Cat on a Keyboard-A nonhijacked MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
361

Swampy, you’ll be pleased to know that the trickiest third of my paper (the bit I saved for last) is now finished, the cat’s been played with and Ophie’s been fussed as well after I managed to find out where she’s hiding.

The cause of her grumpiness is Shadow who arrived at ours last night. He’s between two and three years old, is very friendly and likes lots of fuss. His story is that he was one of two kittens but unfortunately the family only wanted to keep the female kitten and when they moved house, they just left him behind.

He was spotted by a teacher who took her class outside for some storytelling and found herself with Shadow asleep on her lap while she told stories to her class of 4yr olds. She didn’t see much of him before the Christmas holidays but afterwards she saw him again and realised he was looking much thinner than before. He was sitting out in the playground in the rain and when she opened the classroom door, he shot straight in, found the nearest radiator and went to sleep.

When her husband turned up to collect him, he’d already got his own chair and blanket, and a host of little admirers. The rescuing couple couldn’t keep him because they have two cats already, plus a couple of rabbits, a ferret and a parrot. So he emailed round at work to see if anyone wanted a cat…my Hungarian friend got hold of the email, sent it to me…and the Ubercat decided that our house was the perfect place for him to live.

'im indoors didn’t raise the slightest objection and so Shadow has moved in…and Ophie is sulking under the duvet.

I think I’ll be the one needing the nerve tonic!

362

Sounds like somebody’s been in the nerve tonic. :smiley:

363

I’m beat. I have a 3-day weekend and I am really looking forward to it.

tho I have to admit I’m enjoying my Hinduism thread a LOT. I am pleased to see people are into it!

Nava, quite a few of the ones that are popular in the States. However, most likely, if you show me how to do it a couple of times, I’ll be dancing right with you!

364

Happy Friday all.

More hugs to Pugs and Biblio.

Ah, hell, hugs to all the rest of you just for GP.

Bobbio, I cracked up when I read your SEP solution for Sean.

It is still freakin’ COOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLDDDDDDDD here. Dag, I’m tired of being cold. The commute wasn’t as bad as yesterday’s, but it was still rather slick on the side roads.

Three day weekend for me too. I’m looking forward to it.

365

Shadow is awesomely beautiful, Fae. Hug Ophie for me.

When Bailey gets annoyed, he moans. It sounds like a vacuum cleaner. It’s so cute!

First lot of bread in the oven. I’m starving. I wonder what I should make for dinner? AT, DH, and me and Mr. Lissar to feed. I think I have a lot of feta to use up. And ham, and I should make a salad with the big box of green stuff. I’m going to bake a cake and make (sort of)trifle with berries and whipped cream. I need to use some whipping cream up. Ham and feta. I guess I could make dip with the feta.

Hmm. There’s a lot of it. Any ideas?

366

BooFae, that’s a pretty kitty!

I’m tired, anyone else tired?

I declare naptime.

367

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Thanks for all of the hugs. It really helps to come here and just put it down in writing (printing?). My children went to visit this afternoon and I think, though I had warned them he is not long for this world, they were shocked to see him so thin and frail. I told them that I know it was hard for them but it was a comfort to him that they came.

sean, Mr. Anachi and I literally bribed the son to leave. It has been really good for him. We, on the other hand, are rattling around the house now that there is just the two of us. Don’t worry. I’ll get used to it.

boofae, I loves me some black kitties. I’ll never understand getting a pet and then just dumping it like trash.

Count me in on the general hugathon. The Cool Kids rule!

368

Good lord yes. I am having trouble even keeping my eyes open as I sit here at work. I am used to getting very little sleep, but it has been over a week since the last time I got more than 5 hours in a night. With any luck I will be able to steal a short nap after work before I have to be off attending to my strangely busy social schedule.

369

I took over the notary assignment from heck this morning, since I haven’t been doing much lately. 32 notarizations. Thirty two. Apparently, when you want to become a CPA in the US, you need to produce records going back 20 years. Not just final exams, and such, but report cards! :eek: 2 copies each. That’s a lot of writing and writing and writing. I still haven’t finished up with the book, because my arm is tired. I now have this poor guy’s name, address and drivers license memorized, and I will probably be writing The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India in my sleep tonight.

