Cat in a Box

In our family we love laughing about brand names. Always have, always will.

And Albrecht Discount has the greatest brand name for pet supplies.

It is Heart To Tail!

The other day when I had my delivery from Aldi, some of the groceries arrived packed into a Heart to Tail box. It is now Jeoffry's favorite toy.

Heart To Tail must have planned that!

This box was just like a little cat house. It is like a freebie I got along with my Heart To Tail cat food and Heart To Tail cat litter. We are spoiling Jeoffry recently with canned cat food. He does not barf as much. If your cat barfs, try canned food instead of dry food, is my advice. It makes a difference.

Plus, if you play your cards right, you might get this box.

Heart to Tail!

The Capsule Wardrobe, a huge challenge

 

Happy Caturday! Jeoffry likes my wardrobe, as you can see in the picture I took this morning. He likes my hundreds of dresses!

Me, I am feeling the need to get organized. And so I am trying to put together an, ahem, Capsule Wardrobe. I thought it would be fun for the summer!

The idea behind a Capsule Wardrobe is, you choose 15 items that you can easily mix and match and that will see you through your normal everyday needs. The idea is that you can get dressed without a fuss and love the clothes you are wearing and always have something to wear. I heard one Capsule Wardrobe guru talking about how she used to love clothes and she had millions of items but nothing to wear. She would wind up frustrated with clothes strewn all over the place and still not have an outfit together she liked.

I thought: That is me before Mass! Clothes strewn everywhere. Signs of a struggle as I like to say.

This all makes sense to me, having a capsule wardrobe. However I have a feeling with me it will grow to 25 items at least. Even that will be a gigantic challenge.

Yesterday I dragged most of the clothes out of my closet, leaving in the closet only the things I really loved. It is funny how you can have two items almost the same, you know, however one you just like better than the other. In that case you are to toss the item you do not like as well.

I am giving precedence to natural fabrics, cotton and linen. A few rayon dresses made the cut because they are loose and swingy and they do not get warm. Rayon will always get you however. It sounds fine -- rayon is breathable, you think. However its real name is Viscose! And it is not breathable.

Between yesterday and today I spent a few hours weeding out the closet. I took tons of metal coat hangers out to the trash. This is serious! I donated some clothes and I have boxes for other ones just so I will take them out of the closet and not overthink things.

I am going to run now and count the clothes in my closet.

Yikes! I am at 35!

I can take the denim jacket out and not count that because it is a jacket.

But still. I must do this, I must get it down to 25. That is generous. Lots of these Capsule Wardrobe types cap it at 15.

I will have to figure this out tomorrow.

I will report!

Cat and mouse

"For there is nothing so sweet as his peace when at rest."

Jeoffry caught another mouse!

That sentence rings out with a sense of great joy. However when I actually perceived the event, it was not as joyous. A dead mouse in the house -- perhaps it is not as bad as a live mouse running around but it is still not pretty.

I was at the Steinway playing Johannes Brahms and suddenly my eyes began roaming the room and that was when I saw something by the radiator.

At first I was thinking, it is just one of Jeoffry's toys. He has several toys that look alarmingly real including a small brown fabric mouse and a big alarming-looking rat. Maybe it is that gross little toy mouse. That is what I said to myself as I continued playing the Brahms.

I decided to wait until the piece was over and so I did that. For the record this was the first Impromptu Op. 119. I like to run through the whole set. However on this occasion that was not to be.

After I played the last notes of that first impromptu I got up for an impromptu check on that mouse.

It sure looked real. 

It was real.

Jeoffry got up meowing. He likes to listen to music and he did not like that it had been interrupted. He should have thought of that in view of the mouse. Couldn't he have eaten it or something? Could he not have taken it somewhere else?

But now that I thought of it we had been warned. He had been obsessed with the area surrounding the radiator. He had even been sleeping there.

The things that cats know that we do not!

