Happy New Year's Eve
A new year is upon us once again. Take care celebrating tonight!

What sort of resolutions are you making for 2005?

My resolutions, in no particularly meaningful order:

- Search for and hopefully discover my inner athlete this year.
- Do well in my college courses.
- Study for and take the A+ certification test.
- Figure out a name for Kitty other than "Kitty."
- Convert all my old papers and stories into a more modern document format, so I can preserve them and perhaps add them to the website.
- posted by Kismet @ 1:33 PM (1) comments

 
happy holidays from Mississippi
Just a quick post to say happy holidays to everyone! I arrived safely in Mississippi yesterday, although I still have no idea where my luggage is. Oh well!

Chris also finally arrived in St Louis last night. It wasn't a fun trip from the sounds of it though, and I'm not sure if his luggage made it with him either.

Stay safe, Gentle Readers, and have a wonderful winter solstice type celebration, whatever you celebrate around this time of year.
- posted by Kismet @ 1:25 PM (0) comments

 
the aviation gods strike again!
So, I dropped Chris off at the airport this morning for his flight out to St. Louis. Turns out the aviation gods were in bad humor, and his flight was cancelled due to the huge snowstorm in Ohio yesterday. His connection was in Columbus, OH, and of course, the airport is still snowed in. So, hopefully he'll get out of here tomorrow, around the same time I leave for Mississippi.

I also dropped Kitty off at the kennel for the holidays. Then Ed volunteered to look after him while I was gone, but I'm not going back out in the holiday traffic. It took about 90 minutes to make the normally 10 minute drive to the kennel in the first place! Just going to the vet and back out to the airport again took about two and a half hours this afternoon. Ugh. I hate traffic. Kitty probably would have torn up my bedroom while we were gone anyway.

Time to do laundry so I can pack.
- posted by Kismet @ 5:08 PM (0) comments

 
Kitty says Hi!
Well, ok, his typing skills aren't good enough to actually say hi yet, but he is in my lap "helping" me post right now.

Ah, the joys of Christmas! It's been a rush to make sure all the gifts I bought were wrapped and shipped (check! all shipped on Saturday), and make sure everything is "fixed" enough at work before everyone goes on vacation. In addition, there's also trips to make (me to Mississippi, Chris to Missouri), rides to the airports to beg, clothes to get washed for said trips, lodging to arrange for our feline friend who still has no name, etc. And even more! I also got registered for Desktop Publishing I and Web Design I at Northern Virginia Community College, paid tuition, ordered books, and ordered software for the classes. Whee!

My own holiday treats to myself are starting to arrive as well. I bought a 1GB jumpdrive to be able to carry work home when I need to (or hey, class assignments too!). That arrived today. I also treated myself to a nice 19 in LCD from Dell that will hopefully arrive a little later, since the tracking information says it's out for delivery. And finally, a relative of a friend from Canada managed to find me one of the spiffy crystal edition Xbox holiday bundles (translucent case, bundled with Fable and Crimson Skies 2!), so sometime after the holiday craze is over, that'll be arriving. I don't really "need" any of this, but hey, sometimes you just need to do something nice for yourself.

So, that's what I've been up to lately! Teaching Kitty to type, preparing for higher education, and spending money on friends, family, and myself. Good thing Christmas comes but once a year, my checkbook says.

Best part of my upcoming vacation - Mama's biscuits and sweetmilk gravy. YUMMY!
- posted by Kismet @ 4:08 PM (1) comments

 
best laid plans
Well, Kitty was only going to be an overnight guest, and yet he's still here. Guess that makes me a sucker.

As it turns out, the no-kill animal shelter we found online was for dogs only. The only other ones in the area only had post office boxes and no physical address...and they also didn't answer the phone. So, instead, we decided we'd hang on to Kitty a little while longer and see what happens when we put up flyers and fill out the "found pet" forms at the Fairfax County website, and some other website Chris found. Of course, we have yet to do the flyers. We are slackers.

In the meantime, I took Kitty to see a vet on Friday (yes, like I said, I'm a sucker). The vet confirmed he's a he, fixed, about two years old, and has been outside for a while due to the size of the ticks the vet removed. Kitty also got treated for ticks & fleas while we were there. All the employees at the vet's were impressed at how well-behaved Kitty was...he's quite a charmer, I tell ya.

So, it's been a few days, and Kitty has settled in quite well for a guest. He's also a lot more relaxed, and his fur is silky smooth since he can lick to his heart's content and not get dirty again in 5 minutes from being outside. Already spoiled. Must be a genetic throwback to when cats were revered in Egypt...5 minutes of attention and they assume the pampered master of the household position.
- posted by Kismet @ 6:54 PM (0) comments

 
hello, kitty
It's a miserable evening outside. It's raining, and the wind is blowing, and it's freezing cold. Well, freezing cold to me at least...it'll get worse before it gets better this winter.

Sitting at the top of the steps up to the second floor of my apartment building when I got home this evening was another chilly wet soul. We'll call him Kitty for now. He started meowing when I came in sight, so I stopped to say hi. He got up and walked downstairs, still meowing, and even followed me down the next flight of stairs to my front door. I went inside, but I felt bad. Bad enough I went back to the door a couple of minutes later, and he was still sitting outside patiently, still meowing at me.

So, it looks like we have an overnight visitor for now. Several neighbors said they've seen him around for a while, so he must be a stray...but as friendly as he is, he's had to have lived with someone. He seems well-mannered enough for now, and very loving...I just hope he's litterbox-trained.

Wish we could keep him, but I doubt there'd be a unanimous decision amongst the roommates to keep him for the next few months till we all go our separate ways. Oh well.

Tomorrow I'm going to call the front office and ask if they know of a missing cat. If not, Chris looked online and found a no-kill animal shelter just a mile away. We may not be able to keep him, but hopefully someone who is in a better position will be wowed by his personality and take him home.

Here's a picture of our new friend Kitty.
- posted by Kismet @ 8:09 PM (1) comments

 
Quote of the Moment says it all
Sorry for the obnoxious color changes...it's that time of year though! Don't worry...it only lasts the rest of December.

Other site changes...I took away the message board a while ago. No one was using it anyways. I also took out the wishlist section since I doubt too many people actually use that to do anything other than laugh at me and my eccentric tastes. And I gave the site a temporary name that's more personable than kismetcherie.com.

So, anyway...I've just about finished up all my Christmas shopping. This is quite early for me to be finished! I'm pretty proud of myself. Maybe one day I'll be able to finish up before Thanksgiving.

While I'm on the subject of giving...head on over to the Child's Play site, hosted by Penny Arcade. I've mentioned it before, but I'm mentioning it again! Go spend a few bucks and spread some joy to kids who are stuck in hospitals for the holidays, dealing with decidedly yucky things like cancer. It doesn't take much...buy a coloring book and a box of crayons!

- posted by Kismet @ 9:11 PM (0) comments

 
*sigh*
Today would have been my dad's birthday.

I sure do miss him.

- posted by Kismet @ 8:30 AM (3) comments