Finished

Just wanted to put up a little post - I have finished one goal for this year. YAY! I have read the Bible cover to cover.

Well, okay, it wasn't straight through, I did skip around. And it was a combination of 4 different bibles that I read, depending on where I was when I was reading. But still! I think that's a pretty neat accomplishment.

Go me!

That is all.

Updates (or "I'm Dreaming of a Tight Christmas")

Ah, fun times. Let's see what all is going on.

Cocoa is doing fantastic. On Friday, she started eating the full amount of dry cat food recommended for a kitty her size. She's eaten the entire 2/3 cup or more since then. She's also gained some weight so she's back to a slightly pudgy 10.0 pounds. Along with getting her pudge back, she's also gotten her chat back. That girlie will not stop talking! She talks like crazy every morning when she first sees us, every night when I come home, and constantly in between. It's great to have our old Cocoa back. In two weeks we will recheck her liver levels and, assuming everything with that is okay, take out the feeding tube. Yay!

Now on to less, well, exciting news. My "talent" of closing down companies has been transferred. Now Dan has it. Dan's got one month to find new employment. Very exciting! Uhm, yeah.

Well, all I can say is thank goodness the Cocoa-related vet bills came before we were facing the possibility of being a one-income home. Otherwise I might have had to pre-chew her food and feed her it to her without a tube.

Cocoa and Mom? Thankfully not.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving: thanks·giv·ing
Pronunciation: tha[ng](k)s-'gi-vi[ng] also 'tha[ng](k)s-"
Function: noun
1 : the act of giving thanks
2 : a prayer expressing gratitude
3 : a public acknowledgment or celebration of divine goodness

Things I am thankful for (in no specific order):

• My family - all 8 kitties, 2 parents and one wonderful, patient and kind husband
  
• Having the financial ablility to take care of our kitties when an emergency comes up (like Cocoa's liver)
  
• The opporunities that I have been giving, in paricular the opporunity to travel to so many different places and experience so many things
  
• My marriage - in a way that goes beyond just having a great husband, but how well we work together to have a great marriage
  
• To have a job that provides such good insurance
  
• That my heart arrythmia wasn't something serious
  
• That my kitties all get along (for the most part)
  
• That we have found a good stain remover for the kitty vomit on the carpet (though I would be even more thankful if they learned to always vomit on the tile)
  
• My health - sounds crazy considering the problems I have had, but I am so thankful that they seem to be in the past
  
• Our church and the great people we have met there
  
• Our veternarian office - I couldn't imagine trusting my babies to anyone else
  
• My "virtual" friends - you know who you are!
  

So what are you thankful for today?

Hug a Sea Creature

The Zimmermanns are visiting from St. Louis this week and we all went to the Dallas World Aquarium today. Oh my goodness - so cool!

The aquarium had a lot of neat animals - not just fish and fish related ones. After all, when is the last time you saw a monkey in a fish tank?

Emperor Tamarin

Okay, you probably have seen some frogs in fish tanks, but the DWA had some neat colorful (read: poisonous) ones.

A poisonous froggie

But don't get the idea that there weren't any fish-like things at the aquarium. There were a good number of them!

Dan insists he did not tell me this fish was called a Chocolate Chiclet, but that's what I heard, so that's what it is to me.


The only kind of jellyfish I like - one that is behind glass


This scorpion fish kept posing for me - he couldn't decide which side was his best so he kept offering me both


These seadragons were probably the most amazing creatures I had ever seen - simply awe-inspiring

But none of these beauties compare to the one animal that I fell totally in love with while at the aquarium. (Of course, I do feel immensely guilty for having eaten one of its young cousins (pickled, even... it wasn't very good) a decade ago.) But the little guys didn't seem to mind that I had eaten their kin. There was even one that kept flirting with me each time I went to the tank. The cutest little sea animal I have ever had the pleasure of meeting:

The Cuttlefish


Showing off for the camera


How can you not love that little tentacled face?

Aren't they just the cutest things? I so want one. But Dan says "no". He's so mean. No chihuahua, no fish, no manatee, no ducks, no chickens, no cuttlefish... You'd think the man had to live with 8 cats or something.

