Reader Muppet2171 is back with another wacky cat: “This is Teller (you featured Penny a few weeks ago). He did this himself. If I try to tuck him in, you’d think I was trying to bury him alive. My next life, I’m coming back as a pampered housecat.”
Weekend Open Thread
What a beautiful cat Teller is!
Christmas is 2 days away but my cats have already had their Christmas present, a woman my sister-in-law knows lost her kitty recently and last Sunday I was gifted a big box of fancy gourmet cat food, you know the kind that comes in single serving tiny cans.
With 4 greedy guts cats to feed ( I have 5 cats but one refuses to eat canned food ) we buy big cans of regular paté cat food not the fancy stuff with gravy. This week I’ve been giving them couple of the fancy cans their evening snack. As soon as I pop the seal, I’m surrounded by yowling passing cats, you’d think they were crack addicts and I was their favourite pusher!
Well, hat’s it for me this weekend. Merry Christmas to all that celebrate it and Happy Hollidays to the rest.
I gave myself a pre-Christmas treat last week by going to see Oscar Wilde’s rarely-performed early play “A Woman of No Importance” at the Vaudeville Theatre in London. Although the melodramatic serious parts of the play are a bit creaky the comedy has aged well, and the production and performances were excellent. I had a couple of hours to kill after the show, so being an Oscar Wilde afficionado I popped over to Chelsea to see his house in Tite Street and that of his mother Lady Wilde in Oakley Street. I recently re-read Vyvyan Holland’s wonderful book “Son of Oscar Wilde”, and couldn’t help thinking about his description of being taken by his nanny to visit his eccentric and formidable grandmother.
The lead-up to this weekend has been tough for me – I have profound osteoarthritis in one knee and was disappointed in my doctor’s lack of apparent sympathy and pain-killing skills. Was hoping to feel, physically, better for my Christmas prep and cleaning and entertaining. Also this is the first Christmas in 45 years where I’m not traveling to my childhood home for the holidays – my parents sold their home and moved into a retirement living facility so they are coming to me instead of me going to them. I will miss that house on Christmas. But today I woke up feeling better about that part: it will be fun to have houseguests at my house for a change, and to use some of my pretty Christmas serving dishes . Anyway, if there’s someone in your life that is working extra hard to bring the holiday magic to you, please remember to say a special “thank you” – it can be hard to manage the prep for this particular day. Also – special wishes for holiday cheer to any of you who may be grieving, blue, missing a loved one, in pain, stuck in a place wishing you were elsewhere, waiting for a personal storm to pass, etc. Know that I am with you in spirit, praying for you to have some peace and joy. I am putting as much love as I can out into the universe over the next few days for anyone having a hard time.
Amen to all that, Birdcage – I’m so sorry about the pain you’re suffering. I hope the New Year helps you to find amelioration for it. And I hope everyone experiencing difficulties is graced with the strength to get through.
I’m still decorating – tho’ almost done – about to bake cookies – so far only my signature cookie, ginger cookies – they are by far everyone’s favorite of any others that I bake. I made the dough days ago, baked a half batch so I could send some to my bro in California – 2 1/2 batches left to go!
We have a party tonight, a party tomorrow night, a brunch at our neighbors Christmas Day, and I will be feeding 3 friends and the 2 of us on Christmas evening. Talk about a whirlwind of activity. Fortunately, the two parties tonight and tomorrow I only have to make a salad. Whew.
I posted my Christmas card a week or so ago and I’m not sure anyone saw it, so I’m going to try again!
Rats, it’s kind of pixilated but it’s the best I know how to do. Oh, well, Merry Christmas everyone – or Happy Holidays if that’s your choice – or Happy Kwanzaa – whatever suits your fancy.
I love being here with all of you – you enrich my life, make me laugh – and cry sometimes! It’s all good!
I have just noticed the pets in the drawing, aww so cute!
The cards are adorable, Murray! I do like more traditional, albeit cute, cards much more than the current fashion for photo postcard-type cards that my relatives who still send cards are all making. It’s nice to see the pictures of everyone, but couldn’t they just send traditional cards like this one and enclose a snapshot like everyone used to do?
I know what you mean – and the photos are all taken on their summer vacations in some remote tropical place – so very Christmasy!
Adorable.
