The nameless one

Currently pondering cat names as this little cutie came home with me this morning.



After all the various cat dramas, it's lovely to finally have another feline member of the household. So far orange cat doesn't seem too fussed by strange cat smells or noises coming from the bathroom and the new girl seems pretty relaxed (if not outright keen to explore beyond her current bathroom hangout). So hopefully they're going to be good friends eventually.

The new girl is teeny (she's about 9-11 months old but nowhere near as big as Tabasco and he's not a huge cat) and smoochy and playful. She's an RSPCA cat and has already had a litter just after she came into the shelter (far too young...please desex your pets!)

Looks like I'll be having a fairly quiet week at home mostly while we integrate the household. Good time to write and spin and tackle the pile of tax paperwork looking at me balefully from the kitchen table.

It's good to be a cat!

When my little Jessie girl passed away, I decided any new kitten needed to be a mostly indoor kitty. Jessie never went beyond my backyard and the orange cat limits himself to the front porch and the backyard but a young frisky cat might want to roam.

Because I don't like the idea of completely indoor cats (plus the orange cat would probably have a meltdown if I tried to keep him in completely), I decided to get a cat enclosure.

So I did some research and weighed some options. There's a couple of companies that do cat enclosures around (or if you're handier than me you could probably build one yourself). I however, went with the expert version. A process which has involved me completely digging out my garden beds, experimenting with bodgy paving and doing a fair bit of prep work.

Today, Dale from Catnip came to install the cat palace. Catnip do wire enclosures (there are other companies that do netting type things but I don't really have anything to enclose with netting. The good thing about Catnip, is the enclosures can be disassembled and move with me and they can also be extended later on down the track.

This way, the orange cat (and the fuzzy kitten when he arrives) will get fresh air and sunshine (and grass to nibble on once I plant some in pots) plus they can be up high (which the orange cat hasn't been able to do for a few years due to his arthritic knees). I'm sure there will be a bit of an adjustment on his part, and the cunning plan is to occasionally let him go out if he wants while keeping the fuzz ball in but it's safer for both of the and the pigeon and sparrow population will be safe (though as I've said before, any bird that gets caught by an old athriticky cat whose hunting technique involves meowing loudly probably is better out of the gene pool).

And here is the end result (and Tabasco's opinion so far in the vid). Excuse the garden rubbish, I'm still cleaning up.

A message from the orange cat

I am too a big tough cat and I have the fuzzed up tail to prove it! And, yes, it's just as tough to fuzz up your tail from the safety of the lounge after bolting through the cat door. Ignore the grey cat when she tries to tell you otherwise. She thinks she's clever cos her tail is fluffy all the time.

What I did on my birthday by the Orange Cat

Every year the human gets the day off work for my birthday. She reckons it's called "Australia Day" but I know it's International Day of Orange Cat Glory and must be celebrated appropriately.

Firstly I woke up nice and early and woke the human up with a special birthday yowl I'd been practicing. It worked. She got up and gave me breakfast then seemed to go back to sleep. Probably conserving her strength for later celebrations. Not to worry, I just knocked over one of her cushions and slept on that. Then I moved to a patch of sunlight (especially arranged for my birthday I'm sure).

Once the human got up I demonstrated my birthday yowl a few more times. She seemed very impressed. Not sure why she told me to go outside except it was probably to let the neighbours also experience my special yowl.

I also investigated my favourite dirt pile so I could maintain my chic orange with dirt splotches birthday outfit. It's stylish, I don't care what that fluffy grey thing thinks.

After all that, was quite tired so had afternoon birthday nap on my couch. The human did something weird where she gets into all these strange positions on a mat thingy. She thinks she's being a cat but she's just not bendy enough. I keep offering to demonstrate but she mutters at me when I sit on her while she's doing bendy things and then she closes the door to the room. Unfriendly. I told her so with a yowl. I'm sure she paid attention.

After the couch nap, I had to go out and try out the nice warm concrete. Napped again. Apparently my concrete is going to be extra warm for the next few days in celebration of my birthday, so yay.

