Battle of the Do's

Since I switched to my summer hairdo (or no do), part of the nightly routine is shaving my head. I could let it go and shave every other night but longer than that and my hair becomes long enough where it really is a pain to shave.

I have tried shaving my head before Diego-san is done with his dinner and ready for his nightly combing. The last couple of nights however he has let me know in no uncertain terms that when he is done eating his dinner he expects me to comb him. In other words he doesn't want me taking care of my own hair before his fur. He bellows at me and scolds me for my lack of priorities...

Same Old Man

I went to hear one of my all time favorite songwriters, John Hiatt, perform. Hiatt recently released a new CD, "Same Old Man" that is one of the better CDs I've heard this year- another solid set of songs from one of our most dependable writers.

I quite enjoyed the show- hearing five songs from 1988's "Slow Turning" took me back to the 1989 cross country road trip I took with Stephanie Jane (wow! that's almost 20 years ago) and the music from that tape was one of the many that gave our trip a soundtrack. This evening's performance of "Drive South" ("C'mon baby drive south, with the one you love...") was juxtaposed with a new song- the terrifically clever "Old Days" with its refrain "I had nothing to live up to and everywhere to be, old days are coming back to me..." The song also has my favorite line of the year, "They were smoking something in the audience that night that smelled exactly like cat pee."

Ironically Hiatt also played a couple of old songs that will have relevance to me later on in the year. M- and I are going on another Amtrak trip- this time to Memphis and New Orleans. Hiatt gave nice performances of "Memphis in the Meantime" and "Walk On." The former updated with the line about how Kenny Chesnutt will never sing the song and not the original reference to Ronnie Milsap- the latter being a meditation that takes place in New Orleans.

Unfortunately Monday night I'm going to miss another one of my all time favorite songwriters- Lucinda Williams- who is playing a show at the Minnesota Zoo. I bought tickets but had to give them away because I have a meeting that night. Drat.

Fortunately I just bought a remastered version of one of my all time favorite CDs- Liz Phair's "Exile in Guyville." The CD was recently re-released to celebrate its 15th(!) anniversary. It's been great listening to that seminal disc all over again...

Caption

What would be a better caption for this picture?

"Diego-san watches Thompson clean Theo."

or

"David really needs to clean his carpet."

Happy Birthday Thelonious Dribble

Today is Theo's designated birthday. According to my calculations he turns four so here are four reasons to celebrate all that is Theo:

4) He's the best one in the house for providing constant nonstop entertainment.

3) He makes sure my legs are extra clean after I take a shower by licking them until I got some pants on.

2) He's extra willing to give up his meal to his bullying bigger brothers.

1) He's the sweetest little fella imaginable.

Happy Birthday Theo!

A Boxing Fan

Summer is Here

It got into the upper 80's today so I had to turn on the air conditioner when I got home. The boyz didn't understand why when it's nice and sunny out I had the windows closed. I told them I didn't want to air condition the whole world but I don't think they quite understood the concept.

Open Your Eyes

This is often the sight I see when I first open my eyes in the morning. Most mornings Diego-san will work his way under the covers and get his face as close to mine as he can. He sometimes wakes me earlier than I would like and it is awfully hard to sleep with his face right up close but I gotta say I can't complain too much to open my eyes to see this sight.

Peonies

My peonies are in bloom. Their flowers don't last very long but I absolutely love the color...

Check

Things to do list:

Thompson- Clean the bottom of his foot. CHECK.

DMA- Summer haircut time meaning shaving my head. CHECK

I asked Diego-san if he wanted me to shave him telling him it's much cooler. I swear he smirked at me.

Saturday Song

Diego-san and I are listening to the new Coldplay CD. Neither one of us is much of a Coldplay fan, but both of us feel like doing nothing more than listening to some new music. Theo on the other hand has been wandering in and out of rooms.

P.S. I have to admit I really like the song "Viva la Vida" the one that can be heard on the Apple commercials.

A Special Club

Now that the weather has become nice enough to ride my scooter to work, I've noticed some new things on the way. One of the heartwarming things every morning is I pass an elderly couple walking their dog. It's a tall dog and I probably wouldn't give this trio a second thought since there are many people walking their dogs near the park I live by. However the dog's trot is noticeably different although it's a trot I'm used to seeing every day. The dog is missing one of its front legs and thus has kinda of an urgent hop to its natural move forward.

I've thought about stopping my scooter to chat with the elderly couple to tell them all about my pride and joy, Thompson. I don't know if that'd be weird or not- how we belong to this unique club of living with a three legged animal. I'd of course want to pull out my iPhone to show this couple pictures of my boy but I'm not sure they'd appreciate this interruption to their morning walk. (Plus the dog might bark at me... a stranger approaching his humans...)

Accidental Artistry

I opened up the blog and was impressed by some accidental artistry. It looks like Theo is looking up from the lower posting at Diego and Thompson in the upper posting. And the widget cat in the top right corner appears to be looking down at Theo creating the perfect symmetry.

I'd like to be able to say I did this on purpose but I'm not that talented...

Parallel Days

It was a rough day at the office for me. Must have been a rough day at home for the boyz as well as they were pretty tuckered out when I got home.

A Place of His Own

Theo sometimes acts as if he is still just visiting us and expects to return home to his foster mother's place any day now. While he does have his own routines and schedules, often times when Thompson, Diego-san and I are off in some room he'll be somewhere else in his own world looking like he wasn't invited to whatever it is we are doing.

That's why I was glad that over the weekend he finally really claimed a spot of his own in the house. It's a tall chair that I stuck in the corner of our dining area that he has on occasion enjoyed the view while sitting perched on the higher than normal seat. Over the weekend I finally got the repaired screen put on the window by the chair so Theo spent most of his free time sitting on the chair content as can be enjoying the fresh air that was drifting in from the open window. I think part of his spot's appeal is that neither Diego or Thompson has shown much interest in the location.

