Pig and Cow

Happy B-Day Cat-the-Meanie

2010-12-20T22:47:00.002-06:00

Cat's been a meanie and a computer hog. She wouldn't let us on the computer the whole time she was student teaching. Like months and months. 16 whole weeks. Not even to tell you that the children didn't eat her.

I kinda wish the children HAD eaten her!!

Well, not really . . .

Meanie.

In the mean time, she taught lots of lessons, nannied for the family, went to game, and watched lots of TV (mostly SG-1 because that's on all the time on SyFy). Then she moved away from school last week because she's all done. I guess she has this Master's Degree thing she was working on. Is that important? The family she nannied for will miss her, but I like the new place ok. Deirdre already came to visit, because Adrien isn't far away. This is much better I think, but nobody listens to me (and no one lets me on the computer, either.)

Cat has to look for a real job. For a while she's going to sub, and probably be poor. Good thing she has time to look for jobs to apply for now. It seems kind of boring.

The cable's better up here, I'm hoping to find some other good TV to watch. Unless Cat won't let me watch TV either.

Cat turned 25 today. It was good because it was a pretty normal day. The last two years have been really lame as far as birthdays. So a pretty normal birthday is a big improvement.

Also, Cat's hair is red now. Well, not all red, just pieces. Like highlights, but not as stupid looking.

That's all I have for now. Maybe Cat will let one of us on to talk about Christmas. It wouldn't be that hard. Really. Meanie.

Sewing Day

2010-08-07T14:26:00.004-06:00

I know Snibbly posted yesterday, but you probably wanted to hear from me. And we have more pictures. Cat and Jamie had a sewing day (Jamie was sewing for Child #1). Cat worked on some clothes for the girls. Here are some pictures.

Cat altered this for Kohana-chan. It's another Target outfit. It had a grey coat too, but Cat doesn't like it and says it'd be a bother to take in. But the blouse is cute and can go with lots of things.

This look is a little more sporty. Also an altered Target outfit, it made Cat marvel at the poor craftsmanship of the doll clothes - though she says it does make it easy to take out and alter.

Remember the outfit that made Cathy look fat? Well, it's back, with improvements. Cat was working on a sash, and Jamie suggested she make the edges fringy. Turns out fringe rocks the outfit. Cat also did a little piece for her hair - also with the fringe. Jamie gave Cat some ribbon to make a choker for Cathy - also way cool. Way stylish. And Cathy doesn't look fat. She still wants some black leggings, but she's okay with this for now.

Good for the girls - very pretty ladies. On a personal note, why can't the freakin' SyFy channel (what was wrong with SciFi anyway?) show their reruns in order?!? Cat and I have been trying to watch Sanctuary for months now, but they keep showing the same ones! And they keep getting to the middle of season 3 of Stargate Atlantis and starting over! Bad plan, SyFy, bad plan. You are making this cow mad!

Exciting Summer

2010-08-05T14:24:00.010-06:00

Hello friends. Our blog remains intermittent at best, mostly because Miss Caitlin has a less than exciting life. She relates only the feeling that it is "way too hot." I think she is mistaken, however, as she will soon be starting student teaching at one of the local schools in the library. This, however, might meet some huddles as the teachers have declared their willingness to strike. Hopefully this will work out without a hitch.

Miss Caitlin has been doing some sewing, and some of our friends have been clamoring to have their pictures displayed for a long time.

Kohana-chan wears a nice summer dress with white leggings. Very charming, though Kohana-chan keeps complaining that the ensemble would look more pleasing (and be more in line with current fashion) if the leggings were black. As Miss Caitlin made the leggings by altering a pair of tights made for Target's line of dolls, she has little sympathy.

This is Miss Caitlin's latest creation. She admits that perhaps it is not the most flattering for Miss Cathy's figure. She suggests that a sash would rectify much of the problem, and even has a nice lime green semi-sheer to make it out of. She has not yet had a chance to make the sash.

Spud was upset that everyone else was having their picture taken. He also has a new garment - a pair of baggy denim shorts. He keeps insisting they are "barracuda shorts," even though Miss Caitlin keeps reminding him they're supposed to be "Bermuda shorts."

Miss Comfort shows off her "pretty, pretty princess dress." While I concur with Miss Caitlin that the color and cut are as pleasing on Comfort as is possible, I could do without her "princess" attitude, which is far from "pretty."

This ensemble is altered from a set put out by Target for their dolls. Kohana-chan is quite stylish in this outfit, though she was disappointed that it is rather too warm to wear in the current weather. Miss Caitlin says that the hardest part about altering for Kohana-chan is that she has rather more of a figure than the American girl dolls, and so a different amount of fabric must be taken out of different places.

Hopefully there will be more interesting news later. Miss Deirdre has promised me pictures while she is far away in Montana, but has yet to send me any. I endure the lack as best I may.

Zoo!

2010-05-24T15:02:00.010-06:00

Cat's finally done with all her classwork (she got all A's and all that). She came to her parent's house and then went to her cousin's wedding. That's all fine and nice, but then today we got to go someplace really fun: the zoo! Snibbly didn't want to go - he said something about "trivial" and "juvenile." But I wanted to go, so Cat and Mr. Cat's Dad took me.

For those who may not know, zoos are places where they keep wild animals, not animals like pigs and cows that are kept as people's friends. But they do have some wild animals that are related to us. Like this warthog that I'm posing with.

Most animals were hiding in the shade - it was hot today! Like this lion. He's not stupid.

We spent a lot of time avoiding large groups of kids. So after the big cats, we swung by the seals and sea lions. The dolphins were close while they finish up their new pool thing. Sad. But here's a sea lion getting up close and personal with the viewing window. They were really playful - probably because they get to play in the water all the time.

Cat was sad there were no walruses. I wasn't sure what a walrus was, but then Cat and Mr. Cat's Dad set up to take a picture at this statue of a walrus named Olga. Apparently, she was Cat's bother's favorite animal when he was very little. Something about blowing in his face and making him giggle? Anyway, I guess there are a number of pictures with the Olga statue floating around. And by Cat and her dad, I mean Cat in the picture and her dad taking it. He got his sole stolen in so many pictures during the wedding, Cat felt bad and didn't try to take any of him.

Cat's eyes are all squinty because it was so bright today. We noticed that the chlidren's zoo was all but deserted, and Cat and Mr. Cat's Dad couldn't remember what was there. But we found some special visitors there! I had to say hi to the ladies - see if we had any mutual acquaintances, that sort of thing.

Also - a lazy pig. I suppose I'm lucky since Snibbly is a little bit civilized - but he has been just as lazy as this guy all weekend while I've been out having adventures!

While we were at the children's zoo, Cat brushed some goats. I think the whole thing was silly, so you'll have to look at her facebook to get those pictures. After the hoards of school kids left, we went to visit the new bear exhibit. The bears were pretty lame (they looked hot) but the bison in their new habitat looked pretty cool. They're a kind of bovine, right? Cousins or something?

Cat has been doing some sewing. She took pictures last week, but didn't give us time on the computer to post them. So look forward to that.

That's all I got for that - but yay summertime!

Spring Vacation

2010-03-24T16:05:00.005-06:00

Aha! I have control of the computer while Miss Caitlin plays games, Miss Caitlin's Bother plays with her DS, and Tipsy watches Miss Caitlin's Mother play on Facebook!

Miss Caitlin has taken us with her on Spring Break. Miss Caitlin has already done quite a bit. She finished a dress for Miss Comfort. It is one of Miss Caitlin's "drancy fesses" as she insists on calling them. Miss Comfort has been most insufferable since the thing has been finished. She has continually flounced around crying "I'm a pretty princess!" and demanding that someone make her a crown. I have no pictures to show you of this blue sparkly monstrosity, but I will probably be forced into posting some later. She also made a pair of "Bermuda shorts" for Spud, who has been much more graceful in is acceptance.

Miss Caitlin and Miss Caitlin's excellent Mother went to see Cirque du Solei. Miss Caitlin came back babbling about clown routines and the Cirque's special rigging. It seemed it was quite enjoyable. Miss Caitlin's Mother suggests that it would have been a great thing for children to see, and seems to have tucked it away as an idea for when she has grandchildren some time in the distant future.

Miss Caitlin has taken us to Michigan, where she is relaxing with her Grandmother, her Mother, and her Bother. They have played several games of Carcassonne. Miss Caitlin did not listen to my sage advice and was therefore beaten twice by her relatives.

She will head to her parent's house some time tomorrow, where she will file an amended tax return and hopefully spend a chunk of the rest of the time with her friends in the area. I hope to have a chance to see Lady Deirdre, for while Miss Adrien guested with us back in February, she neglected to bring with her our dearest friend. I hope to also see Gip, as she sent me a nice package a while back, and I wish to thank her personally for her thoughtfulness.

Miss Caitlin also has to fit in a good amount of homework, including reading for her Child Language Development class, studying for a test in her "education psychology" class (it should be renamed as "education philosophy"), and some readings and responses for her school media specialist class. For her practicum, she needs to put together a few lessons on teaching reference sources to third graders. She has decided that she needs to design a lesson on guide words to start, and then something to reinforce keywords. She has some loose thoughts that are beginning to take shape.

Dolly Stuff

2010-02-10T10:35:00.006-06:00

Cat doesn't like the snow. She said she's sick of it, and now I think she thinks it's out to get her. She spun out coming home Monday night - luckily she was the only one on the highway and she didn't end up in the ditch. She scared herself pretty bad, but both her and the awesome car (with its sweet ABS brakes) are fine. Anyway, she was fine that everything for yesterday got canceled, and that her school visit today got canceled too.

Cat worked on Child #1's birthday present yesterday with the time she got by everything being canceled. She was a little worried it wouldn't get done in time, but it looks awesome.

Things to note - light blue sparkly fabric, little flower bows with bling in them on all the scallops, and a bolero with a feathery edging. That's right - feathery edging. Cat should get her act together and VACUUM after messing up the room with the stuff. She said she saw it in the store, thought "Oh, that's perfect! But the future me is going to hate me for it!" The future Cat did hate the Cat that picked it out, and so do the rest of us, but the dress does look a lot more sophisticated with it. It's for Child #1's Kirsten - it'll probably look nicer on Kirsten than it does here on Cathy - consolation for Cathy who, for the second year running, has to give up a fantastic dress.

Last year, people may remember, Cathy was also used to fit the birthday gift for Child #1. The coloring was even less suited to her, and therefore easier for her to let go of.

Cathy now awaits the day when Cat will make something cool for HER.

Cat's going to try to get a fashion show of her dresses on the dolls that they were actually made for. Hopefully that will be soon.

January and the Return to School

2010-01-22T19:44:00.005-06:00

Greetings. I have the pleasure to announce the successful completion of the Plan with the return of Josey! She spent an enjoyable time abroad in Greece and Germany, and after visiting our friends back in Missouri, she has come back to us. She was rather surprised to find that we had moved but has settled in well here. She would not mind going on another trip, so if any our friends are set to go abroad, or even to another location within the States, please let us know and Josey would be happy to accompany you.

Miss Caitlin has started classes - one about children and language development, and another on language development. She hopes the first will be interesting, while the second has her saying bad things about the Education department. I am happy to say she only needs four classes from said department - it would be cruel, unusual, and unjustified punishment of us if she were required to take more. She is taking one class from her normal graduate school - that for learning to become a school librarian. She is not too hopeful that this will be helpful - rather she has higher hopes in her practicum with a local school librarian.

My good friend Gip sent a package that arrived today. She has given me little stationary cards and a notebook, in addition to some scrumptious snacks. Very thoughtful of her. I generously gave Miss Caitlin a pair of socks that were also enclosed.

After the Funeral

2009-12-24T14:26:00.003-06:00

So Cat's Grandpa died over the weekend after several days of not having any brain activity. Several of Cat's relatives poked him, whispering things to the effect of "Teddy, you forgot to turn your body off when you left." So Cat's Mom and Bother were their when he actually died. Then everyone descended on the house (including little children - ah!), and they had a Big Fat Polish Funeral. In addition to black and white, many people wore red - I guess that's from the Polish flag. Also Cat's Grandpa wore it all the time. And they served Polish sausage at the luncheon - and a concertina player (that's an accordion folks) played polkas through the luncheon. Cat says the grave site thing was nice. They put him next to Cat's Uncle Scottie - she's glad the little boy isn't alone now. They did the Catholic prayer thing and then the V.A. did their bit. They were too cheap to get him hearing aids while he was alive, but they did send four nice young service men to help the old guys do the gun salute thing and the stuff with the flag.

Cat's birthday sort of got postponed - you know people were busy with other things that had to be done so they could bury Grandpa on time. That was okay - Cat didn't feel like having a fuss then anyway. Though her Aunt decided last minute to make a cake, and that was good. Not a lot of fuss - just enough to know it wasn't forgotten. So one of these days, Cat will actually have her birthday.

Christmas is also low key, though we do have plenty of presents to guard. Sheepy seems to want to steal them . . . we'll have to keep an eye on her.

Hopefully, we'll get to see some of our friends before we get dragged back to Champaign or out to Michigan, but plans are still really shaky and Cat's not sure when she's going to be where.

Bad News, Bad Time

2009-12-18T14:02:00.002-06:00

Cat's Grandpa is dying. It sucks. We're in Michigan instead of under the Christmas Tree at home or at Cat's Mom and Dad's.

