Happy Caturday! This weekend’s cat comes from reader muppet2171: “This is Penny…She just looks like she’s waiting for an explanation here.”
Weekend Open Thread
121 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread”
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Happy Caturday! This weekend’s cat comes from reader muppet2171: “This is Penny…She just looks like she’s waiting for an explanation here.”
Comments are closed.
Going out today with old friends, it’s our annual get together to celebrate everyone’s birthday. Actually it’s just an excuse to see friends that we don’t see often enough and spent time together, we’ll do breakfast a movie and then a long diner.
I hope you all have fun weekend!
What lovely blue eyes you have, Penny!
Here’s Lily in my neighbor’s yard taking a break from her supervisory duties and making sure that there were no nefarious creatures in the hydrangeas! (large version here)
Penny is, indeed a beauteous cat! And so is Lily among the hydrangeas – blue is good on her!
Going to get my oil changed in a little bit. Need to do some chores when I get home.
I was looking at the calendar for the County Fair coming up next week, and one of the acts is Mutts Gone Nuts!
Yay! You posted it. She’s my baby! Meanwhile, I’m off to make some cookies for the state fair. Lord knows she won’t help…
Penny is gorgeous! And so proper. I won’t step out of line, I promise!
Is Penny related to Charlene Butterbean of the IBKC fame, Muppet2171?
Dunno…haven’t met the other side of the family. ?
They could be twins, separated at birth ? Both are absolutely stunning beauties!
Gorgeous baby!
Wow! Gorgeous kitty! I’m feeling judged and found wanting.?
After an exhausting week, I want to take it easy this weekend (but I can’t!). Big writing workshop for work on Monday, and since I’m one of the planners, I can’t slack off. It’s also press week next week for my Knitting Traditions magazine, and we’re behind. I’m stressing in anticipation.
Fortunately, the cats can give me love all weekend. I just won’t try to finish up any of my home improvement projects until all the work craziness calms down.
Relax and feel the blood pressure-lowering effects of kitty petting! Good luck Monday.
Best of luck with all that, DEBG – let us know who it goes.
Penny is a beauty! And so floofy!
Going with a friend on a day trip to the Mississippi River Museum and Aquatic Center and also to an art gallery and then out to eat before heading back home. Have a great weekend, everyone!
Love that museum, Amyliz! Hope you have/had fun!
The hover text says it all. And if she could be tapping her wee paw toe-toes she would!
Hello, fellow Cutetropolitans! I began my vacation on Thursday. In Cracow right now, tomorrow my hubbie and I are going to Bieszczady for two weeks. IMHO, the most beautiful region of Poland. I’m so excited that nothing, even the hellish temperatures we are having now, cannot spoil my happiness!
What about Bieszczady is so beautiful? I don’t know anything about Poland except where it is on a map.
It’s a mountain range that’s part of the Carpathians; the Eastern Front of WWI went through the region. That’s all I knew until I looked at google images just now; it’s lovely!
What Jan said 🙂 WWII and the aftermath were also increadibly turbulent in Bieszczady. The Ukrainian desperately wanted to carve their independent state of this territory. After 1945 there was regular civil war between Ukrainians and Poles there; Polish communist authorities expelled the entire local population (some were prosecuted, some forced to settle down, disperced, in the north-west of Poland), all settlements apart from a few cities were literally anihilated. For more than two decades the region remained a restricted militarized zone and few people were allowed to settle down there. This gave Mother Nature time enough to reclaim Bieszczady. From mid-1960s, more and more people came there to stay, but these were special people, Bieszczady being our “Wild, Wild East”: daredevils of all sorts and poets seem to have been (and to be still ) especially attracted. Even now the region remains the least industrialized part of Poland. This is why the night sky in Bieszczady is like nowhere else in my country. And the mountains! They are not particularily high – just high enough for me to be able to climb them, but the views from the tops – beautiful beyond words (especially in a language that’s not my vernacular). The very top of my list: Bukowe Berdo. When I’m walking along the top of Bukowe Berdo range, I can feel the Divine right around me – and within me. No pictures give justice to Bukowe Berdo, but please, do Google it 🙂
Oh yes, that is a beautiful place! I did a Flickr search as well, it gives a more complete idea. Love the gentian flowers!
Thanks for doing that, Jan – it is gorgeous country! It’s so good to know that there are unspoiled places – sometimes it seems people are everywhere and it’s good when they’re not. Nothing against people, per se – perhaps SOME people, but that’s my issue.
