In late February, I mentioned Laurel's science fair project observing Squeaky's sense of smell and determining his preferred treat flavor. Her project was awarded second place and she brought home the ribbon a few weeks ago, but kept forgetting the display board. It finally came home so I took a photo of it for her to enjoy when she's older.

( Laurel's project 'How Well Can A Cat Smell?', 181 kb .jpg )

I haven't posted anything interesting in awhile so here's something to tide y'all over before I think about someone's flaming underwear again. (They're still lucky an accelerant-stained laundry bag didn't self-ignite while they weren't home. Not that I know anything about setting anything ablaze, but I practice responsible trouble-making. Except for that one time... and that other time. And that time we grilled bacon-wrapped meat. Never mind.)

Things I have been doing:

- lots of French knots


- lots of backstitching (soon to be followed by lots of French knots)


- trying to remember that spring is coming even though it's unreasonably cold outside now


- appeasing a quadripedal benevolent dictator


Things I have not done:
- taken Christmas decorations to storage
- listed a bunch of lap quilts, tools and patterns on Etsy
- mailed bacon salt to Michigan, a screaming monkey to Boston, a quilt to Florida, a box of yarn and stuff to Ohio, and some fridge art to El Paso

The latter two items will be taken care of after I venture into the near-frozen outdoors to deposit a paper check, go to the post office, and write some sales copy.

If her display board comes home today, I'll post a picture of Laurel with her honorable-mention-winning science fair project. Otherwise it will be sometime after next week, because we have spring break then and I will sleep more if it doesn't warm up. (Weather: warm up!)

I'd been snoozing on the couch with the squeakinator when Vogon remembered he needed to buy some C cell batteries to try out the PediPaws. (I am dubious of the device, but he bought it.)

Five minutes after he left, Squeaky began meowing piteously because he noticed Daddy had left. I told him "If you're going to make that noise, we can always take a shower together!" He quieted down, but a drowsy Laurel in the other room said "I'd rather take a shower by myself, thanks."

Laurel fussing at her computer not doing exactly what she wants when she wants has been making me feel unreasonably irritable. This will be relieved soon with upgrading of her computer (whee sale finds at Fry's) but I am leaving that to Vogon since I do not have a good track record of putting new components together. (I am fine with adding something to an existing system, but the last few times he's left me to assemble an entire system it has ended in frustration and him doing it anyway.)

Right now there are five CPU cases in our main living area. Three are new (for a file server and new builds/rebuilds of Laurel's and Vogon's systems) and two are old pending recycling (my-just-replaced tower and a ten-year-old Dell case). Also four boxes that cases came in and their *cringe* Styrofoam packaging. It's like Christmas without the stockings and extra teeth-skreeking Styrofoam. And I have to continue reinstalling applications on my just-replaced system, so I am currently just puttering along until I remember "Oh hey! I don't have [x] installed yet" and get sidetracked doing that. It's not bad, just funny that I haven't realized what applications I depend on and how often until I want to access them.

...

We took the Squeaky to the vet on Monday morning. Everything's normal (no sign of worms!) but he's a few pounds over where the vet recommends he weigh, so we are introducing Hill's Prescription Diet w/d to up the fiber in his diet and see how that helps his digestive issues. Squeaks also rode in the carrier without messing in it, a first for him. Thanks, radixx, for suggesting we put a bit of food in with him to prevent that.

I should applique the name "Pooper Cat" on a cat-sized superhero cape and then take photos of Squeaky jumping on his hind legs showing it off. Crazy furball showed us a 4' vertical leap playing with a feather wand teaser today.

Note to self: ask C-- if we are allowed to bring a cat into his studio.

Random interesting things that have happened in the past few days:

- Laurel's best friend from kindergarten and first grade has moved back to the area and lives in an apartment complex across the street. We had a last-minute play date on Friday afternoon. Kept her until 9 PM with her mother's blessing. Since the VogonDad came by that evening, she joined us for dinner, which leads to the next point...

- Los Lupes has a new Addison location in the former Joe's Crab Shack on Belt Line. They have mariachi night on Fridays; if you go, take earplugs.

- We got Squeaky a soft-sided carrier that's machine washable. The latter attribute was used almost immediately, as he christened it as soon as the car started moving to head home from PetsMart. He was fine riding loose in the car there and happily rode around in the cart, where he enjoyed eyeing little dogs in other carts and watching the birds.

- A second grader 'sang' the Star Wars Imperial March to me in meows yesterday while I was sitting in the school lobby filling out after-school program paperwork. He was waiting for his mom, who picked him up late following car trouble. Kid's probably a smart cookie, he has the same second-grade teacher as Laurel had.

- saarlander got the luv & bass (a bunch of DJ Rap singles, the reissue of A Propa History, podcasts and her free mailing list tracks from this year) I mailed to Iraq and left me the sweetest voicemail message. I think he says "thank you" in it four times in barely 30 seconds. I would be totally envious of his wife if he wasn't my best friend.

The brokerage called yesterday to confirm I wanted to sell my treasury bonds. They get a gold star for dragging stuff out (they've had my required documents since Friday noon), but I will not miss dealing with them after this transaction is done with and my account closed out. I wrongly assumed that when a broker suggested I overnight those documents last week that the brokerage would treat them with equal urgency once they arrived.

Laurel is on a mini delinquent streak between her first half-day time out in the office (the teacher was apologetic when she told me but it wasn't necessary, Laurel chose to do what she did and she knows the consequences) and losing a school library book. She wants to take her piggybank to school and tell the librarian to take what she needs, but she needs to tell the librarian she cannot find the book and would like to know how much the book costs so she can pay for it.

Taking pictures of Squeaky with his eyes open is proving tricky. He sees the orange light on the front of my camera and closes his eyes. Until I figure out how to turn off that feature, getting photos with his eyes open requires either minimal focusing or tempting him with my dangling wrist strap.

I have a bunch of photos to process and post or e-mail, but I didn't get to them last night as planned. I missed the new Pushing Daisies too, instead dealing with interesting things in the fridge (hot curry sauce molds -- who knew?) and finishing up paper bag rocks. In a few hours I'll be setting up the mural and if my brain doesn't check out from a night of fitful sleep, I'll get to photos after I return home.

Vogon couldn't take the cat-less household any more, so we headed back to Operation Kindness today. The two please-adopt-together adult cats we liked were not too keen on Laurel, so we wished them well and continued visiting the cats. We petted the sweet boy with different colored eyes again and talked to the very talkative seal point we talked to last time. (She is a very sweet girl and her slightly-crossed eyes make her look perpetually surprised or slightly annoyed, depending on which angle you look at her.)

We met two black kitties that were very affectionate and tolerant of Laurel, but Vogon kept wibbling until he turned around and saw a very affectionate boy that squeaked at us! His card description: "Squeaky loves to make conversation with everyone! Enjoys being carried, purrs automatically and makes everyone feel welcomed." He was upset by the short car ride home and pooped in the carrier (a huge stench for such a small creature), but checked out the amenities and let us get him started cleaning himself up. Now he's in the master bath acclimating; photos to come.