Hectic

Last week was interesting, and by interesting I mean, yes, hectic. It's rather sad that it was a short week too, but because of a combination of it being a short week and INS's sense of timing, I took the train back to Davis Monday morning, took another train back to Santa Clara Tuesday afternoon, to have my mom drive me back Wednesday morning so I would only miss one of my classes, which I then made up for by attending a different session Wednesday night so I'd be prepared for the quiz Thursday morning. (It's physics, in case you're wondering.) That's not to mention the organic chemistry midterm on Friday right after a Latin quiz. But we have a Latin quiz every week, so I don't suppose I should factor that in anymore. Oh yes, and worked on Thursday and Friday afternoon in the invasive woody plants lab.

Now that'd bring me up to my bio midterm this Thursday, except I feel compelled to mention that I have just finished adjusting my schedule for spring quarter and I'm waitlisted for only one class, where I'm the first person on the list which means I have a pretty good chance of getting in the class and I will NOT have to stay in school for twelve hours on Mondays and Wednesdays (SCORE!). I'll post my schedule once I get the .doc file cleaned up a little, and the excel file, too. I have classes named structure/function of biomolecules, and bioenergetics and metabolism. It would all be very intimidating except I find myself inevitably fascinated by bioenergetics, which is probably a bad sign but hey, owner of the geek license here.

Getting another kitty to socialize tomorrow! Will post pictures and other stuff once I get around to it. My to-do list is growing at an alarming rate.

Garden update

I have very confused peas. I wonder if it's a good idea that I've sown more of them this year than I did the last, given how confused they are. Annie, this is your warning. The peas are confused.

Explanation: Most vegetables are annuals. Peas are annuals. They sprout, they grow, they flower, make peas, and die. Like cucumber and tomato and bunch of other normal stuff. Having planted them late last summer to appease my mom, when the cucumber and tomato plants have died off I said to myself that okay, peas are a cool season crop, I'd give them a few more weeks and then start planning for next year.

I was just in the garden and the peas from last year are flowering and I've managed to harvest another handful of peas. It's...not just the mild climate, because plant life cycles don't just depend on climate, otherwise the cucumbers'd still be alive too. The peas are not dead. They don't plan on dying. They are very stubborn about not dying. I wonder if something's awry with their biological clock because they're supposed to be gone a month ago. Huh.

Otherwise: planted green onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, and a variety of flowers today. Will attempt to save mom's plant which is dying from over-watering (as in half of the root system have rotted off) but don't know how that will turn out. The ants have gotten to what's left of my potting soil and the weeds are attempting to take over the vegetable patch. I pulled out a dandelion whose root diameter is nearly the size of a silver dollar and...wow, I didn't know they could get that big.

I wonder if the good weather'll last.

So okay, it's another week

Physics and Latin apparently do not require glasses much, and I got through them without really missing anything. Ochem was another matter though, since the teacher writes messily when she reaches the end of the board and subscripts, not to mention all the tiny delta plus and minus marks to denote the charges, were just white blurs to me. Luckily the professor's not very creative and tends to use exactly the same molecules as the ones mentioned in the book for examples, so it'll take me a good extra two- three hours to go through the book, since I'll now have to cross-reference my notes with them, but still do-able. We'll see what happens in bio tomorrow.

Georgia cries outside of my door in the morning. Still. I wonder how I can train her off of that. Now that Rose's gone, she's also taken over my bed. I feel like that as long as my room door is open, there will always be a cat on my bed to shove over every time I want to sit/lie down.

Work was...well...not stressful at all, which is good, but rather boring, which is bad. But come next quarter I'll have to earn my research unit and do a bunch of reading so that should take care of the boring part. Jennifer, who's the PhD in charge, was very nice and seems quite keen on being friends with us. She had to leave a little early though but called Mike (the other one who's in charge) on her way home to share with us the fact that apparently, HER cat had puked in her shoes last night and she'd only noticed it just now.

It's times like these that I feel thankful about the wailing outside of my door in the morning.

Follow up?

Nope, still no glasses and I really should be freaking out because my one backup pair is in Beijing with my dad right now and I'm half blind after dark without my glasses. By "should be" of course I mean "was", as in I dreamed about finding my glasses three separate times last night which is really quite pathetic but allowed because, as stated above, NEED GLASSES.

