deird_lj

The kittens are staying with me again, this week.


This wouldn't be much of a problem, but my cat spent the early hours of the morning patrolling the front windows against possible threats. He does this every couple of months - presumably because he's seen something scary and bad out there, like another cat. Or a leaf.

It tends to involve increasingly lengthy and loud growling, which eventually turns into the most unearthly noises I've ever heard a cat make. And it is impossible to sleep through.

My general strategy in these situations is to shut him in the laundry (almost windowless, so nothing to growl at) and then leave him there to settle down and go back to bed.


Unfortunately, my laundry is currently full of kittens - who would not be happy being presented with an extremely annoyed cat who wants to attack everything on sight.

Instead, I have got up (at five o'clock) and am sitting with him on my lap while he glares at the world and make periodic attempts to get up and go back to screeching at the window...

My cat has discovered a new Waking Up Mummy trick.

It used to be standing on my face and meowing. But now, it's leaping round the bed. He bounces, as heavily as he can, over and over, while meowing. I keep getting woken up by a mini earthquake.


(And he always has food left in his bowl. Always. Why does he keep waking me up to feed him? *grumps*)

Assembling costume for pirate party.

Set-up for pirate party.

Pirate party.

More pirate party.

Home. Sleep.

Feed cat.

Play with cat.

Church.

Lunch meeting thing.

Wedding.

Home to change.

Reception bit of wedding.

Home again. Finally.

TIRED.

I currently have $1000 in $50 notes in the back pocket of my jeans. (Long story.)

For the ENTIRE night, I was having nightmares in which my nearest and dearest - plus a bunch of people I haven't seen for years - were tracking me down and murdering me horribly just so they could get their hands on all the money.

*didn't get that much restful sleep*

Tired.

Sick.

Tired some more.

Fixed backyard.

Toilet that won't flush properly.

Too much work.

Writer's block.

Craving chocolate.

Also, tired.

On Saturday, we had a "Women's Wellness and Wellbeing" day at my church - the name being purely so that they could shorten it to "WWW" day (my church is very into acronyms).

There were all kinds of fun activities like crafts, and hip hop dance, and facials, and so forth. And I did none of them, because I was wandering around taking photos of everyone else.

We also had a marketplace, with many many fun things, and I bought a bag ...and almost bought huge amounts of earrings, too.



Then, I spent Saturday night babysitting Caleb.
We made a fire, and sat in front of it, cuddling. (Caleb said nothing for about half an hour, except for "It's a BIG fire, Auntie Deird", over and over again.)

And I stayed overnight at their house, so I got to have breakfast with my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew this morning.



This afternoon, I've been MULCHING.

I believe I have, on previous occasions, mentioned the fact that I don't really like gardening.
Let me qualify that statement: I don't really like gardening, unless it involves shoving things into very loud machines that pulverise them and spit pieces all over the backyard.

Mulching. It's what engineers do to make gardening AWESOME.



I am tired now. I plan to spend the evening eating spaghetti, and watching Gremlins 2.

While I am indeed single, I still get to experience many of the joys that are part-and-parcel of sharing a bed with someone.

Like...

...snoring. Having your significant other snore, thus keeping you awake? Oh yeah. I get that.
Of course, in my case, it's slightly softer snoring noise, because the nose that's being all sniffly is much smaller, but the same principle applies.

...waking up in the morning because your significant other has decided to get up.
Which is getting ridiculous, because he keeps getting up at 5am. Or, this morning, half-past 4.

...hogging the covers.
Not that he does it intentionally. He just tends to dig his claws in, stretch, and pull the quilt further and further off the bed.

...uneven allocation of bed-space. When you suddenly realise that your S.O. is stretched out luxuriously across three quarters of the mattress, and you're stuck in one tiny corner.
Even more unfair when the one taking up all the space is about a tenth your size.

...being woken up in the middle of the night for some hot, hot, lovin'.
For "hot, hot, lovin'" substitute "hot, hot, pattin'", and you'd just about have it right.
Apparently, it's not good enough that he gets to sleep on my feet. I keep getting woken up at 2am by a tiny nose nudging my hand into patting position...

1) Summer is here! As is December (coincidentally).
That being the case, I must find time, this evening, to put up all my Christmas decorations.

2) Caleb, used to adults referring to me as "Auntie Deird", has always called me "DEE!"
Now, however, he's realised that there's kind of a mini vowel shift in the middle somewhere. So I've suddenly become "Ahn Dey-ard".

3) Every time I see the little speed-bumpy thingys in between escalators at Parliament station, I get an inexplicable urge to sit on the middle bit, and slide down - speed bumps or no speed bumps.

4) Tea with milk and sugar is GOOD.

5) I'm about to have one of the busiest weeks of my year, and somewhere in there I've got to find the time to write a whole bunch of fic, AND a mini drama for a Carols service.

6) One day, in the far-off reaches of time, I will eventually get to England. Today, though, is not that day...

7) I really, really need sleep. But have a whole day of work to get through. Am substituting for sleep with tea and internet. Seems to work.

(According to Georgette Heyer, a female traitor should be known as a "traitress". I look forward to using this word in everyday life.)


Evil Elf hasn't been seen for a while. Filling in for him is someone I have started thinking of as Karaoke Cat.
( a night of almost-music and frustration )