Thursday, November 30, 2006

Thursday evening

hi there...
i got home a little early because i started a bit today. had a workshop to attend, just like yesterday! unlike yesterday though, this workshop was really good! three more workshop days next week, and then i'm back to work full time. the two i've had this week equal 12 hours of ceu's. next week's don't offer those.

i've missed being in the office...stuff goes on without me there...and then i have to play catch up. because of the ice day, it shouldn't be too bad!

suzanne is sure that if she were allowed to come along, the days would go better. at the same time, she refuses to climb into my shirt so i can take her with me in the morning. sigh.

i'd love to work in a place that permitted me to bring a kitty with me to the office. suzanne might not be the best choice because she does get a little skittish in new places, but it would be fun to have some fuzzy company.

suzanne -- who loves to sit between my wrists while i'm at the keyboard -- says 'mama got a big red padded envelope in the mail. mama loves mail! the envelope had 2 boxes of christmas cards from cousin jessica...so now mama and dad can write this year's christmas cards! i, of course, will help. i'm good at guiding mama's pen while she writes. then i make sure she gets the envelopes sealed just write. finally, i help with stamps, and she takes them to mail box. expect some pretty cards this year! and thanks thanks thanks cousin jessica!'

ciao/meow

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

snow day!

actually, it's an 'ice day'...but the effects are the same! no work today. a day to cuddle with the superior members of our family (suzanne and ben, of course!).

i need breakfast and then a nap!

Monday, November 27, 2006

the adventures of suzanne

i've been with my mama for over 15 years. actually 15-1/2. i'm old enough for a learner's permit, but she just won't let me behind the wheel.

before my last ben crossed the rainbow bridge, we'd plan how we would swipe mama's keys to take the car for a spin. ben--who liked lots of attention--said he'd steer. cuz i'm kinda shy, i agreed to work the pedals (no, not like a bike...the 'zoom!' and 'stop!' pedals). we never did do it. ben left me last year. the new guy that mama got doesn't have any fun ideas about driving or any other adventures. he's not always very nice to me...the big galoot. it's probably cuz he's still practically a baby; he's only 3.

anyway, this is my 'baby story'. sometimes at night, mama tells me this story to help me go to sleep. she rubs my tummy and holds me close while she talks.

she says that i was born in a garbage dumpster in olympia in the summer time. the woman who brought the newspapers found me with some other babies and a mother kitty. the woman rescued me and brought me to my mama. my mama couldn't take all the babies because she already had 4 other cats. she chose me.

i lived with mama and the other kitties for a few days. i didn't know that my mama was going to be so good to me, so i stayed away from her for awhile. i cried a lot. one day, mama came and picked me up while i was crying. she talked softly to me and held me. i looked into her eyes. i was so surprised! it was my own mama looking at me. i stopped crying right then. i snuggled close and purred.

even with the other kitties around, i spent most of my time with mama. i didn't like to go outside. loud noises scared me. deep voices scared me. i was ok when it was just me, mama, and the other kitties. if we had company, though, i hid. i learned to pull the box spring lining loose so i could hide inside the box spring. mama always found me.

one time, we were moving into a new apartment. mama had brought me and ben over early. i got scared and tried to jump up onto the closet shelf. i landed on top of the hot water heater and slid face first down into the triangular hole behind it.

did you know that full hot water heaters are super heavy? mama had to find a maintenance guy to drain the heater so it could be moved and i could get out. she was really scared and almost cried.

another time, we were living in a tiny cottage at the beach in maine. i was scared of all the noises of the people walking by all time. i found my safe place to be: up on top of the shower stall, where the cottage was unfinished. she was scared when she couldn't find me. then i called to her and reached out my paw, and she found me!

once, we lived in a house. i would jump from the bed to the edge of the dresser, and then up onto a shelf in the closet. mama put a pillow up there for me to sleep. i liked to be up high and cuddled in, all nice and cozy.

