Urinetown – coming to a home near you…

Well, we made it back from vacation all safe and sound. Loved it…it was cool, beautiful and just plain not Arizona in the summertime. Don’t get me wrong…I love where I live…but not as much when it’s 115 degrees outside.

So, we got home and relaxed our first night back. I was pretty busy, though, trying to get the bags unpacked that I didn’t get a chance to rest until bedtime. It wasn’t until early the next morning that I realized, to my horror, what had been going on in my home while I was away for two weeks.

 

 See…we have these two cats….and these two cats seemed somewhat bothered and upset that their non-cat family up and left them alone for two weeks. Oh, yes, there was someone to come and drop by every few days to feed and water them…but they still seemed somwhat, should I say, perturbed…

I hate my cats…

So I decide to finally sit and rest the next morning back – and that’s when I noticed it…the overly pungent smell of cat urine…on my rather expensive couch (oh, and loveseat too). Yes, it became their own personal kitty litter box while we were gone.

Needless to say, I’ve been scrubbing and cleaning. The sofa is getting cleaned next weekend and I’ve tried daily to get the smell out. Very gross…and the worst part is I had scheduled my son’s 4th birthday party two days after we got back, and I was so praying that nobody would sit on my couches. And they didn’t….now I don’t know if it was because they didn’t feel like sitting in the family room, or becaue they noticed the stench that I was so desperately trying to hide!

I decided that the kitty litter box was unattractive to them in some way. I took off the cover of the box (it was one of those hooded ones that helped keep everything neat and tidy), thinking that my cat Pepper, who has grown rather large in the unhealthy sense in the past year might not be fitting in the opening of the box anymore…hey I was desperate. 

Also, I’ve been deligently cleaning the kitty litter box since then. Every morning and every evening it becomes somewhat of my own little zen garden. I scoop and then I rake. One evening I was going through this ritual when Franklin, the evil cat, decided to join me in pushing some of the kitty litter around. I was thrilled…”good kitty”, I cooed to him as he’s scratching around the box. He squats and I hear the satisfying sound of cat pee hitting the side of the kitty litter box. Then….to my horror…he lifts up his little rear end just enough to send a steady stream of urine shooting across my laundry room floor and onto my clothes dryer. I was speechless…I think he did it on purpose…

So, I’ve been trying to keep everything clean until the carpet cleaning guy is here next monday. I’ve been putting tons of stuff on the couches every night to keep the cats from getting any ideas on how cool the couch might be to pee on. We’re even finally getting a doggy door installed on Friday in our house (the cats clinched the deal on that one, even though my husband and I were both resolved to get one when our geriatric dog began waking us up in the middle of the night to go out…every night…).

Last resort? I’ve threatened to get rid of the cats…much to my daughter’s dismay…wish me luck over the next week…I do like the kitties (but don’t tell them I told you that….)

…out

For the love of Bashas’

I’m such a soccer mom…the highlight of my week (if I wasn’t going on vacation) would definately be the new Bashas opening up right down the street from where I live.

I was like this when the new freeway opened up last year about a mile from my home. I think I need a life…

…out

David Crowder is amazing…

I love this guy – the band is great. I saw them in concert last year and Crowder is a very, very funny guy - just about as down to earth as you can possibly get. 

Happy Birthday?

Well, yesterday was my birthday. I remember looking forward to that day every year as a kid – until I hit about 25. Now I just hear more of my body complaining about having to get up in the morning on that day! I hit the big 45 this year – officially careening into my 50s…sigh…

So for my birthday, I had a special day. Went to church (got to sing with the band which I always enjoy), the service was awesome, had to say goodbye to some very dear friends of mine who were moving that afternoon to Fargo, ND. (Don’t get me started on that one!), went to the Disneyland of outdoor sporting good stores (Bass Pro Shops) with my hubbie (that was my birthday treat from him…don’t get me wrong, it was cool, but a new fishing pole isn’t in my top 5 of things to get overly excited about), got to see my little son become less energetic and spike a nice fever, went home and took my daughter over to a sleepover, then took my little boy to urgent care. Hmmm… Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to me…

OK, I’ll stop whining…’cause really, it won’t solve anything. The kicker, though, is having a sick little guy. We’re planning to go on vacation tomorrow (heading to the windy city to catch a Cubs game and then northward to Wisconsin), but I dread travelling with a child that has a fever. We took him last night to urgent care but he didn’t have the recurring ear infection that I thought (or even hoped) it might be. The doc said he had a red throat, but they tested for strep with a negative result….so…..he has some kind of viral thing going…the day before vacation…sigh…

This parenting stuff…all the best laid plans of mice and parents….I guess it teaches you that you can really try to prepare for everything, but when it’s all said and done, you are not in control!

