August 3, 2008
Now I need new sandals.
Thanks to Kali and Shahiro, I now have to buy new sandals.
See, they are always rubbing on, licking, and chewing on my sandals whenever I come home from anywhere and take them off.
I'm not exactly sure why, but I think it may have something to do with my diabetes.
When I get even a little bit sweaty, my skin smells very sweet, like candy almost, it's weird, I've heard it's not a good thing to smell like that, but it's not an unpleasant smell at all.
I find it rather pleasant myself.
Anyway, the two cats have rubbed on, licked on, and chewed on my sandals, so when I was at the grocery store I was having problems.
I couldn't figure out why my right one felt so weird, it just didn't feel right, and I was so busy walking around and getting what I needed, I didn't stop to take a look until we were almost done.
I finally looked down and the left side of one of the sandal straps on my right one, was completely unattached!
I couldn't very well leave it like that, it was driving me crazy, so I had Sebastian undo the stitching on the other side of the strap and take it off.
I placed the strap into my purse, and maybe I'll fix it or just go and buy some new ones if I can remember where I got them.
They are Dr. Scholl's, and they were so so comfy!
I loved these sandals!
I can't be having the kitties destroying my shoes all the time, so maybe I could find and take them to some kind of sneaky vet or a charlotte north carolina dentist, and get their little incisors filed down or coated in like rounded plastic caps or something.
I can't lose good and comfy shoes and sandals because they like the taste of my sweet sweaty feet.
August 2, 2008
She needs to be on a diet.
This is Nova the fat cat after we just gave her a bath.
I had to give her a bath because she is so fat that she cannot clean herself.
The funny thing is, she really doesn't eat all that much.
Shahiro is the piggy kitty, Nova gets whatever crumbs Kali and Shahiro leave in the food bowl.
Sometimes we do slip her some people food, she is the one who likes Corn Pops cereal, spaghetti, Gold Fish crackers etc, but we don't give her people food all of the time.
Part of her weight issue is her breed, every cat who has been the same as her, has been a big huge fat cat, it's something in their genetics.
She's a combination of Egyptian Mau and standard alley cat.
They need to make a special cat food with diet pills in it for super fat cats.
Like, Purina Fat Cat Chow, now with Fenphedra!
"Help your special fatty kitty lose weight while they chow down like the piggy kitties they are!"
Hahaha!
Some cats do need the help, Nova is seriously a huge fatty, I weighed her the other day and she is BIG.
I held her in my arms and stepped on the scale, and then I put her down and stepped back on the scale, and then deducted the weight of her and I together, from the weight of just me.
Nova weighs 26.5 pounds.
She needs some diet pills!
August 2, 2008
Pretty pictures at my fingertips.
I've been randomly surfing around the internet tonight, following links from one blog to a site, then from that site to another site, and then to another and another, and I don't recall what site I was on, but I saw a link for Winter Park real estate, and thought it was for homes in Winter Park Florida, so I clicked on over because it's a really nice area, and if I was going to move to another location in Florida, I'd definitely look there.
It's a nice place.
But the link was for Winter Park Colorado, where it snows, and I don't do snow anymore.
No more cold, no more shoveling, no more trapped in because of a blizzard.
But it looks like a really nice place to live for people who like the whole snow thing.
But I forgot to tell you all that the digital keychain I won from Today's Gizmos, came in the mail the other day, and it's really pretty sweet.
The company that sponsored the give-a-way, Wholesale Keychain, was even nice enough to do custom engraving on them for the winners, so I had them just put my name on it that way no one would want to steal it from me.
Heh.
The menu options look simple enough to use, the screen is bright and very easy to read.
Now all I need to do is load a bunch of photos to it so I can take all of the pictures out of my wallet, and then the next time someone asks to see pictures of my giant teenagers, I can just click and show them in all the beautiful digital glory!
July 20, 2008
Maybe not so lucky after all.
I am going to end up taking Mark to the ER after all.
His hand is swollen up again, he says it hurts quite a bit more tonight, he can barely make a closed fist without wincing, and forget about flexing his fingers all the way out.
I know it's kind of hard to see in this picture, it's not black and blue anyway, just puffy and swollen, but the flash was whiting it out, no flash was too dark, synchro flash still whited it out, so I just used flash and pulled back as far as I could, and took the pic in the bathroom because it has the best light.
But you can tell that his left hand is 'bigger' than his right.
So for now I've wrapped it in an ace bandage, and am having him ice it, rest, ice it and rest for a little bit now.
I feel awful, he's such a good kid, he didn't tell me it was hurting really badly until I woke up just a little bit ago.
I was so tired after coming home from the musical, that I had a little bit to eat and then laid down on the couch.
My intent was just to take a little rest, watch a little tv, but I dozed off within minutes of falling asleep around 8pm-ish, and woke up around 11:40-:45pm.
He said he came out while I was laying down but saw that I was asleep, so he didn't want to bother me.
Ugh. 
So I gave him a few Tylenol and then wrapped it up and now he's sitting on the couch with an ice pack on it.
I'll need to get him to the ER tomorrow, uh-er today, and get it looked at.
He says he doesn't know what a broken bone feels like because he's never broken anything, but he imagines this is what it feels like.
I asked him how bad it hurts using the pain scale, 1 it doesn't hurt at all, to 10 being OMFG it hurts so bad I'd rather be poked in the eyeball with a hot needle than to feel like this anymore, and he said it's about an 8, so yeah, he's in some pain.
I do think (and hope) that they have learned their lesson about fighting with each other.
For like forever now, since they were little kids first starting to be annoyed with each other, that one of these days their fights were going to end up with one or both of them getting really hurt.
That day has finally come.
July 18, 2008
They are so lucky.
I woke the teens up just a bit ago, Mark has plans to go out with his Big, George, for lunch today, and we have plans this weekend that they need to be healthy for.
