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November 29, 2007
How People Learn - FASCINATING!
There's a really interesting article I found in Scientific American about how people learn. They explain that there are two basic mindsets: one who thinks intelligence is a fixed entity and therefore, something that's unchangeable and another who thinks that intelligence is something that can be achieved through a focus on effort (growth mindset).
As I read this article, I thought back to how I did in school. I went from a fixed-intelligence mindset to a growth mindset. In grade school and middle school, I thought that my bad grades meant I was just dumb and when things got hard, I would fail because I was incapable of learning.
But then when I got into high school, this changed drastically, thanks to two really great people. The first was a math tutor my mom got me to get me through trigonometry (don't remember his name, just know that he was a math major at Wayne State or something) and the other was my sophomore/junior year English teacher. I can't tell you how grateful I am to have had them in my life!! Up till now, I could never figure out what it was the math tutor did to make me get better grades. Now I know it's because he showed me if I just think harder and try harder, I can actually do the work and understand why things are the way they are; he taught me to not accept failure. I went from having a nearly failing grade on the first test to a 94% on the last test of the year. The better grades I got, the more I enjoyed learning and the more I wanted to try.
The same was true with my English teacher. She saw how I was failing and spent lots of extra time with me and just showed me that if I just put more effort into my work, I could improve. And she was right! It's thanks to her, most particularly, that I became a professional copywriter because she gave me the love of words and writing. And this mindset is what really got me through college. I found that the harder I tried, the better my grades got till I was getting lots of 3.5's and 4.0's in my senior classes.
Aside from that, I think of myself now and how much I love watching the Discovery Channel and how much more interest I have in learning things, compared to when I was very young and hated it. Now, it's obvious why.
It's most apparent in the way I learn martial arts. When I'm in class, and I know I'm not doing something right, I want to keep trying until I do get it right. I always think (as I do with my writing) that what I do isn't ever going to be perfect, but that won't stop me from trying to make it perfect. I'm happy when something's pretty good, but I'm happier when it's even better.
Read the article and tell me this isn't cool stuff!!
Posted by Amy at 09:35 AM | Comments (0)
November 26, 2007
Christmas Craze
I just had to put these pictures up. The first is my house:
I like to put up nice, white, tasteful lights. I also put tasteful red ribbons on each of the three posts of our porch and a traditional looking wreath on the door. I know, the picture's a bit too dark to see the wreath, but trust me, it's there. I also added a Dilbert doll and a little elf to the wreath this year.
The second picture is my neighbor about 3 houses down:
I think it's hilarious how overboard they go with their decorations. Giant blow up snowmen, Santas and reindeer, LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of flashing lights, and so on and so forth. I understand being really excited about the holidays, but it's completely hideous, completely FUGLY and completely laughable. We live in a pretty traditional suburban neighborhood where you'd expect to see something like this in Taylor-tucky or something. Sad thing is they actually think it's cool-looking.
Posted by Amy at 10:14 PM | Comments (2)
November 25, 2007
Turkey & Birthday Weekend
Wow, what a great weekend! Thanksgiving went really well. I picked up an extra turkey and cooked it the night before Thanksgiving--it actually cooked faster than I had anticipated which made me hopeful that the next day, I'd be done faster than planned as well. Sure enough, that's what happened.
Got up at 7am and got to Mom's house around 8:45. I was hoping to get the turkey in the oven by 9-ish, but there was some kitchen prep that needed to be done and since no one else was awake yet, it was all me. I didn't get the turkey into the oven till 9:30, a half hour later than I'd hoped, but thankfully (no pun intended), the turkey was done on time. I had to make the stuffing and potatoes--took part of my fingernail off peeling them. Not too bad considering how much work needed to be done. I had some help too. Don did the gravy, salad, and peas; Gracie and Rosie helped mash the potatoes and cook the corn. And Dad carved the birds. YUMMY! We all ate till we felt as stuffed as a turkey ourselves. And it was really fun seeing everyone, especially my cousins and all the kids. And Mom looked really great--she finally went to the beauty shop and had her cut and permed--first time since before going into the hospital months ago. Got some presents from the family for my birthday--the best was the card Ippie gave me. It had Wonder Woman on it. Plus she gave me some awesome personalized ornaments to put on our tree...some for Don and me and even some for each of our cats! Whee!
