Penguin Tea

Tonight is the night for my penguin tea. It's not a type of tea or anything. It's just the size of the mug I need it in. Tonight it is decaf chai because, and you'll know what I'm talking about if you've done this, having anything with caffeine in it when you're stupid tired means you just go to bed and then cry because you're so tired it hurts but you cannot sleep. So why do I need penguin tea you might be asking yourself? You probably aren't, but that was a good lead into this rant I'm about to type out.
It all started when I made a trip back home. Jenn, Jim, Malcolm, and Mom all made a trip up to Vancouver to see me. There was some fuss about this 'pregnant' 'lady' who lives upstairs but you know, whatevs. Anyhoo, I wanted to come back with Mom so I could see this guy. Dad. He's a cool cat.

Mom drove down with me packing along some great novels (Origami Yoda) and some reference books because I had been called by my HR to offer me a two week substitute position in a grade 3 class. Very nice. Income. Woo!

Well, it's Thursday, I start this job on the following Tuesday. Fine and dandy. I'm comfortable with grade 3. I make a little unit plan for the first two weeks, mostly class organization and behaviour management, and all that fun jazz.

We arrive in Vernon on Thursday and I check my phone cause that's what I do. Missed call. Mm. I check my messages despite the long distance charges. It's my HR. Offering me a classroom. Kindergarten. Four days a week. Permanent. Let me repeat that. PERMANENT. So I freak out, call back and leave a message. They call back in about fifteen minutes and bam. I'm a kindergarten teacher.

Eek! My poor principal called and was like 'wanna come in tomorrow and start setting up?' and I was like 'I'm in the Okanagan.' and then she was like 'do you have many resources?' and I was like '... no.'. She took it remarkably well. She told me to enjoy my visit with my family and she'd see me on Tuesday.

So even though I did all the things I had already planned on doing, seeing my grandparents, hanging out with my dad, seeing Jodi and her marvelous beeb, playing trains with Malcolm and shopping with Jenn, I spent a lot of time planning and reading. One of my mom's kindergarten teacher friends showed me her classroom (amazing) and gave me so many resources (generous). I planned and colour coded and planned and brainstormed. One evening, when I was going bleary eyed, Mom had a good idea.

I put this down for a while.
We got some of this stuff.
We pressed go on the microwave.

And got this.
It was pretty god damn yummy.

So now this first week has come and gone. I've gotten a complete workout since my classroom is on the other wing of the school and all my supplies (including the paper roll) is on the third floor of the main wing. No elevators. Seriously, it's like a day long step class. The staff is amazing. They've been helping me with resources, arriving every day with stuffies, puzzles, blocks, and other fun stuff. I've met all the students and they are going to be a fun class. My classroom is small for a kindergarten room but it's really coming along. I'll take photos very soon. I've always known how much work goes into a classroom but it's about double that for a kindergarten classroom. And from scratch? Oh my. But the students are excited, I'm excited, the parents are lovely, my coworkers are fun and lovely, the classroom is looking better every day...

and I'm exhausted. Exhausted. I didn't know yesterday if I'd make it through today but I did. And now, with my giant penguin tea, I'm off to spend some time with this.
Bonne nuit.

Hello, I'm your substitute teacher for the day.

The likelihood that I'll get called for tomorrow is pretty nil, but regardless, I've prepped. Like I told my subbing buddy Ryan (one of many subbing buddies), if I don't prep than I will get called for a school and I'll show up starving, stressed, in my pjs, and will just start to cry. So I prep.

I have my two awesome books to read, good for any grade, which I just realized have a lot to say about my personality.
I honestly didn't realize those were both cat books until now. Too funny. For Wednesday I'm bringing my two bear books! Oh....

moving on, in my sub bag I also have my two emergency sub books in case I arrive to an empty desk.
and my new knitting for the bus. Better photos of this soon but it was cast on at 1am last night after I gave in and realized that having an espresso with dinner was a really dumb idea but I should try to make the best of the situation.

I've picked out what to wear (not as radioactive as shown)....
packed a lunch...
prepped the coffee...
prepped breakfast (not pictured is the bread since Spike has decided all bread must die and will rip open the bag and not eat the bread, just shred it)....
prepped the kitties most-expensive-cat-food-ever breakfast...

and now I retire with some warm almond milk, a little help since I know despite my I'm-so-tired-I-can't-find-shift feelings I will stay up all night and analyze my professional decisions, my cell phone is fully charged and set to go off at six, and finally, my latest reading, Real Boys by Pollack.

