Happy Kittens

Look what Mr. MC made for our lucky kitties!

We put it upstairs in the new craft room, which TNT have already decided is their room. After he brought it upstairs, Mr. MC put catnip all over it to entice the dynamic duo to get on it. I didn’t think they would need the encouragement, but he wanted to be sure they had positive feelings about it.

They headed right to it as soon as we let them in the room.

Within a minute or two, they were both stoned.

 

Then Treat found the secret passage to the third level.

And he just kept going up.

Soon Trick discovered the upper levels, too.

It didn’t take long for them to figure out it would add to their fun during the hour of scampering.

Pretty soon they were all mellow.

Later this afternoon, when I came inside after putting the first coat of paint on my new chairs, I went looking for the kittens and found this:

 

I suspect we’ll never see them downstairs anymore, except when they want to be fed.

Sims 3: Zombie Apocalypse

The apocalypse came suddenly, as apocalypses usually do, but there were those who said it’d been a long time growing. Growing was the right word for it, although the religious extremists and radical survivalists didn’t know it. They spoke of the arrogance of scientists and multibillion dollar conglomerates, the evils of cloning and stem cell research, the greed of politicians and CEOs. They prophesied doom at the turn of the new millennium and again in 2012. But binary code and ancient Mayan calendars had nothing to do with the end of the world when it came in 2036. And none of them had ever heard of the experiments taking place deep underground, where thousands of human clones slept in suspended animation, walking, breathing delivery systems for the deadliest chemical weapons ever developed. Everyone knew bioengineering was the new frontier. No one knew it would be the last.

Dawn Taylor counted her stock of canned food one more time, somehow hoping the first three counts had been mistakes. “Two hundred and four,” she finished. Nope, not a mistake. She sighed. Three people, each eating two cans a day, that gave them . . . thirty-four days. Just over a month. The weavelly flour and rice would give out before that. They needed to cut back their rations, but how could they continue to forage for supplies if they were weak from hunger?

More needed to be done. Nickey was working feverishly on ways to clean up the water. He’d found a more or less intact chemistry set on one of his foraging missions and spent most of his days muttering over it, testing various compounds on water from their pond. Maybe she could use her prewar hobby to help with the food shortage. She’d never tried to garden in ground covered with ash and most likely filled with dangerous biochemical residue, but maybe she could find a way to protect the plants. She knew a bit about chemistry herself, after all.

“Where can we find more chemistry supplies,” she asked David as he walked past her with a book in hand. He thought for a minute. “The old military base probably has all kinds of useful supplies. If we can get in and if it isn’t infested with Zs and if we don’t run into any looters.”

Thank Goodness for Skype!

Kevin began his trip to Germany at 4 a.m. Sunday morning, when we got up to drive him to the Cleveland airport. We said goodbye to him at about 7 a.m. Boy, did that day suck.

Yesterday I got to talk to him on Skype for a while. He’d traveled for about 27 hours, then spent the afternoon in processing at the base in Germany. He was pretty tired when we talked, but happy to be there and hanging out with his friends. He has posted pictures on his Facebook page. Anyone who might want to Skype with him, email me and I’ll give you his Skype name. Or, you know, check Facebook. Apparently my son has no worries about privacy.

Here’s some pictures from his graduation and month at home:

Kevin in his class As, which were clearly too big for him by that time.

On family day. My god, he’s tall!

At graduation. I’ve decided he’s joined the Ministry of Silly Hats.

 

Wearing his cool new shades.

 

Mike and Laura came to see him.

Yeah, yeah, we all know I’m short.

I miss him dreadfully. I’m so thankful for technology that allows us to talk face to face from halfway around the world. I can’t wait to hear about all of his adventures.

A sleepily joyful homecoming

I’m sorry these are blurry. My camera was (is still) buried in the piles of luggage, so my phone was all I had handy for these pictures, taken at 3 a.m. this morning.

My son is home, living here for the next month until he heads to Germany. I am happy and occasionally overwhelmed by grief. How does anyone survive their children leaving home? I think it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

My first sight of Kevin on Thursday was a huge grin before being enveloped in a hug. We had a nice low-key day. We took Kevin to a restaurant he’d heard about from his drill sergeants and wanted to try. It was delicious. We hung out in the air-conditioned hotel room, watched TV, napped, and talked. We went shopping at the Exchange. On Friday, the graduation was at 9 a.m. The ceremony was rousing and funny and just the right length. A nice rite of passage with no boring parts. Apparently the Army knows what it’s doing. Afterward Kevin did a little more shopping on post, we had lunch, changed clothes, and got on the road about 2 p.m. It was a very long ride home.

