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Yesterday was International Cat Day. I tried to take some photos when I got home figuring I haven't take their pictures in at least a week, but they were in no mood to pose. I was able to corral them for a hug, a tight, scrunchy, "I love you this much" hug, followed by a kiss on the nose, followed by a leap off the lap indicating they couldn't wait to get away from me.

I've gone through the cat folder in my Flickr account and I have selected two of my favorite photos of them to reshare.

I love this one of Mija.

This is trust. This is love. Yes, this totally interrupts whatever it is I want to do since she's lying on my right arm and I'm right handed, but I don't care. This exemplifies our relationship. 

I love this one of Pilchard. 

 She never met a box she didn't try to get into. Of course this was too small, way too small for a 12 pound cat. Did that stop her? She's my diva. She rules the roost. She causes the problems but she's also my lap cat and my alarm clock if only because the food dishes are empty.

Sometimes, especially when I have the potential to be suddenly deployed to a job that may require an overnight stay, I think how much less complicated life would be if I didn't have to call Pam and ask, "Can you feed the girls because I have to go to Iowa for work?" Yes, my livingroom rivals a packing store and I never have completely white clothing. It always has black hair on it. And yet, when I come home and there are faces waiting for me, faces that sleep with me and sit in my lap, I cannot imagine life without cats.

Today is National Book Lover's Day. I am a happy lover of books.

I'm not reading a book at the moment. I finished 2 magazines last night from the stack and seeing how few are left on the stack makes me inspired to work on magazines over my upcoming vacation. Either a book or magazine is good for sitting on the deck in the morning with a mug of tea and a bowl of fresh cut fruit. I might pull a book out of this stash and start it. We'll see.

So, two things that define me have back-to-back days. I'll never remember this so I do something interesting next  year, although the Book Lover's Day will fall on a weekend. A visit to a bookstore, perchance? Just what I need, more books. I really need to make a list of all my Discworld books so I don't run the risk of accidentally buying one I have. And  I don't remember what the next one is in the Thursday Next series I'm reading. I should buy Erik Larson's most recent book, In the Garden of Beasts. It's out in paperback now, although I haven't read Thunderstruck which is in the stacks above.

If I combine both loves, I really should read Cat Daddy, the book I won from the blog, Cat Wisdom 101.

I was so excited to receive this and, well, it's still in the stack, unread.

But, I agree, 100%, with the late Edward Gorey who designed this tee shirt.

As long as I have a book and a cat, life will always, always be good. Happy National Book Lover's Day to my book loving readers and a belated happy World Cat Day to those who live with cats. If you live with both, double salute.

Beverage:  tea

Deb

Incredulity

I come home to a cool house and welcoming cats after what has been a very intimately stressful day. While I shared what I'm going through, the self-imposed stress can't be shared. Every time the office phone rang, I wondered if it was the "You want to fix your car, it's going to cost an arm, a leg, a kidney and half of your liver". My boss always leaves early so I am at home now, waiting for that call.

I get the mail and there is a strange letter from Wynn/Encore resorts in Las Vegas. I open it and read it. This is beyond weird. The Senior Vice President & General Manager of the resorts informs me,

"I'd like to personally invite you to be among the first to experience the exciting new amenities at Wynn with this exclusive invitation to stay in a Resort Room at the following special nightly rates: From $109 Sunday through Thursday and from $199 Friday and Saturday. Also receive a Complimentary Upgrade to an Encore Resort Suite King at the time of booking based on availability. We would also like to help you make the most of your visit with two tickets to see the breathtaking aquatic spectacle, Le Réve, when you stay three or more nights."

To say I am quite amazed at the timing of this is a massive understatement. I have actually read everything on this letter twice, picked up and restrained Pilchard in my lap so when she launches herself off my lap in a "OMG! She's loving me and I don't want to be forcibly loved!" fashion, I feel it, just to be certain this is, in fact, real.

There is a P.S. "As our special guest, you may offer your friends and family a Resort Room..." I have a "special code" (Everybody say, "ooooh.") for the use of my friends and family.

Now, if you know me well, I should have warned you, because you have probably sprayed whatever tea you were drinking all over your computer screen as you let out a very hearty guffaw. There are some places I would love to see before I pass on.

Fife, Dundee and Edinburgh in Scotland

Stratford-on-Avon in England

Paris, France in April, if you please

Montreal, Canada

Washington, DC

Disneyland, California

the Grand Canyon in Arizona

the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor

New England in the fall

Notice, Las Vegas is NOT on that list.

I've been through there. When Carole spent a summer in Reno, Nevada, I flew through Vegas to help move her home. I could see the Luxor Pyramid from the airport. But just as flying through O'Hare does not constitute "seeing" Chicago, I don't claim to have been to Vegas by being able to sit in the airport on a hot August afternoon and see the strip.

I'm also not all that interested in actually going to Las Vegas. I have friends who have gone there and it just strikes me as an enormous money vacuum. When I have so little to begin with, why would I go some place where there is no return for me? I do like kitsch and the strange and silly and downright weird. But, as Carole knows, I also like rarified and intelligent. Both trips to visit her in Seattle included museums and nature and conversation and good food. Everything I've seen of Las Vegas says I would be overwhelmed by excess, bad shirts and too much neon.

I have no idea where they got my name. I have until December 29, 2010 (subject to availability, of course) to redeem this offer. I will hang on to it, file it in with all my other papers to be discovered when I do taxes come the end of January. You never know. If my life were to take a dramatic turn for the better, perhaps I would stumble upon a reason to go to Vegas for an adventure. Then, having a discount would be extremely good.

For now, I am left to scratch my head at the sheer wild coincidence of receiving this on a day when I'm struggling to figure out where money will come from to pay bills. I think this is called "black humor".

Beverage: Scottish Blend tea

Deb

I am a weiner!

World of Warcraft the online game celebrated its 5th anniversary on November 23rd. Players in game received a limited edition pet, a small purple baby dragon who attempts to breath fire and spits only smoke. Not the cutest pet in the game, but its attempts to breathe fire are quite humorous.

There is an online blog, www.wow.com, which covers, in-depth, this game. Since discovering the blog some 2 years ago, I've read it religiously, checking back sometimes 3 and 4 times a day, particularly when there is something upcoming, like the anniversary. They held drawings for a week for a variety of things they were given to, in turn, give away to readers. One of those items is the book you see above.

I won it.

I was quite surprised when I received an email notifying me of the win. All I had to do was post a comment to an entry and a name was drawn from those comments. I'm fairly certain my comment was along the lines of, "Oooh a book I can add to the stack." It was a purely random drawing, not based on my wittiness. I simply got a comment posted before the deadline.

The book came today and yes, I put it on the stack, the top of the stack, mind you, but on the stack, nonetheless. No, it's not autographed, which would have been really nice, but hey, it's free. It will show up eventually as being my current read.

Beverage: Huckleberry tea

Deb