The perks of outlet shopping

Wow - It's been almost a month since I last posted and since then a few things have happened. Nothing major though - just a few things here and there. First of all - our radio-active cat Hailie is well on the mend from her hyperthyroidism. Her fur seems to be making a healthy comeback and she's no longer eating us out of house and home. It's been a month since her treatment so she's completely safe to be around and we no longer have to reduce the amount of time we spend around her. That's a plus cause I think she was a bit depressed that we couldn't allow her to sit in our laps for hours at a time.

Other reportable news is my old (well not really "old" as it was barely 10 years old) clothes washer decided to kit the bucket. So we went out and got a new, bigger and more efficient Electrolux washer. Yeah, I had no idea that Electrolux made anything other than vacuum cleaners. But this thing is fantastic. It fits our queen/king comforters with ease and B really likes the blue-tinted LEDs that light up the controls. Not to mention the window in the front so you can actually see it working - which is something that my old washer didn't have.

And now after a fun-filled excursion to Maine this past weekend to meet up with a friend (not to mention over-spend at the outlets) I have yet another addition to my schnazzy laundry room - a brand new utility sink/cabinet! It's so sparkly white I think it's going to take me a long time before I actually use it. After showing it to me last night, my fantastic hubby confided to me that he had been planning to surprise me with a utility sink for quite a while but he never had a chance cause I was always home on the weekends. Well geez - I think I need to go away on weekend shopping trips more often!

The Gamma Girl

Hailie came back home this past Friday to very happy parents and a very miserable brother. Miserable because I think he was getting used to being the only cat. So for the first few days she was home he did nothing but hiss at her. Or maybe it was because she came back home smelling like a veterinary hospital. In any event, she seems thrilled to be back.

In anticipation of her arrival, I spent Thursday night cleaning out her litter box and replacing our current litter with a new corn-derived litter given to us by the vet hospital. Since her poop and pee will be radioactive for the next two weeks, we are required to flush all litter box contents down the toilet. That's all fine until we decided to let her run outside for a bit over the weekend. After spending almost 4 days in a kennel, how could I deny her some fresh air and a little time out in the sun? It wasn't until after the weekend that I discovered that she hadn't used her litter box at all. I wonder if she's retaliating because it's the same litter she had in the hospital? Could a cat develop a hate association with litter? No clue. But all I know is somewhere out in our yard we have a superfund site developing. How nice.

Turning a black cat green...

Since this blog has been dedicated to our two black cats, it only makes sense that I keep my faithful readers updated with their goings-on. Especially when one of them is about to turn green. And by green, I don't mean environmentally friendly. Or in anticipation of St. Patty's day tomorrow. Nope. This type of green reminds me of when I used to work at a large jet engine manufacturer and had to drive by several strange-looking ponds on my way to the parking lot. The water in those ponds looked like something from another planet. It was opaque with not a trace of algae to be seen. The pond itself was so green, I'd classify it as day-glo. Lord only knows what was in that water, but we used to joke that it was some sort of radioactive pit. And hence my connection between that green pond and my green cat. Ok, let me clarify that her fur color won't really be changing to a shade of day-glo green, but as of noon today she will become radioactive in an attempt to cure her feline hyperthyroidism. After a grueling 45 minute drive that included her not only peeing but also pooping in my car (yeah, THAT was a fun ride) we arrived this morning at the only veterinary hospital in the state that specializes in radioactive iodine therapy. And there she must remain, for the next 72 hours before we can bring our radioactive feline back home. Followed by two weeks of care and caution in order to keep ourselves from being exposed to the radiation. So things are going to be interesting here for a little while once she comes back, but it'll be worth it. This procedure has a 99% success rate which is why we decided to bite this very expensive bullet and get her treated. She'll be 10 years old this summer, but she's worth every penny. So even if she comes home glowing, I'll be very happy to have my little girl back.

Criminy... someone should put me in blog-jail!

So apparently I totally forgot I had turned on comment moderation. Here I thought - geeze, no one appears to be commenting on my posts anymore, only to find out I had several MONTHS worth of comments waiting to be published. I must be the worst blog maintainer in the world. So a very big apology to all of my faithful commenters (who really have been commenting all this time!) I have officially published all of them.

And turned off comment moderation cause apparently, it works a little too well!

Where are you spring?

Sorry blog-land. You have been neglected. Hey at least I'm honest. So far I've managed to rack up a total of 2 posts since the start of the year. Compared to my bloggy-friends who seem to write almost everyday, I'm very far behind. And I really have no excuses. My scrapbooking, photo-albuming, and book-writing have suffered just as much, so don't feel bad blogland cause you're not alone. What I have been doing since the beginning of February is taking care of a sick kid, going away on vacation, getting sick while on vacation and being sick again. Actually I think I caught whatever B had before we went away on vacation and getting something else immediately afterward while I was already down for the count. I don't know. What I do know is it's been 2 weeks and I still feel like junk. Given all that, I also haven't been to the gym in a while. I think I'm going to attempt a toning class tonight. I need to ease back into it (and all the other things I've been neglecting lately.)

I think this entire household has a bad case of cabin fever. We're so ready for spring. But today's snowfall isn't helping matters one bit.

One scary-lookin' groundhog

I was thoroughly not surprised to hear the verdict this morning from our state's own resident groundhog. That's right, forget Punxsutawney Phil, we've got our own Chuckles to make the prediction for this state. And guess what? There'll be 6 more weeks of winter for us. Yip-freakin'-ee.

After reading a local news article, though, I'm a bit concerned with Chuckles' prediction abilities:

Chuckles has had a bit of a troubled past, the Courant reports. She had been hit by a car and had a head injury, leaving her with permanent neurological damage, museum director Bob Eckert told the paper.

"Her balance might be a little off and she stares at you weird," Animal Curator Sarah Wilby told the Courant, "but her vision hasn't been affected."

So there you have it. A groundhog who suffered from head trauma and has neurological issues is responsible for predicting our state's weather for the next 6 weeks. Sound a bit odd to you? Forget odd, I think the rodent might even be possessed. Either that or she does not care much for photographers.


"Mwahaha... it'll be 6 more weeks of bitter cold for you, my pretty..."

Happy New Year! (yes I know I'm 12 days late...)

So it's already 12 days into the new year and I'm finally getting around to posting my first post of 2010. Apparently keeping the blog up-to-date was not one of my new years resolutions. Which is why I never make new years resolutions. It's just another task on my chore list that I can never keep on top of so why should I deliberately set myself up for failure??

On the plus side I have been keeping up my latest endeavor - going to the gym! That's right folks, I finally caved and bought a gym membership, but not before getting to try out the equipment and the classes for free for the month of December! How can you beat that?! (And no this is not a new year's resolution. Since I decided to join back in December, it doesn't count!) I got hooked on zumba, became tangled like a pretzel in yoga and started feeling stronger after toning. And that's just a very small sample of the classes this place offers. So far I've been making it 2-3 times a week, which, for the die-hard fitness fanatics, is not a good track record. But coming from someone who has resisted getting a membership for years (cause I live in the hills and jogging around our neighborhood is a better workout than any treadmill could ever offer) I feel as though that's a major accomplishment. So now I'm hooked on cardio and the weight machines and if I have time I try to squeeze a class in there as well. And I think it's paying off! I have more energy, feel stronger already and (this is the best part) have been sickness free since I caught the flu back in November. That alone is definitely worth the $30 spent per month. By now I have usually endured at least one cold between the holidays and would battle at least another one or two before the warmer temps kick in. Here's hoping I remain sickness-free for the rest of this horribly cold and snow-deprived winter!