What’s New on Top of Your Utility Pole?

What are these bell-shaped objects that we’re starting to see high above intersections with traffic lights?  They’re traffic cameras.  Of course.  Check it out:
https://gridsmart.com/products/the-bell-camera/

Wednesday Weigh-In 20191120

Just like last week, the scale did not provide anything other than weight. So today's weigh-in simply repeats percentage fat from two weeks ago. Also, I didn't measure the waist.

Waist = 40.00"
Height = 5' 7"

References:

1. Wikipedia BMI page
2. Balance Body Composition Bath Scale
3. Javascript must be enabled to view the data.

Cat Litter Review -- Tidy Cats 24/7 Performance

Tidy Cats 24/7 Performance clay cat litter was the first cat litter we ever used.  It seemed fine while all the litterboxes were confined to the basement.  But soon after we introduced the first box onto the main level, we realized we needed a product that produced less dust.

Here are what I consider the pros and cons to Tidy Cats:

Great Packaging
Tidy Cats comes in study containers that can be repurposed.  Depending on the size, it comes in either jugs or pails; both are plastic and resealable.  Even though we stopped using it many years ago, we still have a few pails left that we use to store bird seed, sand or spent cat litter.

Flows Well Through Scoop

The individual pellets are spherical and uniform in size, so they flow well through even the finest scoop.

Good Odor Control
Odor was never a problem unless a cat peed outside the box or didn’t bury the Number Two well enough.

Ubiquitous – even our grocery store carries it
It’s convenient if your go-to brand of cat litter is available at the local “Brick & Mortar” stores you regularly shop at.  Back in the days before Internet and automatic delivery, I’d buy the stuff in a regular store.  Occasionally I’d notice that it’s marked down in price at the grocery store.

Good clumping
It clumps fairly well, yet also seems to drain.  It was important for us to keep up the depth of the litter in the box.  Otherwise, a messy, stinky slurry of clay and cat pee would remain on the bottom of the box.  World’s Best is better at clumping, but it doesn’t drain well.

Low “unit” cost
The higher cost of other cat litters was what kept me hooked on Tidy Cats for so low.  But my method of comparing prices is not well-suited for comparing cat litters.  I usually choose the product with the lowest unit cost, where the units are weight.  However, the important unit of measure for cat litter is volume.  Once I realized that, it put competing brands on a more level playing field.


What we didn’t like:

Dust
As noted above, dust was the main reason we stopped using it.

Not Compostable
Used clay cat litters either go into the trash or get dumped onto a pile in our woods.

Extremely Heavy
Even the smallest portion is 14lb.  Larger sizes are 20lb, 27lb, 35lb.

Demise of Brick and Mortar Stores

Are Brick and Mortar (B&M) stores partly to blame for their loss of customers to Internet-based stores?  I think so.

While it’s true that B&Ms have higher costs due to maintaining a physical presence and inventory, they also have an advantage in that customers get instant access to purchases.  Also, in the case of one-of-kind product such as produce, buyers get to examine and inspect the merchandise before buying.

I shop both online and at B&Ms.  Here’s why I shop online:

