Inkwell Tales

Inkwell was curled up on my lap, purring, and I noticed some stray hairs so I reached down and grabbed his brush and started to help groom him. He purred and stretched and made it clear that I was to continue. After a time he got up and wandered off. I set the brush on the table next to me instead of back in the chair's side pocket.

A short time later, Inkwell wandered back and leapt onto the table ... then leapt backwards in that amazing move that only cats do - completely rewinding. He landed on the floor and let out a mighty MEOW of protest at the table.

Baffled, I looked at Inkwell, then looked at the table. The only difference from usual was the brush. I picked up the brush and showed it to him. He grumpily jumped back up on the table, and investigated the scary thing in my hand.

He glared at me again, then stalked out of the room in a huff. I gingerly put the brush back in its side pocket. Minutes later, Inkwell again entered the room, this time putting his paws up on the table to check for scary objects before he jumped up and proceeded back to my lap for cuddles.

Note to self: Do not leave the brush out. I got clutter shamed by my cat.

No update today

Yesterday was lovely and boring, so I'm not going to attempt a write-up. Here's a photo of Inkwell to tide you over.

Neglecting my Blog

I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile. It was pretty much all downhill for me after Galley, and I'm only starting to climb up again. More reviews should be coming soon (knock on wood). Until then... um...

Various Thoughts and stuff

I caught Inkwell on video meowsaging me:

If this works, you should be able to see the video I posted of the event on Facebook. He actually does this to me almost every night, and sometimes in the mornings. He's kind of tucking me into bed. There is sound on the video, and if you dare to turn it up, you can hear Inkwell's purring. Because he's literally on my face as he does this, the sound is deafening to me. It didn't come across on the video as loud as I hear it when he's doing it.

---

Eric lost his glasses. I was wandering around town catching Pokemon, and got back to find a frantic email about it. I looked around the house and didn't see them, and did a quick walk around the house outside. He had written that if he dropped them outside, it was most likely at the water switch in the back yard. So I looked, but didn't see them. I went back inside and did a much more thorough search of the house before I remembered the security cam. If he had his glasses in his pocket, I might be able to see it on the cam. So I looked! Sure enough, he had his sunglasses on his face and his regular glasses in his front shirt pocket as he locked the door on his way out.

Ok. With that in mind, I realized I was going to have to retrace his steps, which might mean walking all the way to his school. Bleh. I'd just gotten *back* from a long walk. So I decided to circle the house three times before I started out retracing his steps. I walked around once, scanning the ground, and didn't see them. The second time, I focused on the areas near the house. In the deepest shadow near the AC unit I spotted something. Sure enough, it was his glasses! Whew, I didn't have to walk all the way out. (The third time round I would have focused on the areas furthest from the house, but I didn't have to do it, yay!)

I delivered them to his school by driving there (and sitting in the parking lot catching a couple of Pokemon before I went in) and then went home to rest. He was delighted. Neither of us can figure out how they managed to fall out of his pocket into the deepest shadow near the AC unit - which isn't all that close to the water switch.

---

When my sister and mother came out to go to Adam West Day with me, we first went out to visit my mother's favorite quilt shop in Prosser. I was happy to find a couple of Pokestops in the area, and surprised that my sister had just, that day, started playing the game in the hopes it will have the same positive effect of getting her out walking that it did with me. While mother had a great deal of fun in the quilt shop, I explained some of the little bit of Pokemon lore I've learned so far to my sister and we repeatedly hit the Pokestops. It was fun. I ended up with two new gym badges, one at the memorial in my Cameraphone Zen for Sep 18, and the other a boring Starbucks one near the freeway exit (we were stopped at a light long enough for me to spin it).

We also visited Chukar Cherries, which is literally across the river from the quilt shop. There was another gym across the street from it that I managed to spin as well. I ended up getting three gym badges in Prosser, but only two in Walla Walla (despite spending a lot more time in Walla Walla).

---

I have been walking my fish.

Time for some Poke-nerdism! The special research tasks apparently introduced to the game recently have various steps to completion. In the step I'm on in one of the tasks, I need to turn a Magikarp (that floppy giant goldfish) into a Gyarados. In order to do this, I have to collect 400 Magikarp "candy". You get three pieces of candy for catching a Pokemon, and one piece if you send that Pokemon to the professor to be studied (basically, you throw it away and get a reward). The other way to collect candy is to walk with your Pokemon as your "buddy". So I have been walking with Fishstix here as my buddy in order to get enough candy to feed to him to turn him into a Gyrados. As of tonight, I'm very close to 300 candies.

Most Pokemon do not require 400 candies. There are some that only need 12 candies to evolve, but more normal is 25, 50 or 100. All of which is not hard to reach by catching a whole lot of Pokemon. Which is the point of the game, and why you need to walk around a lot. The more you walk, the more Pokemon you find, and the more you can evolve your Pokemon and stuff. It's really very fun. And it's got me out walking, which is something I BADLY needed.

---

Yesterday was a Pokemon Community Day, and what happens on those days is that suddenly one type of Pokemon will just FLOOD the world. The idea is that you are out and about for three hours, walking with your friends and everyone is catching a ton of this one particular type of Pokemon. The last community day, in August, was when my sister got me addicted to the game by having me carry her spare phone and catch Eevee on a long walk with her, another sister, my niece and brother-in-law. Side note: if you are confused about my sisters, I have four of them and three of them have been mentioned in this post so far.

Anyway, so yesterday was the new Community Day, and of COURSE I went out to catch Pokemon...

I caught plenty. I even got two that were special "Shiny" ones, although I'm not entirely sure what to do with them, since their stats are awful.

