Everyone Meet Audrey!

Crazy cat lady, level up! Yes, you read that correctly, there has been a new addition to the family! Everyone meet Audrey! She was adopted from the Arizona Humane Society. I brought her home on May 4th (which was Audrey Hepburn's birthday) The shelter thinks she is about 10 months old, so she is still kind of a baby. She is super sweet and follows me around wherever I go and loves to be petted. 

Audrey (formerly Sylvia) had been at the shelter since March 17th, which also happened to be the same day I started my new job, coincidence right?! Poor sweet girl had been there the longest of any cat available for adoption so I knew I had to give her a new home. Oliver had become a little restless and I could tell he was bored and still a little stressed and was always meowing. Mom had talked to our vet back home and recommended a mate for Ollie since he had always been around other animals. So in my crazy cat lady defense, it was doctors orders ;) 

I won't lie, it has been very stressful introducing another cat to the household. Audrey had been at the shelter for so long, that the humane society explained that a very slow introduction to Oliver would be best. Lucky for me I had to garage to make things easier. They told me to start with scent swapping, so they could get used to each other's smell. This meant I would need to put a blanket of Oliver's in her area, and a blanket with her smell on it in Olivers. So we tried this back and forth for several days. I would spend my time with Oliver in the house, and then go sit with Audrey in the garage for a bit. It was hard to not rush the whole process, because I want them to be BFF's and cuddle for cute pictures. 

There was a lot of hissing, still is hissing. Slowly I would let Audrey in the house to begin exploring her new home, then back to the garage for the night. Even after a couple days, though Oliver wasn't the happiest about his new friend being around, he had appeared to calm down, and the meowing stopped.

Audrey on the other hand is over the moon about her new digs! She acts like she's been here her whole life! She enjoys napping on the chaise lounge, chasing after Oliver, and sleeping at the end of my bed and lounging by the window watching the hummingbirds.

One of the amazing benefits of adopting from the Humane Society, is they offer you a free vet exam if scheduled in the week after adopting, today was Audrey's first vet exam! While she was at the shelter she was in isolation for a bit (which led to her extended stay since she wasn't available for adoption that whole time) with a kitty cold. The vet gave her a clean bill of health and she already weighs 10 lbs! She is going to be bigger than my wee little Olliebutt, I do hope they become friends soon! 

I still keep them apart while I am work, I don't want to come home to a beaten up kitty cat. But while I am home and can separate them should a fight arise, I let them both rule the house.

I think today's trauma of traveling in the car and the vet visit has worn Audrey out, she has been chilling under the couch since we got back (I guess a thermometer in the behind will do that to ya)

It was hard not to want to take all the poor homeless cats at the shelter home, but it seems like they don't have to stay there too long before they go to their forever homes. Audrey was actually found roaming just down the street from where I live, so I think it was meant to be! 

She looks pretty happy here to me! 

A Tale of Two Paintings

Sorry this picture is a little blurry but it's important for the story. This story begins way back in 2006. I had just moved into my new two bedroom apartment and needed some art for the walls. Being a poor college student I couldn't afford much. Please also note this was pre-Pinterest, so this is a completely original art project.

The colors of the room were black and white, and it was a big wall to fill. Enter the arts and crafts project. I went to Michael's and bought two larger canvas boards and a smaller one, add to that purchase some black spray paint, a couple sponge brushes and some white paint and you have yourself a project. The abstract look of my art was just to fill some wall space on the cheap.

Fast forward to last week. I had left these 'paintings' behind since I no longer had the color scheme to match them. I told Gma she could throw the away since they cost like $30 to make. Mom calls me last week to tell me this little story. She said that Gma had been outside dusting them off when a lady was out jogging and stopped her and told her they were so beautiful and she would offer $50 a piece for them. Gma thanked her for the offer but said she would have to check with me. When mom told me that I said "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" She said no, and that the lady said she would be back when she had the chance. Please note: If someone ever offers $50 for a finger painting of mine, you sell it on the spot and offer to carry it to the car! 

I then get a text from mom saying the lady came back and I have $100 on the way. Hooray!! What a very random event, I had to share. I feel kinda bad for taking that lady's money, but oh well! She thought it was worth it! I told Gma I would teach her my artful ways and we can make a killing on splatter painting! 

10 Things: It's Saturday

* I went and got a mani/pedi today. The pedi went well but after I got safely into the car and arrived at my next destination this happened... (will be fixing that by throwing some glitter polish on it and calling it an accent nail) 

* The siblings and I had a fun Skype session last night 

* The siblings have officially booked their flight to come for a visit in June! #AZSiblingAdventure

* A trip to the Grand Canyon is being planned! 

* OL & PT arrive at the end of the month! 

* My good friend from back home got a job out here and will be moving to AZ soon! Can't wait!! 