Now I'm waiting for the human to sit on the couch so I can sit on her and possibly try to give her my special nose nibble of niceness. And maybe a few more birthday yowls. Then, I'm sure there will be cake. Hopefully meat flavoured. Take note if you were thinking of sending a gift.

Cat vs rain

It's been raining fairly steadily here today and I know we've been having a drought and all but the grey cat seems to be having particular difficulties with the concept of water falling from the sky today. This is a cat who hates water and yet has managed to get soaked four times that I've counted today (and soaked grey fluffiness is quite amusing to look at but does not appreciate being towelled off so she doesn't share said soaking with the furniture). So either she's a bit dim or else my lavender bush (her favourite daytime place to hang outside is under the lavender bush where orange cat does not bother her) has gotten so overgrown that it has to be pouring before any of it starts getting her and then she gets soaked doing the fastidious, poised for disaster with each step grey cat dash to the door....

Silliness

Sorry for the blog silence, it is crazy time at the day job (as it is every year at this time of year but this year I have added bonus of having to get lots done before the big vacation) so not much to report. I seem to have yet another cold, or maybe it's the same cold that never went away, just went into hiberanation or something. Grumble.

And I have these courtesy of the vet and the manufacturers of the beasties pet food. Cute! And comfy. I especially like the little tails. Though I may have to hide them from the orange cat who has strong views about being the only orange cat in the house : )

Slash and burn

After various useful crits, a lulu meeting where I, for the most part, resisted eating anything too evil (and with added bonus appearance of the VT temporarily escaping her Tasmanian Reno Adventure) and many hours at the keyboard, I have a new and hopefully improved version of the first three chapters. Only eighteen more to go. Yeesh.

At least I have a better idea of something like a theme and some ideas for more stuff that's needed. Always helpful.

Other things I've been doing this weekend:

1. Looking at the RWA workshop schedule and drooling. Last year I went easy on the workshops due to being jetlagged and nervous. This year, Keri and I are heading over earlier and I have no GH to be nervous about so I'm hoping to get to a few more. Picking which is always hard though. Too many good things. Thank god they sell the cds.

2. Finally admitting my overflowing bookshelf problem can't wait for the "Mel can afford more bookshelves" solution. So I now have some well stuffed plastic tubs of books looking sad in my spare room. They'll just have to keep looking sad until later this year. I need my money for SF. Hopefully the current fantastic exchange rate hold until July.

3. Re-reading Sunshine. You know you adore a book when you think "hey, I want to re-read Sunshine" then realise you've loaned it to someone and promptly borrow it from the library lol. I do love this book, even if reading about cinnamon rolls is kind of torturous at the moment (hopefully only four more days after today on the crazy diet!!). Robin McKinley is a writing goddess.

4. Trying to put pawpaw ointment on the Orange Cat's nose after someone swiped him good. He just licks it off of course, then tells me he's tough, he likes his scar and you should see the other guy (none of which I believe : ) ).

It does look kind of cute in an owie sort of way.

A good start

The lulus are starting the year well with Carolyn scoring an agent (yipppeeeeee!) and Keri scoring a RT nomination for career achievement, so all is good.

In other yay news, the grey cat has put on 600g since her operation (which would be like me putting on 15kg or something) and I think I have a bit better idea about the mystery hero for one of my wips. If only I knew his name and the heroine's name, all would be good! It's odd for me as names are usually one of the first things I get. I guess it's off to the trusty naming sites for me.

Relieved

So the grey cat has come through her operation okay, though she is currently in post-operative hide-in-the-wardrobe-and-glare-reproachfully mode. She has also escaped the indignity of bucket head so far but has an impressively naked chest, which looked pretty funny given she's a fluffball. So all is good, or will be when she forgives me.

The orange cat has spent the day alternating between yowling to go into the cat room (where the grey cat is incarcerated as she's not allowed out for a day or so), yowling to be let out and yowling at the front door to be let back in. I'm thinking it might be a good night for ear plugs.

