Fussy Felines and Budding Breakthroughs

Okay, so our cats are just weird. There's no other word for it. I suppose we all have our quirks... but these two have the oddest habit, I just can't explain it.

We usually fill our cats' water bowls with the same water that we drink - the aqua from the big blue jug. Y'see, our water here in Glenmore sometimes runs a little yellow. I mean, not always -- most of the time it just smells like chlorine or some other bad chemical that has been added in mass doses to bleach the water of it's yellowy tint. Anyhow, my point is we don't trust our water. It's just gross. So why force our cats to drink water we won't?

Alright, now that I've explained that, I have a confession to make.

Once or twice (actually more like 4 or 5 times) in the last few years, I've given our kittens water from the tap instead of the water jug. I know. I know. I'm a mean momma. I guess I just figured that if I'm rinsing their dishes out, then why bother walking into the dining room for water? Thirsty chats aren't going to notice a difference.... right?

Ha. How naive.

There was a time when I used to give Emmy n' Luna tap water every day. Of course, that was back when I lived downtown, like five years ago, before I started buying da big blue jugs. Although, I have to say, I found downtown water a lot clearer than our yellowish Glenmore water.

However, these days both Emmy and Luna totally turn their little button noses up at tap water in their bowls. In fact, they'll even go to great lengths not to drink it.... by drinking water from the toilet, sucking at the sink, and licking the bottom of the bathtub instead.

Okay, so WTF?!

You dummy cats! You think that toilet water or bathtub puddles are gonna taste better than the fresh tap water I just poured into your bowls?

I don't get it.

They are such weirdos, I swear.





Anyhow, that was how I spent part of my morning -- refreshing full water bowls because the fussy fuzz heads were apparently dying of thirst something fierce, and couldn't keep their little faces out of the toilet. And boy, when I put the refilled bowls down, you should've seen them lap up that blue jug water! Jim always looks at me as if it is common sense to only give them jug water... but I don't see how they can tolerate drinking out of the toilet just to avoid the same water that's sitting in their bowls?

Okay, now that I've bored you half to death by blabbering on about our pets' peculiar habits that I'm sure nobody gives two hoots about, I'll finally switch gears.

So we spent our morning at the office doing a bit of contract stuff, and then Jim n' I headed downtown where we spent the better part of our afternoon. We grabbed lunch to-go and then pulled up a bench beneath our butts at the boardwalk. Over chicken and hummus pitas, (Jim had the chicken, and I the hummus, of course), we talked about how blessed and thankful we are for everything. This conversation really seems to be a daily ritual. We try our best not to take a minute of this wonderful opportunity for granted.

Once we were done thanking the universe, our minds naturally transitioned to yapping about the script. I mean, what else do we have to discuss?

As we chatted between chomps, we eventually made the mistake of tossing some leftover pita crumbs to a couple nearby birds. Normally I know better than that, but my belly was full and I was feeling sympathetic as a couple slowly gathered 'round. Yes, yes, I know... we were asking for trouble. By the time those two birds multiplied to six, we decided that we had better move along before too many more of their friends showed up to the pita party.

This left us playing musical chairs for a while.

First we strolled down to another bench by the beach... but I guess someone had squished this big dragonfly earlier in the day and it was left flattened right beside where I had to set my feet. I tried keeping my legs up on the bench, but it still made me kinda sad every time I looked down at it's mashed little corpse. Needless to say, we soon decided to keep movin'.

The grass was nice n' lush, so we were going to just plop ourselves right on the well-manicured ground... but then we started thinking about this guy I knew who had been accidentally stabbed by rogue needles - not once, but TWICE - in City Park, while lounging in the thick grass...

Hmm... where else can we sit?

We finally moved on to the bleachers right next to the skate park/water park. Perfect. (Well, except for the swastika scratched into the paint probably by some ignorant 12 year old. Not to mention all the graffiti written in white marker about so-and-so being a c*cksucker or b*tch. Ah yes, lovely.)

It was here that Jim n' I had an awesome brainstorming session and came up with quite a number of breakthroughs. I'm really big on getting out to a change of scenery. It seems that our thoughts really get flowing when we're not spending our entire day inside, slouched on the couch. So yeah, it was great. I mean, we still have a number of things to figure out, but it was a terrific start. Much better than yesterday.

After about forty minutes or so, an older couple came over and each claimed a plank on the bleachers right above us, where they decided to take a nap or catch some rays or something. I don't know why they didn't go to the other set of empty bleachers beside us... but whatever. Just chalk it up to one of those little oddities in life, I guess. Since we figured that we had made substantial progress by this point, we decided to head home. Plus, our parking spot was going to expire soon too.

On our way back, we decided to pop in to Brandt's for a sunny afternoon brew. The clouds had parted and the weather has been just wonderful - warm, clear and smoke-free - perfect patio weather! (Although we still sure could use some rain! Seriously!!) So over a pint, we talked a while longer, took a few notes, and made another breakthrough or two. Tres exciting indeed.

And then of course afterwards we gushed a little more about just how lucky we are. I mean, we've definitely worked long and hard for this -- we started this script together in early 2006. But to see it all pay off and watch our dreams slowly come to fruition, well... it's simply amazing.

And so now here we sit, swaying gently on our balcony swing... me blogging, while Jim wraps up the last few pages in the Time Traveler's Wife. We're hoping to check it out when it comes to theaters this weekend.

So yeah, all in all, it was a very productive, perfectly awesome day. Life is good. :)