Category Archives: Cat

I suppose every day is caturday

By popular request:

There was a box in the corner.

image

What is this?

photo

Why are you taking my picture, Hannah?

image

Triumph!

image_1

Almost all the way in!

image_1

Time for a break…so tired! (There was a period of cleaning and grooming in here but none of those pictures turned out good enough.)image_2

This is very comfortable.

image_4

There you go!

A friend asked why I didn’t take a video.  I didn’t think of it until after I took about a dozen pictures.

fatcat

Oh, and this happened on Twitter the other day.  Whatever, it’s not creepy.  Or I should say, whatever, nothing wrong with being creepy.

photo

Last week of teaching

I have the world’s most conscientious students.  I gave some of my students extra practice assignments yesterday telling them it was because we didn’t have lessons for three weeks (I LOVE that I have some students that will genuinely, truly, continue to practice over break—this is why they are progressing well and sound quite good on their instruments—I love it).  And from more than one student I got a blank stare and a question: why don’t we have lessons? When I reminded them it was because of Christmas and New Years…they were SHOCKED.  And they seemed sad about not having lessons.  (Yes, I felt pretty awesome that they were going to miss their lessons with me.)

nuts

A delightful gift from some students

Look what I got in the “mail”!

photo image

If you guessed, new running shoes that I should have bought a month ago but finally ordered on Sunday, you’d be correct.  (Mizuno Wave Nirvanas, and I ordered online because they are the same model I’ve been running in successfully, well, as successfully as I run, for a few years now.) I’ll be testing them out a little later this morning.  After I drink some coffee, stop bugging me.

image_3

My toenail is still hanging on.  And is still awesome! (This is from running.  Not a freak accident.  Though, I have a huge bruise on my left wrist that I have NO IDEA how I got.  None.  And it’s gigantic.)

image_1

I decided to make pumpkin bread for some gifts.  Note to readers:  do not double the recipe.  It will not fit into your mixer bowl and then you’ll have to work really hard in a giant mixing bowl carefully mixing by hand and trying not to spill everywhere.

photo Still turned out pretty good though!

image

I got my haircut yesterday!  Does anyone else have trouble knowing where to look at the phone camera?

Yes, it looks basically the same as it always does.  I like my hairdo.  I was thinking about it the other day and looking around the women at the party, and debating getting a different haircut.  I looked at one of my friends and thought, oh her hair is really cute, I should do that, and then I realized her hair was basically just like mine but a little longer and wavier! So I decided to just stick with what was working.

image_2

And, on that note.

Everybody needs a little Caturday

I have a busy day ahead, but I thought I’d pop in for a quick Caturday post, since it’s been awhile.

I know, I know.  Regular readers know that technically in my world, every day is Caturday.  Some people I meet in real life are surprised to learn I actually only “own” one cat.  (Does anyone really “own” a cat?)

image

I love the “no arms and legs” look.  WHO SET THAT CAT DOWN HERE?

image_2

This was a funny picture to me because I feel like she should take up more room on the chair than she does.  Odd, right?

photo

This is Albergo, my sister’s cat.  He is in a box. She sent that to me with the caption “First I had a box.  Then I had a cat.”

image_1

And this is not a cat at all, but our Christmas Tree.  We decorated it last night.  I loved coming downstairs this morning and seeing it again!

I’ll leave you today with this picture that made me giggle.

catsnowman

Which is cuter?

fatness

cuter

Did you see that quiz going around the other day?  I think you all need to take it: Which is cuter?

I got most of them wrong.  So did Chris, who became increasingly frustrated AND amused by the answers. 

Test: (Please leave a comment with your answers, and yes, this is a test)

Part one: Tell me how you did on the quiz, and what your favorite answer was!

Part two: Which of the above pictures of my cat is cuter, and why?

Thoughts on students and my cat’s twin

You may recall we have moved recently.  I teach out of my house a couple of days, and the younger kids are always most interested in the changes. 

For instance, we are renting a single family home that used to be a duplex—only the thing is, because of some city law, the duplex doors must remain.  So we have two front doors.  The students are FASCINATED by this, and often try to come in and go out a different door each time.

