sigelphoenix

There is a lot (a looooot) I could complain about regarding the temporary office space we moved in to, as well as the remodeled office space that will await us at - supposedly - the end of the year. But rather than dwell on that, I want to talk about the good things and revive my defunct happy-5 list practice:

1. I have office plants! I never really got the appeal/need for them, until we moved into this depressing basement cubicle farm (oops ... no complaining, right). kiwikiwi started making plans for decorating off the bat, and that's definitely more productive than wallowing, so I followed her example. I now have a peace lily, a bromeliad, and a pink quill, all in adorable teacup-shaped pots. They're supposed to be good in low-light conditions, so I'm crossing my fingers that they'll survive the basement.

2. Someone brought in an espresso machine. I'm pretty happy with the makeshift lattes I make using this and this, but it might be fun to learn how to make real espresso and real steamed milk.

3. It's kind of (really) annoying that the open cubicle farm layout means I can hear everyone talking ... But, on the other hand, I've had two conversations this morning that involved me overhearing a conversation and being able to jump in and say, "wait, I know something that will help!"

4. Due to various events (graduation, orientation, retreat), we have a plethora of leftover bagels and cream cheese. I loooooove bagels and cream cheese. And yes, this one is temporary, but food makes me happy so it's going on the list.

5. I found out that we have herons nesting on campus, and I'm going to go see them on my lunch break. ♥

I'm going to highlight my cats today (er, more than I usually highlight them) because they are the greatest simple pleasure in my life, and simple pleasures get overlooked a lot.

1. They spoon. They spoon each other sometimes, as you've already seen. But they also like to spoon with the humans. Sometimes when I'm going to sleep, they'll hop on the bed, nose at the edge of the covers, and make inquiring little trills. I lift the covers, and they burrow in, then settle themselves in as the little spoon. When Drannor spoons, he likes to lie against my chest, with his head about level with mine, whereas Kershach nestles against my stomach (he is the baby of the family, after all). Of course, they only do this when the stars are aligned in that esoteric way that cats require, but I've gotten the pleasure of kitty spooning nearly every day over the last few days. The feeling of a purr vibrating against your heart as you fall asleep is really what pure Happy feels like. (Last night I almost fell asleep with Drannor that way, but he got up because ratzeo got home, and of course he had to go greet him.)

2. Kershach sighs when he slips from a cat nap into actual deep sleep. It's funny to hear or feel him when he draws in this long breath, because you know it's about to whoosh out at once as he goes solidly unconscious. I don't know if all cats do this, but I found out that Drannor does, last night when we were spooning. ♥

3. They make funny noises. Really, I don't think I've ever met a cat that doesn't make at least some funny noise or other. Trilling, burbling, grumbling, grunting - they can be inquisitive, whining, annoyed, or "hey, look!" calls for attention. Drannor also seems to leak noise - it happens when he's lounging and it isn't that air is being pushed out of him; he just sometimes lets out "urrrm" sounds like he forgot to turn off his voice. XD

4. I said that Kershach is the baby of the family, and he really is. He still gets pouty over the attention we give Drannor, and sometimes he sits in his bed by the window and ignores us like an emo kid. But unlike an actual emo teenager (whom I would probably end up wanting to drop-kick), Kershach is really easy to win over. You just pet him and love him until he grudgingly starts up his purr motor, and then it's *click* *click* *VRRRRRRMMM* as he revels in getting pettins. If he's on the floor, he sometimes flops on the spot to show how happy he is.

5. Like I said, cats are simple, and however intelligent they are, they can't fully understand when I feel sad or upset. But one time I was crying and I went and hugged Kershach while he was lying in the cat tree, and he let me squeeze him and cry in his ear and get his fur soggy, and he didn't squirm away. And then Drannor jumped onto the tree with one of his inquisitive trills, looked at me, and started licking my forehead. ♥

I'm semi-joking about the "spring curse" part, but it's interesting to note that one year ago (give or take a few weeks) was when the water heater in the apartment two floors above us burst and rained on our unit ... >_>

Our fridge is borked. It didn't stop working completely (thankfully), but it somehow stopped cooling enough, and our freezer got to fridge-temperature and our fridge got to nearly-room-temperature. We're not sure when the problem started - I finally noticed the bizarre temperatures last night as we were about to go to bed, but since it wasn't a sudden shutdown it could have started much earlier. In fact, I noticed something on Friday - a package of bacon I put in the freezer Thursday night was not frozen as solid as I expected, but since I don't have experience freezing bacon I thought it might have something to do with the fat content, or the fact that it was a solid block of meat. I wish I'd recognized that as a red flag at the time, but, well, hindsight and all.

