New camera fun

I just got a Nikon D90, so I am working on the transition from point-and-shoot digital to dSLR.  It’s amazing what this camera can do.  I plan on jumping into a photography course ideally next week.  The header is a picture I took today at the Farmer’s Market. And yes, those really are massive zucchini.  I bought a foot and a half long parsnip today.  MASSIVE!!  It’s like a mini-scepter. It will find itself in some mashed potatoes soon enough.

In other news, Percy now goes outside as she was talking too much at night and we couldn’t sleep.  It was a cheaper and saner alternative to getting a second cat. She now cuddles A LOT more and zonks out at night.  It’s wonderful.  She did pick up some bacterial infection out there, but I can handle that.  It stinks like crazy and she gets a bit bloated, but after a few days of meds she is acting normal if not shredding my hands any time I try to put a pill down her throat.  I’ve learned a few tricks, so thankfully my hands are healing. At first it was NOT good.

Grant is trail running like crazy.  I’ve tried it, and need to shove myself out the door WAY more often.  It’s not so warm, so I need to actually purchase some tights and then shove myself out the door some more.  I merely jog, but it’s still for at least 45 minutes.

On the note of running, Grant ran the Portland Marathon the first weekend of October and he did REALLY well for himself.  Nowhere near the top of his age class, but better than he thought he would.  Street pounding is not his idea of fun, trails are the good stuff.  I can only agree.  Watched a guy running today and thought it looked like he was ramming his feet into the asphalt, not good.

Not much has changed since July.  I’m still digitizing and losing my mind.  I’m hoping to get to do more data analyses and possibly field work once summer hits, but who knows.  We shall see. . . *thunk*  I would love to get to do more than just mapping, but it seems to come and go for everyone.  Being the quiet and not super social one at work means I spend a lot of time with my radio and hearing other people talk to other people while I sit in my invisible corner.  Not too bad, but sometimes I feel a tad left out.  It happens.  I do not have the social graces of a lot of people, and that’s been apparent since I was VERY young.  Quite content as a wallflower because I have no conversation topics in my head.  Photography does work well with me in that instance.

Until later, when the snow is back for more than a day.  Haha!

Montana does have summer

In April it snowed (10 inches over 2 days in  the last week); in May, it snowed; the first part of June had flurries.  But then, true to the stories from my mom’s childhood, June 14th rolled around and the yellow roses bloomed and POW, it was summer.  It has been in the 80s for the past few days, even hitting 90/91.  Okay, right now it is 78.   At night it drops down to a nice and comfy temperature so Grant and I don’t swelter.  SO NICE!!  We don’t need AC, we just need ceiling fans.  My room/office/Percy’s new play-room has no such fan, and a window screen that doesn’t even fit the window.  No air flow in here. Ew.

Anyways, as for going’s on, work has been work.  I’ve digitized a ton of areas in Southern Montana, Grant has started running with our Helena Running Club and doing a few trail races.  I’ve attempted to start jogging, and am getting into it.  Trails FTW, sidewalk running = B.O.R.I.N.G.

Last weekend we went to the Helena Airshow, also called the Gateway to Freedom Airshow.  I’ll put up pictures on Flickr at some point.  The Air Force Thunderbirds were there as were the Army Golden Knights (parachuters).  It was AWESOME. Food cost way too much, but it was a good time.  I’d never been to an airshow before, so this was just the best thing ever for me.  Grant was not nearly as happy as I was.  The weather was a stunning 78 or so with a steady wind so you didn’t sweat buckets.

Two weekends ago Grant ran the Wulfman Trail Run outside of Butte along the continental divide.  It was raining steadily and about 53 F.  I found out a friend of mine is pregnant (YAY!!) and had a long chat with my mom.  There was a cell phone tower across the road from where I was standing, so there’s no wonder I had reception.  The finish line (where I had to wait) was right off of I-90, just east of Butte before the Hodgeman Pass.  So the temperature shift from 53 to 83 during the day has been a welcome reprieve.

I’ve even taken to occasionally wearing skirts.  Oh yes, that’s right.  Some days I just go for girly.  Shocking.  I’m also getting my chaco tan back.  I got the ones with the thin double-straps so I don’t QUITE have the Zorro Tan from my last year in Boston.

