My cat Pepper

OK the last post was just bitch bitch bitch.  This one should be happier, because I love my babies.

In 1998, my cat Mushie passed away due to kidney related complications.  She was 22- 1/2 years old.  Yeah, that isn't a typo.  I'd only had her for a few years, but she was my girl.  A few months later, I already missed having a cat, so I started looking online at various shelters and rescues, just trying to see who was out there and if anyone popped out at me.  Well sure enough... I found Pepper.

Pepper was about 2 years old at the time, living in a foster home in Falls Church.  She'd been rescued from the streets of Singapore the previous summer and brought to the US with 8 other cats.  The group that sponsored this included a woman in Singapore, KLM airlines and a few people here in the US.  Pepper was the last of the bunch to be adopted.  I emailed immediately.  The next day I recieve a call from the foster "mom" saying that my story about living in Indonesia and then having Mushie sold her on giving me the opportunity.  Pepper, I was told, was not an easy cat to deal with.  I thought, "ah whatever, I can do it".  She had a boy kitten buddy but at the time I could only take her.  They brought both over though, with the thought that Bamboo would make things easier.  Just for the afternoon. 

That night, Pepper still wouldn't have much to do with me, so I left her alone.  I could hear her charging up and down the hall... I swear it sounded like elephants.  Occasionally I'd sneak up and see what she was doing, and she'd stop, meow at me (which sounded more like a wounded goat than a cat) and then start her running up and down again.

As we got to know each other, I learned how sweet she could be one minute, and then how nasty the next.  Getting out of the shower was usually a challenge.  Pepper liked to attack feet.  Two towels became mandatory.  But on the flipside, at night, in bed, Pepper would curl up next to me under the covers and purr until she fell asleep. 

Eight months after we'd first met, we moved into an apartment (I'd been living with my boyfriend at the time).  I called the foster "mom" and asked if she still had Bamboo, which she did.  So she brought him over to the apartment one Saturday morning, and they remembered each other.  By that time though, Pepper had become my shadow so whenever I left the room, she followed me.  This made the foster "mom" happy to see and Bamboo's adoption to me a done deal.  I'll post on him sometime.

To this day, Pepper is my girl.  She is now about 13 years old and as healthy as she could be, thankfully.  Her fur has doubled in length, and her attitude has mellowed.  I still warn people, because she isn't perfect.  She is still my shadow and sleeps under the covers with me.

My family... sigh (boring venting post)

I know everyone has a family member that makes them at least cringe, if not crazy.  I have several that make me crazy.  And probably many of them can say the same about me.  I need to vent, so most of this post is going to be negative.  Just lettin' ya know.

My father is old, I am the oldest and he was 38 when I was born.  He was an only child and his father passed away when he was 17.  That sucks.  He and my mom married but that was probably a bad idea.  I was born, planned.  My siblings were surprises... well I say that but actually my brother has turned out to be more of a disaster.  Anyway, my parents separated ages and ages ago, but didn't divorce until my mom wanted to remarry.  About that time, my father went online and found himself a filipina who is 2 days older than my younger sister, and she brought along her then 5 year old child, who my father adopted.  YUCK YUCK!  He didn't even really tell us until just as he was heading for the airport to fly to Manila to get them.  I've met them two times, fortunately they, up until August, lived in California.  Now they are in TN... I am not sure why but its still a long drive and I'm not going to make it.

My sister is probably the least annoying to me.  We don't have much in common and probably wouldn't be friends if it weren't for our relation. However, on the occasion we hang out, she's ok.  More into shopping and trendy clothes, going to clubs and doing the girly thing.  She's kinda religious but thankfully doesn't bug me about it.  She has similar feelings about the rest of our family so we spend a lot of time on the phone bitching about everyone.  My friends and I call her the "Fun Police" because she can be highly critical of the things we do like watching hockey and football all the time, standing around a fire in the middle of winter drinking beer, ziplining, etc.

