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

Introducing....

....a new blog!
Oh I hear you!! What, another blog? You're not even keeping up with this one! But I wanted to give our new little kitten her own blog where she can tell you all about her life in our household. So relax, it's a very different blog from this one. And it still needs a lot of work, but once the basics are done mainly little stories and pictures will be shared there. Hope you like it!
Here's the link, from The World of Wezz to The World of A Cat!

Santa brought me a Lortone tumbler! I'm so excited about that!! It came with a starter kit for tumbling rocks, but I have loads of stones from the beaches on Crete that I wanna make shiny! I just *know* I found some pretties there and I can't wait to see the end result! Think of what pretty pendants they will make! Since these are already pretty round and slick from tumbling in sand and sea for years I skipped the first few steps and put it in with the last type of sanding grit. After that, I can do the polishing cycle. Finally! ooh I can't wait, this is nerve wrecking for me, I want to open up that barrel every 5 minutes to see what it's doing and to check on the results. But... but that has to tumble for 5-7 days!! Per cycle! Ack!! I can't wait that long! I peeked yesterday... hey the instruction manual told me to check after 24 hours of tumbling, so being a good girl as usual, I checked. Of course there was nothing to see yet, not much anyway. Guess I'll have to practice on my patience again! Oy!!!

In the mean time, let me show you the latest Cretan Stone Pendants I have put in the store. These are finished with a single or double crown in Swarovski crystals. Soooo pretty!! :-))



ooooh I'm soooo curious so see how my pendants will look with the tumbled stones! I think that similar stones will not look better but will look different. At least, I hope so!! Otherwise, it's a long process compared to what I do now to treat the stones! LOL

Happy New Year everyone!!!
Party like never before! :-)))

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

Close encounter of the US kind

Hi all,

bet you are all getting really anxious to read about the rest of the trip!! Well, let me tell you, it has been a hectic few days!! And would you believe it, we're already 7 (seven!!!! that's a whole week!!) days into our holiday???? Wow, this is just going waaaayyy too fast!! Instead of 3 weeks I wish we could be here for 3 months!! LOL!!

When we got our car (yes, the suzuki...) we went straight ahead to tackle the NYC Friday afternoon traffic. Ya know, when they all head up north to "upstate NY"... Just the direction we were heading of course. But Jan had really done his homework and printed out a whole road book with maps and everything, and wrote down all the numbers/names of streets and highways and expressways we needed. Traffic was heavy, but not worse than rush hour in Brussels. Once we had New York behind us we were quickly on our way to head to Connecticut. The first stop we made along the way was to get us a cell phone so we would be able to call everyone we were gonna meet and maybe for hotel reservations along the way and stuff like that. My cell phone actually works in the US, but for some strange stupid reason I couldn't get the card alone. Noooo, of course not, I needed to buy a phone too, even though the card works in my phone. Duh!! Isn't that stupid?? The shop owner of the Radio Shack tried it in my phone. And he and his co-workers kept checking out my european phone. "oh, look, they did this another way than we're used to".... Well, to us at least it was funny, since we both work for telephone operators. LOL
We went to the Starbucks next door. I had heard so much about these already that I REALLY couldn't pass up the chance to go to one and so soon too!! LOL
But then, I made a mistake, probably the first of many. Since we had almost nothing in the car to drink, I ordered two large coffees. Oh man!! I shouldn't have done that!! I should have remembered that US portions are a LOT bigger than european ones!! This was at least the size of two regular cups for us, so we had to take them with us in the car coz they were just too big to drink right away. Lucky they do have good cups that really keep it warm for a long long time! While we were there I had to try out the cell phone and called Jennifer, the first one we were gonna meet on our trip. Hey, I had to try the phone right then and there, what if something didn't work? I'd have to be able to take it back to the store I bought it to get it sorted! But no worries, it worked perfectly, talked to Jennifer, tried calling Christi and we arrived at Jennifer's house that evening. The dog came running out to greet us. She showed us the room that would be our home for the next 3 nights and had dinner just about ready to serve. We met her wonderful husband Bruce and son Zach (sp?) plus dog Petey and a few cats. They all made us feel right at home!! :-))
Driving up there we really enjoyed the landscape and were totally amazed at the amount of roadkill alongside the interstate roads. We just about cracked up when we saw a sign that said "FOOD - McDONALDS"... We looked at each other and laughed "since when is McDonalds a synonym for food????? LOLOLOL
And funny enough, we passed that same sign at almost every exit on our way. (ggg)

More later guys!! Hopefully soon!

