Snippets

Here are some snippets of information that you probably don't really want to know, but I am going to tell you anyway:

-Erica got stuck for an extra night in Michigan because her flight back got cancelled yesterday (Thursday). There were some really nasty storms here on the east coast. She wasn't real happy about that but mercifully she is home safe and sound this evening. Delta at least put her up in a hotel for the night. When she first sent me a text message about the flight cancellation, I was afraid she was going to have to spend the night at the airport. And that? That would be awful. She said that she found this seminar really helpful though. She learned how to successfully write a grant, met lots of people in her field and got a lot of information and ideas of where she might want to apply to do her post doc. So, even with the flight screw up, I think her week was a success.

-We have had an ongoing battle the past week or so with ANTS (yuck). In my kitchen, no less. It must be something about the weather, because Stephen said he had them coming in to his place too. Its such a pain to find them crawling around on your counters and stuff. Luckily, they didn't get into anything important. But I did have to throw away a bunch of hard cat food that they got into. In the cat's dish....not the bag. We THINK we have it under control now, but those ants are sneaky little bastards and I don't trust them.

-Bruce went down to Wilmington today to see Delaney and Casey before they move tomorrow. He also helped with some packing and stuff because he is just a nice guy like that. I would have loved to have gone, but I had to work. All I know is that everybody I have ever met who has gone to Nashville has loved it. I have never been.
But now I have a really good reason to go. So....yeah....we will have to plan a visit later on when everybody gets settled and hopefully have some time to really see the city.

-This week, work-wise, has been really really tough. I say that every week, I know...but this time it was tougher than usual. For some reason, all of those sales catalogs that generally come in around mid-August to early September are pouring in right now like a flood. I don't know if they are just early and it will be over with earlier (a girl can hope right?). Or if this is just going to be a continual onslaught until the holidays. Maybe a lot of it is back-to-school stuff. I don't know because I honestly don't look at it. But having it be this heavy in this kind of heat is unusual and particularly brutal and cruel.

-Still dealing with cat problems and integrating the "pride". Samantha is a stubborn little hussy when it comes to behaving herself. If Vixen would just find the moxie to stand up and kick her rear end once....seriously all it would take is ONCE....I think she might back off at least a little. I had no idea my Vixen was such a wimp.
LOL. I am still working on it though. And trust me when I say I love my little wimp no matter how much of a scaredy cat she is.

-Stephen and Hannia have exactly 2 weeks before moving day. I have their new mailing address and phone number...so if you need it email me and I will send it. It looks like everything is getting done on schedule, so hopefully this will be a smooth transition for them.

-We have booked tickets to Las Vegas for Halloween! Yay! We have been spending the past several years trying to find the best Halloween celebrations around and saw something about Vegas doing it up big time. We are going with our friends' Chris and Jessica, and that should be a real blast. October can't get here fast enough.

-I am still dreaming about someplace like this:

Once a week

Once a week is all I seem to be capable of blogging. I don't know why I can't get myself into gear??? It has GOT to be this heat. It is burning the life right out of me. There are no words to describe how bad I hate it. It makes me feel so dirty. I shower until my skin is raw, but no amount of soap and water can make me feel clean and dry as long as its 100 degrees with unGodly humidity. This has been the longest hottest summer that I can remember. Of course, I have probably been brain damaged from searing heat so that's not saying much.

Samantha was spayed on Friday, and she did so well. She slept for most of the afternoon and evening, but by Saturday morning, it was like nothing ever happened. She was perky and playing and you would never know she had just had major surgery. There is just one thing....Sam is NOT integrating into the "pride" as well as we had hoped. She is a purring little darling with us, but she is an aggressive instigator with our other 2 cats. Vixen has been hiding under our bed for weeks. Omen, who hasn't got an aggressive bone in her body, finally just snapped and let Sam have it. We were afraid she was going to kill Sam, because Omen is at least twice her size. But not only did Sam survive....she didn't learn a damn thing and was right back with the stalking and taunting. I don't know what to do. We are entertaining the idea of finding her another home. I hate it. I would love to keep her. But if she doesn't calm down and learn to get along with the other cats then its just not going to work. We hoped having her spayed would help, but right now its the same as ever. Any suggestions?

