Thanksgiving Flashback February 14, 2009

You may have missed this one, but I totally skipped over writing about our trip to Vegas over Thanksgiving.  I meant to, I truly did, but days passed, and then weeks, and then with the craziness of Christmas and family coming in town to stay with us, it got overlooked, and forgotten.  A few weeks ago, I thought about finally posting about it, but purposely decided to wait until now.

The bottom line is that we had a great time.  A fantastic time.  Of all the times we’ve been there, this was the best.

We went into a few casinos that we’ve never been in, we ate at a few places that we’ve never eaten at before, and we even stayed at a different hotel–Mandalay Bay instead of Planet Hollywood.

It was my first time playing Three Card Poker, which I quickly fell in love with.  Maybe because I went on a streak where I couldn’t NOT win money at it.

We both made some new friends . . .

And, most importantly, it was on that trip that we conceived a child.  

Sometimes what happens in Vegas . . .doesn’t stay there.

If you’re interested, you can follow my pregnancy journey HERE.

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#84 Have Reunion With Grade School Friends I Recently Reconnected With . . .DONE!

Thanks to Facebook, I recently got back in touch with some classmates that I lost track of after graduation.  Last fall, we started talking about the possibility of meeting up and catching up.  I was actually the one to push the issue (me? timid little me?), and we agreed to get together in Harrisburg in early February for dinner and a few drinks.

I’ve kept in touch with 2 of the girls since we graduated from high school–Lori was my roommate in college for 3 years, Amy has been one of my very best friends since third grade, and both were in our wedding.  But none of the 3 of us kept in contact with the other 3, and none of the other 3 kept in contact with each other.  Make sense?

We met at the Appalachian Brewing Company, and by the time the waitress came back to the table with our drinks, it was like it was the late 80’s/early 90’s all over again.  We’ve all changed with time, but inside we’re all the same.  The connections were still there.  I was interested and fascinated with what they’ve done with their lives.  We gabbed and gabbed and yelled and laughed loudly and long (thankfully the place was huge and noisy), interrupted each other mid-story, and re-lived the good ol’ days.  We sat there for over 3 hours and not ever was there a moment of awkwardness or silence or uncomfortableness.

It has been SEVENTEEN years since we’ve all been in the same room together, but we didn’t miss a beat.  We’re already planning our next get-together, and since we’re all still in the PA/MD area, there’s really not an excuse for us to NOT see each other every few months or so.

Travelin’ Tunes–Parts Five and Six

So I kind of had to drop the “this week in music” since I have been neglecting my blog and haven’t posted ANYTHING in almost 2 weeks.  Today is a major blog catch-up day, so be prepared.  I have 3 weeks of The Bold and The Beautiful DVR’d, so I’m spending a nice relaxing morning catching up on blogging and soaps.

LAST week, I listened to Deana Carter’s “Did I Shave My Legs For This?”.  It’s probably been at least 10 years since I listened to this CD, so while it was a nice little blast from the past, I just couldn’t get into it.  I love all kinds of music, but I like them all at different times.  By pulling this CD off the shelf, I felt like a was forcing a country mood and it just didn’t  take. 

Regardless, I did get into this one:

THIS week, I switched gears a bit and went for something a little heavier, Linkin Park’s Minutes to Midnight.

This is one of the few CDs I own that I like just about every song.  Or at least there aren’t any songs I need to breeze through because they’re annoying.  I love how some of the songs are truly hard rock, while some are more towards the alernative end of the spectrum.  A great mix of tempos. 

And while the song “Bleed It Out” is the one that stays in my head, I couldn’t help but to pick the song “Valentine’s Day” for my chosen snippet of the week.  A depressing take on a day supposedly filled with love, but I like it anyway.

Six months February 1, 2009

At the beginning of August, he was this:

Now, he’s THIS:

(Please ignore Mike’s “playoff beard”.  I know I certainly am.)

He’s the same height as Guinness, although leaner.  He’s still quite a character.  Definitely a kitten in spirit, if not in size.  The declawing and neutering only slowed him down for a few days, and didn’t calm him down at all.  He’s a hunter–he hides and pounces, catches his prey (usually a cat toy), and then hides it in one of Mike’s shoes.  He’s also a thief.  There are things missing from the house that Forrest has hidden that we just can’t seem to find, like Mike’s nose hair trimmers.  Seriously.

Because of Forrest, we know not to put toilet paper on the holder,

to put breakables up high,

to check the dryer carefully before turning it on,

and to duck when you turn the water on, because he’s sure to come bounding from the furthest part of the house to see what’s going on.

Some of his hobbies include:

• eating your food when you turn your back
• pulling the strings out of drawstring pants and carrying them around the house
• biting toes
• watching snowflakes and trying to catch them (even though they’re on the other side of the glass)
• checking to see if the sink is clean and licking it if it’s not
• slamming his body against the shower door while I’m in there, then waiting until I open the door when I’m getting out and playing in the water.  He then lays on the bathroom rug and stretches out, enjoying the heat.  We call it his “sauna”.

His favorite foods include:

• anything you’re eating at the moment.  Anything.
• soups–split pea, potato and bacon, bean
• cereal, preferably soaked in milk.  Cheerios are a big hit.
• bread.  We’ve learned not to leave a loaf of bread on the counter because he’ll bite through the bag.
• beefaroni
• eggs
• lettuce
• as a last resort, Friskes.

We tried so hard to train him to stay off of the island and counters, but he’s untrainable.  He’ll jump back up just as many times as you put him down.  He was afraid of the spray bottle for about 3 seconds before he learned to hold his ground and turn his face to the stream of water, completely unfazed.  When we have people over, we have to move the food and litter box into our bathroom and shut the bedroom door.  It’s just a matter of time before he figures out that our door doesn’t latch and if he would throw himself against it, it would probably bounce open.

Sometimes I think he’s the smartest cat ever.  Other times I think he’s as dumb as dirt.  The one thing I do know is that he’s definitely a cutie–