I spent the day tidying my house which had been viciously attacked by mess fairies yet again. Pesky critters those mess fairies. Someone should make a spray. But at least I've excavated to a reasonable level that a last minute run around in the morning before the lulus arrive for our christmas get together should take care of.

It's an exciting life. But four more working days to go and then it's Christmas. I've mostly done my Christmas shopping and mostly written my cards so I'm feeling semi-organised for once. I've even scored cheap plane fares for the wedding I'm off to in February. That's extra organised!

And now I have to go see if the grumpy grey girl will eat some dinner.

Cats and catnaps

Thursday the orange cat was at the vet having his annual jabs and quarterly arthritis drugs. He did not appreciate them. Friday morning the grey cat had to go and have her blood test (she did not appreciate missing breakfast and I did not appreciate getting up early on my day off). She expressed her annoyance by hiding under the lavender bush all day and I had a nap. Anyway, turns out the tablets aren't quite cutting it for her thyroid anymore so she has to have her thyroid out next week. In the mean time we are shovelling pills down her throat to see if her levels will lower before the surgery to make it safer. I was offered the choice of her being irradiated but that involves her being at a special vet for up to 10 days after the irraditation (as she'd be too radioactive to be out and about!!!) so I figured let's try surgery first.

So apparently what was on my list of things I want for Christmas was "stonking big vet bills". Note to self, next year, pick something cheaper. Of course, to get over the sticker shock, I did what any sensible gal would do and went and had a makeover at Bobbi Brown. They made me look un-sleep deprived and not like I was suffering from sticker shock, so that was fun. Yesterday, the VT and I had brunch in Maling Road and went wandering around the shops in search of Christmas gift. Net total things purchased...one book each (at least mine was a gift). We proved that there is such a thing as gift shop overload (a condition that can be rectified by applying scones apparently). So there is still more christmas shopping to come.

Brunch was followed by more napping (self diagnosis - I am tired...I even slept until 10 this morning which is something I rarely do anymore). Then watched The Fountain (which made me wonder if I was perhaps still asleep...all I can say is pretty but odd). Today there will be some writing and some doing of chores. It's a whirlwind of excitement round here!

A note to the orange cat and the grey cat

My first point: You are both too OLD to be catching mice. Neither of you missed catching mice for the last seven years or so. One of you has nearly no teeth. The other tends to be scared of shadows. What does this suggest to you? Right, too OLD.

My second point: If you persist in the delusion that you are not too old to be catching mice then the rules are that you either;

(a) Eat the damn thing and give it a decent burial in your digestive tract; OR
(b) Leave the corpse outside somewhere. Preferably in the neighbour's yard under a bush or something where no-one (particularly not me) has to deal with it.

My third point: Any mouse either of you can catch must be pretty near death anyway given that you are both no longer spring kittens as discussed above. This means diseased, old or possibly poisoned. You don't want to be having with any germ-infested, stringy or strychnine-laced mice. You have been warned.

PS Corpsified mice are gross. Don't gross out the person who wields the can opener. Just sayin'.

Zoom zoom

Every time I blink at the moment, another week seems to have flown by. The Christmas countdown has apparently been set to fast forward.

Of course that might be due to a very busy week between training and querying and the orange cat hurting his tail in a mysterious late night incident that resulted in yet more cash flying out of my hands and into the feline medicine fund. He is recovering nicely. My stress levels are doing so more slowly.

And the parents' birthdays are done as of today (happy birthday Mum and Dad) so now I can think about Christmas present shopping. I see list making in my future.

But at least the agent queries have gone out so the finger crossing and fingernail gnawing has commenced. This is my first long book - I've only queried agents with category before. And though I got some nibbles and some nice rejections, trying to get an agent as an unpubbed category author is playing long odds. And you can sell without one. Whereas this book, this is the kind of book you need an agent for. So let the periodic 'eeeeeks' commence and I shall be the one in the corner revising the other book and working out what to play with next and trying not to check my email every five seconds.

