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ShinyHappy - Thoughts for April 17th - 30th
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Mong survived his surgery quite well. We went to pick him up on Friday evening and I was a little worried that he'd be sore and cranky and out of sorts. I asked the vet tech how he was and she kind of laughed and said that he was in the back talking to everyone. Loudly. I could hear him yowling as they were putting him in his carrier. The funniest part was the certificate they gave him. It's a Golden Paw Award for Bravery, and it reads: "Awarded to Mongkut for showing extraordinary courage during his stay at the Glebe Pet Hospital." It's signed and dated and everything, and the vet tech used six different colours of glittery gel pen to write it out. I love that animal hospital!
When we got him home we let him out of his carrier and he pretty much acted like nothing had happened at all. Getting his shots the day before had more of an effect on him than having his testicles removed under general anaesthetic! Since then he's been as happy and playful as ever, although we do have to admonish him from time to time for excessive licking of his testicular area, since they said not to let him do that too much. Poor guy. I'm happy to report that he's not obsessing about them or anything, so all is good.
After all that Andrew and I thought we'd check and see if Colin and Jen wanted to do anything for the evening. Andrew had mentioned wanting to see The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy so we called them up, and it turned out they were going to see it that very night with a bunch of other people. They said we were welcome to join the party, so we first went to their place for a delicious spaghetti dinner, then headed out to the theatre to see the movie.
I was a bit disappointed with the movie, even though I know I shouldn't have been. Firstly, I for some reason was not aware beforehand that it was made by Disney. If I had known I might have been more prepared for the rather severe mangling and reassembling of the story. However, I suppose that had to happen anyhow since the story as told in the books and radio play wouldn't have translated well to the big screen if left as is. Plus, Andrew also told me that the added story elements were actually conceived by Douglas Adams before his death (which I hadn't known), so I should feel a bit better about it, I guess.
Today Mom, Mimi and July came from Kingston to visit us! Yay! They arrived at around three and we hung out for a bit here at the apartment. Mong and July got along like a house on fire. I think they pretty much played together the whole time, except for the brief moments when July was watching the movie we put on for her. Mong seemed to like having someone small to play with, and seemed genuinely affectionate to her for the most part. When she overstepped her boundaries at times he let her know it, but he always came back for more.
We decided to take a walk to the Sugar Mountain candy store since Andrew had said it wasn't raining out any more. When we went out the front door, though, it was definitely raining kind of hard, but we went anyhow. Mimi had to get some sherbert dabs and I wanted a Stewart's Cream Soda. Then for dinner we went to The Works, where I didn't get a Lucky Sevens. Instead I went with the Ho Hum #2, which is just a bacon cheeseburger. In fact, we all got Ho Hums of various numbers except for Mimi who got something interesting, although I don't recall what it was. After a little more visiting, they had to head back to Kingston. Mong seemed to miss July when she was gone, as he kind of meowed around in the hallway a bit. I guess we'll have to get him a little girl of his very own.
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04/28/05 This is all about Mong, but only because nothing else really happened today.
Mongkut had to go to the vet today to get his shots. I was a little nervous about taking him in the kitty carrier we have because the door on it is broken, but he didn't try to push his way out of it at all. The trick is to tilt it a little bit so that he's forced to sit at the far end of it away from the door. However, I forgot that he's a much more solid cat than Halo was, and my arm actually got tired by the time we made it over to the vet clinic.
He was his charmingly bratty self at the clinic. While we waited in the examining room he prowled all over the place, exploring absolutely everything he could get his nose near, talking loudly about ... whatever he was talking about. I dunno. The vet tech who weighed him thought he was a nice kitty because he purred the whole time she handled him. She just didn't know that he's a slut like that. When the vet came in he brought two techs with him for some reason, and it was a little crowded in there, but I think one of them was in training or something. The other one just stood and kind of laughed the whole time.