Jerzowa, have a fantastic time.
I googled and flickred. Very beautiful. I hope you have good weather. It looks so peaceful.
Thanks, Jan and Dubravka!?
What lovely country! I can see why it’s your favorite.
What a spectacular area! I love the mountains. Every summer (from the year I was 7 until I graduated from college) we visited my grandma in the Georgia (U.S.) mountains, and traveled through the Appalachian mountain chain to get there. I get very nostalgic for mountains during the summer. *sigh*
Very pretty area! I love mountains. I live in the mountains, and it’s awesome. Especially since I will be on the top of the biggest local ski mountain for the eclipse next month!
What a beautiful cat! I would like to gently snorgle her….with Her Majesty’s permission of course.
Not much planned for today except hitting up the farmers market and desperately cleaning my disaster of a house to get ready for my parents visiting next week. Maybe I’ll do some painting. I’ll definitely do some reading. There are some cool antiquarian book catalogs I have to hunker down with.
Has anyone read “Bad Ass Librarians of Timbuktu”?
My autobiography! I wrote it myself. Not sure how it concludes yet.
😀
? Hee hee!
OMG. I haven’t heard of that one but just looked it up. Excuse me while I go add it to my never-ending TBR pile. 🙂
I might just go out on a limb and get it too then or put it on my list. Just thought if anyone read it and thought it was a big poo then I wouldn’t!
There was also recently a series of Kickstarters to first buy books and then provide shelving materials for the fine arts library at the University of Baghdad, that was looted and burned during the war. They’ve got a small but growing library now, thanks to this one man’s efforts! So yes, one person can make a huge difference. And that book has just gone onto my to-be-read list, too!
I just saw that title when I was in CA – probably an ad in the paper. Sounds intriguing!
Ah, Puddleglum, it’s always good to have a carrot to dangle to help one get things done. And parents coming is one good carrot. Best of luck with the upcoming visit and hopefully they’ll just be too happy to see you and so miss any slight deviation from perfect housekeeping.
I’m not going to do anything today. It’s too darned hot. Yesterday was a record breaking 110 degrees (beating a town record of 108 from 1938). People are gonna be messaging me “Can you give me a ride? it’s too hot to walk/ I don’t wanna wait for the bus/I have to go to mom’s house so she can babysit my kids.” I intend to ignore them all. The one thing I will do today is check on my daughter’s cats, she is out of town for the weekend, and it’s my job to make sure they have food, water, and a clean litter box, plus lots of pets and extra treats, because that’s what a grandma does. Halfway to their destination, my daughter sent me a picture of my 2 yr old grandson sitting in his car seat covered in vomit, poor baby got sick, and they had to stop and clean him up. I hope the other three manage to not get sick while they are at their father’s family reunion.
Hi everyone. I’m in low-energy mode. Just managed to get dressed. I’m staring at some household clutter that I should be dealing with but, alas, that requires an energy output I’m not capable of achieving right now. Rainy here – if it was a nicer day, I might have gone for a float in my sister’s pool. Or pruned some overgrown shrubs. Alas, alas, alas. Oh, and I see that I’ve used up all my data this month – it’s been that kind of month. There’s no food in the house so I do, eventually, have to move. Unless someone magically appears with sustinence. I need a house elf.
Come on Birdcage, I know you can do it– go buy some groceries tomorrow. I dunno, something simple like eggs and toast. Just move a bit, no extreme punish yourself diets or chores, just move a bit.
I know how those low-energy days go. It helps me to think that I am recharging my batteries… and also to remember that if plants bloomed All.The.Time they wouldn’t be very healthy. so think of this as your “dormant” day? Be kind to yourself!
Feel better, Birdcage! I have a picture you might like but I have to go find it. Toodles for now!
I asked Mike to post it because I don’t know how to reduce the file – I hope you see it soon, it’s pretty adorable. Maybe you’ve seen it before but it never hurts to see cuteness many time over.
I will look out for the file and post it as soon as I can.
Hi, all. I took a complete vacation from the computer and all related devices where the internet was accessible last weekend; I just needed it, after the crazy couple of work weeks I’d had. I hope nothing too terrible happened to anybody!
