Monday, March 20, 2006
My kingdom for a good pillow...
Ugh. Today is the sort of day you wish you could just go back to bed, except that would be even worse, because I have lost my pillow.
About two or three months ago (right after Christmas? Has it been that long?) I went to one of those Home stores with a friend. They had pillows on sale, with cute little strips of colour along the sides – green and pink (and I think blue, but I was only getting two, so I got green and pink). They were two for one!! Buy one, get one!! I couldn’t resist, because Rob likes to mangle his pillows. Seriously – he squashes them, doubles them over, twists them, and squashes them some more. He needed a new pillow, sort of, and they were there, and they matched, and well, I just gave in and got them. It made my shopping trip a successful hunt.
Except lo, did they suck. They were good at first, for, like, one night. And then it was all downhill. The stuffing flattened out, they had no bounce, and they were generally the worst pillows, ever. Rob went through his in about a week and a half, and I resurrected my old pillow that was stuffed with little flecks of foam, rather than polly-fill. People say those are cheaper, but those people are stupid. That pillow has lasted me forever. It’s probably all full of dust mites, sure, and it probably contains the last strain of scarlet fever known to man, since it was my mother’s before me, but fuck that noise. It holds its shape, it lasts, it’s even survived Rob’s pummeling night after night.
My pillow, me not being a sadist when it comes to those sorts of things, lasted a couple of months. Until recently. Recently, I had to go and get an old secondary pillow out of the basement to use because mine was just too flat to be of any good to anyone. And that was my stop-gap measure – a temporary work-around solution until I could get to the store to get a new pillow.
On Sunday, we ventured out to get a new pillow. We originally were going to go to Sears, but Sears doesn’t open until 11a, and we were out and about at 10:30a. We went to the Jysk store. Now, people will tell you the Jysk store is cheap, and sells not-that-great quality. To them, I say pooh. The Jysk store stuff is just as good as any stuff at Ikea, say, or at your regular department stores. It’s fine. I don’t want to have to pay $800 for a bedding set. So the Jysk is fine. We bought a bunch of stuff, and among the stuff was a new pillow for me.
I spent about seven minutes trying to figure out which pillow to get. A firm one? A medium one? There were really only two contenders, and a badly labeled third possibility. I selected the firm one, and away we went. This pillow, now, is a big pillow. It’s nice and long (although not a King-sized pillow – I could never see the sense in the King-sized pillows… Who needs a pillow that long? Your head would have to be huge!) and it has sides to it. Not the conventional top and bottom sides, which all pillows have, of course, but actual sides around between the top and bottom – a sort of level of cushion-y-ness.
You’d think this would be a good thing.
You would be very, very wrong. And you’d spend an entire sleepless night wishing you had gotten the medium firmness pillow instead.
This pillow was too high! This pillow was too firm! This pillow was not comfortable in any way, shape or form! This was a pillow for… well, someone else! The problem was that if I lied on my back, my head was propped up at such an angle that it forced my chin down into my chest. And when I went to lie on my side, my head was again forced up so that my ear was touching my shoulder. It was all around no-good. I took it out of the pillowcase, thinking that the pillowcase was forcing the pillow (which was large) to conform to such a constricted area, thus increasing its density. No. That helped only a little. The integral problems remained.
So I tossed and turned, all night. I woke up about every 20 minutes or in discomfort. It didn’t give me a crick in my neck, luckily, but was just uncomfortable enough that I couldn’t sleep.
You would also think that because I hadn’t put away either of the previously-discarded pillows, and because they were just on the floor beside the bed, I would have just picked up one of those and used it instead, but I didn’t. I suffered through an entire night.
I have to go back to the Jysk store this afternoon to replace the pillow with the medium-strength pillow. I need a sort of nook for my head, you know? My head is round enough (shut up) that it will roll, if not properly pocketed. When I was single, I used to sleep with two pillows on the bed, and my head resting just between them – so that the sides of my head were cradled by the sides of the pillows. It was glorious! I haven’t had a night’s sleep like that in… well, I can’t say how many days (I’m tired and I can’t count). Whenever Rob gets out of bed before me, or comes to bed afterwards, I try not to linger there, between the pillows, too long, but invariably, that’s when I get the best sleep.
We bought some of those ergonomic memory-foam pillows once. They worked alright for about four hours. And then, when you needed to turn over to your side, they failed miserably. You can’t build a pillow that does it all. You need two pillows, so your head can nestle between them when you’re on your back, and you can use either pillow when you’re on either side, sleeping peacefully. Gone are those days. And reminiscing about them only makes me sad, because I know I’ll never be able to sleep like that again! Let us never speak of this again.