1. It’s easier to find what I need. For example:
1. Unscented antiperspirant is nearly impossible to find at stores near me. B&Ms have replaced unscented product with things called “Phoenix,” “Apollo” and “Gold.” What the heck does Gold smell like and how would it keep me dry? Maybe it’s unscented, like real gold, but I doubt it. Sure I could open each one and smell it. But the number of choices is overwhelming, and I don’t have time for it anyway!
2. My shoe size is almost impossible to find, and I hate shopping for shoes. I’ve been reluctant to buy shoes online because I’ve always wanted to try shoes on before buying. But I bought my latest pair online, and it was so much easier. Plus, they were so marked down in price (probably because they were such an unpopular size) that I was ecstatic.
3. B&Ms waste a lot of shelf space on different brands and flavors of peanut butter. Nowadays you can buy peanut butter that's smooth, crunchy, mixed with jelly, mixed with honey. You have Skippy, Jiff, Teddy Bear, Smuckers and the store brand. Yet how many varieties are there of plain almond butter, not mixed with sugar or palm oil or whatever? Just one – and that was only after the store brought in a machine to make it in-house.
4. I love our local Barnes and Noble, but I buy more stuff at BN.com than in their local B&M. We buy our kitchen calendar from BN.com. It’s so special. It has a magnetic strip to hang on the refrigerator, and is 12” wide with large rectangles for the days of the month. Finding it in the B&M is hit or miss, so we avoid the frustration entirely and get it online.
2. Online items get dropped off in my driveway. I don't need to lift a product into a shopping cart, push it to a cashier, bring it out to the parking lot and then load it into the car. It should be noted that the B&Ms that I shop at have helpful people who will load stuff into customers' cars. Some even offer to do this even without being asked.
3. Repeat delivery and free delivery are so amazingly convenient that I rely on this for cat litter and pet food. These items also fall under item 2, as well.

B&Ms should excel at knowing the needs of the community.  Our local hardware store does this really well.  They know things like the right kind of paint for the climate we're in, the types of wood siding that was popular when the original homes were built, the parts needed to fix light fixtures and values.  I don't bother to look online for hardware-like items unless the guys tell me to.  B&Ms can learn a lot from the hardware store business model.

#NaBloPoMo2019

Dream: Boat Service

I own a boat, and I’m waiting to have it serviced.  I’m standing on what appears to be a curb, like the corner of a street intersection sidewalk, but instead of a street, there is the deep water that my boat is in.    And the sidewalk is also slightly submerged in about two inches of water.

I’m trying to hold lots of stuff, but I can’t seem to carry all of it.  So some falls into the water and floats in front of me.  I notice that all of it floats, but I don’t question the impossibility of it, even though there are green, vinyl-coated hand weights among the floating items.  Another item is my checkbook.

The service guy is approaching.  I ask him if I should dive in and swim to my boat.  He vehemently says not to, otherwise I might get chopped up by the propeller blades.

The boat is now a party boat, and I’m on board.  There is a speaker or entertainer standing in the front, and many seated in the audience facing him.

Chocolate Fudge -- It's About Time I Made Some

I finally made chocolate fudge.  I used one of the “easy recipes” that you can find online – a combination of Sweetened Condensed Milk, Chocolate Chips and Vanilla all melted together, mixed and chilled.

Unfortunately, I have quite a lot more of it than I should have.  The stuff is dangerous.  I could easily eat all of it.  I’ve been known to eat a 14 ounce can of Sweetened Condensed Milk in a mindless trance of ecstasy.

So I’ll do what I always do with excess decadent treats – bring it to work in the hopes that folks will take it all before lunch time.

Medium and Large and Nothing In Between

Look at the typical size chart¹ for men’s underwear, if you will, and tell me if you see anything wrong?

Size	Waist (inches)
S	28 - 30
M	32 - 34
L	36 - 38
XL	40 - 42
2XL	44 - 46
3XL	48 - 50

Well?

Here’s the problem. What do you do if your waist is 31”, 35”, 37” and so on? Fruit of the Loom tells you to select the next larger size. Hanes doesn’t even offer such advice, unless you ask customer service, and then they also advise the next larger size.

I am size 35, which is between M and L. So I bought the larger size, L. But they were too baggy, even after one washing in hot water. They felt like boxer briefs. M (which I bought next) was a better choice for me since I prefer a lower rise brief. M is a bit too snug, but aren’t they're supposed to be "tighty-whities"? So I'll continue to wash the L briefs in hot water each week hoping they'll shrink into the unavailable in between size.

