The heximeme

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
 [It's Ultra Dave's fault] 2. Post the rules on your blog.[q.e.d.]  
3. Write six random things about yourself.[see below]  
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.[anything is possible]  
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
[eh]  6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up. [Hey Dave!]

1) My favorite word: Defenestrate 
2) I am the oldest of my siblings, married to the oldest of his siblings, and my parents are both first children in their families. 
3) I used to have a flock of chickens in my backyard. If I didn't live inside the city limits I probably would have chickens now.
4) My paternal grandmother was a tremendous influence (mostly positive) in my life. 
5) Although I love living out in the country where I can see stars at night, I would like to try living in New York City for a year or two. (probably without chickens there, too)
6) My washing machine door latch just broke again. I think this makes the 5th or 6th time this year. 

I tag the following ? folks: [your name here if you want to]

What did Java do last week? Where has Java been?

Christmas happened. I'm glad the day is done, now I can go about enjoying the season. There is way too much expectation for the 25th. 

We have a few family holiday traditions. I like to be unique, to make traditions over in my own warped image. One of my favorite things to mess with is the traditional Christmas Tree. I like the fresh tree scent of a live tree. (A formerly live tree? It isn't exactly alive if it has been chopped down) I'm not fond of artificial trees. If a tree is going to look like a tree, then it ought to be a tree. An artificial tree shouldn't look so much like a tree, IMHO, if it isn't really a tree. 

So our family compromises on this tree issue by alternating live trees and not live trees every other year. The not live trees are my creations. Muahahahahahaha!!! My goal in developing a tree-like thing is to capture the essence of treeness, the function of The Christmas Tree, but to inject some whimsy and my personality into it. 

I usually try to maintain some semblance of the cone shape, and often stay with the green color theme. This year I had an idea in mind, but couldn't figure out how to make it work. Then just a few days before Christmas I had another idea. Superman, being the super man that he is, put this together for me.

He made this diamond shaped frame from scrap wood he had around the house. Diva helped me paint it. We had a blast.
Oh, look! I got a "new" couch, too. We haven't had a couch for half a year, since the last one gave it's final tuft of stuffing in an epic battle with my children and the dog. Have I mentioned my furniture philosophy for this household? I buy disposable furniture. The couch pictured above cost $30 from a local thrift store. Our previous couch was from the same thrift store and cost about as much. I figure $30 every 6-12 months for a couch is a pretty good deal, and I don't have to stress too much over what happens to it. 

But I digress. 

Here's the not-a-tree hanging from the ceiling. May I direct your attention to the shape? It is conical from two directions, from the top down and the bottom up. Which translates into a vague diamond shape. The family agrees that it looks like a giant ornament. 

Note also the wall behind it. This is what my living room wall has looked like for 2+ years. It had some bug-ugly wall paper on it when we moved in, but I removed that. Turns out the wall paper was covering old panelling. When I removed the wall paper I also removed the sturdy wall lining paper that masked the panelling groves. I want to paint the wall and did not want to buy more of the lining paper, so I thought I'd just fill in the groves with spackle. That turned into more of a job than I bargained for, and it stayed like that for over 2 years. Stuff like that disappears into the background of my mind and doesn't usually bother me until brought to my attention again, like when I'm making a measly attempt to decorate for Christmas. 

Back to the not-a-tree. Superman punctured his fingers getting the frame covered with chicken wire, and put the colored mini-lights inside the frame. We have hung ornaments from the chicken wire. I like the fuzzy effect of the lights in this shot.
Diva helped a lot with the decoration. Here she is standing beside the not-a-tree, showing of her handiwork and her new skirt. 

Note once again the wall behind the ornamentation. Yes, while I was accomplishing things I covered the wall with more spackle. Actually, it's drywall mud. Joint compound, officially. One of the reasons I haven't done anything with the wall for so long is that I didn't know what I wanted to do. I recently decided to add more texture to it rather than trying to smooth it out. So I slapped a bunch of joint compound on the wall, leveled it out with a gloved hand, and rolled over the damp compound with a textured paint roller. It looks pretty nifty now. Next task is to knock off the high points of that texture (very easy to do with a putty knife and a bit of pressure). Then I'll do some interesting paint technique involving a few different light colors in hopes of making it look like stucco or plaster or something vaguely Tuscan. I'm not real clear on the details just yet. 

