Isabelle's little friend

This is Isabelle. She's 6 pounds of fun. Notice her little friend at the end of her paw. Nice how I got her to point for the picture right? I love how they are the same color, how cute they match.

Isabelle's been having a wonderful weekend. Lots of time outside in beautiful weather, lots of quality time with me. Best part, she made a little friend. Unfortunately, it's a rather one sided relationship. Every time she goes out she finds these little mice. I can't tell if it's the same one or if she's slowly picking off a family. The first two were really small, look like half grown babies, the one in these pictures from this afternoon looks bigger and is much faster. A much better challenge for Isabelle and she doesn't have to throw it around as much to keep it interesting.There you can see it's face in the lower left. It may seem cruel, heck I guess it is,but she keeps them out of my house and lowers the pest count for the neighborhood and at the same time stays entertained and in the yard. I've never heard her purr so loud. FYI it was tradition in my family for my Mom to take pictures of the first bird our cat killed of the year. I figure, Isabelle wears a bell, so birds are fairly safe, but she's welcome to kill all the mice she can catch. Unfortunately for both the mice and the pest control, as far as I can tell, she doesn't kill them. I do pull her off them and bring her in on occasion, but I can't tell if that is worse. Maybe she would finish them off if I would leave her alone.

Procrastination

Ah, you all know I am the queen of procrastination. Why clean my house when I could read back 6 months of Laura's blog? Fascinating by the way. Very interesting read backwards too, kind of like the movie, Momento, but without the violence and murder.

I'm afraid, very afraid, of writing anything remotely incriminating about work, so I don't. But I love reading about someone elses.

Isabelle is my workout partner. When I wake up she runs around and cries for my to take her for a walk. No leash, she likes to sprint from tree to tree, but she comes when I call, mostly, and stays close. I'm her back-up from nasty dogs. When I get home from work, same. If I let her out she just meows on the porch until I go out and walk around with her some more. My life would be very boring without her. Thank goodness no one else in their right mind wanted her for the 6 months I was taking her to adoption events.

Right now she's my blogging buddy, she's sitting about 3 inches from me. I love that she likes to be near, but not necessarily on top of me. Unless I should be up getting something else done and then she sits on me. good cat.
Ooo, DEA in Detroit just started on Spike. I like watching it and Animal Cops Detroit to get a little view of home. Okay, they are actually in the D, not Berkley and Royal Oak, but it still seems homey to me. So sad.

Great weekend, soo tired.

I had a wonderful weekend back in Detroit. I left much to late again and got stuck in Chicago Friday afternoon traffic AGAIN, but once I got to my friends' house and got to see them it was the start of a great weekend. My Saturday started out way to early, but I was very excited to get a haircut. I can't or don't want to find anyone new in Milwaukee, I let one girl try and it was a hack job so back to Tracey, I've been seeing him for about 12 years now. After that, I notice they opened a SEE Optical in Somerset, so I went over and bought a new pair of glasses. I love the styles they have there, I now have to wear glasses every day at work (no contacts allowed in the lab), and I "accidentally" left a large amount on my pre-tax benefit account, so I might as well buy fun new glasses. I such an impulse buyer. I ran down to the Royal Oak farmers market (West Allis is okay, but I still like Royal Oak better) looking for BlueRidge Bakery from Capac, MI syrup. They make these fruit syrups that are outstanding, my favorite is Strawberry Raspberry over ice cream from Ray's in Berkley. Or homemade waffles. Or all 3 together, YUM! I digress. Sadly they were not there, I'll have to go back and look for them in July, but I bought very tasty Pistachio Nut Butter (just ground the day before) and some grapefruit body lotion and aloe hair gel from another stand. I met my brother and work friends at Royal Oak Brewery for lunch, then my bro and I went to the Wings game. It was outstanding, I miss it so much. (We're winning 2-0 right now). Then I stopped at Jenni's and we met a bunch of folks for dinner and hanging out at Marinelli's in Madison Heights. It was great to see everyone and very fun except the WAY TOO LOUD music in the bar later. (DAMN 2-1 Wings/Preds). It was nice to stay at Jenni's, I miss my old condo, it certainly has some advantages over my current place. We went to Toast for breakfast the next morning (yum, Cinnamon toast crunch) then the long drive back here. (DAMN 2-2) I even miss the NPR weekend programming, like Splendid Table, although Says You on WHAD on Sunday is fun. I was beat when I finally got home so napping and bed time. Now how can I have this job back in the D? I suppose I need to get out and meet people here so I won't be so homesick, but my friends in Detroit can't be replaced. Can everyone please move here?
I was grumpy and tired at work today, right after the game tonight, I'm going to bed.

p.s. Ooo, I like how Blogger spell checks...

