Friday Fourteen

Since we didn't finish naming all the new plants and flowers yesterday on our Thursday Thirteen, we created a Friday Fourteen to see how many more we can name! Maw is planting perennials so that she will have seasonal color spring, summer and fall. And she's planting a few annuals just because she likes them. But she wants to attract hummers and flybutters and beez with her flowers. So she's trying to buy stuff that those creachurs are attracted to. So here's some more:

1. Lobelia Cardinalis (Cardinal Flower) (already yanked out because it didn't last)

2. Eolvulus Nutttallianus (Blue Daze) annual

3. Alternanthera 'Red Threads' Amaranto, (Joseph's Coat) annual

4. Lagerstroemia Indica (Dynamite Crape Myrtle)

5. Scaevola, Brilliant annual

6. Variegated Liriope

7. Cast Iron Plant

8. Wild Red Columbine (yanked 2 of these out already, will see if the 3rd one makes it.)

9. Turks Cap

10. Plectranthus coleoides 'Nicolleta', (Nicolleta Swedish Ivy)

11. Purple Fountain Grass annual

12. Dwarf Mondo Grass

13. Maw plans on getting several varieties of Autumn sage to attract the hummers.

14. 900 sq. ft. of St. Augustine sod is being delivered on Wednesday. Maw says this is more sq. footage than her first house in Omaha was. She's gonna be furry tired and sore after Wednesday.... Anyhoo, the Bur Oak, the Aristocrat Pear, the Bald Cypress, and the Chinese Pistachio trees that she has planted over the years have shaded most of the ornamental garden areas and a lot of the grass. So, that's why she's planting St. Augustine grass and shade tolerant perennials in many areas.

Oh, and she's probably gonna refrigerate some tulips and plant those in December. Tulips are only annuals here because it doesn't get cold enough for them. So in order to make them grow, you have to buy them in the fall and refrigerate them for like 45 days or something and then plant them. They will bloom in February or March depending on the weather.

Happy gardening!

Luf, Us

Thursday Thirteen #20

Thirteen Things That Maw Has Planted in Our New Gardens 1. Ruellia brittoniana 'Katie' (Mexican Petunia) was supposed to be "Dwarf", but is about 3 ft. tall now. The seeds are sprouting everywhere as the blooms burst open and send them flying. 2. Rudbeckia Goldsturm (Black-eyed Susan) 3. Heuchera micrantha, Palace Purple (Coral Bells) 4. Setcreasea pallida (Purple Heart) or Purpurea 5. Physostegia virginiana 'Miss Manners' (Obedient Plant) 6. Juniperus procumbens 'Green Mound' (Green Mound Juniper) 7. Thelypteris kunthii (Southern Wood Fern) 8. Gaura lindheimerii (Cherry Brandy Gaura) 9. Gaura lindheimeri (Karalee Petite Pink Gaura) 10. Baptisia Australis (False Blue Indigo) 11. Silver Showers White Lily Turf 12. Lyre Leaf Sage 13. Purple Coneflower Well, Maw planted more than 13 things but we ran out of numbers. She has now adopted the fil-aw-so-fy dat if it gitz buggy, or moldy, or spotty, or struggles to thrive, she's gonna yank it owt. We kaint wate fur nex spring to see how efurry ting duz!!! Luf, Us

Wordy Wednesday

We haven't made it around to efurrybody's blog lately because Maw is working in da yard a lot. She ist tilling up da old flower beds and adding expanded shale and compost to the black gumbo stuff that North Texans call dirt. Since it's the hottest time of the year, we purrsonally fink Maw hast lot wat few marbles she onced hadeded. A few bricks shy ov a full load. A few sanwitches shy of a pic-a-nic. A few kards shy ov a full deck. Maw's favrit saying was frum her drill sgt. wen she waz in basic training years and years ago. He was reely mad at dem and told dem dey wuz abowt az bright az a 40 watt light bulb in a bucket of s&*t. Maw hast neffer furgotten dat cuz she tot it wuz SO Funny!!!!

Anyhoo, we will try an make her bisit all ov yooze who hast leftededed commints ofur da last few days.




