I totally took a break from posting—without warning. I hope you’ve mused in your head over what I’ve been doing otherwise.

Was I doing…

1. Housework — because there is no such thing as ‘too clean’
2. Writing my memoir — you should read all I’ve experienced at the age of twenty-seven!
3. Lounging about — it’s been so hot lately
4. Designing websites — there’s a lull in work and then all of a sudden WHAM! you’ve got clients
5. Embroidering greeting cards — combining my love of embroidery with my love of office supplies? DANGER!
6. Cutting my hair — on my own
7. Learning the true meaning of CrackBerry — QWERTY how I love thee
8. Knitting — those three storage containers of yarn ain’t gonna knit and purl themselves
9. Reviewing and editing photos from our vacation — and all the other events since
10. Hob-knobbing with local bigwigs — I am getting CONNECTED!

Consider this a quiz.

Leaving for vacation knowing Wilson was roaming the neighborhoods put a damper on my overall excitement. I’d think of him every now and then, and force myself to think about something else.

Thursday we got a call from our friend John who, along with his wife Katie, was checking in on Cleo through the week for us. He asked me if I knew someone named Esther; I said yes, and he said she had left a note on our door saying she found Wilson and was keeping him at her place. Holy shit was I ever so happy.

We got home in the early evening Saturday but Esther wasn’t home yet. When she did get home, we went over to retrieve Wilson. She said he had been pawing at her back door, evidently confused as to which door was his. She scooped him up and took him inside, bought him some food and made a make-shift litter box. When we went in her house Wilson wouldn’t come when called, which wasn’t too surprising as cats usually freak out when in a new environment. Esther said his favorite place was under the sofa, so she moved the couch and pulled him out.

Poor Wilson was so freaked out. I took him from Esther and noticed he must have lost at least a pound or two. He smelled me, smelled my arm, then nestled against me and started purring and licking me. His paws were slightly dirty, but there weren’t any cuts or other noticeable injuries.

We thanked Esther a thousand times, then took Wilson back to our place. We put him down at the base of the stairs so that he could acclimate himself and wonder the house on his own. Cleo came down to see who was home and Wilson freaked the fuck out. He started hissing and growling at Cleo and ran into the kitchen.

For the past couple days he and Cleo have not been getting along. He’s the instigator, immediately growling at her when he sees her. Cleo couldn’t give a shit less, though. I’m not sure if he’s just needing some time to readjust, or if he thinks he’s going to gain a step up in the hierarchy. Unfortunately for Wilson, Cleo is not budging as top cat.

Here are some shots The Partner got of Wilson his first evening back home:

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Tomorrow (Saturday 21st) The Partner and I leave our humble abode (rather fretfully) for the fresh air and cool waters of quite-northern (but not U.P.-northern) Michigan. If my hand were Michigan, we’d be up in between the pinkie and the ring finger:

Should I mention we’ll be spending an entire week in a house with (almost) my entire family?

While I’m taking a laptop and the house we’re renting is both wired and wireless, I’m not planning on updating much. I will, however, be taking plenty of pictures.

I’ll see you in one week.

Wilson (aka Will Dawg, aka Big Kitteh Style), my most favorite cat, got out the other night and hasn’t been seen since. We’ve notified friends, neighbors, the local shelter, and posted flyers. But there are so many neighborhoods; he could be anywhere.

The bad thing about this is that we’re leaving this Saturday for a week-long vacation.

I’m terribly sad.

UPDATE: Wilson was found!

When I switched to WordPress from Movable Type a few years back I was intimidated by WP’s use of PHP and the thought of learning a new set of template tags. Fortunately, there are some really great WordPress themes out there—and I should know because I’ve been bouncing around the most popular of them for the last two years.

My needs and aesthetics have changed and morphed; recently my eyes have been catching on minimalist themes. I started thinking about what I really wanted and how it should look. So I learned some PHP and WordPress template tags are now among my list of friends. I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but I think I’m a few feet over the novice line.

I call this theme Educed, mostly because it’s taken the kindness and sharing of others in the WP community to make it happen. WPDesigner’s tutorial, So you want to create a WordPress theme, huh?, really helped explain the code.

It’s a good foundation for me as I’ll be able to add any features I may come to want and, at the very least, makes for a fun playground.