In which Phnee is a flake

My flakedom today knows no bounds.

I forgot that I was not supposed to go to work this morning, but rather that I have two days' worth of St. John's Ambulance CPR & First Aid training, courtesy of my employers.

Luckily the training is actually scheduled much later than my actual work shift, so I was able to correct course with lots of time to spare. It also meant I wasn't home at 15:00 the way I'd told ashforestwalker, and while I tried to communicate this to him via my answering machine, I'm not sure the message got through. More on that later.

Let me tell you, some of those baby-shaped mannequins are scary, especially the one which had its eyes open. ADD!Supervisor and one of the newbies was also there with me, and we spent a good portion of the class giggling in a most unseemly manner. The three of us are all pretty well-versed in CPR and first aid, and so much of the course was repetition and not super interesting. It was fun: I bonded with the newbie, and overall learned some new things and refreshed my memory of the rest. The instructional videos were pretty funny, though, complete with really ominous music, very heavy on the cello, and lots of sharp notes.

I could have done without the headache that's been plaguing me since yesterday, but it's fading now, which is nice.

ashforestwalker came in today to continue painting, and I must say that the front entrance and living room are gorgeous. ashforestwalker has a real talent for doing fantastic edging, among other things, which really gives a polished, finished look to the painting job. The green I picked is particularly vibrant. So much so that it kind of makes the yellow look a bit faded, but overall it's a nice effect. It's given a lot of life to the front rooms. I may have to hang a picture or two on the left-hand wall, because it's quite large, and with no windows or doors it's like a GIANT WALL OF GREEN FOREVER. It needs something to break it up a little bit.

So, yes. Today has been a very good day. I am looking forward to having the rest of the apartment painted, especially the kitchen.

Speaking of good news and being a flake, while I was tidying up my living room and moving piles of books downstairs so that ashforestwalker could come and paint, I found the DVDs I thought I had lost the other day. The other DVD that I would eventually have realized I was missing was Donnie Darko, but it turns out they were there all the while, cunningly disguised as a pile of books. :P

There was much rejoicing, however, as I was very put out at having lost them.

Miss Blue Looks for a Boyfriend

There's a little black-and-white cat who's been coming by regularly in search of a boyfriend. In fact, she has been desperately in search of some boy cat love for some time now.

Sadly for her, she has come meeping and murpling to the wrong door. There ain't nobody here who can help her out, let me assure you. All my boys have been fixed for years, and can only look at her in mild confusion as she makes an indecent spectacle of herself.

I have nicknamed her Little Miss Blue, or Miss Blue as the fancy strikes me, because she's got a weird blue spot in her eye. It's either a cataract or a blind spot of some kind. She's very, very friendly, not at all shy of humans, and does not appear to be starving, which makes me think she must belong to someone and not be a street cat. Or, if she is a street cat, she hasn't been one for long.

She and George have a weird unconsummated love affair going on. He's not quite sure how to give her what she wants, but by golly he'll give it his best shot! She hangs around the front and back windows, peeping and mrrowing hopefully, and he goes bonkers every time. Yet even if my cats are outside at the same time as she is, the worst they get up to is hanging out in the same sunbeam. Yes, life on the wild side, folks.

Today I saw her out front (she usually comes to the back door) and went outside to see what she wanted. I then got treated to the sight of her trying to leap gracefully from the ground to my window (about five feet off the ground from where she sat) where George was sitting, snag the windowsill with her claws, scrabble frantically for purchase before falling back, flailing ungracefully. She twisted in mid-air and landed on all fours, of course, then gave me a look of injured dignity and skulked off through the wrought-iron fence, no doubt off to give her tail a proper washing in order to regain her composure.

I don't know why I like her so much. I think it's because she's got moxy.