Work Related: He comes with the house

I was showing a house this morning that features a screened in patio area in the back.
I unlocked the door and the client stepped out ahead of me.
"Boy, look at that big 'ole snake!" he said.

Sure enough a huge black snake was making his way around the perimeter of the patio like that is a normal thing for him to be doing in the heat of the day on a closed in patio in a vacant house.

OH, yes he comes with the house, I joked and somehow resisted the urge to scream and run.
Boy am I glad the client saw it first though....Ha.

Kitty Movie Monday: On The Porch

Kitty Movie Monday is a popular feature at CatCall

Father in-Law Day

I don't have a father in law, but you do today is his day.
Here are some great ideas for celebrating

Fun With Google

A search for empty sack in a language I do not recognize turns up some cute pics of Rhett.
I didn't try it in English.

and

Someone searched for cat + swallowing paper clip.
I would think if your cat did eat a paper clip it would be best to take him to the vet, not be searching around on the internet about it first.
Poor Kitty!

On the Coast: Windstorm Insurance

I learned something today.

My insurance agent called me, it is time to renew our windstorm and the rates had gone up.
No surprise here, Allstate and others dropping waterfront dwellers and raising rates have been all over the news.

So she gives me the quotes, one for replacement at our appraised value and one for 40k more than our little house is assessed.

Both of those numbers are too high so I tell her I want the minimum coverage my lender requires.

Well, guess what?
By taking only a 2% deductible I can save $700.00 a year on my premium.

I wish I had asked for that plan a couple of years ago because it sure was not offered to us when we purchased this house.

I will pass this information on to my clients now.

I must be getting smarter in my old age.

Friday Cat Blogging: Sleepy Boyz

Join Rico and Rafe and all their blogging buds
at The Friday Ark.
Then on Sunday head over
to The Scratching Post for the Carnival of Cats

It's my birthday

Regular blogging will resume following a brief mid life crisis

Wordless Wednesday

Thanks everyone for your comments.
This is our youngest grand, the very independent
21 month old Lezley Mariah

Blogging is light because

Real life is bogging me down this week.

Also, I am so premenstrual I think I could kill somebody.

Just thought I would share.

Shopping: Cat Stuff

Poor Baby Rico Loco needs a kitty bed and it just so happens that an online friend, Bendy has a store that carries kitty beds.



All the proceeds from A Little TLC go to help pay for the needs of rescued and handicapped kitties.

Sounds like a win win to me!

National Hot Dog Day around the WWW

The Official Site

The History of the Hot Dog

The Definition of a Hot Dog

Make your own Hot Dog

More Hot Dog History
and
Hot Dog Blogging



Photo from FactMonster.Com

The Apprentice: Judge Sean

The newest apprentice will join Ex-Dallas Cowboy Emmitt Smith, a model from Deal or No Deal, and other not very important people as judges on tonight's Trump owned Miss Universe pageant.
Of course you can not have a big show
without a little controversy going in


Should be fun.

Photo from Newsday.com

Friday Cat Blogging:Rico "Sticky Paws" Loco

So I am working and Rico is playing at my feet when I look down I see he has a paperclip.

"No, baby that is not a cat toy", I say and take it away.

A few minutes later, he goes trotting by like he has just captured prey and sure enough he has a paper clip again.

Now, the first one is still sitting next to me and now I am looking to see if I had spilled some clips on the floor somewhere.
I take it away and give him a mousie.
Well,
It was not long until the little shit dropped something at my feet.

A paper clip.

Now it took me long enough, but realized I needed to watch him to see where he is so happily stealing my office supplies from.

I sure don't want to be running him to the animal ER from him choking on or swallowing a stupid paper clip for goodness sake.

OH No, bad kitty

So now I will just have to remember to keep the paperclips in the cabinet.

OK, make that the drawer.

If you want to see Rico Loco's side of the story, it's right HERE

See all the helpful pets today at the Friday Ark
Then
It's all cats at Creatures of the Earth for Sunday's Carnival of Cats

Wordless Wednesday

Thanks everyone for your comments

These are two of my granddaughters, both age 7 and they had
a LOT more tickets by the end of that trip to the arcade.

In Houston: Hotel Astrodome

There is a lot of talk around town about turning the Astrodome into a hotel/conference center.

Over at BlogHouston Anne Linehan writes the business is just not there and says "color her skeptical".

The Houston chronicle reports that Houston Texan officials are not happy about the traffic pattern changes proposed.

Not that the Eighth Wonder of the World has been sitting idle since it's last season in 2000.

Who could forget it housed thousands of Katrina evacuees late last summer.
and
Most recently Reliant used the dome to present the largest indoor amusement park.
Personally?
I think it would make an awesome shopping mall.
Just think of the shoes that would fit in that place.

Shopping: Express

So I went to the Express website to see if I can pay my bill on-line there and boy has it been through some changes!

Where are the Express clothes?
Where are the customer service tabs?

I thought I had saved the wrong URL, but typing express into the address bar does still bring up style.com and I am sure that is where Express has always been.

Apparently they have sold the domain name and do not have a site anymore
OR I saved the wrong URL.

I'm so confused

Kitty Movie Monday: Hanging Around

See Movies every Monday at CatCall, and more Rico and The Brothers HERE

In Houston: Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart Homes are coming to Houston .

HoustingZone.com reports

Coming this fall in Katy will be the first of 244 "Martha Homes" designed for Texans, as KB Home and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia open their third community with houses inspired by the home design doyenne.