I originally intended to walk for three hours, strolling around the park and sitting for a portion of the time. I was hoping to meet some other local players. Well... it was very odd. There were other people, but they pretty much all stayed in their cars and went from area to area by car. I didn't get to talk to even one of them.

Only a couple of days earlier I met another player who friended me on the app. He didn't get out of his car, either. But we talked a bit, and we've been sending gifts back and forth, the way the game allows. On Friday I "met" a car-full of people who were on my same team (Team Mystic) when we all took over two gyms together. I waved at them, but they did not get out of their car.

So apparently the local fans are very car-centric. I suppose, with the small-town fear of gangs and stuff, that it's not so strange. A bit sad and depressing, but not strange.

With no one to talk to, or walk with, I decided to just head for home. So I walked home. From the park. I worked out that I must've walked a bit more than two and a half miles over the course of two hours. That's nothing compared to what I used to be capable of, but it was difficult for me yesterday and I ended up taking only a half mile today. However, I got home with an hour to spare in the event and spent the rest of the time relaxing and culling the worst of my catches and evolving a couple of the lovelies to their final form.

I kept the app open, and after the event ended, a really really strange Pokemon showed up:

When I caught them, they turned into the shape-changing Ditto. But before now, Ditto has always shown up as a known type of Pokemon, so finding these in the wild was... well, wild. And I ended up catching four of them and spotting two more before the day was done. I don't think I've seen any today - certainly none close enough to catch (there's a radar in the corner that shows you nearby Pokemon, but I don't always pay attention to it when I'm not walking).

So... that was community day.

---

Last week I mentioned that I was recording a podcast with Rob Kelly. You can now listen to that podcast at the Fire & Water website. I haven't quite worked up the nerve to listen to it yet (I'm one of those people who cannot stand the sound of my own voice). If you listen to it, please let me know what you thought.

---

I spent an unfortunate amount of time today looking for nerdy boxer shorts for my husband to wear around the house and outside when he gets the newspaper or turns the irrigation water on. You know, shorts. But boxers. I looked everywhere, and apparently it's a current trend that boxers not be boxers, but briefs with long legs. Every place I looked had "boxer briefs" and almost no actual boxers. The times I did find interesting designs, they didn't have his size. I have currently given up the search. A few years back I got him some very cool Doctor Who and Justice League boxers. But the band is nearly worn through on the Justice League and I'm not sure how much longer the Doctor Who boxers will hold out. So I'm going to need to find some more boxer shorts soonish (He's letting me buy them because "You're the one who is looking at them most of the time.").

After giving up on boxers, I started looking at Pokemon T-shirts (hey, I'm obsessed. It happens with me. Deal with it.). I found a number of shirts I wouldn't mind getting and even added a few to Amazon wish list. My favorite may be the Going to the Gym shirt. But even Eric thinks this one is appropriate for me:

Various Thoughts

After the scare with Inkwell the other day, we decided to finally get him chipped. It was a mostly painless process. I had to take him in for his vaccinations and asked the vet about chipping. I learned it was only about $35 and the vet would be happy to do it, but maybe we should get Inkwell a little drowsy/painkilled first. So he gave me a medication to give to Inkwell the night before and the morning of the chipping. The night before, Inkwell realized there was something in his food and didn't want to finish it. I had to bribe him a little with treats that I let him smell, the put into the wet food. That night he was drowsy. He tried to "tuck me in" but kept falling asleep while he massaged me (he sits on my chest, usually right after I go to bed, and purrs loudly while massaging me). Eventually he gave up and wandered off.

The next morning, Inkwell was having NONE of it. He sniffed the food, then moved away and sat there glaring - at me, at the wall, at anything except the food. Eventually I got him to eat it, as it was food and Inkwell is part piggy when it comes to food. By the time of his appointment, he was drowsy and feeling no pain. I picked him up to put him in his carrier and he sort of melted in my hands. It wasn't his usual defiance, more of a 'I can't be bothered' feel. Once in the carrier, he huddled in the back and made only one weak protesting meow on the way to the vet. I decided against going in to see the chipping, because they had described "a large needle" and I had enough trouble watching him get his vaccinations. He came out looking fine, and the vet said he was perfectly behaved. No problems. He barely even bled.

He's recovered now, but for a very short time it was disturbing to see him so limp and sleepy. At least he's chipped so hopefully if he manages to get outside again he'll be quickly found and returned.

---

In other news, the security camera is working very well, but does have a few little quirks. The alarm checks for differences in light between seconds in the areas set to be watched, and that's enough that an insect flying right in front of the lens will set it off, as will a car driving by late at night with brights on, or, as I learned today, a quick change from sunny to cloudy. As the alarms aren't too frequent to stand, it's still a good cam and a fun toy as well as a nice little investment for security.

---

I'm just going to quote myself from Facebook: September 13 at 12:11 PM

Oh dear.

I'd heard of this, but I finally saw it in action myself for the first time. Pokemon Go nerdism coming up.

So in the game, you visit Pokestops. The locations of the Pokestops are usually historic markers, city buildings, churches... that sort of thing. Now, I know a lot about this city, so when I saw a Pokestop that said "Historic Windmill" I was confused. As far as I knew, there was no such thing.

After a pain-shortened walk this morning (only a half mile) I decided to hunt down this mysterious Pokestop. I had memorized the location on the map, so I headed out there and drove down the street. I parked, and opened the game, and there's the Pokestop. But I don't see any windmill.

I kind of sighed and took one last look, then drove a ways down the road to turn around. When I got turned around, I finally saw it.

It was a tiny windmill in somebody's yard.

Yes, it matched the photo on the Pokestop - which was clearly taken from below to make the windmill look bigger.

