3.838

Got my official transcript from college last night. My GPA was nowhere close to what I thought it was. I am disappointed in myself. QE says I'm a nerd (so MEAN!) and nobody cares about my GPA except me. I knew I graduated summa cum laude and it only required a 3.8 overall. I thought I was in excess of 3.9 for some reason. Looking at my transcript, I had a 4.0 the spring semester of my junior year (I knew that) and a 3.88 fall of my senior year (I thought I got a 4.0). Is it a coincidence that I met QE that semester? Hm...I think he is to blame for my downfall. He distracted me! He corrupted me! :) I guess mathematically it wasn't logical for me to have a 3.9+ GPA since I did have a sprinkling of B/B+ in my freshman and sophomore years. I never thought of my alma mater as a "real" school for various reasons, so to counter that, I felt I needed a good GPA to offset some of the negative connotations. Again, QE said that our school is only "bad" in my eyes. Nobody else cares. Maybe he's right. But as someone who caused my delinquency, he can't be right. :)

Whatevs

You can judge a man's true character by the way he treats his fellow animals.

~ Paul McCartney

It's been an emotional week. Much excitement, lots of work, and all sort of daily grind crap that are all blessings in their own way. Cara has resumed tormenting her siblings. I guess one week of good behavior is all her little body is capable of. Maybe I should trick her into believing in Santa Claws as a means of getting her to behave. (bad mom! manipulation is wrong!) The dementors suck the life out of me, even if we don't talk or interact. It doesn't bother me as much anymore. I get what I need out of this twisted relationship.

Our home value has dropped a lot. A LOT. Brings-tears-to-our-eyes A LOT. But, we are fortunate that we can easily make our mortgage payments. We are blessed that we have such a nice house to begin with. So, I guess it shouldn't bother us what the value is. Except that it does for various reasons.

Next knitting project is a wrap from Knitty using Lorna's Laces Fisherman. Finished dad's second scarf. "The first was thicker [it's a 2x2 rib] but not wide enough. This one is not as thick. Don't knit me anymore scarves." Damn right I'm not. All I get is complaints. One of my first how-to knit books was right--never knit a gift for someone who is not a knitter; they will not appreciate the time or effort.

On happy notes...2008 Honda Accord coupe. Put one in my driveway. No questions asked. :) QE is starting to think that a $60+ swift is worth the price for him not having to hold my hanks of yarn while I wind them up. Went to PetSage to get Davis and Cara some food and got into a wonderfully intellectual discussion with the owner about cat nutrition. She's got some sort of medical/nutrition/holistic background and only sells food without by-products and other scary things like animal digest (in many cat treats). Our will is almost complete. I'm happy that we'll be supporting several much-deserved charities. Have I mentioned that Frap gave me the most beautiful scarf for Christmas??? Oh.Wow. Rowan Big Wool in a pretty bright pink. Seed stitch (k,p). Love the look, hate the deed. So beautiful. With my brown coat, it looks like raspberries and chocolate. Yum. So pretty. And fringe! There's a cute fringe on the ends too. :) Finally, Mr and Mrs. Frap (with Latte, I assume) will be coming over next weekend. I'm baking a chocolate-espresso pecan pie and double ginger cookies. And maybe chocolate chip cookies. I think I said I would make brownies too. And homemade gluhwein! It will go great with the ginger cookies. Made gluhwein for QE last week and he said it tasted just like the ones we had at Marienplatz. :)

Naturally Raised Tail Docking

I am by no means an activist. I may contribute money to charities I feel strongly about, but it's rare. The only sure donation is to church. That said, there is something that has me really pissed. The government is trying to define meats that can be labeled "naturally raised". They want to leave it as meaning no hormones, no antibiotics, no mammal or avian by-products. That's a huge step. Really, it is. But as a consumer, I find the term misleading if that's all "naturally raised" means. I would assume and expect it to mean I am eating happy animals, grown in their natural environment--no cages, no feedlots, no piggies without tails, no turkeys or chickens without beaks. Cows would get to eat grass. Imagine that!!! A cow gets to eat its natural diet of grass and not corn or soy!

