I'd like to put this here as a record of an agreement between loml and myself.*

Cat boku loves him and has slowly come to regard me as a second prize. Not as exciting. Runner up. I caught loml trying to convince cat mona to feel the same earlier. This would be devastating to me, mona's one true human love. And so, if loml convinces mona to love him more than she loves me, I get a kitten!

*He didn't technically agree. But come on, this is clearly obvious and logical.

This is the life....

Head on a pillow, on the warm radiator, Christmas tree providing soft/mood lighting...


Good life.

And no, I wasn't watching access, I just hadn't changed the channel yet....

Loml is currently yelling at the cat while in the bathroom.  Mona views the bathroom as her territory (the bathroom, the purple room and our bedroom) and so wants in whenever anyone is in there.  She paws incessantly at the door and moans.  She's a whiner and it can be annoying. She also has a bad habit of drinking from the toilet.

Apparently loml gives in to her crying because he just coughed and it sounded like he was in the next room.  Which means he was letting Mona lay on the floor in the bathroom while he did his thing with the door open.  When I told him I was going to blog about it, he asked why, said she wouldn't leave and then agreed I can blog about it if it's about what a terrible cat she is.  Mona and loml enjoy private time in the bathroom together.  She's a terrible cat.

***

This is what I saw on Saturday while I was doing laundry.  It was quite lovely.  Windows are awesome.  How did I live in that dark apartment for six years?

I present to you, without further explanation, an emotional storm.


This is the gear room.

That door ahead of you opens into the electric meter closet.
This is the meter on the floor while the gas company was working on it (from the very first trip); picture credit: loml instagr.am.

Please note the ledge and it's height off of the floor.  Notice all those pipes on the right blocking easy access.  The meter hangs in the large empty space on the left - pretty much right in front of the ledge.  How and where does a fat cat hurl her body up there and squeeze in?  We will never know.
This is what it looks like when you are sure the cat is in the wall and loml suggests we take a flash picture.

Click on that one to enlarge.  The dark lump in the back is Boku.
I immediately try zoom, then take a picture.

Click on that one to enlarge.  This is the moment (5:05pm from the timestamp) that I started to completely break down.  Because in that image in kind of looks like Boku is stuck on her back legs.  I can't stop seeing it like that.  Like she was trying to climb to the right and got stuck in a slightly ramped position.  That white bit at the bottom left is her paw.  Does anyone else see that?
From this point until around 5:25 I was inconsolable.  We couldn't get Boku to move or make any noise.  I have almost 20 pictures trying to document some kind of change.  Anything.  Nothing.  Because Boku was dead, remember?

The first glance into the hole.  Still didn't have the best angle/ability to see her.

The second glance.  It was NOT a back paw.  It was white ass hair + insulation = visual trickery.
And then we had this. picture credit: loml instagr.am

Now we have a handy dad fixing up that hole.  It will be mended before any of you will ever get a chance to see it with your own two eyes.  And I am so happy for that.

I really should have done Nablopomo. I know I should have. And last month would have been a banner month to do it. So much random crap happened. And by "random crap happened" I mostly mean "shit went wrong". There are about a dozen stories I should have told you. And now I will distill it all into one post of bullet points.

I'm thinking about writing every day this month. Don't hold me to it, but I need to kickstart my impulse to blog. And what better way than to force it? I should probably "save" up these stories if I truly mean to do this...but I have a hunch a ton of random crap is going to happen again.