The other events looming closer thanks to the days deciding to disappear way too quickly are Robbie (yippeeeeee!!) and the arrival of babies (also yipeeeeee!!). All, as they say, is good. Plus, hey, twelve more work days to holidays. I like my four day weeks already, and I've only had one!

PS Gilmore Girls Season 6. Hmmm. I wonder how much of that was long term arc and how much was born out of the Palladinos leaving. I shall leave it at that given most people in Australia haven't seen it - including the VT ; ). Not sure what Season 7 might bring in new hands. (Please don't tell me, I'll be waiting for the DVD which I'm sure will come out before Channel 9 gets organised enough to show even the rest of Season 5 here in Oz). And we're now officially in a TV dead zone so mucho writing should be achievable. I am looking forward to Weeds - I love Mary Louise. Though part of me is forced to think that, if it is good, it's probably doomed to the Channel 9 shaft.

I'm back

Well, mostly back. My stomach still seems to be on NZ time. I keep getting hungry two hours before meals. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be back to normal.

We had a fab time at Kara. Once we got there. Two of the girls had a bit of a flight cancellation drama so, instead of a nice leisurely drive up from Auckland on Friday afternoon, we had a long haul through friday peak hour and the wild NZ rain in the dark Friday evening. Of course, being intrepid romance writers, we made it in the end. Even if we were expecting an orc attack at any moment at one stage. It was that sort of trip. The trip home was much less eventful. Though there were feral chickens. My flight even left slightly early, made up time on the flight and landed early. The other two got stuck again. Obviously they didn't appropriately appease the flight gods or whatever.

Daphne and Robyn (and Keith) were lovely and full of wisdom and insight. Plus they revealed the recipe for a Ruby Tuesday to complement the cowboys that became the evening drink of choice. Plotting works well with added butterscotch schnapps apparently. And pineapple lumps. Though the scales this morning suggested butterscotch schnapps and pineapple lumps do not further one's weight loss goals. Back to the exercise grindstone for me. If I wake up.

The cats were even glad to see me. Mainly, I suspect, because I am keeper of the heater. And it is COLD here. It was warmer in NZ! But there has been lots of smooching and purring and instant occupation of my lap when I sit down so maybe they missed me too. The grey cat seems to be perking up a bit now that we've played with her medication dosage which is good. Only perking up has so far translated to destroying a cushion and strewing the house with shredded foam rubber. Nice. Lucky I have the trusty Dyson.

NZ is very beautiful. This is the first time I've gone beyond surburban conference centres and I'm keen to go back and see more. I'm sure Aragorn is lurking there somewhere : ) If not, there's plenty of breathtaking scenery to discover. Particularly if I go with the girls and have more adventures in navigation.

I even managed to solve the story issue that was stopping me in the wip, so have been editing and seeing where I'd gone slightly askew storywise for the last day. Now it's time to go forward again. I wonder how many pages I can do in five days?

Happy Easter

Not such an original blog title but sincerely meant. I hope you have all partaken of the buns of hot cross goodness and received mucho chocolato from the bunny. Plus hanging out with whoever makes you happy.

I've been down at my folks and have only been back a few hours, which means I am still enduring the orange cat's 'you've been away' ritual. Which mostly consists of him stomping around shouting at me. I figure I know what he means - they are more than usually indignant yowls about how I left HIM behind and he was stuck inside and only that Jo and Dave pair came to see him and feed him. Though he also goes outside and shouts as well. I've never figured out whether that bit is "watch out world, the boss is back" or more along the lines of "free at last, free at last, thank god in heaven I'm free at last" but it's pretty funny.

I'll be forgiven by the time he gets dinner.

So home was good, hot cross buns were eaten, pink champagne (Hardy's something or other reserve - very nice) was drunk and I was taught a valuable lesson in remembering to check what you've set iTunes to when you burn a disc lol aka if it was data last time you need to change in back to audio before burning audio discs - sorry Mum.

I managed to write a few pages as well so that's good. And Mum made lamb roast for lunch. Yum. Yum. Yum.

