Cat Sanctuary 2012

The players:
Momma Cat
Her Kittens (3)
Smooshy Face
Big Tom
Other family (a momma with 3-4 kittens)
Mean Cat

Scene: Our house, exterior, back yard

So if you actually read my blog you will know that least year we had a cat, Mean Cat, bring her four kittens into our back yard. We captured 3 of the 4 kitten and took them to my uncles farm. We still see Mean Cat around the neighborhood but she avoids us and that's okay. That cat is mean.
This year, we come home to find Momma Cat and her 3 kittens in our back yard. Just like last year, I proceed to feed her and try to make friends so we can catch them. Unlike Mean Cat, Momma Cat is actually nice. She wants pats but at the same time hisses a lot because she is not sure that she trusts you. We had the cage out and everything but since the kittens weren't weaned, they were not interested in the food. Chris and I had to go out of town for over a week and I asked my mom to stop by and feed them. I guess Momma is suspicious of everyone but me and she moved the kittens.
We came home to just Momma cat. I decided to give it a few more weeks and then at least catch her, even if we have her spayed and released.
The next day Momma Cat is back with another adult cat that I call Smooshy Face. She has a very flat face, like Maru. She is super cute but not friendly. She was rubbing on Momma so I guess they are friends. I have just fed them when Chris looks out our bedroom window and sees another cat family behind our building. I haven't seen them since and hope they were just passing through.
Yesterday, a week since we got back home, Momma brought the kittens back. I went out and fed them. All 3 even went in the cage to eat (no Momma so I didn't trap them yet). While they were eating a big black Tom cat came by. He looked sort of beat up, like he fights, so I chased him off. Momma and family were here first.
Anyway, this is how my back yard turned into a cat sanctuary. I actually want to catch everybody soon because all the in and out is stressing our poor sick Boogie.

Boogie update: She had to stay at the vets the whole time away and that stressed her out. She lost .4lb which is a lot for her these days. We had went back to daily treatments after a vomiting spell and now we have gone back to every other day as long as her weight holds. She is still very happy and not in any pain. I think she is happy because she is getting spoiled. She sleeps in the bed, sits on the couch with no banky, and even though she can only eat her special cat food we follow her around the house with the bowl letting her eat wherever.

Gluten Free - not so bad actually

So, I want to be upfront and say that I think my Dr. puts everyone on a gluten free, casein free diet. Unless you go in there and say, "I feel awesome, in fact, I have no idea why I am even at the doctor's to begin with." Otherwise, no gluten or casein for you. She does test for all common food sensitivities/allergies but if no other culprits show up then no gluten or casein for you. The thing is that after you get these orders, you feel good. Some people feel fantastic. (I just feel good but if you read my blog you know I have a lot of stress due to my kitty's renal failure and intensive care).
The trick is not to toss out your Oreos and just go to Whole Foods and buy gluten-free Oreos. You have to eat more unprocessed foods. Thats what makes you feel better. It's easier than I thought because most of the gluten free fake food is not very good (sorry fake oreos) and its expensive. No one really wants to pay $5 for a small box of not very tasty crackers. So, you turn to the stuff that is yummy. Fruits, vegetables, the gluten free grains like quinoa and rice. I am loving it. I know, weird.
I have been on crazy fad diets before. I did South Beach, Adkins, Sensa, some weird no salt thing. First of all, these were all horrible ideas because I was only trying to loose weights and diets don't work. (I have been over diets and trying to loose weight for a while now so this is not that kind of diet or related to loosing weight.) In all these cases, I would have cut a bitch for a slice of bread/pasta/cake/salt/etc. but since I went gluten and casein free I have not craved anything. Not even once.
Today no one is in the front office but me. If I have to work through lunch, I usually dictate that this means the company buys me lunch and that lunch is chicken strips and blizzard from the DQ next door. You know what I had today? A salad. With Tuna. That is all. Do I wish I could have chicken strips and a blizzard (previously in my top five favorites)? No, not even a little. I am the first person to tell you that I am shocked, SHOCKED, about this. I can't eat any of my previously favorite foods (except wine and dark chocolate, thank the gods) and it doesn't bother me one bit. I have trouble actually accepting this reality. I do see it as a sign that this diet (diet as in what you eat is your diet. Mine is gluten free, casein free and omnivorous) is what my body wants. I think about DQ and something inside me says, "Yeah, thanks for not eating that because that was why you felt like shit all the time." And this might be TMI, but I have had no gas. Seriously, and I eat roughage like kale every day.
Now why does being GFCF work any differently than not eating processed foods like a paleo diet. I am not sure it does. It might be psychological in that I can say, "that food will make me sick" as opposed to "I choose not to eat that." It also does not cut out a whole genre of food. I can have carbs, I can have sugar, I can have fat just not all the kinds of sugar, carbs and fat. I even eat things that some people consider "bad" for you like white rice and corn chips. But when you break down what I eat into the good ole food pyramid my servings of fat, sugar, carbs (and white rice) falls well below my servings of fruits and vegetables. And the thing I am trying to say is that I really want to eat more produce which to me feels like the biggest win of all.
Now, I am sure some people want to know if you will lose weight on a GFCF diet. If you ate a lot of junk and things that made you bloat before then probably. Chris says I look slimmer, but as I said before I don't care for weight loss diets so I don't weigh myself. Since my health issues were all inflammation related then I could just be less swollen. Who doesn't want to be less swollen? Some people with gluten intolerance will gain weight because they were experiencing poor absorption before. So if you think you should try this to lose weight then please don't, diets don't work. If you want to try it and see if you feel better then be my guest. But talk to your doctor first, and consider asking for food sensitivity tests. It would be a shame to give up gluten only to find out that soy is what is making you feel bad.
Oh, and now that I read a lot of restaurant allergens menus, soy is in freaking everything.

