To cat or not to cat?

So I was reading this article about cats and the problems that arise when you start a relationship with someone and the cat gets jealous. I think that's funny, my cat loves new people, she wouldn't get jealous.

But what struck me was the following statement from the article:

And pets can have a serious impact on a relationship. "Seventy percent of people
asked to choose between their spouse and their dog will choose the dog," he
adds.

Can you imagine? How awful. My cat has been destructive lately and she only seems to be getting worse. I come home to plants on the floor with dirt everywhere. I have a lovely houseplant that is shredded to bits. It's 3 years old and she's killing it. She's not even 3 months!

She has been chewing on my blinds and recently broke 3 of the blind flaps completely in half. So my blinds look like crap now. Yesterday I walked into my room when I heard struggling (I thought she was bothering the bird.) No, she was tangled up in 3 strings for the blinds. She's lucky she didn't fall off the shelf and hang herself!

Cats. Sheesh.

Funny Quote

I saw a funny quote in someone's profile this morning, so I thought I'd repost it:

Save the environment. Plant a Bush back in Texas this November.

Cupcakes, Darien Lake, Movies, Shopping oh my!

Friday, they all enjoyed my cupcakes.  I made 29 in all and all were eaten by the end of the day.  Friday night, Laura, Cindy and I went to East End fest, got a great meal at Golden Port and then went to an Improv comedy show at the Geva theatre.  It's the same one we went to a month ago and it was still very funny.  We enjoyed ourselves.  Laura went home, Cindy and I hung out for awhile.

Saturday Cindy slept in all day while Laura and I went to Darien Lake.  We had a lot of fun, did all the major rides, however, the park was packed and we didn't do everything.  It's okay, we'll do more again.

Sunday, Laura and I went and saw '13 Going on 30' which was a funny movie, cute and romantic, kinda.  We then went shopping in Henrietta, went to a card shop, dollar store, D&K store, Brueggers, Best Buy and finally Target to buy some gifts for the wedding we're going to on Saturday.  I had been cooking stuff in the crockpot all day, so when we got done shopping around 5, we came back, I picked up Cindy and we all ate spaghetti and turkey meatballs.

Both of them left, and the cat and I hung out and watched TV and whatnot.

Monday was nice.  Work was blah, but Linda met me at my office at 5 and we walked back to my apartment.  My bike chain broke while we were walking (ugh!) but that didn't deter us.  We went to TGIFridays and had dinner.  I got my new Goldpoints card, we got some free food and once done, we went to movies 10 and watched Van Helsing.  It was a good movie!  Surprisingly... Cindy hated it when she saw the first 5 minutes, but after that gets done, I enjoyed it.  Some parts were weird, but whatever, sometimes you just have to sit back and enjoy the action.

I got back and Cindy and the cat were watching TV.  We hung out, but I took Cindy back after she needed to get back and read for her class.

Today, Tuesday, was pretty much a repeat of Monday.  Work was blah, but this time I had to walk to work.  It was sprinkling, but that wasn't bad.  Gym at lunch, as usual.  We had a cake party for JB (coworker) and Lisa (finance) at 4.  After work, it was pouring rain, so I hitched a ride with Donna (coworker) back to my place.  I was a little late and I was meeting Laura at TGIFridays at 5:40, so I was basically late then and there.  I got there, we had a wonderful meal and when the bill came, my portion was $2.50.  Ha!  So I left $7 and split to go pick Linda up for the free movie.  All three of us were seeing "The Manchurian Candidate"

Well, Laura went and got us seats and I hurriedly picked Linda up across town.  We got to Regal Henrietta by 7:10, but tons of people were being turned away from the movie.  "Sold out!" they screamed as they stomped away.  Uh oh.

I called Laura.  She was saving 3 seats, so I went in to get through the gate, the guy said the movie was full, I explained the woman I was on the phone with was holding 3 seats for us.  He escorted me in, we saw Laura, he let us in.

The movie was good... it was a typical war movie / political movie.  I liked it, it was weird at times, but the jokes Laura and I said during the movie made it better.  However, I think Laura is right.  If we were ever in a comedy troupe, nobody would laugh at our jokes. :)

Linda and I stopped at Krispe Kreme, we got a free donut, a cold drink and I dropped her off.  Cindy texted me, she needs a new phone cord, rats chewed her old one.

Okay, now I'm alone in my apartment, watching the Democratic Convention and I need to go bed.

