I rescued a cat. I feel terrible.

I had a doctors appointment today (1 year post-op!), which means I worked from home and walked. On my way home, I noticed a little lump of fur in the leaves by the side walk. It hissed at me, and then meowed pathetically. And when I looked at it straight on, it hissed, and then meowed again. Heart breaking meows, like I am so sorry for that hiss, but I dont feel good right now and I am scared, and I am cold, and I am alone...

Well, I couldn't unsee that, I couldn't unhear that, and I couldn't walk away. I have no idea what to do though. I am on the side of a busy street, with no other pedestrians. This cat doesn't have a collar, and might be mean. I pull out my phone, and look for cat rescue, which leads me to animal control, who tell me to take the cat to a vet clinic. I call the vet clinic (because really? You can just leave stray, injured animals there?), and they say, well, actually, take it to the animal hospital. If the cat looks injured (and this one seems not right about the back legs), its going to need care all night, and we go home. A guy came by to check on the cat, and said it had been there since 6am. He also didn't know what to do. But now I have been talking to the cat, and it let me pet its head a bit.

I am going to help this cat.

I go back to the doctors office and get a box with a lid. I take my sweater off and put my coat back on. The cat is shivering, and it doesn't mind when I throw a sweater on it. I figure I can cover the sharp bits with the sweater to move it into the box and slam the lid on. But the cat doesn't fuss at all when I pick it up. It also cant move its hind legs when I get it in the box. Its legs are sticking out so I cant get the lid shut.

I just have to get the cat to the hospital.

I am talking to the cat the whole way home. Its ok. You are having a bad day. Almost there. You are so brave. Good kitty. Its ok, buddy. ... And the cat is talking back. That same, lonely, scared meow. The hospital is close, and they gladly spring to action. Lets get him into a room, and have a look, they say.

Now the cat is warm and alert. And friendly. He nuzzles the microchip scanner the detects nothing. He nuzzles the vet tech as she pulls him onto a clean towel. He looks for a new hand to nuzzle as the vet tech pinches those back legs to see if he feels anything. Nothing. She says he has no circulation back there. She takes him back to see a doctor, and they tell me Thanks for bringing him in.

I am going to hold my cat and cry now.

I am pretty sure they are going to put that cat down. They probably already did. Matt says dying by the side of the road would be worse than going to a cat hospital. And that is true, but now I feel like I lost a cat that was mine for a while. I feel like I lied to the cat. I feel like if I could be so moved by a cat, why do I not do more to help with human suffering? I feel like I should not have left the cat to be put down by strangers, when I might have stayed with it. I feel like my rescue backfired. I almost want to call the hospital to see what happened to the cat, but the outcome seems so obvious. For a minute today, I thought I was going to be a hero, but now I just feel heart sick.

Nearly an Official Toddler

As a follow up to the last post, Tyler went in for his checkup at two weeks after the surgery and everything looks just great. His ears seem to be doing really well for him and there's no more sign of infection. Of course, there was rarely any sign of infection before he got the tubes in, but I'm just going to assume that everything is going well.

Tyler is still *technically* in the baby program at Day care, but he has been spending time, along with some of his other classmates, out in the playground with the toddlers. His whole class has become pretty adept walkers, and so they're out there doing all sorts of crazy things with the REALLY old kids. His teacher tells us that all the other babies tend to stay within sight of her, just to be sure to be safe. Tyler, on the other hand, is off and exploring the whole place with no fear at all. Definitely his moms baby.

Here's some other neat things he has done:

-He wears shoes all day now, except for when he is at home. We've even had to abandon some of the smaller shoes: he's grown out of them.

-He likes throwing balls. He has a small whiffle-ball sized one and one only slightly smaller than a Yoga ball. He saw the latter one day at target and we decided to get it for him. He was really excited the whole time at the store. Now he likes to grab one of his balls, run forward, and throw it as hard as he can, all while squeeling.

-MORE TEETH. His bottom left molar is starting to peek through, and if you feel around in there you can feel the top two molars coming in. Because Tyler is the best baby, he's not complaining about this.

