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By kilax, August 16, 2018 7:01 am

• I received two new Starbucks “Been There” mugs as gifts in the past few weeks! Gina got me Colorado, and Bobbi got me Arizona! Thank you, ladies! And since I’ve visited those states, I can use them (as opposed to waiting until I’ve gone there to use them <— just my own silly rules)!

• I finished Not Tonight, Josephine and started the novel A Lady’s Guide to Selling Out, about a twenty-eight year old working in public relations, who gets a special assignment that makes her question if she wants to be a sellout anymore, or follow her passion and be a writer (maybe – I am only a couple of chapters in but that is what I am guessing it’s about from the description). Whoa. The writing is so smart, clever, current, and relevant, that I feel like there’s actually something to get out of every sentence. So I’m enjoying it, but the level of concentration is kind of wearing me out! I did enjoy Not Tonight, Josephine. I loved the author’s sense of humor!

• I was so relaxed on vacation that I let my almost three year Duolingo streak lapse! I felt upset for a few minutes, then felt strangely free. Ha. (Only Bethany will care about this!)
• Ugh, then I missed “free” Shitterfly magnet day after vacation – when I have so many pics I want to make in to magnets! I turned off my Shitterfly Facebook notifications and saw it the day after on Facebook. Luckily “free” magnets come once a month. You guys know I love my (custom & regular!) magnets.
• Since I was planning on getting myself a mani for my birthday, then my coworker treated me, I can get one more… right? (Okay, let’s admit – this is a slippery slope of going back to getting them 1.5 times a month. I’m only trying not to since I bought a car this year and that wasn’t in my imaginary budget.) ANYWAY. I decided to get one nail a lighter shade than the rest, and meh, I don’t like it! Regrets!

From the OPI Peru Collection – Grandma Kissed A Gaucho and Don’t Toot My Flute, my previous mani was Alpaca My Bags

• I got a bill from my doctor, and was surprised to see my health care provider didn’t pay any of my visit fees. So I called the doctor and they said my provider said they don’t have me in the system. Which is odd, because I was checking the system while on the call, and it showed me as current. At first, the doctor told me to call my provider and see what was up… until we talked further and they realized they sent the bill to the wrong location. SIGH. Always question your health care bills, folks! I’m lucky I don’t have many and can KIND OF keep it straight. I can’t imagine dealing with a lot of them, or with a family’s. They make that sh*t so effing complicated.
• And today I have to go back to the doctor because they screwed up a test from last time. Sigh. I don’t want to go. I don’t want to adult today!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 190

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By kilax, August 13, 2018 6:01 am

I had big plans for this weekend! Plans of doing ALL THE EXERCISE!!! Steven was out of town with his fraternity brothers, and I imagined myself filling free moments with running, biking, AND swimming.

But two things happened.

First, I had a headache most of Saturday. One that felt like it could turn in to a migraine. So after I finished work and errands for the day, I needed to take a nap – NOT spend time in the sun on my bike, or with goggles on my head in the water. Ugh.

SECOND! And this is a nice surprise – I want to spend as much time with the kittens as possible. Well, that part is NOT the surprise. The surprise is that having them is really making me want to slooooooooooow down. I hate having my schedule filled with back-to-back-to-back things and being busy, but I do tend to do that to myself. With the kittens though, I keep thinking about how they’ll only be little for so long, and I want to absorb all of it! Plus, this weekend, with Steven gone, if I left, I would put them in the guest bedroom, and I want them to be able to roam the house! So, yeah – another mostly chill weekend!

FRIDAY!

On Friday I ate an early dinner and ran after. Then spent forever on the phone with Starbucks to find out why someone didn’t receive an e-giftcard I sent them the day before. If YOU ever have this problem, call this number – 877-496-3731 – NOT the number on their website. Sigh, it took forever just to get that info (then they fixed it immediately, thankfully!).

I also did the fun task of going through old cards, letters, and postcards, and deciding which ones to keep, which to recycle, and which to scan. The use of the word “fun” is not sarcasm – this was FUN for me. Although it made me a bit sad, as some of the correspondence was three years old (oops, need to do this more often), and it made me think about how some people were doing better back then.

