I don’t know what the hell they are doing at the HEB, but they have the store ALL screwed up. I asked the cashier what the insanity going on was all about. The only thing she knew was that it was the result of “too many suits having too many meetings.” It looks like they are moving everything around, which will annoy just about everyone who works or shops there. All I know about it right now is that the new shelves they were filling had better be temporary, because the locations leave much to be desired as far as traffic flow goes. If I have a problem getting my skinny butt and shopping cart between the milk cooler and a shelving unit, larger and less agile shoppers are going to have an even bigger problem. The one stocker I asked about the new shelves didn’t know of they were permanent or not. Wow. Looks like the suits have done a great job letting their employees know what the hell is going on. I picked up more groceries than I originally intended to just so I can avoid going back there for as long as possible.

The thing I am really wondering about is … why were they putting the shampoo in the cereal aisle? What the hell are they doing to the standard grocery store floor plan?!?! I’m going to be lost the next time I go shopping there!

Lin tried to fix the wipers, but he doesn’t remember how he did it. Apparently it will require taking apart the dashboard. Also, I am not at all certain the brakes will pass inspection. They’ve started to make a noise, and they feel like crap. Soooo … looks like I won’t be getting the car inspected until next week. Since I have gone out and done all the shopping, it’s not like I have anywhere else to go until Saturday, and if Lin and/or the truck isn’t available to get me to lunch that day, I’ll either just drive illegally or take the bus. It isn’t like it would be the first time I did either of those things.

The kittens are awake and flying around the house knocking things over and down, so I better go play with them and wear them out the best I can. When they get really wound up, they are TOTAL TERRORS! Oh oh, there’s hissing and howling going on. ARGH!!!

Still sitting here. Now I am waiting for the battery to charge. Uh huh. Told you something else would go wrong, didn’t I? Well, Lin’s too busy to help with getting a new battery (which I so need) or fixing the wipers, so now my mission is to get the stupid car started so I can go get cat food, kitty litter, and the other necessities of life. Hopefully he’ll have time to help me out later today or tomorrow, so I can get the car inspected. Or … I guess it’ll have to wait until the weekend. If I get all my shopping done this afternoon, I guess it won’t be a huge crisis to not be able to drive the car for a few days. Still, you know, it irks me.

I have managed to set up the TxTag for Lin’s truck. I decided to only get one tag. They want $20 a tag to seed the toll fee account, and the chances of me ever using $20 worth of toll road fees is about nil. I plan to avoid them at all costs as a sort of protest about setting up roads paid for with taxes as toll roads, so this will inspire me to stick to that plan. Should the day ever arrive that I have to use one of the stupid toll roads, I guess it will be a learning experience for me to have to go through a toll booth … something I have never done before. I guess I better start keeping a quantity of change in the car at all times, just in case.

The kittens have been doing their best to keep me in a good mood, and it’s been working. See, they know when they need to be as precious as they possibly can be and NOT drive me insane by tearing around the house like little hellions. Ronin is laying on the arm of my chair right now purring and licking my arm. It’s too cute. He better not get used to laying on the arm of the chair though. In another few months, he’s going to be too big!

I’m going to trudge back out to the car and see if it starts. If it does, off I go to get some shopping done. If not, I’ll be right back griping about that.

I don’t know what Lin is talking about when he says the mechanism for the wipers is “right under the dash, you can’t miss it.” I’m missing it … don’t see it at all. On the passenger side there isn’t any way to access the area under the dash, and on the driver’s side, I’m just not seeing anything like what he described. I’m sure it’s there, but I’m not recognizing it for what it is, I guess. Dammit. Now I have to wait until Lin can do it for me, and this time I want him to show me exactly where it is. Might be nice to know if it should disengage while I am out and about, and it starts raining.

So I suppose I’ll go ahead and do the other car-related things and get to some stores. If worse comes to worst, I can always take the car in to get inspected tomorrow, but you know I hate driving for even one second without a current sticker. No sense begging to get pulled over by a cop, right?

