The Adventures of Katie Bonk!

I had to share this picture! It looks like my friend has quite the drama queen on her hands.

Labels: baby

I have a strange cat. He LOVES water. He likes to drink large quantities of it, he likes to play with it whether it's running from the faucet, or just in a pool in the sink. I'm convinced that it's just his nature- he even has webbed paws! From the time he was an itty-bitty-kitty, Daniel and I have not been able to use the bathroom alone. Buddha will tear up the carpet on the other side of the closed bathroom door if we do not let him in with us. (Besides, who can say no to the little pink paw that comes under the door and waves at you?) As soon as he gets in the room, he jumps in the bathtub and expectantly looks up into the faucet until we turn it on. (If we do not turn it on, he starts biting the knob, trying to turn it on himself.) Once he's finished drinking the water from that faucet, he jumps up to the sink and waits for us to turn the water on there. He will stay in the bathroom drinking or playing with running water the entire time we are in there.

My sister gave us a (pre-owned) cat water fountain for Christmas. (The former owner's cat had zero interest in it, so we inherited it.) We were so excited to give Buddha his own little sink with continuous running water! Both cats loved the fountain when we got it set up and going. Our mistake was leaving them unsupervised with the fountain. Apparently, Buddha wanted to know where the water was coming from, and he knocked the entire thing over during his inspection. Water all over the kitchen...

Most cat owners have to worry about their pets climbing a Christmas tree or batting the ornaments off of the tree. Not us! Nope, we have to worry about keeping Buddha out of the tree's water. Our first Christmas, it was okay. We had our tree on our patio outside, so when he played with it then, it was cute and funny. Not so for Christmas 2004! I had a tree skirt on the tree for about an hour before he had it soaked. Mind you, we do have a bowl of water in the kitchen specifically for the cats! He would rather drink the nasty dirty tree water! So, we had a naked tree and had to clean up the water around it every day.

Just this morning, Buddha joined me in the shower where he licked the water off of my leg until I turned around and the shower spray hit him in the face. He's so funny and so cute. I embrace his love of water. It makes him unique and different, and it gives me funny stories to tell!

Labels: Buddha, cat

Does anyone know of a company or government office where the employees do not have voice mail? Here in the tax office, we have been told by our supervisors that if someone calls us, they will get a human voice to speak to. This seems archaic to me. As a cartographer, we are not supposed to get calls from the public- those calls are to be directed to our office support staff up front. Nevertheless, we do not have voice mail on our phones. Instead, we are expected to answer our co-workers' phones if they are away from their desk, and take a message. This would be fine if it only happened every now and then, but I have one co-worker, in particular, who's phone rings much more than anyone else's phone. This person is also away from her desk for most of the day (usually spreading gossip), therefore the rest of us become her personal answering service to take the oh-so-important messages from her daughter, sister, friend... (I am sure that this is a meager and insignificant issue for, say, a busy and hard-working teacher, but) I was just wondering if anyone else knew of places still using human answering services rather than voice mail in 2005...

Labels: tax office, work

I just got finished talking to my supervisor who told me that his supervisor has given us permission to take all of the signs off of the bathroom doors............ Okaaay, so now Joe Q. Public has an excuse for being in there because there weren't signs on the doors to tell him it was the women's restroom?! No, No, No, that is not going to work. We have yet to get a definitive reason as to why we are not allowed to have locks on the doors. Am I wrong to think that the man in charge should have the best interest of the employees' safety as one of his top priorities? Does anyone have ideas of creative ways to keep the public out and keep us safe? Any ideas of how to talk the man into changing his mind?
I will just continue to use the upstairs restroom. It's good exercise for me to use the stairs, and there haven't been any eyes in there yet. (I just have to schedule my visits now to prevent an emergency!)

Labels: Peeping Tom, tax office, work

This is Gus, my nephew, when he was a wee little puppy. He was such a sweet little dog. Since these days of sweetness, he has moved to Texas with my sister and her husband, and apparently has a barking problem. His mother recently purchased a muzzle for the poor Gus-Head.It seems that I am the only one who feels sorry for the poor dog. Although, I suppose that he does have a rather loud bark/howl...

Labels: beagle, dog, Gus

Well, I just heard word back from a meeting about the security issues of the bathrooms in my office. It looks like nothing is going to happen to help prevent the public from using the staff restrooms. Even though there are big plans to install card-entry locks on the exterior doors of the entire building, apparently it will be too difficult to add 2 more of these locks to the bathroom doors. The Man in charge has spoken and has passed on the word that if we feel unsafe in the bathrooms, then we need to use the restrooms upstairs instead. At this point in time, I am feeling a strong need to go into the men's restroom when said Man is using it and let him feel the presence of an Eye.

Labels: Peeping Tom, tax office, work