Sophie was spayed on Tuesday. She came home wearing an E-collar which lasted for about 5 hours. I’m sure it would have come off sooner, but she was still drugged enough from the anesthetic so that she slept for awhile. I tried to keep the cone on her, but she was having none of that and ripped it off again. So I gave up for the night.

I read online that some people use baby onesies to keep their animals from messing around with stitches. So I stopped at Target on my way home from work the next day. I don’t know how all those people online were able to get the onesie on their animals, but Sophie let me know in no uncertain terms that she was not going to wear one of these! After numerous scratches, I decided what would be would be and just left her alone. So far all has worked out well. I kept her on pain meds for the first day or two and then stopped that as well. She seems to be healing well and is almost back to normal. She’s eating like a little pig and runs and jumps up onto everything! I’ll take her back on the 11th to have her stitches removed.

And then we’ll start teaching her how to go outdoors. I’ll probably block the back fence with bricks so she can’t crawl under it. Otherwise, I’m hoping Nate will teach her the ropes. Once she figures out about coming inside for her food, I think she’ll be fine…provided she doesn’t decide to wander too far from home.

And there will now be no babies. Having kittens around is lots of fun, but they eventually turn into cats. The three cats I have are more than enough…for now!

The rain started today and is supposed to continue through Saturday. But I’m not complaining. My plants need the rain as does my yard. And, as long as it stops sometime on Saturday, I’m okay with it. I just want one day of working in the yard this weekend. Since this is a long weekend (President’s Day on Monday), I should get that day. I’d rather do the work on Sunday in order to take advantage of trash pickup on Monday. We’ll see.

Don’t know what else I’ll do this weekend, but am hoping to get bunches of stuff accomplished around the house. And then I can start in on all the projects: dehoarding and scanning photos. Not sure what my mood will be.

I am getting lots done at work and am hopeful I can get some dehoarding done in my office soon…as well as getting caught up on filing and such. Rain seems to spur me on both at home and in the office for some reason.

It was beautiful weather here all weekend, so I decided to spend it outdoors. I started in the front yard on Saturday, planting two new rose bushes along the driveway. Because the rosebed looked really messy, and because I could see lots of leaves that had built up under the bushes along the driveway, I decided to clean it out. I filled up about half of the yard waste can with the leaves–and that was only along the driveway side! I’ll clean out the other side next Saturday. Then I fertilized all the roses along the driveway and planted and fertilized 6 rose bushes in the backyard flowerbed, saving room for two additional roses that Vanessa got me for my birthday. They should arrive in a few weeks.

I bought some succulents when I bought the rose bushes at Home Depot and replanted my succulent pot near the front porch and also put in a new bed of succulents along the other side of the driveway. Hopefully they all do well.

Today I dug out two old (and practically dead) rose bushes out front in the strip of land between the sidewalk and the curb and put in two new roses. And I planted a new gardenia bush along the front walkway next to the garage. Finally I did some weed pulling in the backyard.

Then I decided to come indoors and watch the Super Bowl. I should have continued to work outside. I mostly wanted to see the commercials and so far have been disappointed. And I’m not a football fan so I really don’t care about who wins the game.

Ah well, it was a productive weekend and I feel good about all that I got done. Will finish it all up next weekend and then be ready to enjoy my yard for the spring and summer. And then get busy on cleaning out the garage!

What a devil she is! Nate and Hayes got into lots when they were little, but nothing like Sophie! Over the past week she has shredded a roll of toilet paper, knocked over a dish from my dresser filled with earrings and pins (resulting in earrings everywhere!), knocked over a lamp on my dresser, pulled the caps off the bolts holding the toilets to the ground, flipped the cats’ water dish twice, shredded one of the curtains in the family room, and climbed the lace curtains in the living room. And this is only in one week–and all that I can remember! I can only hope that she settles down after she gets fixed on March 1.

But she’s so cute and cuddly.

Good lord…that day has come! Back when Paul McCartney sang that song, 64 seemed such a long way off. Even my parents weren’t 64 back then. So, even though I’m not ready, 64 has finally arrived. I am grateful that I’m still able to do lots more than my mother could when she reached this age. In fact, I can do more than many of my friends can/could do at this age. I’m in relatively good health since “Chuck” vacated my body last spring and feel pretty good most days.

