female cat marking

One of my cats, Snot, is a bitch for spraying. She is desexed, and was before she turned into a teenager.

She had a bladder infection a while back, and thats thought to have been caused by stress.

Cleared all that up, but now she is marking the area near the kettle. First I knew of this was yellow droplets in/on the bowls that live there. Then I saw that the base of the kettle had yellow droplets.

Of course, this just isn't on. She does it at night when I cant see. Ok, I *assume* it is Snot, because I have seen her marking other places. I have the pepper laying on its side next to the bowls so she is avoiding that bit. But the kettle is fair game for her. Sprinkling pepper works, but I have to wipe that up every morning.

I think that she is marking because of the dog thats here. This morning she squirted ME while I was on the loo! That most definitely isn't on.

This link isn't much good. I think I'll have to do the pepper thing, and wait for the dog to go.

Drives me up the wall. But I'm glad its not a boy cat doing it!

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My Flylady stuff isn't in Google calender today. Not sure where that is. Today is dust the nick knacks though.

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I called Quarantine on Saturday. Tasmania is an island state with fairly strict quarantine laws, so when I found that the dog biscuity bones had little brown beetles in them, and they were from Qld, I called. Well, I thought we did. The quarantine officer who called me back was all 'oh, its probably nothing, we have indigenous bugs, they probably got into the biscuits here.' :s he didn't listen when I said there were beetles in a SEALED bag.

A woman called me this morning and will be here to collect the biscuits some time today.

Google tells me they are carpet beetles. But not varied carpet beetles. Mine look like this. Its hard to find out if they are ok HERE, or whether its the varied one we have. This is the Australian carpet beetle. CSIRO link. Still not mine. But hey, if I listened to the guy who called, I could have easily said 'oh, we have brown bugs? ok then.'

Anyway, we will see what the quarantine officer says when she gets here.

oooh arr...

a deep and meaningful mission today.

We are to stand in our loungerooms and look around to see what we love, or what we are used to.

My clocks are still loved (as much as they can be - I cant take them to bed or hug them after all) - but I am still fairly 'used to' them being there. Every now and then I will wind one up.

The videos and dvd's annoy me, but there really isn't anywhere for them to go. So I enjoy having them in alphabetical order.

Aside from those collections, I have no nick knacks or any thing. I do, however, have a dirty great bed for the dog, which is taking up ooh...a quarter of the floor space of the loungeroom. Small lounge room, big dog. I cant do much about that until the dog goes. But I CAN do something about the layers of dog hair.

I've been quite quite slack about tidying up since he got here. He is always under foot, and whines if he is in the back yard. I used to think he was lonely/in need of company, but realised that if he can spend hours out the front alone (and piss off), that wasn't the case. I look forward to him going back home so I can get these beds up and out of the way.

I bought a deep fryer the other week, and have been using it over Easter. I cant wait for it to be put away, coz it takes up space on the stove. The cord is too short to reach the power point if it is on the kitchen bench would you believe. I need to wipe down the fat splatters and get on with eating real food again. The corned beef for example. And Scotch Broth - with goat - before the veges go blech.

Well, time to vacuum and stuff, then back to knitting and watching Alien3.

:s what to do?

Missions this week:

Monday - Get rid of what doesn't belong. There isn't anything.
Tuesday - Clothes pile. There isn't one.
Wednesday - Night stands. Don't have any.
Thursday - Dressers. Already tidy. I could dust them though.
Friday - Strip and make the bed properly. Now this one I might be able to manage!

With just a couple of forks and a microwave bowl last night, I didn't bother doing the dishes before bed. It would have been a waste of water to do them. Ok, I am on town water, but why waste it? Now I can add this mornings coffee mug, breakfast bowl and two spoons to that, because I have a funeral to go to and I will want to come back to a tidy house. I was going to put corned beef on in the crock pot, but given that tomorrow is Good Friday, and we have some vague traditions in our family, I wouldn't have eaten the left overs. So it has to wait.

I'm baby sitting a dog, so I should probably vacuum up the dog hair before I leave as well. And hang out his bedding.

Now is a good time I guess.

Mission impossible

Todays Flylady mission is to take things out of your room that don't belong. Happily, I don't have anything in there that doesn't belong. So, Mission accomplished.

Not sure if living alone is good or bad at this point.

If nothing 'ever changes' then how did the place get to the CHAOS stage?

shameful moment

Well, actually two of them.

The other night I had a visitor. Yep, a visitor at night. But I hadn't done the dishes or shined the sink, and the visitor washed their hands at the kitchen sink! How embarrassing!

