Reliable Romi

My name is Romulus, but you can call me Romi. I'm the firstborn of the Terrible Trio, and mom's favourite. That's right, in your face, Julius and Dante, mom likes me best!

Of course now that mom's not feeling well she's not socializing a lot, so I'm kind of at loose ends. I've taken to sleeping in Firecat's chair in the living room during the day just to be on hand in case mom is feeling up to giving me a head bath. She's been sleeping in the house in the cat tree in the dining room and the chair is the most comfortable place close by.

Now I want to clear the air about something. The girl and her mate make fun of me because I'm a plus size kitty, but I want it stated for the record I AM NOT FAT! I'm just big boned. It's a good thing those two only visit on Sundays, otherwise I'd have to cough up a hair ball or two in their shoes.

Hump Day Hunk

Hi, I'm Dante, your hump day hunk. That's right, I'm the best looking of the Terrible Trio. For sure I'm the only normal sized one - I mean, have you seen my brothers lately? Talk about porky!

Maybe if they got off their lazy butts once in awhile and got some exercise they wouldn't be so fat. Me, I like to play chase to stay in shape. Mom and I used to play chase a lot before she got so sick, but we don't play so much any more. That's okay, I don't need someone else to play to have a good time. Firecat spends a lot of money on toys for us, and if all else fails I can always chase ghosts.

Pssst! Wanna know a secret? You can't tell the other guys, but I'm Firecat's favorite. She calls me her wild child 'cause I don't like people picking me up or making a fuss over me. I mean, it's okay if she pats me, but only when I ask and she's good about only using one hand to pat with. Two hands makes me twitchy.

She calls me her muse. Hey, I can live with that. Last year we spent a lot of time together in the recliner while she wrote, especially during this weird NaNoWriMo thing she was doing. This year she's been writing a lot more in her office, but that's okay 'cause she has a box full of papers in the open closet behind her that I can curl up in. It's really comfy. In fact, I think I'll curl up in it right now for a quick nap before supper.

Julius' Journal

First off, my mom would like to apologize for not posting yesterday, but she was busy hiding from Firecat. Aparently she lost another couple of ounces and the Scarey Doctor Man is insisting that Firecat start force feeding her again. I'd give my favourite claw for some of mom's food, but I guess it just doesn't taste the same when you have to eat it.

Anyway, like the title says, my name is Julius and I'm the cutest of the Terrible Trio. And I'd like to point out that I was the only one who was supposed to stay living with mom and dad and the humans. That's right, they picked me! Those other two just kept hanging around until they were allowed to stay.

See all that white on me? I've got more white fur than anyone else in the house, not even mom has as much white as me. The man comes close, but his is all on his head so I don't think that counts. It takes a lot of work keeping myself so pristine looking, so I spend a lot of time bathing myself. Some times mom or Romi helps me, but for the most part I do it all by myself.

When I'm not having a bath, I'm usually sleeping waiting for the man to come home. Firecat's okay, and she can give a good chin rub, but the man is an expert at the belly rub. Ah, there's nothing like a good belly rub to get me purring. And I have an extremely loud purr, everyone says so.

Wait a minute, I think I hear the sound of the man's car right now. Sorry, gotta go. See ya next week.

It's About Time!

Hey. Panda here. If you were expecting to see one of Firecat's boring posts, then too bad. Go to her writing blog. You can find it HERE . Don't say I never did anything for you.

As queen of the household, I claim the right of spokes-cat. Firecat's been neglecting this blog so we've staged a coup. We've taken over just about every other aspect of her and the man's lives, it was only a matter of time before we took over here.

Anyway, there's five of us cats, and we're each taking a different day to post.

I go first 'cause, let's face it, I'm the most important. I mean, without me there wouldn't even be a Romi, Julius, or Dante.

I know there's a few of you out there who've be inquiring about my health. That's so sweet of you, really.

Firecat and the man are pretty concerned about my weight. Apparently, they think it's a bad thing that I'm down to 5 1/2 pounds. Well maybe if they'd feed me more treats instead of that stupid expensive food I'd gain some weight. And they need to start buying the same treats the Treat Lady brings me. Those are primo. Worthy of me, you might say.

My usual day is going to be Mondays; you know, a treat to start your week.

So, let me tell you a little about myself. My brothers and I were abandoned in a snow bank out in the country and were rescued by a nice family who already had several cats. So, they put a notice up that we needed homes, and Firecat came to see us. I can smell a sucker good person a mile away, so as soon a she picked me up I gave her the sweetie pie eyes and started to purr. Then I curled up in her arms and pretended to sleep.

She actually named me Pandora, because I was so curious, but mostly I get called Panda. The man calls me Pantaloons, too, but he's not all there at the best of times. I mean, you should see him around that suck-up Julius. Pathetic!

But I digress. This is about me. I've just passed my 7th birthday and I have a pretty good life here, despite the fact the humans won't let me play outside. Something to do with the wildlife lurking around our town and the high incidence of cats who've disappeared.

My favorite food (this week) is Tuna Feast, by Fancy Feast. I'll wait until Firecat's stocked up before I switch to something else. My favorite sleeping place is on the padded desk chair in the rec room - it's dark and cozy, and right under a heat vent. Sometimes, if she's not using her lap for her lap top, I like to curl up on Firecat's lap while she's in the recliner.

But that's really just to keep her happy so the treats keep coming.

Walloping Wednesday

So someone *coughcrazynancecough* reminded me that I said I'd be back in December and that it's December now so I should be back to posting. So here I am.

I'm having to use the crap top desk top computer for this because my lap top got infected with a virus or shareware or some such pain in the bytes thing. Being as broke as I am, I entrusted it to the IT department at school for repairs. I was supposed to get it back today, but that was before we got the first blizzard of the season, which resulted in only a handful of us intrepid souls making it to school today.

It snowed last night and then started warming up this morning, so by the time I had to clean off my car it was really wet snow. Then at some point today it turned to rain and now it's a real mess out there. If it freezes tonight we'll be in big trouble tomorrow. And did I mention I had just enough time to make some oatmeal for breakfast before the power went off? Was not able to have my chai latte so I ended up having to spring for a coffee at school. *sigh* It just wasn't the same.

This was the week I'd intended to start the edits for my NaNo novel, only most of it is on the lap top - I got slack about backing up. I also had the urge to edit my first NaNo novel, Driving Into Forever, but again, it's on the lap top.

My poetry book marks are all on my precious, including the poetry forms I've been doing a series on. And the research I had for a few of the posts for my Random Thoughts blog is also on the lap top. And while there are some who would say that the desk top is better than no top at all, I'm not one of them. The screen, though much bigger, is hard on my eyes, the keyboard's a little stiffer, and oh, did I mention it's a little on the SLOW side?

So, cross your fingers I get my lap top (with files intact) back tomorrow. Or brace yourself for another cranky post on Friday.

I'll Be Back in December

Wide Awake Wednesday

Well, I'm wide awake since my nap, anyway. Can't say I was at my brightest of eye and bushiest of tail this morning though. :-)

I went to see the movie 2012 last night. If this movie doesn't win a bunch of awards for special effects, then there's something wrong with the system. The story itself was a little hokey at times, but the effects more than made up for it.

Woody Harlson had a small part as a crazy man who lived in Yellowstone National Park, and I must say that he makes an excellent loon. Totally believable. LOL

I won't go into any detail - you really need to see it for yourselves. Let's just say that if you have the urge to move before December 21, 2012, your safest bet is the African continent.

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Does anyone remember all the hoopla surrounding the turn of the century? As the year 2000 approached people started freaking out, claiming the world was going to end.

These claims were backed up by ancient prophecies, like those of Nostradamus, and new prophecies made by modern sooth-sayers. Then 2000 rolled around and nothing happened.

Suddenly it was "Oh, you took our meaning wrong." It wasn't really the end of the world, it was just that many computers and much computerized equipment were expected to have problems when the clock rolled over to 2000.

I don't know about you, but I have a hard time recalling any real disastors that resulted from this. Electrical equipment was updated - disastor averted.

It's always easy to interpret predictions after the even has happened.

Just sayin'.

Mandatory Monday

Here I am, another Monday with not much to say.

After a doom and gloom weekend, today is bright and sunny. Go figure.

I'm sitting here looking out my office window and I can tell you that even with the sun the view is not inspiring. I see my naked birch tree outside my window and beyond that a few other naked trees.

Have you ever noticed that different kinds of trees seem to be able to hang onto their leaves longer? I see that there are a few trees out there stubbornly clinging to their leaves - weeping willow, chestnut - while the birch and ash are totally naked and the maples nearly so.

* * * * * * * * * *

There's a fat man asleep in the mall.

On my way in to school this morning I couldn't help but notice they were setting up the enclosure for Santa (it's set up pretty much right in the middle of the most direct path down to the college). When we left, they'd finished the set up and Santa was snoozing away in his bed in the center of the enclosure.