• My basement was finished. Stuff was moved in. It's becoming a two floor home.
• Since we've been down there more, we realized it smelled like gas in the gear room *the bedroom will henceforth be the gear room*. Gas company was called. They replaced some apparatus that held the meter in place.
• Next day, couldn't find the cat. The feral mama cat. Boku. Boku, seeing the open door to the meter closet, jumped up to a ledge (2-3 feet off teh ground) and climbed inside the wall. Probably about 7 feet inside the wall. And we only found her because I'm a crazy cat lady and just knew she was in there. She didn't make any noise. We poked her with a tape measure (it was the only thing long enough). No noise. We tapped on the wall. No noise. In our eyes, she had climbed into a dark, quiet spot to die. Boku died. So we had to get her out. Loml was the calm eye stuck in the middle of my emotional storm. He got a saw and proceeded to cut a hole in the wall. And opened it up to Boku staring at him. THAT BITCH WASN'T DEAD. Sorry, just needed to rage there for second. She is alive, well and coaxed out of the hole with some tuna. Ever since the sawing episode, though, she is deathly afraid of Loml. Tides turned? No longer the favorite?
• And then it still smelled like gas. We called again a week later. SURPRISE, the gas is at blow up levels. And since the leak is "on our side" of the piping, they turned off the gas and left. At 2pm on Black Friday. So I called a plumbing company and had to pay emergency rates to get some dudes out to fix it. The gas company comes back (2 hours later. No gas, I was told, is not an emergency). This gas-man (cue taxman by beatles) picked my basement apart; there is a lot wrong in the boiler room. Anyway, he kindly fixed one of the leaks (by tightening a cap) himself and turned our gas on. So far, we haven't smelled gas again.
• My contractor dinged me with an assortment of extra costs. That made me ill for a few days. I bitched it up to him though and cut those extra costs in half. Though I still have extra costs. Sigh.
• Of course, as you know, I got the IUD. And my body is reacting to it in all kinds of ways including, but not limited to, teenage pimple face, crazy mood swings and weird junk I don't want to share. I know my body is getting used to not being on the pill but I'd really like it to cut me a break. Though, bigger picture, I think (as long as it's in the right place still) my reaction has been mild. I'm not in pain or anything (some people have cramps for months). I will say (TMI ahead) that I cannot reach or feel any strings that I'm supposed to be checking. Hopefully my next check up will show that everything is in the right place and I'm set to not have babies.
• I woke up a few nights ago having chest pain. Not sure why I woke up, but it was hurting with every breath. I got a litany of tests today that will hopefully show that I am super healthy and had a random asthma-y thing. No results yet though. As an aside, my general doc asked if i was still on birth control, I explained about the IUD and she just sort of briskly said, oh even better. All doctors love this thing, eh?

I'm sure I'm forgetting things.  For another day...

Bits and pieces today.

***

Currently I have three space heaters running; this place will be a bearable temperature tomorrow.  I will continue to run up the electricity bill until it happens.

***

I have a few journal swap posts in the works, rounds 4 and 5.  Or round 4 and half of 5.  The posts are about to become even farther apart as my swapping companion is about to move states.  So we're going to embark on a mission to save the post office with our journal swap mailings.  We have welllll over half of each journal left.  It may be years at this point.

***

Last night I was at a friend's house and came home later than usual.  I came home to Boku staring at me out the front door.  Apparently she's taken on the role of guard-cat.

And one last crazy cat-lady picture to share.  This makes me happy.  We all love the house (though will be happier when the construction is over).

Not to make this all about the cats, but WOW yesterday was a doozy. Boku needed antibiotics, like I said yesterday. I tried on my own to grab her and give them to her and received quite a few hideous scratches on my arms and hand (keep in mind she only has back nails, this was some acrobatic freaking out).

Then, later in the day, loml's dad donned protective gear and loml and I followed him around with syringes. She freaked out, cornered herself in the litter box and became FERAL CAT FROM HELL. Hissing, spitting, growling, doing cat acrobatics to avoid being grabbed, etc. He only got ahold of her once and when I put that syringe in her mouth she went mental. So. Boku has had no antibiotics or painkillers.  Hopefully her missing tooth will not get infected.  But at this point, I don't feel like I'd blame myself even if it did.  We tried.  Really, really hard.

Cut to last night. For a few hours, she sporadically came into our bedroom meowing loudly, angrily, needily. I don't know what was wrong. At one point loml got up to see what she needed. Came back and she was quiet for a bit. Then she started up again.  I went out to see what I could do for her (I showed her food and water in case that was what she couldn't locate). Got back in bed. She was quiet again, for a bit, then came back.

Me: It's like having a baby.
Loml: A fat, toothless baby.

Eventually she stopped wandering around meowing. I think it was around 5:30. Somehow though, last night I got the best sleep I've had here yet. Getting used to the new bed/new house has taken a bit. And now I have to return to work tomorrow, unhappily.

Next time, hopefully no more about the cats.

I live here now. Here as in, the house I purchased. 

