The Black Horse of the Blog World

Our household has recently gotten an upgrade of the furry nature. This weekend we went out and found two new cats to join our family. We weren’t expecting two. We were expecting one. But these two came as a pair, and we decided it worked out best to keep them that way. So here are Abelard and Heloise, but we’re generally referring to them as Abel (brown and white tiger) and Lulu (grey with gold eyes).

So far the introductions are going as well as can be expected, and Abel is almost aggressive in his demands for cuddles. Lulu is playing it cool, letting her brother be the ambassador for now. And Tica is tolerant so long as the new ones don’t get too close to her food or her library. Pictures below.

 

Today:

• The deck crew did not show to do their work, have said they’ll be here tomorrow.
• Was supposed to take niece to thrown weapons and archery practice. She threw up all over the backseat one highway exit away. Drove her back and did not throw (universe has conspired to keep me from throwing for the past 2 months).
• Almost every car detailing place is closed by 1 on Sundays or are appointment only. Took the car to the one place that was open late enough and said it did not need an appointment. Was only taking scheduled appointments today so full car cleaning now waits until Friday.
• Hung new lamps in the living room. Old torchiere fell and broke while my back was turned doing that. New lamps are not bright enough to replace old one. E12 bulbs are difficult to get bright enough.
• Target overflowing with back to school and welcome to college shoppers and stuff. Did not stick around to do the intended shopping.
  Button popped off of couch. Have not yet managed to pull the loop back through from the button on the other side to re anchor it.
• In general the things that could go wrong did. The fights that could have been had were. The toddlerness of our toddler expressed.

Can I declare a mulligan and redo Sunday?

This is (literally) your uplifting video of the day.

And remember: each balloon has a basket underneath with at least one person floating up in it.

Had a really good weekend.

Friday (I have fridays off in the summer) Jaeger and I went to our Music Together class where he fell in love with a new djembe, then we we went to the library for books and trains. After that we went home for fluffernutters and naps. Mimi and Poppi (the names he picked for my parents) came by and Amanda came home from a day of relief work. We cooked up some mini pizzas and packed up a picnic basket and walked down to the town common for the Friday night concert series. Dancing and balloons and ice cream happened.

Saturday Mimi and Poppi came back up and took Jaeger for a while. I went to have lunch with jducoeur and fenicedautun at Zaftigs, then went back home to do some housework. Afterwards we drove down to Plymouth for a third set of fireworks, having been to Needham and Waltham the weekend before. It was quite late when we got in, but it was worth the drive.

Sunday, there was no thrown weapons practice (most of the regulars being up at GNEW), so after sleeping in a bit, I got up and mowed the lawn. Jaeger got out his plastic lawnmower and helped. Did our grocery shopping a day early, and then after naptime we packed up our swim gear and a cooler and went over to spend the afternoon at Cochituate State Park.  I’d not actually been before despite living nearby for quite some time.  Very nice state park, and absolutely worth the modest $5 parking fee to get in. We walked around the trails for a bit, and spent some time in the lake. Jaegermonsters like swimming, who knew? He had a great time splashing and pointing at the boats and the birds. Our only regret is we forgot to bring the beach toys so he could play in the sand more. After drying off and changing back into our regular clothes I found out that craigslist had come through again, so we went out and picked up a pre-birthday birthday gift of a tricycle for the monster, and went out to dinner at the BBC. Then home for bath and bed. Jaeger’s only regret was that it was too late in the day to actually go riding on the new tricycle, which he is very excited about and keeps referring to as a motorcycle.  I’m sure he’ll be out on it today.

In the general state of things, it is going well.  Certainly better than things were. Amanda is feeling better than she has in a -long- time, and things are looking positive for the job prospects. We’ve gotten some things sorted and some help on the financial front. And the parents of the children’s center kids (most of the children aren’t of faculty or staff at the school, but are from the Weston/Wayland/Wellesley community) got together and pooled their not insignificant business and financial firepower, formed a task force, and got the college to agree to a three year plan to keep the children’s center open. So we have that back and one more source of stress has been lifted. Our current immediate stresses tend to be along the lines of not overscheduling the remainder of our rapidly filling summer. And I’m glad to have that as a problem.