This, my friends, means that the Santa Claus parade cannot be far away. Probably on Saturday. The mall will be swarming with tykes ready to scream and yell to wake Santa up so they can all have breakfast with Santa before the parade.

All I can say is, bah, humbug! Glad I don't work in the mall!

* * * * * * * * * *

You know, I always thought I was pretty good at spelling and grammar, but this course in Business Communication is showing me how wrong I am. I'm still pretty decent in spelling, I even pick up words that the spell checkers miss (ones that are spelled correctly, they're just the wrong word), but grammar - well that's a different story altogether.

Either the rules have changed or I've forgotten more than I realized. I did all right with the nouns, adverbs and adjectives, but apparently I have a problem when it comes to the tenses of verbs.

*sigh*

Can't wait for tomorrow when we do punctuation! :-(

Forgetful Friday

I had something wonderfully pithy to say today, but I thought of it at school and forgot to write it down so now it’s gone forever. As my law teacher would say: “Sucks to be me!”

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Wow, I’m looking out my office window and the birch tree outside is naked! Where did all the leaves go? They were there just a couple of days ago. Next thing you know the white stuff will be coming down and before you know it it’ll be Christmas.

I am so not ready for Christmas this year!

Although apparently many of my neighbours are. I see outdoor Christmas decorations springing up all over the neighbourhood. In fact, the people on the corner had their Christmas decorations up November 1 and have them lit up every night. Are they crazy?

* * * * * * * * * *

Panda Report

She seems to be holding her own. She sleeps in the sun in the spare bedroom during the day, and under my lap top desk when I’m reclining in my chair in the evening. We’ve reached an understanding - she’ll let me up for the occasional potty break as long as I make sure there’s room for her under the lap top.

Her pickiness when it comes to food is beginning to drive me crazy. Just when we think we’ve found a food she’ll eat, she’ll change her mind. I think she’s doing it deliberately, just to drive us batty.

* * * * * * * * * *

NaNo’s going well. I’m behind in my wordage, but I’m not too worried about it. I have the whole weekend ahead of me and there’s still two more full weeks.

If you want to follow my progress, I’m keeping track HERE . I even posted an excerpt a couple of days ago. :-)

Lest We Forget

I hope everyone took a moment of silence this morning to remember our veterans. Bless each of them, and their families

I'm Baaackkk

Did you miss me? I sure missed my internet for the last few weeks.

I think what happened was this: three weeks ago we had a storm and I think my modem got damaged by a power surge. It didn't go out right away, just got steadily worse until finally I wasn't getting any service at all.

I phoned my ISP last week and the earliest they could send someone out was Friday. So I waited, albeit a little unpatiently. The guy they sent out was not worth the wait. I must have been his last appointment of the day because he was in and out of here in less than five minutes. He never actually tested anything, he just looked at my modem and said "It's your wiring. You have three choices: run the cable around the outside of the house; pay a professional to fish it through the walls (again!); or move your service to the other end of the house." Then he left.

Shortly after he left I had a mini-meltdown. It had been a very bad week and this was the last straw.

Saturday morning I took the modem and my lap top down to the basement where the cable fed into the house. I unplugged the cable from the service provided splitter and plugged it directly into the modem, then I plugged the modem into my lap top. Still no connection.

So I phoned my ISP again and they sent some out today. This guy actually knew what he was doing. He came in, plugged his lap top into my modem and said: "Looks like your modem is fried." and then proceeded to go out to his truck and get me a new modem, ethernet cord, and power supply.

And here I am.

Oh happy day!

Anway, I can't say that I'll be doing any better at posting 'cause we're one week into NaNo and I'm falling behind, but at least you know that if I don't post it's for a reason other than my lack of internet. :-)

Two Books Forward, Five Books Back

The good news is, I managed to finish reading two books last week. The bad news is, I bought five new ones when the daughter and I were in Peterborough yesterday. *sigh* And it’s not like I’m going to be having a lot of time to read in the next few weeks, NaNo starts at midnight on Saturday.

NaNoWriMo, or NaNo as it is often fondly called, is the National Novel Writing Month. The idea is to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. For those of you who’ve been living in a cave and have never heard about NaNoWriMo, you can check it out HERE and if you’d like to follow my NaNo progress, you can do so HERE.

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If I make it through the cold and flu season without coming down with something, it will be a miracle. I’m bracketed in the classroom by women who are coughing and hacking - one of them to the point where the teacher suggested that maybe they’d rather be at home, but they insisted on staying. The other one insists on keeping the door to the classroom closed so they can keep all the germs trapped inside. I am not impressed!

What is wrong with these Typhoid Marys that they find it necessary to spread their germs wherever they go? You’d think with all the media hype about the H1N1 they’d have more sense.

And remember that tooth I broke a few weeks ago? It chooses now to bother me. I cannot afford a dentist. Go away little toothache. Go away.

* * * * * * * * * *

Panda has decided that it’s cave season. And where does she prefer her cave to be made? In my chair in the living room. If I want to sit in my chair, then she’ll sit on top of me and I’d better be prepared to stay for the long haul. And if I’m mean enough to insist on having my lap top on my lap, I have to make sure it’s balanced on my knees in such a way that she can curl up in the cave underneath it. Good thing she’s such a small cat!

* * * * * * * * * *

On a happier note, did anyone catch the pink sunrise this morning? It was like seeing the world through rose coloured glasses - very inspiring!

Misaligned Monday

I have a very good reason for not updating last week. My internet and/or computer was having problems. I can get blogs up this week, and my gmail and sometimes my hotmail, but not if there's a lot of graphics in the email and I still can't get my ISP e-mail up.

If it's my internet service provider, the problem will eventually sort itself out. If it's a virus in my computer . . . then there's not much I can do about it. I can't afford to have it looked at right now so I'll just have to limp along.

* * * * * * * * * *

I was going to say last week wasn't too exciting, but that's not exactly true. I had poetry group on Tuesday, which is always enjoyable. And I got lots of writing done, although as usually the writing started to fall off towards the end of the week.

Got my assignments for school in on time and got very good marks on them both. I also had an exam on Friday and got 95% on it, which is very good considering I didn't have a clue what I was talking about.

Saturday my sister from New Brunswick stopped by with her husband for an overnight visit and we had a small birthday party for the daughter. Much fun and eating was had by all. :-)

Sunday a friend and I went to the big city of Belleville to the Michael's craft store. I love all the stuff in that store, but I don't love the prices. Then we went across the street to Chapters where I bought myself a new journal and, of course, had Starbucks.

* * * * * * * * * *

Panda is slowly gaining weight again. She's up to 6 pounds 3 ounces. The weight gain is much slower than before because the canned food doesn't pack on the weight the way that the dry food does. She's also turned into a bit of a lap cat. If I'm sitting in my recliner, she has to be on my lap. Otherwise I have to make her a cave with a blanket on either my chair or the husband's chair (the couch won't do).

When I have my lap top on my lap, she has to be content with just snuggling up to my legs. Sometimes, however, Dante beats her to the foot of my chair and she's forced to wash his head vigorously in a bid to get him to move. It doesn't always work (he's his mother's son when it comes to stubbornness) and they end up curled up together, half draped over my legs.

And that about brings you up to date. :-)

Managing Monday

First off, I'd like to know, who stole my weekend?

It seems like Friday was just yesterday, and if that's the case, then where'd the rest of the weekend go? Okay, I know where last night went. Last night was spent trying to get my assignment done for school today. I did try and work on it earlier in the weekend, but I didn't get anywhere with it. And now I've just printed it off and realized I have no conclusion . . D'oh!

This is why this post has a time stamp for after school. I had to stop what I was doing and write a conclusion to my report. :-)

* * * * * * * * * *

Panda continues to try and drive us insane. She has turned into Ms. Picky Pants when it comes to food, yet she complains that she’s hungry. If it were any of the other cats I’d say “screw it, they’ll eat when they’re hungry”. But this is Panda, whom we’ve already spent copious amounts of money on. And she’s been losing weight. And I really don’t want to have to go back to force feeding her.

She turned her pert little pink nose up at so much food over the weekend that we thought she’d prove to have lost weight again, but she held her own. Still at 6.2 pounds. After school today I bought a couple of the fish flavours of the Fancy Feast (which is not on the vet’s list but she likes it and any food is better than no food). When I got home from school I opened a can of the tuna flavour and she dug right in.

She was the husband’s little shadow yesterday. It was cute, she followed him around the house and shared his easy chair while he was watching television. Maybe she was trying to encourage him to suck it up and give her the Fancy Feast. :-)

* * * * * * * * * *

There was frost on my car again this morning. I had to dig out my scraper so I could get to school on time. I don't mind the cold, I just don't like having to clean off my car.

