Month: October 2008

Categories
Cats

New members of the family

Last weekend we finally got our cats from the shelter. We’d picked them out a few weeks ago, but they had an illness and needed to stay in kitty hospital for awhile longer. They are about six months old, and thus the perfect blend of playful and trained, though I am working on training them in the proper use of the scratching post as opposed to the couch.

The boy is on the left in the picture, and his name is Fennel (he has just one white dot under his nose and is heftier). The girl is on the right, and her name is Nasturtium (she has two white dots under her nose). Obviously they are litter mates, and they also obviously like to hang out together. Seriously, how cute are they? They are a bit naughty, but only in a charming way. It’s great to have two little purr machines to visit with during the day, since I’m sort of resigning myself to being unemployed for the forseeable future.

Categories
Television

Relating to Gossip Girl on a personal level

I started watching Gossip Girl because it followed America’s Next Top Model last year, and Megan and I got hooked. Once mobile informatics entered thanks to a certain up and coming young librarian at U of I, we could view it as an honest intellectual pursuit. It helped that the New Yorker can’t stop talking about it.

And while I have always enjoyed the Jamesian (Henry, of course) aspects of the show, the lives of Upper East Side high school students living in a fantasy world of cocktails after school and trust funds do not, as a rule, have anything to do with my own life. But now there is something that I can root for beyond the Blair/Serena reconciliation. Jenny will be homeschooled so that she can pursue her career in fashion. Now there’s some sound thinking, and it only took Lily van der Woodsen cum Bass showing some cleavage to make it happen.

Now I hope they don’t make Jenny into an immediate sociopath, though according to an interview I read with Josh Schwartz, she may very well become the Bad Girl that she is in the books (which I haven’t made it through, though the New Yorker tells me that they are Tolstoy-esque).

Categories
Uncategorized

Enough to get in trouble

In my continuing efforts to not go crazy while seeking a meaningful job in my chosen career, I’ve been studying Spanish. Mike is joining me on this, but he has the not unimportant distinction of already having taken Spanish, so I treat him as my resident expert. We’ve only completed two lessons in the textbook, but I’ve learned enough to be able to begin eavesdropping on everyone in my neighborhood. This was my major goal, since after all, I know enough Romance languages to make out signs.

For instance, the other day on the bus, a woman was enthusiastically talking to a man, and I assumed they were friends. But then when she got off the bus, she said “Mucho gusto!” to him. I turned to Mike and asked, “So when that lady said ‘Mucho gusto’, did that mean they just met on the bus, or could you say that other times?”

“I don’t know,” he said.

This is where him being my resident Spanish expert gets me into trouble. Afterward, I looked it up, and it seems that they really did just meet on the bus.

I should try to mind my own business, but my own business is kind of dull right now.