I suppose I should mention that these 10 things on the floor throughout the house are not necessarily out of place, just things I noticed on the floor as I toured about in order to join in today’s Monday Listicles because I’m in the mood to write. Well okay perhaps they are out of place and this will serve as a list of things for me to put away. There is a novel idea!
10 Things On The Floor
1. Backpack from the little girl I watch before and after school. It is in the living room on the floor where she unpacked her homework. She’ll be taking it with her when she goes, nothing for me to do here.
2. 3 catnip pouches are visible, one right next to my foot here in the kitchen, under the table. Our cats are little nip-heads and love to lay around the house getting high. Hmm, nothing to mess with here, it keeps them happy and they know when we move their things. It upsets them. They are OCD. We just learn to live with it.
3. A large krinkle ball that is another cat favorite, and since they are not ones to put their toys away it is down on the family room floor.
4. A crochet bag is on the floor in front of the love seat. My sister is working on a gorgeous blanket for my grandson so it is sitting nearby her at all times. Not really out of place to be honest, as that is the place she will camp and work on it later.
5. 3 Avon boxes are currently sitting on the living room floor because I’ve been a bit lazy in getting them down to the office. I have no excuse to offer, just lazy.
6. Pillows from the other love seat in the living room, because it is hard to sit on it when the decorative pillows are on board. I can use the excuse that well, someone might want to sit down later…right?
7. Hello Kitty slippers are on the floor in my bedroom. I rarely don’t have them on my feet so no point in putting them in the closet, as I’ll just pull them back out again in no time. That is my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
8. A stray tissue that hadn’t made the trash can in the bathroom off the family room, because someone missed their 3 point throw. That has been fixed!
9. Froggie rug in the bathroom at the top of the stairs. But he belongs there and on mornings that it is cold out he is a welcome covering to the tiles to keep bare feet from the shower from getting chilled. He can stay put!
10. A glass tomato that is a paper weight but is currently doing duty as a door stop in front of my bedroom door, lest the breeze slam the door shut on one of the cats, or trap one in my room and they not be able to get to their litter box, which would be a crisis.
Last week while mom was in the hospital, my sister and I cleaned the house. Oh I mean we REALLY cleaned the house. As in moved the furniture and vacuumed, dusted, purged (read: threw out all the crap). If you know anything of my sister-in-law from over at Martinis Needed, you know that her sweet, OCD self must have everything “Mr. Spiffy” clean. For those not familiar with Mr. Spiffy, I recommend you watch the Backyardigan’s episode, “What’s Bugging You”. We jokingly say it ain’t clean if it ain’t Angie clean. Mr. Spiffy would likely fall short of her standards. We were shooting for Angie Clean. We came close!
It is always an adventure to move anything around here and look under it. Assorted dust bunnies are a given, but with 3 cats also in residence, you will find secret stashes of their various stolen treasures. One of the cats used to swipe coins from around the house and hide them under the rug in the kitchen. That came to a halt when we discovered it a few too many times, and we’ve yet to locate her new hiding place. Not sure if she was saving up for a bus trip to escape but she always had at least a few dollars in random change. This time, we found not only cat treasures, but enough plastic food to stock a small, toddler grocery store. Seems when I was in the childcare business here, the little people were shoving it under furniture.
Me and my granddaughter, Little Red, this past Monday.
Memories can be a lot like those dust bunnies, until you actually go looking for them or the couch of life is moved, you don’t know they are there. My son, his wife, and my adorable granddaughter stopped over Monday for a visit. HIJACKING: I absolutely LOVE being a grandma, best role in life EVER!!! One reason being in order to be a grandparent you had to have been a parent, and I have the best kids. *Return to Blog* Somewhere the topic came up of our blood types and I mentioned I knew my son’s because it was on his crib card in the hospital. He asked if I still had that so I went up and brought down my memory box. It is a wood box with a hinged lid that my brother, Yatz, made for me in high school. I have special, “in case of fire” items in there. I had to explain that means in case of fire in the house grab that box while exiting. I have in there the outfits my kids came home from the hospital wearing, their crib cards, their bracelets, and countless other items. My granddaughter had a lot of laughs looking at old photos of not only her daddy, but her uncles, aunt and grandma too. It was a lot of fun going through that box again, and if your past photos popped up on Facebook, blame my son.
