New York Renovator

I’ve been ripping the house apart, organizing papers and receipts and charts and documents in preparation for taxes. Good Lord, help me. I hate this time of year. I am the kind of person who loathes balancing the checkbook, let alone wrangling with receipts and tables and etc. Is it any wonder that I am in favor of a flat tax?!

So here come Livvy to provide a little entertainment for her hassled mommeh. Can you find the kitty?

Well? Did you spot her? The photo is a little blurry (taken with cell phone camera). Maybe this photo will help you.

I’ve actually found some pretty amazing junk things in some of my boxes. I have a lot of my grandmother’s old stuff. I also collect old toys. Hey, you never know if that beautiful bronze duncan raptor will be worth a fortune someday.

All right, enough entertainment. Back I go to the paperwork.

It seems like I never have my “big” camera around these days (I keep it in a drawer for safekeeping) so I usually resort to the cell phone camera. Unfortunately, the phone camera is not so hot, but hey– it’s a photo!

I was laying in bed one morning, shuddering under the mountain of blankets (we not running the baseboard heaters upstairs this year) and listening to the mice chewing in the walls. I tell you, these walls in this old 1855 house are so thin. I can hear every critter that creeps around! Anyway, I was laying in bed, trying not to think of all the stuff I had to jump into that day, when I heard a lap-lap-lap behind the curtain. It was Livvy. She had hopped up onto the moldy windowsill and was lapping up the water condensation on the old windows. Eww.

We really need to renovate the upstairs soon. We got the windows (haven’t installed them yet) so those come first. I am chomping at the bit, though, with these walls. They are uninsulated and cracking. The walls get freezing cold all winter long, it’s painful to touch them. They develop condensation and the water drips down the walls, can you believe it?! I really need to insulate. I also need to rewire the place. Two bedrooms have only one outlet right now, and the lights for another two don’t work. All in good time.

Have a great weekend, friends.

Goofy is my mascot. He’s a small resin character and he sits in my desk. He tends to flop over easily. But I still love him.

This morning, Livvy hopped onto my desk and sat in front of my computer monitor as she usually does 200 times a day.

Goofy seemed a little miffed. He trotted from his place at the back of the desk to oppose Livvy.

Humph says Livvy. I belong here, she says. Move.

Livvy 1, Goofy 0.

A glutton for punishment, Goofy made another stance to defend his territory.

WAP.

So guess who’s king of the desk now? I miss Goofy. He was a lot smaller and I could see the monitor when he was here…..

Livvy the Half Siamese Cat has acquired this new penchant for super-duper, fresh spring water. Can you find the kitty?

She’s so cute. Whenever we open the door to run water from the spigot, she reaches in, between the door and the fridge, with her paw to “catch” some of the water. If we dare leave a cup of water out on the table, this is what she does:

I don’t really know if this change in drinking habits is a cause for concern. Maybe you guys can lend me some advice. I really don’t want to drag Livvy to the vet. As cool as the discount medical uniforms and office furniture really is, I just don’t like the vet atmosphere and neither does Livvy. I can’t say that she is drinking more than usual… maybe she is. She seems in good health, otherwise.

Have a great weekend, friends!

We went on a two-day trip and left our half-Siamese baby, Livvy, alone in the house. Well– we also left the two Yorkshire terriers and the cockatiel, too, but they are mere pets. They are also contained (the dogs in a large penned area and the bird in a cage), so Livvy has the rule of the roost while we’re gone.

I have several “pet cams” set up around the house to keep an eye on the critters whenever we are out of town. Previously, we’ve always taken Livvy with us when we travel but this time we decided to leave her home to watch over everything. The surveillance camera monitored all the activity in the house, and we were able to get a good idea of what exactly Livvy does while we’re away.

The first thing she did was hop in my desk chair and snooze. She always sleeps in my desk chair when I’m away.

After a few hours, she realizes that we aren’t back yet. She waits for our return.

Nobody comes in. Hm. She saunters over to the Yorkies. She seems very pleased when they go bananas in their typical Yorky way. They bark, they spin in circles, they crash into each other and trip over the food. I can’t see her on the camera, but I just KNOW she is snickering at them.

We left her PLENTY of food, but she does like her meals “fresh.” She she tips over the cat food bag for a quick bite.

Hm. Nobody comes running to sweep it up.

WHAT IS TAKING THE FAMILY SO LONG?!

She inspects the camera.

“I’m going insane!!! It’s booooring around here! Don’t leave me alone with these nutty dogs!!!”

