Rome Wasn't Built In a Day

I have deducted that I am incompatible with dieting.  Lord knows I've tried.  I used to tell myself that I could lose it if I really wanted to.  Well  I REALLY want to.  Pinkie swear. Tony agreed to try the Southbeach diet with me and I was positive that the pounds would melt away. They have...for Tony.  He's down 10-12 pounds and I'm up 2-3.  What's up with that!  I even accused him of booby trappying the scale but my clothes don't lie.  We got to the end of the third week and I just blew it wide open this past weekend.  We had company for the weekend and they brought lots of wonderful food with them.  I didn't want to be a rude host and not partake plus I'd eaten so much salad I was beginning to feel a little green myself.  I appear to be a complete diet failure. If I am honest with you I have to admit that this is not the first time.  Tony loves to tell this story... a few years back my daughter and I decided to go on the latest 3 day beets and cottage cheese craze that promised we'd loose at least five pounds by the end of the three days.  We both detest beets and cottage cheese. It was pure torture for three days but we stuck with it;  keeping the end goal insight....slimmer us (es).  The instructions specified that we should not weigh until the end of the third day.  At the appointed time we gathered  around the bathroom scale and giddy with excitement I stepped on ready to pat myself on the back for a job well done and celebrate the new svelte me.  I stepped off and back on convinced that the needle was stuck.  I looked at Tara and shook my head.  Too distraught to say it out loud.  With a look of dread she stepped on the scale and it immediately became  painfully apparent.  We had both suffered through three days of gags and agony and had not lost one solitary ounce between us!   We looked at one another and said simultaneously "Where's the Papa Johns' coupons? "  Tony had made himself scarce during the weigh since our mood was less than sunny by that time. We didn't have to announce the results because about 30 minutes later the pizza guy arrived.  Tony came in and said he guessed the diet results weren't what we had hoped for.  We just glared at him and kept stuffing our faces. We swore we'd ever eat beets or cottage cheese again and to my knowledge neither one of us has.   We have, on the other hand, eaten more than a few pizzas. Guess that would explain why I'm still voluptous. I'll keep trying though.  After all, you know...Rome wasn't built in a day 

Cats Anonymous

02/07/2011 post - revised                                          
                     
OK...I have a problem.   Cats.  Yep you heard or read right - CATS.  They are taking over my life!  Mind you - I have only actually gone out in search of one of these cats.   Mary George was a baby when we got her from Tony's Aunt.  A couple of years later Tara, our daughter moved in with two more and when she moved back out our cat count tripled.  We now had Mary George, Thunder and Pookie.  For the last eleven years we've all learned to live together in a relatively peaceful household.   About seven months ago Tara found a baby kitten in an abandoned house.  Jason, her husband says she has radar for strays and I tend to agree.  Naturally she rescued him and couldn't find a home for him so in a moment of insanity I agreed to take him since she already has four cats of the her and two dogs.  Enter SkippyJon. For the next five months he made it his life's work to attack me around every corner.  My legs were more scratched and looked worse than when I was a child.  They may never be the same.  Thunder, who is now an old man at almost twelve, found his life to be a living hell too and I found myself spending an inordinately ridiculous amount of time refereeing and herding cats. It seemed that a pattern was emerging...Tara - cats - us .... with more cats... but just as I was about to blame my cat explosion on her, a new development shot down that theory.  Another tuxedo kitten about SkippyJon's age showed up on our window seal one night a couple of months ago.  He was cold and hungry and had no intention of going anywhere ...so what did we do?  Let him in and feed him of course!  Tony said "If you can't find his owner or a new owner, he can stay only if he is an outside cat."  I agreed (ha-ha) knowing that was a silly thing for him to say and for me to agree to.  Who did we think we were fooling.  For the first two nights I fixed him (the cat - not Tony) a nice soft, warm bed complete with heating pad, in the garage.  I told Tony that if the weather got too cold I was going to bring him in and seclude him in the sunroom.  He just sort of grunted.  I knew that he could see right through my thinly veiled intent and he knew I knew.  By the third night he (the cat- not Tony) was IN and had free roam of the house. The other cats all had their panties in a wad and there was a LOT of hissing going on.  I started calling him Milton and he responded readily.  I am convinced that was already his name when he got here. I called all the vet's offices, the animal shelter, put an add in the paper and posters up.  Not one response.  NADA. The second week I took him to my vet, sort of half heartedly hoping that he had a chip and I would call his owner and they would be ecstatic and hurry over to get him and ...... well it was a nice fantasy that didn't happen.  Noooo, I ended up with a vet bill for initial vaccines and Milton ended up with a medical record on my tab.  It's been a little over two months since his arrival and things have settled down remarkably well.  Hissing is down to a minimum and Milton and SkippyJon have now become BFFs and partners in crime.  Their favorite pastime seems to be wrestling in my bathtub and pretending to be great hunters although the backyard squirrels think they are a real joke. Thunder seems relieved to be getting a break though.  A couple of days AFTER  Milton's last vaccines and a little "operation", and I think you know what I mean - I had a message on my answering machine from some lady saying that if I had not found a home for him she'd "take him in".  He has a home thank you.  I erased the message and made the mistake of telling Tony about it.   He has reminded me several times that we could have given her both MIlton and SkippyJon along with a hundred bucks and still come out ahead.  I know he's blowing smoke and he knows I know.  We like to play these little mind games.  My friend Susan, is as soft hearted as I am and never turns a stray away.  At one time she kept saying that she had four inside cats and three strays outside.  One day I told her that she just needed to suck it up and say "My name is Susan and I have seven cats" and just accept the fact. The tables have now turned and she has reminded me of that.  If there was a Cats Anonymous, I would certainly be a prime member.  All in all things could be worse though.  Tony swore we were at our tipping point with four but so far we haven't tipped over with number five.  I hope I am a house cat in my next life and that someone will take me in and love and spoil me rotten. Oh wait a minute ... I AM spoiled rotten.

