My cats are different

Shadow's tail is 5 inches long
Boo's tail is 17 inches long

Shadow has shiny inky black fur
Boo has brownish-black fur that is more matte than shiny

Shadow has rounded ear tips
Boo has more pointed ear tips with tufts of hair on the ends

Shadow's body is short and stubby (like his tail). He looks like a little bear running around
Boo's body is long and lean. Very lean. His little ribs and backbone stick out because he is way too skinny, although healthy (the vet says he IS too skinny, but has no health problems....just anxiety issues. He lost 3 pounds, from 11.5 to 8.5 over a 12 month period, but $300 worth of tests say that he is perfectly okay, just skinny)

Shadow likes to eat.
Boo likes to eat, then puke (hence the skinniness)

Shadow likes to climb up onto my lap and plop down to snuggle and sleep
Boo likes to climb between Ethan and I on the couch and turn around 14 times trying to find the perfect petting position, then drool and shake his head to flick the drool all around him.

Shadow HATES having his claw covers put on and his claws trimmed. He "hula-hoops" his body when we pick him up to do this, and Ethan has to protect himself with a pillow and blanket so Shadow doesn't scratch him in his haste to get away
Boo 'freezes' when we put his claw covers on, and purrs frantically until we are done

Shadow has golden/amber eyes
Boo has light sage green eyes

Shadow has a full back of hair
Boo does not

Boo crosses his little arms when he sits across the back of the couch (kinda like the Sphinx)
Shadow's arms are not long enough

Boo can leap from the floor up to the 5th step in one jump
Shadow can jump to the second step

Boo REALLY wants a bird. He makes clicking noises when he sees one
Shadow is a big fan of moths that get into the house (very rarely....)

Shadow likes to instigate fights with Boo, but he is a crappy fighter
Boo gets picked on by Shadow, but he is a great fighter and always wins their scuffles (but they are not really fighting, just wrestling)

Both Shadow and Boo meet me at the door when they hear the key in the lock, and follow me everywhere I go. If I go upstairs to get a drink, they follow me. If I go to the bathroom, they lie down in front of the door and wait for me to come back out. I can no longer play hide and seek.

I love my coffee carrier

I won a LiquidSolution stainless steel massive vacuum sealed coffee travel thingie at the White Elephant exchage this past Christmas. I made Ethan steal it from Mom so I could have it.

Then I promptly put it in the trunk of the car and forgot about it for two months.

I recently remembered it, and decided that it might be useful, along the lines of our more financially-conscious lifestyle. I mix up some General Mills Vanilla coffee mix stuff (tastes nothing like coffee....just the way I like it) with some soy milk and water, then fill the coffee tower up and head off to work. It is 1:21pm right now, and I just drank the last little bit and it is still HOT! The lid doubles as a cup, and it is such a snazzy little system!

I used to pay $3.83 for a chai from Starbucks every morning. Then they sold my basketball teams, so I moved to the hospital Bistro and paid $3.10 for a chai. Now I pay $8.00 for the massive powder container and $3.00 for the soy milk and have my caffeine for weeks and weeks.

I am saving some serious money here.

I also have a nalgene bottle I got for free from the Sonics that I fill with Crystal Light fruit punch and drink. I love it!! Between these two containers, I am sloshing!! I am now bringing bagels and beef jerky and pretzels to work for snacks, and making sandwiches or bringing premade salads for lunch. Safeway has some amazing specialty salads. My current favorite is one with a BBQ ranch dressing and corn, tortilla strips, cheese and tomatoes on top. So good!!!

Anyway. Now you are up on the olde culinary intake of Ms Amerson

Now, have I mentioned how very much I like my new toilet seat??

My old toilet seat broke. I am convinced that it broke because it was crap and not because of my mammoth girth (although to be fair, it first broke when Ethan was using it...the second and more complete break was when I sat on it, but that obviously does not count, since it was already broken.......by Ethan. Got that??) So. The crappy seat broke and was generally crappy and cheaplike. Nevertheless, I continued to perch precariously on this seat for about 3 weeks after it broke (as long as you sit down squarely and evenly, it doesn't move and you don't fall onto the floor), but I finally decided to replace it.

