Gentle readers, it falls to me as your humble host to inform you of a terrible tragedy, so heartbreaking that I must forgo the usual pleasantries to announce that — a cat has been offended. For the unpleasant details, here is a firsthand account from reader DebG:
Mike, a few weeks ago, when I had to strip the bed for laundry, I did a bad thing. Beano (full name Mrs Arabella Figg, and bonus points to anybody who gets the reference) did not want to move from her favorite spot. Clearly I broke her heart. She couldn’t believe I would do this. Maybe some TLC on Cutetropolis would heal her pain.
Oh DebG – how could you! She is looking at you as though you are Mundungus Fletcher! 😉 If bunnies have the look of disapproval, cats certainly have the mortal offense look down pat.
Aw Mrs. Figg you are gorgeous! Mummy means well, forgive her.
Grey day in Philly today, lots of little things to do. I started reading The Water Dancer by Ta-Nahisi Coats and since I have 16lbs of house panther currently lounging on my legs, I think I’ll just stay put for a while and read some more.
Ooh, The Water Dancer is such a good book – I hope you enjoy it! It was a slow starter for me at first; it took about 100 pages for it to grab my heart and not let go. After I finished it I spent 30 minutes trying not to cry. A totally memorable, gorgeous read! 🙂
I am enjoying it! It took three starts for me, ut I finally started it early enough in the day that I could read a good 40 pages. 😉 And yes, beautiful writing.
Perhaps some cat treats or a new toy might help to heal the pain?
A squib!
Not much going on. Usually I’d do some errands and stuff but not this weekend, obvs. I hope to get my “office” cleaned up so I can use my desk to work next week. It’s the busy week and I don’t know what’s going on with my one coworker as far as working at home or going to the office, so I may need to do some of his reports, as well.
For your Caturday pleasure, I give you this musical interlude with Anthony Hopkins and Niblo.
(Also someone replied with another video, which I think we’ve seen before, but is lovely.)
Hope everyone is staying well.
Oops! Here’s the other video:
That is really beautiful
And really hilarious! When I was writing my dissertation, I had a cat who liked to sit on my lap, so I had to type with hands extended. I feel for these men.
Fortunately, knitting with cats around is not so hard–they usually curl up next to me and play with the yarn. Sometimes Sevi will try to get on my lap, but he doesn’t mind getting relocated next to me.
What a love-sponge!
I bought that t-shirt (The Catfather) for my husband for Christmas, 😀
Oh the horror! Tuna and treats and a favorite toy must be offered immediately if you want to avoid any future unpleasantries. Especially in your shoes.
Cold (for SoCal, it’s only 45! And the heater is on!) but mostly clear right now. Laundry, cleaning and maybe a drive to nowhere today. Tomorrow need to get a few essential items plus drop off some chairs to be painted at a friend’s house. Probably bring over lunch and visit with another human being. Stay healthy and safe everyone.
My God, haven’t we all suffered enough?! Now we have this devastating news to contend with – not sure I can handle it. 🤣🤪
It’s chilly and overcast in Yorkshire, which with any luck will discourage hordes of Covidiots from congregating on the moors or at the seaside. And I’m so excited that my groceries from Tesco, which I ordered eleven days ago, are due to be delivered this afternoon!
Meanwhile, I’m staving off boredom by resuming work on my cat dolls and learning to crochet. By the time the pandemic is under control I fully expect the house to be ankle-deep in granny squares.
Alice, when you’re ready for amigurumi crochet, you might enjoy this book: https://www.amazon.com/Dumpling-Cats-Crochet-Collect-Them/dp/0486813436/ref=sr_1_2?crid=ZC74FR59589F&keywords=crochet+cats&qid=1585408917&sprefix=crochet+cats%2Caps%2C227&sr=8-2
Ha! I was looking at that very book on Amazon only last night. Another book that appealed to me was a collection of patterns for crocheted baby shoes, which would fit my cat dolls and be more durable than the felt ones I’ve experimented with.
