busy weekend! Oof!
After this weekend, going back to the lab on Monday morning is going to seem downright relaxing...
So we woke up on Saturday morning and realized that we had to send a bunch of things in the mail; most importantly, a letter to our future landlord. We are renting a house from an older couple, who are renting it out due to their move to West Virginia. Unfortunately, we apparently were in Atlanta when they moved to W. Va., and so when we called them earlier this month to arrange a pickup strategy for the keys, they had already moved and disconnected their phone line! Unfortunately, we don't appear to have an address for them at their new place, so we sent a letter via certified mail with a return receipt - this way, at least we will know their address when the mail gets forwarded to the new place and the return receipt comes back.
Then the real fun started, which was Taking The Cats To The Vet. Previous such ordeals have involved browbeating friends, or lugging crated cats onto the bus. However, now that I have a car, it is much easier. The cats were a lot less freaked out, too. So that was good. We started using the vet clinic at the Animal Rescue League, and I think we will continue taking our animals there. (This is the same animal shelter that we volunteer at.) It was just as good as the vets I have used before (and better than some!), and less than half as expensive. Plus they have a vet named Dr. Ennis who was very nice and got along great with my animals, who are usually terrified of people. Iggy the Cat, who is a curmudgeon, actually sat politely and purred a tiny bit when all the people were petting him! So yeah, I definitely recommend their clinic. There was a really cute family taking their cat to the vet at the same time: they had this tiny little tabby cat named Precious. The mom didn't want to go in the room while the kitten was getting her shots, because she "didn't want to see her cry." (Later, the mom seemed really happy when told that, instead of crying, the cat hissed at the vet tech!)
Then we went to Goodwill and got furniture. (We were poking around there on Friday and found a gorgeous china cabinet for $40.) Unfortunately, we neglected to consider the fact that a china cabinet goes on the very long list of things that will not fit into a Honda Civic. Ultimately, we ended up wrapping it in blankets, buying a rope, and tying it to the top of our car. Interesting ride, considering that we got it at the Goodwill on Carson Street and needed to haul it up to Penn and Braddock. We went up a couple considerable hills; luckily, the cabinet did not fall off.
Then we went out drinking with Dan. We discovered that Victory makes a delicious barleywine-style beer, called "Old Horizontal." The beer is all-too-appropriately named, since it is highly uncommon for a single beer to make me that tipsy! But... SO DELICIOUS! We sampled some other beers, too; a couple IPAs that I didn't really think much of one way or the other. To my mind, they were all a bit unbalanced, with these really floral/fruity hop flavors going on in the absence of anything else. It's not that I dislike hops - if I did, I wouldn't be sampling IPAs in the first place - but there is malt AND hops in a beer for a very good reason, which is that both are needed to produce something that can actually be called beer! Dan had Chimay White, which is always a tasty thing to drink, as well as the Brooklyn Brewing Company's version of a pilsner. I didn't like that beer too well, either. As Dan said, "It has a very nice flavor, there just isn't quite enough of it." Very watery-tasting beer. Disappointing. Then we staggered home, and I discovered that the lining on one of my boots got all messed up and crinkly under my heel, so the last three blocks were essentially torture. My foot still hurts a little even today, though there isn't a visible blister.
We woke up on Sunday morning, at what we believed to be 10:55 AM, to the sounds of Whitman the Cat destroying our down comforter with his sharp, sharp claws (he tries to dig us out of bed in the mornings). Then we realized that it was actually 11:55 AM, and that we had to go to our training class at the ARL in an hour! So we went there, and I was sort of dehydrated-feeling and bleary of eye. To add an extra little twist, the Homeless Cat Management Team was using the ARL clinic to spay what looked to me to be about 100 feral cats. They were stacked all over the place! In the lobby, in the multipurpose room, in the clinic rooms... so many kitties! But now we are actually allowed to pet the dogs and take them for walks and play with them, which is nice. I am especially fond of the pit bulls in that place - they are so sweet-natured and friendly, and all they want to do is make you happy and lick your face! (Well, some of them also want to play with/eat other dogs and cats, but for the most part they just want to make you happy and lick your face.)
