fidlmath

Diana the Spider Wrangler

Two Topics [at least]

I think that Milo and I have been playing what to me is a new game, which might be called "Hide and Poop".
When I'm sitting in the living room I watch him when I can and check if he goes into the bathroom.  Just a few minutes ago I checked on him for about the nth time, he was about to poop on the floor, then actually looked guilty [my interpretation?] or maybe startled when I walked in.  So he stopped and I scooped him up and decanted him into the litter box with the old litter.  He turned around, came out, went into the other one, came back out, then back into it [it's the one with the cat attraction litter] and PROCEEDED TO POOP IN IT!!!!!  If we hadn't run out of treats I would have given him one, so instead said over and over, "Good Boy, Milo".  Then he went back in and covered it up.  Now to see if something clicked.  It has actually been 4 or 5 days since he pooped on the floor, so I've been holding my breath - at least I'm able to stop before turning blue.  I am grading tests, hence the extra time in the living room, so I'll keep watching him when I can and keep my fingers, toes, legs, etc crossed.
Now the other topic.  Andrew [or anyone else who knows this] if you please, what is the title of the English TV show which gave rise to "All in the Family" .  One of the main characters of this US version, Archie Bunker, was racist and intolerant of nearly everything he wasn't.  I am curious about what any of you who are familiar with the show think of his character, allowing for the fact that the show was fiction.  I was torn, as I was when I lived in Australia and watched the parent show.  It was often very funny, but the racism at least made me uneasy and often angered me.  Is it possible to be amused because it is fiction?  But still be horrified by what is happening/happened in Jena, Louisiana?  If you're interested, watch Dr, Phil's show Monday which will be a continuation of today's, where he had the parents of the white boy who was beaten and the parents of one of the black boys who was jailed, Reverend Al Sharpton from a remote location, and one white man, who disappeared after the commercial, and was a determined white supremacist whom Dr. Phil bawled out.  It seems that, although some of the Jenna residents had been behaving like ostriches, there is a serious racial problem there - but is there anywhere that there isn't?  Are we really getting better with this?  Why do we have to hate anyone who isn't like us?  How boring it would be if we were all exactly alike. 
This started out as a longer post, but I realized I was rambling too much [who me?], so maybe more later.

posted by: mafidl at September 28, 2007 19:36 | link | comments (2) |
kitties, racism, poop

George Carlin again

This is the video I wanted to post the other day - or at least a shortened version of the one I wanted, which had it's embed code deleted.  Anyhow, I have a lot of stuff that I should organize and in many cases get rid of.  Especially since I will at some point in the near future be moving to Salt Lake City - BTW I have moving, so the less "stuff" I have, the easier it will be, right?  Except how on earth do you determine what you will probably never want again, or that would, at least, have a sufficiently low cost as to be easily replaceable?  Any contributions/ideas will be gratefully received.

posted by: mafidl at September 27, 2007 12:06 | link | comments |

Commie? or not?

Would this man have been dubbed a "Commie" in the 1950's?  Come to think of it, maybe he was. It was definitely not a great time to be an intellectual with curiosity about socialism.

posted by: mafidl at September 25, 2007 10:59 | link | comments (2) |

I'm Baack

A couple of weeks ago, if I had seen what I saw this morning, I wouldn't have been so sure Milo was the pooper.  Recall, I actually caught him in the act.  The thing is that before I caught him there was only circumstantial evidence of his miscreance [is that really a word?  if not, why not?] because we'd only seen him apparently trying to cover it up.  This morning, his brother was doing that - but I'm pretty sure Milo had done the dirty deed.  I've got one more thing to try - I'm going to toss the Feline Pine litter and replace it with the Cedar, which is supposed to attract cats.  If that doesn't work, I have no more ideas.
This weekend I have to write 4 tests - 2 each for the 2 different courses I'm teaching.  I won't be at school Monday since I'll be having a nerve test [for my carpal tunnel problem] during the day, so set up my schedule with that day off.  So I actually have through Monday evening to write them and email them to secretaries.  No sweat.  Haha.  I dislike writing tests almost as much as grading them.  Oh well.  TTFN

posted by: mafidl at September 20, 2007 15:32 | link | comments (5) |
teaching, kitties, poop

