Long weekend

It’s funny. Most of the time, being unemployed doesn’t really mean a whole heck of a lot, at least time-wise. I’ve heard people say they forgot what day it was, etc., but I’ve not had that problem. The only time recently where I forgot what day it was, was in the middle of Mom’s store move, and I think that was mainly due to exhaustion.

But then a long weekend rolls around and everyone says “oh like this is any different than usual for you. You’re home every day!” Well, sure I am. But that’s 3 days I have where I can relax just a little bit from stressing over trying to look for jobs, instead of the usual 2. For everyone else that has the long weekend, hey, it’s no different than your usual 2 day weekends, but you get an extra day in there to chill out, so yeah, I think we’re even on that score.

To celebrate the 4th of July, I spent most of my time knitting. I have a huge project that I just pulled off the blocking board about 30 minutes ago. Sadly, the sun is crap today (overcast, possible rain), so pictures of it looking pretty will have to wait until tomorrow. The problem with taking pictures of it is it’s lace. Like really lacy lace. So trying to find something that it can show up against and hold it’s own is hard. Hmm, maybe I can find a place inside that would be nice. We’ll have to see.

Once I put it onto the blocking board, I went back to start the second of a pair of fingerless mitts that have been languishing since April. I have all but the thumb done on it, and I’ll be finishing that later today. After that, I start either a pair of socks for Jared or a little something for my Mom. No idea which I’m planning on doing first. Ah whimsy!

Other than the knitting, video games were played, TV was watched, and some really awesome steaks were grilled and eaten. The dogs flipped out over the sound of fireworks in the distance (well Cole did, Lexi slept), while the cats napped their way through it all. All in all, an excellent long weekend and a great 4th of July.

Bugs!

One of the nice things about living with Mom is the lovely house that she has. Part of it is the house that belonged to my great-grandparents. The other part is the addition she had built on to the existing house last year, essentially more than doubling the overall house size. Jared and I have our room in the “old” section, while the majority of living goes on in the “new”. That’s not to say that we don’t use all the house. For example, Jared and I’s computers are set up in the old dining room (and the chandelier that’s right over my head hurts like mad when I stand up and forget to duck. ><) Mom’s is in the old living room in the next room. The old main guest room is now where the cats’ have their box (and is still technically a guest room). The old kitchen is now the laundry room.

So there’s this nice large house that we can all live in: Mom, Jared, two dogs, two cats and I. Most of the time we aren’t tripping over each other, and can all go to different sections of the house and do our own things. We’re all reasonably comfortable and thank heavens we all get along, even the pets (finally). And what’s even nicer is that the house is sitting on just under 40 acres of land that belongs to Mom, my aunt, and my uncle. No other houses, just this one.

The bad thing about living with Mom is, well, a few things. Her internet connection stinks (.5mb DSL?! REALLY?!) We’ve looked into it and I’m still not sure who can actually give us an internet connection that’s better than 3mb. For some reason, the wireless modem that worked beautifully in Meridian does NOT like Mom’s house. I’m lucky if I can get a signal in the bedroom, which is at the most 30 feet away with two walls inbetween. Forget trying to get a signal in the new section of the house. And Jared’s computer, which only has wireless capability, randomly has the signal drop with no warning. And honestly, while I wouldn’t know what to do if I didn’t see the small cattle herd outside Mom’s fence (our family’s rented the pasture land surrounding the house out to a cousin for eons), in the summer, they (and their biological byproducts) stink to high heaven. Since the cars have to drive through said biological substances to get to the parking areas, after a while, your vehicle starts to smell like one of the herd. ><

But the worst part about living with Mom? The wildlife. Now, don’t get me wrong. Wildlife is good. The great blue heron that shows up at the pond is a handsome fellow indeed. Unlike Meridian, I can actually hear the birds singing again. At night, I love hearing the tree frogs and crickets singing away. And the fireflies showed up a few weeks ago, much to our delight.

