Life equals kitty

I'm trying to come up with something to write about that isn't kitten related, but it's a bit hard. My life has revolved around Rupert since he got here, making sure he's settling in okay and not destroying anything. He's a very good kitty, but sometimes he needs to be told not to eat the soap.

Rupert's still been sleeping in bed with us every night, but he's getting better about sleeping next to us, instead of jamming his head under our necks all night long. He's been trying to nap on me during the day, but it involves climbing halfway onto my shoulder to snuggle. Right now he's wrapped around the back of my neck by sitting on the top of the couch. What a weirdo. I'm going to try giving (or making) him a stuffed animal to sleep with, to see if that makes him happy.

[Warning: Litterbox paragraph. Skip ahead to the next paragraph if you don't care about my cat and his bathroom habits.] He still isn't using the litter box on his own. I've moved it into the bathtub with the lid off, so when he starts pawing the bathtub sides, I just have to point at the box and he'll jump in and use it. He doesn't want to use it, which is the problem. I want him to use it on his own, but he clearly dislikes something about the situation, since he's distressed about not using the box. The plan is to try some new litter, but I just really don't want that awful clay stuff! I'm going to try the wheat kind next (this stuff is made from corn), and pray that it's up to his standards.

Today happens to be the second Sunday in April, which means that Crafty Wonderland was today! We checked it out, and I was impressed the with cool ambiance of the venue. There was a great assortment of artists and vendors, (and free cupcake decorating!) and I really hope I get accepted to one in the future. We didn't buy anything, but there were some nice things that would have been worthy of our cash if we'd had some to spare.

The weather has warmed up quite a bit the past few days, so today was a nice day to go out. Yesterday it was 78 degrees! Sean and I went for a little walk down to the library in Woodstock and checked out some of the eateries there. There's a great deli/wine place and a sausage and sandwich place that we need to try. If our friends ever come visit us, I think we'll take them to one of those places for lunch. The sausage place also prepares your game for you, and will smoke your fish. Good to know!

In business-related stuff, I'm working on sending out some more press release emails. I learned some great stuff about contacting the media from Grace Bonney at Design*Sponge. I'm going to give her methods a try, since I didn't get any response from the last batch I sent out. Things are getting busier for me, which is great! I'm a lot more focused about working now that I have scheduled play-breaks with the cat. He sleeps for so many hours in the afternoon, I can get work done then or go out for an errand.

In Gin-related news, I've discovered a new type of gin that I'd like to try. It's called Genever gin, and it's a style different from London Dry in that it has more botanicals and flavorings. I just read that "The classic accompaniment to a shot of Genever is a dried green herring." Fascinating. Genever is typically from Holland, but there is a local distillery here in Portland that makes it's own gin, called Aviation. There's even a distiller's festival here! Aviation isn't the cheapest gin on the market, but neither is anything else. The liquor stores in Oregon are state-run, so they're sometimes hard to find, and the prices are exorbitant. Beer and wine are available almost anywhere, however, which seems really strange to me. A lot of the locals also seem to feel that liquor is somehow more dangerous, or something, than beer and wine. Not a feeling I share.

A note on disciplining the cat: Rupert is sort of getting the connection between getting wet and the squirt bottle. The best way to discipline him so far seems to be saying "No!" very forcefully and deeply. I haven't looked for compressed air anywhere yet, but it would probably work. I don't think we'd enjoy the added noise of a horn though, and our apartment neighbors probably wouldn't either. I turned on my filter fan while he was behind it the other day, and he tried to "play" with the air currents blowing at him. Compressed air might startle him though. If startling him is enough to get him to stop what he's doing. :)

All the photos in this post are from Kenilworth Park. I misspelled it in my previous post. Note the people in the second photo for scale. Those are some tall trees!!