Musings from Singapore: meow's it going?

My apartment building has a family of cats living in the courtyard/lobby. the cats are multi-colored (black, white, tan, calico) but all seem to be part of the same family. They play well together and share the dwelling space with no quabbles. They're lovely.

Someone in the building feeds them: they gather around the building manager's office around dinner time and wait to be fed. I'm not sure who feeds them, but there is a bowl that appears from time to time, with food in it and the cats eat. Then they nap. The scatter around the courtyard, on the ground, on the furniture, on the sculptures, etc. 

There are a couple of cats I like more than the others. (Yes, I have a favorite stray cat). There's one with an eye injury. I'm not sure if it's from a fight or just some weird infection or a scratch or...but his right eye is hurt. But despite the injured eye, he's the most adventurous of the cats. Sometimes I see him roaming around the pool or hanging out in the stairwell. And after dinner, when the other cats are licking themselves in the parking lot, this cat likes to curl up on the narrow table just opposite the elevator.

Sometimes (when he's not in a post-dinner snooze), he's roaming around and will say hi. One night, as I was coming home from work, he greeted me in the courtyard and walked me to the elevator. The doors opened, I entered the elevator....and so did the cat. He walked in, then turned around and faced the doors and sat there, facing the doors for the duration of the ride. He didnt look at me or talk to me...just the doors. Just like humans do in an elevator. We reached my floor, the doors opened and he walked out of the elevator and off to the left. With a purpose. Like he had somewhere to be. I got out of the elevator, turned right to go to my apartment and bid him goodnight.


I'm not sure how he got back down (I live on the 7th floor) but the next morning, when I walked out to go to work, he was lounging in the courtyard.

The rest of the cats kinda bug me. And there are more now than there used to be. Some of them look gross. And mean. But this one, I like.*


Maybe being alone in a foreign country makes me more interested in the company of stray cats. Or maybe I just feel bad for a stray cat with a hurt eye. Or maybe the heat has finally gotten to me. But I have made friends with the stray cats that live in the courtyard of my apartment building.

I keep telling The Tad and Rosie that if they want a cat, I'll bring one back for them. So far, no takers on the offer. But I'm here til March. Let me know.

*I dont like him enough to invite him in to my apartment or even touch him or anything. But I do speak when I pass him in the courtyard. I say hello. He nods at me or meows back. It's casual, but pleasant.

Just kickin' it

My office decided to join a kickball league. We formed a team, came up with a name and signed up. We have matching orange t-shirts. It's rad.


We're 2-1 right now, after winning our opening game (decisively), losing our second game (it was close) and DOMINATING in our third game. (Seriously, the score was 23-4. Though we kinda felt bad when we realized the other team didnt really know the rules.....but then we realized it's not OUR fault they didnt read the rules they were provided. So yeah.). We're really looking forward to more games, now that we've got our schwerve on.


We have our fourth game tomorrow. I'm hoping to play a little better than last game and maybe catch some of the line drives coming at me, rather than just knocking them down and trying to make the play. That way, I might not have to lunge at a guy running to first, ending up tangled up with him on the ground, with a scraped right knee and ginormous bruise on my left shin.


Seriously, it's big and bruisy: 4 inches x 2 inches, just off-center. Not quite as bad as the bruises I got playing first base to The Tad's shortstop when our office had a softball team. So maybe this bruise will go away in something less than 2 years.

DOLA?

Downside of Living Alone? 


It's not totally a downside...maybe just a side-effect. Or an oddity. Or  something.


It has to do with food. 


When I grocery shop, I tend to buy things that are on sale. Especially produce. Things that are in-season are fresher, better and more likely to be on sale. So that's what I do. And if something's on REAL good sale, I buy a lot. 


This is a great strategy for buying healthy, affordable groceries. Not so much for making meals that aren't bizarre.


As a result, I tend to eat a lot of side dishes. Most things that my mother would consider a side dish, I consider dinner. For example, this week, because cabbage was on sale, I made an awesome cabbage/apple slaw. And proceeded to have that for dinner. It was delicious. But it was a side dish.


