Curtin Call

You’re probably asking yourself – where the heck has she gone???  I haven’t gone anywhere.  Harvard, who is kind enough to host my blog, has changed servers and I finally began the process of changing over.  After my first attempt, some information was missing and I had a note out to them about getting that resolved so I didn’t dare to change anything.  They’ve wiped the slate clean and I have to import everything over again but I figured I’d throw in a quick update before doing that.

I’m glad to report that I do have happy news!  Eight days after Sneakers went missing, my neighbor stopped over to see if she’d come home.  Unfortunately, she had not (although I knew in my heart that she was gone).  She then asked how Frosty was doing.  I told her that he misses her really bad and was in fact, chasing his own shadow around the kitchen floor!  So I mentioned that I definitely had to go to the Humane Society for another.  That’s when she informed me that another neighbor had kittens that they were looking for homes for.  So I stopped over the next night and sure as heck – they had one left.  Frosty has a new friend!!!  We call her (we think) Shadow as she is all gray with just one teeny white spot on her chest.

What do I mean by “we think”?  Frosty and Shadow are getting along splendidly!  However, she’s not so keen on the human aspect in the house and if you try to go near her, she runs!  I’ve never seen anything like it!  She has come a long way, though, and as long as you do it on her terms, you can get closer to her and that seems to be getting better and better as time passes.  In fact, this morning, she managed to figure out that I was in bed and she crawled her way up.  Being a bit disoriented in this new elevated state, I was able to hold her with one hand and pat her with the other and that lasted for close to a minute!  She was purring like crazy the whole time which makes me think that she’s not running because she’s afraid or doesn’t like us but because she wants us to chase her cause she thinks that’s playing!  Soooo cute!

Other good news – I took a ride up to my brother’s house on Sunday and met my newest nephew!  He’s a really cute kid and him and my sister’s daughter who is the same age are hitting it off really well!  It seemed very strange hearing my brother called “dad” (he asked if he could call them mom and dad) but it sure is a good feeling and I think it will do my brother a world of  good to have the little guy around!

I am on countdown, too!  Just 8 more working days and I’m on vacation!  I’m really looking forward to some time off and we’ll be heading north to Maine for a portion of it.  Can’t wait!

I tried to post this earlier in the week but it was too difficult but I think I can handle it now.  It seems that my baby girl, Sneakers, has taken the final journey to kitty heaven.  She slept with us as usual Friday evening and went out, as usual, Saturday morning and sadly, she has not been seen since.  We worked in the yard all day Saturday and it was very unusual that we did not see her at all.  I brought her food box out on the deck and shook it knowing that that would make her come running but she did not.  Later, I walked the neighborhood looking for her but all I found was a “mess” that she’d left on the wall along the driveway.  I sincerely believe that that was her way of saying “It’s okay, mama and papa and Frosty, I’m tired now and need to go!”

Frosty misses her terribly – much as he tormented her – he truly did love her.  On Monday morning, he awoke us at 4:30 as he was up on the kitchen counter (no, he doesn’t belong there but hey, he’s deaf!  He doesn’t listen!) with his paws on the window looking out at the deck where she’d normally be waiting to come in and was meowing at the top of his lungs!   I’m honestly wondering now if he didn’t sense something was wrong with her because the obnoxious meowing at obnoxious hours of the morning has suddenly stopped!  He’s doing better, though, starting to play and eat like his usual self again.  And, yes, if you’re wondering, we will get him a new playmate at some point!

Now for the good news – my brother and his wife found at yesterday that they’ve been granted custody of 7 year old boy!!!  They’ve been married for 16/17 years and have been unable to have children of their own.  They’d attempted adopting through the department of social services and have more times than once had their hopes raised only for something to happen so that things did not work out.

They finally reached a point where they decided that it was just not meant to be when, out of the blue, they got a call a few weeks ago from their social worker that she thought they had the perfect situation for them.  Keeping a long story short – they’ve met him several times and they’ve hit it off wonderfully!  The courts had to decide between giving them custody or giving custody to an uncle (who has a criminal history and doesn’t even know the boy).  Well, after 1-1/2 weeks of waiting, they finally got the call yesterday and the judge granted them custody!   They are very excited and I can’t wait to meet him!

Yes, it’s been a very emotional week.  I’m really glad that it was a short one and it’s Friday already!

Just wanted to wish my handful of faithful followers a very happy and safe 4th of July, 2006!  I’m very much looking forward to having a four day weekend.

Enjoy!

Apart from any medical procedures or sleeping pills – does anyone out there know how to make a cat sleep?

Frosty seems to be going back to his kitty ways.  We used to get to sleep until about 5/5:30 before he would begin to screech for someone to get up and play with him.  It slowly began to go back to being more like 4/4:30 and over the past week, some mornings, it was even 3/3:30.  That is what prompted me to be absolutely sure that he gets lots of play time when we get home at night and I wouldn’t let him just snuggle up in the sun and sleep – I need him to sleep when we sleep!

