Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to my cousin, Sara. She's as old as me now! Oh, wait... there's a number on the cake...she's thirty and I turned twenty-five (25) on my birthday last month (as far as you know). Yeah, we went to high school together. Yeeeeees, we did graduate the same year. What? Two words...child prodigy.

I shamelessly stole this picture from her blog. I prefer the term "borrowed," though. With kids as cute as hers, you have to expect it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SARA! Welcome to your 30's...you'll have to tell me what it's like sometime. ;)

Opening Day!!

Ok, I know this picture isn't really very kickball-ish but it is the only "athletic" picture that I have of Mike.

Mike is off to play kickball and drink beer with other grown men. I, on the other hand, am at home searching for anything to do except work on the homework that I need to finish. I feel a little bad about not making it to opening day but I really do have things I need to work on. I'll be there next week - I hope, anyway. The semester's almost over and I'm ready for the break.

Update: Opening day SUCCESS! Mike's team won their first game 8-4.

Huzzah!

My father is mastering the art of e-mail quite quickly. Today he managed to correctly load and e-mail me this picture he took in Stone Mountain during his vacation last week.

Be sure to congratulate 'Ol Charlie on his accomplishment!

Way to go, Dad!

One more

I had decided that I was going to spice up these posts with a random picture here and there. I didn't want to post too many or I'll run out of good pictures too quickly! BUT, I had to post this one. Take a look at Mike's face in this picture and then look at the picture where I caught him eating a cookie month or two ago.

Mike has wondered how it is that I can watch him on the phone and know what's being said by the other person even though I can't hear him/her. I tell him that if he doesn't want me know what he's talking about he'll need to get a new set of facial expressions. We've been together so long that I already know all of the current ones. Apparently there's not much hope of him really getting a new set when he's CLEARLY had these for so long. :D

Mike is nothing if not consistent. But then, there are definitely worse things he could be.

Compare and Contrast

Apparently these pictures were extremely popular during the late 1970's and early 1980's.

This one says, "Sep. 79." That makes Mike about two and a half and Kelly about six months.

I fixed the shading as best I could, but you can still see the sepia hues of the 70's.

This beauty is labeled "Feb. '81" on the back. I would have been three going on four and Matt...Mr. "Too-cool-for-school"...was about two months.

So really, he's just been cleverly posed and is too little to do anything except lie there like a slug. Note the Dukes of Hazzard sweatshirt and green shag carpeting. Nice.

The Cookie Monster

Sad

Mike's Aunty Gertie has been sick and last night she lost her battle against the infection in her body. Please keep the family in your prayers.

Anniversary Card

This is the card Mike got me for our first married anniversary. Nice, huh. There was no jewelry in it, though. Poop. Maybe next year. :D

Anniversary Day!

It's Mike's and my anniversary! 11 years together - 1 year married. Our friend Leigh took us out for an anniversary brunch at Kitsch'n yesterday and today, beautiful today, we're taking a picnic lunch downtown to Millenium Park.

I'm trying not to be cranky. We were out until WAY too late last night...well, this morning. After we were out in the suburbs for the evening - going out to eat and what not - we ended up at our friend Sergio's. He just got Guitar Hero II for X-box and so we played that for HOURS. Plus drank anything that was left in the house, basically - and generally hung out. Mike kept saying, "We need to go soon." But somehow, Serg talked him into more Guitar Hero - or another beer. And when we finally walked out of his apartment, it was light outside. I was like, "No WAY." And so, Mike had to get up for guitar class today and he woke me up before he left because he wanted me to make the sandwiches and have the picnic ready to go when he gets home. So I'm going on about five hours of sleep and I can feel a touch of crankiness lurking beneath the surface. I'm sure when I get outside in all that sunshine, it'll *poof* disappear.

Besides...look how cute Mike is. :D How could I be anything but happy today?

ENJOY THE DAY! IT'S BEAUTIFUL OUT!

Caleb's Post

This post is for Caleb...and you'll understand why eventually. Hang in there.

Yesterday, Mike and I were talking about how my mom could never tell a really funny joke. Well, ok...here's the story. We were waiting at a red light by the interstate and while we watched, this man in a Corvette (going about 400 mph) swooped around this pick up truck and narrowly (it seemed to me) escaped firey carnage by merging back onto the interstate with seconds to spare before the lane ended. Anyways, I looked at Mike and said:

Me: Do you know what the difference between a Corvette and a cactus is?

Now, Mike's heard this joke about a thousand times and I know he remembers it by the way he smiles when I ask the question. But it's a cute joke and so he plays along.

Mike: No...what?

Me: On a cactus, the pricks are on the outside.
(My apologies to Uncle Bob who owns a Corvette and is actually a very nice man)

I told Mike that the cactus joke was the only funny joke that my mom was ever able to tell me...at least properly. Then Mike and I started talking about her and laughing because whenever she had a really funny joke to tell, she'd start it out good but because she knew how funny it was, she'd stop and laugh in the middle and could never spit out the punchline because she was always laughing too hard. Usually it didn't matter whether we heard the joke because we'd all be laughing at her laughing too hard to tell the joke. It wasn't just jokes that she had this trouble with. Particularly funny stories about us were often told in the same fashion - with it taking forever to find out the point of the story because you'd have the wait until she could laugh her way through to the end. She had a great laugh. Anyway, one of the stories she could never make it all the way through was the one I'm about to tell you now.

