But Call Me Betsy

In our office! Sweeten has always had a little squirrel problem, but I think we've now reached critical mass. Yesterday, Jason and I watched a fat squirrel run back and forth across his desk. It had arrived from the hole in his floor (see below). Even though we've set feral traps, the squirrels will not go for the peanut butter. Why should they? There's plenty of chocolate around that tastes much better and doesn't cause you to be trapped in a cage. This is Franco, Leigh Ann's cat. I went with her yesterday to pick him up for the vet, where he had his teeth cleaned. They gave her liver-flavored toothpaste to periodically rub on his teeth. Know what my cats get? The occasional can of smelly wet foot, divided by three.

Leigh Ann and I were just laughing out loud at this clip from Curb Your Enthusiasm (which reminds me, someone told me that her/his mom still thinks LOL means "Lots of Love"). We were only watching this on one of our two 15 minute breaks during the day, NOT during work hours. It's Larry David fighting with a guy who's talking on his Bluetooth phone during dinner. I love it because I wish I had the guts to say or do something when people are talking really loud on their phones and I'm a captive audience. For instance, people do this on the subway now more and more and it makes me want to pinch them. The other thing that made me laugh today was this book I was paging through at Barnes and Noble, Creepiosity: A hilarious guide to the unintentionally creepy , by David Bickel. He lists things like Bruce Jenner's heavily plastic surgery-ied face, old women wearing ponytails, and locking eyes with a squirrel for too long. It makes me want to

Hi, this is Franco, Leigh Ann's latest pet acquisition. Franco loves natural cat litter, catnip mice, and sleeping under the bed. He is not self-conscious about the skunk-like stripe down his nose. See? Isn't he grand? He belongs right on the set of a Three Musketeers film. Or, like, the kids version of Puss in Boots (not the softcore one). Look how green and slanty his eyes are. He is suspicious. And fierce, even though he has been declawed. NOT by Leigh Ann. He came that way. And he would like you to choose him for the handsomest cat-in-hat/cat-in-not-hat.

A couple of weeks ago, Lisa Marie and I found a yard sale and stopped to browse. As a result, she bought a cute little black dress that she wore to her opening of her awesome art film, Troupe de Fetishe which you can now see at the Crane Arts building in Fishtown. I bought two pair of shoes for $4 total. These are the boots. And these are the red Mary Jane heels. I seldom wear heels b/c I quite often fall over, but these have a thick heel, so I am able to wobble around in them almost seamlessly. Then the other day, Dan took me to Green Street and I found this coat/sweater. It's good for chilly weather, but won't be enough for cold winter snow. It works for now. Oh, and these are the two leather things I got Lisa Marie for her birthday (I can put them up now b/c her birthday was yesterday). I don't really know what they're for, but I got them at Jane in Princeton. Luke saw them while he was eating a bagel at Starbucks and asked me if he could squeeze his cream cheese in...

Leigh Ann and I were talking today about being dorky kids. She reminded me of the story I once told her from when I was little and I used to wear red tights on my head because I thought that they looked like braids. I really wanted long hair, and preferably hair like Laura Ingalls (this was a common theme in my childhood--wanting to be Laura Ingalls), so I thought that tights made a foolproof substitution until my hair (always cut pretty short) grew. I reasoned that the seam down the center looked like a hair part. I tied bows toward the end, just above the feet. Here is what I looked like: Pretty smart, huh?

I ran into Leigh Ann on the bus this morning and we were looking at the photo below, which I took after she and I spotted this man sprawled on the lawn of the campus. She suggested I add it to my blog and call for captions. The winning caption will receive a FREE cat-related item. Here is the photo. Please click on it for a larger view, so you can see what you're dealing with. Send all captions through the comment section of this blog. And then, here are the rest of your Friday photos, taken on my morning walks to Walnut Street. First, a tuxedo cat. Then a scared-y orange cat. I just like how round his eyes are. Window display at a funky shop on 13th and Pine-ish. Not sure what this t-shirt means, but I like the color. Wanting out. Another startled cat. Cute bike. Not sure what this cat is looking at. I like the curtains behind him which is embroidered with flies. And here is Luke last weekend. Notice missing tooth. We took him to this farm and forced him to do chores like gather c...

So, the first class starts tonight at 5:30. Here are my fears: (1). I will be one of three students; (2). We will be asked to do a free write and then to read it out loud. It's not that I don't like free-writing, necessarily, it's just that it seems like a huge time suck and I'm not really interested in hearing what other people write off-the -cuff. Plus, I get embarrassed if mine isn't very good; (3). The teacher will be mean and hostile; (4). We will be asked to do trust falls; (5). I will be the oldest person in the room by far; (5). The rest of the class will be awkward 19 year old's; (6). The class will go over time; (7). The teacher will praise genre fiction. In other news, I went with Leigh Ann to the ER this morning because her eye was swollen shut and she had bad depth perception. We weren't in there very long, but we did get to watch a large man in a wheelchair dry and wet heave into a plastic canister several times while the rest of the waiting r...

This bicycle, besides being built for hauling stuff, also has a sticker that reads "I heart rogue taxidermy." Here is a smooshed tabby face. I worried at first that maybe one of his eyes was missing. Nope. The screened in cat. Free range cat on garbage day. Oh, I just like this balcony and the floors because it's this splash of European-ness in the middle of the city. Another cool bike--this one is a Schwinn. If I took myself seriously as a photographer and were like 14 years old, I would call this photo "Childhood Lost" or "The End of Childish Dreams," or "They Make Pink Legos??" I may have taken a picture of this before--I'm not sure. I just like it. And here is a link to The Daily Show's piece about the Florida pastor who wanted to burn the Koran (thanks to Leigh Ann who thinks it's funny but won't post it on her blog because she doesn't want to be too political): http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-september-8-2010/w...