The one cool thing (no pun intended) about the frost covering everthing this morning was listening to the leaves fall. Our neighbourhood is very quiet, and you could hear the crackle of the leaves as they fell.

Guess this means that winter is on its way.

Fuzzy Friday

For a week that started off with a holiday Monday, things sure ended up getting away from me!

My body is not liking the adjustment to morning classes again. I've been so tired lately it's not even funny. Yesterday, after school, I did more napping than writing, which means that this morning I was typing like a mad thing to get a report done for school today.

I think it might be time to give vitamin B12 another shot. Or maybe I'll try a complex B vitamin this time - my sister swears by them.

Or maybe I just need to tell myself I have until November 1st to suck it up, 'cause when NaNo starts, sleep will be a thing of the past! :-)

* * * * * * * * * *

Panda gained another whole ounce, and other than that her health is as good as we can expect it to be. The vet did a blood test on her that showed her kidneys are only working at about 50% of what they should be and I need to make extra sure she gets her pills twice a day.

After the husband spent $70 on the only canned food from the vet's office she'd touch, she's decided she doesn't like it so much after all. She'll eat it when she absolutely has to, but she lets us know she's not enjoying it much.

What she is enjoying is sleeping in the box of sweaters the husband has in the spare bedroom waiting to be donated. And when I say in the box, I mean in the box. The box is tipped over on its side and she's pulled a few sweaters out so she can burrow inside. She's going to be upset when they go to charity next week.

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School's going okay . . . Managing a Small Business is more interesting than it sounds, or maybe it's the instructor who's more interesting. He really seems to know his stuff, and that makes a big difference.

Because of the mix-up with our text books he cancelled the quiz scheduled for today, and then gave it to us anyway just to prove to us how much we've learned (we did the quiz but the marks didn't count). To my chagrin, I got 100% on the quiz. Go figure.

I have another assignment due on Monday, and yes, that means I will be working on it tomorrow instead of Sunday night. The only thing I don't like about these assignments is that they're opinion pieces, and quite frankly my opinion is the guy who wants to start his own business making ladder rails needs a new job, not his own business.

Walloping Wednesday

What is that stuff all over my car? It can't possibly be frost, not before the end of October! And it's frost that's heavy enough that I'm going to have to go out and warm up the car before school - unless I want to dig out my scraper and scrape it off. I'm sure when I got my car I ordered the frost-free model . . .

Next thing you know there'll be snow out there. Not that I mind driving in the snow, I just don't like having to scrape it off my car. :-)

* * * * * * * * * *

Panda the wonder cat, who has been eating canned food like it was invented just for her, only managed to gain an ounce over the long weekend.

Other than her lack of weight, you'd never know there's anything wrong with her. She's still as fiesty as ever, still queen of the castle. Right now she's sitting on the bookcase in my office taking the occassional stab at a leaf falling outside. :-)

* * * * * * * * * *

Finally had a chance to go through all those books the BFF gave me. Normally I'd go through them and read the blurbs on the back and divide them into "donate right away", "read and probably donate", and "read with an eye to keeping". The donate pile was always the biggest and the keeper pile was always the smallest.

However, this time, to my chagrin, the donate right away pile was much smaller than the read with an eye to keeping pile. By a lot. Either her taste in books is improving, or mine is broadening. :-)

HAPPY TURKEY DAY!

TWAS THE NIGHT OF THANKSGIVING,
BUT I JUST COULDN'T SLEEP.
I TRIED COUNTING BACKWARDS,
I TRIED COUNTING SHEEP.

THE LEFTOVERS BECKONED -
THE DARK MEAT AND WHITE,
BUT I FOUGHT THE TEMPTATION
WITH ALL OF MY MIGHT.

TOSSING AND TURNING WITH ANTICIPATION,
THE THOUGHT OF A SNACK BECAME INFATUATION.
SO, I RACED TO THE KITCHEN, FLUNG OPEN THE DOOR,
AND GAZED AT THE FRIDGE, FULL OF GOODIES GALORE.
GOBBLED UP TURKEY AND BUTTERED POTATOES,
PICKLES AND CARROTS, BEANS AND TOMATOES.

I FELT MYSELF SWELLING SO PLUMP AND SO ROUND,
'TIL ALL OF A SUDDEN, I ROSE OFF THE GROUND.
I CRASHED THROUGH THE CEILING, FLOATING INTO THE SKY,
WITH A MOUTHFUL OF PUDDING AND A HANDFUL OF PIE.
BUT, I MANAGED TO YELL AS I SOARED PAST THE TREES....
HAPPY EATING TO ALL - PASS THE CRANBERRIES, PLEASE.




MAY YOUR STUFFING BE TASTY,
MAY YOUR TURKEY BE PLUMP.
MAY YOUR POTATOES 'N GRAVY HAVE NARY A LUMP.
MAY YOUR YAMS BE DELICIOUS.
MAY YOUR PIES TAKE THE PRIZE,
MAY YOUR THANKSGIVING DINNER STAY OFF OF YOUR THIGHS!!

Frustrating Friday

Let me start out by saying the only good thing about this week is that it's over. Well, almost over.

* * * * * * * * * *

I'm back to morning classes starting next week which as far as I'm concerned is a big sigh of relief. This has been a very unproductive week for me and I'm not liking it.

After all that fiddling around with my PowerPoint presentation, adding effects here and there, including an animation, adjusting the time on each individual slide so that the music ended the same time as the presentation . . . the freaking music didn't play on the school computer. Grr! The presentation was okay without the sound, but it would have been awesome with it.

Next week we start Managing a Small Business and guess what we start in time for NaNoWriMo? Business Law, which we're told by previous students is the most time-consuming course of all.

Don't care, I'm giving NaNo a shot anyway.

* * * * * * * * * *

Panda is going to drive us insane. Even after the vast amounts of canned food she's eaten this week, she still managed to lose 2 more ounces. She's down to six pounds now, which is not good.

So today I get to pick up some special kitty litter for her because they need a urine sample, and she'll be getting blood taken on Tuesday. Meantime we're going to try and get her to eat the vet approved canned food because it has more calories.

* * * * * * * * * *

That's pretty much it. All in all a pretty blah week. Just like the weather.

WTF Wednesday

I slept in today. Until 10:30! I still can't believe it.

*sigh*

It's my own fault really. I woke up at 8:30 and figured I'd "get up in a minute" only the minute turned into a couple of hours. And now I've had way too much sleep, which makes me feel worse than not enough. Serves me right for not getting up right away.

In my defense I might point out that I was up until 2 a.m. last night working on PowerPoint (when I should have been writing). In fact, that's pretty much all I did yesterday, work on PowerPoint. I worked on it before school, during school, and after school. The good news is that I'm caught up on all the classwork and chapter work. The bad news is, I didn't get anything else done.

There was so much information crammed into such a short time that the teacher didn't even bother going through the text book chapter by chapter - she just let us work at our own speed and took up the answers to the questions at the end of each chapter. About halfway through she didn't even bother doing that much and just gave us the answers.

Think I'm kidding about the amount of work? In a two week span we had to read a 550 page text book. At the end of each chapter there are between 6 and 8 presentations that need to be either modified or created. We had two quizzes and three assignments. We also have our presentation assignments (that we're seeing today)that need to be between 10 and 15 slides long and use a variety of stuff we've supposedly learned.

Oh, and the exam is tomorrow.

And to think I'd been looking forward to PowerPoint!

* * * * * * * * * *

Don't tell the vet but I'm cheating. He wanted me to go back to force-feeding Panda to get her to gain weight but I just couldn't bring myself to do that to her. I wondered, when she was refusing her treats, if she might be having a problem with her teeth. Although she'd turn her nose up at the vet approved treats she'd eat the Temptation treats, which are softer. She also ate some of the chicken we had the other night.

So, yesterday morning I cooked her up a piece of chicken and she gobbled it all down (no, I didn't give her the whole piece, but she had a respectable amount for a cat her size). So on my break at school I slipped up to the grocery store and bought a selection of chicken flavored Fancy Feast to see if she'd eat them.

Oh, yeah. She likes them all right. She ate a whole can yesterday and has already gone through half a can today. The vet's not going to be happy because it's not "approved" cat food bought from him, but if it helps her to gain weight I'm not going to worry too much. We'll see what happens when she gets weighed on Friday.

Meh, It's Monday

You know why I didn’t do any posting last week? It was because I had nothing to say.

It was a pretty craptacular week. I’m back on afternoons at school and I’m not liking it much. Make that at all. I feel like I’m forever hurrying to catch up on things and I’m not getting anything accomplished.

To make matters worse, I was really looking forward to PowerPoint but the text book we’re forced to use has sucked all the fun out of it. I’ve already done two of the three assignments and I’ve learned lots of cool stuff, but we don’t really get to use much of it.

* * * * * * * * * *

The weather has been pretty craptacular this past week too. Wind and rain and cold and gloomy. I guess it could be worse, my neighbor was telling me they have snow in Calgary where her daughter is.