the best--or maybe just the one that makes mama laugh--is when she put a cable tv box on top of the tv on the dresser in her bedroom. the cable box was warm! and i'm miss warm-and-cozy! i slept on top of that cable box until mama couldn't turn on the tv. she lifted onto my closet shelf and pulled the cable box down to see why it didn't work anymore. she expected to find the vent covered with orange and white fur, or the inside filled with that same fur. she was so surprised to see that it wasn't fur inside. i had left her a present after i had groomed myself a little too well (i got sick). she told me that it cost her $25 to get a new cable box. i wasn't allowed to sit on the new one.

that's part of my baby story. i like to hear it when we're cuddled together under the covers getting ready to go to sleep...when i'm miss warm-and-cozy.

oh frabjuous day!

i can access my blog at work! the wicked myspace isn't available from my work computer. i like being able to see what's going on in the world. sometimes, i'll even be able to add little things to my blog while i'm there.

today, unfortunately, wasn't one of the days when i get to do my own thing. my day was so busy that i hardly got a chance to breathe, much less do anything on-line. mondays are like that. meeting after meeting, and then another meeting, followed by two more meetings! all those meetings look like they should add up to a joke, but the day goes like that.

going from frabjuous to concerned, my cell phone rang at the beginning of a mid-afternoon meeting. it was our pediatrician. suzanne had had a geriatric panel done on friday (geriatric: she's only 15-1/2! she's promised to be with me until i'm 50...we've got 6-1/2 more years). she's so little that the doc thought she might have thyroid problems...hence the blood work. she weighs 5 pounds!

it turns out that she doesn't have thyroid problems...either hyper or hypo. she has kidney problems. he says it's possible that she will benefit from medication and/or diet change.

have any of our fuzzy friends in the blogosphere had these kidney problems? did your pediatrician help you? did you take the pills your people tried to give you?

let us know...

meow

Sunday, November 26, 2006

sunday, almost noon

i'll get the photo thing figured out soon. for now, i'll sit in sweats and wool socks--watching 'cradle of life'--while i use gar's computer to post a new entry.

suzanne is calling calling calling. she wants without telling me what she wants. i could guess: some time under a blanket having her tummy stroked. she's my little sybarite.

been thinking about a christmas tree and where we might like to put it this year. we have a 3 ft pre-lit tree. last year, it worked on the entertainment center. we no longer have that piece of furniture, so i'm not sure where the tree will go. ben hasn't learned the decorum that must accompany the holidays.

over the past couple of years, i've been thinking about christmas and why it's usually a little depressing. it mostly comes from not being able to access the 'magic' that christmas was supposed to have had when i was a child. so i can try to find my own magic: lights, scents, tastes, generosity, family.

yesterday, i walked through a stand of freshly cut noble and douglas firs. their limbs were bound for easy transport. the sign read 'shaped trees', and it was obvious that some branches had been nipped or tipped for symmetric shape. with those nips, the scent was strong: fresh, green, peacefully energizing. ah christmas...

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Saturday afternoon--pre-nap

ok, then, miss dmm, here i am. suzanne sat on my knee tapping her toes while i created my account so that i can blog here. i may keep the myspace blog, because there are some people there that i like to hang with. but i'll keep up with this one too.

got my car back this afternoon. i took it in yesterday morning to deal with the 'low tire pressure' light, and to figure out why it felt funny after having the tires rotated a couple of weeks ago. it felt like i was on unbalanced roller blades...and i was slipping/sliding all over the place. not exactly a pleasant feeling...especially when there's a 22.5 mile-each way commute to work. so $235--and slightly more than 24 hours--later, it drives smoothly again. no trip to kennewick this weekend.

it's surprisingly cold here this weekend. i was out with just a sweatshirt yesterday and was so cold! today, i wore my fuzzy coat and the nifty scarf that dmm's grandma knitted for me (or was it dmm's mama who made it?).

we've got some new dvds to watch tonight. with kitty company of course.

ciao

Wednesday, November 1, 2006

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