Category Archives: Those Cats

Contests, Reading, Those Cats

Book Giveaway: Simon’s Cat [CONTEST CLOSED]

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What better way to celebrate National Cat Day than by giving away a cat-themed book?! Many thanks to the Hatchette Book Group for providing five copies of Simon Tofield’s new book, Simon’s Cat, for me to give away!

Simon's Cat

Simon Tofield’s animations have taken YouTube by storm. Now, the feline Internet phenomenon makes his way onto the page in this first-ever book based on the popular animated series. SIMON’S CAT depicts and exaggerates the hilarious relationship between a man and his cat. The daily escapades of this adorable pet, which always involve demanding more food, and his exasperated but doting owner come to life through Tofield’s charming and hilarious illustrations.

Contest Rules

  • To enter, leave a comment below stating that you are entering the contest. Leave your comments by 7 pm CST, Friday, November 6.
  • If you haven’t commented before, your comment will not be visible until after I moderate it. Please do not leave a second comment because your first doesn’t show up! The blog gnomes will decide your comments are spam and then only luck and sacrificing some dust bunnies will salvage your entry…
  • Winners will be selected by random number.
  • You must leave a valid email address in the “Email” portion of the comment form.
  • Please make sure that your spam filter allows email from stumblingoverchaos.com!
  • If a winner doesn’t respond to my congratulations email within 48 hours, I will select another winner.
  • Only residents of the US and Canada are eligible to win.
  • No PO Boxes.

Good luck!

“Now that I’ve had a nap or ten, I don’t want to let these books go! They are my books. Mine!! I’m counting them right now, Mom, and I’ll know if you take any.” -Mayhem

Shhh… Don’t tell May, but I’m nearly done notifying winners for the Completely Out-of-Control, Over-the-Top Book Giveaway. Check your spam filters, people, because after I send you a notification email, you only have 48 hours to respond…

Knitting, Those Cats

Canadian bounty

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No, no, not a bounty on Canadians. 😉 (Did I just hear a collective sigh of relief from the north?!)

Sadly, I am not receiving all my comment emails, due to webhost issues. I have been reading them on the blog and if they ever do arrive, I shall respond to them post-haste.

Onward. I’ve had a number of questions about what purchases I made while in Canada, so here goes. While Lorraine had Brigitte and I out and about for our yarn store crawl, we also stopped at Blue Banana Market. I restrained myself and only got a couple things.

The magnet says “I only wear black because they haven’t invented a darker color yet.” 🙂

Here’s most of what I purchased from Romni:

Can you tell what my favorite sock yarn is?! They had types of Meilenweit I’ve never seen before. Really, how could I resist?

I purchased enough yarn at the Purple Purl for a February Lady Sweater. (Look! Part of Lorraine is in the picture! I was trying to see how many clashing shades of purple I could get into a single photo without exerting undue effort.)

The yarn is Tanis Fiber Arts aran weight, Plum colorway.

Lorraine also presented me with a fabulous bag of goodies! That keychain in the lower left? The eyes light up and it meows. The magnet says “Be truthful. Does this outfit make me look TOO gay?” And isn’t Socks That Rock’s Rocky Horror colorway about the most perfect October/Halloween colorway ever?! Thank you so much, Lorraine!

When I met up with MamaTulip, she, too, presented me with a fabulous bag of goodies! Thanks, MamaT! (Since I photographed these at home, I had quite a bit more feline involvement than in the pictures with the black background above. Let’s just say that Brigitte’s kitties are much less aggressively curious than are Chaos and May.)

“Big kitty, what do you think this is?! It’s so interesting!” -Mayhem

“I think it’s a kitty who caught a horrible disease, May.” -Chaos

“Oh no! Big kitty, what can we do to help?!” -Mayhem

“Don’t you think you should be more concerned with avoiding its fate?” -Chaos

“Oh no! Is it contagious?!” -Mayhem

“You can’t be too careful, May.” -Chaos

“Oh! Look at its cute toes!” -Mayhem

“Darn, I really had her going. Too bad she has such a short attention span…” -Chaos

Those Cats

Now he is six*

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Happy sixth birthday, Chaos Kitty! You’ve changed a lot…

and yet not so very much. (Still has that intensity, doesn’t he?)

