My Friend

I'll start at the beginning. Arnold came into our lives shortly after we were married. I was apprehensive about getting a cat, but Tony had one before and we lived in an apt. too small for a dog, so we decided to go to the humane society just to 'take a look around'. We instantly narrowed it down to two cats. The first was meathead. As the name implies, he had a huge noggin. Tony held him and we both liked him. Then the cat next to him came to the front of his cage and meowed. He was smaller than meathead and looked friendly and cuddly. So Tony opened up his cage door, held him to his chest, and the cat rubbed gently against his neck, as if they had already met. But he probably used this seduction on everybody. Tony was hooked, and I knew we were going to take him home. We told the people at the front that we wanted "Jingles" but we had to go to the ATM to take out the $35 bucks and stop to get the neccessities for our new friend.
In the car we tried hard to come up with a new name....Jingles just didn't fit. One of us said Arnold....as in Swarzenager...he wasn't that big of a cat, but for some reason he just looked like an Arnold. So it stuck, our new companion would be called Arnold.
He was shy and tender. We took him straight over to Tony's parents house to show Deb and Dan-o. Then we took him home....that's when it happened....Deer ticks. Crawling out of his ears!!!!!! I was so disgusted. Of course we had no idea what they were, but I just knew we needed to take him back. We'd had him all of an hour and already he was defective! But Tony disagreed and said that we would just have to take him to the vet in the morning. But a whole night of these grose large bugs coming out of his head and into my house? So I hid our toothbrushes and put him in the bathroom. Small enough space. Ok, dumb moment I must put in here, when I called the vet the next morning they told me to put them in a plastic bag. I was so frantic I thought they meant to put Arnold in a plastic bag. This didn't make any sense, wouldn't he suffocate I asked? That's when the kind receptionist told me no, not the cat, the bugs, so we can see what they are. Deer ticks they were. And getting them all out required him to be put under. And they ended up taking out 8 or 9, this was on top of the 4 or so that had already come out at our house. Poor kitty! And after this, $$$ keeps running through my mind. But Dr. Calista is an amazing vet and since we had adopted an adult at the humane society she did everything for less than $50. In his follow up she said his googly eye might have been caused from having the deer ticks. Or he'd been kicked in the head, by maybe a farm animal (it made sense that he would have been a barn car), or maybe even hit by a car at some point. It didn't matter, deer ticks, googly eye, shark tooth that hung over his lip, it all just added to make him even more unique. I was in love. And as you can see from the pics, as our love for him grew, he grew too! He was curious and liked to bite. But we were ok with that, we knew he did it out of love and to check and see if we would still love him even if he was bad. He loved to lay in the sun on our balcony or claw at the rug outside.
Arnold developed stones about 1 week before we moved to MD. But looking back, he'd been having symptoms for a couple of months. We took him to a vet in Roswell (we were staying with my parents) and they fixed him up. I figured he was just anxious about the move. But the problems never ended. For a full year and a half. We were in and out of vet's offices. I was always trying a new vet because maybe they would have the cure....hoping for a cure other than the $1000 operation that was basically a sex change that would allow him to pee out the stones easier. Vet bills, more vet bills, and we were always shoving pills down his throat. He was trying new diets, we were trying to help him lose wait, only feeding him twice a day. He hated this, he'd always been a self feeder, and obviously very good at it.
So a year ago he got sick again. I was in the kitchen and he came and squated next to me, cried and tried to pee. But it was only blood. He was desperate. He had never once gone anywhere outside of his litterbox. But he was smart, he knew what he was doing. So I shoved some more medicine down his little mouth and made an appointment at once again, another vets office. But we had already made the decision. The appointment this time was not to get him more medicine. It was to end the pain and the suffering. Our heart was absolutely broken. How do you put down your friend? Who were we to say that we all had to stop trying? But we just tried to rationalize it. He was suffering. Even when he wasn't clogged up, we were shoving medicine down him, and when he was sick he was staying at the vets overnight to get a catheter put in and shots, and x-rays, and there was no way that he could understand any of this, only that he was in pain. After we would bring him home he would have trouble controlling his urine, so it would just come out. And we could tell that he hated the way he was smelling, so he would hide from us. We would have to pry him out of wherever he was to clean him up. It wasn't fair anymore. We had invested so much and so had he. There wasn't even a guarentee that the surgery would work. And no way did we have $1000. So I took him in and held him. And cried and cried. I was standing there with his head in my hands as they gave him the shot to end his pain and his little life was over. Tony and I's life together had always had him in it, and now we were alone.
A year ago, and still as I sit here I can't help but sob. I miss my friend so much. He was a huge part of our life. I know most people say, he was just a cat. But he made me laugh, made me cry, had so much personality and filled me happiness. I still think about him and all his antics. We needed him as much as he needed us. Did we do the right thing? I don't know. And I can't think about it, because it only hurts and gets me nowhere.
We're thinking about getting another cat soon. But I told myself not to love this one too much, because things may not work out. And I really don't think I can ever love another cat as much as I loved my Arnie.

