2015!

This is always an exciting time of the year -- full of possibility and plans for the year ahead.  It's pretty unbelievable that it is already 2015.  Not sure why, but it feels like a milestone of some kind.  We may not have Mr.Fusion-powered, flying time machines yet, I still hope it will be a good year!

Clyde turned 8 weeks old today and has acclimated to his new "home" very well and I'm already convinced that we have the smartest and bestest dog of the bunch.  He came to us sleeping through the night (win!), mostly potty-trained (double-win!!), and has already gotten a good handle on his first two commands.

Here he is showing off his "drop n' watch".  It's the "default" position for our service dogs, so I'm excited that he's already on his way.

While he doesn't know how to tell us when he needs to go out yet, he knows to wait until he is outside to do his business.  As an added benefit, he always goes within seconds of us taking him to the designated spot.  A major plus given the temperatures as of late:

To be honest, it's probably because it's so cold that he goes so quickly, but I'm not complaining.

Clyde and Cody are not best of friends yet.  Clyde is way too over-eager for Cody.  I give it a few more weeks.  

Clyde's first class tomorrow!  I'm so excited to see him reunited with his brothers and sisters...

The Move (Part 2).

I had every intention of following up with another post much sooner than I did!  Hopefully, I will still be able to have some kind of coherent narrative despite writing about something that happened a couple weeks back.  Still, I definitely want to capture it here -- just to remember this milestone some years down the road.

Jamie and I left DC in our big yellow truck filled with all of our worldly possessions.  Or should I say: we attempted to leave DC.  The city seemed to be conspiring against us and blocked our path out with road closings or vertical clearances.  In the end, the extra 45 minutes of driving through the city was actually a nice way to say goodbye to the city that had been our home for nearly a decade.  We said goodbye to the monuments and memorials, marveled at the sheer number of Harleys in town for the rally, and slowly lumbered our way away from the city.

Originally, Jamie and I had planned on splitting up driving responsibilities -- that is, until I saw the sheer size of the truck.  22 feet long + a trailer for our Prius.  It was terrifying to even sit in it while it was in motion, much less be responsible for the well-being of the people inside it and the other cars.  Jamie drove that whole thing to Minneapolis.

That truck went through a LOT of gas.  The first fill-up was something like $120.  Not long enough after, we stopped for our second tank.  We were pretty pleased that it was an even $100 to fill it up.  What are the chances!  we thought smugly to ourselves.  Then, on another gas stop, we hit exactly $100 again.  Pleased as punch that we hit it again -- it softened the blow that we were going to spend over $700 in gas by the time we were through.

It wasn't until we hit $100 the third time that we realized that it wasn't a coincidence: the gas station capped the charge at $100.  That makes sense. It also meant that we were stopping for gas much more frequently than we needed to.  D'oh.

Still, we made it to our destination after 18+ hours of driving, plenty of gas stops, some caffeinated drinks, a Home Depot stop for a new lock, and the the fastest motel stay ever.

Here is the moment our big, yellow truck first crossed the Minnesotan border.  We had some hired college guys meet us on the other end and they unloaded our truck at super-speeds.  By the next day, this is how our new (temporary) home looked:

It felt like home pretty quickly over here.  (The cats agreed).

                        

                                                                              

Fun with Pets.

Yeah yeah yeah, I haven't posted in a long time, whatevercakes.  SO busy I'm going out of my mind, but tonight I will post a super-short one.

So, I recently downloaded an app to my iPad that I heard about on NPR.  It's an app for cats.  Yes.  CATS.  Little fish swim around the screen and your cat bats at them and gets points each time it "gets" one.  I downloaded it think there was no way it would actually entice my cats into playing.  But, it was the most incredibly entertaining 4 minutes of my morning.  They went bananas!  Cody was clearly the better fishercat and beat out Junior who didn't grasp the concept and just kept jumping around the iPad and gnawing on the edges.

