Shop 'til You Drop!

This morning the kittens and I woke up extra early, 3:00 am, to get an early start on Christmas shopping. I made sure the kittens went to bed extra early so that they would not be too tired, but I should have followed my own advise because I was so sleepy that I hit my snooze alarm. Good thing Black woke me when he heard that the kittens were awake or I might still be sleeping! (Thanks sweetie)

This was the first year that Little Kat braved out into the shopping world on a Black Friday. He was pretty excited and in all that excitement he accidentally left his wallet at home. Do not worry, I spotted him the cash because we did not have time to come back home. We wanted to make it out to the mall before 4:00 am.

Kit and I usually do the the Black Friday shopping together so she knows the routine. She got up early and gathered the sale ads and started to make some hot chocolate. I caught her just in time because this year I decided to stop by the 24-hour McDonald's for some gourmet hot cocoa. However, I did not know they would not be open that early because of holiday hours so we we hot cocoa"less" for our adventure.

When we got the mall, it was already pretty crowded. I was lucky that I had been to this mall many times and I knew where the perfect parking spaces were so we did not have to walk too far and we were close to the store exit.

We stood in the cold November morning for less than 10 minutes before the store opened and everyone crowded in to the store. Happy Shopping!!

Carpet Cleaners

This Thanksgiving we are having company over for dinner. So Mamma Kat decided it was time to get the carpets cleaned. Usually we do this ourselves. We have a carpet cleaning machine. However the last time we did it, the results were not that good.

Mamma Kat decided to let the professionals do our carpets. They will come and move the furniture themselves. We did have to do a little cleaning first. We took most of the little stuff out of the rooms that were getting cleaned. Then we ran the normal sweeper there to get rid of the dust.

The carpet cleaning team is scheduled to arrive early tomorrow morning. That should give it plenty of time to dry before the Thanksgiving festivities begin. Go team.

Clogged Gutters

This weekend's rain has proven that our rain gutters are clogged. The water runs down the roof, and enters a gutter filled with leaves. The water is supposed to go down the gutter downspout. Instead it pours out the side of the gutter. That's the way you end up with a wet basement.

I climbed up and poked some holes into the downspout. That got some water going down the right way. But you know us cats. We hate to get our paws we. So I called up Tony. He runs a window cleaning service. But those cats are not afraid to climb up on the roof and clean out your gutters.

Tony and his crew are coming to the house Wednesday. Those cats aren't afraid of anything. They even clean out the dirt in your gutters with a hose they carry up to the roof. My hat is off to them. Any cat that can wield a hose and not be afraid has my respect.

Give me a Filet

Mamma Kat had to do some school work. So she left early this morning even though it is the weekend. That left me alone with the kids. I had to buy some materials. But I was hungry.

Since I was in a hurry, I stopped by McDonald's for some fast food. I ordered a Southern Style Chicken Sandwich. It cost me $2.99 for just the sandwich. I was hungry so I also ordered a Fillet-o-Fish. That rang up as 99 cents. Yee haw.

I don't know why there was a sale on fish fillet. But I did not argue with them. The real surprise was when Mamma Kat came home. She also picked up some fast food. And she got me a Fillet-o-Fish too. Great minds think alike I say. Us cats love that fish.

Lots of Leaves

The leaves have almost all fallen off the trees. And they have landed in our yard. I tried to ignore them. But the two neighbors next to us have raked their leaves. Now our house looks bad.

So I woke up this morning, ate a quick breakfast, and went out to deal with the leaves. They were heavy because they were still wet. It has been raining this week on and off. It took a couple hours just to get started on some of these evil leaves.

Just as I was finishing up, the rain started to pour down. I got drenched. The rain gutters started clogging up. I climbed up the ladder, and scooped out the leaves blocking the downspout. Did I mention that I don't like the rain?

Cujo Attacks

Since it was the weekend, Mamma Kat and I sat back and watched a Kung Fu movie. Little Kat was doing his work. He took out the trash. When he came back in, he said our neighbor got locked out of his house. The family did not know what to do. So I went out and asked the neighbor to come in.

There was one problem. He had Cujo with him. You know? Cujo is the big killer dog. I am a friendly neighbor. But I have no love for Cujo. I went back in and put my shoes on. Then I got a coat and brought out our wireless phone.

Immediately Cujo pounced on me. Luckily his owner restrained him. That's right Cujo. Know your role. If Cujo comes at me again, I'm gonna give him a slap with our phone. That will teach him. Dogs.

Big Trash Can

I woke up pretty early this morning. But I was still the last one of out the house. Kit Kat had just caught her bus to school. As I was heading out to my car, I saw a big trash can in our driveway.

That puzzled me. It is not trash day. I checked and all our big trash cans were up in our carport. Then I noticed that all my neighbors had a trash can in their driveway too. And all the trash cans looked the same.

It was then that I figured it out. These were not trash cans. They were new recycling bins that the county had given to us. They just look like trash cans because of their shape and size. Great. Now Little Kat can start up the massive recycling project he wants to do. Right now I only put old newspapers in our little recycling container.

