No Matter Weather You Like It

So… It is cold in Alaska. And snowing in the northeast. At least this is what they are saying on the Book of Face. I wouldn’t know because I don’t watch the weather.

And because in Cheyenne – that’s Wyoming – it is in the 60s. In January.

This is bad news for hockey players with outdoor rinks. But it is great news for kittens.

Smell-o-vision is ON.

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No Mo Snow

Ah, Wyoming. Where it snows at least once every September. Always. In spite of this being a fact and required by the laws of nature, it always catches us by surprise when the severe weather announcements start.

And we try to deny that is happening.

Which is why it was 40 degrees and raining a fat drizzle on Thursday afternoon when I started the desperate process of bringing plants in from the cold. My pepper plant and eggplant have just started making fruit (remember the hail storm in late June?) so I’m glad they are in pots.

Obi is glad, too.

He’s been asked not to sit in the parsley this year. Nobody said anything about the oregano.

Seriously

You have got to go check out my Pinterest board. I have the best kitteh pictures from the past couple weeks.

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Oliver is laying next to me and every once in a while he licks my side where my sweater has ridden up. I have to say that little kitteh tongue is the most best tickle in the world.

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It was cold and snowy today. I had to wear my winter coat for the second time this fall – which is wrong, as it is nearly December. I’m a little afraid of the upcoming winter when it finally gets here.

But cold days mean that I had help with my design work and Facebooking today. Oliver likes to lay next to me, with his elbow on my stomach. He insists on putting his front paws on my laptop. Often, one of those paws hits the trackpad and suddenly my screen zooms WAY in or WAAAAAY out. When that happens I slide my hands under his paw.

He feels like he’s in control. I get some work done.

Does this qualify as micromanagement?

Snow Go

Obi is waiting for someone to be unsuspecting. Oddly, no one is falling into his clever trap.

I didn’t blog last night because The Boy and I have a party to go to in Jackson tonight and I needed to get all my work for today done last night. Then this happened.

Technically, we could still get to Jackson for the party. But an eight hour drive through slushy pick – which hit the entire state – for a four hour party with total strangers? It just didn’t seem worth it at 6 a.m. Especially with the Grand Teton and Yellowstone being closed; the original plan was to stay two nights and visit our parks.

So instead, this happened.

Oliver thinks we should declare a snow day. I told him we will absolutely work from the couch all day but we will, in fact, do some work. He has left me, alone on the couch, in protest.

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Not cat related, but worth telling:

Since I crawled back into bed after feeding the cats and checking road conditions, I had time for a bonus dream. I often have dreams about stepping in to help local newsman Bob Geha anchor the news. I’m usually excellent at this. Not today.

First, we didn’t have chairs or a desk so we were sitting on the floor.

Second, instead of doing a short summary and tossing it to the meteorologist, I gave the entire weather report. Poorly.

Then, at the first commercial break I realized I’d just gotten out of the shower and had a towel on my head. I took that off, tousled my hair and started looking for clothes. I found a Christmas sweater. This turned out to be appropriated because – before I could find pants – they introduced me to a small dog in Christmas clothes that was my next segment. I had time to meet Jerry the dog and learned how to make her smile at the camera before we went back on air.

Then the segment started…and I realized I didn’t know why we were talking about Jerry? Was this for an event? A charity? So I started describing this tiny dog. As a mix of a toy poodle and…a malamute.

This, luckily, is where I woke up. Right before a segment with a large Indian family (I’m reading a book about Bengal). I’m hoping that no one in my dreams recorded this episode; it will totally ruin my chances for dream substituting for future newscasts.

Bassackwards

Confession: The Boy and I weren’t home yet when I posted on Sunday. So there are more kittehs of Italy at the end of this post.

Lori, Best Kitteh-Sitter Evah, took great care of Kitten Thunder while we were gone. It wasn’t exactly easy. Winter decided to get in one more big storm, dumping ten inches of super heavy snow on Cheyenne. It must have been super heavy – it ripped a giant branch off one of our trees that was trimmed recently. Poor Lori had to drag the branch/log out of the street. Above and beyond.

She reported that she and the fuzzies had a routine involving a five minute brushing of Obi, then breakfast in the morning.

THEN breakfast!?! I can’t imagine howo unacceptable this was for Oliver. Oli doesn’t even think The Boy should waste time putting on pants in the morning before breakfast. And woe is The Girl who can’t find her glasses (because a cat knocked them off the nightstand) in the morning. She shall be verbally abused for the delay.

In the evening, Lori would return to watch some television. I left her a bag of treats to bribe the kittehs for affection. She has so bribed.

And on the weekend, Lori stayed at our house. Did I mention what a good kitteh sitter she is?

She’s a good girl. We’d rub her belly or scritch her ears if she wanted. Instead, we bought her gifts. Hopefully she prefers jewelry to inappropriate touching.

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Kittehs of Italy!

This pretty girl was in Urbino. She showed us her doorway and asked if one of us might be so kind as to turn the knob and let her in. We did not so she asked the next group. And the next. As we turned out of sight she was talking to a priest about the doorknob situation.

