Chris: What are those women wearing?! Oh… Babies….
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Archive for October, 2009
I was having an off day. I suppose it was a “case of the Mondays” on a Tuesday since it is the first day of my work week. Nothing seemed to be going my way, but nothing was that bad. Just inconveniences.
I decided to try a new recipe to make up for it, so on the way home from work, Chris and I stopped by the grocery store to pick up a French baguette, artichoke hearts, and low fast cream cheese. I made a spinach artichoke dip with toasted slices of the French baguette. Yummmz.
Now the rain, which had me bummed earlier today, is actually quite soothing.
Hiked McAfee Knob today!
This weekend was supposed to be the peak of fall foliage for Lynchburg, so what better way to celebrate than to hike to one of the most photographed spot on the AT? McAfee Knob it was.
We hadn’t hiked the knob since last November. Late November. In the middle of a mild snow storm. It was a fun hike that day with an amazing view, but I knew it could be better. I knew in a different season, it would be more amazing. And today, it was.
We took a different route to get there this time, coming in from the back of 311, I suppose, and picked up a hitchhiker on the way (but don’t tell my mom). He had been on the trail for five weeks and came down from Maryland. He needed a ride to the parking lot to hike Dragon’s Tooth on his way south since he had gone into town for supplies. Since it is such a popular section of the trail, the parking lot was quite crowded, but we surprisingly did not run into that many people on the trail and were able to enjoy the summit alone for quite a while.
Here are some summative shots:
Closer to dangling my legs off, but just not quite there.
Christopher! The trees were awesomeee.
And a couple of HDR shots.
A local day hiker and a nice couple from New Jersey.
Pruning my spriggsss.
You know, it’s funny. I planted three salvia plants about four weeks ago. Salvia is supposed to like direct sunlight, though some can handle partial shade well. I went against suggestions and planted one in direct sun and the other two in partial shade, worrying all the while. Well, the one in direct sun is doing kind of all right whereas the two in partial shade are doing great in full bloom! Whaaat? I cut off the dying sprigs today, so that should help some.
Yesterday, we met Christopher’s family in Charlottesville for lunch. Right in the middle of a crazy rain storm. And as soon I stepped out of the car, I went right into a huge puddle. My shoe was completely soaked along with my pant legs. Grosss. To make things worse, someone hit his parents’ van in the parking lot while we were sitting down for coffee and didn’t leave a note. The bumper is so messed up that it didn’t look like they could open the trunk. Man, Charlottesville, we’re going to have a serious discussion soon if this keeps up. It was nice to see them, though.
I love our neighborhood and our walks and our trees with their orange leaves.
I would have a lot of difficulty moving away from this side of Lynchburg.
Neko and Abed-nego are laying on their sides, taking turns walloping one another in the face. They will do this for a little while and then take a nap together.
This is me at the end of the term for Educ 721.
This is me at midterm for Educ 623 and 701.
This is me at the beginning of the term for Educ 740.
Sub terms are confusing!
Abed-nego is at the vet right now getting his teeth cleaned. They were something awful. I can’t help but feel bad for the little guy because he was so excited to get in the car to go for a ride–and not so excited to be at the vet. I feel like I tricked him.
I am layin on yo billz.
Sipping on coffee with pumpkin spice creamer. Perfect for this weather: cold, dark, and damp with leaves blowing around.
We caved and turned on our heat, which has been quite the experience. I continually think that Chris is boiling water for tea or something because the radiators are such chatter boxes. But they are boiling water, right? So it makes sense? We had radiators in my dorm at Longwood (North Cunningham), yet I don’t remember them being so loud.
Speaking of the Cunninghams, Longwood has turned them into a student center! After 80 years, they are no longer dorms, which I find kind of sad, but glad that they weren’t simply torn down.
Today I spent most of my time cuddling under blankets with my puppy and kitty. Bunny wasn’t too sure about joining our party. Then Chris and I went by the record store to ask our record man about the J. Tillman album and continue the eternal search for Blonde on Blonde. No such luck. We had pizza at Waterstone and bought groceries. Exciting much? Yes, to me it is.
Last night.
Me: Our adventures are like the dates of middle schoolers.
Chris: Why?
Me: We get slurpees and loiter in parking lots.
