Sweet Jasper

Here he is, napping in one of his favorite spots--the sock drawer in Mark's clothing armoire. It's a beautiful antique armoire, with carved florals on the door panels. Jasper has improved it with the personal touch of claw marks across the top and front of the drawer. He likes M. to leave it open, or at least cracked so he can open it. If it's closed and wants to get in the drawer, he scratches at it repeatedly, thus, the claw marks on it. He frequently kicks out as many socks as he needs, so he can achieve the perfect level of coziness.

M. is giving a talk in Madison again tonight, so L. and I enjoyed a rare evening alone. We have plenty of nights that Mark is gone, but usually Hunter is here. Now I love H. and would never ask him to leave, but there are times I would just like to have mommy-daughter time. I don't ever want him to feel unwanted, though. So, I was tickled tonight when he said he had to leave at 7, so he could go home and watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown", with his dad. L. loves Charlie Brown, so I was planning to watch it with her and figured he would be with us as well. I'm so happy for him that his dad wanted to do something with him! And I was selfishly happy to have my girl to myself. We snuggled up with the dogs and Petey (who wants to be a dog) and watched the show together. She giggled throughout the show--the giggle she has that instantly makes me feel happy. It's cute and contagious.

Watching the Charlie Brown cartoon that I watched so many times as a child got me tripping down memory lane. For no apparent reason that I can identify, one of the totally unrelated random childhood memories that it triggered was of going to the grocery store with my mom. I shop at the same store now, though it's in a different location and about 10 times bigger. Anyway, going to the grocery store wasn't particularly fun (though I hate it with a passion now) but I remember the big thrill was having my mom draw moustaches on my brother and I with an ink pen. She always had a pen and a list, and we would ask her to draw moustaches. I have no recollection of why it was such a thrill--maybe because writing on ourselves with an ink pen was a big NO NO, so it was a little naughty. I'm not sure, but I also don't recall having any concern with what others would think about children with ink moustaches walking through the grocery store. I don't recall the ages we were when she did this, or at what age it stopped. I have a sense that we I must have been L's age (8) or younger, though, because self-consciousness rears its ugly head at around that age. Memory is a really odd thing. At least mine is.

Allegrea and I have had another big batch of homeless animals to find homes/foster homes for, so it's been a week filled with tons of phone calls, e-mails, heartbreaks, frustrations, and tiny victories. All this and it's only Tuesday. UGH! It's going to be a long, rough winter with all the animal dumping and displacement that results from the hard economic times. Thanks, rethuglicans. Please consider opening your hearts and homes to adopt an animal that would otherwise be killed. We all need to give a little more and work a little harder during these tough times. For the majority of you with 0, 1, 2 animals in your home, you could do more. A little sacrifice on your part gives the gift of life to a wonderful being who will literally be dead without you. I guarantee that the return on that investment will be more than worth it.

Enough said!

From an e-mail:

Dear friends,

In these times, with extremely serious, complicated crisises confronting us both economically and internationally, we need to have intelligent, educated people as president & vice president:

Educational Background:

Barack Obama:
Columbia University - B.A.Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.

Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden:
University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.

Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

vs.

John McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism

Rest in peace, perfect Winnie--the best hamster ever!

I'm sneaking in a quick blog entry, as we watch our family movie, Puss in Boots. I'm also trying to guard the popcorn from Jasper, the popcorn-thief cat.

This weekend has been mostly rough, but with a couple of high points. I met the most beautiful, special, stray cat on Friday. I spent several hours with her outside, most of them in the rain with a temp of 48 degrees. We kept each other warm. She has no tail and has seen some rough times, but she's a gorgeous long-haired torti. She also has kittens stashed somewhere. She's a smart girl, because two days of trying to follow her, searching, asking everyone in the neighborhood, and we still haven't found the kittens. There were five of us searching today--Les, Allegrea, myself, Luciana and Hunter, and we still couldn't find them. With the temp dropping into the 20's tonight and the horrible flea infestation, I would be surprised if the kittens make it. They are only a few days old. They could succumb to the cold or the fleas, which is an all too common occurence with stray kittens. They loose too much blood to the fleas and die from them. This will probably be the third night that I don't sleep. I really feel like I've failed them all.

