Welcome to the weekend open thread! Here’s a little dangling paw action to get things started.
Mini Cat Town, by leighklotz, licensed under CC BY 4.0
Weekend Open Thread
41 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread”
Comments are closed.
Welcome to the weekend open thread! Here’s a little dangling paw action to get things started.
Mini Cat Town, by leighklotz, licensed under CC BY 4.0
Comments are closed.
I feel ya kitty! That is so me this morning. Had trouble sleeping last night then woke up around 4ish and had trouble going back to sleep. When I did, I had a very vivid dream where I think I prevented a couple murders. So now I’m slightly dopey, still half asleep, and definetly need coffee.
Last week my brother and twinsie sis-in-law (same birthday but several years apart) were in town and I got to hang with them all week. So much fun! All of us went to the Peterson Auto Museum to ooh and ahhh over all the gorgeous cars in their collection, then just me and her went to several other museums plus we were pretty much eating out all week. Now I got to get back in my routine and start eating a little better. Except for too many salads, do not want that virus/infection that’s been going around. I plan to just relax this weekend; run a few errands, our Lego Club has their monthly meeting and if I make it the local craft/potters guild is having a National Craft Open Studios Weekend. There’ll be demonstrations and even some hands on experiences. Sounds like fun! Never dangle a free crafty weekend in front of me and not expect me to take advantage of it, lol. Have a good weekend all!!
I LOVE the Peterson Museum! My dad, sister and I took my nephew when he was just two. We lost him in a play section that had these wonderful velvety silly toy cars, perfect for two-year-olds. While my sister took Liam to the restroom, my dad and I perused the gift shop and found they were selling said cars. We had the same thought at the same time, “we should buy Liam one of those.” We picked the blue one and I put it in my bag. When they came out of the restroom, I held the bag down so Liam could see in and said, “hey look!” He gasped out loud and snatched it out the bag so fast! No question that it wasn’t for him. 🥰
Does anyone else want to reach through the screen and gently wiggle that dangling paw?!
It’s been a fairly quiet week at the Shortcakery and the worst of the heatwave seems to be over. Last Thursday I took advantage of my free bus pass to spend the morning in Pickering, a picturesque little town where some of my ancestors were living in the early 19th century. As my appointment with the Bayeux Tapestry draws closer I plan to visit the King Harold-related sites of Stamford Bridge and Fulford. I’ve been looking into the history of the Godwin family and I have to say it reads like a cross between an unwritten play by Shakespeare and an early medieval soap opera!
Aren’t family histories fun?? My dad’s side was pretty straight forward just difficulty in finding records since he was from Greece. Ya know Turkish occupation, wars, records in a different language, so easy to follow through. Not! Now mom’s side in Canada was a totally different story. So convoluted – illegal activities (moonshine making and distribution), babies out of wedlock, multiple marriages (or at least multiple last names), a cousin that might be a half sister, etc etc. And people think everyone was so staid and prim and an upstanding citizen back then. Like you said soap opera!
Hey Alice, I’ve been thinking of your family story of those who came to Philly. Would you be willing to share the family name? Now I’m curious if we don’t have anything about them in our archive. If you don’t want to share publicly here, maybe Mike can make a connection for us behind the scenes.
Thanks! I’ll get the info together and send it to you via Mike.
Cool!
Happy Caturday! Yes, Alice, I want to wiggle the paw. And join kitty for a nap.
Hot and smoky here in NJ the last couple days. I feel for those in Canada. (Sorry about the idiots in our government who want to sanction y’all for the smoke. Not only do they not know how climate change works, they apparently don’t know how wind and air currents work, either.) Thursday the haze was higher in the sky most of the day but I went outside in the evening and I could see the haze at ground level. Not unbearable but I wouldn’t want to spend too much time outside (I went out for a few minutes late last night and didn’t smell smoke; still humid and gross, though). A couple days in the 90s; the next several days should be in the low-to-mid 80s. Friday I had a migraine and went back to bed twice; still a little headachy this morning but I think I can function today, at least. I poked my head out the door just now and I can smell the smoke again. Looks hazy and cloudy (forecast says rain maybe this afternoon and tomorrow; maybe that’ll help). Gonna try to get some chores done this weekend.
