Art share

I slept fairly well last night from 12:30 or so until 2:30. From there I spent the remainder of the night tossing and turning, going from intense hot flashes to freezing cold (because my windows are open and the ceiling fan is on high in an effort to prevent said flashes). It's been like this for the better part of two weeks now, and I feel so sleep deprived I can't even function normally lately. Today will be another day of slogging through by taking way too much caffeine. Nothing about this is healthy, but my life isn't such that I can sleep throughout the day to catch up, and realistically even if time and circumstances allowed that, I just don't go to sleep well when I try. I'm very, very frustrated. I'm taking every supplement that is supposed to help and can't get in to see my naturopath until the end of June.

How funny--when I opened up this blog post I had no intention whatsoever in mentioning my sleep. I was specifically opening this post to talk about a cute picture L brought in to show me as soon as she heard me go to the bathroom this morning. I guess I needed to purge myself of the bitterness over my hormone issues.
Okay, so on to the intended post. L came in talking a mile a minute, before my caffeine kicked in. UGH! She had drawn a picture of this cat to send to our friend's baby, Clover. Clover is 8 months old. Hawk Fur (the cat) is one of 70 characters in the books she is writing. Each character is very well defined with a history, personality, and she's drawn pictures of each one. She thought Clover would enjoy looking at a cat picture. She called M at work to tell him she needed him to bring home a large envelope, because she didn't want to ruin the picture by folding it.

She pointed out the tiny little triangular notch on the bottom. She explained that she would 'sign' all of her art pieces in that way, because nobody would really notice or expect that, and then it would be obvious if somebody tried to copy her work--she could always tell the original by the notch. We have a book that we work on, in which there are pictures of many traditional masterpieces, and there are fraudulent copies of these pieces. She has to examine each of the pictures and try to find out which is the original, which is faked, what is different, and then identify which gang of art theives did it, based on each gang's unique signature. It's a very cool book that gets her interactively involved with these paintings and learning about them in a fun way. She's apparently decided to proactively protect her art from gangs of art thieves.

<-- A list of all the cat characters in her book, categorized by their tribe and role within the tribe.

She also showed me the prototype laptop and cell phone computers that she drafted on paper. Her brand name is Purrfect Paw, and Cammy (my mom's cat) is the mascot who is her version of Microsoft's little 'paperclip guy'. She and Hunter spend hours drafting (usually on paper) the elaborate electronic inventions they are planning to create. They are so very cute. I love that they absolutely believe that they are authors and inventors, and have no doubts that their various creations will ultimately happen.
These are pictures L drew of two of the five cockatiels we adopted a month or so ago. She named them, and these are drawings of Sirus and Peach.

We got an envelope in the mail yesterday that contained hand-drawn pictures, used as thank you notes, from Fran (Joe's mom) for mother's day. Well, one is a thank you note and the other is a get well card for Chloe. She is extremely polite, as well as sweet. I absolutely love the pictures she drew. They are beautiful, and the time and effort she put into these are so very appreciated. We were very touched by them, and I wanted to share them. My mom also got one with a gorgeous hand-drawn cardinal on it. I wish I had the ability to draw like that! It's even more impressive, though, because Fran has extremely limited vision.

I now have 15 minutes in which to get dressed, get myself looking less dead, take more caffeine, and leave to meet Denny & Orinda for our Friday lunch date at El Jardin. We have lots of schooling to get through this afternoon, so I'm hoping to get a burst of energy after lunch.

Quick Chloe update

I slogged through yesterday in absolutely agony from a migraine that I woke up with. I tried to get ready for work, but it was just not working. I had to cancel a fairly important meeting that has been on my schedule for a month, so staying home was really not what I wanted to be doing. Another big problem with staying home was that I missed the farmer's market, which is a tragedy. That's a big highlight of my week, and the bunnies are going to start a mutiny if I don't find them some fresh organic greens soon.

I did absolutely nothing but survive, wish some of my meds would actually work, and wait in dread for the moment we had to leave to take Chloe in. By 3:00 when it was time to leave, it was clear that the migraine was not letting up, and I was in no condition to drive. I had to call Mark home from work early to take us to Rockford. We dropped Chloe off and I left crying. We got home, I threw together an easy dinner (baked thai peanut tofu), and waited for the phone call from Chloe's vet. I panicked when my cell rang at 6:30, which I knew was too early for the surgery to be completed. It was indeed Chloe's vet, telling me that her pre-surgical bloodwork indicated some high liver enzymes. She was not going to do the surgery, because her liver may not be able to process the anesthetics. She was concerned that the cancer had spread to her liver, in which case, there was no point in surgery. The would have an ultrasound machine in the clinic the next day (Thurs.) and would be able to check the liver at that point.

