Pellets are the size of split peas. Windy as hell.
Category: Weather
Emotional pointillism
Yesterday’s practical job interview was a disaster, but a low key one. I’m not displeased with the haircut Katie gave me in the course of the interview, but I’d like to take the woman who supervised her and fire her at high velocity from the deck of the Iron Workers’ Memorial Bridge… in effigy, of course, I do not advocate violence except when in an excited and irrational frame of mind, which advocacy, when it occurs, I am obliged to immediately retract as being contrary to both my core self interest and my belief system, spindrift as it is. Katie was philosophical about it, which helps.
I googled Glenn Beck to find out what church he goes to, subsequent to learning that he blames atheism for the end of the American dream. Personally I blame their judicial system, which, skipping hand in hand with television over the last 60 years, has f|cked the Americans to the point where recovery into a society where self-governance and personal responsibility are considered virtues seems very unlikely. Anyway, Glenn Beck, a Mormon, blames atheism. It’s a lot like blaming Canada in its charming looniness … and it sure as f8ck is easier than looking in a mirror. Of course me blaming the judicial system without pointing to the interconnected power structures which have allowed Glenn Beck to make fabulous amounts of money by being emotional, uncommitted to the facts and verbally abusive to people who haven’t ever done anything to him personally, would be very remiss, but the courts could have done more in the last 60 years and they haven’t, so they are the notional cat I kick this morning.
Marc Emery was taken into custody on Monday. He’s a manic self-publicist with a libertarian messianic complex and a smoking hot wife. I still don’t think he should have been extradited. I hope he isn’t injured or murdered in custody; I hope he comes out of it sane, or at least as sane as he is now. I am very angry at the Canadian government, but as long as we have Harper, it’ll be like this. I knew Marc when I weighed 132 pounds and wore aviator frames so I guess I am biased.
After the interview disaster in the late afternoon (softened by the Seabus ride somewhat) I took the girls (Cassie, Kashka and Katie) for a drink at drink. Yes, the department of redundancy department has made adjustments, and there is a new drinking hole for adults who wish to have a conversation and properly constructed drinks. This new establishment does not use drink mixes. The music is not turned up full blast; the wait staff are attentive, professional and fun. I am booking Katie’s 21st bday party now! 609 Columbia for anybody who is interested.
Today is a day of packing and worrying. I f|cking hate travelling, but if you want to get someplace you have to travel, alas and oy vey iz mir. Jeff says, mimicking piteous kitten for comic effect, “But what will I eat?” He’ll be fine of course. He got the Margot grooming course; she bitched at him exactly the same way she bitches at me, so that will be fine too.
I closed all the windows permanently in preparation for winter. The air conditioner needs to get put away, except I’m damned if I can figure out where.
I’ve decided not to take my computer on my trip; but that’s only because the notion of backing it up before I leave makes me all exhausted. I’ll take pot luck on internet access; I don’t imagine it will be much of an issue, as everybody I’ll be visiting has some.
Currently, it is raining.
I made mini-cinnamon crunchies yesterday and gave some to Landpeer Kim with the rent cheques for the next three months. I had to do something after she gave me all those home grown tomatoes. Yum! Also, I invented the recipe while I was making it. The two people I thank most for my current ability to cook are Catherine and Paul. Catherine because of her very inspiring adventurousness, Paul because I got kinda competitive with him in the ‘not using a recipe’ department. Now I feel like I’m a good cook almost without thinking about it. I can’t remember the last time I cooked something inedible; the worst thing I cooked in the last year were those dreadful muffins; they induced heartburn of world class immensity.
My back is really bothering me, which is another reason why I do not want to fly. Or rent a car. Silly me.
I light a candle for those killed and homeless in consequence of the earthquakes and flooding in the Philippines and Indonesia.
People keep sending me links I’ve already posted to my blog, in one case two years earlier. It is to smirk.
I had a lovely conversation with Patricia the other day and look forward to catching up with her live upon my return.
I am a cool hunter. One hundred thousand years ago I would have been finding tasty things to eat for my kids and grandkids. It’s the same, but only different, as an ex-coworker of mine used to remark.
MilkDrop is a superlative visualization plug in. Highly recommended; trippy as all get out. I occasionally have to look at the ground when the presets go into migraine-inducing territory but that’s my only complaint.
I am emotionally sensitive to certain wavelengths of light. The more I consider this, the more I think, what?
