Directions off the bag of

Take some noodles needed; put them into the enough boiling water evenly and separately; and stir the noodles slightly with chopsticks.

Begin cooking with strong fire for 1-2 minutes and then with moderate fire while adding some cold water, smooth and delicious noodles are ready to server.

Condiment can be added if desired; moreover, the noodle can be prepared by frying, boiling, and cooling ( after boiling with water removed).

If frying, cook the noodles up to 80% done; separate the noodles the cooker and rinse them with cold water. Thus the noodles are more delicious.

I know that the humor behind foreign text being poorly translated into English isn’t exactly FRESH, but isn’t it entertaining each time you encounter it? I mean, I don’t look forward to the day when “Thus the noodles are more delicious” doesn’t register on my humor-meter.

Bad cats

Over the years, we have probably tried every cat-deterrent on the market to keep Max from climbing where he doesn’t belong. He loves being squirted with water, he rolled in the spray we put on furniture; his obsessive behavior borders on psychotic when he gets it in his head that he needs to be up on a shelf or eating the dinner off your plate. He responds most of the time (up to 80%) when I raise my voice and tell him sternly to, “Get down!” But finally, we stumbled upon the perfect scare tactic. This works every time and with such efficiency that Max runs in terror if he even thinks we’re reaching for it. Meet our new friend…party horn:

Tom brought us these horns on New Year’s Eve and we managed to keep them with us when we made our way home to our apartment. The first few times we blew them in the apartment, it was a little amusing how freaked out it made the cats. They freak out over a lot of things, though: the doorbell, someone knocking at the door, a buzzer from a game, a kitchen timer, etc. Usually it is Pinky who gets really nuts with the big tail and the hiding under the bed, while Max just skitters across the length of the wood floor. But, we soon realized, the party horn HAD THE POWER. Max not only REALLY didn’t like it, he quickly developed a Pavlovian response we’ve been looking for in a deterrent from day one. Now if he hops up onto the keyboard while you’re typing, you only have to pick up the horn and wave it at him and he bolts out the door. Luckily, he’s still too dumb (smart?) to hold onto this fear for long and he goes on to do something else. Leaving you cat-free to type or eat or have a bookcase that isn’t knocked over. Bliss!

Birthday horn, I love you.