Well, that is NOT working – this morning he started at 2:21 (yes, exactly) and would begin his screeching in a pattern that amazingly coincided with the time that you were just about to doze back off to sleep.

This is not good.  I am very tired.  I am going to be very grumpy if we can’t fix this.  Help!!!

Please.

As a child, I was always a fan of the Ziggy cartoon.  You wouldn’t really call it a cartoon strip because it was usually just one frame, but that frame could say so much!  See:

Is that not just the cutest???

I have come to the conclusion that time is a strange thing.  If you were to tell me that I was on vacation just the week before last, I’d tell you “No way! – That was a loooong time ago!”  Course, I’d be wrong.  I was on vacation just the week before last.

Then, if you were to tell me that the Fourth of July is less than three weeks away, I would tell you “No way! – That’s a loooong way away!”  Course, I’d be wrong again.  Fourth of July is less than three weeks away!

Then hubby had to add the fact that Christmas is just 6 months and 10 days away – ugh!

Yikes!  And I thought Frosty was a wild and crazy dude!  Although, I guess it’s probably just as well we don’t let him out or we just might end up as jail “birds”, too!

http://www.courttv.com/news/2006/0524/lewis_ap.html

Two more days until vacation!  Yay!  Yay!  Yay!

On Saturday this weekend, I had breakfast with my dear friend Pam.  Pam and I have been friends for nearly 19 years now.  We worked together up until about 8 or so years ago.  Since, we’ve been able to stay in contact using the wonderful world of email and we try to get together at least twice a year.

We realized that this time, we’d let waaaaay too much time pass between visits.  As we started to catch up, I was telling her about Uncle Donald’s passing away last July and as I talked, my eyes began to well up.

After only about 10 minutes, as I was looking past Pam, I was certain that I saw Chuck (another person we used to work with) and sure enough, behind him came his wife, Michelle (she worked with us, too!).  We were soooo excited!  We both ran right over and Michelle gave me the biggest, bestest hug I’ve gotten in a long time – and needless to say, my eyes welled up again!  They had their two beautiful children, Samantha and Nicholas with them – such a sweet family!  I’ve known Michelle for even more years than Pam and I’m making a promise to myself that we will stay in touch, even though time separated us for a period.

So, back to the Pam/Mary catching up session.  After more random chatter, Pam proceeded to tell me that her little doggie, Onyx, also passed away last July.  The poor thing had a mass and there was nothing that could be done for him so they had to put him down.  Poor Onyx and poor Pam and Bruce.  My eyes welled up.

As we were sitting, there was an elderly couple sitting behind Pam.  I saw the gentleman get up from his seat and walk up behind Pam.  He took his thumb and finger and made a “pretend” gun with it and said “This is a stick up!”  Well…. if you could have seen Pam’s face – she nearly jumped out of her skin and the poor guy was obviously only joking – he just wanted to borrow our ketchup.  Needless to say, I laughed so hard, my eyes didn’t only well up – I was down right crying!!!  Since then, (this very moment included), I laugh every time I think of it.  You can imagine the looks I get from folks when I’m all by myself and just start randomly laughing!

It was a great visit and it reminded me of just how lucky I am to have such special people in my life! 

P.S.  Four more working days and I’m on vacation!  Yay!  Yay!  Yay!

I simply love weekends!  This past one brought us lovely spring weather and that, to me, has such a calming effect!  Saturday, I got some things done around the house, with the windows open!  Sunday, I went to visit family for my 7 year old nieces birthday – oh, the sweet innocence of being 7!

And, even though I realize it’s only Monday, I now feel like I can say “I’ll be on vacation in 3 weeks!”  (We’ll be taking Memorial Day week but it just sounds soooo nice to say 3 weeks!).   We take that week every year and do our spring yard work (although we’re considering some bigger than usual changes in the yard this year so I’m not sure what we’ll be doing!).  Although, my old workmate/friend Jen is also scheduled to be back in this area that weekend so I’m really, really, really hoping I can catch up with her, too!

So, although I don’t want to wish this most wonderful time of year away, let’s go Friday!  I’m ready for another weekend!

That is what the weather has been – simply beautiful!  There is absolutely nothing like spring in New England!  The flowers are blooming, the trees are budding and… oh, yeah!  The baby hawks are here: http://web.mit.edu/webcast/hawkcam/hawkcam.ram

Okay, you MIT folk, I shared the link with the “outside” world a little sooner than we might have wanted but you need to understand – I figure with the all of 6 or so “followers” of this site (half of them MIT!), the link certainly will not be overwhelmed.

Ahhh…. baby hawks – a definite (and welcome) sign of spring!