A rice shortage? Good grief!

Rice shortage?

Several stores are now "rationing" rice due to a severe rice shortage. Ohhhhkaaaay... Costco's idea of rationing is to limit each customer to four 20-pound bags of rice. I don't think 80 pounds of rice is going to last me very long. I'd better find another store to buy from and stock up!

And in the meantime, I can have free rice donated to poor people on my behalf while testing my intelligence with a fun game. Check this out.



Cat

It never fails...

I can leave my house a million times, and never see anyone I know.

So why is it that the one time I go out looking like death warmed over, with any old clothes and no makeup, I see my favorite ex-boyfriend? Now he's probably thanking his lucky stars that he moved on before I turned into the wicked witch of the west.

Damn!!

Cat

Call a stranger, any stranger

So now you can letanyone who sees your blog call you up by pressing a button on your blog. Now, why in the heck would I want to let any kook who happens to run across my blog call my phone? I have plenty of free cell phone minutes available, but I'm not much of a phone talker. Maybe that's why I have so many rollover minutes all the time. Half the time I don't even feel like chatting it up with my friends, let alone a stranger. Or a stalker.

This is the button that bloggers can insert in their posts so that readers can call them. Obviously, I've disabled it here. You won't reach me when you click on it, but it will link you to the Blogger blog post where they explain how it's all supposed to work.

I guess there are some people who will enjoy a feature like this, but I am definitely not one of them.

Cat

I'm all a-twitter

So Christmas and the New Year have come and gone. My oldest daughter turned 26 (gasp!) on Jan. 13. My mom seems to be winning her battle with cancer for now. Ava is still a precious little thing, of course. She just gets cuter and cuter every day. The homeowners association finally got the indoor repairs done on our house for the damage from hurricane Wilma. They broke our tile floor while they were doing the repairs though, so to replace it they put wood flooring down in the living room. It looks pretty good.

And I still can't seem to find the time to write one simple paragraph a week about my life to keep this blog updated. Maybe I can keep it current if I'm able to do it in one-sentence increments, LOL. I found this site called Twitter where you can write short (very short - less than 140 words at a time) updates about what you're doing day to day. They have a little video on the home page about how it works.

So, I'm going to try that out and see how it works. I can post entries by phone too. I've finally learned how to send a text message. Welcome to the 21st century Cat! In case you want to keep track of whether I actually do update it on a semi-regular basis, my address there is http://twitter.com/meowtalk

Just remember that each short entry is an answer to the question "What are you doing?" For example, here is my latest Twitter entry:

follow meowtalk at http://twitter.com

Merry Christmas

Haha, I saw this Christmas card in the store and it totally cracked me up. I wasn't sure who to send it to, though, so I figured I'd put it on the blog and send it to everybody.

(Hold your mouse over the card to see the inside.)

Tie your shoes correctly

Can you believe there is a whole website about how to tie your shoes? And even more unbelievable, Ian Fieggen makes the subject interesting.

All these years I never knew why the bows on my shoelaces were crooked, or that there is an easy way to fix it. I also didn't realize that there are two trillion different ways to lace up your shoes! This site shows you 33 of them. I think I'll try the Zipper Lacing Method and see if anybody notices.

Cat

Now I've heard everything

I thought there wasn't much left that could surprise me, but this piece of news takes the cake.

People never cease to amaze me.

Cat

Stress

Just had to say I saw this bumpersticker and thought it was the funniest!

Stress is when you wake up screaming and you realize you haven't fallen asleep yet.

Hahahahaha

Cat

Blogging Without Obligation

So, I finally don't have to feel guilty when I go for weeks (or months) without being able to think of a single thing to blog about. And I no longer have to apologize for my long absences.

You see, I've joined "Bloggers Without Obligation", not quite procrastinators-anonymous, but giving me complete liberty to blog only when I want to and how I want to.

Ahhhhhh.....the freedom!

Ava-isms

It's funny how some of the things that Ava says have made their way into into our family vocabulary.

The thing that you push the buttons on to change the TV channel is a "me-mote". LOL, in many ways it is a "me-mote" when certain people are holding it.

I love how she sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star..."Twinkle little up-high star". So, of course instead of teaching her the right way, we all sing it the wrong way with her.

