Operation Cat Transfer (with Pictures)

Well my weekend didn’t go exactly as planned; I never drove to Duluth for my spectacular autumn photo shoot. Sadly, the wind has been quite strong the past few days causing many trees to appear naked. I felt that the less-than-perfect trees were not worth the extra 93 mile (one way) drive.
But I did not want to let you down, so I took some around Deerwood! We’re all dears in Deerwood.
Saw that on my dad’s tshirt in a photo from the 70s. Thought it was nifty.

Anywho, since my Saturday was now free from my Duluth plans, I decided to move my cats from my old house to my mother’s house. Boy was this an adventure. Anya is usually a perfect passenger, but after her traumatizing experience at the veterinary clinic she has associated car rides with injections. The result was a frantic Anya.

Notice the panicked expression

After she realized we were not going to the vet, she later calmed down and assumed position on my shoulder and lap.
Gretta, however, did pretty well for her first car ride.

As shown here calmly perched on Sharissa’s knee

Other than operation cat transfer, the weekend was pretty standard.

I start my new school today. (Oh yeah, in the past week I discovered a new school, quit my current school, enrolled in the new school, and moved from Duluth to St. Paul. Busy week to say the least).

Exciting day for both me and Alex. And to make it even more exciting it is Columbus Day! Because that is such a worthy holiday for excitement. (I always forget it exists until it actually comes. Apparently it isn’t the most important date for my brain to remember… sorry Columbus.)

I am hoping Alex’s first day of work goes well. Mainly so I don’t have to listen to him moan on about it tonight.

To defer Alex from noticing that comment, here is a kitten picture.

Awww look how fluffy!

Back to my new school.

I enrolled in a veterinary technician program at Globe University.  The semester luckily hadn’t started when I discovered the school, so I am able to start the program with the other students and not miss a day. I have to wear maroon scrubs for my classes and white tennis shoes. I can’t even remember the last time I wore tennis shoes. Let alone white ones. Meh. The scrubs should be fun though. Will save me time in the morning planning what I should wear, and will make me feel professional and important. Yay minor confidence booster! I’ll be sure to take a picture of me in my new attire so you can all be impressed.
I’m a little nervous for today. Most of the anxiety is focused towards the commute. I’m not the most aware person…  I tend to not pay attention to anything but my music, which isn’t the best quality to have when driving on a busy city freeway on an unfamiliar route. To be honest, I don’t even remember how to get to my school. I know what city it’s in, so that’s a start.

Right, I better get going. Can’t be late on my first day!

Here are some of the pictures I took this weekend. It was sleeting when I took the outdoor ones. Absolutely miserable weather. Freezing.
You can’t tell through the pictures, so I added a super attractive picture of me expressing how cold I was. (Majority of cat transfer photos taken by the fabulous Sharissa Mickelson. Thank you for taking over the job so I didn’t drive us off the road.)

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Happy Father’s Day! (From Anya The Kitten)

Fathers everywhere, I hope you all have a happy father’s day (especially my dad!). And how better to celebrate this lovely day then with some photographs? Like of a cute little kitten, perhaps? Well, as it happens, I have just the thing…

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Anniversary Today

I’ll have to make it brief today. It’s mine and Vanna’s anniversary, with a whole year passing since we first met each other in June 2011. Happy days.

I’ll not bore you with the details (do you want to know?) but I will summarize so you understand. After years of talking online, Vanna came to see me last June. We hit it off and I returned the favour in August. She then came over for a month at Christmas while I saved up for this summer trip. And next January she’ll be spending 6 months over in the UK studying at Newcastle University so we’ll be together once more. It hasn’t been easy ladies and gentlemen, but long distance relationships can work if you want them to. It’s just more expensive and the months that your apart can seem to last for an eternity. But it isn’t the end of the world. I love her and we’re together now, which is all that matters.

So today we have plans. Providing we get ourselves a ride from somewhere, we’re going to see Prometheus at the cinema. Unfortunately the one in Brainerd (which is actually only 20 minutes away, not the hour I previously claimed) is currently closed so we’re going to have to venture further afield. Getting to the next one would actually take a good hour or so, but it is a nice place so it’s worth the drive. If we can get a car.

Otherwise we’ll probably go for a meal and chill out at home. The weather is very sunny but humid, so we’re expecting storms to arrive shortly. That won’t stop us going out but it does mean there’s a good chance we might get wet. Darn.

I actually like paying for meals here. I love how much further my money goes. I’ve been using my debit card for our meals out and it just looks much better when you view the expenditure through my account. We’ll pay twenty dollars for a meal but it’s only costing me about ten pounds. The opposite was true for Vanna at Christmas, where 100 dollars became 60 pounds. So I’m thankful for that. Seeing your money get condensed into less notes can be rather depressing. Probably a good thing she didn’t have much to convert in the first place.

