It's trying to be spring in Spencer

Saturday after payday is historically "go buy a ton of cat food and cat litter" day. I've stopped paying any attention to the funny looks people give me when I load up my cart with bag after bag of cat litter at Walmart. I usually make a point of wearing a jacket or clothing with "Americancat.net" emblazoned on it, but not many people are looking at my clothes. They are staring at the cart and wondering how many cats that lady must have to need all that cat litter?

In fact, I could get by with far less cat litter per trip, if for some reason I wanted to venture into Walmart every single week. But the more I load up with, the less often I need to visit the place. If I see a floor worker, I'll even ask for a flat cart and a strong arm and we'll walk out of there with 30 bags and I may be able to stay away for almost two months!



On these days I just write out checks or swipe the card and just keep a general balance of how much I'm spending, and add it all up when I get home. I no longer snarl or whine when prices go up. There's nothing to be done.

My raise at work came through this week, so I snagged a new cat bed to celebrate. The more cat beds I have for my house cats and foster kittens to sleep in, the less cat fur I have on my own bed.





Squeak and Ivan give it their seal of approval.

This photo is for my mom, who got Molly a little stuffed frog for Christmas. It is Molly's favorite toy:



With the weather warming up outside, I've been letting the fire in the woodstore die during the day. This means it takes awhile to get it going in the evening. Warmer weather makes for a poor draft up the chimney. So I turn on the furnace, and the pets all huddle up near the heat vents. Once the fire is going, they move over by the stove.

You'd think it was 50 instead of 70 degrees in here!

In fact, Squeak has abandoned the new bed for the ottoman in front of the fire. Ivan is sitting on a mat on my desk, helping me write.



The oil man came by yesterday and my fuel oil usage was reduced by HALF these last two months. What's the difference?

The fan. Just the fan. The heat now comes down into the house proper, instead of sitting up by the ceiling. The temperature went up almost 10 degrees with that fan on, which of course meant the furnace stayed off.

Amazing. That silly fan saved me $150 in just two months.