I checked Sebastian's noggin, and it looks much better this morning.
Still a little puffy, still a little black and blue, but otherwise he's good.
He says it doesn't hurt anymore.
I took the duct tape and popsicle sticks off of Mark's fingers, and the swelling has mostly gone down, he can move them, a bit better, so it looks like a sprain is all he did.
I'm going to let him go with George and see how he does.
It's his left hand that he hurt, he's left handed, so we'll see how he fares with eating with utensils today, if he's in a lot of pain when he gets home or not.
I am utterly exhausted.
I barely slept because I was so worried about Sebastian's head.
I was afraid to let him sleep straight through, fear of a concussion.
This picture was taken this morning, and trust me, last night, this looked so so much worse.
It was this HUGE black and blue puffy ball on his forehead.
Being a mother is so dang stressful sometimes.
They have fought almost every day this summer, they are bored, there are no "summer" jobs down here.
It's the reverse seasons here.
Up north in the summer, kids are out of school, people take vacations, teens can get jobs.
Down here in the summer, no one vacations here because it's too hot.
People vacation here during the winter when teens are in school, so yeah, they are at home and at each other's throats day in and day out, but this is the first time they have come to hard blows.
You know, when they grow up and move out, I'm going to start looking for a new home in another state, like go look for some Wilmington real estate, or Wyoming, or Virginia, find myself a nice little cozy 1 bed/1 bath cottage size place, and then not tell them where I moved to, and if they find me, ooops!
Sorry sons of mine, but my house is too small for you to live with me.
Dang.
July 13, 2008
I have a special visitor today.
My cutie-pie niece Skye is here for the day, and we are having some fun despite the heavy rains that are coming down, and despite my extreme tiredness.
She's coloring and and playing, and we're watching a couple movies she brought with her.
That cute little stuffed American eagle, is the one I won from MomLogic.com.
The Fedex man showed up on Friday, and that was inside.
I didn't even know I won it till then.
Ok, off to have some fun and mail some Skye drawings to Nanny and Pop Pop!
Later days!
July 11, 2008
They grow up so fast it seems.
Here are just two of the pictures I mentioned in the post below.
Look how tiny my boys were!
Sebastian had turned 4 on June 1st, and Mark would be turning 6 in August.
These were taken in June 1997, just a few weeks after we moved here, and I cannot believe how small they were.
They both look the same, same faces, but my how they've grown!
Mark is over 6feet, Sebastian is at 6feet, and Mark will be turning 17 in about a month, on the 15th of August.
They used to be so tiny, pulling them around on that inner tube was so easy because they were so light.
There's no way I could pull even one of them now.
July 11, 2008
They were so little!
My sister had been digging around sorting through some boxes in her closet, and found some pictures of the teens and I from when we first moved here.
It was June 1997, and my gosh, they were so tiny!
I'm going to scan them and upload a few to show you.
In one of them, I am pulling them through the water on a small inner tube, and you can clearly see one of the scoliosis humps on my back.
That hit me kinda hard how visible it was.
July 5, 2008
Climb, slide, and crush.
Today when my sister Jo brought Mark back home, she picked us all up in her new car, and we went to grab lunch at McDonald's and let the girls play in the indoor play-place.
She traded in her Chrysler Town n' Country Minivan for a new Mazda5.
It's better on gas mileage, and it has enough seats, as many as the minivan did, so that we can all go out together and not be cramped in a tiny little car.
It's really nice, have you seen these?
They look very small from the outside, but the inside is just as big as her van was.
It's kinda crazy how that is, but I swear it's the same amount of room on the inside.
They completely remodeled the McDonald's on Bee Ridge road.
It's been done very nice, and it's much cleaner than the old one they had at this location, and oh so much better with the indoor AC.
I rarely get to see the girls, so it's always nice to spend even just a couple of hours with them and watch them laughing and having fun.
Susan on the slide.
Skye climbing up the tunnel stairs.
Then we went over to Big Lots to see if they had any good and sturdy bunk beds for the girls.
They didn't, but they did have a really nice glider/rocker office chair, that I want.
Most chairs have lumbar support, that bulge in the back cushion at the bottom which is good for most people but not me.
This chair doesn't have that, it curves in at the bottom.
It was so comfortable, and only $159.00, so I might have to go back there this week and pick one up.
It was beige suede microfiber too, very soft, and the color matches my sofa and love seat.
They also had a ton of other stuff, I've only ever been to a Big Lots once before and it was just disgusting inside, so it was nice to see this one was neat and clean, organized, and the staff was busy helping people and cleaning things up.
They even had an electronics department, and if you don't know what a Big Lots is, it's basically an outlet store of items from all kinds of stores that either didn't sell the items or the package was damaged during shipment to it's original store, so some of the electronics boxes looked a little banged up.
I saw printers, cameras, desktop pcs, laptops, something that looked like a used cisco router because the box was so banged up, but we were in a hurry so I really couldn't check it out more, ethernet cables, headphones, mp3 players, so so much stuff, and it was all way under price from most electronics stores, like way cheap.
When I go back for the chair, I'm going to make sure I have just a little bit more time to at least look around the electronics department.
I won't buy anything, I don't need any computer stuff right now, but I want to look and see what they have in case I ever do need another part so I can go there first before going to a specialty store and spending too much money.
June 27, 2008
Coral and over cast.
My medical tests went off without a hitch, and much faster than the estimate they had given me.
They said it would take any where from 2.5 hours, to a possible 4+ hours.
I went in at 10:30am, and was out by 12:15pm.
I really, really liked the seated/open MRI machine.
That was awesome.
They had a huge flat panel tv in the room with it, it was on the Fox news channel, *gag* but eh, it was better than nothing.
They did my neck MRI first, then I had to sit sorta sideways while they did the shoulder MRI.