Little Italy

Tonight Tony and I went to a film in Little Italy. Tonight 'Rocky Balboa' was showing! It was an open air film, they put up a white wall on the side of a resturant and the image comes from the top window of this guys house. So we went over, got a really good pizza, watched some men play Bocci Ball, and then saw the film. We had a really nice time and here's a couple of pics!

Hogans, you're forgiven

About a month ago there was an incident at Hogans, our FAV local bar. Back story, Tony and I have been going there since we moved into the city. It's two blocks away, all locals, good food, cheap drinks, good conversation....a different version of Cheers. Mark is always working, Bobbo is always there playing pool, Mr. Hogan is djing on a good Sat. night. You get the picture. But that night a couple of weeks ago we were there with Kari, Mike, and Craig, getting drinks, hanging out. And the bartender got pissed, some old men made a couple of lude gestures, and we left. What happened? We go there all the time. We love that place, they know us. Apparently, we were dispendable. Boycott on.
But after a day like today we needed some greasy bar food and some beers, so we broke down and left our boycott behind, we ventured back to good ol' Hogan's Alley. Food - greasy and great, Corona's - nice and cold, conversation - wonderful, everyone chatting about the local politics, police and fire departments and the commisioners they have in the back pocket, life on the loading docks down at The Point, and we once again felt like locals, felt welcome, like people were glad we were there. And we were glad to be there, to be part of it. (If 'The Wire' is running through your minds right now, you're right one, it was like we were sitting by McNaulty, Hurk, and the working guys from the dock....and i mean this in the kindest way, minus the whole illegal stuff). This reason, feeling like you belong to a little niche within a big city, is one of the wonderful feelings that have made living in the city such a great experience. I was always hoping to get to live in a city and get to experience things like this. I will always look back on these memories and be thankful that we moved to Baltimore. We're so terribly homesick, but nights like tonight bring a smile to our face. Hogans, we forgive you.

#7

Joe Mauer, #7.....
Tonight Tony and I went and saw the Twin's beat the O's. We got great seats behind home plate, perfect view of Joe. I went down a couple of times to the front row, trying to get a close up picture of him. But when I got so close (close enough that if I lunged at him, I could have tackled him), I got really nervous and I was shaking so hard that the picture didn't turn out. The people around me were urging me to holler at him so he would turn around and smile, but they didn't know that I would then melt. So eventually they started yelling for me. Then he turned around and smiled at me.....the picture is really blury, and I'm sure that I looked a bit crazy with a shaky camera pointed at him and sweating like I was in a sauna. (In my defense, it was really really warm in B-more tonight). But at least I did get to stand close to Joe and I got some good pictures from my seat. It was a really good game, and once again it was nice to take advantage of living so close to the stadium.
This first picture is of me and Dano in Minnesota this summer.

Ahhhh, Mr. Mauer

And another one....

Book Review 1

I'm going to try and start writing book reviews. I would love to eventually freelance and I need to start practicing my writing. What better place to do that than here? Please feel free to critique!

'Running with Scissors' By: Augusten Burroughs

No one warned me about this book. It wasn't until I was sucked in that I realized the feeling of nausea wasn't going to go away until long after I put it down. The way Mr. Burroughs was able to showcase his confused childhood and his acceleration into adulthood all with graphic and vivid details made this book hard to put down, and made me grateful that it was a quick read. The life he was forced to live and the realities of feeling unwanted and unloved put the reader in a trance, feeling pity and anger throughout the book. I did feel something for all the characters and in that respect, Mr. Burroughs succeeds in pulling the readers in. I don't recommend this book, at least not for the faint of heart.

Late night games, Early morning brunch

Last night was Cheri's housewarming party. We ate, visited, and played games. Our good friends Nathan and Jessi made the long haul from Western Maryland and it was so nice to see them and get a chance to catch up.
Then this morning everybody met for brunch at Little Havana's. It was a beautiful drizzly morning...such a nice repreve from the heat. Overcasted, rainy days are my favorite kind, so the dreary day was a perfect Sunday for me. And it was topped off that I got to eat breakfast with friends. Here's some pics. It's hard to post all of them.
(I'm trying to get set up on Flikr so that I can post all my pictures)

Hot town, summer in the city....