Fearsome-Watch 2006: Fearsome continues to improve. This morning, he was downright friendly and cuddly. He’s gone from being a vicious, terrified wild creature to a house-cat in only two months. He likes it when I visit him before and after work, when we have a chance to play games. His claws are really too sharp for me to get into much with him, so I have to use a twig to skitter around on the bed. He’ll catch it and chew it to bits, and rolls on his back and claws it with his tiny feet… He’s great! And he has started to bump me on the head with his head, so I know he’s accepting me very well. Rob is still a little scary to him, but that’s partly because Rob moves really quickly around him, and Fearsome isn’t adjusted to us yet, and that just scares him.
I let the dogs into his room (sort of by accident) last night, and he didn’t freak out too much at all. He watched them from the bed, and that was it. He let Beau sniff him without running away, and I figure that’s about as good as I can expect, at this point. I’ve taken him into the living room once, and the hallway a couple of times, and the bathroom – we’re expanding his territory very slowly. I figure that’s the right way to do it because he needs to feel as comfortable as possible in our house, especially with the dogs running around. Caspar occasionally bops him on the head, still, whether that’s in play or as a sign that he’s the boss – Fearsome doesn’t appreciate it and usually runs under the bed whenever he does it.
I’m going to attempt to clip his claws this afternoon/evening sometime. I have to get him to relax enough in my arms that I can manipulate the tip of his claw out of his paw to snip it with the nail clippers. You don’t need to de-claw cats – clipping their claws is usually not that big a deal. Of course, I’ve never tried to clip a wild cat’s claws before, but the other cats all let me do it. Smudge grumbles and complains, but she still lets me get most of hers before she wriggles away. Caspar is pretty easy to clip since he’s so laid-back. Tobey, well, poor Tobey has no claws since the people before me had him declawed. He’s alright, but occasionally, he paws the edges of the sofa in a little mad frenzy, as though to say “DAMMIT, these don’t work…”.
We got our Suburban this weekend. Yay! This is a huge purchase for us – the largest joint purchase so far, in terms of actual cash-outlay. Of course, there’s the trailer, which is a lot more money, but it’s over a longer term and smaller payments. The Suburban is a fantastic car. I refuse to call it a truck. It’s enclosed. It’s a car. Sure, it’s the biggest car out there, by far, but it’s still a car. It’s like a wagon, really. Only huge. It’s actually the biggest thing out there – only the Hummer is slightly wider. You really feel powerful driving around in it. Like “get out of my way” powerful. Like “oh, you silly little Acura, you are tiny and ineffectual” powerful. Heh.
As it turns out, the Suburban is fully-loaded with all available options (except one that Rob said something about but I wasn’t listening). It is also the Suburban you get if you want to tow stuff. It has the “big” engine, and the tow package and stuff. Only my friend’s parents never towed anything with it at all. So this was not just a good deal, it was exactly what we need, and almost like getting a new vehicle because of the no-previous-towing thing. The dogs have a huge space at the back, and there’s still a row of seating between us and them. I’m hoping that Cooter will finally calm the hell down about riding in the back now – he just hates it when anyone touches his feet. Well, now he can lie all stretched-out and no one has to touch his feet (except he’ll probably curl up and still grumble when anyone walks by him…).
I have a Board meeting tonight. The night Prison Break returns to the airwaves. It’s very disappointing, and I need the networks to start putting out the schedule at least a month in advance, with notification to me so I can schedule my meetings around them better. I do not want to be having a meeting when the finale is on. Nor when the finale of stupid Lost is on. In fact, I just don’t want to have any more meetings, period. I have started applying for other jobs left, right and center. It’s not the money, because I get enough money (although if there’s more out there, I can’t see the harm in making more…). It’s not the flexibility, because I can’t beat the flexibility here – I can come and go whenever I want, and no one cares at all. It’s the fact that this job gets harder and harder, and I get no more money, and I get only two weeks’ vacation, and the people are dumber and dumber to deal with, and really, I’ve just had it with the evening meetings. Meet on your own time, if you want. If you need me, e-mail me whatever you want. Call me up, conference-style, for fifteen minutes. If you want to meet with me, though, do it during working hours. I just can’t handle this evening meeting stuff any more. That’s MY time! That’s Fearsome’s time! That’s Prison Break time! That’s dinner time! That’s sleeping time!!
Wah.
If anyone out there has a six-hour-per-day job they want to give me, and want to pay me a bunch of money to do easy stuff during that six hours per day, you let me know. The Comments section is open.