***

I'm currently preparing to grab Boku and force antibiotics down her throat. She's finally come out from hiding in the following places:

1. The litterbox
2. The very back of the closet
3. Under the couch

She's taking antibiotics because she has very few teeth these day, specifically one less than before her trip to the vet and three less than the last time I saw in her mouth.  The canines fell out somewhere in the apartment.  I already missed my chance to grab her - she's wandering around now, curious, finally.  She just found the front door, where she can see nature.  It's a whole new world here.  I think nature scared her, I cannot find her again and antibiotics are still in a syringe on the coffee table. 

Mona did fine, came out yesterday to get some loving and then hid behind the bed in the guestroom all night.  Baby steps.

Someone found the food/water and someone used the litter box, so all in all, cat acclimation is going OK.

***

The move went really well.  Nothing got broken, everything found it's place and there was only one fight.  Miscommunication between myself and loml caused Drama with a capital D when it came time to pay the movers.  But, that fight lasted only a very short time.  Then we were busy fighting about the cats.  Kidding, kidding.

I still have quite a bit to do around here.  When the basement is done, then it will fall into place.  And suddenly we won't have nearly enough stuff to fill this house.  But right now?  There's enough stuff.  I have to continue to put it on shelves and ferret it into corners.

I'll try to get some pictures and update on the construction in the next few days.  Now though, I have stuff to dust and windowpanes to clean.

There are two things you should know today:

1. I grow pimples better than you.  I mean, I am a champion at stress-fueled geysers.  I have two monsters on my face right now that don't seem to be going away.
2. My current plan to get the cats to the vet (to be boarded while I move) involves starving them.  This makes me feel cruel and at the same time, like a dastardly genius.  It was loml's idea to get them used to the carriers by putting the food in them.  I will, in fact, take it to the next level and starve them so that they both enter the carriers at the same time to get said food.  I just tried it and it went more smoothly than I even hoped.  I am planning on torturing my cats to make life easier.  Someone call animal control.

Sames and opposites...

Things I know and love:

• my cat has a faux hawk, and faux hawks are almost always lovable
• Barack Obama suddenly, thankfully, seems like he might have a shot. Let's do this.

Things I know and hate:

• a migraine + weird tonsils? That's cruelty.
• datamart

Beedle, doodle, deedle...

This is all going to be entirely irrelevant...

For my final banned book I read "The Giver". I'm not going to say much about it here because possible readers of this blog are going to be reading it. I really enjoyed it...and this is a book I would whole-heartedly recommend to any reader. I won't go anymore into it, but if you haven't read it I think you should. It's about 180 pages and took me a few hours to read. I have a copy to borrow if any of you want it....

Last night, I was sort of at a loss for what to do. I was caught up with lectures. I had read the case we discuss Thursday. I was waiting for an assignment to be posted (promised over the weekend, never showed up). So I managed to knit this cute little baby sock:



I am a little uncertain about the so-called "zig-zag bind-off" which forms the weird little ruffle on top of the sock; shown in close-up here:



I think it's sort of ugly and unfinished looking. But apparently it's a fancy bind-off and it's meant to look that way. And to be completely honest with the timing of this knit, I knit a tiny bit on Saturday, a bunch on Sunday and then finished it up last night...

There's this commercial...a dog food commercial with a David Duchovny voice-over. And it makes me yearn for a dog. Not that my cats aren't awesome. I mean...hell, Boku lets me scratch her head almost all of the time now. But, all joking aside, I do love my cats probably a bit too much. But I have oozing amounts of pet love to give. And there is a certain amount of interaction that a dog provides that a cat just doesn't...although on the flip side of that, there is also a much larger quantity of poop to scoop...

What is better...

What is better than...

• curly fries with cheese
• Harry Potter book in my hands in t-minus 8 hours (still seems so long)
• Spending a whole weekend with good friends
• wrapping presents (yes, I love it!)
• the blanket I'm knitting becoming so large that is warms my lap as I knit it (although it's still way too small...picture of it on my lap):

• A cat who is so lazy she lays down to drink out of the water bowl (note Mona's correct pose at the food bowl, sitting and eating. And then there's Boku....):

• Knowing that I finally, finally have an idea for my toast next Friday (but it still needs some thought)

Happy weekend all...

Loving cats...

Dear Katie,

We hate you.

You leave us alone all day, 4 days a week and that is unacceptable. So, we voted and elected Mona as the official representative of our hatred. We hope her demonstration got through to you.

