Day Three-Thirty - Home Ownership SUCKS!

About 3 weeks ago, I took a shower one morning and turned the water off afterwards and it sort of went off.... but it sort of didn't.  It had been dripping for some time, but since my cat Shiner likes to drink from the faucet anyway, I didn't worry about it too much.  But when I turned it off 3 weeks ago and it continued do a little more than trickle, I decided it was time to call a plumber.

So I called the trusty home warranty company who said they would send a plumber out within 24 hours and true to their word, they did.  The plumber came in looked at the faucet said he had what was necessary to make the repair and went outside to turn the water off coming into my condo.  He came back in after several minutes of walking around outside and examining the box he finally found and told me that the valve in the box could not be turned off.  So, he told me to call my HOA's property management company, have them come and replace the valve then he could come back and fix the faucet in my bathroom.  I called the property management company (Worth-Ross) immediately and was told she would call the plumber asap but he might not get to it until the next day.  Today, nearly 3 weeks and multiple phone calls later, lo and behold, the plumber showed up to replace that valve.

He worked outside of my apartment from 8:30 this morning until after 3 this afternoon.  Then turned the water back on and left.  About 30 minutes after he left I walked into the kitchen to get a cup of tea and there was water standing in my kitchen floor.  It looked like it was coming from around the refrigerator or stove area.  I looked at the sink and it was dry near the sink, so it obviously wasn't coming from there.  So, I ran outside to turn the water off at the shiny new valve outside.  After several minutes of messing with it, I finally got the water turned off and then was able to speak to the person at the property management company who said she would send the plumber right back over.

He came over and after about an hour finally determined that my initial assessment of a broken pipe under the foundation was indeed correct.  It took me 30 seconds to figure it out.  It took him almost an hour.  Anyway, the property management now has to send another plumber over who will find the leak using sonar.  Here's a hint people.... IT'S UNDER THE KITCHEN!!!!!  Then after the exact location is determined, they will initiate repairs.  I'm thinking in a week, I might have running water again... IF they suddenly develop a sense of urgency.

So, that's how my Thursday went.  How was yours?

Day Three-Twenty-Six - Daffodils and Longhorns

Good afternoon!  Hope you are all having a great Sunday.  For some reason I am really having trouble getting motivated to write today.  So, this will be short and sweet.  I'll just post a few photos from yesterdays drive to East Texas.  I posted some on FB yesterday after we got home.  But there were so many more....

In case you are interested, the photos of all the daffodils were taken at Mrs. Lee's Daffodil Garden near Gladewater.  They are just starting to bloom.  So it will only get prettier in the next month or two.  There is no fee to enter the 900 acre property.  But they do accept donations.  It is the perfect place to take your kids for photos in their Easter clothes or just for any photos.  And you don't have to chunk them in a the interstate median to take these photos....

The photos of the longhorns were taken near Ben Wheeler as you drive toward Edom.

Have a good afternoon!

Day Three-Twenty-Five - Going to the Farm!

This is going to be short and sweet this morning.  My friend Jenny and I are heading out to East Texas today for a visit to a Daffodil Farm.  I've never spent much time at a Daffodil Farm.  So, I suppose we'll see how this goes.  Basically, when she presented the idea to me, I was just intrigued by what a 900 acre Daffodil Farm would involve.  So, we will find out today.

Their website says that the flowers start blooming in mid-February.  So, hopefully, it is mid-February enough on February 23rd.  If not, I figure we can always have lunch and then stop at Blue Moon before coming back home.  Either way it gets me out of this house for an entire Saturday and for me that is the real goal.

As many of you may have heard, yesterday was National Margarita Day.  I celebrated with friends at a Mexican restaurant that opened in Plano several months ago.  Strangely enough, nobody at our table drank margaritas.  I just don't get into margaritas anymore.  They have become too tart for me.  I mean, I don't think that Maragritas are anymore tart than they ever were.  So, I must have changed in some way.  Is that a sign of age?  Do things become more tart as you age?  Because lately, everything seems super tart to me.  I think there must be some correlation.  The closer you get to 50 the more bitter a lemon becomes.  So that if you eat a lemon on your 50th birthday, your face screws up into such a grimace that you never recover.  That's probably why old people always look kinda pissed off.  They aren't really pissed off.  They just ate a lemon on their 50th birthday.  All this time I thought they were just mad that they were getting so old.

