Boring

I know, I've been really boring lately. I just haven't been doing anything worth blogging about. I've been going to work, coming home, doing a few chores, and then going to bed.

Oh, wait! I did do something fun. Three weeks ago I took my grandma to see "42nd Street". This show was our first show of the Broadway Rose Theater Company season, and my friend Julie was in California and couldn't use her ticket. So she gave it to me and I thought my grandma would like to go. We had a lovely "date." I picked her up and took her out to dinner. Nothing fancy, just Sherri's, but she liked it. She loved the play and was so excited to hear all those old familiar tunes. She said she remembered seeing the movie in the theater when it first came out. It came out in 1933, I think, so she would have been really young. I even found out that she used to tap dance! I never knew that. It was a fun evening for both of us.

Then last weekend we had our second play of the season, "Sisters of Swing." The second musical they produce is always a review of some kind. This one was all about the Andrews Sisters. Lots of great music and a terrific story. I had no idea they had started so young or done so much. I know my grandma would have liked this one, too, and I was going to take her for her birthday, but all the rest of the performances are completely sold out for the rest of the run (which isn't that long, really).

So this weekend we are going to our first 2006-07 season plays at the Lakewood Theater. This one a musical version of A Midsummer's Night Dream. Should be interesting. They never do a bad play there.

Okay, so I'm not as boring as I thought. Stay tuned for more excitement!

Sad

This is the saddest thing I have heard about in a long time. Sorry to make you all sad by reading it, but I can't get it out of my mind. Those poor dogs. The poor owners, too! It just breaks my heart.

It just goes to show you that you can't be too careful in this heat.

Thank goodness it is cooling down now, but it doesn't help those poor greyhounds now.

Hot

I'm hot. It's 100 degrees outside. I hate it when it gets this warm. I know, many people have it worse, I appreciate that. I didn't even want to go letterboxing today, that's how hot it was.

Thank goodness I have air conditioning. I bless the person that invented it!

Weird

I bought a little hand-held sudoku game at Walgreens yesterday. It was only $5.99 so I splurged. I pulled it out of the package and found the "user instructions" on the back. In bold all caps, it says "FOR HOUSEHOLD USE ONLY" on the very front, right under the picture of the game. What does this even mean? I can't put it out on the floor for use in Las Vegas? I can't use it professionally? Can you even do sudoku professionally?? Sometimes I really do wonder what happens to cause a company to put such warnings on things.

I got one of those Allied moving kits at Costco and right under the picture of a moving truck it says "MOVING TRUCK NOT INCLUDED". How stupid do you have to be to think there might actually be a real truck in this box?? Okay, maybe you could think there would be a model one, but really.

One Step Closer

We are one step closer to having the floors done! Today we had carpet put on the steps. What do you think?









It's a really short berber. It looks pretty good. We just need to finish the landing and the trim and we can check one more spot off the list!

Here's A Funny Site

http://www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com/

I Hate Traffic

Did I mention lately how much I loathe traffic? I drive about 20 miles each way to and from work each day. My route takes me over an expressway, I-205, I-84 and various surface streets. There are rarely any traffic problems when I go to work, and it takes about 40 minutes to get there. If there are problems, it's usually something major.

Coming home is a different story. At least once a week I get stuck in pretty major traffic. It usually takes about an hour to come home. Today it took three. Yes, THREE HOURS. I left work at 4:00. When I got on I-84 traffic was backed up to 181st, which is about 5 miles from the I-205 merge. So I got off the freeway right there and went Airport Way. It took me over an hour to get to Costco on Airport way, which is only about 50 blocks. I was sick of sitting in traffic at that point so I went in to Costco and shopped. I was there about 45 minutes (it's now 5:30) and it took me until 6:45 to get to the onramp. It's only a couple of miles and it took over an hour to get there. GRRRRR!

I still don't know why it was so bad, but this might have something to do with it.

Anyway, that's my traffic rant for the day.

Ode to Bastet

Today would have been Bastet's 11th birthday. We got Bastet in College Station, Texas when she was just a couple of months old. It was sometime in the fall of 1995. Greg & I can't remember the exact date. We both remember that it was the same time Ann came down to stay with us. We adopted her from an animal shelter there in College Station. Her sign said she had been picked up off of the streets and we had to wait three days before we could adopt her, just in case she belonged to someone. They didn't know exactly how old she was, but we figured about 3 or 4 months at that time, and chose July 4th as the day to celebrate her birthday.

