Cravings for New Year’s

Mom asked me to make her some tea tonight to help her relax. I told her the water was in the micro and then forgot all about it. Le whoops? Like twenty minutes later, she was like “where’s my tea and chocolate cake?” Uh… We don’t have any cake in the house. :-P She said she was craving a really good gooey chocolate cake, which is surprising given she doesn’t usually like those too much. :-P

Anywho… One conversation led to another. We started planning a little treat for ourselves for New Year’s Eve. She suggested driving to Claim Jumpers to pick up their HUGE chocolate cake to enjoy over the holiday. Mmmm… The funny thing about talking about cravings is you remember other cravings. And we both agreed. We MISSED Persian food.

In Anaheim, we used to go to Hatam’s Restaurant. They’re pricey, but oh so good. And I do mean soooo goooood. Their serving sizes were pretty big too; even I made my meal last for at least two servings. Delicious meat (filet mignon or ground beef strips) with roasted tomato and this white rice with saffron on top…. And then there was the oh-so-tasty appetizer…cucumber yogurt with mint…

Yeah, Mom and I were drooling over the menu tonight, looked it up online. If it’s open, we’re thinking about ditching the cake in favor of the food. We can get our sugar fix anywhere. Heck, we just had a treat with Christmas cookies baked by Debbie and I had my Pizzookie a couple weeks ago! :-P So, yeah… We’re gonna see about treating ourselves… We don’t splurge often…or ever unless you count cheap junk food? Mom even suggested inviting Dad to treat him or see if there’s a local Persian place he might know of…. We’ll see.

Okay, so this celebration might not take place ON New Year’s Eve or the day (cuz the place might be closed), but I’ve got my plans sorted… Hope everyone else has good plans to look forward to. :-D

December’s Activities and Festivities

Warning: The following blog is LONG with lots of pics. :-P

Dec. 4th
On one of our weekend outings, Dad and I spotted a car in the parking lot between Huffs restaurant and the Dollar Tree. No surprise there, right? It’s a parking lot. :-P But this car or was it an SUV was empty and had the driver’s door wide open. Le whoops? Dad went into the restaurant to get the owner and I waited by the car…just in case. Didn’t want to close it and possibly lock the driver out. Dunno how long it was open, but good thing nothing was taken.

I forget what else we did that day, but it was apparently too much. Dad stayed home sick the next day. Booo… He got so sick he had to take the week off of work and no Target Tuesday…. That is to say, he still made it out to make a quick Target run, but no fun and games with moi to go with. :-P

Main Street, Disneyland

Dec. 10th & 13th
Issi had a few days off work so we used them to go to Disneyland! :-D While both days were busy, it was still fabulous! I got all the major highlights of Christmas at Disneyland on Friday, Haunted Mansion with the Nightmare Before Christmas make-over they have for Halloween and Christmas, It’s a Holiday Small World with its dazzling lights on just about ever surface of its exterior and carols in all languages inside, the holiday light show, fireworks, and even snow! Mansion, we’d seen last time we went, but it’s always a favorite. :-D Small World was beautiful as always, and we were in line when it was dark so it was lit up already. When we got out we just happened to be at a nice lil spot to catch the majority of the fireworks. It’d been a while, so I was glad we caught them. :-) I love Christmas at Disneyland, everything is decorated so nicely. And while walking around, Issi spotted the special popcorn buckets shaped like a Mickey snowman! It was adorable and so she got one. Walking to some ride or another, we ended up on the “street”, so I got my snow! Okay so it was Disney style…tiny bubbles, but it still looked pretty coming down and covering us all. :-D Seriously, I felt like a big kid. Well I am a big kid. :-P

It's a Holiday Small World

Monday when we came back we did a few more rides and saw some reindeer (as well as the presidentially pardonned turkey) before getting stuck in a HUGE traffic jam of people. They closed early that night and we got off a ride just as it was closing. Actually, that was the day we hit Mansion, not Friday… Anywho… Masses of people were being ushered out of the park, excluding people coming in with special wrist bands…private party. It was insane! And it took us forever to get out. They should have opened the stroller gates to let us out, but then they couldn’t keep track of the party folk coming in I guess. I picked up a holiday Mickey at one of the shops outside. :-D

Popcorn bucket and Holiday Mickey

Before heading home, we went back to her place where a package waited for me. :-D I apologize now. I am terrrrible at receiving gifts. I haven’t done the jumping around and screaming bit in ages. And even the whole surprised face thing doesn’t always happen. But for the record, I love my gifts from Issi and Andrew. I am now the happy owner of a sonic screwdriver! :-D And Issi got me a beautiful personalized magnet (which I am sad to say I did not see the names while at her house >.< ). The words on it were beautiful by themselves but it was made that much more special with our names on it. :-)

(Sorry the cell phone wouldn't cooperate for better shots.)

:-D

Dec. 11th & 12th
Dad and I had our usual outings. And as we hadn’t seen him all week, the Daddy time was greatly missed. I believe both days we ended up getting back to his place so late there was little time to watch movies. :-P That’s fine. We just hung out for a couple hours while he did stuff on the computer. After all the running around it was nice to just chill. :-)

Dec. 14th
Target Tuesday! Life as we know it resumes with a return of Target Tuesdays. :-P Yes. I am a dork. But hey, how can I not enjoy the fun and silliness. Plus, as they have a market section, we can do some shopping for the house there. Okay, and of course, I do love our dinner stop at Fantastic Café afterwards. :-P

Dec. 15th
Mom had a dental appointment that morning. She’d swopped shifts to avoid having to drive into the office for a company meeting. :-P I, having stayed up waaaay to late as usual, napped for about an hour and woke in time to get showered and dressed, MUCH to Mom’s relief who feared going to the dreaded dentist alone. Before getting on the road, we stopped at a gas station to get the tires aired up. And before Mom even approached the little air machine, some guy walked up to her and offered to help her. She stood by the machine putting in quarters and he aired up her tires. And then when she offered to give him some money, he told her no thanks. :-) Hurray for good deeds in the month of December. :-D

Off of the Huntington Beach Pier

Dec. 16th
My fwend visited! Sawah fwend….. (And in case anyone thinks I’m nuts, it’s from Labyrinth.) I bussed out to her again, which as I’d taken the route before, was way easier this time around. All but one bus dropped me off exactly where the next one picked me up, so there was little to no walking involved. As with last time, there was one hiccup. Last time I almost lost my water bottle running across the street (fell right out of my water bottle holder). This time was a bit worse. As I’d been pressing buttons only moments before our stop, the wires of my headphones were sticking out of my jacket and snagged on a handle on the back of the oh so comfy commuter bus seats. Yanked it right out….I thought out of the iPod itself, but alas no. The cord snapped at the midpoint where a mic piece was. Ah well, that aside, the trip was fine. I read the rest of the way.

Deserted beach... :-P

Surfers waiting for those few and far between waves.

