(no subject)

For the first time this morning, I felt a sense of distance and detachment from the whole HP mania going on, and actually had a little tiny twinge of regret about it. Not a big twinge at all. Just a, "yeah, that must be kind of fun for the folks who are participating."

Me, I'm behind on my HP reading and my HP watching, so it would be useless to even try to participate. Haven't seen the latest movie yet. Haven't even read book 5, let alone book 6, so don't really know about all the plot developments and what's what. I'm not, however, afraid of spoilers at all. Which isn't to say I've seen any. Everyone seems to be being very conscientious about it. I just figure I'm *going* to be spoiled for parts of the ending, before I get to it. Doesn't really bother me, I guess. (I've already read this one huge SG-1/HP crossover fanfic -- no, really -- that I think depended heavily on book 5 at least, and I was a little perplexed by some HP details, but not very.)

I'm thinking that book 5 may go with me as good airplane-reading. Got 21 hours' worth of flying time looming? An 800-page book seems like a good bet.

Yeah -- for those who didn't know (which is probably most people, as I've been really bad at talking about it), I'm a few days away from leaving for a big trip to New Zealand. (!!!) Am going down there for about 3 weeks to visit various friends who emigrated there a few years ago. There's going to be road-tripping around both islands, braving winter weather, and much LOTR sight-seeing, and llama/alpaca-interaction. (And guanacos! Apparently!) Yup.

I am at the point where I am stressing the hell out about leaving. And about the aforementioned 21 hours of flying (not including one significant 7-hour layover in LA, where I'll get to hang out with rednikki, YAY!). I can already tell that I am over-planning for possible forms of entertainment, to keep from being bored. (I'm the over-packing type, though for this trip I'm really going to have to try to rein that in.) I hope there are good movies on the flights.

I haven't been gone from home for this long in... well, ever, probably, as an adult. lynxreign will be taking care of the kitties, but I am really feeling stressful about leaving them. I know it won't be so bad when I'm there and doing stuff, but in anticipation, it seems like a really long time.

Today... today is house-cleaning. Ugh.

(no subject)

(YES, I know, I'm spamming LJ, and it's probably a procrastination tactic! I've BEEN running the sweeper, okay? Also I had to go out and get new bags for it. I'm taking a BREAK.)

So, some of you may have seen raqs talking about obtaining the DeFURminator shedding tool from QVC, and how magical it was and all. A friend of ours in NZ apparently expressed interest in one, so Raqs got her one and shipped it to me so I could carry it over to her. It arrived last night. So I tried it out on the cats.

MY GOD.

The problem is: either Emily (the big grey one) is just a SPOILED PRINCESS, or else, she has particularly sensitive skin. She hates it. And this is after a long, semi-successful program in which I've trained her to accept a wire brush in the mornings after my shower. (But she only accepts that for about one brush's worth of fur-wad, and then that's it, she's Had Enough.)

The deFURminating process with Emily was WILDLY successful, in terms of getting GOBS of fur off of her. GOBS. But oh, with the yowling and the growling and the not staying still, and the swiping and the fighting. Man, what a BAD CAT.

So, I got about 2/3rds of a cat off her before I had to give up. And I felt bad, because I couldn't do it evenly, because of all the moving-around-avoiding she was doing. I know it says not to do it too much in one place, which I was trying to avoid doing. ALL I wanted was to do it on her sides and flanks, but OH NO. (She doesn't really tolerate being wire-brushed there, either.) *sigh*

Morgan, on the other hand, was a fairly good cat about it. I got *2* whole cats off of HER. But the problem with Morgan was -- she has A.D.D. She doesn't complain or fight and she keeps coming right back. But she is constantly moving and circling, trying to get her head in on the action, and I'm like, dammit, cat, I don't WANT your HEAD. The nice thing about Morgan is she's so small and light that I can pick her up in one hand and work the deFURminator in the other. (Can't do that with Emily, even if Emily wasn't being a fighting bitch about
it.) Morgan just kind of hangs there until she gets too squirmy.

So -- brilliant idea. Wonderful amounts of hair off them both. But not 100% successful, I'm afraid.

I sure hope that tyellas's behemoth of a cat *likes* being brushed.

(And I still feel bad if it turns out that Emily has really sensitive skin and I hurt her somehow. Because she sure as hell COMPLAINED enough as if I was.)

(But we're even, because she nicked me in quite a few places. Ow.)

***

Now, yes, I'm cleaning and vacuuming. Morgan doesn't apparently care. Emily hides when the sweeper is on, and then, every time I shut it off, she comes out and comes up to me and YOWLS and YOWLS and YOWLS. I don't know what her little kitty problem is. Unless -- and this is depressingly likely -- she associates Mom doing serious housecleaning with Mom Going Away. Hmm. So right now she's pacing around