Miss Caitlin, the Computer Hog

2009-11-22T18:58:00.004-06:00

It turns out that a masters degree in Library and Information Science requires a person to be on the computer a great deal of the time. Miss Caitlin has been constantly doing homework for her computer networking class or her cataloging class, and then she turns it off to read for her children's literature assignments. It is most vexing.

Miss Caitlin has made it into the K-12 Media Specialist program, meaning she will be certified to work in Illinois schools as a librarian. She has to take a bunch of education classes, so that won't be hard, but then she has to do a practicum and student teaching. I am not at all interested in this part of her education - sticky children are not at all interesting to me.

Miss Caitlin is still ill and not sleeping. The sleep specialist has gotten back to her saying her sleep study was "inconclusive." Miss Caitlin thinks that means they want to get more of her money. But she needs to sleep so . . .

In happier news, Deirdre and Miss Adrien came to visit. They young ladies spent their time on campus mostly, while Deirdre stayed with us. However, Tipsy positively hung on her the whole time, so I was unable to meet with Deirdre alone.

She will travel this week for Thanksgiving to visit her Grandparents and immediate family. Hopefully she will remember to take us as well.

Departure for Libraryland

2009-07-10T17:29:00.002-06:00

Miss Caitlin and I head tonight to Chicago, where we will attend the annual American Library Association conference. We will be staying at her bother's house, which is a bit away from the conference, though on the correct CTA line to arrive there. She has a loose schedule of interesting things for us to do, though the main point is to go and see how an annual conference works, so that in the future she can take better advantage of it. In the future, in this case, refers to a time when she would be actively seeking a job.

I hope to have pictures to display from the conference, in addition to reports on all the interesting things we learn while there. Fear not, we will continue posting pictures of Josey on her adventures, and I believe that Dierdre also sent us some to post from the National Park she works at.

False Alarm

2009-06-25T17:29:00.008-06:00

Cat's still miserable. Air test said mold's not enough to be causing the continued problems. What is causing the problem? No one's sure . . . isn't that exciting? Meanwhile Cat is stupid, incompetent, and really frustrated about it. Examples include repeatedly needing to be shown how to override holds at the public library, replying to a list of people instead of just the one she wants to talk to in an email (even though she HATES people who do that), not being able to read her text book because the words "won't stay still," and leaving us here TWICE when she went to visit her family (and, you know, half our friends). So mostly she cries about it, since no one can figure out anything constructive to do about it. Comfort tries to, you know, comfort her, but there's only so much that can be done. It's been going on for MONTHS now and no one's got a clue. And somehow this is an excuse for her to hog the computer . . .

In other news, more pictures from Josey. These are from some monasteries in Meteora. Look at the view! Josey seemed to like this weekend trip, but CFJ writes in her email that it was really tiring because of all the hiking, and she got annoyed because she had to keep wearing a skirt! I remember Cat had a tie-on skirt she would put on when we visited churches when we went. CFJ says Josey had it easy because she was in her coat pocket - coat pocket!! I'm glad we always had Cat's bag. That seems more roomy, though Cat kept shoving OTHER stuff in, like souvenirs and stuff. Anyway, the Plan continues . . .

Sickness . . . to be Fixed Soon?

2009-06-13T19:06:00.006-06:00

Miss Caitlin has been sick and hogging the computer. She has not been getting much done besides work and her practicum at a local library. She had an expert in mold abatement come and he said that the people hired by the landlord were at best mistaken when they said that there was no visible mold. At worst they were induced to report as the landlord wished. Either possibility has Miss Caitlin . . . frustrated with the landlord. She awaits the results of the air testing.

In other news, Josey has gotten back to us about the continuation of the Plan! She has been very busy. We will put up her photographs over a few posts. Here she is on the island of Crete, exploring the labyrinths of Knossos.

It seems Josey had critical bow failure in most of the pictures and spent most of the time trying to not lose it. She had other things to occupy her mind while on her adventures.

Late in Posting, as Usual

2009-05-12T12:06:00.002-06:00

We have again have been lax in posting. I blame Miss Caitlin - she has been ill and very busy and she has quite hogged all the computer time.

Miss Caitlin's illness is thought to be linked to mold (or something else toxic) in her apartment. We have just returned from spending several days away, during which Miss Caitlin's health improved significantly. She has contacted her landlord and they are looking into the problem and possible solutions. Miss Caitlin fears that it may mean moving to another apartment.

No word from Josey. Miss Caitlin suggests, and I concur, that this is likely due to the fact the CFJ and Josey are occupied with a variety of things, which may not include writing to us. Additionally, there is a major delay in mailing times between here and Greece.

Miss Caitlin has finished classes for the semester, and has a bit of a break for the next few weeks during which she is only working. Mrs. Caitlin's Mother will likely come down next week to help Miss Caitlin clean. Cleaning would probably mitigate Miss Caitlin's illness until further action can be taken. Or so Miss Caitlin hopes.

The ants have not returned, though the spiders are moving back in. Miss Caitlin will be glad to finish cleaning, as the spiders are less likely to be a problem after a good cleaning.

Sping Break

2009-03-26T12:00:00.003-06:00

We have confirmed successful initiation of the Plan. I repeat, confirmed success. We have received word from Caitlin's Favorite Junior (hereafter referred to as CFJ) that Josey, acting as an agent on behalf of all animals who currently own Miss Caitlin, has arrived safely in Greece and is studying the area with CFJ.

CFJ wrote us a letter, informing us that Josey had arrived in Athens, but that she had been a little jet lagged from the trip in the box. The week she arrived, she recovered while CFJ went to class, then CFJ took Josey on a short trip to Crete, where it seems they visited several Minoan sites. CFJ writes that the site at Phaestos is very well preserved - I am rather jealous that Josey has the opportunity to visit such a historic site. CFJ reports that their next trip should be to Sparta. I am positive that more information will be forthcoming as CFJ has the chance to write. She had not found a place to let her upload her pictures, but she assures us that she did take some. Perhaps by the time Josie returns and can tell us all herself, the pictures will be available.

In other news, I feel it is necessary to point out that this was not uploaded sooner because Miss Caitlin went to visit her family, took the computer, but did not take us. So we missed the opportunity to see Percy, the King, Dog, and all our other friends at Miss Caitlin's Mother and Father's house. She remembered to take the tax documents away from Tipsy so they would be packed, but she did not take us. Just to be clear.

Yesterday, to make things exciting, the kitchen was invaded from the outside. They were small. They were black. And they were all over the sink. Miss Caitlin's Mother thinks the ants were probably after water - which was odd since it had just rained. But so far there is no evidence that hte ants made it into any food. Miss Caitlin purchased some spray and traps, which have taken care of this wave of the invasion. Miss Caitlin fears that they have only momentarily retreated to regroup, and that they will assail us again. She encourages us all to constant vigilance. Meanwhile, the caustic odor of the spray lingers in kitchen.

So March

2009-03-08T17:57:00.003-06:00

Hi. Tipsy here. This has been a strange weekend. On Friday, it was unofficial St. Patrick's Day. Cat accidentally wore green. She said it was a bad choice, though only one person asked if she'd been drinking. Most people seemed to get it that she's a little too smart to start drinking at 8 a.m. on a day she has class and work (and game). She had to spend the whole day dodging green-clad drunk people. It was stupid, and everything smelled bad.

It's been warm. Yay, we turned the heat way down. It's been raining lots. That's cool. It's nice spring rain. It's really windy. Like no kidding windy. It seems this rain and wind thing was too much for U of I. They have no power. That's right, U of I has no power. And here we thought the only time the U of I lost power was in the LARP's games.

So Cat has no Tae Kwon Do, since the rec building is closed for the foreseeable future. This is sad because she is supposed to test for the next belt next weekend. But she has a lot of stuff to do and isn't feeling well, so it's sorta good she has a break.

Cat's gonna have people over to teach them Euchre and other card games on Friday. It's like sharing family bonding with people who are not family. Cat has to clean before Friday though.

No news on the Plan since its initial implementation. We hope to hear more soon.

Oops.

2009-02-11T19:23:00.008-06:00

So, we didn't post in January. Cat is all better, though she is still relearning to breathe through her nose. She seems happy about her classes. She comes home from the Family's house this sort of blue color. Cat says she's helping the Family's Mom paint. I think she wants to be a Smurf.

So Deirdre sent us some pictures. It seems she and Miss Adrien went to some other park-type places.

This is Deirdre on a morter at Yorktown Battlefield. There was a battle there. In the Civil War. That's all I got on that.

Here she's at Jamestown - It seems like she really likes cannons. At least now she is sitting ON them instead of INSIDE it.

This is also Jamestown. It looks like a really old house. I don't have more info than that. But it's all good to see Deirdre and know that she is okay.

So, in other news, Josie has been chosen to be in charge of a Plan. We roped Cat into the conspiracy; we needed some money and a car to make it work. Otherwise, we wouldn't bother because Cat's like no fun. How well the Plan succeeds depends on Cat's Favorite Junior. Hopefully, she will go along with The Plan. Here is Josey at the inception of our Plan.

Josey, we're rooting for you. Plus, we'll be pissed if you mess up our sweet Plan. Just keep that in mind. Favorite Junior as well, if you don't go along with the plan, we'll be sad.

Miss Dierdre's Visit and Christmas

2008-12-28T12:11:00.004-06:00

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

2008-12-19T08:26:00.003-06:00

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

2008-12-15T00:18:00.013-06:00

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

2008-11-14T11:52:00.007-06:00

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

2008-11-07T17:38:00.006-06:00

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

2008-09-27T13:53:00.009-06:00

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

2008-09-02T09:53:00.004-06:00

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

2008-08-22T20:39:00.001-06:00

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

2008-08-10T19:05:00.005-06:00

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

2008-07-20T18:49:00.004-06:00

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.

one	two
three	four

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

2008-06-30T19:32:00.008-06:00

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

2008-06-08T14:36:00.005-06:00

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

2008-05-29T20:11:00.005-06:00

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

2008-05-20T17:00:00.004-06:00

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

2008-05-13T15:51:00.004-06:00

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

2008-04-30T15:58:00.003-06:00

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

2008-04-22T20:01:00.004-06:00

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

2008-04-11T14:32:00.005-06:00

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

2008-04-03T16:01:00.003-06:00

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

2008-03-25T20:01:00.002-06:00

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

2008-03-10T12:34:00.004-06:00

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

2008-03-05T22:26:00.004-06:00

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

2008-02-22T16:51:00.004-06:00

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

2008-02-03T20:00:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-24T19:07:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-09T17:57:00.000-06:00

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.

Finals

2007-12-10T23:25:00.000-06:00

Cat doesn't have any finals. Not where she has to go and sit and take a test. She really wishes she had. Instead she has to write a paper about linguistic stuff and make a model of her scene design.

The model is seriously cool. Cat doesn't seem to think so, she keeps swearing at it. I was sitting in it (in the pool - that's right, the set has a pool!), but Cat get muttering "Tipsy you're not to scale" and chasing me out. Whatever that means. I think calling me fat is not a nice way of saying I'm in the way.

She has to finish up the pool and the waterfall and make the last piece - a little gazebo with a dome on top. She's saving that for last. Depending on how much time she has, she'll make it more elaborate. She also has to make a little tree. She was going to use real twigs, but since they've all been encased in ice and snow since last Thursday, that's not going to happen. So she's going to buy some things. Too bad it's not supposed to be an evergreen - she could mutilate a Christmas wreath.

Cat's been alternating between listening to Rufus Wainwright and Madonna. I'm trying to wrap my head around that. I'm not sure I'll be able to.

Cat feels bad that she hasn't worked on her paper that much, but she says she's less concerned about it - she's written ten page papers from scratch the day before they were due before, so this isn't so bad she says. It's already half written and the teacher gave comments. Still, a good deal of Wednesday will be set aside for it. Cat hopes (knock on wood) to fire the waterfall (it's made from sculpy clay) either tomorrow night or the day after (ashita to asate in Japanese, if anyone cares . . . ). If she can do that, she thinks she'll be in good shape.

Look at the pictures to see how it has come along. Everyone's going to be glad to get the squares side of the battlemat back.

Holiday News

2007-11-26T23:23:00.000-06:00

Tipsy and I spent a most uneventful break at Miss Caitlin's Parents' house. The esteemed Deirdre accompanied us on the train at the beginning of break. Miss Caitlin was sympathetic to my suggestion that it would be extremely rude to leave her alone on the desk here for Thanksgiving, and there was no opportunity for her to return to Miss Adrien while we were still at University. So we brought her with us and returned her to Miss Adrien on the day before Thanksgiving, when Miss Caitlin visited Miss Adrien and her Puppy, who were both staying at Miss Adrien's Parents' house.

We had a diverting time catching up with all of our friends at Miss Caitlin's Parents house, including Hamlet the Elder, who was visiting Miss Caitlin's room, having been long neglected by her brother. Her brother was also in attendance, though only for a few days, as he had to make sure that their lab's cellular research was not neglected.

Having returned yesterday, Miss Caitlin has commenced with Holiday preparations. Caitlin adorned the windows with snowmen and snowflakes, and Master Gabriel accompanied her in the picking out of a small Christmas Tree for the apartment. She belatedly realized that she had forgotten a star for the tree, and that it could do with some more beads. However, it is suitably charming for the time-being.

