No, YOU have a Happy St. Patrick's Day

I haven't been to the dentist lately. I want to go. There's one in town who (through his billboards) promises to give me shiny white teeth and yellow lustrous hair. I want both. But I'm holding back because I'm being harassed about an unsettled dental bill from April of 2007. I promise I did have insurance. The claim has been denied approximately 8 + times. I was introduced to this fun bill last December; a year and a half after our teeth were cleaned. It could be that our claim was processed as Nathan and Liz Harrison. For the last couple of months, I have received a bill approximately every two weeks. This last one is my favorite; you know, I feel like Maggie and I are friends now. She wants me to have a happy St. Patrick's Day. Thanks, Maggie.

Please click on picture to view larger image. Please.

My Stormy Valentine

If you think my title is dumb, I'll agree with you. It was the theme/title of the international cat show Nate and I visited on Valentime's Day. It wasn't a stormy day, so I'm wondering if it is supposed to be referencing the complex dispositions of cats, thereby only letting a choice few in on the clever title? You tell me; we just went to the show.

To start the weekend off right, I got myself an allergy induced cold. I'm now averaging one every 2 months, so I'm an expert in colds and cold management. Saturday morning I canceled my trip to the YMCA for running and yoga (try doing yoga with a head cold). I did the next best thing and stayed in bed and watched Gilmore Girls until about noon. Nate was at a baptism, so he was spared. He arrived home around 12:30 with some Valentime treats for me as well as a call to action. It was time for me to change out of my pajamas. Fine. Soon we were out the door and on our way to the cat show. Thanks to Google maps, we were once again routed across the wrong part of town, but eventually made our way to the cat filled rec center. $3 is a small price to pay for such entertainment, and we gladly forked over the cash.

One of the judges with a kitty stuffed in his vest

One of the leopardy kitties being judged

Sometimes I would rather avoid a large crowd, but a convention of any type carries a special "Star Trek"-like quality, so it was worth it on Saturday. Included in the show were booths of cat products, cats in waiting, and cats being judged in the rings. I honestly imagined herds of well trained cats being paraded around a large ring...the stations of cages brought me back to a more realistic situation. Nate and I visited most of the stations and stopped for a bit to watch some of the kitty inspection. To further my theory of Star-Trekkieness, here is an excerpt of a conversation we overheard:
cat owner: "we want to know if she'll come in red or cream."

cat judge: "what were her parents."

cat owner: "one was blue, the other was a flame; I mean red. She was red."

cat judge: (silent, but kept looking over the fluffy cat in question)

Turns out, it was just a conversation on the cat's coloring, but...flame? I was getting hungry enough to consider cat show nachos; Nate took that as a sign that we should leave, so we made our last rounds to see some leopard kitties and buy a furry mouse for our girls at home and we were out.

Tiny cat that was casting a spell on the audience

As we left, we discussed our own cats' chances in competition. The conversation wasn't long because they wouldn't hack it and we don't own enough animal print clothing/cat sweatshirts to fit in. Maybe next year.

Nate judging in the "cats that cost $25 from the Humane Society" division

Liz judging in the "these cats are too overweight too win anything else" division

Duplex Fever

It's February (not Febuary; Nate would like to clarify) already. And while weather.com says our current temp is 12 degrees, the sky is perfectly blue and the sun is out. The sun is a victory; however, it's still not warm enough to melt the ice on our road (causing me to very nearly hit a tree this afternoon-it was almost funny and expensive). This permachill gives us very few entertainment destinations including the following: Costco, the mall, the YMCA...and Wal*Mart if desperate. Otherwise Nate, the kitties and I are stuck indoors. In order to counter the effects of duplex fever, some goals have been made (some individual and some collective) to pass the time until Ohio defrosts...in May.

-I enrolled in yoga again; it's very relaxing and I've missed watching an 80 yr old man prove how much more flexible he is than I am.

-Nate and I make an effort to work out in some form most nights. Most of the time, that means time at the YMCA; Nate throws out sports lingo every now and again to fit in with the menfolk. In the same vein, I'm planning on a half-marathon in June. The race finishes in Notre Dame stadium; if that isn't enough motivation to finish, I'm sure there will at least be a bag of goodies with my name on it waiting for me.

-I've been expanding my (waning) Toledo music collection. Circuit City has been having their last hurrah sale here so on Saturday Nate and I stopped by to give them a nice send off. While milling about the store, we were favored with 90s hits, including an unedited version of "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails. If you don't know the song, don't look it up. Even the "clean" version is gross and I was ready for a shower by the time the song was over. Up until that point I was feeling sorry for the employees who would be jobless soon. I'm glad they found a way to express their 90s angst about the situation.

-We've been trying to eat a bit more healthy. We went to Subway for lunch last Saturday. "Heather"* didn't seem to care that we were a) trying to eat healthy b) customers. I was tempted to throw my sandwich back at her...that would've been fewer calories.
*sandwich artist, or