The angel that hovers over the guts of our not-a-tree

The loot, still wrapped and mysterious.

As you can see we have added a lot more ornaments to the not-a-tree. It's rather unbalanced, artistically. Ornaments hang better from the lower half than the upper half. 

Superman got the book I Never Metaphor I Didn't Like by some author person (I can't read it from this picture and don't remember otherwise) from our literate Light. I haven't looked through the book yet, but I love the title. 

Obligatory cute Scher kitty pictures (one of which includes a cute Sproing also)

All in all it's been a pretty good holiday and weekend. 

Indigo is here now. That's always a lot of fun. He just got here yesterday after a very long drive from Baltimore. We exchanged some gifts last night, watched a movie. This morning I slept late, but he got up and the kids entertained him. We've been sitting here beside each other for the last couple of hours both of us with our computers in our laps. Parallel play. Sometime soon lunch will happen. It's already 2:40 and he's getting hungry. 

Updates as the situation warrants. 

Seasons confused

I had to put up a new post. The look that cat was giving me is starting to creep me out. So of course to replace that mad cat I present Scheherazade looking adorable. It's what she does best. Her second best is digging her claws into my flesh. Kittens are like that. My toes may never recover.So, about the seasons. I mentioned last week that our temperatures have been unseasonably warm. My fears are realized: our Bradford Pear has started to set buds. It's not in full bloom or anything, and only a few of the buds are in the large pre-bloom stage. I fear that they are large enough to be damaged by a hard freeze, however, and predicted low temperature tonight is 22F. Recently our temps have been 22C. Big difference! 
Looking at the tree from the driveway it is obviously starting to bud. I'm not sure if this picture really shows it well, though. Perhaps embiggened it would. 
I tried to take some close ups of the buds but all I got was out-of focus closeness with detailed branches beyond. I also took some nifty trunk shots, but I'm to impatient to wait for more pictures to upload. 

I find it interesing that on the shortest day of the year my pear tree wants to bloom. 

All I need for Christmas is Lolcats

Lolcats always cheers me up when I feel blue. Take a gander.

more animals

Random snips of insanity

~First off, the weather. What the f**k is going on? It's weird. I'm afraid my Bradford pear tree is going to burst into bloom any minute now. It was 75F degrees this afternoon. According to my sources, which are inconsistently reliable, we should have unseasonably warm weather through the weekend. This feels a whole lot more like Florida than upstate South Carolina. 

~Our utility bill came today. As I may have mentioned, I saw the meter reader come through the yard on the day C and S moved out. This month's bill reflects power and water usage with the boys in the house. We aren't running the air conditioner (duh) or the central heat, though we have electric space heaters in some of the bedrooms. The bill is $332.11. Remind me to compare this to next month's bill. 

~Today was the final day of school for the kids until January 5th. Diva and Sproing have been unpleasant company this afternoon. Sadly, I can't say I'm thrilled about school being out. Perhaps we can work to cheer things up tomorrow and the rest of the holiday. Today I'm too tired.

~And speaking of tired, I'm very tired again today. I can't remember when I went to sleep last night, and I woke up at 6:00 this morning to take the kids to school. Later in the morning I had to take a nap, I could not stay awake. I'm tired again now at 5:30. 

~Because of some medication I was taking 18 months ago my blood pressure became elevated. The doctor took me off that medication and put me on Avapro to control the blood pressure. It has performed exactly as advertized. The doc wanted to see me for a recheck on this blood pressure thing. I went yesterday. Everything is copacetic with the BP and he wants me to stay on it for maintenance because I have "other risk factors." Translated, that means I'm way overweight and too sedentary and my eating habits are unhealthy. All of this is true, so I told him I'd continue taking the Avapro. 

