Susan Hated Literature

image nicked from Samulli

Thirteen Things about cats I’ve had The first cat I remember having was Blackie. This was back in Dublin, so don’t remember much about her. She had a kitten that we kept, named Sooty. Yes, we are terribly original when it comes to our cat names. After we moved our neighbours called around and deposited a kitten with a gammy eye with us. We were told it was female, so we named it Cleo. But it soon turned out that Cleo was in fact a Leo. As Tom cats do, he took to wandering off for days on end, and then one day he didn’t come home. After that we spotted an ad for a stray that needed a new home, so we got a new cat. She, yes we checked this time, was white, which meant that you could really see the fleas as they moved about her coat. She was the first cat I ever gave a bath to, and hopefully she’ll be the last. She became known as White Cat. A few months after we got White Cat we were surprised to find a ginormous tabby cat on our windowsill. It turned out to be C/Leo, complete with still gammy eye. He hadn’t been killed on the road as we thought, but had been off doing what Tom cats do around the neighbourhood. White Cat had numerous litters of kittens. We kept one, an all black one that we called Black Cat. Or sometimes, Baby Cat. She also had one or two litters of kittens. Usually around the same time as White Cat so they’d share the raising duties. White Cat would never, ever mew, or make any sound. Totally silent, but a great hunter of mice and rats. We’d often find the dead bodies about the garden. We’d name all these kittens. Once after the characters in Brisco County Jnr, another time after those in Bear in a Big Blue House. Once, taking the dog for a walk I turned around to discover two cats and a line of kittens following me down the road. It looked cute, but I had to take them home. Then we decided enough was enough and got both cats spayed. And pretty soon after Black Cat got knocked down, and White Cat disappeared. After that we got another kitten from different neighbours. This was actually a relation of one of our previous cats, as we’d given them a kitten a few years before. She got called Lucy Locket, from the rhyme, I’m not quite sure why. And she was taken from her mother at too young an age, and was always a bit strange. Her first litter of kittens died, I think a Tom got at them, but I’m not sure. We had her spayed after her second litter, and kept one of her kittens, who we called Kitty Fisher. Lucy and Kitty lasted a good few years, but then Kitty got knocked down. And a few years after that Lucy died. We remained cat-free for a while after that. I think our next cat was an orange tabby. But I’m not sure, as I wasn’t living at home any more. Anyways, she died on the road. Our next cat was Missy, also an orange tabby, who went through the wars and even lost an eye[1] before disappearing. We think she got hit by a car but we aren’t sure. After that we decided that the road was really too dangerous to get any more cats, so we’d stick with the mutt. But then de mudder found a little cat wandering the streets, and after asking around and finding no owner, took him in. He is quite an affectionate cat, but he is also a terrible bawler and moaner. He’ll whine and cry and mewl for food, when there is plenty in his bowl, it just isn’t tasty enough for him. And he’ll bawl to get out, and then sit on the window and bawl to get back in. He’s been neutered so hopefully there’ll be no wandering from him, and he has made it a good few months, so maybe he has learned that the road is to be avoided. We think he may have learned this lesson as a while ago the sound of brakes squealing was heard and he was then located crying under the shed, and had a few wounds. I doubt he was actually hit, they were very minor scrapes, but maybe he’ll have been scared enough to stay away. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! Tinkerbell Don’t call me mummy Special K family Find of Snape Kitchen Table Chat But what these unobservant birds Blissful Life of a SAHM and Military Wife Too many Ideas Chicken-Scratch Top Left Hand Page (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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Tags: cats, pets, T13

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We are gathered here today… hang on that’s the wrong one. Becuase I’m here not to marry Frank the Goldfish, but to flush him.

Yes, Frank the fish is no more. He may never have been mentioned on the blog before, but he has sat on the mantlepiece for a while now. Well, when I say sat I do of course mean swam, and in his bowl. But no more. He stopped swimming and merely floated, so he has gone on to the great toilet bowl in the sky.

