I am starting to become very frustrated with toilet training the kittens. Specifically, Miles – Maya seems very well-behaved in this department, but Miles is a little piss beast. It started a couple of weeks back, before we even started to outdoor-train them, when we noticed one of the sofa covers was wet – one of them has peed on it, possibly on a couple of occasions. Miles was always a bit fussy with the litter tray if it was a bit dirty, but on previous occasions he had simply used the paper next to it, or peed on the lino flooring nearby. Annoying, but not too bad as at least it was in the general litter tray vicinity.

After moving the litter tray outside they were at first reluctant to use it, but plonking them on it after meals seemed to give them the idea. Then on a couple of days Tom had to wash cushion and sofa covers after one of them had both peed and pooped on it. This morning, I caught Miles pissing on our bed, on a loose duvet cover that was scrunched up in the middle of the bed. This was while I was in the room. I hadn’t noticed him scratching, sniffing, or making any signs he needed to pee – he just went ahead and did it. I immediately yelled at him, grabbed him and carried him downstairs to the litetr tray and plonked him down in it, where he finished peeing – maybe a firm telling off will help him understand that this is not acceptable!

Yesterday in the garden I successfully coaxed him into peeing in the soil, by placing a whole bunch of used cat litter down on some soft earth. I was so pleased, and I praised him and told him what a good boy he was! I was so happy that he seemed to be getting the idea of toileting in the great outdoors. But this morning he brazenly soiled our bed while I was there in the room! Argh!

I can’t blame Miles entirely, but to be honest he’s the one I’ve caught on a couple of occasions, he’s the one we know has a history of being naughty, and he’s a boy (not far off a neutering age at that), and let’s face it – boys have a tendency to do this kind of thing, in all species. I don’t know if he dislikes his litter tray, if he doesn’t like it now that it’s outdoors, if he’s being territorial, if he’s being deliberately naughty, or if he just thinks it’s okay to piss where he likes – he certainly seems to think pissing on soft furnishings is fair game, anyway!

It’s all rather frustrating. I’m going to consult some websites on kitten training and behavior, but to be honest I think we just have to stick at what we’re doing and we’ll get there in the end. I just hope I don’t have to put the duvet in the washing machine too often…

It's only a minor thing, but one of my peeves on LJ is when people put links to images behind a LJ-cut. It's so tupping pointless!

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My bike broke this morning. Gears have started slipping up so that I can't cycle up the big hills. The gear cable seems to be springing out of position for some unknown reason. I really do not feel bothered to deal with this - I was willing to give my bikes a service when all that's required in tightening and lubricating, but fixing some unknown problem with gears that I am no familiar with is rather daunting. Stupid bike. I'm not in a particularly good mood this morning...

I wanted to update my user pictures, but I can't find a way to replace an existing image with a new one. I can onle see how to delete an old image and upload a new one in its place. For example, I wanted to edit this one so that it says 'grr' because that's what the kitten is thinking, but I can't see how to do that without uploading the edited image as a new one. Not a problem, apart from it leaves old posts for which I used this icon now iconless; a small issue, but one that bugs me. You should be able to replace an avatar, dag nabbit!

Dear citizens of Bristol,

We, Bristol City Council, are not responsible for the bad weather. It is not our fault that trees have fallen down. It is not our fault that rubbish is blowing about. It is not for us to pay for the tree in your garden that has fallen through your neighbours' garden wall. Please stop calling and moaning at us about it.

Yours, switchboard.

The police are actually really cool about stuff like this - they must be just as fed up as we are about the public complaining about trees and wind and stuff, but they still always sound so cheerful when they call us up. Good old police!

Not a great start to the day. It's blowing a gale, pouring with rain, and I had to cycle in. Admittedly when I came in it wasn't raining quite so hard, but I still got rather damp. The spray from the roads was constantly in my face and up my back from behind (and you can't fit mud guards on a racing bike - at least not that I know of). The garage door wouldn't shut - it had a little sensor so that it won't close if something's going to get crushed by the door, and I guess something must have been setting it off. Goodness knows what though, since I moved anything that was even close to it out of the way and the bloody thing STILL wouldn't close. Of course it took jam_warrior one attempt at pressing the button and the door slid smoothly down.

Then I got ten minutes away from home and realised I'd left the keys in the lock. Normally not a problem - just ask Jam to remove them and since he's always home first he can let me in. But my keys contain my locker key, which contains my towels and shampoo. I don't fancy spending the whole day damp and smelly having been unable to shower after cycling, thankyouverymuch.

ince these things come in threes I'm wondering what the third one's going to be? Unless it's just having to be out on my bike in the appauling weather.

Nah, it's not all that bad. The wind was behind me so I had a hand getting up the hill. Going home's going to be fun though unless the wind dies down a little.

Oh, I know what it is - my phone battery's dead! Annoying, especially as I'm still waiting to hear back about jobs, so not having my phone on is making me slightly nervous.