Quick Turn Around

I closed tonight, and I have to be back at 8am, so this'll be short.

It's raining right now, and the temperature is supposed to drop below freezing with sleet and snow predicted. This'll be the first freeze of the year (that I know of). The temps have been in the 70s here for the past week, so colder weather will be refreshing.

I'm supposed to just work a half day, but we'll see what happens with that.

I watched Field of Dreams on DVD last night. I'll post more about it later if I feel compelled. It's a great film.

Off to bed with me now...

Trim the Sick Cat with Rent

Such a feeble attempt to create a title out of the main points I'll be posting about. Um, I'll just begin then.

Trimming the Tree

I just finished decorating my cute little 2 ft white tree. It still needs some color, so I'm waiting til I acquire more stuff for it to post a pic.
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Sick Kitty

My poor Gracie picked up a nasty virus when I boarded her at the vet's during my vacation. It took her two weeks to get over it, and her poor widdle nosie is still a bit scabby. I didn't sleep much for about 10 days, worried to death that she wouldn't be able to breathe. She was completely congested and sneezed constantly, with little projectile droplets of kitty nose blood and kitty snot being sprayed all over my walls and sheets and various bed comforters. She was 17 pounds at her last checkup a month ago, and I bet she has dropped about 15-20% of her body weight during her illness. Poor kitty. Now she is pretty much back to normal and is lounging on the carpet by my right foot. Sweet kitty.

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RENT

I bought the movie of RENT a few days ago, as it was mega-on-sale at my store, and I love it. I bought the original cast recording many years ago, but wasn't all that impressed, and therefore have never seen any touring production of it.

I'm happy to say my opinion has changed. Six of the original 8 main cast members were in the film. I can completely see why teens and young adults love this musical. It speaks to a lot of the ideals a young person has (love, downfall, redemption, friendship, rage against the machine, death, etc.), but has enough timely social commentary to appeal to pretty much anyone who doesn't live in ignorance of reality.

I had to dig a bit to find the original cast recording, but I'm listening to it now. I like the newer arrangements of the film music, and the cast sounds better to me, as they now have 10 years more life and singing experience, but the fresh sound of the OCR is also enjoyable.

Anyway, try to Netflix this one. Even if you don't think you'll like it, just give it a chance.
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That's all for now. I'm going to try to post more regularly. I just haven't been motivated for a while. I also think a lot of what I write is really mundane, but I suppose mundane is better than nothing.

I'll leave you with a quote from the Mark character in RENT: "The opposite of war isn't peace...it's creation."

-jrh

Falling Trees of the Camping-Minded Sneezy Kitties

It's been very windy here for the past 24 hours. Very. Windy. So windy that while I was watching an episode of Stargate-SG1 on DVD this morning, a tree fell over into the parking lot. I heard it fall. It sounded like the roof was being torn off the building, and indeed there were some asphalt shingles on the ground as well.

The tree luckily didn't hit any cars (well, it might have grazed one car, I'm not exactly sure). I called the apartment complex office and left a message for them to send someone out immediately because the tree was block the entire drive way through the parking lot. Poor tree.

I live on the 3rd floor, which I hate btw, so I had a pretty decent line of sight to the poor guy who had to use a handsaw to break down the tree into removable pieces.
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I was on vacation last week. I went camping for a couple of nights, and it was the first time for me to take my new Honda Element with me. The tent affixed to the car most excellently. Only a handful of people were at the campground, but all of them stopped by to ask me questions about the 'car with the tent on it'.

I didn't leave my campsite except to go to the restroom/shower house. If I wasn't sleeping in my car, I was lounging in my hammock or relaxing by my fire. The only thing I don't like about camping is the unavoidable 4am trip to the potty in 40 degree weather.

I think perhaps being a guy would be beneficial at times like those.
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When I was camping, I boarded my kitty at the vet like I always do. On Sunday she began to sneeze, which at the time sounded like coughing to me. She was feeling very puny, poor kitty.

I scrambled and got her to the vet on Tuesday. Everyone knows me at this place. I'm in there several times a year to board Gracie, and I'm in there at least once a month to pick up her insulin and syringes.

Gracie has either a cold or a virus, and she got a shot to help with the fever, and I have to give her Amoxil in liquid dropper form twice a day. It's bright pink and very pretty. The vet thinks that an asymptomatic sick kitty was at the clinic at the same time that Gracie was there, and that's how she got sick.

So...he didn't charge me for the vet visit ($48), or the shot ($20-ish), so it just cost me $19 (the cost of the Amoxil). Gracie feels much better, though she's still sneezing a lot.

I was very worried about my precious kitty, so I'm glad she's on the mend.
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Later on I'll write about all the cool stuff I bought for less than $3.00 on Tuesday.

Miller Genuine Draft

What are the odds? Two famous Miller men visiting my place of work in the same 7-day span.

Larry Miller, of Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, Necessary Roughness, and I think Pretty Woman, notariety, dropped by the store late last week to do a stock signing of his book. I can't remember the title of it right now. He was gracious, humorous, polite, and thrilled my staff. I let him use the intercom system to talk about the book, and he was a hoot! He personalized the books, took pictures with my staff, and was an all-around pleasure to encounter.

and...this one's for Schell...

Wentworth Miller. Yes, I finally know what he looks like in person. Now that I've seen him in his pale green fishing hat, I realize that I've seen him before, I just didn't actually look closely enough to notice who he was. I don't look closely at anyone, really. I don't know why, I just don't. He was gracious and polite and very soft spoken. So Schell, you know him now through 2 degrees of separation. Go you.
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In other news:

I've been working...a lot. And I mean a lot. Since field training was put on hold for Q2, it all got dumped into Q3 (which just ended), and the beginning of this quarter. This week is our biggest merchandising changeout of the entire year, and that is also a ton of work. But oh my god, the signage and images are phenomenal. We got Robert Sabuda to create our visual theme again this year. We have pop-up Nutcracker soldiers all over the store. It really pops. Go check out a store near you to see all the cool stuff.

And I'm very excited about a couple of books recently. DK publishing has a book called Rainforest and another called Ocean. DK is my favorite publisher, as they use tons of photographs and a great layout design in all their books. I certainly don't need any more books, but I'd like to get those two anyway.

This is the best publishing holiday season in the past decade, so I'm looking forward to excited people and a lot of happy gift buyers.

My job is freaking awesome.
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In other news, I'm taking a vacation next week. I made reservations for a couple nights at my favorite campground again. I hope there's no burn ban this time. I'll need to call ahead to be sure. I do so love a wood fire at night, and a burn ban nixes that option. This'll be the first time I will use the tent on my new car, so I'm eager to try that out. The nights are getting chilly here now, so it'll be nice to have a bit more insulation from the great outdoors. I plan on eating a lot, reading a lot, and sleeping in my hammock a lot.

Now I have to go to sleep.