Contrariwise

Thank you so much, Anonymous Person, for the little sapling! It is slightly ironic, only because I have never been known for having any sort of green thumb (the opposite, in fact) -- but I heartily approve of the purpose of it! What a nice idea on LJ's part, and on the part of the gift-giver.

(Actually, my lack of luck with most plants notwithstanding, I would like to report to all and sundry that on the Thursday before New Years, I bought a bonsai. I don't know what I was thinking, because of course, there's plants, and then there's bonsai, which are like plants except with a much higher level of difficulty and potential Fail. Yet? It is April 10th, and by golly, that bonsai is STILL ALIVE! Go me. It is a ficus bonsai; maybe that explains its hardiness. I was convinced that, what with the change in environment and the crappy light levels in my house, plus the cats trying to chew it, that it would soon drop all of its leaves in a big *FWUMP*, but -- not so. It has shed very few leaves and put out many more little green shoots. Yay!)

***

( Behind this cut, you will find some details about my recent Close Encounter With a Raccoon. )

***

( Behind this cut, you will find some observations about recently getting to see the first few episodes of 'Rome'. (May contain some spoilers, if you care.) )

So, several people spoke up and asked how come I didn't post any pictures of the Small Emergency Back-up Cat when I was posting all the cute pics of Emily, and the real answer to that was that there didn't happen to be any pics of her in that batch. But I rectified that over the weekend, so now I bring you Morgan:



( More behind the cut... )

I was a slug for most of the holiday weekend, which is not a bad goal for a holiday weekend, when you get right down to it. I can't even REMEMBER what I did on Saturday... oh, wait. I went running, okay, and then I did some art, and then I slugged. Yesterday, the remnants of Ernesto blew through (we had the clouds and the wind on Sat. but the rain on Sun.), so I totally stayed inside and slugged and contemplated art and watched TV and slugged some more.

Today, I woke up, and there was SUN. When I though it was going to be another wash-out day. So I got up and hauled myself out to the Deluxe Town Diner, where there was a big line but since I was only one person, I ate at the counter, which felt very diner-y indeed. They have the BEST thick-cut bacon, like, EVER.

After that, it seemed too nice a day to just go home, so at random I decided to drive to WORLD'S END, which is located in Hingham, and of which I have known for many years but to which I've never actually been. First, though, after I exited Rt. 3, I drove on Rt. 228 up through Hingham and Nantasket to Hull, which is one of those spits of hilly land sticking out into the water with which Massachusetts Bay is well-supplied.

Hingham along Rt. 228 is impossibly quaint and New-England-y. Nantasket Beach Reservation is this extremely long sweep of beach that gets very wide at low tide. It has a long, long seawall running along one side of the roadway, with lots of nice free parking and bath-houses and stuff, and along the other side of the street, charmingly, are just enough remnants of sea resort-town type stuff to be enticing (ice-cream and fried-food stands, arcades, miniature golf, etc.) There is also this big covered pavillion thing that partly houses a beach-food place and the rest of it is a band-stand, and as I wandered through, a whole bunch of people, mostly older people, had set up chairs and were listening to a six-piece combo, which played big-band songs like "Stardust Memories" while people got up and slow-danced.

So I sat on the sea-wall with the ocean at my back and listened to the music and watched the people wander in and out and start dancing, and I thought, yeah, this is a pretty perfect holiday-type day, here. Then some guy came on and starting singing "Country Roads" REALLY BADLY, and I had to wander the hell out of there...

Across the street from the pavillion, on my way back to the car, I passed the Paragon Carousel, which is an honest-to-goodness old-fashioned carousel inside this big old octagonal pavillion. It only has horses, and none of the horses look exactly pristine, but that's part of the charm of it, actually. It doesn't look too plastic and new. It looks like something that has been there forever, which it has. Some of its horses go up and down, too, which is important. (IIRC, all the horses on the big carousel in Central Park are fixed; I remember being disappointed by this, although in exchange, that carousel goes *really fast*.) I wandered in and sat down on a bench and watched parents take their kids in and put them up on the horses, and I thought, oh, I'll sit here and watch it go around.

And then it hit me: why am I being self-conscious about wanting to ride the carousel when I don't have a kid with me? If I want to ride the carousel, then I should ride the damn carousel, which, in fact, I proceeded to do, handing over my $1.75 and picking out an up-and-down horse in the middle. It was a fun ride. It doesn't go *that* fast but neither is it pokey, and it plays proper tinkly carousel music. I was glad to have done it.

I definitely need to drag more people back to Nantasket, to walk the beach and see if the arcades have skee-ball (I forgot to check), and eat bad food, and play miniature golf.