Miss Caitlin also found out today that the English Honors Committee has accepted her revised proposal for her project, so she will begin looking for sources to check out over the long winter break to begin her research. She will be examining creatures like "the Fey" in different cultures and will try to ascertain if they are connected to each other or to a common ideal. While the committee said that she had picked a large project, they approve of her enthusiasm.

Otherwise, Miss Caitlin's time will be spent between final projects for her various classes as well as keeping her sanity. She has yet to commence her scene design project, but that will be begun for certain tomorrow, as they have time to work in class. Otherwise, she will be fitting things in as she can.

The Continued Adventures of the Snowdrop

2007-11-17T21:42:00.000-06:00

I am so sorry. There's been like two and a half Traveller games and I haven't reported on them. One was a short day where Sera Lewellan made sure that the local authorities were aware that the Snowdrop was in NO WAY involved with the bombing of a rebel base. They also made a fair profit on their speculative trade goods. It was short because Cat was really sick and couldn't focus on the game.

In the next exciting session, the ship was almost blown up by pirates. Comm and sensors officer Midnight and Pilot Chester Mannix had their hands full managing the long distance battle with a ship significantly larger than they were. With the help of the Steward's shooting as well as the engineering know how of Chad Ahron and Van Hawkins, the ship managed to stay together while taking the pirates down. Captain Gerrick Ransly kept the crew organized while the battle took place, and even managed to help hack into the enemy's computer. Drake Reed waited impatiently for a boarding that never came while Sera Lewellan stood at the back of the bridge with her fingers crossed that these fools would NOT succeed in blowing her and her ship up.

Having triumphed with a ship that was barely holding together, they limped to the spaceport in system where they received a discount for having taken out an impediment to business. While the ship was being repaired, the crew sampled "Argentinian" Pizza and gambled. Captain Gerrick ran into an old friend from the time he was in "information gathering" for a organized crime boss a few systems over. His friend, in "acquisitions," needed a loan to complete a pre-arranged transaction. Not liking the thought of what would become of his friend should his business not come through, Gerrick agreed to loan him 20,000 credits with a nice interest rate. Unfortunately for Gerrick, his friend was nailed and port security got his name. Gerrick lied his way out of charges of aiding a drug run, but he was less than thrilled with the news that his friend had gotten away and did not seem likely to pay him back. Taking the group's muscle with him (Reed), Gerrick went to confront his friend about the 20,000 credits and interest that had been promised to him. Unfortunately for them, his friend was hopped up on some highly illegal and unstable psi-drugs that sparked an immediate fight. Leaving Reed stuck under a steel crate, the criminal escaped.

Gerrick of course informed port security of the criminal's whereabouts, but they where soon proven no match for the rouge psionic's mind powers, hiding ability, or his drug-filled tranq darts. Gerrick again decided to take matters into his own hands, taking with him Reed (who was pissed because the guy "cheated" with the telekinesis thing), Chad, Chester, and Carmichael the steward. The remainder of the crew ordered pizza delivery and watched the fight on the bridge, Midnight having used her hacking ability to put the security camera feeds up onto the main screen. In the firefight that ensued, Carmichael parried the psionic's telekinesis with powers of his own, much to the surprise of the rest of the crew. The crew succeeded in taking out the dangerous drug runner but decided that they had had enough trouble in the system and kept a low profile until their repairs were finished.

In other news, Cat went to see a play at the school Kyle went to. Snibbly went, and he went on and on about the whole thing forever. They saw the other Caitlin from the Girl Scout troop and heard all about her summer research. Again, Snibbly went on and on about cell wall permeability in red blood cells because of it (I think it was for Deirdre's benefit - she's visiting again - anyway it certainly wasn't for mine). They also saw Kyle and met some of his gaming friends (wish I was there for that at least).

She also went to Columbia one day to try and find shoes for work. No go on the shoes, but she did find an awesome hat to wear when she doesn't have time to do her hair in the morning.

Cat took the GRE while she was sick, and rocked its socks even though (because?) she was on a little too much medication, taken so she could sit up long enough to take the test.

Thanksgiving's this week. She still hasn't taken the tickets off the fridge and given them to me. She really ought to do this. HINT HINT. We'll get to see all the home people. It will be lots of fun.

My last bit of news is very sad and very solemn. After many years of faithful service, Cat's oven has given up all hope of life. It totally killed Cat's breadstick earlier tonight. And in like 4 minutes too. It was pretty sad. Cat left a phone message for her landlady about the tragedy. Hopefully the appropriate steps to dispose of the poor thing will be taken soon.

Cat's not here right not because she's at the play, "house managing." She says that means she bosses the ushers around and tells people not to bring food into the theater. It doesn't sound all that important to me. Cat doesn't really like the play, not that it's not done well, she says, she just isn't a fan of Brecht. I guess he wrote it. It's called Threepenny Opera. Anyway, tonight's the last night for that.

That's all for now folks. I'll try to stay on top of the Traveller thing better from now on. That was a lot to write!

Not on Her Way to Campagne

2007-10-18T15:02:00.000-06:00

Miss Caitlin, as the title of this post would suggest, is not currently on her way to Champagne.

It was her hope to take advantage of the recess from classes that occurs tomorrow to visit the Library Science program at University of Illinois. Unfortunately, Miss Caitlin has been suffering from an illness that has not quite abated as of yet. While she is much improved, Miss Caitlin decided after much deliberation that she would be better served by staying home and resting tomorrow and calling and visiting the graduate program later.

Miss Caitlin is very frustrated that she had to make this choice, as she has been looking forward to leaving Kirksville and visiting her friends in Champagne. She is also frustrated that it has been gloriously fall like in weather conditions and temperature, and she has been unable to enjoy them, being stuck inside while ill. She was angry that she could not move her GRE examination from yesterday to a time when she would be healthier, but she did very well on the portions of the test that were already reported. However, the score she was most wanting to improve was her writing score, and that will not arrive for a few weeks. Miss Caitlin had to take a little more medicine than she was supposed to so that she would not cough through the entire test and prevent both herself and the unfortunate people who were in the room taking it with her from doing their best on the test. In general, Miss Caitlin is impatient with being ill and desires rapid improvement, which does not seem forthcoming.

Crafty

2007-09-28T18:37:00.000-06:00

Cat made stuff for the Cabbage Patch Kids. Comfort is now the cutest Cabbage Patch Kid on the planet. Cat finally finished the shirt she's been working on since before school started - she had to make substantial alterations to the pattern - which annoyed Cat to no end, because it was supposed to fit the classic Cabbage Patch Kids, no problem. But all turned out well. Cat also made the cutest jumper on the planet. Comfort is now well stocked in flutterbies. Mrs. Cat's Mom will be jealous. The flash made the jumper look more blue, but really it's a plum purple. Without the flash it was blurry, so I included both.

Also pictured here is Sean-Spud in his PJs which Cat did two weeks ago. They're very warm, so Sean hasn't been wearing them much yet. But he wanted his picture taken in his new clothes with Comfort.

Adventures of the Snowdrop

2007-09-21T22:08:00.000-06:00

Cat has been working on grad school stuff - slowly but she still has plenty of time. She was delayed by getting sick last weekend. It was a weird little thing - she was really sick for like 36 hours, and then she was fine, just a little tired. Anyway, not much got done over the weekend. Just the absolute necessities. But now her references have everything they need to reference for her, and she has most of a resume and most of a personal statement. Those things are going to get hammered out this week so she can have everything ready to put into applications in one go. She's also studying for the GRE with Sean (big Sean, not Spud - Spud wouldn't help her very much . . . ), and some on her own.

Today was a Traveller day! Almost as much fun as DnD days! Anyway, two weeks ago, the Snowdrop (a modified noble's pleasure yacht owned by Sera Richelle Llewellyn, Baroness of Umkahkuu) was employed to make use of the not-so-famous-but-very-intelligent Professor Van Hawkins's latest experiments - aka chemically enhanced weapons and explosives. The thing they were supposed to make use of this on was a base for insurgents with a free-Earth agenda (not very popular in an Imperialist setting, alas). There were grenades, and a really big fire, and the ship's hired gun was badly injured (no one was surprised) and the engineer was almost killed (everyone was not happy - engineers are important! Not that hired guns aren't . . . ), and Sera Llewellan had to bad mouth the nightside starport manager. But everyone made it out okay in the end and they retreated back to another system - one far enough away to hopefully not raise suspicion.

There they played on the fancy space station. Drake Reed (the hired gun) got in a bar fight over a not happening pool game, Chester Mannix (the pilot) and Chad Ahron (the engineer) went shopping, bought toys, guns, and candy, and saw a news report about they haven't been caught yet for blowing up buildings elsewhere in the sector, and Sera Llewellan lost her artificially intelligent robot when some navy sneaks wanted to see what kind of info he had inside of him. After paying off the port security for Reed's misdeeds, and kicking them into gear to help with Sera Llewellan's problem, Captain Gerrick Ransly and the rest of the crew (minus the delinquent Reed, who was kept on the ship by the Baroness's hand maid and her tranquillizer gun) got together to muster out the robot from possible harm.

After a bit of speculative buying, the Snowdrop is preparing to depart to deal with some pirates several systems away, hopefully for more profit this time. I know everyone will wait anxiously to hear the continuation of the Snowdrop's exploits, to be continued three weeks from now, when people are mostly done taking stupid tests and things. (Cat won't be, but that's okay - the next Traveller game is the week before she takes the GRE - which isn't a big deal since she has plenty of time to prepare for both)

Discussions of the week: New nouns in Japanese since they've learned basic sentence structure, the syntax of African American English, resumes in Theatre Seminar (convenient, eh? It's supposed to be), and measured perspective in scene design.

Onset of Fall

2007-09-10T21:00:00.000-06:00

This week, Miss Caitlin is discussing the history of the development of African American English, Theatre Graduate Programs, Japanese Adjectivals, and circles. It is sort of a full week, but Miss Caitlin is enjoying a little more free time because she is not leading a game this week. Instead Miss Adrien is, therefore allowing Miss Caitlin to play. She has to organize the next week's space adventure, but she already has some ideas for that. Perhaps Tipsy will regale you with more information about the starship Snowdrop at another time. After all, she is far more interested in that than I am.

Miss Caitlin is enjoying her work at the library. While she mostly just shelves books, she also has the opportunity to do other things, like discussing with an eleven-year-old the pros and cons of reading Brian Jacques' Redwall books in chronological order versus in the order in which he wrote them. She hopes that they will eventually give her more involved jobs later.

The weather was beautiful today, with a high of 70 degrees. The whole week is projected to have highs in the low to mid 70s. It is Miss Caitlin's favorite weather. She plans to enjoy it while it lasts - keeping last winter's ice storm in mind.

Schoolness

2007-08-29T12:42:00.000-06:00

We're back at school and Cat's been to all of her classes at least once. Cat says Japanese is pretty cool, especially since there are people who are worse at it (yes, even with only 3 days of class, she can tell). Theatre Senior Seminar is like Theatre-group-therapy- because-no-one-knows-what-they're- doing-for-the-rest-of-their-lives. Cat's glad it only meets once a week. Scene Design got taken over by the new Theatre teacher - which threw Cat. Not that this Janet person isn't nice or not a good teacher, but Cat was mentally prepared for a Ron class. African American English involves a lot of reading, so I'm glad it's Cat that's taking it and not me. Of all the classes, Cat's the least sure about that one. She thinks she'll do well, but it will be more work than she expected.

In more interesting news, Cat got her Traveller rulebook (finally) and she has some characters and a spaceship (how often do you get to say that?!). She's working on stuff for them to do with their characters and spaceship.

Some people might find this interesting - Cat dyed her hair again, so now it's all one color. It's pretty close to her original hair color. The sun-bleached part was really getting to her.

We have a new addition to our house - Shawn Samuel. He's a perky little kid - all the same, Snibbly and I have been staying away from him. He's nice to the other animals, particularly Clem, but the other animals are on a more even size with him - Snibbly and I are afraid of the damage he might inflict on us. Maybe when he's older. . . Cat's settled on the nickname Spud for him, but only when her friend Sean is around. Otherwise, things would be way confusing.

Other than that, things are pretty normal. Cat's working on homework and studying for the GRE. She has to sign up for a date still, but she's working on it. She hasn't been writing as much as she'd like - once the spaceship thing gets off the ground, that should improve.

University

2007-08-16T16:12:00.001-06:00

I cannot say how much I regret the lack of information I have provided this summer. Miss Caitlin has been enjoying work, though it leaves her overheated and fatigued. This week she has spent preparing for our departure.

Tomorrow, we return to University, though Miss Caitlin's classes do not begin until the week following next. She is in for a busy semester, though she has only thirteen hours of credits. She will also try to write most of an essay to receive Honors in English, as well as resuming her work on her novel series. This she has promised to Miss Allison (friend of my dear friend Gip) and Miss Courtney (companion of the esteemed Hamlet the Younger). Everyone in the room, humans and pigs alike, had been disappointed to hear of Miss Caitlin's lack of diligence concerning her own writing. I remained silent, though I was secretly overjoyed when the young misses extracted the promise from Miss Caitlin - I feel it will do her much good. I only hope that Miss Caitlin's friends will remember to encourage her, remind her, and guilt her into working.

