Thanks to Gryph, I know:

You Are 20 Years Old

20 Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

One unusual side benefit of the cherubs' visit is that Mittens has become more assertive. It's as though seeing them put him back in control of his life, harking back to the days when he would ambush Maggie.

At any rate on Sunday night, he cautiously crept into the bedroom where I lounged with Melody watching TV. She was already asleep; I pointed her out to Mittens so he wouldn't startle upon locating her. He jumped onto the bed, under the covers and purred up a storm. Monday night, same thing. He waited until she was asleep, then snuck in and got under the covers with me.

Maybe he's not totally as brave as he could be, but I'm seeing evidence that he's regaining his footing in the household hierarchy. Tufts of Melody's hair adorned the bedroom floor last night. I suspect she put up a tussle when he came in and she was awake. But he kept at it and this morning, herded her into a corner so that he could accompany me to the bathroom and drink out of the faucet. Just like the good old days. :)

Folks likely won't be surprised to learn that Broos is a murderer. There's something suspicious about him, isn't there? :) It's also no surprise that helping someone out is what drove him to slay his employer; he's a family/friend loyalist. And a murderer, but still.

My cherubs are home now after a very quick little weekend visit. They're so comfortable to be around. Mittens relaxed with them, Melody graciously welcomed them and I already miss them. We went together to game night on Friday, to see Steamboy, to the murder mystery party yesterday and today to an Asian shop en route to the airport.

It seemed like a long weekend and yet we took it pretty easy. Chris managed to make nearly 40 plat in EQ before breakfast. If only real money were as easy to make as slaying local hill giants.

We drove by the nearby community college, which was closed for the weekend, but had catalogs piled by the admissions office. Chris is interested in moving down here this summer, finding a job, making some money and going to school to get a degree. He's currently interested in foreign languages and after a few years of German and Japanese, will be taking Spanish next quarter. He was very interested in the the fact that there's community colleges here that offer degree programs in foreign language. At the Japanese store, Phil and I were trying to work out one of the signs (and both of us had forgotten a few of the characters, so it was an exercise in "something-something YO something...") and in the end had to have Chris tell us what it said. :) I'm looking forward to having him here all the time!

I've been on my semi-Italian cooking phase now for about three months. For my next cooking episode, I'm not sure what I'd like to learn to do. Perhaps I will take up fancy desserts :) I loooove fancy desserts. Currently residing in my freezer is an espresso granita that turned out very good and strong (too strong for me to eat at night, anyway).

Cream puffs and eclairs are high on my list of things I like to eat, so maybe I should learn how to make them. I remember my mom sending me and my sister to King's Bakery to get a box of goodies, and our favorite included their cream puffs "with blueberry eyes." I'm not sure what the real name was, but you can imagine what they looked like...cream puffs, with blueberries pooking out of the cream filling. Very tasty! We were disappointed when they discontinued them.

One thing that I like about San Diego is the fact that there are bakeries all over the place. While there are bakeries in Seattle, in Federal Way (where I actually lived), bakeries were located only inside the grocery stores. I've already bought goodies from two different bakeries near the office. There are other bakeries I haven't gone into. Maybe bakeries are a warm weather phenomenon?

Melody figured out how to open the bedroom door, although Broos prefers the explanation that there's something wrong with the latch (which is probably true, but I like my idea better. It has more scope for the imagination ;>)

Aha, there she is now at the door stretching completely up and batting at the knob. I may be right!

Anyway, I haven't yet gone to the eye doctor. :/ I am trying to meet a deadline, plus thinking of my cherubs who come for a visit this weekend, plus considering the logistics of chicken marsala for up to 15 people. The last item was achieved a bit more time consumingly, but reasonably okayly (how's that for a word?) for Kevin's b'day game night. Saturday night, some of us went to see some celtic dancing and music at the San Diego symphony. Today, laundry! And cat wrangling.

On the bright side, the scars on Mittens' nose will be somewhat symmetrical. :/ And on the other bright side, Melody loves her little cardboard scratching box and has not clawed the hell out of any furniture. Just Mittens. And my leather loafers. I wonder if it's because they have leather laces that remind her of whiskers?

Mittens and Melody have reached a semi-armed truce. The bedroom is hers. The living room is mostly his, but she is staking claim to the underneath of the dining table. They slink around and make slightly threatening noises, but no fur has flown in the past two days.