Anyway to celebrate National Margarita Day yesterday, we had Mojitos.  I love Mojitos.  Mint in any drink just makes it better.  I think this is part of the reason I love the Kentucky Derby so much.  Sure, I like horses and I love to watch horse racing.  But throw in a big batch of Mint Juleps and about 5 hours later somebody is going to have to pick me up off of the floor... maybe with a spoon.

I had a Kentucky Derby party a few years ago.  It was a failure.  I am not much good at throwing parties.  Don't get me wrong.  I have all the stuff you would want at a party, too much food and way too much alcohol.  But for some reason when I have a party, all of the people who said they would be here don't show up.  So, at this one, only women showed up.  The only two men present were my dad and nephew so they sat out on the patio the entire time.  So, my parties always turn into the parties Mary Richards used to have on the Mary Tyler Moore show.  She'd make big plans and get help from Rhoda and then 4 people would show up and when they got there Ted would have some big problem and would cry the entire time or something.  Yep....  If I was tall and leggy and had a great apartment in Minneapolis, I could BE Mary Richards.

So, at my party I had Mint Juleps and they were a hit.  We all wore hats because, you know, it was the Kentucky Derby and that's what you do.  I muddled mint all day long and we went through a lot of bourbon.  It was fun even if there were no men other than my relatives within 10 miles of my house.  My horses didn't win that day.  But they rarely do.  I just like feeling like I am a part of what is going on at the Kentucky Derby.  So each year around May 1st I buy a big batch of mint.  I've tried growing it before but I can't seem to keep it from dieing.  I'm not sure what I do wrong.  I figure as far as ingredients in a Mint Julep go, it is probably the least expensive anyway so until I figure out how to grow bourbon, there is really no point in getting all caught up in the mint anyway.

I'll let you know how the daffodil farming goes today.  Maybe tomorrow, I'll have a picture or two of some blooms.  Have a great Saturday!

Day Three-Nineteen - Cats and Pubs

Damn cat....  He let me sleep through my alarm today until 9:45 so that I am missing church.  I think he and the younger one have formed a conspiracy against me.  They had me sandwiched in bed all nice and warm between the two of them when the radio came on at 8.  

I heard the radio come on.  It is tuned to sports talk radio.  I don't remember what they were talking about.  But I laid there for a second listening and Shiner threw one of his legs over my arm like he was trying to keep me from moving.  So, I closed my eyes, went back to sleep and dreamed that I was in an office wearing a fuchsia suit and there were several men in the room wearing suits (theirs weren't fuchsia).  But we were all waiting for Michael Jordan to arrive for an interview.  But this radio was blaring sports talk and they were discussing him, so I started trying to figure out how to turn it down and one of the men was trying to help me and we never could do it.  Then MJ came in the room and we all just started yelling over the radio trying ask him questions.  When I woke up they were talking about Michael Jordan on the radio and it was 9:45.

I think this is my cat's way of insuring that I won't go get another job outside of the house where I am gone for 12 or so hours a day.  Pretty smart on their part.  Since last April, they have had me all to themselves to cater to their every little whim.  And catering I have done!  Shiner is staring at me right now trying to figure out how to get me to give him cat treats even though I just fed him 15 minutes ago, he didn't finish his food and Jingle is still sleeping upstairs and hasn't eaten any of his breakfast yet.  Now Shiner is sitting on the floor behind me tapping my back through the chair, as though to say, "Hey!!!  You haven't given me any treats yet!!!"  Annnnd now he is on my desk to make sure that I don't forget that he is here and still has no treats.  

If he were Jingle, he would be standing on the keyboard typing obscenities at all of you right now to let you know how displeased he is that you are taking my attention away from the all important cats.  But Shiner is a little too sweet for that.  He is much more subtle in his conspiratorial endeavors.  So he'll just sit on the edge of the desk and stare into the camera lens with that pathetic little I need treats look on his face.

