And more snow

Well tonight makes the second night of our reduced bedroom occupancy. L. called me at work yesterday to tell me she decided to try to sleep in her own bedroom. This was completely out of the blue. We have long since given up trying to lure her into her own bed and have just been happy when she sleeps on her floor cushion in our room instead of in our bed. The cats have been very helpful with her brave efforts. Last night Petey stayed in there to enjoy the cuddles until long after she went to sleep. Much to our shock, she slept the ENTIRE night in there. Tonight when we tucked her in, Petey and Lila were both in bed with her. That takes our bedroom's night-time occupancy rate from 10 down to 7! I don't want to get too excited, since it's still very early in a process that could be reversed with one bad dream. It is quite nice, though, while at the same time being a bit sad--my baby is growing up so fast!

The pipe in our basement that froze and was fixed a couple of weeks ago froze again, split, and started spewing water all over yesterday. The plumber came this morning and fixed it again, and we will have to go to Menards to pick up some insulation and ceiling vents so it doesn't happen for a third time. What a pain! Once we get that done, we have to rip out the old, ruined carpet and put new carpeting down in the office area and then try to get the office area put back together. We currently have loads of books, from the two full bookshelves we had to move, stacked all over the family room downstairs, leaving the family room and office area complete and utter messes.

We've quite a series of tragedies in our house lately. Since our Annabelle died, we've lost Ginger (cockatiel) and Thumper (rabbit). Neither was old, neither showed any indication of illness or pending death, and both were horribly shocking surprises. They were fine when we tucked everyone in for the night and dead in the morning. I won't talk too much about them, because I am still very emotional and barely keeping it together. All three will be buried in the spring. I thinks it's time to smudge the house again. It seems like we go through these periods where tons of negative energy builds up and we are plagued with tragedies and disasters. I personally feel horrible, because I have been whining about all the time I had to spend trying to pair bond the rabbits. Suddenly that has come to a screeching halt, and I feel like total shit for complaining. I would gladly spend hours everyday on my bathroom floor if I could have my Thumpy back. I was hoping to have a necropsy done yesterday, but our vet was absolutely drowning and had surgeries and double-booked appts. all day. There's not much of a window when working with small animals like rabbits. Now I will have to wonder what happened for the rest of my life! It sucks a lot.

Okay, on a more positive note, my class seems to be going well. I'm enjoying myself and the class. The first homework assignments were due tonight, and it looks like I will be doing a lot of grading this week. That's definitely my least favorite part. I love teaching but hate grading and giving grades.

I worked from home today, due to yet another snow dump and the need for someone to wait for the plumber this morning. I had a really productive day, which was nice. I spent much of the day converting code/queries from SQL Server to Oracle. That's a pretty brain intensive activity, which involves a ton of frustration but ultimately a major sense of accomplishment when it finally works. I finished work, then went straight out to my class. When I got home (after I fed the outside critters and the cats, of course), L. and I did some microscope viewing. She enjoys making slides with saliva, cat hairs and nail sheaths, and blood (I'm always the lucky donor).


Tonight's pictures are from L's fashion show with Daisy and Jezebel. She was supposed to be cleaning her room. When she emerged, her room was actually messier, but she was quite proud to show me the photos and video she took during her fashion shoot.