A birthday conversation

Okay, so I am having a little trouble wrapping my brain around the number of years my imminent birthday is celebrating. It's not a Big Round Number, but I am ever so slightly freaked out, which doesn't happen to me much, though the last two birthdays have held more of this omigodde feeling than the previous umpteen ones.

So let's have some fun with this, and let me ask you all:

What was the hardest age for you to reach?

What was your best birthday? (So far. You have some other good ones ahead, G*d willing.)

What was the most difficult birthday you've ever had? Why?

What is your favorite thing to do (or not to do) on your birthday?

What is your favorite thing about birthdays?

Do the approach and day of your birthday evoke particular memories? Smells? Tastes? Feelings?

Birthdays: love 'em, hate 'em, ignore 'em? None of the above?

How do you feel about age and aging?

How (if at all) does your congregation (or spiritual circle, or whatever your community of meaning and celebration is) celebrate or honor its members' birthdays?

What did your family do about birthdays when you were growing up?

Do you have "mortality moments" on your birthday? Do you invariably feel grateful? Both? Neither?

Do you tell people your age? Why or why not?

Do you take the day off on your birthdays? Why or why not?

If you do, what do you do (or not do)?

Have you ever spent a birthday alone? Do you prefer spending your birthday alone?

Do you broadcast your birthday or prefer not to mention it?

Do you have particular rituals on your birthday?

What do you think of birthday parties?

What do you think of surprise parties?

At what time of year were you born? How has this affected your birthdays?

What is (are) your culture(s) of origin? How do you think this affects your attitude toward birthdays?

How does the culture in which you now live affect your birthday and your attitude toward birthdays?

Does your religious or spiritual practice affect your birthday practice(s) and your attitude towards birthdays?

Do you feel differently about other people's birthdays and your own?

Do you have trouble remembering your loved ones' birthdays? Do you keep a birthday book?

Tell the truth now: do you celebrate your pets' birthdays?

I suppose I should ask what your favorite birthday present has been, but that is an afterthought. I don't think I've ever really remembered specific birthday presents as much as I have where I was or with whom I was or what I did. Or what I ate. But that may be me.

I do remember and treasure a few specific birthday presents - e.g. I still have the present my best friend from college gave me on my 20th birthday and I have a few noteworthy birthday memories, not all of which are suitable for a family blog.

The strawberries up there are because when I was growing up we would always have the first strawberries of the year on my birthday.

Feel free to ask your own questions about the birthday thang, too.

Use the "Comments" section below. Answer any or all of the above, as you please.

As MadPriest would say: Off you go, then.


P.S. I'm turning 57. Tomorrow. Pretty nondescript, except for the fact that it is the only time I will ever turn 57 on 5/7. And of course people have already started making Heinz 57 Varieties jokes. Which doesn't really go very far with someone like me who likes homemade salad dressing and doesn't like or eat hot dogs. Not that ketchup isn't sometimes necessary.

Musical silliness (related to sheep theme below)

Thanks to Kirstin for this one!

Baa, baa, bamba!

Sing along bilingually!

(+Maya Pavlova says thank you for el gatito.)

+Maya's latest toys

About a month ago I got a nasty cold-plus (somewhere between a head cold and something worse) which kept me in bed and away from work for a couple of days and took a good week to get better. Along the way, I got myself some herbal cough drops, the classic brand, and since I only needed a couple of them, I thought I'd put the rest in a nice dish in the living room so I could dip into that pretty bowl if I needed to, rather than leaving the cough drops in their bag, which looks messy and doesn't stand up. Not that the rest of the house isn't messy, but I was making an aesthetic effort.

Her Grace the feline bishop soon noticed that the cough drops had nice wrappers that made the cough drops attractive and within a day or two she had seized a cough drop by one of the twisty ends of the wrapper with her mouth, lifted it out of the beautiful painted Russian wooden bowl, and used it as a soccer ball. Enough, said I. I took the wrapped cough drop away from her. Again she grabbed it and played soccer. I gave up and said, "Okay, one's enough, the rest are for me." I also hid the bowl on the lower level of the coffee table, which seemed a shame since it is such a nice object, but I didn't want little yellow Swiss soccer balls all over the house. A day later everything seen fine. My cold healed and I forgot about the cough drops.