This day isn’t going as well as I felt it would when I got up this morning. One thing has already gone wrong. I wonder what else will screw up as the day progresses? Yes, I am not so much filled with sunshine, light and optimism today. When Sunday goes poorly, the rest of the week usually follows right along. Though … Final Fantasy XII is available for purchase today, so not all is wrong with the world. I’m going to have to remember to whine about wanting to buy it at some point this week. It’d make a great anniversary gift, don’t you think?

Ah well, on with my day. In closing, here’s a photo of how we started our day on Sunday.

Happy Halloween!

I don’t think we are doing anything at all tonight, and if we do, it won’t be in costume. I think that’s a first for us. Well, Kevin isn’t having his annual party (thank heavens, really), so I don’t know where we’d go anyway. I think I’m going to see if Lin wants to go out to eat at a nice restaurant tonight to celebrate our anniversary which is also today. It would be the first time we have celebrated our “union” like adults … sans costumes and too much booze. I’d sort of wanted to have a real wedding for our fifteenth anniversary, but as you can see … that didn’t happen. I guess I’ll plan that for the twentieth. I should be able to get motivated and plan a small wedding in five years, don’t you think?

The kittens have been completely out of control the last few days. It’s a good thing they grow more precious and adorable at about the same rate as they grow more terroristic, or they’d be living life outside with Momma Cat. Not kidding. These kittens are monsters! They are also so loving and cuddly. Yup, kittens obviously survive by being too cute to be angry with. In the midst of kitten insanity yesterday, I did manage to have a very nice nap with the two of them in the sunny spot on the bed. Yes, I said “the bed.” I thought I’d try something, so as they were winding down from an intense play session and preparing to take their afternoon nap, I decided to do the same. I left the bedroom door open a crack and laid there to watch what they did when they were given access to the bedroom. Both of them hopped right up and settled in on the bed with me. OK, they didn’t both hop right up. Ronin hopped onto the bed, but Myu sat on the floor and whined until I picked her up. I know she could get up on the bed herself, but her mindset seems to be “Why expend the energy when all I have to do is mew pathetically and someone will pick me up?” That kitten is lazy, and I realize I am not helping any by constantly picking her up when she pretends she can’t jump up on something, but … have you ever tried to take a nap with a three month old kitten mewing right by the bed? It’s impossible. The nap went well until they woke up before I did. Then Ronin set about attacking my feet and Myu started rummaging around the room. It was nice sleeping on the bed with them. I’m still not ready to let them have 24/7 access to the bedroom, but I imagine there will be more afternoon naps for the three (maybe four) of us in the near future.

I’ve got a busy, busy day ahead, mostly thanks to my own ridiculous procrastination. I have to go to Petsmart for kitten chow and kitty litter. I have to go to the grocery store for coffee and Dr Pepper … more than that really, but those ARE the important things. I have to repair the Dart’s windshield wipers, get some gas, check all the fluids, and get the car inspected. I have to sign Lin and I up for TxTags, so we’ll be set up for traveling on the new toll roads. I also need to go to Hobby Lobby to get a few things I need to finish up a gift for someone. Oh, and I need to call the vet to set up the appointment(s) for the kittens to get fixed and get shots. The only one of these things that absolutely must be done today is the car stuff. I could put of the rest of it, but I have already put all the rest of it off for too long, so I really hope I get it all done today. Besides, if I do all this stuff, it will be a good bargaining tool for going out to dinner tonight. You think I got up early to iron Lin’s shirts because I wanted to? Nope. It’s a bargaining chip. If he has nicely pressed shirts to wear, we can go out to a nice restaurant, right?

I better get dressed and get moving on my day. I’d like to go do the car stuff first, and I’d like to get there as soon as the inspection place opens. Getting a car inspected on the last day of the month is completely stupid, and I can’t believe I procrastinated until today. What an idiot I am! Oh well, if all goes well, it will pass with no problems, and I won’t have to worry about it for another year. First things first though, getting dressed and fixing those wipers!

Hope everyone has fun this Halloween. Even though we aren’t doing anything spooky or party-like, I do plan to pick up a bag of candy so we can sit on the couch and pig out later tonight. Mmmm … I love Halloween candy!

