summer's coming...

YAY!!!

Memorial Day weekend. I love and hate it. It reminds us that school is ALMOST over...but not quite.

I had a pretty good weekend. I went out on Friday with a guy I met on OKCupid. I thought we had a pretty good time. Of course, I haven't heard from him since then. Oh, well.

I spent a whole lot of Saturday working in the garden. I planted several pots of stuff, including tomatoes and basil. I dug up an old butterfly bush and planted a new one. I put in a climbing rose. I did a whole lot of weeding. Yawn.

Dad came in late Saturday. The first thing I got him to do was take down a couple tree branches! Thanks for climbing that ladder--I hate heights.

Sunday after church we went out to Cranbrook. I had never been there before. I got some great photos! Check this one out.






Or this one.

The Month of May

I always forget how BUSY the month of May is in my life. We can now see the end of the tunnel in classes (only 15 more full days to go!!!), and we have all the end of year stuff like Honors Convocation and Graduation. The incoming freshman events are almost all in May. It feels like the steepest part of the hill just as I'm running out of gas!!!

Case in point: this week. I was so tired all this week and got home after 7 several days. So I was really ready to sleep in today...but I had to walk the Asthma Walk down on the Riverfront for Service Club/National Honor Society. We met at school at 7:30--so much for sleeping in. So I came home and went back to bed. I slept for almost 3 hours, but now I'm all groggy and dozy, basically useless.

On the positive, I'm loving my new baby. Sedona had her claws removed last week and doesn't seem to even care. She slows down to curl up with me. She loves to sleep with me, particularly under the covers burrowed into the small of my back. It takes a little getting used to.

So all is normal at my household--crazed but normal. *sigh*

Sedona, part 2

SHE'S SO CUTE!!! And what a little purrbaby.

That's all I've got. :)

Sedona

After the drama of losing Tam, I was really ready to find a new baby. My other cat, Toby, was wandering about looking for Tam, and I just felt so badly for him! So, I was planning to go to the Meet Your Best Friend at the Zoo event this weekend. But then I found out that it was supposed to rain all day today. So I started looking around online on Petfinder.

I happened to click on a cat at the Dearborn Animal Shelter, and I found that they were running a previous adopter special--half off on any animal if you adopted from them before. Well, Toby is from the Dearborn Shelter, and so was Cezanne. Yay, half price! So Wednesday I went in and checked out the kittens. It took five full minutes; this little girl cuddled in and started to purr the minute I picked her up. So I made the arrangements and picked her up yesterday.

Toby is not thrilled by the idea of a new shadow, but he's pretty good with other cats, so I think he'll chill out.

I've named her Sedona, because her colors look like the faded colors of the rocks at dusk in the desert. Pretty little thing, isn't she?

the other shoe

I guess I spoke too fast.  I'm a little boggled by my day, honestly.

I woke up this morning and just wasn't feeling...right...so I called in sick and went back to sleep.  When I woke up, I came downstairs and went to let Tam out of the guest room, where she's been spending nights until she gets big enough to get up on the bed herself (and to keep Toby from eating her food!).

I opened the door and found Tam sprawled on the floor.  She was stiff and cold and unresponsive.  I immediately called the vet and told them I was on the way.  Dr. Mike met me on the way in.  He looked at her and said, "I'm sorry;  she's gone."  But then Tam raised her head.

We spent over an hour and a half working with her, pumping drugs into her and trying to warm her up.  Mike told me that she had hookworms and that this probably put her into shock, which was just too much for her little body.  He finally told me that I had three options:  I could stay as long as I needed to, I could take her home and try and warm her up with a heating pad, or I could take her to the emergency vet.  He said that, if she were his, he'd take her home.  So I did.

I spent the afternoon holding her.  My friend Chris came over and helped.  But just before 7 tonight, Tam stopped breathing.  She was seven weeks old.  

I can't stop crying.

a good weekend

I had such a good Saturday!