Go Wings!

Heather, just caught up with your blog and I'll give Twitter a try, too. Maybe I'll be better at that. Besides I can update from my phone, otherwise I can only update at home.

I am so excited for the Red Wings playoffs. No, a season away from Detroit has not dampened my enthusiasum for hockey, although it has been not nearly as much fun, for what I thought would be a hockey state, Wisconsin REALLY isn't.

Coincedentially playoffs also coincides with a great time to take a break. I do like my new job here, thank goodness since it's all I do, but sometimes, like this week, it's overwhelming. So I can't wait to hop in the jeep this Friday and head back to the D. I get to go to the game with my brother and hang out with my friends who I dearly miss. If I miss you this weekend, have no fear, I'm sure I'll be back soon for the next round.

BTW, I am a season ticket holder to the Wings. My name finally came up on the season ticket holder list just when I accepted my new job. My Mom and I discussed it and we decided to get them. She and my brother go to about half and then I found other people to buy all the other ones. But if you are interested for next year, let me know. :) I guess in the back of my mind I think I'll be back in Detroit in the next few years so we're taking it one year at a time, if it becomes a hassle, I'm done.

WOOHOO! The Wings just one 3-1.

That's about it, the reason I don't blog much ( besides the fact I've never been good about it) is all I do is work. Which is really boring to blog about, mostly because I don't want to say too much in case it ever could get back to work. We just had two people in our group take new jobs and you guessed it, they are not being replaced. So there is all the work, and not all the people. Most if it is landing on my boss who just started here in October (she's got a lot of company experience, but just moved to Wisconsin too) and you know what rolls down hill. Oh well, I do like my job, the group, my boss, and that goes a long way to making things worth while. But it's a little sad the thing I'm really excited about is I think I've found a way to weasel into the one office in my area that is a non-shared office, with a door and a window (there are only 2 in the whole area). It's also kind of out back so more laid back and fun. Seriously I dream about moving back there. Which is better than my normal work nightmares when I wake up in a sweat about things I have to do the next day or didn't get done the day before. Or hatch secret evil plots I'll never get to do against the few people that do drive me nuts there. ;)

Everyone also knows my priorities at work, there is a 6 foot by 3 foot "flag" of Zetterberg hanging on the wall in front of my desk. My Mom and bro got it free at one of the last games and sent it to me for Easter. The way my office is now, you can't see it if you just stand at the door, you have to be behind my desk. So it's subtle, until you walk in a ways and then it's so not.

Hee hee, the intermisson and post-game commentary both have Manny Legace as their "guest host". He used to be the goalie for the Wings. He's adorable, such a baby face, and just now he was so cute looking like a little kid trying hard to pay attention, but really, really bored.

Arhg, I need to find a few more documents to finish my taxes, I so need to do them earlier next year.

I love winter but enough already.

Okay,

I'm official tired of winter. I always thought it was my favorite season, but that may be from back in high school when I spent every free minute at the ski hill with my friends. Now, I am tired of the long drives to work, the cold and the dark, although that is slowly getting better.

I asked our IT lady to take a look at my computer and give it a tune up. The fan was getting super loud and it was taking forever to start up and shut down. It's 5 years old already and needed a physical. So now it is all fixed up, and I decided to have the cable guy come and hook up the internet in my living room so I can sit here in a warm front room and listen to the TV, much more comfy so maybe I'll keep up better with my blog and actually read my email more than once a week. Well, it can't hurt. :)

Here's a picture from better times, Labor Day in Houghton 2007. I'm really happy with some of the pictures I took, now I just have to actually print and frame them.