I went to Home Depot and perused their vast supply of seats, both elongated and round, and finally decided on a jazzy brushed nickel model. I like brushed nickel. That is to say, the attachment parts are brushed nickel. The seat itself is a regular white. I think an entire metallic seat would be icky. Prisonlike. The lovely seat is sculpted around the edge a bit and very nice. I removed the piece of crap (well, the old seat. I flushed before I began this procedure), then screwed the new seat on. Of course, to properly admire it I had to scrub the toilet, then the floor looked icky next to my gleaming toilet, so I cleaned that (only right next to the toilet, though....I didn't get completely carried away).

So. It is a very nice toilet seat. I admire it each time I enter the bathroom, whether I am directly involved with using it or not. Now I gotta replace the rest of the stuff in there so it all matches.....

United Citizens for Uniquely Tricky Subway Sandwich Topping Accommodation Tactics, or "U-CUT STAT"

In an effort to keep my blog entertaining and updated, I am dedicating this post to the Subway U-cut.

Do you remember the U-cut?? As a former Sandwich Artist, I am well versed in the art of the U-cut. The beauty of the U-cut is that you get an even distribution of the sandwich contents, whereas with a plain bisecting cut leaves you with an area where bread meets bread and you get a bite wholly without toppings. A disgrace, that is. The U-cut piece is placed artfully on the top of the sandwich contents like a little beret and serves as a place to rest your fingers without dirtying them as you hold your sandwich, and also helps to keep the contents contained within the confines of the bread.

This new slash cut sandwich crap is woefully inadequate. The resulting V space where the contents are placed tends to push the toppings towards one side, so you get some bites that are all bread, and some that are all toppings, not to mention the shocking amounts of toppings that fall from the sandwich and are either wasted or messily replaced within the bread.


Join me in urging Subway to go back to the U-cut of the past. We deserve even topping distribution in our deli sandwiches!!

Okay, so my neck is so out of whack that I am totally sore from using my new pillow. It is much more comfortable now (I don't wake up in the middle of the night), but I am a bit sore in the mornings. Getting better.....

I am back in the quilting business. Same quilt, different year. I quilted until I ran out of thread this weekend, and I am exactly half way done with the hard quilty part. Can I get a woo-hoo??

We have now completed the entire first season of Star Trek, the original series. Another woo-hoo?? Probably not from this crowd, but Ethan and I are quite excited. We have already finished the first disc (4 episodes) of the second season, which is supposed to be the best season they had. We shall see. We (okay, I), have decided that we will go to Vegas after finishing the entire original series. There are three seasons, so that is looking like May-ish, or maybe early June. Although, Ethan is arranging a bachelor party there in June sometime, so maybe he will be sick of it. But I won't!!

Long time no post....I really will try to do better


I did go out and purchase the Sealy Posturpedic Millenium pillow (check it out online!) after saving my 'allowance' for 2 weeks. So nice!! It is especially comfortable when lying on your back. I did have a terrible night's sleep last night, but I am pretty sure it was not the pillow's fault. Let's just say I have some stress in my life (and if I don't mention what it is, be aware that I am not mentioning it on purpose, and probably don't want to talk about it.........so don't ask).
I do love that pillow! Tonight will be my second night with it, and I get to sleep in tomorrow, so I will see what happens.....
I am bringing home 140 lovely lumpia rolls that I purchased from Felma, one of the nurses I work with. It is a traditional Filipino food that she is WONDERFUL at making, so I am bringing them all home with me. They are like tiny eggrolls, but with a different filling. Mostly ground pork with some egg and spices. Delicious!!

I am planning to save most of them in the freezer and serve them at our housewarming +1 party once our furniture arrives. It should be here sometime in March, unless we are truly unlucky and it comes the first week of April, which was the worst case scenario.

Ethan may have job news soon, which I will elaborate on once I have actual news. Could be very very good......

I am enjoying my 10 hour shifts with my extra day off. I am getting motivated to work on that quilt I started a couple years ago and forgot about. (see my digicraft blog for pics and info from 2005). Our bed is so big, our blankets don't even cover the top of it!!


That is pretty much it for me. My life is not exciting in an I-want-to-post-about-it sort of way.

