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Starting the fertility monitor…

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So the temperature thing was a BIG pain in the ass.

Yes, I managed to take it every morning when I was supposed to, but I never saw ANY rhyme or reason to anything (i.e. no noticable increases like you’re supposed to see). I even plugged the data in to Excel ❗ to make sure I wasn’t missing any trends, LOL…and that was inconclusive as well. 🙄

So I give up.

And I am moving on to the Clear Blue Easy Fertility Monitor, which “reliably indicates the days of your cycle when you are most likely to conceive—the days closest to when the egg is released from your ovary (ovulation).”

It gets very high ratings from users, so we’ll see if we have any luck with it. I hope we do for two reasons… 1) Because we want to get pregnant :)) and 2) because it was expensive (although we got it cheaper via ebay).

We are now officially a Toyota family!

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We went tonight to get the paperwork out of the way, planning on going back tomorrow to just pick up the keys and go…but the salesman called to say the car would be ready tonight! So we did the paperwork, went out for a burger, then came back in an hour to get the car!

Here’s the proud new driver getting in his car for the first time:

We came home, then it was my turn to drive the car as we needed to return our loaner car to our friends (again). And let me tell you, it is VERY strange to drive the car.

  • For one, you don’t need a key. Yes, you need the fob, but it can be in your pocket or in the front seat—just in very close proximity.
  • Second, you press a button to start the car.
  • Third, you have to look at the dash to see if the car is “ready” because you can’t hear it start (damn that electric motor is quiet).
  • Fourth, the shifter is VERY strange—just a tiny little knob on the dash.
  • Fifth, it BEEPS the entire time you’re in reverse, even if you aren’t moving.
  • Sixth, it’s somewhat disconcerting to use a video backup monitor if you’re not used to it.
  • Seventh (wow, I didn’t think I’d have this many things to say!), it’s amazing to see CURRENT MPG 99.9!
  • Eighth, you have to press a button to put the car in park, too!
  • Ninth, you have to press the Power button to turn the car off. Yes, it sounds logical (and it is, I guess), except when you’re doing it for the first time. :))

But it’s fun. And gets great gas mileage. So YAY!

Car shopping in Raleigh

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Phew, what a day.

Long story short, hubby’s car wasn’t worth NEARLY what we’d hoped it would be, either from Carmax OR Toyota… although we haggled a bit with Toyota to up it $500 to get us closer to our bottom line for a new car.

/House Hunters mode on

So, did they stay under their budget and go for the sight-unseen used 2005 black Prius with tan interior from an Orlando Carmax with 49k miles? Or did they go for the brand spanking new “really red” 2008 Prius with the grey interior that isn’t even on the lot yet that they have to wait two weeks for but is slightly over their budget?

/House Hunters mode off

We should have a new car—with the exact specs we wanted—in about two weeks! 88|

And the blogs are back!

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The short story?

We’re back up but it was a pain in the ass.

The long story?

What should have literally taken an hour (just waiting for the files to upload) actually ended up taking a few days…because once I uploaded everything and ran the install program (mere minutes), I got errors galore. I could access the blogs—they were there, and you could read them—but I couldn’t access the backoffice, which is where you actually write the posts.

Luckily they have GREAT support forums, and AMAZING people helping out there. It took about a day for some poor soul to take pity on me, LOL, but EdB attacked my problem…and solved it quickly (Go Ed! Go Ed!) and easily.

Well, it was a stupid thing, really, but easy. For whatever reason, my FTP client (what I use to upload files to my website server) was not overwriting things with the correct date (well, something like that anyway—that was the gist of it) and was consequently corrupting my files, which was giving me the errors. All Ed actually had to do (after some other tweaking and fiddling around just to check things out) was to REupload a certain directory and it worked. YAY EDB!

So now I can post again.

But I still have lots of “backoffice” stuff to do—but that won’t affect readers for anything other than appearance. Meaning, this blue color on all four blogs? It’s GOT to go. It’s just NOT me. :))

WARNING: Blogs may disappear for awhile.

