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I added a new feature to the right side of the page tonight. You can enter your email address and be notified by email when I post a new blog. Coming blogs... my 30th birthday events! Merry Christmas to everyone and have a safe Happy Holiday!

My Space Memories

Joe was looking at his MySpace page last night which we both never ever use anymore. But he found an old blogpost that we were both cracking up about and I told him I would post it today. So here it is...

Written by Joe:

CAT SCRATCH FEVER
One of my favorite Dane Cook sketches is one where he talks about wanting to own an evil monkey that he could battle in his house. I think he literally mentions having a battle of epic porportions with the monkey. I don't have a monkey, but I do have Paws, the evil cat. Yesterday she and I finally had a battle of epic porportions.
Most of you know that Jamie and I have two cats; Cosby who is arguably the coolest cat ever born and then Paws, arguably the worst cat ever born. I have also made it known that I hate this cat . I hate this cat more than I hate terrorism. She pees on my clothes, she chews through cords, she knocks over drinks, she tears up our couches, she is ugly and she has dandruff and she smells bad and she doesn't clean herself and she's fat. I DON'T LIKE PAWS. I love animals and I am kind to animals, but I don't like this animal.
Additionally I fancy myself to be a fairly level-headed bloke. I don't go into steroid rages or yell or anything of the sort. I try to let it all just roll off my back. But nothing on this earth sends me into an angry tirade like finding something new that Paws has pissed on and last night the wheels came off.....
I come home from work and I smell it. I know its somewhere but its faint. The smell, she hides from me like the sirens of the sea. In the foyer? Nope. In the kitchen? Nope. In the living room? Hmmm.....its getting stronger, stronger, there it is. She has peed in this little basket we keep our blankets in. By the smell of it, she has abused this spot on more than one occasion. I snapped, that was it. It was a palpable feeling of something going awry within my mind. I could see now how people get off on the temporary insanity plee b/c I was outside of myself. I started talking to myself "Thats it Paws, you're done now cat. WHERE ARE YOU PAWS? I AM COMIN FOR YOU!!!!" I am storming around my house opening doors and yelling. A virtual whirling dervish if you will.
So I storm to my basement and I create a bunker or bomb shelter in which this cat would reside. A little food, some water and a litter box. Solitary confinement for a feline. I find Paws and we have a showdown not unlike something a linebacker and a running back would do. She jukes to the right, back to the left, under the bike and she makes a break for the door. But alas Paws!!!! I have closed the door and dive on her making a perfect open field tackle. There are a few casualties in the form of scratches but I can deal with it. For now I have slain the dragon and I am pleased. I throw her in the back room and barricade the door as though I had a wolverine back there.
(30 minutes later)
I am on the couch watching the US vs. Canada soccer match. I grabbed myself a little cocktail to help calm myself down from the episode so I am generally feeling a lot better. She's down there crying but I will shed NO TEARS for her as I sit amongst the stench of urine in my living room. But then, who should come sauntering by? Thats right, Paws. She comes walking right by me as though nothing had happened. She looked at me and I may be mistaken but I am fairly certain she winked at me. A cloud of darkness overcame me and I remember nothing more.....
The moments that ensued were nothing short of a wild melee. I go down the stairs to reinforce the bunker and I find Paws and I try to throw her back in there. No sooner do her feet hit the floor than she was right back out. I grab her again, throw her farther in there but she was like a yo-yo! It was surreal. I try to get the second piece of my barricade up and she's on it, 8 feet in there air cussing at me! "F**k you Joe, I'm outta here!!!" I found her 10 minutes later in a closest upstairs. She had climbed into a cat carrier of all things and the cunning beast that she was, she knew she would be hard to spot. After all, a black cat in a black bag in a dark closet isn't like Waldo in a green pasture. So I temporarily threw in the towel and just locked her in the closet until Jamie came home.
(2 hours later)
So Jamie comes home and I filled her in on the bunker situation and where Paws was and such. Together we go down and secure the area with such a mass of doors and kegs and other items that I swear I couldn't get out of there. We go upstairs to get the cat out of the closet, but guess who is standing in the kitchen? Thats right, once again Paws, I mean Houdini, has freed herself from her bondage. Baffling. anyways, I guess Jamie's tactic of talking quietly to her and giving her treats worked a little better than my method of screaming and slamming doors because we eventually got the cat locked back there. But I invite you to come over and see the measures to which we had to go to contain just this one cat. Additionally I have the scratches to prove it.
I hate that cat.