Meanwhile... it has quietly been five years since Jeoffry's first mouse -- at least the first mouse to our knowledge.

I wonder when we will find the next one!

Catnap

"For there is nothing so sweet as his peace when at rest."

That is a line I love from "My Cat Jeoffry."

Above is My Cat Jeoffry asleep on an armchair in the living room. I have these two beautiful red armchairs I was not appreciating on his account. One was upstairs well protected from Jeoffry by piles of stuff. Another, not matching the first but similar, was downstairs, but it was covered by an old quilt so Jeoffry would not claw it.

Finally a few weeks ago I said, I will bring these chairs out into the light.

Probably they will have a short lifespan but meanwhile I may as well enjoy them!

I have reason to be concerned because very early on after we got Jeoffry, we had to bring an armchair out to the curb. He had absolutely gutted it. Such was the damage that the garbage men stopped in their duties and just laughed openly. I observed them.

They understood: A cat lives here!

So far, though, the armchairs do not seem to have aroused the obsession in Jeoffry that the earlier chair did. He claws them now and then but not with any real commitment.

He does like to sleep on the one chair.

"For there is nothing so sweet as his peace when at rest."

Let us hope he remains at rest!

Color and light

For some reason I like doing art.

I use the term loosely. I do not have any pretentions as an artist. But late at night, or of an afternoon when I have been busy with work most of the day, it is fun to sit down with watercolors and relax. What is it about watercolors? They are just so cheap and easy.

Especially cheap. I have this $5 watercolor set I have been working off of forever. That is it in the picture above! I also have a sneaking affection for oil pastels because they, too, are cheap. That masterpiece in the sketchbook visible in thePain back on the right was done with oil pastels.

Not only that but they were oil pastels I purchased in Tupperware at a garage sale! I think I paid a quarter. The brand is Loew-Cornell, which despite the patrician name is made in China, let's not kid ourselves.

I remember my mom telling me at that garage sale that buying the pastels was worth it just to get the Tupperware! LOL! Anyway, those are the pastels that painted that picture in the picture.

HOWEVER. Once at another garage sale I bought a little wooden box of oil pastels of the Van Gogh brand. Van Gogh is not an exalted brand. Looking it up, I see it is a "student brand." However. sets of 10 or something (mine has 15) go for a cool $30 or something. So when I get better at oil pastel I will let myself use the Van Gogh pastels instead of the Loew-Cornells.

I will be the Leonard Pennario of pastels!

Jeoffry also enjoys art.

Good boy! Good boy!!

We are artists!

The cat and the tree

I put up my tree on Sunday. It was Gaudete Sunday! That is THE day to put up your tree.

All kinds of people put up their trees. I saw it on Facebook. Jeoffry assisted me in putting up my tree as you can see in the photo above.

After it was up I sent this photo to Howard who put it up on Facebook.

OK, well, things are not perfect. But we are moving into the season!

The day you put up the tree is always one of the happiest days of the year. The day you take it down is, I am sorry, one of the saddest. I hate to take down the Christmas tree! One of these years I will just not do it. It will stay up until next year. Some of my Facebook friends have already taken that route.

I should just leave it up all year! I am a grown-up and this is America.

And Jeoffry would love it!

Mr. Fix-It

Another thing that happened besides the market madness is that the repairman showed up and finally fixed the Bosch stove. Above is a picture I snapped of the repairman doing the job, to the tune of $219.

Jeoffry helped the repairman.

That was the caption Howard wrote on Facebook for the picture I took and it is most apt. We were talking about how nice it is that Jeoffry is sociable. So many cats run and hide and there is nothing wrong with that, but we like that ours comes out, says hello and sometimes even offers assistance.

In celebration for the stove being done I roasted some of the cauliflower I had bought at the market on my spending spree, plus I roasted and stuffed an eggplant. This morning I made peanut butter/ oatmeal bars for church coffee hour. The recipe is from an ancient Pillsbury Bake-Off competition. The booklet shows the winning entries being judged by Pennario's friend Greer Garson so I know the recipes are good.

