Poll

I'm happy to report that the little kitten is doing pretty well. In fact, she's asleep right now next to me here on the couch. So sweet and innocent looking. Until she wakes again. Then, she's a lot less innocent!! LOL

I'm having trouble adjusting at home again, it's hay fever season for me. Being near the water last week was a lot better for me, that's for sure! I feel like my head is filled with cotton balls, my thinking isn't straight, my throat hurts like hell, and I'm coughing my lungs out. Especially laying down, so I'm not getting my necessary portion of sleep either.
Sooo, I thought I might as well try out something new on my blog, and I added a poll. There's a first for everything, and I've always wanted to do this... so now, there you are. Please please would you cast your vote?? It would be a great indicator for me when finishing off a few necklaces. Thanks so much!!

Hugs,
Wezz

Back home

well we got back home about 6 hours ago, we went to get our cats at the cat hotel, and came home with one more... LOL
Yup, they had found a little abandoned kitten somewhere and have not found the rightful owners yet. They do have some candidates to adopt her, but right now she's too young to eat on her own, so I was asked to care for the little one until she's old enough and eats on her own. I did tell them I wouldn't do it without the agreement of our two other cats, but so far they seem to be okay with the new addition to the household. Wonder how they'll react when it's time for the little one to go on to a new home... We'll see how it goes the next few days, if it doesn't work out they will ask someone else to train the kitten. She's very playful, exploring her new temporary home and definitely not shy at all!! She's on my lap as I'm typing this! Forgive me for any typos I don't catch... The cat did it. LOL

Nobody tried to guess where we were??? Maybe you need more hints, huh?? Or maybe this blog just doesn't have enough readers?? ahum!!! You can always share the link with your friends of course...
 So, here are a few extra hints... oh err, kitty is finding my fingers dancing over the keyboard very interesting and is trying to catch them! (grin) It's funny to have a little one in the house again. :-))
Okay, more hints to where we've been... Let me think, I don't want to make it too easy either of course...
- it's a world famous city in Europe
- very touristy
- there's a Hard Rock Café which made Jan very happy
- they have a long tradition of craftsmanship and handmade items which made me very happy
- if we had gone by bus or train we would still need to have taken the boat to get to the hotel and the city center
- to get there we had to cross Germany and Austria
and I'm not gonna say anymore or I'm gonna give it away! LOL
Okay, I'll make it a contest. Out of all the correct answers I'll draw a name and I'll send you a real snail mail card if you give me your address. Deal??? Deadline of the contest is one week from now -Monday 24th, so I'll draw the name on the 25th. Have fun! It's really not all that difficult!! I promise! :-))

I wonder if kitty is ever gonna go to sleep... She hasn't sat still for a minute yet since she got here, has eaten pretty well with some help from me and is still playing... pheww, I had forgotten how tiring this can be!! But it's just impossible not to like her!!

Hugs,
Wezz

Hello 2009!

The new year is well on its merry way, it's already 1 week old! Time just flies by, doesn't it?
Did you make any New Year's resulotions? I gotta admit, I used to do that every year, and every year come February, there was nothing left of my resolutions. I had given up. So, the last few years, I haven't made New Year's resolutions. Instead, I try to do as my grandmother used to tell me. "What you do at the beginning of the New Year, you will be doing for the rest of the year."
Well I certainly hope that's true! At the stroke of midnight, I wished my significant other a Happy New Year and cuddled and kissed him. Yeah yeah, I know, mushy and romantic, but hey, that's me! We spent New Year's Eve with friends so I wished them a Happy New Year too, and I sent some text messages with my cell phone to those who were celebrating somewhere else. We talked til late that evening. New Year's Day we went to see the family on both sides, had a good meal, drank champagne and cheered the New Year on. I beaded. Yup yup, I did! I touched my stamps, some cardstock and some ink pads. I didn't actually stamp, but thumbed through a stamping magazine with the intention to do some stamping/cardmaking soon. I flicked through a beading magazine so I will have plenty of inspiration throughout the year. I also spent some time online to send my well wishes to my cyberfriends on the various groups I belong to. I added a new Ruffles necklace to my etsy store. I've also added some earrings to the ESmarts Team Shop. My new tumbler is still tumbling, with stones in one barrel, and jewelry to clean in the other barrel. I've already taken a beading class last Saturday too! It's snowy and cold, for the first time in years we finally have a real winter here again. Let's hope the freezing temperature will keep the sick bugs away this year. They predicted another week of this cold weather. As long as it doesn't rain, I'm happy. Oh and it didn't rain on New Year's Day! I tweeted on Twitter to wish them all a Happy New Year as well! I blogged about our little kitten who just loves playing in the snow and I'm blogging here now.
I'd say the New Year is off to a good start! :-))
How 'bout you? Did you make any resolutions? Tell me, I wanna know!

Hugs,
Wezz

What happened??

We just got back from a 12-day trip to the south of Crete, and find ourselves to come home to what seems a different world.
First of all, we didn't even know if we were gonna get home at all due to a general strike in all the public transportation systems (amongst other companies and organisations). We also didn't have tickets to come back, even though I did get a confirmation and everything was paid for. Yep, I had the tickets to go there, but not the ones to come back. We knew this was gonna be trouble at the airport in Crete, but we got there early enough to beat the crowds so they had time to sort it all out.
The financial crisis is taking on proportions beyond belief. While we were gone, our number one bank got into so much trouble that only a government intervention and selling most of it to another bank could save it. Pheww! Maybe I should go and clear my account there? I really don't know what to do, coz there is no telling what the other banks will face. Moving it to another bank sounds just as dangerous as leaving it where it is now.

