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Friday evening, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
medains and john_hat came round, which was nice, and Nick dropped round. We headed off to the Rook and Gaskill around 9-ish, leaving ant_girl in peace to finish off her dress (about which, more later). It was nice to see people - James, Fleur, greynolds, a_crow, Brett, Tim, Val - but alas, the smoke got to be far too much, so around 10:30 I coughed all the way back to medains' car, then coughed all the way home. Tesco's order was delivered, so yay! I got a bottle of Glen Ellen merlot. Nice of me to have a vinyard! *grin*
Saturday morning I was up far too early - 6:40am. Bah! Headed off on the SBA bus down to London, and got a couple of hours' sleep, and around 1000 words of a short story written. Got to Camden around 3, and went shopping with Derrick andjohn_hat, who is now the proud owner of a new hat. I got talked into buying a pair of nubuck leather trousers - very nice - by a very nice man who gave me almost a third off the price, probably as I smiled nicely and talked with him about the outrageous house prices and bad behaviour by mortgage companies. The other guy working in the shop told Derrick to 'tell your girlfriend not to wear this (waving my baseball cap) because it hides her beauty'. *beam* I like flattery! Flatter me more! So Derrick was my honourary boyfriend for the day.
SBA were absolutely brilliant!john_hat has posted some photos, and I daresay kneeshooter will post more fairly shortly. ant_girl's dress was stunning, and she looked incredibly beautiful, and sang very well. Apparently she couldn't hear herself on the monitors, but out in the audience we could hear her perfectly. She and mister_ed were very much the rock stars, and deservedly so. I got Mister Ed-ed *twice* during his walkabouts, so cue big happy grin from me. Didn't really watch Scary Bitches or Ghost of Lemora, although they sounded ok in the back room. But it had been a long day, and it was nice to have some small opportunity to chat to people I haven't seen in ages, namely Tam, d_floorlandmine, foxy76 and Ludwig. Many other people were there, including mister_ed's mum, who is lovely. And it was ace to see people on the bus, in the Devonshire Arms (great pub, really needs to be larger), and at Leicester Forest East, where we did ace impressions of shambling zombies at 2:30am... It looks like it'd be a good place to defend from zombie attack if one could barricade off the bridge bit. *grin*
Got back into York around 6am, dropped offdaeghnao and got to bed around 6:40 - exactly 24 hours after I got up.
Up again at 11:50, then straight off to Huddersfield to see Mum and Dad as it's Dad's birthday on Tuesday.john_hat doesn't seem to mind me being a bad host and abandoning him, so that's ok. Mum fed me her wonderful celery, leek and potato soup, with Dad's homemade bread, then my twin's apple pie. Yum! Alas, I didn't get to see Kate, as Mum and Dad made her head off back to the south coast quite early because the weather forecast was awful. Pottered back to York around 5:30 ish at a respectable 60mph, as dictated by the huge amounts of spray on the motorway.
Got home and had enough time to hang out washing, then dash over to Steve and Lesley's to go see *portentous voice* Sky Captain And The Wooorld of Tomorroooow!!! It was lovely to see them, and the film was much fun. I wanted to smack Gwyneth, and there were times when she really should have been terrified, but was just mildly distressed (severe lack of emotion, there), but Jude Law was great, and it was exactly as I expected. (1940's pulp sci-fi, War of the Worlds esque, silly, but very entertaining.) So, given thatravenlas will be back at some point today (no visitors, please, I need much hugs and snuggles, and I won't be too happy if that's interrupted, though I will still be hospitable) and he really wants to go see the film, does anyone else fancy a trip to see it at some point over the coming week or so? I'm more than happy to see it again and take a car-full.
Still no sign of my new dishwasher - must phone Curry's. If they'll pick up the bloody phone. They have the phone ring set on 'barely audible', and no-one seems to be in charge of answering it, so they don't bother picking up half the time. Good customer service? No! But then again, they don't have to... Humbug.
Still no return call from Pennine timber's surveyor, so that's another place to call.
And the stuff I tried to get faxed through from Nat West to their mortgage people failed to go through cos the fax number was engaged, so I get to spend my lunch hour trying again.
