The Living Room: Brought to You by Cuca

Some photos by E.g.; all tampered with by Lavenderbay.

Hello, blogworld, Cuca here. Mother has asked me to show you around the living room. She has very specifically not asked the dogs. Note, if you will, the recycle-bin barricade.

First we have the armchair,warmed by a ten-dollar cushion and a five-dollar fleece throw, cozied up to the ABC* coffee table and the BRU** braided rug. Oversized books adorn the lower shelf, among them Netherlandish Painting, Canadian Art, and Australian Birds. On the table top you will see a Cardicorgi candleholder (a birthday gift to Turtle from the dog manufacturer Shelley) and…

… an Indonesian grass basket, costing two bags of kitty treats at Ten Thousand Villages, bought especially to hold beach stones. I just shake my head sometimes.

Another cushion and throw, a twizzly floor lamp, and just beyond that…

A mantelpiece. Spotted Sandpiper, fancy candle, artisanal clock, 1940s incense holder, more rocks (good grief!) and Athena will all have to await my guiding hand; it’s much more amusing to rearrange small items when dogs are sitting underneath them.

Beyond the mantelpiece we see the harp, tucked into the corner between the fireplace and the window. The two white planters expect to greet some sprouted pussywillow stems any day now. I wonder how tasty those will be?

Ah, the window. That reminds me: I’m getting bored. Here’s the NYBA*** rocking chair. Big deal. So if you’ll excuse me…

… the bear and I have a windowsill date with a gorgeous view. Ta-ta for now.

• *ABC: Already Been Chewed.
• **BRU: Baptized by Regurgitation and Urine.
• ***NYBA: Not Yet Been Altered.

Wordless Yarnsday

How to Deal With Holiday Stress

Barking yarn. Ve-ry funny. Now just tell me who did it, and the rest of you won’t get hurt.

Blue Beauty

Testing, One, Two, Three

Boy, I’m whacked. Remind me not to look for a job that requires constant use of a computer.

I went looking for a few new additions to my blogroll today. Scanning and skimming until the whites of my eyes turned purple, looking for something I thought would sustain my interest on a regular basis. And I found three. Did I mention you were a select group, o blogfriends?

Introducing…

1. Towards Sustainability. I found this one on Livingisdetail’s blogroll. Crazy Mumma — oh wait, she’s also called Julie — lives in Australia with her spouse and three children. She is an environmental scientist who has decided that, for the time being, her greatest contribution to the environment is staying home with the kids and learning new ways to respect the earth. These ways include growing vegetables on her little suburban property, sewing cloth sandwich wrappers, and trying out recipes for homemade toothpaste and deodorant. It’s all fascinating, informative stuff. Crazy Mumma has just published her 500th post, and shows no signs of quitting.

2. We Three, Ginger Cats Tales. I’m not sure now how I arrived here — and that is perhaps appropriate. The writing in this blog is rich and beautiful and mysterious, poetic and respectful. The entries are short — often only one well-crafted paragraph — and the accompanying photos focus on both the pets and the Welsh countryside where they live.

3. The Chawed Rosin. This is a lovely eclectic blog from somewhere in the United States. You’ll just have to go visit it to figure it out; certainly at one hour past my bedtime, I’m beyond understanding much more than the fact that anybody who posts Melanie and “Pata Pata” videos and Edgar Allen Poe poems and political cartoons of President Obama gluing the Constitution back together again — well, this blogger’s got my attention!

So there, a blog on sustainable living, another on creative writing, and a third on popular culture and history. Enough for one day. Have a good weekend, everybody!

My Cat, the Dentist

When Pets Use English, or, Sometimes it’s a Mistake Not to Focus on the Cat

 

 

Our Cardigans are learning to walk nicely. Cai, the two-year-old, is pretty good most of the time now; Fergus, almost seven months, still pulls; and the two of them together on their way to the park have the strength that could turn a limestone quarry into prime arable land. Where’s a plough when you need one?

So they’ve been hearing the word “Sit!” a lot. Apparently, “sit” in Cardigan means to lower one’s tail to the ground for the length of time it takes a human to say the word “sit”.

So they’ve been hearing the word “wait” a lot too. “Wait” means to gaze intently at a door until it opens two snout-widths, and then swarm it.

So they’ve been hearing the phrase “Ex-cuse me, guys!” a lot as well. This phrase is the cue to snap at one’s sibling in the attempt to make Mummy believe that it was said sibling’s fault.

Something else I tried today was inspired by one of Dennis the Vizsla’s videos. Cai has gotten to know that “Bring it!” means he needs to set the toy at my feet before I’ll reach for it to throw it again. Today, I asked him to sit, stood in front of him, and turned my back to him before throwing the toy. Pretty comical. Every time I got turned around, I would find Cai shifted to my left, keeping his eyes on the prize.

