OMG, let me tell you a story.

I'm NOT a cat person. Seriously, had I my druthers, I'd have dogs for days. They're just so ... so ... so FAITHFUL. Everything you do, it's the dog's FAVORITE THING. You're picking your nose, your dog thinks it's the coolest thing in the world.

However, cats are different. The first cat I ever had ... came to me, not the other way around. I didn't pick him. I certainly didn't CHOOSE him. I didn't even, at first, want him. A hurricane had hit Houston, our house was flooded waist deep (on an adult, I was seven at the time) and this gray and white cat literally floated into our garage and floated into the house to ME. He was my cat by HIS choice, until the day, eight years later, when he was old and cancerous and we had to move to New Mexico, and we knew we couldn't take him with us. We knew he wouldn't survive the journey because he could barely breathe the tumor in his throat was so large. So we had to put him to sleep as the very last thing we did before we left Houston. His fur was all over me and I refused to remove it from my clothes and my skin the whole 750 mile trip to New Mexico, and I cried and cried and cried the whole way to our new home.

My next cat was a calico who showed up on our doorstep several weeks after we had settled into our new New Mexico home. She would have nothing to do with any other member of my family, but she was my warm, soft, purring pillow every night. She could practically feed herself. When she was hungry, she would jump up on the kitchen counter, open the pantry, and bring me a packet of Tender Vittles and drop it at my feet, giving me a look as if to say, "All right you stupid human fucker, I've done every thing I can do, and if I had opposable thumbs I wouldn't need you to open this packet, but since I don't would you please just fucking open this and feed me, god dammit?"

I moved out of the house when I turned 18 and I couldn't take her with me. You know what she did? The day I left the house, so did she, moving several houses down to stay with an elderly couple who took care of her til she died at a ripe old age (for a cat) of 17 years old. One of the greatest regrets in my life was that I only saw her once after I moved out ... but at least I knew she was happy.

I had no animals in my life for a long time after that ... I had moved to California in 1989, and at that time far, far too many of my human friends were dying for me to even think about having a non-human companion.

Then, in 2004, I moved back to Houston. I didn't want to, I loathe this state, this city, this citizenry with all my soul and heart, much as I try to fight these feelings. And yet, two months after I settled down here, I was out on my very small patio (and oh, how I missed my large California back yard with its citrus trees and plum trees and avocado trees and fragrant roses and jasmine and jacaranda), and it was a hot, humid, wet, swampy rainy night when this tiny gray mackerel kitty squeezes itself under my fence, jumps up on my lap and starts purring. SHE adopted ME, not the other way around, and her manner was so royal, her airs so regal, that I had no choice but to call her Livia, the first true Roman empress. She has been a joy, a comfort, a friend, a companion, a playmate, and a person to me now for going on three and a half years.

However, life goes on, and change happens. I knew Livia would never be able to go outside again, because of my fear that I would lose her. So, day before yesterday, I went to the Houston SPCA to find a companion for her, someone to play with in my new house, to help her forget that she could no longer be a huntress, a mouser, a cat to keep all those other nasty strays away from the old apartment complex.

Unusually, the huge cattery was nearly empty the day I visited, and I despaired of finding a companion for both myself and Livia. But, yet again, I was not the one who did the choosing. I walked up to look at a certain cat ... and he immediately chose me, showing more animation and interest (according to the SPCA volunteers) in me than he had anyone else in the short time he'd been a resident at the shelter.

So I went through the requisite paperwork, the endless interviews, the constant reassurances that I would take care of, love, care for, and respect this animal.

And so, today, I brought Augustus (what other name could I give the cat? If Livia was the first Roman empress, what else could I name the cat but that of the first Roman emperor?) home. And he's made everyone love him, not just me, but my roommate, and, most importantly, Empress Livia herself.

You know how he did it?

He gives Eskimo kisses to everyone. Everyone. He came from an "unwanted litter", and yet he trusts everyone. Trusts them so much he will rub his nose against yours, purring loudly, without hesitation or reservation. If you're lucky, he'll lick your nose, too. It's amazing, this unqualified trust, this unreserved love.

So what did I actually do this weekend?

I fell in love. All over again. And not by my choice, but by the choice of a creature not at all human, but eminently capable of sharing and giving emotion that ALL creatures on this planet are capable of, if we'd just stop for a moment to ponder upon our ability to do it.

that was a good story, WolfDaddy.