Completely OT, but does anyone else keep reading the Big Bad’s name as CORVID -19? Apologies to any crows out there…
Clearly Alice isn’t the only person misreading the virus name. Fantastic.
Gasp – oh DebG these are fabulous! Order placed. I wasn’t sold until I saw the little “outfits.” My niece will get a few of these…
Did you make the New Year’s Rat on Ravelry? Very clever pattern. https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/chinese-new-year-rat
Tara, I’m actually terrified of small rodents, so no. And my brother’s oldest child, who has been learning to crochet, got the book. I don’t much enjoy crochet compared to knitting—bought it on a whim because the cat dumplings are so cute. The iuvenis fratris is a cat-lover and will actually make stuff from it.
I was hoping that my poor disappointed darling would show up today! Beano is the sweetest, goodest cat in the whole wide world. She’s so sweet, it almost hurts!
It’s chilly again in Colorado and yesterday’s rain turned into snow overnight (just a little). I’m going to bake some German chocolate brownies with coconut icing–just to warm up the kitchen, of course! If I clean out and organize my yarn closet, I can start knitting some new projects. If I dye some handspun yarn, that’s another sweater ready for the needles, plus progress on my dyeing techniques.
If you want to see some recent handspun, here’s what I’ve been making: https://schachtspindle.com/combination-drafting-a-colorful-colorado-spring/
Stay safe, everyone.
Wow Deb I was fascinated by this process! It must be very soothing both mentally and physically by the hand movement and by the unfolding results.
Tx for this.
It IS soothing. And then I have beautiful yarn to play with!
What a sweet, big tabby <3
Oh DebG that expression! Only a cat is capable of an expression that is indignant, annoyed and pleading at the same time. 😁
And thanks Mike for this site. Listening to our prime minister’s address.
I know we can all use a break from the virus madness, but this guy is hilarious. The three (currently) most recent videos are parodies (“My Sharona,” “Vogue,” and Adele’s “Hello”). Watch with closed captions on ‘cuz there’s some funny stuff in there, too. “Hello” features him without pants and let’s just say I’m not complaining. 😉 The Vogue (Stay Home) video includes a cameo by his very adorable son. (They’re not particularly safe for work, just for the record; some language.)
https://www.youtube.com/user/ChrisMannMusic/videos
I need to blow this up and print it and post it in every room of my house…
Beano, I’m totally with you on the outrage.
So far, today sucks. I don’t think I have covid, but my throat is sore, I have a runny nose and a HUGE canker sore on my lip right where I rest a mug for drinking hot tea.
Bright spot: Duckie placed one foot on my finger and left it there during yesterday’s training session. And last night, when I sang her a lullabye while putting her to bed, she cocked her head at me and chirped.
Stay safe, everyone.
Aww! 😊
Hope you improve Duckie.
Aw, poor Beano and her hurt feelings. I hope she is able to emotionally recover!
Here in Montana it’s a nice bright sunny day but very windy. Makes it difficult to go outdoors and enjoy relatively mild temperatures. But tomorrow it’s supposed to be calmer, sunny again and almost 60 degrees so I will insist on sitting out in my back yard and enjoying it.
I haven’t gotten as much reading done as I would like in the last week or so, and no painting whatsoever; oddly enough I am managing to stay very busy and almost on a regular work schedule. I work in local government/law enforcement which is essential infrastructure work, so I’ve been going into the office after hours at night when no one’s there, and am able to do quite a bit of work from home. Next week IT is supposed to hit us all up with VPN-connected laptops, so I’ll be even busier! Also I have a second side job doing some part-time writing from home so that’s also helped. Feeling productive and on a sort of normal schedule is helping keep depression at bay, for the moment.
Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go get my morning coffee & Bailey’s, and get back to re-reading The Fellowship of the Ring. Take care everybody!
Peeps, my neighbor thinks she will have to say goodbye to her beloved doggy Willis today. If you could all send good thoughts, I think she’d appreciate it.
The hardest thing in the world to do… virtual hugs to your neighbor.