The winds of time blew the Long Beach dust bunny out from under the couch of life. I know, very interesting timing. Right in the middle of writing my post the other day about the Biker and I going our separate ways, I received a text from him. I didn’t even have his phone number anymore, was clueless at first who was messaging me. Last time I had heard from him he was vowing to change my mind about all men being pigs, contrary to what the ex-husband told me, and I was dumping live piranhas in the mote and pulling up the drawbridge to this princess’s castle! He had NOT changed my mind, by the way. He tells me he is coming this way in a few weeks or so, to take me to dinner. I will believe this when the food and the drink land in front of me on the table while I’m listening to him tell me about himself in his delightful, Irish accent. If by some miracle this actually happens, I assure you there will be a photo to prove it. (don’t hold your breath, dear readers, I’m certainly not!)
Another dust bunny was found beneath the couch of life today. A former neighbor growing up (we’re talking when I was very young), found and commented on a blog post of mine. Pat is his name. He used to live next door and after hearing about the health of another former neighbor, dear sweet Annie, decided to look up our family and track us down to say hello. A few shared remembrances there, very pleasant ride down memory lane again.
And here I thought I’d have nothing to write about today!
I should probably clarify right up front that I have not actually spoken to a grasshopper, or for that matter had one speak to me. But I did gain much inspiration from a moment with two such insects (I think they are insects….bugs for lack of a scientific name) just last night.
Lately I have been spending a good deal of time learning from webinars and teleconference calls all about how to really succeed in my direct marketing attempts. My ever adoring fiance would tell you that I need precious little assistance in this area as he knew me years back when I was marketing in another time and place and was rather darned successful if I do say so myself. His creativity and boldness is rather inspiring but I’ll get to that some other post. I’m hijacking my own blog again because as usual, my inner Diva (she is one seriously ADD little snit) is going in 18 directions at the moment. Anyway I’m sucking up knowledge and inspiration faster than my front lawn would do with water at the moment. It is so dry (everyone’s is around here) that I’m certain tossing a lit match in the grass could easily burn down the entire west side of the township.
The problem with knowledge and inspiration is that it is worthless if not put into action. I can sit here all day and dream of laundry that is clean and smells of fresh air and spring time, thanks to the fabric softener, but until I haul myself to the laundry room and actually engage the washer and dryer, my socks are still dirty and smell foul. Same goes for my success in Avon. I can make a dozen dream boards of photos of all the things I desire to have when I am successfully crowned Senior Executive Unit Leader but until I actually make use of what I have learned and put it in action, the title of SEUL shall remain ever elusive.
Last night I once again was given a lesson from my cat. Actually it came from all three of the felines that shed themselves all over our home grace the Diva Den with their purring presence. The two grasshoppers mentioned earlier managed to gain entrance into the house at dusk. We became aware of the first one when the house queen cat, Noel, our big, grey tabby, was stalking the poor thing. It didn’t take long before my cat, Pixel, was also stalking the wretched little hopper. They chased it about the house eyeing it and then as they sat there studying it on a curtain in the living room, Ditzy came dashing in, took a long, high jump and snagged the grasshopper and made off with it, legs wiggling from her mouth. Seems that they are quite the tasty little things because she refused to share her trophy. This did not sit too well with the other 4 legged furry ones but that’s what happens when they take too long to plan. Later, when the second pest got into the house, once again there are Noel and Pixel, with the big, juicy opportunity on the closet door, studying it intently, and in comes Ditzy. She jumps over them, halfway up the closet door (which is a big risk for her as she is the only cat we know that doesn’t always land on her feet) and once again she snags the prize through ACTION. The other two sat looking dumbly at each other then at her as she once again dinned on the prize.
My district manager, an absolute power house of ADD energy jacked up on steroids (at least we think she is), posted on her inspirational Facebook page the following picture. The cats provided the visual aid that drove home the lesson. Plan and plan but if you don’t act, you have nothing, and someone else will swoop in and claim the prize. On that note I’m off to work my business, putting into action some of that precious wisdom I’ve been soaking up!
