GabbyAbby Leg Nest

Okay Okay.

One more pic of GabbyAbby then its Homework time for you, Peeps!



There. Now back to work!

It's My Friday (Already??!!)

I took Sunday off from work 'cuz I was in Yakima.

Then I left work early Monday so I could take MiniWarrior to meet his teacher and tour his classroom before he started 6th grade today (!!!)...

Which left me Tuesday and Today for full days of work.

And now?

It's my Friday.

Huzzah!

I have no weekend plans other then driving MiniWarrior to school Thursday and Friday.
(he starts school at 8:15 now--ugh)

I shall have to plot and devise some tasty weekend plans!

Gabby Abby in Yellow

Gabby Abby wanted to show you her new dress.




Isn't she pretty? :)

Summers Last Hurrah

Truck packed, cooler filled with ice, beer and soda, Lord V, MiniWarrior and I headed North towards Castle Rock--then veered Eastward winding our way up to Yakima.

The scenery was gorgeous. Huge Ponderosa Pines with their red striped bark pressed up against looming mountain boulders.

We wound our way up for several hours then finally descended into the valley of Naches 30 miles west of Yakima.

We checked into our Hotel: The Whistling Jack Lodge. It was very quaint and had a cute window seat that over looked the Naches river below.

Once checked in, we headed out again to meet up with Lord V's family at their cabin.

We were weary from the long drive and spent the rest of the evening lazing around chatting with family while MiniWarrior trundled off to see what bugs Yakima had to offer for his collection.

The next day we all headed out to the Yakima with our trucks brimming with inflated rafts and inner tubes for our quest to ride the river.

We left a car at the end of our river ride and then drove 9 miles to our starting point. There were 9 of us total. 2 rafts and 5 inner tubes that we tied together with a long rope while we drifted down the river.

It took us over 2 hours to float the 9 mile trek. The weather was perfect and the water was freezing...there was much laughter and shrieking echoing off the Yakima canyon walls!

The next day a group of us headed up the road and hiked up to a waterfall. I don't remember the name of it--but it was a brutal uphill hike. Beautiful, but brutal on my plumpness.

Sunday (our final day) Lord V's sister, MiniWarrior and I headed out on another hike to a cave. Another brutal uphill hike--but the cave was cool. I could imagine what it was like in the old days when the explorers used such places for shelter. It was pitch black inside which made walking difficult as the tiny spears of light from our flashlights barely penetrated the inky darkness.

We repacked the truck and headed back home after our cave hike. We paused along the way to take some shots of Mt. Rainier with Chanda. See? :)



We stopped for dinner an hour from home and chomped on burgers at Lord V's favorite burger cafe, stretched our achy bones and caught up on voice mails and emails on our iPhones. I must admit, I felt a thrill of excitement to be connected to technology again! We had totally been cut off. No TV, no Cable, no Internet, no Cellphones...not even books. I had traveled to 3 different convenience stores by our Hotel searching for reading material as I had forgotten to pack a book...but nothing. No books, no magazines...nothing. When I asked the clerks if they had any reading material I could buy they blinked at me like frogs in the rain.

"Whayll, I gots a fishing manual" One offered helpfully.

...

So...yeah. We were very glad to be back in civilization!!

It was a beautiful place to visit and a very peaceful, relaxing end to our Summer vacation, though :)

More vacation images can be viewed at http://akatseyeview.blogspot.com

Wickity-Wick Weekend Goodness!

Lord V, MiniWarrior and I shall be a cabin-ing this weekend.
The last weekend of Summer vacation for MiniWarrior before school entrapment.

Where the heck has the Summer gone?

Anyone...

Anyone?

*sigh*

I've really enjoyed this time off and am struggling to let the sunshine slip away to the drizzle and grey skies of Winter.


hammock goodness

30 Minutes 'Til My Friday!

We've had visitors from our Mississippi team this week at work. I've been dragging them around to local things (by our work) trying to give them the most Portland, Oregon experience as I can.

Tomorrow (if my boss Ok's it) I plan on driving them to Multnomah Falls so they can get some true Oregon/Washington Gorge experience :)

Should be fun!

Bring on my weekend. BRING IT!

I'm so ready for it.

Wear Clean Underwear and Use Your Manners!

Remember the advice your Mom gave you?

Wear clean underwear--'cuz if you're ever in an accident you don't want to go to the hospital in dirty underwear?