* * * * * * * * * *

Panda seems more like her old self than ever. She’s been leaving Taz alone and he’s feeling more secure (as in he no longer feels the need to slink around the house, freezing in place if he sees her). I’ve been vigilant about giving her at least one of her pills every night, but lately she’s been refusing the treats she gets afterwards. We noticed she doesn’t seem to be eating much either, although she’s still drinking well.

Unfortunately, she’s been losing weight steadily and today at the vet’s she was back down to 6.2 pounds. This means I get to start force feeding her the canned food again. Oh joy, oh bliss.

* * * * * * * * * *

There was one bright spot in the last week - I had to drive the kids up to the GO in Oshawa on Saturday, and on the way home I stopped for a visit with the BFF. Visits are always good.

She gave me not one, not two, but three bags of books to take home with me. The first one I pulled out was one I was already reading. D’oh! However, it’s an excellent book so I don’t mind having two copies. :-)

What’s The WORD!

Yesterday (when all my troubles seemed so far away . . . ) Sorry, couldn’t resist. :-)

Yesterday was the annual Word on the Street, a free literary festival held in Queen's Park, so BFF and I made our yearly pilgrimage to Toronto. Along the way we stopped to pick up the daughter’s wedding pictures, had Starbucks for breakfast, and made a quick pass through Indio/Chapters.

The weather forecast called for rain, but although it was very overcast and threatening, the rain itself held off, which made it just cool enough to be comfortable. For a change we got there pretty early, which is always the best idea when it’s a free event. This year we played it smart and had back packs for our loot, although one of the first things we took advantage of were the free bags from the Green Living booth.

It was actually a little disappointing this year. There wasn’t much free stuff, there was no Harlequin booth, there were a couple of writer’s organizations missing, the bargains weren’t as bargainy . . . we couldn’t decide if it was the threatening weather or the faltering economy that was the cause. We still managed to bring home a decent haul, although by the time we made it back to the subway I felt like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders. Or maybe it was just the fifty pounds of books I was carrying. :-)

I must give Toronto kudos for their excellent subway system. This allows us to park at one of their fabulous malls (Yorkdale, in case anyone’s interested) and take the subway just about anywhere we want to go. One of the biggest benefits of parking here is . . . well, it’s a mall.

We dropped our loot off in the car and made a beeline for the Starbucks in the huge Indigo/Chapters just inside the door, where we were accosted by a half dozen very buff young men who were doing a Peek Freans/Harlequin promotion. We were hot, sweaty, and tired. They were standing between us and our Starbucks. We took the free cookies but turned down the offer to have our pictures taken with the two very hot cowboys.

After browsing a bit we drove away from the big city and back to our respective homes where we stashed our loot and then had naps. And if perchance we dreamed of buff young men, well, we’re only human. :-)

Fatigued Friday

I am so tired it’s not even funny.

I was up late Wednesday night and I can’t even remember why. I do remember that it was so hot in the bedroom that I ended up getting up at 1:30 a.m. and turning on the fan. Then last night I was up late posting my offering for the AW blog chain. I didn’t realize it was my turn until late in the afternoon and then I spent the evening struggling with the story.

This month’s blog chain is actually pretty cool. The previous poster chooses three words for the next person in line to build their story around. There’s been some awesome work so far. You can check out my story HERE and I have links to the others.

I think the reason I struggled with this piece was because I had an idea of writing about a woman who’d lost her husband to suicide and her feelings towards the issue were mixed up with the way she felt about the juniper bush in the garden that he’d promised to get rid of for her. That’s not what came out at all. :-)

* * * * * * * * * *

Grossness alert!

Remember when I cleaned out the kitchen cupboard because I discovered moth larva? Well cleaning out that infestation didn’t really seem to have much effect on the number of moths we have in the house, and we couldn’t figure out where they were coming from.

Then one night this week I was walking down the hall to my office and I happened to notice a moth on the wall. Naturally I killed it and afterwards looked around for more. This is where the gross part comes in.

Up on the ceiling must have been a dozen moth larva. To say I was grossed out would be an understatement. I bravely waited until the husband came home and then made him kill them. Problem solved, right?

Yeah, you’d think so.

The next night I turned on the light in the hall and looked up and there were even more of the little suckers. So after the husband killed this bunch we started getting serious about where they were all coming from.

I was positive they were coming from the linen closet and sure enough, I found the source on the top shelf. A few months ago I’d bought a bag of regular cat chow to have for emergencies (like when we run out of the good stuff and the vet’s office is closed so we can’t get any more) and the husband, in his infinite wisdom, stashed it on the top shelf of the linen closet. The moths figured it made the perfect nursery.

Ewww!

* * * * * * * * * *

And now I’m off to write my Excel exam. Good thing it’s open book!

Whine Free Wednesday

That’s right, it’s safe to read again. I’m over my whining fit.:-)

And what’s more, I’m writing this during class, which speaks volumes about how much work I have to do. I finished the chapter work for all five chapters and I’m taking a break before I go on to unexplored chapters of the textbook.

* * * * * * * * * *

Last night was my monthly poetry meeting. It was the largest group around the table yet, I think there were thirteen of us. We even had a new member join us. I’m not sure who invited her, but I gather she’s an established poet. She certainly know how to make a statement, her hair was the same colour blue as her pants. :-)

My poems were well received – I read my Pantoum from last week’s Passion for Poetry (over on my writing blog) and surprisingly enough, most people were familiar with this form. I don’t know why everyone else is so familiar with all these funky forms while I missed out. Must be a comment on the local high school English programs. Or maybe they all have more formal training.

In any case, I made it just under the wire with my “poemwork”. This month’s challenge was to take the first line and the last line of a poem by one of your favourite Canadian poets and then fill in the space with your own work. I was literally printing it out as I was putting on my shoes to leave.

* * * * * * * * * *

I’m a woman on a mission. I’m in search of a brand of Chai Tea that I can use for my morning tea. Yes, I know there’s lots of recipes on the internet to make your own, but I’m lazy. I want it pre-packaged.

But I’ve learned an important lesson when it comes to Chai, it doesn’t pay to be cheap. I checked out the selection in our upscale grocery store, then settled on the Tetley Chai because it was cheapest.

All I can say is, you get what you pay for. While not the worst Chai I’ve ever had, it’s a little on the weak side. Next time I’ll try using two bags, which, of course, negates the whole “cheap” concept. Half the price of other brands but you’re using twice as much.

Next time I’ll try the Tazo brand, which is what they use in the coffee shop we have our poetry readings at.

And the search goes on!

Got Cheese?

I could really use some to go with the whine in this post. :-)

You know, even with my freaky cats and going back to school sometimes my life seems pretty boring. Especially when I spend a whole weekend doing . . . nothing. Okay, Sunday I managed to get a post done on my other blog and baked some apple dumplings for the daughter, but that was about the sum of my productivity for the weekend.

The cats seem to be settling down again and school is excruciatingly boring - I finished both the second assignment and chapter five today, and now I have nothing left to do for the rest of the week except study for the exam on Friday - which is an open book exam so all I have to really know is where to find things in the text book.

I’ve got piles of writing to do and piles of reading and no ambition to do any of it. Whatever this mood is, I hope it doesn’t last.

Even the weather is dull and boring right now. It was hinting at a storm earlier, but the wind has died down a lot and we never got the rain we were promised. It’s even a little warmer than it’s been lately so I can’t even complain about how cold it’s getting outside.

Let’s hope my life, and my mood, picks up as the week goes on. :-)

Almost . . .

Yup, I almost missed posting here today. I was so proud of myself for getting the next chapter of my serial posted on time that I forgot I needed to post something here as well. :-)

The instructor was a little annoyed with us yesterday - we all finished chapter three before she'd even started going over it with us so she ended up skipping it and going straight to chapter four.

I've been trying to slow down with the chapter work because we have all of next week for Excel and only one chapter and one assignment left to do. I fear it's going to be a long week.

* * * * * * * * * *

My head's been aching almost every day this week. I don't know if it's a change in the temperature, a change in the weather, or a change in my routine (having morning classes) but I'm getting tired of it.

The woman that sits in front of me in class has been suffering from the headaches too and we found Wednesday in class unbearable. The classroom was warm and stuffy, but one of the women at the back keeps closing the door because she's cold. Suck it up princess and stop wearing shorts and tank tops to school!

* * * * * * * * * *

KITTENS! The Humane Society was having a kitten adopt-a-thon in the mall today. They set up right infront of the stairs I have to take to go to and from school. So many kittens! Cute little warm balls of fuzzy fun! They were so sweet, I wanted to take them all home with me. Just for a visit of course. ;-)

Speaking of kittens, Taz had quite an adventure Wednesday night. Somehow the front door came unlatched and we didn't discover it until the husband came home at 11 and ran into (not literally) Dante in the driveway. Dante scooted back into the house, which is when the husband realized the door was open. I did a quick nose count and the only one that was missing was Taz.

