PANCHO

For the past 11 years he has been my buddy, the always-happy-place when I come home from work.

I know from friends that dogs have something to offer.

To me it's Pancho, my 15 pound (he's lost weight!), diabetic, has-too-much-furr, likes-his-litter-box-cleaned-every-2 hours, orange, tabby. He has more insight in his head than he will ever get across to me. I see it right behind his eyes. He knows where to sleep at night, depending on who needs his mental vibes the most.

I've had a billion cats in my life.

Pancho is Gandhi to me.

MUSIC AND MARITAL AIDES

Music is a big part of our life in my family. All four of us LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our music.

Husband's all-time, always-will-be favorite is Willie Nelson. I'm not a Willie fan, although, "Whiskey River" played a huge part of our fun in the 70's. That song still, when I hear it, brings back some MEMORIES, believe me!

I don't have just one favorite, but Jackson Browne is really, really close to the top. Many years ago, husband bought me the newest, just released Jackson Browne cd, and had put front row tickets to the upcoming JB concert at the Music Hall inside the case. He had somehow managed to make it look like the cd had never been opened. It was a huge, huge surprise. Gotta love a man like that. He got a lot of stars on his chart that night!!

That being said, I still don't really like Willie Nelson (music that is - I think he's a great human being). Sorry Willie.

Husband tolerates my taste in music and he tolerates me blasting JB, Springsteen, The Killers, Counting Crows, Pearl Jam, etc around the house at times without ever telling me to turn it down honey.

I, on the other hand, after a song and a half of Willie tell him to please close the door honey or turn it down honey or put on your headphones honey or what the hell honey.

Sooooo.... the point of this writing is that husband's ipod headphones recently got chewed up. Ok, LUCI recently chewed up husband's ipod headphones - the good ones - not the dollar store set - the good ones.

This is Luci when we realized what she had done. I think she's sort of giving us the finger in this picture. Luci likes to do what Luci likes to do and then chatters about it. Sweet Pancho just always gives Luci the yo dude look.

Sooooooooo, again, I've been sweetly suggesting (nagging) husband to order some other "good" headphones so he can get his groove back. I'M really missing his headphones. He finally ordered them, grumbling about Sony and Apple in the process.

This morning the doorbell rings and the UPS man is there. Don't you just love the UPS man?! They never bring you anything bad - just good stuff - stuff that you wanted. And usually they just ring your doorbell and run away so you can just watch them wave as they drive off. They KNOW that they just made your day. What a great job.

Anyway, the package was husband's new headphones! Hallelujah! I heard a choir singing way off somewhere. Husband opened them and didn't say a word. But I didn't hear from him for a couple of hours. He was a happy man.

THEN, the doorbell rings again. I'm in the back of the house. I assume he hears it and will answer the door. The doorbell rings again (answer the door honey). Husband is on the computer, ipod singing with the NEW headphones in his ears (For the record - I don't consider this multi-tasking). I didn't get to the door in time so hopefully it wasn't the guy with the money.

I said honey did you hear the doorbell. He said WHAT DOORBELL. I said the same doorbell that rang a couple of hours ago that made you a satisfied, happy man!!! He said oh no honey I didn't hear it.

It wasn't anything important at the door. The point is that husband was finally in his happy place.

We've never been to couples therapy / marriage therapy, etc. But I think that a good set of ipod headphones might solve lots of problems.

NAP ASSISTANCE

I came home from work today, MONDAY, god I hate Mondays, wanting to take a nap so I could make it until it was time to go to sleep for real.

I got a glass of water, scowled at the dirty dishes, fed the cats, checked to see if I had clean underwear for tomorrow (yay! no laundry for tonight!!) checked myself in the mirror to see if I had the normal, god-I-hate-Mondays 5:00 look (still there - never lets me down!), layed across the bed, attempted to look through the 3 pounds of mail that the Post Office assumes we like getting on Mondays, and tried to zone out for my 10 Minute Power Nap (I was hoping for my favorite, The 45 Minute Power Nap, or better yet, The 90 Minute Power Nap) Nothin'. Put a pillow over my eyes. Nothin'.

Pancho and Luci, however, always wanting to help me out, gave it their best and did a great job. They provide this same help Monday through Sunday between the hours of 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm. I assume they do it the rest of the day also. And I always love that ANYTIME I want to take a Power Nap they are up for assistance.

I HATE MONDAYS

I'm sure I've mentioned that I hate Mondays - always have. I just don't feel that I'm at my best on Mondays. I'm usuallly at my best around 8:00 pm on Thursdays. That's my best time for some reason. I like Thursday evenings.