However, while those are all good, I 1. prefer them to be OUTSIDE the house and 2. don’t want them to be BUGS. In the past couple of weeks, the bug bites at night have gotten to be more and more, the cats have been playing with more spiders and creepy crawlies than I care to see. The dogs have been carting in ticks in large and small varieties and Jared and I have both knocked ticks off ourselves. In a word, ew.

So yesterday, since I needed to be at Mom’s store when her art supply vendor rep showed up, we planned for a full fumigating of the house. Seven bug bombs in strategic locations got set off, while two dogs sniffed two crated (and highly upset) kitties on the front porch. Since we had to be gone for at least 4 hours, we packed up the cats and went to Mom’s store. The dogs were happy (more or less) to stay out in the yard (at least since it had stopped raining on them). Mom’s still working on getting all her stock back onto the shelves, so the cats got put into her office, which fortunately had a large glass window for the kitties to look out and watch everyone. Kika availed herself of the window. Pixie had absolutely nothing to do with it and hid deep on a shelf in Mom’s desk where no one could see her unless they were bent over.

Once the vendor meeting was over and we figured the house was clear, we packed the cats back up and came back home, opening all the windows and sitting out on the front porch with the dogs and still-caged kitties. After half an hour, the windows got closed and the real fun began: cleaning the floors and surfaces.

I loathe bombing the house for one reason: the chemicals that settle on the surface of everything from the foggers. It drives me nuts thinking about it. I usually end up wearing socks and shoes in the house for a week or so after a fogging. Before we set the foggers off, I had covered up the bed with some blankets to keep the sheets and pillows from getting touched. Things got tossed into drawers where they couldn’t get touched, etc. So when we went in to clean, Jared and I were piling fabric stuff into a pile to go into the laundry ASAP. Even though the house had just been cleaned by Mom’s usual cleaning crew, I went through and cleaned all the floors again.

It felt like it took forever, but we finally got the house cleaned up and all the foggers tossed. The cats were let out inside and the dogs were allowed to come in as well. Mom finally got home after 7pm, and we all had a nice supper (penne pasta in a tomato-cream-parmesan sauce, mm nom) before we all flopped over.

Right now, I’m just hoping that the fogging did the trick and we’re relatively bug-free for the next few months. We’ll end up doing this all over again before Mom has to turn on the pilot lights on the gas furnace when it gets cold. Yey team. /sigh

A War for Summer

At the end of all the chaos last week, I had a lovely moment. Netflix sent me a disc that I’d sorta been looking forward to after seeing a friend of mine on Facebook raving about wanting to see it. What was it?

Summer Wars.

Oh. My. Gawd. I adored this movie. No, really, I did. I went into it knowing nothing about it, and ended up squealing like a fangirl by the end of it. Short version: Math nerd, cute girl, fighter-gamer cousin, black sheep uncle, and all the girl’s family band together to end up saving the world. Yeah, that’s the short version. It doesn’t even begin to touch on the sub-plots of how a world that’s all tied together in a really extreme version of cloud computing can go really really ugly fast, or how a family can really save each other, or how one woman can inspire everyone around them to be even better than they thought.

All in all, wonderful movie that hit the spot for something that left me cheering and smiling at the end.

What a month…

So I’m finally coming up for air. May was bad, what with all the chaos that ensued. June looked like it would be better and quickly went to hell in a hand basket. Now? Well, it looks like things, while still chaotic, are doing much better and on the way to normalizing.

What all happened? Well the short version is I’m still looking for a job, Jared’s now looking for a new job after leaving his job that he was commuting an hour to get to (that’s without traffic), and Mom had to move her store rather suddenly. Yeah, we now know how long it takes to pack up and move a 2400 sq. ft. art/book/teacher store: 3 days. And that’s start packing on Day 1 and lock the door at 3pm on Day 3.

So the week before last, we found out we had to move the store, found a new place, talked to a contractor about what needs to be done to the new space, scheduled demo on the new place, got boxes from everywhere we could, put up notices we were moving and would be closed til the end of the month when we reopen at the new place, packed boxes, took apart fixtures, packed 2 moving trucks that were shuttling everything to storage units constantly, and then passed out.