Merry Winter Holiday to all! I’m getting ready to go swim, then I’ll do some laundry, then I’ll be leaving for my parent’s house to stay for a few days. We don’t decorate or do gifts, but my mom and I have baked way too many cookies and treats to overindulge on. Yes, Lily will be going with me; she hates the car ride, but loves being at grandma’s house!
Penny and Teller, lol, love it, also i think Teller wants you to cover his paw, it’s cold 😉
I’m heading to lunch to exchange gifts with my husbands family, however, he is not going as he is stuck in a plow truck keeping the roads safe for everyone 🙁
Cats. They know they’ve got a sweet deal and they never doubt they deserve it! Teller is such a gorgeous boy.
Happy Festivus, everyone! This year, I’m going to skip the traditional airing of grievances because I’m feeling happy. While things are far from settled in my life, I did get a job offer last week. It’s complicated, and it may not work out, but somebody finds my skills valuable and wants to hire me. That alone makes me feel like I can beat unemployment.
I’ve also been overwhelmed by the love and support of friends and family. My bio-dad has offered a monthly allowance to help with bills, especially medical ones, in these lean days. My lawn/snow guy has offered free shoveling if I need it. Friends have offered to buy a bag of cat food or have just quietly sent me a check. Knitting designers from the old job have sent gifts, offers to act as references, or added LinkedIn endorsements to my profile. For some of these folks, we’ve only ever had a relationship via email. I feel like George Bailey, the richest woman in town.
Blessings, peace, and love to all Cutetropolitans in this holiday season. Your support has helped me enormously too, and I hold you all in my heart as the year turns.
Deb, if you run low on yarn, particularly sock yarn, just let me know; I reached SABLE several years ago, so I can easily spare just about all you could want! Primarily sock or sport, mostly in small quantities per colorway — I’m a dedicated sock knitter these days — but I do have several colors of Bugga in larger quantities.
I had to google SABLE…does that apply to books? Cuz I’m there if it does.
I was there until the advent of ebooks. There is still nothing like the smell of a bookstore, but my library is much more compact these days. 🙂
Note: I didn’t say smaller. Just compact. Bookworm’s gotta…worm?
Will do, but I’m also at SABLE capacity!!!! Now that I need to economize, it’s a great excuse to go through my project queue and get to some knitting I’ve had in mind for years.
If my last post in my “17 in 2017” blog series had gone up, you all would have seen that I completed 19 sweaters this year, and that some had been waiting for 5 or more years to get made.
We’ve got a big travel day tomorrow: Vienna to Iowa! Wish us luck… we’ve got high winds tonight and we’re hoping for no delays. I am taking exactly 21 essays with me to grade. Otherwise I am bound and determined to enjoy my friends and family!!! God bless us, every one!
Good luck, DebG! Hope the offer works out and is awesome!
Safe travels, N. Fritz!
Today I need to go get pie for Monday (I offered pie mostly as an excuse to go to Battleview Orchards for the good pie 😉 ), and stop for milk. My workplace gives us a $20 ShopRite (supermarket) gift card for Thanksgiving every year; I don’t normally shop there (even though it’s actually the closest grocery store to my house) so I want to go use that and get it out of my wallet. Trying to think what else I need so I can use it up in one shot.
First I’m drinking my mocha hot cocoa (Godiva!) and checking my email and whatnot, and then I’ll take a shower and go do my errands. Then I’ll detour to a different Starbucks than usual just to fulfill a challenge in their Starbucks for Life game (actually 2 challenges in one trip – one is visiting different stores, hence the detour – unfortunately, the Starbucks inside Target doesn’t count, and the other is just buying something on 12/23)…I don’t have to detour too far to get to one of about 5 Starbucks within a few miles of my house. Then home to sort out my bags of Christmas presents and do wrapping. Then maybe a little cleaning. I did my bathroom last weekend, everything except vacuuming the hair and dryer lint covering the floor. Need to straighten up the kitchen. Oh, and finish my book that was due at the library Wednesday and I can’t renew again. I really need to start reading faster.
And…it’s a good day for this song…
Joy.
Allein, you ar a riot. Or as we used to say in the ’60’s – you’re panic.
I saw Violent Femmes in concert a few years ago; they opened for Barenaked Ladies, and Colin Hay from Men at Work was the first opener. It was outdoors at a county park (the only thing covered was the stage), and it started raining right as Colin Hay started playing. Then Violent Femmes came on, and while I’m sure they would have done that song anyway, it was especially appropriate as we watched the rain pouring through the colored light from the stage…at least it looked cool while we all got drenched. The rain stopped just as Barenaked Ladies started playing. It’s like they timed it that way. (Unfortunately, my jeans did not dry until well after I got home.)