However, it's "was" and not "am" because as all those who'd gone through the flooding anti-phobia training will tell you, the human body is incapable of maintaining a state of high distress beyond a certain length in time, after which you'll either feel calmer even though you aren't or you collapse. This is distressing, but not that distressing, and I am logical. Somehow I'll manage to work through it even though the specific "how" still eludes me at the present point, but as I'm finding out, I tend to get more creative ideas when I'm working under stress. That can't be good, health-wise, but oh well.

Georgia cried outside of my door all morning and tried to get inside by sticking her paw under the door and--I don't know--feel for a latch or something. Made cake this morning and will have extra chocolate frosting to go with toast for the rest of the week.

First day at work tomorrow: we've 4480 pots to fill with dirt.

Eh?

Rose's left for her adoption home today and it was ...more unexpected--the process I mean--that what was expected since I suddenly discovered just after we finished loading the kitties (Georgia's going to her adoption fair too) that I couldn't find my glasses. I could drive doing the day without my glasses provided I know the way, because I need them mostly to read road signs, and since we were pressed on time and Rose absolutely HAD to get there on time today--she was getting adopted, after all--I drove there without my glasses. Now, come dark it's a different matter. I refuse to get behind the steering wheel after dark without my glasses so... massive glasses search and...I still haven't found my glasses yet.

Eek.

I do beg your pardon

This week feels abnormally long for no reasons that I can fathom. It's not that there're more things that usual that're happening this week: one midterm, one quiz, a job orientation, that's it. In terms of psychological distress I've dealt with far worse. It's completely illogical that I should feel burnt out by Friday or so utterly relieved that thank God, the academic week is over, two day break and the next one, please.

I'm not so sure how much of a break the weekend will be, though, since I'll be going home next weekend and therefore it'll be necessary for me to finish things ahead of time, and finish as much of them as possible. There'll always be other stuff to do at home--weeding for example: my mom had recently reported to me that "green things are coming up in the yard, but I'm not sure which are the ones you planted and which ones are weeds." I'll get to plant some more stuff, which will be soothing. I don't mind the working in the garden part, it's all very relaxing and therefore a perfect counter point to the other aspects of being at home. Home is not a place to return to anymore. Not necessarily, at least. Home is where to go to find unconditional support and necessary pressure and to remember that I actually do fit into other people's lives, whatever that might mean. But home is not a place to take a break in anymore. Davis is where I return to each day, each weekend, and where I lock myself in my room for three hours with a book of my choice, because that's how I relax. I avoid calling Davis "home" in Chinse. It confuses my parents, maybe even upsets my mom a little because it was her gift to me, her promise, that as long as she's alive I'll have always have a home, wherever she is, to go back to.

Ah well.

Rose's adoption application's finalized and she'll be leaving this Saturday. We're all very proud of her because she was adopted, after all, at her second adoption fair (Annie and I agreed that the pathetic noises she made must've worked really well). Georgia, therefore will be fostered by us until she gets adopted and currently we're going to have to do a little bit of training with her, teaching her that the counters are a no-go and to stay away from my plants. (So far I'm just thankful I didn't plant anything that's actually poisonous when ingested.)

Meanwhile-- Friday!

Never quite

On Thursday of this week we received our second foster kitty, Georgia, from Lory, her original foster mom. Problems with roommates, it seems, can also play a vital role in whether or not cat-fostering is do-able and I took a moment to reflect that I should be thankful that both of my roommates are more than tolerant of animals.

Oh yes, Georgia. Her bio's here. Like Rose she's a brown and black tabby mix. However she is full grown and short-haired, which makes her appear a whole lot slimmer than Rose, even though Rose's actually thinner. By which I mean Georgia looks skinny until she sits down, at which point you notice she's a little chubby on the stomach, whereas when Rose sits her weight flatten out her fur and you realize that all that volume's just...well...fur. Half of which eventually end up in the lint trap.

Rose went to her second adoption fair today and returned slightly less traumatized than her first time. As in, she didn't cry all the way there or all the way back. She'll never like her carrier though, I'm afraid but oh well, there is only so far any one person (or cat) can go.

