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ShinyHappy - Thoughts for May 1st - 14th
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Mong is fine. I took him to the vet this morning and it turns out he has an eye infection. The vet was very casual about it and said it was just a common one that kittens always get. I've had lots of kittens and yes, they do often get eye infections. So, no big deal. He gave me some eye drops for him and did the first round of them for me. His eye is already looking improved.
I found out that Mong has a BFF ('Best Friend Forever' for those not familiar with the term). The vet tech working came in to weigh him and they spent a few minutes loving each other up like crazy. She gave him smooches and he rubbed his head all over her in raptures of slutty joy, purring like a motor the whole time. She told me that when he'd been boarded there he was her little buddy and she played with him a lot. I think that's awesome and I was happy to see him obviously not afraid to be there at all. He purred for the vet the whole time, too, even when he was getting his ears cleaned and drops dripped in his eyes. I wish I had some of Mong's outlook on life, even if it would mean that I'd be clumsier and more prone to random violence.
As some of you might know, I am a die-hard Firefox user and think it's the best browser ever (BBE?). One of the fun things I like doing is changing the theme that I use for it every now and again. For a long time I was using LittleFox, which basically maximizes the browsable screen space by minimizing toolbars and buttons. I liked that when I had my monitor settings set so that everything was larger. I recently changed my monitor settings and decided to play around with the themes some more. I like colourful, fun themes and sorely miss the Toy Store theme from Netscape. However, I found that there have been new Firefox themes added since last I'd looked and downloaded a bunch.
I tried a few out and most of them ended up being kind of boring and dull. There were some fun ones but not really what I was in the mood for. Finally I decided to give one a try that I'd kind of skimmed past, since nothing else was doing it for me. Yes, I installed Pimpzilla! I expected it to be cheesy and just wrong, but I was thrilled to find that it was exactly what I was looking for. It has a wonderful leather-look skin and the tab bar is leopard print. The icons that indicate the browser is loading a page are colourful and fun. Aaaah, it's nice to have such tacky surfing ambiance.
Other fun themes are Scribblies Brite, Red Cats (Blue Flavour), and Curacao. If you are using Firefox and don't know that you can find awesome themes for it, what are you doing? Get some themes!
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We have had a very lovely weekend. Dan and May and Noah have been in Ottawa since Friday and we've managed to spend some time with them and Colin (who arrived back from a conference in San Francisco late Friday night) and/or Jen (who left for a conference in France on Saturday morning) every evening. May and Dan and Noah must return to Toronto tomorrow, but as I said; it's been a lovely weekend.
Friday night we went over and spent hours on Colin and Jen's balcony just hanging out and chatting and drinking and eating and generally having wonderful hanging-out funtimes. We repeated this last night. Now, the niceness of sitting on the balcony after dark is that the general disgusting, horrible, torturous heat subsides slightly and the air approaches something resembling endurable. Yes, it's been stupidly hot; the kind of hot that makes you sweaty over every inch of your body and causes you to feel clammy and unwashed the moment you step out of the shower. That kind of hot.
Happily, Andrew and I own an air conditioner. We tried installing it last summer in our Toronto apartment and it didn't fit properly in the window there, causing water to leak into the apartment. So, we brought it with us to Ottawa, figuring it would fit in one of the windows in our Glebe apartment. We put it in the living room closet (yes, with all my kidnapped celebrity males) so that we'd have easy access to it once the dumb humid heat of summer appeared. That was fine. Until the other day when Andrew decided to pull out the AC and found that the living room closet doors would not open. They'd swelled in the humidity and were now stuck. Andrew tried for quite a while to open them, but finally gave up. We talked to May later and she suggested pulling down hard on the handle when trying to open it and so last night when we got home (after midnight) Andrew tried this. Lo, it worked. The doors, they opened.