Spent most of the weekend doing things I really like. Talked with all my family members for a good portion of the day on Saturday, planted some pansies in my front flowerbed and then went to dinner at The Claim Jumper with Patrick and Veronica. Had hoped to plant my roses today until I read the packages and realized they need to soak in water overnight before planting. So that will wait until next weekend. Instead I trimmed one of my night-blooming jasmine bushes as well as part of the cape cod honeysuckle bush. I had just finished clearing the leaves from the bed of succulents alongside my driveway when the heavy rain started. Still got wet, but managed to get the full yard waste can out to the street for pick up tomorrow. In between all this I was able to watch most of the Lakers/Celtics game, but turned it off before the end. It was that bad.

So 64 is starting off fairly well…in fact, much better than I had expected it to be when I first heard that song! Another milestone out of the way!

Kevin and Soula gave me a Home Depot gift card for Christmas. Today I went on a shopping spree with Vanessa at Home Depot. Bareroot roses are available right now, so I figured this was the best time to make my gift card go further. And it turned out to be a really good deal at $5 each! I got 10 roses, a gardenia bush, a bunch of succulents and some treated lumber to cut and make into boxes to surround the roses already in my front yard. I also got 3 packs of pansies for the front flowerbed and some pots and soil for repotting two orchids in my office at work. Wow! So next weekend will be spent working in the yard and I am so looking forward to it! A great way to spend my birthday weekend!

I did a lot of inside stuff this weekend–lots of cleaning in the kitchen, purging of 3 file cabinets and removal of a lot of old books. Most of the books will be donated to a woman at work who distributes them around town to homeless shelters. And most of the rest was paper that will be recycled. The best part is that I have everything sorted in my file drawers and even have some empty space!

While I’d like to keep up the purging/dehoarding next weekend, I’d rather treat myself to gardening. That, too, needs to be done and the inside stuff can wait until the next rainy day.

I spent most of the day on Saturday putting Christmas away…finally! Had hoped to do this over New Year’s weekend, but came down with an awful cold instead! The cold has hung around for almost 2 weeks, and I think I’m almost rid of most of it now. Got everything down outside last weekend, but that just about did me in (even with Patrick’s help) so I gave up on the inside stuff. So on Saturday I just started in and didn’t stop until it was all packed up…5 hours later!

Today I unpacked all the carnival glass and other tidbits and dusted all the furniture as I put everything back in place. I would have rather been outdoors since the temps have been in the 80’s, but I just had to get all this finished. Tomorrow I’m off for MLK Day so will haul all the crates out to the garage and then will finally spend some time outdoors trimming back my roses! I have tons of lemons and tangelos right now, so will also try to get some of them picked so I can take them to work before they are too ripe.

I’m actually glad that all the Christmas decorating is over. I love the way my house looks when it’s decorated but it just takes so much effort to do the decorating and then so much more to put it all away. I know it would be extremely difficult not to have the house decorated at Christmas, but I think I need to start paring things back somewhat. I’m getting tired of spending so much time doing this every year. For now, though, it’s over and I can forget about how much time it takes until next year.

Meanwhile, my house and all the glassware is a lot cleaner than it was before all the decorating happened. Thankfully, I washed all the carnival glass and Occupied Japan pieces before packing them up. Still have more cleaning to do, but that will have to wait until I get the outdoor stuff done tomorrow. Maybe I’ll have time for some of it tomorrow but, if I don’t, it will have to wait another week. One of these days maybe I’ll have it all cleaned at the same time.

I spent a good portion of the weekend in front of the TV, watching CNN. On Saturday, a crazy man in Tucson, AZ killed 6 people and wounded 14, including a Congressional Representative. I just don’t understand why these things continue to happen. The guy is obviously mentally ill. Back in the day (early 70’s) I worked for the University of Toledo School of Law Mental Health Clinic. Our office was located at the Toledo Mental Health Center, a mental hospital where they routinely locked up crazy people. I worked with legal interns and a law professor (Robin Kennedy) to help get people out who were able to function outside on their own. There were few who qualified to be released back then.