About two or three months ago (right after Christmas? Has it been that long?) I went to one of those Home stores with a friend. They had pillows on sale, with cute little strips of colour along the sides – green and pink (and I think blue, but I was only getting two, so I got green and pink). They were two for one!! Buy one, get one!! I couldn’t resist, because Rob likes to mangle his pillows. Seriously – he squashes them, doubles them over, twists them, and squashes them some more. He needed a new pillow, sort of, and they were there, and they matched, and well, I just gave in and got them. It made my shopping trip a successful hunt.
Except lo, did they suck. They were good at first, for, like, one night. And then it was all downhill. The stuffing flattened out, they had no bounce, and they were generally the worst pillows, ever. Rob went through his in about a week and a half, and I resurrected my old pillow that was stuffed with little flecks of foam, rather than polly-fill. People say those are cheaper, but those people are stupid. That pillow has lasted me forever. It’s probably all full of dust mites, sure, and it probably contains the last strain of scarlet fever known to man, since it was my mother’s before me, but fuck that noise. It holds its shape, it lasts, it’s even survived Rob’s pummeling night after night.
My pillow, me not being a sadist when it comes to those sorts of things, lasted a couple of months. Until recently. Recently, I had to go and get an old secondary pillow out of the basement to use because mine was just too flat to be of any good to anyone. And that was my stop-gap measure – a temporary work-around solution until I could get to the store to get a new pillow.
On Sunday, we ventured out to get a new pillow. We originally were going to go to Sears, but Sears doesn’t open until 11a, and we were out and about at 10:30a. We went to the Jysk store. Now, people will tell you the Jysk store is cheap, and sells not-that-great quality. To them, I say pooh. The Jysk store stuff is just as good as any stuff at Ikea, say, or at your regular department stores. It’s fine. I don’t want to have to pay $800 for a bedding set. So the Jysk is fine. We bought a bunch of stuff, and among the stuff was a new pillow for me.
I spent about seven minutes trying to figure out which pillow to get. A firm one? A medium one? There were really only two contenders, and a badly labeled third possibility. I selected the firm one, and away we went. This pillow, now, is a big pillow. It’s nice and long (although not a King-sized pillow – I could never see the sense in the King-sized pillows… Who needs a pillow that long? Your head would have to be huge!) and it has sides to it. Not the conventional top and bottom sides, which all pillows have, of course, but actual sides around between the top and bottom – a sort of level of cushion-y-ness.
You’d think this would be a good thing.
You would be very, very wrong. And you’d spend an entire sleepless night wishing you had gotten the medium firmness pillow instead.
This pillow was too high! This pillow was too firm! This pillow was not comfortable in any way, shape or form! This was a pillow for… well, someone else! The problem was that if I lied on my back, my head was propped up at such an angle that it forced my chin down into my chest. And when I went to lie on my side, my head was again forced up so that my ear was touching my shoulder. It was all around no-good. I took it out of the pillowcase, thinking that the pillowcase was forcing the pillow (which was large) to conform to such a constricted area, thus increasing its density. No. That helped only a little. The integral problems remained.
So I tossed and turned, all night. I woke up about every 20 minutes or in discomfort. It didn’t give me a crick in my neck, luckily, but was just uncomfortable enough that I couldn’t sleep.
You would also think that because I hadn’t put away either of the previously-discarded pillows, and because they were just on the floor beside the bed, I would have just picked up one of those and used it instead, but I didn’t. I suffered through an entire night.
I have to go back to the Jysk store this afternoon to replace the pillow with the medium-strength pillow. I need a sort of nook for my head, you know? My head is round enough (shut up) that it will roll, if not properly pocketed. When I was single, I used to sleep with two pillows on the bed, and my head resting just between them – so that the sides of my head were cradled by the sides of the pillows. It was glorious! I haven’t had a night’s sleep like that in… well, I can’t say how many days (I’m tired and I can’t count). Whenever Rob gets out of bed before me, or comes to bed afterwards, I try not to linger there, between the pillows, too long, but invariably, that’s when I get the best sleep.
We bought some of those ergonomic memory-foam pillows once. They worked alright for about four hours. And then, when you needed to turn over to your side, they failed miserably. You can’t build a pillow that does it all. You need two pillows, so your head can nestle between them when you’re on your back, and you can use either pillow when you’re on either side, sleeping peacefully. Gone are those days. And reminiscing about them only makes me sad, because I know I’ll never be able to sleep like that again! Let us never speak of this again.
Fearsome-Watch 2006: Fearsome continues to improve. This morning, he was downright friendly and cuddly. He’s gone from being a vicious, terrified wild creature to a house-cat in only two months. He likes it when I visit him before and after work, when we have a chance to play games. His claws are really too sharp for me to get into much with him, so I have to use a twig to skitter around on the bed. He’ll catch it and chew it to bits, and rolls on his back and claws it with his tiny feet… He’s great! And he has started to bump me on the head with his head, so I know he’s accepting me very well. Rob is still a little scary to him, but that’s partly because Rob moves really quickly around him, and Fearsome isn’t adjusted to us yet, and that just scares him.
