Comfort

A nice spot in the sun laying on a stone horse. That is comfort for a kitten I guess.

This is a little better. Trying to fit in Mrs. purse for a little nap. And he has discovered how to jump up onto the kitchen counters. Now we have to hide the dry food inside a closet. I had forgotten how good kittens were at leaping.

Later,
JH

A very nice Thanksgiving

A 22 lb turkey and a five rib roast beef. 8 Adults and 7 kids from 8 to 19. Two dogs and a hamster. Three pies, ice cream and cookies. 3 ovens, two in the house and one at the neighbor next door. No smoke alarm going off for the first time in many years. After dinner drinks and a little nap for me. Some number of kids off to the movies, we veg in front of the TV watching Dirty Jobs and then the movie Run Fatboy Run.

A very nice and wonderful Thanksgiving with our bestest friends TK, AOK, Gaby, Livy, Bree, Stef and Felicia. There would be pictures but we didnt take any.

Back home now to do some stuff around the house and take care of the kitties.

And a correction to yesterday's post, curling is on TV next weekend.

Later,
JH

Happy Thanksgiving

Let us all give thanks for friends and family. Stuff yourselves today as that is what is right. Watch some football or whatever. Lots of "marathons" on the tube as well like Deadliest Catch. Have some crab (great commercial). Have the extra dessert. A little late night snack of a turkey sandwich.

Enjoy the day as you worry about how to buy Christmas presents, keeping the kitten from climbing the tree and where to put decorations that won't become "toys". Maybe an extra glass of wine will help.

Watch the curling on TV this weekend, you do have that Canadian satellite right. Probably lots of college football as well. The skins golf if that is still happening. Go outside and finish the leaves.

Give thanks to the Phils on the World Series. And somewhere David Wright is giving thanks that the Yankees are getting all the headlines right now and not the latest Mets collapse. Suck it Mutts.

As the Mrs says Happy Gobble Gobble Day!
JH

You are doing what to my what!?

Pictured on right is a very cute kitten. He went and got fixed this week. First patient of the day so we got to pick him up late in the afternoon. The vet provided instructions such as keep him quiet. Fine, we can do that. He has the guest room all to himself. So, bedtime comes and we bring him into our room to sleep with us.

Then this happens:
Hallucinatory behavior, which may progress to delirium, may occur during emergence from Ketamine anesthesia.

Yep, around midnight he is literally bouncing off the walls, attacking everything in sight including us and just freaking out. This causes Skippy mom to freak out. Call the 24 hour emergency vet clinic and explain what is happening. They told us about the above. So, back into the guest room he goes for the night.

The next day expect to open the door to the room and see him floating above the bed like something out of the exorcist. Nope, just his old normal self (sans balls), purring and just wanting pets. We called our vet to ask if he got ketemine and she says yes and then explains that the reaction happens in about 10% of cats.

He has completely returned to "normal" at this point. Of course the instructions say to not allow him to run or play on the stairs for 3 days. Riiiighhhtt, how do you keep a kitten from playing? Duct tape maybe but he seems to be fine and takes breaks when he gets a tired.

Happy (American) Thanksgiving to all.

Later,
JH

Second Again

Well for two years in a row we made it the first event final at the Harvest. And for the second time we finished runner-up. Think this is the fourth time now. Oh well, if we keep getting there maybe someday we will win it.

A great time was had by all. Always a good party on Saturday night. I am sure we will be attending next year.

Later,
JH

First event baby

Well we made it to Sunday which is always the goal at a bonspiel. Todays game we all played really well and took no prisoners. Game over after 6 ends. On to the first event final tomorrow. A different opponent as we play against a Utica team. Maybe this is the year to get my name on the trophy as a skip. We will throw the rocks and see what happens.

Not too much partying tonight, maybe till midnight then a good nights sleep for the final.

Hope my kitties are doing okay.

Later,
JH

Same old story

Off to Philly CC for the weekend tomorrow. You have heard the story about the meeting and the kissing and the marriage. But this is the ten year anniversary and Thursday is the exact date of the meeting, Nov. 20. Which is also my Dad's birthday.

He would have been 82 this year. Would have been nice to talk to him tomorrow. Maybe he can help out this weekend with some lucky breaks.

Plovers will also be in attendence. The Pres. is already scoping out places to eat, drink and be merry. Our usual place for lunch and adult beverages is called MacKenzie's. Pretty funny for those in the know.

Now about those costumes. Everything is getting effected by the economy. I was at the Party Store today looking for wigs. $25 a pop, no way. So no costumes for us. They will just have to appreciate us the way we are, old and wrinkled.

Later,
JH

The weekend

There was finally curling on TV Saturday and Sunday. The Sunday final was a great game to watch. At least it wasn't Kevin Martin playing, can't stand the guy.

