Belated Birthday Bobbles

So, Haley has been boasting that her gift (and it was from Holly, too) for my birthday and Christmas would surpass all previous gifts. She's lucky the iPhone didn't actually happen because there'd have been some hard deciding re: which was better. The point is, she FINALLY got my gift to me this past weekend, and it was ok, I suppose. (tee hee!)




So I'm now preserved for posterity in bobble-dom. Bobble Rose will fit in nicely on my desk at work with Bobble Darth and Mr. Bones. Thank you Haley and Holly, this probably even beats the iphone.

Books I Have Read/Listened to – Summer 2010 Edition

Children are going back to school so the summer is officially over, even if the calendar and the thermometer disagree. I’m not in school anymore and even when I was, I don’t recall having a summer reading list, like I’ve heard kids nowadays have.

Besides, odds are I wouldn’t have wanted to read much of what was on any suggested reading list. My taste in books is much like my taste in movies. I like the “popcorn” type of books. I like smutty romances, mysteries, and smutty romantic mysteries. Throw a healthy dose of humor into that mix and you have a great book, in my humble opinion. I consider these books to be “popcorn” because I used to be able to read them at the rate of 3-5 a week.

That having been said, due to a variety of changes in my life, starting about 4-5 years ago, I haven’t been able to read much. The first culprit that I noticed was the cats. If you don’t have cats, you really can’t understand, but I quickly learned that if I put anything in front of my face (book, magazine, newspaper), someone, mostly Sophie, would come and either sit on the newspaper, chew on the book, or just plum plop herself between it and my face. Another culprit is the DVR. If there is no commercials, and there isn’t because I generally skip right through them, there’s no time to read, is there? Also, due to the DVR, I have the ability to watch a lot more stuff, thereby reducing reading time. Another major factor in the dearth of reading time for Rose is Facebook. As I’ve discussed, at length, previously herein, I spend too much time farming, killing vampires, digging for treasure, etc. The final piece in the lack of reading time puzzle is that I am on some prescription meds which make me incredibly sleepy. Nowadays, if I sit down to relax, I nod off. So that equals about two pages read before I can’t keep my eyes open.

So in my old age, my steady diet of popcorn is slowing morphing into more substantial food/books. Don’t worry, it’s still mostly fast food (to continue my food analogy), but I do throw in a veggie here or there. Also, with the addition of the iPod to my toy box a couple summers ago, more often than not, I do my reading by listening to them on audio. Haley turned me onto this file-sharing website that has tons of books on audio. I do most of my reading/listening on the drive to/from work. That works out to be about 45 minutes a day, sometimes more. Or, if Steve (Boss #1) isn’t in the office, I might plug in my dictation headphones to the iPod and listen to it while I work. I know that sounds like I’m screwing around and not getting any work done, but I truly get more actual work done that way because my focus is devoted to what I’m doing and people who come by to chat or otherwise be a chicken to my easily distracted attention span see the headphones and me typing and assume I’m busy doing work (which I am, but not in the way they think) and they go away.

So all of that having been said, here is the list of books I have read/listened to this summer of 2010: (I know!! You can’t wait either, right?!)

Hamlet by William Shakespeare – this would prove that an occasional veggie gets into my reading diet along with the fries and McNuggets. I DVR’d the movie, the version with Dr. Who and Capt. Picard in it, and sat there reading the book along with the movie – shut up! It counts! BTW, did you know that if you go to the library to check out this book, it is not in the fiction section? It’s in the non-fiction, under plays. Who came up with that logic!? I bet it was that guy, Dewey Decible!

Lavendar Morning by Jude Deveraux – the author of my favorite time-travel, romance, A Knight in Shining Armor. Have it in hardback, never read, so downloaded and listened to on audio. It’s the first in a new series, and the next one is out, and I want to read it, but, you guessed it, I haven’t been able to find it on audio yet. Sigh.

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman – very enjoyable. There’s just something about the dry British wit that I adore. Spent about a month trying to read the actual book and only got about 1/3 through it, so gave up and finished it on audio.

Bite Me! by Christopher Moore - #3 in his vampire love story trilogy. If you have the chance to read these (Bloodthirsty Fiends and You Suck! are the first two books), do it. But don’t worry; these are NOT your Twilight-esque vampire love stories. Book one is the story of Jody, a new vampire, and her minion, Tommy Flood. By book two, Tommy’s a vampire and we get to meet their new minion, Abby Von Normal (not her real name). In book three, Abby and her manga-haired love monkey, Foo Dog (again, not his real name) have to save the city from Chet the extremely large cat who was turned into a vampire at the end of book two. Have both read and listened to these books. If you can listen to them, do it, because the way the narrator voices Abby Von Normal is spewing-milk-out-of-your-nose funny.

