Hola, mi amigos!

It's early and I can't think too awful good yet, so I thought I'd post something simple.  So likes and dislikes it is. 
LIKES:

**Cats, obvs---I love cats.  I LOVE cats.  If I could, I would take all the cats in the world, shove them all in my house and roll around in a sea of cats.  That would be a great day.

** St Louis Cardinals and Blues---Both exciting teams to follow, if you're in the market for one.

** Cosmeceuticals--I love cosmetics.  Makeup, hair stuff, skin stuff.  I'm a total product junkie.  I should do a post on my favorites.  I do have a few things that I use over and over. 

** British Murder Mystery Shows--Inspector Lewis, Midsomer Murders, anything Agatha Christie.  Broadchurch was the best show I've ever seen.  I binge watched it in a day. 

** Travel--I've been to a lot of places, still many many more to go.  I have a bucket list and Britain is at the top of that list. I want to go so bad I could cry.  I get British magazines, which is somewhat embarrassing.  And see the aforementioned British TV shows.

** Lay's Roasted Garlic and Sea Salt chips--I can, and have, eat an entire bag in one sitting.  I'm not proud of it.

DISLIKES:

** People who drag their heels when they walk. Pick up your feet!!!

** Those marquee signs outside of businesses, when they're out of W's, so they use an upside down M.  Or a 5 for an S.  It's not the same!  A mix of red letters and black letters also annoys me, but not as much.  This sign, however, is hilarious:

** People who start a sentence with "Um...." For example, "Would you like an all expense paid trip to Great Britain?"  "Um....yes!"  Um...you sound ridiculous.  Knock it off.  (Along the same line:  Huh?)

**Reality TV--I'm 100% certain that reality tv is going to be the ruination of the universe.  Mark my words.

**  Fish tanks--I hate fish tanks.  They depress me.  The fish just swim back and forth and back and forth and back and forth.  They never stop.  They never get to go anywhere else.  Just back and forth in that tiny tank.  Makes me sad. 

St Louis

Let's Go Blues!!!

Monday I actually had something to do.  Can you imagine?!?!  I know!!!!  A work friend and I went to St Louis to a Blues game.  She and I both received Red Lobster gift cards at the office holiday party, so that's where we ate supper and it was delicious.  We both had a triple berry sangria.  Highly recommend.  They were so good.  Couldn't even tell they had alcohol.  Deeeeelish.  And I don't like alcohol. 

The good guy's won, 3-1.  The game was a hoot.  Hockey is a lot of fun, if you've never seen it.  Give it a shot.  But I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure what's going on.  It's so fast and the puck is so tiny.  The referees will blow their little whistle and I have no idea why.  I don't understand the positions or plays but it's still fun to watch.  And the fights.  Always worth going just to see the fights. 

As an aside, if you live on the Illinois side of the River, park at the Casino Queen and take the sports shuttle.  It drops you off and picks you up right at the door to any St Louis sporting event.  Much better than the metro and way better than driving into St Louis.  Just FYI. 

Triple Berry Sangria

Frankfurter

Frank had to spend two days at the vet clinic because of the hair tie.  He'd stopped eating and pooping and I could tell his belly hurt.  They did a barium swallow (the vet said he LOVED the barium.  Drank it like it was the best stuff he'd ever had) and thought the hair tie was caught between his stomach and small intestine. They'd scheduled him for surgery, but then decided to try some laxatives instead.  He didn't feel well, but he wasn't super sick, so they thought surgery might be jumping the gun a little bit.  So we went the laxative route and he has started pooping and eating.  Yesterday he acted like he felt like a new man.  He was wound for sound, much to Fatty's dismay.  As long as food goes in and poop comes out, we're done.  The hair tie can stay in there as long as it's not causing any problems, but they're not even certain that it's still in there.  He may have already passed it and just had some swelling and inflammation.  He was so gassy.  He was on my lap and I could hear his belly gurgling.  The vet said every time she pushed on his belly he farted.  Poor feller. 

Look who's home!

Look who's $220 poorer!

Books

My mom sent me a text the other day, in the wee hours of the morning.  It was Dr Seuss' A Great Day for Up:
"Up Up Up
The sun is getting up
so Up with you
Up ear number one, ear number two"
I remember that from my childhood. It got me to thinking of all the books I read, or had read to me, when I was little. Some I loved.  Some I hate to this day.