When he was very young, my nephew had a real thing for Poke-mon. He was a fanatic. I imagine he was six or seven-ish. I was still in college but I was home for some reason. Anyway, the first pokemon movie came out and Mom and I decided that we'd take Cal to see it. He was SO excited, he was very well behaved and really enjoyed the movie. The first movie was about these scientists who were cloning pokemon and these cloned pokemon were isolated off on their own little clone-pokemon-reject island or something. Anyway, the REAL pokemon somehow stumble upon them (hey...it's been 10 years! Give me a break - I don't remember details). The pokemon start to fight each other because the REAL pokemon won't accept the CLONED pokemon because they're different but they are genetically the same, so it's just a big stand-off between them. Finally in the end, they had to band together as brothers to save the day. Anyway, being about 20 or 21-ish, I naturally knew EVERYTHING and was very smug about it, right? I was very impressed about how they had incorporated this message of tolerance into a kid's movie so smoothly. After it was over, we were ready to leave the movie theater and I turned to Mom and Caleb and said, "Cal, did you get the message that the movie was trying to tell you?" And Caleb said, "Yes. Don't fight somebody with your same powers because you can't win!" My mom thought that was about the funniest thing she ever heard. The first thing she did when she got home was tell my dad about what Caleb had said...well, she tried. I think I ended up telling the story because she was laughing so hard she was crying.

And so, for all the joy he brought my mother for the fifteen years they shared space on this Earth together - this post is for my favorite nephew, Caleb Harris. God love'em...he hasn't changed a bit since then. I hope he never does.

Meaning-full

I just finished watching the last 90 minutes of Capote.

One of my friends once told me that I'm forever searching for hidden meanings underlying movies, stories etc. "Sometimes, " he said, "Sometimes there is no hidden meaning. Sometimes it is just a story." At the time, I just sort of said, "Yeah, yeah." And yet, here I am...still mulling over the movie and thinking about what it all meant.

You know how sometimes there is a line or a moment in a movie that sticks with you and you're unable to get it out of your head afterward? There was a line in this movie that really stuck with me.

"It's as if Perry and I grew up in the same house. And one day he stood up and went out the back door, while I went out the front."

For some reason, it's gotten me thinking about a guy I went to high school with. He was really a bit of a jerk, honestly. He was sullen, moody and seldom had anything pleasant to say to anyone. But for some reason - he liked me. And I don't mean, to use the high school vernacular, "like-liked" me. It was like having an extra brother. We never hung out but he'd drive me to and from marching band practice (We shared a field with the college in town, so it wasn't located at the school) and every once in awhile, he'd see me walking by and engage me in conversation..."Hey, Harris. 'Sup? You goin' to [insert generic high school activity here]?"

He was a good guy, though. Had a good heart under the moodiness. I think he felt a lot of pressure from his parents to succeed and so he had some sort of self-destructive impulse to do the opposite of what they wanted. It's hard to explain in a short post. Anyway, he always hung around these three other guys who, as my father says, "weren't worth the powder it would take to blow them up." Immature, always looking for trouble and, more often than not, finding it. I could never figure out what attracted him to that group. Wherever they went, whatever mess they got into - he was along for the ride. He got kicked off out of an extra-curricular activity because once, while they were at an away competition, the group went around town vandalizing cars. I remember being so mad at him for going with them and asking him, "What were you thinking?" the next time we spoke in the hall. He gave me a sort of lop-sided smile and shrugged. I knew then that he was most likely to have some unhappiness ahead.

I went off to college and didn't think about him for several years. Then, a few years ago, I heard he was in prison. He had been arrested for manufacturing crystal meth and was serving out his sentence.

I brooded about the news for awhile but "way leads on to way" and I hadn't really thought about him since then. But now a film about Truman Capote has got me thinking back and feeling the same sort of melancholy you feel when someone makes bad choices and suffers as a result. I have no idea where he is now or what he's doing. I hope he's doing well - as I hope for everyone I've lost touch with over the years.

But after I had thought about it for awhile, I realized that brooding about past events and other people's bad choices does them no good. And it certainly won't do me any good. We can't change the past by thinking about it. It's over...that's why it's the past. It's important to remember that sometimes or we get bogged down with regret.

Charles Swindoll said it best, I think.

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past…we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you…we are in charge of our attitudes."

