Well, crap.

I guess I should write something, otherwise August will go by without a single post.

Here's some stuff that's been happening:

"I am no longer with Washington Mutual."
They laid me off (because I didn't want to move to Tex-ass), but I have to say: it feels really good not to work for WaMu anymore. I loved, LOVED most of the people I had the privilege of working with in Canyon Park, and once I was working as a business analyst I even loved the actual work part of my job too. :) That being said, I've never liked big business much, and WaMu is no exception. As the t-shirt says, "the feeling is mutual." I feel renewed after spending a few weeks away from that place; like my spirit's been washed clean after spending almost four years of my life giving my all for a cause I didn't really believe in. Not that I didn't love the problem solving opportunities - I just wish my fabulous skills had been helping out like, orphans, or people with special needs or something. Puppies with three legs...you know, that sort of thing.

Das Hausfrau
Now my brilliant mind and all the skills WaMu paid for me to learn are being used to run our household, which has been great. On a spiritual level it's probably not as satisfying as say, reading to blind parapledgic battered seniors in a cancer hospice or something, but overall, it's still been extremely satisfying. I've felt more grounded, more organized, more at peace, and less stressed out than I can ever remember feeling. Almost every day I wake up relaxed and clear-headed, like I've just come off vacation or something. Don't get me wrong; it's not like a VACATION; it's just not as hectic as it was when I was working AND we were trying to take care of ourselves and our house. Every day I wake up and I have a full day of work to do, but the house is mostly clean, I don't feel overwhelmed, I know what I have to do that day, I have a good idea of what I'm making for dinner and I know we have everything I'll need to make it, my commute is non-existent, I can give my cats the attention/grooming/playtime they deserve, and Brett can focus on his career without using up his freetime doing chores or picking up takeout food. Or cooking, though by the time I left WaMu we mostly just ate takeout.

Sometimes it's exhausting to sort of ALWAYS be working; there's no one here to stop me from working too much overtime, and nights and weekends are sort of a requirement, but I've learned that part of time management is saying, "Okay, I was cooking and cleaning until 9pm yesterday, so today I'm taking it easy." I did that yesterday, and when Brett got home he was like, "Wow, the kitchen is messy..." but I just said I wasn't doing dishes that day, and he didn't say anything else about it. :) Now I have about an hour's worth of kitchen work to do TODAY because of it, but that time off yesterday was well worth it. Working with a tighter budget has also been a difficult learning experience - I almost cried after looking through the latest Sephora catalog, because though I don't NEED ANY more makeup or perfume, I still WANT it, and I might have to get a part time job before the year is through just so we can buy some basic extra things (not to mention xmas presents), but so far we're doing okay.

Fleas?!? WORMS?!?
Because Sasha had such a bad reaction the one and only time we gave her Advantage, we chose NOT to give Mordechai and Star flea medication, because they're indoor cats, so they're less at risk. LESS at risk still means they're at risk though, and last May I noticed Star scratching her neck a little more aggressively than usual, and I was like, "Hmm...I bet they have fleas." But I couldn't actually SEE any fleas when I checked her fur, so Brett insisted that she was just itchy. Brett! It was all his fault. ;) Then at the end of JUNE I was sitting on the floor packing up our toiletries for our 4th of July vaca, and a flea jumped onto my leg. Then it jumped back into the carpet (aka flea metropolis) from which it came, and I knew we were sunk. By the time we got home from the coast, the house was FILLED with fleas. Seriously. I'd like, sit down at my desk, look at my feet, and see FIVE fleas on my toes and ankles. It was sick. I felt like our house should be on Cops or something. So, so ghetto. But because we're hippies, I couldn't bring myself to fill our house with toxic flea bomb chemicals (if I'm supposed to remove all the food from our house first, why would I want it to get on our counters, makeup, remote control, phone, or anything else that could get on our hands or face?), so we just groomed the kitties very well, vacuumed EVERYTHING, EVERYDAY, used bug repellents, put down a baking soda/salt mixture that supposedly desiccates them, washed our laundry obsessively, and waited. By the end of July things were pretty much under control, and in the entire month of August we've only seen three live fleas, so I think things are looking good.

We ended up taking the kitties to the vet though, just to make sure they were okay (plus it was almost time for their annuals anyway). They were weighed (they're both fat: Mordie is about 14.5lbs, and I think Star was 13.5lbs), their temps were taken (normal), they got their shots (feline leukemia and some upper respiratory thing), their teeth were inspected (they both need cleanings, but not too badly), their ears, eyes and everything else looked good, and then the doctor left to go look at the poop samples we'd brought in. When she came back? WORMS!!! Mordechai, that filthy, dirty, boy, had WORM eggs in his poop.

So the vet gave them each (Star too, to be on the safe side) some banana flavoured worm medication which they hated (but in a cute, pouty-but-cooperative way), and gave us extra vials to take home for later. Before the vet appointment I'd done some research on different flea meds, and decided that as long as the vet approved, I wanted the kitties' next dose of goo to be Revolution, rather than Advantage (which we don't like because of Sasha's reaction) or Frontline (which we'd given them a month before their appointment), because Revolution protects against a bunch of other parasites besides fleas. Including the type of worms that Mordechai had infected himself with while on Frontline. I don't think it protects against ticks, but I haven't seen any ticks in this area, so hopefully they're not too common on our side of the mountains. Anyway, so the vet not only approved of Revolution but actually RECOMMENDED it over everything else, so we bought a year's supply from her (for almost the same price as our Frontline had been while ON SALE at drugstore.com - about $11 a dose), and she gave them the first dose for us, and that was that. Now, a few weeks later, both kitties are snuggled up together napping happily on the recliner across the room from me - apparently worm and flea-free. :)

Samedi est la Bee Bee Queue
I've been trying to learn (relearn? I studied it for a couple of years as a kid, does that count?) French. So far I know how to SAY a handful of things, but I can't really spell anything. I knew Samedi, but I still had to look up the spelling. Anyway, so Saturday is the (not French) Bee Bee Queue. The BBQ. :) It was supposed to be a very large work-party to have people help us work on our much neglected yard (and then we'd pay them in food), but after much grumbling from some of the first invitees, we decided to scrap the "work" and just have the "party." Brett's parents spent a few hours here on Saturday and helped us cut down, rip out, and pile up a TREMENDOUS amount of shit (and some things that weren't shit, but that were just overgrown or in a bad place), and then Tony and his brother came over on Monday and helped make another giant pile, and now our yard looks naked and bare and exposed. Except for the spots where there are still weeds, and a few spots where we kept plants that were cool, like a few maple trees, some bamboo, random evergreens, a few rhodies, a cherry tree, a krabappel tree, etc. Brett made several trips to the dump in a much-appreciated borrowed truck, but there's still a lot of stuff piled up, and a lot of stuff that still needs to be cut down/piled up. But little by little we'll cram it all into our "greenie" (the giant yard waste bin the county empties each week), so eventually it'll look better. It already looks better than before, even though it does look pretty stark.

What a Crock of Shit
Grr! After every single little subtitle in this post, I've meant to type "</b>" and typed "</b?" instead. What the crap?!? Anyway, for dinner tonight I'm making bbq beef sammiches, and I'm using a crock pot for the VERY FIRST TIME EVER. Brett's used it lots, but I never have. I also don't recall ever cooking beef before. But I guess I just throw it into the crock pot and turn it on, and it does the cooking FOR me, which is awesome. Speaking of which, they take 6hrs, so fuck...I should really get started on that.