Health updates and a cat thing.

As some of you know, I had  a health hiccup in April of 2014. By “health hiccup” I mean I had the period of doom for three weeks and wanted to kick puppies.

I had blood tests and a smear test, and that all came back normal. The lovely doc also wanted me to have a vaginal scan (woo hoo) and that was scheduled for November.

I finally had it last month, and they found …. nothing. Not even fibroids. Just nothing. My body was just messing with me because it could, which. THANKS A LOT.

Though I am grateful that it turned out to be nothing more than a random aberration.

The cat thing. I didn’t talk about this on here, because I wasn’t sure if it would ultimately be worth its own post or not, but one of our cats - Morgana - brown tabby and lapcat extraordinary - went missing. She just … vanished.

I duly called around the vets, and called the SPCA and put an ad on Trade Me but nothing was forthcoming.

Then, one morning, about a week after she went missing, I got up early to go to the loo, and was greeted by some rather frantic meowing. I had to go back to get my glasses because I was 100% sure that was not the meow of any of the cats currently in residence.

I was correct. It was Morgana - brown tabby and lapcat extraordinary - popping up like nothing ever, meowing her face off and demanding cuddles.

A very minor miracle, but I still think of it as fairly miraculous.

Talking about cats. Well. A cat.

Everyone’s read those stories about the neighbourhood cat who embarasses their human servants by stealing small, portable household items - socks and the like.

But what if you have one of those cats, and that cat is agoraphobic?

Meet Sophie.

Sophie is a black and white domestic short-haired spayed female cat. We got her from the SPCA in January of 2013, so she’s nearly two years old.

She’s also a massive weirdo.

I don’t blog about our individual cats very often but I feel that an agoraphobic sock-stealer warrants a few words.

She will go outside - she actually waits for the front door to open, bolts outside and then turns around like she’s saying “I have made a terrible mistake.”

If she’s out for longer than a few minutes, she goes under the house and we get to hear about her trials and tribulations until J can coax her back in.

The socks … our hallway is always decorated with at least two socks. I wear thick socks instead of slippers and I’ll often find one or two of them in the hallway. Given half a chance, she’ll also pinch them straight out of drawers if the drawers are left open enough for her to get her paw in.

I went into Patrick’s room one day and she’d emptied his whole socks and undies drawer on to the floor. I can’t even imagine why.

She’s not a lap cat, in the traditional sense. She won’t sit on my lap at all if I’m on the couch. If I’m on the bed, or in the bed reading, however, I am - apparently - fair game.

She has a permanently startled look, not aided by the fact that her face looks like she stuck it in an inkwell and the colour stuck.

She is odd, and endearing and squawks when she meows, like she never learned how to make the noise properly.

An agoraphobic, sock-stealing cat who can’t meow properly and who has her own very clear boundaries with humans.

Well. It could be WORSE.

Readathon and also stuff and maybe things

I'm about five hours early but I've only read about 120 pages total and I'm so distracted, ugh.

Next time, back to cheerleading. I like cheerleading, it's fun, and I get to "meet" new bloggers. I love meeting new bloggers.

My attention span is so short lately, and I blame the other love of my life, my iPad Mini. (Patrick being a given, my Mini is what I'd save in case of fire). I can play games on it that take little mental acuity at all, and it contains all of the social media.

I love social media. By which I pretty much mean twitter. Little bit of tumblr. I'm "eh" on facebook, but I have it so I know what my brothers and sisters are doing - lol.

Anyway. Cheering for next readathon, yes.

I have this week off before heading back into the wilds of the office, and my plans are pretty simple: Finally watch American Horror Story: Asylum because Coven, do some cross-stitching and revel in a bit of alone-time as Patrick goes back to school tomorrow.

I started Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin, so hopefully I might have that finished by the end of the week as well.

... let's not get too carried away though. There are still zombies that must be killed by plants  out there ...

Readathon!

It's that time of year again - readathon time.

I'm so very disorganised this time, I've only just thrown together a pile of books and some snacks.

And by "disorganised" I mean "spending too much time playing Plants v Zombies 2 and Candy Crush (damn you Candy Crush)".

But I have a pile now, and I have snacks, which will be more relevant tomorrow to me, because it's nearly midnight my time. I'm hoping/planning to  get a bit of reading done tonight, and then sleep and then more reading tomorrow. I won't be reading for a full 24 hours, but I will be here in spirit so

*\o/* *\o/* *\o/* *\o/* *\o/* *\o/* *\o/* *\o/* *\o/* *\o/* *\o/* *\o/* *\o/* *\o/* *\o/* *\o/* *\o/* *\o/*  here's a line of cheerleaders for you if you're taking part. Have fun! Read lots! Have more fun! :D

Anyway, here's the pile in question:



The books are, from top to bottom, Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, The World of Jeeves by P G Wodehouse, Mortal Fire by Elizabeth Knox, The Tricksters by Margaret Mahy and The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.

The snacks (mmm snacks) are smoked paprika chips, crunchy M&Ms and Schweppes Sparking Duet - all of which will be saved for tomorrow. The corner of the couch by the cat is my reading spot, and the cat, who will probably be keeping me company, is Lily.

My plan tonight is to read until the first hour meme goes up, do the meme, get some sleep and pick up again in the morning.

I'm not, of course, going to read all of those books, I just like having options. I'm going to start with Winter's Tale and then just go from there. If I get through that and a few Jeeves short stories, I'll consider it a win.

Are you doing the readathon? What's your plan? What are you reading? :D