Cat tails

About ten years ago, we got a cat. Calvin, an all-black rascally little cat, has been with us ever since. He is now well in old age, but in his prime he was known to leap over the sofa in a single bound. He really loved the hardwood floors in our old College Avenue house - he could run and slide and spin-out like the NASCAR driver that he dreams to be. It was a real blow to him when we moved to our new carpeted condo. I'm not sure that he's ever really recovered.

Calvin currently has two favorite things to do - drink out of the bathroom faucet and sleep on top of the TV. About the first one - yep, if you're heading to the bathroom to do your thing, he'll follow you in and sit on the counter and wait for you to turn the water on. So if you're ever visiting, please don't be offended - he's seen it all.

And about the second one - he will sleep for hours and hours on top of the TV. He will occasionally fall off - inevitably down the back of the TV so that in the course of his (not so) graceful fall he can dislodge as many cables and cords as possible. Which means that if I want more TV (and of course, I do) then I have to brave the land behind the TV which is more than a little dusty and really, really confusing.

His favorite TV-sleeping position involves a long black tail hanging down over the screen. Normally it's not that big of a deal, but he drives Rob crazy with his uncanny ability to cover the scoreboard or the game clock during a big game.

And, in total cat gross-out fashion, he often drools down the front of the screen. Because he's classy like that.

Anyway, this kind of long, random story is all to say that if we were to get a new TV, it would be a huge bummer for Calvin, but kind of awesome for the rest of us.

As luck would have it, the gals at 5 Minutes for Mom are giving away a big and beautiful flat panel TV.

Added benefit to a flat panel TV - no room for a cat on top. The folks at Best Buy should really add that to their marketing material.

If you want to enter, be sure to check out their site before the 17th.