Post Vacation and Catch up.

Hello!  If your wondering why I haven’t posted recently (well not allot of people read this) – I was on vacation.  And to be safe I didn’t post a bit before that.   I just caught up with the trip and am now going to post everything and back date stuff.  I’m starting with May 10^th, so if  you haven’t read that yet, I’m suggesting to start there and catch up.  (It’s quite long.)  :)  

One thing I totally messed up on.. I took my two youngest kitties to a cat show in April.  There is supposed to be a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnng post all about that.   I had posted the story to a message board, and planned to copy it into my blog and back date it to the correct date.   BUT the board was changing providers, they could no longer afford to pay for v bulletin.   They just took it down this weekend and put up the next board- a free board.   They moved some threads (by copy/pasting them)  but not all.  I copied many of my important posts into a word document – but forgot all about that one!  And the board is down now – so the post is presumably lost and now I can’t go back and get it.  I don’t know if I can recall all that happened.  I may have pre-wrote it down somewhere – I’ll have to look. 

In the meantime – the basics – I attended the show on the 14^th and 15^th.  There were 10 “rings” and my cats were in the household division, which means , it’s just judges choice, no standards.  I had a friend helping me as this was the first time I’ve done this.   My cats did so-so at first, but Jay (Orange classic tabby) really started to relax – as Onyx (his sister- she’s black) got more shy.   On the second to last ring, Onyx briefly escaped when she kicked the Judge in the midsection, but still placed 3^rd!  The highest she did the whole show.   The last ring we almost missed because they called it when we were in the previous one.  To my utter shock  Jay received 2^nd place!   Onyx had been beating him for most of the show, and in fact he was getting between 6^th and 9^th place.  So this was a mega surprise.   It was the highest he did, and I was thrilled.   I have their ribbons from this show, but if I do it again, I’ll turn back in all but the top ribbons so they can re-use them.   I’m going to put together (if I ever have time) a collage of ribbons and pictures. 

Here is a quick run down of what has happened since I got back from vacation. 

Sunday the 20^th:  After the red eye back I unpacked a bit, made sure everyone was fine and then went to my anime club.  I had about 3 hours sleep in the last 30 hours or so and because of that I did fall asleep briefly during one of the shows.   I was so out of it that when I made a sandwich for dinner, I put mayo on the bread, put the cheese on and put mustard on the cheese… but forgot to add the meat!  I didn’t realize until I had eaten about 1/4^th of the sandwich. 

Monday the 21^st:  I took this day off, slept in and puttered around the house.  Had the basement carpet cleaned and spent most of the morning (after I woke up at 11!) and early afternoon moving stuff around so most of the area could be cleaned. 

Tue-Fri:   Back to the grind, caught up with stuff at work and problem solved a few things.  I can’t believe it’s close to month end already – it was just the beginning of the month when I left for vacation!  I was late two days in a row – horrible – I could get in serious trouble for that – even if I work over to make up for it.    I feel better now so I’m going to strive to be early from now on.  (we have flex time and can be there anywhere from 6:30 to 8:30.  I tend to get there at 8:30 because I am not a morning person.)    

Sat-Sun the 26^th and 27^th – Catch up days.   Tried to edit this and do my budget.  Sunday I went shopping for plants with my mom – a late mother’s day outing.  We do this every year – my gift to her is some of her flowers/veggies.   This year I paid for everything and will figure out how much is a gift, and take the rest off the money I owe my parents for the trip. 

Monday the 28^th – Memorial day.  I spent the day chilling with kitties, and mega gardening.  I don’t see it as just another day off, but I admit I don’t really do anything special with it either other then a general remembrance.   My dad came over and cut my lawn.  My lawn looks awful.  Lots of brown spots.  He says it looks better then the last time he saw it.  I just need to water – lots.  Luckily I don’t have much lawn – and if I have my way next year I’ll have even less.   I plan to expand my rose garden for one, and I’m not sure exactly what I want to do with the strip of lawn on the side.  

Then my dad helped me put together a futon I bought.  It’s just a twin.   I’ve got it downstairs.  It currently is being used as a couch – but I wanted something to be used for a guest room.   My co-worker and friend retired in January and she’s supposed to be spending the summer in Colorado and plans on staying with friends periodically (when she’s not in her cabin)  I haven’t heard from her in a month though so I’m going to email her.  Dad only had to take something off and move it once.  The instructions were horrible and he’s just glad he didn’t put the whole thing together wrong. 

Oh and if I didn’t mention it before – my roof was done right before I left on vacation.  It was even inspected by the city already.  But apparently the roofing company is behind getting this info to the insurance company.  The insurance company said it was their responsibility and they had not heard anything yet.  I left a message with the roofing rep. but never heard back.  Oh well, if they want more then 2k for the roof they will contact my insurance.  I did get the 200 I spent on the fence repair back though.   The insurance was willing to tack it on with the roof claim for general wind damage.  

Ok it’s getting dark – I need to turn off the water in the last area I’m watering,  unload the dishwasher, scoop the cat boxes and do general stuff before turning in.   And of course totally updating my blog with everything I wrote!

-- and here it is 10:30 and I'm done updating.  Time to crash.