Friday, September 23, 2011

We call it Kitty Jail

My cat Snoopy has been a pee-er most of her life. When she was fairly young she had kidney stones and a sundry other urinary type problems. This made it painful for her to "go" and because she is a cat, she thought maybe going somewhere else could help with that pain. However, even after the health issues were sorted she developed a habit of peeing outside of her box when she is unhappy.
There have been a few bouts of chronic peeing but for the most part its once a month or so. Recently, she started doing it every day. We thought maybe it had to do with operation kitten rescue in our backyard but continued even after the kittens were gone. It has been ruining our laminate floors so we created Kitty Jail.
Kitty Jail involved moving Snoopy's favorite bankie, food and water into the hallway. We then used a baby gate to block off the hallway and the laundry room which is where her litter box is. So now whenever she pees outside the box she has to go to Kitty Jail. Update: For some reason this post got saved as a draft. Since then operation kitty jail has been successful. She is back to peeing only when we piss her off (mostly go out of town). We recently came back from an overnight trip to find some pee so we put her in jail. While still screaming about the injustice of it all, she went and used her litter box then made a big deal out of it as if to say, "I promise I will be good and use my box, see?" We shall see, we shall see.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Confessions: I collect things

I used to think only crazy old ladies and nerds collected things. (I am a nerd so now this post makes sense) I collect things. Two kinds of things actually.

I collect vintage Pyrex. First, you have to know that I read the internet a lot. Enough that I would randomly read something about how buying vintage kitchen items like Pyrex rather than buying new is making a comeback. So I read that and a few weeks later I was at my mom's; she had rearranged some items in her kitchen. Where the mixer used to be were two vintage pieces of Pyrex and one Fire King that I had never seen. I asked where they came from and she said that they were my great grandmothers. She then casually said, oh do you want them? YES! Of course I wanted them.
And so it began. This is a fun hobby because I go to flea markets and look for pieces priced far less than what I think they are worth. There is one booth at our local flea market who prices them high, and has the best pieces. I like to think of that booth owner as my nemesis.
Through my pursuits I have even accidentally bought a rare piece. It is my treasure.
You can see all the patterns here. I have pieces in 7 different patterns. Most in good condition, I only buy good condition ones unless the pattern is rare then I will buy just okay condition ones.

I also collect Maneki Neko. It should be obvious why.

Because I own a real life one!