Updates 4/28/08

Some random updates because it's been awhile:

*Sadie has gotten all her shots and has been spayed and declawed. That was almost two weeks ago, and now she looks to be completely healed and is doing well. Yay kitty!

*We have added two betta fish to our family. Formally named Dave Coulier and John Stamos, their nicknames are Daego and Mustache, in memory of my betta from Cougar Village, Sean Connery. May he rest in peace.

*David and I bought a new TV so now our television viewing experience has been upgraded quite a bit. And we thought we was poor.

*Justin, Ben, Jacob, David and I participated in a trivia night on Saturday. At the beginning of the night, we were asked to guess how many we would get right and we said 82. It turned out, we tied for first place with another team with 77 questions right!! However, we lost the grand prize because we were five off and the other team was only one off. Oh well, better luck next time.

*I need a vacation, so I think we are going to Chicago and Cincinatti in June to visit over the time we would have been at Bonnaroo.

That is all for now...

Join thetelegraph.com's new Web community

Hey everyone,
I'm writing to let you know about The Telegraph's new online community, Pluck Site Life, set to launch Wednesday, April 23.

Do me and yourself a favor by visiting www.thetelegraph.com and registering for a free and easy account! Just navigate to our site and look to the top right hand corner of the page for a gray box that says "become a member." The prompt will ask you to enter a username and a verifiable e-mail address. Once you've registered, go to your inbox and click the link to verify your account. (If you go to the site and try to register and there is no option to "become a member," check back later. It may take awhile before it launches but it should be up for sure by tomorrow evening.)

Once you've become a member, you can click "my profile" in the same gray box on www.thetelegraph.com to navigate to all our new web community outlets. You will be able to post your own blogs, share photos and other web content, connect with other users and participate in forum discussions pertaining to area communities, news, sports and just life in general, plus much more. (And The Telegraph won't edit your content! Be advised though, The Telegraph retains the right to remove what is inappropriate.)

The new site features will also change the way you recommend and comment on The Telegraph's stories online, so you should register now! (Don't worry, you can still report inappropriate and offensive comments.)

We're excited about this new aspect of our site and we want to get as many people involved as possible. Please forward this message to everyone you know in the Edwardsville/River Bend areas as well as Jersey, Calhoun, Greene and Macoupin Counties (as well as anyone else who might have an interest in our site) so everyone has a chance to get started. Thanks and have a great day!!

Do you read this?

If you read this blog at its actual address (not through my Facebook feed), comment this and let me know.

The reason I'm asking is that I am considering making this blog invite only and will need to know who looks at it and their e-mail addresses to put them in my permissions.

If anyone cares, as long as you are my friend on Facebook, the feed will still work as far as I know.

Thanks!

I feel accomplished today.

Even though I didn't get any NEW stories done, I did turn in four that I have been working on in the last 2 days. See the fuzzy picture of my centuries-old computer screen. I am responsible for No. 7, 13, 14 and 15, which you can't see very well.

But I got a lot more than that done.

I wrote a "Here and There" blog about Fight Back --nutrition and physical activity for the month of April, another blog about not going to Bonnaroo anymore :( (super SADFACE) and I rustled up some Cardinals' tickets.

I neglected to buy a Pujols pack of five games this year but have had almost as much luck just finding tickets elsewhere. Next week, David and I are going to an EIU alumni event at Busch Stadium, where $55 each covers the game and free food and drinks from 11:15 a.m. to the end of the game. Today, I took someone up on an offer for four tickets to May 18's afternoon game against the Rays so that my mom and dad can see a game this year. In addition, Emily has contacted David and I about tickets she bought to a Cards/Cubs game at Wrigley!! That will be awesome, since I've never been there.

I only hope he -- my favorite baseball player --

can keep up what he's doing (and STOP sliding into home head first) so I can see him in all his glory come the Sunday after next.

We got a kitty

and named her Sadie. We call her that because we decided to name all our animals after Beatles songs.

She's a little more than one year old, and she used to live with Kevin, Abby and little Brianne under the alias "Scuttles." Here is a picture of her when she was living with them as a kitten.

She's still very small, but obviously bigger than that. Apparently she got stepped on when she was very young. She kind of has a lazy eye.

She's very friendly now that she's come out of her hiding hole (which she still sleeps in when no one is home), but she gets crazy at night. She's torn the hell up outta my sheer green curtains. I bought some new ones for cheap but refuse to put them up until the problem is fixed.

My dad and I bought some spray that's supposed to deter her from tearing up stuff we spray on it. It's supposed to be used in training them. We also bought a squirt bottle for that purpose. A little catnip, we hoped, would attract her to her scratching pole toy instead of my curtains. David hears the bell at night so at least we know that works.

Last night was the first night we tried these measures. I used the kitchen curtains for reference. She hasn't torn many holes in those, only the ones in the living room. Apparently, the spray works but is not fool proof and does not last forever.

Our next measure will be to clip her nails, but the sad fact is that they grow back. After that, we want to try soft paws, those little plastic covers for their nails. The problem with that is that she scratches at the stone in the fireplace and would likely wear those out.

The sad fact of the matter is that we'll likely have to get her declawed. I feel bad for several reasons (a- it's pretty cruel sounding and b- it costs a lot of money, some of which I have to make David help pay) but I think that these other options are only temporary and I won't feel safe putting the new ones up unless I know without a doubt that she can't climb up them anymore.

Don't let my complaining fool you. I love her. She's rambunctious and thinks she can sit on anyone and everyone. She's learning that she can't come in the bedroom because we have allergies and need a place to get away from her if we have to (like for sleeping). Come visit so you can meet her!

Pics of our new place :)

It's been quite a while since my last post. Since then, we have actually moved into our new place!! There are a few things left to do but everything is close to how we want it.

Stay tuned for more information! So far it's going quite well :)