Cat Caper Concluded

This week can be summed up thusly:

Two or three times this week, on the way to bed, I’ve stopped by the living room floor for a bit of a snoozer and slept there all night.
On one occasion I woke up on the floor at ~4:45am, grumbled and got back in my living room chair and resumed coding until 12:30pm when I had to drive into the office for a meeting, then didn’t leave the office till ~10pm that evening.
I let my kitchen run dry in the run-up to my D.C. trip last week, and I’ve been surviving off scraps since then. On Friday evening I literally had nothing left to eat and ended up making some popcorn, which I finished off Saturday morning, and didn’t eat anything else that day until 5pm.

So here’s to hoping next week is a bit more sane.

It’s a lonelier house this morning than it was yesterday. I’ve been hosting Moroni the cat for two months, and yesterday was the day his owner took him back. We had some adventures together, not the least being when he escaped from my house into the dark and rainy night and then came back and woke me up at 4:30am the next morning.

On the drive back I decided to let him roam around the inside of the car. He whined a bit but then was real calm, and eventually settled down into my lap for the drive – I’ve never been able to get him to sit there.

Please ignore how dirty my windshield is.

Here’s the kicker. On the way back I get a text from Hillary, Moroni’s owner. To paraphrase: “I forgot to mention, I’ve left the Church, it’s a cult, and the cat’s name is Maroon now. Thanks for taking care of him.”

So long Moroni, thanks for all the fish.

My trip to D.C. was great fun. I loved hanging with Hayden and Callie, seeing the art galleries, and finding my way around public transit. The conference was very productive. I’m not super in this group, but my colleague who I’m traveling with is. He volunteered me to give an impromptu presentation on post-quantum cryptography, and now I’m known as the guy with the awesome slide deck on hash-based signatures.

Proceeding further in reverse chronological order, turns out I am the Duck Whisperer. (He/she was just hungry and fearless, and we were eating lunch on the lake.)

Had an awesome time up at James & Karen’s place for a 5th-of-July BBQ. I really wish I could find a picture I took the first time they invited me out, back in 2017 or so. It’s fun seeing their kids grow up.

The actual 4th of July was something else. I decided to go into Gasworks Park, as did half the city. The traffic getting there was crazy, but the traffic getting out was unreal. I should’ve brought a book or something because it took literally two hours to get back home, normally takes 20 minutes.

I attended a wedding of a couple of good friends. They were both recent converts, and actually hit it off after attending a General Conference viewing at my place.

Now, I haven’t attended that many weddings. Plenty of receptions, but not the ceremonies. So when I see the event starts at 4pm, I think, ok, I’ll plan on getting there around 4:15 or 4:30. As I’m getting ready to walk out the door I check the invite for any details on parking. “Guests may arrive at 3:30. The ceremony will start around 4 o’clock.” Shooooot.

I broke many a speed limit and arrived at around 4:10. The ceremony was in full swing out on the lawn at the golf club, with the bishop in the middle of his remarks. I sheepishly walked up, thankfully to the back of the guests, though I’m sure I showed up in some of the photographer’s shots. Made it in time for the reading of the vows.

Caught up with some old friends, including some sister missionaries I used to help out as ward mission leader. Great times.

(Had some fun in the Tesla afterwards.)

Other miscellaneous happenings include a hike and outdoor movie night.

Not the most exciting scene but the movie is Jaws – never seen it before.

Went indoor rock climbing with a friend. She taught me how to belay – you’re not supposed to do that unless you’re an actual instructor, but she was a good teacher and I passed off a short test at the end of the visit, so now I have my “belay license”.