We figured he had as much as a three hour head start on us. Our neighborhood is dark, and it was windy, so there we were at 11 p.m. wandering the area with a flash light and calling his name. It was after midnight and we were just about ready to give up when he came slinking up to the house. I think he's finally realized that the Great Outdoors isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Hump Day Happenings

I was actually very surprised to see the sun shining today. I woke up at around 4 a.m. with a bad headache, which usually means the weather's turned. It was still with me when I got up and so far it shows no signs of leaving. It was bad enough at school this morning that on my break I went upstairs to the coffee shop and had a coffee. The caffeine made it a little better, but unfortunately it's wearing off now.

Have you ever noticed that when you have a headache that things that normally you don't notice bug the crap out of you? Like the noise from the fountain in the dining room. Once you get used to it it's pretty easy to ignore, but right now I'd like to just pick the damn thing up and pitch it into the back yard.

And I think my next door neighbor left the gate to her back yard unlatched. I can hear something banging in the wind and I don't know what else it could be. I'm tempted to go check and close it if it is, but with my luck my neighbor would catch me. She's old and even more crotchety than I am and she'd probably beat me to death with her cane.

Aren't I in a mood today? :-)

* * * * * * * * * *

The cats appeared to have an uneasy truce. I don't know if Panda has just gotten over her misplaced anger at Taz or Taz got tired of living on top of the bookcase. But he's abandoned my office for my chair in the living room, and this morning he even had breakfast out in the kitchen with everyone else (the first time in a week).
Cross your fingers that the worst is over.

Panda pretty much ignores him if he's in one place, it's only when he wants to move from point A to point B that she starts having a problem. If it's just her that's on the alert he doesn't seem to care, but when the boys all stick their noses into things he starts getting a little paranoid. Who can blame him? Two of the boys out-weigh him by several pounds.

* * * * * * * * * *

As I feared, Excel is even worse than Word was. We have fewer chapters to work on and more time to work in. Yesterday I not only finished all the chapter work, I also finished the assignment that wasn't due until Friday. Today we had a quiz and then most of us worked on Chapter 3 - which we'll be learning tomorrow. At this rate I'll be ready for the exam by Monday. Even though we're only doing 5 chapters I think there's 9 in the book, so I'll probably just keep going until I run out of class time.

I also found out today that if we want to continue with the advanced Word course on our own we just have to let the other instructor know and she'll give us the assignments and arrange for us to take the exam. I just might go ahead and do that - it'll give me something constructive to do in my Excel class. :-)

An Embarrassment of Riches

Well, the cats seem to have settled down somewhat. Romi spent a couple of days hiding in the basement (coming out to eat of course) and Julius and Dante are back to their normal selves. Panda acts normal until she spots Taz, and although she hasn’t attacked him in the last few days she does like to keep an eye on him still.

Poor Taz . . . Friday and Saturday he was very skittish, and if Panda was nearby he was afraid to move. She wouldn’t let him down off the bookcase Friday so I finally put some food and water up there for him (he was very grateful). Saturday he must have needed to use the kitty litter because he went down to the basement, and then she wouldn’t let him come up the stairs so he spent pretty much the whole day down there. He did slink upstairs late in the evening and after having a cautious bite to eat settled down on the couch between the humans.

I guess I should be grateful the fur’s stopped flying, but I’d still like to know what’s going on with these guys!

* * * * * * * * * *

Saturday I cleaned out the supply cabinet my laser printer sits on in my office. This may not seem like such a big deal to most people, but given the amount of office supplies I tend to accumulate and the fact they just get more or less jammed into the cabinet, it was a very big deal.

Part way through I started an inventory of the supplies and I am rather appalled at my stock pile. I have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to office supplies. And that’s just the stuff in the cabinet. I also have a plastic bin with file folders, paper, and whatnot, and a desk drawer full of “stuff”. Did I mention the piles of partially used notebooks and note pads around the house? Clearly I should be banned from all office supply stores and the office/school supply aisles of all department and dollar stores.

* * * * * * * * * *

Saturday was also a procrastination catch up day writing/blogging wise. I caught up on my book review blog, got chapter five of my serial posted, and checked out the blogs I’ve been neglecting this week. Sunday I also got off my lazy butt and actually posted something to my Random Writing blog.

* * * * * * * * * *

Back to morning classes at school this week. Yippee skippy! We’re taking Excel, which I have taken twice before but since I never use it for anything I’ve forgotten everything I ever knew about it. Unfortunately we have the same kind of textbook and the same instructor as we did for Word. I found the wording of the text to be somewhat confusing, but the instructor seemed even more confused. She was lost without her instructor’s manual and if you interrupted her with a question she not only had to look up the answer, she’d lose her place in what she was doing.

Thursday she was reading from the text and we were following along and we were supposed to be formatting a title. She couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working until I suggested we needed to highlight the text first. She ignored me completely, but then her next instructions were to highlight the text and then format it. :-)

Welcome to the War Zone

Panda appears to have declared war on Taz.

She attacks without warning, and without any apparent provocation. She is swift and deadly, like a Ninja kitty. One minute there's peace and serenity, the next minute the fur is flying.

And because Taz is devoted to Panda, he does little to defend himself.

Dante is the double agent - sometimes he sides with Taz, sometimes with Panda. Julius is Switzerland - when the fur flies he makes himself scarce and stays right out of it. Romi does a great impression of the cowardly lion. As I type this, he's hiding in a corner of the basement where he hopes no one will find him.

We have no clue what brought this on. The only thing the vet could suggest is that maybe something in the family dynamic changed that's making Panda need to assert herself as alpha.

The last couple of nights we've had to keep Panda locked up in a room by herself, and she was there yesterday while I was at school. We've put the calming drops we bought when the daughter's cats were living here in her water, and today I've sprayed the house with a pheromone spray that's supposed to keep everyone calm.

We'll see how it goes.

Right now, Taz is sleeping on top of the six foot high bookcase, which is his favorite place, and Panda is on the chair across the room watching him. The boys are wisely staying out of the way.

Panda was like this yesterday, content to just watch Taz, until Taz jumped down off the high book case onto the lower one. I guess he forgot to ask permission, because Panda flew into a rage and had to be locked away (once I was able to catch her and wrap her in a towel so she didn't rip me apart as well).

The big question today will be, should I lock her away while I'm at school or not? I hate to do it for no reason, but I'd also hate to come home from school and find little Taz parts scattered throughout the house.

I feel like I need a dose of those calming drops myself - I have an exam in Microsoft Word this afternoon. :-)

Already Wednesday

The bad thing about a long weekend is that it makes me not want to go back to school but the good thing about it is that it makes the week shorter. :-)

Last night I did something I haven't done in a long time - I went to the movies. The daughter and I went to see Julie and Julia. It probably wasn't my first choice of movies to see, but I really enjoyed it. I love the way they intertwined the two stories and what made it really interesting was that it was based on true events.

* * * * * * * * * *

This morning, while I was in the bathroom, the cats had a mini melt down. I could hear a commotion outside the door, but by the time I was done everyone had disappeared. They were all acting skittish, slinking around the house, tails puffed out . . .

I think I've pieced together what happened though, but first I need to give you a little history about them.

We had a dog when the kittens were born. Panda loved the dog, and the dog was fine with the kittens when they were really tiny. Unfortunately, the dog was a border collie and when the kittens were big enough to start wandering around, she instinctively wanted to keep them together (in a herd). So she'd bark at the kittens, the father cat (Taz) would freak out on the dog to protect his offspring and Panda would freak out on Taz to protect the dog. We'd actually have to shut Panda up in a room by herself to calm her down.

I think what happened this morning is while they were all waiting for me to get out of the bathroom so I could feed them, Romi, the biggest kitten (okay, I call them kittens but they're six years old now)was bugging Taz, who retaliated and Panda freaked out on Taz which freaked everyone out. (Taz has no patience for his offspring and they like to occassionally bug him just to be little shit disturbers.)

Anyway, everyone is calmed down now, except for Panda who's patrolling the house like a cop on a beat.

Happy Labour Day!

