In the courtyard of our hotel in Barcelona. Cool squiggly wood things. 

We've made it back safely! We had *such* a fun time! I'll have to tell you about it in bits though. My hands would fall off if I tried to type it out all at once. I'll also put up just a few photos at a time. We might be putting up a website pretty soon with lots of photos and so forth on it, but I'm not sure.

The first story is from the first day of travel. We were dropped off at the airport at 1:30 p.m. for a 3:30 p.m. flight to Atlanta. Unfortunately, that was right in the middle of Hurricane... Ivan, I believe. Our flight to Atlanta was delayed two hours, which meant (theoretically) that we would have missed our connecting flight to Barcelona.

So, we stood at the check-in counter for an HOUR while they finally found another way to get us there. They finally ended up putting us on a 5 p.m.ish flight to Houston. From Houston we went to Amsterdam. From Amsterdam we went to Barcelona. It's not what we had in mind, but it worked... :)

Our lives are now consumed with getting ready for this trip. We spent all weekend shopping, running errands, brainstorming, making lists, etc. I've been cleaning like a madwoman today - partly for our benefit and ease of packing and partly for the sake of Renee, our blessed house sitter. How, on earth, do you plan for a two week trip out of the country without forgetting anything?!? I don't think it's possible. Oh well. I'm sure we'll have many adventures on our trip and if we forget something, that will just be another adventure!

I will try to post again before we leave, but I make no promises. I probably won't have anything new to say anyway. Like I said, there's really not much going on besides trip preparation. And I will not be making any posts from Europe or the boat, sorry. I'm not going to *pay* for the privilege of blogging. You'll just have to wait a couple of weeks to find out how wonderful it was and to hear about our many adventures.

I will miss our kitties. :(

I can't believe we're leaving the country in one week. In fact, one week from right now, we'll be in the air! It's too odd...

Wow, I'm suddenly very hungry! I hope Doug gets home soon. He's been working late for the past couple of weeks. It's just a busy time, for one thing. Plus, he's trying to get things at work prepared for being gone for two weeks. And we're back to that vacation thing.

I've already started making little piles of things that we need to remember to pack. All our travel documents; phrase book for all european languages; book of games for the plane ride; travel journal; money belt; so much stuff!

I'm also very excited because BSF starts next week! I only get to go to one meeting before I miss the next two, but I've missed it so much!

Wow, it's been so long since I posted a blog that I've kind of forgotten about the whole thing! I guess it doesn't help that the site wasn't working the last time I tried to make a post and then there was the long weekend and I rarely touch the computer on weekends... Anyway, I'm here now and I'm posting!

I'm also sneezing. And itching. It's taking most of my energy right now just to breathe and think. So I'm not going to have anything brilliant to say. I can tell you that my kitties are cute though. They are also the smartest cats in the world. So there.

I just finished up a pet sitting job that I was doing for several days for two dogs and two bunnies. The bunnies were really just cute and furry and didn't do much (except when i tried to feed them out of my hand and one of them kept chewing on my fingernail). The dogs were nuts though. One is a gigantic black lab and the other is a little cockapoo puppy. Totally nuts! I have rope burn on my ankle from one of our walking adventures where the little dog ran around in circles until the leash was wrapped around my ankle and then he kept on running. Ziiiiip!

A letter of thanks from Mitch Markow's family. Hope you can read it! 

I really don't have much to say today. I'm just making a post because it's been a few days.

Good news - Mitch actually left the hospital last Wednesday! So he's home now and in rather a lot of pain because he's not hooked up to IV painkillers anymore. He's doing well though, considering, and recovering nicely!

I'm floundering in my motivation to work out. I want to work out and stay healthy, but I've become totally bored with my current workout routine. I do the eliptical trainer for 20 minutes and then a couple of weight machines. I think I just need to talk to someone at the gym and find out which of the other cardio machines would be a good one to try instead. For quite a while, I've been downloading sermons and listening to them while working out and it really helped the time pass quickly. But I've been doing it for so long that it's become part of the routine now and I need a change...

Mitch update - wow!

Mitch is doing wonderfully. He is acting his typical self, making everyone smile. The doctors are simply amazed at his recovery and are even beginning a study on him to find out how he has recovered so fast. Assuming all continues to go well, he is projected to leave the hospital this weekend. He plans to take some time at home with his family and return to work in a few weeks. Mitch and his family are grateful for all the flowers, cards, visits, and prayers. They hope to hold a party in the near future to celebrate his recovery.