Come morning, I will have breakfast and coffee, get dressed all fancy, get my stuff ready to run out the door, and then plays Sims2.

Bonne nuit, mes amis, bonne nuit.

I fell down in a bookstore

So~ you think this is an ordinary table?
BUT YOU'RE WRONG!!!

From top left clockwise ...

All The World by Liz Scanlon (beautiful and good for all grades)

Can You Say Peace? by Karen Katz (awesome activities could be done with this book)

The Peace Book by Todd Parr (you can't help but tilt your head to the side and say 'nnt' when reading this) (nnt being the sound that you make when you click your tongue off the back of your front teeth)

Peaceful Heroes by Jonah Winter (older students for sure but a great mix of everyone being heroes from all over for all different causes)

The Lion and the Mouse illustrated by Jerry Pinkney (o.m.g.)

Shades of People by Sheila Kelly and Shelly Rotner (freaking kick ass photographs)

Bears on Chairs by Shirley Parenteau (I need to find bears so this can be acted out while read) (like I need to find these bears tomorrow)

They are for two different units on Peace~ primary (general) and intermediate (social justice/fine arts).

If all goes well, I hope that Bears on Chairs will have a special place in my heart. I'm really hoping that it will be the first book I read to kindergartners on their first day of school. Is that epic or WHAT?!??!

I'm a wreck

I didn't think it was going to be this hard to let my class go this year. I knew I would be sad but I was pretty inconsolable actually. I kept it together at school~ got a little teary with some of the cards and letters I received (I asked for no chocolate- just letters~ got both) and was a little blue after the last massive group hug but I was doing okay.

Then, that evening, at knitting group, people were talking about their plans for the upcoming days and weeks and I remember that I stopped knitting because I was going to joke about not knowing what I was going to do with my time and then it just took my breathe away because I realized I was not going to see my kids again like that ever. And I started to get really sad. I just put my knitting down and stared at my lap because I was just overcome with the realization. Lara next to me asked me what was wrong and when I went to tell her I just started to cry. The poor knitting group. One moment I'm joking away about goodness know what and next thing I'm weeping into my yarn. But yeah, I couldn't make my sadness go away and I had to leave. I just kept on all night with those silent tears you know? Like your doing something else and you realize you have tears on your cheeks.

I don't talk about my class a lot because of various things. But I mean, just a little, cause this year was special. My first class. I'm so proud of them. It was the best way to end the year~ the two kids I was worried about becoming bullies last year gave me incredibly heart-felt letters, when I opened my desk after recess and it was full of paper airplanes I didn't even get to guess who it was because they ran right into me and gave me a bear-hug, I had a 'no I'll miss you more!' competition with one of my dear dear students who came to us last year from the Phillipines, and from my little student who barely speaks English I received a pink post-it note covered in flowers and hearts.

Decorations from the year-end dance.

Distracting myself is going to be a big focus for getting through next week. Thankfully I have two canvases prepared and, um, some yarn. That's three skeins of STR in Bleeding Heart, three skeins of STR in Puck's Mischief, and just one skein of STR in Carbon Dioxide; otherwise known as two Whisper Cardigans and a pair of socks.

Spike also has big plans for the next week.

Grad

I grad next week. Woo. I don't even know why I'm going to the ceremony but alas I signed up. I think I want to just get there so I can have some time to knit. I need to cast on for socks for my dad and then my brother in laws (thick yarn- actual woo!) and will just bring them. I'm getting the photo of me receiving my doo-hickey so I'm also going to see if I can get the yarn in the photo too. So basically I'm going to grad for all the right reasons.

Today I worked coffee shop than voted than went on a vain search for a better kitty litter box which resulted in me trying to find Spike a vet because it sounds like he might be sick but he needs a check up regardless. Voting was fun. I laughed at the 'secrecy sleeve' and kept on saying it with air quotation marks~ I mean, I had this sheet of paper with me with all the people I was voting for that I left open on the registration table and was carrying around. Also the 'secrecy sleeve' was a file folder. Oooohhhhh. But it was nice to vote. Than I got a phone call from a teacher asking if I had voted so that was nice to be able to say 'yes.' Maybe I should turn on the radio and see how the results are doing. Polls closed... only 20 minutes ago! Oh god, it's only 8? Freak I thought it was pushing 10! Sweet, I'm playing sims.

