Musings on a Small Life

I found the catio of my dreams yesterday, posted as part of an article on Mother Nature Network: Enlarge for full detail http://www.mnn.com/family/pets/stories/catios-kitty-freedom-without-consequences The only thing I would ensure is that it was fully enclosed; this one is open along the side and I can well imagine Mr. Brat (Nicki) climbing over it pretty quickly. I'd also want to add some perches and climbing "trees". On the plus side, I already have that greenhouse roofing material, both around my fence and leftover in my garage. All I need is the property to build this kind of back space! ( No , I can't do that now, there are condo bylaws to take into account, never mind neighbours.) No grass to mow, yet lush and green, and most of all, private . I don't know if my cats would say this is their fantasy catio, but it surely, surely is mind! Peace .

It's another mish-mash post for this dreary Monday. The weekend was busy, lots of running around, with only about half done what I need to take care of before Dad and Hélène arrive Sunday afternoon. Dad's birthday is October 3rd, and while he won't be here for it, we'll celebrate both Sunday and Monday. (Note to self: Make dinner reservations for Monday night.) I'm off for six business days come Friday. Yay! Back to the office on Tuesday October 13th, right after our Thanksgiving holiday Monday. (Can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving!) I managed to gather yet another giant garbage full of bedding, etc., for donation. You'd never know I just had the Salvation Army clean out my garage in August. I'm down to four mugs (yes, only four) and pretty soon I'll be down to two knives and two forks. LOL. Actually, I probably would get rid of almost all of the remaining kitchen stuff, if it weren't for occasional company. As it is, I now have...

I swear, every year the seasons pass more quickly. I don't know how it's fall again so soon...it was just fall. Thanks for all the neat comments on your dream house! I could live in any number of styles of home, really, provided the house was small, as maintenance-free as possible, and with tons of natural light. You know what I'd love indoors ? A waterfall feature with a living wall! Now that would be fantastic for my mental health through our horrendous winters. Of course, my preferred geographic location has three seasons, winter NOT being one.  :-) Anyway, I'm plugging away at a huge stack of papers on my desk, so will just post some sky pics from yesterday morning's walk to the shopping centre to catch a bus in to work. Robin from A Bird's Life has me taking more sky snapshots lately. I used to take a lot, but have become humdrum about them over the years. But thanks to her posts, I'm paying more attention lately--and taking the time to sn...

I had the opportunity to see a rerun of my favourite Tiny House Hunters episode recently (HGTV). It featured an Oregon couple looking for a small home to place on their family pear orchard. I love watching Tiny House Hunters and Tiny House Builders. I think that to qualify as a bona fide tiny home it has to be under 400 square feet (not sure on that), and this house is 570 square feet (modified from the builder's then-750 square foot plan). But it's a well-designed small home, perfect for one!   One design change the couple did make was to add that peninsula; the builder's original design was entirely open. I much prefer the modification. The actual design, now at 855 square feet: I book-marked the builder's site ( IdeaBox ) long ago, and periodically visit to see what's new.  I'd like a little more room in my bedroom, but I love all the good use of space for storage. What makes it work is the ceiling height and abundance of windows, which g...

Nicki cracked me up earlier this morning...I heard him meowing in the basement as he always does when getting into something or thinking about getting into something. So I headed downstairs and saw him on the clothes-drying racks (two pushed together), on top of the comforter I had washed yesterday.             He was quite pleased with himself! Silly cat.  :-) Peace .

Morning sky on the way to work:   Breakfast of champions (the student "ghetto" provides a daily buffet): Something pretty...for my boss, from her husband (I snapped a few pics): Have a lovely weekend, everyone. Peace .

Thanks for all the comments and input on the previous post! You all had me thinking about the products I use and apparently I do use certain brand name products more than I realized. OxyClean (awesome stuff), Swiffer dry cloths, Purex laundry detergent, Costco's tp, Bounty paper towel...I'll buy name brand dish soap too, because the generic stuff I've tried is crap. Now I have to take back my words that I'm not influenced by brand hype! Or at least I have to say I'm skeptical, will try the product before I believe the hype.  :-) *** Anyway, it's been a week, almost done with. I swear they've turned off the a/c at work in our suite...it's stuffy and sticky and we've all been feeling miserable. Either that or there's something in water affecting us all.  *** My step-dad had ended up in the ER Sunday night -- long story but he went back to the care facility Tuesday night, as he's "fine", other than he has some kidney p...

Anyone who reads this blog can guess I'm not into name brands or designer labels. I don't buy into the marketing hype we're inundated with at every turn, and I'm a big purchaser of generic products rather than the pricier, well-known brands. However, I've recently discovered that the advertising "hype" around the Swiffer dry mop cloths actually isn't hype at all.  I've had a Swiffer dry mop for a few years now, but always have purchased generic cloths, because c'mon, they're disposable cloths (and I always use both sides to get the most out of them). But a month or so ago I picked up a small package of Swiffer cloths to try (good sale). I never thought they'd actually out-perform any of the generic brands I've tried! So now I'm a Swiffer convert and will pay a bit extra for those dry mop cloths, because the difference in how much grunge they pick up is amazing. Rather scary too. I thought my floors were reasonably c...

Robin ( A Bird's Life ) and her husband came up yesterday to visit for a few hours (have I mentioned before what lovely people they are?) and Nicki took full advantage of the situation:       He was in his glory.  :-) Derry spent most of the time upstairs, but he did come down and even let Robin touch him a bit. That's impressive for Derry! A big thank you to both of them, and especially to Chuck, who replaced my two old smoke detectors (the upper one wired into the electrical system). I didn't realize the wired-in ones also expired, and the old one would have passed its effective date some years before I even bought the townhouse. (So if you have detectors that are older than 7 - 10 years, best to replace them ASAP, even if they still appear to be working!) Anyway, today is another much-needed rainy day, so it'll be umbrella and rain jacket for me, when I head out to run a few errands. I hope everyone has a lovely day. Peace .

