UNHEALTHY BEHAVIOR

Our cat has either diabetes or an unquenchable thirst problem. No matter how much water we leave for him during the day, it is never enough. There's been evidence (wet toilet seat, splashing noises, and wet cat) that he's been drinking from the toilet. Pictured above is what I caught him doing the other day. When I first came upon him, he had his front paws in the bowl and was lapping the water right up. By the time I got my camera, he had moved to the toilet seat and was dipping his paw in and licking the water from it.

Note to self: don't kiss our cat!

Any thoughts or medical advice? Is kitty diabetes a possibility? Chai is over-weight (big boned); type II diabetes is possible, at least in my mind.

CELL PHONE STUPIDITY

Yesterday I took the 5:15pm train home from Baltimore. It is, without a doubt, the most crowded train of the day; rarely is there an open seat. I boarded the train about five minutes before departure and found myself in front of a man about my age. As the train departed, I pulled out a presentation that needed editing and went to work. Just as I was getting into the groove - editing a presentation on statistical methodology doesn't come naturally to me - the guy behind me makes a phone call to his brother.

You might ask how/why I know he was talking to his brother... and that would be because he was yelling his entire conversation into the cell phone and across the train.

In the 45 minutes from Baltimore to College Park, MD, I learned that this guy and his girlfriend, Samantha, are living together and just found out she is pregnant. They've decided to keep the baby and get married (in a Jewish ceremony) - both events are happening at the end of the summer. They are planning a bachelorrette party and baby shower for Father's Day weekend. His family is not handling the whole pregnancy very well. Dad is being sarcastic and unsupportive; mom is acting out with passive aggressive behaviors.

As David and I were out running last night, we came up with a few funny/smartass remarks I could have made to this guy as I got off the train (my passive-aggressive way of telling him he was talking too loud):

--"I'll be praying for you, Samantha, and the baby."

--"Planning a wedding while being pregnant must be a real challenge. God bless both of you."

--"Your mom would be disappointed if she knew you were talking about her in public."

Can you think of others?

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For all you cell phone users (read: everyone), please think about the volume of your voice and the nature of your conversation when talking in public. Sharing all your personal business on a train full of commuters is not appropriate. Be aware of angry looks others might be giving you when talking on the phone. Those looks most likely are an indication that you are talking too loud or too much in public. And finally, no need to yell into your cell phone. You can speak softly into the receiver and still be heard by the other person.

Bottom-line: be courteous to others.

EASTER AT OUR HOUSE

We didn't have Easter lilies at our house this year, but we did have our first bloom. We've (read: David) been tending to a host of plants and flowers all winter in our sunroom (which doesn't get direct sunlight, but whatever...). This past week we started to see the first signs of flowers and on Easter morning we woke up to see this...







New life!










We also hosted our annual seafood Easter dinner yesterday. This means I went to the store and bought most of the food and helped assemble a couple of side dishes. David designed the menu and made everything else. It was a delightful way to celebrate the resurrection. Our six course meal consisted of:

Toasted baguettes with either curry eggplant or diced mushrooms and fresh cream.

Coconut milk soup with white spices (garlic, ginger, white pepper etc.) with mushrooms, shrimp and truffle oil.

Spring greens with blanched asparagus, orange slices, crasins, and a molasses-based dressing.

Panko and walnut breaded tilapia with a sour cream mustard sauce, served with Israeli couscous and mushrooms and brocholli.

Cheese plate with chocolate, pears, pineapple, and two cheeses.

Ice-cream with either (or both) hot fudge sauce or Kalua.

TOM & JERRY

Last week I was in the kitchen making dinner. I left the pantry open for a 'hot second' and Chai (our cat) got inside. He managed to get (nearly) his whole 13 pound self onto the bottom shelf, surrounded by boxes of granola bars and Italian icees. I gave him a little kick on the butt to get him to move, but it was to no avail. He was staying in the pantry. Not sure how to get him to move, I called upstairs to David and asked him to come downstairs to give me a hand. David came downstairs a couple of minutes later and, obviously, the cat had left the pantry on his own.

David says to me, "I know why Chai was in the pantry. He's in the living room playing with a mouse that he probably chased out of the pantry." I asked David if Chai had killed the mouse and he told me, "No. He's simply playing with it." And that's exactly what was going on... Chai was juggling the mouse as well as hitting it back and forth on the wood floors like a hockey puck on ice. He'd even let the mouse 'get away' only to scare him out of hiding so he could bat him around again. The only thing the stupid cat wasn't doing was killing the mouse (read: getting rid of my problem). This whole Tom and Jerry game between Chai and the mouse went on for about ten minutes before David got sick of it and also just wanted the mouse to be out of our house. David's solution was to play the game with Chai. So he got out an old shoe and some trash bags and started scaring and hitting the mouse around, in hopes that Chai would kill the little sucker. About five minutes after David started playing, Chai started to think he was in trouble and David was yelling at him for playing with the mouse. So the stupid cat ran into the sunroom and sulked in the corner.

David and I were on our own to kill the mouse.

We chased the mouse out of the living room and into the dining room, where we successfully sucked the mouse up with our dustbuster. David, being the nice guy that he is, released the traumatized mouse in our backyard. I suggested that we throw the mouse into our trash can and let the DC government deal with him, but since David was responsible for actually catching the mouse he got to make the final decision. And the mouse was released alive.

This is our second mouse in three months, which doesn't sit well with me (especially since our cat appears to be afraid to use his claws). Here's hoping it was our second and last...

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Spring break: I'm enjoying my time and have been sleeping a lot. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to sleep in this morning because the city is repaving our street. The jack-hammering began at 8am this morning.

Afternoon plans: I'm going to walk over to the new DC USA mall in Columbia Heights; the grand opening of Marshall's is today!

Thoughts and prayers: are with David's co-worker, Steve, who was jumped/beat up at the Fort Totten metro station at 5:30pm on Tuesday. Steve appears to have a broken jaw and possibly a broken eye socket. He's probably going to have surgery today or tomorrow and will likely have his jaw wired shut. He's in good spirits all things considered, but it is awful.

A NEW LOOK

For the past month and a half, I have been too tired, too lazy, too mentally drained, and (for the most part) too uninspired to blog. Coming to my old (yet sophisticated) BROWN blog was a little depressing and so I stopped writing. It's taken me some time, but I've come up with a new look that makes me happy and excited about writing. The little things can be so inspiring.

I have kept a running list during the past six weeks of topics to blog about. Stay tuned... there is much to come!