Really good book

For our first anniversary, I gave Himself Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code. He read the first book in a couple of days, but saved The Da Vinci Code for our 8 or so hour plane trip to Poland. I think he restrained himself from reading the whole thing all at once, since he finished it in about two days. I started reading Angels and Demons, and have been roped into it. Now I really want to go to Rome and visit Vatican City (this seems strange to me, since I am a female and not Catholic in any stretch of the imagination). I highly recommend this book.

On to other things. Princess and Miss Thang are slowly starting to get along, but I know its going to take some time. Miss Thang has started realizing that I'm not always paying attention to her when I'm studying for a test, so she has taken up a new hobby. 'Helping' Mommy read. She ambles over to me in that slightly clumsy kittenish way, and plops her cat-butt down on whatever book I happen to be reading. She then looks up at me and mews. It's all very cute, but it defiantly hinders my studying. Usually she can be appeased if I remove her cat-butt off my book and set her in my lap. She is very much a cuddle cat. Little Princess isn't much of a lap cat (it may be because there is too much of her and not enough lap), but she does like to cuddle when Himself or I aren't doing anything. A new hobby that Princess has taken up is rolling in her litter box. This grosses me out completely, but she doesn't seem to care. Himself thinks she's trying to keep Miss Thang out, but that doesn't make it any less gross!

That's all for now, more later.

M

Sweet little -ow!- ball of fur

Well, the kitten has settled in nicely, much to our other cat's dismay. They still growl and hiss at each other (it sounds a lot like I'm living with a couple of snakes), but they've gotten more comfortable with each other. Princess even tried (in an act of desperation) to cuddle up with me on the bed by slinking as far around the bed as she could without catching Miss Thang's (or would that be Miss Fang's?) attention. When she got to me, she was very careful not to move all that fast (she's surprisingly agile for a cat of her, um...majesty) so that she could actually cuddle with me. Her bedtime spot has been taken by the little one (actually it was the whole day spot, unless she was on catnip), but Princess really wants it back.

One of the kitten's favorite past-times is chasing her tail. She has a really long tail, and sometimes when the tip of it twitches, she goes into Mighty Huntress mode. She especially enjoys chasing her tail when Himself and I are trying to sleep, and she had been curled up sweetly on the foot of the bed. She then moves her way up the bed (it doesn't matter that we're trying to sleep here!), and proceeds to chase her tail ON TOP OF US!!! Before I got to them, she had really sharp claws that would slice through four layers of blankets in search for warm flesh. Now she has a hard time getting enough of a grip to chase her tail on the bed (thank god!). Apparently I tried to get her to stop (how foolish of me) while I was still asleep, and now I have a mysterious scratch on my hand (the same one she hamburgered before Mom and I took her to the vet) that I must of received for my troubles. All I wanted was to sleep!

M

New addition

Himself and I decided it was time for our sweet, loving cat to have a playmate. She gets bored during the day, and as a result has gained quite a lot of weight since we adopted her a little over a year ago. She has been our princess since we got her (we don't have any children, so our cat is our first child), and she knows it too.

On the fateful night, Mom's friend called and asked us if we wanted a sweet, attention starved little kitten. I went over to her house and fell in love with the sweet little grey ball of fur. Himself took a little more convincing (we had an agreement that we would get another cat when I was employed), but when he saw the kitten (called Lilly. Isn't that sweet?), he softened a little and agreed. Kitten had to go to the vet (I really didn't want to expose my little princess to anything the kitten may have had, so we had to make sure the kitten was healthy), which was an adventure that I really don't want to repeat anytime soon. Kitten was healthy, all right. She screamed and howled, and I was beginning to wonder if she was channeling some kind of demon howler monkey. When I brought her home, Princess wasn't all that sure about the small ball of fur that smelled like the vet. After much growling (I know Little Princess didn't learn that kind of language at my house, that was all from her grandperson's furry demons) and hissing (I didn't know Princess even knew how to hiss), the kitten decided to assert herself a little and growl back. This amused Princess even less, but neither one has tried to beat up the other. As long as they stay in separate rooms, they can pretend the other doesn't exist. I came down with a cold, and pretty much just slept all day. Princess curled up on the back of the couch where I was watching a movie, and Kitten curled up on my stomach. This was the closest they have been to each other without literally throwing hissy-fits, and it was quite nice. Then Himself came home, and it was like the cats remembered they don't like each other, and they hissed at each other, and Princess took off to sulk in the bedroom. It's been exciting.

