TGIFF (Thank God I'm Feline-Free)

My morning...

My evening... No picture needed. Headline says it all.  Hubby is home safely, snuggling with the Princess.

I am at my sister's in Hudson, temporarily feline-free. And poop-free. And hairball-free.

And, since I fly away in the morning, stress-free, too! Keyed up in a good way! Gotta see if I can sleep. 

Of course,  Brewer fans know what that's about. Whew. Good luck the rest of the series!

Holy Hurricane, Cat Woman!

It's a bit unnerving when one day you're telling your hubby you're glad a hurricane is on the Gulf side of Florida and the next day he's right in the path.

My comforting thought is that Michael was downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it parked over Charlotte, N.C., where Jim is parked, too, until tomorrow. It was just a lot, lot, lot of rain there today and wind. But by 6 or so  central time, he said it was sunny out there. Hopefully, that's a sign of an on-time and safe flight home tomorrow.

Fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, it was Girls Night on Blue Jay Drive. A reward for good behavior (for both of us, ha). She's looking all sad and pouty here, but she did sit on my lap and let me – yes, the master let the servant serve her – pet her.

I had to take a picture to prove to Jim that we were getting along. He doesn't want any fighting going on!

After a nice nap (her, not me) on the recliner, she hopped into her own chair and I was able to secretly pack my bags. For the most part. I don't need anything special for the trip. But it's hard to think ahead to our annual sister weekend a week in advance. Packed some stuff but I'm not bringing anything extra. My brain can't function that way.

I'll see if I think of anything at work tomorrow. I still have a normal "let's not think about exciting trip" Friday at the office to get through.

Hopefully, work goes quickly, Jim gets home safely, and Princess doesn't poop-a-lot anywhere in the meantime!

Lady in Waiting

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! I'm now serving as the Lady in the Waiting for Princess Poops-A-Lot. And, according to the meme above, they're all princesses, aren't they?

I laughed when I saw this because this happens all. The. Time. With Sylvester.

Hubby left yesterday afternoon for a work trip to Charlotte (thankfully the current hurricane is on the gulf side instead). When I got home from golf last night, kitty was meowing and acting desperate for food. Sure enough, when I got downstairs to her bowl, I could see in her pile of food there, that part of the bottom of the dish was showing.

Oh, the travesty! A princess mustn't eat the obviously stale, tasteless, bottom layer of food in the bowl. And there can never be a hint that she'll run out of food.

So my job until Friday night is to keep her alive. I mean, keep her happy!

She behaved last night. No surprise piles worthy of breaking toes this morning. Yet. When I did feed her and give her water, she collapsed on the floor. That's the sign for, "Oh servant, scratch and rub my back!" I am worthy of this task only because she missed her daily morning massage from her master. That usually happens around 5 a.m. when she taps Jim's shoulder. He moves over. She gets into his side of the bed and gets a good bed-shaking scratching.

The struggles of being a princess!

The main challenge for both her master and her Lady in Waiting is that we have to be stealthy this week. She can't see a suitcase or her separation anxiety (followed by poop piles) begins. Jim actually had all of his clothes on the bed, then at the last minute Tuesday, got the suitcase, packed, and shoved it in the car before she could see it.

Not that she cares that I'm leaving, but I'm doing the same thing. I have Seattle clothes on the bed. My sister weekend clothes on the floor. And hopefully she'll just think I didn't put laundry away.

I'm just a lowly servant girl, after all.

Colorful Fall Finale

Sometimes you gotta second guess Mother Nature. She may look intimidating, but wait her out. Maybe she'll play nice.

Thankfully she did today. While a majority of co-workers in our golf league opted for rain checks, my partner Tom and I held off, keeping a close eye on the radar. The sun had peeked out from behind the clouds a few times during the day so we had hope. It was our last week for league golf so we had our fingers crossed.

Finally at 3 p.m. we committed to it and decided we'd golf at 4 p.m. The forecast of 80 percent chance of rain be damned.

It was a good decision. Not only did Mother Nature keep us dry, she put on quite a show at SentryWorld.

Tough finding your ball if you got off the fairway. But of course we never did. Yeah, right.

And because Noah is working on his second ark, we also had keep carts off the course. Cart path only. And some of the cart paths were a but under the weather, so to speak.

Couldn't get over the mild temperatures and beautiful fall colors for our league finale.

Although we almost had the course to ourselves since no one was braving the bad weather, there was some wildlife enjoying it. Tried to get close to this crane thing but he flew off. Probably saw my drive and was a bit intimidated by me.

