Friday ...

So, the cats are adjusting to being only two now. Finally!! I could handle Shimmey hiding, or Spot wanting to be around me constantly. What was hard to deal with was that Spot wanted to be in my lap every waking moment. An eight month old, ten pound male kitty does not need to be a lap cat. Not in my lap anyway. Well, at least not while I was at the kitchen table (or in the bathroom - sorry, TMI, I know). And my legs! My poor legs! Looks like I've been in a cat fight or ten. I can't imagine what they'd look like if I hadn't given up my shorts this week and wore nothing but my blue jeans all week long!

Married Son is driving expedite trucking. In other words, when it absolutely positively has to be there overnight but is too big for those package rat trucks (you know who I mean!), they call Married Son. He's loving it. He's waiting on word about a private contract with a guy in Chicago. If, or more likely when, this guy calls to say "pick it up" then I'm probably going to Chi with Married son. Too bad it's a wham-bam trip. Detroit area to Chicago and back in less than twelve hours. Pick up product (in this case a dozen or more vending machines) get them to Chicago for the client, then head back immediately. I'm hoping I can at least talk him into a stop at "The Bean". Providing of course, we can find parking for his truck and trailer.

If not, I wonder if I can have him drop me off and he can circle the block a few times?

Just a thought.

The Gremlin has been sighted around here again. Well sort of. There's been odd activity and no one is taking blame for it. Must have been the Gremlin! Sneaky little bugger! There was a day, not too long ago, that there were two dozen forks in my silverware drawer. Today, there's only three! How do 21 forks disappear? And ... just forks. Spoons and assorted knives are still at their full numbers. It's the Gremlin I tell you! I've searched the entire house, under beds, computer desks, removed the dishwasher racks and checked there. I even checked the car! Yes, the car. Nothing. Not so much as a clue as to where they've gone.

Officer, I'd like to report a theft. Yes, my stainless steel forks.

I've been looking for an excuse to get rid of my old silverware and buy new. But not now! Not until this mystery is solved once and for all. I'm not investing in a service for 8 of stainless steel when the forks will surely disappear, too!

Hmmmm, looks like a trip to the flea market down the road. See if I can find a booth selling single forks. Buy up some of them. Mismatched is chic. Right?

Or we use chopsticks. Heaven knows we've still got a small collection of them from many many chinese take-outs.

More Wednesday Stuff ...

Been a crazy week here.

On Father's Day Alien came over to take the two girl cats Shimera and Rajah. She has dogs at her house, but assured me the one dog that would have been a threat to the cats was strictly an outdoor dog. The other dog, an indoor dog was raised around cats for the first few years of her life (she's 7 now) and would not be a problem. So ... I let Alien adopt the two girl cats. We would keep the male, Spot, as our pet. I guess all began well. Shimmey went into hiding somewhere in the house. Rajah was curious and looked around at her new house. The one dog was fine with a cat around (the indoor dog) and just laid there watching Rajah. For some reason, Alien had to leave the house ... of course the bf went with her, he never leaves her side. Anyway ... someone forgot to check that the doggy door was bolted. They came back to find the outdoor dog indoors, with Rajah dead at it's feet. After finding Shimmey unharmed, they brought her back to me. She's traumatized badly. Jumpy as hell a few days later. Even Spot has been looking for his sister. The dog has been taken to the Humane Society I hear. They just can't keep that animal around ... his whole reason for being put outside in the first place was to keep it away from the baby. I guess the dog had nipped a few times at Butterball. This was the last straw for them.

So now I have two depressed kitties. Spot won't leave my lap. To the point that he tries to climb my legs if I'm standing. Wearing shorts is out for now, at least until they adapt to Rajah being gone. Even wearing blue jeans hasn't protected my legs, I look like I've been in a battle myself!! Shimera comes out of hiding only long enough to eat (at least she's eating), and use the box. Otherwise, Single Son and I rarely see her. And when we do, she won't let us approach her. I've been sitting on the kitchen floor a few feet from her while she eats, hoping that I can coax her into being petted.

