and I’m really not ready. There were too many interruptions this weekend and it just flew by way too quickly. I had to go somewhere each of the three days, meaning I didn’t have a lot of time at home to get much accomplished. And I had hoped to do quite a lot of cleaning around the house. Oh well.

Nate and Hayes got “snipped and chipped” on Saturday at the Pasadena Humane Society and are almost completely healed! In fact, you wouldn’t know that anything had happened except that they’ve been shaved. I let them venture outdoors yesterday for awhile and they both thought that was great! Unfortunately all the jade plants are in bloom meaning there are lots and lots of bees all over the plants. Nate leaped into the air when he saw his first bee and caught it! I knocked it away from him and smashed it on the ground. He wiped at his nose with his paw and I’m not sure whether he got stung. So, that was the end of their trip outdoors. Not sure whether bee stings are dangerous to cats, but didn’t want some major medical problem for them to deal with the day after surgery.

Our weather has been just fabulous, part of the reason I decided to let Nate and Hayes outdoors. I almost feel guilty enjoying our weather so much when I know that so many people back in the Midwest and East are getting dumped on with snow once again. The key word here is *almost*. Temps have been right around 80 during the day for the entire weekend and will continue that way through mid-week. I know this won’t last, but I’m enjoying it while it does!

Did a lot of shopping this weekend. Got lots of clothes, shoes, jewelry and some new bath rugs at Kohl’s. Saved about $100 with all the coupons I had. Not bad. Then went to Michael’s today and got some new greenery and silk flowers to refill my outdoor planters. Also found some St. Patrick’s Day shamrocks to add to the front porch arrangement. Finally it doesn’t look so barren out there.

Finally, I have gotten totally hooked on the Olympics…as I knew I would! The only event I really didn’t like was the biathalon (skiing/shooting). I just don’t get the point of it. So I passed on that one. But the rest has been quite compelling, resulting in my staying up way too late every night.

And so I’ll try to get to bed a bit earlier tonight. Hope there’s nothing that I *have* to see that’s on after 11 pm.

Well, not exactly, but close. The neighbor who lives behind me died today at age 98. He was by far one of the nastiest neighbors I’ve ever encountered.

He complained continually when the dogs tore a hole through the bamboo we stapled up over his old rotted fence and got into his yard. Then he came to me with a proposal to put up a concrete wall between the yards. He wanted me to pay half the cost but was unwilling to allow me to have any say in how the wall would look. I said no.

When I decided to put up a new fence, he complained because it was too tall so we trimmed it down 2 feet. Then he complained that we were killing his bushes along the back of his yard. He stood in his yard inspecting the new fence with every panel we put up and criticized us every step of the way.

In the summer, he would watch tv on his patio and, because he was hard of hearing, turn the sound up so loud that I could hear it in my family room. He especially liked to do this on Sunday mornings and would oftentimes fall asleep at night with the tv blaring while he slept.

Any time that I tried to talk with him he complained. He was one of the most unfriendly persons you could ever ask to live next to. Now that he’s gone I only have the jerk next door to deal with.

I don’t understand how it is that I wind up living next to (or behind) these nasty neighbors. Most of the other people in our neighborhood are really nice people. Now I just have to hope that whoever buys the house is somewhat nice…and that they don’t decide to tear down the house and put up a some big-ass mansion thing.

So I’m not sad to see him go

Was off sick today with what I hope is a 24 hour stomach bug of some sort. Starting to feel better tonight, but certainly felt miserable all day. I really need to go to work tomorrow so am hopeful this crud will be out of my system come morning.

Am looking forward to a long President’s Day weekend. Have lots to do, but it will be nice to spread it over three days.

Saturday morning I’ll be taking the cats into the Pasadena Humane Society to be “snipped and chipped.” Need to have them there around 8:00 am and pick them up between 4:00-4:30 pm. Will stop at Kohl’s on the way home since I have a $25 gift card (birthday gift from Veronica’s mom) as well as a 30% off everything coupon! After that I’ll be stopping at Trader Joe’s to use another gift card ($40 from Vanessa) to pick up lots of food goodies! As long as I have to get up early, I might as well reward myself with some shopping!

Sunday morning I have to go to the Annual Meeting at All Saints and then I’ll have the rest of Sunday and all day Monday to do whatever I want! Probably will spend part of the time doing chores and hope to fit in some time to work in the yard since the temps are supposed to be in the 70’s this weekend!

Only real snag in all these plans is the Olympics. I know I’m going to get hooked once I start watching and have to be careful not to just sit down in front of the tube until *after* I get the chores finished!

