SWINE FLU and other 'CAT'astropies

That is right

Swine Flu has invaded the Fenner Family!!!!

Lauren has a confirmed case and I suspect Brandon will when he goes to the doctor tomorrow.

Brandon asked me how they diagnosed Lauren's case.

I told him I showed them a picture of her bedroom.



(insert rim shot here)

(Hello? Tap Tap Is this thing on?)



Is if that weren't enough for one day my sweet little O'Malley cat (Click HERE if you missed his picture a few days back) who just cannot get it through his thick skull that WE MOVED, got into a fight with my son and daughter in law's cat and bit her. So they had to take her to the vet.

I went over there and brought him home. He just purred at me and gave me this totally innocent look.

What am I going to do with him????

Earlier in the evening I was trying to change the wiper blades on my car. Jasmine was helping. A lot.

What you don't see is the picture of her licking my face while I was trying to work on this.

Isn't she cute?

SHE wouldn't fight with my grand-kitty.

(Okay, yeah she probably would).

And finally... we have a pic of Boris with this very cute Halloween Kitty card that my friend JC sent. He was sitting there very extra cutely but he moved just

as I was trying to take his picture.

So the count at the moment is 5 very good kitties. 1 Very Bad Kitty.

Dog Stalking & Neon Booty Shorts

Sunday mornings usually find Chandra and I working on our current study (The Power of Praying for your Adult Children) and discussing life.
In the summer this took place over coffee and pastries at the local Panera, but now that it is cool in the mornings we are at our favorite outdoor place: the local dog park.

I know you might assume that we actually have a dog with us, but we don't.

I know you might assume we walk the circuit, but we don't

I know you might assume we sit in the bigger area of the park that doesn't allow free roaming puppy dogs, but we don't.

We get there early so we can commandeer a table in the Big Dog Area so we can watch the dogs, laugh at their antics, and work on our study.

We realize that this may seem strange to the other regulars who actually bring dogs. We are even getting to know the dogs by name now.
It is fun to sit in the sunshine and see joy in silly things sometimes.

Next week I might even bring my dog.


After we figure we have spent enough time in the park we usually run errands or go shopping. This week we went to Sears because apparently you have to change the water filters in the refridgerators (WHO KNEW?) and I needed to get one.
There were so many pretty party dresses out-- we fantisized about which ones we would buy and where we would wear them. There were also beautiful little girls dresses so we talked about which ones we would get for our future grand-daughters (hopefully).

Sears was also running a clearance sale.
It is hard to understand why some of these items were on clearance.

I mean, who doesn't need a pair of neon colored booty shorts?

And the price!! Can you read that? $1.99!!!!
We each got both colors. We are planning on wearing them to church Saturday night.

The Last Hold Out

Geeezers, I had a great weekend but I cannot seem to down load the pics so I will get back to that soon.
Maybe I just need to turn it off and turn it back on. That works sometimes.
Meanwhile, I will leave you with a picture of the last hold out on the feline relocation program: O'Malley.
He likes the old house better it seems.

