Hair of the Cat

So Mike and I went away to the Annapolis Valley for my birthday weekend.  The idea was to stay in a lovely bed & breakfast, check out the local farmers markets, head to this awesome bakery in Berwick, and have lots of fun.  You know, "fun."  *Wink wink*  Unfortunately it didn't quite go as planned.  The getaway itself was great.  However, everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

1.  Three days before our trip, we learned our car wasn't safe for highway driving until we bought new rims.  The rims are on order and of course did not arrive in time for our trip ... so we borrowed the in-laws' car.  They have a good car.  Too bad it's so full of dog hair, strange junk (tweezers?  Axe?) and crumbs.  Mike cleaned the car as best he could and then threw some old sheets over the seats. Oh yeah, and the car seat for their grandson came with us as we weren't messing with it.

2.  Our niece's graduation ceremony was the night before the getaway.  You know, when I was supposed to be packing.  We were invited sometime during the week.  So I had to lay out my clothes for the weekend on Wednesday as we were leaving right after my work on Friday.

3.  Thursday afternoon, before the grad and while I was at work, Tubbs scratched a hole in the back of her neck.  :-(  I knew she was itchy, but no sign of fleas.  Still, she had a hairless red spot.  The vet squeezed us in and gave us ("gave," that's funny!) a cream to put on it.  So home, spend a few minutes with the kitties, and off to the grad.

4.  The B&B, The Grand Street Inn, was the only place we could find a room; everyone else was booked solid.  Here is what our room was supposed to look like:

Grand Street Inn

The queen size bed is not queen size.  It's maybe a double.  It's very dim, old and worn.  The comforter looks like it's been used every day since 1970.  The air conditioner barely functions.  And you have to climb 100 rickety wooden steps to get to this room.  I could have swung this, though, but for the ants.  Yes, they had a bit of an ant infestation.  Once we realized we would be killing the damn things all night, we left.  The owner acted surprised.  Uh-huh.

So we get a room at the Slumber Inn.  It's clean and they've been spraying for ants twice a week it's that bad, but no ants here. So the weekend was saved, yay!

5.  The bakery in Berwick makes their own ice cream.  I'm lactose intolerant, but I can take Lactaid tablets before eating dairy and *usually* I'm fine.  I had to try a grapenut cone.  It was soooo gooood, and way too big.  Needless to say, despite the pills, I suffered the consequences.  I was up half the night with cramps.  Kind of put a damper on the "fun" that night, *wink wink*. 

6.  The rest of the getaway was great.  It was when we arrived at the Cat's Inn to pick up Buddy that our bad luck continued.  Mike had taken Buddy there Friday and we picked him up on Sunday.  Somehow both Mike and the innkeeper had failed to notice the cat vomit on the towel in Buddy's carrier.  He had thrown up during the half-hour drive to the kennel.  Halfway home he throws up again.  We stop, clean up him and the carrier, and we're almost home when he soils himself.  And it wasn't pee.  We had to wash him down as well as the carrier when we got him upstairs. 

All in all, it was a LOT of work for us to take two stinkin' days to ourselves.  I never want to travel again ... and that was only an hour away.  Fortunately Buddy is not traumatized by his experience.  He was very happy to be home and on  our his own bed. 

Recuperating

... is a coaster.

Coaster

Yup, there are a couple holes that shouldn't be there, but hey!  It looks pretty darn good for 1) my first completed crocheted project and 2) my first attempt at a round crocheted project.  I'm even using it on the dining room table.  :-)  I must say, I much prefer knitting to crocheting.  While things "crochet up" faster than knitting, I just find knitting more fun.  Even when I'm making mistakes.  Still, there are some cute little crocheted animals I'd like to make someday, so I'll keep plugging at it.

Or a hamster ball.

So Tubbs cut up for the groomers yesterday, as she normally does, but this time they brought a special hamster-ball-shaped device to put on her head to keep her from trying to bite them. 

Evil Tubbs

Nine times out of ten my cats don't pay plants much mind.  Every once in awhile, though, there's something about a plant or flower that must really appeal to them.  Exhibit A:

My Poor Carnation

This was once a lovely carnation plant.  It had colourful flowers and everything.  Now it's just a half-chewed stub.  I don't even know if it's still alive.  Tubbs really, really took a liking to this plant.  I underestimated how high she can jump when she really wants something; I made the mistake of leaving my poor defenseless plant on a window sill with no chair underneath it.  I guess she jumped from the floor, something she hasn't done in at least a year. (Did I mention she's 11 and over 20 pounds?)  She chewed the heck out of my carnation, flowers and all. 