Poor little Sebastian, our cocker spaniel, turned out to have an abscess in his behind and had to have surgery to clean it out. And the vet, who’s a new young vet in that office, was overly-concerned about him messing with her lovely work so put him in a Cone of Shame that was sized for a St. Bernard! it was *completely* ridiculous. My husband took him back and demanded a smaller one — so instead they gave us a soft cone, at least, but again sized for a St. Bernard! My husband just doesn’t raise enough hell sometimes. I guess I have more experience, having raised two kids, one with a chronic medical issue. I can raise some serious hell!
So anyway, at least he’s healing very nicely; he hasn’t even made a move towards his surgical site since we brought him home. So a few more days and we can take the cone off. At least he tolerates the soft one *much* better than he did the hard one. But after this? I’m getting one that’s properly sized for him for the next time he needs one — which I’m sure he will; with his poor background (he came from a puppy mill; fortunately he was rescued at about a year old) he’s probably going to have a lot of medical issues. At least we now have a soft cone big enough for Melody should she ever need one!
Otherwise, things have been quiet. It’s been VERY rainy the last couple of days, and today it’s just nonstop, so other than Melody going on a therapy visit to the VA hospital later, we’re doing as little outside as possible.
Everybody have a good week!
Poor Sebastian! The (quite literal) pain in the ass AND the too-big-for-him cone of shame! Laura, please, give Sebastian a delicate smooch on the forehead from me.
Can you modify the cone? Fold it back or cut it to size?
We could, but he doesn’t seem to have any objection at all to the too-big soft cone. If he’d been stuck with the hard cone, you bet I would have — my husband stopped me as my hand reached for the scissors! But the soft one we don’t want to cut because it’ll fit Melody in the future, and it’s only for a few more days. And since he doesn’t do anything to worry us about messing with surgical site, we can take it off him to eat and for walks.
Thanks for the good wishes for him. He seems to be healing very nicely; after a couple of days, when he had a bit of tummy upset (left over from the anesthesia, I think), he’s been his usual happy self. But yes, a literal pain in the ass couldn’t have felt good! I’m glad we got him looked at as quickly as we did, poor baby!
So I got my oil changed, read for an hour while I waited, then went up the road to Starbucks (not the one I usually go to at the bookstore, which is generally more noisy and crowded), got their new strawberry green tea infusion thingy which I wanted to try and for which I get 25 bonus stars on my Starbucks card this weekend, sat by the window and finished my book. Then I swung by the library, returned the book, checked out Millennium and Year of Wonders, previously mentioned in these pages, stopped at the grocery store and just got home.
It’s hot out…Anyone up for a beer?
_____________
Oh, and since I know we all love those goofy random holidays…
Which Weird National Day Falls On Your Birthday?
Mine is October 1, National Change A Lightbulb Day
December 18, answer the phone like Buddy the elf day. I was born many, many years before Buddy the elf.
July 12, National Etch a Sketch Day. With my talents, I think I’ll pass ?
Oh man those beers ARE good beers! ?
I’ll take your word for it. 😉
On a side note, I changed a light bulb the other day. Well, I took the old one out last week but I just found the replacement bulb the other day (I knew I had one somewhere because I bought 2 when the other lamp burned out a few weeks ago).
Mine was Nat’l Greasy Food Day. YUCK! (Oct. 25)
Let me know what you think of Year Of Wonders, please. I’ll look for Millennium. ?
January 11: National Step In A Puddle And Splash Your Friends Day.
I like that one!
I’ll probably still read my older library books first, though.
I picked up The Language of Food today at the library. I am a little worried I will be food day dreaming while I read it though…
Haha! It was interesting.
The others I have are The Dorito Effect and Savage Harvest.
February 28, National Chocolate Soufflé Day!
Duckie, I think you got the best holiday! 😀
July 13th, National French Fries Day!
My birthday is already a kind of holiday (the eve of one anyway), but it’s also National Champagne Day! Which makes perfect sense, other than I don’t drink…
I got National Nachos Day. I don’t even like nachos!
No fair! Everyone else has yummy food days and I get chores! 🙁
Hey, I got crappy food day, don’t feel too bad.
March 25, National Waffle Day!
September 27th, National chocolate milk day! 🙂
Allein! I’ve never had my oil changed – does it hurt? Do they anesthetize you????
Yeah, they stick you in an overly-air conditioned waiting room until you freeze.
Ouch – I have to do that tomorrow – any prep????
Grab a sweater and a hot chocolate from Starbucks on the way.