Today mental hospitals are a thing of the past. Families routinely had relatives ‘committed’ to mental hospitals when they exhibited signs of paranoia, schiztophrenia, etc. Today there is no where for mentally ill people to be confined. So they wind up buying guns and killing innocent people. The mental hospitals (also known as State Hospitals in many places) were shut down because of continual problems with the care provided these people–and procedures that were no doubt harmful to the patients.

While I understand a lot of the reasoning for closing down the mental hospitals, it seems there ought to be some type of an alternative–other than jails. Maybe then we wouldn’t have crazy people wandering the streets with guns and killing people.

It’s been a rough two days at work. We’re trying to close out 2010 and I need to get everything entered as quickly as possible, but still not make mistakes. And it’s been brutal. I’ve got about 60-70% of the entries completed, and hope to have all finished by the end of the week. Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to do all this while I’m sick! I came down with a miserable cold on New Year’s Day and just can’t seem to knock it out of my system. I think it will just have to run it’s course.

As a result of all this (and after working late tonight), I decided to soak in a hot tub. The cats were thrilled! Hayes stood on the side of the tub waiting for it to fill while Nate jumped up on the 6′ wall at the end of the tub to oversee everything. Sophie stood waiting, not sure what she should do. As the tub filled, I got into the nice warm water. Hayes began his routine of purring and rubbing against my head and then became very impatient waiting for the water to reach a level where he could begin drinking. For whatever reason, Hayes loves drinking warm bath water and, as a result, I have to wait for him to finish drinking before I can begin using any soap or shampoo.

Once the water reached the right level Hayes began sipping the water, Sophie decided to jump up on the side as well, and Nate figured it was time for him to come down and see what was going on. And so I became surrounded by cats as I laid back in the tub. As I began to lather up, both Nate and Hayes realized it was time to leave and jumped down. Sophie, however, still not understanding about water, decided to hang out and paw at my toes under the water.

Finally, it was time for me to get out. As I dried off and the water drained, Sophie stood fascinated on the side of the tub. Finally she couldn’t stand it any longer and, with the water level at about 1-1/2″, she jumped in! It was hilarious! Sopping wet she leaped out, not knowing what to do. She dripped all over the floor and then headed back up on the side to continue watching the water drain. She was just fascinated–and couldn’t understand what happened when all the water disappeared.

So now the entire group is hanging out here in my office while I type–Nate on top of the laptop, Hayes in one of the cat beds and Sophie curled up on top of the carpeted scratching post. Soon I’ll be off to bed and they’ll all come racing in to join me. Such great kitties I have!

And so the first decade of the 21st century ends. Lots has happened over the past 10 years…and lots in just the past year. Since the year 2000 we’ve gone through many bad and good times. Not that long ago the most troublesome thing in our lives was all the hoopla about the year 2K stuff. Ah, the good old days.

In my personal life I’ve seen my son Kevin get married (to Chrysoula) and have a son of his own (Robin), and my other son Patrick become engaged (to Veronica). In addition, both boys have left the confines of my home and have moved through numerous jobs to finally land in secure jobs that both really like. Kevin moved to San Jose and then to Seattle while Patrick stayed close by in Sierra Madre.

I’ve also suffered through the loss of my sister Jean as well as the loss many good friends and relatives. I’ve had two surgeries (gallbladder and hysterectomy) but have recovered well from both. I’ve suffered through the deaths of two dogs (Darwin and Murphy) and four cats (Puto, Baby, Loki and Honey). I’ve had the joy of welcoming my wonderful grandson Robin into my life as well as three new cats (Nate, Hayes and Sophie).

I’m still working in the same job at All Saints Church and am still living in the same home I’ve been in since 1986. I’ve made many changes in my house (new paint, new roof, new windows, new bathroom), but it’s still basically the same house–just improved. And now, it’s just me here every night instead of lots of teens and twenty-somethings! The ’empty nest’ is quite comfortable, thank you!

In our country we’ve seen terrorist attacks, two wars, a severe recession, many natural disasters and the election of our first African-American president. There have also been many unbelievable changes like cellphones that do everything, huge high definition tv’s, small computers that do lots more than the old big ones (that we used to think were small), video cameras built into computers that allow for video phone calls, digital books, and Facebook! The technology changes alone are mind-boggling!

