Harvey update: Chasing the red dot.

Heck yeah. He'll catch it too.

I'd apologize for the stream of catness posting, but I'm not really sorry.

Post all the catness you want! #FancyFeastGames

It's wonderful hearing about a cat getting back to form.

What Connie said. It's good to hear that Harvey is doing well.

Yay Harvey! So glad to hear so, WS.

I'm not getting any cats tonight. One of them is very scared and hiding and they can't get her out. Oof.

Can you appeal and say "Spike's Bitches" is about dog breeding?

Laughed and laughed. If it were only the proper spelling of "bitcas".

However, since I'm handling metadata for a large scope of content, I wonder what will happen when the title will be legit for work. Porn studies are academic now, aren't they?

I just turned into the bitchy lady who lives in the road.

I don't who the kids are or if it's the same set of kids but the other night a group of them were running around yelling in the street about this time and I heard a THUNK! When something (or one of them) hit the side of my mobile home. By the time I got outside they were gone.

So a little while ago - more screaming, more yelling, more laughing (which I'm not pissed about), but I'm tired and cranking and don't want to listen to yelling at 9 pm at night. Especially since it sounded like they were right by my front steps. I am totally get off my lawn unless you are invited about pretty much anyone.

I went and looked and yep - there are lots of footprints, over by the poor dead roses I never cut back, going up towards my porch (not my prints), all in the front area. I look up and see kids coming around the corner, they see me and turn around and go in the other direction, except 1 who says "We were just taking a picture. We didn't do anything." Which means, yeah they were the ones up out there.

I hiked up there and told them to stay out of my yard. "We were just using your light to take a picture". I told them someone had either hit the side or thrown something and I thought it had broken the window (an exageration) and I didn't think it was them but I wanted them to stay off my yard. "But we were just taking a picture!" Finally one of them pipes up "that's a GROWN UP you don't argue with grown ups".

It's petty and it doesn't get me any good will and for all I know one of the kids is one who helped me shovel my drive (in which case I'm sorry good kid).

It was an overreaction but if they hadn't acted like guiltly little shits and run away and made me walk up the damn hill and then yell because they wouldn't get any closer. I would have been more polite about it. Also if they hadn't been insistant that it was okay for them to be in my yard/walkway because I had the best porch light.

Things that I wish that I did not know existed -- Calvin & Hobbes slash.

The juxtaposition of Vortex and askye's posts is making my head spin.

Does anyone have any opinions on various types of warming kennel pads? We have an electric one that I have never wanted to just plug in and leave (and if I'm around, Harvey may as well be on my lap). The time I put a towel in the microwave to warm it, Harvey squirmed away from it. I looked at a couple styles that could be heated in the microwave - one smells bad when heated (neoprene) and another is a hard plastic disc that is uncomfortable for some pets. Then I started looking at the ones that passively reflect body heat. The ones with the best reviews mention a crinkly sound, which I think indicates a layer of mylar, Space Blanket stuff. I'd like to get something more cozy for Harvey's little house than old towels so that we can turn the themostat back down while leaving him feeling toasty.

WS, my cat is very fond of my thermal blanket. I think it reflects heat back to him while being very soft. If you bought one and cut it down so a couple of layers fit into Harvey's sleeping space, that might be nice. I'm afraid I don't have a brand name or anything, as it's an old blanket that I got when we split up my parents' house contents. I can look around and see if I can find similar online.

ETA: This looks similar. [link]

Oh yeah, those are soft and warm. Thanks for hunting up that link. But I think cutting it might make the edges unravel in the washing machine. I can get a mylar-lined, machine-washable kennel pad of the right size for half the price of that blanket.

Oh, man, Tim's dad is getting on my last nerve, and I am having a hard time being compassionate and understanding. Right after Thanksgiving, he started calling and asking when we were going to put up his Christmas tree and decorate the house, etc., for him. So that weekend several family members (meaning, MORE than just Tim and me) decorated his house for Christmas. And this was a HUGE help, because for the past 3 years, it was ONLY Tim and me who decorated, and it took so long we would have to go out to his house 2-3 different times just to get it all decorated.

Then 2 days after Christmas he started calling and saying, "All the Christmas decorations are still up but Christmas is over. When will they be gone?" TWO DAYS. (I never, EVER, take these calls, because if I did, I would scream at him about entitlement and not being a dick to people who are doing him a favor and hey, maybe just don't force us to decorate next year, hey?)

So Tim is talking to him now, and the plan is for several family members (i.e., once again, more than just us) to un-decorate next Sunday. And Tim's dad, for some reason, is vehemently opposed to it being several family members and doesn't want a lot of people there and wants it to be just Tim and me. And there is NO WAY we can get all the decorations down and put away by ourselves when it took 8 people to put them up.

Tim is explaining patiently to him that, if he wants the decorations down, we need help from the people who helped up put them up, because we can't do it all by ourselves. Tim has the patience of a saint. I would not be able to keep my calm with this nonsense.

And BOY, do I feel bad that I'm not being compassionate and understanding that his dad just wants to maintain the traditions and such that they've always done when Tim's mom was alive -- and I GET that -- but seriously, if you ask for help, you can't dictate the terms of it. Or, I mean, you can try, but that isn't going to work.