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      Tuesday, May 06, 2008


catstuff
09:32 AM - 05/06/2008

The topic: It’s TUMMY TUESDAY #89!
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Well, it’s a rainy Tuesday here in Sunny Southern California, thunder awoke me around four this morning, the next rumble I heard coming through, I touched Brian’s head (he was face down, fast asleep in his pillow) and he woke up startled and was all “what?”.  I said “listen”.

More thunder, then the rain started.  We both went back to sleep, no walking this morning.

And Potter shows what he does when he hears the thunder, how he stays safe.


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Potter pulls the pillow over his head.

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If you’ve got a Tummy Tuesday blog entry, feel free to post the link in the comment section or trackback to this entry. And if you put a link back to this page, then more kitties will get to show off their tummies!

      Saturday, May 10, 2008


otherstuff
11:21 AM - 05/10/2008

The topic: Dead tv
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It started last week.  The picture jumped, there were lines through it.  Then, just a line.  It would come to full picture after warming up.

This morning, it never got past the line.  I turned it off and on a couple of times and finally, there wasn’t even a line.

Wah!

Oh, well, knowing this was going to happen, I ordered a new tv last week, it will be delivered Monday.  It’s at the San Diego FedEx facility right now, got there last night at 9:30.  I wonder if we could go pick it up. 

Heh. Like Brian would be okay with that.  He’s got too much other stuff to do.

I did find that Goodwill will take the old television, even though there’s no picture.

The real sucky thing is I can’t change channels in the other part of the house.  And since the tv isn’t working, I can’t see what I’m changing it to without going to another room to view the guide. 

*sigh*

Oh, well, I’ve always got the internet.

      Tuesday, May 13, 2008


catstuff
09:30 AM - 05/13/2008

The topic: It’s TUMMY TUESDAY #90!
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And once again, we've got a Benny belly.


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He’s so cool, even that flash going off doesn’t bother him.

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If you’ve got a Tummy Tuesday blog entry, feel free to post the link in the comment section or trackback to this entry. And if you put a link back to this page, then more kitties will get to show off their tummies!

      Tuesday, May 20, 2008


catstuff
09:09 AM - 05/20/2008

The topic: It’s TUMMY TUESDAY #91!
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And today we have a twofer, taken last night in the garage. We have Opie and Chandler, laying on the floor, in front of the blocked off cat door.


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If you’ve got a Tummy Tuesday blog entry, feel free to post the link in the comment section or trackback to this entry. And if you put a link back to this page, then more kitties will get to show off their tummies!


otherstuff
09:33 AM - 05/20/2008

The topic: About four weeks ago
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On a sunny Sunday morning, when I woke up, my right thumb wouldn’t pull out straight. Lots of pain. I finally got it to pop and it was really strange, it made this weak assed little sound when I’d try again. I figured maybe I’d strained it or something.

After trial and error, I found one of those cloth splints seemed to help, but the pain was still there. Finally last Friday, I asked the chiropractor about it and he tested me, said my thumb was jammed. Lovely. I know when my ankle was sprained when I was in high school, I was in a cast for six weeks. So, who knows how long this will take, especially since I use it in everything I do. Opposable thumbs, you know?

Which is one of the reasons I haven’t been making more entries than I have been. That sucker hurts. 

Lots of Advil on hand, though.

The swelling has gone down, which is good, now I just have to wait for the pain to go away.

*sigh*


tales from the parkside
09:49 AM - 05/20/2008

The topic: It’s been three months today
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Since my mom quit living.  Time is an odd thing.  The first month after she’d gone, it felt like the hurt would never go away.  Today, it’s almost as if she’s been gone for years.  And when I think of how much there is to do at her place before selling it, it seems like it’s been years.

But, it hasn’t.  It’s been three months.  The week before last, I emptied the closets and packed up the clothes.  For clothes, there are nine good sized boxes to be donated.  The towels and blankets went to the National Cat Protection Society, I took those in last Thursday, they filled up my little car. 

Besides last Thursday, I didn’t do anything beyond the towels and blankets last week, trying to save my thumb. What I did do was go through the five or six boxes of things I’d brought home. Paperwork, photos, letters, things along that line.  Tons of photos of people who I didn’t recognize at all.  I kept the ones with mom or dad in them.  I kept dad’s retirement paperwork.  The other stuff either went into the dumpster or into a box to be shredded. I ended up with one Rubbermaid tub of photos and paperwork.  It was sad to see it reduced to just that one container. 

Long before my mother died, she’d say to me “Kim gets your father’s Rockwell plates. And I want you to send some money to your cousin Maria.  She’s the glue that holds that family together, I want her to have something when I’m gone.  I want my stuff to be donated to Father Joe, I do NOT want people walking through my house to buy things, looking at my stuff.  And I want you to have everything else, to do what you want with it.”

Well, we’re working on the Father Joe stuff, I’ve got probably one box of things to bring home that I’ll try to sell. Maybe set up a little “garage sale” section on my store.  Kim has the plates.  And last week, I finally got to the bank to get a cashier’s check made up to send to my cousin.  (I was told money orders only go to a thousand dollars.)  I had it done for twice the amount my mother had mentioned, due to the rate of exchange and the dollar being so weak overseas. 

I went to the local Rite Aid to find an appropriate card to go with it. I ended up with a “thank you” card, because Maria had given my mother so much emotional support throughout the years and I just knew my mother thought the world of her. Maria is my cousin that mom called not once, but twice, from Chase. Mom had that phone number down pat, one of the few things she could remember.  Maria was surprised mom had been there since the beginning of January and I was surprised mom had enough brain left to make the call and to let Maria know she was doing fine, visiting friends, away from the phone, not letting Maria know what was really going on. Although I don’t think mom really had a handle on the reality of what had happened to her.  But mom loved Maria very much.

