What I did on my Christmas Vacation

We left home and drove 12 hours to get to Gregg's dads in Berrien Springs, Michigan. We had a good trip. Carrie did not really sleep, this is a self portrait.















We spent lots of time walking. We went to Warren dunes and walked up to look over the other side.















This is Gregg and I with David, Gregg's step-brother, his mom Freda and Gregg's dad Jack. Most of us made it to the top. It was a nice sunny day, tho cold and windy at the beach.











This is the lighthouse at St. Joe, Michigan. We had fun walking out to the end of it.

We had a nice visit with Jack and Freda, David, Chuck and Luvre and their doggies. Jack has done lots of work on the house and looks good. Freda, as always, kept us full of good food.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

I got a new job! I turned in my notice today! YES!

I start my new job Jan. 2. It is in Winston Salem at another Internal Medicine practice. I will be working 10 hr days M-Th. I get every Friday off!

Yeah for me!

It's Beginning to Smell a Lot Like Christmas

For your imagining pleasure, these are orange/vanilla flavored.

Notice the Christmas Meezers. They are new, I usually do Christmas Cows.

Bad Pics

Here are my worst pics from Thanksgiving weekend. I think we got a lousy shot of everyone, if not it wasn't for lack of trying.

Lets see: we have me on a bad hair day with 3 meezers trying to escape.

Maggie, bored silly.

A lopsided photo of Grandma trying to get rid of Maggie.

Solomon not participating.

Gregg and Grant, the rednecks in the backyard shooting bottles with the BB gun.

Carrie & Grant making scary self portraits.

Grandpa cogitating.

Oreo loosing her mind in a pile of leaves.

Gregg and Oreo, the couch potatoes

Yep thats pretty much everybody.

The Nine

Here are my nine critters: From left to right Sheba (momma meezer), Myrrh (daughter meezer), Solomon (dad meezer), Lynx aka the "Path of Destruction" (Maine Coon mix), Maggie (GR), Jaz (&Carrie), Oreo Blizzard (& Carrie, "turkey hound"), Lily (daughter meezer), Mia (Persian).

Most of theses pics were taken by me except for Lynx, was shot by Gregg, the pics with Carrie are self portraits.

Gloom, dispair and agony on me!

Stress! This is a venting post. Nobody has to listen. I just need to vent.

The job gets worse. More and more demanded of us with less staff. People have left and not been replaced. We have "No one" in charge of medical records, and they sure weren't trained very well. We all take turns doing this chore, which for us old people is hard on the old bones. I have never been in a doctor's office like this. Imagine with people pulling your charts and bringing you messages, on the wrong chart, don't belong to your Doctor, are useless messages and worse. And if they can't find the chart (about 20% of the time) the notes get thrown at us and we are supposed to scour the entire building for it.

We keep getting moved around and its very frustrating trying to keep up with a Dr. you don't know very well and trying to keep them happy and productive. Management does not have any medical training and makes decisions for financial reasons only. They are big on surveys that show how well we are doing and of course statistics mean nothing except that the form was filled out. And they just plain are not very nice. Most folks are really unhappy, I am continually reassured that its not "just me".

Now they are changing our insurance. We have our choice between a very expensive/annoying Blue Cross plan and Cigna. Well Cigna is dirt cheap and I'm sure the coverage will be comparable. Cigna is notoriously a difficult company to deal with and they don't pay their Doctor's very well so its hard to find one that takes Cigna. Its mind boggling to me to try to figure this $%^# stuff out (sorry for the French mom)! Coverage is next to impossible to pin down. I did find participating doctors, but can't find pharmacies or drug formularies. I spent 2 hours trying to figure this out. Of course the company was NO help at all "just go to the website". And we had to do this all on our own time. That really made me mad. Don't they know I have kitty litter to scoop?

Anyway, I have been looking for a job since I got here. I've had a few interviews and either no good responses, (one really good interview the Dr. developed leukemia and had to retire) or the jobs weren't satisfactory. It's amazing how many people want to hire slaves.

So I signed up for the cheap insurance and hope I find a better job before this comes back to bite me.

Things are better at home. The kitties are havin fun. Solomon continues to torment Mia. Maggie got spayed and seemed really sad at first but feels better now that her staples are out. (I took her staples out myself, I had a surgical staple remover left over from when Carrie was born. We had to clip and fish out a few as they were kinda small. Maggie is a very patient patient.) She has started this really cute thing of getting in the bed with me as soon as Gregg gets up to get his shower.

