The Semester Ends

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Frog

I talked to my sister last night and I told her I thought I was done with the semester. As it turns out, the professor who wanted to hold class the night of the shooting rescheduled two class meetings to accommodate everyone. I will be Skyped in on Monday afternoon. Two hours on Skype? We’ll see how that goes.

Yesterday I archived all my school work, tidied up the apartment and brought my plant home. I’m just waiting for grades. Aside from one paper that I got back on Thursday morning, I’ve received zero grades this semester. What are the odds that both of the classes I took have no grades so far? It’s not like we didn’t have assignments due.

I talked to my advisor/professor on Thursday morning and we’re set on my project for next semester. I’m so happy that the project is going to be pretty large-scale (ultimately training faculty members) and that it is paying for my tuition next year. There’s also some money left over for me to work as a part-time graduate assistant. I think that pretty much means I’ll be paid to do school work…sweet! While it isn’t a lot of money (actually, I have no idea how much), it will be nice to be able to concentrate on the last semester and not worry about employment until late spring.

In other news, we’ve done nothing about decorating for Christmas. We’re about to head out to see if we can find brighter lights for the windows and, hopefully, a tree. I’m ready to decorate and get with the making merry. The Nieces gifts arrived this week (all hail the internet) and I’m thinking about some homemade gifts for friends. I rooted a piece of the Aunt Annie plant for the better-half’s aunt. I’m sure she’ll be happy to receive it. The actual Aunt Annie was her aunt and that plant is a family favorite. In fact, when the better-half’s aunt (MB) stayed at our house for Thanksgiving, she asked that I root a piece for her.

Now that I think about it, here’s a long story. Gather ’round.

Once upon a time there was a livestock barn that my MIL’s parents had on their farm. That particular barn held junk and old furniture. In that barn was a unique cedar chest. It was unique because it looks more like a sideboard than a typical cedar chest. One day the MIL and her sister-in-law (AD) pulled the chest out of the barn and restored it. The chest stood in the MIL’s house for years.

When the MIL’s house was sold, the better-half checked with his mother and asked where the cedar chest should go. She said let AD have it since we both worked so hard to restore the piece. When the better-half dropped it off, AD said when she dies it will come back to him. The better-half likes the piece, but I don’t think he’s that sentimental about it. He’s happy that his aunt is happy.

Here’s where it gets complicated. During the process of selling the MIL’s house, MB said that cedar chest is a family piece and it should go to family (MB is MIL’s sister). The better-half said don’t worry and has been evasive about it since then. When MB spent the night at our house for Thanksgiving, she apparently did some furniture counting. The day after Thanksgiving she asked where the cedar chest was. The better-half said it was with AD. MB said that’s a family piece. The better-half said AD is borrowing it. I remained silent but couldn’t help but think that if AD isn’t family (because she is my husband’s aunt) then I am clearly not either.

As I think about the Aunt Annie plant, I’m a bit torn about the whole idea of who deserves what…it’s a family plant. Shouldn’t it stay in the family?

Actually, I don’t give a rat’s ass. I just like to point out the hypocrisy. I’ll root a piece for MB in the spring.

Posted in Gardening, Thinking | 3 Comments

I’m surprised at how sad I am

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Frog

Today I’m on the campus of that big university that I’ve not named on the site. It’s in the news today because two people were killed. I wasn’t part of this community back in 2007 and when I did become part of the community, it was obvious the wounds were still raw. I foolishly thought that as people graduated things would be eased. Yeah, not so much. Maybe in another few years things won’t be as bad.

When I worked for another large university, there were numerous alerts about students being robbed, mugged, or raped. There was that one girl who was murdered and buried out in the country. But, having a shooter on campus is completely different than the bad doo-dad that happens at urban universities. There’s regular crime that happens in a city that spills over onto the university grounds and then there’s crazies who run around and shoot people. Completely different and very unsettling.

Right now, the campus is still locked down and the transit system isn’t running. According to the twitter feed I’m watching, police are searching town. There’s a press conference at 4:30. I’m staying put in my apartment about a mile from campus. I’ll be eating pimento cheese sandwiches for dinner. We were going to have a celebration in class tonight as a large project is coming to a close for the semester-not much to celebrate now.

Posted in Generic Thoughts | 2 Comments

No good deed goes unpunished

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Frog

Yes, this is another post about cats. I’m sick of the subject too.

This morning we caught another one of the umpteenth litter and took it to the SPCA to start the process of fostering to surrender. The cat went berserk in the exam room and bit a worker. Now, all of those litter (since we can’t freaking catch them all at the same time) will be eventually trapped, fixed and then released back to our backyard. Thanks little no named brat.