Then yesterday, not thinking that the bathroom was that messy, I got the cleaning sponge to wipe up the dripped bits of liquid soap, and found out that while the what you call it? bench/vanity whatever, didn't LOOK dirty, there was significant amounts of dust and hair strands. The floor around the cats water dishes was worse. Why i didn't think that the cats shed hair at the water bowls I'll never know. Sheesh.

Yeah...so..I think I will have to trust that while things look ok at a surface glance, they might not actually be as clean as I think, and need doing anyway.

another list item to cross off

I bought new curtains for the loungeroom yesterday. They are a lovely pair of coffee colored velvety ones, which cost me all of 10 dollars - for the PAIR. They barely looked used. Best of all, they are full length and full width. Ok, I would have preferred lighter ones for that window, but these will do. Better than none with winter coming.

There is something going on with my internet connection. It keeps dropping out. Not sure whats up with that, but if (when) it reconnects I will post this and be done with.

Still to cross off is a laptop back pack, a new computer desk (for the spare room) and an external hard drive.

I remember many many years ago the 'things to get list' had a freezer and a vacuum cleaner on it, and a more recent one had a new fridge and laptop. I'm pleased to say, that even though it might take me a year or two to get them, almost everything on these lists I have gotten!

Lost week

I seem to have lost a week.

I'm not sure where it went.

But I know I haven't done diddly squat of Flylady stuff beyond wiping down the sink and making the bed.

Ok, to be sure I HAVE done stuff around the place - like rearranged the lounge room furniture, and as a result of that vacuumed properly in here and changed the cover on the ratty old arm chair that is one of those blissful wraps-you-up-in-comfort type ones (and its a recliner) - but I have studiously ignored the missions.

Why?

Well, I was thinking about this yesterday and I came to the conclusion that my mentality is 'I just did that/it doesn't need doing again/there are no kids here [to make a mess].' Which are all accurate. But now, on a new morning, I am trying to work out why my thinking wants things to get to a 'need to clean' state, rather than a maintenance chore. Granted, the last time any of the mission were um..'held' was easily 4 weeks ago. Surely there is dust and fly specks accumulating in that time?

Oh, yeah, I did empty out the crumbs from my toaster. Does that count?

I also am now the proud owner of a Kindle! Full write up about it over here in my craft blog.

As I read elsewhere, "Okay, so I could go on and on about every detail that I plan to do today, but you guys would get bored. As I sit here writing this, I realize that I am going on and on just to put off cleaning."

So, I'm off to get a start on the leg of chevon I plan to have for lunch.


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But, I am also wondering is there is a common point when people stall. Maybe I'll ask.

I am excellent

..at procrastination.

Aside from keeping the sink in order, and making the bed, I have done NOTHING the Flylady way for 4 days.

I think, in part, that came from not having applocable missions to do. Last Friday was Zone 1 (a one day Zone 1 even) - the mission was to clear everything away that doesn't belong. I didn't have anything there. Thursday was lounge room walls, Wednesday was vacuuming. Tuesday was the knick knacks, which I don't have, but I did do my clocks. So, in theory, its been 6 days. :s

The computer is probably the main reason nothing has been done. Get up, get online. Look at the Flylady calendar list and do other stuff. Look at the list again, find something ELSE to do...etc et al - all. bloody. day. Plus, now that a dear friend is back at work and chatting, I always get caught up in conversation. I know it takes maybe a whole five minutes to vacuum, but I still put it off. O.o

Then its the weekend. I went out and did things on Saturday - before doing anything that resembled housework. I hired movies and watched those. To be fair, I was knitting on a couple of socks during this time, and got a fair bit done. I also did laundry, fed the cats (several times), moved the guinea pigs AND helped out the neighbour.

Sunday was much the same, except I sorted out the top shelf of the pantry. Its much neater now, and the containers are in alphabetical order. I know, I'm anal about these things. But now I know that the barley will be on the far left hand side, and the polenta on the far right. I wont need to shuffle anything around trying to find what I am after...too much.

Today it is Zone 2 again, and the mission is the counter tops. This should be easy to do. There is only an 18x40 inch counter top. :s

Being that daylight saving has ended here, I need to change the bedroom curtains to the heavy weight ones, and I think I will strip the bed as well, seeing as its a nice-ish sunny day, even if it is cold. It will rain again sooner or later, and I want this bedding back ON the bed, rather than the other stuff :P

Times awasting.