Still escaping real life

I got caught up chatting till way past my bedtime Tuesday night – so Wednesday was kind of … bleh! So I just faffed around, played games, played with Mips – I invented a new game which seems to keep Mewthos quiet: Cuddle-cave! When he comes in mew, mew, mewling, we go through to the bedroom where I’ve made a cave under the feather duvet, he climbs in and we cuddle. That seems to be all he needs.

He is seriously not pleased with Snoopy, though – he attacks him, when he tries to come in and just won’t let him be in peace. Since Snoopy isn’t my cat, but Mewthos is, I think I’ll jut leave him to it without interfering. He doesn’t seem to have a problem with Romeo though, which I find strange. Snoopy is such a placid, passive, non-aggressive cat – if I raise my voice at Mewthos, he gets up and goes away. He doesn’t like loud noises, raised voices and such. Whereas Romeo is caterwauling almost non-stop! Well, I do have my hands full with my lot – no need to burden myself unnecessarily!

With that awful Home Affairs application looming large in front of me, I escaped back into Elvenar, where no such horrors intrude. I’ve spent the day trolling the ranking list for potential member and inviting active players, who are currently not in any fellowship. It’s laborious work – but made a lot more accurate by a new website, where you can look up players’ statistics for the past 3 months. Still, out of the 400 unattached members, I found only 28 potential candidates. Well, 29, one player already replied saying he’d rather play alone than join a fellowship. I’ve got 15 invitations waiting for replies, I will keep them open for two days, then delete them & invite the next on my list. We’ve got 3 spots open at the moment, but we have two players, who aren’t participating in the weekly tournaments – so, they’re on the ‘to boot’ list.

Once I have filled those 3 + 2 spots with active candidates, we can start tackling the high-ranking non-team players. We have some five players, who have been with the fellowship from the start (about two years ago?). They’ve stayed through thick and thin, but have lost real interest in the game. They only do minimum about once a day – and persistently do their own thing, when it comes to team activities. They rarely take trades, rarely even put up trades, their participation in tournaments is no more than usual – they don’t pool their resources by taking unfair trades from smaller players nor do they meet our new target, which is slightly above their average. Instead of spreading their wealth, they hoard it. But get the rewards the rest of us achieve by compensating for their lackadaisical approach. Which is becoming an issue – not only with me, but with those who go the extra mile to compensate. So, I’m afraid, when the time comes, they will have to go … there are loads and loads of lackadaisical, relaxed fellowships out there. Nothing wrong with that – it IS a game, and should be fun! But the majority in this fellowship want to play and grow, not only themselves, but be part of a growing fellowship. It will pull our fellowship score down – quite substantially – but that should only be temporary.

Rant over. I just had to let it out – and since nobody from the fellowship reads this, it’s a safe place to vent.

Snoopy spent the night with us again, last night – to the disgust of all my cats! He’d been sleeping on the bed most of the evening, so when I went to bed, I put him on the blanket in the lounge, then sat with him for a while, brushing him – just to let him know it’s not rejection. Lady Jane had brought in a gecko the day before, and when it was half-dead, left it. It had managed to get up the wall and was teasing her from the ceiling half the afternoon! She’d sit looking up at it, meep, meeping away! Last night, while I was sitting with Snoopy, it somehow ended up on the floor – and an excited Mewthos was trying to dig under my legs to get at it. He got so excited, he completely forgot to hiss at Snoopy! While Mewly was looking the other way, I picked up the gecko and put it outside the window. Mewthos didn’t even notice, he kept looking under Snoopy for it – again, completely forgetting to hiss at him!

When I went to bed, Ziva sulked in the cat carrier and the Mips cavorted around the lounge – so Snoopy came to snuggle up to me on the bed. When Mewthos finally chose to come to bed – he was highly displeased! Curled up in a sulk and wouldn’t purr for love nor cuddles! Snoopy, on the other hand, was in heaven! He purred and purred and purred like a diesel engine! This morning he mipped to go out, and we had the usual cat-exchange: Snoopy out, Romeo in. As it was overcast, mine didn’t perform their morning ‘I must get out of this prison’ drama! It’s really annoying, but I’m adamant they don’t go out till after eight. The Mips are exploring farther and farther, and I do NOT want to risk either getting run over in the morning rush-hour traffic! I worry enough about Ziva, especially when she’s late in coming home!