Then it was off to the Bucks for a second turkey dinner. Aunt Nancy's cooking always RULES!! The turkey was delectable. It's too bad not all the Bucks were there though. Kevin & Anne and Myke & Judy weren't there, so it was a Buck-lite Thanksgiving. But it was still great to see everyone. Andrew was there too and it was great to see him since we hadn't seen him since before last Christmas which he unfortunately missed. Derek was his exuberant self and Brian and Jessica had to keep reigning him in. And Tom, Uncle John, Jon Jon, Don and I all played some Texas Hold 'Em. Great fun!
Friday, we got a call from Tony & Juliet who were in town. We got together at Grizzly Peak Brewery to celebrate with them, Pam & Nick (her first time at a social gathering since becoming pregnant--yaayy!), and Big Dave & Kim. I was so excited to see Pammie Poo--I've only seen her once since she's been pregnant. And Juliet's ring is amazing! Looked like maybe a 1 1/4 carat (or bigger, not sure) with a smaller diamond on either side (maybe 3/4 carat each). It was blazingly bright.
Saturday was my birthday, but it was more like Christmas the way Don treats me. He gave me a HUUUUUUUGE box of Godiva chocolates. It'd probably take me 6 months to a year to get through them (without any help). Plus he gave me a new laptop! It works soooooo much better than my old one. It's faster, stronger and better...almost bionic! So I spent most of Saturday and some of Sunday transferring all my files and getting it set up the way I like. Saturday night, Don also took me out to dinner at Real Seafood (all Main Street Ventures restaurants give you a free birthday meal). I had the delicious king crab and Don had yummy clams with linguine. Then we met Greg at La Dolce Vita for dessert and drinks. Greg kept trying to tease me about my age, being close to 40 (eek), but the great thing about that is I just look at him and tell him, "You're closer to 50 than I am to 40!" That and, "You'll ALWAYS be older than me! HA!" He'd just look at me kind of sheepish and go, "Yeah, yeah! Whatever." haha!
Sunday, I tried not to sleep in so much so I could get started on putting up the Christmas decorations. I did the outside lights and put up our wreath, but before I could get to the tree, I wanted to go to Lowe's to get some more lights and maybe some ribbon to put on the tree instead of garland (that shit looks so cheap and 70's--I want a more updated Christmas look). So that's what Don and I did. Plus I got a cool area rug to go in front of the couch in the main living room--looks awesome! So I started putting the tree up at 3pm and finished around 5:00. Then putting the ornaments up took another couple hours. I was actually exhausted after that. It's mostly finished; I just have some other little ornaments I wanted to put up, but I was so tired I had to lay down for a bit cause my back was tired. It took forever to put the tree up cause you have to fluff each branch out before you attach it and it's a 9-foot tree. But it looks great.
So it was a great holiday weekend, but it's back to the grind. I think this month is going to go really fast!
Posted by Amy at 09:00 PM | Comments (1)
November 20, 2007
A Weekend Full of Turkey
So, I've been thinking all week trying to remember all the stuff I'll need for Thanksgiving on Thursday. I'll be making the turkey, real mashed potatoes, and stuffing; Don's making the gravy, peas, and salad; Ippie's going to bring dessert; and Oupie's got KP duty (ha!).
But I'm making the turkey at Mom's house, so I have to bring a lot of stuff. I went grocery shopping and got everything I need (I think), but I have to remember to bring stuff like my turkey roaster, carving knife (I don't like using Mom's knives), and stuff like that. I'll have to get to her house really early, like 8:15 in the morning which means I have to get up by at least 7am or earlier. I've got a 13.5 pound turkey that's going to take about 4 hours, plus there's prep time. I think what I'll do is put a beer can inside the turkey (we make Stove Top, so no need to stuff the bird) which will help make it really juicy and moist while I baste it at the same time. Plus, it'll have my secret spice to make it even more tasty. *SLURPS* Makes my mouth water just thinking about how good it's going to be. If I can do all that, we'll be ready to eat by about 1pm. It'll be a big table full of people with Mom, Dad, me, Don, Ippie & John, Oupie and the kids.
Then it's off to the Bucks' for another turkey dinner and a holiday celebration with Don's sisters, cousins, etc.
