And we’re on vacation next week.  Woo hoo!!

And this picture?  Just sharin’, ‘sall.  Happy Thursday!

I understand that I am not supposed to be drawing attention to “someone’s” birthday today.  And I won’t mention any names, I promise.  I won’t even give you any clues as to whose birthday it is.

BUT...

I want to wish our good friend a very happy birthday today.  You know who you are.  Enjoy the day, buddy!

Today’s “Word of the Day” reminded me of something.

First, here’s the word:

sui generis soo-eye-JEN-ur-us; soo-ee-, adjective:
Being the only example of its kind; constituting a class of its own; unique.

And here’s what it reminded me of…

The wonderful thing about tiggers

Is tiggers are wonderful things!

Their tops are made out of rubber;

Their bottoms are made out of springs!

They’re bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy,

Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun!

But the most wonderful thing about tiggers is

I’m the only one!

I have declared a moratorium on announcing “good feeling” or “happiness” or “things that I love” months.  It sets off alarms all over the universe to make things come crashing down around me and I just don’t want to play in that sandbox any more!  So, from now on, when I feel happy or want to tell you about something that I love, I’ll just do it.  No dictated posts, no dedicated months - just life as it comes.  (Sorry, -d!)

There - that should settle things down for next August!

So, I think things are starting to normalize.  Mom is doing better, Dad is coping with the added responsibilities, and I managed to finally go through those piles of mail that were waiting for me everywhere.  We need to get Buzz feeling better next and then all will be right with my little piece of the world.  That may be a ways off, however, since it seems that his arm is more damaged than we originally thought.  We’ll know more on Wednesday.  Maybe.

I hope you are all doing well in your little pieces of the world, too.

Please think good thoughts for my friend, Woman, and her family as they just found out her dad has cancer.  The days ahead will be hard for them and I am casting forth all the good will and positive thoughts that I can.  I could use a little help, though, so if you don’t mind, send some more positive waves her way, won’t you?

Thanks, and have a great evening!

Today is my big sis’ birthday.

Happy birthday, Chris!

I can’t upload pictures in MT right now so this is about as fancy as this post can get.  Exciting, isn’t it??

Happy birthday, Beanne!  I’m sorry - this is all I can muster at the moment.  When things settle down some, we’ll get together and celebrate in style!

Love, Pat

Happy birthday, Statia!  Thirty-one’s not so bad.  Wait until you hit forty-six!  Then you’ll know what it’s like to be getting old!!! 

I can’t imagine why this picture made me think of you!

Mom came home from the hospital today.  Six days, with surgery - can’t wait to see what that bill turns out to be!

Me?  I’m brain-dead.  It’s been six days with no break mentally and not much physically.  Heck, I was rearranging furniture and dragging mattresses around today.  In a house that is not air-conditioned and the windows in the room were nailed shut!  Well, it was a house full of relatives and, despite our short notice, we got the downstairs bedroom pulled together for Mom and Dad and made sure she had everything she needed to be comfortable. 

I think there’s still probably a week or so of tending to them both but that’s OK.  They’re worth it!

(P.S.  She had entered the elite group of 25% chance of mortality from this condition.  I’m glad I didn’t find out about that until days after her surgery!)

So I still won’t be here much for the next week or so.  I was just going to say that I’m brain-dead, but I checked and I already said that.  See what I mean?

Hope you are all doing well!

*UPDATE* I did it again!  I forgot - it’s our wonderful friend Harvey’s birthday today!  Happy birthday, Harv!

I almost forgot - happy birthday, Kathy Howe!

A little cake and beer for your birthday.  What could be better?

Apparently, I was a bit too happy yesterday. 

My mom had to have emergency surgery last night and will be a while recovering.  I just popped in to say that I’ve been without internet connection for the last 24 hours or so and will be sporadically updating as I can.

Miss me!!  Oh, and please send my folks good thoughts, if you don’t mind!

Wow!  I actually feel good today!  I can’t remember the last time I felt good, physically.  I still have lots of aches and pains but the things that have been really plaguing me are currently in non-plague mode.  For which I am truly grateful!

So today’s ”Things I Like/Love” post is about how much I really like feeling good.  Isn’t it a wonderful thing?

Hope you all are feeling good today, too!

Folks, I think it’s time to hold a bake sale here at La Casa de Empress y Buzz.  We no longer have small children to rent out (that never worked anyway) and we’re driving two crappy cars so we can’t sell them and I’ll never give up my kitties!!  So what’s to do?  Bake sale.

And why this sudden interest in raising funds?  I got our electric bill yesterday.

Now I have always said that, even during the hottest or coldest times of the season, the first number has to stay under a 4.  It has crept over that once in a while, when things were at their worst, but I’d say it never went over $420 for a month.

We’ve entered a whole new dimension.  Remember how the air conditioner wasn’t working right during the hottest week so far this summer?  Yea, that’s gonna cost us. 

$867.98

You read that right.  Almost $900 for one month of electric/gas.  All I can say is that I’m glad we figured out what was wrong with it ourselves and didn’t have to pay someone to repair it, too.

So, what do y’all like?  Cookies?  Pies?  I’m a kick-ass baker!  I can make some yummy things!

*sigh*

Today’s post about ”Things I Like/Love” is all about internet grocery shopping. 

Oh, internet grocery shopping, how I love thee!

Today, we stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up our order.  The total for the order was almost $180 (we were out of EVERYTHING) and yet it only took us 5 minutes in the store. 

Oh, yeah, baby!  That’s living!  (And for only $4.95 extra - very affordable!)

Last night, I was introduced to Navan vanilla cognac.  This morning, I can’t seem to find my brain!

So here’s a quick MOTD post.  This is Josh Holloway from ”Lost”.  He also made an appearance in the pilot episode of ”Angel”, credited as “Good-looking guy”.  I’ll say!