Wookiemonster's Log

Yes, my niece is a little bit of a diva and doesn't want to share the spotlight...

I'm posting because I totally forgot to mention how utterly fascinating she is as she develops! She is becoming more and more aware of the world around her and is realizing she has some sort of an effect on it. She loves her parents, and is a bit of a "Daddy's girl," in that she will crane her neck around to see where Scott is going if he's moving around like he was last night getting condiments from the kitchen and so on. But she actively tracks people as they move around if someone has her attention.

She's trying to communicate, too. She's been cooing regularly, and there are times when she acts like she wants to make a noise, but isn't sure what noise to make, and you see the frustration build up on her face, and there's some sort of ! or ;*A! Or %ug&. We encourage this by telling her to tell us all about it, and she continues to coo and make noises and such.

And she smiles at people. She's also teething, so, she'll latch on to hands and just start sucking...



At least, we think she's teething, and isn't going to grow up all Hannibal Lechter on us...

She's getting more coordination with her hands and is starting to make motions like waving. Oh, and she's imitating. She watched me eat some corn on the cob, and she brought her hands up to her face. Then she watched Rich eating something, and the hand gestures were like she was putting food in her mouth.

On a final note and on a slightly different track... Yoda remains quite chatty. He still favors asking questions, largely because he gets an answer, which, psychologically, is interaction, and as a flock animal, he craves interaction. Now, his predecessor, Nemo, "waved" at us. He fluffed his wings in response to people waving at him. Guess what Yoda's starting to do? Fluff his feathers when people wave at him.

Then there's Rocky. Earlier today, Mom was out in the garage moving some things around, and she left the door to the house open. Rocky, being curious, went out there to see what she was doing. But because there's chemicals and such out there, I...really don;t want him out there. So, I stood in the doorway and calmly said, "Rocky, I really don't want you out here. Come back inside please." He turned around and came back in the house. No argument, no nothing. Just, "Okay," and turned around and came back in. I didn't have to raise my voice or go chasing after him. I...don't know how I ended up with a cat that responds to voice commands, though, he pretty much only responds to me. But, I'll take it. I think it's a sign of trust and mutual respect. I also think it's evidence, albeit anecdotal, that these little furballs understand a lot more than most people give them credit for understanding.

Cats, birds, and babies... Makes me happy I have a degree in psychology and can appreciate their cognitive abilities. And the three specific examples cited above... Yeah, they're smart. And Yoda and Rocky? Terrifyingly smart. Dani? Dani has opposable thumbs, and I think she'll give us a real run for the money when she gets older, and especially when she starts to read.

Anyway, just wanted to get all that out there before I forget. To say that life is interesting around here is an understatement...

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I haven't gotten much done today, certainly not as much as yesterday, but then, I didn't have as much to do...

I finished the laundry. Yaay! I also spent some time outside, masking off certain parts of the car, and trying out that rust-inhibiting, black-drying primer on some of the rust areas. So far, I'm not all that impressed, but then, it's still drying, and the real test will be if the rust growth is at least slowed significantly.

Mom is finishing up painting the exterior of the upstairs window with painting her bedroom window. So, her window was open, and she's getting ready to come out on the "first floor roof," and Riffy's right there at the window, all curious. And he sees me, and is ready to come out.

Now, I figured he hated me, or had at least lost interest in me, because of Rocky, even though I had originally gotten Rocky as a playmate and companion to him after Loki, my sister's cat, moved out when she moved out.

Anyway, to prevent any tragic problems, Mom put Riffy in Minerva's room.

Just checked on them... Minerva hasn't run under her bed yet, and Riffy is just hanging out on the windowsill. This is progress, since before, Riffy hid in a corner and Minerva growled from under her bed. Now, she is at least affording Riffy the same courtesy (?) she gives Rocky... She's Not Happy about Rocky being in there, but, she'll stay on her bed until Rocky hops on the bed with her. As soon as he looks away, she darts under the bed. If he's lucky, he'll get close enough to where he is obviously sniffing her, at which point, she'll smack him across the face and then run under the bed, whether he's watching or not.