I let the dogs into his room (sort of by accident) last night, and he didn’t freak out too much at all. He watched them from the bed, and that was it. He let Beau sniff him without running away, and I figure that’s about as good as I can expect, at this point. I’ve taken him into the living room once, and the hallway a couple of times, and the bathroom – we’re expanding his territory very slowly. I figure that’s the right way to do it because he needs to feel as comfortable as possible in our house, especially with the dogs running around. Caspar occasionally bops him on the head, still, whether that’s in play or as a sign that he’s the boss – Fearsome doesn’t appreciate it and usually runs under the bed whenever he does it.
I’m going to attempt to clip his claws this afternoon/evening sometime. I have to get him to relax enough in my arms that I can manipulate the tip of his claw out of his paw to snip it with the nail clippers. You don’t need to de-claw cats – clipping their claws is usually not that big a deal. Of course, I’ve never tried to clip a wild cat’s claws before, but the other cats all let me do it. Smudge grumbles and complains, but she still lets me get most of hers before she wriggles away. Caspar is pretty easy to clip since he’s so laid-back. Tobey, well, poor Tobey has no claws since the people before me had him declawed. He’s alright, but occasionally, he paws the edges of the sofa in a little mad frenzy, as though to say “DAMMIT, these don’t work…”.
We got our Suburban this weekend. Yay! This is a huge purchase for us – the largest joint purchase so far, in terms of actual cash-outlay. Of course, there’s the trailer, which is a lot more money, but it’s over a longer term and smaller payments. The Suburban is a fantastic car. I refuse to call it a truck. It’s enclosed. It’s a car. Sure, it’s the biggest car out there, by far, but it’s still a car. It’s like a wagon, really. Only huge. It’s actually the biggest thing out there – only the Hummer is slightly wider. You really feel powerful driving around in it. Like “get out of my way” powerful. Like “oh, you silly little Acura, you are tiny and ineffectual” powerful. Heh.
As it turns out, the Suburban is fully-loaded with all available options (except one that Rob said something about but I wasn’t listening). It is also the Suburban you get if you want to tow stuff. It has the “big” engine, and the tow package and stuff. Only my friend’s parents never towed anything with it at all. So this was not just a good deal, it was exactly what we need, and almost like getting a new vehicle because of the no-previous-towing thing. The dogs have a huge space at the back, and there’s still a row of seating between us and them. I’m hoping that Cooter will finally calm the hell down about riding in the back now – he just hates it when anyone touches his feet. Well, now he can lie all stretched-out and no one has to touch his feet (except he’ll probably curl up and still grumble when anyone walks by him…).
I have a Board meeting tonight. The night Prison Break returns to the airwaves. It’s very disappointing, and I need the networks to start putting out the schedule at least a month in advance, with notification to me so I can schedule my meetings around them better. I do not want to be having a meeting when the finale is on. Nor when the finale of stupid Lost is on. In fact, I just don’t want to have any more meetings, period. I have started applying for other jobs left, right and center. It’s not the money, because I get enough money (although if there’s more out there, I can’t see the harm in making more…). It’s not the flexibility, because I can’t beat the flexibility here – I can come and go whenever I want, and no one cares at all. It’s the fact that this job gets harder and harder, and I get no more money, and I get only two weeks’ vacation, and the people are dumber and dumber to deal with, and really, I’ve just had it with the evening meetings. Meet on your own time, if you want. If you need me, e-mail me whatever you want. Call me up, conference-style, for fifteen minutes. If you want to meet with me, though, do it during working hours. I just can’t handle this evening meeting stuff any more. That’s MY time! That’s Fearsome’s time! That’s Prison Break time! That’s dinner time! That’s sleeping time!!
Wah.
If anyone out there has a six-hour-per-day job they want to give me, and want to pay me a bunch of money to do easy stuff during that six hours per day, you let me know. The Comments section is open.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
You can tame a feral cat but…
You can’t tame a fundraiser!
So. First things first. Well, second things first, actually. The fundraiser was this weekend, and man, I think it went well. I really do. I think we raised some awareness, and I think we raised some funds. Not as many funds as I would have liked, but the awareness thing was the French vanilla pudding with chocolate sauce that day. We got about 150 people, maybe a few more, and ran out of seating.
