Crazy cat lady

This is Inky.He's been in my life longer than any man I've known (excluding family). I brought him home from the barn where I took riding lessons, way back in 1995. When he looked like this:There was no way to resist that little face. Since then, he has made the move from Illinois to Colorado with me -- traipsing back and forth from the Western Slope to the Front Range. He's been a constant in this sometimes crazy life.

Today, his kidneys are failing. It's so common in cats but never easy to hear. We're giving him fluids subcutaneously in hopes of flushing out the waste the kidneys can't handle. The look on the face of the vet and the tech wasn't very encouraging, but I left him in their capable hands for the day.

The look on Inky's face as I walked away was heart wrenching. I hope he knows I'm trying to help him fight.

All I can do is pray that the protector of sick kitties is watching over him.

How to tell if you're wearing too much cologne

If your scent is wafting out of your car window and can be detected by a person in another vehicle on a crowded road, going more than 50 miles per hour, you might be wearing too much cologne.

I'm sure there's a logical explanation

In case you didn't know, I'm a huge "Ghost Hunters" fan. New episodes started this week, so I was pretty excited to watch the show I recorded last night. When they find something they can't explain, I get goosebumps -- and there was plenty unexplained on this week's program.

Moments after the show ended and I turned off the TV, I heard a strange whirring noise. At first, I thought it must be one of the neighbors running some kind of machine outside. As I walked upstairs from the TV room, I realized it was coming from my house. I followed the noise to the S.O.'s office where I found the shredder running. I'm guessing something fell off his desk and hit the on button. But the only thing near by was a piece of paper. So, maybe it was on and the paper set off the sensor. Does that happen? I hit the off button. And just to be safe, unplugged it. (Yes, it was plugged in).

To top this story off, I had to squeeze my arm behind the S.O.'s huge desk to reach the plug. And almost couldn't pull my arm back out. Yep, home alone with my arm stuck behind the desk. I could see the S.O.'s cell phone perched on a shelf ... just out of reach. Lucky for me, Boot Camp really is paying off, and I was able to shift the desk just enough to pull my arm out. So, that was dumb. But I really didn't want the shredder to come on again. And. If it comes on now, I really can't come up with a logical explanation.

Hello, Taps?

The waiting is the hardest part

One of the things I do to help pay the bills is write vehicle reviews. Well, "reviews" is a loose term. What I really do is drive cars, trucks, vans, SUVs, then write glowing articles about them. I don't really get to critique them. I do get to drive a new vehicle every week, and it does give me some money.

The worst part about this particular job is waiting around for some car dealer's general manager to call me back. Some are better than others. And some car dealers just have me call a marketing manager. There are a couple dealers that I won't name who are notorious for not returning phone calls. I understand being busy, but delegate. And the fact that this is part of your advertising budget, should mean something. They act as if they're doing me a favor.

So, I'm sitting here this morning -- the day before my deadline -- waiting to see if I'll hear from the dealer. And yes, I've already checked with the sales rep at the newspaper and my "editor" to see if someone -- anyone -- can light a fire under this guy.

Those of you who know me, know patience isn't one of my strong suits. But I'll wait. And wait. And wait.

*slow burn*

Resemblance

Thinking I'd get organized, I've been going through photos -- both on my computer and in old boxes. One of the features in iPhoto is something called "Faces." It allows you to put names to faces on your photographs. When you name someone, the program suggests other photos in which that person might be. I'm not exactly sure how it works (I'm thinking magic) but it's pretty darn accurate, finding faces that share a resemblance. Sometimes it finds a similar expression or hairstyle. It also allows you to confirm a number of faces at a time.

As I was adding my mom's name to old photos, these two came up:

The first photo is my 15-year-old nephew. The other is my mom. She was probably 7 or 8 here. I'd never noticed it until these pictures came up side by side, but they sure share some features.

My mom used to always say none of her kids looked anything like her. Actually, I think it was something along the lines of, "If I hadn't given birth to you, I wouldn't know any of you were mine." Yet, here's photographic evidence of a family resemblance.

And there are worse people in our lives to resemble.

Smarty pants

I realized awhile back that parents really don't it like when you compare the antics of your pets to the antics of their children.

Well, this study shows I'm not so far off the mark:

The canine IQ test results are in: Even the average dog has the mental abilities of a 2-year-old child.

The finding is based on a language development test, revealing average dogs can learn 165 words (similar to a 2-year-old child), including signals and gestures, and dogs in the top 20 percent in intelligence can learn 250 words.

Border collies, poodles and German Shepherds are among the smartest, according to the tests. Dogs are as smart as 3 and 4 year olds when it comes to math, the story says. And they surpass even teens when it comes to social skills (but are we really surprised by that?).

Granted, I don't see rat terrier on that list, but I'm pretty sure my dog is still as smart as most toddlers.

For one thing, she's totally potty trained.

I'm going to stick with kids' movies

Or just keep reading books.

Yeah, I know I should never hold out hope that a movie will live up to the book it's based on. But I still do ... sometimes. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was great, right?

I wanted to see the movie version of "The Time Traveler's Wife." But based on this information, I won't. Happy ending? Bleh.

