Home Sweet Home

Ever since I bought this radiator cat bed back on November 21st it has been a favorite by all of the cats! As you can see Pazzesca has the pleasure of sleeping in it right now. To be honest they wait for the one in it to jump down and then another one takes their place.

Something tells me I may have to invest in another one at this rate. Although who wouldn't like it? The radiator is all nice and warm and the bed does look rather cozy.

High: 32°
Low: 26°
Forecast: Late Snow
Sunrise: 8:26 AM
Sunset: 4:04 PM

... that I could stay in bed all day. But of course I can not, it is another day of work for me.

Today is my 12:00 - 8:00 shift but all I am going to be thinking about is 4:00pm tomorrow because that means it will be my last day for nine whole days... YAY!

High: 46°
Low: 42°
Forecast:
Sunrise: 8:17 AM
Sunset: 3:50 PM

This cat will sleep anywhere. Yes he is asleep in this photo and his head kept doing that cute little falling back thing. He would then open his eyes and pull his head back up straight. Then doze off again and so it continued.

Rooney is crazy but very cute!

High: 50°
Low: 48°
Forecast: Periods of Rain
Sunrise: 7:47 AM
Sunset: 6:02 PM

I always get out of bed first in the mornings. I usually tend to take my showers at night but I always wash my hair every morning.

I will go and wash my hair and when I am done with this Andy usually rolls out of bed and I continue to blow dry and straighten my hair.

After I am done with this I go back into the bedroom to make the bed.

Well not this morning.

This is what I walked into the bedroom to find... Now I don't know about any of you but there was no way I could disrupt this scene, I mean look how cute they are!

I would like to point out that Rooney (top left) does actually bury himself under the covers. This was not an effect faked for the purpose of taking a cuter photo. In fact I was shocked that he left his head out as he usually goes all the way under. There is hardly a day that goes by that we come home and do not find that he has dug himself up and under the covers on our bed.

High: 56°
Low: 37°
Forecast: Partly Sunny
Sunrise: 7:39 AM
Sunset: 6:11 PM

So I made the switch today. I removed our 7.5 Tog Summer Duvet and put in our Winter one which is 15 Tog. As you can see from the above picture our cats love the switch.

Rooney just sinks down into the feathery warm goodness.

High: 51°
Low: 48°
Forecast: Rain
Sunrise: 7:14 AM
Sunset: 6:44 PM

Gallagher sleeps in the weirdest positions but this one has got to be the strangest! He had his tongue stuck out like this for a good 15-20 minutes.

Crazy cat!

High: 61°
Low: 50°
Forecast: Partly Sunny
Sunrise: 7:03 AM
Sunset: 6:59 PM

I cross stitched all day today! The cats love when I sit up on the bed and do this because they make themselves quite comfortable on my legs and at my feet. They do get a little annoyed when I have to move but oh well they know the downside before they get comfortable.

Still not feeling very good.

High: 62°
Low: 51°
Forecast: Passing Showers
Sunrise: 6:28 AM
Sunset: 7:47 PM

I love Bank Holidays! We stayed in and relaxed all day and I got quite a bit of cross stitching done.

As you can see in the picture Pazzesca also enjoys having a day off to play around. She spent a good 10-15 minutes chasing her own tail. She was rolling around and flipping from side to side. Thankfully she showed she was smarter than a dog as she never started running around in circles. When she would catch her own tail she gave it a couple of licks and then let go of it to start the whole chase over. Crazy cat.

Have you noticed the date countdown up in the title? This is day 335 out of 365! I can not believe we have been over here now for 11 months... it does not seem possible.

High: 66°
Low: 54°
Forecast: Periods of Rain
Sunrise: 6:18 AM
Sunset: 8:02 PM

I worked 12:00 - 8:00 today and this is what I came home to find... Rooney sound asleep in the front window. He must be glad that they are double paned... since we live on a busy street I doubt he would be able to sleep here if he could hear everything going by all of the time.

High: 65°
Low: 58°
Forecast: Periods of Rain
Sunrise: 5:48 AM
Sunset: 8:41 PM

This is Corrie the neighboorhood cat. I am sure this is not his name but that is what I call him. He does have a collar, it says he belongs to the house next to us and I have seen them open the door to let him in before.

Not sure if you can tell in this picture but it is raining. I always feel so sorry for the little guy when I see him out in the cold rain but he seems to enjoy it. I am still not used to 'housecats' being allowed to go out all of the time. In the states when you see a cat outside it is usually a stray and doesn't have a home as they do not wonder around like here. My cats were brought inside as soon as their eyes and ears opened and if not in a carrier box have never been outside. I could never dream of allowing them to go wonder around outside, I would be way too scared!

By the way... if you are wondering why I call him Corrie... it is because he reminds me of the black cat in the opening sequence of Coronation Street (a UK soap). Watch the below clip, you will see the cat at around 12 seconds in, you can even hear him meow.

We had a big bag of cat litter delivered today... in order to push the order over £25 and get free shipping I threw in this £1 catnip toy.

I know all cats react to catnip differently but I can honestly say that Gallagher goes absolutely crazy! I snapped this picture just seconds before he jumped on Rooney in order to steal the toy away from him.

This toy has a little velcro patch and you can put a pouch of catnip in there. I have to give this to these guys in moderation or else they would be constantly bouncing off the walls.

I was able to get a little bit of the catnip love fest on video.

I would like to say that Rooney is trying to keep his dignity here by covering up his private bits but to be honest he is not that bothered usually.

We find him sitting like this all of the time... it is rather funny looking!