A day or two ago I was on the living room floor doing yoga and glanced toward the bottom shelf of the coffee table, and lo and behold, the bowl was empty. Completely empty. There had been at least ten wrapped cough drops in there. Only one was in sight on the living room floor. Heaven knows where the others went, but clearly +Maya Pavlova had been hard at play in my absence or during my sleeping hours. I found a second cough drop, put it with the first one back in the bowl, +Maya ignored the whole operation and had no interest, and I thought that was that.

A few minutes ago, before I decided to write this post, I heard a little noise in the living room (I usually write in my study, from which I can see just a sliver of living room) and there was +Maya, carefully lifting a party fav-- er, cough drop out of the bowl, dropping it on the floor, and swiftly kicking it and helping it skid across the floor.

I guess the Ricolas go in a closed jar or stay in their bag next time.

I wonder where all the other ones are.

Notes: 1. The now-empty bowl isn't quite this shape, it is more high and rounded, but it is a Russian khokhloma bowl like this one in the same colors. 2. The blog from which I snagged the cough drop photo above has a thorough comparison between Ricola and the CVS generic/copycat brand, if anyone is interested. 3. The photo of Herself is by yours truly with mitering by +Clumber of True Pittsburgh, canine bishop and PhotoShop artist.

Friday cat blogging: latest +Maya Pavlova tidbits

No photo today - I haven't taken a photograph in ages and I think I am out of archived photos. Also, we are still in Intensive Writing Mode here, when we are not teaching or advising or doing related bureaucratic work. But here is some news on Her Grace, some of which you Facebook types out there will have seen.

Announced on Facebook last night: +Maya Pavlova has a new catnip ball. New to her, that is. I'd bought a package of two catnip balls months ago and given her one (now somewhere under a sofa, no doubt, or maybe at the bottom of her little toy basket) and the other was in a bag of goodies I hadn't opened since the move of Labor Day Weekend. So this is the other.

The catnip ball is made of cloth, purple with silver stars, and it is nicely cat-sized. Inside, so the packaging says, is organic catnip With No Bad Chemicals In It, and some kind of cloth filler. You squeeze the ball (I know just fed a straight line to someone, but may I remind you that +Maya is a bishop and this is a family blog, so get your mind out of the gutter) and the smell of catnip becomes more pronounced, and your friendly neighborhood cat pounces and gets lots exercise by chasing the ball around. Which +Maya did.

I didn't go into that much detail on Facebook.

+Maya Pavlova also has spring fever, as do all the critters in the neighborhood. The birds are twittering (not electronically) and flitting about, the squirrels are out, the dogs are sniffing and barking, and up the street near the little pond, the geese are walking two by two, ready to make goslings. As a result of all this activity, especially that of the first two types of critters, Our Girl is at the window a lot. When she's not sleeping. She does seem to be sleeping a bit less, or perhaps it's just that when she is awake, she does a lot of dashing about. It's not just the frequent Kitty-TV watching at the window. It's also the taking of great leaps onto the mantlepiece, the top of the highest bookcase, and the refrigerator.

Nevertheless, the Right Reverend and Right Honorable Maya Pavlova, FBE, is keeping an eye on her Canon to the Extraordinary to make sure the Canon gets her writing done. She still makes trips to the desk and sometimes settles there. She also comes over and gives little head-butts to the phone when someone she knows is in conversation with the Canon. Smart feline, that one.

That's our report for the day. Stay tuned, and thank you for your prayers for our work on the Big Theological Tome.

Also, Moira has her voice back! And the Acts of Hope family sent a big spring bouquet of flowers to the extended family at its post-funeral reception for Aunt Anne.

Over and out.

Quelle surprise (not)

You Belong in Paris

You enjoy all that life has to offer, and you can appreciate the fine tastes and sites of Paris. You're the perfect person to wander the streets of Paris aimlessly, enjoying architecture and a crepe.

