Twofur Tuesday

IZA:  Some nights, ya just cant get annything right!  Marley is in Aylas bed-on-the-bed and I am not in the corner of the bed as usual.

The USUAL places are for Marley to be on the top platform of the old tree in The Mews Room (not the fancy ones in the living room).  And I normally sleep in the bottom corner of the waterybed because it doesnt move much when TBT tosses and turns at night. 

It was probably a Full Moon or something...

Summer Is Here

We dont care WHAT the calendar says, its SUMMER!.  We know, cuz the weerd bugs are around...

We dont even want ta PLAY with that thing...

Caturday Saturday

AYLA:  I normally stay up on the deck these days, but sometimes I go out.

Well, thats where the NIP grows, ya know?

But even then, I dont stay down fer long.  Fer some weerd reason, when I am outside, Marley gets delusions and thinks I'm a bunny.  Or Evil Skwerrel.  

So I go back up when he comes close.

He's purrfectly normal when I'm on the deck...

I cant explain it and neither can he.  He gets into real "hunter mode" sometimes.

Freaky Friday

MARLEY:  So I wake up and find this THING on me.  I did the only reasonable thing and waited as I groomed my paws.  Well, that's what I do when I wake up.  Ya got ta have the paws in good condition fer the rest of the day, right?

IZA:  He did it AGAIN.  I go all frozen when he does that.  I think it is something Mom did when I was a kitten (a paw on my head), but it is hard ta remember.

He says it is payback fer walking all over him last night when he was trying ta sleep.

Gee, he could've just TOLD us.

TBT:  I did.  They wouldn't stop.  I DID warn them...

Mayhem Monday

With all the problems in the world today with hurricanes, earthquakes, and landslides (and recognizing it is also 9-11) there is a place for taking problems with some humor.  This is a bit long but we hope you will bear with us...

You all may have noticed that we talk about how, when TBT has something go wrong with the house, yard, and contents, it it usually weerd. 

A repair to the heat pump fails and TBT tells the repairer they need to come back out "because..." and they say "it cant be that, that never happens", and it IS and it DID".  The kitchen fluorescent light wont come on when the attic gets hot and they "that doesnt happen, your bulbs are burned out", but they arrive because he insists on a ballast replacement and they find he was right because the bulbs werk perfectly in other fixtures. 

The best one was a few years ago when TBT wanted an additional staircase light added at the bottom of the stairs.  OK, this may be tricky.  We have a split-foyer house.  The door is 6' above the lawn.  You go up steps to open it and there is a half flight going down to the basement and a half flight going up to the main floor.  There is a big light at the top, but the bottom of the stairs was dark.  There are 3 switches.  One at the top, one at the middle (the door) and one at the bottom. 

So he had a guy come out to add a light at the bottom, wired to the existing switches so both would come on.  Simple, right?  Wrong.  This is TBT we are talking about.  Nothing is ever that simple.  The electrician guy stood at the bottom switch where he had done the connection and flipped the switch several times.  Both lights came on and both lights went off several times.  Thank, here's your check, goodbye...

Only the next day, he discovered that flipping the OTHER 2 switches made one light come on and the other go off, alternating each time he flipped the switch.  He called the electrician company and they said "that's impossible, cant happen".  Like TBT was making it up?

But they came out and discovered he was right.  The previous electrician had done something really stupid about 3-way switches.  And they wanted to charge him again for the visit.  To save going to small-claims court, TBT finally agreed to pay half.  And wrote nasty things on AngiesList about them.
   ________________

Well, TBT has topped himself for weerd problems.  Yesterday, he discovered he was nearly out of gas in the car.  He wanted to go to the Safeway 10 miles away today because he had would have had 30 cent per gallon bonuses accumulated.  But he wasnt sure he had enough gas to get there.  So he used the 3 gallons he had in the portable gas can  (for mowers and stuff) and poured it in.  That part was fine; same gas.

Only, when he turned the can up high to get the last of it out, the gas can spout popped further into the car gar tank.

