In the homestretch

After four days of almost constant news coverage on every channel ("here we are Suzie, on location, with a live shot of the long gas lines"), and after the terrible devastion wrought in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, the arrival of Wilma here in Florida sometime tonight seems almost anti-climatic.

I don't want to become complacent though, as the hurricane now seems to be strengthening to a category 3, and who knows what other surprises she has in store for us?

So, all of my patio furniture and outdoor items are stuffed in my living room once again, we are prepared for the inevitable power outtage, and are getting ready to hunker down and wait for the storm.

I sure hope this is the last one this year. (I know Alpha is out there, but it is supposed to just head out to open seas)

Cat

Like father, like son

I don't know where the Bush family learned geography, but they all seem to have a very interesting view of it.

Speaking about Tropical Storm Wilma, Florida governor Jeb Bush said, "It's a volatile storm. The entire peninsula needs to keep it's eyes south and east."

OK, while he's looking to the east for the storm it'll hit him on his keister, since it is coming in from the Gulf of Mexico, which is to our west.

Doofus!

Cat

What a day

It's not even 7:00 am yet, and I can already see what kind of a day this is going to be. I dropped my badge while trying to pin it on, spilled coffee on myself, discovered that I brought something from my house to work with me that was totally unneccesary, forgot to bring the item that I wanted to bring with me, and probably most telling of all, I decided to charge my cell phone on the way to work. I put the plug in the phone and went on my way. When I got to work, I realized I never plugged the other end into the car lighter!

Aiiiiiii! Things can only get better....

7:10 am....edited to add....OK, the computer at my desk is broken, so I had to move to another desk, and my first call was a guy screaming, yelling, and cursing at me because his wife ran up his bill and he won't pay the charges so now his account is cancelled.....

I can definitely see where this day is going.....Where's my xanax?

Cat

It figures

I just filled up my gas tank two days ago for $2.98 a gallon, now today I drove past the same gas station and gas was $2.81. Darn!

I'm sure it'll go up again when it's time for me to refill.

Cat

Just thanks

All I want to say today is that I never even knew how many people really care about me, but I have found out this week.

Thanks guys. You know who you are.

*sniff, sniff*, as I wipe a tear.

Cat

Pics as promised

Just a couple of pics from Buenavista. I want to go back already. I'm homesick.

Here is the town just beginning to stir, very early in the morning.

This is me, Mami, and Papi in the kitchen/patio, where we usually have our mezcal and botanas (snacks), and some very interesting conversations.



And this is me and Belo, my mexican "brother", on Independence Day, which actually begins at 11:00 pm on the night before the holiday with entertainment, a speech, and fireworks. It then continues through the night with music and dancing, and then on through the next day with a parade and lots of parties. Gotta love a country that begins a holiday at 11:00 at night!!



* * * * Cat * * * *

Your comments

I love when people leave me comments. It gives me a nice feeling to know that someone reads my blog, and cares enough to to respond, even just a small sentence.

But I hate blog spam! And I've been getting a lot of it. I guess someone figured out a program to crawl the web and leave advertising as comments on people's blogs. As if we don't already get enough in our e-mail.

So, even though I hated to do it, I had to add word verification to my comment section. It was taking me more time to delete the unwanted spam comments than to think of things to blog about. I know it's inconvenient to have to type that silly word in the box, and I hope that doesn't stop the few of you who do comment occasionally, but I had no choice. :(

Cat

Still here!

I know I said I would blog from here, but for some reason, I´ve had a hard time getting connected to Blogspot. Anyway, I´m on it now.

This has been a very relaxing vacation. I only have two days left, and I don´t want to come home! I wish I would win the lottery and just be able to come here whenever I want and stay as long as I feel like. sigh. Wouldn´t everyone love to do that though? ;-) Well, only about 20 years left until retirement...

I did see some of the news about Hurricane Rita. I can´t believe those poor people from New Orleans! First they get evacuated to Houston, then they have to be evacuated from there! I think I read that they are somewhere in Arkansas now? And who knows when they will ever be able to go home? Or to what is left of their home. If I didn´t already have a more-than-full house, I´d offer one of my rooms to somebody.

Only four more named storms to go, and then we´ve used up the alphabet this year! I think they begin using the greek names of the alphabet letters afterwards if that happens, starting with alpha. That´s a lot of storms!

OK, I´ll be home Wednesday night. If I don´t procrastinate, maybe I can get some vacation pics up here by the weekend.

Cat

P.S. The entire Blogspot website is in spanish when I go to it from here. How funny! I´m going to exactly the same web address as I do from home.

Hola de Buenavista!

I´m enjoying a nice, leisurely vacation in Buenavista, Mexico. I arrived Tuesday with my sister. She leaves Sunday, and then I´ll be here until the 28th. I´m staying with my friend, Belo, and his family.

Yesterday/today is Independence Day. (It started at 11:00 last night). We saw some good fireworks last night, and a parade today. Now we´re going home for some drinks and snacks.

This is a very small town, so I´m forced to slow down my pace and relax. There isn´t much else to do.

I will be seeing the kids at the CAM school for other-abled children. They were in the parade today, but I´ll be visiting them at the school on Tuesday. I have some school supplies and books (Thanks Rick!) for the school, and I made each kid a little dental kit to take home, with toothpaste, toothbrush, mouthwash and some Certs.

I´ll report again in a few days.

Cat

Pop-ups, pop-ups...

I think pop-up advertisements have to be the worst thing the internet ever created.

My kids downloaded a music-sharing program that has put so much adware and spyware on my computer that I was getting pop-ups when I wasn't even signed on to the internet! I have spent a week now trying to clean up my computer, and I still haven't undone all the damage.

Add to that the fact that this program is designed in such a way that you have to be a genius to figure out how to uninstall it. (well, maybe not a genius, because I finally got it uninstalled)

Even after uninstalling the program, I am still finding remnants of garbage it left on my computer every day. When this program is downloaded, it makes changes to your registry keys. I actually have to go into the registry now and edit it. If you know anything about computers, you know that this is a dangerous thing to do when you have only the limited computer knowledge that I have.

Moral of the story? Be very careful when downloading anything, especially if it is from a music-sharing program from a company with a name that has three A's in it.

Cat