Now I follow that advice even though I've never understood that whole "accident/hospital/clean undies bit. Maybe it's just me? But at an age where a vigerous sneeze threatens the pristiness of my unmentionables, I'm pretty sure that if I'm in an accident? I'm not laying on the emergency table unsoiled.

You know what I'm sayin?

Now the "use your manners" Mom advice I've always strived to follow and I've worked religiously to instill that particular Motherly advice thing in my own son because it's important. I mean, let's face it...nobody likes a rude person, right?

Which brings me to reason for my rambling blog post.

Friday, I went to visit my knee doctor. He had been on Sabbatical in Italy the past year learning new doctor thingies which is cool, 'cuz I'm the first to admit that I'm an enigma and most docs that deal with me? Scratch their head and mutter things under their breath and then send me on my way.

I was sitting beside him in his office when my Doc pulled up my medical records to refresh himself as to where we were in my medical diagnosis. The first few lines at the start of the record caught my eye, "Patient is a pleasant white female who has a refreshing out look on life..."

???

I had no idea they put personality details in ones medical record!

I mean heck, you'd think they'd warn a person like our school counselors used to beat us over the head with in school. "Behave! Or your actions are going on your permanent record!"

What if I had been rude to my Doc? Would my record then say, "Rude, white female with a sour disposition who should be admitted to the nearest psychiatric hospital for daily shock treatments?"

That's some scary shizzle, Peeps. Scary shizzle.

I'm just sayin'...

So listen to your Mothers, Peeps. 'Cuz apparently? They know what they're talkin' about.

some times...

most times...

well whatever, just do it!

Nest Stealer!

Summer Time's Last Call

One more week of Summer Vacation for us and then it's back to school.

We have one more 4 day trip planned with family and then Summer will officially be over.

MiniWarrior starts Middle School September 2nd. (What's up with that, anyways?!) Summer vacation was always over after Labor day!

New beginnings for us all. I worry a bit about MiniWarrior heading into the big kids arena but I think he'll be OK.

He's such a strong, independent social bug. Something which defies the very definition of Autism.

He's clever and I think if I keep working with him on the nuances of relationships and conversation he'll survive the Junior High years as well as most kids do.

Junior High. My body shudders in rememberance of those years.

Wish us well, Peeps.

We're gonna need it.

Lazin' In The Hammock

It's official.

No Meteor shower watching for me this weekend.

However, I did get some zen hammock time in despite the freakin' Northwest clouds!



At one point MiniWarrior joined me in the hammock, wiggling and chattering my ear off.

I shooed him back to his summer time bug hunting vigil so I could continue my Cloud/Hammock Zen time. :)

Drizzly Humpday

It's my Friday--YAY!

It's raining--BOO!!

I was all set to lay on my Hammock tonight and watch the Meteor Shower that's supposed to be playing in the night sky...but I awoke this morning to grey clouds and rain showers :(

*sulk*

I was really looking forward to it!!

Hammock Goodness!!

I ordered a hammock last week with birthday money I had received.

Yesterday UPS delivered it and I couldn't wait to get home from work to set it up!

I chose a Cypress wood arch hammock stand



and a Euro Quilted Blue and White Striped hammock.



Lord V helped me put it all together yesterday and I spent an hour happily swinging in the evening breeze!

It was awesome! (sing-song voice)

End Of The Road

Once we finished chomping on our burgers at the Hana restaurant, we drove down the hill to the "ancient general store" to snag some liquid fortification for our long drive back down the Hana Hwy.

We pulled into the tiny parking lot, climbed wearily out of our rental car and there...there was the reason for making the long drive worth while.

The scene was like something from a fantasy movie. So raw. So beautiful it didn't seem real.



You see?



Magical.



Worth. Every turn. Every twist. Every mile on that endless Road to Hana

Road to Hana--Continued

After our "plank of death" experience, Lord V and I gave up on any attempts to hike to hidden waterfalls for the rest of our road trip.

As I told Lord V, " Meh, it's water falling on rocks, really not worth dying to see!"

As it turns out, we didn't have to hike to see waterfalls. Right around the next bend was a waterfall we could happily see from our car. (freakin' guidebook) I scrambled out of the car and got a close up shot and we took off again.

The best part of our "Road to Hana" trip was "The Garden of Eden". OMG, Peeps. This was totally worth the trip (and the plank of near death experience!)

