We had another visit from Macbeth, aka Black and White Kitty today, and said kitty is currently asleep on our porch, which indicates to me we've been adopted.

Now all I have to do is get the current cat and the husband on board, and Macbeth can come live inside.*






*It will be easier to convince the cat

Some of you might remember this post in which I described our cat Butch's run in with a black and white stray, and Charlie's reaction to it.

Well,since then Charlie has been talking about it quite a bit; I think it has been praying on his mind. He even told me this morning that he had a dream that the Black and White Kitty came into our house.

So, we were up in Charlie's room, I was coaxing him to get dressed, when we heard the yowl that is the feline equalivent to the starting bell, and I ran down stairs to rescue Butch from the porch once again. As I got outside I heard Charlie's fantic voice telling me to 'Get Butchie back inside!'. I do so, much more easily than usual, and I bring the cat upstairs so Charlie could see he is all right.

Butch's tail was still, as Charlie put it, 'poofy', and this upset the child, and suddenly he says, 'and my legs are all wobbly again because of that horrible sound!' and he starts to cry!

I felt so sad that it frightened him so, but I couldn't help but giggle a bit as I hugged him, both because he kept saying he wanted Butch's tail to stop being 'poofy' and because he used the word horrible. My poor baby.

There's a bird in my house again.

Not sure if it is the same bird who really likes it here, or there's a bird's nest in my house somewhere I'm not aware of.

It flew into Charlie's room, so I opened his window and shut the door in hopes the bird will eventually find its way to freedom.

Ack. Two. Two birds in my house. As I was typing this I heard this odd scratching noice coming from what we laughingly call our 'dressing room', which is in reality just the other bedroom next to ours, and there was another bird hopping on my vanity table.

Upon closer examination I dicovered one of our windows was open a bit at the top (we have old, crappy windows) and that must be where they are getting it. Why is an entirely other matter.

I opened the window, and as near as I can tell the bird has flown, but I'm just a tiny bit freaked out at the moment. Mostly because I really don't want the poor things to smash into a window or mirror and die, because that will make me feel terrible. Plus...gross.

Meanwhile the cat doesn't seem to have noticed that his ancient and heridity enemies are invading his turf. Go figure.

I'm at 39,285 words and I feel like I've hit a wall. I think I'm trying too hard to get to 40,000 tonight. It's frustrating, though. I'm writing like mad, and think I've gotten further than I did.

So, we went to look at dogs today, but my husband is pretty vehement about not getting one. Charlie had such fun, though.

The first dog he 'picked' was this really big Great Pyrenees Cute as anything, but way too high maintenance for me. Much grooming would be necessary. She was really cute, though.

However, the dog Charlie really fell for was Aimee.

At first, when she was out in the yard, she was too busy sniffing around and running around and barking happily at the other dogs to pay attention to Charlie, but he persevered, and eventually he was rewarded. He was sitting on this bench and she jumped on the bench next to him, licked his face, then jumped off. Pretty soon they were running up and down the yard together. There was this moment as I watched them that I couldn't help but think, 'There, this is it. The bonding moment.' Charlie was laughing and the dog was looking up at him, and it was a nice moment.

After we left, I called the husband and handed the phone to Charlie and he said, "We adopted Aimee." I had to assure him we didn't. We were just dreaming.

She's so sweet though. Sigh.

At least I think he wants a dog. He's been talking about it, but he is also imitating Verruca Salt as he does so. "Mommy.' He says, speaking in a clipped and almost British voice. "I Want. A. Dog."

I pointed out to him he has $95, and could possibly buy a dog for himself, and he actually considered it.

I'd toyed with the idea before, but I just don't think we have the time or money for a dog. (though, working 10 minutes from home does help - one could theoretically go home at lunch and let the dog out)

I have to keep reminding myself that dogs are fairly high maintenance, and probably aren't cheap to keep in food.

Because...look at this really cute dog. I want him.

So, crossbow1 posted a link to this website devoted to cats in sinks, and I sent it on to my friend, who has two cats of her own, and she sent me this photo of her cat. In a sink.



