Suddenly Saturday

Theo seems sincerely stunned at how sudden time flies by and that it is the weekend all over again...

The Snow Blows

The worst part of a treacherous drive home through six inches of snow? Knowing I'd have to shovel once I actually got home. Diego-san and Thompson watched me shovel the snow from the living room picture window. I could tell by the looks on their faces they were wondering why their dinner was being delayed by my ever silly behavior.

Grapefruit League

Diego-san and I were in agreement last night. Our decision to buy DirecTV paid off as the MLB Network televised the Twins' first spring training game down in Fort Myers, Florida. It was great to see baseball as the forecast up here calls for 6 to 8 inches of snow tomorrow. As I'm slip sliding to and from work tomorrow, I just got to keep in mind I'll be at actual baseball games soon.

Theo's Decision

Theo made his decision. He decided to investigate Diego-san's activities. Upon discovering Diego really wasn't doing much, Theo decided to do his part to make sure Diego got his daily exercise.

Theo's Choice

Theo has a big decision to make. Does he join Thompson in the sun or does he go downstairs to check out whatever mischief Diego-san is getting himself into? Decisions, decisions...

A Welcome Change

Thompson usually isn't much of a snuggler. The last few weeks however, he has staked his claim on my chest while I'm watching a movie or a basketball game. I love snuggling with Thompson because unlike the other boyz, he can lie there for hours and usually won't get up until I have to. I'm not sure why he's chosen to do more snuggling, and his snuggling now includes rolling around on my chest, but I'm glad he's made the change...

And the Oscar Goes to...

Well, not really but the boyz were honored by Karen Jo of Kitty Limericks and Samantha and Mr. Tigger. Here are the rules:

"'LOVE YA' award-winner… These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind of bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

I'm gonna bend the rules a bit and award this to nine cool cats rather than eight cool bloggers. Therefore I award this to:

Parker, Puff, Powder, and Rudy.
Dante, Yaffa, and Sebastian and
Moki and Orange Boy.

I enjoy all three of these blogs a lot and they are well deserving of the award despite recent bad behavior by Dante and Rudy.

Theo's Joke

Theo: "Hey Thompson I was looking out the window this morning."

Thompson: "Oh yeah? What did you see?"

Theo: "I saw a woman knitting while she was driving."

Thompson: "Knitting?"

Theo: "Yes. And then a policeman drove up next to her. She rolled down her window and he said, 'pull over.' And she replied, 'no I'm knitting socks.'"

Thompson: "I don't get it."

Finally Friday

Thompson was pretty tuckered out by the time I got home last night. I guess it must have been a hard week of sleeping and eating. By the looks of things, he's already ready for the weekend.

Job Well Done

I've written before that each of the boyz has his own household responsibility. Diego-san's is catching any bug that wanders (or flies) into the house. So just as I was struggling to figure out today's topic for the blog, Diego went traipsing determinedly into the bedroom corner. I went over to see what he was up to and sure enough, he had cornered a spider. Good job buddy!

Hide and Go Seek

I'm a faithful recycler but there are some things I won't recycle no matter no matter how much of an adventure certain boyz are up for.

The Wrestler

I went to see The Wrestler. I quite enjoyed it and both Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei were terrific. The story of the movie was pretty much the story of my life. The only difference was that Randy the Ram (Rourke's character) didn't live with any cats and I live with three. Other than that our lives are exactly the same.

Presidents' Day

I discussed it with Diego-san and we agree the best way to honor the many men who have served as our nation's president is for me to go out in the backyard and build a Martin Van Buren snowman. I'll get right on that.

Our Collection

The boyz and I are very happy with the latest addition to our bobblehead collection, Gov. Sarah Palin.

Drippy Eyes

The movie Marley and Me made me bawl. This article made me bawl even harder.

Bruno the Three Legged Dog

Surviving Again

Last year Thompson and I enjoyed watching a season of Survivor together. Last night Theo seemed to be the most interested in the season premiere especially at the Tribal Council. This season the show is taking place in Brazil. Perhaps Theo has a dream of going there...

Got To Get Up Pretty Early in the Morning...

I should know better by now than to think that I can outsmart Theo...