A Fish Out of Water  I hated that book.  It's about a kid who feeds his fish too much and the fish just grows and grows and grows.  The fish gets to be the size of a house, or something ridiculous like that. 

Icarus We read the story of Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun.  He made wings out of feathers and wax.  His father warned him to not fly too close to the sun or it would melt the wax and he'd fall.  So, natch, Icarus flies too close to the sun, his wings melt and he plummets into the Aegean Sea.  W...T...F.  What, exactly, was I to learn from this story?  Don't build wings out of chicken feathers?  It's better to use eagle feathers?  Don't fly too close to the sun??  OK, I won't. 

I Know an Old Lady  The absolute worst children's book.  Ever. There will never, not ever, be another book written that I hated as passionately as this one.  "I know an old lady who swallowed a fly.  I don't know why she swallowed a fly.  I guess she'll die."  So then this lady swallows a spider to kill the fly.  Then she has to swallow a bird to kill the spider or some such bool-crap.  By the end---"I know an old lady who swallowed a horse.  She's dead, of course."  Oh my god.  To this day, I remember the picture of the lady after she'd swallowed the horse.  Just a lady with a horse inside her.  It was terrifying.  So the moral is to not swallow a horse?  Consider it done.... 

Some book about a bunny and an egg  I can't remember the title, but I can vividly see the book.  It was a big hardback book.  There was something about a bunny and egg, which looked like a Faberge Egg.  And then the egg rolls down a hill and something comes out of it.  I can't really remember what happens, but I do know I hated it.  It was too busy.  Too many colors.  And I think that jerk bunny kicked the egg down the hill.  I can't remember exactly why, but that book gave me the creeps. 

The problem being, I was a very factual child.  I had no tolerance for the absurd.  I lived in a world of reality.  The bunny/egg story, Icarus, the Old Lady--these are not realistic.  A house sized fish?? A lady that swallows a horse??? Don't even get me started about Icarus.  Even as a little kid I knew that was crap.  And Icarus dies.  And the old lady dies.  How are these children's stories?

I did, however, like:

Good Night, Moon  I thought the story itself was pretty lame, but I loved having to find the grasshopper and the other thing.  Lady bug?  I can't remember.  But I thought that was pretty cool. 

Nate the Great Goes Undercover  I LOVED this book.  Nate the Great is a boy detective and he is trying to figure out who keeps knocking over trash cans at night.  I think.  It's been a long time.  There were two girls that he thought were weird.  One had cats and the other always looked like she was going to yawn.  But the best part, the absolute best part is when he walked into the telephone pole.  I laughed every time.  Without fail. I don't know how many times I read that book and it was always hilarious. 

Nancy Drew When I got to be a little bit older I was all about Nancy Drew.  She was so smart.  I'm smart.  She had blue eyes.  I have blue eyes.  She had strawberry blond hair.  I have strawberry blond hair.  I so wanted to be Nancy Drew.  She had her two BFFs and her little blue convertible.  They're written by a ghost writer, so there have been at least six authors, I think.  For awhile they got a little preachy, but I loved the Nancy Drew books. 

Blues!

My brother went to the Blues game last night.  Good guys won 4-2!!  I'm going next Monday--Blues vs Avalanche.  My brother sent me a couple pictures of Vladimir Tarasenko--love that guy.  He is so good.  And he's so adorable I just want to pet him.  Also a big fan of David Backes.  A) He's thirty three years old and B) He doesn't spit everywhere.  Why do athletes spit everywhere?!?!  It's disgusting.  Do they spit on the floor at home??

The haps

Things are finally looking up around here.  My back is better, the cold is gone, mom and dad are over the flu, mom's surgery is over.  We're finally getting back to normal.  I'm still having a hard time getting into a routine, with the new schedule.  I can't quite figure out when to take a shower, eat, give Fats his shots. 

Getting up at four o'clock has not been as bad as I had feared.  It's not pleasant, by any means, but it's not that bad.  I was worried I wouldn't be able to go to bed early, but, when you get up super early it's easy to go to bed. I do really  well untill about seven o'clock and then I hit a wall. I get soooo sleepy but then I perk up about nine. First shift is good for dead bodies, and so far I've only had one.  No fights or domestics. It's awesome.

Big Diabeeto is back on his insulin.  We made it over two months without shots.  His sugar would run about 120-130.  I checked it Sunday and it was 400.  Sigh.  So we're back on the shots.  He doesn't mind, though.  Such a good boy. 