It was a paradise of tropical plants, trees and flowers with a smattering of wild peacocks, ducks and parrots living amongst it.



I can't remember now how many acres this garden was--but it was too vast for me to walk it all.

It was muggy and we were still exhausted from our failed tromp to the "hidden waterfall" so Lord V and I sat at a picnic table and munched on grapes, sipped water and flipped an occassional grape to a sassy mother peacock and her baby who climbed up onto our table to scope out what goodies we had.

I left Lord V sitting at the table and headed out with Chanda. I must have taken 300 pictures and I still couldn't capture the total beauty of this place.

I saw a sign labeled "Look out point" and followed the winding path. I broke through the gorgeous foilage and stepped into a magical grassy clearing that overlooked the emerald colored waters of Maui which was beautifully framed by towering palm trees.



There was a little stone bench perfectly positioned for one to sit and drink in the scene. I dug in my pocket and took out the momento I had taken with me to Maui. A little Pittsburg Steelers emblem of Mikeys. I knelt down and dug a little hole under that bench and buried the emblem there.

"Here ya go, Mikey." I whispered. "Best view on the island. Enjoy buddy."

I patted the ground and stayed a moment sitting on that bench. If there is an after life, I knew Mikey would be grinning his famous grin I wish I could see one more time.

When I walked away, I felt the heavy sadness that I had been holding inside myself since Mikey's and Guido's death shift. I felt sadness but it was a resolved sadness that was tempered with peace. Like a scar that remained after a wound had healed, forever there as a rememberance of what was.

I hiked back to the picnic area to meet back up with Lord V. We hiked over to the view of a twin waterfall where we watched a family of tourists decide if they really wanted to fulfill their island fantasy of bathing in a waterfall pool in Hawaii. The water looked a bit murkey from what I could see from my viewing perch way above them which might have contributed to their fantasy fulfilling hesitation.

We headed on the road again. Pressing on to Hana. We stopped at a rest area for a few minutes. A sweet lady was making jewelry there. Lord V purchased one her her necklaces for me. (You can read more about that stop and see a picture of her HERE).

Our next stop was the famous "Halfway to Hana" snack shop. Lord V ordered a shaved ice cone with icecream underneath and I picked up a hunk of ice cold pinneaple which was devinely delicious!!



We were tired and we were only halfway to Hana, but we gamely pressed on.

Many twists and turns and stops followed by more turns and twists and stops later, we finally pulled into Hana.



We stopped at the Hana Beach park for a bathroom break and then took off for the town of Hana.

Which.

Was.

One restaurant.

And.

One ancient general store.

!!!!!!!

We drove 70 miles. 4 hours of winding 25 mile an hour tourist clogged road.

For a restaurant.

and an ancient general store.



It's like a bad country song.

"It's not the end result, it's the journey."

Freakin' road to Hana...

While Lord V and I sat at the restaurant and munched burgers I frantically sorted through ideas in my mind of how we could magically transport our car and us back to our hotel without having to make the windy drive again.

But alas, I could not think any escape and we climbed our weary bodies back into our car and headed back down the "Road away from &%! Hana" and the comfort of our hotel.

The drive was spectacular.

The Garden was totally worth the trip.

The memories Lord V and I pocketed inside ourselves, priceless.

And...the shot I took at the end of the Hana road?

Worth. The. Entire. Drive.

To be continued...

More pictures can be seen at http://akatseyeview.blogspot.com

Gabby Making Baby Noises

When she's not Gabbing, she loves to make little baby noises.

Gabby Abby

Gabby Abby Playing with her favorite mouse :)

Maui: Road to Hana

We left our resort early Sunday morning and headed towards Paia and the start of the road to Hana.



We had our bookmarked guide book in hand and were determined and excited to follow the suggested hiking paths to hidden waterfalls.

Most of the shops in Paia were still closed when we pulled up into town. Paia is notorious for the eclectic mix of people roaming its streets. This time it was just Lord V and I wandering with Chanda dressed in her large telescopic lens.

At the start of Hana road we blew past the first fruit stand, smugly snorting at the swarm of tourists gathered there. Our guide book had told us to ignore that stop so we could get ahead of the tourist pack on the (mostly) one lane road to Hana.

We passed mile marker 5 and slowed. This was where the first hidden trail was.
We pulled over and I noticed a shoe atop a fence post.



