How to Read a Cat

Our cat, Tucker, is notorious for throwing up. Hairballs, food, food, food, hairballs. Finally, though, after all these years, we believe we've learned the signs of the impending upchuck. We will generally hear one of two things. If you have cats, you probably know what I'm talking about.

1) The Hacking Drum Cough
Known for the rhythmic beat and seizing body, this is the most obvious sign of a hairball, but we've learned that it may also signal the removal of too-quickly-eaten food. When you hear this, run to cat, scoop, remove from carpet/rug, and deposit quickly on easy-to-clean surface. Tucker has a lot of experience in this department.

2) The Low Growl-Yowl
This one is tricky. If you hear the low growl-yowl, it can mean one of two things: Tucker is about to yack up a hairball (this noise is reserved for hairballs only - not food removal) or Tucker has spotted another cat in his territory and is boldly trying to assert his neutered masculinity. If the situation is the latter but you read it as a hairball alert, be prepared to be viciously attacked/maimed for your stupidity in misreading the signals.

Just a few moments ago, we heard the low growl. Now this proved to be a bit challenging and hard to read given the fact that Tucker was sitting on his perch near the window looking out the back yard. It was a toss up -- hairball or testosterone-induced rage?

We decided to go with hairball which was a good read as he produced a lovely milky-white fluid containing a finger length of disgusting twisted hair. Ken was closest to Tucker and so was blessed with the task of scooping, removing to kitchen, and then cleaning the mess. I had to laugh from the family room as I heard the following:

Tucker: Hack, hack, hack, puke. Silence.

Ken: (Sarcastically) No, no, Tucker, that's okay. Just walk away. I'll take care of it. Ah-gain.

Bloom of the Evening

Isn't this pretty? It's one of the flowers I have in a pot in our back yard that's just starting to open up and bloom. I had to take a quick pick as I know it'll be gone by tomorrow.  Sadly, it's too darn hot out to do anything fun in the yard, like finish the path to the pond. However, I did make Ken clean the pond filter tonight as it was getting pretty nasty. (Note that I really do know how to clean it, but I keep telling him he needs to do it. I just don't want to because it is such a stinky/gross job. I don't think he reads the blog so no one tell him!)

Thinking about Dad

My genealogy quest for info on the Seibles has been most interesting. Tonight I spent time (hours actually) scanning pictures of my dad, his brothers/sister, and additional pics of our immediate family to share with Uncle D and cousin Sandy, Seibles I've recently made contact with (see previous post). I also received an email from cousin Sandy containing two pictures of my grandmother (Marie) and grandfather (George) together. I was so amazed!  I'd begun seeing pictures of him from Uncle D, but I hadn't seen any of her, let alone him and her in the same pic! Here is a picture of them in 1938.

I'm really hoping to learn more about Marie as I've been able to find so little. I hoping Sandy can shed more light on her. She did say she has more pictures, so that's a good sign!

When I was scanning pictures from my mom's photo albums, I was primarily looking for pics of my dad that I could share with his half-brother so he could see what dad looked like. More than anything, as I looked through some of the albums, I tried to see the images of my dad as a stranger would -- not a daughter who knew him. I was trying to see him as a half-brother might see him for the first time.

When I saw was my dad, a loving father. I mean, I always knew he was a loving father. He always told us how proud he was of us and he was always playing games and spending time with us. In the pictures, I saw, however, I saw dad -- Dave -- the attentive, patient father. In picture after picture, he's with his kids, putting gifts together at Christmas time, carrying someone around, etc. Here you see dad putting a baby Melissa on a pogo stick one of the kids got for Christmas. Corrina and Connie are also in the pic. It was probably their pogo stick.

I continue to be surprised at what a good father he turned out to be. His parents divorced when he was about 4 or 5, he went to live with his maternal grandmother, had little to no contact or rearing with his mother or father, went to live in a juvenile home in his early teens, and lived/worked in a county home his his late teens/early twenties. He was really pretty much on his own. How did a man with so little family become such a big family man?

