little milestones

Little milestones hit today....

Matt and I officially made our first 2 open water scuba dives ever! We woke up at 6am to get ready for and meet our class up at the Mukilteo Ferry Dock to go diving at 8am. Fortunately, the weather was perfect--that is, little wind, sun, no rain, currents good. And, much to my surprise, I was not cold whatsoever in the wet suit! I've been dreading the idea of freezing my butt off in the Puget Sound this weekend, but I remained rather comfortable for both of the dives! It was only near the end of the first dive that my toes started getting a bit cold, but otherwise, it wasn't bad! I can't believe I was in the water of the Puget Sound this morning. We saw some neat stuff--lots of crabs, baby jellyfish and really interesting starfish. I even saw a toilet at the bottom--ha! Two more dives tomorrow and we'll be officially certified as basic divers! Yee haw! I should note that one of the reasons we're getting certified is so that we can honeymoon somewhere tropical and go diving...so we're getting interested in places like Belize now....

Matt caught Zuki using Misha's litterbox. Last week I caught Misha using Zuki's litterbox. Know what this means? The cats can share a litterbox! So we got rid of the one in the main bathroom upstairs (thank god) and hope that a single litterbox household will work for the 2 cats! What else is cool---we've noticed that they are willing to eat out of the same food bowl, by virtue of the two of them constantly eating in the other's bowl. Sadly, we need to keep their food separate due to special dietary needs for Zuki....but hey, we're psyched. We really thought we'd need to keep two litterboxes around for the cats.

I finally switched to Vonage.

i heart spinach

When will the spinach fiasco be over? I, for one, love spinach. It's the one green veggie that I'll throw into anything--salads, as a side, in my sandwich, in my pasta. So it really bums me out that I'm banned from spinach right now. Okay, I just had to say that.

That time of year when the seasons change.....

It's gone from sunny days in Seattle to consistent greyness and rain. And with that, the temperatures drop and my body goes "bye bye". I caught a sinus cold over the weekend and am staying home from work today (took yesterday off too). I'll hopefully be better by tomorrow as I'm missing a lot at work! Ack. Just the stress of what I need to catch up to gets to me. Of course, hanging in a pool for 2-3 hours on Saturday and Sunday learning scuba diving probably didn't help me ward off the sinus cold. I probably didn't realize I had the cold until Sunday-ish...and by Sunday evening, my body had gone to kaput.

So scuba diving's been fun. Matt and I are taking a course that takes place over 2 weekends. Next weekend, we take our final exam and then hit the cold open waters of the Puget Sound up near Mukilteo. This last weekend was intense as we spent all Friday evening and most of Saturday and Sunday in class or in the pool learning our training moves. We've learned rescue swimming, sharing regulators, putting your weight belt on in the water, removing your BC and putting it back on in the water and general buoyancy. There was a swim qualification test on Saturday which I feared doing as I really don't know much about swimming--I get by and can float. Fortunately, I passed: we had to swim 4 laps (back & forth, back & forth), then tread water for 10 minutes and finally swim underwater holding our breath for 50 feet. I'm so excited! Our goal is to head somewhere tropical for our honeymoon and go diving.

Anyhoo, time to go downstairs and take some Sudafed...

Quick update...

It's been about 2 weeks since Matt's moved in and the place is surprisingly clutter-free, mainly due to a surprise visit by my parents, grandmother and auntie this week (in reality, the clutter all moved to closets or side areas). Zuki is out of the bathroom (she's actually sitting in the closet currently) and the cats seem to be...faring better than we would've expected. Misha's been incredibly patient and just curious, always wanting to play with Zuki. Zuki's growls, hisses and occasional swats don't seem to faze Misha at all which is good. For now, they "deal" with each other.

Matt and I started taking a beginner open water scuba diving class last night--it's a 2 weekend course and is so exciting! Our goal is to book a honeymoon somewhere around ocean and dive sites. On our first night of the course, we hit the pool after about 2 hours of instruction--it was so fun learning various things in the pool such as buoyancy and getting water out of your mask.

Zuki hiding in the cubby

With Misha on guard outside the bathroom door all the time, Zuki's hiding in the cubby...

Misha sniffin' Zuki

Oh, he's curious all right.

Moving in together...

Today is it. Matt is officially moved into my place--there are boxes everywhere and clothes waiting to be hung (I've been bad and unable to figure out how to clear my closets of my own clothes). We're going to be spending this Labor Day weekend unpacking and getting his stuff settled in. Whew. Big step for me as I've never lived with a significant other ever--of course, he's my fiance so there was no question after we got engaged that we wanted to co-habitate as soon as possible. Personally, I'm super psyched. Married friends of mine always talk about how much it helped to live together prior to getting married.

But you know what I'm scared of? The only thing. Having Matt's cat, Zuki, meet my cat, Misha. I've been researching this and have even talked to my vet---and for at least the first week or two, we're lockin' Zuki up in the upstairs bathroom. I know it sounds cruel---but everyone says that the new cat needs a safe room. The cats will have an opportunity to smell each other which is the most important thing. [sigh] I hope this goes well! Matt is packing up the last of his stuff as I type this---and Zuki is the last thing he's bringing over. Let's see how it goes!