Miss Caitlin will also be working on a science fiction role-playing game with at least some of her friends. I feel this will detract time that she could otherwise be working on her novels, but Tipsy is extremely excited about it. She keeps babbling about "space cows." Like Miss Caitlin would allow something so ridiculous in her game.

In other news, the beautiful Comfort will be accompanying us on our trip to University. Miss Caitlin has greatly missed her oldest friend's company and is glad to have her traveling with us. I only hope Comfort does not get into trouble.

Happenings

2007-07-14T15:22:00.000-06:00

Cat's busy with camp, studying for the GRE (which is this sort of test thing she's taking in August - I guess it's sort of important), and reading Harry Potter. She's also working on the final make-up design for her costume for the release of the new Harry Potter book. Most of her time is taken up by camp though.

Now on to the real news. Anyone who knows Clem will remember that he was suffering from a beanie deficiency. This deficiency was making him look thin, ill, and distinctly un-Clem-like.

There is good news however. After Cat and Mr. Cat's Dad located the tackiest beanie-pillow currently on the market, Cat and Mrs. Cat's Mom ransacked the pillow for beanies for a Beanie Transfusion into Clem. The procedure started at approximately 3:30 and took about 45 minutes to complete. It was principally performed by Mrs. Cat's Mom because of her superior knowledge and experience in stuffed-animal emergency care. Clem is now resting comfortably, under the care of his friends. Mrs. Cat's Mom has informed us that a secondary procedure might be necessary once the new beanies settle. This would be done sometime in mid-August, before our return to school.

Let us all hope and pray for a complete recovery.

Cat Stupid and More Pictures

2007-06-25T13:37:00.000-06:00

Sorry this took so long. Cat was stupid. First she made us take baths - both of us, even though I wasn't nearly as dirty as Snibbly. It was not fair. Though she didn't put me in the dryer and she did shove Snibbly in there - heehee. I got to air dry. Anyway, after that, she started work at camp, and then the computer was off most of the time during the day and Cat was tired and crabby at night, so we didn't get to play on the computer. Grr. We're in K-town now, checking up on the apartment and paying bills. It's kind of creepy - no one's here but us (Snibbly, Cat, and I) and the My Little Ponies. Clem and the bigger animals stayed at Mr. and Mrs. Cat's Parent's house.

So, without FURTHER ado, Greece Pictures Part 2:

Our first picture is from Mycenae - Supposedly this is where Agamemnon was buried. Not sure about that, but it was the grave circle of a very important dude. So important that later generations extended the wall to included it in the settlement - something that the Greeks usually didn't do. They liked to keep dead people out of their cities. So that they made and exception means they revered the dead here big time. They found at lot of stuff here. It's in the National Museum. I didn't see them. I'm okay with that.

This is in Nemea - near where the Nemean Games were held. They were kind of like the Olympics, or the ones held in Delphi, except they were done in honor of some dead kid. Anyway, this is the Temple to Zeus there. It was cool because you could actually walk on the Temple. We're inside the Temple in the picture, but it's hard to tell.

This is us at the Venetian Castle overlooking Nafplion. It was cool because you could climp all over it and there were murder holes and blind alleys and arrow loops and other cool things like that. There were seven separate towers that were supplied separately and had to be taken on one at a time in case of siege. It was a defender's heaven and an attacker's nightmare. Cat wanted to spend more time there, but no one else did, so she couldn't. She wanted to find how to get to all seven - instead she only could play in two. It was really hard to find how to get around - everywhere there were places you could see (and they could see you) but you couldn't see how to get there. Cat said that was part of the defensive thing.

This is at the other Venetian Castle - the one on Acrocorinth that wasn't as cool. This is part of the main keep. Behind Cat (who's taking the picture - duh) is like 10 feet and then a huge drop down to the plain below.

This is us and the plain of near Corinth. We're on the top and on the edge of the arch things you can see in the other picture. It gives you an idea about how high up we were, right? Cat didn't have too many problems with heights on the trip, but this was one of the times she was kinda nervous. We all got up and down fine (though Cat kept throwing us in the bag up or down. She said it was so we didn't get in her way. Hrmph.)

This is us in the Theater at Epadarus. You can sit at the back and hear things perfectly that are going on on the stage! On of the girls in the group sang "Build Me Up Buttercup," and we all heard her perfectly. One of the professors dropped a coin at the exact middle where the sound is the best and we heard it in the back row. It was pretty neat.

This is us in front of a smoking sulfur vent on the volcano place on Santorini. It was the closest thing to real volcano-ness we saw on the whole island. That and a lot of black rocks. Snibbly and Cat thought it was really cool. I thought it was kinda lame. No lava. Snibbly got really dirty here, because he kept leaping about, trying to look at things on his own.

This is us on the boat. See the volcanic island is in the middle of Snatorini's bay - Santorini is shaped like a crescent in case you didn't know. Cat says it has to do with the volcano thing. Something about the last big eruption that was a long time ago. Anyway, to go where the sulfur vents are, you have to go on a boat, since it's on a little black island in the middle of the crescent.

This is us and the little black island that the volcanic stuff is on. Far in the distance on the left, you see the southern part of the crescent. Beyond the bigger black island is a smaller one that Cat says is older, but still newer than the eruption, and an even smaller, older island that is the same age as the crescent. Cat says the little island used to connect to the crescent - so the cresent was like a big donut almost. There was still a little opening for the sea to come in the middle of the donut. Cat says they know all this because of the rocks, so I should respect them more. I still say they're boring.

This is us and Fira. It has pretty houses. They're all done in white and blue for waterproofing. Seriously. Everyone's like - oh, they're so pretty, so exotic, but really, they have to put paint on every year for water proofing and white is cheap, so they use white. They don't have a freshwater source on the island, so they collect and purify rainwater from all flat surfaces. That's why it has to be waterproof.
Here's us and the sunset in Ia. It's supposed to be really awesome. We thought it was way to crowded to be awesome. But that's alright - sunsets are pretty anyway.

That's it for our pictures. After that, we went back to Athens, shopped for the next day, and then got up really early so we could be at the Athens airport at the butt-crack of dawn. Cat was sleepy and her ears hurt on the plane ride. Then it took her a really long time to readjust to the time difference back at home. We visited with Cat's Grandparents - we'll be visiting them again soon for the 4th of July. Her Grandpa's doing well - he's doing things he's not supposed to and annoying her Grandma and everything! For the 4th, they'll be able to drink the wine Cat bought for him in Santorini.

Santorini and Pictures of Our Journey

2007-05-27T02:41:00.000-06:00

As you can begin to see, we have found a place and opportunity to upload pictures. My profile picture features my ancient counterpart found in the Karamikos Cemetary's museum. I assume that Tipsy will also change her profile picture to the cow we found near the pig.

I shall try to present the pictures from earlier in the trip.This is us at Hadrien's arch, back on our first full day in Athens. Notice the people and cars in the picture for a sense of scale.This is us at the Theater of Dionysos, after Miss Caitlin's presentation. We are seated on one of the chairs reserved in the first few rows for officials. On site, there are chairs that are significantly more intact, however they are roped off. This is the only one that people are allowed to sit on. Miss Caitlin also got her picture taken while she was on this chair.

The picture of us at the top of the page was taken on top of "Socrates' Prison" and features a nice shot of the Acropolis in the background.This is a picture of us at the Temple of Olympian Zeus. This is the more striking view of the Temple, including most of the columns that are still standing. There are some that are standing in the corner off the picture to the left, but these are the majority of the ones that still stand.
This was taken later in the afternoon at the Roman Agora, featuring the Tower of the Winds in the background.Here we are overlooking the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. It was a very exciting site - miss Caitlin says that it may have been her favorite, though she is enjoying Santorini immensely.Here we are with the town of Delphi far below us. This was from when Miss Caitlin and several of her classmates hiked above the village in search of the Sanctuary of Pan.

Unfortunately, I do not have time to display all of our pictures. While it will be less exciting, I will present them when we return home. We leave on Wednesday, and I will be sorry to leave this place, though Tipsy and even Miss Caitlin are tiring of traveling and are looking forward to being home.

I feel I should mention what we did while staying in Ancient Corinth. We visited the sites there, including the Agora and the acropolis, which is dominated by a crumbling Venetian Castle. We also visited Nemea, Epadarus, Myceane, and Nafplion. Miss Caitlin enjoyed Nafplion extremely - she quite enjoy hauling us all through the Venetian castle there - it was considerably better preserved that the one on top of Acrocorinth.

Santorini has been intensely exciting. We have been hiking around the caldera, listening to one of the leading volcanologists talk about the geology of the island and the mechanics of the erruptions here. Not too many of Miss Caitlin's classmates are interested, and we weary of them more and more everyday. Perhaps it is for the best that we are to leave soon. However, it will still be a shame.

Almost Pictures

2007-05-26T04:08:00.000-06:00

Cat found us a computer with a USB drive and a good connection - but she totally left the cable at the hotel!!!! This is Fira (not Akrotiri, where we're staying) so it's not that close. But Cat promised us that she'll come back tomorrow so we can put up some pictures. And we'll go into more detail and stuff. Right now, we don't have too much time because we have to meet up with the others to go to Ia, which has pretty sunsets.

Cat's back turned red and she complains about it a lot. It seems sorta impractical to me. She should grow some fur.

Cat also says her legs hurt a lot. I don't know what she's complaining about. It's been pretty easy for us - I mean we've been exploring the island, and we haven't been on the bus that much because Cat walks us around, so it's much less tedious. We went a third of the way around the cliff - caldera thing, and we walked up and down a mountain, and all over the real volcano part, and today we'll go around another third of the caldera - cliff thing, but really, I don't see what she's complaining about.

Cat and Snibbly are still on about rocks. I don't get it. I'm more excited about the museum we visited today. It was of all this stuff from a town called Akrotiri (like the town we're staying in - I guess they're not all that creative with names here). I guess you can't go to the real site because they're still working on it. Everything was preserved really well because of something that happened when the volcano exploded a long time ago. Cat and our guide guy (who's like a geologists or something) keep telling me that the volcano used to be bigger. It wasn't that impressive when we visited it yesterday. Anyway, at this museum, they had another ancient pig and cow. Well the cow was a bull (not exactly the same thing), and the pig was a boar (I think Snibbly's pretty boring, so it's almost the same thing), and they weren't a set like the ones in the museum in Athens, but they were still pretty cool.

The weather's been strange here. Today's the only day it's been sunny all day. Otherwise it's been cloudy, which isn't so bad, and yesterday it was rainy. That was pretty bad. They had to shorten our boat trip. We only saw these little islands in the middle - one was the volcano, and one was that looked kind of like the volcano one, only it had grass and goats on it.

We'll write again tomorrow - with pictures!!! Cat's not sure how much we can put up, but we'll at least do a few! Ta 'til then!

Island Place

2007-05-24T06:45:00.000-06:00

We're at this Island called Santorini. It's really touristy, except not the place where we are staying. So we don't have too much of a chance to use the internet. Cat got time here at this black beach place, but she used most of her time to answer her e-mail (lame), so I can't say too much because of time. Cat's walking us around a lot and the view's cool. Cat and Snibbly keep getting excited about rocks and stuff. I mean, they're kinda neat, but I don't know what all the fuss is about. Something about a volcano, but that's silly - there's no big mountain shooting lava anywhere! I think it's like the "Roman" thing.

Corinth was cool. We spent a lot of time on the bus. We met a nice animal named Bunny there. oddly enough, he/she(Bunny predates gender apparently) looked like a bunny. We'll right more about those adventures later.

So well try to write again (better) soon. Until then - bya!

Greece - Without the Silliness

2007-05-16T12:02:00.000-06:00

Greece is quite amazing, but Tipsy is not the best at explaining its majesty. I admit, it would be easier for our readers if Tipsy had been able to make use of pictures, but alas, that is not to be. Instead, I will try and explain things in such a manner that will allow our friends and readers to look up the monuments in question, if they so desire.

The arch was Hadrian's arch, build during the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrien, in approximately 131 AD. It originally separated the Ancient Greek section of the city from the Roman additions. The side facing the Greek city reads "this is Athens, the ancient city of Theseus," while the side facing the Roman expansion reads "this is the city of Hadrian, and not of Theseus." The picture we took was on the side facing the Roman part of the city. Hadrian is better known, perhaps, for the wall he put up in Britain, to block out the Scots.

Since Tipsy made this mistake several times, I feel I need to make this clear in a separate paragraph. The Romans conquered the Greeks in 146 BC, and put up many great structures of their own. Their influence can be found all over Greece - though in general, the locals look down upon their Roman roots, and do not count as an improvement their time of occupation. They tolerate the Romans, who were respectful of Greek culture, much more than the Turks.

The Gardens were the National Gardens. We also saw the Presidential Palace, which is nearby and sports a set of guards similar to those at the Parliament Building.

Miss Caitlin presented, very well, on the topic of the Festival of Dionysus and the plays of Euripides. She made her presentation in the Theater of Dionysus, where the Festival would actually take place. It is an amazing site, and Miss Caitlin counts herself privileged to present there. I cannot believe that that cow would not pay attention to such an important moment.

The other theater was the Roman Odeon, which was restored in the 1950's and has been used for concerts and plays occasionally since then.

Then, indeed, we were most unfairly shoved into a coatroom, and not allowed onto the Acropolis. Miss Caitlin enjoyed exploring it, but she said the museum was mostly closed. This is because the Greeks are building a new museum to house the Acropolis collection. In this new museum, they will leave room for the Elgin Marbles, in an attempt to show the British that they have facilities to display and maintain the important pieces from the Parthenon.

