THUNDER AND SUNSHINE

and rainbows:




Went to a Close to My Heart scrapbook party today. Wasn't sure what to expect, the invite just said bring scrapping tools, which I did. Found out it was actually a crop. Roni (Vicki's sister) and her co-workers get together once a month at a local pizza parlor to scrap and share ideas & tools. One of them is a Close to My Heart rep. So Kathy and I ate, bought some stuff, played with her Cricut and left. We'll know next time to bring stuff.

It was sunny when I came home. About an hour later the sky started booming and then the rain. Only saw one flash of lightning. It's coming down pretty good right now. I guess our nice January weather is officially over. I'm on call and waiting for the car in the building page.


Back to budget crises (yes, multiple) tomorrow. I am so tired of getting daily phones calls from someone telling me they are cutting/canceling a contract or just flat our aren't going to pay us. The last coming from Arnold. We are hearing don't expect to see any money from the state until September. We are in the process of trying to determine exactly when we will run out of cash. It's just ugly. But I have 4 days to work before our cruise so I can put up with most anything.

Grey's Anatomy - McSteamy broke his wee wee????? That's even more far-fetched than Denny the ghost.
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WORDLE

Isn't this cool. At www.wordle.com, you can add as many words as you want then pick the layout, font and colors. VOILA! You have your own personal wordle. This one describes my cats, if you couldn't tell.

CROP CIRCLES

See the bizarre looking circles on my driveway? They've been there for 20 years, but you only see them when it rains. I remember the first time I noticed them, after a rainy day, I thought some kids in the neighborhood had used our driveway as a back drop to spray paint circles. I was ticked. When I came home from work, and it was dry...they were gone. We now just refer to them as our crop circles.

It did rain today. I spent the day in Sacramento at a meeting. Got text messaged that there was an accident in front of our office. So I immediately, TM our Facilities Manager to see if there was pot damage. Nope...hit the cemetery across the street, but he was curious about my spy network and how I knew this before he did. I don't reveal my sources.

Speaking of the pots, I've come up with an idea to minimize the graffiti. Our consumer network has a continual art project going on. We have semi annual art walks at our complex and they've also put together a calendar of their work. I'm thinking we get them to paint the pots...however they want to, as long as it's not offensive. Then they will truly be decorative pots. I'll keep you up on how that is going.

Just fed the cats and Cabo wouldn't eat. Tried the regular canned food with crunchies - he tried to cover it up. Then tried Fancy Feast with crunchies - same thing. Thought maybe it was the crunchies, so I gave him Fancy Feast by itself - he turned up his nose and walked away. I just found him tearing up the spare pieces of laminate that are in my back room. He may have managed to eat some of that and it's making him sick....although I haven't found any puke...today. Did yesterday. Our HVAC unit sprung a leak and buckled part of our flooring, so it is being repaired today. The part to be repaired was the whole area in front of the vent. Is it just me or is it strange that someone would finish this much and leave those two little spots? No he didn't run out of materials.




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Spectral Images

Ever wonder what might be in your house that you don't really know about? Other than the normal dust and crap in the air that isn't readily visible.

For some time now we have found Jack staring up at where the ceiling meets the wall, usually in the dining room, but occasionally other spots. Lark and I have started calling it his Spectral Images. Occasionally Cabo will do the same thing. This morning Jack was having conversations with them.

Jack is a talker. He will meow when he wants to be picked up or put down, fed, played with, or if we have annoyed him. This morning I kept hearing him holler in the living room. He isn't a random mysterry meow kind of kitty and this wasn't the "there's another cat in the yard" growl. So I figured there had to be something wrong. I find him sitting in the entry way. So I pick him up and he starts staring at the ceiling and hollering. I soon realized that he and his Spectral Images were communicating. Either that or I have a Schizophrenic cat.

I doubt we have ghosts. The house was new when we bought it, so there aren't any dead bodies hidden anywhere...unless they are in or under the cement foundation. No fingers or noses sticking out when we pulled up the carpet. Do you watch the Mentalist? There was one episode where a man was killed and dropped into a vat of wet cement. They only found him because his nose was sticking out.

Greys Anatomy - has spawned a new catch phrase for the girls and I. The episode where Sloan and Torres were removing a tumor that was sucking nutrients from this lady's bones and causing them to break. She was upset because she gave up an opportunity to move to Denver with her boyfriend because she was afraid of falling. After the surgery she asked for a phone. When asked why, she said "I'm going to Denver". That line was used later when Sloan gave in to Lexie. So now we are using it for doing what we want to do...i.e. living our life.

I think the images just moved into the closet. I had to go open it for Jack.

Speaking of the girls, we are looking at a Road Trip to the Jelly Belly Factory and Budweiser Bottling plant in Vallejo after I get back from my cruise (2 weeks!). We couldn't go this weekend because Vicki was going to the Sportsman's Show at CalExpo in Sacramento with her hubby. That's dedication and true love. Lark would be on his own at a golf expo.

