Introducing...

Toulouse.

Anderson Toulouse, to be exact. He came to us as a four month old kitten, small, lonely, and with sharp teeth. Actually he was the neighbor’s cat but since the neighbor didn’t want to be bothered with him, he became ours.

I’ve always had a soft spot for New Orleans and in the winter of 2004 I went back for the first time since I was two years old. Gerald and I spent our 7th wedding anniversary there and it was definitely memorable. From the stabbing that took place two blocks from the haunted B&B we were staying in, to the fortune teller who read my palm at Jackson’s Square, to the dirtiest and best place I’ve ever eaten, I’ll never forget what “my” N.O. was like.

Eight months later, Hurricane Katrina hit and the city I identified with was gone. Then one night after two weeks of watching CNN non-stop, Gerald called me out to the patio. There sat a little striped kitty with no tail. He opened his mouth and let out the most pitiful cry – he sounded so alone and so sad. When I gave him some food he was so excited to eat, he allowed me to pet him. I think it was at that moment Gerald knew we were about to have another cat.

For two weeks I fed him twice a day, left water out for him, and made him a place to go when the evenings got too chilly. I was battling with myself (and kind of with Gerald) as to whether or not we ‘needed’ a fifth cat. On October 4th, that battle ended and Toulouse came in the house. We quarantined him in the bathroom for the night and the next day he went to the vet for a check up, shots and neutering. Our house has not been the same since! This is our Toulouse:

Slow Starts

When all our clothes stop fitting, this means one of two things; 1) Our dryer is set on super shrink, or 2) we need to lose some weight. Sadly, I think the dryer is working fine.

I’m no stranger to losing weight; most unfortunately, once my weight loss goal was reached (and exceeded) I thought I had won and I didn’t have to try anymore – the battle was over. This mindset seemed to be working well and for 2½ years as I had no problem with my weight, I was very happy where I was. However, life has a habit of getting in the way and that’s exactly what started to happen. Over the last 4 years I’ve managed to gain back 35 ± pounds of the 100 I lost. Some of this is due to stress, some to lack of exercise, some to my diet, and probably some to medication. Nevertheless and no matter what the cause, it has to end. So when over the weekend Gerald suggested we start getting up early and going for walks, I readily agreed.

The alarm clock began screaming at us at 6:00 Monday morning and Gerald hit snooze. Although I had just been dozing for the previous 45 minutes, I fell sound asleep for those 10 extra snooze minutes. After the alarm started screaming a second time I jumped up and got dressed. I pulled on my long underwear, basketball shorts, and UC Berkley hooded sweatshirt. Gerald opted for just shorts and a shirt, which he soon found out, was a mistake. I forgot to put my contacts on so I had to go back upstairs to do that. I grabbed my gloves and stocking cap and we were off. I jogged next to Gerald while he walked and after about 30 seconds I decided I would be better off walking too…After about 20 minutes, Gerald was still cold (admittedly I was too) so we decided to call it good and go make some coffee.

Tuesday morning when the alarm screamed at us at 5:30, we decided it would be better to walk every other day and start off slowly, and we hit snooze three times before getting up to go have coffee.

Wednesday morning we decided that it’s best to spend some time getting used to getting up early, and we went downstairs for coffee and breakfast.

Thursday and this morning we did just that – got up early and it seems to be working – each day is getting easier and hopefully next week we’ll be able to bounce up at 5:30, feed the cats and be out the door by 5:45. We can walk for 30 minutes, and then have 30 minutes to eat breakfast before we have to get ready for work. It will be nice if this routine can be started and actually stuck to!

What Sick Days Are For

When I've just suffered through an incredibly long and difficult winter, the first signs of spring (green grass, leaves, flowers, longer days, warmth, etc.) make me almost giddy! So yesterday when the forecast for today said highs in the 80s, I knew I had no choice but to be "sick" this afternoon. I messaged Gerald and asked if he was game to skipping out on work and told him all the things we could do to make the afternoon productive (he readily agreed).

Of all the things on my list, we settled on landscaping around the East side of the porch. When we first moved in, there were hideous Euonymus bushes surrounding the porch. -they must have been there for 20 years and not once were they trimmed. In fact you couldn't even see the porch door as they were covering the front of the porch as well. In the summer of 2007 we (okay, okay, Gerald and Jeremy, not me) tore them all out using a chain and a truck.