This past week was start demolition on the interior of the new place on Monday, framing and sheet rock Tuesday through Thursday, painting Friday, finishing painting Saturday while they were installing the new floor behind us, and yesterday the floor was still being installed while a few fixtures were retrieved from the storage units to prep for everything to be loaded into the new store space this week.

Yeah, we’re all a little tired. /sigh

And in the middle of last week’s chaos, we did have a bit of good happen. My dad and stepmother came down to see us and a grand visit was had by all. I really loved seeing them again (the last time was at the wedding), and since we were in the middle of waiting on the framing and drywall to get done, we had the time to properly visit with them. They got to look around town a little more without dealing with the chaos of the wedding going on. Tuesday night, we even went out to dinner, which was great. Wednesday, Dad picked up a new baseball cap from one of the local stores that has Ole Miss stuff and got one for Jared too. I showed them the local yarn store that’s been a mental safe haven for me lately and they gifted me with a gift certificate to have fun with there. The visit was short, but wonderful, and hopefully the next one will be much, much longer.

The other good news in all of this is that Mom’s pleased with the move. It’s going to be a good thing for her, allowing her to concentrate on the art supplies, which had been what the store is best at in this town. The books and teacher stuff are going to be special orders only from now on, so we can help out customers that counted on us for those items (and so we can order books without having to deal with online stores hehe [there's no one selling a GOOD selection of scifi in this town]). We were just not thinking about moving as quickly as we did. So while it might have been a painful couple of weeks, it looks like it’s going to be okay in the end.

At least that is. Job hunts suck, especially in this economy. I hate that Jared had to leave his job, but between the commute and a whole bunch of other little things, he was not doing well. I have a couple of applications in to various places, including one that I’m really not sure I want to work for. I have a feeling I’d end up hating it, and being completely miserable. But at what point do you say “I need the money and the benefits”, even though you just -know- you’d end up coming home every night wanting to cry (or get a beer, or both. I’m a girl, sue me)?

So right now, I’m looking forward to a week that’s going to be a little bit calmer than the last couple of weeks. Tomorrow, I’m hopping back on the application bandwagon, hopefully. Tuesday, the cats get dragged to the new store while the house gets bug bombed. After that, who knows, but hopefully it will be a more pleasant month to come.

Blerg Redux

Apparently June wants to kick my butt as well. At least it’s seemed that way for the past week and a half. Hopefully, things will go to a happy place in a few days. We’ll see. Til then, I’m off hiding again.

/scurries off

Is it safe?

::peeking out from my hiding place::

No, really, is it safe? Is May over yet? Oh it is? Awesome! I can come out of hiding then!

Ugh. Normally I love May. I have my birthday, it’s starting to be spring-verging-into-summer for those of us in the South, school’s letting out (yeah my brain still goes there), Ren Faires are happening, plants are blooming, and the summer movie season starts. All great reasons to love May.

Not. This. Year.

Between everyone in the house getting sick, animals included, stress from money worries, my ever continuing job hunt, Jared starting to look for a new job cos the commute’s killing him with the job he’s got now, a funeral, a turtle migration, mice, doctor appointments, and a ratsnake, this has not been a fun month. I finally just gave up somewhere last week when it yet again looked like it was going to be calm again and proceeded to have yet another pile of stress dumped in my lap. It took a while, but I finally hit the “fuck it” stage and just hid.

But it’s June now, and everyone seems to be done getting sick for the moment (knock on wood), there’s some progression on my job hunt, Jared’s has kicked into high gear, one major money worry that was looming was taken care of, and the turtle migration through Mom’s yard seems to have slowed down (much to the dogs’ disappointment). Unfortunately, there’s not a lot we can do about the mice other than wait for the ratsnake to get them. Hopefully this time the snake will avoid the dogs, since that’s how we found out about it. Lexi was barking her head off in full angry “I’m gonna KILL YOU!” bark mode. /sigh

Today, I have three places to call to talk to people (sadly, not about jobs), laundry to finish, then it’s off to knitting/art land for me. We have to go to Meridian tomorrow to run an errand or two, as well as helping Mom clear out some storage down there, so tomorrow’s going to be a busy day.

