Where have I been?!?

Yes, yes, yes... I know what you're thinking... I haven't blogged for so long people were getting bored of coming here... I'm sorry and apologize... it's been a busy month for everyone in the house and my computer time has been mostly spent on emails and research... bad me... won't happen again for a little while hopefully... ^_~

For anyone who is interested, my birthday is tomorrow... I have already gotten one of the best gifts I could ever get from someone... I got to chat with my mom who lives very far away from me and find out that all is well there... I might get a little niece or nephew depending on when my sister has her first baby (I hear she's ready to pop at any time now... I think it would be more ironic and funny if the baby holds out for Labour Day... but it would also be awfully cool to have a birthday buddy ^_^)... I also found out that I had birthday money to spend, which is always appreciated and promptly went out to spend most of it yesterday...

Here's a list of the fun stuff I got so far:

• 1 Mega-millions Lottery Ticket for the $84 Million jackpot (I haven't checked to see if I won yet at the time I wrote this so I'm not sure if I even got anything out of this... I'll get another ticket on my birthday for tradition's sake)
• 1 happy tummy filled up with a delicious steak dinner (an experienced that was shared with my handsome hubby)
  
• 2 packages of stringless sugar-nap peas in the pod because they're so yummy and I haven't got the yard space to plant a garden full of them myself...
  
• 1 ball of rainbow nylon ribbon/wide string to be used on a costume or crocheting or just batting around like a cat... I might even just keep it whole and marvel at it from time to time or re-wrap it into a ball... I just love the colours found within it... great job to who/whatever dyed it for me!
• 1 chinese dragon/medallion set (got it in a crafts/beads section of a giant store I hate dearly but shop at anyway because I can't really afford to shop anywhere else right now... it shall be strung into something wearable when I figure out whether I want it to be a necklace or a hat or what-have-you)
• 1 copy of How to Draw Manga Costume Encyclopedia Vol. 1 (because it has tons of uses in both drawing and costuming... so many detailed options, so little cloth on hand.. plus the book store here didn't have the Japanese costuming book I wanted... no tabi-making for me! LOL ^_~)
• 1 copy of The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves, and Other Little People (since folklore is fun and you can never have too many books about feyfolk... the poor little thing was in a bargain bin at a major bookstore in town and it is slightly damaged in places that don't matter much... I just had to rescue it... after all, good books like this one are as elusive as their subject!)
  
• 1 pre-order downpayment at a local video game boutique in an effort to make sure we don't miss out on the City of Villains Collector's Edition... must... have... supervillainous fix
  
• a few pads of graph paper (because we never seem to have any around when I need it)
  
• 1 "backpack files" organizer with removeable files (for all of my tabletop RPG characters so that I can find them all!)

All in all, I'd say I got a pretty nice haul that will be enjoyed for many moons to come... as far as I know, I'm probably also getting some clothes from my hubby's parents and might be going to lunch and then to see The Brothers Grimm on Friday... yay! Fun all around... oh! I almost forgot! I also got the complete anime DVD set of Final Fantasy Unlimited, a letter from my grandma, and a card from my aunt & cousin... life is grand... keep smiling, Blogland... I know I will be for quite a while... ^_^

Knot From a Jedi...

My cat, who goes by many many names (Kitten, Shadow, Shady, Fuzzy, and Darth Kittious, just to name a few), has had a very long week... he lost a back tooth to decay, got his beautiful long fur run over by the massive computer chair (which left a huge welt on his backside when he panicked and the fur was pulled out in an enormous clump), had the tip of his tail stepped on a couple of times, and it's been stupidly hot and humid here, thus hindering his desire to do anything but sleep and drink lots of water... some good things happened too, mind you... he enjoyed the ceremony of opening a new bag of kitty food, went on a few walks outside on his leash, had plenty of people in the house to play with him, and he drank out of my water cup (that I set on the floor by the couch when I sit there) at least 4 times... he loves to drink from my cup even though he has his own water cup that sits right next to mine... I'm beginning to think it's the novelty of the coloured water (the cups I use are colourful see-throughy plastic and when light hits them it makes the water inside look like the colour of the cup) that makes him drink...

Yes, my kittycat had a rough week...but he also proved to me this week, that he might have been a ship's cat in a past life... yesterday, as we were playing together with his favourite bit of rope (it's a chewy, non-fraying, drawstring from my hubby's joggers/shorts if I remember correctly), he managed to tie a figure-of-eight knot into it! I used to be in the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets before I got married and I used to teach kids how to tie that very knot since it's very useful in sailing and such... it was not always an easy task to get them to learn it, let me tell you... but my cat, who has no training whatsoever, tied it all on his own! He did a flippity flop and tossed the rope to me and voila! Perfect stopper knot! Needless to say, he was well rewarded for his wonderful trick... any cat can tie an overhand knot... but mine kicked his up a notch... Go super-kitty go! ^_~