I met Sarah near the beach. We killed time by walking along the pier and taking pics. For lunch we headed to BJ’s for our usual mini pizzas and pizzookies. :-D Actually, we both tried new pizzas and I tried a new pizzookie. Almost got cheated out of my Ghirardelli chocolate square too! See what I get for rebelling and not ordering a straight triple chocolate pizzookie. What can I say; I like vanilla ice cream on my cookies. :-P I would left without it, but Sarah mentioned it to the waiter or someone and he brought me one… Mmmmm….

Travelled all the way here from Canada! :-D

Our adventures led us to exploring a park in Huntington Beach where illegal Canadian geese flocked around the pond along with other geese and ducks and I forgot what else, but they were small and made funny noises. :-P We took lots of pictures along with talking to the birdies. For the first time, I noticed that the ducks actually did have green heads. Prettier than any representation I’d seen of them. We ended up back at her grandparents’ place where I discovered how cool her grandparents were (sci-fi loving and video game playing folks that they are) and made up new rules for Russian Bank (a card game), which will have to be tested again to see if it was the reason the game never ended. :-P

Dec. 18th & 19th
Daddy Days! Yes, that’s actually how I write it in my calendar. :-P One day, we picked up food and headed to his place to try and catch some movie watching time. :-D Christmas movies! I also brought some of my Christmas cards, because I still hadn’t finished the domestically mailed cards. :-P Shame on me! (And I didn’t go to bed Sunday night until the cards were all done!) The other day, we went to Huffs. :-D The mornings both began with trips to the pharmacy for Mom….But the troubles there didn’t get sorted ‘til a couple days later.

Dec. 21st
Sooo…. CVS told us that we couldn’t pick up Mom’s medicine Saturday cuz it was too soon. Told us we could Sunday. But Sunday, we still couldn’t. Worried she wouldn’t get them in time, she planned to call to ask if she could get them without insurance. I prayed she’d be able to get them on the 23rd like they’d said last and not the 30th that they kept flip-flopping to or that they wouldn’t be terribly expensive…some resolution that was manageable, y’know? I woke up and she’d gone to the pharmacy by herself (shocker!) after they told her she could pick them both up that day! Well she picked them up with the insurance help before they changed their story again. Whew. My prayer was answered with a far better result than I’d hoped. :-D Aaaaannddd it spared us at least one errand before Target Tuesday fun began. I spotted a Spongebob plush that looked exactly like the one I'd bought Mom oh so many years ago. :-P Hers is considerably flatter now as she uses it like a pillow. :-P It was funny cuz I hadn't seen one that looked just like hers in well years.

Spongebob sighting at Target

Dec. 22nd
My second cousin or whatever (Mom’s cousin) Debbie dropped by that evening after she got my Christmas card. :D Oh! Speaking of Christmas cards! The first one arrived early in the month, a photo card of Amy and her family. :-D They look so cute and I can’t believe I’ve seen her youngest throughout all her stages in life and she’s in school now! I also got international mail myself from a certain Ah tee eM! :-D Funny thing about my card sending this year, I sent all international mail out by the end of the first week of December (to make sure they got ‘em in time) but like almost everyone else didn’t get theirs until well this past week (cuz I was totally procrastinating). :-P Anywho! Debbie dropped by with Christmas cookies! Num! And even though she kept saying she wasn’t going to stay long, she chatted with us for a good while. Catching up on recent stuff in her life and exchanging new tricks on our cell phones (cuz as it turns out she has the exact type we got). It was a good night. :-)

Dec. 23rd
We cooked dinner for Daddy! :-) I made turkey breast and broccoli and Mom made rice pilaf. I’m not a turkey person, but man it was tasty, shame it didn’t last longer. :-P Definitely will have to buy some more.

Dec. 24th & 25th
Ordinary days… Dad worked and went home early. Mom watched her marathon tapes of Ghost Hunters. I watch Christmas movies I’d recorded. I used to hate Christmas night. The fun of the day was over and we would be heading home or winding down if we never left… The next day would be just another day lacking all the Christmas cheer from the days before. Like a sugar high and low. Sadly, that Christmas low starts sooner now. My parents still not ready to celebrate and even I wasn’t feeling it today. I could have spent the day with Dad maybe if I’d woken early enough. But I didn’t. I did go to bed late, but not so terribly late. If I’d heard my alarms, I would have woken early enough to go (albeit later than usual). But I didn’t fall asleep right away. I had a headache and I’d depressed myself before bed when I was doing the dishes. I even got a text message from Mom at like 4:30a.m., asking me if I was going to sleep the day through. I was tempted to reply back with “what do you care, it’s just another day, right?” Bleh. At least the day ended well, thanks to the Doctor. I enjoyed the Doctor Who Christmas special ON Christmas day! :-)

December Randomness…
It rained A LOT this past week or two. So much so that it drove the ants from the ground to retreat into the house. Joy. The house now looks like comet threw up all over the place. Somehow the blue-ish powder doesn’t look like snow to match my Christmas decorations. :-P The lawn we never water will look fabulous after it all ends though! :-P But mannnn…. When it rains it really does pour!

Have I mentioned, Pixie LOVES boxes?

I haven’t watched nearly as many Christmas movies as I usually do by this time of year. Looks like that’ll carry on up until New Years’ Day. I also never bothered to bring my usual Christmas cheer into the world of RP like I usually do… But then I didn’t do much RP’ing this month…. Part of that procrastination problem I have. :-P Between clearing tapes of Christmas movies and make up RPs I have a busy week ahead of me. :-P

And now….I should go to bed. Dad and I are gonna try the whole spend the day together thing again today (it’s now a new day, darn it) and I still have a few dishes to wash. So, sorry for the length. I meant to blog well weeks ago. But c’est la vie.

Christmas e-cards from business like places. :-P

Catching up before Christmas!

Soooo… Halloween was just like any other Sunday (spent it with Dad). :-D After our usual breakfast outing, we went shopping and picked up loads of candy on the off chance people came to his door, but we left fairly early and the trick-o-treaters were barely getting started a block or two away. So the candy got divied up and Mom and I enjoyed the loot for the week! :-D

I went to Disneyland twice last month! Woohoo... Twice in one week period too (if I recall right). The weekend trip was so packed that we just had to come back on another day. The beginnings of Christmas were already up, and this was early in the month. I took a few shots of the decorations and lights and the restaurant we went to with my cell phone. It was beautiful. :-D And I resisted the urge to bring home another Mickey, though no promises next time!

Last month there was a bit of sad news. My cousin passed away. Dad and I ran into him fairly recently (well recently at the time), prior to that I don’t really recall him from my childhood. His youngest brother and I are the same age, so I vaguely remember playing with him. But it was sad because it made us think of our own loss which still feels pretty recent. He was 40 years old and he left a family behind. Without knowing who it was, I sat behind his eldest son at the services, a teenager I think. My heart ached to see him taking it so hard. Thankfully, it wasn’t entirely a day of sadness. After services there was a sort of potluck at my aunt’s church. So I got to meet or re-meet some of my family. It was nice to see them and hear some of the stories I missed out on.