Percy, the little spastic ball of fur, is growing up.  She’s a full sized cat now, but is just as cute as ever.  She no longer fits comfortably in my lap.  She has also stopped digging her claws into people’s legs to just look at them.  She does it to chairs though.  The past few nights she has been BLISSFULLY quiet and we’ve been able to sleep, but for the past few months she has been a right nightmare and Grant and I have had to contemplate various things to do with her overnight.  As long as she is good (i.e. we play with the laser pointer, chase her around and make sure she has food and water) we’re alright. . hopefully.  We just need to put in some evening effort to keep her wired up so she’ll calm down by 10 pm.

People are coming to visit us too!!!  These will be our first non-family guests!!  My cousins came for a visit in March, which ended in finding out our Grandfather had died (they drove over to Missoula to see people and him and on their way to the nursing home got the call he had just passed away that morning).  But on a happier note, Grant’s friends will be here . . NEXT WEEKEND and then they are off to Glacier and other sites to explore and hang out with us in short doses.  Then my friends will be here from Baltimore with their mom.  WOOHOO!!  So yeah, we are super excited about this.

My Aunt and Uncle will actually come over tomorrow for a late morning-early afternoon visit (they’re in Missoula seeing my grandmother).  It’s a good thing we cleaned today!!  Our apartment was looking like a pig sty and in the course of several hours it looks like a clean-ish place.  We’ve washed A LOT of dishes, and broken down a TON of cardboard.   We still have more to do, but it looks 10x’s better than it did.
Now for that mountain of laundry we have to do. . .

Memories from the beginning

I remember days when servers were down and I wanted to waste my day doing nothing but watching pixels run around in purple hued environments.  I remember the notices saying that due to a day of no-login we got “free days” between billing cycles.  I recall the rants and raves that people had.  I remember how our guild just sucked it up and dealt with it.  It’s an online game that millions subscribe to.  Servers have to be updated, problems happen, and yet the paying population demand 110% play-time.  Sleep is not an option, breaks don’t exist, and HOW DARE THEY KEEP ME FROM MY GAME!!!

I feel pity for the people that can’t go on with their lives because they are deprived of their game.  You know, there’s a reason I like playing, it’s called the people I get to play with.  If you’ve played any other online game don’t you think you’d be aware the servers require down time for repairs and touch ups from all the work they get.  If anything a few hours of relaxation is probably just what they need.  A nice mother board massage and facial.  Every…thing deserves a good massage!!

——–

I’ve spent the day reading and having a cat curl up with me.  I even went out the grocery store.  I dislike not being employed, but I can’t quite bring myself to go to the one place I’m pretty sure would take me on: Pestmart.  I could see if places are taking on seaonsal workers, I could go find a temp job.  I’m sorely tempted after Thanksgiving to do just that.

Speaking of the cat. . er. .kitten, she’s getting fixed on Friday.  We pick her up Saturday morning and head back to VA.  We’re taking her up to Baltimore since it costs $500 + $60 initial consultation fee to get her spayed in Northern VA.  The SPCA does this weird partner program that gives a whopping discount on spaying so you only pay $260.  Uh…. no.  The SPCA in Baltimore will spay her for $30.  She has the sneezles too so we’re taking her to the vet so they can kill 2 birds with one stone.  Cutest darn sneezes ever, but if I were her I’d be miserable.  Poor Percy.

Anyways, I’m off to go do real things that don’t involve trying to hit 70 before WotLK comes out.  Why can’t people focus on the happy thought: REST XP.  Oh wait. . . they all have 70s with Orange T-eleventybillion and have daily heroics to do so they can get those Achievements squared away.

WHO THE &#$* CARES?!?!?!

And that sums up that.

Latest news

Percy, our kitten is a crazy little spaz monkey.  She is fascinated by all things keyboard.  You should see what she does as I sit here typing.  She keeps sitting up suddenly and watching my fingers intently.  With my laptop she used to curl up over my fingers and take a nap.  She likes the feel of the keys.  Weird kitten.

In other news, my mom called me up last night to read a letter Newcastle University had sent me. It was my transcript.  Apparently I have passed and am now the proud graduate of a British university.  Yay?  I’m really not very thrilled.  I’m relieved that I do graduate in December.  Actually, in less than a month.  I’m just not very excited about some of my grades.

