Another Good Reason!

This is Tucker.

He's new in our house.

He's also the reason there's no Monday Rambles today.  He's at the Humane Society getting his little boy parts snipped having some body work done.  We're frantically running around kitten-proofing the house.  He's only six months old, and six month old kittens can get into everything.

I'll be staying home for a few days to oversee the socialization.

Some of us are not so sure about this.

Monday Rambles (Back Home Edition)

ALL HEED THE WISDOM!

That's the nicest thing a fortune cookie has ever said to me!

Well, it worked for Trump......

True that!


HOME AGAIN HOME AGAIN

We got back at about 11:30-ish Thursday evening and were very happy to be off the road.  We made excellent time coming back too.  The trip is about a 13 hour drive, give or take.  We made it in 11.  We were worn out, but it was worth it to be back home.

FAMILIAR FACE

We were greeting enthusiastically and vociferously by this little guy.

Okay, so he's not quite so enthusiastic here, but trust me, he was.

He even slept in between our pillows that night, something he never ever does.  He was super, super clingy for a few days after.  He definitely doesn't like it when we go away.

We've finally figured out that he's not a very social kitty.  Kind of like his people, he's just not that into interacting with most people.  We're all just anti-socialites here.  We told our cat-checker to just make sure that he was okay when she stopped in, but not to try and pet him or play with him.  Even at that, he still growled at her every time she came over.  He's a two-man cat, our boy.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Since we still had our rental car for an extra day, we decided to make this year's long overdue cemetery trip.  Mazda just ain't up to long interstate journeys any more, so we rent a car to go to Arkansas.  Things have been too crazy of late to head to the country, so snubbing Black Friday seemed like a good idea.

My mother now has her new winter hat.

I also averted a crisis at my grandparents' grave.

I'm pretty sure Grammie wasn't happy about this.

All better!  I picked up the stray flowers after I took this pic.

THE VISITATION

We had a real good visit in Arkansas.  Even with the extra time we had, it still seemed way too rushed and way too short.  I guess it will always be that way.  Still, we did cover a lot of ground and had wonderful times with as much of his family as we could.  One of his aunts had been going through her mother's papers and pictures and gave him an envelope filled with his old school pics, family pics, and lots of pictures of his father as a boy.  It was great!

HOLIDAY SHOPPING

I did manage to get some junking in during the trip.  More on that tomorrow.  I found a Salvation Army that I had never seen before and revisited a cute little vendor mall that I was last at a couple of years ago.  I also stopped at a couple of flea markets during the cemetery trip as well.  I didn't find a lot, but there were some cool things.

REARRANGING THE DECK CHAIRS

Booth sales are still down in the dumps.  I had a little bounce in November, but not enough of one.  I'm still due for a really low check.  It seems that consumer confidence didn't rise with the election results. 

I've got Mazda loaded down with holiday stuff to put out this week.  We'll see if that helps at all.  I desperately need a really good end to this year.

MUSIC FOR MONDAY (HOLIDAY EDITION)

I guess I'll wrap it up with this and see you all later.

Monday Rambles (Post-Apocalyptic Edition)

Okay.  I'm back.

This has been a rough year for blogging for me, apparently.

I did have a good birthday.  Thanks very much for your well-wishes.  I went to three vendor malls I don't normally get to, plus a church sale that turned out to be really great.  This guy at the church sale had a tub of Batman comics, but the sign with the price was turned over.  I went to flip it back, expecting it to say they were a dollar each or something.

Instead, they were 25 cents each.  I heard Keith say:  "I know that look."  And the next thing you know, they guy and I have negotiated a price of 20 bucks for all of them.  I counted them later and it worked out that I paid about a dime each for them.  Score!

Here they are all waiting for to have a chance to pop in a cheesy movie and bag and price them.

Some other guy at the sale offered to run home and get his "brand new" Batmen comics for me.  He had been asking five apiece for them, but would take a buck each from me.  I told him I was too cheap for that and walked away.  Seriously, you just saw me pay less than 25 cents each and you think that's a strategy that will work with me?

It ended up being a good comic weekend.  Two of the malls I went to had some great comics for good prices available as well. 

Just a small representative sample.  Lots of Silver Age Harveys and Archies in this batch.  I have a couple of buyers that look for these, along with Dell, Gold Key and Disney stuff.  It's honestly a niche that the other guys with comics in our mall don't bother with, not even they one other guy who actually knows comics.

