Yesterday, T and I were feeling a bit spontaneous. T has been sick recently with laryngitis and upper-respiratory disorder (she catches something from her students every few weeks and I ultimately catch it too…) so we found a family clinic that was open on the weekend to get some meds. Everything went well and she is recovering nicely. She did have to have an antibiotic shot however so… I bought her a KITTY!

Okay, so it didn’t go exactly like that. We’ve been talking quite a bit about wanting a dog or small pet but worried about our current time constraints and what would be best for the pet. We would have to first research the kind of dog we wanted, hunt one down from a breeder or a shelter, train it, get all the supplies, take it out several times daily, train it to get used to our crazy schedules and find time to take it for walks and days in the park. We could of course do all of this if we put our minds to it, but it is a pretty hefty responsibility. So Saturday, after the doctor’s I mentioned that we should get a cat! Why not? We could go to the animal shelter, and…just see what they were like. If one caught our fancy then we could think about it further. Well, we looked into it and decided that we would rather have a kitten than a full-grown cat. I realize this is maybe not everyone’s opinion of how to acquire a pet but they need homes too right? It turns out that the Dallas PETSMART has an in-house adoption center where they are directly supplied by kittens from the SPCA. We got to the store and were greeted by 6 or 7 beautiful cats. One however caught our eye. She was all-black, with bright yellow eyes. And the had the smoothest fur I have every felt on a cat. She was a little bigger than what we imagined, but not full-ground. No one had claimed her yet and she was only 4 months old.

There was another small orange tabby who actually was polydactyl as he had 7 front toes/claws instead of 5. He had such obvious opposable thumbs that looked like human hands. After later research, it is a common disorder – Ernest Hemingway especially liked them. Anyway a little five year-old girl was playing with him as her mother signed the paperwork. So he was out. We held and played with the black one for a little while longer. It was hard to tell if she was the right one. How do you know? Sidenote: I have never owned a cat. My father and brother are allergic so we always have had dogs, which are a tad easier to pick out in my opinion. The black one was friendly enough, a bit of a loner but seemed like a good pick. Well we told the guy helping us we would be back after we looked at the other PETSMART store. We drove over to North Dallas but were disappointed to find that their adoption center was closed for the day. It was run by volunteers and not supplied by the SPCA, so we weren’t so sure about it. We did see several available kittens – one gray one that I had my eye set on.

We left and I called my mother, who had many cats growing up. I asked her opinion and as always, her good advice steered us towards sleeping on it. And she advised on the black one we had seen earlier. She is a month older than the other kittens at the second store, would be a little more mature and already has all her shots. We couldn’t have agreed more. So we grabbed some dinner and slept on it. And by slept on it I mean we waited about two hours before high-tailing it over to the first PETSMART and pick up our newest addition to our small family. When we saw her that second time we both knew she was a winner. We filled out all the paperwork, walked the store getting a few supplies and goodies (bed, litter-box, kitty-litter, scoop, food/water bowls and a few toy mice) and put her in a cardbox box (though she was out as soon as we got in the car) and were on our merry way, feline-in-hand.

It is now Day 02 and she was definitely the best cat we could have picked! After reading up on cats on cats.about.com we’ve determined she is of British Bombay breed, your typical back-of-the-broomstick, Halloween, black-cat-cross-your-path cat. They are very loving, enjoy naps on your stomach, are great with kids and enjoy being kept indoors. They also work well with dogs! AND – she doesn’t seem to be very high-maintenance, though I’m sure she will be taking up all our attention when we are home. She uses her litter-box and cleans up after herself, gives herself baths, doesn’t whine or cry, eats when she’s hungry, loves on us and is beginning to treat us like family! WIN! We have named her Lulu and she did great surviving her first night in the loft. She made herself very cozy cuddling on the bed with us though was up around 5 or 5:30AM, WIDE awake. I calmed her down to get a few more hours sleep though. Anyway, all said and done, she was a great find and a great spontaneous adventure for the weekend – that will last for many years to come. Welcome to the family, Lulu.

And here’s a quick video of us playing with her on the bed. It also wil help you get a sense of her scale. But it hard to see much of anything besides her velvet black fur!

If you haven’t heard of the acronym, MLIA, which stands for My Life Is Average, you should definitely check out their site. It’s updated constantly and is just enough to always put a smile on my face. Here’s a small dosage for today:

Today I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. When i came back I found my dog laying on my bed under the covers and his head on my pillow. He looked at me just streched to leave me no room on the bed. I had to sleep on the couch. MLIA

Today while in piano class at school I found that my piano has an applause key. Guess who spent the next 45 minutes feeling fantastic? MLIA

Today, I noticed the words “caps lock” on my keyboard are in lower case. I feel oddly betrayed by my computer. MLIA

Today, my mom told me that when I was little, I used to pretend that traffic lights were monsters. When they were awake (red light) you stopped and waited for them to fall asleep (green light) so you could sneak past them. MLIA

And I totally do this one:
Today when I was leaving my house I tried to lock the door with my car remote. MLIA

More laughs at mylifeisaverage

Do you ever feel like a day goes by without you knowing it? I have a bad habit of making my mental to-do list much longer than that which I could ever hope to complete. It’s not that yesterday wasn’t a good day or that it wasn’t mostly productive and enjoyable; I just feel I am getting behind. I need to become more productive during the week. Live for everyday and not just the weekend, which ends quicker than it began.

Have I mentioned that my wife, T is a superb cook? Tonight she graced our table with scrumptious ricotta cheese manicotti, mushroom tartlets, fresh baked french bread and a spinach salad (I contributed the homemade honey-mustard vinaigrette). Anyway, I need to do a series of updated posts since Christmas and New Year’s. Thanks for bearing with us and the limited posts. Keep reading.

Yesterday T & I made a fantastic discovery of a little art+floral shop on lower Greenville – just what we’ve been looking for. It’s called ‘bows & arrows’ and is right across from Lula B’s Antiques. You should definitely check it out if you’re in town. The owners and newly relocated couple, Alicia and Adam Rico come from Brooklyn and have really done a great job setting up shop.

The space is long and narrow, with simple gray walls and wood floors making way for the creative displays all about. It has a very modern, home-made, edgy feel to it. In addition to the etsy-style items and flower arrangements on sale, the wall space is utilized for work of a local artist.

Here’s a link to their website and blog.

As for the photos, please excuse the quality. I gave them a boost in photoshop but there’s only so much the iPhone’s camera can handle.