AND STUCK THERE!  It wouldnt come out!  Fortunately, the gas CAN was empty then, so it just sort of hung there while he contemplated the situation... 

Would pulling on the metal spout cause a spark igniting the gas in the car (in the garage, which is in the basement of the house?

Would pulling case the tip of the metal spot to come loose in the car gas tank and cause a problem?

Would it force damage the cars gas filling tube so the cap wouldn't fit?

Most Beins never have to answer these questions...

And of COURSE, it was Sunday and he couldn't call a dealer and ask what to do.  So he looked it up on the internet.  Beins have to add gas from cans often enough, this MUST have happened before.  Apparently not.  Nozzles from certain older gas pumps and gas stations have gotten stuck in some odd capless filler Ford used a decade ago.  Beins have driven away from gas stations with the gas station pump nozzle still in their car.  And plastic gas can tips have come loose and fallen into the car gar tank.

He couldn't find a single case of a metal gas can spout getting stuck in the cars gas filler opening!

The closest he found was about station pump nozzles getting stuck.  One site showed how to use a cut-up plastic bottle to slide it around the nozzle and the pull it out.  Werked great on the video.  An hour of TBT trying that in many ways did not...  Slightly differnt problem apparently, he says.

So TBT unscrewed the gas can spout from the gas can and secured plastic over it with twisties.  Stuffed another plastic bag in around the car gr filler opening and put duct tape in there to keep the bag in place.  It is about as secure as a gas cap. 

He is driving to the dealership 3 miles away as soon as they are open and LEAVING IT THERE until they can fix it.  They have a nice shuttle service and will drive him home and pick him up when the problem is fixed. 

WE are fine.  We have a months worth of canned food in the closet.  TBT is not.  He is out of lettuce.  That was why he was going to the Safeway today to grocery shop.  A day without a good tossed salad makes him cranky. 

We will let you know the end of the story when we learn it ourselfs...

And thanks for reading this long post without pictures.  TBT was just NOT in the mood for processing pictures last night.

Weerd Tuesday

IZA:  OK, first, TBT says I am required ta say that we caught a bunny this morning and I was slightly hungry (none of us can get relly hungry around here - we get 6 mousie-sized meals a day).   And pictures follow.  But there is a question at the end...

I was pretty thrilled.

Nom. Nom...

 Gotta make sure no one else is moving in on my bunny...

 Nom. Nom...

 I did a good job on the haunches. 

 Nom, Nom...

But then I went inside.  Most of the bunny was left fer later.

But we got a real surprise!  After an hour, we went out again, and It...Was... GONE!

Not ta be gross, but there was only the stringy intestines and tail parts that nocat wants.  Not even a HEAD!  Not even TOES!

We are baffled!  None of us saw or heard anything outside.  Even TBT who LIVES at window height and was glancing out through the windows often watchin fer our newest groundhog not saw anything.  SOMETHING ate all my bunny right in the open part of our backyard and none of us knew it...

Anny thoughts?   Kinna close ta the house fer a vulture, we haven't smelled a fox round, no coyotes in the area that we know of, no dogs can get through the fence, a hawk or eagle would have just taken the whole thing away...  A snake would have swallowed the whole thing. 

THAT'S spooky!!!

Garden Tour Thursday

AYLA:   I asked Iza iffen I could show the plants on the deck, since thats where I spend most of MY time outside, and she said that seemed good. 

The planter pot plants are starting ta fill in and bloom.  This one of Pinwheel Zinnias have many colors.  Two different yellows, an orange, a red, and on the left is a cream, but its not blooming right now.  But there are lots of buds, so it should really look good soon!

The middle pot here has Caladiums and Yellow Marigolds.  The smaller pots have Orange Zinnias.

These Yellow Zinnias were blooming when planted, but when they got put in real dirt, they switched over ta getting bigger.  Which is good, cuz now they have lots of buds all over.  

