Tickle Me Elmo Extreme

TMX Elmo

Avast there mateys!

Yarr!! This day be a special one matey's. It be "Talk Like A Pirate Day." If ye be a curious wench or scallywag, travel the high cyberseas to this isle of info talklikeapirateday.com or join the naysayers swimmin' in the chumbucket.

I'll leave ye with a dity me shipmates n' me been singin' all day...

Yohoho... Avast there matey...
Pieces of eight, pieces of eight...
Dance a proper jig or walk the plank.
Booty for all and plunder a'plenty.
Shiver me timbers and boarders away...
A r r r r...

CIQMJ?

Working for myself has its ups and downs. Today was a downer. Everything took twice as long as it should have. And I missed a deadline. I hate that feeling. Thank goodness for understanding customers but I still worked myself into quite a tizzy this morning. Days like this I miss co-workers to lend a hand and an ear.

At my last job when I had hard days I would email hubby this code: CIQMJ? He never said anything but I'm sure he didn't look forward to coming home to me as it usually meant I was frustrated and upset about my job again. What is CIQMJ you ask? It stood for "Can I Quit My Job." Funny thing is the first time I emailed CIQMJ to him, he knew what it stood for without explanation. It's sometimes scary how well he knows me.

If I could even entertain the thought of packing it in, today would have been a CIQMJ email day. Is a little tougher to quit when I am the business. I should be grateful, there's a lot more good days then there are bad days. OK, rant over.

Rico: 3 months

One Year Smoke-Free

Tomorrow, September 12th, will mark my one year anniversary as a non-smoker. I spent 26 years as a smoker. Had my first cigarette when I was 13 years old and started smoking regularly at 15. Now I can say I quit at 41.

I'm not sure why it worked this time. I had tried to quit unsuccessfully two or three times before. Maybe it was the right recipe for me. I had picked a date a month prior. Got the Nicorette gum purchased and went online to learn about quitting smoking at about.com. Read others stories on how they quit and printed up "Not One Puff Ever" signs and taped them up all over the place. Then when the day came, I emailed my family and friends and asked for support. If I failed this time, I was not only accountable to myself but to everyone else.

The first few weeks were the most difficult but every day it got easier to breath through and past the urges. The changes in my body helped my resolve as they started. Being able to take a hard, fast, deep breath without coughing. Being able to walk through knee deep snow down my neighbors long driveway without getting the stitch in my side or feeling like I would pass out because I couldn't get enough air into my body.

It's been a while since I've gone to my "Quit-O-Meter" program to see what the totals are so this will be good...
Smobriety comes to: 0Y 11M 4W 2D 13H 3Mns
$-Saved to date: $2161.62
I have NOT smoked 14,411 cigarettes.

Now, where did that $2,161.62 go?

Cannonball

They called him Cannonball. He was a drill sargeant in the marines, a Korean War vet, an Indiana State University graduate with multiple degrees, a husband, a father, a friend, a successful businessman, a witness of history, a teacher of others, a curmudgeon, a joker, a chaser of squirrels, an avid reader, a light turner-offer, a wearer of stocking caps in winter, a newspaper article highlighter, a gambler, an ex-smoker, my friends father and he is gone but never forgotten. It was an honor to be a pallbearer at his farewell. I will miss you Don.

Turkey Trot

Sitting in my office yesterday and I heard this strange noise outside. I opened the door and discovered a wild turkey making a ruckus. Then I noticed trotting away from the turkey, towards me was Climber, one of our outside cats. The turkey was chasing Climber. I put Climber in the office and grabbed my camera. I got a couple of shots of her before she started down the front hill. I watched her and walked slowly towards her and realized why she was chasing Climber away. Down the hill were 4 chicks and a young male. I was lucky enough to get a few shots of them before they trotted off into the woods.

Rico: 10 weeks

Animal Parade

Rico and I have been going for walks every evening. We walk down the gravel road beside our place. It's a pretty quiet road and more often than not, we won't have any traffic on the road while on our walk. Last Tuesday I decided to double our distance and we kept on going. We got to the tree line and I noticed something laying on the road ahead. I figured it was a dead squirrel. When we got up to the animal, it was an orange and white tiger striped kitten. I picked up Rico so he wouldn't mess with it and kicked it off into the ditch. "Poor little thing" I said. I set Rico down and we kept walking.

