Now that I have finished making a filtered post full of griping, let’s talk about something fun: cats and husbands.

This morning, after Lin got off to work, I decided since there wasn’t anything pressing I needed to do, and the things I needed to do I didn’t feel like doing, I was going to go back to bed and sleep for a few more hours. While in that hazy period between wake and sleep when I am still aware of noises around me but not quite aware enough to pay attention to them, I kept hearing a very annoying noise … like fingernails on a blackboard. For about five minutes, that noise seeped into my slowly fading brain and got turned into all manner of images, ideas and whatnot, the way a brain does when it’s mostly asleep and it hears something. Eventually though, the annoying noise got loud enough and bothersome enough that the little part of my brain that was still aware of the world kicked the sleeping part of my brain and told it to get up and investigate. It was obvious the noise was being created by a cat taking part in what could only be assumed to be a truly unauthorized cat activity.

I sit up in bed and look into the hall. I see Myu sitting and staring into the bathroom. OK, the guilty party and location had been ascertained. Ronin was doing something in the bathroom. My first attempt to handle the situation involved screaming “Ronin, what the hell are you doing?!” Silence fell in the bathroom. It remained silent long enough, I figured that was it and laid back down to snooze some more.

I had no more than closed my eyes when the fingernails on blackboard sound started again. I quietly and calmly crawled out of bed, crept to the hall, and looked in the bathroom. All was silent. I looked in the direction of the mirror first, because Ronin has a thing about clawing at mirrors. Nope. No cat there. I looked in the direction of the shower, because cat claws on plastic shower might make that sound. Nope. No cat there. Then a bit of movement caught my eye … a flick of the end of a cat’s tail. I looked in the direction of the part of the bathroom window that can be seen from behind the shower, and there, to my amazement was a cat.

He wasn’t sitting in the window, because there’s no sill at all and thus no room for a cat. He wasn’t even hanging on the wall by the tips of his claws on the lip of the window, which I have seen him do before. No, like a rock climber, he was all the way at the top of the window, having braced his back again the window frame and his paws against the wall of the shower … he had been slowly crawling his way up the window (and making an awful racket too). Have you ever crawled up a tight place by bracing your back against one side and using your arms and legs on the opposing side? If you have seen the Matrix movie where the good guys are crawling down the inside of a bathroom wet wall, or if you have done any rock climbing or cave exploring, you will know what I mean. I have seen many people do this maneuver, but I have never, not once, known a cat to do it. It seems rather un-catlike. I went to get the camera, but just as I snapped the photo, he fell ungracefully into the litter box. I wish I could have gotten that photo. It was the funniest thing I have seen in a while, especially because of the stupid little big-eyed innocent face he was wearing.

I’m going to start keeping my camera right near me at all times. Now that he knows he can do that, I am certain he will do it again, and I have to get a photo of it.

The other funny thing is that when Lin got home, he asked if he could borrow my iPod to listen to these three songs he is trying to learn on the guitar. Well, no, for three songs and for use outside while doing yard work, he cannot borrow my pricey and pristine Ipod. I loaded the songs on the my iPod Shuffle, showed him how to use it, and told him he could have it and load it off my computer with anything he wanted whenever he wanted. I am now an iPod widow. He has declared iPods to be “cool” and “sounding really great.” Yeah, well … been telling him that for years! As soon as he put the earbuds in his ears, I was tuned out. He’s been listening to the same three songs for hours. At the moment, he is zooming around the yard on the mower jamming away to his favorite three songs. He’s even dancing in his seat and singing out loud. I guess we are running with the plan to out-crazy the crazy neighbors.

I’ve tried to give him the Shuffle since the day he gave me the video iPod. It’s great, but when I can carrying my entire collection of favorite tunes with me at all times, I really don’t need to use the Shuffle anymore, and I thought it might be nice for those times at work when he wants to tune people out or when doing yard work. He said he didn’t need it and wouldn’t use it. Now he’s addicted, and I bet you he will end up wanting something with enough room to put all his favorite albums on before long. You watch. Then he’ll want his own Mac. Mark my words.

I played around with the manual shutter and aperture settings on my camera. Going to see how those turned out. What I remember about f-stops and shutters settings would fit on the head of a pin. I don’t expect any of the photos to turn out at all. There’s optimism for you!