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Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Kitty go down the hoooole...



For the past month or so, Patrick and I have been in the midst of toilet training our two cats. We had been wanting to do it for a while now but everything we had read about it just seemed so cumbersome to me. And then one day I heard about the City Kitty and that night Patrick and I ordered it and hoped for the best. A life free of litter scattered on the bathroom floor? Yes please!!

We made the mistake of jumping right in and start using the City Kitty without any sort of preparation of our cats. They were used to relieving themselves in a box in the linen closet of the bathroom. Not two feet off the ground in the middle of the bathroom. The next morning, Patrick had the delight of waking up to find all the litter scooped out of the CK and our older cat, Calliope, peeing on the toilet seat. Not exactly what we had in mind. Patrick had been thinking that this would be easy, like magic, they would understand exactly what we wanted them to do. And Poof! They would be toilet trained. Not so much. And I now feel for my parents who had to toilet train me. At least this has given us a taste of how it will be having to do this with our future kiddos. Its definitely a big lesson in patience!

So, we had to back up and start by moving their litter box from the linen closet and putting it next to the toilet. Then, a little while later, on top of the toilet seat so that they could get used to hopping up there. Coming home to find the litter box wedged between the bathtub and the toilet with litter and poop spread out on the floor is just oh so fun!

So, once they got used to that, we placed the litter in the CK and put that between the toilet base and seat. Chloe caught on much faster than Calliope, who would try to hold it till one of us got home from work and would yowl while sitting in front of the linen closet. And once we sat her on the CK, she would finally go. It took much longer than we expected, but eventually, they got used to it as well.

So we cut the first hole and have been doing pretty well so far. At first, the cats decided to scoop all of the litter down the hole and into the toilet. It reminded me of that Tiny Toons cartoon where baby Plucky duck kept shoving toilet paper and anything else he could find down the toilet... "paper go down the hooooole, teddy go down the hooooole, Plucky go down the hooooole..." Every once in awhile I'll be in there when one of the cats is "occupied" and actually does her thing down the hole. But while I'm jumping up and down saying "good girl, you did it!" she's looking down the hole as if to say "where'd it go?"

They say the slower you go with each step, the easier it is for the cat in the long run, and thus easier on us. So it has been and will be baby...er... kitty steps for us for awhile.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

The Lineup


The Austin City Limits Festival lineup has finally been announced! Patrick and I played all the scavenger hunt games on their website trying to figure out who we bought tickets to see and figured out 99% of the hints, but that was only a taste of all that are going to be performing. (Yes, we bought tickets, along with thousands of others, before ACL even released their lineup, crazy, I know.) We went 2 years ago and had an amazing time. We would've gone last year and even prevented some of our good friends from attending all because of the whole getting married thing. But, you know, I think it was worth the sacrifice. ;o)

I love how diverse the acts are and how much they really reflect Austin as the live music capital. There are definitely some big names, but I love so many of the 2nd and 3rd tier acts! And there are so many that I have never even heard of. I'm trying to listen to a lot of the unknown to me ones on Rhapsody, but there are just sooooo many! Everyone, please look at the list and tell me a couple of performers that we absolutely have to see. I don't think I can tackle this task on my own!

Friday, May 12, 2006

mmmmm Cookies!!

What is better than homemade, straight-from-the-oven cookies and a big glass of milk? Cookies that come to your office, still warm, in a white box with a blue bow and accompanied by individual milk cartons, that's what!!

Photo courtesy of Brandi's cell phone

I had a feeling something was up last night when Patrick went into the bedroom and shut the door to talk to our friend Chris, Brandi's husband. But he said he just wanted to talk to him about playing golf sometime soon. And then this morning, Brandi said that Chris wouldn't tell her what the call was about. Hmmmm... Why all the secretness, huh?

But this, this I never expected!! I thought they were just conspiring on how to let them play a whole day of golf together. Little sneakers.

"To Ruth Ann and Brandi and Tracy, and anyone else that you deem worthy..." Yeah, there are a few other "worthy" people, but we hoarded the rest (and decided to save a few for the givers of the cookies.)

They came at around 2:30, and the rest of the afternoon's productivity went right down the drain. And now that I've come off my sugar high, I just want to curl up for a nap. Between giggling about cookies from sweet husbands and awe-ing at pictures of our coworker's one year old twins, I can't stop smiling. :o)

Friday, May 05, 2006

A Nice Surprise


I always love a nice surprise coming home from work!