Happy Holidaze

I had a lot of family in town for the holidays. By alot I mean my mom, 2 sisters, 2 brothers in laws and 4 nieces & nephews aged 11-21, and 2 dogs. On top of that we also belended Terry's two grown sons. We had a household. We had actually planned to get together two years ago when my mom had an emergency apendetimy a day before her flight. We are a loud bunch, especially the Sloan girls. I'm pretty sure we could all do public speaking with out the use of a microphone. So loud I managed to loose my voice (which Terry called a Christmas miracle) trying to keep up. It was great seeing everyone. I had the dishwasher set on repeat trying to keep up. Some of the highlight were taking all my nieces & nephews to the mall with Andrew. My sisters were shocked I stayed with them the whole time. Also Terry's sons gave me & planted a lime & orange tree. I am creating a little tropical orchard in my backyard and was very toched by their gift. Yesterday when everyone left the house was so quiet. It reminded me of when I first moved out. I used to turn on the TV to eat because I was so used to the noise and chaos of a large family that I couldn't eat in quiet.

Non Profits I love

About a year ago I came across the site www.kiva.org

I really dig it. It allows you to make loans to folks in other countries who are trying to start small businesses in order to support their families. So far i have made a loan to the Phillipines, Cambodia and El Salvador. You loans can be small or large but it's a great way of giving and seeing the impact. They also sell gift certificates which are perfect for those folks you really have no idea what to give. It is sightly addicting but I imagine there are worse things to be addicted to then giving.

Another non profit I like is www.norml.org
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana laws.

As of 9am this morning here are some interesting statistics

Money spent on the WAR ON Drugs this year
$10,318,803,357.00
Money would would have made if we taxed marijuana like alcohol
$29,987,789,857.00
People arrested for marijuana possession this year 727,355

I'm not advocated the irresponsible use of marijuana, but doing the math,I ask myself, can we afford this?

Also an interesting book came out called
Marijuana is safe, why are we driving folks to drink?
so I'll leave you with a song that is a little food for thought by a the band The Streets, outta Birmingham.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwDRBm-qbQI&feature=PlayList&p=00E1596CE74F7FEA&index=7

Advent Calenders

Advent Calenders have been a tradition in my like for about 40 years. As a child the eight of us (my Mom & 7 kids) would share a calander. We would each get three pieces of the calnder and do it in rotation. I am trying to figure out what happened with the extra piece #25. I wonder if my Mom ate it as we were all distracted by the fact that it was Christmas and we probably had more chocolate to eat. This is the third year I have bought two calanders. Terry & I share one and Andrew gets his own.It's also the first year Andrew is has actually not eaten past the actual date. Maybe he is growing up. Last year he made it til about day 8 and that was it. He blamed his friend Austin P. but Im pretty sure it was a two man job. I like Advent Calenders and the Christmas season.

Eric

Eric is coming home today from his Navy station in San Diego.I have been listening to Terry count down the days and hours for weeks. Actually I think he started his count down when he called Eric on Thanksgiving and found out he was eating a hot pocket. Eric will be twenty on a month but he's still Terry's youngest and his baby. He couldn't make it home last year for the holidays so it's nice he gets to be here this year. I probably won't see Terry for a day or two because he will be busy cooking steak for dinner and steak & eggs for breakfast. Eric likes steak but the last time he was home I think he told Terry to cool it with the steaks after about 5 days of eating nothing else.

Dogs, Dogs and more Dogs

I don't know when I became a "dog person" or now have evolved into the "crazy dog lady. " I do know for the most part I have too many dogs. We just got back from a Sunday morning trip to Red Bud Isle. It's a nice off leash part of Austin with water for the dogs to swim in. It's one of my happy places.

When Terry and I met a little over two years ago he had a beautiful elderly Weimerienr/Ridgeback mix named Trixie and I had my two goofy muts Cowboy & Louie. Our family quickly became a three dog household. Trixie passed away almost a year ago at the age of 14.

My ex husband often travels and leaves his mutt Baby with us. I once was walking Loiue, Baby and cowboy in my old neighborhood when a Realtor showing a house a cross the street from me announced to her clients "Oh isn't that cute she's the neighborhood dog walker" I didn't have the heart to correct her.

About 6 months ago I was walking my 2 dogs and my ex husbands dog in the greenbelt and was reveling in the fact that he was picking up his dog that day and I would be back down to two. Two is manageable and three quickly becomes a pack that sometimes thinks THEY are in charge. I was thinking to myself how when one of my dogs dies I think I'll stick to one, wouldn't that be nice & peaceful.

