TASTING LIFE TWICE

kitty is feeling wounded

nobody@vox.com(Crystal) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:37:14 -0500

I had to discipline my sweet little darling tonight. He was sitting on my chair while I was on the phone and decided to start gnawing on the azalea nearby (yes, yes, we have one inside not outside). He never eats the plants so not sure what inspired this snack, but I swatted him lightly on the nose and yelled at him.

Fat & Sassy Loverkitty

He so rarely gets in trouble that when we yell at him (we don't even need to touch him, just yell) — like a year or so ago when he felt compelled to jump onto the dining room table and knock over the flower vase in the middle of the night — well, he becomes really emotionally wounded.

Sure enough, he slinked into the bedroom and hid behind our floor mirror. Joe went in and gave him a treat to try and butter him up and he was fine with Joe but he didn't leave the bedroom. Forty minutes later, after dinner, Joe mentions that I should go talk to him. So I went into the bedroom and he tried to hide from me, was flinching and acting all nervous. I picked him up and cuddled him on the bed for about ten minutes before he would start purring and acting normal again, sigh. It's so strange how upset he gets. I guess the good thing is that he never repeats the bad action again!

I've had him since he was 3 months old so it's not like he was abused and it's some weird residual thing. It's just that he hates disappointing us, and especially me. He becomes so sad and upset when he is in trouble. He's worse than any child I've ever seen. It makes me so sad seeing him all upset, but like I said, it's so rare and we have to discipline him when he does something stupid. I never spray bottled him when he was little because yelling at him was just as effective and he mostly never did anything wrong. He's always been so good and mellow. But as he has become older, he gets so sad and so upset when he gets in trouble.

Poor poor kitty. He's so so good, except when he eats the azalea.

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Kittyfish!

nobody@vox.com(Crystal) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:21:04 -0500

Joe snagged this huge freaky fish pillow as part of his Yankee Swap at work. Romeo promptly took it over. Go kitty!

Fishies R Yum!

He has conquered!

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in case you are REALLY hungry

nobody@vox.com(Crystal) — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 07:54:36 -0400

in looking for crockpot recipes yesterday to cook up our bunny (mmm crockpot bunny was awesome) I ran across this little tidbit at cooks.com:

Yum!

CREAM OF ELEPHANT STEW

2 metric tons onions, chopped
3 cubic yards parsley, chopped
1 med. elephant, gray
6 barrels flour, sifted
1/2 pickup truck loaf salt
1 lg. rabbit

Wash elephant and pat dry. Rub with salt and let stand. Saute onions, stir in elephant, rabbit and remaining salt. Add water to top of kettle and simmer 2 weeks or until tender. Thicken with flour and remove from heat. Sprinkle in parsley and leave uncovered for 1 1/2 minutes. Serve immediately as elephant tends to get tough and rubbery when cold. Leave out rabbit if you don’t like hare in your soup.

We opted out of the elephant stew and just decided on the rabbit. Romeo, in particular, really loved the bunny. So much so that he even got into the garbage overnight to get at the bones, something that he never never never does. Thankfully he doesn't really have any teeth (maybe 8 left after we had a whole bunch of them yanked a few years back) so he probably just licked them and then went on his merry way. I wonder what he would think about elephant.

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viewing art inside at the bar

nobody@vox.com(Crystal) — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 09:16:13 -0500

Here's the Project 365 round up for the week.

Day 13: This is the view from my cube. Sigh. Our office actually has windows all the way around every floor so it does have a lot of light. I just happened to end up on the wall with the main support section which means I get less window. I suppose that's okay. It means I have to get up and walk around to check out any turkeys that appear in the parking lot.

Room With A View

Day 14: One of Joe's latest creations. Apparently I cropped the green off the right edge, but well, when we get his online gallery together I'll fix that. This piece is 38 x 50, mixed media. He doesn't name them but at some point he'll probably need to number them...

JoePainting

Day 15: It was FUHREEZING on Friday. Here Romeo is very very happy that he wasn't outside in the 1 degree temperature when this picture was taken.