I spent the next few minutes laughing my guts out, then headed home. I don't plan on reporting it, since whoever managed to get it through their system did a good job with it. Nor do I plan to go out there again, since it's out of the way (which is probably why they did it).

I did make me wonder, though - If Eric and I were to build a TARDIS and put it in our yard, could we eventually get a Pokestop if we made it public enough? And would we *want* to do that?

---

DC Universe went live, and to my dismay the app won't run on my old iPad Mini. First world problems, of course. Eventually I should be able to get a new iPad. But in the meantime, if I want to watch DC Universe, I can't do it while playing DCUO easily.

I checked out some of the comics on DC Universe and was sad to see that, although they have some early More Fun Comics, the books are incomplete. I don't recall seeing any Aquaman stories in anything but More Fun #73, and it was the recolored version, not the original.

Still, the amount of video content they've got is very impressive, and I'm sure I'll get my money's worth out of it.

---

Speaking of More Fun Comics, I recorded an episode of the Fire and Water Podcast with Rob Kelly today. We talked about several issues of More Fun Comics, along with another Golden Age book. It should be released in about a week, so go check it out.

---

Lastly, I've been keeping up with my walking, as you can probably see from my Cameraphone Zen posts. Each post means at least a half mile walked that day. One day I got a half mile in, then later that night decided to walk around the neighborhood catching Pokemon. My Facebook post: "Long evening walk, catching Pokemon. I got 39 Pokemon, walked 1.4 km, and am sweating like nobody's business. And I feel great."

I've done the neighborhood walk a couple of times when I felt like I didn't get enough of a walk in downtown. If there were any Pokestops within a half mile of walk of my house, I would have started with those and worked up to walking downtown. I suppose it's just as well.

I can report that I now have visited all the gyms and almost all the Pokestops in this town. I also have at least a bronze badge at all the gyms (which just means I put Pokemon in them, or battled a raid in them, or something like that). I also have a gym badge from another nearby town, since we went there for cheap gasoline and groceries the other day.

I will be headed to Walla Walla on Wednesday for Adam West Day and pulled up the Pokestop map. I'm delighted to see that a museum I wanted to visit last year, but was closed on Adam West Day, will be open this year AND it has a gym. Yay, at least one new badge! The plaza where the opening ceremonies will take place also has a gym, so as long as we get there in good time, I'll have a little Pokemon hunting to do along with the Adam Westivities.

---

So, that's been my week. I hope yours has gone as well or better.

NO, INKWELL!

Inkwell scared the snot out of me today.

As you know, Inkwell is an indoor cat. He gets very nervous at noises from cars and such, and when I've had him out on a leash for a short time, he's had the inclination to panic and run. Whenever anyone knocks on the door, he growls and runs upstairs.

Anyway, today we got a LOT of packages. One of them was my new security camera which I'm planning to install right outside the front door, looking down our walkway.

It isn't the easiest camera to set up... I had to unscrew bits just to put the micro-SD card in, but after several tries and a couple of frustrated growls, I managed to get the SD card into the camera and get the camera connected to our network.

With the camera in one hand and my phone in the other, I opened the front door and started to work on figuring out where I would need to position the camera to get the best view of the walk up to our door. I noticed something move out of the corner of my eye...

...Inkwell was happily walking across the yard, headed for the plum tree.

I panicked. I almost dropped both the camera and the phone, stopping myself at the last second to just set them down before going after my wayward cat. I was too scared to yell at him - I was afraid he'd take off running.

I managed to snag him before he got far and put him back in the house. THEN I yelled at him while I picked up my camera and phone and closed the door. He looked up at me and started grooming himself.

Clearly I need to think through how I'm going to figure out the positioning of the camera a little more thoroughly. Maybe Inkwell will get some undeserved locked-in-the-bathroom time.

In any case, I need to remember that Inkwell has a vet appointment tomorrow for his annual shots. I think I'll also have a little discussion about chipping him then.

Some Catch-Up

When last I wrote, Androcon was about to start (the invasion of Doctor Who fans at the Gjovaag house) and I'd just had a couple of very nice weeks of writing for the newspaper again.

Ok, first off... Inkwell is very healthy, and in fact has been playing more often than before. He's a bit befuddled by all the people who have visited, starting with the Androgums, then my parents, sister and niece, then the appraisers looking at the house. Now he's in the habit of running upstairs and hiding behind the bed when anyone comes to the door, which was actually useful today because I knew when the newspaper arrived.

He's also back in the habit of announcing when he gets into his box. I find it really amusing every time and I don't know why.

The Doctor Who on Twitch marathon is ending today. While none of the other Doctors reached the heights of London 1965, it was an excellent and fun way to see other people's reactions to the show as some of them saw it for the first time. I didn't watch continually, but I caught enough to be amused.

I have put in a hold for Hope Never Dies at the library in the hopes that it will be as goofy as the cover illustration indicates.

I am absolutely convinced that someone made this San Diego Comic-Con graphic just for me:

I saw this Facebook post on Friday the 13th and immediately submitted two stories I happened to have written that only needed a little polishing. I did not expect any response at all until after San Diego Comic-Con, and so was surprised to get acknowledgement of my submission in only a week. Very cool.

I was able to see Doctor Who meet the Muppets thanks to people taking videos at the shows in London, but I'd really like to purchase an official DVD of the shows. I've heard they don't do that, which is a shame. I bet it would raise a bit of money for charity even with the production costs.

If you know about or have played the Uncharted games, Nathan Fillion did a MAGNIFICENT job in a short video based on the games.

Yes, this made me squee. A lot of the Aquaman news recently has made me happily squee away. I mean, the movie poster was fun, but the trailer... oh, the trailer...


