I can find the information funny, and I do feel different and happier after reading or watching something funny.  I never thought much about it, figured I’m still getting the benefits of laughing.

My husband, however, is the total opposite.  If he finds it funny, he will definitely crack up. Out loud.  Heartily.  THAT makes me laugh.  In fact, the other night, we were lying in bed, and he was reading his new book 5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth by The Oatmeal.    He was laughing so hard he was shaking the bed!  And so my response was to crack up too.  I had no idea what he thought was so very funny, but I started laughing so hard tears rolled down my face.

I started reading that book last night, and to my utter disappointment, nothing more than a chuckle so far.

I think I need to laugh more often.  Chuckling isn’t nearly as cathargic.

I just thought I would share the story of how Joey came to be a part of my life.

It was April, 1990, Easter weekend to be exact.  My sister and I were both visiting my mother over the Easter/Spring break.

My first cat, Sallie, had passed away a few months before and her companion (and my sister’s) cat, Puff, was lonely.  He was driving my mother crazy and sticking to her like Velcro.   I had suggested to my mother that she get Puff a companion, so that he could lavish attention on another feline instead of her.  I also recommended she get another male, cause back in those days, in the country,  it wasn’t common to neuter your pets.  Of course, my mom didn’t listen to me, and kept putting it off.

So this particular day, April 14th, to be exact, my mother had to work at her second job in a candy store at the mall.  So my sister and I went along with her to do what you do at a mall.   A few doors down from the candy store, which was located in the food court, there was a pet store.    This pet store often had kittens from cat owners who couldn’t find homes for their kittens (see above re: neutering).   This particular day, my sister and I went in, and saw two little kittens in a cage.  There was Joey, in all of his black and white fluff, and another.  We fell in LOVE with Joey.  So we went to the candy store to tell my mother all about him.  We told her that she NEEDED this kitten.  That Puff needed the kitten.   She refused to go look.  She was afraid of falling in love.

So my sister and I huffed out of the store (well, I huffed, I don’t know about her) and walked around and then decided that we would buy the kitten for her.  So we returned to the pet store, told the clerk that we wanted to buy the kitten, but that we had to wait until our mother was done working to get him.  He had no problem with us doing that.  So, we bought the cat, the clerk put a sign on his cage and we went back around the mall.

It was in JC Penney, walking through there, when my sister and I picked out his name.  Since it was Easter, we thought it should be after some character from the Bible.  We obviously didn’t want to go with Jesus or Pilate.  So we went with Joey, after Joseph and the coat of many colors.   We figured that if he had a name, Mom would be less mad at us.  Oh and she got mad … but it’s not what you think.

A bit later, my sister and I were having a soda and chose a table near my mother’s store.  She came out of the store, STOMPED over, and in her indignant mother voice said “Why didn’t you girls MAKE me go look at that kitten?  I went to see him and I love him and I would have bought him.  But because of YOU GIRLS, I lost him.”  We looked at each other, told her “Sorry, we really are, we did try to get you to go there.  Who’s minding the store?”  So she stomped back over and went back to work, while my sister and I cracked up.   As an aside, the thought of my mother stomping cracks me up.  In the last few years of her life, she had trouble walking, but 20 years ago, she could stomp.  How funny.  I barely remember her being 43.

So it was 9:15 and we had 15 minutes to get our cat, so we hurried to the GC Murphy’s bought an Easter basket to put him in, and we went to the pet store and asked for a box.  We placed Joey in the basket in the box and waited at a table for my mother to finish closing the store.

When she did, she saw the box and she asked “What is that?”  I said “Something we bought” and told her to look in.  She saw the kitten, and looked at me strangely, cause she knew I couldn’t have a kitten where I lived, and I said “Happy Easter Mom.  His name is Joey”.   She broke down and cried.

And I was right, Puff and Joey were instant friends and Puff didn’t bother my mother nearly as much.

I think about how things have changed.  Now, buying a pet at a pet store in NOT a good thing.  I also didn’t understand cat behavior and while unneutered male/female arrangements will cause kittens, un-neutered male/male will cause spraying.    Puff did start spraying.  :(

Three years later, my mother had to move, and “had to” (you never have to) give up the cats.  Well, there was no way I was giving up Joey!  I called around, checked with the no-kill shelter, who explained the waiting list, which was way longer than I had to wait.  Nowadays, that shelter has boarding.  How wonderful it would have been then … cause I knew I was moving too, but not for a couple of months, and I would be allowed to have the cats.

