Miss Dierdre's Visit and Christmas

Miss Dierdre came to visit us, arriving late in the evening of the 22nd, and leaving the morning of the 24th. Due to inclement weather, she estimated that she spent as much time in transportation as she actually did in visitation. While this was unfortunate, it was better than not being able to see my dear friend at all, as we have not been together since Miss Caitlin and Miss Adrien graduated from college. This was a sad situation without remedy except such as the two ladies devised. Since the weather was poorly, Miss Caitlin and Miss Adrien spent most of the time inside, playing games with Miss Caitlin's Bother and watching a particularly terrible Japanese drama.

After Miss Adrien and Miss Dierdre left, Mr. Caitlin's Father arrived. On Christmas morning, it was found that a most unwelcome guest had stowed away with him on the way down and hidden herself in Miss Caitlin's stocking - that devious Sheepy. A picture will not be provided as she is not worth it. She has, however, been behaving since arriving. She will depart when Miss Caitlin goes north to visit her grandparents next week and observe the work on the family house. She will not return.

Miss Caitlin has her splints removed tomorrow. She will be immensely relieved, as will everyone else. Their lingering presence has her predispositioned toward crabbiness. It does not help that she is rather stuffy but can do nothing about it. She feels that she will be much more cheerful after they are removed tomorrow. Hopefully, it will be the first day in the rest of her life of easy breathing.

Surgery

Cat is doing ok. The doctor and the nurses said that she did a good job and that everything went well. She came home and after napping she watched Cold Comfort Farm. It's a movie set in the 30's about a girl who moves in with some strange relatives and makes their lives better. She borrowed a lot of movies from her mom and dad. That was one of them. She'll probably watch more movies today.

Yesterday was not so much fun. The pain medicine made Cat throw up lots. She couldn't have any more. It's okay because she says it doesn't hurt so much that she needs the big pain medication. She has Tylenol instead.

She doesn't feel that bad and wants everyone to know that she's doing ok. Still, I'm not going to sunggle with her. Comfort does that, and she'll probably have to get a bath because Cat spills stuff on her. I don't want a bath. I'll watch her from over here.

Pictures and News

I have a plethora of pictures to share with you tonight. First, I would like to note that Miss Dierdre has voiced no displeasure toward me. Quite to the contrary, it is my understanding that she is coming to visit me. The agreeable Miss Adrien will accompany Miss Dierdre in visiting Miss Caitlin as she recovers from her surgery next week. I will first share, then, in honor of their upcoming visit, the remainder of the pictures Miss Dierdre has sent to me to display.

This delightful picture of Miss Adrien and Miss Dierdre was taken at a reenactment that they participated in a few weeks ago. One of Miss Adrien's acquaintances is a skilled seamstress who has a daughter who would often accompanies them to reenactments. It was found that a few of said daughter's dresses could be modified to fit Miss Adrien, so that she could participate until she learned to sew well enough to construct a dress herself. Miss Adrien also attended a ball for the occasion, for which outing she looked quite splendid.

Here Miss Dierdre relaxes at the reenactment while looking after miss Adrien's things.


This picture and the next are of Deirdre and the decorations at Miss Adrien's friends' house. Can you find her in the mantel picture? She's so clever. . .


Dierdre seems to find slightly dangerous places to sit . . . I do not encourage such behavior. I hope her good sense will return when she returns to the North . . .

And now to our own pictures. Miss Caitlin has completed her Christmas decorations as best she can. She will be hosting Christmas - or rather, Christmas will be at our house while she hopefully recovers well from her surgery.


This is Miss Caitlin's tree. Her grandparents kindly gave her the tree. She had to scrounge the sales to purchase ornaments. They are rather plain, but she will hopefully switch them out with more interesting ornaments in the years to come.


Here we are, under Miss Caitlin's tree. Sheela and Clem decided to join Tipsy, Josey, and I and we lounged on the few gifts that Miss Caitlin has in hand to wrap.

Here the blogging staff is under our tree. Miss Caitlin and Miss Caitlin's Bother kindly put it up for us. It was in the kitchen, but Miss Caitlin and her Bother agreed it was better in the family room by the mantel. The mantel is decorated as well, but the display will not be finished until Mrs. Caitlin's Mother brings the stockings down.


Here is Clem and the irrepressible Cabbage Patch Kids, all decked out for the holidays. Miss Caitlin finished their outfits over Thanksgiving. Personally, I find Master Shawn's shirt to be particularly grotesque, even as far as holiday wear goes, but he seem rather ecstatic about the seasonal addition to his wardrobe. Miss Comfort pulls of the look with a little more panache. Her blouse in particular is almost tasteful. Miss Caitlin is exceptionally proud of the stitching that makes up the blouse. Miss Comfort was less pleased with the bloomers that Miss Caitlin added to the outfit, but she has been mollified by repeated iterations of the opinion that the bloomers look much better than the leggings that the pattern calls for.

