September 7, 2029 - 360 - "Hide and Seek; Ella-Style"

Ellie-Ellie-All-In-Free

August 17, 2020 - 339 - "Music For The Cat"

Keeping the Cat Calm

August 8, 2020 - 330 - "Fans in Scary Places"

                                     

    Be Careful What You Joke About

July 28, 2020 - 319 - "Ella and Susan's Excellent Adventure!"

Or What Passes For Adventure These Days, Anyhow...

July 14, 2020 - 305 - "Sad Pets"

Home, Where We Belong

July 9, 2020 - 300 - "Ella Everywhere!"

From A Peanut's Cartoon...

July 2, 2020 - 293 - "If Cats Were Life Coaches, Not Much Would Get Done"

I'd Really Like to Write a Post for Today, But...

May 21, 2020 - 251 - "Blow It Up, Start Again*"

How to Move a Bomb

April 15, 2020 - 215 - "A Writer's Best Friend"

No Illusions

      Ella and I play this little game.  I think I've told you about it.  She's been playing it for years, but recently I did actually figure it out.  Of course, by the time I knew it existed the score was something like 32 gazillion to zero-Ella's favor.  

April 6, 2020 - 206 - "Let Sleeping Cats Lie"

Original background photo by Kate Stone Matheson on Unsplash

Nodding Nearly Napping*

April 1, 2020 - 201 - "The Little Cat Who Cried Wolf"

Why Cats Have to 'Talk'

    The short answer to why cats have to 'talk' is:  Because we're stupid.

March 10, 2020 - 179 - "La Gata (The Cat) in Mexico"

     This past visit to San Miguel was such a 'win' in our life with Ella.   We always hated leaving her when we travel, and missed her when we were gone, and worried about her until we got back.  But she hated leaving home so much, even for a short trip to the vet., we thought we'd never be able to bring her to San Miguel with us.   

February 25, 2020 - 165 - "Cultural Mysteries"

Culture Shock  

                                                                                       Spending time in a foreign country is a daily adventure.  We're constantly learning new words, sayings, customs, foods...the list goes on and on.                                                                                                                                              It can be exhausting.  It can bring on the kind of overwhelm that sends a tourist heading for the local McDonald's out of sheer exhaustion.                                                                                                                                         Even there you're not safe:  If, for example, you're in Germany you might find that they eat their McDonald's french fries with (gasp!): mayonnaise.  And, as if that's not bad enough:  they eat them , not with their fingers, as God intended, but with little tiny wooden forks/spear things.

The Lure of a Mall (The Cat Made Us Do It)

     We needed an automatic feeder.  We used one to get her weight down at home and now she gets freaked out that the feeding schedule isn't identical to the one at home.  

     We just went to a little mall outside of town.  It's about the most non-Mexican place there is around town.   You could be almost anywhere in the world.  Everything is modern and sleek.  There's a department store, a furniture store, hair and nail salons...and the only McDonald's around.

     We were drawn by the lure of a Petco.  

     We needed a collar with a bell on it.  Ella has been hiding around the house like she did when we first got her ten years ago...and this makes it slightly easier to locate her.  (Yes, as you probably imagine:  she hates it.)

     We also needed some treats (see above about luring her out of her gazillion hiding places.)

     So, there we are in the middle of the parking lot of this very familiar-seeming shopping center and we come across a very strange sign painted on the pavement.

Mystery Traffic Signs

  Before shopping for these items I went to the ATM at the bank just outside the mall.  

Walking back across the parking lot we see this sign.                                                                                                                                               Me:  What could this sign possibly mean?                                                                               Michael:  Don't know, but I'm envisioning four cars in a head-on collision.

Google Answers All

February 24, 2020 - 164 - "The I Ching vs. the E Ching"

Ella Ching say:  Take nap!

     I recently stumbled on some information about the I Ching.  I've had the book forever and have started to read it more than once.  It's not a very big book...but it didn't pull me in.  I'd read the intro about how it was translated and fall asleep.  Seemed like writing for another place and another time. 

    I never even got far enough to understand that it was intended to be a fortune telling handbook. 

    Somehow I came across an online I Ching hexagram prediction website.  I'd heard of hexagrams, but didn't know that they were connected to the I Ching, or what they were for.  

     Finding it all online struck me as the most hilarious thing ever. I mean here's this 2 thousand year old text, and there are these hexagrams that you can refer to, based on throwing some broken and unbroken sticks...but now you can just find out your future by virtually throwing sticks. 

