Siber-Den

29 June 2003

Elefunk

I'm waiting for a HUGE dose of allergy meds to take effect, so this might start sounding really incoherent at some point (as opposed to the semi incoherence that sometimes occurs here). Just thought a disclaimer might help. : )

Kev and I have spent the past three evenings entertaining/spending time with Dave and Melissa and the wondrous Lauren. Dave is a childhood buddy of Kev's, Melissa is his better half, and Lauren is the beautiful little girl they claim as their own. I know Dave sometimes take a gander at this page, so I'm going to warn him that I'm going to get flowery, but their little girl is incredible. I'm so used to kids running amok that it absolutely shocks me when I come across a quiet, obedient, intelligent, sweet, funny, beautiful, affectionate child. Dave and Melissa probably think Kev and I are weird with our constant compliments (ok...they probably think only I'm weird), but it's been a joy to be around her. There's something about the way that child smiles and laughs that is amazing. I'm just not used to that kind of innocent, contagious joy.

Dave and Melissa are fun. I wish we got to see more of them. I think we get along most excellently. Though at some point, one would think the childhood/high school/college stories would run out. : )

[Posted at 22:39 on 06/29/03]

23 June 2003

Goldie Wins

Well, looky here. Just in the nick o' time!!

[Posted at 18:13 on 06/23/03]

22 June 2003

Cool Cats

I forget every year how HOT this city gets in the summer. This one's a bad one. The sad thing is, it's barely summer. Any chance it's just started early and it'll peter out early?

I had to purchase a little window air conditioner (a bargain at $99) for my cats' abode in the garage. My eighteen year old, Goldie, is not handling the heat well at all, as she shouldn't. I'M not handling the heat well. I spent a little time this afternoon getting it situated in the garage and giving her extra attention. She seemed quite relieved by the coolness. Poor baby.

My mom's yard people were cutting her grass today while I was there. I went afterwards in the backyard and cut back some of the wild trees that were taking root back there. At one point, I was bent over some young trees, cutting them back, and breathing kinda heavily through my mouth (have I mentioned it was hot?). Some bug buzzed out of the tree I was chopping up and flew straight down my throat. Blech. I didn't even swallow the damn thing. It swallowed itself. Gross. I don't know what it was. I don't even want to THINK about what it was. After a bit of choking and coughing, I continued chopping but with my mouth closed. Blech.

Don't know how bugs figure in the whole low-carb spectrum, but that's protein I'll be trying my best to avoid in the future. Blech.

On top of that, something stung my knee (fun fun). It's a bit swollen at the moment and red. It got me thinking. When we were kids, we used to come across, on a fairly regular basis, a smallish white fuzzy caterpillar that we called an asp. I found references to it on the web here, here, and finally here. On two occasions, I had the misfortune of being stung, probably because I spent my childhood climbing trees. Wasps and bees have NOTHING on asp stings. Holy Cow. That's a pain I've never felt before or since. I've been stung and bitten by all kinds of crawlies, but asps were the only thing that made me bawl like a baby. Kev's never heard of the little terrors. Has anyone else ever heard of them or been stung by one?

Update: 06.23.03:
News from my mom's: Goldie is responding to the cool. Yaay. The heat was affecting her so much that she wasn't eating much. She ate a can and a half this morning. Woo hoo. Poor baby.

Hey, if I can obsess enough to heat their garage in the winter and provide an electric blanket to boot, I can obsess enough in the summer to cool the place. Ok?

Enough obsessing over cats. I have the quarterly Big Law Firm Update to get started this morning. Woo hoo!!

NOT!!

[Posted at 21:00 on 06/22/03]

21 June 2003

I Don't Care If That Doggie's For Sale

Remember that song "How Much is that Doggie in the Window?" Kinda dated these days. I guess one should be thankful that she brought the puppy back. The rest of this is pretty unbelievable. I was a hooligan when I was twelve, but it never involved breaking and entering and theft and lying.

And what's with the sudden popularity of my name for pets? Outside of my church, in the past I never ran across anything bearing my name. Now, everyone and their sister has a dog or cat with my name. : )

There's some consolation that everyone pronounces it wrong. : )

[Posted at 17:22 on 06/21/03]

20 June 2003

Ooooh The Excitement...

Oooh oooh! One to look forward to.....

"Our writer is writing and rewriting, our locations are changing and we are trying to figure it out as we go," Thompson said.

Sounds like a normal day for the Lifetime folks.

[Posted at 20:56 on 06/20/03]

17 June 2003

Weird

Ok....I'm weird. Does this happen to anyone else? You're just walking along, and a cat will appear from nowhere and walk/run up to you and rub on you and want to be petted? It happened to me again tonight. It happens ALL the time to me. Even walking Stormy (see picture, above left), aka the cat killer, back in my parents' neighborhood wouldn't dissuade the neighborhood cats from wanting to run up to me and say hi. Tonight's little visitor was so cute, I had to get down and pet the cute little bugger. After a few minutes, I had to sorta chase the little sweetie off. He started following me down the street as I continued home. It's the weirdest dang thing. Do we just have the friendliest cats in Houston or is there something wrong with me? (don't answer that Kev!)

[Posted at 01:09 on 06/17/03]

15 June 2003

Blue

My mom and I just spent a couple of blistering hours (ok...it was mostly cloudy) in the middle of nowhere (ok...we were about thirty miles north of Houston) picking blueberries. It's a big dang deal in these parts (ok...it might be a big dang deal in lots of parts) for farms to let people come and pick their own produce. We managed to pick about ten pounds worth of blueberries between us (and eat another pound between us as we picked). Blueberries are one of those foods that I obsess about every year. After going through my haul, I'm sure I'll never want to see another little blue fruit again.