-He likes buttons. He is, therefore, obsessed with the remote and with his little baby laptop that we got him. This also makes it difficult for us to skype with people: he's found the power button on my laptop.

-Jess is at Derby tonight, and I just put Tyler down to bed. After a few minutes, I heard the mobile music turn on through the monitor. Yeah, he did that.

I've been doing Judo, still, though a bout of some sort of nasty fever/throat infection kept me out for a week or so. One our old school at the gymnastics academy had to move, the school pretty much split into two, so I tried going to the other one for a while, which is nice because it has more people for me to practice with.

Jess is doing lots of derby and has even signed up for an ice hockey tournament this weekend. She's worried, because worrying is what she does, but she can skate on ice just fine, and it's actually a mixed-skill-level tournament, so she doesn't have to skate against the really good guys, just the other C-level skaters on the other team.

Our cats are fuzzy, adorable, and REALLY into getting attention, especially in the early morning. Gizmo has taken to jumping up on the bed, meowing a bit, and then taking up a sleeping position in my armpit. To each their own, I'm sure it's really warm there.

Diablo 3 is out, and Jess and I are playing together. Yes, it's a video game, but it's something we're doing together, and we're having a lot of fun in the process. We can't do it lots and lots cause, you know, *baby*, but what time we do get together is really nice, both in and out of game.

-N

I suppose I should write one of these, too

I had to go back to my previous entry in order to figure out what has been going on since I last wrote. I know it's been a while, but I'm busy, usually either working, taking care of a baby, or resting to recharge my battery to do one of those things again.

So the cats first. They've gotten over their fear of each other and the house is much improved. I couldn't tell you if there is one alpha cat between the two of them. I've seen them both at the top of the cat condo. I've seen them both chasing the other one around, though it does look like most of the time Nagano is the one in charge of deciding when it is 'run around like a maniac' time. They mostly eat out of their own dishes...mostly. And they have even occasionally been nice to each other.

Gizmo is a great cat. I'm really pleased with him. For starters, he seems to have, mostly, lost the habit of trying to wake me up in the middle of the night with head bonks. He mostly just finds a nice spot under my armpit and curls up there. For some reason, whenever we're in the bathroom he decides he desperately needs attention like right then, and whenever he does he's astoundingly vocal about it. He likes it when I pick him up and let him nuzzle my face, as well as being a fan of good, hearty haunch scratches and even the occasional thumping. He's very good with Tyler and a sweetie all around. I'm glad he's mine.

Anyway, Tyler. His walking progress has really taken a good turn, recently. We went to a birthday party for one of Tyler's school-mates. Her third birthday. Very mature. Anyway, there were a lot of kids there of all sorts of ages, and Tyler, evidently, got very inspired by all the kids running around and doing things with their feet. Ever since he's been really interested in walking . He can cover a lot more distance on his own, for once, walking from the living room all the way over into the library sometimes. And more than that, he seems to be using walking to cover ground, rather than crawling everywhere. He's definitely more of a toddler than a baby at this point. Still cute, though.

More teeth are coming in, too. He's been a little fussy the past few days and I daresay we figured out why this morning when Jess had me flip him over so we could check his top gums for new teeth, and there was a new one already through. The one on his left side is through, the one on the right side is on his way. He's had some fussy times but for the most part has been weathering the trials like a champ. Still sleeps all night. What a trooper.

He's also down to just one nap a day. Not on his own, we've been trying it out for him. You see, once you hit 1 year you become eligible to move up to the toddler class, but you have to be able to do certain things, they don't just toss you over the fence on your first birthday. One of the big ones is be able to sleep in a cot and only take one nap. So we had the day care try it out for us, and they've been putting him to sleep at around noon, completely exhausted, (seriously, like a wet noodle) and he's been taking good, long 2 hour naps. Course, he does tend to sleep on the drive home with us too, but that's allowed. We kept it going over the weekend, and even on a day last week when he had to stay home sick with a fever. Of course, I had to stay home sick that day too, and Jess was kind enough to relieve me at about noon from my babysitting duty so I could take, no like, a 4 hour nap in the middle of the day. I can see why he likes it so much.