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I desperately need to update the blog software I use—I just found out that the version I am using is obsolete, and of course the new version requires an entire revamping of the entire system… which means new templates (cool), having to recode all the customizations I have done (NOT cool), and hoping it all works without too much anguish on my part.

I am not sure when I will be doing this—I am afraid it’s going to take WAY more time than it should, so I am hesitant to start it now, when I only have about a half hour. If things go well, it might take an hour. If things go bad…well, it might take a week.

So, this is just a forewarning that if you try to reach the blog and it’s gone—or you don’t get any updates for awhile, it’s because I screwed something up in the transition.

Don’t you just love technology?

The Impala Saga To Date

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Transmission.
Out of nowhere.
Original estimate of $3500 from the dealer.
Second opinion was $2500.
Third and final opinion was $1800-$2000 so we took it there.

We would love to just trade it for something else and not worry about getting it fixed, but there’s no way we can sell it with a worthless transmission.

Although unexpected major expenses suck, the good news (if you can call it that) is that we do have the money in savings, so this won’t kill us.

But now we have to decide what we’re going to do…because apparently, this car is KNOWN for transmission issues. And even if we get it fixed, there is no guarantee of it lasting any great length of time.

And we just don’t want to drive this car…we just don’t trust it like we used to. Tom has also been burned before with vehicles developing issues which turn into other issues and finally ends up a full-fledged money pit resulting in a car with little/no trade in value.

So, stay tuned…

Oh, the other good news? Our friends, Roger and Ursula, have an extra car that we can use while Tom’s car is being fixed!! YAY!

Here we go again.

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We have decided to start trying again…

Tom has been tested (before he left, actually) and he is fine.

I have been through all of the uncomfortable ultrasound and radiation tests (while he was gone—that was fun by myself) and long story short (no need to go into details about the not-fun procedures) I have a clean bill of reproductive health. The doc says there is no good reason I cannot get pregnant. (He is willing to put me on some “lite” fertility drugs if I choose, but we are waiting a few months just to see what happens.)

So he we go again. 😀

He’s home! He’s home! He’s home!

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The past year actually went by fairly quickly—but the last three days have passed soooooooooooooooo slowly it was driving me insane. I couldn’t concentrate on anything, kept jumping from the computer to the TV to laundry to playing with the dog, lather, rinse, repeat.

The word was that they would be arriving at 3:30pm—but Tom had called earlier and said that he was guessing more 2:30ish. So I figured they would be running late (it IS the military after all) but I’d rather sit there and twiddle my thumbs than drive myself even nuttier at home. So I decided to leave at 2.

And the timing actually could NOT have been better.

I had barely passed through the front gate when my phone rang—an unfamiliar local number. I answered it, and it was Tom (who must have been using someone’s cell phone) and he asked me where I was. I said I just got on base. He said THEY just got on base as well! Turns out they were LITERALLY about a minute behind me, and by the time I stopped at a light, I could see the buses on the road behind me. I almost lost it at that point but managed not to cry.

I pulled into the parking lot, and by the time I parked and got out of the car, the first bus was pulling in right behind me and then four more passed by me. I tried to see if I could see Tom through the windows but I couldn’t. However, I did see one of our neighbors, so I guessed he was on that same bus, but by the time they all pulled to a stop, I had forgotten which bus it was.

Of course there was a HUGE crowd of people just swarming all over—people with signs and banners, wearing personalized t-shirts, balloons, and anything else you can think of to draw attention to themselves. (I took a few pics and will post later if they turned out.) And although I was in a hurry to find Tom, I pretty much just had to stand there and wait and scan the crowds. With a row of five buses (about 100 yards long) I figured I might be there awhile—but as luck would have it, he came out of the bus right in front of me! So I only waited maybe two minutes!

The worst part of the whole thing was finding his bags. They had arrived on separate transport before him, and everything was just sitting on the lawn in huge piles, so everyone was searching for their bags at the same time, in the middle of people milling about. Very disorganized and irritating for people who just wanted to get the hell out of there. (How much time/energy would it take to at least put one color-coded tag on each bag so at least you could narrow your search down to one pile? It’s not like these guys have different color luggage—everything is green!)

