Blogging the day away

I'm bored. I should be working, but I'm not. Can't think of anything good today, plus it's almost noon and thats when my brain shuts down so I might as well not start anymore today. I should go work on my husbands site some more, but I don't wanna. He wanted a facelift and, of course, sucked me into doing it. Do you have any idea how long it's been since I've done anything to a website? Grrr. I had to sit there looking at the code for awhile to figure out what I was doing.
Not to mention the site was originally done in frames.... yuck. My first order of business was to get rid of those! So I did a half-ass job on it and hubby is content with it, so I'm happy. I'm not happy with the job I did because I think it looks tacky, but oh well. Maybe I'll dive into it again later.

I don't miss building websites, thats for sure. I'll stick to making this blog pretty and doing the CSS coding on my shops.

So it's raining and taking all our snow away with it. The roads are full of mini-lakes because, of course, most of the drains are covered in snow. That reminds me... I have to go fix our gutter so the water doesn't leak into our garage.

The Chico dog has this wierd stomach thing going on. He's laying about 4 feet from me and I can hear his stomach gurgling! Not kidding! He was doing it yesterday, too. I felt so bad for him that I gave him a couple saltine crackers. My bestest friend laughed at me, but what would you do? Saltines was the only thing I could think of! I wasn't going to give him a Tums.

Painted my fingernails red today.

Kids are expensive. Demon #1 had an eye doctor appointment today and $250 later she has new frames & lenses. Why can't she just squint to see the board at school? Cripes.

I'm making pork chops for dinner tonight. The husband hates it when I make pork chops. See, I have this addiction to pork chops, I could eat them every night, but he doesn't like them as much. So I get to hear him protesting every time I make them. Too bad. I cook, we eat what I want.

I watched Walk The Line last night for the 23rd time. Another one of my addictions is Johnny Cash and anything that has to do with him. How can you not love the man? Every time that movie is on I'm sucked into watching it... the love story of him & June is the ultimate love story - right down to the very end. Everyone knew Johnny couldn't live without June, so his death was so expected.

Demon #1 has a whole bunch of Johnny Cash songs on her iPod... how cool is that? I got my addiction from my mom, seems right that I passed it on :)

I don't think I have anything else to say right now......

Camera Critters - 11.8 - Happy Birthday Saki!

It's hard to believe, but Saki turned a year old yesterday! Of course, we haven't had her a year yet... she was 10 weeks old when we got her, but yesterday she turned a year old!!

In that short 10 months, it's amazing to think of life without her.

She has become my shadow, even now she's at my feet as I type this. When she hears me grab my car keys - she's at the door ready to go with! And she usually does go with... she's so spoiled.

I go to sleep each night with her on the floor next to our bed but somehow during the night she sneaks into the bed, unnoticed, and I wake up with a big golden butt in my face. And what a bed hog she is! But dumb me, I move over in my sleep to give her room... enough room for her to spread out sideways in the bed. Of course if the husband is in bed she sleeps in between us. Lucky for her he leaves at 3am, so she gets a few hours of comfortable sleep.

And since the husband is deer hunting this week... guess who gets the bed the whole night?

Happy Birthday, Saki. We wouldn't trade you for the world.
We've already had one offer from someone to sell her... no way, no how. There isn't enough money. The guy said "how about a million?" and I didn't even flinch... there is no amount that could get me to sell her.

Plus, she makes a good foot warmer.

Camera Critters Version 11.01

We've had an interesting week in the feline department. (I've talked about her here and here) My parents found a kitten that was starving and even though they aren't the most "animal lovers" they couldn't leave her. I took her home to litterbox train her, but she is now all cozy at my parents house. It's been a tough week for that little girl, who they have named "Princess". She was abandoned (or lost, we aren't sure), she was starving, found, taken home, vaccinated, dewormed, rehomed.. and yet she seems to have adjusted very nicely. She's still a little sick (a little kitty cold) but she seems to be doing very well.

Some of these pictures I've already blogged, but I'm sharing them again because they are perfect for the Camera Critters meme.

