ay dios mio

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The cop that she kisses!  

milestones

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Today is a much anticipated milestone for me but it comes with a surprise milestone attached.  I've been looking forward to today as it completes my first full year of blog posts.  I can't believe that's all the longer that I've had this, it seems hard to imagine my days without the constant thought of blog posting lingering in my mind.

The other day I expanded all twelve months of this year on the side panel so I could see every post.  It was overwhelming.

But while I've looked forward to the end of this year for a while now I didn't realize it would also mark me breaking the first pay barrier, meaning I should be getting a check some time next month.  When I first started my blog I had a completely unrealistic idea of how long it would take to get my first check.    At some point I just gave up entirely and figured I'd never see the day.  And then I met Stina.

Thanks in large part to her I was able to surpass my goal before the end of the year.  So thank you Stina, I will buy you a drink in Key West : )

For now I am going to live it up in the last of 2011, and enjoy my final days of being in my mid 20s.  Ugh.

nice running weather

And it looks like my phone is back to its weird focusing issues, leaving this picture looking like one of those old 3d images that you looked at through that plastic viewing thing.  You know what I'm talking about.

It got cold down here the past couple days leaving me fairly unmotivated.  Yesterday I had every intention of going out and being productive but in between getting all dressed and leaving the house I spilled chocolate on myself.  I ended up back in my pj's and asleep by like 6pm.

But today is going to be different!  I've already been out on a brisk midday run and now I'm off to work.  I may even go out tonight after work!

We'll see...

reunited

And it feels so good.

Between me working so much and going out of town on my days off the detective has been pretty angry.  Angrier than usual.  Yesterday was my first day off in a while that I didn't have to rush off and do a million things and it took the detective about half the day to figure it out.  He kept expecting me to abandon him, then eventually he just wanted me to leave him alone.

Now it seems we're back in the old routine.  I love him and cuddle with him, he screams in my face and acts like he doesn't even know who I am.

We're best friends.

i'm amazed at the clarity

There is really no way I could talk my way out of this, the only explanation I can come up with is that I was probably looking at street signs and didn't notice the light had blatantly turned red.

I had grand dreams of having my christmas/birthday money last me well into march but thanks to things like this ticket, or my silly electric bill, I'm almost through it already.

Today will tell if I'll have any left by the new year or not.

Anyways, I hope you all had a lovely holiday.  I caught up with some much needed chores before spending the evening with my neighbor Heather and her family.  It was really nice.  So nice I didn't think about my blog at all so this is the only picture I took all night:

It's that precious angel climbing up the decorative bamboo.  Heather tries to claim that she's bad but I don't see it.  Those were obviously placed there for her to climb up, I don't see what the problem is.

I hope I get to babysit her again.  Unfortunately I am not spending today playing with adorable kittens, I will be spending it at work.  For those of you still on vacation, enjoy.

santa?

When I went to the laundry room this morning I found what I can only assume is santa's gifts to me.

How does he always know exactly what you want?!

the best thing I saw all day

These were attached to the most beautiful and amazing woman ever.  I loved her.

She won me over when the first thing she said was, "you are very handsome, but you probably get that all the time".   She also had a smoothie and she kept asking me if I had any rum she could add to it.  In her words, "happy hour is whatever hour you need to get happy in"

Omg she was too fabulous.  She told me the ring fingers are individually placed swarovski crystals so I asked her what she was going to do with them when she didn't want them on her nails anymore and she was like, "i guess throw them out".

All I want for christmas is to be her when I wake up tomorrow morning.

it was inevitable

Watching (and re-watching) that video of Jennifer Hudson on diva's live gave me the fever, the diva fever.  And there's only one cure for a fever that hot.

I'm sorry, this performance is just too good.  The hair, the dress, the crazed look in her eyes, perfection.  Since she doesn't do any soprano in this it's easy to forget just how incredibly deep her voice can get compared to when she hits the high notes.