Now, for people still concerned about Miss Caitlin's surgery (and have bothered to read this far), Miss Caitlin located this article which better describes the procedures she is having done. Both aspects of the procedure are being done, in addition to any draining of the sinuses that might prove necessary. Miss Caitlin will be fitted with splints that will have to be rinsed often to ensure a speedy recovery. She will have the procedure done on the 17th and the splints will be removed on the 29th. That will hopefully mark the end of her recovery. Miss Caitlin looks forward to breathing much easier come January.

I hope to keep you updated on the recovery process, but holiday greetings to all in the mean time.

I Can't Believe Snibbly Forgot

After being all angsty about the election, Snibbly totally didn't talk about it. He and Cat were real nervous. Cat called her parents and Gabe-Poli-Sci-Man and they all were like, it'll be over when California is called, chill. But still Cat was so relieved when they announced it that she burst into tears. Very silly. I mean, of course that Obama guy was going to win. It'd be the least he could do after Cat and Snibbly went through all the trouble to go see him and everything. That'd just be ungrateful!

You know what else Snibbly forgot about? (he's going to be in trouble!) He forgot we got pictures from Deirdre. She's at Fort Sumter with Miss Adrien and we miss her lots.


I'm not so sure that Fort Sumter is a safe place for her to be . . . (watch out Deirdre!)


I mean this looks like moref fun. Maybe a little like that castle place we got to play in at Greece.


Okay, so maybe it's okay-fun, but I think it would be more fun if she got to see us all the time. Like we used to. She's probably really lonely . . . I'm not sure the farm animals in South Carolina are as nice as here. I bet they say things like "Bless her heart . . ." And they might seem nice, but when she's not there, I bet they say not nice things. And Deirdre doesn't have friends there to stick up for her when she's not around, or at least tell Deirdre what the other animals said . . . Come back to civilization soon, Deirdre! And don't tell anyone "Bless her heart!"

Apologies, yet again

We have been most remiss in our blogging duties. I can only beg forgiveness - Miss Caitlin often takes her computer with her to class these days, limiting time available on it. She was also recently ill, which threw another set of complications in the way.

She has recovered, more or less, now. While she was ill, she took to reading juvenile literature, to better familiarize herself with the literature of her chosen profession. Most of the books were enjoyable enough, but largely superficial. One series, however, impressed me greatly. Author Kate Dicamillo and illustrator Chris Van Dusen need to be congratulated on creating such a delightful series, one that, in fact, all children should read. The heroine of their series is a fine sow named Mercy Watson, who is treated properly by her humans and manages to save the day in every book. This series is important because it exposes children to the nobility of the porcine species - it also teaches children that very important word - porcine. Miss Caitlin and I recomend it to first and second graders, noting that it can make an excellent read aloud book for younger children.

I fear there is little to tell in other news. Miss Caitlin in entrenched in looking into the consruction of youth advisory boards in public libraries. She is also looking into how libraries can make e-books available to their patrons without bending copyright laws too far. In general, she expects November to be very busy with school work, and December to be very busy with preparation for, going through, and recovering from her up coming sinus surgery. Tipsy and myself will attempt to keep you updated.

The Obama Rally, a Month Later

Miss Caitlin has left me little time to update our blog. She most unfairly whisks it away with her to classes and then monopolizes it when she is home. In addition, it has been a busy month for us. Miss Adrien had previously secured for us a goat, who has accepted the name Sheela.


You may also notice the presence of Hamlet the Elder - he was sent as a representation of the Lord King Reggie to Miss Caitlin's bother's surgery (his tonsillectomy). Having been brought by Mrs. Caitlin's Mother, the good pig Hamlet was also left by her. He is stranded here until Miss Caitlin visits her family next month.

Miss Caitlin finally has access to the pictures Miss Caitlin's bother's girlfriend took at the Obama Rally. Miss Caitlin has some pictures of her own, but her camera was distressed by the heat like the rest of us and had ceased working by the time the Senator actually came out.


This is a picture of some of the line that we had to endure. It moved fairly quickly and an amusing array of street vendors provided some interest.


This one is of Miss Caitlin and me in line. It was taken by Miss Jess (Miss Caitlin's bother's girlfriend). This was before she bought her hat - one of the vendors sold white baseball caps with the Obama logo on it. Miss Caitlin considered this to be a fortuitous purchase later.


This is me by the old capitol building, in front of which the rally took place. We were situated off to stage left, so would have appeared on the far right in any footage of the speech.


This crowd shot, taken again by Miss Jess, gives you an idea of what we were in for. It was dreadfully hot and the press of people made matters much worse. There was also not enough water for the amount of people who were there. Bad planning on the Obama people's part.


But the waiting was worth it, and we were privileged enough to see both Obama and Biden speak. Here is a nice shot of Obama - he entered from our side, so Miss Jess had few decent pictures, but it was hard to see the podium and the other entrance from where we were standing. Unfortunately, we did not get as good of pictures of the vice presidential candidate.

