The Events of Last Thursday

I'm having way too much fun recording the kitties. But sometimes I get a little something extra along with my kitty cuteness.

Here's what happened last Thursday morning.

Dan is a Freak

Every so often, Dan proves that he is... well, odd. He'll get a sharp pain in his foot and look to see what it is and, lo and behold, he's been stabbed with kitty hair.

Yes, kitty hair. Stabbing into his foot.

Cat Hair Stuck in Dan's Foot

We have no idea how this happens. Kitty hair isn't sharp. And yet, Dan can have it stab through several layers of his foot and get stuck there. And when I say stuck, I mean it. You have to give it a good tug to get it out.

This has happened at least three or four times.

Dan has freaky foot skin.

Oh the Irony

Amazon remotely deleted two books from Kindles even though the books had been legitimately purchased. Ironically, the books were George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984. Seriously. Check out the article.

Big brother anyone?

What I'm Reading

Apparently, I have rediscovered the world of books. Go me.

While Pride and Prejudice and Zombies ultimately wasn't a winner for me (I sort of checked out on it in the last 80 pages), it has made me rediscover that I actually like reading books and that the internet does not truly contain everything. (Plus, I pretty much exhausted the internet's entertainment a couple of months ago).

So in my desire for more (and better) entertainment, I have returned to published books. Right now I'm reading two of them and I'm liking both of them so I thought I'd share.

The first one, In Defense of Food, is so far pretty interesting. Mind you, I'm only on page forty. But it is basically about viewing what we eat in it's proper context - that is, as something that should be food, rather than just nutrients. It makes me want to only eat things that have ingredient lists that I understand. Which really rules out a lot of foods! But it makes a lot of sense. After all, Dan and I have totally changed our views on cat food after doing some research on what things like "animal byproduct" and "corn gluten meal" actually mean. Why would we not want the kitties to eat that junk and us still eat it? (Seriously, check it out).

The second book is a YA novel, Little Brother. This one takes place sometime in the future when everyone is being watched (and Vista is an "antiquated operating system" - so what, five years from now maybe?). I'm only into it by three chapters and have just gotten to the actual plot (or the startings of) but I find the character's voice really engaging and fun. Well, the first part (pre-plot) was fun. Now that the plot has been introduced, it is still engaging but much more impactful. Plus, it can be classified in the same dystopia/utopia type books that I enjoy so - 1984, Brave New World, We, The Handmaid's Tale, Utopia X ,etc, etc.

I don't know exactly why I love this kind of books so - it paints such a bleak picture of the future (and as wacky as some of the ideas in these books seem, reality seems to be edging closer and closer to them - this seems particularly true with Little Brother), but it probably has something to do with the inner rebel in me enjoying seeing someone resist such a restrictive system, even if the system is not destroyed in the resistance. Brave New World has my all-time favorite ending image (with the feet turning one way, then the other) which is ironic because usually I am such a happy ending type girl. But that ending? Pure awesomeness. Dystopia/utopia books are pretty much the only exception to my HEA rule. Yeah, I love these types of books.

Off topic for a moment (okay, further off), Jasper Fforde (who I love) has a new book coming out at the end of the year, Shades of Grey, which fits into this category. I pre-ordered it like three months ago. It seems more serious than his Thursday Next and Nursery Crime series but I still have high hopes for it.

Anyway, back on topic. I've already been so enthralled by Little Brother that I've checked into Cory Doctorow's other books. And super-neatness, he allows (and encourages) distribution of free ebook versions of his works. Seriously. How cool? So tottle off to Cory's site, search around and download a book (clicking on the book cover will take you to that book's page and the DL link is in the top menu bar which will then take you to a page to select the format you want to DL the book in). If his others are as enjoyable as Little Brother is so far, I'm going to be a big fan.

Anyway, those are two of the books I'm reading (and enjoying) right now. Both very different books but so far I'd recommend both of them. Hopefully this will last all the way through the book (unlike some zombie-related books that I won't mention here).

Yay books!

Update for Cuteness

It's been a little over a week since I've posted anything. I just don't have all that much going on lately. But I have a few cute kitty pictures that I thought I'd share. So here we go!

Lately, the kitties have been quite enjoying the water bottle cases we keep in the pantry. Especially if we accidentally leave the pantry door open.

Chloe camping out among the water bottles

Of course, they also enjoy the empty boxes when we throw then onto the kitchen floor.

Cocoa parks herself into any water box that ends up on the kitchen floor

Cocoa has also been showing off more of her mouse killing songs (today's was about 2 minutes long - I really wish I had been able to record it!) but she's added a new talent into her repertoire. Mouse cuddling:

Cuddling the kill

And our kitties aren't the only cute things out there. This is Thomas, Miho and Kei's newest kitty addition.

Isn't he a cutie?

Speaking of Kitty Cuteness

Here are two kitty videos I wanted to share. These are of Miho and Kei's new kitty, Thomas.

Apparently Miho and Kei had some trouble getting approved to adopt a kitten since Miho works. Yeah, apparently the Japanese pet adoption folks are big on stay at home kitten moms. But they found this guy at a vet that wasn't as stringent so now this little guy has a great new home! And now Miho and Kei can stop plotting to steal my Sammy!

Kitty Voyeur

Cocoa has been particularly magnificent lately in regards to her mouse killing songs. She's been very vocal about her (felt) mouse kills, needing to make sure everyone knows what she has done. Because these songs sound so cute, I wanted to tape them to share. But it's really hard to get the timing right! So I finally decided to just set up my camera and record endlessly, hoping I caught something.

Well, I did. I got two little songs. Not her best work and not the longest by any means, but a good sampling so worthy of sharing I think. But not only did I record that, but I got to see what the kitties are like when their people aren't in the room.

My cats do very little yet manage to be strangely fascinating.

I recorded about 2 hours of video. I didn't watch it all. Well, not on normal speed anyway. I fast forwarded through it. But still, I found it really run. Dude, our cats do nothing! At one point, Happy sat in the kitchen for close to 15 minutes. Just sitting.

Anyway, I put those two hours of tape together into a video about three and a half minutes long. Mostly it is Cocoa being cute, but Happy makes a special guest appearance. Gidgie has a cameo.

I don't expect everyone to find this video as entertaining as I do - they are my cats, after all - but I do encourage you to give it a watch. There are two mouse killing songs and a magnificent Cocoa Love Roll. That's worth the price of admission right there (especially since I'm not charging you anything!) The video is a little dark, however, since the kitchen lights were off when I recorded the video (I didn't want them to know I was spying on them!)

Now that I've played voyeur in the kitchen, I think I want to set the camera up in another room. The kitties are pretty cute when they don't know we're watching.

Of course, that could be because they are always cute.