Went with Annie and Kate to Cafe Mediterranean yesterday for dinner and in the conversation was denounced for being racist against white chocolate, which is, I think, listed right after being racist against green potatos (and yes at one point the conversation did make sense). The food was good though, and neither cat had disassembled anything while we were away. It was a good day. Except for the homework part, but it's a weekend and so that's not something I can get out of. Yes at this stage I'm rambling off now so I'll stop--

Furry

Rose arrived home yesterday crying as if the adoption fair was the most traumatic experience of her life. According to the others though, she wasn't so bad...a little shy, but not too bad for her first day there. I got her another bag of chicken treats because of a strong suspicion that further approaches to the cat carrier will only be made under heavy bribery.

The fire alarm only chirped four times this morning, therefore allowing me to sleep almost undisturbed until eight and it felt like heaven. Okay, that was an obviously gross exaggeration, but after a few days of headache long hours of slept does feel rather wonderful.

Made brownies and cornbread yesterday. Oven possibly too hot for brownies and I don't think they're baked all the way through, but it still tastes so good--as in something that's over-saturated in chocolate good.

Rose says 'hi'. She's feeling clingy both literally and metaphorically this morning. A while ago she was in my lap, with her front paws on the desk in front of my laptop, between my arms and her head under my chin, watching me type. Then she fell asleep in my lap and then nearly fell off, which caused her to try to save herself by digging her claws into my leg which is very painful, by the way and I think Kate's right--Rose'll need another claw trim soon.

I'm not entirely sure what she's doing right now--I think she's trying to groom my jeans actually. Maybe she's mistaking it as an extension of her body because she'd shed all over it, so it's fur-covered anyway but the fuzziness!

[edit 10:36]
Rose's adoption bio is online! (And yep, she's a kisser, which is why I'll never buy her fish flavored treats because I've finally decided that rotting chicken is preferred over putrid tuna.)

It's chocolate cake day

...or so 123greetings informed me earlier. I think I'll make brownies later today to celebrate. In any case they seem to be safer than German chocolate cake.

Rose's going to her first adoption event to day and was upset with the entire stuffed - in - a - carrier - early - in - the - morning - car - ride. She cried all the way to the kitty taxi pick up and cried the entire time the kitties were being loaded into the taxi. There were too many kitties today, and therefore I couldn't go along, so I called Charleen just now to check up on Rose but she didn't pick up so--! I guess we'll find out this afternoon how she did.

Also had to make a adoption bio for Rose, this is one of the pictures I included:


I do my laundry on Fridays, but whether or not that makes a difference depends on the friendliness of the cat, and this is why. Rose usually contributes to about half of the content of the lint trap in the dryer.

Recent events had the fire alarms chirping randomly, usually starting at around 5am in the morning and continuing to about 9am. Inspection told me that I can't do anything about it, further inspection by maintenance people told us that they can't do anything about it either, until they buy new fire alarms, at least. Therefore I get to wake up at five on consecutive days and spent literally hours trying to get back to sleep. And fail, resulting in daily headaches that settle in usually around 2pm, peak at 5ish, and make me want to crawl into bed by 8pm. No one else seems affected by the chirping at all except Lucy on the first day it happened and then Kate asked me if I knew why Lucy was stomping. Then Lucy got used to it and never stomped again. I need to get used to it.

Started Cicero in Latin this week, and probably will cover the o tempora o mores!

In the name of science

Last week's physics involved microwaving water in a mug and then deducing the cooking power of the microwave oven. Today's lab presented the fact that only a handful of people actually bothered with the experiment, and only two people had relatively precise data, and out of the two I was the only one with a reasonably accurate data. Your microwave's power usually max at 200-400 grams, kids! Aside from that, I think my physics class is making me depressed. And far too sarcastic for my own good.

Though, how many other classes ask you to do calculations based on microwaved mugs? I was in the kitchen doing just that when Kate entered to make tea and she commented, I quote, that I was "contaminating the kitchen with science."

While I'm quoting Kate, I might as well as add that Rose has taken attention begging to another level and Kate has developed what she's been calling "the petting of hate." Mostly it features Kate petting Rose and calling her things ranging from "little monster" to "traitor" to "shameless twit" and Rose sitting in her lap purring along the lines of "I don't know what you're saying but so long you keep scratching me right there, I don't care either."

