Where's Bernie?

I have been blogging here just to account for dates and facts to help me remember better.
And also trying to calm my nerves.

Thank you Suzie !

Remember our wonderful groomer who so graciously rescued us and a sticky cat and did not want to accept our money?

Well, I ordered a print from this lady in Canada and it came in the mail today! I'll get it framed and will give it to the wonderful groomer this week.

When paths cross for a reason

I find out on Thursday that our two managers from China and South Africa are in town for two weeks. I was told that the manager from China has been food-challenged all week and is just dying for some good authentic Chinese food. So far, she's been getting only Americanized Chinese food here. With some encouragement from Jason, I emailed her and told her that Jason and I will be happy to take them to our favorite Chinese restaurant on Saturday.
I immediately got a happy and relieved call back from her.

So we picked them up from the hotel today and brought them to Tin Tin Buffet.

After lunch, we brought them shopping at the mall because the Johannesburg colleague wanted to buy some Nike shoes and clothes for her daughter and mom.
We then took them back to their hotel.

I've always enjoyed meeting people from different cultures. It's like getting a glimpse of a country you've never been before and also puts another place to visit on my list.

I think we may have done a good deed today because we found out they were practically stuck in the hotel with no transport of their own. The other manager who is staying at the same hotel had gone home to Atlanta for the weekend leaving these two foreigners to fend for themselves. There is practically nowhere to eat or go around the hotel if you do not have a car.
In Charlotte, you will not find a taxi or a bus easily.

They are super nice and Jason and I are super pleased to have been able to make their stay a little more pleasant.

Trouble gets into trouble again

We have been struggling to keep fruit flies out of the house this summer. They seem to like congregating around Trouble's food bowl and it's been really annoying. To him and to us. I've placed two bowls of apple cider vinegar and managed to trap a few fruit flies but the problem still persisted. We finally bought a sticky indoor fly trap and that did the trick. Bye bye fruit flies.

Then....

We came home pretty late last night and saw that the cat food bowl was upside down and across the hallway and the metal stand was flung in another direction. That's pretty unusual. Looks like something only an angry or distressed cat will do.
And then we noticed the missing sticky indoor fly trap.

Oh shucks.

So we find the cat, and true enough, that trap was stuck to his back side and tail and he was one unhappy cat. It was a struggle just pulling that thing off from him. Being a long haired cat, it was a total mess. He had like two dozen dead fruit flies stuck to his fur, and it was a total sticky mess.

We put him in the bathtub, put on our latex gloves, got a bottle of cleaning alcohol and cooking oil and a rag and tried washing the stickiness off. Did not work. We threw him in the shower, washed him off with shampoo. Did not work.

It left us with a terribly annoyed and pissed off cat.

Jason called the groomer (it was almost midnite now) and left her a message telling her we have a crisis.

This afternoon, the very nice groomer called and told us to bring Trouble in. She told me to stay and help her hold him down while she clipped his hair to get the sticky mess off.
It was tough. Trouble was hissing and he had his fangs out all the time, yelling and cursing us.

After the ordeal, the very nice groomer sent us home and did not want to accept our money.
She's an angel that groomer.

So we're home now. Trouble is not sticky anymore but he sure looks funny with a patchy haircut.

A refreshing, positive gender image

I asked the husband the other day if he would be willing to help me make some scrubbies. He said No way. I said I'll promise not to tell anyone if he does. He said NO.

Well, I am hoping he'll change his mind after he reads this. :)

The Scrubbies are getting their 5 minutes of fame

Last week, the New York Times contacted me and wanted to feature my scrubbies in their Sunday Styles section. They were going to do a page on hostess gifts and asked if I could Fedex some scrubbies over.
Hell yeah!!!

They are featured this weekend here.

Ok, it's not a big deal. But I am still doing the happy dance!