And then there was Thanksgiving. Nana tried to rope into having a real Thanksgiving dinner. She asked at first if Mom would cook the ham for her. Okay, sure, fine. But Wednesday she dropped off like a whole bunch of stuff. Store bought yams to throw in the oven, mash potatoes she’d made already, easy to make rolls in those tubes, frozen veggies, a pecan pie, and of course the ham and fixings for it. Mom asked if Nana had thought she was making the whole meal! Okay, sure, fine. Everything but the veggies (cuz we forgot) got cooked. Mom got a call from Nana on the day asking if we’d tasted the pie yet (traditionally holiday visits at Nana’s started with sneaking bites of the pie before other family arrived). We hadn’t for whatever reason. They fought cuz Nana I guess thought she was going to eat dinner here or something and Mom wasn’t in a celebratory mood. >.< I really wish she’d get out of this perma-funk she’s in. And before anyone thinks I’m insensitive, she’s been anti-anything since we moved here, so it’s not just well you know. She asked me if she was in the wrong. And I told her, it’d be one thing if she visited Nana any other day or at all really, but she never wants to do anything. I wish she’d remember while she has lost over the years (her dad, Josh, and a favorite aunt), she still does have family who love her and reasons to be thankful.

I’ve been watching Christmas movies pretty much since the week of Thanksgiving. One of the movies I saw was about this family that lost their son in the Gulf War and found out on Christmas Eve. The mother I guess vowed never to celebrate the holiday anymore as a memorial to her son or something. The father agreed but I guess he didn’t think she’d keep to it for as long. The movie took place 12 years after. The sad part is, they had a daughter who was eight at the time. So she grew up without that holiday. She even thought it was because they loved her brother more than her. And because at 20 she was being tested for cancer she also thought she didn’t deserve to be happy. For shame on them for being so blinded by their grief to neglect her like that. Not that she was really neglected, but making her miss out like that clearly affected her. It was sad to see.

I’m an adult now, so I don’t take Mom’s shut down quite so hard. But it does bug me that she can’t see what she still has. We moved here to be close to her mom so she wouldn’t miss out like she did with her dad who was four hours away. But since moving here she never wants to do anything with Nana. All the time she missed out on spending with family because she was in the funk (not as severe as now) after Tata died. And now it’s just that much worse. I told her I am decorating sometime this weekend (probably not ‘til the week) and I almost saw her wince. I know she’s not ready to celebrate, but I don’t want to help her hide from it all.

I started doing the Christmas cards this week, well at least the ones going out of the country and even them I didn’t get out ‘til the end of this week. Le whoops? Sometime this week I have to brave Mom and ask for Uncle David’s address. She’s still not forgiven him for not being around then. He wrote her a letter since she never answers his calls or allows him to stop by. She was trying to write him back but I think she gave up. I pray she tries again. She was always closer to David than my Uncle Alex. They’ve drifted apart as happens with growing up but they still remained close until then. Now, it’s like she doesn’t want anything to do with him. I’m tempted to tell her “I lost my brother and now I can never talk to him, don’t lose yours.”

Anyway… That’s last month’s fun and headaches combined. There’s more I’m sure but I’ve forgotten and it’s late. Here’s to hoping I don’t drop off again… Now for Pics:

 == It's a Small Christmas World! :-D (Disneyland)

 Main Street looks so pretty! (Disneyland) ==

== I want a ginormous Christmas tree! (Disneyland)

 New Orleons (Disneyland) ==

== Rainforest Cafe (Downtown Disney)

 Rainforest Cafe (Downtown Disney) ==

==Some old car Dad and I saw in the parking lot. :-P

Overdue… The Wedding :)

I know… I’ve gotten terrible with blogging. I can’t even say why. I suppose I’ve been distracted with my Role Play world and even there I don’t always keep up with my writing. :-P Anywho… Since I last blogged, I officiated a wedding, attended a fabulous wedding reception, went to Disneyland a few times, spent time with Dad, nearly killed my arm cleaning one room, attended a funeral, gotten more active-ish on facebook, and role played a lot! I’m sure there was other stuff but details are fuzzy now. :-P

As I mentioned, I officiated at the wedding and thankfully I didn’t completely trip over my words or sound too stupid. :-P It helps that I’m only long winded when it comes to babbling about nonsense. And no one complained so hurray! :-D I’m glad I was able to do something for the couple. I love them and wish the very best for them. Issi really deserves it. :-) And before anyone else asks, no it wasn’t filmed. :-P

The reception was a lot of fun. Good food, plenty of fun people watching and even some socializing! :-o Shocking I know. There was a genius idea to make the guest book special. They had a photo booth thing there, complete with hat rack of funny hats, crowns, and glasses. Instead of just the four photos, it generated doubles, a set for the photographed and a set to paste in the guestbook. I think everyone had a blast just taking pics in goofy hats. Even I got silly, not with the hats though. :-P I snagged the couple’s “kids” to take my pics and the guy operated the booth was all too happy to help with one of the shots. Hehe…

Yep. Those are the kids, adorably dressed in matching bow ties. :-D Cuz.... Bow ties are cool!

Apart from silly photo fun, there was good music, entertaining DJ including quizzing on Ah tee eM and Issi's dating and interviewing of the longest lasting married couples in attendance.

Issi's dress came out beautifully, kudos to her mother for making it. And Ah tee eM looked quite handsome in his suit. Of all the shots I took or have seen, this is my favorite:

Taken by the photographer friend: Andre?

And my second fave pic:

Taken by me on my cell cuz I forgot a camera....

Ah tee eM, Issi, Ickle, and Oracle

The ceremony was on  the 10th day of the 10th month of the 2010th year on the 10th hour (possibly even the 10 minute of that hour too!)... I love it. The ceremony was small with just close family, moi, and the photographer. And after the photos, we all trickled into the reception hall which was really quite nice. After the reception, those of us remaining went back to Issi's place (me cuz I needed a ride home, tehe). I hope it was everything the happy couple wanted. Even now a month and a half? later, I still remember it being a fairly awesome day. :-)

Oooo... Almost forgot... Nummy cakeness....

Okay, two more shots!

Issi and me. :-)

Rachael (Ah tee eM's sis) and I, proof of socializing! :-P

More fun stuffs later... Back to work with me... I have a house to clean!

In the mean time...

Real bloggage to come soon, I promise! But for now... Here's a silly video. :P

A Healing Start?

Okay, so I know I've fallen short again. I did like two blogs for September then forgot about it again. And it wasn't as if I had nothing to say. I did. I had a pretty good month actually. But as it's late and I had hoped to be in bed by 2a.m. and I still have dishes and stuff, this will be a brief sum up of well everything....