Unfortunately, when I got up to get my phone, they immediately thought I was going to feed them and they lost all interest.  I have yet to recreate those magical 4 minutes.

Since I have no video of them to show you, I give you this one...which is not all that unlike Cat Fishing.  Watch until the end for awesomeness.

Day 30; Post 29: O Tannenbaum.

So, I didn't mention this before, but the day we got back from Los Angeles, we put our tree up. I love the holidays and one of my favorite parts of the holiday is the Christmas Tree.

Yes, it's a fake tree. We figured as long as we didn't have a yard in which to plant our trees, we should just forego the yummy, piney scent of a real tree. Also, I think that real pine needles that fall off pretty easily would be worse for kitty tummies than are the occasional plastic ones that the cats manage to yank off. Because, let's be honest, the cats are obsessed with the tree.

Day 21; Post 20: Short and Sweet.

This video is the winner of the day...

Not as cute as my nieces...but pretty darned cute.

Day 15; Post 14: A Chill in the Air.

Now that we're nearing December, it's getting consistently colder.  Sure, there's still those days of 60 or 70 degree weather mixed in there...but for the most part: cold.  And sometimes rainy.

One consequence of this is that poor Junior has a cold.  Hopefully not H1N1, but she is sneezing up a mini-storm.  Too bad it sounds adorable.

Another consequence of this is that the cats become even more cuddly with each other.

That's them keeping each other warm on our mountain of laundry.  'Tis the season for cat-spooning.  

For the record, Jamie and I do not leave piles of clothes around.  We were just in the folding process.  I swear, mom.

Day 1; Post 1: Ambitious Endeavor.

Been a while since I posted -- I am a little ashamed. This prompts me to undertake a pretty ambitious blog endeavor: 30 posts in 30 days. I can't make any promises for the awesomeness of said posts. Nor can I really guarantee that they will not be more than a video that I found online. But, I will try to be somewhat entertaining...for 30 posts anyway.

To help me in my first effort, I am enjoying a classic on Netflix Watch Instantly - my friend in multitasking. Tonight I made an excellent choice: The Adventures of Milo and Otis. I have a history with this movie...a sometimes tragic history with this movie. Tragic only because I only saw it once despite many repeated attempts. My heart-wrenching last attempt involved a broken VHS tape.

But tonight, through the magic of the internet, I am able to see the movie again...and let me tell you, it -- like Muppets Take Manhattan -- is even better now that I'm older. Aside from the animal cruelty that must have been involved (let's stick a kitten in a box floating down a waterfall - wee! Oh! What if we have that grown bear tackle a pug? Comedic gold! Maybe have a crab pinch that cat's face or have the cat play with a hedgehog. Let's throw this puppy into the middle of the ocean! Oh his whimpers will be so adorable!), this movie is most amazing. Maybe it will only stay amazing as long as I am ignorant of whether or not any animals were actually hurt in the filming.

It's like a movie version of Cute Overload.

This movie may be the reason for my apparent obsession for orange tabbies.

It may also be the reason why I can still play About Strange Lands and People by heart to this day. (No, I don't get why there are pictures of babies in the video.)

WHOA. I just noticed that the person who posted that video of Milo and Otis on You Tube had the username of "HappyMeliProject". Creeeeeeeepy!

And because everyone can benefit from more Milo and Otis...

One post down...29 to go.

Home Office.

For the past couple days, I have been doing that thing that many people long to do: I have been working from home.  Considering my profession, I never thought this day would come.  While it is wonderful to have the option of doing your work sans pants, I have found that it does not meet my wildest expectations.  And for the record, I have been wearing pants.

First, there is the pressure to do a great job with the task at hand.  After all, if I were to do a poor job than I will never again have the option of working from home.  This is problematic since the task at hand is somewhat impossible to do well in the time frame given (3 days).  So instead, I have downgraded my original intent and am now going to do a damn-fine job building a solid foundation for the rest of the work to be done later.  