It wasn’t supposed to be a seated event. I had it in my mind as more of a cocktail event, but sure enough, we put out tables, and people all sat down. That’s the problem with seating – if you provide it, people will use it. And also, there had been food ordered by the other organizer that was of a sit-down type, so the seating was, after all, kind of necessary. And really, with the presentations the way they were, the seating was necessary due to that, too. We got extra tables set up in a jiffy, though, which seemed to please the other organizer.
There were, of course, a few hitches, like the DJ had to get the right wiring, and the sound on the speaker’s presentation wasn’t loud enough because it was off a laptop instead of an independent system, and the other organizer and the speaker made off just before the TV cameras showed up, so I had to talk about things into a big camera with a big, bright light, and I think I might have rambled on a bit then.
However, the fashion show totally ROCKED!! The dogs were fantastic, the outfits were oh-so-cute, and even the people were well-behaved. Beau must have eaten his weight in treats. We sent them back down to the dog holding room when the food was served, but somehow, they made their way back upstairs and were so cute and well-behaved that people couldn’t help but crowd around them, fawning and glowing, petting them and feeding them so many unapproved things…
The silent auction also went very well. There were a couple of items I wish had gone for more, and a couple of items I wish I’d had time to bid on. My father, The Grumpaw, bid on and got a police ride-along certificate, which he says he’ll redeem in spring when it’s nicer out. My sister got a cute leather backpack that suits her very well. My friend Rose got a dog bed and dog treat package and seemed inordinately pleased by that.
One of the puppies in the fashion show got an adoption application for her by one of the guests in attendance. How could she not? She is so cute… a little rat-terrier cross… with her little floppy ears and tiny face.
The people all seemed to have a great time, and that’s the trick, isn’t it? I mean, now we’re in a better position to do even better next year!! Ha. Maybe we can get more help organizing it next year…
I have to say I was very impressed with Beau throughout the evening. He did so very well, didn’t fuss about his outfits, and was a big ham for the cameras. He made friends with everyone in the room, and didn’t bark or whine at all. He was such a good boy!
Speaking of good boys, Fearsome has turned the corner and come around to being a great cat. He just decided on Saturday that it was time he started to enjoy being petted, and now he’s loving it!! I opened his door on Saturday morning, like I always do, and he stayed around, so when I brushed his whiskers, he allowed himself to sink right into my hand!! I was so excited, I wasn’t sure if I should keep petting him, but I did, and then when he had had enough, he went back under the bed. Until I opened the door again, and the process repeated itself!
And from there, it was just a tiny jump to pick him up, which he seemed a little nervous about at first, but then enjoyed, too! Now, today, he’s swirling around my ankles when I go in the room, and looking up at me with optimism and happiness in his eyes. He’s friendlier with the other cats, and is looking out from under the bed at the dogs with interest instead of fear.
So there – you can tame an adult feral cat, in spite of what all the websites say, that it is impossible and you’re just in for a lot of scratches and an unhappy cat. You just have to have the time and patience to do it! It’s amazing that this once totally wild creature, terrified and horrified by humans, is actually allowing me to pet him, and is liking it. I feel like I have won the lottery. Everyone should go out and rescue a cat, today, in his honour.
Now, though, I have to get back to the real world and do some work. I have to catch up from the slacking I did last week when I was concentrating on things other than work. I have to get a few projects started and a few of them done this week. So if I don’t write, it’s not because I don’t care, it’s because I’m, well, probably dead under the piles of paper that are built up all around me.
So. First things first. Well, second things first, actually. The fundraiser was this weekend, and man, I think it went well. I really do. I think we raised some awareness, and I think we raised some funds. Not as many funds as I would have liked, but the awareness thing was the French vanilla pudding with chocolate sauce that day. We got about 150 people, maybe a few more, and ran out of seating.
It wasn’t supposed to be a seated event. I had it in my mind as more of a cocktail event, but sure enough, we put out tables, and people all sat down. That’s the problem with seating – if you provide it, people will use it. And also, there had been food ordered by the other organizer that was of a sit-down type, so the seating was, after all, kind of necessary. And really, with the presentations the way they were, the seating was necessary due to that, too. We got extra tables set up in a jiffy, though, which seemed to please the other organizer.
There were, of course, a few hitches, like the DJ had to get the right wiring, and the sound on the speaker’s presentation wasn’t loud enough because it was off a laptop instead of an independent system, and the other organizer and the speaker made off just before the TV cameras showed up, so I had to talk about things into a big camera with a big, bright light, and I think I might have rambled on a bit then.
