A Cat's Thoughts

   Belief-o-matic

Yesterday in Assembly they were welcoming new members. It was a fun ceremony that made me even more comfortable with the UU church. During the ceremony they mentioned that one of the new members had foun UU through Belief-O-Matic - a website with a 20 question quiz that will tell you what religion fits best with your current beliefs.

Well I decided to try it out and here are my results.

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Neo-Pagan (90%)
3. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (85%)
4. Liberal Quakers (82%)
5. New Age (76%)
6. Secular Humanism (76%)
7. Mahayana Buddhism (70%)
8. Theravada Buddhism (68%)
9. New Thought (57%)
10. Bahᦣ39;í †aith (54%)
11. Taoism (54%)
12. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (53%)
13. Reform Judaism (51%)
14. Nontheist (48%)
15. Scientology (47%)
16. Sikhism (44%)
17. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (43%)
18. Hinduism (39%)
19. Orthodox Quaker (39%)
20. Jainism (36%)
21. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (29%)
22. Jehovah's Witness (26%)
23. Orthodox Judaism (23%)
24. Seventh Day Adventist (13%)
25. Eastern Orthodox (13%)
26. Islam (13%)
27. Roman Catholic (13%)

I have to say that I was amused by the results. It also seems that it will be a good thing for me to continue attending UU Assemblies, at least for now.

   Weekends

Ok it's been about three weeks now since I had a real weekend. I'm talking about a day when nothing needs to get done on a schedule. A day (even just one) when I'm accountable to no-one but Sweetie (and even that should be negotiable). And it's spring break for crying out loud and I'm still running around like a chicken with it's head cut off.

Now, before everyone goes running to the comment box to tell me that I'm doing too much, I have to tell you that everything that I'm doing is important to me. I enjoy most of it (I could live with a few less hours of work). I want to do all of it and more. But somebody decided that there would be only 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week and humans need to sleep at least 6 hours per night.

Take this weekend for example - it's pretty typical. Saturday started at about 9:30 when Tony decided that the humans had had the bed long enough and it was well passed his nap time. So we got up and rudely started right in with the power tools puting up the kitty ledge under the window. (It had originally been intended to be a book shelf, but since we put it under the windo and there are birds out the window we doubt that anything we put on there will stay where we put it). In the middle of that project, a friend called to say that she was finished with her Saturday morning obligations and was ready to meet us for lunch. So we cleaned up and headed out. Lunch took about 3 hours because we were silly enough to order the 7 course dinner at a Vietnamese restraunt. The meal was good and fun and way too much food, but that put us way behind schedule.

After lunch my friend and I dropped her husband at home to fix the truck, Sweetie went to the Coffee Shop and we headed for a fabric store to look for lace to make my wedding dress out of. It took a while, but we finally found a lace that I would be happy with, but since it would need to be special ordered I marked down what it was and left it at that (we have more than a year left to plan this). Then we wandered over to the pattern section and came up with all sorts of ideas about how the attendants should be dressed. We found one really cool pattern for the guys, but the gals are being more difficult - we eventually decided to mix and match a couple of patterns together to get a look that would be flattering to all three "bridesmaids". Fortunately she's a better seamstress than I am so I'm sure the dresses will all turn out nice.

After that I hurried back to the Coffee shop to meet Sweetie and the rest of our gaming group and spent most of the evening pretending to be a brownie herbalist with three apprentices, a elven mage room mate who has an appretice of his own and two fox companions.

Sunday morning started with the alarm going off when it thought it was 8am (it thinks that it's earlier than it is so that it will induce panic early enough in the morning to be effective). Grandma and Grandpa's christmas presants were wrapped and then off to First Unitarian Society for a forum on Social Justice, followed by Assembly (the sermon was about Gay marriage and why we should support it - way cool if you ask me). Then lunch at the Coffee shop and off to visit the Deaf Nursing home residents. After two hours of gossiping about people I don't know in my second language, it was back to the Coffee Shop to collect Sweetie again and then to Grandma's house for dinner (and Christmas gift exchange - finally). Then home to do home work.

