Katie, Katie, Katie

Hi everyone, Katie here.

FYI:  This is a Waffles-Free Zone today, so if you came looking for the orange terrorist, just move along. Nothing to see here.

I want to thank you from the bottom of my furry tuxedo heart for all of the birthday wishes you left for me here, on Facebook, Twitter... I even got a card (besides the one from my VET) from Speedy the House Bunny, all the way from the UK!

So How WAS My Birthday???

Well after Glogirly's inconceivable oversight, I was delighted to find she made a valiant attempt at making my day special. I dined on a delectable chicken pate topped with some delightful freeze dried chicken, all served in a special heart-shaped dish and topped with a candle. Ok, so we had to light it in Photoshop...but I could still make a wish.

So What Did I Wish For???

What do YOU think? And my wish, in part, came true. While I enjoyed my gourmet birthday breakfast, Waffles was enjoying a time-out in an undisclosed location. I didn't have to look over my shoulder even once during mealtime. 

Sadly my dreams were dashed just as soon as I was done eating. Waffles came running to my dish all, "Where'd it go? Where'd it go?"  Don't worry, he got his own breakfast. Just none of mine.

And Now, For Your Viewing Pleasure...

Me.

Me.

And more Me.

With a side of Glogirly.

KATIE: A Retrospective

Hi everyone, Katie here.

Ok, you asked. And we listened.

Now everyone...remain calm and proceed in an orderly fashion through the gallery. Inside voices, please. We don't want anyone squeeing all over themselves or any cuteness-related injuries. To be safe, there are EMT's standing by.

Stay as long as like. Hover over your favorites and Pin away. Share to your heart's content. Just don't touch the screen.

September 10, 2005. My first night in the Townhouse. I'm only 13 weeks old and a mere 3 pounds. 

Gloman adopted me and brought me home to my girl. I was her anniversary present. 

She said I was better than chocolate, better than flowers and better than the biggest diamond on earth.

Me and my girl. Together forever.

This bedtime story's making me sleepy.

Study this carefully. This pose will get you WHATEVER you want.

My salmon-obsession started here.

Classic beauty pose mastered at only 15 months old.

Halloween or not, I still have a problem with Glogirly's ears. 

This pose has proven to be very influential as well.

My eyes see more than you will ever know.

Sometimes I just like to think. 

Sometimes I have to stand guard.

There's no such thing as too much food.

Me and my girl. Together forever still.

Waffles Too: Katie's Reaction

Hi everyone, Katie here.

You may have noticed my absence from the previous day's post. I needed a little time to myself to gather my thoughts. By now the whole blogosphere has heard the News of Waffles Too, the newest *addition* to MY townhouse. Funny...no one bothered to ask ME about taking in this so-called squatter.

I've been seeing a lot of THIS for the past few days. The door to MY room that I rarely use - closed.

I should have known something was up what with all the cleaning and organizing. I was already on high-alert when Glogirly STOLE my extra scratching post and shoved it in the upstairs bedroom. MY bedroom. Ok, one of my bedrooms. Cherished toys I haven't touched in years appeared out of nowhere, neatly placed in the room. Even another litter box. AS IF I'd ever use a box upstairs. My litter room is downstairs, where it should be.

A glimmer of hope shone when she grabbed the PTU and left without me in it. Surely she was throwing it away.

It wasn't to be.

Enter, Waffles Too.

Just look at him, VIOLATING my post.

He's locked up in MY room, playing with MY discarded toys, scratching on MY often ignored scratching post, sleeping in MY never did like that stupid bed and using a litter box UPSTAIRS. The horror of it all.  The only part of this whole thing I approve of is the "locked up" part.

Oh, and did I tell you?  He smells. And keeps mewing the same thing over and over and over and OVER.

He's a maniac. Ill mannered, lacking in basic vocabulary skills, loud mouth, maniac.

TOMORROW: The Door Cracks

A Letter From Waffles

WAFFLES:  Deer Sir...um, I mean Kati– um no... deer Boss,

Sorry I'm kinda nervous. Waffles here.

Um, I regret to reform you that I am turning in my letter of resignature.  Thank you for the popportuniy to serve you Catbucks, help with your blog and be your assist tent. I have excepted a position with the FBI. Wally the Island Police Cat put in a good mew for me and the FBI peoples– I mean cats, cuz it's the Feline Bureau, think I'd be a reely good undercovers cat.

I promiss to be reely careful on my missions. And I promiss I'll come back to visit.  And I promiss when I come, I'll bring your favorite Catbucks.

I found a able suit– I mean a suitable, assist tent to replace me. He reely needs a good job and a nice home. Glogirly said it was ok for him to move in so he'd never have to live in a shelter cage again. Pleez go easy on him while he climbs– I mean learns the ropes.

Um, he's still pretty little and doesn't say much. But he promisses to be a reely good assist tent.

So um, Boss? I guess this is it.