Second, (and this relates to the first) is the fact that there is a fuzziness regarding hours.  When you go to work, there is a definite ending point for the work when you go home.  Granted, most nights I bring work home with me anyways, but there is a logical place to stop.  At home, you can keep going on and on -- evidenced by the fact that it's way past midnight and I'm considering the time that I am writing this post as a "break" from work.

Third, I miss my colleagues and seeing the kids.  I didn't realize how much seeing the students and seeing the people who would benefit from my work actually motivates me throughout the day.

On the flip side, I am way more productive.  I have made more progress in the last 48 hours than I could have if I was holed up in my office.  Unpredictability is King at a school.

Another flipside?  When I am home I get to see what sort of messes my cats get themselves into while we would normally be away.  Their interactions with the Roomba provided a little entertainment on Monday.  I also got to watch Junior get herself into (and out of) a little predicament today...

Sadly, I did not get the camera in time to allow you to witness the peak of the squirming.  Is it cruel that I thought this was a little funny?  Or have I been working from home for too long?

Because Anne Louise Said So...

So there was this video on Cute Overload (a website I highly recommend when in need of some cute) months ago that has since been taken off of said website. It bummed me out when it was taken off because it was the only video I knew of that had a profound effect on Cody. Cody has never been a cat to really react to the television or computer, but this video would freak him out.



Baby Kitten, Mom To The Rescue! - video powered by Metacafe

Hearing the sad little kitten would put him into parent-mode and he would search frantically for the offended kitten. He'd look behind the monitor and knock over the speakers...it was awesome. While I did feel bad for stressing him out, I had to do it a couple more times...because it was awesome. Then, for his sake, I forgot about the video.

Until yesterday. I found the video again and wondered to myself if he would still react. After all, now we had an annoying brat kitten that pestered him all day. I thought for sure he would ignore the crying kitten. I had to test it...and then I had to do it one more time because Anne Louise told me to video tape him for the blog.

I'm so mean. Note how he checks on Junior. He did that both (alright, all four times) that I played the video. And now, I will never play those videos again -- unless on mute -- so as not to traumatize my cats.

Junior.

Sorry that I haven't updated in a while -- it was a combination of things, most specifically the lack of regular internet access. But, things have been straightened out on this end and I should be able to update more often now.

There have been lots of things going on over here, what with the preparations for the upcoming wedding and all. I am nearing the home stretch and fortunately my "To-Do" list is starting to look manageable.

But, enough of that wedding stuff for now. The real big news was the addition of a new family member a couple of weeks ago. His name is Junior. After many, many months of contemplation and pontificating we decided to adopt a friend for Cody. Actually, Jamie and I had been arguing about whether we should go with a dog or a cat. While we both love dogs, I thought that at this juncture in our lives -- one where we live in the middle of a city and in a house without a backyard -- it just wouldn't be right to have a dog. A cat, however, would be awesome. A playmate for Cody would be a good thing, and having another cat would not really be all that much extra work.

Jamie still wasn't siding with me...until I took him to a cat adoption and he saw this guy:


Yes, I know he looks just like Cody. No, I'm not racist (breedist?) when it comes to orange tabbies. But, just look at that face! I wanted to get a tuxedo cat, but this little guy was just so friendly and started purring as soon as we took him out of his cage. As an added bonus, his foster family had named him "Cody"-- clearly it was just meant to be. So we adopted him the following week.

He has adjusted really well -- just runs around the house. The foster mom had told me that he was a finicky and somewhat anorexic-eater and that I would probably need to forcefeed him at first. Not so, he just devours all the food on his plate and then runs to find Cody's food to eat that too. While he was really runty when we got him, he's grown so much with us (he is now a whopping 4lbs!). Cody and him take turns chasing the other around the house. It's good times.

More pictures? We (meaning: I) played around with different names for a while. Gizmo? Hobbes? Lil' Brudder? But Jamie was set with "Junior" because it's cute, and he was originally a Cody. So Junior it is.

And now, naptime.

Cody is still the most excellent cat in the world.