Grammar

Most of us don't have a great command of the English language and our grammar is far from impeccable. And yet whenever we notice a grammatical error it sticks out like a sore thumb. Just check out any comments on social media and a good chunk is spent correcting basic level grammar (there vs. their). 

This is just a long winded way to say I know my grammar is weak before I go on to point out grammatical mysteries. On my bus, I often see this sign by the window and always puzzle why "do not drill here" is in quotes. 

Do they know that no one would ever be drilling anyways but some governmental rule makes them have to post the sign (like coffee lids now state: contents may be hot after McDonald's was sued for hot coffee in the 90s). 

Or they know that no matter how many signs they post, someone will drill anyways and that it's all pointless?

Or is it code for something?  Like, this is where we stashed all the extra bolts that came with the bus but couldn't figure out where they went after we finished assembling it and don't want any questions. Plus we may need them later. 

It will always remain a mystery and I will continue to wonder every time I see the sign. 

Tuesday Update

I meant to snap a 'before' picture of my little guys this morning. Not only have they grown so much, today was The Day. The day a visit to the vet is no longer a nice lady poking and prodding and getting a quick shot. But a visit to the vet means one moment you're being poked and prodded and the next moment you wake up groggy and find that your manhood (or womanhood) has been taken away and things are sore. Yes today my little babies got fixed. I'm on my way to pick them up and hope Winston provides a nicer welcome then he did Saturday when they went in for blood work. It took a full day before he would stop hissing and batting at them. Apparently they had the smell of the vet on them. And he's had enough of the vet. Not a big fan. 

After dropping of the cats at the vet this morning, first thing I get asked at work is "who's helping you on your football picks?"  Week one I used my old method of picking teams based on where I've lived or where my family is from or currently lives. Week one I was tied for first place but then lost Mondays game. Week two I did the same thing and did horrible. So I realized I had to do something otherwise it would be a frustrating season and a loss of money. 

First I tried to get my brother to help me. No luck - he doesn't really follow football anymore. 

Next I tried to get Nick to wrangle the help of his old friend, Pat. He was my magic weapon in my 20s and first work football pool. Nick would talk to Pat at lunch at school and then that night on the phone we'd discuss the picks. I won a bunch of games. However, Nick and Pat have grown up and moved away. They don't see each other every day at lunch. They don't even speak every year. 

For week three I tried something new - data. I played this last week on pure numbers and ended up tied in first place the night before Mondays game. I'm keeping mum on what numbers until after the season is over. 

I have yet to pick Mondays game correctly but even so I'm tied for first for the overall season. We get to drop our worst week and considering I've had two great weeks I'm doing well. But it's early. 

What I love is that the two guys who were talking smack and got me to play again this season are going crazy trying to figure out how I'm doing so well. I spent ten minutes being pop quizzed on football stuff. I could generally name cities of teams and guessed correctly what team Peyton Manley plays for. Honestly it was a wild guess but I'm on a roll. I had no idea about the rest - names of players and stats. And it drives them nuts that I'm doing so well and know almost nothing about football. And it's so much fun.

They think I have someone helping me which wasn't that far off considering that was my original plan. So it's really nice to be able to swear that I'm not talking to anyone and no one is helping me. That I have my system. 

I'm dubious how well I'll do throughout the season so am milking it while I can. Which I blatantly told them. Fingers crossed I can keep up my good luck streak for awhile and maybe even win a week and recoup my money. Or rather "points" since you can't play for money for some reason. State law maybe?

It sure makes it fun coming into work on a Monday and Tuesday morning. I can't wait for next week to if my system is a fluke or there is something to it. I do need to cover my tracks since there was talk of hacking into my system to see where I was getting my picks from. I might have to do them at home now. It's a nice refreshing change as I'm deeply engulfed in climbing the corporate ladder which takes a lot physically and mentally. 

Mouse update

When I got home I was nervous what I'd find. I checked the living room, location of the last sighting. Nothing. 

I checked my bed to see if mommy got any special treats. Nothing. 

I checked the water bowl in the bathroom, in case they cleaned the guy before eating (that's raccoons, not cats, isn't it?). Nothing. 

So I walk into the kitchen a little less apprehensive. And there it is. A small pile of some unidentified thing regurgitated. It's nothing I've seen before. They clearly got into something new and my money is that the little mouse didn't survive. I only hope it was a quick death for the little guy. 

And now I have them all staring up at me not giving away who ate the mouse. My money is on Wallace since she was the clear hunter in the pack. But as I watch them eat I notice she's eating more than usual and Webster is eating less than usual. And Winston's eating like usual. Now I left a bunch of food in the cat balls so that could skew any deductive reasoning.  Webster could have eaten extra dry and isn't as hungry. I'll probably never know. 