I must confess that I laughed hysterically for about a half hour about this particular headline:

News from San Diego includes a new creative team for Aquaman. I'm iffy about the art, but there's nothing wrong with Kelly Sue DeConnick as the writer! And she's the first female writer to take on Aquaman, which is interesting, but I won't cut her any slack.

DC's new young adult books are going to include both Mera and Jackson. I'll be getting the Aqua-related ones for sure, but some of the others also look pretty good.

I have not had a major depressive episode in three and a half weeks. Some of it is all the awesome Aquaman news, some is certainly being able to write for the newspaper again. Sadly, while the depression seems to be holding at bay, the anxiety and fibro pain have been as bad and worse than ever. Ug. Still, no depression is a win!

Hey, a super-relaxed Inkwell!

I really like this starry night house and kind of want to paint our house like that, only with a TARDIS in it. But I've been warned that blue paint fades very quickly, so I'm not sure. Maybe someday we'll just get a nice TARDIS blue door.

Yes, I have pre-subscribed to DC Universe. I suspect I'll get my money's worth out of it. Yes, of course I pre-subscribed in time to enter the Aquaman sweeps, although there is almost zero chance of me winning.

At the same time, DC Universe Online, the game I play, announced their next "downloadable content" (DLC) will be Atlantis. As the game has already had a ton of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern content, it's nice to see a couple of DLCs (including the recent Deluge) featuring Aquaman and his friends.

If you haven't seen the winners of the Eisner Awards yet, here they are. I hate to admit I'm not familiar with most of them, but the ones I know I like.

I was happy to read this story about a kid and a hot dog stand. Someone called health inspectors on him, but instead of shutting him down they helped make sure he was up to code then paid for his license. Excellent news!

The moment Jason Momoa met the son of Aquaman's creator, Paul Norris.

Get your orders in for Ahoy Comics. I'm looking forward to most of their books, and I don't easily jump on new publishers.

Lastly, the Washington State primary is August 7th. We just received our ballots a few days ago, and last night both Eric and I voted. We dropped off the ballots in the drop box this morning. Now we wait and see.

Inkwell update

Some folks may have noticed I posted a report that Inkwell was sick over on Facebook.

He was throwing up regularly, and hadn't eaten in awhile because of it, so we took him to the vet. Inkwell was NOT pleased with the vet tech and growled at her the entire time. The vet suggested trying to change his food, so we switched him... probably too rapidly.

He started out well, but rapidly stopped eating, then started dry-heaving. Which is scary if you are a human, but terrifying to watch in a cat. He didn't eat for a couple of days, and we took him back to the vet as quickly as we could. He was lethargic and weak. He didn't even growl this time until they took his temperature. The vet suggested blood tests, and then rehydrated him as well. We got some anti-nausea pills when the blood tests came back inconclusive.

For the first day back, he was much more his usual self, but still didn't eat much. I attempted to give him one of the pills when the vet had told me to and discovered that I have no idea how to get him to take a pill, and he really REALLY didn't want that pill. After a battle royale which Inkwell won, drooling all over himself and the floor and me, he stalked around the house grumbling and we decided to just feed him as normal and see what happened.

It took him several days to get back to his normal feeding routine, but he's back to the point where he's waiting around at mealtimes for us to put out his food instead of hiding under a chair and ignoring everything. He's been jumping up on laps and butting his head against ankles like he used to. And so far, knock on wood, he hasn't thrown up.

I have his "new" food which I may or may not reintroduce (thinking "not" right now) and he's back on his old food. He actually gained weight this past week, possibly because I kept hand-feeding him treats when he refused to eat out of his bowls.

So, as far as I can tell, all is well. We still have no idea what caused the initial problem, but then... that's cats for you.

Inkwell and the Sky Raisin

As anyone who has bothered to read this blog for any length of time knows, my husband and I are owned by a black cat named Inkwell. These are some of his recent adventures, mostly from Facebook and a few of his "Inkwell Sings the Blues" from his Twitter Feed.

This morning I woke up late, and my husband was already off running errands. I looked around the house for Inkwell, fearing he might have somehow gotten outside (he's very much an indoor cat). I went from room to room looking for him, and when I opened the door to the garage, a fly (aka Sky Raisin) flew into the house. Eventually I found Inkwell by shaking his treats. He casually wandered out from wherever he was hiding to get his reward for being a cat from his mommy.

A half an hour later, he noticed the fly.

I watched as Inkwell stalked it around the house, and when it flew upstairs, Inkwell stood on the landing and leaped into the air every time it passed by. It was quite spectacular from where I was sitting. He also chittered at it and flung insults that probably couldn't be repeated in human language without censoring. For Inkwell, it was great.

Late Thursday night a massive thunderstorm passed overhead. The sky rumbled for well over an hour, grumbling and rolling. The power blinked out once. I was up late, as has been my habit recently, and was sitting in my chair as the thunder shook the house. Inkwell finally came into my room and insisted on sitting on my lap. Every time there was a peal of thunder, his ears twitched back. He huddled on my lap for a good half hour before he finally felt safe enough to get back to whatever cat duties there are at 11 pm.

Inkwell is not fond of me staying up until 3 or 4 am then sleeping in until his first kibble feeding time at 10 am. On Tuesday morning he was upset that I was up at 9:30 and not feeding him. When I finally did go downstairs to feed him, he was very disapproving that I was putting his kibble into the egg-cersizer instead of just giving it to him in a bowl. He sat glaring at me with his tail twitching as I set the egg down...

...when he suddenly jumped about a foot into the air, twisting as he did so to look behind him.

I thought for a moment that he might have been bitten by a bug or something, but then I realized he had been sitting on the vent and the AC had just turned on.

