Virtual fireworks

For the upcoming fourth of July.

The Grammar Police

I dread the first day of a new class where the teacher makes us go around and say our names and tell the class a little bit about ourselves. As a teacher, I realize the purpose of this exercise. I just hate it when I'm on the student side. Mostly because when the teacher finds out that I teach English at a university, they get this sort of panicky look on their face which I know means that they're going back over (in their mind) the presentation they've prepared for the class to try and remember if they've grammar checked it. I find myself longing to say, "Don't worry, I'm not the grammar police." Up to now, I've haven't even been tempted to correct anyone's grammar.

But that was before I had class on Monday. The teacher is a little pompous to begin with - she insists that we all address her as "Professor" - which is her right, don't get me wrong. But who does that? Every other teacher I've had at Loyola, lawyer or not, has us call them by their first name. But as I said, whatever - I could live with that.

Then she pulled up a PowerPoint presentation riddled with spelling and grammatical errors. When she saw them (I gritted my teeth and didn't say a word), she said, "Oh, these slides came prepared. They're from the book." Uh...I doubt it. And if that's true, I want my money back on this book. For real. Because it would make the editors morons.

I don't know how long I'm going to last before I snap and scream, "It's YOU'RE not YOUR. It's a contraction of YOU ARE, you idiot!"

This could be bad.

If this were a real post...

This is a test post to see how long it take Kristie to visit.

Hi, Kristie!

You lazy blog-reader.

Watch out, Laurie...you're next!

Galleria

Look! I'm knitting. This is the beginning of a prayer shawl for Okima. Before you start to knit, you say a prayer for the well being of the recipient and then, as you knit, you think about them - continuing to pray and/or send well wishes. The idea is that your prayers and wishes for the recipient are knitted into the shawl and will surround them as they wear it. I tabled the blue fuzzy one I was knitting for Sara's future baby for now. It won't take me very long to do that one, especially since I've got it started.

So Mike and I ordered a new digital camera from Dell. We actually already have one but because it belonged to my mom, we lack the software to connect it to the computer as well as the cord to do so. They may be located somewhere in my mom's house but if they are, she took their location to the grave with her. Or the box, I guess...since she was cremated. I had tried to contact the company and see if it was possible to get these things and was told that it was an obsolete model for which they don't have things anymore. Whatever. We've been having to take pictures, take the memory card and print out all the pictures, scan them, edit them and then publish them on the blog or email them. The method works but it's slow, annoying and fairly expensive. Printing out all your pictures really adds up! Anyway, Dell was having a sale (when aren't they, right?) on digital cameras and I talked Mike into updating our technology for bargain prices. Today I was playing with it and taking pictures of various ricketa-racketa around our apartment. I call this one "No escape."

Yeah, that's right - our marriage license is on the fridge right now. You know, we had it in a frame and all but when Mike switched jobs, we had to have it so often that he wouldn't put it back in the frame when he got back home because he'd have to take it out to show it to somebody else. I made him put it somewhere where it wouldn't get wrinkled or ripped and the fridge became home base. Now we're just too lazy to put it back in the frame. The frame is sitting on top of the fridge as we speak. But I can't be bothered.

Bubbles, babies and brunch

This was an interesting weekend and, indeed, too chock full to discuss in only one post. It was a blur of margaritas, manual labor and baby chasing for the most part.

Today Mike and I got up early (oh man did we get up early) to go and support our friend Sarah when she performed at the Wicker Park Children's festival today. She is a music and art teacher at Bubbles Academy here in Chicago and does children's parties on the side. Sarah asked me Friday-ish if I'd mind keeping an eye on her daughter, Lyric while she worked at the Bubbles Academy booth and performed at the pavillion. I did not hesitate to agree to spend time with, arguably, the cutest baby on the face of the planet. She's 21 months now and is really getting the hang of this talking thing. Sooooo, Mike and I - along with our friend, Eric - spent the day chasing and being chased by Lyric around the park. We also painted, colored, danced, played with blocks and blew more bubbles than should ever be allowed by law.

Afterward, Mike went to be an umpire for the kickball league (his team didn't have to play today) and I went to brunch with Sarah, Lyric, Julie and Taylor. We finished eating and chatting in just enough time for me to swing back and pick Mike up after the game.

Sarah, newly separated from her husband and on her own with the baby, is going to take a night to go out and relax with Julie and so it looks like Lyric may be spending the night at our house one night in a week or two. I'm very excited but the cats...not so much. She's very good with animals but, not being around kids much, our cats are a bit unnerved when she waddles after them saying, "Meow! Meow! Meow!"

I did get some really bad news this weekend. My friend Okima's dad has been really, really sick. His cancer had returned and he's had a couple of strokes. He doesn't recognize her anymore and the strokes have made him violent, so he's not able to stay at home. Instead, he's had to be hospitalized and sedated. Okima's dad is in his late 80's and her mother in her early 90's. (Okima's young - she was adopted by her parents when they were in their late 40's/early 50's.) Anyways, her father isn't expected to live through the summer. Okima's been flying back and forth to New York once a month to check in and help her mom. She's been making arrangements to move to New York to take care of her mom when her father died. This weekend, Okima's mom died. The stress of everything was just too much - her heart gave out. Every time I think about it, I tear up. It was so hard when my mom died but I still have my dad and he's healthy. How awful would it be to lose your mom and know your dad's going to die very soon?