Hmm. I wonder if that's a marker?

A few cars had pulled over and we walked up the road a bit following other people. They scaled a fence with a "KEEP OUT" sign attached to it. I shook my head at Lord V. I wasn't about to intrude on peoples property even though the guide book had said to ignore trespassing signs.

We headed back to our car when I spied a hole in the dense bamboo like forest along the road.



"I think this is it!" I called to Lord V.

We peered in and could see a faint trail leading into the shadows.

We stepped into the tropical forest and the trail widened into a sunny stretch of a well trodden path.




Yes, we found it!

Our glee quickly changed to trepidation as the trail veered from a dry, sunshine light path to a dark, dank, muddy steep decline peppered with moss covered rocks.

We slipped and slid, gripping foliage to slow our downward hike. The muddy trail grew steeper with each turn but we gamely pressed on until we came to a section where a creek had dug itself into the mountain top creating a 8ft ravine between us and the next section of trail.

Someone had wedged a plank of wood across the ravine to aid in crossing to the other side.

I looked left...



And right...



And tentatively stepped a foot onto the plank.



It shifted beneath my foot and it suddenly dawned on me that we were down in the depths of a hidden trail in Maui and no one knew where we were. If we fell to our deaths here, it might be months before we were found! Nothing left but a sack of bones dressed in Hawaiian shirts, khaki shorts, gripping a camera with the "MAUI REVEALED" guidebook fluttering in the wind.

"Oh hell no. I'm not dying here!" I muttered yanking my foot from the plank of death.

Lord V agreed and we trudged back up the trail bursting through the opening of the trail, gasping for breath and drinking in the feel of the glorious Maui sunshine.

A car pulled over and 4 old people peeled themselves out with the "Maui Revealed" guidebook in hand.

"Is this where the trail is to the waterfall?" They asked, looking from our mud streaked bodies to the hole in the bamboo forest.

"I don't know." I said, sucking in air from our rapid ascent. "We never made it that far."

"I just know," I wheezed, leaning down to smack a clump of mud off my calf, "I wasn't gonna die on that trail!"

They shot me an alarmed look and then looked back at the trail.

I could see them evaluating their dream of hiking to a hidden waterfall against our rendition of the hike.

I shook my head at them. 4 old people dressed in Dr. Scholls support shoes of the elderly. No way in hell were they going to make it.

I looked at Lord V. He shrugged and gave me the look of, "What can we do?" and climbed into our car.

I flopped in beside him and we headed back onto the road to Hana.

To Be Continued...

http://akatseyeview.blogspot.com

Catmercial Interruption

We paws the blogging of my Maui trip for this catmercial interruption



I shall return tomorrow with "The Road to Hana" blog details.

You can see a preview in pictures HERE.

Gabby Abby: Snoozing Lap Angel

'cuz it's been awhile since you've seen a picture of her...

Sailing the Waters of Maui!

We arose early and headed out to the town of Lahaina where our sailing boat "Trilogy" was docked.

We arrived an hour early so we could fortify ourselves with coffee--then splurged and ate a delicious breakfast of over easy eggs, pepper bacon and home fried potatoes with a dab of their special hot sauce. (purr-fection)

Breakfast finished, we turned our trip vouchers in to a Trilogy crew member in the parking lot and headed towards the docks. It wasn't hard to find--we just followed the mass of plump white tourists carrying day bags filled with sunscreen and towels.

They divided our group into two tours and we climbed onto the boat assigned to us and set sail.

Unfortunately, there was no wind for them to be able to use their sails and we ended up motoring the entire way to Lana'i Island. The trip was gorgeous though and any time I am lucky enough to be on the water I am thrilled!!



Once there the group headed out to the beach to snorkel but Lord V and I and a group of 4 women traveling together (who were hilarious) climbed onto a RIB boat (reinforced inflatable boat) and zoomed off for another adventure.

O.M.G! They two guys manning the RIB boat zoomed us around the rim of the Island at break neck speeds!! I was yelling the entire time with WHO-HOO's!!! and ARGH MY SPLEEN!! as we slammed up and down on waves zooming across the emerald colored water.

It was the best...EVER!!!

I didn't take Chanda on this trip for fear she would get water damaged. I regret not taking another cheaper digital camera though, for the 3 waterproof disposable cameras I did take took horrible pictures of the most fantastic views of emerald surf smashing against massive Island cliff faces I've ever seen.



