Happy Birthday to Charlie!!!

Today is Charlie's 3-month birthday!!!

Dare I Say "Healthy"?

So I'm 1 year out from treatment. How fast time passes! I had a bunch of doctor follow-ups last week: Dr. Smith (who I see every 3 months), Dr. Richards (every 6 months) and Dr. Rounsaville (every 6 months). I also did a bilateral breast MRI. All three docs said everything looked great, and Dr. Rounsaville even said I no longer needed follow ups with him! My MRI was "perfectly normal" and my bloodwork was normal as well. Whew... sigh of relief!! I rarely think about cancer these days, but anxiety definitely still strikes around follow-up time.

I can't believe how different my life is one year later. One year ago I was house-ridden (sometimes bed-ridden) with a post-chemo stomach affliction that cost me 3 months, 20 pounds, and some sanity. Now I'm healthy and have gained the weight back. I was unhappy, super stressed and consumed with my high-pressure job. Now I love where I work, enjoy the people I see every day, and when I leave at 5 PM work is the last thing on my mind. We were renting an old, moldy and dank apartment that leaked rain every winter and smelled like dead rats every few months. Now we own a beautiful home in the trees with tons of space to spare. We were living in SF, where folks scurry around all fast-paced and forget to connect with each other. Now we live in awesome Sonoma County aka "Wine Country" (LOL) where everyone is happy and friendly because the beautiful surroundings help ease their everyday lives. We used to drive to Dolores Park on the nicest days for a little warm sunshine, or perhaps drive 1.5 hours to the Russian River for a day of sun, water and beer. Now we walk just 5 minutes to our nearest Russian River beach to drink Blue Moons! We used to dream of the day when we could comfortably house a dog. Now not only do we have the company of the sweetest puppy, but it's a Golden Retriever aka "Which puppy is BEST?"! AND, we've also added a Smooshie who's full of nothing but love! The only thing missing is Trigger of course...

Nutsy, Joseph, Douglas and Charlie: So many names I get tripped up sometimes! Like when my Mom says "Tre-Dan" hahaha. Charlie is doing so well. The potty accidents are decreasing - once every couple days only. He sleeps in his crate by the bed no problem. He knows where to "go baubles," he does "sit" so well, and he's on his way to "down" and "drop it". He's about doubled in size in less than three weeks! He's awesome at retrieving - his favorite thing to do is run back at full-speed with his turtle and faceplant into my lap. He really is the cutest dude ever!!! But he is growing so quickly, I can already see the future, handsome, grown up Golden Retriever dude when I look at his puppy face. I LOVE HIM!!!!

The kitties are doing great too!! Nutsy is totally healthy and back to her spry, whiny self (hahahha). She'd gained a whole pound last time they checked her weight! Though she's already 14 years old, I feel she'll be around for a long time to come! :) Joseph is his sweet, shy self - always sitting in his favorite chair with armrest. He loves his bathroom pets and his face pets. I bet he misses heater pets & the static electricity, poor dude heheheh. And Douglas is so attached to us sometimes he doesn't know what to do with himself! When I step out of the shower he's there sitting on the foot towel, waiting to rub on my legs - so I have to towel my legs off before I step out, otherwise they get coated in Douglas hair! He snuggles with me all the time and loves to gaze up at me with those big copper eyes. He's also in love with Charlie and is always visiting him. Yay for the petting zoo!

Also, I've been playing the drums! Miles and I have a couple of awesome songs!! I'm really excited about them!

Introducing Charlie

It's official, don't you think?! Four animals in one house seems to constitute a personal petting zoo?? When referring to all the boys and girl, it's no longer "cat party" but now "the zoo."

So this past Saturday Miles and I went to pick out and pick up our 8- or 9-week old Golden Retriever puppy from the Kings Kastle shelter folks. I'm still feeling like this is unreal, or at least a dream come true - that our application was chosen out of 900 other applications - and that we've been given this amazing opportunity to share our life with a brand new GRD (aka the very best kind of D). Wowie!!!!!!!! Talk about fortune shining upon us!! I guess all the stars lined up in our favor. The adult GRs were rescued on Miles' birthday in March, then we got the phone call in June just as we were embarking on my birthday weekend, and then we picked the puppy named Cooper (which was the name of Miles' first family Golden growing up!).

Here is the proud and excited papa and new pup:


Here is Charlie (it just wasn't right for him to be another "Cooper") next to his brother Hunter and their mom Sheba right in front:


Here is Charlie passed out on the car ride home:


Here is Charlie napping even more when we got home:


And here he's finally waking up a little - still tired and lazy, but settling in with his new home and family:


He's only 8.5 weeks old. But what a good boy he's been - my, what manners! He quickly learned his name, as well as "sit" and "come." He's also learned where his potty ("baubles") spot is, although sometimes he goes there a bit begrudgingly still. Even so, his little bladder muscles aren't fully developed yet and he still has accidents which are easy to clean on our hardwood floor. Last night he had a #2 (rather... a #3) accident in the kitchen - definitely the grossest so far! He's also learning to spend some alone time in his crate without whining. Ignoring the whining has been one of the more difficult tasks for me and Miles, but we've been diligent & it seems to be paying off. He's such a good little boy! He's teething and chewing on everything right now, and I guess that's going to continue for a while & we can only try to redirect him when he does. When he whines, after a minute or two he makes this dramatic "harumphf" sound and flops down on the floor with all his paws sticking out - it's the cutest!!!

