Write Now Write Later: cats

I've gotten to where I dread holidays.
Seriously.
Every single special day we lose one of our furbabies. It's odd really, and it makes me scared for the next holiday around the corner.
I told my entire family not to let our one remaining outside kitty out of the house yesterday thinking I'd be safe. Well our next door neighbor takes care of all the ones I can't take in my house, so on the way home from dinner at the in-laws last night, I get a text from my neighbor.
The little kitten born in the fall of last year was hit by a car.
Sniffle.
We named him Muffin Man because he looks just like one of our outside kitties who disappeared on Black Friday this past year, and her name was Muffin. He was sweet if terribly skittish and I'll miss seeing his little orange and white face peeking over the bottom frame in the french door.
You'll be missed little man, but there are lots of your little friends already waiting for you just over the Rainbow Bridge.
RIP Muffin Man 3/31.2013

Support Michelle Fundraiser (Help Pay for Medical Expenses)

As most of my readers know, I've got a sleeping disorder that other than affecting my ability to stay awake wreaks havoc on my ability to focus. Seriously.
Well, we're down to 17 cats in the house now, thank goodness! We had one adopted last night and another lady is coming to look at one tonight. Having so many in the house makes housecleaning not only a constant, but a constantly BEHIND. It seems like no matter how much I clean there's still more to clean.

How many cats is too many? Mine!

Part of that, I'll admit is my lack of ability to declutter, which I've been working on. Until it's completed, cleaning is going to be harder than it should. On top of that, I have a bad habit of starting projects and not finishing them. Like my kitchen cabinets. They were installed when we had the house built and are builder grade cabinets. I've never liked them, and finally decided I wanted to paint them white. I finished all the painting except for the two on the opposite side of the kitchen which is just as well, since I've decided I don't like the white. So now, most of my cabinets are white, a couple are wood tone and a few are blue, oh and one is pink. Yeah, staining over paint doesn't work. I mean I knew it wouldn't but I thought I might like the color. I don't.

For the record, I look NOTHING like Barbie!

Then there's the countertops. I decided I was going to paint them too. I got two cans of textured paint and a little bottle of copper glaze and went to town. Everything was going great until I ran out of the spray paint. When I got another can, it didn't perform the same way so a section of the countertop looked different than the rest which meant sanding down that entire portion. I also didn't realizing sanding would be so hard. That stuff is like crazy glue! Soooo, my cabinets are less than half done, my countertops are a little more than half done.
Now I'm in the process of taking up the carpeting in the downstairs. We're going to get insurance money to have the kitchen floor repaired, but I was planning on doing the installation myself, that way I can get laminate at our local salvage store and replace the flooring in the entire downstairs with just the money it would cost to replace the kitchen flooring. The problem is that I've got too much furniture. How do you move everything in one room to pull up carpet when there's no room in the other room for the furniture. Easy right? I've decided I'm going to just start cutting out squares of the carpeting, then move one piece at a time out and cut out that carpeting until it's all done. The problem is I'm married.
How is that a problem? The hubs immediate has concerns that the house will get cold if we don't replace the flooring right away and I'm not quite ready to do that. On top of that, there's the small problem of the unfinished do it yourself jobs and the long list of more do it yourself jobs I've got in the wings.
Like what, you might ask?

I want an island!!!!!

and fewer walls!

1. Ripping out half the floor cabinets in the kitchen to move the dishwasher and install an island.
2. Sanding the kitchen cabinets back down to wood and staining and finishing with chalkboard paint for the doors.
3. Getting rid of the current "living room" furnishings and turning that room back into a dining room (you know since the island won't leave room for a table!)
4. Hacking an old desk into pieces and salvaging the hutch on top to use as shelving and getting rid of another old desk to be replaced with the "new" desk that's currently sitting in the middle of the office. (on top of the carpeting that has to come out!)
5. Sanding and refinishing the staircase.
6. Building a detached garage.
7. Expanding the back deck.
8. Restoring two antique chairs.
9. Building two bookcases for the bedroom to flank the double window.
10. Replacing the kitchen sink.
11. Building access doors for the upstairs plumbing in both closets.
12. Tearing out two load bearing walls in the den/office/foyer to open the rooms up.
13. Installing new laminate flooring in the den/office/living room or depending on how the projects end up, the dining room lol
14. Finding a corner cabinet to replace the sink cabinet in the master bath.
15. Painting the entire interior of the house.
16. Adding crown molding to the den.
17. Ripping out the double window in the kitchen to replace with french doors, once the back deck is expanded.
18. Building and installing new shelving for the utility room.
19. Getting rid of at least half the "stuff" in my entire house, which of course involves a truck and many many trips to the dump and Goodwill, or a major miracle.
20. Builidng an all in one cabinet with a liftable top to create a "covered" litterbox that's still easy to clean and would work as a window seat too.
I think I'll stop the list now, I'm depressing myself. Ugh!
So you're wondering where the eagle part comes in right? Well apparently, we have a mated pair of eagles living just off the James River here in Richmond and they've just mated and laid two eggs. How is that a problem you might ask? The CCB (Center for Conservation Biology) is doing a study on the ecology of the mated eagle population along the Chesapeake Bay. As part of that project, they've installed live action cameras on the nests. You guessed it. I've been watching the eagles. They did a contest or a poll of some type for Richmond and the city named the eagles Virginia and James. Virginia of course for the state and James for the river. Pretty cool. She's such a good momma! I've been mesmerized. James brings her fish and twigs and grass, and every once in a while, she'll take off a fly a bit and you can see the little eagle eggs laying there. Sometimes she'll take off and he'll settle over the eggs to take care of them until she comes back. It's totally fascinating. You can click here if you want to check them out! It's worth the click!
To end this particularly rambling post, let's put one and one and one together shall we?
Cats = constant cleaning.Remodeling = focus and ability to stay awakeCats + Remodeling = Bigger MessCats + Remodeling + Cleaning = Lots of work.Eagle Cam = Total Distraction.
So cats + cleaning + remodeling = Good.Cats + cleaning + remodeling + eagle cam = Bad.
Somebody send help. Please!?!?!?!?!?
I've gotta go for now, Virginia is being awfully cute today!