Waco didn’t get much of Ike today, although it was pretty windy and rainy today. I guess we were on the less aggressive side of the storm. I filled up the car tank (it was almost fully empty) yesterday morning for $3.55/gallon which I guess was a good plan. Seems like prices have gone crazy high already.

I was able to go pick up my new kitty today and so most of the day has been centered around making that transition. Bear (the new cat) seems really comfortable here, but Clementine so far, is not thrilled. He was in the bathroom, but snuck out when I was going in to see how he was doing, and now whenever I put him back in there, he meows like CRAZY. I feel bad for the neighbors so I’ve been letting him out, but just keeping him away from Clem. She hisses and growls and sometimes I think she surprises herself and I swear she snorts! I feel bad for her though…. she’s obviously upset and stressed by this new animal in the house.. I think it’s impacting her intestines. Poor thing.

Right now we are all in one room and no one is hissing which I guess is a move in the right direction. I don’t really know yet what I’ll do with them when I go to bed.

In other non-cat news… I’m still knitting this sweater which was supposed to be finished by the end of the Olympics. Oops. I’m stuck on the 2nd sleeve…. it’s just taking forever because I’m tired of knitting it, so I never do more than 2 or 3 rows at a time. I just want to get to the part where I join for the yoke, but it feels like that will never happen. So annoying.

The weather report for this week is highs in the mid-80s! Awesome.

So, last night I bought a DVD player for $19.98 at H.E.B., which is basically the only grocery store choice here in Waco. Since I don’t have a choice for what brand store to shop in, I’ve been checking out the different H.E.B.’s in town, and have now been in 5 different stores, all remarkably different. Last night I trekked out to H.E.B. PLUS! (Which makes me think of Home Plus (is us!)), which is sortof like a Target, without the clothing… and with a full grocery center. I’d been wanting to get a DVD player since my TV watching channels have been limited, and this one seemed reasonable, even though it’s an off-brand (Coby?).

Anyway… 2 funny things about the DVD player.

1. It has a 90 day warranty where you can return it to Coby for a refund/new unit. The cost to mail the unit to Coby? $18. $1.98 less than what I bought it for. Heh.

2. My TV is so old it doesn’t seem to have RV inputs. Obviously, I didn’t realize this until I was behind the TV with my cables, ready to plug in… (okay, so I guess that’s not funny about the DVD player, but more funny about the television, which admittedly has been in my family as long as I can remember and went to college with both my brother and I).

Guess I’m not watching DVDs anytime soon.

Today…. first staff meeting and information overload re: maintenance, facilities, budget, etc. Just got home and I’m totally beat.

I went to a few animal shelters this weekend and met a new kitty that I fell in love with and hopefully Clementine will feel the same way. He looks a teeny bit like Niko did, but really he’s more of a grey tabby than a brown/black tabby and he has a white belly and paws. He’s also not quite as fluffy, but since he’s only 8 months old, it’s hard to know how long his hair will end up being. The tail is fluffy! Right now they are calling him Hutch, but I think I will name him Bear. What I loved about him was that he was in a room with like 30 cats, but he was just chilling up on the top of one of the cages… totally laid-back. But then when I put him down on the floor, he was sniffing around and making friends with the other cats. So hopefully that means he will be friendly, but not overbearing. I’ll go back out the the shelter and bring him home on Saturday morning.

Re: the house purchase, I’m trying to decide if I should go with the conventional 30 year mortgage, or if I think I could pay another $180/month to get a .5% reduction in my interest rate by going with a 15 year mortgage. Over the life of the loan, I would save SO much money. I just think that the payment with the 15 year would be really tight financially during the first 2 years or so. Hopefully eventually I’d be making a bit more money and it would be easier…then again, if I had someone to rent the 2nd floor (2 large rooms, bathroom and deck) for maybe $500 or $450/month, I could easily afford a higher payment.

Of course the mortgage broken thinks I could afford anything… like a $200K loan, but she’s crazy!

I need friends in Waco. I don’t really feel lonely, and I’m fine with making plans to go out on my own, but once I go out places, I seem to be the only person that is in my position. Everyone else is in large groups of friends, and people aren’t really looking to make new friends it seems. Blah.

What I *need* is someone I already know to move to Waco and rent part of my house and be my friend. Who’s interested?