LolaGeek

Heroes last night! Aaaahhh! I just need to scream because this show is so awesome! (There’s a few spoilers below, so don’t read if you don’t want to ruin things a little bit.)

The best part is, I e-mailed Paul and Julie a bunch of spoilers/speculation that I’d found, and a lot of it came true last night. For example, Eden and Mr. Bennet working together. Also, Eden is a hero, with the power of suggestion. (Though, clearly, it’s not a very strong power. Even if Mohinder will come back from India, she couldn’t just get him to stay in the first place.) Also, I liked when she told Mr. Bennet that there’s a guy who can time travel, and he said, “That’s cool.” He’s supposedly a good guy who’s trying to protect the heroes, and I noticed last night that he’s seeming a little less sinister. It still doesn’t explain why he has to be so creepy and kidnappy, though.

I don’t hate Niki as much anymore. It’s clearly MirorNiki who’s the bad guy. Whatever the case, Niki doesn’t have much of a super power, or as Dr. Suresh writes, some sort of genetic mutation or evolution. She might not be an actual “hero” like the rest of them in the show, though. (Even though the producer has said that Sylar is the main villian of Season 1, Niki might be another bad guy – at least as far as DL is concerned!)

DL and Micah were cute… hopefully we’ll see what happens to them next week. Also, Uluru!

Poor Claire. Those people she met were clearly just actors. If her mom weren’t such a moron, she might have realized it – they weren’t able to find the parents when Claire was sick as a baby, but suddenly Mr. Bennet can get them on the phone and invite them to the house? Now that I’m thinking about it, I wonder if maybe her adoptive parents are her real parents? And they have powers too, whether or not they know about them? But that’s sort of a horrible thing, to tell your real child that they’re adopted. (Though it would explain the mom’s ditziness – it’s all just an act.)

How cute is Hiro?! “I have a sword?” I can’t wait until he meets his love interest. Also Ando’s line about “It’s how we roll” cracked me up.

In general, I thought that this episode moved a little faster than previous ones. At least, it jumped between the various storylines more quickly.

Also last night, GG finished this Halloween painting he was doing for his mom’s classroom. Yes, just finished it. He went to bed around 3AM, and woke up about when I did (5:30), and went to give it to his mom before she left for work. So… it’ll be on display for one day. It’s a pretty awesome painting, though – a witch stirring a cauldron with a horse leg, bones, and a snake hanging out. And the steam coming up has evil faces in it. When he gets it back, we’ll put some photos up on his portfolio site. (Ask me for the URL, because I’m not going to link to it from here.)

Many exciting developments:

1. I didn’t go to Homecoming. Instead, I stayed home and did laundry, while 50 mph winds whipped around. Looking at some of the photos from the PSP Halloween party, I don’t really regret not going. I really don’t know anybody there anymore. Maybe in the future, if there is ever a time that GG could go with me, I’ll go out for Homecoming, but I think for now on, I really won’t plan on it. On the up side, I did talk to Julia and MB on the phone, and had a text message conversation with Mandy.
2. The new range came! Finally, we have an oven that actually bakes things, instead of burning the bottom and leaving the top raw (or vice versa, depending on how it feels that day). To celebrate, I made brownies using the brownie mix my grandmother gave me with my brownie pan wedding present.
   
   
   
   
   Before: Stupid old range with too many bad features to list here.

   
   After: Awesome new range with too many great features to list here.
   

3. The kitties are getting to be better friends! All three of them have been eating breakfast together for the past few days. Last night I turned on the bedroom light to see Katrina and Sacha snuggled on the bed together! And this morning I snapped this adorable shot:
   
   
   
   
4. My grandmother caught another yard kitten on Friday! He’s going to the vet tomorrow. Meanwhile, she’s keeping him locked in a spare bedroom, and she’s playing with him and stuff. He’s Sacha’s littermate, but he’s so much bigger! She’s calling him Max, because he has an M-shaped mark on his forehead. He’s very soft and playful and loveable – I hope he’ll get along with her other cat, Tiki.
   
   
   
   

What? You want to hear more about Sacha? Well okay!

After several days of the growling and hissing, Ivan and Katrina seem to have gotten used to him. Katrina is coming into our bedroom again, although Ivan is still hovering in the doorway. Last night Sacha was right by Katrina, sniffing her back, and she didn’t growl or anything. This morning he came down while I was feeding them, so I gave him a little dish of food, too. All three cats were sniffing each other all over, and nobody was growling.