SATURDAY!

I woke up in the middle of the night with a headache and took medicine. Then woke up with a headache and took more. Then went on a run to see if that helped. Nope.

So I went to the Efit Games and felt bad to have a grimace on my face from time to time from my head pain. I didn’t want to be whiny about it, but I did let people know that was why I was feeling that way so they wouldn’t think I was just making a b*tchy face!

Efit trainers!

I wanted to go home and sleep right after, but I had scheduled Walmart Grocery pick-up. Sigh. Trying to be efficient bit me in the butt.

I still got a lot done that morning (see above where I mentioned back-to-back-to-back stupidity):

• Got gas
• Dropped off dry-cleaning
• Did Walmart pick-up
• Went to
  • Target
  • Bath & Body Works (I had free item coupons and got some birthday gifts)
    

    I bet you can’t tell what my favorite scent is!

  • Aldi
• Okay, I got Starbucks too, hoping the caffeine would help my headache!

Traffic was a bit nutso. It seems like the county/cities are rushing to get road work finished before school starts or something, and LOTS of roads were under construction. Getting to Aldi was particularly annoying, as I got off one street because of construction, then the street I went to was randomly closed for a festival (???), then the only street left to take was under construction. Sigh. More headache medicine.

I was so happy to finally get home, put away groceries, make lunch, finish watching 17 Again, then take a nap.

Then it was another quiet night! I wrapped some gifts,

watched 50 Shades Freed (How could this movie be SOOO bad?! Oh! Because the source material is!!! Ha!), played with the kitties, saw a cat that looked JUST LIKE SNOW in the backyard (and felt sad), took Data outside to see how he liked that (he did), then tried to go to bed.

I heard horrible screaming from the guest bedroom after I put the kitties in there, and opened the door to tell them to chill out, and saw that Apollo was all tangled up in a cord and was being choked. I worked as fast as I could to untangle him, thinking I would have to run for scissors, but I was able to get him out.

Photo from calmer times the day before

I felt horrible, and spent too long thinking about how bad that would have been had I not been home to hear him. I put away all the corded toys and made sure the toys left out seemed “safe,” then talked out loud to myself telling myself not to waste time thinking about “what if” or to feel guilty, but that didn’t really work.

I tried to shift my mind to positive thoughts, like the beach vacation my parents and snis and her family are on, and that sort of helped, but I just felt sh*tty. I called my snis and was able to fall asleep (much later than I wanted) after talking to her about it.

SUNDAY!

I imagined I would sleep in Sunday but the cats had other plans! I woke up to what sounded like water running and felt super confused as I was the only one home. Oh. That was Data having a major poop accident in the bathroom. Sigh. Poor guy.

So early Sunday morning was spent on cat cleanup and feeding and playing duty. I also did some laundry, tidied up, and prepped produce for the week.

Then ran.

Then cleaned some more when I got back. And made lunch and tried to watch The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society on Netflix, but silly me, it was Crazy Kitty Time, and I couldn’t focus!

Watching Apollo be crazy

So we played for a bit, I cleaned some more, did some more laundry (CHORES!!!!!!!!!) then made this banana cake recipe, AGAIN, this time in cupcake form. This is my third time making this recipe and it’s delish. See upcoming Tuesday post about how I have gained weight this summer, muah ha ha.

Watching for Daddy to get home

Steven got home in the late afternoon and I spent the rest of the evening chatting with him about his trip, doing a few more chores, and watching that Netflix movie! I enjoyed the movie. I heard about it at the library, because they had a copy of the book and it said something on the cover about being a movie on Netflix. I picked the book up to see if I wanted to read it, but when I saw it was all back-and-forth letters, the format turned me off! I wonder if they ever actually get together (face-to-face) in the book (like they do in the movie). I am guessing the movie might have changed a few things (to make it watchable!).

There was some Crazy Kitty Time during the second attempt to watch the movie, too. Khali wants to be in on the action too (by observing and swatting from time to time), which makes me glad. It feels like she is spending more time around us now that the kittens are here. 

