And while I'm in email mode... here is a photo of dainty little Ms. Surprise Arrival, taken on Monday.

I haven't seen her since she told off Captain and Stanley and jumped off the outside windowsill on Tuesday evening. I hope she's OK.

Captain admires himself in the mirror on a regular basis. So does Stanley, but I happened to get a shot of Captain first. :o)

On Sunday evening, Mark returned from picking up a few odds and ends at BJ's, and told me that there was a little grey tabby kitty outside the house.

Well, not only was she outside the house, but when he opened the front door to show me, there she sat on our front step, outside our storm door, looking through the glass and meowing her head off to be let into the house. Talk about knowing what she wanted and knowing how to ask for it! :o)

There's a park a few blocks from here where ignoramuses who masquerade as humans dump unwanted pets, and unfortunately, I think that's how this kitty came to be in our neighborhood. She's extremely friendly, totally adorable, and appears to be about 6 months old.

I took one look at how thin she was and my heart went out to her. If we hadn't already had cats in the house, I'd have let her in on the spot, but it's not wise to bring a new cat into the household before it's had a clean bill of health from a vet.

So instead of letting her in, I brought food and water out to her. The only cat food we have in the house is Oral Care cat food, which is made of large kibbles that the cat has to chew, so it can clean the cat's teeth... I didn't know what kind of shape this kitty's teeth might be in, so I shredded a couple slices of baloney and brought that out instead. She proceeded to inhale it, then demanded petting while purring loudly enough to register on the Richter scale. Did I mention how adorable she is, and how friendly?

I asked Mark to bring out one of our oversized cat carriers (big enough for a small dog) so we could put it on the patio. It was going to get chilly overnight, and I wanted the cat to have some kind of shelter from the weather.

Meanwhile, Ms. Surprise Arrival continued to make it known that she really, REALLY wanted petting. :o) I'm certain that she was someone's pet before ending up on our front doorstep, because not only did she crave attention, she let me pick her up, check her fur for fleas (she's clean), turn her over to make sure of her gender(!), and to my great surprise, she allowed me to check her teeth(!!!). That pretty much confirmed that she's about 6 months old, because at least in the front, she has her adult teeth. I didn't check farther back than that... it would've involved prying her jaws apart, and even cat whisperers shouldn't push their luck that far in the first five minutes after meeting a stray cat.

In the time since then, she's tended to go off to I-know-not-where during the day, then come back in the evening and meow to be let in. On Monday night, instead of being let in, she got some doting and some more cat food. (Actual cat food this time, now that I know her teeth are healthy.)

Then there was last night.

Temperatures in Philadelphia are just right for leaving the windows open, so we are. Captain and Stanley looooove being able to get the breeze coming in the front window as they sit there, watching Kitty TV and beautifying the neighborhood by displaying their stripey selves to the world. :o)

But I was surprised, just after sundown, to hear kitty swear words emanating from the region of the front window. "Maaoowrrr... grrrrrr... FFFFT!" Captain and Stanley were both there, looking out. Neither of them tends to make any such noises, not even while playfighting, so I got up to see what was going on.

When I got there, I saw Ms. Surprise Arrival sitting there on the OUTSIDE window sill in a Sphinx stance. (Just the fact that she can fit on a 4-inch-wide windowsill gives an idea of how slender she is.) I have no doubt that she's been able to smell Captain and Stanley for the past few days, through the open window. However, as far as I can tell, this is the first time she's actually SEEN them close up, and I think she was a bit freaked out by how much bigger they are than she is. Stanley, who's about 10 lbs, is easily twice her size. Captain's somewhere between 13-15 lbs, so he's larger still. She was the one swearing in feline at them both, but they wouldn't go away. They sat there staring in amazement at this new little cat who sat there, glaring and using unprintable kitty vocabulary that we don't generally hear uttered in this house.

It took everything in me not to burst out laughing on the spot. Stanley, delicate soul that he is, was so unnerved by this miniscule bit of feisty felinity that he jumped down to the floor and sat next to my feet. All the fur on his spine was standing straight up like a mohawk hairdo. Captain continued to sit there, staring in astonishment, seemingly unable to grasp what he was seeing. ("There's a CAT out there! And she's, like, all growling and stuff!") I talked quietly to them all about what good kitties they are, and how I'd like them to all get along and be friends. The little girlcat eventually got tired of Captain's ignoring her orders to go away, and she jumped down to the sidewalk. I put Stanley back up to the window, and Captain sniffed his face emphatically, with huge, dilated eyes, as if to say, "Did you see that? What was that? WHO was that? What just happened here?"

