Couchsurfers and a CS party

George and Marion (our Dutch surfers) on the top of our roof.


Boots likes to lay on our CSers stuff on the bed and wait to get petted. (photo by Marion)

Marion, Sandhya and I. Sandhya and her husband Nishant hosted the party and cooked delicious vegetarian Indian food. VERY delicious!!

A very diverse group - guys from San Francisco here for the eclipse, a guy that lived at the South Pole three times (my cousin Brian did that; worked at the research station there and shoveled a lot of snow), people from Isreal, Lithunania, Columbia, the Netherlands, Italy, India and a guy with Pakistani heritage living in London - all getting together in China. The world is really small now!

Jaws

Jon snapped this photo as Boots was lying in her box on the balcony. We can't believe how far her jaws are open in this yawn!

Flat Stanley in Shanghai

Caleb's 3rd grade class is doing their Flat Stanley project. Flat Stanley was waiting in our mailbox when we were in the US for so long, so we tried to take him a lot of places in a short amount of time.

Boots meets Flat Stanley.

Flat Stanley liked our view. He was surprised that he could see the pollution in Shanghai - he'd never seen anything like it back in South Dakota.

We took him to see the famous view of Pudong from the Bund.

Flat Stanley also got to ride the subway for the first time. He was glad they had the English name beside the Chinese name.

Flat Stanley on Nanjing Lu, which is similar to New York's Times Square.

Flat Stanley and the Pearl TV Tower.

Devil kitty...

Her eyes are like lasers in this photo!

Here is Boots' new kitty tower. It's pretty cool. She loves it so much that I even threw away her box. She sleeps on the second tower, and lays under it too. She won't get in the hammock though.

I think it is exactly like the one fellow blogger WoAi got for his cat Tommy, who actually looks a bit like Boot's sibling. Boots' still has a couple mice hanging from the top levels, which she loves to bat at.

Boots

Boots got a new toy - a kitty tree house with 4 different levels. She likes to sit on it and look out over the city.

I have to admit, her new favorite thing is due to the fact I saw it on WoAi's blog! His kitty Tommy has one. Wendy ordered it from China's version of eBay for us (everything was in Chinese.) The best part is that it was about 1/3 of what it would cost in the USA.

Oh, and she likes it so much that she hasn't sat in her box AT ALL since we got it.

Occasionally I like to use my 50mm 1.8f lens. It makes it super easy to get photos with just one area in focus.

Poor Boots!!!

Today I took Boots to the vet. When Inge was here, we noticed that she seemed to be getting scrapes on her neck, then one appeared on her chest. Yesterday the one on her chest seemed to be getting even bigger, so we decided she should get looked at.

I took her to PAWS which may be one of the only foreign-run vets in Shanghai. The first thing he said was, "I'm going to have to shave her to get a better look." So, she has a funky haircut now. Luckily, it is NOT fleas!! The doctor thinks that it is a fungal infection. We just have to put ointment on twice a day.



I also asked if she was too fat. The answer: yes. He said to be fair, she is a "large lady" - she has a big head and is long (sorry Boots, you are just big-boned.) She weighs 5.85 kilos right now and he wants her to get to 5 kilos in 6 months. He talked a lot about how cats typically eat 10 to 20 small meals a day, like mice or other small things, so we feed them all wrong by doing it twice a day. For other cat owners, here is a link to a site that he recommended to me.

You can all help in the fight against obesity by sending her toys! She needs more stimulation. One thing we are supposed to do is feed her 11 tiny meals throughout the day and night, and put them all over the house. Then she has to move to get them (kinda like getting prey).

Time lapse of Boots in her box

I took a photo of Boots sitting in her box every 10 seconds for about an hour. It's pretty funny to watch her head bob around. She is content to just sit there for hours. My last post about her in the box got 5 comments... which is way more than I usually get.

Boots in a Box

Yesterday, Kelly (sales coordinator from the Beijing office) came to the apartment so she and Jon could put the official company chop on hundreds of bid documents. She brought all of the documents in a box, which Boots loved.

She's always had a box addiction. This lid is her favorite type of box. The sides aren't too high, and it's small enough that she needs to curl up to fit in it.

I think she's spent about 80% of her time in the box since Kelly gave it to her. At this very moment, she is sleeping in it with her head curled down and tail sticking out. Today I told Xiao Huang not to throw it away since Boots likes it so much. Thanks Kelly!

Finally updated!!!

Well, I haven't posted anything for about a month. Sorry to all of my loyal readers who check everyday for an update. :-) I probably lost all of you by now!

I've posted a bunch of stuff, so continue to scroll down and read until things begin to look familiar.

Boots is enjoying the nice weather! We've been opening the patio doors and letting the fresh air in. (Can it be considered fresh when China's air pollution is the worst in the world? I'm glad I don't live in Beijing.)

Wo de mao mao jiao Boots!

What a tubby kitty. She doesn't have to run up and down three flights of days daily, as she did in our house in South Dakota. Now, she lies in the window sill all day. She has a pretty good life.

We really do play with her to give her some exercise! See how ferocious she is? She's stalking some string.

Sunrise over Shanghai

Since returning from the US, I've been pretty jetlagged. I went to bed early last night, but woke up at 5 AM this morning. It was a good opportunity to see the sunrise and take some photos though.




Boots enjoyed the sunrise too!

Stalking her prey

We finally saw a pigeon! It landed on our balcony and sat there for well over an hour. It had a band on it's leg. Boots was freaking out. She really really really wanted out to go after it, but we were afraid in her excitement she might go over the railing! So she had to just watch it from behind the glass.

