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By kilax, July 10, 2018 12:11 pm

Data came rushing down the stairs when he heard me messing around with a bag of cat food. Sorry bud, that’s for THE KITTENS!

And now that we have kitten food, we’re “ready” for them to come home! The male got neutered yesterday, and the female is getting spayed today. The vet called me today to ask what names I want on their microchip registration so yeah… this is really happening. Ahhh!

(With our work schedules, the earliest we could pick them up would be Thursday. They haven’t called to say we can yet, and we definitely want them to convalesce there!)

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By kilax, July 9, 2018 11:40 am

We had a productive and social weekend!

FRIDAY!

On Friday I did the exciting task of cleaning the house. Ahh, I really enjoy those five minutes after cleaning the floors that I can walk around with bare feet and not have any litter get stuck to them. I’m sure that will only be worse when we have two more cats!

SATURDAY!

I was excited to wake up early on Saturday and enjoy our mid 50s weather! I went on a long run, did a short ride, then taught Fitness Boxing.

Anne came home with me after, but first, we made a pit stop so she could meet the kittens!

We are adopting the one sleeping on the other one

Then we cleaned up at our house, and went to HuHot with the boys (Terry had dropped Anne off then driven to our house to hang with Steven).

And then we went to the Bristol Renaissance Faire! It was my first time going to a renaissance faire! And this one is so close to our house – I run by it regularly on one of my long run routes.

I didn’t know what to expect, except fun people watching. At first it seemed like it was all shops and food for sale, but as we got in farther, we saw more entertainment type stuff. We played games, and seemed to catch the middle or end of a lot of performances. I laughed so hard my face hurt at the “Vegetable Stand” – it was a guy with his head and arms sticking out of holes in a huge platform, and you could pay to throw tomatoes at him, but he insults you (and the audience) the whole time. It got pretty raunchy/inappropriate, which I loved.

We all tried their “high striker” and Steven rang the bell so he got to go back at later and compete with all the other people who had as well! It was impressive to see him and the competitors hit it so many times in a row.

It was fun to check the faire out. We were all glad it was affordable – a few bucks here and there for games and drinks. It would add up, but it’s nothing like amusement park prices. And we had lovely weather for it – in the 70s and not humid. I was glad it wasn’t like the weekend before – in the 90s and miserable! Blah, no thank you.

It was great to spend the day with Anne and Terry. They were only in town for a short while, and we appreciate them fitting us in to their family visits. We miss our monthly dates with them!

SUNDAY!

I slept in until 6:00 on Sunday! Then I did the reverse of Saturday’s workouts – a short run and a long ride.

After that, I “helped” Steven with the sump pump project. And really, that means I stayed in the basement with him and grabbed him things he needed, acted as a second set of arms, helped clean up some messes, went to Menards once, etc. He gets all the credit for the actual work! I’m just the assistant!

Ha, funny Menards story. I was trying to be quick, so I grabbed the first employee I could find when I got in and brought up a picture on my phone of what I needed and asked “where can I find this?” Then I looked at my phone and it was a picture of my toe. Oops. Wrong picture! Ha!!!

We finished up* in the basement around 5:30 and met Bobbi and John for dinner at The Shanty at 7:00. The restaurant has been expanding since late last year and part of it opened and we were all anxious to dine in the new space! It’s gorgeous!

I didn’t take any (good) pictures, but here is their picture of the amazing mojito I had!

Catching up with Bobbi and John was fun. They’d worked on a project for the past four days, which of course, we always love hearing about. And I tried not to talk too much about how our kittens (and their cat!) are coming home this week! BUT IT’S HARD NOT TO!!!!

And that was our weekend! I’m exhausted. I need to find a way to fit in working out, productive time, social time, AND DOWNTIME. I think doing that involves dropping one of those things though. Productive time? Ha.

*Finished enough to safely stop – not finished with the project!

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By kilax, July 6, 2018 6:57 am

These two trouble makers!

We visited them yesterday* and the vet said they’re probably going to get fixed on Monday. If everything goes well, we can bring them home late next week. Eek!

I’m excited but worried. And I am NOT a worrier, so this feels very strange. I know it’s pointless to worry, but I am concerned about the kittens’ safety in our home – with our house layout/possessions, and with Data and Khali (I don’t think we should have any issues, but you never know!).

Luckily, we work from home, so we can watch and see what they get in to (everything) and what we need to put away (everything?). And if they need to be put in a separate room for a while, we can do that.

Eeeeek!!!! Soooooooooooooooooooooon! I need to research kitten food!

