Neal Wilson ✅ @neal@social.typica.us

The cat is trying to shove her paw into my ear.

Updating payroll records to give everybody a raise. It'll be interesting to see next week who notices and who doesn't.

The cat is giving me lots of petting.

The other trick the cat tried was seeing if she could get back in her travel box and if that would summon me.

My sister reported the cat not eating and puking what she did eat, but at least over her first night back home her diet is back to normal so I think she was just trying a hunger strike in hopes that I would get back from vacation early. Will still keep an eye on that to see if there's something more serious going on, but her other behaviors are also back to normal so far.

When I went to pick up the cat she looked depressed and had no response to my presence at all. Once I got her home she resumed her normal personality.

Back home with the cat.

I can see Wisconsin from the train, but it'll be a while before the border is crossed.

Now on the 5th and final train for this trip. I'll be there for the next couple days.

Back home I hear the cat is being active today instead of just angry about not being able to sit on me.

Hit a diner for brunch, a couple coffee places (Mom has been dissatisfied with the coffee all trip because she's used to coffees I roast, but I'm okay with competently executed coffees even if they're not how I would choose to roast them), and found a video game arcade with some good stuff to kill time at. I left a couple high scores, but I'm pretty sure those get reset overnight.

Have a few hours in Portland before the next train.

On the 4th train for this trip.

Hit another roaster. This place has the largest machine I've seen this trip, a good sized Giesen. Nobody working at it, though.

A recent cat report was that the cat spent a bunch of time trying to get back into her travel box reasoning that if she were in the box I'd come back home and pick her up. She still needs to wait a few more days.

Stopped by a couple of the local roasters today. One was running a San Franciscan, the other was on a Proaster. Had a good chat with one of them. The other was keeping busier and I didn't want to disturb them. Coffee at both places is skewed lighter than I tend to go, but the espresso and drip brews were good. They're putting coffee in the coffee, unlike the hotel coffee.

It's especially sad because I know who roasted the coffee and that it could have been quite good.

Won't be repeating the breakfast experience at this hotel. The menu is all stuff that other hotels do just as a self serve included with the room and their coffee machine is dosing about 1/5th the coffee needed for the amount of water they're running through the grounds. The in room K cup (which is honestly not great even by K cup standards) is better than what they're trying to charge $3 for. (Totally not opposed to spending $3 on a cup of black coffee, but there better be some coffee in it.)

On the third train for this trip.