Thursday, November 26, 2015

Being Thankful for Thanksgiving

I would like to take a moment to Thank everyone and anyone that reads this silly blog that I started.  I suppose the reason why I started it was to have a voice that would be listened to by someone, anyone.  Sometimes I do actually produce a jewel.  My, like many others lives, is filled with trials and tribulations, triumphs and failures, kindness and sometimes selfishness and I believe that it is possible to affect people by the written word, and that is what I hope to accomplish be it good or bad.

As a human on this planet I hope to one day pass on a legacy, not of money or property but of understanding, compassion, empathy, and kindness.  While I know some of my posts go off the deep end, people and hypocrisy drive me crazy!  I do not want it to be said of me when I shuffle off this mortal coil that was was anything less than caring, compassionate and somewhat insightful.

I feel that you get what you give for the most part, and if you are decent to the people around you it will come back to you in some way or form.  You just need to be open enough to see the way it comes back to you.  I see so many closed minds, opinions and attitudes these days, this world we live in is not black and/or white but mostly made up of gray.

So In ending I would like to say Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.  As we sit at our tables of prosperity and wealth give thanks for what you have now and remember not everyone on this planet has it as good as we do here in the United States of America.

Peace out...

Thursday, November 19, 2015

My Boys - Part 4 - Fredrick

This here is my boy Fredrick, named after the one and only Fred Astaire!  Freddy came to us in the winter of 2010.  It was a brutal winter, I lived in Matawan, NJ in an half of a house on this dead end road.  There was a colony of cats that lived near this factory at the end of the road, where the workers there would feed the cats and kittens in return for them keeping the property rodent free.

A few times that winter we got well over 2 foot of snow.  I didn't leave my house for days but you would look outside and you would see Fred hanging out in the street, all scruffy and skinny looking.  We honestly thought that he was someone's cat because he was so friendly, would walk right up to you and let you pet him.  I found out one day that he was just a stray, and had no real place to live.  So we decided to take Fred in and give him a home.

Well Fred went from being an average sized cat of about 5 to 8 lbs to a monster of a kitty weighing in at 18.5 lbs.  He has a heck of an appetite!  The thing with Fred is that because he was almost feral and lived off the land for at least a year, he would catch and eat rodents and bugs.  But because of this, when we took him in and started to give him dry cat food, he ended up with his little kidneys packed with crystals and was hospitalized for a few days to flush him out.

Its seems that a semi feral cat gets their liquid intake from the rodents and bugs that they eat and that is enough to sustain them.  However when you take one of those cats into your home and give him dry food, he doesn't drink enough water to flush himself out and so, gets the crystals.  So now, Fred gets extra water in his canned food and a dish of milk/water every morning.  (milk is NOT harmful to cats when you dilute it).  He also eats about 2 6oz cans of food a day.
We do love our Fat Freddy though, he was very shy at first but he came around in short order.  As a matter of fact, he and Reilly are very good friends.  Fred also things he is a dog.  He goes out with the dogs, comes in with the dogs.  He even poops in the yard with the dogs!  And he is bigger than my smallest dog Fu!

Anyway you take him, you have to love Fat Fred, he is a treasure in black and white fur!

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Viva La France

I didn't find out what was going on in Paris until I got home from work on Friday.   I heard someone in my hallway at work say that something got bombed in Paris but these days its not really unusual to hear of a bombing somewhere, so I didn't really give it a second thought.

When I saw the news Friday night I was taken back to another time, it seems like so long ago now, but in my mind it was like yesterday, September 11, 2001.
While I realize that there were no planes crashing into buildings or into the ground, and there were not 1000's of people dying, it was no less than that overwhelming forlorn feeling that I had in the days and weeks after 9/11. Unless you were on the East Coast, I do not believe that you really could understand what it felt like after those attacks.

Paris, the city of light, art, love.  Another country of free citizens that live in a relatively decent world.  Of course countries like ours all have our problems but we do what we can and we get by, for better or like friday, worse.

For these animals (ISIS) to target the citizens of a country, they are no more than cowards hiding behind the disguise of a religion.   They are mad at us and people like us, not for any true religious reasons but because they have all the oil and they still live in shit.  Why do they live in shit, because they are barbaric animals that have not learned to live in this new world where you have to actually WORK for what you have! This is all about their twisted half baked retarded interpretation of their Muslim religion.  If you ask me, they are nothing more than homicidal maniacs with a supposed mission. These people are nuts, and anyone that sympathises with them, are just as guilty as the ones doing all of the killing.    I'm not going to go on a tirade on how horrible and disgusting these assholes (no pun intended) are, but it sure makes me believe even more that religion or the pursuit of enlightenment or religious grandeur, will be the downfall of the world that we know.

