Needs a Good Home

This is Skylar. He is a very sweet kitty currently in the care of LDS. Unfortunately, her landlord says they have too many cats. With the local shelter inundated with cats, we're all hitting up our networks to find Skylar a new home.

He's about a year old. He's very affectionate and will sit on your lap. He currently lives with four other cats, so there will be some adjusting if he's on his own but he can live with others too. We're looking for a fairly local person who might want a sweet, loveable guy. Unfortunately, the news came too late for me to take him. Let me know if you know anyone!

In other news, Phantom goes to the vet tomorrow! I hope he won't be the pain in the car that Miss Luna is. I think he'll be ok. It won't be for shots anyway. I do want to drive around with him a bit and see if I can get him used to the car. Some day he's going to have to come home with me and meet Buffy. I'm sure a time when my folks need to feed both cats will come!

You Know Those Days

when you just want to go home and cry? I'm having one of those days. And I can't account for it at all. I just want to roll up in my blankets and cry.

It probably won't happen. I'll collect Phantom for his --- ok. Well, I was going to say I was going to collect Phantom for his required vet physical, but they just called me (like as in right there as I was typing) to say the doctor was sick and we have to reschedule for Saturday morning. Alright.

Well. My train of thought has been totally derailed. I wouldn't say the urge to go home and cry is going away. But. Hmmm. How interesting. I think I'll just crochet while watching Stargate SG1. I'm in the middle of the third season right now (and NO, I have not seen them before so don't tell me anything!!).

Be Mine Feline

Last week, I came across an article that described how Fairfax County Animal Control was far beyond capacity in cats from a hoarding investigation in November. For the month of February, they are doing their best, with minimal advertising, to find homes for these animals.

I've long been thinking about getting another cat. Miss Luna is so dreadful in the car and she definitely makes me pay for it if I leave her alone for a night or two. The truth is, for as long as I've had her, there has always been another cat around. I really think she was spending most of her time lonely.

I spoke with some friends who have cats and we all agreed that I should look for a male on the youngish side of adult. I figured why not have a look, and went to the shelter, that happens to be very close to the office, yesterday. I was expecting to fall in love with every cat in there, and it's not hard to do! I was also expecting to maybe find one and then wait a few days to a week for him to be neutered.

And then there was this guy.


He was sleeping when I came over, he noticed me, perked up, and rolled over. I wandered around a bit more while he showed off for another family that was also looking for a male cat, and then went to get a volunteer. Even though they were in the cat room before me, the other family admitted that I was looking at him first.

His tail is about half the length that is should be and has two funky ends. His coat is a little dingy, but I think that's from being in the shelter. When he gets comfortable, he'll keep himself cleaner. His eyes are bright green and his nose is a deep burgundy. He's about two years old and he wasn't part of the hoarding seizure, he was brought in as a stray- already neutered.

Guess what already neutered means? It means I got to take him home right away! He's had all his required shots and tested negative for FIV and leukemia.

He is such a sweet boy! His name is Phantom, after my favorite super hero. I kept thinking Gray and Ghost, and it hit me that the Gray Ghost was an early name for the Phantom, before the first Sunday strip showed his costume to be purple. (The Gray Ghost later became a Batman character, and the Phantom's costume was referred to as gray for some time after his color debut.)

Now to meet Miss Luna. I don't really have a way to seclude the cats, so I just have to let them into the house together and hope they behave. At first, there was minimal growling, but it did start. I tried to go to bed at 21:30, but Phantom sat on the dresser by my bed and growled at poor Luna every time she tried to come into the bedroom. I guess Phantom eventually settled on his bed in the kitchen around 01:00ish and Miss Luna could finally join me. It was a long night.

I will run by the pet store today and get some new cat supplies. I do hope they're being civil to each other today. I had no choice but to just leave them to their own devices. I think they will work things out, but it will take time.

Help to stop the GOP plan to redefine rape

I just heard about a horrible GOP bill that could redefine rape and set women's rights back by decades.

Here's the deal: Right now, federal dollars can't be used for abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or when the woman's life is in danger. But the bill, introduced by Republican congressman Chris Smith, would narrow that use to "cases of 'forcible' rape but not statutory or coerced rape."

As far too many women know, bruises and broken bones do not define rape - a lack of consent does. This bill is scary - so I signed a petition telling Congress to stand up and oppose the bill. It's this way: http://pol.moveon.org/smithbill/?rc=tw

The Dreams of Others

She writes: "I dreamed that there were sleepy kittens (all curled up into little purring fluffballs) floating around the house like clouds... I could reach out and cuddle one and then set it back in the air and it would just start floating again."

Take a moment.

Icy

It's not like the ice storm we had in 2007, but it's still icy. I was three hours late to work because I was frozen out of both vehicles. It took an hour to chisel through the half inch of ice once I finally got into the trunk to get the spare scraper!

The roads were not too bad, though.

I have a headache, probably from spending so much time in the cold. I took my boots off because I couldn't feel my toes (not wet, just cold). If my gloves were dry, I'd be wearing them now because my fingers are cold. This is regular office chill, though. It's compounded because my fingers started out cold today!

I hope the day goes by fast. I really want to be home.

Pissed Off

Monday night, I received three text messages.

Tuesday night, I received two.

Yesterday, I received one.

All of them looked like this:

Reply 'Y' for the Info you Requested

brought to you by thenewsucanuse.com
Web & SMS Content $9.99/mo Txt stop 2 end messages

Need Answers?