Yes, I know I missed Friday's post. I was busy finishing a baby quilt that really did not want to get finished. Mental note, new T.V. craft is embroidering baby quilt blocks until I have a stock pile again. There's three more babies impending over the next 6 months and I don't want to be caught short when it comes to baby quilts. :-)

In fairness to myself, the baby quilt I just finished was a departure for me. Normally I do a nine-block quilt, five squares of which have embroidered cartoon characters on them. This quilt, a I believe I mentioned in an earlier post, was custom done for the daughter to give to a friend of hers. It has classsic Winnie-the-Pooh pictures, which were a little more complicated to embroider as well as their dimensions were a little odd. So there were six individual blocks to embroider, and then a double one that ran down the center with a space to put the baby's name and birth date after the blessed event. So yeah, there was a lot more work to it, especially when one sews the lining to the wrong side of the quilt, but it turned out much better than I expected, especially when the sun was coming up before I was finished. :-)

* * * * * * * * * *

Saturday I grabbed a few hours sleep and then started getting stuff ready for the birthday party we were hosting at our place for the son-in-law. As per my luck, I was just on my way out the door to pick up the cake when a friend called and kept me on the phone for half an hour, so I was just getting out of the shower when people started showing up.

It was a perfect night for a party though. Not too hot, not too cold, no wind so I was able to scatter tea lights around the deck when it started getting dark. We still had the fireworks that didn't get used for the rehearsal dinner earlier in the summer, so we set them off when it became fully dark.

After everyone left the husband and I half-heartedly cleaned up and then napped while watching the Star Trek movie marathon on the Space channel. :-)

* * * * * * * * * *

Sunday we just couldn't seem to get motivated. It was just one of those real lazy days that you can either beat yourself up about or just go with the flow. I finally got some ambition late in the night (early in the morning?) and got the chapter written and posted for my serial. I had actually decided to just skip it, but then the words started coming. Isn't that always the way?

This would have been a good weekend for embroidery. The Space channel has been running the Star Trek movies in consecutive order and today they're running the viewer's choice of top ten original episodes.

Yes, I'm a total Trekkie. And proud of it! :-)

Road Trip

Well, the daughter and I just got back from Peterborough. Another successful pilgrimage made to Starbucks Chapters. I spent more than I intended (as usual) but that's because I couldn't resist this cool book called To the Ends of the Earth that's full of ancient maps, plus they pointed out that my discount card needed to be renewed.

And yes, I got my Pumpkin Spice Latte, with a Pumpkin Spice Scone to go with it. Mmmm, pumpkinny goodness!

On the drive up (and back) we listened to my driving CD that the husband spent five years in the making. He had to choose just the right songs for it:

Lookin' Out For Number One
Drivin' Sister
Vehicle
Born to Be Wild
Let It Roll
I Can't Drive 55 (my personal favorite)
Highway Star
Fun, Fun, Fun
Built For Speed
Under My Wheels
Runnin' Down A Dream
Deadman's Curve
Pink Cadillac
Mercury Blues
Red Barcetta
Radar Love
Paradise (By the Dashboard Light)
Go Faster

What a guy! :-)

* * * * * * * * * *

Panda lost her collar again, only this time we haven't been able to find it. She looks so naked without it that I finally bought her a new one. This one is neon pink, her favourite colour.

* * * * * * * * * *

I've just discovered another really big problem about having afternoon classes. It's so nice out today and I've been out enough, that I really, really, don't want to go to school now. I want to stay home and enjoy the end of summer today.

Unfortunately, we have a quiz, and homework to take up, and an assignment to hand in, and a new chapter to start. Guess I'd better get that homework done and do a bit of studying.

Why yes, I do have to leave in half an hour. Your point? :-)

Oops!

I was so busy concentrating on getting the next installment of my serial posted Friday, that I forgot all about posting something here!

My Access exam Friday was long - three hours long! It wasn't that any of it was hard, there was just a lot to it. And even after three hours I was one of the first ones finished. I went at a slow and steady pace and paid attention to the little details. Snarky bitch (remember her?) sitting on the other side of me was typing away as fast as she could and I could see her shooting little glances over at mine screen to make sure she was ahead of me (and getting more cheerful the further ahead she got). I just shrugged mentally and kept my steady pace, which paid off around the fourth page where we had to format the cells of the table we'd created. This was not something we'd learned in the book and I suspect it was put in there to have us use the help menu, which is what I did. I could hear snarky muttering and cursing under her breath, oozing frustration. She must have spent a good half hour trying to "remember" how to do this. Yes, I did finish well before her and yes, I do feel smug about it. :-)

Starting this week I have afternoon classes this week so I confess I slept in a little this morning and then stayed in my jammies while checking my e-mail and contemplating breakfast.

Next thing I know the husband is asking if I can take Panda to her appointment at the vet's. This is what happens when you drink orange juice that's been opened in the fridge for at least two weeks. It's a good thing I was able to take her because they were backed up at the vet's office and we had to wait about 45 minutes. Panda was a very cranky girl for her treatment. She's also lost her collar again only this time it wasn't at the vet's office. Maybe if she's a good girl taking her pills this week I'll buy her a new one.

When we got home, the husband said he was feeling better so he was dressing for work. Having had food poisoning from tainted juice before I tried to tell him he probably wasn't as well as he thought, but what do I know? The silly ass went to work anyway. And he took his lunch with him too. Glad I won't be there to see the explosion.

I went to Fabricland in Peterborough with a friend on Saturday and on the way out we stopped at Starbucks for a break. I tried one of their pumpkin scones - OMG are they ever good. So good, in fact, that I googled the recipe when I got home and printed out copies for myself, my friend, and the daughter.

I've been working on a baby quilt for a friend of my daughter's with pictures from the original Winnie the Pooh on it, and I mentioned that Chapters (where Starbucks is) had the original Winnie the Pooh bears. So the daughter and I are going up one morning this week so she can get one to go with the quilt. And the best part? It'll be after September first, when Starbucks starts serviing their Pumpkin Spice Lattes!

Catch-up Day

I've been catching up on all kinds of things today.

First I caught up on my second assignment at school, going over it several times to make sure every nitpicky little detail was perfect. Then I did my independent project for Access (I created a database to keep track of where my poetry was going). Originally I was going to use both my fiction writing and my poetry in the database, but to be honest, I haven't submitted any fiction in ten years! What have I been doing?

Anyway, I got my database with its table of no less than 10 records done, and I included the five queries, a form, and a report with it. My form looks really spiffy if I do say so myself. I'd like to have played around with it some more, but there wasn't much else I could do with it without adding more records (I stopped at 13).

I'm ashamed to admit that many, many trees gave up their lives for this database. The instructor wanted specific things printed and every time I'd change something I'd have two or three things to print out again.

Any volunteers to do my shredding for me? I have a big box of paper that needs to be shredded before the recycling people will take it.

* * * * * * * * * *

When I got home from school I got caught up on some more mundane things: cleaned the kitty litter, called VISA to activate my latest card, called Mastercard to find out why the insurance that was supposed to be making my payments wasn't . . .

* * * * * * * * * *

I'm trying very hard to not have a nap today. Panda likes to curl up on the easy chair with me after lunch and have an afternoon nap, only her capacity for napping is much larger than mine. I think she thinks I'm just a strange looking cat.

Speaking of Panda, I had to stop at the vet's office on my way home from school yesterday to pick up some more kitty treats. I was dangerously low on treats and Panda is much easier to give a pill to if she sees the treat bag she gets her reward from.

* * * * * * * * * *

Something else I caught up with today . . . I went through the clothes in my closet to try and weed some out. I must admit I didn't get rid of as many as I'd have liked. And I haven't gone through the clothes in my dresser yet.

*sigh*

Guess I'd better go do that now.

Monday Again

You know what the problem with Friday is? A couple of days later it’s Monday again.

Looks like Bill ran out of steam before he got to my relatives in New Brunswick. He was only a category 1 when he hit the Nova Scotia coast, and by the time he reached New Brunswick he’d been downgraded to a tropical storm. There was a lot of damage done but it could have been a lot worse.

Panda lost a couple of ounces last week but she’s back up to six and a half pounds. She’s a real force of nature. She may be costing us a pile of money, but she makes sure we get our entertainment’s worth out of her. :-)

The husband of a close friend passed away suddenly but not unexpectedly late last week and the funeral is later today. I really hate funerals. At least this one is being held in a church instead of the funeral parlour.

I spent the morning playing around in the coding for Access - what a pain! I kept getting a runtime error so I’d click on it and check where it said I went wrong, retype it, close it, and the same error would keep cropping up. The girl beside me was getting a runtime error too, but hers was at the top of the codes and mine was at the bottom. I eventually did get mine corrected though, it had nothing to do with the code itself, but a minor little error in what the code was attached to.

Then I got my assignment back from last week? A couple of weeks ago? I only got 35/40 on it which was a little disappointing. This instructor is very nit picky and I’ll need to bear that in mind for future assignments.

I’m looking out my nice clean office window and the weather can’t seem to make up its mind whether to be overcast or sunny. At least it’s a little cooler, but that’s not supposed to last.

Mental note: people with cats should always have a lint brush handy, especially if they need to wear something dark for a funeral.

Now where did I put the scotch tape . . . .

Did I mention how much I hate funerals?

Friday, Finally!

Parts of this week seem to zip by, but other parts just dragged. I mostly just dragged too. What a life!