I feel sorry for anybody who has to work with me on Mondays. And today, I REALLY felt sorry for the people who worked with me because sleep-deprevation was added to it and I was just teetering on the edge all day. Luckily, my awesome, amazing friends at work didn't push me that far. I always try to lay low on Mondays - hope everybody knows that I try.

Here are a few reasons I hate Mondays:

1 - It isn't Thursday evening
2 - It isn't Friday night
3 - It isn't Saturday
4 - It isn't Sunday

Those are my main reasons.

3 THINGS.....

3 things you probably shouldn't do right before you go to bed:

1 - drink an alcoholic beverage
2 - eat a plate of homemade lasagna
3 - eat garlic bread

3 things that will make you really happy right before you go to bed:

1 - drinking an alcoholic beverage
2 - eating a plate of homemade lasagna
3 - eating garlic bread

Don't you all agree??!!

night night.

A HAIKU

My dear friend "Brenda" (I know I promised I wouldn't use real names, so let's just say that "Brenda" isn't really her real name), anyway, "Brenda" told me I should write a Haiku when I got my blog up and running. I realize that's just her wicked sense of humor shinning through and she never thought for one single minute that I would do it. I love her wicked sense of humor for sure.

But, all I need is one tiny little mention of something (anything!) to become completely , over-the-top obsessed with it, and blow it all out of proportion. So, basically I suck at Haikus (is that a word?), I can't do them, don't understand them and don't know why anyone wants to limit themselves to so few syllables, for whatever reason.

Here is my response to "Brenda":

can’t write a haiku
even for "Brenda"… can’t do
ix-nay aiku-hay!

Pathetic.

My obsession with this Haiku challenge almost ruined my weekend but then "Brenda" brought us lasagna and garlic bread tonight so I forgot what I was obsessing over.
I love you "Brenda".

JUST A BORING THANK YOU......

Friends,
A little disclaimer so I won't be sued, which means absolutely nothing since I'm writing it myself and just making up the rules but, just so you know, I will never mention real names in anything I write except for now, and only first names, but I want you all to know how much you have helped and supported and loved me in the past 6 months and way way way before with many of you.

I couldn't get my ass out of bed in the mornings right now without the influence of you women, some of you daily in person, some of you by text, phone calls, emails, a missed call, etc. but here you all are. And I think we range in age from around 32 to 60+ which is what I love so much about you all. Husband and I are so very blessed to have an amazing "family of friends" around us. We need, appreciate, love, and are continually amazed by you all.

So thank you to my girlfriends (names are not in any order of importance by any means :-)......
Danielle, Tanna, Brenda, Donna, Lee Anne, Kelly, Cindy, Lyn, Kathleen, Patty G, Bette, Shellie, Pam W, Wendy, Sylvia, Melissa B, Melissa H, Karen K, Jenny, Angela, Merrily, Margaret, Betsy, Patti N, Jan N, Karen G, Tracy F, Jan M. I know I've missed some but I'll make sure I catch them and note them here when I do. And my daughter, Hana, and my "other" daughters, Mary Kate and Susie, but I'll be writing more about them soon.

I love you all so so much.

MULTI-TASKING

I walked into our office last night (I use the word office but it's really just a small room without a bed or an alarm clock and has a lot of stuff piled around in different sorts of stacks so we call it the office). Anyway, when I walked into our office last night I'm looking at HUSBAND on the computer, on a sports chat board, with his ipod on and earphones in his ears, and the TV on. He was multi-tasking - computer, ipod, tv - THREE things. It was a moment!

Normally I think that men can't multi-task beyond two things. They can cook on the grill and listen to the game, they can mow the yard and listen to the game, they can watch the game and drink a beer, they can talk sports with their buddies and cook on the grill, they can mow the yard and drink a beer, and, I've seen it happen, they can read the sports, watch the game AND drink a beer, which exceeds the two limit. That always impresses me when I see that happen.

Men are GREAT single-taskers though - I don't want to take anything away from them. Men’s single task can be very good at times (hopefully! when the game isn't on; and their game is, oh forget I said that.) Anyway, I just don't think that most of them are multi-taskers.

