Scribblings

Why No Regular Updates

I haven't been able to post as regularly as I used to for good reason: I have a very important job right now. I don't make any money at it but it's as rewarding as the one I had when my kids were little. When our Little T moved back in with his mom over the summer, he'd just had ear tubes put in. He'd suffered frequentl ear infections that left his ears full of fluid and we figured that's why he'd stopped talking...he couldn't hear.

At the end of summer, he still wasn't talking and so we figured we needed more help before T fell too far behind. All the states have programs to work with infants and toddlers who are delayed and so a team of really nice people came to visit and observe. That led to recommendations for more tests to figure out what's going on--or at the very least, rule out what's not.

So what we've learned so far is that T's vision is great, his tubes are still in place and working just fine, and that his hearing is within normal limits. Is he not speaking because the temporary but prolonged hearing impairment caused him not to develop the muscles he needs to make consonant sounds and so on? Maybe...

Could it be he is on the autistic spectrum? Could be...the specialists note some behaviors that indicate it.

Could it be something else? Yes...It's a mystery that's still being puzzled out.

In the meantime, though, there is a teacher and speech therapist who've been coming out to work with him and teach me how to encourage speech and communication. I say me because Linda and TB are both working now and I watch, care for and play with T during the day. This is the job I was speaking of, although I wouldn't really call it work. I love Tomas, we all do, and he is a joy and blessing to us. I love taking him places as well as just hanging out and interacting with some of the shows he loves to watch, like "Dora the Explorer", "Go Diego Go" and "Blue's Clues".

All of the things the teacher and therapist have suggested to me (and that I pass on to Linda and the rest of the family) have been really helpful! For instance, they were the ones who said to go ahead and respond to the shows on Noggin even if T doesn't. So we did and then we noticed that T began to respond as well! T does make some sounds and now he is pointing and using a couple of signs. He gets so excited when he gets his meaning across and we do too!

Yay!

Everyone says he is such a sweet and adorable little guy. He sure is!

Anyway, that's why I don't update much anymore. That's okay...I'll be back again regularly one of these days!

140th Carnival of the Cats

Well, hello there, I'm Kosmo, the new kid on the block here so Mouse & Amber say I have to take a turn at this carnival of the cats event. If I do this right, we can get to have the carnival here again! Over this last week, the humans celebrated "Thanksgiving". You know what, my human pets didn't even take any pictures of us this week although we were lying around in our splendiferous glory. One thing I am very greatful for is the fact that I am a much-loved and honored cat and not a human.

They get so busy this time of the year and then they just totally collapse on the floor like the Sims on that silly computer they're so entranced by. Why don't they just curl up and nap like we do? Silly people. With our pets, it was not only picking up people from college, taking younger family members to and from places they needed to go, spending an entire day Wednesday at a children's hospital with the littlest one, there was also much ado in the kitchen in the wee hours.

That was the best part. The delicious smells. And oh, the turkey! Still...no pictures of us or even of them indulging. Tsk tsk. Well, maybe it's better there weren't any pictures of us lying around in stuffed bliss--we all ended up more stuffed than the turkey! Now, you would think the humans would have enough sense sleep and let the tryptophan work its magic but, oh no, they were off and running again--not participating in "Black Friday" but in a whole bunch of other shenanigans.

The Cassie-pet is going to make a post about the human goings-on so I'll stop rambling and get to the important part: the 140th Carnival of the Cats!

Up First

So sorry to hear that both Duncan and Alex of Texas Oasis are having such terrible health issues! Here's cyber best wishes that both kitties are doing much better!

On the bright and up side, The Taylor CatSSSSSdedicate the blog to the doctor and staff at the hospital that saved little KC! Earlier, KC was one very sick little kitten! Here is a visit to KC who didn't look very well. All our kitties should have vets as dedicated and caring as Dr. Smith!

Things are also getting back to normal at Yourish. It's good to see the kitties feeling better!

There is a very touching tribute to a very special kitty, Cotton, at Wind in the Wire.

Thanksgiving & Black Friday

Did anyone else have felines doing the turkey dance as happened at No Deep Thoughts?

Over at Sisu's, Tiny inspects the "Thanksgiving lite" table. There are sweet pictures of Tiny and Tuck givin each other little lovin. Then Tiny takes a little morning after tryptophan tripping. Here are two different faces of Tiny, note the state of alertness in this lovely kitty and then the state of relaxation.

