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| i suppose i have a moment to update my small audience on the happenings of my life.
but first, a tale of bitter irony (with a happy ending!)
I mentioned a while back that Alan and I had finally gotten cable internet and TV. We had it for a total of eight days. Basic cable doesn't really offer many channels that we'd watch other than the two we get with rabbit ears, and up until then, I had been picking up a neighbor's wireless connection. Alan's computer couldn't get it, but he'd just use mine. Well Alan had stumbled upon a great deal so we decided to get the service for ourselves for better reliability and better picture clarity (oooooh!). A few days later, we realized we didn't really need it. And we really couldn't afford to stick it in our budget. So we got rid of it. I thought, well I don't mind going back to just watching NBC and CBS and using our neighbor's shaky internet connection. It was literally the day we canceled that our neighbor must have moved or maybe just moved his modem because I could no longer even get a signal. Boo! There was no more hope for me to ever update my xanga or facebook from the comfort of my own home. Alas, a few weeks later, a signal popped up. I rubbed my eyes to be sure, and YES! I was picking up a neighbor's wireless internet once again. As I turn my computer on whilst sitting on my couch, my computer logs on to a network passing through the air waves of our property. Life is good once again.
Ahhh. In other news, Alan recently got a job as an ETSU for the Presbyterian campus ministry's International Student Fellowship. He starts in August when the current guy leaves and the new school year begins. We've been attending on Friday and they're an awesome bunch of people. It's basically a group for all the international students at ETSU (and for a little Northeast Tennessee university, there are quite a few) who'd like to come and fellowship and get help navigating the area and settling in. Most of the students who come are from Africa with the majority from Cameroon but there are a few from elsewhere. There is a man from Pakistan, a girl from Korea, a girl from China (who happens to be from Handan City! Where I taught the other summer), and I'm sure others who I haven't met yet. Not all the international students come, but there are about 30 that attend. Someone cooks and we all eat and then usually have a guest speaker. They're a goofy bunch and are really friendly and we look forward to working with them.
In addition, if you didn't know, Alan is going to the Middle East in a few weeks! No, not like in the army. He's going on the Middle East Travel Seminar with a bunch of other seminary students. They get to visit Israel, Jordan, Greece, Syria and I think one other place getting to visit museums, archaeological sites and other historical spots. He'll be gone for three weeks. I'm really gonna miss him, but I figure he was wonderful enough to let me go to China for two weeks so I should be supportive of him going for three weeks. Especially since it's a school trip. Mine was more vacation ;p
That's all the big updates. I'm sure I'll think of more or more will occur before I post next.. in 7 years.. it seems..
BYE!
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| in case you haven't, you should really watch the video in my previous post. it's freakin' hysterical.
last night, Alan and i decided Turbo really needed a bath. i don't know if he's ever had a bath before.. if he has, it was when i was a kid and i had nothing to do with it. so anyway, he was really dirty and he's had some fleas recently (gross.) so along with some flea medicine we thought a bath would be great.
we went online to search about bathing cats, not because we didn't know how (wet cat, soap cat, rinse cat, dry cat...) but because i wasn't sure whether or not i could use baby bath on him because i didn't have any cat shampoo (you can, by the way). so when Alan typed in something like "what to use to bathe a cat" this video was the first thing to pop up (link in previous post).
the video is more fact than unfact. at least for turbo. i know some cats, especially ones that have been bathed all their lives, handle it pretty well. turbo FREAKED out.
if you've ever met my cat, you probably know that he isn't normal. he doesn't meow, he kind of barks. he's also extremely tolerant as in he'll let you dress him up and drag him around and the maddest he gets is having a pissed off expression. so i figured with alan's help, we could get him clean in no time.
we filled up our big cooler with warm water and set it in the tub. then i got in the tub and Alan held Turbo while sitting on the side of the tub. we got him wet with a washcloth and he squirmed a lot but okay so far. then i lathered him up with the baby bath. then... RINSE! he didn't handle this so well. you may have heard me describe the sounds he makes when we take him on a car trip:
you know those toy plastic rods that have a little plastic piece inside so when you turn the rod over it makes this "errrrooooouuuuuurrrreeeoooo..." sound as the piece goes down the tube? (you'd have to hear me say that.
anyway, that's the sound turbo makes when he's in his cage on a long car ride. well, when we stuck him in the cooler to rinse him off, he let out this absolutely terrible sound. i wish i had recorded it. seriously. i've never heard a cat make this sound. it sounded human. i'm not exaggerating! it almost sounded like he was saying "nooo!!!!" unfortunately we couldn't let him run off all soapy so we had to finish rinsing him. needless to say, i've got several scratches on my arms and on my neck. i had to force myself to continue to bath. the noises were awful. ugh.
but.. in the end, i have a clean cat who is no longer mad at me.
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| http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9QwK5EHSmg informational and entertaining! joy! in case you were in some need of knowing how to wash a cat  | | |
| ahh.. i am really enjoying life right now. i wish i could be like this all the time.
i *heart* you guys!
anyway, not much has been going on. just school pretty much which consumes a lot of my time. the more i learn it's like the stupider i feel. oh well..
Alan and i finally ushered ourselves into the new century and got cable TV and internet. we weren't gonna do it because we couldn't afford it and we can sometimes get wireless at our house from the apartments down the street. but it didn't work on Alan's computer so we just sucked it up and bought it. it's so handy having the internet at home! i forgot how super awesome it is to go online and chat on my couch! plus it's really cheap. we're paying $28.99 a month for the cable and internet.
my cat has a boo boo :( i was petting him on the porch yesterday and i noticed a really nasty cut on his belly so i freaked out and brought him inside and broke out my first aid kit. he'll be fine.. but it still made me worry. i *heart* my kitty. especially since i'm an only child, growing up Turbo was a great friend to me. ahhhh.. those were the days. I hope he sticks around for a lot longer. he's going on 16 and still going strong.
i also put a bunch of pictures on facebook finally. yay. go me.
that's about it. i miss everyone who's not here right now.. which is pretty much everyone.
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| so, i've been taking French for about a year (and hopefully will continue for two more). my goal is to be fluent enough to carry on a conversation with someone who's actually French, and be able to get around France if we stop there next summer.
well, we've got a lab manual with a CD that we have to do with every chapter where we listen to a conversation and fill in the blanks or we listen to questions and give our responses.. my first semester it was really easy because the first 4 chapters the instructions were in English and the people on the CD talked super slow. now ALL the words in that freakin book are in French and the people on the CD suddenly began talking really fast. I'm doing really well in the class because I can read and write French (with the vocab I know) excellent. But I was getting SOOOO frustrated tonight trying to do my homework because I could not understand a single word in some of these sentences. I tried playing it about 4 times and just gave up and looked in the back of the book. boo.
anyway, just thought I'd get that off of my chest. oui oui.. tee hee.
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