Sami's gearing up

It's almost moving time again, and the boxes are starting to accumulate (finally...I got a late start on the packing once again). Poor Sami's about to be uprooted, but for now she's enjoying her lazy days in relative peace.


Chillin' in the window, as per usual. The towels are for cat hair control and protection of the woodwork since this is one of her frequent hangouts. Not so attractive, but worth it.




There has been some window distress as of late. Pudge (the landlords' bulldog) has been tied to the new deck right outside the window. Most of the time it's fine, but twice recently I've been awakened at heinously early hours by the blood-curdling sounds of cat and dog fighting, and a few other times I've heard it when already awake. Thank goodness there's glass between them.




And thank goodness Sami has so many other places of refuge. She's made herself right at home in the new quilts I've received from Dale and First.







She also likes to burrow into the comforter I just washed.




And now that I'm packing, she's my trusty side-kick. Ever so helpful.

Random updates

First things first...thanks be to God for relief from the sweltering heat. I hope I don't see this again anytime soon:





In other car-related news, mine recently flipped over to 100,000 miles. It happened as I was returning from my visit to dear little Annika. Note the speedometer; I pulled over to take the pic. Had to circle a parking lot a couple times for the last tenth of a mile or so, but I wasn't cruising along at 75 whilst simultaneously wielding a camera.





In the true spirit of randomness, check out these cute cows from the Iowa Welcome Center at Lamoni, where we stopped on our way back from visiting sweet little Dayla (and her parents, of course) in Kansas City.





Meanwhile, Sami survived the trip to and from my parents' house during my vacation, but she wasn't happy about it. She spent much of her time in Iowa hiding under my bed. At least she doesn't look particularly tense.





And here she is checking out some daisies I had in the apartment. Nice little snack for her until I deprived her by making them inaccessible. She has a rough life.

Sami update

Been a while since an update, I think. Here you go....


I recently received a prayer shawl, which I added to my little prayer space. Guess who was delighted to discover and claim it?




Sami's been quite the intrepid explorer as of late.

She figured out that the laundry room door doesn't latch securely, so this is what I discover when I've been asleep or away. She is much less obsessed than she used to be now that it's no longer forbidden territory.




She likes to skulk about under the bathroom sink, where there really isn't room for her.




And I indulge her every now and then by putting her on top of the kitchen wall cabinets. She loves to roam...




...and then settle right into her usual state of consciousness.




Meanwhile, it finally (finally!) got warm enough (at 101 degrees!) to rid myself of the big winter comforter, and Sami loves when it's piled at the foot of the bed.




Sadly, Sami has been a bit under the weather lately, but I think she's on the mend. We'll do more tests in the next few weeks just to rule out a couple things, but she seems to be doing fine now, which pleases me.

Sami the recluse

By my calculations, it's been a while since I did a Sami update. Here's the latest.

She's turned into a hermit. Sleeps under the sofa or chair all day long. I have a theory that it's extra warm under there, since I have radiant in-floor heat and the sofa and chair have skirts around them that probably retain the heat.





She has learned that an undiscovered territory lies beyond the front door, which goes upstairs into the main floors of my landlord's house. I had to keep it open one day a while back, in order to listen for a delivery at the front door, so now she has expanded her obsession with the laundry room door.




Incidentally, through a series of unfortunate events that occurred when I was out of town on retreat, Sami was trapped in the laundry room for almost 24 hours. It hasn't dampened her enthusiasm for that particular room. As soon as I liberated and fed her, she wanted right back in to explore some more.

She went with me to my parents' house just after Christmas, which is traumatic for both of us, as it involves prying her out from under the bed to get her in her carrier, and forcing a motion sickness pill down her throat to prevent (or at least diminish) car sickness.

But once we're there, she loves to play with my mom's yarn. And this is how she plays...chases it for about 8 seconds, then sits and watches the humans run and dance around like fools. I'm sure it's ever so amusing for her.





And, just for the sake of gratuitous cuteness, here's Christmas Sami sleeping on the little stocking that serves as both pillow and prey.

Nosy kitties and blank posts

If a completely empty post showed up in your blog reader a few minutes ago (I deleted it but I think they stay in the reader list), you can blame Sami. She always has to be right in the midst of the action, so here are her two usual positions when I'm at the computer.








If I were not holding the camera with my right hand, she would be sprawled across both of my arms. And, yes, I am outing myself as the nasty person I never wanted to be who lets her cat on the kitchen table. Rest assured that I thoroughly clean said table before anyone else eats at it.

Anyway, on this particular occasion, she somehow managed to hit some keys and publish a post before I had typed anything, even a title. She's a talented little nuisance, that one. I just wanted you to know that, despite my clumsiness, it wasn't my fault this time.