Both of us would like to state that we prefer to throw up on rugs. Never on the miles of hardwood because that would be too easy for you to clean up. So last night, we decided that Mona should deposit some colorful throw-up on your blue, previously cat throw-up stained rug. You didn't understand the message and went to work again today. So we upped the ante...this time we had Mona deposit more throw up than ever on your bed. On the predominantly white comforter. With enough liquid to seep through the duvet cover to the actual, quality comforter and leave another huge stain.

Do you get it now, owner? We want you to stay home with us.

We do still love you though,

Boku and Mona


Sigh, readers, sigh. What a bad, awful thing to come home to. Not sure how I'm going to sleep tonight - possibly the only option is a twin sized comforter on my queen bed. The worst part is, Mona has been throwing up a lot lately. If she throws up in the next two days we're going to the vet next week.

las fresas dulces...

I love sweets. My sweet tooth dominates my mouth (mental picture: one large, chocolate tooth hanging out in the back of my mouth with the molars). This weekend I bought some fresh strawberries at the farmer's market. And WOW are those things sweet. So sweet that I can only eat a small handful at a time (as opposed to when I buy fresh raspberries or blueberries and I accidentally eat the whole quart or pint in one sitting. Really - you'll be munching and look down and they're suddenly almost gone. Can't wait for those things to show up at the farmer's market). I think this is my first time with the fresh strawberries and I am wow'd with their sweetness.

Last night I found something on Boku's face - it looks bloody or rashy (you try looking at her face closely - yeah, it's impossible. I might try to take a picture later tonight so that I can zoom in with the computer. I have to use technology to look at one of my cats. Really sad. If I take a picture I'm going to update this post with a picture of her weird face problem here). This morning it didn't even look like it was there anymore. I'll try to get a good look again tonight - but this might mean a trip to the vet. And that makes me feel like crying right now (since a visit to the vet always involves chasing cats, shaking limbs and frustrated crying). I understand why some people never bring their animals to the vet. I sort of feel like becoming one of them.

My apartment smells like ASS. So, don't visit until I can start cleaning (Tuesday night!).

An eye for an eye...

Tonight, for the first time in the 2 years since I have owned her, I had a really strong allergic reaction to Mona. The itchiest eye ever. And I've been so, so tired all day (I can't help but be afraid I'm getting sick again)...so I'm feeling a little grumpy. And I'm sure, if I vacuumed every other day I wouldn't have an itchy, itchy eye. But on my list of priorities cleaning is number 8,321. Ahead of it looks something like:

1. Taking care of myself (being a clean, non-smelly, well-slept, fed person)
2. Keeping my cats alive
   
3. ECT583
4. ECT480
5. HCI440
6. Work
7. Seeing people I like and love
8. Cleaning the apartment

Fine..it's number 8. And do you know how often I actually get down the list to number 8? You'd be correct in assuming HARDLY EVER. I hit number 7 a bit this weekend and now I'm spectacularly behind on 3-5. No really. Not enough hours in the day/week....

I may not be blogging much in the next few weeks. I have more than one HUGE project due on April 26 (including a presentation), an in-class midterm on the 30th and various other crap due in the interim. Including an assignment due this Friday that is so over my head it's not even funny (my ability to think in an abstract manner is no good. Which is why I'm good at programming and boring stuff like that). So blogging silence may be imminent here....

But I promise to try my very hardest to post a button every day. That takes about 3 minutes since I have already prepared all of the pictures...

Cats, buttons, yarn...oh my!

This post may bore the cool kids out there as it will focus on the best and brightest parts of my nerdery. Today, one of my coworkers said something along the lines of "Oh, you really ARE a nerd." At which point I said...um, doesn't my job and pursuing a masters in computer wizardry confirm that? And he made an excellent point that some join the computer field because they've heard about the buckets of gold that fall from the sky into the pockets of anyone who works with computers. I am not one of them, I am one of the true nerds.

