Here we were hoping to finish work early and have a little extra time for other stuff, but Negima! is not so kind. Good thing we were planning to have a regular-length workday. And at least today we actually found all the flashbacks we had to look for. (But we still didn't find the ones we were trying to find yesterday.)

And wow, I think almost all our news is related to Negima! or cats. Last night, we had an interesting situation where Page joined me on my bed to read some manga, but Oreo was under Athena's bed and feeling very grumpy, so if she so much as set foot on the floor, he would start growling. And then we very cruelly left the room to play Kingdom Hearts, thus trapping Page on the top bunk. I was actually kind of looking forward to going back into our room and seeing her still there (I can be such a sadist; but it is a comfy bed, in my opinion).

Before we finished playing video games, we heard some growling, so I figured Page had decided she was tired enough of my bed to attempt leaving it. But when we got back to our room, not only was Page still on my bed, but Oreo was out in plain sight! Yay! (We get very excited when Oreo is somewhere that can be considered "not hiding" these days.) It did lead to some very interesting moments when Page did finally come down from my bed, but we consider it Progress.

Unfortunately, the doctor had warned us that stress might cause some of Oreo's symptoms to return. And not only that, but we happened to catch a weather report that said that the temperature would be dropping with the incoming storm, and that always aggravates Oreo's sensitive tummy. So Oreo's symptoms have returned, to the extent that we are now waiting for the vet to call back and let us know if we should start medicating him again.

Changing the subject to Page, we've mentioned all the cute, fun little things she does, but she does have a Dark Side (dun dun DUN!). She'll be sitting on your lap, all cuddly and cute, when suddenly! CHOMP! she decides it's time to gnaw on your arm. Actually, we think that's cute and fun, too, because despite the vicious look on her face, she's been very careful not to bite too hard or scratch. But lately, she's been getting more ferocious. I was petting her this morning, and she started chomping on my hand, and then I nuzzled my face against her and she started chomping my head, and then I got up to leave and she started chomping my knee. And she's biting harder! I have little marks all over my hand now. Maybe the stress is getting to her, too.

Today I'm thankful for kitties not biting too hard, kitties who don't bite at all, finally finishing that script, the adorableness of a cat attacking a syringe (needle-less, of course), having more time to read manga than I thought we would, and proper use of "between him and me" on Castle last night.

Having a difficult time focusing today. Negima! is taking... about as long as we expected to proofread, but we were hoping it would go quicker. A huge part of our problem is that we spent... I'd say an hour, total, searching for lines that were flashed back to, only to find that those lines either don't exist or the translations of them were changed drastically enough to wipe them out. So we appealed to the fanboys on Twitter for help and they failed. Boo. Maybe we don't have enough fanboys.

Anyway. Speaking of journal writing, I found an old journal of mine while cleaning today. I started it when I was twelve, and man it's crazy. Thinking about it, I think I'm a much better writer now, but then I think about it again and I'm like, "Hmm, maybe not so much." Ah well. (I have not yet determined if it's the one with the picture of a walkman, but I did draw "watermarks" behind a bunch of entries.)

On the kitty front, Page seems to have finally at least learned that if Oreo growls at her, it's time to walk away. This helps keep our blood pressure down, and we like it. We almost coaxed Oreo out of the pantry yesterday, too, so I think we're making progress. When Oreo finally learns that Page isn't trying to kill him, then I think we'll be in business. It's ironic (and I think it really is this time), because they only try to hurt each other because they're so convinced that the other one is trying to hurt them. Life as a cat: simple but hard.

Today I'm thankful for still having old journals, the brilliant recreation of the famous scene from Lady and the Tramp at the dog park (part of one of the bonus features on the Lady and the Tramp DVD), the very yummy Baked! Ruffles we had earlier, the highlighted bits that didn't take us forever to fix in Negima!, and Oreo almost coming out of the pantry.

Today in sacrament meeting, we heard another story about how prayer works as illustrated by a lost item being found after a prayer. The formula goes like this: something gets lost, they look all over for it, they finally think to say a prayer asking for help finding it, a thought inspires them, and they find the thing (this time it was a pair of glasses that accidentally got tossed in with the weeds while doing yard work). Actually, we heard a really cool variation on this story once when we were talking to Gaston. This one is a little different, though.