We had another horrible blow this morning. Luciana went into the bird room to get Winnie (the hamster) out for his play time. She found him dead, in his favorite hiding spot. He was absolutely fine yesterday, eating, drinking, and playing as usual. That's the bitch of small animals--particularly the rodent family. They are great at hiding illness and just aren't robust. It's heartbreaking for all of us, but especially L. She cried for a couple of hours, and I tried to cheer her up by watching some of the Pink Panther cartoons on Netflix that she loves so much. It did stop her from crying, but she's still sad. Winnie leaves a big hole in our household, as he was already an important and very loved member of our family.

Now for the bright spots. I had a couple of women come to the door yesterday as Obama volunteers. We had a wonderful time chatting. I really enjoyed talking with them and hope to see them when we volunteer next weekend. (My intent is to volunteer next weekend, but my pain is ramping up and will continue to do so this week, so I'll see what my body allows.) They also left me a sign for my yard. Our very favorite neighbors have a matching sign in their yard, too. It improves the whole block! :D I do feel it important to point out though, that while I do not agree with Obama on everything--I disagree on many issues, as a matter of fact. Given the two choices, however, it is not even close. So, given the constraints of the two-party system, I will support Obama 100% to my fullest capacity. Even though my first preference in an ideal world would be, for example, a nice hot meal, when given the choice between a sandwich and a plate of steaming, runny shit, well, I will eat that sandwich with all the relish and appreciation in me, as it's worlds better than the shit. So having said that, I proudly support Obama with my sign, my time, and anything else I can think of.

Last night, we spent what would have been our date night with my parents and Luciana. Mark got tickets for all of us to go see Dallas Brass. We try to see them whenever they come to the area. They were fantastic as always. It was a great show, and they are so extremely talented and entertaining. It doesn't hurt that one of the trumpet players is quite yummy, too. L. was really happy to hear that they played the Pink Panther song. I've always loved that song, and now she does too. My Grandma, for whom L. was named, loved that song, and I learned to play it on the piano for her, when I was much younger. She died when I was 15, so that was quite some time ago. We enjoyed the show immensely though. The tuba player was new to the group. He reminded us of our friend, Mike M., in both looks and mannerisms. He made me kind of miss Mike, whom I haven't seen for a while. He was young, fun, and played a number that he wrote. It was very modern and funky--kind of techno sounding. He used multiphonics and some other techniques to make the sousaphone sound like several different intstruments, including mixing and scratching (like they have in rap). It was really impressive. He's clearly a talented guy who enjoys his music.

I enjoyed the evening very much, except the constant niggling concern about mommy cat and the kits. We also saw some friends there that I haven't seen for entirely too long. It was great to see them, and we are planning to get together and catch up.

After today's failed cat search we all came back in to warm up. We had some delicious hot chocolate--first of the season, and enjoyed a nice visit. Since Les & Allegrea are two of the people I love and enjoy the most (outside my immediate family of course), I always feel happier and recharged after spending time with them. We have some exciting new changes in the works for our animal rights group (formerly WAEN), and can't wait until we get everything finalized and can make the announcement. Very good things are coming our way!

Horrible rough day

And I'm too emotional to go into it right now. Later. The one bright spot in my day is that we voted today. M & I went to city hall to do our early vote for Obama, and I feel great about that. We missed lots of long election-day lines. It does feel nice to play whatever small part I can in helping to protect my kids future from those who don't give a shit about allowing them to live any kind of quality, free life, and having a world in which to live it.

This fabulous e-mail from my friend/mentor, Les really hit the spot tonight! Hell yeah! Seriously, if there is any organized movement in this direction, I'm 100% in!!

MESSAGE:

Dear Red States...

