Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Chaos

Last night there a small amount of chaos here at the lake house. Just a little bit.

At about 10pm, there was a strange smell outside on the deck. We ignored it after Jessica made a face and closed the door. It was until an hour later that is became apparent that there was a problem. Jessica ran into the bathroom making some sort of loud shrieking noise and shoved her face into the shower curtain. I thought it was weird that she was going a little crazy, but her being crazy is a little normal, so I was willing to accept the behavior as relatively normal and move on. However, then she made a comment about the smell again, and I knew something was up. It seems Simba had made friends with a skunk during his evening hangout time outside. Real nice. So, after a phone call to Veronica to determine the exact recipe of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and soap needed to remove the stink, Jessica trapped the cat in the bathroom and the chaos began. The first problem arose when there was no baking soda. Dusty ventured in to the night to find out no stores were open. So, we were down to hydrogen peroxide and soap. Jessica threw in some dog shampoo for good measure, and between the two of us, we coated Simba in our concoction. It was a pretty funny site, especially as clumps of fur were just pouring off of the cat. We washed him twice and then held in the towel to wash his head, which he was not a big fan of. I am pretty sure the amount of meowing coming from that bathroom scared my cats into being good for the rest of the night. Anyway, so we held stinky for a while, and then let him go. His body smells ok, but his head is another story. Jessica says her nose is broken from the situation, and poor Simba won't come too close to her, even as she keeps dishing out the wet food as a bribe. He eats and leaves.

Finally god into bed about 12:30am. All very exciting. I would have taken pictures, but it just didn't seem appropriate at the time.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Evacuated.

I am currently on vacation.

Ok, not really, but basically. I arrived back from Palm Springs on Sunday night into San Antonio, and have been at Jessica and Dusty's lake house ever since. Yesterday we spent the day at the outlet mall. I made my necessary visit to the Old Navy Outlet, and we also spent some serious time in the Bass outlet and the Kitchen store. We almost got caught up in the Fudge store excitement, but at the last minute, Dawn talked some sense in to us. We bulked up on some BBQ, and then made it home in time to turn up the hot tub and grab a glass of wine. Yea, my life is hard. Today we spent most of the day on the couch and deck, minus some time for a nap on the bed, and some time at the store to buy brownie mix and cat litter. Speaking of the little monsters, we gave them free range of most of the house today for the first time. It became necessary after realizing that the room we are all sharing smells like poop. Now, my laundry can smell like poop at home, the garage can smell like poop (and it does), but the bedroom...I prefer vanilla, or lilac, or even socks. So, the cats, they tore around the house for a while, climbed up everything in site, tried to get in the fire place (and failed, thankfully), and then proceeded to try and harass Jessica's cat. They then passed on in the bedroom with me. Best sleep I have gotten since my new roommates moved in with me.

Ok, so my vacation status has been discussed. Now the house. Chad went over yesterday to check on everything, there was power and the trees were still standing. I have a new swimming pool now, since the fence between my yard and my neighbor's yard is no longer there. Pool party next weekend anyone? A few roof shingles are down, but otherwise, things are good. Water was being boiled until this afternoon, and now seems safe to drink. The grocery stores are low on food and the gas lines are long, so we are staying put for a couple more days. There is also pretty much no perishable food in the city, so when we do return, it will be with a lot of chicken and milk. If only there was a way to bring back ice cream...

Tomorrow we head off to the grocery store to refill our refrigerators at home...it is a little weird having to buy all new stuff, sort of like moving homes. We are off work until Monday, so once we get back, we have big BBQ and baking plans, and I am sure there will be more updates. For now, Jessica, Dawn and I are enjoying out weekly 90210 viewing party, and baking brownies. Yup, evacuation is hard.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

It happened.