The vet said that Mong is a handsome little guy, and pronounced him to be no more than five months old. Mong purred at the vet too, even when he got his shots, but the purring stopped when the vet looked at his claws and said he'd trim them. I had attempted trimming them the other day just to see how he'd react, and he wasn't impressed with me at all. To warn the vet I said that my attempt had been painful. When the vet started trimming Mong went into "What the hell are you doing?" mode and bit the vet a couple of times. So, he set down his clippers and said he'd have them trimmed while Mong was under anaesthesia. Because yes, Mong goes in tomorrow to be neutered. Mwah hah hah! No testicles for you!
He felt a little crappy for the evening, though. The shots made him feel a bit icky and he kind of chilled out on the loveseat while we watched Survivor and The Apprentice. Poor dude. He's feeling a bit better now, but I don't think he's going to have a great night because he's not allowed to eat or drink after midnight. There will be much whining, I believe.
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04/26/05 He knows he's not people, too. He just doesn't care.
One of the things that I always bragged about regarding Halo was the fact that he wouldn't touch people food. You could put a plate full of steaming sirloin steak on the floor, leave the room and he wouldn't eat it. Yes, he might sniff it, but then he'd think to himself, "I'm a cat and this is people food. I'm not allowed to eat people food. I am only allowed to eat cat food." And then he'd go find his food bowl and crunch on some of that. This is due to the fact that I never gave him people food, not when he was a kitten, not ever. Also; he had a highly developed conscience that set him apart from most cats.
Tonight Andrew gave Mong a mushroom. I'd fried some mushrooms for him with his dinner. His plate was at the table while he was not and Mong jumped up on a chair and was sniffing the air beside the plate. I drew Andrew's attention to this fact and he dashed over to retrieve his plate, but then offered the cat a mushroom. Mong loved it. He grabbed it, jumped to the floor, chowed right down on it and yelled for more. Andrew then suddenly got all stern about not giving the cat people food any more, although he did say he didn't expect the cat to like it. I suspect he'll be one of those cats that just likes everything. It's not like he hasn't had a cushy life supplied with all the food he's ever needed or anything, so he doesn't know the pinch of hunger like a stray cat does. When Mang (not Mong) first came into my life she'd been a stray and was of the mind that if you came across something edible, like it or not you'd better eat it since there was no guarantee you'd be eating again anytime soon. She eventually grew to realize that life had changed for the better and grew more discerning.
Hopefully Mong will learn that people food is not for him. Here's today's obligatory picture of him in all his cuteness: Lounging on the Ikea Pastill bench. His eyes always do that crazy reflective thing, so I can't seem to capture the beautiful blue that they are.
My hairstick making is coming along very well. I decided to make some dangly ones as well, so here are some of my current efforts: carved bone sticks, bone moon sticks and tigereye and wood sticks. I think they turned out nicely, and I've already sold the tigereye sticks and the moon sticks. I gave a pair of the carved bone sticks to Andrew's cousin for giving us Mongkut, since it was so nice of her to do it. I gave her the choice of any sticks she wanted from all the ones I have around, and she chose those ones. Good eye, since they're the most expensive ones I've made. :)
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04/25/05 He's been christened, in a manner of speaking.
Mongkut, Day 2: Sleep all night. Sleep most of the day. Poke into everything available to make sure nothing was missed the day before. Meow at the apartment door when people are in the foyer outside. Introduce Andrew to the joys of a cat that will climb up on his desk and nose around. Repeatedly. Get a pimpin' new collar. Get a new scratch pad. Decide that old collar is a toy to be played with. Play! Fall into a coma on Keltie while she's watching TV and sprawl out into varied positions of boneless cat. Wake up and accompany Keltie to the bedroom while she talks to Jerome on the phone and pounce on her feet which are mysteriously covered by blankets. Leave room and fall into the toilet in the bathroom. Come back to the bedroom ten minutes later after having licked all the toilet water off of body. Fiercely bite and rabbit-kick Keltie's upper body while purring psychotically. Get thrown out of room in disgrace. Wander around wondering what else can be done naughtily. Eventually give into exhaustion and pass out on the dining room floor.
