Keys, please

I think I need to figure out a way to permanently affix a set of keys to my body so that I'm never without. On Saturday, after a lovely day running around rural Virginia with my friend and co-worker, Ann, I had that moment of panic that one gets when you realize you are no longer in possession of your keys. This was sort of a problem, because I was the one who had driven that day, and without my keys, Ann and I were potentially stranded in Culpeper, Virginia. As far as places to be stranded in, Culpeper was quite quaint, but it was quite a distance from home, and I had no one with a set of spares that I could call upon for assistance. We re-traced our steps and got pretty lucky; apparently I had put my keys down at the first antique shop we had gone into, and they had them at the counter, waiting for their owner. I'm just glad I realized I no longer had my keys on my before all of the shops closed at six!

So that brings us to Sunday...I had bought some pretty fall marigolds with which to adorn my rather plain front door and stairs, and I figured I should probably water them before I headed off to my part-time job in DC. I filled up my watering can, went downstairs and left the front door open behind. I had just finished watering the flowers when a stiff breeze came along and blew the door shut. I tried the knob; it was locked. Crap. I was out on the front stoop of my house with wet hair, in a t-shirt, skirt, and flip-flips (it was a little chilly), without my wallet, cell phone or keys. I ran down my list of options: the garage was shut tight, so no getting in that way; I didn't know any of my neighbors well enough to ring their doorbell on a Sunday morning to ask for their assistance; I didn't have any friend in the wings waiting with a set of spares, and even if I did, how was I going to contact that person without my phone?; and that's when I realized I was pretty well screwed and began cursing my cats and their lack of opposable thumbs.

I decided to walk up to the "main street" area of our housing development and see if any of the businesses were open, thinking someone might be nice and lend me a phone book and a phone in order to call a locksmith. I didn't get my hopes up though; I knew that none of the dry cleaners were open on Sundays, which only left the nail salons and I was was pretty sure none of them would be open at 10:20 or so in the morning on a Sunday. Well, fortunately for me, I proved myself wrong as one of the nail salons had just opened up for 10:30. They let me borrow a phone and call a locksmith who I chose based solely on their yellowpage ad that said, "Service in 15 minutes!" After I called and made the appointment, it became quite clear that today was not going to be one of their 15 minute days, as I was told it would take at least 45 minutes for a locksmith to arrive. Great. Now I was locked out and would have to wait outside in the chilly morning and I was going to be late for work.

An hour or so later, after contemplating whether or not I could scale my front porch and climb up to the window I had left open on the second floor, the locksmith arrived and got down to business. The only problem being that he couldn't pick the lock. At this point, thoroughly exasperated, I told him to just drill it out and get to it. I'd fix the lock later, which was fine, because the deadbolt was still operational. 5 minutes and $240 later, and I was finally back in my house. Now I'm trying to figure out ways to hide spare keys all over the outside of our condo so I never ever have to go through that again. Anyone have any ideas?

Documented proof!

Here is evidence of the cats' latest progress in sharing the same dwelling place (the Trish-monster is on the left with her banana, and Josie-cat is eyeballing it jealously on the right, even though she has her own perfectly fine banana in her room, but I digress). As you can see, they're about four feet away from each other. And they're not attempting to eat the other one's face. Amazing! I hope to eventually have the two of them on the couch with me simultaneously (Josie has been bogarting my lap for the past week), but that may require a stronger sedative for me and the cats.

In other news, the husband will be home for a short visit in only a week and a half. Wee! Don't expect us to be answering the phone over the Columbus Day weekend (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

Progress

As I type this, both the Trish-monster and the Josie-cat are occupying the same floor of the house at the same time, without sounding like they'd rather try and kill each other. At some point last night, they were separated only by 8 feet of carpet. It was amazing. I credit this fantastic progress to the cat prozac that my friend Chad told me about over the weekend. I put one in Josie's "safe room" and another where Trish likes to relax in the dining room and they seem to have mellowed them both out a bit. I'm not quite comfortable with having the two cats roam around on their own at night just yet (basically I don't want to be woken up at 4 am by a cat fight), but I think in the next week or so the cats will have reached a point where they no longer really care about the other one. Hopefully I'll be able to grab a photo of the two of them in the same room soon as proof.

In other news, the hubby is doing well in Kansas although he seems to be a bit bored these days. I guess running around with night vision goggles and being flipped over in a vehicle to learn the proper way of escaping a wreckage just doesn't do it for him anymore (I thought it sounded kind of fun). As of right now, he's supposed to get the weekend of Columbus Day off, so he's flying home to hang out with his girls for a day or two. We like to think of Columbus Day as the light at the end of the tunnel...well, this particular tunnel, I guess. As you all know, there will be many more tunnels in the next year, but we're both taking things day by day. Its kind of funny; we've been married for nearly two months, and we've spent five weeks of that time separated. But I'm fortunate in that I have a wonderful group of friends who have taken it upon themselves to make sure that I'm still going out and about and not sitting at home feeling sorry for myself. Hooray for good friends!