Ugh, so good, I am just alternating between watching this and the Jhud video.

news from the detective

First I just want to say that sometimes when I look at him with his big bushy tail all stretched out like that the only thing I can see is this:

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You see it right?

Anyways, here's the latest news from the detective; he's bad.  I don't know if he's still punishing me for having been gone for so long or what but his newest thing is scratching at the front door all through the night.  I don't know what he thinks is going to happen besides me throwing my pillows at him but it's driving me nuts.  The first thing I'm doing when I have time off is getting a spray bottle, then we'll see how long he keeps up with this scratching nonsense.

Unfortunately for now I have to go back for another long shift at work which means I'll be coming home to one angry cat.

yes, yes, and yes

Get More: Jennifer Hudson, Night of Your Life, Jennifer Hudson Music Videos, Live Performances

i'm dying, i died, i'm dead.

thank you Jonathan for sending this to me as well.

all I want for christmas is THIS

Thank you Jonathan for sending this to me.

I can see it

Tonight my night was made by two VERY drunk identical twins who came in to our store and were infatuated with me.  And when I say VERY drunk I mean they were shopping at the mall at 10 at night with styrofoam cups filled with booze that they really didn't need as they were already hammered.

I loved them.

Right off the bat they decided that I was Tristan from Legends of the Fall  and proceeded to refer to me as such for the entire time they were in the store.  They decided they liked me because, "I have an answer for everything" and they wanted to hire me.  I asked them what they did and their response was, "nothing, we're rich as fuck".

The jobs they offered me included, driving their ferrari and being a basketball player.  I'm not really sure in what context they would need a basketball player but I am willing to do either.

So wherever you are old drunk twins, I accept your offer.  Please contact me so we can work out the details.  Thanks.

it got me going and coming

After a busy last week I feel like I'm coming down with some kind of illness.  It doesn't seem terribly serious but I figured I should go for a run and hopefully sweat it out.

It was quite the rollercoaster of emotions, at times I was pleased with my decision but then moments later just wanted to lay down on the side of the road and pray for death.

But it is really beautiful right now.  I was reveling in it being winter and I was still wearing the same running shorts I wear in the summer.  As I reflect on it now I do feel like I dislodged some of the black lung that's been plaguing me the past few days.

And as the title suggests I got stopped by the drawbridge both ways.

I still prefer getting stuck here to getting stuck in between subway stops.

good intentions

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When I did a google image search for "good intentions" this showed up on the third page of results.  After thinking on it for a while I'm convinced it should show up on the first page of results at least.

But the point is that I've had a lot of good intentions regarding blog posts I wanted to write but by the time I get home I am too tired to do the grunt work.  Lets just say they involve drawings which I know Andrew loves.

The good news is that these posts are timeless topics so I can still do them even if not immediately upon thinking about them.  What I need to do is start writing them down so I can keep track.

So anyways, yes, this is a post about how I have nothing else to post.  Except a man pushing a watermelon across a rural highway while ravens descend hoping to hear his rendition of classical gas.

The best intentions.

why is he so bad

I was talking with Heather yesterday and had my front door open.  The detective went creepin' past me with such a purposeful stride and just went directly in to the mail area.  It's underneath a set of stair so it slopes down towards the back making my attempts to get him remind me of this:




I had to just leave him back there sneaking around and furiously sniffing everything until he decided he was done and came out.

He's also gone through his full range of "welcome back" emotions.  All over me at first until I finally sat down and gave him pets for like 30 minutes.  At some point he just really slowly and calmly rolled over on to his back and started biting me and kicking me.  And now he's ignoring me.

Everything is back to normal.

for Meghan

No visit with Meghan would be complete without a game of scrabble.  Every time we pull out the game board I find this mysterious writing on the back of a score sheet and can't stop laughing.  We're not entirely sure who wrote it either.  All signs point to Sam but Meghan is always at a loss for an explanation as to why he wrote these three names.  I think we always make plans to ask Sam but after the 5th rum and cider it's a challenge for us to remember anything.  Like state capitals.