Family, Burning Books & Making Cupcakes

Wednesday my mother called and let me know that we were having another picnic at my grandmother's since my other uncle and his wife were in town.  At lunch I worked out at the gym and after work Cindy and I went to my grandma's after I burned a CD with a slideshow of the pictures from our vacation.

The food was okay, there was Earthquake cake for dessert (which had coconut, yuck).  The conversation kinda turned political with people complaining about people who criticize Bush.  I just kept my mouth shut, a lot of them don't realize how uninformed they are, but I correct people too much, so I'm trying to make a habit of stopping.

Then Cindy and I arrived back, we watched Newlyweds, then went to Tops for conditioner, I dropped her and the rats off at her dorm and went to bed.

Thursday was fun.  Laura stopped by around 3:30 after work and we made plans to go to Dashen Ethiopian food and watch a movie at Movies 10.  We did.  Our waitress was kinda non-English speaking, which was fine, except I wanted BREAD and she only heard WATER.  I needed water too. :)

We wanted to see Man on Fire, but we ended up seeing Day After Tomorrow since we were 15 minutes late to Man on Fire.  But DAT ended up being a decent movie.  Lots of scenes were good, the graphics were good and we laughed since the President and Vice President reminded us of Bush and Cheyney.

Laura dropped me off and I came back to find Cindy on my couch, a nice surprise.  We watched TV for a while, then went to Tops (our new favorite place) to buy some supplies.  I needed to make cupcakes for the coworkers Friday and I had a coupon for the boxed mix.  I asked Cindy if I had any eggs in the fridge and see promptly said she saw a carton of a dozen.

I dropped her off and came back to find no eggs in the fridge.  Dang!  So instead of buying them then, I got up early in the morning, drove the Tops, bought some eggs, came back, baked 29 cupcakes and furiously rode to work to deliver them.

They are good!  Everyone enjoyed them.

Too much funny television at night...

Well, the plane left Ontario on time, we got to St. Paul, went right to our gate, got on the plane at noon, but were asked to deplane and we had to wait 30 minutes.  We got back on the plane, and we taxied for an hour.  So we were really late,Iwe got in around 10:45, rather than 9:50.

Cindy was at the airport, been there since 10:30, so she didn't have to wait very long.  She was helping a French couple, since nobody else in the airport spoke French.  We got our bags, went back to my place and Nola and mom went home.  I have rats in my apartment now, Cindy's pet rats.  They sqeek a lot.

Monday was a nice day.  I got up at 10am and went to the bank to fix an error in a credit card payment.  I accidentally paid off my credit card from the wrong bank account, so my account went negative (since I don't use this other bank account).  So I got it fixed and went to the mall to return a pair of shorts I bought for my trip, but they neglected to remove the security tag.  I went to BJs, got a trial membership (though I'm prolly going to get a real 15 month membership with Laura this or next week).  I bought 15 gallons of spaghetti sauce, some cereal and other stuff.  I went to Walmart, got the rest of my needed supplies and came back to the apartment.

Cindy was reading and we just hung out for a bit.  I called Laura and asked her to come to my place after she got out of work, and she did.  I gave her some stuff and invited her to go to my grandmother's for a picnic.  We left around 5 after dropping Cindy off and spent the evening with my uncles, aunts, grandmother and family.  My uncle, his wife and their kids are up from South Carolina for the week.  It was nice to see them again.  We had a lot of Italian food (none of us are Italian) and had a great truffle for dessert.

We came back to Rochester, Laura went home and the cat and I fell asleep around 11.  I had a weird dream about something trying to choke me and I woke up when I threw the cat off my neck.  Whoops!  She promptly came back anyway. :)

Tuesday was pretty lame, but after work I worked out at the gym for an hour.  I decided to start a new gym routine to see if it works.  Walk an hour for lunch, Work out an hour after work, eat 2,000 calories a day.  Hopefully I can lose this darn weight once and for all.  My pants are tight again and I refuse to buy bigger clothes when I know that I used to fit into one size smaller!

Cindy and I hung out at the apartment, I did laundry and we watched a lot of reality tv last night.  Everything from "Trading Spouses" to "America's Next Top Model"  It was interested and I think they have us hooked.  I hate loving tv... I feel like I should be doing something else!