We went to the shelter a couple of months after our little Calypso died during surgery. There were many kitties there to be adopted, but Bastet was the one for us. The first time I saw her she was leaning up against the side of her cage looking all sweet and innocent. Somehow we just knew that she was the one.

We had just moved into the duplex when we got her. She was quite the little spitfire. BC didn't know what to make of her at first, and I don't think he was too thrilled to have her around. We never even had to think about what to name her. She was always rather imperious and commanding. I loved the character of The Cat Bastet in the Elizabeth Peter's Amelia Peabody series. So Bastet she became.

Bastet soon became "Stetty." We rarely called her by her real name (we're big on nicknames in this family). I often called her my little princess or the goddess. She had the goddess personality down pat.



As I did with BC, I'm going to list some of the things I loved about Bastet.

1. She loved to take a shower with you. She would sit on the edge of the tub and bat at the water droplets and they flowed down the shower curtain. She liked it if you wiggled your finger and played "shower mouse" with her, too. We had more shower curtains that had to be trashed because of holes from her teeth.

2. She was such a daddy's girl. She would come in and talk to Greg when he was on the computer until he picked her up and held her. She could get very demanding about it if she didn't get her way. She was most content when she was with him.

3. She was a chatterbox. Bastet always had something to say about everything. She had a great meow, too. I loved to hear her talking to us. I really miss that.

4. She was a great slimer. Even though we've repainted much of the house since she left us, there are still Stetty marks on the doors and some of the corners from her rubbing her cheeks against them.

5. When we moved from the duplex we found a bazillion milk jug rings under the washer and dryer. We dubbed these "Stetty rings". She did love to bat those around. She would also play soccer with Greg with bits of rolled up toilet paper.

6. She had a wonderful purr. Very loud.

7. In the last few months of her life she would come in and sleep in me. I think she was using me to stay warm, but I enjoyed it. She'd sleep on my chest and purr when I petted her. She stuck like a limpet when I would roll over or move in the bed. She loved nothing better than someone taking a nap during the day.

8. She had attitude. Or is that cattitude? She was a very cool cat. So much of an individual. So different from BC. So very catlike.

9. From the time we got her she always had to help you make the bed. We made a game out of it. She would play "bed mouse" with us on each piece we put on the bed. She didn't enjoy sleeping under the covers, but she loved to play under them when I was making the bed.

Of course there are many more things that were great about her. I know it's been especially hard on Greg since she died. It was so hard to let her go when her time came. That damned kidney disease. It took her from us too early.

I love you and miss you so much, Stetty. I hope you are healthy and happy and waiting for us with Mr. Bunny over the Rainbow Bridge.




Bastet
July 4, 1994 - July 7, 2005
You are forever in our hearts.

Happy Fourth of July!

It's the Fourth of July. I mean this in the most American way possible, but I really hate this holiday. Everyone in my neighborhood goes nuts with fireworks, firecrackers, and other noisy and irritating ILLEGAL fireworks. Greg hates them, too. He is such a light sleeper that it will be almost impossible for him to get to sleep tonight. And I have to go to work tomorrow. There is nothing like being kept awake until midnight because your neighbors felt the need to burn up a couple of hundred dollars worth of noise makers.

Okay, that's it for my rant. Here are some more pictures of my kids doing what they do best...snoozing.

Maryhill

I went to a letterboxing gathering this weekend in Maryhill, Washington. There is a nice museum there and a replica of Stonehenge. It is about 100 miles from here, and it's amazing how much the landscape changes in that short distance.

I picked up 50 new stamps: 25 letterboxes, 12 travelers, 6 new exchanges, 1 event stamp and 6 cooties. Pretty good haul, huh? Met some great people, and had a great day. Here are some pictures.

This is the Columbia River looking east towards Maryhill.


Looking west downriver towards Portland. That's Mt. Hood there.


Letterboxing buddies, Kuku, Cat's Meow, Campfire Lady, Sarah, and one other girl whose name I can't remember.



There are all these peacocks on the grounds of the Maryhill Museum. Isn't he handsome?