Disaster

Kitties!

Tiny J here.

Woe is I.

Mommy has to go to work tomorrow, for ten hours of training, on her day off.  

She says it's gonna be boring and awful, but I don't care about that...the thing is, she's gonna be sitting for hours and hours, making a lap, and I won't be there to occupy it!

AAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Sometimes, life is hard on the Tiny Johnson.

Happy Thursday!

XX  Johnny  XX

Miffed

Kitties!  

May Ling here.

Mommy is elebenty kinds of upset that she is working until 3 AM; some such nonsense about missing her favorite yoga class of the week.

Well, her problems are picayune compared to mine...I won't get a lap to sit on in the morning!

Unacceptable.

Happy Monday! (anyway)

XX  May Ling  XX

Getting to Know Jack

Jack Rabbit, that is!

Kitties!  

Mommy spotted Jack at work the other day at work.  To her astonishment he didn't immediately leap away--as per usual--so she politely asked if she could take his selfie picture and he said "yes"!  (Who knew she spoke Hare, her Cat is execrable.)

So there you are.  

And if anybody ever accuses you of Not Knowing Jack, well, you can tell 'em otherwise!

Happy Sunday!

XX  The Katnip Kittehs  XX

Join the fun, visit The Cat On My Head!

Why Mommy Enjoys Her Job, Reason #274

Kitties!

Behold:

Mommy: Last week the maintenance guys built this hopper so they could use a tractor to load filter media into these giant totes for transport; when I saw the name spray-painted on one side I just about split a gut laughing!

I work with some truly funny folks.

Happy Wednesday!

XX  The Mommy and the Kats  XX

Finally!

Kitties!

Rupert here.

After four months of strenuous effort--and suffering the tragic loss of a White Whisker on not just one but BOTH sides--I've finally got a matched set:

taa daa!!!!

Whew.

Now I can nap.

Happy Thursday!

XX  Rupert  XX

Miffed Meezer

Kitties!

May Ling here.

I am giving Mommy a Meezer Look™, which says:

What do you mean you have to go to work?

UNACCEPTABLE!

Happy Friday!

XX  May Ling  XX

Paper Work

Kitties!

Felix here.

It's Monday, which means back to work.

One of my Most Important Duties is snoopervising Daddy when he pack cassettes, tie dye, and CATIO CHIPS!, and puts mailing labels on the parcels.

It's a tough job, but somekitty's gotta do it.

OK, maybe I need some hazardous duty pay for this one...

Actually, I secretly enjoy the attention; check out this totally humdrum action-packed video:

or click HERE

Do any of you help around the house?

Happy Monday!

XX  Felix  XX

Squishing Saturday

Kitties!

Grayce and May Ling here.

Mommy had to work a little unplanned overtime on her weekend (she volunteered--what a moron), so she took a teensy nap to recharge her batcatteries after her yoga class.

We helped.

Daddy took this photo to prove that sometimes, rarely, Mommy does relax.  

Mostly when we can squash her into submission.

Happy Caturday!

XX  The Snugglers  XX

Hard at Work

Kitties!

Grayce here.

Daddy dyed up a batch of tea-towels which required some Kitty Kwality Kontrol.

And even though it's Caturday, I stepped up to the plate!

Our job is never done...

Happy Caturday!

XX  Grayce  XX

Yikes.

Kitties!

Rupert here.

If I look a little startled it's because:

a)  I am;

and 

b)  I have to hurry with this 'cos Mommy is actually *working* at work!

When she should be writing a proper post for me.

Gotta run!

Happy Tuesday!

XX  Rushin' (Blue) Rupert  XX

Oh, the Aroma...and Other Things

Kitties!

Sylvester here.

Mommy has THE best smelling shoes in the world, bar none.  Compared to hers, Daddy's shoes are lame examples of footy fragrance.  None of us glom onto delicately whiff his shoes, ever!

Back in Illinois, Angel Fuzzy used to wait every evening for Mommy to take off her work boots and he'd spend at least fifteen minutes thoroughly "enjoying" them.

I totally understand.