Baby Frank ate a hair tie the other day.  He seemed fine for several days, eating and pooping, but yesterday he stopped eating.  No poops.  I could tell he didn't feel well.  Cats eat rubber bands all the time, for some reason, so I googled it and it said to try mineral oil first.  So that's what we did.  He did not care for it.  Not one little bit.  He didn't eat dinner.  This morning, no poops and no breakfast.  So to the doctor he goes.  Poor stupid idiot:(

This is the room with the litter box.  He never just hangs out in here. 

He just sat on the couch like this for hours.  Just sat there, looking sad. 

Trying to pull over my smart TV.  The only nice thing I have...

Hair Tie

Guess who ate a hair tie the other day?  He didn't eat breakfast this morning....

2015 Can Get Bent

We're seven days into 2015 and, so far, every day has sucked worse than the day before.  I completely blew out my back on the first, which still hurts, and now I'm sick.  I have a "cough due cold" and every cough feels like someone is stabbing me in the back with a knife of fire.  My house is an absolute pigsty and I can't do anything about it.  Every night, when I go to bed, I pray to all things holy that I won't die in my sleep, only because I don't want anyone seeing my house like that.  My house is so bad, and I have pretty low standards, if that tells you anything.  I started a new shift on the first, 5a-1p, and trying to get used to getting up at 4am is difficult when I can't sleep.  I couldn't sleep at all last night, so I just got up around three o'clock and watched the Blues game I'd DVRed.  I could go on and on, but enough bitching.

Last night we had our annual office party, and it was fun.  The food was really good and we all ate way too much.  We played "Two Truths and a Lie" and that was interesting.  Everyone had to write down two true facts about themselves, and one lie, and everyone had to guess which was the lie.  My three---I was suspended in high school, fish tanks make me sad, and I pushed my brother off a porch when we were little and broke his arm.  Guess which one is the lie.

We had our gift exchange.  Everyone brought a $20 gift (ninety percent of them were gift cards because we're all lazy and unimaginative) I just bought a gift card and taped it to the back of a framed 8x10 picture of Fatty.  They make fun of me because I like cats, but I yam what I yam, and Fatty is our unofficial mascot.   I really thought the guy who got my gift was going to bust it over my head before he realized there was a gift card taped to the back.  He thought the photo of Fatty was the gift. I think a picture of Fatty should be sufficient, gift wise, but I realize not everyone loves him like I do.  But they should.  Cause he's awesome.  I got a Red Lobster gift card and the girl I'm going to the Blues game with also got a Red Lobster gift card, so Red Lobster it is.  I do like those biscuits.

Every day, when I get out of the shower, Frankie is lying on the bathroom rug.  Every....time.  I have to step over him, dripping water on him, but he will not move. Yesterday he wasn't on the rug and I couldn't find him.  It was the first time, since I've had him, that he wasn't on the rug.  I finally found him in the dirty clothes hamper.  Just relaxing, like it was the best place in the whole wide world. 

So that is all I know, as of Jan 7th at 0706.

Bath Cape

I received a few bath sheets for Christmas this year, which reminded me of the bath sheet I got a few years ago from my cousin.  We had had a progressive give exchange and that's what I ended up with.  She comes up to me after I opened it and said "You are going to LOVE that.  It's huge.  You could wrap it around your body three times!"  I thought that was pretty cool.  Never had a big towel before.  So that night I take a shower and get out my new towel and------the thing fit like a cape.  I wrapped it around under my arms, around my chest and it fanned out from there.  Leaving all of my unmentionables completely exposed.  So much for wrapping it around three times.  It felt, like I always do, when I'm folding clothes and I reach for what I think is a t-shirt but it's a pair of underwear.  Sobering.  Very sobering. I told my mom and my brother the cape story and they nearly herniated themselves from laughing so hard.  I guess it is a funny visual.  If I had a point to this story I don't remember what it was.  It's early. 

TV

I wanted to watch TV, but I watched the back of Frankie's head instead. 

