KateOhKatie blogs

Part I:  How to Identify a MRC (Mentally Retarded Cat)

Do you think your cat might be mentally retarded*?  Is your cat the type of feline who:

1)gets his head stuck in a champagne glass not once, but TWICE?  In the span of 5 minutes?

2)Begins “gonna puke” procedure on the couch, gets booted off (unceremoniously), then stops gagging, jumps back up, and pukes?

3)Jumps up in the bed no fewer than *6* consecutive times (that’s 6 times within a 1-minute period) each night, only to get booted off (unceremoniously) each and every time?

4)Licks a plate which until recently held delicious leftover Mexican food, tastes the red sauce, decides he hates the red sauce, then licks the plate again?

5)Will fail to notice the 5 cat treats RIGHT THERE ON THE FUCKING FLOOR, instead pleading desperately for the one which I hold in my hand?

6)Picks on the other cat incessantly then becomes shocked, SHOCKED when the other cat finally takes a retaliatory swipe?

7)Would, I honestly believe, ask for some lovin’ from anyone who happens to walk through the door, including the proverbial axe murderer?

8)After over two years in this household, still completely and utterly fails to understand the meaning of that mysterious word “NO!”?

9)Upon being booted off (unceremoniously) from the couch for any number of reasons, will desperately claw and cling onto said couch, humans’ legs, or any other object in a desperate attempt to avoid being booted?  Even though he knows it will happen anyway?

10)Really, truly, honestly thinks that the best way to wake upKittyMommy in the morning is to press his puckered pink anus against her forehead?  Every morning?  Which always results in yelling, and an unhappy KittyMommy who is, as a result, quite unwilling to refill the food dish?

Part II: The Adventures of the MRC (Mentally Retarded Cat)

MRC gets stuck in a drawer, necessitating the removal of said drawer in order to extricate said cat:

MRC encounters an unknown substance on the floor, and decides that the best solution is to walk all over it, despite a scolding by KittyMommy:

MRC displays his best expression of ‘innocence’:

MRC encounters unknown substance on the floor yet again, and determines that the best course of action this time is to roll in it:

MRC is easily duped into wearing stupid looking sweaters:

MRC discovers a completely secret hiding spot!

MRC becomes puzzled by the wonders of The Cardboard Box:

MRC possesses a fascination with crotches:

Finally, MRC gets high:

—–
*This post is in no way intended to be demeaning or inflammatory to those who have, or love someone who has, a mental disability.  Unless your name is Othello, in which case you may consider yourself thoroughly insulted.

I like to express the holiday spirit by showing a gratuitous crotch-shot:

I’m glad he doesn’t have a kitty cam…lawd knows what he’d do with those shots.

Monday night I finally got the Christmas decorations up.  If it were up to me, I’d have had them up the day after Thanksgiving!

Our coffee table:

Coasters I made:

I’ve since made 4 more…math majors, how many is that all together?   Just knitted them in garter stitch with two strands of RH held together; easiest thing in the world.

Top of our TV:

That cardinal is actually a tree topper, but you can see in a minute why we’re not using it on there…

Our tree:

So big I can’t even fit it all in one picture!  Here’s part II:

That star’s about 14″, 16″ across, I think?

OK, OK…in the words of one of my students…”You was just TEASING!”

The same student gave me this ornament last year, in fact:

And I got this lovely one from Shagpop!  Thanks, Secret Ornament Exchange buddy!

Isn’t it perfect for Mrs. Blueberry who had a star-themed wedding?   I adore it!

Finally, one miserable cat in a miserable sweater:

He still hasn’t forgiven me.  Doubt he ever will.

Do you have your Christmas decorations up yet?

Our bed covered in laundry:

Wait…what’s that? Let’s take a closer look:

Maybe a close-up of its texture will offer us a clue:

After some more digging I’m able to uncover what appears to be a mammalian life form, but its species continues to elude me:

Aah yes, now it is clear!

The felinus rottenus, known for its affinity for warm laundry piles, soft laps, and Whisker Lickin’s treats.

I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out sooner!

I fooled around with a lot of these in Photoshop for a good long while this morning, but at this point I’m just getting frustrated with myself and my crappiness at image editing.

Last night at the rehearsal dinner I was talking with my Uncle Don (the videographer) and he pretty much said “get thee to a photography class”…I couldn’t agree more!  I’ll put one–and a Photoshop class–on my plan for this spring/summer.  Hopefully I can find something in Kirksville

Anyway, after getting home from the rehearsal, Jeff, Dad and I took Maxie and Eliza to the riverside park in Parkville–same place that Jess and I took our senior pictures back in high school.  The girls were surprisingly cooperative!  As usual, these pics are SOOC…I think I’m going to take a break and then give some light editing another shot.  Wish me luck!

But first, Allie at home…

Wish this were more in focus:

Now on to the dog park!  A lot of these images are taken from above, because when I tried getting down onto the ground with the dogs they’d just run over and start trying to kiss my ears/knock me over/get in my lap.

Look at Lizie’s tongue!

When she licks you it’s like being slapped with a wet washcloth…not the best feeling:

Not that Maxie’s is insignificant or anything, though:

Mutual adoration:

These dog handlers really don’t get paid enough:

Two pink tongues!

So much easier to take pictures of a gray dog than a black one:

Finally, back to the car and home again.  They kept fighting over who got to walk in heel position right next to Dad:

Maxie loves riding in the car!