As you can see, she took to the dogs IMMEDIATLEY, but she wanted NOTHING to do with the other cats and she never did warm up to them. She's a one-cat-per-house kind of kitty, but dogs are allowed! Saki really took to her and the mothering instinct set in, I think. Saki is officially a year old next week. The kitty, Princess, got more baths from Saki than I think she got from her kitty-mama.

Chico liked her too, but not as much as Saki did. I think the fact that the kitten tried to nurse off of him turned him off.

Camera Critters 10.11 - The Zoo

Another trip to the zoo this weekend. This time we went to the Minnesota Zoo. I took 157 pictures total... I don't think I'll post them all today :)

Sorry... I like the cats!

But I did get some fun shots of the grizzlies... (I think they were my favorites)
I think this was a red panda.... a bald eagle who had a broken wing.....sea horses. They are so fun to watch. I never knew they held onto things with their tails!

Camera Critters 10.4

Our Oliver - Mr. Personality.
Who has new friends... Demon #1 got fish for her birthday last week and Oliver seems to enjoy them more than anyone in the house!

Camera Critters 9.13

It's Chico again this week! Nothing much to say about him.. he's Chico.
Ok, I thought of something. My best friend, Melissa, is doing her first CameraCritters this week with the brat-dog Athena & that freaky looking bird.
When her daughter, Jenna, was born she was living in the same town I live in and we spent almost every morning in my kitchen having coffee. From the 1st day she brought Jenna over (probably just a couple weeks old) Chico was in love... if Jenna would so much as squeak, Chico would be right there, up on his hind legs wanting to know what was wrong. And if we would put Jenna on the floor he would just lay by her feet. It was the absolute cutest thing! But if she cried... LOL Didn't matter where he was, he'd come running. Not sure what he thought he was gonna do to help her, but he wanted to try!

Camera Critters - 9.6

Finally! I've been waiting a week to post these! Last weekend we took the kids to the zoo.

Ok fine. They really didn't want to go. I did. I have such an obsession with animals that no matter what city we go - we have to go see their zoo (if they have one, of course!). In all honesty, zoos make me sad. I don't like the looks on the animals faces because they look so... well, sad. I hate seeing them caged up, but yet - where else am I going to see them?

Thee demons wanted to go to the big zoo - the MNZoo down by Minneapolis... why? There is a really cute little zoo with a handfull of animals within 1/2 hour from us! There's never a lot of people (fear of crowds, ya know) - I think there were 5 cars in the parking lot Saturday morning? It's a great zoo.. it's advertised as free, and it used to be, but now they ask for a certain amount in a "donation". Whatever - I'm not complaining. All 4 of us got in for $15. I think thats the cost of one ticket at the MNZoo.

I wanted to post these all week, but I was saving them for (my favorite - have I ever said that?) meme - Camera Critters. My favorite animal at the zoo, the tigers, were sleeping and we could barely see them in the shadows, so I didn't get pics of them. Last year when we were here they came right up to the fence. That was amazing!

Anyway.... you didn't come here to read, did you?
First were the prairie dogs. They are so fun to watch. We went right away in the morning, so they were hungry. We put our quarter in the food machine and they all came running - made for some great shots!
As I said, I didn't get to see my tigers, but I did get to see the cougars. I love watching big cats (hence the whole "kittilicious" or "kittyobsessed" screennames I go by). As soon as we walked up to the fence line of this cougar one of the demons blurted out "Great. Now Mom's gonna stand here for a 1/2 hour!".

It would have been worse at the MNZoo, my loves. More cats.
Every zoo has a petting zoo part, doesn't it? This guy was pretty friendly... and really seemed to be interested with the monkey holding the camera.
I guess the downfall of going to the zoo right away in the morning is the animals that sleep in... the big black bear (and he was big!) was sleeping in a corner and all we could see what his butt and his paw. I didn't want a picture of a bear butt (it was kinda cute, though) so I took a picture of his paw instead.
His cubs, however, were enjoying the morning with lots of playing! (The mama bear was in another pen and was totally out of view - she was sleeping, too. But with these cubs, I don't blame her! They were LOUD and obnoxious. That thing he's standing on is probably at least 10 feet high - the 3 cubs would go up and down and up and down and yell at each other.... it was pretty entertaining!