Grose, Grouse, Goose.... it's all moot when I think I'm going to die

So funny subbing story today.

I'm at a school for the afternoon and it looks like it's going to be pretty sweet. There's an assembly- which brings mixed emotions. If they are a decent class- it all will be good, but one of my most difficult days was taking a very, very, very challenging class to a school assembly and trying to get them back into their classroom (two fights, a principal, and a whole long time later- we did it). Anyhoo, I get to the school and the kids are great so it's all good, I'm not worried at all about the students. The performance was by Brothers From Different Mothers and they were bloody awesome! Very funny and interactive (the mikes sucked so that was a shame but from what I could hear- rather hilarious) and very talented- great assembly. The one thing? None of the teachers wanted to go up- none of them. The performers would call them out- and they would not get up. On top of this- most of the teachers I was next to were wearing black- I was reading red.... yeah I had to go up. It was me and three other teachers and four students and we were given those tennis like balls with the fabric tails to whip at each other. It was fine and all but I'd imagine people were like... 'who the hell is she?' but I was paired with a nice student and frankly, I think we made the most impressive throws up there.

Oh yeah, and then on the way back to class I totally bailed on the hill of mud (I was wearing heels) but the students were very nice about it. The girls were so concerned about my shoes.

And oh yeah- OBAMA IS THE PRESIDENT ELECT!!!! NO PALIN!!!!

Just dip me in chocolate

cause really? Unless you do that life ain't going to get any sweeter. Why am I pimp talking? Well, it's because I'm finally in my career, a career I love and am deeply committed to and believe in fiercely, and yeah- also got a gig on the side you know. Knitting. For money. That's right bitches! I'm getting PAID to KNIT! (Mom- when I said bitches I wasn't referring to you, just need to clarify) I'm working for a lovely young lady who has created a business out of handknitting which makes me so happy! She pays totally fair and charges fair too which makes me happy as well. None of this undercutting crap when it comes to handmade things.

And you know on the same rant; I'm enjoying TOCing (teacher on call). Today was my first 'rough' day where there was no lesson plans or structure but I survived and all is well. The rest of the time I'm really enjoying getting to go in and see how teachers set up their classroom and their different methods of teaching and I am really enjoying getting to meet all these delightful children with just awesome personalities. I am getting to rock the transit and getting to see parts of Vancouver previously unknown to me. It's also getting me really excited about teaching on one hand; where I see all this potential and get really excited about what my classroom will be like and all, but on the other hand it's also really nice to be a TOC. I come home and I'm just, you know- home. I'm getting to see people, go out, it's all good.

On that note, I've spent a LOT of money this month. Um... there was that new computer I bought (ooohhhh.... so pretty!), and of course the accompanying Sims2 games to go with it (why else would you ever buy a new computer if not to play Sims on it?), some really really really fancy undergarments because I deserve it (and I've got these massive bewbs), some work appropriate clothing and preeeeetty jackets (oh so pretty), and some shoes to work in that are nice but not heels. I became a little concerned last week that I was going to turn into a materialistic obsessive shopper. I think it was just the high that came from, well, actually shopping for once. It's funny because I've spent money on these big ticket items but I've been so good on my ususal suspects, like yarn, books, and sushi. I've gotten none yet this month! Crazy I know. But yeah, I think it's just something that I am freaking out about because I've never had an income before, but it's also something that is good to be aware of. Rant over.

I haven't downloaded photos on my new computer yet. I'm scared. I want to keep it pristine and wuvly. My photos were a MESS on my old computer and I don't want to do that again. I'm already very careful about having the right folders and labeling stuff. Anyhoo- basically telling you that to say there are no new photos on this post, but there is a photo of the most precious ever...

Goodnight Malcolm, I love you.

Happy Earth Day!

I spent the day at Granville Island with ten of my students, buying caaaaandy, playing games, looking through stores, and, very literally, being dragged away from the weaving store window because there was yarn being sold in there and for some reason, my students didn't want to go in. *pout* We had an awesome time. Then we went to see The Hobbit put on a theatre company (find the link later- tired) which was just great! They did an awesome job. The woman who played Gollum was perfect!