They're not all winners

Not every travel experience is a good one.  We've had a few duds, mostly due to personal preference.  There was nothing wrong with the places I didn't care for, I just didn't care for them.  If that makes any sense.   I am not a city person.  If I could leave on a two week vacation and never see another person, well, that would just be all right.  I like nature.  Mountains, beaches, deserts.  I'm not big on anything that attracts a lot of people.  Museums, plays, musicals, sporting events, festivals. If it's got a lot of crowds or noise, I'm not interested.   Just my personal preference, but here are a few that I thought sucked:

#4 Yosemite--This one was disappointing.  Yosemite was completely underwhelming.  There is only one road through, and no scenic pull offs, that we could find.  You can't see anything from the road, aside from Half Dome, which we didn't even know was there.  We saw a bunch of cars pulled over, so we pulled over, because there must be something interesting there.  We were pulled off for a few minutes before we even realized it was Half Dome.  If you're a hard core backpacker or hiker, which we are not, Yosemite probably has much more to offer.  You just can't see it from the car.  Vacation time is limited, so we don't have as much time as we'd like to have.  If we'd had a couple of days in Yosemite, I'm sure it would have been better.  Maybe once you get inside the park there is a lot more to see.  And, FYI, there is no ranger station or information inside the park.  I hated that, because I collect magnets from all the places I visit and I didn't get one from Yosemite:(

#3 Gatlinburg, TN--Gatlinburg is popular with a lot of my coworkers, but, for the life of me, I can't figure out why.  That place sucks.  It is sooo touristy.  Cheap souvenir shops everywhere, an amusement park and a whole bunch of other stuff I don't care about.  We went because the Smoky Mountains were on our 100 Places, but naturally the park was closed for maintenance.  So we didn't get to see the Smoky Mountains.  Just Gatlinburg. I left on vacation with a pocket full of souvenir money, and came home with ninety percent of it.  I couldn't even find anything to spend money on. And I can always find stuff to spend money on.  No problem.

#2 Anywhere in Florida--Again, popular with the coworkers.  I'm going to get lynched, but I just plain don't like Florida.  Way too hot.  Way too many people.  The beaches aren't pretty.  I've been to the Keys, Sanibel Island and the Everglades.  Didn't care for any of it, although, the air boat tour of the Everglades was awesome.  I'd do that every day.  Sanibel Island is ridiculously crowded.  Shoulder to shoulder people and bumper to bumper traffic.  It was on the 100 Places, but I'm not entirely sure why.  I think because of the shells, but I'm not putting up with the crowds for a handful of tiny shells.  At the risk of sounding like a snob, Florida might be awesome if you've never been anywhere else. A bold statement but, A) it's my blog and B) I'm a snob.

#1 New Orleans, LA--I hate to be crass, but I feel I must be blunt on this one.  New Orleans is the biggest shit hole I've ever been in.  It's a nightmare beyond description.  When we got there, we took a taxi to our hotel on St Anne St, in the French Quarter.  It looked like a back alley, the likes of which hookers and drug dealers would shy away from.  It was dirty.  Buildings had crumbled onto the sidewalks.  There was exposed wiring everywhere (there are either no building codes, or they're simply not enforced). The taxi lady says all chipper like "Ok, we're here!"  and I remember thinking "We're where?"  There was no hotel, just a door.  (Oddly enough, the hotel was really nice.  It was like that tent in Harry Potter where you walk inside and it's all huge and stuff.  Magic.)  New Orleans is filthy.  There are puddles where there shouldn't be puddles, as it wasn't raining.  Strippers hang out in the streets at two o'clock in the afternoon-on a Thursday.  The homeless are everywhere.  The Café DuMond, which is the most famous restaurant in New Orleans was the second biggest shit hole I've ever been in.  It's dirty and run by a bunch of Vietnamese.  I don't know what I thought the Café DuMond was going to be, but Presidents have eaten there.  It was the first business reopened after Katrina, by order of the governor, I think.  It was not what I thought it was going to be.  We were there three years after Katrina, and it looked much the same as it did immediately after.  I'd be willing to bet it looks the same now.  We took a Katrina tour---most depressing two hours of my life.  I went to bed that night with the worst headache I've ever had.  Money and vacation time are both in short supply and I thought I'd wasted them both.  However, once you get past the initial shock, New Orleans can be fun.  It's unique.  And I think it's the uniqueness that landed New Orleans a spot in the 100 Places book.  We took a swamp tour, which was a lot of fun, and a plantation tour.  Both were well worth it.  I will never forget the street musicians. There was one guy, outside the Café DuMond playing the trombone and I'd be willing to bet everything I own that the day we saw him was the first day he'd picked it up.  He was terrible, he was having fun and he was making bank.  That guy was a genius. He was making more money than me at something he sucked at.