Went to the poetry reading that my poetry group sponsors once a month at a local coffee shop - it was very interesting. There was quite a crowd and I learned an important lesson: if you're there by yourself, don't give up your seat for anything, no matter how badly you need to use the restroom. I thought leaving my teapot, cup, and glasses behind would be enough to stake my claim, but apparently I was wrong.

The first poet up was from our group and he did an interesting mix of jazz and poetry. Next was a guest poet from Toronto and it was wrapped up by another group member. I must remember to start bringing more cash to these things because the guest poets usually have a book to sell and I would have liked the one from last night's guest.

As I sipped my chai tea, I couldn't help but notice the gentleman beside me who, in the course of the next two hours, waded through a piece of cake, a pot of tea, two glasses of red wine and two vanilla milkshakes. I think what caught my attention more than the sheer volume was the variety.

And, of course, wouldn't you know that the storm that'd been threatening all day descended on us while we were in the coffee shop. It was pouring rain when we got out and me on the other side of the parking lot. Oh, well. Since I'm not made of sugar I didn't melt, though I wasn't that keen on the spectacular display of lightning out over the lake.

At least we fared better than a lot of people a little north of us. I was reading in the paper this morning about the funnel clouds and twisters that ripped through the area not far from us. A lot of damage was done in a very short time - power lines down, trees felled, roofs ripped off . . . and then to add insult to injury, the sun came out once the wind died down again.

Now it's off to school where I get to spend the morning trying to figure out why the one report I'm doing in Access with it's sub-report works, and the next one doesn't. I got so frustrated yesterday that I skipped to the following one, which also works.

Let the fun and games ensue!

Happy Humpday

Wednesday already? Wow this week's going by fast!

Well, it happened. I’ve been expecting it since the weekend, but it was still startling when it occurred. The problem with nice, clean windows is that not only do I tend to forget there’s glass in them, so do the birds outside. Although to be honest, I think the bird that smacked into the window deserved it because he was probably trying to buzz the cats, three of which were sitting on the bookcase in front of the window at the time.

You don’t think birds are like that? You’ve obviously never had an outdoor cat. My last outdoor cat never went after birds, but they birds would sure go after him! If he was nearby, I could always tell where by the fuss the birds were making.

You know what I haven’t done in awhile? Posted a quiz. So to brighten your day (and to take up space because this is such a short post, it’s early, and I can’t think of anything else to say) here’s a quiz.

ANIMOLOGY: What Animal Are You? Your Result: Teal Cat   You're the Teal Kitty Cat! You're as swift and sly as a ninja and very hard to please. You can be very soft yet very cruel at the same time. Your soul mate is the beige racoon and you're in conflict with the red jaquar.
Tan Giraffe
Blue Fox
Silver and Red Wolf
Ocre and Gray Dolphin
Red Jaguar
Gold Falcon
Yellow Trout
ANIMOLOGY: What Animal Are You? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Melting

Yes, like the Wicked Witch of the West I’m melting. The weather network claims it’s only 26 C out (that’s around 80 F for you Yanks) but the humidex makes it feel like 36 C (around 98 F). Got home from school and turned the air conditioning on high (both upstairs and downstairs) and turned the fan in my office (where the air conditioning doesn’t reach) up a notch.

You want to know how hot it is? It’s so hot I’ve even been going swimming in the pool to cool off before bed the last couple of nights. There’s nothing like floating around in the pool at night, gazing up at the stars, letting the water lower your body temperature enough to sleep . . . The water’s been around 80F the last week, which sounds warm but doesn’t feel so warm when you first get in. :-)

* * * * * * * * * *

Wow, I’m looking across my desk at the window and you’d never know there’s glass in it. Yesterday the husband decided to paint the trim on the window frames on the outside of the house, so while he had the windows apart to do the inside sections, I cleaned the glass. I’ve been bugging him to help me take the picture window apart in my office for years. It’s got a double pane of glass and although I can do inside my office and outside the house, I couldn’t do between the two. It was definitely a two person job to get the glass out, but totally worth it!

* * * * * * * * * *

I confess. I was a bad girl today. I broke down and had a cup of coffee on my break at school. What can I say? I was tired and I was working on Macros, Switchboards and Pivot Tables in Access. And I’m further ahead than anyone else in class so there’s no one to ask when I run into problems. I finished the chapter under my own steam and then when I went to start the exercise couldn’t find a report I’d done two chapters ago, so I’ll have to go back and re-do it.

*sigh* Sometimes it doesn’t pay to be quick. :-)

Entertainment

I have found a new source of entertainment: Cat Bubbling.

The trend in weddings over the last few years has been to supply guests with tiny little bottles of non-toxic soap to blow bubbles with instead of throwing confetti. Having been to several of these weddings, I have about half a dozen of this little bottles sitting on a shelf in my office.

Last night I was cleaning up the crap that had started to accumulate on and around my desk, and as usual I had all the cats spread out, keeping me company. In the midst of my cleaning up I came across an old journal which dated back to when we had a dog as well as all these cats, and I remembered how much fun she used to have chasing bubbles. It was about then I got the idea of seeing what the cats’ reaction would be to bubbles.

So I sat behind my desk, in front of the fan, and started blowing bubbles for the cats. At first it was a sheer WTF look on their faces (it was priceless!). Then Panda and Taz jumped down from their bookcases for a better look.

Panda gets the same look in her eye that she does when she spots something interesting outside; Taz just sits there and meows at them; and the boys aren’t really sure whether they should chase them or run away from them. When the husband came home later that night I demonstrated for him out in the dining room and Panda had a ball trying to bite the bubbles (Taz was still in the office and the boys just kinda back off from the bubble madness).

Yes, I know. Small things amuse small minds. :-)

Whiney Wednesday

I'm tired.

My head hurts.

It's too hot out.

Did I mention my head hurts?

But on the plus side, I still like working with Access. We have to present a project by the end of the four weeks of instruction, and I think I'm going to do mine on a database to keep track of my writing and where I send it. I'd do one based on my books with cross-references to who I've loaned them out to, but it would be just too freaking big.

Of course this will mean I need to get off my butt and get some writing done so I have something to put in the database. To be honest, other than blog posts and poetry, I haven't done much writing in the last while (I hesitate to use the term weeks, but it wouldn't be too far out there).

I was mentioning on my writing blog that I have a hard time counting the time I spend crafting poetry as actual writing time. I don't know why that is. A poem can take just as much time and effort as a story . . .

Panda is a whole six pounds and eight ounces. The vet is very happy with her. She stays on her pills and her special food, and she'll keep getting her water treatments twice a week, and she should keep doing okay. And she keeps herself happy at home dragging my underware all over the house.

Okay, whining over. Back to your regularly scheduled blog surfing. :-)

Muggy Monday

Yes, we're into those hazy, lazy, crazy days of summer.

Have I mentioned how much I’m enjoying Access? It’s like the mother ship is calling me home. If I could find a job where all I did was Access all day I’d be a happy camper indeed.

What does not make me a happy camper is that snarky biatch beside me who keeps stealing my thunder. There’s a handful of us, including her, who are way ahead in the textbook. Miss Snark works on her resume or cover letters or whatever while I diligently plough ahead with Access and then after I get a section done she hurries to catch up. I’ve solved any problems or confusion and she gets me to help her through any rough patches. THEN she’ll turn around and “help” some of the others who are close to where we are because she’s “figured it all out”.

Yes, I know it’s petty but it still makes me angry. Grr! And I can’t not help her if she asks because then I’m not a “team player”. And I’d offer to help the others myself but they don’t know me as well as they do Miss Snark and she’s established herself as the “expert”.

This morning I was dragging my butt a bit so I had a choice between breakfast or a shower and I think I chose wisely choosing the shower. :-) However, that meant by mid-morning I was starving so I took a short break and went upstairs to get a green tea and a muffin. I don’t know what kind of green tea that little coffee shop uses, but it was excellent!

Anyway, on my back downstairs the school secretary stopped me and asked if I had a mug. We’re not supposed to use take-out cups in the class room so I shame-facedly told her I didn’t have my mug with me today but I had the instructor’s permission to use the take-out cup, and the secretary hands me a brand new travel mug with the name of the school on it. It’s a really nice mug too!

It’s a nice metallic blue, and it has a screw on top rather than a snap on top. Also, the part you drink from has a flip top that snaps open. And the best part is, it has a hard plastic liner instead of a soft plastic one (like the Timmy’s cups). This makes it a better choice for tea, which is a good thing because I’ve had to give up my black nectar from hell (coffee).

To be honest, I’ve always been a bigger tea fan than coffee anyway, I just loved that caffeine jolt in the morning (even when it didn’t love me back). The beauty of tea, however, is that there’s so many different kinds and blends. I can’t drink flavoured coffees, they give me terrible heartburn. But tea, that’s a different story. Right now I’m enjoying a large mug of Grapefruit Oolong. Thank you, Jamie! :-)

See, I Didn’t Forget!

