One Day, One Shot ...

Well, the week after when Ethan and I tried originally to pick up Patches we just found we were way too busy. I had my exam and studying was foremost on my mind. Then we had to wait for Ethan to get paid, as I have absolutely no money to donate. And then, here it was last Friday ... yet another week to go back and still we had not picked up Patches. I think of him every day and hope he's well. However it still breaks my heart to think of him caged. The good news is that we shall probably make it in tomorrow and his picture is back up on the website, thus meaning he is no longer sick and well, he's available for us to snatch up.

I've been quite slammed with school work, but my fault really. I keep studying every day but just don't seem to have enough time. I did take a break out last Saturday for our barbecue.

See, Ben the weekend before, caught his first kill up at the ranch. A wild boar.

The trip originated as a quest for wood. We have to stock up for the winter, and the guys did a great job of that as well. The title - One day, one shot - stems from the fact of that weekend having just seemed to be one thing, one something over and over again. The last most memorable thing just happened to be Ben making one excellently placed shot, with only one bullet. He is sooo proud!

Happy Ben

Here I've just shown him happy as all the pictures I have are the bloody carving ones. I'll get a picture of him up with his kill, all in one piece, quite soon. They are all on his camera and besides, I really don't want to shock anyone not used to that sort of thing.

So here we had 150 pounds of meat on our hands so we planned a barbecue. Most people were busy but I got surprised that my best friends Becca and Paul came up. I was quite excited. I miss them both dearly. It seems living 2 hours apart is something I'll never get used to.

Paul and Becca

We had a delightful fire in the evening, which went late into the night. I'd say we didn't stay up all that late but I still didn't end up with much sleep!

I got my first exam back today and while I didn't do all that stellar (humbling) I did well enough with the average. Considering I aced all the questions I didn't have time to study, but missed a lot of small things not quite sure what to think. I do know I want to have more time to do more chapter problems, but it seems the normal anxiety I had back in college before from not having exams for years in high school hasn't quite dissipated yet. I'm hanging in there, and I remember I don't need to beat myself up over this as long as I pass both semesters. That's all I need to do to finish my degree.

Well, and I take solace in the fact that the professor noted that only literally a handful (no more than 5) people got above the average ... but they did get exceedingly high above the average. I take more solace in the fact that someone did actually score only 7 points. Whoa, no way. We all thought he was joking. I suppose that person will probably be dropping the class.

I also started hardcore studying Irish. Finally, I have the Rosetta Stone software I've wanted so badly. It's totally unbelievable. If anyone wants to learn a language that is the ONLY way to go. I know it's expensive but you don't lose time or get that frustrated. And you learn very very fast. I have Mom to thank! I'm in heaven!

I take an hour break a day in the middle of my hours of chemistry work to do a little Irish. I figure it breaks things up nicely since language is responsible for the other hemisphere of your brain from what chemistry activates.

I've been really well in general. Still looking for a job, a house, and forward to many other things though.

That and my hip damn near went out on Friday. I'd spent the day cleaning for hours and hours (which I am sooo happy about now, I love a clean house and bathroom!). I finally laid down and found when I stood up after an hour or so that I nearly fell out from under my own weight. It took another hour to function, shuffling my way through the house. Again, gives Adam his chance to tease and call me his "Old Lady" gleefully.

Good news is that I went to the chiropractor today and while he said I was in worse for ware shape I was much much better before leaving after he did all his corrections. He also said I need to go in for therapeutic massage, but like I can afford that. I still need to pick up my blood pressure medication, get my hair cut (it's been a year), among other things like buy some badly needed new clothing.

And hey, it's fair to mention here, we threw the whole barbecue for a bunch of people without spending a dime. It was awesome. Potluck rocks! Well, that and we just have so much food we've canned, prepped, and frozen. So when push comes to shove we're still well off in the dry periods financially. We'll always have food!

Well, best back to my chemistry. Here's what I've been working on for several weeks ....



I synthesized it in lab and will finally be putting it to bed! Turning in the final write up tomorrow. Next I'll get to analyze my synthesised product of ibuprofen last week. Thank goodness tomorrow I get to work with something liquid.

Ibuprofen was just impossible to clean off of some of glassware, it was sooo sticky. And acetaminophen kept blowing all over everything, it was so light and fine. All someone had to do was walk by.

Anyhoo, back to my lab write up. The only functionally structured Irish sentence that would make sense to this context would be ... ta me ag leabh (I am reading) ... ha, haven't learned tenses beside current yet. I have sooo much to read.

Summer

Okay seems I've let the whole summer pass and really not posted anything. So being reminded to blog by being notified that Kela had here we go!

June

My sister had her graduation from UCSB and while the event itself went off without a hitch my sister proved to have some serious issues with me. She was incredibly nasty to me and upon sending inquiring emails to her it didn't really get us anywhere, except to let me know she despises me for "everything" I've done to here growing up. Let me point out this is nothing substantial, mostly just normal sibling stuff but it seems quite blown up in her mind.

We also took a trip to the ranch where I brought my brother Joey and my roommate Ben. It was Joey's first time Turkey hunting and while we weren't surprised at his determination we were surprised at the nice big turkey he managed to catch with a bit of Ben's help.

They circled all over the ranch and the hilarious part was that as soon as the guys left Grandpa Dave, Uncle Kelly and I all noticed the turkeys coming home to roost ... just above where the guys had just left. At any rate we had a great time and boy was that turkey tasty!