He had a good day. I bought him his pimpin' new collar and he seems pleased with it. The apparent theme is that his accessories are 'pimpin', although this was not planned. There was a selection of collars that had jungle cat patterns on them, and I wasn't entirely comfortable with that. I don't think that cats should be made to wear even the fake skins of their wild relatives. So, I got him a zebra patterned collar instead. Hey, at least it's prey, right? I also bought him a scratch pad to use until we can get him a proper scratching post. Basically it's a long, low box with corrugated cardboard strips laid sidewise in it. Cats find these irresistable and must scratch them, especially if they're treated with catnip as this one is. When I gave it to him he understood it instantly and started madly scratching on it. Now he's using it as a sleeping pillow, which is awfully adorable but doesn't look all that comfy.
I was talking to Jerome on the phone and he mentioned that he had some awful disgusting President's Choice chips. I knew the kind he was talking about. They're the 'healthy' rice chips that they make, and I mentioned them over a year ago in this very weblog! Go to April 2004 and check out the entry for the 19th. The last paragraph describes my utter loathing for these very chips, although they were a different flavour than the ones Jerome had. Let me tell you; it's the chip, not the flavouring. GROSS.
What's weird is that I also talk in that entry about how that very day I discovered I was getting sick. Well, guess what? I'M SICK AGAIN. No fooling. I'm getting sick and I am not amused. Whatever it was I had VERY RECENTLY didn't do anything to build up antibodies in my system and so I must now suffer with more icky sickness. I've had a fever and sneezes and nose runnings. The whole delightful array of common cold complaints. I'll try not to bitch too much about it here in the old weblog, although I make no guarantees about that.
Let me leave you with this adorable picture of Andrew and Mong. Awww.
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04/24/05 Yeah, it's basically all about the cat.
Mongkut is home! Yes, we named him Mongkut. It was the first suggestion (thank you, Jerome), it was the only suggestion and it was the best suggestion. And probably would have been the best even if we'd gotten many others. It just fits him. He is a Mongkut. For short he will be Mong, Mongo, Mongokitty, Mongo Pongo and likely many other variations on the name. And he believes he's royalty, so it's like it was meant to be. Yay, Jerome!
Do you want to see his royal cuteness? Here's his handsome face. And here he is sleeping. Oh, here he is sleeping again! Notice in the sleeping pictures that he has light striping on his legs and the side of his face. There are stripes on his tail too. We're not exactly sure what kind of Siamese he is (since Andrew's cousin doesn't know either), but if there are stripes I'm pretty sure that makes him a Lynx Point.
He arrived around sixish this evening. Andrew's aunt and cousin dropped him off to us and he immediately began to explore his new home. He's got a very outgoing personality and doesn't seem to be very skittish or nervous about anything at all. We were out shopping this afternoon and I wanted to buy him a little gift to welcome him, so bought this for him. It's by Hartz and the packaging reads, 'Great Balls Of Fur'. It looks to be a velveteen octopus with a head made of rabbit fur (as a byproduct of the food industry we are assured) and a jingly bell on its underbelly. I don't really know what to call it other than his pimpin' octopus.
He kind of ignored it at first in favour of getting into every single nook and cranny of the apartment (flushing out many dustbunnies in the process). Eventually, though, I decided it was time to see if he likes toys so I wiggled it around in the air and dangled its floppy legs to entice him. He was enticed, and after I threw it at him he began to play with it. The best part was when he tried to walk around with it, holding it in his mouth by one leg. It dragged under him and made it hard to walk, so he'd sit down in frustration, like he's doing here. Hee hee hee.
He's an undetermined number of months old (since Andrew's cousin also can't remember how many months old he is, although it's possibly somewhere around six) and will likely be getting bigger. His feet are pretty big, as evidenced here, and that's a good indicator that he's still got a fair amount of growing to do. He's already done some hardcore snuggling with me while I watched some TV tonight, and has been climbing into our laps at our computers to either snuggle or try to explore our desks. He's very curious. I tried reminding him what curiosity did to the cat, but he wasn't dissuaded at all. Oh, to be young and have nine lives.