When Gaston was on his mission in Germany, there was a woman there who just had the most amazing faith he had ever seen. She was an immigrant from China, and one day her purse got stolen. This was Very Very Bad, because her purse had some very important papers in it that she needed to turn in or get deported (or something like that). So the first thing she does is call the missionaries and ask them to say a prayer with her to help her find her purse. They come over, and after the prayer, she thanks them and says they can go. Gaston and his companion were a little confused--should they help her look for it or something? No, they had done enough, things would be fine. The next morning, she opened her front door, and there was her purse on the step. Wow.

Anyway. While of course it's very good that the Lord will help us find things if we ask Him, we thought it's also important to know that the Lord answers prayers about other things, too. So I wanted to share my story about a prayer that was answered. It happened long ago, when we were in eighth grade. (Of course, we've had help from the Lord through prayer many many times since then, but this one sticks out in my mind because it's the first time I really paid attention.)

I think it was about half of the eighth grade at our school that had an oceanography field trip. We all went to Dana Point where they would give us lectures at their oceanography center place thing, and then we'd go out on a boat to like, scoop up some fish in a net, and, if we were lucky, do some whale watching. I don't remember all the details, but I do remember being very excited. The night before, I prayed that I'd have a really good day.

The next day, we had an awesome field trip! Tadah! Okay, so obviously it was going to be pretty awesome anyway, because oceanography is fun. But first, even though Athena and I were in different classes, we ended up in the same group somehow. And then, when we were on the boat, off in the distance, we spotted some really rare dolphins. I don't remember what the boat people were calling them, but the only thing that comes close on the Wikipedia list of dolphins is Risso's dolphins.

The sad thing about it is that those dolphins are anti-social, and we didn't get to see them up close. But! soon afterward we ran into a big pod of common dolphins, which are not only among the cutest dolphins ever, but they are very excited to come say hi to boats. So they came and swam with us for a while, and they seemed to want to show off, like who could jump higher and stuff, because they were doing all kinds of tricks. It was such a great experience. And they came and swam with us again on our way back to the beach. (Incidentally, common dolphins are also the kind you ride in the video game Battle of Olympus after you get the ocarina from Poseidon.)

And that's my story about prayer. It doesn't have to be a big thing, but the Lord does answer our prayers with a yes many times.

Today I'm thankful for common dolphins (suddenly I miss them...), awesome field trips, fun video games about Greek mythology, Oreo coming out of hiding briefly, and oceanography.

Today has been a manga-reading kind of day. Actually, the weather is incredibly suited to video games, but sometimes, you have to read manga. And reading Tears of a Lamb has really got me thinking about the importance of journals. I mean, what if you suddenly lost all your memories, and you were the only one that had them? The only way to ever know them again (before the Millennium) would be to have written them down.

On the one hand, we have this Live Journal, and we do post in it every day. But on the other hand, due to confidentiality and other such things, we don't always write everything that's going on. So I guess it's time to pull out the pretty little journals we bought back in college and start writing in them. Man, we keep adding things to our to-do list. First we decide we need to keep our apartment tidy, now journals. And we still haven't gotten around to reading more! Because we got Kingdom Hearts. But we're almost to a point with that where we won't be as anxious to get to it. Maybe. Oh Square-Enix, they're good at owning your soul.

We also realized, translating Negima!, that maybe we don't watch enough TV. Like, they're talking about having a meeting where they report everything they found, and we're like, "What do we call that in English!? I know there's a term for it! WHAT IS IT!?!?!?" Okay, so maybe it wasn't that dramatic, but still. (Incidentally, we went with debriefing. Is that accurate? 'Cause we still have time to change it if it's not. I kind of feel like a failure as a translator for this, but I'll get over it.) Theoretically, Athena points out, reading (already on the list) would help with that, too, but that's if we had any books written in the last century. Since we already have a TV (with cable and everything!), that would be a lot more suited to our current financial situation. And with TV, we'll also have time to knit! Two birds, one stone. Unless we're watching something we want to, like, watch. And not look away from.