As for the kids....Erica is in Michigan right now at a seminar. Hopefully she is having a great time and learning lots of useful information. She texted me when she got there, but I haven't heard anything since. I am sure she is really busy. One thing she was going to have to do is read and critique her roommate's paper. Her roommate is a girl that Erica has never met, but she is also a microbiologist in the same line of research. Erica said it would be interesting to see what her "competition" is up to. LOL.

Stephen and Hannia are just 3 weeks away from the big move to Indiana and have been insanely busy trying to get everything ready. They have sold or given away lot of their stuff that just won't work in the new place. Stephen has ambitiously taken on the task of refinishing their bedroom furniture. And there are just so many little tasks to take care of. I can't even list them all, but its all coming together. I can't wait to get out there for a visit sometime in late September and see not only their new place, but the whole town. I have never been to any place in Indiana before, so it will definitely be something new.

And to leave you with something to keep us cool....I wish I was here:

Good Week-end

We had a good week-end. Erica came home on Friday afternoon in time for dinner. Stephen and Hannia came over later and we spent the evening playing Bananagram. That's a game based on scrabble, but its faster...each person makes their own "board" until all the tiles are used up. We enjoy it.

We almost had a catastrophe on Saturday as we had made plans to have lunch at the kids' favorite Thai restaurant and found out it was closed. Apparently permanently. From what I can gather there was a dispute with the landlord over a broken AC unit....so sad. The food was very good. We went to another Thai place, and that was decent, but not as good as Saeng. Oh well. We left with full bellies, so I guess its ok.

It really feels like we spent the whole weekend eating. LOL. We made burgers for dinner (with Pick a Peppa in them)on Saturday night...and then Erica and Stephen whipped up a batch of this yummy hot fudge sauce so there was ice cream and that for dessert. Delicious. We played more games again Saturday evening and it was a lot of fun. I LOVE when we have a chance to have the whole family together like that. It might be Christmas before we have the opportunity again. Indiana is pretty far away, and the kids move in about 4 weeks. Yikes! But I am hoping to fly up in late September or early October to get a chance to see their new place. Bruce is going to be helping with the move so he will see it right away.

Erica left today around lunchtime, taking the pretty little calico kitten with her for her friends. These people have been looking forward to this kitty adoption for a while now...had already bought food, litter and accessories for their new baby. But I had such a hard time letting her go. She was adorable, and yes I KNOW I am lucky to be able to keep Missy Clover....but in a perfect world I could have kept them both. I wanted to back out, but knowing these people were waiting on her and had spent time and money getting ready for her, I just had to get over it and let her go.
Erica is supposed to let me know what they name her. They wanted to see her first.
But anyway, Erica said she did fine on the drive up in the little kitty carrier. Its going to be fine, I'm sure. I know she got good parents. We will still miss her around here though.

So we are now getting ready to start another week. Another HOT week ....ugh. I am so ready for cooler, drier weather. We have Sam (Mama cat) scheduled to be spayed on Friday, so wish us good luck with that. We are hoping it calms her down a little as she just can't seem to stop terrorizing poor Vixen. Vixen is bigger than she is and Vixen is older....but Vixen is scared to death of Sam and has spent a lot of time hiding in our bedroom. Poor thing. After this surgery we are going to have to work hard at helping these cats figure out how to get along. They don't have to like each other, but they do have to learn how to exist in the same house without all of the hissing, growling and chasing. So...that's what is going on up here in our world.
Hope you all have a good week ahead!

Name

And her name is:

Clover

One Itty Bitty Kitty

We had a girl come over on Sunday afternoon to adopt one of the kittens. We had 2 left, so I had sent her pictures of both and told her she could have her pick. Bruce had told me multiple times, in multiple ways that we were NOT keeping any of the babies. But still, there was this one that had captured both of our hearts. The other kittens really haven't paid that much attention to us. They play and eat and hang with Mama. But this one sneaks into the den every evening and snuggles up on the couch with Bruce. With me occasionally, but its usually Bruce.

