The place where lost socks go...

Back in Oxford now. cheshcat and I returned to the Flat With No Name a few hours ago, following our respective overnight trans-Atlantic journeys.

My, my -- there does seem to be a bit of dust on this journal, doesn't there? I suppose I should not be too surprised that I did not have much chance to go online whilst I was Stateside. Not much point in travelling if one is going to sit with a computer everywhere, now is there?

My October US tour deserves at least one dedicated write up. However, such will have to wait until tomorrow. Right now, I am very sleepy from the overnight flight and trying to stay awake long enough to avoid having jetlag from this journey. I also have bell ringing practice in a little over an hour. So, for the nonce, here is just a simple summary of my trip...

Nomad's 2009 October US Tour^TM had five parts:

1. Part One: Manhattan (1 day)
   In which your friendly neighborhood Nomad takes bunnypip on a whirlwind tour of some of his favourite Big Apple sights! Includes the Staten Island Ferry, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State Building, and more!
   
   
2. Part Two: P**T*** (4 days)
   In which everyone's favourite Nomad returns -- for the thirteenth consecutive year -- to the Sooper Sekrit October Pagan festival! Far too many people to mention all of them here! Highlights included running a main ritual based on Sondheim's Into The Woods musical, attempting to teach the art of change ringing on handbells, facilitating a very interesting discussion on polyamorous parenting... and being elected -- with cheshcat -- to the presidency of the Institute Board. Which means, in plain language, that we are the "suckers" who have to organize the festival for next year!
   
   
3. Part Three: Staten Island (2 days)
   In which the Nomad fills filial obligations by spending some quality time with his bio-family. Notable moments included an important conversation with Dad, as well as going with Mom to visit her friends M&I, who she recently re-established contact with after over two decades. M&I have five children... the oldest of which was my best friend when I was in elementary school! It was quite the Blast From The Past to see them again after nearly a quarter of a century! Very much looking forward to re-meeting their son, G, when I come back in December!
   
   
4. Part Four: Michigan (3 days)
   In which cheshcat accompanies Nomad on a visit to the delightful tawneypup. Much fun was had by all, in the form of a Halloween party, a visit to a cider mill, Jack-o-lantern carving, a "haunted" hayride, pumpkin pancakes, Apples to Apples, a couple of games of Betrayal at House on the Hill, watching Where The Wild Things Are, a belly dance performance... and more! Not to mention, of course, time spent with my darling tawneypip -- which is time well spent even when we aren't filling it with a dozen other activities!
   
   
5. Part Five: Chicago (1 days)
   In which Nomad and Chesh wind down their trip by spending one day at the Event Horizon. Although it was not a very long stay at my home, it was most excellent to get to see Stumpy and Chirp and lavish some attention on The Boy's sisters. We also shared a very delicious Indian dinner with gyades and a Mexican lunch on our own. The Weather Gods smiled upon us and allowed us an absolutely perfect day to escape to the Morton Arboretum to watch the trees resplendent in their Autumn colour.

More detailed write ups of each of these parts shall follow... with pictures to accompany parts one, two, and four! Meanwhile, though, tis time to to get ready to go out tonight!

ETA: Special thanks are due to the wonderful xirpha for getting me to O'Hare when a meeting prevented gyades from doing so, as planned. Thanks are also due to the fantastic winewiskeywomen for noticing my silence and checking in to make sure that all was well with me. I am quite lucky to have such excellent friends!!

Today is shaping up to be a good day.

It started when I woke up as: Last night, for the first time in over a week, I got nearly eight hours of sleep. True, that sleep was from 6:30pm yesterday until 2am this morning -- thus proving that I am most definitely not on Japan time yet -- but I was definitely in need of something approximating a full night's sleep.

It continued when I stepped outside. It has definitely been Summertime in Japan this week... which means that it has been relatively hot (temperature in the high 80s) and quite humid (humidity in the high 80s), with lots of clouds and some rain. Thank goodness for air conditioning! Going outside has felt like walking through a swamp! Today, however, it is bright and sunny with a clear blue sky! Lovely! Meanwhile, the temperature has cooled off just a touch (about 77^oF) and the humidity level has dropped considerably (under 50%)... making it quite a joy to be outdoors!

On my way from the dormitory to the meeting this morning, I passed one of the cats that lives around KEK. There are several of them, and it is not uncommon to see them sprawled in patch of sunlight around the lab. I stopped for a bit to pet the kitty; this was a Good Thing^TM, as I spent much of yesterday being very sad about the passing of a wonderful little grey tiger kitty.

In between waking up at 2am and heading in to the morning meeting, I revised my talk from Wednesday, making a little less technical (and less controversial) so that it can be shown to the full collaboration at the plenary meeting this afternoon. Still nervous about this... as it will be my first plenary talk on T2K, but I am mostly ready now.

Finally, there is one other piece of good news that arrived today. Mentioning it is rather self-centric[*], so I am placing it behind a cut:

( Looks like there actually is a brain in my head after all. )

In any case, this was certainly welcome news and contributed to making this an excellent morning!