Here is one of my favorite pictures of him. It's Christmas, probably around 1981 or 1982 when I was around 4-5 years old. I'd made him a present in Sunday School and he was opening it. You can tell from my expression that he obviously said something nice about it. I wish I could remember what that was. But my expression tells me all I need to know. He liked it and I was glad that I made my dad happy. I miss my dad.

Helloooo Summah!

Summer time is the best time ever...if you are a teacher. I keep getting a lot of slack from others who work "real" jobs whenever I describe the wonders of summer break, but right now I don't care. I'm happy! Oh, I am so happy!  Not only has this summer been truly great, but I have been taking on new challenges and learning new things about myself, my family, and my life.  Oh, dear loyal reader, where to begin (and yes, I know I used the singular form of "reader" - who knows who's even reading this thing anymore. Lord knows I've been terrible at writing and posting).

1. Work: No work! Ah ha! Seriously. I'm not teaching anything this summer, but I did take on a few projects, including writing some lessons for the NROC group (Google it if you want to learn more). That task was actually taking up a lot of my time as I had to write about 6-8 lessons almost every two weeks. I think I got way ahead of their expectations though because in a phone call a week or so ago, they asked to slow down because they need time to reassess where we're going with all of this. That was music to my ears! Since then, I've been able to relax more around the house and just be lazy.

However, I am working on some tutor training sessions though to present when school gets back in session next month. I also really should be working on syllabi and class materials for fall...which I have, only just a little though. Agh, that can wait; I'm on vacation!

2. House Projects: This year Ken and I tackled two major projects: build a path to the pond and paint/re-cover the free wicker furniture I got from Dr. G last summer. Ken is just about done with the path. We need to buy a few more bricks to round it all out, and I finished painting and making new covers for the patio furniture. Note that the path isn't quite finished. We have a few more bricks to place at the end to curve around the pond, and we need to get the rest of the new wood chips sprinkled about. On the lower right, you can see half of my raised flower gardens I also created. We used to have one big vegetable garden here, but I got tired of maintaining it and we never really ate anything from it anyway. I wanted something lovely to walk through and something to help the bees do their work. Enter my two egg-shaped raised gardens. The one you cannot see is growing nicely with a "pollinator's blend" of flowers, etc. and the one you can see is going to be all zinnias.

3. Travel: Minimal travel this year. It must be our off year given we took some big ones last year: Seattle,  Niagara Falls, etc. This year, we stayed a bit closer to home and made a trip to Sioux City, IA so I could meet some relatives (see next section below about genealogy below), and we're also planning a short trip to the Oregon, IL area to see Matt & Lisa. In short, I've enjoyed the time at home.

4. Genealogy Project: Ah! Here is where life gets interesting! Finally, after all my time spent on ancestry.com (which during the semesters isn't much given the time I have), I've made contact with some Seible relatives! Oh, I don't know if you can grasp the magnitude of this for me. Seriously, I feel great about it. All my life I've known next to nothing about my father's side -- the Seibles. Here I am with this last name and no knowledge about who carried it before me (other than my dad). During my trip to Sioux City, I met my dad's cousin Diana and her husband Jim, who shared pictures with me and drove me to a cemetery where many Seibles are buried. (I also got to meet their dog Snowball, a real hoot!) I also met her brother Mark and his family, which included two second-cousins of mine. Everyone was so nice and welcoming!

In addition, I've also made contact online with my dad's half-brother and we've been exchanging emails and pictures. He also shared an email from one of my first-cousins on my dad's side that I haven't seen or heard from since I was 2, and she wants to correspond! This is truly amazing to me! I am learning so much about my father's father (my grandfather whom I never knew or heard much about) and his life after his divorce from my paternal grandmother (whom I also never knew or heard much about). I am also seeing pictures for the first time of people I've never seen before. It never ceases to amaze me at how people look like each other. This man, who is technically my father's half brother, making him my half-uncle (though I don't know if he is quite ready for me to start calling him "Uncle D"), has been a gift to me -- I am learning so much and filling in some of the blanks about my ancestors. Also, I hope, I am making familial connections that will last longer than the scope of this project. What a great feeling!