 

Cai was much less fidgety once I started standing with my feet apart and holding the toy down at his nose level. Then I announced, “Get the toy!” and threw it sideways. Cai liked this game. And look! He’s learning more English!

Now compare this with what happened earlier this morning. When Cuca, our four-year-old cat, woke me up, I stumbled downstairs, opened the laptop and turned it on, set Cuca’s little saucer of wet food on the table (the only way to keep Fergus from stealing it), started the coffee, and took Fergus for his potty break. On arriving at the table myself with my cuppa, I saw that Cuca had entered something on my Google home page:

ngf gg

I smiled indulgently. Aww, how cute! And just for fun, I googled it.

The page is copyrighted, so I’m not supposed to reproduce it without permission, but it’s probably okay to describe it: a scholarly paper by six anatomists describing the development of Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) in facial nerves and geniculate ganglia (GG) of developing quail embryos.

Ah, here it is, thinks Cuca. This section makes it clear that the more a bird twitches its 14th ganglion, the more nervous it’s becoming. If I can keep an eye on the 14th and the 6th — the one signalling imminent flight — I’ll know at what moment I need to strike…

Street kitties. They know how to survive.

Two Cents That’s Worth the Nickel

Wa-a-a-ay back a long time ago, I chose “theme songs” for all of the blogs on my blogroll. When Elizabeth of  Wearing Stilettos and Living on a Farm joined my roll, I welcomed her with lyrics about her two dogs and two cats, set to the tune of “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree.” While I haven’t found a theme song for Gina yet, I baked some fresh muffins when I invited her over. Come to think of it, I have a funny feeling that Dennis the Vizsla doesn’t have a theme song either. Note to self…

Today’s entry is twofold: the passing on of nice words to five members of my blogroll, because I’ve been memed by Themarvelousinnature; and the introduction a new blogger to the klatsch.

Today’s meme, in fact, lends itself perfectly to my second purpose. Read on, to find out why there’s a Youtube video (I hope — this is the first time I’ve tried this! ) heading today’s entry.

The meme, as shamelessly copied-and-pasted from Themarvelousinnature’s blog, goes like this:

1. Choose a max of 5 blogs (we could all probably list our entire blogroll, but then you might as well just point people at your blogroll).
2. Four of the 5 have to be dedicated followers of your blog.
3. One has to be someone new or recently new to your blog and live in another part of the world (the definition of “another part of the world” is left to your discretion).
4. You must link back to whoever gave you the award (fair’s fair! If they’re sending traffic your way, the least you can do is thank them by sending traffic back theirs. Hopefully you also like their blog, too).

Like point #1 says, I’d like to include everybody, and also the non-bloggers — Jack, Jack’s Mom, and Mutual Friend Jane — who regularly drop in to my comments section. Alas, it cannot be. I’ve decided this time, because Themarvelousinnature is a specialist and I am a generalist, to choose bloggers who might be said to specialize in one or another of my favourite topics. Even then, that eliminates only a few choices.

So the rest of you, if you had a moment of dizziness today, it was because I tossed you all in a touque and gave you a good shake, like so many Scrabble letters. Here goes.

1. Livingisdetail, of One Little Detail, is grounded in place. She loves to tell us about local history, in and around Melbourne, Australia.
2. Just up the street from Livingisdetail — okay, make that rural Canberra — is Alyson of Laugh in the Sun. She focusses on her family relationships: her perfect husband, her challenging children, her brainless chickens.
3. Over in Kona, Hawaii, live Bobbie and her husband Jerry, divers who seek The Right Blue. This blog presents the wonders of underwater nature they have found throughout the seven seas.
4. Up in central Ontario resides Shelley of Yasashiikuma Kennels and her ever-shifting number of adult and juvenile Cardigan Welsh Corgis. Ever wondered what it would be like to breed puppies? Click on her “Raising a litter” category for 35 entries on the subject.
5. Finally, in fulfillment of point #3 above, and in answer to “What’s the Youtube video for, anyway?”, I’d like to formally introduce you to Pennycat of Pennycat’s Weblog. Although her female personal assistant happens to be Goodbear’s sister, Pennycat is new to the blogosphere. Her blog entries are short and pithy, usually accompanied by a photo of herself. Pennycat is all about pith, primarily cat pith. If you have only two minutes for a blog read, go catch Pennycat’s, and encourage her in her new career.

Since Pennycat, now living in the country, was originally a street kitty, I have chosen as her theme song “The Alleycat Song”, played on a delightful mechanical orchestra called a nickelodeon. The sound reminds me of the Roseneath Carousel (merry-go-round) . Welcome to my blogroll, Pennycat!

