PhotoHunt: Beautiful (and It's Football Time in ...)

...well, Dad wants me to jump up and down and finish the title with Tennessee, because, well, it is Football Time in Tennessee, but not really until Monday night when they play UCLA, and then not really IN Tennessee because they play in California, and then it's hard for me to know it's Football Time in Tennessee since we live in South Carolina, and it WAS football time in South Carolina Thursday night, for sure. I guess all I really know is we're going to have a lot more time to sit on the couch and get excited with Mom and Dad now that football season is here (and even better yet next weekend because we'll have the Vols and the Colts on TV!). Maggie's still trying to figure out what a touchdown is, and which team to cheer for. I've told her, it's the team that's the same color as me!

Now, on to our regularly scheduled Saturday post...

The PhotoHunters theme for today is an easy one for me, because the theme is Beautiful. They say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and I get to behold a lot of beauty because of my sisters. Mom said there were some "beautiful" pictures of me, too, but I insisted that since I am a Mancat that I am handsome, and not beautiful, and that those pictures will just have to wait for a "handsome" theme day (as of yet to be determined).

It was tough to pick just one "beautiful" picture of Josie and Maggie, so I went with pictures from yesterday.


Maggie can be a little stinker sometimes, chasing and wrestling and even, believe it or not, bullying, so I think that she's most beautiful when she's sleeping.


I really love this picture of Josie. Her eyes were really green yesterday.

Hope everyone's football teams win today, and that Gustav steers clear of you.

Finally Friday

Maggie on the couch
Originally uploaded by jenianddean

Dad, is it really Friday??? And we get to spend an extra day with you this weekend???

Well I have a few things planned for us. First I would like to go for walk in my stroller. Second, I would like to play pink ball on the steps. Third, I would like to have at least 8 naps with you and mom. Fourth, I would like to have treat of stinky goodness. Fifth, if you decide to paint anything,I would like to snoopervise. And lastly, when you watch the Tennessee Vols play on Monday will you try and not yell too loud - it interrupts my napping.

Love - Maggie

Catching up on Thursday

We've really gotten behind on a few things and have been meaning to play catch-up.

Back on the 13th, Abby from Manx Mnews gave Josie the Cool Cat Award. Thanks, Abby. I think Josie is a pretty cool cat too, as sisters go. (OK, I've only had two sisters, so I don't have the biggest pool of experience, but she doesn't bite me or pounce me too much or make me cry like some other sister does, so I think that makes her cool.)


I've also been meaning to do the "Jasper Needs" meme, because it looks fun. So here goes:
1. Jasper needs a good home. I've lived in three homes, not counting the shelter I was born in, and I think I'm doing OK on the homefront right now.
2. Jasper needs a date. It's hard to date when you don't leave the house, but if any lovely ladies want to come over, Mom can cook up a storm.
3. Jasper needs to trim his unibrow. OK, that's just rude and a little personal.
4. Jasper needs help with a rental. I guess if I was renting something, I'd probably need help since I can't drive. But unless someone is renting out cat trees, I think I'm OK.
5. Jasper needs a playmate. I have a brother and two sisters, and they keep me busy (and I'm avoid the temptation to go the other direction with "Playmate")
6. Jasper needs to feel forgiven. Well, when I do bad I do like to feel forgiven. Wouldn't you?
7. Jasper needs to be fed every 2-3 hours. No argument from me here. I'm a grazer, so I think every two to three hours sounds good.
8. Jasper needs one of them. This also says something about "Save the robots" so I guess "one of them" refers to a robot. As long as it is a chin scritching robot, then yes, I do need one of them (or two).
9. Jasper needs time to heal. Especially healing my feelings, after being told I need to trim my unibrow.
10. Jasper needs to be more progressive and look outside of the box. OK, I guess I'm more of a traditional box curler upper and try to fit my entire body, including my head, inside the box, but if looking outside of the box while sleeping inside the box will make life better and make me "more progressive" then I'm all for it.

(These were essentially the top 10 of the Google "Jasper needs" hits out of 4,560,000. I guess, until this posts, at which point I hope this would come to the top.)

