MOOP!

Friends of mine have recently acquired a Maine Coon kitten. Coire is twelve weeks old and needs human socializing so that she grows up to be mellow about many people being around. I mean like...okay, if you need me to come to your house and harass your unbearably cute tiny cat I *guess* that can be arranged...

So Charis picked me up after service ringing¹ and we drove up north a wee bit to visit Magus and Keira and their menagerie. Coire was obviously the star attraction, but there were three more cats and Coda-the-parrot to hang out with inside, and a number of chickens to gently mock outside², plus rambling house-land-hill to wander on and bugs to seek out.

We did a stint of lying on the floor and playing with the cats (yes, Coire is absolutely as stupid-cute as you would expect from a twelve week old owlMaineCoon kitten. She has the classic look I have grown used to from seananmcguire on twitter, with those big big eyes and the incredibly tufted ears. She is also going to grow to be gigantic, and I *really* look forward to seeing her again in the future as that happens.

While the rest of us were hanging with the cats, Keira was working on making some sort of terrifying chicken-stack to go on the grill and be our dinner. Once that was prepped and it was time for the grill to heat up, we all went outside for A Tour Of The Grounds while it was still light out.

Too early for most of their food-plants to be blooming, but I did point out some early season sorrel and distribute samples to everyone to try. I saw so many good bugs (aaah yay!) and I wore some rhubarb leaves as a hat (Charis was impressed they lasted the entire walk, something something, any plan where you lose your hat...) and I got to upturn a random tub full of leaves and water so that it wouldn't breed skeeters, and we talked about maybe-fanciful plans for what could happen with the land eventually and it was all just really fun and nice. Extremely quality outdoor time!

Then back into the house, where Charis returned to socializing Coire, I did a wee bit of doodling (I have a new, as the kids say, "OC" and I was trying to figure out some ideas around her), and Marc and Keira engaged on food-quest. Dinner was eventually ready, with a delicious stack of grilled chicken, well marinated, made by Keira, hummus, cucumbers, and tzatziki prepared by one or both of our hosts at some ambiguous earlier time, and flatbreads created by Magus in their little outdoor pizza oven thingy. It was all very good!

Dinner was wrapping up when my alarm went off --oh right! The ISS was passing at a good time, do y'all wanna see? So we tromped outside and watched it shine across the night sky (they're dark enough to be quite good star watching) and I got to wave again.

Post-dinner entertainment was teaching this group Cat in the Box, my current favourite new game. It's a quantum trick-taking game, where the colour of your card doesn't occur until you actually play it, and a nice little land-grab minigame. The group (as predicted) quite enjoyed it and I almost won --Magus beat me on the tiebreaker.

Finished with homemade lemon meringue pie for dessert --Keira had, in the past, said specific that she would make one for me sometime and I was very very pleased to collect. Then finally home again home again for Charis and I, where I immediately passed out.

It was a good day!

~Sor
MOOP!

1: Bells is just a footnote today, but a nice one. It was me, Laura, Ricky, Danielle and we rang all the minimus in the world, including getting me some new methods (Reverse and Double Court). Lots of practice with the Bob suite (Plain/Reverse/Double), which is a good exercise in keeping track of the treble. I'm surprisingly happy about it, although my hands are currently a little achey in a way that suggests it was a lot for me.

2: Oh whoops, I should've seen if they had extra eggs to get rid of (yes. Always.)

jere7my and I went on a long bike ride today (my longest yet, I wound up doing 37 miles today!) as a celebration of the beautiful weather and that I have a working bike again¹.The plan was to bike along the Minuteman Bike Path until I got tired, which backfired in that I was ridiculously full of energy and pretty much...didn't. So we reached the end of the path, and sat and rested, and were debating going back.

"Well", says j7y, "If we go about two and a half miles thatway, we'll get to the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, which is very pretty. We can rest and hike and stuff." I was mega up for adventure, and so go there we did! It turned out even better than expected, because not only was it utterly beautiful, the path there had moguls (awwwwwwwesome!) and there was ALL THE WILDLIFE!

Like, I am not normally a super-squeeful animal person, but jere7my is good at bringing out the nature lover in me. And because I had brought my camera and he hadn't, I was in charge of taking photos on the trip, which I did with great zeal. I believe at one point he declared me "Almost as much of a menace with a camera as I am".²

In addition to the frog above, we saw muskrats, great blue herons, red-winged blackbirds, a black snake, ( and a couple of other things I actually got shots of (photo heavy) )

Can you spot the frog when the camera is all the way zoomed out?



It was an extremely satisfying diversion. Our total hike was under a mile and a half, and the whole thing was set among flowers and cattails and small children who got excited when we pointed turtles out to them. If you're local and have a bike, I definitely recommend the trip. The Minuteman path is unfairly beautiful, and the wildlife refuge lives up to its name.

~Sor
MOOP!

1: So I don't think I ever mentioned it, but Blaise broke. The brake cable snapped, and that was basically the end of that. I was looking at about 200 dollars worth of repair for a bike I paid 50 bucks for, and it was kinda one of those "I'll just save up for a new bike then, shall I?".

Then my parents decided that as an early-birthday-gift, they would get me a bike, and I was very excited and went shopping and now I have a biiiiiiike! Her name is Elanor Draper, she is dark silvery-grey, and she is amazing.

2: If you ever go hiking with jere7my --which I recommend, he is good at spotting animals and interesting things, and a good conversationalist, and enjoys beautiful green spaces-- he will stop about every five minutes to photograph mushrooms. It is completely hilarious, and very endearing, as long as you are not the kind of hiker who wants to go go go.

PostScript: As an aside, whenever I post bunches of photos from an event or something, it's usually worth clicking through to my flickr --I almost always post more there than I do here.

The Maryland D&D lost their puppy today. Which kinda sorta completely totally sucks. My one memory of Sukha was of playing fetch with her outside while Koob did his usual distractable thing. As dogs go, she was pretty much wonderful.

***

In semi-related news, my grandparents black lab, Tinkerbelle, bit it a few weeks/months ago. I pretty much grew up with Tink --She was there every single time we went up to the farm --I pretty much don't remember her not being there.

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In completely unrelated news, I walked out into the quad today to find Kate Monster sitting on the steps of the ampitheatre, feeding the campuscat turkey in a forlorn sort of matter. It turns out her pet kitty, who looks something like the campuscat, bit it today.

Today is not a good day in the world of pets. Makes me kinda want to call home and make sure TSoD and Whimsy are doing okay.

*sends love and huggles for those who need it*

~Sor