I miss him so much! My sweet kitty, Rosco. I was just talking to Shawn about him a little while ago.

I was sitting down to eat my chicken salad on Triscuits, and my dog, Puppy, was just wishing and wishing that I would give him some! He has taken to loving chicken salad.

And since Shawn stayed home from school, I said to him, “We have a silly Puppy who loves chicken and a silly kitty who loves beef! We have mixed up pets!”

(I don’t want to use past-tense - yes, he’s in Heaven, but, he’s still in my heart!)

But Rosco LOVED beef! Whenever we cooked any kind of beef, that cat came running!! LOL!

I can’t believe it’s really been almost two years since he went to Heaven. He passed on Feb. 15, 2005. He was 14 years old. I love him so much! And he was around the whole time the kids were - I mean, they never knew a life without him, you know? So they were all insanely sad when he passed.

I had to have him put down. And for the longest time, Sammie kept saying that I killed him. Oh man! That really stung - but, when you’re eight, it’s so hard to understand!

(He was so very sick on that last day…)

He was in kidney failure, and I may have let him go too long - I don’t know. It is so hard when that is happening - your beloved pet is becoming sicker by the day, and you don’t really know when the best time is. I mean - heck, God handles stuff like that, you know? I’m not used to that kind of responsibility. I don’t imagine anyone ever is.

Who knows what caused the kidney failure - any one of a number of things could have caused it. If it had been cancer, I could have given him ES Clear for Cat Cancer - this stuff sounds really awesome! I am always on the lookout for natural remedies and alternative treatments. The customer testimonial about the product is from a girl named Mandy, and she says that her cat, Snuff, was able to maintain her weight and energy, and got back to acting like her regular self again, after using the product. Wow - that is so cool!

Another totally awesome reason that I’ve been made aware of this great alternative health care site is that I found some medicine for my dog’s infected ear. I have been so worried it! I keep cleaning it out, but, it is just not getting better. So I began looking online for alternative therapies, but, to this point, hadn’t found any. And I was thinking, oh my gosh - I’m going to have to come up with at least $100, probably more like $150, to take him to the vet!

Not anymore! Thank God! I am going to order some Echo Gold for Dog Ear Infections!!

Now my sweet boy will be able to finally stop shaking his head like a crazy man! I am so happy! I have really been so worried about this!

Oh yeah! Works in with your confidentiality, eh? Cool!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu-OMZBuapQ]

That had me cracking up so loud that the entire family was yelling at me - it was so damn funny! I am completely laughing out LOUD just trying to type this!!

It reminds me of the time when my mother and I were in a small, obscure, hole-in-the-wall, but-oh-so-New-York NYC bar. The bartender was a scream!

In fact, the only reason we even went in was because as we were walking by the place, the guy starts hollerin’ out at me because I was wearing a scarf and gloves in October, like the wimpy Southerner I am! Hahaha! It was too funny! Let me tell you - I had a blast in NYC - I met so many people, even had shouting matches (mostly in good spirits) with them, while my mother just stood back and watched the show! She kept telling me, “You were supposed to be a New Yorker!” I have been telling her all my life that I LOVE New York and it was one of my dream trips - that was why she took me in the first place!

Am I good at digressing, or what?

Anyhoo - back to said bartender. He’s totally flirting with my mother, and hanging out at our end of the bar talking with us the whole time we were in there. And he was telling us that there was a really great boat ride we should go take the next day. So he says, “When you go back to your hotel, ask the hotel consiliere about it.”

OMG! Mom and I were dying - trying so hard not to laugh in the guy’s face! He really was a nice guy, and it was kind of cute, and really - oh-so-New-York for him to say that, right? As I (I don’t know about you) only think of New York, when I think of the mob.

When we left there, we were laughing all night over it!!

That was the funniest little bar - the damn toilets were crooked - like installed on a floor with an incline! We were laughing when we thought of all the drunk people that go in there to go potty - damn, it’s making me laugh now!

That was one cool bar - I just loved it!

This right here is one of the answers to my prayers regarding my computer! Mark has outlined a whole plan of action in getting me back to where I want to be - and included in the plans is a portable hard drive - and how freaking cute is this?

I love it - and it could even have my name and phone number on it! I like the cranberry-colored one!

I don’t know, I might need more than one!

I’d say two of the 4GB would make me feel better about things! At $69.99 a pop - that would be about $150 - not too bad, I think!

And they’re PINK!! Who could argue with that?

Let me tell you, for Valentine’s Day - you could totally forget the flowers if you wanted to show up with two thumb drives for me!!

And they’re pink! Did I say that?

