Whiskers Wednesday - Casper the Kitchen Kitty

Our mom says she doesn’t like rude, mean people, but last night she sat and watched a totally rude guy on TV, for TWO solid hours!! She says her liking to watch “Hell’s Kitchen” baffles her mind, too, but she can’t seem to stop herself.
I don’t care too much for that show. First, because even with all that food being cooked, I can’t get one little whiff of any of it from the TV box. Next, all that yelling and “BEEP, BEEP, BEEPing” hurts my delicate kitty ears. But, mostly because that Gordon Ramsey is so BEEPing angry. But, now I think I have it figured out. I never saw one single cat in his kitchen. That poor guy--maybe if he had a kitchen kitty, he’d be a lot happier -- and nicer!

Mom said to make sure I tell you she uses Chlorox wipes on the

counterts all the time! Well, duh, like I would get up on a dirty counter.

Sunbathing Angel

A nice sun bath...

...and then she's going...

 

..going...

Gone!

 

Let the catnap begin.

Weekend Walking Trail Review: Back to Haikey Creek

Yesterday I got a late start for my weekend walking trail walk, due to a hair appointment and a few other errands. Because of the extreme afternoon heat I really planned on using the elliptical, inside where air conditioning makes summertime bearable. But, to my surprise I wanted to go to one of the walking paths. I knew I needed to go to one that I was certain had plenty of opportunities for shade, so back to Haikey Creek I went.
When I got to the walking / jogging trail, there wasn't a single car in the lot. Hmm, second thoughts... well, I can always get back to the car fairly quickly if the heat and humidity seem too much. It was hot and the air was thick with humidity, but keeping a moderate pace and sticking to the shady areas as much as possible, I was actually fairly comfortable.

Summer has been tough on the creek, too. The water has become shallow and, as my cat friends would say, quite whiffable, in areas.

 Other than that, the walk ended up being very pleasant. In part this was due to the beauty of a bright blue and white summer sky. It is one of my most favorite sights, and never fails to move me! .

When I got back to the car, another lady had arrived. She walked for a bit and then started a cautious jog. Show-off. I hope she had plenty of water.

Riding in the Way-Back Machine

“Brandy” by Looking Glass is one of my all time favorite songs. Every time it comes on the radio, I’m transported back to my happy teenage place. Not the awkward, embarrassing, inferiority complex laden moments of those years, but back to the fun, free, light times. I recently heard my time-travel song while driving home from work. The fact that it still comes on the radio as frequently as it does--after 38 years--makes me think it must have a similar effect on lots of other people.

When I got home I looked through a stack of old albums, and found it. I found several other good albums like Elton John’s “Yellow Brick Road”, Chicago, Cat Stevens, Neil Young, America and others. I don’t have a turntable to listen to them on, but I can’t seem to let go of them either. I guess I don’t have to be able to listen to them; I feel a little younger just looking through them. Can you dig it?

Going in the Right Direction

Driving home from work all week, I've been looking over at the northbound lanes under construction, thinking, wow, I'm definitely going the right direction. Of course, when I go to work in the morning, I go through this work zone, too, but because it's so early in the morning the traffic is much lighter then. 

I'm sure that in a week or two the construction will be moved over to my going-home lanes. I wonder if someone will be resting their camera on the steering wheel snapping a picture of all us pathetic non-moving commuters. Maybe the title of their blog post will be "Sucks to Be You." But, of course I'm way too classy for that.

Whiskers Wednesday - Angel the Conquerer

Mom's shoe rack is a good place to hide from the scary vacuum cleaner, until he roars into the closet. Mom says she has to keep bringing out the monster vac so it can pick up all the fluff-bunnies we leave laying around on the floor. We know who leaves all that white floof behind... right Casper?

(By the way, Mom, some of these shoes are ready to be put out to pasture. You've done all you can for them and it's time to let them go. It would be the shoe-mane thing to do.)

I tried staring the monster vac down; one of my most intimidating moves. But, he did not blink! I've never seen anything like it.

 

 I even executed my best wrestling move, the Flying Angel. I pounced right toward him. Nothing!! What kind of creature is this?!

My very best moves seemed ineffective. Only one thing left to do... take evasive action!

 ...and do the 'nana nana boo boo' chant. Finally! It was all too much for him, and he retreated to his closet. Hah! I don't think he'll be bothering us again.

The new Mary Kay car?

Happiness Inside

The rewards certificate from DSW Shoes comes in an envelope marked "Happiness Inside". I like getting my $10 off coupon--especially when the other envelopes contain bills--but the statement makes me stop and think about happiness and appreciate the coupon a bit more. I guess it doesn't take much to make me feel happy.

Catio! Catio! We Want a Catio!

Our pal Max at Psycho Kitty clued us into a wonderful innovation. Click on Catios to see the slide show.
Come on Mom, we want a catio! We'll start scooping our own litter box if you'll give us one--well, maybe we'll keep more of the litter from going out of the box...