I didn't do shit this weekend.

Oh, WolfDaddy, what a great story!

Yeah, my weekend was boring as shit compared to the lovefest WolfDaddy is experiencing. (There are no pictures of the new kitty which is sad-making, WolfDaddy.)

I'm not even sure my cat looked at me this weekend.

aw, wolfdaddy! So, so sweet.

Hung out with the cats and my girlfriend. Drank some beer and listened to some music. We made lots of soup stock and pizzas for freezing. Made bread. Quiet and nice.

Excellent narrative, wolfdaddy.

On Saturday I sawed trees. I do volunteer work on a backcountry trail, and recent ice storms tore down so many trees that areas resembled a timber sale. I cut tangled cedars in the valleys and pines on ridges. In between I cut red oaks you couldn't wrap your arms around. I redbud and dogwood crushed by the mighty fallen oaks, plus an occasional musclewood.

The pines cut too easy, so much faster than the oaks, their soft wood yielding so quickly to the saw they seemed somehow inferior to the nearby oaks. Just last month they were majestic silhouettes against the winter sky; yesterday they were just so much sawdust.

I counted 92 rings on a red oak I had just cut-- this sapling had made its mark during the first World War. It has bested its peers, risen beyond the choked understory, towered above its lesser kin... and then fell like an old soldier to battles of nature. Now dead on the trail, I surgically removed its abdomen, gently rolling a four-foot section downhill. The king of the forest now lay in pieces.

I put my saw into 60 trees yesterday. The trail is a better place, but my soul needed cleansing. Today I went down to the river by my house to find my favorite burr oak, and I gave it a hug.

There was little I could do.

I knit a tiny cream coloured baby cardigan for a friend's newborn daughter. It's the first time I've attempted knitting and it worked! WoW! Colour me surprised. Plus it is so tiny that I could do the whole thing in a weekend.
Also got some of the packing done as we're off to Italy tomorrow. Yes!

Amazing story WolfDaddy, or should I say CatDaddy!

I went for the movie I was going to go for, before which I went to my college and got the details of my First Year examinations, and then proceeded to the movie theater.
The day before was spent at home, and going to the said theater to book the tickets. Enjoyed the movie, and am planning to see another one soon. Also, my mom just asked me if I wanted to play Monopoly with her and my sis... it's been so long since we've played that game--I think I'm going to go and join them.
G'day everyone!

Went to the grocery store with daughter and Grandbun.

Who only likes to wake and fuss when going THRU the checkout line.

Silly baby.

Sciurus was visiting and on Friday night we went to a free outdoor concert for Feb Fest, an outdoor pile of hooplah to make February less heinous. The quote of the night was "Well anyone can party in July." The concert wasn't great, all the songs sounded the same and didn't float my boat but it was free. And cold.

The next morning we went to watch the little (two 8 minute periods) hockey game between the Canadian Army Veterans and some NHL alumni (Doug Gilmour and Kirk Muller were the two I remember). It was quite entertaining. Afterwards was breakfast at my favourite diner, Morrison's. If anyone is ever in Kingston Morrison's is a must for at least one morning. It's still run as a diner complete with bitter, middle-to-older aged waitresses. I've been in and out in less than 10 minutes and that includes ordering and eating breakfast! I love that place.

Saturday night was the 50th birthday of a friend which was a wonderful party. One of her friends got a local womens folk band to come and play a short set, The Lady Racers. They were quite good and one of the singers had a similar voice to Jill Barber. The party was catered by a local restaurant and the food was so tasty. I had to keep reminding myself not to go back for thirds and fourths.

Sunday we just lounged around until sciurus had to leave. Stoopid eight hour drive. It was a good weekend.

If I told you I would have to kill you. Suffice it to say that I was and am very, very bad indeed and it felt and feels very, very good.

Great story, WolfDaddy.

I had a bunch of seed packets that I had ordered earlier in the winter, so I got out in the yard and planted about 12 different potential flower beds, marking them off with little stones so I don't weed them accidentally, and labelling them with little plastic markers so I know which are which. Then finally I planted my Garrya elliptica, my Ribes sanguineum, and my Ceanothus impressus. Yay!

I tried out a new (to us) local hike, the Little Si trail.

I prepared a 45-minute presentation on Jean Sibelius and Sibelius's 7th, partially to prepare myself for the concert we're attending this coming Saturday, because I had no clue about Sibelius.