It was so stickily, sweatily, swelteringly hot in our apartment that Andrew decided the AC would be installed not the next day, but right then. I was O.K. with this, of course. Have I mentioned it's hot? With much effort Andrew installed the AC. The process was complicated by Mong insisting on 'helping' by means of 'inspecting' by means of 'jumping into the wide open, screenless window from whence he could conceivably fall into the lilac bushes and never be seen again'. I tried to wrangle him throughout, mostly by trying to make sure the bedroom door stayed shut. And it doesn't latch shut, so Mong can push it open and he kept doing this. Grrr. However, the AC did get installed and Andrew did a lovely job of it. The thing sat properly in the window, the open space was effectively blocked, and it was plugged in. Andrew turned it on.
A fuse blew. The fuse that powered the circuit providing electricity to the bedroom, bathroom, living room, dining room and part of the hallway. That little fuse had a lot of responsibility and we asked too much of it. So there we were in our stinking hot, darkened apartment at almost two in the morning with no extra fuses on hand. Plus, the fuse box is difficult to get at since the fridge blocks it, so we had to drag the fridge out (at almost two in the morning) to see what the deal was. Andrew said he was going to walk to Mac's to see if they had fuses (which convenience stores sometimes do), and since I didn't want to stay in our creepy dark apartment alone (at almost two in the morning) I went with him. Man.
Mac's had no fuses and the guy working didn't even know what fuses are. So we walked home and went to bed all hot, sweaty and irritated. In the morning Andrew got up and went to Home Hardware where they know what fuses are and we've ended up plugging the AC into a circuit of its very own, since there's a mysterious circut that has nothing but one outlet, which is now the dedicated 'cool, happy home' circuit. Yay!
This afternoon we were enjoying our newly-cooled apartment air when we got a call from our friends inviting us for dinner out at Colin's family cottage. This was an excellent idea so off we all went. We had a fantastic time swimming, eating burgers and chicken on the barbeque, chatting and generally relaxing. It was the perfect way to end the weekend, I must say.
Mong seems to appreciate the apartment having slightly cooler air as well. When we moved the fridge I found a little rubber ball underneath it that Mong is thrilled to have as a new playtoy. May revealed to me that the fridge moved in with her and Dan, so the ball either belongs to them or to Julie and Gundel. Here it is if anyone wants to claim responsibility for it:
We always provide Mong with tons of tinfoil balls to bat around and he's seemed very happy with them, but they don't roll quite as nicely as this one does and he seems fascinated with how it keeps going and going. He got a bit tired and had to take some breaks, but still wanted to be near it.
Unfortunately, Mong has something wrong with his left eye and has to go to the vet. It's a bit cloudy and red, which isn't a good sign according to some of the research I've done online about what could cause that to happen. Cloudiness actually in the eye could indicate a lot of things, apparently. He hasn't been his usual self lately either. We've attributed that to the heat, but ... I worry. So it's good that we're going to the vet to see what's up. Poor dude.
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My head hurts too much to do a full weblog entry tonight, despite the extra-strength Advil Migraine that May gave to me an hour or so ago. Suffice it to say that it's ridiculously hot and humid in Ottawa right now and none of us are enjoying it, not in the least poor old Mong. He sprawls around pathetically. Look at him:
I will leave you with one more picture of kitty cuteness. Mong loves Andrew's shoes an awful lot. That's not too surprising, since kitties love stinky feet. It's a fact. So here is Mong loving Andrew's shoes (along with his ever-present octopus):
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06/09/05 Dance Dance Ballerino!
So, today was a pretty good day. I got over the disappointment of the whole job/car ridiculousness, I suppose. Who would have thought that not having a car could be so problematic when it comes to employment? I guess I should explain that they wanted someone with a car so that that person could take money to the bank at the end of the workday and deposit it. I can understand that, but whatever.