?Good advice.
January 18th – National Thesaurus Day! Actually quite apt.
January 3rd…National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day!
June 21…National Selfie Day! ?
National Complement Your Mirror Day. Huh. It’s going to be hard to switch from my daily mirror abuse ritual. Damn thing makes me look like I get a new wrinkle everyday.
I got Singles Awareness Day. Appropriate but depressing!!
Well, don’t forget Kraft Cheese Singles!
Lol! Single Malt Whiskey, too.
Ok cool, the cheese singles brought a big smile! Thank you!!
I also have a sick or (would be nice) stubborn kitty. Will not eat. Maybe a very tempting pea sized bite or two. Been to vet twice, talked to him almost every day, going on week & a half. He is baffled. Thought a bug of some kind, that’s not it. She is very very private about eating/drinking, will not if anyone is watching, has always been like that but makes hand/spoon feeding virtually impossible. She is, like her mommy here, “old” but not OLDold. Drinks & litter puddles just fine. Sigh.
Nancy, I hope your kitty gets her appetite soon. Cats! Sigh.
Thanks for your thoughts. She’s a special girl. Her name is Honey.
Yes I hope so too. But at least she’s drinking water. That helps a lot. Did someone on this site once recommend baby food? Like chicken or beef?
We gave Pablo baby food chicken or beef when he was sick. He didn’t have the energy to chew his usual dry food but he just lapped the baby food up.
Is it possible her mouth or teeth are hurting her?
One of my cats lived the last couple of years of her life on Gerber’s baby food lamb. I don’t think they make it anymore. Years later with another sick cat, I thought to get it and it wasn’t being sold anymore, but any meat baby food, if you can find it, goes down gangbusters with sick cats, I’ve found.
Vet checked mouth/teeth etc. twice. We tried the baby food etc, Miss Particular was not interested. Apparently she only wants what mommy is eating so (I kid you not) the things she actually has eaten (pea sized bites) have been hot dog, pizza & sloppy joe. And maybe a piece of chicken nugget. She just won’t eat more than a teensy bite or two.
Have you done blood work? Checked for kidney status etc.?
When my friend’s cat was ill and wouldn’t eat, she’d put a bit of baby food on his nose and he would reflexively lick it off. Time consuming, but… Have you tried cheese singles–tear off little pieces? Warming whatever food sometimes makes it more appetizing. There’s also a product called Catsip that is milk for cats. My friend had some success with that. (My friend’s cat had liver and kidney problems and was on medication.)
If your vet already did blood work, skip this comment.?
Hepatic lipidosis happens when cats aren’t getting enough nutrition and the body sends extra fat to the liver. However cats can’t metabolize fat that way and eventually the liver shuts down. It is common in middle-age on up, especially with overweight cats. It can only be diagnosed by blood work. Very treatable if diagnosed early. According to all I read, a week and a half is a long time for a cat to have such a reduced calorie intake. Wishing you luck with your kitty!
We had a cat when I was growing up who, when the vet told my mom to switch her food to some special kind, went on a food strike and wouldn’t eat a single bit for three weeks. My mom finally sprinkled some of her old food on top of her new and then she started eating again. Cats can be very, VERY stubborn.
And my Emily, a few years ago when we couldn’t find her favorite kind of Fancy Feast (we called it “Sardines In Snot” — I think its official name was “Seafood Medley,’ but it looked like, well, sardines in snot!), stopped eating for a couple weeks till we were able to find something else she’d eat by buying one can of every kind of cat food we could find and trying a different one each night. My husband was ready to wring her neck, having never lived with a cat till he met me! But she finally decided to eat something else and the next time we offered her Sardines In Snot, she refused THAT one! Go figure. Cats!
So hang in there. It could just be a “I suddenly DO NOT LIKE my food” issue, too, if it’s not medical. But I know you’ll get to the bottom of it. And as long as she’s drinking and her kidneys are working okay, you’ve got time to figure it out.
Probably, but I would try the baby food chicken. I’ve known a couple of cats that would have done anything for it! And short-term it certainly won’t hurt.
Silly kitty. You need to quit making your human worry!
I hope things improve soon – it’s heartbreaking to see your fur baby suffer.
This may be really silly, but I syringe feed my rabbits when they’re anorexic – any chance of that? I know cats are a different story when it comes to doing that sort of thing, but if her energy is low it may be more possible.
