Sweet Yet Sour

The Best Baby Shower Ever

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 | The Daily Special | 2 Comments

As many of you know, I loathe baby showers.  I am simply not of the personality of people who likes to sit around playing what I consider either silly games (or the nasty – “Guess How Big Around She Is” game).  And I have no desire to watch other people open presents or have others watch me open gifts either.  As a result, I avoid them like the plague and only agreed to one for Anna because my sister promised that there would be no silly games.  That first one was very nice, I got lots of good stuff and the games that we did play, like having everyone guess the baby’s name and sex and people writing funny things on diapers, made the experience far more enjoyable.

For this second child, I was again hoping to avoid having to attend one, since we don’t need all that much stuff (except boatloads of diapers and wipes).  But again, my beloved sister promised that she could make the experience better than I feared.

Last Saturday, due to what could briefly be described as “flooring/flooding issues” at my sister’s house, a shower was held for me at my house.  Honestly, it was the best baby shower ever.

First, Rhiannon had decided that the shower would be a “Supper Shower”, which meant that all who attended would bring a few ingredients which would be combined to create dinners which I could freeze and use after the baby arrives when I have no motivation to cook.  I got to decide what people would make and my sister divied up the ingredients among the attendees.  Then my sister and I hunted down vintage aprons for gifts for everyone to wear and then take home.  (Ebay, as it turns out, is a treasure trove of funky vintage aprons.)

We found several large lots and when they arrived there was even a little tiny one that could be tied to the cutie:

Anna in Her Apron

Don’t worry though, we didn’t make her cook; Anna and her daddy headed off to the park with her friend Timothy and his dad, Steve.

Anyway, everyone showed up at my house with their assigned ingredients and after a brief period of “who wants to work on what?” all the ladies filled my kitchen making dinners.

Here’s the best part, my lovely friend Andrea showed up with a pedicure kit and my friend Cassandra had a new bottle of nail polish in her purse that I liked much better than the ones I had in my drawers.

So, while other people cooked and made meals, I sat on the couch and got this done:

Toes

How awesome is that? When it was time for lunch someone brought me my plate (I was drying after all) and then Rhiannon and my friend Shannon managed to make a small pan of lasagna that Mike and I had for dinner for the next two nights.

In the end I went out to my freezer in the garage and gloried in the fact that I now have: 3 meatloaves (I had managed to make myself one a few weeks ago), a large pan of lasagna, two dozen turkey meatballs, two Swiss Enchilada Casseroles, a Shepard’s pie, and a casserole of mac and cheese that my mom made a few weeks ago.

Along with the store bought pizzas and anything else I might have the energy to make in the next few weeks, we should be set for several nights of very little effort on my part for dinner!  Thank you to my sister who planned it and she , my mom and my friends who showed up, cooked, and cleaned my kitchen!  It was truly the best baby shower ever!

My Best Vacation Ever

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 | Blog Circle, The Daily Special | 3 Comments

First, as a matter of explanation, some friends and I have started a sort of “blog circle”.  We all decided we needed to blog more, are sometimes bereft of blog topics, and could use a little help from our friends thinking of things to blog about.  For me, I could, much to the joy of both my own and my husband’s family, blog non-stop about Anna, but for me it’s not enough.  I am trying desperately not to lose my own identity – to not become simply “Anna’s mom”.  So every once in a while my friends and I will be spending some time tackling blog topics that we all come up with for a little blogging fun.

Today I will tackle the topic “Describe the best vacation you’ve ever taken.”

Mike and I were married in mid-November of 2004, but at the time, due to school and work schedules, we weren’t able to go on our honeymoon until Christmas.  A few days before Christmas we fled Colorado to Victoria, British Columbia.  I have been blessed with close relatives who have a vacation home outside of Victoria on the south side of Vancouver Island.  It is a beautiful home, where Mike and I took our first vacation together before we were married, that looks out from a high cliff over the ocean and across to Washington.

We were picked up at the airport and driven to Sooke, the closest town to the house.  We stopped on the way at the best meat shop in town, where we picked up steaks, sausage, and other things for our time at the house.  When we arrived at the house it had already been stocked with sandwich makings and some basic food – we were so well taken care of that visit!

