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06.15.06
"best in show" may be a documentary, not a comedy
For those of you who wanted to know the feeding regimen
we've been doing with the cats -- or for those of you who wish to mock us
for being crazy cat parents -- here you go:
7 AM:
Solid Gold "Katz-N-Flocken" All Life Stages Cat Food -- we just put an
ounce or so in each bowl and let them eat until they walk away, which is
about five minutes. This is an organic food from a holisitic pet food
supplier. Yes, I know it's all very frou-frou, but we've eliminated the
occasional cat barfing we'd get even when they were on Science Diet (the
"best" food recommended by the vet). We also eliminated the frequent UTIs
Hobbes was getting. We buy the 4 lb. bag, which lasts between 5 and 6
weeks.
7 PM:
Solid Gold Gourmet Canned Food for Cats,
Mtn Blend Cat Food
(raw) -- They both get the canned but Smaug also gets a small amount of
raw food mixed in. We tried a straight raw food diet with both of them but
after the first two weeks or so, they both started regurgitating after
about 15 minutes. Since we had it to use up, we started experimenting with
a mixture of canned and raw, which ended up working for Smaug but not for
Hobbes. Once we've used up all of the raw food our friend donated to us,
we'll probably go to straight canned for both, just for the convenience.
This canned food is also organic (made by the same company as the dry). We
go through a can about every two days. After much experimentation, this is
the portioning we came up with that works best for us, with no food left
over and no kitties barfing from overeating.
-
Smaug -- 0.5 ounces
canned, 0.75 ounces raw, mixed with about 2 tablespoons water
-
Hobbes -- 2.25
ounces canned, mixed with about 2 tablespoons water
We weigh portion ours out on the scale, but the only reason
we do is because it gives Sal an excuse to use his scales, which he loves.
(I usually eyeball it.) Since the canned & raw food have been in the
refrigerator (and we keep the raw food frozen so it doesn't go bad before
we use it up), after we've portioned out their food we pop the containers
in the microwave for 8 seconds. We found they wouldn't eat it when it was
cold and that seems to be long enough to take the edge off the chill
without cooking their food. Mixing with warm water also helps. The reason
we mix water is that kidney function in older cats starts to decelerate
and they tend to dehydrate much easier (which can quickly lead to
tragedy); it's a way to make sure they're getting water daily.
We found that separating them when they eat in the evening
makes sure they aren't distracted from eating by the other one. They take
longer to eat in the evenings -- about 10 minutes instead of 5 -- but they
always leave their dishes licked clean.
So for the skeptics...go ahead, do your worst. We can take
it. Maybe it's all a bunch of hooey and we're going to a lot of trouble
for nothing. But it's hard to argue with the results: both of them have
been to the vet since starting this new diet and all of their blood tests
came out better than before (when they were considered "healthy"). This
may not work for everyone, but if you're considering giving it a try, I
encourage you to do so. It's actually much easier than you'd think and not
as expensive as you might expect.
(link this post)
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In honor of our four year
house-iversary, and with all the updates on our projects, it was time to
do a major overhaul of the project navigation on the site. A renovation,
if you will.
As you can see below,
there's now a, if I may say, spiffy new clickable map of the house.
Clicking on the various rooms will take you to their respective sections
of the site. Each project section main page also has a punch list and a
completed items list, so you can see everything we've done so far and
what's left to be done. And as if that weren't enough, I've added
three new project entries since the last update:
But wait, there's more! In other very big Hall House news:
THE HOUSE IS PAINTED!!!!! Yes, boys and girls, after almost four years,
when we wanted so badly to get the house painted that we'd chosen a color
scheme within weeks of moving in, we finally -- FINALLY -- have had the
damn thing painted! And if I may say, the old girl never looked so good.
Unfortunately, that project isn't posted yet. I know, go
and get your hopes up and then yank the rug out. Well, there are a few
details yet to be done on the painting, so we don't want to take pictures
until they're finished. But I didn't want to hold up the update waiting
until they're done. Don't worry -- there's plenty here to keep you busy
until then.
If you haven't yet read the ongoing serial story about the
fictional first owner of our house, I've given that section a facelift and
this is a great time to check it out:
Cathedral Park Chronicles.
Finally, if you're coming in via the houseblogs.net RSS
feed (which means I've finally got it working), welcome to our humble
online abode about our humble actual abode. There's lots to see and click,
and if you want to see more than the stuff about our house, you can go to
the main page of our site, click any of the
buttons on the left, or check out the
site map for a complete overview.
(link this post)
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06.01.06 we return you to your regularly scheduled program, already
in progress...