This afternoon, I will be presenting my talk and wrapping up the T2K meeting. This evening, we have the Stony Brook group dinner, with me and RT -- as former Stony Brookers -- included. So wish me luck this afternoon on my talk, dear friends! If that goes well, then today will be quite complete!

---

[*] On the other hand, if you can't be self-centric on occasion in your own journal, where can you be?

Today was a surprisingly good day. Not surprising because I had expected anything bad to happen -- I hadn't and it didn't. Just surprising because not very much at all happened... and yet a number of small but positive things contributed to making it a good day.

It actually started last night, when I was ringing at Mary Mag during the first OUSCR practice of Trinity Term. Right after walking in, the master asked me if I wanted to ring a touch of Plain Bob Triples. Now nobody actually rings Plain Bob Triples. They ring Plain Bob Doubles (five bells), Plain Bob Minor (six bells), or Plain Bob Major (eight bells). No one rings Plain Bob Triples (seven bells). Indeed, the standard book of methods that I use doesn't even have PBT in there!

As such, I am not at all practiced in this method. I do consider myself quite adept at Plain Bob Doubles, though, and getting skilled at Minor. Sometimes I can do Major, but not reliably. On the fly, I pieced together what I know from Major -- since eight is close to seven -- and Doubles -- since five is also an odd number of bells -- and gave it my best shot. Amazingly enough, my best shot was quite good! I kept the method consistently for quite some time... and I could even hear that my striking was well placed. Very nice, if I do say so myself!

I have been doing a fair bit of ringing lately, and I feel I am making more progress. So that put me into a happy mood that continued into today. From there, things just got better.

For one thing, the weather today continued its recent trend of being incredible! By and large, one of the things that I dislike most about living in England is the weather[*]. Of late, though, that complaint is baseless. Good! Coupled with the fact that the days are now nearly fifteen hours long -- and still growing -- it is positively a joy to be outside! On my way into work this morning, I had a lovely bicycle ride across Kensington Gardens, taking in the weather and the lake and the greenery!

Work itself continues to go reasonably well. I still have more to do than I can get done. But what else is new? Progress is happening, and I am getting excited about the upcoming trip to Japan. Not as excited as I will be about the September Japan trip -- where, at long last, I get to return to my "home" area of Gifu and Toyama after six years away -- but excited
nonetheless!

It goes on from there, though: Our flat was inspected today, and passed with flying colours. As a nice side-effect of this, the Flat With No Name is now quite, quite tidy. Just the way I like it! When I got home from work, cheshcat was in a cheery mood. No matter what else is going on, that always brightens my day. And if it is an already-bright day? Well, so much the better! And brighter! I arrived home just as her music -- set to shuffle play -- switched onto Another Day (from Rent). With no discussion, we naturally slipped into a very energetic version of this duet. We had a blast... though I think that we may have startled both kitties!

After eating dinner, I had a delightful "phone date" with the terrific tawneypup. She has only been gone for a couple of weeks, but I definitely miss her. Ah well -- at least it will be May very soon[**], at which point I can say that I am seeing her again in the month after next!

Finally, the day is almost done... but I have an excellent weekend to look forward to! Tomorrow, bunnypip is coming down to join cheshcat and I for a two-part theatrical rendition of Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy at -- you guessed it! -- the Oxford Playhouse. Then there is a weekend of Beltane fun to follow! Huzzah!

---

[*] In contrast, one of the things that I miss most -- aside from certain special Anarchists -- about living in Phoenix is the delightful weather there!

[**] In just over twenty-four hours!

Just got back from bringing tawneypup to the airport bus. I waited with her until the bus came, then put her on board and waved as the bus drove off. Then I watched for a minute until the bus was out of sight[*] before turning and walking back to the flat.

It was wonderful having her here and, by and large, it was a really good visit. Yes, there were a couple of unforeseen happenings[**] that were not so great, but overall the week was fantastic. Much as I love being Nomadic -- and the opportunities that it has offered -- one of the hardest things to do, even after all these years, is parting with a loved one. One would think that, with all the experience I have, the separation of long distance relationships would be easier, yes?

On returning to the flat, I saw Giles sitting in the bedroom window. He stood up when he saw me to stretch and meow lovingly. Looking at my baby -- now nearly full grown! -- reminded me that I should not get too maudlin; there are many blessings to be counted. This visit very nicely split up the three months since I last saw tawneypup and the three months until I will see her again at Starwood. We had a lovely visit and did many nifty things. She and cheshcat get along swimmingly. Et cetera, et cetera, and so forth.

I have to get ready for work now, as we have a big T2K UK meeting in Oxford starting in about an hour. And, with some luck, I may be able to procure my car from Kent today, too.[***] So, as usual, a busy day ahead. I will be fine and shall rise to the challenges it presents. I will also just be a little sad inside, whilst I miss my tawney girl.

---

[*] I tend to be sappy and romantic like that.