Kitty is Warm Inside

Day 16: And last night, taken at the bar of the Red House, which we go to here and there. I think our favorite bars in Harvard are probably the Red House, Rialto (but now it's undergoing renovations so who knows if we'll like it later) and our new favorite, the bar at Harvest. Occasionally we also hang out at Grendel's but it just depends on whether or not we're up for dealing with lots of rich snotty Harvard kids. Hehe at the other bars we're just dealing with other rich snotty Harvard people. ;) Anyway, I really like how this particular shot turned out. My camera batteries had given out earlier so I was relying on my camera phone which takes great day shots but the flash is the pits. I think that worked out better in this case...

RedHouse

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A Vox Primer (Vox World Tour)

nobody@vox.com(Crystal) — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 09:49:21 -0500

Awesome way to meet new friends and to connect with old, good friends, friends and more friends.

They Might Be Giants

BoVox which sprung up so Boston Voxers could comment in the flesh.
Collections provide a way to showcase your favorite things.

Design is top-notch, from the blog layout, color options, and templates which are the best on the web...where else can change my design daily with such ease?
Explore feature lets you find exceptionally excellent pop-culture tidbits like this.
Family (who need to be more adventurous and post too!) & friends (and more friends) can read posts just for them!

Yankee Bayonet

Good times will be had by all on Vox!
Home page which makes it easy to find the latest comments, favorites and new media.
Interesting audio, news, photos, and videos wherever you look.
Journey around the world by exploring Vox!
Killer tagging system that enables easy search on your favorite subjects.
Lost connections renewed by Vox--Sassyone, who I used to work with and found at a BoVox meetup!
Music, music, music! Your own, easily embedded for others to share.
Neighborhoods that help you keep up-to-date with all your connections.
Organize feature that lays out all your comments, music and media for easy view.

Lazykitty

Photos to share, to interest and excite readers of your Vox blog. Look at the lazy loverkitty...
Question of the day which not only gives Voxers ideas for posts but also connects the community with a common theme.
Replying to comments turns posts into conversations.
Surprise and delight when I discovered that a new Vox friend and fellow foodie lives literally five houses away from me!
Team Vox, who have created an amazing community which has become integral to the way I share my life.

Xmas 2006

ULTRA COOL!
Video that brings your blog to life (This is the first one shot on my new digital camera! Highlighted here are Joe's wonderful parents).
Ways to use Vox to showcase your individuality--limitless!
Xcitement every time I get an email that someone commented on my Vox blog (it's the small things)! And yes, I realize I cheated with the "x"...editorial perogative!
Yo-yos!
Zombies!

Now you know your ABC's! Next time won't you Vox with me?

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let it snow

nobody@vox.com(Crystal) — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 19:36:28 -0500

But give me real snow. Not the slushy layer of crap that I had to wipe off my car this morning. I want to really feel like I'm heading toward the holidays...which means snowmen and sitting by the fire on a wintry day. But we did have a great Saturday, putting up some of our holiday decorations, getting the tree and all that. Joe made an incredible dinner, including pheasant and a SUPER INCREDIBLE EXTRA YUMMY cornbread, bacon, scallion and cranberry stuffing. Wow. That was good.

We still have a bit to do around here to cozy it up but here are some pics. The table will be different for the party and the camera that I have is a piece of junk so the pictures just don't do the tree justice. I like the tree to be a bit wider but Joe likes the skinnier version.

Christmas Tree

Table Trees

The trees are these awesome disco ball type trees from Target. They look incredible in the sunlight but I doubt anyone will see them during the day but us. We need to get more lights on the window and all that. When we have a fire going though, everything is warm and comfortable. Romeo is perched here on the couch, with his little devil eyes. He's jealous that the silver teddy bear gets to sit closer to the tree than him.

So since I missed yesterday's holiday song, you get two today. One is video, one audio, for your caroling pleasure.

Heat Miser

Bowie Meets Crosby

You may recall Heat Miser from the 1974 "Year Without a Santa Claus" stop-animation cartoon.

And the rare Bowie and Bing together...got to love the little dialogue in particular. What a wonderful song.

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Romeo is very happy!

nobody@vox.com(Crystal) — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 16:09:46 -0400

Since this design seems to be all about him.

lazy kitty

I bet that by tomorrow a zillion other Vox blogs will look like mine because the template is so cute.