We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii , Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. You get Ken Lay.

We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood. We get Intel, Apple and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss. We get 85 percent of America 's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq , and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America 's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners), 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford , Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia. We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.

By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico .

Peace out,

The Blue States

The cure for picky eaters, by Luciana

Luciana has been going through a phase of being an extremely picky eater. She has been eliminating foods from her diet on an almost daily basis lately, and it's driving me crazy! I've tried to ignore it, use logic, use humor, tell her fine but no treats/snacks for the rest of the day or week--it has continued to get worse.

Tonight, again, she refused to eat her dinner. My mother prepared a very tasty winter chili, and L. wouldn't eat it, even with the threat of dire punishment. She claimed that it burned her tongue (it was NOT spicy, and it wasn't too hot). In a compromise to mitigate some of the punishment she earned for a) not eating perfectly good, healthy food and b) being rude by not eating something that someone worked hard to prepare, I gave her an assignment. Keep in mind that I am a picky eater with major texture issues. I simply tolerate a lot of what I eat, but can't get her to understand that even if you don't LOVE something, it won't hurt you to eat it. I totally understand not eating things that gag you or cause you to vomit, but that's not the case with her. She simply doesn't LOVE it. Anyway, she had to come up with a list of at least five things she could do to prevent this behavior in the future. Here is her list:

1. Bite my tongue, so I don't complain.

2. Just eat it and don't even think how bad it is.

3. Think about how bad a tattoo would hurt compared to a tongue burn.

4. Think, is it really worth punishment?

5. And think about poor people who eat bugs.

There you have it. A sure-fire cure for all the picky eaters in the world. =D I'm sure now that she's crafted this plan, we will never have problems with mealtime again. [/sarcasm]

T - 2 Weeks

Tica and Lila playing. Notice how Lila has crammed herself into the empty magazing holder she knocked off the shelf.

Living with a herd of cats is always and adventure and never, ever boring. Yes, I do know that technically a buttload of cats is called a clowder, but it’s somehow not as fun as envisioning a herd of cats. *Another interesting aside here: sometimes I type my blog entries in blogger and sometimes I type them in Word. I do not proofread at all—just spew. Anyway, when I type in Word, of course, my words are automatically spell checked. Spell checker does not recognize the correct term, ‘clowder’, nor does it recognize ‘buttload’. I think the absence of both words constitutes a gross omission on Microsoft’s part.* Back to my life as a cat herder.

On the very positive side, I think the combination of adding yet another litter box, pouring enzyme-based odor neutralizers on all questionable areas, and getting Ivan’s sore tooth pulled have eliminated the spraying that recently started to occur. I’m not sure if it was just one of the above or a combination thereof, but I am happy. Now if I could just get Carrie to stop eating too fast and hurling the entire contents of her meal in various places…

We are going through a slight territory adjustment period, as the cats lost some valuable territory. Carrie, Jasper, Oliver, and Ivan have enjoyed sleeping in various spots of the walk-in closet in our bedroom. I’ve been toying with the idea of evicting them since Carrie decided that, on a daily basis, she would scale up my clothing to the top shelf where I store my sweaters. This resulted in me having to spend time every single night hanging up the clothing that she knocked down (lots of it) and re-folding the sweaters that she shoved off to arrange a more cozy spot for herself. Often, I would find that she had stood on the top shelf and vomited her fresh meal onto the clothing hanging beneath—requiring laundering anywhere from 2-6 otherwise clean outfits. I complained but didn’t have the heart to take away such a beloved hangout. Then I opened my closet door one night to find that they had somehow knocked down and bent one of the floor-to-ceiling closet organizer units in there, dumping all of my blazers/jackets, shirts, and jeans onto the floor. Not only was I extremely unhappy to have to spend the next few hours fixing and putting the organizer back up, but I had to re-hang every single top and re-fold all of the jeans. UGH!! At this point, though, it became clear that while nobody had been hurt, they certainly could be if that unit was knocked down/broken again. The closet has been latched and off limits since then. Since they all feel the need to hang out in our bedroom for much of the night, this has caused some additional night time scuffles, while they decide how to reallocate the smaller territory.

