catheroominations

Today my dad is having his second surgery in a year to remove a cancerous tumor from his colon. (Cancer, we will have words. Do you hear me, you little @#$%?) The operation is scheduled for just around 2:30 pm Pacific. So, if I could have everyone at that time take a moment to say a prayer, send a positive vibe, think a good thought, sing Kumbaya, bow to Buddha, or chant something Gregorian, he can use all the help he can get.

Thank you for your kind words of support this week too. XOXO.

When I left to go to work this morning, my kitchen looked like this:

When I came home from work, it looked like this:

I hate it.

See in the “before” photo how there are some nice, wide drawers to the right of the stove? Well, since they moved the stove to the right, I lost those drawers. I did gain a cookie sheet cabinet, but, uhm, where should I put my nice, large flatware tray now? The awesome one that holds every single piece of flatware we have? Maybe on top of the counter. Yeah. Or I could put the forks in the top drawer, the knives below that and the spoons in the second to the bottom drawer. Oh, and where shall I put my multiple sets of Ikea-made Rubbermaid/Tupperware wannabes? I guess I’ll leave them out on the counter too because they will no longer fit in the bottom drawer. Oh, and my cutting boards, and placemats need a new home too. Maybe those can sit on top of the litterbox. It’s the right size.

Also, in the before photo, we kept our drinking glasses and pilsners to the right of the microwave and our mugs (many, many mugs) to the left. Now? Well, we shall jam all of them into one small space. And the weight of all that glass and plaster shall bring the cabinet toppling down on top of me one Sunday morning when I make my Earl Grey tea. So awesome.

These ADA improvements they made today are idiotic. OK. The changes were necessary, not idiotic. But why not wait until we vacate the apartment? We do not require ADA upgrades. We are fine with things as they are. Wouldn’t it be easier to do this work in empty apartments? So as to not disrupt the tenants? And not force me to store my silverware in my underwear drawer? I’m just saying.

Our stuff fits used to fit fine in the kitchen. Now we have this kitchen where my stuff doesn’t fit, along with new toilets (in the bathroom, not the kitchen, duh) that make my butt feel huge. We used to have these oblong-ish shaped ones that were quite comfy, but they replaced the one in my bathroom with a smaller, round-seated one for someone with 24-inch hips. Seriously. It’s a Barbie toilet. Although, my feet do reach the floor when I sit now, so that’s nice. Except the seat is so low, I need one of those grabber things to reach the toilet paper.

Must they disrupt our living space like this when we are still living in it? Really?

I used to whine about the lack of counter space in our kitchen. Now I can whine about the lack of drawer and cabinet space too! Oh, and my fat butt.

We need a house. That’s all there is too it. A house with vast counter space, caverns of storage, and toilets with seats as big as swimming pools. So I can feel like my butt is small.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go stare at my nice cookie sheet storage now and play with my 12 butter knives.

I was planning to be in Seattle this weekend to see Dave Matthews play an acoustic set with Tim Reynolds, but I canceled the trip to be with my family while my dad has surgery on Friday. Effing cancer.

My friend Rachel needs to sell our tickets. She has decided to turn the ticket sale into an auction to benefit Team In Training. She recently signed up for the Summer 2008 Season and will run two races with me. This is her first step in fundraising for the cause.

If you’d like to purchase 2 tickets to see Dave, Tim, and the Dalai Lama (details here) send an email to catheroo AT gmail DOT com. If you live in Seattle, Rachel will FedEx the tickets to you.

Bidding starts at $100 for the pair each which is the original ticket price, plus the cost to send FedEx.

You don’t want to miss this! I mean, Dave is awesome himself, but the Dalai Lama!? Awesome.

This morning I heard some birds going nuts outside. When I went out to the patio to check it out, I saw five crows sitting on one tree. They were squawking about a dead pigeon on the lawn. Most of the crows left to go do whatever it is crows do, but this one stayed so I could take its photo. How nice of him.

This photo was taken for of the 30 Tiny Moments group on Flickr.

Here, have some kiwi.

Well, y’all made a valiant effort, but Jeff guessed 19 of the 26 letters correctly. Congratulations, Jeff! It was close! Many of you had 16 or 17 letters right, and I almost had to give out more than one gift card. (Note to self: next time think of a tie-breaker, just in case.) Oh, and honorable mention goes to Jenni,a fellow Mac user, who guessed that A is for Apple. You rarely see the actual word Apple, but it does exist. Oh, and I tricked all y’alls on the Q. It’s a very cool site and I suggest you check it out.

Thanks for playing, everyone! If you’d like to see the answers, they’re here.

Doow sucked me into another photo thing. She’s always doing stuff like that. But her ideas are so good, I must be a part of them. This time it’s 30 Tiny Moments on Flickr. I couldn’t leave doow out there all alone in a sea of toddler photos, so I will be posting photos for 30 days. Warning: there may be cats.

Here is Day One, taken at Hakone Gardens in the bamboo.