Wordless Wednesday

Tuxie Tuesday

Yesterday, I pointed out how nice I was to share the table with Josie. Josie saw yesterday's post, cleared her throat, and said, "Clearly, I am sharing the table with you, and not the other way around."


I guess it all depends on your point of view.

Mancat Monday

A good Mancat will share the table with his sister ...


...at least that's what Mom says I'm supposed to do.

PhotoHunt: Wrinkled

Well, I've been negligent on the ol' Photo Hunting lately, what with Olympics and visitors and all kinds of other excitement and laziness going on. So in a (triumphant?) return to Photo Hunters, I return to a theme of Wrinkled? This is a theme that was just made for Dragonheart and Merlin, not because they are old but because they show off their super cool wrinkles so well, especially Merlin sporting the tan right now.

We're kind of floofy, so you don't see wrinkles on us (and even if the girls had wrinkles, it would be in bad taste to point them out). So in the absence of any wrinkles on us, I ended up really having to hunt. I could have shown the obvious, the wrinkled shirts of Dad's that I was sleeping on, and I would have had I not posted the pictures within the last week. But I did find this picture that I really like.


Josie and Maggie are playing with gold ball on the WRINKLED brown packaging paper. This paper came in a shipment that Mom got a while back (too long ago that she won't let us admit how long she's let us have a sheet of trash paper just lying around the house). You can see how we've wrinkled it up real good, lying on it, wrestling it, and just loving it in general. I hope Mom lets us keep this a little while longer, if only in the garage, because we love our wrinkled paper.

My movie poster pose

Dad was taking some pictures of me the other day and this was one of his favorites. He said it was my summer blockbuster movie poster pose.


He said I need a splash title and a date across the bottom, something like: JASPER! the movie, Fall 2009. Now that I've got a poster shot, I guess I need an agent, a script, and most likely a stunt double.

I imagine something like this...


You can tell it's going to be an exciting movie because there's an exclamation point and a bold font.

Sharing

A little while back, one of our favorite sticky people Clara Ann came for a visit. This was a good opportunity for us to learn about sharing.


Clara Ann likes to play with out cat toys. Mom was teaching Clara Ann how to give the toys to us by having her throw the ball to the wicker IKEA mouse (barely visible in the bottom left corner). She got pretty good at it.

Now we just have to teach Maggie how to share.


She claimed this was her tissue paper and she was not going to share.

Wordless Wednesday

Tuxie Tabby Tuesday

Our Squillion arrived Monday and we were so excited. We sniffed around the box and helped Mom unpack it.


Here, Josie is sniffing "Posie" the Squillion. Mom thought Posie was a great name for the Squillion since Mom sometimes calls Josie "Josie-Posie" and Posie is a tuxie like Josie. Now we just have to find the right spot for Posie to hang out.

Last week I showed my volleyball skills. Maggie didn't want to be shown up and insisted I show her gymnastics skills.


Maggie has gotten very excited about the Olympics since she's been watching them with Mom. Here she is doing her balance beam exercise on the arm of the chair while I judge. I awarded her bonus points for not digging her claws into the chair.

Updates: Josie's eye and baby bird

I've been owing a few updates, but with everything going on last week they needed to wait.

First of all, Josie's eye has been doing a lot better. So much so that Mom and Dad had stopped tormenting her with eye drops three or four times a day. And just to spite them, Josie was "winky" the other day and got Mom nervous again. But they did some preventative drops and she's looking good. I think this is just going to be one of those things that Mom and Dad are going to have to stay on top of.


I'm not sure if one of the birds has already left the nest, or if Dad miscounted when he first looked in the nest in his effort to not be too intrusive. But for sure there's one quickly growing birdie in the nest now, and he doesn't look too pleased with Dad for peeking in and taking a picture.

Light a candle for a tiny angel

Our thoughts and prayers are with you little one and your family.

Kitty litter deal at Target

Target has a deal on Tidy Cat kitty litter right now. Buy two 38 pound containers and get a $5 Target gift card. It's a lot of litter, but we'll use it, trust me. And now Mom and Dad have $5 they can spend on Temptations!