I also mentioned that I am very tired all the time, and I want him to check my iron levels. Well, he jumped all over that and told me he wants a complete blood workup. Fasting. So I skipped breakfast this morning and went to the office after I dropped Twitch off at school this morning. The cute little asian nurse sucked my blood from my arm. Since Christmas is only a week away I suspect the test results will be a bit slower coming back. I should get the results next week or the week after. 

We also discussed my CPAP. I think the pressure needs to be increased. I've had the machine for 7 or 8 years and it's never been serviced. I'm older and a bit heavier than I was when I got the machine. I have an appointment early next week to see somebody, I don't know who, in some office in that new medical park on the south side of town. She called me, all chipper, and I had no idea who she was. She had to explain that she works for that company/organization which does all this CPAP stuff. I'm supposed to take my machine and all its trappings to her office on Monday. I have no idea what she plans to do, but perhaps my CPAP will work better when she's done. 

~I still feel all Bah Humbug about the holidays. 

Once more, some familiar suckage

[insert big long stream of very naughty words here]

The [redacted] washing machine broke. Again. Same damned thing, the latch mechanism failed. Superman has already ordered the replacement part, which should be here in 3 days. At least this time he knows how to replace it. 

We know the underlying problem with the machine is that it gets out of balance with very heavy loads or if it's on a high spin setting. Superman tried to see what was causing that, but didn't figure it out. There is a note taped to the machine just above the control knob that says "Use Normal Setting ONLY" since the heavy duty setting is what messes it up. 

Today I told Diva to get the huge pile of dirty laundry out of her room and take it to the laundry room. She took it upon herself to cram all of it into the washer and set the machine to heavy duty. And you know the rest. When Superman discovered that he nearly blew is top. He screamed at Diva. He's so frustrated! I am too. He calmed down after about 10 minutes and was able to speak to the girl with composure. I don't feel so peaceful about it or her right now. She is now safely in her bed where I can't get at her to clobber or scream ugly things at her. Maybe I'll feel better in the morning. 

I haven't mentioned this to Superman, but I'm seriously considering buying a back-up washer. There's a place in town that buys and sells used appliances. I can get a plain jane standard washing machine for probably $100, or at least less than $200. The laundry room is really tiny, though, and I'm not sure where a second washer might fit. Hmmm. Fiddle-dee-dee, I'll think about that tomorrow.

While I'm on a whining streak anyway, I'll jump into this mess. Did I tell you our cars are acting up? I'm too lazy to check the archives now, but Manny is dead in the water. We suspect the starter motor. He absolutely won't start. Superman got another starter from the salvage yard today, but is having trouble installing it. 

The van is about to go belly up. Her (Bertha, as in Big Bertha) transmission is shot to hell. It still works, sort of, but makes horrid scary noises when doing so. The whole van shakes with a big clunk when she starts. Any day now it's gonna quit altogether.  And those are our two vehicles. That's it. I hope Superman can get Manny going again. I don't know what we're going to do with Bertha. There's no way we can afford a transmission job right now. 

I read over this and see lots of whining and complaining and worry. I'm not supposed to worry. I know it's more than useless. Time to take a deep breath and extend some faith. But shit. My faith extender is stubborn today. 

Maybe I'll just go to bed. I don't want to think about it anyway. 

A meme by any other name

I am bored, and there's not much I'm ready to talk about around here, so I thought I'd steal a meme from the great meme stealer himself, Chris over at My 2 Cents.

Witness Protection name (mother's and father's middle names)

Jane Thomas

Nascar name (first name of your mother's dad, father's dad)

Bayard Joe

Star Wars name (the first 2 letters of your last name, first 4 letters of your first name)

Mc'dori

Detective name (favorite color, favorite animal)

Purple Giraffe

Soap Opera name (middle name, city where you live)

Lynne Greenwood

Superhero name (2nd favorite color, favorite alcoholic drink, optionally add "The" to the beginning)

The Yellow Rum

Fly name (first 2 letters of 2st name, last 2 letters of last name)

Does

Gangsta name (favorite ice cram flavor, favorite cookie)

Chocolate Gingersnap

Rock Star name (current pet's name, current street name)

Scheherazade Lawton

Porn name (1st pet, street you grew up on)

Shamrock Healy

Time for more kitty pictures!