Cats...(two things):

• I never mentioned it, but while I was sick last week, I was laying on the couch for hours at a time. At one point while I was bundled under a blanket and completely still, Boku jumped on the couch with me. And then she laid in my lap. Are you shocked? Yes, well, the truth is, I don't think she knew she was in my lap/on my legs. She lasted about 10 minutes before her nervous jitters took over and she jumped down. But, I'm telling you...we're closer to a major break-through than ever before.
• Today, Mona did the weirdest, weirdest thing. No really, no exaggeration. And suddenly, I am convinced she is intelligent (this is the cat that licks the wall and fell in the toilet more than once). She loves pipe cleaners. Today, she's sitting on the floor, facing me, with the very end of the pipe cleaner in her mouth. Hitting the other end repeatedly with her paw. For minutes. A long, long time. The pipe cleaner was rotating around in her mouth like a pinwheel. Once the pipe cleaner had been abandoned (to stalk the window/some animal) I noticed that the very end of that pipe cleaner is pretty bare - almost all metal. And I can't help but think that she was using it to itch/feel the movement in her mouth. Almost like the damn cat was using a tool. I was astounded. Shocked. Amazed. So here's a little pic showing her tool use...because she did it for so long that I could find my camera, figure out what the best setting would be (motion setting) and take pictures.

Buttons - if you haven't been, you should go see them here! If you see any, you should see the one from today, which is my favorite.

Yarn...I've managed to start a bunch of projects and finish some. I made a lovely baby blanket for my cousin and his soon-to-be-here baby. I don't have a picture because...I suck at that. I also finished some fingerless mittens/gloves for my sister. At some point a picture should be coming out of that apartment to appear on this blog. I started a blanket (and am on row 16 or 17 of the actual pattern after knitting quite a large border), some socks (which I am close to finishing one) and some fingerless gloves that are becoming a gauging nightmare (which is why I haven't done much on them).

Hope you all have a nice weekend - I may blog again since I need to do a lot of work this weekend and blogging is a procrastination device (I'm actually listening/sort of watching a class right now. I actually take in a LOT when I knit and listen. I wonder how bad it would be to knit at class.....)

I'm lame...

I didn't go to class. I just couldn't do it. Ok, fine, I could. But I'm a wuss, I didn't want to go...so I didn't.

Have you ever had a conversation or moment where someone makes you feel completely uninteresting? And then, 10 minutes later after the conversation is over, while you're still feeling totally uninteresting, you look back and cannot for the life of you figure out why you feel that way. Nothing was said, done, implied that made you get to this point. So what the hell is going on?

The only conclusion I came to is that I actually sort of like the two people who I spent loads of time chatting with today. So maybe I wanted to seem interesting, but since I was mostly listening I couldn't impress upon them the utter coolness that I embody. OK. That's a stretch. But I know that I'm interesting. I'm not a boring person (although some of you may argue that I tend towards boring in my social choices). But personality wise I think I'm interesting. It was weird today to feel that...maybe that's what it's like to feel like you are hopefully making new friends and want them to like you? It's been so long...I'm rusty here...

And on a mostly unrelated note, I was jokingly called a cat lady today (no offense was taken, context was key). And suddenly, it hit me that if I had two dogs, I'd be a kick-ass chick. But two cats? Oh, cat lady...watch out! For me, it's about living with animals. Someday I'll have a dog. I don't know if I'll have more than one at a time, but I'll probably have a cat too. And I bet if I had a dog (although I think white fluffy dogs are still "cat lady" material - but I'll never have one of those. I think my first dog will be a rescued greyhound) I would never hear that cat lady crap - even if I had a dog and 3 cats. Why is that?? Dogs add cool factor?

Lettering again...

Dear Boku,

Even in my cranky-pants mood (which is lifting...) I appreciate your growing trust of me. Jumping on the couch next to me to get a scratch or two...it's a big step. Helped lighten my mood today Dokers...thanks.

Katie

And to you all out there still reading: I thought you might like to know that I contacted all of my classmates (from the lousy professor's class) and asked if anyone would be willing to sign a letter/petition to the Dean requesting a refund for this course. I'm going to actually write the letter only if I hear from half of the class. So far, there are 4 out of 32 people in on the letter (even though I only wrote to the class 10 minutes ago - good response in the first 10 minutes). I'll let you know how this goes....I'm not all that optimistic that we have any chance of getting out money back, but it's not going to hurt me any to try...

Cartas...

Dear Boku,

That was very nice of you to hairball on the hardwood instead of on one of my many carpets.

Love,
Katie

Dear Mona,

That was very rude of you to get playful and run through Boku's hairball and smear it all over (and onto the edge of the rug).

