Useless Conversation

[Signe]

Everything is bothering me today.  I don't know why.  Ate a spoonful of salty caramel ice cream - didn't help.  Took a Xanax - didn't work.  Skinned up - nada.  Hope it doesn't last long.  And I have the hiccups again.      I hate everything.

Fuck off in advance.

[Lianka]

The song Everything Sucks by the Descendents usually helps me get out of those moods..

[Miasma]

Had to google skinned up.  Curse my sheltered life.

[Samwise]

Had to google skinned up.  Curse my sheltered life.

Same.  Realized I know a lot of Brits, and a lot of stoners, but not a lot of stoner Brits, so there's a little gap in my vocabulary at that particular intersection.

[Signe]

It's okay now.  I was in a mood.  I think it's mostly the hiccups.  I get them all the time now.  Why the fuck do I keep getting hiccups!?!

[Khaldun]

Umf. I should go watch the Wimbledon final tomorrow somewhere in London for my last day here but (and I like and play tennis) it feels like I should be doing something else better. Go to Camden Lock market or Tate Modern or something else. I dunno. I'll figure it out. Maybe having three pints and seeing if Murray can keep from going tits up is a reasonable way to spend a few hours.

[Abagadro]

How the hell did Wolf Blitzer get his gig? I'm watching coverage of this crash and I swear he is one of the dumbest people on the planet.

[WayAbvPar]

How the hell did Wolf Blitzer get his gig? I'm watching coverage of this crash and I swear he is one of the dumbest people on the planet.

He's a fucking chimp. He made his name during the first Iraq War when 24/7 coverage was still relatively new, and has gotten progressively dumber every single moment since.

[Miasma]

Cool name.

[ghost]

So it says a lot about where I live if I'm driving around Shreveport thinking, "this place is pretty goddamned nice," right?

[Paelos]

So it says a lot about where I live if I'm driving around Shreveport thinking, "this place is pretty goddamned nice," right?

Ugh, yes. Move immediately.

Not to Shreveport.

[Yegolev]

I don't know what people with indoor cats do, but I'd be afeared of leaving any number of cats alone in my domicile for more than two days.

I'm really curious what you do to your cats (or where you get them from) that causes them to be such much more destructive than any cat I've ever encountered.  I've even gotten a few cats from the "unadoptable due to being too goddamn feral" section of the pound and they wind up being good cats once they're a little socialized.

It's more what I don't do, I think.  They all seem to like scratching on furniture out of the box.  If it's me causing this, I need to live inside a copper box or that thing they kept Magneto in.  Also cat hair, but I don't think that's me since I've seen a lot of pictures of furry cats on the internet.  There is also the poop situation, and I'm really just over the whole poop thing.

Now, you'll say "But you have an indoor dog" and I'll just shrug and counter with "I also have a wife".  After a comedic beat, I'll add "And dog hair on lots of things".

[Samwise]

Usually cats will stop clawing at your furniture if you give them a better alternative.  "Better" usually means they can dig their claws into it satisfyingly and it's in a convenient spot in their "territory".  For poop, cats come preprogrammed to hide their poop by digging a hole for it, which means if there's a littler box they will always use that instead of, say, the floor or sofa.  Pooping in the open is usually a sign something's wrong with them -- I have never ever seen a cat poop on a piece of furniture, not even as kittens or in the grip of feline senility.  Which is why when you mention cat poop on sofas I wonder what kind of defective cats you're dealing with.

Hair is pretty much unavoidable, though.  Unless you get one of those creepy bald cats.

[Merusk]

Poop on the floor isn't always a problem with them but sometimes a statement.  Wife just bought a different brand of litter because it was on sale and the most fastidious of our 3 refused to use his box until I had her change it out again.  It was a larger-particle litter than the clump stuff we'd had before and he was having none of it. 

He'll also poop on the ground if the box gets 'too full' by his standards while the other two will just find a bare spot in one of the two boxes.

[Signe]

I have a GIANT litter box for my kitties and I scoop a lot so it's mostly clean.  Cats like clean.  I have some sort of scratchy thing in almost every room and a tall scratchy condo house upstairs.  They use those, not the furniture.  You can get some sort of spray crap to keep them off although I have no idea if it works because my cats pretty much go where they like since they don't have destructive habits.  One thing I do pretty regularly is clip their claws so they're not uncomfortable.  

My cat thing lately is trying to ween Magenta off dry food (she shuns wet now for some reason and I get worried and give in... NO MORE!) and transition Lister from his medicated food, which really doesn't have all healthy cat ingredients, to gently cooked canned chicken.  I know he'll eat it but I'm wary of doing it all at once.  I have to be sure he doesn't start to have peepee issues again, even though he's somewhat peepeeless.  :(  

I've changed litter a few times without problem, but I usually mix the new litter with the old kind for a few weeks or so.  I recently changed from World's Best  because I can't see the point of it being so pricey to Wegman's clumping for multiple cats.  It a fraction of the cost.  Dr. Eisley's is also very very good and a little more dear than Wegmans but no where near the price of Worlds Best or some of the other high end brands.  While I was searching for a new litter, I noticed both cats adapt to new ones very easily.  YAY!