In other news scifi have just shown episode 11 of Heroes which means that I’m going to be seeing new episodes again. Yay. I think we’ve pretty much decided to watch Lost on Sky on a Sunday as otherwise it clashes and we can’t record SciFi. Or at least, if we can, we haven’t figured out how to do it yet. Possibly in the future we may bother to try, but at the moment it is all good. ‘Sides, Lost still sucks so we wouldn’t be missing much by missing it.

Tags: Frank, goldfish, Lost, pets, RIP

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Thirteen Things about de mutt idea stolen from Ann De Mutt has the finest pedigree parents. One an award winning lab, the other a dalmation. He is a dabrador. He was one of a litter of 9 pups. At the grand old age of six, he is a lot calmer now than he used to be. Plus, all the indoor living has turned him soft. He still manages to terrify people when he barks and runs towards them hackles up. The second anyone pets him, however, he is liable to fall to the ground and roll to get his belly rubbed. He has jealousy issues regarding other animals. So whenever I have the cat he is quick to come over and sneakily rest his head on her. Thereby squashing her and encouraging her to move. He is fairly obedient. The brother came him a huge lump of chocolate cake last time I was home, idiot that [tag]B#3[/tag] is, he didn’t realise that choc is not so good for mutts. So despite the fact that he had it half eaten I still told him to drop it. He did. Reluctantly. Food is his main priority. He’ll even lie and say that he hasn’t been fed when he knows he has. Anything to get more food. Because of this he has turned into a fat lump. But he looks fatter on account of him having the skinny back legs of a Dalmation but the rest of him looking like a chunky lab. Despite his jealousy issues, he doesn’t really mind the cat, apart from when she bits his lip. But this was more of a problem with a previous cat. Taz isn’t quite so vicious. Everyone always thinks their dog is intelligent, but mine really is, really. He listens out for people leaving the house, and only when he thinks he is alone will he try and gain entry to the kitchen. Carefully opening the door before making a beeline for the bin and any bits of food that may lurk within. He has also learned not to knock the bin over, and he rarely leaves evidence in the kitchen. He only rips the stuff to sheds once he has it in his lair under the stairs. He isn’t a fan of going in the car. He’ll get in, but very reluctantly, and will be more than happy to jump out. This might be because he was born in Leitrim, and had a long old car drive to come to our house. A car drive that he spent drooling over my sleeves, may I add. And after that he used to get car sick. But hasn’t in a long while. Like many dogs, he loves tennis balls, but not chase. Oh no, he prefers to destroy them. He’ll chase one for a while, but all he really wants to do is to rip it up. Sliothers are far preferred over tennis balls, but he rarely gets his teeth into them. He is also a fan of plastic bottles, especially empty bottles of coke. Mainly because they are really noisy and so people won’t ignore him when he throws them on the ground. But also because he has learned to take the tops off them and so manages to get a taste of the drink. Because of his destructive tendencies, he specialised in stealing clothes from the washing basket and putting many a hole in them -his was was especially not appreciated when he chewed up [tag]B#4[/tag]’s rugby pads as they cost a pretty penny- for a while he went by the name, destructo-dog, but he has mostly outgrown this. Apart from when you give him a wash. After that he’ll run around like a mad yoke destroying anything that might be used to dry him. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! Jon Tillman David Danica (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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Tags: de mutt, dogs, pets, T13

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Well, obviously enough, with the weekend just gone my first topic of this post has to be… the role of the Catholic Church in the political life of Ireland.

Or maybe not.

I’d much prefer to ramble on about the rugby. I didn’t catch any of the England-Scotland match, though I hear Wilko was fabtastic, but his try wasn’t one. I am a fan of Wilkinson, and in one way I do hope his road to recovery is straightforward, but then again, we play England fairly soon and I really want to win.