Compared to last quarter, this quarter's been down right soothing so far. Oops, did I just jinx myself? Very well, I've jinxed myself.

Temporal issues

To quote one of my classmates, "Having a day that's a Monday, a Tuesday, and a Wednesday all at the same time is too much."

Today is, by the calendars at large, a Wednesday. It feels like a Tuesday because we didn't have school on Monday. It is a conventional Monday because the all-mighty deans have decided that today's going to follow Monday's academic schedule. Somewhere between all this my sense of time would've gotten confused if it weren't for the fact that the only difference between my Monday schedule and my Wednesday schedule is an extra bio discussion on Wednesday-- which the teacher have moved to today, an academic Monday, because it's still Wednesday (try saying THAT to the next innocent passerby). Therefore it REALLY feels like a Monday to me-- if it weren't for the fact that yesterday there was an FFO meeting so I was at school for slightly over twelve hours, and my brain can most definitely register THAT.

In response to one of the info cards I've filled out at the meeting, I've received the reply that Rose's officially recorded birthday is on June 5th, 06, which makes her approximately 7 month and 12 days old.

"You're approximately 7 month and 12 days old, Rose," I said to her at the time, since she's sitting by my feet.

"Eek," said Rose.

There are times where she is quite unbelievably eloquent.

Now-- onwards to physics, o-chem, and all things preternatural.

The backup proof of my complaints

This "hypothetical conversation between a physics 7A student and a TA" is brought to you by Albert, who had TAed for the 7 series in the years past.

At the second lecture the teacher was still going over how we- are- not- here- to- teach- you- you- are- to- learn/think- on- your- own. (leik zomg)

---

Physics 7A TA: Hi there. How may I help thee?

Physics 7A student: Well, I'm stuck on problem 3 on the FNTs. I read over my notes from the last DL, when we talked about thermal energy and bond energy..I looked
at my lecture notes, and at the poor excuse for course notes, but I'm lost. Can you please help me on this problem?

Physics 7A TA: Young lady, I'm not your father.

Physics 7A student: Excuse me?

Physics 7A TA: Young lady, you are asking me to spoon-feed you information!! This class is the first time in your whole life you've actually had to think!! THINK!!!! THINK!!!! USE THE MODEL!!!! USE THE MODEL!!! Remember, models are our friends. They are what we think with!!!!

Physics 7A student: Okay, I understand that we use models...But can't you just do your job? Can't you give me some kind of hint to help me on the homework?

Physics 7A TA: Young lady, I'm not going to short-circuit your thinking by giving you the answer! You are asking me to hold you by the hand and think for you, and I won't do it!! This is the first time in your whole life you've actually had to think. THINK!!!
THINK!!! USE THE MODEL!!!

Physics 7A student: But just take a look at this problem...You see, what are they asking for? Look at the second sentence in the FNT...what system are they referring to? What are they asking for?

Physics 7A TA: If I tell you the answer, I'm cheating you of your education. I know it's hard, but you have to think.

Physics 7A student: But can't you give some guidance or some clue to help me solve the problem?

Physics 7A TA: That's the problem with our whole education system...right through grades K thru 12...Your whole life, you've had teachers doing your thinking for you. This is the first time you've actually had to do mental work....

Arctic in the Meditterranean?

It is irony that after so soon an introduction to the supposed "Meditterraean weather" of Davis that I should receive, immediately after, so many warnings about the Arctic freeze that's coming our way. According to the UCD Botanical Conservatory the most questions they've gotten in the past few days were in the categories of "Okay, so I heard there's this big freeze coming up--what should I do with my plants?"

I'd like to take a moment to point out that this's, mostly, a question of common sense. Most of the houseplants are so selectively bred and green-house pampered that they're really quite fragile and have something like 1% (number made up with absolutely no scientific basis) of the original environmental resistence of their ancestors. In other words: if you're going to get cold standing outside, your plants probably will too. You put on a wrap when you go outside because it's cold, ergo, wrap your plants.

End of tangent and yes, the freeze has come down (well, had came down really, since it felt like the air started freezing over pretty much since yesterday) (a gross exaggeration, of course, and only allowed because I'm from bay area, California). My room is currently hosting me, Rose, Lucy, and a heater and mornings have never been more exciting. I get to make the bed with Lucy thumping in her cage and Rose wailing outside the door (she wanted to be fed NOW) and if only they could get a better sense of rhythm we could possibly even get a band going.

