days_unfolding

Harlee is now on prescription food. However, I bought her really expensive non-prescription food at the beginning of the month. I want Mimi and Zara to eat the expensive food. Mimi likes it. (Mimi has never found food that she doesn't like, except for turkey. She's kind of like a stomach with legs and fur.) Zara does not, and is refusing to eat it. I had a long talk with her about the importance of eating her food, and how there were starving cats out there who would love the food, but no. Zara wasn't going to eat the food, and I couldn't make her eat it. So she wins. I'm going to pick up food that she likes at WalMart later tonight, plus an extra cat food cap. I'll feed Harlee the prescription food, Mimi the expensive non-prescription food, and Zara her junk food (Fancy Feast). Sigh. Oy. Zara was nosing around Mimi's dish. Surprise, surprise, she's hungry. Did I say, "Sigh"?

After I picked up Zara's meds, I drove to Funks Grove. It's a very pretty grove of sugar maple and oak trees. I had planned on stopping by the Funks Grove pure maple sirup store, but blew past it on old Route 66. I also blew past the turnoff for the old historic church and cemetery. I did turn off for the Sugar Grove Nature Center. The Center was closed, but the trails are open until dusk. First, I walked over to the Imagination Grove, which had a ton of things that kids would enjoy: a playhouse, a sandbox, a way to get to the creek, steps up a tree, tires, a pipe to crawl though, and a low zip line. There also were picnic tables for us old folks.

Then I went looking for the trails. I finally found some off to the side of the main area. I started down the longest trail, which goes near the old church and cemetery, but stopped a little way before the cemetery because I was afraid that it was going to get dark, and the forest was pretty dark as it was. The trails were well-maintained, and there were lots of signs for the trails. I really liked it. I was alone again, though, and I was wondering if I should take pepper spray with me, just in case. They did find someone dead there a little while ago, but apparently the woman was killed by her daughter.

Then I drove over to the old church and cemetery. The church is small and pretty. The cemetery was quiet and peaceful; it's easy to imagine "resting in peace" there. I really liked it. There also is an auxiliary cemetery because the old one is full. It wasn't quite as pretty, but it was nice enough.

Then I went home. I want to come back and hike more trails sometime, and check out the "Chapel in the Woods".

More progress at work. I just have one file to finish tomorrow, and I'll be done with the patron loads. I also need to prepare my presentation for the staff meeting on Sunday.

This week seems interminably long, probably because I'm doing something that I don't enjoy. (Yes, I would like some cheese with my whine.) I'm feeling kind of tired and headachy, so I'm going to go to sleep after I give Harlee her Pill Pockets, and she tries to eat my fingers. Pill Pockets bring out the wild beast in her :)

TGIF!

Oh, I bought some frozen Steak and Shake Frisco Melt burgers. They're a little pricey, but it was really good. I need to figure out how to make them from scratch.

I fell asleep with the lights on again last night. I was lying down to stretch out my back again. I think that I've figured out why my lower back muscle is hurting; sitting with my legs crossed at my computer at work. It's a tough habit to break. I did lie down when I got home, but Mimi was lying on me, and although I can sleep anytime and anywhere, not with a heavy purring cat on me. She kicked me in the stomach too when she decided to get off. Oof, Mimi.

The faculty and staff records are loaded at work. I also created records for the students at our local campus. Progress. I was hoping to take Friday off and get back on my Sunday-Thursday schedule, but I'm planning to work Friday to take some of the pressure off of me finishing stuff before school starts. Plus I need to prepare for the staff meeting on Sunday. Plus, they're having a picnic for the new students. Free food!

Someone at the college said that Walgreens and WalMart were selling eclipse glasses. Not. Casey's General Store had some, but sold out. I think that I missed a good opportunity if I had bought a bunch and then sold them. Oh well.

Sheesh, the cats are restless. I guess that they're hungry, but it isn't that late.

I got out to Springfield today. I first walked in a Wildlife Sanctuary. It has a house off a busy street, where they let the land grow over into woods and prairie. I was the only one there, which I found kind of creepy. It wasn't hard to imagine someone hiding behind a tree, waiting to grab you. The woods were overgrown. The path was hard to follow because it went from gravel to dirt to shorter grass. There were a couple of times where I got confused, and almost headed off the path. The woods were kind of boring, really. The prairie part had some pretty wildflowers, but at that point, I was walking back to get out of there.