One of the best things about the house is that there is a long stairway from the top of the cliff where the house is located down to a small private beach.  When we arrived Mike and I dropped our bags and climbed down the stairway to the little rocky beach.  When the waves crash upon the shore the sound of the rocks rolling up on the beach is almost like the sound of thousands of little hands clapping.  It’s a calming, wonderful place to spend time.

Close to the house there are many beautiful trails to hike on, through tall redwood forests that end up on the beautiful beaches of Vancouver Island, some rocky and some sandy.  For the next few days Mike and I spent time sleeping late, reading, watching the sights from the huge windows in the house and hiking the trails.  Mike spent a lot of time taking some of the most beautiful pictures he’s taken of the forest, the beaches, and the ocean.  It was quiet and calming and just what we wanted in a vacation.

Before Christmas we drove into Victoria where we stayed one night at a hotel that overlooked the harbor.  We had a fancy dinner at the restaurant on the top floor, shopped for each other’s Christmas presents and walked around downtown Victoria enjoying the Christmas lights.

We had a quiet Christmas eve and Christmas watching movies, reading our new books (we love giving books to each other) and enjoying our first Christmas as married people.

During our stay we mostly ate at home, but we did visit our favorite pub in Sooke, whose garlic mayo topped burgers are truly awesome, and a beautiful restaurant on a cliff point that overlooks the ocean.  Basically, we hiked, we read, we ate out a little, Mike took lots of pictures and we enjoyed the beauty of our surroundings.  It was the perfect “down time” vacation.

Don’t get me wrong, it was not a flawless vacation.  The car that belongs to my relatives broke down the day of our arrival and we had to deal with that mess and driving around a stranger’s car (we were loaned the car of someone who lives down the road). And the refrigerator stopped working, but we didn’t notice for a few days until there was a smell.  When we discovered that it had stopped working we moved as much as possible to the small wine refrigerator, but we lost most of the meat that we had purchased.  When we couldn’t have the roast or Scotch baked eggs we had planned on for Christmas we resorted to some steaks from the freezer, only to have the grill run out of gas just after we put the steaks on to cook.  But these were minor things, and could not compare with our lovely vacation.

Since then I have been back to the house once, with Mike and our friend Jen, and Mike has been back several times since to go salmon fishing with my father, uncle and my grandfather, before he died.  I miss the house, the ocean and the green of the Northwest greatly, especially these days with the sights of British Columbia on t.v. so much.  With the kids we won’t have that kind of vacation again for a long time, so I’m glad we had that time to really be together, relaxing and doing the things we love – it was by far my best vacation ever.

Another year, another birthday…

Friday, February 12th, 2010 | The Daily Special | 2 Comments

Today is Mike’s birthday.  Happy Birthday Mike! You are a wonderful husband, father, talented developer, loyal friend, wonderful photographer, dedicated athelete, and recently, an accomplished homebrewer.  I love you for many reasons, that you are kind, gentle, funny, smart, passionate, and constantly in a search for new things to learn.  Please know that your wife and daughter love you, admire you and are constantly both amused and amazed by you.  Pretty soon (very soon!) we will welcome our son into the world, and except for the troop of Greyhounds we have always planned on adopting, our family will be complete.  I look forward to many more happy years with you.  Happy Birthday!

Mike and Anna

The White Whale!

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 | The Daily Special | 2 Comments

Oh look, a beached white whale (however did it wrangle the cute kid?):

Preggo 31 weeks

So we all know I was overweight before I got pregnant, but it does really suck to go into the doctor’s office (which is now every two weeks) and get weighed.  Yesterday (when this picture was taken) I opted for contacts instead of my glasses in the tiniest hope that it would shave a few ounces off my weight gain.

But, heck, I had a bad week last week so I turned out to have lost weight instead of gained since my last appointment.  I’m supposed to be gaining weight now for the baby – at any other time in my life weight loss (@5 lbs) would have been just grand.

Pele does seem fine anyway and I am happy to report that there is one nice thing that resulted from all that vomiting I did last week.  At my last appointment the midwife was a little worried that Mr. Pele was still head up, banging his forehead on my rib cage, not where he needed to be in preparation for his impending birth.  But apparently if your mommy/host throws up for 5 hours straight you might become perturbed enough to flip yourself head down to get away from the direction of the chaos…  Let’s just hope he stays there so I don’t have to go out and find another stomach virus to catch.