I heatily recommend that everyone make the effort to attend a political rally for the political candidate of their choice at least once in their lifetime. Miss Caitlin thoroughly enjoyed it, even though she got terribly sunburned.

In Class

Miss Caitlin is in class right now. She is learning how to use SeaMonkey, which is a free text editing program that is put out by the same people as Firefox. Actually, it is a lot more than a text editor, but that is all they are using it for in class. The class is basic web design, using this WYSIWYG editor. Miss Caitlin got bored and started practicing in the HTML code section. But the editor makes things a little easier.

I have some interesting things to say about Springfield and Obama from two weekends ago. Never fear, I will report about it, but Miss Caitlin has yet to get the pictures from Miss Caitlin's bother's girlfriend who went with us. After that has occurred, I will, of course, say more.

University, Take 2: Don't Throw Shade on the Corn

Cat finally got around to taking us with her to University to see where she's going to go to work and school. First we had to sit through this long talk about campus resources and then all these people introducing themselves and babbling about "community informatics," youth services, and the designs of library buildings . . . it wasn't very interesting at all, but Cat was pretty excited about the free pizza involved.

Then Cat took us around campus. First stop was to show us where she works.


I'm not kidding. This is it. But where's the library? It's there, can you find it?


Here it is! It's underground! Basically the roof is at street level (actually about three steps up) and so this is a shot from above into the courtyard. What does this mean exactly? It means Cat works in a pit! AHAHAHAHAHA!

Even funnier than that is why the undergad library is underground. In 1969, when the library was going to be built, two things drove the undergrad underground. One reason was to keep the quad from feeling entirely enclosed. I guess they didn't think that would be pretty. But - horror of horror - if they built anything there above ground, it would throw shade on the corn.

CORN?!?! Yeah, corn. Here it is. With us.


There's actually soybeans there now too. So it's not just corn. Anyway, why is there corn on the freakin' quad, and why does that mean that Cat has to work underground? The corn, called the Morrow Plots, are like a really old field where they've been doing experiments on what makes corn grow well for like a really long time. So building a building that blocks out the sun half the day for the corn isn't a good way to tell if the corn is growing well. So they made the undergrad into a pit . . .

Here's another shot - this one is from the other direction with the undergrad entrance in the background. Beyond that is the main library where there are apparently a lot of books. I'm not kidding, like 7 plus stories of books.


That was fun. Then we called Cat's bother and he suggested that we get our picture taken at the Krannert Center for Performing Arts. Cat went there to see a play last year, and she says it's a really cool place. Kinda like heaven for theater techies. Cat knows a girl that is going to work there. Anyway, here's the picture.


The amphitheater is mostly there for show, though I guess sometimes groups do small things on it. Behind there is the music performance hall, which Snibbly tells me has almost perfect acoustics.

The last place we got our picture taken was at the Alma Mater statue by the Union. It's sorta like a "Where's Waldo" to find us. Cat said she wasn't going to lie on the ground to take this picture in such a busy place. (Lame). She did let us sit on her ibook though. It's plastic coated, so we didn't have to get wet, since there was still water on the statue from the rain.


So that's just about it. Hope you like the pictures. By the way, all pictures are brought to you through the SD reader that Mr. and Mrs. Cat's Mom and Dad were nice enough to buy for us. Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Cat's Mom and Dad.

News from a New City

We arrived yesterday in our new apartment. Miss Caitlin was very impressed with her full kitchen (featuring a full-sized stove and a freezer that is not set into her fridge). She is also greatly enjoying her full living room, though admittedly at this moment it is submerged in boxes.

More exciting news than the new apartment is the fact that Miss Caitlin now has an assistantship! One of the people on staff at the Undergraduate Library had to resign suddenly, and she was their next choice! This means that Miss Caitlin will be submitted to intensive training starting Thursday. The itinerary looks much the way as Miss Caitlin expected her Reference Services syllabus to look. It seems she'll have one easy class this semester . . .

Miss Caitlin is also under consideration for a position with a family. She would be a general hand around the house for them - shuttling kids, supervising them, and helping with house work a couple days a week. The whole family seemed to like her when she spent the afternoon with them today, but Caitlin still has to do all her paperwork with them (and with the people for the assistantship).

Miss Caitlin is likely to be very occupied in the next two weeks before classes start, but she is very good shape financially, and that's important. She seemed very relieved once she got news about the assistantship, so all of us are very glad for her.

HTML Class 2

Miss Caitlin and I have started our second HTML class, having mastered the very basics in our earlier class. This class features more difficult assignments, and we are encouraged to display them. I will endeavor to do so in order to quell our readers' interests.

The first assignment was a rather unattractive table. If we made this on behalf of a client, I think they would refuse to pay us. The point, however, is that we have the ability to manipulate the basic parameters for a table.

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In other news, Miss Caitlin is off this week but is engaged to spend most of that time at her grandparents', visiting with her cousins. Little else of interest has transpired, though Miss Caitlin will have it known that sleeping under the stars leads to an increased amount of bug bites on exposed skin. She suggests gloves, as bites on fingers are uncomfortable. And that, my friend, is what hooves are far superior.

