Cat Eyes

These creeeeeeeepy eyes greeted us from the window when we got home Saturday night.

Seriously though, it was really cute to see them sitting there together
but only their eyes appeared in the picture...

Oklahoma City Kitty

Mike was in OKC (again) for more training (again). Hopefully, it's over now (again).

Anyhooooo, always the "Cat Whisperer", he found some kitties in his apartment complex there. We were able to capture one on camera:

Her name is Goldie, isn't she cute?








Oh, and can't these people take down their Christmas decorations??? It's a few weeks into March!


Oh, and aren't these the cutest, bunny pole thingies at O'hare??

Vent Kitties

These pictures were taken near the end of February - you know, when it was still cold! (HA!)

Positive thinking/living in a dream world is leading me to believe that Spring is right around the corner...it sure feels like it today. I'm going to just start wearing Springy stuff and that'll make it happen, right??? Right.

Anyhoo, our house is about a million years old and even though we actually heat it (my last gas bill can attest to that) - it never quite feels warm and home-y.

Here's proof:



[please ignore my dust bunnies, flying dust, etc. Actually, now that I think about it - there was some dust on my camera lens...]

Love...

On the flip side of my cranky Verizon calling of last week, last night while I was heading out for a quick errand I decided to pull out some old CDs and sing along. I came accross The Judds - Greatest Hits. I did grow up in Texas after all and I listen to all types of music. Everything from country to rap to rock to whatever. I love everything! So, I'm driving along and I'm belting out these lyrics to "Love is Alive":

Love is alive

And at our breakfast table

Everyday of the week

Love is alive

And it grows everyday and night

Even in our sleep

Love is alive

And it's made a happy woman out of me

Oh, love is alive

And here by me

I couldn't even get through it without choking up...I was just sooo happy. I've always considered myself lucky and felt incredibly happy and amazed that I have this wonderful, amazing husband. But now I also have this incredible person growing inside me...

I'm surrounded by love.

Fitty Bucks

Before I got pregnant, I had my own idea (read: fantasy) of what it would be like. I'd be "glowing" and happy and, of course, I wouldn't have morning sickness because I just love food waaaay to much. And things don't usually gross me out so, I'd be fine. Right?

WRONG-O. I was sick for a couple of months there. Whiffs of things made me just gag...but was I emotional? Nooooooo...no, problem.

Wrong again.

Fast forward to about a week ago. I'm meeting my girls at Esquire. We have a nice little Mardi Gras meal and we head home. My husband had joined us on his motorcycle in freezing, wet weather. (?!?!?!?) He brought the mail in to me because he didn't want to leave it in his saddle bags. I look through it. "Oh good! Our Verizon rebates." Well, it was just one of the rebates and it was made out to MARICA. NOT my name, but who cares, right? They'll cash it.

I get home and realize that I have all the other junk mail but not the friggin' check. Just my luck! And after thorough searches of my car and my driveway I decide to give Esquire a call. THEY HAVE IT!!! Yayyyyy!!

But, what about the other rebate?? Where oh where could that little rebate be? Since many people in this area have Verizon, I happen to mention something to my friend Amy. She got her rebates back. ALL OF THEM. And it comes up in conversation that I sent my rebates together. In one envelope. All at once. She said the "rules" stated to send them separately. Pfffffffff, I think. They're smart enough to open an envelope and see two, right? The other will come shortly...

Yesterday, with still no sign of the other rebate, I check the status online. Remembering to type my name in as MARICA, of course, I see only one rebate.

I decide to give them a call. This is when I realize I have completely lost control of my senses.
I explain the situation to the lady. I had heard that I should've sent the rebates separately, but I didn't...she they'll accept a copy.

"I didn't keep a copy!" I screech. I always, always keep copies of such things. But, I'm tired of cluttering up my life and I trusted them to process it correctly.

Well, the lady informs me that she can't help me. I'm absolutely livid. I'm so used to people saying: "We'll see what we can do..." She didn't say that. She didn't offer me any hope.