We try to follow the presidential debates from the US, especially when they're talking about the economic & financial situation of the country and international positioning. Like it or not, the US has a big influence on most other countries worldwide and their economic situation. Import and export are big issues for us europeans, so it's important to know where the candidates stand.

Being in the south of Crete is like being on another planet. Some of the news trinkles through, but mostly, you can be oblivious to what's happening in other parts of the world if you really want to. That's what vacation is all about for us. Forget all the worries, the trouble, etc. and just enjoy the good life down there. :-))
We had some friends from the US join us this time and she's a beader and mixed media artist too so we went looking for interesting items to use. Good grief, she could spot beads a mile away! Too bad we didn't find any really interesting ones. I've been looking for years for the "lucky eye" beads to ward off evil, but so far have found nothing but plastic ones. Wish someone would make really nice glass ones in different sizes for a reasonable price....
We went on little trips to some remote beaches (we drove there, the men walked to some), had a whale of a time swimming (yes, pun intended...LOL), had a great greek lunch at a local primitive beach bar and went hunting for some nice beach stones. I came home with a bunch of them to get me through winter. It'll be fun working on some more Cretan Beach Stone Pendants and remembering the good time we had there when the weather turns dark and cold here. :-))

Yesterday we went to get our kitties from the cat hotel. We've been going there for 11 years now and they too miss the kitty we lost in April. But for the new kitten, it was a new experience. Well, for the owners it was a new experience too. No cat ever broke out of the cages, but our kitten managed to do just that. Of course. The lady owner nearly had a heart attack when she discovered that! The kitten disappeared for 4 days, the owners tore up the whole place to find her, but she was hidden pretty well. They found her hiding under the roof tiles, but she still didn't want to come out. They were ready to have a company come over to get her out of there, when she finally felt hungry enough to sneak back into the cage behind their back. Our other kitty sat in the cage waiting patiently to see how this all would end. Guess she knew she didn't have to worry about the little one getting out and lost. She must have known where she was and that she'd come back. I'm sure this ordeal has cost the owners 10 years of their lives!! LOL
Believe it or not, the kitten is purring on my lap right now, and looking very innocent. How can we be mad at a little one that looks so cute??? Aaaahhh, at least she's back, and all is well again. Pheww!!
I'm sure next time we call the cat hotel they'll say "we're full, so sorry"..... I wouldn't blame them.... LOL

Hugs,
Wezz

The fur babies

Hello dear friends!

Those that have been reading my blog from the early days will remember my tales about one of our cats that had to undergo an operation and took out all the stitches. Over and over....
The same one had to have major surgery early last November and it took almost til Christmas when we finally could let her run around without the dreaded collar. Yeah she managed to scratch the stitches out even with the stocking and the collar on. But, we were very pleased that after it all had healed, she was back to her old self, acting very playful, much like a younger cat, after all she was well over 9 yo already. This April though she suddenly added on weight (over 600 grams in less than one week) while she ate less and less, and looked really really tired. We took her to the vet where they did tests to see if it was her liver or maybe the kidneys, but all tests came back negative. The vet suggested we get her heart checked, but that meant driving to a vet in another town coz ours didn't have the equipment. So what do you do? You go. There, while we were in the vet's waiting room, she sighed, looked at me, and passed peacefully while we were stroking her. I miss her terribly. She always kept me company during my afternoon naps too. Sigh. She would have been 10 in June. In many ways she really was my cat. The way she kept me company when I was not feeling well, sleeping with me on the couch when I was tired, the way she let me carry her while doing other stuff. DH would never get away with that. Oh and you know a cat picks you, right? Not the other way around. When we went to get her we were just going to "look" at a few kittens and decide later. Yeah right. We came in, and she jumped and clawed her way up on my sweater and never let go. So, that was it. We walked out with her still clutched to my sweater. She picked me, I had no choice or say in the matter. LOL
After she was gone, our other cat missed her too, and kept looking for her. When we mentioned her name her eyes got this sad look. It suprised us, coz they had never been best friends. In fact, they fought quite a lot. She must miss her terribly coz she even lets neighbouring cats just come in the house and eat out of her own bowl! And that while she's always been very territorial! After a week or 2 we decided to add a new kitten to the household when we got back from our holidays in June. But first, the other cat needed to have the same extensive surgery the other one had. We were terrified, and I still am. But so far so good. So we got a new kitten. But OMG!! What were we thinking getting a new kitten in the house! We had forgotten all about how tiring this can be and how they need so much attention! Luckily I'm at home most of the time, but it's eating all my energy for now. She makes a mess, climbs up our house plants, teases our older cat and in general behaves like what you'd expect from a little kitten. Somehow, however, she must have picked up on my need for a companion. She keeps me company during my afternoon naps, sits on my lap when I'm on the computer, she purrs when I'm feeling down and cheers me up. Ah, life is good again. :-))

Hugs,
Wezz