We are now officially at 31 weeks now, with 9 more weeks to go.  I’m doubtful/praying that we have less than that, since Anna arrived at 37 weeks and if the kid makes it to 40 weeks I will be in the hospital for Anna’s birthday.  Double yuck.

On a lighter note, my midwife (whom I love – she was great for Anna’s birth) told a story that really freaked me out.  We discussed that the second time labor is likely to go faster than the labor with the first kid.  My labor was 18 hours last time, so I’m okay with shaving a few hours off that time anyway.  My midwife told me “my first labor was 12 hours and the second was 37 minutes.”

Hold on there! It takes me 30 minutes to get to the hospital!  Oh, that is just not good… Don’t worry though, I will not be naming my child, “CRV” or “Element” after the car in which he’s born.  That would just be tacky.  Perhaps we should rent a Lexus in a few weeks just in case – that sounds like a nice prep school rich kid name – instead of an “I was born in a car” name!

Yuck

Sunday, January 31st, 2010 | The Daily Special | 4 Comments

That’s about all I can say about the past week, yuck.  And then maybe (avert your eyes!), damn, I didn’t finish this month’s baking challenge – again!  I had planned to make this month’s Rugelach this week, but alas, it was not to be.

The week started out really well.  Monday I felt good, Anna and I were both recovered from a cold, and the weather was sunny.  We trooped off to our Monday morning music class, walked the dog, went to the park, and had a good nap.  It was all going so well! For dinner I was a little tired, but I managed to prepare a new tilapia recipe, basmati and a nice spinach salad.  Four bites into dinner things turned sour and I just didn’t feel right.  And thus begins my unpleasant week…

For the next three hours I experienced some um, severe stomach and intestinal issues, to put it delicately.  At around 11, when I could no longer keep even water down and I was having contractions, we finally called my OB doctor.  We were told to head to the hospital without further adieu.  My brother-in-law, who was fortunately up late working, came over and stayed on our couch listening to Anna’s baby monitor while we trooped off to the hospital.

When we arrived at the hospital at midnight, we checked into the Labor and Delivery department, a seemingly unending 20 minute process that was made worse by the heat in the admin office and the woman’s perfume, which made me even more nauseous.  I have no idea what cruel person finds it necessary to make you answer questions about your insurance and fill out billing forms while you are obviously ill, but I think whoever thought of the process is related to the Marquis de Sade. The printer jammed, the copier jammed, the printer ran out of paper, hot air blew on me and I still didn’t throw up – kudos to me!

Long story short, we were in the Labor and Delivery department for 6 hours.  I threw-up so much I raised a nurse’s eyebrows, got three bags of i.v. fluid, had contractions 2-4 minutes apart (caused by severe dehydration), got anti-nausea medicine and anti-contraction medicine.  I was not able to sleep due to being hooked up to an i.v., a contraction monitor and a baby heart rate monitor and Mike had barely any luck with the make-shift bed/chair in our room.  We made it home by 6 a.m., just in time to hear the first chirps of Anna who had slept through the whole thing.

Anna became sick later that morning and Mike and I traded trying to take care of her and trying to sleep the whole day.  For the next few days no one really felt well, we all were exhausted, and Anna watched way too much t.v. while we tried desperately to sleep even for a few minutes.  Mike was able to work from home on Wednesday and went to work on Thursday, only to come home to me having more contractions, and I forced him to work from home on Friday, just in case another trip to the hospital was needed. Sadly, although friends would have liked to help, all offers of help were ended with, “but we don’t want to get sick.”  Come on! Don’t you too want to have this very fun stomach virus?  So we were on our own…

Friday we all started to finally feel better and a little more rested.  Yesterday, Saturday, we ventured out to get diapers and other things we were in desperate need of, and had some fun at the park after Anna’s nap.  Our week that began with such awful sickness is finally over and I’m thankful. This experience, although unpleasant, has certainly put things in perspective.  When I complain of my hip pain or heartburn, Mike now gently says, “At least you’re not projectile vomiting.”  Truer words were never spoken…

Anna and the Stock Show

Sunday, January 17th, 2010 | Anna, The Daily Special | 2 Comments

Just in case you didn’t think that Denver was at it’s heart a cow town, the annual Stock Show is in town this week.  Apparently the Stock Show has been going on since the late 1800’s and for the past few decades it has featured rodeos, mutton-busting for the kids and the usual livestock auctions and shows.

