june 1, 1998 We went for another ride Saturday. I finished off a couple of more rolls of film and we took them in to be developed yesterday. They should be back tomorrow. I added a couple of more pictures to the postcard page this morning. Many that I've taken on our recent rides I took with the hopes of getting more java lakes pictures. I'm crossing my fingers.

I added the *current* webcam picture to the postcard site, too. That's one that you won't know what you've sent. If you sent an empty chair or a cat or a whatever I put in the chair at night for the final photo.

I feel really lazy. I just want to go lay down on the couch, drink coffee and read. And I have so much that I have to do. Clean windows, fishtanks, floors, laundry..... Maybe that's the problem. I should spend the time I think about doing the stuff that needs to be done, *doing* the stuff that needs to be done. At night, when I'm laying in bed, I make all of these big plans for what I'm going to do tomorrow. Then tomorrow is here and I just don't do it. Maybe I should get started.

june 4, 1998 I would love to sleep, just once, until 6 am. But the cats have a conspiracy against that. No, I'm not paranoid, its true. It starts with Boney, going into my bathroom, down the hall. He perches on the edge of the bathtub and starts to yowl. He wants the faucet turned on, he's thirsty. There's a bowl of water in the tub (there because Mickey used to dump it when it was on the floor, spilling it on the bathmat - funny, he doesn't do that in the bathtub) but that's not what Boney wants. He wants water that he's sure is fresh. The acoustics are wonderful for a yowling cat in my bathroom. "BONEY!! Boney, SHUT UP!!" I yell. I pull the pillow over my head. Its the next cats turn and Benny takes the baton. He is in the master bathroom. He cries his high pitched mew. "Benny, come here. Come to bed," I say. I pat the faux leather rail, which Mickey has made short work of, ripped vinyl and off white flocking in plain view. He mews again. Thump. "Benny, GET DOWN!!" both hubby and I yell, in harmony. Benny has jumped up onto the screen, and is hanging there by his front claws, his body hanging down. I know this because there is no place for him to rest his hind legs. I get out of bed and pick him off of the screen. "bad cat" I tell him. He jumps into bed, waits for me. I try to lay down in my spot, warm and cozy. Rusty is there. "Move" I say, irritated. I push him into the middle of the bed. Benny lays next to me, purring. Oh, no, they aren't done yet. DeeJay walks in, jumps onto the bed. He growls at everybody. He is a grouchy, whiney cat. He comes to my head and meows in my ear. "Go away" I tell him. He meows again. I pull my hand from under the cover and gently pet his face. He starts kneading my pillow, claws perilously close to my cheek. He walks off to the other side of the bed, stepping on my hair, pulling it. Brian ignores him. He comes back, lays down. Purring. Then the growling starts. That low rumble....gggrrrrrrrrr.....ggrrrrr....... Brian says "Leelee, shut up". She continues. I'm thinking, I wish I kept my can of air in the headboard. I think about the water bottle for Benny in the bathroom. Would I hit the mirror? Would that annoy Brian so early in the morning? After all, he has to clean his mirror...I wish I could go back to sleep. Grrrrrrrr.....grrrrrrrr.....the growling continues... Mickey decides to attack my legs, even though they aren't moving. Attack!! Attack!! He utters a war yell as he jumps. *sigh* I look at the clock. 5:58 am. One of these mornings, I'm going to make it until 6.

It rained last night. Not much. I wonder if summer is ever going to get here?

Brian told me yesterday morning that I needed to clean the coffee maker. One of the cats did a major spraying job on it. Even went into the water reservoir. Yuk, what a mess it was. I put one cycle of vinegar and water through it, then three cycles of water. Sheesh.

I washed and waxed the kitchen and laundry room floors yesterday. I yelled at Brian last night for dripping water on my clean floor. This morning, I made coffee. I came back into the office to get things going. About a half hour later, I went back to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee. Oh, no!!! What a mess. It seems as if the filter had flopped over and coffee grounds were blocking the little hole that the coffee drips through. So, it overflowed. The counter was covered and the coffee was dripping onto my clean floor. AAARRRGGGHHHH!! If ever I needed coffee, it was right now. And I had to grind more. Not a good start this morning, not a good start at all.

