Ugh. Since Monday, I've been sick with an unknown bug or somesuch, so blogging was the last thing on my mind. I was hurling uncontrollably and it got so bad, I went to the doctor. I spent 3 hours there, and came out with some antacid. Gaw, doctors can be just useless. Four days later, and I'm finally starting to feel slightly more normal. Check out how my eyes get after a hurlfest. I know the broken capillaries are hard to distinguish from the freckles, but I think you get the point. And trust me, it hurts a whole lot more than it looks. The pressure is insane when this happens. Unfortunately I know these all too well from bouts with migraines. Wow, I'm even boring myself. Ok, that's all until I actually have something witty or half-way entertaining. It may be a while, so don't hold your breath. :)

Yesterday, Mike and I went to the Sunset Valley Farmers Market to pick up some veggies and other bits that caught our eye. We've been trying to go as often as we remember to go. We'd rather get our produce there than in a grocery store. It supports our local farmers and businesses and the quality is far superior to anything at the big grocers (except Whole Foods, of course). Since we've gone a few times, and we tend to go a bit crazy, I bought us a collapsible market tote from bb&b. I was kind to Mike and didn't buy the bright pink one that I really wanted. Well, we filled up that basket within the first 10 minutes and Mike just hauled it all over the place. For some reason this weekend, the market had about 2.5 times the amount of vendors as it usually does. It was huge! Alot of the extra vendors were services that were kind to the environment, like rainwater collection, and gardening, and even a couple furniture makers. We ended up getting a bunch of veggies, like usual, but with Mike's help I got bold and actually bought some beef ribs from a vendor there - Bandera Grassland. They say their cows are never injected with hormones and are grassfed, and all that other hippie stuff. We'll have to see how good they are. We also got some Maine Root Sarsaparilla. I am a sarsaparilla freak. This one was a bit mild for my tastes. I don't taste much difference compared to their Root Beer, which I had at the market. After that we went to FoodHeads. This great cafe in a house. I'm gonna write a review for that for Scratch 'N' Sniff, shortly. I'll link over to it when I do.

Yesterday, when I drove up to the house, Mike greeted me from behind and scared the crap out of me. He then informed me that he got a call from the kittie's owner and she had already picked her up. I started bawling immediately. I had gone to the vet and got her kittie revolution, and kittie food, and flea shampoo, and I had all that in my hands. My heart broke. I asked Mike what he and the owner talked about, and whether she knew the kittie was deaf (oh, yah, the kittie was deaf), and shouldn't be let outside. Apparently the family leaves the kittie with her brother outside and doesn't usually leave the backyard. Mike told her that a deaf kittie probably shouldn't be allowed outside. I wish he could have kept her somehow. She's too skinny, has fleas, and is a little dirty. They don't deserve her! Also, her name is Tinkerbell. I actually think the name was perfect for her. It still made me cry. Mike's very relieved to have found her family, he likes our kitty-count as it is. We do still have my brother's cat Ollie. I love Ollie, he's my boy! So, this is the end of the story of Tinkerbell. She will be missed. Let's hope her owners can actually take care of her this time. Here are a couple last pictures of the girl -> Tinkerbell

So, I'm driving to the store this morning. I turn the corner and almost hit this all white kitten sitting in the middle of the street looking frantic and not knowing which direction to go. I get out of my car and go to her and she lets me pick her and snuggles right into my arms. I knock on a few doors around where I found her to see if she belongs to anyone, but no one answers. What do I do? I take her home, of course. She's all white with light ice blue eyes. Cutie-patootie, let me tell you. So friendly and loving, but Mike says I can't keep her. He wants to put fliers up saying that we found her. But I think that's a bad idea. She's way skinny, kinda dirty from being outside and all she's done so far is eat tons and sleep tons. I think I was meant to find her and take good care of her. It was just kismet. What should I call her? Cutie-butt, Skinny-ass, white girl - or the more classy version - Blanca? I leave you with a pic of her for your perusal. You can tell me what you think a good name is.

Check out my review of Vanishing Acts over at Scratch 'N' Sniff!

Yanno that feeling where everything is as it should be, and you can't think of how things can get better? Almost like things are TOO perfect. For me, that feeling of being content means that something big is about to hit to make me just as equally miserable. However, I have that feeling now, but it's not that perfect feeling. I feel a level of contentment but enough is still crap that it doesn't feel like a pile of poo is about to drop on me. The area of my life that isn't perfect is, of course, work. I recently got my promotion and I'm very excited about that still, however, there are certain people that I work with that make every day there difficult as hell. I tend to shutdown when I feel oppressed. It's kinda odd, I know I'm shutting down, but I can't seem to do much about it. I try to fight that feeling everyday, but still seem to get more stuck in it. I don't hate work, I'm just having a hard time coping right now. I know it will pass, eventually. It's just that somedays it's next to impossible to convince myself of that. I think that it also doesn't help that I am one to try to correct things that I think are wrong. In work's case, I need to learn to shut my mouth and keep my thoughts & feelings to myself. P*U*R*G*E Enough of what is crap in my life and let me concentrate on the oh-so-good. My house is pretty much done -- with the exception of one room and the need for more furniture. This is monumental for me. I honestly cannot remember ever feeling like my house was in order. Sure, it still gets messy, but it's still so awesome for it to be done. We finally got our replacement rug for our living room. It was only on backorder for over 4 months. It's nice to have it in there now. It makes the area much more defined, and cozy. The contractors have been sporadically finishing stuff up. We had the A/C guy come fix some rattling in the ducts. The painters came and finished all that needed repainting and minor touchups. Jason, the right-hand-man of our GC, came by and finished things up like putting knobs on closet doors and vanity doors, installing shelving for a closet, fixed some baseboard issues we were having. The only thing left is for the electrician to come by and fix a kitchen light and install the inline heater for our jacuzzi tub. OH! and hook up our hottub. So, just to sum up... Things are getting done and it feels awesome. p.s. our current book club selection is Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult.

The book club meeting was awesome! I tend to stress about the littlest things and then afterwards wonder why I was stressing. I did a little bit of that, but for the most part I think my extra efforts really paid off. Most of the food was gone, and all but 3 bottles of wine were consumed. I actually cannot wait to host another one! You can check out the few pics I took here. Here's a pic of the spread I laid out for the ladies. (I had not finished putting things on the plates when I took the photo):