I feel the earth move under my feet

So, we just had an earthquake here! According to early reports, it measured 5.something on teh Richter scale, but it didn't feel all that strong. I was sitting in my chair at my desk & just felt a gentle rocking motion. Some of my co-workers are freaking out right now (they need to watch more Discovery channel) but I kinda feel like it's an adventure. The adrenalin is following a little bit, and I'm a teeny tiny bit worried about the kittehs & what they are feeling (Pippin is very sensitive about thunderstorms & such), but all in all - that was FUN! Hey, it could always be a lot worse. Apparently there's also a tornado/thunderstorm watch going on for this area, so perhaps we're all going to hell in a handbasket. I, for one, welcome our new giant ant overlords.....

Story of my life

So I didn't sleep all that well last night (tossed & turned for an undetermined reason), then I was rudely awakened by Pippin coughing up a hair/grass ball at 4.30am. I swear I'm going to put a stop to her going outside, but she just loves it so much it's hard to say no.

Speaking of outside, the garden is going well, with the exception of the peas, which were once again decimated by Mr Basil the Mouse. He is such a little mousy jerk, but he's so cute. We've blocked his mousy hole with rocks & covered the items he likes with generous amounts of black pepper so hopefully he'll go elsewhere. We also bought a green pepper plant (complete with some juvenile peppers) and a tomato plant (since our tomato seedlings didn't make it) so now we're all done & ready to harvest the goodness in a month or so. We also got some very nice bright pink celosias with burgundy leaves for the front garden - Andrew loves them (I think they look like flaky raw fish - blech).

Let's hope this evening brings better sleep, and no hair/grass balls. I could use a good sleep!

Hiding away from the world

I find myself wanting to stay at home & wallow in my own sadness more & more these days. While we've been really busy every weekend, everyone's always asking about the adoption and the lack of referrals lately is making it really hard to talk about it. There's only been 1 referral in the last month & a half, apparently because of increased paperwork requirements on the Ethiopian side. I completely agree with there being increased assurances that birth parents are giving up their children for the "right" reasons, and ensuring they are not being coerced to do so, and it really makes me feel like an awful person to wish that there would be more referrals, because that means more families in Ethiopia are irreparably broken, but I really wish there were more referrals, so we could get closer to being a family.

In other news, we attending the golf tournament this weekend, and it was very very well attended. It's a charity tournament held every year by the family & friends of the son of my mom's best friend, who was died after being burned in an explosion at his workplace. His mom has become very active in workplace safety since then, and the money raised by the golf tournament goes towards specialized sports equipment for physically handicapped children. We always have a great time - Andrew golfs & I sign in the golfers & take the money from the silent auction winners. Good times! Next weekend we're going to see Jon Stewart (Stew-beef!) at the casino. Can't wait!