Please pray for Okima. I haven't been able to talk to her yet (she left right away for New York) but I know she needs it.

Margaritaville

The last couple of days I've been working. No...really...for money. My friend had to take care of some personal business and she called and asked if I'd be willing to sit in and proctor an exam for each of her three classes. She's my friend and I said, "No problem." Then she said that the school would pay me $75 per test. Bonus!

One day at a time

William Ernest Henley. 1849–1903
7. Invictus

OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance 5
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade, 10
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate: 15
I am the captain of my soul.

Echoes

I was minding my own business, checking my email and fooling around online when all of a sudden, I missed Matt so much that it took my breath away.

I was as though I'd been transported back in time to the moment when Mom called me and said, "We've lost Matt." The same searing agony and gutwrenching nausea. The same shocked paralysis. The same desperate sense that there had been some kind of mistake.

It's happened before and it will probably happen again. But this time, there's something different. My mom's not here for me to call and make it all better. Gradually, the feeling subsided but it left behind a stray thought in my head which continues to echo within my brain as surely as if I'd climbed a mountain and shouted it.

"I want my mommy."

HA!

Check it? Did you say "check it"? Too funny. I snorted a little bit when I read it.

Wild about Man Vs. Wild

First of all this is not Cindi blogging, this is Mike. Anyways, I watched 2 episodes of Man Vs. Wild last night and was totally hooked. I also learned a lot of "practical survival knowledge" for someone living in a major U.S. city.

Check it - did you know that elephant dung has two practical purposes? The first is that you can squeeze it and draw water out of it to drink if you are phenomenally parched and the convenience store is out of Evian. Also if it's dried, you can light it to start a fire.

The next time that I'm charged by a huge, mean Black Rhino I know to stand totally still while it charges and dive out of the way at the very last second. He didn't say what the next step was but I think it would be to change your underbritches.

If Little Caesar's ever runs out of $5 'zas, I know that I can eat maggots as a source of calories and protein. Bear says to bite the heads off and then eat them, cuz the heads are the "nasty part." Never mind the part that holds the rotting flesh it just ate.

Gotta go, I got 4 more episodes to watch!

Hear Me Roar!

Ok. First of all, I was a little overly ambitious in my estimates last night. I said I was going to take a long walk to day and go to the gym. I have just returned from my long walk and I think it's safe to say that the gym is going to have to wait. I walked to the pharmacy and back. It felt like 40 miles but I figure it's about a mile and a half or so. My body is screaming from what it perceives as mistreatment. It's so hot that I thought I was going to throw up right after I got home. Although as the saying goes, "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." I feel good, though, like I've accomplished something.

I didn't sleep well last night and woke up when Mike left for work after sleeping about four or five hours. Unable to get back to sleep, I read a book and tried to stay cool. I knew it was hot and sloppy outside and I had nearly convinced myself to forget about taking a walk today. Instead, I sucked it up about 12 this afternoon and decided to walk to the pharmacy to pick up some exfoliating scrub for my feet.

On the way home, I passed two goth kids heading, I assume, back to school after their lunch. I know this doesn't sound like anything but trust me, as someone who is usually the passed and not the passer, it was awesome. In a side note, I'd been coming up on them for three blocks before I realized one of the girls was a boy. What is up with that?

In a sudden topic change...am I the only person who's seen the Old Spice commercial with Bruce Campbell playing Hungry Like the Wolf on a piano, lounge act style? Perhaps it is my well known admiration for all things Bruce but this cheesy commercial absolutely cracks me up. Ah, Bruce, I do adore you.

Well - time to take a shower. I smell really bad.

Another cute little thing

My cats love this. They're fascinated by it.

The virtual kitten. Adorable.

Let's Go Mag-glio

How cute is Matt in this picture? Love it.

Anyway, as I mentioned, I'm just back from a quick trip to Michigan to visit the in-laws. My dad came up from Iowa on Friday afternoon and brought Breadeaux Pizza with him. My favorite! I was very excited because we can't get it here in Chicago. We set out for Michigan about 6:30 - hoping to avoid the worst of the Memorial Day weekend traffic. There was still a lot of traffic but I do think we did ourselves a favor by waiting a little bit before we took off. I remembered to take the portable dvd player this time and the trip really flew by for me!

The weekend was fun. I went shopping at Wal-Mart. That may sound pretty routine but it was a treat for me since we don't really have them here in the city. I needed some cheap summer clothes and I was able to get them. Plus I stocked up on underwear and socks! I also bought a Detroit Tigers t-shirt so that I could fit in with Mike's family. I have a lot of work to do, though, before I will be able to convince anyone I watch baseball. For starters, I can't remember the name of the guy whose shirt I have. I think it amuses Mike because even when I'm wearing it (it has the name and number on it) I'm like, "what's this guy's name again?" He's a pitcher. Justin, I think...something that starts with V? I'll ask Mike again in the morning and we'll see how long I retain the information. Hey...I'm making an effort, all right? :D

Mike was also amused at my expense because his mom told me I should have gotten Magglio's number because he's her favorite player and I came home and said that they didn't have any of his. Mike's like, "Yeah, they did." And I said, "Mike, I checked every shirt there when she said that he was her favorite...there was no Magglio shirt." Mike thought this was just hilarious. Apparently Magglio's his FIRST name. Geez - how do I know that? Yeesh.