My biggest grumble is reserved for Leo, though. Since Friday evening, I have mopped up cat pee from my front hall no fewer than 6 times. This isn't 6 separate lots of cat pee - no, it's actually 13. I realise he's annoyed because the 3 of us have barely been around all weekend, but when he actually squats in front of me to pee, I get rather cross. He does know he's not supposed to pee there, and he's only peeing on the laminate, not the carpet, but this really isn't acceptable behaviour. I feel quite powerless to stop him, and that's not a good situation. I have some 'cat stop' stuff, but it stinks so badly that I can't face putting it down inside. I'm going to try getting some citrus spray to put down, and some hairspray to make the floor sticky (I don't want sticky floors), but as I tried putting down sweet ginger and black pepper essential oils last night and came down this morning to two more lots of cat pee, I'm not confident this will work. There are ultrasonic devices one can use to deter pets, but that'd probably make him hide upstairs even more and might stop him going out at all, so that's a big 'no'. It might help if I got a cat myself, but I don't want to be pushed into doing that, and I didn't want to get a cat in an area where there are already so many cats. There would also be awkwardnesses with feeding, as how do you explain to one cat that he isant_girl's and eats in her room, and to another that it is my cat, and eats elsewhere? *shrug* If anyone has any good ideas of how to stop Leo peeing in my hallway before the laminate disintegrates, please, please let me know!
Came into work this morning on the 7:25 train. Far too early! *grumble* *snooze*
medains and john_hat came round, which was nice, and Nick dropped round. We headed off to the Rook and Gaskill around 9-ish, leaving ant_girl in peace to finish off her dress (about which, more later). It was nice to see people - James, Fleur, greynolds, a_crow, Brett, Tim, Val - but alas, the smoke got to be far too much, so around 10:30 I coughed all the way back to medains' car, then coughed all the way home. Tesco's order was delivered, so yay! I got a bottle of Glen Ellen merlot. Nice of me to have a vinyard! *grin*Saturday morning I was up far too early - 6:40am. Bah! Headed off on the SBA bus down to London, and got a couple of hours' sleep, and around 1000 words of a short story written. Got to Camden around 3, and went shopping with Derrick and
john_hat, who is now the proud owner of a new hat. I got talked into buying a pair of nubuck leather trousers - very nice - by a very nice man who gave me almost a third off the price, probably as I smiled nicely and talked with him about the outrageous house prices and bad behaviour by mortgage companies. The other guy working in the shop told Derrick to 'tell your girlfriend not to wear this (waving my baseball cap) because it hides her beauty'. *beam* I like flattery! Flatter me more! So Derrick was my honourary boyfriend for the day. SBA were absolutely brilliant!
john_hat has posted some photos, and I daresay kneeshooter will post more fairly shortly. ant_girl's dress was stunning, and she looked incredibly beautiful, and sang very well. Apparently she couldn't hear herself on the monitors, but out in the audience we could hear her perfectly. She and mister_ed were very much the rock stars, and deservedly so. I got Mister Ed-ed *twice* during his walkabouts, so cue big happy grin from me. Didn't really watch Scary Bitches or Ghost of Lemora, although they sounded ok in the back room. But it had been a long day, and it was nice to have some small opportunity to chat to people I haven't seen in ages, namely Tam, d_floorlandmine, foxy76 and Ludwig. Many other people were there, including mister_ed's mum, who is lovely. And it was ace to see people on the bus, in the Devonshire Arms (great pub, really needs to be larger), and at Leicester Forest East, where we did ace impressions of shambling zombies at 2:30am... It looks like it'd be a good place to defend from zombie attack if one could barricade off the bridge bit. *grin*Got back into York around 6am, dropped off
daeghnao and got to bed around 6:40 - exactly 24 hours after I got up. Up again at 11:50, then straight off to Huddersfield to see Mum and Dad as it's Dad's birthday on Tuesday.
john_hat doesn't seem to mind me being a bad host and abandoning him, so that's ok. Mum fed me her wonderful celery, leek and potato soup, with Dad's homemade bread, then my twin's apple pie. Yum! Alas, I didn't get to see Kate, as Mum and Dad made her head off back to the south coast quite early because the weather forecast was awful. Pottered back to York around 5:30 ish at a respectable 60mph, as dictated by the huge amounts of spray on the motorway. Got home and had enough time to hang out washing, then dash over to Steve and Lesley's to go see *portentous voice* Sky Captain And The Wooorld of Tomorroooow!!! It was lovely to see them, and the film was much fun. I wanted to smack Gwyneth, and there were times when she really should have been terrified, but was just mildly distressed (severe lack of emotion, there), but Jude Law was great, and it was exactly as I expected. (1940's pulp sci-fi, War of the Worlds esque, silly, but very entertaining.) So, given that
ravenlas will be back at some point today (no visitors, please, I need much hugs and snuggles, and I won't be too happy if that's interrupted, though I will still be hospitable) and he really wants to go see the film, does anyone else fancy a trip to see it at some point over the coming week or so? I'm more than happy to see it again and take a car-full.Still no sign of my new dishwasher - must phone Curry's. If they'll pick up the bloody phone. They have the phone ring set on 'barely audible', and no-one seems to be in charge of answering it, so they don't bother picking up half the time. Good customer service? No! But then again, they don't have to... Humbug.