[**] Like, oh, the car story that I have not yet told.

[***] We shall see about this, as I have no confirmed ride yet. But I am going to do my best.

To sleep, perchance to dream. Or, on the other hand, to be jetlagged... and do neither! Tis well and truly the middle of the night, yet I am still not asleep. Not for lack of trying, either. I wound down the evening many hours ago by having a lovely phone date with the even-lovelier tawneypup[1]. During the phone call, my beloved cheshcat proved once again how sweet and thoughtful she is by bringing me a cup of hot cocoa to help me relax. At the end of the call, I made a valiant effort to sleep. I hopped under the covers to cuddle with cheshcat, and was joined by both Giles and The Boy.

Alas, despite all these accoutrements and preparations, sleep was ever elusive and evaded capture.

So. As long as I am to be awake in the wee hours of the night, I may as well put it to good use, yes? It seems like now is as good a time as any to write the final instalment of my holiday adventures in the States[2]. Perhaps I can write myself into at least half a night's sleep[3]...

Thursday January 1^st 2009 I started the day off by checking out of the hotel where the O'hana party had been held. gyades and I played a game of Go, which he won... though not be all that much. Either I am improving, or his skills are atrophying. Not sure which, but our recent matches have not been nearly the slaughter that they once were.

In the afternoon, I did some mundane things, like tidying the house and seting up my 2009 SlingShot organizer. I also spend quite a bit of time with Stumpy and Chirp; Stumpy, in particular, remains as sweetly slutty as ever! I miss my little furry black girls when I am in England. I still hope to bring them over someday, to reunite them with their brother, The Boy.

After a relatively mellow day, things got more exciting in the late afternoon. "Why is that?" you may fairly ask, gentle readers. It is because the terrific and tantalizing tawneypup arrived from Michigan for a visit![4] Having not seen my delightful darling since October, it was all thrilled and bouncy to be with her again. After suitable greetings were made, I introduced her to gyades. It was not in the least surprising that the two of them took to each other quite readily. There was really no question in my mind that these two would get along swimmingly -- after all, tawneypup is basically a female version of me[5]. The only real risk was that having two of me in one place might fry gyades's brain!

Before tawneypup arrived, gyades had been cooking dinner. In recent years, he has specialised in Indian cooking. Had he and tawneypup not bonded instantly, I suspect that this would have closed the deal. Ever since her trip to India last year, my darling Tawney has been quite the fan of Indian food. And gyades cooks it quite well!

Following dinner, we broke out Ticket To Ride. I had never played the U.S./Canadia version of the game before. However, it is similar enough to the European version that I settled into it quite easily. It was a very close game, but I managed to win. Final scores: 152 points (me) to 120 points (gyades) to 110 points (tawneypup). This doesn't seem all that close. However, on my final turn, with my final card, I bought my final train... for a total of sixty-four points. If anything in that delicate situation had not lined up, I would have been -- what is the technical term? -- completely hosed!

We followed up Ticket To Ride with a game called Quelf. tawneypup had brought it with her -- I had neither played it before nor even heard of it. It is a very silly nonsense game, with a bizarre set of rules. The sort of thing to play when you want to game, but not think very hard. In the end, I won... again by the proverbial skin of my non-proverbial teeth. tawneypup and I made it to the final square at the same time... but I won the challenge on the final card drawn.

When we were done gaming, we bid a good night to gyades, then went upstairs to reacquaint ourselves and catch up on some long overdue quality alone time.


Friday January 2^nd 2009 On Friday morning, tawneypup and I lounged in bed decadently for a very long time. When we finally arose, we showered and then I took her out to Butterfields for breakfast. Butterfields is my favourite breakfast place; since tawneypup had taken me to breakfast at her favourite place, it seemed only fair to return the favour. It took quite some time to choose only one item from the menu. However, we finally did manage to order -- I had a spinach, feta, and mushroom omelet with hash browns and pancakes. When the food arrived it was, as expected, superb!

After breakfast, tawneypup was extremely patient and accommodating, as I needed to pay a visit to the Illinois Secretary of State's office to renew my driver's license. Alas, this was the sole day during my Chicago trip that it would be possible to do so. Whilst there, she got to witness the egocentricity of Jesse White, our SoS. We also got to entertain ourselves by sitting on the "Group W" bench[6].

Once that errand was done, we met up with gyades and went to go play Laser Tag! This was only my second time playing laser tag -- the first was with tawneypup in Michigan last October. I am really enjoying it though! Quite a shame that the Oxford Laser Tag shut down a couple of years ago! I could see myself getting seriously addicted otherwise! Unlike the October games, which were divided into three teams, this was a free-for-all. When all was said and done, I had done... okay. Out of thirty-two players, I was ranked number thirteen. tawneypup was not far behind me, at number sixteen. gyades may need a little more practice -- he came in at number twenty-five.

