Trip to Ikea

This afternoon we went to Ikea to get a file cabinet for John, bedside table for me and a new mattress for the 2nd floor bedroom. Ikea has a mattress promo and is the only store I know of that you can buy just a mattress and not have to buy the box spring too. While we at Ikea we got some inspiration for a kitchen re-model we plan on doing to one of our apartments sometime in the next 5 years.

I really like these frosted glass cabinets and the pull out pantry would be beautiful and practical.

We thought these drapes were just interesting. And here is the mattress brand we bought that is being delivered tomorrow afternoon. It was reasonably priced ($480), can be turned over and has a 25 year guarantee not to "dip" in the middle. We spent the extra $70 for delivery and take away our old mattress that only lasted 8 years, can't be turned over and dips in the middle that we bought from Macy's.

We spent about 2 hours @ Ikea and about $822 today. Happy Valentines Day from us to us.

1st Decade

This calendar is February 2000.

The month I met my spouse.

A decade ago.

I'm not certain (and neither is he) but we both think it was Saturday February 12, 2000.

So tomorrow we are going to celebrate by going to the View (not the City View, but a new restaurant in Walnut Hills) and then off to the cellar to catch up with neighbors. Going out to dinner Friday night is pretty routine for us.

But we will also be celebrating what we think is a decade since we met.

Here is that story.

December 1999 I bought (with some generous help from my parents) my dream home. Which is now our dream home. I rented this property ( 2 apts) for the first 18 months. To this day we still rent the 1st floor. Anyhow I had a party to celebrate this purchase in February before the first 2nd floor tenants (a vet and her 10 year old triplets) moved in.

It was a dinner party for 28 people. I did not know spouse but he came because my friend Maureen invited him. She did most of the cooking for this party. Ray and Guy helped me bring in tables and chairs since I was having a dinner party in an empty apt. Oh I remember the dishwasher had issues the morning of that party which fortunately for me Richard was able to fix. Thinking about that now I can't believe how much of a catastrophe I thought it would be if I had to clean those dishes by hand. Geez.

Anyhow it was a great party. John was my Euchre partner and I had the most amazing hands dealt that night. That really should have been my sign. But I was having too much fun being hostess to notice. John's "gay-dar" was way off that night too. Which is somewhat amusing. That night becuase of the way Ray and I bickered he thought we were a couple. Ray who arrived and left with Guy and was his typical self that night as well.

Well quite a bit has happened in the last 10 years. John and I started dating after that party. That April John was transferred to Hampton to work at Langley. It is an understatement to say he had the better job but we both knew we wanted to live in Cincinnati and more specifically Mt Adams. John moved back (quitting a great and stable job) to come back 18 months later. We have been married for 7 1/2 years and to this day live in our dream home and ..........we are now waiting on our dream girl to arrive. We believe we will see her picture and know some information about her in 2010 and would love to believe she will be home this year as well. But if not 2010 we believe early 2011.

March Trip

We booked our trip to Florida in December when Delta had really great deals and we knew we needed to be there for an annual condo meeting the 2nd week of March.

We didn't really make any further plans (no Reds pre-season games as they have moved to Arizona). I even told my boss that I could probably visit a free trade vendor in Sarasota because I would have lots of time as we are going to be there 10 days and I'm sure John will work part of the time. Well, as of yesterday we added a side trip to Key West and it is entirely likely I won't have so much spare time.

We are going to Key West. 1st time for me. John been there several times but not in the last decade. I texted Ray for suggestions yesterday and got the funniest voice mail response from him, beginning with "You know I don't text..."

So we are going to take the Key West Express (170' boat) from Ft Myers to Key West (3 hour trip) which cuts the trip in half. We are staying at the Duvall Inn on Angela Street.

Picture below is where breakfast is served at our b&b.

We reserved the Caroline room... I love that sleigh bed. For the longest time I wanted this style of bed for our home but spouse is not crazy about the style. Complimentary bikes may be handy as we won't have a car.

This is Duvall's resident rooster Jack. There were many travel advisor comments and pictures of Jack, less so of the resident dogs. So after we made our reservations last night we did the typical Mt Adams Friday night: dinner in the neighborhood followed by catching up with the neighbors at the cellar. Caught up with Tim and Nancy, Kurt and Caroline and Chuck and Kim. Interestingly Chuck and Kim are going to be in Key West the entire month of March so now we plan on meeting up with them. Kurt and Caroline own a home in KW and may be there as well.

RQ's defends optimistic stance

Under the heading "A picture paints a 1000 words" RQ posted the chart to the left, I'm assuming she did this based on the 20+ comments challenging her predictions entry for this month. Today's chart shows highlighted by color the # of days referred (1st column) and # of LID's (collected from her polls) for the last 12 referral batches. Her stance is the # of LID's goes way down SO in theory CCAA could refer more days which if true would supports RQ's predictions below:

China Predictor is still saying 12-5-10 for our LID.

But, if RQ's analysis is right, which also hinges on the belief that CCAA is referring based on capacity, we could get our referral in June or July and possibly travel in August or September! We won't start believing this unless March referrals go to April 11th, a 6 day referral month.

Such a roller coaster.

Hamsters in India

This past August our friends and neighbors Ken and Megan Milar and their 3 children Braeden (5), Teagan (3) and Rowan (18 mths) moved to India. Ken works for P&G and this move is supposed to be for 18-24 mths. To say Megan's facebook updates about life in India have been interesting is an understatement. Yesterday's comment from Megan was about a present she got for her daughter Teagan's 3rd birthday this month. A hamster. The attached picture is not great but the most current one I have of Teagan. The Milars came home for Christmas (36 hour trip) this past December and their kids were in the Pilgrim pagent. So back to the hamster. Megan update read "just bought a hamster for Teagan's 3rd b-day. Man delivered it to me at a bus stop in Delhi. Oh the things a mother will do ..." This morning I looked up how far Delhi is from the little town they live in. To Delhi and back this trip was just over 300 miles! One of Megan's friends comments to this update was " If I wasn't living in India, I would think meeting someone at a bus stop for a hamster is a little sketchy :)" Teagan had been suffering from pet withdrawal. She could not sleep because her "pet hamsters" (torn-up-tissue) needed real cereal. That is when her parents decided she needed something real.