Lots more has happened with both family and friends including the births of many new great-nieces, great-nephews and children of friends. And some of my siblings have become grandparents, some have moved to new locations and homes, some have had job changes and some have had medical problems. And I’ve developed new friendships and have become even closer with many old friends.

And so we head into the next decade. I hope that the losses and difficult times are few, and that the joys and amazing changes are many!

Happy New Year to everyone!!!

I just checked the thermometer–32 degrees!!! And it’s 10:00 pm. That means it’s going to get colder as the night goes on. I can’t remember the temperature ever being this cold for as long as I’ve lived in So.Cal. I’m hopeful that my outdoor plants survive as my front porch is loaded with plants that are normally considered house plants. Not much I can do since I have no where to put them indoors. And the cats would no doubt destroy them (and get sick in the process) so I’ll just have to wait and see.

Patrick and Veronica are headed up to Big Bear for the weekend–where the temperature is dropping to 6 degrees tonight! I hope they both have plenty of warm clothes. They probably won’t think it’s cold at all when they get back after spending 2-3 days in single-digit temperatures!

Life has been so busy these last few weeks, and I have totally forgotten to update this blog. So here goes almost two weeks worth of catching up.

First, the weather. It started raining on Friday, the 17th, and it didn’t stop again until Thursday, the 23rd. A week of non-stop rain and almost 1/2 of our normal annual rainfall in one week! I’ve never seen so much continuous heavy rain in my entire life. When we lived in Ohio we had long periods of rain, but nothing like this. It would occasionally stop. This didn’t…for an whole week. Then we got a break for two days and it started back up again late on Christmas Day. It rained all night last night and stopped by early morning. Latest word is that we’ll get more rain on Wednesday and then will have another few days of dryness. I have a feeling this is going to be an extremely wet winter. I don’t mind this too much provided it’s only once in a while. Maybe the drought will finally end.

And then there’s the Lakers. One of Patrick’s coworkers won tickets to the Christmas Day game in the office raffle…and she gave the tickets to me! I knew she (as well as Patrick) had entered the raffle, but I never expected either of them to win. And Terri did! So Patrick and I went to the game. It was extremely fun and I have no regrets about delaying Christmas dinner…and I hope Veronica didn’t mind too much. It would have been a much nicer day if the Lakers had won but what can you do. It was a great experience to go to the game–and we had really great seats!

Finally, there’s Christmas. It was fabulous! It started out with Patrick and Veronica and a number of friends joining us for Christmas Eve–and lots of food. And then there was Christmas Day. Enjoyed a great dinner of goose, duck, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole and lots of other yummy treats. And then there were the great gifts. Kevin and Soula sent gift cards for Home Depot and eBay, and Patrick and Veronica got me a Sony Reader and a gift card for the Reader…plus a lot of other goodies. It was really a good day.

I was exhausted after two late nights and slept for 10 hours last night! And then I did nothing but lay around today. I still have two more days off from work, so will try to do something a bit more productive before heading back to work. And now off to work so that I don’t spend half the morning in bed tomorrow!

Yesterday I also bought a new coffee pot for me since mine stopped working last week. When I unpacked it I was totally grossed out to realize it had been used! And the worst part was that it hadn’t been cleaned–there was coffee residue in the filter basket! So I packed it back up to return to Target.

Yesterday when I pulled into the Target parking lot I got a space just outside the front door. The store was almost empty and I had no problem walking right up to a checkout counter after shopping. Tonight was a different story. The lot was packed and I had to park at the far end and walk quite a ways to the front door. The return counter had a line of 6-8 people and the store was filled. I think it had to do with today being the 15th of the month, payday for many people.

Am really glad I did my actual shopping yesterday. Probably wouldn’t have found Patrick’s gift if I had waited until today.

I’m getting there! Finished all the family in Washington and checked today to find out everything has been delivered! Yay! Then tonight I finally came up with a gift for Patrick and stopped on the way home to purchase it. Also found a second gift for him while buying the first one. Still have some gifts to be ordered from Amazon for out of town kids and still have to get some stuff for Veronica, but that’s about it. It’s actually been easier than I had anticipated when I first started thinking about Christmas shopping a few weeks ago–when I had no idea what I was getting anyone!