The 19th was Issi's bridal shower. And I will be honest... The part of me that hated being dragged to those kinds of parties as a kid (and oh boy were there a lot of shouwers!) wasn't looking forward to it. I know it's silly. As I'm now 30, the parties I hated as a kid, I'm finding more and more enjoyable. Strange. Maybe it's the whole voluntarily going thing. Anywho, it was a beautiful shower. Her neighbors went all out and they had good food and lovely decorations. And we played fun and silly games, like making toilet paper brides. I don't know why my team's bride didn't win (far left). Ah well. :P Anyway, I had a great time.

September saw the end of Pixie's infection (or at least signs of it). And while we never repaced their wet food brand, it seems taking away the harmful Friskies dry food and Friskies Party Mix treats was sufficient. Friskies cans doesn't seem to be a problem when combined with the new dry food diet. The expensive stuff Oreo likes, thankfully. So he'll use that up. Purina and 9 Lives have special urinary tract health blends that Pixie likes. And she's remained good for weeks now. The girl at the vet's office when we bought the food asked if the vet wanted to retest Pixie in a couple weeks and that we should call and ask. But I'll pass. Pixie seems fine now. Praise God for answering my prayers. If the vet had wanted a re-test he should have asked. I'm not gonna let a receptionist who probably wanted the extra 45 bucks out of us make me doubt.

Last weekend I went to Halloween Haunt, a.k.a. Knotts Scary Farm, with Issi. :D THANK YOU, ISSI! It' d been a while and will likely be another long stretch before either of us goes again, her with the moving to UK thing and me with the uh I dunno. Issi was the only one I'd gone with. Reckon, I'll have to find a new buddy to go laugh at the boys who scream like little girls or the silly girls who try and practically crawl into their boyfriends skin to hide. :P It was quiet and kinda empty cuz it was early in the season. But given the heat, it was a good thing not to have it too crowded in confined spaces. :P We actually made it through all the mazes this time around! The Hanging and the Ed Alonzo shows were entertaining. :D And thanks to having real tennis shoes, my feet didn't hurt at the end of the night. THANK YOU DADDY! :D Alas, I neglected to take any pictures. Ah well.

Today (it's still mentally Saturday for me), and the reason behind the title, my Uncle David came to town to visit Nana with his family in tow. I woke up and he'd left me a voicemail (cuz Mom like never answers hers) saying he'd be in most of the day and if we'd come by to visit. Mom hasn't spoken to him since the loss of Josh. U. David wasn't really around to comfort his grieving sister and that hurt Mom very much. It was upsetting to me as well, seeing as how U. Alex (who we like almost never saw in good times) showed up off and on throughout that first week and called Mom even a week or two after. He'd gone through the loss of a son when I was a kid, so he and Vicki knew I guess. It was touching to see him showing up like that. But it made U. David's absences all the more hurtful. U. David being one of those how to put it... rigid I guess Christians was of a mind to say, he's gone now and we shouldn't mourn cuz that's what the Bible says. It's amazing how lacking in compassion some professed Christians seem to be given how compassionate Christ was. Anywho.. Huge rift even after all this time.

He wrote her a letter a while back. Nana and I encouraged her to write back. You gotta start that healing process, right? Anyway, I knew she wouldn't want to see him, but, given how he sounded on voicemail, I didn't want to leave him hanging. So while Mom and I ran an errand (i.e. she waits in car while I run errand), I called him. We didn't talk long, but I know he wanted to talk to her, to see her. Whether he understands how he wronged her or not, it was hurting him not to have his sister. Or at least that's what I heard in his voice. It was sad to hear. But maybe, cuz I lost my brother I can't stand the thought of her not having hers. Wow.. That thought hadn't even occurred to me until just now. ...

Mom and I talked. I had to tell her about the call. And when she was ready, she asked what was said and all that jazz. She said she'd attempt to write again. She destroyed a first draft. We talked off and on all afternoon actually. Cried. Shared. I want her to open up. To let things out rather than bottle it all up. And today was a good day for that I think. There were happy moments during the day too, as we didn't keep the conversaition solely on sad stuff. But it was a good day, I think. Overall, even with the tears. Finished off the day with watching a movie together. So Dad we can finally return Surrogates. :P

I hope this was a good start to her healing. I hope we can keep it going. I hope she does reconnect with David. We may not like when they all visit as a family, his kids being tooo wild for us, but that shouldn't stop the calls or even letter writing.

There was more I was gonna share about something unrelated, but it's past 2:30 now and I still have afore mentioned dishes and stuff.

Dieting…

Well, Pixie’s gonna live. But as the doc suggested our first visit, she needs a dietary change. To get her under control, we need to switch her food to this expensive prescribed diet food. Joy. She likes the wet food okay. Not a huge fan of the dry though. As suggested on the packages, we’re transitioning her food with a blend of old and new brands of dry food. What hurts most is she’s not allowed anymore treats. And she’s a HUGE fan of “cookies”. Thanks to Mom’s spoiling, she probably eats as much cookies as she does dry food.

According to the doc, Friskies (the brand we give her), Whiskas (old treats that Oreo still eats), and Meow Mix (old dry food we stopped buying) are the three worst brands out there. Fabulous. My theory is that it was probably the new dry food and treats. Because she was fine on the Meow Mix dry food and Whiskas Temptations treats. But when we switched to the new Friskies flavors of dry food and Friskies Party Mix treats she like devoured them and whines all the time for them, eating more for taste than hunger I think. But it’s only theory and we’ll play it safe. So after the six weeks of prescribed brands, we’ll switch to the cheaper but healthier brands. And all the food we have now will go to Oreo (until he notices he’s not getting special treatment) and then the strays. So we’re set for cat food for the strays for a while. >.<

As if that wasn’t bad enough, doc says no more pet grass for Pixie. Oy… She LOVES that stuff! She whines all the time for it. And she’s smart, so she knows where I keep it and where I serve it to her so she watches those spots. :P Ah well. For now, the grass remains on the window shelf over the sink, pushed as far back as possible so it’s not as visible, and left there for Oreo to nibble on until it’s ready to be tossed.

I’ve decided I need to work on my diet too. Well, not diet diet. But like, I need to stop “starving” myself because I’m too lazy to get up and make something or think I might be eating something better later. They say you should eat within half hour after waking up or something… Well I tend to wait hours. Partially cuz I really am not hungry and partially for the aforementioned reason. Plus, I can cut back on portions. I don’t need to eat ‘til I’m ready to explode just because something is tasty. And as suggested by my fwend, I will not be eating just before going to bed. And now that I’ve broken in my shoes some, I can start the whole going for walks thing. I’ve never been a huge exercise and diet person, but these are things I can do. Maybe when/if I start losing weight, I can do a real diet to help lose more. But I’m in no huge rush, just a bit of an attempt to be a little healthier.

Oh, it’s official. I’m ordained. I got the certificate today. I can now perform marriages and whatnot.

The Who What When and Wheres

Week before last I barely saw Dad as timing was off with work and what not. This past weekend made up for that and then some! :P

Friday, Dad came over and brought pizza from Nick’s. Pizza and nummy Greek salads….