History Detective

I realized the other day that I don't really talk a lot about my job on here, which is a shame, actually. I work in a high-end antiques gallery that specializes in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century fine and decorative arts. I get to do a lot of really neat research and the like, something that I often take for granted, like when I used to work in a museum; I was always so busy with various administrative issues that there was hardly any time for independent research. The best part of my job (and also at times the worst) is that no two days are ever the same; one day might be spent doing nothing but genealogical research, tracking down the family history of a particular piece, going through census records, and the next day, I'm digital photographer extraordinaire, photoshop manipulator, and scanning maven.

I also get to work with some really awesome objects, stuff that would normally be behind velvet ropes and in glass cases in museums or historic houses. I could go on for days and days about some of the fabulous things that I've worked with, but unfortunately I can't really go into much details due to intellectual property issues, private owners, and so on and so forth. Which is a total shame, because I love talking about these things. I guess that means you'll just have to come and visit me at work so I can dork out with you in person. History nerds, unite!

A tale of two kitties

Say hello to Josie, the newest member of our family!


Josie's foster mom, Susan, came over this evening to meet the Trish-monster and to interview me regarding the possibility of adoption. I was a little worried about the two cats meeting for the first time (flashbacks of the time that Trish beat up the neighborhood tomcat kept running through my mind), but altogether it went pretty well. Trish hissed a bunch and Josie growled right back at her from the safety of her pet carrier, but neither one went crazy with rage and were actually pretty calm throughout the entire process. Once I secured Trish upstairs in the bedroom, Josie quickly came out of the carrier and set about exploring the house. She seemed very comfortable in her new surroundings and was bold enough to even eat and drink a little bit out of the Trish-monster's bowl (if you've ever met my cat, you'd know how serious of an offense that could be; I worry about losing a finger or two when I go to change her water).

After a very pleasant visit with Susan, she decided that we were a good match for Josie and asked if I would be interested in having Josie stay tonight. Now, I didn't want to be presumptuous, but during my lunch break today, I went out and bought new food and water bowls and a litter box just in case there was a possibility of Josie becoming a part of the fam in the very near future. She's now comfortably set up in the guest bedroom so that she and Trish can get used to the thought (and smell) of each other without being in one another's furry faces. The transition will be slow, but it will be worth it. They seem to be pretty evenly matched in terms of temperament and personality, so hopefully they'll become friends, or at the very least, tolerant of the other's presence.

Oh, one last thing about Josie; she doesn't have a full tail. She has a three inch nub that she wags like a dog. Nubbins!

Prepare for the Catpocalypse

The husband and I have been toying around with the idea of adding another furry feline to our family for some time; whenever we both had a free Saturday or Sunday we'd go to adoption days at some of the local pet stores and ooh and aah over the cuddly kittens and cats. The only problem is that my cat, Tricia, or the Trish-monster as she is affectionately referred to, has a bit of a dominance issue. I mean, she bearly tolerates my presence, and that is likely due to the fact that I feed her and sometimes give her treats. She's a bit grumpy, but I figure she's earned a little of her curmudgeon-like attitude at the age of twelve; no one could argue that Trish is without a personality, that's for sure. An evil personality still counts, right? I kid, I kid.

Anyhow, in the last month or so that the husband's been gone, I've been thinking more and more about adopting a rescued cat. I was browsing Craigslist.org and stumbled across a little cutie by the name of Josie; like Trish, she's a diluted tortie and is 3-4 years old (about the same age Trish was when I adopted her) and is declawed. I immediately forwarded the link to the husband for his thoughts and he was all for it. Fast forward to today and I've been emailing Josie's foster mom and now have an appointment for tomorrow evening for a home visit and face-to-furry-face meeting with Josie at my place. I'm very excited though worried that Trish might attempt to eat her or blow her up. Josie's foster mom has assured me that Josie gets along very well with other cats and has had no problem sticking up for herself, so hopefully all will go well and I'll soon have two bi-polared tortie girls to deal with. Ah yes, crazy cat lady land, here I come.

I drink your milkshake!

Thanks to Brian for the photo

Wow, its been awhile since I last posted anything! Let's see, what's happened recently? Here's the short version: I had a lot of my hair cut off and am now rocking a sassy bob. I picked up some awesome books at the bookstore and simply could not put this down and stayed up entirely too late on a school night in order to read it from cover to cover. I got all riled up over the current political state of things; fortunately for me, I don't have to reinvent the wheel because a lot of what I'm feeling was very eloquently summed up in this article.

There's more, but I'm tired and hungry, so I'll get back to my regular posting schedule this week. I pinkie-swear promise!