So, that's Mongkut. Prepare yourselves for many, many, many pictures of him. Oh, and we are getting him a new collar, ASAP. Pink is not his colour.
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Speaking of Siamese; we're getting a cat! Woo hoo! We're getting a Siamese cat! Tomorrow! (Tomorrow being Sunday, which will mean 'today' to most of you reading this.) There are not enough exclamation marks to convey my happy! (!!!!!!!!!!)
Today was Jenny's bridal shower. It was at Andrew's aunt and uncle's place and I was in the living room when I suddenly became aware of the sound of a cat complaining very loudly and indignantly about something at the top of its lungs. As far as I knew they didn't have a cat, since Andrew's uncle is quite allergic and they've been a staunch dog family for years, but I knew what I heard and I heard a sassy cat. So I asked, "Do you have a cat?"
It turned out that yes, they did. One of Andrew's cousins had gotten the cat while she was away at college. She took me down to the basement to visit the kitty since that's where he was locked (and complaining about missing the party). She opened the door and there was a sleek and stylish Siamese cat, yelling at us at full volume and very happy to have some company. "MEOW meow meow, meow MEOW meow meow!" Unfortunately for Moby, the family dog, he'd also followed us down and the cat took the opportunity to box him about the ears a few times. Hee hee hee. I instantly fell deeply and helplessly in love.
I made much of the kitty, then we went back upstairs where I listened to Andrew's cousin talk about the cat and how she was kind of stressed about arrangements for it since her dad's allergies were acting up and she had to figure out what to do with it during the summer. I half-seriously said that if they needed a new permanent home for it I'd be willing to adopt him, and almost like that I had a new kitty. She said she'd like to see the cat go to someone she knew well, and also to someone she could visit to see the cat when possible. I said I'd of course have to talk to Andrew about it, suddenly terrified that I couldn't have this cat.
We've talked about the when of getting another cat, and we kind of settled on June as a sensible time, since we're going away at least twice in May. I had proposed doing the fostering thing starting then, or just adopting a cat outright. Whichever, it was going to wait, even though it just doesn't feel right to me not having a cat around. I was nervous that Andrew would feel it was too sudden and that he'd need to think about it. I called him from his grandparent's place after the shower and broached the subject with trepidation, wondering if I'd have to be there in person to really sell the thing with sad eyes and trembling lip and all. To my utter surprise, Andrew simply said, "Yeah, I think that sounds all right." After other encouraging statements like that, it was officially decided we'd be the owners of a lovely Siamese cat. Yay!
He arrives tomorrow evening. Now, I haven't revealed his name yet because I'm not entirely satisfied with it as a cat name. It's 'Guinness'. I don't like it. He doesn't look like a 'Guinness' to me. I'm more than happy to keep it as his middle name, but I do believe he'll have to be rechristened something more appropriate for him. Suggestions are welcome, but will not necessarily be put to any use. :)
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04/22/05 Siamese pepper babies are gross.
There are some things about food that gross me out. I don't like food past its 'best before' date, even if the food itself seems perfectly acceptable and there isn't a trace of mold or stank on it. I just don't trust it. That date is there for a reason and I will trust the food professionals who put it there for my well-being.
Also, I don't like spotty bananas. My new home page picture shows the difference between an old, icky, spotty banana and some bananas in a nice state of greenness, just a day before they're perfect for eating. I eat some of the bananas when they're edible, and then Andrew eats them when they've gone beyond what is right.
