"Silly Yet Bright Highlights" or "Why I Love Mah Honey-Man ~ Reason 23"

My honey-man can be soooo silly sometimes! AND I SOOO LOVE HIM FOR THIS, sooo very much!!! See, I am often quite silly, and it's absolutely necessary that I be with someone who can handle my silliness without either berating me for it, nor being embarrassed by it...

What kind of silliness are we talkin' about here?

Well, like it or not, let me offer up some recent examples:

1) I don't remember what we were even talking about, but we were in the car on our way to Target together, and I had laughed about something in a really enthused and maniacal, semi-cackling manner. Having heard myself, I mused aloud how it was almost witch-like and kinda scary. So I tried it again and again, trying to hone a really good and hearty, witch-like laugh. Next thing I know, my honey-man is trying too, and we're both critiquing our efforts, and he's giving me coaching tips on how to improve my witch-laugh...

2) Friday night of last week, we were at RC Willey shopping for a new mattress for our bedroom. Heading first for the markdown room, I saw a full wall display of candles from Salt City Candle Co. (dah BEST! Salt City kicks both Party Lite and Yankee buttocks!)... I shrieked and literally ran for them - - not a sprint, but more like a gentle, but admittedly awkward run, much like a 2nd grader running outside for recess time. A bit over enthused, yes, but I was absolutely delighted to discover a local source for Salt City Candles [SIDE NOTE: Pomegranate is my FAVORITE scent of theirs!!!]. My honey-man did nothing but smile and follow after me, and he smelled every single candle I offered him until we were both green. [FINAL SALT CITY CANDLE CO. SIDE NOTE: No, we didn't buy one, even though my honey-man was willing and insistent. I gotta burn through what I already have first! Another thing: I've only ever bought one S.C.C.C. candle, but I've had 4 others given to me as gifts, and I adored each and every single one.]

3) Same place, same night, while were testing out mattresses: We laid on our backs, tummies and both sides, turning this way and that, going from one mattress model to another, and at one point, my honey-man insisted we had to try spooning to be sure that would be good too. We were hoping here and there, giggling and laughing together...

4) The next night, same place, we were again testing the mattress model we'd zeroed in on the night before: We were both so thrilled about our soon-to-be final purchase, it was as if we were on a sugar high. Some disco music and general 70's music was dominating the store's music programming at the time... While completing our order and the final payment details for our new mattress (to be delivered tomorrow!), either one of us or the both of us, would break out into dance moves and/or song without either one of us batting an eye at the other. I'm sure the sales lady thought we were both deranged.

5) That same night, driving out of the RC Willey parking lot, having bought ourselves a new bed, I announced that I would sure like a cupcake from The Cupcakery, "don't you think?" I spoke this request with a really squeaky voice, much like a munchkin with a lil' bit of scratch to it... We both thought it had sounded much like Gollum would sound if he were on some speed, maybe... So my honey-man began his own effort to chant/cough for "Cupcakes" in his best Gollum voice in the way Gollum chokes "Gollum." This lasted until we arrived at the Cupcakery, both of us going back and forth, quite amused with ourselves.

Of course, this is all just silly, nonsensical stuff, yes, but I consider each lil' silly moment a highlight, a part of my everyday living with this man I love so much.

Can't Sleep Without Mah Baybee

My honey-man left reallllly early yesterday morning for L.A., around 5 am - - I never woke up when he gave me my four (not one or two, but four!) goodbye kisses. I was totally out and he didn't actually want to wake me that early, he told me later. Anyhow, he had some L.A. bizziness to do, and the angel boy-O to see and bring back to Vegas with him. They both went out to dinner with Wendy (his former spouse, mommie to the angel boy-O) and her loving-man tonight, in honor of my honey-man's birthday this coming Sunday. I was uber bummed to miss out again on another L.A. visit. It's been hard to keep myself perky and well occupied.

However, they'll both be back here tomorrow night! BUHHT I can't wait! And I can't sleep either. I do have both of my fuzzy babies here, glued to my right side, both curled together like a yin-yang and fast asleep. I need to emulate their purrfect examples of sleepy-ness! Instead, I'm wide awake, despite any long-spent effort to relax and get some sleep, hence, I'm now blogging.

I think I experience a severe aversion to our bedroom when my honey-man ain't in it!

Sewing With Otis & Owen

Otis likes to be in the middle of it all, right in my lap watching every move...

Owen likes to watch too...

Not Quite 'Back for Good'

I've been feeling remarkably better these last couple days!!! [BACKGROUND INFO: I got sick last week and had to stay home alone this past holiday weekend (being home alone while sick was fine cuz I'm a TOTALLY anti-social grouch whenever I'm sick), while my honey-man went to L.A. in order to see his angel boy-O, who hasn't been to Vegas since January's M.L.K. Jr. holiday weekend, who had also gotten sick last week, requiring that we cancel his Vegas trip for that weekend, thus requiring the visit to L.A. (and I was totally upset all that weekend, that I didn't get to go to L.A. too, having gotten sick - - was way, way bummed!).]