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By kilax, August 10, 2018 7:11 am

I have a whole list of more substantial blog posts ideas but it’s just that – a list of ideas! So you get fluff for your Friday (um, not that this blog is EVER more than that!)

I received some iTunes giftcards for my birthday so you know what that means – it’s back to buying songs*, baby!

I have a huge list of songs I want to buy, but the song I’m listening to on repeat is one that wasn’t even on my list – I saw it on the iTunes Top Songs List <— so basic

Imagine Dragons, “Natural” <— even more basic but whatever – I like popular music!!!

*Yes, yes, I know there are many streaming applications I can use “for free,” including Amazon Music, which I have, but do not use. I buy my music. And deal with the POS that is iTunes.

And more fluff – cat pics! I know that’s why you’re really here!

Khali and Starbuck

Khali and Apollo

Starbuck

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By kilax, August 9, 2018 6:11 am

• Kitty update! They’ve almost been home a week! We’re letting them explore more rooms, which they love (they still sleep in a closed in room at night, mostly for safety from our second floor drop to the living room). Khali likes to be near them, and they like to follow her around. There is still some slapping and interesting noises between those three, but things seem to be getting more friendly and less “get off my turf”! Happily, Khali’s personality is staying the same, and she isn’t regressing back to her scared stray cat “I don’t trust you” behavior. Phew.

The second picture in this series is of Apollo getting smacked.

• Data is STILL in the bathtub. We can take him out and walk around with him, but he always goes back to the bathtub. He’s still eating and going to the bathroom fine (well, what qualifies as fine for him now), but isn’t he bored out of his freaking mind in there?! Also, I’d like to use all the awesome spa stuff I got for my birthday (he’s occupying the only bathtub in the house)!!!!! His regular vet was off when we took him in last week – I wonder if he’d have a better analysis, or if we do just need some anxiety meds for Data?
• I wish there was a way to prevent sad animal stories from being shared by people in my feed on Facebook (I do tell Facebook I don’t want to see it) and from showing up in my RSS news feeds. Ugh. I’d rather see stories like this.
• Rachel and I decided to run the Madison Mini Marathon next Saturday for a birthday celebration together. Yay!
• Gah, I’ve felt like a zombie most mornings this summer, and my diet is definitely to blame! I’m so ready to have a normal schedule and get back in to a routine!
• I’m currently reading Not Tonight, Josephine: A Road Trip Through Small-Town America, a book about the (British) author’s travels across the US in the 2000. Gina read it and liked it so she gave me a copy for my birthday. The author is humorous and I’m learning more about US geography (and getting some travel ideas, too)! I’m enjoying it!

• Speaking of books, something strange has been happening at my library, where the books I have that are eligible for renewal are somehow already renewed by their due date without me doing anything. I wonder what the hell is going on. Of course, this did NOT happen with The Last Time I Lied, which is newer, and was not eligible for renewal, and I did not have time to finish. Sad face. I put in a hold request for it.
• I will finish with a Photoshop rant. For some reason, the quality of my “save for web” settings keeps getting changed from maximum to medium. And I don’t notice it until I upload the images here and see how pixelated they are, after I’ve closed them in Photoshop. So I have to reopen them and resave them at a higher resolution. Wah wah wah. And yeah, I tried to figure out how to stop this! I just need to remember to make sure it’s at maximum each time I use it!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 189

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By kilax, August 8, 2018 6:13 am

The name of my iPhone shows up when it connects to my car. I thought it would be really humorous to change the name of it, and see when Steven noticed.

Naturally, I changed it to “Kimberly’s Butt.”*

And it never showed up! My car still says “Connected to Kimberly’s iPhon.”**

What a letdown.

I left it as is, and kind of forgot about it, so there have been a couple of funny occurrences.

We were at the beach and Dad wanted to connect to my portable speaker via bluetooth. But first, Steve and Gina’s watches showed up as options on his phone. Then, “Kimberly’s Butt.” My Dad got a kick out of it. I’m glad to be making him proud, as an adult. (The speaker finally showed up when I unconnected my phone, duh.)