I’m off work on Friday and am planning to get up early to finished up the shopping. Then I’ll be stopping at the grocery to pick up all the baking supplies. I expect to start in on the Christmas cookies either Friday afternoon or Saturday…provided I’ve finished the shopping!

The boys went in for their annual checkup today. Jenny (the vet’s technician who fostered them) got to see them for the first time since last December. She couldn’t believe how big they had gotten since a year ago! Nate was his usual impressive self with his beautiful sleek coat. Hayes looked like a big teddy bear. Nate now weighs 10 lbs and Hayes still weighs 17 lbs–even though I’ve had him on the weight loss food for about 3 weeks. I think he’s sneaking some of Nate’s food!

Due to early darkness in the evening, neither of them can go outdoors until the weekends. As a result, they get very little exercise. Nate gets a bit during his nightly chases through the house with Sophie, but not nearly as much as he used to get when he could go outdoors. They’ll get a bit more outdoor time soon when I’m off during the holidays. Let’s hope it doesn’t rain.

Nice thing about taking them to the vet is getting their claws trimmed! Jenny does this at no charge and both of them sit still for her to do it! I have a claw trimmer, but can’t get either one of them to let me do it. Hayes especially cries whenever I try to do a trim. You would think I was cutting off his paws! At least I can relax for a few weeks knowing I’m not going to be covered with puncture wounds and scratches!

I just checked my blog only to realize it’s been weeks since I posted anything! I have to admit I’ve been busy, but mostly I’ve just forgotten to post. And so I’ll try to catch up a bit tonight.

Thanksgiving was great. We had the traditional dinner here with me, Patrick and Veronica. Everything turned out great and there were plenty of leftovers–enough so that I was able to eat for almost a week and still have frozen turkey and stuffing for later.

I started cleaning and washing all my carnival glass the weekend after Thanksgiving. Got most of the glassware and other knick-knacks packed up to get ready for the Christmas decorating. Had hoped to get all the inside decorating done that weekend, but wound up getting none of it done. But I am glad that I was able to wash the carnival glass. It will be much easier when Christmas is over and I am able to put everything out knowing that it is sparkling clean.

This past weekend was a long one as I was able to take Friday as a vacation day. I finished most all the inside decorating that day and Patrick came over on Saturday to help me put up all the outside lights. I had hoped to get the front porch decorated on Sunday, but spent most of the day cleaning the porch and all the furniture out there. I just couldn’t decorate around all the spiderwebs and dust that had accumulated over the past year. Normally I clean the porch sometime during the summer, but just didn’t get to it this year due to my surgery. The porch and all the furniture is now very clean, but I didn’t get any of the wreaths or garland hung. Oh well, I still have time to finish up this weekend.

Also thought I had all the lights hooked up to timers–until we had a big rain storm Sunday night. One of the timers quit working so I assume it just got too wet. It’s an outdoor timer so I expected there wouldn’t be a problem with the rain. Guess I’ll have to visit OSH this weekend to pick up another one. The weather is supposed to be dry at least for the next 10 days, so I’m hopeful there are no further timer problems.

Took Sophie to the vet on Saturday for her second vaccination and a checkup. She is now 3 months old and weighs all of 3 lbs! I have another vet appointment this Thursday for Nate and Hayes for their annual checkup and booster shots. This will be the first time their foster mother (the technician at my vet’s office) has seen them since they were 4 months old so I’m excited for her to see how they’ve changed!

Work is crazy end of the year stuff. Every time I think I’m getting caught up something new comes along. Plus there are all kinds of events that I have to attend, resulting in less time available to get things done. While I enjoy the events–tomorrow is the Volunteer Appreciation Party with lots of snacks and about 5 lbs of shrimp!–the result is far less time to complete all my regular tasks. I’m hopeful to get things caught up by the end of next week so that I’m not behind the 8-ball going into Christmas week.

And so the Lakers game is over for tonight so it’s time for me to stop writing and get things ready for tomorrow. Will try to blog a bit more often so that I’m not writing a month’s worth of updates the next time!