Then I went in for the CT, and when it was done I went out and waited for Mindy to pick me up.
Then we stopped off at Publix really quick so I could get the cat food, toilet paper, paper plates and trash bags I didn't go get yesterday.
Just as I was heading out the door yesterday afternoon to go, it started raining a little bit.
Rather than risk getting soaked, I just waited.
I took the above picture while waiting at the medical park for Mindy.
These bushes of flowers were all over the place, and they were just so pretty and bright in today's over cast skies.
I love that beautiful coral color of the flowers.
I have no idea what kind they are, but they are just really pretty I think.
I barely got any sleep last night, perhaps 3 hours, my alarm never went off, so I woke with a quick-start panic to my day.
Mindy's clocks at her house were all off by like 20 minutes, so she was running late as well.
We had a good laugh about that though.
It's kinda funny that we both were totally screwed up this morning.
Tomorrow, both our families will be getting together to spend some time hanging out.
Maybe the beach in the morning, a little bbq in the afternoon.
The teens can all drive each other crazy playing video games.
It'll be nice to be leaving the house to do something fun, rather than the usual leaving the house to go do sucky stuff like doctor's office visits.
I need a just take it easy kind of day.
I'm always doing stuff, so it will be really nice to just chill out for a few hours.
Well, off to try and catch up on all my blog and forum reading and stuff I do with those.
Later days.
June 26, 2008
W00t! I won!
A little bit ago, I posted my entry to try and win a digital photo key chain from Today's Gizmos.com.
Well I just swung by her blog to check and see if the winners had been drawn yet, and using random.org to choose from all the entries, I was chosen as one of the 3 lucky winners!
Winning it is very cool, I've over loaded my cell phone with pictures of my kids and stuff, so this will be awesome!
It can hold up to 70 pictures, and you just add them to it using a usb cord.
What I didn't know about the contest, was that the winners would also get to add a small custom engraving to it.
Now to think of something to engrave on there.
Hrm....
Thanks again to Today's Gizmos for having this contest, and to Wholesale Keychain for providing the prizes and doing the custom engraving for the winners!
June 25, 2008
Watch reruns if they replay your memories.
I love how Dove chocolates come with happy little sayings printed inside the wrappers.
June 24, 2008
I probably glow in the dark by now.
I cleaned out my SD card from my camera, so I have tons of room on it to take pictures with, and in a little bit, Sebastian and I are heading to Publix to grab some easy and light food for dinner, and then something for the teens to eat for lunch tomorrow because I won't be home.
I always take my camera with me because I just never know what I'll see along the way, or even while I'm in there.
Tomorrow I have to go have a 3D CT scan done at 12:30, and then a cervical (neck not cervix) and shoulder MRI at 1pm.
I'm hoping my sis can drop me off at least, and then I'll take the bus back home.
The radiology place called me back this afternoon (at frigging 3:45pm) with these appointment times, and so I had to ask sis if she'll be able to drop me off because Mindy already has plans to take her daughter swimming tomorrow afternoon, and I'm not going to screw that up.
I'd rather be swimming with them instead of spending 2 hours inside giant machines being scanned I tell ya.
Katie, Mindy's daughter, is such a good sport.
She goes with us to my doctor's appointments, and it's boring as hell.
I get bored sitting there waiting, so being an 8 year old in a boring doctor's office is pure torture.
I think she does great though, she does her best to behave and wait it out, and my doc was running behind today, so yeah, major long boring waiting time.
I'm pretty sure bus 15 runs the full length of Clark road, so I should be able to catch it and ride it back to at least the intersection by my street.
I've had so many of these tests in the last 6+ years now, I wonder if my organs glow by now.
Seriously, I've had 17 MRIs, 13 CT scans, 4- 3D CT scans, well over 100 xrays, and then about 10 or so specialized radiation type tests where they strap you to a table and inject dye in your spinal canal and tip the table all over the place.
I'm not a fan of the 3D CT scans though.
That stuff they inject you with, it makes you get instantly hot, you get nauseous, and it feels like you pissed yourself.
It's not too much fun, and then I have to go straight from that test into the MRI machine.
I think Doc M. checked off that I can use the seated MRI machine though, which is cool because you sit on this special chair, and the front of the machine is open.
So it won't be as claustrophobic as the laying down machine.
I'm just going to go do it and get it over with though.
I don't have much choice anyway, so do it and then sit and sweat while for the bus to come back home.
That's another reason for me to need my mp3 player charged up.
It'll keep me from losing my mind while waiting for the bus.
May 21, 2008
Try to keep still!
Have you ever taken a video with your camera and it ends up being all shaky?
I hate that.
But Buy.com has an awesome sale price on a Case Logic flexible tripod.
It can stand on just about any surface because it's legs are flexible for those times when taking a picture means putting a tripod on uneven ground.
How much is it on sale for?
$10!
That's it!
That is such an awesome price for people who take a lot of pictures or make videos and don't want the shaky hand appearance.
Look how cool this thing looks!
Check out some of it's features;
Segmented leg design allows for flexible joints that can rotate 360 degrees
Lightest and most versatile camera tripod available today
Firmly secures your compact digital camera to virtually any surface
Ideal camera accessory for photographers on the go
Throw it in your pocket or backpack and you'll be ready for your next adventure
Wrap it around a tree branch
Hang it from a pole
Perch it on a jagged rock
Standard 1/4 diameter 20 thread count screw mount
Designed for use with digital cameras weighing up to 9.7 ounces (275 grams)
Rubber feet gives extra grip
It sounds like it's small enough to take anywhere and use on just about any kind of surface.
I may actually pick this up this week. I would love to try it out and for only $10, it's totally affordable to try.
Buy.com has tons of awesome weekly deals every single week, and I've gotten into the habit of checking them out every week now because they really do have some amazing prices on certain items.
