Here's what I love about pets, specifically of the cat variety. They're like, all of a sudden, total whores that want attention and assume you have the same instinct at the same time (P.S. the earlier instinct was to eat tuna; earlier still, race across the room and then suddenly stop to lick one's balls). So I'm sitting at my Juki sewing, and he comes over and is like, "I'll bet now is a good time," and is up on the table and getting in between me and the machine. He puts his paw out, kind of stutters it toward my lap, purring loudly - right in the way of my arms trying to sew. "I'll just... let me... just like this," as he weasels in to my lap in a way reminiscent of Lundberg's stapler-grab in Office Space (yeah, I didn't feel like using my typical imdb link!).


I can smell his fishy breath from looking at this photo. Nels and Sophie take many pictures of the cat. Because he's so fascinating.


Ralph and I disagree about the comfortable temperature inside the house; and rather than consulting the actual thermostat, we look at the position the cats are in. Spread out like this? It's a little too hot.

In other news, I was interviewed today by American Public Radio's "Weekend America" for a Flickr photo I posted (good God, not those above of course!). Let me first say: I am no natural for a radio interview, and I said some really dumb things, all in the course of trying to tell the photo's story in the way they needed. I am also thinking they may be able to edit me into looking like a total arse / unfeeling, mean mom. T-hee!

Labels: family life, Harris, pets, photos, radio

I'm not in top-form this morning so I don't have a great analogy for my nighttime experience, where I go to bed with one or maybe two people and wake up next to about three, usually with one or two cats as well and with no idea who surrounds me. Today as it happened I was flanked by Sophie and Nels, my daughter's leg thrown over mine and my son soft in the blankets, his features delicate and skin as perfect as a cherub (sleeping is the only way he looks so). Last night I know I'd fallen asleep with only my daughter next to me, my son in the next room and my husband wandering the house with a case of insomnia (rare these days for him).

Only part of the musical bed games are due to the fact we are still painting my daughter's loft bed. I think my parents think I'm some slacker who can't be bothered to finish the job while my husband works during the day. But the truth is I had a horrible time painting the thing and my husband even said I wasn't doing it right (he said this in a very circumspect way) and I just kind of bolted from the bedroom and haven't been back. Our only other usable bed right now is a twin in my sewing room, just a couple arm's lengths away from my own. I think I'll miss when the kids are installed in their beds and I can't see them from my pillow.

In her old age and with the cold winter Blackie has let go her snobbishness and her anger (at the world) for allowing a new kitten into our home; in the morning she is minutely hunched just to my left, sleeping silently and leaving a mat of black cat hair such that each morning she sleeps with us I have to clean the bedclothes. Harris is less prepossessing, stretching over whichever victim is the most asleep and therefore won't struggle, laying on his back with his legs open and front paws awkwardly poised in the air.*

And here I've been thinking about getting a dog. But if we got a California king bed, I think we'd have another 6" along the bottom of the bed...

* And no, I can't tell a cat story as well as Mr. Levin.

Labels: Blackie, family life, Harris, pets

It's official. I like vacations. I don't really get tired of the kids being underfoot. I like sleeping in with the kids, cooking for them, and doing projects with them and all this is far, far easier during schedule-less times of the year. Case in point: Christmas break. My children have been off of school / "school" (the second option being the handful of hours Nels attends his co-op during the week) and we just screw off all day in between the work I have to do. They are pretty good at taking care of themselves if I also make sure to put in some solid game time or, now that they're old enough, include them in chores.

Case in point: devising a children's mail system (pictures soon). Nels, Sophie, and I have also been practicing jumprope. Sophie jumps and smiles, Nels swings his arm (the full radius he can actually swing it) and screams laughter. Today we got up to twenty jumps sequentially.

Yesterday we discovered Queen's "Bicycle Race" on the iPod - which if you think about it, is just a perfect children's song - as we were running our errands for Ralph. The kids were just - entranced. I sometimes forget how cool it is to be a grown-up and show someone something new for their unadulterated reaction (they absolutely, absolutely carry on for this one - in fact now they are currently listening top-volume while jumping on my bed, and yes I confiscated the pick-up stix they were holding while jumping like crazy because I am a good Mama). The three of us also have been pretending - all day long - the three of us are hobgoblins*, living in rags in the forest and stealing things. Mostly food I make (I am apparently a human woman when I make the food, a hobgoblin mommy for all the snuggling and errands we run). They filch blankets and make nests of "lemon leaves and twigs" and twine their arms around me and whisper in my ears.