So now I'm having toast, made with Dad's homemade light rye, for dinner. Dad is the son of a baker and makes very good bread and muffins. My Pa died when I was only three so I don't really remember him - a few vague memories of a short, smiling man always causing mischief (and even then I don't know how much of that is from home movies, photos and stories rather than my own memories) - so in a way, eating bread made by Dad feels like a connection. And a reminder of who I can blame for my own love of bread and baked goodies.

The lulus are coming tomorrow for critting so I'd better get cracking and print something out. And do some writing before I attempt to excavate the surface of my kitchen table which is currently covered in RWA stuff.

I had a massage last Thursday, something I always promise myself I will do more often and then invariably delay. It was fabulous. I want to make a concerted effort to keep the stress levels down because stress = bad sleep = cranky = less writing. So resolution number one to have more massages.

Resolution number two is to keep the stress down in other ways as well (this is the bit where you can stop reading if new age stuff bores you or makes you go "rubbish"). : ) To that end I've also bought a couple of mediation cds - another thing that interests me and I always say "must learn more about". These are by Brain Sync (someone on a writers list mentioned them - so thanks Karen!) and are meant to contain the frequencies to evoke the correct sorts of brain waves for various activities (ie Theta for meditation, delta for sleep and other sorts of ones (go read the link if you want the details) for other activities.

I've read a bit about this stuff over the years - the fact that expert meditators put themselves into theta states which is meant to be a very good thing so I figured what the heck. I got a meditation one, a concentration one (I'm hoping good for work and writing in those can't think times - it worked well last night letting me write 3 pages longhand in half an hour in the living room while the folks watched TV. That's faster than usual plus I don't usually write well with my folks in the room) and a sleep one. I don't know if the frequency thing actually works or not but I've drifted off twice now to the sound sleep one and it's very relaxing. And the meditation one is good too. I'll keep you posted on what I think.

And now I'm really going to write!

Productive

Ugh, 9 am is way too early on a Saturday to be up, showered, load of laundry on and already been out and back on an errand. Particularly when last night didn't exactly feature 8 solid hours of sleep. Why not, I hear you ask.

Well.

Remember how I talked about my cats deciding to bleed me dry um, I mean develop new and interesting medical conditions? Well, the grey cat needed some follow up blood work to see how her thyroid and kidneys are going. So I called the vet yesterday to book her in. And the dreaded words were uttered. "She needs to fast." Damn. Damn. Damn. So I dutifully booked her in for this morning and gave them dinner early last night then put them to bed and took the food away. That's right, I took the food away. Now with two normal cats this might not be a drama but don't forget I have the orange cat.

So I went to bed. About midnight the orange cat obviously realises there is no dried food in his bowl (I never said he was smart or maybe it takes four hours for the whiskas to be digested). He meows. I yell. He meows. I yell. He shuts up. Repeat on the hour until three am.

I try to figure out the logistics. I could put the grey cat in the bathroom with the litter tray, some cushions and some water but she would probably try to get out (and she's not bad at opening doors). And the orange cat would undoubtedly protest that he was being locked out of the special room where SHE WAS HAVING FUN DON"T TRY TO FOOL HIM NOT FAAAAAIIIRRRRR.

Eventually I came up with let the orange cat out of the cats room, while leaving the grey cat in with her water only diet, give him some dried food and access to the back yard via the cat door and hope he doesn't decide that ewww he couldn't pee outside, he might like get dirt on his paws or something.

This shuts him up for about two hours. Five am he meows (obviously the food has run out or he thinks grey cat is having all the fun in their room and I've secretly given food even though he didn't see me do it). I yell. He shuts up. He does it again at 6am, 7am, 7.30 and oh well, you get the picture. I am not well rested. I foresee napping in my day. Grumble.

Note to self, if cats need fasting, let them stay at the vet. In the meantime, the actual blood test process results in the grey cat and my credit card giving me pretty much the same disgusted look.

And now the orange cat has just thrown up the breakfast he bolted down to prove how hungry he was. Oy. And Vey and ONE ORANGE CAT GOING CHEAP.

Excuse me while I go clean cat puke.

