The final week, day 1

Since today was the first day of my week-long vacation before moving to Oregon, I decided to do one of the pain-in-the-butt things that I've been putting off for far too long--taking our psycho cat Finneran to the vet. Conveniently, my lovely wife would be returning from a trip to New York, and so would be unable to assist in the fun.

The preparations began last night. I had noticed his claws were sharper than normal. Anticipating a potential struggle getting him into his carrier, I decided to clip his claws. As usual, he put up a little fight--he's always much more interested in rubbing his chin on the clippers than in letting me trim his claws.

Then today at 1:30, the fun began. Luckily, the cap had decided to take a nap on the futon in our office, so I could make preparations without him seeing. I went out to the garage and got the kennel out from under the workbench. Because it had been there undisturbed for about 3 years, it was very dusty. I cleaned it up as best as I could, then brought it inside and hid it around the corner from the kitchen, so even if the cat woke up, he wouldn't see it.

Next, I grabbed Mrs. floporama's favorite bathrobe. Incidentally, this is also Finneran's favorite bathrobe. If she leaves it on the bed, its a sure bet that we will find him nestled into it when we come home. I spread the robe in the cage so the cat could nestle right in, if he so desired (yeah right!).

Finally, the real fun began. I went and started to pet the cat to wake him up. He finally groggily began to open his eyes and I picked him up and carried him downstairs, rubbing his belly the whole time to try to lull him into a false sense of security. It was working okay--at least until we got close to the carrier. Then, as soon as I turned the corner and he saw the carrier, he turned into:

CRAZY PSYCHO ANGRY CAT!!!
(Cat shown is not my actual cat)


He literally went bananas as soon as he saw it. It took three tries to finally get him far enough into the carrier to think about shutting the door. However, he had quickly turned around and managed to get a paw out that I had to shove back into the cage. Finally, I was able to shut the door and then the howling began. MEEEEOOOOW! RRRRROOOOWWWWW! Repeated about 900 times over the next 20 minutes. Fortunately, we live only about a mile from a vet and mercifully, the vet was not at all busy today, so the whole round trip only took about 18 minutes. However, the cat did not shut up for longer than 30 seconds of that whole 18 minutes. Loudly, at the top of his voice, letting me know of his extreme displeasure. The vet took about 60 seconds to actually give Finneran his two shots. I spent more time filling out paperwork and then waiting to pay my bill than the vet took to do his business.

Finally, we were mercifully home. I took the still screaming cat upstairs and let him out next to the bed. He immediately ran under it and I haven't seen him yet. However, I'm not sure I'm going to sleep tonight--I'll be too fearful of vengeance from the evil psycho cat.

The final weekend...

No new posts since September...well, that seems a little fishy. Nothing important could have been going on. Oh, except that I found a new job in a state far far away. And while I plan to discuss the career move here, I think I'll wait until a slightly later time to do so. Meanwhile, back at the stately floporama manor, I am the king of the castle.

No, actually that would be the cat, who seems intent on taking over whatever portion of the bed I might choose to sleep on. Also, who is scooping whom's poop?

At any rate, my lovely and talented wife has decided to go on a trip to New York City. And even though she booked the trip months in advance, it just so happens that the trip coincides with my last full weekend in Utah, or at least my last weekend as a full-time Utah resident. As much as that detail thrills me, it is also a little bittersweet. Utah has been my home for almost 10 years now--it will be strange to just walk away.

And, since I'm positive everyone is just dying for a picture from New York, here it is. Nothing like a big pile of blurry New York trash to make you yearn for the city.