Do you have a cat? That uses a litter box which someone in the family has to clean? Yeah, so do we.

When you first buy (or adopt in our case) your little angel of a kitten, they are so wee and cute. They purr. They sleep a lot. They are purry, sleepy, cute little balls of fur that you carry with you everywhere you go.

Aside from the fact that our cat loved to play in the plants, he was generally a really fun, cute kitty.

We had a two and a half pound cat which they claimed was the runt of the litter and probably would not grow very big. So we got him a cute little purple litter box with a privacy dome. It was so cute. It worked for about six months.

Then Chocolate Chip got bigger and we were looking for a less messy solution, so we got what they called a “self cleaning” system. Well, it’s not. You have to turn the thing on its side to get all the stuff into the drawer; then you have to pull the drawer out and dump the stuff out. In the process, eventually the hinges on the lid get broken and litter falls out every time you turn the thing. And it’s really hard to get the litter in there once you’ve duct-taped the top on since the hinges have broken.

Well…..our cat is bigger now. Like way big. He’s over 14 pounds now (little piggy). He could no longer get into that box and turn around to go…so he would basically walk in, do his business, kick the stuff onto the laundry room floor and then back out of the thing.

“Don’t believe a word she says. It’s all lies. All of it. Except the part where she says I’m cute and cuddly and stuff. That’s all true. I happen to LIKE backing out of the litter box. It’s so convenient; I don’t even have to turn around to do my business. I don’t know WHAT her problem is.”

I think I’ve said here before that I like to keep the place clean. That was SO not okay with me. So I took The boy out to Pet Smart with me (again) and bought a new-fangled box that actually comes with a motorized rake that cleans the necessaries out of the litter and places them in a handy dandy little receptacle which can then be easily dumped out with little mess and no fuss. It’s called the LitterSweep. We got the privacy dome option. See?

Anyone with a cat that uses a box to go knows they can be funny about their litter and box and anyone messing with it. That poor cat. We set the thing up, and all he did was look at it and then go try to find his other box. He could smell it through the garage door since it wouldn’t fit in the dumpster this week.

I…was worried.

Then we pushed the button and ran the rake thing. I thought that poor cat was gonna have a heart attack. The motor is loud, and the rake thing actually comes up out of the box, the lid to the tray slowly opens, and then the rake dumps stuff in there and goes back into the box…leaving a little swirly pattern from where the tray has turned for raking. The receptacle lid closes on its own too. Pretty cool.
The cat….was not happy.

He didn’t use the thing until the next day, and then it was later in the day. But he went. And then the thing did its thing. The cat sat there in the laundry room doorway staring intently at it for over an hour after that.

The cat has gone a few more times since then. But let me tell you…he holds it until he absolutely HAS to go and then he stares at the thing for a LONG time before he goes.

The Boy is happy because his job is easier. But the cat…is not….happy. He yells at me every time he comes back from using the thing.

Trust me, I know what you’re thinking. Yes, I do go through the house several times a day to be sure he has not found a new place to go. We’re lucky cats are neat freaks. He’ll use the thing. But he’ll make damn sure we know he doesn’t like it.

I’ve already had to drop Celebrity Duets (I know, lame..but it was one of the only things on at the time) and Deal or No Deal most nights. Tonight I got to Survivor (after 10) and Grey’s. I still have to watch ‘Till Death.

Come ON people! Don’t the networks know it’s prime time hot tub weather and I don’t have time to keep up with all these shows?

Today I had to watch Justice in the afternoon. I still have Standoff and Heroes on the DVR. And we won’t even talk about the Throwdown and Iron Chef episodes I’m behind on.

Can’t all these network people just mix in some more lame shows so I can keep up already? I mean seriously. There’s band performances and homework and hot tubbing and cocktails and pool to play and guitar lessons to go to. People have lives, right?

Ya know I thought I would never say this…but I’m actually wondering if the dual tuner DVR is a good thing….

But I always have commercial-free shows to watch in the queue, so it’s not all bad. I guess.