Cat Care Tip #57- Let sleeping kittens lie.

Scheherazade is getting little bits of soft fur all over our bed. She's cute enough at this age that I don't mind too much. 

Here she is hiding behind the lump of sheet. She's preparing her for her attack.

"Wait, what was that?"

Faster than lightning, cuter than cute, she attacks! This time she got Light's fingers. My fingers are all chewed up, too.

She's a blur

Play is serious stuff. She must attack this roll of tissue.
Hail the conquering hero!She deigns to let me hold her for a moment.

We have another cat named Samhain. He is approximately 2.5 years old. He is a sleek black cat, very regal and proud when he isn't being silly and kittenish. Samhain likes to play, too. But Samhain isn't sure what to think of Scheherazade. She wants to play with him, but he is wary. For about an hour they eyed each other from different sides of the box on the right. They both got too tired to watch each other and each fell asleep. This is as close as they got to each other yesterday. Today they actually touched noses momentarily. 

"Scheherazade" is a mouthful of name to say everytime we refer to her. I still like the name, and use it when I don't call her kitty. Superman, on the other hand, likes to call her Smudge. He says she looks like a black smudge on the floor.

Addendum: How about Cher for a nickname, but spelled Scher? Since Scheherazade begins with Sch. I've had a few votes for Cher already. thinking with fingers, here, maybe sCher. Looks kinda funny, but when has that ever stopped me?

Scrooge Meme

This meme brought to you thanks to Ur-Spo. Feel free to use it as you will.

Have you actually read the book “A Christmas Carol” ?

Indeed I have. 

 

Do you have any relatives you would rather not see (but have to)this Christmas?

We're staying home this year and no family is coming to visit, so besides those of us living in this house I won't see any other family. I am happy to see my husband and children. There are a couple of uncles and a whole slew of in-laws I would like to avoid, and am doing so pretty successfully.

 

 Do you have a cloying employee who is asking for something this Christmas, like more time off?

Not having any employees, no I don't. However, I have children, which is in some ways similar. So far none of them is asking anything unreasonable.

 

 Have you ever been visited by a Spirit?

Not in the same sense as Scrooge in this story, no. 

 

 Who is the biggest “Scrooge” in your family?

Me, most likely.

 

Have you ever eaten Roast Goose?

No. Roast duck, yes, but not roast goose.

 

How about a flaming plum pudding? 

No, but it sounds like great fun, doesn't it?

 

 What is your favorite memory of a Christmas Past?

The night before, being so excited I couldn't sleep, and listening to my grandfather snore. I would almost always get up in the night and sneak into the living room to peek.  The "Santa" at our house always left each child's major gift unwrapped and set up in front of the tree. I remember the night I saw my first big bicycle. It was blue with chrome fenders. So cool! Grandpapa was sleeping on the sofa in the living room and scared the beJebus out of me when he let loose with a mighty snore. To this day I don't know if it was a natural snore or if he saw me there and snorted on purpose to frighten me. Either scenario is possible.

 

 What is “Bah Humbug” about Christmas this year?

I'm just not in the Christmas mood, but feel as though I must pretend for the sake of the children. 

 

 Which version of “A Christmas Carol” is your favorite?

The Muppet Christmas Carol, an absolutely genius retelling of the tale.

 

Tiny Tim - sweet or obnoxious?

Mostly sweet, and occasionally too sweet veering toward obnoxious. But more sweet than not.

Some answers to burning questions, and a few more questions (because that's one of my specialities)

There have been a few requests for answers to the questions posed in the comments to my previous post.

vuboq said...

What color is your dish washing liquid? My guess would be that she's used to seeing colored dish soap so thought that's what should be used on furniture too.

Just a guess though.

We use either orange or lemon scented (and likewise colored) dish washing liquid. Our window cleaner is blue, floor cleaner is amber, laundry liquid is clear. The container of detergent for our dishwasher is green, but the stuff itself is gloppy opaque white. 

Bigg said...

I dunno, Java. When I did stuff like this as a kid (and I did) it was always to destroy the evidence. 
Is there something on the bed that green food coloring would cover or camouflage?

