Angel Hits the Sauce

Well actually, she just batted it around a little.

Whiskers Wednesday - Casper gives Mom a Break

I guess I’ve dished on Mom a little too much lately. There was even talk about me losing some computer privileges. Now I can’t let that happen, so I’ll lay off Mom for a couple days and she’ll forget all that nonsense about taking away my computer time.

Sooo…let me tell you a few things about Angel.

Believe me, she’s no angel. Do you know that Mom hasn’t been able to put toilet paper on the paper roller thingies since Angel came to live with us, when she was just a few weeks old. If you come to our house and have to use the facilities, just remember the paper is in the cabinet right over your head. The reason? Angel goes after that stuff as if she's on a mission from God to destroy every last square of the stuff. Mom has come home and found piles of the shredded white stuff all over the house. I think it’s pretty funny, but I guess it really isn’t the ‘green’ thing to do.

Now I do have to laugh my tail off whenever Angel pulls this stunt. Every morning, before leaving for work, Mom checks to make sure she knows where each of us is, so she doesn't leave someone closed up in a closet or something. It happens. Anyway, about once every month or so, Angel will hide real good, and before you know it Mom is going all over this house, looking in everything, under every bed, everywhere. I'm talking she absolutely cannot find Angel, and she's beginning to get a little shrill, "Angel, I have to get to work. Where the heck are you? Kittykittykitty." You know when humans do that high pitched kitty kitty call where they're almost rolling there r's, even though there are no r's? They don't know it but the only reason we come at all when they do that is to get them to stop doing that. But, I digress. Angel has been known to hold out for as long as 10 minutes; that's like an hour in cat time. Then she'll sneak up behind Mom and casually rub her leg, all like, 'were you looking for me?' Oh man, I'm about to roll on the floor by this time. Mom just pets her and says, "You scared me. I'll see you tonight."

Oh yeah, another thing. One time when Mom came home from taking Angel to the cat doctor, she had her hand all wrapped up in a big white bandage and she even had to take antibiotics. Can you believe it? Angel was real scared at the vet's, and she bit Mom! I get the whole freaking out thing – have you seen how they take our temperature? Shudder. But, she bit her! Not like when I give her a warning nip because she's brushing a knot out of my fur, and it smarts. No, she punctured her hand with that fang like tooth! I thought, oh boy this is it! She’s going to be in real big trouble now. But, oh no, mom took her out of her carrier and said ‘it’s okay sweetie, you were scared, you didn’t mean to.’ Well, okay, but what about that TP shredded all over the place? You can’t say she didn’t mean to do that!

This is just the tip of the iceberg with Angel. She’s pretty ornery. Mom goes on about how sweet she is, and really she is most of the time – because she’s sweet when she’s asleep.

So it appears I wasted all those years being the nice, polite guy when I could have been getting away with all kinds of mischief. Who knew? Oh well, too late to change now, and besides, now I feel it’s my duty to mentor the wayward little girl. It’s a tough job, but, if not me, then who?

Happy rest of the week!
Purrs and hugs,
~Casper~

You say Tomato, I say Tomater -- Fried Green Tomatoes

Here are a few things that fried green tomatoes make me think of:
# 1. The movie, of course. A very good movie, one of the few I’ve watched several times. I love Kathy Bates in Fried Green Tomatoes. Towanda!!

# 2. The book, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, by Fannie Flagg, from which the movie was adapted. Fannie Flagg has a way of making her characters real to us and of bringing her readers into a southerner state of mind.

and # 3. The fried green tomatoes I fixed for a late dinner last night. Oh my goodness, they were goo-ood. I felt quite southern myself. Even now I have the urge to say something like ‘Why shut my mouth.’
There’s a lot to like about summer, and fried green tomatoes is just one of those things.
I’m already craving them again!

In the Interest of Brevity

Here's a micro mini short film starring Casper and Angel, as themselves, just being themselves.

Whiskers Wednesday - Angel's Advice

Our mom was very tired last night, and for good reason. She did not go to bed until really late the night before. If I could count, I would be able to count on one paw the number of hours of sleep she got, and that's not good! But, boy oh boy, when she did go to sleep, she slept, and I mean big time. She even purred…real loud. Mom needs to take a lesson from us cats. We take our sleep very seriously.
Humans could learn so much other stuff from us as well, if they would just pay closer attention. First, we do everything we have to, to get our eighteen hours of sleep each day. When we get tired, we find a comfy spot, plop down and get after the snoozing. We eat when we get hungry, we drink when we are thirsty, we scratch around in the litter box when we must, and we let someone clean it up afterward. Life is so simple, really. But humans do like to carry on as though it's all so terribly complex and complicated.
The other thing you'll notice, when you start observing our superior life strategies, is that you just don't see cats going around wringing their paws, worrying about goofy things like humans do.
I started thinking that maybe worry was actually fun. Why else would humans do so much of it? So I found one itty bitty worry to work on…
Our mom always tells Casper and me that she would like to stay home with us, but someone has to go to work to keep us in the Lap of Luxury, and believe me, we like Luxury! So, now she tells us that her work for this one company is about to be over, but she has started looking for her next gig. I started to worry, what if she doesn't go to work? Does that mean the Luxury Lap will go away? And what about our dreams of a big ol' cat tree and a catio? What if she stays home all the time and we have to follow her around the house, and miss out on all that wonderful beauty sleep? Oh my.
Geez, I don't know why humans do this worry thing -- there's absolutely no fun in it! It is definitely not for me! It makes me tired. I'm going to go plop down somewhere and snooze now… Have a happy rest of the week; I know we will.

