Cat Lamp!

First off, we did a bunch of things this past holiday weekend other than cleaning up the back yard. The door on sawhorses that we used for a table is still there and the folding tables are still there, but at least we did clean  up the trash. Keith was supposed to put away the tables yesterday but he spent most of the day in a lawn chair drinking beer. Which is what you are supposed to do on a holiday weekend I guess. And then he grilled some london broil and carrots for dinner.

The cat lamp. Last summer when we went to pick up Dusty and Genie from Las Vegas, James was living in total chaos in the Vegas house, trying to sort through the years and years of accumulated junk, selling what he could at yard sales, and filling huge dumpsters with the rest of it. He told us to look around the house and see if there was anything we wanted, which was pretty much nothing, except for the CAT LAMP that was on the counter in the kitchen. A lamp that used to be called a TV lamp, apparently back in the fifties or whenever, people would put a decorative lamp on top of their brand new huge TV console cabinet, maybe so if the TV show wasn't so interesting, they could look at the lamp instead. The cat lamp was wonderful, a ceramic pair of siamese cats with some plastic or resin eyes, with a light bulb fixture in the hollow back of the bottom of the lamp. Awesome! And I wanted it! I asked James how much he wanted for the lamp, fully intending to pay at least $50.00 for this wonderful lamp, but he was keeping it as a sentimental reminder of Dusty and Genie, the two siamese cats that we were there to bring home.

Well, okay, I will get over my disappointment at not getting THE LAMP and I'm kind of sorry that I asked because I know how much you miss your Grandma and you will miss the cats, too. And I sure don't expect you to sell me something that has so much sentimental value for you.

So, I put the lamp out of my mind, hoping it would help to ease James' each time he looked at it, and bring back happy memories of Grandma and kitty cats for him.

Well, this Saturday we decided to go downtown and browse the antique stores, something that we haven't done since last year when we went shopping on support your local small business day. We wandered a few stores, finding a few knick knacks and some melmac dinnerware at bargain prices, and then went into the Five and Dime antique store (in the old Woolworth's building) mainly to use their rest rooms, because by now I was getting a little tired and was about done shopping. But how I love that store for actually providing a public restroom unlike so many other towns where the stores will not let you use the restroom and you have to drive around looking for a McDonalds or someplace else with a toilet.

Anyway, I wanted to just use the restroom and go, but Keith said since we are here we might as well look around.

And then I saw it.

The CAT LAMP!

And I bought it.

And I love it.

Even though we don't have a big TV console to put it on.

Meow!

Big Belly Bear

I think that is going to be her new name. She really is quite rotund. We have put our cats on a diet and only put food out twice a day. No more grazing.

So now she sits and stares at me. FEED ME!

When she is not staring at me sending me telepathic messages that she is STARVING TO DEATH! she is usually sleeping somewhere. Fat and yes, lazy.

I was wondering why she picked under the chair to sleep. Maybe she passed out from STARVATION and couldn't drag herself anywhere more comfortable.


I'm too weak to move BECAUSE I'M STARVING!



Speaking of big belly cats, Dusty and Genie are slowly acclimating themselves to being outdoor kitties. They have been coming out of the shed and exploring the yard just a little bit, laying out on the patio or in the flower bed. Yesterday I went out to check on them and Genie came up to get petted but I didn't see Dusty anywhere and was kind of hoping that maybe he had run away from home, mean as that may sound, but he was up laying way back on the top shelf in the shed where I couldn't see him. I really wish that we hadn't promised to take care of two more cats, but we could never live with ourselves if we had let them go to the pound.

Laundry and New Cats

I have a confession to make. I am no longer segregating my laundry. I have always been told that you absolutely MUST separate the whites from the coloreds or something dire might happen. If you wear a lot of red clothes, then your whites will all turn pink, we all know that, but if you wear clothes like I wear these days, well washed and sometimes even pre worn (Goodwill jeans, anyone?) then is it bad to mix your white bras in with your purple t-shirt?

Not with my clothes.

I only have a few white clothes, some pants (from Goodwill) and a few pairs of cotton underwear and white bras, and I needed a clean bra but didn't want to throw the very few white things that were in the laundry basket into the washer, wasting an entire loads worth of water on just a few things, so I decided to live DANGEROUSLY and threw them in with the colored load.

And they came out fine.

Now, back when I worked in an office, I would have never done this because I had my nice office clothes, most of them black, and you never ever wash black with anything else unless you want to wash it again. So, I was strict about separating the laundry, never allowing anything to co-mingle.

But now, in an effort to both save water and make sure I have a clean bra to wear, I'm co-mingling away. And saving water.

And now, living with eight cats. Yes, EIGHT! And it's too many, let me tell you. Poor Dusty and Genie are relegated to the back yard and so far Lucy is letting them be, mainly because I think she's a little afraid of them because they are definitely big burly cats and Dusty looks kind of cross eyed and not quite right in the head.

We kept them in the shed with the door shut for the first few days, and the first morning Keith went out there in the dark, opened the door, and scared the crap out of them. They shot out of the door and he had to wander around with a flashlight looking for them. They are very docile and friendly kitties, though, and just want to lay there and get petted, and they came right to him when he called them. We've been leaving the door open so they can venture outside, they don't go far yet but haven't been using the litter box much so I'm assuming they found an outdoor potty place. They have never been outside cats, spending their lives laying on the couch, so are cautious, but curious, and we think they will adapt to being outdoor kitties fairly easily. As long as Lucy leaves them alone.

This is Dusty:


He was brave and sitting out on the patio.

Genie was hiding under one of the shelves in the shed.


We do have numerous blankets and towels and a cat bed for them to lay on, we are not forcing them to lay on the bare wood floor.

They are good looking cats with those beautiful blue eyes.


Speaking of blue eyed kitties, here is contortionist Mimi.


She is of course laying right in the middle of the hallway where you have to step over her to get anywhere.