Um, here's your new assist tent. I thought it would be easiest if you just call him Waffles Too.

WAFFLES TOO
The Newest Addition to GLOGIRLY.com
Welcome Home

TOMORROW:   Katie's reaction to Waffles Too

History Lesson

Hi everyone, Katie here.

Congratulations!  If you've made it this far, despite today's title of History Lesson, you are indeed brave.  Or crazy. Glogirly wasn't much for history in school.  Could have been the blue-bee-hive-headed history teacher. Could have been the class was right before lunch.

Cool illustrations by Pizza Party       Ok...I did add a few things to them!

Either way, she's not much of a history smarty and there's not going to be a test at the end of this post.

So we discovered that Glogirly made a mistake on our Real Housecats Audition Page.  That's the page where all the cool cats go to find out how to submit their photos and bios to us.  This dizzy girl of mine typed the WRONG email address!  Good grief, how hard can it be?

Our email address is G L O G I R L@ blah-de-blah-blah dot com.
She typed G L O G I R L Y@ blah-de-blah-blah dot com.
(ok, it's not really blah-de-blah, but you get my drift)

So it got me thinking... WHY on earth is our email address "glogirl" and not "glogirly" for crying out loud?

Here's where the history lesson comes in.  You were wondering weren't you?

So how did Glogirly get her name and Y, oh Y,  is our email address missing the all-important Y?

Well, the girl was just a girl until one day when she tap-tap-tapped on a strangers door.  When that door opened, she met Gloman.  It was a chance meeting, love at first sight and a day that changed the course of history for the girl and Gloman.

Gloman is Gloman because he's adorable and sweet and wonderful and cute.  (ok, I REALLY didn't say that.)  He's also Gloman because the first three letters of his last name are Glo.  Just before the girl and Gloman were to marry, the girl thought about what kind of wonderful gift she could give her new husband.  Many of her friends had asked her, "so are you going to keep your last name?"  The girl loved her name.  She'd had it for almost 40 ::gasp:: years.  Gloman's name was a mouthful.  NO ONE could say it OR spell it. That's when she knew. There was a very special gift that only SHE could give her Gloman.  The gift of taking and loving his name.

Cool illustrations by Glogirly's friend, Kristin.

So on their wedding day, the girl that married Gloman became Glogirl.  

And what about the Y???  When did Glogirl become Glogirly???

Well we've got Blogger to thank for that.  Poor Blogger so often gets a bad rap.  Everyone hates the word identification thing.  The WordPress people think their all that.  Blah. Blah.

Poor Blogger gets a bad rap.

When my girl and I decided to try our hands and paws at this blogging thing, we started with Blogger.  My girl was SO mad that someone ELSE had already snatched up her name, Glogirl.  And they weren't even using it!  What, oh what, was she going to do?  We thought long and hard over it.  I'd like to think it's my girlish kitty beauty that inspired her.  But it was actually her best friend from junior high school, who to this day calls her Girly.

So THAT'S how Glogirly was born.

This concludes our History Lesson for the day.

Class dismissed.

Pee S  - In case you're thinking I've gone soft on Gloman.  Well it's his birthday tomorrow and I'm cutting him a little shred of slack.

Pee Pee S - For you cats that either tried to email your audition stuff or still want to, the email address on the application page is fixed!  Just click HERE.

WooHoo!

Hi everyone, Katie here.

Oh. My. Cod.  Glogirly and I are finalists in the BlogPaws-PetSmart Build a Business Blog Contest!  The prize? A chance to work with PetSmart on turning our blog into a legitimate business!  How cool is that!!!

Glogirly would also get to attend the BlogPaws Conference in Salt Lake City this June.  I could go too, but I'm not much of a traveler.  Instead she could bring a life size cut out of me.  Katie on a stick.  We entered the contest a couple of weeks ago and had to tell them in just a few words how awesome we are and why they should pick us. There are TEN finalists and there will be TWO winners.  The other finalists are SUPER talented and have great blogs.  We are so honored to be in the finals.  When we got the news we could barely breathe.

There are even ::gasp:: DOGS!

So now comes the hard part.  We have about ten days to submit a 2-minute video elaborating on all the stuff we wrote on our initial application.  We wish we could just send them a link to Real Housecats or a case of salmon, but that's not going to fly.  They want to see US.  Glogirly is going to be super mad when I hiss at the camera. She's considering using a mustache on a stick so that we BOTH are wearing our girly-staches.

We need your help.  We'd like to know what your favorite part of our blog is.  We're not fishing for compliments. (salmon, maybe.)  We just know it would help us alot to understand what you enjoy when you're here as we come up with our video submission concept.

Thank you SOOOOOOOOO much!  You are the best and we love you!   (whoa! ...that's a little mushy for me)



Pee S:  Don't worry, this isn't going to slow the production of Real Housecats one bit!

Pee Pee S: We've almost got a full cast for the next Episode of Real Housecats!  But there's still a little time to send your stuff to us!  Click HERE for instructions.