Saturday, Dad and I hung out for the day. Breakfast at Huffs for my Greek omelet, a visit to the Dollar Tree to raid them of their Sudoku books :P, ice cream and movies on TV at his house, and then McDees for dinner at my place. :P We actually planned to watch a movie he’d recorded on SyFy, but I caught the beginning of Resident Evil and we ended up watching the whole thing even though we both own the DVD. :P And Save the Last Dance was just starting, so we ended up watching that one too. Soon enough there was no time to watch the four hour SyFy movie. :P

Sunday, Dad didn’t end up working like he thought about doing, so we went back to Huffs. This time I ordered something different, a nummy avocado and bacon omelet. That area is like a hot spot for dollar stores, so this time we went to the 99cent store before heading back to his house for that SyFy movie. Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island was an okay movie. I forgot about some of the more irritating characters in it. Heck, I completely forgot about the pirate portion of the movie. :P We picked up Subway on the way back to my place, cuz sometimes ya just want a sammich. :D

I actually started off the day calling Nana. I guess she and Mom talked on Saturday and because Mom didn’t know what I was up to for the day (specifics), Nana got all frustrated or something. She feels the need to know the who, what, when, and where’s about our every move. I guess she was that controlling with Mom when she was younger and doesn’t understand why Mom doesn’t keep tabs on me. Mom’s attitude is if I wanted her to know, I’d tell her. And it’s not that I don’t want her to know, she just doesn’t ask so I don’t say anything. :P When I do tell her I’m going with Dad, she’s all “oh okay, have fun!” So yeah, I had to call Nana and appease her before she called Mom again and asked her again over and over what I was up to despite Mom telling her she didn’t know over and over. :P

Oh, I also called the vet’s office (or answering service, rather) and got some info so we could drop off Pixie. Mom was concerned as the poor baby’s bottom is raw from over licking. >.< Anywho, we figured we’d drop her off Tuesday at Mom’s lunch break. There was only a $45 dollar test fee to worry about.

Monday, being Labor Day, was an automatic day off for Dad and we did something shocking…. We hung out for a third day in a row! Gasp! We went back to Huffs. What can we say, we like the place. :P I ordered a French toast meal and they were pretty tasty. :) We made a pit stop at Dad’s to start laundry (I did mine last minute the night before so I could be able to play), then headed for the mall. We went to a shoe store so Dad could buy a pair of shoes he wasn’t able to get (out of stock) last time we were there (when he bought five pairs of shoes :P ). Since he knows I want to walk more and my everyday shoes aren’t good for walking, he bought me some tennis shoes! I can’t even remember the last time I had tennis shoes! Probably back in 10th grade, when I needed them for PE. :P So, now I own two new pairs of shoes. Kinda spiffy actually. I was a primarily Payless Shoes girl, so these shoes are rather nice and better made. :P We went back to his place to watch The Story of Ruth, but stupid TBN was screwy the day it was recorded and so their Praise show was what got recorded instead. Ah well. An episode of I Love Lucy and the Crazies was a happy substitute. Okay, not “happy” as lotsa folks died in the Crazies. :P But it was an enjoyable afternoon.

As we were packing up to leave, Mom texted me to tell me something I already knew. Our neighbor is an asshole. Because they wanted to work on something they shut off the power. Not a huge deal right? But they didn’t even tell Mom they were doing it! So she goes outside to look at the breaker box and through the open windows asks them if they lost power and dumbass (yes he really is dumb) tells her they were working on something. She’s like thanks for the warning, and some old man tells her they’d be done in ten minutes. Total, the power was maybe off for 30 minutes and wouldn’t have been an inconvenience IF he’d only been a considerate neighbor. Anywho, to cheer her up, we picked up her favorite food…. Quesadillas from El Taco.

Tuesday, for the fourth day in a row, I woke up early (by early I mean any time before noon :P). Had to call the vet to let them know we were dropping her off as soon as they opened (well an hour after they opened :P ). I got ready and checked e-mails ‘til it was time to catch her. Twenty minutes before we planned to leave, I tricked her into going into her carrier and closed the door behind her. She was fine until ten minutes in she realized she was trapped. Anywho, we went out to the car and discovered the car battery was dead. >.< Joy. Le sigh. All that trouble for nothing… I had to clean her up and let her out of her cage. She raced to hide under Mom’s bed. Couldn’t answer my phone with Pixie and wipes in hands, so I missed Dad’s first attempt to call. Bummer, cuz he was off and available to take me and Pix to the vet. Mom had to lure Pixie out with cookies while I was practically outside and out of sight (cuz she didn’t trust me, dunno whyyyy… :P ). After she ate, Mom grabbed her and passed me the football. :P I put her in so fast she didn’t even have time to fight back. Poor baby cried all the way there. :( On the way back, we stopped at a donut shop. We enjoyed a quick bite before Dad had to go back to work.

Would you believe, Mom actually missed Pixie’s non stop whining while she was gone! And initially, Oreo whined and whined and wondered the house looking for her. Such a sweet big brother. With the car battery still dead, we hoped Dad would get off before they closed rather than having to call Nana. Apparently, Nana was in a good mood or something when Mom called and would have been happy to take me though. But I’m still glad Dad took me. Big carrier in the back seat of Nana’s little car might have been a tight squeeze. :P After a bank and pharmacy run, we picked her up just before they closed. They said we could call after nine the next day for results. As it turns out, it was a good thing Mom's car battery was dead. She forgot to put on her new registration tags and we'd have gotten a big ticket for that one. God as always is watching out for us. Back to my place, cleaned her again, moved laundry, programmed VCRs, and headed back out to resume our regularly scheduled activities….. Target Tuesday!

Seeing as how Dad was gonna have to wake up early the following morning, we were supposed to go in and out. :P Buuuttt…. He’s him and we’re us so that didn’t happen. Picked up the DVDs he wanted and we proceeded to do what we usually do, look at all the books, straighten the shelves, and generally dilly dally before going on to the market section of the store. :P I picked up a few items, but mainly we just needed cat food. So while Dad dilly dallied in the produce section, as usual :P, I went and looked at cat food. The vet mentioned Pixie might need a dietary change, so I looked at the options in case that’s what Pixie would need. And as if we weren’t taking long enough, there were fairly long lines at the cashiers. Ah well, so much for a quick trip. :P We went to Fantastic Café and then home where we thankfully had parking. A nap here and a nap there and Dad ended up leaving just as late as always. Hehe. :P And thus concludes the longest consecutive stretch of Daddy Days in ages. :P

After he left, Mom and I were talking and I was laughing at how Dad kept saying he had wanted to leave early to get enough rest for his early morning but still ended up leaving late. :P Mom again brought up the idea of maybe the three of us finding a place together. The idea has its pros and cons. Mom’s thinking of the emotional and financial support we’d offer each other. A shared rent would be able to afford a decent place with four rooms and savings on only one cable bill and so on and so forth is appealing. And we’d be right there for each other to hang out whenever. We do enjoy each other’s company, always have. We might even cook more, as he doesn’t cook for one too often, and I don’t always feel like cooking just so she can take two bites that night and get full. But the constant exposure to pet hair and dander wouldn’t be good for Dad. And Mom and I get on each other’s nerves. I imagine A the three of us might do the same, or B he and she might get on each other’s nerves over each other’s habits or the way she gets on my case. Still, a fresh start for all of us would be nice. Here, there, somewhere in the middle… One of those thoughts that sounds nice, like me one day moving out on my own.

