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      Monday, May 02, 2005



06:47 PM - 05/02/2005

The topic: New category! Disney stuff
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Monday, May 2, 2005  We went to Disneyland last Thursday because we thought it would be raining.  We saw the remnants of two accidents on the way up, major damage to the cars, but people were standing around so hopefully no major injuries.

I wore my Redwing boots because we thought it would be raining and it wasn’t.  I didn’t have my rubber thing between my big toe and the index toe because I couldn’t find one (I hide them from Sagwa, because he likes to play with them and hide them under furniture).  Note to self: never wear the Redwings without the rubber thingy.  My bunion was screaming.  Really hard to walk.

We were hungry and looked for someplace with a decent menu.  I’ve gotta tell ya, when Pressler took over the Anaheim resort, he really ruined a lot of things.  Like the menus.  We ended up at the French Market restaurant, over in New Orleans Square by the railroad and I have to say it was absolutely the worst meal we’ve ever had at Disneyland.  I had fried chicken (I’m not a big fan of fried chicken, but I was craving some last week and Brian said “why don’t you have the fried chicken?”)  which was not worth the money.  I don’t like dark meat, I don’t eat the skin or coating and there was a breast, a leg and I think a wing.  Not a lot of meat.  I did eat my steak fries and the salad was okay.  I had bleu cheese on mine, Brian had ranch and he said he didn’t know what it was, but it was like no ranch dressing he’s had before.  Nasty stuff.

Then we went to the candy store, got some candy for our mothers for Mother’s Day, then we walked over to Disney’s California Adventure and got I-Scream sundaes at Burrbank, then we came home.  We didn’t go on any ride but the tram to the parking lot.

But it was nice to get away from the cats and the litterboxes and have some quality time together.  The ride up was pretty nice, too.

I put up a few pictures over on the family album.

This Wednesday, Disneyland won’t be open to the public, there’s a media event.  One of our friends who lives up in Anaheim (both she and her husband also have annual passports), called me up last week and asked me if we were going. Uh, no.  I guess they gave away 2500 passes to AP holders.  We weren’t one of the lucky ones.  Our friends are.

*sigh*

      Tuesday, May 03, 2005



04:11 PM - 05/03/2005

The topic: Damn gummint
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Tuesday, May 3, 2005  I just did the TeleFile for the first quarter payroll taxes.  I’ve been doing this for years.  It’s easy, it’s quick and there’s no muss, no fuss.  It’s all done on the phone.  Towards the end of the process, a different recording comes on and states that there will only be one more quarter of TeleFile.  He directs the listener to the IRS website and the eFile link.

I finish with the filing, go over to the IRS website, click on the eFile link.  Oh, yeah?  I have to go through a third party to do this?  Pay someone to do what I’ve been doing for free for years?  This has to be wrong.

I call the IRS.  Speak with an agent.  Nope, it’s not wrong, you have to use a third party to eFile.  And they want money.  Forget that.  I’ll just print out the form using my QuickBooks and put the copy in the mail.

So there.

      Monday, May 09, 2005



07:35 AM - 05/09/2005

The topic: All is well
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Monday, May 9, 2005 Everything is fine, nothing major with the cats, I’ve got to appear for jury duty this morning and with any luck, they’ll send me home this afternoon.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to make an entry then.  I know it’s been a while.  Just remember, no news is good news.

      Tuesday, May 10, 2005



06:28 PM - 05/10/2005

The topic: Jury duty
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Well, I dodged the jury bullet, once again.  I was there at eight yesterday morning.  There was an informative presentation by one of the judges and a little later, we got to watch a little movie.  Years ago, here in California, you had to serve for two weeks.  If you were chosen for a jury and it was over before the two weeks, you had to keep going.  If you didn’t get chosen for a jury, you still had to go and wait in the jury room for the duration.  Just in case.  Then it went to just a week and you only had to go down one day and you could call in the rest of the days, to see if you’d be needed.

Then someone in the California government got called for jury duty.  And he was called for three trials and wasn’t selected for any of them.  He was selected for trial number four.  A few months after his service, jury duty changed quite a bit.  Now, it’s one day or one trial.  The last time I went, my name wasn’t called and I was able to go home in the early afternoon.

There were three trials that needed to seat juries on this day.  The computer generates the list from the people who have checked in, then they call the names in alphabetical order.  I waited until they passed the esses and let my breath out.  Only two more to go.  A half hour later, I wasn’t so lucky.  My name was called.  I could go to lunch and be back in the jury lounge by 1:30. 

I left and called my mom, since I hadn’t called her earlier.  Then I called Brian, who was up in the Los Angeles area.  It was raining up there.  It was a beautiful day down here.  I called my friend Allyson, but she was swamped at work.  I walked down Main Street in El Cajon and had lunch at Por Favor restaurant.  I had a Mexican salad. Beans, lettuce, tomato, cheese, guacamole and sour cream in a flour tortilla bowl.  It was good, but it was a gut bomb. My stomach was still upset this afternoon.

I walked back to the courthouse and tried reading my book, but couldn’t really get into it.  One of the trials was a murder trial and I hoped that’s not the one I was chosen for.  It made the news here for months, it was the man who owned the local El Cajon Speedway, which had been around for years and years. A couple of drug addlepated thugs shot him point blank range when he answered the door (they didn’t think anyone would be home and they were after all that money that he supposedly kept in a safe).

At 1:30 all the chose jurors were back in the lounge.  We waited and we waited.  About every half hour, there was an update on the status. And it was always the same.  They needed jurors, but they weren’t ready yet.  Finally, at three, we were told that it was getting late and the various trials would wait until tomorrow to choose from a “fresh” batch of jurors.  We were thanked for our service and let go.  It should be at least two years before I’m called again.  It’s been four and a half since the last time, let’s hope I can make it that long again.

I’ve got more to enter, but I’ve got some pictures I want to put up in the family album before I go on and I spent the majority of today catching up on housework and laundry. I didn’t do very much last week and it never ceases to amaze me how quickly it all backs up.  And right now, I’m getting dinner ready. So, stay tuned for more excitement!  *lol*



09:30 PM - 05/10/2005

The topic: Forums
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Remember my mentioning complaining about dog related posts on a cat related board?  Well, during my diatribe on said board, someone else spoke up with the same sentiments.  Someone trolled her.  I called on the admin to please remove the troll’s post. Admin said she couldn’t.  Because admin was the one who instigated the troll. That’s just wrong. I didn’t publicly broadcast what I knew, but did tell a few people privately that I wouldn’t be going to that forum for a while.  I needed to take a break from it. It really bothered me that the admin wasn’t adminining fairly.  And it’s not like she pays for the board, the members donate to keep it running (it’s a boardhost board).

Shortly after that, she posted on another public forum that she was frustrated at her lack of responses to resumes sent to companies who had posted help wanted ads on Craigslist.  Now, I’m not really familiar with Craigslist, but from what I’ve seen there, I’m not overly impressed. It’s not someplace you’d find me hanging out, that’s for sure.  So, she posted her own help wanted ad.  Just to see what the competition was like.  People responded.  She actually wondered if it would be alright for her to send these poor guys critiques of their resumes!  Can we say “nervy”?

So, disgusted, I took the main cat related forum at Benny’s private.  And she no longer has access.  I can’t begin to describe how icky this all made me feel.  What’s kind of funny is that she’s come over to Benny’s more times in the past three weeks than she’s been there the past two plus years (registered users can see who’s been there).  Shortly after that, she did post on Benny’s and openly admitted what she’d done.  She also made a couple of snarky comments about me, which only added to my resolve. I must admit, I was quite proud that people kept their opinions to themselves. It didn’t descend into a free-for-all, but I’m also sure that was because it was posted on a registered board. Cowards seem to find loads of courage to speak up when nobody knows who they are.  Me, I believe you should own your words.  If I feel something strongly enough to post about it, I’ll use my name. It wasn’t always like that.  When I first came onto the internet I did my fair share of anonymous nasty posts. And I regretted it.  And I haven’t done it since.

I haven’t posted at the forum she maintains since April 19th.  And if anybody has noticed, nobody’s said anything.  Oh, well.  Like I always said, if you want to leave a forum, just leave, don’t make an issue of it.  And if anybody cares, someone will bring it up.  I guess nobody cared.  That’s okay, I’ve still got Benny’s.  Not that it’s all that busy, but I guess I’ve always got housework to keep me occupied. 

For the record, there are more forums at Benny’s than just pet related.  I’ve got forums for jokes, Cranky Old Women (must be at least fifty to join), Modern Mothers, Whining Whippersnappers, Disneyland, just for starters.  If anyone is interested, feel free to register.  Just let me know which forums you’d like to access.

Sometimes it’s lonely to have principles.