We finally gathered all his bags and were off! He changed in the car and we stopped and had Thai for lunch, then he wanted a Blizzard for dessert so it was off to DQ! Then we needed a few food things, so we went to Sam’s Club (something we love doing anyway) and then home, where Tom had fun running around the yard with Maggie!

It’s sooooo great having him home. 🙂

We’re cruising again!

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We decided what better way to celebrate Tom coming home from a year deployment than to go on another cruise!! It also happens to fit into our scheduled dream of going on a cruise every two years (the last cruise was October 2005).

This time we are trying the Carnival line—specifically, the Miracle. We had an amazing experience with Holland America, and seriously considered going that route again, but decided to be more adventurous and try something new! We did, however, book a balcony suite again, because it was just SO awesome the first time we couldn’t imagine not having it. The thing I can’t wait to see is the lounge/theatre:

A three-level main show lounge fashioned after the Paris Opera House and “The Phantom of the Opera.” White enamel masks and mini candelabras line the maroon and gold walls, and almost feel magical. Stone figures hold up orange “stained glass” lights atop the entryways.

We leave for our 8-Day Western Caribbean cruise from Fort Lauderdale on March 6, 2008, and our route includes stops in Panama, Costa Rica, and Belize:

Route for our 2008 Carnival Miracle cruise

We haven’t decided what shore excursions we want to do yet, but there are a few we have our eyes on (zip-lining through the rainforest catches my eye!).

We got a good deal for the cruise and will be saving a big chunk of money by driving to Florida instead of flying. I hated to waste the time, but tickets were running around $800—and with the layovers and stops we’d have to make to get there anyway, we figure we’re better off driving. We also have friends in the area who we can visit and/or stay with and/or beg a ride from if we don’t want to leave our car at the port.

We are SOOOOOO excited!

I’ve been a bad, bad blogger.

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Yes, I know I haven’t been writing anything lately. And I feel bad.

But it’s just that the longer I take to catch you up, the more stuff happens, and the harder it is to catch up. A catch-22 if you will.

But I know I have to fill you in with some details (obviously the short versions) until I get more time:

  • The animals are fine.
  • Tom’s visit home was wonderful—although too short—and we had a great time with friends in Florida.
  • I am eating healthy (hate to call it dieting) and have lost almost 25# so far (since Tom left).
  • I am still at my job (although that could be a VERY LONG story).
  • I haven’t been seeing too much of my friends around here.
  • I did have family down to visit, and more coming soon!
  • I had computer/general tech difficulties, which kept me frustrated and offline more than usual (although all is well now).
  • It’s finally cooling down here (68 today, but 85 last week).

I promise to try and write more in the upcoming weeks.

Yea! Cholesterol!

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I’ve always wondered what my cholesterol was—although honestly, I’ve also been a little scared to find out. Well, due to some recent bloodwork I had, I found out… and it couldn’t be better!! All of my levels (general cholesterol, HDL, LDL) are all way below optimal levels. Wow!

Total Cholesterol: 133
Less than 200 = Desirable

HDL: 46
Less than 150 = Normal

LDL: 70.6
Less than 100 = Optimal

My Leg Update

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I went to the specialist this morning (the same guy I went to in 2004/2005 and who did my surgery). The gist of the visit was that there is an issue and they need to do more tests…so I have an appointment at the hospital in two weeks, at which time the results will determine what comes next (possibly another surgery). If I recall correctly, I believe he said that the other surgery is a more invasive surgery than the one they did before (something like the one he did two years ago was the starter surgery, for lack of a better term, to see if that took care of it). Of course, he also said that I should be wearing my compression stockings as much as possible. 😳

Oh, and he said the “pulled muscle” that I experienced was unrelated to the vein issues, and that he didn’t hear anything that sounded like a clot—but the hospital tests will show more.

RIP, Fuzzy

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Also known as FuzzButt, StinkerButt, Pooka, and Fangs That Hang So Low (his indian name).