Tyler's birthday is this weekend! A fairly low-key affair, all told. We'll invite a bunch of people over, have some cake and ice cream, let Tyler open some presents, if he feels like it, and then allow a bunch of other kids to play with his toys. Oh, and also Jessie's mom and sister and nephews will be coming to visit. Such fun! I'm looking forward to letting him make a gigantic mess out of some cake.

Cooking! Nothing impressive, mind, but we have managed to clear out most of our pre-made casserole dinners from our freezer, so I took it upon myself to stock us up this weekend. I made double-batches of three different casseroles on sunday and froze the lot. I'm not actually sure how any of them will fare in the freezer, but they all seemed pretty tasty when I sampled them before they went in. I can send you guys recipes, if you want.

Other than that, it's been a lot of video games and the occasional spot of music production. I am, however, considering shaving my facial hair in the interest of looking a bit younger. I'm all old and everything, and while the facial hair is nice and dignified, inceasing the perception of my age really isn't a boon anymore. I'm a dad. I'm old, you see.

-N

Growing Up

The various life forms we are in charge of continue to get older. Would you like to hear some stories?

Nagano and Gizmo are starting to get along better, though Nagano still gets hissy whenever Giz gets too close. 'Too close' is becoming a smaller and smaller distance, though. Gizmo had a busy day when we let him out of his room and into the house at large. He spent a full day just walking from room to room and smelling things, looking at stuff, and slowly memorizing the layout of our house. We took him in for a doctor checkup today, and he's doing just fine, but we are going to have to get them a stool sample at some point, something I'm not really looking forward to. Though considering how much time I spend managing poop in this house, it's not really much of an issue.

Tyler is getting a couple of new teeth. The bottom ones #3 and #4 are coming in. One has broken through and the other is on it's way. I'm sure you've seen the videos of him almost walking (and if you haven't, I have someone on facebook that you should be friends with) but little else has happened on that front. His walks are still pretty 'staggering' and he spends most of his time crawling for distance or using his walker. We are getting closer and closer to his birthday, and I'm most excited about watching him mash cupcake all over his face.

Next week is South By Southwest, (SXSW), at least, the music component is next week. That's the part most people think about. The less well known but still fun 'movie' and 'interactive' (read: video games) parts are happening as we speak. I'm planning to hit up the Screen Burn Arcade this weekend to hopefully check out some games pre-release. Should be fun.

Not much else to tell, but hopefully this will tide you over for a time until I do something more interesting.

-N

We Have a New Cat

We stopped by the humane society on Friday with a cat carrier in tow. And this time, we said to ourselves, if we saw a cat we liked, we would take it home. We hopped into one of the cat rooms, much more well stocked with cats this time, and took a look around. There were a lot of good contenders. I was quickly drawn to a black cat high up on a perch that seemed really anxious to nuzzle my hand when I came in. There was another in the same room that was small and a little spooked, but very vocal. Not as friendly, though. The other room had a very playful off-orange guy who was chasing a toy mouse around the room and a skinny, long-haired black cat with smokey tufts behind his ears and very, very soft fur. Jess had her favorites, but I was deliberately the one in charge of picking the cat. I was excited, but a little anxious, too. Picking a cat is a big responsibility. There were a couple of kittens, too. Little chirpy ones who were the very picture of adorableness.

I ended up gravitating back to the first room, where I reached up and gently took the black cat down off his perch. He immediately started purring and giving me affectionate face-bumps. I stayed in there for a while, and he just wanted to purr and purr and get petted as much as he could. Tyler was along with us, and the cat was very patient with him and not spooked at all. He even gave Tyler a rub or two. I thought he was the nicest, most affectionate cat I had ever seen, and I wanted to take him home.