I can hardly wait for the first snowfall so I can take video of Miss Margot.
She is very rotund. We will have to start meal feeding the cats, which is harsh.
I have decided never to take her to my parents’. Given her unaccountable urge to tangle herself up in people’s legs as they are going up the stairs, the prospect that she would either trip and kill one of my folks or get crushed by accident is too much to bear.
Snakes, dogs, Wagner, hail
Wagner was very smart and very musically influential. Even if he believed some nutty things.
Yesterday I walked with Paul in Robert Burnaby Park, a nice long walked that stretched my legs. We saw a woman who runs a doggie daycare (Canine Corner in North Burnaby) and she had 7 dogs off leash with her (and only the terrier barked, of course, but not at me. For some reason my ability to interact appropriately with dogs has magically improved over the last year). We talked to her for a good long while – she also has an elderly orange cat who was a Katrina rescue. In exchange I told her about Molly. Anyway, if her ability to cope with 7 offleash dogs is any recommendation, I recommend her facility. She was amazing, and those were very happy dogs.
Then we went into New West and went to the Deli on 6th Ave. next to Galloways which we also shopped at and got food for ourselves and Katie. Then I found out my bank card was compromised AGAIN and was declined, call bank.
I had cash to pay for the transaction, but I didn’t have any ID, which was naughty of me because as is customary these days, I drove. I went to the TD Canada Trust on 6th St. expecting to be told to go home and get picture ID, but wanting to know what happened to the card. Ross said, Tell me about your accounts, which I did, down to the penny in some cases, and then answered a couple more questions, and then bingo – he was getting an override from his supervisor and I had a new card. Total turnaround 5 minutes. I was astonished and pleased, and even happier than normal that I bank with TD Canada Trust.
Then Paul and I went to see Katie. Kashka was the only other roommate home, which meant SNAKES. Yes, they have a rosy boa (a boy, Speck, finger thin and 18 inches long) and a ball python (a girl, Opal, pushing 5 feet and forearm thick and very large for her age not to mention bloody strong) as well as a mini dobie named Piper, who jumped into my arms as soon as I saw her and a ten week old black kitten named Pan(dora). And dead rats in the freezer. Opal was traumatized by a live rat once and now she only eats drowned thawed ones. Anyway, we got them out and handled them, and we took some amusing pictures which I am hoping to coax out of Paul if chance affords so I can repost them (including one of Speck hanging out in my hat). Speck likes noses, Opal likes to drape herself around necks. Both have recently shed their skins and have a healthy glossiness that anybody who loves animals would rejoice to see.
Then I went home and tried to write down “Back in the City” and got about two thirds of the way through, I will finish today. It’s done now.
Then, True Blood from last night.
I just leaped up in consequence of hearing hail and got Granny’s chairs off the back deck. It was 5:52 in the morning when it stopped, and as is normal around here, it was heavy rain mixed with graupel. There was a bit of lightning too. Noisy! It was pinging and spoinging all over the show.
Salt, sand and sunjuice (the day at Wreck)
Mike picked me up around 2:30 – wearing his kilt. Ten minutes later we were at Suzanne’s; she was waiting downstairs after I called her to come on down, and you should have seen her mile wide grin as she saw Mike’s ride pull up. They introduced themselves. We had a gorgeous, rather warm ride in Mike’s Mustang convertible. We spent about ten minutes gossiping about family members – neither of us being too pleased with the respective number two childer in our families, nuff said, and then dispensed with further whining for the rest of the day. Continue reading Salt, sand and sunjuice (the day at Wreck)
And the real world keeps getting more like a video game
Bruce Sterling pointed to this article.
Yesterday the pinball games came home from Victoria. They are Xenon and Star Trek. Xenon needs a lot of work a diode, Star Trek needs a diode is functional. We’re going to get a brass plaque that says, R John Caspell Memorial Pinball Palace, seeing as how the pinballs will be in his old room. More furniture came into the house, including my room, so I now am overstuffed with solid wood furniture, just the way I like it.
Chipper, you will remember that Xenon was a game you and Steve B useta play on downstairs from your place on King St. Colin and Catherine, you will remember the Star Trek game as the game that went to Rhino – the same con where Jeff was Robert Bloch’s gofer. Ah, the good old days.
Margot keeps trying to be trodden on.
I am contemplating the pile of work I’ve undertaken this year with some sadness. It is, after all, work. But at least I don’t have to commute.