This whole weekend is going to be great! Two turkey dinners, then Friday, we're meeting Tony & Juliet for drinks to celebrate their new engagement. Then it's my birthday this Saturday which means I get to go to dinner wherever I want (maybe Real Seafood or Logan's). Yay!
Posted by Amy at 12:34 PM | Comments (0)
November 12, 2007
Dancing Disappointment
Seems like I always get the itch to do some swing dancing right around the end of the year. But doing any kind of swing dancing has become such a disappointment to me. I can't find any place in or around Ann Arbor that is decent. I went to a "dance" on Saturday that turned out to be really lame. It was held in a small little place that seemed like a crappy VFW-type of hall. There were only about 4 really good dancers there and the rest were goomers--either people that were just learning how to dance swing or guys in their late 40s to 50s, lonely, ugly and creepy.
Admittedly, there is the U-M Union building, but they only have swing dancing on Wednesday nights during my iaido classes which I'd rather not skip. And besides, all the really good dancers there tend to stick to their own. The few good dancers I've danced with, I get maybe one dance with them and sometimes, they refuse to adjust to different partners' ability levels, especially if that partner (namely me) is not as good as them.
Around the late 1990s, I used to go to an AWESOME place in Pontiac called The Velvet Lounge. It's where I learned how to swing dance in the first place. I remember some friends and I were just hanging around town and decided to see what kind of a place it was. When I saw they were dancing to 40s swing music, well, I lit up like a Christmas tree! The next time I came back, I couldn't wait to get dancing. They started playing "Sing, Sing, Sing (with a Swing)"--you know, the one they used for the old Chips Ahoy commercial, if you're old enough to remember that. When I heard that come on, I jumped up and just started doing my own thing. A guy saw me and asked if I'd like to dance. He didn't care that I'd never danced swing before, let alone with a partner. He just led me all over the floor and I was HOOKED!!
And you know, that's what I love about swing dancing. It's fun as HELL and people usually aren't out looking for a date--they're just friendly, fun people who love dancing. I loved it so much I was going 2-3 times a week and it didn't matter that I had no one to go with. I could go by myself and people would ask me to dance and it was SOOOOO much fun! (I'd go with Don now, but he refuses to dance.) And the people I danced with were REALLY good. Way better than most of the people in Ann Arbor. These guys were professional instructors and national competitors.
Unfortunately, The Velvet Lounge closed down after a couple of years and I was stuck with no where to dance. Any place there is to go now is either lame or too far. Part of my problem, too, is I never learned how to Lindy Hop. I learned East Coast Swing which is a bit simpler. Most of the really good dancers nowadays pretty much only do Lindy Hop. But I can't learn if I can't find a decent place to dance! And I can DO the aerials, but again, if there's no where good to go...
My dream is to go to a place where people not only swing dance well, but also know how to do the aerials (throwing the girl around in the air). I wanna dance like the folks in this video I've embedded. (By the way, that's what Lindy Hop looks like.)
I really miss The Velvet Lounge! It so breaks my heart that it's closed.
Posted by Amy at 10:12 PM | Comments (0)
November 09, 2007
My Rarely Stated Political Views
Even though I'm someone who likes to speak her mind, I normally prefer to remain pretty neutral when it comes to political issues. I never feel like I have all the information or, indeed, enough information to intelligently side one way or another. I don't take sides just because someone says I should and I avoid getting preachy because I wouldn't want someone "bible-thumping" me, as it were. I usually prefer to keep my mouth shut. However, there are a few rare things/ideas in this world I do support openly. Here they are, in no particular order of importance:
1. Michigan Humane Society:
I love animals and I think everyone should be kind to them. It breaks my heart and makes me VERY angry when I see them being abused. And I feel very grateful that I have my Gabriel, who came from the MHS and I feel I owe them for the bundle of happiness with which they provided me. So support them or your local Humane Society/ASPCA if you can!
2. Firefox free Web browser:
I love its functionality and all the things it's capable of doing. It's really cool because it's built by Mozilla open source software (OSS) written by multiple users who are constantly improving it. You can download some very inventive and creative extensions that make it fun and easier to use and it's much more secure than Microsoft's Internet Explorer. I think it's important to support (morally or otherwise) open source software development.