The "big slippery hill thing" was the Areopagus, where a council of elders would meet to make judgments in cases of murder and heresy. According to legend, Orestes was tried on this hill.

The Greek Agora was the center to Athenian life, though as Tipsy said, we did not explore it satisfactorily. The temple was the Hephestion, which also displayed the story of Theseus in its freezes.

We did indeed see that which is not likely to have been Socrates's Prison, but Tipsy left out an important stop. We went to the pnyx of Athens - this is where the Assemblies of Athens would take place. This open field was the birthplace of democracy. The only major feature of this field was the speaker's platform, where any male citizen could address his peers. It was a remarkable place, though it seems unexciting to the uneducated. The cemetery was Karamikos, and it was interesting to see that the figure of a pig and cow were found among the gifts to the dead there. Only as small part of the cemetery is excavated - a large portion of modern downtown Athens is built over it.

The museum was the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Such pieces as the bronze of Zeus (or Poseidon, they are not really sure) are housed there. It was quite overwhelming, and Miss Caitlin made sure to see everything, paying the most attention to the most spectacular pieces.

The big temple was the Temple of Olympian Zeus, built by the Roman Emperor Hadrian. It is located near the arch. It is very big, but Miss Caitlin and I feel that it is spectacular because of its size, but it lacks the grace of the Greek buildings. The Roman Agora was indeed an enjoyable location, especially seeing all sides of the Tower of the Winds, which is located there. The Tower was all at once a weather vane, a water clock, and a sun dial. Its sides are decorated with personifications each of the winds.

Since Tipsy wrote, we have seen the temple to Apollo at Delphi, with all the other buildings that accompanied it. There was a stadium and a theater for the competitions held in Apollo's honor, as well as a gymnasium (located at a separate site) for the athlete's to train at in preparation for the games. Also located there were the treasuries of the various city states, which would house the city's gifts to Apollo, as well as display the glory of the city-state for the rest of the Greece to see. The tour guide, who is a friend of Miss Caitlin's Professors, was very good. She explained many things beyond what an average high school student should know, unlike the Acropolis tour guide we had. Miss Caitlin's camera lost power on site, so she does not have as many pictures as she would have liked.

Today, Miss Caitlin took us on a hike. We hiked up the mountainside behind the temple, getting a great view of the town below. Miss Caitlin also skinned her left knee on the trek down, but she is healing well. Tomorrow, we depart for ancient Corinth. On the way, we will stop at Hell. The group is looking forward to this.

We have not heard yet from Miss Adrien and Deirdre, though they should have left for China. Perhaps we will hear soon.

While in ancient Corinth, it is unlikely we will have internet access. We will write next from Santorini.

No Photos

2007-05-14T07:49:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone - we made it to Delphi! We're all a lot more awake now - though Cat still thinks there's something wrong with her ears.

We've done so much since I last wrote. Cat kept trying to find a computer that would let us play with USB ports, but we never found one. Seems we have to update without it. It means no photos though.

Cat's now really good at navigating through Athens - except we left Athens. Cat left some clothes in Athens - whoops. Good thing we're going back to the same hotel.

We saw all the must-sees in Athens. Caitlin was the first to do her presentation - and let me tell you, it was a surprise to her. Wait, let me go back, or we'll miss an important part of the story.

Thursday, they got orientation lessons (north, south, east, west). They had some free time, so Cat and her friend Regina went to see this really big arch made by this Emperor dude. Cat took our picture with it - isn't it very impressive? They also wandered in these gardens. We got our picture taken on a random piece of marble there.

Later, they went out to dinner. Pigs and Cows were not invited. Discrimination. Anyway, there was lots of wine. Cat had a little, but Cat's not stupid, so she nursed her two glasses and stopped. Other people were stupid. A few were terminally stupid. They didn't get back until way late, unlike Cat, who was asleep by 11:45.

So a huge bunch of the group hauls themselves out of bed with hangovers on the day we're supposed to see all the awesome stuff on the Acropolis. Stupids. They complained a lot. Like, more than me, and that's hard to do.

Anyway, back to Cat and her presentation. She thought she was going later in the trip but Friday morning the Professor-types were like "And we have two presentations today, first Bob, then Caitlin!" So Cat was like, oh no, and dragged out her paper and started aggressively underlining. Then we got our tour guide, and she was like, you have to check backpacks on the Acropolis, which meant we couldn't go to the top. This distracted me so much, that next thing I knew, we were in this big theater thing at the bottom of the big hill thing that the Acropolis is on, and Cat was talking. I kept asking Snibbly what was going on, but he kept telling me to shut up. Anyway, it was about theater and this really dead guy, so I checked out the view instead. They had one of the crummier throne-seats open to be sat on, and Cat took our picture there. Pretend you can see it.

Then they walked up the hill, and saw another theater thing (Snibbly was muttering something about "Romans," but that's stupid, we're in Greece). It had scaffolding and stuff around it, which meant no climbing on it, and it was a really busy area, so no pictures.

Next, we got checked and had to stick around the cloak room while Cat went to see the Acropolis. LAME!!! We could see the Acropolis from EVERYWHERE, but we couldn't go up because we were in a backpack. Total discrimination.

We got picked up in time to see this big slippery hill thing where old dead guys would meet to make decisions like a jury or something. Anyway, it had a nice view of the city, so Cat took our picture. Pretend you can see it. Isn't it pretty? Athens is a pretty city.

Then we saw the marketplace thing - it was a bunch of piles of rocks. Cat wished she wasn't so hot and tired, cos she would have explored more, but as it was, she stuck to the shade. Then we went up to this really awesome temple that still had its roof. It was like for the god of fire or something - it didn't matter - the point was it was mostly still complete. We got our picture taken with that too. See?!?!

That was the end of the day - thankfully. Saturday, they saw what might have been this annoying philosopher's prison cell, but probably wasn't, but there was a great view of the Acropolis from the top of it. So Cat took our picture with the Acropolis in the background, which isn't the same thing as having your picture taken ON the Acropolis, but it still is a really cool picture. That's why I changed our main photo to it - RIGHT?!

Then they went to a really old cemetery. Cat liked it a lot. So did Snibbly and I. Well, Snibbly likes everything here. Anyway, they had a museum with a lot of pottery and stuff in it. I thought it was lame, Cat thought it was cool. But in the last room, there was a bunch of figurines. And among them was no other than an ancient version of pig and cow! It rocked my little cow socks. Even Snibbly was amused. And that's like nearly impossible. So Cat took pictures of them to prove that we saw them. Aren't they awesome?

That afternoon, Cat was going to do stuff, but she fell asleep instead. That evening, they walked up a really big hill to see the sunset, except they missed the sunset, Cat's asthma was bad, she was still real tired, and it was really crowded. It made Cat not happy. Plus, it was too dark to take good pictures. Lame.

Yesterday, Cat went to this massive museum. Only Snibbly went, since I think museums are boring. You'll have to ask him what they saw. She came back and took us both to see a big temple (Snibbly said something about Romans again - what an idiot) and then we saw the changing of the guard at the parliament building. We didn't take pictures with them like a bunch of the tourists. Cat said she felt bad for the guards and that she was "trying to strive for some class." Whatever that means. They had funny pompoms on their shoes, and pretty embroidery on their tunics. Then we went to this Roman (apparently everyone's stupid) forum. That was cool because we could climb over it. Cat took a few pictures of us there. Cat took a nap again and then had a really nice dinner. Then she packed (except for the stuff she forgot).

Today, they got up early and left in a bus. They stopped at another place, a big field outside of Athens where there was a battle or something, but we couldn't get in 'cos all the tourist traps are closed on Mondays in Greece. So we piled on the bus and came here. Cat did some laundry and she scoped out this computer place for me.

Phew! So that's Greece so far. I'm sure Snibbly would have something to say, if he wasn't napping. He'll just have to say it later. I said all the important things anyway. I'm glad you all liked our photos.

SOMEPLACE DIFFERENT!!!

2007-05-09T12:28:00.000-06:00

WE MADE IT!!!

Cat's really tired, but she's not sick like she thought she might be. She just doesn't like staying awake for over 24 hrs.

The plane was really noisy. There was a kid across the aisle that kept running into Cat during his escape attempts. Behind him was a loud drunk guy. Mostly, people couldn't sleep, Cat included.

Greece is really pretty! There are all these old things laying around, and they have good yogurt. Cat didn't get to take too many pictures (she was on the wrong side of the bus), plus her battery just died. Now we can check to see if her charger will work here with the converter.

We'll talk more later!

Departure

2007-05-08T10:18:00.000-06:00

Everything is prepared and the next time one of us writes, it will be from Greece. Whether or not loading pictures will work, we cannot promise you.

I am glad to report that Miss Caitlin's esteemed grandfather is doing well. He is breathing on his own and has even been up since the successful surgery yesterday. The doctors are hopeful that he will leave intensive care tonight or tomorrow.

I bid a fond farewell to these shores, and to our companions and friends here. I look forward to our reunion at the end of the month.

Preparations

2007-05-05T15:46:00.000-06:00

Miss Caitlin has finished her finals and returned to her parents' house. Miss Caitlin's Father is ill, and both Miss Caitlin and her Mother hope to avoid catching his illness.

Preparations for our departure are now being made in earnest, as we depart for Greece on Tuesday. Miss Caitlin is doing laundry and figuring what to pack. She has set aside some books for reading while there, including the first few Harry Potter books. Caitlin claims it is necessary for her job as a camp counselor to read them (again) in preparation for the new book's release. In addition, she feels the need to come up with a costume design for the release date, with her eye on winning the costume contest. This does not excite me as much as you would suppose.

In any event, a few items remain to be purchased, but they will be seen to in the next few days. Miss Caitlin also has to secure a set of traveler's checks so that she can purchase gifts while on her trip.

Miss Adrien and the esteemed Deirdre remain at University for a week before departing for China. I have offered to put up pictures from their journey on our blog, but I am not sure that it will be possible for us to do that until after we return home.

Tipsy has spent all of the last few days complaining that Sauinkoku has been licensed and is no longer available. Miss Caitlin promised Tipsy that she would buy the second season if it comes out next year. Depending on how much it costs, she might even buy the first season when it is released in the fall. And yet, Tipsy still continues to complain. I hope this does not continue through our trip to Greece. It is too long of a plane ride to put up with that.

Finals Stuff

2007-04-26T18:55:00.000-06:00

Cat's working on finals stuff. That means papers and a website project. Next week she'll have a few tests, too. The website sounds very yummy. It's for a local bakery - they'll actually use it and put it on the web after the semester is over! It's very exciting. But it makes me want cake from reading all of the descriptions!

It's rainy and has been for a while. It made the ceiling leak. Cat had to get up in the middle of the night last night (because it can't leak during the day, when it'd be less inconvenient) and put a bucket under the leaks. She wasn't happy. The Landlady said they'd be out to try to fix it as soon as the weather's not drippy. Theoretically, that should be soon.

Mr. Cat's Grandpa has to have heart surgery. It's going to be on the 7th of Mayl. Everyone should pray for him. Oh yeah, and Cat's Bother is getting his gall bladder removed on the 15th. No one really cares (including Cat's Bother) because it's not very serious, especially compared to Mr. Cat's Grandpa's surgery. But you can pray for him, too, if you want.

We leave for Greece the day after Mr. Cat's Grandpa's surgery. It's finally going to happen! Mr. Cat's Dad is going to take us to the airport. And he's going to take Cat to get some stuff before we go (like a passport pocket), but I don't know if he knows that yet. We'll try to put up pictures while we're in Greece.

Deirdre is going to China! She gets to go someplace DIFFERENT too! Maybe we'll put up some of her pictures after she comes back.

Boring

2007-04-20T12:57:00.000-06:00

Cat's got Finals coming up. It means she's really boring. She and Snibbly have been reading these plays by a dead guy called Euripides and some other ones making fun of this dead guy called Euripides. She has to write a paper about it for Monday or something . . .

In unrelated news, we're going to Greece! Soon! She's started making lists and stuff of what to buy and what to bring (we're at the top of the list). I'm really excited! I get to see some place that's not school, home, or Mr. and Mrs. Cat's Grandparents' house. Not that those places aren't nice - but Greece is DIFFERENT! Cat says that Adrien is going to China - I wonder if she's taking Deirdre. That'd be awesome! She'd get to go somewhere DIFFERENT too!

Before I forget, Snibbly and I both want to say sorry to Wolfgang von Bear (also known as Cat's soul) and Eeyore, because they weren't in the picture but we made it sound like they guys in the picture were our only friends at Cat's home house and that's not true. We have a lot of friends that didn't make it into the picture. So sorry guys, we love you too.

Sauinkoku's second seasons started, but it hasn't been translated yet. It makes me sad.

Easter

2007-04-08T12:15:00.000-06:00

Cat took us home for Easter. The train was not very fun because no one she knows came home on the same day. She listened to a lot of music. When we got home, Caitlin gave the dress she had been working on to Comfort, one of her oldest friends (Comfort is old enough to vote if it wasn't for the unfair discrimination against Cabbage Patch Dolls). The jumper and hat Cat made for her are the first new clothes that Comfort has gotten since before Clinton was President. Comfort is especially excited about the hat - the boys had hats, but Comfort never did. Here's a picture of her in her pretty new clothes. Cat made a shirt for herself out of the fabric and she used the scraps for the dress and hat.