These are a differnt Yellow Zinnia.  They are growing lots, too!

The Marigolds all seem a bit sprawly, but iffen they all drape over the sides, that should like nice eventually.

Our funny tomato plant is growing and there is even the first little tomato starting.  The flowers are Orange Zinnias, but there is 1 Red Salvia in the middle that will get taller.

This is another Caladium pot with Marigolda draping over the sides.  That curly thing is the watering hose.  It is easier ta drag around the deck than a regular one, and it kinna puts itself away when not in use.  TBT read about those an some had problems with leaks, but he saw which one Home Depot was using and figured they would know which kind was best!

IZA:   Well, pretty good job, Ayla, Thank You!  Now lets go out in the yard and look around...

The Black-Eyed Susans are doing nicely.  They are native here, so they are used ta the droughts and heat.  You'll see patches of them scattered around the yard.  TBT dint plant them all over, they just find the spots they like best.  Smart plants!

 Next ta them are 2 Star-Gazer Lilies.  This one is fragrant, so TBT has them next to a path.

This is a pretty sight.  Black-Eyed Susans growing up through our Nip Patch!  

This funny thing is a Crocosmia.  The flowers are small, but the plants are finally spreading and they dont need any care.

The Impatiens are starting ta bloom and fill in...

And next ta them are Coleus.  They are filling in, too.  They and the Impatiens are under the shade of the deck.  AND they get extra water from when the deck pots above are watered.  They like staying moist.

 They are really fancy seen close up like this!

And I have a couple of insects ta show...

The Tiger Swallowtail butterflies are enjoying the Butterfly Bushes.  There are lots of small orangish ones I think are called Painted Ladies, too.

This is just a picture TBT took earlier today (because they have certainly moved away by now), but I wanted ta include it cuz we might see some around during the tour.  But they probably wont be doing THIS!

TBT saw the large Praying Mantis walking over some viny plant, and THEN he noticed the smaller one following it around.  The larger one is probably a female and the smaller one a male.  So he stopped ta watch cuz he thought they were gonna mate and he had never seen THAT before. 

They kinna act like some spiders do.  They mate and then sometimes the female eats the male afterwards as a big protein boost fer her ta develop her eggs.  This male dint even get THAT chance though.  Apparently she wasnt in the mood.  She just pounced him and started eating.  He seemed really unhappy about that!

Well, I like a nice crunchy buggy now and then, too.

Speaking of food, lets go up on the deck now that it is shady and have some snacks.  We are keeping it simple this time.  We have minced chicken breast and water with Nip leafs crushed in it.  And of course, there is fresh Nip at the bottom of the deck stairs.  Feel free...

Thanks for coming on my our Garden Tour!

Picture Mystery Solved!

OK, we kept lookin at that picture from yesserday.  TBT kept lookin at it too.  HE got the idea of rotating it slowly and then we all went OH!!!

It was our bedroom, but blurry!  But when we looked at the original (heads all tilted ta the left, it made sense...  What we thought were toy mousies were hats.  What we thought was a box was the frame around the closet doors.

The picture has a weerd shape cuz we twisted it ta make it level...

It is (of course) TBTs fault.  He seems to have pressed the TAKE button while he was moving the camera to get a picture of US (and what better ta take a picture OF?).

Mystery solved.  But we have instructed TBT ta be more careful with handling his camera in the future...  We dont need confoosing pictures like THAT!

Freaky Friday

AYLA:  None of us are quite sure what ta make of this picture, but since that appears ta be MY tail, I got forced allowed ta write the post about it.  It seems that I was hopping into a box, but it also seems to be on the waterbed, but those also seem to be mousies in rows.  None of which makes anny sense.

TBT says it LOOKS like multiple exposures and some sort of digital stuttering in the camera  (the rows of mousies, several images of the box, and those 2 squiggles inside the box).  Beats US what happened!

But we thought it was weerd enough ta show fer yer amusement...

Girlcat Tuesday

We're not sure what this stringy thing is, but it bothers us.

