key and a lock

I went to a plant nursery near my apt today. Wandered around with Chanita, smelled roses. Then attended the free rose class. They taught us about common rose problems, what they look like (like cane blight or black spot or these little evil bugs that also bite me when I am outside my apartment). Then a guy taught us how to make rose cuttings and root them really easily. After he was done, he invited us to choose our own stems from the ones he gathered and helped us make our own cuttings in their little rooting thing (ziplock, dirt, water, a little rose hormone) to take home! Now I have rose cuttings that will hopefully root and I can plant them in a pot and later put them in the ground at my mom's house. Then I helped Chanita pick out two rose bushes to buy and plant. I will be back next week to buy one for my mom... only one though, good rose plants are expensive.

The rose guy explained that this rooting method will work very well with any soft wood plant. Hibiscus, rosemary, etc. It will also work with hard wood plants that are amenable to propagation via cuttings, but it takes longer.

I spent a good 2-3 hours outside at the nursery. A nice day, sunny and a little warm but with a cool breeze. I came home sweaty and peaceful. Very peaceful :) I think I need to take up gardening somehow. A little hard in an apartment but maybe I can do a little at my parent's until I get a house. The baseline anxiety I get a lot is just... gone.

irst: chris and I were involved in a car accident. It was not our fault, some guy pulled out of a side street and then right in front of us. Consequences:
I broke my wrist. Both bones, the radius is in several bits up at the top. I had surgery around the 7th and my doctor (very cool guy) put a titanium plate, 2 screws, and 6 pins. Since then, I had an almost-cast for 10 days consisting of bandage over the incision, cotton wrap, splint and ace bandage. The pain was better immediately after surgery. Then i got black brace of rather clever design. I can take it off to shower! I also take it off to do the gentle exercises my dr. showed me. So far, I am healing well and gaining mobility pretty rapidly. I hope I will not need physical therapy, dr. implied if I did my exercises like a good girl, I wouldn't. I see him again Sept. 10th. The wrist is why I haven't told this news yet. I am just now able to type at any length. One handed takes forever.

chris was fine. a bit of whiplash that muscle relaxers and yoga fixed

I had to take unpaid leave. this has cut into our living budget

my car is totaled. the 1k leftover and my rotten credit mean I cannot get another car yet. chris takes me to and from work (we moved closer) and we wait to see what happens with a few things before going to the "bad credit? no credit?" place.

My insurance has been cool. Guy-at-fault has not. They refuse to pay for anything until all my treatment is done. It could be months if I need therapy. We were going to go see a lawyer Friday but she had to cancel due to an emergency. This was convenient. More on why later.

Next item: new apartment. we like it, it is closer and in our budget.

Next item: Wedding: Chris and I are getting married on September 14th with a party the next day. There are a lot of reasons but the biggest one is that we are not going to have money for a nice wedding for years. I do not want to wait that long. Also, his dad uses us "living in sin" as an excuse to fuck us over. He is not religious his wife is. Let him find some even more transparent excuse. Finally, I just want to be married. It will be very very small. We are registered at target :)

Last item: My sister had her baby! August 31st! That is why the lawyer canceling was convenient. She had to have a cesarean. The little guy had his head funny and he was HUGE.
Name: Gabriel
Sex: male
Weight: 10lbs 1 ounce
Length: 21 inches

He is doing great, a healthy baby. Dawn is ok and recovering from the cesarean. I was at the hospital before it and after it. I visited her yesterday and I will see her again today. Gabe is a pretty baby. I got to hold him :)

sooo. Things, in general, are going well

I don't post much. There are reasons for that, really.
I got a job. I'll be working as an Assistant Attorney General. It doesn't pay as much as I want but I think I will like the work and it pays enough to be able to live ok and pay off loans. I would dearly looooove to pay off school loans. Teh loan people who call to tell me I need to pay do not believe me. "I have no money or I would pay you! I have no job!" and they say "So borrow the money" and I think "What the hell is the point of that?" But soon there will be no more OMG YOU NEED TO PAY US calls. It will be glorious.
Whilst I am happy about the job it involves moving to the capital. My parents are close enough to stay with for a while. My fiance has to stay here. At least until he can transfer. All in all I am actually quite terrified. When I was watching GTO a character said "you are just afraid of living." This is a succinct encapsulation of my emotions.

m-w.com is better than dictionary.com because the audible pronunciation feature is free.
my digestive system hates me. I'm working on a cease-fire.
super swing golf for the wii creates enjoyment and sore muscles.