Anyhow, today was nice. Andrew was out for most of the afternoon (which is not why the day was nice, let's be clear). No, it got nice when he arrived home and we went out grocery shopping and had a lovely dinner, then went to visit Jen and watch a movie with her. We ended up renting Be Cool which was just as enjoyable as Get Shorty, if not more so. I'd like to go back and watch Get Shorty again, though, since it's been ten years since I've seen it. John Travolta is a seriously sexy man (yes, he is) and I forget that when my exposure to him isn't what it should be. I have a running joke with Andrew that I will kidnap the sexy actors that I lust after and keep them in our spacious living room closet, but it's getting a bit overly full what with Jeff Probst, Tom (the most recent Survivor Winner), Ryan Seacrest, Naveen Andrews, Wil Wheaton (yes, Wil Wheaton), and a few others that I can't think of at the moment. John Travolta might have to stay somewhere else.
I'm really not a creepy stalker type. I swear. Honest.
Anyhow, after the movie we were preparing to leave when for whatever reason something Andrew was talking about included the term 'ballerino'. Jen and I were both astounded to discover that male ballet dancers are called ballerinos. We were even more astounded (or at least I was) when Andrew then proceeded to demonstrate some ballet for us. Not fakey-fake ballet. I'm talking real, honest-to-goodness ballet stuff like a plié, relevé, and a rond de jambe. He took a class in university about dance called 'The Dance Experience' where they were actually taught these things. Jen then loaned me a bellydance DVD that she'd mentioned to me before and Andrew attempted some belly dancing of his own at the door. I have to say that I love being with a man so secure not only in his masculinity, but in the knowledge that I am attracted to him no matter what. Dance, ballerino, dance!
When we got home Andrew took off his socks while he was sitting at his computer and kind of tossed them beside him on the floor. Mong, of course, began playing with them since he sees socks as some kind of prey and must kill them. I pointed this out to Andrew, figuring he'd take that opportunity to rescue them, but instead he proceeded to play a sock game with Mong. Of course I had to grab the camera and take some shots of their craziness. Here he is making a crazy kill face and here he is with limbs-a-flailing. Check out that big old paw. And one more chicken pic for good measure.
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My day began with my complete confidence in my ability to navigate the bus system to my job interview and back home. Andrew had given me crystal-clear instructions on which buses to catch on which platforms both ways and I was one hundred percent sure that I'd have no trouble.
I had no trouble at all getting to my job interview. The buses worked exactly as they were supposed to, arriving on time, departing on time, pulling up in front of me in a friendly and inviting manner. I kept my eye on all the street signs and got off the bus almost directly in front of the building I was traveling to. It was smoooooooth.
The interview was great. I was about twenty minutes early so sat and read industrial machinery propaganda until the man interviewing me arrived. He was very nice and I felt like the interview was a good one. One of my better ones. He asked me the kinds of questions that sometimes catch me off guard, like, "Why do you think you're the right one for the job?" and, "Tell me a little about yourself." I never know when I'm crossing the line from being confident about myself to sounding like a vain fool. But it was good. When I walked out I had a feeling that I might just have gotten the job.
I carried that nice feeling to the bus stop across the road from where I'd gotten off. I stood there for a while, the wind blowing my hair, the sun shining down on me, cars driving past me, the aroma of diesel and other truck-like things wafting in my nostrils. Waiting for the bus. Waiting. Eventually a bus coming from the other direction stopped at the stop across the street from me and the bus driver leaned out his window. "You waiting for the bus?"
"Yes, I'm waiting for the bus."
He laughed. "You'll be waiting until three o'clock in the afternoon then."
I stood there at eight-thirty in the morning and stared at him. "What?"
"The buses only run one way along this route until then. Hop on here and we'll sort you out."
I had no other options. I had no cash on me, and only the pair of bus tickets in my hand. I got on his bus and he said he could take me to Hurdman where I could catch the 99 home, but it would be a while. I had nowhere else to go so I gratefully sat and chatted with him until Hurdman. When I got home Andrew was sleeping, but woke up enough to ask me how in the hell I'd gotten home since the bus only runs one way. Apparently the staffing agency had called when they'd realized there was only one-way bus service, knowing I was depending on the bus to get me there and back.
