Thanks to Gryph, I know:

You Are 20 Years Old

20 Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

Folks likely won't be surprised to learn that Broos is a murderer. There's something suspicious about him, isn't there? :) It's also no surprise that helping someone out is what drove him to slay his employer; he's a family/friend loyalist. And a murderer, but still.

My cherubs are home now after a very quick little weekend visit. They're so comfortable to be around. Mittens relaxed with them, Melody graciously welcomed them and I already miss them. We went together to game night on Friday, to see Steamboy, to the murder mystery party yesterday and today to an Asian shop en route to the airport.

It seemed like a long weekend and yet we took it pretty easy. Chris managed to make nearly 40 plat in EQ before breakfast. If only real money were as easy to make as slaying local hill giants.

We drove by the nearby community college, which was closed for the weekend, but had catalogs piled by the admissions office. Chris is interested in moving down here this summer, finding a job, making some money and going to school to get a degree. He's currently interested in foreign languages and after a few years of German and Japanese, will be taking Spanish next quarter. He was very interested in the the fact that there's community colleges here that offer degree programs in foreign language. At the Japanese store, Phil and I were trying to work out one of the signs (and both of us had forgotten a few of the characters, so it was an exercise in "something-something YO something...") and in the end had to have Chris tell us what it said. :) I'm looking forward to having him here all the time!

Mittens and Melody have reached a semi-armed truce. The bedroom is hers. The living room is mostly his, but she is staking claim to the underneath of the dining table. They slink around and make slightly threatening noises, but no fur has flown in the past two days.

Could it be the Feliway? Who knows? I did resist spraying the stuff directly onto Melody, who while pretending to rub up against my arm turned her little fluffy head to bite my elbow. :/

On my b'day last month as Broos and I were exchanging IMs, my vision suddenly went to hell. I put it down to sudden aging of my left eye. After some ibuprofen, things cleared up and I figured I'd short-circuited an unusual migraine aura. Tonight I had a similar but different experience. It started with a little jagged circle bending light in the middle of my field of vision, kind of like a bear trap made of glass. By the time I was driving home, I had a lovely Africanesque fringe all around in black and white. I considered calling Broos to have him check on me tomorrow as I thought I was turning into a Picasso and would be two dimensional by morning.

More ibuprofen has cleared up my vision, but I think I will call the eye doctor and see what's going on.

Every week the Massage Lady comes to our offices and for a mere $1/minute, we can plant our faces into the soft toilet seat head rest and get a nice back rub. My shoulders have been giving me some trouble so I made an appointment and went.

"Tell me if I'm pressing too hard," she said at the start of the session. Unfortunately, with my face in the toilet, she couldn't hear the whimpers of pain. I figured I was being wimpy since I was pretty tight through the shoulders so I let her beat away at me for 20 minutes. "You should really come more often," she chided gently at the end of the session, "so we can work on that knot."

Well, maybe I should. But it will take me a while to get over the agony of this week's episode. :( I couldn't sleep last night from the discomfort. My shoulder is making unnerving clicking noises when I move my arm. My shoulders feel bruised and tender. I'll be taking some ibuprofen later so I can sleep tonight.

I've taken shiatsu massage classes which is a different technique from the Massage Lady's. I prefer the more relaxing nature of a shiatsu massage. Pressure, release, light stroke, pressure, release. Even if the pressure is strong, it's applied smoothly. Jiggling, wiggling massages are apparently not for me. I need to find a shiatsu Massage Lady.

Cats everywhere! Mittens is getting used to Melody. They were pretty much growling at each other through the bedroom door all weekend. I'd leave the door open while they were napping and they'd get up and cautiously look around for the other feline before prowling around. Melody is much smaller than Mittens, but she has long hair and fluffs up quite a bit when putting on her display. She trapped Mittens in the bathroom at one point when he got up on the counter to drink from the faucet and she wandered in to use the litterpan.

This is a new situation for him. In his old home, he was the ambusher, waiting to pounce upon poor Maggie to wrestle with her. He's not quite sure what to make of this, where now he is the ambushee. Still, Mittens and Melody spent an hour together this morning in the living room, not buddied up but not hissing and spitting either. She's back in my room for the day and tonight, we'll see how they get along. If I'm lucky, by the end of the week and I can sleep with Mittens under my chin again, since Melody seems to prefer the dark recess under the bed. I miss having my kitty snuggled up to me through the night.

And so, after a lunchtime foray to look for a cat, I got the call. Melody is mine! Muahahaha! She is currently exploring the bedroom. Mittens is in the living room, peering under the door at us. I figure I'll spend part of the night here with Melody and the rest of it on the couch with Mittens.

One thing that I find fun is that besides my usual character Lael, I usually play a character named Melodie. :) Karma? Or maybe Katma?

Melody has already submitted to a good cat petting and emerged purring up a storm. I think she'll be fine. Mittens will get used to her. He'd better; she comes fully armed!

We're still looking for a cat. Between the links Sushi sent me and one that the fabulous Fannie sent, I should be able to find a new little buddy.

It seems like looking at a personals page, the way these sites have photos of the cats and little biographies :) In a way, that's what I'm doing though...finding someone who will love and play with Mittens. I hope he appreciates the effort.

And look at the time, 9AM. It's funny to think that for all my life, by 9AM I'd have been at work for 2 hours by now. Yet here I am after a half hour of Sims2, able to go through all my emails and take a couple minutes to jot a note.

A lot of mornings recently I haven't felt like getting out of bed, much less sitting up to do things. I've graduated from sleeping with a nightlight to having the TV on but muted to having the TV on with sound. I'm not sure why having the TV on makes me feel as though I won't have nightmares. Maybe because when I half-wake, whatever demons pursue me disappear when I try to figure out what's on the screen. But this exercise can take time and so I'm losing sleep in the middle of the night and it's left me exhausted by dawn. This week's been a bit better, though.