Here at the Garret, we're beginning our festive Christmas season.  Slapping a Santa hat on Mr. Growfen Spiel (the dragon puppet) and calling it a night on the decorating was how I originally anticipated the extent of my holiday spirit.  Yes, yes, chastise me if you will.  But then, it started snowing about a week back, and I hummed a few songs from this awesome Star Wars Christmas CD that I need to rip when I go back to the parents' abode on Wednesday, and I had a few nights of a snuggly cat purring through the night, and...well, you know what?  Let's do this Christmas thing. Don't get me wrong.  The extent of my decorating is still just putting a Santa hat on a dragon puppet.  However, Kaylee Cat has been roaming central Pennsylvania and having all sorts of wonderful, wintry adventures.

( Click here to read about Kaylee's winter adventures! )

So those are the recent winter escapades here at the Garret.  What do you all think of Kaylee's winter adventures and her dashing fashion taste?  And from Kaylee Cat and myself, we hope you all have an enchanting Christmas!

Right now, I'm trying to get a customs form online to work so that I can send out some books internationally for the press.  And the United States Postal Service is in the process of trying to inform me that nobody is named "Patrick Henry" (hey USPS, I am named Patrick Henry) and that the publishing manager's first name is not a legal name.  I think the postal service is out to get me.

And I'm sad because Kaylee has a weird lump on her hip the size of a marble, and there's another one right beside that lump that's a bit smaller, about the size of a bb.  I felt the first bump on Monday, and I know it wasn't there before we were at the vet on the 30th for Kaylee's shots.  And the other one, the bb-sized one, I just found this morning.  So I'm going to call the vet tomorrow morning because I'm worried about my girl.  She's such a pretty little kitty!

And she's going to be lonely because today is Thursday...bleargh...I'm at the Press from 9 to noon, print a bunch of stuff off really quickly, class from 1 to 4, Press ed board meeting from 4 to 6, run home to feed Kaylee (she's such a pretty little kitty!), run back to campus for class from 7 to 10.

Yup.  USPS still says I don't have a real name.  *fail.*

So...this post is delayed because of the wonderfully freakish thunderstorms that seemed to sprout up every hour only to dissipate into clear, cloudless skies.  And Elaine's battery was drained before I snapped this low quality, taken-with-my-phone picture.  I've been at my parents' house since Thursday evening b/c they were moving Glenn out and needed somebody to make sure that Catherine could get to work.  So I've been stranded in Bellwood and have had some nice conversations with my cat, who enjoys prowling through the house and sleeping.  But anywho, my parents have a crap ton of really old computers around the house; they inherit these awful, cheap PCs whenever my grandparents (and they do this yearly) decide to buy a new, slightly better, awful cheap PC (if a computer costs more than $500, my grandparents won't buy it, so it's Compaqs and low-end HPs the whole way!).  Kaylee found one of them yesterday, and after grooming herself for several minutes, she began to kick this PC.  Repeatedly.  I don't know what it did to offend her, but anyway, here's Kaylee Cat once again illustrating her technological prowess and skills.  (And again, apologies for the bad photo resolution...)



Seriously, though:  Please spay or neuter your pets.

( Name drop soup and a very long May )

And speaking of spaceships, all y'all should read chiara_suzuka's review of Star Trek because I requested it.

Or eight days, technically.  I sort of collapsed there last week, inexplicably.  All my efforts to convince myself to do anything resulted in nothing more than reading a bunch of old issues of Batman and Detective Comics.  And after a three hour nap yesterday afternoon (which was actually really nice--I woke up and there was a cat curled up next to me!  A cat!  A Kaylee cat!), I decided that, really, this isn't the summer where I can afford to remain in a perpetual slump.

Back to the grind, I s'pose.

So Kaylee and I were at the vet today, and the vet said that her fur pulling problem isn't from fleas (which I could've told him) and probably isn't from allergies, because her skin isn't inflamed, red, puffy, swollen, irritated, etc.  He said her fur pulling pattern is also inconsistent with either a flea or allergy problem.  He said it's a "behavioral problem," but my kitty's so nice!  She's not the bad kid in the class of the room launching spit balls at the dork in glasses with the Chip'n'Dale Rescue Rangers pencil box!

[Note:  I may or may not have had a Chip'n'Dale Rescue Rangers pencil box in elementary school.]

