haHA!

It's official!!  My scores were reviewed and approved!   :)   Who is the #4 player?  I am, that's who.

Amendment!

THIS JUST IN!  On my final play for today, I BLEW my previous high score for Warf Rescue out of the mother-stinkin' water!  Woot Woot!  (dance dance)  I got 7477, which is high enough to move me to FOURTH PLACE!  I will get a silver trophy!  I am going to rest and try again tomorrow to get the gold trophy.

(I am a Dork!)

Can I Get a "WOOT WOOT!" ?

Every month, Neopets keeps track of the high scores for each of their games.  Since it's a lazy Saturday, I've been playing around with trying to get on the leader boards of some of my better games.  Aaaaaannnnd... SUCCESS!  I am #41 out of all the roughly 175,112,611 Neopets owners/payers!  (statistic found by dividing 262,668,917 Neopets total by 1.5, the average number per person).  And don't you go bursting my bubble by saying, "Oh, Warf Rescue only has 10million plays; obviously not all 175million players are doing it."  I will put my hands over my ears and go "lalalalala,"  'cuz I am still #41 this month!!

And I was told that spending so much time playing dumb games on the computer never paid off.   :)

WOOT WOOT!

Just another snippet...

While perusing the internet (I seem to be doing that a lot lately), I found on some old posts at Grumperina's blog a turn of phrase that I LOVE.  I think it explains what my sister and I call "Cast-On ADD" or "New Project ADD."  I love the thrill of starting a new project and getting everything organized and new... then the ADD kicks in, and I have difficulty focusing long enough to finish the project.  :(  But here, I think, Grumperina explains that special new-project feeling:

Nouns: 

Potential, promise, prospect, possibility.

Hope, expectation, dream, optimism.

Encapsulated in every new project we cast on.

Candy for the eyes and the heart's romanticism.

Will it be everything we desire?

Thing not to Knit...

In my random travels through the internet, I have found thing both enlightening and entertaining... and then there's these.  Now, I am all for creativity and innovation in the fiber arts, but really!  This is too much!

Apparently she makes knitted couches and flower pots... What is her gauge, you think?  US 458?

Brought to you by Etsy, our favorite shop of random!  This seller also has knitted lab rat & fetal pig dissections... as well as various cute animals.

God looking out for us

So, with the passing of Mr Jones last week, my main question was, "How long do you have to wait before getting another cat?"  Not to be cruel to the memory of my previous kitty, but my house was feeling really empty without the pitter-patter of crazy, fluffy feet.  Let me also say that I can't remember the last time I remembered a dream, and in the first three nights of an empty house, I had not one, but TWO anxiety dreams!  Purring and fluff really does help calm the nerves, I guess. 

This is where you learn that God looks out for you when you need him.  While at work the Friday we had to put Harvey down, John encountered a guy he works with who was looking for a home for a kitty.  Apparently, the company had thought that a shop cat would be good for their warehouse, but then thought rationally about what goes on in a warehouse & nixed the idea (fork trucks, larges piles of boxes to hide in, and kitties don't mix well, I guess).  Our contact, Brian, was left caring for the cat who didn't get along too well with his dogs.  John says that one of the reasons was that the dogs probably chewed up all the kitty's toys, and so kitty would get bored (since he had no toys anymore) and harass the dogs.  Brian was not too keen on this and was looking for a good home.  Brian's girlfriend is the vet technician who fostered / adopted the grey kitty that was brought in with mysterious injuries to his eye.  They had to remove his eye, so he was named Sir Winks-a-lot. 

The missing eye really doesn't affect him, as far as I can tell.  He jumps up on things more than Harvey ever did (he's already mastered the windowsill, back of the couch, dining table, and bookshelf!).  The only really noticeable thing is that he has a very stretchy neck - which may or may not be due to the one eye.  Winks' neck is usually normal-looking, but when he sees something interesting, he cranes around and stretches out his neck to get a better view.  It's kind of funny the contortions he goes through looking out the window or watching TV. 

"A bird!! I sees it!"

So we are now four days into our "probationary week" ....that I don't think we'll need, honestly.  Winks spent the first night/ day hiding in his carrier, and was easily scared by the noises coming from everywhere.  However, rubbing and persistence got him out into the basement in small bursts.  Small bursts led to exploring, which led to more  loving and getting to know us.  Pretty soon, Winks was able to to remain calm while one of us went "upstairs" and made noises.  Even now, the fear of the noises from the ceiling is lessening.  He does still occasionally glare at the offending ceiling when one of us is clomping around upstairs, but not so much anymore.  :)

Today was pretty good: he's come into the kitchen several times today and traversed the stairs multiple times as well (the two worst places in the house for him).  We've been trying to increase the comfort Winks feels in the house and so far he seems to be doing really well.  He is such a lover cat and is quite content to sit next to you on the couch all weekend... with spurts of craziness every now and then, of course. 