Glad to see everyone (minus the mouse) is happy and healthy. I dedicate this post in memory of Ralph our mouse visitor.  He was a great guest.  He didn't eat food that wasn't his. He went to the bathroom in the "animal bathroom". And overall he was a quiet and unobtrusive.  An undemanding guest. And yet he overstayed his welcome.  And to be honest he was never a welcome guest to begin with.  Here's a quiet moment of silence to Ralph. 

Two pictures for this post. First one is the cat food ball so you know what I'm talking about... And to buffer the second picture you might not want to see. The supposed remains of Ralph the mouse.  

When it acts like a duck and quacks like a duck

It's probably a duck. Same goes for mice too. A couple of weeks ago I was doing a full cleaning of the kitty litter closet. Taking everything out and doing a full rub down. Behind one of the kitty litter boxes I found a strange substance. I thought it was related to some sort of bug thing that the cats might have. I bagged a sample and showed it to my next house guests who promptly said they were mice droppings.

Now I knew they looked like mice droppings but I immediately ruled that out since:

- I have 3 cats

- I live on the second floor

- I found them behind the kitty litter boxes of the 3 cats located on the second floor!

I hadn't seen the substance again so figured whatever created it was gone. Wishful thinking and turns out I was wrong. 

Fast forward to this morning and I'm slowly waking up. At first it's me  and all three cats in bed and then I notice its just me and the boys. And then I hear a small squeak. It takes me a moment and I realize it could be a mouse being chased. I have been through this a decade ago in Michigan. 

I jump out of bed and finally locate Wallace innocently sitting in the middle of the living room. I must have imagined it. I was dreaming of squirrels, birds, mice and little kittens being in the rain and coming inside only to face my cats. I must have transitioned the dream story into real life. 

As I get ready in the morning I hear some birds tweeting and realize that must have been what I heard. It's not until much later I'm eating breakfast just before leaving that I glimpse one of the kitties tails in the closed curtain of the north facing living room window. They like to hang out there and watch the birds at the bird feeder of the yellow house in the morning. 

Except, I slowly realize, the tail is much higher than it should be and I don't see any other part of the body. I get up to investigate only to find its a field mouse taking a pause as it climbs up my curtain. 

Now having gone through this before I immediately grab a container with a lid and put the three cats in the bathroom - the only room the door stays shut. I've tried catching a mouse with the "help" of the cats and it doesn't go well.  I'm back at the curtain and feel like I could just tap the mouse into the container.  As I attempt this, the little guy runs to the top and makes it more challenging.  A moment later, as I make attempt number two, he scurries back down the curtain and about a quarter of the way down he jumps to the floor and scurries under the couch.

I do the classic yelp.  I can't help myself.  I did it before in Michigan and I'll do it again.  I move the furniture and investigate but the mouse is gone.  I can't find it.  In the meantime the three cats are meowing wondering what excitement I'm up to without them.  I let them out and continue to get ready.  Only a moment later I hear a bunch of squealing and run into the living room to find Wallace reaching between two boxes and grabbing the tail of the mouse (I think).  The two boys are watching but not really participating.  I yell at Wallace, while standing on the couch, you don't know which direction the mouse will run, and end up pulling Wallace out the boxes, sans mouse thankfully.

Now you may wonder why I don't just let them have at it.  The problem is that the humanist doesn't like to see suffering and the little guy looks too much like the toy mouses I give the cats to play with.  And that's what they will do - just play until the mouse is full of broken bones, and dies of fright.  I've gone through that before and the last thing I want to be faced with is putting a poor injured mouse out of it's misery.  I'm a catch and release kind of gal.

So on to round two.  I pull the cats into the bathroom again - throw another handful of dry food at them and close the door.  I go back to the living room, container in hand and start moving boxes.

The little guy scurries off into the radiator under the front window.  I take the radiator cover off, and a moment later we're at a stale mate.  He's pulled himself up into the workings of the radiator and I can see his head as he breathes heavily with half closed eyes.  The poor guy has literally had a near death experience.

And I feel for the little guy.  I like him.  He's cute and small and furry and hasn't done any damage (that I can see) and the clincher - he goes to the bathroom in the bathroom spot (behind the cats kitty litter).  How can you not like a conscientious guest?

I grab some work gloves and proceed to try to get him out.  But he's too far back and not easily grabable.  And I don't want to end up with half a mouse in my hand.  After awhile I give up.  I'm already late for my morning meeting at work.  I tell him, he's safe there and he should just stay there if he knows whats good for him.  I put the radiator cover back, push the couch back and let the cats out.

Wallace immediately goes to the radiator.  Which is not where she last saw the mouse - she saw him at the boxes.  So she's a good little hunter.  But easily distracted - I set them up with dry cat food in the rolling balls to keep them occupied in the back room.  And I run out the door to catch the bus.