Not much to say today. I can give you a kitty story. Cordelia especially has been a nut this afternoon. First, she *helped* me put clean sheets on the guest bed. Her job, while I am putting sheets on the bed and trying to get them even and tuck them in, is to run around on the bed and attack the "orbs" that have gotten under the sheets. (Charlie also helps sometimes, he helps by laying in the middle of the bed like a very large rock so that I have to make the bed over him)

Personally, I'd prefer to just let sleeping "orbs" lie (is that right? should it be lay?), but Cordy is a purist. No "orbs" in her beds! I even gave up and left the room for a few minutes so she'd get bored and go away. After I left the room, she whined at me to come back and then gave up and left. Unfortunately, when I went back to it, she came back too. Oh well!

A few minutes ago, while I was brushing them, she apparently decided that the brush was being extremely aggressive. I had to give her my hand to chew on so that I could finish brushing. Oy.

My cute kitties again. 

Medieval Times - sideways photo of castle 

My cute kitties. 

MT - Blurry picture during the games. 

MT - This is a pretty horse. 

MT - During the show, really not sure what's going on. 

MT - This was our knight, the Red Knight. He was a wimp. 

MT - Inside the arena. 

Medieval Times - ceiling 

Hello everyone! Here's today's Mitch update:

Mitch is making a miraculous recovery. He's talking, been moved out of ICU, taken a few steps, and he's even talking about work!! Thanks for all your prayers and support!

Doug and I were in Dallas this weekend and we went to Medieval Times on Saturday evening. It was fun! I wore a dress and heals and felt severely over-dressed. Although, I don't think I would have felt apporpriately dressed unless I'd been wearing Medieval type clothing.

Anyway, the food was wonderful. Vegetable soup, garlic bread, roasted chicken (1/2 a chicken!), half a garlic roasted potato, (one) delicious spare rib, soda, coffee, and a yummy apple something or other pastry! It was messy business with no eating utensils, but that was fun too!

I did expect the entertainment to be slightly more realistic, but it was still fun. :)

Today's Mitch update - good news! :)

He is awake, he is not able to talk, but is responding to doctors commands ........guys, thank each and every one of you for your blood donations, phone calls, prayers, visits, etc. More info later.

I want to share something with you that I just read. It brought tears to my eyes. :) This is from the book Jesus, the One and Only by Beth Moore.

"As we conclude [this chapter], please feast your eyes on [Luke] verse 32: 'Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.' What tender words. Do you hear the love? Do you sense the care? With one glance in the nearest mirror, you can see a reflection of the heart of God. For where His treasure is, His heart is also."

If I try to explain what that meant to me, I think I would just detract from it. So I'll leave it at that.

I'll keep you updated on Mitch once I get today's report. Please pray with me that it will be a positive report! And after today, I won't be able to update until Monday (even if i hear something).

Mitch update: Not great...

The biggest thing that Helen has asked for is continued prayer. The two specific concerns are risk of infection from surgery and risk of brain damage (due to significant loss of blood). As the doctors try to revive Mitch (so that they can remove the ventilator) they have not yet been able to establish coherent communication with him. At this time it is unclear if the non-coherence is a result of all the medicine/drugs or brain damage. There will be continued efforts over the next 24hrs to establish coherent contact with Mitch.

Here's an interesting news tidbit (courtesy of world magazine):

Lesson Learned
A 60-year-old Japanese man, on an Aug. 1 flight from Chicago to Dayton, Ohio, wrote down two English words he saw in a newspaper so that he could look up their meaning later. The words: "suicide bomb." An alarmed fellow passenger saw the note and alerted crew members, who returned the plane to Chicago. Authorities took the man into custody and searched the plane, finding no bombs. "He teaches himself English by reading newspapers," said police spokeswoman Alice Casanova. "It was all just a miscommunication."

I have no news on Mitch so far today. Doug did tell me yesterday evening that they'll keep him sedated until they have him off the ventilator. Hopefully that will be soon. Who knows how long he'll be in the hospital recovering though!

Here's the latest update on Mitch:

Surgery last night went very well...they were able to close Mitch up and he is breathing on his own this morning (still with ventilator). They have reclassified Mitch from Critical to Serious condition. At this point, if no infection shows up in the next 48-hours everything should be looking very good. Next step is to get him completely off of the ventilator.

Some kind of gross, but not bad, news about Mitch:

Jeremy went back down to the hospital this morning. They are going to do some minor surgery this afternoon to just go and make sure everything is still clean. He's apparently too bloated to close back up. They are keeping him unconscious until his body goes back down to normal size and they can close him back up. So, he's actually doing as good as can be expected.

Well, first of all, I have no new information on Mitch. I trust that he's still in ICU, slowly recovering. I'll let you know if I hear anything.