At some point during the picking my mom looked up at me and said, "The fun of picking your own blueberries is highly exaggerated." About made me spew. : )

[Posted at 19:36 on 06/15/03]

It HAS Been Kinda Wet

Um...ok...that's odd. I just let Kiwi out front to do her business...and...there are seagulls flying overhead doing their little seagull calls. Um...the nearest seashore is 50+ miles away.

I hope this isn't a sign of the Armageddon or something.

[Posted at 14:06 on 06/15/03]

14 June 2003

Lousy TV

Kev and I stayed up past 2 A.M. last night. Doing what, you may ask? Watching a Lifetime Original Movie, of course. I don't know what it is about these lousy things that keeps us watching. I think we're so amazed at the utter stupidity of the plot and the characters and their decisions that we just want to see how much worse things can get. Or something. Last night's movie had a former Simon and Simon star in it. That's the second Lifetime movie we've seen him in (that's embarrassing...pretty soon, we'll know his complete Lifetime catalog ::cringe::). He seems to do the Lifetime Evil Guy well (guys in Lifetime movies are either Inept or Evil). As if "well" can be used to describe ANYTHING in a Lifetime movie.

2 A.M. Geez.

[Posted at 14:45 on 06/14/03]

10 June 2003

Good Things Come...

Yes, yes, I know, I haven't updated in decades. Sorry. I haven't been my usual, goofy self. I'm kinda blaming it on a combo of the asthma meds (I'm beginning to wonder if breathing is worth it) and the heat. I can't seem to find any energy and my good humor has gone south. There have been moments of joy though. My better half is somewhat responsible. : )

I just have a few observations I wanted to post while waiting (and waiting and waiting) for a UPS delivery.

First Observation: WHY have I seen TWO UPS trucks go by our place so far today and neither one had our package? Shouldn't ONE of them have had our package? Is the truck that is scheduled to be our way at FIVE P.M. the one with our package? Are the others just friggin' teasing me? ARRRRGGGHHH.

Second Observation: On another topic, a few months ago, Kev and I got semi-lost in Dallas trying to find a freeway access road or on-ramp to I-45 south. We drove around...and around...and around...and still, no access road. We finally got on a different freeway somehow, knowing that eventually it would cross I-45. It did. I thought maybe that was some kind of aberration. Maybe we were in the lone TEN-MILE stretch of I-45 that had no feeder or access roads. Then, this last weekend, we spent a little bit of time trying to find an access road to I-10 in San Antonio after visiting the San Jose Mission. Again, no feeders, no access roads, no on-ramps. What is the deal here? Is HOUSTON the aberration? Every freeway in Houston has continuous feeders and access roads (with few exceptions). If you're on a major thoroughfare, chances are it's going to cross a freeway and its feeder, and chances are there is going to be a freeway on-ramp close by. Shouldn't this be the case in most cities?

Third Observation: I give Kev much ribbing about his GPS. On the float trip, it was a source of amusement as we floated down the river. He's downloaded street maps into the little thing. It helped us find our way outta some strange neighborhoods in San Antonio. Maybe I should rib him less about the little thing.

Fourth Observation: I shouldn't leave him alone when we're out in public. We ate at a small joint in Seguin (pronounced se-geen', for all you non-Texans : ) before music on Saturday night, and at one point, I had to retire for a few seconds to the restroom (bona fide facilities are the bomb, baby). Kev had been in a very manic mood up till then. They were piping in the most awful eighties music and Kev was bobbing his head to it as he ate, scaring the locals (a few elderly people had stopped in to eat). I returned from the facilities to find Kev sitting there with a crazed grin on his face. He pointed my attention to a squat man (Kev insisted he was a dead ringer for Webster Hubbell) at the counter who had just finished YELLING at the people behind the counter because they hadn't given him his double order of fries with his order. Kev had responded to the temper tantrum by loudly exclaiming OH MY. The elderly folks eating close by us didn't know whom to be more afraid of...little squat man screaming or goofy smiling man amused by the whole scene.

Fifth Observation: The Mission was beautiful and quite peaceful. That is, of course, until the bagpipes started playing. Not one...FOUR bagpipes...three of them played by guys with pony tails and skirts (ok, kilts). At first, from afar, I thought they were all just hefty looking women. Fifteen minutes of peace and quiet followed by an hour or so of the sound of cats being tortured. We really are a multicultural society and maybe a bit too affluent. Someone was getting married in the church and had arranged for bagpipes to play outside the church during the ceremony. Really...bagpipes? Something tells me the bride might've spent too much time perusing wedding magazines. Needless, it was a bit much. Strolling through a Spanish mission and reading about the church and its efforts to convert the local indians...and hearing bagpipes...just a bit much. I kept muttering the word "incongruous."

Sixth Observation: Speaking of incongruous...the man walking around in a Robin Hood outfit also seemed a bit out of place in a Spanish mission. We ran across him later at the acequia. When he asked if we had any questions about the workings, I had to bite my tongue to keep from asking what was up with the outfit. I'm not sure why he needed to wear a Robin Hood outfit to explain the workings of the primitive irrigation system, but it seemed to make him happy.

Seventh Observation: On a different note, why is it necessary for every shoe that Kev and I own to be within five feet of the front door?

Eighth Observation: The dog gets extremely nervous when I start caring that every shoe we own is within five feet of the front door. It can only mean a visit to the dreaded utility closet and an appearance of the dreaded Vroom Vroom. There is nothing worse than the dreaded Vroom Vroom to Kiwi. Except maybe the UPS man. *sigh* ARRGGHH!

Ninth Observation: He really is going to make me wait till six, isn't he.

[Posted at 15:49 on 06/10/03]

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