Vacation - Day 12

So this morning was quite a ride.  Nola and I couldn't get back to sleep until around 5 or 5:30.  See, I accomplished what I said I would.. I have completely reversed my sleeping schedule.  5am Pacific is 8am Eastern, when I normally wake up every day.
 
So I took a couple pictures this morning, one of the window that Danny broke last night and got cut on.  I decided not to post the inside shots of where he bled all over to save all our stomachs from churning.  I found out more about what happened.
 
Danny sleepwalks and tends to hurt himself by breaking through windows.  He was sleeping in the garage last night and woke up and tried to get out... through a window that was paned, so he broke part of the window, climbed over a bunch of junk, cut himself really bad and then came back into the garage asking for help.
 

Bloody Broken Window

On Friday, we stopped by Aaron's school where he is a PE teacher to drop off some paperwork.  Mom asked me to take a picture of the kids sitting on the school sign.  I felt kinda like a stalker.
 

The school Aaron teaches at


Nola and Aaron by Aaron's car packing to leave.  We left the house around 9, got to Denny's around 9:10, ate breakfast, and then got to the airport around 10.  Our flight leaves at noon, and haha! they have wireless internet in the waiting areas.
 
Talk to you soon. :)

Vacation - Day 10 & 11

So both Friday and Saturday we basically went to malls and shopped.  Got to get in the traditional mall.  Well, California does malls very big.  We went to Tyler Mall on Friday, which was a two story mall.  We shopped for 3-4 hours.  Once we finished, we went to a little Mexican restaurant, where they spoke rough English, and had a great meal.  My sister got a burger. I got a burrito, chips and guacamole.
 
On Saturday, we went to Ontario Mills mall, one of the larger malls on the West Coast, which is funny, because Ontario has 3 things: an airport, a mall and an industrial complex.  We went to the mall, which was a HUGE square seemingly endless row of stores.  We shopped for several hours, Aaron and Nola got a bunch of great stuff and we headed home.
 
Aaron cooked another great meal (steak & veggies) and we ate and hung out until around 1am.  Now you may be wondering why I'm up right now, only 2 hours after falling asleep.  About 30 minutes ago, I awoke to the sound of glass breaking.  I heard something outside like someone climbing and breaking plants.  I got up and looked out the window but didn't see anything, but was going to wake Aaron up because it freaked me out that someone was outside on the roof or something.
 
Then I heard someone fall and scream 'Help!'  That freaked me out and I headed to the garage where I heard the noise.  Danny, the brother of Aaron's room mate Kenny, was bleeding profusely and was clutching his arms.  He was dripping blood and his clothes were covered.
 
I went and woke up Mom, a 911 dispatcher and expert at this kind of thing and she came down and started helping him.  I woke Aaron up, who looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language (maybe I was, I just woke up), but Mom told Aaron that Danny needed to go to the hospital, so he woke Theresa (Danny's girlfriend) up who got her car ready.  Danny had tried to wake up Kenny, but Kenny seems to sleep hard and Danny didn't have much strength when he knocked on Kenny's door.  So Danny, mom, Theresa and Aaron all went to the hospital.  The blood stains, puddles of blood, broken window and everything looks like, as Nola said, a murder scene.
 
Nola and I are sitting here now, fully awake and unable to fall back asleep, watching TV.  I woke up Kenny (Danny's brother) when Theresa called and Kenny and his girlfriend went to the hospital too.  I have honestly never seen so much blood outside of a movie.  We'll see if mom and Aaron are still up for breakfast in a couple hours.  I'd post some pictures, but I dunno if that is appropriate.

Vacation - Day 9

So we had quite the day on Thursday.  We all went to a beach called Huntington Beach, a little south of Los Angeles.  It's a beautiful little city and we parked on a city street and walked to the beach.  The water was warm!  The waves were terrific... big, salty and fun.
 
We swam for an hour... then we laid on the beach for an hour... swam for an hour... sat on the beach for an hour.  Once we finished that, we went to a Mexican bar in the city and had drinks and free burritos (happy hour).  Ick, the margaritas weren't as good as I was hoping.  We ate chips with really spicey salsa (I was longing for some guacamole).
 
We headed to Long Beach where Aaron's friend (who got us all those free tickets) lives.  Her name is Frances, she lives in a beautiful apartment.  We went to a nice Chinese Wokery, ate lots of white-people food (they didn't have any dim sum or good vegetarian dishes).  We took some nice pictures and headed home.
 