I hung up and started bawling. It seems to be what I do best these days. I wanted to go pick her up and bring her back home. I couldn't stand the thought of her being in a cage, alone, and wondering where her family was for an entire night! I really tried to convince myself that she'd be okay, and it was environmentally irresponsible of me to drive all the way to Rockford and back home and then again in the morning for her ultrasound. Given the current nightmare of road construction, it's about 50-55 minutes one way. As concerned as I am about the environment and gas consumption, I just couldn't sell myself on leaving her there. It was too late for L to go out, so M stayed home with her. My mom kindly offered to go with me, which was really good considering my state of mine and the migraine. Thanks, mom.

We got Chloe home fairly late, and the poor dog was ravenous! I was extremely annoyed that she hadn't been fed yet. We had to cut off her food after her night feeding, so the poor pup was already starving when she arrived at 4:30. They knew this. Even after it was determined that they wouldn't do the surgery, she wasn't fed. I don't think they keep food there, which makes me extra glad that I didn't leave her there for the whole night! My poor sweet puppy! We fed her right away and cuddled with her all night. I was so happy to have her there.

We (L & I) got up this morning, took care of our chores, and headed back to Rfd with Chloe. She had to stay there for her test, which left us around an hour to kill in Rfd. She did NOT want to go in and had to be literally dragged in. The ultrasound did not show any lesions on the liver. The liver is inflamed, which the vet said sometimes just happens. I would feel a bit better if I had more of a concrete reason. They also found that she is just starting to show minor signs of hip displaysia. They changed her age estimate from 5 yrs. to 5-7 yrs. Realistically, it is doubtful that we will have to worry about surgery for the hip, as she most likely won't be around long enough to have it advance that far, but we'll watch it. She told us to get a supplement called SAMe for the liver and glucosamine chondroitin for the hip, human versions. We scored later at Walgreens and got both on a 'buy one get one free' sale. We are rescheduling the surger for next Friday, and are hopping that her liver enzymes are better by then. *Sigh*

This evening L & H played outside, while I finished planting our containers. M was working again. I still have to get Dej's planted up tomorrow.

She and Joe are working on getting settled in the new place, which is very nice. She, like me, prefers older homes and the unique character and personality each one has. It's roomy and the kittens just love tearing around at full speed. We still have to get their cat tree over there for them. They have a nice-sized three-season sun porch with a door that will keep it safe from the kittens. They are going to have a nice little container garden out there.

Now I'm feeling chatty but have to get going without even adding a picture. Why? Because M is being pissy, because he's waiting to watch our Netflix, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". He wanted to watch the movie again after we saw the play. No picture. Blame Mark.

Suckishness

I had mentally written my blog entry yesterday and was pretty excited about it--was finally planning to get some thoughts about feminism down. I didn't end up having a single spare minute to blog yesterday, though.

Now that it's Tuesday, and I have the time to blog, I don't currently have the inclination. It's been kind of a crappy day in general, and I've spent a good portion of the day on the phone and texting about some nightmarish situations. We have three animal situations that all blew up at about the same time. Two of the situations are so horrible, that I feel like I've been gut punched and have felt that way since this morning when I got the news. These two cases, like so many others, are just too traumatic to talk about. They may join the ranks of those I lock up inside, never share, and always remember. Some things are just too shitty to say out loud!

Tomorrow night is Chloe's next tumor removal surgery, and I am terrified sick about it. I am afraid of the news I will get about the cancer spreading, and I'm afraid she won't pull through. I'm trying to spoil her more than usual and give her extra love tonight. Send our Chloe girl all of your positive thoughts tomorrow night. I'm weepy and off to go cuddle my sweet pup.

Pushing little children; With their fully automatics; They like to push the weak around

Our golden bleeding heart is still going strong

An iris ('black gamecock') in the rock garden; It's actually a deeper, richer purple than what is captured here.

Alliums

We went to see "Where were you when you were taken?" at the Broom Street Theater last night for our date night. The theater and garden outside have been rennovated and were much nicer than the last time we were there. The play was written by a local guy and was pretty funny. We had dinner before the play at a Thai restaurant that we like. I mostly love going to that restaurant because they have sticky rice. I have a pathetic addiction to mango sticky rice and I can only get it there. I only ate half of my entree, so I would have plenty of room to finish off my sticky rice. I also got a few servings to go. The girls like it, so I got one for each of them, and of course one more for myself. It's currently in the refrigerator waiting for me. I am greatly looking forward to eating it later tonight!