And then there are just the things she says that I couldn't have made-up if I wanted to...like the other night.

I had put her in bed, but I could hear her moving around. So I asked "What are you doing?" from my room. I get the standard answer - "Nothing." So I say, "I know you're doing something because I can hear you." And my darling little princess responds, "Well, I'm picking my nose." Hahahaha! Oh, to be that innocent again.

Can you believe she'll be three years old on August 16? Where does the time go?

Cat

Fire and Rain

Fire: The brush fires here in Florida have blanketed the entire state in smoke. I can smell it even inside my house, and it's so thick outside that it burns your eyes at times.
Rain: We need some, badly.

Fire: There is a tropical storm out there already! I hope that isn't a sign of what this year's hurricane season will be like.
Rain: Unfortunately, the storm won't be bringing us any of that much-needed rain.

Fire: Our new roofs have already failed inspection, and they aren't even on all the buildings yet.
Rain: At least they are finally getting started on the roof project...

Fire and Rain: A song by James Taylor, from the album Sweet Baby James, which was the very first album I ever owned. Do you remember what your first album was?

Cat

Hello again

I know some of you think I've dropped off the face of the earth, but my feet are still planted on terra firma. I've had a lot going on...I had to close the store (but I still have the online biz going), I got a new job in an entirely different field than I've ever worked in so I've been learning lots of new things, and I've been treating a chronic illness.

I know you don't want to hear another one of my feeble promises to update more frequently, LOL, but I really will try. My work hours are long, and by the time I get home, it seems like all I want to do is sleep. One of my friends described the "new" tiredness so perfectly...

I was tired before, but able to exercise and function although needing some rest time in the day. Before, I thought fatique was when I was traveling and got so exhausted I could fall asleep anywhere including hard floors. That is not fatigue.

Now, I am lying down and thinking about exercise. I think about raising my arm, lowering my arm. Next, I think about raising and lowering my other arm. Next, oh, I forgot where I was, I think it's rest time. OR, I think I'm hungry. I think I'll eat. I think I'll lay here and think about eating.

So, you see, I think about blogging all the time, I just don't actually make it to the computer. Now, if there were only a way to transfer my thoughts electronically... ;))

Cat

Merry Christmas to me

I stopped at the CVS by my house on the way home from work today. It's the only place around here that sells Hagen Daz chocolate/dark chocolate ice cream bars, and I buy them all the time. I mean, ALL the time.

The manager was ringing me out, and I said to her "You've been out of those for a couple of weeks. You got them just in time for Christmas for me." And she tells me they aren't going to carry them any more! They got a new ice cream distributor, and this is just an old box that she found in the back freezer so she put it out.

As I'm digesting that shocking news, she runs my ice cream thru the scanner and says "You aren't going to believe this."

What, the price went up to $5.00 or something?

She tells me it scanned at 57 cents!! And if I want more, run back and get them now before the price is corrected. WOW, Merry Christmas!

So, I got a whole box of them. Now I just have to put a note on them in the freezer before somebody else eats them.

That figures...

I had a jillion errands to run and doctor's appointments today. I had scheduled everything for one day so that I could have Tara take a day off from her job to work in the store and I could get everything done.

Believe it or not, the electricity went out in the mall at 10:00 am because of the storm we had today, and they closed the mall and sent everyone home. (Oh, yeah, did I mention that I ran around all day in the pouring rain and got soaked every time I got in or out of the car?) If I had scheduled everything for any other day, I would have actually had a real "day off" today!!!!

Why can't stuff like that happen when I'm there?

And......speaking of doctors....

In one day, today, I spent $400 on co-pays for doctor appointments and prescriptions. And that's not including the $325 check I mailed yesterday for my monthly insurance premium. 2 days, $725! Can you imagine if I didn't have insurance?

Cat

I'm still alive, barely

I know it's been a long time, eons even, since I've updated The Cat's Meow. I just want to let you all know that I have not:

• Died
• Fallen off the face of the earth
• Been captured by aliens
• Been committed to a mental hospital
• Been eaten by a large animal
• Or otherwise removed from this planet

I have, however, been extremely remiss in writing in my blog. If any of you are still checking this page for updates, I promise to make a much better effort beginning today. Scout's honor.

Cat