Belated Wedding News

I bet you're all asking, "Hey Tipsy, why haven't you written about the wedding yet?"

And my answer is, "Because I didn't get to got to the lousy wedding." Cat took me all the way to stupid St. Louis and then left me in the car! Cat says it was a lot of fun. I say, light interior or no, it's stupid hot in Cat's car.

So there are no pictures of me at the wedding, so really nothing worth seeing. But Cat took some anyway, and so did Gabe when he stole Cat's camera. So I'll post a few.

This is the bride and groom or something like that. I met Sean (this is real-Sean we're talking about - obviously not Spud-Sean), he's likable enough, but I don't know his Michelle because she never came over to Cat's apartment and I was too lazy to ever go over to Gabe and Sean's, which is where Cat knew her from. I know another Michelle, who was at the wedding, but she's not in this picture so it doesn't matter right now.


This is a charming picture of Cat at the wedding with her friend Shelly. Cat was posing for a nice picture and Shelly fixed all that. Go Shelly.


Next is a picture Cat entitled "Cotton Eye Joe." I'm not sure what that's about, but in addition to Cat, you can see Shelly and Sean's two step brothers. I guess they all look like their having fun. I mean, of course they were, they weren't locked in a car!


So whatever. I told Cat, she better get a picture that proved that I went to St. Louis. And she was like whatever, she was sure we could get a good shot of the skyline on our way out. WRONG! Mrs. Gabe's Mom gave Cat a better way to leave that circumvented the stupid city. Which was okay, I mean, less traffic that way, except I wanted my picture taken with the stupid city. So get out your magnifying glasses, cos you might spot the Arch in this terrible picture.


This is a slightly less bad picture of the skyline. If you can't see it, don't be too upset. I mean, it's not like it's Chicago or something.


Cat hasn't been up to too much since then. She had paddalopes (a subrace of Girl Scouts that go out on a lake in canoes to get sunburned. At least, I think that's all Cat did.). Then she had brownies, which are a subrace of Girl Scouts that have a definition that sounds pretty close to trouble to me. Cat kept going on about trying to kill a crier. Ask her if you're curious.

Cat and Snibbly were reading some books by this author they'd never read before. Maybe he'll have more words to say on that later. I mean, he has words on that now, but I'm a the keyboard and I'm not yielding. I have nothing else to say, however. Hope everyone likes the pics. Or not, which is okay since I'm only in one of them.

Wheels and Tunes

Cat got wheels. It's a white 2007 Colbalt LT for those interested in the specs. It has some pretty sweet features (power locks, power windows, and a cd player!). It has a light, cloth interior, so Cat won't roast if she gets in it after parking in the sun. Cat likes practical things, and this is a practical thing, so she likes it. She's named it Celeste.


She also got a little tune box for me. There's a place to plug it into her new car. It's a Sansa c250, so it's got 2gigs. It's not real fancy but it does everything that it needs to. I like it a lot. I'm afraid Sheepy wants to steal it. She finally came back into the room - she'd been sulking since Spud let her go. I think she wants to cause trouble. I think she wants to steal it, but I won't let her.


Cat has 4th graders this week at camp. Very exciting. Cat likes the age group, and it means she has to stay over. She has a new-to-core staffer who used to be a P.A. (Program Aid=teenage volunteer). She has to help her adjust to being core staff. Cat thinks it'll go okay because the staffer's pretty good. Cat's a little scared because suddenly all the older staff people left - even though they all had good reasons. Now she's one of the oldest, most experienced people on staff. As in there's her and two other girls her age or older. Cat's really good, she'll be fine, but right now she's freaking out.

Friday, she leaves camp early to go to Sean's wedding on Saturday. It's in St. Louis. I'm going, but Snibbly doesn't want to. I have to find a way to dress up. Cat's taking her car and my little tune box. And her "Learn Japanese in the Car" cds - St. Louis is a long way away and Cat needs to stay awake. Nothing like repeating "Toshokan wa, doko desu ka?" for hours to keep a person awake. We'll have plenty of practice asking for hotel rooms with single beds and showers by the time we're done with this trip.

Summertime

Miss Caitlin is not up to much lately. She has gone through several phases of cleaning, though thankfully today's stint promises to be the last for a while.

Camp does not commence until next week, though Miss Caitlin is already excited. She has not packed up everything yet, and she will not until she has her assignment for the first few weeks of camp, but she is very excited and has many ideas. This year she has been told she will be instrumental in training the teenage volunteers. She thinks this sounds amusing. I think it sounds painful. But then, I will stay here in the air conditioning while she wondering in the wilderness.

Miss Caitlin and Mr. Caitlin's Father are looking into purchasing a small used car for her. This will take time, research, and many outings. Miss Caitlin is excited to have a car for the fall, but she is not excited about gas prices.