Here’s a little wish that June is a much happier and less stressful month for us. ^^;

Mother’s Day and illness

First off, Happy Mother’s Day to everyone out there, whether it’s to human children or to the four-legged and furry. May you all have a lovely day, including being spoiled rotten.

And illness has hit our house again. /facepalm At least this time it’s not me or the cats. I guess The Powers That Be decided Jared needed to get hit with the sick bat this time around. He ended up coming home yesterday from work after getting sick at work. By the time he got home, he looked worse than when he’d left. Right now, I’m hoping it’s just a stomach bug, but with him saying this morning he’s aching all over, I’m not so sure that it’s a stomach bug anymore. Later today, we’ll take him in to an urgent care place in town (we have to wait til they open at noon, argh!) and see what they say.

And the weekend got busy yesterday, cos in addition to him getting sick, a family friend came to visit for the weekend. Well, she’s here to spend Mother’s Day with her mom, but she’s staying with us. Love having Joyce visit, and it’s been amusing watching Joyce and Jared talk to each other from across the room as Jared tries to stay at a distance to keep anyone else from getting sick.

Wait, he doesn’t try to stay away from me. … Oh, dear! We need to Have A Talk! /stomps off

Back to normal

Things are more or less back to normal around here. Kika’s back home, birthday is over, and the regular stresses of daily life are back in place. Right now, it looks like everyone, 4-foots and humans alike, are done being sick. When we took Kika in on Monday, we ended up taking one of Mom’s dogs in as well. Lexi had scratched herself raw on one side of her neck, so in she went to get treated for hot spots. Once the vets got her, they also found one on the top of her head, next to her ear, that she was in the process of starting. So now we get to spray her down twice a day with something that in her mind makes her smell and taste funny and she Does Not Like. Nothing like playing “Catch Me if You Can” with a dog that is On To You. Fortunately for everyone’s sanity, she and Kika are a lot alike in that you could butter a brick and Lexi would attempt to eat it, so treat bribes have been applied the past couple of times. She likes treats so she’s cooperating a bit better now.

In the mean time, Kika’s been sniffed over by both dogs and Pixie and is quite sick of it by now. She’s normally pretty mellow, but when Cole would not stopping sniffing her yesterday even after he’d gotten told firmly to quit by both Mom and Kika (Mom yelled, Kika hissed), she whipped out a paw and smacked him hard across the muzzle. Cole is part Border Collie, part Chow, and part who knows what but the vets and Mom suspect coyote. He’s big (toddlers could ride him), lanky, and has a very large set of teeth. After getting popped in the muzzle by Kika, he blinked, rolled his eyes at me, and slunk off.

Kika – 1, Cole – 0.

Yep, house is back to normal. ^^;

A good birthday

So yesterday I posted my worries about Kika. What happened after I posted that was I talked to the vets again, only to find out that Kika still hadn’t eaten since we took her in Monday morning. Somehow I thought she’d started eating again during her stay there. But during the talk, the vet assistant said the vet would be available to talk after 2pm once all the morning cases were done with and the general morning crazies were all over. I poked Jared, we talked, and at 2pm, he and I left to head into town to talk to the vet.

The vet came out to talk to Jared and I, and instead of the bad news I’d halfway been fearing, she said between the time I’d called and just then, Kika had started eating. Not a lot, but more than a mouthful. Her temp had gone back down to normal, and the bite on her leg was almost invisible. She said that we could take Kika home today if we wanted, or we could leave her there overnight just to make sure everything was okay. Since we both had a feeling that once Kika got home, Pixie would be all over her, we decided to give her one more day of rest and recovery (and hopefully eating more) at the vets.

