The Christmas Tree

I love this! It's so delightfully bizarre!

Merry Christmas!

Let's just say that Winston is a VERY good sport!
Bess would have totally torn me (and anyone else close enough!) into shreds if I tried to put her in an outfit like that!!!

(and I don't think we should even mention the Michael Jackson Thriller doll. What's up with THAT!?)

Just a quick note

I owe a much longer version of "Cardiff Tales" and will do a proper entry sometime soon, but I've succumbed to CG's pressure and so here's an updated photo of my little buddy. He attended our office's Birthday/Holiday party and charmed everyone. He managed to sneak a taste of canoli. He licked off his whiskers, ran to the table and looked at me as if to say "What's up with you - you never give me anything good like this." So my rep as Cruella DeVille was cemented.



Also, the stockings for CG's whole Baltimore crew were awesome. And they look so lovely hung with care.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

Ok, so I've been feeling a little blue about the whole Christmas thing this year. In the past, I have LOVED Christmas -- I love decorating, celebrating, the carols, the neighbors' lights, being with my family. This year, of course, has had different vibe. I'm in Baltimore, Dad is in Wayne, Mom isn't here, the house belongs to someone else. So when it comes to decorating I've been feeling a little like, "what's the point?"

Until I got these in the mail on Friday. -- Beautiful personalized stockings for me AND my pets!!



The person who sent these shall remain nameless (CATHY! THE BEST FRIEND A GIRL CAN HAVE!!!) It was so thoughtful and caring. She knows what a tough time I'm having. So I couldn't have these beautiful Christmas stockings and not make the most of them. I went out yesterday, bought a tree, and VOILA!



This is the first artificial tree I've ever had, and I kind of like it! It set up pretty easily, and I don't have to water it!

Remember these?

The Bess Angel Ornament



The Bess Shopping Ornament




And one of my favorites, the little weird pink-haired ornament!




It's still a tough adjustment, but knowing that I have a friend like Cathy makes everything a little easier.

A Swimming Sloth??? A SWIMMING SLOTH???? Who knew?

Since we may never see adorable photos of Mr. Cardiff, I will post this from Cuteoverload.com.



Hm...

Where is Cardiff??

We want pictures!!

Owain's New Friend

Here are some not-so-great cell phone photos of Owain playing next door with Zoe. She is a 7-year-old Rhodesian Ridgeback. She's very sweet. But the two of them run and wrestle -- its great!



And here is my nosy-parker boy expecting to be let in to my neighbor's house!

Name That Tune!

Ok, i think this is post-worthy with just the video, but add the "tune" and it just must be posted. I can't tell you how much I love this song! It's so wrong that it's right.

What the heck is going on here?!?!

Ok, this has so many things going for it:
1. Kerrazzy cat haircuts!
2. Stoic karate pose by the cat on the left.
3. Cat on the right batting at karate cat's paw!
4. And the finale. Watch and you shall see!

Resistance is Futile!

I couldn't be any more excited. We just got this new picture of Cardiff and official information about his flight. He's such a jet-setter already. He'll be here November 9. I might go insane just looking at him! Is he off the Cute-osity scale or what???!!!!

Hee hee!

Vegas, Baby, Vegas!!!

You all know the famous slogan “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” Well, since I’m no distant relative of Bugsy Segal, a crime scene investigator, or an NBC casino owner, I think I can share what a fabulous vacation I had in “Sin City.” There are some scandalous things which I suppose might be better left unreported had I partaken (“card flickers” as they are known, are out all day offering discount tickets into sex and strip clubs. I was too jet-lagged to go! hee, hee). However, being the intrepid explorer that I am, I was able to find the nude bathing areas of both the Flamingo and the Mirage. Of course, in Vegas they are called “European bathing areas.”

We stayed at the Flamingo, started by my pal Bugsy when the strip first got going. Toni Braxton was the headliner, and here you can see how she is publicized by a bigger than life photo on the side of the hotel. Had I known that was what she needed it for, I might have been a little more reluctant to lend her my dress when she rushed up and asked me for it. It was beautiful with live flamingos walking the grounds and everything.





Colleen and I had a blast visiting as many casinos as possible. As far as gambling, I won, let’s see hmmmmm, this plus this minus this equals…oh, yeah, absolutely nothing! However, at one casino for Monday Night Football even though we lost all our bets, we won every raffle. Really, EVERY raffle. We won Riddel miniature helmets of both the Redskins and the Eagles (two separate drawings that we each won), we won a Miller Game Time T-shirt, and we won a supah-pizzazz Miller steel cooler. Good thing you don't have to like Miller to win! I guess I have to amend that; the only thing we didn’t win were jerseys that were also up for raffle. McNabb’s and some who cares Redskin! And what a shame that was. The guy who won looked at his friend and said “which one should I take.” And his friend said “I guess McNabb’s.” I guess????? Oh, how wrong! But we were pretty happy to haul all of our Monday Night Football booty up to the room.

