Look, it's a picture of a not-cat.

I've had a rough couple of days. Not so rough in unbiased views, but my hormones are magnifying every (normally) slight annoyance and worry. I hate this.

On top of that, I've felt basically sick all day, and run down from the medicine I've been taking to feel better. Just from last night. From the allergies. :( If I had any damn paid time off, I'd be in bed right now, reading National Geographic and re-watching Jackie Brown for the 945th time.

And I'm worried. Worried about all these kittens. Worried about money. Worried about my future. Wishing I could transplant a $600/month house-with-a-yard from Wisconsin to Fort Lauderdale.

(Yes, I know, would I like some cheese with this whine?)

Time to get on outta here to try to knock down my to-do list, so I can put all this stuff out of my head and hopefully have a nice weekend. I can't wait to be my normal self again.

  ¶ 3:59 PM 0 comments

  The cat likes to climb.

  ¶ 12:19 PM 0 comments

  First night on my own So it took like 1.5 hrs. I worked pretty steadily, but did take some time out to do extra things (give wet food as treats, pick up cats as they ran by to give belly rubs, etc.)

Last night, we let two cats out of their cages. Tonight, I freed seven. The former strays really have a hard time with cage life, and I can't digest the crying. So I let them out. It actually got quite a few people by, watching the kittens as they tore apart my paper towel and chased one another.

I got my first dumbass, ignorant question. Does the $75 adoption fee include declawing? I started to explain what declawing was (basically cutting their fingers off at the first knuckle) and the guy said, "Yeah, I know," in Yes-of-course-I-know-this tone. So if he knew, I find it strange he'd think that we would offer that as an included service. Dumbass.



Poor Athena: http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=6913871
She sits and faces the wall. If you pick her up, she'll sit quietly and purr... It makes me sad; no one would think to get her; she's not outgoing and engaging like the other cats but, wow, what a good pet. Quiet & sweet. Appreciative of affection.

IT'S MY KITTEN! http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=7076412

So now I feel awful, allergywise. Worse than yesterday, though I didn't realize that was possible. Me being allergic to cats is just so, so, so unfair. I'll try with a dust mask next week.

Oh, ha, I always wondered how the cats in these places got their names.. You know, you see some with weird ones. Well, last night I found out how. They stand there with a marker in hand while they try to figure out what to write on the sign. I helped name a brother and sister pair of kittens last night. I suggested Sadie & Sebastian. They already have a cat named Sebastian, though, so it's Sylvester, which the cat lady thought was clever. Sylvester. For a cat. Clever. Heh.  ¶ 10:56 PM 0 comments

  Co-workers are sabotaging my diet.

I’ve been eating salad all week for lunch, you know. Today someone got pizza delivered. Famished from my cup-of-yogurt breakfast, I ate three slices. One more than I really needed to.

Then I looked up the nutritional info on Papa John’s. Yeeeeeeeah, baby, 840-calorie lunch.

I rock.

This picture doesn't really have anything to do with pizza, but it came up in the keyword search results.

  ¶ 12:23 PM 0 comments

  Still. Frustrated. Oh, I’m so pissed. So I was supposed to meet the lady at the store at 7:30. She got there at nearly 8. Turns out she's driving in from Boca, so you have to sympathize. Then had to talk to some foster mom lady. Then she starts showing me what we have to do. Then some potentially interested lady comes and talks to us, only it’s very obvious that the lady is not really interested and instead just wants to talk about herself, a lot. The lady who was “training” me went to talk to her outside the cat room, leaving me alone and unsure of what to do. Finally, after I had been there for an hour, I started to get concerned – after all, we were supposed to be outta there by 9. So just started cleaning cages. I found out later I was using the wrong newspaper, the wrong cleaning spray, putting the newspaper in the cages wrong.... Anyway, when I got to only having the kitten cage left, which I didn’t dare to open, I went to get her. By this time, mind you, I am past the sniffling stage and into the wheezing one. Not being able to breathe makes me panic – I neeeeeeeeded to get outta there.

But we weren’t done. Wanna know what time I got out of there? 10 p.m. The store was closed and everything. I was so, so, so pissed off. It was to take an hour TOPS. She should not have kept me there – she should’ve explained the process and told me to leave. But I knew because she waited so long that she wouldn’t get it done by herself. So, yeah, 2.5 hrs to clean 9 cages, plus another 45 minutes to travel there and back. I am so not impressed. At least I’ll be there by myself tomorrow night and get it done with and out of there before I start trying to remember where my inhaler is.

Anyway, the cats are cute. You gotta feel for them, stuck in the cage all day long. We let a few out to play.. a couple that look just like my Elliot that just loved to be held. They’re doing a good thing, trying to find these babies homes.

I got home and was basically mad at the world, knowing I had so much to do and the night was shot. I was not mad at Kitten, however, and picked her up and cuddled with her while she made mad, devil noises. It got me to thinking - I don't know if I have ever been so grumpy that I've not felt warmed when I saw one of my critters. The mood may come back once I set them down, but it never affects me loving on my babies. So what is it about them? There's probably something to this, but I'm too tired to give it any more thought tonight. I just hope that someday I have a person that I am as unconditonally fond of, although when I feel compelled to squeeze them, as I do Kitten, I hope he can manage to make a slightly less annoyed face than she does. :)

OK, I'm showered and in bed now, hoping the drowsy allergy meds will allow me to wake up feeling well again tomorrow. Wish me luck!

/end rant - Sorry about that, but this is what blogs are for sometimes, right?  ¶ 11:08 PM 0 comments

  Now that Xmas shopping season is approaching... (Sorry to bring it up)

I am reminded what a great site iGive is!
http://www.igive.com/html/intro.cfm

Lots and lots of companies are on their list.. Target, Circuit City, Best Buy, Dell, Lands' End.. If you shop at any of these stores through iGive, a percentage (from about .4 to 26%) of what you spend will go to the charity of your choice. Pick Animal Aid, who helped me yesterday, or one of your pet causes...

If I would've thought of it before I got my camera, I could've given a free $1.50 to a charity. $1.50 ain't all that much, but you know the fact that it adds up is important.

So anyway, try to do your Christmas shopping through the stores at iGive! I am hoping to do so myself, instead of buying everything on the 23rd of December in one, horrible, headachey, last-minute trip to Plantation Mall.  ¶ 4:20 PM 0 comments

  Okay, I am totally ready for winter.

I had to go to the other office before coming here today, and by the time I got here, after 45 minutes of running around and sitting at stoplights in my no-A/C car, I was hot, sweaty, and grumpy.

I really gotta get the A/C fixed before next summer. It's just that $400 that scares me away from doing so. Then again, I realized that I plunked down $100 to Animal Aid last night without hesitation for them taking the grey kitten. So I guess I make my choices every day, and they just haven't worked out to me affording this car fix yet. So I guess I really shouldn't complain. But sometimes it's hard not to. :)

Maybe I should pull a Dawny and go to the casino with $40... :)

  ¶ 1:23 PM 3 comments

  october!

it's almost october already!

i could not be any more excited about halloween coming, now that i have access to DOGS!

i saw a ROOSTER costume at target the other day that one of the puppers will look just adorable in.

  ¶ 10:18 PM 0 comments

  smile, dammit!

today turned out to be a good day.

i spent most of it quite worried for the grey kitten. buggin' people at work to take a cat. "c'moooon, everyone's doing it." by the end of the day, no one had responded positively to my email. a call to the humane society sent me into tears. blargh.

but then! i called animal aid. http://members.petfinder.org/~FL179/ the lady there, tamera, actually talked to me and didn't brush me off with a "look, we all have cats in our bathroom" like the other rescue lady. she said, well, hopefully it's not a tabby or black cat as they are impossible to adopt out and she hates to sign up a cat for life in a cage. i said, no, it's grey. she said to try to find somewhere else for the cat but that she would take it if she had to. all she requested was that i donate enough for its medicals, $75.

i came home and sat with the cat in my lap as it purred and thought how much i didn't want it to spend another night and day in my warm bathroom. i called the lady. she said she'd wait for me at the office.

so now the kitten has been vaccinated and will be taking it easy for the next 10 days at tamera's house while the vaccinations kick in. then off to the petsmart adoption center!

i offered some assistance if she needed it (and it did seem that she needed it; that place was crawling with animals!). she said that if i could go to the petsmart store for a half hour or so every thursday night, i would be a lifesaver. and she'd make sure my kitten went to that location so i could keep an eye on him. :)

so today worked out pretty well. i came home feelng as if a weight had been lifted..

i have a definite feeling of responsibility for sad little animals when i encounter them. i couldn't just pass him onto the humane society and say, hey, good luck on the euthanasia thing. could not.

sometimes, this whole physical-impossibility-to-walk-away-even-when-it's-midnight-and-you're-tired-and-the-cat-ain't-goin'-in-the-trap thing is a pain in the ass. like today, soaked in dread all day long. but then it works out in the end. like today. :)

  ¶ 10:15 PM 0 comments

  Fwd: I found a kitten tonight while jogging... The email I had to send out tonight. OH MY GOSH. I even was wearing headphones! And I STILL heard him crying. He wanted my attention, but didn't want me to actually pick him up so, you know, that was fun.

Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 22:59:53 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: I found a kitten tonight while jogging...

Who else does this happen to? WHO?!

Anyway, he's a real cute little thing. I'm pretty sure it's a he but can't be sure because he is a scared little guy that keeps his tail between his legs.

I can't keep him past tonight; I'm already hosting a stray cat and her three babies at my house, on top of my two regular cats (who have been making themselves scarce lately, surprise, surprise). I don't think the roommate will be too happy to find out that my bathroom has been converted this evening into a cat den.



http://static.flickr.com/114/253063538_986bf0f2a8.jpg



http://static.flickr.com/112/253063425_b36d3ccdce.jpg

So anyway, there were some interested parties in my kittens when they're ready.. How about in a kitten who is already ready? He's grey, very small, very scared, but VERY SWEET. The second you pick him up, he purrs louder than any cat I have ever heard. Honestly. And that's a good cat. :) I guarantee he'd be sleeping soundly beside me right now if I could let him in my room (but this is where the kittens sleep!).

Please pass this on to anyone you know who may want a kitty. I really have to find him somewhere to go or take him to the Humane Society, and I think I'll have a meltdown if I have to do that.. He was doing the paw thing in his little cat carrier tonight and, ahh.. Well, this sweet little guy deserves better than what he's had so far in his short little life.

Please get in touch with me ASAP - via email or phone at 954-***-****.

Thanks :)
Stacey

  ¶ 1:09 AM 3 comments

  wow.

so i've been worrying and worrying about the kittens that live under the shed, right? since mama is scared of people, the babies would be scared of people... so how am i supposed to intervene there?

well, stray mamacat has been especially.. well, happy to see me arrive because she knows it's food time. the night before last, for the first time, she actually started coming over to my car, like "hurry the hell up, lady." i really get the impression that, after months and months of feeding her, she's finally caught on to my purpose in her life: i dispense food. i will not eat her babies.

well, tonight i reached under to put her food under the shed, i realized the babies were RIGHT THERE. i picked one up. she was in swat range, but she didn't do anything.

she sat and ate her food two feet from where i was taking her babies out, one by one, and scratching their chins and kissing their little heads.

they seem surprisingly healthy. they all have big bellies, unlike the wiry little kittens i have at home.

they are pretty unsure of me, but they don't seem to mind me too much. they eventually were playing out of my reach, but if i left my hand under the shed, sure enough someone would come investigate and get within grabbing distance.

mamacat, this whole time, just sat quietly and let me. :) when i put her water next to her food dish, she started making the unhappy-devil-cat noise, so she certainly don't want me touching HER, but what a relief that she'll let me touch those babies!

a couple of more weeks and they'll be ready to leave her. two months with the mama is ideal, but i'm worried about how much time they spend next to busy 441. we'll see.

anyway, i feel SO relieved now. :) i'm really proud, too; the mamacat trusts me!

  ¶ 7:16 PM 0 comments

  this one really, really likes to eat.

really.

  ¶ 7:10 PM 0 comments

  Any geeks out there that can help me?   ¶ 3:43 PM 1 comments

  Grist is such a great site/newsletter   ¶ 2:56 PM 0 comments

  Well, I applied at FAU.

Let's just hope they have some classes I need at the Davie campus... Driving to Boca would be a drag.

  ¶ 10:13 AM 0 comments

  tired kittens.





see the one on the right fallin' asleep? so cute.

i took the one outside to try to get nice pics of him. he cry-cried until mama came to his rescue. she's so good. she stood over him and rubbed against his face. then she led him back over to the porch. then she hissed at elliot, who was sitting innocently in the yard.

the pics of all of this are on my flickr. :)  ¶ 6:05 PM 0 comments

  just when i think he couldn't get any cuter..

he whips out his guitar.

it's really a pretty awesome thing to watch. surprising, you know? that he can just pick up a guitar and play "wish you were here" or, my request, ac/dc's "you shook me (all night long)". really, really awesome.

i would've gotten more pictures, but i'm trying to be respectful of his amish-like hatred of photographs. at least, i'm trying to break him in slowly... :D

i wanted to take guitar lessons years ago. i've got lots of things i would like to do but say, "oh, but i'm so old now." learning guitar, learning to ride horses, getting a fucking degree. and, actually, i may be too old on that first one - i think music is like learning a second language; you may reach an age where some of the required synapses just can't fire... but hey, i guess i could try.
and it's definitely on the "if i ever have a kid" list. it'll get baby sign language, spanish from birth, swimming from toddlerhood, and music lessons as soon as it can sit still.

also, may i say that i love a laptop and a stolen wireless internet connection like nobody's business? i'm sitting on my front steps, drinking a sol mate, enjoying the fresh air and the setting sun while mamacat 2 hunts lizards in the bushes. it's really nice. :)

  ¶ 5:41 PM 0 comments

  Still. Frustrated. Oh, I'm so pissed. So I was supposed to meet the lady at the store at 7:30. She got there at nearly 8. Turns out she's driving in from Boca, so you have to sympathize. Then had to talk to some foster mom lady. Then she starts showing me what we have to do. Then some potentially interested lady comes and talks to us, only it's very obvious that the lady is not really interested and instead just wants to talk about herself, a lot. She's going to fly in a shelter cat from Atlanta, you know, just because it looks like her cat that died. The lady who was training me went to talk to her outside the cat room, leaving me alone and unsure of what to do. Finally, after I had been there for an hour, I started to get concerned -- after all, we were supposed to be outta there by 9. So just started cleaning cages. I found out later I was using the wrong newspaper, the wrong cleaning spray, putting the newspaper in the cages wrong.... Anyway, when I got to only having the kitten cage left, /3641/320/DSC00214.0.jpg" border="0" alt="" />
Wuussss B'day boss

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Wuussss B'day boss

  ¶ 8:47 PM 0 comments

  Neat story!   ¶ 8:47 AM 0 comments

  wow...

this dude on flickr, with the pretty wife?

the latest set of pics from big sur is gorgeous. i looked up the place they stayed, the post ranch inn. you know, maybe i could visit someday. $1,000/night. um, maybe not.

pics are still pretty!

  ¶ 8:21 AM 0 comments

  two videos from tonight so no diving tonight.

actually, i planned to both visit with chris and then dive. but all my dive stuff was at chris's and he had to work a bit late.. it was just not going to happen. so he came over for a bit to play with the kittens and then i got a night at home, which is good stuff.

anyway, here are some videos from tonight.




eat, eat, eat.
if these don't load, go here to watch: http://youtube.com/profile?user=estacey

i'm sitting on my front steps to upload these in the dark since i found out my stolen internet connection works so much better out here. :)

my neighbors have a little red eared slider that they keep in a 10-gallon aquarium on the porch. i feel bad for it. it's freaking hot outside; five inches of murky water have to heat up pretty quickly when it's 90 degrees outside. i tried to talk to the owners one day after work, but the guy brushed me off by saying he didn't live there and that they took good care of the turtle. so i've been thinking of turtlenapping it. i'd need a place to put him myself, though, and i've long since donated turty's nice big tank to the wildlife care center.

okay, elliot is making this impossible by rubbing against my hand and against the computer and everything else. time to show him some love..  ¶ 11:21 PM 0 comments

  also cute.

  ¶ 11:15 PM 0 comments

  cute.

  ¶ 10:34 PM 0 comments

  hey, it's a wombat

don't see these too much, do you?

it's 4:59. i have roughly one minute to decide if i'm going home tonight or going diving first.

if i go home, i get a visit from chris.
if i go diving, i get to, well, you know, go diving.
the weather being iffy is a monkey wrench thrown into the whole thing. also, i'd have to rent a light. and tanks, obviously.

i just re-discovered the music that yo yo ma and bobby mcferrin did together. highly recommended; i just re-bought the album on amazon, as well as one bobby did with another strings dude. beautiful stuff.

okay, off to think for -2 minutes about what to do!

  ¶ 4:01 PM 1 comments

  Oreo insists on sleeping right in front of my door.

Balu took this.

Cute, eh?

They make it hard to navigate my room, but they're unbearably cute, so I let it slide. :)

  ¶ 3:38 PM 0 comments

  ugh.

__________________________________________________
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Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
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  ¶ 8:58 AM 0 comments

  Lookee

Ed may have found my Turty. He posed him for this picture and then brought him back to the pond where I released him a while back.

Not sure if it's him, but it's possible! :)

  ¶ 10:58 PM 0 comments

  Alli wanted a turkey-shaped ice cream cake

But she left this task up to her deadbeat hubby Luis (that's what she calls him) who:

1) Thought there was a Baskin Robbins in South Beach
and
2) Thought that they would have pre-made turkey-shaped ice cream cakes in mid-September.

He was wrong on both counts; custom ice cream cakes take two days to make. And there is no Baskin Robbins in South Beach.

On top of that, Luis had to work and hadn't bought the cake yet, so asked me to take care of it. I'm up in Broward. I got two ice cream cakes from Publix. I picked the football cakes. Luis disapproved of this choice (ha!). Anyway, they melted in the cooler on the way to Miami. Obviously.

So she wanted a turkey. Instead, she got two very ill-looking cow-pie type postres. Hey, I tried.

  ¶ 8:25 PM 0 comments

  Hee!

Alli's birthday was Saturday.

We all met up at this Peruvian place in Miami that Luis & Alli like. Alli has a million places to eat within walking distance of her apartment, so I was confused as to why she picked this out-of-the-way place with crumbs in the menu, but it turned out to be really good.

Chris was a dear and, although he had been up on and off since 5 a.m., came too. He ended up falling asleep at the table in the restaurant, and since I was tired too, we called it an early night (by early I mean midnight). It turned out everyone else was pretty tired, too, so I guess I didn't miss too much of a benda as the Massholes like to say.

I got to give Alli her waterproof MP3 player and see the Hoes & everyone else, so it was a great night. :)

Anyway, here's a pic of these sweet folks in the bed of Chris's pickup. We gave them a ride to Manny's car. Yes, Manny did not Manny out, for a change!!! Alli said she felt honored he showed up, as well she should!

Time to get home to the kitties!

  ¶ 4:29 PM 0 comments

  ha ha

i came across a pic on flickr of some chick with the wild hog she had shot. a moral debate about hunting & meat ensued after she posted the picture.. the last comment was from this fella who said that he is a christian and he also believes that animals were put on the earth for us to enjoy as food.

that seems like such an ignorant argument, that god put the animals here for us to eat. out of curiosity about what kind of person would say such a thing, i clicked his picture.

and here he is. a guy who wore a shirt that says "you have permission to fantasize me" to the hospital for the birth of his son. thank you for not failing to disappoint, mathies!

  ¶ 2:32 AM 1 comments

  ha i'm in a meeting at work right now. this guy from a company mentioned tom ellis and it turns out that this girl who works here is friends with him and his wife. he brought up this story:

"In Massachusetts, lobsters have a true friend in Arlene Ellis, the wife of New England Cable Newsman Tom Ellis, who went beyond mere words to help the sea creatures this summer.

During a swanky Cape Cod clambake, Ellis grabbed five about-to-be-boiled lobsters out of a pot, threw them in her car, drove to a nearby harbor and returned them to the sea.

"They were saying, 'Take me back to the beach,'" she told the Boston Herald.

"She was yelling, 'I'm saving the lobsters, I'm saving the lobsters,'" said a witness to the chase that ensued. "But the funny part was, her husband Tom was sitting at a table with about ten people eating his lobster and pretending nothing was going on. It was the most bizarre scenario ever."

It didn't end there, though. Some 90 minutes later, Ellis returned with a fistful of dollars and caused another scene, going table to table offering partygoers cash for their crustaceans."

Ha!  ¶ 1:05 PM 0 comments

  ahh, i love finding old pictures

look at this! taken at bethy's wedding, years and years ago.. wow. such young things! so cute! :D

bethy may come to florida soon. i hope it works out! i miss the girl. and i've only seen her ONCE since the day of this picture. what the heck was she thinkin', moving off to europe on us...? ;)

  ¶ 8:02 PM 0 comments

  scratch that whole hoes-having-a-baby thing

it turns out that they're having two babies.

fraternal twin boys.
two.
two babies.

wheee!

  ¶ 7:24 PM 1 comments

  Stingray mutilations prompt Irwin vengeance fears Story

"When a stingray killed the flamboyant naturalist Steve Irwin last week, his fellow Australian Germaine Greer outraged many by writing: "The animal world has finally taken its revenge." Now, it seems, the human world is hitting back.

"Up to 11 stingrays have been found dead and mutilated on Australia's eastern coast since the Crocodile Hunter's death, prompting fears that Irwin's fans are exacting their revenge on the normally docile fish."

If that's the case, wow, people are fucking retarded.

Of all people to "exact revenge" for, Steve Irwin is not one of them. He understands, as I would hope most people understand, that once you go in the ocean, you're its inhabitants' guest. If you get your arm taken off by a shark, don't get mad at the shark; you knew it could happen and, if that's unacceptable to you, then you should've stayed out of the ocean in the first place. Now, granted, I don't stay out of the ocean, but if I'm ever eaten by a hungry shark, slowly and limb by limb, I won't hold a grudge. I'm sure Steve wouldn't have, either. In fact, I'm pretty sure Steve would probably head-butt someone for hurting a stingray.

Ahh, people.  ¶ 8:48 AM 1 comments

  the nerve! Story.

"THE diver "miraculously saved" after 58 hours at sea was yesterday exposed as a hoaxer covering up a secret weekend break.
  ¶ 12:06 AM 0 comments

  Weekend

Here is the customary weekend recap.

Hmm.. Saturday was waking up early for a jog. An EIGHT-MILE JOG! I didn't intend for it to be an eight-mile jog, but it was around the time that I could've caught the Beach Boot Campers at St. Bart's Cafe, and that was four miles away.. Chris said he'd just come pick me up in the car so I wouldn't have to jog back. Once we got there, St. Bart's was closed (??) and I felt fine to keep on going (after catching my breath in the shade).

On the way back, we had to stop at about every other beach shower so I could soak my head with cool water; it was HOT. And I was pretty over the whole thing during the last mile, but until then I was fine. Next time I figure I'll turn around at the 3-mile mark so I do 6 miles instead.

I'm impressed with Chris for letting me set the pace, probably doubling the amount of time he takes to do his 8-mile run. In the words of Destiny's Child: what a mighty, mighty good man.

The rest of Saturday was, hmm.. a blur? Playing with the dogs, taking gear in to get serviced, coming home to play with the cats and do an hour-long headache-ridding routine. This involves 2 Excedrin, 1 Aleve, 1 cooling patch for my forehead, 1 ice pack, 1 bottle water, 1 US Weekly, and 1 couch. I highly recommend those cooling patches, by the way. (And the routine was a success!) Then out for Mexican at Cielito Lindo (ay, ay, ay, ay) with Chris & his sister.


Chris enjoyed the meal immensely.

Sunday morning was a dive! It was supposed to be the whole gang, but the Hoes went and got pregnant on us (seriously, the nerve) and everyone else was confused about the meeting spot, so it was just me, Chris, & his sister behind Chris's parents' condo. The rest of the folks were a half-mile north. The viz wasn't so great, which only bothered me because I wanted Patty to have a good dive. It was a gorgeous day, though. :) And it's always nice to get in the water.. Those dives are so.. they're just so relaxing now. Like a walk in butta, I'm tellin' ya! A walk where you get to see cute crabs and cool fish and a nurse shark every now and then. :)

Not much else was noteworthy. Lots of being lazy yesterday afternoon, feeling like I needed a nap most of the day. Playing with the dogs. Suffering through football. (Seriously, did you ever see that coming? Yeah, neither did I. And I still don't get it.)

Saturday is Alli's birthday, so we're going out in her 'hood to some Peruvian place and then off for an old-fashioned "benda" as she likes to call them. That should be fun!

Stray Mamacat moved her kittens to...??? Mamacat moved her kittens to under the bed. So no pictures for a while. Dammit. I figure if I'm providing the food and the water and all the worrying, I should at least get pictures out of the whole deal. Apparently my opinion is in the minority, however. And we all know that the cats are always right. Hmpf.

That's it for today's update!

  ¶ 6:30 PM 0 comments

  My friends, the Hoes, are pregnant!

Such great news, for such great people! Ahh! Can't wait to meet that Baby Hoelscher in February. :) :) :)

  ¶ 11:54 AM 0 comments

  It still weirds me out.

I spent much of the weekend snuggling on these dogs. Covered in dog hair(!!!) and rubbing bellies, letting them sit in my lap, letting them lick me ("Not the face!")... Then I got home last night and snuggled my cats, popped a Claritin, held Mamacat, kissed the kittens' bellies... It's taken a long time to get comfortable doing it, because any of those things would've made me feel awful before. Dog hair on other people's clothes would make me feel awful.

But when I stop to think about it, it always amazes me what I'm able to do these days. Three years ago, I'd be red-eyed, blowing my nose every 30 seconds, and constantly tired from the ever-pleasant wheezing.. I have to sleep sitting up sometimes in Wisconsin because of the animals! These days, it's just a lot of hand washing and sneeze here and there.

That makes me so happy! :)

  ¶ 10:52 AM 0 comments

  Updated pic!

  ¶ 10:51 AM 0 comments

  they've opened their eyes! :)

  ¶ 9:45 AM 1 comments

  Also pretty.

  ¶ 9:42 AM 0 comments

  Last night

After I went to Divers Direct, I drove by Tigertail Lake, then did a U-turn to go back. It was just too pretty.

Lucky for me, I found a section of fence that was knocked over, so crawled over it and spent an hour walking around and taking pictures.

The rest are at Flickr.

  ¶ 9:41 AM 0 comments

  if i didn't have a horrible aversion to supporting the pet trade..

i'd be all over getting a bengal cat. they're gorgeous, eh?

i guess i can find one on petfinder someday, when i've fully accepted my cat lady status and can acquire more animals on PURPOSE, rather than just reluctantly letting them set up house in my bedroom. :)

  ¶ 2:29 PM 0 comments

  wow pic!

  ¶ 2:26 PM 0 comments

  almost as good as a scuba cat!

look! a fluffy cat! swimming!

it's really funny.. ever since fluffy, i really, really have a soft spot for the maine-coon looking cats. even while i host six shorthair cats in my house. :) maybe someday...

in the meantime, i enjoy them on flickr. i can't believe this one likes to swim! that's so crazy and so cool!

and this picture is even cuter!



did you notice how i've really become a crazy cat lady again ever since the kittens came? :)  ¶ 2:18 PM 0 comments

  Yesterday.

It's been raining here nearly non-stop since the weekend. Yesterday, briefly, it cleared up. I did my little bookstore-grocery store routine and snapped a picture walking from one to the other. Of course I didn't have my camera out in time to get the flock of pelicans flying across the sky, but I did get some, um, starlings or something. :)

  ¶ 1:03 PM 0 comments

  Adventures of the Cat Lady

So tonight I was winding down. Had a bowl of Kashi and raisins and a stack of catalogs to flip through. Ellie was lurking around, being obvious about being attention starved, so I grabbed him and walked back to the bedroom.

I set my bowl of cereal on the bed with the catalogs and stood there with Elliot to make sure Mama was accepting him. She walked by him earlier in the living room twice without so much as looking at him, so I figured it was okay.

Then I set Elliot down. Then Mamacat tore out of her little nest after Elliot. Up on the bed, where she knocked the cereal over, then onto the filing cabinet, where she knocked the Fresh Step over. She made a few more stops, I'm sure, but it all happened so quickly...

Ellie made an escape. I was left with a spilled bowl of cereal, a wet bed, wet (just clean) sheets, a wet blanket...

I'm very tired. And my room smels like a mixture of cat litter and Fresh Step. I'm a little frustrated with this room tonight. It's tiny and I feel like I'm always stepping around things, knocking things over.. It's annoying. And Mamacat acting a tornado like tonight is not helping. But, eh, I'll figure something out. Organize things better. Or throw it them away. Maybe glue hooks onto everything, including the cats. Heh.

Mamacat must've sensed my frustration as she is now sleeping soundly beside me in bed, where I am laying on a towel and mismatched sheets. She's a suck-up. But a cute suck-up. :)

  ¶ 12:12 AM 0 comments

  [NSFW!] So there's this dude named Dean.. That Chris is friends with. I've seen him out at the local watering hole a few times and he's always wearing an amusing shirt. The once it was something like, "I'll have the roasted duck with mango salsa" from the, um, Geico commercial? You know, with the cavemen? The last time I saw him, it was a "pervert" shirt. You know, with pervert written like it would be in the dictionary: n. pur-vert.

I said something about it this time. "Like, dude, do you always have a weird t-shirt on?" "Yep," he said. And then he told me about the one he just ordered. I swear, I giggled about it all weekend.



I hope very much to get a picture of him wearing it soon. Maybe with his girlfriend, who will no doubt be looking thrilled and very proud.

Although I appreciate the shirts very much on Dean, I had to thank Chris for not being the type of fella who would wear a "Vaginatarian" shirt in public. In turn, he thanked me for not being the type of girl to wear one of these:



As a sidenote, considering I'm in the office late writing this, I'm thinking it sure would be funny if my company was the kind that tracked our Internet usage. :D  ¶ 4:50 PM 0 comments

  Weird.

I knew I had a cute Steve Irwin something in my The Onion Desk Calendar.. I flipped through the calendar today, and there he was. On September 1, on the date just a few days before he died. :(

Very sad. I really liked him, although, without cable for a while, it's been a while since I've seen his show.

Poor Terri and Bob and Bindi Sue. And poor Steve. :(

  ¶ 2:13 PM 0 comments

  Laboring Labor Day away

This picture is of Chris’s pool. He had $150 worth of gift certificates to Outdoor World from last Christmas to use and all he’s managed to buy is pool floaties. He’s asked for my help, but the only thing that really catches my eye there is the camouflage jacket with fake leaves hanging off it. We are both incredibly mature individuals. The pool floats are pretty aesthetically pleasing, however, so I’m sharing.

So I’m at work today, at the office near my home. Thank gosh I don’t work here every day; I’ve run over to the adjoining store three times so far. First for breakfast (bagel & fruit), then lunch (salad bar mixture of Greek salad, pesto pasta, and some Japanese-style tofu), and then a glass of pomegranate tea that cost $2.50, which I promptly spilled all over my desk (but thankfully not on the computer). If I worked here, I’d probably put myself in debt just buying my daytime meals. Plus, I’m sitting right next to the coffee maker, which is not helping my little sugary coffee addiction whatsoever.

Oh, did I mention that Chris lives directly across the street from a Dunkin Donuts. Literally, a one-minute walk. I don’t quite know how to feel about that.

Mamacat seems to have it out for Kitten, who has made herself very scarce lately. If it’s raining, you can find her huddled up outside under a car. It really breaks my heart. I’ve tried locking Mamacat in my room, but Kitten doesn’t understand that she won’t come barreling out at any minute and attack her. Today Kitten was inside when I left for work, so I closed the door to my bedroom and am hoping a day of feeling secure inside the house will help her out.

As for Elliot, he’s managed to become even MORE skittish, although I didn’t realize that was entirely possible.

I hope everyone ELSE is enjoying their day off. :) Back to work for me..

  ¶ 2:16 PM 0 comments

  hoo-boy, i'm tired

and because my job has weird rules, i will be AT WORK tomorrow. (i could've taken it off but didn't have much reason to. the default is to work; you have to take off for everything but, um, thanksgiving and christmas, i think.)

so this is quick. nice weekend.. um.. didn't do much? meant to go out on a boat with chris, but both afternoons were rainy so that didn't happen. it was nice anyway, though. duh. :)

buddy, the little dog, fell in the pool earlier today. luckily, chris saw the waves from inside and went out and rescued him. the fact that something really bad could've happened bothered me a lot, and chris too obviously. so we spent a while this evening trying to teach the dogs to be comfortable in the water and how to get over to the shallow end. toss the dog in the pool, clap a lot near the deep end, give him a treat when he makes it. gretchy is a superstar, buddy is getting better, and poor sebastian, the grown-up dog, is still terrified. at one point, he went behind some bushes and refused to come out. enough swimming for one day, i guess. but they're doing better!

mamacat & kittens are doing just fine. the kittens are a week or so old now, so eyes will be opening in a few days. that should be fun.

ok, time to sleep.

  ¶ 11:32 PM 0 comments

  caught one yawning!

look at those gums! :)

  ¶ 6:22 PM 0 comments

  everyone's seen 'the jerk' right? this part cracks me up:

"I know we've only known each other four weeks and three days, but to me it seems like nine weeks and five days. The first day seemed like a week and the second day seemed like five days. And the third day seemed like a week again and the fourth day seemed like eight days. And the fifth day you went to see your mother and that seemed just like a day, and then you came back and later on the sixth day, in the evening, when we saw each other, that started seeming like two days, so in the evening it seemed like two days spilling over into the next day and that started seeming like four days, so at the end of the sixth day on into the seventh day, it seemed like a total of five days. And the sixth day seemed like a week and a half. I have it written down, but I can show it to you tomorrow if you want to see it."

me and my boy (i'm struggling with the terminology here - i wanna call him my nigga, but uff, i'll get some unhappy mail if i do that) had an argument (well, not really) last week about how long we had known one another. "it's been a month!" "it couldn't be, could it?" [half-hour pause.] "really, there's just no way that it's been a month." sure enough, it had been three weeks. four weekends, but three weeks. strangely, once that was figured out, it really didn't feel like it had only been three weeks. and it was at that point that i really, really wished i had memorized the above quote so i could recite it out loud.

anyway, off for my weekend, which will just be a normal weekend because i have to take monday off if i want it off and, since i don't have anything planned for monday, it would've felt like a waste to take it off. sigh. but i guess two days off of work is good enough.

got some pics of the kittens. very cute ones, in which they are yawning. :)

mamacat tried to kick kitten's ass last night. really, she did the whole cat-fight growl and barrelled out of my room like a bat outta hell. now kitten is scared to be in the house. i feel really guilty. i brought her in this morning before i left to eat, and she finally agreed (after all, it was nearly 9 and she should've been on breakfast #4 by that point) but sat there, looking around scared, the entire time she ate. like a goddamn bunny or something. what is it about her that makes other cats want to be mean to her? is her misery obvious even to other cats? i feel bad for her. i will have to go home and snuggle on her and try again to introduce her to mamacat. i hope i come away from it with all my limbs.

oh, this is funny, from themorningnews.org: how many cats is too many cats?
what a bunch of lightweights! :) it's really cute that people were coming up with formulas to figure the answer to this question out.

"It's not a chalk line, so much as a grey slope from normal to insane-catperson-hood.

For a place with 1-2 people, I'd personally go with:
0-2 normal.
3-4 cat lover.
5-6 Excessive. Suspicion that the owner may have abandonment issues :)
7+ Warning bells. Person at risk of a lonely death with only feline companions who have overrun the house, and will feed on the corpse when the catfood runs out. :-)

Note: Kittens do not count towards those totals."

bahaha - kittens do not count! :D  ¶ 4:32 PM 0 comments