If you will remember, Miss Caitlin and I are taking an online class for HTML. We hope to put together a few pages about our trip to add to the blog. We may also end up changing the way the blog looks, though this requires advanced techniques that we are not prepared to do yet. Perhaps in June or July we will be able to do that. Right now, we are learning to manipulate text on the page.

My last news is tragic. Deirdre, that intelligent and cheerful sow, has journeyed with Miss Adrien to Montana, where Miss Adrien is spending the summer exploring the outdoors at a National Park as a trail guide and gift shop cashier. It pains me to be separated by so many miles from one of my dearest friends. I can only hope that she sends me regular communique from that distant land.

The Sheep Will Not Return

I am sure that our readers will be pleased to hear that the sheep will not be making a reappearance on our blog. It is bad enough that I have to share this site with the obnoxious cow. Allowing that crazy, klepto sheep onto the internet is a sin against the world that is not to be taken lightly. We will take precautions against its occurrence in the future. Had we known that the sheep had pick up some literacy (if you call that literacy) we would have been more careful in the past.

While we were unable to immediately deal with the situation, Miss Caitlin did an admirable job of restraining and punishing the offender.


In other circumstances, I might call this punishment "cruel and unusual," and object to its implementation. But Sheepy's transgressions were serious, and being sentenced to play with the two year old is justifiable in this case. I challenge anyone who has lived with Sheepy to deny that this is the case; all other opinions are not valid as they cannot truly appreciate the torment that we all go through at Sheepy's hooves.

In other news, Miss Caitlin has purchased a new computer. We admire her current computer for holding out as long as it has; for a while Miss Caitlin despaired its being able to last through finals. However, it should be in good condition to transfer files over to the new computer. It should arrive tomorrow, much to our collective excitement.

Also starting tomorrow is Miss Caitlin's online html class that she is taking through the local community college. I will study assiduously along with her and take copious amounts of notes; perhaps in a few weeks there will be improvements made to our website.

Sheep rule world

I is sheep. I is Lady Kween Fiona. I has diabolical plan. Cait graduated, moved back to here. Snibbly Stupid-head and Tipsy Talks-lots is shoved in box and sent to Cait's bother's home. They is not home til Friday. I use this to start diabolical plan. They not here to keep me off komputer. I use komputer and Snibbly's stupid name to start plan. I take over world - be Lady Kween Fiona over everybody. First, I has to take over Cait's room. I let her clean it now - that make it easier to live in. Then she goes to look at new place to live tomorrow and come back Friday. I use that time, stage revolt. I then has Cait's room. Cait's room - then world!!!!!!!

Home Stretch

Cat's almost done! She has one class left to go to, one final, a short paper to write and her long paper to revise. That's it before graduation next week. Oh, and her one act play goes up tomorrow. But that's like not that important, right?

She was really cranky earlier in the week because she was really busy. Snibbly was snarky because she asked Josey to hold onto the rain tickets for graduation so they don't get lost. He said that it was a lot of responsibility for Josey and maybe he should do it. Cat told him she didn't want to hear it. Teehee! That means "shut up!" Cat told Snibbly to shut up! So now he's moping and Cat's relying on me and Josey to keep track of things on her desk.

It's all crazy because Cat is starting to pack things up. She has accumulated a surprising amount of stuff over the last two years. It's hard to find things right now. Mr. and Mrs. Cat's Parents are coming to take a bunch of her stuff back home-home tomorrow, and they'll see her play while they're here.

Cat's really antsy still because she hasn't heard about assistantships yet. She really needs one to go to Library School and she'll have to owe lots of money to people if she doesn't get one. Or not go to Library School, and that would be sad, so I think these assistantship people should arrange something for her. Anyway, she'd have zero stress if they just said, yeah, here's a nice assistantship for you. I asked Snibbly what exactly an assistantship was (because if it's so important, maybe we could get one for her), but he wouldn't answer me. Josey says she thinks it's kinda like a job, but I don't know how she knows. I guess she's a good listener and pays attention when Cat talks to people about stuff like that. I just go to sleep then . . . Anyway, I want to go to Library School with Cat, but we got to wait on this assistantship thing.

Less than Three Weeks Until Graduation

Miss Caitlin was awarded Honors in English. Whoot. Oh Joy. Feel the love.

Miss Caitlin turned in her paper for Dr. Stuart, which leaves only the final to be concerned about in that class, which she's not really. Dr. Stuart has quite fair tests, and since Miss Caitlin's good at tests, it means she'll only have to study a little to be prepared for it.

The major hurdle of the week is her senior seminar presentation. She does a practice presentation for the class tomorrow, which she is preparing for tonight, and then the real thing on Friday. She will be presenting on the changes in the genres of science fiction and fantasy as indicated by winners of the Hugo Award for Best Novel. Interested parties might look at this year's nominations, though Miss Caitlin will not be considering them in her paper and presentation. Miss Caitlin is excited that the Doctor Who episode "Blink" made it into the nominations, as well as a two parter from the same season. Tipsy's rather intolerable about it.

