1 year with Samus.

The day we bought Kumo and brought him home was an awesome day… to everybody except Hans. Hans thought it was THE WORST DAY EVER and proceeded to try and eat Kumo’s face off. After that if a cat came within 50 feet of Kumo he’d try and climb your leg to get away from the scary cat who weighed 50 pounds less than him. Hans has NEVER taken to the dogs and because of the way that Kumo met him, he’s always been scared of cats. So for a long time Ben and I threw around the idea of getting a kitten and trying to reintroduce Kumo to cats with something a little less threatening and FACE EATING.

So a year ago today our friend Lisa posted to Facebook that the San Jose animal shelter had WAY TOO MUCH CUTE of the kitten variety and was giving them away fixed and vaccinated for $10. On a whim, we drove up to see if we could find our zoo a new member.

At first I really loved these two all black kittens but they were really skittish and Ben was unreasonably against bringing two cats home. MEANIE!

Then they brought in this tiny grey female. She scampered across the bench, crawled into Ben’s lap and started to purr so loudly I’m pretty sure the windows shook a little. We wanted something calm and cute for Kumo and that is exactly what this little girl was.

So Samus came home with us.

When we introdued her to Kumo this time we did it through a crate door, calmly and for longer times slowly. A few hours later we placed Samus next to Kumo as he laid on the floor and Kumo SHOOK. He was like GET IT AWAY FROM ME I AM SCARED. SO WHAT IF IT’S ONLY AS LONG AS MY NOSE!?

But he got over it quickly. Especially when Danica was like WOOOOHOOOO WE GOT A NEW PUPPY TO PLAY WITH YEAH! From about the second day she’s been home, she’s been one of the pack… of dogs. I’ve never SEEN a cat that acts so much like a dog.

Eats when the dogs eat, wants to go out when the dogs go out, sleeps on the floor with the dogs, she is a kittydog. She also liked water which we realized about three days in when I was in the bathtub and she jumped in… then just hung out in the water.

When we had her about a week, this happened:

So while Hans still very much wants to eat Kumo’s face for dinner, he can be around cats now without laying on the floor and convulsing. Plus, we got this crazy kittydog that plays with Danica, Kumo and all the dogs that come over to visit.

HAPPY HOMECOMING DAY, SAMUS!

Saturday Snapsots.

For the last two days I’ve been in denial about the fact that I feel like crap. Not, period crap, like I’m-going-to-hurl crap. Finally today I took my temp and, YEP! Just under 100 degrees. Great.

I did start a Day In The Life and was doing pretty well till I just felt too bad to care. So here are some shots of my Saturday. Just a few.

Post run stretching. Looking back, going running when I felt the way I did was probably not the best idea.

How adorable is that dimple?

Husband smile. <3

Moments before I took my temp and decided that today was officially over.

Took a long nap, Ben and Cassidy brought me some food and now I’m about to lay back down and cuddle with my love on the couch while I fall asleep and try to sleep off this nausea.

Forcing my body to feel better tomorrow because there is STUFF TO DO. STUFF NEEDS TO GET DONE.

YOU HEAR THAT BODY! STUFF!

Hope you all are having fabulous weekends!

Ranty Friday.

So I’m feeling a bit better. Man, I read through those last few blog posts and kind of wanted to punch past me in the face. Seriously, people. I am not somebody that you want to spend a lot of time around at That Time™. Or I am if you like to punch people in the face. You know, if that’s your thing.

Apparently the kids at Penn State were all experiencing That Time™ too because that is the only thing that can explain rioting when a jackass like Paterno gets fired. It’s maddening, actually. When I heard this was going on, it made me sad for the World that these kids with their selfish, ridiculous decision making skills are the future.

Students chanted “one more game” – asking that the university to allow him to at least coach in the final home game of the season, at home to Nebraska Saturday, so fans could pay tribute to what he has accomplished. (Source: article)

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!? This man did NOTHING when he realized that his long time friend and coworker was molesting minors and you are going to PROTEST because he was FIRED? He should have been fired AND arrested the minute this story became public and it SICKENS me that there is a group of people rallying behind this man.

Not that I really EVER think that protesting is okay. We live near Oakland, Land of the Idiot Protesters, where it seems like the normal response to hurt feelings is to loot and generally fuck up your local community. I’ve never understood how that’s an appropriate response:

I am mad that somebody hurt my community (like the recent verdict in the Oscar Grant trial) so instead of finding a way to BOOST the moral in my community, I’m going to light my neighbor’s car on fire, steal from the local business owners and beat up the police that are just trying to protect me.

MAKES SENSE TO ME!

Of course, I don’t think that ignorant tweets like this one from Ashton Kutcher helped the situation at all:

“How do you fire Jo Pa? #insult #noclass as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste”

Good article about the tweet and the backlash here. And an interesting follow up where his assistant basically makes a complete ass out of both of them here.

For the record, I’ve NEVER been a fan of how Ashton has basically deemed himself the King of Twitter. I’m sorry, and this will sound incredibly elitist, BECAUSE IT IS, but I (and most of my online friends) were on twitter for an entire two years before that jackass figured out it even existed. And honestly? It was better off BEFORE he did. I liked it when my stream was full of my favorite geeks talking about my favorite geeky things and nobody else “got it”.