I do have to admit, I am not used to such a big cat!  Harvey was 7lbs ... on a fat day!  Winks (we're guessing, since he maxed out our accurate scale) is around 13lbs!  Heifer Cat will crush you!  Ha ha!  His belly is fun to snorgle, though he doesn't like it too much.  He does like the games Toes Under the Blanket (you have to have the right safety equipment for that though!), Hair Ties on the Bathroom Counter, and the sequel: Hair Ties on the Bathroom Floor.  We are already having lots of silly kitty adventures as he figures out how everything in our house works, but we seem to be settling in quite nicely.

 "Stinking female! Move over! I am Heifer Cat! I need the whole couch cushion"

E is for Eulogy

 

Mr. Harvey Jones, Jr., my fluffy boy

2002? - 3/5/2010

It is with a heavy heart and red, puffy eyes that I blog today.  I sadly inform you that we had to put our kitty to sleep this morning.  I came down to make breakfast, and he wasn't there waiting for me.  I found Harvey stuck in his litterbox because he no longer had use of his back legs.  John rushed him to the emergency vet and I soon followed.  The vet told us that Harvey apparently had a heart murmur, and his age had caused his heart to fail.  This threw a blood clot into his veins that lodged in an artery and shut off blood to his back legs.  The prognosis wasn't good and they said it was painful for him as well.  With strenuous fluids & medicine, he had about a 5-10% chance of recovering the use of his legs.  If the treatment didn't kill him, and if he recovered, he would need lots of physical therapy and home care for the rest of his life.  It was a lot of "ifs" and a lot of pain for him, so we made the hard decision.  We buried him in a sunny spot so his old bones would be warm.

(L) The Men-folk are bonding.  (R) "What? You mean you didn't get this extra bed for me?"

All I can say is that we will miss him terribly.  He was *MY* cat, not my family's, and I love him.  I only got 18months with him, but he will always be the one for me.  Two summers ago, just as I moved out here to the mountains, John's family found one of their outdoor cats badly beaten up and infected.  They took him to the vet, saw the worst case of earmites ever, and found out he had FIV (feline AIDS).  The vet was reluctant to treat a "stray," but John's parents insisted that he get well again.  If you remember, 2008 was the release of The Dark Knight, and John's family laughingly said that the cat looked like "Old Two-Face" Harvey Dent because his face was split open on one side.  Somehow the name stuck.  Harvey was recuperating in the garage when I moved in.  I instantly saw a kitty that need loving and introduced him to the wonders of head-rubbin's and a brush.  I spent a lot of time in that garage that summer.  When he no longer smelled like a toilet (he was pretty infected and gross), I moved him into our apartment and refused to release him back into the yard.  John would open the door for him and try to shoo him back outside, but my feminine charms were too strong for Harvey.  He would sit and look out into the yard, sometimes he'd go visit with the other kitties, but he always came back (I might have called him back a few times).

 

(L) Grey Momma, Handsome Kitty, Mangy Kitty, and Harvey.  He's so pretty compared to the outdoor kitties.  (R) Harvey officially deciding he likes it inside!

Harvey quickly adapted to life in the apartment, developed a love a strings, and added a little something to our lives with his squeaky purr and bald spot (the fur never grew back fully on his face from his original injury). We laughed that we had to keep him because he was so defective, no one else would want him.  But the truth is, I would have him no other way.  Every little thing about him was special and made him mine, from his missing teeth, to his toe fluff, to his curly tail.

Oddly enough, for a knitter I had little trouble convincing him that he had "his strings" and I had mine.  I made him several "yarn monsters" that he was allowed to chase around the house, and he was content with them.  He also knew that when I was playing with my strings, he was not allowed in my lap (but he sure could squeeze into the small area next to me on the couch, see below).  I have yet to meet a cat that can differentiate between his strings and mine and won't make a mess of your knitting.

And let's not forget the itchy skin episode where he was put in a t-shirt for several months.  What cat do you know would tolerate being in a shirt?!?  I told you I had the best cat ever.  I think he knew how lucky he was living inside with me, a self-proclaimed Crazy Cat Lady.  He just wanted to be with you and to share some loving.  That was enough to make him happy.  Even John slowly came over to Team Harvey, though he was not initially up for having a cat in the house.  He was my mellow, cuddle-boy, and he could worm his way into your lap and your heart fairly easily. 

(L) "Fine, don't move over on the couch.  See if I care.  I'll sit up here.  No, really, I'm fine.  I like it up here."  (R) "Ooooooh, I love belly rubs! More please!"

 If you are reading this, turn around right now and hug those that you love.  Harvey was fine (if underweight) these past few days, and we had no idea that our time with him was so short.  Not to sound trite, but life moves quickly and we don't really know how fortunate we are to have somebody that loves us, whether they leave the seat up, shed on your clothes, or dig in your flower garden.  Be nice to the people and the fuzzies you love; you don't know how long you have with them.

R.I.P, Mr. Jones.  I will always love you.