Sunday was the b-b-q and dicey tournament. Mike lost his Polska crown to my dad. That's right! The title is currently held by a non-Polack. My father-in-law accused me of bringing in a ringer. I blame Laurie - the only Kurczewski-Piekarski member who didn't show. I have no real logic for this - it's just fun to blame Laurie. :D

I was, of course, knocked out in the first round. Boooooooooo. The top three places made it to the final round where they'd meet the top three from the other table. I traded second and third place back and forth with my brother-in-law, Scott for most of the game. Mike, Kristie and Uncle Gene had trouble getting on the board with a score and so I thought I was pretty safe. Then Mike rolled this HUGE 4,050 point roll in the second to last roll of the game to pass both me and Scott. Scott managed to stay ahead of me long enough to slide into the third place spot, effectively knocking me out of the running.

I didn't really mind being knocked out, though, as it gave me some free time which I spent outside playing with Baby JO-ey. He tried to convince me to play freeze tag but since he told me that I had to stay frozen until the sun went down if he caught me, I declined and we played I Spy instead. I'm pretty sure he cheats. Sneaky.

After the b-b-q, my mother-in-law and I got together the cloth swatches we'd gotten from Joann's to send to Sara for her quilt.

Note to Sara: We didn't trim down the fabric, we sent it all because I couldn't 100% remember the proper dimensions.

So those are packaged up and ready to be shipped out (hopefully tomorrow). I rely on Mike to do my mailing for me. It's such a pain for me to get to the post office and it's never a pleasant experience.

Then it was back home today. The cats were glad to see us but not as excited that my dad had come back with us. Meme is absolutely horrid when he's around and I don't understand it. The only thing we can figure is that she smells the puppies on him.

I took a 1.25 mile walk this evening which I was pretty psyched about. I plan on taking this walk every day this week and then making it longer next week and so on. Plus (theoretically) it's back to the gym tomorrow.

Mike has discovered this show called Man vs. Wild. Every episode, the guy..."Bear"...strands himself somewhere and has to survive. The first episode Mike watched, he was in Kenya. I happened out of the computer room and Mike said, "This show is awesome! This guy showed how, if you really need water, you can get it from elephant poop." I was like, "Excuse me?" Mike said, "For real. He picked up elephant poop, squeezed out some water and DRANK IT." If this wasn't enough for me, as I was standing there, he happened upon a dead zebra which had been brought down by lions and started to tell you how you can tell if the meat is still good to eat. I already knew that no good could come from this, so I headed for the kitchen. As I started to sort through some things we'd brought back from Michigan with us, I heard Mike yell from the front room, "Awwwww.....he's gnawing on it!" "Oh, gross...raw?" I hollered back. "Yeah. Oh...now he's putting some in his pouch to eat later." I refused to hear anymore. I went back into my little hidey-hole to block it out. I may not know what to do when a rhino charges you or how to get water from elephant poop but somehow I think I'll be alright. Every once in awhile, I heard Mike's "Heh heh heh" laugh and I'd known that "Bear" had done something else I consider to be gross or incredibly stupid but which Mike merely finds, "Cool." Like jumping into a frozen lake to show you how to survive hypothermia. That was in the second episode Mike watched.

Must be a man thing.

Sweet Home Chicago

Mike and I are back from a short weekend visit to Michigan. Mike went out to go and grab us a quick something for dinner and discovered that our car battery was dead. Oy. I hate coming back to reality.

Virtual Lite Brite!

Lite Brite!

Cleaning out my email

I am suffering with a bout of insomnia. This whole week's been pretty bad. I have pills to help but I'm afraid to take them more than once a week for fear that before long I'll be unable to sleep without them. I decided to take this time to clean out my email a little bit. I looked in my "All Mail" section to find that I've saved over 1200! I was pretty sure some of those could be deleted.

As I was weeding through and ruthlessly deleting, I came across this email from my mom. It's right after she'd discovered her saying.

Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 00:19:46 -0800 (PST)
From: "Linda"
Subject: Matthew
To: Lucinda
CC: Jeff

When I think of Matthew and I get tearful, I know it is really selfishness that makes me cry. I would not wish Matt back to make him suffer further, but I cry for me because I miss him so much, and that may not change. But I came across a page of those little inspirational sayings that might help a little.

"Don't cry because it's over, but smile because it happened,"

That's the way I would like to be able to handle dealing with Matt's death. I hope I'm not putting too much on you, but I thought it was worth sharing.

I kept it.

The grades are in!

**Ahem**
Cumulative GPA
3.945

Somebody call Baby Joey!