Welcome to Wine & Cheese, my weekly, Wednesday whine session.
Every week on Wednesday I devote a blog to whining. Despite being a really happy, positive person, I do have things that annoy me at times.
I never let anything grate on my nerves for long but thought it would be fun to vent them periodically in my blogs.
I also feel that good things, the cheese in life, should be acknowledged as well.
I’m even going to throw in a bit of dessert, a piece of virtual chocolate, something that made me laugh or smile just a bit more than normal.
If you’d like to read the past editions of Wine & Cheese just click HERE for all of the past postings.
Sit back and join me now for the 49th serving of some wine and cheese!
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WINE
I hate traffic in the morning. Especially when the congestion is a full blown tie up on my commute. Yes, I work at home. My morning ‘drive’ is from bed, to shower, to the coffee pot. Or in this case, as I got up late this morning, it was bed to coffee maker, the shower will be later when the baby is napping. There was heavy cat congestion on the steps this morning heading to the kitchen. Traffic was backing up and that wasn’t good as I didn’t need much reason to turn around and crawl back into my bed.
Nothing like self-inflicted exhaustion. At my age I know that being up late equals a rough morning. Being up night after night into what is really the wee hours of the morning makes for a grumpy, tired, asleep-at-the-wheel daycare provider. This sitter is running on borrowed energy and an IV-drip of coffee. Thinking jumper cables are in order, the direct line of caffeine isn’t doing it for me today.
This weather SUCKS. It’s cold, raining and overcast. My arthritis in my neck is screaming at me today and the discomfort is giving me a killer headache on that side, bordering on a migraine. SIGH…needless to say I will be sleeping when the baby sleeps today.
My baby girl called me last night sobbing her heart out so hard I couldn’t even understand her at first. She walked in her room and found her beloved bird, Lilo, dead in her cage. My daughter is an animal lover, and gets very attached to her pets. Just not a good night for her at all. Then one of her sick bunnies died too. I hate that I’m not there to hold her while she mourns but I sent a stand in angel in the form of her friend that lives across the street to comfort her.
CHEESE
Nothing beats a job where naps are part of the schedule, and when the ‘boss’ naps, I can sleep too! I’m counting down the minutes to said moment now!
A nice, warm, relaxing shower, which I will be taking while the little one is asleep, is just awesome. Nothing says “I feel human again” like your favorite bath gel and shampoo.
Looking out of the window at the rain coming down, while I sit here inside where it is warm, in my jammies, coffee in hand and a fireplace to add to the cozy atmosphere. Working from home rocks.
A purrrfect greeting from my cat in my ear when I rolled over this morning. It always makes my day when she comes to say ‘good morning’. And to think I used to hate cats!
DESSERT
I really don’t have anything funny to share, so just thought I would share a picture of my baby girl and Lilo. RIP little bird, thank you for bringing so much joy to my daughter while you were here.
Piece of very valuable advice to my cat loving friends, and anyone else silly enough to make this mistake: Cats do NOT like Akitas.
My daughter has a beautiful Akita that she rescued from a shelter. The vets feel she is a pure bred, approximately 2 years old. She is gorgeous in my opinion. A big teddy bear unless you pose some threat to my baby girl at which point, based on some playful fun, we’re certain she will eat you. Alive. Showing no mercy. Just like I want her to be should my daughter be in danger. This dog is currently on puppy prozac because she suffers separation anxiety when my daughter is not home. When she is home the dog is her constant shadow. The Yorkie my daughter has is a snob, wants nothing to do with the Akita. Won’t play with her, barely tolerates her, and dominates this huge beast that could swallow her whole. She is the alpha dog and the big dog respects her place in the pecking order of the household pack.
The granddogs discussing who will steal the blueberry pie
Yesterday she brought my granddogs over to see me and have lunch. Now as you may recall (see my supporting cast) we have 3 cats. They all have met the Yorkie and were not impressed. It is mutual as the Yorkie doesn’t seem to grasp how to play with a cat so she is useless to them and they they to her. No threat there, my cat and my niece’s (Pixel and Ditzy) have both slept on my bed at night with the Yorkie without issue. But the cats had never seen the Akita.
Now you would think I’d have more brains than what I am about to share but I have my blond moments.
