Wednesday, April 29, 2009

I'd Rather Get It Myself


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Originally uploaded by jntrowley
I figure this will be my last cat picture for a while. I need to move on to a new subject but thought this was funny. When I come home from work Jack gets so excited that this day he thought he would help me fix dinner. He likes to be in the kitchen or in the living room with me or in the laundry room. He doesn't mind getting stuff out of the vegetable drawer. You just may not want to eat what he gets out of there for you......

Monday, April 27, 2009

Jack Needs Some Fresh Air


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Originally uploaded by jntrowley
Yesterday when my friend came to my house to pick me up she found my indoor cat Jack on the front porch. We bought him inside and while we were talking, Jack removed the screen and went outside again.

I came home from work today and got out my phone and recorded this............ How am I going to keep him inside after this??? I think he is a bit too smart for his own good.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Simba's Happy Again!!!!


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Originally uploaded by jntrowley
My house has waaaay too much drama for my liking. I thought by this time in my life the kids would be off doing whatever and I would be home alone bored. I thought I would be knitting again to pass the time. I don't know what I thought actually.

It took 48 hours to cheer Simba up but Jack did it. They go everywhere together. Frick and Frack is what I called them this morning. They like to come into my bedroom in the morning (way before I planned to get up) and start their fighting routine rolling over and over biting and kicking on my rug by my bed. I just lay there and watch them play. I am so happy that Simba isn't sick. I just had never seen a depressed cat before.

Jack just didn't give up on him. Every once in a while Jack would come up to Simba and try and lick his head, and Simba would lash out at him and hiss. Poor Jackie would just look at him and almost shrug his little shoulders and walk away with his head down. So after keeping Simba in my room on Wednesday night to pamper him I left the two of them downstairs on Thursday night to do whatever cats do in the middle of the night.

On Friday morning I was awakened by the two of them fighting on the floor by my bed. I got up and the two boys ran down the stairs ahead of me to be the first cat to the food dish. I fed them and they started running around together playing and chasing just like old times. Jack had done his magic during the night. All is well.

Slight bump in the road here. Stefanie now wants Simba back. The little fluffball kitten (Libby) is starting to annoy her. Libby cries all the time, Libby chews on cords, Libby climbs the screen. Jay and Stef miss Simba now that he isn't sad. They want him home.

I get a text message yesterday at work that says, "I am dropping Libby off at a shelter Saturday and coming over to get Simba. I want him back. You guys can't have him no matter what Dad says. Simba doesn't like Libby and I don't want her anymore because I want Simba to be happy."

Now Dan and Danielle even though they are allergic to cats will not allow Libby to go to a shelter. Sooooo now I get Libby. Jack pretty much loves everyone and doesn't seem to care who comes over. Little does he know that he is getting a brand new baby sister today and losing his best friend Simba.

However Stefanie has agreed that if she takes Simba back home and he gets depressed we have to switch cats again. And Jack gets Simba back. Waaaay too much cat drama here.

People at work were cracking up laughing at me yesterday. The comments ranged from, "Wait until Stef has kids. She will have to get rid of the baby if the older child doesn't like it"! to " I am dropping the baby off at your house Mom cuz it is annoying me"!

The saga will continue........

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Can Cats Get Depressed????

Stefanie's cat Simba came to visit again. She and Jay got a new fluff ball kitten named Libby and Simba now sleeps all the time and won't play. Libby tries to get him to play but she is a baby and he's not interested.

Jack loves Simba and can't understand why Simba won't play with him. She left him at our house last night and all evening poor Jack kept licking Simba and biting him and trying to start their grizzly bear fighting routine and Simba's just not having it. Dan thinks that Simba is depressed. I was afraid he was sick. I checked him out this morning, petting him all over and checking his little paws. He looks fine.

When I came home from work today, I fed both cats, watched Simba use the litter box, and then watched him as he ate from the dish that Jack had just eaten off. Then I brushed him all over. He layed on the rug in the foyer and seemed to enjoy my grooming efforts. Then I got both cats interested in their favorite toy, the long stick with the tinsel and feathers on it. Jack was doing circus leaps in the air and Simba cautiously put a paw on the toy and daintily chewed on the feathers. Jack would race around in a circle after the whirling toy and Simba cocked his little head and looked at the shiny tinsel and I let him chew on it again. Finally, I hid it away so no one can pull all the feathers out and eat the tinsel.