I am writing this on a plane from San Antonio to Ontario, via Phoenix Front row, no one next to me, legs on the little leather wall that separates the seats from the kitchen. Just want to make sure you all have a proper picture of the current situation. 48 hours ago I was sitting in my living room watching 90210 and eating ice cream. 36 hours ago I was in the midst of a chaotic lunch decision between BBQ and some sort of sketchy buffet (the BBQ won). 24 hours ago I was boarding up Jessica’s house. Funny how things can change so quickly. So, let me go back to yesterday afternoon. 4pm. Veronica asks me to pick up her son from school after she gets sucked into a meeting. Not a problem. I pick up Mason, drive through Jack in the Box to get him a snack (yea, I am going to be a great mom), and then head over to his sister’s school to meet Veronica for the child handoff. We listed to the XM radio station talking about Ike. They are not saying much, but they are saying that it is taking a more northerly route, instead of going through Corpus Christi, it is turning up the coast. Ok, so, probably we won’t have work on Friday. Cool, I don’t really remember the last time I have worked a full week anyway, so why start now. I head home, and then it hits me that I won’t be able to fly of Houston on Friday morning for Kiyomi’s bachelorette weekend. Jessica and I discuss it and I decide to try and fly out of San Antonio. This means I have to get to San Antonio first. This is about the time the community finally decides to take notice that a large storm could very possibly make landfall a lot closer than we want it to. Voluntary evacuations of Galveston County. Right, my county. This is quite different than the California version of a natural disaster. I have warning. And voluntary? Seriously. Yea, I am volunteering. So, Jessica and I have a little planning session, and decide to board up tonight and then reevaluate. We start with her house. Jessica is the size of my left calf, so I am pretty sure this is going to be interesting. Her husband is out of town (apparently mine is too) so we are on our own. We recruit Jessi from down the street and start her backyard. Note to self, always label your boards. After re-measuring her windows to determine which board goes where, we get most of them up and good to go. Jessi gets his butt kicked on the top story, so now we are just leaving it up to luck that nothing flies at those windows. At this point, we have all stepped in ant hills, been bitten by multiple mosquitoes, and are hungry. 9pm. Lovely. Jessi goes back to do his boards, we go to eat (inhale) some food, and then onto my house. While eating, we see the storm has now turned again, and is basically coming right at us. Perfect. We get to my house and pull out my newly cut boards. The boards that are EXACTLY the size of my window cutouts. This makes adding the clips extremely difficult. Out comes the hand saw. Thanks dad, I NEVER thought I would use that thing. Jessica has her doubts but I made it work. I, of course, can barely move my arms today, but we got most of the boards up, and only broke one window. Eventually Dawn called and volunteered her husband, the fire marshall (yup, look at my high up connections) to finish my boards in the morning if we will leave with her tonight. Done.

11:30pm. Jessica goes home, I shower and “pack” (throw all clean laundry into a bag and hope for the best), pack the cats up (they are like toddlers with the amount of crap they require), and send an email to the boss telling her I am leaving. Jessica comes back at 12:30am, and the chaos begins. I pile all my important papers, my bag, the 2 cat carriers (minus the cats, who are we kidding, those 2 are so spoiled, they won’t actually go in the carriers), their litter box, today, food, and blanket into the back seat. Then I pile them in with me. Yea, right, I forgot to mention that Simba, Jessica’s car, is on her lap. And he HATES other cats. So begins the hissing and meowing. We make it as far as the gas station before Tony throws up. Perfect. We stop so I can plunge my now dirty hand (yup, i caught it) into the car wash solution at the local Shell station (note to self, do not wash windscreen at that station), and then I realize my cell phone is still on my couch. Perfect. We back track with more meowing, and I move to the back seat with the cats, put a pillow barrier up to block the cat vision, and sit back to relax. And Tony throws up again. This time, there is no gas station. 3 hour drive. I just accept a dirty hand. Eventually we get onto the highway. Then Simba decides he is going to poop. Not in the little box, but in the seat. I probably shouldn’t put this in writing, but I can now say I have thrown poop out of a moving vehicle on the 45. Didn’t realize it would actually hit Dawn’ car, but it in fact did. =). So, eventually we got going, the cats settled down (after each pooped, in the litter box this time), and we got out of Houston. Jessica and I made the trip mostly in silence, to avoid waking up the animals. This is when i announced I was never having children (sorry Mom). There is just no way. This situation is stressful enough with cats, kids must be 10 times worse. And actually, my 2 were very well behaved once we got going, Molly slept in the litter box for part of the trip, and they both slept in the basket for a while, taking turns on my lap, purring and generally enjoying the attention.