      Wednesday, May 11, 2005



07:17 AM - 05/11/2005

The topic: Birds
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A week ago, those big nasty black birds were squawking a lot.  I went out to see what it was and there was a young big nasty black bird on the ground.  It obviously couldn’t fly.  I put it up on a tree limb (getting bombed by mom and dad as I did), where it sat for about twenty four hours, then it ended up back on the ground.  I was amazed that none of the few remaining neighborhood cats went after it.

I spent quite a bit of time watching it.  It was close to our side gate and fence, the side the bank is on and the parent birds couldn’t differentiate between the front and the back and they were quite unhappy with the amount of cats watching them. Those birds made a bunch of noise. 

Sunday, the young bird had enough tail feathers to finally lift off.  I saw him later that day up in one of the trees, his parents talking him from branch to branch. 

Although I really dislike those birds, I was pulling for the little one.  I’m glad he made it.



08:45 AM - 05/11/2005

The topic: My Ranger
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Last Thursday night, well, early Friday morning, around two in the morning, we had a cat fight in the dining room.  Woke both Brian and me up.  It was Benny and Handsome.  Brian said that he saw Benny go behind the loveseat, so I called him and he finally came out, laid on the coffee table purring for me.  He was okay.  I carried him into bed with me and Brian and I both spent a few minutes petting him and giving him some attention.  He tired of it and ran off (the bedroom isn’t his favorite place in the house).

My window, right above my side of the bed, was open.  I love the feel of the cool night air on my face and it was pleasant to listen to the falling rain.  Neither of us fell right back to sleep, but lay there listening.

We heard a vehicle pull up to the curb.  It sat there, running.  After five or so minutes, it left.  Another five or so minutes and it was back.  The engine was never turned off.  Suddenly, I heard a big crash.  I got to my knees and looked out the window.  I yelled at Brian “they hit my truck!”  I yelled out the window “HEY!” 

Brian jump up, looked out the window and went running outside in his underwear.  He yelled at them.  It was a couple of guys in a lighter model mini truck with a camper shell.  They didn’t back into my truck, the broke out the window in the camper shell and they were in the process of removing the generator that Brian had tied down in the back.  The generator was from the property and it quit working earlier this year and Brian was going to take it in someplace to get it fixed.  Before he had the chance, the Ranger’s tranny went out and the truck was out of commission for almost a month. 

I got my robe on and grabbed a flashlight.  It was a huge mess outside on the ground. Tempered glass everywhere.  Brian went into the house and got dressed.  A man from up the street came down and asked if everything was alright.  I told him that someone had broken into the back of my truck.  He said that he lived a couple of houses up and dogs barking got his attention.  He looked out his window to see a truck with a shell on it parked outside of his house. 

We think what they did was stop initially, look into the truck and tried to open it. When they found the shell locked, they drove off.  They stopped in front of this guy’s house and discussed their options. That’s when they came back down and quickly made their move.  If Brian had taken the time to get any of his clothes on, the generator would be gone, they moved that swiftly.

In their haste to leave, they dropped the utility knife they’d used to cut the tie downs.  I’ll be calling the sheriff’s office today to see if they want it.  Brian picked it up by the side, so if there’s any fingerprints on it, they should still be there.  It might help.

 



cleanup

 



against the fence


Brian cleaned up most of the glass and wiped glass off of the bumper.  He then backed the truck up to the gate on the bank side of the house.  Getting anything out of it now would be impossible.  He swept more of the glass from the driveway.  We went back inside to the house and back to bed.

Then it started raining again.  Hard.

Imagine our surprise when we heard a truck pull up again within forty-five minutes.  I got up and looked out the window and it was parked (engine running) across the street. The driver got out and walked over to the other side.  “Oh, Nicole, baby, please don’t leave, don’t go, you know I didn’t mean it.”  “Oh, Sweetness, it was my f*cking fault, don’t go, I don’t want you out here walking the streets.”  “Nicole, honey, let me take you back to your car.”  “Sweetness, you know I love you, it’s just that she was there and she got me irritated and I’m so f*cking sorry.  I didn’t mean to say it.” 

This went on for about fifteen minutes, then Nicole got in his truck and they left. And the rain started pouring down again.  As I nodded off to sleep, I mumbled “don’t ever call me “Sweetness”...”

When the sun came up, we stayed in bed a little later than usual and when we were up and dressed, Brian went outside and did more extensive cleanup of the driveway.  He got the generator back in the shop and moved the truck to the driveway.  He examined the missing door/window and wrote down the serial number of the shell.  It’s a GemTop that we’ve had for many, many years.  The likelihood that he’ll find a new door is slim to none.  He searched online and called the GemTop manufacturer and left a message.  They called later.  They have no replacement glass.
 



Better shot in the daylight


And it’s not like Brian can have a piece made.  The glass has a curve to it, the locks were in the glass and so was the latch.  I mentioned that maybe he could find a used one somewhere, but he said he’s only seen one other shell like ours the entire time we had it (probably ten to fifteen years), so chances of finding a used one are also slim to none.  The shell is useless.  He’ll most likely just take it off of the truck, cut it into pieces and put it in the dumpster.

Yes, we could contact the insurance company, but we have a thousand dollars deductable. And we’ve learned from experience, that insurance companies raise your rates until what they’ve paid out is paid off.  Figure there’s no replacement glass, that would mean getting a brand new shell and we just don’t want to do that at this time. 

Besides, we originally got the shell for the dogs.  And we no longer have dogs. 

Talking about who it could have been, like the guy from up the street said, that door was dark, so it had to be someone who drove by fairly often to even know there was something back there worth stealing.  Some dirtbag drug user, probably, trying to steal something to sell and make a few bucks to put towards the habit.  It sucks. When we drive anywhere, we’re always looking at other vehicles, maybe we’ll see the would be thieves.  But we won’t.  We’ll most likely never know.



11:16 AM - 05/11/2005

The topic: A note about the changes
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You might have noticed that I've done a little modification of the journal page. I'm hoping this will make it a little easier to read and to skip over entries that don't interest you.


06:00 PM - 05/11/2005

The topic: Update on My Ranger
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Welp, I called the sheriff’s office, left a message with dispatch.  Shortly after, a deputy returned my call and said they couldn’t do anything with the box cutter, kind of laughed and said something about “unlike what they show in CSI, fingerprints really aren’t all that easy to get….”

He told me we could go ahead and throw out the box cutter.

So, that episode of our lives is over now.  rolls eyes



06:45 PM - 05/11/2005

The topic: Jury duty
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This isn’t about my cats, but sitting in the jury lounge for hours and hours and hours, some people start talking to other people.  I’m one of the gabby ones.

One of the women was talking about her cat.  She told a tale of a sick kitty.  Now, the cat didn’t act sick, mind you, but the cat’s poop was not normal and the cat was doing weird things to her food.  This woman was very concerned about her cat’s health and she took it to the vet repeatedly, trying to find out what was wrong with her much beloved cat.  She spent over $350.00 in tests and they could find nothing wrong.

One night, she was watching television, when she saw what looked to be a large rat tail. But it wasn’t.  It was a possum.  A possum had taken up residence in her home and she had no idea.  She screamed, jumped up onto her sofa. She said she spent the next four hours jumping from one piece of furniture to the next, trying to find some way to get that possum out of her house. 

She called animal control, she called some other people and everybody said they couldn’t do anything, she’d have to get it out by herself.  She opened the door and tried to shoo it out and her cat left, but the possum stayed.  She finally was able to get it out, got her cat back in and all was back to normal.

Her cat was fine, what she was seeing was the mess the possum was leaving.

I thought that was really funny.



07:00 PM - 05/11/2005

The topic: Fish
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How do you get rid of a fish that you hate?  I’ve got a plecostomous in my tank that ate most of my little fish.  I want that plecosto gone, but I can’t bring myself to just pull it out of the tank and let it die.

I thought about putting it in a container and leaving it in front of a petstore or a grocery store with a sign “Plecostomous, free to good home”.

I don’t want to put an ad in the paper and have people come to my house.  I want this damned fish to be someone else’s problem.  I want to be rid of it.

So, how do I get rid of it and not get saddled with a bunch of guilt? :(



09:46 PM - 05/11/2005

The topic: Ponderance
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Why is it, when you have a cat who just drank a huge amount of water, that they find the most inappropriate place to bring it back up?

Why can’t they just puke on the vinyl floor?  Why does it have to be on the counter, where it gets over and under everything there?

This seems to happen quite often here.  More so now that there’s a decent amount of shedding and fur ingestion going on.  (What goes down, must come up - in the world of cats.)

Bleh. razz

      Thursday, May 12, 2005



07:29 AM - 05/12/2005

The topic: Time
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What I’d like to do is to sit in my rocking chair and read a book.