Luf, Us

Triple Tabbies on Tuesday

Mancat Monday

Smokey is wondering if wearing Paw's pants will enhance his Mancat image...

Silly Sunday

We want to shout out a Thank You to Jim Davis for a very funny Garfield cartoon in yesterday's Dallas Morning News. Maw woke up this morning to Gatsbi's yakking, and then discovered a total of 9 yak spots. Of course, there might be more that she hasn't discovered....

Photo Hunt #19 - Happy

Obi is a very happy cat. He always bounces into a room with a spring in his step. When he gets up in the mornings, he races from room to room and climbs up each cat tree. He loves to give head butts and to wrap around everyone's legs. He's never met a stranger.

Almost Formerly Feral Friday

Here's Jenny, relaxing after eating her morning stinky goodness. Jenny was an honest to goodness feral who was trapped when she was between 3 and 4 months of age. She lived with a colony of cats under an old woman's house next to a Taco Bell and the old woman fed them, but they also ate from the Taco Bell dumpster. When the old woman passed away, a rescue group began trapping the cats and moved them or found them homes. Jenny is still extremely skittish and we really can't do anything with her, so she just exists here. She's always been really healthy which is a good thing for her, since she would never let us medicate her. She's only been to the vet maybe 3 or 4 times in her 13 years of living here because it's very hard to catch her.

Someone asked the other day if Jenny has a tabby tail. Yes, she has a tabby tail, and a tabby spot on the back of one of her hind legs, and then the tabby bit on top of her head. Then the rest is all white.

She likes to play with Smokey, although she screams like she is being tortured when he chases her. She has always been very close to Bow, since Bow was the only other poodin here when she came to live with us.

Thursday Thirteen #19

Thirteen Things About Having Our Claws Trimmed 1. Paw holds us while Maw trims our claws. 2. Reno has his claws trimmed first because otherwise, he'll go into deep hiding and run away for the next 3 weeks anytime Maw or Paw get close to him because he knows what torture is about to be bestowed upon him. So Maw waits until he is sound asleep, then nabs him. Then he meows at each and every clip. That's 18 meows. 3. Obi moans and groans through the whole thing. His claws hide in his long furs and it is difficult to find them. 4. Annie protests loudly and spits and hisses around the end of her pedicure session. 5. G.T. wriggles and squirms, and pulls his front paws away just as Maw gets the claw positioned in the clippers. 6. Dorf curls his feet into tight balls so that Maw has to uncurl them, then he yanks them back and curls them again. By the end of his pedicure session, he is spitting and hissing and trying to put the bitey on Maw. 7. Gatsbi runs and hides, but about 4 hours later she forgets and comes out. Then she gets grabbed. She also gets weighed after her pedicure to see how much weight she has lost on her d-i-e-t. 8. Smokey is very heavy and wriggles a lot, but doesn't say anything. 9. Jenny doesn't get pedicures. She has velcro toes. She can't be picked up, or even caught. 10. Bow only has his back claws, and they are very thick because he's a senior citizen. 11. Sally does her Sgt. Sally howl at first, but then resigns herself to getting her pedicure. 12. We endure this torture monthly. 13. When it's all over, Maw gets out the sucky monster because there are a gazillion claws on the carpet. Luf, Us

Wordless Wednesday

NOMSS #2

Here is another picture of our furriend, Mr. Squirrel. You'll notice that he is just hanging out...

Mancat Monday

Sally on Sunday

Photo Hunt # 18

The Theme is Two.

Here are Dorf and G.T. Do you know which is which?

Memes

Well, we're behind on several Memes that we were tagged to do. So we're doing them all today. And we're not tagging anybody because most efurrybody has already been tagged.

Bliss and Vinegar tagged us back in July for 8 Random Facts about us. We're gonna let Maw answer this Meme since 8 times 10 would be 80 Random Facts and she would get writer's cramp doing all that dictation for us.