Here's a picture of most of our friends at Mr. and Mrs. Cat's Parent's House. There's (from left to rightish) Baby, Panya, Sully (the dog), Sheepy, Percy, Lord King Reggie, Me, Snibbly, and Dog.

We're having a pretty good time. Cat got new shoes (so she can walk us around in Greece) and she's going to go for a walk with Mr. Cat's Dad later to start breaking them in. I guess breaking shoes in is pretty important. She's also going to have to do her taxes, which sounds like a mystical activity.

Saiunkoku Monogatari is over and I'm sad . . . Until Season Two starts! If they didn't have a second season, I would be really sad because there was still a lot of lose ends. In fact, there was no real conclusion. I guess the second season starts really soon.

Punctuation is a Good Thing

2007-04-04T21:53:00.000-06:00

I like punctuation. I use punctuation, unlike some stupids out on the internet. I don't know all the fancy names for things, (like some stupids I know that sit all day on a certain speaker reading facts about Egyptian art so he can impress a certain sow . . .) but I do know punctuation is important. Cat had to explain why these two paragraphs say exactly the opposite of each other, even though they use the same words in the same order. Read it and learn to appreciate periods and commas. Is funny.

Dear Jack,
I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we’re apart. I can be forever happy – will you let me be yours?
Jill

Dear Jack,
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men I yearn! For you I have no feelings whatsoever. When we’re apart I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?
Yours,
Jill

Apologies, again

2007-03-26T17:21:00.000-06:00

I apologize, I had not realized what idiocy Tipsy had been putting up on our blog, or I would have stopped her. As it stands, I have been pulled from my fascinating reading about the artifacts of Tutankhamen's tomb that Deirdre and Miss Adrien have provided for me so that I might address this twaddle. Tipsy should have mentioned that Miss Caitlin was obliged to point out the grammar errors and ambiguities for her grammar class.

In the case of "Services for man who refused to hate Thursday in Atlanta," the mistake is that commonly, native speakers expect "hate" to have an object. "Thursday" and the prepositional phrase "in Atlanta" are actually being used adverbially to describe when the services are, and "to hate" is being used intransitively, but because of the expectation for an object, the noun phrase "Thursdays in Atlanta" appears to be filling that role.

"British Left Waffles on Falklands" This instance is purely lexical in ambiguity. The world "left" can be the past tense of the verb "to leave," or it can be a noun that means "liberal." Likewise, "waffles" might be the present tense for "to waffle," which means to be indecisive, or it can be a breakfast food that is tasty with fruit or ice cream. What the reader views to be the meaning of the sentence depends on which word the reader takes to be the verb.

"Prison warden says inmates may have 3 guns" The confusion of this sentence derives from the epistemic versus the deontic uses of the modal "may." "Might" causes similar problems, but "may" is more common in headlines as it is shorter. The epistemic meaning expresses possibility - the inmates could possible have gotten a hold of three guns. The deontic meaning is the one Tipsy latched on to - that an inmate is allowed to have three guns.

"Babies are What the Mother Eats" I must reluctantly agree with Tipsy on this one. The author seems to have been trying to play with the old adage "You are what you eat," but what results is pretty twisted.

"Sisters Reunited After 18 Years in Checkout Line at Supermarket" The confusion here (which should not be confusing, as the real meaning is transparent - no one spends 18 years in a checkout lane) is what are the prepositional phrases "in Checkout Line" and "at Supermarket" are a part of. The correct interpretation is that those to phrases, as well as "After 18 Years" are part of the verb phrase with "Reunited" at its head. The incorrect interpretation comes from making the prepositional phrases "in Checkout Line" and "at Supermarket" subordinate to "18 Years," creating a rediculously long noun phrase to be the object of the preposition "after."

"Ancestors of Apes, Humans May Have Originated in Asia" This is caused superficially by the deletion of the word "and" and instead inserting a comma between "Apes" and "Humans." This makes "Ancestors of Apes" seem like an appositive for humans. But even with the reinsertion of "and," there is still a confusion. (Ancestors of Apes) and (humans) is one interpretation, while Ancestors of (Apes and Humans), presumably the correct interpretation, is not readily obvious. The best solution is to insert "both" as well, to read, "Ancestors of Both Apes and Humans May Have Originated in Asia"

"Large Church Plans Collapse" This is the same error as the Falklands example - how you interpret "plans" and "collapse" as nouns or verbs. I refuse to go into it again.

"Crowds Rushing to See Pope Trample 6 to Death" I first want to point out that creating amusement at the expense of pious old men is a deplorable past time. The crux of the matter here is where the end of the prepositional phrase is. The answer is that it ends with "Pope" and "Trample" is the present tense main verb for the sentence. The incorrect answer is that "Trample 6 to Death" is a modified infinitive phrase with the subject "Pope," and that whole phrase is serving as the object of the preposition. Rushing, however, is not in the position to be the verb of the sentence; anyone should be able to see that it is introducing the participial phrase, "Rushing to See Pope."

I hope Tipsy does not waste anyone's time with something this silly again. I am going back to my research about Tutankhamen's tomb.

Tipsy Cow Eats Up Funny Headlines

2007-03-20T11:04:00.000-06:00

Tee Hee. Cat has homework full of funny headlines. I thought I'd share.

"Services for man who refused to hate Thursday in Atlanta" Very noble of him, since I CANNOT STAND Thursdays in Atlanta.

"British Left Waffles on Falklands" Man! I want the British to leave me some waffles!

"Prison warden says inmates may have 3 guns" Well, that's nice of him. 3 a piece seems a little to generous to me but who am I to say anything? (We are free roving bovines, we roam free today!)

"Babies are What the Mother Eats" . . . Alright, whoever wrote this just needs to be shot.

"Sisters Reunited After 18 Years in Checkout Line at Supermarket" Is that a long time to stand looking at tabloids and candy displays or what?!

"Ancestors of Apes, Humans May Have Originated in Asia" Wait, I thought humans came from apes . . . Silly science people . . .

"Large Church Plans Collapse" I didn't know you could decide things like that in advance . . .

And you can never go wrong with Pope headlines: "Crowds Rushing to See Pope Trample 6 to Death" Aggressive Pope, I guess.

Soundtrack to the Movie of Cat's Life

2007-03-18T22:35:00.000-06:00

I was scared that Seiran was going to die in Sauinkoku, but Stupidhead died instead so it's all good.

Clem got the play the DnD group's baby silver dragon. He has this to say: "I like game. My friends come to play. I like to be with friends. I helped my friends to play the game. I like game."

. . . So I guess while he fluently speaks pig (obviously), cow, sheep, and dog, Clem's English is a little rusty. Anyway, you can tell that Clem enjoyed socializing with Cat's friends - it always makes him happy.

So Adrien's rommy Kitty gave Cat a thing to figure out the "soundtrack to the movie of your life." You stick all the music on your comp on a playlist, hit the randomizer, and write the songs down in order into these categories. Cat did it three times and took the best, because she kept getting things that were totally wrong for a spot. Here's what it looked like.

Opening Credits: "Hey, That's no Way to Say Goodbye" by the Johnstons - a Leonard Cohen song not sung by Leonard Cohen - always appropriate for movie openings, but a little weak.
Waking up: "Raise the Roof" by Carbon Leaf - not the best Carbon Leaf song to wake up to, but a nice, peppy, solid one
First Day at School: "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out" by Cat Stevens - Theme song of Harold and Maude, and an appropriate choice.
Falling in Love: This one came up with three good choices, so they all make it here: "New Horizons" by the Moody Blues, "Catch the Wind" by Donovan, and "Bridge over Troubled Water" by Simon and Garfunkel.
Fight Song: "Story in Your Eyes" by the Moody Blues - possibly the best Moody Blues song for a fight scene, and an all around good choice: Nice beat, fast pace, sounds great loud.
Breaking Up: "Who Loves the Sun" by Velvet Underground - this is a song Cat didn't even know she had on her computer. Apparently it comes from the Soundtrack of High Fidelity - I don't remember hearing the song in the movie . . . hmm . . . anyway, it sounds really light and cheery, but has really sad lyrics. It'd make a real contrast between happy sound and sad action - make the audience feel uncomfortable - not a bad effect overall.
LIFE: "Stay Home" by Self - yeah Cat's lazy and introverted so this song makes pretty good sense here.
Mental Breakdown: "Fire and Rain" by James Taylor - not perfect for this category, but a lot better than the other choices.
Driving: "Losing my Religion" by REM - not the best driving tune by REM, but much better than the two traditional ballads that fell in this spot on the other lists - Cat reads to those; she'd fall asleep if she tried to drive to them!
Flashback: "I Don't Know Where I Stand" by Fairport Convention - this is a tricky spot, because it depends on what the flashback is off. This was the least weird choice for it . . .
Getting Back Together: "Coming Back to You" by Martin L. Gore - 'Nother Leonard-Cohen-Song-Not-Sung-By-Leonard-Cohen.
Wedding: "For My Lady" by the Moody Blues - third and last time they make it onto this list.
Birth of a Child: "Old Paint" by Loudon Wainwright III - apparently Mr. Cat's Dad sang this to her when she was a baby, so she was happy. Wonder if she'd be equally happy with a Christmas Carol, since he also sang those to her . . .
Final Battle: "Life" by Yui - This was an ending song for Bleach in the third season. It's not really rocking enough to really be a fight song (which made it lame as a end song for Bleach) but it's a cool song and all the other songs were worse.
Death: "Gaudete" by the Medieaval Baebes - this is actually a Christmas song in Latin about how we should rejoice that Jesus is born the the Virgin, but it's done a capella and with all sorts of harmony and it's real serious, so it makes a pretty sweet song to die to.
Funeral Song: "Let Your Troubles Role By" by Carbon Leaf - A pretty sweet song to have your funeral to.
End Credits: "Dover, Delaware" by the Duhks - It's soft and pretty, kinda thoughtful. It was the most appropriate for a movie that ends with a death (since apparently it does . . . Cat's).

These were all well and good, but I decided that I would make my own list, picking things out instead of doing things random.
Opening Credits: This is a tie (maybe the credits are long . . . ) "Don't be Shy" by Cat Stevens, and "Turn" by Great Big Sea - "Turn" is an awesome and pretty song; "Don't be Shy" was the opening to Harold and Maude, and not released as anything else for a long time after that, so most people would recognize it as that (if, you know, they recognized it at all), and then we could make Harold and Maude references through the movies, and that'd be cool, since Cat's family is really in to that movie.
Waking up: "Take on Me" by Aha - there are a lot of songs that could go here. Cat has a whole CD of them. But I chose this one because I've been listening to Cat's 80's mix a lot lately and this one's my favorite.
First Day at School: Another tie: "Song of the Elves" by John Simon and "Nice to be Here" by the Moody Blues - both are fun, whimsical, and carry strong childhood memories for Cat. Good luck finding any info on "Song of the Elves" . . .
Falling in Love: "Bridge over Troubled Water" by Simon and Garfunkel - I copped out, I know.
Fight Song: "Bad Reputation by" Half-cocked - Nice beat, fast pace, sounds great loud.
Breaking Up: "Forever Autumn" - Single Cut by Justin Hayward. Is pretty and sad.
LIFE: "No Rain" by Blind Melon and "The Actor" by the Moody Blues - Both capture a lot of Cat's life and life philosophy. And "The Actor" has the line "put out your problems with your cat" - awesome line!
Mental Breakdown: "Everybody Hurts" by REM - yeah, can't get too much more melancholy than that.
Driving: "Road to Nowhere" by the Talking Heads - great driving song. Enough said.
Bonus Section: Train Travel: "America" by Simon and Garfunkel - I know, I know, it's about being on a greyhound bus, but it works well for trains too! And so pretty . . .
Flashback: "Hey Ho" by the Minstrels of Mayhem - this is a group that shows up at Cat's favorite Renaissance Faire - they did a round of two folk songs on one of their cds, and one of the songs Cat sings at Camp! And it's slow, sad, not very distracting, pretty good for a flashback.
Getting Back Together: "Call and Answer" by Barenaked Ladies - it's about patching up a relationship. Really long though - we'll have to cut it short for the scene in our movie.
Wedding: :You're so True" by Joseph Arthur - This is really sweet and perky. It comes from the Shrek 2 soundtrack and I'm attached to it.
Birth of a Child: "Old Paint" by Loudon Wainwright III - No change - the randomizer was too perfect for this one!
Final Battle: "Hall of the Mountain King" but the Who - well, it claims to be by the Who. Not sure I believe it. It's really rocking anyway - good battle material.
Death: "Trouble" by Cat Stevens - It's especially appropriate if we use "Don't be Shy" to start the movie. Nice Harold and Maude symmetry. But likely no Jag for Cat . . "Angel" by Sarah McLachlan was also a high contender. The random songs in different languages by the Medieaval Baebes would be good material too, but I couldn't pick one since I couldn't read their titles . . .
Funeral Song: "Anabel" by the Duhks - dead girl song. . this is in addition to "Let Your Troubles Roll By" by Carbon Leaf from the earlier list.
End Credits: "Once I Was" by Tim Buckly - Sad, thoughtful, pretty, but not something most people want to listen to. Got to hustle people out to begin the next showing and all that.