But, yeah, this is the first time Riffy and Minerva have "interacted" since the annual trip to the vet a little over a year ago. At that point, they just didn't give a shit about each other.

Anyway, whilst painting, Mom managed to let the window close, and couldn't get it back open from the outside. She started banging on it. I...had just laid down since my hip was killing me from working on the car, so, I wasn't paying much attention. Fortunately, Rocky pulled his "Lassie: Timmy's in the well!" routine, and I finally heard the noise and went to open the window to let Mom back in.

Life around here is... Yeah.

On a final note... Rich is much more ambulatory these days. But when he sits down in the rec room and props his foot up, Yoda asks him if he's okay and if he'd like some water. Not like Yoda will get up and get Rich some water, but, it's still nice to know he asks. I dunno. Maybe he thinks Rocky will get the water.

Hard to believe it's just about October now. But what's worse is remembering that tomorrow is Monday.

*sigh*

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It has been a busy few days. Half week. Something like that.

Mom is now Mrs. Magner.

It's a good thing I took Thursday and Friday off. Thursday, I took care of the errands of running to craft shops - Michael's and Joann's - to get stuff pertaining to flowers, decorations, and various other wedding festivities. I also picked up my tux. This might not sound like much, but, given that I'm not super artsy or anything, and being given a list of items I'd never heard of and sent on a seek-and-obtain mission to get them... It's kind of like a commercial scavenger hunt. I've been told that this was a "nice guy" thing to do, as other males would have simply looked askance. On the bright side, I got everything that was needed and managed to get the pew clips for just $1.oo instead of $2.00.

Friday, I dealt with more back issues and spent half the day with an ice pack on my back. I was originally going to deliver the goodie bags to the hotels where out-of-town guests were staying, but, my brother-in-law Scott got roped into that. My brother-in-law is awesome like that. Instead, we just had the rehearsal dinner Friday night. After the dinner, I went out for coffee and quiet time, and when I got home, I had apparently missed the festivities of the bridal attendants who helped finish making the centerpieces and assembling flower stuff. Instead, Mom was busy printing out the programs. Since she had had little sleep the night before, I helped fold them and cut the insert pages and so on. I did what I could to help her get to bed at a decent time in preparation for the next day's events. Except, she couldn't find the tiara hairpiece, and we spent the next hour and a half going through the house looking for it, to no avail. Turns out, it was with the rest of her stuff for her dress at the church.

Because I was up late, I got up a little later than originally planned on Saturday. Mom had already left with the rest of her entourage for hair and make-up. Rich called from down the street to make sure it was safe to come home and get breakfast, which it was. He left to get the lunch sub tray and pick up one of the groomsmen and head to the church. I stayed to grab a shower, make sure all the furkids had food and water, give Rocky his insulin, put the dogs out to go potty, and so on. I should note that the humidity was oppressive, and I was sweating even after my rather cold shower. Also, all the furkids were off the wall. Brigid and Brandon were almost constantly barking, which was excessive even for them. Yoda seemed to be permanently hungry and doing the alarm noise ad nauseum. Rocky was bordering on aggressive and howling more often than usual. Fortunately, I got everyone calmed down enough before I left. Giving Yoda a leftover stuffed shell from the rehearsal dinner seemed to mollify him immensely, and he was then able to call for Rocky and yell at the dogs, which helped get them all under control. Anyway, after the kids were taken care of, I made a pass through the house for anything that might have been forgotten and left for the church.

At the church, I changed into my tux. Of course, the room we had was sweltering. Thankfully, the rest of the church was decently air conditioned. While getting dressed, I helped Paul and Rich with their tuxes. While competitive dancing doesn't need a full tux at the level I danced, and even dance tuxes are different from regular tuxes, I still had done enough shows to know how to take care of bow ties and cuff links and so on. The tux pants we had were adjustable. Of course, I had a broken adjuster. Fortunately, Mandie had safety pins and helped me out.

