Evil Strawberry Muffin

There was a bug. I tried to catch it, but I couldn't. It was very frustrating. Finally I started yowling. My human was confused -- she thought I needed to yak, but after she went back to bed and I started yowling again, she searched for the bug and killed it for me.

Now I'm on her bed -- I climbed up and strolled right up to her so she'd grab me. Now she has her arm around me while she types.

I am purring very loudly. It's shaking my bones.

Hello humans. It is possible that my human has decided to resume updating my journal, though, knowing humans, I'm willing to bet that she'll slack off again soon.

Anyway, today was an amazing day: not only did I get kibble, but there was some amazingly wonderful, moist, and smelly stuff mixed in with the kibble.

I haven't enjoyed dinner so much in years.

Hello again all. Today I slept, ate, and dirtied up the little box. It was a good day. I also allowed my human's mother to pick me up and cuddle me without exposing my impressive set of claws. Sometimes I can be merciful, like all good rulers.

It's been a while since my human has updated my blog, I know. She's been busy moving me about the country and just generally making my life hell, but now it seems we have finally settled in the Land of Boxes.

I kind of like the Land of Boxes, really -- there are big windows that get lots of sun with boxes in front of them so I can perch and/or lounge. Kibble arrives, as per usual, infrequently and often late, but the water is fresh and clean and the litter, so far, has been the same.

Sometimes my human and her mother watch the glowy box in one of my rooms or the other (I have two main rooms, plus a litter room, though they're all pretty small), and I get cuddled, whether I want to or not. Sometimes I hear and smell other cats outside my doors, but they haven't invaded my space yet. Likely they are afraid to tangle with a master of Cat Fu.

In recent news, the human seems awfully happy about something. She keeps telling me how cool it is and how proud she is of her country. I have no idea what this thing is, though I can say that I don't really care unless it directly affects the distribution of kibble.

It doesn't, does it?

I found a yummy-smelling thing earlier (it smelled like horse!), but my human yelled at me for rubbing on it and scratching it. Then she covered it with a sheet so I wouldn't play with it.

Annoying human.

Every other day or so the human and her mother sit in here and watch things on the glowy-box-tappy-thing. At least I get some people time, though my human's been spending a bit more time in here with me. I hate when she's just outside, and I can hear her, and I can smell her, but I can't actually GET to her. I tried running out of the room a few times, but I didn't get very far, and I always smelled and saw those horrible other cats I hate so much, so, well, I have to admit that I tend to hiss and run right back into my room. Not very dignified, I'll admit, but I've obviously scared them away from here, 'cause I haven't seen a one of them in my room. All hail the mighty Muffin!

Someone finally got herself a wireless card...guess who?

Well. I'm okay now, but yesterday was Not Fun. My human, for some reason unbeknownst to me, decided to spend all day in the the apartment, but not even FIVE MINUTES in my room. It was maddening, smelling her, hearing her, KNOWING she could have been scritching my ears...but wasn't. By the time she finally DID come into the room, I was frantic, and I might have made something of a fool of myself rubbing her and licking her face.

I was lonely.

Luckily she still slept in my room, so I got plenty of people time last night (after making sure to be extra special annoying when she was in the bed reading), so I'm okay now.

Although...she's not in my room NOW...

Four, five, STILL ALIVE!

Yes sirree, I am still alive, even in this new place. I've been doing a lot of sleeping and window-sitting, as in my wont, so life's been pretty decent. I also have not been spending a lot of time shoved in to tiny moving boxes, so that's been nice. Also, I got to lick an ice cream bowl today. Good times, good times.

Well, I'm sure all you silly humans were waiting with bated breath, but now you can breathe again: I am still alive. After two days of Pure Hell (tm), wherein my evil, horrible, nasty human stuffed me in a box and put that box in another box and then sent that box hurtling down long strips of black stuff at enormously high rates of speed, we finally arrived at a new place that smells like those cats I don't really like (in the middle of the two days of PH we stopped at a room that was lots of fun -- big window, lots of new smells and lots of room -- I enjoyed exploring that room immensely...too bad the stupid human then stuck me back in the damn box). Luckily, my human has banished the Evil Ones from my territory, so I don't really have to worry about them. All I have to do, in fact, is wander about, have Cat Crazies, and sleep in the window.

Life's not so bad here, really.

I have decided to start up a list of things I'm going to miss about Austin. I imagine I'll continue to add things over the next few weeks as I remember them and/or realize that I miss them, but I'm starting it now. It is in no particular order (so no yelling at me for not being at the top of the list, B), and hopefully, one day, it will approach being comprehensive, though I suspect that'll take a while. Anyway, here it is:

