Call of the Wild

Romeo left a dead chipmunk (in pieces) on our doorstep. The "gift" makes it official. He's our cat.

Zima's out there right now helping him dispose of the legs. I could actually hear her crunching the little bones with gusto. There's also a head, an unidentifiable organ (stomach? liver?), and some entrails left over. Hope that stuff's not still there in the morning.

Thirsty

You know how they tell you not to go grocery shopping while hungry, because of all the silly extra food you'll buy? Yeah, well you probably shouldn't shop while thirsty either. I did, and this is what I came home with:

1 6-pack IBC cream soda
2 8-packs of mini Cokes
1 12 pack of fresca in cans
1 container of lemonade mix (makes 8 quarts!)
3 cans frozen limeade concentrate (6 more quarts!)
2 6-packs of Sweetwater beers (sch'wheat and blue)
4 bottles of wine (3 red, 1 white)

What was on my list? Lemonade and wine.

I did much better with the food. Purchased items not on my list? Four ears of corn, because it was fresh and really cheap. And fish sauce, because we used up our last bottle last week. Can't make Thai without fish sauce. I like to keep our spur-of-the-moment options open. We have a somewhat different list of staple items than normal people...

Hanging in there.

Solstice

The days won't get any longer than today, but hotter days are still ahead. Enjoy your summer!

Ours now.

Meet our fourth cat, Romeo. We started feeding this stray, because he was hanging around our house every day and we felt sorry for him. He is friendly, not feral. He has not been fighting with our cats since we started feeding him. They tolerate him surprisingly well.

We're slowly winning him over. He is liking human contact more every day. The idea is to get him tame enough to take him to the vet for some basic care (yes, including the Big Fix at some point). He is stocky, not skinny, but might have worms or other health problems. We'll see.

He'll be an outdoor cat for always, most likely. But no less loved. I think he is happy that he finally found someone to love him. He certainly seems more comfortable and relaxed these days. And I am already attached, even though I can't really be demonstrative with him out of an abundance of caution.

Redecorated

Lots of new options for templates on Blogger. Couldn't resist. And so much easier than painting the house.

A few short shots.

1. Work is really trying my patience. Oh what the hell. My patience lasted about five minutes, and then I just about exploded. *sigh* Whatever. I'll get over it. Because I like having a job.

2. Fermicat's law of occasional banking: If you let a few checks sit around your house for months and then finally take them to the bank, you will find another check in your mailbox the minute you get home. I shit you not.

3. Old comedy shows contain jokes that are REALLY DATED. Tonight's show seemed like a blast from the distant past, but it was only five years old. Wow. And now they are showing stuff from the late 80s. OK, that schtick is really old. Funny, but old.

Not a Fan

Any hopes of this sports fan branching out into soccer (I refuse to call it "football" because I am southern and American) have been dashed this weekend, and not just because the greatly hyped USA vs. England game ended in a 1-1 tie. No, anyone who has watched even one minute of the World Cup can guess what has me so put off by the experience. Need a hint? Ok.

BbzzzzzzzzzzHHHHMMMMMMMMMMbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzBZZBBZZZZZZ...

Those damn plastic trumpets blew it for me! (Howdya like that pun?) I am not alone in this opinion. The noise from these vuvuzelas is a constant, annoying, irritating din that JUST. NEVER. STOPS. It goes on and on and on during the entire game without any breaks and hardly a change in tone. The din makes me CRAZY. It sounds like an angry hive of giant bees. Can't stand it. And I won't be watching any more games thankyouverymuch. Unless the networks invent a vuvuzela noise filter that cancels it out on their broadcasts. Then... maybe. But then there is that whole "1-1" thing. So maybe not.

Lodge Cats

Some comfy cats at the lodge in Utah where we stayed on vacation. Ah, I miss vacation...

They also had buffalo.

The Peep Toe Rebellion

Like most places of business, my employer has a dress code. Some of it makes sense, and some of it doesn't. For example, you can wear a short skirt, but not capri pants or city shorts or skorts, all of which are more modest than a short skirt. Unnatural hair color is not allowed (but seen all over the place), as are "prominent visible tattoos" (which the chairman's secretary sports very visibly on her upper arms). Red nail polish is on both the approved and the prohibited list! The kicker is that the dress code isn't evenly enforced, at least as far as I can tell. I see gross violations on a daily basis. So when our administrator wants our department to toe the line, it causes a lot of resentment when we see other departments getting away with a lot of stuff that doesn't fly in our neck of the woods.

I can see the need for many of the provisions if an employee has patient contact, or works in a lab, or does other dangerous or messy jobs. For those who spend their days toiling behind a desk with a computer, some rules appear to be quite arbitrary. At any rate, when the person who enforces the rules doesn't strictly adhere to them, they lose any moral authority they had in being the person to say "no". And that is exactly the situation in my department.

Thus... the peep toe rebellion. Sure, we are supposed to wear closed toe shoes. But this is the deep south in hot weather. And the admin has been seen upon multiple occasions wearing peep toed shoes. With no hosiery. Also a violation. Hah!

So I've stopped just walking on by the rows and rows of cute shoes in the shoe store that don't exactly fit with the dress code. I won't do a flagrant disregard of the rules and wear completely open toed shoes. But if a toe or two happens to just peek out of my shoes, I ain't sweatin' it. I'm a (tiny little) rebel.

Odd Eyed CatBlogging

Zima and her pretty eyes wish you a happy weekend.