I’d also like to learn the functions of all of the buttons on all of my cameras, and then put them to use.

And I’d most like to budget my time better.



08:03 AM - 05/12/2005

The topic: DeeJay
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DeeJay is peeing blood again.  I started him on Orbax last week and he got better.  I guess I didn’t give it too him long enough, because he’s doing it again.

*sigh*

Back to the meds.  If this doesn’t work, I’ll try the stuff I give Annie (the same thing Lucky got after she’d been diagnosed with kidney failure and got a bladder infection), except I’ll split the pills further since he’s so thin.

I should have known something was up when he was crankier than usual.  He’s eating good, though and he poops a phenomenal amount.  And for those of us who are poop watchers (cat people can seem pretty strange, but we know what looks healthy), his stools are well formed and *koff* fragrant.  I just wish he didn’t drag his butt when he was done.  (He’s not able to use toilet paper, so he does the dragging thing to clean off.)  That wouldn’t be a huge problem, except he sleeps on my pillow and his tail and butt smell like poop until he cleans them off.  Lovely. Just lovely.



08:58 AM - 05/12/2005

The topic: Dinner
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I’ll be making spaghetti for dinner tonight.  I’ll cook up some fresh garlic and onions, add them to browned ground beef.  Put the mix into a crockpot, add tomatoes, tomato sauce, a little brown sugar, some basil and oregano and let it simmer all day long.

I’ll serve it with some warmed garlic cheese breadsticks.

Yummy!



11:36 AM - 05/12/2005

The topic: Gardening
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Last Saturday, we went to Denny’s Diner in Santee for breakfast. Our usual Saturday breakfast restaurant, Izzy’s Cafe in El Cajon was closed for a two week vacation.  (If you’re a San Diego local, try it, they’re open Monday through Saturday for breakfast and lunch; great food, great prices, great service.) I kind of wanted to look at those little rolling cultivators for around the pool area.  The weeds were coming back after all that work the gardeners had done. Pulling the grass is not the same as digging deep and getting the roots and as long as the roots are there, the grass will come back.

So, after breakfast, we drove over to Home Depot and I got my little cultivator and we also looked through their plants.  Since we can’t afford to pay the girls to buy the plants and do the work, we thought ‘what the hell’ and Brian picked out some ferns and I picked out some of those really neat “Lily of the Nile” plants.  Brian had been reluctant to get anything with color for the bank area, since when they’re not in flower, he really doesn’t care for how the plants look.  But these Lily of the Nile plants look okay without flowers, they’d blend with the rest of what we’ve got there.  So, we got some of those to go with the ferns.

When we got home, Brian placed the plants on the new brick wall and the cats had to (of course) check everything out. (As usual, clicking on an image will take you to a larger version, over at the Family Album site.)
 

 

 

Sagwa and Oliver check out a new fern



Opie and Joey join Oliver and Sagwa

 



Joey sniffs the Lily of the Nile as Oliver looks on


I think one of the big reasons the ferns had such a deep interest for most of the cats was the fact that the Home Depot has at least one resident cat for rodent control. I saw this cat strolling through the garden section.

 





Opie takes a break from the inspection team, resting in the wheelbarrow


As Brian got the plants in the ground, the cats weren’t quite so curious about the new stuff.  They went off to their various daytime nap areas, while Brian planted and cleaned up the mess left by the gardeners.  (They were hard workers, but Brian had quite a bit to do before the area by the side of the house was presentable; huge dirt piles from what they’d taken from the bank, tools, all of the aloe vera plants they’d pulled up….)
 



Chandler surveys the yard

 



Even Little Bit gets into the spirit, laying down in the Mondo grass


Little Bit is still pretty shy, but she’s letting me get closer to her.  She just watches me, interested in what I’m going to do.  She’s not hissing at the other cats like she did so much in the beginning and I think she might even be ready to make a friend or two.  That would be so nice, I hate to see her all by herself.

 



Rachel squints into the setting sun

 



Rachel stolling through the newly planted foliage



I think the cats are really going to enjoy the plants.  They already like grabbing at the taller plants and nibbling on the grassy stuff growing from the top.  It’s going to look really nice when it’s all filled in (I just took a couple of photos and it’s already looking fuller) and I know the cats will have great fun running, hiding from and chasing one another.

I’ll be taking many pictures of them as they do.



11:52 AM - 05/12/2005

The topic: From the Mailbag
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I got this in my email yesterday:

 

 

“I recently had two indoor cats go missing. One two weeks ago and the other 4 days ago. I have placed fliers on poles, hadned them out to everyone I saw, walk the area 3-5 hours a day, placed wet and dry food at front and back doors, check shlters daily and just placed a trap at a possible sighting. Is there any advise you could give me or ideas on how to lure them home? I am exhausted and devastated by this ordeal and am desperating trying to find them. i would greatly appreciate any assistance you could give me.

Thanks,

Lorey”


Lorey, what an awful thing to have happened.  If you haven’t yet, check out my webpage Finding Your Lost Cat, written by Sharon Talbert of Friends of Campus Cats.

First and foremost, keep in mind that they’re most likely quite close to home.  And because they left so close in time, most likely together. 

Look for them in the evening and at night.  Cats are nocturnal and they’ll probably be sleeping and hiding during the daylight hours, coming out when the sun goes down.  Put something with your scent by your door (on your porch if you’ve got one).  Get a flashlight and look under bushes and around planted areas.  Think like a cat.  Where would you go if you were terrified and wanted to hide? 

Put food out for them. Don’t give up.

Good luck.

 

      Friday, May 13, 2005



07:24 AM - 05/13/2005

The topic: Last night’s dinner
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Ketchup is not a very good substitute for tomato sauce.


07:46 AM - 05/13/2005

The topic: Cars
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Whenever I see a Honda Element or a Toyota Scion, I have to laugh. 

Brian started it, you see.  He said one day “Do you know what those cars remind me of?  They look like Deputy Dawg’s car.”

And darned if they don’t!



08:58 AM - 05/13/2005

The topic: The sucker light is on!
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In this morning’s mail:

 

“I am reading your website and feel like I am looking into a mirror image.  It all started when I was weed eating in the back yard and my german shepard kept running in front of me and getting in the way while barking at me wildly.  I thought it was the weedeater making her agitated and just kept plugging away at all that tall stuff in the corner.  She finally pushed me aside and started dragging things out and when I looked I realized they were kittens.  Jeez…kittens in the backyard!  I called the wife and put them in a box and she cooed and awwed over them while doing feeding,cleaning and general assessment of them.  I told her they were off to the pound in the morning and meant it. As I promised I took them to the pound, payed the fees and dropped them off without a look back and went to work.  Nothing would prepare me for the shock I got when I walked into the door that evening.  She had gone and picked them back up (paying more fees of course)and taken them in. There they were.. the 3 little kittens and a weepy eyed wife telling me that she just couldnt stand the thought of them being destroyed if the didnt get adopted. So thats the way it started.

A feral would have her kittens in the back,we would befriend her and after the kittens were ready we would take them in and trap her for a trip to the vet on the feral cat program. Someone would move out and leave their cat and somehow it would get word that there were suckers that had a nice backyard with sleeping boxes,food and water,and a kind word and pat and we would have another.

The feral cat program ran out of funds so now we pay this service out of our own pockets.


We buy walmart brand catlitter at $2.00 a 25 lb bag,throw that in a 35 gallon latching tote that has a round 10 inch hole cut in 1 end of the top for catboxes. We have 3 of these. I sift them with a 5 gal bucket that I attacked with a 1/2inch drill and can do a catbox in less then 3 minutes. I freshen them at the end of every week with a light bleach washing and another bag of litter.

The reason I found your site was I bought a camera and was thinking of making my own web page basically like yours.

 

Very nice site btw!
 

I love each and every 1 of these little critters now (15 total) and consider them part of my extended family.
 

I just wanted you to know that there is someone out there that appreciates what your doing.

If you want to see a few of my little guys give a click or copy paste this:these were early pix.

http://www.pbase.com/alan95336/random

Alan from San Joaquin County, California”


Awww…another official cat sucker.  Amazing how those little kittens can just worm their way into the heart, ya know?

I love those pictures. And I declare your German Shepherd is NOT a damn dog. (I’ve got a problem with dogs, even though we’ve had a few…*grin*) Your pooper dog is an official HERO!



10:18 AM - 05/13/2005

The topic: Gardening
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Well, I’m gonna go take this sweatshirt off, put on a teeshirt and shoes and go out there and start getting rid of more of that grass.

I looked at some old pictures of what I’d done back there a few years ago, with flowers and I really liked it, all of that color against the fence.  But that damned grass just kept coming back.  Brian said I could do whatever I wanted.  Maybe I’ll just hold off for now and see how the grass does.  If it stays gone, then I can do some planning.