We hung out for awhile here, they all drank, I fell asleep after losing a game of pool around midnight.
 

Huntington Beach


Eating Mexican


Mom & I after eating Chinese Food

 
Today we're going to the Ontario mall and shopping for a bit.  We're getting a later and later start every day.  By the time we leave, we won't be getting up until 5pm.  Sheesh :)

Vacation - Day 8

Wednesday, we went to Venice Beach. It took about an hour to get there and it was a fun day. We got a late start, since we stayed up so late the night before, but we got there around 3, walked the strip (a bunch of businesses selling stuff for cheap) and I got a 99 cent piece of pizza, a $3 bag of fresh kettle corn and I bought a keychain.

We laid on the beach for a couple hours but then headed home. Traffic was awful and it took 2.5 hours to travel 60 miles. Wow. Here are a couple pictures.


Venice Beach Strip


Venice Beach

We got back to the house, watched Starskey & Hutch (a week earlier on DVD than anyone else ;) ) and then went to bed. Tiring day for sure.

Vacation - Day 7 - Part 2

So after dinner we stayed up REALLY late (well, for them its standard practice) and played pool, drank, listened to music and just hung out. It was nice. Aaron & Billy get funny when they drink. Better than getting scary I say.


Playing Pool


Party at the House

I'm curious when I'm going to bed, I'm not tired yet. Remember to read the next 2 posts, I posted three times total tonight.

Vacation - Day 7

So we got up really early (9:15am) and got right into the hot tub. Stayed in there for awhile, took our showers and went to a waffle shack for breakfast. Expensive! 2 pancakes were $5.99. Oi. I got a turkey club. We got to the San Diego Seaworld around 12, got our free tickets (I love getting everything free!) and went in. It was a big park. We walked around and looked at some of the animals. Unfortunately, it felt like a zoo, again, so I was sorta disinterested in the information they were giving.

But we got to see a show with sealions, seals, whales, more whales and more animals that live in water. I got to hold a starfish, feel thirsty all day long (no way was I buying a $6 soda) and take some good pictures. We went through a shark exhibit, which was really cool. We went through a tunnel under the tank, so we got to see under the sharks. Big and impressive teeth.


Nola Holding Starfish


Shamu the Whale


Lovely me waiting for Mom to buy Molly's gift


I'm a polar bear!


Nola, Aaron & I in front of the ocean

Nola wasn't feeling well, so we planned to leave a little early. We left around 7 or so, got home around 9. We stopped at a grocery store and picked up dinner. Aaron cooked chicken, I made guacamole dip again, and Nola made brownies. A good dinner. I'm getting used to staying up late (check the time this was posted). This isn't good, vacation ends in 5 or so days and I only have a day to catch up!

Make sure you check the below post so you don't miss any details.. I posted several things tonight.

Vacation - Day 6

On Monday, we went to San Diego and went to the 'World Famous Zoo' You cannot believe this place, it's huge! It took us hours and hours and hours and we didn't get to see everything. Nor did we want to see it all. I'm not really impressed by large zoos any more than I am impressed by large amusement parks. Size doesn't matter, right folks?

Anyway, once we walked the zoo, rode the bus tour, rode the sky ferry and drank our 15th free refill on our $8 soda souvenir cup, we decided to leave and get to our hotel by 8.


Family Entering Zoo


Mom & I, with Aaron smiling behind us


My Favorite Animal

We stayed at a place called King's Inn in Hotel Circle. It had a pool (good) and a hot tub (the real reason we stayed there) and the rate was great. We got there, checked in, put down our stuff, immediately changed and all got into the hot tub. After 30 minutes, we only left to eat pizza and wings for dinner. It was 10pm, we were exhausted, and all went to bed.

Vacation - Day 5

So Sunday was Aaron's baseball game. It was over 98 degrees and I was hot in the shade.. I couldn't imagine how it was for Aaron. They lost the game.. the ump was a jerk, but it was entertaining at the very least.


Aaron At Bat


Aaron in a pickle...


Nola, Bobby and I watching the game


Aaron & Mom

After that, we came back to Riverside. Bobby took us to a fastfood restaurant called 'In and Out' which surprisingly was VERY good. They have 3 menu options, but they are very accomadating. We hung out at the house for awhile until we left for Billy and Bobby's parent's house. They live in a really nice neighborhood on top of this moutain. They have this mineral water pool and this amazing house. They cooked us a 6 course meal, which included tortilla chips and salsa from a local mexican restaurant (way too hot for me) and then cheeses and dip on crackers.. then seafood, a vegetable salad, garlic potatoes, steak and asparagus. So much food.. I couldn't eat everything. They also had this barrel of drinks.. I don't think I've drank that many calories in my life.