We went to Jenka Blossoms this afternoon with my parents. We go there around this time every year to get our unique specialty annuals and herbs. We got all the plants I need to fill our containers. We then had to stop at Home Depot to pick up 20 2 cu. yard bags of organic potting soil. We came home, I made dinner, and then we started working on containers. The kids (L & H) and the dogs were out back with us.

We figured if we worked quickly, we may be able to get all of our containers planted tonight, so we could focus on weeding tomorrow. M & I were going back and forth between the back yard and the driveway, hauling the soil and plants to the backyard where the containers were laid out. M came into the back and told me there were police standing in our driveway with their weapons drawn. He asked the female officer if everything was okay, and she shouted that he should stay in the back. Given that we had children and dogs in the yard with us, and I could hear all the other neighborhood children outside playing, I was a little concerned with the lack of information. I told the children to take Chloe, get in the house, and lock all the doors. I wanted them safe, but we had planting to do and not too much daylight left to work with.

I went into the house to look out the front windows to see what else was going on. From my living room windows, I could see our whole two-block street blocked off from traffic, and police officers all over, up and down our street and the bigger street that we tee into. Several of them had big rifle-y SWAT-type weapons (yeah, sometime it's obvious that I'm an anti-gun hippie, like when I try to describe guns) and many of them were trained on my house. On my fucking house! Plus we still had the two officers with their weapons drawn standing in the middle of our driveway. The police were shooing everyone back into houses, as the neighbors were all starting to notice and want to know what the hell was going on.

I made sure the kids were all settled, and then went back into the back yard to finish containers. We did keep working, but had to keep stopping. Cops were running through our and our neighbors' back yards, asking if our back fence opened, trying to go through our yards. We would periodically hear them yelling stuff out and stop to try to determine what was going on. Between the interruptions and our nosiness, our work was going significantly slower than we had planned. I finally got to a breakpoint and we stopped working for the night and came in to clean up. We still had cops in the driveway at this point.

By the time we got our hands scrubbed and reassured the kids things were okay, I noticed the neighbor across the street was peeking out the door and then came out and headed over to another neighbor a couple of doors down. We couldn't see very many cops at this point, and they weren't yelling at us for coming out, so I too headed over to Leders to exchange information. Just then a cop came walking by and someone asked if they got the guy and they said that they had "apprehended the suspect and made an arrest". Apparently there was a guy either pointing a gun at or shooting at (not clear at this point) cars on the busier street that ours tees into, and he came to our street. He does not live in this neighborhood--he's from the fourth ward, which is the neighborhood in town where things like this happen commonly. I don't know how or why he ended up in our little neighborhood where things like this don't happen. It will be interesting to get some new and get the whole scoop.

When we came in, we found the kids had gotten flashlights and a cat and were having a blast hiding in our closet, giggling away. It was quite an exciting evening in our boring little neighborhood. We'll have to finish up our containers tomorrow.

H is spending the night tonight, so the kids are still downstairs being wild and silly. M just got upstiars here, so we are going to go watch a movie and I'm going to continue to work on another necklace I'm in the middle of making.

Don't make me chase u; Even doves have pride

I was so relieved to have my grades finalized and my closet clean, that I was feeling a little giddy today (other than the headache, hot flashes, and nausea). I did some chores today, but not nearly as many as I could/should have. I met Denny and Orinda for our usual Friday lunch . Our friend, Carrie, who joins us sometimes came today, and it was great to see her. My stomach was feeling a little off, so I wasn't able to eat much of my lunch, but we had some good conversation.

L and I came home and got some school work and chores done, and she was really determined to go to Michael's to get more clay. When Dej got home, the three of us decided to go to Michael's and then hit Old Navy, since it's next door. It was just the three of us, which doesn't happen very often these days. I love Joe, but it was nice to spend an afternoon with just the girls. I got a bathing suit at Old Navy that makes me look slightly less fat than my other one. The girls each got some cute clothes.

After we got home, Hunter showed up and he and L played outside, enjoying the beautiful weather we had today. I was feeling creative and decided to scrap my to do list and make a necklace. I had to take a break from working to fix dinner, but then returned to the necklace and finished it just in time to read to L and tuck her in for the night. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It was exactly what I had in mind, and that doesn't happen for me very often. It will go with a lot and it's sparkly and shiny, which for some unknown and completely impractical reason, I seem to be drawn to. With a list full of stuff to do over the next few days, this was certainly not the best use of my time. It was fun and I really enjoyed it. I haven't had time to do anything creative for a long time.

