Grateful Fridays

Can you believe we're halfway through 2007!? Wow! The older I get the faster time flies!

We took Tabbs to her new home last night. She seemed very happy. When we took her out of her crate, she casually/curiously wandered around her new house. She looked longingly out the door to her new back garden, and then found her way upstairs and under a bed. She met her new Aunties, and seemed very comfortable in her new home. I am so glad that she's got a good home now. She was a wonderful foster kitty for us, and I think I would be a lot more sad if she didn't react so positively to her new home. Her new Mama sent me an email this morning to say they had a very good first night together, and that Tabbs would periodically come and tell her what she'd found. And many head-butts. Tabbs is a head-butter, and her new Mama likes that. Here's one of our final head-butts:

I really appreciate what the Cinnamon Trust does for elderly/terminally ill people, and the pets that care for them. It's a really good organization. We'll miss her, but she's in a much better home now!

We are going away soon! On vacation! (More vacational for me than for Dave -- he has to work). More chaise-lounge time for me! I'm wondering if 6 books is too many for a 7 day trip? I just can't decide! And what if I end up wanting to read the one I don't take and hate the ones I do take? Oh, and 9 dresses and 4 pairs of flip-flops. Think that's too many? Nah, me either.

Books. Check.
Camera. Check.
Dresses. Check.
Flip-flops. Check.
Sunscreen. Check.
Euros. Check.

I think that's about it! All I have to do now is clean the house for the house-sitters! Washing bedding, making beds, cleaning the bathrooms...it's all worth it! If it means getting to go away to somewhere wonderful and mediterranean, I'll do it!

I'll try to update from the road, but you'll know why if you don't hear from me for a week or so. Bye!

The Glamorous Life, it's not.

I know some of you out there think I live a glamorous life here. I'm a train's hop from London, people around me drink tea, and warm beer, and speak all posh. You know, glamorous stuff.

I would like to contest your opinion of my life.

Those who live the "glamorous life" probably don't walk home from the town centre. I do. "Glamorous life" people probably don't have pigeons roosting in their chimneys. I do. "Glamorous life" people probably don't (happily) drive a '98 Toyota Corolla. I do. "Glamorous life" people probably aren't used as target practice by perching birds. I am.

Today, walking home from town, I was "targeted" (know what I mean, Vern?) by a perching bird. Ew. Ew ew and ew. Thankfully I was about 5 minutes from home, so I didn't have to endure the intense ickiness for too long. But it was intensely icky! Ew. I shook my hand vigorously in the air to remove as much of the "ammunition" as I could, then I found a large leaf and scrubbed for a good minute. Then I hurried home. And obsessively washed my hands.

I suppose it's not so bad if you consider that in the nearly 13,000 days I've been on this planet, this is the first time I've been "targeted" in such a way.

So, I'm guessing you don't wanna be me today? :o)

Jinxed!

Well, I did it.

Blame me.

I'm only a non-domiciled resident. I don't even have a country-issued passport, and I've jinxed the entire country!

I put away my fleece and flannel pjs, and pulled out my spring purse. And it is still COLD here.

It's a cute spring purse, though, isn't it? Granted, they're cute pjs (with the Cheshire cat), but it's almost July!!!! And the high today was about 60 degrees.

That's Fahrenheit.

I have two boxes in my bedroom. They're the same size. They are the same boxes I bet you have, too. One says "Mel's Summer Clothes" on the top, and the other says "Mel's Winter Clothes". One is still very full. And collecting dust. And ever-so hopeful. The other is pathetically void. And ever-so depressing.

However (comma), I am digging into the Summer box. We leave Saturday to fly to Greece for a week. Yay! Add 30 degrees, stir in ice, cover with sunscreen, and rest.

Mmmm. Can't wait! (Hopefully I don't take the weather with me!) (That would stink!)

Stay tuned for Greek-inspired updates next week!

Bye!

Oh So Bright

I've seen it a few times, but thought I'd share it. I don't know how many more crazy things like this I'll see!

A couple of weeks ago I saw one of these (a Green Woodpecker) in my back garden, and I thought it was a rare and wonderful find! Turns out they are fairly common here. But the colors are COOL! My camera doesn't transfer the color like reality, so use your imagination and crank up the colors 5 or 10 times to get the reality!

Alley Phat, So Discreet

Oh, Alley Phat,
so discreet.
How do you plan
to stay petite?

Thirsty Cat!

Blogger has a new feature!! Have you Blogger bloggers found it? I'm very excited! It's a new Blogger-In-Draft Video Upload tool!!! It's not on everyone's blogger, yet, because you have to go to Draft from the Dashboard page, I think. There's a little blurb about draft video. (but beware, the uploading and processing is pretty slow) (but worth it!)

