Summarizing

Lots has happened since my lat post.

Last Saturday, Jennifer and I had to give Pom up to someone else so that she could have a better life. She was acting out from anger, and was pretty miserable being stuck inside. We are hoping that she will be happy in her new home. We are still pretty sad, but it is getting better.

Yesterday I got word from both Bank of the West and the recruiter from Haley & Aldrich. Both companies ended up going with someone else for the positions. However, this morning, I got an interview for next week for Ninyo & Moore in Oakland.

Comcast is still dragging their feet, but are working with the property manager for their survey. Eleven out of 14 of the units want Comcast in some form or another, so we're hopeful for a speedy resolution.

Unpacking progresses, and we're down to the office, and then getting things on shelves to decorate them. And of course hanging pictures.

Shudder...

What exactly is the proper PPE for getting a rat out of the house?

Well, today it was socks, sweat pants, and leather fireplace gloves.

This afternoon, Pom kept looking under one of the hall tables. Finally, I got Jennifer to help me move it, and as it moved, a rat ran out from underneath. Pom had somehow snuck a live one into the house.

Thus ensued the chase. It began in the sitting room, and went back and forth between us behind one of the love seats. Then it got past us and went into the library. Luckily it didn't get behind the six foot tall bookshelves.

However it did get past us again and made it into the media room. And into the couch.

It took refuge in one of the arms, and we tipped the couch forward and had it trapped there. I ran for the gloves, and a pair of scissors. I cut a little length of the fabric of what would be the bottom of the couch, and holding the flashlight in one gloved hand, I reached in after the rat with the other (also wearing a glove). After three misses, two of which I felt the tail slip through the glove (-2 to DX rolls anyway due to thickness), and a third where it jump onto the glove and peeked out before I yelled and it dropped back inside, I got a good grab on it body.

Through the glove, I could feel it breathing and possibly even feel its heartbeat. I kept a strong grip on it, and could not bring myself to crush it in my hand. So I took it outside (we had all the doors open in the hopes of driving it out, originally) and threw it as far as I could into the bushes.

Then the adrenaline wore off, and Jennifer about broke down. And the mighty hunters celebrate with a Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat for her and #4 of my remaining Guinness 250s. Pom is outside and doesn't drink beer.

I think I may go curl into a ball now.

Suprise Visitor

Saturday, Jennifer was out for the morning, and while I was at my computer, I heard this strange tapping at the window (and right now The Alan Parsons Project's "The Raven" comes on my iPod).

I turned around and didn't see anything, so I went back to what I was doing.

Soon I heard another tapping, and I turned around and saw a tiny little bird on the outside ledge looking in. Not at me, but into the room. He kept coming back, so I took some pictures.

In this first one, you can see him flying:


In these two he is down near the bottom left corner of the window. You can just see his head:

One other time before I could get down and take the picture, he was perched on the divider of the two windows looking in sideways.

As I kept looking in, he retreated into the bushes, and didn't come back.

I told Jennifer about it, but didn't think anything else about it. Until today, when she called me to tell me the bird was back.

Apparently it's taunting Pom. Jennifer can see the window from her desk because our desks face each other. She said the bird kept tapping until Pom came in to look at it. Then of course, she wanted out to go chase the birds.

The Healing Continues

Thursday was another day for photography. I put on my Goorin Brothers hat, and Jennifer and I went wandering for pictures. We did some at the loft, and then moved on to a couple parks. It was another wonderful experience between the two of us. We really had fun.

Afterwards we drove to Livermore for three weeks' worth of comics. Bob is so great to me. DC Comics is having their big crossover with Blackest Night, and they're giving out replica rings for all of the various Corps. For the Black Lanterns that should probably be Corpses. But Bob had all of them ready for me. All of the ones that are out at least (Violet, Indigo, Blue, Yellow, and Orange). I asked him when the Black ring was coming out, and he said they already had. then he pulled out the bag, and handed me one. Next week Red and Green come out.

Of course I already have to of the Green replicas from the 90s. they're a little higher quality plastic and have a glow in the dark center.

After comics, Jennifer and I went to On the Border in Dublin for margaritas and spicy tacos.

