Series: 20 - February 2023

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

And what a bad day!!!

So this morning we got up, and did our morning stuff, and… the power went out!!! And it didn’t come back on for hours!  And it was COLD!!!

It was a little like that storm a couple of years ago!!!

So Sabby lit some candles, and Dave did NOT get out a flamethrower (much to his disappointment), and we played board games wearing blankets and ate cold stuff.  Dave did get out his generator so we had a little power for necessities, like one light and our fridge and the microwave.  So it wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t good either!!!

We were so happy when the power came back on!!!

David was so upset because he couldn’t play his games, but Sabby told him that he needed to spend more time with the family anyway,, so tough luck.

Anyway, I guess it was alright.  We all spent time together, even Marie and Cat got in on the action (though Marie froze her little paws when she went out to do her business, poor Marie!) and I guess the day turned out alright.

Tomorrow’s supposed to be better, though.  Some more freezing rain tonight but then it all (hopefully) melts tomorrow.

Thankfully.

Okay!  Bedtime!  Hope the power stays on!!!

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lily!

Things have melted!

But there are a lot of downed trees and limbs!!!!

We lost a few limbs from our tree too!  Thankfully it didn’t hit anything important.  Some of the streets were impassable!!!  Aww!!!

So of course Dave being Dave got out his chainsaw and had a bunch of his guys come around (the ones that could) and they roamed around the neighborhood cutting limbs left and right!!!  Chainsaws everywhere!!! David went along too, Dave taught him chainsaw safety.

Lots of places were still without power.  Aww.

But the roads are back to normal, at least – at least the ones that aren’t full of trees.

Texas winters are pretty nice – except when they’re not.

Okay!!!  Marie needs walked!!

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

OMG there was so much damage!!!

At Jack’s apartment complex, there were limbs down all over the place!!!  There was a 10 car crash this morning on 183A!  It was a VERY bad ice storm!!!

But it’s all melted now.  Thankfully!

I went to class today, Dave spent most of the day taking his crew and helping cut limbs.  He’s nice that way.  He did the same thing back in the tornado last year.  Plus he took a little for firewood.  We don’t have much that uses firewood, but he likes to use it for grilling sometimes.  All of our friends escaped major damage, but there were a few dings and scratches.

I’m just glad it’s over.

They’re making a big deal out of black history month at school, but Sabby wants me to ignore all that.  She says that there’s no such thing as black history or white history, there’s just history and we all share it.  I guess I can see her point.  She’s very different than some of the black people I meet at school – they’re kind of loud and annoying when they just keep complaining about everything.  But Sabby’s always been really levelheaded.  I guess it really isn’t about the color of your skin, but the content of your character.

I guess I don’t even really notice that she’s black.  She’s just… Sabby to me.

I guess if I have to choose between listening to loud and annoying people, or Sabby… I’ll choose Sabby every time.

Oh well.  Liz is over tonight.  Beth didn’t really want the girls over, she just wanted to spend some time by herself.  She gets a little moody sometimes, especially since… you know… with Crystal.  She’s still seeing a therapist but some scars don’t heal easily, I guess.  She loves Crystal, but… sometimes… it gets too much, I guess.

Liz and I are just hanging out and playing quiet games.  Neither of us really feel like being too boisterous.  I guess that’s a good thing.  There’s some balloon or something that China sent over the US and everyone’s in a tizzy about it, but Liz is as upset about it as everyone else.  She… doesn’t have much loyalty to China.  I guess I can understand that.  She’s an American.  Like me.

Okay…  guess it’s time for bed.

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lily!

And it’s finally warming up!

I could even take Marie for a walk without freezing her little toes!!!

Poor Marie.

I’m starting to wonder about Texas.  In 2021 we get this huge freak snowstorm and lose power for days.  This year we get this huge freak ice storm and lose power and have a lot of destroyed trees.  It’s…  a lot.  But, I guess that’s our winter, and, well, that’s how we get firewood.

Or something like that.

Valentine’s Day is approaching, so the shop is really heating up!!!  We put up a billboard!!!  It took us a bit to get it designed, well, we actually just hired someone to do it, but it’s up next to I-35!  It has a funny slogan and a picture of a woman with a donut for a ring!!!  And the woman is cat-girl wearing a maid outfit!!!

