Mother's Day ramblings

[logisticslad]

I didn't sleep well last night, for no reason that I can think of other than having had too much caffeine late in the evening. Sigh, I'm becoming so sensitive to these things. I had had a fun evening with friends though, and had nothing pressing to accomplish in the morning, so it was okay. I got to read some more of my completely escapist fantasy novel about people who are mentally bonded with their highly evolved cats. My cat is determined to shed enough fur for me to knit him a friend. The fur is too fine to be vacuumed off the bed - this is another one of those times when I'm really, really glad to have a washer and dryer in my very own house! I managed to add new trimmer line to my weed whacker and spent an hour taming the jungle that my backyard had become. I had a nice chat with one of my new neighbors, who is contemplating getting rid of the enormous pine tree that overhangs both of our houses. I told her that I wouldn't miss it one bit and that the previous owners had planted their beloved Christmas tree when they were kids and this was the result. Last night I had talked with my friend E. who works for a lawn company about how to even out my lawn and he is going to come over sometime and offer his professional advice. Now I think I'll wait until they remove the forever shedding pine tree to proceed.

My brother, sister-in-law, and two nephews (ages 2.5 years and 3 months) are at the stage where they cannot make any concrete plans because something always comes up. Fortunately, we were all able to get together with our folks for Mother's Day. We ended up meeting at my folks and eating take out chinese food, which was perfect. My father managed not to countermand any of my brother's parenting this time, so we had a pleasant meal. We all watched The Aristocats, which is my nephew's current favorite film (it alternates with 101 Dalmations). I reminded my mom that she and I used to watch it together when i was small, but she didn't really remember. This lead to a conversation about what did we do in the days before videotapes, which was quite amusing.

Went into work and wrote some exam questions, responded to questions about tomorrow's exam, worked on some things needed to close out my tenure as president of the square dance club, and have been noodling around on LJ. I am extremely relieved that our research group has decided to delay submitting our grant renewal from June 1st to October 1st. Now I can concentrate on the dozen other things that I do (like teaching three courses that end June 3rd), without that major effort hanging overhead as well. Gotta get things in order to submit Neuroscience abstracts for the deadline next week.

Time to go home.

Comments

[dougmander.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a pleasant weekend -- I enjoy hearing these slices-of-life from absent friends! Sounds like your kittycat is doing OK? Our three cats (yes, we really do have three, not two, despite what you saw when you stayed at our place) went to the vet on Saturday for their annual checkup and booster shots. They even get geriatric bloodwork these days to help detect warning signs of various ailments. When I got to the animal clinic, the vet (whom we know through mutal friends of Alikander) said to me, "You just had a baby, and you're worrying about keeping your cats' appointments?" Well, yes, darn it!

[jaidit.livejournal.com]

You need to get a lint brush. They're great for getting cat fur off stuff that you can't vacuum or frequently launder. It's a bit of work to brush off something like a quilt, but it does the job. If kitty has a favorite place, usually you can get away with just focussing on that spot.