The Chronicles of Mazu: Battle of the Orange Fluffy Thing

It’s kitten picture time! At least we’re still calling Mazu a kitten, even though she’s up to 10 months now and has enough fur to convince us she’s much larger than she is. It’s pretty impossible to deny that she’s a Maine Coon anymore—heck, I’m not sure if she’s got any of her calico mother in there at all!

But back to the battle. Please enjoy these pictures of Mazu engaged in a fierce war, so fierce that focusing was nearly impossible. What better way to start your Monday than with kitten adorableness? (I may have a sickness, I know).

Mazu preparing for battle with great enthusiasm.

The first catch—she’s fascinated, really.

See, I told you! It’s a kitten versus orange puffy thing war!

Loki’s New Favorite Thing and RSS Updates

Hello lovely readers,

I’m going to be migrating all of my posts done previously to using WordPress software into the WordPress system over the next few days (hopefully, that’s all it will take). I’m going to try and figure out if I can stop the RSS from updating for each of these since there’ll be at least 100, I think, but I’m less than certain I’ll be successful at stopping the feed updates for them, so your stream may soon be flooding with The Gourmez posts. Apologies, if so!

To make up for this hardship, please be calmed by these new photos of the kitty gods of Woodcroft. Loki has discovered a new way to demand his tribute.

He’s quite pleased with himself about it.

And now, you can see all three cats in their natural atmosphere.

Kittens on the march, err, lie down.

As always, more pictures of the cats for those that just can’t get enough of Loki, Mazu, and Verdandi (namely, me) are available at our photo website.

Cat Show—Photo Blog

A couple of weekends ago, I went to my first ever cat show, run by Coastal Paws Cat Club. It was held at the Raleigh fairgrounds, inside a smaller building that really could have used better ventilation, though the initial wham of litter box smell did fade pretty quickly. That was really the only unpleasant part of going, though, as any cat lover has to like watching tons of pretty kitties strut their stuff.

I’ve never been to a dog or cat show, so this was all new to me. We only hung out for an hour or so, but we were able to learn a few things:

1. Fluffy, puffy cats are awesome to look at when they get properly groomed.

2. There were around ten different judges and each one seemed to look at every cat. The cats are brought up in groups of ten or so, and the judges compile their notes on which ones they thought were the best representatives of their breed, age, etc. We saw one judge hand out ribbons for her top 10 cats, so I can only assume all of the judges do that and then there is a round of judging between those top cats.

Spring in Cross Timbers—Photo Blog

Just a quick blog with photos of the flowers up and blooming, and of Loki taking his proper place as lord of the manor. His throne, of course, is the top of the car.

Mazu, of the pretty, pretty coat.

Verdandi, checking out the mulch I put beneath the Bradford Pear.

The flower garden waiting on the tulips to come play.

Daffodils:

Hyacinths:

And that pear tree:

Hope those tulips come soon!

My Cat is Home

Last summer, I posted this blog about my cat, Loki, having disappeared a week earlier. It is leaps and bounds ahead of every other blog entry I’ve posted in terms of hits, and that must be because so many people have had pets go missing and reach out to find others in the same situation to look for some hope that their own animals might return.

Loki’s Misssing Photo

Well, there is hope! Loki has returned! Last Friday, eight months after he disappeared, I received a phone call from Home Again, one of the microchip pet locator services.

“Hello, Becca Gomez Farrell?”

“Yes.”

“You have an orange tabby named Loki, who’s been missing?”

“Yes.” At this point, I think I started going into shock, a sensation that didn’t leave until I had him home for a couple days.

“Well, I have a vet office on the line in Apex, who has your cat. Would you like to speak to them?”

“Absolutely.”

I then learned that he had been brought into their office only an hour ago for emergency care. Apex is more than 10 miles from here, and the lady who brought him in had been feeding him on and off in her neighborhood for the last six months. He was likely hit by a car, or possibly fell from a high height, and ended up with two fractures to his jaw and a ruined eye with an abscess behind it. Before the accident, he had still been wearing his black collar, but the tag had fallen off. The woman, who was crying with worry, and her son waited to meet me. She told me that she had gone to all forty houses in her neighborhood when he first appeared, to see if someone were missing him, but hadn’t considered a microchip. Many people don’t even know they exist; I’d heard of them but gave them no thought myself until I adopted Loki and Verdandi two and a half years ago from the shelter. I give much thanks to that woman for her having compassion and bringing him in to a vet, who check for microchips as part of their normal routines.

Loki was a mess. He was acting every bit the wounded cat–drowsy, in pain, smelling like an infection–but would try to purr through his broken jaw when I pet him. I’m not sure I would have recognized him-he looked much larger than he used to–but I think that was mostly swelling of his head, though he is a bit taller. The vet said he perked up when I came, but I would never have been able to tell that myself. Ben joined me after I’d spent two hours there, and we ended up waiting for another one before they finished checking his blood tests and referred us on to Cary Veterinary Specialty Hospital for further treatment. Except for what was likely a false positive FIV test (Loki’s vaccines lapsed in September, but once a cat is vaccinated for FIV, we’ve learned from my regular vet and the Internet that any test for it will turn up positive because they have the antibodies in their system. He’s had four FIV vaccines in all.), his chemistries looked great, thankfully.

Interview at The Muffin Blog and New Year’s Blog Resolutions

Last week, as part of winning 3rd place in Women on Writing’s Summer ’09 Flash Fiction contest, I was interviewed on The Muffin Blog. We covered my inspiration for Last Complaint, how and why the character came to be the selfish yet somehow human character that she is, my food/wine/cocktail reviews, my lifelong obsession with General Hospital, for which I write a weekly column at Eye on Soaps, and my fantasy novel. So if you’d like to read more about any of the above, wander on over! I’d love to hear your comments on it, either over there or over here.

