bonbonjm

Hey, guys.  Not an update exactly.  First of all, just wanted to say that I have two new blogs that I'm going to be doing most if not all of my posting on:

http://vondohre.blogspot.com
http://improvedimagefarm.blogspot.com

Also, I've become a Pet Consultant with a company called Shure Pets.  They carry health & beauty aids, treats & toys, and pet lover apparel.  Everything is really good quality.  If you get a chance, check out my website:  http://shurelovemypets.shopshurepets.com

Hey guys, in case anyone noticed I've been a bit absent lately.  Thanks to my disfunctional body, I was blessed with a two week long stay in Brooksville Regional Hospital.  With no internet access.  Diagnosis: Gall Stones and Pancreantitis  Fun stuff.  Almost two weeks without food later, they finally released me Friday night.  I'm less a Gall Bladder and on an exciting diet of low fat meat (aka chicken and fish) and veggies only until my pancreas returns to normal.  No sugar, corn syrup, carbs, or fruit.  I've lost a little over 10 lbs so far.  I still have the Pancreantitis and have to go in for follow ups with my doctors until the numbers return to normal.  I don't have any pain which is good.  Well other than my incisions being a little sore.  So, yeah, that's what's going on here.  I'm taking it easy until I'm released to go back to work.  Money's a little tight since disability isn't what I was hoping it would be.  But at least I don't have to pay for gas to Tampa.  At least until Matt goes back to work.  He's been working from the hospital while I've been sick.  My mom also flew into town.  She's heading back out Monday, but she's been helping me with my gardening which is great.  After two weeks in bed, I get light headed very easily.  Well, lunch is ready.  Time to go.

Holy crap. Talk about one of those things you never think will happen to you. I got a new card from my bank a couple weeks ago with a note saying that my card number may have been compromised. I'm guessing from the whole Sweet Bay/Hannaford grocery store hack. I activated the new card and didn't think anything else of it. Until yesterday when I check my bank account and I'm $200 short. Someone had charged two $100 transactions to Exxon. I called my bank to report the transactions and the girl tells me they occured in Conneticut! Someone actually took my card number and made a counterfeit card with it. She said this is what they're typically seeing where someone makes $100 charges to gas stations around the 1st of the month right before they old cards are shut off. I will get the money back, but it could take 2 weeks. Glad I'm a little financially ahead at the moment. Not much, but a little. I can't believe it. I'm just glad I caught it. If it had been a $40-50 charge, I may not have thought anything or it, but I know it doesn't take $100 to fill up my Altima.

Folks please keep an eye on your bank accounts. These people are professionals. Now I'm going to have to check my credit card statement and make sure there's not anything on there either.

So far, so good. This woman cracks me up. She really knows her stuff and I love her writing style. Although, I will admit that she's slightly over my head on many things. Hopefully the book will clear the fog a little. For instance, today on her blog she was talking about button hole sizes and placement. Simple enough topic, right? Yeah, every time I look down at my shirt now I'm trying to figure out what she was talking about.

Funny exert from the book:

This isn't a generic how-to-start-an business book. Others have done a fine job of writing on basic business topics; but I won't cheat you out of any basic business advice so here's mine (in its entirety):

1) Taxes: Pay them (the IRS is easily annoyed)
2) Bookkeeping: Do it.
3) Accountants: Hire one.
4) Marketing and Advertising: A good idea!
5) Employees: Hire some when you're ready.
6) Wages: Pay them (otherwise they'll be disgruntled and annoyed)
7) Insurance: Get some.
8) Attorneys: Have one, just in case.
9) Business plans: Overdone lately, but write one.
10) Work space: You do need a place to work.
11) Telephone and utilities: You need those too.
12) Office supplies and postage: Supplies are handy, I'd recommend some of those.
13) Letterhead & business cards: A good idea too.
14) Financial planning: Yeah, do that too.

Ah, I love it when authors put things into simple terms that I can understand.