The boys resumed watching the neighborhood. Stanley meatloafed, and Captain sat with his tail draped over his brother's back for moral support.I don't think either of our bewildered boycats wants to mess with the miniature tuffgirl kitty with the potty mouth. ;o)

Happy Blogday to me!

Today's the fourth anniversary of the day I began blogging. Darn, but time flies! :o)

I realize that the rest of the universe is celebrating Cinco de Mayo today, but in my case, today is Quattro di Weblog. ;o)

Eeeee. I swear, sometimes, that my entire family has broken a mirror.

I was just IMing with my cousin, T. His dad, Uncle T, has been battling with shingles for the past few weeks. As shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chicken pox, he asked the doc if his wife (Aunt J) or son (T) can contract chicken pox. He was told, "No".

Well, I know that Aunt J and my mother, who are sisters, both had chicken pox as children. (I found this out when I came down with chicken pox myself, at age 7.) So in her case, "no" was the correct answer.

But T, apparently, never had chicken pox as a kid. I could have sworn he did, but evidently, I was mistaken... because he's in his 30s and he's got them NOW. Argh and double argh!

So, as a note to self since any person who's had chicken pox can have an episode of shingles later: yes, a person with shingles CAN transmit chicken pox to someone who's never had the virus before.

Whoever finds a way to get that dormant chicken pox virus out of a person's system will be doing the human race an immense favor.

The good news: all 24 employees of the junkyard, where the fire is now under control, are uninjured and accounted for. As of the 11:00 news, there are no injuries.

Also, the helicopter noise has been constant, but there hasn't been a siren in quite a while.

The bad news: the wind shifted, and GOOD GRIEF, what a reek of burnt rubber suddenly came in the open front windows! I think I broke some kind of land speed record running to shut them. Holy freakin' mackerel! No wonder the cats were freaked out and both parked on top of me and one another. They probably smelled the smoke well before it started coming in the house in earnest.

Channel 6 said the stench caused complaints as far away as NE Philadelphia (!), so no wonder it's overwhelmingly nasty at a distance of less than a mile away. Whew.

I hope that in the morning, the updated news still says, "No injuries". Good night!

Heh. I spoke too soon.

It's been nothing but sirens, sirens, and more sirens going through the immediate area for an hour or more. Mark spotted a large column of smoke in the general direction of the refinery, which of course is never a good thing.

I looked online and discovered that there's a junkyard fire not far from the refinery. So far, it's up to two alarms.

Here's what Channel 6's site had to say.



I hope they put it out soon. Unfortunately, in the minutes since I located this headline, there've been nonstop helicopter rotor noises, plus a WHOLE lot more sirens passing by -- ambulances, fire engines, and I think just now a police car. I don't like this AT ALL. :o(

It's been an interesting few days.

For one thing, my dad got the phone number of an HR person of the bank where I used to work. She's based down at the bank building that's near the airport. I called her and left a voice mail message on Tuesday, but I haven't heard back yet.

My dad has called me every day since then at least once, and on Tuesday, twice, to find out if I've heard back from her. I think I finally got through today when I explained that I don't get my hopes up at all anymore until something actually happens. Because if I let myself get all disappointed and devastated every time something didn't come through in the time since the downsizing, I'd have jumped off a bridge long ago. (No exaggeration.)

I think he finally understood where I'm coming from, and I think he's going to wait until I actually call him and mom with news. Which is kind of good, because if there's one thing that will start me on the path to feeling low, it's going back into the CONSTANT cycle of "Have you heard anything? Have you got a job? Is there anything new on the job front?" that I get from some well-meaning people EVERY TIME I SEE THEM OR TALK TO THEM ON THE PHONE. I know they mean well, so I keep my mouth shut instead of getting grouchy and saying, "*NO*, there's nothing new; don't you think I'd have said something to everyone I know if I got a new job?"

They mean well. I *know* they mean well. So I don't take out my frustration on them. But it doesn't mean there's no frustration. There is.