Interview with me.

Switching gears, I’m mulling over any blog-related resolutions I might want to make this year. In the past year, I’ve gone from the occasional post to nearly daily ones, increased my traffic around 100%, and added in other blogger’s thoughts on wines, in addition to some smaller changes. I think that what I’m missing is more communication with other blogs! But how to fit that in with a schedule where I really don’t just plain write as much as I should? Hmm. Must think it over. If you have a blog that you don’t think I visit, though, please leave the link in the comments and I will add it to my roster!

On my fiction/creative nonfiction goals, I plan to submit at least one piece a week to either a contest or magazine/journal, as long as I have finished ones ready to go. That shouldn’t be too hard to do, right?

Saint Mazu and the Fountain — A Photo Essay

Mazu, our five-month-old kitten, has four goals in life: 1) Convert house plants into litter boxes, 2) Rush out the front door, 3) Pretend I’m a tree, and 4) Defeat the monster in the water bowl.

It’s a Petmate water fountain and the motor makes sucking noises whenever the water gets low. To Mazu, these noises can only mean one thing — there’s a monster in there somewhere and she’s going to get it. She spends at least half her day batting water out of the thing so the noise comes back and she can attack it. Please enjoy these images of one such battle.

The first swing

Try the other side

Mid-strike.

The Hunt for the Mantress

Lately, I’ve been on a kick to find good words to use as slurs against men, such as bitch, cunt, whore, slut, etc. Specifically, I wanted terms that don’t stem from female roots, such as son of a bitch or douche bag, but carry the same weight, mainly to satisfy my curiosity about how many words exist that don’t also demean women in the same breath that they are used to insult men.

Name calling generates a lot of interest on Facebook and Twitter, apparently, because I was supplied with a number of good options, most notably jerk and asshole. I’m still not sure that these are quite as cutting of a name as the female options I listed above, but they do serve the purpose.

Friday, on NPR, I listened to an interview with a woman who chronically has affairs. It struck me, as she referred to herself as a mistress, that she hadn’t actually called the men with whom she cheated anything equivalent to that word (both parties were often married). The fourth definition of mistress, which is how I am exploring the word, as found in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate 11, is a woman other than his wife with whom a married man has a continuing sexual relationship. So I asked my friends and tweeps if they knew of a word for a man other than her husband with whom a married woman has a continuing sexual relationship. And you gave me plenty of suggestions but I’m still not sure if any of them capture quite the same thing as mistress:

mister
manwhore
mimbo
lover/luvah
boytoy
kept man
sancho (Spanish, so it’s cheating)

There were also some great joke options:

mattress
pool boy
not for you (from my husband)

My sister also pointed me to this article on Daily Writing Tips that discusses the same subject and offers gigolo as a possibility but like kept man, that word doesn’t imply adultery in the same way that mistress does, in my opinion. I’m not sure myself, but I’m thinking kept man is probably the closest option of these. What do you think, dear reader? Are any of these good male approximations of mistress? Do you have something else to add to the list?

North Carolina Literary Festival

My weekend was what some would call a writer’s paradise. I spent it attending various authors’ sessions at the North Carolina Literary Festival held at UNC Chapel Hill, which happened to be free! Yay! I would say, however, that a writer’s paradise would be to sit on the other side of the table from where I sat, as an author with published works. Someday, someday.

Anyhow, I had a great time at the sessions I attended, which featured a mix of well-known and newly published authors, almost all with some sort of connection to the state. The first I went to was “The World of Sci-Fi and Fantasy,” which featured John Kessel, Warren Rochelle, and Mur Lafferty. I enjoyed the readings, Lafferty’s especially, and will likely buy Playing for Keeps soon, which is her superhero novel about a woman who has something both the jock-like superheroes and nice guy villains want. Lafferty is a friend of a friend and also runs a writing resource website called I Should Be Writing.

Def Leppard, Poison, and Cheap Trick in Raleigh

So, back in the beginning of August, Ben and I scored free tickets by way of our friends Jess and Iris to go see Def Leppard, Poison, and Cheap Trick in Raleigh. Thanks, guys!

Jess, our benefactor, and Iris, our lady in the know.

Things I learned from the show:

1. There are angry hippies. One was behind us in line, growling loudly and drunkenly as other people met up with their friends further up the line.

2. The Time Warner Cable Pavillion gets packed–so packed that we missed nearly all of Cheap Trick while waiting to get inside. What we heard of them was fun, though!

Cheap Trick before I got a better picture-taking vantage point.

3. People go to shows merely to tailgate in the parking lot and miss bands play. I’d tailgate in my driveway for free, if I was that intent on it.

4. Poison is way too country for me. I suppose I should have known that from Brett Michael’s cowboy hat and a mic stand wrapped in the American flag, but it still took me by surprise.

Yes, that red and blue is a flag draped around the stand.

5. Def Leppard is an awesome live show! No seriously, they rocked.

Def Leppard front and center...and shirtless.

~~For more pics, check them out at our photo website, under Def Leppard and Poison. Click on the thumbnails at the bottom of the screen to cycle through the set.~~ Ask me if you want to see the other pictures!

Would it be too revealing to mention that, while I had fun, I still enjoyed the American Idol show more?

Page 18 of 21

« 1 … 16 17 18 19 20 21 »