Simba settled down for a nap and poor Jack walked around planning his next attack on his quiet friend. I left to run an errand and will see what I find when I get home. Maybe he is depressed like Dan says. I told Stef she should come over tomorrow to visit Simba. He probably misses her. How does one cheer up a cat anyway???

One of our doctor's asked me today, "How many cats do you have"? I answered "I'm not sure......"

Monday, April 20, 2009

Peace and Quiet!!!!!!

The answer is pretty obvious to me and K and Far Side and Roshni et al. I finally got rid of the land line phone. I have been wanting to for a while and my husband kept asking me when I was going to do it. It just seemed so ......final.

The scene at our house at the end of a work day was this: I come in the door and the phone is ringing. Hmmmm. Someone trying to sell me new windows. I put away my things and attempt to feed the hungry cat. The phone rings. Someone wants Stefanie to pay a bill. I don't answer. I open the refrigerator to decide on what to prepare for dinner. The phone rings. I don't look at the caller id. I don't listen to any messages from earlier in the day. I don't answer the phone all evening. I look forward to 9pm when no one is allowed to call to sell me anything.

The last straw was when the phone rang, I looked at the caller id because who in their right mind just jumps up and answers the phone without looking to see who is bothering you? Well, it said "Capital One" and I thought OK I will answer it. I can be nice sometimes.

Me: Hello?

Capital One: Good bye! (computer voice)

I picked up my cell phone, called Comcast and cancelled the phone.

No regrets what so ever. Peace and quiet reigns supreme.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

What is it?????

I got rid of annoyance this week. Here are some clues.

1)It is something that I have wanted to do for a long time.
2)If I was younger I would have probably never have had it in the first place.
3)If I were older I would never think of getting rid of it.
4)When I moved out on my own I was so excited to have it.
5)My daughters haven't used it in years.
6)Sometimes when I came home from work I didn't even look at it all evening.
7)I won't miss it.

What is it???? And what took me so long to do it anyway? Life is great without it.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Where's Janet????

Since I got such nice comments about my dad on that last post, I thought I would show his other side. Everyone has two sides I'm sure. In my family every first Sunday in August we would gather for our family reunion at the park and we always reserved the same table. My mother always said that it was the only day of the year she was happy to have Multiple Sclerosis so she didn't have to participate. I almost envied her this one.

So on this day, my dad piled us into the car for the yearly meal in the city park. Both of my older brothers went this time as did both of my dad's parents. We had a carload that day. I didn't like going to this event mainly because there was never anyone there my age. Every year there would be an article in the paper about the reunion and I was always listed as being the youngest person there. I kind of resented this when I was like 14 or 15 years old. I had some cousins that would have been fun to play with but their parents never made them go to the reunion. My dad was always the president and held the business meeting after the meal and it would have been nice to have other kids to play with when the adults were having their meeting. On this day, my dad told me to go play on the slides and swings while they had the yearly meeting and took up the collection to reserve the same table.

I played for a while in the park and when I came back to our usual spot.....everyone had gone home. I tried not to panic but no one looked the least bit familiar and I just kind of walked around and then I sat on the picnic table and waited. I remember feeling really alone. After a while, I had to move to another spot because another family reunion had reserved the table for their potluck meal. OK so now I began to worry. I knew how to get home but I was young enough that I had never actually been allowed to walk home from the park. I thought I would wait some more before starting the trek home. I would imagine that I was about 5 years old at the time.

Meanwhile back at my house, my brothers walked into the house and my mother asked, "Where's Janet?" They didn't know. My dad walked in and my mother asked, "Where's Janet?" He didn't know. Now she's mad. She could understand that my brothers didn't know (or care) where I was. She understood that my dad didn't remember that he had taken his daughter to the park and told her to go play and then left without her, but she was actually mad at his parents for not realizing that their granddaughter was missing.

So Dad decides that he needs to get ready for work before he comes to get me. On goes the police uniform and back into the car he goes. He pulls into the driveway at the park and there I sit on the picnic table. I remember being relieved when I saw him that I didn't have to walk home but then I was annoyed that he was so nonchalant that he took the time to change his clothes.

After that day it became quite the family joke about how I got left at the park. Somehow after that I really hated that reunion and dreaded going there every year.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Easter Sunday with the Gypsies

I have been waiting patiently to post this. I wanted to wait until near Easter as it is an Easter memory....

When I was in the fifth grade our teacher Mrs. Shirar, being a dutiful teacher warned us of a danger in our town. We were being dismissed for the Easter weekend from school and she reminded us to stay away from the gypsy camp north of our small town. She went on to say that gypsies are known to steal children and we should tell our parents of the nearby danger. Now it is hard for me to relate to that story but there really was a group of gypsies parked in at a campground near our quiet little town.