I consider this a side effect of living alone. It's rarely worth the effort for me to plan and cook a full meal for just myself. Between the shopping and preparing and cooking - AND DISHWASHING (reminder: my apt does not have a dishwasher. I wash everything by hand.) - it's just not something I'm into. 


So I guess I'll continue having side dishes for dinner. Maybe I should reinstate family dinner night for FrankieWayne and The Tad. Hmmm....

Happy Holidays!

During the holidays, many companies shut down their offices completely, giving everyone the time off. To do this, they trade off other holidays throughout the year (MLK day, Presidents Day, Flag Day, whatever) but they get major time off at Christmas.

My office doesn't do this. For which I'm grateful. I like having a random Monday off in February. And because we have a pretty fabulous vacation day policy, we have the ability to take days off at Christmas. So I took the week off before Christmas and headed to the east coast to see the fam. Taking the week off before Christmas is my usual practice and my favorite. I get home in time to do Christmas shopping (so I dont have to schlep gifts across the country) and I get to enjoy all the decorations and cooking and stuff. And my family does Christmas before Dec. 25 every year anyway.

For example, this year, on Dec. 20 was Christmas dinner with my parents' friends. Dec. 21 was Christmas dinner with my long-time friends. Dec. 22 was shopping, Dec. 23 was Christmas with The Family (all of 'em) and Dec. 24 was Xmas Eve at church, then dinner/party at mom & dad's with neighbors and church friends (and Chick-fil-A). So by Dec. 25 all that was left to do was to see what Santa brought and play with it!

I'm out of the office the week before Christmas....the rest of my team is out the week after....there's always someone here in case something needs to get done....it works out well.

But back to those companies that close for the holidays.....my clients belong to that group. Which means that there's not a lot going on in the office this week. Which is AWESOME. I've been able to catch up on all kinds of things: expense reports, invoices, old emails, etc.

Today I was cleaning off my PC desktop and "My Documents" folder, deleting old files, archiving files to our shared server and generally reorganizing things. I'm applying a very scientific process to evaluating the files I'm dealing with. Below are the questions I'm asking myself in deciding the fate of these documents:
- Do I need to keep the online dating profile of a guy I met on Match.com 5 years ago?
Answer: No
- Do I need to keep the IM conversation from when I "broke up" with my crazy bitch ex-roommate?
Answer: Yes
- What should I do with the mail merge email I wrote 3 years ago on behalf of a client, who is no longer a client and the mail merge source file is no longer able to be located by my PC?
Answer: Delete
- What about the Photoshopped picture of my former team eating french fries?
Answer: make computer wallpaper and put on Facebook
- The picture of a former co-worker's cat with a cast on his leg (because he broke it jumping off the counter)?
Answer: Keep
- An Excel grid titled "People The Tad Likes"?
Answer: Open to see WTH this is, then keep

- Graph on Rick Astley's planned activity frequency?
Answer: Keep and post on my blog

But then there's the stuff I don't know what to do about. Like the Yoda Dog picture, the three wolves shirt and a file titled "Bad Ass".

Sigh. Another tough day at the office.

Korean Monkey Baby is greatly pleased

Last night was Family Dinner #4. Modifying a recipe from PattyCake, I made white chicken enchilada casserole, with chips & salsa and rice & beans.

Evidence that it was pretty bangin':
- everyone went back for seconds
- I greatly pleased Korean Monkey Baby
- I got 4 high fives and a slap on the ass
- The Tad* said it was good...twice**
- FrankieWayne mumbled (through a mouthful) that it was really good
- they asked if we could have this again next time, too

In case I havent mentioned lately that I LOVE family dinner...let me just say it now. I LOVE FAMILY DINNER!

*The Tad is generally referred to as "my idiot friend". However, there are two subjects about which I will always trust The Tad: the internet and food.
**The Tad does not give compliments. The Tad generally makes fun of you using slightly offensive references to show his superiority over you.