My son is impossibly beautiful. I don’t know why the girls don’t swoon everywhere he goes. He’s full of stories and swear words. He’s calm and confident and has a new level of self-awareness. He calls waitresses and cashiers ma’am. He has ambitious plans for his future. He drinks Monster energy drinks like water. He eats fast but healthy and less than he used to. He sang cadences for us in the car. I didn’t even know he could carry a tune. He missed music most during his training. He made good friends, some of whom he will miss and many of whom will be waiting for him in Germany. He probably won’t be deployed until late next year. He still wants to be a mechanic. Or a weapons specialist. Yes, that sounds like my son.

He’s still Kevin, but he’s grown. He’s bigger and smaller all at the same time. It’s good to have him home.

Birthdays and Miracles

Firstly, look what my mom sent me for my birthday:

It’s a pendant and earring set. She said it made her think of Halloween when she saw it and of course, that made her think of me. Isn’t it awesome?!!! I have to get a chain so I can wear it soon. It will look great with the new black pants and jackets I’ve been buying for work.

Here’s a lovely birthday week story:

I planned a get together with a friend for this week so that I wouldn’t spend the whole week alone. We were going to watch the first two Twilight movies on dvd, plus all the special features. I got New Moon as soon as it was released, so it’s been sitting here for a couple of weeks, still in the shrink wrap, waiting for tonight. Today my friend texted me and said something came up and she couldn’t make it tonight. No go for tomorrow night, either. So I was here feeling a bit sorry for myself and thinking that I need to do something to make more friends who actually live in the same town as me, when I look out my window to see a car pulling into my driveway. It was my classmate, Shelley, who is taking the Careers in Psychology class with me. She came over this past Sunday and we did our collages for The Artist’s Way together. On Sunday she admired some of my vintage pieces and we talked about our mutual love of home renovation and vintage decorating. Today, she was just stopping by to bring me two old windows that she’d had for a long time. She’s getting rid of stuff in preparation for a move and wanted me to have them. For free. For my birthday. She even brought a birthday card with them. Here’s the windows:

 

They’re so beautiful! I got weepy and gave her a big hug and said I’d been feeling sorry for myself and she made me feel so good. Then she invited me to Red Lobster for dinner tonight. Apparently someone’s listening up there.

And finally, a picture of the new me, taken with great difficulty after many somber and silly tries:

V-Day Tablescape

As must be obvious to the most casual observer by now, school and blog posting are not mixing well for me. The last 3 weeks have been pretty rough. However, this next week is not looking too bad, which is nice, since it’s my birthday week. Mr. MC will be out of town all week, so I am planning fun things to do for myself.

For fun, here’s a tablescape I did for Valentine’s Day:

It was fun to use my new table runner. I got it here. It is red and white striped ticking with a pretty white ruffle. It was listed as a Christmas item originally, but it will be handy for all sorts of occasions. The pretty gift bag, heart shaped bowl, and red and clear glass hearts were all gifts from my mother-in-law. She likes to give us fun little Valentine’s Day care packages every year. I put the glass hearts and some tea lights on my ironstone platter and they looked very pretty lit. Unfortunately, I’m not a skilled enough photographer for those sorts of pictures. Maybe eventually I’ll learn to use my camera well enough to do that. For placemats, I just used some pink tissue paper I’ve had for years. It was fun to do a festive table. I’d like to do more.

Monday's discussion in my capstone class was about a potential new therapy to treat people with depression. Unfortunately, most of the discussion consisted of various students (and at one point, even the professor) making such statements as depressed people need to "suck it up," "make do," and my favorite, "man up." Most of the students believed that people suffering from depression could just make up their minds to get over it and function. They just want to pop pills or they're just using it as a crutch were some typical comments. I left the classroom feeling angry and frustrated. These are senior psychology students, the future of the profession! Some of them will be working with depressed clients or studying therapies and drugs to treat depression. I think our psychology program has failed if it is graduating students with these attitudes.

In other news, Kevin has finally received his first posting. After graduating in April, he will be going to join the 18th Engineering Brigade which is stationed near Schwetzingen, Germany. He thinks they will be deployed to Afghanistan after the first of next year.

Anyone up for Christmas in Germany?