When I was a teenager and was preparing to start back to school (I think it would have been my first semester at TCC) I read an article that said that cats were not really the loner creatures that we have stereotyped in our society, they are actually much more social and benefit from having a companion. Since this was in Jeanny's first year, I talked my parents into allowing another cat; as the boys & I would be at school, parents would be at work, and poor kitten would be left all alone.

My mom finally caved, but set the condition that the new cat had to be orange, remembering a cat she had had when she was younger. A few days later I was in the backyard and who should come strolling up but a lovely orange kitten, with orangeish eyes even. Faced with fate, what could my parents do but accept her? Mom named her Pumpkin and she got on fairly with everyone except of course Jeanny.

I put a "found" ad in the paper, but no-one claimed her. She had what seemed to me a very shy, retiring personality and appeared overly cautious. I always had the impression that she really couldn't see very well (though I think that she heard better than your average cat). She was always very curious about things, once burning off some of her whiskers when she insisted on sniffing the candle flame. This didn't stop her from being curious though. Once when I was peeling off the stickers off of some used books, Pumpkin came along. Came up beside me on the sofa and started sniffing at a sticker. To show what it was, I took one and stuck it on her side. You would have thought I'd hit her. She zoomed thriough the living room, up the stairs and into the safest place she knew: under my bed. I had to crawl under the bed, apologizing all the way, to get close enough to pull the sticker off. As it was, she had been trying to escape into the wallpaper.

This didn't mean that she wouldn't stand up for herself though. She did let Jeanny push her around to a certain extent, but once her limit was reached, watch out! When Ev got a puppy, Jeanny ran away and hid from this frightening new intruder, but Pumpkin stood her ground when he came rushing up to her and clawed his nose. Even though she still wouldn't usually be in the same room with him, Jimmy left her strictly alone.

She always was an outdoor cat, but when she was inside you hardly knew she was there. Pumpkin really practiced the Art of Being Unobtrusive. Very often, I would visit a only catch a glimpse of her out of the corner of my eye the whole time. She wasn't really a cuddle kitty, either. When she was younger, she just seemed to endure pets, as is she really shouldn't accept them, but when she was older she seemed to have mellowed that attitude a bit, though she would only let you if you somehow managed to catch her.

As I write this, earlier in the evening Michael had called me to let me know that my parents had taken Pumpkin to the vet. Turns out she had a hyperthyroid and her kideys were failing. Even if the vet managed to get the hyperthyroidism under control, her kidneys would be permanently damaged & remain at about 20-25% functionality. Plus she would have a lot of discomfort. So my parents decided the best thing would be to let her go. I will always remember Pumpkin as a very sweet cat, and I hope Bast rewards her well in her next life.

I haven't posted here in a bit, as stuff has been happening lately.

First:

I am starting to get a bit Austen-ed out. I do enjoy Persuasion, and Miss Austen seems to be taking pains to be fairly clear as to what is happening, so that although there are more people running around, the relationships are not quite as confused. It's just getting a bit tiring, that world. I'm almost wanting Anne to run into Catherine or Isabella, or hear Captain Wentworth's opinion on Mr Wickham. Well, I'm more than halfway through, so it would be a shame to stop now, but I'm not sure I wouldn't like a clean break instead of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Also, I seem to be doing fairly well on the bookcrossing front as well. Spirit announced that they would be having a booksalein September, so I have been registering books on my first and second breaks and then handing them over to the Spirit rep at the end of the day. So far I have given almost 200 books, as well as donating 3 stuffed bags to a community yard sale that happened last weekend. (glaive forbade me from going over there to if they hadany I needed. ;) ). I plan ok trying to register and give to Spirit as many as I can before they stop accepting donations, and I have a newly formed resolution of completely emptying my available shelf by this time next year.

Does anyone know if the Macbooks are prone to overheating? Yfandes has overheated (to the point of not working) every day for the last week. She runs fine while I am using her, but when I stop and close it up, the fan comes on and won't stop, overheating the MacBook. To get it working again, I have to take it off power, completely drain the battery, let it cool down, then reattach the power cord and reboot it. Not only is this a pain, but it can't be good for the comptuer either. Anyone have suggestions?

When I was a kid, roller skating was fun; but sometime in middle school, it stopped being fun and became "uncool" so I stopped and never really looked back.

Recently, I had a dream which featured skating so I thought it would be fun to give it a try. I didn't want to do rollerblading, as I had found in the past that my feet were too wide to comfortably skate with them, and I didn't want to shell out the $60+ bucks that Internet retailers are asking for, so I thought "Hey, why don't I try to see if there's a skating rink in my area, grab a couple of friends and go skating! It should be fun!"

So I got glaive,sulky_girl, and jadetiger (herinafter known as " the usual suspects") together, and we went roller skating!

It was both the same and different than I remembered. The heat and humidity were somewhat of a shock, although they were also familiar. There actually weren't that many people there, which turned out to be somewhat of a blessing. '70's guy was there, wearing a sleeveless Hard Rock cafe t-shirt, American flag short shorts, and a magnificant mullet, which was later proved to be a wig.

There were also a couple of pro skaters, as evinced by their tricked out personal skates and relaxed attitude; and there were a lot of kids as well.

Everyone quickly got their skating legs back, except for me, who was the only one in my party falling down... a lot. I'm sure that I was the object of ridicule for the entire rink, but no-one was cruel enough to laugh in my face, for which I was grateful.

Towards the end, I was improving, though still a far cry from what I remember. I think I would like to go back, once my bruises fade a bit, and try again to recapture that part of me. Maybe I can get to the point where it's boring again, so then would feel justified in buying outdoor skates. ;)

Catherine is beginning to grow on me a bit, which helps a lot. I would not be able to stand it if she turned out to be quite as silly as Miss Austrn had her start out to be.

I really like Mr. Tinley and hope that he is going to be the hero. Mr. Thorpe is an ass and now I hope that Mr. Moreland dosen't marry Isabella so we won't see any more of them.

Definitely have to read The Mysteries of Udolfo when I finish this. It promises to be a real rip. I have a hard time deciding whether Miss Austen was deriding or praising this book the way her characters go on about it.

Your result for The Social Persona Test (What kind of man/woman are you?)...

The Renaissance Faire Wench (QLAF)

Quirky Liberal Alpha Female

Take The Social Persona Test (What kind of man/woman are you?) at HelloQuizzy

First day at home. Do I unpack? No. Do laundry? No. Spend the entire day in bed catching up on sleep? No.

Immediatly download and watch the Doctor Who Easter special, draining my laptops battery in the process because I was too impatient to hook it up to power?

YES!

Home now. Cats somewhat disbelieving. Why is it so goral cold? This is late April people.