Wow, look at this. Naively I go looking to see if I can find the recipe online and I cannot. This is what I found on the Pillsbury site .. a bunch of recipes built on convenience foods and prepackaged mixes. One of them even starts with "a roll of Pillsbury refrigerated chocolate chip cookies."

Clearly with Greer Garson gone this contest has hit the skids.

Oh well. Aside from that life feels right again with the oven working.

Now, if I could only stop baking!

Stand facing the house

I am trying to get my house in order so today I took out the recycling and the cat litter. Yay me! Well, I am normally pretty good about the cat litter. But it is a special challenge because every time I approach Jeoffry's litter box, he all of a sudden wants to go.

Why is that??

Why is it that as soon as I start to clean the litter box, he needs to use it?

He is not shy. He just horns on in and squats. And he looks at me the whole time. I just start laughing and put the scoop down. What else can you do?

So that was my accomplishment. Recycling. Litter box. And I paid bills and sent away for liquor rebates. Getting your liquor rebates in the mail is a huge accomplishment! It completely eclipsed all the Pennario work I did getting up early.

Anyway I take pride in my domestic progress. Tomorrow I think I will clean out my entrance way.

What got me going was seeing Graycliff, the summer home Frank Lloyd Wright built for Darwin Martin, the Buffalo businessman who was a director of the Larkin Soap Company. Above is one of the photos our photographer took. There are more in this gallery so you can see what got to me.

There is work to be done on Graycliff, though not on the scale of what needs to be done on my house. But I was just enchanted by the place's clean lines and open spaces. It was no wonder the Pierist Fathers pitched camp there for a few decades, after the Martin family sold it. You could imagine it echoing with Gregorian chant.

And I thought: What is with my house?

Whenever I play Gregorian chant there it is as if it is an affront to the chant.

Changes must be made. Hence the recycling and the litter box.

One small step for mankind.

One giant leap for me!

Bad Housekeeping

I am a terrible housekeeper. Were I to offer an excuse I would say I spend too much time on my work, which is true. But I would probably be a bad housekeeper no matter what. I am lazy when it comes to cleaning. I always have something else to do.

However. You reach a point when you cannot take it any more, you know? And so today I cleaned the bathrooms. Unbelievable accomplishment points, you know?

Finish good draft of Pennario book: 200 satisfaction points.

Get it into hands of editor friend: 500 satisfaction points.

Stick with deadline: 1,000 satisfaction points.

Clean bathrooms: 8,000,000 satisfaction points!

Things have been extra bad around the house in the last week because mostly for work-related reasons, I just have not been home. When I did get home I just kind of dropped everything anywhere.

So I thought: Start anywhere. Do anything. I began on a whim with the floor of the, ahem, powder room. It had been looking grungy for I do not know how long. And it's funny, once you get around to dealing with it, it does not take that long. It is not like cleaning the fridge or something! Suddenly it is done and you have this clean cool floor.

Inspired, I went upstairs and did the tub.

I still have to do the mirror.

Perhaps tomorrow.

Meanwhile here is something that cracked me up. While I was touching up the bathroom our cat Jeoffry walked in. Jeoffry loves to drink out of the bathtub faucet. You turn it on to a trickle and he walks up and puts his paws on either side of the faucet and laps up the water.

It is too cute, and for a while now it has been depressing me that the tub and the faucet have been so dodgy. So now I am all proud of what I have done. Jeoffry hopped into the tub as he always does and I was standing there beaming.

But Jeoffry was not beaming.

He was confused!

He looks this way and that way. Gingerly, with his paw, he touched the clean tub. He backed up, away from the faucet. I turned the faucet to the trickle he is used to. He just looked at it. Then he looked down again. He looked up at me.

Then he hopped back out of the tub! Without a drink.