Contest and Scarecrow by Matthew Reilly – this guy’s books are good, as long as you agree to suspend reality – sort of like James Bond and Indiana Jones, his heroes get into unimaginable fixes and manage to escape with little more than a hair out of place. Otherwise, each book is like stepping onto a rollercoaster of fun.

Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett - read and enjoyed this when it first came out - it's a great spy novel, World War II, Nazis, it has everything to make a great thriller!

Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King – read and enjoyed this when it first came out in the late 80’s – still had the book, but didn’t remember if it just because it had a dragon on the cover (i.e., was a part of my dragon collection) or if I really enjoyed the book. So I gave the actual book to Hollian because she’s decided to collect King’s books in hardback, and I downloaded the audiobook. Long story short, was a pretty enjoyable book.

Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens – a long time fave. Have read it several times and just decided it was time to give it another whirl. Also, I got the movie version, with Chris Sarandon, on DVD this spring, so that whetted my appetite to reread it.

There may have been one or two more audio books in there, I think I listened to a couple of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s books, but can’t remember if that was in the summer time frame or not. I finished Tale of Two Cities this morning on the way into work and started Undone by Karin Slaughter. Meanwhile, I’m slowly working my way through Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich and Cat vs. Cat by Pam Johnson-Bennett, a feline behavioralist to see if she has any suggestions for keeping the peace in our multi-cat household.

Identity Crisis

To bring you up to date, Mom brought Oscar home from the vet last week with a bag of prescription meds and the information that Oscar was in fact a girl.  At first, I polled my peeps and we were all in agreement that Oscar was still a fine name, even for a girl.  After all, our family does have a history of (to paraphrase my sister, Haley, here…) not conforming to society's gender-based rules regarding pet names.  Recently, we had George and Butch who were Merle's mother and sister, respectively.  Holly's family adopted Fred and George (named after the twins in the Harry Potter books, since I'd just finished reading book seven around the time we found them) and they both turned out to be girls.  Years ago, we had a black male cat named Morticia and his sister was named Gomez.  And at least 75% of Larry, Daryl, Darrell, and Darryl were female.  My point is, as a family, we aren't generally worried about such things.   But Mom really had issues with the whole Oscar thing.  And frankly, I was having problems remembering to call her Oscar.  (Remember I was instantly a whole year older during this time frame.)  About that time, the Veterinary Pet Insurance Co. came out with their list of the top 10 most unusual cat names from the roster of their insurees:  1) Purr Diem; 2) Bing Clawsby; 3) Cleocatra; 4) Admiral Pancake; 5) Optimus Pants; 6) Chairman Meow; 7) Boo Manchu; 8) Watts in a Name; 9) Chenoa Azure Marshmellow-Puff; and 10) my personal favorite, Senor Nachos.  I intended to mention these names to Mom, but before I could, she suggested naming her Gracie.   Gracie was fine; in fact, I got a wee bit of a thrill saying "Goodnight, Gracie" each evening!  Although my fellow crazy cat lady/co-worker, Deborah pointed out that Lucy would be better because when we got home we could call out, in a sort of Spanish accent, "Lucy!  I'm home!" and if there were a hairball horked up, we could look at her and say, again in the Spanish accent, "Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do!"   And she has red hair, so Lucy would have been a purrfect fit, but Mom wanted Gracie.   The next few days, she was Gracie.  Until yesterday morning when Mom says that she doesn't know… she just doesn't LOOK like a Gracie.  I pointed out that most 16-week old people don't look like their names either, but most parents don't change horses not once, but twice, in the middle of that stream.  I suggested that she take yesterday to think about it, and come up with a name.  But that by the end of the day, she needed to have a name and we were NOT going to change it.  Mom agreed.   I had lunch with Jennifer yesterday and she said she really liked Cleocatra.  I said I'd suggest it to Mom.  Meanwhile, Shawna (a girl at work) mentioned the name Uniqua… I don't recall in what context, but it was work-related, and we loved it.  I said I'd suggest it to Mom, too.  When I got home, Mom had not come up with another name.  I suggested Cleocatra, and we could call her Cleo for short.  Mom liked it.  (I forgot about Uniqua… more than a few chickens had crossed my path since that conversation.)    So it was official (again), Oscar was now Cleocatra, Cleo for short.  And we were happy.  Although I found the hard "ka" sound to be disconcerting.  So this morning, as we're taking our walk, Mom asked me to remind her what Cleo was short for… Cleopetra or Cleocatra.  I said, well, it was Cleocatra, but now that she said it, I really like Cleopetra.    So now it is REALLY official, she is Cleopetra, Cleo for short.  And we've short of waffled our way into deciding that she should be brought inside.  I mean, if the Lord provided her as a companion for Merle, then we have issues because Merle hasn't been around since his hissy (literally) fit the day Cleo showed up.  And I feel SO bad shutting her outside at night when we go to bed.  She just sits there on the welcome mat and looks inside with such hope in her greasy little eyes (greasy from the medicine we've been putting in them twice a day).   This weekend, Cleo will be done with her meds.  She will get a good bath – may have to use Dawn to tackle her greasy face!  She will then be quarantined in Mom's bathroom (don't worry, it's a big bathroom, and she's a tiny cat) until we can get the current residents used to her presence in the house. Last night, I stopped and bought her a litter box and a fluffy pillow to sleep on.  She is now 4 months old, and she should be 4 pounds soon, if not already, since we've gotten rid of the fleas, mites, worms, and respiratory infection.  So we can get her fixed and before we know it, our little family will be back to (semi?) normal.  (And once we get her greasy face washed, I'll get a better picture posted.  I'd love to get a family portrait, but it's difficult to get everyone to light in one place long enough to focus a camera.)