Soy... It's the Other White Meat... Well Sorta

A few months ago I learned I have the highest cholesterol ever recorded in human history.

Because I'm not a big fan of medication and because I know my diet hasn't always been the best (what- you all don't snack on sticks of butter?), I decided I would improve my diet and get more exercise. I've been eating a lot of soy based products and to my surprise, many of them aren't that bad. The tofu based chicken patties and hamburgers are actually pretty tasty and I haven't found myself hankering for a real hamburger.

The other day I picked up some hamburger buns that were on sale and I didn't look at the nutrition information until I got home and was fixing dinner. To my surprise the buns had 3% of the daily recommended amount of cholesterol. I checked the back of the tofu hamburger box and saw the patties had 0% of the daily recommended amount of cholesterol. This meant that my bun and more cholesterol than my patty. Hmmmm.

P.S. I was making a stir fry the other day and I dropped a piece of fried tofu on the ground. Diego-san quickly snarfed it down and must have thought it was pretty good because soon he was begging to be fed more.

Stormy Weather

Some severe thunderstorms with 60 mph winds blew threw during the night. I think the boyz were a little concerned because I was greatly concerned. We have a large tree in our front yard that is much too close to the house so every storm with high winds gets my utmost attention. The branches of the tree were swaying intensely and I was all ready to run the boyz downstairs. Fortunately the one large branch that did fall fell away from the house. Thompson and Diego-san watched me watching the weather and I think both knew something severe was going on...

Up and At 'Em

The boyz each took turns encouraging me to get out of bed this morning at around 6:15 a.m. No use sleeping away the weekend. I guess we have lots of things to do today and they all wanted a head start.

Buck Up

It occurred to me as I was walking out to my car this morning not only did I fail to do my duty by keeping the boyz's snack supply stocked, but I had a viable alternative I was ignoring in the meantime. I have catnip growing in my yard and the boyz of course love it when I bring some in. Why I haven't been doing this when the normal snack container is empty is beyond me. I brought some fresh catnip in today and the boyz were in heaven.

Skunk Eyes

I ran out of Temptations about a week ago so the boyz's allotment of treats went from the occasional, to none at all. And believe me, I've heard about this unfair situation.

So I finally decided to stop at the store after work and pickup some groceries and snacks for the boyz. Like my usual grocery shopping routine I did not make a list but relied on my memory to pickup all the things needed around the house. When I pulled into the garage I realized the one item I forgot was the Temptations. D'oh!

When I got inside I broke the bad news to the boyz. Thompson and Diego-san didn't seem to react too negatively probably because they've been around long enough to see more than their share of disappointments around these parts. Theo's normal sweet (albeit empty and blank) expression gave way to one with more of a glare to it.

My bad, boyz.

Prophetic Pillow

Many years ago when I lived in a small apartment with the late great Mr. Max, my sister gave me this pillow to help spruce up my place. I always liked the picture of the two cats but didn't think twice about the pillow for several years.

One evening early in my relationship with Thompson and Diego-san I took a close look at the pillow for the first time. There I was sitting in my living room with two relatively new roommates one black, just like on the pillow, and the other with a missing front leg, just like it looks like in the picture. Maybe my sister is a lot smarter or more psychic than I give her credit for...

Diego-san's Haiku

I need attention
You're not paying attention
Give me, give me, Now.

Rainy Day

It's rainy and dreary out, the kind of weather that makes me drowsy and puts me in the mood of lying around the house all day.

Not so with the boyz. Theo and Diego-san have been full of energy tearing around like there's no tomorrow. If they were vinyl records, both would be playing at 78 rpm if you know what I mean...

Nice Napper

Thompson and I took a quality nap together yesterday afternoon. I have to admit he's the best one to nap with of all three boyz because he lies on the side he's missing his leg and is able to get his head tucked unimpeded snuggly against me. I find it hard ending a nap when Thompson is lying so content on my chest.

Lee Lambert

A great man, a mentor and friend, Leclair Grier Lambert passed away this past week.

Lee was my boss when I worked at the Minnesota House of Representatives a few years back. He was one of the kindest, most gentle, and fiercely loyal people I have ever met. I loved working for him- respected him tremendously and was honored that he considered me to be a friend. I would not be where I am today in my career had Lee not supported me the way he did. I was quite saddened to hear of his death.

I went to his funeral yesterday and caught up with my old colleagues. One happy moment was that one of my former co-workers told me that part of his morning routine is to read this blog to catch up on how the boyz are doing.

Pearls Before Swine

Different Styles

It was another evening of Theo chasing Diego-san all over the house and Thompson and I lying back, rolling our eyes and wondering why everyone in the house just doesn't relax.

If Diego Could Order Take Out

Last night I stopped at a nearby Chinese restaurant for take out food because I was too damn tired to fix anything at home. Diego-san seemed to quite like the smell of my Moo Goo Gai Pan. He looked at me with disgust when all I fed him was his normal dry food.

A Bender

After a lot of hard work, Theo was able to free the catnip tea bag from the inside of his favorite toy mouse. He even was a kind soul- leaving the bag out in the open for Thompson to woof down the contents. Thompson proceeded to throw the mouse around the living room and chase it while on a catnip high.

I Miss Mr. L.

Thompson's Request

Please rub my face.

Finally

For the first time all year it was warm enough to sleep with the windows open. Good thing I got the screens fixed. The boyz all found an open window to sleep by. What... I'm only good for a heat source in the wintertime?

Three Cool Cats

Some gangs hang out in alleyways. Mine hang out in hallways.