We dropped gyades off at home and made our way into downtown Chicago. Our destination was a Middle Eastern restaurant where one of tawneypup's friends was performing. This made for quite an excellent evening -- both the food and the dancing were exemplary! When she was done dancing, we all sat and chatted for quite some time before tawneypup and I made our way back to the Event Horizon.


Saturday January 3^rd 2009 Slept in once again! Really, it is hard not to with such company! When we finally managed to pull ourselves out of bed, we joined gyades, who made breakfast for all. Then it was time for a rematch at Ticket To Ride. This time, I started with a terrible hand of route cards. In Thursday's game, I had built all of my routes, drew more, then built them, too. This time, I adopted a different strategy: Built what I had been dealt, then end the game as quickly as possible, making sure to take the "longest road" bonus with me. Although not as satisfying a strategy, it did work. I forced an end to the game whilst both of my dear opponents still had several unfinished routes underway. Final scores: 120 points (me) to 102 points (tawneypup) to 58 points (gyades).

Since the weather was nice, we all hopped in the car and drove half a mile to the Morton Arboretum. One of the many things that I love about the Event Horizon is that it is situation so close to such a wonderful place. I try to visit there every time that I am in Chicago. However, I think that I had not actually had a Winter visit before! It was really nice, seeing the place partially covered in snow! It was great to share this special place with a very special person! We started off in the children's section, climbing the adventure playground equipment. Then we did a "Gnome Hunt"[7] and successfully tracked down all twenty-four gnomes. Sneaky little buggers, those gnomes are! Afterwards, we drove about the site, stopping at times to do a bit of hiking -- for instance, we made our way down the Big Rock trail to see (what else?) the Big Rock!

We stayed at the arboretum until it closed. After that, I took tawneypup out for dinner at a Mexican place in Glen Ellyn. I had not been there before, nor had I known of the place. gyades uncovered it by doing some web research... and I can now highly recommend it!

After dinner, tawneypup and I headed into Chicago once again. Our destination was Sidekick's, the karaoke bar that I used to frequent when I called the Event Horizon my primary residence. It is the site of the monthly Poly Chicago get-togethers, so I have quite a few happy memories there. In contrast, tawneypup had never been to a karaoke bar... so taking her there to lose her karaoke-virginity was not optional! By the end of the evening, I had sang alone twice (Billy Joel's Still Rock & Roll To Me and Scandal's Goodbye To You), she sang alone once, and we sang together once (Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart). It was gangs of fun, and next time we are planning to do a duet of Sweet Caroline. Mainly just for the fun of the bah-BAH-bahs! However, seeing as this was our last evening together for some time, we did not want to stay at Sidekick's until we were ready to fall over for the evening!

Instead, we left around 10:30pm, made it back to the Event Horizon by about eleven, and celebrated the rest of the evening by ourselves.


Sunday January 4^th 2009 Started the day with a return trip to Butterfields, this time with gyades in tow, too. It had been so difficult for tawneypup and I to choose only one item from the menu last time that we decided a return visit was in order! This time, I got an apple and caramel waffle with some very creamy cheese, to boot!

After breakfast, xirpha joined us at the Event Horizon for gaming! We started with Settlers of Catan. Once again, it was a very tight game. I made the mistake of building a settlement too soon, allowing tawneypup to beat me in a race to a valuable port. This set me back significantly, though I finally managed to eke out a win. Final scores: 10 points (me) to 8 points (gyades) to 7 points (both xirpha and tawneypup).

Next game was Betrayal at House on the Hill[8]. This is where my winning streak came to an end. As luck would have it, I was fated to be the traitor in this game. However, some bad dice rolls kept me from doing anything more than killing gyades before I was taken down by the others. There was also a bit of Fluxx played after me and my army of demons went down in flames.

Around half five, tawneypup and I bid an all-too-soon farewell. Then she embarked on the drive back to Michigan whilst I drove to the Lisle train station to pick up the enchanting iamthesphinx.

I won't say much about the date with iamthesphinx here. For one thing, although she is almost never on LiveJournal anymore, she has a habit of popping in and checking up on me when I least expect it. Which is just after I have said something about her in these pages[9]. For another thing, my relationship with the lovely Sphinx is, without a doubt, the most unusual relationship that I have ever had. There have been quite a few ups and downs in the nearly three years that we have been together. I have learned that, whatever my expectations are for when we go out together, they are almost certainly wrong[10].

Case in point: This date went nothing like how I had expected it to go. Indeed, it exceeded my expectations by a wide margin! Blew them all to smithereens -- wherever that is -- one might say. It was a very, very good date. And that is all that I will say in a public forum.


Monday January 5^th 2009 After not nearly enough sleep, I brought the enchanting iamthesphinx back to the train station. I waited with her until her train arrived, then bid her a most fond farewell.

After that, there was the usual barrage of last minute errands to tend to. Mainly hitting several stores for items that I cannot procure in England. Also, giving poor Lucretia II a good wash to recover from over twenty-five hundred miles of driving before putting her away until Spring. And packing. Lots of packing. Nothing really exciting there.