I think I've finally gotten through to the Parental Units on one other score, too. Dad tries to brainstorm with me about job-search methods, which unfortunately are things that I've already tried. (Again, I understand that the advice is well-intended.) But one thing he used to do a lot was talk about his friends' kids. JE's son has a business doing this. JB's daughter works doing that. FP's son-in-law is a salesman making good money.

Finally, every time he brings one of these people up, I ask, "Is he hiring?" "Is she hiring? Does his company have any openings?"

After the third or fourth, "I don't know if they are", and the third or fourth calmly-stated, "Well if they aren't, it doesn't help me find a new job", I've stopped hearing about everyone else's grown-kids-with-jobs that our family knows.

Then there's this item that I've been hearing a lot lately...

"You should really network. You can hear about a lot of jobs if you network with other people".

Well, I think to myself, I've been talking to everyone I know. Anyone who knows thing one about my personal life is aware that my long-term temp job ended a month ago and I'm looking for work again. But I don't say all that out loud. Instead, I've substituted this: "I've already spoken to everyone I know. They haven't got anything. Do YOU know anyone I can contact?"
"Ah, well, no, I don't know anyone. Why do you think I would know anyone?"
"Well, you're telling me to network, so I am. With you. I already networked with the people I know. Now I'm trying to find out if anyone ELSE knows anyone I can network with. Do you know anyone who's hiring?"
"Uh, no. Not really. But I'll let you know if I hear anything."

Then I stop hearing from that individual about networking. They never mention it again. So much for talking to everyone I know. :o(

Anyway, enough griping. I've just got this on my mind because my Parental Units have been ringing my phone off the hook to ask about a conversation that I haven't had yet with this person from HR. Sigh.

So anyway, other stuff's been going on, and it's a lot more interesting. For example, the Starbucks closest to here is having a Sign Language workshop every two weeks, on Tuesday nights. The first one was on May 1, and the place was Standing Room Only. I was pleased to see how many people attended. There was a really diverse crowd there, in terms of hearing and deaf; older, middle-aged, young adults, teens, and kids; and a pretty wide assortment of ethnic backgrounds. For every person that attends, Starbucks will be donating $10 to the deaf school where one of the people coordinating the workshop works. So if you're interested in learning some basic ASL, let me know. I can be emailed at Gabey8 at aol dot com .

I finished the latest five-day course of antibiotics last Sunday. I'm still taking the prescription decongestant. Result: I feel better than I did, but DARN IT, I still have plenty of congestion to spare. The one good thing that I've noticed is that my ears are finally starting to pop, I can hear a bit better than I did before, and I have less earache pain than before. I think the ear congestion is beginning to clear up, though unfortunately neither the congestion, the hearing loss, nor the ear pain are entirely gone yet. Hey, improvement is better than staying the same or getting worse, so I'll take it.

Unfortunately, I did have to cancel out on singing a Mass on Sunday. I still get coughing fits when I try to sing more than a little bit, and I'm not at all convinced that the symptom will be gone by May 6.

Hmm. I think I've covered most of what's going on these days. Later!

It's 4:16 AM. Have you been asleep at any point between sunset yesterday and now? If you answered "Yes", then that makes one of us.

What I found puzzling, at first, is that I haven't even been drowsy yet. Not even a little bit. Zero. Nothing.

It finally dawned on me what the problem is. The decongestant I got from the doctor on Wednesday has sudafed in it. That acts like a stimulant in some people, including me.

I'm supposed to take this stuff every 12 hours. Maybe I can take some non-sudafed, OTC decongestant in the evening instead of the prescription med.

Either that, or maybe after a few days of insomnia, I'll be so freaking tired, I'll fall asleep and it won't matter WHAT the freaking decongestant is.

In the meantime, Animal Planet has interesting programs on.

Nora, the piano playing cat

OMG! How adorable is this? :o) A kitty who plays piano!

In other news, Mark and I had our eye doctor appointment today. There wasn't anything significantly wrong, thank goodness, but we both need to have annual checkups because of family history and/or our own medical history. That's OK, I can live with that.

But doggone, those eyedrops used for the exam (and the blurred vision they cause) are a nuisance. File them under "necessary evil".

