lightning bugs

Last night Logan came home from dinner with my parents with a large package of "fireworks." It was actually a bunch of those party poppers that you pull a string, hear a bang and confetti shoots out. It was already after Logan's usual 8pm bedtime, but since it was Friday night and he could sleep in I figured I'd let him have his fun. The three neighbor kids (already in their pajamas) came running over so all five kids were shooting off the party poppers. Tiger Kitten was interested in what they were doing, so I harnessed him up and took him outside.

Tiger wasn't overly thrilled when the kids started covering him in strings of confetti. On the rare occasion he gets to go outside, it's all about hunting. He watches birds and bugs and small mammals. He twitches his tail, cocks his ears and makes a clicking sound in his throat. Last night Tiger discovered lightning bugs. It was one of the funniest, best things I've seen.

Tiger, on harness and leash mind you, would locate the flashing bugs, stalk them and then leap into the air and catch them between his front paws. He then pinned them to the ground. He ate the first one but it must have been nasty, because he shook his head for a while trying to get rid of the taste and then just captured and released the bugs. Tiger caught at least six and would have caught many more, but the kids kept swarming him and delaying his progress. By 9:15 we were all getting eaten by mosquitoes and went inside for the night. Maybe tonight I'll take him out "hunting" without the harness. Too bad it's so dark, it would make hilarious video.

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I love my job and love working with "my" animals, but I've worked so much this month I'm really getting burned out. The entire month of June was just a big flash, with every workday blending into every other, leaving me with no memory of if something happened yesterday or two weeks ago. I was talking to my Big Boss a few days ago, explaining that I hadn't accomplished something because there were almost daily changes in my routine. She looked at me like I was nuts and asked "What daily changes?" I was like, uh, um, well the past three weeks don't count! She laughed in agreement and sent me on my way.

I guess my point is that I need some time off. Time to rest my aching feet and scrubbing arm. Time to spend with my kids. Time to get out of this town and do something fun! I know I'm stressed when I start having major longing for Disney World and the magical escape it provides. Unfortunately, I don't have enough time off to go to Disney, but I do have Thursday through Tuesday off. Gene has Friday through Monday off. We're grabbing the kids and heading out somewhere. Right now, the plan is to go to Chicago and Milwaukee. That's about the 10th plan so it could easily change. I just know I need to relax and get away for a few days!