I looked at the bed and can't see anything obvious that she would want to camouflage.

Tobey said...

is green her favorite color?

I didn't know her favorite color, so I asked her. She has four. Turquoise, Purple (I think, can't remember the second one too well), Red and Black. I think, by the way she said it, that she likes the redblack combination. 

A Lewis said...

May I suggest a little more fresh air for the child? I have never laughed so hard in my life! Dear god....from the mind of a child.

Glad you enjoyed it Lewis. I laugh so that I don't cry. How 'bout I make her walk home from school today. That'll give her some fresh air.

Ur-spo said...

Better question than "What do women want?" is 
"Why do children do that?"

Yes, a quintessential question, one I've been asking ever since my first child was born. I haven't figured out the answers, though. 

Clueless.

Me too.

the hobbit said...

My question in this moment would be: Where is the can of paint you just huffed that made this seem like a good idea?

Whatever is wrong with the child is no small thing.

Birdie said...

I think vuboq nailed it: she's used to seeing green liquid soap, so she made her own. Quite clever, actually. (But there are questions you just don't ask, like where the bottle came from.) Kudos to Diva for wanting to clean her bed! Even at midnight. Don't want to discourage that effort.

See above for the debunking of green liquid soap. She really does enjoy cleaning. I should harness that willingness more often. She needs to be reminded to stay on task, though. 

Ultra Dave said...

Children ...... a never ending source of amusement and bewilderment.

More so than I ever imagined.

la pequena java fan said...

Are you sure she wasn't "sleep cleaning"...like sleepwalking but instead of walking, she was "cleaning"? I only ask cuz three of our four have been known to do some bizarre things while asleep that none of them recall the next morning. And I hope that wasn't her regular toothbrush! Although I have busted mine "scrubbing the sink down" with their toothbrushes in the past. sigh.....

Nope, that's not it. It was only 8:30 and she hadn't been to bed yet. This was a stalling maneuver to delay bedtime. I asked her last night if she had a fresh clean toothbrush to use on her teeth, and she assured me she did.

Mark said...

Thanks for the good laugh!

You're welcome

rjjs8878 said...

Will you post to answers to the questions? I’m curious to see what her answers are.

Gladly

sageweb said...

I would like to know the answer to all those questions too...

See above

anythingbutsad said...

Clearly, Joan Crawford was channelling through her :P

I wouldn't be a bit surprised.

greg said...

If she is sleep-cleaning, you need to set up a system of bumpers to direct her to things you'd like to have cleaned. 

Excellent idea, if only...

At first, I wondered if the mouthwash had been consumed for its alcohol content. But then I might be trying to apply logic here, which the rest of you have suggested might be a waste of time.

Oh, honey, with children there is no logic. Major waste of time trying to figure this out logically. It can be fun to suppose, but you'll never get it right.

(greetings from Connecticut)

Have a great trip! I look forward to hearing about it. 

Roxrocks said...

Don't waste your time trying to get inside the child's head! Honey, kids have no logic to them! They're all cuckoo!

You have children, don't you? Cuckoo is one of the nicer words for their condition. Nucking Futs is one of my favorites.

Beyond WTF

Here I was, sitting at the computer happily blogging along, and Superman came in with this bottle. 

He handed it to me. It felt warm. I asked what it was, and he said warm water and a little bit of soap. And green food coloring.  

He had that look on his face. Do you know the one? The one that says "I'm so befuddled by this I can barely speak." 

I think this bottle once had mouthwash in it. Some mouthwash is green. I asked if someone had dumped out all the mouthwash and tried to cover up by making some more. That is a likely scenario around here. But no, that's not what happened this time. 

Picture Diva standing beside her bed with this bottle in one hand and a toothbrush in the other. She dips the toothbrush into the bottle, then puts it to the bare unfinished wood side rails of her bed, and scrubs. Scrubs vigorously and meticulously. With warm soapy water and green food coloring. Huh?

Superman asked what she was doing. This can be a frightening question to ask. She said the wood was dirty (it is) and she wanted to clean it. With soapy water and green food coloring? He then pointed out to her that if she scrubs green food coloring into the wood it will turn green. Huh? She looked at him with that same strange "I'm so befuddled" look. It never occurred to her that green food coloring would turn bare wood green. 