M

First Project

I got my grade for the first project that I've turned in for photo 102. He gave me a 3.8 on it, but asked if he could keep it for the photo of the week cabinet. We're going over the Zone System now. It's basically a way for photographers to feel smart, since there's a whole math thing involved, and I have absolutely no idea what's going on. There is a reason I'm an english major and a photo minor. Math and I do not get along. I've tried to make nice, but math continues to baffle me, and that's just not very nice.

I was able to print out my second project yesterday, and I was thinking that I have some time to regroup a little before tackling my third project, but not according to the schedule. I have to turn in project 2 on Friday, and project 3 on Monday. Or something like that. I might as well take and develop those pictures tomorrow or so, just to be on the safe side. And then there was the whole thing that the instructor was going on about. Something about finding our ISO's by taking pictures of a grey card (ooohhh, exciting) and finding the one that matches the card the closest. I have no idea what's going on.

M

Spawn 2

Mom figured out what her alter ego, Og looks like. She also told me what the minions look like. Himself wondered what I, Spawn looked like, so mom told me.

Apparently Spawn look like love-child of Batman, The Shadow, and Satan. Spawn special. Spawn got horns and long cloak-thing. Good for Spawn.

I've noticed that Spawn comes out to play after I've only had a couple of hours of sleep and someone is being really stupid and deserving an encounter with Spawn. Like the student who moved my prints from the drying rack and scratched one of them. Or the one who dripped water on one of my mostly dry prints, and I had to re-wash it and hope that it would even out before drying it...Again. No heads on pikes. This time. Spawn too tired.

M

Grumpfest

So, I get into the photo lab this afternoon expecting to press my fiber prints and take them home to show off to Himself. When I get there, someone has evidently moved the tray I had my prints on to the very bottom, where they sat, collecting all the drips of water from the prints above them. To make matters worse, when they moved them, they weren't very careful and as a result, one of my prints (fortunatly not the one I was planning on using for class) has a nice, long scratch on it. Spawn started to bubble up from deep inside of me where I keep her (it nice and dark here), and started grumping at everyone in the room. I'm not proud of what I said, but I really hope the person who moved my prints down gets a really bad grade on their assignment. That show them good.

Spawn leave now. Go check press machine. See if finally hot enough.

M (and Spawn)

Grumpy Day

Well, my cousin called me a couple of days ago saying that he wont be going on a trip to visit his sister (I was going to be giving his cat a complex the week he was supposed to be gone), because she's coming over here with her new baby! Everyone is really excited to see her, especially my cousin who now has a major reason to clean his apartment.

I've decided to start writing my short story again, but this time I'm going to dedicate a part of my day writing. I want to take a creative writing class again, and hopefully I'll have enough of the story done to turn it in for the class.

Not much has happened in the past couple of days. I have to decide which picture I took for my class I want to use for my assignment, and get it printed today. The instructor has decided that the first assignment will be done on fiber paper, and that takes a full day to dry. Some of the things you can do with fiber paper is pretty cool, but it takes so much more time, I'm not sure if it's all that worth it. Some tests have been done on photographs done on fiber and resin coated papers, and fiber lasts longer than resin coated. Resin paper already lasts over 100 years, how much longer do we need photographs to last?! If I'm not going to be around to enjoy them, and my children (that is, if Himself and I ever get around to having children) probably wont be around to enjoy them too, what's the point? Oh well, I guess future generations need to see how badly we've screwed Mother Earth, and photographs are going to be the only way to do that, what with VHS going to DVD, and tapes are going to CDs, and if you buy a computer, by the time you bring it home from the store, it's already obsolete. Sorry, I guess I'm a little bitter. It comes from not sleeping for more than 3 hours a night for the past week or so.

Coffee. Must get coffee before class, so I don't attenpt to kill my morning-person photo instructor.

M

Moving Day!