Then began the busy-ness.

Somehow, I was drafted at random to take care of the boutinears. I found the 'fridge with the flowers in them, snagged my sister to help me figure out who gets what, and began distrubution of flowers. I had barely gotten that done that people started arriving. Got the young ladies set up with the programs and started escorting people to seats. Did what I could remembering who Mom said was to get front-row seats. This has a lot to do with the people who were there for us during some of the shittiest times of the past ten years.

Then the ceremony begins. Or, at least, the processional. They changed, at the last minute, where us groomsmen where entering from, which was neither here nor there, but, anyway. Then the ceremony begins. And fortunately, my sister and I get along rather well these days, so, I see the look of horror slowly crossing her face right before she mouths to me, in front of the pastor and the priest (Rich is Catholic, so, we had two officiants), "Oh shit! I lost the ring!"

You know that sinking feeling you get right when you realized you jumped out of the plane before strapping on your parachute?

So, I start thinking about my options. Do I pass out, let them cart me out of the sanctuary and then spring to life and go look for the ring? No, too dramatic. Sneak out? Might be considered rude. Fake a coughing fit or a bad sneeze? Yeah, that could work, but, let's save that as a last resort. And to note, this was planned to be a short ceremony. I look around me, as there's a piano behind me, some sound equipment off to the side... Maybe there's a coupling or somesuch that could work in a pinch. No such luck. So then it dawns on me that at least two of the other groomsmen are married. I whispered urgently to Nutsy next to me the situation and ask if he has a ring we can borrow. No, he's had problems getting his ring on lately, BUT, he had his father's wedding band on his keychain. Unfortunately, his fingers are still a little too swollen to get it off, so, I got it off, and we passed it down to my sister. Crisis averted. The ring, the "real" ring, was recovered shortly after the ceremony. It fell off of Mandie when she was adjusting Mom's train right before the processional.

After that was the receiving line and becoming borderline germophobic. Thankfully, there were the anti-bacterial hand sanitizer bottles throughout the narthex. After that was getting my Magic Murder Bag (Venture Brother's reference) packed with my clothes, and then pictures. Before the rain. Woot.

Fortunately, the rain stopped by the time we got to the reception, and we had a nice walk-in.

( Pictures )

Now, the wonderful people at ThinkGeek.com have dinosaur plushies...



Thanks to internet memes, Mom and Rich have this joke about "I love you this much" with the picture of a T-Rex whose arms aren't very long, and so it doesn't look like very much. So when I got one of my regular e-mails from Think Geek advertising these new plushies, I got two of the T-Rex for Mom and Rich for a wedding present. I figured it would be a cute novelty thing that they'd like and would be better than a picture frame or somesuch.

Turns out, they were a big hit with them. They have been playing with their dinosaurs (curse their sudden and inevitable betrayal!) since I gave them to them. In fact, they had left them with the caterer to put on their sweetheart table (to raised eyebrows). You can even see one of them in one of the pictures above. Anyway, Mom told me that just about everyone, at some point, had come up to their table and asked about the dinosaurs, so, they had to explain the joke about 100 times. Mom says she should have just gotten on the mike and explained. I'm just glad I managed to get them a gift they enjoy, and are still enjoying. Especially when I wasn't expecting it to be such a hit.

Mom and Rich had a nice dance to their song (can't remember the title, but it's by Lady Antebellum). Mom and I danced a Fox Trot to Michael Buble's rendition of "The Best is Yet to Come." Mandie and Rich danced to "Thank Heaven For Little Girls." Then Mandie and I did a Cha Cha/Hustle to some 70s song. That was way too long.