I called the agency to let them know that I'd had my interview and gotten home through the kindness of a bus driver and the woman I spoke to said, "Well, you could have gotten a ride home. One of our agents is there now with the next candidate that's interviewing. They needed a ride so we provided it." That made me mad. I had to take the dirty old bus and the person after me gets personal chauffer service? Blah. They had told me that if I had bus problems I could take a cab and they'd reimburse me, but it's not the same thing, lady! Anyhow, she said she'd call me at around eleven to let me know what the decision was.
So I waited for the call, and finally by three in the afternoon got impatient enough to call her. She said, "Oh, I was just about to call you." (Liar.) She went on to apologetically inform me that they'd decided to go with someone else because the company made the snap decision today that the candidate they chose had to have a car. You know, after I went all the way out there and interviewed and everything and informed them that I have no car and depend on public transportation. So, either it's true and they really want someone with a car or it's not true and she just wanted me to not feel too badly about not getting chosen. Whatever the reason, it still sucks.
Mongkut outdid himself tonight. I was making some beads out of polyclay and had some bits of clay in various states sitting on my work surface. I was at my computer, having left the clay for a bit to let it set, and Mong got up on the table and grabbed a rope of clay and jumped down with it, intending to go off to some corner and ... I don't know. Sculpt? Andrew saw him doing this and ratted him out, thankfully. I think it's non-toxic, but eating it would still not be a good thing for him. Or for the person (read 'me') who cleans his litterbox.
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Today I was feeling very depressed because I don't have a job and I can't find a good one. I'm not qualified for anything except call centre work and customer service, and things that sound remotely interesting outside of those fields require degrees or bilingualism around here. So, yeah. I was in a bad place about it and it was hitting me hard today. Then this afternoon I was pleasantly surprised by an email from the staffing agency that placed me at the data entry job I did a few weeks back. It was about another job that sounded like something I could do, so I called right away.
I talked to the woman and everything was falling into place very well. It was for a great company at a building with luxurious-sounding employee amenities. The pay was better than I'd been making at my last placement, and for a much longer time. Everything was wonderful and I was getting very excited, until she asked the dreaded question: "Do you have a car?"
Bzzt! No, I don't have a car. She sounded sad, since not having a car meant not being able to get there every day. Then she sounded happy! Oh, another job is available! Yay! So, she told me about this other job that pays even more for full-time hours and is accessible by public transit. It's covering a maternity leave so it's a nice long period of employment, as well. She set me up with an interview at the company at 8:00 tomorrow morning. Luckily for me it's easy to get to on the bus, since Andrew is unable to work his magical chauffering mojo this time around.
So early to bed for me tonight, meaning early weblog entry as well.
Today I got a lovely, lovely package in the mail from my dear friend Jerome. Inside it was a cute little cat notebook, a copy of the re-released Dick and Jane stories, and a fat white chicken finger puppet. Now, these gifts were all for me, as the card seemed to indicate. I was happy to receive them and after going through them and laughing and whatnot I set them on the dining room table for the moment, forgetting that we have a very curious, nosy cat who has no boundaries. Within minutes he was on the table inspecting my new presents.
Mong wanted the chicken. He was trying to carry it (still in its plastic bag) off the table so he could rip it open and have his way with it. I thought that was pretty funny, so opened up the chicken and offered it to him. Oh, baby. Despite the continuing oppresive heat, Mong found it in himself to romp with his new toy. I, of course, grabbed the camera and took a few shots, but unfortunately it was on the wrong setting and they're kind of dark, blurry and grainy. I'm still going to share them, though. Lucky you.
He grabbed the chicken and carried it around for a bit, like he was looking for a private spot to be alone and kill or eat or whisper sweet nothings to it. He hung out in the dining room with us, though, and batted it around for a while. That picture shows the chicken pretty well. He concentrated a lot on trying to eat its comb and beak, for some reason. The legs and wings didn't seem as delicious, I guess. In this shot you can see the chicken on its side, mortally wounded but still trying to run away.
I hope you don't mind Mong appropriating the chicken, Jerome. It made him so happy, in turn making me happy too.
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06/05/05 If I'd broken my ankle Jen would have felt so bad!
This story begins with my stinky feet.
Well, O.K.; not my stinky feet, but my stinky sandals. I had a pair of sandals. The last time I wore them was last year. I remember thinking as summer drew to a close that my sandals were stinky and probably needed to be replaced. That's the last I remember of those sandals, which I cannot find now that spring has definitely sprung and it is no longer boot weather. I have a suspicion that I threw away the sandals, thinking, "Oh, I'll buy new ones in the spring."
Being unable to find my sandals means that I've been stuck wearing my black boots since I don't have any real casual sandals around. Yesterday in desperation I dug out the most casual of my dressy sandals and have been wearing them, since wearing socks and boots in the ickily hot weather we're having has been unpleasant, to say the least. This pair of sandals are beige and have stretchy straps and a big solid heel of two-and-a-half inches. They fit, but have a tendency to kind of slide out from under my feet at times because the straps are a bit too stretchy.
Today I wore those sandals when I went to Art In The Park with Jen. We wandered pleasantly amongst the art stalls, admiring things with fish and trees on them, talking about the varied items and generally enjoying ourselves. We bought drinks and once we were finished with the side of the park we'd been working through decided to go up the hill and get to the other side. We were at a fairly steep part of the hill, which is actually an old creekbed, and I said that I thought we could manage it. Jen did too, commenting that it was something that you'd need to get a run at. I agreed and we ran at the hill, Jen going ahead of me. I made my way up the short hill a little ways, and then ... you guessed it. My left sandal slipped out from under my foot and I went over on my ankle. In recovering from that and trying not to twist my ankle all of my forward momentum was lost and I drunkenly wobbled and staggered and fell back down the hill into the tree standing there with limbs outstretched, waiting for me.
How embarassing.
Jen had a good laugh at me and I red-facedly went to a gentler slope and walked up that. My ankle is O.K. and doesn't necessitate a limp or anything so dramatic. It's just a tiny bit sore and a reminder that I looked like a clumsy fool for all those who witnessed it.
On the side of the park that we were heading to was the plaster artist I mentioned in yesterday's entry. I was excited to show Jen this woman's awesome art, but I think that by the time we got to her she was pretty much through with Art In The Park and had a hair down there about it. We admired her work and I asked her a question that I hadn't asked the day before since I hadn't wanted to monopolize her time too much. She makes lovely celtic crosses, and I asked her if she makes any with the arms all the same length as well as the ones with an extended lower arm. Instead of saying something civilized and polite like, "No, I do not," she asked me, "Can you give me a convincing reason to do so?" I was startled by this question and kind of babbled something about how I personally prefer solar-armed Celtic crosses and liked to buy that kind. After this weird exchange (that pretty much ended with the woman saying that solar-armed crosses weren't going to happen) Jen and I left, and since that time I've been getting more and more irritated by her response.
I assume that she assumed I wasn't going to buy anything from her. All right, fine. I wasn't going to at that very moment, so she assumed correctly. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't in the future when I have more money to spend on things like this. I feel like the only correct response from me, in her view, would have been to say, "If you make one I'm going to buy it from you, guaranteed," and made a down payment right then and there. Since I wasn't going to, she wasn't going to bother with me.
So guess who I'm not excited about any more? I'm much more excited by the thought of buying a Glebe painting from Bhat Boy (whose boyfriend used to live in the very apartment we now occupy). I want to find out if he does commission paintings and if so I'd love one of this building when I'm a bit richer. When Andrew got home from Doors Open he wanted to go and check out the Art In The Park so we hurried over. We ended up walking around while all the artists were tearing down their stalls, but we still got to see some neat stuff and I learned that I'm actually a brand new Bhat Boy fan! I hadn't stopped to really look at his stuff when Jen and I had been there earlier, except to notice that he has swimming goldfish in a lot of his cityscapes.