In any event, after the presentation, she will have only the play to worry about, which is still on track. She has costumes now (more or less). They are a little flamboyant but in keeping with Miss Caitlin's show.

Somehow, Miss Caitlin has volunteered to teach Kara-chan how to use a sewing machine . . . which she will do only after her work for the presentation are over. Miss Caitlin is happy to actually, as she will greatly miss her younger friends who will still be in school here while she is leaving.

Exciting Things that Happened Today

So Cat's all set to graduate and stuff. They had a "graduation fair" where Cat had to wander from table to table (instead of from office to office) getting all the signatures saying that she had turned in all the stuff she needed to graduate. She's going to have a BA in EnglishAndTheatre (they won't give her two degrees, since they were both BAs) and she'll have a minor in Linguistics (she was afraid that might not come through, since apparently there were some problems with substituting Japanese, which there shouldn't be since that's totally allowed for the minor). She also got her cap and gown (black), and her cords for graduating Magna Cum Laude (which she sorta forgot she was going to do).

She should hear about her Englsih Honors Project by Tuesday of next week - she's not sure what she gets for graduating with honors in English. Cat's Bother thought that they gave out special stoles or something to people at his school, but Cat's doesn't know what they do here. Maybe it is just a note in the program or something. Teehee, if the ceremony is moved in doors, Cat's Bother won't get to go (TeeHee) since Cat only could get four rain tickets and Mr. and Mrs. Cat's Parents and Mr. and Mrs. Cat's Grandparents are coming. Cat's Bother better hope that they get nice weather, or else he's driving a long way for a free dinner and that's about it. Well, maybe Cat can find someone that wouldn't use all their rain tickets . . . That'd be really nice for her to do though . . . It might not be possible.

Cat also almost lit an oven mitt on fire because she turned on the wrong burner. That would have been more exciting than it was - she caught it after a few minutes and turned the burner off and moved the mitt. Still, not something that happens all the time.

Meanwhile, Cat still has a lot to get done. Her show is going well - it's all blocked, her princess's back isn't as badly hurt as we thought it was (that could have been a disaster) and she's threatened them with Shakespearean heckling if they don't have their lines down by next week. In the mean time, she has some projects for directing that are almost due and her paper for Senior Sem needs to be roughly done by next week. She also needs to put together a short paper for History of the English language. She thinks she's going to look at recent neologisms (like "anectdotage," teehee). Anyway, she's still crazy busy, but it'll all be okay.

Slightly Less Buried

Cat completed and turned in her Honors English Project! Yay! Now she doesn't have to worry about it and the English honors Committee can learn all about how to protect themselves from fairies in four countries! All she has left to do is collect up all the books she had checked out for it and turn them in before they become overdue.

She's now focusing on her One Act Play. Yay for A. A. Milne! Her play will be performed on May 1, so she has a good bit of time to work on it. She also has to work on her paper for Senior capstone, but that only has to be 10 pages, so after the fairies, it's not scary. The apartment is a mess so this weekend Cat's going to try to get things a little more organized. The more organized it is, the easier it will be to pack things up.

Cat's computer has been giving us trouble, even through Cat has a nice cooling pad blowing cool air into it . . . Cat backed up most of her important things today, because she's afraid her computer might not make it all the way through finals after all (come on, old girl, we know you have it in you!).

Tomorrow is a Traveller game - the first in a long time! Yay! More reason why the apartment needs to be clean . . .

Buried Under Stuff

Cat's buried under lots of stuff that has to get done. We hope to see her in her natural state sometime after next Wednesday, by which time she'll have turned in her English Honors Project, have a draft for her senior seminar project, and have met 3 times for her one act, as well as having applied for various forms of financial aid from various sources.

So in the mean time, for your amusement, Dr. Stewart!

"It's metaphorical. We call it a mouse because there's a little body and a little tail - except now there's not - so really we should call it a 'computer hamster.' "

"Now 'in lieu of" has gained the meaning of 'in light of' rather than just meaning 'instead of.' Trying to interpret it as 'instead of ' can be really funny with phrases like 'in lieu of the facts.' Now, people use 'instead of ' instead of 'in lieu of.' "

"Ah, the crisp, chips, fries continuum. It's like a chain shift like we saw with the Great Vowel Shift - the Great Potato Shift."

Spring Break

Miss Caitlin is currently on that time of vacation known as Spring Break. It started out eventfully enough, with Miss Caitlin forgetting our return ticket in Kirksville. Luckily, Miss Adrien was able to get us our ticket, since she returned on Saturday while we returned on Friday. If Miss Adrien had been unable to do this for us, Miss Caitlin was going to ask one of Miss Adrien's house mates, either Miss Shelly or Miss Katherine to mail it to her, with the understanding that Miss Caitlin would pay them back, as she viewed it as her own folly. However, we did not have to subject the ticket to the Kirksville mail system, which has similar qualities to small black holes, and instead now have the ticket in our possession.

