Finding My Way...

It's a Party!

One of my favorite blogs to follow is that of my friend Angie - Many Little Blessings- and she's having a party there!  She's giving away a $25 gift certificate to Amazon.com!  The party is put on by Five Minutes for Mom, and it's meant to help build on-line friendships.  So make a new bloggerific friend in Angie, and maybe win yourself a little shopping at Amazon!

60 Miles

Today I registered to walk in the Washington DC Breast Cancer 3 Day in October.  For those of you who know me in person, that may be a little surprising.  The 3 day walk covers 60 miles, and I am not in prime physical condition.  That is going to change.  For about a week now I have been back on the bandwagon with Weight Watchers, and I have been walking every day.  This coming week I am going to increase that to two short walks a day until I am ready for more.  The registration packet for the walk includes a 24 week training plan that will begin in April.  Until then, my goal is to increase my stamina and lose as much weight in a healthy fashion as I can.  The way I see it, this walk may not only save the lives of women diagnosed with breast cancer, but in making a commitment and training for it, it may very well save my life as well.

I am walking with my friend Jenni.  We're Team Dash!  We both have different motivations for being a part of this walk, but I'm so glad to be doing it with her.  She's our team captain, and already she has motivated me so much!

I'm not sure what is more daunting, training to walk 20 miles a day for three days, or raising the money necessary to participate.  You can help me with both.  To help me with the training, I would love to hear from you from time to time.  Short e-mails of encouragement are great, a text to let me know you're cheering me on would work, any way you want to show your support!  And of course, you can make a donation.  That handy dandy pink widget to the right there will take you right to a page where you can donate online.

Thanks in advance for your support!

I loves me kitties!

Yes, the grammar there is atrocious, but Tini gets the joke, and since this week is all about Tini the title is for her.

A little over a year ago we brought home two little kittens.  When they were rescued, apparently they were "all hiss and spit" so the shelter named them and the rest of their brothers and sisters after snakes.  We adopted Lyre and Garter, to be renamed Jack and Macy.  Jack Black is dark brown with black stripes and Macy Gray is gray with dark gray stripes.

I can't believe how small Jack was when we brought him home.  He is feisty, and trouble.  He climbs on the counters no matter how many times I chase him down.  He won't sit for petting from DH or I, but lets Emily pick him up and carry him like a rag doll.  If she just holds her hand down at her side he jumps up and rubs against her hand.  He is her bud.  And for that, I let the counter stuff slide sometimes...

Here's my Macy-girl, sometime affectionately referred to as "Ho-bag."  She loves to be petted, and does all the classic kitty moves like planting herself in the middle of the newspaper you are reading, or climbing into your lap and planting herself on the laptop keyboard, etc.  She is way skittish around Em, and favors DH, often lolling onto her back for belly skritches.  Hence the nickname.

They turned one on July 1st, and we've had them a year as of October 1st.  They've grown quite a bit, but they are still fun to have around.  Though I think they both have a future as "kitty muscle" for the kitty mob, as they have tried twice to wipe out the betta fish, Ripley.  Over the summer they pushed his tank off the dresser, dumping him gasping onto the floor, and a few weeks ago they got the lid off of his tank and I found water splashed all over the counter.  Thank goodness for plants to hide under or Ripley would have been sleeping with the fishes...hmmm...that expression doesn't work so well with fish, does it?

Anyways, here are more recent pictures of my furballs, and though I don't have (or want) a mug or other paraphenalia that says, "I loves me kitties" I certainly do love 'em.

Did I mention Jack has a thing for shoes?  Don't walk across the room in untied shoes unless you want him skittering across the linoleum behind you attacking the laces.  Any new shoes in the house warrant an investigation.  Yes, he is using my sneaker as a pillow in this photo.  Weird cat.

Emily got a digital camera for her birthday in June and spent the entire summer taking photos of the cats.  Never came close to filling that 2gb card, but did her darndest.  She actually got a few good shots of the cats.  Bound to happen out of the 300 she took!  Macy's earning her nickname in this one.  Ho-bag.