If any of you have not seen the movie Anchorman, and you are a fan of random and strange humor, I *highly* recommend seeing it. Doug and I went on Sunday evening and it was great! The whole theater was laughing through the entire movie. When it was over, I thought I was going to cry it was so funny. If you have seen this movie and you didn't think it was that great and you now think I'm a dork... um, okay.

My cousin, Meredith, graduated from Texas State on Saturday. Hooray Meredith! We went down for the graduation (which was at 9:30 a.m. on a saturday - what's up with that?!) and went out for lunch with the fam afterward. It was quite fun. I had a hard time not yelling Hook'em or something equally obnoxious during the playing of their school song though. I think my school spirit grows with every year that I'm out of college.

Most of you don't know Mitch Markow (in fact, i doubt that anyone reading this, other than doug, knows him), but please pray for him and his family. Mitch is a coworker and friend of Doug's (used to be his manager/ director). He had an accident this weekend and is still in this hospital. Here's the update I got on exactly what happened:

Mitch was cutting brush with his tractor, ran across a sapling that went under the tractor and impaled his groin area. He did have his cell phone with him and was able to phone the house for help. He was life-flighted to Breckenridge Hospital yesterday evening where he underwent 5 hrs of intense surgery.

He is still in ICU in stable condition. Mitch lost 13 pints of blood, he is not conscious, he is breathing on his own, his skin color is coming back, and his heart rate/blood pressure is coming down. His doctors will continue to keep him sedated for the next 24-48 hrs. The next 24 hours are the most critical.

Please keep Mitch, his wife Helen, and their children in your prayers.

So, I've mentioned that Doug and I are looking for a new church. I don't know where we'll end up (and wherever it is, that decision likely won't be made for a while yet), but I can tell you that of the places we've visited so far, the one we've liked best is Calvary Chapel. If you're interested, you can check it out at www.calvaryaustin.org. We've been to one Sunday service, one Wednesday service, and we'll be going back this Sunday. I've also been downloading their past messages and listening to them while I work out.

The weather today is beautiful, especially the way it felt this morning! We've actually had a really wet and relatively mild summer, so I shouldn't complain. But I don't like it when the temperature gets above 85 degrees, so... :o)~

Doug's planning to get adventurous and make some (hopefully) authentic Indian food this evening. He's even making (well *we're* making - i'll be mixing it ahead of time) Naan. Yummy!

I just pulled the most hideous creature I have ever seen out of my bathroom sink. It didn't have eyes or legs, but I'm positive that, on some level, it was alive. [shudder]

My sink has been draining more and more slowly for a while now and I knew why, but I was avoiding the issue. For reasons I do not understand, my sink ends up with a disproportionate amount of hair in it. And this hair ends up going down the drain. Or rather, just far enough past the sink stopper that it cannot be seen. This is where it builds its nest and begins to breed. I finally could not come up with any further excuses for not dealing with the beast, so I did. I cannot describe to you the disgusting nature of this job. I can tell you that I was on the verge of throwing up the entire time and I feel that I should now be allowed to retire from cleaning bathrooms for the rest of my life.

I am not, however, exempt from laundry. So I'd better go finish it.

Hello all! Well, it was a fun weekend, but now it's Monday. Not that Mondays are bad... they just aren't weekends. :) Doug and I went and saw Richard Buckner at the Cactus Cafe on Saturday. I was fachinated by him for the first couple of songs. He's a very interesting looking fellow. I finally decided he looks like the giant, rebel son of Randy Travis and an Oompa Loompa. You can find pictures of him at www.richardbuckner.com, but you'd have to see him live to understand. And his hair is longer now and dyed black. If you don't know or just don't remember what Oompa Loompas look like, go to www.oompa-loompas.net.

Anyway, the music was interesting too. I really liked it for a while. After a few songs, his 'experimental' use of the EBow (ask a guitar player) started getting to me. It was an enjoyable evening though and it was the first time either of us had been to the Cactus Cafe. In case you've never been there and you make assumptions based on names, like I do, it is not a cafe. :)

I have new conditioner that smells like Jester dormitory! It's not a bad thing, just kind of strange. If you've never been inside Jester, then you won't really understand. It's not like I just remember what the dorm smells like, but I put the conditioner on my head for the first time and the aroma surrounded me and I thought, "Hey, this smells like Jester dorm!" Weird, man, weird.

I also have new deodorant that smells like insect repellant. Actually, it smells like tea tree oil, but it's a similar smell. It's all natural stuff and it really works very well! And, thankfully, it doesn't smell like insect repellant once it dries.

And furthermore, I just participated in a survey with a mouthful of toothpaste. I got a phone call that was an automated 45 second political survey. Unfortunately, I had a mouth full of toothpaste when I answered the phone (i thought it would be a person that i could ask to wait). I still participated in the survey - I was just a bit muffled.