I've sent it into the website because, well, it seemed like the necessary thing to do.

Charlie is quite taken with his hamster, so far. He gets really excited when Ludo gets active and climbs the bars of his cage and uses his wheel. It's very sweet. I must admit he's really a cute hamster.

Charlie's uncanny knack for remembering numbers has spilled over onto The Muppet Show DVDs, as he knows already which guest star is on which episode, and will request them. So far some of his favorite skits include "Manamana", "Mr Baseman" (sung by Scooter and Floyd), one of the 'At the Dance' moments where Animal and his dance partner fall forwards, backwards and sideways, and Fozzie's running gag 'Wire for Kermit the Frog'. This has given rise to some rather adorable moments.

For example, not long after watching that episode, Charlie came running up to me and said "Note for Carol the Mom! Note for Carol the Mom! Are you Carol the Mom?' I answer in the afirmative, and he said, "Note for you!" then ran to the piano and played a note.

I also really need to take a photo of Charlie making vampire teeth like Vincent Price did in his episode.

My neighbor's hamsters had babies, and after some consideration we decided to adopt one of them.



Charlie named him Ludo, and he is living in Charlie's play room in a cute little cage that I bought him. My neighbor seems to think the cage is too small, but it seems okay to me. He's still a baby hamster, when he grows we'll see about getting a bigger one.

Meanwhile Charlie seems happy with him, and this will hopefully help teach him responsibility or something.


In other news, I spent the morning cleaning our 'guest/computer room' and am hot and cranky. So, off to pool.

It's 8pm, and I'm on page 407 of my copy of HBP and I know I am going to finish it before the night is through. I'm actually playing on line in an effort not to finish it too quickly.

On one hand, I really want to read everyone's opinions without being 'spoiled' but on the other hand, I will be sad when I've completed the book. After all, it is going to be at least 2 years before the next one.*

So, I've just played a game of computer Scrabble. I do much better playing against my computer game than I do when I play with slammerkinbabe because I can force the computer to only play at novice level so I have a fair shot at winning, whereas slammerkinbabe is a bloody genius at the game, so I don't have much hope of winning, although I'm at least losing by a respectable margin. And playing word games with word lovers is always fun.

I didn't post any opinions of the Supreme Court nominee because I don't really have an opinion yet. He's conservative, as expected, but some people think he may actually put his personal opinions aside and serve the law, which, let's face it, is the whole point of a judge. You're supposed to be logical and impartial and not let your personal beliefs and opinions outweigh the facts.

Huh. Spock for Supreme Court Justice.

My neighbor who watched Charlie today has a hamster that just had babies, and offered one to Charlie. I said we'd think about it. They are still too little to go away from their mummy, and I'm not really sure I want a rodent in the house, cute though they are. Her hampster's names are Sirius, James and Lily.

Charlie has already decided he would name the hampster Ludo.

I feel like a, well, not junkie, but a connissur, one of those people who hold off the pleasure of a glass of fine wine or whatever because they want to savour the moment. I'm really trying to put off picking up the book again until at least 9.

It's bloody hard.

I've been toying with the idea of getting a dog for my son. He likes dogs, and he is the type of boy, I think, who fits the image of 'a boy and his dog'. The problem is, dogs are hard work. We have a cat now. Cats don't need to be walked, you don't have to rush home at a certain time to make sure the cat gets out, and we can go somewhere overnight without worrying about the cat. But I still really want to get a dog. Dogs stay when you tell them to stay, and are more likely to stay curled up at the foot of the bed, unlike cats, who will crawl over you for twenty minutes, and then, just as you've gotten comfortable with their tail in your nose, get up and trot out of the room.

We did go to the pound the other day just to look, but the solid wall of barking that hit us as we entered the pens was too much for my son, and so we weren't able to make any real assessment as to the kind of dogs that were there. So, I figure I'll leave it up to fate. Perhaps I'll meet with someone who has a dog they can no longer care for, or we'll find a lovable stray who needs a home. And in the meanwhile, I'll just borrow my sister's dog when the dog urge gets too great.