I started Christmas shopping tonight. Aarrgghh!!! How can this be happening already? Went to Kohls since I had another 30% off coupon and couldn’t let that go to waste! Got 4 gifts, some Christmas shirts for Robin, some decorative candle holders for me (or maybe some for gifts), and (of course) a bunch of clothes for me! I just can’t resist the clothing deals at Kohls! I got two pairs of pants, 6 tops, 2 sweaters and a dressy dress for a total of $120! The pants and dress were the most expensive–and I probably could have waited and gotten a better deal if I shopped for the same things on Black Friday–but they had my size and they might not if I waited. I could have done some more Christmas shopping while there but, after 2 hours and a full day of work, I was just too exhausted to stay any longer.

Now I have to start making lists (and, of course, checking them twice!) for the shopping, decorating, wrapping, cleaning and cooking! I have no idea what I’m getting for most everyone. I spent time last night online looking at the Black Friday ads and am certainly tempted by a few of them. Just not sure that it’s worth it, though, to wait in line and battle the crowds and traffic. It certainly will be easier just to wait and shop online on “Cyber Monday.” Last year I did about 90% of my shopping online and it made for a far less stressful holiday season.

At least I now have plenty of clothes for winter. I needed a few more long sleeved tops and a couple of sweaters, so I have plenty of those after this trip. And, the dress will be perfect if I decide to go to the Dreamhost (Patrick’s work) Christmas party. We shall see.

Still debating whether to put up a Christmas tree this year. I think Nate and Hayes could handle it, but I’m just not sure about Sophie. She flies around the house and gets into every possible thing. I really don’t want to come home from work and find broken ornaments or, worse, a toppled tree. Again, we’ll have to see.

Sophie is unbelievably sweet, though. She does lots of cuddling with both me and the other two cats. She loves playing with Nate and he does pretty well with her until he gets tired of it. Hayes just slaps her if she bugs him! I let her go outside this past weekend and she absolutely loved being outdoors! We had no problems until she figured out how to get under the back fence and into the yard behind me. After tempting her with a branch with leaves on the end, I grabbed her and that was the end of her outdoor adventures for the weekend. She needs to be a bit older before I want her leaving the yard.

So now I have to go put away all my new clothes and relax a bit before heading off to bed. The bad part about after work shopping is losing out on my calming down time. At least work is relatively calm this week. Enjoying that right now since I know that won’t last for long!

We started our annual financial audit last week at work. The audit was originally scheduled for last May, but my surgery caused everything to be postponed. So the auditors showed up last week. I spent about an hour reviewing the finances with them and then, as I was about to leave, one of them (Kristen) asked me if I knew anyone who might want a kitten. She told me a little about her and said she would sent me an email with her picture. When I returned to my office, the email was waiting on my computer…and the decision was made the minute I saw her. I walked back over to the room they were using and told Kristen she was a very bad person for throwing such temptation out there…and then told her I would take the kitten!

I wouldn’t have been tempted had the audit not been postponed. I was perfectly happy with Nate and Hayes and had made up my mind not to get any additional cats. In fact, I’ve had the opportunity to get other cats over the past few months and declined to do so. Everything was working out so well with Nate and Hayes and I just didn’t want to screw that up. Both of them now go outdoors, and neither goes very far away. Mostly they stay in my backyard. I can easily get them in at night–much more easily than with most of my other cats at that age. So I really didn’t plan on getting another cat for quite some time. Until I saw her picture.

I decided to name her Sophie at the suggestion of Patrick. He mentioned that Sophie was the love interest of both Nate and Hayes in the movie ‘Nate and Hayes’. It sounded good to me, so Sophie it was. Kristen dropped her off last night and everything went well. Both Nate and Hayes seemed okay with this new addition, although I don’t think they realized she was here to stay!

Sophie is gradually acclimating herself to our home. She hid away under the buffet last night for a few hours since Nate couldn’t get under there. Finally she realized it was okay to come out and she has spent most of the day today playing with cat toys as well as getting to know her ‘brothers’. She has also caused a few problems.

As I was sitting on the loveseat in the family room watching tv, all of sudden I felt great warmth next to me. Sophie was standing there peeing! Even though I had put her in both of the two litter boxes numerous times, somehow that didn’t register with her. So, after stripping the slipcover off the loveseat, I got out the small litter box that I used when I first got Nate and Hayes and set it up just outside the family room in my office. That was all it took and Sophie began using it.