So we did! We signed the paperwork, put him in the carrier, and drove him home with a napping Tyler in the back seat. We discussed names on the drive. 'Death' seemed appropriate because he's mostly black and we're Pratchett fans, but it's an awkward cat name. We toyed with 'Grim' for a p inhile, but that's pretty awkward too. For the moment we're calling him Gizmo, after another cat I knew when I was volunteering at the humane society up in Juneau. He was also black and very, very nice. We may change our minds, though.

We set him up in our upstairs guest bedroom with all the kitty basics and I tried to sleep in there with him to make him feel welcome. Tried, I say, because the affection *does not stop*. He was giving me head bonks for most of the night, in between nuzzling up and sleeping in my armpit. And he does so with some serious muscle. He's about Raoul's size, and just wants nothing but love and cuddles as much as you can give. He's an absolute sweetie-pie, and I couldn't be happier that he's ours.

In other news, Jess didn't get much sleep last night either. Tyler was having some sort of coughing and heaving problem, and he spit up in his bed a couple of times. I helped out, changing sheets, but he kept going back to sleep, he just needed some assurances in between episodes. Luckily, we all slept in this morning. I got up at 9 and I was the first one up. I wasn't sure where Jess was, but it turns out she had camped out in Tyler's room for some Zs. They're both napping now.

We went out and got some random shopping done, picking up some stuff for tiny house repairs and some more clothes for Tyler. But we also took Tyler out for his first haircut. The place was pretty cool, and they let you pick what TV you want to use to distract your kid (or video games! I was jealous.) We picked Sesame street, which was briefly interesting but before too long, Tyler started putting on his scared face. Did not like! He got a little grumpy while trying to cut his hair, but we distracted him by playing a movie of me tickling him on my cell phone. Worked quite well, and he's looking much less shaggy now.

So clearly I owe you guys some pictures of the new cat and Tyler's haircut, but I have to connect a few different cameras for that. So I'll do that later. I promise both are really cute, though. Really cute.

-N

I also want to talk about Cats

So as I glossed over before, we had to put Tigger down last week. He was starting to show signs of getting worse again, and we wanted to end it on a high note for him, as opposed to waiting until he was too miserable to be a happy cat. It was very sad, but he just slipped away without much trauma, which is much, much better than what would have happened if we had just let him die of natural causes. So we know we did the right thing for all involved, but I still had to have a good cry on Jessies lap when we got home.

Nagano seems to miss his roommate. He’s much cuddlier than he has been in the past, wanting always to be around us and getting a lot of attention. Which is nice for us, but I think he misses having someone around during the day, so we’ve been thinking about getting another cat.

This, because we are responsible people, means the pound or, because it’s closer, a non-profit humane society that we went by yesterday. They actually have a pretty neat setup, where there a lot of cats in cages, as you would expect, but they also have cat rooms, where they keep the cats that get along with other cats well. And the rooms have scratching posts and litter boxes and all sorts of toys. And you can just wander in and start looking at cats.

I met a few of the contenders, all of whom were really nice. Except for the ones that were asleep, because they were too busy being sleepy to want to visit. There were several that I would have taken home in an instant, but we decided we didn’t want to decide right then, so we just went across the street to the Red Lobster for dinner with Tyler (he had some of my broccoli) and talked about cats. There was on there that I seriously was considering taking home with us, and it begs the question, what should we be waiting for? Maybe, at least, for a weekend when we can spend more time with the cat in his new home. Do I think they might have better cats next time we go back? What would a better cat even look like?

Anyway, I’m thinking about this really sweet little black cat we met there yesterday. If she’s not there when we go back it’s because someone else thought she was a sweetie, too.

Man…cats, right?

-N

The return of Micro-News

It's been a while since I've posted, and a lot has happened, and I don't have time to write it all down in great detail, so we have to boil it down to the headlines. It's time for Micro-News.

I'm at home today because it's president's day and the Day Care is closed. Tyler is taking a nap so I'm typing this. I still don't know what a 'Teacher Inservice' is, but now that's just because I'm too lazy to
google it.