Tonight for dinner, Mike and I are having $5 pizza, which is Joey's favorite kind! I have been noticing all of the Little Caesar's restaurants around the city lately. Ever since I finally broke down and asked what the heck "$5 pizza" was. Joey's Aunty (Mike's mom), Mom (Mike's cousin, Andrea) and Grandma (Mike's Aunty Bren) were always joking about how much he loves it.

Since Joey's family is (probably) taking a short trip to Chicago this summer, I'm sure he'll be relieved to know that Mike and I can find the $5 pizza place.

My Weekend

What did we do this weekend, you ask? A LOT! We were barely home. We ate dinner with friends, shopped for a couple of new work polos for Mike, bought a dressy summer shirt for me, attended a dinner party with Mike's Hammond Health Dept. co-workers, slept in and missed church (oopsy), played kickball, drank beer, ate pulled pork and the weekend culminated in the ultimate....a movie. What movie you ask?


This one.

I love having the weekends to spend with Mike.

Mike, Rachael and Aaron

I was sorting through some of my pictures when I came across this one that we took in Michigan at a fruit farm. It always makes me a laugh, so I thought I'd share it.

Cat Tales and the anti-Switzerland

Mike informed me last night that Meme is going to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese tonight followed by a slumber party. She's going to play skeeball ("kebaw," in Meme speak) and maybe some whack-a-mole (whackmo). Also, she upset with Furio because he hit on her first grade teacher, Miss Henderson (Miss Hed-son). She's very happy about the Pistons moving on in the play-offs - she's still crazy about Tayshaun Prince (Tay-saw Pince).

I had thought that the Bulls-Pistons series was long over until I read in Kelly's blog that the Bulls had inexplicably won a couple of games. There was an almost apathetic feel around the city about the Bulls being in the play-offs. There was Bear-mania in the city even before they went to the play-offs simply because they were winning. And that year the Cubs were in the play-offs (and choked) it was nuts! I'm not sure we'll ever find out what the mood would be like in the city if the Blackhawks were in the playoffs - I don't think they'll ever make it to the playoffs.

When Chicago plays Detroit, we attempt to adapt some sort of neutrality treaty in the household. Like Switzerland. The same goes for Iowa/Michigan State games. It usually doesn't take. One of us can't seem to help taunting the other. And no it's not always me, Dad.

Mike told me to "break out the broom" just before Game 4 of the Bulls-Pistons series. Since I'm not a big basketball person, it didn't really bother me - I just kinda shook my head and rolled my eyes. Then I noticed that there was no follow up taunt that evening. I had to look up the score on nba.com and saw that (amazingly) the Bulls had won. After I'd looked it up, I sauntered into the living room where Mike was sitting on the couch watching tv and asked him who'd won the game. He muttered, "The Bulls won." To which I replied, "HA! I know. I checked the score online. In your FACE! I rule you!" (Sometimes I amaze even myself with my depth of maturity.) I know that I'm not interested in basketball...but I couldn't let a taunt go unanswered, could I?

Mike apparently has the same philosophy because last night he informed me that "Ben Wallace is breaking out his golf clubs about now."

La Vita Nuova

A little e.e. cummings in the morning

I made it!

Whew. I made it through my first mother's day as a motherless mongrel. I didn't do too badly, actually. I had a watery moment when Mike called his mom because I wanted to call MY mom so bad. But I made it - one day at a time.

Happy Mother's Day

This post is dedicated to my mom, Linda. Please take a moment today and say a prayer or light a candle in memory of her.

For Mom
Linda Harris, 01/18/49 - 08/25/06

"Make yourself familiar with the angels, and behold them frequently in spirit; for without being seen, they are present with you." -- Saint Francis de Sales

YaY! Happy birthday, Aaron!

Brilliant!

I want cookies. I'm hungry and I can practically smell them. I'll bake some! Brilliant!

Hrm. No eggs. No vanilla. No brown sugar. I'll go to the store! Brilliant!

No car. I'll walk! Brilliant!

I'm hungry and I'll end up with 4,000 things when I only went for 3. I'll have to carry all that stuff back. I'll borrow a shopping cart and take it back when I'm done! Brilliant!

Dominick's has a new anti-theft device on their shopping carts. They lock up if you take them beyond the perimeter of the parking lot. Mike likes cookies. Mike will want cookies! I'll make Mike take me to the store when he gets home. Brilliant!

I'm hungry now. Mike doesn't get home until 5:00. Poop.

I hate that!

Don't you just hate it when you look at your checking account online and are dazzled by the amount of money you have...only to realize that your rent check hasn't cleared yet and you don't have as much money as you'd thought.

*Sigh*

Stupid rent.

How do I love thee?

Today my Aunt Linda blogged about my mom and how my Uncle Mike misses her. Uncle Mike was Mom's baby brother and you would be hard pressed to find anyone she loved more. Now there are a variety of reasons why she loved Uncle Mike but tonight I'd like to share one very simple reason that *I* do.

