New York Renovator

Since I’m not renovating anything yet, I’m content to fill the blog with Livvy escapades. I hope you don’t mind. I really don’t want this blog to become a “cat blog” (as cool as those are) because I think they require tremendous amount of effort and energy. Which I do not have, currently.

We’ve been taking videos of Livvy’s antics FOREVER and I finally took some time to edit a few of them for viewer consumption. We’ve got some doozies, I’ll tell you that. lol.

Here’s one. We got her one of those cardboard scratching post things. She’s shredded her sisal-rope post TWICE and we are sick of replacing the rope. The husband got her a cute little cardboard ramp WITH a butterfly toy and WITH catnip. Livvy has only had catnip once before, so this proved to be an interesting little show.

What is it about pets that makes us inflict them and then watch them with amusement? lol

Most of the time I tolerate Livvy’s antics pretty well. She has this very bad habit of climbing up on my desk and planting her big Siamese butt in front of my monitor. She then presses her wet nose on the screen– or even licks it!– so the monitor is speckled with slimy cat snot. *gag* Before I moved my keyboard into a keyboard desk tray, she’d lounge on the keyboard, too. If I was frittering away my time on the computer, that’d be one thing. But I work from home! I have scads of articles to write, and all she wants is ATTENTION! Who does she think she is, Cleopatra??

Well, I had a little fun with Livvy yesterday. Yeah, I was a bit stir-crazy. Looks like it was contagious.

She can be such a pain sometimes, but isn’t she adorable?!

We expected it. It’s still *only* February in Upstate New York. :S We really can’t breathe a sigh of relief until about mid-April, really. And I honestly don’t mind the snow, except that… well, this late in the season, it’s not that nice, fluffy Lake Effect snow from Lake Ontario. It’s monster snow, loaded with moisture chugging up the Eastern seaboard from the Gulf of Mexico. It’s obese snow, it’s snow that weighs about 100 pounds per shovelful! (Well, it feels that way!).

I’m watching it, before my eyes, turn from a grainy, misty kind of snow to flakes that are increasing in size. Last night, the weather dudes said maybe 5 inches. Today, it’s been upped to 10 of 12 inches.

Whoa!

Here’s a quick 1-minute video I took of the snowfall this morning. If the weather dudes are correct, multiply this by 10 and that’s what we’ll have by the end of the day. Yeehaw.

Winter is nice, I think. The fresh snow covers all the mud and debris left over from fall. I’m pretty happy right now about it, because all the ice dams are gone from the roof. Last week, it was over 50 degrees, which melted everything off the roofs! I was elated. Then, the next day, it was near 0! Such is New York.

Have a great weekend.

Did you hear about the lunar eclipse last night? It was a unique event, because it occurred on the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year). Unfortunately, I missed it (I actually do try to see these astronomical events, I think they are amazing!), but someone made a very cool video of it! I’m glad some folks broke out their super cameras– this video is so clear it’s almost like you are there, watching it with your own eyes. The video is best played in full screen mode– SO impressive!

After watching an eclipse I have to wonder if people really did believe in the “Flat Earth” theory. I mean, all you have to do is watch an eclipse to see that this isn’t so. I don’t know where the idea came from, I’ve only heard insinuations that folks back in the Dark Ages believed it, just like they believed that maggots sprang from meat left on the butcher’s butcher block table, or that scientists could turn lead into gold. :S

Anyway, eclipses are cool. I hope you liked the video!

I am definitely not one to watch viral videos, especially all the goofy “talking” or “singing” animal videos out there.

BUT.

This one is hilarious! Whoever made this video did an exceptional job! Not only is the video entertaining, the creator really captured the personalities of the various animals (especially the cats, LOL). It’s a little lengthy, but waiting until the end is worth it. I think this is the best animal Christmas video. So to all my animal-loving pals, this one’s for you!

We’ve only got two more weeks left! By mid-December, I am ready to relax and enjoy the holidays. We don’t celebrate Christmas like most people do (gobs of decorating and presents). When the kids were small, I decorated and we gave gifts. But we all wanted the holiday to be more low-key. I personally love the traditional Christmas– you know, Victorian carolers in fur muffs gathered around mailboxes, Meet Me in St. Louis-style, you know? I have always loved the Victorian era– the architecture, the art, the sense of family, Jingle Bells, old-fashioned Christmas cards! I have a Vistorian boot scrape on my front porch (quite rusty, now, but it was beautiful when I got it). I always dreamed of owning a Victorian house. It was not to be, but I am pretty happy with my pre-Victorian Greek Revival.

So are you ready for Christmas? Will yours be an old-fashioned one with a big family gathering and caroling?

I grew up near New York’s largest inland lake. I sometimes miss the life by the waterside: the fresh fish, the swimming, the boating, the marina activities. I live in Central New York where the nearest REAL lake is 40 miles away. I am not a very good land-lubber…

So I watched this amazing video with great interest. I have ALWAYS wanted to live in an underwater world! This is a real hotel, being constructed underwater, in Dubai. It’s called Hydropolis and it’s just amazing.

There’s more about the Hydropolis here. Wow!

My daughter put together a collection of clips where our kitty, Livvy, is talking to us. Actually, the video clips don’t do it justice. Maybe she gets camera shy, but Livvy clams up somewhat after we break out the camcorder! She can carry on some really neat conversations. One night we discussed the repercussions of the string theory and quantum mechanics on time travel and… well, I’m pulling your leg there. Ha ha.

So she meows. But she meows with STYLE, people.

Ooooooooooo!!! If this isn’t adorable, I don’t know what is!! This kitty looks exactly like my beautiful Livvy when she was small (she has grown so much!). And Livvy would do dumb stuff like this, too, haha! This is just too cute, tooo cute!

This snow machine vehicle, a hybrid of a tractor, automobile, and steam-roller, designed in 1924, is fantastic! I want one! I think we could use some of these in Upstate New York!

Armstead Snow Motors from Seeking Michigan on Vimeo.

From the site:

In January 1926, Time magazine reported: “Having used the motor car for almost every other conceivable purpose, leading Detroit automobile makers have now organized a company entitled “Snow Motors Inc.,” to put out a machine which will negotiate the deepest snowdrifts at six to eight miles an hour. The new car will consist of a Ford tractor power-plant mounted on two revolving cylinders instead of wheels—something on the order of a steam roller.

The auto performance parts for this monster must have been easy to find- just grab parts from your old John Deere or something! As neat as this is, the snowmobile became the snow vehicle of choice, didn’t it? Although I don’t think snowmobiles are nearly as cool as this snow vehicle. And the guy makes it look so easy to manuever!

We’re back to the deep freeze here in Upstate New York. But February is on the way!! Plus, I saw this video, taken from Antartica, and I feel suddenly warmer with my 5-degree NY weather!

That’s a scientist who lives in Antarctica, showing us what a Condition 1 storm is like on the icy continent. BRRRRR!!!!