Exhibit B:

Flowers

I bought Mike some roses on Friday.  Normally when we have flowers in the house we can leave them on the dining room table and the cats leave them alone.  Well, there's something about these roses in particular that makes both cats do bad things.  First, Tubbs jumped on the table to have a chew.  Tubbs NEVER jumps on the table.  So Mike moved them to on top of the TV.  Tubbs could never jump up that high.  But Buddy can.  In the wee hours of Sunday morning, I hear a muffled crash and discover Buddy has knocked the flowers, vase full of water and all, from the TV.  Fortunately nothing was broken or damaged, but we had lots of water to clean up.  The roses survived .. but now we keep them in the storage closet when we're not home.  What a cruel fate for such pretty roses.  What possesses cats to risk life and limb for ... a flower? 

Here in Canada we had a long weekend thanks to Victoria Day (May 18 this year).  Mike and I spent it watching movies, so here are three quick-and-dirty reviews.

First up:  Quantum of Solace.  I'm only familiar with the Bond films starring Pierce Brosnan, and they were booooring.  Daniel Craig's Bond is far more interesting; he gets dirty, partakes in much hand-to-hand combat, rarely smiles and is always on the move.  No standing around swanky parties sipping martinis for this Bond.  There is no point in trying to explain the plot, other than to say he was looking to avenge the death of his lady love, Vespa, who died in Casino Royale.  I will say, however, the theme song for this film by Jack White and Alicia Keys is the worst Bond song I have ever heard. 

Next:  The House Bunny.  Not as funny as I had hoped.  Anna Faris is a good actress, but she was difficult to watch in this over-the-top performance.  She spent so much time bug-eyed and gasping like a fish out of water I started to feel badly for her.  Ex-Playboy Bunny needs a home and ends up as the house mother for a geeky-girl sorority.  She turns it around by turning the girls into carbon copies of herself.  Her students put up a weak fight before succumbing to hair extensions and six-inch heels.  Funny, but could have been so much better.

Last and least:  The Day the Earth Stood Still.  Remake of older, better film? Check.  Plot updated for "the times"?  Check.  Keanu Reeves acting as if he has no soul?  Check.  Annoying kid being pulled around by the adults?  Check.  Older professor mentor (John Cleese this time)?  Check.  Government rep who just "doesn't get it"? Check.  Military trying to kill something it doesn't understand? Check.  Is the Earth saved?  Yup, unfortunately.  I think a much better ending would have been if Klaatu or whatever the alien's name is was unable to stop the destruction, and everyone on Earth died.  The end!  At least it would have been a surprise ending. 

Doing What he Does Best

Artistic Tubbs

Mike takes much better photos than I.  This was taken awhile ago but I just came across it recently.  Isn't she gorgeous?  :-)

The Backside Slayer, that is. 

Buffy the Backside Slayer

I thought I'd put it on a windowsill, you know, so it can get some air.  ;-)  Actually it's now called Buffy Body Butter, but its original name is more descriptive.  I've been addicted to this lovely exfoliator for awhile now.  I decided to write a post about this soap because it really is luxurious.  It makes you feel soooo goooood and your skin feel sooooo smooooth.  Yes it's $22 per cake, but it's worth it.  It's like giving yourself a personal massage in the shower.  And its scent isn't overpowering either.  Anyway, Lush has lots of awesome products, but this is the best by far.  If they ever decide to make infomercials, I'm their woman.

Springtime for Tubbs

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Yesterday morning the cats spent a nice long time sunning themselves on the balcony.  It was actually warm enough for me to not mind having the door open for so long.  Tubbs found something most interesting to watch at one end and spent quite awhile watching ... whatever it was.  Once the kittehs finally had their fill of sun, we were able to get some errands run.  We needed a new shower curtain so we headed to Sears and found one we could both agree on:

Jungle Fever

Yup, it's for kids. We think it's awwwwesome.  Much more fun than a floral design.  We actually spotted it awhile ago, but decided to wait for it to go on sale. How can this curtain not put you in a good mood every time you shower?

Right on time, Mike and I took Easter Monday to do a bit of spring cleaning.  Unfortunately it's nothing a visitor would notice unless we opened some closet doors and dresser drawers, but isn't that always the way?

Spring Cleaning

This is how our hallway looked this morning.  Mike had already taken out several bags of recyclables, so this is messy-light.  Most of the stuff came from our small, packed storage closet.  In an hour it looked like this:

Organized

Oooh, purty!  Let's see how long it stays this way. You can even see the floor. 

For my part, I threw out some old Mary Kay product I no longer used, plus a whole wack of other stuff that hadn't seen the light of day in a decade, including some old purses.  So my dresser and my shelf in the bedroom closet look great.  'Cause that's what people are gonna see.  Our coffee table is still a disaster and you can't see the stove for all the pots and pans, but hey, have your seen our closets?