After Rite-Aid, I came home, put a short message in the card and printed up two of the photos I’d taken of mom while she was at Chase.  I wrote a message on the back of each, and got the envelope addressed.  Put it all together, then headed down to a local FedEx shipping place. 

The cost to get it there, with tracking, was over $65.00.  There was a declaration of what was in it, but I was cautioned to just say “card”.  Don’t mention money.  I explained what it was and the woman next to me said “that’s really nice of you to do that”.  I looked at her, a little confused.  I didn’t see what I was doing as “nice”, I saw myself fulfilling my mother’s wishes.  She said “well, there are lots of people who’d say “yes, I’ll do that”, then they wouldn’t.”  I laughed, told her my mother would haunt me until my dying day if I didn’t do it. And she said “no, that would be your conscience”.  Nah, believe me, it would be my mother.

Anyway, I got the tracking number and was really excited when the online tracking showed the envelope delivered.  Maria called a couple of hours later, it had taken her that long to compose herself.  One of the first things she asked was “do you want this back? I’d understand if you do, it’s a lot of money”.  She kept saying that and I kept telling her “no, no, it’s yours, I don’t want it back”.  “Are you sure you won’t be calling tomorrow and tell me that you’ve changed your mind?”  *laughing*

She said there was no one else home when it arrived, so no one else in the family knew about it. And she wanted to ask all of her sisters (there are nine sisters) to meet her for lunch tomorrow and she was going to give each one an envelope with money in it and then “have lunch on Aunt Vi”.  I wonder how that went, I hope they had a good time and raised a glass in mom’s memory.

My mom was a good woman.


otherstuff
10:20 AM - 05/20/2008

The topic: Spoiled child
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That's me. Remember the Olympus camera I got last month, the one I got instead of the Canon?

Last Monday, my Canon 40D was delivered.  I got it on eBay, it came with some lenses and other stuff.  I got it from the same seller who sold me my Canon Powershot Pro1.

I absolutely LOVE this camera (I’d probably love it even more if my thumb was normal).  I ordered a couple of more lenses from eBay, got the Macro lens yesterday, still waiting on the zoom lens.  The response time of this camera is phenomenal.  Not at all like the other digitals I’ve had where there’s a lag time between hitting the button to take the picture and the picture being taken.

Here are a couple of pictures I’ve taken with it, there are more over on the photo album site, both in the Pets and Miscellaneous (yard) sections (check the EXIF information for the camera that took the photograph).

Miss Elizabeth

Miss Elizabeth

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Oliver smiling

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Pancho on top of the freezer in the garage

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Rachel gazing out of the office window

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Bobby and Ronnie wrestling

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Phoebe Weebee Baby talking to me

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I’m just thrilled to death with this camera.  All along, my frustration with digital cameras has been the response time.  I am absolutely amazed with this one.  So much to learn.

Ah, the part of my father that was passed on to me.  The love of photography.  One of the things I found during the cleanup at mom’s was his embosser for his little photography company.  I kept it, it’s right here on my desk.  I might use it in his memory.

Now, if my thumb would just feel better. 

      Tuesday, May 27, 2008


catstuff
10:21 AM - 05/27/2008

The topic: It’s TUMMY TUESDAY #92!
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Last week, watching the catcam, I noticed Rachel twisted just so. So, I grabbed a camera and snapped a shot. And that's how I got this week's Tummy Tuesday picture.


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I’m late today because Brian got home after I’d gone to bed last night (spent the weekend making money working on his tractor….Yay!) and we slept in late.  I didn’t get up until almost nine this morning! 

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If you’ve got a Tummy Tuesday blog entry, feel free to post the link in the comment section or trackback to this entry. And if you put a link back to this page, then more kitties will get to show off their tummies!

      Thursday, May 29, 2008


catstuff
05:47 PM - 05/29/2008

The topic: Free to good home
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But wait! I'm not done yet!
I've got more to say!


tales from the parkside
06:14 PM - 05/29/2008

The topic: Dreams
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My mom came to me last week, in a dream.  She let me know she was okay.

Did you know that when you die, you don’t get any younger?  *lol*  But you do get healthy.

She’d put on about thirty pounds since I last saw her, she’d filled out nicely and her color was good.  We hugged, I held her hand and she was warm!  First time I felt her warm in years.  She said she was doing well, having a great time.  Said something about a contest she lost that month, some other guy won it and she was disappointed, she’d wanted that prize. 

I started to tell her she didn’t have to die and she ignored that.  I tried another time and, again, she changed the subject.  After all, it was a dead issue, she didn’t come to argue or debate, but to let me know she was okay.

She did tell me she appreciated what Thelma had done for me. 

But I felt good when I woke up.  More at ease with her passing. 

I’m glad she’s doing well and it was nice talking to her and seeing her looking so healthy.

      Friday, May 30, 2008


otherstuff
03:26 PM - 05/30/2008

The topic: I hate doing paperwork
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I’ve never liked it.  Oh, I’m okay once I get started, but up until that point, I hate it. 

So, I’m doing paperwork, right?  Got some previously ripped music on my computer, playing, rocking out.  Boz Scaggs - Silk Degrees just finished and now I’m listening to some Steely Dan - Aja, in fact.  Both CDs I’ve always enjoyed.

Add to that a couple of beers and you know what?  This paperwork ain’t seemin’ so bad.

*lol*

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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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