In other news, I found another one of those damned wood ticks (or tic, wordpress keeps correcting me) on me last night. I went to itch my thigh and pulled it off by accident. The little git hadn’t managed to taste my blood but it had still left its mark. Vanna thinks that it must have fallen off our clothes and hid in the bed until we arrived. This explanation did nothing to ease my concern. We went out to Palisade on Tuesday. This is two days after. I found the first one Wednesday morning. Had it been there all night? Where did it come from?

I just don’t like these things.

‘Oh they only suck your blood’ says Vanna. Really? Well that’s very easy to say when you somehow seem resistant to them. She stands in the undergrowth for ten minutes taking a picture. And they ignore her completely. Isn’t that nice?

And my personal preference is for my blood to stay in my body. We don’t have this back home. We have the occasional fly that won’t leave you alone. And that’s it.

Moving on before I go mad to a quick kitten update. Last Sunday Oliver and Zinnia went off  to Calista’s while we kept Anya. She’s been doing pretty well on her own, using us for her entertainment more often than not. Thankfully she’s becoming more independent and less inclined to paw at me during the night. I’ve got enough scratches, thank you very much.

Anyway here is the last picture of all three kittens together. If you want to see the album we made last month, click here, and if you want more pictures I’ll look to capture Anya’s growth from an annoying kitten into a troublesome cat. Until then though, get ready to say ‘awh’…

Awwwwhhhh…

And I think that’s it for now. I should get back to my girlfriend before these supposed storms hit. I’ll let you know how the film went. Providing we manage to see it that is. Otherwise you’ll be stuck listening to me whine about the weather or the latest creature that has decided to attack me. And who wants that?

Having said that though, one day I might get attacked by something big, like a bear. It wouldn’t be fun but it could make for an interesting story.

Hmm.

More Kitten Pictures!

Vanna took a lot of pictures of the kittens a few days ago. I was really impressed by what she’d done so I wanted to share them here. Uploading them individual would have taken a lot of time so I’ve attempted something new. Something bold. Oh yes.

A slideshow. The first few are titled but I’m lazy and left it at that. I hope you enjoy them.

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Battle Wounds

Yesterday was a pretty productive day. I feel no need to harp on about the weather or post pictures of kittens (although I do have some) because there was always something going on.

I came to the library to start with and got some things done (Solidus, blogging). The bike wasn’t stolen from its position outside, which I honestly can’t say for certain wouldn’t happen at home. I can’t even remember what happened to my old bike. Was it stolen, or did we just leave it when we moved? I have no idea.

After having lunch we then went on a bike ride. I was a little apprehensive because we were going on a bike trail. To me, that suggests rough paths and sharp turns. Considering my brakes don’t work and I was even more uncomfortable sitting down, I didn’t fancy my prospects going off-road. The pavements in Crosby are bad enough. Thankfully it was all smooth tarmac and we did just under five miles. It was beautiful weather with a wonderful breeze so I was eager to continue but we decided to call it a day. We being myself, Vanna and Sharissa. We’re all unfit so it’s probably best not to overdo ourselves. Baby steps…

Unfortunately we forgot the camera so I don’t have any pictures to show you. Crosby is a really pretty area. To give you a bit of background on the area (apologies if I’ve already done so) Crosby was an important mining area.  There are huge pits scattered all over behind the town as they dug for iron ore. You can still see residues of it on the dirt roads circling the pits. Here’s one picture I took earlier (last year).

This image alone will send my father into fits of laughter…

In its heyday (the pits only closed thirty or so years ago) Crosby was so important in its iron production that Hitler apparently had a little pin stuck in the town because it would be somewhere the Nazis would bomb if they ever managed to reach America. Of course we plucky Brits stopped before it ever reached that stage but, if true, it’s an interesting fact nonetheless.

What else? Well before the pits filled up with water, one of them was also used for a NASA launch. I can’t remember the details on that one so I’ll come back to it when I’ve visited the Crosby museum.

My point is Crosby is a great place to cycle and I regret not taking any pictures. Here’s a video  to give you an idea.

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After the ride I was in charge of the kittens as Vanna went to work. I’ve not fed them yet (I usually have the role of distracting them) so I wasn’t really looking forward to it. Thankfully things went well for the most part. By that I mean nobody died, there were no little presents for me to clean up and I eventually got them to go to sleep without having a mental breakdown.

The kittens do, however, have a tendency to climb legs. My legs especially seem to get that treatment. They’ll chew and climb over my feet then jump up. Usually I have trousers on, so it’s no problem. But as you could see from that very attractive picture yesterday, I was wearing shorts. Oh boy.