    When I write in my journal I refer to people (or cats) I talk about a lot by their first initial. 

    While reading through some of this I Ching stuff I started thinking of it as the E Ching (Ella Ching).  My guess is that every time you throw the sticks and get your pattern...when you look up the hexagram it would suggest that sleeping is in your future.

    Never a bad plan, I suppose.

---

"When the going gets tough, the tough take a nap."
-Tom Hidgkinson
---   

February 23, 2020 - 163 - "Olympic Gold for Napping"

  Doing Nothing

  Today was our day to Do Nothing. 

     Yesterday I got unpacked and Michael and I worked on sprucing the house up for the big reveal to our friend (/the former owners of the house). 

     A couple of days ago I wrestled a cat all the way to Mexico. 

     Before that I prepped huge bags to get here with all manner of housewares. 

Being a Mule to Mexico...a Pack Mule

     Side Note About Luggage:  We're allowed to check 2 bags at 50 pounds a piece.  We have a manual scale that gives us a pretty good estimate, but I always bring a bag to pack home anything that is above the limit.  This trip Bag 1 weighed:  50.0, (on the nose). Bag 2 Weighed:  51.0.  Luckily, the nice baggage agent allowed the extra pound.

      Two of the bedrooms at Casa de Llaves have big wide windows.  They're about the size of a sliding glass door, but with windows on either side and a regular sized glass door in the middle.  

     I ordered these extra-long curtain rods with two bars.  I just could afford to get the top black-out curtains this time and left the sheers for next time.  (Lots of yardage in them...and not available at TJ Maxx, Tuesday Morning, etc.)  But I could have stuck with just ordering one of the bedrooms.  I had no idea how heavy curtains are.  Especially if each panel is 95" x 100".  So I had to do the 'Sofie's Choice' thing and choose whether Michael and I, or our guest got to sleep in.  

     We chose the guest (Michael's brother...though now that seems silly because he gets up at the crack of dawn and goes running like we would never do unless the house was on fire or something.). The choice was made because our curtains are old, stained, and the grommets are rusted...but they're long enough.  I used the guest curtains as an experiment and took them to be washed.  Now they're about 9" from the floor.  lol.

     Before all of that I worked a bunch of trips back to back.  

All's Well That Ends Well

    It all went great.  In the case of Ella:  way better than expected...after a rocky start, of course.

    I said all week:  On Sunday...we Do Nothing.

    At dinner last night our friends invited us over for pancakes this morning.  I said:  "Thanks!!!  But...it's our day to do nothing.  I need to sleep in and.."

    "Come at noon!", our friend kindly offered.

    "No.  Thanks again.  But, really,

Going For  the Gold  The Nap(s)

February 21, 2020 - 161 - "Mexican Casa - 8 : Making It Feel Like Home"

Home Is Where Your Cat Is

     A friend recently said that having your pets with you is the fastest way to make your house a home.

     That is soooo true.  Waking up this morning with Ella felt sooooo great.  We've always hated to leave her behind, and missed her until we got back...but I didn't realize how much until now.  There's no damper on the happy time off - it's pure joy with zero sad and lonesome for the cat.

Ella Goes International

     Success! 

     Maybe Ella nixed the morning flight to Mexico...but she aced the evening flight.

A Tricky Process

       I have been dreading bringing Ella on a flight since we got a house in Mexico but she was an absolute trooper. 

     She let me put her in her little anti-escape harness, put her in a carrier, then drag her all over creation.  She rode in the car to the airport, waited outside alone while I checked the bags at the gate, rode to the employee parking lot, rode on the employee bus...then got jostled through the airport.  She was taken out of the carrier at the TSA security checkpoint, then went back in.

     Probably the scariest time for her was in the women's bathroom at DFW airport.  Her carrier was on top of my rolling tote and I realized how scary it must be from her perspective...a crush of people, stall doors opening and closing all around, toilets flushing loudly, and a lot of noise.  Then she got the the Skylink to ride from Terminal C to B.

     Finally we were on the flight and she seemed fine.

     She was, of course, drugged for the occasion.

February 20, 2019 - 160 - "Ornery Cat"

This would be Ella:  "Yeah...I knew you were looking for me.  I just wasn't
ready to be found."

     So...Ella and I were going to head down to San Miguel this morning.

     Many elaborate plans were put into place.  A carrier was purchased, special 'cover up the meds' paste was purchased, documents were requested, filled out, and printed out, and I had a plan of when each part of this would all unfold.

