Things move forward.

2007 is shaping up so far.

I've moved into a new office at work. It is actually quite nice. My previous office was kind of ad hoc. No windows, random furniture. A desk that barely held the computer and printer. No bookshelf to speak of, dingy yellow walls, etc. The new place was built out of the old store classrooms and is nicely sized, has a new 'L' desk. I have room for my papers now. Overall, pretty sweet.

The better news is that I had a date Saturday night, and it went really well. She's really cool and genuinely seemed to have a good time. Yay!

And now, just because I can, here is a picture of my cat Brother hiding in a tunnel made by my bed Comforter.

Watch Me Fence!

Youtube has a video of me fencing our fencing company's Captain. I am the one in blue. We were just warming up so we're only going about 1/2-to-3/4's speed while fencing. The video, like most on Youtube, is jaggedy and a bit dark. But hey, my first appearance on youtube.

Surprise, Surprise!

I got a call on my answering machine last night. For all my bitching about the Morris scrutiny, they said I had been approved. Go figure. I gathered from the tone of the message that perhaps they called the vet first and were told in no uncertain terms how much effort I had put into saving SaraBelle. I can gather they decided not to continue much further after that. So I can get a kitten or other animal from now until the next 6 months from Morris, which doesn't have a huge selection, sadly. I'm going to wait until kitten season before I give a hard look, however.

Other things in life: Its been freaking COLD of late. Temps in the teens at best. When I went away to California someone decided to turn on winter.

For final fun, I picked up a refurbished laptop computer. Not bad at all, but the first Windows machine I have ever owned. It seems to have some good features (including an unmentioned wireless capability) but it had to reboot about five times before it was ready to be used. Kind of an odd thing since it was obviously doing it on purpose. Weird. Anyway, I now have portable computing ability. Yay!

Kitten time...or not.

I decided that I would start the process of getting a kitten. I doubt I'll get one soon but figured I would get the work started since I was likely to go with Morris animal refuge. So yesterday I went.

Well, I think I am going to skip following up with Morris. In filling out an application, I felt like I might as well be filling out a loan for all the intrusive questions.

Morris has a bit of reputation, they got slammed a few years ago about their poor performance. I have also not heard goot things from friends of family about their adpotion practice. Also not helping is that Brother had serious ear problems when I adopted him that went unnoticed and needed surgery...costly surgery that made the boy from a proud, bold kitten into something of a scardeycat.

I can't say thing seem to have improved much. There were fewer questions on the form from when I went their to adopt one of my other cats, Brother. But I felt like everything about my life was about to be scrutinzed: My vet would be called (OK, fine) my landlord (errr), my employer (WTF!?). They grilled me about the fates of SaraBelle and Vela. I did not feel comfortable.

They told me to call on Monday afternoon to see if I am approved, but honestly I don't think I will be doing that. I'll see if I can find some local animal foster family that wants to let me have a cat. The best kitties I've had came from such homes (Lyra, Vela, SaraBelle) and it seems to be much easier to deal with.

It shouldn't be this hard.

Sucking ass at fencing of late...

I don't know what is wrong, but of late I have just been totally sucking ass at fencing. Physically, I'm reacting fast, and mentally I am either overthinking my game or just not working things right. I've been getting whomped, and it was pointed out to me that my style has changed in a bad way. Apparently I am telegraphing my moves pretty bad.

Not helping matters is that my leg-to-hip joints have been hurting. I have no idea why. It only comes up when fencing.

This is starting to really bug me. I don't know if it is just mental distractions or that my heart just hasn't been in fencing of late. I don't want to take time off from fencing if the latter is the case. That tends to just make things worse.