When my mom had her first heart attack, there was a few days where we seemed to float in limbo - not knowing what the whole story was. At first it was a blood clot, then a mild heart attack, then a medium one, then more serious. Every day her condition seemed to get more serious but the doctors weren't in a big hurry to do anything and so I tried not to worry too much about it. Then all of a sudden one day, things seemed to go bad all at once. Her blood pressure took a nose dive and they decided to air care her to Genesis in the Quad Cities - where they specialize in heart related surgeries etc. They heliport-ed her up there, took her in immediately for a cardiac catheterization and put four stents in her arteries.

It could have been a disaster, but it wasn't. She survived. I, mercifully, was unaware of what was going on until it was all over. My dad didn't call my cell phone and I didn't get home from work until after 9 p.m. While I hate that I didn't know what was happening, I was spared a lot of heartache and worry - for which I am grateful.

Now I was not there to witness this but I heard it from my mom on numerous occasions. It was a "favorite" of her war stories...if you can have favorite stories about heart surgeries. (Her absolute favorite being my Mike's "homicide attempt" against her while she was recovering.) Only seven months passed between my mom's surgery and her death but I probably heard this seven or more times. She could never get all the way through the story without tearing up.

In the first hours/day or so after her surgery, the prognosis was good but guarded. It was still the early stages and there were no guarantees. My Aunt Linda and Uncle Mike had been at the hospital when things went bad with my mom and they went with my Dad to Genesis when they air cared her out. They sat with her while she came out of anesthesia. She was groggy and didn't remember much of anything after the surgery but she remembered Mike being there. (At this point in the story, she'd get teary and sniffle her way through the rest.) He stayed with her until she was awake enough to recognize him and know that he was there with her. That meant so much to her - that he'd stayed. And that he wouldn't leave until she knew he was there. She felt so loved.

Like I said, there are a bunch of reasons to love Uncle Mike but that's one of mine. And, for me, it's a big one.

40 Perspectives

Do we really need a book that looks at Winston Churchill from 40 different perspectives? Really?

Guess who turns 30 the day after tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll give you a hint. It's Aaron!

Tales from a gym journal

So, I got a site meter which tells me how many people visit me in the blogosphere. I was playing around with options and it was free - so why not? It tells me where you are, how long you stay, how many pages you view, what website you click in from (if any), if you used a search engine to get there, it'll tell me what you were looking for, which of my links you use to click off from and your median income. Ok, I made that last one up. Hee hee. It does offer to show me the latitude and longitude of your location, though - so prepare to be stalked. I'll be the one outside of your house in the rain shouting, "But we have a CONNECTION. We're meant to be together!"

Anyway, most of the locations, I recognize. It doesn't always tell me exactly what town you're in - it's actually where your IP address is based out of which may be somewhere nearby but not the same exact city. It's sort of a fun game..."Oh...there's Aunt Linda. That's Jeff. Sara in the hizz-ouse. That's gotta be dad. Rachael visited at 2:24 a.m. - what the heck's she doing up that late?" Kristie made her monthly visit to the blog. Geez, Kristie...where's the love? I'm interesting ALL THE TIME. :D

What was I saying? Oh yeah - so I'm scrolling down the list and playing my "who's who" game. I notice that there are two stops from Chapel Hill, NC. I click on it and it turns out this person was looking for "gym journal" in a search engine and was pointed to our little section of cyberspace. I had to LAAAAUGH. Two archive entries about how I hate the gym and I'm labeled as a gym journal.

That's right - this is a gym journal. Just call me Buff Betty. :D Which may, interestingly enough, become my roller derby name when I'm (hopefully) rolling for the Windy City Rollers in a year or two. But that's a story for another day.

Enjoy the day, kids. It's nice out.

Back by popular demand

I thought since the picture of Matt was so popular, I'd add another one. I "borrowed" the following survey from Kelly and I would just like to say right up front that I wasn't involved in the numbering process - it was like that when I got it.

100 Things You may not have Known About Me...

1. What is the last alcoholic beverage you drank?A Mimosa last weekend

2. Do you follow college football?A little.

3. How many miles does your car have on it?No car.

4. Who was the last person to send you a text message and what was it about?Mike saying, “Call me!”

5. Last time you went swimming in a pool? I don’t remember.

6. Are you happy?Sometimes

7. Where was the last place you went shopping?Online – buying a Trogdor the Burninator shirt for our friend Sergio’s birthday

8. How do you feel about your hair?I’m glad I have some. (Sorry, Dad)

9. Where do you work?Officially I’m on “sabbatical” from East-West University

10. Last thing you ate?Blue Cheese salad with bacon and almonds.

11. Do you wish you were someplace else right now?On vacation.

12. Hey! Where is number 12? Huh?

13. Do you have any expensive jewelry?Let’s see. Engagement ring, wedding ring, my mom’s wedding ring, gold memory locket with my mom’s hair, ruby earrings, my mom’s diamond earrings. A few things, I guess.

14. AIM or MSN?Neither. Who has the time?

15. What classes are you taking now?I’m finishing up (finals week – woo hoo!) Legal Research II, Civil Litigation II and Legal Computer Applications

16. How many hours on average do you work a week:What part of sabbatical don’t you understand? :D

17. Who do you like right now?Ugh – who don’t I like?

18. Favorite NFL team?Da Bears.

19. Do you watch the Olympics?Nah.

20. Last restaurant you went to?Max and Erma’s

21. Who was the last person to call you?Kristina

22. Whats your sign?Pisces

23. Do you have a favorite number?17

24. Last time you did volunteer work or made any donation?I donated my extra turkey sandwich to a homeless person on my wedding anniversary. We donated clothes in April too.