But I digress. Cuttlefish are now officially the cutest aquatic animals ever. So go to your nearest aquarium and hug some sea creatures.

Or cuttlefish. Your choice.

Dear Santa

Where has this year gone? It seems too soon to have pumpkins everywhere, must less think about buying Christmas presents. But I have been. I even have presents for Dan and my mom already wrapped. Shocking, huh?

Fortunately, no one has asked me yet that inevitable question of what I want for Christmas. But I have decided to be prepared for when that question comes up. I have made myself a little Amazon wish list for my Christmas Ideas. Thrilling, isn't it?

The list is stuff that I've had on my wishlist for myself and thought that it would save me from having no response to that question when it does actually get asked. I'm posting it here so that I can find the link easily.

Of course, since I'm prepared for it, most likely no one will ask me what I want for Christmas now. Ain't that always the way?

My Productivity Knows No Bounds

Today I was way productive. I mean, insanely productive.

What, you might ask, did I do that was so productive?

I made a rubber band ball!

(No, I didn't make this rubberband ball (though mine looks similar).
Do you think I bring my digital camera to work to take and upload pictures or something? Come on - I'm working here people!)

I have never made my own rubberband ball. My rubberband ball at home was started by Dan because I didn't know how to start one. I've maintained it, but he started it. This one, I started. Woo hoo!

See! I told you I've been productive!

Catch up Posting (Now with Pictures!)

Okay, I haven't posted in a while, so here's some updates (pictures hopefully to be added later) as I try my hardest not to actually work today:

Mizu's Trip
Saturday, September 16 - Stockyards!
The Stockyards were very neat. The main thing we went there to see was the 4:30pm Cattle Drive. The small herd of Fort Worth longhorns is herded from their storage pen, or whatever it was called to their viewing pen and back every day. So we stood on the street and watched these HUGE beasties plod by in a small group. It was pretty wild to see something so HUGE right there in front of you. I kept thinking about how much it would hurt if one of them stepped on my foot (though we were up on the curb, so they wouldn't have been able to do it accidentally). Did I mention they were HUGE?

Big Moo-Cows

Monday, September 18 - HOCKEY!
Okay, so it was pre-season hockey, but it was still a lot of fun. The Stars kicked the Thrashers behind and there were several fights towards the end. And it was fun to cheer for the team that actually won!

Dallas over Atlanta, 5 - 2

Tuesday, September 19 - Fort Worth Zoo!
We spent the morning and a bit of the afternoon at the Fort Worth Zoo. I so enjoy zoos. The day was cool (relatively) so the animals were decently active. The jaguar even talked a bit. And the meerkats were so darn cute!

I want a meerkat, but Dan says "No"

He won't let me have a river otter, either

Wednesday, September 20 - Thursday, September 21
Mizu and I went to small-town Graham to spend the night at my parents. Graham is a neat little place. Very 1950s-town-square and whatnot. And, of course, my parents are lovely people, so it's always nice to visit them.

After Graham, it was time for Mizu to pack up as her flight left way early on Friday morning. I think she probably got home just about the time she was adjusting to the time difference.

Hockey Time
Regular season hockey kicks off TOMORROW! I am so excited! I don't even know who is playing tomorrow, but I'm so watching a game. Ducks don't have their opener until Friday. I think the Blues have their first game on Thursday.

Dan and I are doing fantasy hockey again this year. I think I have a pretty good team, but there is still one other player I want to add - but I have to figure out who to drop to add him on. Oh well, my roster is already set for this week, so I have until Sunday to figure out what I am going to do so it will go into effect for next week.

I have to say, I'm not overly thrilled with the schedule this year. It seems so uneven. For example, the Ducks don't play the Stars here in Texas until next year, and then they play them in Texas 4 times in 3 months. Seems like the NHL could have done a little better planning. I realize they are trying to save money for teams by restricting their travel, but when I am so far from my team, it just makes me sad that I can't see the Ducks spread more evenly through the season.

