horde and purge

We’ve been doing some purging, for Reasons. It’s a wholesale get rid of shit throw down, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t still things that don’t give us pause when playing Keep, Donate, Toss (the boring old person version of Fuck, Marry, Kill): a tiny shirt I wore in grade 1 (go Hampton Hawks!) (kept), freebie gaming shirts (how will people know I’m a nerd if I don’t wear this Titanfall shirt?!) (donated), the Fertility Blanket (tossed).

I feel really guilty about tossing the Fertility Blanket, but I didn’t have a choice. Some history: Ed and I received it for our wedding from my Auntie Grandma Cousin Lady (an elderly relative on my mom’s side – we’re apparently related, but I don’t know how). She crocheted it for us in the babibest of blue and pink, leaving no question that the blanket was intended to encourage (or perhaps cause) procreation on a biblical scale. The blanket was lovely (if kind of hideous), and I really appreciated the gesture – crocheting something of that size must have taken ages. Auntie Grandma Cousin Lady knew nothing about me, and had no reason not to think that Ed and my first goal would be to have ALL THE BABIES .. so, very touching gift. Even if I was terrified of it.

We decided to hang onto the blanket in case we ever needed a covering that would fertilize eggs when no one was looking. We moved it from Edmonton to Calgary to East Van to North Van and back to East Van, never once using it for its intended purpose because why on earth would we. I may have even worn gloves while handling it, just in case (I am nothing if not paranoid of conception). We didn’t really give it much thought until last night, during the Purge Part 1 – I had to pull it out from under the dresser so we could vacuum up the dust chunks that had accumulated and become sentient. It was then that I realized:

  • moths!
  • cat hair!
  • cat hork!
  • scorch marks!

In the frigid depths of last winter, we turned the bedroom heater on to stave off the worst of the cold. It wasn’t on a lot, but it was evidently enough to burn a fucking hole into the blanket and melt fibres and char things up a little. While I’m very glad things didn’t burst into flame and become a baby-making ball of fire, I’m kind of freaked out at how easily things could gotten very bad, very quickly. We disposed of the Fertility Blanket once and for all, vowed to keep the baseboards free from any and all obstructions, and moved large pieces of furniture around because our neighbours suck.

Tonight, more of the same. I am so very excited about it and definitely do not want to punch or kick anyone.

on the way home

on the way home

hello world

hai!

hai!

Piccadilly Circus officially joined our family yesterday afternoon. She’s camping out in my bathroom for a couple days, and then we’ll start introducing her to the others. Everyone has seen/smelled each other from afar, but with the exception of a couple of startled hisses (Lemon barged into my bathroom and scared himself and Picca) it’s been very civilized around here. Her first 24 hours in our house have been full of play time and non-stop purring, and she’s so friggin’ cute I could just melt (and given the temperature in here, melting is pretty damn likely). Just look at this face:

eeeee kitten belly

eeeee kitten belly

DSC_5939

the only time she hasn’t been purring is when she’s deep sleeping

DSC_5940

srsly i can’t even

 

drum roll

Last night we signed the papers, checked off a lot of boxes, agreed not to eat any kittens, and handed over the adoption fee. On Sunday evening, Piccadilly Circus will be joining our family and will undoubtedly reign supreme over Hobbes and Lemon.

Thank you to all who voted on the name! The results were surprisingly close:

  • Piccadilly Circus: 17 votes
  • Marzipan: 15 votes
  • Freddie Mercury: 13 votes
  • Other: 9 votes
  • Zuul: 9 votes
  • Quinoa: 7 votes
  • Swinton: 7 votes
  • “Other” Answers:
    • Bohemian Tuesday Chlamydia Watson
    • Renesmee
    • Hildegard von Bingen
    • Princess Bubblegum or Marceline
    • Cthulhu: 2 votes
    • Gary
    • Tildy
    • Mornington Crescent
    • Rosalind Franklin
    • Kimchi/Kitchi

Piccadilly Circus won fair and square, but we were definitely leaning in that direction anyway. It was Ed’s idea, and of the 5 cats that have shared our household, I suppose it’s only fair that he gets a say in ONE of their names .. plus, there are so many nicknames that will come out of it.

Also, stickers!

this was a happy coincidence: i didn't even know i had a piccadilly circus sticker until i went looking for something new to put on lola!

this was a happy coincidence: i didn’t even know i had a piccadilly circus sticker until i went looking for something new to put on lola!

