shroud ourselves in the cosmos; let the music play

1. I might have finally started to like Evanescence. I know I used to be snide about them and the "my clothes are black LIEK MY SSSSSSOOOOOOUUUUULLLLLLL" crowd that was into them when I was in... middle school? high school? but "Bring Me To Life" came on in the car on the way to work and... it clicked for me. Huh. I need to revisit this band.

2. Other Bands I Dig Right Now: Paramore, Franz Ferdinand, Linkin Park (CRAAAAAAAAAAAAWLING IIIIIN MY SKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN hahahaaaaaa -- but also apparently Brad Delson was pretty awesome as the keynote speaker for Commencement 2009 WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN MY CLASS OOPS I BLAME YOU MUSIC ED). Plus I'm still totally into Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Cake. To say nothing of my all-consuming love affair with Muse. I'm definitely going to get The Resistance. Even though my disc drive is broken still/again. (I want to have sex with their songs. It's a little distressing.)

3. I did some detective work about my Pulcinella question and uncovered a bunch of other things about it that didn't match up, so I've turned to the authorities: the conductor and his TA. I anxiously await answers.

4. I talked to Boss about it and she says that the kittens probably do still have fleas (I haven't seen any fleas, on the kittens or elsewhere, but I keep finding flea dirt where they've been sitting). So tonight, the plan is to drive to LB and get some spray for the furniture from my mum (and a more badass vacuum -- I Dirt Devil'd the room last night but it's honestly just too much room (She cannae take any more, Captain!) for a poor little Dirt Devil to handle. Which almost makes me question the capacity of a Roomba to handle it... but then, Roombas are designed for entire rooms. Dirt Devils are designed for small, localized messes, like a knocked-over plant pot, and mine does better on carpet than flooring anyway. In conclusion, Roomba: STILL WANT), and to use the spray and bathe the kittens (a regular bath, with warm water and baby shampoo) either tonight or tomorrow morning, whichever works better logistically. And to launder my bedsheets AGAIN.
Fuck I hate fleas. Nasty little fuckers.

5. The kittens had tapeworms from the fleas. I lived in the same room as the kittens and the fleas all weekend. Presumably, I was bitten by the fleas as well. Should I get checked for tapeworm too??? (Boss says probably not.)

6. Things to get from a petstore, maybe also tonight:
- flea collars (to cut up and put in vacuum bags?)
- safety collars for the kittens to wear (they'll have to be v. small)
- flea medicine (Advantage/Frontline/whatever, the kind where you put the drops on the animal's skin (usu. back of the neck))

7. I made a tentative schedule of my classes for Fall, and what I want to know is, WHY IS EVERYTHING ON MONDAY. WHY. Seriously, Monday will likely begin at 8-fuckin-ayemme with a 4-hour education class, and then in the afternoon, there are four things, two that I have to do and two that I want to do, which overlap with each other variously. And won't end until 10 at night. One of those things is Wind Ensemble (and honestly I'll probably be able to get away with only coming on Wednesdays); another is a chamber music class that I might not want to take anyway, since I only enjoy it about 30% of the time (the other 60% I'm either bored or biting my tongue so I don't dress down my classmates), and the pianist I usually work with is super-swamped and I don't know if she'll take the class either. So I guess that resolves my issue -- I take the required ed. classes and don't worry about the performance classes -- but it's still ridiculous that things are so on top of each other. I'm going to have a conflict with orchestra, too, but it's not as egregious -- I'd only be missing the last hour of rehearsal, one day a week. 5 hours out of 6 is not so terrible, right? (It's certainly better than 2 hours out of 4, but what can you do?)

8. The library is FREEZING. We put a thermometer out in the main room and it is 67 degrees Fahrenheit where I sit. Short Chris said that when he came in this morning it was only 64 degrees, so this is an improvement, but not enough of one -- my fingers are still stiff and a little numb. NB: Google says it's 87 degrees outside. DEAR UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, 20 DEGREES IS A BIG FUCKING DEAL. YOU WANT TO SAVE MONEY? CUT YOUR ENERGY COSTS BY FIXING YOUR GODDAMN THERMOSTAT. I WOULD LIKE TO NOT WORK IN A MEAT LOCKER, KTHX.

9. According to Google, today is the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope! Yay! Accordingly, their logo is all steampunked out. Hee. :)

Flatmate: Maaaaan, the dishwasher smells bad.

For serious. It was all I could do not to say anything about how "it smells like death BECAUSE YOU DON'T RINSE FOOD OFF THINGS BEFORE YOU PUT THEM IN."

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Rich Capparela: We started with Morning Mood, then Aase's Death, Anitra's Dance, and finally, Inna Gadda Davida.

Oh, Classical Music Radio. :) Oh, Grieg.

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The kittens had fleas, so they've been confined to my room all weekend and we've been having frequent Happy Fun Flea Comb Time. They were at the vet today, though, and got all their vaccinations, and a flea bath, and also tapeworm meds, because they had lots of tapeworms because of the fleas. Now they're at home again, and they have the run of the house now that they are free of fleas, and I washed all my bedding this morning, and they're playing chase and scuffling and being adorable and since the tapeworms are gone, now they can get chubby!

Well not too chubby but they won't be so skinny and bony which will be good.

Black kitten might be Dizzy -- he chases his tail a lot!

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( Notes to Self )