But, what I hate, what really grosses me out? Siamese pepper babies. They give me the creeps, the willies, the shivers and the wiggins. Wiggens? Whatever; they are gross! I despise cutting open a pepper to find weirdo baby peppers growing in there, and for some reason having to touch them makes me shudder. Ick. Tonight I made wraps for dinner and I'd chosen two lovely peppers, one red and one orange. The red one didn't have any icky babies lurking inside it, bulging out from its innards grotesquely. However, when I cut the orange one around the top and tried to pull the stem out, it wouldn't budge. So, I sliced down the side of it and cracked it open to find incredible horrors!
WARNING: The following images are highly disturbing. Young children and the elderly should not click on the links provided. If you have a heart condition or pee your pants easily, proceed at your own risk.
Look at this freak show. Alien siamese pepper babies! Ew! Check it out from another angle. I'm not sure, but it might be growing male genitalia or a tentacle (or tentacled male genitalia) down on the lower right. These pictures are upsetting, I know, but people need to be aware! You never know what's lurking in those peppers when you buy them.
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04/21/05 Glebetown Keltie Brown!
This morning the phone rang at 8:00 a.m.. It was Fed Ex calling to inform us that they'd tried to deliver my hundreds of hairstick blanks but could not because the name on the package didn't match the name on the buzz board. It turns out that Fire Mountain Gems had mailed my package to Keltie Brown. 'Brown' is not my last name. Those silly monkeys. So, Andrew (who answered the phone because I was still asleep and I've grown into refusing to answer the phone if it rings while I'm sleeping) informed them that my name was not, indeed, Keltie Brown and that they could safely deliver the package to us.
A few hours later my hundreds of hairstick blanks arrived at their new home! Yay for hairstick blanks! We also had a visit from the plumber not too long after that, so after he was gone I sat right down and put together the sets of hairsticks that I'd designed in the absence of any blanks. I'd already glued beads to their headpins and was simply awaiting the arrival of the blanks for them to be put together. I made eleven sets in total today. Phew. When my payment for the hairsticks I just sold arrives, I plan to buy some horn sticks next.
My current problem is that I'm kind of running out of ideas for the beads at the bead store. I've been in there a lot lately and they don't get in new stock as quickly as I exhaust the possibilities of the current stock. Not because I've bought so many millions of beads, but because a lot of the beads aren't suitable for hairsticks. I really need to get to the store in the Byward Market. I may have to convince Jen to make a trip there with me, which I'm sure will be so difficult to do. She's the one who introduced me to the joys of the bead store in the first place, after all.
I will also coerce Andrew into taking me back to the bead warehouse, now that I have my hundreds of hairsticks just waiting to be beaded. It wasn't really a very large warehouse as warehouses go, but ... beads! More beads!
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04/20/05 See, Jen? Math is not my strong suit.
Andrew says I should take a break from making fun of him for a while, so I'll tell you a story of my own stupidity. Won't that be fun? I don't think I've made fun of him very much lately, but whatever makes him happy is what I'll do.
I wanted to order some more hairstick blanks, since getting my own lathe anytime soon isn't really possible, and I didn't want to end up buying chopsticks and modifying them since that would actually end up being more expensive, I suspect. So, I decided to order some from Fire Mountain Gems. They have very nice blanks that are better than the ones from Black Tassel, where I bought my blanks before, since they don't have that annoying rounded bit that drove me so crazy and made me use saws and drills and things.
This time I wanted forty blanks. I bought twenty last time, and it wasn't enough. Forty is twice as much! Forty is a big number! So, I put '40' in the little quantity box underneath the little legend for quantity discount pricing. Looking at that legend made my mind think, "O.K., so one to three sticks costs $2.30, four to nine sticks costs $1.68, and ten plus costs $1.25 per stick." I submitted that, and with shipping and tax and whatnot the total came to over sixty dollars, but after checking that paying that much was O.K. with Andrew I went for it. Twenty sticks from Black Tassel plus shipping had cost over twenty dollars, after all. I wanted these sticks. They don't have rounded bits.
Eventually I did figure out I'd just bought four hundred hairstick blanks, not forty. They come in packs of ten, see, and the quantity thing meant per ten sticks, not per individual stick. I BE DUMMY! It says right in the product description that they come in packages of ten!