About fifteen minutes after we left the shelter, we were back again, though. We had intended to go straight to REI from the shelter and get some stuff for the camping trip we're planning, but we had forgotten a coupon that we wanted to use. So we had to go back home. Two blocks away from our house, we saw a small dog dart out into the street and, to our horror, almost get hit by a car. Since we couldn't pull a U-turn in the street just then, and since we weren't sure if the dog was owned by a woman we saw walking down the road, we went home, grabbed the coupon, and went around the block to see if the dog was still there and okay. The dog was in fact still hanging out, only now she was being petted by a couple of bikers. They said that they'd seen her almost get hit too, but that the shelter couldn't come pick up dogs. So we said we'd take her back to the shelter. Upon actually looking at her, I could tell that she was definitely still a puppy. She was yet another pit bull mix, light tan with brown brindling and a white stripe down her forehead. Very beautiful. She was also the friendliest dog EVAR - she was so delighted to have people cuddling her and scratching her belly that she didn't even care that I picked her up and carried her into my car! Jonathon held on to her in the backseat so she couldn't get into trouble, and she just wagged her little tail and licked his face nonstop. I really regretted having to take her to the shelter, but I felt like lillyv would not be happy with me if an eight-month-old pit bull "accidentally" ended up in our house for a month, so to the shelter she went :( But she had a collar with a rabies tag, so obviously someone owned her. Part of me hopes that they don't pick her back up, since they didn't even care enough about their dog to put their contact information on her collar, and since they let her run loose on the street in a dangerous neighborhood - when we found her, she was only a block off Penn Ave., and she would certainly have died if she had gone onto that road.
Then we decided to take our minds off not getting to have a cute dog just yet by going to REI and getting the stuff we were going to buy before we found the dog in the street. We got a tent and a sleeping bag for me (we have already found a good pack for me and a sleeping bag for Jonathon), so now we just need to get a pack for Jonathon and some suitable footwear. The tent is pretty nice - it's a three-person tent (so it will fit our dog when we get one), and it's very light and reasonably waterproof. It also has two doors, which is a HUGE bonus. The sleeping bag is pretty nice, too. Very light but very warm.
After spending way too much money at REI, we proceeded to go spend way too much money at Century III. We had to go there because Jonathon's cell phone is a call-dropping piece of shit. The Cingular guy switched out his SIM card, so we'll see if that fixes matters. If not, we'll have to exchange it. But then I wanted to go see how much down comforters cost these days, since Whitman is hell-bent on destroying ours. And as it turns out, we went looking for them at just the right time - we got a really nice-feeling microsuede/microfiber comforter for ridiculously cheap. I believe it was like $100 off or something similar. Plus the fabric is much sturdier, so Whitman won't kill it as easily as this one, which has a very thin cotton covering. We also got some pillows for pretty cheap too. Then we had dinner at Quaker Steak and Lube - while we were there, a little kid went tearing through the bar at top speed! A woman sitting at the bar got up and hurried after the toddler, and basically snatched it up by the seat of its pants, as it was running into the kitchen. She asked around the bar if anyone had lost a kid, but nobody had. Finally, she found the parents, who were STILL AT THE FRONT COUNTER, totally unconcerned about where their kid had gotten off to! Probably they were the same people whose dog I found running in traffic today... Anyway, they didn't even THANK the woman for saving their kid from getting maimed or trampled, just sort of sneered at her. So everyone at the bar was pretty pissed at that couple for being so shitty. They also dressed like Kid Rock. (I bought the woman a beer, on the principle that anyone who goes out of their way to rescue someone else's baby and deserves some sort of thanks.)
So yeah... Lessons from this weekend:
1) Barleywine is, in fact, more like wine than beer in its potency.
2) Puppies are cute.