He glared at me again, as if it was entirely my fault, then started batting his egg around to get his kibble. I tried really hard to not laugh, but I fear I may have offended the fuzzy master of the house. He stalked around the rest of the day trying to display dignity, but it was hard for me to not see his startled look as he jumped into the air, having just received a blast of cold air to his butt. At one point he decided to increase his mass as he thundered up and down the stairs, sounding like a herd of cattle. I still don't know how cats control gravity like that.

Last Friday I had an Inkwell experience that I also recorded on Facebook: Inkwell came into my room while I was typing away and just ... stared. He just stood in the doorway and stared. He looked so sad, I put the computer aside and reached down. He came up and put his head under my hand in the universal "please pet me" gesture. I pet him.

It soon became apparent he wanted something else. His front paws were very gently kneading at the carpet. So I got up and walked to the bedroom. He followed and when I got on the bed and pulled the blanket up, he jumped up and started purring and kneading me.

I spent the next ten minutes in a cat spa being meowsaged and purred upon.

When I thought he was done, I started to get up, but he sauntered to my ankles and stretched out over them with a possessive "mrrrow". In short, I was trapped. For another few minutes I dozed a bit while waiting for him to get bored and move on.

Finally he seemed satisfied and I quickly got back out of bed. He curled up on the end of the bed and stayed there while I did a couple of minor chores. Then I sat down to finish my piece, found I couldn't concentrate, and decided to write about Inkwell instead.

He's now downstairs, playing with his kibble egg-cersizer and singing the songs of his people.

We also recently had the opposite of a staring contest: Inkwell was staring at me, so I looked over at him. He gave me a slow blink.

I responded with a slow blink of my own. When I opened my eyes, his were closed.

So I closed my eyes most of the way and watched his eyes. I could tell he was doing the same. For a long moment we had a slow blinking contest.

Finally he opened his eyes, I opened mine and we both got on with life.

Earlier in the month Inkwell got a scare when all the fire alarms in the house were set off by a nearby electrical storm. In addition to the storm, Inkwell had been upstairs hiding from the vacuum when the alarms went off, and never heard Eric put the vacuum away. It took him several hours to fully calm down, poor skittish kitty!

Now, for the finale of this post, some Inkwell Sings the Blues. I'm not entirely sure what the melody to these are, but they are funny enough and I can usually manage to sing them...

7:25 PM - 27 Apr 2018:
I got the "my mommy won't get up and feed me, and I'm starving to death" blues.
I got the "my mommy won't get up and feed me, and I'm starving to death" blues.
I bopped her on the nose, jumped on her chest and I'm gonna throw up in her shoes.

7:28 PM - 27 Apr 2018:
Mommy won't feed me and I think that I'm starving to death.
Mommy won't feed me and I think that I'm starving to death.
I'm gonna keep meowing at mommy with my dying breath.

9:52 AM - 28 Apr 2018:
Daddy won't get up and feed me, mommy says I've just been fed.
Daddy won't get up and feed me, mommy says I've just been fed.
They will both be sorry, when I'm so hungry that I'm dead.

6:17 PM - 28 Apr 2018:
Daddy just gave me kibble but I really wanted wet food instead.
Daddy just gave me kibble but I really wanted wet food instead.
I'm gonna eat the kibble, but I'll throw it up on his bed.

7:15 PM - 1 May 2018:
Mommy closed her room off, she don't love me no more.
Mommy closed her room off, she don't love me no more.
I'm gonna lay down and cry outside her door.

More Inkwell Tales

Last night as I was watching a documentary on Amazon Prime, I suddenly heard hubby-Eric yell - a growling yell he usually reserves for scaring Inkwell the cat - and then a number of loud thumps, as if he were deliberately pounding his feet as he chased Inkwell. The yelling and pounding continued, surprising me enough to pause my video and start to get out of my chair. But the thumps were coming up the stairs, so I waited. Sure enough, Eric popped his head in and said, "Inkwell has vanished!"

I was terribly bemused and unsure what to say, so hubby continued, "I chased him up the stairs and was about to chase him down again, then he just *poof* vanished!"

As I tried to figure out a response, hubby said, "Oh, there he is." and the chase continued.

I love my boys.

Inkwell the Magnificent

There is something that Inkwell the cat does that I would love to get video of (since a still photo would never do it justice), but because of the circumstances it's impossible for me to record.

He did it to me again this morning.

I was waking up late after staying up until 2 am and he did a half-meow half-purr as he jumped up onto the bed. I was lying under the covers on my back, and he quickly made his way onto my chest, then started "tucking me in" by massaging the blankets in my neck area while purring EXTREMELY loud. I peeked up at him and his face was next to mine, purring away in wonderful bliss as he kneaded the blankets.

After a few minutes of this, I put my left hand up to pet him a little on the top of his head. He responded by rubbing up against my hand, directing me to the best places to rub. He wanted me to rub his jaw and behind his ear. Then he glanced over to where my other hand ought to be, so I hastily put it out and he rubbed up against that hand as well. Suddenly we were locked in a mutual moment of comforting each other. He was kneading me while directing my hands to the best places to rub him - mostly his jaw, behind his ears and on top of his head.

I'm not entirely sure how long that lasted, but finally he made a few murping meows and stepped off my chest, walking to the foot of the bed and looking back at me. I checked the clock and realized it was time to feed him. I got up and went downstairs with him at my ankles giving me what sounded like instructions all the way.

But I have to admit, for a short time there I truly felt completely in tune with Inkwell. He's been my owner for many years now, but this may be the first time I felt like we completely connected.

My Sister's Birthday!

Yesterday, Inkwell and I set off across the mountains to visit my family in the ancestral home in Renton. My sister's birthday is today, and I planned to spend it with her.