---

¹ This size chart can be found on the following web pages:

https://www.fruit.com/sizeguide

https://www.hanes.com/shop/hanes/hanes-mens-briefs-120442?categoryId=21065#

#NaBloPoMo2019

Wednesday Weigh-In 20191114

The scale that I use is supposed to store the user's settings and recall them when activated. However, this morning it did not do that, and all I got was a reading of weight. So the body fat value reported here is just last week's. And I didn't bother to measure my waist, so that's carried over from last week, too.

Waist = 40.00"
Height = 5' 7"

References:

1. Wikipedia BMI page
2. Balance Body Composition Bath Scale
3. Javascript must be enabled to view the data.

Cat Litter Review -- Feline Pine Original Non-Clumping Litter

We’re transitioning from World’s Best clumping litter to a non-clumping dust-free litter.  We’re currently trying Feline Pine Original Non-Clumping Litter.

Please note that an addendum to this review has been posted.  You can find it here:

https://square--peg.blogspot.com/2022/02/cat-litter-review-addendum-feline-pine.html

We like it so far for the following reasons:

Drains Very Quickly
As mentioned before, we have one cat who’s a very Prolific Peer (PP).  His output is so voluminous that he can wet himself in a box full of quick-clumping litter.  As soon as his pee hits the clumping litter, the litter solidifies.  Then as his stream continues (and continues and continues) it forms a puddle that splashes up onto him.  But this non-clumping litter is both very absorbent and drains very quickly, so our PP cat stays dry.

Produces “Friendlier” Dust
The way this works is that when the pellets get soaked with pee, they break down into saw dust, which, as its name implies, is still dust.  So technically, this is not dust-free litter.  However, nearly all the dust particles are fairly large, so they don’t float in the air.  Imagine the saw dust you get by sawing wood with a crosscut saw.  The litter gets no smaller than this.

Compostable
This is made from natural pine and is free of chemicals.  It will eventually decompose, so it can be composted.  I dumped a large bunch of it in our composter, but it’s still somewhat intact.  Then I decided I would try to fertilize the lawn with it, since it seems to be compatible with the broadcast spreader.  I might also sprinkle it in the driveway to improve traction on snowy days.

Ubiquitous – even our favorite grocery store carries it
I usually get this from an online pet store with a Repeat Delivery service.  But if I had to I could pick up a spare bag at the grocery store.

Odor Control
It’s surprisingly effective at suppressing odor.  However, I do sift it at least every two weeks because only the pellets can contain the odor.  The saw dust does smell if it becomes pee-drenched.

Long Lasting
The 20lb bag is lasting longer than I expected.  You need only a one-inch layer in a box.  This makes it easier for our older cats to step into the box as they don’t have to step too high.  As well, this litter seems to be superior to World’s Best and ökocat in terms of monthly cost, provided that I continue to sift it.


What we don’t like:

Heavy / Bulky / Awkward to Carry and Pour
The 20lb bag is flimsy, so it’s awkward to pour with precision.  Pouring gets easier as the bag gets emptier.  The bags usually have puncture holes in them.

Not Our Cats’ First Choice
The “go-to” litter boxes in our home are the ones filled with World’s Best.  I think only our PP cat prefers Feline Pine, and almost never for pooping.  He doesn’t care to bury his business.  My guess is that the other two cats prefer the clumping litter because it’s easier for them to bury their business in it.

Dream: Shape-Shifting Sensei

I'm at a martial arts demonstration in a gymnasium.  I'm in one of the many seats arranged in a large circle on the floor.  I facing the bleachers.

The Grand Master Sensei is introduced.  He's the one everyone came to see.  I look at him.  He's wearing a red gi and black pants.  He appears to be Italian.  He seems uncomfortable and uneasy as he looks at me.  We know each other, so I smile and nod encouragingly and even give him a quick thumbs up.

He gets up and carefully makes his way to the floor.  Then he goes around to the seated people, one-by-one.

When he gets to me, I see that now he's an older Asian man.  I greet him reverently, with my palms pressed together.  I nod my head in a bow.  He speaks to me.  He tells me that I must get something.  It sounds like it might be an herb.  Goji, perhaps, or maybe Ginko.  I agree, and he moves on to the next person.