3) PUPPIES ARE SO FUCKING CUTE AND I WANT ONE.
So we woke up on Saturday morning and realized that we had to send a bunch of things in the mail; most importantly, a letter to our future landlord. We are renting a house from an older couple, who are renting it out due to their move to West Virginia. Unfortunately, we apparently were in Atlanta when they moved to W. Va., and so when we called them earlier this month to arrange a pickup strategy for the keys, they had already moved and disconnected their phone line! Unfortunately, we don't appear to have an address for them at their new place, so we sent a letter via certified mail with a return receipt - this way, at least we will know their address when the mail gets forwarded to the new place and the return receipt comes back.
Then the real fun started, which was Taking The Cats To The Vet. Previous such ordeals have involved browbeating friends, or lugging crated cats onto the bus. However, now that I have a car, it is much easier. The cats were a lot less freaked out, too. So that was good. We started using the vet clinic at the Animal Rescue League, and I think we will continue taking our animals there. (This is the same animal shelter that we volunteer at.) It was just as good as the vets I have used before (and better than some!), and less than half as expensive. Plus they have a vet named Dr. Ennis who was very nice and got along great with my animals, who are usually terrified of people. Iggy the Cat, who is a curmudgeon, actually sat politely and purred a tiny bit when all the people were petting him! So yeah, I definitely recommend their clinic. There was a really cute family taking their cat to the vet at the same time: they had this tiny little tabby cat named Precious. The mom didn't want to go in the room while the kitten was getting her shots, because she "didn't want to see her cry." (Later, the mom seemed really happy when told that, instead of crying, the cat hissed at the vet tech!)
Then we went to Goodwill and got furniture. (We were poking around there on Friday and found a gorgeous china cabinet for $40.) Unfortunately, we neglected to consider the fact that a china cabinet goes on the very long list of things that will not fit into a Honda Civic. Ultimately, we ended up wrapping it in blankets, buying a rope, and tying it to the top of our car. Interesting ride, considering that we got it at the Goodwill on Carson Street and needed to haul it up to Penn and Braddock. We went up a couple considerable hills; luckily, the cabinet did not fall off.
Then we went out drinking with Dan. We discovered that Victory makes a delicious barleywine-style beer, called "Old Horizontal." The beer is all-too-appropriately named, since it is highly uncommon for a single beer to make me that tipsy! But... SO DELICIOUS! We sampled some other beers, too; a couple IPAs that I didn't really think much of one way or the other. To my mind, they were all a bit unbalanced, with these really floral/fruity hop flavors going on in the absence of anything else. It's not that I dislike hops - if I did, I wouldn't be sampling IPAs in the first place - but there is malt AND hops in a beer for a very good reason, which is that both are needed to produce something that can actually be called beer! Dan had Chimay White, which is always a tasty thing to drink, as well as the Brooklyn Brewing Company's version of a pilsner. I didn't like that beer too well, either. As Dan said, "It has a very nice flavor, there just isn't quite enough of it." Very watery-tasting beer. Disappointing. Then we staggered home, and I discovered that the lining on one of my boots got all messed up and crinkly under my heel, so the last three blocks were essentially torture. My foot still hurts a little even today, though there isn't a visible blister.
We woke up on Sunday morning, at what we believed to be 10:55 AM, to the sounds of Whitman the Cat destroying our down comforter with his sharp, sharp claws (he tries to dig us out of bed in the mornings). Then we realized that it was actually 11:55 AM, and that we had to go to our training class at the ARL in an hour! So we went there, and I was sort of dehydrated-feeling and bleary of eye. To add an extra little twist, the Homeless Cat Management Team was using the ARL clinic to spay what looked to me to be about 100 feral cats. They were stacked all over the place! In the lobby, in the multipurpose room, in the clinic rooms... so many kitties! But now we are actually allowed to pet the dogs and take them for walks and play with them, which is nice. I am especially fond of the pit bulls in that place - they are so sweet-natured and friendly, and all they want to do is make you happy and lick your face! (Well, some of them also want to play with/eat other dogs and cats, but for the most part they just want to make you happy and lick your face.)