Unrecorded on any camera, Livvy wanders upstairs. She ferociously gnaws on the white cords to my window miniblinds. How do I know? I come home to find the blinds all mangled and chewed beyond repair. It was her only bad deed but FOR PETE’S SAKE she’s eaten through seven miniblind sets since the summer!!!!

FINALLY we arrive home, and she’s all happy and love-y again. Happy Face.

Oh we haven’t had such a cute Find the Kitty Friday photo in a long time. My daughter got this shot with her cell phne (which explains the grainy-ness of the photo).

I love it when she makes that “peekaboo” face. CUTE!

She’s been in a “hiding mode” lately. We have to constantly check for her, because sometimes *someone* leaves the basement door open and I’m terrified she’ll go down there and through the hatch that leads to the outside. Gotta get her an rfid chip or something. I’ve had too many close calls.

…Just a thought– why don’t cell phones come with better cameras? Even the slick iPhone 4 has a measly 5 MP camera. Is this some purposeful attempt to keep the digital camera industry in business? You know, if I had the choice between a 10MP cell phone camera and a 10 MP digital camera, I’d go with the cell in a second. I wonder if that’s why they don’t improve cell camera technology?

Anyway, have a great weekend folks. Be sure to hug your kittehs.

What IS it with cats and laundry? At least, with THIS cat and laundry.

She’s always skulking around the dirty and clean clothes. She likes to hide behind the mounds surrounding the washer. Then she likes to try to hop in the dryer while I’m pulling them out. Finally, she jumps in the basket of warm unfolded clothing or plops on top of the piles of folded laundry. What a silly girl. Somebody find her an anniversary gift or something to keep her outta my hair while I wash the clothes! LOL

It’s hard to believe she’s 3 1/2 years old now. She’s still such a baby. A big baby. A big laundry-loving, laundry-mooching baby.

Yep, we’re still here. Still in the same rickety old house! I’ve just been busy and renovating has come to a grinding halt right now, although Lord knows we have yet to batten down the hatches for winter. We still have to fix the chimney, and the windows need to be ordered so we can get them installed before it gets really cold.

But PRIORITIES, right! You all need photos of Livvy!!! Where could she BE? Hmmmmmm….

That was easy. Hey, for extra bonus points, find the bird. That’s what she was after that evening.

Sorry the photo is grainy. Taken with a non-quality iPod camera in low light.

I don’t know about you, but I remember when fall and winter used to be *kind of* quiet and uneventful. These days, I’m hopping. We’ve been traveling much more than usual these days, and of course there’s school for the kids and work for the mom and dad. I also have to rearrange my office which has swallowed up the living room. Lord willing, I have plans to build a storage barn and workshop next summer. All the stuff in our attached garage will go in there, and I can convert the garage into a family room/music room. Then, I’ll have the living room all to myself as a big office. I have great delusions of grandeur, getting this all accomplished in the next year or so….. hahahahaha!!! Maybe I’ll even throw in some Energy speakers for bookshelf or snazzy new carpeting… yes, I dream big.

The renovations seem very elusive, actually. A bit like how Livvy feels about that bird.

I wonder if Livvy is the first cat to ever climb Blue Mountain, in the Adirondack Mountain range of New York State? Our climb was quite the adventure! The mountain rises about 3700 feet into the atmosphere, and the views are incredible. The climb, however, is rather laborious. Livvy could only get so far.

She wanted to stop constantly, to smell the balsam fir and ferns. These were new smells for her.

Some of the trails were pretty rough.

After over 2 hours of hiking (and being carried in a cat carrier some of the way), Livvy stopped. She was probably 20 minutes from the summit, but the climbing was very intense and I didn’t feel comfortable hauling her carrier up such a steep incline (and back down again). I was afraid one of the guys would slip and Livvy would go tumbling down the incline. Also, Livvy had had very little water and I didn’t want her to continue climbing. So we stayed put on the trail and waited while the family reached the peak.

While we waited, several other groups of climbers passed us by. Each one of them exclaimed about Livvy— “Well, that’s a new thing!” ‘OH, what a beautiful cat!” Livvy got lots of attention. I really think she may be the first domestic cat up Blue Mountain! It was good to get away from home, away from the hustle and bustle of work and the city and news about the economy and annuity rates and all that stuff. Livvy ABSOLUTELY LOVED the Adirondacks. We came home a week later, and she was disappointed—- I think she thought we were going to live there! Ah, if only!

If you want to read more about our climb and see some spectacular photos of the views from the summit, you can read my article about our adventure, on my New York Travel blog.