My Instagram is gonna be SO FLUFFY.

answer the call of duty

Help me name my kitten!

After meeting a hundred squirmy kittens and falling in love with them all, we’ve decided to adopt a tiny tortie girl currently named Mathilda. I am not crazy about this name for a variety of reasons, but in order to change it I have to make a decision before tomorrow at 5pm so the name can be forged into the Vast Kitten Database for all eternity. The pressure is on, and I am no good under pressure when it comes to naming things. Help ensure my kitten doesn’t end up with a name like Bohemian Tuesday Chlamydia Watson: vote now!

A million kitten pictures forthcoming!

an ongoing list of people i have shared a coke with this summer

  • Barry
  • Joshua
  • Michael
  • Samantha
  • Shannon
  • Andrew
  • Frank
  • Stephanie
  • Amanda
  • “Co-Worker”
  • “BFF”
  • “Dad”
  • Adam
  • Caleb
  • Isobel
  • Anil
  • Sarah
  • Doug
  • Harry
  • Liam
  • Kayla
  • Sam
  • “Sister”
  • Tom
  • Seth
  • Erica
  • Becca

This is entirely fictional, in that I don’t share Diet Coke with anyone – but I’ve gone through a lot of names. None of them mine, of course. I’ve earned my name on a bottle of Diet Coke a million times over, but there is no love for Kimli. Only Diet Coke. So much Diet Coke. And I’m okay with that, because delicious.

crab du soleil

 

selfie

Today I bought a Selfie Pole.

Ed and I had seen people with these all around Europe, and we were both confused and irritated on account of being hit in the head by some dumb girl taking selfies atop the Eiffel Tower. Still, I was intrigued at the possibilities of the idea, and today when I stumbled upon The Selfie Guru, I thought “hey let’s do this” – so I ordered one.

And an hour later, I had it in my hands! Turns out one of the people behind Selfie Guru works for the same company I do, so when I entered my work address to be the shipping address, she just looked me up. All things should be like this, because INSTANT GRATIFICATION. Thanks, Stephanie!

I’m waiting for the Bluetooth remotes to come in (my plans for this monopod do not allow for timers), but in the meantime I tried several remote control methods at home. First up was the Belkin Live Action Remote, which was incredibly frustrating. I bought the remote some time ago, but never really used it because a) it only works with the Belkin Live Action app which sucks so much I can’t even form words to express my disdain and b) the app is so, so, so bad that it has no option to switch to a front camera, which kind of negates the whole “selfie” aspect of this experiment. After I burned the remote in a fire, I remembered that I have a Pebble that can do all kinds of neat things like tell the time and play music and control most of the things in my house. I researched, and sure enough there are several Pebble apps that’ll let you take pictures. Yay! I downloaded one called PebbleCam, and set it all up. For being the future, it works pretty well. You can’t really wear the watch while using the app and the pole, because you’d need three hands – but if you remove the watch from your wrist, you’re good to go. You can even switch between front and rear camera, turn on the flash, set a timer, and more. You still can’t use the default (or other) camera app, but at least it’s miles better than Belkin’s horror.

Using the monopod, my Pebble, and my iPhone, I took some invasive pictures of my cats:

a hot and frightened hobbes (rear cam)

a hot and frightened hobbes (rear cam)

photo 2 (1)

a hot and pissed off lemon (front cam)

I amused myself by tormenting the cats for a while, then used the selflie pole to take some actual selfies (which you don’t get to see because I may have been mostly nude). Works great!

And then I realized my destiny.

See, I’ve been online for a very, very, very long time. In all my life spent on BBSes and the STS and IRC and Twitter and beyond, I skipped one rite of passage in particular – that of nude pictures. I often stood on my tiny high horse and said that naked pictures were stupid, but my scorn was actually hiding the embarrassing truth: my boobs were too big and my arms were too short to take any topless pictures. Oh, I wanted to – I have a great rack, remember – but there was literally no way for me to take a decent naked picture that would encompass all my bodacious glory.

UNTIL NOW. 

I am going to take SO MANY BOOB PICTURES. I have decades of lost time to make up for.

Thanks, Selfie Guru!

badurday

Today sucked.

Now that we’re back from vacation and settled into a routine, I’ve started looking around for my birthday kitten (that you were all around to witness Ed agreeing to). I found three adorable kittens that are exactly what I’m looking for (criteria: kitten, female, calico, adorable), and sent in applications for viewing. Two of the three are at an SPCA Education Centre, so today we drove 8 million miles away from civilization and into Port Coquitlam to meet the kittens.

