That’s right, it’s vacation time. Finally! We leave tomorrow (Thursday) after work. It’s going to be a bit crazy, but we’ll make due. We’re driving to Florida, then Georgia, then Tennessee before we finally go back home to Texas after the new year. That’s one crazy trip. Because it’s two weeks long, we’re bringing the dog with us (cause we’re mostly visiting family and it’s crazy expensive to board the beast for that long). My Awesome (with a capital A) friend Shannon is going to visit the house every handful of days or so to check on my kitty critter, who is going to be left behind all by her lonesome. I hope she doesn’t freak out and shred my house. This is basically going to be hubby’s ideal vacation since he gets to see his family and childhood friends again.

Let’s see, the current plans are one family Xmas party in FL (near Jacksonville) on Saturday the 20th, with hanging out with cousins and hubby’s friends the day before/after. The next Monday we are going to Palatka, FL (which is a fun word to say and in Russian it means campground - but we’re staying in a hotel) to go to Ravine Gardens. After that we go to (centralish) GA for the other family Xmas party on the 24/25th. After a day or so there, we drive up to Atlanta for hubby to go hunting with his uncle. Hurray for deer meat. He better get one! After a couple of days there, assuming the deer gets dropped off to be processed, we go to Tennessee. We’re getting the dog boarded in Atlanta since the place we’re going in TN is not dog-friendly. First we’re going to Ruby Falls. Then, we’re going to spend one day with a family hubby knows up there who has an awesome property and who’s home he always talks about as his favorite place ever that he’s been as a kid. Apparently TN is very pretty. I’m looking forward to that. My brand new camera that Daddy bought me will get some good action! Then, we’re renting a cabin (that’s not pet-friendly) for a few days in TN with a hot tub and all. It’s gorgeous! Just check it out! I might even get to play in the snow, if I decide I don’t hate it too much. We might have some of his cousins join us in the cabin place for New Year’s. After all that, we return to Atlanta to pick up the dog and the deer meat, and drive on home. Hubby’s Mom is flying in on the 3rd to visit for a few days so we need to be home by then so I can make the house look decent. Hectic much? Then back to work on the 5th.

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I was at Walmart yesterday picking up some travel supplies for my upcoming vacation and I saw this adorable little pink bandanna made for small dogs. Well, I figured it would probably fit my kitty and so I got it. It’s a little big on her, but it’s still adorable. She can easily shrug it off while walking so I might need to either cut holes in the bandanna for her front legs or maybe put another velcro thing on there so it can sit tighter. It was only 2 bucks so why not, right? Super adorable!

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My kitty is home! She came back this morning! I heard a YELLING meow outside the door at around 6:30 AM. She was wet cause it rained and her little paws were scratched and bloody. She was so tired that she didn’t want to eat, she just laid there. she must have run circles for two whole days after realizing she was lost. My poor little kitty. She spent all day sitting in her litter box. I guess that’s her “safe” place. But now she’s stinky cause it wasn’t a clean litter box. She’s really shy still so I guess she’s still stressed over being lost. I’m sooo happy she’s home and safe!

I’m extra happy that she came home when she did, cause the past two nights were unseasonably warm, but it froze tonight. That would have just been horrible for her.

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Last night Hubby decided to put up some of the xmas lights outside and I helped him a little with the indoor decorations. We left the front door open so the dog could hang out with him outside. Well, somehow, the cat got out and we can’t find her still. I hope no one’s snatched her! The last time she got out accidentally she was yelling by the door all night until I woke up and let her in. So I don’t know where she could be since she didn’t come home this morning, and she ALWAYS spends time with me in the morning. If I sleep in on weekends and don’t give her any morning attention she meows at me through the door until I wake up and get her. This morning she didn’t come and I called and called. I’m worried about her. Someone please find my kitty!

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So hubby is now right in the middle of his (oh so fun) final exams. This is his 3rd semester, so when he’s done with these finals he’ll be halfway done with law school. Only this much more to go. Anyway though, he’s been complaining that we haven’t put up any holiday decorations. Well, my response is he’s too busy studying for finals, and a week after finals are done we’re leaving for the rest of the year to go to Florida and Georgia and wherever else, so what’s the point of putting them up if we’re not even going to be here for the actual holidays? Well, he was still sad cause the neighbors on either side of us started putting up their decorations and that made us the house that looks bad for not having any (last year no one around us put their decorations up, and he thinks it’s cause we did it last year that people are putting their decorations up this year). So yesterday while he was at his final, I decided to be nice. After I got home from work I started digging around in the garage. Which, is quite hazardous, let me tell you. There’s just stuff everywhere and I had to move leftover floor boards and boxes and tools to try to find some decorations. I ended up finding our candy canes and putting those up. After nearly getting buried by garage debris. Not fun. Last year we bought two red and two green candy canes (they light up) so I figured those would be easy enough for me to stick in the ground and connect to the extension cord. Well, in the process I ended up breaking one of the green ones (the stake that goes in the ground fell off of it, and I tried to put it back in but silly me stuck it in backwards with the stake part in and got it stuck and cracked the candy cane). So I put the three that were still working out and plugged them in and went to bed. Hubby got home around 10:30 or so (his finals are from 6-9 pm, then you gotta turn them in alphabetically, and it was pouring so the drive home was pretty long) and was very happy and surprised to see some decorations out. I made him happy. Yay. Does this mean he owes me a nice surprise now?