Tyler has been doing a lot of new things. He's:

1) Getting off of high things backwards, as opposed to forwards which, notably, doens't work.
2) Starting to learn the names of things. If you say a name he knows, he'll usually go look for the thing or point. Very cute.
3) Has started saying 'Ball'. Except he doesn't know about 'L' yet so it comes off as Ba-oooh. Also cute.
4) Has a little walker. His balance is improving all the time, but he still has some work to do before he can walk properly. The walker is great exercise, though.
5) Eats all sorts of stuff. It's fun to give him new things to try, especially fruit because he likes it so much.
6) Is starting to learn how to feed himself with a spoon. A messy prospect, and it requires a lot of guidance, but it's good to practice. Also, once he gets a hold of that spoon, he does not want to let it go.

Around the house, I've been doing a few things here and there. I put up a big baby gate that has essentially turned the office into a Nursery. Then we child-proofed the heck out of that room. Nice to have that space. Especially since...

We babysat the neighbor-baby for a few hours yesterday. Our neighbors needed the time to clean out their kitchen in prep for some remodeling, and also it's a good chance for us to see how he did with us. Quite well, as it turns out. As long as we distracted him with toys, he was in high spirits. I think he likes us. Which is good, because we have also volunteered to take care of him when neighbor-lady goes into labor. We have a few months, but it's good to know there's at least a chance of success.

Jess had a scrimmage for roller derby yesterday and Tyler and I came along to watch. He was a big hit with all the derby ladies, especially at the end when we got to go ringside and high-five all the skaters. Cutest little fist bump on the track.

Oh, and on sad news, we had to put Tigger down last week. He had come down with some pretty bad Kidney failure. We had done some treatment to help him feel better for a few weeks, which was a nice chance to say goodbye, but it's not a cure. When he started to get worse we made the hard decision and said goodbye. There were many tears.

I'll write more later if I think of more stuff. It's been a busy few weeks.

-N

Conquering the Night

I like this ‘midnight blog’ thing. Could become a trend.

The last few nights have been battles between Tyler’s unpredictability and his more reasonable nature as we try to figure out what a newborn sleep schedule might actually look like. Three and two nights ago were rough, with nice, solid, 4 hour sleep blocks surrounding a stretch of 4 hours in the middle of the night when Tyler was up and crying much of the time. I blame most of it on formula experiments. Last night was great. We put him to bed at 9, fed him every four hours, and he was pretty much asleep other than that. We’re trying again tonight, but so far Tyler hasn’t seen fit to actually go to sleep yet.

Jess, too, is coming along. We use the ‘walk’ as a metric of her progress. Today we bundled up Tyler, put him in the stroller and walked down the street to the park, and then back. Last time, Jess didn’t quite make it all the way, so progress, yes? Also, we saw a good 4 or 5 neighbors, all of whom we knew, and all of whom were all excited to see Tyler. It makes us feel good to think we’ve got some roots down here, tenuous as they might be, at times.

Speaking of metrics, we have a unit of measure around here called ‘The Cat’. It’s a measure of how much stuff you have on your lap that keeps you from getting up, easily. It’s used when someone needs to go do something, the one with fewer ‘cats’ usually has to get up and do it. Here are some equivalent cat measures, just in case you feel like adopting this system as your own.

1 Cat = 1 Cat
Being a little pregnant = 1 Cat
Being a lot pregnant = 3 Cats
Holding a Baby = 2 Cats
Holding a sleeping baby = 3 Cats
Using a Laptop = 0 Cats
Eating = .5 Cats
Having a Cesarean in the past 3 days or less = All the Cats
Having a Cesarean in the past week or less = Approx 1 Cat, depending on painkiller levels
Husband modifier = Approx 1 cat

-N

More great animals in Belize

First up, a video of a coatimundi, the sort of raccoon thing native to Belize.


Next is a jaguarundi- a small cat that doesn't stalk but strikes it's prey. Many does it look fast.



Next up is a puma, just pacing his enclosure.



And a couple bonus pictures from our River Trip to Lamanai.


