nekosensei

* I got a crappy night's sleep last night. Today is going to be interesting....

* Last night, doomsey and I were pulling out of our house to go to a birthday party at a friend's house when I saw a dead bird-- it looked like a robin-- lying in the street not far from our house. I couldn't get a very good look at it and I feared that it might have been the juvenile robin that's been hopping around our front yard. This morning, I looked out the window, anxious to see any sign of him. When I saw both him and the adult robin, I did a small cheer.

* doomsey and I have a lot of trees on our property, which make for great bird homes. This season, I've seen one baby sparrow, one baby robin, and two baby black birds in our front and back yards.

* Not long ago, a friend of mine suggested I should get a field guide to identify what kinds of birds are coming into our backyard. Hmmm...might not be a bad idea. I've had one little guy who used to visit our bird feeder in the fall and I have no idea what kind of bird it was. He was a dark blue on top and a lighter gray on the bottom.

* I'm such an animal lover. When I was a kid, I used to sit and watch the birds and other critters in our backyard. It got the point where I was able to not only identify birds, but also recognize their songs to some extent. To this day, it amazes me that doomsey can't distinguish between a cardinal or a robin based on its song. Maybe I should start teaching him?

* Last year, the rosebush in our garden wasn't looking very good because it had black spot, a fungus caused by too much humidity. This year, doomsey and I have been spraying it like mad. In the early spring, I picked off all the old leaves to try to keep it from getting re-infected this year. It looks like it worked because it's currently blooming like mad. doomsey took some pictures yesterday and posted them to his journal today. By the way, anybody know what kind of rosebush that is?

* Two nights of bad sleep + One night of almost no sleep thanks to my dear friend, insomnia + A phone call from my mom this morning saying that one of my nieces is in the hospital with pneumonia = a very unhappy nekosensei. Tomorrow, I might have to baby-sit my other niece. I made sure my mom understood that I have a midterm in one of my classes and that I absolutely can not miss it because the instructor is very strict about make-ups. I did tell my parents that I would be more than happy to baby-sit after the class though.

* While I love the good weather in the spring, one thing I've been noticing over the years is that I struggle a lot with insomnia once the weather starts turning nicer. I'm thinking that that has something to do with the length of the days: the more light we get, the less I sleep. On the other hand, I have absolutely no trouble with insomnia in the winter when the days are shorter. And I don't think it's seasonal affective disorder per se because I don't get depressed; I just sleep more. I'd like the winter better, but the problem is that it's fucking cold here in the winter. I hate it. Hate hate hate hate hate.

* I hope my niece is okay. :( I think I'm going to call my parents for an update before I leave for work.

* And now, onto the good news I was going to share last night, but didn't get around to because it was past my bedtime. My friend almeda got me hooked on ancestry.com. I managed to trace three branches of my family tree back to Germany and Luxembourg. Of course, it certainly didn't hurt that some distant and some not so distant relatives of mine must also be into genealogy because my family tree bumped into two other family trees: one on my mother's side and one on my father's. I know the people on my mother's side, but I have no idea who we ran into on my father's side. And I'm having a hard time remembering their last name now. I'll have to ask almeda if she remembers or if there's a way we can look it up. (And she found it! I asked my dad if he recognized the name, and he said that he didn't). Last night, I did some more digging and found what I think are more relatives on my paternal grandfather's side. Then, before I went to bed, I printed up what I had so I can show it to my parents the next time I see them. They can tell me whether what I have is right or not and fill in some information that I don't know. (Already asked about the research I did last night. I was right!)

Oh...another cool thing is that I found an application for a passport from someone on my mother's side. Looks like both he and his wife were planning a trip to Belgium to visit his mother. I have no idea if she moved from Luxembourg to Belgium, if that side of the family is actually Belgian, or if the borders of the country changed and the town they lived in went from being on the Luxembourg side to the Belgian side. I also found a picture (!!!) and I found out that he came to the US by way of Antwerp in the 1880s or 1890s (!!!). How cool is that!

I think, after all is said and done, I'm going to end up asking doomsey if I can purchase a world account so that I can track down other descendants that lived in Germany and Luxembourg. I think I might have a lot of the luck with the German side because a) I suspect I know enough German to read census forms and b) I know where to start looking because I know that one branch comes from Berlin and the other comes from Munich.

So yeah...genealogy is fascinating stuff, isn't it? And I didn't realize until yesterday how easy the ancestry.com website makes it.

* Now I think the migraines might be triggered by both my lack of sleep and problems with my neck muscles. I was trying to lay down earlier, and felt tingling in my right hand. The last time that happened was around the time I was diagnosed with a neck sprain. Great. Just great.

* Called my dad. My niece has improved slightly. They're still going to hang onto her for a few days so they can keep an eye on her. Poor kiddo!

Saturday, doomsey, his family, J. and K. all went to a play at the Goodman called "The Trip to Bountiful." Afterwards, we went to Rosebud on Taylor street for dinner. They served us way too much food. I don't think I managed to eat a quarter of what they put in front of me.

Today, doomsey, his family, and I went to Joshua's birthday party at jharter41's house. There were a lot of kids there. It was loud, but also a lot of fun. I managed to teach Rayna how to do the salsa and an Irish jig. I couldn't jig for very long though because my lungs still suck.

I'm exhausted. I haven't been sleeping well for the past two nights, and to top it all off, the time change is kicking my ass. Also, having to suck on my peace pipe use my inhaler today didn't help things either. It makes me really jittery at first, and sometimes it makes me crash afterwards.

I think tonight is going to be an early one. I'm going to take some Ambien and go to bed.

I can't frigging fall asleep...

Yesterday I got enough sleep. Today, I am bouncy.

*bounce bounce bounce* :)

Of course, I'm sure all that caffeine this morning didn't help either...

*bounces some more*

A happy nekosensei is a good nekosensei...
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On another topic, I really need to write about my "interesting day" on Monday. Unfortunately, I don't have the time right now since I have to do random stuff before class.

Does anybody else out there have trouble sleeping in the spring when the weather gets warmer? Or am I the only weird one?

Early this morning, I had the pleasure to be woken up by snoring...in stereo. Yep, both my husband and the cat were happily cutting logs in their sleep. And...to top it all off...the other cat kept throwing up.

I am not having a good morning...