Further Assimilations

I can think of several things for which I'm thankful today:

Everything is out of the apartment now except for some random cleaning supplies, and a couple of lamps and a vacuum cleaner that wouldn't fit in the car last night. This will be taken care of this weekend when I drop off the keys. For this I am very thankful to Starr and, well, me. We've both put no small effort into all these boxes.

I am thankful to Starr for many things, in fact; but they're all mushy and I'll save that for some other time.

I am thankful to Starr's parents for allowing us to use their house for the next year or two. We'll be very comfortable here, and we'll be able to save up some money which we'll need to get our own place. (Midori is thankful to them for the gas fireplace, which is one of the best things the furless monkeys have invented since domesticated catnip and the chewy kitty treat.)

I'm thankful to NASA for giving me the opportunity to show me what I could do for them, and to rattrap for encouraging my developing Macintosh skills in the first place. I'm also thankful to the designers of the Apple Newton, whose long-cancelled product inadvertently provided me with some "hardcore Mac expert" cred in the most recent planning meeting.

I am thankful to the grocery store owners and workers who allowed their stores to be open this morning, so I could acquire the remaining bits of a quiet Thanksgiving surprise dinner to serve Starr, who once again works a holiday.

I'm thankful to the creators and operators of LiveJournal, without whom I'd never be able to keep track of what's going on with all my friends. My peeps are a complicated, intelligent, opinionated, goofy bunch - which is exactly how I like it, and my life would be horribly diminished without them.

I'm thankful to all the people that I like and love that my emo side is awfully disappointed this holiday. I'm supposed to be, and fully expected to be, horribly dissatisfied with my life at this age. Problem with that is, there's so much good in my life right now... how can I let the few speed bumps slow me down?

It's been a heck of a week, and I haven't had much opportunity to post. Let's see if I can catch up a bit.

As of Wednesday evening, Starr and I began sleeping at the new house. This was slightly impeded by the fact that our bed hadn't been moved yet, and Starr's parents had returned for some of their stuff, so we had to share a twin bed in a guest bedroom. Note: no matter how cuddly the other person is, tucking two people into a twin bed gets old quickly.

I'm now getting up at 5:30 every morning to get out of the house by 6:30. My efficiency's improved, as it was taking me up to 90 minutes to get showered, dressed, and moving, but it means I have exactly enough coherence to drive safely and not a bit more. The commute's indeed an hour; thank goodness for podcasts.

Each day last week, I stopped by the apartment on the way home to grab some more stuff. Slowly, all the vital necessities of life have been put in place at the house, such as transforming Macross toys and Lensman paperbacks. By this weekend, I expect to have the silly stuff moved like cooking gear and clean underwear. (Okay, I *am* kidding about the underwear; that was high-priority.)

Starr's parents left on Friday - or was it Thursday? - but returned once more on Saturday for more stuff, and so we could take her little sister to Nekocon. We only stayed for a few hours Saturday afternoon and evening; I had no idea that the con was so HUGE. 3,000 people were claimed in one press release, and it sure looked like it. I could not believe the number and variety of hall costumes! (Of course, I forgot a camera.) Starr dressed as a loligoth, while her sister wore an InuYasha costume. Many pictures of them were taken, but I have seen none posted; me, I was grumpy that morning, and didn't wear a costume. By the end of the evening I regretted the decision, but oh well.

Tuesday, I had the day off, and I headed back over to the apartment to collect more stuff. Our downstairs neighbors are both military, and were also home; when they found out what I was up to, they instantly volunteered their two pickups, and pitched in on the packing. Thanks to them, we're about 70% done with the move, and should be able to finish this weekend; I had reason to appreciate our veterans even more that day! They were awesome folks.

We're switching the house from Verizon to Cox for our internet and phone, and were surprised to learn the the cable junction box is across the street. Shortly after we learned this, we learned that the underground line to our house is bad, and they'll have to bore a new conduit for us this week. The cable, phone, and Internet at the apartment was disabled on Wednesday, so communications have been impaired. Right now my cell phone and work Internet are my main connections to the world.

Midori has been introduced to Tigger and Precious, two cats we're inheriting from Starr's parents. They seem to be more amused than anything else by her hissing and posturing, and she seems to be slowly understanding the uselessness of making all the fuss. With any luck, they'll civilize her a bit.

This Saturday, I hope to have everything out of the apartment that isn't tucked in my office. Sunday, I'll pack all the little figures and toys and books and such I have on display in my office, and move that over, and at that point the actual move should be about done. We can then spend a week or so cleaning up the place nice before we hand over the keys.

Then... maybe... perhaps... a rest. I don't think that's an unreasonable reward!

Last night I had my first taste of lobster in decades. I'd been putting a lot of energy into taking care of Starr lately, with her overwork issues and such; she decided it was my turn, and set up a lovely lobster and shrimp dinner for me.

Those things are hard to stare down - I've always been a bit wary of food that's looking back at me. Luckily, lobsters look evil enough that I can tell myself that it would gladly eat me if our roles were reversed, and start dismembering the thing. (Cows are the same way. Don't trust 'em, that's all I'll tell you.)

Very tasty; in fact, it tasted better with lemon juice than melted butter, to my surprise. I think that crab legs are still the shellfish win for me, but this is not a complaint I'm registering. I greatly appreciated the effort and expense!