So, great list, huh? I thought so . . . Snibbly's probably going to think it's lame, but he's not paying attention now, since he borrowed some reading on Egypt so he can have something to talk about the Deirdre next time her sees her (lame LAME!).

Rumble Seat

2007-03-15T19:06:00.000-06:00

Hi! We're back in K-town now. Cat's doing her class thing, but she's around in the evenings! And we're going to have Dungeons and Dragons tomorrow! Cat has to clean up the apartment though . . . good thing she only has work tomorrow.

She bought a rumble seat for me over break! Snibbly calls in an "external DVD burner," but I think he's just saying that because he's stuck sitting on the speakers while I have the rumble seat. Silly pig.

It was really warm the past few days. Today it was a little cool, but still nice. It was so warm Tuesday night that Cat ran the air conditioner. It's off again now; she just has the fan on to move air around.

Pictures!

2007-03-06T19:44:00.000-06:00

I forgot that you can take the card out of the camera and load them that way. You don't need the stupid cord! So I stole Mrs. Cat's Mom's computer to do it. And now you can see exactly why Dog is not the best at games. Really, he's not the best at doing anything but sleeping. Poor old guy.

We also took a group picture of all the home animals, but I'll put them up later.

By the way, we're in Michigan! Cat's visiting her grandparents again, because she won't have another chance to until June after our trip to Greece!

Deplorable Reading Habbits

2007-03-05T22:46:00.000-06:00

Miss Caitlin is displaying that most deplorable reading habits possible; she is reading a romance novel! To be sure, is was written by Georgette Heyer, known for her tact and refinement, and hailed as being "almost as good as reading Jane Austen," but all the same, a romance novel! And I thought her tastes would be advanced by reading Anna Karenina. Alas, it appears not to be the case . . .

She did watch An Inconvenient Truth, and while she had always been aware of environmental problems (as she says, her generation was inflicted with Captain Planet at an early age), the documentary drove home the immediacy of the problems. Miss Caitlin is strongly considering changing the light bulbs in her apartment. Unfortunately, it seems the ecological efficient light bulbs should not be used in light fixtures with enclosed housings, so the lights in her bathroom and kitchen will have to remain the older sort, but the lights in her main room can be switched. It seems a small but easy step for her to make.

Snibbly's Dumb

2007-03-03T17:17:00.000-06:00

Cat made Snibbly leave me alone. He was cranky about something. I'm going to back to just ignoring him. I think it was maybe about my earing again.

Cat spent most of last week doing homework. She still has some work to catch up on over this break.

We came back to Cat's parent home. The other animals in the house were playing hide and seek in Cat's room when we got here. They had made Dog be the seeker. I thought that was really mean. Mr. Cat's Dad says that time did not exist before Dog, which means in dog-years, Dog's like a mummy. Cat took some pictures, but she forgot her USB cable at school, so they can't go up on the blog. Anyway, Cat helped him out with his seeking (he kept falling asleep). This morning I made everyone play again, but in Mr. and Mrs. Cat's Parent's room. It was a lot of fun, but Dog fell asleep without hiding very well. I think maybe next time we won't make him play . . .

Cat's going to a party tonight. Abandoning us again. But she will be around most of the week, sleeping and reading and doing homework. She's not sure who all is around, since we have an early break. Maybe she'll get to see some people while she's here. We don't go back to school until Sunday. I'm excited that I'll get to play all week.

Arrived in Chicago Area

2007-03-03T17:07:00.000-06:00

We have returned to Miss Caitlin's parent's house. We arrived by way of train yesterday. Accompanying her on the trip were Tipsy, myself, and one of her former cast members - the young lady who played Hortensio's widow. Clem elected to remain at Miss Caitlin's apartment by the University and Miss Adrien was not able to leave until today.

Thursday, I had to part with Deirdre. I feel I was dignified in the face of such a loss. But she did not wish to travel with us here, and it would have been depressingly boring staying in the apartment. Perhaps I overstate the boredom, as Clem is always willing to socialize, but without Tipsy or me to keep her company, Deirdre would likely be lonely. And so Miss Caitlin carefully situated Deirdre in her pocket and transported her across the street. Perhaps I will visit her when we return to University next week. Or it might be more appropriate for me to wait a short period before imposing on her and Miss Adrien. It would be a fortuitous opportunity for me to leave the company of Tipsy. She has been quite irritating lately. She continuously diverted Deirdre's attention from me. I am deciding whether I will forgive her for that. I did not feel it appropriate to say say anything. But now . . .

Theater Stole Cat

2007-02-18T12:04:00.000-06:00

We don't get to see her anymore. She's only here to sleep, eat, and do homework. And she says next week, she won't be able to even eat dinner here, except on Friday. I think these theater people are really mean - don't they know Cat has animals that need to be amused? How can we be amused if she's not here!

Meanwhile - we're all working hard. I'm guarding Cat's train tickets (usually she has a Little Pony watch them, but she has two sets this time - one set for Spring Break and the other for Easter - so I get to watch them - it's very important), Snibbly is guarding a spare key for our neighbors, and even Deirdre has been put to work, guarding the family's tickets for Cat's stupid theater thing. I'm going to be glad when it's all over.

Chilling cause it's cold

2007-02-05T10:57:00.000-06:00

It's really cold. It's alright in the apartment, as long as you're not on the floor near the air conditioner unit. But all and all, really cold.

Cat says the play is going along alright. It's two weeks until the show goes up! Cat's looking forward to when it will all be over (and then she'll have a ridiculous amount of free time). She just has to survive and get her assignments done by then.

Deirdre is still visiting. Cat's not so mean as to take her back to her house when it's so cold. That's alright because I like her. I can't talk to much though because I've been put in charge of an important duty - I must watch over Cat's train tickets for going home for spring break, and I can't let them be confused with the ones for Easter. It's tricky, but I will not let Cat down.

Saiunkoku Monogatari updated not once, not twice, but FOUR times in the last two weeks. If that's not exciting, I don't know what is. Seiran still hasn't kicked the new guy's butt (turns out he is evil - in fact, sorta sadistic), but I'm confident that he'll get around to it.

A Respite

2007-01-26T17:40:00.000-06:00

There is no play practice tonight so Miss Caitlin is using the time to catch up with her friends, after a very productive morning. We are very glad because she was starting to go a little batty. For instance, this morning she grabbed a fork to eat her cereal with and did not notice until she took the first scoop. A nap later in the day restored her sanity. We are glad for her.

The play is running slightly ahead of schedule and everything is still going pretty smoothly. Hopefully it will continue so.

Miss Caitlin is keeping abreast in Anna Karenina and her other readings. She is attending a meeting this weekend to get to know the other students going to Greece in May. She knows one girl from theater classes and hopes the other students are likable as well. Sunday will tell.

Other than that small amount, I am afraid there is little to report. With Miss Caitlin gone so much, very little happens. While we wish the play to be a great success, we also hope that she lasts until then.

The Visitor and Other News

2007-01-19T14:13:00.000-06:00

Deirdre came over on Monday after I posted. She's very nice. She made a nest in Cat's headphones, since Cat doesn't use them much. She has a pretty necklace, and she likes my earing. She likes books and stuff, but she doesn't make fun of me for watching anime. She says she likes Dr. Who better, but anime is fun too. She says Miss Adrien's roommates watch anime too. It made me remember that it was those girls that got Cat into anime when she roomed with them last fall. I'd forgotten because I came to live with Cat last spring, and she was in the campus apartment then, and already watching anime. But anyway, Deirdre doesn't mind anime.

Last night was a short rehearsal for Cat because they were only running through Act I. The actors were supposed to be off book. Some of them had to be scolded because they weren't. They're running Act II tonight - hopefully it will be better this time.

Cat's Mom linked to us from her blog! She writes about her needlework stuff mostly. This time she put up some pictures Cat took of the ice from the ice storm. Cat's a little disappointed that Mom forgot to take pictures of the christening gown that she made for Cat's baby cousin. Cat had to come to school and work on the play, so she didn't get to go to the christening or see the gown when it was finished. But maybe someone will send Mom a nice picture of it and she'll put it up.

It's pretty warm today (pretty warm means above freezing). Cat says the trees throw pieces of ice when the wind blows. She says it's like the Old Forest in Fellowship of the Ring, when the trees throw leaves and twigs and pieces of bark because they don't like the hobbits. Deirdre and Snibbly thought this was funny, but I didn't since I haven't read that book. Cat says she'll read it again this summer, so I can read it with her then. I feel I should, because those books are very important to Cat.

Cat's been watching anime for a reward when she gets what she's supposed to done. It's been hard for her to fit time for herself in with rehearsal, so this is a good way for her to unwind. Code Geass is getting really interesting. We're starting to like that one a lot. Bleach has also been awesome lately. We started watching Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto, (there's a mouthful for you) which is very good. It's about the last few Samurai in the 1800's. There's a lot of politics and history stuff, so we're watching them again to try and follow that since neither of us know a lot about Japanese history at that time (we're also trying figure out everyone's name this time through). The main plot's pretty good too. Adrien's coming over today to watch Hana Yori Dango 2 with us. It's the second season of a Japanese drama. We watched the first season last year. It's not an anime, but it did come from a manga. It's kinda hokey, but that's what makes it so much fun.

Funness

2007-01-15T14:09:00.000-06:00

It's snowed! Cat's happy because now it'll be easy to walk she says. I guess walking on sheets of ice is hard. I don't walk much so I wouldn't know - being carried around in pockets is much more stylish.

I got to play in Cat's Dungeons and Dragons game! I got to play their angel friend who sent them on a quest to explore a dungeon. They're doing a dungeon because they're easy to make and Cat doesn't have much time. Adrien came over and played this time which was fun, but she didn't bring Deirdre. She said she'd come over soon though. I hope Deirdre isn't as annoying as Snibbly. Maybe she'll be more fun like Clem.

Saiunkoku Monogatari updated again. It was a good episode - it's starting to get real exciting. The new guy's being really forward with Shuurei though. It's okay because he's not really a good guy (but I don't think he's a bad guy either) so Seiran will come and kick his butt.

Apologies

2007-01-11T15:13:00.000-06:00

I find I must apologize for my lapse but it has been a hectic week since we have returned to University. Rehearsal for the Shakespearean comedy, Taming of the Shrew, has proceeded well. Miss Caitlin, who has the position of Assistant Stage Manager, reports that things are progressing at a fair pace, and that all stylistic decisions made so far have been consistent. Miss Caitlin is hopeful that things will proceed in this matter.

For her Interdisciplinary Seminar, Miss Caitlin is reading Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, which we have both found to be diverting so far. I am relieved that we are finally reading something of worth. Miss Caitlin is also taking a class on Islam, which sounds fascinating, though Miss Caitlin has admitted to me that she feels isolated in that class. It seems that many of the Philosophy-Religion majors are rather elitist. I assured Caitlin that she had nothing to worry from them. Her religious education has been superior to that of many other Americans, and the subject holds great interest for her. The elitists are most likely all bluster; surely they are no more intelligent than my lady is. Her other classes, one on the construction of the English language, one on the nuances of how to apply make-up for the Stage, and the last on aspects of technical writing, sound diverting, though not as interesting for me as her others.

I am currently waiting for a visit from my dearest friend, Deirdre. A fair and intelligent pig, Deirdre is my intellectual equal in all ways. She has an overriding interest in history, literature, and the arts, which she picks up from her Mistress, Adrien. Before the holiday break, I had the pleasure of visiting with Deirdre at her home, which is far distant from us, being all the way across the street. Miss Caitlin extended an invitation to Deirdre at that time that she might come visit us during this the new year. A precise date was not set, but I am confident that it will be soon, and I shall behold her delicate image and hear her dulcet tones soon.

Until then, I must satisfy myself with readings from Anna Karenina and reports from Miss Caitlin about the progress of her play.

Returning to University

2007-01-04T17:45:00.000-06:00

The preparations have been set in motion for our return to University. Unfortunately our friend Clem is overcome with dread concerning the upcoming train ride. He has been terrified of the train every since Amtrak misplaced Miss Caitlin's duffel several years ago as she returned to school from Spring Holidays. The unlucky Clem was in said duffel and he braved a several day long trip to Las Angeles that no one expected. I feel that he is justified in his mistrust of the train, however, since that incident Miss Caitlin has been more contentious about where she stows her duffel, so there is little to worry about. In general, the trip is very enjoyable, since it gives Miss Caitlin a chance to read, write, or even watch movies (or anime, sigh) for the four hour trip.

Miss Caitlin is in the process of washing her clothes and packing. Packing, for Miss Caitlin, seems to be more about exerting the proper will-power at the objects in question that it does about the laws of physics. For instance, one of Miss Caitlin's maxims on the subject is "You can fit an almost infinite amount of underthings into any space, no matter how small." The frightening thing is that she makes it work. But today she may have to declare defeat and set out to buy different sized boxes as the ones she has are either to small to fit much, or too big to be manageable.

On a different note, Miss Caitlin and I had the joy of going out the lunch with some fabulous ladies, including Miss Caitlin's dear friend Miss Pippin and her porcine friend Gip. I always enjoy Gip's conversation and yesterday was no different. I only wish that I had gotten to see more of her over the break.

I must preside over the packing now, so I must say good-bye.

Hiya

2007-01-03T20:42:00.000-06:00

I snagged the first post of the new year. This makes me happy.