So, since I don't have a leg to stand on, I cling to this:

"AND you spelled my name wrong on the rebate I DID receive."

"They spelled it as they saw it on the form..."

"No, they didn't! It was a pre-printed form!"

"Let me look you up...."

[crickets]

"Did you hang up, ma'm?"

"NO!"

"How was your name spelled?"

I wasn't sure which name she wanted. MY name or the name on the rebate. So, I said:

"MARICA".

"That's how we have it spelled..."

"MY NAME IS MARCIA!!"

"Ma'm you're going to need to..."

CLICK.

I wasn't going to hear her say I needed to calm down. I was done. My face was red with embarrassment from yelling at the lady. I never do that. More flies with honey and all that jazz...plus, like I said, most people help. And I'm not normally nearly five months pregnant and surprisingly hormonal.

I felt terrible. I was rude. I was uncontrollable. I was one of those people I despise. AND I WASN'T GOING TO GET MY $50.

I finally calmed down and laughed as I told my husband the story. I said: "I don't think we were meant to get those rebates."

On my way home from work, I went by Valvoline to get my oil changed. It went very smoothly as usual and I paid my bill. Oil changes for me with my synthetic oil run about $49.00. I know it's expensive and I should really just pi$ my money away, but...

The guy says: "Do you have one of our punch cards?"

No, I didn't. And I didn't really remember ever even seeing one.

"Well," he says, "you've been here 17 times..."

punch, punch, punch, punch, punch

"Here you go. Your next oil change is free."

Woohooo! 50 bucks!!!!

Weird

Svenyboy tagged me. The task? List 6 weird things about me....hmmmm, shouldn't be too hard.

1. I have five cats. Pretty weird I guess. "Above" average to say the very least...




2. I set my alarm for odd times. Lately, I set if for 6:42 a.m. At nine minute snooze intervals, that means at 7:00 (after two snoozes), I can hear the weather report and a bit of news before I face the day. But, really - I got lucky on that combo. I always pick odd times. Usually a time ending in a 7 or a 3 but, you just never know.

3. I record every show I watch on my DVR. I usually say that I do this because I hate pesky, old commercials - which is true. BUT, it's also because I might get a phone call or I might miss something. This way, I can rewind it and "HA, HA, HA!!! That was soooo funny!" and replay it back...

4. I'm superstitious. I knock on wood, I keep certain patterns/routines, I always say "Be careful" to my husband everytime we hang up the phone...OK - I'm not superstitious - I'm OCD...

5. I save the most delicious part of a meal for last or, at least, try to savor the flavor longer...

6. I've run out of things...my mind is a little preoccupied right now....

Thanks for tagging me, Svenyboy!

OKC

I visited lovely Oklahoma City over the weekend. My husband was down there going to school/training for his job. I can't say it's the most beautiful of cities...but I can definitely say that wherever he is - I can happily be. We had plenty of places to eat and movies to watch and not a moment was boring...

We find entertainment wherever we can and happened to encounter a few locals we found purty interesting.

First, there was this movie ticket counter lady. She wasn't the friendliest person but she amused me to no end. I tried and tried to get a movie of her "quirk" until I finally succeeded. I overheard the guy in line behind us tell his wife: "She's been trying to do that for a while now." I turned around and smiled at him. "Yes!! I have! This cracks me up!!"





That's her sneezing. Mike asked me why, as a germaphobe who runs from sneezing people, I wasn't grossed out by this woman's sneezing. I don't know - it must be the cute, small little chipmunk-like way she does it...

Then there was THIS guy. We had decided we wanted a fast burger and we wanted to check out Braum's. It's this ice cream shop/fast food place/grocery store all-in-one. We got our burgers and sat down to enjoy them. That's when I noticed this guy. All settled in with his bucket of ice cream.



