Weekend Open Thread

Get comfy — it’s another cozy Caturday, and here to inspire us on our relaxation journey is Hamster, from reader Tracy R., who writes:

This is Hamster lying on his special pillow (itโ€™s an orthopedic neck pillow, and he fits right in the area down the middle) and thinking โ€ฆ something, I dunno.

Cat lying on its side on top of a special orthopedic curved pillow
(They really should make these for humans too.)
You already voted!

28 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread

  1. 6rabbits October 12, 2024 / 9:05 am

    They actually do make those pillows for rabbits, tho I havenโ€™t had a bun like the (expensive) one I got!

  2. Ricky & Bibi's Mom October 12, 2024 / 9:12 am

    Happy Saturdog, everyone! The dogs were good again this week!

    • AJ October 12, 2024 / 9:45 am

      I love all the good bois this week! Number 10, the sleepy dachshund is me anytime I’m in the car. Something about the motion just knocks me out. And no, I’m not driving, lol.

      • allein ๐Ÿพ October 12, 2024 / 10:09 am

        Me, too. Plus Dramamine if I’m expecting to be a passenger for longer than an hour or so. I took it all the time as a kid for long rides and never had much problem (I would still sleep but it never felt like it was drug-induced and I was fine when we got out of the car); then they came out with the “less drowsy” formula which lasts (supposedly) 24 hours.* Then one time about 12 years ago I couldn’t find that and had to get the regular stuff…it absolutely knocked me out during the ride; I could barely lift my arms I was so tired. Last time I had the “less drowsy” stuff it seemed to knock me out a bit, too, so I dunno. Maybe as I get older I’m more sensitive to it?

        *I had the opportunity to test this 24 hours claim once on a day trip (literally – I got up at 5 am and got home at 5am the next day) to Washington DC. I had to take more about halfway through the drive home, at about 20 hours. So close, but not quite.

        I love how the Doxie fights it and fights it and then just suddenly gives up.

        • N. Fritz October 12, 2024 / 11:29 am

          Allein, as a kid did you have the liquid Dramamine, that was neon yellow and tasted like Red Bull smells?

          • allein ๐Ÿพ October 12, 2024 / 11:34 am

            Don’t think I’ve ever even seen liquid Dramamine…

            Also happy to say I don’t know what Red Bull smells like.

            • N. Fritz October 12, 2024 / 11:38 am

              Oh, it’s just awful! Just like liquid Dramamine!

              • DEBG October 12, 2024 / 11:40 am

                ๐Ÿคฃ

              • allein ๐Ÿพ October 12, 2024 / 1:22 pm

                lol

              • Duckie ๐Ÿฅ October 13, 2024 / 12:03 am

                I always thought liquid Gravol had a banana-y flavour.

    • DEBG October 12, 2024 / 11:40 am

      Huzzah for Gita–such a hero! I can’t believe the cops shut down a freeway in SoCal to rescue a dog. But I’m glad they did.

      WRD has a new thing going on, called Puppy Sessions. It was in yesterday’s email. They get a musician to sing songs while surrounded by a bunch of puppies. St. Vincent trying to play and sing, while a pup gnaws on her ankle, had me in stitches.

      • allein ๐Ÿพ October 12, 2024 / 1:25 pm

        They’ve done a couple other puppy sessions about a year ago. I hope they do it more often.

        Briston Maroney

        Charlotte Cardin

        (I don’t actually know any of their music, but puppies!)

  3. AJ October 12, 2024 / 9:53 am

    That pillow does look comfy, and of course Hamster claims it.. It’s the best seat in the house.

    Another uneventful weekend at mia casa this weekend. Still trying to get out and organize the shed but it’s been too hot to spend an afternoon digging through stuff. I think we’ll wait til next month. Probably just cleaning, putting up some fall decorations, taking doggos to the park, dropping off books at library, and Lego time. Besides the cathedral, I have 2 asian style plants and a Christmas poinsettia to build. Sometimes it’s nice to have a laid back weekend. Enjoy the weekend!