However, the fashion show totally ROCKED!! The dogs were fantastic, the outfits were oh-so-cute, and even the people were well-behaved. Beau must have eaten his weight in treats. We sent them back down to the dog holding room when the food was served, but somehow, they made their way back upstairs and were so cute and well-behaved that people couldn’t help but crowd around them, fawning and glowing, petting them and feeding them so many unapproved things…
The silent auction also went very well. There were a couple of items I wish had gone for more, and a couple of items I wish I’d had time to bid on. My father, The Grumpaw, bid on and got a police ride-along certificate, which he says he’ll redeem in spring when it’s nicer out. My sister got a cute leather backpack that suits her very well. My friend Rose got a dog bed and dog treat package and seemed inordinately pleased by that.
One of the puppies in the fashion show got an adoption application for her by one of the guests in attendance. How could she not? She is so cute… a little rat-terrier cross… with her little floppy ears and tiny face.
The people all seemed to have a great time, and that’s the trick, isn’t it? I mean, now we’re in a better position to do even better next year!! Ha. Maybe we can get more help organizing it next year…
I have to say I was very impressed with Beau throughout the evening. He did so very well, didn’t fuss about his outfits, and was a big ham for the cameras. He made friends with everyone in the room, and didn’t bark or whine at all. He was such a good boy!
Speaking of good boys, Fearsome has turned the corner and come around to being a great cat. He just decided on Saturday that it was time he started to enjoy being petted, and now he’s loving it!! I opened his door on Saturday morning, like I always do, and he stayed around, so when I brushed his whiskers, he allowed himself to sink right into my hand!! I was so excited, I wasn’t sure if I should keep petting him, but I did, and then when he had had enough, he went back under the bed. Until I opened the door again, and the process repeated itself!
And from there, it was just a tiny jump to pick him up, which he seemed a little nervous about at first, but then enjoyed, too! Now, today, he’s swirling around my ankles when I go in the room, and looking up at me with optimism and happiness in his eyes. He’s friendlier with the other cats, and is looking out from under the bed at the dogs with interest instead of fear.
So there – you can tame an adult feral cat, in spite of what all the websites say, that it is impossible and you’re just in for a lot of scratches and an unhappy cat. You just have to have the time and patience to do it! It’s amazing that this once totally wild creature, terrified and horrified by humans, is actually allowing me to pet him, and is liking it. I feel like I have won the lottery. Everyone should go out and rescue a cat, today, in his honour.
Now, though, I have to get back to the real world and do some work. I have to catch up from the slacking I did last week when I was concentrating on things other than work. I have to get a few projects started and a few of them done this week. So if I don’t write, it’s not because I don’t care, it’s because I’m, well, probably dead under the piles of paper that are built up all around me.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Another quick update…
Good lord… the 1atatime Fundraiser is this Saturday. Where the hell does time go? I mean that actually – what is time, how do you quantify it, and where does it go? Is it a dimension? Is it a physics thing? Fuck. I should have paid more attention in school…
Anyway, so yeah. It’s coming, and fast. Things had gotten a little off the rails here earlier this week, when we had no confirmed MC, no DJ for the fashion show, no dogs ready for the show, no list of donation to the auction, and a bunch of volunteers with no schedule. So again, FUCK. On Tuesday, I got nearly enough dogs sent to the boutique for the fashion show (heh – Beau is in it, and he’ll be wearing a fricking TUXEDO, for crying out loud, and damnit it all if he doesn’t look the cutest in it…), I lined up a DJ through Rob (who is cool – thanks Sweetie!), partially convinced the MC to confirm, started a list of the donations, and printed out some tickets (we had nearly run out of tickets, too).
It felt like I had been run over by a truck.
Today, it looks like we will have an MC one way or another, which is good – I don’t want to be stuck with it. We’re doing OK with the dogs for the show. I’m madly trying to sell tickets, which are $50 in advance, $65 at the door. It just seems like there is so much to do, though. Ugh.
So this is the only chance I’ll have to update before our little soiree. I thought I’d mention how well Fearsome is doing. He’s less afraid when I pick him up, and he was interested in playing with the other cats (who all invaded his room last night), although he hung back whenever I was around. He took a few steps outside his room this morning when I accidentally left his door open (oops!), but zipped back in when I came down the hallway. Funny! I think he’s nearly ready to be released into the rest of the house, and I’m really looking forward to the time when I can pet him, and he’ll actually let himself enjoy it.
Beau, of course, had obedience class last night. He did terribly!! He broke all his “stay” commands. Even the lie-down stay, whereas he’s usually perfect at that one, because he just collapses like a little pile of laundry when you tell him to sit. He usually lies around the entire time, but last night, he got right up and came over to me at each try. Rotten dog. He did well through most of the rest of the class with his heeling, though. He’ll do pretty much anything for food. Graduation is coming up, so we have a lot of homework to do!!