Sacha is doing crazy kitten things, too. Pretty much since we let him out of our bedroom, he’s been running around the house like crazy, and playing with all the cat toys (which is good, since Ivan and Katrina weren’t getting much use out of them). Last night he flung himself up in the air and almost into the wastebasket in our bedroom. And a few days ago he was playing in the living room and jumped on top of the scratching post, then slid down like a fireman pole!

Also, I got some new pants at Old Navy the other day. Two pairs for work (gray, brown), and two pairs for hanging around/sleeping (yoga pants, Halloween pajama pants). They’re having a massive sale to clear out their fall stuff!

Tomorrow is Homecoming at MU. I don’t even know if I want to go anymore, just because it’s supposed to be rainy all day and I don’t want to drive out there in the rain, go to the football game in the rain, kill several hours in the rain, and then go to the PSP party. I might just show up later in the day, meet up with my brother and other various peeps, make an appearance at the party (after all that effort I put into finding costume stuff..!), and then head home.

I didn’t write anything yesterday about Heroes because… meh. This week’s episode wasn’t quite as amazing as the last few. But from the previews, next week’s looks like it’ll be good! I will make the following comments:
Matt: You’re a cop! You should know that rule #1 is “don’t pick up the gun!”
Isaac: See, you don’t need heroin.
Peter: Glad you finally figured out what your power is.
Simone and Eden: Thank you for not being in this episode!
Hiro: You’re so cute! “Ooh, waffles!”
Future Hiro: There is soooo much more I need to know about this character, it’s not even funny!

For the first couple days that we’ve let Sacha have the run of the house, he pretty much stayed under the bed still. And Ivan and Katrina have been staying downstairs. So last night, I thought I’d sit downstairs and spend some time with them. I was on the sofa with Katrina on the floor next to me and Ivan curled up on top of me, when he suddenly tensed up, and who appeared but little Sacha! He pranced into the living room like he owned the place, went crazy playing with toys for a little bit, then settled down on the loveseat, in Ivan’s usual sleeping spot! He just sat there casually, with his paws draped over the edge of the cushion! It was cute, but I could tell Ivan and Katrina hated it. Then I pulled out the laser pointer. Usually Ivan and Katrina do what we call “tag team,” where they take turns chasing it. Well, Sacha joined in and he got turns, too! Except a couple of times he would chase the dot right into Ivan or Katrina’s face. Katrina of course growled and hissed. Ivan only hissed once, and actually he and Sacha were “talking” (squeaking) to each other a couple times yesterday! It’s only been a couple days, though – I’m sure they’ll all become friends eventually. (This morning, Sacha was so bold, he tried to eat right out of Katrina’s dish at breakfast!)

So, obviously, lots of excitement this weekend!

On Friday, we brought home little Sacha, the adorable orange kitten I rescued from my grandmother’s yard the day before. He got all his shots and stuff and the vet, plus he got neutered. It was a big day for the little guy. We locked him in our bedroom while he got used to living in a house. He was so good! He was probably still groggy from his surgery, but he mostly slept or sat under the bed. He wolfed down his kitten food, had some water, and then went right over and used his litter box like a good little boy! (He has no problems using the box, which is awesome.) We discovered that he is a purring machine. He purred pretty much non-stop all Friday night. Now it seems like he turns it on as soon as he sees you, and if you start scratching him or playing with him, it’s as if he can’t purr hard enough!

Holding the little boy

Also, our new bedroom furniture came, and it looks really great – no more mis-matched Ikea and hand-me-down stuff. We even have an actual headboard on the bed! (However, our old furniture all sat flat on the floor, and the new pieces have legs, which means… more places for kittens to hide!)

Ivan and Katrina knew something was up, and on Saturday night, Katrina was sticking her paws under the bedroom door and Sacha was sticking his back. So obviously she knew there was a kitten in there. I gave up on our elaborate one-week plan of slowly introducing the cats to each other through scent, and instead let Katrina into the bedroom. Sacha was rolling around, being playful and cute, but Katrina just growled and hissed at him! Oh well. Next, I took him into the other bedroom, where Ivan was sleeping. Sacha sniffed at Ivan’s head, and Ivan, our little scardey dumbface boy, hissed at him! Ivan! It was so out of character! Also on Saturday night, Sacha wouldn’t let GG and I sleep because he kept trying to eat our feet in bed! And generally just being a kitten.

Yesterday, GG and I went to the Home Show at the Convention Center. We went once before and it totally sucked, but we did find people to come install our new bathtub thing. So now we’re in the market for some doors (our front door has never been quite right, and our side door just bit the dust a few days ago), so we went to meet people and pick up brochures and things. We now have an appointment for an estimate from one place, and a few others to contact.

