Kabitzin.com

More Like Craptrax

Kabitzin — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:11:41 +0000

Finished 2 hours of shoveling, during which one of my fairly new Yak Trax Pro, uh, trax..es broke. The rubber webbing snapped, and so my boot went through the middle. Boo. I’d had the regular type before and they worked fine until my cats bit them to pieces. However, this pro version isn’t really better. I wrote the company an email and hopefully I can get a free replacement. I asked for an upgrade to XTR extreme too, so we’ll see how that goes.

Cat Dental

Kabitzin — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 22:20:01 +0000

Just picked up Sydney from getting his teeth cleaned. Dental care for felines is pretty annoying since he’s on an anti-crystal prescription diet and so can’t really eat dental treats. I did buy a bag of dental food for $25 because it comes with a $50 rebate when your cat gets his teeth cleaned, though. He had to get gas anesthesia cause I guess he wouldn’t exactly sit in a chair and obediently open his mouth to get cleaned.

Primanti Bros.

Kabitzin — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 11:58:39 +0000

Now that I’m working downtown, I finally got a chance to try out the famed Primanti Brothers. As much as I want to be able to say my sandwich was slawsome, it was really just unremarkable. I got a sausage sandwich with egg, and while the sausage and egg were good, there wasn’t really that much sausage. In fact, it felt more like I was eating a slaw and french fry sandwich than anything else. The slaw is a sweet oil slaw, and the fries were kinda soggy. The italian bread didn’t really hold up to the grease very well, and ended up smushed and soggy. I don’t know what the hubbub is about, and I don’t think fries in sandwiches are for me (although I do like fries in salads).

Switched to Non-Clay Cat Litter

Kabitzin — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 01:34:01 +0000

Combo time

Bunky and I have always hated the clay dust and clay particles that get in to everything and smear everywhere when wet. Unfortunately, previous forays (when Sydney was very young) resulted in “oatmeal-esque” litter messes. Fortunately, the last two weeks with Natural Scoop litter have been very encouraging.

The first thing is that the natural litter is fluffy and light. This lets me fill my giant litter box with just two bags instead of 34 lb. worth of clay litter. The cost savings isn’t huge, especially since I mix in a few crystals to help with the odor control, but the weight is much less, which makes it much easier to scoop the litter and carry the bags up.

We also switched up our litter mat situation. We got a food tray for really cheap to put just outside the door, since occasionally Sydney either kicks litter out or pees towards the door and some urine drips down and outside of the box. Then further away in the more narrow hallway to exit the laundry room where the litter box stays, the entire way is one of those more rubber carpet-esque litter mats so that the cats cannot avoid the litter mat the way they used to when the mat was immediately outside the door.

This means they can’t kick tons of litter on the difficult-to-clean mat or pee on the difficult-to-clean mat. The natural litter also tends not to fly as far and doesn’t really feel like anything when you step on a piece (unlike the clay which feels like sand and sticks in a mess on your foot. In terms of performance, it clumps moderately well, and with the crystals I can’t smell any urine or poop (or clay). With the new litter I think pee tends to go straight through it and then clump at the bottom, whereas with clay it would get absorbed more quickly and clump at the top. This isn’t a problem, though. So far so good, and I’m very happy with this new product!

Combo Time

Kabitzin — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:34:45 +0000

Little Kiwi is starting to get much better at stringing two-word phrases together. His first phrases were simply “Uh oh, Daddy” and “More, Daddy” but he’s recently been combining “More [noun]” together as well as “[adjective] [noun]” like “purple cat.” This is a relief since he is able to communicate more effectively and also because it no longer sounds like he only knows how to order me around.

Previously Kiwi would just point and grunt but now Bunky and Kiwi both chime in “[command], Daddy” and then sit back and wait. In some ways this fosters three-word phrases since Kiwi is able to say, “More [noun], Daddy.” I suppose this is the way of the world, and at least it removes the mind-reading component out of being a servant.

Bang Trims

Kabitzin — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:18:52 +0000

I usually go about 4-6 weeks between haircuts, and by the end my sideburns are all bushed out and wack. My hairdresser told me yesterday, when I mentioned my new job that starts next week, that I could just come in in between haircuts and get a 5-minute “bang trim” (that’s how it’s booked, I wouldn’t actually be getting my bangs trimmed) for $5. This sounds so super to me, since my sideburns bother me before any other part of my hair does, and it will let me go longer in between haircuts without looking so sloppy in the last 2 weeks as I try to stretch that haircut out.

I don’t think this is a revolutionary service or new spin and so I’m continually amazed at how ignorant I am.