Brat

Yesterday afternoon I was thinking about how it was Friday night, and since I wouldn't have to get up early to go to work on Saturday, maybe I'd rent a movie. I decided I didn't need to rent one, that I had plenty at home that I could watch, including two new ones. I had taken advantage of the Amazon promotion before Christmas where if you spent over $50 in the apparel store, you got $30 back in bookstore certificates, and I had just spent my $30 on copies of Home Alone--one of my favorite movies--and Grosse Pointe Blank, also a favorite. My "apparel" purchase was a Sak handbag:

Oh, and some underwear for Bob for Christmas. No picture.

Then I remembered that I was supposed to stop at the library and pick up some books that I had requested and that had come in. I've discovered a new (to me) author--Harlan Coben--and I'm working my way through his backlist. The branch of my local library that's closest to me doesn't have the best selection, so I generally just request the titles I want, and they send me an email when they come in.

Speaking of which, Mike Duffy sent me a link to the Library Lookup Project. Basically, you look up your library in one of several lists depending on which system they use (I'm not too clear on the specifics of this, but my library is in the "DRA" list), and if your library is on the list, you drag the link to your toolbar, where it becomes a "bookmarklet." Then, when you're on a bookseller's page, like Amazon.com, you click the bookmarklet and it automatically runs a search on your library's system that tells you whether your library has it in their collection. Pretty cool.

Particularly since I do so much work for writers, I always feel a little guilty when I use the library rather than buying books, but I could never afford to buy all the books I read. I do buy books, of course, but I tend to be pretty discriminating now, and unless I'm getting ready to go on a trip and need some books for that, I try not to buy much fiction and concentrate my book buying dollars on reference books, like knitting books and books about angels that I bought when I was writing my novel.

So what was the point here? Oh yeah. So I thought, well, I've got a stack of new books, I'll probably read.

Then I got the mail, and there was an Amazon box in the mailbox. I hadn't ordered anything that I hadn't received, so it was a mystery. When I opened it, it was a copy of newest expansion pack for The Sims, Unleashed, the one that lets you have pets! It was just recently released for the Mac.

Tish had written about her Sims last week, and she wrote and asked me if I had the new one yet, that it was so much fun to have pets, and it also lets you plant gardens and sell the vegetables, which I thought was pretty cool, too.

I said that I didn't have it yet, that I was waiting until the end of the month when I get my quarterly Amazon commission to buy it, and that I couldn't wait.

Well, Tish decided that I shouldn't have to wait, and bought it for me! And she knew that Bob was out of town, so I'd be able to spend as much time as I wanted playing it. Which is what I did last night. I installed the expansion pack, and immediately went downtown to the pet store, where Bob and Willa selected two female cats to take home with them.

These games are so clever. We went out and bought the cats (which were pretty expensive, actually, something like $300, I think), then took the bus back home, and the cats appear in the status bar just like the other family members, indicating their hunger, their happiness, their bladder capacity, etc.

It didn't occur to me until one of them had urinated on the floor that I might have to buy them a litterbox, so I went into "Buy" mode and looked for one, and there was one in there, so I bought it and the next time one of them had to go, that's where they went.

I also bought some food dishes; I haven't figured out yet if one of the human beings actually has to fill them or not, but when they're hungry, that's where they go.

One of the cutest things is that while I was shopping for the litterbox and food dishes, I also bought a couple of pet beds, and unless they get so exhausted that they fall asleep on the floor, which has happened a couple of times, that's where they sleep.

And there are mice! In the middle of the night, I saw half a dozen little white mice running around in a circle in the bedroom. The little Pyewacket Sim chased them, and actually caught one. Yikes. Apparently the animals have different "career" ladders than the humans, and "hunting" is something they work on.

The actual Pyewacket woke me up this morning at about 7:00 by crying. I heard her, and woke up, and thought, oh, she's playing somewhere, and I turned over. Then I heard her again, and looked around, and she was standing on top of Bob's dresser. There are all kinds of things up there, cologne bottles and shoe brushes and deoderant containers, and she was kind of in the middle of everything, and apparently was afraid to try to get down. Or else she was just pretending to be in order to get some attention.

I wasn't willing to risk it, so I got up and hauled her down and stuck her back in bed. She's a little brat when Bob's not here. Well, she's a little brat all the time, but she's worse when he's gone.