This is like those "what's wrong with this picture" drawings in children's magazines. How many things do not make sense in this episode?

1. She's supposed to be in the bed going to sleep, not scrubbing the bed.

2. Where did this bottle come from?

3. What was in it when she found it?

4. Where did she get the green food coloring? (another question I'm afraid to ask)

5. Why did she put green food coloring into a bottle of warm soapy water?

6. What did she assume would happen if she used it on her bed rail? (assuming that she assumed anything is presumptuous)

I'm sure there are many more questions one could ask about this, but my head is spinning too fast to contemplate any more.

The mind reels. 

The Exodus has begun!

They are moving out!!!

They are very happy about this. As am I. (giddy laughter)
This is their room as of 11:00 this morning. There's a lot of disorganized junk to move. 

They went to the city utility provider this morning to put the utilities in C's name. Then they went to the property management office to sign the lease and get the key. 

Their lease application was approved late last week. I didn't want to say anything about it here until it was a done deal. I've been itching to post the news all weekend. But now it is really happening!! I am thrilled. Thrilled I tell you! Everyone involved is thrilled. Truly, I can't tell you how thrilled I am. 

I am proud of the boys that they are ready to take this step to independence. I'm proud that they are going through with it. I hope they survive! Neither of this is particularly good at managing money. They mostly have the knowledge but lack the discipline. This, too, is a learning experience. I'm pleased, proud, and thrilled.

My boys and the kitten Scheherazade

My 17 year old son Twitch views life from an interesting perspective. He's always been a unique boy. He quietly observes the world around him (when he isn't too self absorbed to be oblivious to it). Sometimes he shares his point of view with the family.

I have a white board hanging on the wall in our kitchen. It's a wonderful place for messages, notes, lists, and tirades. Twitch put this on the white board recently.

Members of the household are represented on the left. S and C are of course our gay couple. The D and M are for Dad and Mom. Next he shows himself (Twitch) then S-Sproing and D-Diva. The red line represents Courtesy, green is Productivity, and black is Respect. Along the bottom of the chart we see his terms for the levels of each virtue. In ascending order we have suckish, poor, fair, good, and parent.

He qualifies the chart here, saying "figures based on distant observations." Why distant I'm not sure. He's right here and sees it all. But this is Twitch's opinion of how well each family member shows courtesy, productivity, and respect. I'm glad Superman and I define the standard. That's as it should be. 

Sproing wanted me to take his picture. He posed for me. He thinks he's hot sh!t, so he gave me some bad a$$ poses. This was the only one I captured. He was thrilled. Sometimes he is very easy to placate. He is lots of fun!

And here are some pictures of our sweet little kitten, Scheherazade. She snuggled up to Superman for some scritching. She's really getting into this petting stuff.The first few days we had her she spent most of her time hiding under the furniture in our bedroom. We have her food, water, and the litter box in our bathroom, and I've been trying to keep the bedroom door closed so I at least know what room she's in. Whenever she saw us she'd hiss and run away. It was tough to catch her! We had to catch her at least twice a day to give her the antibiotic. Once we held her and pet her she purred like a little outboard motor. She loves it. But then she'd hiss next time we got close to her. Hey, make up your mind, Little One!But since the weekend she's been much more social. Here she is on our bed playing with a little catnip toy I bought for her. She's so cute when she bats that thing around! She has learned how to climb up onto our bed. To give some explanation, Superman built our bed. The mattress is nearly 3 feet off the floor. Our grown cat, Samhain, can jump up on the bed with no problem. Scheherazade is way too tiny to do that yet. However, there's enough junk piled up on the sides of the bed for her to climb on until she's close enough to jump. Yep, time to clean the room. :)

Here's a close shot of the catnip toy she was playing with. It's on the floor now, as she batted it off the edge of the bed. Now she's on the floor looking for it. You can see it. You can also see her back as she looks elsewhere. What a silly little girl kitty!She's doing much better. She uses the litter box consistently (that was hit and miss the first couple of days). She's eating and drinking well. The antibiotic seems to have worked pretty well on her respiratory infection, as she isn't sneezing and coughing anymore. However, her left eye isn't getting any better. If anything it's getting worse. I need to take her to the vet again to have him take another gander at that eye. Her eye is producing a lot of icky gunk, and the sclera (I think that's what it is) is inflamed. 

