A dainty engagement ring

 

Never has my left hand undergone as much scrutiny as it has since Rob and I got engaged on Valentine's Day. Sometimes I volunteer the hand when I tell people that we got engaged, but more often people tell me that they hear I got engaged and then they start furtively stealing glances at my left hand if I don't offer it. It's a curious habit, and I know that most people don't mean anything by it.

He gave me a promise ring because he didn't want to pick out the ring without my help. We finally found a ring that was the right balance of sparkly and dainty. I didn't want one that was too big and would get caught on everything, but of course I like sparkly things. Once we win the lottery and I only have to use my left hand to ring for "the help", I can spring for the 2-carat lump of fancy coal.

Now everyone who peeks at my left hand will have something more to look at! It is much prettier in person, of course.

Now 25 percent less Pumpkin!

Look at those haunches!

Yesterday I took the beasties to the vet for their annual checkup -- is that septannual in cat years? I was keenly interested in how much weight Pumpkin has lost. He weighed 17 pounds when I adopted him in fall of 2007, but during the process of moving to Virginia he gained some weight. Last January he weighed 19 pounds, 8 ounces. I received a stern scolding from the vet. Giselle's feeding cage was soon created, and I switched both of them to high-quality foods with no grains.

Last fall I had to take him to the vet for his eye, and I was hoping that he had lost significant weight. The scale disagreed: 18 pounds, 3 ounces. I told the vet I had been working on it. "Keep working ..." he said. "Look, he has haunches now!" I said. Looking at me over the tops of his glasses, the vet said "Uh, those are slight indentations. Not haunches." Time to decrease portion size even more.

Yesterday's weigh-in was 15 pounds! Look at those haunches now! He still has another three pounds to lose, but he has so much more energy now. He can run a bit, which I don't think pleases Zellie. He is much, much more playful, and the fur on his back is softer because he can now reach it to groom.

Over the past year he has lost four-and-a-half pounds -- a quarter of his body weight. But he is definitely not happy about the food restriction and has not given up on asking me for food whenever I am in the kitchen. He is a stubborn and persistent little fellow, and now that he can move around better I can't leave any food at all on the counter! Not even bread still in the wrapper.

V-Day Beetle Bling

Happy Valentine's Day!


(My apologies to those who hate Valentine's Day ... just this once, I'm going to be obnoxious about it.)

Snowmageddon

People in the DC area were so afraid of the approaching storm, they called in the National Guard to shovel snow even before it got here!

Kidding -- that's just Rob doing some pre-emptive shoveling.

A generous 2 feet of snow fell at my apartment in about 36 hours of blustery weather, with only a few electrical flickers when I thought I might lose electricity. According to the National Weather Service, the total for Chantilly (where I live) was 28 inches. To me, once it gets over about a foot and a half, there's no point counting anymore unless it's up to my ears! We went outside Saturday afternoon once it quit snowing. We walked to the grocery store (yes, it was open!) and I made a snow angel. 

But the dig out was inevitable, because life goes on. My snow shovel grew legs and ran away after the last storm, so we were using Rob's shovel and a kitty litter bucket to clear out. Rob's shovel broke when we were almost done with his car -- not a good thing, since there aren't any shovels to be bought for miles.

While we were digging out, this Mercedes tried to make a run for it and got hung up on a little pile of snow left by the plow. It took 7 of us (including the driver) to get the car moving again because its drive wheels weren't making contact with anything solid. Where is a tractor and a good stout chain when you need one?

Mouse over (below) to see what was under all of that snow!

 My missing snow shovel had a wooden handle and an orange plastic blade that was worn down on the corners. Let me know if you see it!

Security Breach!

For over a year I've been putting Giselle's food inside a feeding cage -- a cage that only she is skinny enough to squeeze into (See http://michigoose.blogspot.com/2008/09/new-frontiers-in-cat-feeding.html). I had to Velcro her food dish to the far corner of the floor because Pumpkin figured out that if he could paw the dish over to the door of the cage, he could stick his head in and eat her dinner.

Over the last year, Pumpkin has lost at least a pound and a half from his high weight of 19.5 pounds. I knew the day would come when he could break into Zellie's feeding cage. Last Thursday morning I was getting dressed when I heard what sounded like the cage being torn apart, and I got out to the kitchen to find a confused-looking Pumpkin inside the cage. Zellie didn't seem upset that he was in there, but he definitely was having a hard time getting back out.