3/30/2017: Fish fascination

I know it's been a long time since I've written.  Sorry about that.  Clinchfield has been as cute (and as frustrating!) as ever.  Here are some things he's done lately for his followers who are not on Facebook:

He's "jailed" himself about five more times since I've last posted.  Here's one of the newest times:

 
We were playing Ticket to Ride, and all of a sudden I noticed that Clinch had gone from a chair that was pulled in too close to the table and down into the table base.

He's really big now, so getting him out of there is a challenge.  We went away last weekend for a bead show I was vending at, so we pulled all of the chairs out and well away from the table.  We didn't want our neighbor to have to try to wrench him out of there in case he decided to jump in (or for him to be stuck in there for hours before someone found him!).  I bought some felt to weave around the bars, but we haven't gotten around to doing it yet.  I had two events in March that needed tons of prep before and recovery time after.

Speaking of the bead show, Clinchy also helped me promote it:

A few months ago Clinch decided that the TV stand was a swell place to be.  I guess he thought we were ignoring him too much.  He seemed to like Speechless quite a bit:

About a month ago I walked into the bedroom and found Clinch napping oh-so-cozily in my spot:

I guess I'd left a Clinchy-sized hollow in the covers when I'd gotten up.  I took the opportunity to give him some loving and snapped this selfie which I absolutely love:

Now that you're pretty much caught up, on to the topic of the day.  At the end of last year, I started exercising again with our Wii.  Steve moved it downstairs for me, and I have the balance board and exercise/yoga mats set up in the basement.  The mats are so my feet don't get too cold or have too much impact during the step and boxing games.  The floor gets REALLY cold in the winter!  I go down there every weekday and do a half hour of exercises that are not too strenuous for my messed-up body.  Since we don't use the basement much, I can just leave everything down there, making it easier for me to force myself to exercise:

It's really messy down there.  Eventually we'll clean it up and make it fit for entertaining, but for now it works for me.

Clinch likes coming down to hang out with me.  Sometimes I have to chase him off of the model railroad layout in the other room:

You should see him running down the track trying to get away from me!  He's like a bullet train!

Most of the time, though, he just perches on something and watches me.  He rarely takes an interest in the television, but today he caught sight of my Mii in a penguin suit, leaning left and right to try to catch fish in one of my exercise games.  So, I grabbed my phone, started another round of the game, and videoed it.  Unfortunately, the TV is really washed out, so you can barely see what's going on.  You can see the video tilt left and right as I play - hope that doesn't make you dizzy.

I hope you enjoyed watching him as much as I did.  I don't know how, but I got the high score with this game!

I'll try to not let it be so long before I post again.  Feel free to comment on a post to poke me if it's been too long.

9/29/2016: Fixated on the "roundy-round"

Hi, all!  Sorry I haven't written in... over four months?!?  Wow.  A lot has happened here:  I was a vendor in a huge bead show, and making a bunch of new kits was very stressful.  At the same time, Pixel was sick and had a biopsy.  We feared it would be cancer, but it turned out to be a form of Irritable Bowel Syndrome.  We've changed his food, which means we now do scheduled feedings instead of everyone eating whenever they're hungry.  That has been a huge change.  Right after the bead show, I got Bell's Palsy on the right side of my face (I've been saying that all the stress froze my face).  The eye strain was debilitating, but fortunately it didn't last too long.  In trying to recover from and deal with all of that, this blog has slipped.  I'm so sorry.

But today our Clinchy was being especially cute, so I've come out of hiding.

Some days he fixates on a particular activity.  There's something he hasn't done in weeks or months, like go up in the cubbyholes in the dining room, then all of a sudden he's all over it.

Today's fixation appears to be the "roundy-round" (Does this thing have an actual name?) under the end table:

This is the scratching/ball toy that we brought home with Clinchfield.  We have another one in the dining room (flat on the floor) that he plays with sometimes, but today this one has intrigued him.