Last year we rebuilt the porch and hired someone to take a bobcat and level the ground in that area so we had a blank slate to start with and sometimes that's much easier than trying to modify an existing design. Monday afternoon we went to the nursery and looked at the various plants, trying to get an idea of what we wanted to put in there but we struck out. We couldn't decide on anything. Everything we looked at and liked we had no idea what would go with it and if it would even look good. The goal was low maintenance so that meant a lot of things were off the table which further complicated things.

So after lunch today, we decided the first step should be to make the actual bed in the shape we wanted as to have an idea of how much space we indeed did have. We laid out the metal edging we bought, formed it into some nice curves, and pounded it into the ground. After trying to get some ideas from landscape designs on the Internet, we headed back to the nursery with the idea to go with ever-green type plants. But again we were striking out – nothing seemed like it would go together and we were both starting to get frustrated. Finally, Gerald suggested we go with the very first idea we had and that was using native grasses, a shrub and some flowers. We bought a Maiden Grass, a Little Bunny Grass, a Hamlen Dwarf Grass, two Blue Fescue, a Texas Quince, a Columbine, and some other flower that Gerald liked.

After spending $125 at the nursery, we went to Home Depot to get some mulch and weed block fabric. $110 later we headed home to finally start planting. It only took about 1.5 hours to get everything planted, the fabric down, and the mulch spread out. In the end we were successful. It looks awesome and SO much better than it did before. Saturday we plan to go to a landscape supply place to pick out a few rocks of various shapes, colors, and sizes to set around between the grasses and give the finishing touch to our “sick-day” project!

Mission Accomplished!

I worked late into the night Friday and a couple hours Saturday morning but I was successful. I cleaned out all the boxes and totes of old statements, papers, cards, letters, and junk and loaded them up to be shredded.

Halfway to the shred place I realized I had forgotten one box that held all of our duplicate checks. Instead of just ignoring it, I turned around, went back to the house and got them. When I finally got there, all the workers were waiting to unload my truck for me. One guy, who I've seen picking up papers at my work, said to me, "Oh good, you have an Obama sticker on here. That means it will be free for you today." I laughed since it was going to be free for anyone but it kind of made me happy to know Gerald and I weren't the only Obama supporters in this conservative town!

Anyhow, the papers are gone, shredded, and on their way to be recycled. It was so nice to know it was finally done.

Finally Friday

Finally! I count each day, Monday - Thursday, when the alarm clock goes off, reminding myself how many days are left until Friday. I'm always happiest on Thursday when I know I'm one day away!

This morning I got up early with Gerald since he had to be to work at 6. I thought I'd use the extra hour to continue going thru boxes of old papers, billing statements, etc. The company that my work uses to shred confidential papers is having a "free shred day" for the public tomorrow and this is the perfect opportunity for me to get rid of a half-dozen boxes or so of crap that I've been keeping for some unknown reason. (I mean really? Am I ever going to need a statement from the propane company we used 6 years ago?!) I finished up with the papers and loaded them in my truck (I'm at 6 file boxes now) and brought a couple totes up from the basement that contain old cards, letters, wrapping paper that at one time must have meant something to me, and memorabilia from various events that I may or may not remember. The goal is to go thru those things as well and take 95% of them to be shredded. The other 5% will most likely be cards from Gerald and those I will continue to keep.

I'm working really hard to down-size, organize, eliminate clutter, and just generally clean out my house (and life). I don't need most of the things I keep and need to work hard at detaching emotions to inanimate objects. This has been harder for me than I initially thought it would be but it's getting easier as I force myself to do it. Already this morning I set aside to keep a program from a Cirque du Soleil show Gerald and I went to in San Francisco (it was beyond fantastic) in 2007; however, on my drive to work I thought about it (and some other things I set aside to keep) and realized there's no real point to keeping it. I remember what I remember about the show and having a program shoved in a box somewhere isn't going help me remember it better!

I don't know what my point is really, except to confirm to myself that I am working on it, am making progress, and will continue to work on it.

Happy Friday.