1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
***************************************
The most random facts about Maw…
1. Maw was in the US Air Force for 4 years many, many eons ago.
2. Maw was raised in Indianapolis, spent 10 years in Omaha, and then moved to Dallas.
3. This is Maw's favorite web site: Tom Grisak Estate Homes She loves to go here to drool.
4. Maw loves Frappacinos from the bottle. She had to limit herself to 2 per day because she had a very big weight gain when she drank 4 per day.
5. Maw and her cousin used to dream about having an animal sanctuary when they were little girls. They said they would take in every stray animal they could find.
6. Maw and Paw were married on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. She planned the whole thing over the internet and they had an "untraditional" ceremony on a private estate and didn't invite anyone. The guitarist and the photographer were witnesses.
7. Maw loves the mountains and would love to retire in the middle of nowhere with mountains all around.
8. Maw would be perfectly happy to be a hermit as long as she had internet access.


And Flynn from Eric and Flynn tagged Obi for a Meme back in July also.

What were you doing 10 years ago? I was living my life as a squirrel attempting to reach my highest spiritual potential, not realizing that I would need to reincarnate many times over to learn life's lessons.

What were you doing a year ago? Sleeping outside in my enclosure in the August heat.

What are your five favorite snacks? Temptayshuns!, food, nip, TUNA, Temptayshuns!

Five songs you know all the words to: I only know one song. It's the one Maw sings to me all the time. "Obi dobi do, we love you, Obi dobi do, we love you, Obi dobi do, we love you, Obi dobi do, we love you.

Five things you would do if you had a million dollars: I would buy a ginormous house with stairs so that we could each have a room and we could play thundering herds of elephants up and down the stairs and we could each hide in our own rooms. Behind the house would be a ginormous shelter for unwanted poodins. And I would educate stoopid beans to get their cats and dogs fixed.

Five bad habits: Whapping other poodins on the head when they look at me. Jumping on Maw's lap when another poodin is already there. Sticking my head in the food bowl when another poodin is already eating. Whapping Annie on the head when she jumps on the sink. Taking over the Kitty Teaser game when it's G.T.'s turn to play.

Five things I'll nefur wear again: e-collar, e-collar, e-collar, e-collar, e-collar

Five favorite toys: Nip, Whirly-bird, Kitty Teaser, laser pointer, cat trees


Then we were tagged by Storm, The Furry Fighter with the Middle Name Meme. We're only going to do one of us. We'll do Dorf. His name is Dorfington Fish Stanley. Stanley is not our last name, so we don't know why he uses that, but, whatever.

Here are the rules:
1. Post the rules before you give the facts.
2. List one fact that is somehow relevant to you and your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
3. When you are tagged you need to write your post using your middle name and facts about it.
4. At the end of your post, choose one cat to tag for each letter of your middle name. Be sure to let each cat know she/he has been tagged. (It's okay if you don't do this... tag who you want to tag!)

F: Fangs no more.
I: Irresistably cute. 'Nuf said.
S: Sleep is underrated. Naps all around! Good night.
H: Happy to be done with the vet dentist.


Luf, Us

Questions to Ponder

Maw is too busy today to do a TT, so she borrowed these questions from an email that was sent to her.


But here is a lovely picture of Obi in our new cubes that Maw bought to celebrate Dorfie having no more teeth.





And now, without further ado, here are the questions:


Can you cry under water?

How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?

Why do you have to "put your two cents in".. but it's only a "penny for your thoughts"? Where's that extra penny going to?

Once you're in heaven, do you get stuck wearing the clothes you were buried in for eternity?

Why does a round pizza come in a square box?

What disease did cured ham actually have?

How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?

Why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up like every two hours?

If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?

Why are you IN a movie, but you're ON TV?

Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?

Why do doctors leave the room while you change? They're going to see you naked anyway.

Why is "bra" singular and "panties" plural?

Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?

If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a stupid song about him?

Can a hearse carrying a corpse drive in the carpool lane ?

If the professor on Gilligan's Island can make a radio out of a coconut, why can't he fix a hole in a boat?

Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They're both dogs!

If Wile E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that ACME crap, why didn't he just buy dinner?

If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from?

If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?

Do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?

Why did you just try singing the two songs above?

Why do they call it an asteroid when it's outside the hemisphere, but call it a hemorrhoid when it's in your butt?

Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him for a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?

Luf, Us

Dorfie is Done!