Top 10 Reasons I'm glad I was born in the late 20th Century:

10. Dental Floss with Wax
9. Bath and Body Works
8. Litter Box Deodorizer
7. Soft Bread (that stays soft for many days)
6. Dr. Pepper
5. Don't have to raise and kill my own meat
4. Barnes & Noble
3. Air Conditioning in public places
2. Air Conditioning in cars
1. Air Conditioning in the home

I do not want anyone to email me and tell me that "Number X was actually available to the public starting March 7, 1899" because I don't care. :)

First Dance 

About to enter the reception. 

Mr. and Mrs. Keith Peeler 

Keith and Megan at the rehearsal dinner. That is Irene, Doug and Keith's mother, at the table next to them and the side of Kristin Mains' head in the foreground. 

The beautiful inside of the beatiful dome of the beautiful church where Keith is Youth Minister and where the wedding was held. 

This is at the rehearsal. Like I said, questionable quality. 

Well, I have photos from the wedding weekend that I'm going to post (a few now, a few later when our USB cable comes home). Unfortunately, they are few and of questionable quality. It was hard to get good photos at the rehearsal because it was dark, but the flash didn't help much unless it was a close-up shot. I tried using no flash and it helped, but only if my hand was steady and the people weren't moving.

There are no photos from the wedding itself because... *sigh* ...I was ten minutes late to my own brother-in-law's wedding. I THOUGHT IT STARTED AT SIX, BUT IT WAS AT FIVE! If I hadn't been trying to get there early to help out with last-minute things, I would have missed it altogether. I felt so bad that I cried! Anyway, once the wedding had started it would have been obnoxiously loud for me to open the camera case to get the camera out. Then I tried taking some photos after the wedding, but the batteries (both of them) were almost dead. So we got just a few shots from the reception. Nuts!

Anyway, that's the story on the photos.

The other interesting news is that I went back to the sleep specialist yesterday and apparently I have Periodic Limb Movement/Restless Leg Syndrome. I wake myself up with leg movements about 8 times per hour!

Well, this weekend was Keith and Megan's wedding! (keith is doug's brother, for those who don't know) It was great and the whole weekend was like one long crazy party! Non-stop action - we were *so* worn out by the time it was over. Actually, we're STILL worn out! The bride was beautiful, the groom was grinning ear-to-ear, and the wedding and associated parties were too much fun to explain! We only got photos of the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner (and about 4 from the reception). I'd rather not go into the reasons for that right now, but once we get those photos transferred from Doug's laptop to this computer, I'll post some.

I'm having a hard time getting motivated today because I'm enjoying the peace and quiet so much that I just want to relax and soak it up. But, Doug's back at work and I need to get busy too!

When we left Austin, it was rainy and not too blisteringly hot. We've now come back to gross triple-digit highs and barely a trace of wind or cloud. Only six weeks till Europe where it will be cool and probably a little rainy!

Charlie helping Doug wake me up. When this picture was taken, I was trying very hard to ignore the fact that I had a large cat on my face. 

Well, there's not much going on to talk about right now. But, I haven't posted in a couple of days, so I thought I'd better say *something*.

We've actually been hanging out with friends again lately. Our schedule has been so icky for a while that we haven't really had time to do much extraneous socializing. But this weekend was actually not packed out, so we were able to share meals with a couple of friends. It's nice to see people... :)

Our neighbors across the street have two cats, named Baby and Kitty. Baby has decided that we're her back-up humans. Whenever our neighbors are out of town, we take care of the kitties. Now Baby has decided that she can come to our place and bring us home whenever she wants. We'll go out into the front yard and she'll come jingling across the street and try to get us to follow her back. She's quite cute - a little thing with no tail. And she likes to do these power meows that are like one long string of sound. "MOWwowWOWwowWOWwowWOW!"

P.S. - Did you know that a sleeve is a very good place to stick your head?

Well, I'm feeling *better* today, so I'll go off strike. It's just been a cold or allergies or something. Whatever it was, it got Doug and I both. However, Doug got it less severely and then got better very quickly. Curse my immune system!

I just had a very pointy cat on my back. I'm at the computer (OBVIOUSLY), and that means I'm not paying attention to Cordelia. As this is an unacceptable arrangement, she's been trying to get my attention. She was up in my lap earlier, but eventually left to chase orbs. When she came back this time, I was scooted forward in the chair and leaned forward over the desk. Since she couldn't get into my lap, she jumped up onto the chair seat behind me. This was fine - in fact it was cute. What was not cute was when she proceeded to jump up on to my back, thereby stabbing me repeatedly with her magical fast-sharpening claws.