Today was a normal day when I got home from work, until I went to sit on the couch around 6:15 to watch some TV. I heard a strange noise, which I attributed to Fuzzy, who has been known to breathe heavily and sort of half snore while he sleeps. But it sounded different, so I went looking for him. And when I found him laying in front of the litter box and actually heard the noises he was making, I knew it wasn’t good. It was even worse when I picked him up and he was limp.

I immediately called my vet’s office, since I thought they had late office hours—and I was wrong. I then googled emergency vets in our area and there was one, so I called and said I would be there in 15 minutes. She forwarned me it would be a minimum $85 fee, which I honestly didn’t think was too bad. I was out the door within five minutes.

In the back of my mind, I knew something was wrong with him. He has always been a big cat—our “fat cat”—except lately, over the past 6 months to a year, he has lost quite a bit of weight…like maybe 5-8#. I just attributed it to the fact that he was getting older and not eating as much…but in the back of my mind, I KNEW something was wrong. Earlier this week, I actually told mysef I should take him to the vet for a round of tests, just to know what we might be dealing with. But he was still eating fine and drinking a lot, so I didn’t think about it TOO much.

So tonight, while somewhat of a surprise (he seemed fine when I saw him last night), also wasn’t a surprise.

So I get to the vet’s and the tech took his temperature, and then took it again because she couldn’t believe how low it was. It was 86, and apparently a normal temp should be 102-106 (or something along those lines). She got him a warm towel until the vet came in. One quick listen and she asked me if he had any history of liver or kidney problems (no) and then told me that his heart sounded bad, his lungs sounded bad, he was dehydrated, and he probably needed a blood transfusion. His gums were very pale (almost white), which she said was not a good sign, either. She said they could do bloodwork ($150), but even then, they might not have any good news, and even if they could determine what it was, he would still need a blood transfusion. And even then, he may only have a month or two.

It was at that point I decided it was time to let him go… He’s led a good life with me the past 13 years (the longest I’ve ever had any animal—we adopted him from my aunt and uncle when he was just 1.5 years old) and for all the joy he has brought to my life, he certainly deserved to die peacefully and without any more pain…with me at his side kissing his sweet little face. They gave me some time alone with him, then it was over in a matter of a minute.

Rest in Peace, Fuzzy. You will be missed terribly.

fuzzycostume200

What a spectacularly craptastic day.

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I would honestly have to rank today as one of the worst days, if not THE worst day, of my life so far.

Yes, he’s gone.

And yes, I know there have been bad days in my life, but there is nothing—just NOTHING—like knowing you are saying goodbye to someone for A YEAR. And that someone is your spouse. And knowing they are going to a war zone.

For a year.

A @#*$ year. :'(

So, aside from that alone being enough to rank this as the worst day ever, the weather is horrid—35° and rainy (which, actually, is perfect weather to remain morose all afternoon, so goody for me).

And apparently, I am the most emotional person on earth—no one else I saw dropping off their marines was shedding a tear—or even looked upset or depressed. I, on the other hand, couldn’t even get out of the car because I was so torn up. :'( I guess I am being emotional enough to cover everyone else’s lack of emotion.

Which leads me to the next thing—I feel absolutely horrible (HORRIBLE!) that I couldn’t stay there with Tom. Now, don’t get me wrong—I was ALLOWED to…but I just couldn’t! There is NO WAY ON EARTH I could sit there for four hours with him—in the midst of all those people—and THEN watch the buses leave! Talk about torture!! You might as well just shoot me and get it over with. But I just feel bad, because there were lots of people who WERE staying, and I’m sure Tom would have liked me to stay—although, you gotta love him—he wanted me to do what I was comfortable with. And unfortunately, I just couldn’t stay.

So it was a looooooooooong drive home. In the rain. Crying. And I have to say coming home to an empty house is just about the most depressing thing ever. Of course, Maggie was happy to see me and get out of her crate (and gave me kisses!), but I can’t take anything at face value right now, so I just see her and think about how much Tom loves her and how much he misses her and how I love to see them playing and how he won’t be able to play with her for a year. And just when I think my head hurts so much I can’t possibly cry any more, I start crying again.

