An Inconvenient Cat

I'm trying to do the (painful, since my quads are full of lactic acid) wall squats and every time I am in the "sitting" position, Martin comes over and meows at me. When the 10 second interval is over, I stand up to pet him, he runs away. I think it's because the sitting position looks like it has a lap -- always a cat-friendly position, right? Err... no, Martin.

Cold Reboot

Last June, I started a website to keep myself accountable for exercising and getting myself back in shape.  It had limited success, as work took over my life in mid-July, but the intention was there.  I tried to restart, but was waylaid by a few health problems, primarily a knee-injury from five years ago flaring up again after I re-injured it at the end of October.  Now, after visiting the doctor (yeah, I know, I *never* do that!), the diagnosis is "ruptured ACL and torn meniscus with bone bruising".  I'm scheduled to get surgery on Feb. 17th, and after that, I'll have extensive PT.  I've decided to use that accountability website to keep myself on track for that.  After some thought and some avoidance of pre-op exercise (to strengthen the muscles in anticipation of some loss of muscle as a result of the surgery), I'm also going to keep myself accountable for that as well. 

Hey, it worked today.  I did my exercises.

If you are curious about how I'm doing, the link (Active Accountability) is in the right-hand sidebar. >>>>

Co-incidents

I've been moving through some old and familiar ground over the past six (twelve?) months or so and today I ran across two articles that speak to the solution*.

What I've learned since 2007: Part 2 (Part of a series of a young woman relating the mental transformation she experienced while struggling with her weight.)

The road that led from there to here (Single Dad Laughing can be hyperbolic and dramatic in his prose, but as his aim is to speak to a large audience and promote thought, these are acceptable flaws.)

Both speak about learning to love yourself and the transformative effect it can have. I can't say I'm dramatically on one end of the scale or the other, but I have experienced the process, and from experience know that like an addiction, the potential for backsliding is always there.

Here's hoping I'm moving in the "right" direction.


* The word "solution" seems way too pat, but it gets the idea across.

Taste Testing: Cat Edition

Yesterday, I went into the pet store to stock up on cat litter and one of the three catfoods I mix for my boys' dry catfood bowl.  (It's related to my own resistance to doing the same thing all the time, not so much a request from the boys.)  After wandering around for quite a while looking for Friskies Dental Diet, I find out that it's been discontinued.  Nooooooo!  I've been feeding them Dental Diet for nearly 7 years now and they love it and their teeth are great! 

Much put out, I went to look for an alternative*.  Of course, there's nothing even remotely similar (especially that nice big kibble size), and the packaging is all skewed to appeal to touchy-feely types ("would you feed your pet something you wouldn't eat") or sciency types ("scientifically proven!") or the mainstream (as seen on TV).  It really put me off, but I ended up looking more at the touchy-feely stuff, since I'm more inclined to think esatz "pure ingredients" was slightly more believable than "science" that I didn't know the background for.  The mainstream stuff I dismissed as the kitty version of junk food.  Sure, I would like to live on Cheetoes myself, but for how long would that be?  Granted, Dental Diet was a Friskies brand and though not advertised much, would have been found with the mainstream stuff.  I purchased small bags of three different possible substitutes and put out a small bowl of each.  Interestingly, the one I was slightly favoring is the one they've barely touched.  The picture above (taken this morning) is the 12 hour results so far.  Top to bottom are the catfoods shown below left to right.  Interestingly, the boys seem to like the one with avocado in it.  Hmmm!

* If anyone hears of a good alternative, let me know!

UPDATE: The results are in. I originally gave them 50 g of each food. At the end of 24 hours, the following amounts remained:
Wellness Indoor Health - 48 g (boys ate 4%)
Blue Buffalo Indoor Health - 17 g (boys ate 66%)
Avoderm Indoor Hairball Care Formula - 9 g (boys ate 82%)

Looks like Avoderm is the clear winner, with Blue Buffalo an acceptable alternative. Wellness got a big "no thank you!" so I'll be dropping that off as a donation for the Cat Care Society.

Another One for Jen A

I thought of Jen when I saw the snow on this wooden bench.  :D

Cuteness Webcam

I don't generally follow animal webcams, as I'm not very consistent, BUT...
I finally followed Firefox's link to a webcam for firefox (or red panda) cubs and jeezoopeetz, are they cute!
If they're sleeping, like they are now, you can click on the "meet the cubs" tab to see some up close cuteness.

Pie, for dinner?

"What do you have for dessert?  Peas?"
- 80s TV advertisement

This picture of a beef curry pie with a parsley crust that I made yesterday goes out to all the folks who missed the photos I posted on Facebook of the San Francisco trip.  (If you're interested I can post some of them here too.  Requests can be entered in the comments  :)

Intellectual Attraction

An Alien's Guide to Earth

This somewhat rambling and popular-talk-show style podcast/radio program has, at its core, a great interview between Neil Degrasse Tyson and Jon Stewart about The Daily Show's newest book "Earth: The Book."
If you can stomach the talk-show banter (honestly, I wouldn't have made it through if the interview was even one notch less interesting) and the ads (virtuous ads, but still ads), this interview illustrates why I adore Jon Stewart.  He really speaks about the things I think about.  You know that conversation-starter question about "what famous persons would you most like to invite to dinner?"  He's at the top of my list.