Augie the Cat

My friend rescued a cat we call Augie (Augustus…because he was discovered in August) and asked me if she could take care of it in my back yard as an outside cat.  I gave my consent.  I didn't necessarily want a cat, but I like the fact that it has given my friend a reason to come over to my house every day.  Before Augie, my friend could never remember how to use my security system even after 5 years of knowing me and trying.  Now she operates it without problem, and it's seeming more like she may be moving over before too long.  She has already been spending much more time at my house.  Augie is a nice cat too, and I'm thinking my gentle but firm paternal influence has helped him mature better, though he still has a tendency to swipe at you with his claws.

In early October I got the new house with heated pad (heated pad not yet used) which has done very well.  (The first house my friend bought had collapsed within a week, and kept needing re-assembly daily due to cat fights and cat sitting on top.)  The new house now sits on top of a homebrew table made of cinder blocks and a piece of plywood.  The homebrew table is essentially impossible to move or tip over, and it also gives Augie a place to sit underneath with some protection from the neighbor cat we call Alexander, who is still much bigger than Augie and has often come back to my backyard to reclaim what he thought was his territory.  They do get into fights, but seemingly less as time goes on.

Augie got his vasectomy last week, after the previous week of false starts--she recruited her daughter to take the cat to the vet, and her daughter wasn't entirely reliable for the first week, then finally we got everything pre-arranged with me taking Augie to the vet as a backup plan on the next Monday, and this time my friend's daughter followed through and got it done, so thankfully I didn't have to take Augie to the vet myself after all (in the early morning when I'm usually sleeping).

I had thought my friend was going to do neutering, but apparently she hasn't done that with her last two male cats and she finds that vasectomy seems to stop spraying as well as neutering, or maybe better, since her first two cats were neutered at the correct age but still ended up spraying, while none of her vasectomized cats have sprayed.  For 3 days after the surgery he had to be kept inside in the Hall Bathroom.  I moved my showering to the unused (and in some disrepair) master bath during that time, and haven't moved back yet.  After the 3rd day my friend cleaned the bathroom out, and only after that she decided not to keep him in the bathroom for the remaining 10 days of "reduced activity" usually suggested after cat surgery, not wanting to clean the bathroom again.  So we have kept him outside, and he has been relatively passive anyway, sleeping most of the night away, except for a couple of brief fights with Alexander that I broke up.

One of the bigger problems in the back yard recently has been ants, including very nasty fire ants.  My friend does not want to use Amdro ant killer, and would rather not use any chemical ant killer (someday we might want to grow organic foods and spices) but does allow me to spray Pyrethrin based Raid Ant Killer alongside the house which has helped.  I remember one day in late September walking across the back yard in my bare feet--and getting welts that took weeks to go away--it seemed like the fire ants were were everywhere.  The back patio is often swarming with ants also.  My friend cleaned the patio last weekend and it didn't help and might have even made matters worse.

I resprayed Raid ant killer along the back side of the house today (I like the new unscented version) and also very carefully removed and then sprayed the very bottom of the feet of the table where Augie is fed, wiped the excess spray off, and let it dry before putting the table back.

I tried to get ant proof feeder at a pet store, but ended up ordering a new Fool-A-Bug feeder online.  I already have one of those somewhere in Lyndhurst but needed it now.

I'm researching natural ant killing or diverting techniques and will post on that.

**** Update

Augie was taken into the house several nights when it was below 32 degrees and windy.  I actually think the house is good down to 0F (they suggest that in the online advertisements, and reviewers have done it safely also) but it makes my friend worry.  I created a rule that says he should be taken in either when it goes below 30 degrees, or at or below 32 if it is very windy or rainy.  I think this rule is safe even if the cat heater fails.  Because the cat house is in front of the sliding glass door, it gets some residual heat from the house, and the cat inside, even if the heater were to fail.  To be safe, I have also tested the cat heater with infrared thermometer several times…it works exactly as claimed.  I have an alarm on the AC circuit so if the ground fault detector breaks the circuit, or anything else causes the breaker to trip, an alarm will wake me up.  I monitor the temperature on Weather Underground before going to bed.

