Do-It-Yourself Litter Box

Our cat, Sam, is about 15 years old. While she's still in good health, and fairly active, she does have one flaw; bad aim when it comes to using her litter box.

It doesn't happen every time, but it happens enough that her corner in the basement requires a garbage bag on the floor, with newspaper spread on top of it, and the litter box centered in the middle. And even then, sometimes she goes enough that it has time to flow off the newspaper and onto the floor.

One time while I was in the basement, I was fortunate enough to see exactly why it happens. She stepped into her litter box and began her business. Everything was fine, until she was about half-way done. Her behind started to rise and the stream of urine started shooting over the side of the litter box, onto the newspaper.

She used to have a covered litter box at one time, but it was rather small and difficult to maintain on regular basis. About a year ago, we switched to a standard size litter box. That's pretty much when she started overshooting.

I searched the web for alternative litter boxes. I found that there's even a top-entrance litter box. I can't see my cat going for that.

In my search, I discovered that my cat is not unique with her habit of raising her behind while urinating. It actually seems fairly common, mostly in older cats. As they age, their joints ache and they can't squat in the same position for any length of time, therefore, they straighten their legs as they urinate.

With that, came the obvious suggestion of using a litter box with high sides. My thoughts turned to the covered box, again. But the article also suggested using a large Rubbermaid tote, and cutting an entrance in the side. It has higher sides than most high-sided litter boxes, and doesn't cost any more than a litter box. I did a search just not to try and find the article, and there are many others just like it, all showing how to create your own high-side litter box. :)

My wife picked up a large Rubbermaid tote today. I made some markings on the side where I planned to cut the entrance, and then finished the job with a hacksaw and an exacto knife. After a little sanding of the rough edges, it was done. I almost made the entrance on the short end, but thought that it might not be a good idea since it would be easy to pee out of. This article reaffirms my decision.

I put it in the same location in the basement, but I did add some newspaper underneath it to help me catch any mishaps. There's no way she'll pee over the side, but there is a chance she might accidentally aim out the entrance.

I really hope this solves the problem. After finding all of the other articles from people who did the same, I'm pretty confident that it will.

(Update 03-15-2010: FYI… this did solve the problem. Zero accidents since.)

Malware headache

Malware: Short for malicious software, a program or file that is designed to specifically damage or disrupt a system, such as a virus, worm, or a Trojan horse.

At some point on the weekend, my son installed malware on his PC. It seems to have come from one of those fake pop up "your infected" ads, advising the user that they need to install a virus scanner update or registry cleaner.

I run the free version of AVG Free Anti-virus on all our PCs and, for the most part, they've been protected well enough. This sucker got past it.

A few of the symptoms were:

• being redirected, at random, to other sites while surfing the web
• pop-ups advising you that there's a problem you need to address with an update
• general sluggishness of the PC

AVG did identify the trojan as the "Vundo.bz trojan" and attempted to clean it. Yet, after rebooting, it would reappear. I'd scan it again, clean it again, reboot... and it would be back every time.

After 4 hours of trying to clean it using AVG and manually deleting what didn't seem like it belonged, I did a search on one of the pop-ups. One that told me to install "Registry Defender".

I came across a forum posting where someone had a similar problem, and the suggestions were to install a freeware program called Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.

I gave it a try. Although it probably wasn't necessary, I decided to reboot into Safemode first before running it. It found 36 infected areas. Files and registry entries.

I let it do its thing and rebooted. Then I scanned it again. It found 4 more entries. Again, cleaned, rebooted. Another 4 found. Repeat. 2 more. Repeat. Clean. Reboot. Still clean.

Don't put all your trust in your anti-virus software.

Waaaait a minute... who posted that last post?

I'd like to extend a warm welcome to my new guest contributor here on Katzenjammer -- the lovely and talented Misty! No, she isn't some kind of secret alter ego buried deep within my brain, she's real. ;)

Now you'll actually have something interesting to read instead of my usual rants about crappy car dealership service, waiting in line at Future Shop at midnight, or how to make microwave Kraft Dinner (the KD info is still the most popular post here)

Welcome Misty!

Laptop battery woes on Vista

If you've got a laptop running Vista and it seems that your laptop battery never seems to hold a charge between the times that you use it, don't blame the battery -- blame Vista!

The default action for the SHUTDOWN menu option on Windows Vista is, believe it or not, SLEEP. Sleep makes the laptop boot up quicker when you turn it on, and that's what Microsoft says people want. The side effect is that Vista continues to draw a minimal amount of power from the battery while it is in Sleep mode. If you don't use your laptop very often, expect the battery to be dead or very low on power when you turn it on days later.

I first noticed this on our home laptop and have confirmed it in at least one of our test laptops at work.

Here's an explanation and here's a step-by-step guide to changing them, if you're not familiar with where they're located.

Twitter

If you haven't tried (or heard) of Twitter, it might be time to give it a shot.

I signed up a couple of months ago after a friend told me about it. At first glance, it has the same feel as changing your Facebook status. That is, more or less, what it's like except it goes a bit further.