Tomorrow the week starts all over again with a 10 hour work day. Classes resume on Thursday. I expect that I won't see a weekend until sometime in June.

   Growing things

I have a tray full of wet Peat Pellets sitting on a shelf over the kitchen sink (thank you Sweetie). There is a grow light attached to the cabinet directly above them (thank you again Sweetie). And for the last couple of days I've been carefully watering them and making sure that they get enough light and they've just sat there looking like little plugs of dirt wrapped in gauze.

This morning I peaked into their container and saw little shoots just starting to poke through the top of the dirt. It was the first confirmation that there is life in there. Soon I'm going to have a tray full of little plants clammoring for more space. Then the real gardening will begin.

   Beware of Home Depot

This is a warning to all you creative types out there. Home Depot is a dangerous place. It will suck your wallet dry. Though you will probably be happy with what you get in return. The following is a cautionary tale.

It started innocently enough when Sweetie picked me up from work on Monday. "Let's stop by Home Depot on our way home." I didn't think it would be that bad. Mom had just given us some money and there were a few things that could use improving around the house.

When we arrived at the store, there was a parking spot just waiting for us - near the exit door. We parked and headed for the entrance without a clue of what was in store. I should have noticed something when we walked through the door. The seed display stood there, tempting us to take up gardening.

"Ha" I thought "Silly display doesn't know that we don't have a garden, or even a lawn that could be turned into a garden." That's when the sneak attack came - just behind the seed display, were the light bulbs. Among them... full spectrum bulbs designed specifically for growing plants indoors.

"Oooh" Sweetie cooed "we could put one up in the kitchen and I could grow fresh herbs."

I should have known better. But Sweetie's ability to turn herbs into fantastic dinners clouded my judgement.

"That sounds like a good idea." I said.

After that we went in search of lighting fixtures to put up in the kitchen, under the cabinets. Then we needed a shelf to put the plants on so that they could sit right under the life giving light. On the way we noticed the bathroom displays and found the cutest set of towl racks that we just had to have - they'd go so well with the new paint in the bathroom. Speaking of which we were down to just 2 working lightbulbs in there so back to the light bulb display.

A hundred dollars later we loaded the car and headed home. We started puting up our new aquisitions when we noticed that we were missing a few things. Shelves for the other wall in the kitchen. Plants to grow under our new grow light. Oh and while we're at it, we might as well put up a shelf in the bedroom for school books and the cat - he so loves to look out the window but has no where to sit.

One thing led to another and today we found ourselves in Home Depot again. Looking at shelves, plotting a major remodeling of the kitchen (including hiring contractors), dreaming about the hardwood floors we want, picking up giant sized pot to put out on the porch - for the container garden.

Nearly $200 later we again loaded the car and headed home to get started on all our new projects (never mind that most of yesterday's projects had yet to be completed). It took three trips from the car to the house to bring everything in.

Now I have 5 dozen seeds sitting in peat pellets in the kitchen. There are brackets and shelf boards propped up against various walls throughout the house and I have the feeling that my weekends from now until the end of summer have been filled.

On the up side, most of what we've done will raise the value of my little condo so when we out grow these rooms, we'll have a better start on a bigger house with more potential projects.

   It's official

It is now officially spring, but I think that someone forgot to tell the weather. We heralded the return of the sun on Saturday at the CUUPS open Ostara ritual, and now we are just waiting for spring to actually appear.

Actually, we did more than just show up at CUUPS and follow directions. Somehow we've managed to get ourselves onto the ritual planning team and are now thoroughly involved in the group.

Sweetie made eggs for the ritual. He made something close to 50 plaster eggs to be painted and blessed. He spent most of the last week casting and sanding and priming the eggs. They were really cool - and people seemed to enjoy painting them before the ritual. A lot of people didn't even notice that they weren't real eggs. I for one am happy that they are now out of our house. I was getting a little tired of the plaster dust all over the place and they were begining to invade every flat surface we had.

