Creative Cat Behavior

Cats are very talented creatures. Each in his or her own way. Creative even.

I've been trying to get my cats to eat pills with their food. The pills are optional - they are to help with shedding, not to make them healthy or anything. I originally started this process with a liquid, but then the store stopped carrying the liquid and only carrying pills. Don't they know how hard it is to get cats to eat pills?

I started by putting a pill in each cat's food dish and mixing it in with their food. I figured that if the pill was well covered and therefore "tasted" like their food, it would convince them to eat them. When I first started doing this, the pills would disappear. So I thought all was well. The cats were not shedding any more than they had been when I had the liquid stuff, so it seemed like the pills were working.

But my cats are picky eaters. Always have been. So a couple of times, they didn't actually finish the food. And the pills were in the part that wasn't eaten. Darn!

So I decided to get more creative. I broke open the pills and put the powder directly into the food. Again, for a couple of days, the cats ate the food with the powder mixed in. So then I thought all was well.

And then a couple of days later, the cats stopped eating their food altogether. Rebellion!

Since I was more worried about the cats eating at all than about getting the optional medicine into them, I stopped putting the pills in the medicine whether they were whole or powder. And the cats started eating their food again. Not the ideal situation, but better than their not eating at all.

After a few days of no pills, tonight I put the whole pills in the food again. Well mixed in. But the cats are talented. They didn't avoid eating the food. They seem to have delicately picked the pills out. I found them beside their empty food bowls. Very creative.

Vacation!

Okay, it's not exactly a stay-cation because I am traveling. But I'm not going very far. On purpose.

This Thursday I leave for the beach. I have a 1 bedroom condo with a deck. I plan on spending a great deal of time reading and relaxing on that deck and generally getting away from the world. I will probably go to the beach some, but I'm not a big lie-on-the-beach-all-day person. For one thing, I burn. For another, I get bored. For a third, I don't think I look all that good in a bathing suit. So I will spend some time at the beach, dip my toes in the ocean, and watch the other people go by. While I'm at the beach, I'll probably do some shopping - maybe buy a new bathing suit since that's where they sell the most - right?

So I think of it as a stay-cation because I don't plan to run around much. Except running around the resort complex for exercise. And I go home whenever I want because it's only a few hours' drive.

What would make it a real stay-cation were if the cats came with me. But cats don't travel. So I'll travel the 100 miles and still feel like I'm pretty much at home.

Can't wait!

M&A

My company is in the middle of an M&A. Originally, it was supposed to be an "A". Acquisition. Us buying them. Now, "us" is a small company. Really small. Minuscule really. 6 people. "Them" is about 170. So it's a little weird that a 6-person company is buying a 170-person company, right? Not only that, but we're acquiring them. Not merging with them.

But lately, the language has changed. Now we are more on the "M" side. Perhaps this makes a bit more sense given the companies' respective sizes? On the other hand, the final company, post-M&A will use the 6-person company's name. Not the other company's name.

And now we're struggling with even that. More fun to come, I'm sure.

Is It A Matter Of Censorship? Or Respect?

Wikipedia defines censorship as "the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations as determined by the censor." Merriam-Webster defines censor as "to examine in order to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable."

So here's the question. Is a request not to respond negatively to a post on Facebook censorship?

Senator Edward Kennedy died last night. A friend of mine, who is a friend on Facebook, posted a status update saying "RIP" and a note of respect for Senator Kennedy, and followed up with a comment requesting that her conservative friends respect her feelings and not post anything negative in response to her post. Unfortunately, two of her "friends" were not respectful of this request and proceeded to bash Kennedy. Vehemently. A few of her friends, myself included, suggested that - out of respect for their friend - perhaps they should refrain from these kinds of statements. That if those were their opinions, they could post them on their own statuses or their own pages, and leave her post alone. Unfortunately, they argued that Facebook was a public forum, and they were entitled to say whatever they wanted. That her request was censorship.

I think that censorship isn't the issue here. I think this is a case of respect. Whether or not you are a fan of Senator Kennedy, the woman asked her friends to respect her feelings. And they didn't. And that's wrong.

And in the end, both of them ended up apologizing to her. For not respecting her request. So in fact, respect was the issue - not censorship.

On the Move

I've been thinking about moving for a while now. I looked into moving a couple of years ago, but at that time decided against it. Back then, the choice was move or remodel the kitchen. I decided that it was the smart thing to do to remodel the kitchen and stay where I was. My job was in flux. I have a sweet mortgage. And really the only thing that was bugging me about my place was not having a guest room because I had my home office in the second bedroom. In discussing the situation with a colleague, she pointed out that I could move my desk and computer downstairs to the "rec" room (re: finished basement) and then convert the second bedroom into an actual guest bedroom. So I did that, and it worked well. I've had a couple of guests use the room, and since I'm usually downstairs watching TV in the evenings, which is when I use my computer, it worked out to have the computer in the same room as the TV.