I guess I should clean more often.

He is not used to it!

Disaster at the dance

Remember the mourning doves yesterday? Last night they led to a drama.

It was so sweet because three doves -- I want to say three, though it might have been four -- were dancing on the top of the closed grill on the back porch. I mean they were actually dancing. They were changing partners and stepping this way and that and they would pause and kind of kiss each other. It was like watching a courtly dance like a minuet.



Or a Laendler.



And I was enchanted, watching these birds. I was standing at the screen door gazing at them.

I was so enchanted that I totally forgot that at my feet, Jeoffry was watching too. But with antipathy. Like the Baroness when she walks out on the porch and sees the Captain and Maria dancing.

Anyway.

Suddenly there was this huge, jarring CRASH!

The cat had flung himself onto the screen and clung there with all four paws. Like a squirrel!

He had been watching and watching and his outrage was growing and all of a sudden he just could not stand it any more. He didn't get out, but the noise was this tremendous shock. The birds screeched and scattered. I have to say I have not seen them since.

I had to help Jeoffry down off the screen and then he went stalking away, his life's equilibrium restored, his dominion over the house assured.

I hope the doves come back!

But I will not be surprised if they don't.

Jeoffry's first mouse

Remember not long ago when we predicted that Jeoffry would, one day soon, zero in a mouse?

That day arrived!

The other night we arrived home from, ahem, the theater. And there was a dead mouse sitting on Jeoffry's red Savers bag. That bag is his turf so that mouse was there for a reason.

Howard saw it first.

"There's a mouse here," he said. "A real mouse."

Then we called for Jeoffry but for the longest time he did not appear. That was weird and we were worried. Then he sauntered in from the front sun room. He had been watching the rabbits outside. He was really high on himself because of that mouse, you could tell. There was a new dignity about him, as you may see in the picture Howard took, visible up above.

Not to get too gross, but the mouse was intact and not gory. God knows what it went through, because as the poem "My Cat Jeoffry" says about the cat, "For he plays with his prey to give it a Chance." But the end was pretty anyway.

It missed the deadline unfortunately for my ground-breaking, sure-to-win-a-Pulitzer mouse story in The Buffalo News. But still, significant. This is a milestone for Jeoffry. It was like Leonard Pennario's first appearance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. For Pennario there were many more concerts and for Jeoffry there will surely be many more mice.

He is earning his stripes!

Cat and mouse

The cat hears things we do not hear and he is fixated on a corner of the dining room. Sometimes out of nowhere he will go flying and zero in on this sliver of space between the wall and the china cabinet.

Something is there!

All I can think is that it is a mouse. Well, I am pretty sure that it is.

Once when I was sitting at the dining room table working on my Pennario project I heard this rustling. It was the tiniest sound but I picked up on it.

And so did Jeoffry.

Suddenly, soundlessly, he came walking in. He crept up to that spot and waited. And waited.

He did not nail the mouse on that occasion but at some point he will. Either that or the mouse, if it is smart, will go down the street to a house with no cat.

Meanwhile that is a picture up above that Howard took of the cat and his toy mice. The mouse in the lower left-hand corner is his particular pet. Sometimes he sleeps with it and I have seen him grooming it. We hope he will not have that relationship with the real mouse, one that fateful eventual day when they meet. But we do not think he will.

It changes my relationship with mice, to know that I am not alone and undefended. As Howard has said, every house has a mouse. And the cat is on duty. Meaning, he is always on duty! And he knows where the critters are. He shows marked interest in the lazy Susan which, we remember what once happened there. There was one other time that, again sitting working on the book, I heard a tiny rustle. On that morning the cat was napping in his carrier in the back room. I heard the rustle and thought, oh, too bad Jeoffry is in the other room asleep.

But no! I glanced back there and he had raised his head.

He was listening.

He heard!