When gyades came home from work at lunchtime, he and I exchanged our holiday presents. Then he drove me to the airport, where I had a nice boring flight back to England.

---

And that, dear friends, is what I did on my Winter vacation...

---

[1] Said conversation was particularly welcome, due to the fact that we have not spoken in nearly two weeks. Ordinarily, we have a standing weekly phone date. However, we each went travelling for a week... and the two trips were timed just right so as to be serial, rather than parallel.

[2] Actually, given that the trip ended three weeks ago, I would say that two and a half weeks ago would have been a better time. However, that time machine is still in the pipeline. Have to perfect the transporter first, then get started building the invisible aeroplane.

[3] In which case I will finish this composition tomorrow.

[4] Were I Kermit the Frog, this would be an appropriate place to run about, waving my head wildly and shouting "Yaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!"

[5] Except slightly younger and slightly cuter.

[6] Alongside the mother-rapers... father-stabbers.... and father-rapers!

[7] Very similar to the "ghost hunt" that I did with Darelle and company in November, or the pumpkin hunt that I did with cheshcat at Blenheim Palace in October.

[8] Affectionately known as The Shinning.

[9] See here for an example.

[10] Unless she is in a monogamous relationship at the time we go out. In which case my expectation -- that we are going out as friends only -- is always right. And I would not have that any other way. I am polyamourous; I do not cheat.

Looking back at previous years, it seems that I rarely blog about the Decemberween[1] celebrations. I suppose that this is not too shocking -- I spend most of Decemberween on the go, and away from a computer. By the time that the holidays are over, too much has elapsed to try to chronicle it all.

This year's attempt to do a holiday write-up is perhaps an illustrative example; it is now late January and I am still not quite finished with my report! I realise that no one else much cares at this point what I was doing one month ago. Indeed, since my holiday in the States ended, I have come back to England, left England for Japan, and returned to England yet again[2]. Obviously, I am well behind in my blogging and it would make good sense to simply give up. However, I am not known for my common sense... and it would feel wrong to leave my travelogue unfinished. Thus, I resume telling my story.

Tuesday December 30^th: Woke up at Mom's place again[3], gathered my belongings, and headed out with cheshcat. Mom was very happy to have had our company, but was obviously quite broken up to see up go. I will try to bring her to England for a week in 2009; I think it would be good for her.

The plan had been to drop cheshcat off with resourceress at squeektoy42's house, then drive four hundred miles to Ohio by the evening to have a date with the lovely livetbd. Well, we all know what Robbie Burns has to say about plans, don't we?

Just after we arrived in Jersey City, right before I was about to bid farewell to my beloved cheshcat, we received a phone call from C&M, who were back in Oxford. Apparently, Giles -- our seven month old tiger kitten -- had gone missing. Oh, crap! We had a series of friends looking in on our Oxford kitties whilst we were away. In addition to feeding and watering them, we asked our friends to make sure that the cats were okay. This was added to the cat care request after last December, when we returned home to find our poor Totoro at Death's door from kidney failure.

But I digress from a very important point: Oh, crap! Giles had last been seen on Boxing Day -- four days earlier. When T had gone to the [as yet unnamed] flat on Dec 28, there was no sign of Giles. Now C&M were there, and he was still missing. At first, I assumed that Giles, being a cat, had simply found a good place to hide. We spent nearly an hour on the phone with C, guiding him about the flat and suggesting places to search. It began with known hiding locations, then progressed to any possible spot that we could conceive of that Giles might get into. We had poor C moving furniture about and climbing on top of things. Still no Giles.

Oh, crap! After searching every conceivable location in the flat, it began to become clear that somebody had accidentally let our cat out. Which means that he was likely lost to us. I had been reluctant to believe this; for one thing, it seemed quite improbably. Yet, as Sherlock Holmes said, when one eliminates all the other options, then what remains, however improbable, must be true. I was also painfully aware that this was one year, to the day, since we returned home to find Totoro nearly dead. Needless to say, both cheshcat and I were becoming very upset.

We kicked into emergency mode. We asked C&M to check with the neighbours to see if they had noticed a tiger kitten about. We called T to see if there was any chance that he had let Giles out. Although that had been my original suspicion, he managed to convince us that he was not at fault. We alerted local cat shelters. Then we called the company that manages our flat to see if they had sent over any repairmen to work on the flat in recent days. After all, there are only a limited number of keys to our flat. T has one and C&M have one; both convinced us that they had not let Giles out. Neither cheshcat nor I had done so, of course, since we were on another continent. It is possible that Darelle or dr_jen could have done so... but since both were out of Oxford, it seemed unlikely. The sole remaining key belonged to the company that managed the flat.

It was out of hours, so we called their emergency number. The woman who answered said that if I called back in an hour, when she was near a computer, she would check for me. However, she also said that they do not normally do repair work between Christmas and New Years. Hurm.

