Various and sundry bits

Our snow was melted yesterday by heavy rain; near as I can tell we got almost an inch yesterday, but it looks like a lot more with the melted snow. The ground is smooshy and flash flooding is becoming a concern in some areas. We may have more snow in the next few days. Alex has decided he never wants to live in Illinois again, and he doesn't believe me when I tell him the whole state isn't like this, and that Champaign and Chicago have actual winters for months at a time.

The cats had their annual check-up yesterday. The girls were due for rabies, so I got them the 3-year shot, and they're both feeling poorly. Ryan isn't due until next year, so he just got the feline leukemia thing, but he's been alternating between 'I want my mommy' mode and hiding under the bed from the thunderstorms we had last night. Nobody wanted breakfast this morning, which is highly unusual. I'm almost wishing it wasn't Wednesday so I'd be home to keep an eye on them, but they'll probably just sleep all day. Tess curled up on the foot of our bed when we got home yesterday and as near as I can tell has only moved to use the litter box. Poor babies. Looks like I'll be choosing the 1-year vaccine from now on. If I have to take them every year for the feline leukemia, I might as well get rabies every year, too.

I've been reading through the rest of 'The Artist's Way' and it's been shaking loose all kinds of different blocks and preconceptions. Yesterday I was reading about how artists allow themselves to stay blocked by becoming martyrs. They really want to set up a dark room in the basement, but buy new living room furniture for their spouse instead. Or they pour all their time into caring for an elderly parent instead of carving out time to paint, and they can't figure out why they're angry and resentful all the time. I'd been thinking for a while about moving my work space out of my bedroom. I have it in there for a couple of reasons, mostly because I have the space. Our bedroom is huge--bigger than we've ever had, and frankly, I put my desk in there because I needed to fill the space! I don't know how to live in a bedroom that's not crammed with furniture, and while it's still not crammed, it's comfortably full now. The trouble is that if Eric is sleeping in or sick, I have to relocate to work. I decided that I should have an alternate workspace and started rearranging the guest room again. I've moved the bed and the two smaller bookcases. The next step is to move the bigger bookcase, and that was a good stopping point last night. My plan is to put my camp table by the window so I can work in there for a while, and if it works out all right I'll move my desk in there, too. That will give me more space to work and I won't have to move the laptop when I need to work on hard copies or do a test for school. We don't have guests for more than two or three weeks a year total, so this will be a more effective use of that space. It's not like I get a lot of work done when we have company, and laptops were made for moving.

So that's the excitement here for now. Oh, yeah, and I'm 6 1/2 miles down the West Coast Trail. I had a slow start but made good progress yesterday. Amazing what happens when you leave the TV off and move furniture.