Despite all these precautions, my friend wanted me to take Augie in when it had only gotten down to 35 the first time this fall, but I refused, and Augie was fine.  It seems mostly that Augie would prefer to stay in his house, and I have to wait very patiently and beg him to come out of his house.  I know better than to pull him out of his house.

Augie has behaved perfectly in the Queen's Room overnight.  I put him on the bed and he mostly just stays there.  He uses the covered litter box.  I also provide him water but not food (I want to feed him only outside, at least if possible).  He also has a scratching pole.  I never hear any whining or scratching (but thanks to the soundproof doors in my house…I probably wouldn't anyway).  All my friend has had to do afterwards is clean the litter box and sweep a bit of litter that has fallen on the floor.

Even though he has behaved perfectly, I try to put Augie back out as soon as possible.  Since I sleep late, that was as late sat 12 noon on one day.  But I didn't need to worry, the room was fine.  Still, it's probably not good to press my luck with a youth cat if I don't have to.  It's best if he does not acquire bad behaviors in the first place.   I would not be surprised if this winter we have some deep freezes, and Augie may have to stay inside for a whole day or more.  But by that time, he'll also be more mature, so there's hope he'll continue being the perfect back yard cat.

In fact, and I think this is largely or at least partly due to my (experienced with cats since being a child) skill with cats, Augie seems like one of the best behaved cats around.  He doesn't whine or anything.  I feed him strictly on schedule (as soon as I get up) and try not to respond positively to any whining or scratching.  If he is whining, I might hold off from feeding him for a few minutes until he stops, if I have time.  If you make a point of not responding to whining, they don't keep whining very long.  I always do feed him, so he has no need to whine either.  Cats don't really need to talk, and might prefer never having to.  What's good for them is purring, and Augie does that quickly when picked up or taken inside to the bedroom.

But he does start whining when he senses my friend is around.  That's because she does respond positively to whining behavior.  "Oh, see, he's lonely, he misses me," she says.  She responds positively to cat whining, but unpredictably to human male whining.

Cleaning the Front Yard

My friend and I worked the front yard for three weekends through October 26 to get it cleaned up.  The front sidewalk area had gotten particularly bad because of intense rains, regular irrigation, and a water leak up the street which ran down my sidewalk for at least one day.  So we edged and dug up all the dirt on the sidewalk, which took two garbage day loads to remove (and still isn't completely removed).  My friend poured 2 gallons of vinegar into the cracks to help kill weeds.  I think I mowed the lawn twice in October alone (though the first might have been last few days of September).  In the Jul-Oct timeframe, I mowed the back yard completely at least twice also.

We have started removing Palmie.  Palmie apparently didn't root well, and in September she was leaning half way sideways after a strong wind.  Palmie's leaves had grown too big for the weak and cracked root structure to support.  Palmie will have to be replaced.  She had not been installed by a tree or nursery specialist.  Next time I will get the nursery to install the palm.  I also wanted the palm installed further back to get a better view when backing car out of driveway.  Because of broken roots it was not possible to transplant palmie.  Also the nursery won't do that, and tree specialists are very expensive, like $250/hr.  Much cheaper, and less risky even under the best circumstances, simply to get a new palm and let the nursery install it.  Only problem is our sentimental attachment, and after seeing the sad truth of palmie's poor rooting my friend was able to get over that.

Glass Tiles

Here is website selling glass tiles.

Haven't seen anything I want.  Meanwhile, my chosen tile company took measurements today and is obtaining a sample or I Bianchi di Rex Calacatta, so that path is looking good.

Kohler Almond Sample

I received the sample of Almond colored porcelain from Kohler on Tuesday.  It's not as green appearing as the picture on my monitor, so much more neutral and does go with many colors it didn't seem to go with on screen, including hues with a bit of orange or pink which looked like they clashed horribly with Kohler Almond onscreen.

I'd still skip the Crema Marfil's, however, but now most Calacatta's seem to work OK, even the one from Piastrella that seemed to clash worst of all.  The Porcelanosa Calacatta Gold now works, and may be my #3 choice after Rex and Gazzini.