Right, I'm back. Laundry sorted. Puke gone. Now I just have to wait for the stain to dry so I can use my super stain stuff on it. I don't know what they put in cat food but the browny yellow stain sure looks fetching on my pale blue-grey carpet. At least it killed my appetite, so I don't have to worry about not having had breakfast yet.

Where was I? Right. Being productive.

Yesterday I sent off my partial, wrote four pages of one book, one page plus six pages typed in to the computer from my notebook of another. Go me. Today I'm going to try and do some more. Amid scrubbing cat vomit from my carpet. That should produce some suitably romantic feelings : )

In other random weirdness, yesterday I was watching Oprah who was talking about debt (just as I was putting in a nice fat Amazon order to reward myself for the partial mailing - she made me take two books off the order to wait for a future date). Anyway, the ad for IceAge 2 came on. And it had the little rating thing down the bottom of the screen and it said "PG: mild sense of menace". What? Is this something new in the ratings? Besides the fact that kids movies often have scary bits and that's kind of the point in teaching 'em some stuff, what the frak (to borrow from BSG) does "mild sense of menace" mean? There's a bad guy? There's some scary critters (well, yes, it's about prehistoric beasts including mammoths and sabretooth tigers)? You're not sure what's going to happen? Isn't that the idea of a story? It just struck me as a very odd thing to state. What's next? PG: Slight hint of hormones? PG: A suggestion of discord?

If they're going to add these little hints to the ratings then why not make them actually USEFUL. You know, 'like 'PG: All the even slightly funny bits are in the trailer, don't bother'. Or M: the only good bit is hot hunk taking his shirt off'. Or 'PG: Complete massacre of the book, run away screaming'. Or 'MA: This movie is actually good'. That sort of thing would be handy. Mild sense of menace isn't.

And now I have to go write. Today this blog is rated: SSWWTOS (Slightly sleepy writer with touches of sarcasm). You can choose to view or not on that basis. Oh darn, this warning should've been up the top.

Lost weekend

Not lost. But almost over. Three and a bit days have whizzed by. How did that happen?

So what have we achieved this weekend? Friday I wrote, did chores and some other must do tasks (like watch NCIS and Medium - but that wasn't until after dinner). Got some feedback on the partial that made me think that something I thought was true but had been hoping wasn't (I think this is called denial) was true. Further opinons have backed this up. No biggie, just some rejigging to be done. I also scored two pairs of jeans for $60. And a size smaller than I usually wear! Always the way to shop. Of course, all the junk I've eaten this weekend probably means I now won't be able to do them up.

Saturday was crit group day, meeting Freya's adorable new puppy Oliver (who is so cute, he's lucky he didn't wind up in my handbag and living with two cats who ain't keen on dogs), scored a second hand Bamix which I've been wanting, then the gals forced me to eat mexican food and drink pineapple margaritas. It's tough.

Yesterday was HOT. So I slept in, I lazed around. I chatted via email to my brother (who isn't Mr Chatty very often so when he gets that way, it's good. Even though we wind up talking about weird stuff like manuscript format and publishing realities - and he is NOT a writer), did some RWA stuff, I napped, I faffed around on the internet, I had some story insights for one of the books - including the name of a character that I dreamt. Not that I did anything more with them than note them down. Then I did some grocery shopping and then watched The Village. Which was okay but different to how I thought. It looked scarier in the trailers, that's for sure.

Today I will write, do RWA stuff, finish my grocery shopping (aka actually plan my food for the week, seeing as the Commonwealth Games are starting and I'll be working at home a bit), do more chores (as the grey cat and the orange cat continue to refuse to help out in that department). It's raining and cool today which means I don't have to water the garden but do have to use my dryer to dry the last load of washing. I'll call that environment neutral, given I have green electricity.

Writing goals for the rest of the month - get this partial into shape, ditto the synopsis and mail the sucker off. Then I just have to finish it. Then I'm playing with paranormal for a bit.