A day in the life of Boots

7-7:30 AM - Meow and paw at mom to wake up and feed me.
7:35 - Scarf down food.
7:36 - Lie in the window overlooking the pool, in the sun and nap.
12:30 - Xiao Huang arrives. Meow at her and pretend to be starving so she gives me a snack. Watch her and lie in the window some more.
6:00 - Parents arrive home. Begin meowing the moment I hear the key in the door. If I'm lucky I get fed right away.
6:30 - Inspect what they are eating and try to help myself, but only if it's tuna, ice cream, milk, yogurt or any other fishy or dairy thing. I am a gourmet, you realize!
7:00 - Lounge around for the rest of the evening. Perhaps on the balcony, the rug with all of the shoes, in a lap, or on top of a computer keyboard. It's been a long day - I need some rest!

Boots

Lots of people have been asking about poor little Boots. She is out of kitty-jail and we have her back. She was pretty pissed off at us for a couple of hours, but she got over it really quickly. She now rules the apartment. Boots hasn't eaten for a few days - the only cat food in the grocery store is the crappy commerical stuff and we just ran out of the food we brought from the USA. Her concerned mommy called the vet to see if they had Science Diet - and they do! So she should be happy and eating again tomorrow.

We think she liked the house better but she's fine! She skids all over on the wooden floors chasing her mousey, and there are no birds to watch now. She has such a hard life. :-)

We met Nay and Jonis, who used to live on the 26th floor and had two cats. They were playing on the balcony and one went over the edge. Poor thing. It actually almost hit a security guard below. Nay was heartbroken. We really don't want that to happen to Boots so we are very careful when she is on the balcony. We think she knows how high up she is, but she is still curious about looking out.

Here she is enjoying our new rug.

Teresa's photo of Boots

Teresa has been staying with me. She loves Boots. Last night she took about 10 photos of her. Boots loves Teresa too. She is such a friendly cat.

Stupid cars!

Today wasn't a good day.

Last night we picked up Bill Nuttall with FuelCast at the airport and went to supper. That was great, the food was awesome and we love chatting with Bill. This morning we were going to pick up Bill and take him to Daktronics with us.

The car didn't start. (This is our "good" car.) Yesterday it had died too, so obviously there was something wrong. I called another guy from Keyframe that commutes and they picked up Bill. Jon and I tried to figure out what to do. The dead car blocked in the Oldsmobile (car I've been driving since I was 14). This car is not winter-worthy. It has a CV boot out, all struts are shot and it doesn't start after a couple hours outside in the cold. The Taurus (car Jon's had since high school) also blocked in the Oldsmobile. The Taurus is buried under a huge pile of snow in the driveway. It has an electrical leak and no insurance, so it never moves.

We decided we'd have to work from home, and have the Taurus towed. Jon thought he should try to start it one more time before calling the tow truck, and miraciously it started. We drove it to the shop. Later they called us and said we'll just tell you everything we found wrong and you can tell us which things to fix now.

The main thing we fixed was the intake gasket. Apparently it leaked and coolant was leaking into our transmission. This and new spark plugs cost $767.

Things that really need to be fixed - loose wheel bearing (apparently your wheel will fall off if it's not fixed), axle seal, transmission solinoid (which has something to do with pressure in the transmission and they said it needs to be fixed ASAP.) The battery doesn't handle a load test well either, and they have a list of 8 other maintenance things we should do. (2 of them we get done free at the place we bought our tires.) The total for all of these additional needed repairs and maintanence (minus the tire stuff) is $1396.

OUCH.

Donations can be made in the form of checks, cash, or directly to my PayPal account. :-)
Anyway, we have never had to do repairs on this car before so actually are pretty lucky. Just had to get the complaining out of my system.

A good thing about today - since we worked from home I took a few cute photos of Boots lying in the sun. Our living room picture window faces south, so it is really sunny and warm in the morning and afternoon.

(Jon took this one.)

How can cats curl up in such tight balls? I would love to be able to lounge around all day, napping in the sun. Sounds like a very leisurely life.

Boots

I haven't taken many photos of her lately, so here she is. She was feeling quite neglected after being left home alone while we were in Arizona.

Boots is Mad

Boots still hates George. She also hates us for bringing another cat home. We're working on this. Hopefully they'll become buddies eventually!

Looking at Kitty Porn?

Boots cracks me up. She loves my laptop. She won't leave it alone. She likes to nap on it too.

Licking her Chops

Experimenting with the off-camera flash - I discovered even though my ProMaster flash doesn't work with the XT, the camera cable does! I caught Boots right after Soft-food Sunday. She gets special yummy soft food for Sunday dinner every week. Yeah, she's a bit spoiled. :-)

Boots

Boots likes hanging out in my studio.

Boots and Mousey Playing

This will probably be the last one of Boots and Mousey. Thanks for the suggestion on the selective desat Mike. The carpet is maroon so it really distracts from the photo, which is why I chose to make it black and white.

Eating Mousey

Boots likes to chew Mousey up too.

Boots

No Mousey today - just Boots.

Mousey Under Paw

Thanks Mike for the suggestion to have the many trials of Mousey this week. It is pretty hard to get a good photo of it and Boots, but I will try this week.

Mousey

Our cat Boots loves these things. They all have the same name - Mousey. Boots races up and down the stairs, hiding and pouncing, batting and killing Mousey. We find Mouseys under the couch, behind the fridge, under our laptop cases, in the hamper, hiding in closets and in our clean clothes that just came out of the dyer. Today Boots got a new pack of Mouseys and this time they have feather tails. She loves them.