Congrats to Lily, who won the copy of Mobry’s Dick by K.Z. Snow, which is being released today from Loose Id. (Congrats, K.Z.!)

• It’s been ages since I did a random update on my life and stray thoughts.

• When last we spoke, I was worried whether the new refrigerator would arrive before the old refrigerator died.

• It did!

• The new refrigerator was delivered on April 29 by two guys who were unnaturally cheerful about carrying refrigerators up and down three flights of stairs at 7:30 am.

• The new refrigerator is more spacious despite being smaller (I know!) and is quieter.

• The kitties remain deeply suspicious of it.

• On Saturday, I finally wandered over to the hardware store and picked up a patch for the screen.

• There shall be no more bats!

• I’m sure the kitties are sad about that.

• Knitting? Um, what? Ok, fine. I’m nearly done with the foot of the second of my SIL’s birthday socks.

• Yes, her birthday was two months ago.

• Give me a break – it’s nearly 80F, so she’s not going to be wearing wool socks for months!

• Sheesh.

• I’m trying to figure out what the three sickly trees in front of our building are.

• I know that they are not ashes, elms, oaks, maples, boxelders, lindens, any sort of evergreen, sycamores, gingkos, hophornbeams, cottonwoods, or aspens.

• You’d think I’d get a bit further than that with a forestry degree, wouldn’t you?

• Quit laughing, Mel. (We have the same undergraduate degree.)

• Hmm. Apparently I’ll be leaving both cat carriers portable kitty caves out for a while. I hate to discourage this sort of behavior:

*….zzzzzz….* -Mayhem

*….zzzzzz….* -Chaos

Congrats to Laurie, who won the copy of K. Z. Snow’s m/m romance, The Prayer Waltz!

• Will my current refrigerator last long enough for my backordered refrigerator to arrive?

• Inquiring minds really, really want to know.

• Although I’m pretty sure it makes no difference to those ten-year old pickles…

• *ahem*

• Monday night I had to work an upgrade.

• My part consisted of staying awake until 1:25 am (yay! they didn’t think they were going to be ready for me until 3:00 am!), then doing quality assurance testing for one hour.

• After which, I couldn’t fall asleep until 3:30 or 4:00 am.

• Later in the morning, I was sitting on my couch in a stupor and preparing to log in and work for a few hours when my boss called to tell me about a noon meeting that I really, really needed to attend.

• It was 11:45 am.

• Eeep!

• I managed to shower and get there by 12:30, which I thought was pretty good.

• I think my boss was just happy that I got there.

• I spent the rest of the day feeling as if I was having an out-of-body experience.

• Have I mentioned that I really don’t do sleep disruption very well?

“Go ahead, make my day.” -Mayhem

• I have no idea why the CommentLuv plugin is reduced to a single sad checkbox without text below the comment box. If you have some idea, please do share.

• Today’s free book at All Romance eBooks is the highly rated m/m romance, Love Means… No Shame by Andrew Grey. (The book will become free once you add it to your cart.)

• Last night, I was harmlessly sitting in my bathroom when Chaos, apparently attempting to leap out of the tub and chase after May, got tangled in the shower curtain and fell into the water dish.

• What? You don’t have a kitty water dish in your bathroom? What happens when they lock themselves into the bathroom when you’re not home? (The toilet is kept closed to keep kitties from playing in it, so it’s not available as a water source.)

• The kitties survived their vet visit!

• The kitty treat trick worked very well on Chaos (aka Mr. Food Motivated).

• He started to get a clue as he was zipped in, but it was too late! *bwahaha*

• May suspected something was amiss and didn’t jump into the other carrier, but she was too slow to flee the scene. *bwahaha*

• Verdict #1 from the vet: tartar! Both kitties will need to go back to get their teeth cleaned.

• Verdict #2 from the vet: May continues to maintain her perfect self (quote from the vet on a prior visit: “She poops rainbows!”), but Chaos…

• Chaos needs to lose a pound and… has an ear wax issue.

• Obviously May isn’t keeping his ears as clean as he’s keeping her ears.

• *sigh* I had my annual celiac checkup last week and, once again, I’m vitamin D deficient.

• Back on the prescription vitamin D, hi-ho, hi-ho.

• Still waiting on the official test results letter from my doctor to see what else might be awry.

• Hmm. Not hiding that I’m in a bit of a mood very well, am I?

• So… Tell me something that will cheer me up! Anyone who leaves a cheering comment on this post by 6 pm CDT, April 11, will have the chance to win their choice of one of the following mix cds: Coffee, Everybody Wants To Be a Cat, Eh Canada, Werewolf Moon, Vampire Life, Books, or ManLove. Winner will be selected by random number. [CONTEST CLOSED]

*…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…* -Chaos

• Crazy, crazy weather here – yesterday, it hit 80F.

• The normal high for April 1 is 49F; the record was 82F… in 1882.

• It’s been really dry, so things aren’t as green as you would expect with those temperatures.

• The flooding you hear about is from our too-fast snowmelt while the ground was still frozen.

• We do have rain in the forecast for the next few days…

• Nothing to worry about re: the title of this post – just their regular annual checkup.

• I prepare for this event by getting both cat carriers out a few days early.

• They’re the collapsible duffel bag style cat carriers.

• At this point, if I don’t ‘fess up to leaving one of the cat carriers out all the time, Jeanne will share that tidbit for me.

• What can I say? I don’t want the cat carriers appearing to be a “zOMG! Flee! Flee! Flee!” trigger.

• And they like to nap in the carrier that I leave out all the time.

• I tossed some kitty treats in each carrier last night… baiting the kitty traps, as it were.

• Hmm. I wonder if Chaos and Mayhem are up to the challenge of chickens? See Lea’s blog header for clarification…

• It never fails to amuse me that in the property description for my condo, my outdoor parking spot is described as my “garden apartment”.

• Can’t say much for its ambiance.

• Have a great weekend, everyone, be it a holiday for you or not!

“I’m sure that you heard wrong, blog reader. I’m sure Mom’s not going to take us to the vet. That would just be mean.” -Mayhem

Congrats to Seanna Lea, who won the ebook copy of Kim Dare’s Three Minute Man! I’ll have a fresh, shiny Kim Dare ebook to give away next week, too.

“This better be good, Mom.” -Mayhem

*sunbeam bliss zone* -Chaos

Um, well, nothing else, I guess. Have a great weekend! Carry on.