We are part of a three unit townhome complex.  Our place is in the back, which we own, in the middle unit is a middle age single divorcee lady that lives with her elderly ailing mother (they rent), and then there is the new neighbor in the front, who also rents.  They have a little boy around Elden’s age (who happened to turn 19 months yesterday), and a month and half girl.  In fact, they moved in a couple days after the little girl was born.

They also owned two cats. I say owned because one of them got run over by a car at the beginning of this month. Since they have moved here, their cat kept going into our garage. They left their garage open just a crack to allow the cats to see some sun and I guess so that they wouldn’t feel so cooped up in the garage. I kept seeing this one cat. Although, I am very allergic to cats, I just didn’t want to make a big fuss just because the cat would sometimes sneak into the garage. And even after the cat started to leave poops in the garage, I still didn’t want to make a big deal over it. Although, my eyes would get watery and the roof of my mouth would get itchy every time that I would go into the garage to do the laundry, I still didn’t want to cause any problems.

Yesterday, as we were leaving to drop Brennan to school, he pointed out there was a huge pile of poop in the inside of the garage. I calmly picked up the poop with some paper towels and dropped them in front of the neighbor’s garage. I noticed that the poop seemed really dry, but didn’t think anything of it.  I figured that that is probably what cat poop is supposed to be like.  

After dropping Brennan off at school, Elden and I came back home.  I fed him some lunch and put him down for his nap. I rested a little bit and then started loading the baby stuff for the garage sale on Saturday into the car. Later in the day, I was going to drop the stuff off at the house that we are having the garage sale at. As I was loading stuff into the car, I heard a loud meow and realized that the cat was hiding behind a chair. I grabbed a rake. I wasn’t going to hit it, but I just wanted to scare it out of the garage. It hissed back at me, and ran further into the garage, way behind the stack of video tapes and books. I started cursing really loudly. The cat didn’t seem to want to get out of the garage.  I rang the neighbor’s doorbell, but no one was home.  Apparently, I was really loud because one of the other next door neighbors and her daughter came stomping up our driveway. The daughter was really mad at me. She thought that I beating the cat.  I explained to them what was going on, and that I was just trying to scare the cat and that I wasn’t an animal beater. I told them that I was no animal beater, but that this cat was starting to be an annoyance to me. The daughter apologized to me about thinking that I was hurting the cat.

The mom tried to coax the cat out, but it ended up scratching her and giving her a bit of a nast cut on her hand. She did bleed on our bookshelf. She said that the cat looked sick or something. I really didn’t know because I never really looked at the cat at all. I mostly just wanted it out of our house.  

I told them I had to get going to pick Brennan up, but that I would leave the garage open a little bit.  And that I would talk to the neighbors when I got back home. Later, that night, I did talk to the neighbors.  The husband explained to me that the cat was missing for a month and a half.  He figured that someone probably stole the cat. The wife said that the cats were indoor cats and previously where they lived in Orange County, they had a bigger place with lots of big windows for the cats to look out at.  The husband also mentioned that although he wasn’t allergic to cats, the hair bothered him. I think the wife owned the cats before they got married. The one that got ran over by the car was 8 years, and this other cat was 4 years.  The neigbors had talked to then, which was then that they realized that their cat was hiding out at our garage.

After they told me that this cat was missing for a month and a half, I felt really bad. I told them that I just thought this cat liked coming to our garage, and that I didn’t want to make a big fuss over it.  But now I feel really bad.  If I had told them earlier about what was going on, then they wouldn’t think that the cat was missing. The husband came by our place about a week ago to chat with us. For some reason I didn’t think to mention the cat.

Anyways, they ended up taking the cat to the hospital and it was put on an IV, for severe dehydration.  Which probably also explains why it’s poop was so dry.  I feel terribly bad about the whole situation, but also glad that things got resolved.

Other than that tomorrow is the first time that I am participating in a garage sale.  I am mostly selling the baby stuff, like swing, bassinet, strollers, car seats, bouncy jumper, maternity and breastfeeding shirts. I am still breastfeeding, but no longer need the shirts, since Elden doesn’t breastfeed much during the day. I have tons of baby clothes. I may possibly sell some crafty stuff, but haven’t yet decided.