Then I was at the airport yesterday, using my phone as a hotspot***. A couple sat down next to me and asked “Are you Kimberly?” I told them I am, and they said “Kimberly’s Butt showed up on our phones!”

Ha! Ha ha ha! I’m not sure if it showed up as a recommended hotspot or in iPhone sharing or whatever it is called but they got a kick out of it. They were sure I wouldn’t admit to being Kimberly. Oh sure, I will. No shame!

Although I did lie and tell them I was waiting for my husband to notice it before I changed it. That’s not true. He noticed it when it was mentioned at the beach and rolled his eyes!!!

*It’s strange I didn’t use my standard “P+O-O=P”
**Ha, “iPhon” (missing the e) is what made us talk about changing it to start
***Sigh. The airport yesterday. I spent A LOT of time on my computer because I got there at 2:30 pm for a 5:30 pm flight (my meetings ended early). It was $75 to check in to an earlier flight and that isn’t an appropriate way to spend work money, so I waited for my flight, which was delayed several times and finally left three hours late, which got me home at 10:00 pm instead of 7:00 pm. I still safely got home (yay!) but I reached my breaking point of sitting in the airport with about an hour and a half left to wait. I just wanted to be home! And to NOT be exhausted today, which I now am, but whatever. At least the Louisville airport is super chill (not crowded) and it was a relaxing-as-can-be delay – I did some work, caught up on a few blogs, read, and listened to some podcasts.

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By kilax, August 6, 2018 4:19 am

Did anyone else sing “oh, there goes gravity” after reading that title?

This weekend was my attempt to get my life and our house back in order before leaving for a work trip Sunday afternoon. I was kind of successful!

FRIDAY!

On Friday we ran errands (GROCERIES!!!), picked up a (free for my birthday!) pizza, and played with Apollo and Starbuck. We were going to watch a movie, but before we knew it, it was 10:00! Time flies when you’re playing with kittens!

SATURDAY!

I did not get up early and work out Saturday morning… I got up and played with the kittens! <— recurring theme

I taught fitness boxing, ran after, then spent most of the afternoon cleaning the house. And taking kitten pictures.

I hung this caricature up while I was cleaning.

Look! Apollo’s toe beans are multi-colored!

Jen, Troy, and Declan came over to celebrate my birthday/catch up. We ate Chinese food, and… played with the kittens!

SUNDAY!

I was hoping I’d somehow wake up full of energy and want to do a long run, but nope. Exhausted. So I got out of bed and played with the kittens.

We made breakfast and I prepped some of the produce for the week,

then packed and took care of things around the house. And played with the kittens (including Khali – I’ve been making sure to play with her every time she sees us with the kittens! Data is still hanging out in the bathtub.).

I did take a thirty minute nap (with the kittens!) before it was time to leave for the airport at 3:00. Then you know, blah blah blah, crowded airport, delayed flight, got to my hotel at 9:45 and hadn’t had dinner yet, late night, etc.

I’m in Jeffersonville, IN (via Louisville, KY) for work until Tuesday afternoon. I actually visited this town three times in the summer of 2011, and am not too thrilled to be back (for work)! But I remember I enjoyed running here, so I’m looking forward to that.

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By kilax, August 4, 2018 1:23 pm

I’ve been visiting Guttenberg, Iowa, on the Mississippi River, since birth. It’s where my family goes to relax – to boat, go to the beach, and to eat entirely too much food. This is the fifth year in a row that la otra familia – Gina, Steve, and Luca – have joined us for vacation there!

Our annual river trip with la otra familia trip flew by! We arrived in Guttenberg last Saturday night, and left Wednesday afternoon.

FRIDAY!

Steven and I headed out of town around 1:00 pm on Friday, and made our way to Davenport, where Gina and fam were meeting us so that we could leave our car there and ride back to (near) Iowa City with them. Yay, RAGBRAI logistics! We had an easy drive in, and kind of wished we were spending more time in Davenport – it looked like a neat city!