Bird on a Feeder

My husband is an engineer. If you aren't familiar, engineers are know for being...quirky. My engineer in particular doesn't like to disappoint so he often find "substitutions" that to him sound like the same thing but I know they are not the same thing at all.
The other day when he went out to get something at the hardware store, I asked for a large bag of wild bird seed. The hardware store was closed so he went to a big box store. Once there, he could not find wild bird seed so he bought me a giant bag of cockateil food.
Last night after reading the ingredients out loud, I filled my three bird feeders. In minutes, two very surprised doves were on the ground eating what I spilled.
I imagined their conversation went something like this. (also, please read it in a cockney accent)

I wondered when they were going to top up the seed. I have been watching this spot for a week..holy shit, are these banana chips!?!

What? There are no banana chips here. OMG, I think this is a split pea.

Do they still call them spilt peas when they are whole? I mean, is any pea which is split in half a split pea?

What? What kind of question is that? It is a special kind of pea which is split. I think it grows in halves.

In halves? If it grows in halves isn't it growing in whole, and its whole just looks like a half. How does something grow in halves, you ninny!

Well, I am just saying that is grows in a shape which is half of the shape of a pea that is not characterized as a "split pea"

I don't think I can be friends with you any more.

Fine then.

Fine.

You know if you eat a bit of thistle and papaya at the same time its quite nice.

Oh yes, it is quite nice.


AND SCENE

Are Raccoons Dangerous?

My husband is from the city. The big city. The largest city in his country, to be exact. This means he doesn't know about a variety of subjects that someone who grew up on a farm knows about.

We were living in my parents basement while we looked for a house. Chris had only been gone for 5 minutes and I was just falling back asleep when my cell phone rang. I am sure I said, "Jesus." Because that's generally what I say. I answered.
"What?"
"Are raccoons dangerous?"
"What? Why?"
"There is one here in the garage."

This was actually, sort of, my fault. I had come in late from dance class and my parents had left the garage door up and light on so I could see. It is freaking dark where they leave.
I noticed that the dogs biscuits were turned over and really hoped that the dog had done it or they had been knocked over on accidents, but just in case the chupacabra was still around I ran in and put the door down. So, I in my infinite scaredycatness gave the raccoon a safe, warm place to sleep.

After we go the raccoon out, we surveyed the damage.
He pooped on my husband's car.
Took all the DVDs out of a box of DVDs that came out of my mom's car. He had already seen Finding Nemo.
He played with a toy tractor.
And tried to weed eat but broke the handle off trying to get it started.

Find the purple ball, now look right.

