Mr. Smalls ate Mr. Squeaky!

OK I’ll admit, just the title of this makes me smile . . . and it’s really not a laughing matter. Anyone out there who has pets, knows how involved our lives can become with them. I have a dear friend who lives out in Seattle and along with her hubby and their boxer Deuce, she also lives with Mr. Smalls. Now Smalls is a French Mastiff who weighs about a gazillion pounds and has a head bigger than a basketball! I know the size of that head because as a six-month-old he about knocked me unconscious after bounding across their back yard to say hello. I stupidly bent down to say Hi back and the two of us head butted each other . . . he simply grinned while I tried to remaining standing with those stars and little birdies circling my head!

So this morning while working diligently I received an IM from my friend. Why, yes, I can multitask while at work and never lose focus . . .OK that was for The Big D’s benefit. Anyway, her opening comment was “Mr. Smalls ate Mr. Squeaky!” So now I think you can see where I’m going with this. Smalls, while playing with his favorite toy, aka Mr. Squeaky, had gotten annoyed with Mr. Squeaky and GULP he was gone. On a positive thinking note, perhaps Smalls really loves Mr. Squeaky and this was simply an effort to get closer to him.

Now apparently Mr. Squeaky is either terrified or really likes it in there and does not want to “come out”!  So Smalls is now at the vet and they are trying to convince Mr. Squeaky to find his way out. I know this is wrong on many levels, but I did have to ask my friend if Smalls squeaked now when you press on his stomach! The answer, sadly, is no. Hopefully this situation will pass . . . literally . . . without too much trauma. Stay tuned for updates on Mr. Smalls and Mr. Squeaky!

Lost and Found

Today is a really good day, today I found an old friend who I had lost. Long ago in a land far, far away when I was younger, and of course thinner, I had a dear friend who was from Santiago. She was cute as a button, a phrase which until I met her only applied to babies, toddlers or kittens. She was adorable, funny, chic, cultured and made me feel that way when I spent time with her. She was there for me when I had a bad day at work, she was there for me when I was going through a tough time in my life, and she was there to be that fun girlfriend who you loved going out with.


Along with all that, there was a bonus . . . she had an adorable husband. He was getting his Ph.D. from Princeton, so let’s say he was rather bright, with a quick wit and this wonderful mop of curly hair. Together, they were the ‘it’ couple, the cool kids . . . you just imagined them getting picked first on the playground. So it was even greater when this couple got along great with my man and me. What a blast (do people still say that?) we all had together. Then can the time they had to go back to Santiago. So through tears and hugs we promised to keep in touch with each others’ lives.

The plan was to some day visit them in their part of the world. Ahh the elusive Plan A! We started out so good writing letters (gosh does anyone remember the days when you actually put a pen to paper and wrote a letter?!) sending cards and photos and the occasional international phone call. Then life happened; we moved a few times, they moved, and the letters, cards and phone calls slowed down. Next thing you knew, poof!, they were lost.

Over the years I wondered what happened to her. How was her life? Something would happen and I’d think, “oh she would love to know this”. I’d hear from a mutual friend who would ask about her and I’d get that pang of sadness, not knowing where she was or what was happening in her.

But today, life gave me a great surprise. After looking, yet again, the big ol’ World Wide Web (for you youngsters out there, that’s the internet) found my long lost friend!! And yes, she’s still cute as a button!

Snow Day!

Remember when you were a kid and you woke up to piles of snow. Then you waited with anticipation to hear them call your school’s name on the news and let out a woop when they called out the name! I had one of those moments recently when my cell phone buzzed at 6:30 am with the news that my office was closed for a snow day . . . Holy Cow a snow day at The Big D! All together now, WAHOO!!

Now what? An entire day to do whatever I want. Hmm Plan A, clean out the linen closet, get that 12 inch stack of papers filed, or maybe get caught up with the magazine stash (and anyone who knows me, knows that I have a serious magazine issue, yes pun intended!). Nope, not a chance. Why be productive when you can spend the day surfing the net and getting caught up on all those shows recorded on the DVR. I must admit that I did tell myself I could certainly work on the stack of magazines while catching up on TV. After all, how seriously does one have to watch to keep up with discovering Dwight’s next step in his plan for world domination . . . or taking over at Dunder- Mifflin?

Without even thinking about it, the plan for the day seemed to morf . Do we see a trend developing? So we’re off and running, or should I say lounging, getting caught up on the TV. During my productive TV catch-up-fest, I learned a new word, ‘manscaping’. Wow, see if you can figure that one out. But I digress. So on to that stack of magazines, which is threatening to take over my family room! For me to make some serious headway, I needed to be brutal in my approach . . . if it was over a year it would go in the trash pile no matter what tempting promises were made on the front cover. I’m afraid to tell you how many fell into that category or older. So several hours were spent collecting recipes (My recipe obsession we’ll save for another post!!), articles, clip art and miscellaneous stuff that I wanted to read. So now, while having gotten rid of a surprisingly small stack of magazines, we’re now looking a new stack of papers which now have to find a home. So ultimately, not sure much progress was truly made, I think I just created more work for myself! However, we now know that I’m still lost with Lost, Dunder-Mifflin has been sold and McDreamy is now the Chief at Seattle Grace.

Let's get it started . . .

Life on Plan C, we’ll get back to that. I have a beautiful, bright niece who recently made a life changing decision to move away from home for the first time ever. Not just away, but across the country from home, family, friends to start a new chapter in her young life. Along with that decision she, the social/media-networking-princess, decided to start a blog about this adventure. And low and behold, after reading her first ‘post’, inspiration struck. That’s my nice way of saying it’s her fault if her aunt sucks at this!

This social/media-networking-adverse-aphobe person has decided to start a blog. I know this will be a big shock to my friends who have asked nicely (harassed) me to join their favorite social networking site, only to have me launch into a tirade about wanting to maintain my privacy . . . besides there’s that whole witness protection thing.

What does one blog about you may ask, well after reading several I’ve decided that there aren’t a whole lot of rules and it can be pretty much whatever the heck you want . . . a journey you’re taking in your life, your political viewpoint, who ate the last bowl of Coco Puffs and left the empty box. So the planner in me took over and started the process for planning my blog . . . which leads me back to that Life on Plan C. I made one of those life changing decisions a few years back when I was about the same age as my niece and had Plan A all worked out. Well Plan A turned into Plan B which turned into Plan C (truth be told I’m probably approaching Plan Z!). So this blog will be about living life on Plan C; figuring out what comes next and most likely something different all the time!