In the first, a Morelet's croc, in the second, we think a Hickatee river turtle.




So, yeah. Belize is awesome.

Exercisey!

So I still haven’t gotten on any Martial Art-based exercise program, but don’t think that means I’m idle. I’ve been doing some outdoor running and some indoor aerobics to get my heart rate up a few times a week. Running is *so much easier* now that I weigh less. I’ve noticed a few other changes, too. It’s easier for me to move around, and yesterday I went from laying on my stomach to standing up by walking my hands back toward my feet. And this time I got all the way up. I haven’t been able to do that before. Also, my wedding ring is dangerously close to falling off. I’m thinking about getting another one a half-size smaller. Maybe tungsten or titanium this time. Current low weight: 206 pounds. Leveling off, but still room to grow. Or shrink, I guess.

My latest exercise escapade has been ‘barefoot running’. Which I’m actually not doing barefoot. I have some old waders which offer excellent ‘pebble and asphalt’ protection, without offering a lot of foot support, which is the idea. It forces you to run on your toes, which is a serious calf workout, let me tell you. But the idea is that running shoes ‘allow’ you to run on your heels, stomping down with enough protection that it doesn’t hurt to run that way. But unfortunately, that means that all the impact is either absorbed by your shoes or by your *knees*. A little rough, in the long term. Barefoot running means you land on the balls of your feet. Any other running method will feel really weird. That means you have a much longer impact time and much more impact is absorbed by your feet and calves. It’s definitely a different mode of running. We’ll see how it works out.

I eventually want to get back into some form of ‘exercise inspiration’, whether martial arts-based or otherwise. I never exercised until I had some reason to, and that used to be Tae Kwon Do or some other martial art. I do it now for the health, and because I get really tired if I don’t, but it’s nice to have something else to work for. I’m actually considering taking drum lessons. I know that every time I sit down at my (electronic) drums for more than a few minutes, I work up a serious sweat. Could be something else neat to try.

Speaking of music, I’ve started doing that, as well, though in a decidedly roundabout way. I’ve actually gone back to my old music theory textbooks, which are great because they offer *tons* of examples and exercises to work through, and I’m re-learning everything again, from simple part-writing and chord selection all the way through writing simple Piano music. I’m hoping to start with some simple melodies and chords, written properly, and then get into the strange synthesizers and filters of the rest of my ‘studio’. We’ll see how it goes. If I make anything that sounds good, I’ll put it up here.

And on a final note, I’m sitting on the couch, and Tigger is laying next to me. Nagano is laying on the back of the couch above my head. They’re both asleep. Very cute.

-N

We Also Have Weird Cats

Usually when we go to bed, the cats will come up with us while we get ready and tool around the bathroom while we clean up and get ready to sleep.  Then they'll usually lay on the bed with us, but only for a little bit.  Often they'll head downstairs, usually with Nagano chasing Tigger, and after a while we'll hear these forlorn sort of meows coming from downstairs.  I'm not entirely sure which cat does it, but I think it's Tigger.  

I've gone downstairs to check on him a couple of times, but whenever I find him he's just sitting there with a cat-like look on his face, like he's surprised that I bothered to get out of bed.  Weird.

Then, last night, we heard the forlorn meows again, but from much closer this time.  And slightly muffled.  When we looked over at the bedroom door, Tigger walked in with a pair of my folded socks in his mouth, socks that he had brought from all the way downstairs.  He dropped them on the ground, meowed, and then laid down on the floor.  

We have absolutely no idea why.

-N

Some pictures, et. al.

Hi, all,

I finally managed to get the pictures off the camera and up on the internet for the sisters visiting for the weekend. You can check that out at this link.