I had no intention of writing about cats for a second day in a row.  But they do what they can to make themselves the center of my attention at all times.  What I was planning to write about was the new pub that my friend Jenny and I tried out last night near my house.  It is called The Staggering Irishman.  It was a pretty neat little place.  I think I'll go back.  They have a little enclosed patio thing in front that is the smoking area so that you don't have to deal with cigarette smoke inside.  Then they have 32 beers on tap.  We only ate appetizers but it looks like they have a pretty good menu of pub fare.  They have darts, a pool table, a few video games and last night there were plenty of people to watch to keep you entertained.

There was one man who came in with his own seat cushions for his barstool.  I guess he was planning on sitting awhile and didn't want to experience any discomfort on the wooden barstool while he did.  He initially brought in one seat cushion with the little ties that tie onto the back of the chair.  He didn't tie it down.  I guess because he was in a pub and wanted to seem manly.  Maybe he was living on the edge, I don't know.  Then a few minutes later he went back to his car and returned with a pink pillow.  I think it must have been for his companion.  They were seated behind me at the bar so it would have been awkward for me to really turn and look too closely at what was going on.  

There were a lot of people wearing FC Dallas garb.  But I always expect soccer fans to be thin.  I assume that if you watch soccer, you also play soccer and with all that running you would have to be thin, right?  Well, not these FC Dallas fans.  They were really large people wearing very tight FC Dallas shirts and scarves around their necks.  Strange.....

And then there was the couple making out at the bar who should have been charging anyone who looked over at them.  Because I think those porn websites make a lot of money showing some of the moves these two were apparently making based on what Jenny was saying.  Again, my back was to them, so I missed all of that action.  Get a room people!

The pub was touting live entertainment last night.  But when it finally started up at 9 it was more like Karaoke.  Don't get me wrong there was a girl singing who was very good.  But for the most part it was just Karaoke.  It is located on the northwest corner of Preston and Frankford in far north Dallas and this weekend was the grand opening.  If you get a chance give it a try.  

Have a nice relaxing Sunday.  I'll be back to the travel blog tomorrow with details on Montserrat, Sitges and the Torres winery all located just outside of Barcelona.  I promise that there will be more pictures than you really want to see.  So, don't forget to take a look at it.  If you don't currently get my travel blog, be sure to "Like" Places You'll Go Travel on Facebook or send me an email requesting the travel blog blasts at susmeyers@yahoo.com

Day Three-Eighteen - My Cat Has a Calendar

I've always known that cats have little alarm clocks built into their compact and furry bodies but it would seem that my cat, Jingle, also has a calendar built into his body.  I don't know if your cats came with this feature.  It could just be a Jingle thing.  But I am certain that it is a fact.

I know this because on any Monday through Friday, he will attempt to wake me up once or twice just a minute or two before the alarm goes off.  It's like he is trying to warn me that in just a minute that obnoxious radio is going to come on if you don't wake up and turn it off quick!  But once the alarm has gone off, he is perfectly happy with looking over at me with that little "told you so" look on his face and curling up next to me and going back to sleep.

Saturday's are a whole different story.  On Saturday, he doesn't attempt to wake me up before the normal alarm time, I guess because he knows it isn't going to go off anyway.  But about 10 minutes after it would have gone off on a weekday, he decides I am a slug and he can't allow me to waste a Saturday.  So, he begins meowing, walking across my face taking care to step on my closed eye, jumping up on the dresser in search of jewelry that he can knock onto the floor and so on until I can't stand it anymore.  When I finally get up and go downstairs to feed him, it is always shocking to me that he wasn't actually hungry yet.  He'll eat a few bites and walk away saving the rest for an hour later when he is really ready to eat.

There is nothing in particular that he wants downstairs, with the possible exception of me, wide awake.  This is what he looks like right now.....

Yeah, granted he looks a little pissy right now, but he is just sitting there on the couch behind me as I type this watching almost in a trance and really pretty proud that he drug my butt downstairs before 8:30 on a Saturday morning.  In fact, he and Shiner have been fed, the fish have been fed, Shiner is out on the patio, my coffee was made and this picture was taken all before 8:30 on Saturday morning all thanks to Jingle.  Well done young man!  Mission accomplished!