On to the real meat of the post: cat food. As most of you know Joule has a delicate stomach. Delicate meaning she pukes a lot. Various upgrades in cat food have ameliorated this behavior. Good for me and good for her, she feels guilty every time. Much research into the subject of cat food revealed much information. This information led, in turn, to the Canine Commissary. It seems to be about the closest specialty pet food store in the area. Nice place, nice people. They had samples of Innova cat food for me to take. I bought canned versions. Innova is my newest target. They have a no-grain variety, high in protein, primary ingredients chicken and turkey. Not chicken meal. No by-products. Expensive at $37 for 15lbs. But, according to my All-Knowing sister they will eat less of it. This makes sense as cat's 'full' signal is triggered by protein and fat. Not by carbs. Thus why cats on cheap food, full of corn and rice, tend to overeat and get fat. Their bodies keep telling them they are not full.

So, yes. Samples of Innova. The cashier let me have three (I was going to pay for them until I found out the little bags were free) instead of the usual two because I need to test Joule over several days to measure the puke-reflex. Hopefully, the high protein will signal to her she is full better and she will not eat too much, one of the primary reasons she pukes. She has security issues stemming from kittenhood.

I also bought cans of moist innova. It smelled gross, probably a good sign, and the cats are loving the stuff. I added the codfish and butter oil to the top. That will help Sybil's dry skin. And maybe she will get some weight back on this stuff. She looks a little too svelte to me of late. Speaking of the devil, Sybil arrives on the bed looking well-pleased and grooming her face. I wonder if they finished the portions I gave. It might have been too much. Moist food is a new addition.

Sigh. The things I do for our cats.

One of the problems with email and related communication is conveying tone. Is that why there is so much internet drama? Peoples just misinterperting tone?

I went back to austin this weekend, my parents have moved there (again). The last time was moving away after graduation. It made me feel odd, I'm still not sure if I want to claim those three years as mine or not. Though I am never getting rid of the school debt :P

grumble. go to http://kii.vox.com/ if you care to see the post I made. too much trouble to reporduce it.

I like vox.com better. It is SO EASY to integrate photos into the posts. There is a button for it. And it will store a lot of photos right there, so you don't have to use somewhere else. You should all move :P I have some invites.
Anyway. Today we went to central market. I took photos of the fish tank they had in the cafe and the HUGE cichild in there, along with his gianormous friend.

sigh. Like I said. I like vox better. I could easily put all the photos in the same post :(

the apartment is clean and this pleases me. Swept, vacuumed, random stuff put away. It looks good. Even the dishes are done. All the dishes!

my tummy aches a little. probably due to the junk food I ate today. Chris went home to visit his family, we decided it would be better if he went by himself, long drive notwithstanding. it did not help that I had a migraine this morning. Awful creature clawing out the right side of my brain. After aspirin, ibuprofen, and some sleep it went away. I miss Chris.


ah. and joule escaped this morning. Chris tried to find her before waking me but she wouldn't come to him and he could not find her. He woke me, my migraine resurfaced, I found the little monster, she looked proud of herself.
Sigh. She seems so happy when she sneaks out.

I wish it would rain. I really want it to rain.
Chris'grandma died a few days ago. He might go to his parents tomorrow to see his family. If he does, I plan on going with him. Unless, of course, his mom wants family only.
My keyboard is acting funny. Not registering keys.

chris is asleep. I envy his easy adherence to accepted circadian rythms and his fascinating ability to drop off to sleep in under fifteen minutes. If I've stopped chatting at him. I was sleepy too until my intestines decided they were grumpy and began to squirm. That delt with I am sleepy again. Joule is asleep too. She's been camping out on the couch the last few nights, enjoying the freedom of a good subordinate-- chris is apparently an adaquate guard. I think I squiggle too much for her to get the quality sleep she needs. Or maybe she knows I am not going to sleep somehow. So, the couch, with legs in the air, wiggling, as she snoozes on her back and dreams. One of the couches. We probably have too many couches. Too many couch monsters! Sleep this afternoon was astoundingly deep, warm, fuzzy and pleasurable. I want more of that. Hrm. Still no job. Might have something part-time, but no lawyerly job. Chris, as predicted, remains prince/man-of-my-dreams. He stayed up late last night dealing with one of my cryingnesses. As I just wrote elsewhere, boys shirts are the BEST for snot absorbtion. I snuck out of bed as quietly as I could but he always seems to surface a little when I leave or go back. Never remembers though.
Er. all the words are looking funny and mispelled. Either they are mispelled and funny (or doing the tango) or I need to lay down. I chose laying down.