A way to water will be something that definitely needs to be considered.  And Brian really has to get those streambeds fixed to where they don’t leak.

Oh, well, as long as I have stuff to do, I can’t die, right?  Isn’t that how it works?


rotfl
—————————————————————————————————————



UPDATE:

I waited too long.  Went outside, got the trashcan and pulled it over to the area where I was going to work, started digging with the pitchfork, and boy howdy, it got hot quick.

Note to self: until you’re used to digging in the heat, leave it for the morning or evening.  Now’s the time to just float in the pool.

 



09:23 PM - 05/13/2005

The topic: Wasted day
----------------------------------------------

So, it’s about 72? outside, 82? right here in my comfy chair.  I spent quite a bit of time, too much, really, trying to get the damned tables right on my archives page.  I’ve got one set of archives now, it should be a lot easier. 

The coding for splitting up the posts by subject matter went much more quickly than I’d ever have expected, which was nice. But something as simple as getting the archive calendar tables properly formatted should never taken as long as it did and I became quite frustrated.  Poor DeeJay, he just wanted some attention and I just wanted those damned tables to line up properly.  I finally gave it a break and went into the kitchen to get his fluids heated up and calmed down.
The fluids went in much smoother than they have in months because I realized what I was doing differently that made it harder on both of us.  We’re all better now. yippee

I just told Brian I’m more relaxed right now than I’ve been all day. Sleep should be good tonight. sleepey-smile

Well, Brian’s yawning, I still have about fifty thousand, two hundred and one cats to get in for the night, and then I can call it a day.

You know, I think breaking up my entries is going to make it a whole lot easier to post on a more regular basis.  I think that now.  Let’s see if it holds true. 

biker <———me, riding off into the sunset…....

      Saturday, May 14, 2005



12:56 PM - 05/14/2005

The topic: Saturday stuff
----------------------------------------------

Well, Brian went off early this morning to help his brother with concrete at his rental.  He’s supposed to be home early this afternoon, but I’ll tell ya, I ain’t holding my breath.

I worked outside digging weeds for a couple of hours, which is about an hour and forty-five minutes longer than yesterday. It’s slow going, they’re pretty deep and I’m very out of shape.  Roundup is looking better and better. I checked it out yesterday and if used properly, it shouldn’t hurt the cats.  I have no intention of spraying it on the dirt parts of where I’m working I’ll still have to pull all of those (if we want to grow something else there, we can’t do the entire area) and I’ll just paint the new growth that peeks its ugly head through the soil.  But around the streambeds, I don’t have a problem with using it.  That crap is actually growing up through the beds in areas, making small cracks bigger.  We’ll have to do that on a day when we keep the cats inside. 

The never ending laundry is waiting for me, I have some ironing to do (flannel shirts, with any luck, there won’t be much need for them for a couple of months…no shirts, no ironing).  Litterboxes, of course, need sifting. 

I just want to lay on the sofa and read.

All the windows and doors are wide open and I closed the blinds, so there’s a cool breeze flowing through the house.  The tile floors go a long way towards keeping the house comfortable. 

Well, I get my chores done, I can lay down on the sofa and read. Or maybe get into the pool.  It was 72? yesterday afternoon.  Nice, huh? smile

      Sunday, May 15, 2005



12:38 PM - 05/15/2005

The topic: Sunday morning….
----------------------------------------------

Well, I was a little put out with hubby yesterday.  He spent the entire day helping his brother.  I knew he’d be gone today, he just has to go play with his tractor. Not that I blame him, I mean if I spent over forty thousand dollars on something, I’d sure as hell want to play with it every chance I got.

But when I’m down by the pool pulling weeds and grass, I get more than a little put out because all that landscaping (I use the word lightly) down there was his idea.  He wanted it to look exotic, not have the usual cement area around the water.  But the landscaping takes maintenance and since he bought that property up in Ranchita, well, stuff around here just isn’t getting done like it used to.

And then there are the little piddling things around the house that need to be done, but he just can’t seem to find the time. I find myself more and more leaning towards nagging, which I never wanted to do. The lawn looks worse than it ever has, lots of weeds, and badly in need of fertilizing.  The little twinkling lights he put around the patio years ago quit twinkling well over a year ago and last night went out altogether.  The screens in the dining room and family room have needed to be replaced for years. The ceiling fan in the bedroom makes a gawdawful sound when on high speed.  It needs to be replaced. Then there’s the house remodel that just stopped.  The living room and office both have cement floors.  The living room needs to be repainted, the floors need to be tiled and the speaker wire needs to be run in the attic (previous owners had run wire under the carpeting to the living room and dining room, but that was all pulled up with the carpet).  The office will be a nightmare because of all the computer stuff, so I’m not really gung ho on getting that done real soon (catcams will be offline for the duration), but I know it will be very nice when it’s finished.  But all of this stuff is just building up, it seems like each month there’s something else that needs to be done.

He’s got a tractor out in his shop he needs to get working on and put back together, and get it back up to the property.  He really, really needs to straighten out that shop.  He can’t find things because it’s so disorganized, that makes him frustrated, and then he gets annoyed.  So much time wasted looking. Oh, well, someday…

At least he did get the lawns (weeds) mowed when he got home last night and he did weed and feed the yard, since there was still enough light to get something done around here.

We went to breakfast this morning, which was nice.  Since Izzy’s isn’t open until next week, we went out to the little restaurant in Descanso.  It’s a nice little place, but don’t get the hash browns, they’re terrible.  They’re very dry and tasteless.  They do have other sides, like tomato slices or cottage cheese.  Next time, maybe we’ll remember that.  :smilie_lol:

On the way home we stopped into Wal-Mart.  A few years ago we got these really neat swim floats at CostCo.  They’re oblong, have an air tube around the outside, a blow up pillow and the middle is a strong mesh material.  So, when you float in the pool, your body is actually in the water, keeping cool. The ones at CostCo weren’t the prettiest things I’ve ever seen, but the price was right (about thirty dollars, I think).  Well, they got nasty over the years and Brian threw one out last year and left the other one by the pool.  The ring on the outside leaks, so I started looking online for replacements.  I found some summery ones available at Wal-Mart’s online store.  I like these, they’re much brighter.  They’re all nice, but I wish there was a choice.  We went to the store hoping to find them in stock, but alas, they’re not.  So, I ordered a couple this morning.  I’m partial to the white one with the palm tree, but I like them all.  I’m curious which one(s) I’ll get.

Oh, geez, look at the time!  I should go do some of the other stuff that needs doing, like dosing the cats with Advantage, always a day long job, measuring it out and finding a cat who needs it. Poor Sammy’s neck is a circle of scabs.  cwm36  I didn’t realize the fleas had gotten that bad.



07:02 PM - 05/15/2005

The topic: Advantage, what fun!
----------------------------------------------

So, I get out the Advantage because of poor Sammy’s neck.  I only have one full tube and a part of another.  I need more.

I called the animal hospital where I took Annie earlier this year and they’d sell me some.  I went down there, got the stuff and holy crap, it cost over a hundred bucks!  My normal vet charges less than $70.00 for a six pack of large dog stuff.  I’ll keep this in mind for the future.  nono5

Anyway, I’ve gotten seventeen cats done this afternoon.  It’s such a mess, but the cats sure feel better after they get over the initial shock. Stuff is sure icky.



07:20 PM - 05/15/2005

The topic: I think I’m finished tweaking
----------------------------------------------

this blog.  There are a couple of things that I’d like to have different.  I’ve been working on it since this morning and it will be good to declare it done.

Brian still isn’t home.  I had leftover pot roast and mashed potatoes for dinner.  Last night I had leftover spaghetti and he had a weiner sandwich. It smelled good, but last night I wasn’t speaking to him. That irritation of not having him help down by the pool, doncha know.

I was just checking the tomato plant we got last weekend and I sure hope it gets some fruit.  The biggest flower dropped off into my hand, which isn’t a good sign.  I also picked up a green pepper plant since green peppers are so expensive and I don’t usually use all that I buy on sale.  I know I could freeze them, but I never get around to it.  I’m bad about that kind of stuff.

Oops, sun’s going behind the hill, time to start getting the cats in for the night.  Have a good one!



141031059

      Monday, May 16, 2005



11:39 AM - 05/16/2005

The topic: Nice weather and weeds
----------------------------------------------

Since it’s not really hot so far, I think I’ll go outside and do some more pulling of that grass around the pool.  There’s just so much of it.  If I’d just been ripping it up, I’d most likely be done, but I want it gone.  I can’t believe how deep some of the roots are.

Saturday, I actually got roots of trees in my digging.  And I still didn’t get deep enough to get the grass roots.  I just know it.

