Mild Amusement

When the Mild Wife and I first moved into the new Mild Abode, we had some adventures with cats. One of them seemed to be making a case for being adopted , even going so far as to sneak in while we were moving all of our furniture. The other item that caused quite a bit of snickering was that we discovered one of these cats was named "Walter," but we were unsure of this cat's gender . Well, friends, I have updates. The show goes on, and the laughs keep on coming. First of all, we did unravel the mystery of Walter's, erm, identity. After a little bit of eagle-eyed squinting, the Mild Wife determined that Walter's name was, in fact, appropriate. Needless to say, there was a fair bit of laughter when she reported her findings, as I knew that she'd had to get creative in order to ascertain Walter's gender. I mean, it's not like she had taken the stray cat to the vet. It's actually taken a little bit of time for us to adjust to the cat's "ne...

In case it's not apparent from my last name, I have an Asian heritage ( it's not the only one , but it's in there). I'm not super traditional about everything, but I do carry enough cultural knowledge that I understand some of the basics. Hell, the Mild Wife and I made sure to have a wedding banquet when we got married. Basically, I know enough to understand the traditions. It's funny how this plays out, though. I mentioned the Mild Wedding, so I obviously believe in nodding to the big traditions. However, the ones I notice the most often are the small ones. For example, I usually tap my fingers to the table whenever someone pours me tea. It's actually enough of a habit that I will do the same thing if someone pours me a beer or a glass of wine. I know full well that the habit is only customary for tea, but it's always made sense to me to express thanks for other beverages, as well. I mean, you're pouring me a beer. Why wouldn't I be grateful? ...

There are some games that are timeless. I'm pretty sure that in thirty years, kids will still be playing tag. Sure, they might be doing it in jet packs on some distant moon or something, but they'll still be chasing each other around trying to avoid being "it." It's a simple game, with a simple premise, and at the end of the day, it can be all sorts of fun. Well, I would argue that Connect 4 is also one such game. In case you haven't had the pleasure of playing it before, it's sort of like Tic Tac Toe. You and another player alternate turns, trying to get  four of your pieces in a line before your opponent does. The line can be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal, so you have options. I remember I enjoyed playing the game as a kid, and it always seemed fun. I didn't always win, but given that I liked playing the game, I must have won enough that the process wasn't onerous. Basically, I have a soft spot in my heart for playing Connect 4. Well, ...

Last time, I mentioned that during the process of moving, the Mild Wife and I almost ended up with a new cat . The whole thing was a bit surprising, but it all turned out well. We just picked up a few laughs in the process. As it turns out, though, this would not be the last time that this particular cat led to lots of laughter in our lives. As we were moving in, we met a few of our neighbors, and we chatted with them for a little bit. The Mild Wife was actually much better about being social than I was, but we exchanged pleasantries with our new neighbors nevertheless. Usually, that also involved a telling of the cat tale from the previous blog post. I mean, it's a pretty funny story when you can proclaim that you are literally a cat herder. Moreover, we suspected that the cat may have belonged to the previous tenants. There was something suspicious about the fact that the cat kept trying to get into our apartment, and that it did so on at least two occasions. So, we asked the...

The Mild Wife and I moved a little while ago, and the whole process led to a few amusing stories. Of these, the funniest one probably involved a cat. Yes, a cat . Cats and I have an interesting history (see the linked post for details), so that fact alone should give you some idea how this is going to go. So, without further do, let's get into it, shall we? First off, we didn't move everything all in one go. We moved some of our smaller items first, before a large move that included all of our furniture and the like. As you can imagine, we made sure to use every manner of container that we had in order to move the smaller items. We had boxes, crates, and bags that were all put to use. Heck, if we could've found a way to use Tupperware to move things, we probably would have. In the process, though, we met one of the neighborhood cats. There are apparently three of them, but one of them was far friendlier than the other ones. In this case, it showed up on our front door a...

A little while back, I told the harrowing tale of mismatched coasters . If you remember, the Mild Wife and I have a set of green and orange coasters, and we alternate the colors. Now that I'm writing about it a second time, I realize full well that the alternating colors are simply a choice, but still, that's just how our brains work ("our brains" may or may not have more to do with my brain than hers). You wouldn't a run of the green ones knowing full well that there were perfectly good orange ones to be had, would you? Still, we looked high and low for the missing coaster. We checked all of the places we could think of: anything and everything near the kitchen, underneath the dining room table, underneath the coffee table, the desks where we do work, even the nightstands. We knew that it hadn't just walked out, but we could not for the life of us find the thing. It had apparently gone missing, and we had a mystery on our hands. Well, friends, I am happy ...

The Mild Wife is very, very good about wearing sunscreen. She's almost religious about it, making sure to apply the stuff whenever we head out. It doesn't matter whether it's sunny as all hell or it looks like a dreary morning. She will still apply sunscreen. It's good for you, so it makes sense (side note: I recently heard that Baz Luhrmann "sunscreen song" again, and it really resonated with me as 30-plus-year-old). She also reminds me to wear sunscreen myself, because if it's good for the goose, it's good for the gander. I mean, I get it. It's not like I want to get sunburned or to get melanoma .  In fact, I usually try to avoid damage from the sun, even if I occasionally fail and end up with really weird tans (see exhibit A and exhibit B ). The problem, however, is that I just haven't done it often enough where I've made it a habit. I do so haphazardly, and the results are understandably erratic. So, you can imagine the fun when ...