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Wordless Wednesday

Wed, 07 May 2008 06:02:02 GMT

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Knocked up Thursday

Wed, 07 May 2008 05:59:48 GMT

Posted on House Panthers

Posted on Catnip Anonymous

Posted on Diamond's Lair

Posted on Black Cat Pub

Posted on Digicats (and Dogs)

Posted on Thoughts on Goal

For more Knock-knock jokes, visit Camie's Kitties where they're having a Fun-Raiser!

Kind of Wordy Wednesday

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:14:44 GMT

This is just a reminder that tomorrow is Knocked up Thursday as Camie's Kitties is hosting a fund raiser for Mama Laura, Lilly Lu and company. It's very easy, all you have to do is post your favorite knock-knock joke with a picture to go along with it, and they'll donate 50 cents for every blog that participates.

I've already to five jokes to post on five different blogs, and if Bean has another moment of inspiration between now and tomorrow morning, we might make it six and post one on her blog as well.

If you need a joke, try visiting Knock-Knock-Joke.com as they have well over 100 jokes on their site.

I tried to send this as a reminder to Cat Blogosphere, but the submission form called me Spam! How rude! In look nothing like canned mystery meat! Do I?

In other (and better) news Carnival of the Cats is the featured blog at Blog Carnival! This is the one I host at House Panthers, and if you have not check it out already, please be sure to stop by and do so.

Speaking of House Panthers, Auntie Spooker, the heat seeking missile is our featured Panther today on Blue Wednesday. My Bean and I find a patch of Garden for her to sun herself in, and I think it turned out just beautiful!

Last two nights we watch Dances with Wolfies. It is very good moovee, but my goodness...who makes 4-hour moovees these days? So hard to stay awake for! Maybe next we can watch something shorter! We just watch Ice Age not to long ago, so purrhaps Bean can find me Ice Age: The Meltdown to watch. I would like to find one of those little squirrels like in the moovee to chase around. Lacking that, I have amused myself by chasing birdies most days.

There are many animations out that I have not seen yet, so maybe we can skip the 4-hour features and watch one of those?

I will not watch anything tonight, or tomorrow, as Bean is going to baseball games again. She has to go for blood works tomorrow and then goes to see the human vet next week on Thursday and then the following week on Thursday too. I so happy I healthy and only see my vet once a year. Once is enough. In fact, I think once is one time to often but...she will not listen when I tell her this.

We have a new special projects we are working on, but they get put on back burner a bit as she have to write her baseball reports. Poppa Bear like her to have these posted by 7:00 AM so he have something to read with his morning coffee. Do not understand humans sometimes.

Oh well. I think I'm going to go look at birdies now. I will meow at you all later.

Tuxie Tummy Rub Guide

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:59:30 GMT

User's Manual:

Find more Tuxies at Tuxedo Gang Hideout!

Motionless Midnight Monday

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:00:01 GMT

Click on image to bigify.
Clicking on image will not wake up the cute cat.

They say that waking up is hard to do
Know I know, I know that's true
Don't say this night's at an end
Instead of waking up I wish that
we were going to sleep again

I beg of you, just say goodnight
Can't we give that bed just one more try
Come on baby, let's Snooze a new
Cause waking up is hard to do.

I have to say Carnival of the Cats of was great fun, but it was also a lot of work. Then once I get done with carnival, I teleport over to Samanatha Black and Mr. Tigger's for house wreching party while their humans are away.

You know old saying "When the human's are away, the cats will play."

I would like to host other Carnival, but Bean says we must wait until fall. She did not get to write her FSL report because I using computer for carnvial, nor could she go to baseball game today because I need her here (which was kind of good thing, to my mind).

But yes, come fall, we will host more Carnivals and maybe even Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos (even though I good cat-cat).

If you have not yet done so, check out the 215th edition of the Carnival of Cats. Much fun stuff can be found there.

I do have one comment. When I log into submission mail, I find a very dirty litter box with many past carnival submissions and a TON of spam in there. Please, if you are hosting carnival, take a few moments to delete the spam and also move the submissions for your carnival to the PastCothC box in the e-mail program. None of us like to use a dirty litter box!