Simply put, you sign up and let the world know what you're doing. Or send a link to an interesting story. Or send out a link to your latest blog posting. Or, find someone to follow and get updates from them. It's a mini-blog of sorts. It's almost like having an RSS feed into people's lives. Some companies also use Twitter to send links to their press releases and/or stories. Here's one for CBC News: http://twitter.com/cbcnews

You can post and read the updates on the Twitter.com web site, or use one of a few third-party applications, widgets, and such. My personal favourite is Twhirl and I usually leave it open on my desktop at work and at home.

The people you follow don't have to be your friend. They don't even need to approve of you following them. They can block you if they wish. The same as you can block anyone from following you. Generally, you'd want to follow someone who has similar interests.

As I write this, I am following 15 people and I have 22 followers. I know ONE person that I am following, and one of my followers knows me (the same person)

Here is a good blog posting with tips on getting started with Twitter.

Here's my Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/twister65

PCmover download link -- found it!

I finally found the download link for PCmover. Their site is so slow that the main page never finished loading. Try here for the download.

Free software = good. Making it difficult to find = bad

Laplink is giving away its PCmover software for free today only. If you can make it to their site (which is painfully slow) and find where to download it for free, that is.

PCmover is the only migration utility that moves programs, files, and settings from your old PC to your new PC. Simply install PCmover on both your old and new computers and go! PCmover will determine which programs, files, and settings need to be moved, and when the transfer is complete, your new computer will have the personality and functionality of your old PC plus all of its own pre-installed software. Works with almost any Windows operating system, from Windows 95 to Vista.

You can read all about it here.

My Blog

I'm still amazed at how many visits this blog has received, despite the fact that I hadn't updated it in almost a year.

I had a quick look at what people come here for and the two most popular entries are Perfect Kraft Dinner, followed by Ice Skating Memories.

I can thank Kraft for the hits on the first one since they no longer print the microwave instructions on the box and refer you to their web site where it's damn near impossible to find what you're looking for. But the second one puzzles me.

I'm glad that people are finding use for this blog, despite my slacktitude.

Kraft Dinner?

It appears that my most popular blog entry was the one about Perfect Kraft Dinner. Most visitors arrive here after doing a search on Google for "Kraft Dinner". Interesting.

Perfect Kraft Dinner

Image via WikipediaFirst of all, I have to say that I'm a little pissed at Kraft. They used to have the microwave cooking instructions printed on the box, but now they tell you to visit kraftdinner.com to get them. Yeh, it's not rocket science, but if you don't make it often enough and forget, you have to waste your time going there to get them. I suspect that it's a ploy to get you to their web site. What a pain in the ass.

One of the biggest problems with making KD is trying to avoid gritty lumps of cheese powder in your KD. The other problem is soupy KD. Making it in the microwave solves the soupy problem because you don't need to drain the cooked macaroni. But the powdery chunk dilemma may still haunt you.

A couple of years ago, I figured out how to make perfect KD 99.9% of the time. The key is to get the butter (or margarine) melted in with the milk, and pre-mix the cheese powder before pouring it into the bowl of macaroni.

While I was making KD for my kids this evening, I decided I'd write it up and post it here on my blog. (Ok, I'm bored...)

I'm sure you could easily come up with different ways to accomplish the same thing, but here's how I do it, and it doesn't take any more time than not pre-mixing the cheese powder. This is basically a slightly modified method of how Kraft tells you to do it:

1. Boil around 3 cups of water in a kettle.
2. Pour the dry macaroni from the box into a microwave-safe bowl.
   
3. Using a glass measuring cup, measure and pour 1 & 3/4 cups of boiled water into the bowl over the macaroni.
4. Using a large spoon, stir the macaroni around so it's not all stuck together, place the bowl in the microwave and turn it on high for 9 minutes (time may vary depending on your microwave)
   
5. Get a bowl that you're going to eat from and sit the glass measuring cup in the bowl.
6. Pour boiled water into the bowl around the measuring cup so the measuring cup is sitting in the hot water. (the reason I use the same bowl that I'll be eating from is to save having to clean another dish) :)
   
7. Pour 1/4 cup of milk into the measuring cup.
8. Put 3 tbl spoons of butter or margarine into the measuring cup. At this point, the milk will start to get warm, along with the butter, and begin to melt.
9. Check the microwave to see how much time is left. If it's 6 minutes, stop it, stir the macaroni around to make sure it's not stuck together, and turn it back on.
10. Using a fork, begin stirring the butter & milk mix in the measuring cup. It should be getting fairly soupy by now. You don't want any chunks of butter or margarine.
    
11. Keep stirring the butter mix until there's 3 minutes left on the microwave. At the 3 minute mark, stop it again, stir the macaroni, and turn it back on.
12. The butter and milk should be all creamy by now. Pour the KD cheese mix into the measuring cup and stir it up, making sure to break up any powdery chunks. If you're done before the microwave is finished, take the measuring cup out of the bowl and pour the water out of the bowl into the sink.
    
13. Now that the macaroni is done, take the bowl out and stir the macaroni around to break it up. It's probably like one solid mass right now. Once the mass is broken up, pour the pre-mixed cheese mix into the bowl and stir until all the macaroni noodles are covered in the cheese mix.

There you go! Perfect KD. No powdery cheese mix chunks, and no KD soup!

Note to visitors: This page seems to be the main source of traffic for my blog. Please leave a comment telling me why you came here and how you found it. Did you search for the microwave instructions because you couldn't find it on Kraft's web site? Did you get here from another web page? Let me know! :)