Update
-I got back from Blacksburg, Va., and Virginia Tech late Thursday night. As you might expect, it was a pretty horrible thing to cover. I spoke with some fantastic people, though, all of whom are crucial parts of the spiritual counseling being given out to the students and the community. I'm in awe of how well they're handling the situation, I'm sure I'd be a mess. I have more to say on it, but I'm done talking about it all for now.
-For those of you keeping up with the news on NPR and whether they're going to hire me - I got some good news on Friday. I had pretty much given up on them wanting me since I'd sent in my info weeks ago, but I called on Friday anyway. The hiring manager I spoke with said they were unfortunately moving very slowly on it and would hopefully get to it soon. So, there's still hope for me.
-If you're keeping up with the "Get off your lazy ass and read!" challenge I'm doing with Amber, I have now completed 13 books and am solidly in the middle of my 14th book. I've read some good ones but I'm now thinking I should stop reading so many war-related books because they're depressing me. I read the two books that inspired the movie "Full Metal Jacket" (one of my all-time favorite movies) and I've also read "Hiroshima" by Jon Hersey. Then I moved on to some classic and read "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson. That was a good one, glad I picked it up.
Recently when I've gone to the library I've gotten stuck in the classics section where they have multiple paperback copies of what they consider "classics." And then I can't help myself from picking up four or five of those at a time...and then thinking that some high schooler out there might be cursing me for taking the last copy of something she has to read for an English class. Sorry!
Anyway, I'm right in the middle of "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" (as told to Alex Haley) right now. It's really good. Next up is "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair. And then of course I have about 34 other books in my already owned "Read These You Lazy Bastard!" pile in my house. I can't help it if the library is so tempting.
-I had a lovely Earth Day weekend, thank you for asking. I went home early from work Friday and washed my car in the backyard since it was so nice outside, and also because I can now wash my own car in my own yard. Pretty neat. And the car certainly needed it - birds had declared war on it long ago. When I finished I made angry eyes at the sparrow family who appear to have created a home in our rain gutter up on the roof. They just scolded me. I dared them to crap on the car now and see what would happen. I scared them enough because the car remained beautifully crap-free. Until Sunday morning. Oh well, I enjoyed it while it lasted.
Saturday was a "I'm Lazy" day where I watched Amy do laundry and hang it up outside to dry - another perk of having a house. Thankfully the birds don't find it necessary to declare war on our clean laundry.
Sunday I spent most of the day at a local state park doing trail maintenance and assessment for Earth Day. It was really fun and I met some great people. Plus, the weekend was beautiful as far as weather goes, so being out in nature was even more fun.
And now it's back to work.
-Thursday night should be real fun - it's time to take our precious little terror of a cat to her yearly vet appointment. She just loves that whole process, let me tell you. She has supersonic cat hearing and is able to tell when we're within several feet of her cat carrier. Then she hides, or runs. Then, when trying to force her into the carrier, she somehow becomes 30lbs heavier and 40 feet wide - impossible to stuff into the carrier without sustaining some sort of claw injuries. Should be a blast, let me tell ya.
When we first got Tuesday we also got this book out of the library on how to care for cats. It included this chapter on getting them used to vet trips and the carrier and car rides. The author suggested leaving the cat carrier out all the time so the cat could get used to it. She also suggested feeding the cat inside the carrier.
Tuesday eats like a horse, food is her sole motivating factor in life. Much like her supersonic cat hearing, she is able to tell when you're within five feet of her food bag even if she's somewhere else in the house. We usually feed her around 5:30 or 6pm nightly, but if we're home, she'll start pestering us around 3pm.
Anyway, my point is that she loves her some food. Knowing her love of food and hatred of the cat carrier, we knew it'd be interesting to try out the plan of putting her food inside the carrier, bringing the two forces together to hash it out in her kitty brain.
So, one day a year or so ago, Amy and I filled Tuesday's dish with food and then set it inside the cat carrier. Tuesday watched the whole process and you could actually see the terror in her eyes. It was critical thinking for her - how can I avoid the evil carrier but still get my delicious food? Of course the food won, but the hatred of the carrier still had an effect. Tuesday's solution was to stretch her neck out as long as possible, almost like ET, and technically not be inside the carrier but still able to enjoy the food. It was hilarious to watch and then eventually we felt bad for her trying to reach the food. So we moved it back farther into the carrier. Boring holes into us with her expression of death, she tried to stretch farther - this time allowing one paw to ever-so-delicately touch inside the carrier. She managed to reach again, but still while stretching out to an unbelieveable length.
We eventually gave in and just pushed the food forward so she wouldn't have to injure herself to get her food. She won, but at least we got a good laugh out of it. To this day she continues to plot out exactly how she will kill us in our sleep one night.
-I got back from Blacksburg, Va., and Virginia Tech late Thursday night. As you might expect, it was a pretty horrible thing to cover. I spoke with some fantastic people, though, all of whom are crucial parts of the spiritual counseling being given out to the students and the community. I'm in awe of how well they're handling the situation, I'm sure I'd be a mess. I have more to say on it, but I'm done talking about it all for now.
