the warm fuzzy feeling

I would like to think that I'm a farily independant person. I'm quite comfortable being by myself, and sometimes would perfer it. When I decided around the beginning of the year, I had come to accept that perhaps I would like to share my life with somoene else.

I despise the clingy emotional types who have to hear everyday how much they're needed and loved. I promised myself that in my next serious relationship, I would not be the first to say anything like "I love you".

So I'm talking to my boyfriend in San Diego. I am fairly confident this time he wasn't too intoxicated when he was talking to me. We talked about a lot of things that night including Thanksgiving plans (he was all too eager to come and have dinner with my family (I have to give him a lot of credit for after all the stories I've told about various members). Then we were talking about how our relationship isn't like "real life" because if I truly was there with him right now, he'd go off to bed to try and get sleep only to get up at an insane early hour for work. All the while, I'll be understanding and supportive of his needs to do what he had to do for work. I won't get specific, but when he came and spent a few days at my place, I came into work late both mornings.

Then he started the line about how he wants me that he's not trying to leave me out of his life (even though his schedule pretty much sucks right now). Then he finishes with how he tries to make feel wanted (because I am).

I'm not ready to blurt out anything crazy at this point. It's good to let things develop over time. But it was very nice to hear - and I think part of me wanted to hear it (because it would mean that I was desireable to another)

It's all in the details

This article peaked my interest this morning:

State's 1st distillery set to pour vodka
Max Jarman
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 13, 2005 12:00 AM

FLAGSTAFF - In a corner of the popular Mogollon Brewing Co. brew pub, a gleaming two-story copper-and-chrome contraption is dispensing a clear liquid into 5-gallon bottles.

This still is producing what is thought to be the only prickly pear cactus-flavored vodka in the world.

I get a sinking feeling (kinda like when I realized that I didn't win Powerball last night) that it's grain based so I can't drink it anyway. The article doesn't mention the type of vodka is used, but grain vodka is a heck of a lot cheaper than potatoes, and it's only flavoring from prickly pear.

I'm seriously tempted to call the brewery and find out. If I'm wrong, I'll drive up to Flagstaff and buy some in a couple weeks. But I have a feeling the carrot's been dangled in my face, but I'll never be able to get it.

Fun with minerals (or elements)

I read some of the forums for celiac support yesterday. I understand that the leg cramps are from iron deficiencies. Nobody in the forums said that iron supplements helped them either. But someone suggested calcium and magnesium supplements. I picked up a generic form from the drugstore and consulted the pharmacist about how much I can take at night.

He did warn me that magnesium can make you pee more frequently. That turned out to be true, so I'll have to watch my water intake at night.

The calcium may have helped. Instead of intense spasms and cramping of my lower legs and bottom of feet, it felt more tight and sometimes uncomfortable. But if something else had woken me up, I might have slept through it.

I'll give it a few more nights and see if it'll help. Perhaps I'd just be better off with the calcium...

Can't stop a determined cat

I have a second floor porch that my kitties like to hang out on on these nice cool nights. However, there is a small ledge accessible perpendicular to the narrow side of the porch rail. On the small ledge, the cats (even fat ass Magnum) walk along it and visit the mean neighbor's porch.

If that was the end of the mischeif, I could live with that. However, Adira summoned the courage to jump to the tree five feet away from the ledge, and climbed down the tree. I don't think she'd be able to retrace her steps to return to my porch (I had to rescue her at 2:00 AM when I realized what happened).

So there has been an on-going war trying to make a barrier of the small ledge, and Adira trying to bypass it. What had lasted a while was to take some fabric, secure both ends over the ends of cafe curtain rods. Then place one rod just above the railing, and the other a couple feet above the railing. However, early in the AM, Adria succeeded in dragging down the upper rod. Don't know how she did it, but it made a lot of noise; I guess she just jumped and dragged the fabric down with her claws.

So I put the upper curtain rod even higher (it's about 6 feet high now). And the lower rod is about a couple inches above the porch railing. I didn't want to be woken up again, so I shooed her inside and closed the porch door. I'll see if she can tear it down after work today.

If Adira could prove to me that she could make her way back up to the patio, I still would be working on an effective barrier for two reasons. First is that Adira will NOT have anything to do with a collar or harness. So if someone else stumbled on to the adorable fluff ball, they wouldn't know how to return her to her home. The second reason is that Magnum throws a hissy fit when Adira re-enters the patio, and (loudly) attacks her. It took several shots of my water bottle to chill him out after she returned to the patio after tearing down the barrier this AM.