So today is a very laid back Midnight Monday as we recover from all of the fun. I hope that my fellow black cats will be sure to stop by House Panthers and submit your post to our Midnight Monday roundup.

Purrs and headbutts to you all!

Now...for a nap!

Myth Monday (on Sunday) - Dentzel Cats

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:43:52 GMT

Click on the image to bigify. Image information can be found here.

My Bean has long been fascinated by carousels - especially the artwork that goes into the animals that grace them. Since I am hosing The Carnival of the Cats, it seemed natural for us to pull up some of those lovely animals to use in our header.

The Carousel Cat or Merry-Go-Round Cat is actually and properly called a Dentzel Cat, after the carousel manufacturer that first featured them on his carousels.

Gustav A. Dentzel left Germany for Philadelphia in 1860 at the age of 20. In his native Germany, he had carved carousels for his father and soon began doing the same in the United States. In 1867 Gustav Dentzel changed the nameplate of his cabinet making shop to G. A. Dentzel, Steam and Horsepower Carousel Builder. Dentzel continued making carousels, and made slight changes to his traditional designs.

Italian carver Salvatore "Cherni" Cernigliaro made a large contribution to the Dentzel designs after he was hired in 1903. He was responsible for introducing the series of menagerie animals such as the cat, pig, and rabbit. He first began his carousel carving career in the shops of E. Joy Morris, another notable carousel maker of the time.

After Gustav Dentzel's death in 1909, his son William took control of the company and headed it for twenty years until his death in 1928. The company was then sold at auction to a competitor, the Philadelphia Toboggan Company. Unfortunately, at the time, the family was not interested in continuing the Carousel Tradition.

After more than 150 years, the Dentzel Carousel Company is still owned and operated by the Dentzel family. Fifth generation carousel maker William H. Dentzel III has continued on in his father's, grandfather's, great and great-great grandfathers' traditions.

His company makes smaller "flying horses" machines today, along with the whole variety of Dentzel menagerie animals from horses to kangaroos.

One of the few Dentzel Carousels that is still fully functional can be found in Riverside, California at the Royal Castle Amusement Park. It is one of the oldest Dentzel Carousels still intact. It is nearly 100 years old and has 52 hand-carved Dentzel animals and two sleighs that are circa 1905. The animals include cats, ostriches, reindeer, lions, tigers, bears, pigs, and of course, horses. It is valued at over 1.5 million dollars and is enclosed in a million-dollar pavilion with glass windows in order to protect it from inclement weather and other elements that might damage it. Two large majestic lion statues stand guard at the entrance. This carousel was originally built for the Hershey Chocolate Company and the Hershey Amusement Park in Hershey, Pennsylvania. It was moved to Knotts Berry Farm in Buena Park, California in the mid 1950s. Park owner Bud Hurlbut, who also owns the remaining carousel at Knotts Berry Farm, moved it to its present location at Castle Amusement Park in 1985.

Dentzel animals are among the most sought after of collection pieces. The Dentzel cat is best known for carrying something - usually a fish or squid - in it's mouth, but carvers today have given their cats any number of objects to carry.

Dentzel cats are almost always "jumpers" as well. There are two basic kind of carousel animals "jumpers" and "standers". Standers are the animals on the outside perimeter of the carousel that do not move up and down and just stand on the platform of the ride. Jumpers are found in the second and 3rd rows and are the animals that move up and down while the ride is in motion.

"Prancers", the 3rd king of carsousel animals, are most often seen as horses or other hooved animals, such as deer, and may be seen in any of the rows. Some travel up and down, others are mounded on the platform.

Along with the Dentzel Cats, Salvatore Cernigliaro also brought the Dentzel Lions and the Dentzel Tigers to the world of carousels, both of these animals were almost always standers. Carl Muller, another carver for the original Dentzel carousels, actually introduced the lions, and his bore a great resemblence to the Gothic statuary of the 12th centry Germany. Cernigliaro were much more ornate than Muller's original carvings.

To find out more about the Dentzel cats, and Carousels in general, here are some places to visit online:

The National Carousel Association in San Francisco
Carousel Art a Flickr collection
Dentzel Solar Menagerie Carousels
The Glen Echo Park Dentzel Carousel
Carousels.com

Ain't Misbehavin'

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 01:21:14 GMT

Click on image to supersize the cuteness

I get a new kitten. She is the pink striped tabby on the end and her name is Purry. The pink tuxie kitten's name is Curtsy and the calico kitten's name is Hodges. These are my kittens.

Bean say I do not deserve a new kitten because I have misbehave lately. I do not think I misbehave. It has been very nice weathers out and I do not want to be stuck indoors. Besides, she go off to baseball games and leave me alone, so I might as well go outside. Right?

When I inside I want to look out the window. I do not think this misbehave. Just because I want to look out window she sleeping under and accidentally fall on her head is not misbehave. It accident. I not mean to fall on her head.

And besides, if you not ignore me to go to baseball games, maybe I not get so wrapped up in what is going on outside. I mean, we not play dress up in forever because you busy with baseball males.

So I not misbehave. So I think I deserve new kitten to keep me company while you out chasing baseball males.

I do not knock over the computer disks. They fall of their own accord. Just because I happen to be exploring the cabinet above the shelf where they store make it coincidence. Not misbehave. You should learn difference between coincidence and misbehave. I not misbehave.

Yes I did claw some pieces of wood out of the vanity in the bathroom to play with. But vanity is disintegrating, you say so yourself and you are going to take out and put new one in. So that not misbehave. I only helping you remove old vanity. Should learn difference between misbehave and help. I help, I good kitty.

Besides, I bored. You not around to play with because you out with baseball males at baseball game. So I just entertain myself by being helpful.

You know, I not like Cecil, a personality that you can just put aside because there are some people in your life who not understand. I living, thinking, being; not a hobby. Baseball is a hobby, not good cat-cat who love and care for you.

Should get priorities right. I good cat-cat. There ain't no misbehavin' kitties around here!

George from PB&J is my favorite tag me for a me-me. Here are the rules:

1) Write your own six word memoir.
2) Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.
3) Link to the person that tagged you in your post, and to the original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.
4) Tag at least five more blogs with links.
5) Don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.
6) Have fun!!

I have no idea where the original post is, so....I cannot link to it. I follow link trail back to Neo Artes but then get lost. (That is not misbehave. That is crazy blog where link to older posts not work.)

Anyway, here is my six word memoir....

Treats, treats, kittens and belly rubs.

I would now like to tag Chloe and Daphne from Purrchance to Dream as well as Spooky-Do from Sandwiched Mom and Theo and Thompson from Cat's Eye.

Fact Friday

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:50:36 GMT

Click to bigify

By the numbers...

544,000: trees saved if every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber paper towels (70 sheets) with 100% recycled ones.

20 million: tons of electronic waste thrown away each year. One ton of scrap from discarded computers contains more gold than can be produced from 17 tons of gold ore.

9 cubic yards: amount of landfill space saved by recycling one ton of cardboard.

79 million tons: the amount of waste material diverted away from disposal in 2005 through recycling and composting… (EPA)

5%: the fraction of the energy it takes to recycle aluminum versus mining and refining new aluminum.

315 kg: the amount of carbon dioxide not released into the atmosphere each time a metric ton of glass is used to create new glass products.

98%: the percentage of glass bottles in Denmark that are refillable. 98% of those are returned by consumers for reuse.

51.5%: the percentage of the paper consumed in the U.S. that was recovered for recycling in 2005.

Thanks for visiting us this week as we celebrated Earth Day and explored what we can all do to help the enviroment! I love being outside and I love having a nice clean, green place to play. Let's keep it that way for future generations to enjoy as well!

Don't forget that I am hosting The Carnival of the Cats at House Panthers. This is my very first time hosting a Blog Carnival so I hope you will submit your post and help make this one a success!

Your supports is really appreciated!

T-13: 13 ways you can help!

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:58:21 GMT

Click on image to bigify.

1. Buy Only What You Need. Plain and simple - don’t over purchase.

2. Recycle, Recycle, Recycle!

3. Change a Light, Change the World. When your incandescent light bulbs stop working, replace them with the new, energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).

