Where Does the Time Go?

I am still busy... Actually I will be busier for a bit, until October. I have a full plate, side dish, soup bowl and thankfully, wine glass at the end of it all... Here is a brief rundown of August till now: (brief!)
~the big exhibit at my place of employment is hell. Oct 7th can't come fast enough and then I think we will ALL have a big party of some kind and sleep through October. Well, we would if we could.
~I did a bike ride! yay!
~I got a job working for my dad's company doing graphic design, it's neat-o. I am enjoying it. Mostly. The working on my own time, after working, well, it's artistic and challenging and better than watching Buffy ALL evening.
~My nearest and dearest celebrated my 30th with me here in Portland and much fun was had by all!
~We saw Spamalot!
~I got a fancy new camera which at some point I will have time to play with and you will see pictures. I did take pics of the lunar eclipse. I mean to put them in sequence but haven't had time.
~I got a lot of new software I need to find the time to learn (relates to graphic design job mentioned above)
~I interviewed for and did not get a full time position, again, at my job, but this may actually lead to better things this time, it was stressful though =P
~I did get a job, today, as a tutor for Portland Public Schools Night High School program, for credit recovery. two evenings a week till December. This will give me tutoring and some classroom experience and experience working with teens, disadvantages and motivationaly challenged teens. Should be fun, and I mean that. I was motivationaly challenged. See? =)
~So the garden is a bit neglected, although still making food, tomatoes potatoes squash beets, yum.
~Knitting! Has been my sanity activity, along with Avonlea and Buffy, and I finished a sweater for my neice. and some washcloths. woo! pictures someday. I swear.
poor thing does need water which i am going to do soon!
Hum.. looking forward to October. mostly.

busy!

I have been busy busy busy lately and also very tired. Someday I will properly post again and have new pictures and everything! Lots of things going on and stuff to write about. Maybe next week!

YARR!

My D&D group is starting a new campaign, in a world geographically like Portland. I gets to be a swashbuckler this time round, a half elf named Moaria Theoden, or "Mo". She is going to kick booty. I drew a pic for my CS, if I scan it, I'll post it.

It's Been an Exciting Evening ...

Here at Wild Jungle in the City.

Really, what next, a deer?

My First Ride

No, not my first car.
I am going to do the Bridge Pedal this year. I am gonna do the 8 bridge route, which is 24 miles. It will prolly kick my butt a little bit since part of the route is over the Marquam Bridge, which is high over the river. The rest, should be alright. It;s not a race, it will prolly take me about 4 hours, but it sounds like fun.
Every year, at OMSI, when I would drive into work on the day of the bridge pedal, there would be this silent mob of bicyclists crossing bridges, and it just seems so, lovely, idyllic, I donno, communal. So this year on August 12th I will be doing it instead of watching it and wishing I was riding instead of working. =)

Meet Kitty

Kitty is a stray who has been living in our yard, along with other yards no doubt, for longer than we have been here. She seems like one who has lived a grizzled life, her tail is well mangled and part of it was lost at some point, she walks stiffly. Her instinct is to run away from people. She is a funny looking little tabby, she is tiny, maybe with malnutrition, she had a little patch of black on her chin that with her big, round golden eyes,makes her look like she has a constant expression of surprise on her face. She is likely older than 8, but it's hard to tell since a stray has a really rough life. She hangs around the yard, the compost bin mostly, and under the huge shrub that divides our property from the neighbors.

I used to shoo her away, until I realized she may be keeping the yard rodent free. Then for awhile we had another stray, I am not sure where she went, maybe someone took her in, for she was a lovely cat, just very, very thin. I started to leave food out for them. Not every night, just when I rememberd to really. And then last week, Kitty started to show up every other night, sitting out near the food dish and under the bushes. She would run away when I would go feed her, but then she'd come out and eat.

Soon, when I fed her, she'd meow, and I'd meow back and we'd "talk" a bit. I would talk softly to her and feed her and then giver her space. Then I would sit by for a bit while she ate. She'd hiss softly sometimes but stopped running off, though she was still easily startled.
Last night she came up to me a sniffed my hand.

Today I got to meet her and she is all wary affection and acts like a soul who knew what is was to be loved and was then abandoned. Like she once had a nice warm house and people who doted on her while she was young and cute. Like a cat who finds itself out on the street after a landlord discovers their tenet is keeping a cat and the tenant can't find her a home. Or like a college student who is always on the move and doesn't have time for a pet anymore. Whatever happened to her, she once trusted people, was once loved, and now she trusts me, and it looks like I have a new pet cat. That wasn't my intention. I Just can't stand to see them starve. But now she has let me touch her, and I can't go back. I think she is fixed, I have seen no kittens or increase in local strays, although that could just be because we have no Toms. But no doubt she has heart worm, tapeworm, fleas, maybe ticks, maybe feline leukemia, I have no idea if she had ever had vaccinations or whatnot and I don't think Pixie or Max OR Kitty, would be welcome to an outdoor stray coming in. This makes most medical care moot.

So I will care for her outside for now. Someday, when we move, I will collect her up and take her to the humane society, where they will fix her up and find her a home. Poor Kitty.
I can't think of another name for her either. Maybe someday she will tell me.

Oh bother.

So I lied, I should have said, see you in less than 24 hours. I got home around 1, read till 3 something, slept till noon, went to get food around 1 and started reading again. A break here and there for this or that and I was done by 9:30pm. I can say nothing about the book, for that would be inappropriate. I will say I am really sorry I read it so fast, because now, it's all over. The last book, read. No more story! End of a series. I can only imagine how poignant this moment would be had I been there from the start, if I had started reading these when I was 11, the year Harry entered Hogwarts and had grown up with the books. As an adult who waited, several years, to read the books after the first movie came out, it's still unlike anything I have ever experienced with reading, ever. And I had started reading The Wheel of Time books a year or two after they began when I was 15. (and gave up on at 26...rat bastard, grumble grumble Mr. Jordan, grumble.) Nothing had affected me the way these books have. Not Tolkien, not Meredith Ann Peirce( She has her own very special place however.) not MZB, not Pullman, Rice, Carey, Weiz and Hickman, McCaffrey, Gaiman (gasp.) Nope. In my 29 and 9/10ths of life, Harry Potter has been unique, amazing, special and magical in ways no other book has ever been.
And the tale is told.
No more words to behold.
Just well read tattered covers
that will look more careworn and
well loved than the others
as I re-read them again, and again
and again.

thank you JKR, you have left a legacy.
I know it had to end, I am glad it did as authors are wont to not let go, but the best writers know when to end their tale. And that every tale should have an end.
It just all came to soon. Must, read, slower. next time. =)