Lila, at 16 months old, continues to expand her hobbies and interests. We still haven’t gotten around to re-caulking, and apparently removing the dining room wallpaper and constantly unrolling the toilet paper in the first-floor bathroom didn’t provide quite enough of a challenge. She has now started jumping into the litter boxes (usually right after they have been cleaned/scooped, thank chtulhu) and kicking copious amounts of litter out of the box and onto the floor. She then leaps out of the box into her litter pile and rolls around in it as if it were a pile of catnip. WTF is that about?! She’s just so happy and cute about it that I can’t reprimand her. I’m certainly not excited about the litter mess she leaves behind, though. You can see the litter flecks in her fur after finishing a litter roll.

Tiny little Tica has been sleeping with Luciana almost every night. She sleeps right up on the pillow, wrapped around Luciana’s head. She has also taken to licking and chewing L’s hair—eeeww. I’m not sure what the chewing is about, but it leaves some hellatious rats to brush out in the mornings. Despite being around 3 yrs old, Tica’s tiny size (5 pounds) and her kitten-like looks and behavior make it impossible to do anything but smile when you see her.

L. chose to attend Sunday School the last time she spent the night at my parents’ house for date night. She has no interest in church/god, but likes some of the crafts and children there. She came home very excited to show me the craft she made. I’m certain that this is not what they had in mind when they laid out letter beads for the children to make jewelry with, but L. always marches to her own beat. The cats definitely rule our house—I guess the world is next on their agenda.

Ivan's okay. Life is good.

My sweet little Ivan (yes, I know he's an ass to the world, but he's still my sweet baby boy) made it through his dental surgery today. I always get so nervous when my babies have surgeries. I know my vet and his team are fantastic, but there's always a risk. There is also always the heartbreak that I know they don't understand why I am leaving them in a scary, stressful place to have bad things done to them. He had his teeth cleaned and a big one pulled--poor baby boy. I picked him up this afternoon as soon as they allowed him to go. He looked small (even though he's a big chub) and frightened in his big cage and was drooling blood all over his pristine white fur. He wrapped his little 'arms' around my neck and held on for dear life, when I got him out of the recovery cage. They let me get him out, as he is likely to rip them open for trying to pick him up. He's a little tired and out of it, but he's already eaten, which kind of surprised me. He doesn't seem angry with me--just quiet.

Yesterday I took a vacation day from work. It was nice to have a day off when I and/or L. wasn't sick. We had a very fun day together. We went shopping and got her some pants that fit. Kohls had the nice 55% off sales that I like. We also got her some winter snow boots, as of course last year's are much too small. We wandered around the bookstore. And we came back home and baked cupcakes. She wanted to make chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting. I talked her into a compromise--we would make two batches of frosting and half would have vanilla (for her) and half would have chocolate (for me). The cupcakes were cooled, and she was just starting to frost when Hunter arrived here after school. They agreed that she would frost and decorate the vanilla frosted cupcakes, and he would do the chocolate. He ran some home for him and his dad and came back to play. She was off for the night, then, but at least I got a whole day of fun with her! At that point, I had to clean up the kitchen and get the stroganoff going for dinner. It was a good day and we capped it off with the final debate.

The debate was pretty much the same as the other two. McCain was even more irritating and stupid, looking like he was going to blow out a valve or something. That man has some serious anger issues. I would most definitely not want someone with that little control over his emotions and expressions to represent our country to the world! I've already scheduled a vacation day for the day after elections. I will be up until the wee hours, as usual, waiting for the final results. Besides being tired, I will hopefully be celebrating the end of this country's darkest 8 years.