Rico is doing great off leash. He heels like a pro. I'll speed up, slow down, zig-zag and turn while he keeps near perfect pace. If I stop, he stops, sits down and looks up at me. I know this won't last forever but am trying to reinforce the good behavior now so he knows the right way before he becomes the defiant teenage dog. I walk half with leash and half off leash just so he gets used to the leash. He's a quick learner.

We were past the curve in the road when all of the sudden this little gray kitten jumped onto the road. I swear if it could talk it would've yelled "Hello! I'm so damn happy to see you!" Huddled on the edge of the road were two more kittens, apparently siblings. They immediately were begging for some petting, very lovey kittens. Rico didn't know what to do so he decided to bark at them. It didn't phase the kittens at all. I figured momma cat had taken them out hunting so I waited around and called and called for her. Then I remembered what I had seen on Sunday afternoon.

I was in Rico's pen Sunday afternoon and had noticed a car going down the gravel road. It stopped, a woman got out and opened the trunk, closed it and took off again. I didn't think much of it at the time but it was now clearly obvious I had seen a monster at work. These kittens were not old enough to fend for themselves. One was killed on the road and the others would have starved if I hadn't decided to walk the extra distance that night.

I decided to walk home and come back with the car to pick up the kittens. Rico and I headed for home. I looked behind us and lo and behold, the three kittens decided to follow along. It was an animal parade and I was the pied piper! Poor Rico was torn - do I follow Mom or do I go herd up the kittens? Luckily he decided to follow me. We walked a slower pace on the way back but it must have been quite a sight! I did have my cell phone along and took a photo. It's lousy quality but you get the idea...




We got almost to the driveway and I decided to pick up the littlest of the three kittens. They had been on quite a hike so far. I picked it up and the kitten immediately jumped out of my arms into the ditch. I tried coaxing it back up to the road but it huddled into the grass. I decided to get Rico and the other two kittens up to John and I'd come back for the third one. As I was coming back a car went by on the road. The kitten must have got scared and disappearred further into the grass. I looked and looked but could not find it. John and I looked for two days but could not find the third kitten.

I took the two kittens to the vet on Friday. They had a myriad of problems but are on the mend now and have taken up residence in our pole barn. Their names are "Crash" and "Burn". We found out Burn is actually Burnadette. They are great entertainment for Rico and are teaching him that cats are OK. I still feel bad about the third kitten but at least we saved the two. I still can't imagine how someone could just drop them off like she did. There are some truely cruel people out there.


Crash on the left, Burnadette on the right. They are a joy and John, I and Rico are head over heels!

Stray Baby or Superman?

I found a stray baby in my yard yesterday. Honest to God! I walked out my office door around 2:00 and looked up, there’s a 2-ish-year-old blonde-haired boy wearing nothing but a diaper standing under the pine trees. He couldn’t talk, just pointed and grunted. I looked around thinking someone had walked over with him and maybe was knocking on a door on the house, but no one was around.

I assumed he belonged across the road so I picked him up and walked down the driveway. I then discovered his vehicle was parked at the end of the driveway, a tricycle. I just gasped! Our road is so busy. So I picked up the trike with my other hand and started walking to the neighbors. Well, this kiddo was getting heavy so about halfway between our driveways and I put him on his trike and let him pedal home.

At the neighbors, an older boy rode his bike to the end of the driveway. I said, “Does this belong to you?” while pointing at the kidlet. He said “YES!” and rode his bike back up to the house. The teenage babysitter with 3 more kids came to meet us at the end of the driveway. She was pretty flustered. She said “I just heard the door shut and he was gone.” Um, sorry, didn’t fly with me. He had to have been gone at least 15-20 minutes to pedal down the driveway, up the road and walk up our hill. I told her, “He had to have been gone quite a long while to trek over to our house.” Later on Mom & Dad drove over and thanked me profusely. But I see the teenager’s car is over there again today.

John said I should’ve done what we do with stray dogs – put him in the dog pen until someone comes looking for him. ;) Good thing we’re not parents huh? That was the wierdest feeling though walking outside and there’s this baby in my yard! I’ve been watching too much TV, I checked to see if he had a bellybutton! Alien baby... could've been, you never know! He could've been a Superman baby. But then I figured they probably don't have Sesame Street Huggies on other planets.