Updated eHow articles

Here's my latest list of bestselling articles - HA! Well, I've made almost $30 this month - it's a few cocktails at least!

How to Get Free Coupons For Key West Florida
How to Use Flowers for Garnishes
How to Buy Over-The Counter Items with a Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
How to Survive The Vacation From Hell
How to Make a Fantastic Key Lime Martini Cocktail
How to Set A Table
How to Travel Safely (For Business Women)
How to Wake Up Cheerful
How to Use Aluminum Foil Creatively
How to Support The Special Olympics Charity Organization
How to Use Duct Tape Creatively
How to Use Toothpaste Creatively
How to Use a Lemon Creatively
How to Get Free Food (or Save Money) at Boston Market
How to Know What A House Is Worth
How to Plan An Inexpensive Honeymoon
How to Drive Safely Among Semi Trucks
How to Make Delicious Atkins Stuffed Mushrooms
How to Make a Dessert Shooter Everyone Will Love
How to Get Free Beauty Product Cosmetics
How to Pack For a Fantastic Beach Vacation

Been a LONG time - again!

Our 'dainty' cat, JB in his favorite pose. Give him a beer and a cigar and he's quite comfortable...He's doing quite well acclimating to the house and the dogs and Gert. In fact, a bit too well - he's taken to following me everywhere (yes, even the bathroom). He's more attached to me than Killian is.

So, it's been quite a while since I've updated the blog - a few things have come into play: John rebuilt my computer so my photos are currently not available until I get my double-external hard drives (which back themselves up - no more lost work!!), and I just haven't had time to get to it. But I will do a quick update, at least on Gert, today.

So, I can't sleep the other night, and I've been sitting in the living room since 3 am. Mom tottles down the steps at 5 looking for a cup of coffee and a few oatmeal cookies. I asked her why she wasn't asleep. Her reply:

"Damn knee. It gets up before I do." Made an appointment that day for a trip to the doctor.

So, we went to the doctor appointment last Monday to check on sleeping pills (must have better ones!) and more pain reliever for Gert's knee. Doctor gave her the next step up in the Fentanyl patch and gave me pretty strict instructions to watch her for side effects. So, Tuesday, put on the new heavy duty Fentanyl for the first time and have had many talks with Mom about side effects (getting 'goofy' is what we call it but, then again, if you know my Mom, you know that she never was quite 'right'). So, we're in the living room, she's watching tv. She looks at me and laughs and says 'I just saw a bird fly right in front of my eyes.' Cracked us both up but uh oh! Here it comes...

But, so far, no horrible side effects. We'll phase in the sleeping pill tonight. I've had another cold the last few days and wanted to wait until I felt better to watch her through the night - I'm sort of expecting some confusion and weakness when she needs to get up. So, tonight, I'll sleep in the guestroom (aka 'the dog room') which is right across the hall and will sleep lightly. But, she's doing quite well and is still on top of her game, humorwise.

More later.

On making new friends....

So, with the world rapidly becoming larger due to the ability to connect with others on the internet, I've made some amazing 'friends' (whom I probably will never meet).

This morning, I sat down in the livingroom, sipped a cup of coffee, ruminated on the fact that DC is in the midst of the largest snowstorm this year (and I'm driving tomorrow!). I turned on the PC and headed over to eHow to catch up for the day. I found this wonderful tribute in my inbox - this is from an eHow friend named Susan Golis:

"My mom lived with me, the last year of her life she was 90 when she passed away. I loved her living with me, we would play cards, and watch TV, go shopping, talk, laugh, plan menu's, plant flowers, we were more like friends than mother and daughter. Sometimes I would fall asleep on the sofa next to her, and awake with her asleep too...she would be holding my hand. Treasure the moments that you have with your mom...."

It's quite heartwarming to run across people such as Susan on the internet. I've 'met' other eHowers who also leave me nice messages and share their experiences with their own aging parents. What a surprisingly nice support group - one that I never even considered when I started playing around with writing articles again.

Here's a link to Susan's articles - go up there and peruse some of them - they're quite good:
http://www.ehow.com/members/Susang6-articles.html

And, here's my latest, greatest -
How to Save Money With Vacuum Sealers

Oh, I made a grand total of $14.27 last month (double the previous month). So, I have a total of $22.07 to spend on something for John's new boat - I'm figuring it's a bottle of wine and 2 candy bars....

Snow is falling and it's gorgeous out - we have probably 4-5 inches at the house here. The dogs were running like crazy around the backyard - I swear I can sometimes hear them laughing.

We also have a new occupant here a the OK Corral - 'Jim Beam' (aka 'JB') the cat joined our crew last month. It took me only about 2 weeks to fully acclimate him to the dogs - he's running around the house right now keeping the mice away - haven't seen a mouse since he came in so it's working. He's quite a nice cat and quite BIG, weighing in somewhere around the 20 lb mark. He's got Rita beat by a mile.

JB is FIV positive which equates, sadly, to Feline Aids. He's probably around 5 or so and quite healthy at the moment. I found him when a dear friend of mine (Nan) knew about his situation. Nan is also the one who hooked me up with The Paw Pad where we got dear wee Rita from.

Anyway, JB was being cared for by a wonderful woman (Amy) and her husband down in Fairfax. He was homeless but, thankfully, Amy cared for him with food. Her dogs are cat-agressive so JB hung out mostly on her porch, awaiting any human contact. He's affectionate-hungry and loves to sit in my lap, curl up into a large ball, bury his head under my arm and drift off to sleep. Quite a change for a cat who once was chewed up and spit out by a pit bull. It's amazing to me that, given his background, he adapted so quickly to the dogs. In fact, this cat is much more dog than cat - he follows me everywhere.

Did I mention that JB is LARGE? He loves to eat. Here he is drinking some milk while the dogs scarf up breakfast.

JB will remain an indoor cat as long as we're in this house - I cannot handle the heartbreak of killing yet another cat. At last sight, he doesn't appear to mind a bit - he's curled up on his bed sound asleep, safe, well fed, and warm.

Here's the eHow I wrote about acclimating JB to the dogs - of course, when I wrote this eHow, I had NO clue how to acclimate a cat. I just did what made sense and it seems to have worked. Who knew?!