Speaking of crafty stuff, I am almost done with MR ATC’s. They will probably go out in the mail on Tuesday.  I just need to get addys, and add the finishing touches.  I am also working on the V-swap. I hope that you my secret Valentine, will like what I am making. When I get a chance, I will post a secret peek.

I am also involved in my second CJ, but am still waiting to receive a CJ to play with. I sent mine out already, so now I am just waiting patiently. I actually haven’t even received my first CJ, although I started it like a year and half.  It just kind of fizzled out and ended up on someone’s desk, probably buried knee deep in scraps.  I hope this one will work out. I will just think positive thoughts.

I haven’t scrapped in almost a whole month.  The big hobby expo is this week, which I am sure there are some really neat stuff coming out.  I haven’t really looked at all the goods because I am sure I will want to get everything. I am just trying to use up all the old supplies that I have, and not get so caught up on all the trends. Actually, everything is starting to look kind of the same. There is just too much stuff out in the market. I just want to get back down to my roots, and not worry about what the hot item of the week is. Is that too much to ask for?

 

 

How cool!  Jason Gaylor has a Flickr group.  It is still quite new, but there are some really cool artwork that people have created using his brushes.

*Updated* Well I got all the stuff that I want to sell at the garage sale all organized. I now have like 6 stacks of random boxes and rubbermaid containers full of baby clothes that I need to go through. Our garage is a total disaster. We have stacks upon stacks of video tapes, books, very old computer equipment and other random crap. I found a Wacom pen from 1996. Holy heck, I totally forgot that I had one of those. Next week I want to gather all that old equipment and donate them. Also, I want to go through all my old design, logo, and typography books and sell them on ebay. I don’t know if the design books will sell, since they are so outdated. We are talking 1990’s. I have stacks upon stacks of design magazines as well. Oh well, lots of cleaning to do.
*Make Tahini paste (sesame paste).

recipe: 1 tsp of soybean or peanut or olive oil, 2 tsp water, 1 tsp lime or lemon juice, 1 clove garlic, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp sesame seeds. Blend.
*Finish loading Six Feet Under Season Two – episodes 1-5 onto Archos 404.

*Get baby stuff organized for garage sale on Saturday (two car seats, stroller, swing, bouncy, toy shelf).

*Do “Walk the pounds” video while Elden is sleeping.

*Organize and put baby clothes in trash bags for garage sale, donation, and possibly store at parent’s house.

* Put unused toys in trash bags for donation (that’s if I can find all the pieces) or to store at parent’s house.

I realize that I have been seriously neglecting blogging. This is actually one of the longest dry spells that I have had in a while.

Last Saturday, January 13th, was Brennan’s 4th birthday. The party was a blast. He had this idea to wait outside and to come back inside the room to be surprised. The expression on his face was just priceless.

I seem to be having problems embedding the video, but here is the link of the video and all of Brennan’s cuteness, and my goofy laugh.

I can’t believe my little baby boy is four. Where did the time fly? He looks like such a big boy, and not much a baby anymore. I was looking at his pictures from when he was Elden’s age now, 20 months. It’s amazing how fast our little babies grow.Elden is growing way too quckly too. He is talking alot. I have been trying to remember to keep a list of all his new words, but as usual I tend to forget to update that list. He is going to be 19 months in a few days. Holy crap!

I have a few other entries that I want to post up, one being about my lovely new gadget and another about my dad. My crazy ole dad! LOL!!! Hopefully, I will get them up sometime this week.

We went ice skating with his class this past Thursday. Brennan had so much fun. I had to hold him while we skated, but I could tell that his balance started to get a bit stronger as we went along. I think with a few more tries, he will be able to skate by himself.

I seriously can’t believe that Brennan will be turning 4 in a week from now. His party is all set. I still need to pick up all the themed Dora and Diego stuff, make all the party bags, and do a few last minute stuff. I am still waiting on some RSVP’s, but it looks like the total will be about 10 kids. I was worried that we would have too many kids because it was hard to narrow down the number. Half of them being friends that he has known since he was about 6 months from the local mom’s club, and the other half are his classmates. I couldn’t invite all his school friends, so it was tough to narrow down the list. There is this one boy in his class that he definitely did not want there. In fact, it was the only boy that he did not want to invite. There was no way that I could convince him otherwise. That was another reason, why I only decided to invite half of the class, beside keeping the number down.

