Tree hunting

on Thursday was successful.

 

 

 

I am happy to say

that today's vet trip was much more successful than Monday's. Last night Hubband and I finalized the "How to keep Oribel from disappearing" plan; we decided that we wouldn't give her a full dose of bedtime food, so that she would be certain to show us that it was empty when we got up. Sure enough, she was very insistent that Hubband fill it first thing, so while she was eating he closed the door to her room, and she was held hostage until I was ready to stuff her into her crate. (Of course, we had to listen to pitiful, sad kitty noises for the duration, but that was better than the alternative.)
After we got situated in the exam room, Astrid decided she should investigate the snack area. She was a bit disappointed that that they had treats for all sorts of pets including birds, but none for slugs.

 

After that she decided that Oribel might need some comforting words while we were waiting, but I don't think it made any difference to her. (I promise there really is a cat squished up against the back of that carrier.)

 

She also wanted to investigate the scale, but didn't weigh enough for it to registrar.
Oribel had another amazing vet visit. Amazing in that as usual Dr. E gushed about how amazing her whiskers are, how beautiful her fur is, how amazingly muscular and limber she is, how white her teeth are, and such like. Fortunately Oribel does register on the scale, and has gained a whopping four ounces since last year.

 

She also seems to think that she has been tormented enough for one day and should get compensated by being allowed outside. Sadly for her, she doesn't get to go out until we get back from tree hunting, providing it isn't too late.

The drive north

and back home went without any problems. Astrid looked for luggage, but I had to tell her it wouldn't be here yet, since DTY's plane hadn't even landed at that point.

 

Turns out we didn't need to look for luggage anyway, as DTY only had one carry-on backpack with her for her ten days home. (I think she'll have stuff to either ship or check when she heads back to grad school.)

Today's calendar stuff

includes Oribel's annual checkup/tests/etc, as well as a trip to the big city airport to retrieve DTY. This morning started out with all expectations of those two things being accomplished with the dropping of a coaster on my head at seven, followed by some dashing in front of Hubband down the stairs for the ritual showing of the food dish, and curling up on me just before I was about to get out of bed. All in all, a fairly normal morning. She hung out with me for most of the morning, looking in the closet with me, following me downstairs and back up again for my coffee refill, getting a drink of water from the faucet while I was washing my face and putting in my contacts, etc. Then I went down to get one last cup of coffee while she debated which sun-spot to take a nap in, again all of this was is fairly normal morning. After filling up my coffee cup I stuck my head up the stairs to see if she was following me (which she often does when she realizes I am going to be in the vicinity/on the same floor of her treats). She was just standing at on the landing, looking down at me, so I decided to get the jar of treats and shake it, which normally results in having an orange blur show up at your feet in less time than it takes to get a full shake in. No cat showed up. No cat on the landing. No cat to be seen in our room. No cat to be seen anywhere. Seriously, how did she know it was time to be put into her crate for the ride to the vet? Yeah, well, now she is scheduled to go on Thursday morning instead.
Astrid was rather disappointed as she had been looking forward to meeting all the nice folks at the vet's office. Fortunately, she is willing to settle for just the road trip to the airport to see DTY again and waiting a couple of days for the rest of the plan.
Want to guess who came out of hiding about an hour or so after her appointment?

Today was our parish's

annual Habitat For Humanity Gift Wrap Day. The local mall donates the use of kiosk space and tables, and several businesses in town donate the paper, tissue, boxes, ribbons/bows, and tape (or the money to cover the cost) for the month of December. Different groups in town sign up to wrap packages for folks and all of the proceeds go toward the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity and the house they are currently building. We were in charge of the 10 AM to 4 PM time frame this year (the last couple of years we have done the whole day to 7 PM), and I had signed up for the second part, from 1 to 4 PM.
Astrid went with me to help supervise inspect presents (she is under the impression that a radio controlled helicopter or car would be an awesome present for someone to get her).

 

She decided she should also be in charge of making sure the ribbons and bows were all securely attached to the packages,

 

and after that she thought that directing what colors of ribbon was put on each kind of wrapping paper was a good idea.


I'm not sure why she was quite so bossy today, normally she is much more polite. I think it might have had something to do with both of us forgetting to eat before we left the house.

 

Last August I went

rode the train to Milwaukee to meet/visit several Ravelry friends for a few days. In addition to the knitters and some family members that I was expecting to meet, I got to meet Darwin, a family member I wasn't expecting to meet. Darwin and Srknittykitty have a deal worked out where he makes sure her meals are safe to eat in exchange for her being his main source of transportation.

