05.04 pm

Satai is not allowed on my desk, because (a) he chews paper, and there are always a lot of bits of paper, magazines, and general “flotsam and jetsam” on my desk, and  (b) he likes to play in my desk top fountain, and violently splashing water around electrical cords and equipment isn’t usually considered to be a very good idea – so clambering onto my desk is verboten!  Now, there are – or there were – two main ways he favoured for trying to sneak onto my desk – one’s via the cabinet that acts as a sort of a “return” on the left hand side of my desk, and the other is – or rather, “was” – from the bottom shelf of the large dresser-slash-bookcase unit that sits on the wall facing my desk, on the right hand side. It’s closest to the fountain, and if I was concentrating really hard on something like WoW, or graphics, or… this blog, even though it’s right in front of me, and in plain sight, I often didn’t see him until he had his two front paws in the water!

So I decided to thwart him, good and proper! 😉 This morning when I was cleaning out the Library, and completely changing the three litter boxes, I also cleaned up the somewhat chaotic mess of books, magazines, bits of computer chair, more magazines, a telescope, and boxes of little souvenir match packets that my parents had collected every time they went to Europe – which was about every second year – when I was growing up. I trundled them all into the Den, and Julian and I proceeded to completely pack out the two bottom shelves of the dresser-slash-bookcase with these books and magazines – until Lord and Master Satai couldn’t even get half a paw onto either of  the two shelves, let alone use them as a launching spot to get onto my desk! I gave an evil cackle, and went off to the bathroom… When I came back, Julian gave me a funny look, and pointed silently to one of the shelves we’d just stuffed full of books and magazines… I looked with horror – and amusement – at what Satai had done… the cheeky little brat had demonstrated his total and nonchalant disrespect for our efforts by tipping over and half pulling out one of the “designated cat barrier” books! What can ya do?! Ya gotta laugh… 😀 Canny little devil! Sometimes methinks he’s almost a bit too clever for his own good!

On the finny side of the household, we were most perturbed last night to find that Auric has injured himself! He’s the one with the long, “floaty” tail. I give the fishies their breakfast in the morning when the cats get their breakfast – i.e. as soon as we get up! We get no peace until they get their breakfasts, so to simplify matters, I feed the fish then too! And I give the fishies their dinner at night when we feed Sal and Satai – then with furred and scaled animal tummies full, we have our dinner, then go and watch television until about nine thirty – in full sight of the Fish House at all times.  Anyway, last night when I gave the fishies their dinner at about 6 o’clock, they were both totally fine! At half past nine or thereabouts when I went to say goodnight to them and turn their tank light off, Auric had a wonky tail! It didn’t seem to be bothering him, and it wasn’t affecting his swimming in any way that we could see – but it looked pretty messy! Can you see the small, roundish, slightly thicker bit of white on the top of his tail?

You can see it better here… It looks as though he might have got it jammed in between the big rock behind him and the wall of the tank or something – but I don’t think there’s any part of the rock that’s that close to the tank wall – or maybe he caught it in between one of the filters and the side of the tank? Who knows! But it doesn’t look nice! Julian left the ultra violet steraliser on last night – it kills off algae and bacteria – in the hopes that it would prevent Auric from getting any sort of an infection in his “wound”. Auric is still swimming around as though nothing at all was wrong, but we’re keeping a close eye on him, nonetheless. I mean, it’s one thing to stick a cat in a carry basket and take it up to the Vet if it’s been injured, but it’s another thing entirely to stick a fish in a carry basket and take it up to the Vet if it looks poorly! I’ll keep you all posted on his progress…

So this morning I cleaned out the cat boxes and tidied up the Library, then I played WoW until lunch time. After lunch I went and read my book for a while because Julian was putting my computer onto its own UPS (Un-Interruptable Power Supply) so that if there’s a blackout, I’ll still be able to use my computer! The bloke from the Solar Panel place came, and then left, with a bunch of questions we’d given him to find the right answers to, and that was about the sum total of the comings and goings chez nous today! 🙂

And so on to the good stuff! 😉

Last night for dinner we had herbed lamb sausages, with oven cooked chips, snow peas, and half of really delicious and fleshy, organic and completely home-grown, Black Russian tomato each! Then I had a Beurre Bosch pear – which was really nice – and an Apple Le Rice for dessert. For lunch today we had sourdough sandwiches with basil pesto hummus as a butter substitute, and peri-peri chicken sandwich chunks – very yummy! 🙂 Tonight we’re having the first of two leftover meals of the “Honey-Balsamic Baked Chicken Breasts with Tomatoes and Mushrooms” that we had the other night – again on a bed of plain steamed rice, mixed with finely chopped spring onions. I’d bought three of the Beurre Bosch pears, and the one I had last night was so nice, I thought I’d have another one tonight, with a MOO Sticky Apple and Organic Honey yoghurt for dessert.

Weigh-in this morning. Wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be – maybe it’s the knowledge that I don’t have to take those revolting little fluid retaining pills, ever again that’s making me more relaxed, or something… I dunno! Anyway, despite the yummy and delicious Baker’s Delight lunch that I ate yesterday, I only went  up one point – from 74.2 kg yesterday, to 74.3 kg today. I’ll probably go up a bit more tomorrow, but hey! Easter’s just around the corner, and after that Julian and I will both be doing our Optifast best to get down to our new “goal weights”! I don’t know what Julian wants to get down to, but I’ve set my goal weight at somewhere between 63 and 64 kgs…

And that brings me up to tomorrow, when my very favourite eldest daughter will be over – for the last Friday in a while! She goes back to uni next week, and she’ll be there on Monday and Thursday from 10 until noon, and Friday from three o’clock until five – which will give her Tuesday and Wednesday free to come over here, if she’s not too busy with assignments and so forth – bearing in mind that she’ll be writing a two-part Thesis this year! So, we’ll sit back and enjoy what might be our last splurge of “Supergirl”, “The Flash”, “Arrow”, and “Legends of Tomorrow” for a while! On Saturday we’re having our double “Big Birthday Bash” for both me (though my Birthday isn’t until next Thursday!) and Julian (who was in hospital on his real Birthday!) We’re not going out to a restaurant anywhere – although he’s coming along well, Terry’s not really up to that yet – so we’ll have a “Nando’s Lunch” of chicken tenders and chips, home-made salad, and some sort of nice “Birthday Cake” or other 😉 And that’s really about “it” from me again this evening! Do drop in again tomorrow night, and find out what we girls watched, if Auric’s tail is any better, and whether “Lord Satai” managed to get up onto my desk via the stuffed-to-the-gunnels shelf of the dresser-slash-bookcase! Until then though, please do your very best to bee good, don’t forget that when you know what you want, and you want it bad enough, you’ll find a way to get it, and remember to always drive carefully, to look after yourselves, and to keep cool – or warm – depending on your preferences… but above all, please remember to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