However, I also don't need to worry about getting hairstick blanks anytime soon, I suppose.
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04/18/05 Their motto should be, "Your money's no good here!"
I'm not going to talk about feeling sick because I've been doing that for days now and there's little point in continuing. What I will do is start talking about feeling better. When that happens. Someday. In the future.
Today, despite being ****, I dragged myself out to run a couple of errands. I had to mail off those hairsticks and make a trip to the bead store, and I also wanted to go to Shoppers Drug Mart. I do miss my terribly easy access to Shoppers. I can walk there from here, but it's a little bit far. I mean, it's walkable, but you kind of have to make a trip of it. And since I was feeling ****** today, I took the bus there instead. The post office and Shoppers Drug Mart are in opposite directions from our apartment, so I made two trips rather than one.
I bought a few more beads today. Not major amounts, but I wanted to come up with some new ideas so figured I'd try to buy some beads that I'd never bought before. I'm finding that I like something in the store, and then when I get it here and start playing around with it I get very afraid that it's actually terribly ugly. Luckily I have Andrew here to ask, and he can be depended on to be bluntly honest if asked. In the end I think I manage to do something with the beads that doesn't turn out to be terribly ugly. Hopefully.
So, anyhow, on my way home from my second trip I got off the bus a couple of stops early because it was crowded and annoying and the weather outside was beautiful. I decided that I was totally in the mood for a butter tart and went into Olga's, a deli cafe quite near us. Andrew bought me a butter tart from there once, so I knew they might have them. I went in and selected a butter tart, a chocolate bar for Andrew, and a beverage. Then I stood by the cash register and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited some more. A guy kind of walked up to the counter and stood beside me, but didn't say anything. Just when I was about to put my items back and go home an old woman came out from the back and came to the register. She added my items up in her head and announced the cost to be four dollars even. I took out my bank card, since I had zero cash on me, and she shook her head. "I don't know what to do with that," she informed me.
I pointed out the yellow Interac sign. "You do have Interac, don't you?"
The guy standing beside me said, "She doesn't know how to work it."
I put away my card and said, "Well. I don't have any cash on me. I guess I can't buy anything."
Old Lady looked at him. "Do you know how to work it?" He did not. So, I put my items away and went home. With no buttertart.
Andrew went grocery shopping tonight, though, and bought me a whole package of butter tarts. And some Corn Pops. I love my fiance.
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04/17/05 Not that 'homemade' is a bad thing, you understand.
This was a totally boring weekend. I felt sick for most of it, but the annoying kind of sick where I feel like I'm on the cusp of getting really sick but it's refusing to turn into anything full-blown. My throat is scratchy and my nose is a tiny bit stuffy, I'm getting fevers and feel cold all the time. But it's not turning that corner where it gets awful and at least I know I'm in the worst of it and will be getting better soon. What is up with that?
We stayed home and didn't do anything social like we'd planned this weekend. The highlight of it was that I did sell those hairsticks like I mentioned the other day, and for those curious I managed to sell them on a hair care swap board. One woman bought the entire lot of them as gifts for her daughters, so it's not like I put them out there and tons of people clamoured for them. But it's still a great ego boost and I'm very happy about it (and the money I got for them too, woo hoo). She said that they have a 'handmade', not a 'homemade' quality, which is a pretty good compliment, actually.
So now more blanks are winging their way to me and the bead store will be seeing a lot more of me.
Andrew and Jerome have both recently asked me about my maskmaking. Well, it went into hibernation for a while, I guess, but their comments have prompted me to think about it more and that has led to the desire to make some more of them soon. I still have so many ideas that I didn't end up making after we moved like I'd planned. It was the move that interrupted the maskmaking process for me and I just never got back into it here. Hopefully you'll be seeing more masks from me sometime soon, too. Creativity in general is a very good thing and I always feel better when I'm doing something artistic.
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