“Whatever, Mom. Is this the year I’ll finally get tuna cake with ‘nip frosting?” -Chaos

And now for a few random pictures from his early days… Here he is with mom Riley and brother Diablo (and my foot).

Can you see his wee paw, helpfully circled in purple?!

Is it any wonder that one of his nicknames has always been “Clawboy”?

For more Chaotic history (and kitten pictures!), go read The story of the cat formerly known as “Hoho.”

*With apologies to A.A. Milne this time.

Oh, yeah, it is my first day back at work since, um, September 9. I’m sure it’ll be a shock to this system.

Those Cats

So when you work a lot, your fur kids act up and do naughty things

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Don’t forget to leave a comment on the contest post before 7 pm CDT, today, Thursday, September 3, for your chance to win a copy of Michelle Rowen’s new paranormal romance, Tall, Dark and Fangsome! (Another of Michelle Rowen’s vampire romances, Bitten and Smitten, is a $1.99 ebook from Hatchette Books in September.)

“If I could get up here, it would be great. I would be the tallest, most fearsome kitty girl around! I’d show you, weird plastic cat!” -Mayhem

“But I’m really not supposed to be up here, so I’d better get down before Mom notices.” -Mayhem

“Whatever, May. Mom hasn’t been around, so she deserves to spend her time at home yelling.” -Chaos

“I’d like to knock that smug look right off your bobbly little head, you freakish plastic cat. You’ll be sorry if I ever get up there before Mom snatches me up and puts me in time out in the bathroom.” -Chaos

Those Cats

I’m pretty sure he’s not dead…

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Thoughts?

While you’re trying to decide, don’t forget to leave a comment on the contest post before 7 pm CDT, Monday, August 24, for your chance to win a copy of Rita Herron’s paranormal romance, Dark Hunger!

Oh, and we are all fine here – the tornado that hit Minneapolis was a mile or so to the east of us! Yesterday was a very exciting day to work from home, what with the crazy rain, the tornado sirens, and then the flood warnings.

Reading, Those Cats, Tunes, Two Wheels Good

The weekend in bullets

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  • The kitties continue to do well after their adventure last week. They slept most of Friday – understandable, since who can sleep in a hospital?
  • Both the vet and the vet tech commented on how Chaos was a bit, erm, crabby with them. Apparently he was fine until someone tried to touch him. (I was afraid to ask if he’d drawn blood.)
  • I suspect the above has something to do with why Chaos was crusted with dried activated charcoal from his chin on down and required a thorough washcloth bath after I got him home Friday.
  • May was perfectly clean. The vet tech mentioned that May had been very scared, but that about halfway through the night, her curiosity got the better of her (we’re not surprised, are we?) and she had to sit up and keep an eye on everything.
  • Thank you all so much for your comments and commiseration!
  • As I write this on Sunday evening, I have not been paged during my on-call week. *pauses to knock on wood, since I’m on call through 9 am Monday* Update: I didn’t get called! Woot!
  • This might actually be an historic event in the history of being on call at my workplace.
  • I am slowly increasing my cycling mileage as I slog along, trying to get back into shape.
  • Sadly, this seems to be at the expense of knitting – my neck can apparently handle knitting or cycling, but not knitting and cycling.
  • Weird cycling thing I saw Friday night – a 70-year old woman biking along in cycling shorts and… a very sturdy white corset. The sort of corset that’s no frills at all and, standing on its own, could probably support a VW Bug. *blink blink*
  • I saw her twice, so I’m sure I wasn’t hallucinating.
  • Best thing about bullet posts? No transitions required!
  • Mayhem woke up and stared at the computer while I was watching it – apparently the chirrups and meows sounded realistic to her.
  • Saturday I went to my beloved Uncle Hugo’s and picked up a few paranormals that technically release on Tuesday (The Fire King (Dirk & Steele) by Marjorie M. Liu and Edge of Dawn (Light Warriors, Book 3) by Patti O’Shea).
  • I finished reading them Saturday, too. Whoops. 🙂
  • My goodness, it sure doesn’t take much for these bullet posts to get out of hand, does it?!

“Even though I’m exhausted from my ordeal, I’ve gotta keep an eye on you, Mom. You’re sneaky with those portable kitty prisons.” -Chaos

*…zzzzzzzzzz…* -Mayhem