    But Ella had another plan.  She had a plan to slip off before anything happened and hide in an undisclosed location and not make a peep.

    The longest she's ever hidden before was about 10 minutes.  Now 10 minutes can seem like a long time when you've got a vet. appointment, but in the grand scheme of things, it's just not that long.

    This morning she was missing for more than an hour and a half.  In this time I shut off all doors in the house.  (Typically if she gets shut in anywhere she raises a major ruckus instantly.)  I went through each and every room over and over again.  Calling her.  Shaking the treat jar...

    Not a stir, not a peep...nothing.  She is not known for being a quiet cat.  She usually can't keep quiet for long.

    Then I freaked out that maybe she'd pushed the screen door open when I was taking out the trash.  I couldn't see that happening because a) she was in lazy morning mode, b) it was cold and wet outside, and c) I really thought I'd shut both doors and she can barely push open the screen door.

    Still, she stayed hidden sooooo long I got paranoid.  So I walked around outside the house calling her name and shaking the treat jar.

    I watched the motion-sensor videos of the doors of the house over and over again looking for a little gray streak.  Nothing.

February 13, 2020 - 153 - "Ferocious Beasts"

Carrying Ferocious Beasts Across International Borders

    I was feeling optimistic yesterday that I could get Ella to Mexico.  I was so happy thinking she wouldn't be left alone in the house.  (With her good friend, and our neighbor, checking in daily...but still.  She's accustomed to a lot of interaction when we're home.)

    So, this trip is long enough to make it worth the effort.  There are no huge home projects going on there, so she'll have time to settle in.  It's the perfect time.  We won't have to miss her.  She won't have to miss us.  We'll all be happy and it will go great.

---

2nd Thoughts

    One look at her this morning and I thought:  This flight is gonna make the papers.  

    Considering the rules of media these days:  If it bleeds...it leads. 

    This could make news around the world.

    She doesn't like cars of any sort.  She doesn't like to leave home.  She's violent, by nature.

February 12, 2020 - 152 - "Playing Cat and Mouse"

     ...with my cat.

     So it's 7:42 a.m. and I'm sitting on the couch with my laptop pretending not to be trying to corner Ella.

    I made the mistake of brushing my teeth after I'd gotten out her cat carrier.  She heard the sound the plastic hardware against the metal dryer made, flew past the offending gear...and up the stairs.

     Now she won't let me come near her.  I don't even know where she is at the moment.

    She's no dummy.

    She knows that it's Vet. day.

    That's not Veteran's day... but Veterinarian Day:  two of Ella's least favorite days of the year.

---

     I'm supposed to drop her off at 7:45 a.m.,  The vet's office is only about 15 minutes from us, but she's been hiding in one of her 8973 places, and I can't find her.  She peeked out at the top of the stairs as I came up, but then tore off again to find another place to hide.

     I should have shut all of the bedroom doors before I got out the carrier.  I should have gotten the carrier while I was holding her.

     But that's all useless information now.

---

     So now I'm sitting here typing away.  Playing the waiting game.

     I put on the standard  'I'm-writing-music/....music-for-not-stalking a kitty' on the computer, along with the background music for writing (.../-and-definitely-not-for-taking-cats-to-the-vet.')

     Ella, of course, is not buying any of it.

January 14, 2019 - 123 - "Cats: De-Motivational Speakers"

Why are you awake?  Just five more minutes...

     My alarm was set at the godawful hour of 1:30 this morning.  Don't ask.  It definitely was not my preference.  

     I've been dog tired  (ha ha) all day, but had a lot of stuff to get done so I could only take short breaks to rest.  

     Ella has been a huge help.  

The couch is just over there...we'd
better go make sure it's still
comfortable.

        

     Yeah, right.  That's a lie.  

     She's a cat.  She has spent the day following me around the house suggesting, in her own feline way that I do the sensible thing:  lie down and take a nap. 

---

     If there was a motivational conference for cats it would...well, it wouldn't exist.  Cats have no desire to be motivated.  They are not Motivational Speakers as much as Napitational Seekers.

    Cats are the anti-serum to the whole motivational speaker/life coach/self-improvement movement.  They're not interested in any of that stuff.  They consider themselves perfect as they are.

     Cats don't care to be motivated.  

---

     Still...if there were such an event, I suspect the keynote speaker would offer life-hack tips something like these: