Chimi

Normally, when my in-laws (one of which is a Veterinarian) go away on vacation, their dogs stay at our house and I take care of them without any issues and my wife goes and cares for the cats, birds, plants, etc. at their house.  This past weekend, however, my wife & sister-in-law went to join their parents on vacation and I had the pleasure of having to take care of not only our 2 dogs & 2 cats, but 2 of my in-law’s 3 dogs, 7 cats, & 4 birds.  You’re probably thinking that this shouldn’t be any big deal, right?  Let me explain.

Two of their seven cats are outdoor cats and weren’t any problem at all.  The others are all indoor cats, some of which have medical conditions requiring special food and/or medications requiring that they eat in separate rooms to avoid them eating one another’s food and possibly getting sick or dying.  Here’s where the fun starts for me.

Three of the five indoor cats are always downstairs (at least while their owners are away from home), but ONE of those (Zip) has to eat upstairs in the bathroom and then return downstairs after eating according to the long list of instructions that describe what each cat eats, what (if any) medications they need, and where they are required to eat in order to maintain their normal routine as much as possible.  So I feed the two downstairs cats (Maddy and Chimi) and manage to catch and force the cat Prozac down Chimi’s throat.  I had assumed that catching Zip was going to be a pain in the ass but it wasn’t an issue at all since he was rubbing against my legs very excited that he was about to be fed.  When I got him to the bathroom upstairs, he was none too thrilled about staying in there though.  I managed to squeeze out of the bathroom without him escaping and moved on to feeding Rava and Raven.

Rava is the other cat that needs the kitty Prozac and on top of that, he’s not supposed to eat dry cat food because of a digestive issue he has.  I’ve been told that if he eats dry food, he could get ‘blocked up’ and potentially die.  This isn’t supposed to be an issue because Raven usually eats in one of the bedrooms and Rava eats in the living room.  The first thing I need to do then is lure Raven into the bedroom with her food.  There’s just one problem though……..

Raven

You see, Raven (the little bitch of the bunch) and I already have a love/hate relationship due to a previous incident in which she ate a pill that either my wife or I dropped on the floor.  In an effort to get her to vomit up the pill, a friend (another Vet) and I tried to force her to ingest hydrogen peroxide from a syringe.  I was the lucky one that got to try to hold her still while wrapped in a blanket.  Needless to say, she didn’t like that and proceed to shred my hands and forearms to a bloody mess.  I was hoping that she loved her food more than she hated me and that she’d just follow me into the bedroom like she does her owners and my wife when she feeds her.  Well, she must have had a flashback to the peroxide incident or something, because she didn’t want to follow me into the bedroom with the food.  In fact, she wanted NOTHING to do with me.  I had to chase her through the house from living room to kitchen to dining room back to living room under one sofa to under the china cabinet, under the other sofa, back to the kitchen, etc.  Trying to think of other methods of luring her into the bedroom, I remembered that there’s only ONE thing I know of that this cat gives a shit about…….THE LASER POINTER!!  I go and find the laser pointer only to find that the batteries are extremely weak.  I tried it anyways.  It worked in getting her approximately half way there and then the batteries completly died.  At that point both she and I knew that the chase was on again. I finally ended up nabbing her in the dining room when she tried to dart between a cabinet and the wall but didn’t fit.  I had left the bedroom door open hoping that at some point during the chase, she’d run in and I’d just close the door and go on with feeding Rava behind the couch, but no such luck.  I was rather pissed by the time I caught her.  I put her in the bedroom with her food and put Rava’s food behind the sofa so he could eat in private.  Now it was time to get Zip out of the bathroom and put him back downstairs.

In an effort to avoid another chase all over the main floor of the house, I needed to grab Zip and carry him downstairs.  Well, for whatever reason, he decided to spaz out too and not let me pick him up.  He decided run laps around the bathroom from behind the toilet into the back of the tub behind the shower curtain, out the front of the tub and back behind the toilet three or four times before I was finally able to grab him and put him downstairs.  At this point I was even more irritated and decided to go outside and calm down before going back to check on Raven and Rava.  I took this time to call my wife and describe how much fun I was having.

After the phone call, I went back into the house to see if Rava had eaten and to let Raven out of the bedroom.  Little did I know that in the time I was chasing Raven around the house, Rava had slipped into the bedroom un-noticed.  I opened the bedroom door to find BOTH cats and an empty food dish.  Rava ran out and Raven ran to hide under the bed and wouldn’t come out.  I tried to spook her out but had no luck after several minutes.  I decided at that point that the best thing to do was to leave a litter box, food and water in there with her and then come back that evening to check on her and make another attempt at getting her out of there.

I had made a trip to the store with the plan of buying new batteries for the laser pointer.  I decided against it when I found that they were nearly $4.00 each and the laser pointer required THREE of them.  When I returned later that evening, I made sure to have my Maglite flashlight with me so that I could easily see under the bed, and into all of the nooks and crannies of the room.  I opened the door to the bedroom to find that neither the food, water or litter box had been touched since I was there earlier.  It was at this point that I began to wonder if I’d scared her to death (heart attack, etc.) because there was literally no trace of her in that room.  I was CONVINCED though that she was in there because I physically placed her in there and didn’t see her run out at all during the fiasco that had taken place earlier in the day.  I continued to look and look throughout the room moving things around and shining with the flashlight only to find nothing.  I left there again tired and upset that I still hadn’t located Raven.  I wondered how I would explain the potential death of one of the cats to my wife and her family.

When I returned to take care of the cats, etc. the following day, there was still no sign of Raven in the bedroom.  The food, water and litter box STILL were all untouched.  At this point I was nearly certain that she was dead somewhere in that room and that I just hadn’t found her yet.  When I went to the living room to locate Rava for his feeding and to give him his Prozac (or whatever it is), I found BOTH of them hiding under one of the sofas.  I was extremely relieved and went about with caring for the remainder of the pets, happy that my wife would be returning home that evening and would be caring for them until her parents return home.

I’ll be armed with a charged laser pointer and ready for Raven and Zip next time we visit my wife’s parents!!

Sweet Roll

This past weekend, my wife’s parents took a long weekend vacation to Michigan’s upper peninsula (da U.P.).   They brought us back a sampling of some of the great food & drink offerings of the area including fudge from Mackinac City, some AWESOME pasties from Sheldon’s Pasties & Bakery in Houghton, Beer from “The Library” brew pub in Houghton, and this MONSTER cinnamon roll from the Hilltop Family Restaurant in L’Anse, MI.  If I simply tried to describe the size of this thing, you probably wouldn’t believe me so I had to include a photo that included an object to reference (notice my Blackberry 8703 is dwarfed by it).  Needless to say, I had some good eats today.  Half of this thing for breakfast and a pasty for lunch.  I’ll be washing tonight’s dinner down with some of the Portage Premium Lager from the Library.  I love the name of that place (it’s in a college town).  If you haven’t been there, I highly encourage a visit to Mackinac Island and the UP of Michigan in the summer or fall (winter if you want to be up to your neck or deeper in snow).

Saturday evening was my opportunity to defend my half of a city tournament doubles and all events titles for the second consecutive time.  Two years ago, my dad & I won the doubles actual AND handicap titles and last year, my brother & I won the doubles handicap title and didn’t miss the actual title by much if I remember correctly.  This year, I had a new partner and we gave it a good run.  I got off to a slow start in doubles shooting only 200 but managed to finish the set at 700 even.  My partner added 690 something.  Our combined effort was no match for our friends Bob & Tom however who racked up series totals of 790 something and 690 something.  In singles action immediately following, I kept putting up higher than averager numbers for a series total of 754 which ended up just short of the winning series of 772.  I’m very pleased with that.  Since I don’t bowl on a team in Owosso or Corunna though, I didn’t have a team to bowl with for a team event score which in turn would give me the all events score necessary for any shot of title defense.  There was, however a team bowling the final team event squad today at 1:00 that needed a bowler.  I was offered the spot, but had to turn it down due to the fact that I was bowling this morning at 10:00 in a mini match tournament and if I were to make the qualifying cut, I would still be bowling at 1:00 and therefore wouldn’t make the 1:00 team event squad.  If I failed to make the cut, it would likely be too late to make it in time.