Ditzy was cautiously checking out Okelani, the Akita. Lani was out on the deck, with the sliding screen door closed. We wondered how the cats would take to her, and she to the cats. So me, in a moment of temporary insanity, picked up Ditzy and took her close to the screen door. My first clue that this was not a smart thing to do should have been that while she was checking Okelani out from a distance, her tail was kinda puffed out, Christmas tree tail is what my daughter calls it.
As I approached the door, I felt the cat stiffen. Again, do you think I’d get the hint? Hell no, I kept getting closer. My daughter was prepared to hold Lani if need be. While she didn’t make a sound, Okelani must have given the poor cat the impression that she was envisioning said feline as a rotisserie kitty, cooking over a nice fire. I say this because all of a sudden I heard the hiss from hell come from Ditzy, it was borderline roaring, her tail exploded into the biggest, puffiest black thing I have ever seen and she blotted the scene. In doing so she dug her claws into my arms to launch her flight over my shoulder, then across the kitchen table and down to her owner’s room. I have multiple puncture wounds on my arms, deep ones.
My daughter suggested I wash them quickly, as I am allergic to cats, and then I put on topical Benadryl. I missed one on my upper arm, and it is bruised and quite irritated today. The others are not nearly as bad, thankfully.
Poptarts – check! (yes I know, healthy eating…If I wasn’t so tired I’d make old fashioned oatmeal)
I have absolutely no idea where all this is going to end up going, haven’t had quite enough caffeine to safely point in any one direction.
Wish List addition: Pink sequenced high top tennis shoes. Yes really. I am insanely jealous this morning of Princess Smiles A Lot. I saw these adorable shoes in her size in the Avon brochure and couldn’t resist. She is sporting them for the first time today and I’m experiencing some serious shoe envy!!!! She even paired them with white socks that have bright, multi-colored polka dots all over them. If they sold them in my size I’d own these bad boys and wear them. On the back of my friend’s motorcycle, with a bright pink streak in my hair, and my black tank top with the pink, Playboy Bunny head edged in rhinestones. Totally jealous of my fashion sense, aren’t you! Don’t hate me, we all can’t be trend setters.
I have been moonlighting at yet a 3rd job. I am a Fairy. *smiling proudly, then spots the look of skepticism on your faces* I am TOO!!!! Out of paper towels and have a spill to clean up? Sitting on the throne and discover one lone sheet on the cardboard roll? Prance your little paws to the litter box only to discover it is full of sh*t?? DO NOT PANIC! The Restock-Fairy will come to your rescue!!! Under the cover of darkness I stumble fly to the linen closet and attempt to get a roll of toilet tissue out while trying not to loudly crinkling the cellophane wrapping flutter my wings too loudly and wake the household at midnight. I dig out the scooper wave my magic wand and PRESTO MAGICO! the litter box is free of kitty deposits and smells fresh and clean! OH and sometimes I put on my tiara and become The Laundry Fairy! I attack the ever growing pile of clothes fight the evil dragon and win! Oh yeah, I rock!
That bruise on my foot never got very dark, but dang it is still hurting. I really need to exercise a bit of caution when going up and down the steps over the baby gate. This morning I twisted my knee on one trip over it. I am a complete disaster waiting to happen this week! So thankful for the weekend.
These blasted cats are whittling away their 9 little lives really fast lately. I woke up this morning to Ditzy playing with a sandwich baggie on my floor. At one time it was on the kitchen counter and contained medication for the baby’s cheek and baby Ora-Gel. Lord only knows where the Ora-Gel is, I haven’t located it yet but I hope if she bit into it that her mouth was numb for hours, the brat cat! If you happen to spy the little tube please leave it on the kitchen counter, I suspect the little Ms. Thang is getting more teeth. That is because she chews on anything that she finds including her brother’s ankles.
Oh and would you look at that, I have a comment that might spawn a question and answer session, or at the least a new entry, in the Dating Diaries. Imagine that, coming to me for advice. *Digging wildly in her dress-up trunk* Ah Ha! Found it! Time to put on my Queen of Useless Information Advice Tiara and respond to that question
And yes, I am seriously UNDER caffeinated this morning, does it show?
