Bonita High 1978 reunion

I’m posting this blog in the hopes that people from our class will do an online search and find it. Mike Parigian, Brad Butner, Bonnie Briones, Codie Rael, Lori Silva, and Ceci Lopez are planning a 30 year reunion in August. They would like your contact information. Please fill out this form. To sign up for the weekend cruise, follow this link to the Bonita High class of '78 reunion cruise. I can’t believe we’ve been out of high school for 30 years already! I hope you all can make it as I am looking forward to seeing everyone!

Sophie's Choice

Sophie

There is a new baby in the house! Saturday morning I opened up my bedroom shade and there, staring at me with big blue eyes, was this little baby. She cried when she saw me and I was toast! I immediately went to the backdoor and let her onto the porch. Poor thing is skin and bones. She is, however, declawed and fixed, so I knew she wasn’t just your ordinary neighborhood feral cat when I first picked her up. I took her to the vet and despite starvation and flea infestation, she has been given a clean bill of health. When I emailed my family about her, my niece Kimber wrote right back and said she immediately thought “Sophie” when she saw her. I like that, I like being “Sophie’s Choice”, after all she did choose me.

Personally I have a problem with people declawing their cats. It is really just a convenience for the humans. They don’t want to take the time it takes to train the cats not to scratch. However, it really isn’t that difficult to train them not to scratch on your furniture, but it can be expensive. When you notice the cat scratching, you need to first punish the cat and then place a scratching post covered in sisal rope next to the furniture where they are scratching. It may take a few punishings, but they will eventually choose the post over the furniture. Declawing is cruel and if your cat ever gets out you’ve left them defenseless against the neighborhood ferals and Toms.

I’ve also wondered why someone would put a defenseless, sweet little baby out in the cold (we are averaging below freezing temperatures). My vet suggested that it could be due to the mortgage crisis and that was confirmed by an article in the paper, http://www.kansascity.com/431/story/466001.html later in the weekend. There are many other options for those owners faced with such a tough decision. They could try and adopt them out, leave them with the Humane Society, or even call Animal Rescue Groups, but by just putting the animal out to fend for themselves when they haven’t been taught how to do that is just cruel.

Okay, off my soapbox. We will have a period of adjustment here in our house, but eventually Sophie will fit in just fine. Poor Hap, he loves it when we have visitors in the house, he thinks everyone is there just to see him. Sophie, however, does not want anything to do with a big lumbering male at all. Whenever he gets close, she hisses and growls. She is more accepting of Daisy so far. Although she hasn’t let Daisy close enough to cuddle, she will let Daisy sniff her all over. Hopefully Hap will learn to be more gentle and she will eventually let him near as well.

Hap (grey) & Daisy (orange)

Sigh of relief!

During: Looking from the living room, through the dining room to the kitchen in the rear. Note the sheetrock covered door on the left. I moved the door just a couple of feet south to the corner.

Today: Dining room

During: Bathroom. Note looking through the wall studs in the upper middle of the photo, you can see the hole for the mirror you see in the next picture.

Today: YEAH! No more brushing my teeth at the kitchen sink!

Yeah! The appraiser was here last night. I’m fairly certain I’ve come through this process unscathed and financially whole, but I won’t be positive until I hear from mortgage savant Ann Wilkinson of Millcreek Home Loans! J Either way, I’m done with the exhausting 16-18 hour days and am looking forward to relaxed and ROOM-focused renovation projects. It was tough having to do most everything all at once, especially with no “Gilligans” to help me! Well, not completely true, I did have a few Gilligans that helped with the painting, and, of course, Linda wanted to learn to mud…I think she may have regretted that once her hands were caked with it! Thank you very much to all that pitched in to help.

I’ve posted a few before and after pictures so you can see what I’ve accomplished in the past two weeks…while working full time, including a 4-day business trip and a couple of vacation days… I was often amazed at just how much I know and was able to do…thank goodness for HGTV, eh?

Kay