Friday, my sister and I packed the kids in the car for a day at the Stock Show.  I told Anna that we were going to see “animals” and she got pretty excited and said “elephants!”.  I’m not sure if she was disappointed, but we did see lots of horses, cows, bunnies, chickens and even some guinea pigs…

The highlights at the Stock Show for the kids are the rides however.  Here are Anna and Brendan waiting in line for the little train ride – we made Brendan hold Anna’s hand – which he did begrudgingly, and then promptly let her go as soon as the ride was open.

Waiting for the train

I got a shot of the kids in the train as it went by, I have video too, but here’s the kids on the little engine:

Riding the train

After the train ride, it was off to the pony ride.  They strap them in pretty good, but don’t worry, I walked alongside Anna just to make sure she didn’t fall off.  She held on pretty well and seemed to like her horse, Dr. Pepper.

Riding Dr. Pepper

As we walked around the grounds we found a huge tractor, far bigger than my camera could capture.  We stuck the kids on it for a nice photo of them looking frightened of the big wheels.

On the big tractor

It was a long day, Anna had a late and short nap and after nap I let her play in the sink – it’s one of her favorite things to do.  And then since it was so close to dinner time I just put the plate of ham and cucumber next to her and let her eat dinner from the sink.  Good times!

Dinner in the sink

My Favorite Christmas Shopping Carol

Thursday, December 10th, 2009 | The Daily Special | No Comments

I grew up with a dad who loved Tom Lehrer – a comic/singer popular in the 1950’s and ’60’s.  My father, being a chemistry professor, loves Lehrer’s “Elements” song, which is sung to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Major-General Song”.  If you haven’t heard his songs, but can deal with a little dark humor, go check him out…

Each year as I start my (always belated) Christmas shopping one of Lehrer’s songs begins to run in my head, his “Christmas Carol”.  The lyrics have some great lines, such as, “God rest ye merry merchants, may ye make the yuletide pay”.

I thought I’d share it with all of you for a little laugh as you do your Christmas shopping…

5 Years!

Saturday, November 14th, 2009 | The Daily Special | 4 Comments

As of yesterday (Friday the 13th) Mike and I have officially been married for 5 years.  Five years and 1.5 kids! (Seriously, I’m halfway through my pregnancy now, so I’m counting the new kid as the .5.)

Celebrations were low key this year as Anna and I are both getting over a cold and we had a lot of preparations to do for the indoor garage sale in our community that took place today.

However, I did roll out my wedding vows and bake my beloved a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting for our anniversary.  The proof is in the picture:

Anniversary Cake

Mike took the day off and we headed to the Museum of Nature and Science where Anna had a grand time looking at all the animals (she doesn’t know they’re stuffed) and playing in the toddler Discovery Zone. And then we all went home and took a nap…

All in all it was a nice day where I appreciated all the more what a wonderful husband I have – Mike is as always kind, generous, thoughtful and he makes me laugh every day.  Happy 5 years to us!

Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival

Monday, November 9th, 2009 | The Daily Special | 2 Comments

Sunday (yesterday), I attended the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival.  The Festival is an annual event that lasts for three days and is always in early November.  All of the films featured have either been produced or directed by women and most are documentaries.  The Festival has been going on for many years and I have attended in years past, but have not gone since 2006.  It was a great treat to be able to go this year.  Each day there are different movies, and some people (not me) attend all three days – and honestly that’s way too much sitting on my butt for me, but more power to them!

I always come away from the festival having learned lots, cried some and enjoyed myself immensely; this year was no different. Films are shown all day (with breaks about every two hours and for lunch) and in two separate theaters.  Different movies are played in each theater so you have a range of choices of films to see at each time slot.

This year I chose to see the following (this is the order in which I saw them):

Plastic: This was a charming 8 minute short about a girl (Anna) preparing for a date with a man (Henry) she has not seen for a while.  She struggles with her outfits, her jewelry, etc. and then discovers that she has (of course!) a zit on her nose.  In her frustration Anna presses her hands against her forehead and realizes that she can mold her body any way she likes.  So she does what we all would do and does a little body work; some things get pushed in, some shoved up, some lengthened, etc… It was lovely and heart-warming to see what finally showed up at the door when Henry arrived.