*Every time we see them, they are more and more active/playful! It’s so fun!

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By kilax, July 5, 2018 6:03 am

• We had such a relaxing Fourth! I worked out in the morning while Steven worked, then we grilled and chilled, including a NAP!!! We made tacos for dinner and watched Red Sparrow. It was a much welcomed relaxing day after not having any downtime last weekend.
• Data did not appreciate the fireworks we could hear from our house last night though. Poor little dude.

Data hiding in the closet

• I was gone three of the weekends in June, and had house guests for the other, so last weekend was the first weekend we were both home in a while. And we were BUSY – doing a bit of yard work, errands, and starting a backup sump pump project in the basement (we have two separate sump pumps and we’re installing back-ups to both). I was exhausted Sunday night, and grateful to have a day off in the middle of the week to chill.
• Khali has been my alarm clock lately! I like to wake up at 5:00 am, and every morning, she is on my chest at 5:00 am, purring and gently waking me up. (Except yesterday, when she thought I wanted to get up at 3:30 am…)

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 185

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By kilax, July 3, 2018 10:39 am

Last week Mica told me about an icebreaker she participated in where you had to say what you’d want your superpower to be. She asked me what mine would be, and I said never getting sick or injured (so basically, amazing immunity and invulnerability).

But even when I said that, I knew I’d think about it more, and come up with a superpower that was communication based. I don’t want to be able to read people’s minds (um, NO THANKS) but wouldn’t it be amazing if there was a way to share information and ideas, instantly, without words, so that the other person understood them, even if they didn’t agree with them? And you could do the same with their information/ideas?

So much gets lost in communication, because of human error, laziness, and greed (hoarding information). And I’m guilty of being lazy with communication from time to time. I get so tired of constantly communicating. SO, SO, SO tired of it. The deciphering. The begging for information. Sharing the same thing over and over. Trying to find a way to explain something to someone. Trying to find the person WITH information. (Mostly talking about work here, ha.) So. Much. Adulting.

So I can see many instances in my professional and personal life where this “superpower” would come in handy. Of course, I’d want to be able to turn it off and on!

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By kilax, June 30, 2018 3:01 pm

How many days in a row can I blog about cats? ALL THE DAYZZZ!!!

I didn’t mention it, but when we visited the kittens on Thursday, Bobbi came with us to meet and play with them!

But she also came to meet mama cat…

… and today she went back and filled out the paperwork to adopt her! AHHHHH!!!!

I’m so excited! For many reasons – mama cat will have a loving home, Bobbi and her family will have a cat after she’s wanted one for years, and I will get to have a relationship with mama cat (and can tell the kittens to shape up or I am gonna “talk to their mom,” ha ha ha).

I was feeling especially guilty about mama cat not having a home yet (even though the veterinarian’s office told me they’d foster her and find her a home), because when I called the vet’s office once they told me they thought WE should adopt her. That they’d talked about families that would be good for her and they thought of us. Sigh. She’s the sweetest cat I’ve ever met, but I didn’t want to bring another adult female cat in to our home. And I didn’t realize how bad I felt about that until Bobbi told me they are adopting her and I literally felt so happy I teared up.

So, yay! So excited for mama cat and Bobbi and her family!!!

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By kilax, June 29, 2018 8:28 am

June was so busy, I’m mostly excited about resetting and slowing down in July! But, also:

• The kittens coming home! (We think this will happen in July)

• Seeing Anne and Terry when they’re in town
• Going on a bike ride with xaarlin to celebrate her birthday
• Riding Day 7 of RAGBRAI with Dad, Gina, and Steve
• Family vacation at the river
• Treating myself to a mani (and pedi?) for my birthday
• Swimming outside
• Seeing summer blockbusters
• Deep cleaning the house
• The scab on my knee going away

What’s on your list?

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By kilax, June 28, 2018 7:31 pm

• We visited the kittens tonight! All six of them have been claimed for adoption, and just the mama cat needs a home now. She’s such a sweetie. I hope the right person finds her!

• I’m enjoying reading Deena Kastor’s story in her book, Let Your Mind Run. I can tell it’s a book I’ll read again, and I love that having my own copy means I can highlight it! (You’re not supposed to do that with library books, right? ha)

• Sure, why not?

View this post on Instagram

oh ma ga

A post shared by linz (@kyoto) on Jun 27, 2018 at 6:05pm PDT

• We have NO Independence Day plans and I’m so excited to CHILL (or, melt, since it will be in the 90s here).