I really wish I hadn’t done that, because of course I fell head over heels in love with a tiny calico currently named Ariel 19. I would have taken her home with me then and there, but there were complications – both Ariel 19 and her sister, Cinderella 21 (I have no idea, don’t ask), had recently recovered from kitten colds and were marked as best suited to being the only cat in a household. We do have Hobbes and Lemon to worry about, so I asked what the deal was. Turns out that the whole litter had Feline Calicivirus (calici for short and incidentally how people who don’t know how to spell “Khaleesi” enter it into Google) and even through they were over their colds, they could shed the virus for up to 6 months afterward. The SPCA told me this on Friday afternoon, so I did some research: everything I read suggested that if your cats are healthy, there’s nothing to worry about. Our cats are indoor only and healthy and could use a little exercise in the form of kitten chases, so I forged ahead with the meeting.

Ed obviously wasn’t thrilled with the idea of potentially introducing a virus to our cats, so I suggested he call our vet and ask questions. As I assumed what I read online would be what the vet said to Ed, I suited up and went into the cat area to meet the kittens in meat space. Both kittens were delighted to have a person around, and they started purring and chirping as soon as I said hello: Ariel was gorgeous and adorable and loved being held and she reminded me so much of Sasha that there were waterworks .. I could easily see Ariel in our home (albeit with a less dumb name), and in my head she was already mine.

You can probably guess where this is going based on the title, but the vet did NOT say what I thought she would say. Ultimately it was up to us, but she recommended seeing both Hobbes and Lemon for updated shots first, then waiting another 10 days before introducing the kitten so the vaccines had time to take hold .. and beyond that, she didn’t think it was a good idea. As well, the SPCA doesn’t hold animals, so the vet visits and waiting period wasn’t in the realm of possibility (and other people were inquiring about Ariel while I was falling in love with her) – I had to withdraw my application, and it broke my heart a little.

I know I have to think about H&L first, but .. she was so, so sweet. Everyone has assured me that it’s Kitten Season and I’ll be able to find and love all the kittens I want, I just can’t have *this* one. And I know it’s for the best and that someone will adopt her and love her and she’ll be adored and happy .. but right now really sucks. I can’t stop thinking about her ridiculous ears and the sound of her purring. There’ve been a lot of tears today.

*sigh*

*sigh*

settling in

After a month spent galavanting around Europe like someone deep in the throes of a mid-life crisis, I finally returned home and started my new job this past Monday. So far so good, but there are definitely things I have to get used to (like having direct deposit again! you have no idea how much you take magic money for granted until you’re forced to go to an actual bank every two weeks). Everyone I’ve met has been really nice/disturbingly excited to hear I’m a tech writer, and it’s been great seeing a lot of my former coworkers in the same place (I’ve already resumed my usual method of greeting one guy in particular by walking up and kicking him).

So, what’s the low down?

The Good:

  • Fun people, fun product, tons of potential to get all up in here doing all kinds of different things
  • Free parking! I was super worried about how I was going to get to the office – it’s a two-bus minimum with no parking lots nearby – but there’s free parking under the building! That is amazing, and I GET TO SCOOT TO WORK!
  • I sit two seats down from a pug:
PUG omg so cute and puggy

PUG omg so cute and puggy and also there’s my foot

  • I have nested nicely, and my desk is tastefully ridiculous
  • Seriously, people get *really* excited when I tell them what I do and what team I’m on. I wonder if I should worry.

The Confusing

  • I desperately hate not knowing things, and as this is my third day on the job, I don’t know a damn thing. I am impatient to become some sort of expert in something, and will be frustrated with myself until that happens.
  • I am a perpetual One-Off, so I’m not getting the traditional onboarding experience .. because there’s no one I can shadow to absorb knowledge.
  • I can’t find a fridge (but I brought my own, so I’m good)
  • NO ICE CUBES ANYWHERE
  • I don’t know where to pick up my Mandatory Work Puppy
  • I have no walls! No one has any walls. How do I decorate things if I have no walls?
  • After a month in Europe, I think I forget how to do words
  • How can I keep my drink cold if there is no ice? :(
  • Open concept offices are kinda loud

The Bad

  • Sitting this close to a pug that is not mine is pure torture
  • Fluorescent lights are the devil
  • WHERE ARE THE ICE CUBES

I have high hopes for doing good stuff here .. fingers are crossed!

functional!

functional!

murder by death

What do all of these things have in common?