Today I am featuring one of the Diva Den cats, Ms. Ditzy, who feels she needs a soap box to air some grievance she has with me. So, I decided to let her have at it. She is our 3rd, and for now, final cat addition. Roughly 6 months old, we refer to her as our ‘special’ cat, as in mentally touched. She is NOT the brightest bulb in the box. Here she is with her first post:
Greetings to all of you, my name is Goddess, you may call me Princess. I am well aware that the staff refer to me as ‘Ditzy’ but that is their disrespectful name for me. I am royalty, after all. I mean, look at that photo, that is a true Princess, don’t you agree? Of course you do.
I’m more than just a tiny bit miffed of late at the staff member that feeds us fabulous felines, the one you know as Marvi Marti. As far as her duties of feeding us, we give her a ‘C+’. Too many evenings she arrives back at the palace late, or just seems to forget us, how rude!
But it isn’t her lack of attention to our food dishes that has my tail puffed up like a Christmas tree. It is her inability to accept that the one she refers to as Mr. Wonderful, belongs to ME! He is the staff member in charge of entertaining me, and my most adored play thing. SHE thinks he is here for her and frequently distracts him from his duties: playing games with me. It brushes my fur the wrong way, and it simply must stop!
My very favorite game is fetch. Stop gasping, we cats taught the game to dogs, they just try to pretend they thought of it first. Seriously, dogs have no brains whatsoever. Kick them and the fools come back wagging their tails. Kick us? OH big mistake, we will poo in your bed, chew the tassels off your favorite shoes, fling the litter box contents all over, or trip you in attempts to kill you on the stairs. We cats are gods, get used to it. We punish those that serve us when they are incompetent or anger us.
Let me tell you what this not so marvelous one does. My man-toy arrives and as the staff opens the door, there I am sitting pretty as can be near the door awaiting his adoration. What does the Marvi do? Steps in between he and I and into his arms, making him hold and kiss her. I know, right? HOW RUDE!!! Then he tries to appease me after the wench has gotten her fill. REALLY not happy about this at all.
Do you think she is at all lagging in making sure he has something to eat? OH no! She will wait on his every need, getting him a drink and even turns her phone off and puts her computer away. Unless of course he wants to dance with her, then he puts on romantic music and turns the lights down and dances with her, even singing to her! Do you think he ever thinks to hold me and dance with me, the goddess he is here to entertain? OH no, she has him all to herself and refuses to give him up!
The past three evenings he has come over to play games with me and entertain my wonderful self. At first, once she was done slobbering all over him at the door, he sat on the floor throwing my crinkle. I impressed him with my abilities to jump and twist in the air (we taught dogs to do that while chasing frisbees), then landing feather light on my paws. I would walk all regally back to him, dropping the crinkle at his side allowing him to continue our little game. While retrieving the crinkle, I find SHE has once again diverted his focus to HER. There he is, head in her lap while she is rubbing his head and cooing at him! Or worse yet, has her head in HIS lap while he is rubbing her head! REALLY???? And do you think he requests a back scratch from me, the one with the natural claws? OH no, he asks her, the lowly food wench, to use her fake talons to scratch his lovely, muscled and tattooed back. It makes me want to heave up a hairball in her shoes.
One would think this staff member would be tripping over herself to please me after stealing my man-toy, but no, she continues to ignore every opportunity to pay me homage. She has a window kitty cat television right next to the desk lounging platform in her sleep chambers. There are few things we felines enjoy like watching our kitty TV. Do you think she raises the blinds turns it on when I paw the ledge and ‘meow’? Oh no, she shoos me of the room and closes the door. She doesn’t seem to grasp that there are NO doors ever to be closed to us of tailed divinity. NONE of our staff seems to understand this. HUMANS! Such simple minded low life they are.
I have to say this is absolutely the cutest award I’ve received! This award is a fun one! In order to claim this award, it requires a cunning, and finely tuned skill : lyingfabricatingfibbing creative embellishment…
As a condition of my acceptance of this award I have to demonstrate my supurb skills by writing five facts about myself. Four of these ‘facts’ have to be ficticious deceptions enhanced realities (some grain of truth but a lot of enhancements!). But somewhere among the liesfibsfabricationsfalsehoods AHEM *cough*cough* ::crossing fingers behind back:: embellishments, will be one solid truth.
