This has been a busy week for me. I've had lots of appointments... doctor, dentist, washing machine delivery, etc. Next week should slow back down a little and let me get more things done around the house. Now that the cat pen is finished (for now), I can focus on the house. First order of business: clean out the garage so Lori can park inside once again. That's scheduled for this weekend. Then, I get to start on the inside.

I'm a natural pack rat, and I've been collecting things for 10 years without a good cleaning. With the babies coming, it's the perfect time to get a handle on things. I've taken "before" pictures of the house to remind myself to not let it get this bad again. I'd say the majority of the mess is paper... magazines, books, paid bills and records... and a lot of computer-related stuff. Lori keeps telling me, "If you haven't used something in six months, get rid of it." It's never been that easy for me, but I'm trying. My theory is that if I spent money on it, I should keep it around. Flawed thinking, I'll admit. My "therapy" for this problem is that I'm under a deadline now and have to get things in order before the babies arrive. I contend that it is still do-able, and I've gotten a few offers of help, if I decide I need it, so I think it will be under control once I get started.

I'm feeling more down this week than in previous weeks. I can't attribute it to anything other than the weather and the growing darkness. The weather has been blah! this week and we're just two days away from the time change. Next week, it will be dark around 5 p.m. That always messes with my mood. If we can only get some sunshine during the day, that will help quite a bit.

Ghost, the new kitten, has returned! I was out there feeding the other cats yesterday, and much to my surprise, there was Ghost. I don't know where it went, but it must have been in the pen somewhere. The pen is only about 25' x 25' with a tree in the middle, so when I say I looked all over the pen, I really did. The only thing I can think of is that Ghost climbed way up in the tree where I could not see and took a day or two to get down. It doesn't matter, unless it pulls that trick again. What I have decided is that the name stays. Only a Ghost could have pulled that disappearing/reappearing trick. (I would name it Magik, but that's more of a black and white cat's name.)

Sad news: The new kitten has disappeared. My father and I finished the cat pen and house. Then Lori and I moved all of the cats from the garage to their new quarters. Newman promptly showed me that there was still a way out of the pen. So, the next day, I secured that escape route. While I was out there making sure everyone was getting along in their new house, the little kitten went out into the pen out of my sight, and just disappeared. That was yesterday. I have looked everywhere for it. I guess Ghost, as I was thinking of calling it, decided to look for someplace with a few less inhabitants. Or, it really was a ghost and chose to just disappear. I'll keep an eye out for it, but if it's like the other cats I've had that just disappeared one day, I'll never see it again.

I finished the second section of my A+ training tonight. I'm all done with the hardware aspect of the training. Now, I just have to study and pass the exam. Starting Monday, we focus on operating systems. So far, it's been much of what I anticipated, although I did not expect that there would be such a strong emphasis on outdated equipment. They assume that a lot of that older equipment is still in use, even though I figured that most people and places are utilizing at least Pentium computers by now. I bet I'd be suprised to know what's actually in use these days. I guess it's best to cover all bases.

Well, it's been nine days since last I blogged. I wish I could say that a lot has happened, but I can't. This last week has just trudged along. I'm hoping that this coming week is much more productive.

I did get to spend some quality time with a couple of my friends. Good friends help make the time fly by.

The weather has been just beautiful this past week. But this weekend will see a drastic change in temperature. I'm hoping to finish up what I need to get done on the cat pen later today (Saturday). The outside is almost finished. Then I just need to erect a wall and add a door before I move the cats out there. I'm pretty sure that it can all get done today. I do have a few errands to run first thing this morning, but then I'm going to hit it hard.

By the way, the new kitten (still nameless) is settling in. I still have it isolated from the rest of the cats, but when I do let it out, everyone seems to get along pretty well. I'll probably take it to the vet this week to get it checked out and find out what sex it is. I'm leaning toward naming it Ghost, but I'm not committed to that name yet.

The new kitten is doing fine. It's still eating like a little piggy. And I still don't know whether it's a he or she... it's so hard to tell on those little ones. It's definitely a friendly little kitty. I haven't seen anyone looking for a lost kitten, so it looks like I will get to keep it. That means coming up with a name for it. Time to get creative again.

My father came over and helped me fix the lawnmower. I had my own idea on how to fix it, but Dad had a much easier solution. We had it fixed in no time! Then Dad came over a couple days later to help me with the cat pen. We worked until it started raining and then had to quit. The pen is almost finished. There's just one more side to do. And I want to erect a wall in the shed to define the cat's area. That will be enough to transfer the cats from the garage to their new living quarters. I still want to do stuff to the inside of the shed, like put up shelves for the cats to climb and rest on, and build individual compartments so they can get away from each other. But that can wait until later. I've got a couple more outdoor projects that I need to get done before winter gets here, and Dad has been kind enough to offer his assistance, so finishing up the cat's house will have to wait.

By the way, I've got my Movable Type blog up and running. For some reason, I'm still using both Blogger and MT. I want to do more to my MT site before I permanently settle there, but that involves reading the 76 page MT user manual. I haven't had the time to read it yet, so I'm still using both blogs.