The past couple of weeks have been miserable....the heat has gotten the better of me. I almost got heat exhaustion from running a couple of Saturdays ago. So we've been trying to lay low. I've still been reading alot and we've been watching movies. I just finished "Diary" by Chuck Palahniuk. It was just ok. But it was a quick read. Just a little disturbing. We also watched 300 this past week...very good! McNaulty from 'The Wire' was in the cast, and he played a very good 'bad guy'.
Tony's hand is healing. He got his splint off and is now going without anything. He should only have about 3 more weeks until it's fully healed. Hopefully well enough to go bow hunting in Minnesota!
Here's picture of Tony with his splint still on. It didn't stop him from playing beer pong with Mike and Carrie and Craig when they came to the city.

Violent Femmes

A couple of weeks ago the Violent Femmes had a free concert in the Harbor. I love the Violent Femmes, we went and saw them in concert last fall. They were great! They had a lot of guest musicians, which just made the show so much better. It was an older crowd (surprise), so it was a lot more laid back. We were excited about this show, especially since it was free! Here's a picture from there....
The group picture is all our friends from kickball whom we met up with there.

Peaches

This past weekend Tony and I went peach pickin' at Baugher's. It was a lot of fun but making the preserves has been a lot of work! So far I've made about 20 12 ounce jars and a few 6 ounces jars, and I probably have enough to make about 12 more jars. I'm not sure if I have it in me though....

Bloodymary Time

Ok, this Bloodymary gets 4 out of 5 celery sticks (I'm searching graphics for this depiction). It was beautiful, just a beautiful drink. I was very impressed. I got it when we went out to eat our last day there with Tony's family.
The flavor was great, could have stood to be a little hotter though. The vodka wasn't overwhelming and the mix didn't taste generic. You can see from the picture that it was garnished with a beef stick, a pickle, a celery stick, an olive, AND A CHUNK OF MOZZARELLA! The mozzarella looked better than it tasted, but it definitely added something to have it on there.

Minnesota

Tony and I flew to Minnesota for the week of July 4th. Of course we had the usual Northwest trouble of the flight being about an hour late, freaking out about missing our connector to Duluth, but everthing turned out ok and we made it in late the night of the 3rd.
The best part of our trip was getting to meet our sweet new nephew and Godson, Connor Joseph. He is AMAZING! So beautiful and just perfect. It was love at first sight! I couldn't get enough of him. It's another huge reason it's so hard to live so far away from all of our family...kids grow so quickly, and only seeing them once a year is not enough. I know the next time we see him he'll be sitting up and he'll just be so much bigger. It's too hard to think about. Hopefully something will work out soon to where we can be closer to both of our families.
We went to Tony's aunt's cabin for the day and night of the 4th. It's a really cute cabin and the lake is really nice. We boated during the day and then grilled and shot off fireworks that night. The next day Tony and I went canoeing, which just reinforced our desire to be somewhere where we can canoe as much as we want.
We also got to go up the shore a bit to Tony's parent's land and got to see the new cabin they're building. It's going to be so nice to have a place the family can go to get away from the city. Tony has great memories of 'the land' from when he was a little boy and they would go up as often as they could. Tony and I slept out under the stars that night (I was hoping to see the aurora borealis) and it was just beautiful. Tony fell asleep with one of his arms outside of the sleeping bag and woke up with 27 mosquitos bites on that arm! But spending time with Tony's family was the best part of the whole trip. It was great to play with the kids and visit with everybody. Tony's friend Whalen came up to the land the night we were staying there and it was great visting with him as well, Tony hadn't seen him for a few years.
I'm going to have to put all the pictures in some sort of album, after I find which one I want to use, but I'll try to post a couple of pictures now.

The first picture is of me and Connor.
The second is of me and Tony up on the land.

The BIG 2-6

I know i'm posting this about 2 1/2 months late, but I wanted to post a picture of my birthday party. Some of my friends came to the city to help me celebrate! We went to a tequila bar (always a fun way to start out the night), then went on to another bar. I had so much fun and it was so nice of my friends to come out! There wasn't too much debauchery (sp?), and only one drunk dial to JT, instigated by Sean.
From left to right is Craig, Jen, Adam, Bernadette, Sean, Heather, and myself!
One of the funniest memories of the night were the people dancing in the street beside Lime (tequila bar)...it was south Baltimore's finest. Very good entertainment!