Yes, I have moved to the new blogger. It wouldn't let me in unless I did. I am irritated, but I have no other options.



So, the bed came today. It is too tall. It is 41 1/2 inches from the floor. For all of you visual learners out there, my belly button is approximately 41 1/2 inches from the floor. I need steps.

We went furniture shopping today, since our house is sadly empty....and we found some great deals! We bought a lovely pillow top mattress that is being delivered tomorrow (VERY exciting!!), a set of end tables and a lift-up coffee table that match, along with a sofa table that we are not sure where we will put...but at least it matches. And, we bought a dining room table with 4 chairs and a neat bench. It is called a butterfly table because the extending leaf it has folds in sorta like butterfly wings when you want the table to be smaller. A pretty neat feature, I thought.
We get the mattress tomorrow, but it will be as many as 6-8 weeks before the others arrive. Can we say housewarming party??? A year late, but at least we will have furniture!!

Comment with a small potential of hurting someone's feelings

Blah, blah, blah, blah.




That pretty much sums it up. Not much going on in my life, or I would have posted about it (I swear....). We are through the first 16 episodes of the first season of Star Trek, so making SOME progress there....I am now working 10 hour shifts, alternating Mondays and Wednesdays off.......just did my taxes on Monday (woohoo refund!!!), our first refund in about 4-5 years........going to Sonics games.......

Pretty much nothing.

Blah, blah, blah, blah.




That pretty much sums it up. Not much going on in my life, or I would have posted about it (I swear....). We are through the first 16 episodes of the first season of Star Trek, so making SOME progress there....I am now working 10 hour shifts, alternating Mondays and Wednesdays off.......just did my taxes on Monday (woohoo refund!!!), our first refund in about 4-5 years........going to Sonics games.......

Pretty much nothing.

No, my house is NOT yellow.......but this is the entry and living/dining rooms upstairs....

A full length version of the Europe video

Much much much excitement....

Okay, have spent OODLES of time now looking/dreaming/thinking about going on vacation.....the Dominican Republic it is....since I don't really care where we go, can't think of cities to search in for cheapie all inclusives, so this works.

We are going to stay at the Riu Mambo or the Riu Merengue in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. They are located right next to each other, along with the Riu Bachata, which is a teeny bit more spendy (so we are not staying THERE). We stayed at the Riu Jalisco in Puerto Vallarta and LOVED it, so this should be awesome. We have decided to fly out late Thursday night (like 1030pm), which gets us to our hotel around 3pm, after our taxi/shuttle ride out there. We will spend 8 wonderous days and 7 fun filled nights there, then fly out the following Friday.

This is where it gets cool.

I know, I know--this is ALREADY quite cool, but......the flights home all totally suck. So, I am going to attempt to get the suckiest of them all--we will fly out at 130pm and get to Newark/New York at 530pm, then check into a hotel next to the airport and have a night in New York City, which is less than 5 miles away. Maybe see TImes Square or the Empire State Building or the Statue of LIberty...something--we do have all evening! The next day (Saturday), we fly out at 1:50pm and get to Seattle around 4:30pm local time. Doesn't that sound awesome?!? A totally sucky layover becomes a touristy stop!

Quite excited, and already having nightmares about getting sunburned.....but I will do my most very best to stay pale!!

Gettin out of Dodge....

So.




As you may know, Ethan and I have been planning to use our time share to exchange for a time share in Hawaii this spring. I called the timeshare people and there are NO units available to exchange for. None. Not a crappy one, not at a later date, none. They get snatched up as soon as they are made available. So, we are going to put ourselves on a waiting list for the three resorts we liked, and just wait for the phone call that tells us a unit has come up. Maybe next year?? They say it can be quite a wait--apparently Hawaii is the most popular and difficult place to get into.

So, no timeshare. But do not fret--we are still going SOMEWHERE!! We had some discussions, and our options basically were A-use the timeshare exchange to go somewhere else; B-go on a caribbean cruise and use our airline miles for the flight (caribbean cruises are CHEAP); C-find an all-inclusive resort somewhere and use our airline miles for the flight.