I do have a hard time getting up in the morning as I usually have a dog laying on me, a cat on my head and one or two cats on my feet.

Oh well, thats enough for now. Aren't you glad I don't have pics of all this joy?

Sunday Funnies

Solomon and I had some nice "outdoor time" today. It was a beautiful fall day so I got the Sunday paper to read on the front porch.
Solomon had fun hiding in the paper and pouncing on it.
His favorite thing was paper tents. He was invisible.

Solomon in Autumn

Solomon the porch monkey.



Me and Solomon ( a self portrait)














The yard.

Funny song!

Try this web site. It will give you something to sing about. www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama.php

WE WENT TO THE FAIR!

This is the Dixie Classic Fair in Winston-Salem. We got in that night for 5 cans of food each. Some chick sang too but we were there for the Jars of Clay. I don't know why my blog underlines everything. Somebody help me!At first they sang a bunch on new song off the new CD including "Dead Man" (as in tired of the old man, in with a new plan. It was fun to watch the concert and have all the lights and the action in the background. Gregg got tired of staying in one place and he was able to get up close and get some good pics.
We had a great time the encore was the best part of the concert. My favorite song they played was "Nothing But the Blood"

Cat Pictures

This is Solomon, the daddy cat. (Never to be daddy again, he's been tutored) He had to have a bath cuz he was very dirty. He was pretty good, even though he didn't appreciate the bath much. He didn't say no bad words, and he didn't try to hurt me. He liked the warm towel at the end the best.
This is Sheba and Solomon's daughter Myrrh. She a very sweet kitty and is a lot like her meowmy.
This is Sheba, she's the meowmy cat and my bestest friend.


This is not a picture of Lily as she ran away. I gave her a bath on Tuesday and she is STILL MAD about it. I thought she had forgiven me but I guess I was mistaken. :(

Testing Testing

This is Maggie. I took this picture all by myself with a digital camera! Carrie had to help me figure out how to find the card in the camera and how to put the pics on the computer. One day I may be as good as Carrie at this.

The "Cheri" Doll

I found this on the Siamese Internet site. Comments included, "why only one meezer? " and "pfft only 8 cats, amateur!" I of course think she needs some dogs too.

I don't want to go back to work.

Its Monday night. Gotta go back to work tomorrow. Dr. Andrews won't be there all day so I gotta do medical records/filing. It is actually pretty rough work. A lot of walking bending and lifting. Its gonna be busy being the first day back after a holiday. Oh well. Gotta feed the kitty cats.

We had a relaxing weekend. I am almost done with Carrie's quilt. I just have to put the back on it. Am looking forward to going to Southern this weekend to see the kids. Jason, Tonda and Grandma Dut will come up too. Don't know if Jeremy will make it.

I took Maggie and Oreo for a walk today. Sheba wanted to come but she's in heat and I thought she might try to bolt so I didn't take her. She is really yowling a lot, she sounds miserable.

Myrrh tried to help with Carrie's quilt. It makes me a little nervous to be pounced on when I have a needle in my hand. I'd have everything all flat and she'd wad it all up. Her and Lily both try to sleep on in or play in it when I have it on the sewing maching. I have the ironing board out as the quilt needs frequent pressing. Did you know 4 cats can sleep on an ironing board at once? (Don't worry, I always unplug and remove the iron between uses) I have a iron shaped hole in the carpet from Lynx in our house in Rockwell.

Well time to sign off, gotta get up early:(.

Help needed

This was written to help people who are thinking of giving up pets due to a new baby a chance to stop and think about what they are doing:

HELP NEEDED ASAP:
Please help!!!! After two long years of being on a waiting list for a cat, we have been notified by breed rescue that, at long last, our number has come up and ... WE ARE HAVING A KITTEN!!!
We must get rid of our children IMMEDIATELY because we just know how time consuming our new little kitten is going to be and it just wouldn't be fair to the children. Since our little kitten will be arriving on Monday we MUST place the children up for adoption this weekend!
They are described as:
One male - His name is Tommy, Caucasian (English/Irish mix), light blonde hair, blue eyes. Four years old. Excellent disposition. He doesn't bite. Temperament tested. Does have problems with peeing directly in the toilet. Has had chicken Pox and is current on all shots. Tonsils have already been removed.
Tommy eats everything, is very clean, house trained & getsAlong well with others. Does not run with scissors and with a little training he should be able to read soon.
One female - Her name is Lexie, Caucasian (English/Irish mix),Strawberry blonde hair, green eyes quite freckled. Two years old. Can be surly at times. Non-biter, thumb sucker. Has been temperament tested but needs a little attitude adjusting occasionally. She is current on all shots, tonsils out, and is very healthy & can be affectionate.
Gets along well with other little girls & little boys but does not like to share her toys and therefore would do best in a one child household. She is a very quick learner and is currently working on her house training-shouldn't take long at all.
We really do LOVE our children so much and want to do what's right for them; that is why we contacted a rescue group. But we simply can no longer keep them. Also, we are afraid that they may hurt our new kitten.
I hope you understand that ours is a UNIQUE situation and we have a real emergency here!!! They MUST be placed into your rescue by Sunday night at the latest or we will be forced to drop them off at the orphanage or along some dark, country road. Our priority now has to be our new kitten .

It's raining its pouring, the old man snores regardless :)

It started yesterday about the time I got off work. Rained so hard I could hardly see to get home. I needed to stop and get gas but I was afraid to stop. It raineds so hard yesterday our roof leaked! In the back corner by Grants window. It was dripping in the kitchen. Myrrh and Lily noticed it first and were horrified.

It wasn't bad this morning until just now. I got home from Wally World and had gotten the groceries in the car with it only misting. By the time I got to Wallburg it was raining really heavy again. I had to dash in with only the perishables. The rest will have to stay in the car until it lets up a little.

Lynx has moved to the top of the "China Cabinet" (its not a hutch just a cabinet with china in it. She pushed my big wooden cow that Rhonda gave me, off and broke 3 of her legs. I need to go move the cobalt blue bottle that is very close to the edge. Ok the bottle is safe now. I think Lynx is mad because we switched to soymilk. I bought some canned milk (her favorite) at Walmart today maybe she'll forgive me. Lynx is aka "the path of destruction".

I guess we need this rain. I think Ernesto is finally here.

CHECK OUT THIS SITE!

http://www.broenink-art.nl/maukie2.swf

SABBATH ACTIVITIES

We had a full day yesterday. Fred Rogers spoke at church and told us about his work with Native Americans. It was fun to talk to him, I told him about the puppy we named after him and he just giggled. He is a very nice man and we enjoyed his presentation.

There was a puppy at church too. A nice little white spotty dog with a brown patch over one eye, very soft wavy coat. Some thought he was part Aussie Shepherd. He had a collar on but no tags, he was skinny and had some damage on his ear. Lori took him down to the corner vet to get him scanned to see if he was chipped. He was not. Will had gone with her and he is in love with that dog. They already have 2 cats in a townhouse. Will's grandpa (Dan Tullock) took the puppy to their house as they have a dog and the room to keep the pup until the owner can be located or a new home found. Yeah right, Will has a new puppy!

For pics of the rest of the activities click on Gregg's blog.

You can see Lily and Myrrh had a fine time in the yard. Myrrh enjoyed tusseling with her dad and Lily played "jungle cat" in the ornamental grass.

Maggie and Oreo were really good at Stone Mountain. They only flattened a few children. They rode nicely in their new car hammock that Aunt Tonda got them.

Today I am totally wore out. I can hardly move my left arm after being pulled down the trail by dawgs all day, and my ankles! I'm gettin too old, either that or I need to do this more often.

Meezer spoken here.

K this looks much better. I did a little renovation. Like it? This is much more "me" the previous blog was much more "Carrie" which is fine but I gotta be me.

In case anyone was wondering "meezer" is slang for Siamese, as in cats. I spend a lot of time on the Siamese Internet Cat Club and we have our own language and its kinda fun. Cats are referred to by the color of their points as in seal, blue, lilac or lynx. Geezers are old meezers, children are pinkpoints. Husbands are DH (dear hubby) There's lots more and many times I find myself wondering what everyone is talking about but I'm getting the hang of it. Mostly there are a lot of really nice pics of everybody's furkids.

I have met people from all over. Most of the people are women but there are a few guys. One is a pro-wrestler and he's also really into cat nutrition. I've met people from near Grayling MI, California, and England, one was from Richmond VA, she found out I was vegtarian and said oh are you an Adventist? She had a friend who went to Walla Walla and was in Italy in a program similar to the one Grant did in Spain.

