Last week I rearranged the room. Yes, again, and this probably won't be the last time. I like to try new things until I find the one that suits me most. Thanks to the wireless net, I was finally able to move the computer to a better location.
The computer table is now in the corner where the bed was at first. I moved the bookshelves to the long wall and butted them to the pillar thingy, put the sofa where the chair was and moved the chair to the short wall.
I'm still not entirely happy with this. First of all, the bookshelves along the long wall make the room appear smaller and narrower. Second, the sofa needs to go. It is too tall and too big. I'll probably put the chair back next to the bed and move the sofa next to the window until I can recruit some moving help.
I'd like to replace the current computer table with a table with wheels. That way I can move it to the sofa or the chair to watch DVDs and knit in comfort. The computer chair is good, but not optimal for CSI or Bones marathons. I've looked around at different furniture sites and so far IKEA seems to be my only option, unless I want to hack something or build a table from scratch.
The current setup will do until I get a better idea or find the perfect table.
Today I am going to take the cats to the vet for a checkup. After the whole rigmarole we went through to get them vaccinated and tested for a move to Ireland (that never happened) in 2005, they haven't been to the vet. I should have taken them for a checkup immediately when I learned this, but then things happened. As far as I can see, there's nothing wrong with them, but still. I'd like a professional confirmation.
Update:
The vet visit went well although it was a bit stressful. Ursus freaks out outside the flat and Mao freaks out at the vet, that makes the visits to the vet "exiting" in different levels. Ursus yowled all the way to there and back, Mao growled at the vet when he was examined. He also objected to the shot and jumped from the table, and probably would have shredded us if we'd tried to restrain him. We both had enough experience with cats to let go, the vet was also quick enough to pull out the syringe in time. Luckily, he got enough of the vaccine in, so Mao didn't need another shot.
They both got a clean bill of health, although Ursus is a bit porky at 5 kilos. He's normally stocky, but I've noticed that he has a bit of a "beer belly" going on. Mao weighed 4.5 kilos, a healthy weight. This has validated my choice in the food they are getting, and that they have grass available at all times.
I'm free-feeding them dry food (about a cup a day), and I'm not willing to change that.* What I did change was to get food formulated for Senior/Light instead of Adult. I'd tried that earlier this year, but switched to Adult in the summer** and noticed the difference in Ursus after that. The last bag I bought was Light because of the aforementioned porkyness; I'll continue with that. I'll also will play with him more because he's not as active as Mao is. Lighter food and exercise should do the trick.
* From what I've been reading, I've learned cats eat a little at a time during the day/night (how much substance is there in a mouse anyway?). I've also observed that Ursus and Mao eat 2-3 bits of the dry food once in a while, not many at a time. I make sure that they have clean water, food and grass available to eat whenever they feel peckish. Apparently that approach is fine — I've got perfectly healthy, happy cats. Why change what works?
** I wanted to give them some variety; there is only one flavour of Light, but several of Adult. They don't seem to prefer one flavour over another so I'm not really sure if they actually care if the food is tasting like fish, duck or a turkey. In the future I'll feed them Light because Ursus must lose some weight and Mao seems to be smart enough to eat how much he needs, no matter if it's Adult or Light food he's getting.