The visit was a pretty rousing success. We went out for BBQ multiple times, with delicious results. We took kelsey out to Salt Lick, which was fantastic, and then all the Preecs siblings went out to Rudy’s later, which is also really, really, really good. We went down to South Congress, full of strange and fun local shops and bought a lot of candy and browsed a boatload of antiques and strange things at ‘Uncommon Objects’, a neat store. I spent most of my purchases at the local candy store. Smarties, Sweet Tarts, and Lemonheads, in case you were curious. The Alamo Drafthouse showed a Master Pancake Theater production of The Fellowship of the Rings, which was hilarious. For those of you that have never seen one before, a few people sit up front and tell jokes throughout the whole movie. It ranges from really funny to injuriously hilarious. (Score-amir!) Raucus laughter was enjoyed by all.

From Sister Visit & Hike

We also did some clothes shopping and played a lot of rock band. We’re a pretty musical family. Best singing award goes to Matt, best inability to determine up from down goes to Sandlin, best country music purchase goes to Kelsey, and sweatiest drummer award goes to me. Jessie gets the most lefty-righty flips award, and a lifetime achievement award for playing rock band with pretty much everyone that has ever spent the night at our house.

From Sister Visit & Hike

There’s some other pictures in there from this weekend, too. Jess had an ‘outdoor’ itch, and so we moseyed off to do some hiking this weekend. It was actually a really good day for it, a little overcast in the morning, and not too hot when the sun broke through. It was 7.5 miles overall, which is right about at the limit of our hiking ability, it seems. And we also get a bonus half-mile for hiking to the river afterwords and taking a cooling, refreshing dip. Good times.

From Sister Visit & Hike

Oh, and we saw a snake.

From Sister Visit & Hike

Most of the rest of the weekend has been resting. Though there have been some other developments. Just in case anyone hasn’t heard, Peachie, the family cat up in Alaska, was put to sleep this weekend. She was acting very strangely and had gotten down to 5 pounds, a very unhealthy weight. Ultimately, age just was too much for her, and so the parents made the hard choice and let her go. She was 19 years old, which is like a Methuselah cat, and she was an absolute sweetheart, as long as you didn’t care overmuch about the state of your furniture. The world is a slightly less fuzzy place without her in it.

From Sister Visit & Hike

Also, I’ve had to call in professional help, though they haven’t returned my calls yet, because it’s pretty obvious that our sprinkler system is leaking somewhere underground. I don’t want to cast aspersions, but the easternmost fence area in the backyard is pretty much a swamp, and I don’t think that’s traditional for Austin. It gets pretty wet around the west side of the house, too.

A few other bits of Micro-News, I’ve been doing yet more writing, attempting to do at least a page or two every day in an effort to finish my story so I can try and get it published and move onto another hobby: sound. I want to try and do a podcast with the siblings. That would be fun. Jess is off at roller derby, and has another game next week! You can actually watch it over the internet, and if anyone wants to know how, just e-mail me and I’ll let you know the details. My proposed next work-exursion to England has been pushed back to June. A nice time to get away from the blistering Austin sun and go hang out with some Sheep.

With love to all,

-N

Note From Papa

From Nana and Papa

After savoring the pix of the recent Pittsburgh visit, papa asked me to post this on the blog:

To all you cat lovers out there: (I assume that includes about everybody in the clan)

Do any of you know how the term "Let the cat out of the bag" originated and what it means now?

Answer: No, Papa. I don't know. Except that my boss used it once to tell me that he told my undergrad (and thereby simultaneously, ME) that we would be working together now. Surprise!

The Desert, and I’m sick

Spending the last week in the middle of the desert did leave some interesting highlights. It was about a 30 minute drive out away from the last vestiges of civilization known as China Lake. It’s a base of some sort, and they shoot a lot of stuff out there because there is so much ‘nothing’ to hit. We actually went out into the dried out remains of China Lake proper, which put us pretty far away from anything. As such, I got pretty good at bringing all my food and a lot of water with me. Normally I’m not a fan of bottled water, but you have to drag it all the way out there somehow, and you end up going through a lot of it during the course of a 100+ degree day.

For the most part, I spent my time sitting in my car. Which was nice, because it was air conditioned. Primarily for the comfort of the equipment, but I got to tag along. We’d get out there pretty late, and stay even later, so I’m not sure which was more tricky. Setting stuff up in 100 degree weather, or taking it down in total darkness. (Bring a flashlight).