My brother, well he's IS a disaster, as I mentioned before.  Arrested multiple times, mostly for stupid things like DUI, drunk in public, etc.  Once he got pulled over and they found coke in his car, but he swears it wasn't his.  This guy just has some major brain issues I think, because he is always getting nailed for stupid things.  Currently, he is in jail on an assault charge.  My mom swears its BS, I don't really know though.  Maybe... he didn't even hurt anyone but he had a sock full of stones when he went to this woman's house to demand she repay him the $3500 she owed.  He'd already taken her to court but despite the judgement against her, she still hadn't paid him.  Stupid.  I don't really have anything to do with him.  I've helped my parents research stuff regarding his continuing screw ups, so they can't complain too much that I don't care.

The biggest thorn in my side when it comes to family though... is my mother.  This woman, I just can't even figure out where to begin.  She is critical of EVERYTHING.  She complains and bitches about EVERYTHING.  Its absolutely amazing.  Nothing is good enough, no one is good enough.  Currently, the only thing on her mind is my brother.  OK she is worried about her 28 year old kid, who is and has always been a screw up.  But hello woman it would be nice to have a conversation with you about something other than him once in a while.  So I've pretty much stopped calling, and haven't been over to her house in a while.  Her husband is cool though.  Not sure how he puts up with her.  Even my sister is tired of her crap. 

One positive thing I can say though, is that our parents really did try to exposed us to as many types of music, religions, cultures, art, etc. as they could.  Every "vacation" we took included museums, historical sites, cultural activities, not just lay on the beach or ride the rides at an amusement park vacation.  Hindsight is always 20/20 and honestly I can say for me, it was a good thing.

Facebook

OK so I'll admit it... I'm addicted to Facebook.  Totally and completely.  I'm that creepy Facebook stalker that is completely harmless, just interested.  I like to see what my friends, former friends, etc are up to.  And I totally love pictures- perhaps that is my favorite part of Facebook.  I certainly have a lot of pictures posted, from old times and recent.  Go ahead, have a look.... if you are my friend that is.

The neatest thing about Facebook besides the pictures, is reconnecting with people I haven't seen in years... I think the longest one is 23 years?  She was my friend in nursery school and elementary school up until 4th grade when we moved.  I actually have a couple other friends from back then but I've seen them more recently.  When I saw friend request from "so & so"... I nearly fell out of my chair.  Turns out she is married, an animal person (like me), and has a lot of the same ideas and opinions that I do, and the lots of different ones as well.  The thought of, "would we still be friends had I not moved" comes into my head from time to time.

There are issues with Facebook, of course.  For example... well this isn't really an issue yet but it does have potential... My good friend had run into a woman from high school after many many years, on Facebook.  They linked up, and started dating.  I met her once, she was cool.   One day I get a friend request from her, so I ask my friend, what do you think, is it cool?  He said sure, why not!  So I added her.  Fast forward a couple months... he breaks up with her due to his stupid non-sensical brain.  I haven't deleted her as a friend, even though she never actually was, but I have no negative feelings towards her.  My friend hasn't asked me to either, though I'm not sure he even remembers! 

Then there are the fan sites... occasionally you see this pop up on the side, "so & so" became a fan of... grass, or something.  Grass, the beach, nose picking, you name it- there's a Facebook fan page for everything.  Some people become fans of everything they like.  And I mean EVERYTHING!!!  I'm a fan of Donald Brashear (formerly Washington Capitals, now the Rangers... sigh), Nutella, The White House (for updates only), BBC's World Have Your Say and sleeping.  Technically... I'm a fan of a lot more things but do I really need to join these pages?   Naw.  Nutella and Sleeping are silly enough.  I love socks but I think I'll skip that fan page.

I love when people post videos too.  Except of course the seemingly cool ones that end up scaring the shit out of you.  Yeah- add me to the "Not a Fan" page for those.  But seriously, there are some very, very funny videos out there that I might have missed if not for fun friends posting them.  One in particular made me laugh like crazy, but it wasn't so much the video as it was my cat's reaction to it.  Here it is:



Anyway, those are just some of my thoughts on Facebook.  I didn't really have anything to write about today so I picked that. 