Hahaah!!!

Sabby’s really happy with it.  And she said the moment it went up, traffic increased by a lot.  People come in, and do a double-take.  “You’re actually the girl on the billboard!” She giggles, does a cute twirl, says “irasshaimase!”, and sells them a metric boatload of cookies.

We…  umm…  need to duplicate cat-girl.  She’s driving far too much sales to be irreplacable.

So, otherwise… just a Saturday.  Jack and I went on a date tonight.  It wasn’t the best, most elaborate date, but it was nice anyway.  We went to that track sushi place and pigged out on sushi, then we went to Mt. Bonnell and watched the sunset.  It was nice.  A little cold, but we cuddled and he’s a lot warmer than he looks.

Oh did I tell you?  His father got a promotion!!! Now he’s…  well.. .I guess doing more of what he did before!!!  They’re pretty happy about it, they’ll be able to afford a house soon.  They’re just waiting for the market to cool down a bit.

We didn’t go back to his apartment this time, though.  His parents were busy and there’s tree limbs everywhere.

Okay…  bedtime.  Tomorrow’s church!!!

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

So this morning I went to church, and, well, it was churchy.  The pastor talked mostly about stuff I didn’t understand, as usual.  I wish he’d say things I understood.  It’s like…  walking into a class halfway through the semester and being utterly lost.

I mean, he talks about nice things.   You know, love and brotherhood and all that stuff.  But I don’t see what that has to do with God.  He says God loves us, but…  does he?  I haven’t seen any proof of that.  Or even that he exists…  I don’t know…  Maybe he does?  I hope he does.  But…  my life’s been a mess…  it turned out okay so maybe that’s good, but… still a mess.

I talked to Sabby today about the business.  I told her I’m worried about how dependent we’re becoming on cat-girl to drive sales, and that I think we need to either go all in and make what she’s doing an official part of our strategy – or stop doing it entirely.  We can’t have significant chunks of our business dependent on what she wears any particular day – or even if she shows up.

Sabby agreed, and we’ll talk about what direction we want to take the shop.  I’m honestly not too upset with the idea of going more towards being a cookie “maid cafe”, but..  we have to actually plan it out and not just let cat-girl take over.

She’s doing great for us, don’t get me wrong – she really, really drives a lot of business – but we’re the owners, she’s not!!!

Running a business is difficult!!!

Sabby does a good job – I mean, she came up with the menu pretty much by herself, she does a lot of the baking (the baker even taught her a few tricks), and she’s pretty good at keeping up with HR.  But, truth be told, I think she just wants to make cookies, and would rather leave the business decisions to other people.

Like.. me, I guess.

She says I have a good head for it.

I just wish I could be there more often.

Other than that, it was a nice day.  Dave grilled!!!  Did I ever tell you I love it when he grills?  He’s so good at it!!!

Okay!!!  Gotta walk Marie and go to bed!

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

So…  it was a nice day today.  Warm and mostly sunny, but quite a bit of wind.  Aww.  But it was still really nice outside.  Beth and I went to class…  and then we took her to get her learner’s permit!!!

Lots of stuff to fill out and stamp and sign and stuff… for her and Sabby.  I just kind of sat there and browsed twitter.  Sooo many hamsters…

But she got it! Now she has to take her class.  And Sabby’s going to take her to a park or something so she can get a little experience1  Dave let her drive a little bit when I was learning, but now she gets to go for real!!!

Yay Beth!!!

David’s a bit jealous, but we told him he’s ten, he’ll get to drive when he’s fifteen or sixteen, just like Beth.

Hopefully I’ll be long gone and married to Jack by the time THAT happens!!!

Sabby and I also had an impromptu board meeting for our company, and decided to go a little bit more in the cat-girl direction.  So we’re going to give cat-girl a promotion (ssssh) where she’ll be in charge of… well.. .cat-girls.  The thing is, we have to be a little careful.  Katie doesn’t really want to cosplay, and she shouldn’t have to.  So we’re going to hire a couple of cat-girls who cat-girl will be in charge of, and she can coordinate costumes and customer experience and everything.  But if Katie doesn’t want to, well, she can wear her normal costume.  It’s really pretty on its own!!!