Its cloudy now. I am working on some more lake effect cards for the postcard site. I have to wash and wax the hallways and I hate doing things like that when its humid and damp. I hope the day gets better.

june 8, 1998 I HATE THIS WEATHER!! When is it going to be summer? Clouds, drizzle, rain, drizzle....I want the sun. And snow in Denver? Geez, its almost the middle of June.

Benny had something wrong with his right eye this weekend, had green crud coming out of it, so I put in some terramycin and later a little Neo-Predef. The vet had mentioned that the Neo-Predef soothes the eye. He looked much better yesterday morning, but by the afternoon, it was getting icky again. This morning, the other eye looks bad. And Georgie is sneezing and has runny eyes. I think we have an URI on the premises. Darn it. I don't know how they get this stuff. They aren't in contact with other cats.

The catcam is doing quite well. Benny was in the chair Saturday night. This is so fun, showing off the cats live. I tried to get lisa to say high to Stacy Saturday night, talking to lisa and having her look up when the camera took the picture. She did.

Got notice from Geo that they are doing away with the featured page and going to something called the best of GeoCities. So, I decided to do a link check to make sure my links are all working. I didn't expect they would be, especially the ones on the awards. I used NetMechanic, a free service to check for broken links. On all of my Geo pages, it found less than sixty broken links. Not bad. I printed them out and am going to start fixing them today. I guess on the awards, I'll leave the names up, just take the links out. And one entire webring had been dismantled, but the webmaster never notified me that she was deleting the webring. Real nice.

Brian fixed my truck Saturday. YAY!!! Last week, when I picked up the pictures (hey, new postcards!!), my truck wouldn't go into park. Or reverse. Thankfully, I had pulled up into a space that I would have been able to pull right out. It was a piece in the gear shifting stick (I don't know what a *real* mechanic would call it) and was pretty easy for hubby to fix. And there's a problem with the car. Someplace there is a short in the electrical system and it keeps running down the battery. So, I was without transportation for a couple of days. I'm glad nobody got sick. I would have been calling my mom.

june 12, 1998 Well, guess what? Its miserable outside. Again. Drizzle, showers. I'm not really pleased with our weather so far this year. I just thought that I would mention that.

I was outside yesterday, giving biscuits to the dogs. Fell in a doggie divot. You know, those little parts of the lawn they dig up? And the lawn grows over them, you don't see them and they are just the perfect size for a size 7 woman's foot to fit in? And it happens and you retwist the ankle that you messed up almost 30 years ago, as a teenager when you had a little too much beer to drink? (Yeah, I wasn't a good kid-tried out for cheerleading with a cast on my leg. Made it, too, but dad retired and we moved to San Diego.) So, here I am, hobbling around. Geez. When my ankle is better, guess I'm gonna hafta put some dirt in a bucket or wheelbarrow and go around and fill all of them that I can find. At least I won't sue us.

Saw most of the stuff for the first time yesterday that Doris has done for the big wedwinking of Sammy and Weesa. Its great. I'm sure it will be a big hit. That woman is so talented. I made the guestbook with a program available from simplenet, my other site. This is going to be so much fun, I just know it.

I found that there is a java program for the webcam, which will have the picture automatically reload every so many seconds. I did it. I also downloaded a program called MapEdit so that I can make image maps. Pretty fun. After I downloaded it and registered it (read "paid for it") I found that my ULead program has image mapping ability. Oh, well. But, I found that image maps are fun to make. I put my latest up on the webcam site and down below. Now, I can do away with the index buttons and the javascript menu. Eventually.