ME:  Why is it that most state capitals have nothing going on besides politics?  There are only a few, like Nashville has a lot going on besides being the capital of tennessee"

MEGHAN:  Yeah that's true.  Well lets just start naming state capitals and maybe we'll think of another.  Ummm....Pierre North Dakota...or is it South Dakota...I'm not sure.  Hmmm.  What's the capital of Tennessee.

ME:  Ummm...I don't know.  Wait...didn't we just discuss this and I said Nashville?

MEGHAN:  Oh yeah.

At that point we actually weren't drunk, though I could blame the freezing cold for my inability to think.  Meghan convinced me to go with her to Bed Bath and Beyond after giving me a sob story about how it was her last day to have them apply a 20% off coupon to a receipt for things she had purchased some time ago.  Of course once we actually got there and had them apply the 20% she only ended up getting back like $4.00.

But I say it was worth it because without cash we wouldn't have been able to take this picture:

Awwww aren't we just adorable.  Except for in the first one where I look like the joker.

Anyways, thanks for a great weekend Meg.  For those of you I missed I will be back in the city soon and hopefully for longer than a day and a half.

that's what Jon said

It's funny how one missing letter makes such a difference.  This was on the menu at rai rai ken where Meghan and I had dinner last night.

I can't believe my whirlwind trip is already over and I'm back at JFK waiting for my flight.  It was a really nice visit to nyc but I'm anxious to get home to the detective and the sunshine.

Wish me safe travels!

I've missed this place

From the moment I got to the 6 train platform and saw this terrifying ad I've become quite nostalgic for my life in nyc.

My first order of business was getting 9th St. with Meghan before heading downtown to get my haircut.  The best part about having Christina cut my hair is that I get to hang out with precious angels like dolly while I'm there.

She did not help my wanting a little dog problem.

She did not help at all.

And this other bundle of joy made me miss the detective and reminded me that I should really get a little doggy to be his friend because it clearly makes her VERY happy:

Once Meghan and I finished with all our chores we did the only thing we could think of to warm ourselves.  Jam our faces with delicious pizza.

If I lived as close to motorino as Meghan does I don't think I would eat anything else.

Otherwise our day/night last night was pretty lowkey.  I got to accomplish a long held life goal of getting Meghan and Laura together and it was magical.  I think my favorite was when I reminded Laura of the time some girl threw up on her in the subway and Meghan's face lit up as she exclaimed, "that was you?!"

Unfortunately it was far too cold for any of us to have the energy to pull an all nighter so we eventually parted ways.  It was nice anyways because I got to hang out with Sam a bit when he came home from work and before we all passed out.

I'm not sure what all today will have in store for me but I do know it will include an encounter with the incomparable Dan D.  I can't wait, I think my hair is finally long enough to have achieved his request that he made so long ago.

For now I've got my long johns on and I'm ready to venture to the outside for some coffee.

one year ago

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I can't believe today is the year anniversary of me leaving nyc.

I can't decide how I feel about it.  I'm pretty happy with the way things have turned out down here but I do miss the big city and all my friends.

Is my blog more or less interesting since I left nyc?  Somebody told me that leaving new york was a mistake because I wouldn't be able to find things to stimulate me down here.  I did do two entire posts about some birds on the side of the road...

Haha speaking of my blog I was talking with a friend and I mentioned my blog and he said, "oh yeah I saw something about that on facebook, what's it called, the adventures of a cat?"  I LOVE THAT NAME!  I kind of want to change my blog to that.  But not yet, I'm pretty excited about getting my first full year of blog posts under my belt.  Only a few days to go!

But for today I'm headed to work where I will be reflecting on my crazy year and how much more fun it is to drive a bmw convertible to work instead of taking the 6 train, among other perks of living in south florida.

this old place

Yesterday was very nice.  A+.

Not much was accomplished but it was beautiful and I got to spend some time here.

Complete with tiny birds.