Up until an hour ago (even though I had to sleep upright, propped again with pillows last night), I was thinkin' I was back for good! I'd had had such a good day, today - - until I began to sing along with some music I had playing... After two minutes or less, I found myself in the midst of a violent coughing attack. Silly goon. I imagine I'll now be in recovery for the rest of the night!

Not quite 'all good' just yet. But I do get to go home from work now... that is good!

"St. Anger" in Our Living Room

For a couple weeks now, my honey-man has been eagerly awaiting the arrival of a particular DVD from our Netflix queue, and it's been totally cracking me up every time he has questioned when it'll finally come, not to mention the very first time he'd told me about it. When we got home last night around 10 pm, we even made a special trip to the mailbox to see if it had arrived and it had! Sooo, instead of going to bed, we watched it, ALL OF IT, unable to turn it off (even when he paused the dvd to use the bathroom, and I then pointed out that it was a quarter to midnight, to which he asked if we should stop - - and I said NO!).

So what was it?

Welll, um, until one in the morning, we watched the Metallica documentary, Some Kind of Monster. Yup. Metallica. Honestly, if one can get over the naughty language, we both were absolutely intrigued by all the psychosocial issues involved and the general psychological approach used in order to address the band's future and deal with their history as a band. I even teared-up a couple times. Yup. We really enjoyed it!

Most important, of course, we just had a lot of fun watching it together. That was the best part.

P.S. Both Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield have the freakin' cutest kids!?!

After-Work-Pre-Gym Vegas Sunsets

Over the last couple months, I've been making a renewed and concerted effort to re-establish my loooong ago habit of working out at the gym a minimum of 3 times a week. At first in January, I was going to the gym right after work (and it was only happening twice a week, at best), but now, having discovered I can make it to the gym at lunch time for a 50 minute workout, allowing me to head straight home once my workday is done, that's now the preferred approach. [SIDE NOTE: I must admit though, a mid-day sweaty workout is a challenge, going back to work afterwards, but it's a mighty convenient use of my lunch hour!] Before I'd established the go-at-lunch approach though, going to the gym after work did provide a most fabulous chance to really enjoy our Vegas sunsets... Here's a couple from last month:

Owen, Over Time

Each of these kitty pics, plus a few obvious pairings, were all at one time drafted for individual blog posts, yet never posted. Now combined together as one big post, here's some of what our lil' Owen has been up to over the past few months...

This one speaks for itself... typical kitty behavior.

For several weeks (cuz I left it lying on the floor, because...), Owen behaved as if this lil' baby clothes hanger would at any moment pounce and devour him! He'd be walking along by, all casual and smooth cat-like and he'd suddenly glance over and see it lying there, wherever he'd last left it, post-attack, and he'd rush backwards, away from it as if his very life depended upon it. Soon after this picture was taken, Owen opened a can of whoop-ass on that lil' hanger!

At my birthday party this year, my Grams and my aunt Radeane had surprised me with a fully-stitched baby quilt. It's actually the baby quilt from hell that my aunt and I had begun for me in the Summer of 2006. [SIDE NOTE: It was deemed 'the baby quilt from hell' because of all the curly-swirls to be hand-stitched around it's border.] Sometime before Halloween that year, we'd had to take it off the quilt rack, unfinished, to instead prioritize the stitching of 3 other baby quilts for babies actually about to be born into our family. Anyhow, I just need to finish the border now. Meanwhile, Owen has decided that it's his blankie, and wherever I've left it, he finds it and cuddles down for a kitty nap. I've placed it in the coat closet to keep him from it and found him on it; I've placed in a knotted, doubled set of plastic bags, which he tore open to crawl inside... And most recently, preparing to stow it away in some kitty-proof storage bin, I had to eventually wash it to remove the kitty hair, but before I'd determined a kitty-proof bin, I placed the blankie in our downstairs 'powder room' and shut the door.

As you can see... I opened the door and tah-dah!?! How the heck?

Owen also likes to claim all our laundry as his own private nest. We have lots of these kinds of pictures of him...

We bought a humidifier a couple weeks ago, and here's the plastic bag that the unit had been wrapped in when we'd opened the box...

It's almost a bit disturbing, isn't it?

oh yeah, and Owen has recently claimed the angel boy-O's super whatever-these-are-called things...

Taken by my honey-man from beneath our kitchen table: Owen on my lap during dinner.

This is Owen's new favorite pose when we find him on this landing of our stairs. Ya know, ya just need one leg down there, for um, balance? All these pics are from different occasions/days I've found him sitting like this...