Our camper still hasn’t sold yet, although we’re hopeful. Rob has another couple of people coming to look at it this week. It would be nice to have it work out that the camper sells before our new trailer comes in. I’m a little suspicious about the trailer coming in on time and with all the things we ordered. It’s not like they’re keeping in good contact with us. I’m not expecting daily updates or anything, but a call every couple of weeks might reassure me a little when I’m spending a ton of money on an RV.
I have to say, I’m not a fan of the on-call service we use here at work. They answer all the emergency calls after-hours and are supposed to page them out to the appropriate property managers. Of course, there are the occasional errors, which I can understand. However, they can’t seem to get people’s phone numbers right, the calls are never paged out to the right managers, and the agents are not the sharpest knives in the drawer. Last night, I was called at 1:30a about a property we don’t even manage, about a call that was clearly not an emergency. It was about a parking stall. I don’t care what time of day it is, or what is happening, but a parking stall is NOT AN EMERGENCY!! Even if it was on fire (unlikely), it wouldn’t be something I could help them with, even if it was at one of my properties. Unless the building has collapsed, and has fallen INTO your parking stall, you should not call the after-hours emergency call-out service about a parking stall. Even then, what I could do to help you would be very, very limited. I could offer sympathy, and that’s about it. And that’s if I was in a generous mood.
At any rate, time is short, and many things are afoot. I hope I survive the weekend and can update you with many positive comments about how it went. Until then…
Anyway, so yeah. It’s coming, and fast. Things had gotten a little off the rails here earlier this week, when we had no confirmed MC, no DJ for the fashion show, no dogs ready for the show, no list of donation to the auction, and a bunch of volunteers with no schedule. So again, FUCK. On Tuesday, I got nearly enough dogs sent to the boutique for the fashion show (heh – Beau is in it, and he’ll be wearing a fricking TUXEDO, for crying out loud, and damnit it all if he doesn’t look the cutest in it…), I lined up a DJ through Rob (who is cool – thanks Sweetie!), partially convinced the MC to confirm, started a list of the donations, and printed out some tickets (we had nearly run out of tickets, too).
It felt like I had been run over by a truck.
Today, it looks like we will have an MC one way or another, which is good – I don’t want to be stuck with it. We’re doing OK with the dogs for the show. I’m madly trying to sell tickets, which are $50 in advance, $65 at the door. It just seems like there is so much to do, though. Ugh.
So this is the only chance I’ll have to update before our little soiree. I thought I’d mention how well Fearsome is doing. He’s less afraid when I pick him up, and he was interested in playing with the other cats (who all invaded his room last night), although he hung back whenever I was around. He took a few steps outside his room this morning when I accidentally left his door open (oops!), but zipped back in when I came down the hallway. Funny! I think he’s nearly ready to be released into the rest of the house, and I’m really looking forward to the time when I can pet him, and he’ll actually let himself enjoy it.
Beau, of course, had obedience class last night. He did terribly!! He broke all his “stay” commands. Even the lie-down stay, whereas he’s usually perfect at that one, because he just collapses like a little pile of laundry when you tell him to sit. He usually lies around the entire time, but last night, he got right up and came over to me at each try. Rotten dog. He did well through most of the rest of the class with his heeling, though. He’ll do pretty much anything for food. Graduation is coming up, so we have a lot of homework to do!!
Our camper still hasn’t sold yet, although we’re hopeful. Rob has another couple of people coming to look at it this week. It would be nice to have it work out that the camper sells before our new trailer comes in. I’m a little suspicious about the trailer coming in on time and with all the things we ordered. It’s not like they’re keeping in good contact with us. I’m not expecting daily updates or anything, but a call every couple of weeks might reassure me a little when I’m spending a ton of money on an RV.
I have to say, I’m not a fan of the on-call service we use here at work. They answer all the emergency calls after-hours and are supposed to page them out to the appropriate property managers. Of course, there are the occasional errors, which I can understand. However, they can’t seem to get people’s phone numbers right, the calls are never paged out to the right managers, and the agents are not the sharpest knives in the drawer. Last night, I was called at 1:30a about a property we don’t even manage, about a call that was clearly not an emergency. It was about a parking stall. I don’t care what time of day it is, or what is happening, but a parking stall is NOT AN EMERGENCY!! Even if it was on fire (unlikely), it wouldn’t be something I could help them with, even if it was at one of my properties. Unless the building has collapsed, and has fallen INTO your parking stall, you should not call the after-hours emergency call-out service about a parking stall. Even then, what I could do to help you would be very, very limited. I could offer sympathy, and that’s about it. And that’s if I was in a generous mood.