I didn’t see much of the France-Italy game either. Was at the aunt’s having lunch. But I’m very disappointed in Italy. This was to be their year to win a game, but they played horrendous rugby^[1] and it’ll be the Wooden Spoon if they continue on like that.

And so on to our match, and could you get much more intense than that?
And yes Ireland were lucky not to have O’Callaghan penalised, but there were more than a few occasions when I saw Wales not releasing the ball when tackled. Turns and roundabouts. Three tries to nil means we finished better on the day. And on a day when O’Gara had a horrible first 40 minutes that says a lot.

Injuries now are the big worry for Sunday against France. Darcy is supposed to be fine, O’Driscoll may make it. Although that might just be talk to keep the French guessing. The big worry is Stringer, who has a hairline fracture in his hand.

We’ll see what happens.

---

In today’s weather update it looks like winter has finally arrived now that it is spring. Bloody freezing out this morning so it it. And the last half an hour or so on the drive home on Saturday was through freezing fog so dense that you couldn’t see nuttin’.

Still the trip home meant I was finally able to stick all the music on the mp3 player. Only around 2,500 songs or so, but while I was adding them I also spent a few hours^[2] deleting all the duplicates from the PC. I’m not really sure why we needed ten copies of some songs on the hard drive, though I’m sure there was a very good reason for it.

And you’ll all be pleased to know that the newest cat is still alive. And as stupid as any cat. Put out by the mutt leaping about the sitting room chasing a ball she decided to leave the room, but as she jumped down from the chair she slipped on the wooden floor and smashed into the ironing board, but instead of realising that she was the cause of her collision she promptly turned and blamed the innocent hound. Spitting at him until he nosed her out of the way.

The gasúr had his birthday while I was away. He is a whole year old now^[3] and taking a few steps, though he prefers to crawl.

How was everyone’s weekend?

Tags: 6nations2007, Brian O'Driscoll, cats, de gasúr, Donncha O'Callaghan, England, flickr, France, Gordon Darcy, injury, Ireland V Wales, Italy, Jonny Wilkinson, Peter Stringer, pets, Ronan O'Gara, rugby, Scotland, Six Nations, weather, Wooden Spoon

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I’m surely not the only person to have noticed this surge in spam comments? Or more accurately, in trackback spam. Tis annoying so it is.

It is Friday today, don’t know if you noticed, I almost didn’t. So yay, weekend time. And it feels more like a Wednesday, which comes from not working Monday and Tuesday I suppose One of our lecturers left at the end of last term, he is heading off foreign and left in a load of his old books as a donation before he went, so I’m working my way through them. Then there is shelf-tidies and sorting out exam papers and what not, to be done. But should be plenty of time, most of our students aren’t back til the end of the month so we are fairly quiet. Just the odd body around the library.

Have to go into Peats on Sat and see if they’ll fix my mp3 player, Manny just won’t start up, which is a tad annoying. I have my receipt and everything so hopefully it’ll be straight forward enough.

The Friday Five:
1. Do you have any pets? If so, how many, and what are their names?

- Technically no. But the family have the mutt and the cat. Shady and Taz. There is also a goldfish, but I don’t know its name. And the flatmate has a goldfish, called Frank.

2. What was your very first pet? Do you remember its name?

- The first pet we had was a cat. Blackie, cause she was black.

3. Is there an animal you would never have as a pet?

- Any insect or suchlike. Don’t see the point.

4. What common pet have you always wanted but never had? Why not?

- a horse. Too expensive and nowhere to keep one.

5. What wild animal (extinct or not) would you own if you didn’t have to worry about its adjustment or the cost of captivity?

- Uhm. If I also didn’t have to worry about space, training, obedience etc I’d go for a velociraptor. Well, a whole pack of em just like in Jurassic Park only without the killing of people I know. (image borrowed from here)

Tags: annoyances, F5, pets, spammer

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Hola muchachos y muchachas, and welcome to 2007.