Sad to be heading back today but will be glad to see that special little guy.  Heather has reported that he's on his usual hunger strike while I'm gone.

time flies

It really feels like just yesterday when I was doing this post about rolling the black beauty over to 50,000 miles.  In reality that was back in march, not so much "just yesterday".

If I really wanted to I could totally figure out exactly what activities contributed to the past 10,000 miles and make a sick ass pie chart illustrating the details but I'm too lazy.  I'm on vacation ok, leave me alone.

I hit the 60,000 mark somewhere in alligator alley while en route to Sarasota for a visit.  As you may have noticed, I was enjoying having my car out of stop and go Miami traffic.  And of course it was off and on rain the whole way so if I didn't keep up a good clip I would get drenched.

But it's beautiful here.  I'm hoping I'll get to make it to the beach at some point.  We'll see.

this is getting out of hand

I don't know where it came from but Andrew sent it to me with the caption "mo money mo problems".

wtf?!

I was wondering where he got the money to buy so much jewelry.  Not that this picture answers that question but it at least proves that he's making his own money, and don't you question him as to how.

two very nice videos

It was a good day for receiving video messages from friends yesterday.  Andrew emailed me this video with the suggestion that it was me and the detective.

It's pretty close except the detective is not nearly that agile.  He opts more for just sticking his butt in my face while I'm in down dog, or flopping down on my mat right where I need to be.  I love the kitty in this video, and I wish that I had a butt that could hold small animals on it.

As if that wasn't enough adorableness Jon sent me this video of his precious lady kitty trying to have a snooze:

I love when Jon says he's sorry hahaha.

: (((

Jon also wanted me to point out that the angel dust on his comforter is some kind of detergent and not blow.

Uh huh.

Detective Oliver Benson and the maple syrup mystery

The detective is in this picture, when you find him you will be pleased.

Ok so shortly after I moved in to this apt I started noticing something strange regarding my closet.  As you can see my closet is a decent size and, like the rest of my apt, seems fairly new and clean.  There's nothing unusual about my closet when you are in it, but something happens in there that I cannot explain.

When I take out an article of clothing that has sat folded in my closet for a while without being moved it smells overwhelmingly of maple syrup.  I mean the whole thing, as if it has been washed in maple syrup detergent.  It's not like the part of the clothing that was on the shelf, or the part that was exposed at the top, the entire shirt/sweater/pants/whatever reeks of maple syrup.

The only thing that I have in the closet that would produce any smell at all is the detective's litter box, but I'm pretty certain that he doesn't poop pancakes so I cannot figure out why this is happening.  Speaking of the detective, Stina pointed out that I should have him on the case.

He's getting to the bottom of this.

these guys

Last night I got to hang out with my neighbor Heather which was super fun.  At one point we were talking and I realized that she is the first neighbor I have ever known/been friends with.  She seemed shocked about this until I reminded her that I was living in NYC where your neighbors either don't speak english or are harvesting organs from their apt.  True story, Susanna's neighbors actually were harvesting organs.

Anyways I had a really nice time hanging out with Heather but by about 9 she was ready to decorate her christmas tree and so we parted ways.  I was on the fence about wether I should go out or not but once I saw these nice nice doggies I realized I had made the right choice by venturing out for a drink.

They were just all snuffles and grunts and adorableness.  I don't know what they were doing at the bar but I don't have a problem with it.

I want a nice doggy that I can take to bars with me.

It is almost my birthday...hint hint...hint hint...

same time, same place

Same furious pecking.

that's what she said

This game is tricky.  Most Zelda games follow a very similar order so that once you've got every item you can safely assume that you are close to the end.  In this game however they added the feature of upgrading your items.  Some things like your shield or bow and arrow you upgrade yourself while other things get upgraded for you during the course of the game.

The result is that I have thought that I'm almost at the end of the game for a while now but it just keeps going!  It's really cool except that I keep trying to play the mini games and failing because I think I have the necessary equipment but I don't.  Like that damn bamboo!  How much longer does my sword have to be for me to be able to chop that stupid bamboo?!?!