Winter Blues

It seems like everyone I know has the winter blues. I'm pretty sick of the weather as well, especially the gray skies.

This morning I was woken up a few minutes early my buzzing blackberry. The message was from someone in our May DTC group: " it seems that April 5 is the cut-off this time." Then her e-mail got progressively gloomier. Rumor Queen confirmed at noon today that the CCAA referred just 2 days this month. We will probably hear this news from our agency this coming Friday.

After we worked out this morning, John and I went to Koka, our neighborhood coffee shop. I ran into our neighbor Karen who asked about our adoption. This annoying wait makes answering this question difficult without sounding like a complete idiot. Briefly explaining where referrals relative to our date sounds close but really it isn't based on how slow referrals are coming. And each month we always think the speed up is bound to start.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Virginia because John's Uncle Estil died on Sunday. Estil had been sick for a long time and there is some consolation in the fact he died at home. Estil was married to possibly the nicest person I've ever met, John's Aunt Pauline.

So tonight I worked late as we won't get back home until late Thursday night. Because I had my camera and because the conservatory looks so cool at night I took the following pictures. The Bonsai room with the shades drawn. The Fern Room without the misters on. In the next picture you can barely see Tammy (night staff) taking a picture of the Tropical Room. She got her camera when she saw me taking pictures.

So when I got home my sweet husband had made broccoli stuffed chicken breasts and mashed potatoes for dinner.

Today we also received a package from Nancy with a very nice condolence card for Lucy. My favorite part of her letter was "I know how much you both loved Lucy. She definitely had quite the personality. She reminded me of the Bette Davis of the cat world - she instantly became the "star" of any room she entered - and she never failed to delight her audience!"

Nancy also sent this candle and picture. It is a Jewish tradition to honor the remembrance of a loved one who passed by burning a candle on the 1st anniversary of the loved one's passing. The name on the candle literally means "year's time". It is kinda funny because John and I privately joked that Lucy was Jewish.

Nancy also sent this Rudyard Kipling print she had framed because it reminded her of Lucy. We think we will put it in the baby's room. The Jungle Book was one of John's favorites as a child.

Lucy

This picture was taken the night Lucy moved in with us, January 27, 2007. It was also the last night she ever slept in that pet bed. Lucy surprised us with how easily she adapted to living with us.

Lucy loved to spend time outside and especially loved time in the garden.

We are both devastated by the sudden death yesterday of our sweet 12 1/2 year old cat Lucy. Last night was difficult. This morning I called off sick but plan to go to work tomorrow. My eyes are almost completely swollen shut and it is difficult for me to concentrate. I'll go in to work tomorrow and the rest of the week.

As far as the stages of loss I would say because of how fast the end came we did not spend a lot of time on denial. We made it through guilt pretty seamlessly (although I wish I had known she needed to pee before the vet arrived). Lucy let us comfort her in the end. She wanted us to hold her and she did rest in our arms. We did not go through anger either. We think her vet, Dr Lawrence and the hospital staff did all they could and thought it particularly kind that both called to check on us. In regards to the bargain stage of grief to be honest there is some quilt involved in the question of "would the outcome have been different if we had taken her to emergency care hospital Sunday?" The hospital vet seemed to not think so and I choose to believe him. I guess based on the stages of death we are depressed. John's is unique to mine as this is his first experience with the loss of a pet. I read depression can be described like being in quicksand. The recommendations I read regarding dealing with depression is while it is not a good idea to distract yourself from grieving to the point of denying or ignoring it is important to not get caught in it's energy zapping downward cycle and losing touch with reality. So I'm going to do some laundry this morning and if I can get my swelling down I'm going to workout this afternoon. John is out for a run in the park with his buddies right now.

Lucy came to live with us 3 years ago (her previous owners had a baby with allergy issues) when she was 9 1/2 years old. Her sweet spirit added a lot to our little home and here are a few things I will remember about how we loved her:

• how easily it was to get her to purr;
• how much she loved people, tolerated dogs and did not like cats;

• how smart she was
• how well she communicated what she wanted but was not hard headed
• how she taunted indoor cats with her bell

• how she drank with her paw
• how she "kneaded" us
• how she would just hang around us in whatever room we were in

• how she "pranced" and "shimmy'd" for treats and/or affection
• how in the morning we could call for her and she would saunter in and jump into bed with us and adore getting her head and chin rubbed;
• how she roll around in John's workout clothes after they had dried to "get his stink"
• how she would lay on her fake mink blanket and sleep while John worked and then tap him around 3 Pm needing a little attention
• how she liked to be walked into the 2nd floor bedroom after breakfast for her morning nap
• and how much she appreciated our doting love for her.

Here are a few quotes from http://www.homevet.com/ under the How to Cope with the Loss of a Pet article I read this morning:

"A pet may come to symbolize many things to each of us. It may represent a child, perhaps a child yet to be conceived or the innocent child in us all."

"You do not need anyone else's approval to mourn the loss of you pet, nor must you justify your feelings."

Be happy and/or thankful that you are blessed to be someone who finds joy in the companionship of a pet.

"This is an opportunity for emotional growth. Your life was and will continue to be brighter because of the time that you shared with your pet. The is the best testament to the value of your pet's existence."