So maybe no one could have let Giles out. Perhaps he was in the flat after all? But... where? He likes to hide from people who are not cheshcat or anarchist_nomad, but where could he be hiding? I came up with a cunning plan. We asked T to go to the flat and remove the cat food. Leave plenty of water, but no food. Then, when C&M returned on the following day, Giles would be quite hungry. In such a case, he would likely come out when anyone -- even a stranger -- rattled the food bag.

With all these plans in place, I finally departed from Jersey City, several hours later than planned.

Total Miles Driven: 1509

Shortly after leaving on my journey, I got a phone call from C. Apparently, T had gone back to the flat and, before he got inside, noticed Giles lazily washing himself in the front window.

That little $H!+!!!!!!!!!!

I was relieved, incredulous, and furious at the same time! Where they hell could that little terror have been hiding? To this day, I still do not know his secret spot! While covering away in it, however, he managed to scare, upset or disrupt a large number of people: There was T, his wife and mother (who he brought on Dec 28 to help search the flat for Giles), C&M, dr_jen (who T had called on Dec 28), Darelle (who dr_jen had called), me, cheshcat, squeektoy42 and A (whose home we turned into Command Central for our emergency operations), resourceress, plus livetbd (who I was now hours late in meeting) and her husband D. How could one little kitten cause so much trouble??!

Anyway, I phoned cheshcat and let her know that all was well. I then continued making my way to Youngstown, Ohio.

I arrived at livetbd's house at 11pm -- far later than planned, and much to late to have a proper date. I am grateful that both she and her husband, D, were understanding. As cat people themselves, they understood, and have been in similar situations themselves. Still, I felt somewhat guilty and promised to make it up to livetbd with a theatre date in Chicago the next time that I am in the States. She did not turn down this offer of penance.

After the three of us spent some time together catching up, D went out to midnight karaoke with friends. That left livetbd and I to have some quality alone time together. Priorities are important: We started off with her giving me a tour of back porch. There sits the new hot tub that they had installed since the last time that I visited. A full appreciation of the installation work required closer inspection, which I was happy to engage in. Nothing quite like soaking in a hot tub in the middle of a cold winter night! Especially when one has some rather delightful company and a distinct lack of clothing!

I am quite grateful that livetbd, like myself, is a night person. Despite my late arrival, we spent quite a few hours -- inside the hot tub and out -- deliciously enjoying each others' company!

Total Miles Driven: 1914



Wednesday December 31^st: I wish that I could say that Wednesday began as well as Tuesday had ended. Alas, this was not to be the case. I awoke -- with far too little sleep -- around 10am to the sound of livetbd crying. Even before I pulled on clothing and rushed downstairs, I feared that I knew what had upset her. I was not mistaken. During the night, one of their cats -- who had been very sick -- had passed away.

Like cheshcat and I before moving to England, livetbd and D had had six cats living under one roof. Since my previous visit, one had escaped, so they were down to five. Now it was four. My calendar sense was tingling -- two cat crises in less than twenty-four hours... plus, they lost their kitty on New Years Eve -- just as we had lost Totoro on New Years Eve the year before.

Both livetbd and D were, understandably, rather upset. My heart went out to them; I could feel their pain. I gave both sympathy and advice on options for dealing with the body. When D decided to bury their furry friend in the backyard, I helped to dig the grave. I stayed with them for a few hours longer than I had originally intended, because I could sense that my presence was appreciated and doing some good.

Eventually, however, I did leave to finish the return to Chicago and the Event Horizon. Neither livetbd nor D were going to go out to celebrate New Years Eve. Who could blame them? How could they? Who can lose a loved one, then immediately go out to party? The previous New Years Eve, when Totoro passed into the Summerlands, gyades and cheshcat and I cancelled our plans to party into 2008 in London. However, I had party plans and very much needed to keep them. I could not spend two consecutive New Years Eves in a row mourning for dead cats. In a very real sense, I needed a New Years party to help me bring about closure for my dear Totoro.

Thus, slightly before 1pm, I said my goodbyes, hopped into Lucretia II, began the four hundred forty-one mile drive back to Chicagoland. The trip was uneventful. Six hours and fifteen minutes later, I pulled into the driveway at the Event Horizon.

Total Miles Driven: 2355

I arrived home just minutes before 2009 began in the United Kingdom, putting an end to my "Christmas on Wheels" adventure! I texted Darelle one more time, hoping to be the last text that she received in the old year. Then I waited to a short while past midnight -- giving her time to celebrate the changing of the year properly with those that she was actually with -- before calling her up. It was rather amusing to have a phone call spanning the years! And, of course, it was absolutely wonderful to hear my beloved's voice once again!

After a nice conversation with Darelle, it was back into overdrive. Unpack, shower, eat -- all as quickly as possible, so that gyades and I could get to the O'hana New Years party as early as we could! We arrived around 8pm and spent the rest of the evening enjoying good company, good food... as well as a pool and a hot tub! Hot tubbing two days in a row? What an excellent way to end the year! Indeed, I could easily make a habit of it!