It reminded me of a conversation I had with other student teachers in the staffroom at lunch on Monday.
Person 1: I've never watched Lord of the Rings. It's not my type of movie.
Person 2: It's not mine either but you see, there is this character named Legolas.
Me: Yeah.
Person 2: Yeah, and that scene with the jumping on the horse?
Person 1: What?
Me: Yeah.
Person 3: Oh yeah.

But it is past my bedtime and I am tired. So I leave you with a picture of my cat being friendly with my cloth grocery bags. He is very very sneaky.

Wait... what day is it?

It's Thursday. Not Friday. So I cannot stay up until 1am doing whatever. I must remember that.

Not knitting a whole lot, started a new phiaro scarf... Could it be any prettier? Have finished the first soaker, need to cast on for the next one, cause you know... Jenn's just getting more and more pregnant. Doing some bigger projects that I haven't taken photos of yet, so that's about it for right now.

I need to clean this week. I'm thinking of getting a new CD on Friday to inspire me to clean. I was suppose to clean last week. Instead I bought a book on Friday night, Sunshine by Robin McKinley and finished it Saturday night (second time I've read it). Seriously, best book ever. And I learned don't go online to try to find out if there is a sequel coming- you will just run across the most inane review of the book ever. This person was criticizing the book for things like... how the librarian didn't spend enough time at school, or that Johnny Appleseed isn't a myth- and you are like... IT'S AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE!!!!! Augh! My only criticism in that the mother was so important, but so silent- I don't know if she spoke more than once throughout the book. That's why I want to know if there is a sequel or something- the character is so built up but never explored. Awesome book. I may read it again soon. PS- did find the info about the sequel- no ideas yet :( but hey... new book!

School is good. Teaching is just awesome. I'm learning a lot in my practicum, not only about how to teach! I have learned so much about fractions and probability in these past two weeks! At one point I was on the phone with Jenn going 'how do tree fractions work again?' and going a little bit mad. But it's okay- I got it and the lessons went really well! I used my collection of shoes I have at school as an example (if I am wearing my turquoise shoes on Wednesday, what are the chances I'll be wearing them on Thursday and Friday if I have two other pairs of shoes at school and randomly grab them?) Today as a closure for the week I did a read aloud (I read out loud) of a picture book called Math Curse. It was great! And they totally got the math connections in the book. I also teach science (with my team teacher) and team teach with all the teachers for gym. We are going to be starting language arts next week, doing a mini poetry blitz for April 17th Nat. Poem in your Pocket Day, and then French and Art in the following weeks. It'll be busy but I'm looking forward to it.

Okay- I'm off to clean or write lesson plans or knit or something. Probably not clean. I'm predictable like that.

well

since I'm not going to get any work done tonight (which is fine, I did a lot of work this morning) figured I should blog about my revelation on Friday. I went for this uber long walk after class cause I just needed some time to think and I realized something. When I applied for the education program, I could tell you all these reasons about why I wanted to be a teacher right? And well, I had to put them down in essay after essay, and this isn't to say I didn't believe these reasons, I did, it was just I didn't have the knowledge at that point to really elaborate on them. I realized during my 2 and a half hour walk that I can now say these reasons with passion and authentic emotion, and that I truly embrace them. I even have more reasons now about why I want to be a teacher. Here are two.

I believe in the public school program. It is so important. I mean, not even touching upon what it means for Canadian identity, open mindedness, and cross cultural ties- it is the prevention to turning us into a have/ and have/not society. It is the idea that you support all children receiving a quality education. I love teaching. Is there anything better than seeing these amazing creative projects students can come up with? Seriously give them a inch and they run for miles! We have a lot of visitors in my school and getting to hear students explain their work is so neat. I did interviews at the end and asking students to tell me their thoughts and opinions just takes their work to a new level. I learn so much from my kids.

Okay- rah rah me rant over now. I am going to go have some tea and work on my knitting before I head to bed. Ugh... I am waking up at 5am tomorrow! Daylight savings is rude.