Changing the subject, this morning Page did the most adorable thing. We let her out of prison, but we weren't ready to get out of bed yet, so I was still lying there when she came up onto my bed. She put one paw behind my head and nuzzled my face, like she was giving me a hug! ♥♥♥!! And that's even after the Stern Talking To that I had to give her last night after attacking Oreo. I'm still worried that Oreo thinks I betrayed him for not stopping her. I was watching the whole time, but I failed to distract her and didn't think, "Hey, maybe I should pick her up and carry her away." Not cool. I will have to be much more careful in the future.

Today I'm thankful for having manga to read today, not having to go out in the rain (though it is lovely), already having journals to write in (so we don't have to buy new ones), having time to knit last night while we watched Supernanny, and freshly vacuumed carpets.

Shockingly, this volume of Negima actually did not have a single lexicon entry. Wao! Although there was a very short spell that we wish had been mentioned in a lexicon... We need it spelled out for us! Aaaah ha ha... No, seriously, we wish we knew how it was spelled.

Anyway, I think the main story text makes up for the lack of lexicon, though. We started proofreading today and it's taking a pretty long time. We kind of knew it would though, because a good deal of the time we spent with it on the first run through had me thinking, "Terrible! It sounds terrible!" But our primary focus was to move along in case context helped. Sometimes we have to just forge ahead, or we spend like twenty minutes trying to figure out how to make something sound good, while in the back of our minds we're thinking, "Oh my goodness, we have this entire book to get through and it's all going to be like this!"

Page just came into the room, having left a staring contest with Oreo, and immediately went to check under the bed to make sure he wasn't there. I informed her this morning that Oreo does not, in fact, have magic teleportation powers, but I guess she can't be too sure.

Will Finn's latest blog entry is pretty fascinating, so I thought I'd share it.

Thoughts are kind of disjointed today. I was thinking about maybe talking about this Carl's Jr. commercial they've been showing, but lately I've been noticing my penchant for pointing out faults and thinking I should cut back. But if I put it this way, it won't be so bad, maybe... Okay, so the commercial has a bunch of guys at a diner, and the waitress comes up and gives everyone their manly burgers, except for the one guy who ordered a grilled cheese sandwich. But they only had those on the kids' menu, so it came with a coloring book and crayons, and the waitress was very condescending as she handed him all his stuff. And the girls at the other table were like, "Ew, what's with that guy?"

Now, as for us, personally, we would have just owned it. Not only would we have owned it, we would have been excited. Like, "Yes! Look at this coloring book!" And we might have even started coloring before we started eating. And it wouldn't have been an act either, because being a kid is way more fun than being a boring adult. Really, we think the grilled cheese guy got the better end of the deal, except that maybe his sandwich would be less filling than everyone else's. But! he got cookies!! None of the other guys got cookies.

So yes. Kids' menus are fun. We'd probably order them from Disneyland more often if we didn't want the grown-up food more (the cookies come separately anyway). They come with cute little boxes with the characters on them! ...which would be kind of hard to carry around all day. That's another reason we never get them. But they are adorable. ...Now I want to go to Disneyland. (As if that's anything new.)

Today I'm thankful for no lexicon entries in Negima! 28, lexicon entries and their helpful spellings of spells (ah ha ha), coloring books, Queen Berry ice cream (it may be fictional, but it's SO CUTE!), and figuring out what the heck Akamatsu was talking about in the cover flap to this volume.

I started writing a post that was a poor attempt at rambling and I didn't like it, so we deleted it and were going to go do something else in the hopes that it would be easier to write a post later. But on our way to the living room, we discovered that Oreo had emerged from his hiding place and was on his way into the bedroom, perhaps to the litter closet. And since Page is also in the bedroom, we figured we should come back in case mediation (or incarceration) was required.

Page seems to have mostly figured out that she really doesn't want to play with Oreo after all. ...And when I put it that way, it sounds kind of sad. Aww. But I think as far as maintaining the peace, it's better for her to keep her distance until such time as he stops growling every time he sees her. Actually, the other day, she approached him twice! and he just watched her silently until she walked away. That was pretty nice.