3. Wikipedia:
Again, another open source project. If you don't know what Wikipedia is, it's an online encyclopedia to which anyone can contribute. It's fantastically useful and educational (I look stuff up on it nearly every day). In fact, I once read that it's just as accurate (if not more so) than the printed Encyclopedia Brittanica--that's because when someone makes a factual error, others will correct it. And there are many versions (or sister sites, if you will) of Wiki sites dedicated to one thing, such as the Star Trek Wiki; Battlestar Galactica Wiki, and Harry Potter Wiki.
4. Net Neutrality: Though I'm only just starting to learn about it, I already know I'm in favor of it. From what I'm gathering, the idea of net neutrality (NN) is the idea of keeping big corporations from controlling the flow of data between users who wish to share legal content. Recently, Comcast (which I hate because their service sucks) was caught and called out by a U.S. senator for surreptitiously slowing or blocking altogether users' ability to share data and information. In my mind, that goes against everything the Internet was founded upon and should be stopped. It's tantamount to denying free speech in that they want to decide how fast sites will load, or even if they'll load at all. According to SavetheInternet.com, NN is "the guiding principle that preserves the free and open Internet...[it] is the reason why the Internet has driven economic innovation, democratic participation, and free speech online."
And as Forrest Gump would say, that's all I have to say about that.
Posted by Amy at 07:00 PM | Comments (0)
November 08, 2007
Ode to My Cat Part 4
Some years ago, my family had this cat we named Fielding (aka: Pookie). She was an incredibly beautiful, incredibly sweet and incredibly loving kitty who just adored attention. She'd sit on my lap for as long as I wanted which meant I could listen to her purr for hours. She'd curl up in bed with me and even greet me at the door every time I came home. She'd even let me carry her around the house on my shoulder for as long as I wanted. (It was a great excuse to get out of setting the table: "I can't, Mom...I've got a kitty and she doesn't want me to put her down.")
She started out as my brother's cat that he got from his friend Rachel. He got her when she was just a little barn kitten. He took her to school and everywhere he went. Even trained her to be his driving buddy (she loved the car rides). Then my brother got a contract to work for the U.S. Navy (or was it Marines?) somewhere in the south (Alabama or Louisiana or something). That was around the time Hurricane Andrew hit. So the Navy (or Marines) set up a shelter for him to go to, but they wouldn't allow him to have a cat. So he had to give her up temporarily to Mom and Dad. His contract lasted about 6 months and in that time, Mom and Dad, who had formerly been denying us the experience of owning a cat, absolutely fell head over heels in love with Fielding (you couldn't help it). When he came back to claim her, they refused to give her back, declaring he had abandoned his cat (SO not true). They fought and fought for about 6 months when Oupie finally agreed to let them keep her, feeling she was in the best home she could be in, other than his. And that's how she became the family cat.
I always thought she was an awesome cat, but I didn't know she was an awesome friend until one day when I came home with the flu. And folks, this is how I know animals are intelligent and have souls.
I got sick in the middle of the day during work and I just had to go home. I felt feverish, achy, exhausted, and just all-around icky. Even my skin hurt, if you can believe that. When I got home, I jumped straight into bed and pulled the covers up to my ears. I started shivering uncontrollably and I realized I had the chills. I flipped on my trusty electric blanket and turned the dial to it's highest setting which helped, but didn't cure me of my chills.
Just then, Fielding came into the room, probably to see why I didn't immediately look for her to pet her. She jumped up on the bed and gave my face a little sniff. Seemed like she could tell something wasn't right with me. All I could think was, here's this warm little fuzzy creature waiting to cuddle with me. "I know!" I thought..."I'll put her on my neck!" She just laid there across my neck like a live stole, purring and warming me to my heart's delight. And she stayed there until I finally warmed up. Once she realized she had fulfilled her duty to look after me, she left the room to let me sleep off my bout of the flu.
But we found out later she had bone cancer and was dying. Dad managed to keep her alive for about 4 months (even though she was in agony the whole time) by feeding her Ensure through an eye-dropper. That's 3 months longer than the doctors gave her. And since there was nothing the doctors could do for her, I took the chance to say my goodbyes.