Found a Tick!

A year ago or so, I was at Holly's house, and she showed me her cats' tick cat toy.  I was jealous (on behalf of my kiddlies, of course) and we looked at her Petco store, but were unable to find.  So today, for reasons unbeknownst to me, I thought about said tick and decided to Google "tick cat toy" and found/ordered my kiddlies one.  They probably won't be in the least bit interested in it, but… It's too cute, so I decided to share.   http://www.amazon.com/Multipet-20070-Tick-Cat-Catnip/dp/B001SH4U9Q

Rose Knows Toes

I love my toes.  I think I have very cute footies.  I go on vacation to the beach and I have to take the ubiquitous photo of my tootsies in the sand.  Hopefully, I have a good pedicure at the time.   I have this friend, Donna, who got me hooked on getting massages.  I'm poor, though, so it has to be a special occasion, like when my boss got me a gift card.  And for a while there, I was getting them semi-irregularly, like once or twice a year, because he was on a gift card kick.  But then he got me a gift card to Absolute Beauty and I wasted time and never got around to using it until it was almost expired.  So I called to schedule the massage, which was not going to use all of  the gift card, and I scheduled my first (of many) pedicure to blow out the rest of the money.   I made the mistake of getting the pedicure before the massage, because the pedicure was so good the whole massage experience was now sloppy seconds.  PLUS, my footies looked faboo!  Since then, I got Jennifer hooked on the massage experience and now, for our mutual birthdays, we take an afternoon off, have lunch, then go to Absolute Beauty for a massage (her) and pedicure (me).    Our birthdays were last week, and Friday was the day.  The temperature outside was 150 degrees Fahrenheit (okay, that's an exaggeration, but it was hot, and humid).  The temperature isn't relevant except for when I drove home, I had the air conditioning on high and aimed at my feet because my toes looked great and I didn't want the polish to melt.  Seriously, I once had nail polish melt off my toes.  But I get ahead of myself.   I had my fingernails already polished a lovely color - Sally Hanson Blackberry Frost... or it might've been Blackberry Forest.  I can't recall .  I'm sure it involved blackberries, though, and I don't have the bottle near me to double check.  Anyway, I decided that this color would look great on my toesies, so I took it with me in case they didn't have anything similar.  But then when I got there and looked over their colors, found that they had the exact same shade (OPI shade - I'm Not Really A Waitress - although if you look it up on the OPI website, it's much lighter than it is on my toes - I mean, if you've seen my car, you know what I mean) in their brand and why not use their product, instead of my own, eh?   So my decade (look it up, "any set of 10") of digits now match my fingers AND, it turns out, my car!  AND, it would appear, per the OPI website, I could even get a DELL laptop with the case the same color.  Super cool, eh?  Hmm...I do like this color.  I may have to think about this.   Ok, so that chicken just got me totally lost,.... and now the thought of chicken is making me think of lunch.  Dang!  I guess I'll just take my gorgeous toes out and go see what we can find.  But long story short, if you want a good pedicure... OH, the chair!!  I almost forgot!  I don't know how other pedicure places are, but at Absolute Beauty, you get to sit in this chair that all but gives you a massage while your piggies are being beautified, so for the price, it's like you get a two-fer!  Anyway, if you want a lovely pedicure, go to Absolute Beauty - tell them I sent you (I'll get points for referring you).  Now, I'm off for nuggets!

Thanks for All The (Birthday) Fishes!