Friday I did nothing.

I read my comics, and Jennifer read the new Audrey Niffenegger. She finished that this morning when she got up, so now I can read it.

Then for fun and dinner, we went to Wendy's. And we took Pom with us. We did the drive-thru, and Pom was funny the whole way. she stayed close to Jennifer trembling a little unless Jennifer was holding her close. Then as we were in the line she prairie-dogged to look out the windows. Finally when we got home, she recognized everything, and felt safer wandering around the car.

We'll have to do that more often.

Unexpected Visitor

Last night while Jennifer and I were watching the Steelers-Broncos game, Pom was outside. She then came to the window of the media room and scratched at the sill so be let in.

I went and got her, loved on her, and brought her in to Jennifer where she got more love.

Maybe 15 minutes after that, there was another scratch at the window.

I immediately looked for Pom because I couldn't remember letting her out. She was curled up on the carpet, so I looked at the window. There were two cat eyes looking in at us.

I went tot he front door, and called for the cat, and this gorgeous black cat walked by. It was about Pom's size, with short shiny fur, but its hindquarters graded into medium length hair and that medium hair made its tail all bushy. I got one body rub on it before it walked by and curled up around one potted plant in the front. I went to approach it, but it started growling. I went back to the door and Jennifer tried to approach. It growled and hissed at her, but didn't leave.

We ended up leaving Pom in for the rest of the evening, but we brought out a little bowl of food for the black cat. I went out to get the bowl before we went to bed, and some of the food had been eaten.

I don't know if we'll see this one again, but it was really pretty.

Wondrous Well

First off you will excuse the typing. I will try to spell check, but I'm doing this post with just one eye open. Pom got mad at me and swatted me across the face. either it was from too much petting, or she was mad that we were gone all day. Either way, she just missed my eye. So the scratch starts halfway between my hairline and my eye and goes about a quarter inch onto my eye lid just above the eye.

Ow.

But the reason why we were gone all day was our visit to the renaissance Faire in Casa de Fruita.

it was hot thee today. Jennifer said that it reminded her of the times in the old Blackpoint Forest location in Novato. My shirt got soaked with sweat, and I've got some serious salt stains on it. I'll get some pictures when it is completely dry tomorrow.

But the day was fun, we bought things, drank a little, but not too much, and saw some shows. We met some nice people, and enjoyed each other's company.

We'll be going next weekend with some other people, and I'm sure we'll see more performances.

Seeing Red

I'm not sure why, but Pom sees red.

One day I came home, and she had gotten into Jennifer's crocheting thread (essentially cotton yarn). Now of course cats love yarn, but which one did she play with leaving a trail of unwound ball from the media room down the hall, through the library and dining room, and out into the garage? The red one.

I just rolled the ball back up and nothing happened for a while.

Then a couple years ago, Jennifer was making party items out of red leather string. Pom had made cat toys out of leather shoelaces (for topsiders), but these red lengths fascinated her. So the left over piece became her new toy. Then after the party, the leftover pieces got cannibalized into a kitty flogger (only 7 tails though).

Then last night Jennifer was laying on the floor, and I was rubbing her head. Pom became fascinated with Jennifer's red hair moving ever so slightly. She hunkered down and watched, tail twitching, and then she pounced on the hair. She clawed at it a bit, and then bit it with a bit of licking thrown in.

It was a lot like how she cleans her tail. It was like she was playing the Jennifer's tail... that's stuck on her head.

Video Fun

All right, videos from today that have impressed me.

So first there's one of Al Franken drawing the United States freehand. I find this pretty impressive. However, whenever I see Al Franken, I picture him dressed up as a Hare Krishna on Saturday Night Live.



Next a cat running it's head under a faucet. I put it in for the WTF factor. Although there are times when Pom does this in a smaller fashion. But usually it's because she's rubbing her head on the faucet while she's getting a drink.

Further Excitement

Tonight about 9:45 there was a lot of noise in the bushes outside of our home office.

I heard running feet, and looked outside. A saw a cat streak by (short haired tail), and then her boys laughter and saw a dog.