I spent the last 2 weeks working out ASL translations for 2 of the chants, and then got to sign them during the ritual. It was fun and challenging and nerve wracking all at the same time. Poetry is some of the hardest things to translate, and chants are basically short poems set to music repeated over and over and over again.

I was so nervous about it that I had to tell Sweetie not to let me back out. "From this point on, any complaints of being sick or other reasons that I can't go are to be considered lies." I told him at about noon. When it was over I was very glad that I had done it. Next time it will be easier. Eventually I won't have to tell Sweetie not to believe me.

This is just the begining. I will be translating more of the chants for the next ritual. And as my skills improve, I'll sign more and more of the rituals until eventually I'll be interpreting them whole. That's daunting to think about now. Even still the small steps that I'm making will help, and when it gets to that part I'll be ready. At least, that's what I prayed for and meditated about during the ritual.

So now it's spring, I've planted my pea and with it my plans to continue growing in ASL. Wish me luck.

   My picture

I swiped this from Lili.

Here's how it works:
Go to Google.com
Enter your first name only (or your online name)
click on "image" and then search
Pick your favorite image from the first page and post it to your blog

Here's what I found.

It's nice to know that I'm so classical.
Have fun.

   Basking in the glow

It's been a wonderful thing lately. Good things are happening to people around me, and I get to bask in the glow. It's a lovely thing to know that your friends are getting what they want.

First off, my good friend Andy is planning a really cool trip around the world. He's quitting his job and taking a back pack and going off to see the world for a year (or maybe longer). I've been watching the process with fascination and a little envy. He started by writing his personal mission statement - an interesting activity. Now he's got a rough itinerary, a departure date and a blog. He's sorting through all his stuff and shopping for the perfect back pack. Soon I'm going to have a friend somewhere out there in the world. All I ask is that he bring me back so good descriptions and stories.

Then, I just found out that my friend Doobs won a prestigeous award at work (that came with all sorts of goodies like desk clocks, company stock and breakfast with the CEO). Of course all of these things come with a downside - like having to get up early (she works nights) to attend that breakfast with the CEO and everyone in the company wants to hug her. I'm so thrilled for her.

Other than that, I've heard of good job news from several friends. There's a lot of "WooHooing" going on in the OWW. With all this good stuff floating around, I can't wait to see what's next.

   ...And he bought me flours

I must have the best sweetie in the world. He has been very supportive of my wacked out schedule with school and homework and projects and all the other stuff that I do. He cooks, he cleans, he shops, he puts up with my off the wall opinions, and through it all, he stays sweet and kind and loving (most of the time).

The best though came this weekend. A week ago, I was so busy with all my various commitments that I woke up monday and wondered where the weekend had gone. By Wednesday it had caught up to me and I had to go home early, so Sweetie came to pick me up - since I probably couldn't have driven safely at that point anyway.

Then this Saturday morning rolled around and I slept through it. I remember hearing him tell the cat that "mommy's sleeping", and then nothing until noon. When I woke up, the cat was curled tightly next to me and the blankets were tucked in around me so that I wouldn't feel the draft. Getting up I went downstairs to find that Sweetie had already been out and back once - to the post office to pick up a package we'd been anticipating.

He was out again at that time, this time going to Sam's club to pick up all the bulk foods that we needed and blank order forms for my jewelry. I had a nice relaxing morning... er afternoon... while I cuddled the cat and dog and played on the computer.

Sweetie got home just a little later, and brought with him a huge bottle of chocolate syrup - for making chocolate milk, the rolls I like from Sams, exactly the right kind of order form (and I hadn't even called him to remind him what I wanted) ... And Roses.

He brought me a whole bunch of sweetheart roses (2 dozen pretty pink roses).

This is the first time I remember getting flowers from someone other than my mother without threatening them first (my date for prom did bring me a corsage, but only because I told him that he HAD to or face my wrath). I don't have a vase for that many roses, so I broke them up into several small jars, vases and glasses and have them set up around the house. Now, no matter what room I'm in, I remember that HE BOUGHT ME FLOWERS