At this point, I need to pat myself on the back while thanking my coaches Lisa Bently and Pete Taylor. They both taught the difference between competitive dancing and performance dancing. Both when dancing with Mom and with my sister, I thankfully knew enough floorcraft to make sure they were the center of attention. Having taught enough dance classes and having a derth of experience working with new dancers, my leading skills are still sharp, though I'm sure my sister felt tossed around a little. But, hey... performance! It was eough to impress pretty much everyone.

As for me? My footwork was atrocious (note to self: NEVER go to a wedding where I know I'll be utilizing my Captain Tango skills without my dance shoes!). My frame was okay and I felt my leading was on par with bludgeoning my partner to go in the right direction. However, again, I am forced to remember what I've been taught about the differences between competitive dancing and performance dancing: In competitive dancing, the judges know the steps and the technique and will grade you on it. In performance dancing, the audience doesn't give a fuck (Pete's words).

They had remarks from the best man and maid (matron?) of honor, which included my sister. She wasn't expecting that part, and the invective she used when she was called up was amusing. Nevertheless, she made a good speech and managed to use our phrase of "putting the 'fun' into 'dysfuntional.'" I don't think I've ever seen her husband, Scott, laugh so hard.

On an aside: I have to say I'm very proud to have Scott as my brother-in-law. He's cool to begin with, and I am glad that he takes care of my sister so well. He helped her where he could, made sure she had something to drink, and so on. After three (or is it four?) years of marriage, and years of dating before that, and he still dotes on her, is something nice to see in this day and age. Such treatment, I think, went a long way to keeping my sister on an even keel throughout. It was a good example of, "It's not her problem, it's our problem to solve." Hence, the support thing.

I think that about covers the reception. Afterwards, we changed and loaded up the cars and trucks and tralers with decorations, gifts, and so on. Managed to get the bulk of the stuff loaded before the clouds opened up again.

To give Mom and Rich some time to themselves, Mandie insisted I stay with her and Scott last night. So, I stopped at the house, gave Rocky his shot, refilled everyone's food and water, packed an overnight bag, and left.

Loki, one of Mandie's cats, who was adopted when she still lived with me and Mom, was taught well by TomTom. He remembers me from when we lived together, and in the same way TomTom would make sure to visit with Mandie when she came over after she'd moved out, Loki makes sure to visit with me whenever I go to my sister's. Anyway, he followed me around while I got set up in her guest room, looking at me funny. "Why are you here? What are you doing? You're not normally over here this late. Why are you sleeping here?"

I slept like the dead, but woke up around 10:30 to the sound of someone going through my stuff. I sat up on the bed, and sure enough, Loki and Lily were rummaging through my book bag and overnight bag. I asked them, "What are you two doing?" And they both looked at me like, "We're um, um, um... We were going to iron your clothes and put your books away for you. Hi. How are you?" This might be off-putting or just plain weird for most people, except, my cats do the same thing, so, yeah. They do better security than the TSA.

In general, I'm glad the wedding went off almost without a hitch. The only hitch being the intended hitch of Mom and Rich getting hitched. I'm glad my sister and I get along well these days, which has been the case since we had to break Mom out of a nursing home three years ago when she got her hip replaced. That helped a lot this weekend with averting possible situations and whatnot.

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HAPPY BIRFDAY annastesia AND az_starshine!!



Rocky and I are slowly recovering. We've both been napping a LOT this weekend. I think we're both just plain burnt out from the past few weeks.

Other than that...not much else going on. Slowly plugging through the weekend chores. Slowly regaining the ability to breathe through my nose. Oh, and Yoda, in addition to asking, "You okay there?" now also asks, "What'cha doin'?" Again, the fact that he gets a response, and thus interaction, makes him ask these questions often. Eventually, he'll have enough question phrases to conduct interviews.

Anyway, I'm going to try to take it easy for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, this goes through my mind...



