Mike and Evan with their "boom booms"

Mike would probably hate me for posting these...but I think that they are cute! Hollie and Cleve's son, Evan, loves anything that has to do with yard maintenance. So, as soon as Mike got the lawn mower (aka... "boom boom") out, Evan got his boom boom out of the garage and came rushing over to help with our yard. This is an improvement for Mike... he usually has to hold Evan while he cuts the grass (which makes me a nervous wreck b/c of our hill) or let Evan "push" our lawnmower for a couple of swipes. Evan will be two in July... hopefully he will still love to cut grass in a few years when the arthritis in Mike's knees really starts to act up!

No Pun Intended...

These are from an email that my Grandpa Eschmeyer sent me...


ALL PUNS INTENDED:

1. Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love and got married. The ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was excellent.

2. A jumper cable walks into a bar. The bartender says, 'I'll serve you, but don't start anything.'

3. Two peanuts walk into a bar, and one was a salted.

4. A dyslexic man walks into a bra.

5. A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm, and says: 'A beer please, and one for the road.'

6. Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other: 'Does this taste funny to you?'

7. 'Doc, I can't stop singing 'The Green, Green Grass of Home.' 'That sounds like Tom Jones Syndrome.' 'Is it common?' Well, 'It's Not Unusual.'

8. Two cows are standing next to each other in a field. Daisy says to Dolly, 'I was artificially inseminated this morning.' 'I don't believe you,' says Dolly. 'It's true; no bull!' exclaims Daisy.

9. An invisible man marries an invisible woman. The kids were nothing to look at either.

10. Deja Moo: The feeling that you've heard this bull before. (I'll be using this one!)

11. I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day, but I couldn't find any.

12. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him. (Oh, man, this is so bad, it's good) .... A super-calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

13. I went to a seafood disco last week..and pulled a mussel.

14. What do you call a fish with no eyes? A fsh.

15. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other and says, 'Dam!'

16. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel, and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office, and asked them to disperse. 'But why,' they asked, as they moved off. 'Because,' he said, 'I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer.'

17. A woman has twins, and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt, and is named 'Ahmal.' The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him 'Juan.' Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, 'They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal.'

18. And finally, there was the person who sent eighteen different puns to his friends, with the hope that at least ten of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.

Kitty Update

Ok... just a quick update for all my avid fans (hee hee). Emmy is officially our baby now! I paid the adoption fee this weekend. She is such a little ball of energy and is fitting in well with all of the cats. Gilbert loves to play with her...it only took him a couple of days to get adjusted to her, which is a new record. Now, he talks to her NON-STOP! he wants to play all the time with her! Stachie is starting to have other ideas of what he wants to do with her!! similar to how he likes to "play" with Tipsy!! I am constantly yelling at him to get off of Emmy. Poor little thing... I don't think either of them have a clue what is going on. I don't think Stachie really knows what he is doing. He just bites her neck and pins her down... and just holds her there, kind of with a "now what" look on his face. We really haven't had this problem with Milo or Gilbert... Don't know why Stachie has these "urges"... we even got him fixed early. Oh well... Can't be as bad as our childhood dog, Yorkie, who was used as a stud before we adopted him. He tried doing "it" with any and everything. Ahhh...the good old days.

Alright... I am regressing horribly. Anyway, as for Tipsy. We are going to keep her. I don't think she would handle the move well. Plus, since she would live in the barn and be fed at the house... I really cant see her wanting to leave the barn. She doesn't venture far away from safety...she never really has. She has always been one to stay close to a good hiding spot or a place where she felt safe. So... Mike and I are going to continue working with her to rehabilitate her into the semi-social kitty she once was. Wish us luck!

Tipsy Update...

Ok... I am starting to have an anxiety attack over all of this. I am very obsessive when it comes to the cats and their care (they are my children), so it is hard for me to give up control. the whole idea of trying to find a farm for her was a pretty new one (less than a week)...and it is turning out to be very hard on me... I didn't expect to find a taker with the first email I sent out. The lady is concerned about the "wide open" and the possibility of not being able to catch her if she need to. That is what started my panic attack. Maybe I should sit on the idea for a little bit, it is good to know that there is a good farm home out there should I chose that be the right course for her. Ugghhh... being such an animal lover can really be hard sometimes, and trying to figure out what is best for a "special needs" animal is difficult.

I just need to pray really hard that God will give me the guidance I need to make the best decision for Tipsy. There was a reason why she showed up on our doorstep. We got her healthy... now I need to know what to do next...

Some exciting (although bitter sweet) news....

I may have found a new home for Miss Tipsy! I hate the fact that she could potentially spend the rest of her life in a cage and she seems to get increasingly more distant from Mike and I. Anyway... when I was talking to the people from the rescue group where we got Emmy, I was telling them about Tipsy and they seemed to think that cats like Tipsy do really well as barn cats. Being as she is semi-feral, she would have plenty of nooks and crannies to hide in and more animal contact than people contact. The lady who may take her is the county agent that we are dealing with about our sewer. She is really nice and lives on a farm north of town. She has two barns close to her house and a couple more on the other side of the property. She has 6 cats right now and said that as long as Tipsy would be comfortable eating out the same food bowl...she would consider taking her home! Part of me is really excited and part of me is sad. I don't want to feel like I am giving up on her... I want to do what is best for her. And, I think that having space to move around and other animals to interact with would be better than spending the rest of your life in a 2 ft by 3ft by 4 ft cage. (Also... If would be nice to not have a cage in our living room.) I think that this would be a good thing for her! don't you agree???

What is your favorite animal??

Hi All... Just a little random bit of info for you on my favorite animal--the pink fairy armadillo. Yup, that actually is an animal!! When I was in grad school, my advisor had some volumes of books called "Mammals of the World" ...such cool books. Anyway, my labmate, Meredith, and I would flip through the books during lunch and I decided that my favorite animal was the pink fairy armadillo... what a cool name! and it is pink!!




The Pink Fairy Armadillos (Chlamyphorus truncatus and C. retusus) or Pichiciego are species of armadillo (small mammals of the family Dasypodidae, mostly known for having a bony armor shell). The Pink Fairy Armadillos are an endangered species and the smallest of the armadillos (about 3-1/2" to 4-1/2" long excluding the tail) and pale rose or pink in color. They are found in central Argentina where they inhabit dry grasslands and sandy plains with thorn bushes and cacti.

Ok, so that is my favorite animal! What is yours???

p.s. anyone looking to give me a random gift... I would love to get a set of Mammals of the World books! (hee hee)

Spring has Sprung!!

Here are some pictures of the flowers blooming in our yard right now. This is the first year for the big tall iris'! I got the bulbs from my Uncle Bob and Aunt Mary Jo... aren't the flowers just beautiful! It is fun to come home from work and see what has bloomed while I was away! The small 3-petal while flowers are spiderwarts that I dug up from Mr. Davenport's yard (shh...don't tell) and the little yellow flowers are english primroses from the mountains of rural Virginia (they are from Mike's great-grandmother's house).