I hate this stuff.  I’d like to at least get as much of it from around the water as possible.  It’s not real pleasant to be floating in the pool and have grass that’s gone to seed floating along with you.  And bees and bugs hide in it, too.  Wasps.  I hate wasps.

I hope I can finish the section I started on Saturday today.  Wish me luck.

      Tuesday, May 17, 2005



02:52 PM - 05/17/2005

The topic: Woohoo!
----------------------------------------------

I finally got the old diary pages to look close to the new diary. It took hours because I had to hardcode them all.  But now it’s done.  There are a few things I might go back and change, links that are no longer any good because the pages are no longer active, but it’s not a pressing matter. 

But having all the entry pages look like each other, well, that was pretty high on my priority list.  Higher than the laundry and the litterboxes, that’s for damned sure.

I did some more digging yesterday, what a pain that is. I’m so frigging out of shape that I can only do it for a couple of hours and that’s a shame.  You can go see what I’m working on in the the family album, go to the miscellaneous section, then “the yard”.  We bought Roundup at Home Depot last night.  Gonna kill that grass one way or another.

We bought eighty more pounds of Felidae dry last night, then went to the chiropractor’s, then stopped at a little Mexican place by the name of Marieta’s off of Mission Gorge.  We split a meal ( remybussi ) because they’re so big and our appetites have been getting smaller (but not our waistlines, go figure).  And we ordered a pitcher of margaritas.  We left feeling pretty good.  beerchug

We watched the final episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond”.  I have to say, I was kind of disappointed.  It wasn’t as bad as the last “Seinfeld”, though.  That was the worst.  I guess the Raymond episode left you with the knowledge that everybody does love Raymond, after all.

Brian talked with one of his old employees yesterday, who had gone into business for himself.  He’s doing quite well as a matter of fact.  Anyway, he told Brian that his truck was broken into last week. All that was taken was his briefcase (with all of his quotes and worksheets in it) as well as all of his business cards.  Sounds pretty hinky to me.  I bet someone starts showing up at jobsites, impersonating him.  Bad deal, that’s for sure.



02:56 PM - 05/17/2005

The topic: Leftover flea news
----------------------------------------------

Sammy has tapeworms!  Blech. crazy  And so does someother kitty, which those dried tapes on the bed tell me.

Nasty things.  Good thing I bought some tape stuff online last year.  It’s good until 2006.



03:36 PM - 05/17/2005

The topic: Kitty Karma
----------------------------------------------

This morning on our walk, I saw a kitten (dead) in the gutter.  It was a long haired tortie. I cried for this little kitten and wondered how on earth it got to where it was.

Give your kitties a big smooch and maybe a little treat the next time you see them.  Tell them that you love them and that you’ll always do your best to do right by them.

And never put them in harm’s way.

:(



08:03 PM - 05/17/2005

The topic: the best flea
----------------------------------------------

is a dead flea.  So far, I’ve gotten twenty-nine of the cats dosed with Advantage.  There will be some that most likely won’t get any.  Autumn, Little Bit are two I won’t try with.  I might be able to sneak a little onto Red.  I snuck some onto Lonee this morning and you’d think I’d stepped on her tail.  She went running off, all in a huff and when she stopped, that weird feeling on the back of her head/neck area was still there, so she’d run a little more.  She finally ended up under a bookcase.  But she really needed to be dosed, her lower back is just covered in scabs.

I probably won’t be able to get Jackson either.  Unless he’s in a sound sleep facing away from me in one of the cat beds.  I’ll keep watch and if I see him like that, I’ll get him.  Pete is usually hard to do, too.  Joey still needs to be done as does Rachel.  But one of the nice things about this Advantage, you get most of the cats, all of the fleas eventually die, because they don’t just stay on one cat, they cat hop. 

I used the flea comb on a couple of the cats yesterday morning and I ran it down Marco’s back.  Oh, lord, what a mess. Obviously, he’s so fat he can’t reach back there to clean and the comb came away filled with flea dirt.  Nasty stuff.  But no fleas, so the stuff is doing it’s job.



09:46 PM - 05/17/2005

The topic: More about the new look
----------------------------------------------

I just thought I’d mention a few of the changes.  Between days, there’s a bar stretching across with the words “newday” on it.  For different posts within the day, it says “newpost”.  On the entries made before I started using greymatter software, there’s only a bar saying “newday”, but I usually only posted once a day, so that shouldn’t be much of a problem.

I also added an easy access “donate” button at the bottom.  Just in case anybody wants to send a little of their hard earned money to the cathouse.

Oh, and about that picture at the bottom of each page, that’s really me.  It was taken last year at Disneyland.  That’s a candy necklace on my neck (left it all blue, too).  My mouth looks funny because I’ve got my betty bob teeth in.  I was trying really hard not to bust out laughing because I was having such a good time.

I really like this picture.  My husband does not.  I said last night that I figure I’d use a picture that doesn’t look a whole lot like me.  He gave me a look that said “oh, yeah?” 

I still like it.



wave2

      Wednesday, May 18, 2005



08:01 AM - 05/18/2005

The topic: Damn diary
----------------------------------------------

 

You know I’ve been messing with it and I thought it would be fun to add another line to the top where I mention the weather. Well, I got it to work, but lost the function for the commenters to use smilies.

And also when I add a reply to a comment, the format gets messed up.

And when I delete a comment, the entire post gets messed up. I don’t know if you’ve ever spent much time reading other blogs, but some of them have a short amount of material on the first page, then there’s a link to a second page, the “extended” page which had the entire entry. I don’t use that, I have everything on the first page. Well, all of my entry gets moved down to the extended section and all that shows up on the first page is some weird code, I think it’s called “linear” (some geek code speak) that looks like “0|0|1|00”. I recognize this as something that is used in many guestbooks and forums and such, from looking in my directories. (As a matter of fact, I’ve had to rebuild these forums using that format. Time consuming but it got the job done.) But it doesn’t belong where it’s showing up, it should stay hidden and never be seen by the public.

So, I spend hours yesterday trying to figure out why on earth this was happening and when I tried using a copy of the software without my hacked code (the weather), it works fine. But when I add that weathercode, it starts fudging up again. Which I didn’t figure out until hours and hours and hours of trying to find where the problem lied. I guess it was about seven thirty or eight last night. And I’d been working on it since before noon.

*sigh*

I’d really like to have the weather option, so I left a message over at the greymatter forums, in the hopes that one of the code geniuses can tell me what I’ve done wrong.
 


141031083



08:13 AM - 05/18/2005

The topic: Today’s walking $$$ tally
----------------------------------------------

Thirty-five cents.

Found a dime and a quarter in the middle of the street by a local school.

We’re rich. yippee



08:25 AM - 05/18/2005

The topic: Cats, of course
----------------------------------------------

Well, I have to make an appointment for Benny.  There’s something going on with his right eye.  It looked like it had a little scratch last week so I started putting terramycin in it.  Yesterday I notice it’s starting to look a little cloudy over the pupil.  This isn’t good.

The last time I had a cat with a cloudy eye it turned out to be uveitis.  I think it might be because he got smacked in the eye by Handsome.  Reading this website, about the causes, I don’t really think it’s because of FIV.  I don’t think Benny has FIV because he was vaccinated about four or five years ago when he got shaved.  And I don’t think Handsome had a chance to deep bite wound him, I think all he got was a mouthful of fur if he got that close.

So, I have to call the vet after eight this morning and make an appointment for him. banghead



08:29 AM - 05/18/2005

The topic: Sammy
----------------------------------------------

Crap. I just went outside and Sammy’s tail looked weird, I check it out and the end is missing fur and is bloody.  It looks like it was scraped or something.

I wonder if he got it caught on something. 

Gah.  It’s always something around here.



09:02 AM - 05/18/2005

The topic: Old age
----------------------------------------------

I forgot how to spell “genius” this morning. I had to look it up.  It’s gonna suck when neither of us can spell.  Brian’s already there.

I really need to exercise my brain more.  I think it’s starting to atrophy.

yes <——- when I do this, it’s starting to rattle



10:43 AM - 05/18/2005

The topic: Damn collection agencies
----------------------------------------------

So, I’m on the phone with my mom this morning and that irritating you’ve got another call beep starts up.

I tell mom I’ve got another call, she says goodbye.

I answer the call. She asks if I know a person by the name of me before I was married. Yeah, that’s me, but I haven’t used that name in twenty years. She’s calling on a deliquent Discover card bill, for an account that was started back in 1989.

And this person lives in Richmond Virginia. No, not me.

She rattles off a social security number. Nope, not mine. She rattles off another one, with two different digits. That’s mine. She asks me if I know anybody by these names. Nope. She gives me a phone number of the person she’s looking for. I don’t know that number, I have no desire to have that number, because I sure as hell ain’t calling it. I don’t know those people from Adam.