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It's been a busy day... I've gotten lots done, including cutting the grass, whacking down some little trees, getting cat boxes and such taken care of, making my sandwiches for the coming work week, getting some computer stuff done, and so on. I still need to vacuum the house and do my laundry, but, that'll be done soon enough.

Mom and Rich went to the monthly "dinner and a movie" at Church. I was debating grilling up a burger or a chicken breast when my sister showed up with surplus eggplant parmigiana. In some ways, I feel like a louse for depending on free food. Then I look at all the stuff around the house and yard that I got done today, and decide that it's all good and it all works out.

And...it was really good eggplant parmigiana! Plenty for tomorrow night's dinner, too.

Yoda really liked Mandie's visit, asking if we were okay about every other minute. Though if we didn't answer quickly enough, he'd ask again, louder and more insistent. I think he likes asking the question because he gets a response/interaction. Then Rocky sat on Mandie's lap and didn't make it easy for her to leave. When she took out her keys, he reached for them like a hyperactive 2-year-old.

Then there's Bridget... She started to follow me up the stairs, and then Rocky was following me, but behind her, and when she turned around, Rocky puffed himself up, which, of course, freaked out Bridget. So, she came the rest of the way up the stairs, and Rocky started to come up a few more steps, and then Yoda started calling and whistling for her. Which just confused Bridget even more and put her in even more of a confused/stuck state.

So, it's been a productive and interesting day thus far.

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HAPPY BIRFDAY greygirlbeast AND cookie_chef!!



What a day so far...

TomTom is home! He's doing well... I have him all set up here in my room with food, water, and litter. I need to make some sort of "bed" for him on ground level and keep him off my bed for awhile because he's got some "anal leakage" issues right now. And...he's got several prescriptions I have to stay on top of. Fortunately, only two weeks...

I told him his flexible "cone of shame" isn't a "cone of shame." It's a superkitty cape! I've also made the remark that he still has more guts than humans I know...

Rocky seemed glad to see TomTom, but now is hissing at him from beyond the door because he (TomTom) smells like vet. And I guess Rocky's not happy about being kept out of here.

Yoda is driving me nuts. He does the alarm noise, I give him fruit, and he throws it all away and does the alarm noise again. Why? He wants bananas, and he's pissed that we ran out yesterday or the day before and I haven't made a special trip for him. As is, I'm heading out in a little bit to get a haircut, and I'll probably swing by Path Mark for milk and bananas. Brat.

Anyway, I'm just glad to have TomTom home and on the mend, runny butt or no. I'll probably be doing some extra laundry, though...

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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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Quick post...

I like thunderstorms. I think they're beautiful. And mayhaps my fascination of them comes from Back to the Future...

However... Poor Minerva is scared of them. She's hiding under the bed in her room. Poor kid. Gods know if and how many she was caught in when she was on her own. Given her worm situation when I adopted her, Dr. Lon is pretty sure she was on her own for quite some time. As in, months.

TomTom was on his own for a few months before we adopted him or, more appropriately, before he chose us and moved in about 14 years ago. I honestly don't remember if he was ever scared of thunderstorms. I know Riffy was for awhile, given that I adopted him roughly two weeks after a "mild" hurricane came around here. Though he doesn't seem much phased by them these days. Boomer was scared of thunderstorms and, though he got better over time, when we first got him, he tried to hide under the coffee table in the rec room. He was a 70-pound Australian Cattle Dog, and the table in question only had about a foot's worth of clearance on the bottom. You can imagine the amusing aspects of him barely getting his head and front paws under the table to hide from the storm.

Yoda's firth thunderstorm resulted in his getting scared and dropping all his tail feathers. It was close to his first spring molt, so, it wasn't too bad.

Behind me are two cats on my bed. TomTom, asleep on his kooshes, without a care in the world. Rocky at the foot of my bed, snoring quietly. That's security.

And the funny that went through my mind? Thunder, THUNDER, THUNDERCATS! HO!

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