(My ankle is just throbbing.) Lonee is starting to come into the house again. After Red decided the house was the place to be, Lonee quit coming in and took over the garage. Maybe it has something to do with the dynamics of their relationship before they lived here. Anyway, Lonee was on the cat tree next to Brian last night, talking to him. He was eating a hamburger patty and he broke off a small piece and gave it to her. She didn't want it and she went up onto one of the steps. She comes up to me now, in the garage, talking the entire time. She is so tiny. Reinforces the Winn Foundation's (link available on my spay/neuter page) report about cats being neutered before sexual maturity, growing larger than unneutered cats. Ours are all so big next to Lonee Gail.

Red is doing well, too. He is so darn lovable. I just wish I didn't have to lay on the floor to get the full benefit of his affections. It woudl be nice to have him jump up on the couch for smurgles.

I ordered more food for Georgie a couple of weeks ago, as well as more allergy medicine for Mickey. I also asked about pricing on Feliway, and they were supposed to get back with me. No one ever did. So, I called Tuesday and went in to pick up the food and medicine. Somebody (I trust) on the internet told me they could get the Feliway for $22, so I sent money for four bottles and postage last Friday. The vet couldn't match the price. Anyway, I go in to get the stuff. The receptionist (fairly new) said "what was the food?" and I told her Hill's S/D dry, the same thing I had told her on the phone earlier. She goes over to the Eukanuba display and said "this, right?" I said, "no. Hill's." She puts Mickey's allergy pills on the counter, then brings out a large bag of Eukanuba. My mouth had dropped open. No Eukanuba. Hill's is what I want. Charlene comes out, picks up the bag of Eukanuba, goes into the back of the office and brings out two bags (with my name on them) of Hill's. The receptionist said "Oh, I thought you said you wanted the equivalent in Eukanuba". Huh? Then she's hearing voices. Charlene just rolled her eyes and shook her head. Sheesh.

Of course I had to play with Mew (Hugh, Pew, everybody calls him something different) while I was there. I picked him up and loved him. I snuggled my face in his tummy and smooched him. He licked my eyelashes. I put him down when I paid the bill and he grabbed my ankle. He was stretching out on the floor and Dr. Judy said he was being nasty and I said I was going to take him home with me. And Doc said No you aren't, he's my computer buddy." I guess the kitten sits with Dr. Judy on the weekends when he catches up with paperwork. Keeps him company.

More about the *Best of Geo* that's replacing the featured pages. You won't be awarded points if you aren't in the "Best of" category. Well, heck I have the geoguide on all of my pages, just so that I CAN get as many points as possible. They are what I use to pay for this site. I have enough to pay for at least a year of Geo, if I don't get "best of" status. I guess I can always move the entire site over to Simplenet. I should really start stressing to people to bookmark the www.lisaviolet.com URL instead of the www.geocities.com/~lisaviolet or www.geocities.com/Heartland/8603 URLs. It will make it that much easier if I do decide to move the site. Which I really, really don't want to do. But, I'm definitely not going to pay for two sites.

We gave up on selling the cathouses. Kitty Comforts is no more. RIP.

june 16, 1998 Well, the wedwink is off and running. Its so much fun.

Just got done with a little smurgle session with Red. Of course, I was on the floor, and he kept headbutting me. His tail fluffs out when he's really happy and he has such a vibrant purr.