The next part of this acceptance is that I have to pass this onto five other bloggers.
SO feel free to comment and let me know which fact is NOT embellished and is in fact, 100% true! I’ll post answers this weekend!
TRUE OR GREATLY EMBELISHED FALSE?
Everyone who reads my posts knows that I am a reformed cat hater. Call me the Crazy Cat Lady, I love the little fur balls now. We have 3 cats in our home, all females. While we aren’t overly picky about which breed of feline we have, we insist that they all have to be polydactyl cats! Yes each of our kittens has more than the normal amount of toes on their paws! Usually cats have 5 toes on their front paws, ours have 6 or 7 depending on the cat. Nothing normal about the Diva Den, why would we have normal cats?
I love being pampered, and one of the ways in which I pamper myself is getting my nails done. I have had acrylic nails nearly ongoing for about 7 years now. I never got pedicures often, too expensive and frankly I don’t have real cute feet so why draw attention to them was my thought. Recently I noticed a trend at the nail salon in which women are getting acrylic nails on their feet!! I finally gave in and decided I have nothing to lose so had them done on my toes. For the first time I feel like I have great feet, all nicely painted on those picture perfect, acrylic nails. Now, I love my feet, and if it was not so cold I’d have flip flops on already to show them off!
Two of my supporting cast, my brother Mike, and his wife, Trina, are actually both my cousins. Mike is a cousin from my mom’s side. His mom was one of my mother’s first cousins who was pregnant out of wedlock. She wanted to keep him in the family, but was unable to raise him. My parents adopted him and raised him as their own. Trina is one of my cousins, our dad’s are brothers. They always had a special friendship and attraction to each other growing up. As an adult, Mike consulted with a lawyer and found that because he was a second cousin to us siblings, and not a birth child of my parents, he and Trina were not related and therefore not really cousins. They have been happily married for 18 years and have 2 kids. So, my sister-in-law is also my cousin, and my niece and nephew are actually like 2nd cousins once removed or something weird like that.
In a bizarre twist of fate, we grew up with a cousin as a neighbor and never knew it. The boy behind us was around the age of one of my brothers when we were growing up. I received a friend request from him all these years later, and did not recognize his name any longer. He told me that he was my cousin, and had grown up in the house behind us. I thought it was a stalker at first, since I knew the kid behind us and they were not related to us. Turns out, my dad’s cousin had given birth out of wedlock and placed him for adoption. All that time growing up we had a cousin living there and playing with my brothers and never knew it!
One time when getting my nails done, it was taking longer than anticipated at the salon due to a high volume of customers. I was last in line so when my now ex-husband came to pick me up they had just started my nails. He was irritated by the delay so I convinced him, with a little help from the nail tech that was now free, to get a pedicure. He finally gave in and found out it was a rather NICE experience. If you have ever had one, you know that they will put clear polish on your toe nails if you aren’t having color done. After some teasing he acquiesced and let them paint his toe nails bright red. He has worn them red, to my knowledge, ever since. Turns out he found having his toe nails colored was a kind of turn on for him.
Okay, now it is time to present this award to 5 other bloggers that I follow! In no particular order mind you, just others I LOVE to creep on!
Welcome to Wine & Cheese, my weekly, Wednesday whine session.
Every week on Wednesday I devote a blog to whining. Despite being a really happy, positive person, I do have things that annoy me at times.
I never let anything grate on my nerves for long but thought it would be fun to vent them periodically in my blogs.
I also feel that good things, the cheese in life, should be acknowledged as well.
I’m even going to throw in a bit of dessert, a piece of virtual chocolate, something that made me laugh or smile just a bit more than normal.
If you’d like to read the past editions of Wine & Cheese just click HERE for all of the past postings.
Sit back and join me now for the 24th serving of some wine and cheese!
~*~ ~*~ ~*~
WINE
I am whining about cats this week. As in the 4 legged, long tailed, obnoxious fur ball kind of cats.