Dorfie is officially done! No more toofies, no more operashuns, no more coneheads, no more medicines!!! He hast bin declared DONE! You kin kinena see wer his nek wuz shaved fur wer hiz feedin tube wuz inserted.

We ist all SO HAPPY! Oh, we ist gonna take big naps now...

Luf, Us

Varyyus Noos

Hello All,

Well, Dorf hast bin de-coned. He dunt go to da vet dentist until tomorry, but he dun wid hiz cone sez Maw.

Lotz ov u sed u hast nefer seen a skwirrel doin da Monty Q, but dey do dat a lot here wen itz hot. Last yeer wen we wuz hafin da extreme drought, we had lotza buns & skwirrels doin da Monty Q in owr durt unner da big oak twee. Da buns efen dig a liddle hole to put der bellies in. Maw putz plastik pot saucers owt in da yard wid water fur dem. We had lotz ov fev-vers, buns & skwirrels comin to owr yard last yeer fur da water an da dirt. Maw felt furry sorry fur da owtside creechurs last yeer durin da extreme drought. We did too.

Oh, & da skwirrel mite be kinena chunky cuz he eatz frum da bird feeder in owr bak yard.

Luf, Us

Mr. Squirrel

This is our NOMSS friend, Mr. Squirrel. As you can plainly see, he was all sprawled out in the dirt trying to cool his belly yesterday when it was 105F outside. He would scamper around, and then come back and do a belly-flop to cool off. We're so glad that we are inside cats!!!

Silent Sunday

Photo Hunters #17

A row of food bowls...

Conehead and Contractors

So here is our little conehead, Dorfie. He was temporarily out of his convalescence room and with the general population where there was lots of hissing, spitting, and general running around going on from the other cats who didn't like his appearance much.


And here is our little conehead practicing daring feats of climbing, trying to imitate Daisy, the Circus Cat.

And here is our little conehead performing a dismount.


Maw has to say that she has had good experiences with contractors and companies. When she had the new privacy fence installed last year, they did a fantastic job and she was very pleased with the work and the workmen. And the year before when she had the new heating and a/c system installed, she was extremely pleased with the work, and the equipment they installed. As a matter of fact, last year when all her friends and neighbors' electric bills were doubling, our bill stayed the same as the previous year's bill which thrilled her and Paw to no end. And the new system does a much better job of keeping a constant temperature.

And the window company immediately agreed to pay to have the tub fixed. The guys who install their windows aren't subs, but full time employees. Most companies in the DFW area who have their own employees make that clear when dealing with them. They state up-front that they have their own employees, no subs, because it's really easy to go pick up day laborers from any of the various cities' Day Labor centers.

And when the delivery guys screwed up the vinyl flooring while installing the pedestals for the washer & dryer, Maw did have a very hard time getting reimbursement from the delivery company that Sears sub-contracted to. But after getting the Sears General Manager of the local store involved from where she purchased the items, things went very quickly and she got a full reimbursement for new flooring. She was also told that this delivery company was going to lose their nationwide contract because they had accumulated so many complaints against them in just 3 months of their year long contract. This made Maw happy. This was a year or so ago now, though.

But yeah, we agree with all of you who say that you try and do as much yourself as you can. Maw & Paw try to as well. It's just that they aren't as handy as a lot of your beans are, and Paw works 6 days a week. And the to-do list is always growing instead of shrinking....

But we'll let you all know how Angie's list for the DFW area works out. Maw bought a year's subscription to it.

Luf, Us

Thursday Thirteen #18

Thirteen Reasons Why We Haven't Been Around

1. Maw took Dorf to the vet dentist on Wednesday last week to have his check-up and to get his feeding tube removed. Maw was sure that Dorfie was doing great and everything was fine. The vet dentist showed Maw that Dorfie had ripped out his stitches (again) and needed more surgery to the tune of another $900. Maw was in shock and quite angry because she was sure that she and Paw had done everything correctly this time. She was also angry that neither the vet nor the vet tech noticed that Dorfie's feeding tube had extended by about 4 inches (he had pulled it out). So they went ahead and stitched Dorfie back up and removed his feeding tube.

