Halloween Duo

More than any other night of the year, Halloween is a night that black cats (and mostly black cats) have to stick together even if one of the two may disagree.

Portrait of Diego-san

This is my all time favorite picture of Diego-san. It was taken by my friend A- back in 2005 when I asked her to take some photos of the boyz (just Thompson and Diego-san lived here back then) for our 2005 Christmas card. This picture captures Diego's personality pretty pretty well.

What's for Lunch?

Not that I want to waste the boyz space with my own follies but last night I stopped at the grocery store on my way home from work. My refrigerator is pretty bare these days but among the essentials I was out of were bread and butter. So I bought a loaf and a tub.

As I do every morning I prepared my lunch and snacks for the day- a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a tofu burger, an apple, and yogurt. When I got to work I went to put my food away and noticed I grabbed the wrong bag from my home refrigerator. I had grabbed the bag with the tub of butter in it (I had removed the bread already). So I had a tub of butter for lunch.

Not really. I ended up going to a nearby Chinese restaurant. When I got home I told the story to Thompson who always seems eager to hear all about my day. Oh the laughs we had (at least one of us).

Sleep Deprived

I've been working a lot of hours the past month or so. Sleep has sorta become a luxury- especially with one boy who decides he wants to play fetch at three in the morning so he goes tearing around and mewing to have a ball thrown his way, and another boy who just has to get underneath the covers with me at various times during the night so he paws at my face until I lift the covers up.

I'll be the first to admit I've been a bit of a zombie (appropriate given the time of year) the past few days. Today I found myself a bit edgy when I walked around corners afraid of bumping into people. Now I know how Theo feels- his normal state of being is in a word, 'jumpy.' He seldom seems relaxed and always seems worried about what lurks around the corner...

Adjusting Part Two

The regular Sunday routine has been for me to watch sports on my living room couch (well watch is a loose term since I almost always fall asleep). Thompson and/or Theo usually join me by taking a nap while lying on my chest. Diego usually is off somewhere else taking a solo nap.

Yesterday I went downstairs and was a little disappointed Thompson and Theo didn't come down to join me. Instead Diego took his nap by my side. It was nice spending alone time with Diego, which is somewhat rare. But I do hope the other boyz get over their uncertainty about the new lower wing of the house...

Adjusting

The boyz still don't seem to know what to make of the new downstairs. I haven't been home much myself to enjoy it. The boyz join me when I'm down there but Theo and Diego can't seem to ever sit still and Thompson is on his high alert mode... ready to spring upstairs at the hint of anything startling happening...

Theo Sez

"Thompson, seriously... I heard something down there..."

The Boyz (and certainly not me) Are the Coolest

Our fellow Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan Gizmo bestowed on us the following award:


We are supposed to pass this on to ten other blogs. The boyz however have told me there are way too many we should bestow the award to and we wouldn't want to miss anyone so we bestow them on everybody out there....

Thanks Gizmo.

Hey Little Rock Star

I went to hear Lucinda Williams at First Ave. She played in sequence all the songs from her new CD, "Little Honey." For the second straight concert I got there early enough to stand right up next to the stage. This time I was slightly off to Lucinda's left about four feet away. She uses a music stand that has a book of all the lyrics and this was also to her left so she kept having to look down my way.

She screwed up the duet on the new song "Jailhouse Tears." On the CD the male part is sung (with great gusto) by Elvis Costello. In concert her lead guitarist Doug Pettibone took the part. When they got to his first verse Lucinda sang it and then quickly realized her mistake. She stopped the band and was visibly upset because the concert was also being webstreamed. They tried it three or four more times and she kept screwing it up and you could see her mood deteriorating. They finally got it right and it took her a few more songs to warm up to the audience again.

Her second set featured two songs from each of her other albums. All in all a very fine concert by one of our best singer/songwriters.

Pumped Up

I've been working late almost every evening this week. Diego-san apparently decided to save up all his energy for tonight. As soon as I got home he raced upstairs. When we were done with dinner he zoomed downstairs and sprinted through the tunnel that leads to the litter boxes. At first I thought the normal thing was happening and Theo was chasing him but I saw Theo in the kitchen still finishing up his meal. When Diego decides he is going to expend his energy running around he is like a flash - a black blur.