So I got my apple pie, plus two jars of preserves (cherry and apricot) for myself. They have a big coffee urn filled with hot cider (their big thing is that and apple cider donuts** in addition to the pies and other goodies) and you can help yourself to a small cup, so I got some and then proceeded to spill it all over my hand. Ouch. And sticky. But mostly ouch. (I’m fine.)
Then I went to Starbucks and got some tea, then B&N for a gift card and card for my cousin’s daughter’s graduation which was last Saturday (they even had one graduation-themed gift card left over in the rack, which surprised me; I was expecting to just get a generic congratulations card), then ShopRite to use my gift card. I managed to spend less than five dollars over the amount of the gift card (mostly on junk, but hey, it was a gift, so I should use it for treats, right?).
———-
**they have a window next to the door and when it’s open you can get fresh hot donuts without even going inside
My friends’ beagle always digs into the pile of afghans at the end of their couch. She settles down in and snoozes under all that to the point where you could easily forget she was there, lol. Very comfy and cozy, doesn’t like to be roused, though the nose might, just might, poke out if she sniffs food in the cold outer world.
Happy holidays, all!
Pablo was like that. You had to be careful when sitting on the bed, because he was so tiny you couldn’t tell where under the covers he might be (assuming the bed wasn’t made, which was generally a safe assumption 😉 ). We did a lot of gentle patting around over the comforter until we found a solid, warm lump. 😛
Is anyone else getting frequent “This page isn’t working” errors? I’ve gotten it almost every time I try to post this morning. Sometimes my comment posts anyway, but the page doesn’t load.
I’m sorry you’re having trouble. I will see what I can do about this.
It says HTTP ERROR 413, if that helps. Google tells me that means “request entity too large”…which doesn’t really help me. No idea if it’s something on my end or yours.
The full message is:
This page isn’t working
If the problem continues, contact the site owner.
HTTP ERROR 413
When I just posted that I got:
Bad Request
Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.
Size of a request header field exceeds server limit.
Cookie
/n
(Which past googling indicates seems to be related to corrupted cookies. Sometimes if I clear my cookies it seems to fix it.)
Great, and thank you for all this detail. That will help for sure.
Happy holidays! 🙂
I’ve been listening to rain and sirens for the past several minutes. Whatever happened, I hope everyone’s okay. 🙁
Edit: The sirens have been going so long I think maybe it’s actually Santa making his rounds. Hope so!
I’m going to follow Deb’s good example and not gripe.
Today, I am answering the phone with “Thank you for calling Santa’s naughty list department. All lines are busy. Current wait time is…” and then throw in whatever number I feel like.
I have a personal turkey in the oven because the family gathering turkey doesn’t allow for much leftovers. I’m currently wrapped around a big mug of tea, watching the wind blow the bits of snow around. We have an Arctic outflow going on right now, and I’m enjoying it. It’s so cold that I pulled out my flannel duck quilt and put it on top of the fleece blankets, regular quilt and flannel sheets. I won’t go into detail, but flannel makes hubby feel snuggly…
After the turkey’s done, I am going to make homemade buns for Monday. I have a recipe for my gramma’s buns. Nobody makes bread like my Mennonite gramma did. Baked shortbread, chocolate chip, and sugar cookies yesterday, and hubby likes to eat them buttered. (Shudder)
Decorating today. We usually do it Christmas Eve, but hubby has to work tomorrow, and then we’re off to his family for supper. It also means that we will go to church tonight, and again Christmas Day. My mental schedule is all over the place, and I love it.
I’m bird sitting all next week. Blue the budgie. And when his owner comes back, she will have another budgie with her.
Lots of little things to do today. I will check in every now and then, but I want to wish everyone the merriest possible Christmas/holidays ever. I send my love and support to all, and my prayers will mention everyone this coming week. And I ask God to bless you all.
??????✨❄️⛄️☃
Duckie, you sleep under a duck quilt? That’s so meta!
Christmas preparations with kitties, episode 854.
I have just got a little help from Marci with baking cakes, he showed me how to knead… The little devil sneaked in the kitchen as soon I turned my back 🙂
Just tell people it’s made with extra love.