What European City Do You Belong In?

What it looks like lined up (a follow-up on the year-end roundup)

Padre Mickey reminds us that we are supposed to line up all those first sentences. (In my case, first and first-and-second sentences, depending.) It really is much funnier that way.

So here is a third look at those first lines of each first post of the month.

'course no one says you have to do it the way someone else says it. I liked doing the meme three different ways. Cue the appropriate Cole Porter song.

2008 in review: the one-paragraph non-sequitur version

Greetings, all. There's more Latin American stuff coming, and also Sunday's sermon, and a year-end roundup perhaps, but my computer is having trouble. Chora Church, a.k.a. Holy Saviour in the Country, a.k.a. Kariye Müzesi, Kariye Camii, or Kariye Kilisesi (the Chora Museum, Mosque or Church) is the church with the beautiful Byzantine mosaics, as beautiful as Haghia Sophia in its own way. There have been so many questions and concerns about my colleague Jeff that the college has posted an update on its website. It was fabulous. It was packed. Latest in our continuing series of international and intercultural insights by Brother of Acts of Hope. This was a designer who liked women. They don't all. Okay, foodies, here is a little social responsibility post. My friend X has come out of anonymity on his blog. The fabulous FranIAm, friend of the multitudes, has posted on the state of things. Okay, it's not as clever as the Great Schlep of Sarah Silverman and P.J. fame (P.J. told us about it and Sarah Silverman is in it, complete with profanity and with humor which you'll get all of if you're a M.O.T. and some of if you're not), but it may bring in just as many voters. One live, one gone to the ancestors. Speaking of Venice (see previous post, immediately below)... Venice is flooded.

Have had a few computer difficulties...

... which are getting resolved relatively fast thanks to the wonderful people at the college IT office (who also are some of my favorite staff people on campus, and that includes the student workers there) but happened on my longest work day of the week. We are in the last week of classes, and then begins the paper-reading and grading marathon.

Let's play the 100 things list

FranIAm, Caminante, and Padre Mickey made me do it. Through the power of example. Also, I am procrastinating from reading the Elizabethan Homilies. (Don't ask.)

The things I have done are in bold.