One night we went to the water and light show that the Bellagio puts on. It was pretty spectacular. Thanks to Colleen for handling photography duty as I am apparently blind and can’t tell all my pictures were out of focus! The water actually danced along with the tunes they played. You must go to Vegas and see it so that this description makes sense!



We had a late lunch at Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill one day. The bartender, Ephraim is our new best friend. His margaritas were to die for, and the food was absolutely delicious!



Then I got a blister and had to go get some shoes.



All in all it was a pretty spectacular vacation. Just what I needed. It was so great to have no time constraints, no schedule, no rules and no work! Colleen and her folks were terrific to travel with – all three of them are also much luckier gamblers than I. I highly recommend a trip there, because even though I never had Las Vegas on my list of places I MUST go, I now know why it is such a Mecca for more than gamblers.



As if my stupendous vacation wasn’t enough to blow my mind with joy, excitement and fun, I got word right before I left that my new little buddy Cardiff, a baby Norwich terrier, was born. Along with Colleen, Max and Ollie (the dogs), Sammy, Sayles and Q ( the cats), our little bi-city family will expand by one in November. Cardiff is going to be a Liberty resident with me. I can hardly wait!!! Miss Gibbs and Thor would approve.

I LOVE this dog!!!

Wow, I totally needed to see this video today.

Quite Possibly The Cutest Thing Ever

May I present Capers, the baby otter. I believe this was filmed at some sort of rescue facility. Notice his little undulating tum when he's floating on the water!!

Fences and liberals make good neighbors!

This is in front of my neighbor's house. They live about 4 houses down the block. They also have a peace symbol flag on their front porch. I have not met them, but I love them! No one touches the easel. They change the message every once in a while. For a while it had something about how many billions of dollars have been spent so far on the war, then it said "Pro America, Anti Bush." The Gonzales message obviously was put up this week.

I can't help but think how much Mom would have loved this!

My Day Yesterday

This is what I stared at for almost three hours yesterday.



I went to the DMV to get my Maryland license. It was a loooonnng wait which included a lot of interesting people, like the old, stinky man that sat down next to me and promptly fell asleep and started leaning. I decided to get up and walk around at this point. The photo was taken about two and a half hours in. I was number A133. When I first sat down it was at A84. Sigh. Anyway, it all worked out. I've got my new license and I'm registered to vote.

And more pet photos. Here is my other seating option in the living room. As you can see, Vivian has decided that this is HER favorite chair. Who's in charge here?!?!?! (Clearly, not me!!!)

The Tale of the Red Couch by the Window

Clearly I finally am able to upload photos to my computer! Here is the first of several photo-oriented posts!



















They do enjoy a comfy perch!

A Blast (or Post) From the Past

I thought to lighten things up a little, I'd repost one of the earliest entries on this blog. Ah, remember when we were all so young and innocent?? Enjoy:

November 17, 2005

I was talking to Mom'o'us tonight about the joys of bacon -- telling her about your friend's blog where she said "If I was a vegan, I'd still eat bacon." (I almost wrote, "If I was a bacon..." WA HA HA!!!) Anyway, so I was sharing with Mom the first time I had an egg salad with bacon sandwich. Yummm!!!! I'll set the scene. It was probably 6 years ago (did I tell you this? Oh well.) and I was working a temp job at GE Insurance where they had a giant cafeteria. So the person in front of me at the sandwich station orders an egg salad with bacon sandwich. My eyes widen at the thought. I'd never heard of such a magnificent idea! But of course, it makes sense -- bacon and eggs. But on a sandwich? So I quickly ordered the same thing and hurried to my table (I'm glad I was by myself this day, preventing anyone I knew from witnessing my total sandwich gooniness!) Sigh. It was as good as I had hoped. Mmmmm. I had to keep myself from getting the cholesteral-busting meal every single day! I actually haven't had one in a long time as its a bit labor intensive when someone isn't preparing it for you. But it was definitely a red-letter day.

"Oh no! Not the long orchestrion again!"

Kind of what this last year has felt like...

There seems to be a lesson here.

I found this clip of these little ducklings learning how to swim.



I guess sometimes you just have to jump in even when it seems a little scary!

My latest driving test

I had a pop driving test recently. Diana and Gus and I went to IKEA and I was driving. After a few minutes, Gus informed me that he was giving me a driver's test. I wasn't sure what he meant until the piece of paper below was passed up to the front seat.