My dad wants to take me to graduation.  It’s called “Congregations” over there.  Fancy shmancy. I am not entirely certain I want to be there for graduation.  I don’t even know who is going and who isn’t.  It seems like a lot of people are iffy on the whole thing, and a few more have said they won’t attend.  It’s going to cost a CRAP TON to go there.  I don’t think I really want to spend all that money for about an hour’s ceremony on a cold and blustery Wednesday. I remember last year and it was DAMN WINDY. *sigh*

I am very torn. Should I go?  Should I stay here?  Should I should I should I. . .   I need to fill in the paperwork saying they need to mail me my diploma.  I don’t want to say, “Yes I’ll be there” and then not.  I also don’t want to have to pack it up in my luggage if I do go.

Anyways, back to job applying.

That’s the other issue, if I go, I can’t get a job before Christmas.    That’s not good.  I don’t really have money to spend right now. . . I think people are going to get “New Year’s Gifts” this year. . . .

Sooo nice

I’m always amazed at how nice and genuine some people are.  Words can’t quite explain it, but I get very flustered around it.  I keep feeling like someone is going to jump out and go, “HAHAHA YOU FELL FOR IT!”  Either that or they won’t pull through on their end.

The whole high school mentality of writing in people’s yearbooks, “I don’t know you very well, but you seem really cool.  KIT”  It’s like, uh…  thanks?  The empty offers, the never calling back, etc.  So much of that has gone on and it irritates me. But when someone comes out of the blue saying wonderful things it’s like, “Whoa. .who. .what….  ACK!!” I feel very confused and it takes me a minute to get words out.  I go into shock.

On another note, my little Percy arrives today!!! My parents are coming down to VA for the Head of the Occoquan to spend time with us.  We’re living at Grant’s parent’s house for now while we look for jobs and see where our lives travel to next.  I’ve applied to several jobs and am looking for more.  Grant has had a few interviews but no, “Yes we love you” replies. We’ve got a feast of tasty goodness planned.  Tasty meats and such.  I hope there will be vegetables, or else my mom really will have a fit.

Last night we had potato soup, and it was SO GOOD.  I like soups.  A LOT.  Last weekend Grant and I made vegetarian French Onion Soup.  It was just amazing.  We made a Peasant Loaf of bread to go on top of the soup, and provolone cheese.  Mmm mmmm mmmmmmmmm    There was not very much left. 

I’m thrilled my parents will be here.  I just hope they get here sooner rather than later. Hopefully the traffic won’t be too bad.  Apparently last night things were a bit nuts in DC.  Grant’s parents headed over there to see the sights with their friends who are also staying here.  There were drunks and crazy driving and people in costumes (it was Halloween) everywhere.  I am glad I wasn’t out driving around.  I’m avoiding using my car on Tuesday as well.  There have been a ton of articles saying how accidents sky rocket on election day. I’d rather avoid it all.

Game fun

The world of games is available to me again.  WHOOOHOOOO.  Today I’m going to install Age of Conan. Grant went off and bought it and has a second key, so I’m going to give it a whirl.  After that I might see about returning to the world of WoW.  I know I know, I shouldn’t. I should just move on and leave that game behind me.

I’m hoping this will be a fun time.  We’re going to severly limit ourselves in what we play and for how long.  I still have desires to play with Baldur’s Gate.  Bwahahahaha

Mmmmmm  Minsk and Boo.  I haven’t played it since March.  Sad.

On another note, I HAVE A KITTEN!!! Her name is Percy and she’s currently at home in Baltimore getting over her roundworms.  She is one bloated-belly kitten.  Poor thing.  She’s almost 4 months old.  Around December I think is when we get her spayed.  Not sure.  I need to talk to the vet about that.  I also need to find a vet down here in VA since she’ll be living at Grant’s parent’s house with us. . . . until we find jobs and move out and then she’ll go wherever we go.  She’s awesome. . .  I just hope these wormies leave her because she can stink up a whole room.

Cat with a soft mouth

Apparently Spidge, the getting-fatter cat back home, is a humane kitty.  I kid you not.

