So we had a lovely weekend.  The outdoor activities we’d thought might be fun had to be put aside because we got snow.  Again.  And it’s friggin’ cold out there.  And we’re supposed to get more.  Blech.

Well, the kids had no school today, so daughter #1 finished her science fair project, I did a bit of cleaning, daughter #2 played on the computer she built with her dad yesterday.  Then we shopped.  So did everyone else in Toms River, it seems.

Now it’s time to start dinner, I guess.  This time of year makes me so snoozy.

One of the advantages of living where we do is that the theatres show movies all day for the senior citizens.  I took the kids to see “Memoirs of a Geisha” right after school yesterday.  It was beautiful, but not something I have to rush out and buy when it comes out on DVD.  I did have to bring my attention back to the movie with some effort at times (Look at the pickstitching on the cuff of that kimono!) and the girls needed some things explained, but we had a really nice time together.

Tomorrow, my darling friends Gayle, Barry, and Sophie are coming to visit, so I’m cooking all kinds of Indian stuff so we can feast tomorrow and I don’t spend all day in the kitchen.  The Saag Paneer is done, the Naan is rising.  Potatoes are boiling for the Aloo Mataar, and I’ll start the Moghlai Chickpeas after the kids are done cleaning up the kitchen.  I hope everyone’s mouths are watering right now.

In the old house, we had a basement, which is where we tucked away the litterboxes for all the cats.  While this kept them out of the public areas, cleaning was a pain in the behind.  Sanitizing them was even worse, since the scoop litter stuck to the boxes like glue.  But it kept the smell out of the living room, and we didn’t have litter tracked around.

When we moved into a ranch house with only two bathrooms, I was concerned about the litterbox situation – only one in each bathroom, and six cats.  We’d tried flushable litter in one box before we moved, so the cats knew what it was for.  So. . .we have two covered boxes filled with World’s Best Cat Litter, which is made from corn.  It’s flushable, unscented, clumping cat litter.  Every time a family member uses the bathroom, the litter gets scooped, too.  This stuff is great.  Even though it clumps, the clumps dissolve in the bowl, so even the low-flow toilets can handle it.  The dust gets onto the plastic of the box, but the clumps don’t stick, so sanitizing the boxes is easy.  Since it has no perfume, you don’t get smacked in the face with cat box smell when the litter gets wet.  I have a flexible rubber mat to collect the crumbs the cats track, and that can get dumped into the commode at the same time as I scoop, so we don’t have a problem with that, either.  I’m not getting any kind of compensation from this company, folks.  This is not an ad.  I just love this stuff because it makes my life easier.

The other problem we had after moving is the cats’ sudden interest in clawing the furniture.  They had done it before, of course, but it became Calvin’s obsession.  Not only was it doing a number on the furniture, but the darn cat was doing it in the middle of the night, waking us up over and over.  I used loops of tape on the corners, which did the trick, but looked awful, so I was in hardware stores and such looking for double-stick tape to replace it.  Well, someone else realized that cats won’t put their paws on tape, and came up with “Sticky Paws” which is a flexible double sided tape that comes in strips and is easy to apply and far less obvious than what I was using.  Problem solved.  None of the cats are scratching, and Calvin may even one day get it into his tiny brain that that’s what the scratching posts are for.  Got it in Petco, it’s probably available in other pet chains.  Again, not a paid endorsement.