Then, of course, there's the usual over indulgence in turkisaurus...hope this kitty at Ambivablog didn't get a tummy ache!

Maybe that kitty needs to pick up some meal time etiquette from Xena the Prowler and Kai the Beggar at Chris Dolley's place.

OR...Hakuna and Matata show off their most excellent table manners over at Blog d'Elisson. Our guys could use some lessons from them, right, Amber?

Amber says: Manners, schmanners, just give me the turkey NOW.

Another satisfied Thanksgiving feline face at Stereophilia! At the same home, Huckleberry expresses some dismay at the size of the turkey!

Thanksgiving pay-offs for Piper at TBIFOC!

Here are some morning after turkey stalkers at Composite Drawings

Ah, the turkey was also delicious at The Scratching Post. Now the tryptophan kicks in. Is there any tryptophan in tuna?

Tryptophan kicks in for Loki at Lemons & Lollipops. Uh-oh! It looks like he's had a little too much turkey and doesn't quite fit in the box he's chosen to nap in!

Not all kitties wanted to indulge in turkey: there was a crab feast at Beezer's!

Other Felines in the News

The "quadrupeds" at Enrevanche are being treated to some special pampering while the bipeds are on vacation!

Tater and Trinket of Catymology got to enjoy a little vacation in feline paradise. Is this heaven? No, it's Ohio.

Now, here is another bit of kitty paradise: Purrniture. What a great name for kitty condos!

"Allan's kitty says: Dude. There's no way I'm going shopping on Black Friday. Me neither!

At The Peach Pit, it looks like this kitty took in some Friday shopping and ended up in a Kohl's bag!

Ostara's Sam says, I do the channel surfing around here! That is most definitely a guy thing especially when the commercials come on!

Along similar lines, Bebe at The Poor Mouth says wait, wait, wait! I'm not done with this page yet!

Mags is besotted with her kitty and no wonder: what a hard worker!

Laughing Muse says, "I felt poorly this weekend, so stayed home...and photographed my cats. I think they may try to grow opposable thumbs just to disassemble the camera."

Feline Philosophy features photos of stray kitties, accompanied by words of wisdom!

At Da Nator's a family of feral cats are treated to a fine feast. It's good to hear that Ma Nator is trying to make sure the kitties are fed.

Amber was sitting by my side as we read through the Carnival submissions and she definitely wants a cat cozy for Christmas this year. They are free with a donation to a most excellent cause: books for Israel!

Wylie is showing off his lovely warm winter coat. The coat goes along very well with Babified's cool seasonal layout!

Everything I ever needed to learn in life I learned from a cat's butt! Amazed and confused? So was I when I saw the title of the post but actually what Kenton Winton says makes a lot of sense so stop scratching!

Calais at Crazy Meezer is all tongue twisted!

Adorable neighboring kitties are featured at Elms in the Yard!

Check out Abby at Manx News. She does look like the look of movie star about her! And that does pose an interesting question: what famous person resembles our kitties?

And check out Tigger showing off his "gravity defying talents" at Pets Garden Blog!

Tigger at Val's Bienis a gorgeous kitty! Here he perches with ease and grace!

Is this a great tummy shot over at Watermark's? I wish I could catch one of our kitties in that pose! Speaking of great shots, also check out the Warhol kitties!

Ivy seems to be settling in quite nicely at Strange Ranger's. And here Maddie relaxes in her favorite spot.

Check out It's All Good. Doesn't Nicky have some gorgeous eyes? What a regal looking kitty all right!

Don't you just love the way cats will sometimes demand attention? This is a familiar scene for us, too, Maggie!

Another familiar scene: just got back from vacation and how do the kitties react to our return? I had to smile about the two very different reactions of Orloff and Pushkin at Begin Each Day...'s.

House of Chaos has an interesting post about purring and a sweet, touching photo of Zorro giving comfort to Crittur.

The Cassie-pet hopes she got all the links right, she said to ask you to leave a message if she made a mess in her computer box and needs to clean it up. Now I'm going to take a nap...but before I do, let me just say that next week's carnival will be hosted at Catymology. See you there!

So long foks, have a great week!

The Carnival Is Coming, The Carnival Is Coming!

Hey, I think I see something! Is it them?

