one confused puppy

Our cat Missy keeps regurgitating hairballs.  After watching Ren and Stimpy back in the day, I imagined hairballs to be grey and round with bits of hair and twig sticking out of them, but they are not like this.  They are like huge black slugs made of really dense matted slimy hair and mucus, swimming in a pool of bile.  Missy is lucky we love her so much or she'd be made to live in the garden where such things can be left to decompose naturally instead of me having to pick them up with tissues and copious amounts of antibacterial handwash.  We try to brush her all the time to reduce the amount of hair in her stomach, but she just plays with the brush and tries to eat the hair that's in its bristles. Ew.
Just thought you all should know.

Jamaica tomorrow!

A student just told me I would be having his baby in two years time!

I was suitably shocked at this news.

It's been a confusing month what with one thing and another...here goes:

Granada: much fun and amazing city, but my dad went back into hospital the day before we flew out which wasn't exactly conducive to the fun-having or chatting to free and easy youngsters without a care in the world which is the no doubt overly hasty impression I built up of my fellow hostel people...ooo, long sentence, fullstop:.  The snowboarding wasn't up to much as it wasn't so much snow as sheet ice, the little we got done was good though, and a 2 hour individual lesson is highly recommended, I learnt tons.  Or tonnes, I'm not sure which, but the learning was hefty.  Then, after some fun stuff such as walking in the hills and horseriding in the mountains, I got flu, couldn't get out of bed for 2 days or eat, high fever, really fun in a party hostel but not really.

Dad: started chemotherapy yesterday but it has the feeling of a last resort, he's out of hospital now but pretty much always in bed exhausted, it's pretty hard to watch...almost exactly a year since he was diagnosed, weird.

Matt: had a 3 am moment of clarity on Monday morning and now doesn't want to teach anymore, unfortunately teaching stress has now been replaced by job hunting stress, I'm fairly sure he's in the process of developing an ulcer.  I'm trying to cheer him up by talking about fun things happening this summer, but as the fun things all seem to cost money and he might not have a job then, this plan has backfired somewhat.  Follow the story here (and befriend him in his time of need): mindshipvoyager

Money: I have none, but enjoy going on holiday, snowboarding, horseriding, socializing, festivals, good food, drinking wine, and buying stuff.  This is an annoying situation to be in being made more stressful by Matt's approaching possible wage cut which will coincide nicely with my return to living off a student grant/loan.

My usually irrepressible optimism is struggling in the face of all this, what's to be done?
Suggestions gratefully received.  And also money.

I consider myself a cyclist, as opposed to a motorist (although I have a driving licence and occasionally take Matt's car for a spin) or a pedestrian (although when I'm not cycling, I walk).  I've always had a bit of a feeling of superiority about this due to cycling not damaging stuff as much as cars, being good for keeping fit and healthy, and being faster than walking.  I also had the idea that cyclists as a group are good people, as they care about the Earth and don't mind getting rained on or pushed into the kerb by car drivers.  I think I imagined some kind of cycling Shangri-La where everyone recycles and wears clothes made of fairly traded hemp and grows their own vegetables.

HOW WRONG I WAS.

This morning I was making the most of not being late for work by pottering along the cycle path at a fairly average speed, overtaking some people, being overtaken by others, enjoying the wind on my face and the sun on my skin.  I slowed down to negotiate a sharp bend, and was overtaken by a vision in luminous lycra who snarked, 'Get a move-on, love', as he passed me in a cloud of nylon-generated static.  As soon as my eyes re-adjusted to the normal range of colours, I hared down the cycle path, and then the road, after him (oooo, did he choose the wrong lady to call 'love'...).  I caught up with him in about 30 seconds, and put him straight about a number of things:

1. I'm not, and sincerely hope I never will be, his 'love'
   
2. As long as it's not harming anyone, or slow to the point of ridiculousness, I go at whatever speed I flipping well like
   
3. Instead of being sarcastic towards others, he should perhaps look in the mirror before he sets off for work and ask himself whether those precious seconds he's gaining by being so incredibly streamlined really compensate for looking like such a fluorescent twat.
   

Then I continued on my journey to work, sad at the knowledge that cyclists are just like everyone else.

I want one!
http://kevan.org/johari?name=Mizfantastico

Coming soon....zeeb's tarot reading....

We have a kitten! That's me and Matt, not the royal We.

We've had her for a month and a half, but she has no name...ideas and suggestions most welcome, at the moment she is called kitty, the cat, little bean and cutiepie, so we are in quite a desperate state.

I was in a bad mood in January what with not going snowboarding but I'm better now, and I can almost give up my job and go back to university (although I fear the PGCE might not be quite so slack on the hours as various English degrees...).

Anyone want a tarot reading? Send me a question and I'll consult the cards in a mysterious way.  To stop myself going mad in work I'm learning a different skill each month or so, so far I've learned tarot, beginners' French, the interpretation of folklore, fairytales and myth, how to organise my student teacher file, how to be a pagan, and how to make dreamcatchers; I've joined the TES forum to discuss educational issues, and exchanged tarot readings with people in Hong Kong.  What shall I learn about next?