Maggie – My Large Kitty, Sophie – My Petite Kitty

Maggie is our oldest kitty and we got her 2 weeks after we were married. She is my first born because she is my first EVER cat. Maggie was a sweet kitten until she had to be de-clawed due to scratching the brand new dining room table. I truly believe it changed her personality. She no longer tolerates visitors much less strangers feeding her. Note: anyone is a stranger than is not Mister or Miss Chris. Mister Chris convinced me that Maggie is just not normal and that we should get another kitten. I also needed a back up kitty because I became very attached to Maggie.

In comes Sophie. Sophie is just over a year old. She was monitored since she was born into a friend’s kitty family. Our friend chose this kitten for us to take. She said Rolly (Sophie’s original name) was very affectionate and quite normal compared to Maggie. With that said I had to take Sophie home. She is a very loving cat and is the exact opposite of Maggie. She will sit in my lap and cuddle up to me to take a nap. Right now she is sitting on my desk watching me type. I think she’s a little sleepy. Sophie has never met a stranger and was quite the hostess when we sold our house. Maggie of course detests her presence and they do not get along.

Since Sophie came into our household, Maggie gained 4-5 pounds by eating kitten food. She now weighs almost 15 pounds. Sophie was the runt of the litter so she barely weighs 8 pounds. Other than Maggie being over weight she is a very healthy kitty. She goes to the vet once a year, to get her shots. On the other hand, Sophie is a frequent visitor to the vet. She has been diagnosed with numerous conditions, infections, etc. For example, she originally had herpes, yes herpes. It is a little different from human herpes. Kitty herpes is a respiratory condition that develops when they are quite young. She has also had ear mites, acne (yes acne – am I crazy for believing this?), skin conditions galore and allergies. She has been prescribed antibiotics, steroids, ear drops, eye drops, pastes, shampoos, liquid allergy syrups and a hypo-allergenic diet. Not to mention cleaning her chin with peroxide. She has been to the vet at least once a month since February. Do you know how expensive that is? Perhaps I should get a 2nd opinion. I thought strongly about this until a couple weeks ago. I have discovered that giving her a daily bath works wonders. You probably think I am crazy since cats hate water. But Sophie is amazingly patient and I know she feels much better awards. Just take a look…..

Also here's a picture after she gets her ear drops and goes into Yoda mode.

So now Sophie’s routine is down to her special allergy food, one steroid tablet every other day, ear drops and her daily baths. My little angel is all worth it. I will have to get pictures of Maggie off Mister Chris’s computer to post later (as long as my dell does not catch on fire in the meantime)!!

Productive Weekend!

Well since the unpacking is in it's final stages, Mister Chris and I are getting into the home improvement frame of mind. Everything in the new casa is gold and we are not exactly gold kind of people. So we are switching out a lot of things...light fixtures, door knobs, towel racks, eventually faucets, etc. Here are some of the things that were accomplished this weekend.

When we bought this light fixture it was silver. Amazing what you can do with a can of black spray paint!! I love it. There are two more in the hall just like it.

Also here is the outcome of the shopping trip in the dark. I think it turned out OK but I see myself rearranging the vine over and over again the next few months.

Not much else going on in G-Vegas. I have to tell my little guy T-man in Nash-Vegas Happy Birthday. He is 9 years old today. Can you believe it? He's growing up too fast.

Bye, Bye, Bye

The view from row #48.

Shopping in the Dark

So Mister Chris and I were on a mission to buy greenery at Garden Ridge. The only problem is that while we were in there the lights went out. It's still daylight outside so it's not totally dark. But the greenery department is in the darkest corner of the store. We had come all this way and walked to the very back of the store not to leave without our greenery. It was quite an adventure to find silk things that match and/or coordinate with each other. I personally am no decorator and I can barely match my clothes, let alone silk flower vine things. After about 10 minutes of dealing with the dark we successfully headed to the check out. Just as we got there the lights came back on. Murphy's law was on our side, yet again today.

Our Resort and Sunset

More pictures

Favorite store that I can't afford.



Beautiful Beach on the north shore.

2nd Attempt

Pineapples

Pitiful waterfall

Hawaii

Well now that we have been back almost a week, I thought it was finally time to write about the trip. It’s been a hard week though because I contracted a lovely cold on the airplane. Mister Chris has a cold as well. We are doing the Tylenol cold thing together. Not only cannot I not breathe because my nose is clogged up, but it’s also 100 DEGREES out. When I got to work at 7:15 this morning it was already 82 degrees. Insane!! Work has gotten in the way of my house cleaning since coming home and I have not been home the past two nights. I had to have a pedicure night and a scrapbook night. So tonight is catch up time!! Item #1 – dishes, finished. Item #2 – laundry, in progress. Item #3 – blog time, also in progress!!!!

Our trip was fantastic. Much more beautiful than I had imagined. I will tell you first about my only two bummers (not to mention the long flight…details in a future entry). The first bummer is that the snorkeling is not as good as in the Caribbean. I am a big fan of snorkeling and I like to see lots of fish and pretty coral/plant life. Maybe it was not the right time of year to go snorkeling but the coral is all one color and not too many fish. On the other hand, we did get swim with the turtles at our resort. The other bummer is that I did not get to see lava. According to the locals, Oahu has no live, flowing lava tubes. You have to go to the big island or Maui to see this. Definitely plans for a future trip.

As you saw in my first entry, we did it all and saw it all. One of my favorites was climbing Diamond Head even though that will kick you in the you know where. It’s a 560 foot incline over ¾ of a mile. The view from the top was worth it. Check out some photos here.

A must see on the island of Oahu is Pearl Harbor. Very nice memorial. I learned a lot that day and of course Mister Chris loved it because he is such a history nut.

Another great thing was eating all the fresh pineapple. The dole plantation was neat but slightly boring. It was very much a tourist trap with their gift shop and ladies convincing you that you must pick an oyster to get 70% off your pearl. OK, I thought pearls came from Asia or at least that is what QVC has taught me. Here are some pics of the yummy pineapples that taste 100 times better than the ones from the can.

We attempted to see some pretty waterfalls but since their rainfall has been pretty low this summer, the waterfalls are obviously not as pretty as they are in the winter. This was one of the pitiful waterfalls. But I am sure it’s quite lovely when the water is flowing more rapidly.

Our resort was on the north shore of the island. One night we ventured into Waikiki to check it out. It was kind of crowded but the stores were awesome. Here is one of my favorites in which I cannot afford one thing.

One funny story is that we found this place call the Pearl Harbor mall. Mall = food court and it was lunch time. So we ate at McDonalds and decided to do a little shopping after. I got to the register and they asked for my military ID. Huh??? I was quite puzzled. Come to find out “the mall” was really the Navy exchange. That’s why the prices were so reasonable. OK, get out quick.

Here are a few other pictures we took along the way. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Such a lovely place to visit. I highly recommend it to anyone. And remember, it’s worth the plane flight there but not the plane flight home. Enjoy the pictures!!!

I have been playing with this entry since last night and I cannot get all my pictures to attach. So I am going to go ahead and post this one and put more pictures out here this afternoon that go with the rest of the verbage. Sorry for my lacking technical abilities.