And now I’ve managed to sneak everyone on my blogroll, except Checkers, The Aged Cat, and Urban Thought — oh, yeah, and E.g. , who needs some encouragement to post another brilliant entry — into today’s posting. Oh — wait…

The St Jacobs Market, Part II: Now, that schmecks!

On Thursday, when E.g., Jack’s Mom, Cai and Fergus and I went to the St Jacobs Market, I had just two things on my list. What could they be?

Not the glorious, just-baked, melt-in-your-mouth cinnamon buns we had for our picnic-table brunch (I was too busy scarfing to remember to photograph them! ) .

Not one of these ceramic mugs (made in Fergus, Ontario) , although I stopped here to buy a little ceramic thingy that’s probably a toothpick holder. During the dogs’ pre-carcar potty, I asked a friend if she’d like anything from the market, and she joked that I could bring her some Mennonite furniture. I handed her the toothpick holder this morning, telling her that it was an umbrella holder.

So what was on my list?

Not these home-made chocolates, beautiful as they are…

Nor these locally-made, luscious fruit jellies, although I bought the front-row right package (raspberry) to share in the car…

Nor any of these cutely packaged baking goods (you can see by the careful pyramid that the vendor’s shift was nearly over) …

Nor even this doggy dream-come-true: a braided rug made of garlic pork sausage! What could it be, then — what two things were on my list?

Oh, I see. Summer Sausage and maple syrup. Cuca comes to make sure of its authenticity before he looks through the St Jacobs photos E.g. and I took. While you’re in the kitchen, E.g., could you just hand me a paring knife and a straw? Thanks.

The 2008 Somewhat-Odd Olympics

The apple crisp finishes ahead of the rhubarb upside-down cake.
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First, there were the original Olympics in Greece. After a medium-length commercial break (1500 years), there came the modern Olympics in 1896. Later, these became known as the Summer Olympics because someone started up the Winter Olympics. Eventually there were added the Special Olympics and the Para-Olympics. In the next step of the Games’s evolution, Turtle brings you…

The Somewhat Odd Olympics! Bring the torch, Jeannette, Isabella!

These are the Olympics in which everyone can participate; you don’t have to be either healthy or unhealthy in any way, although a slight tendency towards neuroses may give you that extra competitive edge to win, win, win. Let me know which event you’d like to sign up for!

1. Dishes Throwing. Last night, inspired by Emma Showalter’s classic Mennonite Community Cookbook, I threw together an apple crisp, a rhubarb upside-down cake, a little batch of pickled beets, and some potato salad. The crisp disappeared between last night’s snack and this morning’s breakfast; everything else is to go with the elk summer sausage for tonight’s supper.

• Objective: Throw together as many dishes as possible in one 3-hour period.
• Extra points for washing the dishes within that time.

2. Recycling. Different countries, even different regions, have their different methods of playing this sport. Our city recently changed from demanding different containers for papers and containers, to allowing us to lump them all together.

• Objective: Compile as many recyclable articles as you can before ridding your home of them.
• Extra points for carrying them all out in one armload.
• Ten points for each peanut butter jar you’ve washed out.

The Canadian athlete stands a fair chance in the Women’s Recycling event.

3. Sh:) t Put. There’s just enough weight in one loaded, vanilla-scented poopy bag to provide a beautiful, easy, underhand throw. As in the confusion between the European term “football” and the North American term “soccer” which distinguishes it from American football, Sh:) t Put has another name, “Basketbag”, most commonly heard in urban centres.

• Objective: Land the baggy in a standard-sized public trash barrel from as far back as possible.
• Extra points for picking up another dog’s sh:) t.
• Disqualified if the bag hits anyone on its trajectory.

4. Pantathlon. This ancient sport dates from the time Grecian men first started wearing trousers and owning cats.

• Objective: Pull on your trousers as quickly as possible, while your cat is playing Kill-the-Wildebeest on one pantleg.
• Points deducted for raising your voice or taking a swing at the cat.

5. One-Minute-Late Dash. No matter how hard I try, I can never get to work exactly on time. I’m always at least one minute late. Luckily, the other personnel and the owner are pretty laid back; my co-worker actually showed up about two hours late once, and all she received was a little ribbing from the owner.

• Objective: Arrive at work as late as possible without receiving any reprimands.
• Points deducted for not even faking a look of contrition.
• Disqualified if self-employed.

These are the sports that I can think of offhand. Remember, please comment on which one you’d like to enter, and if you can think of any more events, please add them. Let’s grow the Somewhat-Odd Olympics!