My mom went up to the attic and noticed mammal droppings bigger than a mouse’s.  The cat wanted up, so my mom let the cat up to a new place she’s never explored.  My mom went back downstairs and got to work on her Traffic Patterns Video (for the rowing club, she’s been doing this for years, they should PAY HER for all this effort, free membership for a year or something).  A little while later she turned around to find a baby. . thing on the carpet behind her.  Apparently Spidge had brought down a little present.  Mom thought it was dead so she threw it in the trash and emailed the Lolcatfriends group.  People said it wasn’t a mouse or a rat and it could be X or Y or something else entirely.

My mom goes back to the trash, and lo and behold, that little pink thing ain’t dead.  It’s still alive.  Spidge didn’t kill it (Kitty would have eaten it, pity he’s gone).  So my mom put it. . . in the freezer.  This doesn’t surprise ME, but it surprised a lot of people on her LOLfriends group.  Some people even said good for her, while others said they would have held it until it died.

I looked up baby squirrel pictures and those things are HUGE.  So yeah, infestation of furry things that gnaw on anything.  My books and cabbage patch kids are in danger.   EEEEEK!  Okay, I’m a silly girl who wants her dolls kept safe because at some point there will be another little girl who wants to play with them whether it is a cousin or whomever.  Don’t worry, no kids for me for some time.

Anyways, there is now a dead squirrel baby in my mom’s freezer and more of them up in the attic getting all cute and slightly furry.  My mom figures the now-frozen one was born in the past 24 hours (of when this happened).

Honestly, I’m getting sick of my home being the rodent house.  Just get a nasty hamster and let it loose, that should solve our problems.  Vicious little crappers (literally).

I’m hopeless

This is the second time I’ve cut myself while slicing a bagel.  The knife just did not wait to go straight down, it wanted to go slant-wise.  I nicked a nice chunk of my left ring finger right by the nail.  Blood everywhere.  AND IT STILL HURTS!!!  Hours later.  *sniff* That means it’s a shallow cut right?  And also that it’s right at the top of my finger therefore I keep typing on it. . .

On a HAPPY NOTE I made friends with a kitty cat for about 30 seconds. This really stunning black cat was in a yard doing it’s cat thing of using a tree as a scratching post and ignoring everything else. It didn’t scamper off when I made a noise at it, so I figured maybe I would get to pet it. . . teehee.  After marking its territory it hopped through the fence and batted at my glove and let me pet it.  Very nice cat.  Very friendly.  I WANNA KITTY CAT!!!  I know I know. .  there is one at home, but she’s crazy.

Weather:

It is cold here.  Winter has settled back in with layers of frost sticking to the grass until noon or so.  It looks very pretty and I enjoy seeing it.  The sun is warming and I love it.  The weather really isn’t SO bad, but it’s the grey icky weather is going to hit in the next few days.  We’ve had about a week of glorious sunlight (BLUE skies, very very few wispy clouds and NO RAIN).  Don’t  you dare even think that England is this awful dreary place of fog and rain.  That’s called the west coast of England.  I don’t live there, I live on the east side of the country where we get lovely weather. 

The Yodabear

RIP Winston, 8 November 2007.

My mom informed me that she was thinking about coming with my dad to visit me.  This sparked something, and I asked where Winston was.  She told me was gone.

This is the story from my mom:

He sort of got all weak and frail and couldn’t stand up, and he’s gone now

I asked when he had gone: Actually Thursday, but I wanted you to finish your paper and I’d tell you really soon. 

This was very nice of her.  Thankfully my paper did get done.

Well, Tuesday he was just kind of lethargic, and I thought it was because he’d stayed outside took long Tuesday morning. But it wasn’t. He was just weak and went outside and lay down and didn’t bark to come in. So in the morning, after a bit of time, he finally came to the door and asked to come in. then he was sort of lying around. Wednesday he wouldn’t eat breakfast, and I got him to take one egg, but he wouldn’t drink any of the soy milk or anything.  So I took him to the vet, and Dr. Russ said that maybe he just had a bug because he had had the prednisone (suppresses immunity) and the cancer hadn’t spread to his leg lymph nodes, and he wasn’t in pain in his belly. So I upped his prednisone and gave him the amoxicillin. Not easy. He still just lay around, and he’d drink big bunches of water every now and again. Then Thursday he threw up a little bit.  He’d eaten  a bite of cat food and some water. So I put some honey in his water for energy and he perked up for about 30 seconds. He just lay there and looked sad. Wednesday up on his bench by the window and Thursday on his livingroom bed. He came up to our bedroom on Wednesday night, but he could barely make it up the stairs.  So I petted him a lot and scratched his ears and rubbed his tummy, but by Thursday afternoon, he wasn’t even responding to that. He was just miserable. So we took him to Northwind.  They have a back office with a little blanket, so he lay down on that, and he just lay there. I sat by him and petted his ears and he didn’t evn move. You know how his skin was pink under the copper-colored hair? Well, when Dr. Russ shaved the little spot to get a good vein, his skin was just ivory.  He was just gone. So we helped him not be so miserable for so long.  Dr. Russ talked about how his mother died of cancer and he couldn’t do anything, but he could for the dog. And he gave me a big box of kleenex and we left.  I kinda think he got some kind of a massive infection and it just hit him hard.  Not something the antibiotic or anything could stop.

