Category: Critters

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...And Little E Makes 3 Critters

Scenes from a slow day

Thought I’d share a couple of pictures I took just moments apart as I finished loading and starting the dishwasher:

Naptime with Evan, Xena and Obi

On the left, we have Evan, who apparently decided to take a nap under a washcloth. It was hanging off the back of his little chair where I had fed him last, and apparently it was mighty handy for blocking out the world so he could snooze.

On the right, we have dogs and cats, living together – mass hysteria! I lay a towel on the floor for Xena to sleep on, so she doesn’t get the carpet dirty(-er than it already is), but Obi likes to take over her towels. In the background, Xena’s old towel, which Obi slept/played on most of the day. In the foreground, the new towel…which Obi decided to commandeer about 1/3 of as soon as Xena laid there.

This sort of stuff goes on here all the time. 😛 … Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Critters Funny Stuff Home Base

OU200812

Good MorningLet it never be said that I don’t know how to party. I left 2007 behind and rang in 2008 with a big bottle in my hand and getting kisses from a sassy young female.

Now, granted, the sassy young female was Olivia, who decided she’d jump up and lick my chin while I was feeding the bottle to Evan, but still! I am living on and/or near the edge, am I not?

Other than that, I think this post from a year ago pretty much sums up my new years’ feelings in general. I hope 2008 is good to you if you’re reading this (not that this should be taken to imply that I wish a pox, or a bunch of rox, or botox, upon those who aren’t reading this). I’m looking forward to more Evan time myself.… Read more

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Critters

The 34th Rule of Cat-quisition

A year ago today was quite a day – I think I’ve even said as much recently. But apparently one part of that day is becoming a tradition around here. (Ed. note: no, we did not conceive another child tonight.) No, dear friends, it looks like December 19th here at the home of the Binky Blaster is…Cat-quisition day. A day on which we seem to formally acquire yet another cat.

This time a year ago, the new addition to the family was one Mr. Oberon. Today, it’s a big grey tabby who hangs out in the back yard. I saw it sitting in the shade of the big tree in the back yard today, though at first I didn’t know if it was a live animal or some bit of roadkill upon whom Xena sought to heap further indignity by dragging it into our yard and disassembling it. (Remind me sometime to tell you about the collection of deer skulls she insists on keeping in our yard. They’re exquisite.) Anyway, as I approached, I noticed three things: this was a very live cat, it was lunching on a considerably less live mouse, and it was doing so in full view of our very live dog with no interference. Maybe they’ve compared their respective trophy cases of deer skulls and mouse skulls, but we seem to have kindred spirits.

I’ve noticed the cat prowling around the yard several times since then, always hunting something. Frankly, if he wants to rid our field of the mouse population during the winter, that’s peachy with me. But I am running out of Shakespearean names that start with the letter O. I also don’t know how compatible he is with Xena’s other pet, the possum (now officially a recurring guest star).

Happy Cat-quisition Day. Did anyone else acquire a cat today?… Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Critters Gadgetology

Media, mutts, mercy!

The living room media PC project continues; installing Nero has solved a lot of problems; stuff that was playing with no audio is now playing with full audio. Yay! There are still some kinks to work out in getting theWindows audio/speaker settings, Nero’s audio output settings, and the living room’s occasionally baffling Dolby Pro Logic receiver to cooperate with each other, but that’s a job best left to the A/V engineer in the family…oh, wait. I guess that’d be me. I did conquer the mystery of why MP3s weren’t streaming from Zen (turns out the m3u playlist files use relative file locators instead of absolute ones – i.e., if the playlist is for an album contained in my “ELO” directory, the playlist entries are actualy “../elo/*.mp3” rather than the full network address leading to the right machine, the right drive, and the right branch of my directory bonsai tree. Obviously that’s not gonna get you jack from another computer – it has to be called up song-by-song. This is just a wee bit of a pain in the butt…but, as usual, I have – as they say – a cunning plan.

In the meantime, while my friends in Oklahoma and Missouri have been digging themselves out of a fresh glacier that’s been dumped on their heads since this time a week ago, we’ve just been getting rained on. A lot. This has resulted in, somewhat predictably, a very soggy dog. I let her in tonight and wrapped a towel around her so she could dry off somewhere other than all over the living room carpet. Lo and behold, she actually kept it on while she ate her specially prepared dinner consisting of dog food and, from last night’s dinner (ours, not hers), green beans and ostrich steak juice. Yum.

Xena chows down

Xena later wolfed down another bonus helping of “human food”, some leftover scrambled eggs. Actually, saying she wolfed it down is underselling it a bit. I thought she was just going to eat the damn plate the way she was going after it. We have a kitty who loves biscuits, a dog who likes eggs, and I think we’d be hard-pressed to find a cat here who doesn’t like a bit of bacon. Smart money says the dog would make quick work of any available sausage too. Breakfast is therefore served here at one’s own risk. (We also have a cat here who likes dog food. I’ll let you guess who.)

And what’s Evan doing during all of his dog-drying and media meddling? He’s workin’ that binky, of course.

Bink bink bink bink bink

Evan has started making this great gurgling/burbling/rolling-R sound (and he’s not even Scottish!). If I can just teach him to say “Mercy!” before doing his rolling-R thing, then look out, Roy Orbison.… Read more