Happy weekend! Here’s a return visit from reader Muppet2171 and her cat. “I call this his ‘what’s-a-security-deposit?’ pose,” she says.
Weekend Open Thread
58 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread”
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Happy weekend! Here’s a return visit from reader Muppet2171 and her cat. “I call this his ‘what’s-a-security-deposit?’ pose,” she says.
Comments are closed.
Yes, “adult” responsibility. No mention of “feline” responsibility!
*Performs acrobatic routine on Venetian blind*
I’ve just passed the halfway mark in researching my third book of extracts from the theatrical paper “The Era”. A little snippet:
“THERE is a certain class of idiots that infests stage doors to worry actresses with silly attentions. To this class must belong the individual who has been recently haunting the Crystal Palace, and who the other day left at the stage door of the Theatre the following original epistle for a certain pretty and clever actress, who is engaged in the Pantomime. Here is the precious document: – “Norwood. – Please do not be cross at my taking the liberty of writing to you, dear Miss ——. I have been wanting to for ever so long, but could never make up my mind. You are so awfully lovely, and I have fallen in love with you. Donʼt laugh, please. It is quite true, and very silly of me, I know. We go to the Pantomime nearly every day, but scarcely ever look at any one but you. If you are not cross at my writing this, will you please throw two carrots at your mother (you know who I mean) in the scene where you find yourself at home? Do please. Ever yours, SILLY. P.S. – You have seen me before with my sister, near the stage door.”
29/1/1881”
I don’t have a title yet but “Please Throw Two Carrots at Your Mother” will be hard to beat.
2-Karat Proposal?
Ooo, good one, N. Fritz! One presumes that she normally throws only one? As a friend of mine often has said “Stick with me and you’ll be wearing carrots as big as diamonds”.
Oh that’s good!
I have finished the wonderful Fairies in Cabs and plan to recommend it to others in my next newsletter (for my business, which is in the entertainment industry). Brava, Alice Shortcake!
“Please Throw Two Carrots at Your Mother” is indeed hard to beat.
Thank ‘ee kindly!
Two Carrots at Your Mother also makes a great band name.
I love the title “please throw two carrots at your mother” !
“Throw Mama from the Stage Two Carrots.”
Perfect. I assume you’re referencing “Throw Mama From the Train a Kiss, a Kiss”?
That and of course the Danny DeVito/Billy Crystal movie.
Which in its turn referenced the song, I am surmising.
You have to use Please Throw Two Carrots at Your Mother. That’s just brilliant!
Just incidentally, I didn’t actually get much of my deposit back from that apartment (not that it was that high to begin with). I have since lectured the cats on adult responsibilities…they just stared blankly at me for a minute and then went back to licking themselves.
So innocent. HA! That looks says just wait til your back is turned and let’s see what mischief I can get into. But such a beautiful Siamese with blue eyes, love Siamese kitties.
One time when I was living in FL, me and hubby went over to the Humane Society for some reason and I decided I wanted to take a look at the kitties real quick. So leaving my purse in the car with my saner half, I went in. Thank god I didn’t have any money on me or else I would have walked out with 2 kittens – a pair of lilac point Siamese. A brother and sister, they were just gorgeous and about 3-4 months old so they were at that perfect stage of fluffiness and cuteness.
Love the story from your new book, that’s too funny “throw two carrots at your mother”.
Lucky me, I got a three day weekend and didn’t realize it until late yesterday afternoon. I thought it was one of the holidays that my university tacks on at the end of the year so there’s a whole week off between Christmas and New Year. So whoo hoo!!!! Errands this morning, hockey this evening, a visit to our world famous San Diego Safari Park tomorrow with friends and their 9 year old twins, then hitting thrift stores on Monday.
Happy weekend everyone and stay warm my friends!
I’ve started an online French course, with a free month’s worth of lessons. I’ve completed the second lesson, having done a bit better than I did on the first. So far I feel like this will be more helpful with reading and writing than conversing, but perhaps they have a way to work on conversation as well. I’ll re-evaluate this project once I’ve completed my free month. They must be pretty confident in their method to make the offer, with no obligation to buy; clearly it works for some people, or why would they bother?