So in ending I just want to say my heart goes out to the people of France, the city of Paris and all of those people that were affected by this act of terror.   I know it's not easy now but know this, do NOT give up your way of life for anything, if you do they will have won.

Viva La France!



Monday, November 16, 2015

My Boys - Part 3 - Smokey

This is my boy Smokey.  Smokey is about 8 or 9 years old now.  We are not really sure how old he is really.  We got him from this crazy woman that used to live with us.  (don't ask, it wasn't a good time in my life!)

Smokey is a polydactyl, meaning he has 6 toes on each back foot and and 7 on each front foot. The real interesting thing about Smokey is that all of his extra digits all work, they flex, they all have claws in them.  Usually polydactyl cats extra toes are just for decoration, but not smokey, he's the real deal.

The moment I saw this cat I knew I had to have him.  He is a Russian blue and he is very friendly. and he loves to talk!  He can also balance walk any fence and he's a skilled hunter having caught many mice, birds and moles.  Needless
to say, I have never had a rodent problem with smokey around.

Although I did not get Smokey from a shelter, I like to think that I did rescue him.  The person that had him before us did not care very well for any of her 4 cats or dog.  All of which have died by now.

Smokey is actually my first boy as I have had him longer than any of my other animals.  He is very pretty and extremely photogenic and I swear sometimes he poses for the camera!  He is without a doubt a lap cat as he is always wanting to be on my lap!  He also loves to be held, so I usually sling him over my shoulder like a baby.



Thursday, November 12, 2015

People are So Dumb - Starbucks war on XMas

I read and listen to a lot of news.  I think I am going to start a regular blog post called "People are so Dumb"  Mostly because, well people really are dumb and need to find something constructive to do with their lives other than bitch about shit that NO ONE GIVES A CRAP ABOUT!

The latest and seriously stupid gripe I can't believe that they actually wasted 5 minutes of news time for this morning is whether or not Starbucks has an all out war on Xmas because, Get this, they didn't decorate their coffee cups this year...

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?  First of all, their coffee taste like warm shit strained piss and the only way to make it palatable is to add all of the crap, sugar and whatever else they have on the table to it.  Second, you have to have a degree in ebonics to be able to order it.  Third, there are too many stupid people out there that will pay $5.00 for a cup of CRAPPY Coffee because it's the "cool place to be".

So the story is that some people believe that Starbucks has its panties in a knot and are not showing their love for Xmas this year because of the plain red cups with their normal logo.  These freaking morons, need to be wearing tinfoil hats so that we can distinguish who among us is an idiot.

I just do not understand why or how anyone in the world would come up with no xmas design on a cup means that a company is against a specific holiday?  Are people really that self absorbed and egotistical that they would not think, Hey, maybe jewish people don't like xmas shit on their cups, or maybe the bone shakers have a problem with xmas decorations on their cups?

Why is it that the Christians/Catholics are always so one sided?  Don't we live in a world with many religions/societies/people?  Why must we cater to one or the other and then be called bias if we do?  Is this what the TRUE meaning of Xmas is all about??

As far as I'm concerned no matter what cup you put that nasty burnt shit tasting brew in, it's always going to taste like steamed shit!  As for an all out war on Xmas, really people?  The stupid cup is STILL red and the stupid LOGO is still GREEN (which btw is a PAGAN Goddess) there is your STUPID Xmas decoration!

And on a side note...WAWA makes the BEST coffee ever, only second to my Hubby who really is the Sensei of Coffee in the great northeast...


Monday, November 9, 2015

Finally! over the HUMP!!!

Well it took more than a month but damn it, I busted through that plateau that I was on.  I finally got out of the 230's into the 220's, 229 to be exact.

I am about about 1 year, 2 months out of my surgiversary and am down now a total of 125 lbs.  Now that's A LOT of weight!  After about a year, the extreme weight loss by the week (between 3 and 5 lbs a week) stopped and I only hit my very first plateau at 13 months out so that is very good.

However, I'm still 229 lbs, which is not where I want to be.  Ideally I would like to be in the 160 to 190 range.  Lets face it, fat girls are not going to be 125lbs ever!  If you are, you are young, not an old fart like me.

I know that I should exercise more.  I do get out at least 3 times a week and walk from 1.5 to 3 miles.  I really should find the time to get on my exercise bike once in a while but there are only 24hrs in a day and 12 of them I'm at work (that's where I go walking) and 6 to 8 of them (more like 6 because the animals don't let me sleep much) I'm sleeping so I'm left with 4 to 6 hours to clean my house, make dinner, play with the animals, listen to my hubby...

Maybe I can multitask, listen to the hubby while I'm on the exercise bike? Or make the animals follow me around when I'm cleaning? They already do when I am cooking...

So how do you get exercise in?  I need some suggestions...