Oh and now she's back and has just jumped into my lap again. She's so persistent! I hope she does not now believe that jumping on my back will make me open up a lap for her!

I'm sick. I refuse to publish any further posts until I'm well.

More proof that our cats are weird: I got up around 4 o'clock this morning to go to the restroom and when I came back to bed I had a unique experience. I was hot, so I put my feet out from under the covers. Then Cordelia started licking the bottom of my foot! I think she was grooming me. She was just licking and licking and occasionally nibbling. This eventually began to tickle, so I tried to pull my foot away, but she put her paw around it and held it in place. It would have been cute if it hadn't been so strange and if it hadn't been taking place at 4 a.m.!
 
We lived through another wedding this weekend. This one was in San Antonio. We had some time to kill on Saturday, so we went and saw Shrek 2. It was great! I wouldn't say it was any *better* than the first movie, but it was definitely AS good. Puss was great! There were, of course, plenty of digs at other movies and stories and there was actually less potty humor in this one! :)

Bride and Groom with unruly attendants. 

Pretty bouquet. Pretty dress. Pretty bride. :) 

Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Priddy! 

Emma the Flower Girl and Brendan the Ring Bearer 

Wayne and Karen at the rehearsal. 

The wedding. 

Some tidbits...

I missed seeing Jessica Simpson at Petco today by about 2 minutes. The staff was all star struck. I don't have any particular opinion about Jessica, but meeting her in person would have been interesting.

I can't stand System of a Down. If you like this band, please skip to the next paragraph because I'm about to vent. The song writing is pretentious. The vocals are painful. The music is like a poor imitation of someone else's work. Why are they popular!?!

My brother's wedding went well. The couple is now married and off enjoying Disney World! I might post some photos . . . if I can remember how to do it.

One July wedding down, two to go...

I must share with you the entertaining way that I injured myself this morning. It happened while I was in my closet, putting on my shorts (how's that for a great setting). I put one leg through the shorts successfully. However, the foot of my other leg got hooked into the wrong pantleg and I fell over! I have a bruised knot on my forearm (that hit the doorframe, i think) and a teepee shaped scratch on my bum (that hit the corner of a wooden box)! After I was through saying, "OW! OW! OW! OW! OW!," I started laughing. If you can't laugh at yourself... well, life won't be so fun. Charlie took advantage of the situation by trying to sneak into the closet past me. No such luck!

I had a second sleep study done Tuesday evening through yesterday afternoon. The overnight part went much better this time. The daytime part was rather torturous.

Hey, it finally stopped raining! And there's not even any rain in the forcast. Watch - we had about 15" of rain in June and now we won't get one drop in July! :o)~

By the way, in case you needed to know, it is not worth it to drive to a shop on the other side of town just because they have the best prices. Especially not when you're in Austin and in order to get to said shop you have to go south on I-35! I just spent 30-40 minutes in traffic to get down to a little shop where we took a couple of pair of pants to be hemmed. I'm pretty sure the gas to go and return twice must have doubled the cost!

I'm planning to enter a fiction writing contest that I found out about. I will have to submit a 1500 word short story and I've already spent a lot of time thinking about what my story will be. I think my most creative juices flow around 11 p.m.

I read this morning that Austin has gotten over 13" of rain in June! Can you believe that? I'm loving the rain - and so is the lawn - but we're all going to wash away if this keeps up!

I went and saw Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban again yesterday. I still loved it! And I still don't see how they're going to make the fourth book into a movie. I mean, they already had to cut a lot out of book three to make it fit and book four is *much* longer! Well, we'll see, I suppose...

For the record, I am SICK of being tired all the time. It's not that I can't sleep. In fact, some days I'm pretty sure that I could sleep for 24 hours straight. The problem is that when I wake up, no matter how little or how much I've slept, I'm still exhausted and I stay tired all day. And I: am not pregnant, do work out, do eat properly, do take vitamins, do not have thyroid problems, am not anemic, am sure that the medication I take is not causing it, get enough sleep every night, etc.

Doug and I had another fun date on Friday! Plan A went out the window thanks to *more* rain, but the backup plan came through for us. We did dinner and a movie. We tried to go to Iron Cactus downtown, but there was so much traffic that by the time we got down there we wouldn't have had time to wait and then eat and still get to the movie on time. So we wandered a little and ended up at Hut's Hamburgers where we were seated immediately.

Excellent. The movie portion of the evening was at the Paramount - we saw the original 'Shaft' (1971). It was so terrible that it was great! Doug and I have been quoting it like dorks since Friday. It was a double feature and we stuck around for about half of the second film, which was a documentary called Wattstax. I won't try to explain it because I was rather tired by that point, but it was very interesting.