I love pretty things. Impractical things. It kind of irritates me, because I like logical explanations for things. I want to be able to drill down to the underlying biological reason for behaviors and preferences. I always run into a brick wall, though, when I try to figure out why I (and so many other beings in this world) am so attracted to beautiful things which serve no purpose. I've pondered this many, many times in recent years, but never reached a satisfactory explanation. I was absolutely thrilled to read an article in my recent 'Seed' magazine (which is one of the best mags ever!) that scientists are scanning and mapping the brain in studies to determine why beauty and art are so important to all cultures throughout history. I will definitely be looking forward to the results of these studies.

This is L's second outfit of the day. I really wanted to get a picture of the first one, as it was much, much more creative and unique than this outfit. I'm sure she will wear that outfit again, and I will not miss my chance to get a picture again! She's been spending a lot of time lately designing dresses and other clothes. She's drawn them out, and I am planning to photograph and post them soon. They are pretty unique and cool. She has hopes of getting fabric and sewing them.

Lilacs

They're blooming again, filling the backyard with their heavenly scent!

I finally got my grades done and get get back to life! I was a woman on a mission tonight and even managed to get my closet switched around from winter to summer clothes. I tried on lots of stuff and ended up with a big pile of clothes to donate, so that cleared out some much needed space. We haven't turned on the central air yet, so it's horribly hot upstairs in the bedrooms, even with the ceiling fans on.

Baxter and Petey went to the vet this morning to get their teeth cleaned. We picked them up this afternoon, and it's so nice to have them back home again. I really dislike having my babies away from me. Whenever possible, I schedule two of them together, so they don't have to be alone and afraid. I do not understand why it costs so damn much to get a cat's teeth cleaned. Even with no extractions, it's little over $200 per cat. Really? Is it that hard to scrape plaque?

Hallie seems under the weather today. She's very quiet and sleepy, and I've cleaned up vomit in various locations throughout the house that I suspect are from her. I'm a little concerned, but cats vomit fairly frequently, and she may just have a hairball issue. If she's not perkier tomorrow, we will be making a trip to the vet again.

The girls and I also went to the dentist this morning for our six-month check-up and teeth cleaning. None of us had any issues, which is always nice to hear. L had to get a flouride treatment, which she really hates. She loves to go to the dentist, though. She always has. We always took her to watch when we went in for the six-month checks and cleaning. She looked forward to it as a "big girl" activity, and couldn't wait until she was three and big enough to have her own dentist appointment. We've gone to the same dentist forever--since I was a child. She's also an orthodontist, so she did my braces and Dej's. I hope she's still practicing when it's time for L to get her braces. I cannot imagine having anyone else work on my family's teeth!

Dej finished her last final yesterday and they and the cats arrived last night. They will be staying here, but going back and forth, moving into their new place for the remainder of the month.

A friend's blog meanderings have had me thinking about feminism this week quite a bit. It's nice to actively contemplate this topic again. It's always been extremely important to me and a major part of my life, but I've not found too many who find it as interesting and important as I do since my undergrad years. I had some great feminist friends then, and we enjoyed many hours of long talks, research, writing--I missed it for so many years. I kind of mourned the loss of a strong feminist community and had resigned myself to reading my Bitch magazines and Off Our Back journals and privately contemplating, because nobody else found it of interest.

It's been such a loss for me to not have anyone to bounce ideas off, to discuss how motherhood has affected my feminism, to address my feelings of betrayal to the sisterhood for getting married and 'sleeping with the enemy' and for removing visible body hair from my neck down. It's a loss that I tucked away and learned to live with. It feels great to think about these things again.

I may start talking about and even writing about these things again. I really had plans of doing so tonight and had a specific topic/direction I wanted to explore. However, by the time I blathered about the mundane details of the day, I wasted much of my blogging time. I have to continue to be productive and have lots more to get done tonight and am still hoping to rewatch last week's LOST finale, so that post will have to wait for another day.

Two on Tuesday

I'm working hard on grading finals and getting my semester grades done and calculated. I will have much blathering to do after I get the semester wrapped up. I'm behind on everything at the moment. The garden is in complete weedy shambles, but I have to get my grades done NOW!