Watched the 25th Hour. Really, really great film; Spike Lee did an awesome job, and the cast is brilliant. Lee is SUCH an actor’s director. If you’re in a Spike Lee movie, you may not like him, but he WILL get a good performance outta you or die trying. I am considering reviewing it. My review is up on imdb.com
Hotter than the hubs of Hades.
Yesterday I brought 20 beers home on a bicycle. Mike, you will be amused to learn that I bought 12 Bud Light Lime, having become addicted to them at your place. (Mike, knowing that I’m a beer weenie, didn’t expect me to like them. But Jeff and I both do, as it is lime flavoured beer water, and a damned fine thing on a hot day.) I only had one bungee cord, so getting it all home was a challenge, but the house is downhill from the beer store, at least.
Song for today is All the Con Men I have Known. A brilliant tune; it’s the one that gets me the most “That sounds like Joni Mitchell” comments (which frankly I find irritating while understandable) and I personally think the lyrics are among my best. It’s just not an easy tune, and OF COURSE every goddamned verse has a different tune, because that’s just the way I crawl moaning across the floor.
The official story vs what I saw
From my perspective, it looked a little different. It lasted three hours; at its height, lightning strikes were happening 4 – 6 times a minute; I had an unimpeded view of all the clouds across a 180 degree arc; the closest to where I was standing on Mike’s 14th floor balcony was a thousand meters, possibly less (an air strike and that was the point I squeaked the Lord’s name in vain and booked it back into the living room); Mike recorded the second hour or so before his camera battery packed it in.
I grew up in Ontario so I am pretty blas̩ about thunderstorms. This one was completely different, spectactularly beautiful Рlike, MYTHIC Рand very very quiet. There were only two or three loud cracks. Often times spectacular strikes, less than a couple of miles away, would be accompanied by no sound.
We saw a lightning strike hit the cement plant. There were a number of ground strikes in Surrey, and the lightning strikes over downtown were pretty much continuous around 10 pm – right when the fireworks were supposed to start.
As Mike remarked, who needs the fireworks downtown when we can drink beer on the balcony and avoid the rush? And happy birthday to you, Mike, and a spectacular start to your new year!
Anyway I’m sitting on my own back deck right now in the beautiful fresh breeze and having coffee and full fat yogurt with Tom’s delish blackberry jelly mixed in for breakfast. The cats seem to have withstood being alone for the worst of it with no probs.
Wreck yesterday
<snippets>
In the morning I loafed and lazed, squeezed in a grocery shop, and then reverted to dawdling and doodling; around 1 Mike came and fetched me in the convertible, and then we went down to New West to get Katie and Kashka. (One half of the reality show girls). Kashka is covered with ink from her ears to her ankles, including Betty Boop as a skeleton, which is freaky, because Betty Boop’s skull looks exactly how I would imagine Margot’s skull to look.
It was very pleasant on the beach. There was a kicking breeze all day, and it was not from the usual angle, and pushed the incoming tide up the beach.
At first Mike tried to fly his approx 4 square meter kite but the breeze was so stiff he was getting dragged 10 and 15 meters down the beach, which I watched with the kind of chill consternation which is all you can muster when you’re feeling so mellow. Then he tried smaller kites, which was much more successful, and provided us all with much in the way of aesthetics.
Liz, Kashka’s ex, joined us. I’d met her when we were still living at the Augur Inn and really liked her; I still do.
As the tide came in (Mike always checks the tide tables and parked us WELL up the beach) the breeze shifted until it was straight onshore. Surf’s up kids! The girls were bobbing up and down in the waves several times – they’d come back out to warm up and then go back in. I asked Katie if it was awkward to go the the beach with mom and she just laughed and said after ten years she was used to it. And it’s been ten years since we started going as a family.
Odd, isn’t it? I got in to waist height and let a couple of waves slam into me, because I wanted to say I had gone in and had some idea of the physical exhilaration of it all, but I’m 50, and the idea of trashing the bottoms of my feet and then having to climb all 407 stairs (counts vary!) had very little appeal, and at the end, the girls complained that their boobs had been thrown around so much they were all sore. Mmmm… My kind of fun doesn’t have that kind of toll, but that’s just me being lazy again. Also, Mike and Liz and Kashka and Katie all complained about how much salt water they swallowed. Ick.
