Monday Malarkey - Yes, we still have a kitten in the house and other stuff

The kitten is full of malarkey.  She has not yet taken a drink of my tea, but that's not for lack of trying.

This week was not a big week for reading and certainly not one for writing as I went out of my way to avoid the computer (somewhat successfully, although not entirely), but we'll start with what little there is to talk about, book-wise.  Appearances aside, this still is not a cat blog.  

Recent arrivals (2 weeks' worth):

We Go Together by Dunn & Sakamoto and

Rufus Goes to School by Griswell and Gorbachev - both from Sterling Kids for review and/or tour

Rufus is a pig.  PIG BOOK!  Sorry to shout.  Pigs are such fun.  And, a couple more . . . 

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent and

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt - both from Little, Brown and Co. for F2F discussion and review (the former in August, the latter in October). 

We only got 10 copies of each title, this time, and that's not enough to go around -- my F2F group is well-established and quite large, although attendance varies.  So, I had to set aside my plans to reread The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Gaiman to read Burial Rites.  We'll have to share so I wanted to get that done in time to give someone else a chance to read it.  It's excellent, in case you're wondering.  I'm really looking forward to the discussion.

Last week's reading:

As per my plan, I jumped into The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway and enjoyed my swim.  I hope to review that, soon.  I followed it up with a read of the pig book, Rufus Goes to School, pretty much the moment it walked in.  And, then I read Burial Rites by Hannah Kent.  After that, I started reading The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan and The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winter.  I'm close to halfway through the latter but not far into The Girls of Atomic City.  I'm enjoying both.  

The Last Policeman is a mystery -- a genre which most of you probably know I seldom read -- but this particular mystery has an unusual twist in that a single policeman (the hero, naturally) suspects murder and everyone else believes the death was a suicide.  Suicide is not particularly surprising or unusual in this story because Earth will be struck by an asteroid in 6 months. Everyone's going to die anyway.  So, a lot of people don't give a flip about the law and some people are choosing to go out sooner rather than wait for the Final Bang.  The Last Policeman is definitely a unique and entertaining diversion and The Girls of Atomic City is fascinating so it's likely I've got a pleasant reading week ahead of me.  

Kitten-wise:

Four weeks and counting.  Last week, we came to the conclusion that we'd done enough kitty juggling and it was time for the cats to spend time working out their differences.  So, Prissy (or River, depending on who you're talking to) has been out and about except at night when she goes back into her bedroom.  Things have not substantially improved, unfortunately.  The kitties can eat together but there's some growling on one side and threatening poses on the other.  The rest of the time, if Isabel's awake there is a great deal of chase/fight/hide going on.  Nap time is awesome.  The little one stays away from the kitty tree, where the two big girls hang out.  I think Isabel does wear herself out chasing poor Prissy/River and is napping a bit more than usual.  

The kitten also has resisted efforts to train her to scratch a cardboard or fabric scratching pad and has pretty much torn the hell out of our living room rug.  So, if she stays, it's likely she'll be the first declawed kitty we've ever owned.  We are against declawing, in general, but she is simply not getting it -- and we have scratching stations literally all over the house.  The other two kitties are very well-behaved when it comes to scratching in the right places.

We will have to make a decision about whether or not we can keep Prissy very soon because she's now about 16 weeks old.  Kittens are very adoptable; older cats are not.  If she's going to another home, she'll need to find a family before she gets too big -- and judging from her appetite, she's likely to be a very large, delightfully droopy cat.  Everyone loves her, so we're all wrestling with the decision but I think we all know in our hearts that it would be best for her to find a different home, if only because Isabel's attitude toward her is not softening.

Not much else is happening, here:

I'm hoping Huzzybuns will soon take a full week off work so we can work day and night getting the old house ready to sell.  Weekends alone are just not enough when you have two houses and yards to maintain and improve.  Everything we're doing is fairly minor but very time-consuming so a dedicated stretch of time would be really helpful.  Please pray or cross your fingers or send positive vibes that we'll quickly finish and get that house on the market . . . and that it will sell.  Although the housing market has improved elsewhere, houses do not appear to be moving at all in Vicksburg at the moment.  

Enough about me:

What's up in your world?  I'm sorry I haven't been able to visit other blogs.  That will probably continue at least until our old house goes on the market.  There's just too much going on.  Today, our excitement of the day was finding out we had a gas leak.  I would not have known, had the gas company not made a mistake on our bill that quadrupled the usual monthly cost.  So, thanks be to God Almighty that we didn't have to get blown up in order to find out about the gas leak.  I've never been so grateful for an erroneous statement in my life.  

Happy Monday!

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