One of my favorite tricks for brushing up my French: read the French translation of a book I know really well in English. It worked like a charm when I visited Paris years ago and had forgotten what little French I could speak.
I picked up Harry Potter and learned that the French for “magic wand” was la baguette magique, or magic breadstick. That inspired numerous jokes along the lines of “Is that la baguette magique in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
See, I tell my students that they can improve their English by doing exactly that. O.K., so most of them don’t read books in German, so I tell them to watch TV shows or movies that they’ve seen several times in German. They know the dialogue, they know the plot, it won’t kill them to watch half an hour in English. The students who do things in English have much better English skills than the students who don’t. But those students don’t want to improve their English. They would rather try for a D and risk getting an F instead of seeing the honest value of learning English for business and leisure. *end of rant*
Terrific advice, DebG! Good luck with the French course, Ricky’s Mom!
What good ideas these are – I love French but only had high school level. And conversation wasn’t a main thrust – I had a better accent than my teacher. I’ve forgotten so much but the idea of reading a book you already know is terrific.
Magic breadstick! Hee, hee.
We had 2 days of rain and mild weather after a week of record cold temperature and today we’re getting a snow storm that will dump 25cm/10 inches of new snow, did I mention lately that I dislike winter? .
Also to add insult to injury or more accurately, injury to insult I got up with a migraine. I don’t get them as often as I used to when I was younger (there is an up-side to menopause!!) this one is what is called a “boomerang migraine” cause by taking anti-inflammatory for too many days in a row because the arthritis in my fingers was acting up. It’s a damned if you do and damned if you don’t kind of thing, you’re going to end up hitting somehow.
Alice Shortcake: “Please Throw Two Carrots at Your Mother” is the perfect title!
P.S. Migraine makes my dyslexia worst, took me almost 20 minutes to write this post, thank you to whoever invented spellcheck and thank you Mike for the editing button!! LOL!!
May your migraine be mild and short, Gigi. Take care.
I am chipping away at my lengthy to-do list this weekend. Today has been a good day so far… lots of progress. I hope I can keep up the momentum tonight and tomorrow.
This coming week is full of prom preparations. Prom (or properly Senior Ball) is Saturday the 20th. I’m getting my lashes done, plus mani/pedi. This year the ball provides a nice lead-up to my birthday on the 22nd!
Oh, and I’ve signed up for a pool tournament (8-ball) with my students! Only female and only faculty member. Oughta be a riot!
Happy Weekend, Cutetropolitans all!
I’m coming off a very busy week and gearing up for a really exciting one. Things were so busy, I almost had to wait for Thursday to enjoy Wombat Wednesday! Ursula’s vet visit was only the beginning. My former employers hired me to edit Knitting Traditions 2018 on a freelance basis, and, since we lost a month, everything had to be finished by this week.
My new job begins on Monday. To quiet the butterflies in my tummy, I’ll spend the weekend sewing a new purse and cooking ahead. After 6 weeks without a set schedule, I’m looking forward to new routines, even if they include driving 100 miles each day.
Ursula continues to improve. She’s quite feisty when it’s medication time. Thank goodness her antibiotics finish on Monday. And thank you all for your concern and support!
P.S. handsome kitty is handsome! Why should a kitty have to adult?
Good luck with your new job, and I am so glad about Ursula’s continued improvement!
100 miles is a hefty commute, DebG! I hope it’s easy and not bumper to bumper traffic on Friday afternoons! I drive 40 miles a day and while it’s doable, I spend one night a week in the village where I teach so I don’t have to drive home after my night class, especially in winter. Enjoy the thrill of the new job!!
I hope that’s 100 miles round trip, at least?
One hundred miles round trip, and not at rush hour. I’ll be fine.
There is only one first day. Breathe.
That kitty is very pretty and poised.
Quiet weekend for me…. A few papers to grade, lunch with a dear friend from out of town, lots of sleep to avoid catching the flu. It’s mild enough here in the Pacific Northwest that I have seen two (!) rhododendrons in bloom. They are the early-bloomers anyway, but it is still about 6 weeks early. I don’t know if that really means an early spring, or if these will get caught by a cold snap next month.
I’m thinking of you in the colder areas, and hope that you are warm and safe!
Happy weekend! I have a story about Ani the rabbit and Shorty the cat. During a recent cold snap, I kept Shorty indoors at night while a neighbor kept other neighborhood cats in her home.
This worked fairly well. Wanting to go out, Shorty would cry and complain at the door, but would eventually give up and roam around the house until finally going to sleep.
Ani watched him with great interest, since for the whole year she’s been with me she was afraid to wander off the rugs and onto the hardwood floor, which she found too slippery.
But after a few days watching Shorty walk wherever he liked, Ani has decided to try it as well, and now she is walking under tables, behind the potted plant, crawling inside my reclining chair, and staking out a new resting spot on the shelf under the TV.
So now I’m in the process of covering electrical wires I never thought I’d have to, and keeping the door to her room closed when I’m away. But despite that I’m very impressed with her.
What a brave bun! I know some humans not as adventurous once they are leery of something.
Kitty above is gorgeous!
Our dog Joey has the opposite of shying away from something he has had bad experience with in regards the outside.
He has good eyesight and can see the white stuff with the layer of ice underneath out the window. He continues to want to go out, but doesn’t last long before the hurty feet walk commences.
We were given a nice coat from a friend that had one for his boxer and it fits Joey nicely and he will wear it, but the flippy feet walk commences if I try to put anything on his feet.
I can watch the thought process. “Oh! Outside! I want to go!” “Ow! My feet hurt! I don’t understand?!?”
Then I have to call him in.
Similar to when he was on our stone patio in the blazing heat and baked sunshine. He looked at me with confusion in his eyes and started lifting opposite feet, then switching to the other feet. I quickly told him to get off the stones and into the grassy shade.
Sometimes he is very smart, other times I think he is a few fries short of a happy meal.
It’s interesting that seeing you walk on the slippery parts did not inspire her to try it. Why is Shorty’s experience persuasive and yours is not, I wonder?
Wow, that’s a darn good question. Whenever Ani and any of the neighborhood cats are outside, Ani wants to walk up to them and check them out, and she will often follow them around. So I think the cats intrigue and influence her in ways that I don’t.
I totally bet that’s it – when she sees a human walking around safely, she doesn’t make the connection, but cats and rabbits are configured a lot more alike – size, shape, fur, quadruped – and she says “Hmm, I bet I could do that.” Ani’s a scientist!
(Hmm, meant to post that under Duckie’s comment. Haven’t had coffee yet…)
Maybe ’cause Mike only has two feet, and Shorty has four, like Ani?
That’s really cool – what a clever girl! Her coat looks gorgeous, by the way – sort of a pewter color, at least on my screen.
Yeah, that’s about the color. She also has a small patch of brown fur on her neck just behind her ears, but her coloring is mostly grey.
She also has a fascinating pattern, a squiggly dark line across her fur that moves over time. Her most recent one started as a small dark spot on her shoulder, and weeks later it’s a ripply line across her hindquarters. (The rabbit in Murray’s photo has the same sort of pattern.)
That happens all the time – it seems to be a shedding pattern – sometimes Clemmie looks like Jemima Puddleduck.
Rabbit learning through observing cat. Way to go Ani.
What a clever girl! In this photo she reminds me so much of a rabbit I had – Dominique.
Fantastically gorgeous black bunn.
Ani looks so lovely, Mike! And very comfortable, too.
And your kitty is beautiful, Muppet! I am particularly fond of Siamese; I grew up with them, and had some myself later on. They are such characters!
And I agree with everyone else — Throw Twi Carrots At Your Mother is a wonderful title!
We had a quiet week. My big excitement was getting my teeth cleaned. Oh boy, such a thrill…oh, and we got a new kind of hurricane window protection: Kevlar fabric sheets! You just screw them on the house before a storm. They let light through, unlike traditional shutters — my girlfriend in Miami complains that her house is dark as a cave with the shutters down. So this should be a gr es at alternative.