It is currently pouring down rain. It's an really real thunder storm! We don't get many of those in Austin. We get lots of rain at times, but usually without any good thunder! Of course, this does put a *damper* on my date plan for this evening. Oh well, good thing I have a backup plan!

Funny kitty story (maybe i should just call my blog 'Funny Kitty Stories'): This happened while I was giving the kitties their little spoonful of canned food treat last night. I gave Charlie his, then scooted between the kitchen table and the wall to get to Cordy's bowl. In doing this, I brushed against something on the table (which shouldn't have been there anyway), which sent it and a couple of other things crashing to the floor. This happened right by Cordy and her food bowl and freaked her out so much that she flailed and took off running. Her flailing then upset her food bowl and sent little cat food pellets flying EVERYWHERE! This all happened in about half a second and it was much funnier than it sounds. Both of the cats were totally spooked and I couldn't stop laughing!

Here are some profoundly absurd bits of news (courtesy of world magazine):

Parking power trip
British parking attendants are so zealously enforcing a zero-tolerance policy that it's sparking a public backlash. The New York Times reports that Nadhim Zahawi was ticketed for illegally parking his motor scooter after it was strewn across the street after a traffic accident. As one of London's parking attendants wrote the $180 ticket, Mr. Zahawi sat in a nearby ambulance receiving treatment for a broken leg.
Another man stopped to ask directions from one attendant -- and was promptly ticketed by another. And one former traffic warden, Samson Adeyemo, says he was fired because he only gave out 12 parking tickets a day. The Times reports that parking officials now outrank telemarketers in surveys of the British public's most reviled workers.

Dead zone
Construction workers in Tokyo knew a building they were preparing for demolition was old and decrepit, but what they found must have surprised them. In a forgotten apartment, workers discovered a skeleton reclining on a futon still wearing pajamas.
The man, a former construction worker himself, died 20 years ago and was found near a newspaper dated Feb. 20, 1984. Neither his family nor his employer had inquired after he went missing. One elderly neighbor said he didn't even know the apartment existed.

Doug and I had a fun date on Friday! He tortured me by refusing to tell me where we were going until we were in the car - naughty boy! We went to Austin's Park & Pizza, which, for those of you who do not live in Austin, is a lot like Celebration Station (if that means anything to you). For one price, you get unlimited pizza from the buffet, unlimited rides on all the attractions, and unlimited video games (mostly). We ate lots of pizza (which was just *ok*), played miniature golf (on one of the two courses), rode go carts (on one of the two tracks), rode the bumper boats (and got soaked!), and played lots of video games. We didn't even get to do the other go cart course or the laser tag! It was a LOT of fun!

And furthermore, kitties are cute!

Did you know that dropping a plate on your foot really, really hurts? I found this out last night. I somehow knocked a small plate out of our drain rack in the sink (i was going for the ice cream scoop!). It landed sideways on my foot and ankle and OW! I'm shocked and somewhat disgusted that it didn't leave a bruise. Something that hurts that much should definitely leave a bruise!

So what about this new sales tax write-off that passed in the House yesterday? Being able to deduct sales taxes is fine with me and I have no opinion on the tax cuts for businesses (don't know enough about it), but what's up with giving $9.6 billion to tobacco farmers? Aren't we supposed to be *discouraging* the tobacco industry? You know, lung cancer, all that stuff?

Okay, I've wimped out the past two days with my blog changes. Today you get a real post. That is, if I can come up with something to talk about...

Did anyone read that story about the people in Fort Worth who drowned in the fountain? It was a man, his daughter and son, and another girl. So sad! And I think what was even more sad, but also really sweet, is the 8 year old brother who jumped in to save his older sister and the 14 year old boy who saw the two girls go in and jumped in to try and help. Actually, what's probably most sad is the mother who is left behind. Please join me in praying for her! :(

On a more cheerful note, you can be very excited for Mr. Doug Peeler because he is getting a massage this evening (an Angela Peeler Special)!

More getting crazy with the blog! This time I added a profile and a picture. I just get fancier all the time!

Now I'm off to play with Catherine Christine Johnson who is almost two weeks old and quite cute! :)

Me and my dashing husband! 

Decided to get funky today and change things up. What do you think? And now people can add comments to my posts! :)

Here is an amusing excerpt from an email that I got from an old friend today...

You realize, of course, that kittens grow up to be cats and cats aligned themselves with the enemy at the fall? Not like dogs? Dogs understand the need for human beings to be in charge. Dogs need to love and be loved. Cats need only be and have given over to the mistaken belief that they are autonomous--I suspect, in fact, that the reason we use white mice in laboratory experiments is because of some conspiracy perpetrated on humanity by black cats; but that's just me.