So of course this girl decides on that one. My favorite one. My heart sank, and I felt some hot tears popping up. But I picked her up to say good-bye because....well...I was told we were NOT keeping ANY of the kittens. And then Bruce spoke up and said, "That was the one we were thinking about keeping." Huh? I had told the girl she could have her pick. LOL. But she apologized and said she was having so much trouble making up her mind that she would definitely take the other one. It was just as good for her. So, she took "Hoss", and she left. And we? We now have 4 cats. Seriously. Of course one is just itty bitty so she hardly counts as a whole cat just yet, but are we crazy or what?

Just to clarify, we still have the little calico, but she is leaving for her new home this weekend. And I have had email from both of the other kittens' new owners. Both of them are doing well, adjusting, eating, playing. It makes me happy to hear that. The couple who took the little boy named him Smokey. And Hoss has had her name changed to Zoey. The girl actually emailed me and asked if we had named her anything before. And I was embarrassed to admit we called that pretty little girl kitten, "Hoss". But we did, and its the truth so I told her. Hahaha. Zoey is good, too though. Now we just have to come up with a name for our newest family member. We have been calling her itty bitty, but that isn't really a name is it? I just know that when I first rescued Sam and took her to the vet, she didn't have a name yet. They labeled her chart "No Name Kintz". It kind of made me sad, so I won't let this one go for too much longer without a name.

House Hunters Indiana

Finding a place to live in Lafayette, Indiana was not as easy as all of us thought.
The kids went armed with dozens of promising listings, and appointments to view properties, so it sounded like a piece of cake. Unfortunately, sounding good on paper doesn't necessarily mean its all that in person. Stephen has been keeping me updated on the hunt and those poor kids were exhausted and discouraged by mid-week.

They ran into all kinds of obstacles. Apartments that rent "by the bedroom" for college roommates. Places that sounded great but turned out to be a dirty hovel. They met one agent at a house that the guy didn't realize was still occupied. He apologized and asked if the kids wanted to reschedule a viewing later. The place was so run down and the yard filled with trash...real trash and old tires and stuff, so they politely declined. One Craigslist internet scam that the kids didn't fall for, but still, that was one more strike off the potential list. One place that seemed promising, had great space, a good location and decent price but turned out to have such a foul stench on the 2nd floor that Hannia practically ran out of the house gagging. The agent assured them that it would be cleaned and the odor removed before they could move in, but the kids didn't think it was even possible.

When I talked to Stephen on Wed. night I wasn't sure that he wasn't going to change his mind about moving at all. But then they found a place that suits them.
It's a 3 bedroom townhouse, completely new, and won't be finished until August 10th (which is pushing it because school starts on the 23rd, but it will work). Its smaller than they would have liked. There are 3 bedrooms, but they are really tiny. The kitchen and living room are also pretty small. Storage space is limited. There is no outside space to speak of. And its near the top of their budget.

But...on the UP side...being new, it is completely immaculate, up to date, and mercifully stink-free (LOL). It is in a great location downtown just a short stroll away from the Main St. shopping/restaurant area and a Farmer's Market. Its also on the trolley line that runs straight to campus. That's a big plus. And there is designated parking. Apparently that is not necessarily a given there as the kids ran up on places where you had to park wherever you could out on the street. They have decided that they can work with the space....and actually seemed to be excited now that the brutal search is over. Stephen said that this was the only place they saw that Hannia could actually picture them in. I think they are both satisfied with it.

And more great news...Hannia's bosses were so sorry to see her leave that they have agreed to let her keep her job thanks to all of these new-fangledy things like faxes and video conferencing and stuff. The kids are feeling relieved as not having any foreseeable income while job hunting was a little bit scary. It looks like things are all coming together, and they should be on their way around the 10th. I am going to miss them, but its going to be alright. I know in my heart that the kids need to figure out the right path for them.

'Member This?

Remember this song: I can see clearly now the rain has gone. I can see all obstacles in my way........

I loved that song as a kid. What's not to love? Catchy tune, insanely optimistic lyrics. It's a feel good kind of song. But for some reason, up until I was way more than old enough to know better, I thought it said:

I can see all ICICLES in my way.....

LOL! What the heck kind of song would that be? hahahahahahahaha...................
I heard it on the radio a couple of days ago, when we were on our way down to New Bern for the 4th of July actually and that little lyric mishap STILL makes me laugh every single time.