I went home and told my father what the teacher had warned us about. Well, he laughed and told me he was going to do one better than that. He was going to take me there!!! And he did. I came home from the Easter church service and he told me that we were going to the gypsy camp. I wasn't too sure about this but he was a policeman and he had already been to the camp and told me that we were invited.

We were welcomed guests of the gypsy camp. I will always remember the pigs on huge spits roasting over the fires, the music playing, the young girls dancing, and how nice everyone was to us. They were travelling in small trailers and were all parked in a big circle. The women were wearing fur coats and had long gold necklaces made of coins. They were dancing so hard inside one of the trailers it fell off one of the supports and the trailer floor was sloping so much it was hard to stand up.

My father was offered a glass of beer which he accepted to be polite but whenever he put it down they filled it back up. So he quit putting it down and just sipped it once in a while. The alcohol was flowing quite freely as I remember.

I remember that they gave us colored Easter eggs as presents. We didn't stay for dinner but I'm sure that was offered too. My father instructed me to tell the teacher when we went back to school and she actually had me stand up in front of the class and tell everyone about my visit to the camp. I wonder now what Mrs. Shirar thought of my dad for taking me there.

The gypsy leader, Big Green ended up being taken to the hospital that night by a group of his friends. He had a bit too much alcohol and they caused quite a ruckus in the emergency room. I guess Big Green put his glass down too many times.....

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Come and Spend the Morning With Me

Stefanie texted me this morning to let me know she was at the brake shop waiting for them to open and to make sure I was going to pick her up like we had planned. I texted her back to let her know I would. I dressed quickly and headed down the road to get her.

We talked for a bit just standing in the kitchen like we have done for years. We always have a lot to say to each other. She told me about her new little kitten, Libby and how her older cat Simba was acting toward the new kitten. OK, let's get down to work here!!! Stef let me know that she had kind of planned on getting a nap in before she had to leave for work. Not so my dear. You are mine for the morning.

We headed upstairs and went past Danielle's closed door. Quietly we went into Stef's old room with all the odds and ends that had been left there for me to deal with. We put the twin bed in the basement, took pictures off the walls (man were they dusty!!) and the most fun of all, pulled the old dresser out from the wall and tried to figure out how the mirror was attached to it. We tried to not wake Danielle as we struggled and sweat over the awkward pieces of furniture and also tried not to step on the cat as we went. Only one time did he slip past us and ended up under Danielle's car parked in the garage. The under side of the car wasn't nearly as dirty as I thought it would be. I pulled Jack out and put him back in the house.

The old dresser fits perfectly in the garage. It will come in handy out there. I will find lots of things to use it for..... I put it on my side of the garage so I don't have to worry about Danielle driving into it. I speak from experience. I had a dented freezer out there for years before it bit the dust.

There are still bits and pieces of her childhood in the old room but I can manage them. She sorted through some memories and let me know what she wants and what she doesn't want. We found a lot of coins, trash, and Q-tips. Jack had fun. Stef and I are sore and dusty but in a good way (for me). She took a shower and dressed for work. The Jeep's brakes are good now. She owes me big time for this one. Making a payment plan. I'm standing firm on this one. Even the guys at the brake shop were quizzing her on how long she has had the vehicle and how they inspect brakes for free before you buy. I think she did learn from this experience. Enough said.

I can think of a lot of nicer ways to spend a sunny Saturday morning but we accomplished some much needed work. Actually I enjoyed her company too. I doubt if she will be back next Saturday.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Stefanie is my Captive

Stefanie is all mine Saturday morning. She is dropping her new vehicle off to get a brake job (no comment) at our favorite brake shop. In order to get brakes repaired on a Saturday at our favorite brake place the vehicle has to be dropped off at 8:30am and you stand in line outside waiting for the doors to open. Everyone troops in and drops their keys off and either waits to hear the bad news or leaves and comes back later.

I will be picking her up that morning to bring her to my place to spend the morning. Perfect!!! She can spend the rest of the morning going through the bits and pieces left in her room. I have been trying to decide what color to paint the room and whether I want a "sitting room" or a spare bedroom in the place of the mess she left me with. I plan on getting every scrap out of the room and starting with a bare canvas. I can't wait. Stefanie, on the other hand isn't too excited.

If you have been reading this drivel for any time you might? remember the pictures I bravely posted of her room (January 2, 2009) I was desperate.