Speaking of feral cats, we are going to try to get O.C., the cat that use to come over with Red and Lonee for meals. The neighbor that has been feeding the cats told me yesterday that the offer they put in on a larger house with more property was accepted and that they will be moving. My first thought, as always, wasn't to wish her well, it was "Who's going to feed the cats?" She said that only two come over to eat, the long haired black one, who we KNOW has a home and the red one. I'm betting money that its O.C.. When hubby called last night (he's working out of town, home tonight) I asked could we try to catch O.C. and he was hesitant. He asked could we just start feeding him again? Well, the reason we quit feeding him on our side of the street was because the cats had to cross the street to get the food. And that made me really nervous because so many people DON'T go the speed limit. Think about it. How many times do you think people look at the speedometer when they are in residential neighborhoods? How many go the posted limit? How many really even care? I reminded Brian of this. And then he expressed a worry about concern about getting O.C. tested for disease. My gut feeling is that O.C. doesn't have any disease. Our little area doesn't have a problem with sick cats. He's been around at least as long as Red and we did have Lonee tested when we took her in. And he doesn't look sick. And we know he's neutered. That happened the same day Red was neutered. Now that I think of it, the only ferals that we see anymore are the two that were neutered. Doesn't say too much for not spaying and neutering. Anyway, I even said that he wouldn't have to shave his beard off, a bet we made years ago. If I could let my hair grow until it was below my bra strap in the back, he would shave his beard. I've never seen him without it and its been since June 72 when he was last clean shaven. Last month, my hair was long enough. I've been teasing him about shaving since. He hadn't yet, was waiting until he took some time off of work. Now, he won't have to. He said yes to catching O.C.. Once we get him, is when the work begins. Ferals are so afraid of humans. I am curious if he will remember Red. Its been almost two years since Red was out. And O.C. is all by himself. There aren't any other cats that he hangs out with. There aren't any other cats to hang out with. Cars, coyotes, probably even untended injuries from cat fights, the cats that were so numerous two years ago are gone. But he and Red and Lonee were always over here at dinner time together. And he and Red were a team. I hope they remember each other. I hope this other cat is O.C.. A couple of weeks/months after we had taken Red in, O.C. was hit by a car. We thought he had died, but a month after it happened, he was back in our entry way. Wobbly as all get out, but walking. And he gradually did a better job of walking, and now you wouldn't even know that he had been injured. Gosh, I hope we can catch him. Brian, staring out the front door a couple of weeks ago said "I sure wish we could have trapped O.C.. I feel so sorry for him". I told him that we still could, and he said no. Now, looks like we are gonna try. I'll have to see if my brother in law isn't using the huge crate they have for their dogs. That's what we used with Lonee, once we had her in the home. We kept her in the crate with a smaller cat carrier, with pillow to sleep on or hide under, and a litter box and food and water. We put it in the middle of the floor in the office. I would have to do some rearranging, but that's not a problem. Anyway, I would come in here and work, the other cats would come in and sniff. And eventually, I would shut the office door and open the crate door. Within a couple of months, she was out of the office, exploring the rest of the house. She rarely comes into the office now. Only a walk through to get to the other side of the house. And since Red has left the rafters and sleeps in the house, Lonee has moved to the garage. She talks to me, which I love and lets me pet her. I even held her for a little while (seconds/minutes) last week. She wasn't really sure what she was supposed to do and it scared her to be out of control of her situation. But, she didn't fight or scratch or try to get away. But when I put her down, she ran off a little ways, turned around and looked at me like I was nuts. I guess I am. ;-)

I filled up some of the doggie divots yesterday. I have more to fill today. I don't think the dogs will dig in the new dirt, because they don't like digging where we put their poop (a great safe way to get your dog to stop digging holes in the same areas over and over again...fill the holes with the dog's poop..safe and effective) and the dirt I used was the rototilled stuff from where we throw the stuff when we scoop the yard.

Its foggy and drizzly this morning, but yesterday was great. I even laid in the sun. Filled one of the pool floats and floated my cares (what cares?) away. Got a little burned, I think. Hopefully, today will clear up and I can do it again this afternoon.

I got an email yesterday, alerting me to the fact that there was poop on the catcam catchair. Nope, not poop, barf. Pepper threw up, then left. I have no idea how long the live shot of the puke went out. Oh, well, that's one of the things cats do. *grins*

june 19, 1998 Yay!!! It looks like summer may finally be here. I laid in the sun yesterday, got a little burned. Only on the parts that didn't get my SPF 4 sunscreen. The parts that did get the sunscreen hardly changed color at all. I wonder what an SPF of 25 would have done. Bleach me out even more? LOL!!

I put Advantage on some of the cats. Got eleven done. I don't think Lonee and Red are going to let me do them. I really should do Annie, because she really bites herself trying to get to those fleas. She has little scabs on her lower back, by her tail.

