Terry's Idea of Heaven
I am not an artist - I make no claims to be one. I love art, I can appreciate paintings, photos and the like, but when it comes to how they are produced, you lose me. Terry on the other hand loves all things art - technical, creative etc. We'll be travelling down the freeway and he'll say something like, "Did you see that billboard we just passed?" Yeah, I saw it, I checked it for grammar and spelling as we went by. He however will say, "That font is the [insert font name here] and it was used by [insert name here] when he/she/they did the ad for [insert company here]"
He will show me photos that are reversed (I think that is the right term). I try to look interested, really I do, but unless the dog is on the ceiling, or the cars are driving upside down, I probably would never be the wiser. But I am glad there are the Terry's in the world - they make our world a happier, brighter and altogether prettier place!
Like any other professional field out there, you need to keep abreast of changes, trends and what the future holds. For artists like Terry 'the' conference to attend is
Photoshop World. Unfortunately finances have dictated that he has only attended one conference, and that was back in 2003.
Last night he was watching some online demonstrations and I overheard the announcement for Photoshop World 2008. It is to be held from April 1, 2008 and at Terry's
favourite vacation town. My ears perked up at that! About a month ago he had made mention that he really wants to attend one of their conventions again (and in all fairness I did fly to Michigan for a writer's conference. I was one of the speakers, but I still benefitted from listening to and talking to fellow writers.) I told him to start making plans to attend and to tack on a few days before or after the conference to see
Mickey at
Disney World. 
He's already making plans!
Labels: Disney, husband, Photoshop, Terry
Christmas Already??
Yesterday Terry and I started the auditioning process for the children's Christmas play! Can you believe we have to start thinking about this already?! Last year the news that the kids were to do a play was thrust on us at the last minute and we had a month to pull a full production together! The beauty is we did it, and the performance was the best so far for our fledgling church.
This year Terry is director and lead for the play; so he decided to do one he has performed in before, called A Star is Born. It follows a group of children preparing for a big Christmas television production. When Sophia the actress comes to play the role of Mary, the director and the other actors try to help her understand that the "star" of any Christmas production is Jesus Christ.
When we performed it several years ago at our last church, Warrick was one of the Wisemen, tripping his way across the stage and being a wiseguy. We tried to persuade Garrick to try out for the role this time, but he is having none of it. Hayley auditioned and read well, so it will be interesting to see if she finally gets picked for a part. The last thing we need is to be accused of playing favourites if we do choose her to have a speaking part.
We have one more round of auditions before posting who plays what and then the rehearsals begin!
Labels: Christmas, play, Warrick
College Bound
Well, after much debate and research Warrick has settled on a college to attend. He decided to do online classes (I think this is defintiely the wave of the future) but he wanted a college where his diploma/degree does not have 'online' in the college line. Makes sense, because even though he is getting the same instruction as students who actually attend class, there is still some stigma attached to online classes, as though they are somehow 'less'. Personally I think a person who gets his/her degree online demonstrates an extraordinary amount of self control and discipline. You have to make yourself sit down and get a class assignment done otherwise you don't get credit.
Warrick will be getting his associates degree in Business to start with - he is choosing to do it in 15 months! So by December 2008 he will have the associates.
Congratulations Warrick - we are PROUD of you!
Labels: College, Warrick
To Those Pet Owners Who Decide They Can No Longer Look After Pet
Spend any time on boards that advertise pets and you'll see a recurrent theme: "We have a new baby/job/another pet and just don't have the time for Fido/Fluffy that we used to have."
Someone posted this ad this morning on craigslist:
HELP NEEDED ASAP:
Please help!!!! After two long years of being on a waiting list for an agility dog, we have been notified by the breeder that, at long last, our number has come up and ... WE ARE HAVING A PUPPY!!!
We must get rid of our children IMMEDIATELY because we just know how time consuming our new little puppy is going to be and it just wouldn't be fair to the children. Since our little puppy will be arriving on Monday we MUST place the children into rescue this weekend!
They are described as:
One male - His name is Tommy, Caucasian (English/Irish mix), light blonde hair, blue eyes. Four years old. Excellent disposition. He doesn't bite. Temperament tested. Does have problems with peeing directly in the toilet. Has had chicken Pox and is current on all shots. Tonsils have already been removed. Tommy eats everything, is very clean, house trained & gets along well with others. Does not run with scissors and with a little training he should be able to read soon.
One female - Her name is Lexie, Caucasian (English/Irish mix), strawberry blonde hair, green eyes quite freckled. Two years old. Can be surly at times. Non-biter, thumb sucker. Has been temperament tested but needs a little attitude adjusting occasionally. She is current on all shots, tonsils out, and is very healthy & can be affectionate. Gets along well with other little girls & little boys but does not like to share her toys and therefore would do best in a one child household. She is a very quick learner and is currently working on her house training-shouldn't take long at all.
We really do LOVE our children so much and want to do what's right for them; that is why we contacted a rescue group. But we simply can no longer keep them. Also, we are afraid that they may hurt our new puppy.
I hope you understand that ours is a UNIQUE situation and we have a real emergency here!!! They MUST be placed into your rescue by Sunday night at the latest or we will be forced to drop them off at the orphanage or along some dark, country road. Our priority now has to be our new puppy.
Labels: neglect, Pets
Tortuous Times
Tomorrow I enter a torture chamber and the worst part is when I’m done, I will pay the bill!
It all started Wednesday when I saw my doctor for a checkup.
“When was your last mammogram, Mrs. Smelker?” he enquired.
“What do you mean last?” I was startled. Don’t all the commercials on TLC recommend you get an annual mammogram beginning at age 40? I had spent my entire life trying to avoid 40 solely for this reason, now he’s asking when my last one was?
