The Eternal War on Draftiness

I hate drafts, especially when they’re drafty right onto me.  When I go outside in winter gloves must be tucked into coat sleeves, shirts must be tucked into pants, and a scarf or turtleneck must be in use.  It’s weird, I know, but that’s one of my strange (endearing?) little quirks.  It’s not like the world comes to an end if I get drafty, I just really, really prefer not to be cold.

At home if I’m watching TV I always have a blanket over me.  When I’ve had a hard day, I can think of nothing better than curling up on the couch with a warm, draftless fleecey blanket.  The higher the coziness factor the happier I am.  The funny thing is that Fred is the same way.  She likes nothing better than curling up on top of one of “her humans” but under the blanket.  Ah, now there’s coziness!  If there’s not a human under a blanket available, she’ll dig herself under the blanket and sleep there by herself.  If that’s not possible, the 3rd option is sleeping on top of a fleece blanket.  Now that’s a cat after my own heart!

Pete says that I’m more obsessed with personal comfort than anyone he knows.  He *ahem* may not be wrong.  The reason I’m thinking about this today is that I talked with my friend K this morning.  Now, K is an amazing woman… and quite possibly crazy!  We were talking about her annual tradition of participating in a polar bear swim.  In February she suits up, stands at the ocean’s edge in the freezing cold sand, and then plunges into the icy waters for a swim.  Don’t get me wrong – I think it’s really cool that she does it.  But the Eternal War on Draftiness prevents me from ever participating in such fun.  First rule in the eternal war on draftiness is “Never stand out in the cold half-clothed” so the polar bear swim is out.  I’m considering driving down there to watch her do it, though, ’cause it sounds like it’s a riot to see.

Cat Shenanigans – Part 2

Back in April I posted a little something about Fred’s ceiling shenanigans.  Well, now we have… cat shenanigans part 2!  It turns out that Willy snores… like a freight train.  Funny to say, funny to talk about, not so funny at 2:00 in the morning.  We have a little cat tower that’s covered in carpet to give them a place to scratch and a place to sleep.  Willy likes to curl up on top of it at night to sleep.  He’s always been a heavy breather (might have something to do with his, um, impressive girth) but when he lays in just the right position he snores.  The (not so) funny thing is that he can actually wake both Pete and I out of a dead sleep.  Waking me up is not that big a feat but Pete sleeps like a log.  I have a hard time waking him up but somehow the cat manages to do it.  Pete has a handy stash of folded socks within reach of his side of the bed – perfect ammunition to wake Willy without having to leave the cozy comfyness of bed.  I, not having such a stash, have to resort to getting out of bed and bopping him on the head with my fingers.  It’s terribly satisfying until he goes back to snoring just a few minutes later.  Hmm, maybe I should toss Fred at him since she’s always sleeping on our bed.

Speaking of Fred, she’s developed a funny little habit of her own.  From the times I was an infant teacher in a daycare center I remember feeling of standing at the counter washing dishes or preparing a bottle and feeling little hands on my legs as one or the other of the kids pulled to standing using my pants as leverage.  Well, Fred has started doing pretty much the same thing.  I’ll be standing at the kitchen counter cooking dinner and feel two little paws around the level of my knees.  It’s Fred, standing on her back legs, looking up at me with plaintive little kitty eyes asking to be picked up.  To be honest, she’s kind of hard to resist.  The problem, though, is that once I pick her up once and then put her down she pretty much insists on being picked up again.  Unlike the babies, though, she has claws with which to insist about this whole picking up business.  If I take too long she’ll launch herself at my thigh will all claws out, hoping that she’ll be able to make it to the shoulder she seeks.  That part is less cute.  She even has this fun trick whereby she latches her claws into my jeans, I pick my leg up parallel with the floor, and in a hop, skip, and a jump she’s on my shoulder. 