He comes back.  Now he's a young boy.  I do not have the herb (or whatever) that he told me to seek.  No matter, we go together to look for it.  I follow his gaze to a dark grey cat lying along a hedge.  It's stretched out, sleeping on its side.  I infer that the cat is the key to our getting the herb.  We approach it slowly.  He's approaching the head end, while I approach its tail end, expecting it to see Sensei and turn and run.  But instead, the cat turns into a small, furry worm or caterpillar, also dark grey.  So I pick it up and hold it in the cupped palm of my right hand, and I present it to Sensei.  Meanwhile, Sensei has also turned into a caterpillar, perhaps twice as large as the cat-caterpillar, and he has dozens of skinny wriggling legs that are about ½ inch long and orange-brown in color.  He begins eating the cat-caterpillar, which is now on the ground.

Dream: Tri-Lingual Squatter

I’m walking in the backyard, carrying a large gray storage bin.  There’s snow on the ground, and I’m walking along the treeline all the way to the back where some branches and pine needles fell due to a recent storm.

Just as I reach a gap in the treeline, the neighbor zooms out of the woods on his snowmobile.  He stops just in time to avoid running me over!  I shake my head angrily and keep walking.  They’re also doing major reconstruction on their property and seem to be intruding into my yard.

Now I’m back at the house.  The owners of the house are selling it, and they’re going away, so I’m house-sitting.  The buyer is there.  He’s from Florida, fit and sun-tanned.  He rode to the house on a racing bicycle.  I’m not sure how someone from Florida will want to live in a place that’s frozen almost half the year, but he seems adventurous.

Now I’m in the house.  I’ve been told that the former owner is still there.  But I’m a bit flabbergasted that he appears to be entrenched there as if he still owns the place.  This is the “complication” I’ve been told about.

He’s talking to himself.  He has a German accent.  So I say, “Hallo, wie geht es ihnen!”  Initially he says nothing.  He’s sitting in the middle of the couch, now.  And he notices that I’m looking at him expecting a response, so he pulls out first one earphone and then a second and explains, apologetically, “I’m listening to German in this ear (his right ear) and Italian in this one (the left).  They’re not quite in synch; the Italian is running a tad faster.”

Someone was in the process of making eggs on the stove.  But everyone has been distracted by this man, so the eggs are ruined, again.  Someone picks up  the large, bowl-shaped pan and turns it up-side-down back onto the burner.

I’m so astounded by this man that…

...I wake up.

NaBloPoMo 2019 Blog Roll -- Unofficial

This is the first year I’m participating in a “homeless” version of NaBloPoMo.  I miss the blogroll most of all.

As I search online for “NaBloPoMo 2019” I find a few bloggers toiling away in the vast vacuum of the blog-sphere (and even one on Live Journal).

Here are some I’ve come across:

Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents
Asha Dornfest
Dannilion
Healing Through Connection
Drunk on Life
Tom Loughlin

I'm not interested in maintaining this year's NaBloPoMo blog roll, but if you'd like to be included (or removed), I'll try to find time to make the edit.

#NaBloPoMo2019

Cat Litter Review -- ökocat Dust Free Paper Non-Clumping

We tried ökocat non-clumping paper cat litter for a short while, as I wrote in my Nov 1 Halloween post.  We’d liked it for the following reasons:

Drains Very Quickly
We have one very Prolific Peer (PP).  His output is so voluminous that he can wet himself in a box full of quick-clumping litter.  As soon as his pee hits the clumping litter, it solidifies.  Then as his stream continues (and continues and continues) it forms a puddle that splashes up onto him.  But the non-clumping paper litter from ökocat drains very quickly, so our PP cat stays dry.

Totally Dust Free
There is absolutely no dust produced.  Period.

Light Weight
This is lightest litter I’ve ever used.