After that, I finally did drive to WORLD'S END (I just like saying that, because it's a wonderfully melodramatic name for a not-all-that-dramatic piece of land, which is *another* spit of land sticking out into the water alongside Hull. But it's all just parkland and paths to walk around. It was very nice. It's not wild or anything -- it was farmland up until the mid-20th century, I think. At one point at the turn of the century, they were going to put a housing development on it, and the owner had Frederik Law Olmsted landscape it, but the actual building never happened. Apparently at one point, it was on the short-list to be the site for the United Nations World Headquarters. (Boggle about that along with me, will you? Yes, instead of putting the UN downtown in one of the biggest and busiest cities in the U.S., they were once considering plunking it down on a rural spit 15 miles outside of Boston.) It also narrowly missed having a nuclear power plant put on it. But now it's a park, and it has a nice mix of rocky paths through woods, and these big meadowy hilly spaces ringed by trees. It's a very New England landscape, and I loved it.

I would probably have loved it more had I been wearing better shoes and not been tired of walking at that point. Still, it is open year-round, and I can definitely see myself going back there to walk around. I bet it would be pretty in a lot of seasons.

Then I got home, and here's where we get to the BAD CAT part.

Anyone who has met my grey cat, Emily, will have heard the story by now of how when I first got her, she had not the slightest idea what to do with mice. When I moved into this apartment, for example, when the kitchen was still empty, we had some juvenile mice get in there, and she was mainly perplexed by them. And this led to the priceless moment, which I witnessed, when she had this teenage mouse cornered and the mouse got away by -- no lie -- jumping up and boxing Emily on the nose. Brave mouse. Hapless cat. I just about fell over laughing.

Anyway, since that time, Emily has sort of figured out what to do with mice. So I had no sooner gotten home and was puttering around the kitchen, when Emily lunged under the table and scrabbled around the baseboard. (She had been staring in that direction earlier in the day, but I assumed she had spotted a thousand-legger, which the cats find interesting, but about which they will do nothing, except eat them, but only if I smoosh the bugs for them first.) I was astouned when she emerged from the corner with one foot and a tail sticking out of her mouth.

"Oh, EMILY!" I said, quickly disengaging myself from what I'd been doing at the sink, as she ran with her prize into the living room.... where, as any cat-owner will have already guessed, she decided to "play" with the mouse. And when I say "play", what I mean is, let it escape. ("Good cat", under these circumstances, would be a cat that *doesn't* drop the mouse, just so you know. Judith's cat Ewok used to at least hold onto the things, so that you could grab her and then grab the tail sticking out, and then when she would let it go, you'd at least *have* the mouse in hand.)

The mouse ran under a nearby book-case. Emily has been staring underneath it ever since, but I have news for her, that mouse is long gone. It's too low for Emily to stuff herself under (not that she hasn't tried), but there are gaps under there more than big enough for the mouse to scrabble through. I surmise that the mouse ran out the back while Emily was fixated on the front, and under the baseboard, and down into the basement or something. Now Emily is all HYPER-ALERT, and really, mice don't bother me, but I've had a long day and I just don't need the drama.

Huh. Here comes Morgan. You know, I have no idea what Morgan would make of mice. I've never seen her encounter any. I wonder if she would pounce, or if she would just watch avidly, the way she does with insects?

So, a good day. Despite the mouse.

Boy, do I not want to go back to work tomorrow.

Huh. I haven't updated in a while. Mostly because I haven't really been doing anything update-worthy.

I fell off the wagon with regard to writing up thoughts on SciFi Friday, was too anal to skip the weeks I'd missed and just pick up with where-ever I was at, and now it's over. My little local viewing-group is replacing it with a grab-bag of "Dr. Who", "Deadwood", "Action!" (brilliant, so *of course* FOX cancelled it), and possibly S1 of SG-1, sometimes (we reserve the right to skip the really awful ones).

On my own, I am watching "due South" for the first time. (About midway through S1 right now.) Am finding it interesting, in the sense of, here's this show I've been aware of, and especially aware of tangentially through fandom, but I'd never seen it. I can't say that seeing the "Icebound Stream" vid and the "What's My Age Again?" vid at Escapade had nothing to do with finally pushing me into trying to see it. I'm also kind of on a "Canada is interesting" kick at the moment (evening pick-up reading at present is the new edition of "The Illustrated History of Canada"; it's extremely sobering when you realize that you don't know much that's specific about the history of a country that large and that much your neighbor).