Heart Stuff
So, lately things have been a little stressful. I've been feeling kind of stressed about work stuff and last week wasn't all that hot with the heart stuff - though it is amazing how quickly I got used to feeling "normal". Two weeks on my medication and I felt great. One week with high stress and bad sleep patterns and I started having more flutterings and whatever with the heart. Even then, though, the bad days were only a little worse than my good days used to be pre-new medication. So woo hoo! And now I'm working on getting de-stressed (though that's not going too well) and getting more sleep (that's doing better) and my heart is starting to behave again. My bad days are really good compared to a month ago - they would have been good days then. But I wanna go back to no bad days! Ah, I'll get there.

Went back to the cardiologist last week and he said that the medication seems to be the right one (I agree) and unless something changes (the side effects get worse (the medication causes drowsiness) or the heart racing gets worse) he will see me again in 6 months. He also said that I will be on this medication indefinitely and that he wouldn't even think of trying me off of it for at least a year. You know, as much as I hate taking daily pills, I'm okay with that. If I get enough sleep, the side effects of the medication aren't a problem and the heart racing has gotten bad enough to cause me to get dizzy only a couple of times since I started it. So rock on!

And I know this isn't the most logical thing, but I am glad that this medicine worked (as opposed to a different one) because the pill is a purple and orange capsule. Much more attractive than the other three meds they tried me on, which were just light, small round pills.

See, aren't they pretty?

Last but not least
Sunday, John (our pastor) mentioned something in his sermon that really encouraged me. We are going through 1 Peter so we have been talking about suffering - the purpose behind it, why it is better to suffer for no reason than as a result of sin... And John was explaining how Peter could say that Christians should rejoice in suffering. What a weird idea, isn't it? To rejoice because you are suffering. How do you do that? John said something about how you should view suffering, what kind of attitude you should have and it really spoke to me. You should look out from suffering and say, "I am eager to see what God will do with this".

Think about that for a minute. Isn't that encouraging when you really contemplate that? I think so.
Sermon: "The Upside Of The Downside II"
(Other BCBC sermons)

Clean the house - We've got company!

So today after work, I went to the airport to pick up my friend Mizu, who came to Texas to visit.

Wanting to give her the full Texas experience, right away we whisked her off to eat Tex-Mex.

Then, after we were stuffed to the gills, we brought her to the house to play with some kitties.

I'm so excited! Mizu was my best friend when I was an exchange student in Japan. I can't wait to show her Texas!

Tomorrow: The Fort Worth Stockyards.

Busted

When I posted last, I didn't have anything to really post about. Sadly, now I do have an actual topic to blog about now.

My camera died.

Well, not died exactly. It still runs. It will even still take pictures. The problem is, the pictures now look like this:

Believe it or not, that is actually a picture of Gidget on the plant stand. No - really. It is.

Poor camera. We don't know what happened to it. I guess we must have knocked something loose after the last time we used it. Okay, okay. I must have knocked something loose after the last time I used it. Chances are very good that this is my fault.

So now I would like everyone to bow their heads (but keep your eyes open so you can keep reading, otherwise you won't know when I am done) and take a moment to remember this great little camera. It was there when we needed - purchased in Japan after our other digital camera decided to "swim with the fishes" (literally) took marvelous pictures in Hawaii (among other places), and was able to capture a little bit of the essence of cute that is our kitties.

So thank you, little camera. You will be missed.

(Though I won't tell the camera that it won't be missed all that much as Dan and I picked up a Casio Exilim camera at CostCo today that is half the size, has twice the resolution and a huge display screen.)

Goodbye little PowerShot! Thank you for your service!

New Post

I feel like it has been a decent amount of time since I've done a real post (I don't think singing "Happy Birthday" to myself counts), so I have the urge to post something. Sadly, I got nothing.

So let's see..... What to talk about?

• 68 days until hockey season officially starts
  
• My friend from Japan, Mizu, is coming to visit in September and she said she'd be interested in going to a US sports game, so we are hoping to hit a Stars game. I think our choices are Thrashers and Wild. Kind of like to go see the Wild (I like them more) but the crowd energy makes me end up cheering for the Stars (unless they are playing the Ducks) and I don't really want to cheer against the Wild, so not sure which game we'll go to.
  
