International Cat Day

In honor of International Cat Day, I'd like to take this time to remember my beloved cat Sophie, whom I lost this past Thanksgiving and miss every day.

It is hard to think about her now and not cry. She was with me for over 15 years and was the sweetest, funniest kitty I've every had.

When I first rescued her from the pound, she was a young, short-haired, 5-lb, flea-ridden cat who fell in love with my father initially and hardly spared me a glance. My parents were about to move out of our family home with me staying on - and a house just wasn't a home without a kitty. It took me loads of money and who knows how much time to rid her and the house of fleas. more time to train her not to jump on the kitchen cabinets. and weeks for her to stop smacking my dogs. but we settled in. Who knew under that short-hair hair was a silky, long-haired kitty who would rule the roost and priss about with her tail in the air.

She loved me unconditionally and every work day, I found her waiting for me by the door or she would walk out into the garage so we could walk inside together. She didn't like it when S. and I fought or even had a loud discussion - she would meow and rub against both of us as if to calm us down. She made me laugh when I was down and kept me company when I was lonely. She would snuggle up to me on the sofa - maintaining her independence of course - and let me pick her up and hug her when I needed to. We made up songs for her, talked to her all the time and often wondered how a 8-lb cat could sound like a herd of elephants running up the stairs and down the hall.

And now that she's gone, it's astounding how a small, quiet animal leaves such a huge hole in your life. the house seems so empty without her. But I am thankful for the blessings and company she gave to me thru the years. I was hoping to have her longer but until that last day, she was still the same sweet kitty I had loved over the years.

If you are a cat lover and have a cat, take time to appreciate and enjoy your kitty today.

And so the Italian Adventure Begins...

After months of scouring the internets for tickets that wouldn't cost an arm and a leg or any other detachable body part, we finally decided that to save a few bucks we would give up the dream of getting to Italy early. And so, we found a pair taking off on Christmas Eve arriving late morning in Venice. Not ideal but not terrible either. At least we would make Christmas lunch :)

Daring dashes to the madhouse stores for last minute gifts and warm clothes (hello I live in Texas, it doesn't get that cold here). Long lists of what to pack with the determination not to stuff too much into the suitcase. Bills to pay so we could come back to a house with electricity. A million and one things to do before leaving which suck up the hours before a big trip.

The day finally arrives and guess what? A Christmas miracle occurred. It snowed in Dallas. HA of course it would snow as I am leaving. It looked lovely coming down along the runway as we waited for our flight. and waited. and waited. yep, our flight was delayed but not because of the snow. We were almost an hour late in leaving but the plane was nice and the movie selection... oh the movie selection was GINORMOUS!! I didn't sleep at all! I watched Julie & Julia, G-Force, and The Hangover. (that movie was hilarious lol)

Unfortunately, we didn't make up enough time in the air and had a tight connection in Amsterdam - where, I might add, we had to run across the WHOLE FREAKING AIRPORT to make our connection flight to Venice. S got to the gate before me and as I was running up to the gate, they called my name over the intercom.lol Hopping on the little tram we were the last ones on the plane. It was snowing pretty hard by that time and frankly we ran for for nothing because we were further delayed while they de-iced the wings. actually that was kind of cool. I'd never seen that before =)

Tired beyond belief, cramped in the little puddle jumper, and just ready to get there, S. & I couldn't help but get excited when we finally saw this:The Euganean Hills. S. loves those hills and I swear I could hear the angelic music swell as we gazed out the window to see them. So after a day of travel, no sleep, snow, and hot, cramped places - even though we were over an hour late in arriving - S. was home.

Our luggage however, was not.

More later...