Frog and Goat

My sister and the Nieces arrived mid-Friday afternoon at the apartment in the college town. The better-half had arrived the night before. Thankfully he happened to hit town as I was leaving class so he picked me up. I got massive blisters the night before walking to class. I was thrilled not to have to walk back to the bus stop Thursday night.

Anyway, we took a quick tour of the apartment and the Nieces and the better-half left us for about a half hour so they could go find a cave the better-half remembered from his undergraduate days. They found it but no one went in. I think it’s small or there was some doubt about losing two small girls down a hole, something. I don’t know. It was neato by all accounts.

Then we were commanded by Nut2 to get her to the park, STAT! The better-half and I found a playground not far from the apartment a month or so ago and mentioned it to the Nieces. It was the highlight of the trip, I think. The playground was pretty spectacular I have to admit. Several different zones of equipment and an actual caboose. Sweet. We actually went to the playground twice it was so much fun.

We toured the campus a bit and I showed them my School and we saw a bunch of kids playing ultimate frisbee. Then it was time to hit the t-shirt/sweat shirt shops. We tried the one nearby but it was a)packed to the gills and b)lame in child-size clothing. I knew of another spot for that sort of thing and off we went. We had success.

After shopping, Nut1 and I were waiting to get let back into my sister’s van. As we were standing there, I noticed a dirty diaper wrapped haphazardly in a piece of newspaper. We giggled like eight-year-olds (at least one of us has an excuse) and then had to tell our gross story in the car.

The car was the scene for quite a few gross things. Including–farting, burping the alphabet, taunting one Niece to throw up (alas she didn’t) and calling each other stinky or some variation on body part names.

All in all a good weekend. My sister managed to get the kids to the apartment, we did some fun things and then they hauled butt home (she said butt) in order to make it to a girl scout event late Saturday afternoon. And, after the event they went to see my brother-in-law perform with his band. She rocks. She’s also probably exhausted.

OK, so I know I’ve been quite whiny lately. Onward!

It is raining here in college town and it’s something like 55 degrees. I need to go buy some socks because I have only one pair of white ones here and that won’t cut it with the shoes I brought with me. I’m going to have to seriously look at the wardrobe this weekend and figure out what can live here and what should stay at home. I am trying really hard not to put on a sweater because when I go out later this evening, will I then need a coat because I’m so used to being snug in a sweater? Because there isn’t a coat here. Because I didn’t know it was going to be 55 degrees here when I packed on Monday. Seriously, we’re no better at predicting weather as far ahead as a couple of days?

I understand at home there’s a tropical depression unloading massive amounts of rain. Yesterday morning the weather guy said something along the lines of: “eh, we might get rain on Wednesday”…really? A tropical depression just whipped itself up?

Before this sounds like I’m whining about the weather I am very happy it is raining. It really hasn’t rained since late May/early June. I’m happy that it finally feels like fall. Now, why didn’t I buy some hot chocolate when I stopped at the store last night?

I am either suffering from:
malaise: a vague or unfocused feeling of mental uneasiness, lethargy, or discomfort
OR
ennui: a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest; boredom
OR
I’m just tired of people not living up to my expectations. People at work need to do their jobs. I need to be thanked occasionally for becoming the IT person and doing my other duties while babysitting otherwise intelligent adults who become blathering idiots when faced with a technology problem. I need to not have people ask me to come into their meeting to clear up a few things and then the primary questioner dismisses me. With an emphasis on dis.

Also, the backlight on my car radio went up in flames the other day. After doing some research, it’s a known flaw in the design of my car’s model year. The research also indicated that it’s often a pain in the butt to have the dealer fix it because even though it’s a known flaw not all dealers realize there’s a service ticket (or whatever it’s called) and so want to charge you up to $900 to fix it. My car is 7 years old and a factory radio should not cost $900.

Hello Crutchfield. A new radio should be arriving at the house today. It has a USB port and an input jack. And, even though I’ll be going from a 6 CD changer to one, I’ll have those two new inputs and the CD player will actually play CDs with MP3s and WMAs. What a concept. The ride to and from college town should be filled with more interesting listening now. Maybe that will help with the malaise/ennui.

Last winter when we had tons of snow we fed the black cat. It was cold. There was snow and we couldn’t let Blackie keep showing up with those imploring eyes and not feed her. Then there was Jim in the spring. We fed them both. We adopted Jim and started feeding him on the porch. Blackie went away for awhile. She came back and started eating close to the house. We busted her last Saturday sneaking on the porch to eat out of Jim’s bowl.

Then, the better-half emailed me that there’s a new kitten.

Last night at 1:51, the better-half sent this:

Simon is meowing downstairs; I go to the porch door and turn the porch lights on bright.
Jim in standing between the chairs and the door to the house. Blackie is standing between and behind the chairs, near the screen. New kitten is sitting on top of the pillow in my chair, as pretty as you please.
They all look at me standing in the doorway of the house.
No wonder Simon’s upset.

We’ll be figuring out to trap Blackie. I’m going to sound like Bob Barker, but Spay and Neuter your Pets, fortheloveofgod. I’m not sure what we’re going to do about the new kitten. We’re not going to be more than a 2 cat family. Anyone want a cat?

Jim has officially joined our household. It’s not like we all didn’t know that was going to happen. He’s been living on the porch for the last couple of months. Last weekend when the better-half came to visit the college town, we left Jim with his very own feeder so he wouldn’t have to worry about his next meal.

The better-half took Jim to the vet for the first time today. He’s healthy and has had his first round of shots. He goes back in a month to finish his shots and to have “the boys” snipped.

We’ll have to figure out the whole move into the house thing at a later date. He’s quite content to live on the porch with access to the back yard so we’ll do that until it gets too cold.

Simon, I’m sure, is thrilled with this turn of events. He’s such a baby about conflict and the antics of the kitten. We had hoped that Simon would assert himself, but the better-half says he now thinks Jim is going to be the dominate cat.