Well I talked to both Carrie and Grant today. They seem to be doing fine. Its nice to hear from my kinds even when they are just goofin off.

Later.

I have nothing to say.

Well I'm looking at my blog and I see that mostly I have put up stuff other people have written. I wonder why that is. I do have things going on in my life. Carrie moved away. Grant came home but he left again. His car died after he got to college. Well lets just say its sick and we hope it will recover. I got new tires on the front. Drives much better now. Work is busy. The general public is still crazy.

Today is our 28th anniversary. Didn't ever think I'd get this old.

Got the kitties sparkle balls today-that was a big hit!

What an entrancing life!

BAD HAIR DAY?

AN IMPORTANT LESSON

My new home security force.

funny cats

This is a new ad for my office featuring some of my co-workers.

Cat Name Suggestions

I found these names on the Siamese Cat site. These are names of two actual cats. Mickey Blue Eyes and his brother Squirty Bob Fairy Pants. I'm not sure if I want to know how "Squirty" got his name but it sure did give me a giggle.

catsdontlisten

Well Sunday is the big day. Grant goes back to Southern. I'm just getting over him being gone soooooooooo long. At least he won't be so far away. It was fun having him home, but I think he is bored and will be glad to get back to his friends.

Monday its back to me & the old man(and all the critters of course).

Breaking News

From the Vatican: The Pope has just been diagnosed as having a serious case of bird flu! Is seems that he got it from his Cardinals.


Recently a re-discovered Biblical text was found. Its called the Book of Irrelevation. It was not included in the Bible though because it didn't have anything important in it.

For Carrie- Bird Jokes

What do you get when you cross a lawn mower with a canary? Shredded Tweet!


What do you get when you kiss a bird? Chirpees! But its tweetable.

A very hard math question

Two ducks in front of a duck. Two ducks in back of a duck. How many ducks are there?

For Canada

What do you call a dinosaur thats terrorizing Canada? A Toronto-saurus Rex!

Molebutts

Three ground-moles were curled up, sleeping together in a hollow log. One mole said, "I smell honey." The next mole said, "I smell sorghum". The third mole said 'All I smell is a bunch of molasses."

A Joke for Carrie aka snake woman

The police found a man dead. He'd been strangled by a boa constrictor. Cause of death was listed as a reptile dysfuntion.

Be careful out there.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood.

Your Inner Child Is Surprised

You see many things through the eyes of a child.Meaning, you're rarely cynical or jaded.You cherish all of the details in life.Easily fascinated, you enjoy experiencing new things.

How'>http://www.blogthings.com/howisyourinnerchildquiz/">How Is Your Inner Child?

fun things

Hickory dickory dock.
Two mice ran up the clock.
The clock struck one.
The other one got away.

Mary had a little lamb,
its fleece was white as snow.
And every where that Mary went,
she stepping in lamb poop.

Who's the most famous singing elephant?
Harry Elephante

catsdontlisten

catsdontlisten

You Are: 30% Dog, 70% Cat

You and cats have a lot in common. You're both smart and in charge - with a good amount of attitude.However, you do have a very playful side that occasionally comes out!

Are You More Cat or Dog?

catsdontlisten

REO Reo is gone to his furever home. Poor Lily kept coming to me yesterday crying and looking for him. Sheba and Myrrh are looking for him too but Lily has been the most persistant. Its a relief to have found him a really nice home.

catsdontlisten

I got an email from a prospective buyer for Reo. I'm so glad somebody wants him! They moved recently and I told them I'd be glad to hold him for them if they wanted me to. The have asked lots of questions and seem to genuinely want him.

That means my first litter went the way I was hoping. My next goal is to locate a stud cat for breeding the spring. Sheba will be ready in January. Lily and Myrrh will be ready in March. I'm wondering if it would be better to breed all 3 at once or stagger them. It would be a big job to have 3 litters at once but they would have each other. Otherwise I'm going to be tied down for several months. Hm, what to do.

Meezers

These are 2 of my girls Lily and Myrrh

catsdontlisten

I got this pic off Mary Jane's blog. I have no idea what it has to do with cats and letting them out of bags.

Ok 1st time blogger here. I've been having fun reading Carrie's blogs and her friends. I need to figure out how to set all this up now. I feel lost. Oh well it will come.