That’s what it was to watch the 20/20 thing with Steve Irwin’s wife. But I have to say….I think she at least deserves to be listened to if she has something to tell us, given that she shared so much of her husband with the world.

I’m having drinks and watching my DVR’d Boston Legal now. But that was absolutely crushing to watch. What a strong, brave woman she is. We can now all understand why he married her. He could trust her to carry on with his work after he was gone.

Back to BL and drinks. And good thoughts for Terri.

or at least rinse out your mug before you fill it again. That is…unless you want a bat hanging out in your tea all day.

How could someone NOT notice that?

Yuck.

This is such a sad story. Apparently, a woman took her child to the dentist to get some work done, and when the work was over the child was in a coma.

Diamond had complained of tooth pain and had been diagnosed with two cavities. In addition she was going to get caps on her lower front teeth.

Clearly either the child had a reaction to the meds or the dentist gave her an overdose. However, I do wonder why a five year old had two cavities already and why it was necessary to cap two of the other teeth. What the hell was the kid eating that got her teeth in such bad shape? Did her mother ever make her brush?

Regardless, I do think this is very sad. A young life lost just because she had two cavities and her mother probably took her to the best place she could afford….a store front dentist that either didn’t know how to administer meds to a child or was negligent in how he treated (or didn’t treat) the child after a bad reaction to the drugs.

Man…my mom didn’t even let them put me under when I had four impacted wisdom teeth removed. All I got was Novocaine…no Valium…no gas…nothing. I guess now I should be thanking her for that, despite the pain. You never can be too careful, as evidenced by this sad story.

Yeah, I know. It’s surprising considering the sheer volume of stories and opinions available for me to comment on regarding the Clinton rant this weekend.

All I have to say about it really is…poor Chris Wallace. Clearly Clinton had a lot of pent-up hostility and unfortunately he was the closest target.

So given my lack of anything much to say about that, I wrote something over at The Kag Report instead. Go take a look if you get a minute. It’s my first foray into the “Fake But Accurate” news biz.

1. Does ANYONE believe a word the Iranian guy says?

2. I don’t.

3. For me, the sulfur comment at the U.N. by Chavez applied to him.

4. Chavez? A thug, just as Nancy Pelosi (whom I’ve NEVER agreed with and only said this for political reasons) said…is a thug.

5. If I were freezing to DEATH I would rather move south than buy discounted oil from Venezuela.

6. And Conoco gas? Don’t get me started. Don’t buy it or you will be fueling Chavez and his ilk.

7. I SAID…don’t do it. No gas from Conoco. If you have a conscious.

8. Or if you hate America, go with Conoco…or live in France or Venezuela. I don’t care. I don’t have time for you if you like and support Chavez.

9. Danny Glover? What the HELL is he thinking? Has he LOST HIS MIND?!!!!!!!!!

10. The only thing the U.N. is good for is giving aid in downtrodden regions.

11. Sanctions don’t work.

12. Non-Proliferation treaties don’t work, ‘cuz member nations are allowed to lie and do things against them, and then go insult the country hosting the U.N. assembly and get standing ovations.

13. Basically, the U.N. sucks.

14. NATO’s much better.

15. I digress, but Clinton and NATO and Bosnia? Probably the only redeeming thing he EVER did with his presidency.

16. Besides speak. DAMN, he’s a good public speaker.

17. And, like Carter, he’s done WAY more for the world out of office than when he was in office.

18. Except some of the things Carter has done and said, but we won’t get into that.

19. I know…you prolly don’t agree. But that’s what I think and it’s my site so I get to say it.

20. To summarize: Don’t buy gas from Conoco. If I had to move south vs. buying discounted heating oil from Conoco I would. Danny Glover has lost his mind. The U.N. sucks, unless we’re talking about aid initiatives. NATO is better. Clinton did good in Bosnia with NATO. NATO rocks. Chavez and the Iranian guy are evil liars. Chavez should stop wearing red…he looks like the devil in it. And what the HELL was his little sermon thing today at that church? Danny Glover has lost his mind. And Mr. Clinton and Mr. Carter are better for us out of office than they were in office.

That is all.

