I've had cats most of my life.  There was a short interlude when I lived in DC with guys with allergies and couldn't have a cat.   Then I moved into an apartment with my friend K and I was able to adopt a cat.  Another friend had adopted two cats rescued from Miami after Hurricane Andrew and they weren't fitting in well with her cats.

Mickey was a nervous cat.  For the first months, he really seemed to love my roommate more than me.  He loved her crochet blanket and slept in her room all the time.  I'm not sure when it changed and he began sleeping in my room...

But he had a bad habit which I ended up working to fix.  His front claws had been removed and a lot of time when this happens, cats bite a lot.  And Mickey bit quite a lot.  He would have these odd fits and I would have to roll him up in a blanket and kind of sit on him.  He would run and hide in his litter box when it rained hard.  He was very nervous and I kept working to break him of this habit.  It took me most of his life.

He was with me when I moved off to Brooklyn by myself.  I woke him up many nights when I heard something and was looking for a burglar.  He used to sleep rolled up against my back.

It took me a long time to break him of his biting.  And he went through a period of being a bit of a chub.  But then he started to thin down.  That's because I adopted the evil Tootsie.  They used to fight...but Mickey always seemed to prevail.  He had this stare that worked not only on her but also on dogs.  

When I roomed in a group house with some of my friends, my friend Katha would often bring her dog Murphy with her.  Now Murphy LOVED food and to a dog...cat food is the best.  Murphy knew there was cat food upstairs and he really wanted to get to that food.  However, Mickey would sit on the top step and stare at Murphy.  And Murphy would not even try it.  He would bark and bark at Mick and Mick would never move.  He'd just stare.

He was quite the sassy cat.  Every once in awhile he'd lean over and lick my hand to show me he loved me.  He was in the vet hospital twice when I had him...once in Brooklyn and once here in Ashburn.  Both times when I came in to visit him, I'd reach in the cage and he'd lick my hand as if to say...I love you...get me out of here.

He was a really good fellow, who rolled with the punches.  When I adopted Tootsie, he smacked her a couple of times and they sort of separated the house into two parts...his and hers.  And he always made sure he had the best parts.  At night, Tootsie stayed on one side of the bed and he stayed on the other rolled up against my back.  Which I really miss.

Tootsie sleeps as if she is a sphinx on a pillow.  Clouseau is busy, busy and he sleeps on the bedside table.  He's such a kooky kitten.  Neither one is a lap kitty.  Mickey would sit in my lap, give my hand a lick and after ten minutes would go back to his place on the sofa and sleep.  When you have a pet for as long as I had the Mick-ster...you really get used to having them around and their rhythms.  I really miss him a lot...but he was an old fellow and it was time for him to go to rest.  

But I'll miss that fella.  

Wegman's bread and artisan butter

Temptation on a stick

this cheese is excellent

Yes...I read Garden & Gun.  And it is awesome.

I'm trying to focus more on photography

poor little Mickey.  He's such a skinny boy...soo...

I bought him a kitty heating pad.  Yep..come back in your next life as my cat.   

When I told a friend today that Ted Kennedy passed away their comment was

"I'm not going to lie...I don't know who that is"

She did know who Eunice Kennedy Shriver was.

Maria Shriver's mom.  Arnold Schwarzenegger's  mother in law.

Naturally I went on one of my trademark rants about who Ted was and why she should know him...and why Eunice Kennedy Shriver was more that just Maria Shriver's mother...but the founder of the Special Olympics.

I love this person and my mention of this story is not to hurt her feelings or make fun of her.  She is not a person who enjoyed studying history.  She loves science.  But...I do feel like a lot of younger people don't pay attention to what I'd call "hard news".

I don't always watch the network news, but I listen to NPR and I read the Post and the NY Times.  I check out CNN and so forth regularly.  I also read my gossipy sites...like People, Us, Perez (even though he annoys me) and so forth.  But I can't understand how people live in the world and yet totally ignore what goes on in Congress or so forth.  They listen to Stern or Elliott in the morning because it's funny.

When I was in my twenties I thought that I would always be in the center of the world and not be an old fogey.  But I am an old fogey.  Like many before me I now rail against the generations after me and fuss over the things they seem to not know.

However...I text exceptionally slowly and although I do work pretty well on the computer...I don't know how to format things all the time.  The generations below me have knowledge beyond mine and will do things my generation may have wished to do, so there are pluses and minuses.

I just wish that my friend would pay a bit more attention to history and historical figures.  But maybe that's what I'm here to do...

I think my vet's office forgot to call in my meds for my cat.  I called them on Friday...and I still haven't gotten a call that my meds are ready.  I'll have to call in the morning.

I'm a little worried about Mickey.  Tonight he did not try and eat my dinner...which is something he is ALWAYS interested in.  He was pretty excited about the new cat food...but I feel impending doom as far as his health status.

Clouseau on the other hand is hysterical.  This week he is in love with a yellow straw which he has been carrying around everywhere.

As usual I am thinking about popular culture.  Here are my thoughts:

1 - I am tired of Jon and Kate + 8's drama.  Both of them need to shut it.

2 - I am noticing UBER product placement on Bravo's reality shows.  On Rachel Zoe...placement for BING.  On Flipping Out...Windex cleaner.  Why does this annoy me?

3 - the fan in my car is kaput...so tomorrow I'm dropping the Escort off and PRAYING the fix is NOT expensive

4 - I am itchy after hearing about my friends issues with bedbugs.  Living in a box after retirement and bedbugs are now #1 and #2 on my irrational fear list

Dad gave me his old scanner to use so that I could put some of my hard copy photos into digital format.  I decided I would hook the scanner up to my old Dell and scan away.

I spent a good amount of time downloading the install info off the web for the scanner tonight...and got all of that installed.  The scanner is hooked up and troubleshooting says NO ISSUES YOUR SCANNER IS CONNECTED.  But when I go to scan something...the system says...WE CANNOT LOCATE THE SCANNER.  When my device control clearly says THE SCANNER IS CONNECTED.

This is very frustrating...so I am giving up.  I'll see if I can get it to work with super MacBook...but I'm not putting much effort into this.  

Shannon...my picture download project for you is looking like a bust...