So I did what any sensible person does.   I broke my lease and took the cats.  Did I mention one sprayed?   I got them both neutered immediately, the spraying stopped, I moved to the house that would let me have cats and for the next 17 years, Joey was my most wonderful companion.

Later this week, I’ll finish the story for you.

Below is what happened in August, in no particular order:

We celebrated our nephew’s birthday:

We had record breaking temperatures:

Skyler discovered the dryer:

We discovered a dead mouse:

I celebrated my birthday with my cousins:

We were visited by fawns:

The geese started to gather for their southern migration:

I started a quilt:

The cats continued to be cute:

Despite getting a diagnosis of heart failure, Joey the Wondercat continues to keep on keepin’ on:

Oh, if only I could keep his face that clean now:

We went to Cedar Point:

We went to Ohio Pyle to see kayakers go over the falls (do not try this at home):

and attempted to see Cucumber Falls, but the summer was dry and it wasn’t much to look at:

and I had my zoo docent orientation:

All in all, a very good month.

In this episode, Colleen talked about her appearance on The Food Network. Now, you know I have talked about The Food Network and Vegetarianism before, as that was a very early post to this very blog.  I must give a note that this particular podcast was recorded in January 2007, when veganism was hardly ever mentioned.  I know that in recent days, a vegan cupcake was the winner of the cupcake wars and that a vegan (Natalie Portman) challenged the contestants on Top Chef or some show similar where chefs compete against each other.   But back in 2007, before veganism became trendy (it is, haven’t you heard?), they weren’t really doing much with it.

According to Colleen, the crew was fantastic with her.  They were professional and polite and everything else you’d want in a group of people filming you.   The segment they were filming was about “vegan barbecues”.    The crew spent the day with Colleen and her friends and everyone had a good time and loved the food.   Naturally, Colleen was a little nervous about the editing of the segment.   Which, apparently, was actually very well done (there is a rumor that the editor is a vegetarian).   However, the show the segment aired for was for a Bobby Flay barbecue show and he does episodes called “Crazy-ques“.

Yup, this segment was one of four stories about crazy barbecues.  The other segments included a barbecue taking place at a gas station and another taking place in Area 51.

Now, how does a veg*n barbecue compare to those weird things?  It doesn’t!  The only difference between a veg*n meal and a “regular” one is the lack of animal flesh/products (depending on whether its vegetarian or vegan).   And let me tell you …. VEGANS EAT THE SAME FOODS AS EVERYONE ELSE. The difference is what they DON’T eat.   Everyone, veg*n or omnivorous, eats fruits, vegetables, grains, beans … all normal food.  Yes, I’ll give you that most non-veg*ns probably don’t eat tofu and tempeh and seitan regularly, or probably never, but everything else that a vegan eats, so do non-vegans.  We just don’t make up something and say “it’s food”.   We eat the original food given to us by nature, before we learned to hunt and kill.   We eat food!  It’s not crazy!  People who don’t eat fruits and vegetables are not seen as crazy!  Even though I personally think not liking fruit is a little odd, it doesn’t mean I think you are crazy.

It’s just not!  It’s just a little different.    Thinking outside the box!

I just had to get that off my chest!  :)  Thank you for reading.

Also, I would love to see a vegetarian cooking show on the network.  I know of a lot of people who are interested in vegetarian cooking, even if they are not a vegetarian themselves.

For more information about Colleen Patrick-Goudreau check out her website:

#mce_temp_url#

Here is the podcast that this information came from:

Minding the Gatekeeper

Today, I have a house full of workers, who are repairing the spiral steps that Hope had fallen through.   They are noisy, with the power tools and stuff, but they promised to be done today.   The cats are all in the basement, cursing my existence.