May 21, 2008
The rainy season begins.
Yesterday after my massage appointment, the skies opened up.
Lightening, thunder, and gallons of rain came down and didn't let up until about 5pm.
The teens walk home from school everyday, we only live about 7 city blocks from the high school, it's barely a 10 minute walk.
I knew they would be soaked when they came in the door, so I positioned myself at 2:37 and waited for them to walk in.
They get home every single day at the same exact time, 2:38pm.
I don't know how they do that perfect timing every day, but they do.
Anyway, like I said, it was down pouring really bad at that time, so I waited for my perfect moment.
Ha!
They were soaked right down to their boxers, their shoes were just like little spongy buckets for walking, their backpacks were full of water, all their notebooks and everything were just water logged.
That part wasn't so funny, we lost a really expensive calculator, but hey, school gets out on the 30th, so not a huge loss.
But damn if it wasn't funny watching them come in.
Sebastian loves getting wet, playing in the rain, so he was all hell yeah baby! That was fun!
Mark on the other hand wasn't quite so pleased with being so wet.
Haha!
I made them go straight back to the laundry after I snapped my picture, and strip out of the wet clothes and place them straight in the dryer, and then dry off and put on clean dry clothes.
I'm hoping it doesn't rain again today, but it has that look in the sky, it's a little gray, a little cloudy, and the humidity is way up.
If they get soaked 2 days in a row, they may get a little mad.
Well, not Sebastian, he's a puddle jumper.
April 28, 2008
Incontinent pets?
The above kitty is Nova, she's 9 years old, and she's becoming incontinent.
It is not a bladder infection, she's just losing control of her bladder.
Yesterday, she was sleeping on my bed just as she is in this picture, and when I entered the room to grab my clothes for the laundry basket to do today, I reached out to pet her.
She got so excited that I was going to pet her, that she piddled a bit on my bed.
Lucky for me I had replaced my mattress pad with that new allergy relief padded one, which is also waterproof.
I bought it because I'm allergic to dust mites, the padding and waterproof layer was just a major bonus.
So I took the sheets and the pad off the bed immediately, and threw them in the washer while the pee was still wet.
I added the laundry soap and a 1/4 cup of Urine Gone, (love this stuff!) and when it hit the rinse cycle, some Febreze mixed with the fabric softener.
They came out very clean, no sign or smell of any kitty pee.
The trick with cat pee is getting it while it's still wet.
If I hadn't noticed that she had peed, it would have dried in and the smell would have been near impossible to get out.
But what I'm really trying to talk about is how she's incontinent.
Has anyone ever had a pet with a piddle problem?
Do they make Depends for pets?
April 26, 2008
Mix and match or just match?
I was doing a bit of cleaning around the house again today, dusting stuff off mostly, when I took a good look at all the pictures on the wall.
No two frames are the same.
Not sure why I did that, I think I only bought a new frame as I got a new picture, and I just bought whatever frame was on sale or something.
I know that one day I went to Michael's with my sister, and they had a huge shelf full of clearance items, most of them picture frames, and no two alike.
But they had so many sizes and they were all super cheap, like $1-$2 each, so I bought about 10 of them.
But now that I'm looking at all my pictures, I'm not so sure I like the whole mix-match look anymore.
Now that we've been talking about painting the walls here with some different colors, maybe some custom picture framing would look good too.
All one color and style of frame.
Of course the color of the frames will depend on which color I choose for the walls.
I know there's a green , a light purple, and a sorta light copper/light gold color.
Not so sure I could handle that bright, I'm not a bright color liking person, but maybe it would warm this room up, make it softer, which would make it actually appear darker and warmer.
April 12, 2008
It ain't that bad, but it ain't pretty either.
I got Sebastian to help me get a picture of my back, because the doc and nurse said there was some discoloration happening back there.
So here's what you're seeing. It is clickable for bigger.
Looking at my back, (it is labeled correctly, that tat in the far upper right, is on my right arm) you would think the part where the biggest swelling is, on the right, would be the painful area.
It's not.
That is swelling from all of the muscles that run across the spine from each shoulder blade, being tightened and pulled because the left shoulder muscle is severely constricted.
That whole area is slightly discolored, yesterday it was a whole lot worse looking, black and blue across my entire shoulder blades on both sides.
That weird indent right in the middle, that is from I was still at the hospital, and an orderly had taken me down again for what was supposed to only be one xray.
I ended up going down, and back up 6 times in a 3 hour span, because no one recorded that it had already been done.
On the sixth and final one, the xray tech jammed the board directly under me instead of under the inch thick xray pad I was laying on, and one of the sharp corners ripped open the stitches in that spot.
When one of my surgical team, Doc. C., came in after I was brought back up, I was crying, told him what happened, and he had me sit up so he could take a look.
It was ripped wide open and bleeding, and he had to go get suture kit to close it back up.
Very painful.
So now I have a weird little indent for the rest of my life, smack dab in the middle of the scar.
It's like a deformed innie belly button on my back.
I've named it Paidin.
You can see the top of the scar, which starts right at the very top of the shoulder blades at T-3.
That's the third thoracic vertebrae.
The scar runs all the way down into my ass crack, and stops at S-1.
That represents the very last Sacral vertebrae right before the coccyx or tail bone, as most people know it.
This is what my back looked like about 4 weeks after coming home and most of the stitches had been taken out.
You can see how long the fusion is, and even though the pic doesn't show my ass crack, trust me that scar line is in there.
I have my CT scheduled for Monday morning at 9:30am, and I am hoping that the pain will be greatly diminished by then.
I know I'll probably end up in another 6-8 weeks of physical therapy, and possibly massage therapy again too, which I loathe, but as I've said before, it's not that it doesn't feel good afterwards, it's that I am not comfortable being mostly naked and having someone rub their giant hands all over my back and glutes.