Nope, not images in the closet. Jack's milk bottle ring and favorite toy. He just dropped it at my foot to throw. They don't go very far but are light and bounce around on the laminate floor. Lark gave them all CatNip last night. Nirvana.

I'm off to enjoy the unseasonable sunshine and low 70's weather we are having. It is certainly not the norm so I'm going to take advantage of it.
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Freebie for You

Here is my entry for the SAS Color Challenge. If you like, you can get it here:

www.4shared.com/file/80547163/74140a01/ld_Tapestry.html

I thought I had figured out how to link to 4Shared, but obviously I haven't. Please cut and paste into your browser.
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Mother Nature Must Be Off Her Hormones

cuz she can't make up her mind about what kind of weather we should be having. Last week it was COLD 30-40's. This week upper 60's. Geez. And FOG. No matter what, we get Fog in the mornings.

I've had a crappy week. Yesterday was a 10-hour day. I don't like 10-hour days. I came home and yelled at Lark. Not really at him. He just happened to be in the room. Luckily he knew it wasn't anything personal. When I came home today I told him I had another crappy day but I was in a much better mood. He said I could come in blasting a double barrel shotgun and be in a better mood than I was yesterday.

I had a need to escape my office just before 12:00, so I emailed Kathy & Vicki and told them I needed to get away and let's do lunch...now. It's so nice to have my peeps on-site. Went to Panda Express. Love the fortune cookies:

Mine - a personal accomplishment will bring you happiness. Gag me.
Vicki's - you are a joyful person and will have much happiness. yeah, OK.
Kathy - Your happiness surrounds you. Yep, she had her girls.

This recession is depressing...or is that recessing? Every morning on the way to work I pass this very old wooden former fire house, a cool looking building. It's been several things over the years, non-profits orgs, a gift shop, offices. On the way home I glanced over and it had been completely razed. I was surprised by how sad that made me.

My pots got tagged. Drove by this afternoon and there was graffiti on them. Running into them I can handle. Scribbling on them pisses me off.

Bought the cats 2 screens for their litter boxes to give them some privacy (cat people say that's good) and to stop them from flailing litter all over my room. The first day - one of them pee'd on it. So much for privacy.

Also ordered them a $80 sisal scratching post that is supposed last a long time and keep them from scratching the furniture. Until recently I've never had a problem with cats clawing the furniture. But both Scooby and Cabo think my chair & half is their personal scratching post, as well as my new dining room chairs (wicker/rattan). We'll see if this works. So far Cabo is the only one who's tried it and actually he's more interested in the box it came in that the post. Lark tried to take it outside and found Cabo staring at him, from within it, with an "it's occupied" look on his face.

Speaking of Cabo...could have been a disaster this morning. He and Jack aren't the best of buddies. Jack hisses and slaps at him when he gets near. This morning Jack was in my lap kicking back and Cabo jumped on my keyboard - wrong thing to do. After hissing, growling and trying to go after him, I managed to put Jack down with all of my skin intact and no blood loss. Poor Cabo - he was frozen with the deer in the headlights look. Even after I put Jack down. We did have a discussion about how that was not the best decision. However, stopping to think has never been Cabo's strong suit. I keep telling him that he needs to slap back. Every now and then I see Cabo slap and Jack as he's passing by. I think he's practicing.

I'm now officially out of thoughts.
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GO GATORS

Lark's watching the National Championships and he's rooting for...(gasp!) Oklahoma. He thinks I should be too since I was born in that State (my dad was stationed at Fort Sill and we moved 2 weeks after I turned 2).

Me, I'm sitting here with my beer, opened with my GO GATORS bottle-opener being true to my friend's home state. That doesn't apply to Cal, Stanford, Alabama or South Carolina.

Notice how many of my blog entries start with what Lark is doing and how I'm trying to hide from it? Welcome to my world. Trying doesn't always work. When a thought crosses his mind, he feels compelled to share it.

Damn Arnold Schwarzenegger (see I can even spell it now - scary, huh). I really just wanted to say that. He hasn't done anything stupid in the last few days, but he's still after our mental health funds, so damn him!

I see Bush Sr is now touting Jeb for Pres...God help us, another one? Don't know much about him. Does he have a brain?


January 20th will be a good day. Besides our NEW president being sworn in, my new Accounting/Budget Manager starts and I have high hopes for her. I just hope she can put up with all the Senior Leadership personalities. She'll do fine with her staff. They're great. It's the rest of us that could drive someone to drink (as I sit here with my Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale).

FOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's been my life for a good part of the week. I tried to take a picture - see below




But it kept doing something strange to the camera. I hate to think there is that much crud in the air that I can't see. I tried it through the window and got the same thing. I know my windows are dirty, but not that bad. I thought my camera might be malfunctioning, so I took a sample shot




Aren't they cute?


So this one is from my car at a stoplight (with my new iPhone). It looks kind of mild here, but that's because there are buildings, etc around. If you get to an area where there is just bare space (rare in this area), you can't see for more than a few feet.