I started out by taking Tambien (yup, that's the name I picked) to the vet, where they told me that she's actually a little big for her age (who knew that 6/10 of a pound was big???!!!???) and gave her a shot. The wonderful vet also clipped her nails, so she can no longer use my flesh as a scratching post!!

Cute vet, btw. I decided to find a new vet's office after the deal with Cezanne. I was frustrated by the unwillingness of the vet at VCA to give me a straight story, and I'd gotten annoyed at the fact that we never saw the same vet--the lady I worked with when D'Urb was so sick last spring doesn't even work there anymore. So I went to Bridget's vet; he's been in business for almost 25 years and has few associate vets. I got the associate guy on Saturday.

Then I went to the mall, where I got my Clinique refills and caught bonus time (yay, gift with purchase!!). As I sat eating my lunch, I saw a woman coming out of a salon with a fresh pedi and thought, "oooo, yeah!" So I called Douglas J in Royal Oak and scheduled one. Two hours and $39 later, I had beautiful soft feet and a new bottle of OPI polish (it came with parafin too!). Great place--I'm a fan. I'd go back for anything but a haircut and only because I want an ongoing relationship with my hairstylist and the students are done in 11 months.

new baby

Well, I was planning to wait a couple more weeks to get a new cat, but the lady with the kittens called today to say that her husband was done with them and was planning to take them to the pound if they didn't get out of his house. I decided that it was better to take one early than not get one and have them end up at the pound. So I now have a very little girl in my house. She's currently burrowed in a blanket on the couch sleeping. Apparently, being run from house to house to get adopted was stressful! She's a gray and white tuxedo, and I had forgotten how small kittens are!

I'm pondering names. So far, my ideas are Boleyn, Salinger, and Tambien. My friend Charlie suggested Samantha. I'll keep you apprised and post photos when she wakes up!

strange day

Today I helped my mom get on Facebook.  This is weird.  My mom is 65, and she has very little patience for computers that don't do things in the way she believes is most intuitive.  So she's working her way through the registration process saying, "why do I have to put in my birthday?"  I DON'T KNOW, MOM!!!

Anyway, she decided she wanted to get on Facebook because my younger relatives, particularly cousins but also the generation thereafter, post all their trip photos on Facebook, and she wants to know what's going on.   All of this was to check out the shots my aunt took of my cousin and uncle while they were fly fishing in the mountains last week....lots of pictures of fish.  Whoooeeee.  :)

As a side note with no segueway, my friend Chris from church called me today  to tell me that she has a classmate whose cat just had kittens.  They'll be ready in about a month.  That's about perfect.  Sometimes things do work out.  

bad day

Today I had to have Cezanne, my ten-year-old cat, put down.

She was fine last week and as recently as Sunday. Monday, she ate and threw up her dinner. Tuesday, she didn't really eat. Yesterday, she fell apart. She was barely moving, and last night around 9 she completely lost bladder control.

I took her to the vet. After a long conversation about testing to determine what was wrong, I finally got the vet to tell me that the testing would be extensive and very expensive and that the situation was probably very dire (it took almost 45 minutes to get this statement). I decided not to put Cezi through all that, and I let her go.

For the record, I am really really tired of having to make this decision. It's only been eight months since I had to put D'Urby down.

This sucks.

stuff...

Not a lot going on this week, on account of the fact that I was well and truly laid out most of the week. I was so SICK!!! I left school early on Monday and didn't go back until Thursday...not a bad way to come back from vacation, but kind of unproductive!

Anyhoo, we've got midterms this week, so it'll be a long haul. That's cool--it'll keep me busy!

drain drama

Ok. Spring Break!!! Whooohooo!!

On Sunday, the drain in the basement starting backing up just a little when I put carrot and potato peels down the disposal. I figured that I shouldn't put carrot and potato peels down the drain and moved on with my life.