AND on the note of Spidge, the loopy cat we acquired a few months ago:

When Winston lay there so still, she’d sneak up behind him and sniff him then wander off.  Now he’s not here, and she’s kinda jumpy.  She swats at our legs a little more often, and races around the house.  I think she’s not sure if he’s going to jump out at her.  Well, she’ll still let me pick her up if she’s not feisty and all. 

We have great neighbors:

Oh, and on Tuesday I had Winston outside, and Charles (little dogs person–has one named Treasure left–which figures) walked by, so W. barked at him. I’d been talking to Charles in Giant the night before, so I told him W. probably had gotten to the end. And he burst into tears, so we stood in the middle of the alley weeping and hugging. It must have been quite a scene.

I am a legitimate mess from all of this.  I feel nauseated, my head hurts and I can’t stop feeling like something evil is gnawing away at me.  The worst part is I feel like I’m shutting down. Just everything wants to close off and hide in a dark corner.  It’s rather wretched.  I remember this with Mack. . . walking around near Boston Medical Center in 98 degree heat in July. . .   It was wretched.  Thank goodness I had friends that told me to get out of the office, they’d explain what had happened to Roger.

This is . . . hard. Not as hard as losing Kitty, but bad enough.  Grades are at stake.  School is still looming and I feel like I’ve just been squished KERSPLAT!

At least Grant is here to help me feel better and be someone to lean on.  I couldn’t ask for a better boyfriend right now.  Seriously. I can’t express my gratitude enough to him and typing this while ignoring him is. . uh. . not nice, but I need to get it out of my system.  Soon I’ll scribble things down in my actual journal.  That should help.

I wonder if I have enough tissues.  Or if I’ll sleep.  I hope so, for both things.

Too sweet for my own good

You would think that I would believe the infamous “they” when I hear, “they say mosquitoes are becoming immune to most bug repellents.”  No, instead I need to put on bug spray and receive about 8 new bug bites before I start believing any of this.  It’s officially true though.  I was covered in that Cutter Bug Spray stuff. . .I have one on my left wrist, back of my right arm, 3 on my leg, one below my knee.  I am itching like CRAZY!  It’s making me a bit batty.

I took Winston for a walk, and that’s how I acquired these bites (and talking on the cell phone on the front porch of Anna and Dorian’s), but c’est la vie. My puppy has bad stools!!!  So he’s going into the vets tomorrow and I have to pay for his doctor bill.  I’m nervous about this.  I am going into the doctors for myself before that just because I should for various reasons and I need a bit more paperwork from them before I go to England.  I’m hoping a list of updated shots is good enough.  I will hate to have to go back there and get a physical. I’ll do it if I have to, but I’d really rather not.

I got my lovely errands done today too.  I went to get my russian books back from the Russian Teacher.  We had a lovely chat about random things with hearing russian and how it’s a handy language and that it takes a lot of work to keep getting conversational at it and blah blah blah.  It was very nice.  He’s a neat teacher.  And it turns out his wife worked in HULL for a little bit.  He is the only other person who has talked about Hull besides my friend who studied there, her sister and myself.   SOOO weird.  And yet so neat.  Teehee.  Apparently she didn’t like it there either.  It’s not a fun place. It does have a Woolworths though.

I also went back to the Dentists office to have my fillings fixed up a bit.  They still hurt to chew on the right side of my mouth.  And temperature is a BIG factor. Hopefully it will feel better soon!  Stupid teeth, they’re not being very nice.