Yup, it's them, it's the carnival...they're coming!

But why is it taking so long to get them here?

Our human pets have been running around like turkeys all week and weekend long. But the female pet is getting her act together and the carnival is halfway put together. Tune in tomorrow!

Meanwhile, have a nice nap!

Backwards Update: Saturday At The Park

Tb took these pictures on Saturday--2 Saturdays ago, that is. The weather was lovely and so we decided to take Tomas to the park. Kristin came along to get into those tight places along with T. Actually, I can get up with the little guy but when the place is full of little kids I'd rather not. Anyway, everyone had a great time! To see more pictures, just click on the picture!

Cat Blogging Cat-chup

I don't know why, I just really like this picture of Mouse.

He just sort of looks...distinguished. And I notice he's sprouting some white chin whiskers now as he approaches middle feline age!

Ten on Tuesday

10 Things You're Thankful For

My health
TB
My kids
My extended family
My friends
My kitty-cats
Books
The time to journal/blog
Lost
last, but not least, the almost 18 years I had Rich in my life
Life journal

Cat Blogging: Keyboard Inspector

Click on the picture for the whole "story"!

Want more cat blogging? Be sure to check out Carnival of the Cats and I have some cat bloggers listed too!

The House of the Seven Gables

I decided it would be a good idea to read classics I wasn't forced to read in school...it just seemed like a good idea at the time. I knew I wouldn't be able to read a bunch of them in a row so I thought every 4th book would be a classic. The first one I picked was the slim volume The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It sounded like it would be a good spooky book, appropriate for October and Halloween.

I just finished it and that was more because I was too busy to read. That's unfortunate because you really have to pay attention with some of these stories because the language is a little hard to follow. It's a great story but because I wasn't reading consistently there were things going on that I didn't understand.

The house is haunted....maybe. Way back when, a grasping Pyncheon elder decided he wanted the land a certain poor fellow named Maule already owned. Pyncheon was a justice and so all he had to do to seize the land was to accuse Maule of witchcraft. Oh...the time period? Well, it was published in 1851 if that gives you a starter and this originally judge lived aorund the time of the Salem witch trials. Anyway, he seizes the land and builds a house with seven gables right on top of the place Maule's home used to stand. Now, is that asking for a haunted house or what? Sure enough, bad things happen to the Pyncheon family beginning with the judge--he's found dead by a young relative.

Hawthorne had a hilarious sense of humor. I loved his descriptions of the current resident of the house, poor old Hepzibah. She is a sight to run from with a perpetual scowl on her face. She finds herself in the embarrassing circumstance of having to open a shop to earn money because the family's now broke. As she tries to set up shop and serve customers, I had to laugh at some of the things she did. Poor old thing! Fortunately for her, a young relative arrives from the country, Phoebe. Phoebe's got much better people skills and the shop does much better.

But wait! Now there's a new character, Clifford--and this is one of the pieces I missed. I got the fact that he is the rather simple minded brother of Hepzibah and that she wanted to protect him. I missed the fact that he'd been in prison--I assumed he was in a mental institution considering the way he was behaving. Anyway, Clifford takes quite a liking to Phoebe and I suppose the three of them would have limped along in their dysfunctional manner if not for a boarder at the house.

Hargraves is a young photographer (I mean, dageuerretypist) who one day decides to fill Phoebe in on some of the ickier ghost stories surrounding the house, specifically--the son of Matthew Maule getting revenge on the Pyncheon family by bringing Alice Pyncheon under his spell and using her for datardly deeds. Phoebe decides it's time to go home.

There is another relative in all this, Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon--described on the back cover as "the devil incarnate". I am not sure why. He torments his cousins, Hepzibah and Clifford, that's about all I got out of it. He threatens to put Clifford in an insane asylum and the next thing you know, Clifford's standing over the dead body. Hmmmmm....so does this mean Clifford killed Jaffrey or did one of the already dead and cursed Pyncheons--or even Maule--do it?

At any rate, no one blames Clifford and he and his sister are able to leave the miserable house and live out their lives in the country.

Okay.

It's a classic--not as suspenseful as I might have liked but I think Hawthorne brought out some sore points about social classes in a way to make you think--i.e. the fact that rich Judge Pyncheon was so easily able to wrest Maule's property away. I also enjoyed the humor and I'm glad that Hepzibah and Clifford got away from that place!