It’s going to be a long day.

But like I told mom this morning…today will be horrible, tomorrow will be awful, this weekend will suck, but then it will start getting better! I hope.

The Jacksonville Ninja

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I have been wanting to write about this guy ever since we moved here, but I’ve just never gotten around to it…that, and I never quite knew how I would describe him and what he does/looks like.

Well, today, someone forwarded me a video of him—and I about died laughing. It’s spot on.

This guy stands out on the street corner at a major intersection and does karate moves/acts like a ninja to his boom box (which he always has with him). He is always shirtless, is an ex-marine, and goes by the name Radio. There’s not much more I can say, so just watch the video!!

GREAT BOOTS UPDATE!

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Tom just called and said the local shelter will take her!!!! He told them everything and they said it will be tough [to adopt her out] but they will take her! We are “donating” the adoption fee, along with food, treats, toys, litter, etc. I am also thinking about a gift card to Petsmart.

Oh, this lightens my heart tremendously!!!

Sad news.

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The short version is that the vet says Boots is most likely suffering from Pariah Syndrome (at the moment, I cannot find any information online so am not sure if Tom heard it wrong, I am spelling it wrong, or it’s something else that sounds the same, etc.).

The vet said it’s a mix of things, including that the cat has been traumatized at some time in her life (which I wrote about earlier) in addition to her having extreme bouts of anxiety and stress, in addition to her not being the alpha female…all of which combine to cause her improper elimination—and it’s something that most likely will never be cured, even if we were to take the cat two hours away to a specialist to get other meds (and then he said we’d have to medicate two cats, and even then it might not be successful).

The vet said we’ve done more than most people would in our situation, and our choices were either live with her peeing everywhere or…..putting her down. So, it’s not looking good… we know what has to be done, and are completely heartbroken over it. It kills us just to think about it…

Houston?

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I hate to say it, but we’re sort of maybe thinking of moving to…Houston. Where did this come from? Well, from what we’ve been hearing and researching, the job market in Michigan leaves something to be desired.

So we’ve been watching House Hunters on HGTV…and recently we saw an episode where they were house hunting in Houston, Texas.

Oh. My. God.

The amount of house you can get for the money is AMAZING. Take a look at one house we love. Can you believe it’s only $279,000? 88|

Of course, everything is a pipe dream right now, and you never know what the future holds, but man it’s tempting. Now we just have to find jobs!!!

Tom has an official deployment date!

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Tom just emailed me to tell me that he just got the word that he will leave Friday, January 5, 2007. :'(

Due to this being a bit earlier than we had originally anticipated (which was mid-January), we will probably come home to Michigan just a smidge earlier so we can be home for a few days before he has to leave (we’d also like to be here for New Year’s Eve).

Stay tuned for further date information.

It’s Official!

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Well, according to the doctor’s office, I’m officially pregnant! Of course, I was 99.999999999999% sure before that, due to two (okay, three!) positive pregnancy tests. (I’m not that anal—I just still say the first one was inconclusive!) Tom knew I would be calling at 2pm to get the results, so he was calling at 2:15 to talk to me!

I was going to wait to tell my mom and David and dad and Linda when I got home, but I just couldn’t wait. I did have to wait until certain coworkers left the office, however, since I do not want this to be public knowledge yet…

I called mom and David first and they both picked up, as she was upstairs and he was downstairs—so I got to tell them both at the same time that I was pregnant. Mom didn’t believe me—she thought I was joking! I said “Why on earth would I joke about something like this?” I think she was just in shock!! Of course, she was very excited as well, as this will be her first “real” grandchild (the other four are technically David’s). The comment that sticks with me is mom telling me that “our visit worked” — meaning our visit to Grandma Len’s gravesite in July…

WARNING: 😥 ALERT!