I've tried to post the updated schedule to Lunatics several times with no result, which I took to mean yet another unresolved glitch between the new and the old system of blogging. Mostly though I'm less busy (so far) this quarter. I think I'll try to be online regularly (since it actually does seem plausible at this stage). Possibly 8:30-9:30 time frame.

Over and out. For now.

Whining

Today's physics lab was two and a half hours. That alone isn't bad. Even the fact that I have another one at 8am on Wednesday that's also two and a half hours long isn't bad. What is bad is the lack of teaching and coherent text of the class, coupled over some over-enthused ideas about group work.

And the lab experiments/worksheets themselves of course. Those were mind boggling.

Example: First thing we did today after getting into groups was "triggering" a heat pack (i.e. one of those re-usable ones). Activity one that we must write down on the board and discuss, I quote: "Observe what it does during the first fe wminutes after triggering. What seems strange about the behavior of the pack?"

I sat there and thought: "You must be kidding me" while my group memembers argued about whether the temperature of the heat pack increased or decreased. They were confusing the definition of heat with temperature (Q vs. T, respectively). (I did try to explain, but as the other three were all talking over each other no one bothered to follow along with the explanation.) Unfortunately, the writer of the text was not in a joking mood. He (and yes, I know for a fact the author is male) is completely serious. By the way, kids, the correct question to "what seems strange" is "it changed into a solid and produced heat."

The heat pack produced heat. What a NOVEL idea.

I tried to be nice. I smiled a lot. I did my best to keep my sarcasm under control and hope I didn't come across to anyone as arrogant. It was all very hard when my group members have just spent ten minutes arguing about something and generally talking over me and then later, have TA pull out the same solution that I suggested ten minutes ago. I tried to be nice. I tried to be helpful. I want to work by myself for the rest of the quarter and I'm pretty sure it's not just because I'm something of a misanthrope.

End whining. Thank you, I feel much better now.

The price of happiness

According to NY Times today Mr. President is STILL thinking of sending more troops to Iraq. It will increase jobs, the report said. Well yes, if you count being enrolled in the army as jobs. If the entire country is controlled by the military, in fact, and the entire population recruited for total war why then-- that means everyone will have a job, doesn't it?

I've read an article last quarter about why Republicans win in politics or, more precisely, why the Republican party was able to defeat the Democratic party on two occasions when people clearly thought that no, it should be the other way around. I think it's called "Why Voters Like Value"--a fairly short article that, after you skim through it, sums the entire issue down to: Democrats loose because they are depressing.

It's psychological. (Are you really that surprised?) The Democrats insist on being open-minded, on listening to both sides. They insist on the lack of pre-drawn-lines and on the morally grey area that, when you come down to it, people are really uncomfortable with. Now the Republicans, on the other hand, can paint everything in black and white. It's either right or wrong; we are right and they are wrong. If you are not with us, you're against us, et cetera. People like to know they are right, they like to have a clear goal to work towards and an obvious enemy to fight. The Democrats, with their wishy-washy "maybe there's no absolute right or absolute wrong", just doesn't sell in an arrogantly self-assured, dangerously jaded yet strangely psychologically insecure nation. The Democratic platform makes people uncomfortable because it will make people question about where they stand and really--what IS Right and what is Wrong? People hate that. They hate the self-questioning because they do it enough, subconsciously, already, and they REALLY don't want to be forced to do it consciously.

No one WANTS to be wrong.

So Republicans.

When people choose they will make the decision that they believe will be more likely to make themselves feel good. It's in the moral fiber of the country, after all: "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." --which is fine, just fine.

All I ask is for the people, as they travel their paths in the pursuit of the happiness, to take a minute and ask themselves what is the PRICE of this happiness.

It's okay, most of them will come up with something, say that it's totally worth it, and get on with it anyway.


*No, despite of what you may think, this is not an Anti-Republican rant. This is an Anti-War rant.

