Small achievements

Yesterday Christine and i visited a number of cat boarding places. The incredibly inexpensive place that is near by is not particularly friendly. I can imagine them being good with dogs but they aren't cat people. On the other hand, i can see it being a suitable place to leave the cats. Personally, i'd be just as happy leaving the cats there as at the PetSmart PetHotel. Christine had a strong aversion to the folks running the place, though, so we tried tracking down a PetHotel that had room. With all those booked up, we tried the (relatively) expensive cat place up the Peninsula. Cat heaven! And they have room. So, job done. A little stressful as we negotiated our different values (Christine wants the best for the cats, i question whether "best" is truly best). It's less expensive than the sitter and i will feel far more confident of everything with the cats in a good facility.

And really, the place seems like cat heaven.

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I'm feeling much better today, which makes me want to spit in frustration. I like feeling better, but correlating my energy level and sense of well-being to anything is impossible.

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Another small achievement is the apple stuffed pumpkin in the stove. I think it will be edible, at least, as i am unfond of baked orange things like carrots and yams and squash, but perhaps it will be good. Enough brown sugar and anything is good, right?

Mwuhahaha

Went grocery shopping when hungry -- actually it was my walk to make up for not walking during the week. I bought rose mochi -- soft chewy rice flour buns filled with a rose sesame bean curd. I do love the rose flavor!

I wonder how long they'll keep now that i've opened them.

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Thursday i read Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol as my mom sent it to me. It was a perfect diversion for my sense of being out of it, but i was so often disturbed by my sense that some readers pick up on these books as if they're historical fiction. I was intrigued by just how defensive of the Masons Dan Brown's Mary Sue/Gary Stu is. If i recall correctly, there was a great deal more portrayal of the Vatican City residents as a maleficent cabal of Other. These Masons though are My Best Friends and The Leaders of Our Great Nation. This was not the disturbing thing, though. The noetic science bit is the part that kept causing me to twitch. I've heard of noetic science as i was growing up as my Grandmama keeps up with folks in that intellectual/spiritual circle. But there's something about my mother's recent enthusiasm for self-hypnosis and her enthusiasm for this book that nags me. Her uncritical acceptance of book-jacket authorities....

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Yesterday we watched Longitude, all 200 minutes of the A&E miniseries. It was delightful, although it too had me wondering about how we portray science in this country. On one hand, the issue of class in England is alien to me. I am aware that the social class issues are something i do not know from my experience: thinking of Inspector Linley mysteries, the 17th century penalties for not giving hat honor or using thee/thou with one's "better," Sense and Sensibility. I believe that much of the actual tension must have been a craftsman intruding on the purview of gentlemen, not a mechanic intruding on the purview of astronomers. I cannot tell. Again, my enjoyment is tempered by a nagging awareness that something else is going on.