Reenfortress

I’m a big believer in shopping locally, but that doesn’t always translate into buying locally. Like when I can save $120 for a nonprofit client by avoiding Office Depot’s crazy markup.

Or when the regional metalworking store estimates the equipment I need to TRY a new technique will cost me $70 and I can find it online for less than half that – this, I suspect, was a communications/inventory issue and I will continue to check with them first.

Or when I can’t find a pair of high waisted, tight exercise pants in town at all. Until I found one ugly pair, finally, for about a mortgage payment ON CLEARANCE.

Anyway, The Boy and I have gotten some packages lately. And Kitteh Thunder has added on to the fortress.

And, since the weather is nicer today, I added to the cave.

But when The Girl giveth, she must also taketh away. While refreshing the tissue paper and packing paper I discovered some peed on paper.

No, Obi doesn’t know why his brother confused the watch tower with the water closet.

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A Plea From Obi

Dear people of the world,

We’ve had a very disturbing day. The Boy continues his efforts to ruin the laundry room. I even hid up in the ceiling to show him how valuable the space was in case there were ever intruders. But, after he closed up the ceiling with me in it, he seemed more irritated by my hiding than impressed. He took the piece of ceiling out and took me up to The Girl. I was held captive until he finished closing up all my hidey holes.

Rude.

Then The Girl started cleaning. And not normal cleaning. It’s Company is Coming cleaning. But even worse than usual. She went crazy and started throwing out things we need.

Oliver and I tried to talk some sense into her. Yes, we have not used the giant bag of tissue paper for several months. Yes, someone peed in it. But we got this bag as part of the celebration when we officially adopted The Boy. We got his last name and this awesome bag. Why would you ever throw this out? I mean, have you seen our last name? That was NOT the best part of the deal – it takes The Girl three minutes to scold us by our full names now.

She also downgraded our fortress to two boxes and one piece of packing paper. Then she took the two shopping bags out of my fort and folded the sheet so it only takes up half as much room.

Ultra rude.

She posted the evidence of her wrongdoing, the above picture, on Facebook. Our Aunt Staci tried to make light of our plight by assuring us that they would be doing lots of shopping while they are here next weekend. They will bring us new bags.

This is stupid. Why would we settle for new bags when we could have MORE bags? It’s not like we’re running out of room.

But then it hit me. Aunt Staci actually believes this was a reasonable statement on her part. My poor cousins! While I have never met Cousins Puck and Bo, they deserve better than a family that limits their access to boxes and bags.

It really makes you think. No matter how bad your life is, things can always be worse.

Back to the plea. As soon as The Girl sat down, I jumped into her lap as a delaying tactic.

I can’t hold out forever. Bring tuna.

It isn’t Tuesday

I totally forgot to write a post yesterday.

Possibly because something OTHER than my meowy Christmas ornament sold in our Zazzle store. Somebody bought my Doppler Cat t-shirt.

This made me happy. Then it made me jealous, because I really want this shirt for myself.

Then it occurred to me that the t-shirt is on my I’m Full of Want board. So maybe I’m getting this shirt for my birthday.

This idea made me happy.

Speaking of Pinterest…the kittehs board has some new posts of adorableness. Check it out.

The Highs and Lows

I left Cheyenne for the girls shopping trip last Thursday. That evening, we went to my grandparents’ house and the trip could have ended right then. Because I got the perfect gift.

My aunt brought Oliver milk rings, all the way from California.

I couldn’t wait to get home to give them to him. But thank goodness I did because I got Kitten Thunder another great gift the next day. Our very first purchase in Salt Lake was at a Skechers store. I looked at my sister’s bag and declared that our mission was accomplished and that we could all go home.

She disagreed.

So I tried again at our next purchase, at Loft. Here it is, the perfect gift.

Obi got a real charge out of being in the bag.

Oli felt powerful…and pirate-y.

Unfortunately, a bag won’t do a kitten any good if The Girl insists on doing something stupid like working a 15 hour day. Especially if she spends most of that time away from the house.

And then insists on working in the office instead of on the couch.

Obi supervised from the condo.

Oliver contemplated his hard, hard life from the bed.

So hard.

 

Six Pack of Fun

I was at Big Lots looking for a specific piece of furniture for a client – sometimes my work takes me in interesting directions. No luck on the furniture, but I did buy some Trendy Tops – the best invention ever for those of us with long torsos. And I bought something else.

Obi’s tweeter bird died last night. The Boy was tossing the bird for the brown kitten while we were waiting for dinner to be ready. Halfway through the play, the bird stopped chirping.

A non-chirping bird is hardly any fun at all.

For this reason, and because Obi only has hundreds of toys – and because they were only a dollar – I bought Kitten Thunder a six pack of chickens. Actually, only three are chickens. The other three are eggs.

Obi approves.

Kittehs Gotta a Brand New Bag

For work today, I had to go shopping. Since I spent the afternoon outside of the house I had to bring the kittehs a present.

Oliver loves it. He’ll like it even more when he figures out it is a bag.

Tasty noses

The Boy and I went down to Colorado yesterday, just to get out of town on the long weekend. Well, that and a killer sale at our favorite train store. The nice thing about our hobbies is that model train people use the same tools as metalsmiths. So The Boy got some track and I got some 1200 grit sandpaper.

Then we went for Indian food. We had some delicious masala that made my lips burn. And it was still burning in my belly when we got back to Cheyenne so we stopped for milkshakes on our way home.

