So, today has not been the best day. The basement has water in it again and it smells. I sent LMK an email and told him I have had it. It's ridiculous that this is an ongoing problem. I want it fixed. If it weren't for having to pack everything up, I swear I would move home. (I'm having a melodramatic day...it will pass.)

Being the wonderful husband that LMK is, he immediately called maintenance and started planning for me to go home. I don't necessarily want to go home, I just want things to be better. I'm hot, which is never good and I'm emotional (for at least another few days). 90% of the time I love living here, but 10% I just want my friends and my family. It's getting better though.

Finally, Socks is on Mommy's bad list. He loves to get doors open that are closed. He does it to closets, he does it to the door to the attic, he does it to the bedrooms we have shut off. It's like a personal challenge to him. After the maintenance guys left, I went upstairs to piddle. I talked to Molly for a few minutes and then heard a door slam. I looked out the window and saw that maintenance was back. Great! I went downstairs to pretend to be interested and saw this when I hit the landing:


Oh no.

There wasn't a cat in sight. I ran to put on some shoes and went outside. I went out and looked out in the backyard from the porch. No kitties. "Here kitty, kitty," I called softly so as not to scare them if they were outside. No kitties.

I went back into the house and went around to the kitchen to go outside, as I was stepping out onto the back steps I saw Ollie slinking around terrified. Ollie thinks he's a big, bad kitty. However, when he gets outside, he freaks. All he wants to do is figure out how to get back IN. I opened the backdoor and called softly, "Here kitty, kitty." Ollie saw me standing in the doorway and I think his first instinct was to run. However, he figured out he could get back in through that door. I stepped out of the way and he came running back inside. One down, two to go.

I secured the door (I checked this time) and set off looking for Socks. First, I went into the backyard. No kitty. Then I looked under the porch. Lo and behold, in the furthest corner from me was Socks sitting on a cement block. "Here kitty, kitty," I called softly. Socks looked at me with a look that clearly said, "Hey, I know I'm in trouble. There is no way I am coming to you." He sat on the block for a few more minutes (seemed like hours to me while I was figuring out if I should crawl under the porch to get him, stay put, go get LMK, etc). Then he started out from under the porch toward the front yard and the neighbor's house. Of course, I can't get to the front of the house from where I am, it's fenced off. I high tailed it around to the front of the house where I met him coming out from under the porch. "Here kitty, kitty," I called again. Being the big dumb goober he is, he came to me so I could pet him. At which time, I clamped a hand around his neck and hauled him into my arms.

By then I was sweaty and cranky. The kitties? Oh they think they're big and bad.