I honestly love pretty much everything about living here.   I love the fact that there is a lot of storage and therefore I don’t have to look at my clutter.   Living in a 100+ year old house for the last seven years and an apartment before that means that there really isn’t a lot of storage.   In our last house, my clothing was in closets in a different room from the bedroom.  I don’t have that problem now.   When I am out and about, I forget that I have an attached garage and I am expecting to have to haul my stuff through the yard, until I get here and am surprised all over again.

I am not spoiled yet, and I still don’t take the house for granted.  I know how incredibly fortunate I am.  However, I keep reaching for the medicine cabinet in the bath because I am used to having one above the sink and I have to remember that my stuff is in a drawer.  It’s funny … it’s a 40 year habit, and I wonder how long it’ll be before that habit wears off.

My favorite thing about the house though is the privacy and the yard.  We have watched a family of geese … six babies grow up from fluffly little things into the almost adults that they are now.  They look like geese … they have the long necks and dark fur.  They are still fluffier than a full fledged adult.  The other day, I watched them learn diving lessons … one of the babies didn’t want to do it and walked around the side of the dock and walked in the old way.

And now we have baby deer.  Two fawns.  They are so cute when they are out there frolicking.   When they run off, their tails seem too big for their bodies!

The only thing I would change is that I would be able to go for a walk without having to drive to the park. I know its only a mile to the park, but I miss being able to just get up and go without needing the car.

But its a small price to pay.

Enjoy some pictures of the babies:

First born (above)

Splashing in the water in our driveway

They are getting bigger!

This is the newest picture … see how they look like grown ducks now!

Our nephews, Jacob and Joey (cousins) both graduated from kindergarten and had their final t-ball games last weekend.  Here is some cuteness from those events:

Jacob graduating from kindergarten

Joey playing T-ball

Nicholas being shy, and telling me that he is three.

Katelyn was in a good mood and we bonded totally.

Jacob playing T-ball.  That was a good hit!

Till next time!

That face belongs to Hope, my adorable and sweet little 7.5 year old Snowshoe cat.   Besides wanting to squeeze the juice out of her, I want to protect her always.  Wouldn’t you?  (If you are a cat lover that is).  And I’ve done a pretty good of that so far!

Last Friday, my husband and I moved into our new house.  We were very excited about this.  We really upgraded in our space, size, location.  We can’t get over how beautiful this house is and how fortunate we are to now own it.  Sure, its more to clean and more to heat in the winter, and yes, we have a driveway to shovel in the winter as well.  We thought the cats would LOVE it here … so much more space for them to run around in and stay away from each other when they want.  The wooded backyard … that is a cat’s dream!

However, there is the big foyer with the beautiful stairs:

Gorgeous aren’t they?  Yes, one of our favorite features.

Until …

You look down.  If you are scared of heights, its creepy.  If not, its cool.  Unless you are a small pet owner.

If you hadn’t noticed, the steps don’t have backs.  And cats often like to lay on carpeted things.  And squirm.

And sometimes, they squirm … right off the steps to the bottom of the spiral.

This happened to Hope.  She was squirming.  I saw this and tried to get to her, but I was too late.  The next thing I knew she was at the bottom, and landed on her side on the ceramic tile.   She wasn’t moving.  When I stood her up (I don’t recommend you do that, I am a trained professional) she fell right back over, so off to the emergency vet we went.

We knew she was alive, but she was very dazed and not moving, so all kinds of worst case scenarios went through our heads.  Spinal damage, neurological damage, a rib puncturing a lung.  We called the emergency vet while driving there and they were ready and took her back immediately.  After waiting an interminable amount of time, we found out that she is relatively okay.  She has a dislocated hip.  The x-ray showed that plain as day, but when when the orthopedic doctor looked at her, it was already in place.  We opted for an ultrasound to make sure that there was no internal bleeding and left her for 24 hours for observation.

We took her home the very next day, obtained a referral for a possible surgery, in which they would shave down the femur so that the hip could stay in place, and with orders to keep her on cage rest for 14 days.  If her hip stays in place, she will not need surgery.  But how can one know if she is caged all the time?

Anyway, she will not tolerate the cage.  All she does is cry, cry, cry and it breaks our hearts. Look at how sad she looks:

I finally let her out … she is walking fine, she runs around for a few minutes, then finds a place to sleep.  She is hardly an active cat anyway.