Bake Shop Ghost: Another charming short starring Kathryn Joosten (whom I loved as Mrs. Landingham on West Wing) and Marianne Jean-Baptiste.  Joosten plays a bake shop owner in a small town who haunts a succession of people who try to take over the shop after her death.  It was a sweet and amusing film that I will remember for a long time.

Daughters of Gardeners: A documentary about the causes, prevalence and affects of female infanticide in India.  The film was well done, explained the many reasons of why the aborting or killing of girls is so rampant in India, and explored the high crime rate, sex and human trafficking and bachelorhood problems that India faces because of this problem.  I’m definitely glad I saw the film, but was horrified by the opening scenes of dead baby girls floating in a river.  I found it frankly unnecessary and upsetting (worse because I am pregnant and the mother of a daughter).  The rest of the film was a great learning experience but I don’t think that those pictures were imperative to getting the point across.

Flying Lessons: A short film starring Dana Delaney about the struggles of a single mom with a teenage son who is autistic.  The film was informative and heart-breaking.  I was hoping for a happier ending, but I realized after thinking about it that the ending was as happy as it could be for the subject matter.

Sin by Silence:  This film was by far the most moving experience of the day.  In it you meet women in the California prison system who are members of Convicted Women Against Abuse (CWAA).  All of the women that are profiled have been in prison for many years, most sentenced to life in prison, for killing their abusers.  The stories of the abuse that they suffered are horrific and heart-rending.  All were convicted in the 1980’s when the courts would not allow testimony or evidence of previous abuse and the “Battered Woman’s Syndrome” was not admissible.  The center of the film focuses on a woman named Brenda, in jail since 1985, who killed her abusive husband.  During one 6 month period of their marriage there were 42 domestic violence calls from their home and Brenda endured multiple visits to the emergency room.  One night in prison, after learning that her son, whom she had to give up for adoption when she entered prison, was killed in a car accident, Brenda decided to either commit suicide or start a group for abused women.  Fortunately, Brenda started CWAA and has gone on to help many women, both inside and outside of prison, as well as change many laws regarding abuse testimony in court.  Spoiler alert!  One day in 2002, Brenda received a letter from her son, whose adoptive parents had lied about his death (this was the part where I really cried).  The following week Brenda was contacted by some attorneys who had determined that, in large part owing to the laws that Brenda helped to get passed in California, Brenda could be re-tried with the abuse evidence allowed.  Long story short, Brenda was released from prison and reunited with her son in 2008.  The best part of going to the Film Festival is that some filmmakers attend and answer questions after the film.  Olivia Klaus, the filmmaker of Sin by Silence, attended the festival and was met with rousing applause and a standing ovation when she came to the stage to answer our questions.  But, to our even greater surprise, Brenda appeared upon stage soon afterwards, to even greater applause and a longer standing ovation.  It was such a moving experience that even now it sends chills up my spine!

After a nice lunch break (which was highly needed after such a morning), we returned to the film festival for more films…

A’Mare: This was a short film about two young brothers who go fishing far out to sea and catch a drowning man instead of a fish.  It was okay, but really didn’t belong in the festival and I think it was mostly filler…

Speaking In Tongues: This documentary followed several children, all of different ages, who are all enrolled in language immersion schools in San Francisco.  The film details the best ages for children to learn language (before age 13) and studies how well they do in school.  The kids are all learning different languages, Spanish, Mandarin and Cantonese, and study subjects in both English and their immersion language.  The kids were amazing, bright and all doing at or above their grade levels in all subjects.  The film also covered the opposing “English Only” movement and how this affects America’s competitiveness in a global economy.  It was a great documentary and made me hope that I have the ability and opportunity to enroll my children in such a program.

Blessed is the Match: My film festival day ended with this documentary about the life and death of Hannah Senesh.  Hannah grew up in a middle class Jewish family in Budapest in pre-Nazi Hungary.  Upon the death of her father when Hannah was 6, Hannah began to write poetry and continued to do so throughout her life.  In her teen years antisemitism grew in Hungary and faced with this Hannah’s brother Giorg left to study in France and Hannah applied to agricultural college in the newly established Jewish lands in Palestine (soon to be Israel).  Hannah’s mother was left alone in Hungary to deal with the growing Nazi movement.  Upon realizing what was truly happening in Europe with the rise of Hitler, Hannah volunteered to be part of a rescue mission.  She was one of only 30 Jews from Israel who parachuted into Yugoslavia in an effort to save Jews from the death camps.  Unfortunately, Hannah was caught and I’m sure you can fill in the details of what eventually happened to her at the hands of the Gestapo.  Hannah’s bravery at such a young age (she was 22 when she volunteered), her heroism and her beautiful poetry all made for a moving film during which I was glad to have brought stores of tissues.