Now, tomorrow I want to go to church.  I would like to go to an early church service you know, just so that I can get my day started at a decent time.  So, that means, that my alarm will go off tomorrow and as soon as it does Jingle will curl back up next to me and let me go back to sleep.  It's like he does all of this just to drive me insane.

On Monday through Friday mornings when I am writing the travel blog, he is constantly coming up behind me and whining to get my attention.  When he gets my attention, he won't tell me what he wants. Sometimes if he wants to go out to the garage he will let me know in his oh, so subtle way with the tilting of a picture hanging on the wall and then running to the garage door.  But usually he just whines for no apparent reason.  If I show him his food, he gives me a look that clearly says, "I don't what that swill, you idiot!".  If I re-fill his water dish with fresh water, he throws his head back as if I have offended him.  If I go to the patio door to see if he wants to go out with Shiner, he gives me the "what do you think I am, a CAT?" look.  He wants nothing other to to make sure that his presence is known.  As you read those quotes, I hope you did it in the voice of Stewie from Family Guy, because in my head, that is what Jingle would sound like if he could actually speak.  So, if you want to go back and re-read them in Stewie's voice, I'll wait.  Come to think of it, look at this picture of Stewie and look back up at Jingle.... They sort of have the same evil, I'm taking the world over and you will be my first subject, look on their faces.....  Coincidence?  I think not.

Sorry, went off on a tangent there.  Back to the topic at hand....

None of these things happen on Saturday when I don't need to write the travel blog.  Nope on Saturday, he just sits there on the couch and stairs at me in that little trance.  Like he is contemplating his next method of torture.  Well, my friend I am onto you.  I know what you are doing.  I know you're sneaky little tricks.  I know that behind that cute furry little exterior you are really a pint sized Dr. Evil bent on taking the world over and making all humans bow to your intelligence.  Bwaahhahahahaha!  Too bad you don't have thumbs and need me to assist in making each of your moves.

Well, it is after 10 now.  So Dr. Evil along with his sidekick, Shiner, have each gone back to sleep.  I guess that means it is time for me to get a little housework done.  I think I'll vacuum a little extra today just for payback.  Bwaahahahahahahahaha!

Have a great weekend and Happy Birthday to Sherie Alvarez!!!!!

Day Three-Twelve - I Intended To Explain This Sooner - But I Put It Off....

I'm having brunch with a friend this morning.  When she suggested a meeting time, I required that we meet at 11 AM so that I could go to church first and then go straight to the restaurant from there.  I had decided that if I went to the middle church service at my church which has three services on Sunday mornings, I would be able to get to the restaurant at our designated time.  So, before going to bed earlier than normal last night, I set my alarm for 7 AM to give myself time to get up, drink my coffee while typing this and then get to church.

So, now it is 8:53 and I have just started typing this.  What is wrong with my sense of discipline I ask you?  At 3 AM when that thunderstorm came through north Dallas and woke me up, I thought to myself, I hope I can go back to sleep so that I won't have trouble getting up in the morning.  But I think that single thought is what has me sitting here now.  I gave myself an out when I had that thought.  I cannot figure out why I sabotage my own wishes.  But I continually do.

My alarm still went off at 7 AM and I still woke up.  But then I hit snooze and went back to sleep and continued to do that every 9 minutes until after 8 AM.  Finally at 8:35 I was downstairs making coffee and feeding the cats and beating myself up over the fact that I would not make it to church.  But that is just the beginning of things that I intended to do today that I probably won't do.

I have told you this before, but I am a world class procrastinator.  I really believe that it is an art and I wish they gave awards for it.  Better yet, I wish they gave paychecks for it.  I'd be rich!  In college I would put off studying for a final until 10 PM the night before the exam.  Then I would stay up all night long studying and make a B.  Imagine what I could have done if I had studied even 24 hour prior to the exam.  But I had this theory that if I studied for that test and then took another test between that one and the studying that I had done for it, it would just muck things up in my mind.  I mean after all, you wouldn't want me to answer a question about shutterspeed with a long drawn out discourse on what John Wilkes Boothe was doing in the theater on that fateful night Lincoln was assassinated, right?

