Trouble gets into trouble again

We have been struggling to keep fruit flies out of the house this summer. They seem to like congregating around Trouble's food bowl and it's been really annoying. To him and to us. I've placed two bowls of apple cider vinegar and managed to trap a few fruit flies but the problem still persisted. We finally bought a sticky indoor fly trap and that did the trick. Bye bye fruit flies.

Then....

We came home pretty late last night and saw that the cat food bowl was upside down and across the hallway and the metal stand was flung in another direction. That's pretty unusual. Looks like something only an angry or distressed cat will do.
And then we noticed the missing sticky indoor fly trap.

Oh shucks.

So we find the cat, and true enough, that trap was stuck to his back side and tail and he was one unhappy cat. It was a struggle just pulling that thing off from him. Being a long haired cat, it was a total mess. He had like two dozen dead fruit flies stuck to his fur, and it was a total sticky mess.

We put him in the bathtub, put on our latex gloves, got a bottle of cleaning alcohol and cooking oil and a rag and tried washing the stickiness off. Did not work. We threw him in the shower, washed him off with shampoo. Did not work.

It left us with a terribly annoyed and pissed off cat.

Jason called the groomer (it was almost midnite now) and left her a message telling her we have a crisis.

This afternoon, the very nice groomer called and told us to bring Trouble in. She told me to stay and help her hold him down while she clipped his hair to get the sticky mess off.
It was tough. Trouble was hissing and he had his fangs out all the time, yelling and cursing us.

After the ordeal, the very nice groomer sent us home and did not want to accept our money.
She's an angel that groomer.

So we're home now. Trouble is not sticky anymore but he sure looks funny with a patchy haircut.

A refreshing, positive gender image

I asked the husband the other day if he would be willing to help me make some scrubbies. He said No way. I said I'll promise not to tell anyone if he does. He said NO.

Well, I am hoping he'll change his mind after he reads this. :)

The Scrubbies are getting their 5 minutes of fame

Last week, the New York Times contacted me and wanted to feature my scrubbies in their Sunday Styles section. They were going to do a page on hostess gifts and asked if I could Fedex some scrubbies over.
Hell yeah!!!

They are featured this weekend here.

Ok, it's not a big deal. But I am still doing the happy dance!

Chocolate cake in 5 minutes

For emergency purposes :
http://www.dizzy-dee.com/recipe/chocolate-cake-in-5-minutes

I'd use the quiche dish instead of a mug. And if you have a torch, you can probably make a creme brulee.

Some fancy awkwardness

We had our office dinner party tonight at a fancy restaurant to celebrate a good fiscal year. It started with two hours of appetizers and booze at the bar and then we were ushered into a private room with assigned seats. Menu consisted of bruschetta and bread, a choice of salad, a palate cleanser (mango sorbet+ vodka), your choice of veal, chicken, salmon or an eggplant entree and your choice of a dessert (tiramisu or creme brulee).

Waiters brought out our entree in individual silver domes and told us not to peek (I had "Be our guest" from Beauty and the Beast singing in my head), and they did a little drumroll and lifted the dome.

Throughout dinner and before dinner, everyone was buying shots for everyone else. And bottles of wine were passed around. And a magician showed us some tricks.

Other diners outside in the regular dining area were dancing the shag and a band was playing some beach music.

I was, as usual, a social handicap, and I've always felt awkward in social functions and having to mingle with people I don't really know because starting some small talk is not my forte. But I did make an effort to not be a wallflower.

I survived and I was sober because I might have told a little white lie.

Now, I am ready for the weekend!

These shoes are made for walking

Two crazy fools decided to go for a walk today. And walk they did in the hot afternoon sun. They started the route through a neighboring neighborhood, past Squirrel lake, across Highway 485, passed a busy intersection, sought refuge at a church and continued onwards towards some offices.
5.8 miles (9.3 km) later, they were rescued by the parents.
Click here for the full story.

Weekend in Sneads Ferry

Here are some photos from our July 4th weekend in Sneads Ferry at Ronald and Tammie's place.
Details of our trip is posted here.

The dock

Jason raking for clams

Ronald knee-boarding

Tammie on the tube

Tammie, Asia and Bernie

A mountain of yarn

Good grief. What was I thinking?? The stuff I ordered arrived yesterday. I now have 160 hanks of yarn in my room + 192 that was wrongly sent = 352. 352!!!!