Do you know what I hate? It’s finding the perfect bra and then when you go back to get another one they’re not available any more. In the spring I found the perfect bra in Wal-Mart and fortunately I bought two at the time because when I went out to get another one today, there were none. Nana. Zip. At least not in my size. In fact, there was precious little in my size. I am a plus size woman, which means my boobs are plus sized too. Is it too much to ask for a pretty bra with lots of support in a large size at a reasonable price? Why do I feel like I’m being penalized for being blessed by the hooter fairy?

Okay, rant over. :-)

I think they made a mistake at the vet’s office on Friday when they gave Panda her water treatment. Instead of filling her up with water, they must have used rocket fuel or something because she’s been flying around the house like a maniac this weekend.

Now, just for your reading pleasure, I have another of my long-winded stories.

After grocery shopping, I came down the hall to fart around play around do some serious work on the computer when it was pointed out to me that I failed to update my blog yesterday. Truth is, I didn’t update either blog, but that’s beside the point.

I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but I have two blogs attached to the Firecat name. One is my book comments (I wouldn’t really call them a review) blog which I started to update last week. So I thought I’d start with it and get it out of the way.

I’d typed about a paragraph when I decided that it was too quiet in my office. Rather than look for music on-line or slap a CD into the lap top, I decided to use the little stereo I have sitting on my bookcase. Only first I had to hook it up.

You’re going to have to picture this because I’m too lazy to draw it in paint and I don’t have a camera to take a picture. The stereo sits in the middle shelf of the center of three six foot high bookcases against the far wall. One speaker is on the left hand side of the shelf, the stereo is on the right hand side, and the other speaker is on the right hand side of the middle shelf of the bookcase to the right.

First step was pulling the books off the shelf so I could hook the speakers up to the stereo. Then I decided to change the books that were on the shelf - there were actually a few books and a couple of ugly binders, and a gap. Forty-five minutes later I’d changed books around on shelves in three different bookcases before I was happy with my arrangement. It’s still not perfect, but it’ll do for now.

Next was finding a CD to play. I wanted something a little soothing, a little summery, and if I was going to be writing it needed to be instrumental too. I checked the handful of CDs I had in here and the closest one I had that fit the bill was David Lanz, but I just wasn’t in the mood for piano. So I went into the dining room where we have a bookcase that was originally built for paperback books, but the person who built it *coughhusbandcough* forgot to take into account the thickness of the shelves and so it never really worked the way it was intended. But it’s great for CDs.

Anyway, when I first set it up in the dining room I had all the husband's CDs on the top shelf, and mine on the next one down. Only one problem. When the husband puts CDs back, he tends to put them back where ever there’s a space. Grr!

So I started going through them and putting them on the right shelves, and since I really don’t have room to have all my CDs in my office, I reorganized my shelf in the order of most listened to or most important to me. Yeah, that took about 45 minutes as well.

Finally I had a dozen CDs to take back to my office with me and now I’m listening to Holst, The Planets, as I’m typing this.

Now, aren’t you glad I updated? :-)

Happy Hump Day

It doesn't feel like Wednesday . . . but then that's what usually happens on weeks that have a holiday Monday, they get thrown off kilter.

For those of you who've been asking, Panda is up to 6 pounds 4 ounces now. She's gained a whole 4 ounces in the last couple of weeks. She's even managed to finish off a bag of her special cat chow. She still needs to go to the vet twice a week, but she's got the routine down pat - she jumps on the scale herself to be weighed and then waits patiently for her I.V.

Yesterday we were sprung early from school due to the heat. The air conditioning wasn't working in our classroom. Not the whole school, just our classroom. It was like a sauna in there. Even the ones who usually complain about how cold it is were stripping down. *shudder* It was not a pretty sight.

We started Access yesterday . . . without our textbooks. At the last minute the supplier back-ordered our textbooks, so the school had to scramble to find a new one. According to the teacher, the text books we ended up with (today) are a lot better because the instructions are more hands on. All I can say is, it's hard on my eyes.

I wear bifocals (yes, I'm that old!). Theoretically, I'm supposed to look through the upper part for distance or lighted screens (computer, T.V., etc.) and the bottom part for reading. There's also an anti-glare coating and they're supposed to darken when it gets too bright. Well, I use them for driving and for reading the on-screen guide to changes channels on the T.V., but that's about it. The lighting in the classroom makes it to bright to read the text book without glasses, but it bugs my eyes to try and read the text book with them. I'd sit further back from the desk, but the aisles are narrow enough as it is.

Despite the initial problems, I really like Access. Data-bases are my thing. I can already think of many ways to use this program at home - starting with cataloguing my books.

It's about time, eh?

Don’t Mess With My Holiday!

When did the Civic Holiday become Simcoe Day?

I was doing some errands this morning and the guy on the car radio said something about this being Simcoe Day. . . say what? When did this happen? Did I not get the memo? Was there some big announcement about it that I missed?

Why is it necessary to re-name holidays, and whose decision is it to do so?

I still remember the first time I went to an assembly at my daughter’s school (she was in kindergarten), and how I wasn’t the only parent whose voice trailed off during the national anthem when we realized they’d changed the lyrics. Shouldn’t we have received some kind of notification about this?

Okay, enough of the ranting. As threatened promised, here’s Dudley Do Right, of the Royal Canadian Mounties:

If It's Wednesday, I Must Be Posting

See, I did remember my promise when I cut back on posting a while back that I'd update on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. And since this is Wednesday, here I am.

But I'm not staying long. I spent most of the day fighting off an IB attack and now I'm off to study for my Human Resources Exam. I learned with Marketing that just because I like something doesn't mean I'll do well in it exam-wise.

So I'm leaving you with the cartoons I posted over on my writing blog today.

Anyone remember Rocky & Bullwinkle? Better fess up or Friday it’s Dudley Do Right!


Leaping Beauty




Jack and the Beanstalk

Migraine Monday

Yes, it’s been one of those days, which was preceded by one of those weekends. Is it just me or has the up and down weather been creating an abnormal number of migraines this summer?

Anyway, I’m feeling much better now so I thought it was time I got around to posting, if only to shut up the people who’ve been whining to me about it. :-)

Apparently my groove kinda petered out on me. I’ve barely managed to keep up my writing blog and even then I didn’t do a Friday post over there.

It’s not like you’ve missed much.

I got 87 % as my final mark in Economics. What saved my bacon was getting 29/30 on the assignment on the unemployment in Canada. I only got 39/50 on the exam.

I’ve also completed Marketing, but we haven’t got our final marks back for that yet. I really slaved over the assignment for that course and learned all kinds of things about McDonald’s that I really don’t care about. :-)

This week we’re finishing up Human Resources, which I really like. What I don’t like is that instead of getting one big assignment, we’ve been getting a bunch of shorter assignment. Three last week and three this week. We’ve also got a quiz on Wednesday and the exam on Friday because this is a short week for us.

The weather has been a major source of irritation. Mostly hot and humid and overcast. Or warm and rainy. Or windy and stormy.

Haven’t been getting as much writing done as I’d like, barring HR assignments. I’d like to change that but I’m not holding my breath.

Panda is back to her crazy self, much thinner and she’s still on medication and has to go to the vet twice a week, but personality wise she’s her old self.

And now, to prove that I'm not the only one with a crazy cat, I give you my grand-furbaby, Oliver.

Working On It

Still haven’t quite managed to get back into the groove. It’s more like I’m running along beside it.

This week I’m adjusting to getting up early again - it’s amazing how quickly I slid back into my old habits of staying up late and sleeping in while I was on holidays - plus school is piling on the work. I’ve got a project due at the end of the week, a quiz tomorrow and an exam on Friday.

I’m rubbing the sleep from my eyes as I type this.

Last night I was all settled in the living room with my trusty lap top to watch Torchwood, only the Space Channel was frozen! Apparently it had been frozen (along with the History Channel, the Comedy Channel, and another one I can’t remember the name of) since the day before. Angry! They’d better have it fixed before next week when the new episodes start! Okay, they need to get it fixed before then, but . . . . Grr!

For those of you who are interested, Panda is doing very well. Except for her daily medication, special food, and twice weekly visits to the vet, she’s pretty much back to normal. Last night while I was trying to get to sleep she instigated a game of chase with a couple of the boys. Right now she’s sitting in the window telling the birds outside exactly what she’d do to them if she was on the other side of the screen. :-)

Monday the husband took her to the vet and she scolded him all the way there. They had to tip the cat carrier to get her out, but then she immediately jumped down off the table and onto the scale. She stood there long enough for them to record her weight and then headed for the door. It was like she’s got the routine down pat and just wants to get it over with.

In honour of Panda I’ll leave you with the following, which was sent to me by my son-in-law.

George Carlin on Cats