I have a kitten.

I have a kitten.

Although, to be perfectly honest, The Kitten belongs to my roommate. Minnie (the name of The Kitten) is a little less than a year old, so as a result, she loves to stay up late at night with me, and sleep through most of the day. As a result, I feel like I do have to take some ownership in the cat.

So, yes, I have a kitten. By continually repeating this statement, it invokes in my mind the beautiful "I have a dream" speech by Martin Luther King Jr. However, The Kitten is more like a consistent, nagging nightmare.

Don't be fooled by how cute she is in the photos I've attached - she is vicious. Lately, her favorite thing to do is to bite and scratch at my toes while I'm playing Starcraft 2 in the living room. This is doubly annoying, since 1) it messes up where I am in the game and 2) the little effer has sharp teeth. She managed to draw blood the last time she bit. What a savage!

Beyond biting at my feet, she also likes to dig her claws in whenever I try to move her from someplace she's not supposed to be. You know, like on my laptop computer. The other week I got a nice gash in my thigh for my efforts. She also likes to do cute things like climbing on top of the couch, jumping on my shoulder, and then clawing at my ear.

Lately, she has also taken to biting the computer cord to my Macbook. On one hand, a dark part of me kind of wants to see what would happen if she bit through it. But, this probably wouldn't go over well with the roommate, and besides, it still is just a cat. (We're both hoping she mellows out as she gets older, which is what happened with my roommate's other cat, Cleo, who is now six or seven years old.) I'm probably going to look into some Apple Bitter or another, similar product to get her to knock it off.

Speaking of the other cat, The Kitten LOVES to chase her. By "chase", I mean that she will try to chase Cleo, who will then hiss at her and smack her in the face. Even though Cleo doesn't have front claws, she's a bit bigger, and just generally more intimidating than The Kitten, who can't meow, just purr.

So anyway. That's the story of me and The Kitten. I'll be back to the regular entries on Baggage on Monday, and switching back to the more normal Monday-Wednesday-Friday production schedule for the game for the rest of the month, hopefully. Lates!

Steve 1, Bookcase 1

The other day, I was having a horrible time constructing this cheap, $25 five-shelf bookcase that I got from Walmart. For an example of this wonderful product, you can check it out here, since I'm sure you're so psyched to get one after hearing my description. When I got it home, I noted that some of the wood was a bit split, but it still seemed sturdy enough to construct.

Two days and about three hours later, I have finally triumphed. Ugh. When it comes to construction, I have two right thumbs. (I say right instead of left because I'm left-handed.) You can now see the glorious product as it sits in my room:


I'm doing my best to slowly fill it with stuff, making sure to put the heaviest stuff on the bottom to serve as an anchor of sorts.


The tippy-top just has a Red Sox World Series hat, followed by empty N64 boxes on the top shelf, Playstation 2 and Jaguar and NES cases on the second shelf, miscellaneous crap on the middle one, and books on the fourth and base shelves. I still have about half a dozen boxes to go through, at which point the whole case will probably be full. I still haven't really touched my movie DVDs, which are going on a separate three-shelf case in the living room. However, it feels good to be productive and to unpack all of my stuff, finally, after three weeks of living in this apartment.

(Note: This is only for me to be leaving for business on Sunday night, but that post will have to wait until Saturday afternoon, officially. CLIFFHANGER!)

Today, on Martha Stewart Living - Capturing giant spiders.

I live out in the country. If you want a nice aerial view of my house, you can type in the address - 657 Dry Bridge Road, 02852. See the stuff to the North, and the Northwest? Those are giant farms, and to the South, you can see forest. We've been advised by the neighbors to NEVER let the cats out of the house, since they've been domesticated now, and there are all sort of creatures - coyotes, foxes, skunks, deer, even bears - lurking out there.