I finished up a bag of cat food but had enough to fill the dish of one of the boyz. Even with the difference in freshness I thought I was doing Theo a favor by giving him the last of the old food since the new bag is "light" food and if cat food is anything like people food, then diet probably isn't as tasty as the regular stuff. But Theo was having none of it. He kept trying to get at Thompson or Diego's food and wouldn't touch his own. I finally asked Thompson (before I picked him up and plopped him down) to switch places with Theo. Thompson, ever the obedient boy, complied.

Auto Be Home

While the boyz were napping at home they probably didn't realize that I was out on a freeway where the clutch of my car gave out. So as they snuggled together, I got to roll my car out of danger's way, call a tow truck and have the car hauled off to a repair shop. Oh and then I had to get a rental car to get home.

The boyz may have slept through all this but they may pay more attention when the cost of a new clutch means none of us will be eating for um, twenty five years or so.

Not So Sick Day

Some mornings it's really hard to leave the boyz and go to work.

Newspaper Boy

I haven't been too successful teaching Thompson how to read a newspaper. He prefers getting his news through osmosis.

Wacky Times

So I sez to the boyz, "I'm going downstairs to watch a little TV" (always polite enough to run things by all involved). Theo and Diego-san both shot me looks as if to say that since I recently bought a 32" flat screen HDTV, it really isn't accurate to say it is a "little TV."

Oh the fun we have.

A Household Saying

In darkness or in light, Theo is alright.

Black Cat Bone

Last week, one of the stories that Bob Dylan told on his Theme Time Radio Show episode devoted to music about cats, was the story of the hoodoo legend of the black cat bone.

According to this legend, black cats have an extra bone that has the power to bring back lost love and also allows one to be invisible (it's not clear to me if there is a connection between the two powers). To get this bone you are supposed to boil a living black cat and when the process is done, the bone that floats to the top is this magical bone.

I swear this was the first I heard of this legend. I hope no one now thinks that the great soup incident of 2008 (where I spilled some soup on Diego-san and burned him) was in any way deliberate. As we chronicle on this blog every day, Diego brings me much more than the power of invisibility and the return of lost loves.

Bored Now

There's the old analogy that nothing is more boring than watching paint dry. I tested that analogy today.

The small chip in my windshield has quickly become a full fledged windshield wide crack. So I brought my car into the auto glass repair shop today and they warned me it would take three hours to replace the windshield. I thought to myself that they were just doing the customer service thing of not over promising so when they finished quicker than they told me it would take, they would look good and I'd go home happy. How long could it really take to replace a windshield?

It didn't occur to me the replacement work wasn't what took a long time. The issue was allowing drying time for the glue they use to help keep the glass in place. So I spent a good part of my afternoon not watching paint dry, but waiting for glue to dry. At least the shop did get me out sooner than expected. It took about two and a half hours before they sent me on my merry way. It did make me wonder how the boyz are so good at avoiding boredom even if their day consists of waiting for me to get home to feed them their next meal.

An Observation

I can't believe how quickly a vacuum bag fills up in a three cat household...

Groundhog Who?

Our nation's foremost weather forecaster, Punxsutawney Phil may have seen his shadow yesterday dooming us to six more weeks of winter, but a far more accurate indicator is Theo. Theo first basked in the sun, and then he chased his shadow all around the room. This means that even if winter does last forever, Theo will do his part to keep us all warm by being endlessly entertaining.

Iron Chef 2

Since I had a post about my love of the Iron Chef last week, I thought this was appropriate...

Super Super Bowl

The boyz and I enjoyed Super Bowl XLIII. I think the boyz were rooting against the Cardinals because they don't like birds very much but I'm not sure they know what a Steeler is. It was a darn fine game nonetheless.

TTRH

One of my favorite hours of the week is listening to Bob Dylan's XM Radio show, "Theme Time Radio Hour." You can tell Bob is having a ball sharing music he loves (mostly from the 30's, 40's and 50's).

Every week he chooses a theme and plays songs related to that theme. This past week the theme was "cats" and it was fun to hear all the music and tidbits about my favorite animal. My favorite song from the show was Emmy Oro's "Fish House Function" a funky blues number that I had never heard before (nor had I heard of Ms. Oro before). If you get a chance track down a copy of the song. You'll be glad you did.