Anyway. due South. "Sweet, and cute" is my assessment so far. I'm enjoying it, if not falling head over heels in fannish love with it. (That's not a slam. That describes my relationship with many beloved shows over the years.) Biggest "surprise" so far: the subtle humor and comedic timing that Paul Gross brings to Fraser. (Second biggest surprise: the number of humongous, boxy cars from the 70s apparently still being driven in "Chicago" in the late 90s.) I have this feeling that raqs would go for Fraser, although she is dubious about this. I dunno. I can't even quite explain why. I just think so.

At any rate, I'm looking forward to making my way slowly through the series. I'm also interested, on a low level, in the show's fandom's meta, since that's something that's been hovering around the edges of my fannish participation for years, but I didn't have anything to connect it to. I hope somebody gives me the low-down on what I'm *sure* were issues of vital interest to dS's fandom, such as the RayV-RayK switch.

What I'm reading: Rachel Caine's "Weather Warden" series, which I've enjoyed the hell out of. I have the 4th book in hand but have been taking a break (after blowing through the first three in a weekend), both to draw it out, and because I have a baaaaaaaaaad feeling about plot developments on the horizon and I'm trying to work up to it. Also, Cherryh's latest in the Foreigner series, the somewhat misleadingly-titled "Pretender" (in that the titular character never actually *appears*, although I suppose you can argue that the entire book is about disposing of him, so...). Unfortunately, this was a bit of a disappointment to me. I loved loved loved the first two books in the series (what is she on now, the third trilogy?), but have felt "ehn" about the rest, though I still read them to follow the advancing story. My problem, I've concluded, is that I want different things out of the world and the narrator character than Cherryh wants to focus on; she keeps giving me glimpses, but that's it. After the last one, I had hopes of this latest book in terms of action and plot. But it felt very repetitive to me, like it had nothing new to say, and like the actual action in it was all stuff we'd been through before. There were no surprises, and with relation to the narrator, no real sense of *peril* any more (to him, especially; or to those around him), which makes reading about him going through faux-peril kind of irritating. Ah well. Of course I'll still read the next one. But this one, I got from the library, and the next I will too.

I am *poised* to read Naomi Novik's series, too; just *poised*. To my surprise, my local library system has ordered "Temeraire". Yes, you read that right. "Temeraire", not "His Majesty's Dragon". Already, I'm intrigued by that. (For those not in the know: I had understood that "Temeraire" was the title of the first book in Britain, but that it was being released in the US at the end of March under the different title "His Majesty's Dragon". Hmm.)

What else? Renewing my car's registration has been needlessly fraught this year. Let's just say that it involves a parking ticket from *2003* that I hadn't realized I failed to pay, and that I'm scrambling to avoid getting any more $100 citations, and... would it kill them to issue a *warning* first and then give me a short grace period to, like, *deal* with all this stuff, rather than slamming me with a hundred bucks off the bat? Grrr.

Recently acquired the soundtracks to many of the Broadway musicals of my youth (meaning, that my parents owned the LPs of, and that I therefore grew up listening to): the Burton "Camelot"; the Mostel "Fiddler on the Roof"; the Dean Martin "Bells are Ringing"; "Fiorello!"; the movie "West Side Story"; and "Godspell". Ah, they take me back. Am still frustrated by the fact that they do not seem to have ever released ALW's *original* (short) "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". The precise recordings that one grew up on are the *only* ones that sound "right". I don't *want* any of the umpteen expanded stage versions of "Joseph". I want *that one*.

My cat has dandruff. I have to figure out what to do about that. I had no idea that cats could have combination skin. This is the cat that gets -- no lie -- chin pimples. And I had *no idea* that cats could have acne, but... apparently so. Now she's got dandruff too. Is this normal, I ask you?

Finally, the Canucks have been *sucking*. Right now they are battling hard just to make it into the playoffs. (*crossing fingers for another win against the Oilers tonight*) This appears to be the most fraught lead-up to the playoffs that anyone can remember recently. There are presently 7 teams within 6 points of each other, all scrabbling for 5 playoff slots. It's madness. And then wacky schedule stuff happens, such as right now, when the Canucks are playing the Oilers 3 games in a row, and 1 point separates them. Yikes. The Canucks won the first of the three, and immediately went from 10th place in the Conference to 7th. (Only the upper 8 go to the playoffs.) Madness, I tell you.

Time that Xmas tree has been up: 15 minutes.

Number of times cats have been up on the table to investigate/mess with it: 5 (3 for Morgan, 2 for Emily).

*sigh* This tree is goin' over at some point this holiday season, I can just FEEL it.


Due to some furniture rearranging, I didn't think that I would have room to put up the Big Tree this year, so I just went out and scoured Target for the 4.5' model that I could put on my lovely Turkish tile table. Pre-strung with white lights, natch. But it makes me nervous, because table + tree + windows = endless temptation for cats, apparently.