It just goes all over the place...

We looked to TBT but he isnt helpin us.  He is bein peculiar, saying we can figure it out ourselfs.

We're not gettin it.   Well, we dont actally care,  We want our 5th meal of the day...

Freaky Friday

AYLA:  We are allus anxious ta get outside each day ta discover what happened overnight.  Sometimes there are cool things like birdicides against the deck door, new piles of leaves, and smells of OTHER ANIMALS.

Well, we sure dint expect what we found THIS morning!  3/4 of a doughnut with sprinkles...

TBT figured that some scavenger had brought it up on the deck and left it in trade fer the dedded cardinal we left there.  But then we noticed the dedded cardinal was still there (moved a bit but uneaten).  And MORE weerd, there was a 2ND half-eaten doughnut on the deck.  There was more than one whole donut!

So we thought about that fer a bit.  And none of us had any good ideas.  Even TBT was baffled.  So we all decided ta have a brain thunder [TBT:  That's a "brainstorm", Ayla]  Oh thunder, storm, WHATevers...  Annywhosits, we concluded:

1.  Donut-munchin Beins had been looking in our deck door and got scared off when we entered the room but dint see them.

2.  A donut-loving raccoon (or somethin) had come by and dropped his donut when he saw the dedded birdie but decided he dint want either of them [TBT: Ayla, that only explains one donut]. 

3.  Argg.  OK  TWO raccoons came by (or one with 2 donuts - this is getting complexicated).

4.  The dedded birdy was frozen to death and some friends brought sprinkles and they were all stuck to donuts (the sprinkles, not the friend).  [TBT:  Ayla, the Northern Cardinal can't carry a half a donut]

5.  Argh, maybe several of his friends helped.  WILL you shut UP TBT!?  I'm trying to solve a mystery here. 

6.  The raccoon (or whatever) brought a friend and they BOTH had more than a half a donut with them.

7.  The donuts were left there by a neighboring cat ta confoose us (that MY best theory so far).

8.  Yogi Bear had a sloppy picinic on our deck.

9.  Santa was making a trial run and was bulking up on donuts and got sloppy right over our house.

10.  Dunkin Donuts was testing out a new delivery drone and there was a delivery failure. 

11.  The Moon poops donuts and this was the first time one (two) landed HERE!

12.  TBT is funnin us [TBT:  Nope, haven't eaten or bought a donut in a decade and sure not with pink icing and sprinkles]. 

13.  We were "TP'd by some donut pranksters.

14.  Something we havent thought of yet.  Thats the lame idea of all the others here.  (see MY idea #7)

Anny thoughts from the Cat Blogosphere?

Weerd Wensday

MARLEY:  We are tryin out something new.  There is stuff we have been wanting ta post but dint know when, so *I* thought up THIS idea.  Its going to be stuff that doesn't fit our regular "day of" themes.

Today we will start with whiskers.  Ya see, TBT collects our fallen-out whiskers (when he can find them).  Its not like he has all of them.  We lose some outside, some get captured by the sucky machine, etc.  But what he can find, he keeps.

We arent sure why he does, but we think it is sweet of him to to it.

So this is the glass bottle TBT found to keep our old whiskers in.

You can see there are a lot of whiskers in there.  But here are pictures of them spilled out and spread a bit.

There are a couple at the top here and on the right below we aren't sure of.  Well, sometimes he's not wearing his reading glasses so they look like our whiskers but arent.  Can you see the "wrong" ones?

He will get those removed next time he spills them all out.

Freaky Friday

TBT:  GLOOM...  This post is without pictures.  Because I LOST THEM (pictures, not the Mews).  And they were GREAT!  I was on the computer last night and the Mews were all sitting in a triangle with their heads together and they were engaged in a 3-way mutual head licking session.  I took a dozen pictures with the old camera (only one in reach).

