"I guess just one too many..."

Ha, Ha, My favorite line from "A Christmas Story" when dad plugs in the tree and a small fire starts in the outlet. There's about 15 cords all plugged in. Well, I experienced my own little scene yesterday while working on my tree. Every year, I have to put tons of white lights on my tree. I like to wind them down as many branches as possible. And, even though this year's tree seems smaller, I still ran out of lights. So off I went to the local True Value and bought some more, determined to get enough. I laughed to myself as I noticed the box said "connect up to 3 strands" as I literally connected probably my 8th or 9th. Well, as soon as I plugged the new strand in, it lit and then went out. I tried the next one, yep, same thing. I realized that I was blowing the tiny fuses in the strand plug. Of course, this was after about 4 hours of working on my tree. I seriously considered opening up the front door and just throwing the entire tree into the middle of the lawn. Thankfully, Rian came downstairs just in time so I put him on the fuse replacement and I got a couple small extension cords and divided up my lights so there were only a few strands per cord. Finally, after 6 hours, I have a beautifully lit tree...but, no ornaments...that will be today's job...

Crappy ending to a fun weekend...

After a fun weekend in Toronto (I was there with my friend Amber to watch our hubbies play Miami), I received a call from my pet sitter that my cat Cole wasn't doing well. His health has been deteriorating for about a year. Last month, he had another "seizure" and I found out his heart wasn't working correctly and his lungs had a bunch of fluid in them. After some tests, he was put on a diuretic in order to help his failing heart so that it wouldn't back up into his lungs. He seemed to be doing better but I could tell it wouldn't be long before his little body gave up. So, when I got the call from my friend, I asked her to bring him to the vet, knowing that this was probably it. The vet called a short time later and told me his left lung was completely full of fluid as was about 1/2 of his right lung. I asked her to keep him comfortable and I would come in as soon as we got back into town and put him to sleep. It was a tough ride home knowing what my night had in store.

When I arrived (about 11:30pm), he was breathing really hard but purring and "talking" to me. I burst into tears and gave him lots of hugs before asking the vet to put him down. It was so hard to do but it was time. I can honestly say, I lost a very good friend on Sunday night. He has been my buddy for 12 years and I will miss him dearly...