And this lil' glass thing we have on our coffee table, filled with collected rocks? Since Owen was a kitten, he has loved to occasionally TRY to get some of the smaller rocks out with his paws, and it has never worked until the day this picture was taken. Moments after, for the first time ever, Owen successfully removed a small, white, very round piece of natural pumice stone. As it rolled off the coffee table to the carpet floor, Jen quickly scooped it up and placed it right back where it belongs - - It was a move that Owen missed entirely (I didn't want him chomping little his teeth on it), so he spent the next couple minutes looking around for his prize.

Fascinating Camo Technology

[Note: This post is several months old!] This tall, lovely 'pine tree' is located off Blue Diamond Rd. on our way out to Red Rock Canyon... Somewhere in my photo files, I know I have a picture I'd taken of 4 of 5 similar 'palm trees' seen from Interstate 210 in Cali...

And I found it! Here's the pic of the 'palm trees' I'd seen!

And a zoom-in shot of the same 5 cell phone towers...

My Own Monte Carlo View

The view of the Monte Carlo on fire, January 25th, as seen (using the zoom feature on my camera) from my office window!

The same office window's view, three mornings after the fire...

Why I Love Mah Honey-Man ~ Reason 22

[Be forewarned - - lots of really long and rambling sentences ahead!] Because this morning after I'd hollered from downstairs, "I love you!" and "Have a good day, baby!", etc., etc., I went out to the garage to my car to leave for work, and I realized I'd forgotten something, and when I came back inside, Owen had been meowing loudly after me, standing outside the closed laundry room door, and I could hear my honey-man sweetly calling for Owen from our bedroom upstairs, asking Owen what was wrong and to come up and see him...

And this was after Owen had kept my honey-man up all night, repeatedly bringing my honey-man a small, red, plastic tear-off seal tab from the lid of a plastic milk jug that Owen likes so much to fetch after whenever tossed. My honey-man awoke at least 4 times last night to discover Owen had placed the plastic tab either on his hand or arm, or near his face or at his toes, pawing each time at my honey-man for a toss of it. And each time, all my honey-man did was toss it for Owen!

Later today, I asked my honey-man how many times Owen had brought him the tab... and he said Owen had brought it to him 2 more times I'd left for work! Laughing, I told him that he should have gotten up out of bed to toss the tab down the stairs - - and then we both laughed, realizing Owen would have only brought it back upstairs for another toss!

Especially for Pet Owners

To be posted VERY LOW on the refrigerator door, nose-height...
Dear Dogs and Cats [OR RATHER, "Dear Otis & Owen"]:
The dishes with the paw print are yours and contain your food. The other dishes are mine and contain my food. Please note, placing a paw print in the middle of my plate and/or my food does not stake a claim for it becoming your food and dish, nor do I find that aesthetically pleasing in the slightest.

The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack. Beating me to the bottom is not the object. Tripping me doesn't help either because I fall faster than you can run. [THIS ONE IS MOST APPLICABLE TO OUR LIL' OWEN]

I cannot buy anything bigger than a king sized bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think I will continue sleeping on the couch to ensure your comfort. Dogs and cats can actually curl up in a ball when they sleep. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other stretched out to the fullest extent possible. I also know that sticking tails straight out and having tongues hanging out the other end to maximize space is nothing but sarcasm. [THIS ONE APPLIES TO BOTH OUR BOYS]

For the last time, there is not a secret exit from the bathroom. If by some miracle I beat you there and manage to get the door shut, it is not necessary to claw, whine, meow, and try to turn the knob or get your paw under the edge and try to pull the door open. I must exit through the same door I entered. Also, I have been using the bathroom for years -- canine or feline attendance is not required. [THIS ONE, TOO, APPLIES TO BOTH OUR FUZZY BABIES, BUT OTIS IN PARTICULAR]

The proper order is kiss me, then go smell the other dog or cat's butt. I cannot stress this enough!

To pacify you, my dear pets, I have posted the following message on our front door:
To All Non-Pet Owners Who Visit & Like to Complain About Our Pets:
1. They live here. You don't. [THIS ONE IS MY FAVORITE!]
2. If you don't want their hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture. (That' s why they call it 'fur'nat-ure.)
3. I like my pets a lot better than I like most people.
4. To you, it's an animal. To me, he/she is an adopted son/daughter who is short, hairy, walks on all fours and doesn't speak clearly. [IN OUR CASE, I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH HOW TRUE THIS IS]

Remember: In many ways, dogs and cats are better than kids because they:
1. Eat less
2. Don't ask for money all the time
3. Are easier to train
4. Normally come when called
5. Never ask to drive the car
6. Don't hang out with drug-using friends
7. Don't smoke or drink
8. Don't have to buy the latest fashions
9. Don't want to wear your clothes
10. Don't need a 'gazillion' dollars for college.

And finally [THIS LAST ONE IS SOOO IRREVERENT, I MUST ADMIT],
11. If they get pregnant, you can sell their children