Saturday was fun, but hectic and busy. A local crafter's group pow-wow led into an unsuccesful Korean food run which preceeded a graduation party which turned into an unexpected late night hot-tubbing which became an overnight stay which included brunch the next morning with our host's parents. I may not have gotten my explicit mileage in, but given the amount of time I spent on my feet, I'm calling it an exercise win.

Sunday mostly involved the couch, the kitten, and a lot of Discovery Network.

If you want to know what last night was like in these parts, Google "obici tornado".

The storm wasn't bad for me. We got the alert around 4 here at NASA, but all I had to deal with on the drive home was some rain and a bit of wind on the bridge. Starr, on the other hand, stood in her hospital as a funnel came right for the building, tossing around cars in the parking lot and cracking some hospital windows with flying debris.

She had to stay at work a little late, in part because the road home was damaged and closed, but she finally made it home safe and sound, if a little stressed.

We are both fine, though kitty panicked a bit when it took Starr so long to come home. None of our friends have reported any serious difficulties either, for which we are most thankful.

Starr should be coming home tomorrow, or Saturday at the latest.

Her various chemical levels are stabilizing, and the new meds are doing the trick with her digestion. She's itching to come home!

She'll probably still be kept off work for another week or so, but that's cool. I am so pleased that she's getting well and will be back where she belongs!

Midori will be THRILLED!

Slept reasonably well last night, but for some reason I am sluggish and foggy this morning. I remember bits and pieces of the dream I had... something about gorillas loping calmly out of the old General Electric plant back in Salem. In my dream, it was 3am, and rattrap and I had been tasked to do something about the gorilla situation, which I protested because I'd been up all night and had work tomorrow.

These are my dreams, folks. They don't get any more coherent.

Despite, or because of, my mental fog this morning, my brain was quite creative on the drive to work. I fleshed out some more concepts for the webcomic I'm never going to have time or skill to do. I really miss plotting out Artificial Intelligence with Tom Monaghan. If I ever fix or replace my scanner, those old comics really ought to go on the web while I can still find the old print collection.

Midori-kitty has been a lot more affectionate to us the last few weeks, but she's been quite hostile to visitors at the same time. We're thinking it's a territory issue, but she really needs to quit it. This remains our place, not hers, until she's willing to pay rent for it. And she doesn't make much money.

Must. Clear. Head. And. Get Work Done.

This weekend was exhausting. Amazing, but exhausting.

We had a lot of cleaning to do before our guests arrived this weekend. Starr did a lot of it, but I tried to pull my weight. We established Friday's high point when I received a panicked call at work letting me know that Midori had pulled the gerbil cage from the bookshelf and smashed it. Starr finally managed to catch two traumatized but unharmed gerbils, and I screwed the replacement cage to the bookcase... so there, cat.

Why all the kerfuffle? Well, we had a rather special little boy and his parents coming by. Owen is observant, intelligent, cheerful, and energetic; and Starr gave birth to him four years ago, giving him up to a couple in a much better position at the time to give him a stable home.

I hadn't really been aware of "open adoption" before. The idea is that the adoptive parents keep the birth mother in their life, trading phone calls, email, and pictures, and even getting together when possible. Owen has grown up thinking of Starr as a relative who loves him a lot, and I suppose that one day, when he asks very specific questions, he'll get straight answers.

The idea sounds good; an extra close relative in a child's life has to be a bonus, and when he's a teenager trying to figure out who he is, he'll have immediate answers to many of the questions I imagine an adopted child might ask. On the other hand, I can see how the relationships involved might need more work on everyone's part than normal. On the gripping hand, I have some experience of my own with unusual relationships, and I feel the effort's well worth making. I suppose time will tell how it all works out.

More importantly for the time being, Owen was a joy to meet. I'm spoiled by precocious kids like him and Bethany... perhaps it has just as much to do with the parents' determination to raise him as something more than a yard ape. His parents were pretty awesome too; we got along from the beginning, and it only got better when Paul and I started Mac geeking together. Starr reported later that they thought I was a pretty decent guy.

(Actually, they called me 'grounded'. Is there anyone here who knows me who'd have picked the adjective 'grounded' to describe me?)

I greatly enjoyed the day and a half of time with Owen and Paul and Susan; Starr's mom joined us as well. However, all that time of socializing and trying to keep up with a 4-year-old drained me dry. I took a somewhat unwilling nap on Sunday afternoon, and craved a quiet night of WoW afterwards. Wouldn't have missed it though, and Starr's center returned to her after a week of pure frantic. At least next weekend ought to be a bit quieter.

A bit.

I spent a fair chunk of the weekend 'suffering from brain weasels' as they say... just listless, depressed, and grumpy. As near as I can tell, it wasn't anyone's fault, or due to anything going on around me - perhaps my body chemistry fell out of whack, I can't tell. Last night, I consumed a fair amount of chocolate - it seemed to help.

After months of waiting for the money to be available, we have a new kitten! She's 8 weeks old, and is a grey tabby we picked up at the local shelter. Her name is Midori, and she's already fixed and microchipped - she goes in for her first vet visit (since moving in with us) on Thursday. She's sweet, but full of mischief - in other words, perfectly normal.

I may have addicted ptownhiker to Guitar Hero II Saturday night. Heh, heh, heh. Now to spring Katamari Damacy on them!

Finally got your questions ready, fishy1. Sorry about the wait!