19 years is a long time, but it doesn't feel long enough. Hopefully you'll go and meet up with the Old Dragon cat again; do say hi for me too. I will miss you.

I share, 'cause it's spot on *cough*. oncekitten.wordpress.com/2013/12/04/15-reasons-why-not-to-date-a-vet-an-eharmony-rebuttal/

Well, the year is drawing to a close, there's three days off work ahead of me and there's even some snow dusting the ground...

I plan to do nothing but sleep and eat good food and read - especially all the wonderful stories posted at hlh_shortcuts (and I've had a most wonderful gift filled with Amanda and glee and romance and captivating plot and yay!) and then sleep some more. And not think about unpleasant things for a while. And visit Granny in the hospital on Monday.

So, happy whatever-holidays-or-other-kinds-of-days to all of you - and may again the days get longer, and may those days be better than the ones before:)

HL holiday shortcuts fic off to beta, wheeee! Am resolutely not tinkering or looking at it and wondering whether it is any good at all, because that way lies madness. Well, at least not until I get it back:)

( Some RL ramblings and a snowstorm under the cut )

And now, I'll go and have some more alcohol-free glögg.

Today has been hot and unpleasant and full of stoopid and suck. And I'm really really really tired. So, trying an alternative approach - on the grounds of a)cats go well with everything and B)cats make everything better, here, have some kittens:



( moar kittehs under the cut )
Those are all shelter kittens, mostly from May this year. Kittens are by and large all rehomed by now, though only one mother cat has found a new home. But these are the ones that will find a home, and the ones I can look at without sadness and fear - I don't have to put any of those down. They're the happy stories. Two of those litters are actually mixed - there were motherless kittens fostered under accomodating queens. And fortunately, queens are usually very accomodating towards strange kittens.
And to finish it off - this is one of the two cats that live in the shelter, permanently. This one has had an inner ear infection that has left him with a permanent head tilt, and he has lost the tips of his ears to the cold some winter past. But he's happy and fat and shiny, and surveys his kingdom, and sleeps on the sofa in the personnell room, and never needs to worry about being homeless again.

... asGranny Weatherwax so succintly put it. *cough* It seems to be a long-running theme in my post titles, mostly.

As per usual, RL rose up and swallowed me, so I've been taking lurkerdom to its extremes again. I might recap the highlights (or lows) of the recent-ness in a future post, or perhaps better not, because it'd probably go along the lines of busysnowbusytiredsnowcoldsleepybusyblah, damn little cheese with that w(h)ine :).

I owe comment replies and stuff and ... Sorry. Will try to ease back into the groove.

On an unrelated note, today is the Independence Day for us, here in Estonia. Happy 92nd birthday, dear homeland!

And in lieu of any actual meaningful content, I'll give you a long, mostly funny, mostly true list about how one can know they're really from Estonia:
1. You use the word ‘normal’ if something is ok.
2. When visiting friends abroad you bring along a box of Kalev chocolate.
3. You attended a song festival at least once either as a performer or as a spectator.
4. You know that going to the sauna is 80% about networking and 20% about washing
5. You are nationalistic about Skype (it is actually an Estonian company)
6. ‘Kohuke’ belongs to your menu
7. You declare your taxes on the internet like all modern people
8. You actually believed for a while that Latvians had 6 toes per foot when you heard that as a child
9. You are convinced that Estonia is very strategically located
10. You spent at least one midsummer in Saaremaa, Hiiumaa or one of the smaller islands
11. You can quote films like "Viimne reliikvia" and "Siin me oleme"
12. You spit three times around your left shoulder for good luck
13. Words like "veoauto", "täieõiguslik" or "jää-äär" sound perfectly pronouncable to you
14. You like bold statements, such as this one... ;-)
15. There can never be too much sarcasm
....

I cannot even tell whether the fact that over 2/3 of that list applies/makes sense to me should be a cause for joy or depression...*laughs*.

So, there was that pesky first snow of the year today, then. Made me glad that I don't own a car at this time (no flailing about winter tires) and also, that it was my day off. I blew off about half of my planned errands, took the dogs out (little pig: Yays!!!Snowwww!! old pig: Snow. Hmpfh. Melting.Into.Mud. Do not want.) and then crawled back into bed.

The evening weather had improved a bit, so I went out for some things, and now I have a fire in the oven and a full belly and (well, ignoring the tiny teensy niggling knowledge that tomorrow is a long day at work again, and that some stuff I planned did not get done) rather content. Need to finish a little piece of translation work, and then maybe have time to read something (I have a few books halfway through, and haven't yet read all McShep Match fics, nor the recent Highlander ones, nor have managed to catch up on watching Supernatural - I need MOAR TIME, I say :)).

But for now, out for the evening walk with dogs *waves*.

Dear Estonia,

I love you. I do.
That said, there are times I am ashamed of how you are and oh so very angry at you. Here, have a dose of common sense: if Estonians as a nation die out, it will be because it will be our time - even nations have their lifespan -, because we leave too much hard work on the shoulders of women we pay too little, because we drink too much, work too much and die too early, because we fail to learn from past mistakes, because we will forget our history or because we will become blinkered and ensnared in it, because we sit too much in the dark of our soul and do not smile outside, because we keep everything inside, because we teach our men that they should pretend to carry the world and expect our women to do it in reality, because we only consider a person worthy as long as that person is young, able and high-wages-earning, because we forget to teach our children that education always pays off, because a big neighbour gobbles us up again and again and again and at last one time there won't be enough life left in what is spat out...
If we as a nation die out (or for that matter, the whole Western civilization declines), it will not, let me repeat, NOT be because some of us are queer. Nor because queer people might gain the right to form a civil partnership or marry and/or adopt children or gain any other rights inherent to marriage institution. So, my dear native land, in that regard, with all respect, screw you.