Since the previous weekend, I had struck out on comics at the big flea and at a comic shop sale, I was kind of glad to find so many.  I told Keith that the comics I expected to find the last weekend were actually hiding in the next weekend!

I did find some fun DVD's at the big flea, even if there were no good comics.

And then the world ended.

I've spoken and will continue to speak my piece on the election over on the Book of Faces, so I won't repeat it all here.  I will say that I am sad over the election results and scared as hell for so many reasons.  The racist attacks we've seen so far are only the tip of the iceberg.

I am still trying to wrap my head around it all. I may end up yet having to do some posts here as well.

I will share this though.  I stayed up until 2:30 on election night,  Keith went to bed, but I had to know.  I stayed up until the electoral votes hit 270 and it was called for Trump.  At that moment, the tears I had been just barely holding back let loose.  Chiquito was asleep in my lap, and he sat up and looked at me and started rubbing against me.

I got up and laid down next to Keith.  I woke him up and told him what had happened.  We held each other and I cried some more.  Chiquito came and laid on top of us and it was just us, alone in the dark. Together against what had just become world.

The next day, I cried myself out.  I posted about my sorrow on the Book of Faces, which has caused people I thought were my friends to mock me.

We have got to be better than this.

I am finally almost done with the booth re-do.  Keith went and helped me for several hours on my birthday.  (Best present ever!) And now things are looking good again.  I still have a bit to do, plus I sold a shelf last night, so I've got some extra work to do today.  I'll have pics tomorrow.

Sales are slowly picking up again.  Election day was the first hundred dollar day I'd had in over a month.  Since then, things have been a lot stronger, with several big pieces selling. Looks likes Melissa was right.

This past weekend, I house sat for my sweet friend Laci.

She likes my orange backpack and sleeps on it every time I'm over at her house.

I had a mishap at Goodwill last night, when I picked the wrong size cart.

Oops!

 But that wasn't as bad as missing out on three boxes of Shiny Brites when some kid cut in front of me and grabbed them.  ACK!

I have sooooooo much to do this week!  Treatment tomorrow.  Finish the booth.  Get the Christmas out.  Laundry. Pack.  Plus, there's a John Prine show on Friday that we have tickets too.

Thanksgiving is a week from Thursday.  Ack!  How does it sneak up like that every year?  We leave for Arkansas this Saturday.  (Shara email me!)

The sorrow that began with the election results last week continued with the death of musical genius Leonard Cohen.  (My beloved Emmylou Harris had stated that he was the one artist she always wanted to work with.  Now she'll never get the chance.) 

In light of everything that happened last week, there's only one choice for Music for Monday.



Take care of yourself.  Take care of each other.  Be loving and kind.

I love you.

Monday Rambles

FALL IS COMING!

Yesterday the high here was 80.  Yes. 80!  I did some alley exploring for junk for the first time in ages.  So nice.  Temps this week are not supposed to get above 90 here.  I believe Fall may be on the way.  Woo hoo!

To celebrate, I put up a fall wreath in my booth.  It's my only fall decor item right now, but I'm rooting around looking for the hay bales and gourds.

The wreath itself was a freebie find from in the neighborhood.  I had a little trouble getting it off the front door it was nailed to,  but a good determined yank finally brought it right off.

Okay, I'm kidding with that little bit.  It actually came out of a renovation dumpster a couple doors down.  I saw workers filling up a new one last week, when I was on the way to the bus stop, but I was running late.  I checked it later that evening, and the wreath was all I could get out because they had piled a mound of icky old mattresses on top of everything else.  The wreath came out in great shape, though.  Sometimes, you gotta take what you can get and be happy.

The guy who took down our water heater closet told me that all the reno in the area is due to one guy, who is buying up all the old shotguns, gutting them, rehabbing them, and flipping them.  If that's the case, there will be dumpsters for a while yet.  There are a lot of shotguns in this neighborhood.

SPEAKING OF THE BOOTH

I didn't get sales emails for the first three days last week, so I was freaking out.  No gravy!  No potatoes!  No plate!  ACK!

Turned out to be a glitch in the system.  Last week was a pretty strong one, all week long.  Still not all the way where I want it, but the gravy ladle is coming out more and more.  The weekend was especially good. Best one in a while in fact.  I was afraid the nice weather might pull people away, but I did pretty good both days.  It was the first weekend of the state fair to boot!