2. Maw was telling Paw about this on the phone when her doctor beeped in to tell her that she had missed her appointment and would still be charged.

3. As soon as Maw hung up from talking with Paw and her doctor, the men installing the new windows dropped the old bathroom window into the tub, leaving 2 huge gouge marks and a dent in the tub and also broke off 6 tiles in the process.

4. So Maw & Paw go to get Dorfie Wednesday evening (this is a 2 hour round trip drive in rush hour traffic in both directions because of where we live and where the vet dentist is located). When they get there, the tech tells Maw to remove Dorfie's neck bandage in 2 days which was covering the hole where his feeding tube was located. Maw asked if the e-collar would abrade this spot. The tech didn't think it would. Of course, when Maw removed the bandage in 2 days, Dorfie immediately scratched the holy crap out of the spot and opened it up.

5. So Maw is exhausted because of spoon feeding Dorfie 5 or 6 times a day. He is getting VERY tired of this routine, and really just wants to groom instead of eating when she pops his e-collar for his feedings. She & Paw have been wiping his incision spot twice daily and bandaging it with roll gauze and vet tape so he can't scratch it open. He still has another week of e-collar, meds, and spoon feeding to go.

6. Maw has a company come out on Monday to fix the tub. They tell her they will bondo the gouges, and that it won't smell as long as she keeps the window open and a fan blowing through it. They also tell her when it is done that the paint will self-level as it dries. Right. The house stank for 2 days like an auto body shop. They didn't bondo the gouges, they only painted over them. They got overspray on the toilet, and paint spatters on the bathroom floor and in the hallway from the equipment. The paint didn't self-level, and now it looks like orange peel rather than a smooth surface.

7. Summer has officially hit Dallas. We went from the 80s and rain to the upper 90s and high humidity. Maw gets REALLY grumpy in the heat of Dallas summers.

8. Bow is REALLY missing his outside cat enclosure and is beginning to pace.

9. Maw has barely been looking at the computer.

10. On Monday, Jenny was either in the garage when Paw left, or when Maw left, and got out when the garage door opened. No one knew this until around 3:00 when Obi was looking out the back door like he does when Orinch comes to eat. Maw thought it was too early for Orinch and she looked out the door, and there is little ol' Jenny looking in at her. Luckily, since Jenny was an inside/outside cat for about 8 years before Davy was killed, she knows how to leap privacy fences and where the back door is so that she can be let back in.

11. Maw's "to-do" list keeps growing instead of shrinking.

12. The stupid font on this post keeps changing and Maw is getting tired of farting around with it!!!!

13. We haven't had much to say because when Maw is stressed, we get stressed. Although we haven't been yakking nearly as much since we can't go outside in our cat enclosure anymore. And this makes Maw VERY HAPPY....


Maw would like to know if any of your beans have as much trouble with contractors as she does. When she had our new carpeting put down several years back, the men were moving her china hutch and ripped the bottom of it right off the base. When she had the risers installed under her new front load washer and dryer, the guys tore up the vinyl flooring in the laundry room. When she had a painter do the kitchen and bathrooms with skip trowel and a faux finish, he scratched up her brand new stainless steel sink, broke her bathroom mirror and left stain splatters on her flooring and wall outlets. Does Maw have really bad luck, or does the service industry pretty much suck anymore? Oh yeah, Maw joined "Angie's List" yesterday so that she can see locally recommended contractors and such. Although right now, she is really burnt out on having contractors come into our house and screw things up.

Luf, Us

Happy Purrfday to G.T. and Dorf!!!

Today is G.T. and Dorf's 7th Purrfday!!!

Since Dorf is still not 100%, we're going to delay the Par-Tay for a couple of weeks. But then we'll have a really big Par-Tay with Niptinis, toys, hammocks, HAM, tuna joose, chicken pot pie, toys, premo NIP, cheese balls, shrimp Hors D'oeuvres and efurryting else we can think of to make it a blow-out Par-Tay!!! And efurrybody can bring their tents for TENT WARS!!!!

Luf, Us

Wordless Wednesday

A friend sent this to our Maw. She thought it was pretty funny. We don't see the humor.