Mommy survived her evening at work Sunday night.  A huge electrical transformer blew up and knocked out all the power at both treatment plants--the blast was big enough to shake the building where her co-worker was.  Nobody was hurt and the power was restored fairly quickly, but she spent most of her shift putting her plant back on line and troubleshooting stuff that wasn't "happy" about being so abruptly shut down.  It was a fast night but she was quite glad to get home and snuggle into bed with us and relax.  She and her co-workers like to say "boring is good" and this is exactly why!

Also, many of you asked about the Magic Dust that gets sprinkled on our foods.  It's called Fortiflora.  Mommy uses one packet per feeding, (generally five to seven cans for us) so a little goes a long way.  Kona is a terribly picky eater and The Baby is sometimes less than enthusiastic about eating and this stuff does the trick.  In fact, the box is stored way up high in the cupboard where some over-enthusiastic cat (*koff*koff*Salem*koff*koff*) can't get to it, rip the packets open, and go to town.*  

Mommy asked me to mention that Grayce's poop (she has intestinal issues) have gotten better also, smell-wise at least.  Sorry, Grayce--please don't whap me for telling...

Well, I need to get back to enjoying these shoes.

Happy Monday!

XX  Sylvester  XX

*It wasn't a pretty sight.

Merde!

Friends and Kitties!

The feces has hit the fan here at work tonight. 

**BUSY**

I'm earning my pay...so no post, sorry!

I have some fun kitty picture for Monday already in the pipeline, so we'll see ya tomorrow.

Happy Sunday!

XX  Sheebie  XX

Exercising the Right to Pee Speech

Kitties!

Scouty here.

Mommy didn't go back to work Friday afternoon!

She says she's off work for the next two weeks.

Which means that our blog commenting will be severely limited since she screws off at work on the internet because she rarely sits still for more than ten minutes when she's home.

Let me make myself purrfectly clear:

Here's exactly what I think of that!

Happy Caturday!

XX  Scouty  XX

Fun at Work

Friends and Kitties!

Sheebie here.

As you know, I'm a lucky soul who enjoys my job...and here's a small example of why that is:

The LOG.

Which is rich soil for sowing silliness, something you get a lot of when there's a bunch of insane intelligent people minding the store like my co-workers.

Please embiggen for better reading--and check out my two posts midway...and the responses I got from the operator on the next shift!

The "Number Nine" post...long story.  Do any of you remember "Revolution No. 9" by The Beatles?  Well, any time somebody backwashes filter number nine it's traditional to drone "number nine...number nine...number nine..." in imitation of that track.  Then, a few weeks ago one of the operators (Thomas) started quietly having fun in the log, recording filter backwash numbers in Spanish, Roman Numerals, etc.  We've been going back and forth with this and never saying a word, so I've been WAITING to have filter #9 pop up on my shift *just* so I could make this log entry--combining the best of two inside jokes!  Thomas couldn't restrain himself the next day and broke our omerta to say he had mightily enjoyed my entry.  And that another operator (Mike) had commented--icing on the cake.

The entry below that one refers to this: 

!!!!!!

Bruce appeared on one of our graphics last Thursday and I DIED laughing as soon as I saw him...we had a shark in the wet well graphic on the old computer system and I guess some things never change--we're kind of anal like that here--somebody must have been feeling lonely and requested another shark.

Apparently Mike was on a roll bored stiff that night because he commented not once but twice on that entry!

::guffaw::

It's good to have fun at work.

Happy Sunday!

XX  Sheebie  XX

Dangerous Doilies

Friends and Kitties!

Sheebie here.

Several of you requested to see the finished doilies (that I injured myself making).  Of course I thought of this on my way out the door to work so you get semi-awful phone photos--sorry about that.

This is the one that did the dirty deed!  It's made with 20# hemp twine and lots and lots (and LOTS!) of double crochets...all the twisting and tugging of that heavy string is what torqued my wrist.  I am pleased with how it turned out, though, and it fits the 18" table perfectly. 

The second doily is smaller and fancier.

Please ignore the cat hairs...

This one is made from hemp cord which was much more malleable, and took a lot fewer stitches.  I really liked using this cord and I'm going to buy some more to make some sturdy shopping totes and a clutch.  (It comes in colors!)

Anyway, my poor beleaguered wrist is almost back to 100%.  I went to yoga class on Friday and the only thing I had to modify was chaturanga (a sort of reverse push-up) as it was a wee tad painful.  So it's all good!  Right now I'm working with some pretty (and soft) cotton yarn, making place mats to match my Fiestaware.