I uploaded the pictures to iPhoto and saw them there.  Then I uploaded some pictures from the new camera.  Somewhere in the process, the previous ones disappeared.  Well, OK, I've never uploaded pictures from 2 memory cards at the same time, and that is likely the problem.  But I sure hope those mutual grooming pictures are lost SOMEWHERE on the computer.  Because if they are anywhere there, I am going to search for them.  But I fear they got "over-written" somehow. 

I'll describe them...  Ayla was licking Marley's head, Marley was licking Iza's head, and Iza was licking Ayla's head.  I've never seen 3 cats doing that in my life.  And I HAD pictures.

I sure hope I can find them somewhere, lost in the computer...

A Halloweeny Haunted Ceiling Tunnel!

IZA:  OMC!  Ayla and Marley spent 2 days out in the garage settin up a "Scarey Halloween Haunted Tunnel" just for Spitty and Me to esperience!  I had NO idea, but they told me to invite my lovey boyfriend Spitty over fer a BIG SURPRISE.

I dint know about the ceiling over the garage.  But Marley did.

They say they got all kinna really scarey stuff in there.  And Spitty is here now, SO HERE WE GO!

It started out easy.  An EVIL SKWERL...

And a (Shudder)  empty food bowl! 

I wasnt sure I wanted to go further, but Spitty said to be brave, so I did my best.  It helped that he was right there by my side...

He is SUCH a manly cat!!!  I feel so SAFE whe he is around.

Then we saw terrible things!  A Crazy Cat Lady grabbing cats from ALL over.

And the grim Needle-Vader!

And "It" probes yer nether parts too!

We fell down in horror together!  We CLUNG in fear!

Well, actally, THAT part was good...  Holding tight to Spitty is very nice...

But THEN!

JUST when we thought it was all over...  THE SHOWER!!!

We weren't certain about it, but then it went and MOVED and we got SOAKED!  Oh it was awful...  No place to run an hide!  We ran farther down the ceiling tunnel only to find THIS in our way!

It was a scary undedded Voodoo Woman Zombie!

  and her pet RAT! 

We backed away fast, hoding each other tight (Spitty no doubt to protect me), but that sent us straight into a defleshicated cat skeleton,

and a GIANT RAT that must have EATEN it!

We were both about discombuberated by then and I think I fainted on a (convenient) pillow. 

But Spitty, Kingly mancat that he is, stood guard over me until I came back to my senses!

And TOGETHER, we went forward!!!

Only to turn a small corner and see...

Oh crap, and I mean that literally!!!  We both fell apart fer a second and scrabbled fer the exit.  But we found each others paws as we went! 

What?  You thought we were gonna get together an fight THAT?  Just US?  Are you NUTS? Look at that Skwerl blood on its teefs (I HOPE that is just skwerl blood).

We low-tailed it outta there!  Ayla and Marley were laffin their butts off as we ran out.  They asked iffen we liked the funny ghosties and smiley pumpkins they set in there.

"Funny ghosties, smiley pumpkins"?  We said what we saw, an they both went pale.  Spitty backed me up and ya gotta trust SPITTY!  Well, Ayla's choclate ears went grayish, and Marley's pinky paws went white.

When I described bein grabbed by the Zombie lady and Spitty was right there an couldn't even SEE it, Marley and Ayla yelped!

They KNEW something was gone all wrong!

Marley started ta poke his head up into the ceiling tunnel, but a strange hiss in there poofed his tail  bigger than a foot-long pine cone an he backed down REAL quiet...

We figure Ayla and Marley tapped into another dimension.  Some eleventieth dimension beyond that which is known to cat. A dimension as vast as space and timeless as the days between meals when yer lost in a desert!  In the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of cat's fears and the summit of our knowledge.  Somewhere in the ceiling of our garage...  

Come visit it iffen you DARE...

WE wont ever again...

WE plan to just stay curled up UTB tonight and forget about it as best we are able.  

 Iffen YOU go in, dont assume you will come out.  There were pathways in there we DINT take...

Well, dont say we dint warn ya...