Lovingly,
Cali, shouldering her part in the decline of the Western civilization.


The above brought to you by the week-long theme in the local media about how a proposed change in marriage/partnership legislation might be about giving the gay people marriage rights, and the bile and acid in the comments and some opinions. Today's radio debate, for example, made me lose all respect towards Martin Helme.
I just try to remind myself that usually, the reasonable and non-belligerent people are the majority, but the silent one. *Sigh*. Though, I totally dig /sarcasm living in a country that prides itself on being European and 'western' and then has a major newspaper running a poll regarding the legislation of the same-sex partnerships where the options are: Leave legislation as is (result 8%), allow same-sex couples register civil partnerships (17%), allow same-sex couples to marry (22%) and (I kid you not) make the legislation regarding the homosexuals more severe - whatever that means - with the result of 53% of responders choosing that option.
Thank you. Some days, I just feel like emigrating and teaching my hypothetical future children Estonian and tolerance in some other country that perhaps has more sense. Though, good coffee and Jim Byrnes singing also helps to normalize the blood pressure, at least.

( The How Old do You Act meme )
YOU ACT LIKE YOU'RE: 27


Well, I'm a tad curious why this meme seems to imply there is no life after 35, or at least no-one is capable of acting older than 35. Though I'm sure that can be true in so many cases...
And I can act for all I'm worth *grins*, but in RL, taking 6 years off my age is ... generous. In a backwards way. See, back when I was 16 or 18, I could get away with being thought 6 years younger. It has only gotten worse from there on... Seriously, let me give you a few recent examples.
A couple of weeks back an old lady who'd brought her dog to the clinic gave me a long disapproving once-over and asked whether I was the doctor. I affirmed that I was indeed the veterinarian. "No," she claimed with iron certainty. "You cannot be. You're too young." *sigh* This being neither by far the first nor likely the last time such stuff happens, I did not point out to her that it'd be rather far-fetched to assume that a random teenager would steal into the clinic, don a practice uniform complete with the name-and-title identification and then sneak into the exam room for the express purpose of pulling her leg. After I'd patiently explained that despite looking 'too young' (whatever that means), yes, I am the vet, I am not as young as she thinks, yes, I have been in practice for 10 years etc, she grudgingly admitted I might not be lying. "You still look too young," was her final condemning verdict.
And yes, I get that a lot of people think I should be jumping up and down with joy because hey, I'm a female who looks younger than she is, what the heck is Cali whining about? But in the professional field, it can be incredibly tiring sometimes.
A few days after that I was idly staring into space at my local supermarket's checkout, waiting to pay, when the cashier suddenly asked for my ID. I had a moment of wondering why are they asking customers for ID now - and then I realised that I had a four-pack of beer among the other stuff. Last time I was asked to prove that I'm over 18 was about a year and a half ago, and I kind of thought that I'm leaving that particular amusement behind. Apparently, no. I flipped my wallet to show her the ID card and she squinted at it. "What year is this ... 19...?" "...Seventy six." I deadpanned. She did a rather comical double-take and hastened to assure me that it should be definitely taken as a compliment. Definitely. I sighed and smiled obligingly and wondered whether this is how Methos feels sometimes.
Later, at home, while on the phone with dad blaming his genetic contribution and making toast I went to the fridge to get the butter I had just bought. The butter that most emphatically was not in the fridge. This was when I wondered whether I should sue myself for the false advertising, because the outside sure does not warn for the deterioration of the mental capabilities. Then I wondered again whether that is how Methos feels sometimes. Yes, I know, immortal memory, blah-di-blah. I bet he still forgets his butter in the shop sometimes.


Oh, and in unrelated news, I've gotten a few more Dreamwidth invites, so at the moment I have four three to give out. If anyone would like an invite, give me a holler in the comments, 'kay?
ETA: screening comments for possible email-related-info, will unscreen comments without email addresses.

Also, sleepy.
Work these last days has been all 'hurry up and wait', well, or the other way round. Yesterday and this morning was sloooooow, which coupled with the grey wet slushy weather made me zombie-like and vague, and then, afternoon suddenly erupted into what is in Estonian lovingly known as 'hullumaja puhvet' (word-to-word translation - mental hospital's cafe), or in English, simply 'a madhouse'. The cherry on top, so to speak, was an emergency of two dogs who very likely have ingested a poison of some kind, probably organophosphate based. Or pyrethrins/pyrethroids. Managed first aid and packed them off to the UNI clinic ... tomorrow will tell if they've made it or no. Am home at last, watching SGA 1st season finale and drinking alcohol-free glögg (because I am sleepy enough without adding alcohol to the mix, yet I need something warm and weirdly enough, caffeine-less).
I did put a new challenge up at highlander100, so if anyone's drabble-wisely inclined, please amble over and ... drabble. Or something.
*yawns*
So, I see this meme going around again, and as I'm incapable of doing anything that requires more than two neurons firing, please to be amusing me and telling me whether you think I'm fish or fowl. Or, um. Something or other.
Pick one word from each pair that you think describes me the best and comment with your choices. Then copy this and post it in your own journal to see how your friends view you. *waves hand* Only if you want to. Now in a handy poll format, courtesy of helens78, here!