I think they should hire me at that doctor's office. I had all kinds of suggestions, such as having the doctors' names embroidered on their lab coats in lines of decreasing-size print, so that it looks like an eye chart. I also took the opportunity to study the 3-d model of an eye that was in the exam room. "I'd better look this over now, while I *don't* have a doctor pointing out something that's wrong. Usually, when your doctor SHOWS you models of a body part, it's because you damaged it somehow." And believe me, after the travail I went through following the knee injury, I know whereof I speak. Or write. Aaah, whatever. ;o) But trust me, when you have a doc presenting you with a model of some sort, the next phrase out of his or her mouth will be pointing out where on that body part your particular affliction is situated. So at least I got to review an eye model today, with no pressure or stress of worrying about anything being wrong. :o)

Then when the doc put on headgear that had a lamp on the front, so he could shine light into my eyes and have both hands free, I pointed out that he was mining for symptoms, and I hoped he didn't find any. And, of course, there were the instructions on where to direct my gaze, while he was shining the light in my eyes. "Down to the left... Down to the right..."

"Isn't that a dance step?" I asked, and sang it back in rhythm. "Down to the left! Down to the right! Jump back three steps..." At this point, the doctor had to turn his head, but I could see him laughing anyway. :o)

Hey, spreading silliness is serious business. SOMEbody has to do it. ;o)

On the topic of cars:
Mark brought my car home; they couldn't find any problem with it. *$%@#... Note to self: take no long drives anywhere until this is resolved. Fortunately, I haven't got any pressing reason to drive more than a few miles, nor do I expect to have a reason to drive far in the immediate future.

Also, today is the 10th anniversary of the day Mark bought HIS car.

We're not people who worry about replacing our vehicles every year, can you tell? ;o)

Meanwhile, my visit to the doctor yielded this: my BP is 100/70 (yay! Best reading I've had in months!), I still have a sinus infection, and I still have an ear infection. Result: 5 more days on antibiotics, plus a prescription for a decongestant. I hope to heck THIS works, because I've been battling with these freaking symptoms since we moved to Daylight Saving Time.

There's not a quick fix for the hearing-loss-in-left-ear issue, either. The meds will target the infection, and resolving that is the way to clear up the ear congestion. (Boo! I'd been hoping for an Instant Solution on that front, but no such luck.)

Tomorrow, Mark and I are going to the eye doctor. It's been over two years since our last visit; we're both overdue for this appointment.

That, plus my online job searching, is what's going on here these days. Well, that plus spoiling the cats, that is, but cat spoiling is a 24/7 project around here. ;o)

Aaaand surprise! My car is back in the shop. [insert list of expletives here]

It refused to start yet again, after I took a run with Joe M. to Snyder Plaza. He took SEPTA home and I called AAA.

However, AAA's ETA was possibly going to have me waiting as long as an hour, so every 5-10 minutes, I tried to start the car again. On one of those attempts, it not only started, but continued running. I cancelled the AAA call and drove the car to the mechanic's shop myself.

I mentioned not only that the car stalled once or twice in the past couple of weeks, but that there was a smell of burnt rubber when I drove to NJ a couple of Saturdays ago.

I suppose if I need to have every part of the car replaced, one by one, over time I'll have a brand-new 18-year-old car. Sigh.

I have to submit three 2-minute audio/text files by Friday.

I chose the topics of Louis Braille, Helen Keller, and the article on assistive technology for the deaf-blind that's in my June 2006 blog archives.

Notice a theme? :o)

BTW...

I have an appointment on Wednesday to followup with the doctor regarding the Sinus/Ear Infection from Hell that I've been griping about on here for the past month or so.

In the meantime, I am putting up with a new, annoying symptom. My left ear is so congested that I've actually lost some hearing in it.

I had to interpret yesterday. With my typical Murphy's Law sort of luck, when I interpret at church I stand all the way to the right-hand side of the sanctuary (facing the congregation). This means that everything in the church is on my LEFT side, where the ear isn't working properly. Oh, what fun THAT wasn't.

Oh, and then there was the ride to Hatboro that Mark and I took on Saturday afternoon. His bad ear is the right ear. My left ear is currently MY bad ear. He was driving, so we BOTH were sitting on the "wrong" side to be able to hear one another properly. This made life interesting when we made a slight miscue and took a wrong turn, then had to get back on track by following the Google map printout. And when I say "interesting", I mean "standup comedians make a LIVING from material like this". Aaaagh.

The doc had better have something in his medical arsenal to clear this congestion up. This is driving me bananas.
----

Oh, and good news! I did get chosen to be a reader for that online language-instruction site. This could prove to be an interesting method of earning pin money.