When we got home, I decided it was time to let Sacha explore the rest of the house. I carried him downstairs, showed him the downstairs litter box, and set him free to roam around. He ended up hiding under the sideboard in the dining room while Katrina sat next to him and growled. Ivan hid under the coffee table. GG and I fell asleep for an hour or two, and when we woke up, we didn’t see Sacha anywhere. I finally found him, hiding behind a box under the shelves in the dining room. I scooped him up and carried him back upstairs. Later last night, he explored the upstairs a little. He wasn’t so crazy last night while we were sleeping, though he did wake me up a couple times, just playing with stuff in the room.

Sitting on the bed

GG’s called me a couple of times this morning to tell me how the kitties are all doing. Sacha was trying to “talk” to Katrina earlier, but Katrina was only growling at him. Then Sacha tried it with Ivan, who squeaked back at him, so that looks like a promising relationship. Later, GG saw Ivan hit Katrina on the head! The world has been turned upside down!

Lots more photos here, and definitely more to come.

(I’m just going to keep adding to this post as I hear things today… so check back!)

8:50 AM – GG just called to tell me that he got the cat from the garage! I was worried, because that garage is just full of hiding spots, but apparently she jumped for one of the windows and he grabbed her in the air! He just arrived at the vet’s office, so we’ll see what they have to say. There were definitely some ticks on her neck, and maybe she has fleas or earmites or something, who knows. Also, she’ll have to be checked for FIV and FLV. Hopefully she’s old enough to be spayed – if so, I’d like to get that done today, as well. If she’s not six months yet, she’s very close.

11:00 AM – Just got a call from the vet. 1) He’s a boy! 2) He’s FIV/FLV negative. 3) He had no fleas, earmites, or anything. He might have a couple ticks on him – they’ll check. 4) He’s getting neutered today. 5) I can pick him up around 4:30 tonight! The vet said he was in great shape for a feral cat. He’s very scared right now, but when you hold him he starts purring. He thinks the cat will adjust very well to being a housecat. Looks like I get to have my Mugs after all!

I went to my grandmother’s house today thinking I might come home with one or more of those tiny kittens from the front porch. But I didn’t really get to see any of them. Instead, I put out some food for the cats in the back yard, and was kind of playing with them – but you really can’t get too close. I was holding the back door open, though, and they were looking like they were kind of curious about coming inside. So I said, “Hey, what if we lock up Tiki [Gramom's cat] so he doesn’t get out, and leave the back door propped open and sit the food right inside the door?” My favorite of the five kittens, a pretty orange one, came inside to eat! Then I lured her further in with treats, and then… closed the door!

Then she went crazy! She ran all around the house and tried to jump out of every window (of course, all closed). She was pulling down curtains and knocking things over and it was insane! Then she hid behind the sofa. My mom and I got her out, and I held her and she purred and kneaded my arm :o)

I called the vet, and they said they wouldn’t be able to see her until tomorrow. So we set up some food and litter and a bed in the garage, and she can stay there overnight. Tomorrow morning, GG is going over to pick her up and take her to the vet. (I have to work, my mom works night shift and will be sleeping, and my grandmother just had knee surgery so she can’t get around too well and can’t drive yet. That’s why it’s up to him.) If all goes well, hopefully we’ll get her all fixed up and bring her home! I have always wanted an orange cat!

Now… what should we call her? I always said if I got an orange cat I would name it Mugs (from an old family joke), but that seems like more of a masculine name. Everyone’s been calling her Cinnamon in the yard (the others are Nutmeg, Stripes, Mommycat, Limpy, and two black ones that don’t have names). Or we could give her an Eastern European-sounding name, to go with Ivan and Katrina. I was thinking maybe Tatiana, and we could call her Tati for short?

I just hope she gets along with Ivan and Katrina…

So Jeffrey won. Meh. It’s okay, I was expecting it, and I was mentally prepared. Really, based on the final collections, he deserved it. But if it was based in any way on personality? No way.

Uli figured out what Jeffrey needed – lots of hugs!

Did you notice, though, that the top two last night were the two who had professional workspaces and established businesses? I mean, Michael showed off his little sewing machine corner in his living room or whatever, and Jeffrey’s got a whole warehouse full of equipment?! Tim Gunn mentioned last night that they were doing everything to make the competition as fair as possible, but really the only way to do that would be to provide them all with identical workspaces and equipment.