Then the vet asked us if we’d like to see Kika. I couldn’t say yes fast enough.

We went into an exam room and the vet brought Kika out to us. Kika is normally a struggler, not wanting to be held, but as soon as she landed on our laps, she was purring up a storm and more than happy to get all the petting she could. We stayed with her for 10 minutes or so, then told the vet techs we were ready to leave. They took Kika back to the back and we told the vets we’d be back the next day to get her. They said she’d be ready and happy to leave whenever we were ready. So hopefully later today, we’ll be picking the little twerp up, provided nothing has gone wrong in the meantime. It better not or someone’s having her catnip mousie taken away.

After that, the day was all downhill. A trip to the bank, a trip to the yarn store, a trip to the book store, a trip to GameStop and then home to relax before Jared took me out to dinner. I ate way too much and enjoyed every minute of it. When we got back, Mom greeted us with “The cake is cooling but will be ready soon.” I got cake! Yay cake!

Tonight, Jared, Mom and I head out to an Ole Miss baseball game. I’ll be taking along socks to knit in the stands, since we’re going as part of a “Stitch ‘n’ Pitch” with the local yarn shop. For those that have no clue what this is, it’s essentially “take your knitting to baseball day”. ::grin:: Mom and Jared will not be knitting, but the rest of the knitters don’t mind that at all. It should make for an entertaining way to end a stressful week at the very least.

Felis Interruptus

Yeah, I finally broke my streak of posting, but I have a darned good reason. Meet Kika.

Cute little bugger, ain’t she? I’ve had Kika since just after Christmas of 2006. I got her after my previous cat, Sylvie, passed away. She’s been an awesome kitty and while not the best with the full on lap snuggles like Pixie is, she’s still, well, awesome. In addition to “Kika”, she’s also called “Bunnybutt”, cos when she runs, if you watch her from the back, all you can see is this butt going up and down like a rabbit’s when it runs. She’s also called “Plushkitty” cos she so soft and squishy in the belly.

She hates that last name, tho, cos it means we just like to play with her belly.

But back to the reason I’m showing a picture of Kika. I mean, she’s a cutie and a half, but really, who other than Jared and I (and a few other assorted friends and former kitty sitters) care about pictures of her? Well cos she’s not here at the house right now. She’s at the vets.

Sunday, she started acting, well, weird. This is a kitty that loves food. Nay, ADORES food. The running joke is we could butter a brick and she’d try to eat it. So when we feed her and Pixie twice a day, we usually just about get knocked over by her trying to shove her head into the bowl. Sunday, she didn’t do that. When she finally got off the pillow at the foot of the bed where she’d slept all night, she had about three bites of food and walked off. Cue worry.

I finally got her to eat more, but it took a long while. I thought maybe she might have a allergy problem and may have a stuffed nose, so we went and got wet kitty food to try, since that’s stinkier and more likely to tempt a kitty with a stuffy nose. That night when I tried to feed her that, she licked at the gravy a few times then walked off. At that point, I called the local vet. He said sounded like a sore throat (she was also licking her mouth and nose a lot) and possibly a fever, but wasn’t worried yet enough to have me bring her in NAO, but to bring her in Monday morning.

Jared took her to the vets Monday morning since I had a doctor’s appointment, and later that afternoon, I tried to pick her up. No dice. He was right about the fever. She had a temp of 105. So she stayed overnight. Tuesday it was 106. Other than the fever, she was fine and sassy, so he kept giving her fluids and antibiotics.

Yesterday, however, he checked her all over for anything since her temp had gone down a little but not much, and we’re thinking he found the problem. She’s got a bite on the inside of her right front leg. We’re not sure if it’s spider, insect, or from her and Pixie smacking each other. But at least it’s something to treat instead of “random high fever with no other signs”.

So today, I’m hoping for a couple of things for my birthday (yep, today’s my birthday, go me), but the big one is that Kika comes home by tomorrow, and is back to her sassy, snarky, bunnybutted self sans fever soon.