By Wednesday, it wasn't just carrot and potato peels backing up (ick.). So I called the plumber. He called me back Thursday (by which point I'm making up excuses not to be home to use the water), and scheduled an appointment for Friday morning.

He and his snake guy came out and snaked the drains. A couple times. Apparently, I've got roots (which makes me think: if the roots can get in, doesn't that mean that the stuff in the pipes can get out???). But the drains are clear and we started to clean up. One of the last things the plumber says to me is that I've got a loose cap on one of the access drains and I need to go pick up "an unthreaded two inch drain cap." He says the female threads on the drain pipe are corroded enough that they would catch the male threads on the cap I've got and that's why it needs to be an unthreaded cap.

So I went to Lowe's. I bought an unthreaded two inch drain cap... and a three inch one because the two inch looked too small. I came home and tried them, eager to be done with the project so I could move on with my life without concern about my plumbing (and could use my washer and dryer, behind which lives the drain in question). The two inch cap was too small. The three inch cap...you guessed it: it was too big. ARGGGGG. I tried to McGyver the three inch cap by sanding it down a little, but that didn't work. So I went back to Lowe's.

The guy at Lowe's explained that many of the older houses in my neighborhood actually have 2.5 inch drain access pipes (it is important to add at this point that probably half the people in metro Detroit have exactly the same house as I do--post-WWII bungalows--and we all need the same stuff!!) but that Lowe's doesn't carry anything for 2.5 inch pipes. What I needed to do was go to this plumbing supply store in Berkley...and they closed in 20 minutes.

So I booked it over to the plumbing supply store. I walked in at 5:02, and the owner was distinctly not pleased to see me. He helped me quickly and sold me a lead cap which he said was soft enough that it would work with even the most corroded pipes. As I walked out the door, I noticed that it had a big number 3 on the top, which to me meant that it was for a three inch pipe. Still, I didn't argue. I couldn't. They locked the door behind me.

I took the lead cap home, and I was right. It was too big. At that point, I decided that the loose cap hadn't killed me in the three years I've lived here, so it wasn't likely to kill me overnight, and I went about my Friday night business.

On Saturday morning, I went back. A different guy helped me, and he sold me a PVC cap for a 2.5 inch pipe. It's threaded, but he says that the only other alternative is to get someone to come out and rethread the drain pipe, and that sounds expensive. I managed to get the PVC cap to stay on fairly well. It's not as secure as the other caps, but it's also not leaking sewer gas into my basement. And I am well and truly done with my plumbing experience. Ick. I knew there was a reason I only do electric myself.

facebook

Oh, Facebook, my new obsession...

I find people I haven't talked to in years...

My wonderful alumni students find me...

Facebook rocks. :)


Oh, and happy birthday, Becca!

primary politics

Ok, this is a rant.

I am annoyed by the whole Michigan primary thing. The idiots we elected decided that they'd "force the parties to campaign to us" and moved up the primaries, even though they were told that there would be consequences. I voted in the primary like a good little citizen, even though the national party decided that the people would be punished for the actions of our politicians. And now the Democratic party recognizes that they need Michigan's votes and they want a do-over. At a cost of $10-12 million. Fortunately, not to be paid by the state of Michigan (because we could so afford that, right?).

Here are my issues:

A: I ALREADY VOTED. I did my job.

B: Does this mean we wouldn't matter if the race wasn't so close? Fuck you too!

C: These private donors who are kind enough to finance a do-over election? They don't have anything viable to donate to, like AIDS research or the homeless? Really, funding a petty pissing match is the most important thing you can think of to do with your money?

If Republicans didn't make me want to move to Australia, I might have to vote elsewhere this year, my dear Dems.

incomprehensible

Last night, after attending Courtney's viewing, a few of his classmates met to play basketball at the rec center. Mike Thomas, an alumni of the varsity basketball team who was playing college ball, was playing with his friends when he collapsed. He never woke up.