It was great, we got home around 1:30 am here, 4:30 back home. Oi!


Nola & I in the mineral pool

Vacation - Day 4

So Saturday was Beach Day. We went to Aliso Beach, which Cindy said was an upscale beach (what does that mean?) All I know is the water was wonderful, the people were few, the sand was white and brown and the sun was perfect.

We spent from around 1 to 5:30 there. It's funny, each day we wake up around 9, which is noon EST, and we're getting used to it. I always feel like we're wasting half the day, but then we stay out really late so it makes up for it.

We all got really tanned. Aaron and Nola got really beat up in the surf, apparently they were the biggest waves my brother and his friends have seen that year. We saw dolphins out in the water about 30 feet, which was really cool. We played volleyball, Nola Aaron and Billy played frisbee. There were planes and helicopters flying overhead with advertisements in pull for TV shows and movies. It's funny, in California, it seems all the ads are for Hollywood productions.

Last night we just hung out. A ton of people came over drinking and whatnot, but by 11pm PST, we were dead tired and we went to bed, but the party continued downstairs.

This morning Billy's brother Bobby got Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast and Mom and Aaron went to the game. Billy, Bobby, Nola and I are joining them in a couple hours.


Here are some pictures of our adventure...


Volleyball on the Beach


Aaron, me and Billy


Aliso Beach


Watching the Dolphins

Vacation - Day 3

So we went to Universal Studios for the day, which was a lot of fun. Aaron's friend got up VIP front of the line season passes, which was awesome. We never had to wait more than 5 minutes for any ride. The wait for food was the longest wait for anything.. which was funny. I kept trying to flash my VIP pass to get through that line :)

We got home and I watched the new season premier of Stargate SG1, a great show. Today we're off to the beach for the whole day... haha! I'm gonna get tanned.

Below are some pictures of our trip yesterday.


Wooly Mammoth on the Mountain

Family in Front of Universal Globe

Mom and I on the Studio Tour

Me going down the escalator

Waterworld Live Show

Vacation - Day 2 - Part 2

Well, we got to Hollywood and walked the Walk of Stars. I got a lot of great pictures of the stars for the people I like the most, plus we were able to see where Cindy is going to live in a couple months.

LA is huge. It doesn't make sense to have a city that takes over an hour to get through and you're still only half way through it.

We got free Sierra Mist that was being handed out. We got to see On Air with Ryan Seacrest. We saw the Chinese theatre and went through Ripley's Believe it or Not. Once we finished that, we finished the walk and went to McDonalds for dinner.


Me in front of Gene Roddenberry's Star

We drove to Dodger's Stadium and watched the game. A lot of great catches and slides and everything within our view. It was great. We got home around midnight here, 3am in NY. Very tiring.


LA Traffic Is Busy!


Aaron, Nola and I at Dodger's Stadium

We're about to leave for Universal Studios, I'm looking forward to it.

Vacation - Day 2

So after staying up really late EST, we all went to bed and slept in really late. Mom and I went for a run around a couple blocks and came back and got ready. It's 11:27 now and we're off to Hollywood and a Dodgers game. Should be fun. I took a picture of Aaron's house in Riverside:



And I also took a picture of the view behind Aaron's house, which is a huge sand pit.



I'll let you know how my day went when we get back. :)

Vacation - Day 1

So we left my place at 5:00 to make the 6:45 plane. Security was awful but I think we got everything. I realized I left my sunglasses, whoops! Cindy made a quick trip back to get my cell phone... a very important thing. Thanks Cindy.

We changed planes in St. Paul MN. We got off, walked right to the new gate and had to get right on. Talk about timing. While walking, I quickly got some McDonalds, but this McDonalds put egg in their burrito (maybe all do), so I ended up giving it to my mom and Nola. They like egg.

We got to CA by 2:00pm EST, 11am PST. We waited for about 30 minutes for our backage, but Aaron was on time and we went right to his house. Wow.. what a house. It's huge.. has 3 living areas and 5 bedrooms. It has an amazing back yard and view and guess what... someone has an unsecured internet wireless AP next door! So free internet for me.