Batty

With all the house rearranging I've been doing recently I have to admit I find it highly amusing that every time I move a piece of furniture I end up finding about a dozen of the crinkly balls that Theo loves. He loves to play fetch and every time he hears me pick up one of the crinkly balls he comes running into the room full of expectation that we are about to play fetch. I've put all the crinkly balls I have found in the boyz's toy box and nearly all of them are gone again. When I'm not around he'll play a solo game of fetch batting the ball as far as he can and chasing after it. Theo just can't leave them alone...

TVLand Revisited

A couple days ago I showed you a picture of Diego-san playing a lonesome game of Hollywood Squares. Today Theo and Diego are showing you their imitation of the Brady Bunch theme.

The boyz had to explore the new/old bookcase I moved from my dad's house to mine over the weekend. It's the bookcase I had growing up, and now with my own house remodel and the move of a couch from the living room to the lower wing, there was a huge open space in the living room. Of course I'm not so much into book learnin these days so the bookshelf is going to hold some DVDs and CDs for now (that is when it isn't full of kitties).

Back to Back

Sometimes you don't actually need to see your best buddy. It's enough just to know he's got your back.

The Amazing Circus Kitty

I was enjoying my new TV in my newly finished basement when I heard a noise in the other room so I got up to investigate.

In that room there's a window about 10 feet off the ground. There in the window sill sat a calm looking Diego-san. I'm not sure how he got up there. There was nothing for him to climb up on the jump up on to the sill. My guess is that he used the mattress sitting a few feet away to trampoline himself up into the window. Needless to say, I was quite impressed (and happy he didn't crash through the window itself).

Of course his favorite spot to sit in the new wing of the house is inside the new shelves. That jump is a little easier as he hops on to the cabinet below and climbs on up. Here is a picture of him playing a lonesome game of Hollywood Squares.

All the world is Diego-san's playground.

I'll Follow the Sun

The days are getting noticeably shorter so a boy's gotta get as much sun as a boy can get.

Twins

I collect bobbleheads. A couple of years ago my sister gave me this feline bobblehead to add to my collection. I brought this bobblehead to work because the look on its face so reminds me of the blank stare I often get from Theo.

Whenever I have a tough day at work I look at the bobblehead and I think about my little guy Theo and I just can't wait to be home again with my littlest buddy...

Little Honey

One of my top three favorite singer/songwriters released a new CD Tuesday. The boyz and I are listening to Lucinda Williams' "Little Honey" right now. I'm quite enjoying it- it's very unusual to hear Lucinda sing some happy songs.

I bought the CD through Amazon. One of the big disadvantages of buying new music from Amazon is that they don't ship the CD until the day before or on the day it is officially released- meaning you don't receive it until days after you could have gotten it if you hadn't been lazy and had gotten your tushie off the sofa and scampered on down to your favorite neighborhood CD store.

When I saw the Amazon box sitting inside my doorway I knew immediately what it was and was quite excited to hear new Lucinda Williams' songs. I opened the door and right on cue Theo greeted me as I said, "Hey buddy, my lil honey, we got 'Little Honey!'"

Oh the laughs we have.

I can't wait to see Lucinda when she plays here next week...

Unusual Day

Over the weekend my friend M- gave me her old oven/stove which happened to be about 30 years newer than the one I've had since I moved into my house.

Today I arranged for a junk company to come and haul away the old stove. So I took off a little early from work and when I got home my dad was over with the furnace guy to give my furnace a tune up. None of the boyz was in sight so I did a search and found Thompson underneath my futon frame. I couldn't find either Theo or Diego but 15 minutes after the furnace guy left they both came sauntering upstairs. Apparently Diego had to supervise the work and Theo tagged along.

The boyz thought all was normal then the junk company guys arrived and hauled away the oven/stove. All three boyz went back in hiding. At night I went and got a new TV for the newly remodeled basement and they got to hear some cursing as I had some trouble setting it up.

All and all a very exciting day.

Mr. Silk

Diego-san has the softest fur I've ever felt on an animal. His fur is like silk. One visitor once actually asked me if I put something on him to make him so soft. Nope. That's the way god made him and having the pride the size of a lion, Diego would settle for nothing less.

Thompson Sez

"He can be a little bit pesky at times but he does make a good pillow."