So, this is two wonderful and honorable young men from the same class taken from us in a week. Their classmates look stunned and cling like drowning swimmers when we hug them; we're not much better.

How do we comfort them when we are bereft ourselves??

In memory of...

Courtney Pugh

Sweet kid, great grin. The kind of kid who's still a little boy even though he's getting older. He had sickle cell anemia, and he had recovered from a stroke at the age of 7. The stroke last night took him. He was 19.

We'll all miss you, sweetheart.

boy

I got a chance to hang out with the cute guy from last week's Table for Eight dinner. He's pretty cool, and we have a lot in common. We had dinner on Saturday, and then we went to see "Vantage Point" (GREAT movie, btw). I sent him an email to thank him, and he actually responded (yeah, I know that it makes me a nerd to be so psyched that he actually responded, but so many guys just disappear!)!!

I like this one...

yet more dating fun

Last night I went to a dinner party. Wait. Let me explain. I belong to an organization called Table for Eight. They set up dinner parties for singles at local restaurants, and you go and meet peopl with whom you theoretically have something in common. Last night, I had a table at PF Chang's at Somerset.

There were actually eight people at our table (it's often really only six, which is ok because it's easier to talk to six people. With eight, you tend to just talk to some of the people at the table.), and I had met two of the women at prior tables and one of the guys at last week's speed dating party. It was fun, although I didn't really like one of the women very much--no sense of humor. I decided to pass my info on to all four of the guys. It's not that I was fascinated by all four of them, but I don't really think I gave two of them much of a chance--I couldn't hear one of them!

One of the guys was actually pretty hot, in my opinion, and I thought he was also pretty funny. He's a couple years younger than I am, but that's not much of an issue. Now I'm waiting to see if I hear from any of them. Ahhhh, the suspense!!!

speed dating fun

So a week or so, I went speed dating. Yag. Most of the guys were ok, and a couple were just painful. Truly, how difficult is it to talk to someone for five minutes? Talking to two of those guys was like pulling teeth from a hippopotomus. "So, where do you live?" "Troy." "Lived there long?" "Yeah." Help!!!

A couple were remotely interesting. One guy was intriguing only because he sat down and announced, "I'm looking for five things in a woman." He starts listing: spiritual, non-smoker, wants a family, comfortable with herself, willing to participate or watch sports. All of which describe me to some degree. So I agree to go out with him.

I had lunch with him today. He's 49. It was a party for people between 32 and 42!!! He goes to Kensington Church, a non-denominational (kind of evangelical) church which scares the crap out of me. He doesn't understand why people would rather read than play sports. None of this is appealing.

Just once, I would like to meet a guy who is as interested in me as I am in him and who is as interesting on the second date as the first date.

please, please, please...

So I'm home sick today. Yesterday I felt like crap because I didn't really sleep Tuesday night, and today I feel just as badly, and I did sleep. So I called in. It's the third day of the new semester, so I do feel a little guilty (but not a lot!).

I'm sitting here on the couch watching the Weather Channel. We have a heavy snow warning starting at midnight and running until 7pm tomorrow. Detroit will get between 3 and 5 inches of snow overnight tonight and another 4 to 6 inches tomorrow. The warning also includes a statement that those of us south of M59 may get sleet occasionally, which could reduce the amount of snow. So if there isn't a lot of snow, there may be a lot of ice.

I might get a five day weekend!!!! I'm entirely cool with this. :)

Entering the 21st century...

It's true. This afternoon, I bit the bullet and bought a wireless router. So I am now blogging from my couch. Very exciting. I have envied my wireless friends for years, and now I, too, am wireless. I'm so cool. Whoooohoooo!!!

Yeah, I know. I'm a goof. It's so not supposed to be this exciting. It's ok. I'm good with it.

lazy day...

Is it bad that I love to spend my Saturdays sitting on my couch doing nothing?