  4. allein ๐Ÿพ October 12, 2024 / 9:54 am

    Happy Caturday…

    My eyes have been bothering me and I’m seeing something out of the corner of my eye for a bit and it’s probably just normal floater stuff but the anxiety of it all is getting to me so I finally just made an appointment. I checked the eye doctor’s website last night and they had two slots with my regular optometrist this afternoon. Hopefully I’m just being paranoid and I don’t know if my insurance will cover it (I was there in March for my regular checkup) but whatever. The only danger is if they dilate my eyes I need to make sure I get home before it starts to get dark (made that mistake once; ran to the library after the eye doctor and ended up driving home as dusk fell; thankfully I was very close to home by the time it really got bad). Dilated eyes and headlights in the dark are a very bad combination. Appointment is at 4:00. Sunset is 6:20 today.

    My mom turns 80 on Monday; we are doing dinner tomorrow and I have to get a cake. I thought about making one but I’m not really a baker and my kitchen is a mess. I looked at the bakery at Wegmans yesterday but I didn’t see anything like what I was asked to get (white with chocolate frosting) so I’ll try ShopRite, either after the eye doctor (depending on what happens there) or tomorrow before I go over to my parents. Also googling bakeries in my area to see what I find. I just need a small cake so maybe they’d have that ready to buy.

    (This is not me being last-minute; my dad just asked me to do it the other night and I had to get an abdominal scan and bloodwork and did some other running around yesterday. I couldn’t eat or drink anything for the scan so I just went to the blood lab after as a walk-in (since I was already fasting) and had to wait there for a bit; drank some water in between but by the time I had my little fig bars I brought for afterwards I hadn’t eaten anything in over 12 hours and after a couple other stops I had to make I just wanted to go home.) My blood results are popping up in my chart and while I don’t really know what the numbers (or even some of the words) all mean, everything says it’s in normal ranges (except my cholesterol is high which is not new). My blood sugar is much lower than last time (87 vs 105) which is good. I wonder if that’s partly because I probably fasted a lot longer this time.

    And after I wrote all that I was about to hit submit and the eye doctor called me to confirm what my appointment was for (since I’m not due for a checkup yet but the online system doesn’t let you specify) and said they can actually take me at 2:45 (and they will probably dilate my eyes). So I should still have plenty of daylight to stop at the store.

    ———–
    This is not a real thing but it should be.

    (Wayfair does have a hippo coffee table but it doesn’t have a cat bed in it.)
    https://www.wayfair.com/furniture/pdp/wildon-home-3013-coffee-table-w100799557.html

    • DEBG October 12, 2024 / 11:42 am

      Happy birthday to your mom!

      Good luck with the eye doctor.

      And I would get that hippo table in a heartbeat.

    • AJ October 12, 2024 / 3:33 pm

      I decided to take a chance and click through to the website link at the bottom of the post, and was starting to think this might be an actual item so scrolled to the end to see price and found this:

      NOTE: All image in the post are AI-generated: They are not real products for sale and serve only as inspiring designs. We do not sell products through any website or store. Thank you

      Thanks for dashing my hopes! ๐Ÿ˜น๐Ÿ˜น๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿ˜ซ๐Ÿ˜ญ Hopefully someone out there gets inspired and builds these as I would definitely buy one.

      Happy birthday to your mom too, and fingers crossed everything comes out ok at the eye dr.

    • allein ๐Ÿพ October 12, 2024 / 5:04 pm

      Home. I just have a lot of floaters in my left eye, he says, But he said there’s no tears or anything like that. Didn’t find a good cake so I decided to just make it, after all. But it will just be a sheet cake because layering is too ambitious for me right now. At least it’ll
      make me clean up my kitchen. Something to do while I can’t comfortably focus on the computer screen.

  5. Georgiana October 12, 2024 / 9:58 am

    Hello Hamster you handsome boy!

    Not much going on this week, we finally went to get our passport photos done and the forms are filled out so we’ll go to the Service Canada office next week, got to be ready to fly South for winter in case we win the lottery LOL!!

    It’s starting to get cold here especially at night where it does down to 6C/42F, we haven’t started the heat in the house yet because it’s well insulated so it only goes down to 19C/66F inside but it won’t be long now.

    Hope everyone is safe and warm, good weekend to all.

    • allein ๐Ÿพ October 12, 2024 / 10:21 am

      I realized the last few days that it’s time to start stashing my bathrobe at the foot of my bed again. And add the blanket back in. It was 43F when I left for work on Thursday (highs have been in the upper 60s – lower 70s the past week or so. There was one day last week that got up to 80.

      • 6rabbits October 12, 2024 / 1:39 pm

        Your weather is mimicking my weather here! The 80* day was weird in the middle of all the coolth. I love this time of year!

  6. Duckie ๐Ÿฅ October 12, 2024 / 11:09 am

    Happy weekend to all.
    Hamster, you are exceedingly gorgeous today.
    Sitting here in my flannel feety jammies, wrapped around a mug of tea, planning my weekend. Thanksgiving on Monday. Gathering at sisterโ€™s place. Bath tub scrub today. Organizing craft stuff for the winter. Next week will be a pin cushion week. Vitamin shot Monday. Blood work Wednesday. Covid and flu shots Thursday. And vitamin shot again on following Monday.
    Little Duckie is doing her fall moult, and is exceedingly grumpy about it. I got her some moulting treats with extra veggies and fruits, and all she does is pick out the dried greens and toss them on the floor, and then grumble at me.
    Hubby had an interesting night. He was asked to do security at work, as Hallmark is shooting a Christmas movie in our mall, and itโ€™s called โ€œSanta Who?โ€
    Have a great weekend, everyone.

  7. N. Fritz October 12, 2024 / 11:37 am

    Hello Hamster! Hello Cutetropolitans!
    I am stuck at home with a raging cold (sneezing, coughing, stuffy nose, probably pinkeye). But it’s been a busy, busy week. My mom (84 in November) got herself moved out of her house and into a retirement home (lots of help from friends). The house was on the market about 2 days before it sold. So I’m excited for her, but mourning the loss of the house that I’ll never set foot in again…

    • DEBG October 12, 2024 / 11:43 am

      Hope you’re feeling better soon. It can be hard to lose precious places, but I’m sure you have lots of happy memories intact.

  8. DEBG October 12, 2024 / 11:51 am

    Hamster really knows how to relax. Too bad you’ll have to get another pillow for yourself, Tracy. Such a handsome boy.

    I’m procrastinating before I run errands, because it’s more fun to talk to you all. Have to get another roll of stamps for the last round of postcards before the election, plus the usual stuff. I may have over-promised handmade gifts for other people, because none of them are getting made fast enough.

    The knitting, weaving, and yarn planning will help me relax after a glitchy week. We finally rolled out a big new thing on the website. My coworker and I rushed to get it done, and it’s great, but I kept unintentionally breaking everything he completed. I do not enjoy weeks where I feel so incompetent. It’s a good weekend to take care of myself and successfully make things.

    Hugs to you all.

  9. Alice Shortcake October 12, 2024 / 12:15 pm

    It’s been a quiet week at the Shortcakery apart from the banging and drilling noises coming from the house next door. It’s been a couple of months since it was sold, but the new owners still haven’t moved in and seem to be doing drastic renovation work!

    The weather here has moved from late summer to winter with autumn going AWOL. I’ve just realized that my newly planted olive tree with a spiral stem needs to be protected from frost, so until I can obtain one of those large fleece bags with a drawstring I’m improvising with a plastic vacuum clothes storage bag. It looks a bit odd but probably saved the tree from frost damage the night before last.

    • 6rabbits October 12, 2024 / 2:03 pm

      The porcupine is too fluffy and adorable!

  10. 6rabbits October 12, 2024 / 2:01 pm

    Happy weekend to all!๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿผ
    Weather was iffy this AM but is beautifully sunny now and only supposed to get to 70, then this next weekโ€™s temps go down, down, down.

    Weird thing happened at my sister’s Thursday night. They came home and when lowering the garage door heard all these terrible whipping, crashing sounds. The garage door decided to give up the ghost! Sister and niece couldnโ€™t lift the door๐Ÿ™„ and I had to leave at 6:30 AM Friday to get there in time to take my niece to school. Sheesh! $1,600 (!) later, they have a new garage door. Guy said the old one was cheapest kind sold at Menards, and the top bar was in 3 connecting pieces, instead of one solid piece, which is apparently a no-no. Who knew๐Ÿคท๐Ÿผโ€โ™€๏ธ?
    (It came with the house). Go out and check your garage door top bar!

    And totally love the trying-to-stay-awake Dachshund. The resigned flop is precious.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *