Moved, mostly

I hate moving, more than just about anything I have to do. I think it goes back to my childhood, when, courtesy of the US Army, I was moved 5 times from the time I was born until I was 3 years old. Until I was 25, the longest I lived in one place was 5½ years. To the best of my recollection, all of the army moves were done by professionals, right down to the packing, and several pieces of my furniture bear multiple identification stickers from those moves. I hate packing, and I kind of don't really like unpacking, but I do a little better at the unpacking than at the packing. Saturday, courtesy of some of the most awesome friends, and my 2 youngest nephews, all of the furniture, and 97% of the boxes got moved. Most of what was left is hanging clothes, and miscellaneous stuff, only about half to ¾ of which will get moved, the rest is just plain crapola, and will go in the garbage.
The cats have done very well, especially Trinity & Tegan, who were born in the house we just moved out of. I think the best part for them is that they don't get locked up in the bedroom at night, so if they want to go out on a perimeter inspection in the night, they can, at least as much of the perimeter as the walls will allow. There's only been one accident, and it was on the linoleum floor, so easy enough to clean up. They are still very much sleep with Mom cats, at least 3 of them are. Mollie, however, has decided to proclaim her independence, and she's not going to sleep in the bedroom unless it pleases her to do so, thankyouverymuch, a point she made last night by staying out in the living room on the ottoman.
We have less space overall than we had access to in the old place, but their confinement has gone from about 120sqft (our bedroom, which is where they HAD to spend their nights, and where they remained confined anytime I was gone overnight) to 790sqft, although part of that is closed off until I can get to sorting all those boxes and such. We now live in a 2 bedroom duplex with NO DOGS in our space. The bedrooms are a little bigger than the one we had, and they are also more square, while the previous one was Longer than it was wide. I chose the larger (by about a foot's width) of the 2 rooms simply because it IS larger, but I discovered on Saturday night that I chose even MORE wisely because the window in that room faces the back of the property, which is essentially an open field, whereas the other bedroom's window faces the parking lot on that end of the building (I am in the downstairs unit of a 2 story building), and while the security light is AWESOME to have lighting the parking lot, it also lights up that bedroom pretty well too.
I am quite pleased with the fact that I have finally pared down (9 years after Mom died) everything I own to that which I will actually USE, or I truly LOVE. Now if I can just find those organizational faeries to come get everything unpacked and organized, it will be fabulous! I am not pushing myself to get it all done at once. Last night I picked up a load of stuff (mostly clothes and my small garbage cans) from the old place on my way home from work. My goal for last night was to get the kitchen cleaned up (dirty dishes from the chili I cooked on Saturday to feed my moving crew, plus what hadn't gotten washed on Sunday & Monday), unload at least 1 moving container in the kitchen, and get all the clothes sorted. I managed to accomplish that PLUS clean out a drawer in my dresser that was holding random stuff instead of the clothes it could/should have! I also got the window security locks installed on all the windows except the one I can't get to in the spare bedroom (aka storage bedroom) because of all the boxes. Tonite I have several loads of laundry to get done (thank heavens for the inexpensive Laundromat a mile from home with 25-cent washers & reasonably priced dryers AND free wi-fi (since my home internet is STILL not working, tyvm AT&T for telling me lie after lie throughout the process of getting moved. If you'd been honest in the first place, I would already have everything I need & not be hatin' on you today) that I can use to get my internet fix, and get caught up on some of my FB apps that have suffered the last 5 days since I unplugged on Friday before the move… I figure that by the time I finish the laundry, I'll be ready to get home, hang what needs to dry in the bathroom, put the rest away, and empty another tote in the kitchen before I am ready for bed. At this rate, the kitchen will be put together by the weekend, but not a whole lot else. I just HAVE to finish it before Scarby starts, though I'd like to be able to say it's finished before NTIF, which still gives me 4 weeks to get it all done (aside from the monster in the spare bedroom, which will be reasonably done by the beginning of Scarby, if for no other reason than I'll need to be able to get all my garb organized & easy to choose from & pack for each weekend).

3 a day!

I think, know I don't take time often enough to count my blessings. This past week could have been a hugely upsetting and disappointing one, and in the past, it WOULD have probably totally thrown me for a loop, caused a major fibro flare, and put me to bed for a couple of days. Fortunately, the way that the cards fell, I am able to adjust, make a couple of changes, and move past the "problem". My life is absolutely not where I thought I would be 14 years after I got my Bachelor's degree, but while I'm not in an ideal place, I'm in a good place, and trying to embrace the lessons I'm supposed to learn, so that I don't have to keep repeating them.
A friend was recently told, as part of a recovery process, to keep a journal of positive things in her life. I realized that I could benefit from doing the same, and it will provide me with both motivation to write and a topic on which I can write, especially when I don't think of anything really awesome to write about. I enjoy writing, and I know that my only hope for improving my writing is to actually DO IT!
Amusing to me night before last was that my Li'lcat, who is still unneutered, (until we know that his brother, who is the standard Dwelf in the family isn't shooting blanks) decided that he is a STUD, much to the chagrin of his adopted sister Girlcat, who was spayed almost 14 years ago, when she was a kitten. She was totally NOT thrilled with his amorous intent… and since his body is about 2 inches shorter (from shoulders to hips) than hers, well, he just couldn't get his aim quite right, so she just had this little short cat with her scruff in his mouth pinning her down! It truly was HILARIOUS to see, though I know that she didn't see any humor to it. I've no idea what has caused him to suddenly decide he's a big stud… there's nobody in the house in season, though there are a couple that could be getting ready to come into season, and his sisters CAN'T come into season.
And today I saw the funniest NASCAR commercial EVER!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJV487KmR_4

Today's 3 blessings are:

*I have a comfortable, relatively climate-controlled place to live

*I have a lot of people in my world that I truly enjoy and can count on

*my cats, bladder, brain & fibro all let me get 10 hours of sleep uninterrupted last night

And tonight I'm going to make myself go lie down before 10:30, in the hopes of 7 hours tonight!

CRASH

I knew going into the season working Scarby that it would be a long road, and that I would need to be extra careful to get appropriate rest, since I was going to be on the go for 75 days in a row, with no days off.  As it turned out, my schedule at faire the last 2 weekends of the season (this past one, and the coming one) are "breaks only" schedules, because my boss's sister-in-law is helping her with breakdown and hauling everything back home on Monday or Tuesday. This is excellent, as it gives me closing weekend to play with my bestie, assuming that she makes it out, at least Saturday & Sunday, plus part of Monday, and it gives me a chance to go run amok with Angela as she's  planning to be out & kiddo free on Monday. 
Throughout the season I've been trying and adding to my yes/no list various scents.  I've found several wonderful new things, and a lot that I LOVE in the bottle, but they just aren't wonderful on me. I've tended to have one on my left wrist and one on my right.  One day a couple of weekends ago, I had on Sun and Thunderstorm, and my boss suggested I mix them together. I wasn't crazy about it, but it did give me the idea to find a water scent to mix with the Sun, and I started sniffing the scents until I found the right one, and Liquid Sunshine was born. It's sweeter and more floral than I've been wearing, but it's garnered compliments from all but one person, and she's not a fan of the floral scents to begin with. The first weekend, we sold 8 drams of it, so this past weekend I got to mix up a vial sized bottle of it for sale. I know that at least 4 drams sold, but beyond that I have no idea.
On Sunday morning when I woke up, I knew I was going to have to choose between lasting a whole day out there, or going to work Monday morning (yeah, like there's actually a choice there). When the boss told me that there wasn't enough business for them to need me, even for breaks, I packed up my cooler, and headed home. Yeah, it was bad, I was POOPED, and by the time I got home, I fell into bed for a short nap before I got up and did as much of my household chore for the week (cat cages) as I physically could.  I slept another 9 hours and managed to drag myself up and to work, only to discover that my computer is DEAD. Yeah, it was a rough couple of days, but today's severe weather has completely missed us, and it doesn't look like anymore is on its way, so we're all safe, dry, a comfortable temperature, and ready to face another day!

Busy Busy

I had really hoped that before now I would be in the swing of my work schedule, and be able to set aside some time each day to do a little writing, and have been trying to keep track of the random funny and odd things that occur along my drive to/from work, or as I'm out and about. (prime examples being the dead tree full of vultures I saw on the way in one day last week, and Thursday's unfortunate vision of a 350 lb man who does get kudos for actually doing some exercise, but subjected morning commuters to the view of his enormous, glowing white belly as he used his shirt to wipe his face) Unfortunately, I've not gotten there yet. It's been a busy couple of weeks.
Last weekend I had to get up early on Saturday and head to Arlington in order to get my car inspected (it was, by then 11 days past due). I had to go there, because, well, Don's Total Car Care has been taking care of my vehicles for about 10 years now, and I suspected a couple of things that might be a problem, but I wasn't sure. I know that Don will be honest with me, and work with me on expensive repairs, should they be required. Fortunately, they were not, and I was on my way to Grapevine before 9, so I could pick up a Survivor Joe bracelet as a Christmas gift. Sure, I could buy it online, but it would cost me an extra $5 PLUS shipping, so I spent a couple of bucks in gas and picked one up. Lunch at Friday's with friends, for the first time in months was both yummy and entertaining.
Wednesday I got to have dinner with some of the usual Wednesday Dinner Crew, again, for the first time in MONTHS. Genghis Grill, oh how I have missed you!
The big excitement for the week has been the addition of Li'lcat to our family. 

He is one of 3 living Dwelf cats in the world. As he is haired, and breed standard is hairless, he is, obviously, a non-standard Dwelf, but he doesn't know that, he just knows he's cute, loveable, loved, and a snugglebug! His presence continues to drive Girlcat & Boycat crazy, but they are adjusting. For several days they lashed out at Shortcat as well. I suspect that what they said to her went something like this: "Mollie, you little shrimp, he is short, like you, this MUST be ALL YOUR FAULT! What were you thinking getting Mom to bring ANOTHER one in here? Are you NUTS? We were just fine, the 3 of us and her, but NOOOO, YOU had to have another shrimp in here didn't you?!" Ultimately, I suspect largely out of self-preservation, shortcat also took a swat and a few hisses at the li'lcat as well, though she's definitely the first one to chill out over his presence. I suspect that he may not be staying too much longer, but we'll see what happens in the coming days. His former owner may decide that she didn't really want to give him up to begin with. As much as I love him, a week later he STILL doesn't follow the rules, and decides about 30 minutes before the alarm that he needs to speak with me, IMMEDIATELY.
Last weekend I learned to crochet, basically, a potholder. For years I've been able to make long chains, but not connect them together, so I'm pretty pleased with this development. I have no idea what I'll wind up making, but for now I'm just making a long ole, scarfish sort of item, so I can get my hands accustomed to the rhythm of it. Eventually I will learn to read a pattern and make an afghan, or hats, or something.
For now, it's off to bed with the 3 cats that actually will sleep in the bed with me, and perhaps the 4^th will decide that she can, indeed, be in her corner of the bed with li'lcat on the other side, away from her.

Witty Title Here

I wish I could tell you that this was going to be an exciting or witty post, but, in all fairness, it's probably not.
Today would have been my kid brother's 41^st birthday, had he made better choices 22 years ago AND survived the military action that was going on at the time, since he was a United States Marine. This fact is not particularly relevant to anything else I have to say today, it's just a little tidbit I thought I'd toss out there. 

In the last couple of weeks since my last post, I've been working on getting paperwork together for a couple of things.

1. SNAP (AKA Food stamps)—I've been approved, pending paperwork processing, which, really, I've turned in already, and am now just waiting to get notified that the money has been put onto my card. I can only purchase non-taxable food items, which is fine with me. Since I have been a responsible person and not had any children that I cannot afford to support, I am limited to 3 months of assistance every 3 years unless I am working at least 30 hours a week, earning minimum wage or more. The problem I have with this plan is that if I had a job, even at minimum wage, I would not so desperately need the assistance! The past twenty-odd years that I have been working and paying taxes which support this very program that will provide seemingly unlimited assistance to women who prefer to keep having children that they cannot feed mean nothing when I am the one needing assistance, apparently.
2. Workforce Investment Act—I have been approved to get into the program, and I had to apply for a Pell Grant, even though there is funding available from the state to pay for my schooling. I was denied the Pell, because, well, I have a Bachelor's Degree, which, after spending $25K of loan money, plus 4 years worth of Pell Grant, is not actually worth the paper upon which it is printed. I've left a couple of messages for the coordinator of the program at the Workforce Center, and expect to hear back from her tomorrow.

I have resigned myself to living with a catbox on a table at the end of the bed, since it will save my mattress, as well as wear and tear on the sheets and mattress protector. My body is adjusting to sleeping on plastic tablecloths between the mattress & mattress pad (yes, I'll take all the defense I can get against cat pee on my 2 year old, $900 mattress!).
I've been working on my faire calendar, and hoping that I'll have managed to come up with some money to spend, at least for admission, at said faires. First up is Middlefaire, which will likely be the first weekend of October. It's sort of become a tradition for some of us who have birthdays that first week to celebrate at Middlefaire that weekend. The following weekend I'm hoping to be able to make it down to TRF for their opening weekend with friends that are planning to go then. It seems that as long as I'm living here at Castle Wford, sharing responsibility for HoBBiTcaTs & WaveorgoNaked,Sphynx either I can be gone, or the roomies can be gone, but we can't all be gone a full weekend at the same time. I'm planning to make Dickens on The Strand again this year, which makes missing the 3 day weekend at TRF easier to bear, cuz I really don't need to be gone two weekends in a row, and the roomies will be in Corpus for Thanksgiving, so I'm staying closer to home. I hear that there are a couple of Pirate invasions planned at a local garden area, but don't have dates on those yet.
I'm also brainstorming ideas to make this space a little more interesting (thus drawing more readers and hopefully ultimately some advertising revenue), as well as helping to give me a goal to meet each week… maybe a photo of the day, recipe, quote, or something, I just haven't figured out what I really want to do, other than aimless rambling. Any ideas would be most appreciated!
 

Update & stuff

Last week, I was without internet access at home, which, in all honesty, had me a little VERY freaked out. The only reason my sanity was intact (well, as intact as it ever is these days) is that I could at least text and check Facebook & email from my phone, thanks to my pastor's generosity and willingness to lend me the $ to get a metro PCS phone. I didn't do much posting or answering email, simply because the phone is a no-frills, basic model, without a QWERTY keyboard, and it's just too much work to try to email or post much of anything using a phone keypad.

Yep, my phone is only marginally bigger than my iPod.

As it turns out, a mouse had chewed the wire along the wall for the DSL line. Damned mouse! Apparently caged cats are no mouse control whatsoever… hmm. A friend said to me "Kitties are not doing their jobs." I pointed out to him that there are only 2 cats in the whole house that think they have a job other than breeding or looking precious, and those two stay locked up in my bedroom, which is NOT where the DSL line is located.
Today, as I was cleaning the kitchen, I moved the toaster and found, what we can hope was the offending mouse.  S/He was fried and toasted, having chewed the toaster cord in at least 2 places.  Serves the little bastard right! Not only did it cost us DSL, but we are out a toaster now too! But we do have more kitchen counter space...

I did manage to get a few things handled last week, using the computers at the Workforce Center and Public Library. I've applied to Weatherford College, to enroll in an Associates of Business Administration program. It will get me some more accounting, HR and Payroll experience, and hopefully, make me more marketable than my Bachelor of Arts in History/English has. The Workforce Investment Act should cover the costs of school, supplies, and fees. I have an appointment with the HHS office for some public assistance, after spending an hour standing in line, having filled out my application manually (since they chose to ignore my online application for some reason).

I finally (I hope) broke the shortcat of her penchant for peeing on the bed. Granted I am living with a small, covered litterbox on an endtable at the foot of the bed, and a folded over plastic tablecloth along the foot of the bed, just in case, but I no longer have a huge cat crate taking up half my meager floor space, and I don't have to wash linens every day.

Today I managed to get my bodhran moved to where I've wanted to put it since I moved into this room, and put a bamboo shade on the west window. That window's shaded partially by a tree, but since we hit our 10^th day in a row of 100*+ temperatures, the partial shade is NOT keeping much of the heat out. The shade isn't a perfect fit, there are a couple of inches on either side exposed, but for the most part, my window's covered, I've got more privacy than the sarong that was hanging up there before afforded me, and my room stayed much cooler today, with the a/c unit on low and on a more mid-range temp than the colder one I use when I'm in here at night. Tomorrow I am going to locate a hammer and get a couple of other things hung up and get the room into a little better shape so it doesn't make me want to scream when I'm in here for very long other than to sleep.

And now, if you'll excuse me, the shortcat is demanding her turn on the computer…

Cat Tails

Now, some of you may know that I live in a house FULL of cats. Literally, there are 13 that live here. No, it is NOT a catHOUSE, it is a very small cattery, HoBBiTcaTs and WavorgoNaked Sphynx. My cats you've met previously… Bow, Leo, and Mollie. Also in the house are Bob, The HORN DOG, a Highlander, I believe, who has a bobbed tail and curled ears, aka BTHD; Blondie (who is also a pet, like mine, rather than a breeder) a very sweet sphynx; Tumbles a mostly sweet, albeit Diva-esque Bambino (dwarf sphynx); male kittens Tril & Trin (borne of Tumbles & BTHD) who are Dwelf (dwarf sphynx with curled ears) Tril is standard (hairless) and Trin is non-standard (haired); female kitten Shady who is a Bambino a few weeks younger than T&T; Uno a min-skin (and don't ask me what that is, I'm still not clear on that, all I know is he's short legged and kinda semi-furry), and Geej, Peej, and umm, I can never remember that other girl's name, all 3 of whom are sphynx. BTHD & Trin live in the resident teen's room, and all of the others (besides mine) live in the Master bedroom. Tumbles & Blondie are uncaged, the 2 naked kittens are caged together (as there is an ultimate goal of breeding the next generation of dwelves from them). Uno and the 3 sphynx girls are all caged, though Uno only gets one girl at a time, and the one with him currently is NOT putting out, apparently, so he's still pretty whiny, and she keeps trying to escape whenever they are fed, or cages are cleaned…

Well, Friday Blondie was NOT well at all, and when everybody who was coming home for the night (as it was visitation weekend all 'round for various kiddos so there was a bit of coming/going to get everyone where they needed to be), she'd been in bed for virtually the entire day, wouldn't eat, and was running a temperature. Tumbles, being the diva that she is, was not about to be left out of the attention, and kept climbing into the bed on top of poor Blondie, and was thusly caged with Tril & Shady, which of course, did not make for a happy Tumbles. However, since we had no idea what was causing Blondie's illness, best to keep all the others in the room caged and avoid spreading anything that might be contagious. For the entire weekend, all of the Master BR cats were caged, save for the sick one, and since Trin had been snotty, he'd been put in with the 2 sphynx girls who were also getting some medication via nebulizer. Now, remember, Trin has spent several months running free with his daddy in the other bedroom, so he was quite unhappy at being caged, AND at not being caged with his brudder & his mama since he was caged! Yesterday afternoon before the teen got home, Trin got to go back into his room with BTHD, but everyone else had to stay where they were. By this morning, Blondie's definitely on the mend, but still not totally herself, so still needed the run of the bedroom to herself, but we decided to put the kittens in with Trin & BTHD, to give them time to run for a bit. Tumbles is just SOL, because it's too soon for her to be bred (naked kittens are more fragile than haired, so need to wait & breed her when it's likely to be warmer outside and stay that way when she'll deliver), but the babies were liberated. Aaaand then BTHD was liberated, against his will, for harassing the babies. He is, after all THE HORNDOG, and believes that his sole mission in life is to breed. That has been true in the past, however that mission is likely to change soon. We brought him downstairs into the living room, and he wandered around sniffing things. He did not appreciate ML's cold, wet, shar pei nose in his ass, however. We are hopeful that perhaps he will remember what that's like the next time he starts sniffing a kitten's ass, but well, sweet as he is, we aren't at all sure that the lesson took. He spent a decent bit of time sniffing me, purring… and then he decided he needed to mark me as his… fortunately, I saw it start, and managed to get him off me before it was much of anything and it didn't soak my (favorite) sleepshirt or my Dr Pepper pj pants! Little twerp! I changed my clothes, and later he was all in my lap purring and loving on me till he settled in for a nap, I suspect a wee bit high from the catnip residue that was on my jeans, which I'd set on the bed, on top of my cat's catnip mice.

Yeah, BTHD I think may be next on the list to get neutered, since he's decided to start marking territory. When we told the teen the story, we learned that he has indeed started marking a few spots in their bedroom…

I also need to get written down the story of Leo and the mousie from the weekend, but too tired to do it tonite…

Keep in Mind:
It may be those who do most, dream most.
-- Stephen B. Leacock

We all survived!

Well, we all survived the night, though I think Mollie's the only one who actually slept. Leo vacated the bed and slept somewhere else. Bow took her standard spot next to my pillow, and spent the whole night growling intermittently. For awhile, both the big ones were on the bed growling. It might have been fine if I'd managed to convince them to do it in unison, which might have gotten me a decent little massage happening, but oh no, they couldn't possibly do something to convenience me. So while we did all survive, unscathed, some of us were also unsleeping as well. Every time I was asleep nice and soundly, I felt a tiny movement near my feet, and then there was a growl that started in my ear. Fun times I tell ya!

While I've been in and out of the bedroom, puttering around the house and getting some things done, there's apparently been an understanding of sorts, develop, at least between Leo & Mollie. She stays out of his line of sight and he doesn't growl or hiss at her. Not that it really matters to her, since she can't hear it. Bow has decided she's just going to hide out. Earlier I came in and found her sitting in the sink in the bathroom. She was so happy to see me and purred her little brains out while we were in there, you would think she hadn't seen me in DAYS!

In other cat news, my friend and roomie, Erin (Nina) has gotten back into the cattery biz, specializing in hairless breeds, including Sphynx & Bambino. Check out HoBBiTcaTs at http://www.hobbitcats.com/. A little note before you start clicking… we ARE talking about hairless cats. Sure, initially there's a bit of squick for most people when talking about hairless cats, but they are some of the sweetest, most loving cats I've ever met. Also, they are not truly hairless, they do have a fine sort of like peach fuzz, and a bit more hair on their ears, and may also have thicker coats in patches or, like one I met recently, on their ankles. I adopted Mollie from her. Mollie is not out of her cattery and has normal cat hair, but is a dwarf, with short little legs and the sweetest personality that more than covers for the fact that she can't hear, which is why she was spayed and became a pet, instead of being part of a breeding program. One of these days things will settle down enough that I can get some video of her cute little rolling waddle.

As for me, I've had a bit of a busy day, and tomorrow's got several things on the agenda, including a trip to the Post Office, so I'm off to bed now.

Possibly my last post

This could quite possibly be my last post. For a bit anyway. Tonite marked the end of my 2 cat only world. I brought Mollie downstairs to move in with us. It’s been planned from pretty much as soon as I moved in here with E&T, especially since they have decided to get back into the breeding of the designer cats.



I’ve mentioned my 2 before. Leo, my big boy, is about 11 now, and while he’s not frightened of his own shadow anymore, change tends to stress him a bit, and if there is too much activity outside our bedroom door, it does tend to upset him. Bow, my precious baby girl is 12 now, and still rotten as ever, and relatively certain that the world does, indeed, revolve around her multicolored little self.


I can assure you that neither is particularly pleased with the addition of Mollie to the bedroom! And, quite frankly, I think at least part of their annoyance stems from the fact that she seems not to give a damn about the fact that they are growling and hissing at her. It matters not that she is less than ½ their size (and, as a dwarf, that’s all she ever will be).



When I first brought her in tonite, I took her to the litterbox, so she knew where it was, and then I let her go on walkabout, during which she found the water dish, the food dish, and Bow. That conversation went something like this:

{both cats on the floor at the foot of the bed, with Leo looking down on them}


Bow: GRRRROOWWRRR, PFFFFFT.

Mollie: *dopey look that says “huh?”*

Bow: PFFFFFFFFFFFFFT

At this point, I scruffed Bow where she stood on the ground and talked to her, telling her Mollie is fine and she doesn’t have to be ugly. Mollie passed her and went to the food dish. Bow heads around to the other side of the bed and goes under it.



Her first conversation with Leo went like so:


{Mollie jumps onto the bed about 4 inches from his face}


Leo: grrrRRRRRRROW pff

Mollie: (cuts him off) RRROWWW pft (and a swipe of her paw that misses him by a mile)

Leo: GRRRROOWRRRRR PFFFFFFT PFFFFFFT


Mollie: turns her back on him, waddles to the pillow and starts washing her paw


Bow eventually gets out from under the bed, Mollie has by now moved down to the foot of the bed for a full on bath and quick nap. Leo has been hissing intermittently and glaring, first at me, then at Mollie. I finally convinced Bow to come out and get up on the bed beside me, which she does, but she steadfastly refuses to purr, and is intermittently growling at Mollie, who, being deaf, doesn’t hear it, and thus doesn’t really care.



They have each finally settled down now, hopefully for the night. Mollie’s asleep on a pillow on one side of me, Bow’s in her favorite spot on the other side of me, where she’ll be right IN MY FACE should she need to tell me anything in the middle of the night, and Leo’s down at the foot of the bed with his back to me, so I’ve no idea if he is awake or asleep.



At any rate, it may be a couple of days before I’m able to update, should there ensue a heated discussion in the night, of exactly what the pecking order in this little abode shall be. If anyone has any “make the kitties get along famously” sorts of spells, incantations, or ideas, please send them my way, as I may need them soon….

Giving Thanks

Another holiday season has officially arrived. Today's attire included this year's first wearing of the festive holiday attire. I left the headwear at home, but the earrings came out, as did the festive holiday socks. I went over for dinner with some fellow MacGiggles and had some fried turkey and tasty sides, plus chocolate cherry cake, a wee slice of pumpkin cake, and a bit of chocolate chip pie. Of course there was a good bit of giggling and some interesting stories told.
By the time I got home, my cats were unhappy, the dog & pig were more than ready to come back into the house, and the upstairs cats were STARVING! I got everybody fed and settled in for the night, and I am POOPED! (Ok, I THOUGHT they were settled, but it sounds as if Bob, Mollie & Blondie are having a conga line or something upstairs!

On my racing trip back to the old house in the hopes that my camera was still over there, I also located one of the 3 iPod cords that I'd torn up my space looking for last night, so I was also able to re-sync the Christmas playlist back onto it, because, well, it's time to listen to and sing Christmas songs! While I am of the firm opinion that Christmas carols should not be played publicly until Thanksgiving, starting on Thanksgiving Day, I'm blasting them as much as possible, and singing along, usually out of key, loving them! Christmas is generally my favorite time of year, I suspect partially because of the amount of joy that seems to be in the air.

Tomorrow's a busy day with finding a storage building, finishing the unpacking of what is already here, and posting the Christmas stash onto Ebay in hopes of clearing more of the stuff that I've been carrying around out. I absolutely want to have my room put together before I head to Galveston for Dickens next week! Since that's the case, I'm thinkin' it's time for me to head for bed, with Too Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar as my bedtime viewing/listening!

Well now

I had every intention of getting my Opening Weekend blog posted earlier in the week. Obviously that didn't happen, because here we are at Thursday and I'm just now taking the time to even write it. I took about 300 pictures and really wanted to include a few in here, but that didn't happen, either, mostly because I didn't get them edited and sorted yet. Friday I took the day off work to finish getting the car packed, and getting last minute stuff done so as to be a responsible, albeit absent innkeeper because some of my friends are staying at my place each weekend for the duration of Scarby. You are probably wondering why I'm absent. I love my friends, and I love that I can provide them a place to stay, even if I'm not there, however I also love the oh, about an hour and a half to two hours in the parking lot before cannon on faire mornings. I use that time to finish dressing (have you ever tried to lace yourself into that back-lacing bodice without any help? tried driving an hour and a half in that laced, steel-boned bodice, 2.5 lbs of skirt which measures 27 feet around the hemline?) and visit with my friends in the parking lot. In order to do this, from my house, I would have to leave between 6:30 and 7 a.m., and on Saturday nights, anyway, I wouldn't make it home after dinner until nearly midnight. Raevyn at Faire on less than 6 hours of sleep is NOT a pretty sight, I can assure you. Fortunately I have a friend that I can split a motel room with each weekend. It works out better this way anyhow, because there are only 3 or 4 people cycling through the shower at my house, instead of 5 of us. Staying near faire means I can sleep until 6:30 most mornings, and still be on my way to faire by 8, and have plenty of time to get a good parking space and play with my friends for awhile. So I am running around the house, getting sheets changed, trash emptied, etc. I finally finished everything, loaded the last of what I needed to into the car, and was off. I got a later start than I anticipated, but I made it to the motel, got stuff unloaded, changed another friend's room so she could be beside us instead of above us, and headed for the festival to deliver the housekey to one of my guests. I had a tasty little dinner with one of my oldest friends, and his wife... we'll hit 30 years of friendship this fall... holy crap we're old. It was Saturday morning in the wee hours before I was able to go to sleep because my roomie was sewing madly. Saturday morning was beautiful... we truly couldn't have asked for a prettier Opening. Getting passes at the gate didn't appear to be the fustercluck that everyone feared, but I have no idea what the situation inside where the actual passes were being printed was. As we were competing with 2 other festivals within about 3 hours drive, and Nascar race weekend, there weren't as many people as could have been, but it was still a great day. I honestly didn't get to see as much of the faire as I might have liked, but I did manage to see a couple of new vendors and lots of people I hadn't seen in months. I was at every Rogues show (yes, I know this comes as a terrible shock to you, but it's true), but didn't see a single other show. I remember last year, opening weekend totally kicked my ass, I was absolutely exhausted, and my back was killing me. At the time, I blamed the fact that my Pendragon bodice is not as extensively boned in the back as my Morescas are. Yeah, shame on me, it wasn't the bodice, it was the fact that my body is no longer accustomed to the walking and being bodiced up at all, because the same thing happened this year, despite the fact that I wasn't working and walking around a show area selling CDs for 4 shows a day. It was a bit warm by the end of the day, but overall it was an outstanding day. Sunday was about 20 degrees cooler, which means that anytime I wasn't in the sun, I was a wee bit chilled. There were fewer people out on Sunday, probably mostly due to the weather, we had a grand time anyway. I was DONE before cannon, which is a rarity for me, so left to head on home. When I got home, I discovered that perhaps I'm not such a fabulous innkeeper, as I'd left a bag of trash in the hallway. yeah, I suck, I know, but really ya'll is that any reason to leave the cats closed up in the media room? Fortunately they were happy to see me, and hadn't left me any messes in there, so it's all good. I think I'm going to post a note that says "hey, I won't leave a big bag of trash for you to trip on in the hallway if you won't lock my cats up" :) I know that it wasn't done on purpose, and even I have been known to lock one or the other of them in there from time to time. Today is my Friday, and I've got plenty to keep me busy this evening getting ready for this weekend. Hopefully I'll get photos up here in the next day or two...

TEXAS

I live in north Texas, and have come to expect erratic weather patterns. But you know, when I got home today, this is what I saw when I looked out on the patio:

Yes, that is my thermometer, which reads 92 degrees. Yes, 92 degrees in FEBRUARY. This is ridiculous people! Normal this time of year is in the 60's. 30 degrees above normal. Yeah, I think that since I packed up my summer clothes back in November, there has been a total of maybe 10 days that were really too cool to wear my capris and sandals. I LOVE living in Texas, but sometimes the schitzophrenic weather drives me nuts. It's not uncommon to have a 35 degree change in temperatures from the time my alarm goes off at 5 a.m. until I get home in the evening. The moral of this story is, if you are coming to Texas anytime between February and April, you really might want to bring both summer and winter clothes, because not only might you need them, you might need them in one day.

NTIF is in a week, and I am definitely ready for a dose of live celtic music! I'm also hoping to get my photo made for my participant pass at Scarby, as long as I'm out there in garb, might as well, right? I'll have friends in from Canada for the weekend as well, which I'm sure will prove fun, especially since my poor boy cat Leo, is afraid of one of them. I'm hoping that with only the 4 of us in the house he'll be a little less freaked out than he was last summer, when he first met Nelson, as well as 6 other people he'd never seen before, plus a couple that he's met but doesn't see often. Perhaps I should go ahead and break out the Rescue Remedy....

Giggles on the highway

I’ve decided I need to start carrying my camera around with me, because I pretty regularly see some random photo opportunity. Yesterday I was driving home from work, up I-30 from downtown Dallas, which is a route that I rarely take, simply because I live a pretty good bit north of 30, and with way more traffic than I care to deal with on a regular basis. As I get onto the highway, I see this truck cruising down the highway.

Looks like an odd car, doesn't it, sort of a car-castle, at first glance anyway.

I have no idea what the mechanical stuff up on the front part of the trailer is, it looked sort of like some kind of industrial sized transformers or something.

I've no idea where it was headed, and pretty soon after I got the shots it was on down the road, and I had to get off the highway and get over to the places where I had to make a few stops. In the meantime, an annoying drive home was peppered with some giggles

In other news, apparently, my boy Leo, who is such a fierce predator, well, unless you surprise him, got word that my feets were planning a rebellion in the night, so before I went to sleep, he made sure to beat and chew them into submission. Then, this morning, after I woke up, about 3:45, he obviously realized that the beating last night was not as effective as he had hoped, for he had to start in on them all over again! BOY, am I glad I have such a watchcat on the bed with me at night, or else I might have serious problems with my feet! HAHA I suppose that at least these 2 times, he managed the beatings while I was awake, rather than waking me with them!

I had plans to make my chocolate peanut butter cup cookies tonite, but being the scatterbrained nerd that I am these days, I failed to check and make sure that I had all the supplies that I need to do so, and I don't have but MAYBE 1 cup of flour, instead of the 3 that the recipe needs. Sigh, well, Nelson, your birthday cookies are going to be like 3 weeks late. Sorry, you know I love ya though! One of these days I'll manage to get birthday cards and gifts in the mail in time to get to the recipients at least within a week of their birthdays! OOPS :)

Random Musings #1

Random Musings are my posts that cover multiple subjects that are randomly popped into my head and/or not at all related to each other. The Leech Update Well, I had formulated a plan that, while probably mildly unfair to her, and quite possibly terribly painful for her, was probably going to be immensely satisfying to me, in a vindictive sort of way. I have recruited a friend, and possibly a second friend to help me simply pack up her stuff while she is working on Friday, sit with the house while I take locks to the locksmith to have them rekeyed, and generally provide back up should she try anything stupid. I’ve actually been sorta looking forward to it. On Saturday I asked her if she’d seen my camera, and she acted all shocked that it was missing, and gave me this whole song and dance about how she hadn’t seen it, and it HAS to be in this house somewhere. Now, on Saturday I looked at the couch, picked up the pillows and sorta felt along the cracks between cushions. Nothing. I did the same again on Sunday. When I got home yesterday she asked me again if I’d found it. I told her no, I’d checked under couch cushions and everything (actually, I did that yesterday afternoon before she got home around 7-ish. Again I got the whole “it HAS to be in this house somewhere” routine. So this morning, I rolled out of bed and headed to work about an hour and a half after she did, in an effort to 1. Get some extra time in since the plan was to take Friday off and 2. Get to work before the predicted freezing rain started. When I got home this afternoon about 4, she was not yet home. I brought in the cat food and a couple of other things. Once I’d gotten my clothes changed and got ready to come in here and get on the computer, some nagging voice told me to go check the couch one more time. Quel Surprise! There, on top of a cushion, under a throw pillow that I have moved and checked under and behind at least 3 times since Friday, is my camera! Ok, I could buy that perhaps I looked over it once, but not 3 times! I don’t know where she had it hidden (or pawned), but what I DO know is that at 6 last night, when I checked the couch, it was NOT there, yet obviously, she picked up from wherever it was and brought it in last night, probably in her lunch bag, as it won’t fit in her purse, and planted it while I slept this morning. I have not yet told her that I’ve found it, I’m just going to let her sweat, which is probably way too vindictive and mean, but hey, I am Evil, right? When she came through the door this evening, she said she’d heard from a property at which she’d left an application, and had been approved. YAY She’s moving in on Sunday. I suppose that I could push the issue and keep the original plan, kicking her out on Friday and let her figure out what to do for 2 days, but in the end, I’m too damned nice for my own good. It will also save me some drama of the crying and whatever she would come up with to try and make me feel guilty. I will just trust in the following: · She knows what she did is wrong · She knows that I know what she did, and that I know she knows · She will ultimately be judged for it So, as of Sunday evening, I have my home to myself again, without a thief, a liar, a leech, or any other undesirable sort living here with me! CAT FOOD A few days ago, when I had to get kitty litter, it did cross my mind to pick up some cat food at the same time, but the WallyWorld I was in didn’t have ANY in stock of the brand I feed them. For several years they’ve been on Maxximum Nutrition, which is their own brand, and in my experience, a higher quality food than even the pricey vet brands. In fact, my own vet assumed from the general health of my ancient Rhonda, that she was eating Science Diet. The problem I have with most dry cat foods is that they are mostly either meal of some sort, or chicken by-product, with a little bit of real chicken thrown in waaaay down the ingredient list. This afternoon, I HAD to stop, because the dish was very nearly empty, and I knew there would be hell to pay if I came home without food! So I stopped at the WW that I usually shop in, and usually find the food. NADA. ZIP. ZILCH. No food for my kitties. Not even a tag on the shelf showing where they keep it, but are out of stock. Yep, it seems that they are not carrying it anymore. SHIT! So then I have to spend a half hour reading EVERY package of cat food to see if there’s the slightest chance that any of them will meet the Chicken as the first ingredient. I found 2 options. Newman’s Own, and something new by Iams. Iams was marginally less expensive, so my decision was made that way. Hopefully it won’t give them any crazy upset tummies having an abrupt change in food! We’ll see how they do… That’s probably enough rambling for tonite. I’m gonna head for bed to listen to the freezing rain fall and hope that the power doesn’t go out this time like it did a few weeks ago when we last had some ice!

Shameless plug

For my friend's kitty, who has been entered in Bissell's Most Valuable Pet contest. Vote by Feb 3rd for Sir Vivor, who was a stray that showed up at her house, scrawny and not looking well at all, but look at him now!

Vote for Sir Vivor!

Well, another weekend has flown by. Apparently, I’ve gotten myself way too busy, because now, not only have I totally missed my youngest nephew’s birthday (Oh, I have a card for him, and I HAD a gift card for him, which has now grown legs, so I’ve got to replace it) by 3 weeks, my only niece had one yesterday that totally got past me, as did the surprise party for my sister on Saturday night. Yeah, I suck, I know. I used to be REALLY GOOD at remembering birthdays, anniversaries, whatever, but here lately, I think my brain's gone on strike or something. Saturday morning, it seems that my sweet, precious, yellow-bellied, lily-livered boycat decided to channel his bitchy, recently departed sister. I didn’t actually see it happen, but when my roomie came outside with a band-aid on her hand and said “Leo BIT ME”, well, I got pulled into it, obviously. Now, Rhonda, rest her soul, was ALWAYS testy about who got to pet her, as well as when and for how long. Upon introducing her to anyone, I always included a warning that she looks all sweet and innocent with those different colored-eyes, and sure she’s all purry, but when she’s DONE, she is DONE, AT THAT INSTANT, with no warning. Literally, one second she’s all happy to have you scratching her head, and before you know it, she’s furious that you dared to touch her, and is trying to draw blood either with her claw or teeth, whichever is handier (or both). Most people believed me, though one or two didn’t, and either went home with a fresh scratch, or narrowly missed having one. At any rate, for the last couple of weeks, Leo has been awfully vocal about needing attention. I don’t know what’s going on, but there it is, he wants attention, constantly, and if you don’t give it to him, he’s going to whine and yowl until he gets it. So, roomie is in the house, and he hollers at her, and comes up alongside her and rubs against her leg, so she reaches down to scratch him on the head and talk to him, until suddenly he just turns and chomps on her hand! WTF??? He never bites people. I still have no idea what happened, I tried talking to him, but he just looked around as if totally innocent! He got a stern lecture about not being allowed to channel Queen Bitch, not being allowed to bite people, and about behaving himself properly. He was also grounded from roomie’s bedroom for the day. Yesterday, my sister and I went to the Dallas Museum of Art for the Tut exhibit. WOW! The intricacy of some of the works is amazing, especially considering that they were created without the tools that are available some 3000 years later. My sister said she’d heard or read about people bitching because the artifacts exhibited do not include the sarcophagus that his mummy was found in. Umm, yeah, like Egypt is going to let a treasure like that out of the country, seriously people, what are you thinking?? One of the coolest things there was a model of his skull that was made using the CT scans done a few years ago, which is not in a case, and touching it is encouraged. I guess from the years of seeing the pictures of the sarcophagus, and images of him with the big headdress on, combined with the diadem that was part of the exhibit, I expected his head to be a little bigger than it was. I suppose perhaps he had some SERIOUSLY thick hair or something, because that diadem looked like it would fit ME, and I KNOW my skull is bigger than the one that was exhibited. You know, they will make a bobblehead out of anything, including the boy king! And somehow, it’s just WRONG to pull tissues out the nose of a pharaoh! Those were the most amusing items I saw in the gift shop. My mother would have LOVED the exhibit, as she was very taken with Egyptology. Am working on getting everything together to take down to the sticks to see Darla & crew for Thanksgiving. I think I’ve gathered it all, now it’s just a matter of assembly and cooking/freezing. My kitchen’s gonna be a mess for several days, methinks! Turkey breasts, drumsticks, potato casserole, cookies, meatloaf, meat & mac casserole, & 8 can soup! First order of biz is get the meatloaves made & into the freezer, and the ground meat cooked for the meat & mac and the soup. Hopefully tonite will have that done. Tuesday will be turkey night, and m&m. Thursday is cookies. Friday will be potatoes, and Saturday, soup, and I’m all done except for packing the cooler Wednesday morning with all the frozen goodies.