Saiunkoku Monogatari updated last night. This made me very happy.

There's another guy trying for Shuurei's hand. This made me less happy.

Snibbly got to go out again and I didn't. This made me more less happy.

Overall, Saiunkoku Monogatari updating wins out to make me happy.

Neglected

2006-12-30T21:24:00.000-06:00

I am afraid that I have been horribly neglected lately. Miss Caitlin has not been spending much time reading lately. While visiting her esteemed Grandparents, most of her time was spent amusing her cousins, and since returning most of her attention has been turned toward practical matters and spending time with her Father and Brother. While these are all worthy pursuits, it means that she has spent very little time reading or writing. She says tomorrow she might work on her Dungeons and Dragons Campaign, which might be considered a creative endeavor, but is hardly to be considered the height of writing.

Unfortunately, this tend will likely continue when school resumes, as she will spend much time working on the play. Already a sizable portion of Miss Caitlin's next weekend has been reserved for theater activities. I am afraid that this will prove very stressful for Miss Caitlin, as well as taking up a fair amount of her free time.

I suppose I must forgive her then, if she spends most of her time now on less taxing things.

Saiunkoku Monogatari . . .

2006-12-30T20:53:00.000-06:00

. . . hasn't updated. Poo. However, I can now answer Cat and Hannah's pressing question. I was able to do a little research to find that the actor who voices Kouyuu does not in fact voice Renji. He does however voice another Bleach character. According to Anime News Network, Nobuyuki Hiyama voices both Kouyuu on Saiunkoku Monogatari and Ikkaku the third officer in the eleventh squad on Bleach. But Kentaou Itou, the actor who voices Renji, does voice a character on Saiunkoku Monogatari. He voices Rou Ensei, everyone's favorite rouge. Cat and I can hear the similarity between Kouyuu and Ikkaku, but Rou Ensei and Renji sound completely different! I guess that means he's a good actor or something . . .

Here's hoping for our favorite fansubs update tomorrow . . .

Back Home

2006-12-29T22:39:00.000-06:00

No Saiunkoku Monogatari. Though we did get some Code Geass. That's not as good but it's an otay Christmas present

We went to visit Relatives. That meant Grandparents' house where everyone comes to visit. This meant that Cat and her Bother - I mean Brother - had to amuse her teen-aged cousins. This wasn't too hard because they like anime and they play cards. Cat likes both of these past-times, though she lost pretty bad at cards this time. That's otay, someone has to lose and her luck should change for next time. Supposedly. Sagittariuses are supposed to be lucky, but Cat's never been especially. But usually she manages alright at cards.

Anyway, they watched a lot of Bleach and Hannah (the girl cousin who's like 16 and very sensible) watched Saiukoku Monogatari with us. She liked it. Though she didn't watch enough the decide who she thought Shuurei should end up with. That's really the most important part of the series. It's a romance story really, though it's kinda fantasy too. It takes place in a country, Saiukoku (which means Country of the Colored Clouds or something - we have to take other people's word for it since we don't speak Japanese), that's kind of like ancient China (except not) where a great Emperor in the past united the eight provinces with the help of the Eight Enlightened Ones, who were each named after colors and so that's how they named the provinces and the rulers of the provinces too. This makes identifying characters somewhat easier since the main nobles are all color coded. Anyway, Shuurei is the daughter of a noble who is in charge of the library of the palace. Since his job doesn't bring in lots of money, they're pretty poor. So for a pile of cash to keep her family fed, the bright Shuurei agrees to become consort of the new emperor who is young and not particularly motivated. Her task is to make him an emperor worthy of following and then I guess she doesn't have to be consort anymore (cos suddenly in the series she decides she's not . . . ). Her family's retainer, Seiran, is made a bodyguard to the emperor. And so they go to the palace, meet Ryuuki the emperor and of course he falls in love with her, because she's smart and capable and she's nice to him. But Seiran's already in love with her, but he's really passive about it and she's totally oblivious to him so he's getting no where fast, while Ryuuki makes his intentions pretty clear. But I think Seiran will win out because he's a loyal and they've known each other forever and just because he's slow doesn't mean he doesn't love her - because he does - he relies on her and it makes him sad when she won't cry to him anymore. Anyway, Cat thinks she'll end up with Ryuuki. She sites My Fair Lady for evidence. She says Liza ends up with Pickering cos he needs her more, and it's the same with Ryuuki. I don't know about that . . . Hannah didn't have an opinion yet, since she only saw the first 8 or so.

They watched a lot of early Bleach. Well, middle Bleach. Early compared to the recent stuff. The boy cousin watched that too. Hannah and Cat spent a lot of time wondering if the guy who voices Renji also voices Li Kouyuu in Saiunkoku Monogatari. They still couldn't figure it out. I haven't been able to find anything about either online. Sigh. We may never know.

Anyway a good time was had by all.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

2006-12-24T19:03:00.000-06:00

Lots of stuff is stirring at the Family's house. The Family went to Mass at 6:00 to avoid the mobs of people that feel the need to go at 4:00 and the gallons of incense that they feel the need to use at Vigil. Cat says there weren't a lot of people there, but a few people they did know.

Clem's still doing the Christmas Pig thing, a job that now seems to consist of shaking all the presents under the tree, never mind who they're addressed to. Anyway, no one seems to mind and he hasn't been told not to so he's busy playing with presents. I think tomorrow, he'll be busy playing with wrapping paper. And the day after that we go visit Relatives! See, all sorts of things are going on for Christmas.

What I want for Christmas won't fit under the tree. I want a fansub for Saiunkoku Monogatari episode number 24. They put number 23 up on the 11th and haven't put one out since. It's not fair! That's our favorite. And other translators are doing it now, but they've either just started, or they're on like 22. We HAVE those, we WANT 24! So all I want for Christmas is a fansub, but they'll probably not do it for some lame reason like it's the holidays and they're busy celebrating with their family which is dumb. Cause this cow wants her anime. Cat's being a little more patient, but she has other things she can do. You know, she has family things. Maybe I'll bully Snibbly into helping me play a video game. I can't manage all the buttons myself you see. Or maybe I'll declare myself the Christmas Cow and rattle presents with Clem. Hmm. Decisions, decisions . . .

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Gathering

2006-12-22T14:19:00.000-06:00

I had the pleasurable experience of attending the annual Christmas Reunion of Cat's old Girl Scout Troop. A finer group of young ladies can nowhere be found. I was disappointed that more of my pig counterparts were not in attendance, but chatting with Hamlet the Younger was most diverting. Miss Courtney showed us an essay she wrote about me and my pig friends among the troop, but she had gotten my name wrong! She apologized profusely, explaining that she had a short period of time to write it, it being for a final examination, so she could neither spend the time to wrack her brain, nor could she contact Miss Caitlin to make sure she had it right. I forgave her.

Miss Courtney, who hosted the event, has a terrible beast of a dog. The girls, Miss Caitlin included, kept making noises over the fluffy white monster like it was adorable and sweet, but really it was vicious, several time proving to be a threat to Hamlet and myself. I do not understand why humans can stand the things . . .

Most of the time was spent talking, though they did play a most silly video game called Dance Dance Revolution, which I of course did not participate in, and Apples to Apples, which I did. Miss Caitlin and Miss Lydia both took many pictures. In general, a good time was had by all. I hope that our summer gathering will be as enjoyable.

Stupid

2006-12-22T12:46:00.000-06:00

Snibbly went to a party last night. He said it was only for Cat's old Girl Scout Troop and their pigs. So he said I couldn't come. I thought he was mean. I thought about saying something to Cat, but I didn't want to put her in a bad position if cows really weren't allowed. So I stayed home. Which wasn't very fun because none of the anime fansubs we watch have updated in a while, so there was nothing new to watch. And Snibbly was out playing with friends and Cat's camera. I felt slightly better when Snibbly said that the only other pig there was Hamlet the Younger (not to be confused with the venerable old pig that belongs to Cat's brother, also named Hamlet.). He was only there because it was at Hamlet's Mistress's house. But all the Girl Scouts made it, and they still had a good time. Stupids.

The thing in Kirksville was drunk locals, not drunk college students. Still sad, but not personal for Cat.

Snibbly wants to load pictures so he's making me get off. Stupid.

In All Seriousness . . .

2006-12-17T22:33:00.000-06:00

Miss Caitlin's brother pointed out to her a rather tragic incident in the same town as her university. He directed her to this article.

It is terrifyingly vague and has caused her much worry. They do not say, notice, whether the victims were students, nor their genders nor how they died. They do mention that the University is there, which makes me suspect that they are readying to release the information that at least some of the victims were students. Miss Caitlin does know some people, mostly a few of her associates in the theater department, who live in duplexes, though she does not know which of her friends remain in town. The school has not contacted her, nor has she been able to stir up much on facebook. Hopefully, these people were not among her friends, but it is still sad that it happened at all. With any luck, more specifics will be forthcoming soon.

Chirstmasness

2006-12-17T22:07:00.000-06:00

Look! Snibbly and I figured out how to set up two logins! Now I don't have to listen to his stupidheadness when I write.And I can write all pretty!

Christmas is coming, so the Family put up a tree for it. It looks really cool. I've never done Christmas before. I think it's pretty cool. Cat played with the zoom and flash on her new camera by taking pictures of us and the tree. She took pictures of Clem too (the sweater got put in the laundry so he can't mess with it right now). He's here now and he wants to say that Christmas is awesome, because he gets to be the Christmas Pig. I guess that's pretty important . . . to Clem at least. And he says HI!!!

I guess a few days ago the Family got a letter from a college friend of Cat's Mom and Cat's Dad. They call him and his family the Perfect Family, because in their letter at Christmas, everything's perfect. They have two perfect twin sons about Cat's Brother's age and a daughter a few years older than that. And after talking about Mrs. Perfect breaking her perfect arm in four perfect places, and Mr. Perfect's perfect gall bladder surgery, they talk about Daughter Perfect getting perfectly stung by bees and then they get to the best part. I quote (this is still talking about the Perfect Daughter)

"In Arkansas, she was both stung again and chased by cows."

That's it?! No telling what she did to provoke those cows - probably a perfectly reasonable bunch - into they chasing her?! No vivid description of the chase and how she got away?! No gripping tale of cow revenge?! What kind of letter is this?! It's certainly not a perfect letter! I think the Family should send it back and tell them to fix it. And this time, it should be about the cows, and cow rights. I feel the cows have been misrepresented in this incident. Maybe it was a hate crime, a protestation against cow abuse and tipping! But we'll never know . . . sigh . . .

Only Code Geass updated last night, and nothing updated today that we watch. We're still not sure that we like Code Geass, but they're finally getting past introducing everyone and everything and actually moving on the plot. I guess that's good. I withhold judgment anyway.

Pompous-butt wants to write too so I'll let him. Later.

Salutations

2006-12-15T22:04:00.000-06:00

I have the honor to be Snibbly Pig, described by my friends as sensitive, intelligent, and in all ways a true gentlepig. I live with my Mistress, Miss Caitlin, who is currently a student of literature and theater at university. It is her computer that we are using, though we haven't managed to tell her that yet . . . In any event, I hope to discuss great thoughts and works of literature, as well as the other things my Mistress reads. Admittedly, not everything she reads is intellectual in nature, but she does manage to find enjoyable books. Mistress maintains a fair number animals, of which Tipsy and I only represent a few. When this idea was first discussed, our jovial friend Clem also expressed an interest in the project, though he can't type himself since his hooves are too big for the exacting art of typing. Tipsy was going to take dictation from him, but he has decided instead to search for truffles in Mistress's black sweater. It has long been rumored among the pigs of our household to contain truffles, but as far as I know, none have yet been discovered. I have all but given up what must surely be a fruitless search, but Clem is a natural optimist. Perhaps you will understand later. And perhaps he will join us at a later date.

Only today, Miss Caitlin has discussed with one of her friends the possibility of doing a later game! Miss Caitlin has been exerting most of her creative energy on her creative writing class this past semester and on designing adventures for her role-playing group. I am glad to see her attention being focused on a more relaxing exercise. Though she does appear to enjoy the role-playing nonsense. In any event, her classwork prevented her from participating in write a novel month in November. Early next semester, working on the school theater's production of Taming of the Shrew will probably prevent her from working on her novel. But the letter game should provide a creative outlet without getting in the way of her various other activities.

Hi. I'm Tipsy. I'm a cow. I like movies. And Cat lets me watch anime with her. I also watch her play video games. It's cos I usually hang on her monitor, but if I do that while she's watching something or playing games, I tend to block the top corner, and then she messes things up. I read okay, but I don't sneak into Cat's books like Snibbly does. I'm also not as snotty as Snibbly is. I have to read to watch anime, since we watch fansubs and they are always dubbed. Even if we rent or borrow anime, we watch it in Japanese because the dubbing's usually bad. Cat likes music too. Though she doesn't have a radio, so we don't ever hear what's new. She likes folky things and things that are smart or pretty. She doesn't like it if you can't understand the words when you're supposed to. It's okay when you're not, cos the words are in Latin or French or Romanian or something. Now we're listening to 80's music. I think it's funny. Snibbly thinks it's grating. He thinks that about my earing too, so I don't pay attention to him. You can if you want to.

Snibbly says that's enough of an introduction. He also says he's not snotty. Whatever, I'm spunkier and that makes me more cool.

We'll write again some other time.