Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

I have had an incredibly busy week. I've got more to do, but I think I'm going to take a couple of hours off to enjoy Noticing it's Autumn -- if the feel and smells and light of this season affect you the way they do me, you'll know what I mean. Then I need to see about balancing the extra alertness I feel because of the weather, against the pain in my arms. And hope this client is impressed enough to send more work my way.

Because I've been so busy, I've been sort of skimming my friends page. I never quite got all the way caught up the last time I got behind, and I still hope to, but it'll be a little while before I can devote that much time to it. Hmm ... if I could download the past two months worth as one biiiiig file and print it all out in very small type to read in bed or on the can ... I'd still need to go back and check out the interesting-looking links, and find time to post comments, but I'd get caught up on everyone's news a whole lot faster.

I did get to spend a little time with dmk yesterday after I got to a reasonable stopping point on the project. Not as much time as I would have liked...

Anyhow, as usual I've got more in my head to write than I have time for the writing of. I've seen a mess of links that I really ought to share, but I'm going to have to go find them all over again because I needed to close most of my open browser windows to free up enough RAM to run a few more browsers for compatibility testing. (Yeah, I've been doing web stuff.)

In the meantime, some cat musings, just 'cause they're fresh in my mind and won't take a lot of careful composing...

I got annoyed at the number of dust bunnies in the front hall, so I grabbed the whisk broom hanging nearby and collected them into one dust puppy. Which I then left there until the next time I remembered to grab the dustpan out of the bathroom (which is also where the full-size broom is). Well, uh, that lasted until the next time Perrine got into an "I want to CHASE something!" mood and tackled a toy in the hall. It was one that has just enough bounce to it for her to play kitty-soccer. She scattered that clump in a most spectacular fashion. She's been wanting to play a lot lately, mostly "chase", though I can sometimes distract her into either playing "swat" or chasing a toy instead, when I'm too tired or my knees hurt. But she's had to put up with my saying, "I don't have time right now" even more. The problem with playing "chase" with her is that she'll run into some tiny, cat-sized space that I can't reach, and then look at me, waiting for me to flush her out of it. So I have to signal a role-change and get her to chase me, but she doesn't always pick up on that signal. Either I'm not doing it quite right, or she's confused by a human giving that sign.

Sometimes when Perrine gives the "chase me" sign, she doesn't really want to play "chase", she just wants me to follow her to the bedroom so she can curl up next to me. Maybe that's how I'll spend my couple-hours break.

Ping pong ball. Stairs. Three-story house. Cat. Heh.

A couple of nights ago, we played a game I hadn't played with her before. We played "stalk". Except that I had trouble keeping track of who was stalking whom. Or is that just how cats play "stalk" -- the roles are in constant flux and/or overlap? Anyhow, it was also very dark, and I lost track of Perrine, and then there she was a dozen feet closer to me and around a corner from where I thought she was, and she made a noise suddenly ... and between just not expecting her to be there and worrying abuout stepping on her in the dark, she startled the Hell out of me. Which caused me to make a loud noise, which startled her and she zoomed off. At that point I figured maybe I should turn on a light somewhere.

And Perrine finally got around to jumping up to the bathroom sink. She's not sure what to make of running water yet.

There are at least three photos I have in my head that I want to take, but none are going to work as snapshots. One in particular is going to take blocking out a chunk of time at the right time of day, and tossing toys until I catch her in the right moment mid-leap -- that's probably an hour or two. The others won't take as long, but will still take a little care unless I happen to get lucky when I've got a camera in my hand. Then I get to add that film to the pile of stuff waiting to be developed. Oh, it'll be worth the effort, but I need to feel that I can afford the time when I have the energy to deal and Perrine's in the right mood.

And maybe I'll get around to writing all those other things in my head later.