I decided to take a shower this morning, it was quite hot last night – the weather is really flopping between the seasons like a dying fish! One day it’s freezing, the next it’s hot. Anyway, as I started drying myself, Lady Jane comes in crying for attention! I explained that I’m busy, but kept a wary eye on her – and true to form: when I was bent over to dry my hair, she leaped to jump on my back! That could have been more painful, if I hadn’t been expecting it – I straightened up before she was on and she fell on the mat, no claw-action! Only, I banged my knee against the bath. That nearly brought tears to my eyes – I already have quite enough trouble with my knees!

Oh that Lady Mip! She just brought in what looked like just a scrap of plastic. When she lost interest in it, I picked it up – and found it covered with … urgh, I don’t even know what! I threw it away – only to watch Lady Jane bring in another piece of rubbish! Curious, where she could be getting it, I went downstairs to investigate. Turns out, she crawls through the water drain hole in the fence to the neighbours behind me – who seem to just throw their rubbish out of the window into the garden! There’s a whole heap of plastics and … urgh. They throw cigarette butts and empty packs into my garden as well! Anyway, I looked for a large rock with one flat side, so I could place it across the water drain, blocking the hole but not blocking the water flow. Only, there’s a little wall in front of the dividing wall – and Lady Jane can still get through that gap. So, I’ve now blocked that temporarily with small rocks – I’ll have to make another plan, since I’m now blocking the water flow.

They are strange people, those next door neighbours. Fortunately there’s no means of contact between us, since their entrance is in the road behind mine, and between us is that wall, rather than a fence, like between Rose and me. We’ve picked up cigarette butts along that wall before, and now that whole pile of rubbish – though that, at least, is in their own garden. Last night I heard them banging on the wall quite late, not rhythmically (if you know what I mean), just as if they’re throwing a ball against the wall at odd intervals. And stomping footsteps – with a bit of imagination, I could almost pretend I’m in a haunted castle!

I’ve just changed the sheets on my bed, and it was just such a perfect example of how my life has changed, since Ziva came strolling in to stay! Nothing I do is boring, everything I do is watched with excitement and investigated thoroughly! I’ve always got interested company who happily do their best to participate! I water the garden? Mips stick their head under the stream because they want to see those drops falling on the ground! Weeding? Mips will climb over me, when I least expect it – both Mewthos and Lady Jane! Bent over weeding? Lady Jane jumps on my back! Drying my hair after a shower? Yeah … not such a happy ending. Sit in the bath? Mips come strolling over mommy, investigating the water! Changing the bed sheets? Ooh! Lovely! Are we building a fort? Folding laundry? Ooh! Mips sit on the folded pile so I won’t need to iron (not that I ever iron, anyway!). No task is too boring, in their opinion! Between Lady Jane and Mewthos, it’s sometimes a miracle I manage to get any task finished! Washing the floor? Mippies watch, then when I’m done, stroll in to inspect. Vacuuming? I show mommy how brave I is! I sits and watches! Scooping the litter box? Oooh! Nice! Lady Jane will check to see if I did a good job! Ziva tends to do her own thing most of the day, and shows little interest in anything I do. Except when I’m cooking MY dinner, and when I’m eating MY dinner! I already dread the day, when I have to take them somewhere to stay, while I handle the move. I know the separation will be traumatic for them – but being around during the move would be even worse! They are so attached to me, and so afraid of all strangers! I wonder if they’ll ever outgrow their attachment to me, or their excitement over everything I do?

Hmm, my roll of toilet paper is nearing the end again – I could hear Lady Jane unrolling it happily! The look I got, when I rolled it back up and said ‘Not yet!’ just melted my heart, so I gave her an old one with only three of four sheets left on it. Where do I find an old roll of toilet paper? Ha Ha! I know my Lady Jane! So I don’t throw them away, but keep one or two for her as a treat!