4. Bag It Up the Green Way. Don't forget those cloth shopping bags!

5. Green Your Gadgets. Recycle broken electronics. Don't upgrade every time a newer gadget comes out.

6. Make Every Drop Count. Conserve water. Even though 70% of the world is covered by water, less than 1% is fresh enough to drink or use.

(We've been on water restrictions for so long, I forget how not to conserve water.)

7. Turn Up the A/C and turn up the Savings. You can live with it a couple of degrees warmer than usual. Or cooler than usual in the winter. Only two degrees can make a difference!

8. Clear the Air. Carpool, ride the bus, use public transportation or bike to work.

9. Save A Tree. Save paper, time and postage, pay your bills online. As the price of paper cards and postage increases, consider emailing e-cards. There are lots of fun and environmentally-friendly e-cards and options on the Internet.

10. Home Sweet Home. Clotheslines are making a comeback - Dry your clothes on the line instead of in the dryer. They will smell better and you will save money (and get some exercise!)

11. Plant a tree. Shade trees can help reduce your cooling bills in the summer and they can provide hours of enjoyment for the whole family.

12. Open up! Open the doors and windows to let the fresh air in! Indoor air quality is often times worse than the air outside. Open doors and windows daily to circulate fresh air in and germs and smells out. Try cooling off your home the natural way!

13. Go Solar! Solar upgrades in water heating and cooling to your home can help save you money in the long run. Also consider engery effecient windows (including double paned storm windows) and doors. Check your insullation. A lot of people down south forget this, but an well insullated home can save you money on your cooling bills.

Visit Go Green San Joaquin for more tips on going green, and saving money, at home, at work and in your community.

center>The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
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Earth Day: Go Green!

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:53:36 GMT

Click on the image to bigify.

Cats are good a recycling. Cardboard boxes, plastic milk rings, coffee stirrers, straws, etc, all become toys when humans are done using them. But humans are not so good about putting thing to better uses.

Remind your humans to recycle plastics and papers. Virtually every community allows for the recycling of these items. Make sure your humans take reusable cloth grocery bags day hunting with them, and if they must use plastic "dinosaur" bags, to return them to the recycling centers at the Supermarket Hunting Grounds when they are finished with them.

Want to do more? Get your humans to take the Green Initiative!

1. Generate compost. This is nature's way of recycling. Through basic and worm composting programs, children learn about ecology, biology and waste reduction.
2. Recycle everything that cannot be reused and purchase items that can be recycled. With fast shrinking landfill space and diminishing natural resources, recycling has never been more important. Recycling items such as paper, plastic, aluminum and ink cartridges reduces toxic greenhouse gas emissions and conserves energy. Manage E-waste by finding creative solutions to divert obsolete computer parts, cell phones and other such devices from the waste stream. Schools that recycle provide much-needed materials to manufacturers who produce recycled products.
3. Educate students, teachers and parents on environmentally-responsible behavior. When students, teachers and parents work together to make their schools environmentally friendly, they are more likely to take the same behaviors into their off campus lives. Our goal is to create environmentally-responsible school communities throughout the nation and across the globe.
4. Evaluate the environmental impact of every activity. Identify products and practices that could threaten the health of children and the world around them. Consider improving your home environment with activities such as eliminating excessive energy consumption; evaluating the toxicity of pesticides used in rooms and on grounds; improving outdoor air quality through increased carpooling efforts; and working to improve indoor air quality.
5. Nationalize the principles of responsible paper consumption. Consider purchasing post consumer recycled paper and office products. Use technology to communicate electronically as much as possible. Seek ways to provide Internet access to all families.

Find out more at GoGreenInitiative.org

Did you know you can go green, and save green papers? It's true. Find out how at Worldwide Institute.

I am not supposed to eat the Daisies...

Click on image to bigify it.

...or the butterfly either. However, if I bring her the head of the songbird that's been singing in the tree outside the bedroom window at 2:30 AM, she says she'll give me a WHOLE POUCH full of treats. I wonder if it's a tasty birdy...