• My sister-in-law sent me some super-neat scrapbooking stuff for my birthday. I got it last night so I need to call her and thank her. One was a page of cute kitty-related quotes. I have been thinking of doing a kitty scrapbook so I think I am going to have to do it for sure now. YAY!
  
• Work is work. I'd much rather be home cleaning my bathroom. It's dirty. And the kitchen needs mopping. Any volunteers?
  
• Gidget's hair is growing back from where she had her little skin infection. She still looks a little scruffy because of the residual medication on her fur, but I'm glad her neck won't be bald.
  
• Did I mention that Princess is like a real cat now? She'll even come to get lovin' when you snap at her. Well, she'll come as often as any of the other cats.

So I think that's pretty much it. Until next time!

July 24, 2006

Happy birthday to me
Happy birthday to me
Happy birthday to meeeeeee
Happy birthday to me.





That is all.

An Early Birthday Present

It's a little less than 2 weeks before my 28th birthday and I have already received one present...

Uninvited Guest

Dan and I had an uninvited guest over the weekend.

We aren't quite sure how it got in but we are hoping he didn't get a chance to tell his other scorpion buddies about our house.

Freaky, huh?

By the way, scorpions make a big gooey mess when they are squished. So make sure you squish them on an easily cleanable surface.

My Hero

I keep forgetting to mention... weekend before last, Dan did a ton of yard work extending our corner bed to hold a ton of iris bulbs our neighbors had given us. Now the bed goes all the way down the side fence where the altheas are planted.

Dan pouring rocks into our newly extended bed

Dan is my hero! Now his next project will be extending the bed the other way - along the back of the fence. And no, I'm not evil for mentioning that. Dan was the one who brought it up first! I was just being a good wife and agreeing with my husband.

*grin*

Because lasers are COOL!

Did you know - Dan had LASIK done this weekend - Friday morning actually. Neat, huh?

Lasers are cool!

I know when I got my eyes zapped, I was seeing about 20/30 the next day, 20/25 the Monday after and 20/15 one week after. After abusing my eyes through a couple hundred books and many hours of computer time, I'm 20/20 a year and a half later. Pretty cool, huh?

But if I think that is cool, I can only imagine how Dan is feeling! He went from approximately 20/1000 (or "fingers at 4 feet" - in other words, he could see fingers from about 4 feet away) to 20/60 the day after the procedure. Sunday he was able to drive to church and today he was told that he's now a "weak" 20/20. And he still has some healing to do! Yay! I'm so happy for him!

Dan had to stay under the laser for 55 seconds per eye! That's really a long time, especially considering that I was a -4 and only had to stay under for 13 seconds per eye - which was a little longer than what they normally do for nearsighted folks. I think 6 seconds is fairly "normal". And Dad did 55 seconds per eye!

I'm really excited for him. His vision was so bad - I'm so glad we were able to do this for him. I think I'm more excited over Dan getting his eyes zotted that I was over mine getting done (well,maybe not. But I am super-excited for him). I think he's pretty excited, too. The past few days he's walked around with a happy / surprised look on his face. It's cute. Hehe.

Go Lasers!

Pictures and more pictures

Okay, as I type this blog entry, I am in the process of uploading a ton and a half of Hawaii pictures into our photo album. How many pictures is a ton and a half, you may ask? A little over 300. Yikes, huh? But let me tell you - there are some great pictures in there, including a few that I had to make sure got to cycle through as my computer desktop. Though the beauty of the pictures doesn't really reflect the talent of the photographer (me) so much as it does the beauty of the subject itself.

So if you are reading this entry after about 10:00PM on Monday (which is how long it will take to upload a ton and a half of high-quality Maui pictures) go take a gander at our Maui pictures!

UPDATE: After finally getting all the pictures uploaded and deleting the almost-duplicates and not so great or interesting pictures, I ended up with 274 pictures. Still a decent amount, but a small enough number that you can look through them all. Hehe - maybe. Now go look!