The bad thing, aside from the poor worker being bitten, is the cat must be in quarantine for 10 days. And, I had to call our local health department to report it. The better-half is headed to the store to buy a dog crate. No named brat will be spending that time in the crate in the garage. Then it will go back into a humane trap to be fixed and released. I hate that we have to do this to that kitten, but we can’t think of any other way to handle this. We can’t have her inside the house because of Simon and Jim, but especially Simon. Having Anna Mae and Fuzzy in all the time over the past week showed us that’s just not a feasible solution. Also? Crazy biting cat is crazy.

All of this drama and stress because the damn mama cat looked pathetic several years ago during a snow storm and we started feeding her.

Posted in General Spleen Venting | 2 Comments

And, they are back

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Frog

The kitties came home this morning. As usual, they were a little nuts after being in the cages. Fuzzy tends to unleash a torrent of solid or liquid every single time he is in the cage. Joy. But, Anna Mae is a lady and waited until the facilities were available.

I just spent some time in the room with them. Fuzzy is much calmer and Anna Mae is obviously feeling a bit exhausted from all the excitement and the surgery. She’s such a sweetheart.

I took some bad photos of them with my camera phone. The phone just doesn’t do justice to her silly face:

Most of the time she looks like she’s spent some serious time with Snoop Dogg in the green room.

And, here’s Fuzzy post-cheese snack (he’s much more chill after some love and some cheese):

Posted in Watching | 2 Comments

And, they are off

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Frog

The two cats we hope are going to my sister’s spent the night inside and just left to have their final round of shots and the spay/neuter thing done.

One of the cats, Fuzzy, acts like he lives here so gathering him up last night for the quarantine was no big deal. I felt a bit bad because he was sleeping under the dining room table, as usual, and I woke him up to carry him upstairs to the (gutted) guest bedroom. If he had been the only one going today, we would have let him roam free all night, but his sister is not accustomed to being inside so she needed company.

Anna Mae, Fuzzy’s sister, was OK on the transport in the better-half’s arms up to the bedroom. When the door shut behind us, she was not happy. She went a little nuts and that got Fuzzy all riled up. They were insane for about 10 minutes. Anna Mae ran around the room and identified the litter box, the sisal scratcher, the water bowl, the sweet new bed, the blankets on the floor, whatever and then came right up to one of us to tell us about the COMPLAINT she had about being stuck in the room.

Then she jumped on top of the dresser, eyed the ceiling fan as if she fancied a ride and then told us about the COMPLAINT she had about the confinement.

We both managed to get out of there and finally they settled down. I bought one of those feliway diffusers so I hoped that helped chill them out. Or maybe because they could no longer register a COMPLAINT, it took all the fun out of being nuts.

When they get back from the vet, Anna Mae will start staying inside more. We’ll see how she does. Right now, I know that’s not her favorite thing, but she’s such a good cat that I’m sure she’ll adapt. Even while she was telling us about her COMPLAINTS she was also willing to get a lot of love. And, this morning, when we went in she was thrilled to see us and got in on the snuggling before she remembered she hates being in the cat carrier.

Anna Mae’s name comes from a friend of ours who has an aunt with that name. The name cracked us up so much that it stuck to the dopey looking kitten. Now that she’s grown up she’s still pretty dopey looking, but is such a sweetheart that we can’t imagine calling her something else (the aunt is, apparently, not known for her sweetness). Of course, my sister may change their names, but she’ll always be Anna Mae to us.

Posted in Thinking | 3 Comments

People seemed to enjoy themselves

Posted on November 25, 2011 by Frog

We hosted Thanksgiving yesterday evening. A total of 12 mouths in our house for the festivities–some were small mouths that only drank from bottles. I only had one glass of wine so I envied the latest addition to our family who got all her nutrients in a liquid form.

I made a joke earlier in the evening that I was thankful that the full complement of people didn’t show because it would have been closer to 20 mouths. This got a couple of laughs and the lament of at least one person who had hoped everyone was going to be at our house. We have exactly 12 chairs in our house. We have exactly 12 silverware settings. I was thankful.

When we were coerced to host the festivities, we sent out the sign-up list for food items. This is how it is done in this family. We got back a sign-up list with more holes in it than volunteered items. Funny how one person pointed out we had too many starches on the list, claimed health issues with this and then she brought a starchy appetizer. And, to her credit, a salad. Which came in 14 containers. That she proceeded to put together in our kitchen as we were trying to do all the heavy-lifting. You know that part of a meal when 10 dishes are going into the oven, coming out of the oven and large pieces of meat need to be carved. She was also a half hour late because as she was leaving her house the salad bowl hit the concrete floor and shattered (it’s in our garage waiting to be thrown away–why it made the trip across town is a mystery).