Still no return call from Pennine timber's surveyor, so that's another place to call.
And the stuff I tried to get faxed through from Nat West to their mortgage people failed to go through cos the fax number was engaged, so I get to spend my lunch hour trying again.
My biggest grumble is reserved for Leo, though. Since Friday evening, I have mopped up cat pee from my front hall no fewer than 6 times. This isn't 6 separate lots of cat pee - no, it's actually 13. I realise he's annoyed because the 3 of us have barely been around all weekend, but when he actually squats in front of me to pee, I get rather cross. He does know he's not supposed to pee there, and he's only peeing on the laminate, not the carpet, but this really isn't acceptable behaviour. I feel quite powerless to stop him, and that's not a good situation. I have some 'cat stop' stuff, but it stinks so badly that I can't face putting it down inside. I'm going to try getting some citrus spray to put down, and some hairspray to make the floor sticky (I don't want sticky floors), but as I tried putting down sweet ginger and black pepper essential oils last night and came down this morning to two more lots of cat pee, I'm not confident this will work. There are ultrasonic devices one can use to deter pets, but that'd probably make him hide upstairs even more and might stop him going out at all, so that's a big 'no'. It might help if I got a cat myself, but I don't want to be pushed into doing that, and I didn't want to get a cat in an area where there are already so many cats. There would also be awkwardnesses with feeding, as how do you explain to one cat that he is
ant_girl's and eats in her room, and to another that it is my cat, and eats elsewhere? *shrug* If anyone has any good ideas of how to stop Leo peeing in my hallway before the laminate disintegrates, please, please let me know!Came into work this morning on the 7:25 train. Far too early! *grumble* *snooze*
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no subject
Date: 2004-10-04 11:29 am (UTC)From:I wonder if Leo is actually unwell? He might need checking out at the vets...
no subject
Date: 2004-10-04 01:26 pm (UTC)From:I've thought about that, and if he were showing any signs of distress, or not being able to get to the catflap in time, or peeing anywhere else in the house, then I'd think maybe he had a bladder infection or something. But it's that he's only done this in very specific places in the front hall, and he's peed in front of me (and stopped peeing and run off outside when I've gone 'Oi!' at him without 'leaks'), and it seems as though he's peed deliberately just because I've cleaned up with bleach - I think he's bored and lonely and determined to make his displeasure at our absence known. If he keeps it up this week when the 3 of us are around, I'll ask Jo if she wants him checking out. But I have a sneaking suspicion it'll stop very shortly...
no subject
Date: 2004-10-04 02:29 pm (UTC)From:I hope so!!
no subject
Date: 2004-10-04 02:47 pm (UTC)From:Not only will bleach react with the ammonia in the puddle to make a nasty toxic gas... it also seems to leave behind a smell which cats relate to the smell of their toilet area - and thus he will start to use it MORE, not less.
VINEGAR is the key to cleaning such areas. Not only does it neutralise the ammonia, but it leaves a smell that is not at all attractive as a cat toilet.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-05 09:38 am (UTC)From:Leo had peed there another couple of times by the time I got home, and he peed there another once when I'd cleaned that up. But I went to pick up the dishwasher, and popped into Tescos. Then I got home and cleaned the area with:
Flash munch with bleach, then antibacterial spray, then a dedicated Bob Martin pet odours cleaner.
Then I sprayed over the area with citrus smelling air freshener. And extra-firm hold hairspray.
Leo came in and leaped straight over the area and ran upstairs. He hadn't peed there when I got up this morning, so that might have worked for now. Or it could be the huge amounts of fuss he got yesterday evening... If he pees there again, I'll get some vinegar and have a go.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-04 03:19 pm (UTC)From:I think the issue with Gwynneth could be that she's having trouble acting without something to react to. And as for Currys, well, they blow goats. At least your phone doesn't go straight through to an automated call handler which at no point allows human interaction, and especially not to the sales person nominated on your receipt as your contact ...
no subject
Date: 2004-10-05 09:41 am (UTC)From: