My friend Dale sent this to me—she has a knack for finding weird and funny things. I’m sure there are those out there who will object to it for whatever reason. So don’t watch it if you’re in the pursed-lips league. I needed a laugh on this cold Monday and this provided it.
Scottish Sobriety Test
Dad emailed wondering if we’re ok since I haven’t blogged in a while. Sorry, Dad. Yes, we’re ok. Just work busy.
Valentine’s Day was nice—Stanley gave me a life-size chocolate heart. No, I don’t mean one of those ♥ as in I ♥ Golden Retrievers—no. A human heart. With veins and arteries and valves and everything. Solid, dark chocolate. From Chocolate by Mueller in Philadelphia. I think it’s so cool—just wish I would’ve seen it first. He also got some dark chocolate and pecan turtles from the same place—they are SO good! I gave him a box of Dove chocolates and a singing card with some lottery tickets in it. And I owe him a movie. We were going to go see Ghost Rider if the reviews didn’t suck. The reviews sucked, so I sitll owe him ... oh, and Stanley also got me a cool little speaker bar for my Nano—a weird-looking tube, a Subor Micro Hi-Fi System. It’s not perfect (needs more bass), but lightyears better than the harman/kardon crap speakers built into my Toshiba laptop. Stanley spent the morning cleaning out the oil line for the furnace. Again. The oil tank got really low and started sucking the sludge at the bottom, so Stanley had to clean it out a couple of times. This morning, it was the nozzle. Makes the house smell like Texas. We really need a new furnace, but can’t quite afford it yet (this year, it was roof or furnace. The roof was more urgent.) Good thing Stanley is so handy. So far, we’re pretty happy with Santa Energy, which delivers our bioheat. They didn’t charge any extra for an emergency delivery. Dale sent pictures of Einstein on February 6—that makes him, let see ... 26 weeks old (6.5 months!)—and I was supposed to get them up that same day. I suck. So here are three of them, including one with nephew Leo in the picture. Leo is kittensitting Einstein while my parents bask in Panama City Beach while the rest of us endure bitter cold, blizzards, ice storms, and other conditions that make us temporarily doubt there’s such a thing as global warming. Click the pictures to enlarge them.
I think Dale (and maybe Leo?) took these. Nice shots—I didn’t have to process them at all, which is cool. She is growing into such a pretty cat.
Our new kitty, Slink, who’s been with us about two months now, is a black hole. I never in my life saw a cat eat so much, so often, and with such ferocity. Twitch doesn’t even try to compete—just gets out of Slink’s way until he’s had his fill. I thought he’d slow down some once we dewormed him (ugh, yes, our gift from that cat shelter in Wilton, Animals in Distress, besides fleas was roundworms! So I guess they don’t bother deworming, either. Be warned that it’s going to cost you some vet bucks if you adopt from that shelter.) Slink, it turns out, loves to cuddle. A very affectionate cat—especially when Ginger isn’t barking at him trying to get him to play with her (he will have none of her unless we’re sitting on the couch and Ginger is quiet, as in sleeping). Slink still won’t spend time in the office with me like Twitch does, but maybe soon ... and he’s bad: he’s a thief. We keep finding stuff, like pens and the sink stopper, in the oddest places.
Ok, now I have to update the “Pets Seeking Homes” page on WestportNow.com. Which is always hard for me to do since I want to adopt them all myself.
Of course, I could search my site to find out if I’ve mentioned this before. But it’s a cool site, so worth mentioning again—it was mentioned in the February 5, 2007 Wall Street Journal “Time Waster” column: Ian’s Shoelace Site - Bringing you the fun, fashion & science of shoelaces.
My dad taught me how to tie my shoelaces when I was, oh, four or something like that. He taught me the “Two Loop Shoelace Knot” and I remember my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Shoemaker (I swear, that was her name), telling me I did it wrong. I asked her why, since it worked. She couldn’t answer me and just left me alone after that. That method stood me in good stead through all the years of saddle oxfords at school (we didn’t wear sneakers to school back then. At least not a Catholic school) and Keds at home. I still tie them with this method.
According to this guy, a better, faster way than the two-loop way is “Ian’s Fast Shoelace Knot,” which looks plausible so I will try it. And for those who have slippery knots (why do they bother with laces like that? I’ve never figured that one out), there’s his “Ian’s Secure Shoelace Knot.”
Yes, indeed, a worthy waste of time. One of Ian’s Google links is to a no-tie shoelace, which look like they might be good for little kids or people who have trouble because of arthritis or something. More interesting than velcro and they don’t get all those nasty cat hairs and dusty bits in them that velcro does.