So that brings us to the mini match tournament today.  Again, I got off to a good start shooting 239 and 228 in games 1 & 2 of the 5 game qualifier.  I wish I could re-bowl games 3 & 4 as I really struggled with making quality shots for multiple reasons.  My fingertips were starting to swell up pretty good from all of the bowling I’d done in the last 17 hours and the lanes were beginning to transition quite a bit making it challenging to find a consistent line to the pocket.  Frustration set in and I missed a few spares too.  My mental game was clearly absent as I only managed 159 for each of those games bringing me from a +67 to -15 with only one game left.  At this point I was finished because the top 16 cut line was already at +67 after the first three games.  Without the two shitty games I’d be easily in the top 16 and in contention for match play.  I made a ball change that ended up solving both the swelling and lane transition issues and shot 247 in game 5 bringing my total to +32 (1032).  I think if I’d have made that ball change a game and a half earlier, I’d have easily made it into match play.  At the completion of qualifying, I looked at the clock and it was 12:25.  At that moment, I thought I’d take a chance at getting that 1:00 team event spot in Corunna so I quickly changed shoes, packed up my stuff, jumped in the car, and drove to Corunna only to find out that they’d filled that spot this morning assuming that I’d make the cut in the mini.  There will definitely be no all events title defense this year.

PBA Tournament of Champions

This week the PBA tour was in Las Vegas for the Tournament of Champions.  On the show this week were Wes Malot, Mike Scroggins, Rhino Page and Patrick Allen.  Wes Malot and Patrick Allen have really been on a roll in recent weeks so it was no surprise to see them make the TV finals again this week.  With Wes being the lone right hander on the show, he had a slight advantage in that he could break the lanes down for himself just the way he wanted.  He made the lanes look easy in the first match shooting 276 to easily defeat Mike Scroggins (204) and advance to bowl against Rhino Page.  In match #2, Wes failed to catch the lane transition and change balls early enough and fell to Rhino by a score of 243-200.  In match #3, tour roommates Rhino Page and Patrick Allen squared off against one another for the title.   The match came down to the 10th frame with Rhino needing the first strike and then 9 spare to win.  He threw the first strike and then followed it with his only errant shot of the match, only knocking down 4 pins costing him the title and $25,000 in winnings by a score of 267-263.  Patrick Allen won again sitting on the bench only this time it was for a major championship title and $50,000.  Not bad for This Week In Bowling.  Allen had won a couple of weeks ago when Walter Ray Williams Jr. (arguably the best bowler) ever threw a great shot in the 10th frame leaving an 8-10 split when he only needed 9 spare to win.

This concludes This Week in Bowling for the week ending 1/25/09.  Until next time, I wish you bowlers all luck on the lanes.

Invitational Classic League: Bowled against the Royal Scot team.  I was matched up against Joe Manor, one of the best left handers around.   I ended up beating him 2 out of 3 games.  My scores were 269, 248, and 201 for a 718 series.  Happy with that.  As a team, we improved again this week and took 9 1/2 points out of 30 (not too bad considering the opponents).  The highlight for me this week was watching Dave Lughermo from the MSU men’s team struggle for the first 2 games and then shoot 298 in game 3 going down and in with a Columbia Blue Dot (spare ball).

American Legion league: It was tough to score well this week.  It wasn’t tough to get to the pocket, but carry percentage was horrible for most of us.  207, 186, & 201 for a 594 series for me.  To give you an idea of how tough it was, the winning doubles score was 413 where it’s usually 470 or higher.  We won 4 and lost 3 this week.

St. Therese mixed league: Another rough night to start.  A ball change to start game 3 made me realize that I had chosen the wrong ball to start with.  166, 202, 269 for a 637 series.

My $.02 on Bowling, the PBA Tour & Industry news:

Bowling today is much more than chucking a ball straight down the middle of the lane at the head pin and praying that it knocks down all 10 pins.  Most people don’t realize the amount of science and engineering that goes into the construction and drilling of bowing balls today in an effort to improve bowlers’ scores .  It’s gotten to the point though that typical league conditions are becoming “too easy” with today’s equipment.  The number of honor scores has increased significantly and have continued to rise annually over the past 15 years to the degree that for many bowlers, rolling a 300 game or 800 series is really no big surprise.  In my opinion, today’s equipment is giving many bowlers a sense that they are a much better bowler that they actually are.  As a result, the sport of bowling is losing some of its integrity.

The USBC’s Sport Bowling program is a good step in the right direction to restoring some of the sport’s integrity.  More difficult lane conditions minimize the amount of room for error forcing the bowler to be more accurate and consistent to put up a high score.  I really look forward to an increase in availability of sport bowling leagues (especially in my area of Lansing, MI) because I don’t mind losing (as much) to someone that’s actually a better bowler than I am.

Two years worth of testing and research by the USBC has resulted in a new bowling ball specification and an the opportunity to present their findings at the annual Fall Technical Conference in early October.  Read the full story here.