Drawing the Line

A couple months ago, I bought some organizers for our kitchen cabinet to help with the leaning towers of pots. The organizers went, promptly, into my office. There they sat until last week…when I put the bag in front of the cabinet to inspire action. The Boy was inspired to sweep the kitchen and moved the bag into the breakfast nook. Where it stayed.

But, for some reason, I am inspired to get more done on a Sunday afternoon than the rest of the week combined. I work out. I go to the grocery store. I do dishes. And today I put the organizers in the cupboard. Honestly, I don’t think it helped at all.

But I did learn some things:

1. The Boy will keep anything that is well made, even if we never use it or we’re missing a piece. Turns out, we have a pressure cooker. That doesn’t work.

2. I don’t care enough to throw things away just because I think it is silly that The Boy keeps them*. We still have a nonfunctional pressure cooker.

3. I also noticed that we have the toaster oven, for which I have bought two replacements, stored in a cabinet. It is true that I replaced it mostly because it was ugly. But that one, and the little red one that proved to be more style than function, could really go. Unless someone wants to come over for a toast party. TOAST FOR 15!

3. We also have a strainer that nests into the big pot we make spaghetti with so that all you have to do is lift it out and voila! Strained pasta.

4. Obi will help organize a cupboard.

5. Obi is not particularly helpful when he helps organize a cupboard.

6. The fastest way to get Obi out of the cupboard he is helping to organize is to ask The Boy to hand you your camera.

Kitten gone. Cabinet organized…ish.

Nothing toasted, pressurized or strained in the process.

 

* It is worth noting that I also don’t throw things away. I am working on paring my wardrobe down to one closet (plus the sweater closet, of course). Much of my wardrobe doesn’t fit or is no longer appropriate for my age. Those items conceal items that DO fit and that I SHOULD be wearing. Such as, for example, the jeans I am wearing right now. I found them on Thursday and a) am amazed by how perfectly they fit and b) have no recollection of buying them or owning them in the past.

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The Strong, Silent Type

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Ta daaaaa! Kitchen floor, counters and sink, complete. The water tasted a little bit like rubber hose for a few days but now we’re good. We are now working on convincing the kittehs that white counter rules still apply to brown counters.

And, now that Obi has been under the sink he wants to be under there all the time. It is almost like he hadn’t made the connection between the bathroom sink with cupboards and the kitchen sink with cupboards.

Long story short, we have to install baby locks on the kitchen cupboards.

***

I was kitteh sitting for Mona’s cats, the handsome Gabe and the beautiful princesses, Gus and Jenny, one night this week. After they’d eaten, I was washing off their plates and saw one of the girls sitting on the landing of the stairway.

“Are you done with your dinner, pretty girl?” I asked. “Last call.”

She said nothing so I rinsed the last plate and babbled to her as I put it in the dishwasher and straightened the kitchen. She said nothing back. She just sat there. Then, as I was headed down the stairs to scritch Gabe’s ears one last time before leaving, I realized I wasn’t talking to a cat at all.

Tricky. Very tricky.

Loopholes

We’ve come one more step closer to being done with the kitchen improvements. The large part of the counter is installed, with the new undermounted sink.

The kittens, once again, found a way to not be on the counters.

And Then It Snowed.

We were expecting a huge amount of snow overnight. We only got four inches, not anything to talk about in Wyoming in April. When we were still anticipating, my boss (me) decided we would wear jeans today even if we still had meetings to go to today.

This morning, The Boy not only had to go to work but had to go early. No snow day for us. Oliver, though, decided we should have a delayed start.

And then it snowed.

As I was finishing up my coffee, I received a call about getting counters installed. I threw on some clothes and went out to shovel our walks for the counter guy. Jeff, from Jeff Channel fame, was also shoveling. The Boy and I are going to Croatia this spring and Lori isn’t available for kitteh sitting the whole time (has to go to Yellowstone for “work”). I asked Jeff if he would be willing to make a celebrity appearance.

He agreed.

And then it snowed.

The counter guy arrived and had to shovel again before bringing stuff in.