Hugs,
Wezz

And the cat came back...

Okay, so the cat had to wear a collar she didn't like. We just didn't realize how bad she didn't like that.... We had brought her home on Monday evening from the vet, and she was wearing her new collar. On Wednesday I needed to go out for an hour or two and had checked the cat before leaving. You already KNOW where this is going, right????? Riiiighhhht..... when I came home she was proudly awaiting me with a look on her face "look what I got off!! Isn't that great?!" oooohhhhhh noooo, she had managed to get rid of the collar and got the stitches out again too!!! aaaarrrghhh!!
Back to the vet with her!!! She figured she needed to take drastic measures with a cat like that, and gave her a white netted stocking with holes to put her legs and tail through. Now that's a fashionable cat!!! White net stocking on black fur, and white legs!! I know it wasn't funny for the cat, but boy, that sure was a sight to see!!! Right before taking her to the cat hotel on Thursday we had her checked up on again by the vet on Wednesday evening, and thank goodness, she could take off that stocking. Happy cat, if it weren't for the collar that she still had to wear....
On Thursday evening we dropped off both our cats at the cat hotel they have been going to for the past 9 years and finished our packing for our big trip to the US.
The vet will check up on the cat at the cat hotel (it's actually the vet they always work with so that's no problem) and will hopefully remove the stitches on Monday (that's today!! I hope it went alright!).

We had made arrangements for an airport service to pick us up at home at 7:30am. So I put away my last minute things and poured myself a nice cup of coffee. The doorbell rang. Airport service?? It was only 6:50am?? Yep, airport service, we needed to leave as soon as possible coz there was a big fire at Brussels airport and who knows how busy it was gonna be. The road to the airport had been blocked for a few hours coz the building on fire was too close to the road and it was a maintenance place for airplanes. There were 4 planes in the building and because of the kerosine there was danger of explosion. By the time we got there the road was open again, the fires were out but the building had collapsed. Phew!!! Lucky our flight wasn't scheduled any sooner!!
Since 9/11 airport security has gotten a lot tighter, and especially for flights to the US. I don't mind, better be safe than sorry. They just do what needs to be done.
So when we went to check in we already got a bunch of security questions to answer.
One of them being what the address is of your first night's stay. Man, I can't believe how many times I had to give that address!! On the plane we got several forms to fill out, and don't make any mistakes coz you gotta start over!! Of course, I scratched out something, and that was no good, so "here's a new form to fill out, please". Thank you. I'll do that. LOL
At least the plane wasn't full, so I had some extra space to lay down for a nap. I could pick a better spot to watch the movie if I wanted that. Except where the US marshal was with his prisoner. Chains on his feet, and handcuffed. Creepy guy, btw.
When we arrived at JFK ariport in NYC we had to give the address again, have our picture taken and fingerprints too. Electronically, not the old fashioned way with ink. No, this was a tiny scanner, just big enough for your fingertips. Impressive.
We were all waiting in line to get this done, and out comes the US marshal, his prisoner and the marshal's deputy (?). They bypass the whole line, get yelled at by the guy at the counter to stay behind the yellow line and wait their turn. HUH?? That's a prisoner!! Surely you don't want a guy like that hanging around at a big airport any longer than strictly necessary??? And wouldn't they have known that he was coming? The crew was informed, so why wasn't there someone waiting to escort him off the airport?? I thought security was so important? That struck me as odd, to say the least.
By the time we got through customs and claimed our bags I wanted something to drink, a soda, or some water. But no such luck, not in that part of that large airport. Not even a vending machine. So we took the airtrain (never thought something like that would exist!! An airtrain!! How funny!) that took us to the other side of the airport where the rental car companies were located. We were all excited coz we had booked an "all american car", a Chevrolet Blazer (or equal), to travel in true US style. And we got the "or equal", and they gave us a Suzuki. Duh!!! Our dream of driving in US style shattered!! It's still a nice car though and it won't spoil our holiday one bit. It may even have added to the fun, coz now when we see a Blazer, we point at it and go "that's our car!!" and laugh.... LOLOL
The staff at the rental company was so kind to let me buy some water from their vending machine in the back for the employees, coz there was no other way to get something to drink. And off we were!!! Our 3 week trip in a car had started!!
Wooohooo!!
It's getting late now, and I'll have to catch up with the past few days and our experiences some other time. Hope you all enjoy reading it though!