So, 4:15am, we made it to the lake house in Canyon Lake, just outside of San Antonio. (ok, let me just update you on my location. Still on the plane. Guy next to me on third G&T. I need to fly more, he has free coupons and I am pretty sure is getting drunk on this flight). So, we arrive, Simba stops meowing as he is released. I carry my two into the house, up the stairs and into their room. They seem none too bothered and explore quickly. Little box arrives, food and water are put down, and they are happy. May as well be at home, apparently, as Molly quickly shoves litter over the sides of the box. Pretty typical. I throw out some toys, but they are more excited about the cords on the blinds. Also typical. We are wound up, but come down quickly and climb into bed. I think I fell asleep to the news at 5:30am, as they report mandatory evacuation of Galveston. Perfect. Slept until 10, when Molly knocked off the remote from the window sill in an attempt to climb the cable cord to the TV. Tony attacked my feet 20 minutes later, and after once final attempt, I woke up to a cat paw in my hair at about 11am. I knew there was a reason they don’t sleep with me normally. Checked out the news. They had mandatory evacuations of all the neighborhoods east of mine to the water. NASA was closing at noon, although the zip code it sits in was put under mandatory evacuations at 7am that morning. I am pretty sure no one cared if I came to work or not. Today was sort of a twilight zone, we just watched the news and Family Feud, ate, and checked the news. Took a short nap and then showered before heading out to the airport. My cats are now in the hands of Jessica, Dawn and Caroline (who took four hours to get to the house earlier today). Jessica’s sister was on the road when I left them, going on hour 5, and still a couple of hours away. Apparently we just missed the traffic chaos. I am fighting the guilt of leaving the little cats, but I think it is better for them without me away from Houston than left in my house during the storm. They have each other and 6 year old Jack to play with, so I think they will be fine. I hope they don’t pee on anything. Jessica will never forgive me....

Anyway, so now I am on my way to celebrate one of Kiyomi’s last weekends as a single woman. It seems like each time I fly to California something happens, so I was asked to quit traveling today. I might actually stop, I am tired of the anxiety. Hopefully I can let it go and actually realize there is nothing I can do about it, and just enjoy some sun and friends. We will see....pictures to follow of the Palm Spring pool we will be at all day Saturday.

Thanks for all the phone calls and emails, now you can feel like you went through it with me. =)

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

The big update with lots of pictures! (And a HURRICANE!!!)

Summer is officially over, at least as far as work goes. Three weeks of teacher workshops over and onde with. Cindy and Andy are married. I made it to the lake for a few days of downtime on the way over to the wedding. Picture highlights are below:











Note especially my date Cara, who is looking lovely during the ride on the school bus that Cindy and Andy arranged. Brilliant idea!
And now for the necessary kitten update. These cats are hilarious. Yesterday Tony spent 20 minutes looking for a June bug that had flown in and dies behind the couch. He missed the death part, so he just kept meowing and looking for the bug...it was hilarious! He took a road trip with me today, all the way to the vet by himself, for his last round of shots. Pictures of his first solo ride in the new car:



He just enjoyed sitting on the back seat, chilling, and does not climb everywhere, unlike his sister. Speaking of Mollie, here are some other pictures of these kittens, in all their glory:







Those last ones they totally got caught in the toilet. They think they are so sneaky, but not so much, especially when one of them falls in. The other cute thing that happens is, Tony likes to sit at the window by the front door when I leave, and waits for me when I return. It is so freakin' adorable!




For those of you who have visited me or knew me in Saccramento, you will remember Alice, my 1996 Silver Volvo. Well, she is no more. I have replaced her with a much faster, much cleaner, much more mechanically sound vehicle, the 2005 Acura TL:



And finally, the biggest news: we are in the midst of a very active hurricane season. I have just become the owner of $300 of plywood board to board up my house. They are cut to the window size, which theoretically is helpful, but would be more helpful if they didn't weigh a ton. Now, I can totally think of a better way to spend that much money, but apparently I would rather have windows without cracks after the storm. Hurricane Ike is three days away, but people are already boarding up and leaving. We are on level 4 security at work, which basically means if you leave, cover your computer with plastic and get it off the ground. My living room is currently housing my patio furniture, so that the chairs do not become bullets traveling 100 MPH into my windows. This, I hear, my neighbors will especially appreciate. I hope they are doing the same with the crap in their yards. However, if some sort of expensive grill comes through one of my windows, I am keeping it. Just so you know. Check out the newest cat jungle gym (or so they think):




At this point, I feel it is only fair to have a day off of work for all this effort. I am hoping for evacuation orders to become mandatory sometime tomorrow (preferably while I am in still in bed and before I get up to actually go to work). However, if you happen to be reading this and get suddenly worried, do not worry about me. I am a strong swimmer, and I have a ton of canned chili and beans in my pantry. I am good to go for at least 2 weeks, and theoretically, I will be in Palm Springs this weekend during landfall. Ike isn't going to screw my plans over...