Andy and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie today and both enjoyed it. I know that for the length of the film they have to cut out a lot information that can be found in the book version but honestly in my opinion they cut out a pretty important part of this movie. For those that have not see it... stop reading now. For those that have.. keep reading.

The whole point of Draco using the sister vanishing cabinets to connect Hogwarts and Borgin and Burkes is so that the other Death Eaters could enter the castle and in doing this a huge fight breaks out between them and the Aurors and students. However in the move the Death Eaters enter and they don't do anything! After Draco fails to kill Dumbledor and Snape steps in to do the deed they all just leave!

So in the movie version... what is the point of bringing the Death Eaters into Hogwarts? They enter, they find Draco and Dumbledor up in the astronomy tower and leave.

To be honest it is ridiculous! Add another 15 minutes to the movie and keep the battle in, it plays a huge part in the story. Why would Draco have to keep practising with the cabinets by getting it just right so that they could be used? If no fight was going to break out just skip that whole bit cause there is no need for Bellatrix and the other Death Eaters to enter.

Also in the book Dumbledor puts a spell on Harry to make him immobilised so that Harry could not stop what was about to happen. Dumbledor knew that Snape would step in and kill him, he knew it was going to happen. In the movie Dumbledor just tells Harry to stay down and not step in. If it was not for the spell I do believe Harry would have stepped in so by not doing it in the movie it goes against everything I think Harry is and stands for. If he could move he would have went up and tried to take them all on, the spell would have been required.

Anyway... these are just my thoughts fresh after watching the movie. Andy and I ended up selling almost all of our books when we moved over just because there were so many of them and they took up so much weight and space in the tiny shipment we were allowed. I am now in the process of buying a new Harry Potter box set so that I can reread all of them again.

High: 59°
Low: 51°
Forecast: Cloudy and Late Rain
Sunrise: 5:04 AM
Sunset: 9:28 PM

No... not a real mouse. But you would think the way that Gallagher was staring the mouse down that it was real. Every time I put the laptop down it takes him about one minute to climb on top of it to go to sleep. I can't believe how warm it is and he still wants to sleep on top of the warmth!

Speaking of warm... it is so hot outside today! Of course this time last year when I was in Fort Worth and suffering thru 105° heat and humidity I would have killed to have it only be 77° out. But it has been high 60's at the most so far but this week is supposed to be a scorcher. Hopefully it will just go by quickly and the cooler weather comes back soon. I will just keep remembering that it could be worse... and I'll keep an eye on the weather in Fort Worth to keep me motivated.

High: 77°
Low: 64°
Forecast: Sunny
Sunrise: 4:44 AM
Sunset: 9:43 PM

The cats have had this toy for as long as they have been alive. It serves a double purpose as it not only has a pink ball that can be batted around and around it also has a center that is a scratching pad. Thankfully I have found a little store online that has the replacements so they can continue to love this thing.

Rooney was having a good time playing with it today so I did my best to take a photo. It was quite hard because he was moving so fast. I also recorded a little bit of it and have posted it below.

I wanted to send a thanks to 'Britishblues' and 'Kim' for suggesting that I use Digestive Biscuits when I could not find Graham Crackers. I picked some up today and they taste just like Graham Crackers! They will work perfectly. The dessert I was going to make uses French Vanilla pudding and I can not find that either. I can not even find just plain vanilla Angel Delight. So I have instead decided to make a homemade cheesecake this weekend. Not a terrible second choice... Yummy!

Also, did you guys notice the Sunset time today? It is listed as 9:43. Yesterday was 9:44 which means it is starting to go backwards and will soon be getting darker earlier. Most people would not see this as a good thing but I love it! Having light in the sky at 10:00pm at night still freaks me out a bit.

Is it just me or this photo pushing the boundary of artistic and cat porn?

It also reminds me of 'that' famous scene in American Beauty when Mena Suvari is rolling around in the roses.

Just looking at this photo makes me laugh though. I wonder what the age of this cat is or if she knows what they have done with this photo. Do you think her boyfriend took it and she is unaware that it has been sold as part of a daily calendar?

Oh the shame.

Rooney was waiting for Andy and I when we got home. The cats love sitting up in this window!

Tonight Tracey, James, Andy and I went to Red Chilli for tea.. yummy!!

It was raining off and on all day but when we went to leave the house at around 7:30pm it was raining really hard. Can I just say.. thank goodness for our sat nav! We have been taking it with us most of the time even if we know the way because it also updates on traffic. Well we went to turn down the normal road and it was closed! If it were not for our little guide we would have been in a bit of trouble getting there. All we had to do was hit, alternate route, avoid roadblock and presto... new directions! Great stuff.

Oh, just to point out... yes that is a little palm tree in the front garden across the street. and yes this is England and not some tropical destination.

This has been a regular sight in our bathroom lately. All of our cats love fresh water... so much that we have always had one of those running water fountains so that they can get fresher water at all times. However for Gallagher that does not seem to be enough!

If we go into the bathroom for any reason he is right there at our feet and fully expects for the water at the sink to be left on for him so that he can take a drink.

He has also taken a shine to jumping into the shower with me! I thought cats were supposed to be afraid of water? Ours is obsessed with it.

What can I say about today... it was just another ho hum Monday.

Woke up, went to work and came home.

Nice profile picture of Pazzesca though!

I had to work today but look at who was waiting for me in the window when I got home. After he watched me come in he was having trouble getting under the sheer curtain but finally made his way to the other side to give me a proper welcome. What a cutie!

I don't really mind working Saturdays but will be glad when I have two days off in a row next week. However I have something planned on this coming Saturday that I am not really looking forward to, but more on that later. . .