I will not write too much more about the New Years party, as it already has its own LiveJournal entry. Suffice to say that, at a few minutes before 11pm, I got out of the hot tub and phoned cheshcat -- who was in Connecticut with resourceress, TinMan 2.0, LaForza, and others at the Treehouse New Years party -- to welcome her into 2009 in my home time zone. To mark the occasion, I turned the telly onto the same station that they were viewing at the Treehouse so that we could watch the ball drop together. Then it was back in the hot tub for me! At midnight, Chicago time, we all celebrated the local onset of 2009!

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[1] "Decemberween" is the term that I use to refer to the period from December 12^th to January 1^st. Those three weeks contain cheshcat's birthday (Dec 12), resourceress's birthday (Dec 20), Yule (Dec 21), Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day. As such, the entirety of those three weeks gets merged together into a single long holiday; one that involves an enormous amount of travel and visiting and celebration.

[2] Not strictly true, as I am writing this in Narita Airport as I wait to board my flight. However, by the time I am able to post it, I will be back in England -- most likely on the airline bus to Oxford.

[3] Still not surprising, as this is where I went to sleep again.

Woke up this morning and went back into work today for the first time after the Decemberween festivities[*]. The work day concluded, as they do every Thursday, with our weekly group meeting.

After the meeting, I high tailed it to St. Giles Church... arriving just in the nick of time[**] for the evening's bell ringing practice. This is my first time ringing bells this year. The last time I held a bell rope was December 14^th -- twenty-five days ago! Indeed, it has been so long that my bell ringing callouses[***] almost completely went away!

I rang several courses of Plain Bob Minor -- some plain courses and a couple of touches. I wouldn't say that I was brilliant... but I held my own. I also rang a covering tenor for Plain Bob Doubles, and got to practice the treble on a ten minute touch of Grandsire Triples. I can use all the practice there that I can get; one of my 2009 goals is to successfully ring the treble on a quarter peal of Grandsire Triples!

Despite the fun that I had ringing, I must say that the best moment of the practice was when I realised that, as of one week ago, I am now a member of the Oxford City Branch of the Oxford Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers! Excellent! I knew that I had been nominated and accepted for membership -- effective January 1^st 2009 -- at the November 2008 business meeting... but, amidst all of the December activities and excitement, I had forgotten about it all! Now I am both a member of the Oxford University Society of Change Bell Ringers and the ODG!

When practice ended at 8:45pm, I hopped on my cycle and rode back to the new [as yet unnamed] flat. I arrived around 9:15 and quickly gobbled down leftovers from last night for dinner whilst petting The Boy. Then darted off a couple of quick e-mails and wrote this post. Now, with 10pm approaching, it is time to huddle over my laptop and join the bi-weekly international T2K SK video-conference. I won't pretend to be thrilled with the 10pm to midnight time slot. However, with collaborators spanning latitudes from Vancouver and California in the West to Japan in the East (and many time zones in-between), this is one of only a few reasonable timeslots. I suppose that I should be grateful; when we go to British Summer Time in late March, the meeting[****] will run from 11pm until one o'clock in the morning!

And, on that note, it is heigh ho, heigh ho -- off to work I go!

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[*] Yesterday, everyone was up in Liverpool for a meeting. Due to my holiday travel plans, I did not have the chance to drive there... and I certainly could not see a point in going into the office alone. Instead, I stayed at home and joined in via video-conferencing software.

[**] Technically speaking, I was about ten minutes late. But, by a strange coincidence, tonight's practice also began late by the same margin. I entered the ringing chamber just as the band was getting ready to ring up the bells into position for the practice.

[***] One on my left palm and one on my right ring finger.

[****] Which is rooted in Japan-time.

As many of you know, cheshcat and I have four cats. Two of them (Giles & The Boy) live with us in Oxford, whilst the other two (Stumpy & Chirp) live with their Uncle gyades at the Event Horizon.[*]

Given the upcoming holiday travels, cat care will be required at both places. So if you are local to Chicagoland or Oxford, please read on. If not... well, this is not the LJ entry you are looking for.

Chicago: gyades will be away from Dec 20 to Dec 29. It would be good to have somebody look in on the cats every three days. So if I could find a volunteer to stop by on Dec 23 and another person to drop by on Dec 26, then we should be all covered there. If two people would be willing to do this, then no one needs to come more than once.

Oxford: cheshcat and I will be away from Dec 22 to Jan 6. Given the smaller space (with fewer and smaller litter boxes), I would greatly prefer to not leave the cats unattended for more than two days. Thus, considerably more cat care visits are needed. I would like it if somebody could stop by on Dec 24, Dec 26, Dec 28, Dec 30, Dec 32 (a.k.a. Jan 01), Jan 03, and Jan 05. Is there anyone on this list who will be around Oxford and willing to look in on our little ones?

I realise that the number of visits to the Oxford kitties is a bit high (seven). The actual work needed each visit is quite low, however, and can be done in about five minutes. Refill the water bowl, refill the food dish, and scoop the litter box(es).