 

After lunch and some sight seeing, we went to listen to a band and immediately Darwin became an enthralled groupie.

 

Darwin started fussing about not having t-shirt sleeves to roll things up in and how he really needed one if he was going to be hanging out with the band. Srknittykitty reminded him that he already had a job with her, and really wasn't cut out to be a band roadie; especially since the amps would most likely squash him flat. He settled for hanging out on stage for the first set and then was enticed away with the prospect of new foods for dinner.

Since I was there over a weekend, and the friend I was staying with is a priest and a knitter, a couple of us went to the parish she is serving on Sunday morning. While we were waiting for church to start, Darwin and Srknittykitty introduced me to their friend Astrid, explained to me that she was getting kicked out of the park she had been living in, and the three of them were wondering if there was any chance she could come live in my garden, the plants on my deck, or maybe even inside the house where she would be safe from the birds. I told them I would have to pray about it during church, though I did voice a few concerns about her manners, given I had already spent the previous day with Darwin, watching and learning all about his exploits.
All three of them assured me that she was very well mannered and the two of them promised to sit quietly between us during the service.

 

The service included a baptism, and since they couldn't see very well from the pew, Astrid and Darwin asked afterwards if they could get a closer look at the font.

 

Darwin said something about how much he missed swimming in the ocean, and how that looked like in would do in a pinch, but Srknittykitty grabbed him just in time, while Astrid dove to the floor to dissociate herself from such inappropriate activities!

 

Since I didn't want Astrid to end up living the dangerous life on a hot patch of asphalt street corner, or being encouraged to get into who knows what kind of trouble by hanging out with a skinny-dipping penguin, I decided she had better come home with me. I did let them have another picture taken together, and have promised both of them, and all the knitters that Astrid and I will come back to visit again. (Though the two of us are also hoping they will come see us too!)

Guess what? You blog readers will get to see more of Astrid too!

 

Complements of Netflix,

I just got done watching a really great movie, Lars and the Real Girl. Given that it came out in 2007, I am guessing some of you may have seen it already. It is a wonderful study of relationships within families, work, church, and the wider community. It is about how we live, hurt, grow, heal, love. It is a really good movie and I highly recommend seeing if you haven't, and if you have, I would recommend seeing it again; it is the kind of movie you will get new stuff from each time you see it. It will be the movie I share for Movie Discussion Night this Lent.

I had fun last night.

A friend had some tickets to a prerelease screening of a movie that the whole family has been looking forward to seeing. Yep, I went and saw it with out them! Sadly, there wasn't any pictures to be had in the theater, and since I was with my friend, his daughter, and her friend, I didn't wander around to see if there was a poster somewhere. (Thus, I did the standard "use one from the Web.")
I enjoyed the movie very much and thought it was really well done (no creepy uncanny valley that I noticed!). I have no clue if the script kept to the story-lines it was drawn from, I will have to report back on that after the movie comes out around Christmas and we see it as a family. Despite having a whole lot of the books make their way in, around, and through the house when the kids were young, I don't recall having ever read any of them myself. (I would guess that some of them may have been checked out on my library card though.)
I am looking forward to seeing it again, especially since I will be with folks that can give informed critiques. I am thinking I might want to see if I can do some research first. I am hoping this is a start.

On Saturday

flowers were delivered to my neighbor's house since I wasn't home. Since I had just spent several hours driving and sliding in this,

 

I decided to go a head and drive over to their house to pick them up. It was worth it, I would have hated slip and drop this from my mom.

 

Sunday afternoon the deck looked like this, which I shared with Hubband and he said something about winter having arrived in his absence. It certainly did.

 

Since he couldn't be here yesterday, and the florist doesn't deliver on Sunday, these came today.


So far both of them seem to have been safe from Oribel; we'll see how long that lasts. Fortunately, I will still enjoy them even if they get a few teeth marks.

 

For those who are wondering

about yesterday's post, yes, a certain Someone is currently traveling. Yes, he seems to have (or will today) passed one million miles with one airline. Before you ask, no, he will not be home for the 50th Singed Cat anniversary on Sunday; he will be in a place that requires flying on a different airline than the one he will get the bonus from.

Apparently at least one airline

gives frequent fliers a 30,000 mile "bonus" when they have flown one million miles. This is not necessarily news that one wants to learn, especially when that doesn't reflect all airlines flown.