Anywho… I’ve babbled far longer than I intended to. And sadly no pictures this time as I forgot to take any. It’s now past the time I wanted to be in bed and I still have dishes, water bottle filling, litter cleaning, kitty feeding, and normal getting ready for bed stuff before I can get in bed, which means it will be WAY past the time I wanted to be in bed. In four hours I can call the vet. Hopefully it’s nothing serious, or at least nothing a little medication and/or dietary change can’t fix. And HOPEFULLY it’s something that can be fixed soon as I am DYING to get my house back to a non-smelly state and tired of washing extra loads of sheets and blankets used to protect the beds. And, y’know, it’d be really nice to know I could sit anywhere in my house without worrying if that spot is contaminated or not. I mean I know even when healthy the house is “contaminated”. It’s not like they wash their hands with soap after the litter box or use TP to clean themselves. :P But so long as it doesn’t stink, I’m okay. And here I go again... See... Need to go now before I ramble on. :P

Ups and Downs and All Arounds…

We prematurely celebrated Pixie’s health or something. After the day or two of seemingly wellness, she had a couple mini accidents. I prayed they’d end, and they did. But she still stinks and hits the litter box frequently. So, basically, same sitch only she’s got better bladder control. We want to call the vet, but it’s not like we’ll get to talk to the vet. Most times in the past we’d speak to a receptionist who could only say bring them in. And the last time, the vet told me if Pix didn’t get better by “Monday” (which she didn’t get better as quickly as he said to begin with), to call and they’d probably have to run tests. But we had to borrow just to take her the last time for the simple visit ($50 for just the appointment!) and the meds he gave her. I have faith she’ll be well in time. I just wish God’s timing was our timing. And yes, I know he could say no to my request to help her get well, but I also know he knows we couldn’t handle the loss if Pixie was to be really sick. If any of my readers could also pray for Pixie’s good health and or think positively, I would be muchly appreciative.

I’m glad I didn’t get around to the house cleaning… sorta… I’ve washed lots of sheets though. Layers of old sheets are draped over Mom’s bed and old washable (fits in the washing machine) blankets are draped over my bed and the couch. So I’m doing lots of laundry now. Yay. All the chairs have something on them, to prevent Pixie from sitting on them. She’s not having accidents, but she still stinks. And yes, I do clean her once or twice a day. Poor baby hates being dragged to the bathroom. Well, she hates it initially, but she’s a girl and loves to be clean. I do feel bad though. Mom and I are kiiiiinda used to the smell, as we have no choice. But I almost dread when anyone else walks in. Sorry Issi! Sorry Daddy!

Speaking of Issi… Went dress shopping with her this past Sunday and hung out at her place. Wow, there are A LOT of UGLY wedding and formal evening gowns out there!! :P I seriously think the whole fish tail or whatever look to a gown should be banned, unless it’s a mermaid costume. :P We did see a few really pretty dresses. Rude sales girl aside, it was nice to be out and about even if we did go home empty handed. Well not completely. An alternate idea came up while at another store. At any rate, Issi will be a purdy bride. :D We (Issi, her mom, her mom’s friend and I) went to eat then back to Issi’s house after dropping off the friend. We (just the three now :P) played Golf! I like that card game. Hadn’t realized how much I missed playing till we got started (and I remembered the rules :P ). AND I actually won a round or two! Lots of laughing, a bit of cursing and almost cursing, and three rounds of Golf made it a nice end to the evening. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Issi’s mom laugh that hard. And I think we were all laughing hard enough to bust our guts. :P Good times.

After depriving us of it last week, Dad came after work for our weekly Target Tuesday adventures. :D Actually, I think this trip was actually more shopping than silliness, but as always we squeeze in silliness everywhere else. And after we went to Fantastic Café, where we go EVERY Tuesday now cuz I love it so much :D. At the restaurant, we ran into my cousins. Sadly, I did not recognize my own cousins… Well one, I can’t remember the last time I’d seen him and probably only saw him a few times in my entire life. :P But Alex, I should have recognized, despite it having been over a year since I’d seen him last. But with me, unless I see you everyday enough to make out your facial features in the distance, I don’t recognize ya. His voice sounded familiar and I knew enough it was cool to hug him but like couldn’t put the name. Meh. Ah well. Anywho, we ate GOOD. Like I guess we really missed the food or they made extra tasty food that night. :P

I have yet to finish a letter to a sweet friend of mine. It’s rather stupid actually. I feel super guilty for not writing and at the same time can’t seem to make myself finish the letter. We exchange really long letters to each other, which I love. But for some reason I keep putting it off. I really can’t let another month go by though. It’d be one thing if we texted like we used to, but her phone went on the fritz according to her last letter and as she hasn’t replied to my texts it still hasn’t been fixed. Gotta stop procrastinating on like EVERYTHING. Sooo many little projects and things I wanted to do ages ago. This summer has just been one big “I’ll do it later” season for me, hence quiet in the blogging department. :P But I’ll try harder.

And now for some silliness… I got this from my fwend on her facebook and thought I’d share it here. :D

We Survived!

As of yesterday, Pixie seems to be all better. After the all night of throwing up, she had only two further incidents. One was only a few hours after that last blog…and two was almost 24 hours later and that was more than likely due to over eating. :P But yesterday, she was actually running around and playing with Oreo. That’s how I knew she was perfectly fine. :D I did a quickie bath (wet wipes) so we could once more pick her up.

As it’s soooo warm, cleaning will have to wait ‘til it’s at least a bearable heat so I don’t end up with heat stroke while cleaning. But I’ve started washing all the blankets and sheets we were using to protect the beds and furniture. And tonight I will be scrubbing my mattress with Clorox wipes (I did not have the benefit of extra absorption padding in the form of blankets like Mom had) and when that’s dry, finally putting on clean sheets. Bed spread/comforters will be washed (mine is thin, hence the leak through).

Hehehe… Just gave Pixie some pet grass. She LOVES that stuff… We only let her chew on it for a few minutes. Last time she pulled grass out, chewed on so much that she ended up throwing up. But this time she was SO addicted SO quickly, that the moment we picked it up, she started crying! So we picked her up to give her love and walked away, but two times she scrambled out of my arms and back to the kitchen and the spot where the grass bowl was. :P She even sat up on her hind legs to try and see the grass on the windowsill/shelf (which she can’t reach). After fifteen-twenty minutes she gave up pining for her new (again) drug and consoled herself by eating cookies (kitty treats). Gimenies. :P

Interesting Summer…

…to say the least. July was filled with invaders and the water outage incident. August held adventures, disappointments, happy spoiling, and lots of messes. I have been really bad at blogging lately, and I know that. I plan to be better. Mostly because I’m forgetting things I wanted to share. But as with a post or two back, this one will be lengthy as I try to put everything I’ve wanted to share with you all in words. I’ll try as best as possible to put things in chronological order….