We went grocery shopping, mom bought it all (with objections from Nola, Aaron and I) and got enough food to last us 2 weeks. We're making dinner right now.. chicken bbq, grilled vegies and salads. I made some guacamole dip and we're snacking. Mom is napping until dinner. I'll post later. :)

Is it cold in here?

Sunday was a lazy day. Cindy and I vegged ALL day and watched TV. I only left to get food. Once to get bagels, once to get McDonalds, once to get ice cream. It was one of the best days I've had in a long time. It was nice to relax.

Monday was almost a repeat of Sunday! Amazing. Laura came over in the evening to visit Cindy and I, watch TV and whatnot and I planned for my trip. Cindy did some dishes, I cleaned up a little.

Tuesday was a good day. I had a blowout meeting in the morning (they canceled without telling me) and I felt rushed in the afternoon. Prolly because I took a 75 minute lunch. Those extra 15 minutes are important. I demonstrated the website to Nancy at 3:30 and by 4 I was cleaning my office. I left at 4:30, rushed home, changed and took Ashley to the vet for her rabbies shot. We got there 15 minutes late, but they took her anyway.

We came back and I left to get Laura for our shopping spree. We went to Old Navy, I tried on some board shorts and some swim trunks. I ended up buying a red and black pair of board shorts. We went to the mall and checked out Express for men, I bought a couple pairs of summer shorts, then we went to Walmart and got supplies (and a couple shirts). We stopped by McDonalds, picked up some food for Cindy and then went to pick her up. We came back, Laura did a fashion show with the old clothes Cindy does not wear anymore. I cleaned, packed, did laundry and relaxed for the evening. My mother and sister get here at 4:30am, so I need to get to bed.

Wish me luck, we fly out in a couple hours.

First Golden Port then the moon...

Cindy and I went to Golden Port for dinner, I'm not remembering anything exciting that happened.

Afterward Cindy bought some beer and vodka and headed to the hippies house. I hung out with the cat and had a quiet Friday night. I took some garbage out to the dumpster and I saw the stairstepper that had been there for over a week. So I got on it thinking I could perhaps use it if there wasn't anything wrong with it. I went inside to get a flashlight to check it out further and when I came back outside, it was gone. Not moved, not thrown out.. it was gone! Within 2 minutes. That's crazy.

Saturday I woke up late and cleaned a bit before Cindy and I headed to my grandmother's place for a 4th of July picnic. We got there around 4 and stayed until 8. We went to the Outlets and shopped for awhile. I got a shirt, pants and shorts for my trip. We came back to Rochester, Cindy got her alcohol and we drank the night away. Alison came over and stayed until 1:30 or so. Cindy spent most of the night on the floor.

It was fun.

What do you think I am, a god?

So, Laura has offered to take care of my plants and car while I'm on vacation. She absolutely refuses to take care of the cat... :) Well, she meant cat and not car, but she can take care of my car if she wants.

On the way to pick Linda up for Golden Port, I saw one of my pet peeves, people who smoke in the cars with their kids in the back. I looked in the rear-view mirror and she was puffing and blowing with her baby in the back. Absolutely awful.

So my cat IMs people randomly, so what. She likes you and she wants to talk to you. What? You haven't been IMed? Well, that's just because she doesn't like you.

I got into my apartment and I noticed the cat on the top shelf of my closet. It's 7 feet in the air, how she got up there is impossible. I hope I don't come home sometime to ripped up clothes just so she could get to the top.

At Golden Port, I dined a fine meal with 50 Indians. Sheila and Dimple's Indian camp couselors all came to Golden Port for dinner. It was quite packed, but luckily, our food came out first while some people didn't get their food for 45 minutes or longer. We ate a lot of great food.

Today my coworkers and I went to the Elmwood for lunch, we sat out on the deck. It was great, a very nice lunch. I enjoy going out with them, they're such interesting people, varying in opinions, humor and experiences. All of them are older than me, which is a change of pace since most of my friends in my life are younger than me.

Today has been slooooooooooooow. There isn't much going on. Cindy stopped by after her class but had to go to work, but she then called me and we talked on the phone for an hour. Amazing how I can still get work done and talk to her at the same time. Our conversation went (and usually goes) like this:

Cindy: Fat fat, fat we're so fat.
Luke: Gym gym gym, we should do the gym.
Cindy: Let's eat tonight at Golden Port.
Luke: Okay, wanna get some liquor?
Cindy: Well, yeah. Taco Bell at midnight?

