A Cat By Any Other Name

I feel a bit awkward here. But then I suppose that is simply normal for the first few days at a new job. And it is with grim amusement that I have to consider just how often I’ve dealt with those first few awkward days in the past year or two. I am hoping that [...]

When things are happy and light and good, I don’t mind the lack of friends so much. After all, there are Richard’s friends, and there is my family, and there are acquaintances I have through work or church. When things are happy and I’m perfectly content with life, those all seem adequate. Yes it would [...]

My older sister called last night, and we talked for a while. She let me unload on her, and she sympathized. I know I’m not the only one who’s felt this isolated, but still, sometime it’s nice to have that validation in person. I also know that, logically, the ability to find new friends remains [...]

The bushes that line our driveway are wild with red leaves and white clusters of flowers, and the rose bushes that are growing over the arbor gate to the side of the house have exploded in tiny yellow and white blooms. Even our two tiny little trees in the front yard have flowers, and the [...]

I called my parents, and my dad answered the phone. “Yes?” “I’m watching scallions on my laptop! Dancing scallions singing about how the King likes Daniel more than them!” There is a pause. “They’re not scallions.” “They’re not? Then what are they?” “They’re leeks. They’re the leeks of Babylon.” I think it’s becoming an obsession. [...]

The weather – which has been wavering between sunny and cloudy all week – took a sudden plunge for the worse this weekend. This was to be expected, of course, since Saturday was Picnic Day. Picnic Day is the open house for UC Davis. Each year on Picnic Day, all the departments open their doors [...]

If we hadn’t gone wireless in the house, I would have been perfectly content to give up the work laptop. Before we went wireless, work laptops tended to sit in their carrying cases in some dusty corner of the computer room until such time as I had to actually *use* them for work, and only [...]

“I have babies,” said the woman who is teaching me to knit. I perked up immediately, as she knew I would. “How old?” “Five weeks. Orange and black tabbies and one tri-tabby with a little orange smudge on her head.” It was no surprise to anyone when I suddenly declared that I was in need [...]

I have started knitting the sweater. And I’ve discovered some useful facts about what I am doing. The first is that when knitting in a circle, if one is very clever and talented, one can somehow manage to actually end up knitting a mobius strip. One will also not actually figure this out until one [...]

The gardener came by yesterday afternoon to go over everything he’s done so far (the sod and the irrigation system) and to talk about what we’d like him to do next (lay all the paths). While we were walking around the yard, he took us over the arbor gate in the side yard and pointed [...]