I'm a Bad Pet Owner!

Sydney is back in Newark, after nearly three weeks in Dallastown. The blizzard postponed when I could pick her up. I brought her back Sunday early afternoon, just before our next winter storm picked up. The long absence made me forget basic pet needs.

Tonight, I was getting ready for bed in the bathroom. As you know, Syd has been my bathroom buddy recently. This time, Sydney was hanging out by the toilet while I was using the sink. I laughed, but then I watched what she was doing. She stood up at the toilet. Well, that's new. And, she started cleaning her paw. Huh? Then, I watched her repeatedly put her paw in the water and lick off her paw.

Suddenly, it dawned on me: I hadn't given her water yet. It's been over 48 hours! I had remembered to feed her and to clean her litter box. I also had given her wet food and added water to it (because the vet had recommended that for Syd's sensitive stomach). Still, the kitty needed more water. She had been spending a lot of time in the bathroom, even when I wasn't there. She may have been getting water from the sink and bathtub.

I don't know why she didn't just say something instead of being all passive-aggressive. "Oh, that's okay. I don't neeee-eeed water. I can just slowly paw it out of the toilet."

Duke Women's Basketball Goes Undefeated!

Last night, in the comfort of my warm apartment as it snowed and sleeted, etc., I watched the Duke women's basketball team barely out a win over UNC and maintain their undefeated record this season. Pretty amazing!

Car Deco Idea

On the way into school today, in the slushy mess that the winter storm left (it could have been much worse!), there were some balloons in the middle of the road. Someone didn't avoid them, and the balloons got attached underneath their car. I was a little jealous because it really fancied up their white sedan.

My Band

At the gym, they show MTV-U. MTV-U donated the large, flat-screen TVs. There was a story about the Fratellis--you may recognize their song "Flathead" from the recent iPod commercials:

and she said the boy's not right in the head
and you stood and said oh my god til she said...
bara bap bara ra ra ra bara bap bara ra ra ra...

They seem like a fun Scottish band. When they introduced themselves, each said that they were the drummer or "the third drummer". And, MTV-U had to put subtitles in for Ami's like me, who can't understand their accents.

There is some speculation that the band's name comes from the bad guys in The Goonies. (I really didn't like that movie, but that's what I get for watching it for the first time when I was in college.) But, in this interview, the bassist said that his last name is Fratelli. The other two's last names were Mac[Something] (typical Scotsmen), and The Fratellis was the best band name. The other two bandmates took his last name as pseudonyms.

If I was in a band, the band would have to be The Sprenkles because I have the best last name--ever. I'm sure Frank would push for The Zappaterrinis, but people would think we had some connection to Frank Zappa. I guess the Killgroves may be in contention, but I like mine better.

My Submissions to The Office

When someone tells me their baby's name and I don't approve of the name, I'll say, "Oh, is (s)he named after someone?", while nodding sympathetically.

If someone plays me in a sport using their lefthand, I'll say, "Oh, no--you don't need to humor me. You can play with your dominant hand."

I think I'll send these to The Office because they are similar to awkward things Michael (Steve Carrell) would say.

Dave's Interview

I helped Dave with a mock interview yesterday before his phone interview with two professors from another university. I mocked him superbly, if I do say so myself.

I followed up with Dave about the interview. He claimed, "The guy with Tourette's kept saying 'You're hired!' and 'You got the job!' It was a real confidence booster."

I wonder what it's like to live in Dave's brain.

The Cat's Second Winter Vacation

Sydney is in Dallastown for an extra week because the roads that I need to travel weren't cleaned off enough to go get her. Plus, Dallastown got more snow over the weekend, so it wasn't in the cards.

Dad says that they've started to call Sydney "Isabella". And, that he's had her birth certificate changed to say that he's the father. And, that he has had me declared incompetent because I parked on ice. (That was part of my misadventure returning from Albany last week after the blizzard.)

Anyway, I think we need to decrease the amount of time that Dad can watch "Days".

My Unlucky Boyfriend

Poor Frank. He's very unlucky. Or stupid, depending on how you look at the glass.

Last year, he was getting a large tax refund because he was only employed for 4 months. Then, he rearended me and spent the tax refund on fixing our cars.