L. and I are still studying the Greeks in history and their many, many wars. She's much more interested in the day-to-day lives and the god/goddess mythology than the wars. Unfortunately world history is full of wars, so she's going to have to get through it. She's having a hard time wrapping her head around the reasons for the wars. We read about and I try to explain the reasons, but ultimately they always boil down to a bunch of men who want money and/or power. She's been raised in a world and exposed to people who don't value money or power. We have a wonderful circle of friends to whom money and possessions are meaningless and they are more apt to give away than hold onto. We're also very much live and let live and non-competetive. She can't even put her head in a place where hurting others for resources/power would make sense. I'm glad she's that way, but it really makes for some difficult discussions during history time. She's never really been a selfish child, and I truly hope she stays that way--especially through the ugly teen years!

I had a few more shots from our afternoon at the arboretum that were pretty cute. L. was trying to teach H. how to make a whistle from an acorn top. She's very good at it and is able to make a very loud, shrill sounding whistle. It's cute for a few minutes, and then the noisy whistle starts to make me crazy and we have to declare a moratorium on whistling for a while. H. didn't quite get the piercing sound that she gets, but then she's had years of practice.

Flashback Monday

We arrived in Stevens Point Thursday afternoon and had time to check out a few of Mark’s old ‘haunts’. He went to grad school there, so we saw the college, the place he used to live, and some of the bars that he helped fund as a student. It’s a very nice little town.

















L. decided that she would rather get right into the pool at the hotel than go hiking when we arrived, so she got some swim time with daddy before his presentation. He then cleaned up and left for his presentation, and she decided she wanted to swim some more. Nature was not my friend, and there was NO way I could enter the pool or hot tub with her. She was perfectly happy to go in by herself and have me as a rapt audience. We were in there alone the whole time, which was very nice. She ran back and forth between the hot tub and the pool, and had a blast. She alternated between swimming and doing tricks (“Watch this, mom!”, “Watch me!”, “Did you see that?”) and standing in the pool chattering away. After several hours in the pool, she finally decided to call it a night, so she still had time to watch a movie in the room.

Even though our room was paid for, we are still too cheap (smart?!!) to pay $12 to see a movie in our hotel room. We brought the laptop with some dvds from home, and since the hotel had free wifi, we also had the option to watch the Netflix instant movies. She took a long time decided between many different choices and finally chose to watch the original Pink Panther cartoons. I remember watching those when I was young. I wasn’t sure she would like them, as they are so old and there is very little talking, etc. Much to my surprise, she found them hilarious, and laughed aloud through most of them. She watched them until it was time to go to bed. When we got home, she found a stuffed pink panther that used to be her sister's and has been carrying that around and playing with it since then.

She got up the next morning and dragged M. back to the pool. They returned to the room in time to shower and pack up for checkout time.

We finally were able to go hiking! We went to Schmeekle Nature Preserve, which was absolutely beautiful. We enjoyed a few hours of hiking in perfect weather. We got to see several deer, quite close up, and that totally made my day! We also saw the typical woodland critters, including a snake, but L. did not get any turtle or frog encounters, so she would only rate that hike as ‘good’. They only get an ‘excellent’ rating if she has some close-up frog/turtle encounters.

















We got back in town Friday evening and got unpacked and settled, just in time for Anthony’s arrival. He arrived sooner than expected, but since he’s like family, we don’t have to stress about how company-ready the house is. We were so happy to get back to our babies! They were fine, thanks to my mom’s care, but we miss them SO much when we’re gone!

Fall color

I have much to say about our trip to Stevens Point but will catch up on that later this week. We have had our friend, Anthony Marr, staying with us again, so I will keep tonight's post brief. Anthony arrived on Friday, shortly after we returned from Point.

We took advantage of one of our last beautiful days today and went to the UW Arboretum. We try to visit there at least once a year in the fall, but have also had some very nice spring visits, too. Our girls have always loved going there.