Breathe

The new Latin room is located in the same building, but it's on the other side of the building. However, the room arrangement, as a result of the imaginative nature of whoever designed the place, is exactly the same--same boards, same set of chairs, same set of windows--except it's a mirror version of the other room. Where the window was on the left last quarter, it is now on the right. Aside from the minor confusion in directions, everything else was...familiar.

I had my usual seat by the wall.

A different guy sits behind me this quarter. He makes me think of Darth Vader.

No, no, that gave the wrong impression. He is not dressed in all black and he does not wear a face mask. He is, however, tall but then again, from my point of view most guys are tall. No. What I was referring to is the sound he makes. Maybe he always gets up late and Latin is his first class in the morning (unlikely since the class starts at noon) so he has to do his last minute cross-country biking right before class. Maybe he ran. Maybe he smoked and/or had breathing problems. I don't know. But for the past three days I've spent my class time listening to his harsh breathing noises, half expecting that in the middle of the class he might suddenly stand up and declare "Luke, I am your father."

Or, given the fact that this is in Latin, possibly "Luce," (or maybe Lucius, I have no idea) "Ego pater tuus sum." And possibly he might then add, "Perii." I've learned that when in doubt writing a Roman play, you add "perii." It means "I perish" or, more literally, "I'm done for." It's either that or calling someone a rotten mushroom. Somehow, "perii" sounds more fitting.

In the blur of emails and forms and new classes my clearest recollection of this week will be Darth Vader sounds.

It seems like magic

Two days of classes. I have concluded that the o-chem professor is a little annoying, but not too bad, that physics course setup is annoying, and that WILL be bad (com'on, we don't even have actual TEXT and our material is model-based and says "it seems like magic" within three chapters of the first page and I've already lost confidence in it). Latin was, at least, reassuring similar with the same teacher and many people that I recognize. My only point with it is that at this point, I think, all the non-liberal-arts /classics major have dropped out so yesterday, when one of the girls found out that I am technically a "life-sci" major she blurted out, all genuine astonishment "What are you DOING in this class?"

Also, I like the fact that each of the major science classes I've taken so far (chemistry, biology, physics)have tried to impress on me that This Disciplne of science is the All Encompassing Science and all the others are just Sub-branches of this Very Important Subject. It is, after so many science classes, just a little over done. In fact I believe the only topic that is more over done than this is the Special Properties of Water which, if I recall correctly, I must've gone through about seven times already in separate chemistry and biology classes. I will cause myself serious bodily harm if I have to sit through it again but, thankfully, I don't think I have any classes this quarter that will require another coverage of adhesion, cohesion, and the oh-so-unique polarity / hydrogen bonds in H2O.

Good riddance.

A little bit of humor

Sometimes I honestly do believe that people, in general, are beyond me.

My mother rinses off the shovel after I dig in the yard. It's a SHOVEL. You dig with it. It will get dirt on it. Yet she rinses it off each time, even after I tell her that I'll probably be using it again the next day. She also put the plants on polystyrene plates, which she put on newspaper, to keep the floor clean. Sometimes think my choice in plants might not be such a good idea after all since plants tend to need dirt and dirt is...well...dirty.

List of eye color on the N-400 USA Naturalization Form (I kid you not):

Brown, Blue, Green, Hazel, Gray, Black, Pink, Maroon, Other

Has anyone ever seen MAROON colored eyes? Is it me or does that seem a bit...creepy?

Then of course, there's always Mr. President's increase of interest in Iran. Hello?

42 degrees starboard!

It went finals, home, LA, and home again, in that order. Another Winter Solstice's coming up (tomorrow, I believe), and there is of course Christmas, New Years, and the new year.

I am at home and it has been raining on and off since nine this morning. My parents are telling me that I've missed the two coldest days while I was at LA (lucky me), but unfortunately it is still cold enough today that I was shivering even while wearing my black jacket and I couldn't feel my fingers. Then I remembered that my parents left the heater in my room and that made it all better. I think I might've been colder than necessary, though, because I've been sitting in one position for some hours reading a book (YES!), having gone and raided the library this morning. I've looked at my reading list yesterday and have formed the brilliant conclusion that I'll never completely catch up to it, but oh well, good books never get old, anyway. Now that I finished book number one out of the list of a hundred and something I suppose I ought to take go and take a break. Maybe I'll work on the Lunatics story, as that it's clearly too wet to be working in the garden. Mud is fun in moderation and only when it's not also freezing outside. The cucumbers are done for the season, and I've missed the seed-gathering because now everything'll be wet for the next three days.