Turns out the bathroom floor has a LOT of orange and may still clash with Kohler Almond.  But if the floor is always below the tub, you can get used to it.

La Crosse Wall Clock

Every time I replace the battery on my 12 inch round La Crosse Atomic Wall Clock, I'm perplexed about what to do.

Here's the video instruction.

What to do?  Nothing.*  The clock hands will move just a bit, then the clock will try to receive the radio signal.  If nothing is received, the clock will then set itself to 4, 8, or 12, and stay there until it does receive a radio signal, which might take up to 5 days.

Once the clock has received the signal, it will set itself to Pacific time.  You then press the time zone button and it will set to local time.

*Not always.  If the clock is still running before you replace the battery, you press down on the lever 20 times after removing the battery to discharge the circuitry.  Then you put in the new battery.

I have always tried to get the clock to do something by pressing the time zone button or using the lever.

I'm glad to have this clock.  But a perfect design would be more like this:

1) No lever you have to press 20 times to discharge.

2) A slide switch for time zone.  You set it once and never have to set when replacing battery.  Plus you always see what it is set to.  You don't have to wait for the clock to set before setting time zone.

3) Another slide switch for Daylight Savings Defeat.

4) Notice on back: please wait up to 5 days to complete first signal reception.

5) On inserting battery, time would go forward to 12:00:12 and stop until time signal received.  Brand new clock comes set to 12:00:00.

My 9 year old clock also has a peculiar defect on daylight savings time change days (which it has automatically kept up with thankfully).  At first, it changes the time correctly at 1 or 2 am.  But in the afternoon, it changes back to the now incorrect savings mode.  Then at 8pm (or 12 midnight, can't remember which) it sets itself correctly until the day of the next change.

I wonder if they have fixed that bug by now.  I got two round clocks in 2005 or maybe earlier and they both had the same bug.

BTW, I am a big fan of daylight savings time.  I like it as it is, or better yet I would make it year round and then double daylight savings time in the summer.  I care not what "God's" time is.  What is God's time zone anyway?

Mother Lode

I've just found a huge number (5500) of stone look porcelain tiles at buytile.com and just in the first hundred I'm seeing some good matches to Almond.  The plainer or darker ones would work in two tone combination, but the lighter ones like Roma Stone Avorio Natural could work by themselves like the best Calacattas I like.  I see the manufacturers include Rex and Gazzini.

Gazzini: Another Great Italian Tile

Reading a gardenweb thread I stumbled upon the name of another Italian tile maker: Gazzini.  They might be a little easier to get than Rex.  Their Glamstone collection has two imitation stone tiles that work OK with Kohler Almond: Cream (which matches so well it's almost boring), Ivory (whiter but compatible with Almond), Palissandro White (interesting), and Calacatta Ivory (very good).

Now Calacatta Ivory from Gazzini is a very close second choice to Calacatta from Rex, both being far better match and far more interesting than my #3 choice, Calacatta Gold from Marazzi.

Updates

1.  Here is an interesting possible new table to support the new heated kitty house I just ordered.  It's a bit higher than the current table at 24 inches, but otherwise perfect.  Here is another interesting table, 24x24 and lower at 18 inches high, same as current table.  Here is the house itself, where I bought it at Overstock.com.

2.  First weekend in October 2014 saw me and my friend working on the yard on both Saturday and Sunday.  I mowed front and back and did some easy edging.  She did some hand edging and started cleaning the sidewalk which was covered in mud a couple weeks ago due to water line break up the street.  We examined the palm and started taking it apart for trash.  We agreed I will need to get a new palm and have it planted properly so the bottom section doesn't rot out and the roots secure to the ground.

3.  I'm about half way done sealing the flat speaker wire to the wall in the Queen's Room with caulk.  When removing the scaffolding tape from one section I tore some of the wall paint badly enough it needed repair with speckling compound, which did work.  I can only seal a few feet per day and it requires lots of hand washing afterwards.