Love,
Katie

First final tomorrow...can't believe how fast and yet how slow this quarter has gone...

Open Sesame...

One of my hopes for the New Year (besides everyone living through it) was that I could stop internalizing everything...and just get out of my head. The past two weeks I have failed miserably and I am currently awash in negativity. And so I'm going to open my valve and let my negative experiences and feelings spew all over this blog. [on a side note, it's totally weird but I can't help but picture a valve (triangular, on the side of my shoulder/arm) opening. Is that weird? If you had a valve where would it be and what would it look like?]...

1. I had no idea I was going to take the death of Allie as hard as I have. I felt cryish all day yesterday (maybe because everything else added together made it harder?). Either way, it's sad.
   
2. Stupid radiator. I come home last night to a freshly "sealed" wall. All this meant to me was anger. Why? Because, the assholes that "maintenance" my apartment didn't cover my furniture with plastic sheeting (most likely because I wasn't around to make them be careful). I came home to a layer of crappy white dust all over everything and toxic fumes. It makes me angry just thinking about it. It's bad enough that they make a mess of my floors with their dirty boots (this is my HOME, take your shoes off) but then they had me worrying about ruined furniture? The idea of dealing with landlords and maintenance men for the next 5-10 years makes me feel utterly despondent.
   
3. One of my professors is horrible. Not mean, just a horrible, horrible teacher. It is week 8 (of 11 weeks) and I just turned in my midterm (he gave it to us 3 weeks late). I have yet to see a grade for any of my assignments. I have yet to learn a single thing (for the first...4 weeks he was literally making it up as he went along. We did nothing but stupid assignments where we searched the internet during class time. And it was 4 weeks of one topic that had nothing whatsoever to do with the subject of the class). At the 5th week I think he panicked, and at that point he stole (or borrowed if you feel like giving him the benefit of the doubt. Which I don't.) powerpoint presentations from another professor. Fine, right? At least he'd have a clear outline. No, not true. He didn't LOOK at his slides before class and any time anyone had a question he looked like he was about to shit his pants. I have no respect for this man. None. And yet I have to try to get something out of this class (the only class I'll take about Internet Security, which is kind of important). Thinking about paying $2300 for his BS just makes me boil. Boil.
4. My group, for a huge website development project, turned out to be 50% worthless. That makes a solid 3 of us (self-included) out of 6 able to actually code. The sheer amount of work is enough to stress anyone out. Add to that the work taken to clean up the work of the only other person in the group who's trying and it seems like there is no way a working site will be ready a week and a half from now. Thinking about it makes me ill. And angry (how, HOW did these people get into the class???!!!?)
5. This quarter, for the first time...since regular college, I have two in-class exams that are not open note. Not of the multiple choice variety (because I am 100% OK with those) but of the short-essay variety. And I dread them.
6. My cat (MONA) keeps peeing outside the box. Cat pee...it smells really, really bad. The strongest smelling pee in the world. So now I'm coming up with all kinds of solutions to this problem...the first of which was to put the top on the litter box. But Mona is so tall and Boku is so fat that they both look all squished up when they get in there. I'm just waiting for the day where they start peeing out the hole in the front. I basically need to go on a search for a gigantor litter box...
   

Valve closed. I don't really feel any better. At all. If anything I just feel angrier at my "Professor" and more stressed about tests and websites. I'll be very glad when this quarter is over.

Maybe I'll open the good stuff valve really quickly:

1. I finished a whole lot of knitting projects in the past few weeks. I've tried taking pictures....but I suck, suck, suck at it. Plus, one of them is for someone who doesn't know they are getting it (don't get too excited readers, I think that the recipient doesn't read this blog. But I have to be careful). Another finished project is for a reader and I might as well not show her a picture before she gets it. And the most recent was a little hat. That looks pretty kick ass but its a little tight...and my earlobes are showing (not unusual because my earlobes are unusually large).
2. Spring break is soon (negative valve creeps open with a hissed Not soon enough).
3. My job is looking like it might be perfect. Right now its a lot of build up (and sort of boring build up at that) but I wrote my first update for a school website the other day and watched it go into production with some lame excitement.
4. I skipped class last night (because of #3 combined with #1 on the negative list above) and made myself tacos. First time I've had a real, made by me meal in...months.

Maybe steer clear of me for a few weeks?