Every thread is a cat thread.  :)

[Ingmar]

We provide a scratching post/tower thing and sometimes those cardboard scratchers and for the most part it deals with any scratching problems. Lizzie still occasionally likes to scratch on the regular carpet while staring at us, but that's a dominance/reminder she could kill us behavior. 

[schild]

Both Shreveport and San Antonio are the pits. The pits.

[Nebu]

Both Shreveport and San Antonio are the pits. The pits.

Houston beats them both.  Then there's Gary and Detroit.... neither fit for humanity.

[Ingmar]

Stockton is up there too.

[Yegolev]

Usually cats will stop clawing at your furniture if you give them a better alternative.  "Better" usually means they can dig their claws into it satisfyingly and it's in a convenient spot in their "territory".

I agree with this.  Their granted territory is the surrounding forty acres.

For poop, cats come preprogrammed to hide their poop by digging a hole for it, which means if there's a littler box they will always use that instead of, say, the floor or sofa.  Pooping in the open is usually a sign something's wrong with them -- I have never ever seen a cat poop on a piece of furniture, not even as kittens or in the grip of feline senility.  Which is why when you mention cat poop on sofas I wonder what kind of defective cats you're dealing with.

I agree with this.  I don't have a place in my house for a cat to dig a hole and poop in.  Mostly so that I don't have the poop in the house.  Actually, it's entirely so that I don't have poop in the house.  I'd like to teach the cats to use a toilet but this seems beyond my ability.  It is also acceptable to come find me and let me know that you have to go outside and take a shit, which is why the one cat that belongs to me gets to come in the house so much.

Hair is pretty much unavoidable, though.  Unless you get one of those creepy bald cats.

I would not mind this but my wife likes to keep it cold and the cat would need a sweater.

[Rasix]

So, you don't have litter boxes or a decent place to hide a litter box?  Are you just completely opposed to shoveling cat waste?    This is all very curious.

[Samwise]

I can sympathize with not wanting a litter box in your general proximity.  I've been holding off on getting my own cats until I have enough usable space in my house that I can put a litter box out of smell range of the main living area.  Should be happening by this fall, at which point we'll see if I come up with another excuse.

[Signe]

Or you could build one of these.

I saw this page years ago and fell in love with some of these amazing cat enclosures.  I LOVE the tiered fountain.

[Rasix]

I can sympathize with not wanting a litter box in your general proximity.  I've been holding off on getting my own cats until I have enough usable space in my house that I can put a litter box out of smell range of the main living area.  Should be happening by this fall, at which point we'll see if I come up with another excuse.

Based on the shots of his yard, I have doubts Yego's house is San Francisco sized. 

We have a cat door that leads to our garage.  It works OK.    A house we looked at had a cat door in their closet that led to a multiple tiered cat enclosure outside of the house.  I would think in Arizona, however, that would let some of the precious cool air out and lead to the possibility of a few more unwanted pests.  The door was pretty small and the mess on the exterior was pretty fine, so maybe it wouldn't be much an issue. 

[Samwise]

I'm definitely a fan of the enclosure idea.  In a perfect world I'm thinking I'd have a cat tree under the window in my new downstairs craft room, and the window would open onto an enclosed piece of patio. 

[Yegolev]

So, you don't have litter boxes or a decent place to hide a litter box?  Are you just completely opposed to shoveling cat waste?    This is all very curious.

The answers to all of these is yes.  I am trying to be unambiguous in stating that I don't want to deal with poop.  The compromise, of course, is that I need to keep an eye on the ground when I am outside.  Plus they like to dig in the flower beds but that's my wife's problem.

I don't want to post my house and yard dimensions since I don't want to be That Guy.

[Samwise]

That Guy.

[Rasix]

I'm sure the servant's quarters would make an ideal cat pooping area.

[Miasma]

Where do the servants poop?

[Yegolev]

So I'm already That Guy, I see.   I wish I had servants, and I'd let them poop in a toilet.  I'm also wondering about the internet access in that tower on the shore.

[Rasix]

So I'm already That Guy, I see.  

I think Space Camp sealed it.

[Yegolev]

Is Space Camp for rich people?  Thanks, Obama.

[Rasix]

My parents wouldn't send me as a child.  So, yes. 

Someone stuck a bottle of ranch dressing in my trash can over the break.   

[Yegolev]

In my defense, I took my son on the Family Space Camp thingy.  I think the fact that I loved it more than he did isn't really relevant.

Did you know, they generally don't let cats in space?  Due to the poop and fur and pissy attitude?  Dogs are no problem, though.

[Rasix]

I think if you put a cat in space, it would try to kill you.  I'm pretty sure of that. 

Have I mentioned how much I hate vmware lately? No?  I hate vmware.