1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sung a solo
11. Bungee jumped (and I hope I never do, thank you very much.)
12. Visited Paris (Visited, nothing. I lived there.)
13. Watched lightning at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning (Only once, way back when I was in college, from a bad hamburger in New York. I can't remember the last time I ate a hamburger.)
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (At age 5 and I'll never forget it! Neither will my mother since apparently I bitched and moaned once we got halfway up there, but we couldn't go back down since we were single file on those narrow stairs and all my cousins were there!)
18. Grown my own vegetables (Do herbs and strawberries count?)
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (Interesting how we've all done this one!)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb (No, but I held a baby goat two years ago; you haven't lived till you've held a baby goat. They are waaaay cute.)
26. Gone skinny dipping (You betcha, and not just once. Small Vermont lakes are good for that.)
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice (I can't remember. My major visit to Venice was when I was four and I remember the canal beneath the window and the song my brother made up about all the floating garbage on the water, but I don't remember a gondola. Probably our parents didn't have the money for it. OCICBW.)
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset (All the time. Mostly sunset these days.)
31. Hit a home run (In your dreams!)
32. Been on a cruise (No, but when I was little I crossed the Atlantic on a big ship; it was before taking airplanes was common; ships were cheaper and we were going to the States to visit family.)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors (That would be birthplaces, in the plural, like most Estadoünidenses. I hope to go to one of them. I don't know all the places. Lots of Jews whose records are lost.)
35. Seen an Amish community (Not yet, but I'm going later this year, perhaps in spring, with my colleague who knows the folks from one of the communities not too far from us.)
36. Taught myself a new language.
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (Briefly. On the other extreme, I was two or three years under the Federal poverty level when I was in Ph.D. studies. Which is not to say one has to have lots of money to be truly satisfied.)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke (No, but I've sung on stage with piano and bands and guitar et al.)
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant (No, though I've bought strangers food and takeout.)
44. Visited Africa (Expect I'll go someday.)
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance (Once. Thought I might be having a heart attack or some other physical problem; I was dizzy and had what felt like palpitations. It turned out to be a big honking panic attack, though the EMTs and the ER did not diagnose it that night.)
47. Had my portrait painted (Does a sketch artist at Montmartre when I was a kid count?)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling (Snorkeling. Eilat, Israel, 1970 or 1971. Too chicken to scuba dive. Would love to snorkel again. Fishies and corals! If there are any left after we've messed up the planet as we have.)
52. Kissed in the rain (Of course! See above under "lived in Paris.")
53. Played in the mud (I was a kid once, wasn't I?)
54. Gone to a drive-in theater (In Vermont, as I recall.)
55. Been in a movie (No, but I'm available. Oh, wait, I was in a documentary in a big group. It was some kind of anti-war movie in the 1980s.)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business (Does my own consulting business for a while count? It wasn't really a business, it was just me being a consultant.)
58. Taken a martial arts class (Once. Just for one session! But it was memorable.)
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (Ugh, no. French Girl Scouts don't sell cookies. They don't even make cookies.)
62. Gone whale watching (No -- shame on me, after all those years living in Massachusetts.)
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving (Much too chicken.)
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp (I will some day.)
67. Bounced a check (Ouch. More than once.)
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy (Brother's panda bear, passed on to me, in the family since my brother was one year old, i.e. 1943! Survived the Great Tree Crash of 2008. Needs a little vacuuming or dusting off. I also have a few of my favorite storybooks.)
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job (1. Yes, if you count the part-time job in a bakery where the owners kept changing my schedule and then finally announced to me they thought I wasn't happy with the schedule and things weren't working out. 2. No, but I once quit in a timely manner because I saw the handwriting on the wall.)
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London (When I was a little girl.)
77. Broken a bone (Thank Godde, knock wood, etc.)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle (See above under "too chicken.")
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person (I sure hope I do someday.)
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car (Only once in my life, and it died in a freak fire. I wasn't in it.)
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible (No, I'm an Episcopalian. ;-) But I have read most of it, and I read it a lot.)
86. Visited the White House (Waiting for an invitation from the Obamas, like everybody else.)
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (No, but my cat did.)
88. Had chickenpox (Terrible case, when I was three. Had to be sent to the country for several weeks to convalesce.)
89. Saved someone’s life (Depends what you mean. No, not literally i.e. physically. I have a friend who claims I saved his life in another way, and another whom I drove to detox; she's been clean and sober ever since, and alive and happy too. But that really was her decision, with, I'm sure, help from her Higher Power.)
90. Sat on a jury (No, I didn't get chosen.)
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club (Nah, too many years in school. Perpetual book club and you had to pay for it. But I love to read and to discuss books with friends.)
93. Lost a loved one (Many more than one...)
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Ridden an elephant (Sounds like fun, assuming the elephant isn't drunk or angry.)

Your Thanksgiving menus

This is a join-in post, campers.

Your Thanksgiving menus, please. OR your favorite dish on the menu today. OR your recipe for what you brought to your Thanksgiving potluck or for something you made at home.

Your choice.

I'll post my friends' menu in this space later. I know it already because we are bringing different parts of the meal and they announced their main course, but it's more fun to post after the meal.

I am making only the soup (thank goodness, see below) and have been looking forward to being responsible only for two things: making soup and showing up.

The soup is a butternut squash puree (made with itself, not with stock - it's simple and vegetarian) flavored with allspice. Though I'm remembering ginger from my mother's recipe, too. We shall see. I haven't made the soup yet due to the little afternoon episode yesterday. But dinner isn't till 4 p.m. so there's time. I may even go back to bed before then.

P.S. (Added later) I finally remembered the other ingredient! I kept thinking "I haven't made this in a few years, I know there is something in this soup besides allspice, what is it??" It's fresh ginger. How in the world could I forget? Good thing I keep fresh ginger in the house.