I just don't like it.
I think I should be allowed to have my shirt on during it. haha
Anyway, I just wanted to show you my back.
It's been awhile since I've posted any pics of it, and now while I'm wide awake again all night, it seemed like as good a time as any.
My left shoulder is still on fire, I can hardly move it or press it against anything.
Let me tell ya, even squatting to pee, is a nightmare.
When you sit or squat, you use every muscle in your back to do so, and it's pulling on the injured area something fierce man.
Every time I have to pee, I cover my mouth and try to quiet the screams of hell.
Just keep your fingers and toes crossed for me, that on Monday they say it's just a torn muscle and not something worse like actually being caught on a pedicule screw or that a nerve is pinched off on a screw.
Either of those scenarios may mean having my back opened up to repair the damage.
A torn muscle will heal on it's own, it will just take some time.
Having it opened back up will be a world of hurt I'm afraid to even think about.
And now I suppose I'll attempt some sleep.
It's very late, and I am tired, I am just fearful of pressing my back down on the bed because it hurts.
Oh, and when you get out of bed every morning, you use every muscle in your back too.
It hurts like being branded with a cattle iron because I've been asleep, the pain meds have definitely worn off over night, and so yeah, burning, stabbing, terrifying pain.
April 12, 2008
Pic #116.jpg
Just testing layouts with flickr.
April 12, 2008
Pic #127.jpg
Nova asleep on my hand with her eyes open. it creeps me out man.
April 11, 2008
Pic #128.jpg
Alligator on my street again.April 7, 2008
I forgot how much fun a school bus can be.
We went down to Marina Jacks and did a tour of all of the art pieces that border the park.
First, we walked around the diversity panels, because they are all done in photoshop, that's what part of this class is currently studying.
The students weren't even remotely interested, and it was hot out.
Like way hot.
They all just wanted to sit down.
Then we went and looked at the statues.
These are the art pieces I have talked about before, costing the city millions of dollars, but the class we were in is art and digital design, not local politics, so I kept it to myself.
Here's a pic of one of the pieces, it's called Andy.
It's by far one of the more interesting pieces there.
After that, we ate at O'Leary's, and then hopped back on the bus to the Hollywood 20 for the film fest films for the schools to see.
They were really great shorts, I liked them all, but my faves were Dear Lemon Lima, One Rat Short, and Snakebite.
Snakebite was so adorably cute, a great and classic little kid story.
Dear Lemon Lima was weird but funny and poignant.
One Rat Short was a love story for rats with a not so happy ending, but done brilliantly.
Fabulous animation in it, and a good story with no talking at all, just visuals.
I wasn't crazy about Gandhi at bat, I just didn't find it all that humorous.
We were shown a commercial before the shorts started, and this one was just so wrong on so many levels.
You know I'm all about kids not starting to smoke, but this commercial for the tobacco free Florida you care contest, is slightly offensive.
I just don't think the part about sounding like a transformer, was necessary.
There are people out there who have to use that little machine to talk for reasons other than throat cancer, and so yeah, wrong, but funny all at the same time.
Instead of taking it seriously, the students laughed out loud.
Then we hopped the bus back to school, and man, teens these days, wow.
I think at times they forgot there was another adult on the bus besides the teacher, and I was sitting back there with them, and they just talked the way they always do.
Sex, prison sex, drugs, more sex.
I was like whoa.
The girls don't look like teenage girls, they look like 20 somethings, and the boys all look like teenage boys.
The girls were by far the worst talkers if you catch my drift.
I was so glad to get home.
All that walking around the park in new sandals?
Not a good idea at all.
I have blisters and torn skin, and now my feet are all swollen.
But all in all it was a good and interesting day.
April 1, 2008
Kitty in the cabinets.
I went out to find a little snack to munch on, and once again, I found Shahiro sleeping in the cabinets.
She knows how to paw at the cabinet knobs till she can get her head in there to jump in.
She finds the weirdest places to sleep.
She goes in the kitchen cabinets, on top of the tv, on top of the book shelves in the living room, on top of the toy shelves in Mark's room, and in just about every window that has a sill.
She also loves to sleep on top of the computer monitor in Sebastian's room.
She's a strange cat.
April 1, 2008
She's 10 today.
My pretty Kali baby is 10 years old today.
Born on April Fools day, and been the best pet anyone could ever ask for.
I gave her a can of special cat food today, I sang to her, and she meowed back to me in her squeaky little 'mew' of a voice.
I love this cat, I don't know what I would do without her.
She's just the awesomest.
March 30, 2008
The hazards of long fingernails.
I went to the fridge to get a soda, it was the last can in the 12 pack, so I took it out, and tried to take the box out.
When I did, the teens cans of regular Pepsi started to fall and I tried to catch them with my left hand, while still hanging onto the empty box with my right.
I proceeded to slam my left thumbnail straight on, into a shelf.
Head on, direct slam.
This resulted in the following, and will probably cause the loss of the nail, as it has already started to "bubble" and "lift".
To say it's painful is an understatement.
The crack goes down a lot further than it looks, and the right side of it is where it's bubbling and lifting.
I've wrapped 3 band-aids around it after trimming off what I could of the really cracked part, and then taped it to hold the band-aids on secure over night.
Freaking ouch man.
March 30, 2008
Fun and tiring, all at the same time.
We spent the whole day with Susan who just seems to be growing up at such an amazing rate.
She's smart, funny, and keeps you on your toes.
My sister has her enrolled in Tae Kwon Do classes, and so I had her show me a few moves.
She showed me the bow, a straight kick, a punch, and a target punch, and then a side kick.
She's just too stinking cute.
I love how she pretends the basketball hoop is a horse or a rocket, or a car.
I love how she's fascinated by nature.