More adventures

While my mom and sister were visiting we also went to Gettysburg. The 5th of July is the anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, so the place is always hopping around that time. We walked around and drove some of the battlefield. We also hung out down by the Harbor and went to Little Havana for brunch!!! ( i love Little Havana!) We had a great time, and I was sooooo glad that they came out to visit me. (hopefully the next time they come to my house to visit it will be in Colorado) Look closely at the picture in front of the Farnsworth House, there are bullet holes from the battle. I'm also going to try and upload a picture in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, on the steps where Rocky ran up.

Going to the Opera

Here's a picture of me and my mom and sister on the balcony of the Kennedy center. You can see DC in the background. We saw the Phantom of the Opera. It was awesome! It was so special to be able to go to such a fancy place together, to get dressed up and enjoy the theater. That night was something I will never forget.

Friends

Here's a picture of me and my friends...I don't really keep in touch with people from HS very well, but these three ladies I have remained close to. We just don't get to see eachother very often!

New Mexico

Wow, I haven't posted in a long time, but I've been busy. I took a trip to New Mexico and then my mom and sister came for a visit. We just got back yesterday from Minnesota. I'll probably post all the pictures I have in different posts.
I had a great time visiting with my family though, I haven't seen them since Christmas! We just relaxed and hung out. I did go get a pedicure though, my first, and it was AMAZING!! I went with my mom and Amy. We also went to Bottomless Lakes and swam around. The best part of all was just getting to be with my family...and it's never long enough. On top of all of that I got to see my friends. Friends that I rarely get to see because we all live in different cities.
The picture above is of me and me padre....

Wine Tasting

My friend Sharon introduced us to a new hangout, The Vine. Which on Wednesday nights has wine tastings. For $5 you can have 5 samples of wine. Sharon and Sean joined us for our first night at The Vine.

The first wine of the night was a white wine, Cascal Garcia Vinho Verde. It was from Portugal. It was much like a sparkling wine. It was crisp and clean, very nice for a warm weather wine. My favorite wine of the night was the 4th, a red, Chateau Haut Marchand. It was a Bordeaux made up of 60% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 15% Cabernet Franc. It tasted of berries, although it was very dry, not as acidic as I expected. It had a lot of tanins. Very good. I thought my favorite wine was going to be the Chianti, as I am particular to Chianti., but this one beat it out. The atmosphere was very laid back, anywhere from men in ties just coming in from work to me, in my boundry water shorts and a t-shirt. The service was good, especially considering how many people were in there, which I was surprised at how many there were. We will be trying to go back to The Vine soon for more tastings!!!!

Artwork - amazing photos

My favorite photographer is Craig Blocklock. I first became intrigued by his artwork several years ago while on a trip to Duluth. Rita (Tony's sister) and I went to the Gallery to see Craig's newest exhibit, which at the time was A Voice Within. This photos were mostly nudes of Honey Blacklock (long story there, she started as his model, but then they got married). These pictures took my breath away, and I had to have to book. A couple of years ago Tony bought me another book of his photos while he was back in Duluth, nature photos. Craig is a Minnesota native and his father was also a photographer, as well as his late wife (tragic story). When I look at his photos I'm instantly back in Minnesota, and it makes me homesick for a place I have never called home. The natural beauty that is Minnesota is something everyone should see. Lake Superior still blows my mind every time I see it. Craig's newest book, North Shore will be available in June...I think i'm going to have to go to the gallery when we're there in July and try to get an autographed copy. I tried to attach a picture, but i don't think it's going to come up. But go to the website and see for yourself!

Brunch in Little Havana

Brunch is by far my favorite activity of the week. I look forward to it all week long. We don't go every Sunday, but we try to go most Sundays. Breakfast and Bloody Mary's, what could be better? This morning we went to a new place we haven't been before, Little Havana. It was on the water and it was packed! The cuban style breakfast was delicious, and my eggs reminded me somewhat of Juevos Rancheros....and the Bloody Mary was great!!!! very very good! i would give it 3 1/2 celery stocks out of 5! Just the right amount of spice, right amount of thickness.

Interesting Read

I finished reading The Rule of Four in less than a week. It helped that I had a lot of time to read in NC, but I haven't been able to put it down! The book centers around the Renaissance mystery, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, and the power it has over two Princeton students who are trying to unravel it's secrets. They put their lives on hold to solve the many riddles the book has in hopes that they can find the meaning the author, Francesco Colonna, crypticly placed throughout the Hypnerotomachia's pages. I love books that involve history, I feel like I'm learning meaningful information as I read along. I've really enjoyed the couple of books that I have read that involved Renaissance history, the art work, the philosophy, the books, and the families. The other book that I read that had that history in it was The Birth of Venus, another great book that I recommend. The ending of the Rule was somewhat predictable but exciting none the less. I would give this book a 3 out of 5.