I really wish I could lie and say I got this one in the wild, but if you look close you can see mom's tagged ear in the corner. They have a GORGEOUS area for the whitetailed deer. It took us awhile to find the small herd (a few does, only saw one fawn and never found the buck(s) ) because they were hiding so well. But we finally found them and this little one especially was pretty curious. I didn't realize until we got home how funny of a shot I actually got! My first thought of "this is my feelings about living in a zoo!" - which goes back to my mixed feeling of zoos.

Camera Critters - 8.30

It's that time of week again.. time for my very favorite meme - Camera Critters! I love critters .. much more than people because no matter what you say to them, they act like they are listening. Ok, well maybe not cats. Cats will just walk away from you.
But my favorite critter in the house (shhh don't tell the others) will listen to anything and everything I have to say, when I say it.

Maybe it's just that Golden Retriever personality... they are so expressionable and I absolutely love taking pictures of Saki. I don't think I've ever gotten a bad picture of her.. each shot has some type of emotion.
I do have to share with all of you critter lovers out there who visit each week the best news ever... yes, you guessed it - the tumor was non-malignant! Serena does not have cancer! We beat those 85% odds. The vet was shocked and I, like you could imagine, spent the day bouncing off the walls... I was so fricken happy. I was close to tears I was so happy.

Thank you all again for your wishes & prayers - THEY WORKED!

Camera Critters - 8.23

Today we are sharing Oliver. AKA "Oliver Buddy", "Buddy" and "Mr Personality". We joke that he is so laid back that if he ever got out of the house he would lay in the road and watch a car run him over. He is the poster child (poster cat?) for the Persian personality. He is lovable, vocal, cuddly and... well, look at him... how can you resist a face like that? (he's also very photogenic!)


... and for those of you who gave me your best wishes last week... Serena went through surgery fine. She's home and back to her normal self! I posted a "to know or not to know" the other day and I finally made a decision - the test is being done. I still won't put her through chemo if it turns out to be malignant, but at least this way I'll know.

Cross your fingers for a good result! I should know the end of next week.
Somehow Saki just knew that there was something wrong... this was the day Serena came home. She was very gentle with Serena... curious, but never chased her or anything. It almost seemed like she was protecting Serena every now and then. In fact, I was laying on my bed watching tv with Saki along side me the day after Serena came home, when Serena walked into the bedroom. Saki got up, walked over me and laid down on the other side... Serena jumped up and laid down where Saki was. Saki was, afterall, in Serena's spot!

Thats something she's never done before. Both dogs always try to lay in Serena's spot.

Anyway... go play along in the Camera Critters meme!

Camera Critters - Serena Rosabella

This week for Camera Critters I'm posting my baby girl, Serena Rosabella. She's almost 10 years old and I recently found a lump on her stomach.

She goes in on Monday for surgery... I need some good vibes for my baby girl. The lump is in her mammary glands and it's pretty big. There is only a 15% chance that it isn't malignant. And if it is.. the survival rate is very slim. It sounds like once they are diagnosed with cancer, they go pretty quick. She's not acting sick at all - it's just this lump, so it's ok, right?

This is a recent pic of her... just yesterday, in fact. She's always mistaken for a kitten, but she's really an old lady.. LOL She's a shaded sliver persian.

This one is my baby. We have 3 cats, but this one is mine. She's one of those one-person cats. She's the one by my side when I fall asleep... she meets me in the bathroom every morning for her water - she only drinks from the faucet, of course! Princess Serena is what I should call her!

I know all pets must go at one point. Lord knows I've been there a few times. I never thought I'd find a cat to take the place of my Murray - a black stray cat that I got when I was 15. Ten years later I had to put him to sleep and I never, in my wildest dreams, thought I could love another cat like that... then there was Serena. In fact, she sleeps in the same exact spot that Murray always slept.

Ok enough of my rambles. They are sending the lump in for tests and we should know in 7-10 days from Monday. Good thoughts, ok? The more, the better.

Just the lake

a simple Saturday afternoon at the lake.

Wordless Wednesday Saturday