My grandmother (mom’s mother) died probably 25 years ago. When my cousin’s wife was having trouble conceiving, her father-in-law went to his mother-in-law’s grave (our grandma, above) and said a prayer and asked for some divine intervention in making his wife (grandma’s daughter) a grandma as well. Within a few months, my cousin was pregnant. That was about eight years ago, and I didn’t hear one word about this story until a few months ago when we were about to go home for my other grandmother’s funeral. My mom told me the story and then told me we would have to “go visit grandma, like [my uncle] did” (since all my grandparents are at the same cemetary, actually buried within 40 yards of one another). And we did. So, after three emotional days of my grandmother’s viewing/funeral/burial, we walked across the road and went to see my grandma and my mom said a little prayer and asked HER mom for help, saying she did such a great job with [my cousin and his wife]. That was in July. At that point, we had been trying for ten months. In August, I was pregnant.

Then I called dad and first wished him a Happy Birthday…then said I had a surprise for him. He was scared. I then told him he was going to be a grandpa and amazingly, he was at a loss for words (for just a few seconds, but still). Of course, he was very happy!

When I got home, Tom had gotten me the cutest card…saying he can’t wait to start this new experience with me!! Awwwww, I know! Then he called his mom to tell her that it was official (she was the only one who knew beforehand) and of course, she was thrilled as well!

We decided to wait a bit on telling everyone else, just in case anything bad should happen. It’s customary to wait until the end of the first trimester, so we’ll see if we can actually wait that long. I am pretty sure our close friends/neighbors will know before that, because there are always get-gethers and drinking…and if I am not drinking, they will surely suspect something!

“Pregnant”

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Holy shit.

Proof!

Well, Clearblue Easy says I’m pregnant. I don’t think I’ve stopped shaking quite yet. (And yes, I told hubby first!)

Well, what I’ve been saying for the past two years is true (as soon as we find out for sure that he’s deploying will be the time I find out I’m pregnant) and what others have been telling me is true (as soon as one of you gets tested, you will get pregnant – Tom was tested about a month ago and had no problems).

WOOHOO! Best news this year!

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Tom just called to say “Do you want some good news?” Um, hell yes… He told me that he is no longer scheduled to go to Iraq for a year! It will now be six months!!! WOO HOO!!!

Long story short, technically you can only stay at a duty station X amount of time, and he would reach that amount of time during that deployment. So, he can’t really go over if he could technically be moved. Of course, it’s not guaranteed he’ll be moving (i.e. we could be forced to move to the west coast, in which case we’d be getting out for sure) but it’s a possibility.

But anyway, I’m not thinking about all the detail right now…I’m just concerned with the fact that it won’t be a year!

News you don’t want to hear.

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Tom has about a 98% chance of heading to Iraq in February.

He just switched jobs on base (something you have to do every X number of years) and now he’s considered deployable again. At first it was “between him and another Captain” but he just called to tell me it’s for sure.

Of course, I say “I will believe it when I see the paperwork” — because the last time he was supposed to get deployed, details changed every other week. But we’re pretty sure it’s really going to happen.

The worst thing? It’s supposed to be for a year this time. Again, I say “I will believe it when I see the paperwork” but I have a sinking feeling already…

Wow! Someone bought a photo of mine!

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http://www.fotolia.com/id/816376/partner/94600

So for those of you who have visited Hudson Ink lately, you can see that I’m redesigning the site—and I have a new “eye” logo. Well, the site I purchased the photo from is Fotolia…and I also uploaded two of my own photos, just for the heck of it basically. I never expected anything to come of it…but I just got an email that someone purchased my photo! And it wasn’t even my favorite one! 😉

lilypad with floating candles

Late night calls are never good.

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I didn’t have my cell phone by the bed last night so we missed a call at 1am. We both assumed it was a wrong number, because who would be calling us at 1am? (We’ve had a few wrong numbers lately.) Unfortunately, someone WAS calling us…with bad news.

My grandmother passed away sometime last night, and my dad and stepmom were driving home from the U.P. (where they were on vacation) when they called. So, we actually found out about 7:30 this morning.

There was a mad rush to make travel arrangements, trying to find plane tickets that weren’t $800 a piece (damn small town airport). We are flying home tomorrow…not quite the way we wanted to get to see everyone.