Here’s Tuna to You Simon

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 | The Daily Special | 3 Comments

It’s been a hard week here at our house; we all have a cold and our cat Simon died yesterday.

About fourteen years ago my sister adopted a pudgy, shy Simon from the humane society.  He had been in the humane society for a long time, more than month, and his previous owners had cut off his whiskers (why?) and had fed him to the point of weighing 26 lbs.

Simon turned out to be anything but shy and had some great personality quirks.  He loved to flop down on his side and have his tummy rubbed and would do so at the drop of a hat.  We decided that he was perhaps a mix of Siamese and Rag Doll, a breed known for it’s “floppiness”.

Simon was dexterous to the point of being able to open some doors. When he was upset would sometimes open and close a cabinet door until the banging brought someone who might be able to bring him some tuna.  When my sister had an answering machine Simon would sometimes knock the phone off and breathe heavily into the phone when her recorded message would start.  And he loved to sleep on your chest with his paws on your face, and when the alarm would go off, he’d pat you lightly to make sure you turned it off.  Simon was also a talker, always telling you about his day, and making sure you didn’t forget to feed him.

After my sister and I moved in together in 2000, Simon began to show signs of being ill.  My sister had tried desperately to get Simon to drop some weight, with some success, but he was still pretty big at that point.  After multiple visits and tests at the vet it was determined that Simon had feline diabetes.  It was then that our long odyssey with Simon’s health began, with insulin shots twice a day, pills twice a day and special diabetic feline food that was closely regulated.

After my sister married her husband, who is allergic to cats, I took Simon to live with me and maintained his health regime.  He lost weight, and his diabetes was well regulated, even to the point where he went for almost a year without needing insulin shots.

Simon was however, constantly hungry and really noisy about it when he wasn’t eating.  I had to go through three different trash cans until I finally found one that Simon was not able to get into for food.  Once I came home to find that he had gone through the trash, found a Ziploc bag with cheese covered Brussels sprouts in it and had eaten everything but the sprout centers. And I learned after Simon took a cookie off the cookie rack that nothing on the counter was safe either.

We estimated that Simon was about 18 years old this year (we never knew his exact age), and had spent almost 8 years as a diabetic.  Our vet tells me that the average lifespan for most diabetic cats is 3-5 years after their diagnosis, so I felt pretty good about how Simon was doing.  Over the past year however, his ability to maintain his insulin levels was not as it should be.  Simon would often go into hypoglycemic episodes where he was confused, couldn’t see, and was unable to determine where he was; he would get stuck in corners or behind the couch, unable to get himself out.  We tried lowering his insulin dose but Simon’s episodes continued, began to last longer and became more frequent.

I have had enough pets in my life to have seen them suffer and be in pain until their deaths.  It was a hard decision to make, but two weeks ago I decided to put Simon to sleep. I made an appointment and then tried my hardest to spoil him with milk, cheese and little extras that I knew he liked.  I could tell that he was uncomfortable these last few months, as he would jump up on my lap, yowl endlessly, and just stand there and knead me before leaping off again.  This was something my childhood cat, Charlie, did at the end of his life and it was a sign to me that Simon was in as much pain as Charlie was at 21 when he died.

I’m sure some pet lovers will disagree with me for my decision and I am not entirely comfortable with it myself.  But I wanted Simon to have a good life, and he was not living a good cat life for the past few months.  When I am old, unhappy and in a lot of pain, I may wish that someone will do the same for me as I have done for Simon.  I loved him dearly, will miss him always, but could no longer watch him suffer needlessly.

And so it was that yesterday I took Simon to the vet for the very last time.   I held him on my lap while he died, crying the entire time.  I hope that Simon forgives me and knows that what I did was for him.  I hope that there is some sort of cat heaven, where he can eat all of the tuna and cheese he wants and there are always sunny spots.

Simon and Gink sharing the cat bed

Simon and Cash in the sun

Simon flops for Anna

Anna and Simon trying to open the baby gate