I don’t have a whole lot to say about yesterday. Before we even left for Mom’s, Lin had to do some work. Then we get there and are just sitting down to lunch when Lin drops the bombshell about how if everything works out we would be going to Chicago for Xmas. Gee … thanks. I know I told him I hadn’t mentioned it to Mom yet, and that mentioning it was going to cause grief. I didn’t specifically tell him NOT to mention it, because I didn’t think I needed to. I guess I did. Then he got her started on having a yard sale (and was siding with her). Finally, he was picking on me in general in an unpleasant way. After each of these turd-droppings, he’d disappear to smoke a cigarette, play his guitar or sit on the porch to read. It’s almost as if he wanted me to have a stressful day.

So yeah, I don’t have a whole lot to say about yesterday.

Oh, and after all that work to get the boxes out of the living room? Guess what?! Mom sent along a whole bunch of boxes of Commodore computer crap that now I have to get rid of. I already have a complete system in my box room (in a box), and I really didn’t need the combined collection of my entire family’s Commodore 64 stuff yet too. It has to go. I doubt it is worth selling, so I am going to go through it to dig out my favorite old games, and then I am going to give it to anyone who wants it … so long as they take it all ASAP. I really don’t want it, and I don’t want boxes in my living room. I worked so hard to clear that corner out!

I don’t have much to say about today yet either. I’m tired, cranky, and have a million things to do … none of which I feel like dealing with today. I guess I’ll clean the kitchen (it needs it), play with the kittens, and then run to the store for a few things we need. What I really need to do is clean out the Dart and take it to get inspected, but I am not looking forward to that. I just never know whether it will pass or not, and now it’s the last two days of the month, so getting it done is going to be insane and take forever. I completely forgot to do it last week. Ugh, I just remembered I have to fix the wipers first. Crappity, crap, crap.

And of course, it’s looking like it wants to rain today. Double crappity, crap, crap. Maybe I’ll just clean the kitchen, play with kittens and flip off the rest of my responsibilities for the day.

You know what is really chapping my hide at this very moment? How everyone wants me to do things for them to help them or “serve” them in some way, but when I need for want something done, ain’t nobody going to do it but myself unless I throw a fit or beg. Yup, getting really sick of that. Just every once in a while, it would be nice if people would consider that I have needs and wants that could use filling my other people … and then they’d fill them, rather than sitting around whining about what I can do for them or what I haven’t done for them.

I better get back to the kitchen cleaning. This post is going nowhere fast and threatens to just be a huge Orb pity party and rant-fest.

Lin went out to a show at Antone’s tonight to see a group called Sister7. I would have liked to go along, but Aunt Flo came to visit, thus I have a migraine and wicked cramps. Also, it’s cold and a little damp out, so my bones just ache. Going to a crowded nightclub to listen to loud live music, no matter how good it is, just didn’t sound like a whole lot of fun to me. I would have been cranky, mean company. Of course, this means I am sitting at home bored and grumpy. I’m not really up to doing much of anything … not even watching a movie or playing a video game. Yup, you know I’m feeling poorly when I don’t even want to play a game! I think I’ll take some more aspirin, have a hot shower, and go lay down on the couch with the kitties.

This week has felt so long, and yet I seemed to have gotten nothing at all done. I hate weeks like that.

To make up for my general lack of frequent babbling this week … kitten photos.

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A great many politicians are in love with using Purell Hand Sanitizer when mingling with mere mortals. While I can certainly see rubbing my hands down with some, if I can’t get to a sink to wash my hands after shaking a whole roomful of people’s hands, I would never be so crass as to expect the people standing in line to shake my hand at a fundraiser to disinfect their hands before touching me. That’s just the utter epitome of rudeness, wouldn’t you say?

Like so many other people involved in politics these days, Mrs. Ryun has become obsessive about using hand sanitizer and ensuring that others do, too. She squirted Purell, the antiseptic goop of choice on the stump and self-proclaimed killer of “99.99 percent of most common germs that may cause illness,” on people lined up to meet Vice President Dick Cheney this month at a fund-raiser in Topeka.

What? Cheney can’t keep himself from touching his eyes, nose or mouth for the amount of time it takes him to press the flesh? I can think of no situation, outside hospitals or other sterile environments, where expecting someone to disinfect their hands before being allowed to touch you would even begin to be considered good form. It’s just crass and rude.