P.P.S. (Added much later) Menu of the Very Delicious Foodie Thanksgiving at the Home of Fabulous Hosts:

Cocktails of Prosecco and Lillet (yes, mixed! first time I'd ever had that combo)

Butternut squash soup (see above)
First of several wines brought by Retired Academic Who Is Into Wine:
Lindemans (Western Cape, South Africa) Sauvignon Blanc vintage 2007; fragrant, smelled of flowers.

Duck confit (one leg for each person - which led to jokes about the nine-legged duck)
Mashed sweet potatoes
Sauteed green cabbage (with olive oil and garlic as it turns out, but neither was overpowering; made by Lawerly Spouse of Retired Academic Who Is Into Wine)
Homemade cranberry sauce (made by one of the Fabulous Hosts) with half the sugar and twice the cranberries called for by the recipe on the package - perfect.
Cornbread (made by the Southern-born member of the couple of Fabulous Hosts)
Los Vascos Cabernet Sauvignon (Domaines Barons de Rothschild) from Colchugua Valley, Chile, 2006; excellent, nice and dry.

Then we went for a walk.

Upon return:

Pear Crostata (made by Lovely Hip Young Artist and Scholar Couple, with a really thin crust and almond slivers all around)
Pumpkin pie (made by Cool Couple of Colleagues of Fabulous Hosts)
Pumpkin brownie pie (a novelty invented by Young Son of Cool Couple of Colleagues of Fabulous Hosts, who was at the dinner but not at the table because he didn't want to be bored by all those grown-ups and because he was the only kid in the house and preferred to entertain himself; the pie is exactly what it sounds like: a pumpkin pie with a layer of brownie cooked on top!) (Confession: I didn't have any.)
All this with the best-wine-saved-for-last by Retired Academic Who Is Into Wine: a 1975 (!!!!!!) Chateau du Mayne Barsac.

After-dinner drinks:
Absinthe (seriously! 144 proof; I didn't have any)
Amaro (Averna brand, from Sicily, delicious, I had some; about 64 proof, more my speed)
Homemade (by one member of Fabulous Hosts couple who is studying Italian on the side and likes to experiment) fennel liquor a.k.a. Finocchietto (I stuck to the Amaro)

Decaf espresso

This isn't the first time it's happened

The Canon to the Extraordinary is working at home, tapping away at the laptop, sitting in the study while the Feline Bishop Extraordinaire naps on the living room couch.

The Canon has also been mumbling for an hour about how it's time for her (the Canon) to get off her duff and go outdoors for a brisk walk.

Her Grace walks in, jumps up on the desk, and delicately walks across the keyboard. Not something she is supposed to do, but sometimes she is quicker than her aging biped Canon.

As she walks, she steps on the power button and swiftly turns off the computer.

You think she's trying to tell me something?

Sequencing the marsupials - hippety hop

You'd think I was a veterinarian or Saint Francis with all these animal posts. This seems to be what consoles and comes easily these days. I was going to say "you know you're in trouble when you prefer the company of animals to that of humans," but that is not very respectful toward animals and +Maya, +Airedale, +Rowan, and +Clumber will get me for that. I take it back. Animals are creatures of Godde and if I am turning to their beauty and wisdom, it is probably a step forward in the knowledge of the cosmos and its wonders. And a step deeper in the path to true compassion and life in the Spirit.

I also know they are not all cute and fuzzy and friendly. jn1034 has a great post related to this - not about predators, which is what you might expect when you get into a "not all cute and fruzzy and friendly" discussion - but about dust mites. Have a look.

But I digress. Today our topic is the kangaroo and the genome. Check out this story!

I do love the little darlings, a.k.a. my students, and we had a good class this morning. It's the other parts of the teaching life that drive me crazy. Well, some students drive me crazy too, but this semester is a blessing and the dynamics with the classes feel pretty good. I am just behind on everything -- but I met a major deadline yesterday (two months late) and have gotten some sleep and am on to the next piece of bureaucracy. And, mercifully, to a little mentoring and pastoral care, which I love and doesn't drain me half as much as meetings and reports do.

