But Call Me Betsy

I was going to title this post "House Porn," but when you put any even slightly provocative words in your blog title, you end up getting tons of spam comments. My friend Colin at work is helping me to plan my kitchen renovation and he and I and Dan went to Lowes on Tuesday to force me to commit to choices. I didn't actually buy anything, but here are the things I'm going to buy, in ridiculous detail. The oven or stove, whichever you prefer. It has 5 burners! I will also get a matching microwave, to save on counter space. This is the tiniest dishwasher in the world at 18". It can fit 2 teacups and 3 spoons. French door-ed fridge Interior Side door with Dan. Interior doors with Dan's band aid (not included in cost of fridge). Possible back splash idea. We have moved to IKEA at this point. In total, the three appliances would end up costing a little over $3,000, which doesn't seem that bad to me. ...

Remember that Ace of Base song, "All That She Wants...Is Another Baby?" Well, taking inspiration from this blog, Dan and I (mostly Dan) drew the cat version of that, presented here. If you have rewritten a pop song to add a cat to one of the central lyrics and would like it transformed into a cartoon drawing, let me know. We were thinking maybe Michael Jackson's "PYT" could be revised to reflect "PYC" (i.e. "Pretty Young Cat"). You see that we have a lot of time on our hands. Just a few more Philly pics before I forget that I took them. I saw this yesterday morning and was really tempted to read it. Was it a fairly benign, move-your-damn-car note like, "Hey, please stop parking next to this telephone pole. This is my telephone pole!" Or was it a love note like "since you won't answer my emails or texts, I was forced to leave this letter. Meet me at the Philadelphia Airport at 8 PM EST. I have two tickets to Barbados. W...

Did you know that it's possible to get lost in Philadelphia, even if you've lived here for going on seven years like I have? It happened to me last Friday, when I decided to walk to Penn's campus via Fitzwater Street. I figured that somewhere around 24th street, I could just cut North and West and find the South Street Bridge. Instead, I found myself faced with a sudden Naval Square and jumbled streets---Catherine meeting Christian, the numbered ones suddenly seeming to veer East/West. I'd accidentally found my way into the no man's land of Grays Ferry. Granted, I have a terrible sense of direction, but it was still a weird sensation not to have any clue which street to take, especially when I knew it was only a few blocks away. I found my way back via the modern version of following pebbles along the path--I used my map app on my i-Phone--the one that tracks your progress as you're walking, which I find to be in equal parts creepy and fascinating. So, this m...

Well, we can still get flooding from the Schuykill River which is supposed to peak at 2 PM today. I was briefly listening to Fox News this morning at the gym and one of the reporters said, We're taking viewers' questions and the one that keeps coming up is: "If this were a snowstorm, how many inches of snow would we have gotten?" That's maybe the dumbest question I've ever heard in my life. Like asking, If this had been squirrels falling from the sky instead of rain, how many squirrels would have landed and would they have survived or just been flattened? In any case, I categorized the devastation for you. Millimeters of rain fall flooding my street: Recyling bins filled with inappropriately heavy material toppled. Fortunately, the neighbor's blow up pool, which comes out at the first sign of spring and stays out until its frosted over by ice, did not fly away in the night. Little Paulie can continue to play in it rather than ever being able to go ...

As mom's are bound to do, mine is worried about me during this impending Rapture event known as Hurricane Irene. To set her mind at ease, here are a few photos to illustrate that, even though I have not sought out sandbags, I am still taking the storm seriously. To wit, last night, Dan and I cleared out the entire back patio. No possibility of flying projectiles of ceramic birds or wind chimes are present to shatter my back window. Side view. Please also note that my none of my nearby neighbors have large oak trees with long branches.  The back patio decorations have been stored inside. I kind of like having them around and may not ever move them out again. Cats have a full week's supply of food and back up food and two water bowls filled to the brim. My bathtub doesn't really have a plug that works (you're supposed to fill up the tub), so we found these instead. I am not sure what I'm supposed to do with this water, but it has something to do with flu...

Original artwork and other pieces can be found here .

Not time to write, but here are some photos for you. The first is not a cat in a window, but a lion in a yard. Stuck inside on a nice day.