I should have asked her how the name was spelled. I bet it was “Diane”. Mine is “Dianne”.

How’d you get my number? I ask. She called my mother in law, which would mean she has my married name as well as my maiden name. And my mother in law gave her this phone number without having thought it out.

So, I think she was satisfied that the person she was looking for wasn’t me. But after talking to my mom, my mother-in-law and reflecting on this whole thing, I decide to call back the number who called me. Just to make sure it wasn’t some sort of scam.

Of course, it didn’t show on caller ID because it was a call waiting call. I *69 and got the number. I call it. They want my account number. Don’t have one. I kept pushing 0 on the number pad. Finally got through to a rep. Told her my story.

She asks for my social security number. I give it to her. Nope, nothing on file. Phone number? Nope, don’t have anything on file. Mother-in-law’s phone number? Nope, nothing for that either.

I’m safe.

What I think happened is someone quit paying on a credit card they’d had since 1989. Someone with the same name as me, before I was married. Who knows why, maybe they died. It certainly hasn’t been in collection for sixteen years (can you imagine the interest?). This representative plays Nancy Drew and looks at SS records and find a number similar to the one she’s got for the person she’s looking for and the name is the same as the one they’re looking for. So she tries to find a number for me and can’t, so she finds one for my mother-in-law.

Of course, even though I was reassured I was safe, I’ll still be a little nervous about this. Especially since my married identity was stolen a few years ago (with no long lasting consequences because I was right on top of it, but still….).

In a dull life, there’s never a dull moment.





wasntme



07:29 PM - 05/18/2005

The topic: Ads that stink
----------------------------------------------

Arby’s.  I absolutely hate the Arby’s ads.  Starting back at that stupid talking mitt.

And Taco Bell hasn’t had a good commercial since they fired the dog.

shit shit  Two piles up.

      Thursday, May 19, 2005



08:32 AM - 05/19/2005

The topic: Do you ever
----------------------------------------------

say really nonsensical things to your cat(s)?

I find myself calling Pete “peterpetepeteypetepete” on a common basis.  Brian tries to say it, but he says it wrong.  There’s a certain way of saying something moronically.

DeeJay is “deejerbeegerweegerbeege”.

Annie is “annienanner” (not all that bad).

Wally is “wallywallywalterboy”.

I was just wondering if anyone else does this.

biker

 



12:48 PM - 05/19/2005

The topic: Back from the vet
----------------------------------------------

with Benny.  His appointment was at 10:30 and wouldn’t you know I couldn’t find him anywhere?  I had my keys and phone ready, the carrier on its side so that I could just plunk him in.

If I could find him.  I looked for about fifteen minutes and was on the way back into the house to reschedule his appointment when I saw him.  He was covered with dried grass, so I have absolutely no idea where he was.  I don’t know of anyplace in the yard that has dried grass that he could have been laying in.  I called him, he came over to me and I walked towards him, we met halfway, I picked him up and brought him in, and plunked him into the carrier.

I didn’t have a long wait, went into an examining room, Benny got weighed (he’s lost about a pound since last July, most of the cats have been losing weight since we switched to Felidae) and the vet came in shortly.  He checked out Benny’s eye, put deadening drops in it,  stained it and looked under a blacklight.  And the diagnosis is there’s nothing that can be done.  He’s just got some sort of calcium deposit in the cornea.  It doesn’t bother him, it’s not life threatening and he’ll just learn to look around it.

The vet did a short little health exam, looking in Ben’s mouth, listening to his heart (“this cat is in really good shape!”), and he noticed all of the mat’s on Benny’s tummy.  I told him Ben will not let me comb him and I was waiting for the weather to stabilize before I made his annual grooming appointment.  (Which I did right after I paid for the visit, next Wednesday Benny goes in for his annual lion cut.) The vet felt sorry for him and told Vanessa to go get the clippers.  She brought them back in and Benny’s belly is now shaved, so I’m sure that feels better.

So, we’re back home and happy.  I’m glad Benny’s eye is okay, but I sure wish there was something that could be done about it.  It looks weird.

mona



04:07 PM - 05/19/2005

The topic: Now, that was really odd…
----------------------------------------------

this site was suspended. I wasn’t sure why they’d suspend me. I put in a ticket (which was strange that I could even access my control panel to do) and I noticed my webcams kept sending images and I wasn’t getting any error messages on those, but I couldn’t ftp in using cuteFTP. 

I kept checking the ticket to see if there’s been a response and an hour after I submit, there’s a message to not put in more than one ticket per issue, they’ve responded to my other ticket.  What?  What other ticket?  No matter, I see the site is back up.  This was their response to that mysterious second ticket:

“Sorry about that, we didn’t actually see your account under the list of suspended accounts. Your account should be active now. Sorry for the error.”

So, the suspension was an error.  I was really concerned it might have been because of all the rebuilding I’ve done of this blog for the past week.  Which I’m not doing anymore, I’m giving up on the weather thing.

Oh, and I did find that second ticket.  It was time stamped a minute after the original one.  I think their system had a little hiccup.

Oy, I’ve got a headache. bonk

      Friday, May 20, 2005



10:41 AM - 05/20/2005

The topic: The weather today
----------------------------------------------

In this morning’s paper:
 

 

Heat forecast for the weekend


Weekend weather is expected to be sunny and hot, with high temperatures reaching the 90s or even 100 inland and mid-70s in coastal areas, according to the National Weather Service.

Today’s highs are forecast for the 80s to 90 inland and the low 70s in coastal areas.

The high temperatures are produced by sunny skies combined with high pressure over the Southwest that produces sinking air that warms as it sinks, meteorologist Steven Vandenburg said.

 

Overnight lows could dip into the 50s in the coastal and inland areas, he said.



That’s why you’ll find me here:



 

You’ll know I’m down there when you can’t move the backyard camera. atongue

      Saturday, May 21, 2005



07:31 AM - 05/21/2005

The topic: This offends me.
----------------------------------------------

I was reading a blog this morning and someone posted a link in the comments section, to another blog that states “150,000 people will die today”. Then there’s a link to see if you’re ready.

The referred website is needgod.com.  Now, I’m not going to make that a link, because I don’t want the owner of that site to come over here and read what I’ve written and give me a bunch of grief.  Some of those bible thumping fundamentalists can be as bad as pro-declawers.  But there’s a little questionaire of eight items.  I answered it.

I broke most of those by the time I was six years old.  I’m headed for hell.  cwm36  And I would venture to guess, so is just about everyone I know. 

At least the Catholic church (of which I’m lapsed) gave you the opportunity to confess your sins and receive absolution for them.

I sure wouldn’t like to meet that guy’s God.  He sounds rather mean and unforgiving.  I was taught that “God is good”  (remember the “God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food”?).

Gah. 

In my opinion, others who try to scare folks with “you’re going to hell” to get them to convert, are going to hell themselves. And they’ll be at the head of the line.  But that’s just my opinion.

It’s not carved in stone or anything.

      Sunday, May 22, 2005



03:24 PM - 05/22/2005

The topic: This cracks me up
----------------------------------------------

I just love what Laurence does with pictures he nabs from the newsfeeds.  Sometimes, his captions are screamingly (to me, anyway) funny. The president and family seem to be among of his favorite targets. In today’s entry, one of the commenters outdoes Laurence.

http://isfullofcrap.com/oldcrap/2005/05/the_wall.html

rotfl



03:39 PM - 05/22/2005

The topic: Quiet weekend
----------------------------------------------

So far, it’s been a pretty quiet weekend.  Yesterday, the tree hating neighbor was on their roof blowing pine needles off of her roof when we got home from breakfast.  When she was all done, she’d thrown piles of them over onto our yard, on the trees on the bank.  I really wanted to turn on the sprinklers but Brian (whom I had called) told me not to. Party pooper.  I took some pictures of what she’d done and I’ll have them up tomorrow.  Too lazy today.

Brian is so cool, he came home, took the big trash can out there, cleaned them up and is spreading them on the bank in the backyard as a mulch for the new plants.  What a guy.

I watched her doing it and she was so angry. You could just tell from the way she was throwing them down.  “I HATE this, I HATE these trees, I just HATE them..”  Well, you know what?  There’s nothing you can do about it, so you might as well learn to just live with it and do what you have to.  I mean, I don’t love cleaning the litterboxes, but it’s a job that has to be done.  No sense squawking about it and getting my blood pressure up.

I dusted and vacuumed yesterday, did the ceiling in the family room (we’ve got that nasty popcorn ceiling and stuff grows on it; when the fan goes you can see all of these cobwebby stringers moving), and cleaned the fans in the family room and the bedroom (which has mercifully quit being so noisy).  I also did some laundry and got it all folded, hung up and put away.  Yay me!