How did everyone get over the holiday season? I hope you went along with Budweiser’s wishes and had a good one.

Mine was the usual. Although I did manage to discover “living things” inhabiting the mutt, which meant he had to take a shower, which he doesn’t really like. You’d think he’d be delighra over having a warm shower instead of a freezing cold hosing, but he never shows any gratitude. I also got to meet the new cat, she^[1] is a tabby, silver white with black stripes. And for a stray she is ultra tame. Even gets on well with the mutt; he isn’t so fond of her chasing his tail. He also has a case of that green eyed monster, and anytime anyone shows herself a bit of attention he has to come over to investigate. Then again, he was always sorta like that, just a little more so now.

As for the new year resolutions, well many years ago I made one to never make any more, and I’m sticking to that one.

Anyone catch Celebrity Big Brother?
I know, I moan about the stupidness of the regular one, and that last celeb version was unwatchable, but you just gotta tune in to see who they manage to get on.

And this year we have a whathisface Jackson, Michael’s brother, who looked very very uncomfortable and out of place. Leo Sayers, who seemed to know everyone from some party or other. Teddy Sherringham’s girlfriend who got booed coming in, but she seems like just a nice young wan.

Biggest idiot of the night award goes to the no-name from whatever that band is called. The fella who tried to impress everyone with his cursing and giving the crowd the finger. Loved their reply, chants of “Who Are Ya?” Honestly, giving people the finger, if you are over 15 or 16 then it just makes you look like an arsehole.

My favourite celeb, obviously was Face from A-Team.

Don’t know if I’ll watch anymore, but sure that was an entertaining evening watching all the celebs and non-celebs arrive.

I’ve also started watching that Medium thingy, I’m not to sure if I like the stories and plots, but sure yer man from American Gothic is reason to watch. Not that he is fanciable^[2] or anything, but I like him as an actor. It’s also nice to see a married couple on telly without them being in a soap.

Speaking of telly, which i was, I also watched the first episode of Heroes, despite the fact that it doesn’t start until February, and not through any illegal file-sharing activity, but through the wonders of free internet telly, okay, so the quality of the picture aint that great. But you know what? Yup, that’s right, it is FREE! It also seems to have Veronica Mars season three, so I may actually watch it without waiting for the dvd.

As you are probably aware, I’ve missed a few Unconscios Muttering Sunday/Mondays, what with the Christmas and the not being online, but look, it is week 204 and Luna Nina says:

1. Resolution ::
2. Happy ::
3. Bubbly ::
4. Kiss ::
5. Leather ::
6. Fancy ::
7. Pages ::
8. Stupid ::
9. Apologize ::
10. Secrets ::

Continue Reading »

Tags: cats, Celebrity Big Brother, de mutt, Heroes, Luna Nina, Medium, pets, reality TV, Veronica Mars

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So I was telling Kelly about^[1] my lying dog^[2] and I thought I might as well share his fibs.

He gets fed twice a day, morning and evening, and he is a creature of habit. If it is a minute past five he’ll let you know that he should’ve been fed by now. Unless of course it is raining outside, or a little windy, in which case you really should bring his bowl inside. Bloody soft lump of a mutt that he is.

And it doesn’t help that we are all spoiling him lately. On account of his injured back. We’ve been being nice to him and letting him come into the kitchen^[3] and letting him have little treats^[4] so he is utterly convinced that he can do no wrong at the moment.

Including walking in front of de brudders when they were experimenting with a shot-putt, no wonder the mutt has a bad back^[5]

Hmm, I was supposed to be revealing his fibbing ways, and his increasing response of “I’m so terribly sorry, but I simply didn’t hear you when you screamed my name. Now where’s my Markie?” But look, I’ll cunningly disguise my lack of details by showing you Sean Óg:

* Irish may be incorrect. Vidjo borrowed from slipperyorangeballco

Tags: de mutt, pets, Seán Óg Ó hAilpín, vidjo

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