Kitty Korner
It's Lisa K.'s favorite time of year. Dancing cherubs trinkets (?!), the holiday market at Union Square, roasted chestnuts, christmas trees named Greenwilder-chan at the Yanagino-Kim residence, Return of the King (a holiday tradition?), eggnog, stockings by the fireplace, trips home to the bio fams, reviews of unmet '03 resolutions and thoughts of lots of New Year's yummies...It's most appropriate that in this time of PEACE and ONE LOVE that the urban kitty warfare in my home is reaching detente. The DMZ has expanded from the kitchen to the hallway with the living room doorway now serving as the 38th parallel. Hamachi is holding her own--kind of--and now comes out to sleep in the hallway.
For those of you anticipating future blended feline families, the key is to treat the dominant cat like a PRISONER in his own home. Tamu is confined to the bathroom and bedroom unless under the eagle eyed supervision of his parole officer, aka Joannie. In this household, it's one strike (or even a checked swing for all you baseball fans) and you are OUT. And screw the ACLU, we've discovered that remote monitoring mechanisms are a critical tool in the fight against the terrors in the streets. Tamu now wears a collar with a bell so Hamachi knows his whearabouts at all times.
Psychological manipulation is also fair game. Tamu's collar has peaceful
sheep baaahing all around it. A purple collar with stoopid sheep is *highly* undignified and Tamu knows it. He can't figure out why the bell keeps following him and acts like someone who is hearing voices in his head. But it's working. On a non-chat related note, Tomi and I finalized my snowboard set up last night at a good sale at Pacific Bikes and Boards. Advice (I'm so full of advice today) to those contemplating snow gear: NEVER pay retail. I love sales. You can totally pick up last year's gear at 1/2 price. Unless you're a professional or someone with tons of disposable income, you won't feel a one year lag in snowboard technology.
We'll mount and prepare all the gear Thursday night and then it's time to hit the slopes this Saturday! Kirkwood better be prepared for me crashing all over their mountain. Finally, 11 and one half hour until I see the premier of ROTK. Kitty peace, dreams of snowboarding, and ROTK. Does life get any better?