Mary George

Thunder

Pookie

SkippyJon

   

           

                              
                             blah blah blah... (go ahead and laugh- I know you want to)

                                                                                       

Going in Circles

Bay St. Louis Bridge

My sweetie and I went to Camp Getaway, our house in Bay St. Louis, this weekend and found the weather too oppresive to do much of anything except stay in the air conditioned house.   Well...I'll speak for myself.  Tony put up the last two storm shutters he built and he and SkippyJon, his new worker cat pal, spent some time downstairs doing guy stuff while Pookie, the Queen Kitty, and I stayed upstairs and did our girl stuff...napping, reading, napping; you get the picture.  Seems the two tuxedo cats have claimed Tony as their person but I'll do in a pinch or at meal time. Since it was too hot to launch the boat, we decided to take a ride down hwy 90 Saturday afternoon and go do a little shopping in Gulfport.  I was shocked to see quite a few people on the beach in spite of the heat.  There were also a lot of workers up and down the beach cleaning up any trash, debris or tar balls seen from the oil spill.  We are all relieved that the well cap seems to be holding, that our Mississippi waters were reopened for fishing on Thursday and that the oil seems to be going away much more quickly than anticipated.  The booms are still out and it will be so wonderful when they are gone and no longer mar the beautiful coast line and waters.

Saturday evening just before six o'clock we discussed what we wanted to do for supper.  That's dinner to some of you.  We decided on Ricky's, a local eatery.   I said I could call in our order and go pick it up but he said no let's just go there to eat.  We got there a little after six and found a line out the door so we decided to ride around a little while and then try back.   We rode around old town Bay St. Louis and admired the great old houses and enjoyed the time together.  Thirty minutes later we dicided to go back to Ricky's and hoped that the crowd had thinned.   No luck.  A longer line.  OK, where from here???   We rode around some more and it seemed everywhere we thought we'd like to eat was packed.  By this time it was almost eight o'clock.  We headed back to Ricky's and got inside and put our names on the waiting list.  To our surprise it was only a short while until we were called.   My initial delight was short lived as we were led to the very back table by the bar and the "smokers".  Neither of us can tolerate smoke so we were put back on the waiting list.  It seemed everyone in the place was either just placing their order or had just recieved their food.   I told Tony that we should just place a to go order and come back and get it.  So we did and for another twenty minutes rode the streets of Bay St. Louis up and down and all around.  We both were getting extremely hungry and  a little irritiable.  At eight fifteen we picked up our order and at eight thirty, two hours after I initially offered to pick up an order, we sat down at our dining table to eat our "to go" order!   

A Corner of my Little World

Begin

Rainbows and Lollipops

On my May 10th post, I listed some of my favorite things.  This past week I was able to very much enjoy all but the last one.  

Spending time with my Daughter    
Tony and I took Tara out for a 33rd birthday celebration luncheon Tuesday and then she and I spent the afternoon in the studio playing with our art journaling.  What fun to pull out the scissors and paste and colors and paints and just make a mess which is what we generally make.


 Peanutbutter and Chocolate Ice Cream
My sweetie and I had a nice luncheon today at Rio Grande, went to BAM and then stopped by Baskin Robbins for a special treat. You know someone loves you  when you are already too voluptious and he still buys you ice cream.


My cats' Happy purrs       
Can count on Thunder, Pookie, Mary George and SkippyJon for my daily purr therapy.


Doing anything with my Sweetie
I am a lucky girl because he spends quality time with me every day even if it's just being.

Reading in Bed
Been reading James Patterson's "Deception" every night. It's taking me longer to read a book in bed these days because I read two or three paragraphs and am out like a light.

Writing in My Journal
Have been making a concerted effort to write in my journal more the past few weeks. I have all these thoughts ricochetingy around in my head but often don't slow down enough to put them to paper. The purpose is purely to document my own madness you understand.
The movie - Driving Miss Daisy
Caught the tail end on tv Tuesday night. I've seen it a dozen times and still the scene where Hoke feeds Miss Daisy the pie gets me every time. Something so bitter sweet about it.


Photographing Nature  
I didn't take the first photograph this week.  Had other things to do but hope to have a chance to get out on the water in the Bay next weekend.

All in all a very good week of enjoying a few of my favorite things.

Free Cat ... Anyone?