Compostable
Because it’s made from paper, it will eventually decompose, so it can be composted.  I dumped a bunch of it in the summer, but I don’t see it anymore.

Ubiquitous – even our grocery store carries it
I first discovered this cat litter in my favorite grocery store.  It was on sale, plus I had a coupon for it.  I happened to be looking for a non-clumping dust-free litter, so I decided to try it.  Then a while later I got concerned because there was none left, and I thought the store discontinued it.  But, no, it’s back on the shelf.

What we don’t like:

Odor Control
This litter reeked of pee within two weeks of my introducing it in our home.  The only solution was to dump it out.  I decided I didn’t want to have to replace it every two weeks, so I stopped buying it.  Except I still had one box left, which I used for my Halloween costume.

I plan to keep the one unused box.  It might come in handy to clean up liquid spills.  I’m fortunate that our two cars don’t leak oil – I wish I had a box of ökocat around when I had my Audi.

#NaBloPoMo2019

Cat Litter Review -- World's Best Clumping Formula

We have eight litter boxes set up in our home.  Two are on the main level; six are in the basement.

Currently we use World’s Best Clumping Formula cat litter in five of the boxes.  It's packaged in a green and black bag.  We like it for the following reasons:

Great clumping, even near the sides of the box
If you’re gonna scoop, you’ll want the clumps to remain intact and not fall apart as you perform your duty.  Compared with the two other clumping brands that we’ve tried (Tidy Cats and Naturally Fresh), World’s Best seems to form the most robust clumps.

Low cost
I’ve seen World’s Best priced as low as $1 per lb.  (In fact, we use our pet supplier’s “Auto Ship” service and get additional discount and free shipping.)  But what really matters is the cost per volume.  The 7lb bag is all you’ll need to fill one empty litter box.  It’s generally more expensive than Tidy Cats, but cheaper than Naturally Fresh.

Ubiquitous – even our grocery store carries it
It’s convenient if your go-to brand of cat litter is available at the local “Brick & Mortar” stores you regularly shop at.  Occasionally I’ll need an extra bag, or I might walk by and notice that it’s marked down in price.  While Tidy Cats also is widely available, Naturally Fresh is a bit harder to find.

Compostable
Because it’s made from corn, World’s Best will eventually decompose, so it can be composted.  It does take quite a long time for this, though, perhaps more than six months.  I suppose the same can be said for Naturally Fresh, although I’ve never tried it.  Tidy Cat is clay and is not considered compostable.


What we don’t like:

Dust
World’s Best claims to be 99% dust free.  What does that mean, exactly?  My guess is that if you put 100 units in a box, then over a period of time 1 unit of it will become airborne while 99 units remain in the box.  What’s the period of time?  The lifetime of 1 month, perhaps?  What are the units?  Weight?  Volume?  Nevertheless, it emits less dust than Tidy Cats and, I think, Naturally Fresh, which claims to be “virtually dust-free.”  This is the main reason we switched away from Tidy Cats and then from Naturally Fresh.  I’m still looking for a product with less of a by product of dust.

Slow to drain
We have one very Prolific Peer (PP).  His output is so voluminous that he wets himself because his stream splashes up from the puddle he produces.  This is the main reason we’ve started to swap out the clumping litter with non-clumping.  The non-clumping litter (Feline Pine) drains very quickly, so our PP cat stays dry.

Punctured Packaging
Occasionally we’ll get a bag that’s punctured.  So far, we’ve not had any brand new cat litter that’s been exposed to water.  But a couple of bags have leaked a small amount of product.  It’s always pretty obvious when you get a punctured bag – it tends to look as though it has air in it rather than “vacuum-packed.”

Corn
I’m not a fan of corn.  I can’t eat too much of it because it gives me joint pain.  I wonder if just breathing in its dust can bother me.  And what effect does it have on the cats?  We have one cat who needs anti-seizure medication and another that seems to have upper respiratory problems and eye discharge.  I’m hoping that they’ll improve as we transition to more non-clumping litter.