About fifteen minutes after we left the shelter, we were back again, though. We had intended to go straight to REI from the shelter and get some stuff for the camping trip we're planning, but we had forgotten a coupon that we wanted to use. So we had to go back home. Two blocks away from our house, we saw a small dog dart out into the street and, to our horror, almost get hit by a car. Since we couldn't pull a U-turn in the street just then, and since we weren't sure if the dog was owned by a woman we saw walking down the road, we went home, grabbed the coupon, and went around the block to see if the dog was still there and okay. The dog was in fact still hanging out, only now she was being petted by a couple of bikers. They said that they'd seen her almost get hit too, but that the shelter couldn't come pick up dogs. So we said we'd take her back to the shelter. Upon actually looking at her, I could tell that she was definitely still a puppy. She was yet another pit bull mix, light tan with brown brindling and a white stripe down her forehead. Very beautiful. She was also the friendliest dog EVAR - she was so delighted to have people cuddling her and scratching her belly that she didn't even care that I picked her up and carried her into my car! Jonathon held on to her in the backseat so she couldn't get into trouble, and she just wagged her little tail and licked his face nonstop. I really regretted having to take her to the shelter, but I felt like lillyv would not be happy with me if an eight-month-old pit bull "accidentally" ended up in our house for a month, so to the shelter she went :( But she had a collar with a rabies tag, so obviously someone owned her. Part of me hopes that they don't pick her back up, since they didn't even care enough about their dog to put their contact information on her collar, and since they let her run loose on the street in a dangerous neighborhood - when we found her, she was only a block off Penn Ave., and she would certainly have died if she had gone onto that road.
Then we decided to take our minds off not getting to have a cute dog just yet by going to REI and getting the stuff we were going to buy before we found the dog in the street. We got a tent and a sleeping bag for me (we have already found a good pack for me and a sleeping bag for Jonathon), so now we just need to get a pack for Jonathon and some suitable footwear. The tent is pretty nice - it's a three-person tent (so it will fit our dog when we get one), and it's very light and reasonably waterproof. It also has two doors, which is a HUGE bonus. The sleeping bag is pretty nice, too. Very light but very warm.
After spending way too much money at REI, we proceeded to go spend way too much money at Century III. We had to go there because Jonathon's cell phone is a call-dropping piece of shit. The Cingular guy switched out his SIM card, so we'll see if that fixes matters. If not, we'll have to exchange it. But then I wanted to go see how much down comforters cost these days, since Whitman is hell-bent on destroying ours. And as it turns out, we went looking for them at just the right time - we got a really nice-feeling microsuede/microfiber comforter for ridiculously cheap. I believe it was like $100 off or something similar. Plus the fabric is much sturdier, so Whitman won't kill it as easily as this one, which has a very thin cotton covering. We also got some pillows for pretty cheap too. Then we had dinner at Quaker Steak and Lube - while we were there, a little kid went tearing through the bar at top speed! A woman sitting at the bar got up and hurried after the toddler, and basically snatched it up by the seat of its pants, as it was running into the kitchen. She asked around the bar if anyone had lost a kid, but nobody had. Finally, she found the parents, who were STILL AT THE FRONT COUNTER, totally unconcerned about where their kid had gotten off to! Probably they were the same people whose dog I found running in traffic today... Anyway, they didn't even THANK the woman for saving their kid from getting maimed or trampled, just sort of sneered at her. So everyone at the bar was pretty pissed at that couple for being so shitty. They also dressed like Kid Rock. (I bought the woman a beer, on the principle that anyone who goes out of their way to rescue someone else's baby and deserves some sort of thanks.)
So yeah... Lessons from this weekend:
1) Barleywine is, in fact, more like wine than beer in its potency.
2) Puppies are cute.
3) PUPPIES ARE SO FUCKING CUTE AND I WANT ONE.