I'm planning a complete booth overhaul and massive restock that will probably take me two weeks or so to complete.  I'm ready for a new look and I want to connect most of my spaces into one long continuous booth.  I'm still working on the ideas, but I intend to start next week.  I have treatment tomorrow, so this is my rest week.

CHIQUITO TO THE RESCUE

I had a really bad case of the "I don't give a's" last week.  It got progressively worse too.  I started out not giving a shit, and then went downhill from there.  I didn't leave the house.  I didn't blog.  I didn't do nothing.

Then the cat started bringing me mice.  The first two were still alive.  The third one was dead.  At that point, I decided that I'd rather face the world than the building carnage at home.

My sweet little boy is a killer.  (I think he was getting tired of me hanging out at home and bitching.)

RECORD BUYS

Like I said yesterday, there was a music sale at the comic shop yesterday.  Everything was a quarter.  I went looking for oddball and fun and I found it.  More on that tomorrow.  But, for today, a little preview.

I give you Cesar Romero. In all his glory.  Complete with the mustache he refused to shave off to play the Joker on Batman. In TRUE HIGH FIDELITY!

I picked up several albums, but only one CD, which was actually for me.

This is the only Anonymous 4 CD I didn't have. (Except for the newest one.) Well, I used to have it, but it was tossed when our much missed and beloved Himalayan Brianna peed on it.  She expressed her displeasure with the management that way.  This particular bout of ire aimed at me cost me the CD and three comics, one of which I still have to replace.  Believe it or not, she was a total sweetheart, except for this one issue.

SPEAKING OF THE JOKER

Since the topic of Batman just came up, I have to share the most wonderful news!  There's going to be an animated feature based on the show, with Adam West, Burt Ward, and Julie Newmar reprising their roles.  Do I even have to tell you that I am pumped for this?

Here's the trailer:



Adam West sounds a little rough, but I don't care.  It's still gotta be him.

DOUBLE FEATURE FINALE

It's a special day here at the Ramble.  I'm combining the regular music for Monday with the DVD of the Week. 

I spent some time Saturday night watching several Atomic Betty DVD's I picked up at the Peddlers Mall.  From time to time I like to try and make up for my misspent adulthood of employment and responsibilities by catching up on more recent cartoons that I had to miss the first time around, like Betty.

Quite frankly, it was a lot of fun.  Pop culture always seems to be lacking in heroes for younger girls, and Atomic Betty fits the bill nicely.  The first few episodes are a little rushed and don't quite work, but it evens out over time.  Betty is an every day school girl, who is secretly a Galactic Guardian, protecting the universe from all kind of menaces.  Quite enjoyable.  And kick-ass.  Very kick-ass.

Here's the long version of the theme.  Try getting this out of your head today.



Even better, try this mash-up with Betty and Sailor Moon.  Fun!

Monday Rambles

TOP OF THE MORNIN'!

Is June really almost over?  Egads!

Have I really only done less than a dozen posts this month?  Odd's Bodkins!

I shall have to do something to rectify that.  Jinkies!

I've decided that I'm going to divide Monday Rambles posts with  headers from here on out.  On weeks when I really ramble, the posts seem to be really disparate and jarring to read, so hopefully this will smooth things out a bit.

Now, if you don't want to read me babbling about toenails, comic books, Komodo dragons, or making mashed potatoes while dancing the Mashed Potato, you can skip those sections.  Or at least you could if the headers made any sense.  Chances are they're not going to.  Not at this blog.  But, hopefully, maybe, they'll at least be entertaining.

Now someone remember to email me on Sunday to remind me to have headers next Monday.

BELATED HAPPIES!

No, not "belated hippies" although that does sound kind of interesting.  Belated Happy Father's Day to all the Dads, Grandpas, and people with Dads out there.  I hope you all got to do something fun together yesterday. If, like me, your father has passed on, then I hope you had some happy memories to look back on.

HE WAS THE GREATEST!
 
Muhammad Ali's funeral was one of the biggest things to ever happen in Louisville.  Outside of the Derby each year and visits by the President or candidates for President, I can't recall another event that stirred up this much attention for our fair city.  The Queen came through once, but that was for the Derby.  Usually, the only way to garner excitement around here is to either be a horse or dress up like one.

The story behind the caption.

Anyway, along the procession route, people were given sidewalk chalk to express their feelings about Ali's passing.  I was walking downtown a couple of days later and saw this one and thought it was cool.