Bugs, lizards, and the strange nut things that fall out of the palm tree.
When I was getting dressed this morning, I had to grab some underwear from the clean clothes on top of the dryer, that I hadn't yet put away.
I couldn't figure out why all my clean stuff was covered in cat hair.
Now I know.
Looks like I'll be re-washing everything again.
And this time, I will put it away, right away.
Dang cat.
March 30, 2008
Susan glow.
Susan is here spending the day with us, and she posed for a picture.
We will be going for a walk soon, maybe to the playground or somewhere for lunch.
March 30, 2008
Cat-mowing.
God morning!
It's absolutely gorgeous out today.
It's a little warm, but the sky is beautiful.
I have decided that if I could get enough cats, I could open my own franchise of lawn mowing cats.
It would be the perfectly ecological friendly grass cutting system.
No gas, no electricity, just 100 cats in a row, chowing down on the lawn.
Cats love grass, and Nova especially.
My lawn would be kept short, Mark wouldn't have to be out there sweating his butt off, just 100 fat cats keeping it short.
March 24, 2008
3 little pictures.
Niece Skye playing all silly with some shaving cream.
Niece Susan playing all silly with some shaving cream.
These things were surely made by some kind of devil, to intentionally sabotage a good woman's diet and workout progress.**
Continue Reading �
March 19, 2008
Money in, money out.
Well I won't be going on any luxury vacations for a long while.
I won't be going on any vacations for awhile.
I just get caught up and slightly ahead on my bills, and something big breaks, like the lawn mower.
But I finally replaced the charcoal exploded lawn mower on Sunday.
Wanna see the one that got blown up?
I kept it in the shed until I could get another one, so the explosion holes are rusted around the edges now from the weather, but just check out what happens when you run a lawn mower over charcoal briquet's that have the lighter fluid already in them.
It blew a massive hole in the side, and it's no longer connected to the rest of it here.
It blew the handle completely off on the left side, it's no longer connected there either.
The back piece where it faces you, this is where sparks were flying out and hit Mark in the face.
He's lucky he didn't get hit in the eyes.
The front of the mower where it got ripped open and sparks were flying out.
I was going to go to the dreaded Walmart to get another one on Sunday, they were cheaper than even Home Depot. They had a mower for $138.99, but one of my neighbors said they had a friend with a mower for $75.00, so I went and took a look at it.
It was a brand new mower that they had sitting in their shed since they bought a riding mower.
They replaced the fuel hose because it had dry rot from just sitting for the last 4 months, but other than that, it was like new, no rust or dull blades or anything, so I bought it.
Mark mowed the lawn Monday after school, and it worked great.
Now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that nothing else breaks and needs replacing.
March 15, 2008
I woke up confused.
I try not to take the Somas because when I wake up, I am confused and don't know where I am.
Well it was raining for several hours last night, coming down pretty hard, and my back would just not loosen up.
So I took one around 8pm, and finally went to bed around 2:30am.
When I woke up this morning, I was really lost, or so I thought.
I woke up not knowing where I was, and when I realized I was home, I didn't know if the teens were home, what day it was, and I came flying out of my bedroom and scrambled from room to room to find them.
Sebastian was up and playing on his computer, and mark was still asleep.
But I hate that.
I just really hate that about that pill.
They work really well, but damn, why do they make you as confused as an Alzheimer patient?
I need to take a shower and go do more grocery shopping. The other day was just the odds and ends, household stuff, a small bit of food, today is the big food shopping with multiple coupons.
Always trying to save money ya know.
I wanted to share a pic with you, and seeing as today is Caturday, Christine declared it so, here's the cutest and funniest pic of Kali and Shahiro napping together.
Kali is one of those cats that likes to sleep on her back, all sprawled out, legs opened wide, and she can get in this position just about anywhere she feels it looks like a good napping spot.
Well, Shahiro thought between Kali's open legs looked like a good napping spot, so that's how they slept.
I walked in and found them like that, and just started laughing.
They didn't even flinch when the flash went off, so it must have been the perfect, and most comfy spot ever.
I suppose I should get in that shower now that half the day is wasted.
Later days!
March 10, 2008
I have the perfect frame.
One of the things I would eventually love to buy for myself, for my home, is one of Michael Parks prints.
All of them are amazing, so full of details, unique and beautiful.
My sister has this one in a gorgeous frame, and it's fascinating to look at.
There's so much to look at it in every part of it, so many little things to see.
I love that one tiger is stone, the other is real.
Beautiful.
But this one, this is the one I want.
It's called The Creation.
You can click it to see it a bit better, isn't it beautiful?
So many things to see.
The tiger and his reflection, 'she' as she creates man.
I will have this print someday, not the actual painting, I could never afford the real painting, but just a print.
I have the perfect spot for it on the wall above my couch.
February 27, 2008
Sebastian wanted to show off his PS skills.
Sebastian has been learning how to use photoshop CS3 at school, and we have it at home now too, so he made this picture to share.
He tried sending it to ninny and pop pop, but it wouldn't attach to the email.
So anyway, here's his awesome picture.
He's way better at this stuff than I am.
He showed me how he made it, and I was all, um, uh, I can't do that.
I suck at this stuff, but he rocks.
February 27, 2008
They are far too cute for words.
The other day my sis came over with the girls, and brought us dinner because I wasn't feeling very well at all and just couldn't cook anything. I was on the couch just being absolutely miserable.
My niece Skye came in and walked up to me and handed me this picture she colored.
She said "this for you aunty kat, you feel bad? you sick? i love you."
She then told me it was 3 telephones and a star, and to call when I feel better.
That's just too damn cute man. I love these girls.
Just look at how beautiful they are, my girls are so stinking pretty, and so smart.
From left to right, Susan, my sister Joey, and Skye.
And look at how gorgeous Skye is. I can't get over how absolutely beautiful she is.
