Peeling Paint

We decided we should spend another day trying to wrap up the dining room.  Rob painted the second coat of color on the walls while I started prepping the trim for new paint.  What a crappy task.

We knew they hired painters to come in a "neutralize" the place before putting it on the market.  From the little bits of "what used to be there" paint and wall paper we have seen, it was worth their money to do this.  No one in their right mind would have bought this home otherwise.  We also knew from accidentally bumping the chair rail that it used to be red.  And that it was glossy paint which was painted over with another glossy paint.  For those of you who don't know what this means, essentially the last paint you put on will peel.  Glossy on glossy means it has nothing to stick to.  The good news?  If you catch it right, you can peel long strips at a time.

Here's progress with one stripped and the other waiting.  I am sure when this is done no one is going to be able to tell from a picture, but we will know the white we are painting it much brighter than this dull cream that's on there now.  The other thing is, even if we didn't want to paint and liked the color as it, eventually, with wear and tear, the red would eventually show through because it's not on there well.  

All I can say is sitting on the hardwood made my back hurt and my finger nails are in pretty awful shape.  At least Sparky was checking up on me on a regular basis. 

My Lovey Kitty

Recently, when I have been leaving the house at nights for things like yoga or errands I would like to run, Rob has been telling me that Sparky has cried after me when I leave.  I think it's really sweet and kind of pathetic at the same time.  Yes, this is the same huge cat that swipes at people (particularly not a fan of Mike D.) and has a generally meaner disposition around strangers.  I love him to pieces and even though I want to trade him for a hamster when he's walking on my head at 3am, I'll never do it.   He's a cuddle butt and incredibly sweet with me.  I know when I have had a bad day, I can pick him up and squeeze him and he'll let me.  I hope that someday they iron out that cloning thing cause I would make 10 more of him in a heartbeat.  :)

How most nights are spent with Sparky

Stick Tights

Over the holidays we were gone for a week.  Maybe a week and a day depending on how you count when we left Friday and got back a week later on Friday.  To my cats, I am pretty sure this felt like a year.  We can get really precise and say it was more like 7 weeks for them (1 year = 7 cat years).  Either way, we were greeted as if we hadn't been seen in a long time.

The first couple of days were kind of cute with how much they wanted to be near us.  They had to smell everything we brought back, investigate our packages and sleep on our heads that night.  By the third night it was a little bit much and we went back to putting them in the bathroom at night because they aren't letting us sleep.  Sparky even cried Monday night when I went to yoga.  It made me think we totally traumatized them in some way. 

Thankfully, they are relatively back to normal now, however they are still trying to hang out in the most inconvenient places and desperately want to help me with anything I have going on. 

This is how I frequently use my computer at home and could explain why I never spend large amounts of time on it.  However annoying it is, it's hard for me to stay annoyed with them for long.

Cats

Why we can't leave drawers open

Or paper on the floor

Sun Spots

Oh to be a well loved kitty in a house with great sun spots some day.

Fun With Cats

Just an average night in our house. Torturing Sparky for all the 3am wake ups to escort him to the food dish to show him we fed him at 1am. Also, check out my new PJ pants. I <3 them!

My Laptops

When I am home sick, it's a party in my lap.

Cat Naps

After I had gone to work, Rob snapped some photos to show me what happens when I leave.



Lazy bums!

It's Christmas Time...

We have officially decorated our house for the holidays. It takes a while because we have about 8 boxes of Christmas stuff to sort out and put up, but it looks nice when we are done. So I will let the pictures do the talking. :)


Our pretty Christmas tree. We have an eclectic tree with all kinds of different ornaments that we each have collected over the years. Our favorite additions this year are the personalized engaged ornament and the ornament from Rothenburg, Germany.


The holly lights are my favorite non-tree decoration because I think they are classic Christmas.