I think that I am feeling a little closer to better now. Our vet is very happy to work with us and I am relieved that she is in favor of looking into new treatments. In a month, we are going to have the IFA test done, which will give her time to possibly fight the virus with her own immune system. With the IFA test, they will look at her blood cells and there is a 1 to 2% chance that she could just be a carrier of FeLV and actually be immune to the virus itself.
Then, if she does still have it, we are going to administer LTCI. The vet suggested that we conduct six month wellness check ups with lots of tests to monitor her and wait on the LTCI until she shows signs of declining. I don’t know if we should wait all the way or not, but we have a month to think about it anyway.
I love the kitty. I love how she takes breaks while eating to rub against me to say “thank you.” And I love how she runs all around the house playing at night, but jumps in bed to cuddle many times. I love waking up to her sharing my pillow. I love how she totally takes down cave crickets in a matter of seconds and eats their legs. Ha! I love how she bops Abed-nego on the nose to get him to chase her whenever he hangs his snout over the couch. I love how she follows me all around the house and of course Abed-nego follows her, so I continually have a parade at my heels. I love how she purrs and begs for cuddles during the day. She is the best cat, more than I ever could have asked for. Even if it gets expensive, she deserves a chance.
Sorry to be so cat-minded lately. It was a lot to take in on Monday: from happy new kitty feelings to sudden “are-we-losing-kitty?” questions.
In other news, my ring finger feels very odd. We took my wedding band and engagement ring in to get the gold re-roted (or whatever). Most people get it done every six months or every year for white gold, but I had never gotten my band done (two years and four months!) and it had been since June 2008 for my engagement ring. They needed it. I won’t get them back for about another week and a half. Erg.
“B term” is ending this week, so I’ll have finished my first doctoral class. Things are looking good with that. Pretty stoked.
It is rainy and gross today. No good. Although, I didn’t water the garden this morning so…
We just got back from the vet for Neko’s first check up. Things did not go well. Not at all.
As it turns out, Kitty has feline leukemia, which I suppose is much more of an immunity issue than cancer as the name suggests. I guess they called it leukemia because it was often paired with cancer. So, Kitty has a 15% chance of making it to four years of age: most die around two or three years.
Major disappointment, but what can you do? Take her back? They’ll just put her to sleep. We decided to try to give her the best life possible and know that her time will more than likely be quite short. She could go tomorrow or she could live beyond four years somehow. I worry so much because she has had a cold since we got her. We have her on antibiotics, but you never know when it will be or if she can combat it.
So, we brought her home and played with some mice, then curled up on the couch together. I really have never met such a sweet cat. She is the nicest ever. No exaggeration at all. Why does she have to spend six months in a cage and then suffer through feline leukemia? Just life, I suppose. I wanted to do the right thing and rescue a kitty. I guess some people wouldn’t have kept her, so I really am rescuing her in a bigger way. I hope I can keep her happy.
All seems well in the house with the pets. Everyone has established a system of manners. Puppy sniffs and licks kitty, but not too much. Kitty lets him know when she is ready to be chased and puppy watches her play with her toy mice, but does not take them. Kitty has been killing one cave cricket per night, paying her rent. I am pleased because I hate those things. They are one of the few bugs that I will actually kill along with ticks, mosquitoes, some spiders, and occasionally ants. All others, usually not.
Other than that, I’ve spent the weekend catching up on school work and cheering Chris on with his grading. Unofficial TA right here. We watched Sunshine Cleaning the other night, which was kind of disappointing.
A long-time friend, Kimmy, is now engaged to her boy Josh. I’ve known Kimmy since we were five and I think that we may be equally embarrassed that we speculated about our eventual weddings many times together in our younger days. I wish her the best and I’m sure her wedding will be beautiful no matter what she decides on. More importantly, I’m also sure that life after the wedding will be even more beautiful since Josh seems like a really nice, well-rounded guy.
We’re all growing up!
But does Tom’s shoes also have a one for one policy with bunnies?
Yes, Mr. Rufus put herself in that box.
Bringing home kitty.
I thought we agreed on naming her “Neko,” but Chris keeps testing out “Mittens,” which is typical of us.
Abed-nego was originally named “Camino,” like from Star Wars, but everyone just thought we were referring to something Mexican. Oh, people.
I didn’t know cats could be as nice as her.
Constantly purring, like a light saber.