Thanks to the Internet, I won't waste my time. Oh, I'm sure the movie version may jerk a few tears, but they'll be sappy, happy tears -- tears of joy, even. And I don't appreciate a movie that tries to hijack my emotions. Eff you, movie version! I will stick with the book.

Today in inappropriate quotation marks

If you haven't seen the "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks, you really should check it out. Especially if you're a "fan" of bad grammar or bad punctuation and other silliness.

I witnessed an example of unnecessary quotation marks this morning. Unfortunately, I was unable to snap a picture of it, because it was inside a locked restaurant, and I only had my camera phone with me.

A hand-written notice on a whiteboard declared: We do not accept "checks." Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

I can understand why they wouldn't accept "checks." There may not be any "money" in the "account." They may want to consider not accepting "credit cards" or "cash" as well.

For more fun with inappropriate quotation marks, be sure to check out Cake Wrecks and the fun with grammar there.

I was on the way to the dentist so I had to look for the funny in something.

Doughnuts!

.

We took the Cog Railway to the top of Pikes Peak yesterday and ate doughnuts at 14,110 feet above sea level. Mmmm... doughnuts.

We love the zoo

My brother and nephew drove out to join me and my niece for a few days before they head back to Illinois.

We went to the zoo again -- because I love the zoo and love sharing it with others.

Last time we were there the mountain lions were sleeping. It was a hot day and they were staying out of the sun. This time, a turkey decided to get the lions riled up. She was clucking and calling to her turkey friends, which drew the attention of the sleeping lions. My niece got some great photos of the now-alert lions, stalking the hapless turkey.
Lucky for the turkey -- and all the fascinated youngsters -- the mountain lions are contained within a fenced area with a cover.

It was the best part of our visit. It's also the closest I ever want to get to one of these powerful cats.

I suck at camping

We went camping overnight at Mueller State Park. This is the view from our campsite. This was one thing we did right.


The things we did wrong: forgetting to bring pillows, tongs, warm jackets, coffee. It's been a long time since I slept in a tent. The sleeping pads are fine, but without a pillow to give a little comfort, I didn't sleep well at all. Now, I'm cranky and have to go off to a test drive and tutoring without a good night's sleep. As I said, Mueller is beautiful, and dinner was good. But we're chalking this camping trip up to a live-and-learn experience.

Playing tour guide

I haven't had much time to post lately because I've been playing tour guide to my niece. We went to Garden of the Gods. She took some really nice pictures. I took some pictures of her.

We also went to the zoo to feed the giraffes and laugh at parents who tell their children that emus are "ostriches" and gorillas are "monkeys." (Yes, I judge.)

I think I look sufficiently touristy in that photo.

Ever wonder who's really on display?

I'm a Mac

After many years of being a PC person, I have purchased a shiny new Mac Book. Does that make me pretentious? Probably. Does it make me materialistic because I love the fact that it's my very own and not a hand-me-down? I don't care.

After almost as many years with Windows, I am learning how to navigate the Mac. It's different but not like learning a new language. And the Mac Book is actually portable, as opposed to my previous lap top, which was a 17-inch wide-screen monster. It was great for some things but far from truly portable.

Add to that the awesome iPod Touch and printer I'm getting rebates for, and I am truly now an Apple person... and I'm not sure how I feel about that. But I love my new techy stuff.

My Big Backyard

A little columbine makes a valiant effort to survive in my backyard, springing up next to our tiny aspen grove. It's like I live in Colorado or something.

Thinking of you

It doesn't get any easier.

Happy Birthday, Mom.

I'm doing this from now on

So busy

You know what sucks? My part-time job taking up so much of my time. I barely have time to get in a game of solitaire, let alone write on my blog!

Here, let me distract you with a picture of the dog and the S.O.

The cuteness has made you forget there is no true substance to this post.

That's not my name

I've been listening to the Ting Tings, and they have me be-bopping in the car:



Thanks, Kate!

Hail! Hail!

This is my backyard after the storm today:

This is my dog during the storm:

Who doesn't love a pillow fort?

More kitchen fun

We got a new refrigerator yesterday. It's shiny and black and 6 cubic feet larger than the old one. It actually fits in the space allotted for a fridge in our kitchen (the old one kind of floated in the spot). The freezer in the old fridge was pretty much packed to the gills, while this one is mostly empty. Time to stock up on chicken breasts, frozen pizzas and gelato.

And it has ice and water in the door! I know not everyone is a fan of the ice/water-in-the-door feature (and yes, I know it makes them less efficient), but I've wanted that since I was a kid. It was my first major sin -- I coveted my friend's refrigerator because it had chilled water and ice. Right. In. The. Door!

I tried to take some pictures, but it's so reflective, they didn't really turn out. The pic to the right is from BestBuy.com.

The S.O. said he was going to leave me and marry the new refrigerator, but I think he got the idea of marrying ourselves off to inanimate objects from me. And there's no way he's getting rid of me that easily. Especially not after having this fridge installed.

It's so nice to be able to get so much in it and to be able to find things without pulling everything out. And it's clean. Wouldn't it be nice if I could keep it that way forever?