Today in the news...

Two articles today caught my eye.  OK well more than that but two in particular and they both made me mad.

The first one was about a woman and her boyfriend in Florida who's 8 year old got in trouble for cussing at them.  http://www.clickorlando.com/news/21271665/detail.html 

Her punishment?  Soap in her mouth.  But apparently they made her actually eat it for about 10 minutes... and it caused her to have an allergic reaction.  So the boyfriend took her to the hospital, but only after the mother made the girl clean up the mess.  The hospital apparently called the police, the boyfriend didn't want to deal with it so he took the girl home.

So it got me thinking about how when I was a kid, I had a couple occasions to, well not eat but have my mouth washed out with soap.  In the movie "A Christmas Story" (a classic, my favourite)... the mother just puts a bar of soap in Ralphie's mouth.  My mother actually lathered up and indeed, washed my mouth out.  I'm totally cool with either, to be honest.  Kids really don't show any respect any more.  Shit I sound old... but its true.  And no one is accountable anyway, so just imagine these brat kids growing up?  Sorry but this country is going to hell with all this PC, hands-off, etc bullshit.  I do think though, that making that kid actually EAT the soap was going too far.  And that she had an allergic reaction that included pain?  Yeah... too much.  I bet it wouldn't have been so bad on the adults had the guy stuck around for the cops, explained the sitch, called the mother in.  Now I wonder if there isn't something more in this family's life.  Well, we'll have to see what happens.

The other story is about a woman in Columbus, OH who rented a limo, went to Burlington Coat Factory... told the manager she'd won the lottery and would buy $500 worth of stuff for each person in the store.  Well... times are tough and who wouldn't want to take advantage of that right?  Well... not only everyone in the store, but all the people those people called to come down.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/10/15/COATFACTORY.ART_ART_10-15-09_B3_EKFCJAP.html?sid=101

As it turns out though, the woman was lying, she didn't win the lottery and didn't have the money to buy all that stuff.  So what do all the people in the story who'd been busy grabbing everything they could and all the people outside trying to get in do?  Nope, they did not say oh what a psycho, put the stuff back, and leave.  Instead, people started looting, rioting, stealing, going nuts, etc.  The store had to call in the cops to handle the crowds.

The daughter of this woman says she is mentally ill and off her meds.  She said that the woman has a tendency of doing "extravagant things" when like that.  The cops apparently agree that the woman has problems.  So if that is the case, I'm not mad at her.

I AM mad at the people in the store.  Seriously?  You looted and rioted a store because some woman reniged on a good Samaritan type offer that turned out to be a lie?  You take it out on the store because of someone not even connected to the store?  WHAT THE HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Although I never, ever condone stealing, rioting, looting, whatever... if it had been the actual store that said, oh we'll give you this and that, then turned around and said, nevermind that was a lie, I MIGHT be able to say, well ok that would piss me off too.  But this woman was just some random woman who showed up in a limo and made this offer.  Yeah, it sucks it wasn't true, but don't go looting the store.  Come on people!

The Washington Capitals

Its been a couple days... weeks?  Can't remember.  Anyway.  Hockey season started.  I'm a diehard Washington Capitals fan.  Love my boys.  Its been a long time coming for us to have a playoff bound team.  10 or 11 years I want to say.  A lot of people give Alex Ovechkin (left wing) the full credit.  I agree he is definately one of the main reasons this team has been the South East Division champs 2 years in a row, but I'm also going to give credit to the rest of the team, especially the rest of the "Young Guns"... Mike Green (defense), Nicklas Backstrom (center) and Alexander Semin (left wing).  And Coach Boudreau is no slouch either.

Coach B, Big Daddy as I like to call him... came down from Caps AHL farm team the Hershey Bears after Thanksgiving in 2007.  The Caps were 30th in the league when he got here, and by the end of the 2007-2008 season the boys had done well enough to make it to the first round of the playoffs.  That year, he was named Coach of the Year by the NHL.  I actually cried with joy when he was awarded that Jack Adams Award.