Have I mentioned before that there was a family of a mommy and five beautiful kittens living under my grandmother’s back deck? The five kittens are all grown up now, we still can’t catch them, and most of them have probably moved away. (Stripes still hangs around, though – he’s gray with black stripes and a white bib, and a pink nose!) A while ago, we saw Mommy was very pregnant looking again. Well, yesterday I was at my grandmother’s house and I opened the front door from inside to see if there was a package on the porch. (We usually use the side door to go in and out there.) There were two tiny kittens huddled together on the doormat! A tabby colored one and an orange one! It was cold and rainy and windy, and even though they were under a roof on the porch, it was still cold for them. When I opened the door, they started hissing at me, but they were roughly the size of potatoes, so it was just cute. The orange one went and hid in the bushes next to the porch, but I was able to pick up the tabby cat. My grandmother wouldn’t let me bring it in, but I held it up in front of the window for her to not look at. It was trying to hiss at me, but eventually realized I was warm and not mean, so it nestled in my arms and purred. I eventually had to go back inside, but I put out a towel arranged into a little nest, so they would at least have somewhere warmer to go. A few minutes later, we saw Mommy up on the porch, but she vanished. So we think she and this new litter of kittens are living in the bushes there.

Also, I have the following reviews of products we bought at Trader Joe’s the other day:
Blue Diamond brand Almond Milk: I hate milk. I use it on cereal, but I don’t drink the extra from the bowl, and I just can’t fathom pouring myself a glass just to drink. Occasionally I will drink soy milk, though, and have tried a bunch of different brands. I’m not quite sure yet what the benefits of almond milk are over soy milk, but it is definitely delicious! You can taste the almond-ness, but really it just tastes like a sweet treat. (I got the vanilla flavor, but they also had chocolate and I think plain.)
TJ brand Honey Flavored Greek Yogurt: A while ago I tried some Greek yogurt that came in a divided container – one side held plain yogurt, and the other had honey. You were supposed to mix and eat them together. But because it was cold and refridgerated, the honey formed a kind of solid chunk and didn’t really mix into the yogurt well. So the bites with honey were delicious and the bites without it tasted like sour cream. This yogurt solves that problem because the whole container is honey flavored. And it’s delicious – you still get the tanginess of the Greek yogurt, but with the sweetness of honey, and you get it in every spoonful.
TJ brand Espresso Soda: I was worried that this would be totally nasty, so I tried it with some friends at work. It actually is very good! You still do get a kind of coffee aftertaste, but the drink itself has a nice, light flavor – the coffee taste is offset by the carbonation. It didn’t give me a headache, like I sometimes get from coffee, nor was I bouncing off the walls from caffiene. But I did notice that I didn’t feel like napping when I got home from work like I usually do.

[Edit - 3:28 PM] My mom just called from my grandmother’s house – Mommy and three babies (two orange, one tabby) were on the porch! They were exploring around and being cute! And this morning the towel looked like it had been slept in overnight, so she reconfigured it back into a nest for them. Kitties! Maybe we’ll have a chance of catching some from this litter, since they’re still so tiny. But even if we get them, I don’t know what we’d ever do with them or where to take them! So sad… [/Edit]

Yet another awesome episode of Heroes last night. Though the cliffhangers are driving me crazy! And so many unanswered questions: Which one (Niki or Nathan) did Mr. Bennett take? How far into the future is Future Hiro from? (Far enough that he was able to learn English and get a samurai sword – I’m guessing that’s more than 5 weeks.) In the future, Peter is going to have an appearance-altering scar? Did that quarterback survive his car crash with Claire? And is there going to be any repercussion of her escape from the morgue? Does Niki always have that symbol tattoo on her back, or is it only Mirror Niki who has it? Mirror Niki said “If you ever threaten our son…” !! Since the short-haired girl is probably evil, what was actually in the urn she gave Mohinder? Probably not his father’s ashes… What happened to Matt, and what is the scary guy’s actual power – some sort of mind control, or memory erasing?

These questions and more will… be discussed by Paul and I at lunch today.

My brother came over last night so I could help him with his Halloween costume. (He’s home for Fall Break.) He wanted to be a “mountain wizard,” based on a Municipal Waste song by the same name. He had a long gray beard, and he was going to get a staff and a hat, but he needed some help with his cape. So we used a giant piece of dark blue crushed velvet, and I kind of draped it around him and then made a little tie in the front. And then trimmed up the bottom so it was even all the way around. It was all very Project Runway. Then we cut out about a million stars from yellow felt, which he’s going to attach to the cape with fabric glue when he gets back to school. (Can I just mention how huge my brother is? I had to stand on the bed to reach him well enough to drape the stuff around his neck. He is about nine feet tall. Okay, he’s like 6’10″.)