I also practiced piano a lot, as I played in a recital on Sunday afternoon. I messed up a little at the start, but nothing serious, and I completed the rest of my two Schubert pieces without fumbling.

I also spent a lot of great personal time with my lovely wife. Great weekend!

Haircut!

I washed my car and waxed it. Detailed it too. Even the engine compartment. Also washed the wife's car for good measure.

It's raining right now.

:/

Among other activities this weekend, I built a frame for my map! I made it from pine moulding that I mitered and fit together. I'm very proud of myself.

Hoity-ish fundraiser party for the local Summer Childrens' Theatre on Friday evening.

Fifth-grade, district-wide spelling bee on Saturday morning. Mmy daughter dropped an "o" in the third round.

Visit to the mouth of the Delaware Bay in search of saltwater ice on the Bay (found some!)

Dinner date with the Lovely Karen on Saturday evening.

Various blog-postings.

Visit to the Horse that owns my eldest daughter on Sunday morning.

Cooking with youngest daughter and watching the Grammies on Sunday evening.

Saturday:
- Found out our paperwork with new practice space person was rescheduled for later this week.
- Burned more "metal" to laptop.
- Consolidated notes on the following books: Cradle to Cradle, Atlas of Novel Techtonics, and Architectures of Time. Did not consolidate: An Introduction to Information Theory, Point and Line to Plane, and The Code Book.
- Successfully put off work I brought home with me.

Sunday:
- Cut hair.
- Went out to Breakfast.
- Did Metachat Radio Broadcast in honor of a comment by TheDonF.
- Did some of the work I brought home with me.
- Played 1/2 punk rock show at the Annex NYC.
- Was successful in failing to try to get some drawing time in.

Sunday:
- Cut hair.

Wait. No more shaven head?

I felt depressed and ate too much.

Saturday: Had visitor staying. Woke up late, went for delicious bruch at Great Jones, favorite brunch spot. Tried to buy Bloc Party CD (yes, I still buy cds) but the two places I had looked had sold out. Walked past a wine stored that had a free wine and chocolate tasting. Drank a lot of Italian wines, then a lot of big hearty wines and ports that went well with dark chocolate. Met out-of-town friends for pizza at Lombardi's in Soho. Drank. Drank some more. Stopped drinking in anticipation of hangover. still had hangover on Sunday morning.

Sunday: Pho Bo for lunch. Work, work, work, work. More work. Worked until midnight, got up at 6am this morning to work some more.

heh. Thanks WolfDaddy, that was awesome.

my weekend went exactly according to plan.

the only notable difference was that instead of riding the road bike in the morning up in Boulder (cos the freezing fog never really lifted), I took an earlier bus down to Denver and rode all over Denver in the afternoon with my little buddy Frye, an adventure which culminated in an amazingly muddily awesome side trip to City Park / the zoo. Muddy cos they're tearing up the roads in City Park, plus I'm too stoopid to put fenders on my fixte. Zoo cos, well it's there in the park and you can't just roll by the zoo without dropping in, right? My fixed gear now has an inch thick coating of gloopy dried mud on it, which (likely owing to the incorporation of fascinatingly smelly zoo poo) freaked the fuck out of my roommate's cat. He spent twenty minutes circling the bike and making weird cat noises at it when I returned home Sunday evening.

I shot a bejillion photos in Denver on Saturday and up at A-Basin Sunday. Hopefully I'll have 'em all processed and uploaded in the next couple days.

Friday: Drove to Lake Arrowhead with the boyfriend to hang out with some of his friends. There was drunken Karaoke Revolution (I participated and totally rocked) and drunker Guitar Hero (I abstained) and then a very very late bedtime.

Saturday: Woke up entirely too early, then more hanging out with people and geeky card games. I learned how to play Fluxx and Zendo and Three-Dragon Ante (I even won a gambit!) and San Juan. Again a very late night, not helped by the fact that I was sleeping on a bunk above a very loud, very restless snorer.

Sunday: Woke up, read some of my book, tidied up a bit, and drove back home. Then caught up on internet and watched the first bit of Johnny Mnemonic (I was not that impressed and got bored) and then some Angel.

I put my saw into 60 trees yesterday. The trail is a better place, but my soul needed cleansing.
I fed the foliage of three trees into a shredder, starting the clearing up after nine trees were murdered to make way for our new house. While we are required to plant 18 trees to take their place, it is hard to imagine how we can replace them, particularly to larger ones, which were ~2.5 metres around. I found a bird's nest in one, which made me sad but, fortunately, there were no eggs in it.