Seems that all the places around the country that are supposed to have mild weather right now are getting dumped on heavy duty.

We’re getting unbelievable amounts of rain, accompanied by thunder, lightning, hail and mudslides. Fortunately my home is safe, but I know of others who can’t say the same. I don’t mind the rain, but I feel badly for those who are losing their homes, possessions and cars. And the mess they are left to clean up is overwhelming. I did see an absolutely beautiful big rainbow on my way home from work tonight. I’m hoping that’s a sign…

And then back East, it’s the snow. I’ve never seen so much snow within such a short period of time. I’d kind of like to be there since everything shuts down when you get that much snow. However, it’s still cold and I wouldn’t want to have to deal with that. And I’m sure the continual shoveling would get old after a week of non-stop major snow storms.

Nate decided to sneak out tonight when I opened the door and I didn’t realize he’d gone out. I finally realized this had happened and opened the front door to find him cowering under a chair on the front porch as the rain was pouring down. He was so scared and clutched onto me tightly as I fished him out and brought him inside. Maybe he won’t be so quick to run out the next time!

Tonight Phil Jackson became the coach who has won the most games ever as a Lakers coach. And on Sunday Kobe scored 44 points and has now scored the highest number of points of any Laker in history! It’s been pretty exciting to watch the games where these milestones have been reached. Last year it seemed that I kept missing all the games where Kobe scored massive amounts of points in one game. So this year I’m trying to watch at least the second half of as many games as possible, just in case.

And the Lakers are doing very well this year…meaning they will no doubt be in the playoffs once again…meaning I’ll still be watching basketball well into the month of June. Close to five more months of basketball…whew!

FINALLY got the cable card installed yesterday so that I can actually watch my HD TV in high definition. And really enjoyed watching the Lakers beat the Celtics today! It was an exciting game and watching it in HD was fabulous!

Spent the remainder of the day today trimming the roses that my gardener didn’t trim this past week. Don’t know why he didn’t trim all of them but, since tomorrow in February, I didn’t want them to remain untrimmed any longer. Also we’re supposed to get rain again this week starting on Wednesday, so he probably won’t show up this week. Also trimmed the bird of paradise plant that my neighbor’s fence crushed when it blew down in December. Still have a bit more yard work to do but that can wait until later when I put in new plants in the spring, probably after Easter.

Went to dinner on Saturday at Damon’s, a steakhouse in Glendale, with Patrick and Veronica. We had planned to go to a place called the Gaucho Grill, but it was closed and we didn’t want to wait an hour until it opened. So Damon’s it was…and it was an excellent choice! I had prime rib, a salad and a twice baked potato. The food was delicious and I would definitely go back again. It was an old restaurant (1937) and the ambiance was great. Very much old LA/Hollywood.

Have lots to do around the house that I haven’t done. Keep putting off most of it. Can’t get into cleaning in the evenings and have had other things happening on the weekends. I’m looking forward to the upcoming Presidents Day holiday for getting things done around here. That extra day really does seem to make a difference.

Meanwhile tomorrow is work again. I really wish that weren’t the case. I need that extra day now.

My birthday was pretty good, given that I had to go to work yesterday. Amanda (a coworker and friend) baked some really good brownies and brought them into my office with candles glowing to start off the day. The day before I received a box of Esther Price chocolates from my sister Kelly, and came home last night to find a card in the mail from Veronica’s mom, Ronnie, along with a Kohl’s gift card! Later today I’m going for an early dinner at the Gaucho Grill in Glendale with Patrick and Veronica. Really looking forward to that!

Also heard from tons of friends on Facebook with birthday wishes in addition to emails from others! I’m amazed at the number of people who take the time to say Happy Birthday. The Facebook posts were phenomenal! I had trouble keeping up with all of them!

So another year has passed and lots has happened in one year–many good things as well as some not so good. I’m still relatively healthy, so I’m hopeful that this next year is better than the last. Sometimes I’m amazed that I’ve made it this far in life, and most of the time it doesn’t seem possible that I’m as old as I am. I remember my parents when they were in their 60’s, and they were OLD! I’m having trouble thinking of myself as old. I guess that’s part of what keeps me going.

So here’s to another year. I’m hopeful there will be many more to come!

What has happened to the Do Not Call program? Seems I’m getting more and more sales/solicitation calls these days. Last night someone with a caller ID of ‘Telefund’ called right in the middle of Obama’s State of the Union address. And tonight I was snuggled on my bed with Nate & Hayes, watching TV when the phone rang. I got up and answered it only to receive a recorded message saying “We are not available right now. Please leave your name and number and we will return your call.” What is *that* all about? Right. I’m going to leave my personal info to some recorded message when I don’t even know who is calling!