I found her hiding away from the world in the corner by the grandfather clock. My parents told me she'd been sitting there constantly for about 2 weeks now, unable to do anything. Her paws were crusted with litter and her fur was noticeably unclean--the cancer in her cheekbone had swelled her face to the point where she was in great pain and couldn't clean herself. She'd lost half her body weight and was a shell of her former self (she was normally about 8 pounds and had shrunk to about 4). I spent about 45 minutes trying to pick out the litter crumbs from her paws and petting her as gently as I could. Several times, I kissed her softly on the head and whispered in her ear, "I'm so sorry you're sick. I'm really going to miss you and I want to thank you for taking care of me when I was sick. I love you so much." I could hear her purring and knew she understood what I was saying.
When I told my parents that she purred, they were shocked. They said she hadn't purred for them in a month! It was then I knew Fielding understood how much I loved her and it was her way of saying "I love you" back.
When she died, she was with my aunt in Chicago because my parents took a trip to Thailand that they couldn't cancel. She died the day after she left and I take that to mean that she thought it was time to go. She's now buried in the back yard of my parents' house. She was our first pet and she'll always be the most special. Dad refuses to get another cat--I think partly because he doesn't want to replace her and partly because he doesn't want to become attached to an animal the way he did with Fielding. I'm sure he'd hate to lose another pet.
I think about her absolutely every day, even though it's been years since she passed away. I keep the name tag from her collar on my keychain and a toy tuxedo cat in my car so that she goes with me everywhere.
ADDENDUM: I just realized I've already blogged about her before, but oh well. I figure I'll include her in my Ode to Cats series anyway.
Posted by Amy at 07:38 PM | Comments (0)
November 06, 2007
Ode to My Cats Part 3
This is Gabriel. (Christy, yes, looks like Comet, ne? I think we're cat-stalking each other since all 3 of our cats are identical! heh.) Obviously, by the normal-sounding name, you know he started out as my cat, not Don's. I got Gabriel in 1994 when I was in grad school, when he was just 4 months old. I'd always adored cats and wanted one, but Mom and Dad never allowed it (just wait till Fielding would show up in their house!) So when I moved into my own apartment for the first time, I vowed I would have a cat of my own. So I went to the Michigan Humane Society branch in Lansing. I was thinking of getting a white cat because I liked the cat I'd seen in "The Crow" and was going to name it the same. (Yes, I'm that much of a dork!) But they didn't have any white kittens. But I thought I'd take a look at what they had, just to see. The first cage I came to was this cute little grey striped kitten. I open up the door and pick him up and he went straight to my neck, nuzzling and purring and meowing with love, "Take me home! Take me home! I love you!" Of course, I couldn't resist--it was love at first sight!
When I got him home, I quickly realized he'd conned me into it. He became known as "Crack Kitty" because he was so energetic. He would zip back and forth from one wall of my apartment to the opposite, occasionally jumping up the support pole in the middle. But I still loved him. And when I would try to sleep through the early mornings, he would wake me up by licking my nose and ears while standing on my chest purring. I had to pick him up and toss him to the end of the bed several times before he got the hint I wanted to sleep. But I still loved him. And when he would puke all over my floor, making me clean it all up, I still loved him. (I soon realized he was lactose intolerant and could no longer feed him milk.)
He went through MANY nicknames as well. Gabriel begat Goober; Goober begat Goober Boo; Goober Boo begat Booger; Booger begat Booger Boo; Booger Boo begat Boober; Boober begat Boo Boo; Boo Boo begat Boo.
He was very very playful as a young cat. I could get him to chase a string all over the apartment, even in circles, till he could run no more. Sometimes he would even chase it in the air doing back flips. Or we would take turns chasing each other back and forth. I think now, he's gotten too old to be running around like that. Or maybe just too fat. And I wouldn't say he's the most cuddly cat, though when I lived alone, he'd sleep on my chest, curled in the crook of my arm.
Speaking of fat, at one point, a year ago, he got so fat he got even bigger than Hideous (who's about 14-15 pounds). I weighed him and he was about 18 pounds! For a while, I chalked it off to him and Hideous competing for food since they both were pigs. But I found out later from the vet that he had a condition with his thyroid and it needed to be removed. So he had surgery and had to stay in the vet's for about 3 or 4 days. He hates going to the vet anyway and gets extremely anxious and scared--I have to hold him in my lap as I drive there or else he goes nuts. So having to stay there overnight for 3-4 nights was terrifying to him. I'd go and visit him every day and he'd get so happy to see me, he'd fall over with joy. I'm sure he thought I was going to leave him there because when we got him home, he was more cuddly and lovey than he'd ever been.
