Amber & The Woods

I had a delightful weekend upstate with some delightful people in a
delightful place called Pumpkin Hollow. Only, there was no cell
service to live blog it. More later. Now is Kitty Reaquaint Time.

Amber & Rainy Days and Tuesdays

I would rather be doing what Chog is doing today.

(photo by Anne)

Wouldn't you?

Amber & Birthday Jimmy

Happy Birthday to James, seen here feeling the excitement of the crowd before an NYU graduation ceremony that was apparently held at Yankee Stadium. (Not the swarm of purple in the club seats.)

I feel the same level of excitement when I think about how glad I am to have James as a friend.

Thanks for being born, James!

Amber & Summer

Sandals, people!

Amber & Memorializing

In addition to remembering our fallen heroes, I am also remembering how much I love Berlin.



Ah, the days when men were prettier, shoulder pads were huge, and gangsters had hearts of gold.

Amber & More Memorial Daze

The adult cats understand the holiday, too.

Chillin'...
...and illin'.Have you ever seen so much kitty belly?

Amber & Memorial Day

The kittens have the right idea about how to spend the bonus holiday weekend:

Maxin'...


...and relaxin'.
Can you believe those? Totally unposed. They stayed like that for about 20 minutes each.

Now I'm going to get the Swiffer and grab those dust bunnies in the Ginger photo, and then put away the suitcase. Baby steps toward Apartment Zen.

Amber & Emotional Journeys

This gave me and the person I was with chills when we saw it in the context of its program, Glee.




And it started my current 1980's song obsession.

Amber & Fickle Pickles

Pickles is known as what is known in the James-parlance as a Moosh Cat. That is, you can pick him up and he instantly gets drowsy. He loves to cuddle, and there's a certain heft to his back-half that makes him perfect for baby holding.


But, this morning, we had a Poop Foot incident. In his zeal for burying his poop, he stepped right in it. Before he could leave the bathroom-- because that would have been a disgusting disaster--I swooped him up and brought him to the sink to wash his baby poopy paw.

But he resisted! My normally Moosh cat became a crazed beast and scratched rips in my shirt and right into my back!


Of course, as soon as he was washed and I released him, he returned to his normal state of Moosh. But, I think I learned a lesson about the changeable nature of cats, when paw washing is involved.

Amber & Reflux Redux

So, I've had this sore throat for weeks now. And, although my friend Zyrtec is helping my other allergy symptoms pretty well, the throat thing has only gotten worse. Yesterday I had pre-cocaine Kathleen Turner's voice.


So, today, I went to see the wonderful Dr. Alexandra. I started complaining about my allergic throat and then sort of coughed and cleared my throat--coincidentally--and she got very wide eyes. Turns out that, going against House's one diagnosis that explains it all theory, my throat is unrelated to my allergies. It's the return of acid reflux.

Remember how I learned all those valuable lessons in Wisconsin about acid reflux? Well, I forgot them. In fact, (and CRD can tell us if this is irony or not) I have had donuts for breakfast twice in the past week. Bad, bad Amber.

Farewell, coffee. Farewell, tomatoes late at night. Hello, healthy eating.

Amber & Clutter

I made a resolution yesterday. It was formulated as such. "I am going to get my crap together."

By this generally broad phrase, I meant that I was going to take control of the chaos in my house: cat fur, clutter, simple chores too long neglected, that damn decal for the living room wall, and, most importantly, clutter.

Simply put: I have too much stuff.

Did you ever notice that in those pictures of the nicely organized closets and rooms in and Real Simple and Martha Stewart is Great magazines that the people just don't have very much stuff?


That person, for example, has 8 pairs of shoes, plus two boots, and about six dresses. I wonder what she wears on Sundays. And this person seems to buy everything in twos. Or maybe they have their thin size, and then the same item in their post-cheeseburger size?


Also, all of their clothes always stay within a single color palette.

My goals are far more modest. Now where did I put the trash bags?

Amber & WTF, Trees?

Why, oh why, do the things I love the most...


...cause me so much nasal suffering?


And they make me grow facial hair, apparently.

Amber & Friendship

Over at Internals Plural, CRD posted this examination of the nature of interspecies friendship. Amongst the examples was this photo which is, in fact, an allegory of my friendship with Diana, wherein our parts are played by our respective animal obsessions.

Only, Diana and I have different interpretations of the moral. Diana thinks this is an allegory about how she likes to sniff hedgie me. I think it's about how I am sickie (see my little cast?), and Squirrel Diana comes to give me her well wishes in the form of a little woodland kissy.

(Photo of Diana and Peter by Jimmy)

Thanks, Diana, for being my squirrel friend.

Amber & Proudness

I am so proud of CRD. He did good saving, home shopping, and buying of new houses. It's a nice place. I would totally rent it. Here is CRD sitting where, soon, there will be a couch.


And here is Kevin sitting where soon there will be a stools or high chairs.