Well, I gotta go…gotta take my little guy’s temperature…

…out 

This and that…

OK….so it’s been an enourmously long time since I’ve last posted anything. I’d like to think it’s because my life is such a whirlwind of activity that I have no time, but actually it’s because my life *is* such a whirlwind of activity which is fairly mundane…

So I’ve decided that instead of posting great thoughts, observations and the like, I’m just going to have one sided conversations with myself and place them on this blog. That way I’ll never argue with myself…I think…

So an update on stuff, I suppose, is in order. My kids are older…my son is just about to turn 4-years old and my daughter is still 8 going on 13 (and quickly acquiring the subtle art of teenage sarcasm as needed for her to survive the next 10 years of her life). My own birthday is tomorrow in which I advance into the ‘Late 40s’ category, versus the ‘Early 40s’ stage that I am leaving….sigh….

Soon we will be leaving on vacation to fly to Chicago (to catch an ever thrilling Cubs game….oh, and say hi to family too) and then driving up to the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Yup, a two-week vacation to the cabin in looming large. I love Northern Wisconsin, so does my husband (who has vacationed there his entire life)….it’s my kids that I’m worried about. Right now, my daughter just gets absolutely hysterical if she sees a bug…any kind of bug…any kind of size…and she drags my little son into the hysteria when she gets that way. And Northern Wisconsin has a lot of little critters. This should be an interesting two weeks!

So my life right now is getting ready for the big vacation. Looking forward to relaxing with a beer, looking out over the lake and watching my children work themselves up into hysterics….should be fun…

…out

Chad Vader…

I only just recently came across this series of films on YouTube. Really, really clever! I swear, I’ve worked with all of these guys before…. 

Tucson revisited

I wanted to sincerely apologize to any folks living in Tucson who may have found my recent postings about your lovely town as somewhat disparaging.  Really….I think it may be a genetic thing, though.

My great, great grandfather (Mr. Daniel Webster Jones) was the author of a fairly incredible book titled Forty Years Among the Indians which describes his varying adventures here in Arizona among other places in the 1800s. To quote this widely travelled man when he was visiting the town in 1875:

“At Tucson, we found quite a number of white residents. This old town has been so well described by many writers, that I will simply say, it never was, is not now, and never will be much. Its only merit is in its being so very old; some two hundred and seventy-one years.”

So, if I seem somewhat biased, well, I’ll blame it on my ancestors. It has nothing in anyway shape or form to do with the fact that I went to Arizona State University at all…really…

 out…and go devils!

The lion sleeps tonight…

OK, so I just posted recently about Tucson and the white rats popping their little white heads out of the white toilets throughout the town. Yeah…I know…many a potential nightmarish vision comes into my head when I think about it…

Put here is in article about a supposed mountain lion roaming the wilds of my neighborhood (ok, maybe a mile from where I live – but, even more disturbing, just across the street from where my little 3-year-old attends pre-school!).

Urban myth – or true story? I don’t know….and I don’t really want to find out either!

…out 

High on the ‘ewwuukky’ factor…

People are so hung up on animal cruelty these days…this makes me wonder if the animals are finally getting back…

oh yeah…only in Tucson…go figure…

…out…

Hawaii or bust…(something up)…

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. It’s been pretty busy around the ol’ homestead these past few weeks. One very eventful thing that occured last month was a week long vacation in the beautiful Hawaiian islands. Yup…we went to that tropical paradise.

I’ve been to Hawaii a few times before – once with my family when we took a lovely cruise around the islands (loved it…even got to have a traditional ‘on board’ romance with a crew member – or two – hey….it was a long cruise!!! – of course, this was the 1980s when things were a ton different…but I digress) . The other time was with my husband before we were married. Spent the vacation on Maui and had a blast. Both times, when I left to go back to the mainland, I literally had tears in my eyes. Didn’t want to leave…

So, for this vacation, I was looking forward to being whisked away to that tropical paradise and enjoying hours of relaxation and rest at the beach….