A long time ago, we put it on top of the bed to get it out of the way of the vacuum and left it there after one of the cats played with it.  We shrugged and figured that was a good enough place for it.

That has led to a few interesting sights, including this one of Fe:

I don't know how she crawled in there without disturbing anything.  She's a big girl.

Today, I was sitting in my studio with Pixel on my lap, and I kept hearing this weird sound.  I knew Clinch was up to something, and after a while I decided to check it out.  The roundy-round had slipped, and he could only push the ball up a few inches.

After he left, I fixed the toy so it was straight on top of the bed and came back to my studio.  A few minutes later I heard the ball roll around, and sure enough, he was back under there:

He left again, and a few minutes later he was back:

He's so lackadaisical, isn't he?

Just so Pixel doesn't feel left out, here he is playing with our other roundy-round as a baby in 2005:

Goodness, was he a little thing back then.  Here he is today, after gaining back most of the weight he lost when he was sick:

He's a little overweight now, so we're adjusting his food and Prednisone to help him lose weight safely and to keep him healthy.  We're so glad he's doing better!

5/11/2016: Nothing is off limits

A few months ago I purchased a gorgeous ornament in an antique store.  It's a cloisonné with purple and pink flowers on it.  I hung it from an iris hook in our hallway:

Here are a few close-ups of the ornament:

Isn't it pretty?  I got it for a good price, too!

I thought it would be too high up for Clinchfield to mess with, but oh, how I was mistaken.  Steve shot this video while I was sequestered in my studio.  If you turn up the volume and listen real close you can hear me yelling at Clinch.  He only stopped and fled the scene when I started sliding the door open:

This was the second time Clinch has done this.  The first time he jumped down before Steve could get his phone out.

Is nothing off limits or sacred in this house?  I'm guessing no.

4/25/2016: Laundry "helper"

Today's post will be very quick.  We were away at a bead show for my business this past weekend, so Steve took today off to rest and do laundry.  Except the lawn needed to be mowed, so he's outside doing that, and he had some errands to run this morning.  I'm helping with the laundry, and I had a helper of my own.

Clinchfield jumped in the dryer while I was pulling clothes out and hanging or folding.  He loves gnawing on dryer sheets, so as soon as he found one he came out with it.  I took it away, and a few minutes later he was back in the dryer.  This time, though, he started "making bread," kneading the clothes and purring like I've never seen him do before.  I don't think the clothes were very warm, but he found it very comfy!

He was so cute so I shot a video for you.  One of these days I'll remember to turn the phone.  Sorry.

Soon after this he noticed another dryer sheet and took off with it.  I let him keep it while I finished moving the laundry along.

4/4/2016: Clinchfield is ONE today!

It's been a few months since the last Clinchfield Report.  Sorry about that.  For the most part, he's been good.  There has been some running around and jumping up on things he shouldn't, but he's always been too quick, and I haven't been able to get any pictures or videos.

Recently we started getting Loot Crates, mystery geeky things that come every month for a nominal fee.  We're not going to do it for long, but we were curious, and the stuff has turned out to be pretty neat.  I put the "crate" on my desk one day to get it out of the dining room, and Clinch decided it was his.  Since I was able to bead for long periods of time without him trampling all over everything, I've decided it can just stay there.  We recently received a bunch of Star Wars Angry Birds stickers (thanks, Carrie!).  Steve decorated the first box with evil characters and the second box with good characters.  Here's Clinch when we just had the first box:

Taken 3/16/2016

With both boxes on the desk now, he loves being on both (since he is half-on cat).  Here's a little taste of that:

Taken 4/4/2016

I had to lure him up there, so he didn't stay long.

Here are a few other pictures I took of Clinchy today:

You can't see it in this picture, but it snowed today.  On April fourth.  This weather has been crazy.

He's getting so big, isn't he?

You can see one of his favorite toys in this picture - the light blue milk ring.  We have so many milk rings, frozen juice container rings, and straws (usually in triangle form and sometimes linked together) in this house.  Clinch loves to chase them and bat them around.