So that's where I am. I'm enjoying this summer like no other summer before...which is a good thing because I've really shot myself in the foot for fall in terms of the workload I've taken on. But I'm not going to think about that now...I'll think about that...well...not tomorrow...no, or the next day....agh, forget it; I'm on vacation!

A Good Day

I had a good day at work today...sometimes one of those just comes along now and then. Today was nice just because I felt good about the work I did with my students. In my 9:00 a.m. Writing II class, I had planned on a peer review and workshop for them to finish up their third paper assignment. However, when we all got settled, students shared their confusion with a source citation assignment -- we are just beginning to work on citing sources using MLA. (This is always a challenging time for students as the whole idea of citing information using a set of rules gets very overwhelming for some dev ed students.) Instead of going with the day's plan, I scrapped it. I gave an extension on the paper assignment and we spent the day working through citation problems together. What I really liked about the class though was the discussion. This is a class that doesn't just sit by and expect to be told things -- they jumped in and were helping each other, asking me questions, and providing answers as we worked. At the end of class, students thanked me for changing the course plan so they could get more experience working on citations.

It was a good feeling overall. As a teacher, some days aren't great. They aren't terrible, but they aren't necessarily great. Today was a pretty good day.  I left that class feeling good. Thankfully, the remaining two classes went well too to wrap up a good day.

Too much for one day...Part 1

NOTE: I actually wrote this quote a while ago -- I just forgot to post it.


Yesterday, what a day. It started off just fine. The excitement of election day...going in early to get some grading done before class (and almost feeling caught up on grading for the first time in about 3 months)...and then...it all began.

I got to work at about 6:25 a.m. It's dark. It's raining. It's cold. The parking lot is empty except for me. My class begins at 7:30 a.m. so I am there to finish some grading, check email, get ready for the day. I walk up to the door of the building carrying my book bag, carrying my lunch, carrying my purse, and carrying my umbrella. When I get to the building, I discover it's locked. Locked. Again. Sigh. You see, we (faculty) used to have keys to get into the building, but when the building was remodeled this summer, they changed the way that we get in the locked building -- now we use scan our IDs to get into out offices and we're supposed to be able to do the same to get in the building. Yet, here it is November and my ID still won't let me in.

No worries though. I can call Public Safety to let me in, which I do.

Need to take time for me

Wow - I have been so negligent in my posting. I just logged on and couldn't believe it when I saw my last post was in October! Yikes! My apologies to anyone who might still possibly be checking this.

Here's the latest: I work too much. Yes, I am admitting it. My life has been work, work, work. I don't have time to do anything around the house like sew, seriously clean, or organize/get rid of things. It's really starting to get me down. My weight is going up again -- so much for those 30 pounds I had lost last year at this time. They're back and with a vengeance. I feel rotten most of the time and am really disappointed in  myself for going backwards health-wise. It seems like everyone I know is losing weight and what do I do? I gain it back. I feel like crap.

So what's the goos news in all of this? This summer, I am not teaching and I'm so happy! I keep thinking of what I can do to make the next 7 weeks go by faster. At night when I can't sleep, I lie in bed and think about what I will do to the yard once the weather warms up and I can get back out there and dig around in the dirt. In all, I just cannot wait to have time to do things to energize myself.

That's it for now. I hope to get back on here and post some pictures from our trip to Las Vegas for the CCCCs conference.

Uncle Roger - if you're reading this -- I'm sorry for not writing. I'm going to try to be better and make more time for myself, which includes getting on here and reflecting about things. :-)