Anyway, the good thing is that the mystery problem resulted in unequal warming of the freezer, so while the stuff on the top definitely went above freezing, the stuff on the bottom remained cold enough to stay frozen. Since I keep most of my meat in the bottom drawer, and since the amount of raw meat I have in my freezer probably breaks triple digits in monetary value ... yeah, I'm glad. O_o Some other stuff that was stored in the bottom and/or back of the shelves also remained solid, but a lot of stuff went fridge-cool, so now I'm trying to determine what is safe enough to keep or needs to be tossed. Right now all of it has been moved to a fridge in a vacant unit in the complex (yay for a responsive manager who answers her phone at 11pm and gives you the key to the empty apartment!).

So, to keep myself from stewing in irritation and frustration, here are some happy things:

1. ratzeo is very good in a mini-crisis (and probably a major crisis as well). While I was gnashing my teeth at the thought of losing hundreds of dollars' worth of food, he called our manager (which resulted in us getting access to the empty apartment) and also was the one to figure out that the bottom of our freezer was still frozen (which resulted in me being less upset). This is pretty much how we operated when Drannor developed FLUTD, and I know the pattern - once I've gathered my wits I will pursue the solution with laser focus, but before that I have to overcome my desire to hide my head in the sand, so having ratzeo there to act as my rock keeps me going until I reach that point.

2. I am frustrated that this is the third time I've dealt with a broken fridge (the first two were at my old house, not this apartment), and frustrated that this comes on the heels of another unexpected expense, Drannor's emergency vet trip. BUT, I know that this is by far not the worst household disaster that could happen, and this is definitely a "you better cut back on eating out or buying books for a little bit" kind of setback, not a "this means I can't make rent" kind of setback.

3. Yesterday was actually a good day, and the whole weekend a good weekend. I got to play ratzeo's game, went to pick up my bridesmaid dress with my sister and her fiance, and met her fiance's parents' shiba inu.

4. This morning I saw Drannor take a drink from the "waterfall" part of the cat fountain. I've seen him do it a couple of times now (as opposed to just drinking from the bowl), so I hope this means that the moving water appeals to him, and catches his attention to make him drink more often. (Kershach, on the other hand, has only now progressed to drinking from the bowl. Poor water-fearing scaredy-cat.)

5. In other news about Drannor, we're done giving him meds. Anyone who's had to medicate an animal (or probably a small child) knows that that is something to celebrate!

1. I found a kibble that Drannor will eat!!! \o/ The poor boy has clearly been interested in food, but would always sniff hopefully and then walk away from whatever I put down for him. (And, okay, a cat can easily not eat for a week if it's finicky about food, and for the most part I was only mildly concerned; but I'm also a paranoid cat mama and we just had a cat at the shelter put down for fatty liver disease caused by not eating, so.) Finally, the fourth kibble I attempted (facilitated via samples provided by the fine folks at Mud Bay) was a smash hit. He gobbled it instantly, and happily set into a bowl of it.

As an added bonus, Kershach wasn't at all interested in it, which means I can set out their separate bowls of kibble and they won't eat each other's. Accidental win?

No idea, yet, what magic ingredient(s) turned Drannor on to this food. Perhaps I can figure it out and use that to find a canned food he'll eat ...

2. I made coffee with handmade milk foam. SUPER easy, and it's almost as good as the machine-made stuff.

3. Last night I re-watched Mamma Mia! with kyonkun and lunapome, as a silly and relaxing finish to a day of grocery shopping, eating, and happy hour-ing.