Reality does occasionally set in. "Blackie horked on my bed," Sophie tells me, dismayed. We peel off the offending quilt and put on a new sheet. You can hardly get the cats to go outside these days because we have the fire on so much. They lie around like hair-puddles, exhaling hot chum when they yawn and expecting life to be easy.

* Inspired by my current bedside fiction.

Labels: Nels, pets, Sophie

Yesterday afternoon I found myself in Aberdeen in the van while it was pouring rain, I had our kitty Harris in the passenger seat, and we'd just escaped the a shop after being hijacked by two separate store employees who were lonely and we'd been in there so long I'd had to timeout Nels (watching the van through the window) and by the time I got out to him he'd been crying and holding his pee and had to go and I wouldn't go back inside (both b/c of the employees' overtalking tendencies and Nels' immediate need) and I said, "Sophie, give me that cup!" and like a well-trained pit crew member she knew what I was doing and got the cup and took off the lid and I got Nels out of his carseat and pulled down his pants and he peed and RAPIDLY began to fill the cup, stopping 1/4" before the top.

As it was happening I was thinking how all of it made sense on some level (except the kitten but he was really lonely and is a good car rider) but I'm pretty sure no one else would have thought it made sense to watch how it all went down.

Afterwards, I poured the fresh hot cup of steaming urine into the gutter. I'm sure that's not the first time anyone's leaned out of a car in downtown Aberdeen and done the same.

Tonight I finished "Freaks and Geeks". I've never seen a show before like it and I see why it's rated so high on IMDB. The funny thing is, it started out decently enough for the first ten or so episodes (there are 18 total). But by the end I was in tears just about each chapter. I've also never experienced high school all over again, but I sure did during that show in the most amazing way - in a good way. Thanks Chris, for the recommendation. I got through them all eventually.

Tonight also marks the first five inches of my first sock! Yes, I'm knitting socks. I'm told it's addictive although it seems to be more like: knit knit knit knit for hours and hours and hours - here's a wristband!

And finally: newness in our household as Nels gave the kitty a bath. Using the toilet. Yes, it really happened. I can't really talk much more about it.

Labels: Aberdeen, family life, Harris, knitting, Nels, pets, rain, random

with a very important announcement! And yes, it's kitten-related.

Today was kind of a busy day. I was out in the early morning to pick up my brother (who I'm now calling Princess) and head out to visit our parents in Pacific Beach. While there my mom treated us to a very tasty burger stand - they had not only veggie burgers but spicy black bean burgers! Yay and thank you! - and then headed home around 1 PM. I dropped my brother off then headed to the salon for a haircut and color; something I've always found so boring in past sessions but I've come to enjoy my time with my stylist Traci very much. From there I directly came home, loaded kids and their snack into car, and journied to the Y for Sophie's swim lesson (additional news flash - yesterday a kid - not mine! - vomited into the pool and there was a mass evacuation), then hit KITTEN ISLAND, aka a very funky old house in Cosi with four friendly kitten creatures who tried to act like winsome orphans for our benefit.

Yes, you heard me. KITTEN ISLAND. This is the magical place where kittens climb on you and rest and look cute and you think about taking two instead of one. By the way, it had been a number of years since I'd had a kitten and I've forgotten things about them. Like they can't jump up to your knee even on a low sofa so they climb it. Like they are incredibly trusting to new people. Like they can hide anywhere apparently (this one is doing so as I write this).

The kitten is, we believe, male. The kitten is stripey and has grey and white eyeliner. The kitten doesn't have a name; yes, I have taken pictures and will post them soon. The kitten got a flea bath before the kitten's paws touched the floor of my house. I also told the kitten I was sorry to take him from his brothers and sisters. Then I said, "But that's what happens to kittens..." and the male of the couple whom we were adopting from nodded gently and said soberly, "That's life."

Let that be the last sober and sad reflection towards our new family member at Casa del Hogaboom.

Welcome, kitten!

Labels: birlo, family life, pets