P.S. I hope the deal works with the whole CIA secret prison/treatment of detainees/Geneva Convetion….thing.

That’s right, Tuesday T.V. is back now that the shows have finally launched. So, let’s review:

1. House premiered a couple weeks ago. I love House. But tonight I was in THE HOT TUB!! Yes, that’s right…it’s finally cool enough at night for me to tolerate the hot tub.

2. But I digress.

3. Except to say The Boy swam in 75 degree water for about 15 minutes and it really freaked me out so I made him get back into the hot tub.

4. Dancing with the Stars!!

5. That’s all I need to say about that, right?

6. Except that Mario Lopez, while he didn’t do so well tonight on Dancing with the Stars…was on Nip/Tuck!

7. In the shower!

8. Not much of an actor, but damn he looks good in the shower.

9. BOSTON LEGAL IS BACK!!

10. And it’s better than ever.

11. Don’t much like the politics of that show, but the acting is really good and so is the writing..except for ya know..most of the political stuff.

12. Who doesn’t like Michael J. Fox? In Boston Legal? Right?!

13. Watched Smith. Seems like a really good show. But oh, so intense. But with Ray Liotta what can you expect?

14. And of course there’s Vanished.

15. I like Vanished, but it can be frustrating at times.

16. Vanished (along with House) is on my DVR waiting to be watched tomorrow. **Update – Wait – it wasn’t Vanished, it was Standoff. I do like Vanished, but I’m also kinda keen on Standoff. Watched that this morning. It was good.
17. So don’t spoil them for me.

18. Spoilers are evil.

Yeah, Tuesday T.V.!

I pose to you that the Muslims currently demanding a “better” apology from the Pope should first look to themselves and see whether or not many of their leaders owe apologies first.

While I don’t condone the quote that the Pope used from that ancient text as it relates to violence and religion, I do think that at least his intentions were in the right place in that he was trying to promote tolerance.

On the other hand, there are certain Muslim leaders that call for death to America, the destruction of Israel, and basically an all out war against Western society.

Yet we in the West continue to at least try and work with some of these radical leaders through the diplomatic channels vs. putting out death threats on certain individuals and creating general chaos and unrest in our communities with words of hate.

Someone cast the first stone here and in a much more damaging manner. I think certain people representing Muslims are WAY more obligated to make apologies for their words than the Pope who made the mistake of using an ancient passage to support his message of tolerance which set off unrest in a community already agitated by some of its leaders.

But no….we don’t want to be politically incorrect, do we? We wouldn’t DREAM of pointing out any of this when we talk about what the Pope said.

But I will. It’s my site and I can if I want to. You don’t have to agree, but I do encourage you to look at the history here and see it for what it is…not for what some try to tell you it is.

1. I’m tired.

2. Because I cleaned all day.

3. The Boy spent the day trying to avoid me while I cleaned.

4. At one point he said, “Ya know, if you would just suck it up instead of complaining it would go a lot faster and you could be done.”

5. 12 year old boys and their damned logic.

6. It rained while I was cleaning.

7. Which put me in an even worse mood than if I’d been cleaning while it was sunny.

8. Because one of my favorite things to do is read in a chair and doze while it’s raining.

9. Even the cat avoided me. He hid in his kennel.

10. There’s nothing on T.V. tonight really except The Amazing Race.

11. I’ve never liked The Amazing Race.

12. It’s kind of stressful and sometimes yucky to see them work through the challenges and try to be there before everyone else.

13. Is it just me or does Katie Couric seem like she’s pissed?

14. Because I was watching 60 Minutes tonight (because I don’t like to watch football unless it’s The University of Texas) and when she did her little thing at the end of the intro she looked really pissed.

15. And then later she did a teaser for the news on Monday.

16. Again…pissed.

17. Maybe she’s trying really, really hard not to look spunky or pleasant or in any way perky.

18. But all she looks is pissed.

19. I must go open some wine now which we have plenty of now that the liquids bad has been lifted for flight crews.

20. It’s still raining.

21. But I’m too tired to read and it’s too late to nap.

22. Dammit.