What's odd, though, is that the earthquake we felt today - neither of the cats reacted. Spot was sleeping on the dining room chair next to me, and never budged. And here I had heard all animals react in some way to earthquakes, even minor tremors like we felt here.

Then again, the quake as I felt it was a gentle vibrating of the kitchen table, where I use my laptop. I live near an international airport, right under the flight path of incoming airplanes. It felt more like the vibration we get when a jet is approaching the runway. I didn't hear a jet sound, but then, after 16 years of living here jets are a part of our lives. We rarely notice anymore.

Mom didn't want me to come over today. She said she's feeling better and would handle the shopping herself this week. Since I'd been combining my shopping with hers, now I have to still motivate to get out of the house and get my grocery shopping done. And with storms possible tonight, maybe I really need to motivate, eh?

I still need to find a park we can picnic in for our annual Star Trek picnic. It's proving to be a bigger challenge than I thought to find a park convenient to the majority of our members. I'm probably going to have to do the Port Huron park as was originally planned. It's not convenient to any members but one who lives in Port Huron, but it seems to be about our only option. Ah well ... what to do, what to do?

There was something else I wanted to blog. Do you think for the life of me I can think of it now? Of course not!!

Other than that, not a lot going on 'round these parts.

Hope ya'll are well ...

Wednesday Stuff

Boy, I really need to get back to blogging on a regular basis ... I've lost the creativity for titling my blogs!

We'll start by getting the Star Trek stuff out of the way, LOL. I wonder how many hats I can wear in Starfleet? All the "jobs" I listed in my last blog, PLUS the opportunity to command my own "ship". Ya, me a Commander of a Starfleet "vessel". Well possibly. I will know more tonight after their meeting. Seems they have a ship, but no commander. No one wants to take the position either. It's a small club, barely half a dozen people. Now, one lady may do it, IF it's not too involved of a position. If she doesn't then I will be asked to do it to keep the chapter from dissolving. As Single Son is currently the Vice Commander of our region, a chapter going into solvency isn't a good thing. Besides, we do a lot of things together, this chapter and my chapter. I'd hate to lose that. Luckily for me (or I wouldn't even consider the Commander position) I can still be in my current chapter, too. As well as doing all the things I do currently.

Okay, enough Star Trek.

Wednesdays for the past month or so have been a day for me to head on up to my folks house and do odd jobs. Cleaning, shopping, whatever Mom needs me to do that day. She's not been feeling well, so the help is welcome. I'm only there a few hours, I don't stay for dinner usually. Mom cancelled today's shopping session. Not sure why. Too much mother/daughter bonding as of late? LOL.

Married Son still hasn't moved in completely. Not sure why. Don't really care, to be honest. I'm enjoying the quiet while I can. I'm sure soon enough it'll be loud and chaotic here once again. Oh, and loud it gets. DIL has NO volume control!

I don't see Alien or Butterball a whole lot. However, DIL was visiting them last night and texted me that Butterball's first tooth has poked through the gum! So far he's had no issues with teething. I hope it stays that way! Butterball is the best name for him, too. He's six months old now, and weighs 22 pounds!! At this rate, the kid'll be one hell of a quarterback by the time he's in middle school!

Oh, and we've had a gremlin sighting! He's been coaching the squirrels once again in the fine art of destroying the phone lines! It's an annual thing, really. But I thought we were done for this year (that's what I get for thinking). AT&T has already been out about a month or so ago to fix it, and now it's the same problem, but only in a different location on the wire. AT&T really ticks me off at times. I called repair today to report the problem. Half an hour on their stupid prerecorded message system (press one for ... ) and I end up back where I started. Finally, somehow I got a human being. A male (nothing wrong with males working call centers), BUT he seemed to think I didn't have a clue as to what I was talking about. Hello? I've had this freaking problem 14 of the 16 years I've lived here. Give me a break, I know what I'm talking about and what the freaking problem is. And it's only the men at the call center who give me shit when I call. I was told it'd be looked into and fixed before Saturday - in his words, IF we find a problem with the outside wires. I swear one of these days I'm gonna *IF* these know it all male call center fools. What they need to do is bury the phone line. They say it's MY responsibility to pay for burying lines. I tell them no way. They can keep coming out for repairs then. I offered THEM a cost saving solution to THEIR problem!