Oh, how I've missed you, my poor, neglected website! I
promise never to leave you so unattended and woefully out-of-date ever
again. At least, until life gets in the way again, which probably won't
happen for, oh, at least another 24 hours or so. Give or take.
And you, dear readers! Have you missed us? Have you been checking the site
every so often, hoping for new pictures, or maybe a ::gasp:: newsletter?
You little optimists, you. Well today's your day, dear and faithful
readers, because boy, do I have an update. It's the High Holy Mother of
All Updates! You, my friends, have entered the Hallway Update Lottery and
today is your lucky day!
Firstly, to reward you faithful readers who keep checking
back in the hope of an update? The Hallway now has an
RSS feed!! That's right, you can now add us
to your feed aggregator* and be notified as soon as the site's updated.
There'll still be email notifications for the larger updates, but one of
our new changes is going to be smaller, more frequent updates to the main
page and there won't be email notification for those.
*(Is
this all gibberish to you? Then learn more about
RSS feed
aggregators and why you should totally get one. They're free and
easy-to-install (I really like Bloglines),
and you'll find them quite useful for more than keeping up on all the
latest Hallway news. Although the Hallway news is the most
important news. Obviously.)
I have pictures. Lots and lots of
them. In fact, I've had picture a day pictures for several months now, and had every
intention of posting them, well, several months ago, but that whole life
thing happened and you know how it is. In the meantime, however, the end of the picture a day
photo project came and went, with nary an update from me -- even though I
was still taking pictures like a fiend. Just not, you know, posting them.
But they're up now and some of the best pictures I've taken all
year are in there.
Even though the photo project is technically over, I'll
continue to take pictures and post them from time to time, so check back.
But wait, there's more! See, one of the reasons this poor,
neglected website has been gathering dust is because we've been working on
the house. Some of the stuff is unglamorous and decidedly boring, but the
biggest thing is also the coolest thing: THE HOUSE IS PAINTED!!!!! Yes,
boys and girls, after almost four years, when we wanted so badly to get
the house painted that we'd chosen a color scheme within weeks of moving
in, we finally -- FINALLY -- have had the damn thing painted! And if I may
say, the old girl never looked so good.
But those pics aren't posted yet. I
know, go and get your hopes up and then yank the rug out. I'm sadistic
like that. There're
a few details yet to be done on the painting, so we don't want to take
pictures until they're finished. But I didn't want to hold up the update
waiting until they're done. All in good time, though -- there's plenty here to keep you
busy until then.
There are actually several updates to the "This Old (Hall)
House" section of the site, with pictures from other projects. Even bigger, however, is that the entire "This Old
(Hall) House" section has been substantially restructured (it's gotten so
big that it needed to be broken into more bite-size pieces) -- in honor of
today, our fourth House-iversary. Among the
changes to that section are a clickable "map" of the house that will take
you to the projects we've done in each section, and completion and punch
lists for each of those areas. So now you can see the full list of what
we've accomplished since we moved in and what we have left to do. And that
list is either impressive or depressing, depending on your perspective.
It hasn't been all work and no play at Hall House, though.
We've been doing plenty of non-work type things, like spending Saturday
mornings at the Farmers' Market even a mini-vacation this February, spending a
few days at the coast and snapping some of the best sunset pictures, like,
ever. (The ocean and the sunset did all the work. We just stood there and
clicked while Nature was busy being all fantastically beautiful 'n stuff.)
-
seaside vacation -- including ocean sunset pictures OMG
-
portland
farmers' market -- an attempt to capture the feeling of being at
one of our favorite weekly haunts
-
forest park
-- a rain forest, complete with trails, conveniently located less than
five minutes from our house
Although I haven't been updating and posting, as you can
see, I have been
working on the site quite diligently in the last few months, making some
structure changes, some rearrangements, some tightening of content. And
other miscellaneous additions:
Also,
the Cathedral Park Chronicles subweb has undergone a much-needed makeover,
hopefully making it a little easier to read online...see how much I love you, dear readers??
And that's not all...I've been working on an even
bigger surprise:
A NEWSLETTER!!!!
I know, right? Like are you seriously hyperventilating from
the excitement right now? I totally, totally...am not. But still, kind of
a big deal, no? It's chock full o'
shiny updatey goodness, a year and a half's worth of news and comings and
goings, the longest issue we've ever
done actually. And while I can't promise that
the newsletter is going to become a regular monthly thing again, I am going to try to get
back in the habit on some kind of semi-regular basis. We shall see.
(link this post)
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