Tolkien's take on a cat

Last night when a bunch of us went Christmas caroling, first we gathered in the gracious home of my friends George and Anne Apfel in Williamsville. And we played with the Apfels' tiger kitten and we all talked about our cats, including our Jeoffry, pictured above.

Well, everyone talked about cats except our friend Ryan, who is not a cat owner. Three cheers for Ryan, who puts up with us!

Today I found this poem. Someone had posted it as a comment to a story the Atlantic Monthly ran about why cats will always be a little bit wild.

The poem is by J.R.R. Tolkien. I never really got into "The Lord of the Rings" but I have a deep affinity for Tolkien because he loved the Tridentine Latin Mass the way I do (and the way Leonard Pennario did). When the Mass turned to English, Tolkien would always insist on giving the responses in Latin. Requiescat in pace, dear poet. Next time we sing "Adeste Fideles" it will be for you.

And now the poem:

"Cat" by J. R. R. Tolkien

The fat cat on the mat
may seem to dream
of nice mice that suffice
for him, or cream;
but he free, maybe,
walks in thought
unbowed, proud, where loud
roared and fought
his kin, lean and slim,
or deep in den
in the East feasted on beasts
and tender men.
The giant lion with iron
claw in paw,
and huge ruthless tooth
in gory jaw;
the pard dark-starred,
fleet upon feet,
that oft soft from aloft
leaps upon his meat
where woods loom in gloom --
far now they be,
fierce and free,
and tamed is he;
but fat cat on the mat
kept as a pet
he does not forget.

Take a bough

Shame, shame! I had to bring work home this weekend. I was behind!

But this evening when I felt I had made some progress I let myself put up my tree. It is way early, I know, for traditionally minded folks like me. Some of my close friends will admonish me. I will have to keep my fingers crossed and hope they are pacified with some eggnog. Or perhaps some Bailey's Irish Cream which, who knows, I just might make again this season.

Either that or I could just genuinely apologize and say I could not help it. I am not alone! I know a lot of traddies just like myself and most of them have put their trees up. Especially the ones with kids. It just cannot be helped.

Technically the Christmas season does not begin until Christmas Eve but that horse is out of the barn and it cannot be put back in overnight.

So, my tree. It is the Martha Stewart white fake tree I got from Howard. I realize taking it out of the box that it has become a bit yellowed. It is because I have always put it in the window. Now I see you are not supposed to put it in direct sunlight. Of course I did not bother reading the instructions any of the other years. So that is another horse that is out of the barn.

Who cares, after dark it still looks great. And that is when you enjoy your tree, in the evening. And I do enjoy it. Leonard Pennario loved Christmas and so do I.

And so does Jeoffry! He was into this tree idea from the beginning, as you can see from that picture. I texted that picture to my sister Margie who got a kick out of his orange ears. Margie is so sweet and she recognizes artistic greatness when she sees it.

I can tell you exactly how many lights there are on my tree. There are 600!

My friend Ryan gave me a wonderful present last year, three sets of LED lights made especially for fake white trees. Other years, I used old strings of lights with dark green strings. Ryan got these lights marked down after Christmas at Kmart. There are 200 lights in a pack and he gave me three sets so I used all of them, every last light. You cannot see my tree for the lights!

It is hard to see but the tree is topped with a blue light. I arranged the light string that way in tribute to Kmart, because of Kmart's Blue Light Special.

Right now Jeoffry and the tree are content to co-exist.

I hope they stay that way!

My Cat Jeoffry

We have named our cat My Cat Jeoffry because of this British poem. That is Jeoffry pictured above in a portrait by Howard.

My father read me this poem when I was little. And recently when I was at church my friend Alenka, who is from London and is the authoress ...

... of the witty Web log Turkeys on the Sunlounger, mentioned it. That was when I remembered the poem.

"I will consider my cat Jeoffry." That is how it starts.

Then this poet, his name is Christopher Smart, he continues in the style of a liturgy. Every line begins with "For." Off the top of my head I can quote a few.