Tipsy was rather upset by the whole business. After all, it has always been her duty to keep track of Miss Caitlin's tickets. Miss Caitlin told her not to worry about it, that it was Miss Caitlin's fault that she did not give the ticket to Tipsy, but we all know who is truly at fault. After she was reminded of her failing, Tipsy chose to mope and not socialize with myself and the other fine animals in our house. She did take charge of the ticket after we received it from Miss Adrien. She has refused to come with Miss Caitlin, Mrs. Caitlin's Mother, and myself as we journey to visit Miss Caitlin's Grandparents. A lesson well learned for her, I hope.

Miss Caitlin is taking the time to read books for her Senior Seminar in English project, and also to organize materials for auditions and the subsequent rehearsals of her one act play. She will be directing A.A. Milne's "The Ugly Duckling," a charming little comedy about a rather nice, but tragically plain Princess and how she finds love for being herself. Miss Caitlin admits to feeling overwhelmed with all the responsibilities of a director, but she hopes to do well.

Her Schooling Continues

For those unaware, Miss Caitlin has been accepted at Dominican University of the Library Science Program there, and is awaiting word from other schools which should arrive at any time.

In the meantime, Miss Caitlin is rather busy. Earlier this week she presented a small scene for her directing class. Today, she wrote a paper for her literature class. Tomorrow she takes a test on the history of the English language. Friday we will depart for Illinois again, this time for spring vacation. Miss Caitlin has a number of things to accomplish during that time, mostly in the nature of readings. Tipsy has insisted that I include this picture of Tipsy and myself aiding Miss Caitlin in the writing of her paper earlier this evening.


The weather here has been most unreliable. One day it is warm and to all appearances, spring has finally beaten back the harsh winter. The next day winter has firmly reestablished itself. The vacillations in weather have caused giant chasms to open up in the streets. Some people call them "pot holes" but this is an understatement as it is possible to lose small children in them. Also a form of ice which Miss Caitlin has dubbed "stealth ice" (I believe the more common term is "black ice") has taken to covering the sidewalks in the mornings, and sometimes lasts all day in shady areas (for instance Miss Caitlin's back step). It is hard to spot and can lead to unexpected falls. Miss Caitlin thinks (hopes) that today saw the melting and drying out of most of the spots. However it is still far from warm. We all await more permanent fair weather.

Happenings and Gobledigok

Caitlin took us to Chicago last weekend. She went with her friend Shelly because Shelly had to do research in Chicago and we could stay at Mr. and Mrs. Cat's Parent's house. Cat had to do tax stuff and get some stuff that we can't get here. It was a good time. Snibbly went downtown to the library to enjoy the old books. Josey came to meet all our friends at Mr. and Mrs. Cat's Parent's house. Then we had to drive back and it was foggy and wet. K-town is cold and miserable.

Cat is busy - being a senior means being very busy. But she found out today that Dominican is looking at her application now - she'll find out if she was accepted to learn to become a librarian there soon. University of Illinois should also make their decision soon. Cat's a little nervous about that. She did FAFSA paperwork today so they can give her money to learn to become a librarian. I'm not sure why anyone would do that . . . but if that's what they do, then Cat should get their money.

Cat's been making Dice Goblins for her friends. They don't take long to make, especially now that Cat's getting good at them. She's about out of eyes right now though, so she can't make anymore. She made girly dice goblins with pretty sparkly ears, for girly gamers like her. She also makes more dignified ones for the boys.


The gold ones turned out a little scary, and we keep finding bits of gold fluff everywhere. Cat pulled some out of the kitchen sink earlier today. She says she's not buying any more poodle fabric, no matter how on sale it is. The purple ones (whose color gave Cat's camera some major issues) actually turned out really well. Their hair is curly too, but not as crazy long as the gold ones. Plus they don't shed as much when you make them, and you don't have to play hide and seek to find their eyes. Cat sent one to her bother at University of Illinois - he said the girls there liked them (Cat sent him one of the maroon ones, and some candy).

Lexical Fun

These are some neologisms from Cat's History of the English Language book (Dr. Stewart pointed out that the class had a really long name and that he would not be offended if students only pronounced the capital letters). Anyway, neologism means a newly coined word. These were from Britain, on a BBC Radio thing.

bagonize - to wait anxiously for your suitcase to appear on the baggage carousel

circumtreeviation - the tendency of a dog on a leash to want to walk past poles and trees on the opposite side to its owner.

polygrouch - someone who complains about everything.

kellogulation - what happens to your breakfast cereal when you are called away by a 15-minute phone call, just after you pour milk on it. (^ happens to Cat a lot)

hicgap - the time that elapses between when hiccups go away and when you suddenly realize that they have.

And for your further enjoyment, Dr. Stewartisms:

Overtime repeated syllables (such as in Englaland) are dropped out of words (leaving you with England). "This process is called haplology. Rather ironic - it has been suggested to change it to haplogy, and I can't say I disagree."

In reference to silent "e"s like the ones found in "change" or "dance" that are not pronounced but instead give clues about how another letter should be pronounced. ". . . these funny little 'e's that only tell you about their neighbor - gossips I'd call them."

