Halloween - What a whirlwind day yesterday. I had a flu shot at the ATI/AMD office. It was the first time in many years I've had an employer offer flu shots. I left work a bit early to make it home before the trick or treating hours. After snarfing down a quick dinner I helped Michelle get Abby and the boys out the door. Claire and I held down the homefront, passing out candy bars, home baked cookies, and hot mulled cider. This was the first year that Mighty Timbo had the excitement and endurance to make it through the whole neighborhood. Tomorrow night I'll probably get the pictures out of the camera and put them online.
Wednesday - Before heading into the office today, I went to our local 7:30am daily Mass in honor of All Saints Day. I swung by my local mechanic afterwards to make an appointment for my 15K oil change for the Jetta. 15K miles since Easter?! Goodness!
Near the end of the day we had an official AMD/ATI merger celebration. Snacks, celebratory toasts, welcoming gifts, etc. After having been through a few of these at my last job site, it's hard to not feel a bit jaded when you hear many of the same platitudes you've heard during other mergers and acquisitions. I can only hope that things are different this time because both companies are profitable companies that lead in their respective fields.
After getting home from work, Michelle and I went out for dinner. We intended to get something light from J. Beaners but alas, they've shifted to their fall/winter hours and close at 6pm. *sniff* So instead we head into Nashua and had dinner at Panera Bread and swung by the new Staples afterwards to pick up a couple of supplies.
Media - With elections only a few days away, I've tried to stay from discussing politics. Although I have strong opinions on a lot of the recently discussed topics — Mark Foley, Michael J. Fox, John Kerry, embryo destroying stem cell research, cloning, Iraq, etc. — I've kept them to myself. I did see an article, written last April, that I thought deserved more mention than simply a link on the right sidebar. Entitled "Eye of the Beholder", it starts out thus:
War-torn Iraq has about 26 million residents, a peaceful California perhaps now 35 million. The former is a violent and impoverished landscape, the latter said to be paradise on Earth. But how you envision either place to some degree depends on the eye of the beholder and is predicated on what the daily media appear to make of each.
It goes on to show how if the media wanted to use the same types of statistics we hear about from Iraq, you could spin California as a hell hole, even worse than Iraq. After months on end we'd be weary and feel like "we're failing in California". It helped put things in perspective and balance a lot of the media spin we're subjected to on a daily basis.
TJ got to shake the Cardinal's hand yesterday st school. Cardinal George said Mass because it was the first All Saint's Day in which Guerin is a saint, and TJ is an ambassador so he was a greeter at the door. He said the highlight though, was when the helper deacon dropped his prayer book and leaned over to pick it up and tripped and knocked over a candle- oops! Glad I wasn't that guy!
Cassidy served Mass at school yesterday and even commented that Fr. Gene did a good job- must be a good pastor when the kids notice.
Can Claire/Would she want to be an altar server yet?
I'm going to have lunch with Judy Burda today- of course it is going to be cold for my little walk.
It's also report card day for everyone today, the kids have music lessons, we have conferences at Guerin, Cass has basketball practice and Tom has a board meeting too...just another day...oh, and Clea went to the vet yesterday because she is mutilating herself and leaving open wounds...gross...turns out she's got fleas, so now I have to wash all of the sheets and vacuum/clean all horizontal surfaces in the house...how did my indoor cat get fleas? YUCK! She has a thyroid condition too, but we are dealing with one problem at a time!
Have a great day!
Hi Lyss,
Wow! The busy family life is contagious! When you and I were graduating high school all those years ago, did you ever think Mother Guerin would be a saint? I can only imagine the amount of celebration at St. Mary of the Woods college back in Terre Haute.
I don't know if Claire is old enough to be an altar server yet. She certainly has the maturity. I think I started in 5th grade, so who knows... perhaps?
While I sympathize with your Clea escapades, did I mention that Michelle and the girls are talking seriously about adopting a cat in the next few months? I have a dad's typical impression (ie. aren't there *enough* mouths to feed in this house?). The only redeeming thing is that having a cat around tends to discourage small rodents from hanging out anywhere near the house. Good luck with scrubbing the house for fleas. I'll spare you the details of how gross the open sores were the day before Cali passed away. Let's just say that infection is a nasty smell!
Posted by: Scott at November 2, 2006 03:03 PMWhy did she have open sores? I don't remember! Do you still have a cat? Sad, I'm forgetful. If anything happened to Clea, we'd get another cat right away too- our neighbor has a huge mouse problem, ew gross, but apparently the smell of cat poop keeps rodents away- my neighbor has a german shepherd, and mice.
Posted by: alyssa at November 2, 2006 06:00 PMCali had some infections that were like cysts or lymph node infections or ... This was several years ago. I took her to the animal hospital because a major one had ruptured. He did some analysis of the "stuff" (I'm being polite) under a microscope and said there appeared to be some cancerous cells. I had her put to sleep because the prognosis looked bleak.
George died a couple of summers ago. He already had a weak heart. He was groomed one afternoon and the next morning he was dead. I think the stress of the bathing was too much for his old heart.
At that point I decided we were busy enough -- having three little boys in diapers -- that we would hold off getting a new pet for a while. So we've had a couple of years without any furry pets in the house.
Of the various cats Michelle and I have had in our lives, it always seemed to be the male cats that were more sociable. If we get another, we plan on a medium to long haired male cat. We won't get one from a store but most likely a freebie or an adoption. No rush though...
Posted by: Scott at November 2, 2006 07:50 PMClea is the only cat we've had- she just turned 17 in October. Tom is allergic to cats- he wasn't when we got her, but now if he pets her, he has to wash his hands immediately or he itches and sneezes. She's always been friendly and social, and taken lots of abuse from the kids. Tom does all the work for her though- would be nice if the kids helped more! I'm sure your kids would love getting a kitten!
Posted by: alyssa at November 2, 2006 11:18 PMHi Lyss,
Sometimes it's hard to fathom you have the same cat that you bought as a kitten when you first married. I remember seeing her for the first time in your little apartment. She's the Energizer kitty! ;-)
So many of the cats we had growing up were female and they always seemed a bit distant. Indeed Cali tended to be that way most of the time. I can't help but think of the cat mom and dad have. Yikes!
Shadow and George, on the other hand, were very social cats. If you sat down, they'd jump up on your lap wanting to be pet. George purred like a small 4 cylinder engine. You could call them and they'd come over. If more cats were like those two, I think more folks would own cats.
Posted by: Scott at November 3, 2006 08:45 AM