Well, as payment for all the firewood that Big Green Friend (also known as Shrek), I had to help his mom move from her house that she owned into a house that she's renting. My task was to pack up the kitchen while all the guys loaded the really big and heavy stuff into the HUGE truck they rented. By the time I went home for the night, we had already packed and moved one truckload, and everyone was on their way to move a second truckload. All in all, it was a pretty good day, there were only three females, and five males at one point, so the conversations got more than a little raunchy, although we kept everything slightly clean for Shrek's mom who is very christian. I'm so sore right now, and I didn't lift the really heavy stuff! All I did was pack up the kitchen and try to get a thirteen-year-old girl to focus on getting the glassware packed the right way (no, really, you can't just throw everything into a box and hope it survives the move). Let me tell you, thirteen-year-olds just about have the attention span of a hummingbird on crack (focus, padawan, focus! No! Don't put that antique glass dish into the same box with a bunch of metal bowls! It was like that pretty much all day).

well, another short one, I have to work on my photo assignment.

M

Oh my God!

So I went to my first photo class of the quarter, and even though I knew that it was going to be a lot harder than the first one, I really wasn't expecting this: We have a new assignment due every week! I guess it's not all that hard, but when I start working again, it'll just mean that I'll be living in the darkroom for awhile.

Big Green Friend gave Himself and I about half a ton of wood since his mom is moving and has no need for any of it. Himself told me that BGF nearly cried when he saw how much room I didn't have in my truck (I have cinder blocks in the back for weight), but they loaded it up as high as they could. My cousin helped us move all the wood from my truck to our appartment, and as soon as we got it all loaded up, the weather started warming up a little. Figures. It doesn't really matter anyway, most of the wood was too wet to burn anyway. Probably by the time it all dried out, it would be summer, and we would have no use for the fireplace.


well, short post again.
M

Back to the grindstone

Well, winter break was fun, but now it's time to start school again. I'm hoping that this quarter will be somewhat easy, another photo class and an art history class this time. It really bites when none of my classes start really early, but I still have to get onto campus no later than 7am just so I can find parking, so I seem to have a couple of hours on my hands, and no homework to do to pass the time. Maybe I'll take a nap. There are a couple of guys using the chairs as their own personal bed away from home, and it actually looks pretty comfy.

Well, my New Year started out not so much with a bang, but with a loud thud. Himself really wanted to go to a friend's house for a party, but I wasn't feeling well enough to go and actually enjoy myself, so I told Himself that he should go, just as long as he was home by midnight. Well, to make a long story short (actually the story really isn't that long, so it's more like to make a short story shorter), midnight came and went, and Himself wasn't home. He didn't get there until 1ish in the morning, when I was all set to go to bed. It was an improvement over the first New Year we had after we got married, he didn't come home until 4am or so. Not that he's a party kind of male, but he has a tendency to loose track of time (which I still find hard to do on New Year's Eve, since MIDNIGHT is the time when every one starts screaming and lighting off fireworks, which if there was drinking involved, sometimes get switched), and by the time he realizes how late it is, the damage is already done.

Still on the look-out for a new job. I have a really good chance at one, I just have to finish the application and turn it in today when I get out of class. I'm really hoping I get this job, and since it starts in the morning and goes until the early afternoon, I can still go to school and finish getting my photography certificate.

I have figured out what to get my youngest brother for Christmas (and possibly his birthday too) from now on. This year, since money was tight, Himself and I mostly made all of the gifts. Most Minor Minion got a large box (who am I kidding, the thing was HUGE!) with a coconut inside. Now that might sound really weird (might nothing, it does sound weird, but then again, that's my youngest brother in a nutshell), but he loves Monty Python and the Holy Grail, so the coconut is for him to prepare himself and use as his 'horse' like they do in the movie. I'm not sure if I should be worried that his favorite movie is Holy Grail, or rejoice that he's showing some sense of humor, no matter how twisted Monty Python can be.

I finally got to see Serenity, and it's a pretty good movie. There were a lot of actors that I tried to place, and now I kind of want to see the t.v show. Fortunately I have connections (not really, a friend of mine has the series on DVD, so all I have to do is ask her if we can watch it and she'll jump at the chance to see it over and over and over....). I really want to look some of those people up to find out what I've seen them in, some of them I already know. Joss Wedon seems to enjoy using his actors in other things too. The main character in Serenity also played a really creepy preacher in Buffy, so unfortunatly that's all I see him as, same with one of the female leads (she didn't play a really creepy preacher on Buffy, but she played a really cool bad guy on Angel. Okay so I'm a geek, but I'm fun!).

Okay, I have to go, I'm starting to make no sense, and spelling anything is becomeing a n issue.

M