"This is your vowel space." Pause, looks at the class. "This is your vowel space on Great Vowel Shift." Goes back to the chalkboard.

Some people in the class still haven't gotten that he's not entirely serious and they write these down. Cat writes them down, but for a different reason.

In other news, Cat is choosing her play this weekend for directing class. She has two she likes. She has to time them out and then pick one. Both of them are funny, so I think either one is a good choice.

Due to a siege in their other game, Traveller is being delayed. Though they do have their new ship picked out (it's called the Oleander) and Gabe's the Marquis de Megalmatree, which is pretty awesome. Megalmatree is the name of the main planet he owns. Pretty cool. In addition to the Marquis, the ship is staffed with it's designer, a scout, a female telekinetic engineer, a slightly shady lawyer and comm officer, and a gunner. Also around is Gabe's character's son and apprentice trader and two deckhands. They have cargo and a trade route, but further play is on hold. You'll have to wait to hear more about that.

Also to note - Cat is going to Chicago this weekend with Shelly. Shelly has to go look at something in a library or something. Snibbs and I are going to tag along (he's going on about manuscripts or something, I just like seeing our friends at home). It should be a good time.

Introduction to the New Semester

I have exciting news to share. First off, Clem has recovered well from his surgery. As Miss Caitlin's Father would say, Clem is once again a fat and sassy pig.


In other news, we have several new friends. A lovely sow was presented to Miss Caitlin by Miss Kitty from across the street. Ruth is a very amiable pig. She likes to be social and cuddles with Miss Caitlin often.


Josie was found for us by Miss Shelly. She is more shy - she was happy enough to take on the responsibility of guarding the extra key, but overall, she has had very little to say. I do not find this to be much of a problem, since Tipsy says more than enough for everyone involved . . . However, I am sure with time, Josey will blossom into a good friend. I feel I should also point out in the above picture that Miss Caitlin salvaged the waterfall from her term project and added it to our landscape on the desk.

Miss Caitlin is again studying Japanese this semester. She is currently struggling with conjunctions and distinguishing the correct circumstances for using each one. She is also making a survey of some recent award winning books for her English Senior Seminar class. For the first book, the class read The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing, in Honor of Mrs. Lessing's winning of the Nobel Prize. While Miss Caitlin admires Lessing's ability to convey a large amount of information with only a few words, Miss Caitlin feels (and I rather agree) that the book is not of great quality otherwise. Perhaps a better selection might have been made so the class could appreciate the body of work that resulted in Mrs. Lessing's being awarded a Nobel Prize.

Miss Caitlin is also taking Play Direction, which fills her with not a little trepidation. However initial classes have not taxed her too greatly, as they are mostly discussing theory. In addition to these, she is taking a class about the history of the English language. Already this has proved a fascinating class. Her professor, Dr Stewart, is a very . . . unique individual. Miss Caitlin decided she enjoyed him as a teacher after he encouraged his students to split their infinitives in order to spite the people who believe that English should have a grammar somehow related to Latin.

Tipsy will likely have something to say soon, as Miss Caitlin will be refereeing another game of Traveller this semester. They start tomorrow. I am to tell you that while the ship is yet unnamed, Master Gabe is the owner of it, and he is the Marquis of Megalmatree. Make of that what you will.

Behind

Sorry! I didn't mean not to write. But see Cat was busy with the project, and then we went back to Cat's Parent's house and there were lots of things to do for Christmas, and then it was after Christmas and we went to visit Cat's relatives, and then we came back and bummed around, but Cat bummed around a lot on the computer so I couldn't get on . . .

Anyway, here I am.

I have a few bits of info to impart. For one thing, the Snowdrop blew up, killing all aboard. Carmichael and Elsie were not aboard when the ship blew and their condition remains unknown. Cat had fun doing it. Now they have new characters and a different ship that remains unnamed. It will be before the first game. Cat's picking and choosing for a new universe. It'll be fun.

Secondly, Clem underwent surgery today - it is not entirely complete since the beanies are having static and settling issues. Mrs. Cat's Mom thought it best to let him rest and settle overnight and check again tomorrow to see if they can get more beanies in before sending him back to school with us. We're all trying to be very supportive.


So Cat finished her project. Miss Adrien helped with a bit of painting and Mr. Cat's Dad helped by suggesting a good way to make a dome. The class liked it (though she wouldn't let me go with to class - something about the scale thing again). The teacher liked it too and she got a good grade. The little man got to go. She said he was to scale . . . lame. She said he's six feet tall. Liar! He is so not that tall! He's like a couple inches or something. Cat must have been really out of it from being up so late working on it - usually she's not so bad about numbers as that!

Cat's been having trouble with her rechargeable batteries, so she hasn't taken too many pictures. We might put up more later - like about what Snibbly and I did on Christmas - TEE HEE.

We're back in K-Town Saturday. We get to take the train! Comfort and Spud aren't excited about the train - neither is Clem, but that goes without saying.