Every time I see them, they just get bigger and more beautiful, and so smart.
They have learned so many new things between now and the last time I saw them, and they are funny.
Man, Susan is just a whip. She cracks jokes, she's sarcastic, she's just awesome.
It's gonna get her in trouble in school someday, being that snarky, but right now it's freaking adorable how witty and sarcastic she is.
February 23, 2008
I think it's sick.
The baby squirrel that is.
It came back today, and made his little high pitched squeal again, to let me know he was there.
I opened the door and it took me a second to find him, but there he was, on top of the screen door.
Don't wild animals usually stay away from people and homes unless they are sick or rabid or something?
I'm kind of concerned about this little guy, but don't really know what to do.
I took a little video of him, but I haven't edited it or uploaded it yet.
He was wanting to come in the house, he was not afraid of me.
Very odd.
In other news, I can thank the teens for making me sick.
I have been so tired today, coughing, sneezing, and I have an earache.
This is not good.
I have an appointment with pain doc on Monday morning at 11:15am.
I have to be at that appointment.
We have so much to talk about, but I'll probably end up canceling anyway.
I'm not gonna start thinking about it right now though. It's just more stress, and bah, I don't need that right this minute.
But between my medical appointments and all the over the counter crap I had to buy for the teens while they were sick, I'm in a tight spot.
Not gonna think about it.
Not gonna think about it.
*poof*
You know the saying the more you try not to think about a pink elephant, the more you'll think about a pink elephant?
Apply that, and well, there's a giant pink elephant in my house.
I think I'll go edit my baby squirrel video. I may not post it though.
I think Sebastian, or both the teens, said something not so nice in it, and I don't want PETA or any other animal lovers jumping on my shit over it.
But then again, it was said in a joking manner and nothing at all happened to the baby squirrel.
I closed the door after I saw his momma coming back for him again.
He's fine.
November 13, 2007
Keeping up appearances.
After my last post, I decided to go for my daily walk, help take off some of this stress and work it out so I didn't take it out on anyone else.
I walked around my neighborhood, some of my neighbors have really nice homes and gardens, but one of my neighbors goes a wee bit overboard.
As I was walking down the street, one of his lawn aerators was spraying way out into the road, completely missing his lawn.
There are droughts in some parts of our country, and here's this guy watering the street.
*sigh*
I kept walking and looking and another neighbor had a gorgeous yard, flowers everywhere, roses, wildflowers, all sorts of beautiful flowers and plants everywhere.
He takes part in the natural Florida lawns, but he's added other plants like roses and peonies. It looks gorgeous.
He was out there plating some new grass seed.
Some parts of his lawn are dead from the scorching sumer heat and the lack of the normal seasonal rain.
He had seed and sod, and was busily working away on his yard.
One of these walks, I'll go take some pictures of it.
It's the kind of yard I'd love to have.
So beautiful and peaceful looking.
Like just looking at it calmed me down and made me smile.
I would love to be able to do something as beautiful in my yard, I've lived here 9 years and the best I've done is keep the lawn mowed.
Maybe tomorrow on my walk, I'll take the shots.
It's really gorgeous.
October 29, 2007
Did my Flickr blog upload start working again?
October 26, 2007
Snails in the hood?
Perhaps I should get myself some fishing tackle and gear, and find out where the water is, maybe I can catch a fish or something.
Why?
I was outside today and on my way back in the house, I notice this thing stuck to the cinder block walls that make up my house.
This is right at my front door.
So I looked really closely, and it's a snail.
A tiny little snail was climbing up the side of my house, so I went in, grabbed my camera, and took this cool macro shot of the little guy.
You can click it for bigger.
October 2, 2007
Lots of snail mail this week.
Yesterday, I got a Sony 1 GB Memory Stick PRO Duo Media
That's awesome!
I'll be getting a package from UPS this week with a new denim jacket in it for Mark, the 2nd copy of the video game will also be here this week, and then a mystery package.
I have absolutely no idea what it is or who the sender is.
None.
But whatever it is, it was mailed priority mail yesterday, and will be here tomorrow.
I received an email notice about it about an hour ago.
I haven't ordered anything else, not that I recall anyway. No, I don't think I have.
I know at some point, I'll be getting a personalized story book for my niece, but I'm pretty sure the mailer would be from the company.
I have no idea what this package is.
I'm dying of curiosity! *LOL*
September 25, 2007
The boobies are back!
That's right, it's almost time for the annual boobiethon to begin!
From October 1st through October 8th, bloggers around the world, take pictures of their lovely breasts, and send them in for us to post!
Once again this year, I've donated my time to help out and will be doing photo editing of the submitted pictures. (and my rack too of course *wink*)
All this requires is cropping and resizing the images down to our standard size, and then labeling them for the team to post either in the covered breasts free section, or the bare and paid section.
The boobs shall be posted to help raise money to fight breast cancer, and as tradition, the first $359 will be for bloggers helping bloggers charity portion of the event.
You can visit the site by clicking the banner below, or you can help us out by sending us your rack now, (or any time during the boobie-thon) so we have lots of submissions to post on the site.
I hope to see a lot of beautiful boobies submitted again this year!
Send us your photos!
Also, if you are a Blogads blogger, would you please consider donating some ad space?
This is the text for the ad;
Our fronts are back - the sixth annual blogger "Boobie-Thon"! Features bloggers showing their (covered and uncovered) breasts in order to raise money for charity. Submit your photos. Make a donation. It's the charity drive that gives YOU a little somethin' in return.
And this is the image; (please save to your own pc, no hotlinking)
Thanks so much, and let's raise those donations this year!
September 24, 2007
I am totally going to order one of these.
With fall and soon winter coming, it's time to dig out all the blankets and comforters, the throws for the couches to curl up with on cool nights.