Back from the Islands

Sigh. Sadly, Dan and I are officially back from Hawaii. How depressing, huh?

Actually, it is really nice to see the kitties again. Besides, there is only so much of Paradise one can take. I think I will get my fill after about 70 or 80 years.

Dan and I didn't bring much back from Hawaii besides a tan and some great pictures, but the majority of what little else we returned with up being art. We got a nice limited edition print of some hula kitties for our neighbor, a fellow multiple-kitty mom who kitty-sat for us while we were gone as well as three pieces for us, as well as two small ones for me and one bigger one for Dan. I only have a picture of mine (because they are mine and this is my website) and while they aren't the best pictures, here they are:

Dan's print is of koi (Japanese carp) in blue, red, and yellow. It's really quite attractive. We put it over the entertainment center in the living room.

All the prints were done by the same artist, Frances Ku - she had just gorgeous pieces. I think Dan and I easily could have picked several more of her prints to take home. Her website has some of her pieces on it, but is by no means exhaustive. She had several paintings of bamboo and one in particular of a waterfall that were all beautiful and I didn't see on the website(I wanted the waterfall, but it was the original so it cost about $500, so no go).

And speaking of the gorgeous pictures (trust me, I did speak of the gorgeous pictures we took while we were there - check back in the third paragraph), I'll be posting some of those in our album as soon as I figure out again how to upload to it. We had a great time!

Dunk Tank

This weekend was eventful. At least I think so. Sunday after the church service, I got baptized. Or, as our pastor calls it, dunked. (Don't worry, he's joking).

My parents came up Saturday and spent the night so they could go to church with us Sunday - they wanted to make sure they were there. I think they were pretty pleased. I'm glad they were there. The pastor was nice enough to do it after the service even though 5 people were being baptized during it. I just didn't want to be in front of all those people. As obnoxious as I can be, I'm also pretty shy. Anyway, some church elders were there as well as a family that was the first one Dan and I were social with when we started going to Bear Creek. Okay, so far they have been the only ones, but other people have mentioned wanting to invite us to dinner and frankly, just having that said is nice and thoughtful, I think, even if the dinner never happens. But Monica did actually cook for us, so she rocks.

Anyway, just thought I would share.

New is good.

So, I went to Kohl's department store today with two of the ladies at work. We went during lunch. Anyway, while I was there, I got a bed-in-a-bag. YAY! I know, I'm a nerd, but that makes me happy. I like new comforters. It can totally change the look of your bedroom, you know? Yeah yeah, I already mentioned that I am a nerd. But come on, isn't it pretty?

And no, the outer border is not white... it is more of a sandy beige color. But the flash made it look whiter - but without the flash it looked yellow. I guess that's what we get for having fluorescent lights everywhere. It's cheaper, so I can deal. Anyway, I love the comforter. Dan even likes it a lot, which is pretty darn amazing!

And it was ever on sale - 50% off! I love sales! I might have to go back to Kohl's this weekend for some more shopping! :)

Our Special Guest

Today at work we had a very special guest....

Sunbathing snakey

Yes, our campus is right in the middle of a whole bunch of nature. Three-hundred some acres of nature in fact. Apparently this little guy found the stone of our building a warm place to hang out. And I say "little guy" but it wasn't really little and I have no idea if it was a boy or a girl. With the "little" - it was almost 5 feet long and the gender thing... well, I sure wasn't going to get close enough to figure that one out.

No More Mrs. Housewife

Today was my first day gainfully employed since I left the airport. I really did enjoy doing occasional contract work at home and I really enjoyed being a housewife (it is amazing what all needed to be done around the house!), but since I can't do either of those two currently, this job seems like a good third choice.

A brief refresher: I'm now a Facility Coordinator for Jones Lang LaSalle at the Fidelity campus (JLL's client). Everyone so far at JLL seems to be very laid back. I think my biggest problem with this job will be potentially getting bored. But honestly, that is much preferred to spending large amounts of time in a panic, ala DFW Airport management style. Actually, I will have another problem: the facility is so freakin' huge, it will take me forever to know where everything is. But I can deal with both of those problems!