Chandra

My friend Chandra, is da bomb.
She has the sweetest heart. And she is sooooo incredibly tolerant of my quirkiness Last weekend was extreme. She fielded a 2:00am phone call and swore it was okay because she was up already. She has teenagers too.
Then we decided that going to the Edwards Air Force Base air show was a great idea.
Oh yeah.... it SOUNDED like a great idea........
It took 3.5 hours to get there-- it is about 30 miles away. Bumper to bumper traffic. Soldiers with big guns watching you. Then you walked across the dry lake bed (where the space shuttle lands in california) to the tram. The tram took you to the security detail where more soldiers with more machine guns went through all your stuff and confiscated dangerous items like the folding chair covers with the cool straps. (I am not putting down the military though- seriously, they are awesome) Then you got on a bus that took you to the hangers and the air field. Seriously amazing displays of our amazing American Air Force. Bombing runs. Ariel acrobatics. The B1, B2 fighter jets... all that cool stuff. I, of course was having just a bit of a panic attack probably brought on by tooo many people or something stupid. But Chandra just took it in stride. This is a pic I took of her in front of a fighter jet (I don't remember which one) carrying her chair without the cover and cool strap.
We saw our friends Becky and Mike there too. Becky is our single mom group leader. She rocks too. And Mike is great!
Anyhow...........
Back to Chandra....
I have MANY awesome friends. So don't feel left out if I haven't singled you out quite yet.
I just needed to make special note of Chandra this week because she even did that thing that very few friends will do.
She cut her hair with me.
Sunday morning, after surviving the air show, we met at the dog park where we go every week to work on our bible study and to look at cute dogs. I know... but it works for us.... anyhow... after studying for awhile a wierd wind blew and we decided to do something crazy...........
Thats right.... I decided to cut my hair off and she did hers too.
We have curly hair. We thought it would be cool to wear the hair God gave us.
We are not so sure now that was a great idea.
Here is the before picture
I don't have after pictures. Chandra is in denial about the layers in her hair and won't let her hair be free and happy.
I am letting mine be free and happy. Other people seem to like it. I feel messy. On the other hand I don't have to brush it.
Ever
Not only does Chandra do all these things with me but I know she prays for me every day. She talks to God about me. She asks His grace for me.

And I know many of you out there do that too-- as I do for you.
It really doesn't get better than that, does it?

Squatters

Hi Ya'll!

So I have been living in the new place for like a month now and I still feel like I am house sitting or staying with my sister.

How long is that going to last???

I still drive up and think "How did we pull this off? What happens when someone figures out we are living in there? What happens when the real owners show up?"

It is wierd....

Speaking of wierd---- my sister's sinister theft activities continue. The other day she snuck into the neighbor's back yard and took their gas BBQ. As if that isn't bad enough, she walked it to our house.

In broad daylight

What must the neighbors think?

Even more than that-- why doesn't anyone ever stop her??

You think you know someone when you have shared a uterus and all and then 40+ years later you find out things like this.

Back Online!

I have computer again!
My hard drive crashed and I lost everything
(Booooooo)
But I got it fixed
(Yea!!!!!!)
But I lost all my pictures and my software
(booooooooo)
So I am having to get back up and running
More Blogs Soon!
(YEEEEEEEEEAAAA ??????????????)

San Diego Road Trip: Souvenirs

I don't even know what to say about this except: Seriously, can't you come up with a nicer souvenir for the family back home????

San Diego Road Trip: Maritime Museum Part 2

This day, which started out as a pleasure trip, soon became fraught with danger.
Aaarrrrgggghhh!
That's right, matey, the ship was overtaken by pirates!

San Diego Road Trip: May I Take Your Order?

NOTE: I got permission to tell this story. So, Sunday morning we are heading on out to the Maritime Museum and we decide to drive thru Jack in the Box first for a nutritious breakfast. We spend a fair amount of time discussing the menu. Monica finally puts an end to the chaos by addressing the order box and saying "We are ready to order" No response. She says it again Again, no response She is getting exasperated The box doesn't care Finally Lauren pipes up from the back seat "Monica, that isn't the ordering box, you have to pull up for that" Monica says "I wondered why they weren't greeting me" Monica: Here's Your Sign

San Diego Road Trip: Maritime Museum Part 1

Sunday morning, after our exciting breakfast, we headed on down to the harbor to check out the Maritime Museum which is actually several sailing ships and a submarine.
I think I would not do well as a sailor because I felt motion sick immediately and spent most of our time there sitting on the deck and enjoying the sunshine and sea breeze while everyone else went down under and explored the ships.
The ship got loose of it's moorings so we had to navigate the rudder with the turning wheel thingie. Rebecca did an excellent job but Carri and Monica weren't taking it seriously.

San Diego Road Trip: Sunset Cliffs

Sunday morning the grown ups were awake early so we left the girls asleep and Carri came and took us on a tour of the area. One of the prettiest areas is Sunset Cliffs.