I hope that Honey eats again, soon! I know how worried we get about our furry family members.
May 19,I end up with National PIzza Party Day!
A thunderstorm is rolling in. We got one the other day but it was kinda disappointing.
I love a good thunderstorm, as long as they are not destructive. We had a doozy of one last night. Actually, we were under a tornado warning (the third one in the past week or so) but fortunately, things remained relatively calm.
It didn’t turn out to be much. It rained for a little while and there was some rumbling thunder and I only saw a couple flashes of lightning.
We got torrents of rain last night but only for a short while – at least I didn’t have to water. My hubby has been watering all week while I was away – he needs some remedial work in that regard, but I give him high marks for his willingness to try. there wasn’t enough thunder and lightening for my taste, but it was nice to witness and it helped cool things off a bit. This current weather in the Philly area is what I call “Dog’s Mouth Weather” – you feel like you’re walking into the mouth of a very big dog.
I’m with you, Amy- thunderstorms are Nature’s fireworks! As long as they are not destructive or cause fires, which is a problem here. Fortunately/unfortunately, we don’t get very many of either kind.
We had another record breaker today, 111 degrees. We got a little rain this evening, but not much. Some thunder and lightning, though, and maybe we’ll get more rain overnight.
Busy weekend for me.
Yesterday I drove 4 hours to help a friend move, spent 5 hours doing that, and then drove home (another 4 hours).
Today is a much sadder occasion; the father of one of my son’s friends passed away, and his memorial service is today. That’s going to be hard on everyone. It’s the first service my son has had to attend, my husband and I have lost a friend, and the family is going through so much, having lost their husband/dad. To brain cancer. which is now everywhere in the news (thoughts and prayers to J. McCain- Regardless of politics, nobody deserves this).
I’m so sorry, MAIA – it’s always so hard to lose someone but losing them to brain cancer seems especially tough – couldn’t agree more with your sentiments re McCain et al. And what a good friend to drive so far to help a friend – you are a mensch first class.
Well, I didn’t get round to visiting the battlefield at Stamford Bridge last Sunday and I had another history-related disappointment today. This morning, whilst updating my family tree on ancestry.co.uk, I thought I’d discovered a link with Sir Titus Salt, a 19th mill owner and builder of the village of Saltaire. I spent HOURS copying what I thought was relevant information, only to discover that the William Atkinson who married Titus Salt’s sister Sarah wasn’t my 5 x great-uncle after all. Damnation! Still, look on the bright side – at least I don’t need to spend money on the train fare to Saltaire, which I was planning to do.
Just came across this. Lots of cuteness and funny. (A little not-safe-for-work.)
This Twitter Account Is Renaming Everyday Objects And They’re More Accurate Than The Real Ones
I love this!
Murray C. asked me to post this so that Birdcage could see it. I remember using this picture at Cute Overload.
I miss 260Okley.
“My watermeloncholy baby”
Thanks, Mike. I think this is one of the more adorable images I’ve ever seen. And the “matchinks” is quite remarkable – I hope it makes Birdcage smile.
Hey Murray C., clearly we all missed you but Emsthemonster was particularly asking, enquiring where you were while you were away. She had a few awful experiences recently (I cannot recall exactly where the thread originated, sorry) so keep an eye out for her when she returns; she will be very happy to read from you. 🙂
So I was just flipping channels and found, on CBS, the Incredible Dog Challenge Tour!
https://www.proplan.com/dogs/incredible-dog-challenge
Thanks, I just flipped it on.
My face is already in a permanent grin! It really makes me laugh when they go through the tube – the peristalsis effect..
My husband spotted it in the guide so we were able to watch the last half of it. How did you like the surfing dogs? Especially the bulldog — doing 360s out on a surfboard while riding a wave! That is a dog who’s having WAY too much fun! 😀
Darn, I missed the bulldog but I did see some of the surfing (I believe I was doing some surfing of my own) I told my husband that what made all this so special as a sporting event was that everyone was having such a great time. I said that they were trials and he asked who was judging them, a panel of their “pee-ers”? as he lifted his leg. My husband is a bit of a wag – ha, ha, didn’t see that one coming!
That was a slick move!
I saw the beginning with the agility, then I went to take a shower when they were starting frisbee tricks, and they were on surfing when I came back. It was on again at 5:00 on a different channel (Philly ABC affiliate, I think).