Come to think of it, the biggest problem I have with this whole "work" this is that the kitties will soon be alone all day - Dan's boss found an office that they are in the process of moving into - and it is in Arlington, so Dan's going to have quite the commute. And the kitties will soon be alone all day. That makes me so sad. I know they will be lonely. Shoot, Cocoa missed me so much today that when I got home, I squatted down to pet her and she crawled into my lap!

But one day I will get to be a full-time stay-at-home-kitty-mom. Oh yeah, and a good wife to my husband, too! (Speaking of which, I imagine that Dan will miss eating as good as he has the past month!)

Awww!

I found this picture while going through some of the junk in our guest room closet. Isn't it cute? I just had to share.

Bundt Cake - 1, Housewife - 0

Well, I tried to make a Bundt cake today. It didn't go so well...

Half of it came out wonderfully. The other half didn't want to leave the pan. Dan was sweet, though. He reassembled it and we "glued" it together with powdered sugar icing. Well, powdered sugar and vanilla rum icing. Quite a lot of vanilla rum, actually. I was on the phone with my mom and tilted a little too much rum into the powdered sugar. Even when I added more powdered sugar to it, you could still tell it was made with alcohol! Which really helps cancel out how blasted ugly the cake is!

Hey! Ugly still eats!

Spring!

Well, I think it is official that Spring has sprung! Dan and I had to actually switch to A/C on Saturday - the house was 84 and that's just too hot.

But the coolest thing about Spring showing up is the flowers. I planted some daffodils this Winter (actually in late Winter so I didn't think they'd bloom since it was several months past when I should have planted them) and now they are popping up - I've got a good 5 or 6 daffodil blooms coming up.

But that's not all! The rosemary is blooming, too! Not the entirety of the two monster bushes, but the front left side of one of them. Still, it is better than last year when only a stalk bloomed a few measly flowers.

And wait - there's more! The Lady Banks Rosebush is starting to put off some blooms. Nothing big enough for me to take pictures of yet, but there are some spots of yellow on that big green mass!

I've saved the best for last, though. Those that have visited our house know that Dan and I have a ton of aloe plants. Sometimes we start to feel a little overrun by them, but that just means we have to meet more people so we can give them away. Hehe. Anyway, one of the big aloes is blooming! I've only seen this happen once before and that is on one of my parents' big aloes years ago. It has just started blooming, so I'm sure more pictures will come as the bloom actually opens.

Neat, huh? Blooming flowers make me so excited! Of course, one bad thing about the arrival of warm weather - I'm going to have to keep my legs shaved so I can stay in shorts! Oh well, I'll take it!

Putting the "fun" back in "funeral"

Hmm, that's a pretty disrespectful title, huh? I'm still keeping it.

Anyway, Dan and I got back Monday night from almost a week in Georgia. We were there, of course, for my grandma's funeral. Which - exactly like this post title states - was fun. Okay, the funeral bit itself wasn't fun, but it was really great to see family and visit with everyone. And people brought so much FOOD! It was wonderful - I had to ask for the recipes of a few of them when writing thank you notes. So yummy.

And even the funeral had some good moments - like when the second pastor to speak said that he had to used a different Bible translation because the NIV used "saint" instead of "believer" and "Miss Agnes, a saint you ain't, but a star you are." Everyone had to chuckle at that - she certainly wasn't what you'd call a saint. Strong-willed and feisty are good descriptors. Hehe.

Things have been kind of hectic around here lately, but it seems like things are starting to calm down some, so that's good. We have both Cocoa and Princess in our house now (Memaw's kitties). I even have their pages up in the Children section now. Cocoa is adapting wonderfully. Princess is still in the bathroom and every time we walk in there, she is hiding in the cat carrier. Oh well, at least she has stopped screaming and trying to eat us when we come in.