Went for breakfast at Patrick and Veronica’s place this morning. Actually sort of invited myself! Talked with Patrick and he mentioned that Veronica was cooking french toast for him, so I suggested she could fix some for me…and he said fine! Nice to have your son and his fiancee living less than 5 minutes away! After enjoying a delicious breakfast, we chatted for a bit and then took Floyd for a walk in Sierra Madre. Only bad part is walking by all these wonderful old homes that I would love to own. What a pleasant morning/early afternoon.

Now have to get busy doing some laundry and a bit of picking up around the house. Had planned to do lots more, but oh well. I much preferred spending the time at breakfast and visiting with Patrick and Veronica rather than cleaning my kitchen.

I scheduled my cable company (Charter) to come out today to install a cable card into my new HD TiVo so that I can watch all the HD TV stations. They were supposed to be here between 10 am and noon. They called at 10 am to say that the installer would be here between 11:20 am and 12:20 pm. Sounded good. Patrick came over and set up my new TiVo and we waited.

At about 12:45 pm I called them. Their installer didn’t have the cable card with him so someone from Charter had to deliver it to him. I was *guaranteed* he would be here between 1-3 pm. Patrick went home. At 3:30 pm I received a call from Charter to verify that the equipment I have is a TiVo. When I asked where the installer was, they said he was at another location and was still waiting for the cable card to be delivered to him. Also, the original installer didn’t know how to put in the cable card, so they are now going with a supervisor. Once again, they are *guaranteeing* that he will be here no later than 5 pm.

So far they are giving me $20 off on my next cable bill plus they are waiving the installation fee that was never mentioned previously.

If I had to bet on all this, I would probably not be willing to bet that the installer arrives by 5 pm nor that I have the HD TV up and running tonight. And the cable companies wonder why they have such a bad reputation when it comes to being on time.

So tonight we’ve got the addition of thunder, lightning and hail. And the rain continues heavy duty. It’s been raining all day except for a few small breaks. At one point late this afternoon we did see a huge big rainbow, but it was very short-lived as the next round of the storm came through. I was grateful to get home in between the huge cloudbursts.

Based on the amount of rain today, I can only imagine we must be approaching a total of 10″ so far this week. And it’s supposed to continue through the night and into tomorrow. It will certainly be beautiful when the sun finally decides to shine, with everything looking clean and shiny. If we get a break this weekend, I’m going to try to do some yard work since pulling weeds and removing any unwanted plants will be unbelievably easy with the ground so saturated with water.

Here comes the next wave of rain. Better get off before all this crazy weather takes down my internet connection.

Today is day four. Not as much rain as Monday, but still lots. So far in our area we’ve had 7-8″ of rain and it’s supposed to continue for at least three more days. It’s not posing a big problem for me since we didn’t have the hills directly behind us denuded by last summer’s fires. However, lots of folks just to the west of us have been evacuated from their homes due to the possibility of mudslides.

Patrick came over this morning and tied down the shade structure in my backyard using rope and rebar anchors. All his experience at Burning Man has finally paid off for me! It will be a real production if I ever want to move the shade structure, but I’d rather deal with that than have to fish it out of the pool! And I’m happy to know that it will be in place sort of permanently from now on. Much easier than having to set it up every time we plan a cookout or party…or worse, trying to work around it after it has collapsed.

My house seems to be relatively dry, and I’m guessing the rain came in the *right* direction the past few days so as not to come directly down into my chimney. We’ll see how things go over the next few days.

Nate decided to venture outdoors this morning when I went out to check the status of the shade structure before leaving for work. It was not raining hard at the time, but everything was soaking wet. He didn’t care and took off running toward the front of the house, splashing in puddles on the way! I finally caught up with him and hauled his little butt inside. He is really a handful…and is going to be crazy to deal with when he’s finally allowed to venture out on his own in another month or so.

They told us this would be a big storm and they weren’t lying. Wow! The rain has been pouring down since yesterday afternoon and today it’s been brutal. I’m guessing we’ve had at least 4-5″ so far today, based on the water in my pool. And this is just the start. I’m happy that we’re getting rain, but this is unbelievable! The weather forecasters are predicting between 15-20″ of rain by the end of the week and are saying that the storm that will make it’s way through the area on Thursday will be the biggest to hit in decades!