It’d be just like on the White and Nerdy video! Oh yeah! “Oh honey! You got me an external thumb drive? Oh honey! Oh!” *smoochy, smoochy, smoochy*

I am so severely bummed about not having my own computer - it is driving me crazy!

Maybe I didn’t post about it here, but, in November, my beloved hard drive crashed - kaplooey!

Just kersplat! Crash-ola, gone! It was a very sad day, indeed!

My precious husband got me back up and running, God bless him - on our sons’ computer - and I am so extremely grateful for that! As much as he complains about my constant computer time, he jumped up and helped me out - without my even asking him! That was totally awesome and really, really touched me.

There are a few complaints I have about this machine, though. It is running Windows ME - isn’t that from caveman times? I think it must be, because there are so many applications that do not support it! I can’t even get the freaking Google toolbar! Or the new MySpace IM - not that that is a necessary thing, but, that is just another example I can think of off the top of my head of software that has slammed its door in my face!

Also, the video card is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay messed up - you wouldn’t even believe what I have to look at on the screen - think 70’s television sets with the vertical lines - serious! Ugh!

And the settings on it are all funky cadywumpuss! (yes, that’s a new word, and yes, I like it - thank you very much!) The screen doesn’t really go all the way to the edges of the monitor - there is a black border all around, you know what I mean? And yet - what I’m seeing is all stretched out - so that on practically every site I’m on - there are vertical and horizontal scroll bars! It is purely maddening!!!!!!!!!! And I cannot seem to fix it for the life of me!

But the complaint that brought us here - to this giant, whiny, bitchy post - is that I can’t freaking get the printer set up correctly to print out my labels for My Very Own Mail! The labels are being printed off-center - and going off the edges of the labels - on top and bottom and on the sides! Not to mention, I lost my original copy of my logo…

Isn’t it cute??? But, I am having to swipe it from my photobucket account and from my sites, and for publishing on the web, that works fine (in most cases) but, for printing out, I am winding up with the ‘copy of a copy’ syndrome.

This is definitely not good, because I print it out on labels for the envelopes that the kids’ letters and goodies go in!

So I spent all day yesterday trying to get my letters together, and it was so maddening!

I can’t wait until I make enough money to fix my machine! And I know the kids can’t wait to get theirs back!

/end complaining - return to your normal cheery day!

Sometimes depth of character and passionate souls are found in the last place on earth you would expect to find them - like in the fashion industry.

However, that is exactly what you will find with the company, Belisi. The company was began by a man struggling to take care of his wife and baby, and grew from a keen eye for a stand-out tie collection, to a line of luxury fashion accessories.

The character and passion comes in with the company’s philosophy, Luxury with Meaning. That philosophy is carried out by donating a portion of every purchase, no matter how big or how small, to the cause of your choice.

Now that, to me, is a breath of fresh air!

I am so tired of dreaming that I am moving to Alabama! Dammit!

That happened over six months ago - it’s done, we did it - over! We’re here!

Now please let me quit re-living it one hundred different ways!

I dream that we are moving here at least a few times a week! I wake up exhausted, emotionally spent, and sad, missing Dallas again!

Sometimes I dream that it’s the day we’re leaving and we’re all together, crying!

Sometimes I dream that it is our last holiday/birthday gathering - as last Christmas was kind of sad, knowing we wouldn’t be there this year. And also, we left on July 1st - and in May, we had my birthday, my brother’s birthday, and Mother’s Day. So those were kind of sad, too.

My mom did decorate the ENTIRE house for our birthdays, though!! We always have our party together…and Momma did more decorations than ever - she even decorated the back yard!! And we turned 36 and 40! It was really great, though! Made the sweet a lot stronger than the bitter.

So anyway, back to the dreams - sometimes I dream it’s one of those family gatherings…

This last rendition of the dream did have an interesting twist at the end. See, when we got here, to Alabama, we had to stay at my MIL’s house for a few weeks because of plumbing issues with the house. So in the dream, we also couldn’t move into the house for a while - but, instead of the MIL’s house - we were moved into this ‘apartment’, and I use that term VERY loosely!!

This ‘apartment’ was the freakin’ BOMB!! Unbelievable! It was so cool, that Sammie hadn’t even noticed that her bedroom was kind of small. The kids were running through the place like excited monkeys!

It had three sets of stairs - inside the house! The kitchen was amazing! It not only had an island, but, also had a breakfast bar - and they were both so big, that they both had barstools at them!

And of course, you have to have those little weird things in your dreams. The cooktop was on top of the dishwasher instead of the oven. Odd little detail.

Anyway, it was really cool and we were all so excited. So that kind of made having to have the dream a little more bearable.