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The other day I got some take-out, cause I’ve been craving Chinese food for a while. I had this message in my fortune cookie:

“They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world. Someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.”

I think that’s very much the truth.

Someone to love? Check. I married him about a year and a half ago. Of course, then there’s the babeh kitteh who gets a lot of my affections. Kittehs are the best. And there’s the family, my parents mostly, who I’m still really close with even though I so rarely get to see them anymore. Then there’s my friends that I have made here in Houston. They are my sanity because I cannot survive in a world alone.

Something to do. Well, I have a job, and it keeps me pretty busy. I do enjoy it. Sure the work itself isn’t all that exciting at times. Lately it’s been pretty repetitive with updating compliance plan after compliance plan and tasking spreadsheets after tasking spreadsheets. But I do learn a lot about different permits in different states and different processes whether refining or gas compression, so it’s a good thing. I get along great with the people I work with, which is extremely important. My favorite section leader is now my department manager, and still who I report to directly, even after all the organizational changes in the company, so I’m still protected from other crazy management by her. She’s super awesome, in case anyone’s wondering. And she thinks very highly of me which is very important too.

Something to hope for. Well, isn’t that what the future is? I am hopeful in growing in my career. I am hopeful for the future once hubby graduates law school and things get a little easier for us. I am hopeful for all the travel I hope to do someday. I am even possibly the family I will raise, if I ever decide I want to have these things called children.

All in all, I’ve gotta say I’m truly happy. I’m very thankful for my life and everything that I have achieved since moving to Houston and starting my “real life”. I have a house, which is absolutely amazing in itself, I have a husband and two very furry four-legged children, I have a great job with good relationships with my management, and amazing friends. I didn’t really have any of that about a year and a half ago in my transitional state between graduating college and starting my own life, so this is quite amazing.

I hope everyone has a very happy Thanksgiving holiday with your loved ones. I’m going to a friend’s house from work who invited us for Thanksgiving dinner. They already have a family of 6 (her, her husband, her two babies, and her parents that live with them, plus the dog) but they made room for two more and gave us something fun to do for Thanksgiving since it’s just the two of us. That’s what I mean about great friends. I has them. And I am very thankful.

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Friday night, the 21st, I saw Twilight with a group of friends. We actually took up two rows, not the full rows though, but the centers of both rows so that we could sit by each other instead of being stretched out. We knew the movie wasn’t going to be as great as the book, and we already knew the casting wasn’t amazing. But little did we know, that the low budget and poor directing would make the movie just wrong. I have to say, not all that impressed. I didn’t feel it. It was not a romantic love story like it’s supposed to be; it just felt dry where there was supposed to be emotion. I wanted to at least feel like I was watching a romantic story, even if it was nothing like the book. But OMG it was just awful and instead of going aww I was laughing every time it was supposed to be romantic, cause it was soo cheesy and ridiculous. The only really good acting part was when Bella was being beaten up by James. That was really good and believable. But the scene where Edward shows Bella what he looks like in the sunlight was just weird and awkward, and the effects were poor. I so wasn’t dazzled.
They tried to do too much in two hours. But I still enjoyed it, cause I had been looking forward to it.

For a laugh, this is Edward when Bella entered the science class.

The next day, Saturday, pretty much the same group of people went to the Renaissance Festival, which was fun. Yes, it was my second time going, but it was a lot more fun with a group of girls.

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No, Dusty Rose is just fine. But my childhood kitty, Lapka, had to be put to sleep today.

My parents and I got her when I was 10 from an animal shelter; she was 6 months at the time. I’m not sure if she picked us or if we picked her, because when my Mom picked her up she started pawing and playing with Mom’s dangly earrings, and so her name and our love for her was born. In Russian, Lapka means paw. She was a good kitty, very loving to those who she knew and loved. She could tell when you were in pain and she would come sit on whatever was hurting you and purr the pain away. Which, while cute with a tummy ache, was hilarious with a headache. This last time I visited California back in August, she remembered me and came straight to me. See, we had just gotten to my parents house from the airport and I got out of the car and called her. She liked to wander around outdoors so I called her so she’d run and join us. Well she walked (hobbled) past my parents and walked straight to me. It was just so cute. When I’d come home on the weekends from college she’d usually avoid me cause she was mad that I wasn’t around. But here I had been gone for months and months (since I moved to Texas and all) and she missed me so much she came right to me. It was just too cute. And then after I had gone back to Texas, Mom told me that Lapka was looking for me in my old room and couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t there again. It made me sad. And that was the last interaction I got with my favorite childhood kitteh.