Now Oreo has made it safely out of the bedroom, but Page followed him. That's why I say she "mostly" figured out to stay away from him. Oh well.

...And they just got into a fight. Page has now been incarcerated.

Today I'm thankful for being able to get quarters at the apartment office, the Negima OADs finally having a voice for Rakan, our choice to risk listening to Disney music while working not being too detrimental (though it did remind me how much we need to get Snow White on Blu-ray), finally finding our Disney's Greatest Hits volume one after a year of it being in hiding sort of, and Disney music (so I'm not feeling very original today).

First, the Disney Parks blog posted a neat video about what goes on after hours, so we thought we'd share: http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2010/02/magic-a-24-hour-operation/

It also seems that Disney Animation has started some kind of plot involving linking videos to classic Disney shorts once a day or so. Here's today's. They used to show cartoons like these all the time on the Disney Channel, back when it was cool. Ah, memories.

In other news, Page has decided to be a brat, and so she is locked up. Wait, I guess that's not really new. Anyway, this morning, Oreo decided to brave the wide apartment to get some breakfast when Page was comfortably sitting on the couch. Athena went to lock Page up, but she looked so comfortable, Athena decided to let her be. It wasn't long, however, before Page decided she needed to relinquish her comfort in order to keep a close eye on Oreo. We would hear the occasional growl, as they monitored each other, but we've decided to adopt a more hands-off approach, because if we intervene every time, they'll never learn to solve their own problems.

It was when Oreo slinked back into our room to get to the litter closet, and Page slinked in right behind him, that we decided to give Oreo a break and lock her up. Later, Oreo had established himself in the linen closet, so we decided to let Page out. The first thing she did was check under the bed to make sure he wasn't there, I guess, and then she sat on my lap for a while until she got bored. She went off to explore, and it wasn't long before we heard hissing. Athena went out to break them up, but Page left on her own, so Athena settled with a warning--one more sound from Oreo and Page would be back in the spare bedroom.

A while later, we heard a groan from Oreo. But upon inspection, Page was being very careful to avoid him as she made her own way to the litter closet, so we let her off the hook. Then she had to go to every room in the house, for some inexplicable reason. The linen closet happens to be positioned such that she would have to walk by it to get from any room to any other room (kind of), so we're not sure if she's genuinely exploring because she can't decide where she wants to go, or if she's putting on an act so she has an excuse to torment Oreo. We made an executive decision that she really needs to just settle down, and chose a spot for her. In the spare bedroom. With the door closed.

It's really very cute in a slightly exasperating way.

Today I'm thankful for no cat fights despite Page's constant pestering, easy access to classic Disney cartoons, the yumminess of those chocolate-covered peanut butter sandwich pretzels, Oreo being very friendly while we were cleaning today, and finding the prize pots in Enchanted Dominion.

Today has been a long work day. It's hard going straight to something like Negima! right after translating something like Higurashi. Ah well, our other option was Happy Cafe, which isn't much better.

Let's see... I was thinking I'd talk about Japanese on Twitter, but now it suddenly doesn't seem as interesting anymore. The main thing is, since we discovered that Hakusensha is on Twitter, we started following them and realized that you can fit a lot more Japanese into 140 characters than you can English. Recently, we decided to see if there were any seiyuu on Twitter, and we discovered a feed that basically tweets the beginning of just about every seiyuu blog entry as it's made. And since you can fit a ton of Japanese into one tweet, suddenly, our feed is jam packed! Apparently it snowed in Tokyo a couple of days ago. It was really cute because just about every seiyuu with a blog came on to post about it.

Other than that... really just Kingdom Hearts. We're very impatient to play it today, which is why we were so frustrated that work took so long.

I was also thinking last night that I'm not so sure about the use of the word "ironic" in Castle. Watchers of the show know that Castle gets upset when people misuse the word, and last night, they reran the first episode where this pet peeve shows up. ( I guess this could be considered spoilery. )

...And Page just tried to use my leg to sharpen her claws. Thanks, Page.