4.  I Bianchi di Rex in Calacatta looks by far and away the nicest tile to match Kohler Almond.  Marazzi Calacatta Gold is a distant second.  No other Calacatta's seem to work.  I've found a few Armstrong sheet vinyl flooring varieties which work, if I need to do floor, which I hope to avoid.

Porcelanosa Calacatta clashes with Kohler Almond

Back when I was looking at Porcelanosa, I wasn't looking for Calacatta.  I was still looking for Crema Marfil, which I later determined to generally not work with Kohler Almond color.

Also I didn't know their little trick, the Porcelain tiles are under "floor tiles."  But those are what you want for everything in a bath.

Sure enough, Porcelanosa has a wonderful Calacata Gold in porcelain.  I thought I was saved, this was it, perhaps even more engaging than Rex, and probably far more attainable.

Unfortunately it doesn't match Kohler Almond at all, on any monitor, and especially on my near calibrated 34XBR960, the best CRT TV ever made, which has far more accurate colors than most LCD monitors (regardless of whether the light comes from fluorescent or LEDs).

In fact, few colors by Porcelanosa work with Kohler Almond at all, and especially not most beige like colors, which are far to pink, and strongly clash with the slightly greenish yellow.  The I Bianchi di Rex is a remarkable exception whose basic coloration is something like gold, itself a more saturated greenish yellow.

But Porcelanosa's "gold" is a tad orange and pink, like most of their beige colors.  You have to go to the olive type browns to find something that matches.  The color has to have bite to match Kohler's boldness.

Roble Cognac is a nice contrasting brown, with it wouldn't make for a good single tone shower.  It would have to be used with another tone that is more like the Almond itself, and what color is that???

Recife Gris also works, and is somewhat lighter.  But this looks like some abused boulder found at a construction site, ugly, compared with Calacatta, the Marble of Kings.  Which would you prefer in your shower?  It's amazing to me how many these days are choosing the turds when they could have the jewels for the same price.  (Recife Gris is particularly weatherbeaten looking and ugly.  Roble Cognac is better, quite nice for a refined liquor keg, but too dark for the whole shower.)

I'd seen the Rex at a website sold for $8.xx, down from $10.xx, with list price of $25.00--higher priced than quite a bit of real Calacatta.  It's better looking than most real Calacatta I've seen too, much of which doesn't actually match Kohler Almond.  The mismatching Calacatta has background that is too pale white, or veining that is too black, tending toward navy black instead of brown black.

That website with the $8.xx Rex seems to have disappeared.  Anyway, I was not counting on getting mine at a gray market price.  Most tile seems to be sold online at about half of suggested retail, and that maybe something I could hope for through a tile installer.  I think it's best if they can obtain the tile.

That would still be hugely expensive relatively speaking.  But I'd feel lucky to have it all.

How much remodel?

Re-thinking, and inspired by the likes of Victoria Elizabeth Barnes, I've decided to go the way that most girls want, tile on the bathroom floor.  It gets wet a lot, and nothing handles that better than porcelain tile.  Scrub it all you want.  With gold on white calcatta porcelain tile, you feel clean when it's clean.

But when installing a tile floor, you generally want to do it all at once.  That means removing toilet and vanity.  That means full, not partial, bathroom remodel.

I don't think I want to do all that now.  So I don't think I'll do the floor now.  So it follows that it might not be good to do the wainscoting either.

If I did want to go all the way, I've decided to get the highly regarded Toto Ultramax toilet, 1.6 gallon if I can get it, with ADA.

Picking out the vanity, bowl, and faucet I just can't do now, I don't think.

Castle in Scotland

Looks very nice.

Colors that match Kohler Almond

Kohler Almond is too yellow for all the Crema Marfil's that I've looked at, even the one from Rex that I thought would work.  I am putting the colors side by side on my monitor now, color accuracy is far better on my Sony 34XBR960, which I can switch to.  But the effect of Almond being too yellow for Crema Marfil is so strong I can't believe it would be ok with a better rendition.

It seems like Crema Marfil is a perfect match for Kohler Bisque, which may be why Kohler Bisque is like that.  It is basically, as my friend says, dirty white, with basically no yellow to rub against the Crema.  Crema and Bisque go together, makes sense, right?