Friday, November 6, 2015

My Boys - Part 2 - The FU

This here is FU.  We have had FU for a little over a year now.  FU comes from Kentucky and Tom's brother.  Because of circumstances, Tom's brother could not care or keep FU any longer.  So one weekend last October 2014, we did a marathon run to Kentucky and picked him up and brought him home.

Really he is the sweetest little guy you ever want to meet.  He is part pomeranian and we have no clue what else.  Although he is only 18lbs wet, he seems to think he is as big as a wolf!  He and Reilly are inseparable bestest buddies ever.

FU had a rough start in life being that he was tossed from a moving vehicle at about 10 weeks old.  He had multiple contusions, gashes, possibly a fracture in his left hip and snout.  However Tom's brother happened to be outside not long after it happened and found the little guy mostly unable to walk.  He nursed FU back to health over the next few months.

To this day FU sometimes walks with a limp, usually when its cold or rainy and he has a big scar on his side under his fur and a bump on his nose.  But we don't care, we love him anyway!

FU loves to play with his squeaky toys, usually anything that Reilly finds an interest in, FU will want it. He has a larger than live attitude and lets you know it!  He is a barker and whiner, and there are a few people/dogs that he just DOES NOT LIKE.  However he is a master birder and loves to chase the squirrels out of the yard.

This is our FU
2 year old Pomeranian mix, best bud to Reilly....

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Election Day

Today is November 3rd, 2015 and it is an Election Day.  It's not a Presidential Election but it is none the less an important election day.  All election days should be considered important but the off year election days will actually affect you more than a presidential/senate/house election ever will.  So before you go home from work today, stop by your voting place and cast your vote, it IS the American thing to do!

This year in my little now home town of Morrisville, PA, it has been a contemptuous year of politics.  It has really amazed me that small town politics can be so personal, and nasty and full of HUGE egos.  I have to believe that no one starts out that way but usually somewhere along the way, politics ends up corrupting even the most genuine and good intending people.

So today is the day we have all been waiting for, will the old regime be overthrown by the new progressive pack? Or will we have 4 more years of what we have had?

You have to understand the chess game that is local politics.  In Morrisville, it is and has been predominantly Democratic forever (industrial town, east coast, just outside of Philly...Hello).  It's a small, and I mean small like in only 2 miles small, town adjacent from Trenton, NJ, which as most people know was a big industry town many years ago.  "What Trenton Makes, the World Takes" was the motto.   Currently the ratio of Democrats to Republicans is almost split even being 51% Democrats and 49% Republicans.  Which makes for some Interesting Facebook time I can tell you that.

There was a time when the Republicans headed the helm and I will say from what I have read and can find, kept taxes artificially low, did not spend money on the things that they should and ruled the roost as if they owned their own private kingdom...BUT

The Democrats are no shining angels in this disaster movie.  For years now they have been entrenched in nepotism to the point where just about everyone that works in the town is related to or friends with some member of the counsel or boro manager (which is another post in and of itself).  And I'm not saying that these people are bad people but is that really the right way to run a town?  Wouldn't it be more prudent to hire the most qualified person for a job? There is also the little problem about them allowing our town go basically without a police force for about 14 months before they decided to do something about it.  A report that cost the tax payers $100,000's of dollars that just "poof" disappeared.

My point is that no one is perfect, but I believe that things will get better if we collectively work together.  Sometimes it's wiser to bite your tongue then to have an opinion on everything in order to make things work for all involved.  We need leaders in our community that will listen to the good and the bad and include the community and work for the betterment of everyone.

So before I leave work and go cast MY vote, I just want to say Good Luck to everyone Running in Morrisville and lets work together to move forward!

Monday, November 2, 2015

Yes I really am a Minister

In May of 2014 I found this website and was quite intrigued.  I have always thought of myself, spiritual, not religious, when in fact it turns out, I can't really buy any of the God theories.  I find it hard to wrap my head around the belief that this old guy sits up in the sky and dictates everything we do down here on earth as if he's some great puppet master.

Religious people often confuse me.  Most of them claim they live by the word of Jesus Christ when in fact, they pretty much do and say the exact opposite of what he taught his followers.  Love thy neighbor, isn't that what they say, yet more of them vehemently believe in the death penalty and viciously hate gay people.  How is that loving thy neighbor?

I digress, so back in May of 2014 I come across this site Universal Life Church and found out that you can really become an ordained minister.  I thought it a joke at first but then my I figured what the heck?  Even though I do consider myself an Atheist, I still have a moral code and beliefs that people should treat each other with at least a little empathy, compassion and some decency.

It wasn't long after I let people know that I got hired (well it was a favor to a friend) to perform my first wedding ceremony!  It was actually really nice.

I'm thinking of doing doggy and kitty blessings next and I now fully believe that you do not have to believe in a God to be a person that administers compassion and kindness...

Now I just need a name for my Church...

Any suggestions?

My Universal Life Church Ordination