So, in the meantime, we have intermittent connections. Makes using the internet a test of our patience.

Gotta love technology.

11 PM. Well, they decided to disband the other Star Trek club. Their members will come aboard our "ship". I have mixed feeling about this. One the one hand, it was the oldest chapter around, they were a huge help to us when we joined Star Fleet some eight years ago. Ah well, it was their decision. We can only welcome their members with open arms. Then on the other hand ... there is one member I'd rather set the phaser to stun than to deal with. Talk about a Trekkie. Nothing else exists to this person. He has hundreds (literally) of awards and certificates from StarFleet and carries them around with him in a four inch thick three-ring binder! He sort of reminds me of the British Comedy "Keeping Up Appearances" character Hyacinth Bucket and how she shows pictures of her Sheridan to anybody and everybody. And he's LOUD. My gawd he's loud. Makes DIL look like a soft spoken individual.

Add aspirin to the medical kit, Doc! I'm gonna need it!

Trekkie

I should warn ya'll now, this is a Star Trek themed blog. If Star Trek isn't your thing, you may want to beam out now!!

On Sunday, we had a meeting of the Star Trek group I belong to. Single Son, our Commander, asked that I bring my computer with me. Seems I've been drafted to the position of meeting Secretary. No problem. The problem was the table at the restuarant where we hold our meetings was too small for me to set the computer up to take minutes. Because I hadn't thought to bring a pad of paper with me, official minutes were taken on the back of a Chinese Zodiac placemat. I'm sure Roddenberry would be turning over in his grave - a Trekkie using a placemat to keep Star Fleet minutes on! Oy!

I did have the computer set up for a presentation though. Since it was before the waitress had brought appetisers or our meals I had room for the laptop (whoever said it was a good idea to hold meetings at a Chinese restuarant whilst eating sweet and sour chicken and brown rice NEVER owned a laptop). However, because of seating arrangements, I did the presentation pretty much upside down - looking at the laptop from above and trying to navigate through it all with the touch pad. It was quite an accomplishment for me, I tell ya. I have to admit I was sort of ticked off at one gal whom I had asked to navigate for me while I spoke. She got all huffy (she's thirty something) and had quite a little fit. "I don't touch computers with Microsoft product on them". And she didn't either! Well excuse me!

But the presentation went well. It was for a friend and fellow Trekkie who is running for the position of Commander of StarFleet. He was at the meeting, but we kicked him and Single Son out of the meeting room whilst we discussed their platform and took a vote as to if we will officially nominate them as candidates, or if we'd nominate another team as candidates for the upcoming election. Needless to say, I think you know who got our unanimous vote. LOL. And yes, Single Son was kicked out because he will be part of this person's cabinet.

I have volunteered to help with the campaign in any way they can use me (provided it doesn't involve coding websites).

I also have the honor of planning the annual summer picnic. Fun stuff. We have our date all set, just not the exact time or a place yet. That's this week's assignment, find and reserve a picnic site (hopefullly with a pavillion or other shelter should the weather not cooperate). But, it has to be central to all members. There's my problem. We have members all over lower Michigan, and even some members in Canada. Could prove to be quite a chore. LOL. Oh, and the menu will be Star Trek based. Yes, there are Star Trek recipes out there. I just have to figure out some Trekkie games we can play! If anyone has creative ideas how to Trek-ify a game or two let me know please?? OMG! I just had an idea. No, I'm not hurt ... something with Tribbles. Amy ... got any ideas for games using Tribbles?

Oh, and I finally got a promotion in rank. Only took a year, and a lot of work on my part. LOL. So, I'm now officially an Ensign. The lowest of commissioned officers, but by gum, I made it!

I also volunteered to fill a vacancy in our "ships" Security division. I'm now the Security Officer, Communications Officer, Ship Historian, Secretary and ... Star Trek Picnic Planner. Oh, and campaign volunteer for my friend.

In other words ... I HAVE NO LIFE!