murals
bats being cool
Capital Metro
Mopac
The Oasis
bus routes 1, 3, 338, and 19
The County Line
The Clay Pit
Kerbey Lane
B and N (and little B)
My Whobuddy
my apartment
Jester parfaits
the tower
my Chem job (and Prof L)
Welch's old library
the (pink) capitol (Sunset Red my patootie!)
the 24 hour HEB on Red River
UT
Linguistics / chatting with linguists
entirely too many Fuddrucker's for one city
Whole Foods (the flagship store, especially)
being within walking distance from two nice supermarkets, two bookstores, and everything else anyone could ever want
The Domain
live oaks
pecan trees
the rivers/creeks everywhere
the Colorado river
Pease Park
Zilker Park (especially the Japanese garden in the botanical gardens)
weirdness being venerated
the Frost building
living IN a city (not near, not on the outskirts, IN)
Texas (hey, it's got its own charm, I swear)
burnt orange as a neutral color that looks good on everyone and goes with everything
longhorn symbols as a basic motif
stars as a basic motif
the 23rd street market
the Natural History Museum
the horses scuplture in front of (behind?) the NHM
the Nike fountain
the fountain over by the big circle where all the buses stop on the UT campus, over by the stadium and the Anthropology building and such
Barton Creek Square Mall
Toy Joy
Texas Mountain Laurel
Mexican Bird of Paradise
Terra Toys
The Alamo Drafthouse
Bookpeople
Half Price Books
West Campus (hey, I'm weird, I know, but I like it)
Zen (Japanese food fast!)
Amy's Ice Creams
Hill Country Weavers
South Congress
Lamar Blvd
Guadalupe
The Drag
Tapioca House (I'm going to wither away and die without their coconut milk teas, I just know it)
Eight zillion wonderful asian restaurants and not a single good Chinese food place
Z'Tejas
the manhole covers with the fishies on them
the airport (25 gates of open-aired, bright, and mostly empty magnificence)
that stuff that's all over the UT campus that's not Carolina Jessamine, even though everyone says it is, that has long arching canes and little yellow flowers and smells like celery and cinnamon
The Arboretum
the ciabattini rolls at the Arboretum Whole Foods
all the people being pleasant (even postal workers!)
Clarksville pottery
crack potatoes (no, really, Texas grows their potatoes in cocaine, I swear)
Tiff's Treats (I really don't need to say why, right?)
Taco Cabana (half chickens are NUMMY)
Jamba Juice (they don't have them where I'm going. SNIFF)
horse-drawn carriages
Thanksgiving (people? what people? we don't need no stinking people)


Okay, so that's all I have for right now (isn't it enough?). So, in case you were wondering, I'm really going to miss Austin. And these are just the things I can name!

Humph. My human keeps meaking references to my size. It's annoying -- I realize that I am not particularly large, but that's no reason to constantly talk about it. Very annoying, indeed.

On the other hand, I've been getting a great deal of quality people-time recently. The human was gone for a while, but she came back, and I've been availing myself of the people services while she's here -- you can never tell when a human will leave you alone to die. Again.

Stupid humans.

Yesterday another human came by. She was also an excellent purveyor of people time -- I popped onto her lap a few times, and she made a very comfortable sleeping place. Then my human left with the other one for a while, but for once she actually had a brain in her head, since she actuallyl fed me BEFORE she left.

So now I sleep, well sated with people time and alone time and all sorts of other times. Good times, I think.

The human did an awful lot of weird things today. There was a lot of running around and sort-of cleaning.

I am currently not bothered by this. I am asleep on a pillow. I love my pillows.

The human just got back from a late-night trip to who-knows where.

But she came back with something that smells suspiciously, delightfully, of kibble.

Once again I am reminded of why I'm leaving with a master's and not trying to attempt a doctorate:

I SUCK AT RESEARCH.

I hate doing it, and I'm not very good at it. So here I am, in my apartment, suddenly realizing that I basically have tonight to learn about Conversation Analysis. I have to somehow know enough about it and the enormous body of work in the area to be acceptable to the professor who teaches the subject.

Right.

Well, my application to graduate got submitted. I have no idea why it worked this time, since it didn't work last week and nothing's changed since then, but hey, I'm not gonna complain.

I also noticed that it's actually due on the 25th, not the 15th, so...yeah.

Anyway, now I just have to put the extra lit in that my one reader asked for, somehow wrangle the report into the correct format (not as easy as it sounds), get signatures from my readers (one of whom is in Romania, with the other being in Tuscon), get a signature from the grad advisor (who I hope will be okay doing that ASAP since she's going to be gone as of the end of this week), and...wait...that's it.

Well cruds. Like I said earlier: this may yet work.

My second reader got back to me! And she said she'd sign off on the paper!

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Of course, there is ONE thing that's going to require a bit of research that she wants me to fix, but hey, that could be way worse.

Apparently my human considers herself above schedules, since she no longer feeds me on a schedule, let alone updates my journal on a schedule. She can't even manage a schedule of "once per day"!

Good help is just so hard to find...

I had an interesting day. It included getting boxes for packing, missing a bus, and ending up coming back and finally scratching that Who-itch I'd been having all week.

I'm still coming down off that high.

Also, my good friend Cel made me realize something I hadn't: no, it's not adviseable, and yes, it would mean that I'd be tossing ANOTHER $3,000 right after the tens upon tens of thousands I've already spent on this damn thing, but, if I really really had to, I MIGHT be able to get another person to be my first reader, and I MIGHT be able to get my master's through in the fall. It would be really really annoying, but it IS possible. It is. Not real possible, but I've had a course with basically every prof in the department at least once, so I could probably convince at least one of them to be willing to read my report. It's not the best solution, but it would, in the end, work.

That's...a really comforting thought. Not the best of ideas, but hey, I'd get my flipping degree.

Thanks, Cel. I really needed that.

Well, that worked surprisingly well.

All I did was leave a doot or two on the carpet and a big smelly one in the box, and now my box is clean, parts of the carpet have been cleaned, the trash was taken out, and the human's even doing laundry -- sheets, rugs, and some shirts! She even put her smelly shoes outside!

All that for one or two little doots.