Overdue

Dude. September 19? I can't believe I didn't post for so long. I check everyone else's blogs everyday, expecting updates but I don't put anything on mine? I guess I don't really think there's much that's "blogworthy" about my day-to-day.

On weekdays, I get up before the crack of dawn and spend 10-12 hours at work (4.5 hours actually teaching). By the end of the day, I'm so tired that I either hit a drive-thru on the way home or nuke a microwave meal. Monday night - take out recycling. Thursday night - download Naruto, take out trash.

On Friday nights, I relax as much as possible. I usually stay up too late. Computer games, video games, and DVDs are the usual fare.

On Saturdays, I run around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get errands completed that were neglected during the week. This inevitably involves driving all over San Antonio. There is no such thing as a quick trip to Wal-Mart. My primary focus is getting things ready for the next week so my Sunday can be free.

Sunday is set aside for church and other worthy pursuits. I will confess that I haven't been going to church. I still feel uncomfortable. There are too many people in the singles' ward and I don't know very many of them. It would be better if I kept going, of course, but I never really think about that when it comes time to get my lazy butt off the couch and get in the shower. Worthy pursuits have included lounging with my kittehs and chatting with Sarah. And playing games. I could seriously improve my Sundays. I usually stay up too late on Sunday's too, which makes Monday interesting.

Then we're back to the weekdays.

Which Sports Car Are You?

I'm a Dodge Viper!

You're all about raw power. You're tough, you're loud, and you don't take crap from anyone. Leave finesse to the other cars, the ones eating your dust.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Via Rebecca

Happy Thoughts

Today we're looking at the glass half full. At least for one post. Here's some happy stuff:

1. I am learning a lot from being the webmaster for my school.

2. Baxter, Blondie, Viola, and Lady are all great cats. Everybody loves Baxter. And I mean everybody. It's kinda weird.

3. We're starting to actually create web pages in Web Mastering and programs in Computer Science. I hate the preliminary worksheets, forms, and lectures. I love it when we start getting into the meat of the courses. It's really cool to see the students when they figure out what to do.

4. Mom and Sarah have offered to help me organize my Magic: The Gathering cards so I can start eBaying them. The cash would be great, and I'd love to get them out of my room. I've gotta get the Inu Yasha cards going too.

5. Students from years past are constantly stopping by my classroom or yelling hello at me in the halls. It's nice to know that they actually liked me.

Just thought I'd add some good things in here. I'm really busy, tired, stressed, and upset about Sam, but there are still a lot of great things going on.

No Going Back

It was hard to admit that Sam wasn't doing well. But once we found out he had cancer, I started really seeing it. Figuring out when to put Sam to sleep was the most difficult decision I've ever made, aside from asking for a divorce. I hate that I had to be a part of his death. I want him back.

Losing Sam

I have previously written about my cats Blondie and Baxter, but I hate to say that I haven't really mentioned Sam. In the summer of 2007, we got a lot of rain in San Antonio. One day, Sarah and I noticed an orange cat drinking stagnant green water from a pitcher we'd left outside. It absolutely broke our hearts to see it drinking such disgusting water. So we decided to put out some clean water out for it. We put some inexpensive cat food out while we were at it.

The cat kept coming by to get food and water. The original intent was to eventually find a home for this cute kitty. We weren't sure if it was male or female, so we named it Sam. Either for Samantha or Samuel. Sam was getting more and more used to us and was letting us get closer. Eventually were able to scratch Sam at arm's length. We fed him outside for about two months.

One day, it was raining particularly hard. I came home and I thought I heard something. I went to the back sliding-glass door and pulled back the blinds to see Sam meowing at the door. I opened the door and he didn't run away, so I closed the door, grabbed my cat-carrier, opened the door, and grabbed Sam. I took Sam straight to the vet to get him checked out. I didn't want to expose him to our cats before I knew he was disease-free.

Sam was Samuel, about 5 years old, neutered, declawed on the front, and disease-free. He got his shots and I took him home. That's how Sam adopted us.

He quickly gained weight and constantly demanded attention. He would get up on the arm or back of the couch and we'd have conversations, meowing back and forth, for several minutes at a time. He also likes to lick our hair. He's trying to groom us, but it doesn't quite work when your "fur" is a foot long. He's so easy-going that he even purrs through getting his temperature at the vet's.

At first we looked into finding him another home, but we quickly realized how much we were already attached. Sarah and I both love Sam very much. Which makes this so much harder.

Sam was diagnosed with cancer on Friday. Sarah posted about it, so I'm not going to repeat it all. I found out while we were waiting for my car to get a minor fix-up on Friday after school. I knew that the vet was supposed to call Sarah with the test results, but she hadn't told me anything about it yet. When I asked her about it, she apologetically mentioned that she had planned to tell me at home. I instinctively knew what the diagnosis was at that point, but I wasn't really prepared for my reaction. When she told me he had cancer cells in his lymph nodes, I broke down.

Sam is such a sweet, innocent little guy. This will be the first time I've lost a non-fish pet. For now, we're trying to find everything we can do to make him happy. Right now he's sitting next to me on the back of the couch, purring like crazy. I wish I could be as oblivious as he is.

All Tuckered Out

I have been working my tooshie off lately. Had a 54 hour week last week and I'm barely making a dent. The more I work on the school website, the more terrible mistakes I find. There are over 2000 html files I have to sort through. Over 10,000 files when you count pictures, etc.

I'm also redesigning the webmastering course, as the information previously presented was from 1999. Geez. In doing so, I have to contend with a co-worker who changed careers from programmer to teacher because the hours are better. He's not exactly excited about projects that require some thought (and time) to grade. I am managing to keep the schedule ahead by about 2 weeks, which is better than my previous track record.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, even though it's the size of a pinhole right now. I can envision the new site (still iffy on details) with spiffy graphics and interactive pages. I can also see the part of the webmastering class where I don't have to create so much from scratch. It will happen, just gotta keep chuggin along.

Right now, I'm just tired. 'Nite.