4. Adam Lambert's debut CD. I feel kind of silly for liking it, but he flings himself head-first into his performance, and I do love me some earnest, well-performed pop music.

5. I get to play ratzeo's game in 3 hours! \o/

Because it's been way too long since I've made one, and I really ought to right now for all the things that are weighing on me (nothing catastrophic, which is even more reason to focus on the good things).

1. I'm at work and getting paid for it. This is a happy thing for many reasons, both irreverent (I'm stealing a few minutes to write a blog post, for one) and not (I have income, health insurance, other benefits ...).

2. I went to see Wicked at The Paramount on Sunday with ratzeo, lunapome, and music_enforcer. We had great seats, the cast was fantastic, and I had as much fun as I did the first time I saw it live (I was wondering if the effect would be lessened by the fact that I'd seen the show two years ago).

3. My copy of The Mermaid's Madness, second book in Jim Hines' princess series, arrived yesterday, when I expected it wouldn't be released for a few more days yet.

4. I've recently been working on creating epic-level abilities for my D&D character (based on Crusader schools from The Book of Nine Swords, if anyone is interested), which is the most creative activity I've done in awhile. It's been nice, and gives me confidence that I might get back to creative endeavors yet.

5. I'm off to eat my lunch, which is a leek and potato soup I made after shadawyn's entry reminded me of how much I like it (plus linked to a nice and easy recipe). It turned out a little too thick, I think (more like ... very light mashed potatoes than soup), but it's tasty and the weather is perfect for it.

I should remember to do this more often!

1. Recognizing the music coming from a co-worker's office as the Intermezzo from Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana ... because it was used in an episode of Rurouni Kenshin. 8D

2. I'm the only one in my office-pod this morning, because both of my co-workers are at a workshop. That means I get to play my music without wearing headphones. \o/

3. Last night, I awoke multiple times to hear ratzeo tell Kershach to stop grooming his head. XD This is probably not such a happy thing for ratzeo himself (particularly since Kershach got him right in the ear once), but I still find it absolutely adorable. ♥

4. Rediscovering my love of hair jewelry! When I was trying to look all nice and professional for the Accreditation visit, I broke out my collection for the first time in weeks, or months. Which is sad, because I have a rather massive amount of it! (I seem to forget about things like jewelry and my BPAL during the winter, because in the mornings I'm usually stumbling around in the cold and dark, looking for just the essentials of "pants and shirt" before running out the door.) Of course, this also means I just plunked down a bunch of money ordering even more hair jewelry online ...

5. Spring, spring, spring! Seattle is finally giving in to the change of the season, and I'm so happy to get the sun back.

Between work and dashing off to a meeting with my old Women Studies classmates -

1. OUR APARTMENT IS BACK!!! The work was completed on Friday(-ish ... the carpet was shampooed, and it wasn't really dry until the end of the weekend), but on top of that we were faced with the prospect of cleaning up the detritus of the repairs, re-assembling our apartment, and moving out of our campsite in the empty unit. But we did it! And we're back home!!

2. ratzeo and I did the bulk of the work on Saturday. Well, correction - ratzeo did a big-ass load of the work on Friday night, while I was taking a nap. (Sneaky wonderful bastard. :P) But anyway, by the time we were done it was past 8:00 in the evening, I was tired and didn't want to cook, but I was starving and also wanted to get the hell out of our apartment for a bit. We ended up going to the Sand Point Grill to try it out. Not only was the food delicious, they have a Saturday special where a fixed price gets you a three-course meal made from local ingredients. A nice little place, and we plan to go back when we have another reason for a fancy-ish (read: pricey) dinner.

3. I got an ergonomic keyboard at work to help with my tendonitis, and I'm totally in love with it. I think it's helping the pain - I have a brace that I've been wearing, so it's already been getting better, but I think the keyboard is helping on top of that. Plus it's got quieter keys than my old clacky keyboard. I kind of want to steal it for home on the weekends. :x

4. Vienna Teng's new CD, Inland Territory, is lovely. And I get to see her perform it live next week!

5. The aforementioned meeting. I haven't seen these ladies in months (or more!).

The latest news on our apartment is that it's less full of noisy fans (about half of them were removed), but the ones that remain will be there for another week. :| I don't much like the idea of staying in this holding pattern, but as long as the forward progress continues, I'll take it even if it's slow.