Two interesting little tidbits:

1. Messages from your brain travel along your nerves at up to 200 miles an hour.

2. In outer space, liquids become sphere-shaped.

My man, his messy hair, and his mom

Our comedy show last night was fantastic! Kevin Bozeman is extremely funny, and I laughed so hard my stomach still hurts today. It was great to see him again. It's been forever! It sucks that he hasn't aged since college though. How is that even fair?!?

Was up until 4 again this morning, so I'm terribly sleep deprived.

My in-laws were here today. We had a nice visit. I'm behind on everything though, so I'll post today's kitten pics and try to get some more work done before I get some sleep.

You need boots

A peek into our baby bunnies' nest and a geranium nearby in the garden

I should be grading exams right now. Or preparing L's homeschool work for the week. Or cleaning my house for my in-laws visit tomorrow. Instead, I am interrupting my slack-jawed staring aimlessly into the distance with blogging. Once I went through the rigor of opening the laptop, logging in, and reading some ridiculously funny reviews on Amazon, I just couldn't quite find the energy to be productive. I will pay dearly for this lazy procrastination later.

Last night and this morning was a clusterfuck of events and phone calls that has turned me into a staring, slack-jawed simpleton. I had about two hours of very interrupted sleep and am just too damn old to function that way, despite consuming enough caffeine to kill a horse.

The night started off well enough. I had a friend over for some girl time. The night somehow flew by. I was completely shocked to find that it was nearly 1:30, when I was sure it was maybe midnight at the latest. She left right around that time, and I was still wide awake and energized from having girl time with a like-minded mama. With Mark back to either being at work or asleep all the time, I really appreciate having that adult time!

Dej had asked me if I would be up when she got home from work at 2:30, and I told her I probably would. Since I was still so wide awake, I decided to just hang out downstairs and wait for her. I killed time on the Internet, and noticed that it was 2:45 and she wasn't there yet. She often hits the Taco Bell drive thru on the way home from work, so I figured she got held up there. I started to get really nervous by 3:00. I started texting her. And waiting. And getting no response. Trying not to panic, I decided to wait 15 minutes or so and call her one more time before calling everyone and sounding the alarm. On my last try, she answered. She felt horrible and apologized, but it was one of her friends' birthdays, so she and Joe took him out to eat. She forgot about me waiting. That sucked a lot. It took me a good hour and a half to get my adrenaline back to normal levels, after thinking my child was lying dead or injured on a country road in the middle of the night.

Then phone then started ringing at 7:15. Allegrea had an orphaned baby squirrel that she had gotten the night before, and she was bringing her to me on her way to work. By then Luciana was up and around, making noise, talking to me, running up and down--UGH! More Allegrea calls, telemarketer calls, checking on squirrel, prohibited any more sleep. I took as much caffeine as possible and started off with L & the baby to take her to Fellow Mortals. She was in pretty good shape. She's a six-week old orphan whose mommy was killed last night. She was scared and dehydrated, but will be fine now. She has excellent care and is with other squirrels, so at least there's a happy ending for that one. Good god, baby squirrels are cute!

While I was at FM chatting with Yvonne (I haven't seen her for ages!), a man walked in. He couldn't have come five minutes later, nope, because they all find me somehow. My stomach dropped when I heard what he was saying. He had become homeless and was sleeping in his car with his 14 year old cat. The shelter wouldn't take her (him?) because of her age. They would only offer to euthanize. There are resources to help the guy, but none to help a 14 year old cat. At this point, I'm exhausted, with a headache, trying to blend in the wall and forget what I was hearing. Not only could I NOT ignore it, but then Yvonne says, "Well Amy would be the one who may be able to help." I gave her the deer in headlights look. I'm barely coherent and can't even get a thought to process. She then thought of someone in Delavan who is an animal lover with money and may be able to help him and gave him the number. I've got the animal lover part down pat, but without the money, that isn't worth much. So I walked out with L, feeling a little sick, wishing I hadn't been there at that time, and knowing I'm going to feel even more like shit if I just leave. As we walked to my car, which was parked right next to his car, little kitty popped up to look out the window. I could never be so rude as to walk by without acknowledging her, and then she reached her little paw up to 'touch' my finger through the window. I felt like crying. So I sat in my car trying to decide what I should do. I ended up writing a note stating that if the contact Yvonne gave him couldn't help out with kitty, that he should call me, and I left my cell number. Don't know if I'll hear from him or not, but I'm ultimately glad that I did the right thing or I would be completely dysfunctional (more than usual) from the guilt. I'm not sure what I will do if he does call. It's not like I have a plethora of homes waiting for 14 year old cats! I'll figure something out though, if I need to.

