The last  week has been utterly insane.  Tuesday started with me frantically making a cake for my brother, then forgetting about the time entirely and spending nearly an hour frosting and decorating it.  I'd never decorated a cake before using frosting to write on it, so this was quite an adventure, and lots of fun.  Judging by the smile on Josh's face, I think he enjoyed it (that was the goal).  He's 18 now, and this baffles me.  I remember him when he was a toddler struggling to pronounce my name due that speech impediment that everyone had called Childhood.  This is when I got the nickname "Emmy."  He was trying to call me "Erin Marie" which is my full name, and the name my mother uses when I'm in trouble. 

Wednesday and Thursday were packing and moving out and cleaning (surprisingly easy when carpet isn't involved and the place was old to begin with).  Josh and Mom and I all got quite bruised while moving my items into storage (and her garage), but it's safe to say that Josh was the most injured of all of us.  His leg was impaled by really mean bumper on Mom's truck (I think) and then he bumped his head really hard getting into the truck.

Friday was mostly sleep and arguing with Josh (one last sibling fight for the road, I suppose) and then picking up Steven from the airport and eating a very delicious fish dinner.  Dinner was mahi-mahi, salmon, and beer-battered cod (try using a dark beer, it tastes quite good, although different than if you use the normal lightly-colored beer) along with some cheddar potatoes, ciabatta, and salad with some of my mom's home-grown tomatoes.  Yummy!

Saturday morning was some last minute rearranging of the car and dosing Izzie with some Benadryl, something my well-scratched and punctured arms can attest that she did not enjoy.  She was sufficiently drowsy in the car, although she did cry for the first hour while we kept her in her cage.  She was funny in her timing of crying, though.  She'd quiet down for certain songs and then cry louder for others.  She also cried every time Steven unzipped his CD book.  We finally decided to go ahead let her out, thinking that she might end up being irritating and trying to go nutty while in the car, thereby distracting the driver and causing many dangerous situations, but were proved wrong when she promptly made herself comfortable on top of her cage where she then went to sleep.

We had breakfast at The Place which is a diner in Olympia that's nearby Evergreen and I got to say goodbye to Tyler and Uriah.  Sadly, Jenni had to work so she couldn't be there.  Tyler seemed unusually sad to see me go.  I sort of expected this encounter between Steven and my ex to go rather awkwardly, but I think altogether it wasn't too bad.  They seemed to get along rather well and it was a relatively pleasant experience.

Saturday was the day of lots of driving.  We spent all day in the car and made it from the Puget Sound all the way to Weed, California before deciding that we needed to get a hotel for the night and finish our drive on Sunday.  Steven called around and found a hotel in Corning that welcomed cats and we drove until about 11pm to get there.  The cat was happy to get some food and water and a clean littler box, and equally happy to have her collar off for the evening.

Sunday morning (yesterday), I woke up to breakfast in bed.  Steven had snuck out while I was sleeping to go get coffee and pastries and various types and brought it back along with some orange juice.  The pastries were questionable, as was the coffee, but the whole concept of breakfast in bed makes me unquestionably happy (plus surprised).  We spent most of the day on the road going through very flat terrain that resembled desert with an aqueduct.  We got into town around dinner-time, borrowed a laptop from Kenny (who got to meet the disoriented and unhappy Izzie--although she seemed to really like him despite her grouchy mood).

So I'm in Los Angeles now, enjoying the heat, and having fun watching Izzie explore the apartment.  She hasn't knocked too much stuff off of shelves yet, and has found herself some nice cool hiding places.  Her spider bite has gone down a bit, although now she has some other scabby spot on her chin in a different place and she's sneezing.  I'm not super-worried yet, but I'll give her a few days to adjust and see if she gets better.  Steven has been laughing at the cat all morning because she does such peculiar things.  Aside from her annoying habit of disturbing the fan in the kitchen, she seems to be entertaining Steven quite a lot.

Tonight's plans:  movie?  polenta? world of warcraft?