Poor deluded fellow! :o)~

I'm now on a mission to convince a neighborhood stray to adopt us. He looks rather skinny and cute, so I'm sure he needs a mommy to pet him every day!

Well, Doug and I are officially back online. At least until the next heavy rain. We finally got another service guy out here yesterday to check the connection and he said he could find no reason for why the modem wouldn't work. It just spontaneously started working on its own Wednesday evening! Man, who knows...

Odd thing - a little while ago, I saw someone drive by, then back up a bit, put a camera to his eye, and take a picture of something. It looked like he was photographing the space between our house and our neighbors'. Very suspicous! I even went across the street to look in the same direction he appeared to be looking and I saw nothing interesting. Except some limbs we cut down that are across the sidewalk. Hmm...

People are weird.

Hello all! Sorry for the *long* delay in posting. I actually haven't had internet access at home for over a week. Doug accidentally mowed over our cable connection and we're having ISSUES with Time Warner Cable and getting them to fix the problem. Incidentally, I'm pretty sure that Time Warner was recently acquired by Satan, who already runs all insurance companies. Anyway, I'm making this post from the library by our house. We'll be having our 3rd service call on Thursday and hopefully I'll be back online at home after that!

Baby updates:

John and Ellen Rees had a girl! Naomi Grace was born on May 27th at 11:17 a.m. She is 20 inches long and weighed 8 lbs. 3 oz. Only a 3 hour labor and this was her first child and she was induced - go Ellen!

Brian and Anne Johnson had a girl! Catherine Christine was born on June 3rd at 12:28 a.m. She is 20 inches long and weighed only 7 lbs. 9 oz.! And Anne was at the hospital for all of 22 minutes before the baby was born! 2 pushes!

Well, it was a crazy weekend! We went to Houston on Friday afternoon and had a birthday dinner with Doug's mom. On Saturday morning we drove over to Orange to attend a Saturday evening wedding shower for Keith and Megan. We actually got to be gone from church on Sunday morning so we were able to attend a service at Keith's church. And then yesterday afternoon/evening was entirely taken up with driving back to Austin. Whew!

I'm mildly irritated right now because I just had a run-in with our blower/vacuum. I trimmed *more* bushes on Wednesday of last week and I was taking out the blower/vac to suck up the leaves because they're scattered all over the place. Well, I had trouble getting it all in order to begin with (removing caps and replacing hoses, etc.) and then it wouldn't work correctly. Kept binding up on little limbs and stuff. Darn power tools!

Today is Doug's birthday! Happy 30th Birthday My Love! :)

I love the birthday present I gave him. It's possible that I love it even more than he does (though he does love it too). It's a life-size stand up of Darth Vader that talks. It's quite large and it scares me almost every time I walk into the room and see it because I think there's a person standing there. It also has a tendency to interrupt me...

I think I have finally won the war with the squirrels in the backyard. I hadn't been putting any corn out for weeks because the little buggers kept running off with the whole thing. However, Doug picked up a very large nail for me last weekend and sawed the head off so that the cob would fit on it. Now it's nailed into the patio railing and it's still long enough that it goes all the way through the cob. Take that Squirrel Beans! Ha!

One of our goofball kitties, Charlie this time, decided I needed to wake up at 4 o'clock this morning. Our best guess is that he wanted his litter box cleaned out. I spent yesterday morning in pain (thank you endo) and yesterday afternoon doing yardwork, so I forgot to do it. Anyway, 4 a.m., cat stomping on me and punching me (well, mushing, but it felt like punching at 4 a.m.).

He continued to behave strangely all morning. When I got up and went into the restroom, he followed me and started attacking the door frame. Then he nearly bowled me over as I was sitting down on the bed and came charging up there right under/in front of me. And I took a little "nap" after Doug left, during which Charlie came and laid down in front of my face. I have a vague memory of him putting one of his feet against my face for a while...

Well, I'm not doing a very good job of renewing my posting, am I? Here I am though! I just went into the restroom and found Charlie all curled up in the sink. That's not an unusual sight, but he hasn't done it in quite a while. He then proceeded to lay there and "chirp" at me while I was... busy. Silly kitty!

Doug and I watched The Whale Rider this weekend. I loved it! I give it a 10. Doug didn't like it *as* well as I did (he was too busy mocking parts of it), but he still liked it. I also rented All the President's Men, but we haven't watched it yet. Don't know when we're going to have time - it's quite long... (we'll be out of town this weekend) I guess maybe we'll have to watch half one evening and half the next.

And furthermore, trimming trees is hard work!