Later that day when Terry came home from an inspection I heard him holler "surprise". So I walked around the corner expecting flowers and there he stood with his ex wives Corgi. I guess she asked him to "watch" her for a bit as she was between apartments. That was about 9 months ago and we are still "watching" her. She has become part of the pack.

My sister is coming for Christmas and bringing her Pit Bull & Terrier. My other sister and her family are coming and they had to get a hotel because she is very allergic to dogs which kinda makes my house a no no. I spent $500 on a Dyson vacuum because of my dogs.
I know some of my neighbors get a big chuckle out of me walking the dogs. A neighbor once commented that it was soo cute I had a small, medium and large. Oh yeah it's cute it's freaking hilarious. So I'm not sure when I became a dog person but I am pretty sure I have earned the title of "Crazy Dog Lady".

I heart Kelly & Noah

Life it seems is like a circle of endings and beginnings. I've had my share but haven't we all.
About 18 years ago I packed up all my belongings and moved from NYC to San Francisco ,my place of birth. It was a big coastal move. NYC was where I was a married and spent close to a decade.



Almost 3 years ago (1/23/10 will be my 3 year anniversary) I gave a way a a shit load of books sold my car & furniture and house and moved to Austin all while ending a marriage that lasted close to two decades. Big changes again. I said good bye to good friends, my Mom, good bagels and Thai food.

So I guess you could say I am pretty familiar with the moving process. And I won't even attempt to go into my gypsy child hood here.

So what does this have to do with Kelly & Noah.

Well for starters Kelly was my first "real" friend when I moved back to San Francisco. Today my dear friends Kelly & Noah are selling all their stuff. It's just stuff but stuff often has a lot of memories. About 6 months ago my friend Kelly sent me a lengthy email telling me he was considering a contract position in Kuwait for developer who was opening some high end shops theier. I had to get up and walk away from the computer. I was SHOCKED or maybe just really surprised. Germany, France maybe, but Kuwait took me by surprise. So today they are selling their remaining items and getting themselves ready to become ex pats for at least the next few years. Maybe it's not so sad for me because I said good bye to living in the same town as them three years ago, but at the same time I know the next time I visit San Francisco and they aren't there, I will be sad. So let me send a toast to two of the sweetest guys in San Francisco. San Francisco will never be the same and neither will Kuwait City when you two fellas start shining there. And I want to leave you with a song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC4UUMpaKbo
It may just bring tears to your eyes about a month from now.

Lucky me

You know how sometimes your timing is perfect. Usually Terry and I take the dogs on a long walk Saturday and Sunday morning together. Today Terry had an inspection so I was flying solo. It's kinda a two man job when you have three dogs and today it's raining lightly& muddy. It's OK once I get to the dog park but when they are on the leash it's tricky. My dogs are larger and Terry's inherited dog is a corgi so she walks or rather waddles quite a bit slower. So I was kinda feeling sorry for myself walking all the dogs on my own in the mud, whah whah. I'm headed back to the house and I see four folks standing at my door. A man in a suit, a child in a suit with the good book in his hand and two women in their Sunday best. I slowed my pace a little. They moved on to my neighbors house. They did leave a little Watchtower booklet at my door. Perfect timing, wouldn't you say.

And then it reminded me of another time of less then perfect timing. This was about 4 years ago and back in San Francisco. For those of you familiar with the bay area there is a store called Beverages and More in Colma right outside San Francisco. A couple times a year they have a crazy wine sale. It's actually called the $.05 wine sale. They pick about 30 selections of wine and offer the second bottle of any at a nickle. So of course it's a great time of the year to stock up. I bought 2 or 3 case of wine and as we pulled up to our little pink and green house I notice two blond Mormons in their Sunday suit headed to my house. Dean (my now ex husband) runs inside, like oh that's Catherine job's to deal with the Mormon's. I on the other hand am lugging cases of wine up the stairs on an early Sunday afternoon. And they caught me on the stairs in all my $.05 booze glory. And I do think I appeared to be a good prospect for saving. They start on their spiel and I ask them how much more time they have on their "tour. " Probably not the right term but come on I was holding a case of wine. Long story short they declined my offer of a glass of wine. It worked. They left and I'm still not a Mormon and I sure do miss that nickle wine sale.