We made it back to beach and staggered off the boat. We waved goodbye to the crew and headed to the pack of tourists who were busy getting ready to snorkel.

Our guide warned us of the ominous surf that was slamming onto the beach that day. The waves were the largest I had ever seen crash onto the shoreline! He explained that the waves came in groups of 10. We would have to have our mask and mouth piece on, clutch our fins in our hands and run into the surf when he told us to GO! There would be no time for delay or panic. We had to run or drown.

I was a little alarmed at that but determined to press on with our snorkeling plans.

Lord V and I donned our snorkel gear, clutched our fins and stood at the top of the beach waiting for the GO! signal.

The waves rolled in and threw themselves at our feet in an angry tantrum. I kept my eyes on our guide and waited for the signal.

GO! GO! GO! He screamed. We took off running into the surf. Once neck deep in the water I struggled to pull on my fins but labored as they had insisted we wear waist flotation devices and it kept flipping me onto my face when I lifted my foot up to tug the fin on!

"GET YOUR FINS ON!" A crew member yelled at me bobbing on a surfboard beside me.

"I'm TRYING!" I yelled back but kept struggling.

"HANG ON TO THE BOARD!" He yelled back.

I gripped the surfboard and managed to tug my fins on just as a giant wave came hurling towards me.

"DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!" He screamed.

I turned my body and dove into the wave.

It swirled me around and I broke through gasping and looked frantically over to see how Lord V was doing.

He got hit full on with the wave and was coughing and gagging on ocean water having not been fortunate enough to have a surfboard to cling to to help him put his fins on.

He waved me on and headed back to shore.

I struggled for a bit then made it past the row of waves and got out far enough to calmer waters.

I snorkeled for awhile snapping pictures of angel fish and brilliant blue colored fish.



I got to swim with a school of tiger striped fish then headed back to shore as the current was so strong it was exhausting me.



Once back at the shore I flopped down on my beach mat with my towel and rested for a bit, thoroughly exhausted.

I felt bad that Lord V didn't get to snorkel but he said it was OK because he had gotten a little sea sick from the pounding we took on the RIB boat and trying to snorkel in the rough waters just made it worse.

I had just enough time to catch my breath and slow my pounding heart when the crew called out that there was a van tour heading out to see the Island of Lana'i.

I gathered myself up, wrapped myself in my beach towel and headed with Lord V into the air conditioned interior of the van.

The trip was optional--but I was determined to see the most I could on our trip!

It was a very pleasant tour. Our tour guide was a local and she drove us slowly around telling us about the town and the history of the Island. It was currently owned by David Murdock...but he was losing money and they hoped that the next person who bought the Island would be Bill Gates so they could get some computer jobs out of the deal :)

After the tour we headed to the pavilion on the beach where the Trilogy crew was busy cooking us dinner.

Roast chicken, Oriental stir fry noodles, Peas, Salad, dinner rolls, Iced tea and Guava juice.

It tasted very good after our ocean experiences!

Our boat had broken down so we all piled on the remaining sailing boat. I was able to snap up a front seat right on the tip of the sailboat and resting my head on my arms on the rail I sighed and watched the waters fly by us as we sailed back to Lahaina.




They managed to catch a few minutes of wind and put up the sails. It was a beautiful sight. White canvas stretching and catching the wind--but for most of the time we used the ship motor to get us back to the main Island.



It was a fantastic day and the best birthday I have ever had!

xoxo to my Lord V.

Maui Trip

I have begun posting pictures at AKatsEyeView of our trip.

I (usually) don't like to repeat a vacation place, so we wrung out as much as we could of our Maui experience :)

The flight was long. 6 hours! But Lord V and I packed enough entertainment gadgets along to keep ourselves occupied.

The first thing we noticed when we climbed out of the plane was the humidity. It wrapped around us like an electric blanket--but--I was thrilled to see brilliant sunshine after the fear of flying into possible hurricane weather!

We took a shuttle bus to our rental car place and picked up our island vehicle. They gave us a red convertible Mustang. I smiled inside myself because my friend Mikey would have loved knowing that--as it was his favorite car.

Our hotel in Wailea (click to see a link for pics of it) was beautiful. We stayed on the 7th floor that over looked the ocean.