It's a really nice place. I am so excited for all of the good times to come.

Congratulations on becoming a Home Owner, CRD.

Amber & Household Miracles

If there are any new home owners out there, maybe some with cats or partial ownership of cats, you should know about this new product: the Magic Coat Hair Remover.

It looks and feels like a sponge, but really it is magic. I used it on my microfiber "suede" couch. Tape rollers only picked up some of the fur, the vacuum only seemed to get the dust, but the Magic Pet Hair Remover really removed all of the furs.
It looks as good as new. I highly recommend this product.

And, maybe the reason I haven't blogged all week isn't because I have been sick, or because I have been incredibly work-busy, or because exciting things have been happening in my friends' lives. Maybe it's because I just love removing hair so much now. Or maybe not.

Amber & Mother's Day

Two of my favorite things.

CRD & burgers.

Thank goodness for mothers because without them, there would be no CRD, and no me to eat burgers.

Amber & The Graduate

I had a dream last night that I was at NYU, living in Brittany Hall, and that I was preparing to give a speech about the dangers of letting your cats eat mellons because mellons absorb muscle relaxants from the ground water.

Seriously.

Amber & Mom Jewels

Thanks, Mom.

Not just for birthing me or introducing me to Beatrix Potter, Paddington Bear, and Ginny, and not just for feeding me (mostly canned tomatoes) for the first 18 years of my life or helping me write letters to Wonder Woman. But also thanks for giving me this pretty necklace.


It's a little glarey in this photo, but it's got three strands of little aqua-colored buttons attached by little aqua beads. It's my favorite necklace and it really dresses up any number of my plain gray and black outfits. Why, it can even make yoga pants dressy enough for the theatre. I get compliments on it all the time.

It also reminds me a bit of something my hero, Dr. Temperance Brennan, would wear. She always has such nice, big pieces of jewelry. Very anthropological.

Something that is also anthropological and also of psychological and phenomenological interest (maybe if I knew what that mean really) is that sometimes my heroes merge. Like when Bones dressed like Wonder Woman for Halloween.

Double the pleasure. Or like when Jessica Fletcher is in a Noel Coward play. Which brings us back to my necklace and my mom. Eagle bites weasel.

Amber & Subway Maintenance

So, if Team #1 has to K chip between 137 and 136, what does Team #2
do? And what if they don't know where to go to find their work
assignments?

Amber & Graphic Representations

With commentary from Kevin.

Amber & Last One (I Promise)

Spooning. But, Pickles seems annoyed that his nap is being photodocumented. Can't a boy get some sleep around here without a person pushing a camera into his face?

I'm sure I've asked myself the same question, except instead of camera, my wake up annoyance was "wet nose" and it wasn't a person disrupting my sleeps.

Amber & Brotherly Update

Licking complete, the boys now nap, holding paws.

Amber & Brotherly Licks

This is apparently what brothers do when I am not home, according to Nick's iPhone. It's rather similar to what they do when I am home, complete with adorable paw curling by Ginger.

Does anyone else think Pickles's face is getting more adult and pointy? I think he lost his kitten roundness.

Amber & Nicky

Sometimes, on rainy days, I am reminded that when I was Little Amber I had an imaginary friend named Nicky. I didn't invent Nicky, I borrowed him from the book I Am a Bunny written by Ole Risom and illustrated by Richard Scarry.
I wrote a song about Nicky, based on the book.

Hop, hop, hop
I'm a little bunny rabbit
Hop, hop, hop
Here I come
I'm a little bunny rabbit in a hollow tree
As... you... can plainly see
Hop, hop, hop
I'm a little bunny rabbit
Hop, hop, hop
Here I come
I'm a little bunny rabbit way down deep in a hole
My worst enemy is
The big black mole

Now, I really had no idea whether or not moles and bunnies got along. But I knew Nicky didn't like moles. We had that in common.

Like me, Nicky wore overalls, and had big front teeth. We both liked to be barefoot. And, we both liked being outside and watching butterflies. Nicky wasn't the healthiest little bunny, and was constantly having to go to the doctor or stay in the hospital bed next to mine. My evidence for this was the book Nicky Goes to the Doctor in which, well, it's pretty self-explanatory.

See how his little underpants have a space for his cottontail to stick out? Adorable... and functional.

The one difference between Nicky's visit to the doctor and mine was that, when he was done, Nicky got a red balloon to take home. Usually, I just got a bunch of nasty tasty medicines. But, Imaginary Nicky always shared his balloon with me, and that made me happy.

I love my friends.

Amber & Beltane Best

I forgot to take photos at Diana's party, but this is CRD and I in our
Beltane Best on the way home. Beltane!

Amber & Cat Science

Nick brought my attention to this bit of scientific analysis.

I totally could have been a vet. (You can click on it to go to the page to see it bigger.)

Amber & Friday Funs

Diana, CRD and I just watched an episode of Rhoda and ordered Thai. Next up: Jessica Fletcher.