New Years Resolutions (still January)

1. Spend less time on the computer (mmmm.... this one is hard).

2. Graduate and start climbing out of debt by actually making money (foreign concept).

3. Work out twice a week (so far so good! And I'm getting in lots of walks too. Go team!).

4. Knit FOUR sweaters (Jenn's doesn't count).

5. Write more personal letters.

6. Travel (hi Julia).

7. Start painting again.

8. Finish the hem on my curtains (I may be scrambling Dec 31st 08 to finish this one).

9. Knit seven pairs of socks (current socks in progress count).

10. Start up the violin again.

AND!!!! A bonus goal. As of January 11th, 2008, I decided to see how long I could go without buying yarn (on the 11th I bought the yarn needed for my Grandma's sweater). This is prompted by the whole money issue I've got going on right now with tuition (and by sorting my stash.... it's kinda large (not compared to some, true- but still)). I'm at day 17 people!!! That's over two weeks! My goal is 90 days. I know. I know. Impossible you say (Adrienne- I'm looking at you) but eh, aim for the stars (cue music). So....

11. Go for 90 days without buying yarn.

2008? Really? When?

I'm still planning on writing down some resolutions. I'll do that soon. Blogger is still being weird but I downloaded some photos anyways. I'm glad some fun words came out of the last post. :P Quickly, since I'm fading fast (I mean, it's 8:30 IN THE EVENING!!!) and I want to go have some frozen fruit on a stick.

My two week practicum? Rocked the freakin' cazbah baby yeah! The kids were great and so creative. I've been talking about it all weekend and all day so I'm story-ed out but I'm sure I'll talk more during my 13 week practicum.

First day back at UBC? Fine, it was fine. My first class was great, a lot of work , but a really nice prof. My second class was canceled and this is our least popular class so there is always drama and such. Meh. I got groceries and still got home earlier than I would have had I gone to class so.

So back to knitting! I'm having knitting angst right now. I have about six projects (maybe eight) (or eleven- whatever) on the go but I still feel like there is something I should be knitting that I'm not. So weird. Anyhoo, here are my first two FOs of the year! The first one I'm showing is actually the second FO of the year but since blogger is freaking out I'm not going to try to move the photos around. This is my NY toque made from the yarn Jim and Jenn got me from New York and it is soooooo soft. It's simple 1x1 ribbing and random stripes of colour.


Okay this one is my first FO of the year. It's Noro Iro (75% wool and 25% silk) , two skeins, and is uber long. It's my extravagant pirate scarf.
And a shot of what I am knitting with my reward yarn. It's Clapotis from knitty which is I think the most popular scarf on Raverly but oh well. It looks cool.

Good night!

Beds, Books, and Blisters

First of all, look what I bought! Except mine is white, and it looks a lot better when it's covered in pillows, which I will do as it's mostly going to be a couch. Isn't it stellar? I wanted a sofa bed but I was finding that the couches were so much nicer to sit on, but more expensive, and then I saw this and I loved it oh so much! I get it on Sunday. Wheeeeeheeheehehehee!
I can't wait to cover it in pillows and knit away on it! I had so much fun at Ikea, it was nearly sinful. I could spend soooo much money there! And it was an uber good thing I had a good friend with me (Hi Sheena) who knew how to operate the store or else I would have been so lost.

So books, yes, books as in books and books as in reading. I had four presentations in two days, but at least all my presentations are over now for the rest of the semester. I've gotten really good feedback from my presentations so I'm pretty happy. For one I spent way too long making 16 paper cubes (who knew it took so long to make those?) to play a word game, another one was based on a chapter from my favorite book Matilda by Roald Dahl and I got my peers to read out loud (hilarious- one student so did the Mrs. Trunchbull voice), another one was funny in that it turned out another person in my group did homophobia in schools but we had two really different presentations, and the last one was group project but for my part I did it on self-efficacy and I did a drawing activity which was soooo much fun. Basically you get people into partners, ask them to draw a portrait of their buddy (so funny), then give them a lesson on basic face drawing skills, and then get them to redraw the portraits. It was totally fun. And it meant nobody could go on their laptop while I was giving the lesson either :P School is so good. No like honestly, I totally mean that. My living room is covered in paper, books, and construction paper scraps, but I'm so happy. Whee for me!

And blisters. Apparently, I'm developing a thing for shoes. Yeah. For Thursday presentation I wore my most darling twilight blue satin kitten heel pointy toe shoes. I got so many compliments about those, from both sexes, but oh, my poor baby toes. And I also have blisters from a new pair of sandals from Sketchers that are covered in miniature charms like starfish and seahorses, so cute! But yeah, no more painful shoes till my feet heal.