So along with my calloused hands from the bike grips and leg injury from the peddles, I now have three long scratches up my calf. Plus gouges between my knuckles from Anya’s vicious claws. And that’s not all.

We also went to Ashley and Corey’s house (Vanna’s friends) for a bonfire.  I had fun (I ate all their food, that’s how you know I’m enjoying myself) but my eyes are still stinging from the smoke and my hair smells burnt. My nose is running too.

Sumac, to distract you from my whining

You know what, I’m thinking that this being active and doing things business isn’t that beneficial. I’m in pain here. Not tremendous pain, but more pain than I was when I didn’t do anything. This is why I sit at home most of the time. It’s safer.

Hmm. I’m just never happy.

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Don’t worry, they’ll be more kitten pictures tomorrow. I’ll be cheerier too. Possibly. No guarantees, but I will talk about happy things, like how arrogant the bloody squirrels are here.

Kitten Pictures

Everybody loves pictures of small kittens, right? Well here’s some more that we took last night. Unlike last time, they actually stayed still when the camera was brought out. Except Zinnia. She just runs into it constantly. I think she’s still dazed by the flash…

Those aren’t my pajamas by the way. I felt I should state that now before you started getting ideas.

A Different Kind Of Nostalgia

Sorry about that odd title. I’ve been obsessing about L.A Noire the past few days. I miss my Xbox.

Anyway, I spent a couple of hours yesterday doing something I haven’t done in five years. Five long years. I’ll give you a hint. It’s a pastime that needs you to be up and about, which aren’t qualities you would usually associate with me.

David Cameron does it. As does nine million Chinese and a load of little kids in the Crosby area.

Guessed what it is yet? No, not that.

Cycling.

Look at those shapely (pale) legs…

It may be old, squeaky and have a painfully uncomfortable seat but it’s my bike (well not really, it’s just been given to me to use this summer) and I’m happy with it. My legs, atrophied from months of inactivity, were not ready for the sudden workout ride but thankfully Crosby’s flat landscape prevented any intense overload and I managed to cycle around without collapsing.

And it was just as well there were no hills. Because there would be a good chance I’d never stop if I built up any speed.  The front brake doesn’t work whatsoever and the back brake is at the very least questionable. I don’t think it’s a good thing to push the brake only to find yourself going faster. Yet that seemed to be the result on this bike.

We went a similar path to the one we took on Friday, but this time I was cycling and Vanna walked with Sierra (Vanna’s sister) and Sierra’s daughter Marley Jo. I would speed ahead (freewheeling usually) before looping back. It was pretty quiet, which can only be considered a good thing. Firstly I don’t want people watching me and secondly I don’t know the rules here. I’d probably get run over by a huge pick up truck, which seem to be everywhere.

That didn’t mean everything went according to plan. It was bound to happen. You can’t just jump onto a bike (you never forget how to ride a bike? Yes you bloody well do) and expect it to be plain sailing. I didn’t fall off (close on occasion) but when we were on one of the back roads my foot slipped off the pedal and I ended up with a graze on the back of my leg.

Yep. My first (in America) bicycle injury. And it was a bad one.

Look at it! It took two plasters!*

But don’t worry, I carried on despite my wound. And it was a really fun couple of hours.

It reminded me of the fun I used to have when I had my own bike, long ago. Because I used to live in a cul-de-sac, there were no main roads to restrict my cycling. Me and my friends would go along all the paths, estate roads and up to the cycle track that overlooked the valley. It was a really good place to play around.

I don’t really  know why I stopped cycling. Probably because I moved away, and the year before I moved I drifted away from my friends so I was outside less. It didn’t help that my bike, after participating in a school bike ride that finished with me cycling home in a huge lightning storm, rusted up so that I could only use nine gears available out of twenty-one. Granted I never used those other 12 gears but it was still nice to have the option.

However, for this summer, and probably for this summer only, I’m back. Vanna loves cycling so she’ll be happy at me riding again. Whenever we go walking she moans that she’s in pain. The only worry is that she’ll end up leaving me behind, as while I was at home playing on the Xbox she was riding 20 mile trips to her friends. I might have to actually tie our bikes together so she has to slow down. She promised to stay with me but I’m doubtful. I’ll let you know if she sticks to her promise.

And that’s it really. I’m actually being active for a change and I wanted to document this momentous occasion. I even cycled to the library today, which despite the pain from sitting down and getting lost somehow, was enjoyable. It was much quicker than walking. The roads were a little scary though.  I don’t like the idea of walking out to make people stop. Double that fear when I’m cycling.

