Busy day today.

[starshadow_rivaulx]

Started early, if you consider that before I went to sleep at past
midnight, I'd been helping our Pica-mama settle down with her new
kittens in one of the pet carriers.



Oh, the things you do for love - she gave birth in the *litter pan*,
the poor wee creature! So while she cleaned up and gave her kittens
their first feed, I assembled the pet carrier with clean newspapers
and a bit of scrap doormat sandwiched between the layers of paper.
Then I shifted things in the cabinet where Pica had all her litters,
making an empty space where the carrier could fit. The tricky part
was asking her if I could move the kittens; she looked a wee bit out
of it, as of course any new mother would who'd been in labor, so I
wrapped my hand in fresh, clean rags and transferred the eldest kitten
into the carrier.

Pica heard it meeping and meeped back at it, then when I transferred
the second kitten, she meeped at me, then went into the carrier to
look over the two, then looked over at her shoulder at the wet kitten
in the litter pan, which I transferred double-quick. Once Pica
reassured herself that the babies were all right, then she curled up
around them, continued cleaning off the youngest kitten, then lay down
so they could feed.

I hefted the carrier into the cabinet, with the door facing the back
wall, so that any curious cat wouldn't have easy access to the
newborns. This seemed to please Pica, and when I put back stuff on
top of the carrier, she was purring like a motorcycle on overdrive. I
think she feels secure with the set-up; kittens are protected, she has
free access to them, and she spends time in front of the cabinet door
once they've been fed. All is well so far in that corner of my world.

* * * * *

Today was the first of two stockholder meetings that I'm attending
this week. The other one is on Friday. It was the first time I ever
decided to live-tweet from the event, and it was a great deal of fun.
I also met a dear and long-unseen friend after the meeting was
adjourned; her daddy was a stockholder, and we had a lovely time
bonding while standing in the queue for the snack box (lasagna and
smoked salmon on focaccia bread - Hotel Intercon, you rule in the food
department) and the giveaway (a 1GB flash drive, sweet).

Dropped the goodies in the car, and then we walked to SM, where we
parted ways. Peeped into the applicance center, and after looking at
all the new computer models, decided I really didn't need a new
computer at any time in the immediate future. Based on experience,
Linux makes even an old model computer run like a charm, and why fix
what's not broke?

Joined Ramon for lunch at the Glorietta 4 Food Court. Then we
returned to SM, where I went pitterpat through Watson's and bought
some skin care stuff.

Then off to Metrobank Pasong Tamo, to pay credit card bill. Then to
the barangay, to get new free movie booklets for the parental units,
and to check what our voting precinct was. For a few moments there,
the barangay officials couldn't find my name; an interesting state of
affairs since Ramon and I have always voted together. Turns out there
were two lists that weren't quite in sync, so in the end, they did
find me and my precinct. So that ended well.

Came home to life as usual, read through mail and feeds before taking
a nap. As usual, was slow to wake up, but here I am, finishing up
this blog post and catching up on Twitter. TV time with family is
almost over, so I'll send this off now and get ready to shut down the
netbook.