That year as well, Alex Ovechkin went home from the NLH awards ceremony with the Hart Trophy (team MVP), the Lester B. Pearson Award (most outstanding player by vote of his peers), the Art Ross Trophy (league's leading scorer) and the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy (league’s top goal scorer).

Last year, the team knocked the New York Rangers out of the first round of the playoffs.  Unfortunately, they fell asleep during game seven of round two, this time against the Pittsburgh Penguins who went on to with the Stanley Cup.  A shame that Cindy Crybaby Crosby (Sidney Crosby) got that honour.  Hate that guy.  Ugh.

The team, the franchise... all involved... have become the darlings of this city, and rightly so. It's so nice to go to the arena and its full of red clad Caps fans (Rock the Red).  Last year they sold out 29 times.  That is full on amazing, considering 8 years ago we'd go to games and you could buy a seat 3 rows back for virtually nothing.

The boys have played 3 games so far, game 4 is tonight. They currently stand 2-0-1 and tonight play the NY Rangers.  Season 09-10... I smell a Stanley Cup.

No babysitting for your neighbours!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090930/ap_on_re_us/us_baby_sitter_backlash_mich

In the article linked above, a mom in Michigan has been told by the state to stop watching her neighbours' kids each morning before the school bus comes.  Her house is the stop for the bus, the kids have working parents, the mom doesn't charge and the kids are only there less than an hour.  The parents of the other kids babysit for her too, sometimes.  Its what friends and neighbours do.

So apparently, some other busy body neighbour decided to call the state and report her.  The Michigan Department of Human Services in turn sent her a cease and desist letter saying that it was illegal to keep non-related children for more than four weeks out of a year.  HUH????  They said if she was going to run a daycare center, she had to get a license, and apparently they tried to fine her.  She called to complain, they blew her off.

Then the media caught wind of the story and now its national news.  The governor of Michigan, Gov. Jennifer Granholm was told of the situation and like an intelligent person, went directly to the Director of the agency, Ismael Ahmed and told him to fix it.  State legistators are working to change this law.

In this day and age, in this economy, neighbours helping neighbours makes the absolute most sense, for all those involved- including the state.  Why the state?  Because when you work, you pay income taxes... to the state.  So duhhhh!


I feel terrible for this woman having to go through this.  And I hope they find out who reported her so her kids can go and egg their car.  There is being vigilant, and being a busy body.  Ugh!!!


In other news, hockey starts for real tomorrow.  My Caps are playing game one up in Boston against the Bruins.  While it would piss me off for a team to come to my home opener and beat my team.... I still hope the Caps win.  Our home opener is Saturday.  Man I can't wait.

Denied Abortion despite the Law

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6470403.stm

BBC news reported today on a woman in Poland who was awarded about $33,000 by the European Court of Human Rights is Strasbourg because she had been denied an abortion.  Alicja Tysiac became pregnant in 2000 with her third child.  She was told by three eye specialists that having the baby could damage her eyesight, but none of them would sign off on her having an abortion.  Huh???  

In Poland, a very Catholic country, abortion is illegal except in cases where the mother or the unborn child's health and/or life is at risk.  Ok fine, I am pro-choice regardless but I can live with this.  At least they have the sense to take that into account.  Many other countries, including Chile and El Salvador... abortion is illegal period.  Screw the mother who might die.  Sure, she may have other children to care for, but that's ok.  Sigh.

Anyway, so this Polish woman had the baby and suffered a retinal haemorrhage and may end up going blind.  She has to wear what we tend to call "coke bottle" glasses, she is a single mother of three, and can barely see.  Lucky for her, she hat the European Court of Human rights on her side.  They ruled that Poland had violated her human rights.  Who knows if she'll actually get the money, and it probably won't save her eyesight, anyway.

Look... you don't have to approve of abortion.  That's fine.  I would never, ever tell you that your opinion is wrong.  But I will say that it should be a choice- a personal, PRIVATE choice.  No government should have the right to say, well you can't have one so deal with the reprocussions.

See this link for International laws on abortion:  http://www.medicalabortionconsortium.org/law-policy/