Master sleeper, Casper, is not worried about anything!

Purrs and hugs,
~~Angel~~
zzz zzz purr purr =^_^=

Note from Mom: As Angel advises--don't worry, Angel and Casper are not at risk of losing their Luxury Lap.  I wouldn't let that happen. :)

Time flies when you have grandkids!

These three handsome young men are my awesome grandsons, Zachary, Dyllan and Johnathan. They own my heart.

Today is Johnathan's 10th birthday.

Happy Happy Birthday, Johnathan! Welcome to the double digits.

I love you sooooo much!

A Stroll in Bartlesville

Bartlesville is the town where I work. It is a really charming place and I enjoy taking a few pictures when I go walking there.

I love libraries. Here's B'ville's.

Price Tower - This is Frank Lloyd Wright's only skyscraper, and as you can imagine, it's quite unique, and an important landmark here.

The Bartlesville Community Center

The Price Tower Buffalo statue. This is one of my favorites.

The OK Mozart Buffalo.

...And that was it for this walk. Don't I have some great things to look at when I'm out grabbing some exercise?

A Bartlesville traffic jam.

Okay- this wasn't taken on my walk. I took this as I  was headed to the highway that takes me home.

Another Walking Story

After work last night I went walking at my standard go-to trail at Haikey Creek Park. The temperature was around 95 with more than 50% humidity, making the heat index hotter-than-hell degrees Fahrenheit. There were several people on the trails, quite a few of them running. I am not a runner but I have to admit I was impressed with their dedication. I’ve said that I wouldn’t run unless a serial killer was chasing me. Even then I would have to stop and gauge what kind of day I was having and how badly I wanted to live. But, maybe someday--

Whenever crossing paths with other walkers or joggers I smile and say ‘hi’ if they make eye contact. Most respond in kind, or even initiate the greeting. I’ve noticed that other women walkers will sometimes start a brief conversation without breaking stride. Here’s one I had Sunday morning:
Me: “Hi.”
Lady carrying a stick: “Hi. I’ve got my stick in case a man pops out of all this underbrush.”
Me: “I have my keys ready to gouge an eye.” Chuckle
Lady carrying stick: “It can get scary back in this area.”
Me: “It sure can.” The last two sentences were hurled over our shoulders as we strode away from each other.

Conversation from yesterday’s walk:
Lady in her 30’s: “Hi.” Panting.
Me: “Hi.” Not panting!-and this was close to the end of my trip. Oh yeah, I rule.
Lady in 30’s: “Omigod, it’s so hot out here.”
Me: “What were we thinking, huh?” Chuckle
Lady: Smiled weakly

I used to think everyone who passed me on the trail was thinking, 'Please don't make me try to remember my CPR training.' When I passed Lady-in-30's, I thought the same thing. I don't think I have that effect on my fellow walkers anymore. Now that's progress!

Whiskers Wednesday -Casper ponders, What’s in a name?

      that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet .

 Our mom is a name-caller. Not bad names. Well, I have heard stories of the names she calls people who do something like tailgate her car, or drive slow until she starts to go around them and then put their foot in it-whatever that all means. At those times we understand she has uttered some names that would make the tiny hairs in our ears curl.

No, I'm not talking about those kind of names. I'm talking about all those cutesy-wutesy, lovey-dovey, ooey-gooey names she has for Angel and me.

Some we may only hear once in awhile. But, there are some recurring ones that we get every single solitary day. We both get the usual Sweetie, Baby, My Lovelies, Pumpkin, Punkapoodle (we don't know either), My Kids, Baby Loves--you get the picture.

But, then there are some that are exclusively mine, such as:

Casper (of course, since that really is my name), Cat Spur, Cass Balou, Casper Bonito, Cassie (she even used that one in front of the cable repair guy once, when I was offering him a chance to pet me, "Get out the man's way, Cassie." How humiliating. To begin with, I'm pretty sure he was there to pet and coo over me and my lovely floof. On top of that, what a sissy name to call an obviously hunky mancat! I did have to snub her awhile for that). Then there's Sushagoodboy, Capalou and Capaloonylou.

Here are a few that Angel gets:
Angel (of course), Baby Girl, Sushagoodgirl, Sushaprettygirl (I see a pattern), Maya Angelou, Prettybabygirl, Angelina, Angelpooh.

The lists could go on and on - and on. Now I'm not really complaining. Sometimes our mom just can't help what comes out of her mouth when she's under the spell of her beloved kitty-witty-witties (another one we hear a lot), and in private we even kind of like it - a little. But, for goodness sakes it's a tad embarrassing when she does it in front of others.