So, it's hot and I don't like excessive hotness, but it has a wonderful side effect: It turns Mongkut into a good kitty! Yes, it's like we have an entirely different cat, one that is relaxed and quiet and doesn't try to run out the apartment door or climb shower curtains or attack our ankles or go buildering on our bookshelves. He barely even notices when I leave the apartment a lot of the time, or if he does he's just too hot to run after me and scream. He did it today because Jen knocked at our door, but otherwise he's not too worked up about it when the temperatures are so dang hot. Mostly he just lazes around stretching himself out and trying to be very still so that he is as cool as possible. I think he's being a bit of a baby about it, since his ancestors come from very hot places and he should be naturally equipped to deal with it, but whatever. When things cool down he'll be back to his wonderfully awful self.
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06/04/05 Sometimes the simplest cures are the best.
Obviously I didn't write an entry yesterday. I want to blame it on Andrew and say that I was too traumatized. I'd finished writing my weblog entry for the 2nd, uploaded it and was sitting at my computer when I developed a sudden case of wracking hiccups. They were my second case of them that day and I was very annoyed by them, trying things like holding my breath or drinking a tall glass of water, all to no avail. Andrew sympathized, but I figured that was all he could do. I was wrong. He suddenly leaped at me from out of nowhere and screamed like a banshee in my ear, causing me to lose ten years off of my life but also my hiccups. So ... thanks, Andrew. I guess. Even though I shook nervously for like an hour afterward.
Last night we ended up hanging with Colin and Jen because we felt that it had been too long since we'd spent any quality time with them. Andrew and I headed over to their place in the evening and spent a while with Jen who was home alone baking banana bread on a swelteringly hot day. I guess that's what life is like in the land of one percent body fat. Anyhow, the banana bread was not only delicious, it was egg-free, so Andrew got to enjoy two helpings of it with piles of whipped cream. After Colin arrived we all sat around on the balcony and drank things and ate things until it was decided we'd walk to Pure Gelato for some ice cream.
Pure Gelato is rapidly becoming as exciting for me as Greg's Ice Cream in Toronto. It will never have the same funny little atmosphere that makes me so happy with Greg's', but it definitely has a wider variety of incredibly good ice cream, even though there is no toasted marshmallow or grape nut to be found. What they do have is Zabaglione, which is an egg nog/wine flavoured treat that is worth going back for every time. This time, though, I got Skor ice cream since every time I go there I see it and think I want some. So I got it over with. It was delicious, but not as chock-full of delicious Skor bits as I would have liked.
Andrew and I noticed that there was a big sign over the park across the street from us that read 'Art In The Park', so we deduced that this was Art In The Park weekend. Woo hoo! I was excited because I love going to art and craft shows and supporting local artisans. Today Andrew was doing volunteer work at Ottawa Union Station for the Doors Open festival, so after lunch I headed over to the park on my own to check things out. I meant to just quickly walk around and see what was there but I ended up getting into a few conversations with some artists. One was a woman who did a lot of polymer clay art, including polymer clay eggs. We yakked about those for a while and compared our techniques and styles, and I was actually able to tell her about a technique she didn't know. That's pretty cool since she's been doing this for fifteen years.
I recognized a glass etching artist from the One Of A Kind show in Toronto and chatted to him for a while, and I also recognized a plaster artist from seeing her on Regional Contact! I loved her stuff, and was saddened by the fact that I couldn't afford to buy anyone's awesome artwork. The plaster lady did tip me off to the fact that tonight's episode of Regional Contact had a bloopers segment, which thrilled me.
There was only one table at the entire thing that had hairsticks, and the woman told me that her daughter only made a few pairs and doesn't like doing them so the two there were all she had. They were an entirely different style than mine, so maybe if I have enough stock by next year I'll be Art In The Park-worthy! We shall see.
I'll leave off with a couple of cute Mongo pictures. I mentioned that he likes to combine his toys; well, the other day he put his velveteen octopus on top of his scratch pad and scratched it through the octopus' legs. I watched him do it and it looked very deliberate. I guess he was just trying something new. Here he is in the aftermath. The second picture shows what Mong does when the heat is really getting to him. Poor kitty.