I was checking one of my favourite sites over lunch (Mother Nature Network) and saw this article about a Belgian man who quit his regular job and life and, with his dog Lana, now is living in the woods: http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/blogs/he-quit-his-normal-life-go-live-woods I admit it's tempting, the idea of chucking it all and starting a new life away from the absurdities we've created for ourselves in our consumer-driven, corporate-climbing world. Not that I have a passion for (or knowledge of) living in the bush, of course. But I do feel a real pull right now to declutter and downsize, feel very strongly that all my "stuff" and responsibilities are a burden. (So if you're reading this, Mom, for god's sake, don't give me any craft or decor or other impractical items this Christmas; I can promise you they will go directly to Value Village and you will have wasted your money.)  Every weekend I go through a bookcase o...

...it's a bit scary! I placed two Amazon.ca orders today, both cat-related: The portable humidifier for the winter, which I'm getting only for Nicki's asthma, plus a replacement filter and some sort of biostatic water additive; Nature Clean Pet Stain Remover, which I can no longer get locally (this stuff is miraculous). From the looks of it, it's been discontinued, at least in Canada, so I'm not holding my breath that I really can get it via this seller on Amazon, either. Anyway, today's orders prompted me to add up just how much I've spent on Amazon.ca so far this year. I probably shouldn't have done that. I won't admit how much I have spent, but it's into the four digits...before the decimal point. (Including tax and any shipping, of course.) Of that amount, 70.46% was for cat-related purchases. Things like the water fountain, the large air purifier I've been running on the main level since May, a scratcher, etc. 10.34% ...

I have to say that my little tablet sure has been a godsend, even though the one-fingered hunt-and-peck and correct-the auto-correct is a pain in the ass and is very time-consuming. Anyway, I'm on my laptop right now...and that's because I Googled (on the tablet) and read a tech article (PC World, I think) that enlightened me re: Windows 10 and anti-virus protection. It's built-in and will run and update automatically UNLESS you have another anti-virus or anti-malware program installed. I uninstalled Spybot, rebooted, and presto! I have Windows Defender automatically enabled now.  The on-line article stated that it (Windows Defender) gets an extremely low rating, but does say that it should do for the average computer-user who isn't doing something like downloading pirated software, etc., and who is smart about their computing. So I'll use it until our university decides what it's going to do regarding anti-virus and/or anti-malware protection. ...

It's a hot and sticky weekend, none of us is too energetic at the moment. I'm looking forward to cooler temps come Thursday. Lots of errands and running around and housework the past couple of days, I'm hoping for more r&r tomorrow. The fleas have been hyper, at least the girl. I'm having so much fun.... I upgraded to Windows 10 on my laptop...only to discover that our university's licence for the antivirus program doesn't support the new Windows version. So I'm currently without protection, as it were, and pecking this out on the tablet. Oops. This must be why, in part, ITS recommended NOT upgrading at work right now. Oh, and I've found the best storage containers ever - - the ones filled with stuff I really don't need and am donating. Today I pared my Christmas decorations down to one tote and got rid of a slew of old stationary and home office supplies. At this time in my life I feel strongly that most of my "stuff' is a burde...

From SimpleReminders.com . Peace. Have a good weekend. Click to view full-size.

[Work rant, sorry, have to vent! Best to skip this one.] I've decided that my job title, in my email signature, should be "Lesser Bobblehead," Department Such and Such. Well, my little bobblehead is spinning today, out of control. Just one of those frazzled days. Plus, the staff union (from which I'm excluded due to confidentiality, as is everyone else in this office) voted to ratify the newly-negotiated contract with the university. I get--all we non-unionized staff get--exactly what they get. Which is nothing for the first year, other than a $750 (gross) lump sum payment. No step increase. I'm due a step increase, so I'm pissed off about that. The "big" lump sum (net) amounts to less than half of what a step increase would give me. Next year, step increases for those who qualify, plus 1%. Then in July 2017 another step increase plus 1.25%, and the same beginning July 2018. The university saved their money for faculty a...

Accountability. Action plan. Balanced academy. Financial sustainability. Integrated or integration. [Anything] planning (budget, enrolment, etc.). Priorities and goals. Strategic [anything]. Transformative. Transparency. Vision [in a work context]. I'm sure there are many others; these come to mind off the top of my head. Over-used buzz words and phrases that, in themselves, need to retire. I'm going to get through my day picturing all the top admin people around me as bobble heads. Peace . Comments are off; it's "wordless" Wednesday, after all.  :-)  

I had emailed the vet last week about Nicki (?) continuing to occasionally throw up grass mixed with blood, asked a few questions, went back and forth. He suggested a course of Sucralfate (coats the stomach and intestines, rather like slippery elm does) and/or an ultrasound, even a referral for a stomach scope if I wanted. I asked him for costs involved: "The scoping would be more invasive and costly ($800-1200 with biopsies if needed) and would require general anesthetic. The ultrasound I can do here. If we are just looking at the stomach and bowel it's around $150 compared to $250 for a full abdomen. If there were questions about the images, we can forward them to a radiologist for interpretation for an additional $100. Usually don't need sedation unless Nicki is being uncooperative with lying on his back. Probably best to fast before the imaging for best pictures and in case sedation is required. Sedation would add another $70 or so." Um...a definite ...