What would PETA say?

My cat chases squirrels. In fact, she has de-tailed several.

Should I make her an indoors cat and defang her? Oh the cruelty! She would not survive a day.

Or do I let her continue to chase the squirrels and kill chipmunks and moles and birds?

What would PETA say?

I don't really care. My cat can do as she pleases. Because she is my cat.

Enough diversity already......

I have a pool. A beautiful pool surrounded by lush shade trees. I share my pool with anyone and everyone because I believe it is a gift too wonderful to keep to myself. With that in mind, I have had people of all ages from infants to octogenarians in my pool. I have had people of many different ethnic background in my pool - Hispanic, White, Black, Asian, etc. and even people of varying economic and education backgrounds. Once I had a 45 person strong youth group in it for the day. I am not a selfish person with my pool.

But today, I discovered that I indeed have limits as to who may be in my pool. Today I was a bit annoyed, albeit also amused, as to who dared to assume the luxury of paddling slowly around in the water.

It was a frog. A rather good-sized frog at that. And he was lazily floating along as though he was in the azure waters of the Caribbean. When I attempted to reach in with the net and scoop him up, he kicked his feet together and poof he was gone. Then he slowed back down and began to do his "ah this is the life for me" swim.

No, no, little frog. You have to go. This is NOT a pool for frogs. Yuk.

After a few minutes and with some great stealth and dexterity, I retrieved that little guy and tossed him over the bushes into the trees. But I am quite certain that as he went flying through the air that he winked at me as though to say...
"I'll be back!"

Oh dear.

A Beautiful Day

I expected to go outside and find the air humid and heavy. What a delightful surprise to find it breezy, warm with a cool breeze, and the sky rife with white puffy clouds. The only problem occurred in that today I could not be outside. So a beautiful day was transpiring and I was missing it.

Sometimes that happens. Beautiful things happen and we are so bogged down in other humdrum events that we miss the beauty.

Take heart. There will be more beauty happening. Do try not to miss too much of it.

On boiling eggs.....

You can always know for sure that an egg has sufficiently boiled when it cracks and pops and then explodes because all of the water has boiled dry.

I'm just saying.....

Disappointment ....

....comes in many shapes and sizes. This morning I experienced the disappointment of losing a file in my computer that is important to me. It is a series of thoughts and observations concerning my dog.

(At this point you the reader have perhaps interrupted your reading to ponder why I have written observations concerning my dog. And I respond by saying that this dog has taught me much about life. And you respond by saying there are enough thoughts on dogs being published regularly; another is not needed. And I say if you only knew my dog you might disagree. And you say well what is so special about your dog? And I say THAT is the point! That is precisely why I was recording my thoughts about my dog to begin with! Now, if you will stop interrupting me, I can continue.....)

Quite a bit of work has gone into those writings. Now, POOF! they are gone! Auuuggghh.

Discouragement led me to think, "well, so much for those thoughts. I simply cannot put them back on paper (hahaha....old school for in the computer); I will never remember everything." But deep inside something said "Rubbish! yes you can do this." So who knows....I feel like that character in The Emperor's New Groove who had the little demon on one shoulder and the little angel on the other...."you can do it!" no you can't" "yes you can" "no you can't"....

We shall see. The we referring to you and me, not the demon and the angel.

Frugality / Simplicity.....

are the new buzzwords. Frugality and simplicity should go hand in hand. So I was looking at this magazine about being simple; the price is not a frugal price, that's for sure.

You can be very frugal and still not live simply. You can adorn your house with lots of cheap stuff from the thrift store.

You can live very simply and not live frugally. The few simple things you buy to adorn your house can cost the price of someone else's annual salary.

I think frugality without being a scrooge is a wonderful thing. And I think simplicity based on frugality is wonderful.

I never really bought my children toys. Most toys are made of plastic with some other non-biodegradable parts. Did my children have some plastic toys? yes, most assuredly. However, I wonder at the number of items we have in a house that simply will take up room in a landfill - things such as picture frames, candle holders, toys, knick-knacks, appliances, etc.

Our thinking seems to be "......ummmm, I am bored with my life today, I want to buy something. Oh, that picture frame is soooooooo cute. I want it; I will buy it. Or my hammer has a scratch in it; I will feel more complete about my tool kit if I have a new one..."

And then, poof, just like that, we have added to the items that will one day fall in that landfill. I am not extreme about this but surely there has to be a balance? For the rest of my life, I really don't need another candle holder or picture frame. I am quite sure I have enough.

I am on a mission to reduce my pots and pans to just stainless steel and / or cast iron. They are healthiest for cooking anyway. I think I shall give the others to the thrift store - but therein lies the problem. I am told that teflon coated pans are not really good for you. So do I contribute my unhealthy pans to help someone who is frugal or do I toss them in the landfill?

Live simply, live frugally. But don't be ridiculous about it.

Kentucky Derby

I don't follow horse racing at all....except for the 3 major races. I usually root for the Derby winner to win all three, just because I think it would be good for America to have a Triple Crown winner again.

So yesterday, Super Saver won the Derby. And better yet, the jockey who rode him said this horse was going to be a Triple Crown winner. Wouldn't that be great??

I was a huge fan of Barbaro - I think he could have been a super star and still feel sad about his death. (Is that weird?) Regardless, maybe Super Saver can pull this off!

I can't believe how my heart pounds when I see those horses racing around the track. It is probably better that I actually am not into racing - I would probably be dead of cardiac arrest before long. And I don't even have a vested interest in the sport.

I do think I could pull off looking chic in one of those outrageous Derby hats. Have you even seen the pictures? Amazing!