It doesn't get super cold here, but just chilly enough to need a small throw to cuddle with on the couch while watching tv or movies.
I saw these awesome photo throws, and I want one!
Check this out!
You can get them in various sizes, the pictures of your choosing go on one side, and the throw itself is made of polar fleece, that super warm, fluffy, cuddly material.
There are 13 different colors of fleece to choose from, different picture layouts to choose from, and you can even add a line of text for free, like if you get your families pictures done on it, you can add a line at the bottom with your family name, like have it say for example, The Coopers.
They are all shipped by UPS ground unless you specify next day air, they take about 7-10 days to make, and, they are all made one at a time, right here in the USA.
Quality work, one at a time, made by the USA. No outsourcing to some mass manufactured plant in another country where workers are paid a penny a day, these are made here.
That's a huge plus in my book.
So once I take some super nice pics of the kids, I'll probably be ordering one of these.
I would love to have one to curl up with on a chilly night.
September 1, 2007
Um, it has a face.
Nova the fat cat, was laying on the coffee table in a wicked cute position.
She sleeps on top of just about anything, so I took a picture of her with her head resting on an Xbox controller, and on top of all kinds of papers, toys etc.
All pics are clickable for bigger.
It was cute. Then I started taking pictures of my blinds. I love them!
So I kept taking shots, and the next one, I didn't notice till I uploaded them.
It has an orb in it. With a face.
Do you see it?!?
I took 1 more shot, then uploaded all the pics to my pc.
So I uploaded all the pics, and was looking at them, and that's when i see the huge orb.
I used the flash in all 4 pictures.
No other orbs of dust appeared in any of the other 3 pictures, just that one.
And it has a face!
Hahah! I creeped myself out for about 10 seconds before remembering that dust particles are often caught on digital cameras because the lens has a super high shutter rate, and reflects the light off dust particles that are right in front of the lens.
August 10, 2007
Missing kids screensaver.
Source
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has developed a screensaver to help find missing kids.
Developed in partnership with a private software company, Global Software Applications, the rotating screens display a missing child's picture and profile, tailored according to the region of the United States where the computer user is located.Ron Koning, Global Software's vice president, hopes the screensaver will be used everywhere from police stations to office buildings and "any area with high traffic," he said. "Where it will catch the most eyes."
Since the milk carton advertising of the 1980s, the organization has tried working with private companies who fax and regular mail the pictures. Any method to get the pictures to the public works. One in six children featured has been found as a result of someone seeing their picture.
It's incredible to think that the milk cartons and the mailers you get in your mail box, are actually helping to find missing kids, so yes, do anything that it takes to get their pictures out there and bring home missing kids.
April 19, 2007
I tossed out my old pc in Monday nights trash.
Now you're thinking, ok, so what Kat?
Well I'll tell you what.
I meant to remove the hard drive from it but completely forgot.
I did not wipe it clean.
See where I'm headed yet?
Lots of things were on that pc, some stuff I could care less if someone finds, but I had pictures on there.
No, not full nudes, get your minds out of the gutter!
But I did have pics of myself from past boobiethons.
*sigh*
Now this all wouldn't be so terribly bad if the garbage/recycle people had gotten to it. It would be destroyed.
But it never made it to their truck.
We put our trash out Monday night, Tuesday morning it gets taken by waste management.
Tuesday the garbage and recycle people never came till mid-afternoon, but I noticed when I got home from my appointment, various bits of my garbage were missing.
Two old broken fans, an old chair, a broken lamp.
The computer was gone as well.
It never even clicked with me that it was missing from the pile of trash until last night.
I was sitting here going through my stats, and I came across a hit from this years boobiethon.
I sat bolt upright.
"My hard drive!" I screamed.
"Huh? What mom? Is the new computer broken?!" my sons said.
I slunk back down into my seat, said no no, it's fine, don't worry about it.
I sat here panicking to myself. My hard drive! My pics! Oh dear freaking god! I am a fucking moron!
Someone had picked my trash and taken my old boobie pics.
I can only hope that the drive which was dying a painful death and was the reason for my new pc, somehow died even further sitting in my room since December.
Maybe it rained a bit on Monday night and helped kill it a bit more.
Maybe they will plug the thing in and it just won't fire up, or if it does, that they have no idea how to retrieve files.
Maybe monkeys will fly outta my butt too.
March 20, 2007
Kayla* by the dozen.
My sis does these cool pics with photoshop.
She takes about a dozen pictures, then blends them all into one so seamlessly, that you can't really tell it's not one picture.
Ok, you can tell it's multiple pics because the subject is the same, but check it out.
I love these, I want her to do one for each of the boys, much bigger though, so I can frame them.
Click for biggie.
Continue Reading �
January 16, 2007
Seen on my street.
I went for my daily walk and saw this affixed to a telephone pole.
Click for bigger.
January 12, 2007
Fatty McNotail.
December 31, 2006
Ooooh tonight is gonna be fun.
Tonight is the annual B&H New Years eve party. I am so stoked about this!
Last year was crazy, stripper pole, ice luge for doing shots, a wet t-shirt contest, and projected porn on the walls and all kinds of crazy antics.
This year promises to be even better because a live band will be there.
I plan on taking pictures and not drinking too much. I never do anyway, can't really drink much with all the meds anyway.
I'm going to take lots of pictures and post them up tomorrow when I wake from the dead..LOL
I have some c leaning to do here before Tina arrives, tons of dishes. I need a dishwasher.
Wait, I have two. Oh boys..., time to wash some dishes...LOL
Later days.
May 28, 2005
Just a couple pics for now.
I am slowly editing the wedding pics down to size.
Some of the ceremony are acting up. Like you can see the thumbnails but when you go to view larger or edit, it's not there or only half there. Oh well.. I have a lot of pics anyway. Eventually, they will all be over at the photo blog.