I rushed out to ask what they were doing. They said they were running the dog. I asked if they were chasing cats too. They said yes. At that point Jennifer came out and yelled a bit.

Pom was nowhere to be seen. The cat I had seen was an unknown tabby that had been treed nearby.

About half an hour later Pom came home... smelling of smoke and potpourri.

Pom and Painting and iPods

So Pom has been fine. No more insane perfume and potpourri smell. Jennifer wants to keep her inside all the time, but that'll just driver her crazy.

I did a little more painting on miniatures. I'm, working on Jennifer's mini and one called Spirit of the Forest. He'll make a great wood elemental. And my mushrooms are not going to be all sweet and spotted either.

And then Sunday, I killed most of my evening having to rebuild my main playlist. I was meaning to delete a song from the list, but I hadn't selected a song yet, so it deleted the whole playlist. I had to reconstruct the list of over 6,000 songs.

My knees and ass were sore from sitting so long.

Amusement and Worry

Today we spent the day at The Amusement Park Formerly Known as Marine World Africa USA. And it has become as bad as we have feared. There is hardly any education associated with the animal shows. And it is just insanely loud. It can't be good for the animals.

Then when we got home Jennifer and I went our separate ways, but now we are worried because Pom went out three hours ago, and hasn't returned yet.

I'm going to wait another hour before I start to really worry. We keep her inside at night because of raccoons, and general care. I'm hopeful that she is all right, but for now, I'm saddened.

***

And as I wrote the above she came and scratched at the window of the media room. Jennifer got up and let her in, and we knew exactly where she had been...

In our neighbor's house.

She smelled like bad potpourri and cigarette smoke.

We're going to have to confront our neighbor.

A Mighty Huntress is Our Pom

All right, below is a picture of the rat that my cat Pom caught last Thursday. We didn't see it until Friday morning (about 1:00 AM) when we got back from seeing Star Trek. It was very neatly placed in the very center of the garage where it would be between our two cars.

She's a good cat, our Pom. You'll note that the rat would be almost 8 inches long if it we straightened, and the tail is at least that long as well. Pom might just be 15 inches from her shoudlers to the base of her tail, and about 12 inches tall at the shoulder.

We are all very impressed.

2,000 + 16 Words

So, at the top, a happy Pom; at the bottom about one year's worth of comics.

Yeah, I should have taken a picture of it...

I forgot to tell you about Sunday night.

Jennifer is in reading, and I'm on the computer. Outside the window I hear Pom meow. Pom rarely meows, so I click my tongue a few times at her, and go to let her in.

She comes walking slowly, another odd sign, and I can hear her purring.

RED FLAG!

While Pom does purr, you usually have to put your head to her chest. And I'm hearing it from over five feet away.

That's when I notice what looks like a long string hanging from her mouth.

Now, she has brought three love presents to us since we've had her.

The first we didn't discover for a while, and by the time we had, the mouse had settled between the openings in the rubber doormat. That took some scrubbing, but we praised her all the same.

This apparently provided encouragement, for the next day I found her in the garage with another mouse rubbing it on her cheeks while she rolled back and forth on the ground. Jennifer held and praised, then took her inside, while I threw the body away.

Gift three was alive. We had just gotten back from Key West and she came slowly into the media room, and dropped something. Which presently began to scamper towards the bookshelves. I quickly dumped my popcorn into Jennifer's bowl, and scooped the thing up in my bowl. Fortunately lizards can't gain purchase on a combination of curved stainless steel, butter, oil, and salt. Pom had been playing with this one too, because some of the tail was missing. This one I released back into the wild of the English Ivy.

Sunday's love gift, was a moue or a rat. I'm not sure, but it was definitely a rodent. I called Jennifer and she held and praised, while I cleaned up again. In the sitting room. And while I got gloves, Jennifer said she saw it move. Death throws, I hope. So I scooped it up with latex gloves and the garbage can lid, where it kept falling onto a pose looking like it was alive. And I carried it to the garbage can. Now the body was probably no more than 3 inches long, but the tail was probably 6 inches.

At this point, I do my best Mr. Burns shudder.

However, the song of the night was "A Mighty Huntress Is Our Pom".