So, in my head, I could justify this procrastination.  But as I aged, I always new about my propensity to procrastinate, so at work at least, I may have over compensated.  If I had a project due on Friday and I had the time to complete it by Thursday, I did.  It wasn't due to a desire on my part to suck up to the boss or to upstage anyone else, it was because I knew that if I didn't get started right away, I'd end up having to come into the office at 4 AM on Friday to get started so that I could complete it before it was due at 2 PM on Friday.

This lead to another problem.  I found over the years that anytime you completed a project early at my former employer it got changed just as soon as you completed it.  Meanwhile, you had some other work that you had planned to complete once your Friday project was due that now was being put off until Monday so that you could re-do the Friday project on Friday.  It was the price that you paid for trying to complete anything early in that building.  It was sort of the Murphy's Law of merchandise planning.

So over time, I found that the defense I had created to protect myself from my own procrastination no longer worked there and I gave up and just waited until all of the other merch planners were working on the same project to keep from doing it twice.

None of this has anything to do with missing church today.  I just thought I would tell you about it while I am explaining that I hit my alarm clocks snooze button for more than an hour this morning.  The exciting news is that unless it involves getting up before 8 AM, I practically never put off anything that I really look forward to doing.  So, I will be blocking a group of cabins this week on Navigator of the Seas for the February 9th 2014 sailing out of Galveston.  This will be my first time to block a group of cabins on any ship, so I'm very excited to get them and begin selling.

In the meantime, I have big plans to get up early one other day in the next week to go out and get some early morning photos at daybreak.... let's just see how that goes.....

Happy Sunday!

Day Three-Eleven - Movie Day!

I'm not a big movie person.  I am very particular about he type of movies I watch and so this limits my movie viewing considerably.  I'm one of those people who for some reason cannot watch anything sad in a movie without coming unglued.  If something sad happens in a movie, I lose it and cry uncontrollably.  The same thing could happen in real life, and I'll be somber but I'll totally keep it together.  I covered this phenomenon in this very blog a month or two ago when I talked about Disney movies.  I'm not sure what causes it.  But it is just a reality for me.

To take it a step further, I also am unable to watch anything scary or very suspenseful.  I have no idea what makes anyone think that scary movies are entertaining.  But I know people who can't wait to go to any Friday the 13th movie that comes out or any other cold blooded murderer movie - fest.  I went to one scary movie on a date when I was in high school.  I only went because I had really been wanting to go out with this boy for a very long time and it was what he wanted to go see.  Plus we lived in Bay City so there were only two movie choices on any given Saturday night.  I swore as I laid in bed that night unable to sleep because I was sure the people from the fog with the meat hooks would be invading my home to take me away at any moment, that no matter how cute any boy was, I would never make that mistake again.  I didn't.

I don't like paranormal stuff.  I think it is stupid.  I don't get the whole vampire thing and I don't see any point in expanding further on the topic.  It is just dumb.  I don't like going to children's movies no matter how cute and funny they are.  At some point all children's movies will make you cry if you are prone to that sort of thing and I am.  I defy you to get through The Sandlot without a single tear.  It can't be done....  I mean assuming that you are human and have a heart.  Dramas are just that.... dramatic.  When a person in your day to day life is full of drama, you try to avoid them.  So, why would you pay money to go to a movie whose genre tells up front that it will be full of drama?  It doesn't make sense.  

This leaves me with a limited number of choices when it comes to movies.  There is the romantic comedy which is my favorite.  After all, I'm a girl and there is nothing more girlie than a good rom-com starring people like Sandra Bullock, Hugh Grant, Ryan Reynolds and the like.  I used to like Meg Ryan movies until she went off the deep end with all the botox.  Now anytime I see her I just can't stop looking at her train wreck lips.  Who does that to themselves????  I am a huge Tom Hanks fan.  I can pretty much watch any movie regardless of the genre that he is in with the possible exception of Saving Private Ryan.  I have tried to watch it on three occasions and have never made it all the way through....  Just too bloody and sad.  I also like movies of intrigue.... like spy movies or murder mysteries as long as I don't have to see the blood and guts part of the mystery.  I like trying to figure out who did it.  I just don't want to see blood spurting across the movie screen to prove that it was actually done.  