"For he is of the Tribe of Tiger."

"For when he takes his prey he plays with it to give it a chance."

"For one mouse in seven escapes by his dallying."

Something like that. And a line I love runs something like: "For God spoke to Moses concerning the cats on the occasion of the Exodus from Egypt."

I actually looked in the Bible to see if I could find God saying something concerning the cats! I could not. But I love the idea. And surely He did.

When we first got our cat he would get nutzed and start trying to scratch my ankles or something and I would scoop him up and say to him: 

"For he is of the Tribe of Tiger!"

And another line from the poem:

"For every house is incomplete without him!"

And it would calm him immediately because he would just be so startled. Who is this nut who adopted me? First she sits around for hours every night working on this book on this concert pianist Leonard Pennario and now what in the world is she talking about?

The poem was written in the 18th century so it is quaint. It is also religious. But it is such a tender portrait of a cat. And cats have not changed one bit over hundreds and hundreds of years. He even talks about the cat playing with a cork. Our cat plays with corks. Luckily a wine drinker lives in this house and so those are those timeless cat toys lying around.

I sort of wanted to call the cat Jeoffry but Howard had naming rights because it is his birthday cat. Last week we were talking about it was time to give the cat a name. I mentioned Jeoffry.

Howard said: "I call it Cat. Or My Cat. It seems to recognize that."

Then it clicked. 

I said, "Howard, that's the name of the poem, My Cat Jeoffry!"

And immediately it was clear that is his name. He can be Jeoffry or My Cat Jeoffry or Cat or My Cat.

Here is the poem "My Cat Jeoffry." By Christopher Smart (1722 - 1771). 

For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.

For he is the servant of the Living God, duly and daily serving him.

For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way.

For is this done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.

For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.

For he rolls upon prank to work it in.

For having done duty and received blessing he begins to consider himself.

For this he performs in ten degrees.

For first he looks upon his forepaws to see if they are clean.

For secondly he kicks up behind to clear away there.

For thirdly he works it upon stretch with the forepaws extended.

For fourthly he sharpens his paws by wood.

For fifthly he washes himself.

For sixthly he rolls upon wash.

For seventhly he fleas himself, that he may not be interrupted upon the beat.

For eighthly he rubs himself against a post.

For ninthly he looks up for his instructions.

For tenthly he goes in quest of food.

For having considered God and himself he will consider his neighbor.

For if he meets another cat he will kiss her in kindness.

For when he takes his prey he plays with it to give it a chance.

For one mouse in seven escapes by his dallying.

For when his day’s work is done his business more properly begins.

For he keeps the Lord’s watch in the night against the adversary. 

For he counteracts the powers of darkness by his electrical skin and glaring eyes.

For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life.

For in his morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him.

For he is of the tribe of Tiger.

For the Cherub Cat is a term of the Angel Tiger.

For he has the subtlety and hissing of a serpent, which in goodness he suppresses.

For he will not do destruction if he is well-fed, neither will he spit without provocation.

For he purrs in thankfulness when God tells him he’s a good Cat.

For he is an instrument for the children to learn benevolence upon.

For every house is incomplete without him, and a blessing is lacking in the spirit.

For the Lord commanded Moses concerning the cats at the departure of the Children of Israel 

            from Egypt.

For every family had one cat at least in the bag.

For the English Cats are the best in Europe.

For he is the cleanest in the use of his forepaws of any quadruped.

For the dexterity of his defense is an instance of the love of God to him exceedingly.

For he is the quickest to his mark of any creature.

For he is tenacious of his point.

For he is a mixture of gravity and waggery.

For he knows that God is his Saviour.

For there is nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest. 

For there is nothing brisker than his life when in motion. 

For he is of the Lord’s poor, and so indeed is he called by benevolence perpetually--Poor Jeoffry!

            poor Jeoffry! the rat has bit thy throat.

For I bless the name of the Lord Jesus that Jeoffry is better. 