For the most part, living out here is really nice. There is a pleasant breeze off the fields, and the critters stay hidden during the day, which is the only time I could see them. However, all the animals and plants do attract something else:


I found this little bastard scurrying across the floor this morning, after I awoke from an impromptu nap. Sure, I've seen bigger at my old house, but that was DEEP in the woods. And this wasn't the first one I've seen - There were about five just hanging out in the kitchen when we moved in, plus one or two in each of the four closets, plus a couple in each of the two bathrooms. And you don't even want to venture into the basement, which was destroyed by the last tenants, and is full of cobwebs and holes and a musty smell.

Sooo, anyway. That little guy? I trapped him under a pint glass as he scurried across the floor. I'm undecided if I'm going to kill him, or let one of the cats. Cleo, who is the older, better behaved cat that I don't photograph as much because she is older and better behaved, has had her eye on it the entire day. I think I will indulge her and let her do the deed, and then toss the spider in the trash.

Pictures from the new apartment, and friend me on Facebook.

So, I've sprinkled a few photos from the new apartment into this entry. Above is my room's closet, which you'll note is incredibly messy right now. My junk is scattered all over the plus, because I'm still moving some stuff from my parents' house to the new place. However, there is a TON of space in them, since they span the entire wall. Once I (finally) have everything moved over, I'll start to sort it a bit more thoroughly. As of right now, the only thing I have out is my laptop.

To the right, please admire my bed, my stuffed animals, and a few other things. For example, I have a wonderful and glorious towel with ducks on it, which is spread out over my clothes hamper. Please, try to hold your applause. To the left is a crock pot, which is on top of a cabinet I use to store really old video game stuff, and speaking of that, there is a Gamecube and Guitar Hero: World Tour box also visible in the picture. (Note: As usual, you can click the photo to see the full-size version.)

Anyway, if you want to see a couple more shots from the glorious apartment, feel free to add me on Facebook. I realize that I haven't hyped up my account in a while, but I don't mind new friends on there. You can then see other glorious photos of me, such as my sweaty head and gut at a volleyball tournament, and a variety of shots of me at Casey's, a local bar. I'm Stephen Greenwell, URI 2007.

(p.s. That character to the right is Cleo the Cat, who likes to headbutt me until I pet her, and then when I pet her, she turns away, but when I stop, she headbutts me again. Cats are confusing creatures.)

Steve hates moving, edition 10.

I hate moving.

While the new place is always something I've looked forward to, it doesn't change the fact that the actual process to moving is always a horrible, horrible thing. Every time I'm about to move, I promise myself that this time, it'll be different and easier, but this is seldom the case.

I was actually semi-good for me this time. We got permission to move into our new place on Wednesday, a couple days earlier than what I thought, which was Saturday. So, I moved a couple boxes over Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

However, despite this early progress, I'm still left with a whole bunch of crap. Sigh. At least it is a bearable 77 degrees, as opposed to my past couple of moves, which were in 90-degree heat. (Note: That type of stupid coincidence takes more than dumb luck. Rhode Island doesn't get 90-degree heat EVERY summer, yet the last three moves I had done, it was that hot each day. I have a talent for planning important things on bad days.)

Anyway, I think I have two trips left, and then I'll be completely moved out. Wish me well, folks!

The picture is from this site that tries to hook up geeks with women. Oh sweet irony!

Restaurant Review: Seven Moons

So tonight, I'm hitting up Seven Moons with my friend Becca. As a result, I'm kind of half-butting this entry off the top of my head right now, before I go. (As a reminder, entries are time delayed; I don't actually type them all up right before 7 p.m.) I'll have another entry today about the awesome episode of Community that was on this week, and the other Thursday night shows I watch, The Office and Parks and Recreation.

Anyway, Seven Moons is the best restaurant of one type of Asian food - Good food. This is in contrast from places like Chen's, Bali Village and New Dragon, which tend to have cheaper food in greater quantities. In contrast, Seven Moons has sushi and tempura and other better, higher-quality food.