HEALTH WOES

I'm having some issues right now, but I'm hoping they will pass in a while.  It may take a few weeks, though.  I've stopped taking the steroids.  Between the effects on my blood sugar (sky high), my blood pressure (getting that way) and my weight (approaching aircraft carrier status), I decided that I couldn't take them any longer.  I refuse to be known as "Fat Cancer Guy."  (Although that could be an interesting super-hero concept.) Or, as I told Keith, "I'm beating cancer.  I will not be taken down by Diabetes aggravated by the drugs given to me to help make the treatments more tolerable."

Of course, being me (and also my mother's child), I just stopped taking the damn thing.  I never took the full prescribed dosage, so I though that one little milligram would be easy to step away from.  Oh my galoshes!  I've had muscle and joint aches like you would not believe ever since!  At least the headaches have stopped.  And the joint and muscle pain only flares up now when I've been busy for a while.  At first, I would just sit there and throb and moan.  (Yes, I did moan.  I'm a man.  That's how we deal with illness.)

Ibuprofen seems to keep things under control.  I know some of this is from my body adjusting to life without Mother's Little Helper, but some of it is all the little aches and pains I've always had, but was not noticing thanks to the steroid.  I'm also experiencing periods of weakness and major fatigue and seem to move awfully slow these days.  Some of that last comes from being as large as a parade float.  You never see one of those suckers tearing around like an Indy car either.

Of course, being me, I only did research about coming off steroids when the effects started getting really bad.  It was then that I found out about tapering the dosage.  Keith thought I should go back on them and then start taking them every other day or something, but I'm soldiering ahead cold turkey.  My mother was a Campbell and this is the way that Campbells go about doing things.  At least in my branch.  Well, except none of the others would have bothered to research anything. I'm counting on mine being after the fact to help keep me in the clan.  True to my family, I did not consult with my doctor either.  (I'm not saying you have to do it my way, in fact, you probably shouldn't, but some things are genetically predisposed to happen.)

Right now it's all playing higgeldy piggledy with my life, but I think once it settles down, I'll be able to manage.  I told Keith that once I'm down to just dealing with the fatigue from the cancer drug (which is the major side effect), I'll take it slower if I have to or add in extra days for rest or add in more naps.  You'll never ever hear me complain about more naps.

OH THE HEAT!

Something else contributing to the sluggishness around here is the HEAT and its bff HUMIDITY.  This one is not just hitting me, but everyone.  Full blown Ohio Valley Summer is here.  Staying in and taking more naps doesn't sound so bad.

OH THE KITTIES! 

Especially when you can do it with these two.

This is Lacy.

Of course I'm his sitter!  He's named after a Hobbit!

And this is Frodo who wouldn't sit still for a picture, so this is the best I could do.  He did manage to photo-bomb Lacy's pic.

They're the two little friends I was pet-sitting most of last week and part of the week before.  I've been sitting for Frodo nearly ten years now, whenever his Mommy goes away on vacation.  The other pets that were part of the family when I started have all gone on.  The year after my mother died, I spent the better part of two months over there while she was tending to her father in his final days.

Lacy's the new girl.  She still hasn't figured out if it's okay for me to be staying there, but she did figure out that I give good head and belly rubs.

YARD SALES

So anyway, the reason that I didn't have a Mazda shot the other Saturday was that I had started having one of my weak and achy spells during the middle of the day.  It was too bad too.  This was the sale at the last gold standard church, plus the surrounding community.  It's always good.

The church sale lived up to its reputation.  They fill just about every room but the sanctuary with stuff, all organized by category.  It's the same every year too, so if you're a regular, you know what is going to be where.  They set a rule this year that nothing would be priced less than 50 cents, which kind of bummed me out.  I imagine it bummed out a few of the old lady pricers too, because I still found 25 and 10 cent stuff.  I think if i were an eighty year old chruch lady volunteer who had been doing this for years, I would go ahead and price it how I always did it.  Silly rules!

The community sale was great too.  We went to grab some eats at McDonald's first, so we went into this city from the opposite end we usually do.  It's a pretty good-sized little community, full of all kinds of twisty little streets and cul-de-sacs.  We do this every year and we've never been through all of it.

I met some sellers who were selling all their sushi dishes, because they finally realized that they love sushi a lot more than they love the idea of making it themselves.  We laughed about that and I told them about the sushi making kit I bought with the same plan in mind and never used.  I have no idea what they thought about me buying the sushi dishes.  We just all kind of acted like it was natural.