We spent the rest of our Friday acclimating ourselves to our surroundings: taking pictures and plotting activities for the next 4 days.

Saturday, after picking up our tickets for our sailing trip, we were taking on Monday, we tossed on our swim gear and headed to the beach for some body surfing.

The waves were so strong!! They tossed me around and spit me out on the beach like a pebble.

The third time the waves horked me onto the beach, I staggered to my knees spitting sand and salt water, flung hair out of my eyes and patted my hands down my body to make sure it was all still intact when I realized I was patting skin where my bathing suit should be!

I looked down at my chest and yelped frantically tugging my girl bits back behind my suit when I heard laughter from the shady part of the beach.

Two middle aged women lounging on beach chairs were grinning big and laughing at my frantic coverup. I shrugged and grinned back at them and headed back into the waves.

fracken tourists...

Next post: The Road to Hana

I'm HOME!

We are back.

We had a fantabulous time!!

The only sign we saw of the hurricanes was high surf on the last couple days of our vacation.

It was hot. Sunny and beautiful!

We are burnt. Exhausted and happy to be home with our animals and MiniWarrior :)

I have spent the day downloading my pics and trying to categorize them for my akatseyeview blog.

I will be trickling them onto that site tomorrow after getting some much needed sleep tonight.

Here is a peek. I shall blog about some of our adventures, tomorrow.


Garden of Eden: Road to Hana

Carlos and Dolores

There are two hurricanes headed towards Hawaii right now.

Carlos--who is tuning down to a Tropical Storm and veering south away from the Islands...


http://www.stormpulse.com/pacific/fullscreen/current

and

Dolores--who is in hurricane status right now and in a direct path to the Islands.


http://www.stormpulse.com/pacific/fullscreen/current


Nice

So if you don't hear from me in a week?

Send for the Wizard cuz Toto? We ain't in Maui anymore!

New Toy, Trip Plans and Cyclone Carlos!

I came home from work last night and Lord V met me in the kitchen with a solemn look on his face.

"Did you receive any phone calls today?"

I eyed his serious face nervously.

"Yes...no...wait. I lost service today. Did you too? What's the deal with fracken AT&T?!"

He took my arm and turned me towards some paperwork on the counter.

I eyed it with trepidation then realized it was the itinerary paperwork that had come in the mail for our Maui trip.

"YAY it came!" I pumped a fist in the air with a grin.

"Look closer" He said shifting the papers slightly.

I stood up on tiptoe and peered over the stack of papers and...

"NO FREAKIN WAY!! YOU GOT ME A NEW iPHONE!!!!!!"

"Happy (early) birthday, Hun." He said with grin.

I flung my arms around him hugging and kissing him then leaned back and smacked his chest for alarming me with his pseudo Mr. Serious face.

Gotta love him, right?? LOL. Yeah. He's awesome :) xoxo

As for our trip:

Earlier in the day I had told my boss about our upcoming trip to Maui. He was very excited and spent most of the day sending me links to different maps and detailed Maui websites so I could be well prepared for our trip. He and his wife had been several times so he had the low down on which places were a "must see" for our trip.

I zoomed out to Borders at his recommendation and snapped up the Maui Revealed travel guide book then poked through it with him so he could explain to me some of the maps in it.

When I came back from my lunch he and the guys at work had put up a satellite tracker site of the Hawaiian Islands.

"Hey, come look at this!" They said, waiving me over.

"LOOK!" They said, grinning and pointing to the satellite image on the screen.

There...THERE on the screen was an swirling image of a Cyclone named Carlos that was headed towards the Islands!!

"NO!" I yelped. "You guys are just messin' with me, right?"

"Nope. It's real." They insisted.

"And" They added with big grins on their faces "There's a 'High Potential Disturbance' incident following right behind it, too!"

Nice

We've kept an eyeball on Cyclone Carlos' progress for the rest of the day and first thing this morning when I came back to work. It looks like its mellowing out and heading South away from the Islands so cross your fingers for us!!!

And last but not least (You didn't think I'd actually send out a post without Gabby Abby news and pics, did ya? Hmm?!)...

I give you my first pics taken with my new toy this morning.

Gabby Abby has taken to laying on her nest on my bathroom counter demanding pets and scritches while I get ready for work.



I've become quite ambidextrous curling my hair, applying make-up, etc with my right hand while scritching her with my left hand!