Olympics cat

Are your Mom and Dad obsessed with the Olympics? Mine are. Which has been OK, because I've gotten a lot of extra love from Mom while she watches the games (and that's making the others jealous, hehe). Some of these sports aren't quite for me. I'm not a swimmer, for sure. I like the balance beam, though. I think I could do that real well. But I think sand volleyball is the best sport for me. It combines batting balls out of the air, and a giant litter box. Who could ask for anything more. And just to show my volleyball ability, Dad and I practiced a little ball hitting.


I'm working on my spike. I won't let the ball get past me. I guess I could be a soccer goalie, too. (Eric's one, two three post reminded me how much I enjoyed this game...)

Also, read today's Lio ... I think we can all relate.

Thankful Thursday

This has been a tough week around the Cat Blogosphere. We've had hard weeks before -- not exactly like this one -- but hard weeks.

We're thankful for the Cat Blogosphere, and for everyone in the Cat Blogosphere, and for the inspirational generosity and humanity that made sure Millie's Mom made it to be there for Sprout and her Mom. It's a ray of sunshine during a gloomy week, and a reason to smile. I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again. This is a remarkable group, a true community, and we feel blessed to be a part of it.

Wordless Wednesday

Two for Tuesday

This weekend, Mom and Dad cleared out their walk-in closet and painted it to match their bedroom. They had to paint it because we won't let them keep doors closed. Since all the clothes had to come out for them to paint it helped them find some things that had gotten hidden in the closet. Dad has gone through a bad patch of blowing out the left elbow in some of his favorite work shirts, but it's a small hole, and nice shirts, so Mom has been trying to come up with something to do with these shirts.


I came up to check out the shirts, but there's something not right about this pile of shirts.


Someone's napping under these shirts, I think...


It's Maggie! It looks like she found a great spot to nap.


I think I'll Superman beside her and take a nap, too.


No, Mom, you're not dreaming. Maggie and I are actually cuddling together and napping (but there is a layer of shirts between us so we're not touching). Dad, you can go ahead and wear out a few more elbows because these shirts are great to nap on!

Loss for words

I was getting ready to make a Mancat Monday post when I read about Monty Q's little bean suddenly passing. We are all stunned. I read about her fall and head injury the other day, but minimized it in my head as one of those falls that babies take. So I'm taking a moment of silence today for this little Sprout...

Easy Like Sunday

The Olympics are on, so we're doing a lot of event watching right now. But in between Olympics watching, we decided to hang out with Dad as he sat in the new chair and read a magazine.


Since we're not all too sure about how this new chair fits into our routine, we had to see it in action and see how we were supposed to be with Dad as he was in the chair. Huggy Bear, Josie and Maggie opted for triangulation, and I think it worked out well. I'm hanging out with Mom across the room.

Huggy Bear's Full Monty 2008

Huggy Bear is our Full Monty cat. Sure, sometimes you'll get a Full Monty or Q from me or Josie or Maggie, but none of us do it like HB. So, for our last minute entry to Doing the Q the obvious choice was Huggy Bear.


It was a touch call. This one is from June. Huggy Bear had another Full Monty from a few weeks ago, but I think this one was a little better, and HB agreed.

Good luck everyone!

Baby birds living in the fern

There's a dying fern hanging from our front porch. The reason this plant is dying is because a little bird made a nest in the fern, and now Mom and Dad can't move it to water it. Last night, it was raining really hard, and Dad went to put the other fern out in the rain, and checked this one with the nest. He totally expected to see some abandoned eggs in a little nest. Instead, he saw a little beak open to the sky, either asking for food or saying "Back off, big guy." So Dad backed off, but he did get a couple of pictures.


This is the nest amongst all the ferny leaves.


Dad pulled the leaves back to get a better view. You can see the two beaks of the baby birds. I hope the momma bird doesn't get scared away by all the activity of Mom and Dad coming and going through the front door.

(If you click the pictures, it will take you to the Flickr page where you can biggify them some.)

Thursday Thirteen #33: Punchlines

It seems that I confused some of you with what I was sleeping on in yesterday's Wordless Wednesday. There's this old plant stand that I claimed as my own when I was a kitten. It has a wire basket-style shelf that is very cool and vented and I really like to nap in it. But it did look odd and slightly uncomfortable in the picture if you didn't know what it was. Here's another view:


This is me in the "cat stand" napping beside Huggy Bear.