So much color everywhere. Just couldn't stop taking pictures. Pictures turned out better than my score, but I'm OK with that. Had a great summer and feel privileged that I got to golf at such a great course on our "campus."

Sometimes it's a good idea to take the path of least resistance at the "office," right?

Who Ya Gonna Call? Stress Busters

If you're a parent of terrible-twos toddlers or snarky teenagers or anything in between, take a deep breath and let it out slowly. Some day those stressors will be your stress-busters.

It just happened to feel like a Monday. I know. Poor Monday gets a bad rep. But it could have been any day. Just that it was today that I had stress pile on. A decent amount at work but it was the outside forces that made it overwhelming (technical problems with a freelance job, meetings to plan for committees, a t-shirt design gone wrong, yada yada).

I had to apologize to some friends for accidentally venting on them. To cheer myself up, I looked at this cute picture of our baritone player – taken 8 years ago today – and I created a countdown to my Seattle trip. 4 day 15 hours and 32 minutes 'til I land. For those who are counting. Some days you just need something to look forward to, right?

It was a huge surprise and delight when I heard Carter's ringtone (Guns N' Roses' Sweet Child O' Mine) on my way home from work.

We talked for about 40 minutes. It was just what I needed. To my dismay, he said he tried calling me twice last week. For some reason those calls didn't go through. Maybe it was God's plan that we connect today. He was having a stressful day, too.

We both talked each other off the ledge and I just wanted to cry. Dang. I love that kid so much.

Hold onto hope parents. They learn to love and appreciate you and, yes, even need you.

A stressful day. An unprompted call College Boy. Priceless.

And blessed. Just keep breathing...

Un-Sunday

It was a non-sunny Sunday but that worked out for the best. The rain held off so hubby could get some mowing done – under the close supervision of Sylvester.

And I could get my final senior portrait session taken care off. I have a few small ones of just some sports, but for the most part, this was it – after several delays.

So I got to spend the afternoon with this cutie. Yup, it's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it! Craig is the sweetest kid and we had fun. I can't believe when I actually have a hard time getting these boys NOT to smile. But when they manage a serious look, it's a pretty decent photo.

Flex some muscle and ... yeah, you get the picture! Now I just cross my fingers – like every other time – that momma is happy. That's the person who cares the most (usually).

Got home in time to watch most of the Viking game. In a rare schedule they played later so they were on TV here since the Pack played at noon. The Brewers were on some network that we don't get so Jim had to listen to it on his computer. Two out of three teams won today so I'm happy.

My fantasy team needs a Monday night miracle, but they aren't worth talking about right now. Focus on the positive and have a good week.

Point and Shoot Saturday

My camera and I had a busy day today. And somehow, even though the clouds were hanging pretty low, the rain held off. Didn't mean it was warm. But it was dry.

Started out at the Ridges golf course nearby. Today was the Lincoln High School cross country invitational so Assumption was running in that. I guess it's the closest thing to a "home" meet since we aren't big enough to host any.

Varsity boys ran at 10:30 a.m. followed by varsity girls at 11 a.m. Didn't necessarily have a favorite picture. It was just so nice to have clouds that it was ideal for us photographer types!

And the action was pretty good, too. Our boys team took 10th out of 20-some teams but among the smaller schools, we finished ahead of one of our conference rivals. That will hopefully mean we can repeat that this coming week at the conference championship meet. Always something to work toward.

We didn't have a full girls team today but the 4 we had beat their previous race times. These girls work so hard to improve each race. Love that about them!

I also saw one of our friends we've worked with in previous publishing jobs. His son was running for Stevens Point JV so I stuck around and got picture of him, too.

The funny thing is, I once ran a 5K with A.J. and he kicked my butt. And he was only in grade school. I know that doesn't take much, but I think he'll be pretty good. His dad has always been a runner. Just can't believe his oldest boy is in high school. Where does the time go?

Speaking of baby boys. Got to do one of my senior portrait shoots after the cross country meet, too. Since Cale was running for our team, I did have to give him time to shower and clean up first! Thankfully, the rain still held off but it was windy and chilly. I gave him props for being willing to have some pictures in short sleeves!

He was a great sport, though. As all my photo subjects have been. My friends have some pretty cool kids!

Tonight was our at-home night. Both hubby and I home at the same time. Wow. Have been alternating between watching baseball and the Badgers. Just a good night to recover from a busy day in our recliners.

As tomorrow will be a point and shoot Sunday... but not quite as busy a schedule! Praying Mother Nature will cooperate just one more time.