StrangeRanger

Working

I AM HAVING PICTURE ISSUES.  I'LL GET IT FIXED AS SOON AS I CAN.  DAISY IS WELL!

It's been a busy few weeks at ChezRanger.  Lots of stuff has been getting done.  We've got some more to get done soon but we're taking a break for a couple of weeks.  Thank goodness.

We have been without closet doors in the bedroom for a decade or more now.  The doors that were present when we bought the place 20+ years ago were old.  They took turns falling out of the doorframe and we'd just never seen the urgency in replacing them.  Then Daisy started climbing climbing up LadyRanger's clothes to get to the top shelf and start throwing down the contents.  Not only did Daisy start throwing down the jeans, but she started pitching the good wool sweaters.  On top of all that, Daisy's ladder to the shelf was usually the section of the closet that held LadyRanger's small but lovely collection of handmade, stylish silk garments.  Doors had to be found.

We got some of the classic bi-fold closet doors.  "Well," I said to myself, "How hard could this be?"  I got the tracks and brackets set up just right, but the darn doors would not fit.  And it was only about 1/16th of an inch, too.  Couldn't figure it out to save my life.  That's when I called in a professional.

 

There we go! All neat, tidy, secure, and absolutely un-openable by anyone without opposable thumbs!  Why were we putting these up again?

Daisy was ably assisted by Logan, and gentleman who has worked on our house many times in the past.  Indeed, one of the few people who we trust to work on our wee brick bungalow.

I've been doing a bit or work myself.  I have always been interested in woodworking so I'm taking a class at the local community college and am having a blast.  I've come back after each session with all of my fingers, so that's a win.  I've made a couple of primitive items that may be useful for keeping plants in.  The last session of the class, I started trying out tools I hadn't used before.  I was just seeing if I could get my cuts made correctly and accurately, and then see if I could put them together right.

 

It's not a real picture frame.  It might be a.....trivet??  Maybe?  I was pleased with how it came together and how neatly it all lined up.  I was pleased with how square ("skwar" as my instructor would say) the corners are.  And, of course, it serves to frame my dear wee gray cat. Until she moves...

Have a great week ahead, all!

 

F=ma

I'm sure that the physicists amongst my reader base will recognize Newton's Second Law of Thermodynamics.  For the rest of us (myself included) here's the translation:  it states that the forces acting on an object (F) are equal to the mass (m) of the object times it's acceleration (a).  I'll have to go through Newton's Principia again but I'm sure that there is another multiplier if the object being accelerated is a medium sized gray cat.  I think we take the force present up by an order of magnitude or more.... probably more.

Whatever in the world could have happened here??

Daisy has always been given to fits of the zoomies.  Quite adorable, actually.  She's learned how to handle herself on hardwood and rarely spins out.  She loves to get up speed and launch herself into the papa-san.  Which was great.  Until she hit ten pounds or so and developed a frame powerful  enough to really go airborne.  The papa-san has wobbled pretty hard before, but recently she's been taking the thing down.  Loudly.  

Hey!! Did anyone see this?!?  Did you see what some other cat musta come in here and did?!?  Maybe it was Little Gray Guy!!  Or Puddin'!  That tail woulda knocked this over easy, that's for sure.....

Seriously, that is all her.  Glad we don't have anything really breakable in range of that chair.....

We really can't complain, though.  Not only is Daisy a really sweet cat, she has been good as gold recently.  We're having our bathroom re-tiled.  Have to stop a leak in the walls.  There have been strangers in and out of the house, banging and hammering...the whole nine yards.  Daisy has been a champ.  We had to stay at a hotel for a couple of nights as they had removed the toilet.  Daisy had a grand time exploring the temporary digs.  She has been a true Adventure Cat!

She's even shown us her artistic/technical side during our design process.  Here she is, offering her thoughts while looking at the old tile...

Okay, I think you're gonna need at least a new transmission on this baby.  And your shocks are worn, and the MacPherson struts are going.  Lessee....your fuel injects don't, and the ailerons and tail flaps wobble too much.  And look at that!  You're flirting with gimbal-lock!  And you're gonna need a few crenelations and battlements, too! Oh my, it's a good thing you came to see me when you did!  Things are dire.  You're gonna need at least 5 boat-payments worth of work here......

She has a firm grasp of the technical work necessary, without a doubt.

We'll keep you updated as Daisy Snoopervises the work in progress.

Hey! Helloooo!!! We're Still Here!

Hi!

We are still here.

 

I apologize for the lack of Daisy for the last three months.  It's been a terribly busy terrible 2017 thus far.

LadyRanger's parents have been in poor health for a while, especially her dad.  There have been numerous health crises since New Year's.  LadyRanger's been up at the Winter Palace more than she's been here.  Daisy and I have driven up to see her almost every weekend.  Daisy and I have put over 6,000 miles on our paws. We're happy to do it, to see LR and to help however we can.  But it's wearing and there's been no time or energy for posting.

