Today has been mostly productive, and it's only early afternoon...!

Alas, my hemoglobin is still a little too low to donate blood. Will try again in February. In the meantime, I may need to try some iron supplement or somesuch.

But I got a much-needed chiropractic adjustment. Then I stopped at Kohl's and got my new watch resized. Stopped at the bank and paid the engine loan for January. Stopped at the drug store and picked up a prescription.

So now, I find myself in a "weird" position. I finally have the majority of housework and errands for the break done, leaving me with the dreamy position of having gobs of time over the next few days to engorge myself on reading, writing, and gaming. And sleeping. And yet...I find it difficult to focus or motivate myself. It's...not that I don't want to work on these things. But...it feels so weird to be able to indulge. I feel like I should be working on other stuff, you know? Oh, and there are a few little odds and ends to take care of. Trimming and inserting the new gel inserts for my Sketcher boots. Doing the annual stuff of archiving files and folders and setting up my sync protocols for 2013. Plus, according to shipping info, my printer is "out for delivery," so, that should get here tonight, leaving me free to set it up and start working on reorganizing my desk.

I am contemplating the laptop these days. I occasionally take it with me to DD to do some writing/planning, and it works okay, especially for a 7-year-old machine. Though it seems to be slowing down. I've looked at other laptops, but, my biggest gripe is that they all have Windows 7 or Windows 8, and I'd rather have XP on the machine. And like I said, my current laptop works well enough. So, doing a quick Amazon search, I could quadruple the hard disk space and quadruple the RAM for less than $100. Current harddrive is 80 gigs, with half a gig of RAM. Other than that, I'd like to get a new battery for it. But right now, I just use it for basic internet and word processing. If I ever go back to doing music at TTL, I'd definitely want to do the upgrade, especially given that my music library has increased.

Eh, it's all kind of moot, anyway. I'm still digging out of debt.

Apparently, the AV Club is a more serious side of The Onion, and they have a nice article about Fraggle Rock and society.

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HAPPY BIRFDAY awallens!!!



Feeling a little drained at the moment. Today was my appointment at the blood bank. Alas, I wasn't able to do the ALYX donation, since my hemoglobin was too low. It was great for whole blood donation, but not for them taking twice as many RBCs away. It could be allergies, or it could be asthma. In any event, I may try ALYX later. Maybe even over winter. In the meantime, whole blood donation is still pretty damn good, and I'll be donating again in July.

Since then, I've been getting some weekend chore stuff done and napping. Really feeling drained this time around. Probably still a little out of it from the severe GERD bout the other night. On the bright side, this is a lite chore weekend, so, hopefully, it'll be a nice, relaxing, recharging, restful weekend for me. Then again, the stepgoggies are here.

On a semi-related note... I'm reading Jackson Galaxy's book Cat Daddy. I've tried the "I Love You" blink with TomTom, but, so far, there's no reaction. Then again, he's pretty secure anyway, so... Yeah. Last night, he was sleeping on my head, as usual, and I touched his paw. In response, the purring went from "idling lawnmower" to "Saturn V rocket" and he insisted on licking my face. Not really a problem, except for the really bad fishy cat food breath. Oh well. Both Rocky and TomTom like that contact thing... Many times, I wake up and one of them has a paw resting lightly on my face or my hand.

My sister's cat, MiMi, used to crawl under the covers so she could snuggle under my chin. I still miss her, but, at least she opened a place in my sister's life for Lily.

You know... I really think the side project memoir of all the furkids I've had might stand a good chance for publication, all things considered. Gods know I have enough amusing stories of all the cats, dogs, and parrots, not to mention stories of their interactions together, from Yoda liking to ride on Boomer's head, to Nemo making Sugar psychotic with respect to squeaky toys, and back to Yoda for trying to teach the cats to say his name. Then I think about the times I lay on the couch and Yoda asks, "You okay there, bud?" Like he's going to do anything if I'm not okay. And the time TomTom and Rocky got me when Mom couldn't get up after her hip replacement. Or Rocky waking me up earlier this week when the house had no power, I had no alarm clock, and I needed to get to work.

When I hear stories of other peoples' pets performing similar intelligent acts of helpfulness and loyalty, I have to wonder if Human arrogance isn't actually a hindrance in our evaluation of these creatures' intelligence and awareness. One popular test they do on animals in general to disprove their self-awareness is to put them in front of a mirror and watch the animal either react to the image as a threat or whatever, but to not give any evidence that they recognize the image as themselves. And yet...four weeks ago, Bridgett and Brandon were on the steps, which have a mirror at the bottom, and they were at eye level of the mirror. They saw me coming in the mirror, then looked at me. Then they saw other movement and turned around to see TomTom at the top of the steps. In short, they were reacting to the reflection and understood that they saw the reflections of other actions and looked at the appropriate areas. I'm not sure if this has been replicated in a laboratory setting. Now, this doesn't quite go with the whole "mark them with lipstick and see if they try to wipe it off" thing, though (1) I see humans at Rocky Horror who don't remove the lipstick... Maybe these animals think that they're being marked in some sort of initiation like the kids going to RHPS. Maybe (2), given their lesser acuity, they don't really see the lipstick or they aren't familiar enough with their own reflection to know that something's different. I mean, honestly, we tend not to see certain zits right away or notice the formation of certain scars. In conclusion, I think the animals are fucking with us. Intentionally. So that they get spoiled with toys, food, and have the supposedly superior race fetch food for them, clean up their poop, pay for their food and health care, and show them off to their friends. A bit of an oversimplification? Perhaps. But the intelligence of cooperation, adaptability, routine, and so on is still there and higher than what people in general are aware of. Then again, I'm still convinced that the average person is an idiot.

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