I got Harlee her Pill Pockets. Let's hope that she swallows the pills. The last time that I gave her pills, she became adept at eating the Pill Pocket and--ptooey--spitting out the pill. Her pills are really tiny though, so maybe she'll swallow them without realizing that they're there.

Mom is doing well. The antiseizure medicine that she's on is helping her pain a lot. It also is knocking her out, so she's been getting lots of sleep. She's busy getting stuff together for her trip to Europe; she leaves a week from Monday.

I participated in the "campus clean up" today. We wound up pulling weeds and spreading mulch. The areas on which we worked look a lot better. I smelled like stale sweat the rest of the day though. And there were flecks of dirt on my face, which I discovered when I tried to pull myself together to stop by the vet. I wound up wiping off my makeup and putting powder on.

I picked up Harlee's new food. $3 a can. She's worth it, but sheesh. I kicked off my austerity program tonight by eating corned beef hash and eggs. It was too much food for me to eat, which is good.

I've got two new databases working for the library. They are a music (recording) library and a video library, and I think that I'll use them a lot. I hope that our students do too. I'm having some issues with a sheet music library and am working with the vendor on that.

I think that it will be an early night.

Added: Harlee likes the new food. Awesome!

Last night, I got smart and instead of falling asleep with the lights on, I went to bed early, feeling guilty because I didn't spend time snuggling with Harlee. I had planned to get up early, but didn't.

My former boss asked in her budget proposal to keep the library open during the school year until 10 PM rather than 9 PM. She never got an answer. My new boss seems reluctant to ask about it. That's a little worrisome. I need to know because I'm developing the schedule for the part-time workers.

Tomorrow during my break, I need to stop by the vet and pick up Harlee's new food that they ordered. I really hope that she'll eat it, but I have my doubts.

I did some research and found that "Big R" probably doesn't have Pill Pockets (although I'll stop by on Friday), but they do have really cheap cat litter. Worth a try to see if the girls can use it. I'm probably going to go to Springfield on Saturday, walk in a nature preserve, and go in search of Pill Pockets. Springfield has both PetSmart and PetCo, so that gives me a better chance to find what we need.

On Sunday, I'm going to a CPR/First aid class sponsored by the College.

If the person selling my textbook on Amazon for my intro computer class doesn't get back to me, I've decided to rent it. I don't think that I'll want to keep that one, although I do want to keep the one from my HTML5/CSS class.

Hmm, my tags are "work, Harlee, blog, school". That pretty well sums up my life :)

I tore the place apart, looking for Zara. Didn't find her, so I was walking around outside with a lantern calling her. She wasn't by the sides of the building. Went back inside, and there she was on the back of my chair in the kitchen. BIG sigh of relief. Love my girl.

My FitBit isn't working. It's supposed to turn on when you tap it, but it only turns on when you charge it. It indicates that it's fully charged though. Sigh. Time to contact customer support.

It looks like it's going to rain all afternoon tomorrow, so I might not get out hiking. I do need to get food for Harlee though.

I can't find my house keys. They have to be here somewhere unless I left them in the door last night. There's no phone call from the apartment management on my phone. This, needless to say, is a problem. I can't remember if I've seen them this morning. The last time that I'm sure that I had them was last night.

Obviously, I'm not going anywhere until I find them. I was feeling too tired to go to Bloomington today anyway, but this clinches it.

Crap.

At the library, I have cataloged almost all the books that we've received. There are a few that we haven't received yet. I have the books that I've cataloged on a cart and have been admiring them :) I spent approximately $1300.

Faculty members have been moving into two offices upstairs at the library. I've been frustrated because they've started moving in at 4 PM, when I want to go get dinner, but I suppose that they were doing other things during the day. I wound up eating out at a sandwich place across the street because it was closer and faster. I had planned to get more cash because I needed to go to the credit union to make my car payment, and I get quarters from them for laundry. But there was a power cable down near the place where I was going to get cash, so I just got quarters for my cash on hand ($30). The road that was closed is the main artery for Lincoln, so it created a bit of a mess.

For no particular reason, I was in a good mood when I came home, but I'm not going to knock it.

I need to print out driving directions to the Recreation Area to which I'm going tomorrow. It's supposed to rain on Sunday, so I better get while the getting is good. Which reminds me, I need to get more cash because there's a snack bar up there. I also need to stop by Bloomington, which is on the way back from there, to get Harlee her special, expensive food.

Added: I want to set up and charge my FitBit so that I can use it tomorrow.