Couch Day

Since it doesn't snow here I can't take a snow day, so couch day it was today.

I wasn't just being lazy, yesterday morning I woke up with a nose full of snot and having a hard time breathing, so I took an allergy pill, thinking that it was just allergies that were making my nose run and making me feel like I needed to sneeze. Either that or the unhealthy for everyone air quality that we are experiencing right now. I'm just glad it's not as bad as the air in Bejing where you can't even see the person next to you, but Bakersfield is number one in the USA for air pollution! As the day went on and I did some major house cleaning and floor mopping and all that kind of stuff, my nose was not getting any better, so I took another allergy pill. Which didn't make much difference.

Keith got home in the early evening after deadheading back from Barstow in a van, no train to put him on or whatever, and as the evening went on I started to feel worse and worse, like maybe this is not allergies but a cold. I sent him to the store to get some kind of medicine for me since he was still dressed and I was in my pajamas and I try not to drive at night anyway since I can't see very well in the dark. I wrote down what to look for because he would get in the store and completely forget what he was there for, and of course he didn't get what I wrote down but came home with some multi-symptom bad cold and flu medicine. And a frozen pizza and microwave popcorn. I took the medicine and went to bed while he stayed up and watched late night TV and ate pizza and popcorn, pizza and popcorn that I asked him to make sure he cleaned up after so I wouldn't wake up to a mess in the kitchen.

I didn't realize until this morning when I woke up after an incredibly sound sleep, not waking up even once during the night, that the medicine he bought was actually a nighttime formula, and damn did that stuff ever work well. It wasn't Nyquil, which I don't take because it does NOT make me sleep well and actually makes for a really restless night for me, but some CVS generic thing that he found.

I felt pretty good after shaking off the I've been drugged feeling that you have when you wake up after taking any kind of knock out cold medicine or sleeping pills, but not so good when I went into the kitchen to feed cats and start coffee and found a big popcorny bowl on the counter with pizza crusts stuffed into it and the cutting board that he put the pizza on still sitting on the counter. Must be nice to be able to just leave a mess knowing that someone else will clean up after you.

Even though I felt better despite having to clean up the kitchen first thing this morning (while Keith snoozed away in bed) I went to the store to get daytime cold medicine to take so that I would keep feeling better all day. While I was at the store I decided to get a couple of movies and just take a day off today, a couch day if you will. And since Keith didn't get up until noon and I couldn't do much of anything that made noise anyway, like vacuuming, it worked out pretty well to just sit on the couch and read my book all morning.

The cats though a couch day was a good idea, too, except I think Harri got her nose out of joint a little bit when Mimi got on the couch too near to her. She sat there staring at the back of the couch for a long long time. Mimi was not getting the hint that she was annoying Harri, she slept peacefully away while Harri sulked.

This was my view from my spot on the couch.

And the view when I got up from the couch to get more coffee.

Just barely enough room for my big butt down there at the end of the couch. See how Harri is facing the back of the couch? Weird cat.

Mimi does not care that Harri is in a snit.

Cats on the Couch

Some days our couch seems to have become the world's largest cat bed, with no room left for humans. Many times I get up to do something, come back to sit, and my seat has been taken over by someone fluffy. Sometimes I will mark my spot with a throw pillow. You always have to look before you sit around here.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to sit and watch a little junky afternoon TV, Dr. Phil or whatever other drama I could find, and every cat in the house, with the exception of Pepper, was already on the couch. They did leave me one spot since Buddy was up on one of his favorite spots on the back of the couch.

Mimi was next to Bear, which is unusual since Mimi is not usually a couch cat, but Bear loves to sit next to you and get petted and petted and petted and petted because she loves to get petted and will bite you if you stop too soon.

You can just barely see Pepper over there in 'her' cat bed. She looks a little peeved that she is not on the couch, too. Nobody else dares to get into her bed.

Cozy.

Speaking of Dr. Phil and afternoon TV, the last few weeks before Keith went back to work, we were getting bored enough in the afternoons where we started watching him almost daily. I hadn't watched Dr. Phil in a long time and wondered when his show became one big commercial for his latest book. He had some guests on the show and spent more time talking about his book than 'helping' his guests work out whatever issues they had. If you just read my latest book your problems will all be solved! We were saying that you could make a drinking game out of Dr. Phil, taking a shot each time he mentioned the book, so we started to count, and came up with nine shots in one hour, with an extra shot for each time he mentioned that it was published by his son's new publishing house.

Couch Potatoes

See what I mean about cats on the couch?


It's turning into a very expensive cat bed.


Notice how Pepper has her own corner of the couch? That's because she is so cranky and snarly that nobody else wants to get close to her. She even snarls at me when I want to sit down so I spray her with the squirt bottle and then she jumps off and snarls away.


Look at that disdainful expression on her face.

Last night I absolutely could not get to sleep even though I was tired. I went to bed at 11 then tossed and turned until 2 am. I was cold. So at 2 am I got up and turned the heater on, got the house warmed up, and then back to bed. Where I was able to finally fall asleep.
We don't usually leave the heater on at night because it blows right onto the bed and the room gets too stuffy and hot, but tonight I'm going to warm things up in there before I go to bed.