Jaminfrog

A few of us are working from home this week because they’re replacing the air conditioning in our offices, and it’s not as much fun to work when it’s 82 degrees and there’s construction noise all around. So since I’ve fired up the webcam to communicate with co-workers, it would be an irresponsible waste of bandwidth if I didn’t set up PetCam 2008! Check it out!

Chel started a new job this week at Merrill Lynch, and the schedule adjustment has been rough on all of us. Especially Sinatra the Siamese cat.

For me, I’m used to getting at least two phone calls during the day, asking me how my day is going or sharing something big that’s happened. Those have gone away now that she’s learning the ropes at a new company and new industry (securities lending, if that means anything to you).

But it’s been really tough on Sinatra, and we think he’s taken it out on himself. A typical day in Chel’s previous job meant she woke up around 7, then spent 30-45 minutes of quality cuddle time in bed with the kitty. Now that she’s in the finance world, she has to be at the office at 7:30, which means she wakes up at 6 and hustles out the door with no cat time.

The new schedule started on Monday, and when we got home on Wednesday we noticed a strange spot on Sinatra’s neck. We watched it for a couple days and decided to take him to our friendly neighborhood vet this morning because we were afraid it was ringworm or something crazy like that.

“No, this little infected spot is behavioral,” our vet told us. “He did this to himself. Has anything changed in your life lately?”

Yep, the new job. The vet gave us some antibiotics and cream, advised Chelsea not to quit her job to stay home with the cat, and assured us that everything would be fine in a week or two once Sinatra gets used to the schedule.

So I guess I just have to remind myself of that, too. Sinatra misses his morning cuddle time; I miss those phone calls. We just don’t need to beat ourselves up over it. 

To get ready for the holidays, and since it’s been a little cold outside, Chel got some more outfits for the animals today at Wally World. Click on the pics for the full-size view. Luca’s shirt says “Local Celebrity,” in case you can’t tell.

We’ve discovered that, in the absence of actual babies in our house, the Wal-Mart baby clothes section is a great place to find pet apparel!

We all have our favorite TV shows I guess, and Sinatra the siamese cat has discovered his — Meerkat Manor.

Anne and Tanner introduced us to the show the last time I was at the farm. “It’s like the Sopranos,” they told us. I was strangely entertained, and I started tivo-ing it when I got back home because I thought Chel might enjoy it.

We sat down to watch some TV one night the next week, and I suggested Meerkat Manor. Now, Chelsea didn’t really like it because inevitably some poor meerkat dies at the end of each episode.

But Sinatra, who was sitting on Chel’s lap at the time, was transfixed. He jumped up to the edge of the couch and stared intently at the screen. Whenever the commercials came on, he lost interest until his show came back. He watched the entire episode.

Last night I was home doing some stuff around the house with the TV on, and I was about to change to one of those all-music stations to help with my chores. I walked into the den and alas, the tivo had changed the channel to record Meerkat Manor.

And sure enough, Sinatra was curled up on top of the leather chair, watching his favorite show. I just didn’t have the heart to change the channel. Last night was a big episode.

We’re spending the weekend in South Padre with our friend Jen at her family’s beautiful beach house, and Jen was nice enough to let Addy come along for the ride. (I think Addy may actually be Jen’s favorite member of our family. And Jen is definitely one of Addy’s all-time favorite people.)

So today was Addy’s first time to ever go to the beach. Here’s a little clip of her initial dip in the Gulf!

I’ve posted some pics of our first couple days here and I’ll write more later, but Addy and I are pretty tuckered out so I think I will join her for a nap!

My second semester of law school is almost in the books! My three finals start Thursday and end a week from Friday. Although I’m feeling moderately prepared with a few days left to study, a few distractions are preventing me from being super-focused. So I figured, in the spirit of distractions, I would spend some time writing about them, instead of studying!

Distraction 1: Pets
This morning I was finishing up my outline for Civil Procedure, which is first up on Thursday night. (The good thing about law school is that you can bring any notes you want into the test, and most people try to make that into some kind of coherent outline.) So here I was in the office, all kinds of books on my lap, when Luca decided she needed her morning loving. And when Luca decides she needs some attention, no volume of Civil Procedure materials will stand in her way!