At another house there were four or five different people set up selling stuff.  The owners got the cool spot inside the garage, of course.  They told me that their yard was "just like a mini-mall."  I bought a vintage Bingo set from them and they threw in a stack of old game boards for free.  One of the women in the yard was selling her mother's old books and magazines from the 40's.  We talked for a long time about our love for old graphics and designs and she showed me a portfolio she had made of the ads from some of the magazines that had fallen apart.  It was cool, but way too pricey for me.

My favorite spot was the one where two little boys--"going into third grade" they told me--were running the show, under the watchful eye of dad, who stayed at the top of the driveway.  He let them do everything, and most of the stuff was theirs, but he was also close at hand to supervise and answer questions if needed.  They also took the money to him and he kept it out of sight of any wandering hands and eyes.  I bought a nice Wolverine race car from them, so of course we had to talk about Wolverine for a bit.  Then Spider-man.  Then Batman.  I finally asked if they were brothers, and one of them said they were just friends, but he was helping so he could earn enough money to buy something there that he wanted.

 Anyway, we don't have any pics, because we cut things short when I started feeling bad and I went back to nap with Frodo and Lacy.  We just kind of unloaded in a hurry and I forgot to take any pics.

But I do have pics to go with the stuff from yesterday's Mazda shot, so check back tomorrow for the reveal.

LISTEN TO THE VENDOR MOAN

And this is the part where we (or rather I) wail about how bad June's booth sales have been.  This past weekend was probably the worst one I have ever had.  Wednesday was the strongest day last week, and it was a really good day.  But it was bookended by one day that was less than five (!) dollars and one that wasn't much over that.

I know all the drill about slower sales in the summer, but I swear this is the worst summer I've had in seven years as a vendor. 

Oh well.  I'm heading over today with a Mazda load of crap lovely merchandise in hopes of turning this big ole ship away from the iceberg.  I finally made next month's rent, but it's a good thing that I've done some bulk buys cheaply, plus snagging a lot of freebies lately, because I'm not looking at a big check for the other expenses.

If you happen to know a wealthy person named Penelope or Duke--you know the type, diamond-studded sunglasses and a Chihuahua with a designer collar--who's looking to drop several hundred on quality secondhand flea market merchandise, send 'em my way.  If they buy enough, I'll even cut you in on the action.

You can sing that header to the tune of a Hank Williams classic, if you're so inclined.

MY WHAT TALENTED PACHYDERMS!

Apparently, the elephants in these parts are quite prodigious.

I don't care how skilled they are, though.  No elephant is getting near the parts of my anatomy associated with fertility with sharp needles.  I'd end up having to get the treatment for stress after that, for sure!

NERDS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN

This is one of my favorite weekends of the year coming up--DERBY CITY COMICON!!!!!!  I got my pass the other day.

It has been a real pleasure to see this one grow and improve year after year.  Homegrown cons by local folk are the best.

Of course, I go mainly for the shopping, but I've not had a lot of luck with the comic hunting this year.  I've gotten small batches here and there, but not the big scores of great stuff that I'm used to finding.  Hopefully, this will be a good con for that.  I've already checked out the list of vendors and seen several that should be pretty good, including several of my regulars.

Failing that, maybe I can find another Batman shirt.  Do they make them in blimpo size?

DVDS OF THE WEEK 

Since I was pet-sitting in a house with no WiFi and none nearby to surf on, I had the world's longest and cheesiest bizarro film festival.  I seriously must have watched at least two dozen DVD's.  Me and Frodo had a ball.  Lacy's not much for movies.

It was two hard to pick one favorite, so I ended up choosing two.  First, from legendary Hammer Films, starring equally legendary Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing:

Image Source

You seriously cannot have a cheesy film festival with that many movies and not include at least one Hammer Dracula film.  This one is a total ball.  Sure there are plot holes galore and a truckload of unanswered questions at the end, but it's a ton of fun to watch.  Lee and Cushing are actor's actors and they give it their all, no matter how silly things get.  And they do get a bit silly.  Dracula has a bevy of vampiric women in matching outfits chained up in coffins in his basement for starters.  Why?  Because he's Dracula!  They actually get nearly as much screen time as the big guy himself and all they do is writhe around and squeal and hiss.

It doesn't get much better than this.  I am now hunting through my stash to see if I have any more films from Hammer.

My other choice was a cartoon show I had never heard of before.

Image from good old Amazon!

