Sunday, October 08, 2006

We have made fire!

As soon as the temperature neared 50 degrees, we started eyeing the new wood burning stove. Knowing that this weekend was supposed to be quite nice (75-80 degrees), we took advantage of a slightly-cooler Friday night to inaugurate the stove.

We read the instruction manual, and gather the necessary materials (newspaper, small sticks for kindling, slightly bigger sticks, and even bigger sticks), and started burning.

Alan and the cats monitored the fire to make sure everything burned that was supposed to. I sat on the couch with the camera and the fire extinguisher to make sure that nothing burned that wasn't supposed to.

It went ok. It was warm. It smelled nice and woodsy. But we didn't have very good air flow. I think it probably helps if it's colder outside.

Anyway, that was our excitement of the weekend.

And in other news... Mikey's on a diet, and he's not very happy about it.


We took the cats to their annual vet appointment last weekend, and the vet gave us a stern lecture about Mikey being overweight. He weighs 15.4 pounds. On a scale of 1-9 (with 5 being an ideal weight), Mikey is an 8. (Syndey is a 6, so she's a little heavy, but not as chunky as Mikey.)

Anyway, so now we have to limit the amount of food they get, and they only eat twice a day. Before now, we were really lazy pet owners. Isn't that why you get a cat in the first place? No walking, no bathing, no potty training? We used a free feeder that we'd fill with crunchies and put down in the basement. Whenever we walk by, we kick it a little bit to make sure some there were enough crunchies out the bottom of the feeder. But that was mostly the extent of our involvement in cat meal time.

No longer. We have to carefully measure out food (Mikey only gets 1/4 cup -- that's really small!), put the cats in different parts of the house (so Mikey doesn't eat Syndey's food), and give them 20 minutes or so to eat their tiny portions.

I think they're super cranky now. Alan chalks it up to "more energy now that they're slimming down." Hrmph.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Try throwing crunches or dog food down the stairs and let Mikey play the chase game. Sammy loves to play every night. Of course, that little exercise is all it takes to keep Sammy a perfect 10.

Anonymous said...

hehe...good luck with the cats (mine have been around 15 lbs for years!). You could try taking them for a walk! Brian says take 'em to the car wash for a bath, it'll burn tons of calories! Kelly agrees. As you can see, I now get over-ruled on decisions!

Is that fire for real...or did someone play with the photo...hmmm, maybe we will have to come visit in the near future. Kelly is offering to catch the bats for a small fee. Who taught him economics anyways?!

Lins

Anonymous said...

Come on Al,an instruction manual for a fireplace? That's embarrassing.

Nuge

Anonymous said...

In my defense, Mr. Nugent, one small error and our house becomes an ash heap. (Besides, Emily made me read it!).

Al