Constantly rubbing against us.
I think she was glad to be rescued after spending six months in a cage.
Did I ever mention that on the way to Chesapeake we saw a bear in the bed of someone’s truck in Appomattox while we stopped to get gas?
bear on the rocks
The guy kept piling ice on. He shot it with a bow an arrow.
I still can’t decide if it is kind of sad or kind of awesome or kind of gross or kind of weird.
It does seem kind of small, though.
Our Chesapeake adventure has come to a close. There is never enough time to do all that I want, see all the people I miss. I try to keep family as my first priority, so we spent Sunday and Monday evening with my family. The kids just keep on growing and I feel like I am missing big parts of their lives, but every time I get big hugs anyway and they tell me that they love me.
On Tuesday, we visited Christopher’s grandparents. Later that evening, we had dinner with Kimmy and Josh and checked out their apartment. They have quite a cute little place. Ah, cities. Chris and I headed to the show where we saw Beach House and Grizzly Bear.
It was a really great show. Wonderful voices that I just couldn’t understand how they were real. And that bass player. Ugh. The amazing sounds! I didn’t know how Grizzly Bear could pull it off live, but with the help of loops, it was unreal. They had light bulbs hanging in mason jars all along the stage which would shine with the intensity of the music. I wish I could go back to Grizzly Bear world.
This morning, I ate with my parents and then went off off off back to Lynchburg. It is always hard to leave. I regret that I live four hours away. The drive isn’t terrible, yet is kind of exhausting. I wish it were only two hours. So much of Chesapeake is filled with great, wonderful memories, but other places are still associated with hurt. Chesepeake is complicated. Either way, seeing the mountains again is incredibly reassuring–relieving, even. Back to my simple life in Lynchburg. Luckily, I still get to see my family about once a month and we see Christopher’s once a month as well. It is hard having family in two separate places, but we get by.
Still can’t come up with a good name for Kitty.
Chris wants to name her something Japanese and I have no clue why. If she were a boy, I’d totally go Sailor Moon on her and settle with Artemis. Then again, Artemis was a female in mythology. Can I name a grey kitty Luna? I don’t really want to go with Diana for some reason. Ehh. These names aren’t even Japanese anyway–they’re just from Sailor Moon. Chris keeps saying Chibi. Or Ponyo. But I haven’t even seen Ponyo.
I, on the other hand, want classic kitten name, like Mittens. But Chris says Kitty doesn’t haaave mittens. And I agree. But Muppet sounds similar to Mittens. But it just isn’t quite there. And Chris says that we’ll probably just end up calling her Kitty half the time anyway–which is true. So, I suggested Maddy. Then I remembered that the dog next door is Madison. That would be too weird.
I’ve never had so much trouble coming up with a name for an animal. Hellppp!
Cuuuute face. Mine, not so much.
Later: NEKO!!! Duuuh.
October? Really? I always forget how many days each month has, so I was just certain that today would still be September. Here it is, though: October.
Planting the fall garden
The past week has been quite busy with gardening. We’ve planted or tended to something every day despite work and school. I never really cared for yard work, gardening, landscaping, and all of that when I was younger. My parents always did a great job piecing their yard together. Their gardens always looked great and all that I saw was how much of a pain it was to bag holly clipping (big owies!) and spread mulch. They had to get so much mulch every year–a truckload full dumped on our driveway–and I hated how endless it felt. But now that I have my own house that did not come with nice, well-kept gardens, Chris and I have had so much fun planning them out, tilling the dirt with a shovel and hoe, selecting our plants, and seeing it all come together. I can recognize that my dad and Chris did so much more work than me with that hedge, and I’ve had it rather easy just digging through the dirt and turning up the grass. It has been so much fun, though, watching the house come together. We’ve had it for almost three months now and I’d say it has been a complete transformation. So much better than I had hoped for!
This week has been busy school work-wise and then the intensive on Friday and Saturday. Ugh. I don’t know how I’m going to get my assignments done in time, but at the same time I know that it will. It always gets done. I always say that, and it always does. No matter how overwhelming, what needs to happen always happens. So, I just need to get going and not stop until I’m finished. And then… Chesapeake vacation for a few days. Sunday through Wednesday we’ll be in Chesapeake, so find me if you want to do something. Then on Thursday, it is back to work and we pick up kittyyy!