This show is kind of a mix between X-Files, Men in Black, and one of my fave animated shows ever:  Ben Ten Alien Force.  The basic premise is that aliens have been visiting Earth for centuries, giving rise to most of our myths and legends and monsters.  Most of their purposes are less than benevolent.


An alliance of government agencies created the Roswell incident as a hoax in the 40's, to try and convince the world that aliens don't exist.  Ever since, they've been fighting the evil creatures, while denying they exist.  The plot definitely takes some twists and turns, and like most shows of this nature, you're never quite sure who to trust.  The Wikipedia page for the show does a good job of breaking it down.  (SPOILER ALERT!)


Plus, one of the characters is a Banshee!  I am now on a quest to track down more of this fun show.

THIS MEANS YOU

WRAPPING UP!

 Well, this was a rambly ramble.  I had a lot stored up since last week.  Have some Music for Monday to help it all go down.

Your Chiquito of the Month for December

This one is another wedding shot, combined with holiday cheer.

He's popped up in his wide-eyed best pose to wish all his internet friends a Merry Christmas!  Thanks for all the many wonderful things you all have said about him this year.

Weekend Finds (The Smalls)

First things first, as always at this time of the month, we have Your Chiquito of the Month for September.

He stretches out like this, on his back, front legs extended all the time.  I swear, if he weren't a cat, he'd have to be a rag doll.  I love that rust colored fur on his belly.

And now, the junk.  I'm sparing you all a lot of the more repetitive usual kinds of stuff that pops up a lot here.

You can't shop at a closed preschool and not buy a tub of wooden blocks. Or, at least I can't.

Lots of them have that wonderful wear that only hordes of four and five year olds can create.

There was one little block with cute blue stars on it.  I saved it for something else.

There were also two tubs of these small colorful plastic animals.  I guess they were given out as rewards or something.  You'll see some of them again, just as soon as I get something worked out in my head.  You have been warned.

That's a lot of red!

Vintage letter tray.  I love these!  Don't you?

There was another one of those cross hooks, but I forgot to bring it out for the pics.  Oh well.  Bad blogger strikes again.  Captain America guards my treasures.

Fun assortment of items.

Handmade wooden altar.  The seller told me his father in law used to make them.  I want to keep it so bad, but I've been keeping a lot of religious articles lately.

A bunch of 1980's school folders.   Everyone I knew had that mountain scene folder back in the day.  The presidents folder ends with Reagan.  There were five of the Muppets folders.  I got them all.  Muppets rule.

This was my "fortune favors the bold" moment.  The box of shutters was in a church with a sign that said "make offer."  I found the dishes, put them in the box, and went to pay.  They were looking at the dishes, and I offered them five bucks for the shutters.  They countered with five for the whole lot.  SOLD!

Your Chiquito of the Month for July and also Treatment Updates

Survey Says: "We are moving in the right direction!"

That's a direct quote from the doc.  The tumor is responding and has shrunk a bit.  We've still got a ways to go, as the tumor has to (of course) go all the way away and my immune system needs to develop to the point that it will fight off future recurrences on its own.  That's the part that takes so long, which is while I'll still be on this drug for months and months to come.

For the first time in a long time, I feel optimistic, but cautiously so.  There is always the chance the drug could stop working.  The doc says that "rarely happens," but I am nothing if not the exception to a lot of rules already.  There is also the possibility that my immune system won't respond as expected and there will be a recurrence on down the line.  But those are all thoughts for the future.  Right now, the damn thing has shrunk a little.

I'll take it.  And the damn fatigue that goes along with all this.

Also, your Chiquito of the Month for July.  He only takes second billing to treatment updates.

It's obvious he has a new theme song.

And....We're Home!

We got in late last night early this morning.  Good to be back home.  Flight went smoothly, if long.  We were afraid at one point that we might miss our connection, but it all worked out.

The wifi at our hotel was so spotty that I gave up on the idea of the photo dump I was planning for yesterday.  Complicating things even more, the laptop seems to not want to install Dropbox, which I do not understand at all.  I was even going to try it from the airport while we waited for the plane, but I could not get on their wifi.  Sometimes, technology is frustrating.

Give me a couple of days to get everything sorted out and edited, unpacked and photographed and washed and put away and I'll have a travelogue and some pics for you all.  Today, I've got to go see how bad the booth looks.  Another damn shelf sold yesterday.  It's occurred to me that every shelf I've put in that exact spot has sold lately.  I need to ponder that.