Pee Pee Pee S:  If you're just coming out from under that rock, click HERE to watch the latest episode of Real Housecats.

Photo Tricks

Hi everyone, Katie here.

Thank you SO much for all the fun comments on the latest episode of The Real Housecats Of The Blogosphere!  We had a blast working with all of the kitties and their photos.  Glogirly has been secretly wanting another ::gasp:: cat, so this project, and my intense glare, is keeping that desire at bay.

We've already received some great submissions for the next cast line up!  As a result, many of your humans have asked for advise on photographing us kitties.  Of course it's nearly impossible to capture such beauty on a tiny little memory chip.  And I could go on and on, advising you on tactical avoidance techniques.  But let's throw them a bone, shall we?

The secret to successful flashy box performance is really quite simple.

1. Light
2. Light
3. Light

Did we say light?
Light is your friend.
It will make or break the photo.

OUTDOORS

When outside, avoid direct overhead sunlight.  Stick to shade or overcast days.  The prettiest and softest light is early in the morning, we call it First Light, and late in the afternoon.  The sun is lower on the horizon and a really gorgeous color.  What does this mean? We won't have harsh shadows under our eyes and chins.  The beautiful color of the light will enhance our eyes, furs and our surroundings.

INDOORS
When inside, try to avoid using flash.  Choose rooms with windows that let natural light in. Kitties, you don't want that light behind you though.  Have your human positioned with their back to the light source and the light filtering in towards you.

In this photo of me, there is a big sliding glass door just to my right and I'm looking towards it.  Don't try this at night. Keep it bright.





FLASH
If your human does use a flash,  they should take the photo at a slight angle to avoid the flash bouncing directly off your eyes.  This will cut down on laser-eye.

STILL
Tell you human to be very, very still.  When using natural light and shooting without a flash, it's even more important to hold the camera still.  They should be especially careful when they press the shoot button.  If they gently roll their finger over the button instead of pressing it, there is less chance of shaking the camera.  Even a slight shake will result in an out of focus image.

GET DOWN
Ok, I'm not talking about grooving to the music here.  Your human should get down to your level, not look down on you.  Truer words were never spoken!  Hardwood floors?  Kneepads.  It will give you something to MOL at. Notice that every one of my photos here is taken at MY eye level.  Not my human's. See what a difference it makes?

SUMMARY

All of my photos today were taken inside with natural light either late in the morning or early in the afternoon in rooms with lots of windows.  

Patience and lots of memory cards are key.  These shots don't just magically happen.  For each perfect photo, there are probably 50+ that we cast aside. I know, you thought ALL of my photos were perfect. Well, shhhhh... don't tell.

We have much more in our bag of tricks, but we'll save that for another lesson.  Let's keep it simple today.

Let there be LIGHT!











Pee S  If you've been living under a rock for the past couple of days and haven't seen the latest episode of Real Housecats, hurry up and click HERE.

O'Katie

Hi everyone, O'Katie here.

Even though it's only a Photoshop hat, I still hate it.  I'll never understand the whole whoop-d-do about St. Patrick's Day.  Whoop-d-whatever is more like it.

Gloman, I have a message for you:  

Step AWAY from the green food coloring.  

Ok, on a WAY funner note...

We are taking submissions NOW for the next Real Housecats cast!  Click HERE for details.  Get those humans of yours in gear.

And don't stray too far from your computers.  The next episode of The Real Housecats Of The Blogosphere begins airing THIS SUNDAY NIGHT!

Sneak Peek

Hi everyone, Katie here.

Production is running late into the evenings for the next episode of The Real Housecats Of The Blogosphere.  

We promised you FUN.  

We promised you DRAMA.  

We promised you SECRETS!  

And I promise you this - We will NOT disappoint!

Just look at these exclusive never-before-seen stills from our most recent shoot.  

L-R:  Gossip Girls Katie, Cathy Keisha & Nellie dish.  

Meanwhile "someone" has had a bit too much nip.

Figgy is lost in love with Kite.  Really lost. 

He's got enough fur for both of them.

Stay tuned.  The next episode is less than a week away!

Extra Extra

Hi everyone, Katie here.

Well the Real Housecats are another step closer to worldwide fame and recognition.  Would you believe that a news reporter from Cathy Keisha's local rag has contacted both CK and Glogirly requesting exclusive (well not really exclusive...) interviews!!!

That's right, CK tapped out a compelling press release of her own and shot it off to the newspaper.  Next stop Associated Press, CNN.  Anderson Cooper, are you ready?

Glogirly and I have to break away from the production of The Real Housecats so I can coach her on the more salient points.  I can't have her putting her paw in her mouth with the press now, can I?  

...in case you're wondering, production is ON schedule with the next episode.  There's music, dancing, and LOTS of drama.  Some of the Housecats' most private of secrets will soon be revealed.

Stay tuned.