Today we took Anthony, and Hunter came with us as well. The weather couldn't have been more perfect! We walked through the prairie first, and found to L's disappointment that the path leading to the wetlands was closed, due to erosion. That eliminated our frog and turtle hunting, but L & H found many other things to keep them busy. We all had a very nice time, and the three adults took lots of pictures of the stunning fall color.

We came home hungry, so I made some pizza. We all ate, and I'm so ready for a nap now! I thought I would take advantage of this few minutes of downtime and do a quick blog. M. is walking the dogs, L & H are playing, and Anthony is planning his route for tomorrow, when he leaves for North Dakota.

Yeah, that!

A post about nothing, because I really don't have anything interesting to say tonight.

I can't believe it's midweek already! It's been a mixed week for me. I've had a lot of pain and health issues this week, which has been very unpleasant. On the other hand, though, I've had a very mentally challenging and productive 'week' (since my work week is Mon., Tues., and Weds., my week is now done) at work. I've solved lots of problems that I initially looked at and thought there was no way I could figure out a solution anytime soon. But I did, and that's been a real high for me. I love it when my brain gets a good workout! I even ended my day today on a kind of mixed note. I spent the last 1.5 hours of my day in a meeting, and I would generally rather have my teeth pulled (unanesthetized) than sit in a meeting. The meeting was with one of my favorite coworkers and two of my favorite users, though, and the subject was an interesting future project on one of the systems I really enjoy working with. I even stayed a half hour late, which made me, of course, later to pick Luciana up, prolonging the high point of my day, which is my sweet baby-girl hug. However, I was in a rather enjoyable meeting, so I can't complain too much. I woke up with a migraine this morning, but my drugs finally beat the headache by about 3:00. I guess it's been a good week overall.

We really enjoyed last night's debate, mostly because McSame tanked horribly and Obama did well. That entertains me a lot.

Oh, we did have our Petland protest Sunday for a while. It was pouring rain the whole time, but we stood out there for 1/2 hour, until our signs started getting to the point of structural damage. We had a lot of positive support from the community, as always, but of course attendance wasn't as good as it usually is.

We took L. out after dinner tonight to get some shoes. She would like to wear flip flops and sandals (with socks!) all winter, but we had to force her to get some weather-appropriate shoes. We ran into a friend out at Payless (one of the few places we can find decent non-leather shoes), who was trying to get shoes for her daughter. Her son and H. (who was with us, as usual) got a little rambunctious in the store, and I was horrified. My girls have never really behaved that way in public. L. even got a little wild and naughty. It was very distracting. Anyway, we did manage to find some shoes for L. but will have to go back at some point to get her some winter boots. I was too flustered and embarassed by the children's behavior to finish shopping. My friend is now fostering cats and had some questions about successfully socializing the new cats into the house. It was perfect timing, as I was able to quickly recommend the "Cat Wrangling Made Easy..." book that I just finished (and passed on to my mom, who is also finding it very educational).

Now that the cooler weather is here and L. has started wearing pants again, I see that almost all of her pants are too short. We will have to replace most of her winter pants/jeans. UGH! That adds up quickly. She is growing up way too fast!

M. has a speaking engagement in Stevens Point tomorrow night. Since we didn't get our camping trip last week, we are tagging along with him for a little mini trip. They are putting him up in a hotel, so L. and I are going along with him. We will do some hiking up there during the days, and enjoy the fall color. He speaks at night, and L. and that leaves us to play games and enjoy the pool.

I had to do a little photo shoot with our bunny, Scraps, a few weeks ago. One of our AR friends wrote an article and needed a specific type of photo to go along with it. Scraps is not a very cooperative little model, so I took zillions of pictures to get a handful of decent ones. Here are a couple of shots from Scraps' new modeling career. The computer screen ended up blurry and out of focus in several of the shots, because she kept standing on the arrows, causing the screen to scroll.

Another rockin' Saturday night for the B-D family ;)

Sadly, we had to miss out on our last chance to camp this year. Luciana had a cold with a bad cough, and we didn't think it was wise to take her out in the cold for so long. We stayed in town, but enjoyed family time together. It was very nice to have so much time to enjoy just the three of us.