Tuesday

It seems that I have an unplanned vacation tomorrow.  My campus is hosting the funeral for Officer Somohano, who was killed last week.  It is certainly a sad reason for a vacation and I certainly offer my condolences to his family.
Having what would have been a productive day off means revising schedules for the classes that meet then and scrambling to try and make sure the necessary material is covered.  Since my Tuesday classes are prerequisites for subsequent classes, I have to make sure that the necessary material is covered.  One of my colleagues was going to give at least one test and prep for at least one other test - so his situation is even more complicated.  I'm not sure why our campus was chosen for this sad occasion. I know that there are not only a large number of police officers and their families who will attend, but also many members of the public who want to pay their respects.  There are other venues that are large enough to accommodate several thousand people, but maybe our campus is more centrally located than some of those.
I don't understand why anyone other than military and police are allowed to buy automatic, or even semi-automatic weapons [which I've read can be pretty easily converted to automatic].  If the NRA supports that they should be ashamed.
Later.

posted by: mafidl at September 17, 2007 19:12 | link | comments (2) |

The ceasefire [poop style] didn't last long.   I filled one of my downstairs twin litter boxes with Feline Pine, hoping that would attract Milo and have him thinking "OOH, I like this pine stuff, I'll just have to go into this box to relieve myself!"  Wouldn't that be nice.  However, the reality is that, since I'd dumped the contents of that box into the other one, it is verrrry full.  Came home yesterday to find a mound of litter from the overfull box, which had been lovingly, neatly scraped, brushed, whatever, over poop - outside the box, of course.  I have one more thing to try.  The cedar litter, which does say it's cat attractant.  If that fails, I think I'll just have to put up with cleaning and sanitizing a small area of my bathroom floor every 2-3 days.
Got up this morning after a good night's sleep, feeling lousy.  I think that it is what I believe to be my periodic allergic reaction to ?  Stuffy nose, sore throat and great desire to be home asleep.  Can't take a Benadryl during the day 'cause it makes me sleepier.
Still not used to 50 minute periods and had a revelation.  I can't hear the alarm on my watch, purchased partly for the alarm - grrrrr.  Fortunately, my cellphone has an alarm that starts out softly, gradually increasing the volume in what I believe to be a somewhat frantic manner, until I react and shut if off.  It definitely gets my attention.
South Miami Dade had a horrific time yesterday.  When police stopped a car that was driving erratically, the man in it got out and started shooting with what was probably an AK-47 - an assault rifle that NO ONE except police and military should even be able to get.  One policeman was killed, 3 others wounded and the one, a woman, had a shattered knee.  She was in surgery for hours and will, of course require months of recuperation and therapy.  It turned out that the suspect, who had been using a stolen ID, had a brother who is, I believe, still wanted, for a similar incident in the 70's [?] where 3 policemen were killed.  Those last details may not be quite accurate - but the suspect was one of 9 children of 1 father [multiple mothers], most of whom don't know each other well and are, apparently, decent citizens.  The suspect was wanted for aggravated assault awhile ago, which was probably the reason he started shooting.  How awful, and stupid - murdering a cop was certaily worse that the assault, and he could have just given himself up.  Instead, he had the assault rifle and, get this, BODY ARMOR.  Later.

posted by: mafidl at September 14, 2007 11:48 | link | comments (1) |
teaching, health, poop

Steve Irwin

I believe it's just a bit over a year since the world lost Steve.  Here's a humorous video that I found.I don't know about you, but I do miss him.

