Now it’s not unusual to hear one of our cats growling, but it is weird when it persists for very long. I was sitting here playing my little game and Norman, the Siamese child was growling and being angry. I ignored it for a few minutes, but when it didn’t go away I went into the kitchen to see who was pestering who. I should have known something was up because there were two puffy cat-children looking out the back window and not at each other. But I was thinking about how close I was to getting Elath to 39 and just thinking they REALLY wanted out. As I reached for the handle I saw a gray shape outside the window and thinking it was Stan I almost let it in. Lucky for me I got a second glance before opening the door, because the nose was a little long and pointy for Stan, and I don’t remember him having a black mask, or him being a big raccoon. I swear for an instant the bandit smiled at me, and then him and his friend slunk off around the side of the house.
I was a bit worried about Stan being out there, because he thinks he’s a mighty hunter. I don’t think he could have taken these guys, though. But he eventually made it in and is happy on my lap, trying to keep me from telling this story so I’ll scratch his head some more.

So we got a refrigerator last year and one of our requirements for replacing it was we wanted to make sure it had a filtered water dispenser. I replaced the filter last time by going in to the dealership where we bought it and the salesman just grabbed one for me. This time I decided it would be different. I googled the model of the fridge wanting to find the type of filter I needed and see if I could find it somewhere cheaper. After pouring through whirlpool’s site I couldn’t find anything describing the make of filter I needed. I did find where you could order one by saying, “That’s my fridge, send me a filter”, but it was even more expensive. So I gave in and figured if I went to the dealership one more time I’d save the box and go from there in another six months. So, again, I wrote down the model number and went in to the dealership, but this time the salesman wasn’t sure what type of filter it took. He asked me if it was a “push in” or a “turn” and I really couldn’t remember. A couple times I offered him the card with the number on it, but he said that wouldn’t help. Finally he gave up on my memory and googled the model number I had with me, but to my surprise he didn’t look at any of the fridge info, he opened the picture of the fridge and squinted at the bottom of the photo where the filter goes. He then dragged me to a floor model and asked if the “…cover plate lookes like this”, pointing at the corner of the fridge. I said that I thought so, and he grabbed me a filter, which of course, worked. But wouldn’t it be simpler to just say, this fridge needs a type ‘X’ filter, right on the fridge?