A man with t shirts and beaters went by; one showed a parody of a Starbucks logo with beers and WRECK BEACH instead of STARBUCKS, and the mermaid wearing sunglasses. Kashka leaped up and said, “I want one!” so I obliged her. I laughed, “All your mother’s many kindnesses to Katie are coming back for YOUR benefit, how annoyed Suzanne will be!” But no probs, I’ll be seeing Suzanne later this week to catch up on the buzz. Katie is living rent free at Kat and Kashka’s, so I am being politic.
I ate the best hotdog ever on the beach. Those three jalapeños I added made for just the right amount of heat.
I wrote a song on Mike’s parlour Larrivée – no lyrics yet. Which reminds me I should pick up my guitar and make sure the tune is still there. I believe so.
The GVRD but not the cops were on the beach.
All in all, it was a lovely, lovely day, and I got home around 7:45, very crisp around the edges. Tonight, off to see Patricia for the long promised Cavalcade of Cheese.
One thing and another
Yesterday… I mean apart from getting ZERO done on my life list, I had something resembling a perfect day. I got to see my kids and Paul as we chatted about the job hunt for the kids (got some things straight). I got fed a yummy tortilla lunch which Paul and Keith and Katie assembled; later I did a kindness for someone which triggered him buying me sufficiency of beer for the nonce. Happiness is a fridge full of Corona.
I got to visit with Tre. Logos, but that’s one cute babby. Battery and Tanya and Jeff and I laughed and chatted and had a very pleasant time while I got the grisly details of the birth, none of which are for public consumption. The result, a calm but busy 6 week old who developmentally is a month ahead (REALLY strong), is what counts.
Margot couldn’t stand the lack of focus on her, and came into the livingroom to (very ladylike) hork up some grass, because the babby was being changed at the same time…
The weather, after a little overcast, was perfect all day.
Then, hung out for a while not doing much of anything and Mike came by and took me and Keith and Jeff to the Richmond Night Market, where I bought nothing but REALLY GOOD kettle corn, and where I watched my beautiful son metamorphose into a steely eyed killer (there was a mini-midway, and he shot enough pins to get me a little purple bear (not exactly worth the five bucks he paid to play…. but I digress as usual and besides, Miss Margot is eviscerating it as I type, so its purpose has been revealed)) and after we drove away Mike took us to his cefu’s traditional chinese martial arts club (Mike corrected me, Jack is NOT his cefu, Galen is. Men can be so STERN when you get things wrong) in an industrial park in Richmond (and boy, has he done a pile of work on that place to help Jack get ready) and then I got to watch the north shore skyline etched against a sunset sky while the wind whipped through my hair. Ah, convertibles. And I cried a little bit, because I am so happy, and so grateful to be living here, surrounded by such loving friends and family. Side note, John Caspell trained with Jack. Everything is deeply intertwingled.
When we got home, TrueBlood. Not enough Eric; no Pam, not enough Jessica. But considering what the first four episodes of the season were like, I am willing to cut some slack.
Can you tell I had a perfect day?
And today, instead of working, I’m going with daughter Katie and Mike to the beach. My happiness is like a golden thread.
I would like to give special, extra, crunchy golden props to Jeff, who has been leaving the real for real audio of the Apollo 11 mission running for the last couple of days during waking hours. It’s been an ongoing reminder of why I’m an atheist.
Until we saw the Earth rise over the moon, I don’t think the fundamental unity of human life, and its fragility, had ever been so starkly drawn. And it wasn’t the Pope or Mohammad, peace be upon him, what got us there.
To quote Margot
288888888277777777777888888888!!! Those ****ing *******s in the Facilities at SFU should be keelhauled, hung and *****d on, and have red hot lock wire shoved in their eyes.
It is SNOWING again and the hills here are so greasy the walk to work was like a marathon. Die in a fire!
Okay, I don’t mean it, but I am sure glad I decided to wear boots with a good tread today, because it was NOT snowing when I left the house.
The laundry list
Woke up at 2.
Eddie crying in my room again, but this time he let me pet him for about half an hour.
Could not for the life of me go back to sleep.
Did not want to go to work. So…. tired….
Another commute to work in the drear rain, which magically transmuted to snow on the hill, and they are doing construction and thus diverted us onto a pathway that appeared to be clay mixed with greasy snow. Almost fell four times on the way to work, again, the worst slip causing me to pull muscles. Being diverted into a muck heap almost wrecked my shoes. Complained to the site supervisor that where we were being forced to walk was a safety hazard, you bastard, have a nice day.