It culminated with the death of her father in the middle of March.

Jim was a good man.  We'll miss him.  Loved cats.  He seemed to enjoy my company, but I think that's only because I brought Maddie, Ivy, or Daisy up to visit.

As for cats, Daisy has become a seasoned traveler and has grown into something close to an adult cat!

She is still a kitten at heart, playing whenever she's not asleep.  She's a sweetie.

There will be more posting as travel becomes less frequent.  There's still a lot to be done up at the WP, and LR's mom cared for, so we're not done yet.  Hang with us, please.

There may also be more posting as our energy level begins to approach normal. Dunno when that'll happen, tho.....

For now, we're kinda almost sorta closing in on being back-ish.

And Daisy?

Back??  Hmmph!  I've never been gone!  I'm always exactly where I am!  Because no matter where you go, there you are!

Thus sayeth our wee gray philosopher.

And mad internet points for the one who identifies the source of the last sentence!

Big Event Friday

Daisy went off to the vet Friday for her tonker-ectomy.

Oooofff!  I'm under-age!  I din't know they served me that much tequila!!!  I'ma lie here 'til the room stops spinning.....

Don't worry, Daisy fans.  She came through the operation just fine.  The vet said that she was developing an upper respiratory infection, so she got an extra antibiotic shot on top of everything else.  She was pretty wobbly Friday night, but by Saturday evening she was looking much more herself.

She did manage, quite early on Saturday morning, to get her cone off.  Took about 17 seconds of psycho-kitty-maneuvering and off it popped.  I ran off to the vet and got the next size down.  Daisy kept her larger cone on peacefully enough until this morning and then off it came.  We've got the smaller, presumably more stable, cone on her now.  She seems much happier with it.  Most importantly to us, she can't get to her incision.  Most importantly to her, she can get to her  <ahem> hind end.  She's a fastidious kitty, and I think to being able to groom apres-litter box was causing distress.  We hope all is well, now.

We did learn one interesting thing about our girl this week, prior to the operation.

She hates paper towels.  Really.  Here's the aftermath:

Feels like we should have yellow crime scene tape up....

It asked for it.  I'd do it again.

And I do believe her.  Perhaps when the cone comes off.  The joys of living with a delicate little predator...

And one quick shout-out to TOM!!  w00t!!  We've got Daisy on some good probiotics from the vet.  They seem to have helped her gut performance.  Thank you for your suggestion.  I doubt we'd have thought of that on our own.  Much good karma flows your way, sir!

Contemplations

It has been quite a while since my last post.  My mind has been off on other flights, most especially prepping my class for the dread-inducing End of Grade Tests, which started up Friday and roll on into the coming week.

Other minds in our neighborhood have also been working hard.

Puddin' 2.0 is obviously contemplating something (note the visual distortion in the pic?  As with Puddin' 1.0 {lovingly called Matilda by those of us on this side of the glass} I believe that 2.0 is getting ready to warp space and time for her own feline purposes).  What does she dwell on?  To what end does she distort the very fabric of our universe??

Teleportation to the birdbath!  Jumping is so 20th century!  And now I contemplate whether she looks at the water as soiled by the feathery buttheads that bathe in it, or as a sort of delicately flavored consomme...  I'm not likely to find out.  And if someone can tell me how to make an "e" with the appropriate accent mark for a fancy french soup, I'd be grateful.

Oh, and by the way, wow, what a tail!

 

I've also had cats on my mind recently.  Actually for about a year.  LadyRanger and I are certain that cats are a necessary here.  We are having some qualms though, about what to do about it.  "Adopt a cat, you moron!" I hear you say.  That is the obvious solution, but it gets complicated.  Y'see, I'm allergic to cats.

Yeah.  Odd, huh?  I was able to live so happily with Maddie and Ivy because Maine Coon Cats don't seem to produce as much of the allergen as most other breeds,and Ivy never slept with us (she had her own night-time room so that 2 a.m. cat conflict would be avoided).  I reacted a bit more when Ivy scratched me than I did with Maddie.  LadyRanger and I are worried about adopting a couple of waifs, falling in love, discovering that I react strongly to them,and then having to give them back to whatever shelter we got them from.  Not only would that break our hearts, it'd be bad for the cats.

We'd love to just get a couple of Maine Coons since they are funny, smart, vocal and drop-dead beautiful, but until we hit the Powerball there is no way we can afford even one kitten,let alone the two that we've always said that we'd get.  (also said that they have to like each other)(not going through cat-animosity again!)  We were lucky enough to get Maddie because, as long time readers will know, she was a pedigreed cat, bought in Washington and dumped at a shelter here when she was "too big for our apartment".  Can't expect that kind of luck again....