We’ll keep our eyes on her and get the steps corrected for safety.

I would just feel better if she would sleep somewhere other than the spiral steps.

One day, Matt says to me “I used practically all hot water and the shower still wasn’t hot”.  We both took a few showers like that, until last weekend, Matt went to check the hot water heater.  He came up from checking on it and he says to me “Hey, you turned that down way too much, it was on warm.  I changed it to medium” or whatever.

Um, I never actually did that.  Really.  I know sometimes my memory isn’t as sharp as it used to be, but I can definitely assure you all that I never got around to checking the temperature of the tank.  So tell me … if it wasn’t me, and it wasn’t Matt and cats don’t have opposable thumbs and therefore cannot do it … who did?

Last Friday, we closed on our new house.   During the inspection, we were told that a GFI switch doesn’t work and we couldn’t figure out the basements heater, but we tried out the doorbell.  And the ring is quite unique … and very long.  So on Friday, my in-laws came with their truck and took us to IKEA for the furniture we wanted.

We were there putting stuff together, when my brother and sister-in-law show up with our nephews (and baby niece).  During the evening, we discovered that the GFI DOES work and Matt figured out how to work the heater.  However, Matt was entertaining our older nephew and told him to check out the doorbell.  Guess what?  The doorbell didn’t work.  And no-one knows why.  We tried turning on all the light switches (there are at least a million in the house) to see if that mattered and it didn’t seem to.

I know its coincidence, but I am blaming the same entity for both pranks.  He or she can stop now.  Thank you.

As far as the move goes, Matt & I are rolling along on the long to-do list. We have selected a painter, bought living room furniture to be delivered the day before move-in day, put a pool table on layaway and picked out the rest of the furniture that we will buy as soon as we close. We did end up picking stuff at IKEA, but our cars won’t hold a lot and there was no sense in having it delivered HERE and then moved again, so we’ll go out at a later time. We also just accepted the fact the we have to build bookcases. I was also quite surprised to see how expensive dining room sets are. I knew they weren’t cheap, but what we saw, besides IKEA was quite heart attack inducing.

There is still a lot to do around here. Still some projects at the house we need to find someone to do. I haven’t made any phone calls this week, except for “one” which turned out to me many to the same place. Yesterday, I spent my whole afternoon with one company. See, there was incorrect information on two of my credit reports. The address I never lived at didn’t bother me much, but the collection charge did. My mistake was trying to have the collection agency take care of it for me. After three, no four, days of talking to different people and talking to about 10 different people and hearing “You know this isn’t your charge, right?” I was ready to explode. YES! I KNOW it’s not mine, but its on my credit report people and holding up my mortgage, grrr. After talking to the very last person yesterday, I was told to call the credit bureau (Experian). Now, this sounds pretty logical right? Well, except that they won’t talk to you unless you have a “report number” and I didn’t have one because I ordered mine online. Finally someone yesterday shows me where to find it. It is deeply buried in the interface. Tell me what sense does that make, considering you need that number just for a general inquiry?

Anyway, after I had that number, Experian was most helpful. The person I talked to there asked if she minded if she put me on hold. That was how I spent my entire afternoon. I didn’t care again. She called the collection agency herself and got confirmation that it wasn’t mine and promised it would be removed in 48-72 hours. This morning, I received the e-mail that said the information was deleted! That was even faster than Equifax, who, when I called for the collection account number I needed, asked what was up and filed the dispute and took care of it for me. I received that confirmation on Thursday.

So while I will say that collection agencies are not necessarily evil, and the people working for them are not evil, they are just doing their job, I will say that they just don’t do it very well. If you are ever in this situation, go straight to the credit bureaus. Learn from my mistake.

So this week was crazy. Monday was the first contact with the collection agency and that took the morning and then we went furniture shopping. Tuesday, I had a vet appointment. Wednesday, an appointment with my neurologist/headache specialist and yesterday, the deal above. Running, running, running. I thought I quit running.

The neurologist told me that I have migraines due to chemical imbalances in the brain. Oh lovely. Sometimes they are helped with anti-depressants, but not the one I’m on. But he didn’t change that.

