Try Try Again
For those of you who care about such things, the kitties are getting along swimmingly. I guess that's not very accurate an adverb considering that most cats don't swim and those that do probably don't like it one bit. I should say instead that the kitties are getting along runningly. Frolickingly. Tearing through the house at 2 a.m. and pouncingly. They like each other, is what I'm saying, and it's all very cute etc. save for the bit about how they can't stand to sleep apart these days, and what that means is that when one of them wants to nap on my stomach, the other one wants to sleep on my chest. See also lap/kneecaps, and ow, I can't feel my legs.
Perhaps this is the universe's way of telling me I should stand up and move around more often than I sit/recline? It's a thought. Then again, zaftig is such a pretty word...
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Speaking of not being able to feel one's appendages, last night Simon and I drank an entire bottle of wine at dinner and then played cribbage in front of the fire. (He also had a small glass of whiskey "to even things up.") I was sitting on the floor cross-legged, and when I tried to stand up, my feet were dead fish, flopping flounders attached to my ankles, and I almost resorted to crawling out of the room on my hands and knees except I found I couldn't do that very well while laughing, so I just sort of tipped over and stayed put. I don't know what was funnier--that I couldn't walk or that we couldn't count to fifteen between the two of us and in the end had to call the match a draw, with a raincheck for "drier" times.

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And speaking of trying and failing at things, even though I swore to avoid comparing my pets to other people's children, last week I told my coworker that it was no big deal her almost-crawling baby was picking up huge dust bunnies as she scooted across the hardwoods because my baby was digging things out from underneath the refrigerator and EATING THEM. "But he's just a cat, so it doesn't matter," she said, to which I retorted, "But kids eat dirt all the time so who cares if your [stupid] baby touched some [stupid] dust?" And just like that I had managed to turn an innocent conversation into some sort of sick competition about whose floors were more dangerous and disease-ridden and whose baby's immune system was less developed. Can someone tell me why in the world I wanted so badly to win that game because I just can't figure it out.
(I totally won, by the way. Two nights ago Simon dropped a martini glass in the vicinity of his cat-tree construction, making the floor in that room a veritable field of landmines. Sawdust + broken glass = picnic time for kitty cats. Take that dust baby!)

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Finally, my camera has been flashing me the dread ERR 99 message for several days now, which probably doesn't sound all that intimidating to you, but trust me when I say that it might as well have been flashing me a gang sign, so fearsome and complicated it was that I had to cross to the other side of the street when I saw it. A simpler sign and I might be able to flash it back, thereby tricking everyone into thinking I was "one of them," but alas, I don't have the digital dexterity (phlangelar aptitude?) for such things and therefore am like to be shivved and left to die in the gutter the next time it happens. Wait--am I talking about gangmembers or my camera? I forget.
Happy Tuesday! I'm off to dinner with a pregnant lady. Let's see if I can avoid embarrassing myself with my big [stupid] mouth.






can i say that i am still utterly impressed that they are getting along so well? wow.
Hey, he's not so bad once you get to know him.
Oh wait. You're talking about the cats, right? ;)
OMG, that cat tree is A-mazing!!! Please can Simon come to Melbourne (as in Australia) and build one for my Tilly?? She would love love love it. :)
To save myself the embarrassment of comparing my cat child to friends people children I just compare stories with my friends who also have cats, amazingly enough it still turns into a competition!
It became a competition 'cause that lady was kind of snotty with her "just a cat" in the same way that people telling you you're pregnant is kind of snotty. You had to throw down.
Since you brought up the wine glass thing I have to ask, how can cats break something like, say, a wine glass and somehow distribute the tiny burrowing bits of glass so far and wide that I can get a piece jammed up into the sole of my foot MONTHS later?!? How????
Strangely? I find your bold comments endearing... hope that your dinner was grand!
Oooh, my boyfriend and I play cribbage all the time. He's very competitive, so usually it involves quite a bit of wine, as well. You know, to take the edge off.
Glad Linus and Eve are getting along so well!
I have also had dead fish for ankles. See, this is why we get along so well.
I love the wine glass shot!!
Any post with the word "shivving" is a great post.
I nannied for a while and I totally had to fight to go along in conversations with other mothers as if I had all this grand knowledge. It was horrid.
That was supposed to be "NOT go along." I did try to keep my [stupid] mouth shut.
ERR 99. Ohhhhh yes. I am an assistant wedding photographer and let me tell you that there is nothing like getting the error 99 during the father/daughter dance.
Usually if I break everything apart and give it a good rest everything returns to normal. You probably figured that out already though.
I think it's probably a gunky sensor issue, since I've been switching between lenses a lot lately. I took everything out and off, let it all rest, and so far so good, fingers crossed. This is exactly why I could never be a wedding photographer! You have my utmost respect.
there! see! you did figure it out. you are down with the badass camera gang lingo.
The babies will eat dust bunnies if given the chance! I was of the opinion that a slightly dirty floor built up the child's immune system. Until she grabbed a handful of pet hair (ok so perhaps the floor was more than "slightly" dirty, but I do have three long-haired pets!) and proceeded to choke on it until tears ran from her eyes and my fingers twitched towards 911. Fortunately all is well.
The camera work heightens this loss of individuality by filming everyone from the back or side whenever there is action, so close you can’t tell who is doing what, or were in relation to other people they are doing anything with.