This morning, Brian washed his truck and he took it down to the shop and is bringing home his Bronco. I changed the sheets and went grocery shopping for tonight’s dinner.

Filet mignon (I didn’t see any in the case, so I asked the butcher and he cut two to the thickness I requested; I didn’t know they’d do that!), corn in the husk (for the barbeque) and two pies. One lemon merangue (Brian likes lemon merangue) and a cherry pie.  They’re small.  And I got some Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. Vanilla for the top of the cherry pie.  Some other fun flavors for later in the week.

Welp, I guess it’s time to slide on my suit. The backyard cam remote has been disabled and I’m ready to go.

Have a great Sunday!

smdance

      Monday, May 23, 2005



05:32 PM - 05/23/2005

The topic: Yawn
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I feel like crap.  I don’t really feel bad, but I’m tired and I’ve got a headache.  I didn’t sleep well last night, either.

I think it’s allergies.  They just wear me right out.  I need to drink more water and flush the toxins from my system.  I didn’t drink enough water this past weekend, I made a jar of sun tea and drank that.

I wasn’t feeling too badly until the sun came out.  It was foggy this morning, which was nice and I really was going to go outside and pull more weeds, but then I got busy trying to figure out why the printer wasn’t working right (cats peed on the automatic splitter) and by the time I was done with that, and getting the package of catnip out in the mail, the sun was in full force and I started feeling worse and worse.

      Tuesday, May 24, 2005



01:01 PM - 05/24/2005

The topic: Where did all the ingredients go?
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So, I’m getting dinner ready last night.  We’re having burritos made with refried beans, shredded cheese, this yummy chicken they sell at CostCo, it has a chili/lime coating, hot salsa and sour cream.

I go to the pantry to get a can of beans out and guess what?  Just like the tomato sauce a couple of weeks ago (remember me using ketchup in the spaghetti sauce?) there weren’t any.  I have to call Brian and ask him to pick up a can at the grocery store on the way home.  Luckily I got him before he passed it.

So, after I finish this, I’m going into the pantry and redoing that pantry so I can see what I’ve got.  I can’t even believe I ran out of refried beans.  I hate running out of stuff.

 

      Wednesday, May 25, 2005



06:52 AM - 05/25/2005

The topic: The next three hours oughta be fun.
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I pulled up all of the food last night because Benny is going in for his yearly “do” this morning.  And since he’s a squirmer, he might have a little anesthesia.  So, he wasn’t allowed to eat after midnight.  And when one can’t eat then no cats can.  It’s easier to pull up the food than to isolate the cat.

This morning when I opened KittyMeeze’s can of Fancy Feast, Benny was in the garage with me, along with some other cats.  He must be hungry because he rarely does this.  For some reason, Oliver went after Benny.  Then I yelled, Oliver ran out and Handsome came in, giving Benny the eye (remember, Handsome hates Benny and goes after him every chance he gets).  I hit Handsome with the spoon.  Not hard, but enough to get his attention.  He backed off. 

When Oliver went after Benny, some cat went sliding across the garage floor and into the Drinkwell fountain, spilling water all over the floor.

And it’s not even six am yet.



10:22 AM - 05/25/2005

The topic: Ponderance
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Okay, so most of you who have been reading this journal since I started it back in 1997, know how very much I hated those so called “monthlies”.  (So called because they were here every 21-25 days, not a month by anyone’s standards.)  I celebrated when Aunt Flo quit stopping by (last visit, March 2003).  Earlier this year, I finally got rid of all of the products.

Now, I know with menopause come changes.  My beautiful silvery hair (yay! no more streaking!), less body hair, slower metabolism (boo!), just to name a few. 

But one change has me curious and I’ve never heard this addressed before.  I’ve asked, but no one could answer.  Maybe someone reading this will know.

All of my life, I’ve had straight hair.  Unless I’ve set it or have a perm, it’s straight.  Well, there’s been a new development.

 

 


Curly hair.  Where is it coming from?  Can I expect that all of my new hair is going to be curly?  I just think this is really strange.  So, if I’m finally getting something I’ve wanted all of my life, does this mean maybe my metabolism will change, too?  Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

By the way, the shirt I’m wearing in this picture is the Annie tee from my store, lisaviolet designs.

      Thursday, May 26, 2005



11:31 AM - 05/26/2005

The topic: Busy right now
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with pictures.  I’ve got about fifty I’m going to be uploading to the catpix over on the family album. I just have to get them cropped and tweaked a little bit.

And I have to go to CostCo.  Went to make Brian’s lunch this morning and the bread was moldy, cool, huh?  So, he got a mash of tuna and mayonnaise and a sleeve of saltine crackers this morning (I was already in the process of getting the tuna ready).  Yummy, right? 

We’re out of some of the basics.  And maybe I’ll get some fresh ground beef and some hamburger buns, too.  I’ll check out the potatoes we’ve got and if they’re okay, not get any new ones, but if they’ve got eyes, I’ll buy new ones.  And make potato salad and this weekend Brian can barbeque hamburgers and we’ll have potato salad and eat on the patio.  Oh, yeah, and some margarita mix. I’ll make margaritas and we can watch the sunset after we eat.  A nice Memorial Day.

smdance

      Friday, May 27, 2005



01:30 PM - 05/27/2005

The topic: Found out a couple of days ago
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That a car was stolen from a house down at the corner a week or so ago.  They found it on a street a little ways from here.  It cost the owners $400.00 to get it back from impound because it took four days to process the paperwork.

Boy, am I glad we started locking the gates.



01:36 PM - 05/27/2005

The topic: DeeJay
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Well, I saw DeeJay peeing blood again earlier this week.  That same night, I saw blood clots on the towel, the same kind Annie has passed.

I started DeeJay on amitripyline yesterday.  There was no bloody urine last night and none so far today.  And he’s resting much more comfortably.  I also started adding some feline digestive enzymes to his food, hoping they’d help him to better process his meals.

He started getting them a couple of days ago and he’s not pooping nearly as much as he had been.  I haven’t found a DeeJay poop on the laundry room floor since yesterday morning.  He’s also put on three ounces since the beginning of the week. 

I hope this all helps him feel better.  It’s nice to see him sleeping well.



02:51 PM - 05/27/2005

The topic: What I love about my cats - a pictorial
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(Remember, clicking on a picture will take you to the full sized image.)

 

 

I love how they can be so soft and so regal at the same time (Chandler)

 

I love the way Little Bit thinks I can’t see her when she hides in the grass

I love how Handsome keeps me on my toes; you never know when he’ll be thinking about starting something unpleasant with one of the other cats

I love Wally’s long whiskers

I love Oliver’s big cat face

I love Annie drinking from the tub faucet, perched on the edge of the tub

I love DeeJay sharing my pillow

I love looking out of the bedroom window

I love that I don’t have to buy them toys (Benny and Phoebe)

I love to watch them play with the toys I do buy (Marco)

I love how Benny looks with his summer do

I love the way Ciara lays on my chest when I’m on the computer, and tilts her little head sideways as if to say “Hi, mom!”

 

What can I say? They’re cats.  Ya gotta love ‘em.  Because they’re cats.

This week’s Carnival of the Cats is being hosted by Ripe Bananasbanana banana banana.  So, if you’d like to see more gorgeous cats in more fun poses, hop on over there and check out some of the other catbloggings.

Want to talk about cats?  Join Benny’s forums...the Cats Door is a private forum, for discussion about cats only.

 



04:23 PM - 05/27/2005

The topic: Gosh darn credit thieves.
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I just checked my credit card statement online.  Now, last week I found a bogus charge of $349.00 for regsoft.com.  I order stuff that uses them, but I didn’t order anything for that amount.  I call the company to find out for sure (hey, when you get older, you start to forget stuff).  I guess I ordered a developer tool for VB.  I did?  Nope, I surely didn’t.

So, I got the credit.  Since then I keep checking the new charges. There was one I saw today for $29.95 from ccbill.com.  I go to that site.  They collect payments for entertainment sites.  Read that “porn”.  I didn’t see it last month (I guess that $349.00 kind of caught my attention and I missed this other one).  The guy on the phone called my attention to it.  It’s for a subscription to an Asian porn site.  Okay.  Can you please give me a credit?  “No, you’ve received the service.”  (See the name on it is mine, the address is mine, but the email address is not. It’s close, but it’s not…and I can’t find a website with that name on it.)  So, I told him I’d call my credit card company and put in a dispute on those charges.  He said that’s what I have to do.  So, I did.  And I also cancelled that card.

It’s a Citibank card.  I guess it’s so common now, that there was no problem getting the account closed and new cards for a new account are being overnighted to us (which will get her Monday).  I asked if he wanted the email address the other guy gave me and he said “no, we don’t need it”.

