Mardi Gras cats

Since Vince is the only one in the family besides me who is Catholic, the rest of the Dodds may not realize it is Mardi Gras. I realized today that I am many miles from New Orleans. When I said, "Happy Mardi Gras!" to a couple of people (one of whom is a devout Catholic and knows tomorrow is Ash Wednesday) they looked at me like I had wished them a Happy Brishnapuparnipal. I guess it is hard to think Mardi Gras when there is a three-foot groundcover of snow...

But the residents of The Lodge on Berry Road celebrated in our own ways.

Cassidy has been acting weird about her food lately (the "Sniff, sniff, I think I'll just bury this" approach), so Tom suggested we open a can of tuna. I set out a dish for each cat, and they promptly and eagerly lapped up all the disgusting tuna juice and ate none of the tuna. Later in the afternoon when Cassidy got all demanding, I put down her leftover tuna and she dug in. While she was still eating, Sundance came in from outside and began licking her paws. I set her tuna down and she dug in, too. Immediately Cassidy stopped eating hers and went over to stare at Sundance. I warned them to behave, and there was no fight. But they are such cats!

As for the humans, since coming back from Texas I have been trying to get onto the low glycemic diet the doctor gave me. As one way in, I have been faithfully following the South Beach Diet (Phase One) as a transition. Plenty of food, but BORING! I'm not doing it to lose weight so much as to adjust to the different approach to eating. That is a two-week thing, ending today fortunately.

Tomorrow, of course, I have the colonoscopy prep, which means Jello and broth. And it's Ash Wednesday, so it is a day for fast and abstinence anyway. Trying to figure out something appropriate for Mardi Gras, I decided to make the Texas Frito Pie I had failed to make when Peter was here. I figure it would never be on any diet whatsoever, but after all, Mardi Gras comes but once a year. And a nun in New Orleans used to assure me that you couldn't make a good Lent if you didn't have a good Mardi Gras. So that was what we had.

Meanwhile, the winter storm alert is back on and it is snowing lightly as I write. We can expect anywhere from four to fourteen inches before it ends tomorrow afternoon. I told Tom, "I am now officially tired of this."

"You say that about this time every year."


Well, DUH!

BTW, Snowgo the Possum was back late this afternoon, scarfing up scraps around the feeder.