Doggy post (with some cat thrown in) from Friday, finished today

I've kept the Friday time signature on it, so it is below, though I didn't finish it till this evening. Enjoy. Please note that Acts of Hope, administered by a feline bishop, is in full communion with canine blogs.

Friday critter blogging: about that hypoallergenic puppy

The Washington Post has this to say on the matter of non-allergifying dogs.

Enough with the hybrid doggiedoodles and hairless dogs. I want to know why nobody has followed the lead of Doxy and Ted Kennedy and Vickie Reggie Kennedy and gone for the Portuguese Water Dog. Aren't they non-allergifying? Can't you see a nice Portuguese Water Dog in the White House?


More of Doxy's Dog here and here, a year later. As for Senator Ted's and Ms. Victoria's dogs, one of them is a book writer.

On the cat front, Her Grace Maya Pavlova has rediscovered her catnip mouse, which had lain in its basket of toys for weeks and weeks. She grabbed it yesterday and chased it halfway around the house. Go figure. +Maya was in a frisky, playful mood. A visitor and I speculated yesterday evening that it could have been the scent of the visitor's dog (who did not come to visit), a male pug by the name of Kevin (not to be confused with my friend Kevin's dog, whose name is Andy) -- or maybe it was the full moon.

(Note: I am allergic to some animals and not others. Miss +Maya is a mutt cat, but non-allergifying, to me anyway, whereas I had to return not one but two other cat mutts to the shelter a few days after taking them in, the year before she came to live with me, because they gave me serious asthma. It's a dander thing.)

And in case the Obamas are worried about allergies, really and truly, Doxy said the Portuguese Water Dog was non-allergifying, and if they don't believe Doxy, they can take Senator Ted's word. Have a look at this man-loves-his-dog story and interview. (Read it till the end for cute trivia about an episode with Biden and Wellstone - and the dog. There's also an audio of a piece of the dog's book.) And here's the picture from the article.

This blog post has been approved by +Maya Pavlova, Feline Bishop Extraordinaire. Acts of Hope is a multi-species-friendly blog, in full communion with dog-loving blogs.

It's a makes-a-me nuts

Okay, that was a very poor Zeppo Marx-like statement.

The short of it is, I have too much to do and am behind on most of it and I am not amused, though I am trying to have a good attitude about some of it. No, I didn't take on too much and I don't love being über-busy, much of this is Part of the Deal. Also part of having been away two very long weekends in a row.

On the happy side, today is the birthday of the Fabulous Fran. Go send her some love. I shall return. I have to tell you about foodie fun in Boston, but it may be a few days. I also missed the feast of St. Martin of Tours.

I am also still pinching myself about the election.

Welcomed home with purrs aplenty

Her Grace is a veritable engine wrapped in fur. Purr, purr, purr. I am getting the royal purring treatment after my three days of absence. More purrs than meows this time, and vast amounts of feline cuddles. Life is good.

'xcept I gots to teach at 8:30 a.m. But it was worth taking late flights home since I had the whole day with my folks instead of a truncated Sunday.

The Velcro Cat wants full attention. Off I go. Tales of the Boston visit as soon as I can. +Maya Pavlova says "Don't forget to nap!"

Back in Greensboro, Election Eve

Intense conference (but good, very good), smooth flight back from Chicago, turning in soon. On the 9 a.m. Get Out The Vote shift tomorrow.

As I expected, Miss Maya Pavlova gave me The Speech when I got home. She has now eaten one and a half helpings of Newman's Own dry cat food (the cat sitter only came once a day, through yesterday) and when I turned on the Daily Show a few minutes ago and stood watching it in the living room, Her Grace jumped from the floor onto my shoulders. I kid you not.

More when I can. (It may be a while.) Vote.