We had to set up two rooms with two tables to accommodate everyone. We put the kitchen table in another room and used a large folding table to hold the buffet in the kitchen. When I finally got around to fixing myself a plate, I went into the dining room and there were three people in it. Everyone else had decided to crowd around the little kitchen table in the other room. I swear to God that the kid table is always the best table. It was when I was 5 and it’s still where I’d rather be sitting now that I’m 43.

The better-half and I think everyone crowded around the little table to avoid the woman with the 14 containers for one salad. She’s a talker. She’s a talker who lets no one else speak. She fills the room with her words and I used to feel like I needed to be polite and murmur at the appropriate places. Now, if I feel like getting up to go check on whatever, I just get up and walk away. It really doesn’t matter if you leave her stream of talk, because it will be there when you get back. It’s like the time I fell asleep watching 2001: A Space Odyssey and woke up 5 minutes later and there was still the exact same trippy space crap going on.

If you click over to watch that trippy space crap, I’m sorry about 9 minutes of your life being gone–you should have napped through part of it.

Posted in Eating, Generic Thoughts | 2 Comments

Gobble, Gobble

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Frog

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We had great seats

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Frog

Last night we went to the Virginia Tech and UNC game. It was colder than whatever clever saying you have about how damn cold it is. We persevered to the very end and were never so happy to get on a shuttle bus in our lives. The bus was packed to the gills and it was so warm. Our feet thawed and we rejoiced.

Pre-game field activity:
40 yard line

VT vs UNC, as Hokies enter the field

We had a great time and the Hokies pulled off another win.

Posted in Watching | Comments Off

Jinx!

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Frog

I’m sure I will jinx our good fortune as soon as I hit the publish button.

As you may know, we’ve been feeding a semi-feral female cat for a couple of years. She’s standoffish and is very fertile (12 offspring). We have plans to catch her and have her spayed through the local SPCA catch and release program, but for various reasons it hasn’t happened yet.

She and her latest brood of five went missing last week. One kitten showed back up the other day and has been pretty lonesome for her siblings. Fuzzy’s litter has taken to keeping her company, but they are seven months old and have things to do during long stretches of the day. I think things are getting better for the kitten as she gets used to not having all of her siblings around.

We have no idea what happened to the mama cat and the four other kittens. There’s been no carnage on the road. We walked around in the woods the other day to finally survey all the trees that went over in Hurricane Irene and saw nothing gruesome.

In some ways, we’re sad that something bad probably happened to them and we’re also relieved that we don’t have to deal with the extra mouths. Our backyard was seriously overrun with a gazillion cats. The kittens are on a waiting list for medical checkups and then “turn over” to the SPCA. We’ll see who actually ends up going for the first round of checkups. It may be the single kitten who survived whatever took away the rest of her sibling group.

Some of the cats in Fuzzy’s group are scheduled (fingers crossed) to be fixed and then adopted by some very special little girls–between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The others will be fixed as well and then released into the wild again. We’ll feed them as long as we can, but I’m hoping they’ll eventually grow tired of us. At least they won’t go out and make a dozen other cats.

Well over a week later, they are back and hungry. Tuesday is their first trip to the adoption haus. Let’s hope they are all healthy and can make the second trip and find their NOT HERE homes.

Posted in Thinking | 2 Comments

All Planted, Weeded and Graveled

Posted on November 12, 2011 by Frog

I bought a bunch of bulbs from Breck’s this summer and planted most of them a few weeks ago when I undertook weeding a very overgrown bed. The bed is right at the front of our house and it made our house look like one of those that used to be featured on Curb Appeal (is that show even on anymore?).

I still had about 70 daffodil bulbs to plant and today the better-half used the tiller to plow up a long plot for the bulbs. The bulbs will go along the edge of the shed that’s right near the driveway. The shed is surrounded on three sides by orchard grass so the daffodils will slowly naturalize right into the tallish grass. It should be nice next year and we’ll get to see the blooms frequently.

We also took some gravel from the end of the driveway and filled in where the driveway and the front sidewalk meet. The gravel there had mostly disappeared and basically to get into our house you had to walk through mud then see the horrific flower bed at the front door. Sounds charming, doesn’t it?

With a couple of hours work this morning, it’s all better. At least when the better-half’s family comes for Thanksgiving they can spend their criticism on something other than the front of our house.

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