reading list for 2006, I only read 129 books in 2006. In 2005 I read 191, and in 2004 I read 195. I read 62 books less in 2006 than the year before. What the hell have I been spending all my time doing?
Ah well – 129 books in a year isn’t a bad total. I’d like to bring it up for 2007, maybe closer to 200, but considering that it’s January 10th and I haven’t finished the only book I started this month, it’s not looking good!
No wonder my bookcase is stuffed so full of books. Well, less reading combined with the fact that I won’t stop buying the damn things, anyway.
Maybe once we move into the new house and life settles down, I’ll get back to reading the way I used to. Maybe not, though – there’ll be chickens to feed and gardens to hoe!
* * *
I was catching up on some of my blog/ journal reading over the weekend, and I stumbled across the fact that
Mac is doing a 365 self-portraits project, and I looked at her pictures, and I thought to myself “Self, wouldn’t it be kind of neat to do the same sort of thing to chronicle my 40th year?”
And my Self said “Wow, that sounds like a pain in the ass.”
And I said “Yes it does, and I know I can never take a picture nearly as good as
this one that Mac took for I have not the Mad Skillz, but it would still be neat to look back upon when I am one hundred years old.” (For the record,
this is my favorite Mac self-portrait.)
And my Self said “WhatEVERRRRR. God. You’re such a pain in the ass.”
And I said “Shut up.”
So I was using the self-timer to take a picture of myself when my parents called to wish me a happy birthday, and I kept taking pictures of myself, and I think I got a very “me” picture.
(I wasn’t rolling my eyes; I was talking and in the process of moving my gaze from the camera to something off to the side, and that’s when the camera snapped the picture OF COURSE.)
This should be an interesting project, no? I’m thinking I’ll get about 10 days in when y’all will say “GODDAMN woman, enough with the self-portraits!”
* * *
Thanks for all your birthday wishes yesterday. I had a very nice, very relaxing day wherein I did not much at all, just sat on my ass in front of the computer, ran a few errands, and then went out to dinner at Outback with Fred and the spud.
Rather than order a cake from the good bakery in Huntsville, we had the spud go to the grocery store and pick up some cupcakes and ice cream and called it good enough. Well, except that the cupcakes were completely tasteless. The ice cream wasn’t bad, though!
I’m thinking for my 40th, I should do something a little more exciting, like spend a week traveling around New Zealand. Hey. We should all do it! Who’s up for the Bitchypoo tour of New Zealand??
* * *
At someone’s request, I created a 2007 calendar (pay no attention to the fact that we’re practically halfway through the first month of 2007, ‘k?). I included pictures of all our cats (except Maxi, because I couldn’t find a picture I liked well enough to put in the calendar)(also, Maxi is not
our cat), a couple of Maddy pictures, and some foster kitten pics.
Anyway, you can get it
here, if you’re interested, and I’ll leave the link up in the sidebar until the end of the month. Or until I remember to take it down, whichever happens first.
* * *
Over the weekend, Fred and I were watching TV when the phone rang. He checked the caller ID and handed the phone to me. It was the shelter manager, calling to see how Moonman and Moondance were doing, and then to ask me if I could take a mother cat and her three kittens. They all had crusty eyes and upper respiratory infections, so she was keeping them in the bathroom to keep them away from the other cats.
I had the option of picking them up that day (Saturday) or waiting until Monday ’til they’d been tested at the vet’s. I covered the phone, told Fred what was going on, and told the manager I’d pick them up Monday afternoon.
We originally planned to move Moondance and Moonman to the other house, but we’re not out there every day, and I preferred to keep them here, where I could go up and hang out with them several times a day, rather than having to drive twenty minutes to get to them.
Sunday, Fred and I moved the bed out of the guest bedroom and moved Moondance and Moonman into the guest bedroom. They’re very sweet, well-behaved cats and I knew that the spud wouldn’t have any problems with them (her computer is in there; I imagine when we move to Smallville and she gets to have her computer in her own room, it’ll be like Christmas for her).
Monday, in a kind of convoluted way home (we stopped in Smallville to check out a leak in the ceiling of the computer room and (the real reason we stopped) leave a snack for Maxi and Newt, who hadn’t been around on Sunday, so hadn’t gotten a snack and THEY MIGHT STARVE) then drove to the shelter, then from the shelter home) we stopped by the shelter and picked up the mom and her kittens.
The kittens are about three months old and slated to be spayed and neutered on Friday. They all have upper respiratory infections (though they already sound better than they did the first night) and all but one have crusty eyes, requiring the application of an ointment to their eyes three days a week. In addition, I’m pretty sure one has – or had – a urinary tract infection, because she’d get in the litter box and squat there for several minutes, eventually producing only a tiny bit of pee (I started her on amoxicillin yesterday and she seems already like she might be getting better).
My hands are practically raw from all the hand-washing I’ve done since we got them (we’re hoping not to spread the upper respiratory infection to our cats).
The mom is very, very sweet. A little feisty, too, but mostly sweet, and very friendly. Like all the momma cats we’ve had, she’s taken to Fred and seems to regard him as her property. Oh, and the best thing – she has a little three-inch stump of a tail that she wags, just like Mister Boogers.
There are two female kittens and one male. The females are very skittish; the male is less so. He’s a bit of a Chatty Cathy and loves to walk around the room making little peeping noises for no apparent reason. I laid down on the floor for a few minutes this morning, and he curled up against me and went to sleep. He doesn’t like to be picked up, but he’ll tolerate it for a minute or two.
Because I named the last batch of kittens (the
Christmas kittens), Fred was given free reign to name this bunch. I actually kind of like the names he came up with.
Fantine, the mom.
Fantine again. She’s a tiny thing.
Javert.
Cosette (left) and Eponine.
Cosette (standing), Eponine (brown tabby), and Javert.
Yesterday afternoon I emailed Fred and said
That Javert, he’s a talker.
He emailed me back with
“Valjean! At last, we see each other plain. M’sieur LeMeow, you’ll wear
a doggie chaaaaaaaaaaaain!”
Make sure you keep him away from water.
Ha!
(Those names are from
Les Miserables, for those of you in the dark.)
All of today’s uploaded pictures are
here.
* * *
Previously
2006: “I had a double serving of beans last night/ and I’ve got some hard gas going on/ Pull my finger, baby.”
2005: Back from Maine!
2004: My parents’ Christmas decorations.
2003: And yet, show me a zit and I’m on it in two seconds flat.
2002: “IF YOU WERE THAT FUCKING INTERESTED IN HOW MUCH EVERYTHING COST, YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN PAYING ATTENTION WHEN SHE WAS RINGING IT ALL UP!”
2001: My body gave me two birthday presents yesterday – my period (a day early) AND a mild return case of conjunctivitis.
2000: In his narcotic cough syrup-induced haze, he nodded sympathetically and hacked a big green chunk of lung onto his plate.]]>