Why I have Cats, not Kids

Rules for Non-Pet Owners Who Visit and Like to Complain About Our Pets:

1. They live here. You don't.
2. If you don't want their hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture.
3. I like my pets a lot better than most people.
4. To you, it's an animal. To me, it is an adopted child who is short, hairy, walks on all fours and doesn't speak clearly.

Dogs and cats are better than kids ... They eat less, don't ask for money all the time, are easier to train, usually come when called, never drive your car, don't hangout with drug-using friends, don't smoke or drink, don't worry about having to buy the latest fashions, don't wear your clothes, and don't need a gazillion dollars for college -- and if they get pregnant, you can sell the children.

History Lesson

Today at my Rotary meeting, I had the honor of meeting a gentleman, Albert Patterson, who had participated in the Great Raid at Cabanatuan in World War II.

He was a mule shoer in the 6th Rangers Battalion, which was a army mule pack artillery unit. He had spent time in New Guinea (even joked that he spent enough time on a boat getting there that he figured he almost qualified as a Navy man) and volunteered to go on the Raid at Cabanatuan. To read a little bit about what the 6th Rangers Battalion went through during that raid... well, it was just amazing to hear him talk about it and then even more amazing to read about it.

All in all, a moving and educational lunch. And now I'm going to have to read the book Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides and take Dan to see the movie The Great Raid. Both are about the Raid at Cabanatuan and Albert said that even the movie stayed very historically accurate. And I figure he's a guy that would know what he's talking about with that.

No Happy Ending

Today my friend Han, Han's date Susan, Dan and I all went to a Dallas Stars hockey game. Well, Dan and I were really going to the St. Louis Blues game but since they happened to be playing the Stars, we all ended up in the same place.

We had really great seats - only 8 rows from the ice. Normally they were $90 seats, but thanks to the fact that it was a pre-season game, we got them for less than half of that.

The Blues led or were tied for almost the entire game. Well, until the end. Then they lost 4 - 3 in overtime. Afterwards, there was a shoot out (all pre-season games this year are ending with a shoot out, no matter the results of the game) and happily the Blues scored the first goal. Not so happily, however the Stars went on to score on the last two tries and the Blues lost the shoot out 2 - 1.

But, even thought the Blues lost, it was still a ton of fun. I'm looking forward to this season! YAY!

Our newest addition

And no - our newest addition is not a cat!

It's Dan's new car:

Isn't it a good looking vehicle? It's a lot of fun to drive, too. Yep, Dan has let me drive it. In fact, I drove it all the way to Graham on Saturday after we picked it up at the dealership. We had to return my grandma's car so Dan was nice enough to drive her car down there and let me drive the new one. I don't think I would have been that nice if it were my new car! But he's had some good chances to bond with it since then. And I think he's very happy with it, too.

I think he's excited to have his first brand new car. We got it with 92 miles on it. With the way he drives cars (until they fall apart or are totaled), I think he'll really enjoy having a new car with him from cradle to grave - the car's cradle and grave, that is! I think I've determined I'm better with used cars because I'm ready for a new one after 4 or 5 years. Though I have a feeling the Lexus will stick around longer than that. I might have to pull Dan's trick and drive that puppy until it falls apart around me!

Lordy, I've been posting a lot about cars lately, haven't I? Saying goodbye to my car, Dan's accident, my new car, Dan's new car... Well, hopefully no more car-related stuff will come up for a long time! Unless it is a post about how much Dan and I are enjoying our new vehicles! YAY!

Ever have one of those days...

Hehe, my cousin Cindy sent me this. And after dealing with the insurance company and their two million different adjusters (okay, only three, but still!)I definitely feel like this!

Hello Gorgeous!

Well, I wanted to wait until it was officially official, and now it is! Mom and I went to the tax assessor's office to put the title in my name and now...

Say hello to my new car!

Ain't she purty? Okay, so she's older than my Honda and had more miles than the Honda, but they were worth the same amount (or close enough) and man, oh man - the Lexus drives so smoothly. And it is so nice to have a 6-cylinder again instead of a four. Dan even likes driving it and he doesn't like driving sporty cars - a category in which this one certainly fits.

The one problem is: what are we going to call her? When she was my mom's, she was known as "The Lexus". Well, now my mom has a new Lexus RX300 (the SUV) so it isn't really The Lexus anymore. But I still think the name will stick. Only time will tell!

CRUNCH!

Dan is fine (I think he’ll be a little sore tomorrow) but this is what his car looks like from the accident he was in this morning.

A truck towing a blue trailer swerved into Dan, the trailer hit hard at the front passenger side and then hit along the entire passenger side (you can see the blue paint on the Camry from the trailer). It sent Dan into a spin but he managed to pull out of it and take the car to the median. The engine died and we didn’t try it because we didn’t want to cause more damage in case things were crunched out of place on it. We found his hubcap on the shoulder of the highway. His right turn signal was a few feet away from his car in the median. He is one lucky guy not to be even scratched.

It happened about 8:30 and I went out to pick him up. We didn’t get back to the house until after 10:30 because we had to talk to the Fort Worth police, who passed us to the Rhome police who passed us to the Highway Patrol. They were all really nice, though. The car is being towed to the body shop where we will get an estimate. I’m pretty sure it is totaled. So looks like Dan will be getting a new car soon!