This post is long overdue; however, given that my kitten thinks that the camera is going to steal his soul, its tardiness is not unexpected. I present to you Pippen:



Apparently, naming him such is a bit of jinx. He is accident prone, has an apparent death wish, and is mildly psychotic. I'm telling you, the kitten is crazy. But he's just too cute and fluffy. Every time I see him, I just want to squeeze him, much to his dismay. He's like a little boy that doesn't want to be seen getting a hug from his mom. This is the same kitten who had a broken leg not all that long ago. He's great friends with the dog now. They nap together and Pip goes out of his way to terrorize the dog. Karma has not been Greta's friend.

I've been on a mission lately. I'm afraid to give away too many details for fear of not following through with it and you all holding me accountable. However, it has brought me across a few resources that my wonderful friends here would enjoy as much as I do. Now if you all could just find me wholesale fabric suppliers, we'd be even. ;)

First of all, the following list of blogs are written by some really interesting women who are very passionate about sewing. Pretty comical too. The first is written by a woman whose insight I enjoy so much that I actually bought her book. Plus I'm finding out about conventions and pattern makers that I've never heard of before. And there is some great insight into the fashion world.
http://fashion-incubator.com/mt/
http://gorgeousthings.blogspot.com/
http://thesewingdivas.wordpress.com/
http://behindtheseams.wordpress.com/
http://badmomgoodmom.blogspot.com/index.html

The book I ordered:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0966320840

For those who like something sparkly:
http://www.rhinestoneguy.com/ Finding that site was like finding The Ring Lord. I love it!!

My kitten is a spazz. That is all.

Go figure, I get home with an hour of daylight to spare and it's raining. And I had promised Matt that I would cover the hay and wheel barrel with tarps and I didn't. I really hope that doesn't turn around to bite me. The hay is going to have to dry out before I can tarp it now. And I'm going to have to clean up the stuff in the wheel barrel after it stops raining so that it doesn't rust.

The goats are apparently smarter than I give them credit for. I get home and they're waiting for me at the back door. Who knows how long they've been loose. So I go and check their fence. It's just a temporary, nylon braid electric fence, maybe three feet tall. It didn't appear to be down and the electric was still on. Well, the goats love to bend over sapplings and stand on them while eating the leaves. I'm guessing that's what they were trying to do this time, except that they bent it toward the fence. Top of the sappling catches the fence, goats jumps off sappling, sappling lifts fence off ground and goats have instant archway. Boy I hope they don't figure out how to repeat that little trick.

Cats are spayed/neutered, tested, vaccinated, and back home safe and sound. I only acquired a few more scratches. I think Momma is coming around, lol. She'll escape from her cage every chance she gets, but as long as I have one hand on the scruff of her neck she'll let me carry her without scratching the living daylights out of me. She's negative for FIV and FeL, so that's a relief. She's inside for about a week while she heals. They used desolving stitches, so no need to take her back. But boy is she unhappy about being in that cage. Last night she started crying and she just kept getting louder the longer we ignored her. But she'll shut up the moment I walk into the room and will stay quiet as long as I'm in there with her. Pip is keeping her company. He has a little cloth house with yarn strands around the door and sheep wool on the floor. It's across from Momma's cage and he just hangs out in there all day. It's the perfect size for him. Not the case with Montana. The first day I bought it home, Montana stuffed himself into that little house and started rolling around playing with the yarn strands. He took the house and the fabric mat that it's attached to across the room with him. Then he layed there in this tangled heap of cat and fabric, waiting for me to take pity on him and get him out. Pathetic.

Everything is easier with teamwork. Momma came to the porch for breakfast and was letting me love on her. Either she's the most forgiving female cat I've ever met or she's not real bright. I went inside, let Matt know what I was doing, and grabbed a bath towel. I went back outside and started loving on Momma, towel over my shoulder. I loved on her until I got her right in front of me, then grabbed her by the scruff of her neck. Matt came out about that time with the cat carrier. While struggling with the cat and attempting to wrap her in the towel, I explained to him that trying to stuff her in the carrier was how I lost her last night. She almost got away this morning, but I managed to keep ahold of her. Abandoning the whole towel idea, I grabbed the scruff of her neck with one hand and the excess skin on her butt with the other. Matt opened the front door and I rushed a rather ticked off Momma kitty to the office and into the dog kennel. Well, you'd thought I'd caught an ape. She was throwing herself from one side of the cage to the other and swinging from the wire on the top of the cage. It was pretty funny to watch, but we had to quickly make sure there was nothing near the cage that she could grab onto. She calmed down a bit when we let Pip and Montana in to check her out. Once she was calm I was able to put the water and food dishes in with her and leave her to get over it. When I left, Pip was reaching through the cage, trying to touch her, lol. And for my trouble, I only came away with a two small scratches on my hand and wrist.