Because it's taking me so long to read and finish books, I think I'll move on to Christmas themed books now.

Backwards Update: Our New Well

It seems the only chance I get to really update anymore is on the weekends. By then I forget half the stuff I've done all week!

About the well...we had a new one dug a few weeks ago and TB meant to post about it but never got the chance--he has the same problem I do! We're always busy...and now he's been called back to work, which is a very very good thing for us but a very bad thing for updating!

Anyway, back to the well...

Our water pressure had been worsening and we called in a new water treatment company, Safe Water Technologies. We'd been dealing with a local business for the last 3 years with only temporary success. I mean, our water was totally yucky! It smelled of sulfur and there was so much iron, we were going through tons of salt to try and keep it from ruining our stuff--and stuff got ruined, let me tell you!

Joe Brown, the owner of Safe Water, took a look at the mess we had and figured we needed a new well before we did anything else and knew of some good companies. We called Robbins. Joe's idea was that the new well would get dug and then he'd put in all new stuff for treating our water.

TB took some pictures.

Once the guys started drilling, Tomas was totally fascinated--as were we!

Very cool, isn't it?

Our original well was only 25 feet. This new one is over 60. One of our neighbors thought we should have had Robbins go to 300 feet!

The new well is dug, the old one sealed, and now all that's left for these guys is to cover the big hole in our front yard.

This is the way our yard looks now...we'll have to pretty it up for spring!

Then it was time for Joe to move in and put in our new water treatment system.

First the old crap had to be pulled out. This is under our house! Blech! We're going to need a plumber to come in to look at the old pipes and we also need to remove all that wet yucky insulation! Blech! Blech! Triple Blech!

And here is our nice new system--in our outdoors "closet" which is now heated and holds all the essentials of the house. No more crawl space!

Thank you, Robbins Drilling & Safe Water Technologies!!!!!

Ten on Tuesday

Ten on Tuesday

10 Things You Have On Your "To-Do" List

1. Finish reading my book!
2. Catch up on my email
3. Answer friends' posts
4. Clean the bedroom (yeah right)
5. Caption the pix in our photo gallery
6. Grocery shopping
7. Update our recipe blog
8. Watch season 1 & 2 of Lost
9. Watch all the other DVDs I bought that have been sitting there collecting dust
10. Get back into checking my sugar regularly!

How Many of Me? Dot.Com

Day Trip!

With all the stuff going on, TB and I need to get away from it all and just have some fun. Originally we were going to drive to an ocean beach but decided to go exploring instead. I'm really glad we did because we came across Tuckerton Seaport. I've seen it listed in the sights to see in NJ and have been wanting to go there. As we were driving along TB and I talked about how the Pine Barrens just sort of grow on you. The trees are rather ugly but they have their own kind of charm.

Tuckerton Seaport is around 20 years old--at least, the idea for it is. According to the self-guided tour brochure, a group of baymen were concerned because their way of life was passing away and no one would remember. Eventually their discussions led to the opening of this sort of "campus". A lot of the items TB and I saw belonged to these men and to others who donated them. The exhibits were nice but what made everything especially interesting were the volunteers who explained how things worked and what people did back in those days.

We also learned some interesting factoids. Now I know that scungilli is made from whelks (or conchs). I also learned that the critter in the pretty shell was considered to be a pest because they'd punch through the shells of the oysters and clams to eat them. Baymen didn't appreciate that much!

TB took lots and lots of great pictures. To see the whole thing, just click on the picture!

Feline Saturday: Babies & Boxes

My new bed is a little lumpy but still quite cozy and fits me just fine!

But hark, who is that who approaches and dares disturb my dreams?

Aha, it's a "copycat"! But now I have to find a new place to nest!

Have a great weekend! Want more Cat Friday stuff? Check out my sidebar for new links arriving under Cat Blogging and also be sure to visit Carnival of the Cats

Halloween Pictures

TB uploaded the pictures I took on and around Halloween. First up, Kristin dressed up as ... an angsting photographer I guess ... for her friend's party on Friday night.

Heidi dressed up to go hang out with her buds but didn't tell me what or who her character was...mainly because she didn't know!

And Linda won most original costume or best costume at work!

A good time was had by all and hopefully Little T will be into wearing a costume next year!