If you want one of these, I know a good realtor

Friday Cat Blogging: The Breakfast Club

See all the best pet blogging today at The Friday Ark
And this Sunday is the Carnival of Cats over at Musings
and
See more Rico Loco and The Brothers
HERE

Work Related: This Sucks

It's so difficult to find time to get my classroom hours to fulfill my annual education requirements to renew my real estate license.

Online classes cost about the same as going to the school, and I thought it would be easy and flexible to study this way.
So,
I enrolled and paid for a finance course and it seemed pretty straight forward and the material was not hard to understand.
Except that,
I just failed the final exam for the fifth time....Crap.

I'm So Blonde: and I forget to check the dates on the milk

I've been working all morning and needed something quick to eat.
I don't usually like milk, but a bowl of cereal sounded kind of good and splashed some on my Lucky Charms not realizing the expiration date is today.

Yuck!

How DO they know exactly what day this will happen?
They should make the print bigger.

The Apprentice: Sean's new job at risk

Found at the New York Observer

Maybe he will be working in Hawaii after all?

Shopping: Stuff for lazy people

Yahoo has a section at Yahoo Shopping called
"Gadgets for the Lazy"

Check out these Mop Slippers

A must have, don't you think?

Wordless Wednesday

Thanks everyone for your comments.
We live near Galveston, Tx and this was taken at one of
our annual sand castle competions.

Kitten Wars

I submitted Rico's picture to Kitten Wars
You can
Click Here
to see how he is doing but I've not found him in one "battle" yet

Birthday Blues

So, I am opening mail and see something from the University of Texas Medical Branch.

It's an invitation to participate in a program for
*ahem*
"postmenopausal women"

Now I do have a birthday this month and am not a big fan of birthdays, but I am certainly not menopausal much less post menopausal and even if I was I doubt I would want to take their experimental drugs.

Not this year anyways.

The Tax Protest

Well, it went pretty well.

The guy was friendly and we looked at comps together and he showed us how the market values are rising in our neighborhood. I already knew that would be a problem and I brought ugly pictures of our house to show it is not as nice as the ones selling for so much.

He also has aerial shots of each subdivision on his computer and he zoomed in on our home as well as the ones around it and we looked at them together.

Finally he agreed we are a assessed a "little" high.
He reduced our market value a few thousand dollars and I was pretty happy.

When got home, I put the numbers in the calculator and realized that this reduction does not relate to tax dollars very dramatically, darn.
Basically,
Our taxes going up $101 dollars less than they were going up before we protested.
that's about 8 dollars a month or a 6 pack of Corona.

Ok, I'm happy again.

TV: PeeWee Returns

Proving the theory that there really are no new ideas out there, The Cartoon Network Adult Swim has decided to bring back Pervert's PeeWee's Playhouse.

ugh

Kitty Movie Monday: Doing Nothing

The Boyz were being so cute romping on the porch and of course as soon as I got the camera they decided to do nothing.



See Kitty movies every monday at CatCall

Fighting City Hall

Well, the County tax assessors office actually.
Tomorrow is our hearing to protest our property taxes.
*crossing fingers*

TV: Eukanuba Tournament of Champions

I am bored and have no clients today and watching this dog show on Animal Planet.

Now, I am not really a dog person, but I do enjoy seeing all the different kinds of dogs that there are, just in case at some point I become a dog person (you never know)

There was this strange looking breed that won the non-sporting group.
He is half fuzzy and half naked, has a fluffy tail and is pretty darn cute.
A Lowchen, I love him!


By the way, in looking for links for this post I found out who wins Best in Show....doh.

On the Canal: Small Town Politics

So we get a ballot in the mail. It is time elect some folks to the Board of Directors of our local neighborhood "Improvement Committee".

The ballot instructions say you can only vote for three candidates.

There just happens to be ONLY three names on the ballot.

How convenient is that?

Shopping: Cat Stuff

Need a place to keep Kitty's litter box?

"Kattbank is a modern bench designed especially to conceal the cat litter box. The litter box is hidden within the contemporary lines of kattbank, which is cleverly vented to provide adequate airflow for the cat's health,
yet does not give up any offending odors"

Friday Cat Blogging: Rico Loco at 8 weeks

The Mis-Adventures of Rico Loco


Visit the Friday Ark today for the best pet blogging ever
and
On Sunday it's all cat blogging over at Music and Cats
for the 120th edition of the Carnival of Cats

Thursday Beer-- Oops I mean Bear, no I do mean Beer Blogging

Who doesn't like beer and pizza?

Wordless Wednesday

Fun with Google

Today's search from my site meter is on French Google
and the word is Booty

I'm thinking he was not looking for Rhett.....ha.

Happy Birthday: America

Wishing everyone a happy 4th!


All About Old Glory

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us as a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave

Kitty Movie Monday

Rico has discovered the cat tree and taken Rhett's favorite perch!


Video Hosting - Upload Video - Video Sharing
See more kitty movies every Monday at CatCall
See more Rico Loco HERE

Yup, It's a snake!

It was just a tiny one and I have now idea how it got into the house.

I heard Rhett and Rico bumping around in the downstairs bathroom for about an hour and then Rico came dragging it out of there like he is the mighty hunter.

8 weeks old and he brings me a snake....eWWWW!

Sorry the pic is dark, I would have retaken it, but John had already thrown Rico's toy outside.

I need more coffee...lol



Update: I just found a second one but smaller and just as dead...yuck!

We're home

And yes, the girls have grown!
Some pics from the Arcade


Kelsey and Gelsey show off their game tickets


Sydney likes the driving games best



Lezley needs a token