Tomorrow is the anniversary of the dog therapy group, so we’ll see a ton of lovely dogs. Oh, and their people. 🙂 Nobody remembers the humans’ names; they’re all “Melody’s person” and such. Who’s important?
Have a great time at the new job, Deb!1
Such pretty critters in the comments! Mike, I’m so proud of Ani for trying the slippery floors–I get nervous of them too!
And thanks for all the good wishes, people.
Happy Saturday. Lots of stuff to do. So of course I just got up feeling like crap. ?
And my mom just informed me that her sister is in the hospital again. She was in a rehab and was doing well. Said she seemed fine yesterday, and now she’s dehydrated with a high fever and low blood pressure. 🙁
Her brother was in the hospital and was moved to a rehab a few days ago, too.
Oh man, Allein, when it rains, it pours. Do take care of yourself first. Be there for your Mom but let the doctors worry about their patients. We’ll be thinking good thoughts!
Yeah, and the two deaths in the family we had last year were on that uncle’s side (his older son, in May, and his younger son’s ex-wife, just over a month ago.) I was hoping 2018 would lay off, but I guess not.
I think when you’re having losses like this you don’t even realize the impact. You normalize it.
At least they’re in their 80s. My aunt has been sick and in pain for years. It won’t be a surprise when they go.
My cousin was 55 and his brother’s ex was 50. They were unexpected, to say the least.
On a lighter note, I just saw this on facebook:
Allein – too much! N. Fritz said it best!
I have finally changed how I eat. A Paleo/Mediterranean combo.
I made the changes after I discovered I was having autoimmune reaction to eating frozen corn for two years. Joint, muscle pain. Hands swelling. Serious fatigue. I discovered the reaction when I ran out of corn for a week. I could bend my fingers in the morning.
Hmm. Did a bit of googling. Turns out it is not an allergy per se. More inflammatory. Some people thought they had MS. I am having continuing improvement. Much less pain and stiffness. Amazing.
So: No dairy except butter. No beans, rice or potatoes. Minimal whole wheat pasta. Low salt. Only evoo. Low fat meats mostly ground. Nothing processed except high fiber cookies. No corn. Only oats or barley. Stopped craving takeout and ice-cream. Making homemade chicken soup and nondairy tomato soup. Perfected leek soup. Trying beef, barley and mushroom soon.
Ps. Gorgeous cat. Gorgeous bunns.
Faye, that diet doesn’t sound half bad! Good stuff and it doesn’t seem too expensive or time intensive. Isn’t it interesting how everyone needs a little something different to be healthy, yet we refuse to listen to our bodies? You did good by listening to yours!
Easy peasy. Mostly stovetop cooking. And for the soups, once everything is in the pot, it’s mostly waiting. I freeze half the soups so good hot soup whenever I want. ?
I had a busy week. son-in-law out of town, grandkids needed rides to school. Their daily schedule: Grandson goes to school at 7:45, granddaughter goes at noon, they both get picked up at 3. They live as far south in town as you can get (about 3 miles from me), but their school is 2 blocks away from my house, so a lot of driving back and forth. It snowed 3 inches but it rained first, so yesterday was horrible, the roads were snow packed with ice underneath.
This weekend I am doing nothing. It’s cold, snowy, and icy outside. Tomorrow is supposed to be in the 40s, so it will melt just in time for the colder temps and snow we are expecting Monday. I knew January would be really cold, since Nov. and Dec. were pretty warm for Kansas.
N. Fritz – I saw this image and it reminded me of your Christmas card –
the woman’s name is Elizabeth Colborne. Obviously quite a different subject but she handles the colors similarly to how you did. I’m on a Facebook Group called Golden Age of Illustration and people post the most amazing things.
Awesome MurrayC! Thanks for thinking of me! I am not on FB anymore because it’s too much of a temptation for me to spend hours and hours online (now I just spend hours 🙂 But I love art and follow Urban Sketchers, This is Colossal, and Bored Panda on Twitter.
Good eye Murray. Very similar.