I’m on a new “retrain my brain” to work regimen. I need to take my medicine right away, not wait to see if it goes away. I need to tweak my supplements and exercise (even walking, it doesn’t have to be intense, high impact every day) even on migraine days. On migraine days, keep it to 30 minutes and take it down a notch. So instead of high-speed walking of 1 mile in 15 minutes, I say, do 20 minutes or more per mile. I am to be on a regular sleep schedule … nice one, doc, I’ve been trying to do that for YEARS ha ha … and eating schedule. That I can handle.

This weekend should be nice. I won’t have the collection thing hanging over me anymore. We are going to be home on Saturday, doing things, although Matt will go running. And on Sunday, we are going to see our girl Kayla at college and take her to dinner and a movie. It’s always nice hanging out with Kayla.

I have more to say, but I’ll save that for another post. Thanks for reading!

Yesterday, I had my last physical therapy session and a check-up with my orthopedist. Neither feel more PT is necessary, as long as I continue to weight train on my own. Which I can certainly do. They both did some strength tests with me, where they pressed on my leg and told me to push against them and not let them push me. When I first started all of this, I couldn’t resist them at all on my right and now I can. I still need to do lifestyle changes, such as cross training, resting when necessary, losing weight, going to yoga. All of those things I can do.

I have to admit, I haven’t exactly missed running. It’s been a cold difficult winter. I am relieved to have not had the burden to feel like I had to train. And now that Matt is up to his 3+ hour long runs, even though the weather has been lovely for the most part, I am relieved that its not me!

Kitty health around here is stable. Indy is still on medication to bring his liver values down. I didn’t expect this treatment to go on so long, but his last result was still 130, and we need to get him under 100. Joey was not pleased with the treatment he got for his mouth … liquid antibiotics, but it did get him to eat and the mass has massively shrunk. Yay. He will be on/off antibiotics in two week cycles for a long time. He is not happy about it, but I can live with the treatment.

So my husband and I have bought a new house and have slated 5/7 for the move-in date. To prepare for this, we have been doing some massive amounts of decluttering. It is amazing to me how much stuff can accumulate in seven years. One weekend, we started working on the basement. I had actually started that project myself a few times and had a big pile of stuff for the thrift store, which we still need to bag up and get out of here. We spent 108 minutes that weekend mostly breaking down boxes and cardboard. The municipality we live in does not recycle cardboard and I never actually set up a system for dealing with cardboard. I do have a need to keep some boxes that are in good shape, as I have seven nieces and nephews that live in other cities, so I do ship things to them. But I certainly didn’t need to save all of these.

Fortunately, the new township we are moving to recycles cardboard. That makes me very happy. I am a recycler! I just hate having things go to waste. I like to find some use for things, if I don’t want them. Maybe that is the reason behind my packrat tendencies. Some of it is laziness. As in the case of the big pile of shredding … we never shredded this stuff … who wants to mess with that.

This is just a small sample of the shredding we accumulated from various parts of the office, mostly our lovely filing system:

Fortunately, there are companies that will shred for us!

Magazines? I’m addicted. Glossy paper, matte paper … doesn’t matter as long as its paper and pretty. Here were what I considered the “extraneous” magazines in my craft room.

A post on freecycle and they were gone in a few days!

Whoo.

And cooking? Have I been cooking? Well, not too much. Sorting and reorganizing has been taking center stage. Although a few weeks ago, I made the following Sweet Potato Stew from Joel Fuhrman’s book, Eat for Health. This recipe is from the phase one section.

It was yummy. You can make the veggies smaller if you wish and have it more soupy, but I liked it just the way it was.

Recommended side dishes were brown rice (that I didn’t cook enough) and braised bok choy. I had no idea if I would like the latter item. It was okay. I had never braised before, and honestly, I can’t remember how to do it. Here is what it looked like:

This weekend, we will be working on that basement some more. Surely that is the hardest thing to do before we move … besides actually moving. Oh, and making phone calls. I hate making phone calls. There are a lot of phone calls to make in order to move. Does anyone want a job making my calls for me?

And I personally, have had a lot of bad customer service coming my way lately.  I’ve mentioned it on this blog.  However, this week, things really turned around.