And finally got the satellite dish all hooked up. Ran another cable as I was convinced the first one had a problem. So, tested this one first by hooking it up and running through the back door to the TV. No problem, okay so up on the roof, take down the other one, run the new one through the wall. To get through the wall have to cut off the connector on the end. Inside, hook it up and NO SIGNAL. Finally figured that it must be the metal fibers in the coating making contact somehow. Got that fixed and now we have HD satellite with a PVR and it works.

Because I know someone might care, Skippy is roaming free without supervision in the entire house. Even left him alone this morning when I took Mrs. to the train station.

Off to Philly this weekend for the Harvest mixed. Always a great time. Need to work out the costumes this week.

Later.
JH

Colds and kittens

So I guess we did win something at the bonspiel. Mrs. has a wonderful cold which is a typical side effect of the first bonspiel.

The kitten is FREE. He just loves to play and play with this little plastic cirle toy, kind of like the part you pull off a jug of milk. His favorite part is knocking it under the stove, then finding me and watching me get it out with a ruler. Yes, he has us trained already.

He is also a pretty good escape artist. He was scheduled for the vet today to get fixed. But he escaped the upstairs this morning and found his way to the food dish. Had to postpone the vet for a bit. Now we just have to deal with locking him in a room overnight and listening to the meowing when he is scheduled next.

No curling this weekend. Next weekend is the ten year return to the scene of the crime at the Philly club. Hmmm, maybe I should have sent them a gift registry....

Later,
JH

Cat Freedom

DC is talking about cat freedom as well as people freedom. We are also letting Skippy roam around unfetered these days for short bits.

When he gets out of the upstairs guest room it is a short dash to the stairs and then find a toy. Play with the toy while the other cats are not sure what is happening. Snickle, the 9 year old, just stares and stares. Occasionally following him around slowly. The kitten is fast, so fast that Snickle will be staring into a corner and the kitten is three rooms away. Bonspiel, the 18 year old, just wanders away to go hid in her bed or on the couch.

The kitten doesn't really care about the other two, he is too busy running and playing.

Pretty soon he will have full roam of the house unsupervised. Then you just have to listen for the crashes as he finds new "toys" to play with, like the plants.

Oh yeah and we went to a bonspiel this past weekend. Had fun, didnt win any jewelry and got to catch up with a lot of friends. More on that over here at some point.

Later,
JH

Curling weekend

Off to Plainfield soon for the Founder's bonspiel. DC will be there as well. First game is a wonderful 8am one tomorrow morning. Have to make sure they have Bloodies made up tonight. Will go hang out tonight and catch up will all my peeps.

Of course with the new kittie in the house we had to arrange for help with him. We have a great cat sitter who is not only going to come over three times a day but will stay here with him all weekend. He gets a lot of attention and the other munchkins will appreciate the attention as well.

Later,
JH

More important things

My new work assignment has me driving to Trenton on a weekly basis. I listen to 101.5FM when I get to NJ. It is the most listened to talk radio station in the country (according to someone). They where discussing the election of course with most of the callers arguing why Barrack should not have been elected. Guess they didn't see the results that the election was over. Time to move on people.

Then on the way home, called to let Mrs. know where I was and what time I would be home. She told me this:

From the USCA:

We spoke with Pete Fenson this morning and he said that his father is still in the Intensive Care Unit, at MeritCare Hospital, 801 Broadway N., Fargo, ND 58122.

Bob's condition hasn't changed much since he was first stabilized during treatment for the stroke suffered Saturday evening, according to Pete. But Pete said that he does recognize his family and has been making efforts to try to communicate with them.

The Fenson family has set up a Caring Bridge site for Bob, which you can visit at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/bobfenson

We appreciate you keeping Bob and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

USCA National Office Staff

We got to meet Bob last year when his son brought him to New York for the first time ever for his birthday. Of course, we arranged to attend a Yankee game. Got his name put up on the big scoreboard. He was so happy and thrilled to be in NY, at a Yankee game, taking in the atmosphere, everything.

So many times, life jumps up and gets in the way of other "news".

Thoughts and prayers to the Fenson family. Get better Bob.

JH

Pain in the .....

Spent much of the weekend up and down the extension ladder and on the roof. We got a new satellite receiver for HD. Of course, there is a new dish and such to install. Did all that a couple of weekends ago. Found out on Friday that I needed to run another cable from the dish to the receiver in order to record on the DVR. So, off to buy cable, up the ladder to hook it up, over the roof and down to the hole drilled through the wall. Hooked it up to the receiver, which has two inputs and nothing. Still not recording although getting the signal and channels fine.

Yesterday, back up the ladder to the roof, change the connection outside and in. Move the new cable to the primary input and no signal. So, I either broke the coax somewhere when I was tacking it down or something. Now, time to get a new coax. Which means back up the ladder, hook it up and run it through the door just to test it. Then if that is okay, remove the other new one and run this one up and over and through the wall.

Hopefully this all works eventually. Curling season on TV starts soon and want to be able to record that as well as other stuff.

Later,
JH