Some drama this week…I got home Thursday to find an SUV parked in the circle at the end of my street, the driver unloading some bulk items into our trash corral. By the time I parked and got my mail she had left, so I took pictures of the corral and went upstairs. But then I went back out a few minutes later to get something from my trunk and she was back, pulling out a big patio chair. The corral is for eight of the twelve units in my building (the non-townhouse units, because we don’t have a space to store a trash can). She does not live in my building, and even if she did, regular trash pickup does not take large upholstered chairs (just one of the several items she dumped). Not only that, but she made the corral mostly unusable for those who actually are supposed to use it, because her junk was blocking most of the trash cans. So I walked over and took another picture…of her license plate (I was kind of far away and pleasantly surprised it came out clear). She saw me and yelled “take a picture of this!” Well, okay, if you insist.
After she left I took more pictures and sent them to the office. They replied the next morning and said that her plate wasn’t registered with the office (I guess none of the rules apply to her, assuming she actually lives in the complex at all), but she’s still trying to figure out who the person is. Trash pickup was Friday morning; I went out late at night (when I was feeling a little better) to check the mail and walked over to see what it looked like. All her junk (and a couple other things that were there the day before) had been moved out, next to the corral (at least they were neatly stacked), but all the trash cans looked like they were still full. So I’m wondering if they just skipped that corral and someone else came and moved the stuff…but next trash pickup isn’t until Tuesday. That should be fun.
I loathe rubbish dumpers (or fly tippers, as we call them here). The houses on Shortcake Street were built in blocks of four separated by alleys, and the one nearest my house has become a convenient dump for old carpets, furniture, the occasional mattress etc. The local council usually picks them up within a couple of days after they’re reported but it’s still annoying.
I looked again last night; all the cans are full and there are more bags on the ground. The thing will look like one big dumpster by Tuesday. Sometimes I wish we just had actual dumpsters. They wouldn’t look as nice but there’d be less of this BS.
At least the dogs were good (we saw one yesterday):
And Friday’s email had a pupdate about Puppy Court!
We launched the first episode of Puppy Court on Monday, and you all loved it. We’re excited to bookend our weeks of content with all the good dogs on Fridays and all the definitely innocent ones Monday mornings. Catch up here and tune in to our social channels Monday morning for the second episode.
Also, last month’s WeRateDogs Pride Collection merch sales raised $38,566.17 for the Trevor Project.
GREAT Dogs of the Week – mostly hilarious with some heroism.
I met Benny and his back paws yesterday. My favorite comment: “He protecc, he attacc, but most importantly his toes wiggle bacc.”
Darling grey kitty, I’m with you.
It’s been a bit of a bad week here. Weather has no idea what season it is, but we did get an awesome thunderstorm on Thursday. Neighbours across the back decided to remove a layer of dust two feet thick from their backyard and replace it with cow manure. I prefer the manure to the dust; our building is filthy and sweeping is useless. (Although the joke is on them: last night, several kids from their building decided to play in the manure after midnight.) Finances are tight until the end of the year, but that will mean one line of credit will be fully paid off. Parents are not doing well. Oldest nephew FINALLY proposed to his girlfriend.
Today will be a quiet day. Hopefully go for a walk.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
It’s Christmas in July! Every summer the fire department goes around with Santa and a bunch of other firefighters (elves?) on a fire truck. They all wear Hawaiian shirts. 🌴
I heard the siren and saw them go down the street perpendicular to me; now the siren is gone but they never actually came down my street… 😕
Aw, sweet relaxed kitty. Enjoy your day little one.
I’m in the same boat as Allein, waiting for today’s storms to clear out the smoke. It is not that hot right now, only 75F and I’d love to open the windows, but not until the air has cleared. I hadn’t heard that nonsense of sanctioning Canada for the smoke – what? That’s ridiculous. Hoping all of our friends up north are safe.
Yesterday I went to pick up Jacques’ ashes. It was a drive from Philly to Trenton and since my car is a jalopy and the air conditioning no longer works, I rented a car for the day. A Hyundai Kona, kind of a nice drive. Since it was Jacques, and I was headed in the right direction for my international food shopping, I made a day of it. There is a really authentic German butcher in the northeast so I stopped there and stocked up on all my favorites. Sadly they didn’t have Jacques’ favorite liverwurst (also mine) in stock. I got the next best thing and I’m sure he would have gotten right in the middle of that one too. Then I made a stop at the Russian market further on, and stocked up on pickles, bread and my favorite juice – a blend of apple and mint. So refreshing!