What a pain in the butt.

      Sunday, May 29, 2005



09:17 AM - 05/29/2005

The topic: Story contest!
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I think this might be fun.  A new contest.  The winner gets a half of an ounce of Benny Da Kat’s Finest Kind Homegrown Catnip ($5.00 value!).

Okay, here are the rules:

—>The story must be based on the picture shown

—>The story must be exactly one hundred words, no more, no less

—>The story must be posted using the comment box, any other type of submission will be ignored

—>The contest is open until this post scrolls off of the page

—>Don’t forget to include a way to contact you

Okay, and here’s the picture that needs a story….
 

 


Have fun! big grin

Want to talk about cats?  Join Benny’s forums...the Cats Door is a private forum, for discussion about cats only.

      Monday, May 30, 2005



10:38 AM - 05/30/2005

The topic: weekend stuff
----------------------------------------------

Saturday, we went down to Home Depot, where Brian bought a new gas grill.  He’s had a really hard time getting the coals on the little Weber going the past few times. And I’ve noticed an odd taste to the meat, whether it’s hamburger or filet mignon.  Which really wasn’t the reason for the gas grill, that was because of the hassle of lighting the coals.  I have to say, I was pretty surprised at this decision, because I always thought hubby was a barbeque purist. 

Anyway, he got it put together (we had to move some of the cat condos and trees that are on the patio, if you visit the patiocam with any regularity, you’ll see the moved condos at the right of the picture; good deal, because this means more cats on camera), then we left to go to CostCo, where he could get some propane tanks (less than $20 each, empty of course), then we headed down to the Sears Outlet store in San Diego to look for a new frig for the shop.  The one out there died years ago, its only purpose is to set crap on.  Garden crap, suntanning crap and a big speaker.  We don’t have much available storage in the house and the house frig is filled with cans of Miller Lite (CostCo sells it by the 36 pack and I don’t drink it all that fast; for some reason, Brian put every single can in the frig and Brian doesn’t drink beer, never even tasted it).  I’ve kind of been pushing for a running refrigerator for the shop to put sodas, all this beer, bottles of water and other kinds of beverages in. 

He’d checked online at Sears, we looked at Home Depot and at CostCo for a new refrigerator, but there wasn’t anything acceptable for a reasonable price.  Off to the outlet store, the same place I got my humungous front loading washer and dryer a few years back (for an awesome price).  We found a really nice model, it’s black (like the one inside) and it’s 20 cubic feet (bigger than the one inside).  The freezer is on the bottom (“energy efficient” I tell Brian, he doesn’t know why, I say “heat rises”) and there is a ton of space on the top. So, this will be really nice for us.  Its normal price was $889.00.  We got it for $419.00 (cosmetic damage, which we sure couldn’t see) and by using our Sears card, we got an additional $21.00 off of the price. So, it was only $398.00, plus tax.  A deal.

Of course, energy usage will be going up, but we know that we won’t always be on the grid. When we move up to Ranchita, we’ll make and store our own energy.  Both solar and wind generated. There’s quite a bit of sun and I don’t think I’ve ever been up there when there wasn’t some sort of breeze.  From the day we first saw the property, I’ve been calling our little dirt street “Windy Way”.

When we got home, he put the refrigerator back in the shop where it had to stand up for at least 24 hours before it was plugged in.  Because he’d laid it down in the back of the Ranger for the ride home and the oil had run out of the motor.  It needed that 24 hours to relubricate. 

He went up to Ranchita yesterday, got home around 5:30, plugged the frig in, then started dinner on the grill. We had cheeseburgers.  The first thing that happened was the smoke alarm in the house went off.  Amazing.  I had to shut the office door because the grill is right outside of it.  But the burgers took less than five minutes to cook and it was really nice to not have to wait hours for dinner.

I told him he has a new job.  He told me that I can cook dinner on the grill, like baking, you know?  There’s a thermometer on the lid, so I guess I’ll check out the book that came with it and look at some of the recipes. It would be nice to not heat the house for dinner when it’s so very, very hot outside.

This weekend I also set up a fund, where all of the donations sent to the cathouse will go.  I call it Benny’s Fund.  I’ll use it to help out other cat owners in need.  In all honesty, although I like people sending money to me, I never felt quite right about accepting it.  So, I set up the fund for those that do appreciate what’s done here and if they want to donate, then I know it will go to good use.  I mean, how many fuzzy, rattling mousies can one cat home need?  I’ve got a drawer full of extra toys, since I buy them in bulk. We’re set for a while. I’d rather pay to get a feral queen spayed so that she doesn’t bring more unwanted cats into this world (it’s a hard life for many ferals).  And there are many people who can’t afford it.  I hope that we can help a few.

Welp, that’s it for now.  I need to refresh my coffee.

      Tuesday, May 31, 2005



10:09 AM - 05/31/2005

The topic: Handsome
----------------------------------------------

He had a bad day yesterday.  I cleaned dried snot around from his nostrils a couple of times yesterday.  He wasn’t really happy about it, but it was impeding his breathing. 

He was also drooling quite a bit, so I think his throat was sore.  But he’s doing better this morning.

I’ve noticed Handsome is like Ciara. When he doesn’t feel well, he wants to be snuggled.  Poor little guy.



03:47 PM - 05/31/2005

The topic: Free Sensible Choice food
----------------------------------------------

As you might recall, we quit feeding Sensible Choice when they dropped the bag size to fifteen pounds from eighteen, without a matching price drop. We started using Felidae and the cats are doing much better on it.

Well, I just was doing a little cleaning up and I found nineteen UPC symbols for the Sensible Choice Maintenance food.  I’ve got one freebie coming from Petco, which I’ll pick up this week (I can use it for cat treats; different is a treat around here).  That will give me twenty symbols. 

If anybody wants these symbols, there will be enough for two fifteen bags of Sensible Choice Maintenance (I think that’s what it was for) Cat Food.  I’ll send the symbols along with the mailer envelope.

Join Benny’s Cat Fight Forums, where you’ll find the Cats’ Door….all cat talk, all the time…..no dogs, no birds, no horses….just cats….

biker



05:27 PM - 05/31/2005

The topic: Junk faxers
----------------------------------------------

I hate junk faxes. I really, really hate junk faxes. The company fax is here at home and it has its own line. And we got tons of junk faxes for junk stock deals. We got junk faxes for vacation deals.  We got junk faxes for health insurance deals. We got junk faxes for mortgage deals.

When we first started getting them, I foolishly responded to the “call this number to remove this fax from our database” message at the bottoms of the faxes, thus verifying that our fax number was valid and available. I’ve spent many hours online trying to figure out how to stop getting this crap.

I finally got caller ID for that phone line. And I added an option available from the phone company for an extra charge, that was supposed to give the line even more privacy. Except that the people who were sending faxes had a hard time following directions and we weren’t getting the faxes we so badly needed.  After less than eight months, I discontinued the caller ID for that number. And the junk faxes just kept coming.  And I just kept getting more and more irritated.  Irritated because there was nothing I could do to stop them.  And we got many more once caller ID was removed. 

Well, a couple of weeks ago, Brian called and asked if some faxes had arrived, that were very important.  No, they hadn’t, but we had gotten a half of a junk fax (the fifth one in less than twenty four hours).  I checked the machine.  The thermal roll had run out.  If we hadn’t gotten so many junk faxes, we’d not have run out of this and Brian would have received the faxes in a timely manner.  I called the phone company and got caller ID put back on that number.  There were less junk faxes, but there were still junk faxes.  See, the junk faxers got wise.  Now, a number was showing.  A Miami area code. And if the number shows, the call isn’t considered anonymous and the junk fax comes through. 

I finally started looking online for some help and I found a little box that claimed to stop all unwanted calls.  You could block up to a hundred and seventy five numbers, as well as wild card numbers. I ordered one. 

It took me a couple of tries before I finally got it set up correctly.  And this morning, I watched as a call came in from a Miami number.  I had programmed in this area code using the wildcard option and I waited to see what happened.  Nothing.  The call never reached the fax machine. 

I was happy.  Like I told Brian, it was a little expensive, but it will help my blood pressure (one time I called one of the numbers included and got into a yelling match with the lowlife on the other end) and paper and film won’t be wasted on advertisements for products we aren’t the least bit interested in (one of the stock faxes said “not an advertisement, for informational purposes”...yeah, right). 

You do have to have caller ID for it to work properly, but I’m thinking it will be money well spent.

And I have a message for the junk faxers out there:

moon



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lisaviolet is seventy something, married with no kids, takes care of lots of cats, likes taking photographs, loves Southern California weather and spends altogether too much time avoiding her responsibilities.

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