“Well, I generally recommend my patients get their first at 35, and then one every couple of years until 40 and then an annual one thereafter.”
“Good thing you weren’t my doctor five years ago,” I said with a light laugh. His face demonstrated his total lack of amusement.
“In order for me to clear you for another surrogacy you have to get one.”
I called the clinic when I got home to schedule the appointment. “I can fit you in on Thursday” proclaimed the impossibly chirpy, probably 20-something who has another two decades to go before SHE worries about mammograms.
“You mean Thursday next week?”
“No. Thursday tomorrow, or even this Friday.”
Ok, right there that tells me something. I had to schedule an appointment a month in advance to have my baby
and I was already in labour! But the mammogram technician could see me the next day??
“Um, Friday will be fine, I guess.”
The nurse assured me that it really isn’t that big a deal. Personally I don’t see the need for the darn thing in the first place, but I am an obedient person (hah!!) I know my ‘girls’ are fine, no lumps, no painful areas because I have them examined on an almost daily basis by a certain member of this house, who shall remain nameless.
I’m not buying ‘it really isn’t that big a deal’. What if the mammogram machine is like my daughter’s Shrinki-Dink? You know the machine — you create an object, you put it in the machine, wait for a few minutes, coincidentally the same amount of time my ‘girls’ will be in the mammogram machine — and voila, the object is miniaturized. What if I go in one size, and come out a triple-nothing? Would I still love myself? Would my husband still love me? Even more importantly, is there a return policy on all those bras I bought last week?
The nurse also informed me that I was not to wear perfume, or deodorant. Huh? It's not bad enough I am stripped of my dignity, I have to smell bad too while I am examined by some post-adolescent spotty boy? And who is the sadist who thought this machine up in the first place? I’m guessing it was a person of the male persuasion who grew up with some kind of complex and decided to take it out on all women by squishing them as tightly as possible all in the name of good health and science. Where’s the machine to test for testicular cancer? Oh d’uh! — there isn’t one!
So, I have one last night to look at my pre-mammogram ‘girls’ before stepping to the rack and paying for the privilege of having a technician try to squish the life out of me.
I think I need a coffee, no make that an espresso. Wait! Make it a double!
Labels: mammogram, Surrogate
San Antonio's Pet Population
Last year in June,
iMuse (AKA my Hubby Terry) blogged regarding the sheer number of strays in San Antonio. There are several shelters here in town, many of them small, privately owned and struggling to make ends meet; several no-kill shelters and yet others that have a 48-72 hour hold on animals before putting them to sleep.
Even with organisations like
SNAP, and assistance from many local vets to help low income families spay and neuter their pets, the number of stray cats and dogs is staggering. Unfortunately here in San Antonio there is a very prevelant attitude of machismo, defined by Merriam as: a strong sense of masculine pride :an exaggerated masculinity, AND an exaggerated or exhilarating sense of power or strength. I have talked to several 20-something young men about neutering their animal (cat or dog, but most often their dog), and they all get a pained look on their face, crouch protectively and say, "Oh no. I am not putting my animal through that!" One young man said to me that since he watched
One Night With The King he will NEVER neuter an animal because he saw eunuchs in the movie. He seems to think (as do many men) that the same feelings the eunuchs have are the same his animal will have! It is so frustrating dealing with that mentality; even more so since he saw how little
Drake's neutering affected him. The kitten came home from his surgery and bounded around the house that same evening.
I 'preach' spaying and neutering wherever I go because every animal we have in the house now (except for the snake) has been picked up off the street - literally. Remember my blog about
Puma? Terry almost ran him down, and the kitten was so petrified he sat in four lanes of traffic quaking.
On Friday morning I met a woman who lives not far from me and she was carrying a small kitten. She had just found it in her yard, and decided that she would keep him. (Thank God for people like her!) I didn't think too much of it, although I mentioned to Terry that evening that she had found this kitten. On Saturday evening Hayley and I were driving home from church, along the same street and a little black streak bolted across the street, right in front of my van. I skidded to a stop and Hayley and I got out and tried to catch the tiny feline. I briefly touched it before it was off again. We drove the last 1/4 mile home and told Terry about this kitten.
On Sunday morning I was driving back from church, along the same street, and about 3 houses down from where we'd seen the kitten the night before when deja vu struck! Ony this time it was an off-white kitten, and it bolted across the street into the drainage ditch. I stopped the van, and caught it. This little male looks like he is
siamese, with big blue eyes, and traditional markings. I brought him home even though I promised Terry I would not bring any more animals into the house!
Terry and the kids returned home about 2 hours later. In that time the kitten had already made himself at home. Drake and Puma, our other two kittens (Drake is now 6 months old, Puma 4 months) had given him a bath, played with him and were curled up on the couch with him. Chloe, the old lady of the group gave him her usual disdainful look and strolled away. The kids were understandably excited about a new arrival. We had all missed Cody, the kitten we only had for four days so much. But I wasn't sure about Terry's reaction. He immediately pulled out some kitten food (I had an extra can left) and fed him. As the kitten was eating, Terry looked at me and said, "His name is Pewter." His fur is almost the exact colour of pewter. So, now we have Puma and Pewter.
As happy as I am to have another kitten (I have been teased that if I were not married, I would be the stereotypical cat lady!) I am distressed at how he came into our lives. It is no coincidence that in the span of three days three different kittens were spied in the same area. My bet is someone dumped these kittens in our neighborhood, not caring what would happen to them once they were abandoned. At least two of the three are now safe. And there are now three animals (Drake, Puma and Pewter) who will never be able to reproduce and add to the pet population problem that is rampant here in San Antonio.
Labels: Chloe, Drake, Pets, Pewter, Puma, spay and neuter