Poor, mistreated Beano! 😛 Some kitty treats are definitely in order!
Positive thoughts to your neighbor, DebG. It’s never easy…
Had a very strange and stressful week at work. They’re still changing policies on a daily basis, and most of the patients on our schedules ended up rescheduling or canceling outright since we’re officially on a stay-at-home order here. We’re all going to have to learn how to do video visits, although most of my patients’ problems don’t lend themselves to being solved via phone or video. I’ll be voluntarily taking a few days off and using my vacation time over the next couple of weeks so that I can avoid being re-assigned to another office and probably having to do something that’s not in my skill-set. I keep telling myself that at least I still have a job (for the time being) and am much better off than most folks these days. And the mother of one of my co-workers made a mask for me out of Seattle Sounders material- it’s much more comfortable than the paper-like mask (yes, mask. Singular.) that I was provided by our office, and I can take it home and wash it each night.
My mom called yesterday to tell me that my aunt is ill with either pneumonia or COVID-19, so we’re very worried about her as she’s not in the best of health anyway. If she has to go to the hospital, I’ll likely be bringing her cat here to live with us temporarily, which should be interesting since Princess Lahara detests other cats.
Anyway, all of this conspired to get me pretty depressed yesterday afternoon, but last night hubby and I were able to have a video meetup and game night with some of our friends in Vancouver whom we haven’t seen since the last soccer season ended in October, and that raised my spirits a lot. Now I’m ready to get some projects, and some relaxing, done today. Work has been changing so much and so quickly, I’m trying to keep a fairly regular schedule on the weekends. And we’ve started a new tradition of getting take-out from locally-owned restaurants on our usual going-out-to-dinner night, in order to help them stay in business during this time. I’m in a town of about 8,000, so there aren’t many restaurants here that aren’t chains, but the ones that are here have excellent food.
Oh dear… hope your aunt comes through ok.
Hang in there, SoccerSue, these are shitty days and God bless your Aunt.
Thanks- she went to the ER today and she was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection and given an inhaler to go along with the antibiotics she’s already taking. She found out later today her COVID-19 was negative, so that’s good. And she didn’t get admitted, so I don’t have to bring her cat here.
That’s good news, at least. Hope she’s feeling better soon.
Beano! I have such sweet memories of time with Beano. She truly is a sweet kitty, and that is an amazing shot of such total disgust for mommy disturbing her. Thanks for that shot, DebG!!
If you’re bored and like actual reality tv, I present you with Bella Humminbird, a livestream of a hummingbird nest someplace in California. One baby hummingbird already hatched while the other egg is still percolating. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9z8Dd1Y8yE. This person’s videos are delightful, and has been documenting the hummingbirds in their yard for years.
I’m glad that everyone seems to be coping. I’ve been working from home this week and will continue to do so next week. I’ve got plenty of supplies on hand and am something of a loner and homebody, so I’m taking it a bit better than some of my coworkers. The worst part is my allergies rampaging through my sinuses…
I’m glad that my fluffy supervisor isn’t as stern as Beano!
Settling into a routine of watching movies with my housemate’s daughter at 7pm each night. She’s a precocious 12 year old but I’m being mindful of content. We watched Jojo Rabbit first. We talked about political satire and the controversy surrounding the use of humor when depicting Hitler. Next we started Life Of Pi. She’s very intrigued. We paused at the point where he is alone with the animals in the boat. Right now she has no idea there’s a twist ending.
I’m managing. So far I’m keyed up so eating simple small portions. Lost four pounds. One of my lock down fantasies is I’m at a weight loss treatment. Other fantasies are “contemplative retreat” and “art studio in remote cabin”.
The rest of the room is still a mess but I officially have a usable desk for work on Monday. And it smells like honeysuckle from the spray cleaner. 🙂
I just listened to Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me and both the Chihuahua who was sent to buy snacks and Rolo the Doxie with the sprained tail made it into the news quiz at the end! 🙂
Also, this game of Hungry, Hungry Hippos:
This is Scorpius, every day that I work in the basement.