To keep my mood up, here are some happy things ...

1. I went to the gym yesterday after work. Part of me didn't want to go, because it was another obligation on top of everything I'm dealing with. But really, my weariness is both mental and physical, so getting in a workout where I just concentrated on healthy physical movement did me good.

2. I wrote a fic last night, my first one in over a month. Considering how mentally wiped I've been since before the whole mess with the flood, I'm especially happy I managed some creative output under these circumstances. It was a really quick, spit-it-out-and-post-the-first-draft fic, but strangely enough I'm happy about that. It means I could write something imperfect and post it without agonizing over it.

3. The process of writing was also quite fun ... The only piece of furniture we took to the vacant apartment was our mattress, so I sat at the foot of the bed with my laptop in my lap. ratzeo, who was already asleep, was within easy reach, and Kershach chose to curl up right next to where I sat, so I could pet him as I typed. It was totally quiet, no fans going or street noise, just me and my boys. ♥

4. It's sunny today! It actually is starting to feel like the beginning of spring.

5. I don't remember everything I dreamed about last night, but I do know it included a super-slashy Batman/Nightwing sequence. Great mood booster, first thing in the morning. XD

I need to kick-start my morning to get past the Monday blahs ...

1. I found my ring! This is the ring that ratzeo gave me a couple of years ago for Christmas, which I wear every day ... and somehow lost last weekend. Not only was it irritating because I hate misplacing things, I was actually pretty sad about the thought of losing it. (I found it, rather anti-climactically, in one of my jeans pockets.)

2. lunapome came over on Saturday, and, among other things, we watched the Mamma Mia! movie. I probably shouldn't have enjoyed it as much as I did, but it just has an irresistable charm (thanks, in no small part, to the fact that the cast seemed to have agreed to dedicate themselves to un-selfconscious and goodnatured stupidity). Pierce Brosnan's singing was compared by reviewers to a water buffalo and a wounded raccoon, and I can't argue with that ... but it was still a blast.

3. I watched ratzeo play some online versus Left 4 Dead, and it was actually entertaining to watch. It helped that I finally got to see him play single-player mode earlier, so I knew what was going on. Once you get to versus mode, everything happens at once and it's hard to tell what the appeal of the game is, besides, "Things are exploding! Isn't that exciting!"

4. Speaking of ratzeo, he is the bestest thing that ever bested.

5. I woke up in the middle of the night to Kershach grooming my eyebrow. I nudged him away (it stings!) and he stopped for a second, then started again. I nudged him again and he quit for good. This is a better rate of success than we've had stopping him from grooming ratzeo's head, which he will go to town on for minutes.

I didn't particularly want to go back to work today, because I still have the remnants of a head cold, and that makes dealing with work pressures particularly unappealing. But it was better to go and get things done than stay at home and let deadlines pile up, so I went.

And good things happened!

1. My department set up a laptop and projector in the conference room, so we could watch the inauguration ceremony. I was pretty much in a constant state of tearing-up-with-happiness (with the exception of Rick Warren's speech).

2. Some co-workers brought in food for the office, so we had bagels and salmon spread for a breakfasty snack, and hot wings for a lunchy snack.

3. One of our newly graduated doctoral students donated 10-minute massages to everyone in the office. While 10 minutes is hardly enough time to do any permanent damage to my shoulder knots, it's definitely enough to make me feel better.

4. Mail call! I got all three packages I was waiting for in today's mail: books, more books, and tea (which was part of my previous tea order, not a new purchase :P).

5. I'm spending the evening cooking meals so that I can have dinner for the week, as well as homemade lunches at work. The menu is spaghetti with ground turkey and mushrooms, and oven-baked salmon with mashed potatoes and broccoli. Simple dishes (that's all I cook, anyway), but tasty. :D~