Slow Flow Through Scoop
I ended up buying a new scoop, one with a larger grid pattern, because this litter doesn't flow well through a typical scoop.  The granules are irregularly shaped, unlike the spherical granules that make up the clay litter I was accustomed to.

#NaBloPoMo2019

The Ban on Plastic Grocery Bags

Plastic bags haven’t been banned yet where I live.  However, my favorite grocery store recently eliminated single use bags.  Other stores in my area have imposed the 10 cent per bag fee.

When the bags were free, I’d use them to line my kitchen garbage can and collect waste from the cat boxes.  Now that I don’t get them, I’ve resorted to buying plastic bags for the garbage can.  (Interestingly, the bags I now buy cost $2 for a box of twenty, or 10 cents per bag, the same as the verboten grocery bag.)  As for the cat waste, I’ve found that both newspaper bags and produce bags (which are still free) work well enough for this.

According to Wikipedia, an organization has formed to lobby against bans on plastic bags.

It all seems so senseless to me.  Is there really a good alternative to plastic bags for kitchen waste?  What else would you use to contain used coffee filters, spoiled food, and grease-soaked paper towels?  Would you expect a paper bag to remain intact long enough to be carried out to a receptacle at the curb?

Or perhaps I’ve overestimated human efficiency and resourcefulness.  Maybe I’m part of a very small minority that now has to buy the same number of bags that I used to get for free.  Maybe all along most folks have been buying garbage bags and would just fling the free grocery bags out a window when they got home.

I think a more ingenious solution would’ve been to somehow mark each dispensed bag with a means to identify the person who received it.  Then when it’s eventually removed from where it was snagged in a tree, officials would know whose bag it was and levy a penalty against that person.

Well, in fact, these bags do have identifiers.  But of course they don’t identify the bag recipient; they identify the manufacturer.  If the plastic industry wants to continue manufacturing the bags, and consumers want to continue using them, why bother to fight them?  Just levy penalties against the manufacturers whose bags are found littering the environment.

What do you think?

#NaBloPoMo2019

Wednesday Weigh-In 20191106

Same numbers as last week. Too bad I couldn't resist that pint of Ben and Jerry's Phish Food Ice Cream last night.

#NaBloPoMo2019

Waist = 40.00"
Height = 5' 7"

References:

1. Wikipedia BMI page
2. Balance Body Composition Bath Scale
3. Javascript must be enabled to view the data.

Make Your Own Sauerkraut

"Forget that store-bought stuff.  It's pasteurized," my Naturopathic Doctor said.  We were talking about sauerkraut.

I thought I was buying good stuff, with nothing more than cabbage and brine.  But she was right, it was pasteurized.  The bottling process sterilizes the jar and the product, killing off all that healthy bacteria.

So after years of putting it off, I took the plunge and made my first batch in September.  I was delighted with the results!  It was crunchy, snappy, tart, lively but not at all unpalatable.

Here's a beginner recipe to try:

1 small organic cabbage head

1 large carrot

dried dill weed

small palmful of sea salt (about 2 to 3 teaspoons)

Slice the cabbage thin.  Then chop the slices into small bits.

Wash the carrot with a nylon brush and grate it.  (I don't peel carrots.)

Combine the cabbage and carrot into a large mixing bowl.  Add the salt and dust with dill until it looks right.  Mix and pound with a blunt wooden spoon until a mash starts to form.

Place it into a 32oz straight neck jar, such as a clean, empty tomato sauce jar.

Pound it down, leaving about 1/2 inch room at the top.  Add water to completely cover the solids.  Cover the top with a coffee filter or strainer and leave it in a dark cool place for about two weeks.

After two weeks, remove the cover and skim any suspicious-looking stuff off the top.

At this point it's ready to eat.  Screw the cap on and refrigerate for longer term storage.