posted by: mafidl at September 11, 2007 11:42 | link | comments (2) |

quick update

When I wrote a couple of days ago that there had been no poop on the floor for 3 days, I apparently angered the gods of pooping.  On the 4th day, it was there again.  Oh well, there's always the idea of changing the litter in one of the twin downstairs boxes.  Sorry if you're getting as bored with this as I am.  Of course I could stop writing about it - nah!.

posted by: mafidl at September 10, 2007 18:20 | link | comments |
kitties, poop

Emmy

Emmy is my little girl cat, just under 4 years old and, possibly, the brightest one in my pride.  Guess it shouldn't be called a pride with only 1 female?  Hmmmm.  Anyhow, I don't usually write about her and, since I don't want her to feel neglected, I will write just a bit about her, for a change. 
I made what I now believe, was a big mistake and had her de-clawed.  Since the other 3, all males larger than her, are not de-clawed, she is obviously at a disadvantage.  However, as I believe I mentioned in an earlier post, she seems to manage pretty well, even initiating skirmishes sometimes, screeching and running away when it becomes too much for her.  Well, she likes to lie on the table where the upstairs computer is, right next to and occasionally on, the keyboard.  As long as I don't pick her up or try to pet her abdomen, she is happy.  Likes to have her head, cheeks, chin petted.  Last night I petted her for a few minutes, whispered sweet nothings in her ear and then just held her head lightly.  She went to sleep - it was one of the most delightful moments in my cat experiences.  NN has often had such experiences with her, but since I am an activist or whatever, always wanting to pick the cats up [violating their space, maybe?] I hadn't.  Anyway, here she is:

posted by: mafidl at September 08, 2007 13:27 | link | comments (3) |

Strange Happenings

When I went to use my unbleached white flour the other day, I discovered there were inhabitants.  The good news was that I discovered that before using it and was able to go to the store and replace it.  Funny, when I investigated the supposedly airtight container, the only critters were on top and only one was, barely, alive.  Now I have had critters in cornmeal, especially when I was living in Australia.  In the early '70's it seemed that cornmeal was only available in the local stores in a bulk bin, where they would measure out the amount that I wanted.  The first time I bought it, I discovered critters [weevils?] in it, took it back and was informed that it came that way!  So after a second similar experience from another store, I decided that we probably didn't need cornmeal muffins anyhow.  Later on it came in boxes and seemed to be critter-free.  My Mom actually found worms in chili powder, and I did see those dark colored little boogers.  I believe I recall finding critters in whole wheat flour once, but they weren't in the same cupboard in the white flour, so I decided they just had good taste.  I really didn't expect to find them in white flour.
Next, I'm holding my breath because it's actually been 3 days since Milo pooped on the floor.  I'm turning rather purple, so hope he does it again soon.  Hahaha - not!
One more item.  I discovered that Arizona's Diet Green Tea with Ginseng comes in powdered form like Crystal Light and is pretty good.   Then the last time, when I couldn't find that, Crystal Light had Green Tea, Raspberry flavor.  Funny thing, the color of the latter is pretty much like the background color I put on my Sept 5 post - Oh well, good thing I'm not influenced by food having non-standard colors.  My boyfriend in college had me over to his apartment for dinner once and had been experimenting with food colors.  I did eat the green mashed potatoes, but don't recall other unusually colored food.
Oh, and did I tell you the reason I can clean up Milo's messes and have a better time cleaning the litter box than NN? When my now ex-husband and I lived in Orlando in the mid-seventies [we returned from Oz for about a year and then went back there] we had a septic tank, and also had one in one place we lived in Oz.  In one of those there was a lovely contraption called a grease trap - in the carport just outside the kitchen window.  We learned that occasionally that had to be cleaned out.  My manly ex tried it - once - upchucked - so I took a crack at it.  I discovered that I can somehow close up my nose inside somewhere, as if my nose is blocked up, breathe through my mouth, and thus deal with smelly jobs.  I'm wondering how many other people can do that?  Not my ex and not NN. How about you?

posted by: mafidl at September 08, 2007 12:24 | link | comments |
critters, kitties, poop, housework, long ago

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