Footle and Grok

I have three cats. If you watch my YouTube videos, you see two of them regularly. All three of my cats meow a lot. I’ve had cats before, and they were never this talkative. Each cat has a different type of meow, and these sounds are directed at only me and Hubby. They do not meow at each other. I wondered why.

Here is the answer in a nutshell. Scientists aren’t sure. Some think the sounds a cat makes are a vocabulary that can be translated. Others think that cats try different types of meows; the ones that get results from their humans are the ones they keep doing.

I totally believe the second one. When Chewie, my large orange cat, talks a lot, we think it’s cute, and we pet him or give him a treat. Obviously, he isn’t going to stop.

Hela, Chewie’s little sister, does this double mew that is like “hi” and “go away” in one message. We give her a quick pat and then leave her alone. It’s her signature sound.

Sometimes this can go wrong. Alfred has started doing this constant kitten-like meow in the middle of the night. I want him to stop, so of course, I get up and see what is wrong. Nothing is wrong. He just wants attention, and I’m giving it to him, so he keeps doing it. I need to ignore him, but it’s really hard to sleep when he can do it for hours.

Cat meowing proves that cats are smart and humans are trainable. It’s a good thing they are so cute.

I finally got some chia seeds (thanks, Arlene!), so I went looking for a pudding recipe because that’s what I enjoyed on the cruise.

Oh boy.

I love instant chocolate pudding, so I figured I’d make chocolate chia seed pudding. Apparently, because chia seed is healthy, all the recipes I found were healthy, which meant they involved food I don’t use, like non-dairy milk and natural sugar substitutes. I finally found a recipe that used ingredients I had on hand.

It was easy to make, and it did thicken up, but the texture was weird, and it had almost no taste. I added some regular sugar, and then I could eat it. Needless to say, I’m still experimenting with chia seeds.

Some people add it to their oatmeal, but I’m not an oatmeal fan, so I haven’t done that yet. I might try a cookie or bar recipe that uses chia seeds, something where it isn’t a prominent ingredient.

I won’t give up until I run out of chia seeds. Luckily, Arlene didn’t give me many. I’m really glad I didn’t buy the pound bag from Walmart.

Do you have a chia seed recipe that you like? I’d love some ideas that taste good and use what I call “normal” ingredients.

You don’t need to buy more books (unless you want to.) You can always go to the library.

My library has had drive-thru pick-up for almost a year, but they’re now open for patrons to browse the stacks for thirty minutes at a time. I entered my library for the first time since March of 2020, and it was marvelous. Walking among the books is a lot different than placing books on hold through the website, although I’m grateful I have been able to do that.

Libraries are amazing places, and all readers should support theirs because there is no way we could afford to buy all the books we want to read. 

I love thinking about infinity. Thinking about more than infinity is even more fun. If you agree, then check out this short video from Veritasium. I watched it several times and still have a hard time wrapping my brain around it. However, I also watched a longer explanation from Vsauce, so I understand how it is possible to count past infinity. But wow, what a mind-blowing concept.

Luckily, I like having my mind blown by science. If you do, too, I hope you enjoy these videos.

How an Inifinite Hotel Ran out of Room by Veritasium (6:06)

How to Count Past Infinity by Vsauce (23:45)

There are potato chips, microchips, and ice chips, but the best chips are chocolate. This may not always be true, but it’s true today since it’s National Chocolate Chip Day.

Everyone has a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. Mine is whichever one is on the back of the chocolate chip bag I’ve bought. There are many different types of chocolate chips, from milk to dark chocolate and mini to jumbo. I like good old traditional semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Here is my PSA regarding chocolate chips. If you start a box of food for an upcoming vacation and put a bag of chocolate chips in it, make sure your cat can’t get in the box unless you want your chocolate chips melted into a blob. The heat from a cat butt will do that. Thanks, Hela.

The video is unnecessary (just stock video) but listening to Tom Hiddleston read “The Road not Taken” by Robert Frost is a treat for the ears. I’m not a fan of Robert Frost’s poems, but this one I like and having Loki read it to me makes it even better. Enjoy.

(If the video doesn’t appear, click on the post heading and watch it on my website.)

I have been on more hikes in the last week than I’ve been on for years. I’m not talking about running or run/walking. I mean hiking, finding a trail that goes through nature and exploring it. And I loved it. 

I don’t know why I stopped hiking except that my vacations have changed over the years, so I haven’t gone where hiking is a thing to do. I’ve also spent time with people who aren’t hiking at the moment. That’s not a bad thing; it’s just the season that some people are in.

But I have rediscovered that I love to hike, so now I want to do more. I have many things I want to do in my new life in Montana (what’s the point of moving if you can’t start a new life), and I have now added hiking to that list. I might have to carry bear spray, but I’m going to find trails and explore them. And I can’t wait.

I’ve been watching YouTube videos about books. This is a dangerous thing to do because I have a long TBR list, and I don’t need to learn about more books I want to read. But something fun has come out of all this book watching.

I have found a lot of books that I don’t want to read. That’s right, for some reason, the book YouTubers I have been watching mostly read books I don’t want to read. It’s refreshing to know I can enjoy talking about a book and not want to read it. Most of these books are what I call “Book Club Books.” They are probably masterpieces but are also angst-filled stories, and I can’t handle that.

But sometimes I hear about a book that I have wanted to read but forgot about. I was watching Hank Green rant about everything wrong with books (he was spot on), and he waved around a copy of The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Hank wasn’t even talking about the book; he was just using it as a prop. But seeing that book reminded me that I wanted to read it.

I clearly do not have time to add new titles to my TBR list right now, so I started a new list – Books I Want to Read in 2022. I capped this list at twenty books because I actually want to finish these books, and if I have too many, I’ll freeze and go read J. D. Robb for the hundredth time.

Right now, my list has three books on it, The Name of the Wind, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, and The Great Gatsby. Books on this list are ones I really want to read, I never have, and possibly I forgot I wanted to.

I’m curious about what will end up on this list. Since these are books I have forgotten about, I won’t know to put them on the list until something jogs my memory. Having them on a list means I shouldn’t forget about them again.

I like having something to look forward to in 2022, but I need to read 2021 books now.

As of April 30th, Ingenuity has flown four times. Each test was a success. Hooray!!! At first, the little craft just went up and down. That was exciting because it took pictures of its shadow (I totally think it looks like a water strider.)

Perseverance has also taken pictures of each flight. In one of those cute set-ups where each picture shows the other person taking a picture, Ingenuity took a picture of Percy while Percy took a picture of Ingenuity. Awesome!

Even more exciting, Perseverance recorded the sound of Ingenuity’s spinning blades. Click here to check out that video. I suggest you wear headphones for the best experience. I have no words to describe how I felt when I heard the sound of humans’ flying on Mars. All I can say is – awesome!

Now that we know we can fly on Mars (and how exciting is that?!), new tests will be performed. These tests will show the scientists back on Earth how to create the next craft to fly on Mars. All of this brings us one step closer to boots on the red planet.

If you want to learn more, this article is helpful.

If you want to see Ingenuity fly, check out this YouTube video. It is the best 3 minutes of television on Mars.

If you do nothing else, listen to Ingenuity fly. It is amazing. You can listen to it here.

Today is Clean Up Your Room Day, so today’s meme has some helpful advice. Whether you are organizing, decluttering, or minimalizing, I hope you clean up your room more than just once a year.

I try to declutter something daily, so for me, every day is Clean Up Your Room Day.