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 184

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By kilax, June 27, 2018 12:02 pm

OMG, ballpark dogs, yassssssssssssssssssssssssss

I enjoy baseball, but let’s not lie, a huge joy of going to the game is the overpriced junky ballpark food. What a fun treat!

I’d been looking forward to yesterday’s interleague Royals/Brewers game for a while! Miller Park (Milwaukee) is much easier to get to to see the Royals play, than “Guaranteed Rate Field” (ha, aka, The Cell, in Chicago), where they regularly play the White Sox each season. North we go!

Steven is from KC, so, we’re Royals fans 

Thankfully, Miller Park has a roof – Tuesday’s forecast called for heavy thunderstorms all day and that’s what we got – we drove to Milwaukee in pouring rain, walked to the ballpark in the rain, then got to sit in dry seats. Ahh. I kept saying how nice it was to be at a game and not have it be a million degrees, or have a rain delay.

Miller Park is such a nice stadium – I’d like to go back for another random game this summer! And the Brewers fans are so nice too! When we were walking on the concourse, wearing our Royals gear, a Brewers fan randomly said to us (non-sarcastically) “Welcome to Milwaukee!” and during the game, the Brewers fan sitting next to Steven was telling him how much he likes Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, where the Royals play.

Now, it probably helps that the Royals were playing like sh*t! And I did hear the usual smack talking, but baseball wouldn’t be fun without that.

We went with Bobbi and John and had a good time catching up and joking around. Hopefully we can go to another game together this summer! (After we practice whatever group dance move is going to get us on the Jumbotron.)

But I’m not sure how much more I want to venture in to this area of Wisconsin this summer*, at least by highway. The highway to get there from our house is under construction, and probably twenty-five miles of it is down from three to two lanes for an indefinite amount of time (probably years, based on past experience). It’s not a big deal in the long run, but we’ve been driving through it a lot lately, and the congestion paired with idiotic driving is making us bonkers. B-O-N-K-E-R-S. We’ll be staying home this weekend!

Oh, and all that rain? We ended up getting over three inches of rain last night in our area, which made getting home after dropping off Bobbi and John interesting – one of the routes home was under water! Eek! Thankfully, that road was dry today. We’ve had 9.46 inches of rain at our house in the last month, and most of that was in the last week. Upcoming house project – new draining system for water off our driveway. So exciting. Stay tuned!

*Ha, I’d have to go this way if I do the October marathon there

And gawd, I’m exhausted from getting so little sleep last night. I planned to sleep on the train this morning but a coworker from my detail position happened to be riding my train and talked at me for most of the ride. Sigh. I feel raw. I need some down time. I need naps back in my weekends. I need to find a way to be a supportive person without feeling the stress of that person’s issues myself. I need Data to quit pooping on the floor in the foyer. I need my legs to quit feeling so dead so I can run my stress off.

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By kilax, June 25, 2018 6:30 am

Last full weekend of June, first full weekend of summer! Let’s do some summer-y things!

FRIDAY!

On Friday night we used our summer bowling passes for the first time! And realized Friday night is not the best night to go bowling (duh, Kim) – note taken. We also had El Famous for dinner, cause it’s right there, so why not?!

SATURDAY!

We drove to Waupaca, Wisconsin on Saturday morning to spend the day/night with Rachel and Kevin at a cottage on Rainbow Lake. The cottage has been in Rachel’s friend’s Kim’s family for almost one hundred years! I was hoping Kim would be there too and she was! YAY!!!!!

Rachel sandwich! Kim, Rachel, Kim (me)

We spent the day playing in the water, boating, and eating. There was lots of good conversation, and LOTS of goofing off. A perfect summer day in my book!

Steven, me, Kevin, Rachel

I enjoyed ignoring my phone and only took it out to take a few photos (and to text with Bobbi about the cats, since she was cat sitting)!

SUNDAY!

Rachel and Kevin kept telling us how beautiful the sunrises are off the lake! I grabbed a photo of it… then went back to bed. Yassssssssssss.

Rachel and I ran (yay!), made breakfast, then we all went on a boat ride,

and we left around noon. We encountered typical Sunday traffic in Wisconsin, so the drive home took longer than on the way there because of idiotic (don’t even get me started) construction and traffic. Ugh.

But we had a relaxing evening! We did a few chores, watched an episode of Mad Men, made a lasagna casserole for dinner (aka, when you want lasagna but don’t have the right noodles), watched a bit of W. and called it a night!

I’m glad we got to see and experience cottage life! Rachel’s been telling me about going there for years, and I totally get why she loves it! It’s such a relaxing, slow-paced place.