Yep. A whole bucket of ice cream. He was eating it with his plastic spoon. And drinking milk. At first I thought: "Well...OK. He bought a tub of ice cream and wants to have some right now." But he kept eating and eating and eating. Mike didn't believe me at first. "A bucket?? What do you mean, a bucket??" I finally got him to turn around and look. Aaaaaah, what a weirdy this guy...

Always the people watcher, I kept on observing him. I couldn't help but notice he was digging further and further into his bucket. Man! He was eating a lot! Then, I thought I saw a huge ball of ice cream on top of...something. The table? A plate?? Thankfully, the guy got up (to get a tissue of all things...wonder WHY he needed that???) and I rushed over there to click a photo. I headed back to my table just as Mike was signaling that the guy was on his way back...I closed my phone and acted casual....and lost that photo forever. What did he have over there on his table??? It was a melon sized ice cream "snowball" he had scooped onto the lid of his ice cream carton. I mean, he did all that with a plastic spoon????

I kick myself for losing that photo. No one's ever going to believe me.

Then again, maybe no one else finds this as strange/funny as I do. And maybe I'm the weirdo for stalking and blogging this guy.

P.S. No one is safe now that I have a camera on my phone. Not even me...I'm going to end up arrested or sued or something...

Special Treat

Monday night I was cooking dinner...wait - I'll let you recover from the shock of that one...Mike was out of town and what's a pregnant girl to do??? She gots to eat!

So I was cooking dinner and had a rare treat. Our normally shy, skeeredy cat, Aggie, jumped on the fridge to be queen for a moment. She seemed so confident and cuddly.




Ally just had to join her:




And later in the evening I came across the cutest thing! A kitten 'n a basket!

Happy New Year!

And, I know Christmas is loooooong gone but I wanted to post two things about my trip home to see my family. Well, maybe more than two...

I really enjoy seeing my family. And the anticipation of Christmas always makes me soooo excited. My mother always made sure my sister and I had a wonderful Christmas and this year was no exception. It was fabulous. I got everything I wanted.

My mom put up a special new tree:


It's mounted on the wall. The picture may not do it justice, but it was gorgeous. I thought it looked like something out of a magazine.

And look as this cute present I got from my mom.


Doesn't that look like a gigantic piece of candy??? (It was a pair of slippers).

Last, but not least, I have this story and video of my dad. I had asked for a John Denver greatest hits CD and, of course, I got it. I opened it up and announced what it was and my dad was incredulous. "How come no one gets me a good gift like that???"

I brought him his CD tower where he found his own John Denver greatest hits (that I think I bought him several years ago) and many other CDs that he'd forgotten about. It was Christmas many times over for him! So, we put in the John Denver CD and I snuck this video:




Turns out, my dad drove a chartered bus for John Denver's family once and got to sit in the family box during a John Denver concert. Dad said that he didn't stop playing for three hours. He let the orchestra take a break while he kept right on strumming his guitar and singing. How could I have forgotten this story??? Sounds amazing.

Wait, wait - one more thing. Here's a pic of me and my parents' kitty, Archie. We're just two fat cats relaxing and having a great time.

Christmas Redux

We finally got the tree up Friday night. Well, I should be honest and say that my husband got the tree up. He decorated it all by himself. This was the first year in forever I didn't touch a tree. I was rrrrrreally tired (can I blame the brewing baby for my laziness? well, I'll try...) I had a hard time keeping my eyes open but - by golly - we had a tree!! Yay!!!

I did take a few photos and videos :




Practically, the very moment Lucky saw the tree - he was IN the tree and eating it:




Later in the evening (while I was asleep on the couch), Mike took this video of Lucky hanging out with the (few) decorations we dared put on the tree.



Ally is not quite the ferocious tree killer that Lucky is and I just thought this video was cute. I guess because I love the "people" in it.



MORE TO COME...

Christmas...

"Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holidays" and "Happy Hannukah" and "Happy Everything" to everyone who celebrates something. I'm just glad for time with family and good food and fun and festivities. And don't forget gifts! I love gifts!