Our house is actually one cat down these days.  Rodney, the cat Pete brought with him when he moved in here, has gone to live with my mother-in-law.  He and Willy did well together but he and Fred never got along.  The growling and hissing got on Pete’s and my nerves but left Fred largely unperturbed.  She thought it was great fun to torment the hell out of him and then take a nap, leaving a trail of jangled nerves in Pete, me, and Rodney.  It got to the point where this apartment wasn’t big enough for the five of us.  Rodney had previously lived at my in-laws, albeit when Sammy the dog was alive.  We knew that he liked the house and hanging out with Tom and Jeanette.  So it seemed like a good solution for him to go there.  So far so good – and things are decidedly quieter around this house!  Fred seems to miss him a bit but I’m fairly certain that he doesn’t miss her one iota!!

Cat shenanigans

Fred, the ceiling cat, originally uploaded by heatheracarter.

We’ve been having some cat shenanigans going on in our house recently. Fred, our kitten, is about a year old and apparently she got some kitty smarts for her birthday! The little s**t has found a new place to play. While our backs were turned she figured out how to jump from the counter to the top of the refrigerator. Then – and here’s the kicker – she figured out how to move one of the ceiling tiles so that she can explore. (It’s a partial ceiling tile; not one of the full squares.) Her favorite new past time is moving the tile and then going strolling around on the top side of our drop ceiling.

One day we came home to find one of the big tiles laying on the floor. Hmm, confusing… but maybe the wind did it. The next day we came home and found a different tile on the floor and lamp from the kitchen laying across the floor. Hmm, very confusing… Then, a few days later we’re sitting in the kitchen together and in a flash she was in the ceiling. I thought I was seeing things until I heard her walking around in the ceiling. We were dumbfounded – and laughing pretty hysterically. We got her down, replaced the tile, turned our backs and – boom – she was up there again! Sneaky little s**t!!

Well, over the past few weeks we put a book on the tile (the complete “Hitchhikers Guide to Galaxy” – no small book!!) to keep her out. It worked… for about 2.5 seconds. So we added a phone book to the tile and that kept her out for a day or two.

Today the story continued. I took the day off as a flex day for some time I worked last weekend. This morning I remember thinking to myself that it was strange that the two big cats were sleeping in the bedroom and the kitten was no where to be found. I went off to run some errands for three hours or so and came back. I opened the door and heard the pitter patter of little cat feet over my head. It was followed by a pretty pathetic meow. Oh crap, I though, here we go again. I looked into the corner for her usual point of access but the tile was firmly in place. Strange… I pushed a tile aside and she came right to me, looking pretty frantic. Pretty quickly she found a comfy place and fell asleep. I went out for a couple of hours to go grocery shopping and when I came back the tile was ajar again. Persistent little bugger!!

Well, now we have to figure out how to keep the damn cat out of the drop ceiling!

Wedding venues and cute kitties

Pete and I have been talking about our wedding.  Almost 8 months after getting engaged we decided it was about time to start planning.  The impetus was a realization we may have the perfect wedding venue within walking distance of our apartment!  McCoole’s Red Lion Inn is a restaurant and bar that is right across the street from us.  The owner recently bought the Main Street Theater that is next door to the restaurant and is renovating it to make it an arts & events space.  There is a black box theater (click here to see a photo of a black box theater), a room that is renovated and seats 40, and a room that is being renovated now and will seat 60 or more.  We’re thinking it would be neat to get married in the theater and then have the reception downstairs.  In a conversation with the owner on Friday night, it sounded like she was really working on generating business for the catering areas and that the theater could be rented relatively cheaply.  They have good food and good drinks so the catering is likely to be good.  It seems like it could be perfect!  The only caveat is that we haven’t seen the space yet so we’re not 100% sure it would work.  We’re hoping to meet with her this week to see the space & discuss costs.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Gratuitous Cute Kitty Pics!

    

Sleepy kitty loves to snooze on our shoulders!

Willy in the only place he can stay cool – on top of the metal filing cabinet!

Our herd of cats at breakfast – It’s still a little jolting to realize that we have 3 cats!