<p>bumping up above the moved threads</p>
<p>Anyone notice how QUIET it is outside? </p>
<p>No more protest rallies. No more talking, er… shouting… heads. And we’ll spend less time cleaning up all the broken and left-behind campaign signs that were littering our parking lot and making it hard to find the hot tub out back.</p>
<p>Whew. I like it! Next round’s on me.</p>
<p>Remember how refreshing it was to go to your favorite restaurant, after it had become smoke-free?!! I feel like the air in the Cafe is much cleaner now, too!!! And I’m glad to hear they cleaned out the slime from the hot tub, too.</p>
<p>yeah, that orange ring from all the cheetohs was getting to be a bit much.</p>
<p>oh, pet week! We are not too successful with the pets. Chinese fire bellied frog died over last christmas. Now we have a african sand boa, actually 10 year old S shares with friend, we shlep the thing back and forth every other week, seemed like a good idea at the time.</p>
<p>10 bucks outside in backyard, does that count??</p>
<p>Trying to think of pet drinks for this weeks cocktail.</p>
<p>Grasshopper.</p>
<p>Rename the Fuzzy Navel the Caterpiller.</p>
<p>And of course, Hair of the Dog applies to just about all of them. ;)</p>
<p>WOOF! I thought I started the thread this morning with some hair of the dog, which seemed like an appropriate way to start the week, but I must have been distracted by all of these doggone cute puppies in the Alley! Ahhhhh…C’mere little Screwdriver! I’m naming them all after cocktails. Here Dom Perignon!</p>
<p>It’s Fall and time for sluggjr to start classes, again. Okay, so it’s traffic school this time around, and it’s online from Fast-Easy-Cheap.com, but at least, he’s getting an education. :p</p>
<p>I just had a sentimental moment. In cleaning out the kitchen cabinets b/c we might actually get a new kitchen, I came across a decorated Mason jar containing carefully folded “thank yous” from son, now 23, when he was in 3rd or 4th grade. I think it was Mother’s Day present.</p>
<p>“Thank you for loving me.”
"Thank you for sending me to ______(school.)
"Thank you for letting me take taekwondo.
“Thank you for bringing my homework to school when I forgot it.”</p>
<p>etc…Awwwwwwwwww!</p>
<p>Awwwwwww, indeed, mommusic!!!</p>
<p>Dropping by for a celebratory Coke. Heard from all three kids today! Text this morning from S1, to recount a Mini ad he saw on the way to work. Phone call from D, asking for original copy of her passport or birth certificate to complete the application for her tutoring job (which she starts this afternoon). And then a phone call from S2 saying he received the package H mailed to him.</p>
<p>Short and sweet, but I now know that on Tuesday, Sept 9, all three kids were alive and functioning, and up before noon.</p>
<p>And it’s not even the weekend (free minutes.)</p>
<p>Thank goodness all these Dalmatian puppies wind down and take a nap in the afternoon. Those marmots do a darn good job of scooping up after them!</p>
<p>Who brought those ferrets playing on the hanging lanterns?</p>
<pre><code> Sapling doesn’t leave until next week, then I can get some sleep. And not run out of Coke.
</code></pre>
<p>SluggGirl’s first two weeks with her new kitty:</p>
<p>• Had to take a morning off of work to bring her cat into the vet for cunjuntivitis ($68).</p>
<p>• Return visit to the vet to get more eye goop ($65).</p>
<p>• Homeless guys in the park yell lewd comments at sluggGirl while she’s walking to the vet’s with her cat carrier.</p>
<p>• SluggGirl makes special trip to the grocery store by bus to purchase more kitty litter.</p>
<p>• New roommate returns and complains that sluggGirl’s cat is not a kitten.</p>
<p>:) Rrrrufff!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>…add Squirt, A&W rootbeer, and a clean bathroom to the list, cottonwood.</p>
<p>cottonwood, were you around for fencersmother’s ferret stories earlier this year? post #9635 on page 643 and follow-up post #10678 on page 709. I laughed so hard I cried. Someone must have knocked off the “No Weasel” sign we put in the window.</p>
<p>OK, I’ll go back and read it. I see the ferrets (or the puppies?) have chewed up the Eames chair and footstool. I better get over here Saturday and take these Dalmatians back. Anyone want to adopt one?</p>
<p>Gargoyle faced ferret?</p>
<p>Hello, and goodbye! I’m embarking on a self-imposed CC moratorium for a few days (flying out of town Friday helps)… Yes, I can quit any time I WANT to. Keep the music going on the jukebox while I’m off at my CC Anonymous meetings…</p>
<p>We’ll hold the fort, astrophysicsmom!</p>
<p>K, astrophysicsmom. Say, “Hi” to all of the CC expats. They’re probably on facebook posting YouTubes and playing Word Twist, but that’s okay. I like it here in the Alley with the cool cats and the marmots. It’s worth an occasional eye-twitching when I think of posting a YouTube and know that if I do, a house will drop on me. And, compared to what the sluggfamily delivers each week, CC is at the end of a long list of things that disturb my inner sanctum of peace and harmony…ommmmm… Now, if some of my favorite sites would stop changing their interfaces just when I’ve finally figured out how to use them, life would be a little less aggravating. :p</p>
<p>What a week! I slew a couple of dragons, and my armor has a few dents, so it’s Happy Hour starting…Now! TGIF Give me something with a flame on top. :)</p>
<p>The ghosts of all of those hamsters buried out in the back-40 have followed me in here. Meet:</p>
<p>• Peanut Butter
• Fluffernutter (the little bas%a$# who bit sluggboy on the nose one morning before school)
• Hammy
• Bubbles
• Ginger
• & Snowflake</p>
<p>Reminds me of the time when I was a Girl Scout leader, and the girls were trying to think of projects for their Gold Awards. Everybody came up with the same general ideas, i.e. food drives, clothing donations, working with the homeless, etc. One girl whose mom was a hospice nurse thought that it would be a good idea to make coffins for kids who were terminally ill. She thought that it would be nice to let the family select the fabric for the interior of the casket. Um…NO!!!</p>
<p>Okay, we weren’t supposed to make fun of their ideas or discourage their adolescent free thinking, but c’mon, man! NO coffin building in my troop! :D</p>
<p>do you just sit around, slugg, and make this stuff up?! all these stories can’t fit into one lifetime. </p>
<p>Toasting dead hamsters – reminds me of that great scene in Garden State when Natalie Portman is burying her dead hamster. she’s in their backyard graveyard, with its nice little fence and probably 30 graves, and says, “You were a good pet, I hope you liked me.” </p>
<p>Sending best thoughts to all in Ike’s way.</p>