And any fur left behind adds some fiber to the diet!
That’s a fantastic picture.
Fantastic!
We had an Anole leave footprints in a stick of butter once.
So I threw out this pastry and started again. When the cake was almost ready and I started pouring the chocolate coating on it, this crazy feline wanted to leave his signature/pawprint again. This time in hot chocolate – but I managed to catch him before landing on my cake 🙂
Now I know what the lady I got him from meant by promising to accept him back if we cannot handle some feline mischief 🙂 But ofc there is no way I would return a kitty, we had a good laugh at the pastry incident and all other mischiefs of Mr Marci. ( Also when Felix decided to chew a leg of the kitchen table last week)
Hey, Ems – I posted something about your adopting a cat (after you talked about being refused by an adoptive agency) and obviously you DO have a cat – I can’t seem to keep up with all the details of people’s lives the way some of you do – so sorry. I hope your cat gets to enjoy all the privileges of going out of doors if that’s what he likes.
Hi everyone.
Wishing you all the best holiday weekend and a better year for the next year.
Millie is right near me nuzzling a toy after a good game of catch. I have begun a drawing to illustrate a big psychological breakthrough I had with my ptsd. The Doctor is writing it up so I want to do a really good job.
My housemate and I have no plans for the holiday as her daughter is with the father. She’s binging on horror movies and I cooked my pasta sauce and roasted chicken this morning. I have homemade leek soup as well. It’s chocolate cookies for treats late at night.
All in all this has been the best year of my life. First because I have my Millie. Then because I am more healthy mentally than ever before. Never give up!
That’s so great Faye! I’m encouraged by your experience.
Thank you!
good on you, Faye! You are a trooper if ever there was one. Keep on keepin’ on.
I will Murray.
IMG_0121.jpg
Ok – have no idea if this will go thru or how else to send it…..
I’d be happy to post your image for you. Mail it to me at ntmtom@notthatmiketheothermike.com
Thank you!! I have never done the photo card thing before but this is my sweet Honey girl, taken last year. Picture was begging to be a card!!
Wow, I agree! Nice photo!
What a great photo!
A friend had just given me that little tree & I had just plugged it in. As Honey investigated, her little face went from, “Ooooh, pretty!” to “be vewwy careful…”
It almost looks like a painting.
Thank you for the sweet words. It is a very special photo of my very special girl!
🙂
Would you mind if I shared it in my employee facebook group (it’s a closed group)? We have a holiday pet/meme/whatever thread going on and we’re big gang of animal lovers (the funny meme to pet ratio is most definitely skewed toward the pet pictures).
gah…”a big gang”! It won’t let me edit for some reason.
(Also, I won’t be upset if you don’t want me to.)
Oh, that is fine with me!! Sorry I just saw your post. My little girl should be appreciated LOL!! Thank you for loving her picture!
Thanks! One “like” so far…though the thread has sort of slowed down and I imagine most current employees are working today.
Sweet!
Hi, all, and a very happy holidays to all who celebrate and a happy quiet time at work or home to all who don’t! We’ve decided not to do much again this year other than a gift or two and a nice Christmas dinner. My husband was a middle-aged bachelor when we married, who’d lived overseas most of his adult life and wasn’t all that interested in fancy holiday celebrations, so while I greatly appreciate those who do take the time to decorate and bake and host, it’s just not something either of us want to do. Which is fine; we have our two pups and us, and that’s enough.
The only holiday thing I’m really looking forward to is having the caroling group that serenaded us last year with several songs do it again. The kids in the big family across the street that homeschools (former military, so it was easier as they moved around constantly) belong to a big homeschool group that has all kinds of fun activities — beach weekends, a choral group, etc. — and so last year to our delight about 25 teenagers showed up at our door singing cheerfully away. It put a smile on my face for days, as you can imagine. They’re a lovely family and wonderful neighbors!
It’s been quiet here. The dogs have been doing their therapy thing — Sebastian only goes one place so far, but Melody is in demand at about five places so it’s a constant struggle for my husband to find time to take her everywhere they want someone. And he’s found a lovely pro bono attorney to help the therapy dog group founder with a few problem ex-members; a dear friend of ours runs her firm and asked her to volunteer, and we hugely appreciate it, as you can imagine. The last attorney they had several years ago was paid $500 to write a letter that he then refused to defend! Outrageous, if you ask me. It’s just a well-respected group — that’s now being asked to show up after disasters by groups like the Red Cross and a couple government organizations! — that is always broke and never has any $$. So I’m very glad my husband was able to help out. I’ve called him the kind of networking for years, and it’s times like this when it pays off!