And yes, I am still reading Sebastian. This week I've been tired and pushed for time. So I've been re-reading other stuff (so far 3 Nora's, Lord of Scoundrels, Undead and Unappreciated) and saving Sebastian for when I'm awake enough to appreciate him.

I also read The Ruthless Groom by Bronwyn Jameson. Bron is a fantastic Aussie Desire author and when I want examples of how a category should work, I often turn to her stuff. She's also a lovely gal.The Ruthless Groom is her latest and, as usual, it was great. Clarified some structural issues for me. aka it's taking too long to get the h/h on the same page. Off to kill some darlings (or at least move 'em around, though one bit which I love will have to go unless it can reappear later in the book). Sigh. Writing is hard.

Oscars, guns and money

Well okay, there's not really guns but it sounds good!

Firstly the Oscars, a recap.

1. Blondes should stop wearing yellow. It didn't work for Renee, it didn't work for Kate and it didn't work for Michelle. Yellow is a hard colour to wear and, imho, it does nothing for pale blondes. Of course, all dresses have to be given the benefit of the doubt that they might look better in person that in photos or on TV but yellow, ugh.

2. George Clooney is hot.

3. Keira looked great (plus yay, P&P now out on DVD in Australia. My copy is sitting on top of my TV calling to me).

4. Rachel Weisz looks great pregnant.

5. George Clooney is hot.

6. Good makeup on Jennifer A.

7. Naomi and Nicole need to start wearing colour and stop swapping boring beige and white dresses with each other. Any colour but yellow. There's so many pretty colours. Try a few. Look at Keira. And Nicole, you looked great in the chartreuse when your hair was darker....

8. George Clooney is hot.

9. Yay, Reese, you rocked in that movie.

10. George Clooney is hot.

And that about wraps it up for Oscar. I missed the red carpet, I was at pilates. And I didn't watch it all, I was sleepy.

For the money portion of our instalment. Pets. Cost. Money. The grey cat has decided that epilepsy alone is not enough entertainment value, no, she needs more. So she's added hyperthyroidism to the mix. Only mild but it means more tablets and regular bloods tests. And blood work for pets costs slightly less than one of those dresses work by the Oscars gals (okay, slight exaggeration but sheesh, next time I'm getting the pet insurance). Eventually it might mean surgery (which does cost the same as an Oscar dress). At least she's not too bad about the whole pilling thing (though this may change once it changes to twice a day and bigger pills than her weeny epilepsy one). Though it concerns me that the pill bottle says "wear gloves when handling"...am I going to absorb this stuff through my skin or are they making safety recommendations based on the general feline population's dislike of pills? I guess I can ask my vet when I take the orange cat in for his quarterly shot of liquid gold- I mean, anti inflammatory.

And now to writing. I finished my three chapters. Yay. So now they are resting a bit and I can play on something else while my backbrain works out the rest of the story. Let's see what the muse fixes on this time...maybe there'll be a gun ; )

Where did the week go?

First let me say one thing.

Dear Writers of Lost. No more gouging of bullets out of shoulders with fingers. It's gross. And let Sawyer wash his hair - you're spoiling my eye candy. Thank you. PS Get on with the story.

With that off my chest I can report not much at all. More family dramas which meant total writing done for the week approximately one page. So today will be a concerted effort to get everything else done so tomorrow can be a writing day. I know what I have to do to get these *@!&$(*& three chapters finished, I just need the time to do it.

During the week I acquired a Dyson (yay). It's sparkly purple, it's light, the handle extends so you don't have to do an imitation of Quasimodo to vacuum (apparently Dyson recognise the fact that people over 5 foot 4 vacuum), it was 30% off and the amount of stuff it's sucking out of my carpet makes me wonder exactly what my other vacuum cleaner has been doing all these years apart from scaring the cats. So Dyson rates three thumbs up from me (or would if I had an extra thumb). From the orange cat and the grey cat there are reports that it rates flattened ears and exiting the immediate vicinity at even faster speeds than those caused by the old vacuum. But given that they are the chief culprits in covering my house with fur, they do not get a vote. Even if they think they deserve one.

And now, back to chores. I leave you with this to brighten your day.