Speaking of Red, he was really playful yesterday. He was rabbit kicking a little plastic wand with a poofy top. He jumped on a pipe cleaner, doing his best to kill it. I even walked by him in the hallway and he didn't scoot out of my way or scurry into the other room. He just stood there watching me. He did the same to Brian last night. And Brian caught him playing in the living room and Red is actually playing chase with some of the other cats. Its such a good feeling to see him acting like the other cats. I wonder if he understood me when I asked him if he remembered OC and that we were going to try to get OC to live with us.

Which leads us to OC. We have to get the crate and I have to set everything up. I was thinking that maybe my inlaws are using the crate as a doghouse, but Brian said that they aren't. Good. It will make it much easier for OC if he isn't overwhelmed with such new stuff all at once. I remember when we first had Lonee, I tried putting her in the bathroom, but the mirror flipped her out and she kept running into it. I was so afraid she would hurt herself, seeing as she had just been spayed and had stitches. I learned a lesson from that, won't go through it with OC. I saw him in the entry way Wednesday night. He is so skinny. And he has such a young face. I sure hope its him.

Georgie has been sneezing. Probably a URI. I started him on Baytril yesterday. *sigh*

When I called the vet the other day to ask about Kirby (he had peed on a towel in the office, one that has been hung up and over Brian's paperwork - the pee was just dripping off and I placed a Hema-Combistix under it to test it - a lot of blood) to find out which combination of meds he should be on, I talked to Gwen. The fairly new receptionist. The one that tried to give me Eukanuba. Anyway, I explained the situation, should I give him amoxi and prednisone, since he definitely wasn't blocked, but there was a goodly amount of blood in the urine and the pH was fine, a little protein showed up. She had to find out from TED (the evil doctor) so she said she would call back. She did, a couple of hours later, and said no pred, just amoxi. And that if it continued, I should really bring him in. No duh. I'm not your average cat owner, Gwen. I know when its imperative to get the cat in and when it isn't. We've been going through this same thing for years now.

The cats are still not understanding their duties as far as the catcam is concerned. The chair will be empty and I will have five cats surrounding me. I nicely point to the empty chair and tell them, somebody get in the chair, your public is waiting. They just stare at me. I point to the chair again. Would one of you please sit in the chair. Lucky says something to me, I think its give me some of Georgie's food. No, Lucky, you can't have his food. Well, maybe if you slept in the chair for awhile I might reward you. Silly cats. When I leave the room, there will be one cat on the monitor (power off) one on my desk, one sleeping on the scanner, one in a box on the floor and one on the kitty condo. But not one in the chair. I thought about putting them in it, but that seems like cheating, somehow. I don't like doing it. Besides, they don't stay there anyway. All cat lovers know, you don't make a cat do anything it doesn't want to. Since the days have brightened up, I don't have to use the lamp. Natural light is fine. That's good. I don't have to worry about somebody knocking the lit lamp over if its not on and I can move it out of the way.

june 22, 1998 Well, I made up my mind Friday. I'm going to move the entire cathouse site over to Simplenet. If anybody reading this has my site bookmarked with "geocities" anywhere in the URL, please change it to http://www.lisaviolet.com. This URL automatically will forward any links to the proper page. I have written to GeoCities many times without answers for months, if at all. I wrote to Simplenet early Friday afternoon and heard back from them by the end of the day. I gotta tell ya, the personal service means a lot to some people, and I'm one of 'em. I have enough GeoPoints to pay for my site for a year, but I plan on having the entire thing moved by the end of July. All pages will automatically jump to the new location and if the visitor's browser doesn't support that function, I will also have a link that can be used.
Goodbye, Geo. Your just getting too big for me.

I'm working on a new page right now for Benny. Its called "Ben's Den" kind of after the opium dens of old. You know how much Benny likes his catnip. I have songs from the late 60s, early 70s on the page and there is also a gameroom. I also have a bulletin board for messages (not a forum, a real bulletin board with stuff put up on it). Will post when its done.

lisaviolet is fifty something, married with no kids, takes care of lots of cats, likes taking photographs, loves Southern California weather and spends altogether too much time avoiding her responsibilities.

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