Though, in the words of Homestar Runner, sewiously.  There's a guy who visits the girls across the hall, and he brings his dog up, and the vet thinks that smelling the dog has triggered Kaylee's old anxieties (she used to live in a home with dogs that chased her around, and skirting under the porch is how she lost the fur there initially, before I had her).  So the vet prescribed Kaylee some meds to "reduce her anxiety and boost up her serotonin levels so she's a good, happy kitty.  Oh, and she may become incredibly drowsy."  Uh...she's a cat.  Their state of matter is "incredibly sleepy liquid."  Like a self-damming river.  Flowing from place to place one second, completely immobile the next.  And she's already such a goooooooooooood kitty!

And Eliza from SU, whose last name I can't spell because she got married, is a receptionist at the vet's office.  How weird is that?

But I just hope Kaylee overcomes her fur yankin' sometime soon.

I had company over today to see my cat!  No, really.  There was tea and four women sitting around in the apartment and talking.  I had set this up b/c everyone wanted to meet my cat.  And then it occurred to me...wait...that's the only reason I ever went to the Ninja's apartment senior year.  To see the cat.

I'm wondering if I've been reduced to the same rung of the evolutionary ladder.  Looking for reassurement to the contrary.  Okay.  That's all.

Shh...Kaylee (she's my cat!) is napping!  We've had a long and exciting day, in which a very shy but cuddly kitty was introduced to a new home.  Kaylee likes hiding, crawling about, and also rubbing herself against any fabric and then just setting off static sparks with anything she touches.  Seriously.  This cat has a crazy obsession with static electricity.

( Now for the cat pictures! )

Try saying that ten times fast.  Or...even once, for that matter.

But I figured this would be an easier means of communicating on cat names then starting an epic 8,000 comments post.  So, here we are!

First, thank you all for the name recommendations!  I'll get to my fave's in a few moments, but I am going to get a shelter cat, especially since--after reading and looking at pics on so many websites--I really really really want to give one a fantastic home.  Or, Garret.  Well, actually, it can share the Garret with me.  Because...you know, paying rent or a mortgage so a cat can have it's own place isn't exactly the intent.  It's to have a furry friend!  And soon, I shall.

If the Grey Bastard will deem it warm enough to ever start.  Bloody car bastard.

And whenever I get a cat...you can haz pictures!  and maybe captions, too!

So names...first of all, award for greatest number of allusions in a single name goes to chiara_suzuka, because Captain Jack comes in three flavors:  the Harkness and Sparrow varities, of course, but also as a Billy Joel song.  So that's a three-fer.  Congrats!  Also, one of the cats at the Central PA Humane Society in Altoona is named Captain Jack, and he's described as follows:  "Captain is a big ol' tom cat. He likes to be scratched behind his ears. He is quite friendly."  You can look at Captain Jack here.  Out of all the cat pictures that really caught my eye, his was by far the most soulful, I think.  Look at those eyes!  That smile!

So my top picks for names.  For the guys--1.) Schrödinger, 2.) Richard [would have to be a black cat, that zany warlock!], and 3.) Captain Jack [after see that Captain Jack...how could I not?!?].  For the girls--1.) Kaylee, 2.) Bebop, 3.) Serenity.  And the neutrals--1.) Connery, 2.) Padawan, 3.) Jayne.

But more later!  G.I. Joe just called, and it's his birthday, so I'll probably be chatting for a little bit.  But thanks again for all the name nom's--you girls are awesome!

(And here's to hoping my car starts soon!)

I CAN HAS CAT!!!  Last night, I decided that I wanted a furry friend, so I decided that today, I would go and ask the rental agency if I could get my lease amended to allow for a cat.  A wee happy furry friend!  And the short version of the story is that--for once--when I went in with the purpose of asking this question, the proprietor was there and said, "Yeah, we've done that before.  All you need to do is just pay another security deposit."  Yeah, that's $495, but I think a CAT! is worth it.  And it'll make the Garret far less lonely!

[The following is officially sponsored by the Name-a-Cat Foundation.]

So what should I name my cat?  Consider this as a solicitation for nominations, because I'd like to have a shortlist of names.  The rules for cat names:  Everybody gets to nominate one male and one female name, and the names must be literary or fandom references that I would make.  The only caveat is that, for my shortlist, I won't pick names that could be misconstrued as being picked in honor of a family member (i.e., [though I don't expect anyone to suggest this one] if somebody suggested "Rose" as in Rose Tyler from Doctor Who, I wouldn't pick it b/c my sister's middle name is "Rose."  And...that would just be a weird name for a cat.).  Then I'll pick my fave three for each!

And to be fair...I guess I'll put my own nominations up (though I'm kinda unsure of this)...if I get a boy cat, maybe Chekhov (for both the Russian writer and the Star Trek character!) and if I get a girl cat, maybe Kaylee.  But I'm not sure about those.

So I need your help!  CAT!  YAY!