Reply 'Y'
From: 56483

The 9th Circuit recently ruled that unauthorized text solicitations are illegal under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

I have no business relationship with this company that has been sending me texts. I have not authorized them to do so. I'm afraid to reply with stop as the message indicates because I don't want them to see a live number and then start killing me with even more messages I did not authorize.

Instead, I filed a complaint with the FTC and the BBB. I did send an e-mail to the company, but I'm not giving them my phone number so they can start thinking it's ok to use it however they please. Next, I will contact my cell provider. If it doesn't stop, I'll have to call my lawyer.

What is the point of laws if any company can just sign you up for anything even if you have never heard of them? I am thoroughly angry about this.

My Evening

When I got home from the weekend with fam on Sunday, I noticed that I was not getting much hot water for my shower. I went to the crawlspace when I got home from work yesterday to find it flooded. I couldn't get to the hot water heater to turn off the water to it (based on where the lake that was my crawlspace was moving, the leak was definitely coming from the heater) so I had to wade through the water to turn off the pipe to the pressure tank. I was then able to siphon the Great Crawlspace Lake. It took a few hours to get to the point where the water wasn't going past my boots so I could shut off the water to the heater and turn the well back on so I could at least flush my toilet again. The water was coming from a rusted hole at the back and bottom of the tank. I need a new one.

Also, turning off my well drained the pressure tank and overwhelmed my septic system. The sudden alarm was rather shocking.

The bright side is that the septic alarm seems to have resolved itself in the night, the seller bought me a home warranty policy when I bought the place so replacing the rusted hot water heater should only cost me $75, and it's a crawlspace, not a basement, so the lake-that-was didn't do as much damage as it could have. I put in a claim last night, but the contractor said they won't be able to get out here until tomorrow.

My dad and Jack came over last night. Their presence helped me get my head on straight so I could deal with the problem (like siphoning out the lake, finding the shut-off valves for the two tanks, and locating the paper that my Realtor sent me in June about the home warranty so I could get started on getting it fixed). I boiled some water this morning so I could wash my hair, but I rinsed with the cold tap. Let me tell you, the water from my aquifer is C.O.L.D. and now I have a headache.

I know it could be worse, but it makes me feel like I never should have bought the house. If something goes really wrong, I can't afford to fix it. I don't know if I'll be able to renew my home warranty, and now that I see the value of it, I really think I should. I'll start saving now.

Traveling

In the hotel in Cancun, there was a jewelry shop. On the shelf just by the door were four silver pendants. One of those pendants was an anchor and helm wheel design with inlays of Australian opal.

All during the trip, I passed it, glanced at it, liked it, but I didn't buy it. On the last night of the trip before heading out to dinner, we stopped by the jewelry shop again. I looked and liked again. On the way to dinner, I decided that I would get it when we got back. I certainly eyed it enough. I really liked the design, I really liked the stone. I didn't really budget for it, but I had a credit card. And there's nothing wrong with buying something nice for yourself when you're on vacation, right?

Well, we got back from dinner and I completely forgot about the thing. I remembered only after I was done with my shower and we were about to turn in. No matter! They'll probably be open in the morning.

When we woke up, I still remembered the pendant. I also remembered that the shop was having a fairly large sale, and it was probably included. On the way to breakfast, I looked only for the sale sign, and it was there. That settled it. I would buy the thing after breakfast, before we got our luggage together to head home.

Jack and I needed to do some last minute shopping, so we finished breakfast quickly and headed back to the room to bring our bags down and hit the store. We stopped at the jewelry store in the hotel, but there were only three pendants there. The pretty opal anchor was not one of them. I forgot about it, and it was gone.

Not a big deal, really. It wasn't a thing I needed, just liked a lot.

Who wants to know how I'm wearing that pendant right now?

While I was in the shower after dinner, Jack went down to reconcile the room bill with the hotel. Yeah, he remembered the pendant where I did not, the stinker. He put it in my hands on Christmas Eve.

It's not about the pendant, though I do really like it. There's a story there now, and a fond memory, and a sweet act that one person did for another. My man is something special.

Fake Tree Fail

I was all about getting a real tree this year, as I have been doing since I moved out of my parents’ house. And this holiday time is extra special because it's the first one in my house. Well, I listened to the wisdom of my elders who told me my planned used of my woodstove fireplace would dry out my live tree faster than it normally would dry out and become a nice big(er) fire hazard. If nothing else, they said, it should be kept far far away from the fireplace. Well, unfortunately the only place I really have to put a tree is fairly close to the fireplace. Not wanting to burn down my house with a dry tree, I decided to just get a fake one.

I went with my folks to the Christmas Tree Store and found a nice little 4.5 foot tree pre-lit with white lights for less than $20. I don't really need pre-lit, but it'll do. Jack came over yesterday to put it up and decorate it with me.

It was a case of "you get what you pay for." Actually, I think I was robbed. I might have paid $5 for that pathetic thing. It was maybe 2 feet in diameter. The lower part was one row of branches that had the fake needles on about half of each branch. The lights were strung in such a way that I couldn't even fold them all the way out. The top part looked fairly full, but had the same problem with the lights. No amount of Charlie Brown love could improve this thing. It was not something I would be proud to display in my home.

I'm really disappointed. My first Yule in my house and I have no tree. With all the things I have to do, I'm out of time (and money) to get one. Jack could probably tell I was upset about it. He said he had another that I could use, but he probably wouldn't be able to get it to me until next week, which would be after Yule and then defeat the purpose. So much for my first holiday.