Friday night, we took L. to Borders, one of her favorite locations. We used up her last Borders gift card (from last xmas), and she got several more books. She got the next four books in the Cat Warrior series that she is completely addicted to. She got a couple of other books that look pretty good. She started the next book in the C.W. series in the car, on the way home. She made friends with a little girl (10 yrs) in the children's section, and they giggled and talked and looked at books until we pulled her out of there to go home to bed.


I got a book called, "Outwitting Cats", which I started reading today. I really need help in that area, because so far, the cats are winning on every front. I just finished a book from the library called, "Cat Wrangling Made Easy". It's specifically for managing multi-cat households. It was a great book, and as many books as I've read on cats and cat behavior, I still managed to learn quite a bit. They are such amazing creatures, and reading about them reminds me again that they really are superior to me in so many ways. They appreciate that I feel and show the appropriate amount of awe around them, I'm sure!


H. came over to play at around 10 this morning, and they asked at around 8 if he could spend the night. They worked hard on building their robot. They told me that they had the 'belly part' done, but then decided to play something else for a while. We aren't really sure what they are doing for their robot, and they haven't revealed it yet. They have a pile of old speakers, routers and various other computer pieces and electronic parts. Mark brought up that his younger brother Dan, when he was younger, was also into tinkering and building, and just about killed himself in one of his projects. So we talked to them this afternoon about not EVER plugging anything in in their 'workshop' unless they had asked one of us and gotten permission first. They assured us that they would never do that without permission. I think they will need frequent reminding. They have a knack for forgetting rules, particularly when they are excited about something.

We are spending this Saturday night surfing the net on our respective laptops, taking turns running downstairs to check on the children. They want to sleep down in the family room tonight, instead of in L's bedroom. They have a tv down there and a new Scooby movie. The perfect night, when you're 8 & 7 yrs. old. Our big excitment for the night will be popping in our (Netflix) BSG season 2 dvd once the kids are settled down for the night. My husband sucked me into that vortex, which I am still embarassed to admit. That really cements my geek status! My Saturday nights were so, so very different, once upon a time.


The only upside of missing the camping trip (well, in addition to not having to leave my critter babies) was that I got to watch the debates. M. got bored and skipped a portion in the middle, but I watched the whole thing. I was quite disappointed that Phailin didn't hose up as bad as she usually does when she opens her mouth. I was pleased that she definitely didn't do well, though--just not as bad as I expected. It was painfully obvious that she couldn't stray far from her handful of talking points, much like a trained circus animal. She said NOT ONE SINGLE thing of substance and gave so many weird answers that didn't remotely pertain to the questions asked. Wow--it was painful to watch (not to mention listening to her horrid voice and white trash speech patterns). I missed out on the drinking games that everyone else around the country was playing with her, 'maverick', 'ya', 'you betcha'. I wouldn't have made it past the first 15 minutes with my pathetic alcohol tolerance anyway. She's such an embarassment to women! Why, oh why, would anyone in this country want a POTUS/VPOTUS who is not smart?! She can't even speak her native language properly for god sake! The U.S. does not need another ignorant hick in office to further embarass us to the the rest of the world! Here's a simple rule of thumb they should apply to anyone running for office: If they cannot correctly pronounce the word, 'nuclear', they should not have any power, control, or input on anything involving nuclear weapons or energy. Biden was very polished and professional. I thought he played it well for the most part.

We have a Petland protest tomorrow at 1:00. Join us! We're hoping the rain holds off. We certainly won't melt, but many of our signs will!


L. left a note earlier in the week for the tooth fairy again. Her previous note to t.f. was a request to clean L's room instead of leaving her money. The t.f. declined. This time, she simply asked if t.f. was a boy or a girl. She made little checkboxes again for the answer. She was so excited that t.f. replied the same way she did last time--by leaving a little smiley face in the checkbox. She's a girl, which confirmed L's suspicions and hopes.