Hello world! I have had quite a nice morning. I had an insanely busy weekend with pet sitting, so I asked Doug to let me sleep in this morning. I got to sleep late and I still got up in time to check my email and shower and spend some time with God. Now it's lunch time and then back to the house cleaning thing. Ahhh... :o)

Sadly, our neighbors across the street did not have such a restful night or morning. They had a neighborhood cat come into their house through the kitty door and start making noise (playing maybe?). When they got up to investigate, he freaked out and started running around the house and peed on their futon. They finally managed to cage him and took him to the animal shelter this morning. :( Poor Johnny Castle (don't know what his 'real' name is, but that's the one i'd given him)!

I can't believe I haven't updated my blog since April 22nd! I'm so sorry for those of you who actually read it! And now I come back to the site to post something and the whole website has changed - wacky! Anyway, here I am! And, as usual, there's a little kitty sitting by my feet and trying to get my attention. So, to update you on the past few weeks -

I made a day trip to Houston at the end of April so that my mother-in-law (Irene) and I could go to the Houston Zoo - very fun! I've been going to baby showers and birthday parties. Half of my family has a birthday in April, so there was lots of that. MY birthday was in April! I'm still going to BSF every week, although next week is the last meeting for the year! Ack!

Doug and I made a trip to Dallas and saw all of my family. We also spent a lot of money at the Hillsboro outlet mall! Hehehe. We've decided to find a new church (that was actually a hard decision, but we really feel that God is leading us to a new place where we can really feel at home. He's used our time at new community to train us and to help the church and i'm grateful for our time there).

I've been doing a lot of babysitting too. And pet sitting. I've kept quite busy for the past week with a couple of new clients! Woohoo! And now I'm waiting for my multitude of pregnant friends to start giving birth. I'm still singing in the band at church and loving it. I thank God regularly for my flexible schedule! And yesterday I was naughty and FORGOT TO CALL MY GRANDMOTHER ON HER BIRTHDAY!!!!!! I feel like such a doody head!

So I'd better go and call her now... :)

Okay, one funny cat story - Cordelia likes barbecue potato chips. The cats have never really shown an interest in human food, which is good. I don't encourage it. They are not given human food so they don't know what it tastes like. On the occasions that I've offered them something for my own amusement, they just sniff it and then walk away. But not this time. Apparently Cordy really likes barbecue potato chips. She only got one little bit of one and Doug let her lick the seasoning off his fingers, but it she was very excited about it! Strange.

Now I want to post this which is one of the funniest stories I've ever heard *and* it's true. It's from the book Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams (compiled and published after his death). It's a story from a speech to Embedded Systems in 2001.

COOKIES

"This actually did happen to a real person, and the real person is me. I had gone to catch a train. This was April 1976, in Cambridge, U.K. I was a bit early for the train. I'd gotten the time of the train wrong. I went to get myself a newspaper to do the crossword, and a cup of coffee and a packet of cookies. I went and sat at a table. I want you to picture the scene. It's very important that you get this very clear in your mind. Here's the table, newspaper, cup of coffee, packet of cookies. There's a guy sitting opposite me, perfectly ordinary-looking guy wearing a business suit, carrying a briefcase. It didn't look like he was going to do anything weird. What he did was this: he suddenly leaned across, picked up the packet of cookies, tore it open, took one out, and ate it.

"Now this, I have to say, is the sort of thing the British are very bad at dealing with. There's nothing in our background, upbringing, or education that teaches you how to deal with someone who in broad daylight has just stolen your cookies. You know what would happen if this had been South Central Los Angeles. There would have very quickly been gunfire, helicopters coming in, CNN, you know . . . But in the end, I did what any red-blooded Englishman would do: I ignored it. And I stared at the newspaper, took a sip of coffee, tried to do a clue in the newspaper, couldn't do anything, and thought, What am I going to do?

"In the end I thought, Nothing for it, I'll just have to go for it, and I tried very hard not to notice the fact that the packet was already mysteriously opened. I took out a cookie for myself. I thought, That settled him. But it hadn't because a moment or two later he did it again. He took another cookie. Having not mentioned it the first time, it was somehow even harder to raise the subject the second time around. 'Excuse me, I couldn't help but notice . . .' I mean, it doesn't really work.

"We went through the whole packet like this. When I say the whole packet, I mean there were only about eight cookies, but it felt like a lifetime. He took one, I took one, he took one, I took one. Finally, when we got to the end, he stood up and walked away. Well, we exchanged meaningful looks, then he walked away, and I breathed a sigh of relief and sat back.

"A moment or two later the train was coming in, so I tossed back the rest of my coffee, stood up, picked up the newspaper, and underneath the newspaper were my cookies. The thing I like particularly about this story is the sensation that somewhere in England there has been wandering around for the last quarter-century a perfectly ordinary guy who's had the same exact story, only he doesn't have the punch line."