Could it be the Feliway? Who knows? I did resist spraying the stuff directly onto Melody, who while pretending to rub up against my arm turned her little fluffy head to bite my elbow. :/

On my b'day last month as Broos and I were exchanging IMs, my vision suddenly went to hell. I put it down to sudden aging of my left eye. After some ibuprofen, things cleared up and I figured I'd short-circuited an unusual migraine aura. Tonight I had a similar but different experience. It started with a little jagged circle bending light in the middle of my field of vision, kind of like a bear trap made of glass. By the time I was driving home, I had a lovely Africanesque fringe all around in black and white. I considered calling Broos to have him check on me tomorrow as I thought I was turning into a Picasso and would be two dimensional by morning.

More ibuprofen has cleared up my vision, but I think I will call the eye doctor and see what's going on.

Melody gave Mittens a bloody nose :( He cautiously peered into the bedroom through the half-open door but she saw him first and stalked across the room toward him. He's never been particularly bright but he usually catches unusual movements right away. Not this time. Before I could say anything or make a noise, she charged at him and chased him into the living room where they knocked over some decorative bits in front of the fireplace. There's tufts of Mittens' fur scattered across the room.

I feel terrible. :(

Every week the Massage Lady comes to our offices and for a mere $1/minute, we can plant our faces into the soft toilet seat head rest and get a nice back rub. My shoulders have been giving me some trouble so I made an appointment and went.

"Tell me if I'm pressing too hard," she said at the start of the session. Unfortunately, with my face in the toilet, she couldn't hear the whimpers of pain. I figured I was being wimpy since I was pretty tight through the shoulders so I let her beat away at me for 20 minutes. "You should really come more often," she chided gently at the end of the session, "so we can work on that knot."

Well, maybe I should. But it will take me a while to get over the agony of this week's episode. :( I couldn't sleep last night from the discomfort. My shoulder is making unnerving clicking noises when I move my arm. My shoulders feel bruised and tender. I'll be taking some ibuprofen later so I can sleep tonight.

I've taken shiatsu massage classes which is a different technique from the Massage Lady's. I prefer the more relaxing nature of a shiatsu massage. Pressure, release, light stroke, pressure, release. Even if the pressure is strong, it's applied smoothly. Jiggling, wiggling massages are apparently not for me. I need to find a shiatsu Massage Lady.

Cats everywhere! Mittens is getting used to Melody. They were pretty much growling at each other through the bedroom door all weekend. I'd leave the door open while they were napping and they'd get up and cautiously look around for the other feline before prowling around. Melody is much smaller than Mittens, but she has long hair and fluffs up quite a bit when putting on her display. She trapped Mittens in the bathroom at one point when he got up on the counter to drink from the faucet and she wandered in to use the litterpan.

This is a new situation for him. In his old home, he was the ambusher, waiting to pounce upon poor Maggie to wrestle with her. He's not quite sure what to make of this, where now he is the ambushee. Still, Mittens and Melody spent an hour together this morning in the living room, not buddied up but not hissing and spitting either. She's back in my room for the day and tonight, we'll see how they get along. If I'm lucky, by the end of the week and I can sleep with Mittens under my chin again, since Melody seems to prefer the dark recess under the bed. I miss having my kitty snuggled up to me through the night.

And so, after a lunchtime foray to look for a cat, I got the call. Melody is mine! Muahahaha! She is currently exploring the bedroom. Mittens is in the living room, peering under the door at us. I figure I'll spend part of the night here with Melody and the rest of it on the couch with Mittens.

One thing that I find fun is that besides my usual character Lael, I usually play a character named Melodie. :) Karma? Or maybe Katma?

Melody has already submitted to a good cat petting and emerged purring up a storm. I think she'll be fine. Mittens will get used to her. He'd better; she comes fully armed!

We're still looking for a cat. Between the links Sushi sent me and one that the fabulous Fannie sent, I should be able to find a new little buddy.

It seems like looking at a personals page, the way these sites have photos of the cats and little biographies :) In a way, that's what I'm doing though...finding someone who will love and play with Mittens. I hope he appreciates the effort.

And look at the time, 9AM. It's funny to think that for all my life, by 9AM I'd have been at work for 2 hours by now. Yet here I am after a half hour of Sims2, able to go through all my emails and take a couple minutes to jot a note.

A lot of mornings recently I haven't felt like getting out of bed, much less sitting up to do things. I've graduated from sleeping with a nightlight to having the TV on but muted to having the TV on with sound. I'm not sure why having the TV on makes me feel as though I won't have nightmares. Maybe because when I half-wake, whatever demons pursue me disappear when I try to figure out what's on the screen. But this exercise can take time and so I'm losing sleep in the middle of the night and it's left me exhausted by dawn. This week's been a bit better, though.