We’re also giving in on the deli stuff.  Sabby doesn’t want to make sandwiches and stuff, though, so we’re just ordering some.  We are asking the baker to make bagels in the morning, though.  She did her usual good job and they’re selling really well.  Just because we have cat-girls providing eye candy doesn’t mean we can skimp on quality!

Just clothes, apparently.

Sigh.

I need to talk to Jack.  I might need to be a cat-girl some days, and I know he really doesn’t like that.  But it really truly is just business…

Oh oh oh, turns out cat-girl has an unseen skill – she’s REALLY good at brewing coffee!!! She makes really good coffee!!! She can’t bake to save her life, but she brews a mean cuppa.  So she’s in charge of that too.

She seems to really like her job.

Things seem to be working out!!!

…  anyone know someone who wants to be a cat-girl?  I’d let Crystal, but she’s kinda young for that.

Alright… enough of that!!!  Meow!!!  Hahahaa!!!

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lily!

Remember how I said yesterday was nice?

Well, this is Texas.  Today much less so.  Cool and lots of rain.

But the rain is nice in its own way I guess.

Beth is really chomping at the bit to drive.  I hope she can take her class soon so we can let her.

And we gave cat-girl her “promotion” – we told her she can hire more cat-girls if she wants – but we have to help interview and we get right of refusal.  She agreed – she knows a few cosplayers who she thinks would like to be cat-girls.

Katie seemed a little upset, but we told her there will always be a place for her, this is just because cat-girls just sell soooo much stuff.  We said she can wear the uniform if she wants.  We did say that it would be nice if she said “irasshaimase”, she said she’d try.

Baker can wear whatever she damn well pleases, as long as she keeps doing a good job.  We told her we’re going to get her some help too.  She seemed appreciative.  We asked her if she would mind wearing a traditional Japanese housewife apron/dress.  She said she’d think about it.  But we’re not going to push it.

I know, I know.  It’s a bit… stereotypical.  But it’s really making us money, and isn’t that what really matters?

Oh…  we got our first Japanese tourist!!! I have no idea at all how they’re finding out about the place, but they came in, and in broken English, asked which one was cat-girl.  “whi-chu catto-girlu desu?”  Thankfully, I’ve been teaching them juuuust enough Japanese that they figured it out, and pointed at cat-girl, who said “ohayou gozaimasu!”  They went “ohhhhh.. kokkoi!” and took a bunch of selfies with her.  Then bought a LOT of cookies.

And that last sentence is why cat-girl gets to pretty much do what she wants.

Within reason, of course.

I suggested to Sabby that she needs to decorate the cookies kawaii style, you know, with cute animal faces.  She said she’d think about it.  I think she feels a little…  left behind?  But she shouldn’t!!!  It’s still all about her cookies!  Cat-girl and I are just figuring out the marketing!  Well, she’s coming up with ideas and I’m taking the best parts of them!

Speaking of which, I asked Robert what he thought.  He thinks we’re on to something really good.  I think he wants in.  Well…  that thought is going to wait for a while.

Okay…  It’s still wet and Marie needs walked, as usual.  She gets spayed soon.  Poor Marie.

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lily!

It rained more today!

But it’s okay! We need rain!!!  That way we get grass, and flowers, and… and mud.  Aww.

It was a pretty quiet day.  We went to class, Sabby went to the shop and baked.  I hear cat-girl is having loads of fun.  I just hope we did the right thing.

Then we came home, we had dinner, and, well… quiet night.

I like quiet nights.

I wonder about life, sometimes.  Sometimes it’s really exciting and things just happen one thing after another, and other times it’s just boringly boring and nothing happens, well, I guess until it does, right?  But I think we should value both times.  They say variety is the spice of life, but on the other hand, too much spice and you just end up in the bathroom wincing.  Not that I would know or anything!  Hahaha!!!

Sometimes it’s nice to just sit down and read a book, or something.

