After years of searching, Husband Mike finally found a St. Michael the Archangel statue -- with devil-stompin' action! -- that he likes, which we happily brought home earlier this evening:
So, how long d'ya think it'll take for somebody ...
Me:(entering a room from which Husband Mike had just left) "Ewww! Hey! Why didn't you warn me about the cat puke in here?! I just stepped in it!"
Husband Mike: "What? What cat puke?" (wanders back into room and examines the puke, which is more like spittle) "Oh, that's nothing. It's just a prelude to a hairball." (moves around the room, looking in corners) "Ah! Here's the hairball, over by this cord."
When joyfully making your wedding vows, you never imagine conversations like that in your future.
Just a quick post wishing y'all a Blessed and Merry Christmas! And no, I'm not late in doing so -- the Christmas Season proper only just kicked off yesterday and lasts through the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord (this coming year on 11 January).
My mom-in-law, sister-and-law, and I laughed so hard over this that we were crying. (Husband Mike chuckled.) Hope you enjoy this clever and funny "how-to" guide to cats, too.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to try "cat yodeling" with The B. :-P
And even more so when the subject is cats. =^..^= Alas, I'm waaay too easily entertained by these silly/cute cat videos on YouTube. (Yeah, you can thank NaBloPoMo for this post.)
It's oh so Cute! Cats of YouTube Music Video Overall, pretty cute. Many of the clips here have been floating around the Internets for awhile, but still fun to see. And really, watching sleepy kittens never gets old. :-D
Funny cute cats This kind o' Japanese pop music always makes me smile (and makes me feel like popping in some Gundam Wing episodes), though here it doesn't sync too well with the clips. And are they making meowing sounds at the end? If so, extra bonus cuteness.
I love the inspired hilarity behind I Can Has Cheezburger?, so when I came across a site dedicated to translating the Bible into the language o' LOLcats, I thought it was hilarious. Check it out: LOLCat Bible Translation Project. (Looks like it ain't using the Catholic Bible, tho'.)
Gah! It's about 30 minutes until midnight, and I can't think of anything to write about for today's NaBloPoMo-induced post. Well, actually, I have a few ideas on what to write about, but those ideas would involve some Actual Writing Time and I'm feelin' lazy.
Because I'm addlepated after eating a large dinner full of delicious turkey, turkey gravy (my dad-in-law makes The Bestest Gravy Ever), and all the trimmin's, I don't have enough brainpower to write up a post today.
So, instead, The B and I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!
The following is something I originally wrote in November 2004 on my old blog. Because I'm lazy, and because the same situation still exists (sigh), I've copied it below with minor updates.
With Thanksgiving fast approaching here in the U.S. (22 November), people's thoughts are starting to turn towards Christmas, which includes all the decorations that go with it. And that usually means Christmas trees.
Sadly for us, though, Christmas trees haven't been part of our holiday festivities since 2001, and things are lookin' bleak for this year. Why? Take a guess.
OK, here's a hint:
Back when we adopted our lil' sparkplug in April 2001, he was near death due to starvation, so he didn't move around much. After visiting the vet and getting proper medical treatment and good food, he bounced back ... with a vengeance. Hoo-boy, once he had enough energy, he started zooming and playing and prancing and tormenting his siblings, and hasn't quieted down since.
Now, any other cat we've ever had over the years has turned into a couch potato around their first birthday. Since we estimated The B's age at 8 months when we rescued 'im, we were fairly hopeful that he'd be Well Into Potatohood come that Christmas.
So, in August, we started watching. The months ticked by ... September, October, November ... and still no signs of spuddom from The B. Rather, it seemed like he was just getting started! Husband Mike and I were worried. How could we risk putting up the fake tree with that nutball zooming about?
Finally, we couldn't take it anymore and decided to put up the thing ... three days before Christmas. There was much rejoicing among the furkids, because as any cat lover knows, a Christmas tree is The Bestest Cat Toy Ever. While normal cats are content to bat at the ornaments and sit under the branches, our fears were confirmed when The B immediately climbed the tree the instant we finished decorating it.
After many extractions of The B, broken ornaments, and crazily dangling garland, we put the tree away just three days after Christmas. Over that short week, the poor tree looked like a complete wreck, but more importantly, we were seriously worried that The B would kill himself on the dang thing somehow. We had nightmares of him getting electrocuted by chomping on the lights, or getting hung in 'em, and that's the ultimate reason why the tree's in hiding. (An aside: If you value furniture or other inanimate things over your living pets, your priorities are seriously screwed. Seriously. Screwed.)