They all tried to KILL ME DEAD in London.

I’ve never had any problems with breathing or using my lungs – they’ve always been top notch. Air goes in, air goes out. I have a system, and it’s never failed me before.

At night, while trying to sleep, I noticed my chest rattling a little like it does at the tail end of a cold. I didn’t have a cold or cough, so I thought maybe it was the pollution in the air and tried to ignore it. After all, everything was fine! Nothing to worry about!

.. except for that Thursday night I COULDN’T BREATHE. I couldn’t take a full breath, and when I lay down on the bed, my chest would rattle like a car 20 years past the replacement date. I wasn’t getting enough air, the sound coming from my air hole was terrifying, and my lungs were full of fluid. I tried multiple times to relax and ignore it, but the instant I was horizontal, the game began again: no breathing. Bad noises. Fluid. Panic.

After an hour of this, I woke Ed up. I was in full blown freak out, and couldn’t calm down (which didn’t help the breathing thing). I didn’t necessarily think that Ed was going to be able to dry up all the extra fluid in my lungs, but it helped to have someone else awake and making sure I was still alive. He could hear my chest rattle from across the room, and we tried a number of different things to ease the pressure on my chest .. no go. Eventually, we drugged me up with Benedryl, which eased the symptoms somewhat and I passed out. I managed to sleep until morning, but the same can’t be said for Ed who stayed up all night to make sure I didn’t stop breathing. Aww!

The following day, everything seemed fine. I knew something was going on though, and Heather and Renee forced me to track down a doctor. I’ve never had to look for a doctor overseas, and was pretty resistant to the idea – the only way they could get me to go was to promise I could visit the Greenwich Market after my lungs were looked at. We walked all over Greenwich trying to find a pharmacist (who couldn’t help me because I’ve never had an inhaler or any kind of breathing issues before) and eventually a clinic of sorts – a Polish medical office that was the most Polish thing ever. The doctor I saw had to ask me to repeat my air saga multiple times, because I talked too fast and had a weird accent. She listened to me breathe for a long time, but couldn’t hear anything because my lungs are fucking jerks – but I was obviously in distress, so she wrote me a prescription for an inhaler and sent me to the pharmacy. Success! The visit cost me £70, which wasn’t nearly as bad as I had feared (plus we have insurance so I’ll get reimbursed eventually), and the inhaler was £8. I would pay that much to be able to breathe.

Things never got nearly as bad as that night I had to wake Ed up, but I still needed to use the inhaler a bunch of times throughout the trip. This was my first trip to London in the summer, and all those wildflower gardens I love so much generate an IMPERIAL SHIT TONNE of pollen. Throw in the increased air pollution, and .. Kimli can’t breathe. Hooray! I got asthma for my birthday! Second worst present ever.

I was hoping that once I got home to Vancouver I’d be free from breathing problems, but yesterday I had to use the inhaler: I couldn’t breathe. And umm I coughed up pink stuff in the shower. I should *probably* go to the doctor to find out what the fuck .. but I survived London trying to kill me, just as Ed survived a death attempt by the Eiffel Tower (heatstroke is a biiiiiiiitch).

I’m still going back to London, though. Pollen will not stop me from moving there.

Oh, and the Mona Lisa tried to kill me with crowds of idiots taking selfies – I was getting crushed and panicky, and had to be rescued by museum staff. And in the Tate, an old lady tried to glare me to death when she thought I was trying to take a free seat at the counter. I wasn’t – I just wanted to take a picture of the epic view. I’m a survivor!

(s)pots of tea

Europe makes me buy tea towels. I don’t drink tea, I don’t eat tea cakes or tiny sandwiches, I’ve never held or been to a tea party – but something about Europe makes me mad for tea towels, and I came home with seven eight of them.

It all started during our trip in 2012, when I bought this in tea towel form. Come to think of it, that’s the reason right there – I loved all the London-themed art I came across, but a) don’t have room for additional prints and b) know that posters are the single worst thing to try and bring back from a trip. I bought the towel instead, because it can be folded and was a great deal cheaper than a print or tote bag. LOGIC! Sometimes I have it!

Just look at all my lovely tea towels!

I don’t really know what I’m going to do with them all, though. Perhaps it is time I take up tea, or towelling off tea. Something like that. Tea!

if you live here, drinking tea is mandatory

if you live here, drinking tea is mandatory