Thanks to all for considering this request!

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[*] I really do miss the days when we had six cats... and they all lived under one roof!

The past thirty-six hours -- from Monday evening until this morning -- have been really good! There hasn't been any one single Major Good Thing... but there have been loads of little things conspiring to put me in an excellent mood!

It started with quite a nice ice skating lesson on Monday evening. I had a couple of breakthrough moments where various and sundry maneuvers seemed to click into place. I still can't reliably do an inside three-turn[*], but my backwards crossovers are looking good and my continuous curves -- both inside and outside edge -- are nice, too!

After skating on Monday, I had a lovely phone date with the even lovelier tawneypup! It is always good to hear her voice... and it will be even better to see here again next month! It was also a good way to end my evening; after getting off the phone, I collapsed into bed with cheshcat.

Tuesday began with the perfect commute, as I wrote about yesterday... and the day just got better from there. Apparently, I was right about the perfect commute being a good omen![**] For one thing, the weather was clear and sunny -- at this time of year, I will take all the daylight that I can get! Also, over the course of Tuesday, I received word of various and sundry bits of good news -- much of it I cannot repeat in the public domain -- which left me feeling bouncy and happy. Indeed, the bouncy happiness threatened to bubble over... so I went up to the level eight terrace and had a phone chat with Darelle so that I could bounce at her from the roof for a bit!

Tuesday evening was bell ringing practice with the OUSCR at Mary Mag. The return commute was nearly as smooth as the morning's -- only a three minute wait for the Oxford Tube -- and the ringing was quite nice. In particular, I fell into a groove whilst ringing the treble to St. Simons Triples and was ringing impressively well (for me)! These days, I am working on improving my ropesight and my listening skills. Also my bell handling, so that I can make more natural distinctions between a slow stroke, a steady stroke, and a quick stroke.

When practice ended, I picked up noodles for cheshcat and I for dinner, then met her at Skullcrusher Mountain. We ate, then removed the last bits of our things from the old flat. With all of our stuff gone, the last task was to get the kitties moved. We had left them to the end, visiting daily with food when we came to pack. The idea -- which seems to have worked -- was to set the new place up reasonably well before unleashing them to destroy it! Before moving the kitties, we bathed them. We do this once or twice a year with our cats, using baby shampoo with conditioner to clean them up. So long as you start them on it young, they tolerate it. They never like it... but they tolerate it. For Giles, who was six months old yesterday, this was his first bath ever! He squirms like a wild thing when we so much as try to clip his claws... so both Chesh and I had anticipated the bath as being quite a challenge. Giles surprised us by taking it remarkably well -- mainly he just went limp and let us get on with it! Good kitty!

Once Giles and The Boy were clean, we put them in the car and left Skullcrusher Mountain. We need to return for cleaning and to do a farewell ritual for the space... but we are now officially moved out! Nice! Indeed, this has been one of the easiest moves I have ever done[***]. We did it all in eleven days, all by ourselves[****] and using only my Red Rover for transport. The new place is not fully set up set... but by spreading the packing over eleven days, we have had time to get a good fraction of our things into place as we went along.[*****]

The poor kitties didn't quite know what hit them! First, Mommy and Daddy take away all the things that they are used to! And go away each night! Then they get shoved into water!! And put in a carrier!! In the car!!! Then taken to a strange place!!!! Poor The Boy, he was very clingy and vocal as he explored the new place -- I made sure to lavish tonnes of attention on him! Giles, being a kitten, was less traumatised and happily explored his new home. Even though it was late, cheshcat and I stayed up with them for some time, helping to acclimate them.

Finally, Chesh fell into bed and I hopped into the shower to wash the yuck of the old flat off of me. Then a "quick" hop online to check for mail from one or two certain someones... and into bed myself!

All in all, quite a nice day and a half!

The one downside to it all has been that, amongst all the activity of the past few days, I really have not enjoyed a full night's sleep since Saturday! I will endeavour to rectify this tonight. This evening, cheshcat and I have theatre plans at the Oxford Playhouse. I don't know what show we are seeing yet -- this is the second-to-last of the "surprise theatre" tickets that she bought back in August -- but their shows usually let out shortly after ten pm. With any luck, I can grab a quick dinner and be in bed by shortly after eleven o'clock, thus luxuriating in the luxury of eight hours rest!

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[*] But that's okay as the term is only half over. I have three more weeks to learn how!

[**] Certain good wishes from certain special people probably didn't hurt with this, either!

[***] Not counting those rare times that we have had professional movers, like when I moved from Arizona to Chicago to start work at Fermilab and the lab paid for the relocation costs.

[****] I believe that this alone is a first!

[*****] We were also able to re-use boxes after unpacking them, which is a nice eco-bonus!

The past couple of days have been busy, but lots of fun. I will write about them later. In the meantime, because it is Samhain, I hereby give myself permission -- just for a little while -- to stop being the World's Biggest Mother-F*$#ing Optimist.