Oregon doesn’t have much of a visible military presence. Still, this is an awesome idea and I’m going to remember to say thank you when I can…

The Gratitude Campaign

And hey, Lyse and Larry and the other vets I love — thank you. *hug*

My wonderful Number One Internet Fanboy sent me an e-card from the best e-card site EVER. There’s something in flavors of Deranged, So Not Okay, and Fraked-Up for everyone at WrongCards.

I’m done with the Dark Ages and moving promptly along through the Middle Ages in my Netflix queue. Then I’ll be watching every documentary on the British royal family that I haven’t seen yet (only 5 of them…no surprise, although I’m boycotting most of the Diana flicks as nothing more than pandering to the almighty dollar). And a few other topics upcoming in the queue are: abortion, eight of the American Experience series, profanity, “alternative” relationships (LGBT, polyamory, swinging), submarines, Nikola Tesla, wild animals, body art, religion & anti-religion, taboos in general, death, apocalyptic movies & documentaries, Mae West movies, the paranormal, a scattering of horror flicks, a TV series I never got to see all of (Earth 2) and a TV series I never got to see at all (Space: Above & Beyond). My interests are just a wee bit eclectic, you might say.

The pretty crochet jacket I’m about halfway done with will be too small for me, so I’m going to give it to Geoffrey’s sister, probably for Yule. I really like the pattern, though, and I have tons of the yarn left, so I’m hoping to make one for me, too — I just have to up-gauge the pattern, which isn’t hard once you have nearly 20 years of crocheting experience under your belt! With any luck, I’ll have it done by July.

Having thoroughly enjoyed Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach, I’m looking forward to getting a copy of her newest book, Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex (although I think she should have stuck with the title starting with a 5-letter word, and called it “Boink”).

I’ve started planning the road trip that Lyse & I will be taking the week after my birthday in June …and somebody needs to email me back about the suggestions I made. Since the Oregon Vortex is the core attraction (and it IS highly nifty!), I’ve been looking for other fun places in southern Oregon to visit…and I’ve come to the conclusion that southern Oregon is mainly for people who like to hunt, fish, hike, kayak, spelunk, and otherwise exhaust themselves with outdoorsy activities. Not exactly Lil- and Lyse-friendly type stuff…but hopefully we’ll stumble across enough pioneer cemeteries and other off-beat spots to make up for it. So far it looks like RoadsideAmerica is a good site to look for strange tourist attractions…someday I will take the Stonehenges of America tour. *GRIN*

It’s kind of depressing, though, that I’ve already seen at least half the sites listed in the Oregon section of RoadsideAmerica. Then again, we do have a weird little state…and I still have most of the Washington sites yet to visit!

No matter how tired I am, or what a rotten day it’s been, Jonathan always makes me smile. It still surprises me a little that — just by virtue of holding him & kissing on him & calling him my little buddy — he likes me and wants to glom onto me…or at least have me hold him while he stares transfixedly at the living room decorations, or lunges to grab onto a kitty tail, or makes faces as I feed him a brand-new flavor of Gerber. He’s fascinated by my cell phone, my tongue piercing, my glasses…imagining how things must look to him makes me see things anew, which is damned nifty at times.

And ohmigawd, he is just too damned cute (even in crappy cell-phone pics, which is all I can take at the moment). Here he is, attempting to eat a cell phone:

And my favorite pic of him, which I took from the outdoor side of my sliding glass door while he was on the indoor side:

I’m totally gonzo over this kid — he delights me nearly as much as my own kids ever did, but without all the mixed blessings of parenting!

This is all Karel’s fault. He put it on his blog, and I spent six-and-a-half minutes trying not to frighten my cats with all the hysterical laughter. Definitely the most fun I’ve had in 6 minutes (with my clothes on, anyway!) so far this year.

I’ve just discovered how very excruciatingly difficult it is to find, on the Internet, a high-quality, high-resolution photo of a labyrinth (particularly the Chartres Cathedral style design) without people on it. Apparently everyone and their brother wants to have pictures of themselves, their kids, their dogs, and their girlfriends walking on a labyrinth. (One idiot specializes in multiple-exposure shots with his gal appearing in several places in the same photo. Grrrr.)

I did discover a few pics, which will adorn my desktop at work, that aren’t half bad. They’re just not perfect. But they’ll do, for the time being.

The calendar says it’s April, but apparently Mother Nature didn’t get the memo, because it’s been cold and obnoxious. I say we change the name of the month to Apruary.

I wanted to blog on the 1st, but I couldn’t think of anything appropriate for the day. I knew nobody would believe that I was entering a convent, pregnant with triplets, taking up body painting at Burning Man, or fucking Matt Damon.

Having 5 cats in the house for the last 10 days has been terribly amusing. It did not surprise me that, after the first couple of days, Zadya stopped hissing & growling at the interlopers (Lyse’s cats — Wolverine and Gizmo…gee, you think she likes movies or something?). Nor did it surprise me that Hasani was apparently too stupid to notice that a couple of new cats were in his house, and continued to be terribly confused every time he spotted one of them. It did, however, surprise me that Michiko still hasn’t stopped being afraid of Lyse’s cats. Maybe it’s because they’re both at least double her weight…or maybe she’s just a weird little kitty. I mean, damn — she eats lettuce! What kind of cat loves lettuce?!

Anxiety made us go to IHOP tonight for dinner, because she wanted Who-Cakes. I hate pancakes, but I discovered that they make pancakes with cornmeal — and they’re scrumptious!!! We all made fun of Lyse because she eats her pancakes from the inside out. Then the Red-Headed Stepchild said that she eats her pancakes clockwise, so we made fun of her too.

My new bed is really damned spiffy. It’s HUGE. I made a joke the other day that it’s called a California king-sized because it’s not politically correct to call it “orgy sized.” Desmond at work nearly choked to death laughing. I just love that boy; he’s utterly adorable…even if he did call me “Kitten” when I arrived for my 4 hours of overtime today. (Don’t get any ideas, people. Only Desmond is allowed to call me that. He won my heart a few weeks ago when he arrived at work coughing & sniffling one day, and I asked him if he was sick. He smiled brightly and answered, “Yeah — you wanna make out?”)

In other work news, I was absolutely stunned when I was elected to become one of the two call center reps who helps represent the rest of the reps at meetings. I had no idea that enough people liked me and thought highly of me to vote for me! (I know I’m good at my job, and I try to be likeable, but it still blew me away. I kinda felt like Sally Fields accepting an Oscar.)

Law Dog is one of my heroes. Read this to find out why.

Now going to try to relax and enjoy the rest of my weekend.