She's becoming quite the little Diva :)

Twice The Amusement

Since it's Monday--I thought I'd give you not one amusing pic...but TWO!


Walking in downtown Portland in the Pearl District Friday morning I happened across this in front of someones condo.



And...because your week cannot be complete without a Gabby Abby shot...

Gabby Abby

Gabby Abby had surgery this weekend.

She had a broken molar.

She's back with us after a night at the Vet hospital and greeted me this morning with her usual chattering and purring.

It's hard to believe we've only had her for only a couple of weeks. I've grown so attached to our little bundle of orange striped fur!!

As They Say On Cuteoverload...SQUEE!!!!

Guess where I'm going in 8 days.

Hmm?

Kahului, Maui ---Hawaii!!

It still hasn't sunk in yet.

I'm still sorta dazed by the surprise of it all.

We are renting a car so we can travel all over Maui and...

We have a Sunset sailing cruise set up for my birthday.

10 hours of sailing, feasting, snorkeling, touring, lazing on white beaches...

o.m.g. !!!!

I gotta go polish up Chanda and rummage through my summer stuff and...

EEK!!!!

AAAAHHHHH!!!

I'm just a little bit excited--can you tell??

SQUEE!

4th of July Goodness!

Our friends piled over on the 4Th to celebrate with us.

As usual, we had a great time of feasting and much laughter!

Apparently I am still a rookie at grilling--as I loaded hamburger patties, brat and hot dogs on the grill.

All. At. Once.

The grease from the hamburgers hit the flame and FOOSH! There were arm length flames spewing outta my grill!

I was ACKING! and frantically trying to rotate the various meats so they wouldn't die a charcoal death.

What should have taken 20 minutes to cook?

Took 10...

My friends were laughing and frantically handing me plates to fling the flame tortured meats on advising me that perhaps I should have only turned ONE burner on instead of the three and not put all the meat on at once...

Um.

Yeah.

DOH!

Ah well. It all turned out fine and I must say mighty tasty! :D

Our neighbors sons were putting on a party for their friends next door to us and playing Beer Pong.

One of my friends ambled over to them and found out instructions on how to play then promptly appropriated our outdoor table and turned it into a Beer Pong festivity of our own!

I lost and got a little tipsy on all the beer I had to drink...

We set off a bazillion fireworks when the sun went down. And...

So did our neighbors!

'Cept their fireworks? Were all set off in one gigantic "OOPS" display when one of the guys holding a lit mortar accidentally dropped it onto the box of unfired fireworks!!

There was a huge explosion as the box burst into flames and fireworks shot everywhere while the party kids frantically scurried out of the way like cockroaches!

Something caught on fire by the house but they quickly doused it and amazingly nothing was damaged.

We laughed and applauded the show then skulked out and set off our now lame-in-comparison fireworks.

They were not impressed by our sputtering fountains...

Kids.

We had a great time but I'm not sure when we'll be able to have another 4Th gathering like that as I work the on the next 4 4Th of July's.

Good times though. Good, good times!

even though my friends did mock my Heart, Elton John and Pink music!!

mutter.

MiniWarriors Newest Obsession

Wanna know what's consumes MiniWarriors every waking hour?

Go HERE!!

Hello Kitty---Live!

What do you get when you're the only female in an all male household and your new Mom is crazy....(over Hello Kitty)?



Hello Kitty cat!

...help me...

Holiday Festivities

Big BBQ plans for the 4th.

Our day will be full of friends, laughter, music, fireworks and feasting!

We had a pre-4th of July fireworks display for MiniWarrior and his friend last night.

MiniWarrior tends to get a little overwhelmed when there are lots of people and finds it hard to enjoy the fireworks at the end of a party. Sensory overload!

I thought it would be nice for him to have a little time away from the crowd to shoot off fireworks before the crush of sensory overload on the 4th.

It's always a balance game of too much too little too...when dealing with Autism!


Gabby Abby news:

I dragged out a piece of cat furniture that I had purchased for Guido a couple of years ago. He never really played on it as he was too large of a cat.

I plunked it down by Gabby Abbys favorite family room window, sprinkled a little catnip on it and carried Gabby Abby over and set her on top of it.

She immediately took to it, rolling around, grooming herself in the sunbeam and playing with her new set of mice that lay beside her.

Adorable.



More pictures of Gabby Abby can be seen HERE!