Everyone stay warm, and I hope we all have a great end to 2017 and beginning of 2018. It’s always a joy being here; Mike has created the nicest place on the whole Internet!!
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays or Happy whatever you celebrate (or not). Good tohear everyone’s updates and plans. Love this little kitty, this was me this morning. Didn’t want to leave my nice warm bed as it was about 45 degrees this morning. I know that’s not cold for many people but here in SoCal that’s just a little chilly.
Not too much in the mood for Christmas as the past few months have been challenging with losing my mom, and several family crises/drama that are too lengthy to go into here plus some health issues for me and hubby. I do have a new grand-nephew and good friends to lean on so I’m trying to see the positive more than the negative but some days are harder than others.
Ran errands much of the day, got the makings for the Christmas feast which we’ll share with friends. Now wrapping presents and doing a Star Wars movie marathon. Had a hockey game last night which we won and then an away game today that my team also won. GO GULLS!!!! Had a scary moment last night when one of our players slid into the boards and knocked himself out. He did manage to walk off the office with assistance so I’m hoping he’s not hurt too bad.
Going to see a friend of my mom’s tomorrow then visiting a friend of ours that also lives in the same area. Then lunch out at Texas Roadhouse. Then comes Christmas and we’ll be at another friend’s house most of the day. Then lucky me, I have all next week off. The perks of working at a state university. So until next week, stay safe, stay warm, safe travels, and enjoy yourselves.
Happy Sunday, team! I haven’t posted much lately b/c I had a cold that dragged on, and then my back went out. Today is the first day I’ve been able to do regular stuff without really severe pain and I’m so grateful – just being able to sit or stand freely, and not wiggle around or cry out. There’s just nothing like when pain stops.
Alice Shortcake, I love “Crocodiles in the Green Room”! I got it as a present to myself. I marvel at the image of 70 polar bears diving and swimming around the Hippodrome. And I had no idea the ‘bluebird of happiness’ meme was so recent.
Very grateful that I don’t have to drive the Mass Pike tomorrow – lovely weather now, but supposed to snow overnight. No family commitments, the cards were mailed a few days ago, thank-you plants delivered, laundry done, car washed. I plan to spend the next few days finishing ’17 stuff and setting up ’18 stuff – I’m not a fan of Christmas but I look forward to the New Year.
Thanks to the snowplow drivers and the guys who shovel and put out rock salt and take care of the rest of us. Also super thankful to the lady in the supermarket checkout line with about 80-100 items yesterday, when I was in really bad pain, who invited me to go ahead of her. So thoughtful! (we had a lovely chat – her family is driving up today…) I love my neighbors, both Cutetropolis and local.
I am glad to hear about you again, we missed you! I hope your pain’s gone for good.
(I thought maybe you were moving to a new Smartyhome, this is why you were away from C)
Aw, thank you – I’m doing pretty well today! A new Smartyhome is in my plan for 2018, but thankfully things have gotten better here, so it’s not such an emergency as it seemed a couple of months ago.
I hope your holiday is turning out like you wish. Love the pic of Marci’s ‘help’ in the kitchen!
Thank you, winter holiday has been good so far, surprisingly even Christmas was OK.
As for finding a new home, I went to take a look at an apartment about a month ago. It looked quite good and I wouldn’t have needed a huge bank loan for it, just an acceptable one. It was located near a forest, so all seemed good. I just couldn’t understand why it was advertised at such a low price. Then I talked about it to my brother, who enlightened me: it is in the unofficial red light district of the town 🙂 When I brood over a possible change of career, this is not what I have in mind 🙂
My next-door neighbors put a red light bulb in their porch light last Christmas, and it’s been there ever since. I’m not sure they know what it signifies. (And I’m not gonna tell ’em! 😉 )
🙂 🙂 🙂
I hope they haven’t had a lot of suspicious looking “visitors” lately 🙂
lol…I don’t know; I kinda keep to myself..
Thanks, Smartypants! I was surprised that bluebird “mascots” in several sizes were available from the theatre – evidently entertainment-related merchandising is older than I thought…