My examiner told me that an X meant I failed that portion and a check meant I passed. So my first X was for starting -- in my defense, I haven't driven a stick shift in a long time, so I did sort of pop it in to gear. The second X was for my seatbelt -- I was wearing it the whole time, but I did adjust it at a traffic light. This is apparently a violation of driving rules. And the last X, for "not speeding," I just have to take responsibility for. I am a little bit of a lead foot. I will have to try harder.

I'm keeping it on the fridge to remind me to follow the rules of the road. Thanks, Gus, for keeping me safe!

Could you imagine a kitten doing this to Bess?? Kitten is SITTING ON THE CAT's HEAD!

And Good Morning To You, Diana!

That is Cinnamon Life for breakfast! Thanks, dear sister, for the beautiful bowls!

Well we made it through the night, sort of. Earl's nocturnal side really kicked into gear around 3 a.m. He just never stop moving and noisily exploring the apartment. And when I would try to quietly scold him, my deputy would bark. Sigh. So I'm a little tired this morning.

The cats seem to be enjoying the apartment -- they haven't been nervous or skitterish at all. Owain has been a very good boy -- he hasn't barked much at all. But he is being VERY vigilant about me at ALL times (the cats too, for that matter.) There are only three rooms, but whenever I get up and move, all three of them are right at my heels.

I have to run some errands today -- I hope Owain's head doesn't explode from the worry (and I hope he doesn't cry and yowl!) I'll have to keep my excursions very short.

Thats it from Charm City!

Settling in...

Tomorrow is MOVING DAY!

Look at Our Guys!

We may be zero-ing in on 10,000 losses, but our Phillies have class!

Happy Birthday To Meeee!!

Here I am doing my Summer Birthday Dance on the beach in Ocean City, oh so many years ago!

Happy Fourth of July!

Uh-oh, I forgot to turn off the AC when I left the apartment today!

Thanks again, Cuteoverload!

OK, so this little hammy is just generally cute, then someone taunts him with a sunflower seed, but the best part is at the very end. Enjoy!

"My first trophy! I can't believe it!!"

The Japanese. Hm.

Turkeys, Fish, Whales and Cousins

And the turkeys would have won if they had found the mailbox peanut stash! Thanks for a wonderful picnic.
ELC

Ooops - the cat address

Sorry about that - I guess that is what "preview" is for!

http://www.evo.hr/cat/

If you ever need a laugh.....

I just wanted to share two of my favorite sites. One is for those who would prefer to join with cats and laugh, and the other is for those dog lovers that sometimes have had a tough day and need to laugh about nothing of substance.
I would recommend that you bookmark them. I emailed the "Wroom Dog" site master when the site went down and he or she was absolutely gracious about making sure that I could access "Wroom." Later, due to popular demand "Wroom" was put back up, and I couldn't be happier.
Again, they are both silly, but on those days when you just know that you could use a laugh, these two sites will hopefully do the trick.

http://www.evo.hr/dog/

http://www.evo.hr/dog/

Whaaa, haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, haaaaa!!!

ELC

Who will it be?!?!!?

Natasha? (my first choice)


Jaslene (kind of annoys me, but takes good photos)


Renee aka Ne ne (egh. I can't get around how horribly negative she is.)


We'll find out tonight!! Woohoo!

Stars, Moms and Guardian Angels

Hello my sisters,

I know today we're thinking of some very special Welsh ladies. So tonight look up and see if you can find the Northern Crown. I am also hoping that our little intrepid astronomers (from Alex - not so little- to Grace - still so little) will have fun finding them in the sky for many years to come.

The link goes to a column from our local paper. I wrote to him in 2004 when I knew Mom's star was going to be in the Corona Borealis, and he published this in response. I found it amazing that now that my other mother's star is also in the Crown, he republished it.

So tonight look to the east and know that we have some lovely and very powerful guardian angels who love us very much. I hope that for you, as it does for me, it will bring a smile and some comfort to you all.

Much love,
ELC

What Is Up With This Tortoise?!?

This is both hilarious and bizarre! Is the tortoise playing? I don't know. The cat seems to think so, at first. Then he goes after the white cat and its like he took him in the alley to mess him up!

IRREVELENT!

OK, ELC and I have returned from Charm City and, as expected, it was an epic journey. Here are some highlights.

The post title refers to what Beth said to me when I started to talk about one of the apartments that I had already decided against.

Dropping the cell phone under my car seat and discussing for MANY miles how to retrieve it (but finally deciding just to leave it there.)

"We're STILL in Pennsylvania!" This was one of MANY comments that I made about our SLOW progress driving south.

Also on the drive down Beth commented on a truck that had coolers and containers on the back and she worried that they might contain "biodegradeable trash picked up by the health department." That boidegradeable trash IS a menace to our mother earth!