I have an exit interview with the OMP this afternoon. That’s another :eek: . I don’t know how much she really wants to know, so I’ll see how that goes. Now that I’m mostly out the door, I just want to put it behind me and move on. It helps that she didn’t “grow up” in this office, and only transferred here this past summer, so she might be able to hear what I’m saying.

My grandfather’s birthday party is tomorrow, it’s his 80th. It’s an open house at his company, so it won’t just be family. I’d like to go, but I really don’t want to go alone. I’d like to have somebody with me that has my back, you know? And it seems silly to drive for an hour each way, when I only really want to stay for half an hour or so.

Hugs all around. Sean, rent might be a good idea, with deadlines for getting jobs, and so forth. I don’t see that people *have * to move out after 18, but unless they’re going to school, they really ought to have some sort of honest employment. Do you really want to be like my grandma? Her youngest daughter is almost 50, still living at home, with her husband and daughter, and Grandma is still working to support them. Auntie hasn’t held a job since the 80s, hubby isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, but at least they grow their own pot now (that’s why they home schooled their daughter, so she wouldn’t report them :rolleyes: ad infinitum), so Grandma’s not paying for *that * anymore. Grandma’s got to be pushing 90 now, and is 3/4 blind and arthritic and who knows what all else. Don’t let this happen to you! :smiley:

370

I am just up from laying down, myself.

Tupugs -it will also help them, once the inevitable occurs. I’m glad they went to see him.
I have just put dinner in the oven (slow cook).

I would like a non-psychotic cat. And I do mean that. I am not really enjoying Simon anymore-he is more a pain than a pet. No, I would never dump him anywhere, but he is more tolerated than loved at this point. There, I said it. Ban my butt.
And he is perfectly healthy.

I just read a book for my Young Adult class (YA for future reference) that has disturbed me. I am not sure why, since I am not homophobic. It’s called Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden. I think what is bugging me is the patness of it all. There is some agonzing and some introspection, but every ends happily. How many people can say that at 17 they had met their soulmate? It doesn’t wash for me. Anyone else ever read it?

371

All this huggin’… geez… everybody’s hittin’ the nerve tonic kinda early.

BooFae good for you young lady getting that paper done. You may go out for the evening if you wish. See, get your chores done and you can have fun. :smiley:

Puggy good for the younguns goin’ by to see their granddad. It’s tough to see somebody like that, but you’re right about it meaning a lot to him. They’ll also have the satisfaction of seeing him and saying goodbye. Not that it doesn’t hurt any less but there’s some satisfaction in knowing you got to say goodbye.

I know I’ve mentioned my mother’s cats FatCat and Groucho. Groucho belonged to some people down the road from mom and dad (dad was still with us at the time), who moved and left him. He decided to come stay at their house. So, it was like Groucho adopted them. He’s very territorial too. No other animals dare stray into the yard. Heh… my sis’s great big lab/chow mixed dog, Faith, won’t go any further (farther?) than the end of sis’s driveway (which connects to mom’s driveway) for fear of Groucho. I’ve mentioned all this before, so y’all who know can skip this paragraph and let the new folks read it.

372

I don’t know if I want in on this group hug. Half of y’all would probably goose me…

373

Well heck, if we’ve got Hugs for Pugs then I want Cats for Spats, Jigs for rigs, and Leeks for Meeks. No Lava for Nava though - I don’t think that’s such a hot idea.

And of course I’m in on the group huggage. :smiley:

374

I’m such a nice person some times. Really. I am. See, I just spent some time with a co-worker doin’ a little hand holdin’ while she had a minor melt down over the fact that she had to fire somebody. It was her first time to do that. I was walkin’ by her office and she nabbed me and asked if she could talk to me for a few minutes. So I sat and listened and was all “there, there, it’ll be alright” with her. She was feeling silly for feeling so bad so I imparted some of my many years of wisdom and learning upon her. I let her know that I feel bad every single time I have to fire somebody. It’s true. It’s the single hardest part of my job. Even if they deserve it, it still ain’t pleasant. I left her feeling a little better. I’m such a nice person. :smiley:

375

Yep, that’s what I’ve finally realized. Trying to make this work is killing me and I don’t need that crap anymore. If only one partner is invested in trying to make things right, it’s ain’t gonna work.