Next came the wires behind my tv. After both Sophie and Nate started chasing each other behind the tv (and disconnected the satellite 5-6 times!), I made a makeshift barricade with pillows to keep them out. I stuffed pillows under the tv stand and put one next to the tv stand on either side, propped up with small end tables. After a few readjustments it seems to be working.

What was I thinking? I now remember all the craziness I went through with Nate and Hayes! And things were finally beginning to calm down around here. And now the craziness begins anew. But she is awfully cute. And I think she and Nate are going to have lots of fun together. Hayes, on the other hand, pretty much sits back and watches.

Speaking of Hayes, I took him to the vet this morning. He now weighs 17 pounds!!! He is officially on a diet and I am dismantling the automatic feeders. Part of his problem has to do with the fact that he is partially blind and doesn’t do much in the way of exercising ’cause he can’t see where he’s going. And he’s too big to jump the way Nate does. The vet has referred me to an animal eye specialist to see if there’s anything we can do about his eyesight. We’ll see what happens. Meanwhile, I’m hoping the diet helps…and that Nate doesn’t drive me nuts whining for food!

Finally, Patrick went to DC this weekend to attend the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. He had a great time and said it was so worth going. Tomorrow he’ll be doing touristy stuff visiting monuments, etc. And then on Monday he leaves for New York City where he’ll meet up with Veronica! They’ll spend 2-3 days doing all the NY things like visiting the Empire State Bldg, the Statue of Liberty, Times Square and Central Park. What a great trip!

Whew! A long post, but lots to write about. That’s what happens when lots of stuff occurs in just a few days. And tomorrow is Halloween. So have a spooky one…and don’t eat all the leftover candy!

Finally. The yard sale has ended. It sounded like a really good idea about a year ago when I began planning to have a garage/yard sale. I think it would have been fine had I not had to have the surgery last spring. As a result everything was put on hold for about 6 months. I couldn’t bear to let things go beyond the holidays, so I set a date. Don’t know that I was really ready, but I needed to get on with my life. So Saturday was the day of the big sale.

Vanessa helped me get everything priced on Friday, and then she and Patrick came over at the crack of dawn on Saturday to help set things out and put up the signs. Unfortunately we woke up to drizzle. There was no prediction of rain, just overcast skies until late morning. Instead we had off and on drizzle all morning and the skies never cleared. I didn’t mind the overcast as that was much better than the sun beating down, but the misty rain was not welcome.

The outcome was better than most sales I’ve had in the past–$337.50. I knew I wouldn’t sell everything, but had really hoped to get rid of the rolltop desk and sewing machine. That was just not to be. Oh well. I’ll keep both for a bit longer and at least try to sell the desk on Craigs List later. The rest of the stuff will mostly be donated. I may also try to sell a few things that are collectibles on eBay. However, all the selling part will have to wait until after the holidays. I will start getting rid of the donation stuff this week since it’s all stacked up in my living room right now!

The unexpected sale item was the table saw that has been collecting dust in the garage for many, many years. I will never use it and I think it’s been at least 5-10 years since Patrick used it for anything. One of his friends stopped by and mentioned something about losing his table saw years ago when his ex sold it. So Patrick suggested ours–and he bought it! I’m very happy to be getting rid of it and freeing up more space in the garage.

Once I get rid of all the stuff in the living room I’ll be starting back in on the garage. The good thing is that I can donate a few boxes at a time rather than saving up for the sale. I’m hopeful that by next spring I’ll have everything cleared out and will have lots of space back in an organized garage.

I’m watching Hoarders again tonight on A&E. Watching this show certainly keeps me motivated!

Tonight Patrick and I went to a neighbor’s birthday party. Harold Jackson has always lived across the street from us since we moved to Pasadena. His name is probably not familiar to most people, but his musical group may be: The Ink Spots. Harold is the last surviving member of the Ink Spots, joining the group sometime in the late 40’s. And he turned 100 years old on Friday, 10/8/10.

We were fortunate enough to be among Harold’s friends and to be invited to his birthday celebration at a local hotel this evening. It was wonderful to visit with him tonight as well as with his many family members and friends. He gave the world the gift of his music and tonight he gave everyone attending a CD compilation of his wonderful songs.

Thanks Harold! We had a great time and feel so grateful to have you as our neighbor.