My only kitty pic to offer is from last year. When the kitties "helped" us wrap gifts.


(So, sister - "No. You didn't get anything from BananaRamaDingDongPostleOutfitters." I walked in there and walked out. The music reminds me of a techno club. And their crap is overpriced and sized for small monkeys. OK, enough of that. I think it must be official - I'm a curmudgeon!)

We haven't wrapped this year's gifts yet. I just finished all my shopping yesterday. And came home to find that my hubband had got the ol' tree ready for decorating. I was soooo happy!! I know it's late to start this, but it just doesn't feel like Christmas without it. And he knew that and he's the one that does all the work of putting the thing up and lugging in the boxes of decorations and he still wanted me to have it.

It's just that this is what usually happens:

**Lucky! Look what you've done to my tree!!!

So the beautiful tree turns into a constant source of irritation while kitties climb up it and try to eat it and bat ornaments off it...

Actually, now that I think of it - it's ONLY ONE kitty of the five that causes so much trouble and he is, of course, pictured above.

BUT, we're gonna have a tree!! And I'm gonna play Christmas music and we'll decorate it and then maybe watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I love that movie!!!!! I used to watch it with my grandpa...I have almost every line of the movie memorized**.

And, even if we don't do all of the things we would've done every other year - and we don't end up decorating the tree tonight and watching Christmas shows - I'm going to have a great Christmas. My husband tried hard to make sure of it. AND - I'm going to spend time with my family and I'm gonna love every friggin' minute of it!!

Finnish Felines

A few years ago, my husband introduced me to a friend, Markus, that he met through his old work. Mike used to travel the world installing flight simulators and met Markus and some really neat people in Finland. And everytime they'd come to the States to visit for work - we'd go out for dinner and beers and coffee and conversation...

I always had a wonderful time visiting with everyone. And Markus and his wife, Taru, even had Mike out to dinner at their house when he went to Finland to work. Taru helped Mike pick out a beautiful necklace to bring home to me as a gift. The last time he visited, Markus brought us a lovely book filled with Finnish scenery that he and his wife bought for us.

And everytime Markus was in town he'd show us pictures of his wife and his "zoo" at home. Turns out - they love animals just as much (if not more) than we do. He e-mailed us some beautiful pictures of his family and I wanted to share them with you here.

Taru and Ossi

Pompsula

Spii

Ryyni

Leimu

Hermanni


Tuttis

Netta

Of course, I've listed the dog last. But what a beautiful dog it is! And I love the foliage!

BIG news...

Over here -------> on a new blog.

Lucky the remodeler!

He's wearing the mask that I wore while painting. I just wanted to see what he would do...he's actually a pretty smart kitty*.



*Lucky (is lucky he) wasn't harmed at all during the filming of this video.

I'm a friggin' weirdo!

My friend, Gnightgirl tagged me. (She was previously tagged by our friend Wendy).

List 5 things that are weird about yourself.

(Then tag 5 people.)

Hmmmmm....let's see....there are soooo many!

1. I'm very superstitious. Every morning my husband and I say the same thing: "I love. Be careful. I love."

2. I let my cats sleep in the kitchen cabinet. That's more gross than weird isn't it? We wash the pots and pans before we use them. If this keeps you from coming to my house for dinner - good. ;0)



3. Uh, I have five cats. Could I BE any weirder? (Or more loving?)

4. I have my own language. New addition(s): rebarrassed = embarrassed; grunchy =grouchy/cranky/crunchy?

5. I bought this the other day:

It's called a chamberstick. I had no idea what it was called - just knew that I wanted it. And now I walk around with it saying "Ebenezer Scroooooooooge....Eeeeeeeebeneeeeeeeezer Scrooooooge." (I first thought I wanted this after seeing Micky's Christmas Carol. Ebenezer carries this with him to bed. I think.)

I tag: Ilaiy, Woof, Jamie, Mary P. and Kristin!