This is why people say that Alfred Hitchcock was so great.  He never actually showed the violence, he showed the before, gave you some of the noise during and then showed you the results and left the rest to your imagination which he often said was much scarier than anything he could show the viewer on film.  I think this must be true, because I still consider Psycho to be the scariest movie ever.  I have only seen one Quentin Terrintino movie, Pulp Fiction.  I hated it.  I tried to get up and leave the movie theater but the person I had gone with threatened bodily injury if I left and if she was crazy enough to be entertained by that movie, she probably would have followed through.  I have never made the mistake of going to another of his movies and I avoid all of those cold blooded murder movies like that.  

I bring all of this up because last night I was up until 3 a.m. watching Bourne Supremacy.  I had never seen it before.  I had seen Bourne Identity when it first came out and enjoyed it.  But I just never made it to any of the other Bourne movies.  I'm fairly sure that I am the last person in America to have finally seen Bourne Supremacy, but if you happen to be behind me, watch it.  You will like it.  The problem that I face now is that when I watch a good movie, I immediately want to watch three more good movies.  So, now I am busily scanning the Directv channel guide looking for a good movie to watch.  I'm not having much luck.  But I haven't given up yet.  It makes it difficult to find the right movie when your selection is as narrowed as mine is by preferences.  But I won't give up.  It's kind of overcast and cool in Dallas today.... a perfect day to spend in front of the TV with a bowl full of popcorn and a big diet coke watching movie after movie.  Wish me luck!

Have a warm and cozy Saturday!

Day Three-Oh-Five - For the Love of the Game?

I remember much better Super Bowl Sunday's in years past.  I remember when I cared.  It was fun when I actually cared which teams were present and who played well.  In the last several years it has become more and more difficult.  I am sure a lot of my Super Bowl apathy has to do with the sorriness of the Cowboys for the last 15 years or so.  Go ahead with your cowgirls and prison jokes, I've heard them all.  You can't affect me anymore.  But I think there is more to my apathy than just the fact that the Cowboys will never be a winning organization again as long as members of the Jones family continue to be any part of the franchise.

You see, here's the deal....  I don't like what the league has become.  I noticed this trend that I was on a year or two ago and tried to stop myself from continuing but I was not able to stop the downward spiral.  It started out with a friend mentioning a football game that was going to be on and me saying that I didn't want to watch the game because I didn't want either team to win and the fact that one of them had to would only make me angry.  Then I noticed over the years that I felt that way about an increasing number of games.

You see, if your fans think it is okay to throw objects from the stands at the players, I won't like your team.  If your stadium requires a jail in it to house all of the people who are committing crimes in the stands during a game, I won't like your team.  If any member of your team thinks it is okay to harm children or pets, and they remain or shockingly enough become a member of your team after their conviction, I won't like your team.  If any member of your team so desperately wants to be a part of a group that he gives himself a nickname and then legally changes his name to that nickname and insists that everyone call him that, I won't like your team.  If you team is so unoriginal that it can't come up with a nickname for itself on it's own, but has to steal one from a long standing traditional college team, I won't like your team.  If the celebrations have gotten so out of hand that the league had to institute a rule that keeps all players from celebrating in any way on the field, I won't like your sport.

I'm not stupid, I realize that a lot of the precedents were set by the Cowboy's organization.  I understand that Michael Irvin was nothing but a thug back in the 90's when the Cowboys' were winning Super Bowls.  And when it was the Cowboys, I was willing to look the other way.  I said on more than one occasion that I didn't care what he did off of the field as long as he continued to catch footballs on Sunday.  Maybe it's because I am old now, but suddenly I see that that was the beginning of the part of the NFL that I really hate.  I hate that it has become a league of thugs, cry-babies, liars, criminals, money hungry a-holes and just all around bad people.  Then to make matters worse, the fans no longer cheer for their teams, instead they spend all of their time denigrating the other teams and their fans.  That is the part that I really don't get about NFL fans.  Why do you want to attack other fans?  We're sort of all in this together.  It's one thing to be a smug fan of a winning team.  It's another to bully fans of other teams especially when your team isn't even winning.