Joey's First Turkey Hunt

Other than that we were busy, busy, busy with all the normal summer things like maintaining the garden, hanging out with friends, and also making plans for the rib cookoff.

July

Well, other than being marked with important birthdays of Adam's, My mom's and my dad's, my best friend Mike had his first child. A little girl named Haley, whom we couldn't make it over to see until she was exactly one month old. She is very facially expressive and seems she will probably be sitting up and walking earlier than average. She loves to flex her legs and arch her back, which makes it quite exciting to hold her, keeps me on my toes! She does seem to get very frustrated when she goes to make a movement and does it somewhat unsuccessfully.

Haley Matson

I also got to visit Stockton which was really great. I couldn't take any pictures since my camera was getting fixed and I never got around to buying a single use. I made my way to attempt to leave early to get to Adam's dad, Nick's, barbecue but that didn't quite happen. I ended up leaving the face of my car radio deck at my girlfriend's house before we all went out to eat. I had to drive back but got off one exit north from her's and ended up taking this rural highway all the way to the next town. It took me a total of 45 minutes to get back. So I left Stockton at 4.30 instead of 1 or 2 pm, which put me at Nick's about 6.15pm. The barbecue had been under full swing but all in all Adam arrived only minutes after me with no idea of how long of a day I'd had. The food was tasty and we had fun. Nick made his usual salad and garlic bread and delicious marinade for the tri-tip.

We had several "sauce-offs" prepping for the rib cookoff in August.

August

My birthday was celebrated and I started a new job as well as finally taking the class I need to finish my degree. It will take the whole year to finish my degree, so I'm not looking at being done until next May. I am hoping to enter a Master's in Education program next year as jobs in my industry are well sought after in this area.

The job I got was working for Rack and Riddle custom winery services. They lost a major client when I was only working for a couple of weeks or so, therefore I got let go.

I had been hoping to see my grandmother who was visiting from Oklahoma, but my work schedule had prevented that. I am quite upset that I then got let go after making this job my priority over family. I know it wasn't intended on their part and I know that's how life goes but I still wasn't very happy about it.

The exact day of my birthday we all got together for the rib cookoff. We learned a few interesting things about the judges (they like an opposite style sauce of what we make), didn't win the contest, the popular vote didn't even get counted, and we got a large cooler stolen over the course of the evening. Pooh.

Team Hella Grubbin'

A really cute cat adopted us but our current cat, Roxy, doesn't get along with other cats. We kept him as an outside cat but it became apparently quite quickly that he had been somone's inside cat as he got more and more aggressive to try to get inside the house.

Eventually I took him, with the kind help of my friend Ethan, to the County Animal Control organization who gladly took him. They then announced they will neuter him, microchip, vaccinate, and groom him. And that he would be available for adoption, provided no owner came to claim him, after 3 working days. He was so scared he actually pooped in the cat carrier. I don't think he'd ever been in a car or a carrier before. And the meows he let out simply cut me to the core; so pleading!

I felt my heart break when I had to leave him there. He is just the sweetest cat in the whole world. I would surely have kept him if Adam wasn't allergic (Patches was a medium/long hair) and it didn't terrify Roxy so much to have him around. He was after all not neutered and would chase her every chance he got.

I gave him the name Patches since whoever had been taking minor care of him shaved giant clumps of fur off of him; we theorized in an attempt to remove spurs and other things trapped in his fur.

I still miss him dearly.

Patches

September

Ethan clearly saw how much dropping Patches off had shaken me. He then decided that if no one came to adopt him after two weeks (they discount the price by half after two weeks, plus we wanted to give him a chance to find a home) we would go and get him where Patches could then live with Ethan and his Siamese cat, Stupid. Yes, he named his cat Stupid. Which I also believe is short for something.

Last Friday we called the Sonoma County Animal Control to see if Patches was adoptable since his photo had been taken off of the website. After some time they located Patches in "isolation" because he is sick.

My heart broke all over again. He was probably scared and now he was alone. I imagined his immune system going through a shock from being taken somewhere new, left there, and caged ... and now he's all alone. We couldn't take him simply because we couldn't guarantee the health of Stupid.

So I'm hoping to go with Ethan and pick up Patches next week. Ethan said he told his little sister all about Patches and she can't wait to meet him. Perhaps she will also provide a nice good loving him for Patches. And I'll still get to cuddle and hold him.

Otherwise last Friday night Adam and Ethan joined me to meet my mom and her husband Vic for dinner at Underwood in Graton. It was a good meal, albeit a bit over priced for food I can make at home. My mom brought a bottle of champagne and a delicious guwertztraminer. I forgot to take pictures *d'oh* as we were having such a nice time. I got the lamb, Adam got the duck, Ethan got the steak, and my mom and Vic each got a thai inspired chicken dish. I tasted it all and loved everything.

I have my first exam in class next week, probably should have been studying instead of writing up a blog, but felt it was high time I write something. That and I'm nervous about finances since I have no idea when I will start working again. I may just have to suck it up and get another unit at the JC so I can work as a student. Eeeek, not minimum wage! Oh well, a job's a job I guess.

Adam and I are still looking at houses. There are some interested options but nothing we've fallen in love with yet ... well, at least in our price range anyway. I'll keep everyone posted.