But, we've heard a couple of her names, too. Her sister, our Aunt Barb has been know to call her The Crazy Cat Lady. Her son, our big human brother calls her Mom (of course, since that is her name) and sometimes, Weirdo. Now those are some sweet terms of endearment if you ask me.

We love you, too, Mamaloonalouie!! Yep, you still smell as sweet.
=^..^= 
Purrs and hugs,
from Casper (The Alpha Mancat)

Hummingbird Don't Fly Away

Yesterday afternoon Angel was looking through the storm door and she started making that cat-chatter noise cats make when they see something terribly exciting, usually birds, flying bugs, something like that. If you have cats, you know what I mean. I went to see what was causing this reaction. There was a hummingbird hovering aroud the area where I usually hang their feeder. Only this summer I had been pretty lazy about tending to my bird friends so there was no sweet nectar there. Recently I started feeding the songbirds again, but my poor hummer friends were being neglected.
Once I saw him though, I hurried inside and prepared the two feeders and got them put up as quickly as I could. It wasn't long before he was feasting. 

I think all has been forgiven.

A Day at the Museum

Today I enjoyed a visit to the Philbrook Museum. In 1938 Waite Phillips gave his 72-room mansion and surrounding 23 acres of grounds as an art center for the city of Tulsa. The Italian Renaissance style mansion itself is a beautiful work of art. Add to that the very impressive permanent collection of artworks, special travelling exhibits, and breathtaking gardens, and you have a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

Currently the travelling exhibit is "To Live Forever; Egyptian Treasures", from the Brooklyn Museum. It was amazing to actually stand and look at vessels, jewelry and other objects created thousands of years ago.

As a good museum goer, I did not take pictures inside the museum, but I put my little point and shoot camera to work when touring the grounds. Here are a few of those shots.

10K a Day - Week Ten!

Tooting my own horn.

I'm enjoying my walking challenge. It's almost the end of week 10, and I feel so much more energetic!

Whiskers Wednesday - Angel's Anticipation

A few weeks ago our handsome friend Brian and his beautiful sisters received a big brown box from the package human. Inside the box was a most pawsome cat tree. Even Sascha, who isn’t usually very adventurous played with it, and napped in the big roundy perch at the top of the tree. We were very happy and excited for them.
So a week after that, when the package human came to our house, imagine my excitement. A cat tree for me and Casper!! Yay! Casper said not to get too crazy because it might be something else. I thought-- he’s old, what does he know?
When Mom came home, she brought the big box in the house and then proceeded to take it into my bedroom...and then...she just left it sitting there! I couldn’t believe it. Can you believe it took her three weeks to open that box?!

Last Sunday she opened it. Finally! I couldn’t wait to climb that cat tree! She started taking stuff out of the box. Not only was it not a cat tree – IT WAS ANOTHER MONSTER VAC!!! What the Hello Kitty!?!

This monster vac isn’t as loud as the other one, but it spits out hot water and then sucks it back up. Gross! Now, why would anyone want such a screwy thing as that - especially when they could have a cat tree?

Now Mom, I know you must be feeling really bad about the trauma this has caused. But, you know -- you could make it up to us.
Cat Tree! Cat Tree! We want a Cat Tree!! Oh yeah, and don't forget the catio, too! I think that should do it.

Hardesty Library Revisit

A couple of you liked the stack of books in front of the library (from Friday's post). I can't believe I hadn't caught the other cool feature in the entry, so I went back yesterday and snapped a couple more pictures.

By the way, he's reading "Popular Science" and drinking a can of Coke.

Weekend Walking Trail Review - Jackson Park

Jackson Park is only a mile from my house and it's a nice place to walk, but when the sun is beating down, it doesn't supply much shade. So when it's a cloudy morning, like it was earlier today, I like to walk here.

The newer portion of the trail, at the back of the park, is not very scenic. Sometimes it's the details where you find beauty and sometimes you have to look at the big picture to find the best sights. Either way I can always find something interesting if I just remember to look.


The front part of the trail is where this park really shines.

I didn't see any snakes, but believe me I remembered to look for them. All in all a very nice place for a Sunday morning walk.

A Day for Appreciating Freedom

Happy Independence Day!

LOOK Light Opera Oklahoma

Thursday evening I went with six friends from work to dinner at El Guapo, in the Blue Dome District, and then to see "Kiss Me Kate", presented by Light Opera Oklahoma. The restaurant had pretty good food, excellent service and a high energy ambiance. The play was fun, fast paced, and performed by some very talented actors / singers / dancers.

Good food, fun with work buds, and a rambunctious musical. A very nice night indeed.

Free Friday

The company I work for generously gave us two paid days off to celebrate the July 4th holiday, so today was a free Friday! My day started with sleeping late--especially nice after being out late last night, having dinner and seeing a play with some work buddies. After a long soak in the tub, I went to one of my favorite places, the library located a few minutes from my house. The day has passed quietly and leisurely--just what I look for in a pleasant free Friday. Thank you, Employer.

I appreciate the very nice libraries we have here in Tulsa!