Also, I had a job interview Tuesday and accepted a job on Friday. So my unemployment lasted only a month - and I'm already kind of nostalgic. The job is a Facility Coordinator - what I was doing for TCU two years ago and enjoyed - and it is for Jones Lang LaSalle, a property management company, at their client's campus in Westlake. The client is Fidelity and it is a gorgeous campus. I am a little nervous about making another "airport-level" mistake, but I don't have that feeling that something is wrong that I can't put my finger on like I did at the airport. So let's hope it's a good decision!

Let's see, is that all that is going on? I feel like I've been a lot busier than that. I'm also working on some updates for my Book page. Fun fun!

Now it is the weekend and Dan and I have some furniture moving to do - we are getting my grandma's love-seat and Dad is getting our big blue chair. I wonder what Big Girl and Nibby think of that!

In Memory...

Agnes McCallum

b. January 11, 1918
d. February 26, 2006

I am officially unemployed

Yep, I quit my job today.





That is all.

ALOHA, baby!

It's official! Dan and I are finally going to Hawaii together!

I'm so excited! We'll be going to Maui to my friend Miho's wedding. I've known her since she was an exchange student to Texas way back in the early 90s and when I was an exchange student a few years later, her family was one of my host families. Miho was an attendant in my wedding and I'm so excited I'll be there for hers! Especially since it is in HAWAII!

One more...

Okay, I made one more little update: I added a new picture to Chloe's page. It's cute. You should go look at it.

Updates Galore

I said I'd do it, and by gosh, I did it! UPDATES! Let's see if I can remember them all...

I've updated on the Children's page - added a few pictures and three new pages that link off of the main page. Major updates to Gidget's page - new format and new pictures. Also updated Nibby's and Happy's pages with the new style formatting. A minor change to Ashes' page, but nothing big. But I think that puts all the kitties pages into the new format, so rock on.

I made a few changes to the Travels page (but much more to do) and to the Books page, making it up to date for 2006 including uploading a new copy of my read-books list.

Okay, now I want some comments telling me how cool I am to do such major updates! So go look at them and then come back here and tell me how pretty they are. That means you!

Drive By Posting

Sorry - not much time to post lately. Stress has really kicked up because of the job change and my health went back into a downward spiral.

But I'm starting to find my feet at work and I went to a special diagnostic chiropractor who said the health issues are from Lyme disease and I'm being treated for it and some other "bonus" stuff that got comfy in different organs because of my already weakend immune systems.

With things starting to slow down, hopefully I will be able to sit down and get some good website updates up. I have lots of plans... the kitties have some new toys that need posting and I'm still redoing all the pages. Slowly but surely. And that's not even including the Crook Family website.

Hope everyone is having a fun 2006! Hopefully there will be more later!

Happy 2006!

This is one day late, but HAPPY NEW YEAR!

My parents came over yesterday to have New Year's dinner. It was great and a lot of fun. Dan made a cheesecake that was divine. We were going to make more (collards and some cornbread) but our oven when wacko the night before and would not turn off so we had to turn the breaker to it off. So no stove or oven until tomorrow when someone comes to check it out.

I'm off of work today, so I'm just taking it easy. So far, I am enjoying working at the airport. Everyone is very nice. There is a nice transition time, of course, maybe more so at the airport than other, less bureaucratic places, but that's to be expected.

So what are your goals for 2006? I've got a few. Nothing quite as challenging as reading 150 books like last year, but still more than just one.

Goals for 2006

• Read the Bible - I figure it's about time to read the most purchased book in history
  
• Complete the Pimsleur Japanese series I through III - One day I want to read Harry Potter in Japanese so I had better start getting my Japanese back into shape
  
• Yoga - I want to get back into semi-regular yoga-ing now that I am back to almost full health
  
• Finish my 1996-1997 Japan scrapbook - Another item that I figure it's about time to get around to
  
• Finish three crochet projects - Specifically my filet crochet, my sweater, and a fisherman's aran afghan - they've been waiting too long to be completed

Okay, now what are your goals for 2006? Everyone click the little "Comment" button on the bottom right of the post and then click "Post a Comment" and tell me what your goals/resolutions for 2006 are. Do it! And then have a happy and successful 2006!