Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Here’s Your Sign

In the office building where I work the elevator doors and front walls are mirrored.  So, every morning I can check my appearance all the way up to the eight floor.  Then I get the same opportunity all the way down to the lobby at the end of the day.  This is useful for checking hair, makeup, shirt tucked in, everything in place, no boogies or hangers on, etc…  Then there is the other thing – the reminder that I need to loose weight.  It has become my mantra.  As I ride the elevator everyday I say to myself “I have to find a way to lose this weight!”  In fact I have been saying it over and over every day for months.  My wardrobe has shrunk to a total of four pairs of pants and a few skirts.  Fortunately we can wear jeans this summer and I have two pair that fit.  Enough said about that.  I think you get the picture.

Today, at work, the top article on my company’s intranet homepage:image

 

 

 

Then I was on a break and decided to check out the headlines on the Yahoo home page and I saw this:  image

Good golly Miss Molly, I thought I had gained a lot of weight.  This guy was a professional dancer, turned Ex-Husband of Brittany Spears (BS) turned full time dad.  It gives a new meaning to the name to K-Fed.  Apparently he fed quite a bit.  106_3499But I’m not making fun of him.  After all, this is me: ==>>

Then, after work, after riding down the elevator and once again checking out my womanly physique, I repeated my mantra:  “I have got to find a way to lose this weight!” (must lose 30 pounds!)

Well, that was depressing!  So, I decided that I wanted to stop at McIDontCountCaleries on the way home to get one of their fabulous MnM and ice cream concoctions.

Here’s MY Sign

The final blow came when I got into my car and noticed that someone had left a flyer on my windshield. Moms photos 008

(Courtesy of this company)Does  everyone know that I want/need to lose weight?  This day has been like a universal intervention!  Message to Universe:  I know, I need/have to lose weight!

So, on the way home I had my ice-cream desert and tomorrow I will re-start my diet and exercise program.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Saying Goodbye is Hard

Letting go is even harder.

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Max’s food dispenser still sitting in the kitchen.  Untouched since Monday evening.

Today we finally carried it out to the garage.  :-(

We miss the evening ritual of passing him around, talking to him like a baby while scratching his belly, and watching him sit on his “perch” on top of the coffee table while we watch baseball games.

Goodbye Max – you are missed.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Max, The Beloved Owner of Dalton

  Dalton_Max_x

Max The Cat  2005 – 2009 (TBD)

Last night before bedtime we came to the unsettling conclusion that our beloved cat, Max, is missing.   We haven’t seen him for two days.  He probably, dare I say, “moved to the farm”,  “Bought THE BIG ONE”,  not likely to return…EVER.  

Max the amazing cat.

  He doesn’t do fancy tricks.  He is not snuggly.  And he rarely  ever plays with anything.  Mostly, he sleeps all day. 106_0037 Then he goes outside several times in the evening before bedtime.  Then, just before the wee hours of the morning approach – 3:30AM, EVERY MORNING LIKE CLOCKWORK – he jumps on the bed and meows to wake us up so he can go outside.  If we don’t  wake up to the meow he scratches the furniture as a last resort to get our attention.  The sound of claws on upholstery never gets ignored.  

Other cats have come and gone – to the same supposed farm.  One, we suspect, (our beloved Maizey Jr. – daughter of Max) now lives in a house down the street.  But Max, he stayed on and endures all of the love ouDalton_Max_unedited4r family has to give.  His two best attributes:  Patience and Loyalty.  Max is the most incredibly patient cat we have ever known.  He allows us to hold him and snuggle him like a baby.  We  pass him from person to person over and over every evening and he never scratches, bites, hisses or tries to wiggle away.  He just lets it happen.    

We love him for his patience but adore him even more because of his  faithfulness and loyalty to our son Dalton.  Max sleeping with  Dalton in the middle of the nightMax doesn’t belong to us or to Dalton.  No, Dalton belongs to Max.  That’s right, Dalton is Max’s boy.   Most nights Max sleeps on or under his boy’s bed.  During the day he is the lone occupant of  the bedroom they share as he patiently waits for his boy to return home from school.   Each morning when he returns indoors after an early morning mouse hunt he runs to his food bowl for a quick bite anMax 008d then immediately returns to the room where his boy is sleeping.  If the door is closed he sits outside and meows loudly as if announcing his arrival for a long awaited reunion.  

If ever a cat has been loved, it is Max the Magnificent.   We love him for his  patience but we adore him for choosing Dalton to be his very own boy.

Although we have talked to the children about the possibility of never seeing him again, and yes even the “D” word (DEATH), it hasn’t quite yet sunk in that this is actually the end of our co-existence on Earth.  Max sleeping under Dalton's bedDo cats go to heaven?  I don’t know.  To me it doesn’t matter.  He has fulfilled his purpose in life by providing our family with four years of great joy, and he has transformed Dalton into a gentle lover of animals big and small.

 

Dear Beloved Max – Owner of Dalton – we miss you already.  

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Thank you for enduring our love.   May your farm be full of a never-ending supply of big fat, juicy mice.