If you agree with me that "naturally raised" should mean more than no hormones, no by-products and no antibiotics, PLEASE take one minute of your time to share your thoughts. If the link doesn't work, go to http://www.regulations.gov/ and then do a comment search for "naturally raised". Although the name fields are mandatory and public, you can give just your initials. Thanks bunches. :) Comments are due by January 28.

http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocumentDetail&o=0900006480369411

Hope for Love and Peace

QE just called with the most wonderful news. Prior to leaving the house this morning, he thought it was too quiet and peaceful. He went looking for Cara to make sure she wasn't trapped in a closet or something. He found her in the amigos' room, sleeping on the cat tree/perch. Angel was sleeping in her new bed and Davis was in his little cave-tent. Not a peep. All three were sleeping peacefully.

What the heck is going on??? The weekend was peaceful too. Davis grumbled once in a case of mistaken identity, but that's it. Poor boy sometimes gets his sisters mixed up. :)

Swirlies

It's been a while since I've written. So much anger, rage, joy and happiness inside, all swirling together.

A tiger at San Francisco's zoo was killed after escaping her enclosure and attacking several humans. Reports said she was probably provoked since there were various materials and branches in the enclosure that were "not consistent or within" her habitat. Here's what I want to know: tigers are endangered animals...isn't killing one (in a zoo no less) defeating the purpose of saving tigers and all the research/breeding programs? Wonder what Jules aka Shtinky Puddin has to say about that.

My knitting is coming along again. I took a break to read a few books and now I'm back to my true love. QE offered to take me yarn shopping this weekend. It's kind of interesting how my desire to buy yarn has waned ever since I got my shelf...maybe his strategy of making me see all my loot to reduce stashing worked, contrary to his shopping offers. Hmmmm...

Got an awesome book of knitting patterns for toys from Frap! I can't wait to knit all of the goodies.

My allergy shots are killing me. The good news is that I am down to once every three weeks. The bad news is that I suffer for much of the time between shots. I have big triceps that rival any bodybuilder for almost a week. Zyrtec becomes OTC on January 24.

Angel is healing very nicely. Cara is mean beyond belief. She literally spends all day stalking or guarding her siblings. She will wake from a nap to charge them if they dare walk downstairs to hang out with us.

Tufts and Stones

For a "quiet and uneventful" holiday season, it sure felt quite the contrary. QE and I worked as usual, with the Tuesdays off. (so all y'all poopie pants best quit yer bellyachin!) Angel's saga continued, with me cleaning the carpet at least five times a day. It was heartbreaking to see our baby suffering through the holidays. Her surgery was yesterday and is back home now. Two stones that looked like clusters of smaller stones were attached to her bladder wall. Hopefully she feels better. The doctors said that there was no blood in her urine during the fluid pump sessions, so that's great news. She shouldn't be in any pain. Grandpa Goo called yesterday for a status on her surgery and volunteered to play nurse and medical transport if necessary. "They won't release Angel unless the bill is paid, Dad." "That's fine. You can come pay the bill and then I will take her to my place until you get off work, or I can drive her to your house." What a great grandpa!

On NYE, I came home from work to find clumps of white and brown fur in the amigos' room, and Cara with blood-stained fur on her neck. She seemed fine and oblivious to my panicked cries about her neck. On New Years Day, we had a rare day where no hisses or growls were heard. Maybe the kids wanted to start 2008 peacefully. I did notice that Cara had a weird looking ear though. Upon further examination, it appears that the brown clumps I found the day before previously belonged to her ear area. Her ear also had lots of dried and oozy blood. Cleaning that was no fun, let me just tell you. It looks like the blood was not from bites (whew!) but from getting fur pulled out. It's still gross, but at least it's not a puncture wound. What we don't understand is, why despite getting the beat down from her brother, Cara feels the need to bully Davis and pick fights with him.

As I am sitting here, our little one is curled up in her bed sleeping. Cara looks so cute. I feel bad for her at times. She sits outside the amigos' room and looks sad and jealous when they are eating or when I am with them. She gets jealous when they snuggle on me even though she has intimacy issues and would never lay on me or let me hold her. All she wants is a human to call her own and instead got stuck with parents who love her dearly but also spreads the love to two other cats. It's not fair to her. Cara is constantly bored because we don't play with her as much as we should. She deserves better and more than we can give her. That said, I would never willingly give her up. We made a commitment to take care of her and share our lives with her. Til death do us part, we promised. If I thought she could have a better life with another family, I would happily give her that opportunity. Somehow I don't think "Cara isn't happy" is a legitimate excuse the Meezer Rescue would accept for returning her.