I found it amusing that when filling out the address for an application to adopt a kitten, our house was on "Garfield Lane."

As anxious as I am about owning my first cat, I think Lucy is doubly anxious. Last night Lucy woke me up every 3 hours to go out. After she got down she would proceed to sit in front of the laundry room door where we are keeping the kitten. We would go out and then go back to sleep, only for me to be awoken again 3 hours later with Lucy standing on top of me with the kitten crying in the background. Hopefully this will get better with time.

I woke up a little after 9 and said good morning to the kitten. I don't really know how to treat kittens, but I think he likes me because he pretty much purrs the entire time I pet him. I got ready and then took Lucy on her first walk of the day. I assume I'll be taking her for a ridiculous amount of walks for the next few weeks so that she remains as calm as possible around the kitten. When we got back I checked on the kitten again and then left for school.

Lab was fine today. We are working on our last project of the semester, which is identifying two unknown bateria (gram positive and negative). The instructions are pretty well laid out, so it's kind of more like just following a series of steps which lead to a specific bacteria. I'm sure if it was Clemson we would just be given a broth culture and given no instruction. Ah the joys of Greenville Tech.

I debated going to lecture for a long time, but decided to come home. I am glad I did, because Lucy was wreaking havoc on the sun room when I got home. Usually she just sleeps while I'm gone, but I think the kitten was probably driving her crazy with it's meowing. Her food and water bowls were overturned, and she had started to chew apart the baby gate. I think I'll be leaving her in her crate until she gets a little more used to having a cat in the house.

I ate some lunch and then I took Lucy for her second walk. When we got back she was pretty calm, so I decided to let the two pets interact some. Things went pretty well. The kitten for the most part doesn't mind Lucy, just is a little intimidated by her. Lucy on the other hand just gets extremely excited about having another living animal around. She typically just sniffs the kitten like crazy, pokes him with her nose, and yips every now and then. If the kitten hides too much Lucy starts to get angry, but can be snapped out of it with some correction. So far it doesn't seem like Lucy wants to act on her hunting small animals instinct, so that is encouraging.

I emailed Kristi to tell her about the day with the kitten, and also to ask what she was going to name him. I was getting extremely tired of calling him "Kitty." Kristi had thought about the name Oscar, but decided that he wasn't scruffy enough for that name, and has settled on Oliver. Welcome to the fam, Oliver:

For the rest of the afternoon I got a few things done and tried to keep Lucy calm. When the kitten is in the laundry room Lucy is a nervous wreck, constantly pacing and barking. It's really driving me crazy, but it's only the second day. I checked my auction on ebay and saw that my head sold for just under 200, pretty good if you ask me. Right now I am leaning towards getting a snare, just because I have a really hard time passing up musical equipment. I've decided I would really like a 6.5 x 14, just because I always seem to like the sound of snare drums that are a little deeper. I also don't really mind my junk Yamaha 5.5 x 14, so the different size would give me some variety. Although, I may still go with another 5.5 if it's a good enough deal. Just for fun I made a ridiculously low offer on a 7 x 14 Yamaha Maple Custom drum in one of those "best offer" auctions on ebay. I figure times are tough, maybe the music shop really wants to get rid of some stuff. Can't hurt to ask, right? Plus, it's sparkly white, which is my favorite.

Kristi got home a little after 5 and played with Oliver some. I was going stir crazy from being in a house with an insane dog, so we went out to eat at La Fogata. It's our favorite mexican restaurant...good food and pretty cheap. I ended up just getting cheese quesadillas tonight, which is a little boring. Afterwards we stopped at Target so Kristi could pick something up and then headed home. The evening was spent watching football, studying for psychology, and watching Lucy and Oliver interact. Things are still going pretty well. Oliver swatted at Lucy once, but really I wish he would do it more so that Lucy would gain a little more respect. He seems to be a really easy going cat though, so generally he lets Lucy bother him as much as she wants. We all got into bed around 10:30. Lucy laid down between my legs and was snoring withing 30 seconds. I think the new family member is wearing her out.

Tomorrow I am going to plant the 4 remaining plants in the back yard and try to study a little more before going to work. I will have 2 tests on Wednesday, so I'd like to get as much done as possible since I will only get home from work around 9. Maybe Oliver can keep Lucy occupied for most of the morning so that I can get things done. Somehow I doubt that's going to be how it works out.

In closing I'll leave you with some pictures of the yard progress...sorry it took so long to get them up! You can look at this post to see what the mulch beds were like before (there were no mulch on the sides or in the back before).