For the divine spirit comes about his body to sustain it in complete cat.

For his tongue is exceeding pure so that it has in purity what it wants in music.

For he is docile and can learn certain things.

For he can sit up with gravity, which is patience upon approbation.

For he can fetch and carry, which is patience in employment.

For he can jump over a stick, which is patience upon proof positive.

For he can spraggle upon waggle at the word of command.

For he can jump from an eminence into his master’s bosom.

For he can catch the cork and toss it again.

For he is hated by the hypocrite and miser.

For the former is afraid of detection. 

For the latter refuses the charge.

For he camels his back to bear the first notion of business.

For he is good to think on, if a man would express himself neatly.

For he made a great figure in Egypt for his signal services.

For he killed the Icneumon rat, very pernicious by land.

For his ears are so acute that they sting again.

For from this proceeds the passing quickness of his attention.

For by stroking of him I have found out electricity.

For I perceived God’s light about him both wax and fire.

For the electrical fire is the spiritual substance which God sends from heaven to sustain the 

            bodies both of man and beast.

For God has blessed him in the variety of his movements.

For, though he cannot fly, he is an excellent clamberer.

For his motions upon the face of the earth are more than any other quadruped.

For he can tread to all the measures upon the music.

For he can swim for life.

For he can creep.

It is unfinished. 

I think those of us lucky enough to have cats may feel free to add to it.

Gotta dance

Yesterday I had a very long day at work so I chilled out afterward by going to Zumba. Our cat Jeoffry had been under the weather so I found myself apologizing to him as I backed out the door in my pink Zumba pants.

"Jeoffry, I'm sorry, I'm just going to Zumba," I told him. "I'll be back. I'll leave class 15 minutes early."

I actually said that!

The good news is that Jeoffry got over what he had which, that is a story for another day. Also I liked Zumba class a lot more than I thought I would. I had kind of fallen off the Zumba wagon because it had become too much a hip-hop, shake-your-booty, backwards-baseball-cap thing. I mean, I can take a song or two of that, but I do not want it to be the whole class.

It seemed it had become all this monotonous stuff with someone yelling something over a beat. Once I kept track and there were something like 10 songs in a row with absolutely no tune. Some of the words were too trashy. The "songs" were too dumb. I picked up that snotty habit from Leonard Pennario of the sarcastic use of quote marks.

Also, as you can see in this picture ...

... nobody wears those cute neon-colored Zumba clothes I used to like. It says you do not take yourself too seriously and now I think Zumba takes itself more seriously.

Anyway I had not been to Zumba in a while.

But you have to do something, you know? I missed the exercise. So yesterday there I was. And it was better. Not as bad as I had been remembering. Perhaps the pendulum is swinging, pendulously, back the other way.

Plus we had a great teacher who never stopped the class. I hate lazy teachers who stop the class. It ended up this teacher was imported from Clarence for the evening, my luck. But anyway, good class, and it made me feel good. I will try Zumba again.

I will report!

He's my handyman

One of the many benefits of having a cat (pictured above, in a portrait by Howard) around:

Remember the fridge that I bought a couple of years ago? I was always hearing a kind of scratching sound behind it. A rustling and a scratching.

Could it be mice? I hated the thought. I have always dealt badly with mice.

So I decided it was not mice. It was this fridge, something with the mechanism. I tuned it out the way I would tune out an inferior pianist, a pianist who was not Pennario. It was just my lot in life, I decided. Out of all the new refrigerators in the world I happened to get the one that made funny noises.

Well.

These funny noises? I just realized today that they have stopped.

I have not heard them in I do not know how long!

As Howard said we do not know what the cat is up to when we are not around. It could have chalked up a kill, who knows.

Either that or the mice have simply packed up and gone somewhere else.

"Holy #$*&. You would not believe what has moved into this house."

Either that or that cat is a handyman.

He has fixed the fridge!