When I walked out of the rehab building, I had to pee pretty badly. I was in such a hurry to avoid the situation, though, that I just decided I would hold my breath and try to make it the 40 minute drive home. By the time I sat in my car and decided what to do, and wrote the note, I had to go much worse but was too lazy to walk all the way back up to the building and use their bathroom. I only made it about five minutes from there when I decided I would be lucky if I could make the walk from the car to a gas station restroom without having...an incident. Caffeine does bad things like that. So I stopped and made it in without...an incident.

We made it back to town just in time for the birthday party we were due to attend at noon today. We made it there--only two or three minutes late. It was a Chuck E Cheese. The headache was worse, the music was loud, and I somehow made it through the two hour party without any mood-related incidents. It was hard. It required even more quantities of caffeine. And Mellow Yellow (with caffeine). I sat near the bathroom.

We got home, and I realized that my plans for taking a short nap were not going to happen because: a) Hunter was not returning from his grandma's until 5:00, which left L bored and needing to continue the stream of chat she had kept going the entire day (except for the two hours she was at Chuck E Cheese); and b) The previously mentioned caffeine has ensured that, despite being beyond tired with swollen black eyes, I may not sleep for several days. I'm tired, overwhelmed and want to cry for some reason.

M just got home from his plant sale, so I have to go be productive--work on homeschool stuff, make dinner, and try to make myself look like a living human. An old college friend is performing tonight at the Comedy Club in Madison, and we have reservations for the 8:00 show. I haven't seen him since a few years after we finished our undergrad. It's been probably 15 years. I'm not crazy about seeing someone the first time in that long with an extra 18 pounds and looking like death. I'm hoping for dim lighting.

Mental fiction, follow me; show me what it's like to be set free

Morning: Unbelievably, a repeat performance of last Wednesday, except this week I left on time instead of earlier, causing me to arrive even later and have a harder time finding parking. Reminded myself all day that I needed to go to the correct parking ramp this time. Made it there.

Lunchtime: Famer's Market. Cold, damp, and dark. Got organic greens, so we could have happy bunnies. Unfortunately for my pudge, I found out that one of the booths has freshly-baked fruit bars that are vegan. I was immune to the temptation of the delicious-smelling fresh-baked goods at the market, because they weren't vegan. I'm no longer safe from their wiles. I should never have given in and eaten the yummy apricot bar. Now every Weds. when I walk past that booth, they will call my name. I can't even avoid the booth, because it's the one that Sarita always gets her scones from. I'm unable to resist vegan goodies. I'm just lucky that there aren't nearly as many of those as there are of the non-vegan type!

Workday: Managed to finish up what I had planned for today. YAY! I even had a few unexpected 'fires' that I had to put out but still managed to get through my list.

Afternoon: I love my mail woman today. She brought me another box of happiness from Sweet & Sara. I'm hooked on the coconut-covered marshmallows, which didn't sound all that good to me initially, but I'm so glad I tried them.

Evening: Chores, kids, critters.

Night: L is great at dropping these bizarre statements on me out of nowhere. She walked into my room, where I was waiting for her to get ready for bed. L: "Mom, at least your bosoms aren't hanging low like you're an old woman." How does one respond to a statment like that? Uh, thanks? Got her all settled in bed with her Tinkerbell flashlight next to her (after she checked to make sure the batteries were still good and strong) just in case we lose power in the thunderstorm. M and I will be watching the two-hour finale of LOST in just a few minutes. While I can't wait to watch it, it saddens me beyond words to think that it's done, DONE for another 8 months!

Tomorrow: A full day of homeschooling and Hallie & Lila see the vet for their annual check up and vaccination.

Two on Tuesday

I saved some of my favorite shots from the arboretum for today's post.

1. The flowering quince which had just started a week ago is close to peak.

2. A crab apple tree. I LOVE this color of red. It was the color I had originally selected for my ALF back tattoo, but that color of ink doesn't hold up well, so I had to go with more of a pink ink.

Mother's Day

Sunday was another busy day, and despite us fantasizing about taking a nap all day, we never got time. We didn’t even manage to get through our weekend chores, so we were miles away from napping! We went to my mom’s late morning, for a quick cookout with them, our girls, Joe and his mom.