I located a member of The Procrastinator's Club this afternoon. As I was walking home via Moyamensing Avenue, I saw a discarded Christmas tree lying at the curbside to be collected. On the pavement next to it was its green plastic stand.

I'm afraid to speculate on what sequence of events would lead to the discarding of a Christmas tree in late April, two weeks after Easter. Let's just say I was surprised to see it, and leave it at that. ;o)

I just got an email that saddens me to no end. Edie's hearing assistance dog, Leni (sounds like "Lenny") has died. :o(

I know he was getting on in years, I know he was starting to have spinal trouble that aging Corgis are prone to developing, and I know the plan was for him to retire and become Edie's parents' pet dog when Edie was assigned a new assistance dog (which she is on the waiting list for).

But DARN. I really loved that sweet little dog. Leni made me a fan of Welsh Corgis forever, and if I ever get one, he'll be the reason why.

Sweetest. Dog. Imaginable. I'm really going to miss that cute little guy. :o(

Poor Edie! I can't imagine what it's like to lose, not just a lovable pet and companion, but a *working* dog that she's been teamed up with for over 10 years. :o( :o( :o( My heart goes out to her.

:o(

So there I was, reviewing craigslist job openings to see what kinds of interesting items are out there.

And I found one that appears to be custom-made for a person like me. Native speakers of English and other languages are to create brief audio files and submit them, along with the matching text, to a particular site. The goal of the site is creating an online tool for teaching languages.

So I submitted an audition file. To hear the audition, once the page loads, click the "play" button (sideways triangle). Creating the file involved reading a minute's worth of text aloud, submitting the audio file with the text, and then running a special program to synchronize the on-screen indicator so that it highlights the word that's being spoken, AS it's being spoken.

It's a pretty freakin' neat process. The geek in me is fascinated by the synchronizing process. I hope I end up in their pool of readers, because it appears to be something that can easily be done during free time. The pay is more likely to be along the lines of "pocket money" than a viable income, but hey -- pocket money is nothing to turn up one's nose at.

So let's see if this actually pans out, or if they're just trying to boost their content with audition files and not actually have to pay anybody. Yeah, that possibility did occur to me, but I figured a few minutes out of my life to create and submit the file was worth the risk.

Argh. The fever I got rid of a couple weeks ago is starting to come back. I guess I'll be back on the phone with the doctor's office tomorrow. Phooey, but this darned bug is persistent!

I guess that this is an opportune time to be between job assignments. At least I can get some doggoned rest, for once. (She writes, while sitting up at 11:53 PM watching a late-night hockey game. Way to get some rest, huh?) ;o)

Now that I've got some free time, I've been looking around online at the various features of myspace. In the process, I've added several acquaintances and friends to my Friends list. I even happened to reconnect with one friend and former AOLer within days of the birth of his second child... how's THAT for good timing? :o)

So if you happen to be on myspace, stop by and send me a "friend" request. The link to my Myspace page is on the left-hand side of this screen.

Interesting little side note: every one of the people/organizations on my Friends list so far has a hockey connection. The one who is The Other Donna is, along with being my longtime friend, a fellow hockey fan. The others are all either people I've met (online or face-to-face) or groups I've joined due to my being a hockey fan. Maybe that will help the onset of the dreaded Hockey Withdrawal Syndrome that always sets in once the Flyers and Phantoms are both finished playing (which they both are).

Oops. I didn't realize that I hadn't posted since my job assignment finished. Well, not until the weekend, when Karla and Joe M mentioned it to me.

So, here we go: quick update time. I'm still fighting this #$@*$%& flu or whatever it was that had me out sick for several days. I don't think I've had a fever since I took the antibiotic a few weeks ago, but the cough, congestion, occasional earaches and fatigue have yet to dissipate. So between resting to get rid of this bug, readying for events like Easter and the Phantoms Phan Club banquet, and wrapping up work on the Phantoms player's scrapbook that I volunteered to do in the fall, I haven't been blogging.

But I turned in the scrapbook last night (and after working on it all this time, I almost hated to part with it), Easter has come and gone, the banquet was a week ago Monday, and I've finally got some actual free time. So, what have I been doing? Sleeping. For the past few weeks, I could tell that I was tired and needed extra rest, but this is ridiculous.

With any luck, I'll actually be able to keep my eyes open in the near future, so there'll be some posts with actual events in them. ;o)