My special additions include seaweed (after soaking in water for while I prepare the cabbage and carrot) and the powder from a few probiotic capsules.

Check this web page for more ideas: http://www.wildfermentation.com/making-sauerkraut-2/

#NaBloPoMo2019

Easy-To-Make Gluten-Free Tortillas

The topic of home made Gluten-Free tortillas probably makes you wonder, “Corn Tortillas are gluten-free.  Why not just buy them?”

I did that for a while, but there are two problems with store-bought corn tortillas:

1. They have nasty-sounding ingredients in them (as do flour tortillas).
2. Corn causes pain in my joints.

So when I stumbled across the two-ingredient recipe at ElaVegan, I seriously considered trying it.  And when my local grocery store had the flour 25% off, I knew I was going to try it.

But I had my doubts.  “Oh, they’ll stick to the pan.”  Or, “they’ll fall apart when I turn them.”

But no, the recipe really is very easy.  If you can make pancakes, you definitely can make these.  It’s very forgiving in terms of how much water you use.  I started with the lower recommendation, which is for thick tortillas.  But as I continued, I kept adding water to see how thin I could make them.  The only limit I reached is when the batter got so runny, it ran to the side of the pan.  Yet, they still held together when I turned them.  I managed to get them a bit over 6" in diameter.  I used an 8" pan.

And despite using a “sticky” cast-iron pan, there was no sticking whatsoever when I applied a thin layer of vegetable oil to the pre-heated pan.

For the second batch, I happened to have a couple of old limes lying around.  They were so hard and shriveled, my wife gave up on them.  But I managed to get maybe 1/8 cup of juice out of them, which I added to the batter.  The juice gave a nice tartness to the tortilla.

Give it a try!

#NaBloPoMo2019

NaBloPoMo 2019

Back in November 2015, I started to celebrate National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) by posting daily for the entire month. But I dropped out early and haven't participated in another NaBloPoMo since.

Until this year.

Apparently the official "home" for NaBloPoMo now is the blog of Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents and can be found here: https://www.pghlesbian.com/category/nablopomo/

Thank you so much for hosting NaBloPoMo!  I hope I can join in, even though I'm not from Pittsburgh and I'm not lesbian!

#NaBloPoMo2019

Smart Dog

My wife and I were making the grocery list.

“We need more canned salmon.  I’ve been eating it, lately,” said my wife.

“Oh, do you make it like tuna salad?”

“No, I just eat it out of the can.”

“Really?” I asked, surprised.  “But it has bones in it!  Do you eat the bones?”

“Yes, I just mash them up, first.”

“Good.  They’re a good source of calcium,” I stated.

Suddenly our dog excitedly ran into the kitchen.  “What’s up with him?” asked my wife.

I smiled when I realized.  He heard us talking about bones.

Smart dog.

#NaBloPoMo2019

Halloween 2019 -- The Litterbox Costume

I dressed up as a litterbox yesterday.  This was an easy, low-cost outfit.

• Cardboard box – free (with a delivery from Petco)
• Okocat non-clumping paper litter¹ – about $3 (It was marked down and I had a coupon)
• New pooper-scooper – 97 cents
• Safety glasses – free (Household item)
• Dust mask -- free (Household item)
• Zip-Lock bag – free (Household item)
• Tootsie Rolls -- about $3
• Other Assorted Chocolate -- free (Household items)

The Okocat paper litter was a good choice for this project.  It’s extremely light weight, and the granules aren’t so small as to leak through any gaps in the box or in my pants.  I had some lying around because I tried it out with the cats, and I found that it would quickly get saturated with pee.  The entire litterbox had to be emptied and refilled with fresh litter about once a week.  This reminds me, I’m planning on writing a review of cat litters soon.

So, did you dress up for Halloween?  What was your costume?

#NaBloPoMo2019

---

¹ https://www.healthy-pet.com/products/dust-free-paper-natural-litter
² Photo credit: anonymous coworker