Snowy

I was on a mission.
Two cats for two kids, ages 5 and 8.
It was a few weeks before Christmas, work was crazy busy and I hadn't even started shopping.
I dropped into the local animal shelter, unprepared for the emotional impact of so many tiny, fluffy creatures when I would only be taking two with me.
I took a lap of the room — filled with cages — and Snowy stood out for me straight away. She was alone in her cage, a little grey kitten with white and ginger, a loner which should have alerted me to her nature.
I chose the other kitten from a litter of identical ginger kittens, though he stood out as the one jumping up down and pouncing on his siblings.
I picked them up on Christmas Eve and hid them next door for a surprise Christmas morning gift. The male kitten went to my son and he named the ginger fluffball Milo. My daughter named her kitten Snowy. Not very original, but hey, she was 5!
The thing that I will remember the most is that Snowy used to perch on the chair behind my cat-hating husband and groom his close-cropped hair. It was his lap she always sought and we often caught them hanging out together, my husband watching TV, Snowy purring contentedly while he scruffed her behind the ears.

We'll be taking her home from the vet today to bury her in the garden.
Thanks for your kind wishes.

What are they teaching kids at school?

It's great that I learned about the Aztecs and the Elizabethans and alluvial soil

and the square root of things when I was at school,
but what would really have been handy would be
to have learned about:

How to read my superannuation statement
Understanding the stock market
Investment strategies
How to build a house
How to fix a car
Or make a dry stone fence
Or weave a rug
Or make furniture

and I could have learned about that other fairly interesting
but totally useless for real life stuff in my spare time.

Or not.

101 Things to Do instead of writing

I sat down to write yesterday.
But first I had to check my emails and respond to them.
Then I checked out Facebook to see what I was missing out on.
Then I cleaned up my desktop.
Then I read the last chapter I worked on and did a bit of editing.
Then I was ready to start new writing.
So I got up to make myself a coffee and realised
this was the perfect day to swap the lounge room and dining room
which is something I'd been meaning to try for two years.
So I woke up the kids (11am by now)
and we finished up around 6ish
(have you ever tried to move a piano?).
So now I'm ready to write
today's the day
although I do need to go the bank at some point...