What does go with Kohler Almond, however, may include many charmers.  One it does include, apparently, Calacatta.*  The white in Rex Calacatta (I Bianchi di Rex collection)  matches Kohler Almond perfectly on my Samsung monitor.  The gold in the Calacatta resonates well with the Almond also.  It looks like I Bianchi di Rex has 4 different Calacatta's (!) and two of them work especially well, and two others just so so.  But no Calacatta clashes like Almond with Crema Marfil.

(*Calacatta is the marble of kings, rarer and more expensive than the well known Caracarra.)

Calacatta is very cool.  Could I imagine a solid bathroom in Rex Calacatta.  Dreaming.  Dreaming.  It might be too much anyway.  But forget the two tones and whatever, to dip down to wainscoting have a diagonal piece that connects full shower level to wainscoting level.  Ta Da!

Looking some more online, some porcelain calacatta are too white, with the lines too gray.  I need the one where the white is very off white (just like almond) and the lines are gold (which matches my wall coloring, and I just like it).

So far, as I might expect, I like the Rex Calacatta the best.  It seems to have exactly the right colors, and interesting veining.  But not surprisingly it's very expensive.  List price is $25 per square foot but I've seen it on sale for as low as $9 per square foot--which is still 2-3 times more expensive than porcelain calacatta tiles by US manufacturers I've seen so far.

Piastrella has pretty good colors in their $3 per square foot (discount price) White Calacatta.  It's not as good as Rex, but it's the best alternative I've seen so far (I wrote, before seeing the Marazzi, which may be a tad better).  Except that it's made in China, which I'd rather avoid, but probably OK in a porcelain tile.

Marazzi also makes pretty good calacatta in their Timeless series.  Frankly I like the Rex a lot better, but what brought me to Marazzi was also the fact that they make small calacatta porcelain in small hex tiles, and they are the first company I've seen with that offering.  Small hex tiles are the only kind of tile suitable for bathroom floor next to tub.  Curiously, I can get genuine Calacatta hex tiles for less than Calacatta Porcelain next tiles.  I still want the porcelain for less maintenance and zero staining.  I actually like the huesin Marazzi's fake calacatta better than the real thing from Builder Depot.

But if I thought BD's porcelain calacatta in hex mosaic was expensive, Marvel Calacatta in square mosaic tiles costs twice as much!  And I don't even like it very much.  The white is more gray than almond, the veining is more like gray and black blotching, no gold colors and no particular depth.  The quire pattern is boring.  To be fair, I'm only judging from a Mac monitor.

Now I was just thinking, I don't actually need the floor to match perfectly.  I'm already mismatching by using small tiles on floor, and large on the wall.  I'm thinking I could use a darker color than calacatta white on the floor.  And I like the Marvel Bronze Luxury Mosaic, or at least I like it better than the Marvel Calacatta.  But it's also very high priced,  I don't like it that much.

Looking at all the Carrara Marbles at BuildDirect, I like the Calacatta Statuario the best--it has the most almond toned white, and interesting veining.  But I still like the look of the Rex better.  The Rex has similar tone to the Statuario but it has maven more interesting veining, with gold instead of black.  Most of the other Carraras and Calacattas look almost blueish by comparison, with exception of the Statuarietto Venato, which has a nice tone, but much less interesting veining than the Statuario.

Even better marble porcelain

Crema Marfil by rex.  I love the way they give very complete specs.  The color is a very nice beige which goes well with brown…but what about almond and black?

This is a porcelain floor tile, but it basically looks flat from what I can see.

Now it appears the wall tiles at Porcelanosa I was looking at are all Ceramic.  The wall tiles appear to be ceramic and the floor tiles porcelain, and that seems like it might be a fairly general rule.  I haven't started looking at their floor tiles.  Perhaps they are suitably flat also, like the Rex.  Porcelanosa doesn't give readily accessible specs, but they do show little icons, and you would expect that when the Porcelain icon appears (it's a hammer pounding a tile) that means the tile has the added strength and lower water absorption of Porcelain.  I definitely want Porcelain…I think.