Overstimulated Kitties, Little Miss Neurotic, and the Letter P

The cats got a bunch of new catnip toys for Christmas. They are officially overstimulated. Did I mention that many of these toys are filled with catnip? Good times...

Little Miss Neurotic (Moxy) has licked herself a bald spot between her shoulder blades that doubled in size overnight. That earned her a trip to the vet today, and got me out of work early -- just before they brought in a patient with active tuberculosis! I'd call that perfect timing. I'd rather not be exposed to TB any time soon. The Moxinator got herself a round of antibiotics and a cortisone shot. We'll see how it goes with her. If she won't leave it alone, we may be pulling out the e-collar. The horror.

Thanks to Kat, I've got another meme to do. This one is the “Brought to you by the letter…” game. I'll let Kat tell you how it works:

"You leave a comment on this post, and I’ll assign you a letter. You write about ten things you love that begin with your assigned letter, and post it at your place. When people comment on your list, you give them a letter, and the chain continues on and on."

Kat assigned the letter P, which turned out to be harder than I thought. But it all worked out. Here are ten things that make me happy AND start with a P.

Physics - I liked it enough to major in it three times and to make it my career.

Planets - I don't know how anyone can look at the Voyager or Cassini mission photographs of moons and planets and not be in awe. Or how about Saturn, eclipsing the sun with the night side illuminated by its own ring system? Wow.

Pandora - I've been exposed to dozens of artists and hundreds of songs through Pandora in the last year and a half. In that same time period, I discovered exactly one new song by hearing it first on the radio (not counting NPR, which is also a decent source of exposure to new music, especially on the NPR Music website). Pandora is by far the most effective way to find new music that you'll love on our blue planet's world wide web. By "new", I mean new to me, not necessary a recent recording.

Pinot noir - I like almost all of the red wines. This variety boomed in popularity after being favorably mentioned in the movie Sideways. It's a good movie, but don't take every line in it so seriously. I still drink "fucking Merlot". Seriously.

Peppercorns - the finest of the seasonings. My favorite. Freshly ground (coarse, of course) pepper will perk up any dish.

Peaches and pecans - that's Georgia food, y'all. There is nothing like homemade peach ice cream on the 4th of July. Except maybe a big slice of pecan pie.

Planting - I love gardening. From picking out the plants to getting my hands in the dirt, there is no better way to ground yourself than plant and take care of a garden. Can be herbs or veggies, a wild cottage garden or a small container garden. I will always have a garden of some sort.

Paul Johnson - Georgia Tech's first year football coach who made football on The Flats fun again, PLUS he beat Georgia for the first time in what seemed like forever. Superman wears Paul Johnson pajamas.

Photography and Photoshop Elements - I've always enjoyed photography. I may have gotten this bug from my Dad. Now I have his old cameras, along with a small collection of vintage models that are fun to play with if you can find the film. Digital photography makes it easy and cheap to experiment and try new things. And since I got Photoshop Elements, I can rid my photos of many of the flaws and limitations of both camera and photographer. And maybe even make some art. Or lolcats. There is room in my life for both...

PDM - saved the best for last! He puts up with my crap AND he cooks for me. Plus there is that crazy little thing called wub.

Demon Spawn

Looks cute, doesn't he?

Mrack! Meow! Mwoooowwwww!

Silvio has been getting the midnight cat crazies in a very vocal way lately. Last night was no exception. He was napping peacefully on our bed until about 12:20am. Then he turned into demon spawn -- stampeding through the house, howling, meowling, knocking over stuff, and terrorizing the other cats.

He had no trouble getting up early this morning for Round Two. The humans... not so much.