Temperature differential and how kitties stay warm

Fall is well and truly here, although we haven’t yet had a good frost—that’s supposed to happen tomorrow night and my nose and I really hope that it does. With fall comes dropping temperatures, and although it’s not been super cold it’s been cold enough. Our stairs that lead to the front of the building are nothing but a big chimney, sending our precious warm air to collect at the top of the stairs and do us absolutely no good. So we got some curtains and hung them where the stairwell is open to the downstairs. Yesterday our high was about 40 F, so I was curious if the curtains were working as intended. We have these travel alarm clocks that also have thermometers in them, and Kent ran one up to the top of the stairs. Downstairs it was a very pleasant 70 F and at the top of the stairs it was 61! So we are glad we took the time to hang those curtains. We’ve hung similar curtains across the back door wall but I didn’t bother to take a picture of that.

Eddie deals with the colder temperatures by seeking out my lap. I took this picture which is why it looks so weird since I had to hold my arm out. He’s got his head buried in the blanket draped over the arm of the chair.

Chloe found a different solution. These pictures are all from today, she hardly moved. She’s created a real burrow there on the back of the couch and I just know the cat hair has got to be thick there now.

Before, during and after

On the left I’ve added a before, during, and after slide show with pictures of our bedroom so you can see the progress we’ve made. I’d say that room is essentially done with the possible exception of replacing the Pergo flooring. But that’s a whole house project and not limited to the bedroom.

We’re making a project list and getting information about costs so we can start knocking off home improvement projects in a timely way. First on the list is under cabinet lighting in the kitchen. We got an estimate about six weeks ago for $1200. Yikes. So we’ll be getting second and third estimates on that project to see if that’s normal, welcome to Boston or if that particular company is the Lexus of electrical work.

The list also includes replacing the Pergo flooring if we can, and replacing the tile in the bathroom; while we think it’s really cool it’s also really dark. The same thing goes for the granite in our kitchen—black is best used in a space with lots of natural light, like our house in Kansas City.

As Kent said, a small space doesn’t equal small, easy or inexpensive home projects. You just have a lot less room in which to work.

I thought I left these days far, far behind

When Jordan was little, he got ear infections—lots and lots of them—and strep throat and stuff like that. When Ben got sick, he puked. Thankfully he didn’t get sick often, but when he did, he puked.

I thought once my sons grew up and left home that I was done with cleaning up vomit other than my own. Enter Eddie. Some cats have sensitive stomachs so they puke, and some cats are gorgers and eat until they puke. Eddie does both. We’ve been able to reduce the puke rate by switching the cats' food to a kind designed for cats with sensitive stomachs, but he does still puke.

I’ve mentioned before that Eddie likes to get on the bed in the middle of the night and meow at me so I’ll open the covers and he can crawl inside.

You can see where this is going, right? Sure enough, last night shortly after he'd gotten under the covers with us, he started to make that weird coughing noises that all species must make before gakking. Believe me, I was instantly awake at that point and unceremoniously dumped him over the side of the bed on Kent’s side. Sure enough, he puked his guts out. Kent began cleaning it up and while he was occupied with that pile, Eddie found another spot and started hurling more. So I cleaned up that one.

Eddie still doesn’t feel energetic today as you can see from this picture. He’s got his head so burrowed into my huge fluffy robe that I had to sort of moosh everything back to even get any of his face to show.


P.S. Forgot to mention that we left the paper towel on the countertop. Guess who found it? Yep, Wally's strange paper obsession continues.

Of pizza and kitties

You might remember we have a large pass-through between our kitchen and the living room. That’s also where the cook top is, which makes it very nice when one of us is cooking; the other can sit at one of the barstools and help with prep work or just chat.

Of course the cats love to get up on that counter. By cats I mean Eddie and Wally, because I don’t think Chloe has a naughty bone in her body. We will get up and chase the cats off the counter and usually (but not always) they act as though they didn’t really mean to get up there.

Last night Kent was slicing up our pizza toppings, which included some salami and anchovies. Well oh my goodness that brought the boys running and they were far bolder than normal. At first they sat on the bar stools and watched but then Wally figured he would just come get some of those yummy tasty treats.

The right tool makes all the difference

Kent is fond of saying that, usually with his cordless drill in hand. He’ll punctuate it by revving the drill a couple of times. But he’s right, when you have the right tool then the task becomes a lot easier.

That segue leads nicely into talking about my running jacket, which looks something like this. Mine is actually from Nike but the idea is the same. This jacket isn’t my cold weather running jacket but a layering piece that blocks wind and is water resistant. I got it last fall at the outlet mall in Kansas City, KS and about croaked because it cost $80. Eighty dollars for what looked like a glorified wind breaker! Well let me tell you my jacket is amazing. It really does keep rain and wind out and also keeps my sweat from getting cold on windy runs.

Yesterday morning when I ran, it was about 45 F, a bit windy and also lightly raining. So I especially appreciated the jacket. Now I’d have to say my $80 was well spent.

Walter!

When my children were little—heck when I was little—using the full name meant someone was in serious trouble. If my mother used my full name, I generally went running for a place to hide. Today Wally had better consider that option.

It’s partly Kent’s fault, though. Just this weekend he remarked that the boy kitties seemed to be settling in and weren’t being such noisy terrors at night. Naturally ever since then they’ve been determined to prove him wrong. I say they but really it’s Wally.

Last night he:
•Knocked over the wire trash can.
•Knocked over the paper shredder bin.
•Jumped up onto the top shelf of a five-foot book case to grab the bag that holds my knitting.
•“Investigated” a paper bag we left out—loudly too.

You get the idea. Today my mission is to wake his furry butt up every time I see him sleeping. He’s already been giving me the stink eye but too bad. Tonight I sleep or else he’ll be in a pet carrier.

Eddie better watch out

I love Ikea, the furniture is very clever and more than that, you can take the various pieces and come up with creative ways to use them for other than what Ikea intended. In fact there’s a whole blog devoted to these “hack” and Kent and I marvel at how clever people are with their ideas. This blog is devoted to pet hacks, so take a look.

If you scroll down in that blog, you’ll see how someone else solved the fat cat problem. I giggled at the caption on one of their pictures that says slim cat gets to eat. That idea appealed to us because we too have a very fat cat. Behold Eddie in all his glory:



So if Eddie's not careful, we may end up creating our own version of the Fat Cat Feeding System just for him.