Living with cats

Since this is a relatively new blog, I should point out that I live with 2 of them. Over the weekend, we got a couch from my sister & brother in law. Nothing fancy, but it's a couch, and I can lie down to watch tv, should I so desire in my media room, however, I digress. One of the cats, my (ok, not so very) little calico, Bow, has laid claim to the end opposite where I tend to sit while I'm watching tv or playing on the laptop. She bathes there, she sleeps there, she watches tv there. So last night, my roomie and I are watching tv in there. I have no idea where Ms. Huzzbucket is in the house, but for whatever reason, my sweet (if yellowbellied) boy Leo is snoozing on the opposite end of the couch from me. He's been there probably an hour or so, all peaceful-like, off in kittydreamland, not bothering anybody. Background for those who haven't met my cats, bless his yellowbellied heart, he's afraid of his own shadow, much less things going thump or touching him when he's not paying attention. In strolls Bow from the kitchen. She walks over to the couch and sees him there in her spot. Hard as I tried to teach her manners, it appears that I failed. She had several options at this moment: 1. She COULD have howled, as she is prone to doing, for no particular reason, at random times 2. She COULD have reached up with a paw, patted him on the head and said "dude, you're in my spot, scoot!" 3. She COULD have climbed up beside him and curled up with him, as they sometimes do, either on the other couch, or on my bed BUT, she did NOT do any of these things. She instead POUNCED up on top of him, using him as a sort of a springboard to get onto the arm of the couch. My poor boy, flew off the couch as if the hounds of hell were after him, too scared to even puff up! Once he thought he was a safe distance away, he turned to see what had attacked him, and saw her, looking all innocent. Yep, she's got an innocent look. When my roomie said "Bow! that was unnecessary and uncalled for!", she looked around with a "what? I don't know what you're talking about" sort of look. I guess we all know who the alpha cat is....

My weekend

It’s hard to believe the year is almost half over already! WOW! By this time on Saturday, I’ll be (hopefully) making my final descent into Cancun. Originally, we were scheduled for an early morning something on Tuesday evening, so we were going to have 3 nights and 3½ days, roughly. Once we’d paid our final, nonrefundable payment for our “subject to change until final payment is made” scheduled trip, we were given our schedule. It changed. Now we arrive around 5 pm, and have to leave the hotel for the airport at 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning, so we have 2 and less than ½ days, for the money we paid. But that’s another blog. This has been a great spring for my music collection…. I’ve already talked about American Highlander, the latest offering from The Rogues. I’ve also added the latest offering from Clandestine, ReD. If you’ve seen them live in the last year, you’ve already heard some of the awesome new stuff. From the first time I heard it, I’ve loved Wobbly Wheel Set, Sexy An Dros, and The Ewe & the Sound. The harmonizing of Emily, EJ & Al, is great. Overall, it’s a toe-tapping, dancing in your seat (or jumping up and dancing), fun and interesting disc to listen to. Early last week, I went to the post office to discover my Box O’ Swag, from my pre-adoption of Marc Gunn’s latest 2, Whiskers in the Jar and Going for Brogue. My swag included not just copies of the cds but also a handful of other discs to share, some bumper stickers and a new t-shirt. I think I’ve still got a copy of Going for Brogue to share, as well as an Irish Drinking Songs: The Cat Lover’s Companion, and a couple of his first cat CD Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers. If you’re interested, let me know, or head on over to CD Baby and pick up a copy. Whiskers in the Jar is another fun collection of traditional Irish tunes to which Marc & others have rewritten the words, honoring, playing with, or expressing the loving frustration we cat lovers feel for our feline babies. I SOOO understand Danny Boy… as I have my own obnoxious brat, sweet baby who finds it quite amusing to attack my toes when I am asleep, so as to wake me from deep and blissful slumber. What Shall We Do With a Catnipped Kitty pretty much ensures that I’ll be mixing up the words to Drunken Sailor forever… An absolute must for the cat lover in your world! Going for Brogue is Marc’s offering of traditional Irish songs and sea shanties done with wonderful accents. There’s something for the Irishman in you, something for the pirate in you. At first listen, several of the sea shanties sounded odd to my ear, since I’d really only heard them done in 4 or 5 part harmony by the Corsairs, but by the time the song was over, I was backing up to listen again to Marc’s wonderful rendition. Once again, Marc’s love of music and making music shines through in his voice and music. Order a copy for your pirate, or your irish! In the grand scheme of things, I probably should have spent yesterday doing something totally constructive, like getting laundry done so I could pack for the trip, or cleaning the house because it needs it, or working on the pool, because again, it needs it. The problem with all of those , is that none of those would have distracted me sufficiently to forget that I’ve embarked on what could be a pretty long stretch between live bagpipe shows. I may make it to the Killdares show Friday night, but that’s still very up in the air. Instead of the constructive stuff, I went with Emilee down to Austin so we could make an appearance at Marc Gunn’s CD release party at Things Celtic. Probably 25 or so people were there… got to see a handful of faire folke when Queen Bonnie & Var Grayshadow made it. Marc had a sore throat, but did a great job! Having never been in the shop before, I quite enjoyed looking around and seeing what I could find. Emilee, Marc & I took baby Claire and had an early dinner at a cute little café, Kerbey Lane. I gotta say the French toast was good, and I don’t remember the last time I had bacon cooked just the way I like it… without me even asking! I love it when I have the opportunity to have a nice quiet meal with friends! Marc offered us an opportunity to grow our celtic music libraries that sounds great, and as my library is still fairly small, I’m looking forward to adding new artists to those I already enjoy! On the way home (and down, if we’re going to be honest about it) we stopped in West at the Czech Stop. On the way down we’d stopped for gas and breakfast, and I saw Dr. Pepper cake, but didn’t want to have it sit in the car for who knew how long in the heat. I’ve had a bite or two of it, and it’s definitely yummy, and tastes sort of Dr. Peppery, but also kind of chocolatey. The beer bread I brought home is great too!!! That’s about it for now… gotta go move the laundry now.