Picked up my daughter Friday night, came home to some stashed-in-the-freezer Bojangles chicken. Yummy!

Saturday, got up early to begin the cleaning ritual for my mom's impending visit. Said ritual includes laundry, of course. However, I found that the drain pipe had frozen, leaving a load's-worth of water all over the laundry room floor. Still, mom had to be picked up at the airport. The wonderful MrsMoonPie did a heroic job of cleaning, though.

Sunday, then, was spent in the wet, cold underside of the laundry room installing heat cable. I don't think I've ever been so cold.

Sunday afternoon, returned mom to the airport, and took the daughter to a girl scout meeting at Crazy Girl Scout Cookie Mom's house. The most sterile house with children I've ever seen--truly frightening. Took the daughter back to her mom's house, then home, where I promptly passed out.

This is just some dust I got in my eye.*snif* It has nothing to do with Wolfdaddy's kitty stories.

I love your story, WolfDaddy. Very well written, too. Ought to be submitted somewhere so others can appreciate it, too. Seriously!

I worked on Saturday.
Sunday, relaxed in the morning with hubby and three out of four kids. Then I left when hubby began to clean the kitchen. I headed for Michael's, where I swooned over too many yarn choices, bought several skeins for several projects (not that I've finished the two I have going on right now). Stopped off at my favorite small pet supply place to stock up on bird seed just in case we get any of this bad weather that's coming. Then home, to hang out with the family again.
I wish I didn't have to work, and I could hang out all the time and do crafty stuff!

Friday night:
Oldest bro showed up for the weekend. We went for dinner at Milestone's and saw a hockey game. The local team won (Abbotsford Pilots) 6-3, yay! During one of the intermissions a pee-wee league played a bit of hockey. They were so freakin' cute! The mister said I couldn't take any of them home. *pout*

Saturday:
Bro and the mister got haircuts. After that we loaded up Bro's dog (Mugsy, a white mini Schnauzer) and Kaylee and went to a off-leash dog park. As noted in the thread posted yesterday Kaylee dislocated her knee not long after we got to the park. We quickly got back into the car and to our vet clinic. The vet took x-rays, said she needed surgery and to bring her back on Sunday. Played a game of Scrabble (Bro won), three games of Cribbage (I won the first game, the mister won the second game and I won the third game - I am still the Queen of Cribbage!).

Sunday:
The mister and I took Kaylee back to the vet for surgery. Bro left after breakfast. The mister built a set of steps for Kaylee (so she can get on our bed) and I hung out here at MetaChat. We picked Kaylee up at 4:00 and we all had a nap when we got home.

I'm late to the chorus, but might I also add that yours was a lovely story, WolfDaddy.

Sat: I went to the funeral of my best friend's grandmother in the morning, and since it ended later than I expected, I decided to play hooky from my mandarin class in the afternoon and went out for lunch with my friends instead. I spent the rest of the day in fabric stores where I came across some great finds, took pictures of my new dummy, Sheila, modeling my jewelry for my portfolio and did various admin stuff for my business.

Sun: I should have gone to the gym but didn't...instead, I spent most of the day giving myself carpal tunnel with a spray paint can as I was trying to colour the boxes I'll be using for my jewelry a lovely chocolate brown. More admin stuff in the evening.

Well, thank you all for the kind words. I'm a blushing bunny right now. I like this weekend thread thing, and I think I'd like to spend one with mgl. From a discreet distance of course. ;-P Thanks everyone for contributing. I think our next topic should be how during weeknights we slob out and sit in front of these magic boxes with cheetos-residue all over our fingers and stuff like that. :-)

I layed 500 sq ft of laminate (including a winder staircase) and shoveled snow. Lots and lots of shoveling.

My poor choice of words, agro, it was a shave (well, just the clippers this time).

Saturday: drove miles along NY Rt. 5, looking for abandoned buildings and found none. Went to a fundraiser for my daughter's crew team, didn't win the drawing.

Sunday: chores mostly, then started repairing a used Seagull (Chinese) camera I bought on eBay.

Wolfdaddy, in my next life when I am a cat, I will eskimo-kiss the heck out of you.*

*offer valid when I'm in human form if I get to meet your cats