Thoughts about the new year make me twitch, which is why this post isn't really about a resolution or reflections at all, in case you're wondering.

The Cats are taking over our lives.

Called Cory to schedule cat-sitting yesterday, she didn't pick up the phone, left a message. Got a call from Charleen yesterday informing us that some people are interested in adopting Rushmore and will we be able to take him to the taxi-drop-off for the adoption fair this Saturday, at 9am, please. (My chem final starts at 8am on Saturday.) Some arrangemenet with Annie later it's discussed that someone may be able to come over to our place and pick up Rushmore. Sigh of relief. Discovery that Cory had called while was on the phone with Charleen. Called Cory back. Made appointment in 15 minutes. Showed Cory around when she came over and left her apartment key (mine. Note to self-- make SURE Kate's back before attempting to come back self as will not be able to unlock door otherwise). Sooth agitated kitty who's still not used to strangers. Crammed for chem. Panicked slightly about Latin as have forgotten the type of adjective "nullus" is. Checked adjective. Rechecked. Shooed Rose away from Rushmore's food. Shooed Rushmore away from Rose's food. Checked email obsessively but still no sign of paper even though deadline is once again looming in the horizon. Made note to self that may need to bring laptop on trip as otherwise will have no time to finish editing the ridiculous thing before Sun. midnight. Remembered that the said ridiculous things is 18 pages. Petitioned for the use of Kate's laptop during bus trip if own laptop runs out of battery and paper still not done. Made note to self to bring USB stick. Listened to Annie attempting to keep order in her room with two cats in it. Agreed with Annie that we should get The Cats (now denoted with capital letters because they can behave in quite unholy fashions when together)used to being locked out together, in the living room. Bribe and coaxed Rose out of my room. Close door. Sigh of relief. Help Annie get Rushmore out of the room, held the bathroom door open so he can debate whether or not to come out, eventually shooed cat out. Close door, sigh of relief. Check around for cats, quickly open door and step in. Close door. Relax slightly and stubbornly ignore any noises that might or might not be occuring outside the door.

Cat scratching door at 1am. Not fun. Ignore all noises outside of door, verse, chorus, repeat.

Then it's morning again. Got up, dressed. Open door. Rose dashes in and make pitiful noises until petted and soothed. Made bed. Looked for Rushmore. Drag Rushmore out of kitchen cabinet, got hissed at, but gave him the Stare of Determination until he exits the kitchen. Fed Rose. Shooed Rushmore away from Rose's food. Shooed Rushmore away from Rose's food again a minute later. Reasoned should feed Rushmore as well to stop the shooing process and therefore save time. Knocked on Annie's door to get food. Annie asleep. Eventually gave up and goes to brush teeth. Stop in the middle of tooth-brushing to drag Rushmore out of cabinet. Was hissed at. Squirted him with water pistol when he tried to enter again. Rushmore Is Learning. Rushmore is Not Happy about having to Learn, but he shall deal with it. Placed loaded bag of canned goods in front of cabinet to speed up Learning. Went to wash face. Shooed Rose away from Rushmore's litterbox. Moved Rose's litterbox (now officially in the bathroom, horray) and led her there to show her that see, this is where it is now.

Eat breakfast. Stop in the middle to chase Rushmore out of the kitchen. Then chase Rose out of the kitchen. The Cats are not allowed in the kitchen. Ever. (We had to draw a line somewhere.) Fish Rose's toy out of the corner of kitchen, where she has carried it. Finished breakfast.

Lost Rushmore. Checked all cabinets. Checked all corners. Called. Rechecked all cabinets. No cat. Slight panic until noticed lump moving on bed. There are two cats both in my bed. Why do I have two cats in my bed? Remove Rushmore. Remove Rose. Stopped Rushmore from entering bathroom cabinet (he does love his cabinets). Two cats in my room, lots of noises behind me, wha--

Rose dashes to my feet. Rushmore hids under my blanket. Must check to see what The Cats have done now. Latin final at 4 pm. Cheers!

[edit 12:55] Because I can. Culprit #2:

Meet Rushmore.