Multi Track Acapella

If you haven't seen this style before - it's all over youtube. Why form a singing group when you can just sing every part by yourself. I used to do this with my trumpet and a tape recorder - but it was never this cool...

Furminator Review: deShedding Tool for Cats and Dogs

Every now and then I find a product that exceeds my expectations - making it worthy of a blog entry. This particular product is the FURminator!

A friend from work told me about how great the FURminator to remove hair from pets, and I was a bit skeptical. After all he said it was an expensive brush but borderline "life-changing". I had to give it a try. When I went to buy the FURminator I was surprised how expensive it was, after all we have a bunch of grooming tools already - but based on the raving review of my fellow pet owner I bought one. I remember telling Meghan it was $40 and she thought I was crazy - until she used it!

Enter Manny - one large hairy cat. Our cats are big and the shed all of the time. Meghan grooms them quite often to try and keep the hair balls down, especially when they shed a seasonal coat.

Meghan had recently brushed Manny with our metal wire brush, but was AMAZED at how much hair was removed. The pile of hair was almost the size of Manny! And he LOVES being brushed with the FURminator!

You might think that with the amount of hair it takes off that it might be rough, but it really is "specially designed" to remove the under coat and leave the top coat. It is worth every penny and if you have a cat or dog I highly recommend the FURminator! I wish we had one when we had Shelby (our beautiful yellow lab who shed like crazy too!).

Above are pictures of the actual hair pile from the very first use - and YES, that is just from one cat! The hair just kept coming and coming! (I think we could make hats out of the fur).

Below is information about the tool and then some YouTube videos of people who LOVE the FURminator. The design really is above and beyond any other pet hair brush we have ever had.

Amazon has the best prices on the FURminator, cheaper than PetsMart and cheaper than the FURminator website directly! You can select the size for your pet and their hair length by using the links below.

FURminator Hair deShedding Tool for Cats		FURminator Hair deShedding Tool for Dogs

You Tube Videos!

Dog Example


Cat Example

Cats Helping to Change Sheets on the Bed

Whenever we change the sheets on our bed - the cats see it as a chance to play under the sheets. If you were in a hurry to get the ben made - it can be frustrating - but they are too darn cute not to let them play for a while! (And snap a few photos)

Sox Alert!

There is a cat that lives across the street from us who is all black with white paws. We call him "Sox". We tried to adopt him and have him live in a cardboard box when we thought he was a stray - turns out he lives across the street! Anyways Sox has been famous in our house for quite some time - and our cats have grown to appreciate the occasional visits by Sox. He "tap dances" outside our windows and initially Sox caused our cats to get really upset and even want to fight each other - but now they just watch Sox for the most part. Occasionally Brady likes to attack the window with no word of warning.. but overall it's fun for everyone.

Surviving the Recession

Before getting married I had saved up a good amount of money outside of retirement that I ended up consolidating into one investment account. I kept almost all of my savings in the market as it is "flagged" for retirement and I was in for the long haul.

Then the recession hit - and at the bottom I had lost more than half of the money I had saved!! Those were some tough times - I thought I had been doing the right thing by saving as much as I could while I was single and then looking at my account and losing something around 66% of that money at one point! YIKES!

At least we didn't panic and knew we were in for the long haul and it just so happens I went to look at my account today and it is finally positive! So NET - we haven't "lost" any money any more - but we lost 5 years of investing time.

In a way I can't believe the market has come back so much. I hope it starts growing again as this has been a lost decade basically.

I learned a few things from this experience - I had previously owned some CDs and other such savings and thought if I didn't need that money than I should put it in the market - so everything was in the market! When our savings was down 66% if I had to take any money out for an emergency or to buy a car or go on vacation - it would basically have cost us 3x what it would have cost if we had more in "liquid" savings. So since the recession I have been building up savings outside of retirement which is NOT in the market. Suze Orman suggests having 8 months of expenses in liquid savings - while we are not there - we now have money we used to refinance and go on vacations with that we are building up in an online savings account. It used to get close to CD rates (I opened it at 5.05%) however now it gets less than 1% interest - but at least it is not in the market if we ever need it.

I think people always say things like this - but then when the market is returning 16% you hate leaving money in cash that you could be making a return on - though now I learned why - I'd say I learned it the "hard way" but we really survived the recession quite well. I only wish we could have save more over the past 2 years but that was not the case. At least my "life's savings" is whole again - now it's time to GROW!

How 2 Cats Fill a Queen Bed

Good thing it was the guest room bed!

The DVR Game!

Meghan and I have been playing a game we call the DVR game. It's when you record a TV show and then when it's over you get about 1 minute of the next show - so you watch to see where it cuts off. Occasionally the timing couldn't be more perfect and we yell "DVR game!" OK I don't know if we yell anything but you get the idea! It's a hoot. While we've been doing this for a while the best DVR game occurred tonight in transition from Big Bang Theory to Rules of Engagement - which is what finally prompted me to blog... the DVR game!

Cute Cat Nap Pictures

I think these were all from the same afternoon!

(Shhhh - don't tell Meghan I caught her Cat Napping in this picture!)

Makes me want to sleep in on the weekend too!

PS - Dave, get 2 cats already!

Breaking Triathlon News

For the first time ever (in the past 3 Little Miami Triathlons) the HOT TOMOLLYS won't be participating. It is for one of the following reasons:
1) The Triathlon competition committee wanted to give other teams a chance to win this time
2) Molly and I received a one race suspension for passing too many teams floundering in the river without slowing up to help
3) Molly is missing the triathlon so she can "get a work out in"
4) The SEC investigated the HOT TOMOLLYS for having a monopoly on the far left launch lane
5) Video tape revealed Molly's "early launch" technique no mater how much I tried to put the brakes on
6) Though you are supposed to walk your bike across the finish line - we were penalized for "coming in hot"
7) Molly is still recovering from an injury

Even I have a tough time figuring out which of those reasons is the real one.

So... BREAKING NEWS - Dave and I are entering as a team this June. We have a pretty good chance of taking 1st place in the "twins" division. I understand that Dave has already started "tapering" in preparation for our race.

In the Parent / Child division (which doesn't sound right if both team members are over 21) Meghan's Aunt Julie and Cousin Sean are joining in the fun with a team of their own. I look forward to a few "t-bone" collisions with them as we battle down the river.

In other triathlon news - I have decided to enter my first "open water" swimming triathlon this summer. I am going to participate in the Caesar Creek triathlon. In preparation for that event I bought a wetsuit. This is what I look like when I am wearing my new wetsuit.

PS - I found a coupon and got the wetsuit for over 1/2 off! Awesome!