tolerated and really don't want to face the Wrath Of Pepper. Cranky snarling Pepper who will growl and hiss at them if they even look at her.

So, to see Pepper and Mimi sharing the same couch space was unusual indeed. When Pepper is taking up this corner of the couch and anyone else wants to sit on the couch I usually put a few pillows in between them as a sort of no man's buffer zone, and even then it doesn't always work and we'll hear growling coming from the other side of the pillows. If she doesn't just get up in total disgust and leave the couch in a huff that is, shooting dirty looks over her shoulder as she goes.

Unusual indeed.

I did find out why Miss Pepper thinks that her sh*t doesn't stink and leaves in uncovered in the box as a little gift for me, though. I found this online article about 6 'Adorable' Cat Behaviours, and this is what they say about the uncovered poop issue:

"Some cats intentionally leave their crap uncovered or in conspicuous locations (such as on a doormat or in your sister's bed) in order to communicate to us that they are the dominant member of the household, and that this territory is theirs.

In the wacky world of feline politics, feces act as little, smelly flags that clearly dictate the boundaries of each cat's domain. In the wild, these flags are intended to be seen, and smelled, by other cats, a sign that this is the stomping grounds of a badass kitty.

When it comes to the shared domain with humans that domesticated cats enjoy, the same territorial rules still apply, so a housecat who leaves his waste out in the open is sending the message to us that he is El Presidente, and that we should be covering up our shit, so as not to offend him."

In this case, it is not El Presidente, but Queen of the Universe and don't you ever forget it! I'm just glad she confines it to the cat box, it could be a lot worse and we could be finding little surprises all over the house.