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Well, Mong definitely knows we have a mouse. He's quite interested in the cupboard that has the mouse hole in it. It's just a cupboard that we throw recycling stuff into so we don't exactly care about what the mouse can get into, but Mong seems to care. If that door gets opened he gets right in there and checks out the mouse hole. He's quite businesslike about it, too. I have a feeling that he was born knowing what to do with mice.
Andrew says we should maybe leave the door open so Mong can get at the wee thing, but I don't think I want to do that for a couple of reasons. Firstly; I don't want the mouse getting past any of the barriers that keep it confined to that limited area. Secondly; I don't want Mong getting more of a taste for blood than he already has. Today he was staring at me while standing on his bench doing an 'I want to kill you' dance that involved a lot of Cat Fu, and it chilled my blood. Someday I'm going to wake up to him gnawing off one of my extremities.
Andrew and I went for a lovely evening walk in the gorgeous spring weather tonight. We walked down to the canal and wandered along, discussing, among other things, the canoe trip we want to take with Colin and Jen from here to Kingston. I'm very excited about the prospect and don't want this to be one of those things that gets discussed but never put into action. So, I decree that this canoe trip shall happen! Anyhow, as we were walking along I saw a couple of ducks swimming near us. There was a drake and his lady friend paddling around together. Andrew and I wondered what female ducks are called, and according to this page they're called 'hens', just like chickens. Huh.
We admired the ducks (or at least I did) and were going to mosey along when suddenly another drake came flying along and splashed down very close to the happy duck couple. Apparently this is very bad form, because the hen had a bird! She was all quacking and bitching and doing aggressive duck things, so her drake started moving toward the other drake, starting to bully him away by swimming at him and keeping himself between him and his girlfriend. She swam in little circles and kept complaining, but when they got a fair distance away from her she started swimming after them. I think she liked having two drakes fighting over her, personally.
Eventually the interloper gave up and flew away. Spring isn't over yet, buddy. I'm sure you'll find yourself a girlfriend eventually.
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06/01/05 Another day in the life.
So I guess summer is on its way or something. The weather was odd and capricious today. Andrew was out in it earlier when it was sunshiny and bright and came home to inform me that it was dang hot. I checked the temperature and it did indeed read dang hot. Like, twenty six degrees of dang. Around about four or so I knew that I shouldn't put off going grocery shopping any longer, but I noted that it was clouding over in a dark gray, ominous way that looked like imminent rain to me since it was also getting very windy.
Off I went in a hurry, toting an umbrella and wearing a spring jacket despite the heat in case the skies suddenly opened and dumped torrents of water on me. I got as far as First Avenue and it started raining. And not just raining. It was pouring the huge fat raindrops that only happen in a weird summer storm. Handily, I was so close to the bead store that I was able to duck in there and browse around while the rain got over its first exuberance. Or so I hoped.
So there I was browsing when I suddenly heard the women working start exclaiming over by the door. I looked out and it wasn't just raining any more; it was hailing chunks of white ice. Eek. I wasn't too upset, though. There are worse places for me to be trapped than my favourite bead store. When things calmed down a bit outside I went and did the grocery shopping and walked home in light, pleasant rain. Weather = weird.
In other news, our landlord came to look at our lower kitchen cupboards today since we know that a mouse (or mice) have been getting into those. It doesn't look like we can do much about them getting into the cupboards below the sink, but they also can't get out of them into any other kitchen areas so at least for now our food isn't in any danger. That's a good thing, but I'd feel better if there weren't any mice at all, you know?
Let me leave off with another picture of our adored kitty. Here he is playing in the resurrected small paper bag. I decided to fluff it up for him to play in since the large bag had to be laid to rest, but as you can see it's not really in great bag shape any longer. He still loves it, though, and gets a lot of use out of it and the rest of his toys. He's a very bright cat, you know, because he combines his toys to make them more fun. He'll often drag his octopus into the paper bag and play with it and the bag at the same time. I'll try to get a picture of that sometime.
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