Anyways, I'm excited because I've wanted to put videos up, but I'm way too lazy to learn about YouTube, so this is it for me! Woo Hoo!!

So, to commemorate this momentous occasion, I give you a short (and sweet) video of Alley drinking her favorite way:

Fruits and Actions

Dave and I are doing a Bible study with some friends for the next 6-7 weeks on the Fruits of the Spirit (based on Galatians 5:22-23). We've already studied love and joy, and next week is peace. One of the things this is doing is really highlighting for me how much of an ambassador of Christ that we are. There's that old song called "they will know we are Christians by our love, by our love...", and it's true.
Well, today I had the opportunity to let that love come through -- if only by holding my tongue!! I was volunteering at the Oxfam (charity/thrift store), and it was probably 10:15 or so. (We open at 10). There were about 5 old ladies in there (our most common target market, sadly), and one of them, who is a quasi-regular, put something down to donate, and then spent the next 3 minutes browsing. Yes, 3.
She then came up to me and very loudly berrated me because we don't post the sizes of the items on the clothing. Over and over again, no matter what I said to her, she kept at it. I don't deal well with confrontation, so I never quite know what to say (I have great comebacks about 2 hours later, usually!). I kept trying to figure out what (besides sit down and size all the items right then and there!) she wanted me to do! I offered to pass her comment on to the manager ("I've mentioned it before and nothing ever happens."). I think at one point I said something like "How can I specifically help you with this today?" (which was a nice way of saying "So what do you want me to do about it, Crazy?!"), and she said that we used to size the items, and demanded to know why we don't any more. (Like I know?!)
The woman made the mistake of asking me how I would shop at this Oxfam! Hee hee! To coin a phrase, I wanted to say: "You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" (from The Princess Bride).
Except you'd have to change the last sentence to "but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against Melissa when a bargain is on the line! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!" :o)
So I proceeded to show her exactly how I shop! If you've ever shopped with me, you know I have my own style. And it turns out that I don't think that woman really wanted to know how I shop! :o) Hmmm, funny, how that worked out.
Finally she gave up. And left. Maybe she won't come back. I wasn't too rattled. I never felt my face flush, or my knees weaken, so that's a good sign! One of the other ladies in the shop was actually on her way over to say something to the woman when she left because she was upsetting the other customers, too!
So, what were my after-the-fact comebacks?

1. Well, I don't think we have enough volunteers to size every item, so let me get you a volunteer application and you can size them yourself.
2. What exactly are you looking for? Maybe I can help you if you are more specific with your wants than with your displeasure.
3. Go away, woman! We're a CHARITY shop! We sell the clothes other people give away! You want choice? Go to Marks & Spencer's! You want a personal shopper? Go to Debenhams!

What, you might ask, does this all have to do with the Bible study we are doing? Well, I think the study has helped me to get perspective on some things. First, I think (hope?) I was loving to her while she was berrating me. Second, I would like to think that her aggression has less to do with not finding a size 16 blouse suitable for her 4'9" frame and more to do with something else (possibly) going on in her life. Third, I hope this will help me to be less aggressive when I go shopping and can't find the perfect thing - at least I hope I don't take it out on the poor shop attendant!

Anyways, that's life in the charity shop! Until next week, see how far $10 (or £10, depending on your country) can get you! And remember to be loving!

How 'bout them peepers?

I am in vegetable heaven! That's another glorious thing about summer...the veggies! And these were only 39p!! Super duper!

The grill is on...

Sunshiny Day

Well, I think it's about time to finally put away the fleece pj's! Woo Hoo!! I think winter may finally be over here! Yay! And I can hang clothes out on the line on a regular basis! Yay! And I can, most importantly, bust out the flip flops! Super splendiferous!

Yesterday our neighbor's daughter got married, and as a special treat, they hired a double-decker bus to take the guests around town! How cool is that? I would have hated to be the bus driver, though, because our street is only wide enough for 2 cars to fit, and because the church is at the bottom of the cul-de-sac, there were lots and lots of cars along the street. And then the poor guy had to turn it around!! Gosh! :o) He was a trooper, though. I took some fish-eye pictures of it, but I don't know how they turned out. We'll have to wait. Here's a traditional photo, though.

Then last night we went into London with a friend of Dave's and had Iranian food! Wow, that was good! I was very nervous, though, because I have a rather sensitive belly, and I don't like it when my belly doesn't like what I've eaten. That's no fun. But my belly liked this! There was live entertainment, and (other) people were dancing. It was a lot of fun, and a great experience! We stayed out really late, though. Like 1:30. And had a 7am wake-up call. Bummer.