Family Dinner

FrankieWayne and The Tad are kinda my go-to guys. I'm kinda their go-to girl.

They put up with my dumb girl questions. I tolerate their stupid boy humor. We do dumb things together and usually end up cracking up. A lot.

Recently, we decided* that since we're all single and a) tired of spending money going out to eat and b) unmotivated to cook for ourselves, that we should join forces and do weekly dinner night.

Basically I cook and FrankieWayne and The Tad come over and eat.

FrankieWayne gets some company, The Tad gets out of his house for a bit and I get to hostess. It's a win-win-win.

Some people might think that I really get the shaft in this deal, but I kinda think I win. I like to cook, but dont do it often because I'm not going to go through the trouble of cooking for just me. They give me cash and I plan the menu and grocery shop. I get to cook for people...who give me grocery money...and make me laugh.

If I had a dishwasher, I'd almost feel bad for ripping them off.

We just concluded Week 2 and it's going well so far. In honor of this week's Gamecocks game, we ate shrimp 'n' grits. Taking a risk and breaking the cardinal rule of entertaining (don't do a recipe for the first time when company's coming) worked out well. The guys both went back for seconds, so I guess that's a win.

We have a couple of ground rules: no wheat, nothing super spendy, nothing with too much cheese and we have to vote on inviting additional people to join family dinner. So far, so good.

* By "we decided" I really mean "The Tad decided". Because that's how things work in this dysfunctional group of friends. The Tad always drives. The Tad picks the music, the restaurant, the route, the time of the outing and what time we go home. That's how it's always been and how it always will be.

It's a hard-knock life

So The Tad has been trying online dating.

And once again:
http://www.thetad.com/theblog/?p=463

STILL Can't. Focus.

But can breathe. My sinus infection thing is mostly gone, just a bit of a lingering cough. The lack of focus has more to do with my (self-diagnosed) ADD than a stuffy nose or associated medicines.

As usual, my illness struck at the most inopportune time: busy week at work and out-of-town guest. So I had to drug up and power through. Which I did and now I'm fine. Yay.

Despite my stuffy nose and cold meds, Maid Marian and I had a lovely visit. She got in on a Wednesday night and spent the next couple of days exploring the city, hitting the Market, the flagship Nordstrom, other lovely city spots. We ate at such fabulous places as Collins Pub and Pesos, visited the Space Needle (at sunset, ftw!) and loitered about.

Maid Marian got to meet Pie and Fritha and Conan and partake of Conan's delicious kabobs. She also got to meet The Tad, FrankieWayne, PattyCake, Pickle and others (about whom she had heard many stories).

This was all fun, but probably the highlight of the trip was the lovely hike we took...by accident.

Seattle has ferryboats. Ferryboats are cool. We thought it'd be fun to ride one. So we looked up the ferry schedule and prices and figured out where the ferry terminals were and decided that we'd take the ferry to Vashon Island. I'd heard it was fun.

So we purchase passenger fares and walk on to the ferry. We have a lovely ride, see some great views and land on Vashon, where we start walking toward downtown. We walk (at approximately a 6% grade) for 30 minutes or so and come upon the Vashon Island Realty Office, which advertises maps and ferry schedules. We stop in to pick up maps and schedules and the guy says "You girls walkin' to town?" And we say "Yes sir." (we're good Southern girls...of course we said Yes sir).
To which he replied "You thought it was close to the ferry terminal, didn't you?"
Uh...blink blink. "We didnt really know...we're just adventurin'."
"Yeah, town's about 4 more miles from here."
Uh...blink blink.

By this point, we figure we've walked that far, we might as well keep walking. Plus, it was nice weather and we didnt have anything else we had to do. So we kept walking.

We passed 3 houses, a retirement center, a cat store (where you could buy cats, not stuff for cats), lots of trees, some fields and a couple of horses. We're pretty sure the horses were laughing at us. Much like the drivers of the cars who kept passing us.

