We feed Milo and Ellie Purina Kitten Chow.  Always have since we brought them home.  Ellie has this weird thing where, if the food has been sitting in the bowl for more than a couple hours, she will not eat it.  She’ll get all up in your face and act like she’s starving even though there is still some food in the bowl.

Usually they both great pretty excited about meal time [once in the morning when I wake up and once in the evening, around dinner time].  They both run over as I scoop a cup of food into the bowl and change out their water.  Ellie always gets to eat first–I don’t know whether Milo is a supergentleman or has just been cowed into sloppy seconds.  Milo will lie on the floor patiently and wait until Ellie is completely done.  Like, even if you picked Ellie up and carried her away [and I have, you know, in the name of science] Milo will not eat.  He will wait until she comes back and then stops eating of her own accord.

A couple of weeks ago, they both started showing less enthusiasm over being fed.  Ellie would sniff the new food and walk away, instead of diving in.  One night she started eating and then puked.  It’s the first time either of them had puked, so I was a little concerned.  We figured that she had gone too long without eating and once she started up again made herself sick.  We then began to wonder if something was wrong with this particular bag of cat food.

The next day I bought a different bag of Purina Kitten Chow to see if this would alleviate the problem.  It did not.  The day after that, Mr. W and I bought both Iams Kitten Chow and Meow Mix to see if perhaps they had decided they no longer liked Purina.  They didn’t seem overly enthusiastic about either.  It had been several days and we couldn’t figure out what they wanted to eat.  The third day, on a crazy whim, I scooped some of the original Purina Kitten Chow into their bowl.

They gobbled it up.  Clearly this has all been some sort of elaborate mind game wherein the cats try to determine how long it takes before I am driven completely insane.

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In other news, two announcements: First, we have finally finished paying off the car!  Yay!  Now our only bill is my monstrous student loan.  [Something I have now dubbed, That Which Shall Not Be Named.]  It shall go on, not being named, for quite a damn while.

Secondly, my friend Tim has started a blog that’s going to work very much like a choose your own adventure.  He’ll start a story and readers get to vote on what should happen next.  I think it sounds like an awesomely fun idea and I might even get to write a guest post over there.  If you’d like to be involved in the creative process, head on over and subscribe to the updates!  If you do, you’ll lose weight and be invited to parties more!*

*Not scientifically proven.

I woke up early today and went out to the book fair before finally going to Target.  You know, for a store that’s not really all that far away I put off going there like it’s my job.  I’ve waited so long to go grocery shopping now, that I’ve managed talking myself out of it entirely with, “You get paid six days from now.  Just wait until then!” and ended up only buying a few toiletry items like contact solution and conditioner–which will not wait six more days.  This is how much I dislike grocery shopping.

But anyway, Book Fair goodness!

As much as I love books, I can never stay at this thing for too long–there are just too many people.  A plethora of people is always a sure-fire way to put me on edge.  I bought Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” and Koontz’s “The Husband”.  Thank you, overtime pay, for making these purchases possible.  Have I ever told you that I love you?

Hmm, what else is going on?  Surely there must be something…
**I tried to see Knocked Up with Andrea Friday night, but it was sold out when we got to the theater.  And it looks like I missed seeing Hot Fuzz in the theaters.  C’est la vie.
**I’ve said this before, but I’m getting a part-time job.  Something just a couple days a week so that I can make a larger, faster dent in my debt.  Mike-the-Bellman was very helpful in compiling a list of places to start applying.  We also looked up my credit information and I was pleasantly surprised to see that my credit is pretty freakin’ great.  I figured some things in college had screwed me over, but it had all dropped off.  What a nice thing, this ‘dropping off.’  Let’s have a little more of that, please.
**Reid came over the other night and we watched Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.  That movie is so bad that it’s good.  We had a nice evening laughing at both cheesy dialogue and Kevin Costner’s mullet.  And it never bothered me when the movie first came out, but Morgan Freeman as an Arab?  Really?

Oh, and some bad news (to Daytonians).  My manager needs July 21st off, which was the weekend I was going to be in Dayton for Julie’s wedding.  I wish I could go, but I probably wouldn’t have been able to afford the trip anyway.  At least, that’s what I’m telling myself to keep from being too disappointed.  I miss you Ohio people.  Sometime this summer I want to rent a car and mini-road trip myself over there.

Life today was a little crazier than usual in the good ol’ South Loop.  Like, fire-trucks-and-helicopters-with-search-lights crazy.  An old, abandoned building about two blocks from my apartment caught fire at approximately 3PM.  It’s causing a bit of a ruckus because the building was designed by Louis Sullivan, a Chicago architect.  It’s still burning and firefighters are likely to continue working throughout the night.

The building is also two blocks from my hotel, causing our hotel lobby to be quite smoky.  I’ve taken some medicine, but what I think is a migraine has already started.  At this point, I’m just hoping to get through the night.  Some front desk girls were vomiting earlier from the smoke, so I guess it could be worse.  I’d rather be a little lightheaded than throwing up.

In less headache-inducing news, a guest gave me an Austrailian $2 coin and a something-something coin from New Zealand!  I shall add it to my collection which also includes a French euro, an Italian euro, a franc, some pence, 5000 lira, some bill from Kyrgyzstan, and a stupid Canadian nickel.

Is it normal to be paying almost $70.00, twice a month mind you, for medical insurance?  For just little ol’ me?  Because I am.  Because of this, the slight increase in my rent, and my newly acquired 401k, I will be over budget by $200 a month.  This isn’t so much a problem when there is overtime to be had.  It will be a problem this winter when there isn’t.  I’m going to have to speak with HR Monday morning and find out why the heck I’m paying so much.  After that, well, there’s some thinking to do.  I need to try to find a way to cut corners on my budget, but that is much easier said than done.  I give myself fifty bucks a week.  That fifty is for laundry, eating out, entertainment, groceries, toiletries, what have you.  Everything else I make goes to bills.  See?  Not a lot of give.

I’m going to start having those dreams again of my teeth falling out.  I hate that.

I think I’ll also need to get a second job.