We drove by the finish line for the Bix 7 (a popular 7-mile race) and it dawned on me that RAGBRAI finished in Davenport on the same morning as the Bix 7. Whoa, logistics nightmare much? I knew we’d be arriving there well after the race was over though, ha.

We rode back to Iowa City and got some Mediterranean food, then went back to our hotel to meal plan and make a (huge) shopping list for the week.

SATURDAY!

Dad, Gina, Steven, and I rode RAGBRAI, while Steven, Mom and Luca had some adventures of their own! After dropping us off, they stopped at Hurts Donuts (the home of Steven’s favorite glazed donut) in Iowa City,

then dropped Gina and Steve’s car off in Davenport, then went out to lunch in Dubuque, then picked up all our groceries for the next 3.5 days. It was Steven’s idea for the three of them to drop the car then go get groceries, and that REALLY helped the overall schedule. I had planned on grocery shopping after the ride, but Steven hypothesized I wouldn’t feel like it, and he was right! It was such a help to have them do that!

They drove on to Guttenberg and checked in to Gina and Steve’s rental and dropped off all the groceries then hung out until we got there. We all had pizza together that night and shared stories from our day with each other. It was fun to hear what they were up to!

SUNDAY!

Sunday was a typical river day. Gina and I did a long-ish run in the morning with Dad (on his bike) then we packed all our food and gear up for a trip to the beach!

Running up the hill to meet Gina!

I gave Gina a unicorn floatie for her birthday, and we had a blast trying to get on and off it, and seeing how many adults we could fit on it. I think (I know, actually, because someone said something) the people on the beach enjoyed watching us fall off, and all the little girls were making home alone faces and saying “Look! A unicorn!”

Matching hats from Gina!

After beach time, we had dinner at Gina and Steve’s rental. The owner of the rental left some sweet corn from his farm and it was amazing! The rest of dinner was too, but the corn stole the show. Hashtag Iowa.

MONDAY!

Steve and I ran a bit with Dad Monday morning, then Steven and Steve did some work, while Gina, Luca and I hiked the trail behind their rental. The rental house was on the bluff overlooking town, and the trail went straight in to town. I was expecting single track, but it was actually groomed with grass, then dirt, then rocks. It was an easy hike.

While in town we went to the aquarium and lock and dam (where we watched part of a barge go through!). We saw a large sign for things to do in Clayton County at the aquarium, and Spook Cave caught our interest. Then we heard a raving review for it from a 3 and 5-year-old at the lock and dam, so we knew we had to go! After lunch, we headed there!

Bones – one of the cats who lives at the cave/campground!

I wish I could give you the history of the cave, but I didn’t retain much of it (by my own fault – our tour guide was great). What I thought was cool was that you tour the cave on a boat, and have to duck a lot to avoid hitting your head on the cave walls. And we all enjoyed that it was 47° in there!

We checked out the town of McGregor for a bit after our tour. Unfortunately, a lot of the shops were closed (we got there too late), but we still had fun!

We all had dinner together at Gina and Steve’s again, and yes, the sweet corn stole the show. AGAIN. (But I tried red sauce enchiladas for the first time and liked them! We always do green sauce at home!)

TUESDAY!

Tuesday was my thirty-fourth birthday. All I wanted to do was run and go to the beach. And not do any dishes.

And I got my wish (minus a few dishes)! I ran with Dad up to Gina’s place, then ran with her a bit, then we all went to the beach and had it all to ourselves for a few hours, which is a treat!

I made sure to eat really crappy junky food for my birthday – a macaroni and cheese burger for lunch and nachos for dinner (which makes it sound like a love cheese, but that is not the case, ha).

My mom made me a coconut pineapple cake for my birthday, which we ate at Grandma’s. I opened gifts there too.

WEDNESDAY!

Wednesday was our last day. We made our traditional big breakfast (the other days we did quick stuff like cereal, pop-tarts, bars, and fruit), took our family photos,

packed up, and headed out!