And today has been a beautiful day! Nice sunshine, not too hot, comfortable in the shade. Dave is napping. Ah, this is the way I like it! What may be a feast for the psyche is not necessarily a feast for the eyes, though...because we all know that when the sun comes out, so does the skin! Holy Smokes there was a lot of skin showing on the High Street today! Whew! Again, I say "Just because you can, honey, doesn't mean you should!!"

I'm sad that I don't have any more laundry to wash because it's a perfect day to hang it out on the clothesline! I suppose I could go ask my neighbors, huh? :o)

And, finally, a colorful photo of some pansies growing in an old butcher's sink in our back garden. I only re-planted them from the bedding pots a month ago! I guess pansies don't like to show their pretty faces too soon! :o)

Have a great week!

Grateful Fridays

Things are good here. We've been pretty busy lately, so that's why it's quiet, but nothing really noteworthy.

Here are things I'm thankful for this week:

~Healthy kitties (all 3) (yes, we've still got Tabbs. She's got a new home to go to, but it will be another week or two till she goes to her new home.)

~Tabbs getting a new home! I know she wants to go outside, but it's just not possible here...but it will be in her new house!

~Consumer Reports. I've got my peepers open for a new digital camera, and CR is gonna help me buy the best one!

~Season Finales. This week I saw the finale to Desperate Housewives, and Ugly Betty. Both very good. I'm trying to convince Dave that we need to be back Stateside before the middle of September so that we can be there for the season premiers! :o)

~Silly Pictures. As always, I love silly pictures. Sometimes they are a result of a silly camera, but other times they are a result of silly people. Like this one you may have seen on Mike's blog:

Have a good weekend!

Image Distorting

I picked up some more pictures of film from my 2 crazy cams, and I'm a little disappointed that I haven't quite got the hang of it yet.

It's still lots of fun, but I just wish more pictures came out good, you know? I guess I just don't like evidence of imperfection permanently encased in 4x6" images!

If any of you have any ideas for how to improve my crazy pics, let me know. Mike had some good ideas last weekend, like about getting the horizon to be on the curve, but now I just have to figure out how to put it in practice. I also think I need to figure out how far away/close to the subject I need to be. Oh well, here are the latest...and these are the greatest of the latest...I chose not to show you the orangey ones, or the blury ones, or the ones where you can't tell what's going on! (but how can you help if you can't see the problems? hmm....)

But really all that matters is that they are still fun! :o)

Where?

I have been away from the computer for the last few days. Some things interesting to others, some just interesting to me, others not interesting to anyone!

For one, my wrist has been hurting again lately, and typing only exacerbates the problem. Sorry. If I could figure out how to type slower, that might help, but since I only type 70 words a minute and my brain thinks way faster, I keep typing desperately to keep up with my brain! :o)

I've read a few really good books lately, too, that I would recommend to you. One is called Ghost Girl by Torey Hayden, and is a story of a special ed teacher in the Midwest, and one of her students has some seriously freaky issues! I know it sounds campy, but it is a really haunting book. The other book (I just finished about 30 minutes ago) is called Sickened by Julie Gregory. Another freaky book (both of these are true stories, by the way). This one is about a girl abused in so many ways by her family that it's a miracle she survived it all! The premise is that her mother made up illnesses for her and took her to doctors and hospitals trying to get them to treat her for diseases that weren't there (along with tons of other abuse!)

Our friend Mike came to visit on Saturday (causing a veritable wormhole in the blogosphere), and we took the train to Kew Gardens (my fave!). Mike had never been, and Dave had only been in the winter, so we took advantage of the 70* weather and Kewed our way through the afternoon! It was good fun. I suspect he'll post an entry this week called "Kew In A Day" or something like that! :o) We all know I love Kew. I will really miss it when we move. The best part this time had to be the roses blooming behind the Palm House. They have hundreds and hundreds of rose bushes, and they were all blooming and full. Lots were nicely sniffy, too!

After we left Kew on our way to Waterloo, we had a brief conversation about dinner, when I said something like "What are your dinner requirements?" to Dave and Mike:
Dave: Hot. Mike?
Mike: Chinese. Mel?
Mel: Whatever.

So, our goal was "Hot Chinese Whatever" and, lo and behold, snuggled between the London Eye and the London Aquarium was a Chinese buffet, all you can eat for £5.99! Sweet! It was Hot Chinese Whatever staring us in the face! Little did we know. :o) You have to pay first (which should have been our first clue!), so we paid, got our plates and went to the buffet line. Sadly, it offered very little variety in its many chafing dishes! Honestly, I think there were only about 8 different offerings! How sad!! So, while it met our criteria, we were less than thrilled at our discovery...but we had no one to blame but ourselves!!

Next time I hope we are all more specific when I bring up the subject of dinner!

That's me, summed up. We have more sun than rain lately, so that's a good thing. Hope all is well in your world!