Hugs,
Wezz

Cat's meow

Well, I took our cat back to the vet yesterday morning, and she needed restitching (of course) and therefore, another anaestesia session. Not as deep this time though, so she recovered a lot quicker than last time. Hubby went to get her in the evening, and she's now wearing a collar. She doesn't like it. Who would, huh?? She can't eat or drink properly with that thing (we have to feed her), let alone give herself a nice cleanup. She's a very proud cat and even manicures her nails on a regular basis. Now with that collar she's bumping into everything, and trying to get it stuck somewhere in hopes of pulling it off of her head. Or even trying to scratch it off. No such luck, lady!! You're gonna wear that until your stitches can come out!! Officially, this time!! That does mean of course, that we have to wipe her butt every time she goes potty. I can think of more pleasant tasks than that!! But heck, she's our little fur baby and we'll do what it takes to help her out. Even that. LOL

Hugs,
Wezz

ah where to start??

It's been quite a while since I wrote something here but with good reason. Or maybe not. I'm still recovering from being sick for quite some time. Why have only one infection when you can have 4 at the same time to battle, huh??? First thought it was only 3, but noooo, it was 4 and also at "that time of the month", all at the same time. I wasn't the nicest company to be around then. LOL
Never take the easy road seems like a good slogan for my life these days. I'm trying out new meds as well to take with me on our big trip to the USA, and they're not doing what they're supposed to do. I seem to be even more awake after taking sleeping meds than during my regular waking hours, duh... Is this normal or is it just me being weird again??

Well, in the mean time we have started our final preparations for our trip, which means the funky bag has been put on the back burner for the time being. Hopefully I can finish it before we leave, but I'm not holding my breath for that. We leave in less than two weeks, and we still got a million things to do and take care of before that. Checking the clothes we want to take, bought a couple of trousers for each of us, but they needed some shortening. That's done now. Still need to fix some other little things like putting new buttons on a shirt, etc. Nothing like going on a long trip to get your butt into gear and fix everything that has been left aside for too long!! LOL
And since I've lost over 12kg, some things are now too wide and need fixing too. :-))
Not that I like the extra work it's given me, but I do like the feeling of having clothes that are too big for a change. So far I needed a new wardrobe coz I grew out of the old one, now I'll need a new one coz I can't fix everything so that it fits me again. (grinning from ear to ear!)
One of those million to do things was going to the hairdresser's too. And if you know that on a scale from 1 to 10 the dentist scores a high 9 (and I have to go for check up on Tuesday!! ack!), the hairdresser still comes in at a 7 or 8. I really don't like having my hair done. It takes too long for my taste, and while it looks good when he's done, once it's up to me... ugh!! I can never seem to make it look good again.

At least the cupboards have now been placed in our front room (still in remodeling stage, but shaping up now). Yay!! We have storage space there now, and a space to put the washing machine and the washing products a household needs. I'll probably claim part of it for crafty stuff... LOL

Two weeks ago, we found two lumps on one of our cats on her tummy, so she had an operation for that last Thursday. It took a lot longer than the vet anticipated coz they were bigger than she thought and more turned to the inside. So during the op she had to up the anestethics (sp?) coz the cat was starting to wake.
When I picked her up Friday afternoon she was still drowsy and couldn't stand on her feet. The poor thing kept falling over trying to put one paw in front of the other. It broke my heart to see her like that. She wanted to eat too, but couldn't even move her mouth, so I took away the food for a while so she wouldn't keep trying.
Saturday morning she needed to eat at least a little bit with the antibiotics but she threw it up again (she did eat that evening so she got the meds she needed). Later that day I found a little bit of blood on the floor so I thought I should check her wounds. And yep, she had managed to take part of the stitches out all by herself, leaving a partly open wound again. Aaarrrgghhh!!
Okay, she has no idea what she's putting us through, but those stitches weren't supposed to come out yet!! Ten days at least is what the vet said! Yeah, I know, that would be right before we leave on our trip, and right before we take the cats to the cat hotel. But we thought the operation was done better sooner than later. You never know with things like this, do you?
I'll probably take her to the vet again tomorrow, and right now this is not her best friend, but she should have left those stitches in!! We tried putting some kind of protection over the wounds but they're all over her tummy and she finds a way to get rid of it within less than 30 seconds anyway. Cats will be cats I guess... LOL
Hopefully this will all work out okay for her.
Send your good thoughts, she might need them. Thanks!

Hugs,
Wezz