A couple of days in one go

Mewthos has taken to sleeping by my head now, either draped over Ernie (my teddy) or on my pillow. In the mornings he can hardly wait for me to get up – he snuggles my face till I’m coughing up hairballs! Well, not literally – but you get the picture.

Since it’s Saturday, I there’s no rush hour traffic, so I could let them out early. About an hour later Mewthos came back absolutely covered in dirt! He’s definitely a boy-cat! His lovely white socks (hind legs) and his lovely white face are all grey with dirt! And he comes snuggling my face with gusto!

In case you’re curious how it’s going with my chocolate withdrawal? Last night I allowed myself a whole Ritter Sport as a treat – only, after having eaten half, I was quite content. Unlike alcohol and cigarettes, I don’t have an actual problem with chocolate – it’s just a habit. And I’m simply changing it.

Today I started the Herculean task of going through everything, sorting out what I no longer want to pack & unpack henceforth, i.e. get rid of. I started with my desktop, so that anything I want to simply digitize, I can do that without having to dig for the equipment.

Then I spent over an hour in the garden, clearing out the dead and wilted flowers. I meant to do that yesterday, but in the time it took me to have a smoke while I contemplated what I’d do, the weather turned ugly! Within minutes it went from sunny, but windy to overcast and stormy. But today the sun is staying out and there’s no wind, nothing more than the occasional breeze. It still gets cold in the shade, and my garden doesn’t get much sun in the afternoon. It’s looking much better now, though – especially the carnations! I cleared out a lot of dead stalks!

Snowball still comes around every day. He is absolutely mesmerized by this ‘toys for cats’ thing in my home! He spends more time playing with the catnip chaser than all of mine put together! Yesterday, when it was so cold that all my cats spent most of the day inside, I took out the wand so Mewthos & Lady Jane could burn off some energy! He came and sat to watch this – I can dangle a feather in front of him, he’ll watch it going back and forth and back and forth … though he won’t try to catch it. Mewthos protests his presence loudly, though.

I let Snowball spend the night again, he slept very quietly by my feet – but all my felines were uncomfortable. Ziva slept in the cat carrier, Mewthos by my head and Lady Jane climbed on top of my chest to curl up. So, as pleasant as he is for humans to have around, I’m afraid, for the sake of my Mips, I better not let him spend nights here.

He went out early Sunday and didn’t return till Monday noon – looking rather bedraggled, I’m sorry to say. The whole Sunday was just rain, rain, rain, and more rain. If I still wondered, whether I have enough toys & furniture for my cats to become indoor cats – all doubt is dispelled. The answer is: No! Lady Jane kept running to the chest of drawers, demanding we play with the wand! But when Mewthos joins, she retreats to the floor. He gets quite possessive and aggressive – growling whenever he has the feather in his mouth. That was cute when he was a baby, but now that it affects Lady Jane, it’s becoming a problem. The two of them play mostly well together, but when a feather is involved? They both loose all restraint!

Well, it’s been a couple of days without posting to the blog – and I still have all those photos to upload! I’ve been busy trying to re-animate our fellowship in the Elvenar game. We lost another good, active player on Sunday – if this continues, we’ll be a flock of dead ducks! We still have quite a few member, who will participate in fellowship events – like the weekly tournaments and occasional adventures. But too many of our big players are content to just do what they want, with no regard for the fellowship – and collect the rewards the rest of us achieve! So, since I do have some time now, I’m making a last effort to keep the fellowship together – if this doesn’t work, we active ones will probably leave. I know I’ve thought about it!

I’ve started a Facebook Group for the fellowship, so far, 9 out of 22 members have joined. Another will follow. I’m trying to communicate a strategy that will greatly improve our tournament performance – but comprehension is a bit slow. Even these active ones aren’t too keen on reading, so I’m trying to get the idea across a few chunks at a time. It is a game, after all, not a job nor professional competition.

While the Mips were taking their Siesta, I went out to get some groceries. I tried a new place. Next to it, I saw a Home store, with kitchen items. Since I had the time, I permitted myself the luxury of a leisurely browse – what a lot of things they have, that I’ve never seen before! They had a really big pencil sharpener – looks exactly like one – only: it’s for carrots! You can get a long continuous curl of carrot with it! Stuff like that! All of it really useful – but, of course, a lot of it was not something I’d ever really use. But a couple of items were extremely tempting! Like a clip-on cup hanger. You simply slide it onto a shelf, it’s U-shaped, with a lot of hooks on one side of the U. Of course, anything placed on that shelf, would wobble – but I can re-arrange to avoid that. They also had one of those things for paper towels – just as useful. Especially when you’re a tenant – you can place it and remove it without any damage to the built-in cupboards! Well, I’ll be thinking about it for a while, then see what my budget says. I’ve never seen these items anywhere else before!

Well, I took just as leisurely a stroll through the grocery shop, nothing to write about, though it’s a nice little place – and convenient. I did at least get more litter sand! For dinner, I’m cooking chicken with red cabbage, Brussel sprouts and rice. Doesn’t take as long as stewing beef or lamb, and I didn’t go overboard with the quantities this time!

Oh, and Mewthos started twirling again! Seeing him happily come running with my white knitted jersey in his mouth was as cute as it was distressing – seeing it dragged along the carpet. He first tried the pants I wanted to put on, so I gave him last night’s top – which he ignored, then my night pants. He has a passion for my jersey! Well, at least he isn’t damaging it.