Kittens, Penguins, and Mullets

I would like to formally introduce the rest of my family: Houdini and Pua.

Pua's (next to the Crate box) full name is Pua Nani, which means "beautiful flower" in Hawaiian. She is very sweet and very much a lap cat. Whenever I am sitting down reading or watching a film, she will come curl up on my stomach and snooze. Pua loves the smell of mint and as most of you know I am addicted to Burt's Bees chapstick which contains peppermint oil. Whenever I leave my purse sitting on the floor or on a table, Pua will dig her face into my bag and grab hold of my chapstick. She will then scamper off to hide her new treasure. Her favorite hiding places are under the stove and under the sofa.

Houdini (guarding my beer bottle) got her name because she disappeared on me for 5 hours the day I adopted her. She was very sick and while I turned my back on her and Pua, to set up their food and water, she slinked off to find a place to nap. I tore my apartment up for 5 hours before I finally found her in a drawer of my desk. Houdini likes to disappear and then reappear on me. Houdini has had a difficult first 2 years of life. When I adopted her, the vet told me she was a "he" and that "he" had already been nutered (some vet). So the first year of Houdini's life, I called her "him". I would ask Pua, "where's your brother at?". You get the idea. Then I moved to Chicago and Houdini starts acting really strange: up all night, crying really loud, etc. So I figure she caught some sort of infection on the plane or something. I take her to a vet here in Chicago, only to find out that "he" is a "she" and "she" is in heat! So the first year of her life she was raised as a boy. Talk about major gender identity issues!
I figure she must be a cross dresser or a lesbian, because of my poor parenting skills. And I had to explain to Pua about how her "brother" is really her "sister" and how we love Houdini no matter what gender she is. You try explaining that to a one year old.
But they seem to have adjusted nicely. I taught Houdini how to play fetch with an ink pen, and that is her favorite game. Every night she will bring me a pen, drop it at my feet, and wait for me to throw it for her. We play this for about 15 minutes before she gets so tired she has to nap.




My M.O.M. event was great last night. We had a night of "ice" to cool us down during this August heatwave. We drank ice cold Goose Island Summertime beer, went and saw "March of the Penguins" and enjoyed them marching across big slabs of ice, and then had some ice cream (one scoop of chocolate and one scoop of mint chocolate chip). Michelle brought me flowers as a house warming gift. And they helped me place artwork and such. It was a great time. :)

My hair is getting really long and I feel like it's turning into a mullet. This is the longest I have had it in years. Question of the day: do I chop it short again or keep growing it out for another month or so? I appreciate your feedback.