Who knows what I'll find when I get home. My biggest fears are that the mouse might go off and hide in some corner and start to smell or that the cats actually kill it and try to eat it and choke on a bone or something.  Or it's half dead and I have to do something to kill it. I'll probably come home and find nothing and have a repeat in the middle of the night tonight. 

Wrong decisions can turn into right decisions

I'm just returning from a conference in Atlanta. I was able to get to the airport early enough to catch an earlier flight and get home today just a little earlier. 

Since it was for work I wrestled with the decision of taking a cab or public transportation. The cab would normally take about a half hour with no traffic. But I was getting in right at rush hour and figured public transportation might be faster. 

I hopped on the silver line and an hour later I arrived at south station to switch to the red line. There was a broken down car in the tunnel that made the ten minute trip so long. 

I was frustrated I made the wrong decision since all I want to do is get home after the long trip. As I was boarding the red line subway I hear my name and it's my friend Dave. I haven't seen him in over a year and it was the perfect thing to pick up my tired spirits. 

Had a great time catching up and talking about life before we parted. We had traveled together to Spain/Portugal years ago and I realized that it gave us the comfortable familiarity of friendship even after not staying in touch for so long. It put smiles on our faces.

Of course as I write this I realized I should have got off at an earlier stop since I don't have my bike at the last stop and the bus schedules are different. 

But I just got off the subway and my bus was waiting for me. I should be home in 15 minutes and collapse after the long week. I'm so glad it's Friday so I can recharge the battery. 

End of Summer

My posts fell off while I was enjoying the summer. I was going to do a recap of all the fun stuff but find they were fleeting and need something like a blog to jog my memory - opps. Here's a random list:

1. Stocked the pantry. I made three batches of strawberry jam from hand picked Duttons strawberries. I picked three bags of domestic blueberries that I froze and I made 7 pints of sweet pickles (inspired by Cece's jar of pickles she gave me.)

2. Phase 1 of loft is done. It took one coat of primer and four coats of paint. Every other coat I would forget that as I'm painting myself to the stairs I need to turn off the lights and radio. My last coat I finished one night at 11 pm and needed to at least turn off the radio so I could go to sleep. I waited for the floor to dry a little but there is one spot the paint was thicker and I now have footprints. Long story to say that I may still need to do touch ups.  Now just need to work on the area where all the stuff was stored - phase 2. 

3.  Cat time with the new gang. I can't believe how fast my little kittens grew up. I love the personalities that are evolving. And Winston is "a new cat" as even my brother observed. They all are best buds and I'm looking forward to winter to see them all snuggle together. Now that the loft is open, they love exploring, especially walking on the cross beams in my living room. So I can lay on the couch and look up and see them staring down at me. Wallace has figured out how to contort her body to make it back down the ladder but not Webster. He patiently waits for me to retrieve him. I give it a few more months of growing and he should be long enough. 

4. Weird injuries. This isn't really a summer recap thing since it's all happened these last few weeks. Here's my list of bizarre ailments:

- Body rash that lasted about two weeks. Mainly on my torso and suddenly appeared. I thought it was a heat rash at first but it didn't go away the the red parts changed in size/intensity. No itching and almost gone now. 

- Repeated knee injury. I always have bruises from banging into things. But the number of sharp bangs on my left knee spiked last week. All good now, but it was royally bruised. Very strange it was just the left. 

- Severe New England head cold. I haven't had one this bad for at least five years. After I passed the soar throat stage I knew I was in for it - no turning back so I just nursed it and it went through me fairly quickly. I was out if commission for three days which isn't too bad. 

- Cut the very tippy top oft right index finger when making pickles on the mandolin. I should have known since the same thing happened to Cece when she was making her pickles. It hurt, but I've experienced worse. However, it was the first time I experienced my body going into shock - suddenly super sweaty, nauseous and feeling like I was going to faint. All good within minutes. It took a bit to adjust not having use of my finger while it healed (typing was the hardest). Doesn't look like I'll even have a scar... other then the memory of trying to clean my finger tip off the blade. It was suctioned on there good. 

- Severe burn on my lower back. Not a sunburn but a third degree burn from a hot lightbulb. I was moving stuff around in the loft and bumped into one of the recessed lights for a split second. It was long enough that when I jerked away I left some skin on the bulb. I was home that day so rotated ice packs all day to limit the damage. It's healing now. 

The list of injuries aren't unusual - it's just the time frame. Usually they are spread out more. I feel like something must be out of whack in the universe. Maybe my body just fought off something serious I don't know about and this balances things out. Who knows but hopefully this the end of the list, at least for a little while.