25. What do you spend the majority of your money on?Bills, I guess. Rent – I do live in Chicago. :D

26. Where does most of your family live?Iowa and Michigan

27. Are you an only child or do you have siblings?I have bruddas.

29. Ever been called a bitch?Oh, yeah.

30. Got any guilty pleasures?Soda.

31. Do you drink beer?I’d rather eat glass.

32. Have you ever experienced true love?Yes.

33. Did you ever collect Beanie Babies?Kinda.

34. Ever ordered anything online?Hell, yeah.

35. Myspace or Facebook?What the? I’m 30, not 19.

36. Do you have T-Mobile?No.

37. What is your favorite subject?16th and 17th Century Literature

38. Do you sometimes wish you were someone else?No.

39. Do you usually fall for the "bad boys or slutty girls"?I refuse to answer this question on the grounds that it’s stupid.

40. Were you an outcast in high school?No.

41. Last time you saw your parents?My dad – about 6 weeks ago.
My mom – August 6, 2006 (The last time I was home before she died.)

42. Do you have any talents?Too numerous to mention, naturally.

43. Ever been in a wedding?Yes.

44. Do you have any children?Not yet.

45. Last movie you watched?Elizabethtown

46. Are you missing anyone at the moment?Yes. My mom.

47. Did you take a nap today?Nope – too busy doing last minute stuff for school.

48. What was your high school's mascot?Panthers.

49. Ever been on a cruise?Yes – my honeymooooooooooooooooooon.

50. Favorite vacation spot?Any place with Mike and no work.

52. Do you have any wealthy friends?I dunno – nobody who makes it worth my while to be their friend, anyways.

53. Ever met anyone famous before?Yes – sort of. I helped Vince Vaughn find a taxi once (well, I was there when he asked where to go to get one), opened the door for the Prince of Japan and sold Jeff Foxworthy a ticket to the Field Museum.

54. Favorite actor?Johnny Depp, Tommy Lee Jones

55. Favorite actress?Not Hilary Swank.

56. Are you multi-tasking right now?Yes.

57. Could you handle being in the military?No.

58. Are you hungry or thirsty?Neither

59. Favorite fast food restaurant?Taco Bell

61. What is your average cell phone bill?I don’t pay it.

62. Do you own a camera phone?Yes.

63. Ever had to take a sobriety test?No.

64. Do you believe in Karma?I guess so – I prefer to call it “What goes around, comes around.”

65. Can you speak any other languages?A little Spanish, a very little Polish

66. Last time you went to the gym or worked out?May 1, 2007

67. How many pairs of shoes do you own?None of your business, nosy!

68. Do you have a photo hosting site that you use?No.

69. Last place you drove your car:Helloooooooo? Don’t have a car of my own.

70. Play a musical instrument?Yeah. Piano, saxophone, French Horn.

71. Ever been to Las Vegas?Yes.

Hey! Where are 72 - 74!?Ask me if I care.

75. What do you think is your best feature?Ask Mike – I’m married now and I don’t have to worry about stuff like that.

76. Have you ever been gambling?Yuh.

77. How old are your parents?Dad is 60. Mom is deceased – but would be 58.

78. When is the last time you updated your blog?Follow along, please. I’m doing it right now.

79. Do you have your wisdom teeth?Nope. Not since July 19, 1996.

80. Favorite place to be?Anywhere with Mike.

81. Have you been to New York City?No.

82. Favorite sit down restaurant?Carson’s

83. Ever been to Disney?Yes.

84. Do you have a favorite cartoon character?Pucca.

85. Last thing you cooked?Homemade pizza.

86. How is the weather today?Slightly cloudy but nice.

87. Do you email?Yes.

88. Last letter/piece of mail you received besides junk or a bill?A card from Sarah jane.

89. Favorite store?Target, Borders, Myopic Books

90. Are you dating someone right now?Boy wouldn’t Mike be mad if I was.

91. Last voicemail you received?Mike.

92. Do you drunk dial?No.

93. Stupidest thing you ever did with your cell phone?Put it through the washing machine.

94. What is the best city in the state that you have lived in?Sweet home Chicago

95. Favorite band?I dunno – I can’t narrow it down.

96. Last time you were sick?Really down and dirty sick as a dog? December, 2006.

97. Are you bored right now?Kinda. Are you?

98. Last concert you went to??Lil Stubby and the Disappointments with Mike and my in-laws.

100. What are your plans for tomorrow?Sitting through a bunch of presentation on legal topics. Blech.

Update

I got a sunburn! My first of the year.

I shouldn't be surprised. If I even look out the window on a sunny day, I pink up.