Got to work and everybody is asking me why I’m limping. I wish I knew. The last time I limped this much my back crapped out shortly afterward. The pain in the top of my foot is worse when I walk and better when I climb or descend stairs, which makes NO SENSE to me. Why would flexing the foot hurt less? The pain is markedly less when I do not wear footgear, which means I should hie me off and spend more money I don’t have on orthotics. I used to get depressed when I was presented with yet another physical challenge, now I just set my jaw.
In the afternoon, Jeff got me at work and dropped me off at David Lam campus where – I had learned that morning – I was NOT going to get a contact lens fitting from my son but from a total stranger. I stopped off in the campus bookstore and got Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, and a really cool flashcard book about human anatomy, then went to my appointment and then learned that all the grudgy hopeless feelings melted – all Keith had had to do was say I was his mother, and they swapped things around so that I could get the fitting from him. Got fitted – it was damned thorough – and walked away with saline and two new contact lenses, which fit great and which I wore for about three hours. My eyes are a bit gummy today, but not significantly more than they are in the mornings anyway. As we were commuting back home together I read bits of Homage aloud to Keith and the two of us were killing ourselves laughing, because grim as the subject is (Spanish Civil War), parts of it are screamingly funny.
Then Jeff went to a job interview which went well and he can news about it if he wants to, and then on the way home my cell rang and it was ScaryClown, saying OMG new kitty I’m coming over (reMARkable what getting a new animal does for your social life) as ScaryClown is crazy mad insane for cats and then we watched the 1929 ship around the Horn documentary, with ScaryClown occasionally emitting phrases of stunned appreciation, amusement and awe (JUST as I expected).
Then I cooked pierogies and fed them and then we watched some Robot Chicken including one I hadn’t previously seen, and then I went to bed because I keep having insomnia. Thankfully, not last night. Miss Margot slept with me voluntarily last night (she got up to explore in the night and then came back to bed) and I slept until just before six. So I actually feel like a human being this morning, and my son is showing signs of turning into a professional, and a friend stopped by, and tonight I gotta fetch la Margot to the kitty hospital and get her booster shots.
I hope to go swimming with the folks from Planet Bachelor tonight. I may feel subpar with all these aches and pains, but I still have to exercise and walking is turning out to be problematic. I mean, bus drivers are stopping between stops to pick me up, how often does THAT happen?
Oh, and I fixed my hat so it sits on my head better.
Oh, and Katie called me voluntarily and without asking for money. And she asked me for my opinion about her hair, which is like asking Miss Margot for an interpretive dance on the Berlin Air-lift. I said, “You’re twenty years old and stunningly gorgeous, do your hair however the hell you like!” Now that’s what I call solid parental advice.
Stabby, stabby, stabby McStabberson
Which is what you say when rain wakes you up, and you lie listening to it and think “I’ve got a hat.” You go back to sleep, wake up at 5:30 – and THERE IS AN INCH OF SNOW ON THE GROUND. I knew this would happen. I mean, I knew it would snow the week of Valentine’s day. The increased amount of light through my bedroom window should have tipped me off. Now to check the sfu.ca weather site. They say there’s nothing to worry about, everything is fine. I bet they lie like a cheap rug. I checked the weather, and they aren’t even reporting the weather we are getting RIGHT NOW accurately. I mean, unless you consider rain/snow mix to be accurate. To be fair, it has both rained and snowed. Jeff’s response when I said, “Have you seen outside?” just to watch him leap up from his computer to peer through the blind was brief and Anglo-Saxon.
The economy is tanking so hard, and it’s so much on my mind, that I woke up this morning thinking about it. I thought, by the time this is all over we will have blamed everyone but ourselves. Oh, better think of something cheerful.
How to make yourself more resistant to evil.
Yours truly, Robof9
You know how I’m always going on about how they are trying to kill me with how slippery the walkways are? Here’s Robof9’s take on it.
To whom it may concern,
My colleagues and I have been astounded by the lack of care and attention applied to the walkways on campus this winter season.
(Allegra edit – you miserable bastards, are you trying to kill us???)
Each morning, I and many of my fellow employees make the trek from the Cornerstone bus loop down to Discovery Park where we work. We can be sure that on any morning when the temperature approaches zero degrees, we will be treated to a Russian roulette of walkways, staircases, and roadways that have been variously covered in snow, slush, or black ice.