Here's how I see women multi-tasking:
Women can hold one baby on our hip, have the other baby's hand, have the other baby's hand IN the other baby's hand, have our purse, our bag, our other bag, our other bag, two sacks of groceries, hit the button to close the garage door, keys in hand to open the back door, change the laundry from the washer to the dryer, change a diaper, change a tampon (aren't we grateful for those little strings!!), wash our hands if we think it's necessary, call for pizza, feed the cat, feed the dog (hope we got the right food in the right bowl), wash the baby vomit from the baby's shirt, wash the baby vomit from our face, get the video running on the tv, check the voicemail messages, hit the delete-all button (my favorite!), empty the kid's backpacks, empty the dishwasher (were those clean or not? oh well), reload the dishwasher, find the cork screw, find a glass, find the bottle of wine. All of that within 3 minutes. Women are amazing multi-taskers!

I still say that men being able to do MORE than two things is a step in the right direction. And I was proud of HUSBAND for doing three things at once last night.

I went to bed, read, painted my toenails, watched Bill Maher. I'm cuttin' back.

The Paper Shredder

I've been sweetly asking (nagging, hounding, pounding) HUSBAND for months now to please go through a pile of old business files/receipts/papers on the floor of our small office. The pile was about 3 feet high and a favorite sleeping place for Pancho and/or Luci (more preferable than the PAID FOR cat beds they have at various other sunny places in the house). Neill has said ok honey I will every single time I've asked. Nothing has changed - the pile continues to grow.

Well he discovered the paper shredder a couple of nights ago. Just weird. This is the same paper shredder we've had for 2 years, but tonight I guess seemed like the night that he would realize it was there on the floor.

He called me into the room and said hey honey did you realize this thing shreds everything, credit cards, cds etc. I said yes I did know that and it has done that same thing since day one, that paper shredders don't grow more abilities the longer they stay in your house, not like teeth in your kids. He seemed genuinely shocked that we owned this amazing piece of equipment. I also told him that I didn't think it would work on MY credit card so stay away from it.

So DAUGHTER and I went out for a girl's dinner night and HUSBAND stayed home and played with the paper shredder.

Men are really so basic aren't they. Just give them something to play with.

And, the "pile" is down by a couple of feet now. Pancho and/or Luci will be closer to the floor tonight.

I just have the most interesting life.

Hidden treasures, unseen spaces and cats!

To start with, I'm not the best housekeeper but I think that if I don't see a space on a daily basis then I assume it's clean. Well, I have two cats who I love very much. You all know about Pancho, of course, the most perfect 11 year old, diabetic, has-lots-of-fur, thinks-he's-a-dog, chubby, orange tabby cat on the planet. And then there's year and a half old Luci. Luci.

Luci joined us last June from Illinois, along with straight-from-college-DAUGHTER, and around the same time that we were getting bad doctor's vibes on HUSBAND. So Luci was a fun diversion from other stuff. She definitely took up a lot of space. Pancho and Luci get along fine but Pancho can send Luci sailing across the room with one casual swipe of his paw. Pancho's pretty layed back about his strong points. I like a modest man! Pancho likes to sleep on the ottoman next to HUSBAND most nights, since his illness. Luci likes to sleep an inch from my face.

Luci LOVES her toys; bottle tops, bread ties, pieces of wadded up paper, small balls of yarn, large balls of yarn, etc. But her favorite thing is a long chenille pipe cleaner, the kind you get at craft stores. Anyway, she always looses her toys after just a few minutes of really getting into them, then spends 30 minutes yelling at us to please find them for her. For the past week she has been obsessed with looking under the stove in the kitchen.

So, today while I was home, I noticed how really, really obsessed she was with that spot under the stove and I got seriously worried that she was going to get in the way of HUSBAND's feet and cause him to fall or that he was going to toss her out the back door (HUSBAND has a serious illness which I'm sure I'll get into at some point). So I FINALLY pulled out the drawer under the stove and found out why she wanted under there. I found 8 pipe cleaners, a fish toy, a banana toy, 2 chip bag clips, 3 bottle tops, countless straws, a tie-wrap, and numerous puff-ball type cat toys, and some other cat related stuff. Other than that, the space was surprisingly clean!! Hence my comment about not being a good housekeeper. So maybe I was right about unseen spots being clean.

And, so maybe I'll tell my "friends-reject", sometimes housekeeper, who comes when she wants to show up & needs the money that she is working too hard. I tried to take a picture of HUSBAND and his amusement at the whole thing today but I couldn't quite get the shot he preferred. hum. I'm pretty sure I heard him make some sort of comment when he walked off, though!. He has always lovingly tolerated my cats and has always known that on lots of days, over 35 years, he has come in a distant second to them!