Hey stew! Goin someplace fun? This is Tiny, right? Will they de-flea her while you're gone?

Business = busy. Would love a vacay but getting set up so vacays are possible within 6 months ish.

Currently covered in cats.

You & that cat are meant to be. Don't worry about fleas - you can get 'em under control pretty easy.

We're catless right now after we lost our little Dead End Kid fella last winter. But now that the wedding and its costs are behind us, we're on the lookout for a pair, preferably of the black variety, and young. I am generally in favor of adopting older cats but I've had to put 3 cats to sleep in just the last 6 years, so I'd like to try getting a little longer time with our next ones. We're trolling shelter web pages.

Hi Stewie! How are you feeling?

A dear friend of the family died yesterday, she was 90 and had been having respiratory problems.

Adele stood less than 5 feet tall , but she was mother to everyone she knew. She lived around the corner from me with her second husband ( her first had done the music for East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause) and was almost always there when I needed to escape from chupahija.

Her family was one of the founders of the Jewish community in Nogales AZ and she'll be buried there Wed.

I've been road tripping through oklahoma (the TGT meeting was in Dallas this year), but I'm leaving tomorrow for AZ.

I'm grand, thanks Stewie. Your cat is gorgeous - congratulations! Lucy is on the sofa next to me, grooming herself. My sweet little girl.

I'm doing well, life is pretty good right now. I have a trip to the States coming up in August where I'll be attending a fancy wedding in Salem, MA. It also looks as if I might be in Cleveland at some point. I have a nephew who lives there, so we'll visit him and his girlfriend. Diane wants to go to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and we plan to eat at Michael Symon's restaurant.

I'm enjoying the World Cup, and looking forward to the Commonwealth Games too. It's a little more low-key and less political than the Olympics. Plus Australia usually wins quite a lot of medals, which is always good.

Wonderful silver tabby! Glad to hear positive reports!

Things are kinda smoothing out *crosses everything* for me: Mom is better, I've put the house back together, bought some replacement cheap jewelry, and have almost caught up with the weeds that took over in my absence.

One of my old kitties isn't doing too well, but I'm determined to enjoy our remaining cuddle time together.

Weekend workplace is better since we have a new store manager, which is good, since the architectural drafting is slow. I miss that part of my life but realize that opportunities for project management are few in my location.

I've even made time to go to the beach some this year. Swimming in the ocean and plowing through waves is great fun!

I've spent the week in my home state. My Gram passed away and I went home to help with arrangements. I also spoke at her funeral, which wasn't easy, but I really wanted to honor her and what she meant to me. Lots of people told me after that they felt they knew her better from my talk, so that was a comfort.

Now back at work and welcoming the structure.

We are still with our one sweet little indoor cat, after cycling through periods which maxed out at 4 cats, a dog and a rabbit. Life seems simpler.

We have been traveling a lot in June but July seems unscheduled. I have my first physical therapy (ever) appointment this morning to try to get to the bottom of the back and side pain I have been having. I am hoping that they figure something out.

Nice of you to stop by, Stewie!

Things are going ok here, I'm kind of in a funk though, maybe due to some of the below, and maybe just random depression.
My aunt who has never smoked was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic lung cancer. It's scary especially because everything was seemingly fine until she went to the ophthalmologist with some vision problems which turned out to be the cancer that had spread really far.
My family on that side has a history of many different kinds of cancer. My cousin (her daughter) just got over pancreatic cancer and we thought we were out of the woods for a little while. My doctor says since all the cancers are different kinds, it's not the genetic marker, but honestly I am worried for myself still.

I've been worried about my sister who has seemingly transformed into someone new (who I like less) over the past 6 months. It is as if at age 30 she is now suddenly going through a selfish teenage "screw all of you" type phase. This has included getting married without inviting me, telling my parents to show up certain places with 2 days notice, asking my dad to manually help them move, not showing up to family events, returning calls etc. It's just not like her. I really hope it isn't permanent. My husband thinks it will settle down once she and her new husband are more established, and that this might be a sort of defense thing since she knows we think she didn't act rationally by marrying him so quickly. I do hope he is right and that she will be more considerate soon. I am worried that this is just the new normal.

In brighter news, I signed up for an exercise pass that lets me do all sorts of different classes and I am purposefully signing up for the ones that sound the stupidest. Last week I rode a bicycle in a pool while swimming with my arms. Tomorrow I will be lifting weights while jumping on a trampoline. I haven't been able to get into the very popular "get strapped in a chair and do resistance training" class yet.
Maybe with the variation and the silly fun premises of the classes, I won't get bored or frustrated and quit like I usually do.