Buried Under Stuff

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

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

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

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

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

Spring Break

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

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

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

Her Schooling Continues

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

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


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

Happenings and Gobledigok

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

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

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


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

Lexical Fun

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

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

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

polygrouch - someone who complains about everything.

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

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

And for your further enjoyment, Dr. Stewartisms:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Introduction to the New Semester

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


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


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

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

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

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

Behind

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

Anyway, here I am.

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

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


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

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

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