Which will get me first?

Of the seven cats in this house, Dansig and Link are actually overweight, Mikey and SissyCat(a/k/a Tripod) are at their upper limit and do not need to gain more, and EnigmaSissy, Horizon, and Little Girlie are right where they should be.

Have you ever tried to put a cat on a diet?  If you can get away without ever having to do it, take advantage of and enjoy that.

Danisg is doing pretty well, as he was already on a special food for his kidney function, and is now on the same thing but the lower calorie version.  He likes it just as well, in fact i don't think he's even noticed a difference.

The rest of them are convinced they are dying.  The normal weight cats are being fed in a separate room, and given the same food in the same amounts as before, but they don't have free access to the food bowls all of the time.  The rest are being given only a certain amount a day of their regular food, enough that they won't gain more and may lose a bit, and i think they are going to stage a revolution before too long.

If you want to know how sneaky a cat can be when it wants food it knows it should not have, EnigmaSissy, who is still getting the same amount of the same food as before, has decided she loves Dansig's very expensive food that is for his kidney function and tries to sneak it away from him whenever she can.  Yesterday i had given him some, and he had left a bit in the bowl.  Because leaving it out is an invitation for another cat to come get an treat, and i didn't feel like getting up from the table that moment to put the rest away, i picked up the bowl and put it in my lap.  EnigmaSissy snuck up on a chair beside me and tried to sneak the food while i was holding it in my lap!

Add to all of this the fact that Pepe loves cat food of any kind, and also tries to sneak bites whenever he can, and i may just be driven around the bend.

Then again, i'm probably already there, considering that i just had the Jalopy worked on twice in the last few weeks, the latest time just this past Wednesday, and yesterday the check engine light came on yet again.

Also Cicero has had two visits to Kevin and Lenny in the last two months, and goes in for a third next week.  A seatbelt quit working, of all things.

If the cats don't get me, the cars will.



Today is:

Aloha Festivals Royal Court Investiture and Opening Ceremonies -- Oahu, Hawai'i, US (opening events of the Aloha Festivals, a month long series of free events on every Island celebrating Hawai'ian culture)

Armed Forces Day -- Taiwan

Braemar Royal Highland Gathering -- Braemar, Scotland (one of the largest gatherings and Highland Games, celebrated for the last 900 years)

Buffalo Wing Festival -- Buffalo, NY, US (two days of celebrating one of this town's favorite foods!)

Cromwell's Day -- The Cromwell Association holds a service at his statue on his death date

Day to Mourn All Manifestations of Sexism -- in honor of passage of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women

Day of Universal Alarm -- Fairy Calendar (no one remembers what to be alarmed about, which is what is so alarming, at least to the Fairies)

Feast of San Marino and the Republic -- San Marino

Festival of Children -- Costa Mesa, CA (weekends through Sept.; a community-wide charity outreach with over 100 stage and hands-on activities through the month)

Flag Day -- Australia

International Bacon Day -- good day for a double decker BLT with grilled onions and Swiss cheese

Japanese Festival -- St. Louis, MO (celebrating the history, culture, and people of Japan at the Missouri Botanical Garden; through Monday)

Macchina di Santa Rosa -- Viterbo, Italy (St. Rose, patron of the city, celebration begins this evening at 9pm sharp)

Merchant Navy Remembrance Day -- Canada
National Beard and Moustache Championships -- Nashville, TN, US (check out some of the former competitors here)

National Hummingbird Day -- not official, but someone loves them enough to have started this

National Welsh Rarebit Day

National Wilderness Day -- US (commemorates passage of The Wilderness Act in 1964)

National Writing Date Day -- a day to make a date with yourself to go to a coffee shop or library or someplace and get some writing done; sponsored by Natalie Marie-Collins)

Scottish Food and Drink Fortnight -- celebrating the food and drink of this beautiful land, through the 18th

Skyscraper Day -- birth anniversary of Louis H. Sullivan in 1856, architect credited with some of the first skyscrapers

St. Gregory the Great's Day (Inventor of Gregorian Chant; Patron of choir boys, educators, masons, musicians, papacy, Popes, schoolchildren, singers, stone masons, stonecutters, students, teachers; England; Kercem, Malta; Legazpi, Philippines; Montone, Italy; San Gregorio nelle Alpi, Italy; West Indes; against gout and plague)

St. Marinus' Day (Patron and founder of San Marino; also Patron of bachelors, deacons, and falsely accused people)

Tokehega Day -- Tokalau (remembrance of the Treaty of Tokehega)


Birthdays Today:

Shaun White, 1986
Kiran Desai, 1971
Charlie Sheen, 1965
Valerie Perrine, 1943
Pauline Collins, 1940
Eileen Brennan, 1937
Alison Lurie, 1926
Anne Jackson, 1926
Mort Walker, 1923
Kitty Carlisle Hart, 1914
Alan Ladd, 1913
Edward Albert Filene, 1860
Louis Henry Sullivan, 1856
John Humphrey Noyes, 1811
Prudence Crandall, 1803
Anna, Duchess of Bedford, 1783 (in 1840, she began the tradition of afternoon tea)
Nicolo Amati, 1596


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Search for Tomorrow"(TV), 1951
"Poppy"(Musical), 1923
"Funf Orchestrerstucke/Five Pieces for Orchestra"(Schoenberg Op. 16), 1913
"What Every Woman Knows"(Play), 1908
The New York Sun(Newspaper, first of what was to become the Penny Press newspapers), 1833
"Uncle Sam"(Image first used), 1813


Today in History:

Sextus Pompeius, son of Pompey, is defeated in the Battle of Naulochus by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, admiral of Octavian, which ends the resistance to the Second Triumvirate, BC36
Saint Marinus founds San Marino, one of the smallest nations in the world and the world's oldest republic still in existence, 301
Consecration of Pope Gregory the Great, 590
King Richard I (the Lionheart) crowned, and 30 Jews are massacred as part of the celebration, 1189
Richard Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England, 1658
The first large group of Swiss and German colonists reach the shores of North and South Carolina areas, 1709
The Flag of the United States is flown in battle for the first time, 1777
Signing of the Treaty of Paris, end of the US Revolutionary War, 1783
John Dalton, English scientist begins using symbols to represent different atomic elements, 1803
The first daily newspaper, a "penny paper", that actually succeeded, The Sun (New York), begins publication, as well as employing the first paper boys, 1833
Outbreak of the Greek revolution against the autocratic rule of King Otto, 1843
William, Prince of Albania, leaves the country after six months because of opposition to his rule, 1914
Sir Malcolm Campbell reaches a speed of 304.331 miles per hour on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, becoming the first person to drive an automobile over 300 mph, 1935
68th and final transport of Dutch Jews, including Anne Frank and her family/friends, leaves for Auschwitz, 1944
Wally Gator premiers, 1962
Dagen H in Sweden: traffic changes from driving on the left to driving on the right overnight, 1967
The Viking 2 spacecraft lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars, 1976
Russia and the People's Republic of China agree not to target each other with nuclear weapons, 1994
An 87-automobile pile-up happens on Highway 401 freeway just East of Windsor, Ontario, Canada after an unusually thick fog from Lake St. Clair, 1999
Iran's Parliament approves the first woman minister in 30 years, confirming the appointment of Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi as Minister of Health, 2009
The mobile division of Nokia is purchased by Microsoft for $7.2billion, 2013