Today is my 42nd birthday.  I decided years ago that 42 was my favorite number.  Mostly because I like to be unique and who chooses a number in the 40's to be their favorite??  Most people choose 7 – but how dull is that?!   42 is all around, if you keep an eye open for it.  I think there are a lot of geeks who participate in the production of today's pop culture that have read and absorbed Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy.    For those of you who have not read those books and are thinking, "huh?":  In the first book, near the middle to end of it, the number 42 is revealed to be the answer to the ultimate question of "Life, The Universe, and Everything" by a supercomputer named Deep Thought, specially built to come up with the answer to the ultimate question by highly intelligent beings. It takes Deep Thought 7½ million years to compute and double check the answer, which, as I've already let out of the bag, is 42. Unfortunately, no one thought to ask Deep Thought what the "ultimate" question was, so they aren't happy to hear that the answer is 42.  They ask Deep Thought was the question was and he says that he can't come up with it, but he can help build another computer that can.  They build this computer (the planet Earth) and it takes 10 million years for it to compute the question, but seconds before it finishes its computations, it gets destroyed to make way for the construction of a planetary superhighway.    The above snippet is, of course, only a small part of the story, and is also only what my increasingly aged mind can recall of the story, as it's been a while since I read the book.    My regular readers know that I've always seemed to be easily distracted (those darned chickens, you know) so the lights were on, but you couldn't be guaranteed that anyone was home, you know?  But since the day I turned 40, I mean down to the minute, those lights started flickering a lot – in fact I think one of the bulbs went out completely.    However, my main point is that today is my birthday and as of this moment, I've had a very nice day.  I slept in, mostly due to the fact that I'm fighting a sinus infection and mom hasn't been waking me up to walk since I've been sick.  We dosed Oscar up with her meds and she was a sweety to deal with and I went to work.  I made my usual stop by McD's for some iced tea, but since it is my b-day, I allowed myself to get sweet tea.  uhh…, sweet tea...mmmm....   I got to work, and there was a spread set out on my desk of cookies, donuts, a fruit tray with some yummy dip, and cheese and crackers.  And for dinner, Mom, BK (regular reader Becky), and I went out to Western Ribeye.  I am nothing if not a carnivore, but the incredibly good steak at WR is almost secondary to the salad bar.  See it's just your usual salad bar, but at the end of it, there are two things that I could fill myself up on... 1) a mondo wheel of cheese - although looking at the mondo wheel of cheese, it seems smaller in real life than it is in my memories.  Sort of depressing.  But I carved off quite a hunk and chowed it all down.  ummm.... cheese!  oh, and 2) the tub-o-apple butter along with the butter and bread.  In retrospect, I could (and should) have did like Mom and BK and just had the salad bar, but the prospect of a good hunk of beef had been what got me through the week, so I couldn't resist.  I suppose I could have taken the steak to go.  I'll have to consider that next time.   So now here I am, home, stuffed with beef and cheese, and happy.  I'm trying to post this, but my computer isn't cooperating, so I'm going to have to go to bed and post in the morning.  Don't let the posting date fool you, though, this is my O-fficial birthday posting and we're off to a good year, I can tell.  By this time next year, I will hopefully have my new iPhone, a new vehicle of some sort, and will have just got back from a trip with Mom and the Sibs to England.  Good things all.

Meet Oscar

Ok, so I get home last night, not feeling well, and mom asks me if I saw a little orange kitten outside. I said no, but then I barely made it up the sidewalk with my eyes open (I'd promised myself that I could immediately climb into bed if I stayed awake long enough to get home without killing either myself or someone else.)  Anywho, we trotted outside and there, ambling up the sidewalk is this adorable little orange fluff ball… sneezing and snorting, and its eyes looked sort of mucky, but ADORABLE.    Mom had been concerned that Merle was lonely now that Blackie was gone.  I told her I didn't think Merle missed him all that much, but… we left it up to God – told Him that if He felt Merle needed a companion, then He needed to provide one for him.  Lo and behold, here comes Aunt Marilee, yesterday afternoon, with this kitten.  It had been hanging out and driving Buddy up a wall – I gather it was hanging just outside of Buddy's invisible fence… sort of like the way Boots (our cat from the 80's) would lie just outside the perimeter of Brandy's (our dog from the 80's) chain.   This thing is so small, he sits in Merle's food bowl and eats.  Too cute – not sure Merle is overly excited about him.    I say "him", but he could easily be a SHE – we'll find out this morning, since mom took him/her to the vet to be checked out for THE TEST that Blackie failed, and fleas, and worms, and ear mites, and for whatever is making him sneeze and snort, and his rheumy eyes.  Either way, his name is Oscar.  Mom asked what if she's a girl and I looked at her and said, "asks the woman who named a girl cat Butch!"  She said she saw my point.    I think he'll grow into a good sized cat, too.  His legs are incredibly long and his paws are huge!  And I'm happy to say that his head looks normal sized too.  This is reassuring, since Merle has an unusually small sized head and gets ridiculed frequently (usually by me) for it.