Trenton is a really pretty little city, at least the parts I saw yesterday. I usually only see the train station and that’s right off the freeway. Lots of sunflowers and Rose of Sharon bushes in front yards. The organization is called Pet Meadows and there is a literal rainbow bridge you drive across to get to the building. They have very kind and sympathetic employees, who kept calling him Jack-kwess, and I just didn’t have it in me to correct them. My former neighbors couldn’t get the hang of Jacques, so they just called him Jack and he always answered them when they spoke to him.
The drive home showed how smokey it was here. As you came into Philly you really couldn’t see the skyline. It was pretty stunning. Lots of folks wearing masks.
I’m still puttering around on the internet this morning, not sure what to do today. I should cook and clean and I need to do laundry. That will take some planning though because I don’t have a dryer, so I need to find some place on the second floor to hang up clothes. Tomorrow is Stitch & Bitch and the host has such a nice screened in porch, I hope we can sit outside. I’m making grapefruit water-ice (or as one says in Philly “wooderice”) for the pot luck. I hope it will be water-ice weather.
Hugs. I’m sure it’s still painful, adjusting to your loss.
Well, I don’t know about you, but the storm’s a’comin’ here! It got real dark in my living all of a sudden and the wind is blowing. Hope Santa made it back to the firehouse. (He never did come down my street…humph.)
{{hugs}} to you and Jacques, however one pronounces it.
(The post I saw was about Bernie Moreno of Ohio calling for punishing Canada somehow. So ridiculous.)
OK, it’s been over two hours since I posted that and the storm is finally actually storming. It was dark, then it lightened up, then it got darker (but not as dark) and started to rain, then a little rumble of thunder, then nothing much, and now I’m finally seeing lightning and hearing thunder frequently.
We still haven’t done anything with Mutz’s urn – it still sits on our kitchen bar. When we had a party a couple of weeks ago, we set up the urn with a candle so guests could pay their respects. We still plan to bury the urn under the corkscrew hazelnut tree where Mutz spent many a summer day. May you find something meaningful for Jacques’ ashes.
I’m glad Mutz was at the party–I’m sure all your guests missed him too.
I can never resist a paw dangle.
Folks, we could use your good thoughts. George Weasleycat has been losing .2 pounds every week. He’s down to 6 pounds (about 2.7 kg) and while he’s still crazy for ice cream every night, he’s not interested in playing. I just made an appointment with my housecall vet for Monday, early afternoon. It feels like he’s starving all the time, and since I can’t be there to feed him all day, that means he’s suffering. So it’s time to let him go, hopefully before he crashes and things get even worse. Naturally the second-guessing of my decision is not fun.
I know a lot of you are dealing with wildfire smoke and really bad weather. My apologies to all our Canadian peeps for our stupid government. Please take care of yourselves.
Hugs to you all.
💔 I’m sorry Deb.
Oh DebG, I’m so sorry. It’s so hard.
I’ll be there in spirit with you, DebG. Mutz will, too.
I’m so very sorry, Debg. Knowing you’re doing the right thing doesn’t take away the pain. My heart goes out to you and George Weasleycat.
So sorry for what you’re going through. This is a painful decision to have to make.
I’m so sorry to hear about George. It’s always hard when our babies aren’t feeling like themselves.
Thinking good thoughts for you all
I’m so sorry DEBG.
I’m so sorry, DebG 🙁
Hugs
Uggh, I am sorry, Deb, George Weasleycat is one of my faves here. Big hugs.
Anyone up for a pizza party?
Okay, talking pizza made me cackle. Handsome human, too!
Lurking 👀
🤗
Hugs and purrs to all those dealing with recent or impending losses 😿
They are with us for such a short time, but they give us so much love. All we can do is love them right back and hang on to all the wonderful furry/feathery/scaly/etc memories.
Hugs and purrs all around. It’s nice and dark here with impending rain. There’s still smoke that needs to be washed out of the air! I was hoping to hear from more of our Canadian peeps, (Good to hear from Duckie), I’ve been thinking of all of you, hoping fires are not directly affecting you!
One last bit of cuteness for the day… (he’s got lots more on his page).
(Maxine is his Corgi.)
THUNK! splat-ded
That is just amazing. Probably the best day ever for the people she met too!
Though I want to know more about her dislike for The Rock.
Seems she dislikes anything to do with stones or rocks after having bladder stones. Can’t say I blame her.