Last week I baked whole wheat bagels and they disappeared just as quickly as the last batch.  I also made a blueberry-raspberry cobbler per Scott's request that was gone pretty damn quick, too.  Next week is toasted millet-seed bread and oatmeal cookies!  I may try the pretzel rolls again too--they are fairly quick for a yeast recipe.  Having three day weekends is so great...I feel like I actually have time to do projects again.

I saw my coyote pal at work again, this time in the daylight: 

She's in the center of the frame.  

She was moving a lot better, but still lame.  I think her day time sleeping spot is up in the bushes to the right of the photo, so she sat and watched me for a long time while I was outside doing stuff...she's very acclimated to humans.

And speaking of work, here *I* am hard at it: 

This is for the Sunday Selfies Blog Hop--

Hi everybody!

And that's all for this week, folks...

Happy Sunday!

XX  Sheebie  XX

TCIF

Kitties!

Thank Cod It's Friday.

We've been working our tails off this week, snoopervising Daddy. 

Hard at it on the desk...

...and two of the Remote Monitoring Locations.

The Baby, Whip-Cracker

Keeping Daddy's nose to the grindstone since '00

Taskmistress Sweet Pea

Arbiter of Infrequent Breaks

Sylvester the Spy

Always alert for slacking

Fussy Felix

Detail ManCat

Maui the Enforcer

Muscle

Happy Friday!

XX  The Office Cats  XX

Thank Cod it's Monday!

Kitties!

Rupert here.

I know a lot of you kitties (and your peeps) are all excited about today being Friday, but at our house Friday is really Monday, cos Mommy goes back to work.  She only works four days a week, and is off on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  She says the best part of her schedule is going to work on Monday (which is her Friday) and wishing all the grumpy back-to-workers a Happy Weekend!* 

The most important thing about Fronday (Friday + Monday) is that now we can all get some rest...when Mommy's home there's always something going on (she is a flibbertigibbet busybody who never sits down for Cod's sake) and all the snoopervising wears us out. 

So please excuse me, I need a nap.

zzzzZZZZzzzzzzzzz...

Happy Fronday!

XX  Rupert  XX

*She's a mean, evil woman, our Mommy.  She takes great joy in this schtick, every.  single.  week.

Sheeb E. and Wile E.

Friends and Kitties!

Sheebie here.

It's been a jackpot summer at work so far for wildlife...snakes, snake skins, the dive-bombing Territorial Raven Family (more about them in another post), and last night, a coyote in the parking lot.

The plant out at the lake is smack dab in the middle of the desert and it very much belongs to the animals.  It's not uncommon to see--or more often, hear--packs of coyotes at dawn and dusk.  They're very smart, and a local band has become very habituated to seeing humans around.  Naturally, they get fed, too; we're not supposed to feed them but you know how well people like to follow stupid rules...we see an animal, it should be cared for.  

Especially this lame female.  See her back right leg?  It's twisted, poor thing.  She's braver than most, probably because begging is her particular survival method.

It works, too!  She got three burrito-sized tortillas and a chicken breast from me--I hope that was a good enough haul for the night--and if not, there's always the next shift change.

Happy Sunday, and have a Great Week!

XX  Sheebie  XX

A Sssssnakey Ssssssstory

Kitties!

You all sure had on your Smarty Pants yesterday--indeed, that was a snake skin that Felix was smelling!

Mommy found it at work the other night and brought it home for us to maul investigate.

Our Mommy--we don't care what people say--she's alright.

We were fascinated by the snake skin!  Since we've lived here we've caught (and brought indoors--ed.) two small sidewinder rattlesnakes but for some reason the peeps start screaming and running for brooms and boxes won't let us give 'em a thorough investigation.  Talk about a buzz kill.

So we were thrilled to check out the next best thing--the snake's overcoat!  Although Rupert was a wee bit freaked out by it...but he was rescued from the Outside so maybe he had a bad time with a snake before.

Sweet Pea and CC loved it...Miss Pea was leaping and swatting at it the minute Mommy brought it in the house, so much so that Mommy had to store it in the closet until photo time!

Johnny, on the other paw, was not as enthusiastic.

