I sure am glad I don't live in any part of the country that is hurricane prone. I guess there are evacuations going on and everything. What a pain. And of course the devastation can be incredible, as Katrina showed. Now it looks like New Orleans might get hammered again.

It's bad enough getting our monsoon storms for a couple months of the year. We had one the other night that was really bad. Winds up to at least 90 mph in some places, hail, lots of thunder and lightning, etc. Plenty of people lost power, and lots of trees were downed. The ASU football team's brand-new practice facility was destroyed. My cat got really frightened, as he usually does during storms, and hid in the kitchen where there are no windows. I got up in the middle of the night, during the storms, to get a drink, and I tripped over the poor little boy. So last night, when we got some more (milder) storms, Murray hid in the kitchen pantry, out of the way of foot traffic. :-)

In other news, I had the handyman come out today to see about hanging my drapes, but they were just a tad too narrow. They were described at 50 inches wide, which would have been just about right, but turned out to be just a couple inches smaller than that in reality. So I ordered some new drapes that will have plenty of room to spare, and will return the other ones, and will have the handyman come back when the new ones come. There was no charge for his coming out today.

I have discovered a cat discussion site where they do live chats in the evenings, some about cats in general, others about specific topics such as senior cats or feral cats or pet loss. One chat is a role-playing chat where participants pretend to be their cats. I've done that one a couple times, and it was lots of fun. And challenging, since you have to do it in baby-talk, and being an editor, I'm so used to trying to be grammatically and spelling-correct all the time!

I dreamed that I sent a letter to Brett Favre telling him how selfish he was to badmouth the Packers during the off-season, and to go to another team, and all that. So the next day, I wrote down what I had pretty much dreamed up, and I actually sent the letter. I certainly don't expect a reply, and he probably won't even read it, but at least it was cathartic to write.

Yay!

I got an A in my info technology course!

Leash-training update

Well, leash-training with Murray had seemed to be going well, but the cheap leash contraption I had bought for him broke, so I had to take it back. I bought him a better-quality cat harness, but it didn’t fit him because he is a big boy. So then I exchanged it for a small dog harness, but the straps were too wide and rigid, and it wasn’t designed for a cat’s physiology, so it was like a strait jacket on him, limiting his mobility - which, of course, totally defeats the purpose. So, I’m going to take that back.

I raised the question, on a couple of cat discussion sites I belong to, of where to find extra-large cat harnesses. Several people recommended something called a “walking jacket” that is more secure and comfortable than a standard harness, and it comes in extra-large sizes. So I ordered one in the biggest size for Murray. It wasn’t cheap, so hopefully I can return it if he doesn’t warm up to it!

Cutting back on pet-sitting

I'm going to cut back on pet-sitting, because now that I can't do my online schoolwork at work (due to the company's Internet usage monitoring), that means I have to do it in the evenings at home, after work, and if I do a lot of pet-sitting after work, I get too tired to do the schoolowork. So I asked that I be cut back to weekends, and maybe some cat jobs during the week (cats are less taxing than dogs, since they don't have to be walked or played with vigorously).

Speaking of cats, I'm going to try again to leash-train Murray. I found some instructions online, and they detail how to proceed, being very patient. The first time I tried to leash-train him, I went too fast and expected too much out of him. So I probably gave up too soon.

I ate some bad melon last night, and so I was sick in the middle of the night. Not fun. It may be a while before I eat canteloupe again.

Blinded by the light

My bedroom window in my new apartment faces east, and the sun comes streaming in bright and early, waking me up at, like, 5 a.m. Murray also gets restless when the sun starts lighting up the room, so he tries to get me out of bed early. I had a woman out to give me an estimate on custom-made drapes, and the price was way more than I wanted to spend. So I looked into getting some drapes from Sears and having a handyman come and install them, and that was way cheaper. Within my budget. So, that's what I'm going to do. I ordered drapes with a thermal lining, so hopefully that will help block the sun. And, it may help keep out the heat, which is always a plus in this climate.

Big Brother is cracking down

My company is going to start filtering and monitoring Internet usage at work. So that means I won't have as much time to blog. What a bummer. It's not like I neglect my work to fool around on the computer. It's just that, much of the time, there is just no work at all to do. Nature of the job.

Oh well, I can always read the company-approved e-books...

Favre out

I'm not sure how to feel about Brett Favre being traded to the Jets. He did so many great things for the Packers over the years, but in the end, he was a traitor (even though he claims he wasn't). He badmouthed the team, so that made it impossible for him to come back. I used to think he had a lot of class, but I've lost a lot of respect for him. The team would have allowed him to at least compete for a starting spot, if he hadn't been such a bigmouth.

In other news, the shuttle driver who took me to the airport 8/1 told me he had been robbed a couple of times in my apartment complex parking lot. Lovely. Nice to know I can't feel perfectly secure in my own home.

I'm back in Arizona after spending a week in Wisconsin. The weather there was pretty nice, though a bit warm and humid a couple days. It was nice to visit with my parents' cat, who used to be mine. When I took a nap one afternoon, he jumped into bed with me and snuggled up with my feet. This is very, very uncharacteristic behavior for him. So it was a nice surprise.

I took a tour of the Medical College of Wisconsin library, to get some idea of career possibilities in medical/academic libraries, where I might want to seek a career after obtaining my library degree. It was a nice visit, and I learned some things.

One evening, I went to dinner with a former instructor from my master's degree (in history) program. It was a nice dinner. Afterward, we drove around a bit in a nearby park so I could savor the lovely foliage, the likes of which we don't have in the Phoenix area. At one point we saw some deer in the park - a mother and a baby. It was pretty neat.

I ate a bit more during the visit than I probably should have, so I need to get back on the diet bandwagon now that I'm back home.

Murray was happy to have me back last night. He spent the night in bed with me, which he hadn't been doing much since we moved to the new apartment (probably because he likes sleeping in my nice walk-in closet, and perhaps because he doesn't like the fact that the air-conditioner blows directly on my bed, making it kind of chilly). I guess he misbehaved for the pet sitter, swatting at her hand when she tried to brush him, and grabbing her leg with his claws out. I hope he didn't hurt her too much! I guess he was just upset that I was gone, and he took out his aggression on her. I hope she'll be willing to come back in the future when I need a sitter!

New website on singlehood

I recently published http://hubpages.com/hub/Finding-contentment-in-singlehood

Murray's eyes looking better

My kitty is doing much better today. The drops worked - his eyes were nice and clear this morning, so I didn't give him the drops. I'm leaving town tonight for a week, and the pet sitter is supposed to monitor Murray's eyes and give the drops if they start looking weepy again...