I've got a few worries that are my own, too.  What if I don't manage to forge a good relation with new cats?  I think I can, but I don't know...  What if I compare them to Maddie and Ivy?  How can any cat match the quiet, confident sweetness, courage and determination that was Ivy?  How can any cat match the vibrant, out-sized personality that was Maddie, or the very special bond that she and I shared?  Can we catch lightning in a bottle again?

I think I'll come to love any new cats for their own merits, quirks and personalities, but gosh it's a worry right now.  LadyRanger has an Ivy-sized faith that it'll be fine, as long as I don't go into anaphylactic shock.

If you've any words of wisdom, feel free to pass them along.  I'd be grateful.

We're looking at taking the plunge by the end of June, so check back in and see how it goes.

Miscellanous

It's been a while since my last posting.  Much has occurred since.  Not cats, but much.

A new furnace (ouch!), possibility of a new roof (oucher!!), general repairs, refits and reconditionings.  Let me say one word as it regards our bank account:  hemorrhage.  Not been a pretty sight, but at least we've had it saved up.  It has been the topic of much grim conversation here at ChezRanger.

Anyways, on to more cheerful subjects.

Cat.

I've introduced you to Puddin' 2.0, and used a picture of the southern end of a northbound cat to do it.  I can now remedy that.

Here she is!  A lovely, talkative sweetie.  The next pic is of poor quality, but it gives you a sense of her face.

Eager and interested in the outside world.  

And now (because it really needs a separate introduction)...the tail:

Is that somethin' or is that somethin'??  That's Ed, her human.  It's quite common to see them out together in the nice weather.  When it's time to go in, Ed scoops her up and carries her like a football back to the house.

It's been spring here for a week or two.

That means our veronica is blooming, along with our dandelions. (note:  I have no idea how this pic will turn out.  It's about my first pic on the new phone and I am ignorant of how best to work it)

And since it's spring, nay...Easter, LadyRanger and I had one of our fave dinners to celebrate: Morroccan Fish Stew with Harissa.

Yummy to the nth degree.  We use ancho chilles in our harissa and it is all about flavor, not heat.  Purists will scoff, but we like it.

We hope you are all doing well.  Happy Easter!

SongBirds

One of the great delights here at ChezRanger is sitting by the fire on a winter's afternoon, listening to the Saturday broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera.  Neither LadyRanger nor I are serious opera mavens, but we do enjoy it, even if we don't know all the ins and outs of the art form.  We're happiest with lyric opera but can push through more modern stuff (although "View from the Bridge" can pretty much dampen an otherwise pleasant day).  It turns out that we're not the only species that appreciates opera.  We found this fellow quite enchanting!

 

What I like about this is that he seems to be enjoying himself!  Of course, I know little about birds and bird behavior, so perhaps he's hating his way through it, but I doubt that...

This is, for anyone wondering, the coloratura part of the Queen of the Night's aria from Mozart's Magic Flute.  Here's a clip of how it sounds when a human attempts it.

 

The relevant, parrot-inspiring part parts can be found starting around 1:42 but the whole smash is well worth the listen.  The soprano is Diana Damrau.  I particularly love her little smile at the end, the smile of complete victory. 

Maddie never really cared one way or the other about the opera or anything else we played, although she would usually hide under the bed when we played our one Billy Joel cd.  Ivy, on the other hand, did appear to like a beautiful aria.  

Darn tootin'!  I am a civilized kitty!

One day we were playing this video, The Flower Duet from Delibe's Lakme....  (please forgive if an add intrudes at the start.  NEVER buy whatever it is.  That's my policy!)

...and the wee tuxedo cat, who'd been relaxing on the couch silently set up a wonderful, loud purr.  It lasted for the entire aria.  Made us smile.  

Perhaps our next cats will appreciate opera, a fire in the fireplace and a lazy Saturday afternoon.  

First comes the...

...cat picture, since you don't really care about the rest of the silliness...

Wasn't she a lovely beast?

We do have one update on an important topic:  our neighbor Ed has adopted a new cat!  He found a beautiful 3-year old cat, though none of us think that she's really that old.  She's a medium hair girl with a poof of a tail.  We met her through the window yesterday.  I don't have any pics, but I'll share one when I finally get some.  We are very happy for Ed.  And, for reasons that I don't understand, I'm just pleased for us, too.  I suppose that this helps me believe that another cat or two abiding in ChezRanger will eventually happen.  

The next update is kitchen-related.  LadyRanger and I are expanding our already vast recipe book with...Paella!

We made a seafood paella last night.  Shrimp, lobster, saffron, green beans and a type of pepper called Aleppo pepper.  First time we've used it.  The dish was a raging success.  And it makes enough for us to have left overs on monday!  woohoo!

The Traditional Use for a Kitchen

Not only is the kitchen used to prepare food and drink, it is also a space in which to consume them. Witness.