We didn't want our entry way to feel left out, so we put a small tree down there. This particular one has a set of lights on there that blink, so really this is an action shot. :)

Rob and I aren't the only ones in this household that enjoy the Christmas decorations. Both Dory and Sparky think that we have done this house up as some sort of playland for them. They take turns sitting at the extra lights from the holly.


And they both like to camp out under the tree. In this case only one cat was being cooperative so Dory gets all the limelight on this go around. :)


Of course, they also like batting at the ornaments which means strategic placement of all fluffy/non breakable ornaments so if they bat at something, they bat at those.

Here's to the Christmas season!!

Kitty Cuteness

Since I don't have kids, occasionally I subject people to pictures of my kitties. Technically they are cats, but they will always be my kitties and sometimes are referred to as my fat fuzzies. Anywho, after Rob's nap the other day, my fuzz butts curled up on the blankets and didn't move after I grabbed my camera so I was able to snap a photo.

Kitties Visit the Vet

In getting ready for our move, I decided it would be a good idea to try and get some tranquillizers for my cats this time around. When I moved from DC, Dory meowed for 7 out of the 10 hour drive. It felt like I was killing the poor thing. I did everything I could to make them more calm to no avail. This time around we wanted to have some ammo. :)

They went to the vet today and Rob helped lug their fat butts in. They took them to be weighed and Dory came in at 14.8 pounds and Sparky came in a 21.9 pounds. The house sitting service was right, they are mountain lions!! We got a little one on one time with the vet to ask some questions about general cat problems we have been having or things we wanted to know.

Question one - how to get my kitties to loose some freaken weight. Turns out they need a prescription to get some high fiber food that should help them shed a pound or two. That would be nice! I have the magic piece of paper, so when this food runs out, it's diet time!

Question two - Sparky bites, why? Apparently he just wants to play. Lovely. We are supposed to ignore this and hopefully he will stop.

Question three - Dory bites her nails, why? The vet said, "That's weird. In vet school they can tell us what dogs do and why, but when we get to cats, they have little explanation for a lot of their behaviors." Awesome. :P

Question four - We are moving to a complex with berber carpeting, what do you suggest for them to not get caught on the carpet? She suggested something called Soft Paws. It's like fake nails for kitties. I want to get pink ones for Dory and blue ones for Sparky. :) It should also help them not scratch the furniture anymore.

Also, I was able to play with this cool tool they had laying about called the FURminator. At first I thought it was some vet tool to run through their fur and check for fleas, but turns out, it's just to brush your pet with. The idea is that the tool grabs all the loose hairs that other brushes leave behind and I can tell you this thing works! The demos on their website are pretty much accurate with how much fur comes out. I had a mound when the vet came back and I was like, "Ummm, where can I put this small new cat?" She raved about it and I know why. I want one!

Overall it was a very educational trip AND we got the kitty tranquillizers. :) As the vet put it, they won't knock the kitty out, but just take the edge off, like having a few glasses of wine. Sweet. :)

The Escape Artists

The weather here has been beautiful over the past few days for this time of year. Yesterday, Rob got home before me and decided it was warm enough to open up the windows and doors in the house and let the air flow through. Hey, why not? Fresh air is good for everyone.

When I drove up to the house, I noticed this fuzzy thing in front of our door. It was Sparky hanging out all hunched down and just sitting there. I stopped my car in the street and hurried over to him. I am thinking to myself, "Cat, you are on the wrong side of the door. How did you get here?" I picked him up to bring him in and I turned to the left and there was Dory! BAH! Cats everywhere! Next to Dory though was the screen from the front window. Aha! So that's how you got out!

I guess I had pretty good timing because I think they had just gotten outside. Sparky doesn't handle mother nature too well. He was the kitty that flipped out for no apparent reason and broke all of his hind claws two summers ago. I was just happy that nothing had spooked him.

Moral of the story - the screens suck here. We probably won't be able to have that window open more than my cat is wide which isn't as bad as it sounds. They are big cats. And now they can add escape artists to their resumes.

From Kitties!