The ball's in my court

Well, it's a good thing my dad's on vacation or I'd have heard about the fact that I haven't posted in over a week. I took comfort in the fact that Kelly and Scott hadn't posted either...my dad tends to gauge my postage based on Kelly - if she posts I'd better have something new up soon or I get a report because I haven't updated. Then I saw yesterday that Kelly posted. Dammit! Time to put the cattle prod to Mike and see if I can get him to post something! Don't hold your breath. :D

Thanks, Kristie

"Mike is suggesting a Meme Cat benefit...how about some of those plastic containers at all of the grocery store registers? We need a color for her "benefit ribbon." " -from 03/28/07

All bettah

Meme is officially off of medication and out of a cone collar. Whoo! Of course the first thing she did when I took off her cone collar was to lick all of her scabs off. I started to freak out a little bit and then looked closer and saw that there was really no wound left underneath them anyway - so I was like, "Lick away." Now she has all this pink, raw, new skin with a little line where her incision was. She does still look a little like a bald bellied poodle. They shaved a line around both of her front legs to put in IV's and her whole belly is hairless.

She's gotten used to me holding and coddling her over the last 10 days, so she's been very clingy still. I'm savoring it because everyone tells me that, as she's spayed now, she'll soon be changing into a much less personable, more aloof feline. It certainly happened that way with Furio. He used to sleep curled around my head when he was little and then after we got him fixed he couldn't abide being held and cuddled.

But at least she's feeling better. She and Furio wrestled around for the first time in 10 days. He was a little freaked out by the collar and when she'd get too close to him wearing it, he'd take off running across the room. As my mom used to say, "What a wush." (She thought that was how you say 'wuss').

Last update - we hope!

Meme's bloodwork from yesterday returned with a normal white blood cell count which means that when she finishes her antibiotics and finishes her 10 days in the cone collar (Sunday) - she will be good as new! Minus one uterus...but good as new.

Bad Mood

I'm in such a crabby mood today. I got up early to make an appointment with the vet for Meadow. Her antibiotics are almost done and the ER vets said she should probably be on them for 3 weeks. Plus she's been able to get around her cone collar and lick the bottom of her incision - so I wanted them too look and make sure she hadn't pulled any stitches or anything. Mike had a meeting at a high school down the street, so he left the car for us to use. What didn't he leave? The keys to the garage so that I could get to the car. So Meme and I had to take the bus...which put Meme in a GREAT mood, let me tell you.

But, there was lots of good news at the vet's. Incision looks good - it's not healed completely but it's "sealed" - which means it closed and the stitches dissolved. They decided to take her blood today to see if her white blood cell count is back to normal. (Meme was less than delighted.) If it is, then we're done with the meds. If it's still a little high, they'll continue them for another week.

Then we rode the bus home again. Once again, real fun for the cat. She's been hiding under the bed - pissed at me. She can't be on her own until Sunday, though. That's when the cone collar can come off and she can have full run of the house. So I'm stuck at home this weekend rather than celebrating Easter with either side of the family. Mike's still going home, I'm sure. I was hoping he'd want to stay with me and we could go to his parents' house next weekend for a late Easter visit...but I'm pretty sure that's not happening.

Due to cat-related expenses (Meme's turned into a real big ticket item) - the purse strings have necessarily been tightened. Thankfully the birthdays are over but it looks like our first anniversary is going to be a home-made spaghetti dinner and blockbuster rental night. But at least Meme will be around to curl up on the couch with us watching the movie.

Still - we could use something good happening to us instead of the things that HAVE been happening. I've had enough of parking tickets and sick cats. So everybody concentrate on sending some good ju-ju our way, ok?

I go take nap now. Bye-bye.

Counting the days

Wow...I forgot there was an outside world! Meme came home Thursday night and ever since then I've been a bundle of nerves. They kept throwing things out that I would have to look for...fever? eating? peeing? swelling? discharge? lethargy? drinking? licking stitches? jumping on furniture? And each vet I talked to - 2 different ones at the ER vets and 2 at the regular vet's office - gave me different advice on what was normal. I'm really ready for this recovery process to be done and the stitches to come out - as I know Meme is. She's really tired of the cone collar she has to wear to keep her from messing with her incision, she's tired of having to take medicine 3 times a day (no picnic for us either, believe me) and I'm fairly certain she's tired of me following her around to make sure she's eating and drinking.

On the plus side, she does seem to be feeling better. We keep her in the spare room most of the time but if we're in the living room we'll let her out to roam around provided she doesn't try to take the stairs. Once she starts showing too much interest in the stairs, we'll have to relocate to the spare room. She likes to roam and explore but her energy level's not back to normal yet. She wears herself out and spends plenty of time lying quietly or sleeping. Although she's a cat...so she did that a lot of the time anyways.

I'm sure everyone's probably tired of hearing about Meadow but frankly, she's pretty much all that I've been up to these last few days. I have a quiz tomorrow that I haven't cracked the book for yet. I'm not too concerned...we went over the material last week but I'm going to have to start reading over everything again. I also need to decide on a legal statute/concept for my final project for tomorrow night's class. Ugh. Some sleep would be nice, too. Stress, worry and guilt have insured that I'm not sleeping as much as I'd like. But we're doing better - Meme and I both. She's feeling better and I'm trying not to beat myself up as much for not insisting that we have her spayed before now.

But I'm still counting down to stitch removal day.