THEY ARE THIEVES! They like to steel stuff from us all and hide it, or play with it, or even eat it! Ditzy helped her cute self to my blue tooth last week. I had it with my purse, Kindle and phone on my bed before I left for work. She made off with the blue tooth and my mom later found it in the living room. I had seen her playing with it but thought it was a cat toy. The piece that goes over the ear? Well half is missing having been bitten off, and there are teeth marks all over the remainder.
THEY CANNOT TELL TIME! Or maybe they can, and it is just the weekend thing that throws them off? I like to sleep in on Saturday morning, it is my only day to enjoy this luxury. Granted, my alarm goes off at 5am during the week, so 7-7:30am IS extra sleep, but my idea of sleeping in is say 9 or 10! Pixel begins her morning assault at no later than 6:30am. She gets up on the dresser or desk and begins moving objects around. If I do not react she knocks them off to the floor. I get up, go put out fresh food and go back to bed. Soon, she comes back and brings her posse, Ditzy, and they start the tag teaming. If the moving of objects doesn’t work, they wrestle….on the bed. If I do finally give in and get up, they move on. They don’t want anything other than to have someone else up and about.
MY CAT NEEDS A SHRINK! We already know that Ditzy is ‘special’. To say she is mentally challenged is being very nice. She is fortunate that she is so adorable, it allows us to look past her lack of brain matter. My cat, Pixel, needs a kitty cat psychiatrist. She used to use the litter box like she invented the thing and fine tuned it. But now? She won’t allow her paws to touch the litter to cover her deposits. Instead she circus performs around the edge of the litter box, scraping the plastic liner, as if that is going to be effective. Sooner or later she gives up and leaves, and Noel goes in and in complete disgust, while glaring at Pixel, covers the down load that was left behind. Here, a visual aid, maybe some other cat owner can help us? We’ve tried changing litter, nothing seems to work.
pixel
►
CHEESE
Not all things cat related are bad, some are quite good!
We found a new litter, World’s Best Cat Litter and, while I am not one to do a product endorsement, I have too. THIS STUFF ROCKS! No annoying perfumes, just NO odor. The stuff is amazing. Of course, you have to change the litter on a regular basis, but this stuff is really good. For the go-green folks, you will love this, it is made from corn! Yep whole kernel corn! It is amazing stuff. If you go to the website you can get a coupon to get a bag free (by rebate). We in the Diva Den highly recommend and endorse this product!
Cats are endlessly entertaining. We often spend Saturday mornings sitting in the living room watching them stalk, pounce and fight with each other or cat toys. They are such a riot to observe! And we’ve all learned from our 3 felines, take time to play! Silly, crazy, wacky, FUN play. I read recently that cats NEED to have play time to avoid getting mental? Well so do we humans. We can learn a lot from our cats!
Cats provide the greatest means of recycling register receipts. Assuming there are no coupons on the back that can be used, of course. We call them crinkles, a ball made of a long register receipt. This too will provide endless entertainment to us and the cats, who will play soccer with the crinkle. Now we know that there are crinkle balls that can be purchased, we have those, and the cats prefer the home made ones. One crinkle and 3 cats = lots of laughs. It should be noted that if the crinkle ball by chance lands in the water bowl, it is no longer a good play toy and should be disposed of! This will disappoint the cats.
Every week for Wine & Cheese Wednesday I have decided to devote a blog to whining. Despite being a really happy, positive person, I do have things that annoy me at times. I never let anything grate on my nerves for long but thought it would be fun to vent them periodically in my blogs.
I also feel that good things, the cheese in life, should be acknowledged as well.
I’m even going to throw in a bit of dessert, a piece of virtual chocolate, something that made me laugh or smile just a bit more than normal.
Wine – 8th Glass
Blinkers – Not Just For Decoration
In the course of driving every day it is bound to happen, at the very least once and realistically speaking several times. You come to a red traffic light at a busy intersection where there are two lanes on your side of the stopping line, and one car in front of you. A long line of cars is on the opposite side waiting for the light to change. Finally it goes green and the person in front of you begins to move forward, only to get to the halfway point in the intersection, stop and wait to turn, and maybe turn on their left turn signal. You are trapped behind this thoughtless ass because everyone that arrived at the light behind you in this high traffic area have filled up both lanes. If you are fortunate the ass clown in front of you will find a break in on coming vehicles to turn before the light changes again. WAKE UP PEOPLE that damn turn signal on the side of your steering column is not there to hang things on. It is for turning on your blinker, in advance, to alert those behind and coming toward you of your intention to turn. USE it, so others know and don’t have to wait for you. Maybe put the cell phone down so you can think this through prior to the intersection. Now I stand corrected on ash trays but I KNOW turn signals are not options, you don’t pay extra for them, they are not there to look pretty, it is part of driving and believe it or not a cop can use your failure to signal a turn as an excuse to pull you over. USE YOUR DAMN TURN SIGNALS.