I don’t remember if I mentioned this, but Issi’s getting married! :D And she and Andrew asked me to marry them. I, of course, said yes right away; cuz let’s face it, I’d do anything in my power to help them be happy. She deserves happiness, she’s overdue. But it was weird, for a week or two I felt weird about the getting ordained part. Why? I dunno. After prayer though, one morning I realized I was perfectly fine about it. And it’s something I can do for them. :-) I am still me though. So in procrastinating, I nearly lost the link (reorganized favorites and it got put in an odd folder :P ). But it’s official! I’m listed in the database, I can officiate weddings now. Now to figure out what to say… I promise not to be TOO silly. :P

Mid-July, I woke up to get ready to go to a doctor’s appointment with Mom (she likes company), only to discover the water had been shut off. When we moved here, the land lord told us to transfer the water bill to our name. Mom called and told LADWP to do so but they failed at ACTUALLY moving accounts. We had no idea. LADWP is our energy provider as well so we just figured it was all in the one bill. Land lord complained, we called again. They assured Mom it was taken care of and that was the end of the matter. But when we called that day, the bill was still in the land lord’s name and hadn’t been paid since a month or two prior to our moving in…. And to refresh memories, move in date was Oct. 31st 2008! >.< They wouldn’t turn the water on until the bill was paid in full. >.< Hot day, can’t shower, can’t flush, can’t wash my hands, can’t do squat! Yep, that day was fun. Mom had to borrow money from Nana real quick before going to her appointment (because she HAD to do that before going to the LADWP >.< gee thanks), but Nana only made her feel bad like on an hourly basis. As if magically we’d have well over a thousand dollars appear in a bank account. Yeah, we asked Dad to come to our rescue. :-( Which while we’re SO grateful, we did feel bad about having to ask. I haven’t really talked to Nana since, not that I talked to her on a daily basis before. Anywho, bill was paid, water was turned on, and since we had to pay in full regardless of it not all being our bill, we got a month or two’s credit. We’re still pissed the land lord didn’t warn us the water was going to be cut off. The bill being in their name went to their address, so we never got those warning bills. Jerks.

July was filled with invaders of the feature creature variety…. The kitchen was crawling with ants one day, which after not long prior having to face the ant invasion (minor in comparison) was NOT fun. Ants all over the floors, all over the cat food dishes, crawling out the doorways, and a few even found their way on the stove of all places. What started out as Mom telling me to sweep up the cat food area cuz of a few ants turned into a nightmare hours later (and yes, I did sweep like she’d asked). At one point I dumped out two bowls full of dry food, most of the dinner serving of wet food, and a few left over cookies. And cuz I can’t see them very well, I just sorta blanketed the whole floor with comet until they were all dead. That was a fuuuunnnn night. I cleaned that entire kitchen. By night’s end I was exhausted and thoroughly annoyed.

Other creepy crawlies and critters…. Well, it’s summer so the spiders are coming in to hide from the heat. It feels like I kill at least one spider every other day. One was on the ceiling over the sink.. Now I didn’t want it to jump down on me while I was washing dishes, so I squirted water at it in hopes of knocking it down. But the bugger hung on to a spun thread! Dangled there with its legs all flailing about. It was so disturbing! I had to bat it down and rinse it down the drain. And then there’s the fun skunks that frequent the house... or did anyway… One time we came home with food and had to wait ‘til the skunk left the doorsteps! Ick! But I bought moth balls to deter them from hiding under the house. So naturally they stopped showing up. The mere threat must have scared them. :P

August started off with a second cancellation on movies without a word. Despite saying it was going to be a fun day with pizza and smoothies from our fave joints in the theatre/shopping center, she cancelled on me and didn’t even bother giving me an excuse even after the fact. I was bummed even though I told myself not to get my hopes up. But I was cheered up by some Daddy spoiling. :D He found Doctor Who seasons 1-4 at a reasonable price! And he bought them for me! :D It’s been almost a month since and I still squeal (at least inwardly :P ). Mom’s friend wanted to see the movie with us, so Mom said we’d go the following weekend. By now I learned my lesson. No further mention was made about it. And I was perfectly fine. I’ll catch it on DVD as with the last two. Eventually I’ll make the brave leap to watching movies at a theatre on my own for those I REALLY want to see.

Doctor Whoooooooo :D

Sarah came to visit earlier this month, so I went (down? up?) to visit her. I took four busses in a two hour stretch (counting waiting at bus stop time) to get to her. It was an adventure right off! But the trip was pleasant. Most of the bus connections were literally at the same stops so I had little to no walking to find unfamiliar busses. It rocked as far as first time trips on a bus. And the day only got better! We ate at BJ’s near the beach. Man I missed their pizzas. Then took a bus to Crystal Cove beach where we spent the afternoon playing in the sand and water and in my case getting sunburned. :P I took LOTS of pics on my cell phone, but I’m not gonna post them all. :P

Sarah Day Pics:
(minus pics of Sarah cuz I forgot to ask permission.. not counting her hands and feet next to her sand spidy :P )

Finally… Pixie’s sick… She’s got a UTI (urinary infection). It’s not pleasant for her or us. Mom noticed she was off Friday, and Dad took me and Pix to the vet Saturday before our day of play. She got shots, one of which was long lasting antibiotics to spare us any pill giving, and the vet said she’d be better soon… Well not as soon as he said, but she is on the mend. Least she’s not having as many of those kinds of accidents… Nope, now she’s throwing up… Mom says it’s probably a side effect of the shots. >.< Peachy. But bleh. She seems to act like she’s feeling better. Her poor lil bum area is all sore and tender still though so she’s not running around yet, but she’s asking to play lil more now. GOOD sign. Kinda sucks that this had to happen after I finally cleaned house last week though... Cuz now I gotta THOROUGHLY clean as soon as she’s all better.

Anywho, thanks to the constant mopping up of messes all night, this blog has taken me WAY longer to write than I had planned and I gotta get my butt to bed now!

Hope everyone stays cool!

Maybe Next Time...

Well… I did not make it to the movies last weekend. Mom and I watched Twilight on Friday night and New Moon on Saturday night. But then she didn’t answer me when asked about plans for seeing the movie on Sunday. I didn’t find out until mid day that she’d been enduring frequent headaches and back pain for days. Mighta been nice to know that in advance, not that we wouldn’t have watched the DVDs anyway, but so I didn’t feel blown off Sunday morning. She mentioned seeing if there was a matinee time after work. I guess she thought the pains would go away. But a) the times were too close to her shift end time and b) the headaches and back pains have yet to go away.