Darn genetics!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

So I have just been to my very first major league baseball game. Ever. So THAT's what all the fuss is about! Awesome. It probably helped that the Cubs won the game. The mood at Wrigley was festive. We went to the game because today is our friend Sergio's birthday. (Happy birthday, Sergio!) His girlfriend bought eight bleacher seats for him to invite friends. I wasn't going to go but they had an extra ticket and Mike convinced me. "It's the CUBS, Cindi." I figured...why not? If it's boring, I'll have plenty of people to talk to to keep me entertained. In the car on the way to Sergio's house before the game, Mike randomly turned to me and said, "We're going to a CUBS game." Just like a kid.


I was sitting inbetween Mike and our friend Greg...who amuses me just about as much as any one person on the planet can ever amuse me. Amid watching the game and discussing the absurd ratio of cotton candy guys vs. hot dog guys (4:1), we also engaged in a heated debate involving the parameters of Generation X. Greg claims I am not a member of Generation X because I did not see Star Wars: A New Hope in the movie theater. I question his requirements.

It became clear that the hot dog guy was not going to make his way back to the bleachers section - so we had to dispatch a hot dog "envoy" to bring us back some tasty treats. Mike and Greg decided to head out and get some beer, soda and hot dogs for our little crew. Greg made it all the way back from wherever it is (in WISCONSIN) that they have the food-and-beer place located at Wrigley Field without spilling. He makes it all the way back and is standing next to me when he is thrown off balance somehow and splatters himself and the two rows in front of us with beer. Luckily one row in front of us was still part of our group and the row in front of them was caught with only minimal sprayage. Greg cleaned up the seats with the napkins while we heckled him mercilessly. He finished the clean up and sat down...on his hotdogs. He'd set them down behind him so he had both hands free for clean up. It was the funniest thing. Greg keeps cracking jokes at his own expense and we're all holding our sides - laughing so hard we're crying.

Who needs a game when you've got entertainment like that?

P.S. I had peanuts but was unable to locate any Cracker Jacks. I feel a little cheated. I did eat three hot dogs, though. Sergio's girlfriend put it this way...and I have to agree. "Baseball...come for the hot dogs, stay for the game." Yummy.

Oh, tell me have you seen...?

Today I "misplaced" my wallet. Well, yesterday sometime. I have no idea where it is. On the way to school last night, I stopped for a Jamba Juice. That's the last time I had it out. But today when I went to get it, it wasn't in my backpack.

Joy.

I thought maybe I'd set it down in the car on the way to school after getting my smoothie but an inspection of Jean Claude (our car...Jean Claude Grand Am...get it? :D)... showed that there was no wallet. So, I've spent the evening cancelling and re-issuing credit card, debit card and finding out how to get my driver's license replaced. Luckily I never drive - so it's not an immediate priority. I do have to get ahold of my dad and have him send me a copy of my birth certificate so I can take it in with my passport and get it reissued.

What a week.

Irritation

We got a call on our answering maching today from the building's "manager." It seems our landlord will be back from Florida and will be taking over the garage behind our house. That means that even though we've paid for a parking spot for the month of May, we will be back to street parking. Oh we'll be getting our money back - make no mistake. I'll be deducting that amount from the rent we pay in June. But I'm a little irritated nonetheless.

Five more months and we can move. Feels like for-EVER.

Puppies make me happy

I have to get mad more often!

Mike is in disfavor today (actually it's yesterday - I didn't realize it was after midnight). It doesn't really matter why. He's aware. a) Sandy didn't raise no dummies.* b) I'm not subtle. I know he's aware because he's not doing any of his usual, "I think she's mad, let's see if I can charm her" routine. No puppy dog eyes, extra snuggles or rapid-fire cheek kisses. He's gone straight into "I'm in big trouble here, time to break out the big guns" mode. He stopped at CVS to pick up some stuff for me without me having to ask him to do it. He took me out to dinner. Though we do not actually speak about it out loud, we both know the score and where we stand. I decide to raise the stakes. "I want you to take me to Border's after dinner," I say. "Okay," He immediately replies.** Ahhh, yes. Game, set, match - Cindi.

After dinner, he keeps his word and takes me down the street to the multi-level Border's store on North Ave. He asks if it's alright if he sits in the car while I go in. Uh..ye-AH. Like I need him following me around the store. I hold out my hand for money. He gives me a $20 bill and whatever singles he has in his wallet. I snatch them up thinking I've hit the jackpot and turn with my hand on the door handle when I hear him speak from behind me. "Is that enough or do you want two $20's?" Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? For someone who is ALWAYS monitoring the balance in our savings account and fretting that we're dipping into it too much, I was WAAAAAAAY too tempted at the offer of extra book money. But, ever conscious of the fact that books are not a necessity, I merely savored (I closed my eyes and took a big, deep breath while the feeling enveloped me) the experience and said, "No, this is fine."

It was delicious. Even more delicious than the enchiladas with extra cheese I had for dinner.
___________________________________________________________

*I know this is bad grammar. I did it on purpose.

**We did have the following conversation after he agreed. It's paraphrased but essentially accurate.

Mike: You want to go to Borders? You do still have money on that Barnes & Noble gift certificate.

Cindi: It's at home. Besides, I'm SAVING that. For a book emergency.

Mike: You're so weird.