* I spent a good solid hour or so at Barnes and Noble today checking out the travel section 

* I got a free cookie at Subway today because I put avocado on my sandwhich 

* The high today was 93° which was observed at 5:05pm

* I still have yet to visit the pool

Happy 2nd Birthday Oliver!

Two years ago today in my friends' shed, a litter of little kittens were born. Oliver just happened to be one of those kittens! Happy Birthday Oliver!!

Here's a trip down memory lane.....

Baby Oliver was the only not all white kitten in his litter.

 Here he is with mama and siblings

Little Kitten Oliver feet

Oliver's First Mouse 

Happy Birthday Oliver! 

Postcard Arrival: Goslar, Germany

5,592 miles

8 days

Goslar, Germany

The Snow Pile

You may remember me talking about the Illinois winter that would never end right? Believe it or not, winter is still not giving up just yet.

This photo was taken while I was waiting for dad to get off work on February 10th, that is my car, a Ford Escape. This picture was actually taken before we got several more huge snows. They had end loaders up on top trying to pile the snow higher so they would have room for all of it. I should note that this is all the snow from a huge parking lot, this happened to be the area where they had to pile it all, since they ran out of room. Only so much of the pile would actually fit in the picture.

When I left for Arizona, I made dad promise to keep me posted on the pile, I was curious to see how long it would take it all to melt.

Here is the April 16th update...

and here is today's update, May 7th...

Snow gets so gross as it melts and all the dirt particles show. Yuck! I'm surprised there is so little left, I joked that it would last until June, but I'm not that far off! 

The weather back home has finally hit the 70's so it's been good and warm to melt that snow! Today I was surprised that it was warmer back home than it was here today! It only made it up to 77°F today, and was 90°F back home! The thing about 90° back home is the humidity, mom said it was starting to feel sticky out today. 

Don't feel too bad for me, here is what next week's forecast is looking like

Postcard Arrival: Amsterdam, Holland

5,397 miles
8 days

From: Amsterdam, Holland

Weekend Rewind: Recalls, Warranties, Greeks and Dad

This has been a long week on so many levels. 

First off, Edgar (the Escape) has a recall that needed to be taken care of. Tuesday after work I went to drop off my car for the needed repairs of the recall, which would take two days. Thankfully I was given a rental until the repairs were complete. I've also been having some issues with the suspension, and had a strut replaced when mom and dad were out. There was till a noise in the front so I told them to take a look at that as well. My rental was a 2013 Ford Focus, pretty sharp little car so I didn't mind driving it around. Repairs took a day longer than they thought so I didn't get my car back until Friday. There is still a knocking noise but I wasn't going to pay for the rental while they kept it. I'll take it back again. But they did fix one part which was covered by the warranty. I'm getting spoiled with this warranty (not that I should have to get things fixed) but I'm liking walking to the cashier just to pick up my keys and not have to fork over any cash.

Work had been a long week too, more training for training. We are still learning the things we will be covering to the new peeps. This week we each presented a piece of the material back to our team so we can become familiar with the material as well as start getting used to being in front of a class in the classroom. Leaning for seven hours and forty-five minutes for five days gets tiring, but it's important stuff that we need to know.

Yesterday (Saturday) I spent most of the day at a Greek festival with a couple new friends from work. I wish I had three stomachs so I could have ate more, but holy cow the food was amAZing! I had just a good ol' fashioned Gyro but it was super fresh right off the grill and super super delicious! We took a tour of the Greek Orthodox Church which was putting on the festival. Very ornate paintings and tons of gold leaf. They said one painting cost $8,000 to complete when they had it done before the gold prices went up. The guide also gave a bit of the history and traditions of the church, which I found fascinating. It actually made me miss Germany and all the churches we got to see over there. While we waited they announced that the official temperature at the airport was 100° which means I spent the first triple digit day in the out of doors! Thankfully there were many tents for us to hide from the sun under, but I came prepared with my SPF 50 just in case! Did I mention the food was amazing because it was. While I didn't partake there was a lamb roasting over the fire, flaming cheese and lots of baked goods. I ended the day with a baklava sundae, Yummo! There was also much Greek dancing and lots of people hollering Opa! 

Yesterday also just happened to be Dad's birthday! So happy Birthday dad! 

Today was another hot day with the high reaching 102°! I managed to get myself to the grocery store but I don't know if I actually bought anything that will make a complete meal or not. I'm actually considering just ordering pizza, because it's easier. Hopefully I'll talk myself out of that here in a bit because, well, I really need to eat better. I did pick up some veggies and fruit at the store when I went, I was bummed they were out of strawberries but I got some watermelon instead. I think I have everything to make a nice chicken caesar salad but I'm lazy today and don't want to grill the chicken. I'm tellin ya, pizza is sounding better and better! 

I hope everyone had a productive weekend and you were able to keep cool!