I can't believe I've done 33 of these Thursday Thirteens. They are probably the most challenging of the themed posts that I do ... they really make my cat brain work. I think that's probably why I nap so much on Wednesdays.

It has been very, very hot in Columbia lately, which makes everyone even more sluggish. I think Wednesday was around 103 and today's supposed to be 101. So I'm offering for today's T13 thirteen different punchlines to this setup:

"It's hot in Columbia today."
"How hot is it?"
"It's so hot ...

1. ... the devil was seen complaining about the heat."
2. ... clocks downtown looked like they were from a Salvidor Dali painting."
3. ... Mom and Dad's excuse for not taking Maggie on a walk was valid."
4. ... I just need to nap all day."
5. ... Mom's tomato plants turned into sun-dried tomato plants."
6. ... you could fry an egg on the sidewalk. Seriously. Try it." ::rim shot::
7. ... that the neighbor's pool looks like a hot tub."
8. ... the asphalt road turned into a tar pit."
9. ... I'm desperately telling bad weather jokes that aren't even funny."
10. ... I can't even think straight."
11. ... Maggie and Huggy Bear don't even want garage time."
12. ... people are going into the steam room to cool down."
13. Oh, I give up. There's a reason why I don't tell jokes, much less try to make them up. I'm more of the set-up guy. Stay cool everyone.

Wordless Wednesday

Tuxie and Tabby Tuesday: The Movie

This is something new ... video uploaded directly to Blogger, and edited on Adobe Premiere Elements. I think I've uploaded one or two videos through YouTube before, but I wanted to try this one and see how it does.

The video is clips of Maggie and Josie enjoying the catnip canes that Aunt Tiff got them the other day. I think Dad's favorite part is the very beginning when you can hear Maggie licking the cane. Mom likes the middle, with Josie rolling around in a catnip haze.



Almost forgot ... Happy NOMS Day everyone!

And if you know someone looking for a couple of cats, there's a pair of Bengals in need of a loving home ... pass it along. If nothing else, check out these beautiful cats.

Aunt Tiff comes bearing gifts

Aunt Tiff came in to town Friday night, and like any good aunt she picked up some toys for us. She got us some more catnip canes. These are "Nautical" catnip canes, and they are yummy! Dad even shot a video of us with the canes that we will show after he plays with it some and if he can get it to upload. (We had a Maggie movie for today, but You Tube is taking forever to upload it, so we'll see about video.)


Maggie has her catnip cane technique down. She hugs it, bends it, and licks it to death.


Huggy Bear wanted two canes, and since he's a big boy, Aunt Tiff said OK. (Please ignore the box from Sam's in the background. We've loved it so much that it has been in the kitchen longer than it should have.)


Josie took a very careful inspection of her catnip canes. She was so intent on her cane that she didn't even care that Huggy Bear kept smacking her in the face with his tail. I think she was a little high on the 'nip.

I also played with my cane, but to see that you'll have to wait for the (maybe) video.

Easy Like Sunday

It's Sunday ... that means it's Huggy Bear's time for a bath...

Did you read about the cat who saved her 97-year-old bean from a house fire? Dad has a patient whose cat did a similar thing. She had suffered a stroke and was in bed and her cat moved the curtains back so that her friend and the police could see her in the bedroom and know she needed help.

Also, this was a funny Lio comic from earlier in the week.

PhotoHunt: Cloud

Today's Photo Hunter's theme is Clouds. Mom and Dad have their head in the clouds today after going out and (almost spontaneously) buying a new car. When the mechanic tells you to "trade your car this weekend" you trade your car, and Mom and Dad did, and they're a little giddy about it. But this is photohunters, not Mom and Dad story hunters, so here's the photo...

Maggie has a favorite blanket, her "Orange B", which is soft as a cloud. Whenever Mom wants Maggie to hang out with her, she'll put the Orange B out, and Maggie will come and curl up, without a doubt.


Here's Maggie on her Orange B (and showing off her Creamsicle Paw).

Finally Friday

It's Friday and gonna be a hot one. Aunt Tiff is coming in to town for a few days before her classes start back.


I recommend doing like Maggie -- find a good sunny spot and enjoy the day 'cause it's gonna be a full weekend.