The other day one of my students wanted to wash his hands.  I took him down the hall to the bathroom, and he needed help turning the faucet on (a bit too high for little people).  As he was washing he looks around and then says, "It seems you don’t live here alone."  He seemed really disappointed when I said, "why, yes, I live with my husband."  I’m guessing he was hoping I would say, "why, you are correct, I live here with my five year old son who wants to go play with you rather than learn the violin!  Why don’t you do that for the next 30 minutes?" 

On the way out, this same student looked into our {rather empty as we haven’t yet found a dining room table we like} front room and asked, "Why don’t you have any furniture?"

Funny student stories aren’t limited to my home students though.  My school students are equally entertaining.

The other day at my school one of my students came in and said "You look really pale."

Other students always like to comment on my makeup, or if I have something weird (like a large zit) happening on my face, or if my nose is red.  I also get lots of comments on my shoes or my outfits generally, or on my hands (fingernail biting and worse…"Why does somebody so pretty have such ugly hands?" a small child once queried).  I think what’s most fun about the kids is that they will just ask a question when they think of it rather than worry about the politeness of it—and I do my best to answer.  I imagine if they asked something that was really inappropriate I’d let them know, but usually it’s a perfectly good question:  "Did you know you have a brown stain on your nose?" while drinking coffee for instance…it’s nice that SOMEONE is willing to point these things out!

What is that cat-shaped blob in the corner?

My friend Valentina posted these pictures on my facebook "timeline" last night.  She saw this cat while on vacation in Italy (?).  Isn’t that wild how much like my cat this one looks?  Even down to the soft rounded tummy, lighter colored paw, and sleeping ability. Thanks for sharing the photos, Valentina (hope you don’t mind I blogged them 😉 )!!  I am so delighted by this cat.

Caturday

Thought I’d pop in for a quick Caturday post between workouts and work and teaching and getting ready for our “housewarming bbq” tomorrow afternoon.

rollingcat

Many times if I enter a room and the cat is in there, she will immediately roll onto her back and meow at me.  Then she acts all upset when I go over and vigorously rub her belly, but I know that is what she wants or she wouldn’t do this ALL THE TIME.  It’s just ridiculously cute.  Stupid animal.

IMG_1607

Here she’s staring at me from the windowsill in her room.  Yes, we have so many rooms now that the cat has her own room.  Granted, we also put suitcases and some boxes and stuff in there (and there’s a trumpet now too) but we refer to it as the cat’s room.  This new house:  I feel like we have arrived.  It’s more space than I have lived in since I left my parent’s house, and it seems so incredibly decadent.  I mean:  three “bedrooms” (one master, one cat’s room, one music room), TWO ENTIRE BATHROOMS, a kitchen full of cabinets and counters, washer dryer on the same floor as the bedroom…the list goes on.  This house is amazing and possibly the greatest thing that has and will ever happen to us.  Sometimes I’m embarrassed to have to admit we are renting, but we just haven’t had the job security to feel like we should buy.  We may never be rich, but we aren’t beholden to the bank either, and that’s cool.  In a nutshell:  I love our new home and I’m okay with the fact that we don’t own it.

I went for a run this morning.  Tomorrow is a 9 mile run, so today was just a nice easy 3.5 miler.  It was more humid than I thought and I got home and was a little disoriented until I rehydrated properly.  After awhile I fixed myself a lovely “breakfast” of sausage, eggs, and an english muffin with jam.  It was phenomenal.  I have decided to embrace eating more grains again for awhile and see how that goes.  I think I am happier eating them.

breakfast

After I was done, I set my plate down and the cat cleaned it for me so I don’t have to wash it!  That plate goes right back on the shelf!

eatingcat

Thanks fatness!

Anyways, how are you celebrating Caturday?

If you are new to blog giveaways, one thing to know is:  I’m not selling your information if you enter or anything like that.  Businesses like to send stuff to bloggers to try to get their names out there, and a great way to increase exposure for your company is to have a blogger write something nice about you (or bad, really, any exposure is still exposure) and then a giveaway is a nice way to get even more exposure.  So it’s a no risk contest, in case you were worried.  And there will be more free stuff soon, so if you like free stuff but aren’t interested in my current giveaway, stay tuned 🙂