Kitten Thunder was really excited…about the straws. Oliver was downright aggressive about getting The Boy’s straw as he unwrapped it. He was even more aggressive after it was in the milkshake.

The Boy wouldn’t share.

I dipped my finger in the whipped cream and held it out for Oliver. The straw was forgotten. A little pink nose bumped into my finger. Then there was nothing on my finger. I got a glare from the grey kitten.

“Lick your nose,” I told him.

Oh my gosh! Oliver’s nose was delicious!  Soooo good! How had he never noticed how tasty his…wait…why did his nose taste normal again? Bummer.

Obi came over to see what the commotion was about. I dipped my finger. Poked his nose.

Oh my gosh! Obi’s nose was delicious! Soooooo tasty!

They’ve checked, throughout the day today, to see how their noses taste. Not so delicious.

***

Cousins Gracie and Spade sent some treats home with me this week because they didn’t like them. Oliver says thank you so much! Obi would say thank you, but he hasn’t gotten whatever Oli likes so much. I take these gross things out of the bag, put them in his mouth, and he spits them out.

No, seriously – his looks says – give me the same treats you’re giving Oli. Meanwhile, Oli is helping cleanup those extra treats.

***

Side note: Oli and Obi had some milkshake from a spoon after the nose poking with whipped cream. Soon after, Oliver exploded. Evidently he’s becoming allergic to cow.

Nap time!

The grandpeople have left after a weekend of successful eating and semi-successful shopping. We saw trains and plants and shoes, oh my!

Oliver did his best hosting, laying on my mom’s lap for an hour. Obi was doing all his best cute stuff.

We were tired. A nap has been on our mind for days.

So, when my parents left I settled under a blanket on the couch. I expected that Kitten Thunder would join me in napping right away.

And they did.

Sort of.

***

I went outside to see the eclipse and the sun is shining….and it is raining. Is this a sign of the apocalypse?

iGirls take Cheyenne

On Friday, the Thunder household welcomed aunts and grandmas for a weekend of shopping. We didn’t know how Oli and Obi would react to these guests – my mom, sister, aunt and grandma. I think we were pleasantly surprised.

First, Oliver was immediately and ridiculously fond of my aunt. As soon as they were in the house he was scratching at her shoes and loving up to her. Clearly there’s something about her. Maybe he knows that her brother kittens are why he has a brother. That’s certainly a good reason to be grateful to her.

My grandma stayed in my office and had a lot of one-on-one time with Obi. Whenever she would get up in the night she would return to find a brown kitten on her pillow. He tried to win her over with his cuteness – and she would have shared – but she insisted on putting her head back on that pillow.

"Where is the More Grandma? I'm ready for bed."

My sister says no one visited her in the night as she slept on the evil couch. I bet they did. I bet she was observed…from a distance. It is easier to watch someone when you have other couches from which to look.

My mom had a kitten foot sleeper in the night. Obi also appreciated her suitcase on his spot on the floor. It was way more comfortable than just wood. Can we get his a box to put there? With clothes on it?

To further secure their place in Kitten Thunder’s hearts, there was much eating and feeding in the morning. No one had to talk The Girl into breakfast – by the time I got up they ‘d had breakfast and a snack.

Alas, the weekend had to come to a close. Everyone got back on the roads home this afternoon.

Obi has been napping on his bed in my office with visions of grandmas with scritchy fingers dancing in his head. Oliver and I? We headed straight to the couch to take our Saturday and Sunday afternoon naps.

"Why are we up? Let's go back to the couch."

Gah. The Wyoming weather is demonstrating why we don’t plan frivolous travel in November. My sister, we are happy to say, made it home safely. Grandma, Barb and my mom are stuck on the side of the road waiting for blowing snow to settle down. Good luck thoughts and prayers to them tonight…LOTS of good thoughts.

Weekend Snapshots: The Grandpeople

My parents both have their birthday in August so we had ice cream cake. We don’t know why, but this afternoon Kitten Thunder decided my dad was the soft target. They both sat at his feet, watching and waiting for him to share, while three of us ate without a mooch. Perhaps they thought he should get to share since today is his birthday.

***

I hurt Oliver’s feelings this morning. He pestered and pestered in the early morning until I broke down and fed him. But then he kept on pestering. When I finally got up he was excitedly leading me toward the stairs. I snapped:

“I am perfectly aware that I fed you already, young man, and you’ve probably conned your grandmother into feeding you as well.”

Oli looked stricken. He dropped his tail and went back to the chair to lay down. Then I got downstairs and found out he hadn’t been down to see my mom at all. No conning.

I went up and got him. He’s quick to forgive.

***

Oliver is in a decorative box on the bed in my office right now. Obi is scratching his chin on the outside of the box. A white paw darts out of the box and whaps him in the face. Obi returns the whap. And scratches his chin again.

***

The grandpeople agree that Thunder Cafe provides some good OutTV.

While watching a squirrel eating seeds on the window sill, my parents suddenly found themselves starring on InTV when the squirrel turned to look in at us.

***

My dad was fishing for cat-fish, using a leather string to play with Kitten Thunder, when the grey cat-fish showed him why you should keep your feet on the couch while fishing. That cat has claws and thinks toes are tasty.

***

Oliver has won the battle of the decorative box.

***

A message to Barb: Operation Buy Something Pretty was successful. Operation Buy a Back-To-School-Outfit was, um, less successful.