The one good thing about being that far away from civilization is that you can see the stars really well. We lit up our worksite with some work lights, a little, but on the drive up Jess got tired and we switched chairs so I could drive. We were out on some highway. No lights for miles, and I haven’t seen the stars that well in years. The milky way was clearly visible, and I really enjoyed that sense that each of those points of light was a star, and that those that weren’t were probably whole galaxies. Very, very pretty.

The reason we didn’t have more light at our work site, however, is that at night, in the desert, the land comes alive. Mostly with bugs. There were dozens of moths flying around the light, bunches of beetles on the ground, and pointing your flashlight up revealed a squadron of bats divebombing the confused moths. I saw a camel spider (see picture, that's two of them) twice, yes they’re pretty huge, and also a couple of scorpions. Yep, real big ones, too. We also caught glimpses of desert rabbits a couple of times on they way home, too. There’s a surprising amount of life out there. I heard stories about coyotes, but never saw one, luckily.

In other news, I’m sick. I started feeling not so great on friday, which was the day Jess and I came home. Nothing like being achy and sore on a plane, that’s for sure. I survived, though, with the help of the PSP to pass the time . This morning, though, I got it real bad. I woke up with a fever of 101, which hasn’t happened in approximately a really, really long time. (Mom will have to give you exact dates. ) It’s come down a lot since then, but it’ll be a while before I feel like doing any jumping jacks, and the doctors say I may never play the piano again.

Hey, my birthday is coming up. 28 soon. I still feel the same age I always have, though. I’m ‘now’ old. Seems like a good philosophy. Less time spent worrying about age.

Also, many exciting games coming out. I plan to go out and get Mercenaries 2 tomorrow when it drops. And Spore comes out the day after my birthday, which is nice.

Speaking of video games, I should tell you about hanging out with Derek. He’s my best man for the (rapidly) upcoming wedding, and I tried to convince him to let me get him his ‘guy in the wedding’ present early, which I’ll leave out for the sake of any other ‘guys in my wedding party’ that might read this. He declined for the moment, so I’ll have to pick it up for him later. Other than that, we ate some sushi, played a lot of Wii games, and petted the neighbor’s cats. Derek has a balcony that is connected via a little, tiny ledge to his neighbor’s balcony. This means that every once in a while, the neighbor kitties walk over and meow for attention. They are obviously brothers, and one is more aggressive than the other. He reminded me of Tigger, except more social. He really liked petting, and I managed to get massive clumps of hair off him using my patented, ‘butt scratch’ technique. They really seemed to like me, even if the aggressive one did get a little nippy at times. I’ve dealt with Tigger, though, so I know what’s up.

Right, so enjoy that news and I’ll let you know when I get some more.

-N

P.S. Oh, and one other thing. That final test on Thursday? It didn't happen. Whole thing got canceled. We did some other little tests, but nothing big like we were planning. And then on Friday, we flew home.

We're on our way!

So we're spending this weekend back home in LA, attending a wedding ('The Chef', for those of you from my old blog). It should be good fun, even if we have to set up all the stuff for the reception before heading down to the wedding. And I say this because I've been put in charge of the wine table. FUN TIMES!

We got some house-sitters, *professional ones* to come out to our place a couple of times over the weekend to check on the Kittens and play with them and do the feeding and the scooping and the like. They're a very nice, retired, European couple from Yugoslavia that have been doing this for several years. They come over yesterday to pick up the house key and meet the kittens and, evidently, talk our ears off. They're really nice, though, and it's good to have dry run considering we're going out to Florida over the 4th of July weekend and then a couple of weeks later this year when we...what was it? Oh yeah, get married.

Speaking of which, Jess has been looking into flying us from florida down to our 'Presumptive Honeymoon Nominee' of...wait for it...Costa Rica! It turns out the flight is pretty inexpensive, and there seems to be a lot of interesting things to do. Excitement!

-N