As soon as we finished our lunch, we all piled in and went to the UW Arboretum. Since M & I were there just the week before, we knew it would still be gorgeous and full of blooming trees. The prairie had been burned recently, so there wasn’t much too look at there. My parents, Joe & his Mom (Fran) had never been to the Arboretum. It’s such a gorgeous place, that we were excited to share it with them. We had a wonderful time, and enjoyed the beauty of nature and the great family time. Everyone got along all day and had fun, and besides a completely clean house (didn’t get that), that was the only Mother’s Day gift I really wanted!

We came home, where M & I took care of our animal duties and then returned right away to my parents’ house for dessert and Mother’s Day cards/gifts. My brother and his family came later in the evening for dessert. L got me a dolphin air freshener for my car and an owl necklace. D got me some beautiful roses. As soon as we got home from the parents that evening, H came over to play with L. It’s a rough day for him, so we let them play later than usual while we worked on chores. Poor H made a clay figurine for his mom and set it by her ashes, so she could have a Mother’s Day present. That absolutely broke my heart! In retrospect, I feel horrible and thoughtless for not thinking to include him in our day’s plans. I’m just sick that I never thought about it until after we returned—I feel like shit about it. :(

After I got L tucked in for the night, we continued to work on chores until we were sick and tired of it. Then we hung out with D & Joe until they had to leave town. A brief update on the kittens… Dej & Joe are moving back to town and will be in their new place on June 1. It’s only four blocks away from me and it’s on the street we lived on before we bought our current house. It’s a nice size place and has two bedrooms, so they decided that they have enough space to commit to keeping both remaining kittens along with Sparta (mommy). They’ve named the little girl Tallulah, but they usually call her Tillie. The little boy is named Allistair Milo. L wanted him to be named Milo and has called him that since she met him. D & J wanted to name him Allistair, though they thought Milo was a cute name too. In the interest of compromise and family peace, his official name is Allistair Milo. Dej & Joe call him Allistair, and L calls him Milo. He’s a very mellow and unflappable little guy who’s become increasingly cuddly in recent weeks. Tillie is not nearly as mellow and definitely exhibits primadonna tendencies.

A Protest, a play, and pictures

This weekend was so busy, we still haven’t caught up on our missing sleep time or our weekend chores! It was a great weekend, but we definitely could have used another day or two. Unfortunately, next weekend will be similar.

Saturday we spent the day at our Petland protest. We had a pretty good turnout, despite the weather. It was in the fifties and very windy and cool. We took Chloe with us. She started out okay, but then she saw the puppy mill rescue dogs that were also there and wanted to play with them. When Chloe wants something, anything, she barks in a very loud and demanding voice. She continues doing this until she gets what she wants. In this case, though, she couldn’t get what she wanted. The dogs were tiny and traumatized and weren’t really interested in playing with Chloe the very loud giant. Chloe continued barking loudly until after about an hour, I couldn’t take it anymore. Mary took Chloe home and left her there with Jezebel (who is terrified of cars and busy streets, so she would never be happy at a protest. He brought Daisy back, and she was absolutely perfect. That doesn’t happen that often, as Daisy is quite…um…’special’ and has more behavioral issues and tends to cause problems and/or destruction. This time, however, she was just wonderful, so she got to stay until the end of the protest.

L had fun playing with Chloe, Daisy, and my friend Melody’s son. Both kids were phenomenal for the duration of a four-hour protest. They played, climbed the tree, helped pass out literature, beheaded lots of dandelions, and played with our dogs. They spent a lot of time with Allegrea, too, as children just love her!

After leaving the protest, we had less than two hours in which to do chores, try to catch a quick catnap (Mark succeeded, I failed), get L’s stuff ready for her overnight at my parents, get ourselves cleaned up and dressed nicely, and drop off our girl and head to Madison. M had another one of his surprise outings planned for me as a Mother’s Day gift. We were so short on time we were unable to eat dinner at one of the places we love to eat in Madison. We were forced to hit the Taco Bell drive thru for bean burritos eaten on the road. Somehow, miraculously, I ate that whole burrito in the car without spilling any of it down the front of my chest. That doesn’t often happen, so I appreciate when it does happen every blue moon or so.

We arrived at the Bartell Theater with plenty of time to spare. M had tickets for us to see “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” We have never been disappointed by the quality of a show at the Bartell, and this performance was no exception. It was only the second night of the show, but the company put in a fantastic performance. We particularly enjoyed the actor who played “Chief”.