We are going with option C (I think). I LOVE playing travel agent, so I spent many hours looking and searching and planning and thinking.....the frontrunner right now is in the Dominican Republic. When we went to Puerto Vallarta in '05, we stayed at the Riu Jalisco. They had an amazing deal, so I went back to their website and looked this time around. Their three resorts in Puerto Plata are all on massive sale, so we are thinking of doing that. I am still searching out other all-inclusives, but this would be awesome already.

AND...as many of you may know, the Seahawks won in an improbably victory Saturday afternoon over the Dallas Cowboys. Amazing, incredible, so very fortunate.......look for them to do it again this Sunday at 10am vs the Chicago Bears. Wear blue!!!

***** WARNING *****

I have not posted in many moons. Please be warned that there are now FOUR, yes FOUR posts on this blog. (including this dumb one...).










PLEASE, pace yourselves. I don't want anyone going into blogger shock and needing assistance. Take it nice and slow....

New Years Resolutions

Do you make New Years Resolutions?? Do you keep them??

My first ever actually kept New Years resolution was in 2005. My resolution was to study for and take the Orthopedic Nursing Certification Exam, and to pass it. On October 15, 2005 I took the test, passed, and got my $1 an hour certification pay raise. Woohoo!! I am one of only 2 ortho certified RNs at Harborview, which is a nationally renowned ortho hospital. Very cool.

This year, I am hoping to have yet another successful resolution. After much thought and discussion, Ethan and I (well, I), decided that this year's resolution is to take better care of the house. This is in three separate parts--take care of the physical house by doing a better job keeping it clean and taken care of, taking care of the spiritual house that is my relationship with Ethan, and taking care of my own personal house, which is exercising more and eating better (mostly so that I look wonderful in a bathing suit next time we go on vacation, but I digress...). Ethan and I discussed this, then took our outside arms and made a little arch like the roof of a house over our heads, and had the kitties sit with us under the roof arch to seal the deal. So it's gotta work, right??

So.....Ethan has been instructed to motivate me to jump on that $^%$& machine and work out; my goal is at least 4 times each week (his goal is 7).......and I now give official permission to each and every one of you to call me out of the blue and remind me to get my butt on that machine. Actually, I enjoy it--no stress on my knees, I use it with just two pairs of socks on, which is more comfortable for me--in shoes, my feet go a little numb for some reason when I use these sorts of machines, but with just the socks I am fine. I have rigged up a system to keep a book open on the display part, so I can read while I work out. The system consists of a piece of ribbon wrapped around the console with the book tucked behind it. The simplicity is genious!!! I just read and pay no attention to anything and it is totally relaxing and I feel so good about myself. THe hardest part is actually DECIDING to get on the machine. Once I do that, it is no problem. I just think of SO many excuses why not to!!

So.......do you make resolutions?? What are some of yours?? Do you need some motivational help to keep yours going?? THe best way to keep a promise to yourself is to make it public--that way you look like a complete idiot if you don't follow through, and I don't know about you, but I really don't like looking like a complete idiot........so I guess that means I will be one hot beach babe this time next year!!

Cheer us on as we embark on an adventure!!

Ethan and I have made a New Years resolution of sorts. This is big. We will be boldly going where no Amerson has gone before.....



We have decided to watch every single episode of Star Trek, in order, for all the series. I have in my DVD player at this very moment disc one of season one of Star Trek, the Original Series. We will watch ALL of these, then go to season two, etc, then Star Trek: The Next Generation, then Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, then Star Trek: Voyager, and finally onto Star Trek: Enterprise.

It will likely take us more than a year to do, since we have not decided to dedicate our entire lives to watching these, and we will actually get out of the house on occasion, but this is the goal. When we are all done, we will return to Vegas so we can go through the Star Trek museum at the Star Trek Experience and actually READ the massive 300 foot long timeline that tells the entire Star Trek history, and actually KNOW what they are talking about!! Won't this be fun??

Yes, yes...long time no post. But.....in my defense, absolutely NOTHING has happened since my last post. We stayed home and watched movies for Christmas.....I worked New Years Day, so I went to sleep at 9pm on New Years Eve......regular work stuff, boringness. Absolutely NOTHING to bore everyone with. So there.