There is more to do tomorrow and Thursday, but then we’ll have a kitchen again! I have never realized how much I love my kitchen sink. It is wrong to use water from the bathroom to cook.

The kittens helped by inspecting the sink.

And then it snowed.

While the counters were being installed, I worked on jewelry for my friend Angie. She sent me a bunch of rocks to work with. Here’s Obi helping with my photography efforts.

And then I rammed my pliers into my hand and bled. A lot. And then it snowed. A lot.

One of my clients closed early so I didn’t have to go in.

And then it snowed.

My hair stylist called and cancelled our appointment.

And then it snowed.

The City closed its offices and The Boy came home.

And then it snowed.

The striations are kind of cool. By counting the rings we can see that this storm is 12 snow years old.

And still it snows.

The Kitchen is Broken

At last, the replacement for our ugly white counters has been manufactured and arrived in town.

The workers came to rip out the counters. Kitten Thunder was oddly unconcerned by the process. Obi watched from the chair.

Oliver stayed on the back of the couch. He wasn’t worried. He actually napped through a lot of it.

When the men left to get a shop vac for the mess, Obi went straight for the tools.

Oliver took advantage of the fact that there is no counter to get up where he is not usually allowed. I mean, the rule is that he’s not allowed on the counter, right?

And the kitchen is broken. Still.

The counters won’t be ready until next week. Only the kittens are eating as they usually do. The Boy and I are limited to microwavable things that can be made in things that go in the dishwasher…not that we can run the dishwasher.

But, you know, as long as the kitteh breakfast isn’t disturbed…

Floored

Our house has…had…an ugly kitchen floor. Originally we thought it would be great because it would hide the dirt. Then we discovered that it was not great because even when it is freshly cleaned it looks dirty. So today…it went away.

To prepare for floor guys, we had to empty the kitchen and breakfast nook into my office and the dining room. So that was weird. Then yesterday I moved one litter box from my office up to the reading nook, along with the kitty crunchies. More weird.

Also weird for me last night when someone used that litter box and I couldn’t place the sound.

When the nice floor guy showed up, I showed him to the kitchen. I should tell you that this AWESOME floor guy knocked very gently instead of ringing the doorbell – cat owners love that. Obi came with us to see what was going on. Floor guy talked to him. Cat owners love that, too. I told him that I was hoping the cats would go upstairs with me but if they decided to “help” him, to let me know and I’d lock them up somewhere. I wasn’t looking forward to that – there’s no place in our house with doors that I would want to spend a day so I’d have to leave them alone.

Luckily, they did not get in the way.

At first, Kitten Thunder and The Girl were doing fine upstairs. There was a lot of banging and stuff on the main floor so the kittehs were happy to stick close. But the Obi, my brave brown kitten, had to see what was going on. He would creep to the top of the stairs. Then he’d disappear downstairs for a while. After a while, a kitten streak would zip up the stairs and onto the loveseat with me, wide-eyed and breathless.

Oliver wanted to be brave but it just isn’t in his nature. He did get as far as the top of the stairs.

After four hours of work, Oliver was glassy-eyed. That is an awful lot of sleep deprivation for a grey kitten. He was swaying on his feet. He was eating kitty crunchies in a desperate attempt to keep awake. Finally, he went to the cat shelf and settled in on the blanket. But he could not sleep with the noise and the scary downstairs so he stared into space. And stared. and stared.

Then, things got worse for the grey kitten. He needed to use the litter box. But not the one I brought upstairs. Such a conundrum: to pee in the poo box, or to venture downstairs. As I had hoped, he overcame his boundaries and used the box upstairs.

Well ahead of schedule, the floor was done. Obi and I went downstairs to talk to the floor guy and look at the new floor.

And then? Oliver, Obi and I took a nap on the couch. Having floor installed is exhausting.

***

It’s Thunder Thursday! Today, I am shamelessly plugging the Kitten Thunder Zazzle store’s newest products, perfect for Valentine’s Day OR Singles Awareness Day. We built two cards – one for the lovers of fuzzies and one for lovers of short haired kittehs.

You’re Purrfect Valentines Card by KittenThunder

Black Cat Purrrfect Valentines Card by KittenThunder