-For those of you keeping up with the news on NPR and whether they're going to hire me - I got some good news on Friday. I had pretty much given up on them wanting me since I'd sent in my info weeks ago, but I called on Friday anyway. The hiring manager I spoke with said they were unfortunately moving very slowly on it and would hopefully get to it soon. So, there's still hope for me.
-If you're keeping up with the "Get off your lazy ass and read!" challenge I'm doing with Amber, I have now completed 13 books and am solidly in the middle of my 14th book. I've read some good ones but I'm now thinking I should stop reading so many war-related books because they're depressing me. I read the two books that inspired the movie "Full Metal Jacket" (one of my all-time favorite movies) and I've also read "Hiroshima" by Jon Hersey. Then I moved on to some classic and read "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson. That was a good one, glad I picked it up.
Recently when I've gone to the library I've gotten stuck in the classics section where they have multiple paperback copies of what they consider "classics." And then I can't help myself from picking up four or five of those at a time...and then thinking that some high schooler out there might be cursing me for taking the last copy of something she has to read for an English class. Sorry!
Anyway, I'm right in the middle of "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" (as told to Alex Haley) right now. It's really good. Next up is "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair. And then of course I have about 34 other books in my already owned "Read These You Lazy Bastard!" pile in my house. I can't help it if the library is so tempting.
-I had a lovely Earth Day weekend, thank you for asking. I went home early from work Friday and washed my car in the backyard since it was so nice outside, and also because I can now wash my own car in my own yard. Pretty neat. And the car certainly needed it - birds had declared war on it long ago. When I finished I made angry eyes at the sparrow family who appear to have created a home in our rain gutter up on the roof. They just scolded me. I dared them to crap on the car now and see what would happen. I scared them enough because the car remained beautifully crap-free. Until Sunday morning. Oh well, I enjoyed it while it lasted.
Saturday was a "I'm Lazy" day where I watched Amy do laundry and hang it up outside to dry - another perk of having a house. Thankfully the birds don't find it necessary to declare war on our clean laundry.
Sunday I spent most of the day at a local state park doing trail maintenance and assessment for Earth Day. It was really fun and I met some great people. Plus, the weekend was beautiful as far as weather goes, so being out in nature was even more fun.
And now it's back to work.
-Thursday night should be real fun - it's time to take our precious little terror of a cat to her yearly vet appointment. She just loves that whole process, let me tell you. She has supersonic cat hearing and is able to tell when we're within several feet of her cat carrier. Then she hides, or runs. Then, when trying to force her into the carrier, she somehow becomes 30lbs heavier and 40 feet wide - impossible to stuff into the carrier without sustaining some sort of claw injuries. Should be a blast, let me tell ya.
When we first got Tuesday we also got this book out of the library on how to care for cats. It included this chapter on getting them used to vet trips and the carrier and car rides. The author suggested leaving the cat carrier out all the time so the cat could get used to it. She also suggested feeding the cat inside the carrier.
Tuesday eats like a horse, food is her sole motivating factor in life. Much like her supersonic cat hearing, she is able to tell when you're within five feet of her food bag even if she's somewhere else in the house. We usually feed her around 5:30 or 6pm nightly, but if we're home, she'll start pestering us around 3pm.
Anyway, my point is that she loves her some food. Knowing her love of food and hatred of the cat carrier, we knew it'd be interesting to try out the plan of putting her food inside the carrier, bringing the two forces together to hash it out in her kitty brain.
So, one day a year or so ago, Amy and I filled Tuesday's dish with food and then set it inside the cat carrier. Tuesday watched the whole process and you could actually see the terror in her eyes. It was critical thinking for her - how can I avoid the evil carrier but still get my delicious food? Of course the food won, but the hatred of the carrier still had an effect. Tuesday's solution was to stretch her neck out as long as possible, almost like ET, and technically not be inside the carrier but still able to enjoy the food. It was hilarious to watch and then eventually we felt bad for her trying to reach the food. So we moved it back farther into the carrier. Boring holes into us with her expression of death, she tried to stretch farther - this time allowing one paw to ever-so-delicately touch inside the carrier. She managed to reach again, but still while stretching out to an unbelieveable length.
We eventually gave in and just pushed the food forward so she wouldn't have to injure herself to get her food. She won, but at least we got a good laugh out of it. To this day she continues to plot out exactly how she will kill us in our sleep one night.
posted by H at
9:57 AM
2 Comments:
That's awesome - I miss having a cat. =( Will visit Tuesday in August, though!
Also, it took ARINC three months to hire me from the date they got my resume. In that time, I had two interviews spaced reaaaalllly far apart. Don't give up!!
We left our cat carriers out after we took the kittens to get their rabies shots a few weeks ago. They voluntarily play in the cat carrier. they'll just go sit in there and chill out, and then they'll fight so that the other one can get into the cat carrier. They are kind of strange.
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