I think hell just froze over.

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So I was downstairs and all the cats were congregating around the food bowl, whining (not entirely sure why, as they had plenty of food). Surprisingly, Boots was right in the middle of them all…and there was NO hissing, NO swatting, NO stalking—NOTHING. An amazing feat in itself, as they typically hate each other. Or so I thought…

Because then I saw something that made me rub my eyes and shake my head in disbelief.

Charlie was…are you ready?

Charlie was LICKING Boots on the head. And Boots was letting her. And this went on for a good 20 seconds. Then Boots rubbed up against Fuzzy and wandered off.

Oh my.

I think they’re finally friends. And it only took seven months.

Wow. Just, wow!

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So awhile back, my dad asked me where he should send something to make sure I get it. I assumed it was something of value, as he apparently didn’t want it sitting on our porch, so I said my office. This morning, I received a cryptic email saying “expect the package, you must wait to open it with Tom, and check out the numbers.”

Huh?

What?

Let me tell you, I was going NUTS waiting for it—and hoping it would arrive today instead of having to wait until Monday! I had no idea at all what it could be. NONE! So I was thrilled when the UPS guy brought it in. It was probably 2′ x 3′ x 3″ — and I still had no idea (it wasn’t that heavy and it shook a little bit).

I called Tom to tell him it had arrived and he had better stop on his way home!! Both Jane and Dick (my bosses) offered to open it for me, since there appeared to be no restrictions on anyone else opening it. I politely declined.

So Tom walked in about 3:00 and we tore into it. Imagine our total and utter surprise/shock/amazement to find this….

Kinkade print

A 12×16 signed and numbered canvas (32/1450—to commemorate my age when I received it!), Autumn on Mackinac Island, by Thomas Kinkade.

Turns out Linda was the driving force behind the purchase… she went into a local gallery and saw the sketch of the soon-to-be-completed piece and thought it would be perfect. Dad actually describes it much better:

Originally, we were in Petoskey for one of my appointments. When Linda picked me up after my appointment she said she wanted to show me something. Well we went to the T.K. gallery and she showed me a sketch of it. There were no prints even produced yet. She said what do you think of it and I said It would probably be very pretty when done but where were we going to hang it. She said, “It’s not for us silly, I want to give it to Jen for her birthday.” I immediately got up off the floor and said if it means that much to you, then it is a done deal. Needless to say, we still have the sketch (personally signed-maybe copied. I am not sure) and you “may” someday inherit it. T.K. was actually in Pestoskey but because of schedules we could not go meet him. But he had been to Mac. Island to make the sketch!

I am still floored. We are going to go get it framed this weekend and then find the perfect place to hang it (I have my ideas, but it means rearranging some things).

Hudson Ink is back online!

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http://www.hudson-ink.com/

Thank god for old old backups and brain farts while falling asleep. I was laying there one night about a week ago and thought “Hey! I know I backed up stuff to DVD…” and voila! I had files from mid-2005 that I brought back to life! It took all evening, but I just finished updating (i.e. reformatting to CSS) all the pages so now I get to work on the little things like text blurbs and new graphics.

(It’s Hudson Ink if you’re interested in taking a look!)

Four years ago today…

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We were out running errands and I saw a flag at half staff and thought “What happened that we haven’t heard about?” and then it hit me. It’s 9/11. It’s hard to believe that it was four years ago already—at times it feels like YEARS and YEARS ago, but of course I can remember that day like it was yesterday…just moved to Virginia, not even married a month…Tom called to wake me up to tell me about it (of course I didn’t believe him, until he made me turn on the TV) and he didn’t know if/when he’d be able to call again, if/when he’d be able to come home, or if/when he’d be sent to NYC for rescue/cleanup. I spent the entire day in front of the computer with the TV on in the background chatting with my friends online, sharing any miniscule bit of news.

Of course, I feel bad for my dear ol’ dad, whose birthday is today… that’s just gotta suck. I mean, being as old as he is and everything, every birthday must suck. Right, dad? heehee