We are so happy Clinchfield is here, and we wish him a very happy birthday and many, many more!

2/12/2016: Resolutely resolute

All the cats know they're not supposed to go on the cubbies in the dining room, the dining room table, the kitchen table, and the kitchen counters.  They know this, but they do not care.  We're constantly chasing Clinch off of all of those things.  We've yelled, we've made other loud noises (usually while we're yelling), we've squirted, we've shooed, we've poked (sometimes with things like a remote control if he's out of reach), and we've bodily lifted.

Some days it's a constant struggle, especially when he finds new places to go.  A few nights ago, while I was up reading and Steve was sleeping, Clinch discovered the top of our games cabinet where we have Steve's hourglasses and a few other breakable items.  I got him down, but he knocked over a glass vase at some point while he was walking around.  I'm glad it didn't break, mostly because I don't want him hurting himself.

The next night, I was lying in bed reading while Steve was watching TV, and all of a sudden Steve comes in with the kitten.  Clinch got plopped down on my chest, and Steve said, "Talk to your son!"  "Hi, baby!  Mama loves you!"  "Talk to him sterner," Steve said.  In a lower, sterner voice, I said, "Mama loves you."  Turns out Clinch had been up on the games cabinet again.  Steve decided to put up guard sheep (plush Settlers of Catan toys) with a Han Solo bobble head we recently received lying in wait:

You're not going to believe this, but I just heard a noise while typing that last paragraph, right before I uploaded the picture.  I went to investigate, and...

Han Solo and those sheep are really crappy at their job!

I wish I had been recording a video, but I took a number of pictures:

Sheep down!  Sheep down!

...and he's down (after knocking over the decoration).  I put the sheep and decoration back up, leaving Han Solo out in the open so maybe he can protect the cabinet better next time.

We had a guard sheep up on the top of the bookcase in our bedroom, too, since Clinch had expressed interest in jumping up there.  However, I found the sheep on the floor this morning, so it is also crappy at its job.

This wasn't even what I was going to write about today.  Back to that subject, so you can see how truly resolute our boy can be.

I boiled some eggs this morning.  Yes, such a thrilling life I lead.  They were ready to be cooled off, so I went into the kitchen to do so.  I found this waiting for me:

This is new.  I tried to reach him to pull him out, but there's a reason we have nothing back in that corner, as you'll see in this video:

I'm glad that he's easily distracted.

However, not three minutes later, as I helplessly watched from the bathroom (yes, I leave the door open when I'm home alone!), he was back up on the counter.  By the sounds of it, he was checking the eggs out.  I yelled, "Clinch!  Get DOWN!" but it was of no use.  Right before I walked into the kitchen, I heard a loud "THUMP" which means he decided to get down before I chased him down.

And what is he doing now?

Ah, he's so cute when he's doing what he's supposed to do!

2/1/2016: Clinch's magic carpet ride

One of my first posts in this blog was about Clinchfield's fascination with messing up the bathmats.  If you missed that or need a recap, you can catch up here.

A few nights ago Steve and I were getting ready to go to bed, and I noticed that Clinch had messed up the mats again, but this time instead of pushing them both against the wall, one of them was sticking out in the hall.  That was new, and while we pondered it, Clinch walked up and plopped down:

He didn't budge as I walked around him, taking pictures.  He didn't even twitch when I turned on the light to get this slightly blurry picture:

Steve decided to see what would happen if he straightened the mat out with Clinch on it.  Would he jump off, or would he enjoy the ride?  Let's take a look:  (The video was done with my phone, so if you want to hear the few things said, you'll have to turn your speakers up a lot.  Sorry about that.)

It was nice of him to point out that the other mat was disheveled, too, wasn't it?

"Thanks for straightening things out, Papa!"

Since then, I've had to fix the mats no less than four times.  He sure likes to keep us busy!