Cornea Cross Linking

Just wanted to update you guys about Joe's eyes. We found out at the end of October when we went for our return visit that he hadn't had too much more corneal deterioration in the span of about 30 days. That gave us a couple weeks to figure out the logistics and he is now scheduled for surgery on December 16th at 9:30am. We will have a follow up the next morning and then he has to go back at different time intervals over the next 2 years to be evaluated since it's a clinical study. He has been in a lot more pain and discomfort over the last 3 weeks, so we are both relieved to finally have it scheduled. He is such a trooper and rarely complains when I know he is in pain. Very atypical of the male gender I would say! Now there is just some anxiety building for Joe as the date gets closer. I mean, who wants to have surgery on their eyes while they are awake?? But his prescription for several doses of anxiety relieving Ativan for surgery day are posted on the fridge and just waiting to be filled!*

Snips by Steph

My sister Stephanie just graduated from the Graham Webb Academy for hair. It's one of the best schools in the MD,VA, and DC area and she is anxious to get her new career started. She is currently looking for a position in a higher end salon. So if you have any contacts please let me know! She would also like to start to build her client list and is happy to travel to your home to do your hair or you can come to her house in Bowie. She can do full color, highlights, lowlights, all kinds of haircuts, perms, blow outs, etc. You name it.. she can do it! Before Steph graduated she and I had both been going to a friend who graduated from Graham Webb. It was really nice to go to the same person for several years who knew my hair, what colors looked good on me, and who I knew actually cared about whether or not I was happy with the results. So now Steph can do that for you! Her email is stephers20@gmail.com and if you would prefer to call her, just send me a message and I will send you her number!

Friends and Trees

Joe and I cut down our first Christmas tree this year.* We went to Friendship Forrest Christmas Tree Farm in Southern Maryland and brought along some friends to help! The farm was 30+ acres and we got lucky with a warm afternoon to enjoy walking some of the fields and scoping out all the trees. Thank goodness we brought Mike and Emily along because cutting down the tree was a lot more work than we realized!**

Picking out the best looking rickshaw to haul out the tree. The guys always seem to turn things into band names and our band name for the day was "Lattes and Rickshaws". We were drinking lattes and using a rickshaw. Makes sense right?

The perfect one! It may be a tad bit plump but I can't stand a skinny tree!

*I did not cut down said Christmas tree. I just jumped in at the last minute and the tree pretty much just fell down. Joe and Mike did all the work.

**Emily was good for company and nice chatting while the guys worked and she was also good at holding all the jackets and latte cups.

Shutterbugs Love Shutterfly!

The Holidays are here!! I look forward to this time of year for many reasons, and one of my favorite things is running out to the mailbox in the afternoon to see if I have received any Christmas cards. The best ones are always Digital Photo Cards where I can see updated pictures of my friends and family that I don't get to see on a regular basis throughout the year.

Some of my favorites have been from http://www.shutterfly.com/.
If you send photo cards and are looking for an easy to navigate photo site, try them out. Here is one of my favorite ones that I am thinking of using for our own card this year. Except I won't use the two cute babies, it will just be me, Joe and Cosby. They also have other types of Holiday cards which are just as cute, especially this one.

And for those of you thinking of planning a surprise for my 30th Birthday this December 23 maybe you could send one of these cute birthday invites!

I hope this inspires you to get online and starting creating memorable Holiday cards. A few years ago, I started keeping a copy of mine in a scrapbook so I would have a catalog of all of the ones I have sent over the years. It's also a nice way to document how our family will eventually grow every year!

Happy Holiday Card Making!

Happy Thanksgiving!

My parents hosted Thanksgiving on ACTUAL Thanksgiving day this year! Having two nurses in the family makes getting together on a holiday a little difficult, so it was a nice treat to celebrate on Thursday. We had the Iskows over for dinner which was double nice to have both of our families together. Mom made a ridiculously yummy dinner and Joe made a cheesecake that changes your life once you have a bite. At least that's what he said was the expectation while making it.

Dad trying out his new hunting tree stand.

I don't think I was meant to hunt. At least not in a tree.

Josh kept the fire going.

Practice engagement shots???

Real Simple makes it real simple to carve your turkey!