This cat had the opposite problem. She wanted out. Or for someone to send up some sardines.

There’s no cat in this picture, just what I assume was a cat door in a palace. It was about a foot tall. I’d have had The Boy stand there for scale but just after I took this I realized that photography was not allowed.

Car alarms in Perugia are very sophisticatted. And okay with having their picture taken as long as you keep your distance.

This handsome boy was off duty in the piazza outside a chapel. If only he had been so kind as to tell us that it was his day off. And the chapel’s day off. We waited quite a while for a church that doesn’t open on Monday to open open open.

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Dogs of Europe! Hey, we love the pooches, too. Not all of them got into the blog because there were dogs walking their owners everywhere we looked.

The dog of Split.

The bored dog of Mostar.

This is not a dog. I thought I had one more dog picture but I don’t. So, since I had to pick a picture…I thought this view in Dubrovnik was particularly special.

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.

Intermittent Smell-O-Vision

It’s going to snow tomorrow.

For the last week or so, the temperatures have been dropping. Enough so that we’ve had to start closing windows at night and only opening one or two during the day when the temperature outside gets higher than inside. Obi is glued to the open windows as they become more scarce.

Then, last night, the worst possible thing happened: every window was closed. They stay closed today. They’ll be closed all weekend.

In fact, I turned on the furnace tonight.

The furnace, of course, gave off that burned dust smell. Obi glared at me. And then I started cooking. He had to admit that he was impressed by my ability to burn something before I was even in the kitchen.

The good thing about colder weather is that I have two kittens with me at night. A brown kitten on my feet and a grey kitten under the covers with me. Toasty. I also have a kitten snuggled up next to me on the couch. And at the desk. And in the kitchen.

It’s exhausting.

It’s Thunder Thursday! Today I bring you three pictures from Kelly’s house. Brother’s aren’t the only ones who bond in a household. Mustang Sally is accepting that she is no longer the only kitten, but Jack and Harley are best buds.

No Snow

That’s right, our big snow storm resulted in approximately 2,000 snowflakes distributed over the entire town. While it wasn’t a huge storm, it did get dark and cold.  It is especially dark and cold compared to Sunday.

Monday morning came without the sun. Kitten Thunder and I had the light in the office and both lights over the desk turned on all day.

At first Oliver was perfectly warm and cozy. That’s because he was using Obi as a blanket. When I looked over at the condo all I saw was brown kitten. Then I noticed two white feet poking up along the side. Oli feet.

This was too good to last, though, and Obi eventually left to watch squirrels. Chilled, Oliver was forced to join me at the desk where he could absorb my heat and block the rays of the space heater.

Brat.

Speaking of sharing…or not…we tried that new breakfast routine where Obi ate in the kitchen and Oli ate in the breakfast nook. In three days Oliver figured out he could get the same amount of food if he jammed all of his food into his mouth in three big bites. Then he could get to Obi’s food before I even put down the fork.

Brat.

We’re back to everyone eating in the nook.

Boys Gone Wild

I traveled back to my hometown this weekend to watch my nephew play hockey. My family, especially me, has a unique talent for making it snow when we travel. This week was now exception. 

As soon as I finalized my plans, a winter storm appeared out of nowhere. This morning there was another storm that closed the interstate back to Cheyenne just long enough to keep me from going home.

So here I sit on my parents’ couch, being totally ignored by their cats. My four boys are home alone.

What do you suppose they are up to? Obi is probably been very happy to only have one person to supervise. He can put all his energy and attention into doing projects with The Boy. No napping with me necessary.

Of course, Oliver likes our afternoon naps and pajama days. I doubt that The Boy has taken one for him.  I did, actually, check in and know that Oli is mostly ignoring The Boy except when he comes into the room to cry about the missing Girl.

Zensai probably doesn’t care.

And The Boy? He seems to being just fine without me. But I’m SURE that’s an act.

Snapshots of a Busy Week

There are puzzle pieces all over the house. The Boy says it was Obi. Kitten profiling!

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I was out of the house all day so Kitten Thunder is working overtime to make up for it.

Here we are on the couch, snuggling hard.

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The Boy accused Obi of being on the counter last night because we heard someone jump down. Kitten profiling!

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Does anyone watch Grey’s Anatomy? Because boy howdy is that hospital jinxed!

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Evidently there is a big snow storm coming. It isn’t very impressive yet. My mom pointed out that I’ve lost the fun of a snow day by working from home. My boss is going to make me work regardless of the weather but she is going to let me wear jeans, a big sweater and fluffy socks.

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Somebody was playing with the strings on our blinds this morning at still-dark-thirty. I told Obi to knock it off. Kitten profiling!

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It is Thunder Thursday! On Tuesday I went to a party at the home of Jenny, Gus, and Gabe. Their person, Mona, also happens to live there. An unexperienced eye might think SHE was actually hosting the party.

"You wasted your time with the wine and cheese; I prefer belly rubs."

"Laser kitty says it's time to go home now."