I think it's funny

This is the funniest thing I've read online all week.  It's a quote from Father Tony in his weekly advice post, Father Tony's Confessional, over at the Bilerico Project. 

To answer your ultimate question, yes, you can (and should) learn to give good head. In most towns, this is not taught at the community college level, as is pottery making or welding. You will have to consider your next few boyfriends as your personal trainers. (This is after you've had a dentist resolve any obvious obstructions.) Involve them in your desire to give the perfect blowjob. I doubt they will object.

You should read the entire article, it's quite good.

It's a special day...

...for Diva. Today is her 11th birthday. 

Here's what we had for dinner

This is her birthday cake. I made the frosting, she added the food color.

She has just blown out the candles. Will you look at that expressive face!

And speak of expressive, what the heck is this?

This is the special plate we use for special people on their special days. If I can find it. And sometimes it is used as the cake plate. Diva lucked out today and got to use it for her dinner.

There was some debate about which of these expressions was more appropriate for a picture. Superman thinks the big wide mouth is a bit much. 

She got a Barbie doll from Sproing. Superman and I (Just me, really. It was a surprise to him, too) got her a set of headphones for her CD player and a CD of (wait for it....) Hannah Montana!! OK, she's 11. She was very excited about the CD. She asked for the headphones, so that wasn't a big surprise.

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

Kitten and thread

Sproing and I took the kitten to the vet this afternoon. I decided to try a different veterinarian from the one we've been seeing since moving to Greenwood. I don't like the facilities at the other animal hospital. The vet we saw today is really old. There was another doctor-looking fellow in the office, too, not as old as the Old Veterinarian, but it was the Old guy who examined our kitten. Really old. Slow, somewhat shaky, and seemingly vacant, somehow. The ladies who assist in the office are charming and wonderful. I really like them. Anyway, this is supposed to be about the kitty, not the vet's office.

So Sproing put the kitty on the exam table. The doctor and assistant came in and we told them the story of how Sproing found the kitten in the road, all wet and miserable. I asked about the kitten's sex. The doctor examined the cat for close to two minutes, the poor baby objecting vocally. He finally said he thinks it's a girl, but I'm not entirely convinced. It really is hard to tell with kittens this age. They estimate her age to be 6 to 8 weeks. 

The poor dear has an upper respiratory infection in addition to the eye infection. She's got a cold in her eye, basically. The doctor prescribed an oral antibiotic and told me to gently wash off her eye a few times a day. He checked her for ear mites and worms and she looks fine. She's too young for a rabies shot just yet. He said to bring her in again in about 6 weeks for that. The assistant gave us a few sample packs of kitten food and a starter dose of flea-be-gone. (Revolution) We're all set. 

Well, not quite. I took Sproing and the kitty back home, got Diva and went to the grocery store. In addition to miscellaneous food purchases we got some kitten food, kitty litter, and a scoop for the litter box.  Yes, we seem to have a new cat.

But if she's going to turn into a girl kitty I think the name Mephistopheles isn't quite right. She needs the name of a female character, don't you think? I'm partial to Scheherazade. Especially since Superman was pretending to not let her stay another day, I think Scheherazade is appropriate. I doubt she can spin a good yarn, but if she snuggles up on Superman's chest and purrs really loud (she's good at that) I think he'll let her stay another day. And then another. Etc. 

I went to the fabric store today to pick up a couple of things, not the least of which was red thread. I really only need basic red thread. I can probably make do with one red for general use. If I need to sew a garment and thread color is important I'll match the fabric to a specific red. Right now I just need a basic red. You see what they put before me? Yes, red thread but which one? Lawsa mercy. I found one that said "red" and got that. There was brick red, tomato red, atom red, lipstick red, and I can't remember what all else. I'm glad there was one simply named red. So now I have red thread.