This year, he's getting a nice tax refund (got a major raise around September), so broke his friend's sunroof while attempting to break up the ice off the roof of his car. We're not sure how much of his tax refund will be spent on fixing the sunroof.

Frank estimates that he is completely stupid a good 75% of the time. I think he spends more than 25% of his time sleeping, so that gives you a good picture of what Frank is like. Frank thinks that I'm completely stupid about 30% of the time, so there are some times where we're both "sitting around, drooling."

I've told you of my mishaps. Yesterday, I posted my "Square" post on the UD CISters blog, not the Sprenkliest blog. I recognized the problem quickly and fixed it, but I'll need to be more careful when using Blogger's Dashboard.

A Square Under 'I', Please

Mom and Dad have been cat-sitting for me while I've been traveling the world--er, PA and NY. Sydney does enjoy her vacation home, which is much larger than the apartment we share. She also likes all the new enemies--plastic bags, hanging strings, Mom and Dad. Sydney has attacked Mom and Dad, on separate occasions, Godzilla-style. Another time, as Dad walked up the stairs in our split-level house, he dragged his hand along the paneling while Syd was on the next set of stairs. Sydney reached down to bat at his hand. He told her that they weren't playing that game right then.

Then, Mom reports, "Despite what Syd may have told you, I did not deliberately drop the book on her head when she was sitting on my lap. My fingers just gave out. However she did feel it necessary to severely chastise the plastic bag that was near her cat food. And I do mean severely."

My comment: Sydney is always ready for a fight. She might be part Irish. I may need to add that part of her persona into her name (Sydney Evander).

P.S. If you don't get the title, I don't want to explain it to you.

Baby Kitty Eva is Growing Up

This blog entry is courtesy of Jessie:

I just found something on the couch. At first I thought it was a crumb, but it was hard. Upon closer inspection I realized it was a tooth. I remember the vet asking me if Eva had lost her baby teeth. That's something you don't always notice. This seems to be proof, however, that she has lost at least a few teeth. I tried prying her mouth open, but she was resistent. She'll have to put her tooth under her pillow tonight and see if the tooth fairy comes. I doubt it.

Last night in class one of my students was saying that she got some teeth pulled. She was disgusted because the dentist asked her if she wanted to have them. I said that she could put them under her pillow for the tooth fairy. Maybe she would get a quarter. My students gave me some very strange looks. Turns out, they don't have the tooth fairy here. My comment: It must really suck growing up in Germany.

Boston Legal Stole My Idea

In high school, I had the idea that we should leverage Americans' body fat from liposuctions and use it as fuel. Specifically, I thought maybe we could inject it into malnourished kids. My idea wasn't well-received. I'm only half-listening to the show, but there was similar discussion, but to use the fat more for electic fuel. I was ahead of my time for a TV writer.

The Club

Marc brought up a good point. I'm starting a club for people whose name has a common alternate spelling. You know: Sara/Sarah, Mark/Marc, Karl/Carl, Kristina/Kristine/Christina/Christine, Brian/Bryan, Darrell/Daryl. Andrew/Andruw doesn't count because I only know one of the second kind. I'm not counting nicknames for entry into my club. Even so, my club will have a lot of members. I may have to start charging dues. Twice as much for the incorrect spellings (Sarah, I'm looking at you...).

Why I'm a Horrible Person

My friend Mike went on a ski trip and sprained his knee. Bad timing because he had a bunch of interviews and he had to hobble around on crutches.

That's not why I'm a horrible person.

This made me think of Andy's ski trip where he got hit on the back of the head by the ski lift. And, it made me laugh a lot. That's so much funnier than a sprained knee. It's only funny because in my brain, the scene plays like a cartoon and because Andy is okay now. Just the mental scars of my laughing at him linger.

I like this quote

When The Gettysburgian would create our April Fool's issue, we'd make up stories and sometimes have quotes that had stuff in brackets. We thought this was funny because you never knew what the person actually saying that had to be replaced by bracketed text. I recently read a story with a quote that I thought might be from our April Fool's issue.

"You will always make more [money] from [selling vulnerabilities or malicious code to] bad guys than from a company like 3Com," says eEye Digital Security co-founder Mark Maiffret.