(Allegra edit – But why slag the Russians when lazy Canadians will do???)
In particular, the worst two locations have been the pathway that connects South Campus Road to the parking lot immediately uphill from the Discovery Park buildings (and coincidentally, right across the street (downhill) from the Facilities Management building!). This gladed run is steep, and due to either soil erosion or poor design has tilted off-camber in such a way as to guarantee a painful slide into the railing just as you’re trying to turn the corner at the bottom.
(Allegra edit, as I have personally witnessed, and it’s no damned fun watching or sliding).
The staircases that connect the Discovery Park parking lot to the buildings below are also continually in a deplorable state, particularly the western stairway. They only seem to get attention a week after the weather has rendered them more suitable for an alpine Olympic event than for safe walking passage.
(Allegra edit, I would have said something a little more heated than deplorable – I was thinking “A F*****G MENACE”!)
In the last week alone, I have ground the knee off of a brand new pair of Levis (drawing blood in the process), and wasted a medium-sized cup of Costa Rican Rocket Fuel from Renaissance Coffee. I’ve also witnessed half a dozen good solid falls by international students heading to the FIS/MTF building.
(Allegra edit – and I saw three myself this morning by the little waterfall.)
It’s only a matter of time before someone seriously injures themselves on these walkways. Please take action now to see that they are properly cleared on a more regular basis, before someone gets hurt!
Thanks very much,
Robof9
(Who didn’t sign it that way….)
Snowpocalypse? Snowmageddon? S’no-joke? Snowtastrophe?
Yeah, well I got stuck at Mike’s (big surprise) with a foot of newfallen snow (okay, maybe six inches). I have no clean clothes, the buses are only marginally running, and the streets are full of morons. Seeing as how the invite was to watch True Blood and drink beer, I guess that this will continue, although I’m not up for beer at this time of the morning.
Mike doesn’t think there’s going to be a big depression multi years long. His line of thinking is that the Chinese are holding so much American paper that they will do everything they can to slow things down. Imagine, the poor people of China get to carry me and my lifestyle a while longer….
The snow removal in the GVRD sucks. If we get weather like this during the Olympics, we will be the laughingstock of the world. Just another thing to look forward to – it’s only a year away now.
Tom messaged me and told me I have a ride to Conflikt. If you get this sentence phonetically instead of realizing that it’s about a Filk con, that would be a pretty funny message. We ALL have a ride to Conflict, know what I mean?
I love Mike’s apartment. He has a temperfoam topper on his Murphy bed (he slept in the living room like the gentleman he is) with adjustable air settings so I am slavering to get over to where he bought it from and get one for my bed… it’s SO comfy. I slept better last night than I have in ages, although that might have something to do with the 45 minutes of body work I got last night. This is the perfect bachelor pad -a room JUST for massage, a room just for eating, a room just for TV and a room just for sleeping, and tons of closet space. I’ll post pics when I get home, whenever the hell that is.
THERE IS SO MUCH SNOW.
Jeff called, he’s doing snow removal right now.
Exercise and randomness for the new year.
Paul and Keith were supposed to come over here and haul me off to Renfrew Pool, but it’s snowing really hard AGAIN so they bailed. Jeff and I are thinking of going instead. A swim and a soak would be lovely.
Pot roast for dinner….. Amazing how I can be digesting brekkie and thinking about dinner already.
The agnostic guide to surviving the Bible belt (which I append because mOm could probably use it….)
Oh, the me-me goodness. This is a list of words applying to memes. I particularly like membot.
We’ve come to the portion of the year HEAVILY BIASED toward self-improvement. Everybody, get better.
Why music? Great article from the economonomist.
Back to work
I only have three days of work and then another 4 days off. I will probably have forgotten how to turn my PC on this morning it’s been so long since I looked at one.
The cats (or cat) peed and pooed on my clothing and bedding in Jeff’s absence, but all is forgiven; Gizmo grabbed my hand with both paws the other day to convey it to his head in the international cat sign language of PET ME YOU THUMBED FOOL! (THUMBED being two syllables, natch). Also Eddie did the same thing he did the last time he was talking to Jeff on the phone, which is to nuzzle the phone and start purring.
It was so slushy yesterday, it was like being trapped in a tasteefreeze machine that had run out of food colouring, except, well, iccky brown.