Distraction 2: Mavs
Last semester I didn’t really have to deal with any sports-related distractions, so it’s a little different this spring now that the Mavericks’ NBA playoff run has begun. I have found myself scheduling my study time around their games, which is tough since they’ve been losing more than winning so far. I’ve tried Tivo-ing the games and watching them later, but then I sit on my computer checking the scoreboard on ESPN.com. I guess the silver lining if the Mavs keep losing is that I’ll get back to studying.

Distraction 3: Summer
Since I’m not taking summer school, there’s so much fun stuff to look forward to — trips to the beach, eating dinner with Chelsea, no more outlining — that it’s hard to bear down for the week ahead.

Those three distractions and more are all well and good, but I just need to forget about them for the next 12 days and focus on finals. Luca and the rest of the fam will still be there in 12 days. The Mavs may not be there in 12 days, but oh well. And a more relaxing summer will definitely be there in 12 days.

So, if you’ll excuse me…I’m going to Dan’s house to watch the Mavs game. I figure I can cut the distractions out. Starting tomorrow!

As another sign of how cool a cat Sinatra is, the other day he joined us on the couch to watch the movie Over the Hedge. He was really transfixed by the whole show and watched it intently for about ten minutes, until Little Mom wadded up a piece of paper and he got distracted. I think his favorite character was the highly-caffeinated squirrel. Any suggestions on other movies the little guy might like?

Saturday was a tough day for the Alexander kitties, especially Luca. It was their Annual Trip to Get Vaccinated.

We have a friendly neighborhood vet next door to the Subway restaurant where we take the animals for big-time checkups and emergencies, like when Chelsea was worried that Sinatra had a tumor on his stomach. (As it turns out, the boy was just putting on a few pounds.)

But when it comes to vaccinations, we try to save a few bucks by driving out to Garland to a fine establishment called PetMobile. This little business made its name by packing some RVs full of low-priced vaccinations and driving around the Metroplex, but they also have a walk-in clinic.

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All television reports predicted another WINTER BLAST hitting the Dallas-Fort Worth area this past weekend, so we took every precaution: not going to visit Mom and Dad, renting movies and video games, and stocking up on sundries like popcorn, chocolate-covered Oreos and Pillsbury ready-to-bake cookie logs.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, Dallas did not get the worst of the WINTER BLAST, but we were still trapped inside by some cold, miserable rain. So we were glad we had followed those preparedness steps, and we learned a few valuable lessons to get us ready for the next time the melodramatic meteorologists decide to predict another ARCTIC BLAST, WINTER BLAST or POLAR BLAST:

First and foremost, we learned to prepare plenty of space for our animals during a WINTER BLAST, because wherever we were, they wanted to be. The most frequent sight of the weekend would have been the two of us cuddled up in the leather chair, with Addy, Sinatra and Luca huddled together on the ottoman. The exception was when Sinatra conveniently found a pillow placed near the fireplace and made that his cuddle spot.

Second, we learned that chocolate-covered Oreos, while good, are not as fulfilling as we expected. We enjoyed the cookies from the cookie log better. For the next WINTER BLAST we plan to stick with the classics.

Finally, we learned that we need to be better prepared to entertain ourselves without electricity. While we didn’t lose power during this WINTER BLAST, Little Mom did in Plano, and her loss was a lesson to us that we need to be ready to go without Lifetime movies (Chel’s favorite!) or (gasp!) Xbox 360 games. Luckily, Little Mom’s Blackberry still had power, and we were told she was able to pass the time by checking the news online.

Count those among the valuable lessons we learned this weekend. And while we did not really experience the predicted WINTER BLAST, we ended up having a more normal blast, anyways.

We had a couple of friends over to the house last night for dinner. Before serving tomato-mozzarella salad and lasagna, we passed around the Benadryl, because one of our guests is allergic to cats.

So it was interesting this morning to discover that a company out of California claims to be breeding hypoallergenic cats — for the low, low price of $3,950 per kitty. Perhaps by the time that Sinatra and Luca move on to the great litterbox in the sky, the price will come down and our next feline family member won’t be making people sneeze at dinner parties.