I’ll finish with a kitten update. They are very cute playing with beads, but that was offset by them waking me up at 3am this morning. They’re getting earlier. I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing. They’re still keeping me up so it’s still annoying.

Anyway here’s a picture of Anya in action. Enjoy.

 

*Band Aids

Kittens!

With the weather being such a huge distraction ever since I arrived in Minnesota, (today it’s sunny but cloudy), I’ve failed to mention some of the important events that have happened over the past week. I suppose the most important one is that we’ve got some new additions to the house! Since Monday we’ve been looking after three little kittens. And here they are, looking very peaceful.

If only they were like that all the time…

Tragically their mother was ran over by a school bus just a couple weeks after they were born. Calista (family friend) and Vanna have been looking after them since then, making sure they continue to grow and develop into healthy cats. This week I was introduced to our newest friends as it was our turn to provide a home for them. Although they are growing pretty quickly (4 weeks old now) they still need help with feeding. And that’s our job. Well, Vanna’s job. Usually I just sit and watch while she feeds them cat food/milk from a bottle.

So let’s introduce you to them all. There are two girls and a boy. Anya (solid grey) and Zinnia (grey with stripes) were named by Vanna while Oliver (mottled brown) was named by Calista.

Anya is definitely the most dominant one out of the trio. Whenever they want feeding or attention, you can guarantee she’ll be pushing herself in front. Whenever they are feeding Anya will block off the others from eating by standing over the food. She is quite adventurous too, always climbing out of the pen and exploring the room. If you get her comfortable, the other two will quickly follow suit. Typically it’s the most demanding kitten that Vanna wants us to keep.

Zinnia and Oliver, however, are more timid in their explorations. I consider Oliver to be thoughtful (in comparison Vanna thinks he’s slow) as he likes to observe and watch what’s going on around him. Zinnia is the runt of the pack but she’s developing quite quickly in the time we’ve had her. They all have their own little quirks to keep us entertained, such as sideways running or randomly pouncing on small bits of fluff before running away in fear. It’s all good fun.

We did try to capture them on film while they were posing but every time the camera was raised they’d move, resulting in some very blurry pictures. They also had a tendency to run straight at the camera, stopping Vanna from getting focused on their little faces. We still persisted until we had at least one picture of each of them. The results were…mixed.

Anya stayed perfectly still…

…while Oliver moved every time

Vanna has always loved her cats so looking after the kittens is a dream come true for her. Things are a bit different for me.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely more of a cat person than a dog person. I enjoy playing with them and petting them, but once they venture into ‘my time’, I’m not as willing to indulge them. If I want to sleep, eat or go out, the kittens should respect that and be quiet. Unfortunately it doesn’t work out that way. If they want something, they’ll not stop until they get it. Regardless of what time it is.

So we will be sleeping peacefully, only to be woken up by the sound of their claws catching onto the netted walls as they climb out of their crib. They are like little furry zombies, dragging themselves up towards us. Just instead of brains they want questionable tinned meat.

It wouldn’t be so bad if they were litter trained, or if they could feed themselves. But they aren’t that independent yet.

Thankfully I have Vanna there to do the important duties that must be done. She has the patience that I do not own. She’ll get up and she’ll feed them or coddle them; whatever they want. It’s good that she does that because I don’t think I capable of doing anything when my sleep is disturbed.

But it’s better to deal with them quickly than ignore them. Because then you’ll just end up with three very hungry and poopy kittens running loose in the bedroom. And there will be only one conclusion to that. A very smelly one, that you’ll have to clean up. You shouldn’t give into demands, but in this case, it’s probably wise to do so.

“FEED ME!” she will say. And you better do it.

This is why I like the ginger fluffy cat we have at home. Splat spends all her time outside, prowling the garden. If you want to pet her she’ll comply by lying on her back. Otherwise she’s busy doing her own thing. She’s also a sadistic killer, throwing live mice in the air with her mouth before pawing at them. She’s pretty much perfect. The kittens are a lot more fun to watch but they need a lot more dedication.

You’re probably amazed that even these cute kittens make me grumpy. In my defence, I’m usually like this anyway and the little blighters woke me up at four this morning. I’m just not in an entertaining mood.

And there is a good chance they are currently stinking up the house in our absence.

Behind that cute expression is a kitten wanting to poo everywhere

I still love them though. Even if at times it is begrudging.

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In other news, I’ve now been here for a week. It’s been pretty fun but the weather has hampered us quite a bit. Hopefully it’ll clear up soon so we can go places. I’ve noticed my picture blogs are quite popular, so I’ll look to do some more of those in the future. I’ll keep you posted on those, and whatever the kittens are doing, in the future.