Maddie always loved to drink from her glass (and yes, it was specifically bought for her) on her stool (which came as part of the butcher block set and was not bought for her)(which didn't prevent her from appropriating it as desired). 

What?  You sit on the stool and drink those foul Colombian bean squeezings with creamer...why shouldn't I sit here to have my far more civilized drinkies??  If I had a pinkie, I assure you, sir, it would be stuck out.

True, Little Miss....

As she aged, Maddie took her liquid refreshment on the floor in the corner next to the dishwasher.  She went from perching on the stool, meowing loudly for her water to doing the same in the corner.  

Hey.  It worked.  Be off with you.

More info on our kitchen work (please feel free to disregard if you've only come for the cat):  

In the top photo you can see more of the kitchen, including the 1970's stove that was here when we moved in.  We were not sorry to see it go when it died and we bought our current one.  You can also see in the right middle of the pic the plastic strip that was nailed to the baseboard to hide the 2 inch gap between the floor and the wall.  We think that, after three (3!!) attempts over 17 years to have the floor jacked up, the guy that's doing the job for us has finally gotten things worked out and that once the new floor, baseboards and toe kick are installed it'll look like rich people live here.  Or at least people who don't have a gap between the wall and the floor.

In the middle photo you can see our old dishwasher.  It was 20 years old if it was a day and although loud, it was the first dishwasher we had in our married life and we loved it.  Worked like a dream until the leak started.  We actually regretted having to replace it.  We really wanted to give it a viking funeral, sent off into the sea on a blazing longship.  I really think that it's now off in some Appliance Valhalla.

It's funny... I tend to be a type of animist and want to imagine the spirit of my dishwasher enjoying the eternal rinse cycle.....

 We got our new low-end Bosch dishwasher on deep sale and are quite pleased.  The only thing that bothered us?  It is so quiet that when we turned it on for the first time we thought it was broken!  If we'd had the Bosch from the first it'd have saved us a lot of spilled water. There were a few times that we made the mistake of firing the old one up while Maddie was having drinkies on her stool.  When the loud ol' Whirlpool started it's very loud cycle and took Maddie by surprise...well off she went!  You'll notice the stool has a narrow base and is not stable under that kind of feline acceleration.  You guessed it...the stool and the glass FULL of water hit the floor.

Tough!  Jeez, that thing is LOUD!!!  You outta WARN A CAT next time!

Well, more boring kitchen stuff next week, maybe.  I'll try to find more cat pics to make it palatable.

All Ahoo

It's been a different sort of week here at ChezRanger.  Things are indeed all ahoo.  

(and for those who might be curious..."ahoo" is an archaic term that I think signifies that there is great disorder  in one's physical environment.  I get this word from Patrick O"Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels, the books upon which the movie Master and Commander was <loosely> based.  They are a wonderful series of books set during the Napoleonic Wars.  I've read all of them twice.  They have had a monstrous impact on my everyday speech, much to the puzzlement of my dear LadyRanger.)

The cause of all this chaos is the kitchen (which was proceeded by a complete replumbing job and will be followed by some electrical work).  We're getting some work done and, for the duration, our kitchen is scattered about the rest of our smallish 80-year old bungalow. (another fine word!)  It's not been a simple time, thus my lack of postings.

"At last!" you say, "A cat!  The reason I come here!"  I don't think I have many pics of the house without a cat.  You'll just have to put up with it.  Here, Ivy is settled by the "repair" that was done in the old, cheap, crappy rolled linoleum that we've been living with for 17 years now.  That spot looks even worse now than when this pic was taken.  Ivy never seemed to mind though.

You can form a decent appreciation for the state of the walls and the paint from this pic, if you ignore the imminent confrontation.  Well, actually, Maddie let Ivy enjoy her bag of strawberries in peace.  That's actually one of Maddie's cavernous yawns instead of her usual howl of outrage at Ivy's existence...

As I look through my photos, I find I really don't have much of anything to showcase the old kitchen.  Here you see the floor, the bottom of the range, our cut-rate though much-loved butcher block table, some really amazing cookies and the wee tuxedo cat, who loved the kitchen.

Really, I think that all of my pics of the kitchen are actually of Ivy.  I think that most of my mental pictures of place are actually images of the people I've shared those places with...hadn't thought about that until just now....

Ivy loved her kitchen.

She'd just come in and hang out, tummy up, trusting us not to step on her.  She knew how a house worked and she did love being around her humans.

Maddie came in the kitchen a lot, too, but I think for her it was more mission-driven.  Eating or drinking were her reasons.

In any case, we know both of our girls had reason to appreciate the kitchen.  As have we.  We hope they'd approve of the changes.  We also hope that the next feline residents of ChezRanger (and no, we have not yet found them) will have reason to as well.