Recently in Another Darn Cat Post Category

One of the fantastic things about being unemployed (if there is anything at all fantastic about it) is the ability to randomly decide what you're doing is no longer important and do something else. So I'm blogging instead of going through another box.

Still working through stuff to get rid of/sell after the move a couple months back.... because I'm suddenly writing again. Not suddenly, really, because it's been in the head for a while that this or that story might be resolved this way, or that way... but actually getting down to the typing has been a slow process.

And then I discovered my oft-neglected website was missing a bunch of stuff. I found things on the archive at BLTS that weren't posted on my own site - go figure. And then Wordpress decided to not allow me to cut and paste, and given my tendency to write novels where vignettes will do...

Four days straight of formatting and things are looking pretty good on Movable Type. I can't say I'll miss Wordpress at all. I have most of the fiction formatted (still working on the shorter stuff but That Series is done). In the background as I edit and paste I've been watching DS9 and Lost.

OMG, Lost had so much potential. If only they had stopped adding craziness to it. It's like a little kid had control over the show, going "wouldn't it be cool if! and then!" - they just kept piling in one crazy explanation after another until it was just one great big ball of WTF. I keep waiting for someone to wake up in the shower and realize it was all Hurley's bad pizza induced dream.

In other news... I moved into a room rental from an apartment and my cat is now adjusting slowly to... dogs.

Just moved into a better, more open, bigger place. Like most apartments there is a coat closet in the entry. The front door opens into the apartment, the screen/security door opens outward, the coat closet opens out into the entry at a right angle to the front door. My cat likes to pry open cabinets and closets to investigate the insides. The coat closet doesn't have a proper doorknob/latch. I sure hope my neighbors were at Easter service and didn't hear me swearing at my cat while I tried to figure out how she blocked me out of my own apartment. ETA: last night she opened every cabinet at knee level and hurked orange half digested cat food in three spots (that I found). I wish she would just tell me she doesn't like moving and get it done.

Me: QUIT LICKING THINGS! Cat: licklicklicklicklicklicklicklicklicklicklicklicklicklicklicklicklicklick Me: drives over to petsit puppies for friend Puppies: barkyaplickbarklicklickbark peeeeeeeeeeeee barkbarkbarkbark Me: ARG! I want to go camping now. Without things that lick! The cat has progressed to licking everything within a two inch radius of her - my pants, her butt, a chair leg, whatever. The Pomeranian pups are sort of like bedroom slippers with springy legs for racing about and little teeth for nibbling. They might stay still for a two second petting session in between trying to get back at the orange tabby for being bigger than they are, and racing around like rabbits on speed.

I must taste great. The cat keeps licking, and licking, and licking. At night I have to pull the covers up high and keep my hands under. She licks my arms, hands, fingers.... Thank goodness she's not a lion or something. Thank goodness my facial cream appears to alter the flavor of my face.

The boxes, and the stuff, and the dust. And the cat, because mommy's packing again god help us now I must run around like an idiot and knock things over and bash into walls. When I collapse in front of the tv for a break she jumps on my stomach and wriggles and flumps and purrs and digs her toes in until she finds just the right position, which looks like every position she just tried, whatever.... and then I have to dislodge her to go pee because she just poked my bladder eighty times in a row. Rinse, repeat. Clingy idiot. I guess she thinks I'm going to leave her behind? Like I ever did that, however tempted I might be. I am barely getting started and already I have visions of backing the Uhaul up to a cliff and shoving everything out. BLEAH. Anyone want a metric ton of books?

I help u make bed oh no! no pictures of me helpin!

3:43 pm: get home from library and gas station with shiny new car. Note mud spatters on white paint. Note that have not yet washed car in the couple of weeks since purchase. 3:52 pm: organize car care products. Lock kitty door; back car out of garage. Bring out the hose. 3:55 - 4:15 pm: wash car. 4:16 - 4:30 pm: squeegee excess water, then dry car with multiple towels. Move car back into garage, noting the return of moving neighbors with huge long trailer. Close garage door. Unlock kitty door to restore access to kitty litter. 4:30 - 5:00 pm: apply variety of detailing products appropriately, washing windows, cleaning and protecting dashboard, dusting, shaking out all-weather mats. 5:00 - 5:30 pm: apply wax to all but the trunk lid, which is too close to the garage door for comfort; buff. Admire shiny car, making faces to show off reflection in various panels. 5:52 pm: Go into garage to move wet laundry to dryer; note cat curled up on hood. Shoo cat. Throw very old afghan over shiny hood and tuck under windshield wipers to keep it from sliding off. 8:05 pm: BOOM! MeeeeeeeeeoooooooW! 8:06 pm: Go out in garage - note: afghan on floor in front of car, cat wigging out and darting between feet into apartment. Deduce cat jumped up, afghan slid under her weight on newly waxed hood, shot cat into the front of the washing machine, where she then ricocheted into (now overturned) laundry basket. Laugh butt off. 8:10 pm: put afghan on hood. Wait. Possibly cackling softly and holding camera.

Nothing says love like standing around in the hallway yowling plaintively while Big Person is labeling eleventy jillion wires as a precursor to swapping thermostats, then eating random bits dropped on the floor. Plaster bits, a page of sticky labels, a stray wire... a screw.... ... She may have played with the screw and batted it into a corner. But, she also tried to bat around the hammer. Kitty needs a new brain cell or two.

*hack* The sounds of the Barfmaster 10,000 at work. (Well, it's actually more of a *hokhokhokeeeechkkk* but that's so difficult to spell that I opted for the familiar.) She's still freaking out about the move, I guess - now her fun thing to do is not eat cat food all day, then snarf up a ton when I get home, then barf it up in assorted spots. My favorite was the very middle of my comforter. Time for the understudy comforter, which is not as soft but is also not caked with EW.

Apartment Complex of Confusion has instituted some draconian rules about pets. We're now supposed to coop up the cats indoors, which is safer blah blah so on, but really the cats have never gone much further than the front of our building. They're fraidy cats. ACC has said they will be trapping strays and taking them to the pound. I figure, both our cats are wearing collars with tags, one has a microchip, the other is so freaked out when a shadow moves I doubt she would go near a trap even if it had a pile of smelly tuna fish in it. Also, she doesn't like tuna. Go figure. Anyway, this has sent Roommate into a tailspin in which he is plotting The Cat-Proof Yard(tm), from which there will be no escape, muhuhahaha. This will evidently involve some fabric hung in some clever fashion so that jumping cats will bounce back into the yard when trying to leave. I'm predicting some fun pictures, also mixed results, because if my idiot cat can't go where she pleases she'll figure out another way. Lately, Roommate has taken to going out to get Idiot in the evenings. Our usual routine is, call them in for food at 7, shut cat flap for the night. Idiot has taken to eschewing dinner to stay outside and watch the corner o' mouse infestation. There's a corner with a vent into the neighbor's water heater closet where mice come through and try to nest in Roommate's storage area. Idiot will sit there for hours at a time watching, watching, watching.... Some nights when I call, one cat will rush in and Idiot will stay out all night, but with the trap "out there somewhere," Roommate worries and goes to get her. So she learned a new bag of tricks. When she hears me calling, she jumps on the roof. Pretty smart for an idiot, but an idiot she remains.