The hillside above Sierra Madre is already starting to give way and lots of mud is pouring down the roads. I think a lot of people will be impacted by this as more and more mudslides occur. I think my house will be okay since none of the fires in the past few years were directly above our area. However, the ground is already saturated and the corner of the floor in my family room is wet…not from a roof leak but from water buildup outside that is leaking in where the foundation meets the wall of the house. I’ll try to fix it by doing some caulking when things dry out, but that probably won’t be for another couple of weeks minimum. Also just found that the hearth in front of my fireplace is soaking wet! It seems there is so much rain that it is leaking down the chimney. The flue is closed, but it seems to be leaking in around the edges of the flue. Not dangerous, but I’ll have to keep it wiped up periodically.

The cats are fascinated by the raindrops since they’ve never experienced this before. I think they’re also a bit nervous since they seem to be following me wherever I go. I think they will probably get used to it as the week progresses, get in their beds (or mine) for the rest of the week while I’m at work and just sleep through it all. Wish I could do the same.

The cable guy came and hooked up my tv to a new cable box. Everything worked great when he left and I was thrilled to have my tv back again. I turned it off when Kevin called. After getting off the phone, I turned it back on again. Surprise, surprise…I have a grainy picture with lines going through it on every channel and no sound. Appointment #2 is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.

Tried to get online to check Facebook. My internet service was out. Finally it’s back up, but who knows for how long that will last. Talked with Kelly this morning and had the phone service die at least twice during our call. All of these various services are provided through our local cable company, Charter. I’m paying a ton of money every month for mediocre service at best.

Decided to give up on the tv and computer and play Animal Crossing on the Wii. Apparently that’s not hooked up correctly into the new tv and the Wii won’t work. I would like to try to make this work, but there are so damn many wires behind my tv that I don’t have a clue as to what’s what. I’m tempted to rip them all out and just start from scratch!

Do I sound frustrated? Well I am!!! I have too damn many electronic components hooked up to the point where I can now use none of them! I miss the good old days of just plugging something into a wall socket and having it turn on!

For whatever reason, my cable box in the family room quit working a few nights ago. I called the cable company, but there was nothing they could do over the phone to get it working again. So tomorrow a “cable guy” will be here sometime between 1 and 3 pm to figure out what’s wrong. I have a feeling he’ll be here closer to 3 than to 1.

As long as I was dealing with tv stuff, I called TiVo and ordered an upgrade to my old TiVo so it will now record stuff in high definition as well as record two shows at the same time…which also means that I can watch one show and record another! The new unit probably won’t arrive until sometime next week, but that’s not really a problem since the old one hasn’t been working for a few months anyhow. After dealing with TiVo, I called the cable company again and ordered the upgrade to HD. Turns out they have to personally install a cable card into my TiVo unit, so yet another cable guy will be coming the following Saturday to take care of that. And then I’ll be finished and will have my new high definition tv working the way it should–in high definition!

Meanwhile, any tv I want to watch has to be done in my bedroom which is a real pain since I usually watch tv while on the computer. So I’m watching less tv and wind up falling asleep while watching if I lay down in bed to watch. I’ll be glad to at least get the old box working again in the family room.

Am starting to get caught up on all the year end stuff at work, but still have plenty to do to finish up 2009. Stopped at Office Depot tonight to pick up a new desk calendar (finally! I’ve been going nuts without one!), 1099 forms and software, a tax program, and a few other miscellaneous items. Am hopeful I can get my personal taxes taken care of in February (as well as what few others I do for family and friends) so that I’m not in a panic come mid-April.

I especially don’t want to be doing taxes late this year since I’m going to Seattle the first of April to spend Easter with Kevin, Chrysoula and Robin. Am flying up on Thursday evening and will stay until the following Tuesday. Looking forward to coloring eggs with Robin!

Nate started his training today as a hunter! I found him chasing around the family room this morning and realized he was chasing a cricket that had somehow found it’s way into the house. It jumped and he pounced over and over again. Finally he dismembered it, picked it up in his mouth and carried it around the room. When it finally stopped moving he ate it! I have a feeling he will keep my tomatoes free of rats come summer!

Tonight I found that Nate had chewed the wire to my small calculator in half. I discovered this when I caught him chewing on the wire to the base unit for my cordless phone!

I don’t know what it is about wires that is so damn fascinating to these cats–and especially it seems to Nate. This is the second item destroyed by chewed up wires, the first being the sensor bar for my Wii. I have so many wires connecting my computer, printer, scanner, phones, internet hookup, TV, TiVo, Wii, etc, etc, etc. And then there are all the other peripherals (like the calculator) that you don’t even think about until it doesn’t work and you find the chewed up wiring.

