Category Archives: Pets

Family, Going Out, Pets

A Pleasant Weekend With the Parents

Leave a comment

This weekend was absolutely fantastic. I managed to get out of work at 2:30 on Friday. I drove home, finished putting things in the car, and went to put Precious in her carrier. Unfortunately, she had figured out what was going on and had already hid under the guest bed. I actually had to tear the bed apart to get her — which stressed her out more. I’ve decided that in the future, I’m waiting at least an hour after I get home before I try to cage her for a trip. She was rather worked up the entire trip because of everything. And then she was moody towards Kisa when we got to my parents’ home.

The two cats didn’t get along the best this weekend, though they were both starting to mellow by Sunday afternoon. Of course, it doesn’t help that Precious is such a domineering bully and Kisa isn’t one fifth her size. Things were exacerbated on Friday night when Precious decided to divebomb the little runt. From then on, Kisa was afraid of Precious and would hiss and spit any time she came near. Of course, this didn’t keep the pipsqueak from being downright fascinated by Precious. Of course, the bigger cat had to remind Kisa who was the real boss whenever Kisa started to hiss and spit. I figure that when I go on retreat in August, things should be slightly better. By then, Kisa will be considerably larger and hopefully able to stand her ground better. Of course, I’m not sure if that will be an improvement or just a recipe for further confrontations.

On a side note, I have a one minute video of Kisa. I hope to eventually put it on YouTube. However, it’s currently huge (30MB) and I first need to see what I can to do shrink the file size. This should be interesting, as I’m no expert when it comes to video. In fact, I’m rather out of my element.

Friday night, I took my parents’ out to Chili’s. I don’t think I’ve taken them out to dinner since I moved up here to Rochester. That’s someowhat troubling to me, as I used to take them out regularly. In fact, while I lived at home, every birthday, anniversary, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day involved a dinner on me. So I figured I was well overdue. We had a great time, though the music was a bit loud for our tastes. Mom and Dad had never eaten at Chili’s before, and they felt their first experience was quite well. And I had a great time admiring our waiter’s aesthetic qualities.

Saturday, Mom and I wandered over to the Laurel Festival in Wellsboro. We wandered the craft fair and had a great time. I ended up picking up a gorgeous throw pillow with a black bear on it. I also picked up the Brat Queen a pillow filled with catnip, which she adores. (I figured it’d give her something besides the kitten to beat up on.) I also checked out a gorgeous stone fountain and a framed painting of a cougar sitting next to a cliff. I loved both items, but decided they each cost more than I was prepared to spend that day. (Besides, getting the car to that part of town to pick up the rather heavy fountain would’ve been a headache.)

Beyond that, I just had a pleasant visit with my parents. It was a fantastic weekend.

Health, Pets, Randomness

Hiatus Over

Well, I hadn’t originally planned on taking a short hiatus, but it appears that’s what happened. It was a matter that I got so busy the last few days, that I just didn’t take the time or find the energy to write an entry. Oh well, I think I needed the break, anyway.

I needed a break from life in general, I think. This afternoon, I took a two and a half hour nap and did hardly anything today. In fact, the only thing I did was go down to the park and go for my walk. I haven’t been doing that for over a month now. Well, not regularly, at least. I’ve been walking here and there at different times, but I need to work on my consistency again.

My sister and her kids are away for a couple of days. They decided to drive down to New Jersey today and spend a couple nights with a friend my sister made while she and her husband were stationed down there. That means that I got a relatively quiet house all day. So I don’t have to stay up until almost midnight to get two solid hours of peace and quiet before bedtime.

I’m finding I need that peace and quiet before I go to bed. It helps me to relax more, so I’m more ready to drift off to sleep. And anything that will help me drift off more easily is definitely a welcome change. I think that’s part of why I’m still cutting back on my television watching so much. Not having my brain inundated by television is more mentally calming too. Though I watched more television this week than the previous week. That’s partly because I decided to watch a couple of movies on DVD. I was in the mood to watch Blade Friday night (I didn’t get home in time to watch it on TNT from the beginning). But I couldn’t find my DVD. So I ended up watching The Matrix instead. Though now I’m going a little crazy wondering where that DVD got off to.

On Friday, I had to take my mother’s miniature schnauzer to the groomer. We got his shaved down. He looks funny, but I’m getting used to the look. Instead of looking like a giant dust mop with legs, he now looks like a real dog. He still needs to be trimmed up around the chin a bit, but the groomer said she was having problems with him because the sound of the clippers bothered him. But she’s sure that he’ll get used to it after a couple of groomings. The next one will be in six to eight months. Hopefully, getting it done will convince Mom that regular grooming will help the poor guy with his skin problems.

On Saturday, I went to see my friends Mike and Amber. I finally got to meet their little bundle of legs, fur, and teeth, Shamrock. He’s a twelve week old Italian Greyhound. And he’s absolutely adorable, but he’s a handful. He’s about the only dog I’ve met that is more hyper than my mother’s dog or my sister’s black lab mix. And unlike either of those dogs, Shamrock is flexible enough to still chew on you if you try to hold him with your hand on the underside of his neck. But I didn’t get any visible scratches, so it’s all good.