Lounging with cats

Sometimes while I'm on the couch with my kitties - they do such cute things they need to be photographed!

Here are some recent photos of the gang.

All five cats
(please ignore the ugly human)

Lucky takes a nap

A rare shot of Aggie

Ally

Big Tuffy

More to come!

Mystery Machine!

Last night I stopped by Schnucks and saw this!! I just had to photograph and blog it.

Has anyone else seen this in C-U???? I love it!!

I voted!

Things around my house

My friend, Gnightgirl, issued a challenge for us to look around at items in our home that bring us joy/memories.

Here are a few of the (inanimate, non-furry) things around my house that bring me joy:

My "Tuffy statue" I bought at the Apple/Pork festival a few years ago

The box that my Christmas gift from Ilaiy came in.
I love this box so much! I think it's so beautiful!
It had a lovely green bowl in it - but I just really admired this box!

A box that Mike brought back for me from Japan. It's a puzzle box.
It takes like 14 steps to get this thing open.
Frustrating and fun!!!
(Even though there was nothing inside it. Much to my disdain.)

Mike's chair as kid:

My wittle rocking chair (with a kitty behind it).
I loaned it to my sister as a kid and now it's waiting...

Yay! I did it! That was fun!! I'm ready for more challenges!

Working...working....working

Last weekend we spent...well - working.

Painting and staining and painting and fuming. We wore masks and I think I got deoxyginated (my OWN word - hope you like it) and I was really tired by the second day. I felt a lot like this:


Seriously. I felt that tired. Like my cheeks were going to slide off my face. Why was I working so hard? I wanna have a li'l baby. And I don't want to have paint fumes in the house during that time. Anyway, this led to the comment that I told my husband: "I don't wanna have a baby anymore. If it's this hard to get ready - I don't think I'm up for it. In fact, I wish I had never been born." Thankfully, he finds me really cute and funny...reassured me that we were just "paying the piper" for living in this house for 3 years without finishing what we've started. OK, OK!!!

Here's the progress so far:

Before

(It was a lovely, mustard color before.)

After

(Light tan - so fresh - so clean.)

The linoleum will be removed - but that's a project for another day and another person...

Here's the hubband working on the ceiling. He worked on it for two days. Yes, two whole days. There was a large crack going the length (well, actually the width) of the ceiling. And our ceiling is plaster. He patched and sanded and handpainted the ceiling for fear that the paint/paper would peel. (The brainiacs before us wallpapered the ceiling and it doesn't take to paint very well. This happened to us in another room we did earlier this year.) The end result from all his work is that the ceiling looks perfect. And he started painting the room. (It's his computer/guitar/whatever room.) Exciting! Another room for us to live in. I will be buying something for it...maybe a couch or something...do I hear a trip to Ikea coming up??? Gnightgirl?

I will take more pics of the hubband's beautiful new room soon. Oh, the best thing about that room is that the previous owner's son lived in there and the ceiling fan-pully-thingy says "Mac Daddy." I might just have to keep that...

Here's my new hallway upstairs. Let me just say that I think I'm purty good at getting this wood thing done w/o sanding anything. Have I ever mentioned that I'm lazy??? Well, I almost destroyed this floor for good. Used the wrong product on it - got done staining it at 11:30 Sat. night. We slept in the living room to let it dry. Woke up and it was sticky-icky. I knew - just knew when I was applying it that something wasn't right. But, it was late. I wanted to knock that sucker out! And Mike told me to be careful - not to make a silly mistake because I was tired. Well, obviously I did. And I was very disappointed with the results. Long story a wee bit shorter - I ended up slathering something else on top of it and VOILA!! It's all good! I'm still wondering if I have the energy to do the rest of the upstairs floors...time will tell.

Before

After

Notice Mike's wittle dusty footprints. They brush right off. It was dry before we walked on it.
Oh, BTW, never - never - never use a stain with a poly all-in-one product. Take it one at a time. It will save you lots of time later. ;0)