Thanks for all the good wishes.

376

Rigs, I loved Annie on My Mind. But then, I read it at sixteen, when I was just coming out as a lesbian. I needed a happy ending. Compare *Annie * to Sandra Scoppettone’s Happy Endings Are All Alike, which was extremely difficult for me to read then. The only books I could find that had lesbian characters had excessive amounts of violence, especially rape, because they were lesbians. I wanted to believe in the possibility of love, of that happy ending. I think things have improved, but the incidence of suicide and suicide attempts (raises hand) for gay and lesbian teenagers is still very high. My girlfriend then, who went to another high school, was spit on and had rocks thrown at her, and the administration either turned their backs or actively participated in the harrassment. So while I don’t think *Annie On My Mind * holds up as an adult, I still think of it fondly, and keep it on my bookshelf. I think there are more, and probably better, YA books out there now, but it’s a sweet story. Personally, I never saw them as soulmates (there’s waaaaayyyyy too much of that in lesbian fiction, but that’s a rant for another day), but that they probably lasted through college. Maybe. But then, I’ve always been cynical that way.

377

I know a Leek is some kind of weird veggie. Regardless, I don’t want any.

But I do want some huggage!

378

Yes you are, even if you abuse me mentally and don’t send me frequent love offerings… :stuck_out_tongue:

TGIF and hooray for 3-day weekends!! I don’t know what we’re going to do, but it’ll mostly be indoors since we’re being promised rain thru Tues. Laundry and kiln firing for sure, but the rest is up in the air.

I’m tired, and I can’t help wondering how much is due to my recent total de-caffeination. Well, almost total - I do have an occasional cup of tea. But I’ve been dragging all day, and driving home took a lot of focus. <yawn> Just glad the work week is over.

I want a snack - peanuts, I’m thinking. Off to forage in the pantry…

379

Bad news - my hockey road trip buddy just got put on “administrative leave with pay” while the PTB investigate some missing money. She works in a hole-in-the-wall “college” and some application fees seem to be missing. Since yesterday some receipts have disappeared from her receipt book. So now she’s on leave while the issue is “investigated” and anyone can do anything they want in her office. The whole thing really smells fishy to me - (I don’t think she took it BTW) but she has complained in the past about her office not being secured - anyone can just walk in there if she’s not at her desk. I have a bad feeling about this and told her I think she ought to talk with a lawyer - someone is skimming and they are trying to blame it on her. I mean - she was working two jobs over Christmas to pay for her kids Christmas presents. Is that the behavior of someone stealing? She’s in tears and I sure don’t blame her. I hope it all gets cleared up.

SIL just called and wanted Mr. SCL to help her put together a sewing table. Since he’s not home, I volunteered to help. Silly me. Oh well - it’ll get me out of the house.

I’m all in for the group huggage, and I’m gonna break off a piece for my friend.

How about “Skates for Snakes”?

380

Jahdra -oh, the soulmate thing is mentioned repeatedly. But I do have to remember this is a YA book.

I did not know (knowing bupkus about gay fiction) that it involved so much violence etc. Ugh.

I would have rolled my eyes at the end of Annie on My Mind if it had been Andy on My Mind, but I am in NO mood for romance at present. (kicking the shit out of something, yes). Still, the characters and situation were believable. I am now reading (for the same class) How I Live Now by Meg Rossof. So far, so good.
I am really hoping for some kindly inspiration re MMP next week. I doubt you all want to start the week on a downer. I will do my best (I don’t want to start my week that way, either!). It may be a late noc MMP, though-there is no school and I’m coming off 2 back to back 12s…zzzzzz.