And, with that, I'll try to refrain from posting about Sami for a while, lest I become the crazy cat lady, even with only one cat. But if she suddenly publishes a post that isn't blank (it would most likely be a rant about me not feeding her in a timely fashion), I'll have to explain myself.

Sami's crushed dreams

Sami is obsessed with getting into the laundry room. She camps out regularly at the door hoping for an opportunity. Look at her intense gaze--like she's trying to make me open the door by the sheer force of her feline will.





She tries whatever angles she can think of looking for an opening.





She bats at the door in a most irritating fashion (notice the blur of paws in motion).





And it's all because this is the joy that awaits her in the section of the laundry room behind the tarp, where my landlord stores all the random things that tend to accumulate when one works on a house.





It's a veritable amusement park of possibility! So much exploring to do! So much, in fact, that she can easily get into crevices from which I cannot extract her, and she has done exactly that. Consequently, no more laundry room expeditions for Sami.

Poor kitty. She has such a rough life.

The ridiculous and the adorable

Ridiculous (and disturbing): Halloween/Christmas fusion on October 4.




Adorable: Southern sun + radiant in-floor heat = happy kitty.

Sami: Trauma and nesting

Lots of words lately...time for some pictures!

One night this week, Sami was enjoying the open window (as per usual) when she suddenly freaked out and started running around like a lunatic weirdo.

I knew something was up but, given the utter and complete darkness here at night (which I am still getting used to), I couldn't see anything in the yard until I got very close to the window. Turns out it was a cute little cat just on the other side of the screen! My windows are at ground level outside, so Sami and her enemy were nose to nose.

Poor Sami! She already has to share "her territory" with Pudge, my landlord's bulldog (here's her view from the window):





...And now there was another invader to contend with! Luckily the trespassing cat scampered off as quickly as it had appeared, and all was well again, though Sami was not quick to let down her guard.

She has had a couple other minor incidents, including getting stuck in the closet once (oops, my bad!), and under the new-to-me borrowed couch twice. I have no idea how she wedged her body under there in the first place, but she couldn't seem to reverse the process.

Also, she seems to feel she's not getting enough play time. She's been dragging her toys into the bedroom every night, and sometimes yowling to wake me up for play time (which, of course, doesn't happen). She used to do this in St. Paul on occasion, but in this place she has to drag them like 20 feet, so it really takes determination. Here she is this morning drawing my attention to her toys in the bedroom:





In general, though, Sami is settling in quite nicely. Check out her latest non-traumatic adventure...making a nest for herself in the bag of plastic bags that she batted down from the nearby shelf. She picks the strangest places to settle!

All moved in

I made the move this weekend from my Luther Seminary apartment to my new place in Dennison, Minnesota.

I could not have asked for a moving day to go more smoothly, and I owe huge thanks to the dozen or so people who helped load and/or unload the moving truck. My parents, especially, are such troopers. They've helped me move eight times in the last 10 years and they still keep showing up every time!

Sunday was a tough day, saying goodbye to friends and to the lovely people of my teaching congregation. That's never pleasant, no matter how excited I am about what comes next. But of course we'll still be in touch. In fact, I spent much of Monday talking on the phone, video calling on Skype, e-mailing, exchanging Facebook messages, and chatting online with various friends. I really diversified my communication, and I'm grateful for these many options, as well as for the friends using them!

As predicted, Sami spent most of the moving day cowering in terror behind the toilet. Such a sad sight. But she seems to be settling right in to her new home, don't you think?





She's in seventh heaven with these nice, wide windowsills and southern sun. And, yes, that is a sweet old-school Winnebago in the background.

Meanwhile, when I arrived I found a very thoughtful welcome basket from my landlord and his girlfriend. It contained very helpful things like hand soap, hand lotion, tissues, new towels, and their phone numbers in case I needed anything. Plus a Dennison Days t-shirt just for fun.





I'm not as unpacked as I might like to be, but I did manage to find the necessary tools to make brinner (breakfast for dinner) tonight, so I'm making progress. Tomorrow is my first day of internship, and my supervisor's low-key plan begins at the gloriously late hour of 10 a.m., so we're off to a good start already!

Refuge from chaos

I'm interrupting your regularly scheduled "seeking beauty" series to bring you up to date on Operation: Move This Stuff. Packing began in earnest yesterday and I've made great progress. It's starting to look like a real-life game of Tetris in here as I stack boxes.

But my cat, Sami, had a little trouble with the chaos. Luckily, she found a safe haven between the panes of glass (or plastic, as the case may be) in the bedroom window.





She'll hang in there for the next few days, but moving day won't be pretty. Sami generally thinks moving day = apocalypse, and she hides under or behind various pieces of large furniture as they disappear one by one. Then she usually ends up cowering behind the toilet because it's the only thing left. Poor kitty.