When we got home late that night, we were both still quite tired, but spent a while hanging with our animals. We were gone so much during the day that we were really missing them. I was up way too late again. I just couldn’t get to sleep very well or stay asleep the past few nights, so I ended up being awake until around 4 both Friday and Saturday nights. Sat. night, I just gave up on sleeping and went downstairs to hang with Dej & Joe after they got home at around 3.

The death of one is a tragedy but the death of millions is just a statistic

Petey, hiding in a box Luciana decorated and put on our old cat tree.

It's looking dreary and stormy outside, and I've had a sinus headache for two damn days. I wish it would just storm and be done with it. I enjoy thunderstorms, except for the inevitable part where Jezebel gets scared and craps all over. Storms & dog crap: inextricably linked.

Today was a little frustrating. It started out with a cluster and hasn't improved terribly. I left the house and got Luciana and Chloe dropped off and was heading to I90 to go to work, ahead of schedule for a change. I got almost out of town and realized that I did not have my cell phone. UGH. I just know as soon as I leave town without my phone, it will be the day that my car breaks down on the interstate or my child gets hurt and I can't be reached. So I turned around to go back home and grab it. So much for being ahead of schedule. I finally made it to I90 with my phone about 10 minutes behind my normal schedule. I made decent time on the interstate (which means I was able to break 80 most of the way), and the beltline was pretty painless. Then I hit John Nolan, which for some unknown reason was backed way the hell up, turning my original 10 minute delay into a 19 minute delay.

By the time I arrived at my regular parking lot, it was full. I had to drive to another parking ramp and slowly drive all the way up to the top level to find a spot. It's a more expensive ramp, too. I finally made it in to work a little late, which really matters to nobody but me, but still!

I've spent the last two days at work fighting with Java. I have everything I need working except one small and ridiculously frustrating issue. I am obsessed with it. I absolutely hate to leave on Weds. and start my 'weekend' with an outstanding issue like that. I will be obsessed with it until I can get back at it on Monday. I did squeeze in a little time to run to the Farmer's Market with Sarita, which is our usual Weds. routine. I was working on THE ISSUE, so delayed our FM trip until lunchtime, optimistically hoping to have it resolved by then. I was wrong. Because we went so much later, I almost missed the organic greens for my bunnies. My usual guy was sold out, but I found some from another vendor. I got more of the habanero salsa that I got last week. It was great, and Dej said it was the best salsa ever, so I had to get her a jar.

I left work late, again, trying to get this problem wrapped up before I had to leave. I finally gave up and left, so it will be waiting for me Monday morning (when I have lots of other high priority things to take care of too). I walked almost all the way to my normal parking lot in the nasty humidity before I remembered that I had to park in a different ramp, which was of course in the opposite direction. I changed direction and made the long walk to my car.

M. had to work late tonight and is still working, because he scheduled a daylily divide. I was looking forward to some time with just L and me, but Hunter came over right away when we got home. They've had a great time, so I've been working on homeschooling material, trying to be productive.

Chloe is currently barking her fool head off, because she is no longer able to run around in the big fence. She is limited to the dog potty area (the big kennel behind the garage) or supervised leash play in the back. Last night I came running downstairs after hearing L & M shouting for me. There's Chloe in the middle of the living room, looking quite proud, with tiny feet hanging out of her mouth. Fuck. There's no way this can end well. She dropped her new "toy", which was by this time a very dead baby rabbit--no more than a day or two old. I felt so horrible and guilty. She found our annual bunny nest before I did, and a baby died because of it. I should have known better than to let her run in the big fence like that, as we have a nest of bunnies in the north-side garden every spring. L & I grabbed the one remaining flashlight from the kitchen (despite owning at least 10 of them, she & H regularly abscond with them and they rarely reappear) and went out to see if there was more carnage outside. We found the nest and were pleased to see that there were still several babies in there, and they were all breathing. We didn't disturb them. We brought out a load of hay, some fresh veggies, and some rabbit pellets and left them all near the nest. It's the best I could do to make ammends for what happened. I was pleased to see that mommy rabbit used a lot of the hay to better insulate and cover her nest. Until those babies are gone, Chloe is going to be a pissed off pup. I hope she doesn't spend the next three weeks standing at the back door barking endlessly to go play outside!

M just made it home, so I need to go visit with him while he eats dinner. In a couple of short hours, we will be watching LOST. I'm still hoping that somehow Daniel isn't permanently dead. I'm not sure how that would work, but I can't stand the last thought that sweet guy had was looking up in his mother's face as she broke his heart by shooting him. They just can't "end" him with such sad last words!