Momma 1
Matt & Bonnie 1

In the event that you get ahold of said cat, don't try to get creative, just keep ahold of the cat. And the tail is not an option for keeping ahold of the cat.

Momma 1
Bonnie 0

I now have DVR. It rocks my world.

Career Thing!
1. Go to http://www.careercruising.com/.
2. Put in Username: nycareers, Password: landmark.
3. Take their "Career Matchmaker" questions.
4. Post the top ten results

My Top Ten

1. Operations Research Analyst

2. Oceanographer

3. Actuary

4. Mathematician

5. Materials / Metallurgical Engineer

6. Logistics Specialist

7. Pharmacologist

8. Physicist

9. Research Analyst (Financial)

10. Taxidermist

Yep, I don't see receptionist anywhere on that list. Of course, I don't see emergency manager on their either. Although, taxidermist?

My female goat is a prima donna. She will literally yell at you if she sees you and you do not stop to pay attention to her. She will yell at you if she knows you're inside and you do not come outside to pay attention to her. Last night, Matt tethered her close enough to the house that she can climb the back steps. I did not realize this until this morning when I hear her directly outside the backdoor, bleating. I glance out the blinds and she is looking straight up at me, like she knew that I was going to look out the blinds at that moment. My first thought is "loose goat." So I throw on clothes and shoes and run outside with treats so that I can try to catch her. Then I discover that she is still tethered. They both got treats anyway because they have me trained. When I left this morning, I saw that female curled up on the top step like she owned the world. She really is cute and sweet though. Almost makes me like goats. At least they're smarter than sheep.

Now what do I name her? Prima Donna is a little long and Diva doesn't sound right. They called her Barbie, but I refuse to own a goat (or any animal for that matter) named Barbie.

Matt named the male Rusty.

I may have just agreed to acquire two goats. What is the world coming to?

I uploaded the new pictures from the house and the pictures of Pip. Still no pictures of Momma.

http://s115.photobucket.com/albums/n294/bonbonjm/New%20House/

We still have a lot of painting left to do. Matt's running up there almost every night this week. I don't know how he survives on so little sleep. We don't even have the whole place primed and we still have the colors to do. It's turning out to be a much bigger job than we anticipated. We need to get the painting finished though so we can get the carpet installed and start moving in.

It's here! It's here! Yes, I finally got home to see my new book sitting on my front porch. Some of my friends who didn't buy a house yesterday are already done reading it. They suck. I've spent all day painting and trying to make 5 acres of jungle look like a nicely manicured horse farm. Yeah right. I am beyond tired. I want to read but toothpicks won't even hold my eyes open any longer. And we have to go back to the new house tomorrow.

I'll try to get pictures up soon. I also need to get pictures of Pip and Momma. They are the two kitties who came with the house, lol. Pip is maybe a month old. He's still at the wobbly-can't-walk-straight kitten stage. And he wants to play with everything. Well, at least for about 5 minutes before he passes out from exhaustion. He was watching me trim trees and was trying to jump onto the pile of branches. Keep in mind, Pip's head barely come above my ankle. Too cute. Momma isn't quite so brave. She spent the day hiding under the house. Night y'all. I'm going to bed now.

I'm too lazy to post the pictures, so I'll just post the link to the album. Let me know what you think.

http://s115.photobucket.com/albums/n294/bonbonjm/New%20House/

We officially have a wedding website:

http://www.mywedding.com/vondohre

Enjoy. Once my internet connection stops being retarded, I'll update with more pictures.

And we're back online. I have serious doubts that we'll get an explaination, but at least something is being done.