So Saturday The Other and I went to Greek Fest. Its held at the local Greek church and it is by far the bestest Greekfest around. Believe me, we have done the GreekFest tour and none even compare to this one. They have the best food, the best music, and the best community. They are also a Pokestop so even more fun! I caught this little guy on my way to get delicious Loukemathes.
While we were there we also invited Jackie and Brent to join us. After introducing them to the wonderful delicious that is Saganaki, we decided to walk around and look at the tents and carnival games. (Alcohol might have been involved at this point) and as we wander over to one game with giant stuffed animal prizes we notice a giant poop emoji! I think its safe to say that Jackie and I are obsessed with the poop emoji (in an ironic hipster way) so we had to try this game. Brent hadn’t been drinking so I gave my first $5 to him but he was only able to knock down 1 Yeti. I had been drinking so it didn’t take much convincing for me to give it go. Handed in another $5, knocked down the first Yeti, Knocked down the second, and then knocked down the third!!! Yay alcohol! I mean, yay me!!!
So that is why me and the racist banana have the same expression in my victory photo below! (you can see the booth in the background). Best day ever!
At the recent LSCC annual cat show there was a photographer who specializes in show cats. One of the perks of having a vendor booth (especially one right next to the photography booth) is that I am able to sneak in my kitties for professional photos!!
I expected to be Luna, being the more shy cat at home, to be a complete pain. I was actually a little nervous about letting go of her, sure that she would run off the table and out into the show hall and everyone would know I snuck in my cat. However although she was nervous at first, once the photographer got her interested in a toy she was amazing!! We got all the famous kitty show shots – side profile, over the shoulder, 1 paw up, close up – it was amazing!
Brutus on the other hand – our brave out-going boy – was having none of it. Besides the first picture where he doubled up with Luna, he spent most of his time hunkered down and jumping off the table. Luckily the photographer was great and had a lot of tricks to get some good pictures out of my bad cat.
We did it! Brent and I rode in the Apple Cider Century ride and did 50 miles in a little over 4 hours. That’s an average speed of 12.5 miles and hour. It was a great ride – good pace, not too exhausting and only a little soreness in my neck and shoulders the next day. Whether was a bit cool and overcast but perfect for a ride.
My top speed was 29.2 MPH! I am not sure how that compares to normal but it sounds impressive! I had a lot of fun and am definitely looking forward to next time!
Before the race – nervous and excited…
During the ride, a bit of the nice scenery and my riding buddy
Some chickens I noticed while riding. Excuse my silliness, I think the exhaustion was taking over 🙂
Crossing the finish line!!!!!!
After the race – tired and sweaty but pretty proud of myself!
So I was watching a compilation of BattleBots on YouTube tonight and realized that the “wedge” is pretty much unbeatable. It’s almost not fun to watch – there should be a wedge only league or no wedge allowed or something. At one point it just turned into a fight of wedges….
The second most powerful the spinner – usually a spinning blade but sometimes the whole body spins. The problem with these is that once your spinning part stops, and usually it does, you got nothing.
So if I was gonna battle bot I would make my entire robot a magnet, then all I have to do is run into the other robot until it sticks to me, then bash it against the wall or into the area hazards. Problem solved. ALL HAIL MAGENTA (no relation to Magneto, a copywrite of Marvel comics) Years of Loony Toons has taught me this is a viable plan
That or I would just get the Honda Asimo robot to pick it up and smash it. That’s a good plan too.
Or better yet, one of those scary ass Boston Dynamics/DARPA big dog robots. Nobody is gonna fuck with that thing. Look at it! Imagine you are taking a hike though the forest and these things are around the next bend in the trail. I would wet myself, I’m about wetting myself now just thinking about it…
On a side note, while searching for images I learned that during the height of the Battlebot craze in 2002, McDonalds included Battlebots in happy meals. There were a total of 7 licensed robots, plus 1 fictional robot McDonald’s created themselves. I hope those Battlebot organizer’s invested their money wisely.