Yes, we are horrible horrible people.

I was reading an article about an exhibit traveling the world that uses real bodies, deceased, in its display. Parts of the bodys are opened and put together and displayed for visitors. It's a real learning experience and I'd definitely would like to see it. However, I find it funny when religion pokes its head into the mix. People feel its wrong and amoral to display dead bodies (even though these people donated their bodies when they died).

For example: Eva Edwards was fascinated until she discovered the exhibit featured real human bodies. She quickly saw a conflict between her religious and scientific beliefs. "Religiously, we feel the body should be respected and buried," she said. "I don't really feel that scientifically." Yes, because burying stuff and letting it rot and forgetting about it is so much better than preserving it so it won't rot and turn to dust and let people learn from it. Ugh.


Who the heck would let their cat weight this much?

Hopefully we can get out a little early today. It's going so slow!

But I already knew that because the dentist's office told me this morning...

So I went home for lunch, walked and all. I say if I want food, I need to work for it. I didn't even want to stop since I ate so much last night, but my arms and legs started shaking and I knew I wouldn't last until 7 tonight. I couldn't believe how shaky I was, it was getting worse the closer to my place I got. On the way, I had considered doing an all cereal food regime since it would control my calories really well (one box per day is about 2000 calories). Well, I'd need to be sure its a low sugar high fiber cereal, because the cereal I had this morning made me so hungry and shaky by noon I couldn't do that every day.

Cat enjoyed me being home for just a couple minutes. I don't know how she's going to handle me being on vacation for two weeks. It will be so lonely. :( Maybe Cindy and Laura can take turns staying with her?

So my mother IMed me and was telling me about her dentist visit today. She goes to my dentist too, and since I went yesterday they were raving over how wonderful a person I was:

Mom: I went for my cleaning this morning and they were all oohing and ahhing about what a nice young man you are
Mom: they said you were every mother's dream of a son in law
Mom: I said does that mean he didn't cause a scene and throw a fit?
Mom: they LOVE you
Mom: even Mr Dr thakrar said he saw you and what a nice fellow you were.
Mom: I said that you took after your mother
Mom: I did hear she was a nice person

My mom makes me laugh sometimes. I can't even go to the dentist without being harassed, if even a day late!

So I opened my new money market account and put my six months saved income into it. You're supposed to have nine, so we'll see how that goes. It has a 2.15% interest rate and its harder to get to than a checking/savings account, so we'll see how that goes.

Mom was telling me about all the wonderful (read expensive) things we'll be doing out in CA for two weeks. Dodger's game, boat trip to Catalina Island, San Diego zoo. Should be fun. I have to water all my plants.. eek.. two weeks, so much goes on during two weeks. And I'm going to be away....

After helping my mom with my uncle's website, she wrote:
Mom: you are the best!
Mom: but I already knew that because the dentist's office told me this morning.

Something to make me smile. :)

Also, Sheila called and wants to go to Golden Port tonight at 6:15, so that's something to look forward to.

The "real criminal is Bush" and I couldn't agree more...

So CNN is reporting this morning that Saddam Hussein was in court today and when asked for a statement he said that the real criminal is George Bush. While he's not anyone that should have lead a country or gassed his own people, I couldn't agree more than that the US President is the real criminal here: leading us to war under false pretenses.

I just heard a funny and cruel joke: When Mary Kate Olsen was reading a newspaper article about her finally being 18 she said "Damnit! Who told this reporter I lost another pound??" Ouch.

Anyway, Tuesday night after the gym, Laura and Cindy came over and we hung out, munched on food and stayed up way too late. Laura left, Cindy didn't, so Cindy and I hung out and burned workout CDs and watched late night TV until 1am.

Wednesday was a really busy day for me. I think 3 different people asked if I was cranky. I don't get cranky! I just get busy and distracted. Full staff meeting at 9am, going back to my apartment with Janina at lunch to drop off goods she's donating to me, dentists appointment from 2:30 to 4:30 and then gym until 7. Got home, picked up Cindy and we went to Walmart. We meant to also go to BJs and a Pet Store to get rat food, but by the time we were done at Walmart, everything was closed.

We hung out for the rest of the night, ate biscuits, cereal and everything else in my apartment. :) She left around 11:20.. woah!