Maybe he'd calm down once he turned two? Nope, no dice, and no tree, either. The next year came, and we were so desperate that we considered putting up the tree without any decorations or lights. Then we figured it'd look completely depressing, so ... no tree that year.
And now here we are once more, facing Another Year Without A Christmas Tree. It's been so long that we can't even remember what our ornaments look like. (We do remember that we finally had a nice theme going, though.) But, at least we can enjoy The B's crazy antics without worry.
Eh, mebbe we'll just put a collar of jingle bells on 'im and call it a holiday.
But, The B is the reason for the notable absence of a key figure in the first photo, and I'm sure you've figgered out by now that it's Mary.
Where's Mary? Well, earlier this evening, thanks to The B jumping on top of the bookshelf to Get Our Attention (which he does 'bout 30 times every day), poor Mary took a tumble and her right hand got busted up. For the third time in the one year we've had 'er.
Husband Mike and I successfully found the broken hand bits (whew!), and Husband Mike promptly did the restorative work. For the third time.
She's currently recuperating on the kitchen counter. Yes, that's The B's tail in the background, as he Always Has To Investigate Everything That's Going On, Including The Taking Of This Picture.
:::sigh.:::
This is the reason why we can't have any sort of a decent home altar, or candles, beaded decorative pillows, a Christmas tree, lacy stuff, or Anything Decorative Or Pretty For Our Home. Because everything belongs to The B, and everything is a toy in his eyes.
Last night, as we were settling in to sleep, The B began kneading my stomach. Cats often knead as a way of expressing contentment, and The B's preferred spot is my stomach.
Husband Mike, watching The B's paws mooshing said stomach, observed, "It's like you're a gigantic stress ball toy. Only thing missing is your eyes bugging out."
Yeah. You know you're Way Long Past the newlywed stage when yer spouse says stuff like that.
"But the mail doesn't get through when Shadow the house cat is around.
"Unfortunately for Shadow's owner, John Samborski, the animal's the reason a postal carrier refuses to deliver mail directly to a Winterton Avenue bungalow. ... 'The letter carrier who delivers mail there, you know, she was brought up on a farm, she is very comfortable with animals. Apparently this is a very threatening cat.' said [Canada Post] spokeswoman Kathi Neal." Read the full article.
What is it with cats and praying? It's some sort of cat magnet, especially with The B.
For example, whenever I pray the Rosary, he'll appear outta thin air and nose his way Into The Middle Of Things. And it's not like I make any noise. I keep my Rosary under my pillow, and it's a knotted twine one to boot -- no jangly beads.
More often than not, I find myself in the following situation:
Me: "Hail Mary, full of -- B, let go! -- grace, blessed art thou among women, and bl- hey! Stop biting that!"
And since I pray the Rosary just before I fall asleep and am therefore lying down, I usually have to yank the thing out from under The B when he decides to flop on my chest. It can be a bit of a challenge to stay focused at times, but the purring is nice.
Same thing when praying the Liturgy of the Hours. 'Cause I'm lazy, I always pray the Morning and Evening Office while in bed, just before getting up/going to sleep. So, The B has this whole routine of pawing at the pages, batting at the ribbons, and then settling on top of the whole deal, usually right when I'm mid-page-turn. And those are thin, crinkly pages! Gaaah!
Do I get to count any o' this against time served in Purgatory? :-P
Too cute -- check out this adorable Kitty Market Catnip Toy Set. (Love the cartoony Xs for the fishies' eyes.) If we didn't have so many cat toys underfoot already, I'd seriously consider getting this for the furkids. :-P
Husband Mike an' I were grinnin' like goofballs while watchin' it, especially near the end where you can hear Fenno, the kitty, "peeping" and yawning. :::swooning:::
First up, Fr. Johansen's pictorial essay on his and Mark Shea's recent clay-pigeon-shooting fun is a hoot. (Set aside any food 'n' beverages before lookin'.) Especially liked the last picture of Father, titled "Fr. Rob Ready To Defend The Faith".
* * *
On a completely different note, reality shows are goin' to the ... cats. Yep, a new show's following 10 kitties in search of homes as they "spend the next 10 days in a New York store window, their every move caught on camera for a reality TV show on which they will compete for best sleeper and mouse-catcher. ... Kitties who get the boot will be adopted into permanent homes." (Reuters). The winner will, too, of course, but he or she will also get a job as "Feline Vice President of Research and Development" for Meow Mix. My fave so far is Sam ("who meows with a drawl"), but it's prolly 'cause he looks so much like our The B.
Totally whimsical and oh-so-cute: Urban Fairies! I love the idea of huntin' around to find lil' fairy doors in unexpected places. Hee! (Thanks to my pal Missie for sharin' this.)