I understand that baseball has the hole steroids issue and that the NHL has the embarrassment of it's commissioner Gary Bettman continually pushing the league out on strike, but I would still rather watch a MLB or NHL game over any NFL game including the Super Bowl.  I can't comment on the NBA since I really don't enjoy basketball.  But I see it from a distance as being very much like football.  I understand that in all professional sports there is corruption.  If there is money to be made, there will be criminals involved.  But wouldn't it be nice to go back to a time when it was just a game and the athletes (and owners) weren't among the highest paid people in the world, if they just did it for the love of the game?

Day Three-Oh-Four - Wow!

Anybody want a cat?  I'll sell you a 13 year old Burmese VERY cheap this morning.  He woke me up today meowing and has only stopped meowing long enough to eat for a few minutes.  Now he is trying to climb me as I type.  To try to please him, I have done the following....

• Obviously he has been fed and he has fresh water.
• I opened the garage door so that he can get to his favorite litter box.
• I went out in the garage with him.
• He wanted in the car, so the car door is open.
• He came back in and went to the patio door, so now the patio door is open.
• He just started messing with the blinds, so now all of the blinds in the house are completely raised.
• Two pictures are hanging sideways on the wall, because he apparently thinks they look better that way.
• I turned the washing machine off because he doesn't like the noise that it makes.
• He has already had his treats that he is supposed to get at noon.

I don't know what else to try to get him to stop the constant meowing.  I think he wants me to come out and sit in the car with him.  He goes on these crying jags sometimes and that usually does the trick.  I have no idea why that pleases him.  But it does.  He keeps coming back in the house to get my attention until I follow him out into the garage and into the car and then he lays down and goes to sleep in the passenger seat.  Here's what I don't understand though, why does he feel safe and happy sleeping in that car if it is in the garage, but the minute I start it and begin to drive with him in it he goes nuts?  Doesn't he understand that this is the very same car that terrifies him when I take him to Nacogodoches with me or to the vet?  Dumb cat!

This wasn't even what I intended to write about today.  Day 300 since the mass decapitation at the former employer who shall not be named passed by without my even realizing it.  They've been in the news a lot lately, you know because that guy running the place is apparently no smarter than my 13 year old Burmese who has no idea what he wants or what he is doing, but he forges ahead anyway.  The only difference is that my cat just annoys me.  This "Bozo" is intent on taking a multi billion dollar company down with him.  

So anyway, since last April, I have started my own travel agency based out of my home in case you don't read the other blog and aren't aware.  (Like my Facebook page "Places You'll Go Travel" or send me an email requesting to be part of the email blasts if you want to see it every weekday.)  It has been slow starting, but I think it is going to do okay when it really gets going.  People are starting to call and I'm starting to book some trips.  It is a lot of fun researching places that I have never been for people who are considering going.  I have now added three new destinations to my list of places that I personally want to go.  The cruise that I went on last week was slightly different to me too because of the new business.  In the past, I only thought about having fun, relaxing and enjoying myself.  On this cruise, I thought a lot about how I would describe things, I tried to take pictures of some of the things that I wouldn't have photographed in the past to show to possible clients and I think I was a little more critical of things.  I still enjoyed it as much as ever, but I did look at some things from a different perspective.

The other thing that was different about this cruise was that when it was over, for the first time in the last 31 years, I was actually ready to return from my vacation.  I've never felt that way since becoming an adult and it was a really nice feeling to know that I would be coming home to something that actually makes me happy to do!  I used to sit on the ship that last day at sea and spend my day literally holding back tears because I so desperately didn't want to come back to my day to day life.  Now, I really look forward to that life on a daily basis.  Don't get me wrong, it would be a heck of a lot better if I was making enough money to live on.  But that will come.  

In the meantime, I'm going to go sit in the car with my cat now and see if I can get him to go to sleep.  Happy Groundhog Day!  Yea!!!!!  Early Spring!!!!!  I'm so happy.  Maybe I'll be at the pool by April this year. :-)