I just don’t know what to do to keep these two from continuing their chewing. I don’t remember this ever happening with any of my other cats. Maybe that’s because we didn’t have nearly as many wires when they were kittens. Or maybe they weren’t into chewing.

Patrick came over this morning and took down all the lights from my roof. And then I finished up undecorating the outside of the house and got all the outside stuff packed away. Then I started in on the inside…yuk. Even though I didn’t put up near as much stuff this year, I still have lots to pack away. While I didn’t work all day on it, I still spent about 5 hours on the inside stuff (after spending at least 3 hours on the outside stuff). I have a total of 14 crates packed with 6 more to go. To be fair, though, I didn’t unpack at least 5 crates this year since I didn’t put up a tree, or my village, or the nativity creche. I’m pooped at this point and just can’t do any more tonight. So I’ll finish up tomorrow and will stuff all the crates back in the garage to wait for another year.

I’m hopeful I’ll get this finished by early afternoon since I’d like to shampoo the carpet in the family room tomorrow. Baby had at least 3-4 “accidents” every day and most of them were in the family room. While I cleaned them with various sprays to get rid of the stains and odors, I always feel better after I’ve cleaned the entire room with the steam cleaner.

Next weekend is three days off (MLK Day), and I’d really like to have the house in good shape by then so that I don’t have to still be dealing with Christmas. I’m ready to get started on more dehoarding!

Baby went to join her old housemates on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge today. She was probably happy to see all but Loki, but Puto is there to protect her.

I took her to the vet this morning where they were kind and loving to her in her final moments. In fact, she was so comfortable in their care that she purred up until the end. While I was sad to see her go, I know she was ready. She hadn’t eaten or drank any water for days and trying to keep her going seemed pointless since her quality of life had deteriorated so much.

Baby was almost 18 years old and was a good kitty for most of her life. She had very few medical problems and mostly hung out around the house. She caught a few birds and rats over her lifetime, but wasn’t a big hunter. She very much loved Mike and I can remember her curling up with him on the bed after he had his stroke. She was the only one of the cats that he allowed in bed with him.

And so all my senior citizen pets have left for a more comfortable life. I will miss them all in different ways. What I’ll remember most about Baby is how she used to roll over on her back, lay spread eagle and purr non-stop, begging someone to rub her belly. Such a cat slut.

…and am going to say goodbye to Baby. She’s stopped eating, drinks very little and looks terrible. Tonight I tried putting wet food in her mouth and she still wouldn’t continue eating. This was after getting some meds from the vet that I was told would encourage her to eat. She is extremely dehydrated, so I tried giving her an IV of saline water tonight. Got the needle inserted. While trying to adjust the drip, Baby ran to the other side of the bathroom and pulled the needle out. Saline water sprayed everywhere until I was able to get the damn thing turned off. I’m just not equipped to do this sort of thing myself and am giving up. She is on 4 different kinds of meds plus the IV and I think it’s just too late. I’m calling the vet first thing in the morning and will be taking her in to be put to sleep.

Maybe I should try to do more, but I don’t see her quality of life improving. Seems she’s just getting worse as each day goes by. So what is the sense in keeping her alive? I hate going through this again, but I really do think that it’s time. The only regret I have is that just when Baby was getting all my attention, Nate and Hayes appeared on the scene.

And so tomorrow the last of the older generation of my pets will be gone and the new little ones will assume their place in the house.

Baby has spent most of the day sleeping and hasn’t eaten anything. We’ll see how the week goes.

Meanwhile, I had to get busy cleaning up some of the mess around this house since tomorrow is trash day…plus it’s also back to work day. I got most everything cleaned up in the back yard and have all the furniture back in place. Had to do battle with Nate every time I tried to go in or out since he was insistent on trying to get outside and run to the front driveway. He’s going to be a handful to deal with when he eventually starts going out.

Also spent some time finally cleaning out my freezer. Seemed a waste to toss out all those frozen hamburger buns and other stuff, but I’m certain I wouldn’t use any of what got tossed. And I now have so much more room in my freezer…so that I can fill it up with all the leftovers from the party.

Took down a bunch of the outdoor decorations but still have to put away everything inside the house. Thought I’d have time this weekend, but all the turmoil with Baby kinda wiped out yesterday. So I’ll deal with putting away Christmas next weekend.

Glad the holidays are over. I’m ready for life to get back to normal…whatever that might mean in the days ahead.