Speaking of books…  you might wonder what my favorite book is.  I…  I’m not really sure.  I read this one book that the Tinkerer guy recommended – Eon by Greg Bear – and it was really good.  I liked it a lot.  He told me he read a lot of books when he was young.  Like Beth!!!

But he’s moving out of town now.  Aww.  I guess we’ll have to see him in his new house at some point.

Okay!  Well, today’s boring, but maybe it’ll be less boring soon!

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lily!

And it didn’t rain today!  In fact, it was nice!!!

But I was thinking about the title of that song, from Babymetal, “No rain, no rainbow”.  That title has always struck me, because it’s true.  Rainbows are some of the most beautiful things out there!  (At least they are when people aren’t making them political, but oh well!).  But you can’t have a rainbow without rain!

Aww!

It’s also like one of Sabby’s favorite songs, “You’ll never walk alone”, where they talk about walking through a storm and there being a golden sky at the end.  But you can’t have the golden sky without the storm!!!  Sometimes you need rain and storms and bad things for beautiful things to come out of them!

I mean, look at me!  I lost all my memories!  From everything I can piece together, something really bad happened – even though I don’t know what, and that’s a bad thing on its own!  But Mrs. Doily told me that my previous parents were businesslike and not very loving, and my birth mother gave me up entirely!  But now I have a family that loves me and that I love, and a boyfriend, and the best life I could imagine happening!  Would I have that kind of life if the bad thing of losing my memories and previous family didn’t happen?  Of course it wouldn’t!

No rain, no rainbow.

But that doesn’t mean the rain is nice.  Even if you get to see a beautiful rainbow, it’s not nice to be standing in the rain and being wet and cold.  Is the rainbow worth it?

Maybe… maybe it was for me.

I love Dave and Sabby and Beth and David and Jack and Grace and Liz and Crystal and Diana and Allison all the parents and the pastor and the owner and… and Katie and cat-girl and the baker and everyone I met and know since I was found and taken in by my family!!!  And Emiko and Ai and Hiroshi and even Robert!!!  I have a rainbow!!!

I love my rainbow!!!  It’s beautiful and it’s mine and I got it from a storm!!!

And you all too!!! I have you all too!!!

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lily!

I’m not a sporty girl.

I mean, I like to run.  It gets the blood flowing.  And I think I wouldn’t mind so much being a cheerleader.  I’m pretty fit I think.  But I’ve never really liked sports.  They make no sense really!  Dave likes sports a lot, but I think it might be a guy thing.  Or, at least, a not-Lily thing.

Because I never even mentioned the super bowl last week!!!

I was sooo busy getting fed chocolate by Jack that it completely slipped my mind!!!

Dave likes it thought.  Remember when I said that we were laying on the couch in a caffeine and theobromine induced haze?  Dave and David had the TV on and were watching the game.

But none of us girls even cared.

We were too busy digesting that wonderful cake.

So I didn’t even write about it!!! Aww.

But it’s important to a lot of people.  For some reason.  I don’t know why.  So.. .go team that won!!!

I guess.

Jack…  he’s not really a sporty guy, either.  He’s pretty strong and I think he’d be good at, maybe, baseball.  But he’s not too interested.  He’s… had some bad experiences with jocks.  Aww.

It’s funny how there’s a whole class of guys named after things meant to protect their… well… you know.  It’s a bit insulting!!! But the ones Jack knew, well, they deserve it.

Today was quiet.  We went to church.  The pastor wanted to talk about some revival that’s been going on for days in Kentucky.  What’s a revival?  I don’t know.  Apparently people are flying over there just to be a part of it.  Maybe it’s fun?  I don’t know.  I don’t know anything about that kind of thing.  But the pastor said that God’s being active, and, well, I guess that’s a good thing.  We need more God.  What we’ve got now isn’t working… sigh.

And then we all went to the mall!  Fun!  I love going to the mall!!! But we didn’t buy a whole lot.  Just went and had lunch and walked around for a while.

Okay…  I’m going to bed now!!!  And not playing sports!  Hahaha!!!

Oh… my trip to LA is coming up soon.  I hope that turns out okay.

Love you all!!! ❤