Like Hideous, he's very controlled by his taste buds. He always has time to beg whenever I'm at the table eating. Occasionally he'll get a couple pieces of chicken, if he's lucky. But his mischievous side will mostly prevail. Once, when Pammie made a loaf of poppy seed bread for us, he found it on the table and decided to graze the top of it. Guess he thought he should try it out to make sure it was safe for me and Don. He even left us a note saying he was sorry! (Though Pam had to write it for him.) That's why I try never to leave any food (or flowers) out, else I risk coming home to a mess of half-chewed food all over the floor.
Usually, he's a cranky grump. You pat him on the butt by the tail and he complains...loudly. You try to brush him and he complains...loudly. You try to pick him up and he complains...loudly. (He has to be pet only on his terms.) Sometimes, I can't tell if he likes to hear himself sing or if he's just being loud for its own sake. Because many mornings VERY early, he'll wake me up caterwauling. (Don's too heavy of a sleeper to even hear it.) I have to get up and turn his attention so he forgets what he was caterwauling about.
But even as grumpy as he can be, he still loves me and usually will find the love in his heart to give me kitty kisses. And even as fat as he is, I think he's a very handsome guy. And I'm not just saying that because he's my baby.
Posted by Amy at 11:21 PM | Comments (0)
November 04, 2007
Ode to My Cats Part 2
Continuing my mini-series of cat-bragging...
This is Hideous. Or more precisely, Hideous Rebellion. What a strange and unusual name, you say! Why yes, thank you. It is. Allow me to tell you the story behind it. One day, Don decided he wanted a cat and asked the crazy cat lady, who happened to be his sister Nancy, to give him a cat. She gave him this cuddly, furry ball of happiness. He was just a kitten and whoever had him before Nancy had named him H.R. Fluffenstuff. When Don (who prides himself on inventive nicknames) heard the cat's name, he scowled and declared, "No cat of mine will ever be named H.R. Fluffenstuff! The H.R. will now stand for...(he pauses to think)...Hideous Rebellion!" (Hideous for short.) I was astonished that he would name a cat so, since he is such a handsome guy.
Hideous is a funny one...it took him a while to warm up to me as well. But that had, I think, little to do with him being shy than it did with Don's ex-girlfriend being so mean to them. Guess she didn't like cats and Don had to hide them away in a separate room whenever she came over. In my mind, that right there is a sign two people won't end up together if she can't even stand the pets. But one night, we rented a movie--a very looooong movie ("Gettysburg" I think) and Hideous decided to settle down in my lap and it was love from then on. I couldn't believe he was so cuddly. Only one other cat I've ever known was as cuddly and that was Mom's cat. But she's another story.
Hideous' personality is certainly unique. He doesn't meow so much as he kind of croaks at you. He loves being pat on the butt just above his tail--makes him go crazy for attention. The more you pat him on the butt, the more lovey-dovey he gets. He'll rub his head on you in a head-butting kind of way. If you hold him by the tail, not hard, just enough so that he can't go anywhere, he'll lay on his side and offer you up his belly to be rubbed. And boy, he loves his belly rubs!
We don't know exactly how old he is, though Don thinks he got him in 1994, so that would put him at about 13 or 14. And like any guy, he's a slave to his stomach. By that, I mean, he LOVES getting kitty treats. When we're eating something in front of him, his attention is completely consumed by investigating what it is we're eating because he hopes he'll get some.
Hideous is our king of mischief. In recent times, we've had to keep him locked up while we're not home because we'd come home to find little gifts he's left us on the bed or couch. And I'm not talking about any mouse he found to play with. I'm talking about a smelly, poopy mess. It got to the point I couldn't stand cleaning it up anymore and that was that. We only let him out when we're home and even then, we keep a close eye on him. We give him as much love and attention as we can before going to bed, but if left to his own devices, he'd either leave us more gifts or find tissue paper in the garbage to chew up and leave a mess for us that way. I absolutely hate doing that to him, but when he began pooping on our brand new couch, I decided I'd had enough--it's a necessary evil.
Not surprisingly, he tries to be the "alpha" cat over Gabriel, our other male cat. Oddly, Gabriel doesn't really care about being the alpha, so Hideous will challenge him, expecting some sort of fight or counter-challenge. But Gabriel's attitude about that is very "Eh, whatever." I suspect that it's this "alpha" attitude that makes him mark his territory with the poop.
