Posted 7:07 AM by Bonnie

From Tuesday Newsday:
 
Tuesday, July 27, 2004

convention time

There's not much else in the news this week except the Democratic Convention, which I admit I AM watching, although I have my doubts as to the usefulness of conventions these days, and those are my questions...Are you going to watch either/both of the conventions? Are there particular people whose speeches you are looking forward to? And given that we do all know who the candidates are going to be before going into the conventions, and I can't imagine we're going to get any surprises, is all the expense, security, hoopla and press worth it?
 
I mean to watch... I want to watch... I keep forgetting to watch. Over the years the conventions have become boring to me mainly because we now know who the candidate will be long before the convention. It used to be the votes were cast that night and we found out at the end of the convention who the candidate would be. Knowing in advance takes away from the drama.
 
It seems to me we could do this much more efficiently and get more excitement going if we didn't have so many speakers! One night of the old guard and a second night to highlight the new candidates, but four nights is too much.
 
I wanted to watch last night because the two candidates I was really backing were speacking, Dennis Kucinich and Howard Dean, but would you believe I forgot to turn it on! Sigh! Tonight John Kerry will be speaking and I will try to remember to turn it on. I did manage to catch Hilary and Bill Clinton, still a class act and still able to generate a lot of excitement, but wouldn't it have been much more exciting to end the first night with the Clintons and then bring John Kerry and John Edwards on the next night?
 
Just my humble opinion... but then as one of my friends once said to me... Bonnie, when did you ever have a HUMBLE opinion?

Posted 9:13 PM by Bonnie

Mosby Cat update: Last update we were taking the little cat to the vet for her broken jaw. They did pin it back together and kept her until she started eating. And now, we have her and her five babies living in the front bathroom. She is doing well as are the babies who are adorable. She lets me hold them and carry them around, but she does do a head count when I put them back and checks me out to make sure I'm not hiding one. We have to take her back to the vets once a week for 6 weeks so they can check the pins and on the 6th week they take them out. She is on antibiotics but takes them mixed in with her food, so it is easy to give it to her. We can't fool our other cats like that, so have to give it to them the hard way.
 
My husband says this is natures payback to me. I wouldn't let him go to the SPCA to visit the cats because I was always afraid he would bring another one or two home, so he said nature gave him all these to make up for that. We'll see about that! We already have too many cats and these are getting adopted out as soon as they are old enough. He says I talk tough but he thinks he can soften me up on this one.

Posted 6:08 PM by Bonnie

From Tuesday Newsday:
 
Do you keep up with the news while on vacation or otherwise away from home for an extended period? If so, how (newspaper/tv, etc.)? And has any major news item ever happened while you were out of touch with the news, shocking you when you found out after the fact?
 
I don't take that many vacations, but when I do I tend to leave the real world behind and all it's problems. If I am at someone's house and they have the news on I will watch it, or if they have a local paper laying around I will read it just to get a flavor of the local news. I don't actively seek a means of keeping up with the news. I don't remember anything major ever happening while I was on vacation and not paying attention to the news. Generally, if something big happened someone would tell me anyway.

Posted 8:26 AM by Bonnie

It's Quintuplets! Those who know us already know this story, but for those who pop in to catch up on our latest happenings through this blog probably don't know about the little gray feral cat that had been hanging around here.  Well, for the longest time we thought she was a he and named him Mosby. One day Mosby started looking a little round around the belly and soon got bigger and bigger. We fed her regularly and on July 5th she came into the apt and dropped two little babies for us. She then took them back outside and hid them and we didn't see her for a day. Then she came back skinny and sleek again and wanted her meal. On July 12 Keith said he heard kittens crying outside. I said no way and went out to look and sure enough mommy cat was moving her little ones to our place. We have an old couch outside our front window and she moved them all there. Now she is closer to her food source and the babies are safe. When she wants food she sits on top of the couch and looks in the window and one of us will jump up and take her some food. I try to feed her every 3 hours to keep up her strength to nurse all those fat little babies of hers. Anyone want a kitten? or two? or three? Once they come out from under the couch I will try to post some pictures here.

Posted 10:05 PM by Bonnie

I'm so proud of my husband! While at his heart doctors a few weeks ago, he asked for a diet to use during his 7 weeks away from teaching. The doctor said he should do the South Beach Diet, so we got the book and began the day after his last day of teaching for the semester. We have been on it two weeks and he has gone down a shirt size and a pant size and has stuck to it! Usually we start off with good intentions and then cheat along the way, but this diet has been so good we never feel hungry and have stopped craving sweets and starches! Amazing! I haven't lost as much as him, but I had already lost 32 pounds before starting. I keep telling people I have turned into a vegematic. I will warn anyone thinking about going on this diet it is a lot of work... at least for someone like me who is used to popping something frozen into the microwave and heating it up. I chop, I dice, I slice and I even clean up after. I keep joking the secret to the diet isn't what you eat, but time spent walking around the grocery stores finidng all the items for the dishes, preparing the dishes, and cleaning up after. But it is worth it to me to see my husband dropping the weight and to have him walk with me again and not have his feet hurt so much he can't walk too far or long. It is worth it to me to hear my husband say, "I'll take out the trash today." Maybe that doesn't sound like much but from not having the energy to get up out of his chair to volunteering to do chores is a big step up. I am so proud of him and know he will be down even more before the fall semester starts.

Posted 9:54 PM by Bonnie

Water Resistant Watches and stuff: My husband is a movie buff and yes, sometimes we do watch them in the buff, but that has nothing to do with this blog, except I was at Kmart buying him a couple new DVD racks because they had a sale. While there I decided to check out their water resistant watches. I like to swim and a couple of my friends have nice pools. We have one at the complex here, but something happened to make it not fun for me there anymore. The point is, when my husband is working I like to be home when he gets home. Don't ask me why, because I couldn't explain it, but for the first time in my life I want to be there! I enjoy seeing him off to work and greeting him when he gets home. I know, I know... syrupy but it's true. So, when I am at my friends places I tend to be concerned about the time and end up getting out of the pool early so I make sure to get home in time. Which brings us to the water resistant watch. Anyway, I was looking at the watches but no one was working the jewelry dept. so I went over to the customer service and asked them to call someone to help me as the watches, of course, were locked up. An Indian (from India) woman came over and I asked which of the watches were water resistant. She looked at me and slapped her hand around the glass cases and "watches!" I asked her which were water resistant as I needed one to wear swimming. She slapped the counter again and said, "watches." Okay, she didn't understand American, but here she was working at a store where she would need to communicate with American speaking customers. Hmmmmmmm. Okay, one more try... water proof? I asked. "You read and see," she said. Oh boy!! Well, I finally found them and picked one out and pointed it out to her. She said, "you come around counter to pay." aha!! she can say the all important words. I am going to write to the corporate office of Kmart because that is totally unacceptable for customer service. I have applied at these stores and get no response simply because I am over 50, yet, I am energetic, personable, have worked years in customer and service and can even speak the language. Maybe I should walk in and say, no speak american, am rude, but you hire me because .... hmmmm....why???