deadmillion

The other day I got caught in a really bad rainstorm, and my phone got soaked. Now it turns on and off randomly, and most of the buttons don't work. I had some hope that it might get better in a few days, once it dried. But it's now almost a week ago, and the problems still exist. So it looks like I need to start looking for a new phone . Which sucks, because it will cost me over 500 (or over $ 800 for the North Americans among you) to replace the phone I have.

Ok, now for some positive news . I got a new kittie this week! Her name is Tara, and she's now about 8 weeks old:


She's so tiny! Especially compared to Oz. She's about the size of my hand. I'm taking her to the vet on Monday for a little checkup and her shots.
Oz had a little trouble adjusting to having to share "his" house and food. The first few days, he hissed and growled all day, even hit her once. And he followed her around, watching her every move with aggression. He even hissed and growled at me a few times, and wasn't in the mood for his (daily) treats. He's doing a little better now though. He still doesn't seem happy about having Tara around, but he's tolerating her. The hissing and growling has stopped, and he's eating again and will accept his treat from time to time. Not yet when she's around, but at least he's eating.

So what else has been going on? Well, I came back from a vacation in the States about a week and a half ago . I'll post pictures later, I need to sort through them all first.
My first stop was the ever-so-sexy Ravioli in Providence, RI. She showed me around, and pretty much kept me occupied the whole 4 days. Oh, and she put up with my shopping quest at Wal-Mart, where I stocked up on a lot of clothes and other stuff. (Partly) due to the current exchange rate, clothes and other things in the States are so much cheaper than they are back home. There was a lot of Food Network and being stalked by her cat C.R.E.A.M. I had a really good time there , despite me nagging about everything being different than it is back home . Since she's a vegetarian, I tried not to eat meat while I was there. Which was really hard. I think I did pretty well for a meatarian though, only cheating once I think.
That Saturday, I hitched a ride with Ravioli to NH, where I met up with my good friend Shimmer and her husband. They in turn drove me up to the beautiful state of VT for our friend Spritely's birthday. It was so good to see her again, she's one of my best friends in the world. We had a BBQ that night, it was so good to finally dig into a piece of chicken and steak. While I continued to stay in VT with Spritely, Boogalooshrimp and the kids, Shimmer and her husband went home the next day. The next 2 weeks were spent catching up with Spritely, playing with the kids, a lot of Rock Band, and almost getting myself a heatstroke. I decided to borrow a bike and bike around the city's bike route, but I should have prepared better. A LOT better. I had no idea how long the trail was (turned out to be 30 miles, of which 15 was gravel), I didn't put on sunscreen (while it turned out to be 90F with beautiful clear skies) and I didn't even have breakfast before I left. Needless to say, I came back exhausted and badly sunburnt, and I felt really sick for a day or 2. But there's nothing a few days of Food Network can't fix .
We also took a little road trip to MA to take the kids to their father for the summer. Me and Spritely took the opportunity to get our "coolest guys around" shirts and hoodies that we didn't get last year, and she enjoyed a lobster lunch, that she craved since moving away from the coast. I'll post a picture of her lovingly tearing her lobster apart together with the rest of the pictures from this trip .
After a fun-filled 2 weeks, I took the train down to NH to hang out with Shimmer and her husband for a week. We went swimming, took a hike, went shopping, watched a lot of movies, and nerded out behind our laptops. I don't remember what else we did, just that I had a good time .
By then it was almost time to go home, and I spent my last few days in Boston and Cambridge. I walked around a lot, about 10-15 miles a day, taking pictures and soaking up the atmosphere. I also visited another 4 Newbury Comics stores in the Boston area, after already visiting 5 stores in NH, MA and RI, on my quest to get all 5 Goonies action figures. Unfortunately, none of them had Sloth, but I did succeed in getting the other 4 . I did stock up on a lot of cd's while I was there, they're so much cheaper in the States than they are over here.
Then there was the trip home, but that wasn't too exciting. Though I did get a coupon for $50 off my next flight because they didn't bring any earphones onto the plane. Which was totally fine by my, since I brought my own anyway. But I'll accept a free $50 anyday . Going through customs was a little bit of an adventure, since I bought a lot more stuff in the States than I could import without having to pay duties, but fortunately I didn't get checked . So it was all good .

This week I had to start work again, which kinda sucked after having 5 weeks off. But apart from a little stress over 1 project, I could take it relatively easy to get back into the groove.

So what have all you guys been up to the past few weeks?