As many of you know, Inkwell the cat does not travel willingly, and he got a little suspicious on Wednesday when I cleaned up and closed off the guest room, then packed a bag. On Thursday he hid for a bit until I fed him, then tried to keep an eye on me while being ready to hide as I got ready to travel. I quietly closed all the doors upstairs to cut off his potential hiding spaces, and when I got out the carrier he did what I expected and bolted for the stairs - only to find the bedrooms and the nice hiding places under the beds cut off. I caught him as he came back down the stairs, and the look he gave me is not one I will soon forget.

He settled down quickly once in the car, especially after I pulled the towel over his carrier. Along the way I only stopped twice to rest, and checked on him both times. A little unsettled, but he wasn't too upset. Once at our destination he almost couldn't wait to get out of the carrier, throwing my balance off as I hauled him up the hill to my parents' front door. Once inside, I opened the carrier immediately and he darted out, pleased to find himself in the big house he loves.

My sister arrived home later that night from a work site in Oregon, and we had dinner together and caught up. Her first choice of destination for her birthday turned out to be closed for the winter, so she suggested the Underground Tour in Seattle, and I enthusiastically agreed, since I have lived in the Seattle area most of my life but had never been on the tour.

The next morning we got ready to go and Inkwell hid, afraid to be caught and stuffed back into his carrier. He was still a bit worried when Lisa and I left.

We got downtown before 11 a.m. and parked in a garage, then as we started the walk to Pioneer Square we spotted a fellow selling the Real Change newspaper and pulled out the $2 to buy one. He looked at us and said, "Wait, you're sisters, right?" We nodded, and he looked back and forth between us, carefully, then pointed at Lisa and said, "You're the younger one!" We laughed and confirmed it, then I said, "Yeah, and it's her birthday!" Immediately he said he had a gift, and sang a beautiful rendition of "Happy Birthday" for her, right there on the sidewalk. It was great.

We thanked him and headed down to the tour, with Lisa quickly learning that I cannot walk quite as fast as she can. Once there, we learned the 11 am tour was sold out and they were selling tickets to the noon tour. We bought them, and, with about 45 minutes to spare, headed out to first get some Cow Chip Cookies, then visited Magic Mouse Toys, a place my husband worked at some years ago, while he was still in high school.

We got back to the Tour spot a little early and I read Real Change while waiting for the tour to start. We were called down to the theater and listened to a nifty 15 minute tale of the early days of Seattle to start the tour.

Now, I knew most of the information in the tour. Like I said, I've lived in Seattle a long time, and I paid attention to the history because, frankly, it's hilarious. But there were some great tidbits I didn't know for sure. Like Yesler becoming mayor and suing the city over his taxes, then settling out of court with himself. And everyone who grew up here knows about the Denny regrade, but I didn't realize just how they did it to not cover the sidewalks. In short, it was fun, punny and informative.

Then we split into smaller groups to go on the tour itself. There were a lot of people in each group. It turned out that there was a cruise in town and a lot of people from the cruise were doing the tour.

I hadn't realized that the tour goes outside and aboveground, then heads down into different sections. I think we went up or down stairs at least 10 times, maybe more, and crossed a lot of heavily trafficked streets. Each time we emerged it was wonderful to come up into cool air - by the end of the tour I'd taken off my coat and didn't need it at all walking back to the car.

The tour group looks at an old photo of Seattle before the fire and learns about the dangers of flushing toilets at high tide.

The tour started in a small gallery with a photo of Seattle before the fire, when the toilets were such a big problem that a person was almost risking their life if they flushed at high tide. The group then moved to a corner spot underneath a set of purple tiles, which we learned were original skylights that had kept the underground usable in a time before electric lights were practical. The tour guide actually turned out the lights so we could see how much light the now grungy tiles provided, and it was actually quite nice.

Skylights!

The tour guide also told us about the teller's ghost in that area - a young man shot in his teller's cage while reaching to for the keys to give them to the robbers so he wouldn't get shot. They apparently misinterpreted his move as reaching for a gun. The guide said he'd never seen a ghost in all the time he'd been working in the Underground, and he's been there since 1879. That is, indeed, the level of the jokes on the tour.

The ghost of a man shot inside the teller's cage is said to haunt this area.

The city was originally built on what were basically tide flats, and flooded frequently. Particularly the sewage pipes. The problems were bad and getting worse when the city burned down. Most businesses wanted to immediately rebuild, for obvious reasons, but were told to have entrances on the second floor of the building. But for a time, folks still used the ground floor of the buildings - and because the sewage problems were no better, the toilets were usually up on platforms.

A crapper device on a platform in the underground.

The guide also showed us an image of the building we were in, and showed how the building originally looked, before the streets were all raised to the second story and filled with dirt from Denny Hill.

Our guide Thad shows where the street is now on the Korn Building

After the streets were raised, people were still using the sidewalks that were now, sort of, below ground. This is because the city owned the streets while the sidewalks belonged to the buildings. The city provided ladders for people to climb up at each corner to get up to street level to cross streets. As you can imagine, this was not an ideal situation. Eventually, the sidewalks were covered with a series of Roman arches supported at the base with metal beams.

Roman arches supported by I-beams covered the "sunken" sidewalks.

The beams and the arches have withstood earthquakes and such better than the upper levels of Pioneer Square.

The underground sidewalks remained in use until an explosion of the rat population encouraged the city to shut them down and seal them off. Of course, not everything got sealed - some businesses continued to use their areas. And the sidewalks no longer connect around every block as they once did. In the 1960s, Bill Speidel started a crusade to save the underground part of Seattle's history and created the tour we went on. My mother apparently went on the tour only a couple of years after it opened.