….yeah….right….

See, we also took our 3 and 7 year old kids….did I say something about relaxation? How in the world does one get a 3-year-old to want to ‘relax’??? And the 7-year old? ‘What are we going to be doing fun today, mommy?’ …. ‘Sleeping, dear…’

The flight was pretty long to the islands (6 hours) and the first bit of stress was trying to figure out how to keep the kids entertained long enough to not drive the other passengers crazy. I pulled out all the stops…books, portable DVD player (newly purchased), crayons, etc. Did I say relax??? OK, the flight isn’t supposed to be that relaxing, so we’ll try when we get there.

We got there late Saturday night just in time to check into the hotel and go to sleep. I was hoping the kids would sleep in late, but no…so I got up with the kiddies and we piled out onto the balcony of the hotel. We appropriately ooh’d and ah’d over the swimming pool and the view of the beach from our hotel.  There were tons of birds flying around and, trying to be ‘fun mom’, I got the kids to get some crackers we had and started to feed the birdies out on the balcony. These birds were pretty tame…

About an hour later, I thought it best to start the day. As I was walking back into the hotel room with the kids following behind, I noticed the coffee in the coffee pot was sloshing all over the place – ‘that’s weird’, I thought, ‘why’s that happening?’ – somebody really heavy must be walking by the door. The next second, I realized that we were actually having an earthquake. Yup, we got to experience the Hawaiian trembler. Now I transitioned from ‘fun mom’ to ‘hero mom’ in a heartbeat – ‘OK, kids follow me into the bathroom and get into the bath tub’. I shephered the kids into the bath tub and stood there while the earth was still moving around some. Of course, in hindsight, I realize that I have my natural disasters confused – we would have been in good shape if a tornado was about to rip through the coastal Hawaiian resort, but I should have been standing in the doorway for the earthquake. Hey…I’m an Arizona native….I don’t know anything about this stuff!!!

Well, standing there with my children, the power went out and the room went black. I heard a whimper from my 3-year-old son and I realized that I had to quickly move from ‘hero mom’ to ‘mommy the rock’ so I started to laugh at loud (maybe with a touch of hysteria…I really don’t remember….) and said ‘Hey kids, I think we’re having an earthquake! Isn’t this great???!!!’

By now, the earth had stopped most of it’s movement, so I leaned out of the bath tub long enough to yell out of the room (and towards the bedroom where my big bear of a husband was sleeping) and said ‘Hey, honey, I think we’re having and earthquake!’ Honestly, I was looking for ‘hero daddy’ to pop into the bathroom with an ‘everything’s going to be ok’ kind of response, but all I got from the bedroom was a ‘Cool!’ response. Yeah…ok…thanks….

So we made sure everything was ok and got dressed. I, of course, kept an eye out continually on the coastline to make sure I didn’t see the water start to receed quickly. Hey, we were on the 3rd floor, and I calculated in my head what a large wave might bring in! Of course, the kids were a tad confused when my husband and I were talking about a big wave, and started to look out for any salamis that might be coming from the ocean. Yeah..I think my 3-year-old will have an unhealthy fear of luncheon meat for the rest of his life.

Once we got the ‘all clear’ from the hotel PA system, we went down to the pool area and milled around with the other guests who were in a state of surprise/shock. I was able to use the one working cell phone by a nice gentleman – really, a nice, nice man – he had tattoos and body piercings and all – and he was so sweet to let me call my mother (’cause she would freak if she couldn’t get a hold of me). Never, ever judge people on how they look on the outside…ever.

My husband and I were laughing at this point. See, last time I was  in Hawaii we did have a wonderful time…but we also were there when Hurricane Iniki hit the islands. So we feel somewhat responsible for this natural disaster. We figure that, next time we go, we will inform all island residents that we are on our way.

Well, the power turned back on just an hour or so after the earthquake and we had a really nice vacation after that. Not a relaxing one, but nice enough to be sure…

…and that is what I did on my fall vacation…out