I'm going to metrotown tomorrow to buy some household stuff and pillows for my daybed, so hopefully photos on Monday! Possibly of my bedroom! I've a busy weekend, I really hope I get my bed early on Sunday so I can still make it to the Pride parade or at least some fun activities, and I'm going to the fireworks finale tomorrow night (I'm going to brave English bay!). So yeah, busy weekend so thank goodness for long weekends!

Ack!

I don't know what is wrong with me lately. I think I'm so overwhelmed that I can't even fathom where to begin when I blog. First things first....

OF COURSE I read Harry Potter. Sheesh.


And yes, I loved it! :)



And no, barely a knitted stitch to report. I've been working on my RPM socks when I get a chance, on the bus or at school, but I haven't been knitting at home since I don't have a good chair to knit in. Mom did leave these awesome folding chairs that have arms here that I can use but it's not the same you know? But it's not like I've had a lot of spare between schoolwork, Harry Potter, and getting my place together so.

School is still good, getting into a routine, getting familiar, feeling more relaxed and hence, more like I can be me (ie. kooky). It's just an awesome cohort and awesome professors. Language arts is one of my favorite classes, we did running records today which is a coding method for read aloud, totally fun. Learning about how language is constructed has made it so I'm not so opposed to teaching the younger grades now that I see why the teachers do what they do in the classes, very interesting. I have a social issues class, which is awesome and we have lots of guest speakers, all very dynamic and very thought provoking. The cool thing about my Mom (one of many) is that she knows lots of these speakers and so after class I can go and say 'I'm Jan's daughter' and then there's much gushing about how great my mom is and yeah, it's all good. We had Charles Ungerleider who wrote this book and wrote one of my favorite quotes ' school is where we send our children to overcome the limitations of their families'. He talks about how important public schools are to Canada's sense of nationality and just slams the media, I love it. My social justice class is really good, we do tonnes of reading and then discussion in class in groups and we've already had a paper in that class, we also do a lot of fieldtrips. We went to the UBC farm and had a presentation from LOVE today (freaky awesome stellar cool), and another presentation by GALEBC. Then my practicum class which is also really good, we had to videotape ourselves doing a little presentation and then critique it (why did no one tell me how much hair I have on my head? it was like I stapled a puppy to the back of my head or something). But I do so like that class, it's very exciting to talk about the upcoming practicum. We split into two groups for this one so the class is even smaller, always fun. And then we have our psych class. Yeah.

And my place! Okay, well first I'm just going to show you some pictures of the living room, I thought I had photos of my kitchen but I found that I don't and my kitchen is messy right now so no photos until I've done the dishes.

Disclaimer: The camera is very old, the settings are messed, and I don't know how to work it. We all know that I can take photos so please, no judging of my photo taking ability based on these photos.

This is one side of living room, that's all yarn beside Spike and the Bears there, then all my instruction books on the other bookshelf, underneath my Calvin and Hobbes. Like my lamps? I lurve my lamps. The room has no light so before my lamps I had to stop doing schoolwork once the sun set (how pathetic is that?). And chairs! Oh how I missed chairs!
Then panning to the left is my window with my pink curtains and my Spike. The coloured bits in my window are little skulls and stars I designed with those sticky window pane doohickeys you can make. Spike can't get out the windows and we are on the second floor so I don't worry about him. He surveys the alley constantly. You can see a bit of my desk and bookshelf the left there.

And yeah, here's the other side (these photos are about half of my living room, the other half is bare right now (except for collasped boxes) so you don't get to see that. So that's my little desk right now until my desk gets here hopefully in the next week or so. More books, another lamp, more chairs!, and my uber darling fake fireplace. I have all my photos and memorabilia (sp) on there, then a painting Julia brought me from Cube and a photo of Jess and Julia in Greece (right?) on the wall. I also have some star wars chess set pieces on there as well, waiting for Jim and I to finish the game from months and months ago (we'll probably just start a new one). Oh, here's another view from my window without the curtains.
And this is the door to my jackets and shoes. I covered it in pulp fiction covers. Heh.
And that's it. I really hope I start blogging more often, this once every two weeks thing is lame. But it's not like a have the stellar news of a new kitten who is so darling I could just die and someone's forthcoming nuptials! Wheeehehehehehe!