She was 15, yes, but that’s not that old for a cat. Up until recently she’d been in good health. But a couple of months ago Mom noticed she had a growth on her lip, and it kept getting bigger. When she took her to a vet, the vet said the kitty has cancer and needs to be put down. Mom decided to wait it out since Lapka was still eating and still being affectionate and happy. Well, today, Mom said Lapka’s mouth started bleeding really bad and she realized it’s time to take her in so she wouldn’t suffer anymore since clearly her condition had progressed to no longer bearable. My parents said they kept her name tag so they can name the replacement kitty by the same name, but I don’t think that will work. When I was adopting my kitty here, there were several black and white babies in the pet shelter but I went for the black one cause I didn’t want to confuse my memories of my Lapka. This really is sad for me, but worse for my parents cause they’re the ones that kept her and had to make that decision and are now in an empty house without a purring furry critter who they loved so much. Pets should not be allowed to die, seriously.

Here’s a pic of Lapka:

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We have a new roof! They installed it during the middle of last week actually. We came home to find a crew walking all over the roof! It was quite interesting, cause we weren’t told they were coming. But hey, whatever, the roof is new and shiny and great. I gave a check to the roofing company today (our sales guy came to visit and chat with us) for as much as the insurance company provided. The roofer is trying to get more out of the insurance company to cover all the costs, but we’ll see if they get that. In any case, we don’t have to pay anything extra except for possibly the additional 400 dollars for the upgrade to a 30 year roof. That was our choice so we’ll probably end up having to pay that. Which is fine with me cause our roof is great now! We just had a nasty rainstorm so we need to inspect the ceiling to just make sure there were no leaks and all was installed correctly. We haven’t noticed anything yet but he asked us to just double check since now would be a good opportunity to notice something if there are any problems. I’m so happy this mess is over. We still need to get one leaky stain sealed and painted over from the hurricane but that’s not a huge hurry (not like the roof was) so we can do that when we have time to schedule a contractor.

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Halloween night I went out with some girls to the Houston Museum of Natural Science for a party. They had an 80s band, fortune tellers, an illusionist, and dinosaurs. I wore my Vampiress costume from last year (was a last minute plan and I didn’t have time or money to get a new costume). The girls I hung out with dressed up as: a fortune teller, a black fairy, Betty from the Flinstones, and Goldilocks. Pictures are on facebook. The illusionist was pretty neat. He picked out one of our group and did a card trick. She picked a card and held it in her hand upside down while he did some stuff with the rest of the cards, and the card kept changing colors! First it was a red card (the pattern on the back) then it was blue the next time he had us look at it, then it went back to red the last time he had us look at it. I don’t know how he did that but she said she didn’t feel anything touch her hand or see anything. Freaky. We left the museum after the party ended at midnight and went to a pub to hang out with another girl who dressed up as Rogue from the X-Men. There were some interesting costumes all night. Lots of pirates, and lots of Sarah Palins and Joe the Plumbers. In fact, at the pub there was a Joe the Plumber who was crazy drunk and kept hitting on Goldilocks and was just funny. I didn’t get home until like 4 am!

The next day I had lunch with my friend Sara who had a baby last month. I finally got to meet the new addition. He was pretty well behaved and slept most of the time, which is good, cause it’s hard to have a fussy baby when you have to drive around and sit in a restaurant. We went to Panera cause it’s got good food and good place to meet. After we had lunch I stopped by some Halloween stores to try to find some costumes on sale, since they sell for half off after the holiday. Well, I didn’t find anything I was looking for in my size. I wanted to find something I could wear to the Renaissance Festival, but didn’t do so well. I finally got a pirate blouse at party city and ordered a pirate vest online. I have a black velvet peasant skirt which paired with that shirt and the vest (if it arrives in time) will work good enough. I also found another brown shirt that actually works really well as a vest on top of the pirate blouse. So my wench costume is born, and cheaply too. I’m going to the Ren Fest next weekend with hubby for his classmate’s birthday party thinger, and another time with a bunch of girls. So yay that I have something to wear.

Roof update - they delivered the materials on Friday, which we thought was weird cause it was Halloween and people would be walking around the neighborhood and might steal supplies. But it seems to be ok. The roofer said they will do the job for whatever the insurance company provides, so the lower amount provided by the insurance company is acceptable to him. He’s calling the insurance company to try to get more out of them if he can. The insurance company sent the check, which was in my name and the mortgage company’s so I had to send it to them for endorsement. I hope they send it back soon so we can deposit the money and pay the roofer on time. He said the crew should be ready to come install the new roof in about a week. So yay we’ll soon have this put behind us.

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