***The pictures are of Mike's grandparents' Memorial Bench in Daytona Beach, FL. It has nothing to do with this post but I've been thinking I would post them for awhile. Yesterday at school I uploaded them to a blog entry and decided to use them as my "random pictures" of the day.

Feeling Old

I got this graduation announcement in the mail today. It's one of my little cousins. I say little even though I know that he turned 18 last month. I felt SO old when I opened it. I remember once when I was about 14, Brandt, his older sister, Emily and his mom and dad visited us. It was the summer time and Brandt was probably 2. I remember because most of the family was over to our house and one of my other little cousins (Dustin) was there. Brandt's birthday was, I think, April 8 and Dustin's was April 18 of the same year. As I said, it was summer and we had one of those big above ground pools in our backyard. Matt and I took the "little" boys swimming. Neither one of them had swim trunks with them but my mom just shucked off their clothes and handed them to us with only a diaper on. They were too small to even touch the bottom of the pool. Brandt floated and splashed around while sitting on a blow-up raft - confident that I wouldn't let him drown but Dustin clung to my neck and refused to let go. He was enjoying himself but he wasn't about to let go of me. We had a really, really good time.

Look at them now - the big brutes! I thought about that summer day when they were so little and trusting and then I looked at the pictures of the young men they have become and I felt a little old.

I got over it, though. I just thought about all the fun I'll have telling their girlfriends/fiances/wives about the time I swam with them in their underpants.

Ain't it the truth?

My friend Michelle (aka MooShu) sent this to me today:

"Whenever God closes one door He always opens another, even though sometimes it's Hell in the hallway."

Ohhhhhh Nooooooo!

I just did this to my bootleg-Dell-version ipod. I'm sitting at the computer. When I turned, I hooked my foot on the cord that connects the Dellpod to my computer and it fell to the floor. It fell THREE feet onto CARPET! Come ON!

It still works but obviously there will be no pictures and/or video played on it EVER. And I can't see the menus to do anything except listen to it on the "play all" setting. Bueno. My day just keeps getting better and better. *sigh*

A moment of larceny

Since I've already "borrowed" a picture off of Sara's blog, I decided I might as well continue to "borrow" from other people I know. Ok, just from Kelly. But I do so enjoy this picture of Mike and Bailey, the party pug. Hrm...perhaps I should check out Scott's site too and get a picture of Pablo to spice up this post. It will be pug-tastic. Beauty! Since I really don't have much of a clue what to write about today, pugs can only improve the content.

So, I came to school really early today in order to make sure I completed a PowerPoint presentation that I needed to have done for class tonight. I would have been done ages ago if only I had access to PowerPoint at home. I'd written out what I was going to put on them, gathered the pictures and statistics for a graph and basically done everything I could possibly do without actually being able to create slides. I was afraid that if I didn't get up and have Mike drop me off at Loyola on his way to work, I'd sleep in too late and fiddle around at home until I had waited too long to complete the assignment - or at least without enough time to really do it well. So I was here at about 7:30 this morning and I was done with the assignment at about 8:30. And that's including the time I took in the middle of the project to send three emails. Class starts at 6:00 p.m. tonight. I could go home but I do have a lot of other stuff that I need to get finished before finals next week. I work better away from home where I can't get distracted by kitties, movies or more interesting reading material. Or food. But basically, instead of going off in search of a chocolate chip cookie with which to entertain myself, I am instead avoiding my work by hopping around on the internet, gathering photos (pug-tastic though they may be) and posting blog entries which really have no point.

Sorry - I saved this post while I went off to McNasty's to grab a breakfast sandwich. Then I came back and promptly forgot about it. I didn't make it to getting Pablo Pug-casso on here either. Poop. I'll have to post a Pablo picture sometime this week to even things out. For some reason I can't save pictures off of the internet to my computer at home. They won't load back up. But I can do it from school. Dunno. I'm not computer savvy enough to have Clue #1.

By the way, I wasn't sure if I'd spelled savvy correctly, so I decided to spell check this. It didn't highlight "savvy" so hopefully we're alright there...but I wouldn't be too sure. It highlighted internet every time it appeared and HALF of the word actually. Just the actu part. Yeah. I don't get it either. Words with two v's are funny. Not that I can think of any others. I actually had to look up the origin of the word. Yes, I'm a geek - we all know that. Move on. :D So, it comes from the "West Indies pidgin borrowing of French savez(-vous)? 'do you know?'" Thank you dictionary.com.

Speaking of dictionary.com. I deleted my "word of the day" from my email without really looking at it today and I am kicking myself! I went to look up savvy and found that today's word is "termagant!" Awesome word. Want to know what it means? Pft! Too bad. Look it up yourself. What do I look like...your mom?

So...good luck with that.

Another Charles original

My dad took this picture of Jeff and Jenn in Georgia on his vacation last week...or two weeks ago...whenever. I'm old-ish now, I lose track of time. What day is this? Where am I?

Anyway, he took the picture and then he sent it to me via e-mail. A second success! Although he said he was going to send more and I haven't heard anything else yet. So we may have run into technical difficulties somewhere along the way. Stay tuned!

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.