The tour lasted about 90 minutes, and Lisa and I were tired from all the walking. We headed to her office to pick up a couple of things she needs when she heads back to her work site, and then headed back to Renton, stopping only long enough to get a light meal from Taco Time. Once home, Inkwell greeted us with much sniffing of the shoes and cautious optimism that he didn't have to deal with any travel. We had a family meal with four of the seven siblings and a spouse along with my mother and father, making us seven around the table. Inkwell was overwhelmed with all the scary, loud humans.

After dinner and cake, Lisa and I started to work on a puzzle. Then she went out with our brother-in-law to catch Pokemon while I came up here to write this...

...and now I think I will get a nice glass of chocolate milk and head to bed, since I'm wiped - yet again.

An Imaginary Conversation Between Inkwell and Myself

"Hey, mom, I can smell some food. Can I have some?" Inkwell slinks under my chair and then around my table and looks up at me with wistful eyes.

"I'm eating, leave me alone." I say, stuffing my face.

"No, seriously, I can smell something. Let me try it!" Inkwell attempts to jump into my lap but fails due to strategically placed hand at the right moment.

"MMMffphh, mmm meedgph." I say, with my mouth full.

"At least let me sniff it!" Inkwell says, attempting again to climb onto the chair.

"No! I'm nearly done and you wouldn't like it anyway."

"Let me be the judge of that!" Inkwell whines, making sad mewling noises as he stalks around, looking for a way to the food.

I finish up, and look at the hopeful cat. "You really wouldn't like this. It's just veggies and rice." He gives me 'the stare'. I sigh.

I put the bowl down next to him and he eagerly leans forward ---

---only to jump back in disgust after getting a good whiff of the sweet and sour sauce.

"WHAT IS THIS JOKE, MOMMY!??" he meowls. "WHERE'S THE REAL FOOD! YOU MUST HAVE REAL FOOD!!!"

"I told you you wouldn't like it," I say, picking up the bowl and starting down the stairs. He walks along beside me and meows when we get to the kitchen.

I put the bowl in the sink and start back up the stairs. A moment later there is 16 pounds of annoyed cat rushing into my ankle.

Failing to make me fall, the cat then spent the next 20 minutes running at top speed around the house while I calmly got back to my computer. Now he's at the doorway of the room, sulking.

Insomnia

I used to not suffer from insomnia. That was hubby-Eric's problem. But now I have it almost every night.

For Inkwell, my insomnia is a huge gift.

Take last night as an example. I went to bed about 10pm, but couldn't sleep and after an hour of tossing and turning I got up and went across the landing to my room to play on my computer. I closed the door most of the way so if hubby-Eric woke the light wouldn't bother him. Naturally, Inkwell came over and opened the door to check on me. Oh well.

After a couple of hours I was feeling tired enough to try to go back to sleep, so I picked up the tiny flashlight/laser pointer from my desk and headed to the bathroom at the top of the landing. After taking care of business, I turned off the light and opened the bathroom door to let my eyes adjust... and spotted a little black shadow right outside the door. I flicked on the flashlight long enough to confirm it was Inkwell the black cat and to see that he had no interest in me at all, but was watching the floor.

He knew I had the laser pointer.

So, being a good cat mommy, at 1am or so I let the laser play all over the landing as Inkwell chased it joyfully. I'm not really sure how long I played with him, but eventually I was too tired to continue and so headed into the bedroom to go back to sleep. I heard one last "mrrrp?" of protest as I hung up my robe and headed for the bed.

While this isn't the exact sequence of events for every night, when I have insomnia there seems to be a better than even chance of me playing lasers with Inky.

Of course, after being up late/early, Inkwell has no problem whatsoever with waking his mommy by tapping her nose in the morning. For some reason, tapping my nose triggers a bladder response in me, and when Inky does it I generally have to get up to use the bathroom. At which point I'm awake and can listen to him explaining in lots of meowing mouth noises why I ought to feed him.

I believe the cat has trained me well.

Getting Back to "Normal"

I've moved my computer set up into the room I originally claimed when we first moved into this house. I put up my computer desk, but didn't spend much time in here, and eventually it became the room where we tossed stuff we needed to get out of the way. Over the last few days I've cleared out a place and moved in a chair and some tables so I can use the room as it was meant to be used again. Today I put up a couple of my Aquaman posters.

Unfortunately, the computer desk itself is still covered in piles of "stuff" - as is every other horizontal surface. I've set myself a very low threshold goal of getting one single item off a desk or table and to "where it belongs" each day. I know if I try to do too much, I overload, so hopefully this will be enough to get me started. Hopefully I'll do more than one item, but I don't want to push it.

Inkwell has been banned from this room pretty much his entire life, and has spent a great deal of time exploring it. I had tossed a couple of pillows on the floor and noticed he made a nest out of them for a few hours today. He also has been attempting to safely get into the window, but because there was too much junk in front of it, he gave up. I'm working on cleaning a path for him.

I've got to get back to regular writing again, and I have started up my 750 Words account to try to get the daily minimum in. I also want to catch up on my comic book and Fortean Times reviews, but that will take a great deal of time, especially since I also want to read more of the kind of stories I like, which I did a lot of thanks to the Hugo voting, but I'd like to get some of the reading done in the year the works are actually published. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. At the moment, I'm using Rocket Stack Rank to get some suggestions.

Being out of town for more than a week, I barely played DC Universe Online, and I found I barely missed it. I believe it got me through the worst of my depression, so I don't regret it, but I'm definitely cutting back on it now.

I logged into the Worldcon 75 Hugo ballot again today - and again made a number of changes. I have no idea how the final voting will go, but I'm really excited about the results and I'm hoping the ceremony is lovely this year. I would love to go to San Jose for next year's Worldcon, but that would require both Eric and I getting better employment. We'll just have to wait and see.