Happy Birthday and SHUT UP!

Today is the orange cat's birthday. Australia Day. He's a patriotic cat (though he thinks it's national orange cat day). He's 11. It's a miracle he's made it this far.

I have two cats. The grey cat is a moggy. She's slightly fluffy, exceedingly gorgeous and quite flighty. Apart from being epileptic, which provides the odd moment of drama, she is content to sleep in the wardrobe or under my bed, hawk up the odd hairball, hang out on the back of the couch, smooch me when she's in the mood and occasionally chirp and meow at me if she thinks I'm late with the dinner. Normal cat stuff.

The birthday boy on the other hand is a - well, to put it nicely, NEUROTIC - burmese bought in a moment of something not quite sane. When we bought the grey cat, we bought another moggy kitten who a few months later turned out to have Feline Leukemia and had to be put to sleep (note to the world - sick kittens are BAD). Our logic in seeking a new companion for the grey cat went something like "well, a pedigree cat's mother won't have Feline Leukemia and therefore a pedigree kitten will not be sick and break our hearts all over again. So we asked at our lovely vet whether they had any pedigree breeders on the books who had kittens available and this led us to the orange cat.

When we met him, he was teeny and teeny wailing meows are cute. His mother was very vocal but the breeders said she was on heat (note to self - yeah, right). Every other person I meet who has burmese says "Noisy? No, mine aren't noisy". And I've since heard breeders saying the vocal thing runs in bloodlines. None of which we knew at the time. Which is how we ended up with a NOISY cat. Now don't get me wrong, I don't have an issue with him being vocal, it's kind of cute. The problem with the orange cat is that the vocal thing (and he is LOUD like a siamese crossed with a seagull) is combined with an ungodly tendency towards stubbornness. Or stupidity, I've never quite worked it out.

So if he wants something he meows. And keeps meowing. When he's telling you about something he keeps meowing. When he's whinging about something, he keeps meowing. Even when he's happy he sounds whiny. He has no equivalent of the very cute little happy-to-see-you chirping noise that the grey cat makes. And he's getting more stubborn as he gets older. Now that he's getting on a bit and doesn't like jumping the fence when there's a perfectly good human to open the door for him, he sits at the front door and meows to be let in. The other day he sat in the backyard approximately 1.5 metres from his cat door and because he could see me through the glass door, meowed to be let in. I don't think so. He got a glare, a "there's a cat door right there, dummy", and that was that. Now, he's very affectionate, almost doglike in fact. He loves people and wants to be with them. He's gorgeous. He's very sweet when he's quiet and purring but the meowing thing. Oy.

People talk about babies not sleeping through the night. This cat has slept through the night maybe 20 times in the last 11 years. Which means I've slept through the night that many times (and I wonder why I'm often tired : ) ). He doesn't sleep with me because he and the grey cat get territorial and pee on the bed when they're allowed to sleep with me. Plus he has an annoying tendency to want to sleep on your head. They sleep in their own room. Until he wakes up and yells. Usually somewhere around 3-4am. I get up, let him out (I know good kitty mamas don't let cats out at night but I don't live near a busy road, the wildlife consists of sparrows and starlings and magpies plus any bird or critter who doesn't run away when the 11 year old, not-too-bright, arthritic kneed cat stalking them does so while MEOWING loudly deserves to leave the gene pool, and kitty mamas need to sleep) he's goes outside for approximately 3 seconds just to prove he can, then comes in and sleeps on the couch in silence until breakfast time. Just like a man.

If I let him out all night, he'd invariably end up outside my bedroom door meowing at some point so this is our compromise position.

I love him but if they made a feline volume control, I'd be the first to get in line. He's going through a particularly yowly phrase right now, he has them every so often. Maybe he's celebrating his birthday. So orange cat, happy birthday, I love you and give your mum a break!

In other news writing = slow. Just little bits and pieces still. Weight = trending downward. But that was before last night's after work drinks which consisted of alcohol and lots of wedges. Not diet friendly. We foresee salad and exercise over the next few days.