it's 9:47 and despite the schedule claiming 9:30 the video lab is not open. the photo lab won't open until 11:30 IF it opens (yesterday I arrived to find the darkroom closed due to "plumbing problems"). my macbook is at 16% power and there is an inexplicable dearth of outlets in this hallway. I forgot my cell phone at the apartment and I don't plan to be back there for another 12 hours. it's raining and my rainboots are not waterproof. 9:52 - 15% power. I am NOT carrying the half ton camera I borrowed from school all the way back to my car. it's going to be one of those days.

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the pitter-patter of petite paws.

Adoptions galore in the family stead:

Mom adopted Niko on December 5th after a successful visit with family friends/dog owners that cemented our feelings for him as a family pet. His training is going splendidly. It's a lot of work, because he's still a puppy (only about 1 year old) and he needs to go on daily walks and play in the yard no matter how cold, wet, snowy or slushy. But that's the commitment. He is super duper cute.

We assumed at first he was a German Shepherd/Collie mix, but someone suggested Belgian Shepherd, which comes in 4 varieties. They had been thinking he looked like a Malinois with long hair, but that's basically a Tervuren, but he's smaller than a Tervuren by a couple of inches. Whatever the answer, he's definitely a herding dog. He nips at our heels when he wants us to go faster, which is apparently a classic sheep-herding move.

AND! I gave in and adopted my little hypothyroid gremlin on Wednesday. Her name is Pooka.










She's on thyroid meds for the rest of her life. Congenital hypothyroidism is super rare in cats (I think it's pretty rare in general) and it affects more than her size. It's hard to find information on and the vets at the shelter had never seen it before. She's gained like half a pound since starting treatment (she was only a pound to begin with) and she has a lot more energy now. It's all relative though because she was a total bump on a log to begin with. I dressed her in a pink collar with a bell on it and I hear her jingling across my bedroom floor all night.

So (as if I had to say this) life is good. Christmas is coming, my kitten's getting fat, and I've got more than a haypenny to my name. Also, there is a very large gift downstairs with my name on it and I am anxious to find out what it is. Just because it's big. I'll keep you updated.

I have to work on X-Mas, though. Kind of a bummer because this means shuffling all my family plans. We're opening presents Christmas Eve and we'll be late to my aunt & uncle's on Christmas (this would be the year we schlep to Brooklyn, and probably the earliest the party has started.)

But now, I have the rest of today off (work again tomorrow) to go gift-shopping with Joe (he waited until his semester ended) and play with the wee kitten. Huzzah!

OH YEAH I FORGOT

MY STUPID CAR PASSED INSPECTION!

Time to bore you.

I figure it's important to get this out of the way first since these items had many family members excited during Thanksgiving.

Updates involving cats:
1. All the cats I listed in my "hey which of these kitties should I adopt" post have been adopted from the shelter (by other people!) except for Armstrong, the big kitty with a tiny tail and voice to match.
2. I'm not adopting any cats right now. The family is fostering a beautiful shepherd/collie mix named Nicko. He has a cold. And no manners. But he's a super fast learner but we need to seriously work on his interactions with other dogs. He's not aggressive, just really excited and doesn't know how to read their signals. I digress.
3. The adorable gremlin-kitten-ball turns out to have a thyroid issue. Even though the vet techs initially thought she was only 6-8 weeks old, she's actually more like 5 months old. (No Way!) Way.

Moving on. I've been working a lot. It would be nice to be able to think of something to talk about that didn't actually involve animals, but I've started working full-time at the shelter and it's all I do. I even worked extra half days today and last Saturday. Brutal. It's a physical job, so I was really expecting to be in better shape than I am by now, but alas.

It's getting colder out. My feet are chilly now, and I need fluffy slippers. Should I put that on my X-Mas list?

The best part about Thanksgiving is the end of the parade when Santa comes out and marks the official beginning to the christmas season. I missed that this year because I was working (cats and dogs eat turkey, too, and yes, I did make sure to feed the cats turkey & giblets 9 Lives on Thursday), but the season changes all the same. I can now enjoy carols with newfound vigor (which is good because we've started playing XM: Holiday Traditions at work. Off-topic, anyone have Sirius or XM and notice the new hybrid image IDs? the shelter used to play "XM 23: The Heart", but now it's "Sirius 3, XM 23: Love")

I started some gift shopping early, but I underestimated how much time I had. I was proud to have certain gifts done before Turkey Day and suddenly it's crazy shopping time and the best I can do is join the masses.

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is on TNT. I wish the third were on next but the next movie is Spiderman. Feh. The scene where Arwen's father describes her depressing future is one of the most beautiful scenes in the trilogy, I think. The Eye of Sauron is totally cheezy, especially after so many parodies in cartoons and comics and things. It strikes me, though, that The Hobbit never enjoyed this incredible reimagining and I think its main issue is the lack of concern for "Men". This is not feminism. I mean HUMANS.

Despite the fact that a hobbit (Frodo) is the moving force for the plot surrounding The Ring of Power, and even with the existence of the fear that Man is too weak to control himself around the ring, in the end it is the weakness of Man that has the potential to lead to the end of Middle Earth and it is continually man that these other species (elves, dwarves, hobbits, wizards, ents) are banding together to save; through the battles for Rohan, Helms Deep. Aragorn says that Saruman's army is meant "to destroy the world of Man" and it's Aragorn, a man, who unites Legolas and Gimley as companions despite their blatant hatred for each other from the beginning. The play on man/woman as gender and species within Middle Earth (if there are "dwarf women" as Gimley insists then are there also "man women"? what's the logic here?) is what brings Eowyn to ultimately defeat Sauron in the final film (oops did I ruin it for you?)

What I'm saying is that it's been bothering me through this movie tonight that "the world of man" is so damned important when the continued deforestation, despite the existence of a race of Ents who should be just as important a species, makes little difference in the storyline beyond angering said ents.

I'm tired of discussing this. Just think about it. Over and out.