At any rate, time is short, and many things are afoot. I hope I survive the weekend and can update you with many positive comments about how it went. Until then…
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
SECOND UPDATE IN AS MANY DAYS!!! The world may, indeed, be coming to an end…
But I had to write. You see, there’s this place called myspace.com. I was tipped off to it by another journaller who has abandoned his old journal in favour of it.
And man! What a crazy place!! They have spaces for all sorts of pictures, and it’s easy to add ‘em in! And apparently, you can customize the pages, too, although I don’t have the time or the inclination or the aptitude to do this quickly, so my page is just a very plain page. It’s crazy!!
And apparently, you can set the settings so that only your “friends” (people on a list you make – more on this in a bit) can see your blog. So it’s attractive in that vein, for some.
I set up a profile so I can see this other blog (eventually, if he changes it to “friends-only”), and then, I set about trying to add a friend. Only, see, you have to know who these people are and actually go to their pages before you can add them. It’s a bit cumbersome, and it took me a long time to figure it out. I’m not a technophobe or anything, and I like to think I can find my way around systems pretty well, but apparently, I suck.
Kids these days. I blame them entirely. They’re all born now with iPods in their mouths, keyboards glued to their little fingers. Or are they switching now to some sort of auto-write pad or something? The next technology? I don’t know. But they’re fast on the computers, and proficient, and can write all their own pages.
Anyway, all of you who read this (and no, I don’t know who you are), should go and set up myspace profiles and invite me to be your friend. Because having only the page avatar, “Tom”, as a friend is a little depressing. I need at least three “real” friends to feel comfortable.
In further news, Fearsome continues to improve! Today, he let me open the door to his room a crack, and play stick with him. Playing stick with a cat involves rustling the stick around like prey, so he can pounce on it, not throwing it like you do for dogs. He also let me feed him, which he always does, but usually, he retreats under the bed until I leave, and then comes out to eat. This morning, though, I put his canned food out, and he came right out from under the bed and started to eat. And it’s not like he was starving, either – his dry food wasn’t gone, and he didn’t finish the plate, but at least he’s not terrified of me any more. He’s making incredible progress, and to all of you who think it’s impossible to tame a wild cat, you’re wrong. You can do it!! You just have to persevere, and have months of time at your disposal, and the will to risk your appendages at the ends of his claws.
Fearsome is so cute, with his tiny voice. Maybe I can find a way to post pictures on the myspace page (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=59513120). As you can see, I don’t yet know how to do the html thing on this page, either!
And man! What a crazy place!! They have spaces for all sorts of pictures, and it’s easy to add ‘em in! And apparently, you can customize the pages, too, although I don’t have the time or the inclination or the aptitude to do this quickly, so my page is just a very plain page. It’s crazy!!
And apparently, you can set the settings so that only your “friends” (people on a list you make – more on this in a bit) can see your blog. So it’s attractive in that vein, for some.
I set up a profile so I can see this other blog (eventually, if he changes it to “friends-only”), and then, I set about trying to add a friend. Only, see, you have to know who these people are and actually go to their pages before you can add them. It’s a bit cumbersome, and it took me a long time to figure it out. I’m not a technophobe or anything, and I like to think I can find my way around systems pretty well, but apparently, I suck.
Kids these days. I blame them entirely. They’re all born now with iPods in their mouths, keyboards glued to their little fingers. Or are they switching now to some sort of auto-write pad or something? The next technology? I don’t know. But they’re fast on the computers, and proficient, and can write all their own pages.
Anyway, all of you who read this (and no, I don’t know who you are), should go and set up myspace profiles and invite me to be your friend. Because having only the page avatar, “Tom”, as a friend is a little depressing. I need at least three “real” friends to feel comfortable.
In further news, Fearsome continues to improve! Today, he let me open the door to his room a crack, and play stick with him. Playing stick with a cat involves rustling the stick around like prey, so he can pounce on it, not throwing it like you do for dogs. He also let me feed him, which he always does, but usually, he retreats under the bed until I leave, and then comes out to eat. This morning, though, I put his canned food out, and he came right out from under the bed and started to eat. And it’s not like he was starving, either – his dry food wasn’t gone, and he didn’t finish the plate, but at least he’s not terrified of me any more. He’s making incredible progress, and to all of you who think it’s impossible to tame a wild cat, you’re wrong. You can do it!! You just have to persevere, and have months of time at your disposal, and the will to risk your appendages at the ends of his claws.
Fearsome is so cute, with his tiny voice. Maybe I can find a way to post pictures on the myspace page (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=59513120). As you can see, I don’t yet know how to do the html thing on this page, either!