The skin was over three feet long, and very slender, all the way down to the tip, so this wasn't a rattlesnake skin--more likely a bull snake, which are non-venomous.  (Mommy sees those all the time at work.)

See Felix?  He thundered down the tree, in hot pursuit.

And this is the last photo of the skin in it's entirety!  Mommy suspects quite a bit of it "went down" in the night as there were large sections missing the next day, but we're not telling.

Interestingly, the same evening that Mommy found the snake skin at work she discovered a medium-sized live rattler when she was out doing a plant check.  So, per usual she went and got the snake pole to move it into the desert...picture this:  cell phone in one hand, pole in the other, and a sidewinder ten feet away.  Unfortunately for you guys, common sense over-rode her desire to document the event, so we don't have any footage to show you of an angry rattler...and according to Mommy he was pretty pissed off about being moved. 

 Oh well...at least we got a skin.

Happy Thurssssssday!

XX  The Lounge Kats  XX

Sunday with Sheebie

Friends and Kitties!

Sheebie here.

So, I and my coworkers are surviving the new computer interface installation at work.  Truthfully, there's no real big differences--a couple bad but mostly good--and one of the nicer features are the more descriptive alarms that pop up in the alarm queue.

My absolute favorite one so far is this:

Dose this not read "Whalem System Disabled" to you, or am I just crazypants?

I almost want to do naughty stuff at work just to see this alarm!

***

So, a few months ago I weaned myself off of Effexor, an antidepressant that had nasty side effects if I missed just one stupid dose, started Prozac, and attempted subsequently to wean myself off of that.  Well, it didn't go so good...but fortunately I recognized the signs of the imminent dark clouds before it got too bad and started back up on my medicine.  It was kinda hairy for a few weeks before it kicked in but I'm pleased to report I'm feeling much more like myself these days, and since Prozac has a very long half-life if I miss a pill I'm not sweating and shaking and wishing to die.  (Working shifts it's easy to forget to take my meds at the correct time.)

Scott was scheduled to have cortisone shots in his lumbar spine for his sciatica next week, but his regimen of yoga and bike riding has been so effective he called and canceled the procedure!  Plus, his A1C number went down 3 points, and for the first time in years his cholesterol numbers are good.  Since we moved here to Las Vegas he's lost over one hundred pounds--I saw a photo of him from 1999 and was floored--he's half the man he used to be.  He does more yoga than I do!  Speaking of which, last Wednesday I did my first back-bend in probably 40 years...felt pretty dang good.  So does my knee--it's been eleven months since I busted my knee cap--and aside from some tightness in the ligaments it's back to what it used to be.

Our Nekkid Kats seem to be enjoying their noodity immensely.  Sweet Pea was initially a wee tad freaked out but once she realized her haircut made for a more efficient scratch-to-skin ratio she's been quite happy and soliciting rubbins at every opportunity.  KonaKitty, being so old and skinny has been on the chilly side (it's only in the 80's outside) but she has her heated cat cup and of course, cuddling to keep her warm.  It's got to be a relief to be rid of all the matted fur on her flanks, and soon it'll be past the century mark on the thermometer and she'll snooze her days away out on the Catio, baking.  Maui and John are dense as bricks oblivious to their furless state!  Typical mencats...

I will email out a schedule for Catio tours this week for those of you who requested one, and it looks like the meet-n-greet with GJ's Mum and Dad will be Friday evening by the upper pool at the Westin hotel...exact time TBA.  Carol and I had a wonderful hour-long chat last Sunday (thank you T-mobile for the free call) and she is the most fun and animated person...I can't wait to meet up in person, as well as all the other bloggers!  I promise to take lots of photos and maybe some videos, too.

We have another week from hell coming up at home with the majority of the inside of the house being in an uproar from the painters.  I chose a slightly different wall color from the warm browns to a grayer putty shade, and we're going all one color in the great room/kitchen, for now.  I want to do something with the kitchen cabinets this summer (paint, reface?) and then I might do the half wall and pot shelf in an accent color.  We'll see.  The best part is when this week is over I have three weeks vacation coming up!  I'm looking forward to it very much.

I've slowly been getting around to visiting most of you this weekend, but if you don't see the Katnip Lounge in the comments please don't be sad...we're still reading!

Happy Sunday!

XX  Sheebie  XX