HE didn’t make twitter big. Twitter made HIM big. Without it, he would not have the media reach he has today and actually, today he has a bit less of a reach. I unfollowed him after that tweet. Not just because of the tweet itself which was bad enough but because after he realized the enormous mistake he’d made, he blogged that he was going to turn his feed over to his “team” and I’m sorry, but that’s an incredibly coward move. Apologize for the mistake, take the backlash like a man and then move on. Running away and letting your peons handle your feed for you because you can’t take people not agreeing with your asinine opinion means you are probably too sensitive to be putting yourself out there like that online anyway.

The internet isn’t a place for people that don’t have the backbone to deal with people that disagree with you. If it was, I’d have been chased away years ago. And one thing that you should NEVER do is beg for followers (which he did OFTEN to have the biggest follower count) then turn around and abandon your “brand”. Apparently he doesn’t have this internet thing as figured out as he thought he did.

Thursday Meme Fail

I was going to cop out of this post by doing a Thursday type meme but I looked and all of the ones I found were lame so instead I’m just copping out altogether.

Plus, there are really important things I need to deal with. Like this giant glass of Ovaltine and a Sookie Stackhouse book.

Wordless Wednesday. Except I use words.

Good News: I didn’t cry at all today.
Bad News: I ALMOST cried when I let The Hormones talk me into eating a bagel at a meeting today and I felt like CRAP afterwards. CRAP.

Good News: The sunset tonight was AMAZING.
Bad News: I saw it from the car. It was the fourth hour I’d spent driving my car today. My butt was numb.

Good News: I looked pretty cute today.
Bad News: Bloating, cramps and Spanx do not mix. TRUST. Also, 13 hours in high heel boots. UGH.

Good News: The feeling when I took off those boots.

Bad News: Tomorrow is not Friday.

And I am exhausted. GOODNIGHT!

Tune in tomorrow when I cry because the toilet paper is on the roll the wrong way.

You guys, I’M SORRY. I apologize in advance for how much this post sucks.

My day was just, you know, a day.

Wake up before the sun, dress in the dark, drive to work, still no sun yet, work, work, work, come home, run, come home, grocery store, come home, cook, eat, bath, and now here with Castle on in the background.

I’m kind of sad because I have to run AS SOON AS I get home or I will have to run in the dark. Tonight I ran back on the path that runs along the levy in our little town. They have a paved path but I like to run the dirt trail closer to the creek with one of the dogs and it started to get that gray dusk color and all of the sudden I was like… Ummm, this is kind of sketchy and I really want don’t have to have to use this pepper spray I carry so I’m going to ahead and get back on the main path.

And my legs are killing me because Kumo, who is SUCH A GOOD DOG in like EVERY OTHER WAY, pulls a lot on these runs and instead of focusing on my pace and form, I’m fighting him from pulling me and it causes my shins to THROB even when I have the wraps on. I swear the dude is the sit/stay king. He’ll sit while we walk 50 yards away then come when we tell him to. I will drop ANYTHING, including food, with a Leave It. He will sit in front of his food and drool PROFUSELY till you tell him Take It so he can eat. He is SO WELL BEHAVED. But put a leash on him and suddenly he turns into a neurotic freak that has to SMELL ALL THE SMELLS RIGHT NOW ALL OF THEM COME ON HURRY THERE ARE MORE SMELLS!

We made an appointment this Saturday for the local Cesar Milan to come do some one-on-one training with us. I’m so happy because I LOVE having one of them with me. People leave me alone, they get exercise, it’s a win/win. And Danica is like, the model dog. Walks perfectly beside me, then trots happily along when I’m running. I don’t even have to hold her leash, I just wrap it around my wrist and know that she’ll not pull at all.

So that was my day. My BIG EVENT was the dog dragging me around like a toy.

OH! No! There was one other thing. So for some reason after my run I was craving asparagus LIKE WHOAH. I don’t even. I blame it on aunt flow. Sometimes I crave chocolate, some times I crave brussel sprouts. I guess it could be worse.

So we are at the grocery store and I’m talking non-stop about how we need to NOT FORGET TO GET ASPARAGUS And Cassidy is like I GET IT! ASPARAGUS! SHUT UP.

So we get to where the asparagus usually is and… there’s carrots instead. I walk a big circle around the vegetable section like three times and I’m SO MAD at myself for not buying it when Ben saw it on Sunday and suggested I buy it but I said no, I wanted FRESH asparagus on the day I made it. And now there is NONE and Cassidy is suggesting other things.

LOOK! BRUSSEL SPROUTS! LET’S GET THESE, MOM! THEY ARE SO GOOD!

And I’m like, I’m about to cry. Because my legs hurt so bad and it’s already dark and late and THERE IS NO FUCKING ASPARAGUS IN THIS STORE and just as I’m about to just say FUCK ALL THIS, leave the basket where it is and drive to In & Out and gorge my sorrows on an animal style burger… I see it. They moved the damn asparagus to an island at the front of the section. Because it’s on sale.

And then instead of tears of frustration, I’m actually wiping away tears of joy and Cassidy is like DUDE! You’re totally losing your mind.

So I have like one or two days at the beginning of THAT TIME where I turn into a little bit of a fucking mess and guess what, you get a front row seat!

Tune in tomorrow when I cry because the toilet paper is on the roll the wrong way.