Anyway, I just needed to talk (type) that out, make sure I was understanding things the way I thought I was.

Today I'm thankful for kitties being kind enough not to shred my leg even when using it as a scratching post, getting groceries last night, having ice cream, peanut butter and chocolate pretzel sandwiches, and remembering that pack of Hi-Chew we still need to eat.

We're living on the edge today and eating Pringles that are past their expiration date. That's right, Athena decided to go through the pantry today and get rid of stuff that was expired. She discovered an entire Pringles can that hadn't been opened, and we love Pringles so much that is seemed a shame to just toss them. In fact, we're wondering how in the world we had a can that didn't get opened. We suspect it was purchased for Celeste back when she was living with us and she just didn't ever get to it. This would be an amazing find if it was still before the "best by" date. Anyway, neither of us has gotten sick yet.

We're also living on the edge today by not keeping the cats separated. Last night, Athena decided if we keep separating the cats every time things show the slightest hint of getting dangerous, Page might decide we'll step in to save the day and she can do whatever she wants. So when she jumped on Oreo last night and he ran her out of his hiding place, we got close enough to make sure they weren't killing each other, and then just let them stare each other down until they were done. And so our day has been frequently accompanied by the sound of cats growling at each other. But Oreo has been out in plain sight more often, and that makes us happy.

We decided that we're making good enough time on our schedule that it's okay to stop work for the day, and instead we've been taking care of other important but not job-related items. We started writing a column, even! Tomorrow we have to decide if we're going to work on Negima! or Happy Cafe, but I think Negima! wins because its official deadline is sooner (by about three days). We got the book today and were delighted to discover that there is no lexicon in the back! Woohoo! On the other hand, earlier volumes have been known to have lexicon entries on the pages between chapters, so we can't rejoice too much yet. Also, this volume has an interview, which could be better or worse than a lexicon. We won't know until we get to it.

Well, I guess we should stop stalling and get back to that column. Today I'm thankful for surprise Pringles, getting books to translate today, our new policy of cleaning fifteen minutes a day (except on Sunday), no lexicon in the back of Negima! 28 (even if there are lexicon entries between pages, at least we'll get them out of the way sooner), and Oreo being out in the open more often.

Wow, today turned out to be long. I think today illustrated how high-strung we've been all week without really noticing. It didn't become evident until I realized how difficult it was to contain my annoyance during the first hour of church. It probably didn't help that the choir sang today, so we were there early for a rehearsal that we found less than satisfactory. Fortunately, we have a lovely temple prep class that calmed us down considerably, and by the time the choir rehearsed again (we're singing again in two weeks), then we were back to the point of merely being the annoying little girls in the back who wouldn't shut up (though in our defense, the director told us to sit in the back row). I was in a good enough mood to remember how good it is to just sing, even if we're not really sopranos.

(I have designated us "pseudo sopranos" (as opposed to mezzo). We got to talk to Brother H about it afterward (he's in the choir, too, and used to direct it in his ward before joining the bishopric in ours), and he was sympathetic. He reminded us of the common choir jokes that altos are just lazy sopranos and sopranos are altos who can't read music. Bwa ha ha.)

Right, temple prep. ( Why we're taking temple prep. )

After church, we went to Mom's for dinner and we were very sneaky and brought UP along. And told everyone we had it, including Scott and Kimee, who were then very excited about watching it. Ha! Now they couldn't refuse! We didn't even have to bribe them to vote with us (that was one of our sneaky plots, but we forgot to bring the cash, so it's good we didn't need it). And everyone enjoyed it thoroughly, but I think it made Mom bitter about men being scum these days. Can't say as I blame her; she's seen and been through a lot.

In the middle of UP we took an intermission for Steve and Scott to go home teaching while the girls stayed and watched Aurora's oooolllld old play of The Princess and the Pea. Ah, memories. She was ten years old in it, and we really need to get that video copied onto a DVD somehow.

Today I'm thankful for getting to see UP with everyone, fudge, more than three years in the library, having a chance to move on, and getting to take the temple prep class.