Ha. It totally sounds like we did nothing on this trip, but we were hanging out all day, not taking naps, often cooking and cleaning, and packing things up and unpacking, and helping with the water toys where we could … we were super tired each night! But in a good way. It was a lot of fun! I felt like I got to relax and unplug and shut off from the world for a few days, which I needed. I was feeling pretty stabby and agitated about work before I left, so it was good to take a break. Then come back to chaos. But oh well!

And I say this every year but I LOVE how our families mesh so well together. Gina is like a sister to me, and she and Steve and Luca treat my parents like they’re their parents/grandparents. I recognize what a rare thing that is to have such a big group get along and want to spend days on days together and I’m  grateful for it. I love sharing my childhood vacation spot with them, and love that they want to spend two days driving to it (and back home, eek), and look forward to it all year like I do! Love love love!!! Can’t wait for River Trip 2019!

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By kilax, August 3, 2018 12:37 pm

Alternatively tilted, “Apollo and Starbuck, Day 1,” since I will obviously be blogging about them every day!

They’re finally home!

Starbuck (female) is in the front, Apollo (male) is in the back

We picked Apollo and Starbuck up last night (they’re named after Battlestar Gallactica characters, from the new version of the show)! We gated off the office for them to hang out in during the day, and had them in the guest bedroom at night.

They’re loving having so much space to play and so many things to get in to! It’s a blast having them at home – I just want to play with them all day!

They aren’t hiding, and are eating, and using the litter box. So far, so good.

And how are the other cats doing? Khali is curious. She’s been watching from a distance AND right from the gate.

I was surprised that the kittens were the ones being hissy toward Khali, and not the other way around. Well, at first. Khali was the hissy one today.

And Khali wants to know why the hell they get to go in the guest bedroom when she doesn’t?!

But mostly she just watches them, then goes about her way. I was concerned she’d regress and hide with them here, but she’s thankfully not doing that. She’s actually being completely normal, except when they hiss at each other through the gate. I hope in time, that they’ll all play together!

And Data? Sigh, Data was not doing too well before the kittens came home. Bad timing. While we were gone last week he continued playing the lava game, and hid a bit from Bobbi (who cat sat), and did one naughty poo and pee. He eventually settled on hanging out in the bathtub and does NOT want to leave. Even when we got home, he wanted to stay in – we’d take him out and when we put him down he’d run back to the bathroom.

I took him to the vet and he’s physically fine (he’s lost a few ounces of weight). They suggested anxiety medication, and some some unrelated changes to his diet (a bit less pumpkin). But otherwise, they said to keep monitoring him. He’s eating well and going to the bathroom, he just doesn’t want to leave the bathtub. He’s definitely anxious/spooked about something.

So while we brought Data out to say hi to the kittens from afar, he hasn’t really interacted with them yet since they’re in separate spaces and he’s not exploring or leaving the bathroom. I hope he does soon.

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By kilax, August 1, 2018 7:39 am

• Getting the kittens, like, for real!

Ha, this picture is so old, they’re way bigger now!

• Writing blog posts about all the fun we had in Iowa with my parents and Gina and fam
• Steven going on a trip with his fraternity brothers
• Seeing Anne when she’s in town for work
• Girls’ Birthday Weekend with Rachel and Kim
• A trip to KC to see Steven’s family and my snis and her family
• Seeing the new Mission Impossible film
• Relaxing and reading a few books? That would be nice!

I could also make a list of things I’m NOT excited about in August, which would mostly be work stuff, but, eh, I think we all have that on our lists!

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By kilax, July 27, 2018 9:21 am

THIS IS NOT A DRILL. The kittens are actually coming home in one week!

Get ready to be bombarded with photos and daily updates!!!

I told Steven is looks like someone dipped their fingers in paint and ran them down this guy’s back!

I feel extremely guilty they’re ready to come home but “stuck” at the vet’s office (we couldn’t bring them home because of our travel schedule). But, if there is one place for them to be, being loved on by everyone at the vet’s office is a good place. Right? RIGHT?!?!?? Sad face.

The love is already pouring in for our kittens – they’ve received a few gifts and giftcards in the mail! We took some of their gifts to play with them last night and holy cow do they have a lot of energy. It’s going to be fun (CRAZY) times in our house!