He can be a very hairy guy too. Because his fur is somewhat long and fuzzy, he needs brushing every now and then or else it gets matted, which I understand is bad for the cats' circulation. Sometimes we can get so much hair, we could practically make another cat. Don likes to take it and roll it up into balls. One day, I had the idea of making a "snowman" out of the different sized balls. I used sewing pins for the eyes, mouth and buttons.
Hideous is an awesome cat to have and so long as he gets attention, he's a very happy guy with a purr like a motorcycle engine that keeps going and going and going...
Posted by Amy at 07:09 PM | Comments (1)
November 02, 2007
Ode to My Cats Part 1
Ok, enough of the negative stuff. Now, I wanna talk kitties, kind of for posterity's sake and because to me, bragging about my cats is like other people bragging about their kids.
This is Princess. She's about seven years old (I think). She started out as Don's cat, but now she's MY little girl.
Don got her from his sister, Nancy, who runs a foster home for cats out of her house. (She's the crazy cat lady--she once sent us posed portraits of her 4 cats!) When Don first got her, she was thought to be a male and Don, being the lover of goofy names, called her Count Beastus. I suppose that's a tribute to a former deceased cat who I think was named Beastus or something similar. Later, he found out she was actually a female and re-coined her Countess Beastula.
Then he met me. And I met his cats. I fell in love with them very shortly after falling in love with Don. (It's ok, you can puke now.) She was so adorably cute, I decided her name wasn't appropriate and I renamed her Princess because that's what she is.
Princess is a very, very shy little gal. She can't meow, but she'll look up at you and open her mouth. Sometimes a little squeak will come out, sometimes, no sound. But being so shy, it took a LONG time for her to warm up to a new person hanging around. She's even shy around Don, if you can believe that. She doesn't like to be held, and she's very sensitive to sounds and vibration, so if you can imagine The Mastadon lumbering around the house, you can imagine how she'll skedaddle.
It's only been in the last couple years that she's REALLY warmed up to me. She's also come out of her shell a little bit, but not to the point that most strangers would even know she existed if they came to the house.
I once read that cats usually bond to one human and I think I'm her human. Now that she's become my little girl, she'll follow me through the house. If I'm watching TV, Princess will come sit next to me--she usually likes me to pet her and will settle her body on my flattened hand.
When I go to bed, she usually will come to me just after the lights go out--she gives a little coo as she jumps up on the bed. Then she'll pace up and down the bed before settling at my hip (sometimes on my hand again). Just recently, Princess has taken to doing the kneading thing on me like kittens do to their mother's belly. It's SO cute! I love it when she gives me the honor of staying with me throughout the night cause she's there to greet me with love every morning.
When I get up in the morning, no matter where she is in the house at that point, she'll know it and come looking for me (remember, she has better ears than a dog). If I have time, she lets me cuddle with her. And since she doesn't like being picked up, she'll let me crouch over her in a position like when you're taking cover from a tornado. She really seems to enjoy this because she'll just sit there very contentedly and sometimes even rest her head on my arm. Then I walk into the bathroom and she butts her head through the bathroom door. (Or I'll just wait for her since I know she's coming.) She'll coo and purr at me until I pet her and if I ignore her, she'll jump on the counter or into one of the cubby holes in the wall so that she's higher up. She thinks this will get my attention better. She's right. Princess will even sit on the bathroom rug and wait for me to come out of the shower. This is going to sound a little gross, but when I come out, she'll lick the water on the edge of the shower--I don't get it.
Sometimes when I'm enjoying her company before bed, I'll place her in her bed, get really low and nuzzle her. For some reason, if I put her in her bed, she's more lovey-dovey. She'll even give me kitty kisses (friendly licks) on my nose or cheek. And I think she might think I'm another cat because she tries to groom my hair sometimes which is slightly annoying, yet amusing at the same time, considering my hair's so long, it gets stuck in her mouth and she looks like a dog with peanut butter stuck to the roof of its mouth.
She has the greatest purr because it's loud and often becomes a cooing noise which is very soothing to me. And I'm pretty sure she understands what I'm saying when I talk to her because I always tell her how pretty she is and how she's my sweet little girl. Cats are great, aren't they?
Posted by Amy at 07:35 PM | Comments (1)