We had a vociferous welcoming committee last night.

This was the longest we've ever been away from him, and he had a lot to say about it.  He even woke us up every so often to say it again.  Poor little guy,

That pic, by the way, is your Chiquito of the Month for June.  Welcome to the Eddie-torial Comments age of multi-purposing!  Woo hoo!

Your Chiquito of the Month for May

For May, we get another one of those reaching paws!  Of course.

When I was first looking through the calendar, Keith asked me if I thought he put in too many of the paw thing.  Of course not!  That is such an element of his purrsonality that you can never have too much of it.

All together now:

Your Chiquito of the Month for April

Somehow, it's sort of fitting to feature this silly boy on April Fool's Day!

He's even doing one of his topsy-turvy, upside down poses.  Can't beat that.

By the way, Blogger's spell check suggests "autopsy" as a correction for "topsy-turvy."  Now, that's some April Fool's stuff going on right there!

Your Chiquito of the Month Catch-Up

Here are the January and February pics from the Chiquito calendar.

January:

This is one of those sleeping poses I was talking about in Wednesday's post!  He seriously does this all the time.  How can you not love it?

February:

Look at that face!  You just have to love it to pieces, I tell you!

BONUS SHOT:

Here's the cover for the calendar.

This was right after he came to live with us.  He has always had to greet us when we come home. Vociferously and enthusiastically.  The first one home gets the most intense treatment.  It's like we've been gone for days.  Seriously.

So on this day, Keith got home first.  He did the whole "love the kitty" routine, then bent over to take his shoes off.  Chiquito, not being done with the loving part, hopped up on the table, then crawled over on Keith's back and started kneading and purring.  Keith said it was hard to keep him balanced, but he managed to grab his camera and snap this shot.  I love it.  It so totally captures the sweet natures of both my fellows.

I'm so freaking lucky.

Your Chiquito of the Month for March

Keith made me a calendar of pictures of Chiquito for Christmas.  I have been intending to do a post sharing the picture for each month for a while now.  January and February kind of got away from me for reasons that I don't need to repeat again. (Waaaaah! My store got closed!  Waaaaah!)  It slipped my mind this month, but we still have a lot of March left.  I'll do a catch up post in a couple of days with the Jan-Feb pics.  I've already created posts for the rest of the year, so this endeavor will go back on a monthly schedule.

In the March pic, you get two recurrent Chiquito themes.  One is his upside down perspective on the world.  He is the longest, slinkiest, twistiest cat I have ever known.  It's not uncommon to find him completely sacked out, while twisted around with his head upside down, his belly facing to the right and his rear end planted flat on the bed.

Then we have that paw, reaching out for...something.  He is always sticking that paw out for one reason or another.  To shift his water bowl around and splash water out of it.  To play with something.  To tap me on the arm (when I'm on the computer), shoulder (when I'm on the toilet), or face (when I'm asleep) when he wants attention.  A lot of times, you can find him laying asleep with one or both paws completely stretched out like that.  Even when he gets his loving, he'll lift that paw up and flex it while we rub his head.  This isn't usual kitty kneading.  He does this in mid-air!

The other day, I was out thrifting, and I found this:

Even the over-sized ears are perfect!

 Of course, he came home with me.  He's siting on top of my desk, watching me type right now.

Stalling for time....

The title says it all, folks.  I need a little more time to finish writing up the wedding story and the booth adventures.  So, for today, you get cat pictures!  Because, who doesn't love cat pictures??

Chiquito has been quite the busy boy lately.  He and I are bonding in a way that's different from any other cat we've ever had.  Of course, he's different from any cat we've ever had, so there's a reason.

He's been giving me lots of Feline Lap Therapy when I need it.

He's helped with the laundry.

He woke up from a sound sleep to run and jump in the dryer when I opened it, but was clearly miffed when I insisted on piling wet clothes in there with him. It's the easiest way to get him out of there.  Toss enough wet stuff at him, and he'll leave of his own accord.  No fuss.  No drama.

He welcomed us home from Chicago.  He's happy that his parents are now married, so he's now legitimate!  He's no longer a bastard kitty!  It was really bothering him.

In fact, he welcomes us home most every night.

It's the favorite part of both our days.  And, lordy, but I need a haircut!

That's enough of the cat for now.  It's treat time for him anyway.  Hope you enjoyed this little tour of my little boy's world.

Tomorrow:  Cancer Updates and Pics!