Category: family

This is Not Going to End Well………

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The regular reader(s) of my blog may be aware of my travails with RP the feral cat.*

The short version is that we caught her in a Have-a-Heart trap, and brought her in.

When I let her out she freaked, and ran into the basement ceiling, but not before biting me and giving me puncture wounds through oven mitts.

The next day, I saw her outside, so she figured a way out of the house.

When we got our cats, RP continued to come into the house somehow, and eat our cats food. (Video here) We still haven’t figured out how she does that.

A few weeks after that, RP fell out of the ceiling, and I caught her, and she peed on me and clawed the hell out of me.  (I did not blog on that particular affront to my already limited dignity)

I even made a cat shelter outside in the vain hope of giving her an alternative to going into the house. No such luck.

Well, this morning, I got a call from Sharon†. RP was in the house, and had lured our kitten Destructo into the ceiling.

The kitten had gotten stuck (or maybe just confused)and was panicking, and my wife and kids had to reach into the suspended ceiling to get him out.

While this was going on, RP was watching with what my wife describe as smug amusement.

It’s on. It is totally on.

I’m halfway through cobbling together a trap made from the cat travel cage and the aforementioned Have-a-Heart trap, and if it works, we will either try to tame the cat, or take to a shelter and get it the f%$# out of our neighborhood ……… and my house.

I do realize that I have been channeling Robert Redford playing John Dortmunder in the 1972 film, The Hot Rock

Dortmunder: Not me. I’ve got no choice. I’m not superstitious. And I don’t believe in jinxes, but that stone’s jinxed me and it won’t let go. I’ve been damned near bitten, shot at, peed on and robbed. And worse is gonna happen before it’s done. So I’m takin’ my stand. I’m going all the way. Either I get it, or it gets me.

Considering my record with this cat, I can only conclude that the chances are remarkably good that it will get me.

There is a part of me that fears I am so going to get killed or maimed by this f%$#ing cat.

*RP stands for Rodentia Phage, or Ravage and Pillage, or maybe just RP. I don’t know for sure, but it is a cat, so it does not come when it is called.
†Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.

Busy Day

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Sharon’s Uncle & Aunt visited, my phone went balls up (I’m using Sharon’s old phone), and Open Space Arts had their last show of the season, followed by a cast party, and I was getting some of the non-drivers to and from that.

And did I mention that I was fashioned into filming the show?

Busy, so no blogging tonight.

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Linkage

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Finally a performance, by The Anarchists, my kids band at the Rock Star Jam Summer Music Camp:

Natalie was much more comfortable on stage this year.

The Joys of Children are Without Number

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We took Natalie to  Camp Tizmoret Shoshana, a Jewish performing arts camp.

It is at Capitol Camp, about 50 miles from home.

So, we packed up in the morning, and drove her to camp.

100+ miles round trip, and then Sharon and Charlie had to get ready for their performances at Open Space Arts this afternoon.

Only Natalie forgot a few things: her music theory notebook, Portman (her marionette), and her towels.

Then, after the play, we get a text that she had also forgotten her asthma inhaler.

So, instead of getting her stuff to her tomorrow, we had to go back tonight.

So, back we went, another 2 hour round trip.

At one point, we drove through a thunderstorm that felt like the apocalypse.

We had zero visibility, and the almost constant lightning had the wipers strobing across the windshield.

We are now headed back home (Sharon is driving), finally.

I swear, Natalie would forget her own head if it weren’t attached.

Went to Another Concert Tonight

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A band called Junior Doctor.

They are doing an (I kid you not) living room tour, which is why out looks like they are playing in a living room.

We drive across the Bay Bridge to Stevenville.

Good music, and the bass player/keyboardist (Davey Hoogerwerf) was particularly impressive. His bass playing was insane.

Because of the limitations of playing in a living room, the drummer, Jarrod Kearney, played a Cajón, the box like instrument that he is sitting on.

Mark Hartman does lead vocals and rhythm guitar.

It was (obviously) a very intimate setting.

Natalie got a compliment on her song writing (she had shared some songs with then a few weeks back via Facebook). This had her going “SQUEEE!” All the easy home.

Charlie got himself filmed by the band members once they saw his mad (Rubik’s) cube skills.

It was a good time for all, though there was a 45 minute hangup on the Bay Bridge going home because of an accident.

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On the Way to the WTC Memorial

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And I am hanging out in a little square watching portions and waiting for the time our passes say we can go in, and I am using Google maps to look at things to do while we cool our heels.  (Which is pretty amazing on it’s own, that I can look for stuff on my phone.)

I then notice that Zucotti Park is near by, and then I realize that I am in Zucotti Park, and that there are OWS protesters at the other end.

Kewl!

More pix to follow.

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A New York State of Mind

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Ran out of juice, so I did not post it from my phone, but we went to the Empire State Building, and walked around the lobby taking pictures of the (now restored to original) Art Deco interior.

The line for the observation deck was too long, and the price for the elevator trip to the top deck was $42 (!) so we did not go up.

After we finished with our impromptu tour, we grabbed pretzels from a street vendor and walked down the East 33rd street, where we hit the Fashion Museum.

From there, we took the subway to the construction site for the new World trade center, and then the PATH back to where we had parked our car.

Fun time.

Road Trip!

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In Philly.   Will be heading to the City (NYC) tomorrow.

Currently at a concert with my wife & kids, The Maine and A Rocket to the Moon.

On the way down, we passed the Philadelphia Naval shipyard, and saw a bunch of mothballed ships, including some Aegis class cruisers, including the Ticonderoga (CG-47).

Pix to follow.

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Charlie Completely Freaks Out (In a Good Way)

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I was in the bedroom, and Charlie started screaming like an Banshee.

It went on and on and on.

Finally, he made it to the bedroom, and told me that he had successfully done his first blindfolded Rubik’s cube solve.

While blind cube solving would not be my choice of where to apply efforts, it’s certainly better than something like, “evil overlord bent on world domination.”