Friday cat blogging: Maya in the new place

We are having a somewhat gloomy day at Acts of Hope, weather-wise and otherwise. The resident human, being the queen of delayed reactions, has finally been feeling the impact of the last couple of months with the Great Tree Disaster, the precipitous move, the unceasing onslaught of work, the gazillions of boxes to unpack (remember they were packed in haste -albeit by the moving company- so the chaos factor was high and the labeling accuracy low), six nearly simultaneous deadlines (four of which the aforementioned human did not meet and still has hanging over her increasingly grey head), and several other stressors. There is also the advent of shorter days. Seasonal Affective Disorder, anyone? (Try this. I'm serious.)

The resident feline, on the other hand, is cheery, with the occasional trace of post-traumatic reaction when someone moves furniture or shuffle boxes around. Her Grace does have her favorite napping spots, though, set up by her Canon to the Extraordinary.

When we first moved, she headed for the Canon's pillow every day and sometimes every night. Here she is either opening her eyes from a nap because of the sound of the camera or still freaked out by the move. Behind her is the headboard to the Canon's grandparents' bed, which the tree disaster broke into bits. But it's easy to lean the rescued headboard against the wall and make a plain ol' cheap bed look fancy. We have saved the pieces of the old bed and maybe some day we can have it fixed. We're not holding our breath.


Now Her Grace has migrated and has found other soft spots. She has a perch in the bedroom and another in the living room. Here's the bedroom one. The piece of furniture is the landlady's and instead of having it in a corner, we have it in front of the window. The windows here are much higher up than the windows in the old place. With this particular perch Miss Maya can be up against the window as she likes to be, thanks to these nice open shelves. At first she napped on the bare shelf, quite happily, but now there is an old mattress pad, nice and soft, for her leisure. It's not pretty but it's comfy.


Here's the living room one. The Canon is going to have to move the cushions, one of which belongs elsewhere, but she has held off in the interests of feline episcopal stability, and for about a month this has been the main episcopal seat in the house. Note the sage napping pose.


This is an all-purpose cathedra (bishop's seat). It is good for napping and also for watching kitty tv, of which there is plenty: birds, squirrels, rain, and now a few falling leaves.

It is also good for keeping a lookout for the Canon when she returns home.

Next to the Feline Bishop Extraordinaire is a makeshift curtain of Indian print with elephants on it. We think the Canon to the Extraordinary has had this piece of material since college, but we're not sure. For now, it works to give the living room some privacy.

We took down the landlady's curtains for a variety of aesthetic reasons. The windows are, as they say, butt-ugly, and we are going to get new window treatments, we just haven't yet. (One more thing on the list.) But the old window treatments had to go.

This window is not much of one since it is where the air conditioner lives (the old place had central air conditioning and big picture windows) but it does provide a great place for +Maya Pavlova to jump onto, and sometimes when she is up there, once she has finished looking out at the leaves and the bugs and the birds,

she poses.


She wants you to see both profiles. Aren't they handsome? Is this not the most regal feline bishop you have ever seen, even on top of an air conditioner in a butt-ugly window? Not for nothing is Maya Pavlova the Right Reverend AND Right Honorable.

Here you can see she can still look a little freaked out. Bishops are human, er, feline too, you know. Remember your bishops are breathing feeling animals.


Mostly though, she's okay.

Click on the photos to enlarge them. Especially this last one.

+Maya updates you

Dear creatures of our beloved Creator,

My beautiful soft grey self (I speak in all modesty and humility) is seated at the laptop and I want to take this opportunity to update you on the condition of my Canon to the Extraordinary. As you know, she has been laboring mightily the last few days. It's a good thing that she took Monday off to nip that lung thing in the bud. Better for me, too. There was chicken soup for three days in this house.

The Canon to the Extraordinary has had a good night's sleep and spent some extra time with me today. This makes me happy. She also says she will be home a lot this coming week because of something called "fall break." She is cheery because of something called Good Publicity For The Book. You'd think this would make her write you this evening to tell you all these nice things, but she is mumbling something about "apples" and "fillo dough." I assume this means she will write you a recipe, but I can't make promises on her behalf. Also, I don't eat apples.

With purring pastoral concern,

+Maya Pavlova, FBE

Tick, tick, tick...

... Mid-semester grades are due at 8:30 a.m. on the college registrar's secure website...