Tomorrow, if I have the energy between job search efforts, I shall attempt to review some short story or something. I would love feedback on my reviews - are they useful at all? Too short? Too spoilery? Do you prefer reviews with analysis and comparisons, or do you like my capsule stuff?

Ok, that's enough for tonight. See you all online tomorrow.

Inkwell vs the evil va-coom

So after doing my usual weekly vacuuming downstairs, I remembered that the upstairs bedroom really needs a good vacuuming. Inkwell the cat had raced up the stairs the instant I got the vacuum out, so I was a little concerned he might be in the bedroom and get upset when I came in with it, but I figured he'd live.

He wasn't in the bedroom. As I carried the vacuum up the stairs, I saw Inkwell sitting on the top step, puffed out like he had a bad case of static, staring intently at the vacuum in my hand.

"Inky, get out of the way," I said, as I climbed the steps.

Inkwell didn't move.

"Inky, just move," I said as I got within three steps.

Inkwell crouched and hissed, standing his ground. I stopped.

"Inkwell McStinkyPants Gjovaag!" I said, "Move your fuzzy little butt!"

"HISSSSSSSSSS!!!!"

Standoff. I couldn't easily get around him and didn't want to frighten him too much, but I really needed to vacuum that floor. So I swung the vacuum slightly in his direction. Inkwell leaned back, still hissing. Ok... I held the vacuum in front of me and proceeded up the stairs. Inkwell retreated slowly, hissing loudly and staying in that feline crouch. I was afraid he'd go into the bedroom, but he backed off in another direction and I made it past him. He then stood at the doorway hissing while I plugged the vacuum in and started to clean.

When I finished, I turned around and Inky was gone. I had cleaned the whole floor and it took me several minutes, so I wasn't surprised he didn't stick around, but I half expected him to remain at the door and hissing.

I wrapped up the cord and carried the vacuum downstairs... where Inkwell was waiting. He stayed back, not blocking my way, but hissed as soon as the vacuum was within a few feet of him. I rolled my eyes and put it away in the closet while he hissed at it. Then he ran over to the door and meowed at the door, sounding exactly like someone telling off a person who had been rude. The meows went on for quite awhile, so I guess he had a lot to say. Finally he finished with a "Hmpf!" and stalked upstairs to see what kind of damage the evil machine had done.

I just stood there, trying really hard not to giggle.

After a couple of minutes he came back downstairs, walked up to me, meowed once very loudly, then jumped into a chair and started to groom himself. The battle was won, the victor needed to get clean.

Thoughts

My mind is all over the place today, so I'm not sure what to write.

Shadow Cat

Inkwell's Favorite Toy

When my Mom, sisters and niece visited at the beginning of the month, they brought some presents for Eric and I. The presents, including a mix for pumpkin cheesecake which I made yesterday and it tastes fantastic, were packed in a large gift bag with tissue paper around them. Inkwell LOVES the tissue paper. He's been slowly ripping it to shreds, and "nesting" in it. Every night when I go to bed I can hear him careening through it and tearing it into ever smaller pieces. We pick up the little pieces and throw them away, and eventually he will run out of this gift, but right now he's in kitty heaven...

Inkwell says, "I have the best Grandma EVER!"

They also gave me a little electric mouse, which Inkwell loves to play with, but has to be monitored because he will eat the tail off if I don't take it away from him promptly. He was scared of it at first, but now he chases it around the kitchen, snags it by the tail and walks around the house with it, usually chased by me.

A Day Out

Despite the snow, my mother came out to visit with two of my sisters and a niece for my mother's birthday. The five of us packed into my sister's car and made a trip to Prosser to visit my mom's favorite fabric store (yes, she will travel across the state to visit a really good fabric store/quilt shop).

While my sisters and mother ooh'ed and aah'ed over fabric, my niece and I chatted about being non-fabric people. Then we headed back to Sunnyside to eat lunch at Bon Vino's Bistro and Bakery.

While I wasn't expecting any Christmas presents, Eric's parents sent a present home with him and my mother brought presents with her. I got some neat slippers from Eric's folks, while my little sister got me some very nice thermal socks. I guess everyone knows how cold my feet get?

My mom brought a bunch of presents in a bag "wrapped" with tissue. Inkwell really likes the tissue and has been joyfully playing in it since the strange people left. He was more than a little frightened when they first arrived, hiding under my bed from them. But he came out because he was curious and I carried him downstairs to get petted by each of the visitors, and he warmed up to them quickly.

Inkwell got a present - a little remote controlled mouse. I got it out this evening and ran it around the kitchen while Inkwell watched suspiciously, then he started to stalk it, and eventually started to attack it. I got to the point where I could almost attack him back with it, but decided to leave it for our daily play sessions. After all, he's got the tissue to play with right now.

My mother also brought various food items, including eggnog fudge, which I haven't tried yet. Eric's parent also sent him home with food - including some homemade bread and very strange organic smoothies that taste ok, but are very odd.

We also received a couple of calendars and totally amazing dalek pillow cases. Eric got some retro ray gun water guns, which may come in handy out here in the summer but aren't terribly useful at the moment. I also received a Crazy Cat Lady coloring book and some colored pencils, which looks like it shall be fun.

I also received a Mini Shark Puppet that I really wanted after I saw it on Facebook. Since it's made by my sis-in-law, that worked out well. I wandered around the house attacking Eric and Inkwell with it saying, "Yo soy un tiburón! Mi nombre is tiburón! Tiburón tiburón tiburón!" Eric rolls his eyes. Inkwell isn't sure whether or not to attack back.