i called the vet to find out how much food we should be giving Azrael. originally he/she (we see the guy/lady vets interchangeably) said 1/2 - 2/3 cup. we weaned Azrael down (finally) to 2/3 cup or just under and she'd still have some left in her bowl by next day's breakfast. we used to heap it full and she'd snack on it all day long. she got round.

since we moved, she has so much more room to play, or more energy to play, or just more rooms and stairs to walk through, that we think she's burning up more food and working up more of an appetite. either that or she's worried the panthers will come get her food so by 8:30 or 9 p.m., she's out of food. 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. is a long time to go without food, isn't it? i don't know.

i called the vet to find out.

they can't just answer my freaking question over the phone. *rolls eyes* they want to weigh her. at least the consultation is free and they won't charge me to bring her in, but it still means i have to haul that cat and carrier to the vet tomorrow morning just so they can weigh her ass and say, "yes, more food." or "no, no extra food is necessary."

it's only been ONE MONTH in the new place. i can't imagine if she was going to lose weight, that she'd have lost that much to make a difference.

i'm half tempted to cancel the damned appointment. why can't they just answer on the phone? "sounds like a little more won't hurt." or "sounds like you're feeding her enough."

how hard is that!?

(i know Azrael's answer. MOAR KIBBLS. NAO.)

we dragged out everything from the attic last night. it's now sitting in two piles.

one pile of boxes and assorted crap is in our living room to go over to the new house and be stowed godknowswhere and the other pile is in the old garb room "to go through if we have time." of course, this probably means, "to go over to the new place and go through it there. someday. yeah right. like we went through it in the last two years? ha-HAA!"

there's a lot of stuff "to go through." ;)

but we'll get through it eventually. i R deturminned.

there are at least three carloads of "stuff" left. maybe four. billions if you count we have to get all our pictures out and off the wall. then, WE CLEAN. (i also have to call the carpet cleaners.)

OH! and the smell that i was worried about was in fact the basil/outdoor plants we had brought inside. i put all the plants back outside and the smell immediately began disappearing and disappating. my apologies to the people who slept among the basil which smells remarkably like cat pee when it is cooped up indoors and in that quantity. but it was not cat pee on the carpet. trust me, i searched the carpets and floors for any whiff and kept coming right back to the basil. who knew?

is the same thing that killed the shops in the mall (fye being the only one left, a merger of ALL of the others over the years, and itself is dying) - labels and distributors giving non-traditional stores a significant discount to the point that the traditional stores look like ripoffs. (in America, the stores were WalMart and Target, plus amazon; in the UK, it's been grocery stores it seems).

On An Overgrown Path: Another UK record store closes every 2.7 days:

To reach the widest audience, Sony BMG market X Factor contestants through the supermarkets rather than through more traditional outlets. Its CDs will always be in a prominent position in store, often next to the till. To secure these positions Sony BMG will have offered the stores substantial discounts, which are not made available to independent stores who, therefore, cannot match the price offered in supermarkets.

Even more damaging is the impact this has on the reputation of independent stores. If CDs are £4 more expensive in independent stores, customers are likely to perceive that they are being ripped off and so, in the future, their first port of call for buying music is increasingly likely to be the supermarket instead of the independent shop.

in short, cheaply produced crap music from the reality tv phenom, sitting side by side with the same tabloids that same target audience reads.

no wonder nobody makes real music anymore...

after spending last Saturday clad in a spandex jumpsuit and platform boots, i can say unequivocably, these are NOT the right outfits in which to fight crime.

stretchy? yes. comfortable? debatable. strappy pieces that do fuck-all? definitely. protected from elements? no.

so unless one of your superpowers involves keeping the costume in place and all straps secure and non-slip, and you can kick major ass for hours on end WHILE wearing your Platform Boots of Much Clomping +4 without complaining about your feet hurting, AND you only plan to fight crime in temperate climes or for indoor crimes only, i suggest you find a new costume designer source.

that is all.

Dear Rhode Island Governor Carcieri:

I'm going to fondly quote your fellow Republican, former Vice President Dick Cheney: Go fuck yourself.

signed,
an actual caring human being

http://drunkenmonkeyknits.blogspot.com/2008/12/caution.html

LOOKATHESECUTEKNITTYTHINGIES!!!!!

i mean seriously. dragontail socks??

::dies::

(thanks to imbri6 for the link)

i had to get a 20,000 mile maintenance thingy done on the car. yes, 20,000 miles in a year and a half since May, 2008. i drive A LOT.

i also figured, since i still had mud cakeys on the bottom of the car from faire, and leaves and mud inside the car from faire, and squoosh marks on the seats from heavy boxes pressing into it from the move (we're NEARLY DONE), i'd get it washed, waxed, and shampooed, too. since i haven't done that either since May, 2008. ;)

oh i've washed it, but i haven't done that other stuff. plus with winter coming, i figured i'd get her all spiffed up before the salt trucks come and add some protection to the car. i never got it detailed after driving on LAST year's salty roads.

they tuned it back up to "factory specifications," i had the brakes adjusted, and now the steering and brakes are all touchy like they were in the beginning. it's like learning to drive the car all new again! it even SMELLS new. the only thing they didn't seem to have done, or didn't do well, was wipe off the inside windshield. it's still smeary which is why i originally decided, "you know? i'm going for the whole ball of wax. this car is a MESS."

grr. at least all of that didn't cost me much. i have "free lifetime oil changes" and they were running a special that the "platinum" detail service cost as much as the "gold" package detail service. so... yeah!

bottom line is that Lucy is shiny. even with the rain today, the water was all beady on top. coooooool.