Hope I get to see you all up there again soon. But not too soon, let's wait for the snow to melt first.

How Bizzare, how bizarre

So I was writing back to Yeimy about what's up, and telling her about my house in Berkley. I ended up selling it to my company, at a loss from a year ago, but given the terrible market in Michigan, it could have been far worse. I went on realtor com to see if it was still listed and if so, how much. (They've dropped the price already.) Here's the site if you're interested, http://www.realtor.com/realestate/berkley-mi-48072-1093478175/ .

Now for the bizzare, I'm pretty sure the current Realtor is my former personal trainer. I'm not sure, because his name is common, it's not a great picture, its been a couple years since I've seen him, but if it is, what a small world.

Every vote counts...

Hi All, thanks Yeimy for the petition, I will try to do better, and it is always nice to be missed.

I just finished making up a cheesy hash brown slow cooker recipe to take to work tomorrow for the "Packer tailgate", here's hoping it turns out, I had to improvise quite a bit because it's late and I don't want to go get more stuff. I didn't have a recipe, so I just bought stuff then searched the Internet until I found a recipe that was close. I also made a quick bean cheese dip as back up in case the potatoes don't turn out. I'm waiting for my Mom to call back, I think it might need a little more liquid, but this is the first time I've used my new slow cooker and my new mandoline slicer. Both were gifts for Christmas, I'm very excited about each, the slow cooker especially, it comes with 3 inserts, 2 quart, 4, quart and 6 quart. So making food for work party, 6 quart, making food for just me, 2 or 4 quart. and they all nest together very neatly. The mandoline just shredded through the onion like nothing, very fun.

Just got done talking to Mom, she thinks the sour cream will curdle on low, so I turned it up to high and will set an alarm to turn it off tonight. Actually now that I think of it, maybe I should just put it in the 'fridge and cook it on high at work tomorrow... nah, I want to have it pretty much done before I go to work so if it is a total loss, I don't have to lug it in.

I didn't even leave work until after 7 this evening and need to be in at 6 tomorrow to do tests and get results so they will know the right trial to do on line at the customer's plant. Nothing like cutting it close, right? It's been one of those weeks, my boss is moving this week, so she's been out since Monday afternoon, and the other group's boss and their boss were in Detroit at the auto show and meetings Tuesday to Thursday, so I've had to try to hold down the fort and try to keep things going. I could reach them by phone occasionally, but it's not the same and it is so hectic without them. They are not all allowed to leave me again!

My Mom is coming to visit me next weekend, I am so excited! She's flying out Thursday night, I took Friday off and we're going to the Milwaukee Admirals vs the Grand Rapids Griffins hockey game on Friday night. Of course the only way to lure her out was with a hockey game, the Griffins are the 'farm team' for the Red Wings, so we might see a few familiar faces.

I do have a issue I could use all of your help with. I live in the 1st floor flat of a old house in Milwaukee. My upstairs neighbors are a couple, the guy moved in around the same time I did in the fall, but his girlfriend/fiancee? just moved in a the first of the year. They have the second floor and the attic which is a finished loft space for them as well. I use the back bedroom as my bedroom, they seem to be using the front bedroom.

Here's the deal, I hear then every time they 'get it on'. I can live with all the other noises of having upstairs neighbors, and I love the house and the location, but the moaning and rhythmic thumping is getting old fast. Heck, it was old the first time, and it gets more irritating every single time since. I remember the landlord clearly making a point that when he and his wife lived upstairs they used the loft as their bedroom for more 'privacy', but if they mentioned it to my neighbors apparently it went over their head. My problem is my mom will be here next week, and right now, my guest room is right below moaning central. Can I tell them my mom is coming to visit and ask them to keep it down, for the weekend? Is it out of place to suggest they might be more comfortable with the loft as their bedroom? Or do I ask my landlords to talk to them about knocking it off in general? Do I have a right to ask? Or do I get passive aggressive and play Barry White or porn really loud when they get it on and see if they take a hint? I'm at a loss and looking for suggestions... unfortunately I don't have a willing partner to 'fight fire with fire'. Besides, he moans like a girl, I don't think I could do it with a guy that sounds like him. Help!