Sunset Cliffs has Pigeons

Sunset Cliffs has relatives of Pip the Squirrel.

Usually Sunset Cliffs has lots of hot surfers but the seas were rough so the ocean was woefully short of surfers, hot or otherwise.

That made me sad

But the ocean was beautiful and I never get tired of watching the magnificant waves and sky and smells of the ocean so that was cool.

We got some nice pics with Carri. Carri and I have been BFFs for a very loooong time. I love her. She has seen me through some ugly times.

BFF doesnt mean you can only have ONE cuz I have a whole troop. My sister is a very special BFF. I mean, I have known her all my life. Seriously. I could tell you stories! But maybe another day.... or maybe another blog.... buuuaaaahhhhaaa!!!!!!!!

San Diego Road Trip: Shamu Show

After the buses full of soldiers exited the freeway we got serious about getting to Sea World. We arrived at 1:21pm

So it took us 5.5 hours to get there!

WOW

We parked. Made careful note of where (because we usually forget to remember where we part and wander aimlessly through parking lots with our key clicker thing)

First order of business was the Shamu Show. The girls wanted to sit in the 'Splash Zone'. Ooookkkay.

Splash Zone is the understatement of the year. We were drenched. For the rest of the day we smelled like fish. Don't be jealous.

Now, there doesn't seem to be an actual killer whale named Shamu. There are several killer whales with various names but I never actually identified THE Shamu. Strange.

During the show the whales did amazing behaviors with their trainers. The trainers had to actually TOUCH yucky little slimy fish. That about did me in right there. Having a 5 ton whale drag you down to the bottom of the tank and FLING you 20 feet in the air is NOTHING compared to having to touch yucky little slimy fish.

The most amazing part of the show was when they demonstrated why they are called killer whales. They got an actual child from the audience and the whale ate him

This is a picture right before the whale "kissed" him.

Killer Whales... HELLO??? Parents--- didn't that give you a big enough clue?

After that we had to appease the kids by buying them Shamu shaped ice creams. They were yummy. Plus it was a nice turn of irony. (Shamu ate human... humans eat Shamu)

And my sister kept sticking popcorn in her nose.

Seriously. I don't make this stuff up.

Soon after we survived the Shamu show we went over to the seal feeding area, where you could actually buy yucky slimy fish to feed to the seals.

Do you think I got some. No way Parkay

But my sister did. And she tried to stick THOSE up her nose too.

This woman is a Critical Care Nurse.

(She really needed to get away.)

Anyhow...... I WISH I had a pic of this but it happened too fast. My niece snatched the fish out of my sister's nose and was getting ready to feed it to the seal when out of nowhere this enormous huge seagull SWOOPED down and snatched it from her bashing into her chest in the process. It scared my poor niece half to death. It was a brutal seagull attack.

I couldn't get her to try it again so I could get a pic.

What kind of person won't recreate a brutal seagull attack for a BLOG?

THE END (GET IT???)

San Diego Road Trip: Heroes

The trip down to San Diego started out around 8:00am. This is VERY EARLY for our girls on a Saturday morning!! But they managed.

The Traffic Force was not with us. We hit traffic somewhere just past downtown LA that left us c r a w l i n g for about an hour.

AN HOUR!!!

It was an accident of course that was almost cleared by the time we passed it. Then we were zipping along again. Long about the time we hit near the Mira Mar air base (remember Top Gun? I FEEL THE NEED....... THE NEED FOR SPEED?) Miramar is where Top Gun is. And guess what was going on that very moment? That is right, the big air show.
We felt the need for speed but what we got was c r a w l i n g along in traffic.

Again

The very best part of our trip was that there were several buses full of soldiers that would pass us and then we would pass them... back and forth for about half an hour.

First the girls just looked.

Then they waved

Then they flirted

Big Time

Then they made signs and held up the signs

Then they flirted AND held up the signs

It was pretty danged cool!