The CatGenie's in the closet

A while back I wrote about how we'd converted a closet into a cat bathroom. Did I forget to mention that the closet was the only substantial storage area in the house, other than the attic? Yes, we (all right, who am I kidding, it's just me) must truly be insane to put cats before storage. In addition to the CatGenie, I ended up caving in to the oldest cat, Cleo (reflected in the mirror). Either she's not keen on using the CatGenie, or doesn't like to share, or decides she needs to go just when the CatGenie starts a cycle. For any of these reasons, she will then proceed to use the bed as her toilet. Thus the Return of the Old Litter Box.

The closet also provides access to the attic for our wild girl Frida, who loves to play up there (we call it "Attica"). I designed the "ladder", and Jim built it with some leftover 3/4" MDF. The 9.5" x 16" shelves were attached by nail gun and wood glue, staggered and set at about 30 deg. angles, to a back panel of MDF. I later de-angled the lowest shelf and Frida seems to like that better as she can pause before for heading up (also, as you can see, the old litter box fits better underneath it). The shelves are topped with a cheap, rubber-backed coir doormat that was sliced up. It took Frida about 30 seconds to figure out the new way to get up into the attic. The coir provides good traction as she leaps up the shelves and through the cutout in the ceiling, and she loves to stretch and scratch it.

The unit only cost about $10, which was for the doormat, and perhaps 2 hours to cut the pieces and assemble it. The sheet of MDF had been purchased for another project, a flip-down notebook computer holder/bookcase that's now installed in front of the treadmill. It's been very rewarding to make these small custom projects. Not only does it give me an opportunity to design something, usually as simply as possible, but the price can't be beat!

Busy summer!

Went to Florida in July for Jim's mom's 80th birthday, i.e. the perfect combination of heat, humidity and family members. So, we got what you usually get with these ingredients. Meanwhile, we found out Jim's mother just recently fractured her hip and the dementia is getting bad. At least she seemed to have a good time with practically the entire Harman clan around during her birthday week.

Then we celebrated Jim's 50th birthday right after getting back from Florida, with a dinner at Georgia's Greek Deli & Restaurant in Greenwood. He made out well giftwise, with a treadmill, a multimedia projector, a family tree DNA kit, T-shirts, and a watch exactly like the one he received from his father and had lost years ago.

Other summer activities: Around the house we finally moved the furnace up into the attic, freeing up a big walk-in closet. Freeing it up to be an awesome cat bathroom, that is! Jim put in plumbing and electrical so the CatGenie is there, as well as a bathroom fan and light that are triggered by a motion detector. Yesterday he installed a neat cat door (Catwalk) that looks like a porthole in one of the closet doors. The walls still need to be finished somehow, and I'm making a sisal-wrapped pole so the cats can climb up into the attic if they want. Pictures to come... Jim thinks we (or maybe just me) are nuts. We're still looking for a dog pal for our dog. Kira has settled in but occasionally enjoys spraying Jim and his stuff. Frida's still a whore cat, but she's actually been coming in when called and at not-too-unreasonable hours. Cleo now allows Jim to pet her twice before trying to rip his hand off.

Summer's coming... okay, any day now

Well, here's the bike I bought last summer. It's a Suzuki Boulevard S40, formerly known as the LS 650 Savage. It sat around most of the time, since I bought it after failing the riding test at the end of the motorcycle safety class, then let my learner's permit expire. Last week I took the class again and amazingly passed. Not too shabby for a spazz, eh? Two days and 3 hours later the endorsement was added to my driver's license. Practice riding time is difficult to squeeze in on most weekends but someday I hope to use the bike to commute to work. Maybe if I sign up with a local chick biker group it'll inspire me to get out there!

Another gizmo has taken up some time as well: The CatGenie. This is another one of those automated cat litter boxes, only this one needs a drain (toilet) and water hookup. Still fiddling with the settings and trying to persuade the cats to use it. Kira initially was using it, then at some point she saw it self-cleaning and became fixated/afraid of this mechanical monster. So today I caught her peeing in the base of the cat scratching tree... sigh. Wish me luck. Someday I'll invent my own ultimate automatic litter box. Hint: it involves a miniature garbage disposer.

Other than that, just working on perfecting my mom's Portuguese Sweet Bread recipe and helping my brother with business graphics. Visit argentseafood.com and bump up that visitor's tally for me, will ya?