Look out, Outside World, here we come.
Purrs from ~~Casper and Angel~~

Weekend Walking Trail Review: Creek Turnpike Trail

Today I went back to Hunter Park for my walking trail review. If you remember from a previous post, I really like this park. At 8:30 this morning the park was already alive with activity. I'm sure, like me, some of them were trying to beat the heat; even at that time it was already 83 degrees F.

 This time I started further up the trail in order to get a look at a portion of the trail I didn't make it to the last time. The trail at Hunter Park is connected with the Creek Turnpike Trail and it was becoming a nice challenge for me, with some pretty good inclines.

 

 A few weeks ago I'm not sure I would have been able to make this walk. Ah, Progress--gotta' love it!

Out with the Old, In with the New

   

The Hotel Phillips in Bartlesville, OK has closed its doors after almost six decades. It was the required hotel for visiting out-of-town employees of the oil company where I work (at the moment). But now there's a new, bigger, better hotel located next door to our office complex. The Hilton Garden Inn is the new required hotel for our company.

From comments by some of those fellow employees and some of the reviews I've seen, it may have been time for her to take a break; she was getting worn out and run down. The good news for the Hotel Phillips? There are plans for the 144 hotel rooms to be converted to 80 to 90 apartments for renters over 55-years of age, with 20 percent of the units available to "lower income seniors." That sounds like a nice and fitting way for the old hotel to go into semi-retirement; an encore career of sorts for her.

Everything changes. The best we can hope is that most of the changes are positive. That's my hope for this historic building.
Hmm, I wonder what in my life needs to be retired, or even better, re-purposed.

Whiskers Wednesday: Cats Love Salmon, Too!

Last night our mom cooked salmon. Now she knows we love salmon, and just in case she forgot, we made sure to remind her. We meowed loudly, we licked our chops, and we followed her every move while she prepared it. Even with all these efforts, she still did not share!!

Please understand, we didn't want to get tough with her, but it was obvious that we had to shun her.

It only lasted a few minutes though; surely she had learned her lesson, plus we didn't want to miss out on any head-scratching time.

Next time, Mom, please avoid putting us through this stress by just remembering, WE LOVE SALMON, TOO!
~~Purrs and hugs from Casper and Angel~~

What's not to like?

"Beware of people who dislike cats." - Irish proverb

Just Doing It

Walking my way into Week # 7

Sunday is for Serenity

Weekend Walking Trail Review

This morning I tried out the walking path at River Parks between 41st and 51st Streets. If you wonder why I keep taking you to River Parks, it's because the entire trail covers more than 25 miles, so I'm taking it a stretch at a time. This portion was NICE.

For most of it, the biking path was separated from the walking/jogging side.

The river was flowing, the sky was a bit cloudy,

the trees were green,

 and at the 41st end there was a kiddy park where little toddlers were having a big time playing.

Tulsa streets may be crumbing under our tires, but we can be proud of our well maintained park trails. Hmmm, where to go next?

Casper Strikes a Pose

Casper went all cat-atonic on me as soon as he spied the camera. Angel's move from one tent to the other was all the action we got from our first take. We might need some more time and work on the whole movie-making thing. They're having trouble learning their lines anyway.

=^-^= No cats were injured in the making of this movie.  =^-^=

Simon's Cat

Here I am watching my role model, Simon's cat. He's a pro at this cat stuff.  MOL~

I'll share--in case you want to see it, too.

~~~purrrrs and hugs to you~~~
Casper  =^-^=

Cammo Cat Angel

I had something exciting to blog about yesterday, but Casper was hogging the laptop--again. He went so far as to take a nap on top of it, knowing that because I have the highest respect for catnaps, I wouldn’t wake him. Darn those high feline standards anyway.

Obviously Mom doesn’t have those same standards. She woke me up from a super sound sleep because she just had to have a picture of me looking so cute curled up, snoozing and camouflaged on the back of the couch. Yeah, whatever.

After all of that I forgot the life-changing words of wisdom I was going to impart. As some humans say, I’ve slept since then. Speaking of sleep, I'm feeling kind of snoozie.
Sweet dreams,
  ~~Angel~~

Hunter Park

 
Keeping in the spirit of checking out the walking trails in the vicinity, today I went to Hunter Park, around 91st and Sheridan. We have some great parks here in Tulsa! The trail wound around the entire park and offered a variety of sights, including a pond with ducks, fishing platforms and a fountain.

 The pond is close to Biscuit Acres, the dog park where big dogs and little dogs have their own designated fenced areas to play in.

Little humans have a playground where they can enjoy some fun, colorful toys and water features of their own.

 Once I passed the playground, the trail continued into a more wooded area, and took me under the Creek Turnpike. After making it to the top of a nice incline, I turned around and headed back. I’ll have to work up to completing the entire trail.

 This park goes on my list of favorite places to walk, and I will be taking my grandsons to the playground next time they come to visit.