Settling In

Well a large portion of our stuff has been put away. Of course we have limited space for our clothes so currently we're using the mountain system. If you haven't used the mountain system I suggest you give it a try at least once. It's really simple. Clean a spot on the floor and pile up all your clean laundry. As you use the clothes create another pile (preferably with a barrier so the two piles don't get mixed) for the dirty laundry. It's much easier to find things as you can see most of your clothes collection at first glance.

Actually I've been without a dresser for about a year. The crappy Ikea device I was using literally fell apart, you really do get what you pay for. We had a number of in closet shelves so we put all our clean clothes there. Now of course we don't have those shelves and I don't have a dresser so we're using the mountain system until we find a better solution. Other than that much has been put away or shoved into a closet for storage.

As you probably know I have two cats right now. One is playful, fun, agile, named after beer and quite the funny character hissing and growling at inappropriate times or humping his sweater and meowing during important conference calls. The other is oddly uncoordinated and quick to anger. The new cat, Jedi, was getting used to the old place, she liked being picked up in the bathroom and she often got excited and clawed at one of our carpets. She had stopped being violent and I hadn't heard her hiss in quite awhile. Moving is quite disruptive for cats and while Brewski usually gets scared and submissive and then once in the new place explorative and happy Jedi gets violent and angry on both ends of the move. When she moved in she stayed in her carrier for a day, then the room the carrier was placed for another day until she finally slowly came out to see her new home. Then a couple weeks later we had to endure a 2 week bout of crazy cat, many people were lunged at and some even cut. This from a normally totally uncoordinated cat, seems she has the coordination when she needs is. This time we expected something similar and in the early goings we had it. Once Jedi was in her carrier she began hissing and trying to slash us from her cage. Poor Ludo almost got hit a couple of times in the truck on the way to the new place.

Jedi continued her normal behaviour at the new place hissing up a storm as I delicately placed her in one of the rooms and shut the door. Shortly after I had setup food and water and a litter so I opened her door and she growled a lot. Later I came to check on her and she was not only out of her cage but searching the room and when she saw me open the door she tried to get out. Not the behaviour we witnessed when she moved in with us. Eventually when the help left I let her out to explore the apartment. She was mildly violent, hissing at us if we tried to pass her, but her sight is weak and it's understandable, giant shapes flying over top of her freaks her out. So each time I had to pass her I got down to her level and let her smell my finger (which was usually clean). Kate's mom was a bit too quick with her I think and got a slash on her leg so we weren't sure what to expect moving forward. Jedi was better than last time but still injuring our guests.

The second day she was totally normal and has been since. She's even sleeping on the same bed as Brewski. So psycho cat has turned into normal cat and we're quite pleased with that, especially since we may very well be moving again in a few short months.

The gym is going well for me, I get out about twice a week so I'll keep the membership. I haven't lost any weight but my back fat is greatly reduced so I presume I'm adding muscle while losing fat.

French is also going well, I can slowly see myself getting it. There are so many little rules and slang and then remembering verbs and how to conjugate them it can often be overwhelming but occasionally I get things right without thinking, they just seem right. Similar to knowing that you say an apple not a apple. You know the rule but it also just seems right one way and not the other. I think some of the french rules are coming to me like that. By the end of next year I hope to be capable of communicating in french sufficiently enough to speak it on a day to day basis. Then we start looking at all the French speaking countries we can spend some time in. Vietnam might be a good one, we can live like kings there!

Speaking of kings I'm going to a Halloween wedding this year. Kate has decided to be Marie Antoinette so I am going as Marie Antoinette's husband, King Louis XVI. Louis XVI was said to be a bit of a lousy king so I'm not sure if I'll be him or Louis XIV, who was a much better king. Perhaps I'll just claim to be the 'King of France' and have some of the young maidens feed me grapes and red wine all night. Either way our costumes are pretty good I think, wigs and everything. The shame is we may need DDs for the wedding and what's the good of being a king at a wedding if I can't drink. If I recall history class correctly I believe the main duty of a king was to keep the wine stocks low, it was a key method for keeping the unemployment rate down.

More to come next week.