I Dream of Twitter

So last Monday night was a rough night in terms of sleeping. It was our last night on our old mattress (Yay for the new Tempur-pedic). We build a new headboard that fell off the wall and onto our heads at 3:30 AM. I had to get up at 5:30, to be at a training class at 7:30 which was 45 minutes away. Basically, all the forces of getting a good nights sleep were against me. And boy did I have some crazy dreams. Specifically, I dreamed of Twitter. It was a party and all the cool kids were there.

I don't remember when I joined Twitter, and I am too lazy to look. I remember my friend Laura said that we should get on Twitter and I did. I don't think any of my other friends, including Laura, stuck with it. I actually liked being on Twitter and engaging people all over the world on topics from HR to bellydance. The next thing I knew, I was having conversations with some pretty cool people who lived in my town. Then I was at a pub crawl dressed in a Snuggie. Drinking in a Snuggie is awesome! If you have not tried it, I am both shocked and demanding that you add it to your bucket list.

This snow balled in to a series of social events with some really awesome new friends that I would have never met had it not been for Twitter. Just as I was getting into the groove of hanging out with my Tweeps, the unthinkable happened - we moved!

Now you are thinking that since Twitter is on the interwebs then moving would be fine because you would still Tweet. Yes, in theory. Except I felt left out. I made one Tweep in my hometown, where I moved to, and he even brought me a diet coke once during a particularly long appointment at his place of employment. Still things just weren't the same. So a I Tweeted less and less, and then not at all. (Except my automatic blog posts and 4sq).

So then, last Monday night, I had a dream. Chris and I were in a random house looking for a party that we had been invited to. It was almost like a party quest. What television has led me to believe one must go through to find a rave. Purchase a pickle at the gas station on the corner of 4th and Vine, pay only in nickels. That sort of thing. Anyway, this quest led us to the most expensive neighborhood in town. To a particular house, where would get the final invite. Once we arrived, sitting at the kitchen table and tweeting were several of my tweeps. For some reason, in my dream, it was important that they did not recognize me until I messaged them and got them to say that I was "in". I really have no idea why because that was the exact moment when the cushion fell out of my new DIY headboard and hit me on the head.

So I am back Twitter, I missed you.

Update: Squatty Potty

The Daily What featured this video today.  

Part One: Here

I had actually ordered the plastic Squatty Potty when the nice people over at SP HQ offered to send me one. I told them I had ordered the plastic as a starter model (and because the low price would help convince Chris that it wasn't a horrible idea) but hoped to love it and one day upgrade to the bamboo. They sent me the bamboo! I was surprised and happy. It does look a lot nicer and I actually think the slight angle makes it more comfortable than the plastic. I moved the plastic into our guest bath and put some of the brochures they sent me on the back of the toilet so guest would know what was going on. I am also going to take info to my chiropractor, massage therapist and doctor.

My mom was our first visitor to go into the guest bath and say, "what is this?" I showed her what it was and how it worked and she seemed to be genuinely interested in the benefits, which made me happy.

So what do I think of the Squatty Potty?  I like it. If you are really inflexible it can be hard to get your knees up. Chris let me put yoga bricks under the Squatty Potty and he slides them out and puts his feet on those until he can increase his flexibility. I actually think it makes sitting on the toilet more comfortable on your rear. I am glad that I got one and think Chris is warming up to it. I think the fact he is trying to be flexible enough to use it all the time, speaks volumes. He obviously sees the great benefit to squatting. 

The Birds

Rocky, our office cat, just brought a live bird into our office. It's probably the office managers fault. She told him to get them because they are pooping on our cars. Well, he listened.
I heard her yell, "Rocky, no!" I assumed he was running out the open front door not returning through it. He immediately came around the corner to my office. Once I realized there was something in his mouth, I expected a mouse before my brain could register bird. I yelled at him to put it down. It flew all around and he caught it again. We finally got him to drop it and it flew into the front office, hit a window and fell behind a desk. I grabbed killer and tossed him in an office, closing the door. We shooed the bird out and flew away looking remarkably uninjured.
Rocky sulked around the place trying to find what we did with his prize. He also got his first flea of the new year for his trouble.

Just call him killer.

Whenever something crazy happens like this no one is around to see it. Who says working in an office is boring?