Now I’m torn. I told myself I wouldn’t miss the movie in theatre. I don’t want to wait until it’s gone and it’s too late. But this time around it’s not like she’s blowing me off. Well unless subconsciously she still wasn’t ready to go and thus caused the physical pains. So I don’t know what to do. This weekend there’s all these movies I’d like to see out. Movies I know she’d like too. I’ll see them all eventually, I’m sure. Dad will likely buy them and I’ll borrow them. Or I’ll catch them on HBO when they get there. But some movies you just want to see on the big screen, y’know?

So… What to do? What to do? Part of me wants to say, screw it and just go alone. Eventually, that’ll be the way to see movies, right? Issi’ll move away. Sarah already lives away. Mom’s like never leaving the house. And I think Dad still isn’t ready to enjoy movie going either. He went for Avatar because I so desperately wanted to see that one. I haven’t had a movie that I wanted to see THAT badly yet. I mean I WANT to see Eclipse, but I’ll live if I don’t y’know? And that leaves who else? Nana? She says she wants to see this movie or that, but the woman can’t sit still for five minutes let alone two hours. It was a miracle the time we saw one of the Lord of the Rings movies… (For two reasons, sitting still and movie choice! :P )

Anywho… If I go, I’ll just ask Mom if she’d mind me going alone. I mean if I went with someone, she’d not mind. She’d be jealous but she wouldn’t mind cuz I was having fun with someone and she wants me out having fun. We’ll see. Eventually I’ll have to get used to it if I want the theatre feel that or make new friends (cuz I do that so easily :P).

The Everything Post

I know, I know. I’ve been a bad, bad blogger. I’ve neglected blogging. I’ve neglected letters I was supposed to be writing. What can I say? Time flies when you’re having fun. And between spending a lot of time with my Dad and RP’ing various characters like I used to way back when, I’ve been having A LOT of fun lately. But I feel bad for not keeping everyone up to date on my little life. So here goes my attempt at catching you all up. There probably won’t be as many pics and details as I’ve kinda forgotten some of the stuff I’d wanted to blog. But here goes nothing…
Let’s see, where did I leave off? Oh, right. Got new clothes for Issi’s graduation, well and I needed new clothes in general. My cell phone started acting up. And by my cell phone, I mean Dad’s old Razr that I was using. So Dad bought Mom and me new cell phones. A Samsung Solstice for each of us. They are so pretty and spiffy. Touch screens with lots of fun lil features. And I just love it. I can get online that much easier with it. It’s so easy to use and Carisa friendly (bigger font sizes for texting). A pretty cool little camera. And well I could go on and on all day about its spiffiness and I’m still learning cool little features even today.

I resisted the urge to play with the cell phone during the graduation ceremony, even though I’d had it less than 24 hours. :P Apart from a moment where I got the shakes from not eating (it was WAY too early to eat when we left), that morning went just fine. :) Watched my Issi graduate and even managed to take one shot I actually liked of the occasion! :D Then, we went to her house to set up for the party, which, crazy as it was, was kinda fun too. And the party itself turned out to be fun too! I always kinda dread parties for fear of awkward silences with strangers or just general boredom. But it was fun socializing with her co-workers and family. Lots of laughs and, gasp, there was even actual moments talking to Andrew where I didn’t smack him around. :P

I forget when exactly it happened, but we have another stray cat coming around. A black kitten with brown “smudges” on his/her forehead and chest. He/she is cute and finally not AS skiddish anymore. And my goodness, he/she is LOUD. :P Praline was the one to lead Snickers to us. Snickers would follow and stay by his side. It was so cute. Oh, in case I forgot. We found out Praline actually has an owner. Some kid came and picked up the cat right out of our yard! The cat cries as the kid picks him up two year old style but never runs, yet runs from me when I open the door a crack. Go figure! His name is really Oreo, which is just dumb considering he’s an all brown and tan cat. Mom and I refuse to call him Oreo, but at least we know he is male now. I asked the mother and kid why he keeps coming to our door. Mother was like, “he likes to play with your cats.” BULL! Oreo and Praline don’t get along and Praline always gobbles up food like he’s starving. Mom swears he’s losing weight too. Meh. Tundra showed up on our doorsteps all bloodied up last week. Like someone had chewed up her ears. We were sad and worried for him/her and wanted to take her to a shelter (yes even if they only put him/her down). But we couldn’t think of how to catch him/her safely and without scaring him/her too bad and making things worse. But the next day, he/she showed up cleaned up like someone had washed him/her. Thank God for that. So we’re still feeding all three of them.

Dad and I go to the Dollar Tree A LOT. I think I have an addiction. But, but they have cheap Sudoku books and, and I got some printer stationary that I will probably use as regular stationary. And we get all kinds of nifty lil things there. We’ve been known to spend hours there. :P Fun times. :D

(Taken with my cell phone! :D )

A few weeks ago, I went to my third Angel’s game with Issi and her parents. It was a blast. We actually won and I actually saw the grand slam (I think that was what it was called) that helped to win the game! :D As we won, our tickets got us some free and delicious chicken wings at Claim Jumpers. So good game, and then good grub! :D Then Issi and I went to Disneyland. Finally saw the Aladdin show there, good thing too cuz it leaves soon. And I saw fireworks! Yay! I do so love fireworks, well when done properly.

Speaking of fireworks… Fourth of July was super fun… NOT! Every idiot on the block was shooting fireworks. And there must have been a fire sale on the loudest, boomiest fireworks on earth! I mean, these were louder than Disneyland! And they sounded like they were blasting right outside our door. We had to close all windows and doors that night and still the sound came in. Mom and I watched a movie in her room, so Pixie hid under her bed with us nearby to make her feel safe. But Oreo kept wandering, like he couldn’t find a place that was quiet or that he felt safe. :( We gave them as much love as possible to help relax them. And as always, left over fireworks go off every other day. In fact, they went off just the other day even still! Joy.

I’ve been RP’ing a lot. It’s fun making new and different characters. I have been thinking of maybe reviving Kila in RB. So far, the only RB thing I do now is guild hunting, which I like (ESPECIALLY when –I- find all the guilds), but RP wise I’ve not done anything in ages for her. I feel bad. I saw a few old faces (that I actually liked) popping up on a couple of the old RB RP Yahoo! Groups. That was nice. I’ve even thought about popping up at Heaven’s Gate myself. Well, if I CAN remember how to write for Kila. I’ve been writing for these other characters on other forums for so long, that I’ve kinda forgotten how to write for her. We’ll see.

There’s more I’m sure I could write about, but I’ve written a novel already. :P Oh! Issi sent me flowers! :D And that day I really needed them too. A very sad and unhappy dream left me a lil sad even after waking. So the flowers really helped give me a smile that day. And there was an ever so fun water outage issue, but if I go into that I’ll get mad again. So! That’s all for now! I PROMISE not to neglect my blogging again.

Random kitty pics:

Pixie via cell camera

Oreo via digital camera

Pixie via digi cam