Speaking of school, I can’t wait for Tuesday because Brennan finally goes back after a very long 3 week vac. I have to also get ready for my LIBR 244-10 Online Searching to start. I’ve been wanting to take this class for the longest time now. I couldn’t decide if I had wanted to take that, or Cataloguing. Anyways, the description of LIBR 244-10 is this:

Techniques of searching and managing on-line search services. Includes searching strategies, evaluation of database structures, implementation and management of search services and on-line experience.

Sounds interesting, yah?

This past Friday, Den and I went on a mini date to a quick lunch and to watch Mel Gibson’s “Apocolypto”. That movie had my heartbeat racing and made my face all flushed. It is really intense. I would definitely give it a thumbs up.

So my wonderful trust Nikon 5700 doesn’t work anymore. It works, but for some reason the lens doesn’t zoom out, producing a lens error message. It is too old of a camera to send out for repairs. I was worried that I wouldn’t have a camera to take pictures at Brennan’s birthday, but luckily my very, very old Canon PowerShot S100 Digital Elph from about 7 years ago still works. This was my very first digital camera. Check it out – 2.1 megapixels and a 2x zoom. Laughable, ya? This was considered to be the smallest digital camera back in the year 2000. It was total cutting edge.

Oh speaking of cutting edge, I finally ordered an Archos 404 PVP. I’ve been wanting one for the longest time. My brother gave me a $75 gift certificate to the local tech store, and I also had about $150 in Christmas cash. Den covered the rest, and the order came with free shipping. It is supposed to arrive tomorrow. The past few days, I have been trying to figure out how to get my DVD’s onto the harddrive ready, so I will have a few movies to load onto the Archos. Right now I am loading the first season of Six Feet Under. When I compress it with DVD Shrink, each ISO file (one DVD) is about 4 gig. I am loading all four DVD’s onto the harddrive. I will probably kill our computer after this. This poor computer is very loyal to us, even with all the torture that I put it through. I also wanted to load Trainspotting, Edwards Scissorhands, and part of the Sex and City Season 6, but I don’t think my harddrive can hold them. I guess I will have to wait for my Archos to get here tomorrow. Yay!

And speaking of my brother, we will be going to South Coast Plaza for the afternoon. Brennan will probably come with us. He loves to ride the big merry-go-round-and-play. Den will stay with Elden. I have a $50 gift certificate that my loving hubby got me for Christmas. I would like to get some new shoes, but I don’t know if they have shoes lower than $50. He suggested that I get a new wardrobe. Haw! I had to laugh at that one. I can’t even get a pair of panties and bra with $50. Hmm, I wonder if I can use this at the Nordstrom Rack. Hmm, I just checked to see if there is a Nordstroms Rack at Costa Mesa and there is. I will have to check that out. I also want to pick up a copy of Whores: An Oral Biography of Perry Farrell And Jane’s Addiction.

I haven’t scrapped for awhile. I think Brennan’s b-day is foremost on my mind. I won’t be printing any Christmas pictures, until after Brennan’s birthday. I don’t really feel like scrapping right now, other than I have to get my CJ ready to send out this week. Which I still have to work on.  I been having this urgency to make some new vats of paper, but I haven’t gotten a chance to retrieve the leaves from this huge bush from my parent’s neighborhood.  I haven’t seen it anywhere else, well I actually haven’t been looking. I do have some ready fibers that I just have to soak and they will be ready to use.  Maybe after next week, I will be ready to get started.  I have ideas, but I don’t yet have the motivation.

Speaking of motivation, I decided to participate in the Redondo Beach Superbowl Marathon, on February 4. I am only going to do the 5K walk because I really don’t think I could run a 10K. I can easily do the “Walk your Pounds Away” exercise tapes, which are 5K.  I did the exericise twice this past week, while Elden took his naps.  This is definitely a step into the right direction.

That’s all the exciting news in my life this week!