I am tired. Did not sleep enough yesterday. And yet I cannot sleep.
Grumble.
in other news the apartment looks good. We moved in chris' table and chairs (YAY TABLE!), dresser, end-table, etc. The cats are enjoying the novelty of the table and sybil loved how high she was when I put her on the dresser. Chris thinks she cannot jump up there alone, I told him she could. Silly person who never owned cats before. the dresser is good, we needed it. I moved the tv and semi-organized the area under it as well as setting up my leafy thingy. The word for which just fled my mind. Screen? It is flat against the wall and now looks sort of like a trellis, but nice. Our bedroom is still a mess, there is a desk to disassemble and store, and a stack of boxes that need to be broken down or tossed. And laundry that needs to be done, we were sort of avoiding it till the dresser was here.
Still no employment, lawyerly or otherwise. I need something very soon now as I am quite nearly out of money. It is depressing and probably a large part of why I am not asleep.
Chris wants me to draw things. He doesn't care what, he just wants the walls to have things on them. This is good as I have been wanting to draw but lacked any real purpose for it. Except making a picture for Mary's nursery and that cannot be attempted until I know what the decor is. Poor thing got hospitalized-bed-rest before she even had a chance to really set the nursery up. 50 some-odd days stuck in the hospital, I admire her ability to stay sane. She had the baby the day before yesterday, when they finally told her she could go have home bedrest! 3 hours of labor (which to my inexperienced mind seems short) and there was her healthy baby boy. They both went home today. I wanted to visit the hospital when I got the message she had the baby but opted not to. Family was undoubtebly flooding the place (first grandchild for two families with only-children) and I guessed Mary was exhausted. She called today and sounded kinda goofy, the hormone crash the nurses told her. Goofy but happy. I would be happy too. No more hospital, baby delivered safe and healthy. Sometime this week I will get to visit them and I shall also offer my services as eventual baby sitter. New parents, hell, all parents, need some time to themselves. Besides, part of me is going "OOOOOoOOOoOOOOOOooo babies are a GREAT idea." Perhaps this small voice shall be assuaged by babysitting since it is certainly not getting its way for some time. Kitties are as close as Chris and I are getting for a while. Funny kitties who are running around the living room >.<
Meh. I want to sleep.
Thus concludes the longest post I have made for months.

I just finished reading The Lies of Lock Lamora by Scott Lynch.
It amused me greatly. You should go by it because it was amusing and witty and well done. And I have it on good authority the author is nice guy. So there's a bonus for you.

Here is the link you need.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553804677/ref=sr_11_1/104-7650510-8947117?ie=UTF8



Now go. Shoo. Nice deal there. Take it.

we started moving today. SBC turned of the DSL today (they were supposed to do it tomorrow), chris called today. Yet they cannot turn it on at the new place until the 23rd. Right now we are piggy-backing off Adam (thanks!). Hopefully we should be able to finish tomorrow.

forums are like small black holes. stealth black holes.

chris has been gone for roughly 10 hours and I already miss him. It's easier when I am the one who has gone somewhere. Doesn't help that the usual suspects are at A-kon gaming. Meh~ He will be home again tomorrow.

"there is no straight up benadryl. There is benadryl allergy. Benadryl sinus. Benadryl you-are-driving-chris-crazy. They didn't even have any liquid benadryl."
I am sick. Stomach virus. I thought the vomiting was over day before yesterday, but I was wrong. Chris has been very sweet taking care of me.

so... i passed the bar exam. a nice birthday present for me!

We took Pixel in to be fixed today. Sybil is somewhat distressed, she keeps meowing and checking around for her. I'll probably have to open every closet door. Poor Pixel-meow-face will be back tomorrow morning, well drugged, and altered. She looked like she was having an anxiety attack when we left her :( It made me feel really guilty.

Go to Wikipedia. Type in your birth month and day, no year. Post 3 events, 3 births, and 3 deaths that occured on that day which interest you.

Events:
1791 - The May Constitution of Poland (first modern constitution in Europe) is proclaimed by the Polish Diet.
1933 - Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first woman to head the United States Mint.
1937 - Gone with the Wind, a novel by Margaret Mitchell, wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Births:
1469 - Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian historian and political author (d. 1527)
1933 - James Brown, American singer
1933 - Steven Weinberg, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

Deaths:
1994 - Ezra Taft Benson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1899) (also United States Secretary of Agriculture for two presidental terms)
1598 - Anna Guarini, Italian singer (b. 1563)
1758 - Pope Benedict XIV (b. 1675)