But now I'm getting the itch again. I've actually had the itch for a while - it never really went away. But I also started a new job about a year ago, with a new company. And the economy started to tank. And so it seemed like a smart time to sit still and be content with what I had - a sweet, low mortgage and a job!

Recently, things at my job have started to stabilize. While no new company is ever completely secure, we're doing okay. Certainly my job situation is not any less secure than it was with the big company where I worked previously. And I'm not completely skittish about taking on a new mortgage with the potential for job disruption because, shortly after I moved into my current home, I got laid off and I managed to pay the mortgage anyway. I know that I can do it if I have to.

So I've spent the past few weeks getting the house ready for potential sale. First, I needed to have the foster kittens moved out. Four of them got adopted, and Charley is living at the Reston PetSmart and apparently doing well. My desire for a new place was incidental to her needing to get a new home - really the problem was her disruption in my adult cats' lives - but I'll admit my desire to move was a factor. Second, I needed to get new windows on the front of the house. I had put new windows on the back of the house a few years back. But I hadn't done the front. I knew that, realistically, I couldn't sell the house with different kinds of windows. Last summer, I had upgraded the kitchen to new cabinets and granite countertops. The appliances are all EnergyStar. Last spring, I got new wall-to-wall carpet in the upstairs bedrooms - same color in both rooms and the hallway, so the whole floor looks cohesive. So about the only things that are old and possibly would need replacement by the new owner in the short term are the heat pump and the washer and dryer. Not bad. I think generally, that means I could get a decent price. Not the price perhaps that I could have gotten 1-1/2 years ago. But enough to be able to put something down on the next place.

I have an appointment with a realtor just after Labor Day. We'll see what happens. I'm kind of excited at the idea of a new place, though I'm also not looking forward to packing. A new place is fun, but getting there - not so much.

Most postings to come on this topic, I'm sure.

CDs vs. iPods

With the advent of iPods and other MP3 players, sales of CDs have apparently declined. Apparently, most people buy their music online, download it to their computer or MP3 player, and go on their merry way. I, on the other hand, still like CDs. That's what I listen to in the car. And in my house. I don't have a way to listen to music in either location any other way. While I seem to be a fairly early adopter when it comes to new music artists, I seem to be a late adopter when it comes to my music technology.

It took me a while to get on the CD train. I was perfectly happy with my LPs. And I had a ton of them, so I didn't want to expend the money to replace them all. Not to mention that some of those LPs never did come out on CD. At the time, my car also only had a tape player, so it wasn't important to get CDs to play in the car. And for working out, I had a Walkman that also played tapes. All was good.

Then one day, I decided it was time to adopt CDs. I got lots of them. I started with the 12 CDs for $.01 deal, and bought a whole bunch in a relatively short period of time. Easy when all I was doing was replacing the LPs. And then I bought a new car, and it had a CD player. So CDs became my thing. I also bought a CD Walkman for working out. And a carrier that went around my waist so that I could keep the CDs from bouncing when I ran. I burned a bunch of collection CDs, especially for working out. All was good.

And then came iPods. I didn't want to go through the hassle of putting my CDs on the computer and then onto an iPod. Plus, paying several hundred dollars for an iPod seemed completely ridiculous. But then....I found the iPod Shuffle. For $50, I have 2 GB worth of music. Easier for working out because you don't have to deal with the whole bouncing problem. Now I still did have to go through the pain of putting the CDs on the computer and then downloading the music to the iPod. But I'm over that now. In fact, I bought a second Shuffle so that I didn't have to change the music on the first one, but I didn't get bored with listening to the same songs again and again - even if there are something like 50 songs on the one Shuffle. So now I have two iPod Shuffles, and honestly I don't see myself buying a full iPod or even a Nano. And I still haven't gotten into downloading songs from iTunes. In fact, when I first for the iPod, I didn't even register with iTunes because I didn't want to give them any credit card information. All is good.

But a month ago, I bought an iPhone. And I've put my iPod music on it. And I've set up an iTunes account - because that's how you buy apps for the phone. So perhaps, just perhaps, downloading music is in my future. And maybe get an iPod player adapter for my car. And for the house. Nah! Too soon.

Cleaning Up After Kittens

Today was clean-up day. Today I finally "broke down" the kitten's room. I cleaned and put away the four extra litter boxes. I threw away the extra dry kitten food that had been sitting out since Charley's departure a week ago. I packed up the extra canned kitten food - which will either be donated or fed to the big cats. I bought a new futon to replace the one that the kittens destroyed, which will be delivered tomorrow (and the old one taken away!). All evidence of the invasion of the five foster kittens has now been either cleaned up or put away. Once the new futon is in place and the bed made up again, I'll bring out the stuffed animals that hang out on the bed. The only thing left will be to get the carpets cleaned. Whew!

Ready for next year!