Cashier Abuse
I worked retail as a cashier, both in a grocery store and at a discount department store way back when. It sucks, flat out. Minimum wage pay to put up with abuse from customers. The cashier is NOT responsible for misprints in the flyers. He or she is not responsible for the store being low on inventory of any item, and certainly is not able to change store policy for returns. The person standing there ringing up your purchase is not to blame if the system will not authorize the purchase on your debit or credit card. If you pick up an item that is missing a price tag, this is not the fault of the high school or college student operating the cash register. And for the love of God get off their backs during the holidays if they don’t say “Merry Christmas” and instead say “Happy Holidays”. They like their job, they don’t dictate store policy, but are required to follow it if they wish to keep their jobs. Back the hell off! Get used to it, Christmas is not the only flipping holiday in December. Everyone’s holiday is just as important to them as Christmas is to those of us that celebrate it. Happy Holidays is a nice way to honor everyone’s favorite so stop getting your thong in a knot or getting your boxers steamy over it.
School Bus Social Time
Okay, school is getting ready to start so time to get on my soap box about something that makes me freaking bonkers. You are cruising down the road and the school bus coming the other way stops and on go the flashing red lights so someone’s little one can get off safely. So far so good, have NO problems with this whatsoever. There is junior’s mommy waiting for him at the bus stop as he exits, jumping down that last step, excited to be home. Now comes the problem….mommy starts yacking with the bus driver! Never mind that traffic is backing up waiting for the lights to stop flashing so the flow can return, she just keeps running her mouth and the driver keeps on chatting back. This will sometimes go on for a full minute or more, with no concern for anyone around them, traffic backing up for their little impromptu coffee clutch at the curb. SHUT THE HELL UP ALREADY, exchange phone numbers and talk on YOUR time!
CHEESE
Pets
I LOVE animals, especially those that are pets. Pets bring special love to our lives and smiles to our faces. Yes, they come with issues, sometimes pricey ones, other times late night trips out side, but over all they rock. Your pet loves you no matter what. I have a special fondness for Penny the Yorkie, my daughter’s little dog that thought it was her responsibility to protect me when my ex was on duty, and of course my cat, Pixel Kitten, who still after 4 months finds my head to be the best place to sleep. Not many cats will come when you call them, but she does, and hops right up on the pillows, curls up and waits for me at bedtime. (Yes Penny is sporting pink fur on top and a pink bow)
Naps
Seriously a power nap is awesome. I wish I could curl up and take one at work some days. Nothing like a little nap to alter ones disposition back to happy land. Sprinkle on the pixie dust, think happy thoughts, and drift off for 30 minutes and see if you don’t feel a lot better!
Music
Music can totally make or break your party or event. It can help sooth the rough edges of a lousy mood, help us sleep, make an encounter more romantic…it is endless. Music is medicine. A Celtic folk CD I have is one of my favorites, always calms me and sets a peaceful frame of mind for me. I love music!!
Dessert
Insanity: driving 40 minutes to a health club in order to wait 30 minutes to get on a treadmill for 20 minutes.
~ As seen on the Daffynitions Twitter
Today I am thankful for my kids. Both are amazing adults, amazing people and have amazing hearts.
I hate traffic in the morning. Especially when the congestion is a full blown tie up on my commute. Yes, I work at home. My morning ‘drive’ is from bed, to shower, to the coffee pot. Or in this case, as I got up late this morning, it was bed to coffee maker, the shower will be later when the baby is napping. There was heavy cat congestion on the steps this morning heading to the kitchen. Traffic was backing up and that wasn’t good as I didn’t need much reason to turn around and crawl back into my bed.