Good Priced Gas

Last night I drove by the local gas station. They always have the cheapest gas. But there was an extra long line in front just to get in. As I passed by, I saw the reason. Gas had hit $1.99 for 87 octane.

Maybe it was a fluke. I was still happy to see it. Other gas stations will have to lower their price to compete. Today at lunch we passed another gas station we usually stop at. They also had $1.99 a gallon for the low octane. Sweet.

Now I know the trick at this gas station. The gas is filled with ethanol. You know. That's the stuff that is made from corn. It is not good for your car. But two bucks for gas is good for my wallet. The cat mobile will have to make due.

Science Fair

Little Kat needed to do some work for his science fair project. His idea was to test if building shape affects how well it can stand an earthquake. Here was the setup. Little Kat would create buildings out of sugar cubes. He would then put them on a box that was shaken by being on a treadmill. He would count how many sugar cubes fell down. That way he could figure measure the damage they took from a simulated earth quake.

Little Kat had grand plans to build his first built with about 150 sugar cubes. He could not get the building to stand up. Once he got to the third level of the building, the cubes kept falling down. Little Kat had to revise his design. He would create buildings that used about 20 sugar cubes. These he could erect quickly. But these were too sturdy and would not fall apart even when the treadmill was set to its highest level.

Finally Little Kat had to design buildings that would actually fall apart. He knew to make the buildings skinny and tall. We still only got one of them to fall down during the test run. Little Kat came up with a weird pentagon shaped building that fell apart when the treadmill started going fast. Good luck Little Kat in your science fair activities. I know you will have a lot to talk about with the judges.

Hurry up and Wait

Normally I sleep in on the weekends. This weekend was different. The store was scheduled to deliver and assemble our NordicTrack elliptical exercise machine. They were supposed to come in the morning. So I got up early.

It was afternoon before the delivery cats called. They asked if we could reschedule the delivery. I told them that was just not possible. They arrived later that afternoon. It was some heavy equipment. I knew I made the right choice having the store deliver it.

Mamma Kat talked me into trying the machine. After 5 or 10 minutes, I felt like my legs were gonna fall off. This was on the easiest setting. Now I am still sore. Little Kat seems to have no problem using the machine for long periods at a time.

Shake a Tail and Vote!

The cool thing about being a teacher is that you do not have to work on election days because they use the school for a polling place. So the kittens and I had a day off!!! I made sure that I painted my fingernails red, white, and blue. I got the idea from Kit, but don't tell her. I wanted to be in the voting spirit. I woke up early (9 ish) to go with Black to vote. I was very much surprised to see there was no line and we were able to vote very quickly. I hope the rest of the day goes by as smoothly and I hope every one gets a chance to vote today!

Happy Sales Guy

Today my lunch buddy at work decided to skip going out. So I had to eat lunch by myself. This was not a bad thing. As you may recall, the family went to the mall this weekend. We looked at exercise equipment. Mamma Kat decided on the model of NordicTrack she wanted. I decided to sleep on it before buying.

And was I glad I did pause a bit. The next day, the store had the one Mamma wanted at another $100 off the price. So for lunch I went back to the mall. The food court in the mall was very crowded. Therefore I went straight to the store and skipped lunch.

I asked a couple salespeople if they could help me with a NordicTrack. They both pointed to the guy we talked to this weekend. He was busy with other customers. But my presence made him end his sales talk quickly. I asked him when could I get this NordicTrack delivered and installed. He said this Saturday. And with that I bought the thing.

The sales cat was very happy. He said this was the first time he sold any of this model. I bet that is because it is the most expensive one in the lineup. The extra sale helped make it more affordable. I think the sales cat gets a good commission for selling the top model. He told me sales are slow due to the bad economy. That's why they can deliver it so quickly. As long as the delivery goes well, I think this will be a purchase that is good for all us cats. We will keep you posted.

NordicTrack

Mamma Kat has been wanting me to get a NordicTrack exercise machine for the family. Now I don't know about you. But I am not sure how a cat is supposed to use such a large contraption. Nevertheless, I brought the family to Sears Roebuck Saturday morning.

Little Kat and Mamma Kat showed me the model they spied before. I had Little Kat show me how it worked. The sales guy screamed from afar that kids we not allowed on the exercise machines. I asked the guy to come over, and explained that I needed the whole family to test out the machine so I can tell whether we will buy it. The guy said as long as I did not hold the store responsible for anybody getting hurt, the kids could try it under adult supervision.

And with that Little Kat and Kit Kat tried out the machine. It apparently has a bunch of video games built in to entertain you while you exercise. It took a little coaxing to get Mamma Kat up on the machine. But it was good. She found out she liked another machine better. Too bad the other one cost a lot more money. I told the sales guy I had to sleep on such a big decision. And with that we drove to Fuddrucker's for burgers. But that is a story for another post.