So here’s what I thought:
~It would’ve been awesome to go somewhere the dogs didn’t have to be leashed, but I think maybe I’ll be able to edit the leashes out of some of those images.
~Hard to take good pictures of dogs who never sit or lay down!  I took over 300, and those above are the best.
~How do I crop a photo in Photoshop yet keep the same proportions?  I don’t want them to have some weird dimension, yet I’d like to crop them to get rid of Jeff’s and Dad’s legs at the edge, etc.

Now I’m off to fool around with Photoshop some more…maybe try to figure out the cropping thing, brighten some colors, etc.

My camera arrived with one fully-charged battery, and a spare.

(Photos taken with my old Canon A400)

Yes, I sat by my picture window and looked for the UPS truck.  So sue me.:

How excited am I?  This excited:

Even though I’ve been whining for months about wanting this thing, once it was in my home I became all Christmas morning-y. I wanted to savor the suspense:

So did Othello.

Cutting open the box…

I’ve got it open!  Helper cat is so proud of himself.

I love having a helper cat.

Eepp!

Here it is!  Arrived safe and sound, Mrs BP   Excellent packing job!

The new encompasses the old:

OK so here’s where it gets really lame.  I have honestly, truly, not had any daylight hours available in which to go out to the local park and really try this sucker out.  So all the shots from here on our are just here in the ol’ apartment…hopefully in KC this weekend Jeff and I will have some time to have some fun with it.

First photo I ever took with it (file name DSC_0001!):

Love that messy apartment.  But I told y’all…I am away from home for twelve hours straight almost every day!  Something’s gotta give.

Helper cat quickly grew bored with my new toy:

But Macbeth indulged me in this sweet image:

This shot has a shallow depth-of-field, right?  I have no clue how I did that…I might’ve been on the flower (macro) setting:

A timely warning, as I was actually just about to adjust the diopter control by stabbing my eye with my fingernail.  Now I know better, and so do you!

Portrait setting for the skin tone, and flash because it was about 10pm by this time.  Not sure what I think of the flash…I really don’t like that ‘flasy’ (haha) look in photos:

I focused this myself!  Where’s my cookie?

Yesterday I took just a few of helper cat while re-reading the manual, right before going to bed.

“We are not amused, Mommy.”

“Wait…what?”

And that’s all I’ve got, folks.  So you can see that Tamara (pronounced like camera, only with a T–wonder where I got that name?) really has possiblities.  But unfortuately I haven’t really been able to test them until now.  I may arrive at work a few minutes early and see if I can at least get a few shots of something…anything..outside.

Oh, and my tripod arrived last night!  Now I’m just waiting on the field guide and remote control I ordered from Amazon, and the bag from LL Bean (size medium, storm blue).  From there it’ll be that $800 VR macro lens I’ve had my eye on…

Too tired to PS any of these tonight, but I think I’m gonna want to in the morning

So, SOOC (and not too bad for such low light, if I do say so myself)…

And because we can’t forget her, one of the cat who can’t come into the great room anymore (Eliza tries to eat her)

::sigh:: I loved taking those, but I still have so much further to go before I’m any good.

So yeah…I’ll PS those a bit tomorrow.  What do you think?

Be kind, it was my first try…*ever*.

SOOC:

Nice, right?  Except his color wasn’t at all right…too faded.  And even though I tried to keep as much of the background out of the way as possible, I think it still drew attention away from his face.

So then I did a bunch of stuff–I honestly don’t know what-all, and I came up with this:

Definitely still a first effort, right?  But better, I think.  I blurred the background a bit and upped the saturation and brightness.  I got rid of that bit of gunk in the corner of his left eye, and that stray whisker that was crossing the eye.

Only thing I couldn’t do was sharpen and brighten the eyes…I think that involves layers, right?  And I sure as heck don’t know how to do that!

Aah well…off to read tutorials!

EDIT:
I have been informed by Jeff that on his monitor, Macbeth looks bright neon orange.  Let me just say, that’s not how he appears on my screen!  So does anybody know how I can tell which is the ‘real’ image?  Is my computer off, or is his? (His is a 5-year-old LCD, btw.  And mine’s a 2-year-old laptop screen).

EDIT:  “Wooly Bullies” –knitting versus crochet.  I almost peed my pants laughing…put on a diapey and watch it!!!

To continue celebrating my newly-renewed ability to post photos, here’s a dump from the past few weeks.

What I did the other night:

If I go to an early grave, you can bet it’ll be a dumb reason like this.

Best place for a catnap:

Giant cat and tiny Katie! (excuse the mess in the background!–which you probably wouldn’t have even noticed if I hadn’t pointed it out, right? )

Hypnotic:

Jeff’s (and now my!) cousin Katie and Aunt Adele at Adele’s 90th birthday!

Picture I drew of Jeff in the Macaroni Grill:

I got skillz.

Speaking of Jeff (and who doesn’t love doing that?), here he is sexily installing a new fan in his computer:

Grrr stampa stampa!

Finally, a face which can cause 3-year-olds to fall over laughing:

Yes, that’s what being a good teacher is all about.

If I get bored later, well, more equally-riveting photos might be forthcoming.  I know y’all can’t wait, right?

…in a day and a half.

A cat was added, for scale.  Also, it’s not really crooked–that’s just how an afghan looks after a cat has been prancing all over it for five minutes.  For the record.

I think this will be one of the four afghans I hope to give my four cousins/flower girls for Christmas–if I can get the other two done in time!

Here was Macbeth last night:

Just a bit too innocent looking, no?  I’m sure if he had thumbs he’d be twiddling them.

And yes, just in case you were wondering, he was resting on Jeff’s crotch.  He did that to himself.