Toddler SkippyJon being reprimanded by Pookie

                                                         SkippyJon

A few weeks ago we brought a new baby into the house, who quickly grew into a VERY busy toddler and progressed with the speed of light into a delinquent adolescent!   The one and only SkippyJon Jones Stuart.  A little background history...my daughter called me and said she had found a kitten at an abandoned house.  No other kittens nor mama cat in site; no neighbors claimed him.   The next day I get a text from her.  "Do you know anyone who might take the kitten?"   No - I did not.  All of my friends are up to thier eyeballs in free cats and I would never ask that they take on another one.  A a couple of days passed and she was not having any luck adopting him out.   The writing on the wall said she would be throwing him into the mix at her house with four adult cats and two adult dogs; all  rescues.  I had not seen the kitten at this point but I thought about it and asked Tony what I should do.   Do whatever you want to he said so against my better judgement I called her and said I would take him on a trial basis.   Yeah - right.  Here she comes bringing in this miniscule (maybe 9 oz.) ball of black and white fur.  He immediately made himself right at home and I was immediately smitten. What to name him???  After observing his personality I knew right away that it had to be SkippyJon.  For those of you who are children's book lovers, like Tara and I are, you know exactly who he's named after.  SkippyJon Jones, the siamese kitten who thinks he's a mexican chihuahua who goes on wild imaginary adventures.  I was afraid my three adult cats would not take to him very well since they are ten and eleven years old.  My fear was that my big black male cat, Thunder would pounce on him and hurt him.  I knew Pookie would avoid him and Mary George would establish her boundaries and then ignore him.  Well...within a couple of days Mr. SkippyJon was running the joint.  Poor Thunder is the one he has chosen to harrass because Thunder amazingly just sits there and whines while SkippyJon is hanging on to his neck and wrestling him.  I have even found myself encouraging Thunder to take up for himself!   How can someone who weighs (still) less than two pounds, have a nearly twenty pound cat acting like a wuss I ask you!  On the flip side, he has me looking like an abused woman.  Every step I make he is leaping out from behind doors or furniture and pouncing on me like a psycho maniac jungle cat.  My legs are scratched from ankles to knee caps.  I resorted to trying to scare him with a fly swatter and two swats resulted in two injuries ( to me - not him).   I am resolved to take it one day at a time and put him in time out in the sun room with his favorite stuffed rabbit when I can't take another minute of his shenanigans during the day.   On the upside, he has chosen Tony as his person.   All sweetness and licky licky, purr purr.  That's graitutude from a free cat for you!  

A Little Slice of Heaven

                                                                                                            
                                                  6/25/10   Bay St. Louis, MS

  6/25/10 Railroad Bridge - Bay St. Louis, MS

There are moments in life that if we blink we may miss. Moments that are so seemingly simple but leave a lasting imprint on your heart and memory. Last Saturday my Sweetie and I got up at 4 AM and headed out in the boat to watch the sunrise and hopefully catch a few fish. We rode along side by side in the dark; the moon spilling it’s beams on the water and no other humans in sight and as the sun began it’s ascent and the warm rays reached out to us; I realized that was one of those special moments that I will always cherish. Being priviledged and blessed to share the glorious sunrise and the wonder of God’s creation with the one who has been the better part of me for nearly forty years cannot be equaled.  It is these small and yet so very significant moments that I will remember and hold dear.  Truly a little slice of heaven.

Young at Heart vs Biker Chick

 

Marti and Bernie

Sunday Tony came back from running errands and yelled for me to come quick he had something to tell me.  He began by saying that Thames, our air conditioning guy, had called him on his cell phone to say that he had a young lady on the back of his motor cycle and was going to put her on the phone to see if Tony could recognize her voice.  He said that when he heard her voice his ears were telling him he recognized the voice but his brain could not make it sync.  He asked who it was and she cackled and said it was Bernice.  Bernice?!   Bernice - my little 4ft 9" 80 year old Mom Bernice???   Yes she said it certainly was her and that she had not been on a motor cycle in years.  Tony said he literally held the phone away from his ear and looked at it as if an alien voice was being transmitted.   As he was telling me the story I felt like I was trapped in the twilight zone.  Yes, her name is Bernice, yes I know Thames, noooo - a motorcycle in the equation was crazy.   My brain began to frantically search through my mental files to try to make some sense of what he was telling me.  Ok, The Myrtles, the Nursing facility she's in, had had a luau on Tuesday for which I had provided her with a festive outfit, lays and a flower for her hair....now let's see....oh yeah!....now I can see it clearly on the May calendar the Myrtles had sent me....a motorcycle something or another.  I  hadn't paid much attention to it but I'm pretty sure it did not specify that the residents who wanted to would be given a ride.  Who'd a thunk it.  Even so, she is about the last person I would have expected to climb on the back of a harley.  I called her as soon as I thought she would be back in her room and got the scoop.  She was still giddy and said she had not expected to do it but decided why not?  She said she wore a helment and that he didnt go too fast.   I guess I'm a lot surprised that she'd still be willing to take on such adventures but then on the other had I'm really glad she did.  I think it's pretty wonderful that those guys take time to make someone's day a little brighter.  Wish I had been there to take a picture.