My car needs a name! I don’t mean just a cutesy name that only I use – I mean a name like a warship or a galactic destroyer has!! Since you all are some of the most creative people I know, let me know your suggestions – can’t make any promises but if you come up with the name I use you will be forever immortalized on my social media pages 🙂
Right now I am leaning towards “Skynet” although, “Fluffy Marshmallow” got a few votes as well…
The Burmeseys have been a bit rambunctious since we returned from Arkansas. They have been on the counter, fighting, teaming up on the other cats (!) and just general destruction.
My Aunt recently posted this image to Facebook, and although most people think of cats as quiet creatures the Burmesey are not. So when they are quite, you know something is up
also if you have a Burmese kitten…
Case in point, we heard Brutus quietly playing with something near the computers and the first thought was “That’s nice that he is playing with a toy instead of harassing the other cats” Then our next thought was to get up and see what he was playing with since he was too interested in it for it to be something wholesome.
We were right – here you can see our USB memory stick that Brutus CHEWED apart.
You can clearly see on this chart that Brutus has the highest bite force of any creature alive, dead or imagined.
The next incident was due to Luna, who is even worse than Brutus in counter-surfing. We heard a noise in the kitchen during a commercial break and turned around to find our water on and running. I think this one solved itself though since Luna is notorious for eating scraps from the sink but I bet she’ll think twice after being soaked.
I’m slightly pleased by this one because it occured shortly after we had to throw out a stick of butter after finding Luna munching on it after we made some popcorn.
Introducing older cats is harder than kittens and sometimes you run into trouble. In our house it manifested in Brutus chasing Luna throughout the house while she screamed, hissed and left a pee trail. We tried keeping an eye on them but cats are sneaky devils and sometimes we thought everyone was sleeping until we heard the screaming.
We tried giving Brutus a time out or locking up Luna when we left but it was just delaying the issue and not really solving it. We then decided to put Brutus on a harness and leash when he started to get out of control. For the most part this would make him calm down and go to sleep and allow Luna to explore the house freely without threat of attack. After a week or two of this they are getting along much better. We still have to harness Brutus up sometimes, but its less and less for shorter periods.
I believe it is very important to harness train your cats – not only for situations as described above but also for transport or even just some outside time. We have been working with all our cats since they were young (and are currently working with Luna) to accept a harness so I have lots of thoughts on what types are most comfortable for the cats as well as most secure.
Cats will escape if they are really determined. Make sure the harness fits snugly leaving room for about 2 fingers under the straps. This is a dog but the same measurements apply to cats. Usually in a harness you won’t need body length but keep in mind that cats are longer than dogs so if you are going to use dog clothes/harnesses make sure to take that into account.
The best harnesses I have found are the thick strapped velcro ones (my cat: ) Mine were made by a friend but you can find similar styles on etsy or amazon. These are great because they are fast and easy to put on and the wider straps make it harder for a cat to slip out of. Additionally, because they are wider and usually lined with fleece they don’t tug at the fur or chaff the neck so a lot of cats who don’t tolerate harnesses, don’t mind these.
The second best IMHO is the Come with Me Kitty brand This harness has thin straps but has a v-neck which lays across the cats shoulders. My cat has slipped out of this harness once or twice so it is easier to escape than the first type. However due to the harnesses shape and construction I have seen a lot of cats be okay in this harness because they don’t think it is choking them.
Finally I would recommend a standard H shaped harness. This is the easiest to escape from and even my dumb cats can do it but they are cheap and prolific so you can find them anywhere if you want to test out harness training. If you don’t tug on the leash they cat shouldn’t have a problem with it. This video is one of the first few times Brutus wore his harness. It also had a bell on it basically turning him into a toy. He liked it much better once the bell was removed.
The final option I will offer you is to get any harness (or adorable cat clothes) and put it on your cat when it starts bullying the other (or you just want them to look cute). Usually just feeling something on them makes them focus on that instead of the other cat and mine usually end up going to sleep. Make sure you set a timer so they don’t wear it too long (eventually any cat will get into trouble – even a costumed cat) and keep a general eye on them so they don’t get caught up on anything. Here is my cat in his Dinosaur of Shame suit.
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