It all started when I bought a sewing magazine.  I fell instantly in love with one the projects, its a wall hanging quilt for Halloween.  It’s not really hard, and I wanted to make it, but I didn’t want to have to go and find different fabrics to make it. Call me lazy, but I wanted THOSE ones.  Particularly the middle panel.

So I sent an e-mail to the magazine inquiring about the fabric.  On many projects they state the name of the material and where to get it.  But not this time.  I didn’t expect a response.  I thought maybe it might be a question in the letters section in next issue.  To my astonishment, actually got a response.  They gave me the “brand” of fabric and links to three stores that the manufacturer said ordered a lot.  I check out the web sites and … not helpful.  They were pretty much brick and mortar stores, with no option to buy online.  One did have option to buy online, but didn’t have very many of the collection.  The person who wrote me the letter actually called her local fabric store and asked them if they had any before sending me the link to that store, which unfortunately, did not have an internet store.   To make a long story shorter, I did find everything I needed.  Two of the patterns are in different colors than I wanted, but it will still look nice.

To think how many possible letters they get every day and they took the time out to help me.  I was overjoyed.

For an encore, enter Sears Optical Online.  You know how I hate the customer service in the Optical store at Ross Park? I’m not sure if I have mentioned it here, but in the past … well, lets just say that my contacts are usually sitting there and I never get called about them, or they get lost and I have to go back to the store after I was already there.  They seriously are not organized there.  Very unmotivated employees.  The doctor himself though, he’s a good guy.

The last time I needed contacts, I decided to see if I could order them online, have them shipped here and  not have to worry about the store not calling me or losing them again.   I could!   This time, however, my prescription had run out and I wasn’t happy with the brand I was using.  I mentioned that to the doctor at my exam, and he gave me Ciba Vision to try and ordered trial pairs of two other pairs.  I loved the Ciba Vision and wore them for nearly three weeks, before I went to the store to see if my others were there.  The people working in front were all “Were you called?”  “No, but, see, you NEVER call me and they are always here”.  I am sure they called me some bad names in their head.  So they looked for them and couldn’t find them.  I said “I need new ones, I am going away for the weekend. Why weren’t these ordered?”  I was promised that they would be ordered and overnighted to the store.  By the time I got home, I get a call saying that they were there, they had been misfiled.   SIGH!

So, after wearing contacts for the next few weeks and deciding on what brand I needed, I was up against another travel deadline.  The pair I was wearing felt like I had pebbles underneath them.  And well, you just read what I was working against.  So I ordered them online, knowing that they would get the prescription.  And they did, everything was going fine, and then the dreaded e-mail.

My toric (astigmatism) lenses were on backorder and they weren’t going to ship at all until they came in.  I begged!  I replied … ” I have two toric lenses here. I just need the sphericals.  Please send them separately. I need them, I am going on vacation. I hate the ones I am wearing now”.    So the ordering department called the distribution center.   The DC said that everything is in, shipping Friday, when do I leave?  I said “Monday.  I’ll pay for overnight shipping (the post office will even deliver on Sunday)”  and then I get an e-mail …. the DC is sending me two “trial” pairs and I should have them by Friday, to hold me over so that I can get through my trip.  Those are FREE.   And I think are both lenses, not just the sphericals.  The next day after all of this, I received notice that my entire order shipped.

Today, Fed-Ex pulls up to the door and delivers me my new contacts.  I have two toric lenses (those suckers are expensive) and two trial boxes of the regular ones … and each of those has three lenses in there, so that is SIX total.  A WHOLE FREAKING BOX of contacts for free.  All because I was in a tight spot.  And I didn’t even mention the stupidity of the store!

Now THAT’S customer service!

On the tails of that, I am actually communicating with the handyman and Matt had a truly wonderful experience with the University of Pittsburgh Ticket Office today.  We had ordered three tickets to Saturday’s football game, but someone else is going to join us, so he called to see if he could purchase another.  Expected to not be able to do it and we would need a plan B … whether it was buying four new ones and reselling the three or moving back to unoccupied seats in the section.  However, the lady working that day, was awesomely nice and managed to exchange our three tickets for four better ones.

I need to call USAirways tomorrow.  I am afraid, very afraid.  I don’t want my streak to end.