Gag

Well, the cats left me not just one but two presents this morning, resulting in a lot of gagging on my part. I'm sitting at the computer like I do every morning, only this morning I am sitting in the dark because Keith is on vacation and still sleeping, and I get a huge whiff of poop smell. And I know it's not me. So, off to clean the cat box because it really is stinky in here and why oh why can't they cover up their poop like cats are supposed to? Then as I'm taking the bag of stinkiness to the trash can I look outside and see Genie up by the window on the back porch and Bandit from next door by their food bowls about a foot away from Genie and why isn't she chasing him off? So, I go out to run Bandit off and pick up their food bowls and one of them has vomited their breakfast back into the food bowl along with some grass that they had been eating. Gag. And double gag. And I'm gagging all the way to the sink while carrying vomity food bowls to be washed.

So, how's your morning going so far?

Scaring the Crap out of the Cats

And quite literally, too.

I was just finishing up vacuuming the living room, something I do every other day and something you'd think the cats would be sort of used to by now even though it is loud and probably hurts their ears, and I go to put the vacuum away in the hall closet, and right there in the middle of the hallway is cat poop. Just laying there.

And aren't you glad I didn't include a picture?

I'm assuming that someone was running madly trying to make it to the cat box in time and the vacuum cleaner suddenly being turned on kind of hastened things along.

Speaking of cats, we are planning on leaving Friday afternoon to go pick up the orphans, who I think are named Dusty and Genie. I was debating on whether or not to go along with Keith, and was wondering if there was even a mattress left in the house for us to sleep on although I'd much rather stay in a motel, but that costs $$$, and thinking about how freaking hot it will be driving through the desert and how freaking hot it will be in Las Vegas, and how I have to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes, and should I just buy some Depends for the drive?

But, I'm a little concerned about him trying to drive back home with two cats in the car, two cats who might be a little stressed out and am thinking maybe it would be better if I got those Depends and just went along to help out with cat wrangling.

We were also discussing if it would be better to drive at night when it's supposedly a little cooler, but to me it is somewhat safer to drive in the daytime and how boring would that be to drive at night when all you can see are headlights, not that there is all that much scenery in the desert, and I'm also thinking it might be easier to stay awake on the long boring drive if it's during the day, and also so that I can help with driving if necessary, because I can't drive at night because I can't see. I'm getting to where I can just barely see in the daytime, too, and as soon as possible am going to get new glasses.

So, the plan is to get to Vegas in the early evening, spend the night, and then get back on the road early Saturday so that we can get back here and get the cats settled in their new home while everyone can still see what is going on. Then Keith will have the full day on Sunday to rest up for another grueling week at work. The heat is really getting to him and he has to stop working about every 15 minutes to rest a little and wipe all the sweat off and his boss is not very understanding about how draining it is to work outside when the temps are in the triple digits and why aren't you working harder and he's about ready to tell them to take this job and shove it only we can't afford for him to quit. Especially with 2 more mouths to feed.

Hair Balls and Cat Poop

Ah, nothing like waking up on a sunny Saturday morning to find cat vomit and a big hair ball on your workroom chair. Right where you sit.

And nothing like going to clean the cat box and finding out that somebody must have hung their butt over the side of the box instead of inside the box where it belongs, leaving you a good morning present to clean up.

Geez.

Looks like it is going to be a beautiful day today.

Keith is supposed to work on the floor again this weekend.

I had to call the dentist on Thursday because he had been waking up in the middle of the night in pain from the work that they did on Monday. That is not normal. They told him to come on in so they could take a look at it and apparently sitting in the dentist's chair with your mouth held open by rubber blocks for three hours is not good for your jaw. He got a prescription for motrin to unlock his jaw and one for vicodin so that he could sleep at night. So far it's helping but he is still in pain. He's just about fed up with this dentist, even she said that keeping him there for so long was her fault. I'm just about fed up with them, too. Don't double book your appointments to where one dentist is working on five mouths all at once, okay?

Anyway, it really is supposed to be a nice weekend for us here, sunny and warm, so despite cat poop and hair balls starting out my day, here's to the rest of the day!

That's NOT A Marble

I got inspired (finally) to get back to soldering and making something new for my shop. I have a huge collection of beach glass from when we lived in Ventura-nothing better than beachcombing to clear your mind and relax. There are no beaches here in this hot smoggy place that we live in now, unless you count the ones along the river, but you have to go way up the river, because here in town there is no water in the river. Why the water disappears before it gets into the city I have no idea, dams or something I guess. And you don't want to go swimming in our river because people drown there on a regular basis, like five or six in the past few weeks, but that's a whole other story.

Anyway, I was going through my jars of beach glass:


looking for pieces to solder and a few dropped to the floor, where I left them because I was too lazy to get down from my chair and go look for them. So, later on Keith finds Buddy playing with this beach glass marble in the bathroom, where he likes to take things like this to play with because they clink against the walls and roll on the linoleum so well. I had forgotten about this marble, but this was quite a find, and the only beach glass marble I've ever seen, so I was glad that Buddy found it on the floor for me.


So, I go back to work and Keith is watching me from the doorway and says 'hey, there's another marble or something under the window bench', so I reach under the bench to see what it is, pick up something that's hiding against the baseboard, something that I can't see but can only feel, and it's something hard and brown, maybe a brown piece of beach glass, but no, it isn't a marble, it's a piece of PETRIFIED CAT POOP!

Ewwww.

This is one of my other most prized pieces of beach glass:


And, this is what I've been making with my beach glass.


These are beach glass combined with vintage paper glass charms:


And this one is made with the glass marble gems that are intended for vase fillers or whatever.


So, other than picking up petrified cat poop with my bare hands, it was a productive few days, and I've got lots of ideas swimming around in my head, now.