The weird hotel with the sensitive waitress. Now the last time I stayed there I thought the place had a very weird vibe, but I thought maybe it was just me. Now I have ELC as a witness. When we went to the hotel restaurant for dinner (where one other table was seated), Beth and I were laughing about something and the waitress, when she brought our drinks over, said, "I thought you were laughing at me." Well we weren't, but now we were.

The restaurant had two menus -- an expensive one and another one called "Light Fare" which I kept insisting on calling the "leisure" menu.

watching the Baltimore channel -- Laura: "I'm NOT wearing a crab hat!"



Happy cinco de mayo! We celebrated at the Mount Washington Tavern. It was good.

"Squitting" (my drunken contraction of "fitting a square peg into a round hole")

the surly bartender manager (I don't even know how to describe how he was surly, he just was!)

Happy Derby Day! We celebrated this at the hotel "bar" where we had mint juleps. Actually, I tried one but didn't like it so I ordered a mojito, which I think is the perfect marriage of cinco de mayo and the Kentucky Derby!

"put my drink on her tab." "but I don't even know you." When I went to the bar to order my mojito, I told the bartender to put my drink on her tab and I gestured to Beth. But the lady sitting next to where I was standing didn't see my gesture and thought I was trying to get HER to pay for my drinks. WA HA HA HA HA!!!

and although we shall NEVER speak of it -- the skin sleeve. AGGGGHHHHH!

This one's for you, ELC!

This from the Television Without Pity recap of last night's America's Next Top Model (the last line is the best!):

It's time for go-sees, Sydney style! The girls are sent off with a map, some addresses, and a cab. And, of course, a drop-dead deadline for being back to the agency where they started. Renee, Jaslene, and Natasha are generally impressive to the designers, while Dionne is impressive to me for the way she wrangles some free clothes. And then, there is Brittany. She seems to have a hard time actually finding her destinations, even when she's on the right street, and fails to impress even one of the designers. She tries to squeeze in one last go-see when, as any good student of ANTMs past could tell you, she should have hoofed it back to the agency, and when her cab driver fails to read her mind, she fails to make her deadline. And then, she goes ape-s__t. She cries, throws her portfolio, and uses almost continuous expletives to describe her cab driver, and the best part is that everyone who DID make it on time and is inside of the agency -- including the agency's director -- can totally hear her. Natasha was one minute late and also disqualified, but handles it all in style. Jaslene ends up winning the challenge, and she and Dionne get a bonus shoot at the top of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. The photo shoot for the week is two-fold: the girls have to pose in bathing suits with a male model first for a "soft/sexy" shoot that would appear in a women's magazine (photographed by Tyra), and then pose for a "just plain sexy/ho-style" shoot for a men's magazine. For the most part the girls do well, though Dionne gets a lot of criticism for looking mean. At judging, Jaslene, Natasha and Renee jump to the head of the pack. Dionne's struggles at the photo shoot put her in the bottom two. But though Brittany's photos are great, as usual, personality deficiency coupled with the fact that not one of the go-see designers said that they would book her puts her in the bottom two again, and she goes home. Luckily, tomorrow she won't even remember she was on the show at all.

See ya Brit!

A Special Day

I love you and miss you, Mom.

A little birthday present (see previous post)

Chicks! These were the little guys and gals that hatched in our kindergarten just last Monday! Peep! Peep! Peep!

To the Best Cousin EVER!!!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday Dear BEEEEETTTTTTHHHHHHH!!!!!
Happy Birthday to YOUUUU!!!!

And many more!
And she lives down our alley!

New Celebrity Boyfriend

I am a big Errol Flynn as Robin Hood fan. I think he gave the definitive portrayal of the head Merry Man years ago. HOWEVER, check out BBC American and I think you will be hooked. It's very realistic, and they throw in very funny current references. The Sheriff is a bad man, of course, but also very subversively funny.

And Sir Guy is just so all dark and handsome and bad....oh my!

Today I had a very pleasant day. I spent most of it with Gus who was delightful company. First we went to Applebee's for lunch. Does it get any better than pizza and nachos? I think not (unless you count the Oreo sundae that he got for dessert!)!



We went back to the house for a bit where we played playstation (Spongebob Squarepants.) Then we wandered down to the kitchen where Gus pretended to be Spongebob working at the Krusty Krab. (Notice a theme happening?) And then we went to Barnes and Noble where I picked up a map of Baltimore and Gus picked out a comic book about..... you guessed it.... SpongeBob!

ELC, here is a little pick-me-up for you. Here are just some of the many daffodils that have bloomed in our yard. Each one that opens up makes me think of you and Mom. You are so thoughtful. We LOVE you!!!!!