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QotD: All My Pets

nobody@vox.com(Crystal) — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 16:00:00 -0400

How many pets have you owned in your lifetime? Tell us about them.
Submitted by jennajellopy.vox.com.

When I was little, my parents had a black cockapoo named Pepper. They had to give it away when I was two because I kept trying to play in the little doghouse (which looked just like a house, window and all) that my father made for him. He hated me and my mom was worried that he would bite me. I suppose he wasn't actually my pet...

Later, when I was about 8 or so, we were visiting my grandparents in Burley, ID when a stray corgi/cocker spaniel mutt

Cocoa

started hanging around the house. Papa kept trying to shoo her away but she wouldn't go. We left for a week and went down to Salt Lake City Lagoon (which I'm hoping is totally different now--that they changed up the rideds at least--but we LOVED that place when we were kids). Anyway, my grandparents' next-door neighbors thought that it was our dog that had gotten out of the garage or something and they fed it on the back porch. She warmed up to us and I named her Cocoa because she looked like hot chocolate with marshmallows in it. Somehow we convinced my parents to let us take her home. I loved that dog. She was really more of my dog than the rest of the family. Every morning my parents would let her out into the yard (we lived in a really rural area...no leashes needed) and she would come to my ground-floor window and whine until I got up to see her. When we first got her she was still sort of a puppy and she would chew on EVERYTHING. That first Christmas, my father had put up the lights and she decided to chew on one of the cords that went around the door and down to the outlet. I've never heard anything like that horrible horrible scream/yelp she let out. She hid in her little house in the garage for 3 hours--wouldn't let us see if she was okay, which of course, she was. She stopped chewing on things after that! She died when I had left for college. Just got old...cataracts, deaf, couldn't move very well. One day my father and brother came home and found her paralyzed in the backyard, in a lot of pain. I was so so glad I was thousands of miles away. I couldn't bear being there.

I had goldfish in both high school and college but don't remember their names. And later, during my first marriage, we had a HUGE tank of cool fish but it was such a massive pain in upkeep. And it was loud.

After college I had cats, the first of which was, coincidentally, Vox, a black and white siamese variety. She was named Vox for the pure and simple fact that it was more elegant than the other possibilities--Screamer, Noisy, Fire Siren. She was difficult and moody because she was part feral when we got her. She died after two years, from a blood clot that travelled down and lodged at the base of her tail and paralyzed her (sigh). I have a nightmare vet story from all that which would bore you.

I also had Puck for a little bit, a big huge orange Manx cat that used to fetch like a dog, come when you called and was generally a total ham. He thought he was a dog. Manx cats often have digestive or urinary problems since to breed a stub tail you are essentially breeding a defect...and well, eventually that did him in. I had him for about three years. I was so sad to put him down.

Romeo!

During the time that I had Vox and Puck, I've had Romeo, my little loverkitty (except at 16.5 lbs he's not terribly little), who is my dearest friend and confidant. When I was dating after seperating from my ex, that was my one rule--that Romeo would win. I met Joe and he casually mentioned on our first date that he was allergic. My heart sank but in the end, he had no problem with Romeo and the loverkitty even decided that Joe was pretty cool, often deciding he is more fun to hang out with than I am. I could gush about Romeo forever. I've had him for 13 years now--his birthday is next month. He's good, sweet and is the best lap cat ever. He loves people and loves his belly rubbed. He'll lie on the floor like a whore on crack, waiting for someone to pay attention to him. He's so lazy that he plays with his toys only on the rarest occasion and then only for a few minutes. He talks all the time, telling us how we don't pay enough attention to him, how he wants another cat treat, how he thinks I shouldn't be on the phone, how I'm wearing black so he needs to make me white again and that's why he's rubbing all over my legs. He's terribly helpful like that. If I'm sad, he'll come and comfort me--even the rare times over the past 13 years when I've cried in the shower--he'll try to get in and help me, even though he wants nothing to do with the water. He hates to see me upset. He's such a very very good kitty.

Okay I'll shut up the annoying cutesy gushing about my cat now.

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love those frenchies!

nobody@vox.com(Crystal) — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 11:21:49 -0400

so does my kitty Romeo!

The French Flag

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