Intermezzo

(Top) Surprisingly, both the nasturtium and the clover on my windowsill have burst into flower.

(Bottom) Boo adores his clunky stuffed "Hamster Baby."

Power Struggle

I admit it--I have one of those big monolith computer monitors. You know, the kind that extend forever behind? Actually, I'm not complaining. It serves me perfectly well, and has a pretty big screen, which is nice. However, I think one of the main reasons I haven't thought about replacing it involves the cats.

When the weather started to turn cold a few months ago, Nihao discovered she could satisfy both her urge to constantly be practically on top of me, and her obsession with warm things--by perching on top of the back of the monitor. I also discovered I could keep her from lolling all over the keyboard by encouraging her to go up there, without being punished by the (very loud) self-righteous howls that happen when I put her on the floor. So when she hops up looking for attention and I'm in the middle of something, I pat her and then aim the front of her toward the screen. She reaches her front paws up to the top and waits, looking back at me disapprovingly if I take too long. So I grab her chicken legs and hoist her butt the rest of the way up. She's trained me well.

Her sleeping up there has led to a few awkward moments when our clumsy queen has managed to slide off the side into the gap between the monitor and wall (while sleeping!?), flailing her claws about in a vain effort to catch herself. Other than that, though, it's been quite nice for both of us. She gets a warm and close place to lie, and I get to see her resting her face like a puppet over the top of my screen. Which is adorable. Especially when she flops her face right over the edge so her bottom lip gets pulled back. She looks like a complete nerd-dork. I love it.

(incidentally, for those of you wondering, the monitor seems to be fine. I vacuum any hair off it, and it has plenty of venting on the sides and back for the heat to escape. )

Moving on... Just recently, Boo has discovered the joy of the warm monitor as well. He's a particularly cautious cat, and spent about 10 minutes hanging off the shelf directly above the monitor, with just his front paws resting on it, sniffing and testing the waters. Eventually he decided it was safe, and veeerrry slowly lowered himself onto it and lay down.

The problem now is that I have one monitor, and two cats who want to be on it. Actually, it's mostly just a problem for poor Boo. When Nihao made her way to the shelf above, she seemed ambivalent to the fact Boo was already on the monitor. So ambivalent, in fact, that she climbed down onto it and proceeded to lie on top of him, shoving him off the edge. So graceful.

So now Boo waits until Nihao climbs down, and then immediately occupies her spot. Hopefully there won't be any more forcing him off the back again. Poor thing.

Hooray for Malts!

Well, a week on from the move, things are pretty well unpacked, and though we need to pick up some shelving for here and there, and a couple other things, we're pretty well settled in.

It feels odd to know all the neighbors. We've always been friendly, but pretty quiet--not really diving into communities we've lived, partly because they haven't been all that conducive to diving into, and partly because we're "homey" types. But I think I like this whole "being social" business. Next weekend we're supposed to go to a big farmer's market in downtown Cincy with the girl who lives next door, and we're hopefully meeting up with a buncha nerds in a couple weeks from a literary group. We'll see what happens in terms of churches as well. We have a couple leads on decent places, though we're not rushing to find one.

The cats seem to be doing better. After the initial flurry of nervous stalking around and Nihao hissing, they've settled back into being pals--sleeping practically on top of each other and grooming each other like mad. I stuck a bag feeder outside the study window, and they've both been entranced by a massive chickadee convention as well as by a particular squirrel we've dubbed Squirrel Nutkin. (link goes to complete book online)


We have a decent patio and a--gasp!---already made garden to which I can easily add and maintain. The house we moved from started with a wasteland of trash and tomato wires in the back yard that took me an entire summer to clear and till. By the time we moved, there was more of a formed garden with plenty of perennials. About a thousand percent better than it was, but oh-so-much work... In any case, it's nice to have something a little simpler. I planted nasturtium, lavender, oregano, and chinese bellflowers in this section, which will be the "mostly herb" area. The nasturtium should spread nicely, with lots of spicy flowers, and buds you can cook with like capers. There was a tomato plant I repotted, and the local neato plant nursery was having a sale on herbs, so I got some thyme and Basil for pots. As we were walking up to the register, the owner of the place came running up with a couple garlic plants, which she gave us for free, since the cloves were ready to eat. Yum.

Ignore the big trash can and dolly. They're gone now. Also, is that a fancy-dancy brand new grill I see under that cover in the corner? Why YES, yes it is. The Boy had been yearning for one for a while now, and apparently there was a crazy sale at Lowes, and that= grill. Huzzah. We did a lime-herb turkey breast and asparagus on it last night. So yum.

oh, and Nihao likes to watch the neighbor cats from the back door.

Still Alive.

*yawn* Just barely. Happy Fourth of July, fiends and families!

We made it down to Cinci and have had internet for a few days, though I've been too pooped after the move and such to do much of anything but sloooowly unpacking boxes, like an old, rusty robot.

We're actually pretty settled for having been here less than a week. The neighborhood is lovely, the people are friendly, and we're having great fun getting to know the area and finding neat places to eat and hang out.

The cats are slowly recovering from an uber-traumatic 5 hour drive, and I expect that by next week they'll be back to normal. They're already pretty comfortable here, though there's been some hissing and spitting as Nihao is a little uncertain about her territory. Boo could care less, but she growls and roars at him, unless they're both preoccupied by something, in which case, they'll distractedly groom each other until Nihao remembers she's supposed to be hissy. It's noticably better already, thankfully.

Last night we spent some time out on the patio in the dark. There was a fireworks display happening nearby in downtown, and the carillon in the nearby church was playing songs along with it. The fireflies were out in force, trying to match the flashes in the sky.