Our Internet *may* be down for a few hours...or (gulp) days.

We officially moved into our new house yesterday. I am back at the old house sitting in a pile dirt and debris using the WiFi. Comcast is coming to hook up our new faster (yay!) Internet today-- however, I am honestly a little nauseous because this is an older house...it hasn't had phone or cable in a few years and I am worried that they won't be able to get us connected as planned and the internet is being shut off here tomorrow. Stay tuned...

OSS Family Tree Legends

So I've been playing around with Family Tree Legends the open source genealogy program and I've got to say-- it is pretty great. It is fairly easy to use and can do a remarkable amount. In the course of working on building a sample family tree I learned that my great grandmother was born in Finland and additional bits of scandalous information about babies born out of wedlock, etc. While trying to figure out how to add multiple spouses (after death and divorce) I found this
little gem in the FAQs:

Jargon & Techno-Babble

Bull Shit Generator

House Day

Soooooo...I haven't posted anything here because we've been busy-- Disney World & today we are closing on a house. The kind we will actually get to live in. We have a place in Carbondale that we bought and then moved away from and it has been rented ever since...so we've been all about paint samples and scotch-guard and blinds and stuff and I've been a titch distracted from my school work.

On an e-book note: Amazon is having a Sunshine sale with 600+ ebooks for $2.99 or less.

Sunshine Deal

Scrabble Bites or Our House ...Smells Like Cat Pee

I have always considered myself a cat person. I have found cats to be generally quiet, clean, and independent animals. Jeremy is also a cat person so a few years ago we decided that we needed a cat. On a trip to Grand Junction we followed-up on an advertisement in the paper for KITTENS. We drove to a dilapidated trailer set back from the road in a weed infested yard complete with goats on the roof and snarling dogs chained to a doghouse. An enormous woman came out with three or four dirty, feces encrusted mewing babies.

"Which one do you like?" Jer asked...

"Ummm...I guess this one is the least filthy?" I replied.

"I call that one Little Turd..." the goat woman said proudly.

"Hmm...really? Well, we'll call him Scrabble" Jer said.

We took him home and washed him with special cat grooming wipes. We fed him Kitten Chow and provided him with fresh water and clean litter. He was adorable. We snuggled with him on the couch and cooed over his cute kittenish ways.

Scrabble grew up. He grew into a fat, orange, stripy cat. The kind of cat whose likeness is featured on product packaging. The kind of cat you want to see sleeping in your windowsill with plants. The kind of cat that inspires watercolor paintings by grannies. The kind of cat who HATES me.

I am not certain what it is about me that irritates Scrabble...but it is clear he wishes me harm.

When I walk near him, he bites me.
When I pet him on the head, he bites me.

When he bites me, he draws blood. He leaves scars. He is is vicious.

Only last week he took an enormous chunk out of my calf.

He also pees on everything we own.

Jer says this is ALL because...

"You throw him"

I admit it, I have thrown him...in the past. But in my own defense, I have only thrown him for a few reasonable reasons:

1. He has just bitten me
2. He has just peed on something
3. He has just puked


I do not like to be bitten and I do not want to be known as "the cat pee people"
you know them...
the people who smell like CAT PEE.


We have since gotten a second cat...
because we wrongly assumed that if Scrabble had a friend he would perhaps not bite as often.
Fiona is a lovely cat...
She is gray.
She is small.
She is friendly.
She loves to be petted.
She does not bite and I have NEVER observed her peeing on anything we own.

I still consider myself a cat person...
I'm just not a Scrabble cat person.