For a few crunchies more

Amelia was on a steady diet of crunchies. When we got her she had bad teeth, and they suspected she would need some (expensive) dental work done. We had her on a special crunchy diet designed for tartar buildup. At least they were good for her teeth. We never did have to do any dental work on her.

She liked them quite well enough, but didn't make a pig of herself, unlike some we could name. However the problem was that she was a messy eater. She would pick out a crunchy, hold it away from the dish, crunch it and nibble, while many crumbs fell out of her mouth. She wouldn't touch those. Sometimes she played with her crunchies.

We discovered this the first time we had the heat ducts vacuumed out. As the guy was shoving the hose towards that bit of ducting, it sounded like gravel being slowly dumped into a truck. It's a good thing we weren't on a strict budget for cat food because it was expensive stuff, and she probably actually only ate about 3/4 of the bag.

Curtis knows the bag of crunchies is kept in a big green bin near the cat dishes. Occasionally he will rattle the lid, but he hasn't quite got to the point of knocking it off. For a while we had a big stuffed toy sitting on there to discourage him. If he ever does get it off he's going to think he's in cat heaven, and we'll come home to an exploded cat.

For a face that is covered in fur, he can be very expressive. He makes it perfectly clear what he wants, more crunchies, and wonders how we could be so stupid as to not get it. What more do I have to do, you can see him wondering.

Here's a video of Curtis reaching under the bedroom door. This is the first video I've done to Flickr, I have no idea how slowly or quickly it will load. It is a little dark, and there is no sound till almost the end.

In other news, I was in the pool again for the first time since about Christmas. It was really full and I had to wait till a swim club cleared out. I wasn't expecting anything special in terms of times, so wasn't disappointed. The water feel wasn't as clunky as I had feared it would be, it's just that my arms were weak and feeble. The first 100 m was about where I normally am, then it slowed down. At least it never got slower than a 60 second 50. Then some dolphin kick and pull, and one fast 50 in 44 seconds not working too hard. In the water for 30 minutes. At the end of the day I can feel it in my shoulders a bit.

I'm still musing about races this coming year. I'm trying to picture myself going out to Banff or Canmore, and getting into the freezing cold water. Or Chinook where I'm really familiar with the course. Somehow, the picture isn't quite coming into focus.

After the pool I was walking briskly from the car to the office, and wondering why I'm beginning to sweat. It was actually warm out! There was a huge line up for coffee, so I went upstairs. On the days I swim I like to have coffee with my granola.