Speaking of whom, I also realized I had a problem. Last year, I decorated the tree entirely in Scandinavian straw ornaments, which was nice, (although raqs pronounced it "pallid", what with the straw and the white lights). The cats (for which, really, read "Morgan") systematically removed a great number of the ornaments and turned them into cat toys. Any they could reach, that is. And some that I would have thought they couldn't.

Now, that was my first Xmas with Morgan. And I just realized... I don't know that I can risk putting my grandmother's glass ornaments on the tree, given the possibility either of it being knocked over or of intrepid cats fishing the ornaments off for toys. Again, I have to blame Morgan, because Emily's never really bothered them that much. But now I'm all nervous, and... I don't want to lose any more of those. They're too precious. (Perhaps I shall get one of those ornament-tree thingies for display and put it where the cats never look and never go and can't reach. That could work.)

Anyway, so, I needed unbreakable ornaments. Do you know how hard those are to find? Geez. Eight skillion choices of glass ornaments, oh sure, but you'd think that our mastery of plastics technology would allow us to make more choices of ornaments that LOOK like glass but, important, AREN'T.

So it's a little tree, and I need to fix myself some highly alcoholic eggnog before decorating it, but it's not the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree, so that's okay, I guess.

(NOTE: Urban Outfitters is selling, no joke, the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. If you go to their website -- I'm too lazy to link right now, maybe later -- you can probably find it. It's, like, the little wooden cross-stand with the single branch with about three clusters of long-needle pine, and a single red bulb. I'm not sure whether that's charming or appalling.)

ETA: Huh. Weird. Yes, they're selling the tree, but it's not actually on their website. I had to hunt up the catalog to be sure it wasn't just a prop. But if you go HERE you can see it at lower right. Except if you click it, it takes you to a place where... it isn't. Although they *do* have a 6' pink tinsel tree. o.O

Wake-up call this morning: cat retching, on bed. Fortunately, it was the little koi-colored one, and she weighs nothing. Am able to roll over, pick her up with one hand, and put her down on the hardwood floor, where she is welcome to barf all she wants. (*Nothing* beats the time I got home to find that she had barfed copiously and orangely on my lovely indigo kakefuton.) Got up, cleaned up barf. Find evidence that what caused the barfing was the ingestion of some artificial needles from my Christmas tree. Wonder how the cat managed this, as of course, it's July, and the tree has been in storage since January.

Go about morning routine. Get dressed. Turn to put on my red flip-flops. Discover that cat has barfed in them.

This time, evidence suggests that the blame rests with the grey one. Would like to explain to her that if she would be more PATIENT when I brush her (like the koi-colored one, who can't get enough of brushing), then she wouldn't HAVE these hairball problems. Or at least, not so many. Wash out flip-flop, set out to dry. Put on a different pair.

What fresh delights will await me when I get home, I wonder?

You know, I got the second cat because I felt that my first cat was bored and could use the company, not to mention the exercise of maybe playing chasey-chasey more often. Well, Emily *was* bored, it was true. And now we've gotten to the point where she and Morgan are mostly settled into being buds, and they have mostly worked out each other's play signals and stuff. But you know what?

I really didn't intend for "play time" to be 5:00 freakin' AM. Especially since [a] they sound like a herd of rhinos, and [b] my bed is apparently part of the "path of fun".

***

I have joined the ranks of the TiVolution. It only took something like four and a half hours and the expert help of telepresence to get the damned thing hooked up properly (unless you count the fact that I still have to return the defective wireless ethernet adapter and get a new, working one). But it works. YAY!

Among other things this means I will never have to miss Stargate because I was out and set it up to tape but like a goober forgot to check to see if there was room on the tape, and then have to whine and beg at telepresence to make a tape copy for me so that I can finally get to see what everybody said was a great episode.

Also, I got to see the Daily Show, which TiVo is helpful for because apparently I couldn't set my brain to remember to turn on the TV at 7pm to see it. And this is a good thing, because the ep that TiVo got for me and which I watched at my leisure last night was the one from, like, last week, when Bill Clinton was the guest, and it was AWESOME, from start to finish.

***

I hate performance evaluations with the white-hot passion of a thousand suns. So does my supervisor, actually. (Actual quote: "So, what are the consequences if we simply 'forget' to do this?") But, we gotta do it. Today. Blah.

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troyswann inspired me to go through my iTunes and make a playlist of Sappy Songs. Since I managed to come up with about a hundred of them from my library, I am refraining from spamming her "what would you include on a sappy-songs CD?" thread, but will probably post it here later, as it amuses me.

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And finally...

( My thoughts on last Friday's ep of SG-1,  )