Actually, I suppose that I didn't really do nothing yesterday. I got up, I went to Target (love love love Target), I took my Christmas stuff down, and I strolled around Somerset for a while. But if that sounds like a couple hours worth of stuff, you're right. I just couldn't muster up the desire to grade papers. I meant to go to the gym, but it just never happened.

So should I feel guilty that watching Ghostbusters on VH1 (and who hasn't seen that seventeen bazillion times?) was one of the high points of my day? All the books I've read about living life to its fullest say that such days are time-wasters...and I don't think I can manage to care! :)

The Heroic Cycle

It's nearing the end of the semester. It is time for all HFA ninth grade language arts students to learn about...Odysseus. That's right, ladies and gentlemen. Today, I introduced to my students THE HEROIC CYCLE!!!


I know. It's not majorly vital information in a young person's life. But it was cool. We were talking about how the heroic cycle shows up in a lot of stories they read and movies they see, like Harry Potter and the Wizard of Oz. They're all listening and contributing. Only one kid's asleep. They had the look in their eyes.

It rocked. A lot. Yay!

dumb car

I got a new car on a lease so I wouldn't have to worry about fixing it. Nonetheless, my lovely car visited the shop today! Now, I love my car. Truly. It's cute, it's sporty, and it's got serious cajones. And until three hours ago, it sounded like a train pulling into a freight yard. The good news? The service guy thinks he can get the makers of my loverly car to pay for the work...since there isn't anything really wrong with my brakes that sounded like a crazy train. They have plenty of life in them; they just make horrendous noises, and I'm concerned that my neighbors might stop loving me if I keep making those noises at really early hours of the morning. So I bit the bullet and paid for the brake job.

Dumb car. *sigh*


January 31, 2008
An update. Ford Motor Company says that they only cover brakes to 12,000 miles; any car driven 20,000 miles in the first year is not covered in anyway. There was nothing physically wrong with my brakes and that the first set of new brake pads they put on my car made the same noise fresh out of the package but the second set of new pads did not. The fact that I drive my car a lot means that they have no liablity for shoddy products????? I certainly plan to pursue this further!

the end of the world

Ok, this is what's Bird's husband would consider a sign that the world as we know it is ending.

I went to the gym yesterday (no, that's not the sign of the apocalypse of which I speak), and there's a sign on the counter where people check in: complimentary valet service available effective...

I do understand, in theory, the point of this. It is resolution season, and this tends to make the gym insanely busy (happens in May, too, just before swimsuit season). The parking lot is limited, and I have been there on a couple of occasions when there were just no parking spots available, even around the back of the building (where I don't like to park anyway because it's all dark and hidden from the road). I know they have to get complaints about it; I know someone who actually stopped going to the gym ostensibly because she could never find a parking spot.

But really??? A valet?

It's a GYM, people!

Happy New Year!!

So, here it is. 2008. Wow.

I went dancing with a friend on New Year's Eve, and the bar played "1999" by Prince. I remember how that seemed SO far away when the song came out...and now it seems SO long ago! Hey, random fact: that song is about nuclear war. Again, remember when?

Resolutions...I freakin' hate resolutions. But of course I made a couple. This year, I want to ride in the Ore to Shore race and catch up on my bills. Ambitious. Let's see how that goes...

Today is the last official day of Christmas break, so Bird and I hit Partridge Creek to check the new mall. Decent stores, but very few I can't find up the road at Somerset...except Sur La Table!!! Big excitement here! It's like Williams-Sonoma, but for real people. I liked very much. We also discovered For Love 21 (which, honestly, is kind of a crappy name for a store), which has lots of fun CHEAP jewelry...but they've got one at Somerset, so all is well.

Mom took possession of her new house yesterday and spent today getting the cable hooked up and painting ceilings. Better her than me...

Candle training all day tomorrow. Sunday, I have rejoin the real world and go into work to prep for the last couple weeks of the semester. Onward and upward!! :)