The good news is that I was able to find somebody to "plow" her "field", and as you may have guessed, it was a grizzled old mole man who lived deep in a volcano.  Isn't that always the way?

for Heather

After I showed my neighbor this post I did when I was watching her kitten I received an email of Heather's mom in her Halloween costume with this message attached:

"My mom wanted me to ask you if you see a resemblance between Mia and Grammy"

I do...

It's uncanny actually...

everything about this

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE!?

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I was browsing reddit and came across this photo that somebody posted of their living room in the midst of repainting.

I'm sorry, that is the detective.  Everything about him!  The way he's standing, the way he's fluffy, the way he's angry.

I feel like this is proof that the detective is leading a double (or possibly triple) life.  I was always suspicious, now I feel so justified.

I swear it's coincidental

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So the comparison has been made between me and Smith Jared from Sex and the City in that I have long blond hair and I worked at a raw vegan restaurant.  Stina in particular loves to point out the comparison when we're working together.

Well last night we had the grand opening party for the new store and it was hosted by some new liquor company that had set up a little bar area in the back of the store.  Much to my displeasure I got stuck in the back of the store, relegated to fitting room duties.  Had I not been however, I may not have interacted with the bartenders as much as I did, and they may have never asked me to be a liquor model for them.

I actually didn't think of Smith Jared initially, as soon as I heard "liquor model" I immediately thought of one of my idols, Megan Hauserman from VH1 reality fame:

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But truthfully my trajectory is more similar to Smith Jared.  I'm kind of disappointed though, I mean, Smith was waaaay less interesting than Megan.  And I'd much rather be with Bret Michaels than Kim Cattrall.  But I don't know that Megan was ever a liquor model, though she definitely should be.

So I will be happy with being Smith Jared for now.  Will keep you posted about my first gig as slutty shot girl!

lunchtime

I was on my run yesterday and came across this gaggle of nice guys just pecking away with all their might.  They were so cute, they just moved really slowly and steadily in a herd, not paying any attention to anything but the task at hand.

It feels so good to not be sick anymore.  I can finally go for a run without wheezing and doubling over after half a block.  Had a long day at work yesterday and another long one today but then I have wednesday off, I look forward to taking care of business.

Hopefully I'll see these nice birdies again.  They always put a smile on my face.

so nice!

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I love everything about this!!!

Omg I want to babysit for them.

Thank you Jonathan for sending this to me.

thank you Joel!!!

Joel took me out to brunch today and surprised me with this book!  I haven't actually read it since I was a kid, though the name has clearly stuck with me.  I'm really excited to reread it now.

I also feel like I need to get a female kitty and name her Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.  I suddenly have so much to do!

Besides being surprised by this gift I was also surprised at brunch by this nice lady:

It was hard to get a good picture as she was extremely interested in a piece of paper that was floating around on the breeze.  I love her and her little hair clips.

Anyways, thanks for the book Joel, and for the kind words.

: )

!!! : ((( !!!

I was at work yesterday when I glanced up and came face to face with this precious precious angel.  Ugggghhhhhhh.

Her name was Lilly and her owner said that she was very sleepy and sad because she just wanted to not be shopping anymore.  I asked if I could take a picture and her owner was like, "oh yes please, she loves the camera, she should look right in to it"

She knows how amazingly adorable she is!!!

: ((((

Even now looking at the pictures I'm going, "awwwww" alone in my apt.

this is me

As I was pouring myself a cup of this last night I was looking at the box and realized that they have captured me quite well.  Right down to the cat who has his back turned to you, encouraging you not to look at him or touch him.

The only difference for me would be the radio should be replaced with a TV showing wheel of fortune or jeopardy.  Then it really would be perfect as I usually make myself sleepytime tea at the start of wheel and am dozing off before I even make it to final jeopardy.

Plus I'm a grizzly bear who wears a nightshirt and stocking cap to bed, as if I have to tell you.