Something like 55 minutes passes and we walk upon an Episcopal Church that is also a bus stop. I remember someone (JazzHands I think) telling me that town was "a little ways" from the ferry terminal and thinking I should have asked "Whatchu mean 'a little ways'?"

By this point, we are hot, thirsty, in need of "facilities" and just plain over it. We hop the bus back to the ferry terminal and realize that there's this dumpy looking Mexican resturant on the water, so we head in to wait for the ferry. We found a nice little table on the deck, ordered (delicious) nachos and margaritas and spent the next couple of hours reminiscing about our accidental hike.

I really should send her this as a reminder of our outing.

The Tad Makes Me Fat

When The Tad moved to Portland, I lost weight. In the 8 weeks he's been back in town, I have gained 8 lbs. Yes, that's still single digits, but that is one pound a week. At this rate, by the end of the year, I'll be one of those people who can't exit my home without the aid of large machinery.

For those who havent met The Tad, let me just explain something: he's ridiculous. He's the one who wrote the Craigslist post about the crapshoot of a first date; when he met Queenie, he stroked her face and tried to throw carrots down her dress; he owns multiple Elton John bobbleheads and Celine Dion t-shirts.

Regardless, there are 2 things about which you should ALWAYS trust The Tad: the internet and food.

Therefore, when The Tad says "let's go eat", I have no choice but to say yes. I KNOW that whatever happens after that will be entertaining and delicious. So I say yes. And I eat. And I gain 8 lbs.

The Man, The Myth, The Legend: The Tad

I know this guy. Let's call him "The Tad". He's ridiculous.

I know I tend to exaggerate for effect when I tell stories, but when I tell stories about The Tad, I don't have to.

The Tad named his cat after his best friend. Sometimes we have to ask if The Tad is referring to the cat or the human when he says "I was hanging out with FrankieWayne the other day and...."

One Labor Day weekend, The Tad talked Sliver, FrankieWayne and me into going to the beach with him. At 11pm. We drove there, stopped at four different fast food resturants, a casino and a gas station, spent an hour at the beach, then drove all the way back. With all the windows down. And got home at dawn.

For Christmas this year, The Tad gave me a collection of Bacon Salt, in multiple flavors.

The Tad met a girl during online dating who lived next door to his ex-girlfriend's new girlfriend. Yeah.

So I tell you that story, to tell you this story.

The Tad was living in the PDX for a while and decided to explore online dating. Via Craigslist. He posted an ad describing himself and his desired mate. He even included a drawing of his ideal pairing. He got a few responses and pursued them. After a date with one such girl, he posted the following:


"We met on Craigslist so I am hoping that this post finds you. I know that it could quite possibly be the most humiliating first date that you have ever been on, but I am willing to look past that. I thought we had chemistry sitting at McMenamins sharing that basket of Cajun Tots while drinking the Terminator Stout. I really felt like there was a connection there. I found you to be intelligent and witty and looked forward to further conversation with you.

At some point in life, everyone has gambled on a fart and lost. It just happened to be on a first date in the passenger seat of my car. Please don’t feel bad. The package I sent you with Pepto the next day and the note that said 'First dates are always a crap shoot. Call me' was meant to be funny, not offensive.

I have gambled on a fart and lost on multiple occasions. The first time I did it was very memorable. It happened when I was five and sitting on my uncle’s lap. I am lactose intolerant, but love cheese. I probably win 95% of the time, but I don’t think anyone wins 100% of the time. That’s why they call it “gambling”. I’m the last person to judge you for crapping your pants. In fact, I am impressed by your boldness. The timing on the other hand, could have been a tad bit better…like when you’re not sitting on a heated leather seat…What I am trying to say is that if you want to go out again, I would be more than happy to take you someplace where we can get a meal that is high in fiber and less taxing on the digestive tract.

I await your call, The Tad

P.S. - If you s*** yourself on purpose to end the evening early…Touché…"


The girl responded, told him to move on; his story has been picked up by the local weekly paper, a couple of other blogs and is quickly becoming the stuff of urban legends.