Last night Douglas visited Charlie several times in the kitchen. Douglas laid down inside Charlie's crate and Charlie laid in front of it, and they played the staring game for a while. They're going to be fast friends soon! Seriously, can you picture anything cuter than a Golden puppy and its smoosh face best friend??!

Happy New Puppy Day!

I had an awesome 30th birthday! I got to spend it with my wonderful husband, my other cat, her buddy, and her "first cat." The drive up was fun and when we stayed in Medford, the Food-4-Less told us exactly where to find the Hot Pockets and Eggos. In Portland we ate a lot of deep fried gud fud, and drank a lot of champagne. I had mozzarella stix twice in one day! We watched a lot of Food Network, GR puppy videos, Aziz Ansari videos, and Heart videos. We also made plentiful trips to the Plaid Party Pantry Paint Palace. We went to Holman's, Ash Street Saloon, The Tom's, Slingshot Lounge, and the Gladstone Street Pub. I wish California bars served food til closing! On the drive home we finally found an Arby's, and re-did last year's terrible birthday Arby's experience, yay!

As if this weren't already an awesome enough birthday... we also got word that we were chosen to adopt one of these dudes this Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Love My Cats

I love you Nutsy! So happy you are feeling spry these days!


Typical Joseph pose.


Stuff on my Douglas is always funny.


Most nights/mornings this is Douglas' favorite spot (and mine too!).


Then I discovered him here one morning. Later that morning when I brushed my teeth, he hopped back in again!


Joseph is like "Dude... wait... what? Where is the water?"

Some Recent Things

We were playing table pong one morning when this dude paid us a neighborly visit!


We went to St. Louis for a few days and got to spend some awesome family time. The super cute and radical niece and nephew:




My new Cardinals gear as I approve of some Thai food:


The other day I went for allergy testing. 51 needles poked into me - that's a lot! It turns out I'm allergic to literally everything except for mites. I also have chronic sinusitis. I need some halp.


Douglas does the weirdest things. He puts his paws on the wet food plate while he's eating, sometimes right into the wet food. But then I witnessed this, which takes the cake!

UR DOIN IT WRONG!!!

Some more kitty PHOTOS:






Driving to work through the trees and grapes, NBD!

Abandoned Brick Buildings

Miles and I went with the other California Tufflis to St. Louis for a few days for Lauren's wedding. There are lots of awesome, dilapidated brick buildings in St. Louis. And a bunch of also-awesome, not dilapidated brick buildings. There are also "toasted raviolis" everywhere. We saw the Arch but didn't go in it. We saw Busch Stadium but couldn't go in it. We saw Lemp Mansion but didn't see ghosts. We frequented Jack Patrick's but only played two games of pool. The bride and her maid of honor were beautiful. It was a great trip. I wish it'd been a little warmer. It was fun spending so much time with Fred, B&K and the kids. Maybe I'll toast some raviolis tonight!

A Man Screams In The Woods

Last night Miles and I went to watch the Lyrid Meteor Shower at 1:30 a.m. We drove towards Jenner and stopped past Duncan Mills on the roadside. We hadn't passed a single other car. With nothing around but cows, rolling hills, weird sounds and pitch blackness, it was totally nerve-wracking. It didn't help that I had mentioned the double-murder that happened on a Jenner beach a while back. We laid on the hood of the car and lasted only 5 minutes til we got PARANOID (the current FEEL BAD). Far in the distance we heard a man scream... it was long and drawn out, and definitely not a party-yell. We jumped in the car and went home!! We saw one meteor while driving and one each while laying there, so it wasn't all for naught! But we also learned that we're not ready to go more remote than we are just yet, hehe.

Yay Warm Sunny Day!

What an awesome day Miles and I had. It all started when we went to the 101 Casino at 3 a.m. ... had some beers at 6 a.m., and then discovered free b-fast at 7:30 a.m.! Free biscuits and gravy! The biscuits were chewy, but that's an observation and not a complaint because - hey they were free! We came home and played some morning ping pong before we headed to Jenner for coffee with the birds and snakes at the mouth of the river. Then we drove to Healdsburg with an all-Centro-matic shuffle and explored Westside/Eastside Roads, and let the sun shine in everywhere. We searched everywhere for BBQ and when we found it it wasn't ready yet. So we settled for an It's Always Sunny marathon at home instead.

The other night I had really good chicken pot pie w/biscuit at P-30. They had crayons at each table, and I drew a picture of Douglas' favorite food items to date:

Initial List of Things Douglas Likes to/Wants to Eat or Drink

1. Champagne
2. Tangerine peel
3. Grapes
4. Orange juice
5. Broccoli
6. Tortilla
7. Strawberry
8. Doritos
9. My toothbrush (WITH toothpaste)! He is so weird!

Little did I know that when I was inspired to get a smooshie by the most famous smooshie Winston, that our new smooshie would come complete with Winston-like characteristics like eating everything!!! He never smells anything first -- he just opens up his awkward-shaped mouth and noms it!