Thursday, February 26, 2009

He is now a She

I knew it. I have never had a cat until a couple of years ago when we fostered Sadie, because I’m allergic. After Sadie, we had Melly, who got lymphoma and died only 5 months after we had her at 2 years old. Now, we have Mr. Keaton, a black and white we got as a kitten. Luke’s mom has his sister, Annie.

Or should I say “her.” Because I’ve never had cats, I don’t know how you tell the girls from the guys. Since I’m more of a dog person, I wondered why our cat, whom we were told was a boy, had no “parts.” Luke would never explain it to me, so I Googled, and after looking under Mr. Keaton’s tail and comparing with diagrams, I thought he was in fact a she.

It was a fact that was verified this morning by my husband. Apparently, “Mr.” Keaton, had his tush in the air and was bouncing around like crazy. Much like his sister went through before she got fixed. Apparently, “Mr. Keaton” is in heat. So now we have to find a new name for the cat. And get her fixed. It’s going to be hard to think of him as a girl now, after about 9 months of owning the thing. Well, at least for me. Luke’s been calling him “she” since we got her. I guess the up side of this is I’m no longer outnumbered in the house…there is now more estrogen than testosterone. If you have suggestions for a name, I’d love to hear them!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Huffing and Puffing and Crying

So after a couple years of not seeing each other much between school and my crazy work schedule…Luke and I have started date nights twice a week. Last night was Luke’s night to decide what activity we’d be doing, so we went to see Marley & Me at the dollar theater. I’ve been excited to see this movie because, as you know, I love dogs! Probably more than children and most people. And it was a great movie! …Until the last half hour. Now, I figured, it’s the life story of a family dog, of course the dog is going to die in the end.

Oh. My. God. I have never cried so much at a movie in my whole life. Typically with animal deaths, i.e. Old Yeller, they pan off when the animal dies or make it very euphemistic. Not this one. They showed the dog’s health starting to deteriorate. They showed the owner taking him for his last walk, asking the dog to tell him when he’s ready to go. They show the kids and the wife saying goodbye as the guy drives him to the vet. They show him saying goodbye. They show the ENTIRE euthanasia, including the syringe draining into his IV and his eyes slowly closing. (I’m tearing up just thinking about this!) I was trying SO hard not to just go all out sobbing in the movie theater, and eventually did start sobbing AFTER the movie on the way home. As Luke said, “I don’t remember anything about that movie except that last scene.”

Now, the movie was really good, probably the most true-to-life movie I’ve seen, because they didn’t sugar-coat or exaggerate the complexities of life, love and family. They showed just how couples fight, just how they talk about what they’re going to do next in life. And it was really funny! I totally related to a lot of Marley’s antics with Charlotte and especially Hamlet. (I have one pair of nice heels left thanks to Char’s shoe fetish, one pair I didn’t even get to wear once!) It was a good show, and I highly suggest it, even though it will make you cry buckets. Needless to say, our next date night, which I get to plan, will include much happier activities. I think we’re going to do the night cache in Memory Grove park.

Now, I’ve got three days left before I’ve got to climb to the top of the Wells Fargo Building. I have not been to the gym in 3 weeks. I am going to completely fall over if and when I reach the top. If you’d like to come see said event, you can donate $5 to go to the top and enjoy a little buffet and raffle. Our team climbs at 9:05 in the morning on Saturday. Today, I’m headed to the gym and putting in some major time on that stair machine. I think Friday I’m going to climb the building next door, since you can’t practice climb in our building.

I think I’ll also put my new bike together and get outside, as it’s been unseasonably warm here. I don’t think I’ve ever had a birthday that was above 40 degrees in my 24 years of life. It’s funny…as a kid, getting a bike for your birthday is like the biggest thing in your juvenile life. I don’t think I’ve been on a bike since we lived in Englewood, which was about 12 years ago. Denver was one of the best places to ride, because we lived right next to the Platte river trail, and could ride clear out to Chatfield Dam…a 22 mile round trip. This year, I got a new bike from my parents, and plan to start riding it to work soon. It’d be nice to get back to the point where I could ride 22 miles and feel just a bit gelatinous afterwards in the legs, instead of falling off the bike at mile 10. There’s just so much freedom about a bike that’s not the same with a car. I’ve just realized that I’m probably not going to be able to go back to Tennessee for John’s graduation, as he unfortunately graduates in the middle of May sweeps. So, I’m thinking maybe I could round up the fam for a vacation to Yellowstone at the end of May, or just go with Luke for a weekend and ride our bikes around Yellowstone and finally break in that tent Mom and Dad got for us for our wedding two years ago (still never been out of the box…thank you KUTV for working me on weekends all last summer.)

Exciting exciting times…watch my show (which is officially mine next week) at 9am on KJZZ!!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Tackling the Tower

So one of my goals this year, like most people, is to get healthier. Specifically, I want to greatly reduce my reliance on my inhaler. I’ve had asthma since middle school, and it seems to have gotten worse after I left high school, probably because I don’t play an instrument anymore (lung capacity) and I haven’t been great about regular exercise. So I’ve been busting my butt at the gym all January and now into February to help reach this goal.

I’d been toying of the idea of Tackle the Tower since the beginning of January. I work in the Wells Fargo building, and every year the American Lung Association hosts the Tackle the Tower challenge. You race to the top of the 23 story building…on the stairs. It’s a short race, but anyone that’s climbed a couple flights of stairs and huffs and puffs after reaching the top can imagine it’s not an easy race. I got an email from our chief editor here at the station saying they’ve got a team together that’s going to do it, and I thought, perfect! I can contribute to a condition I know intimately, and get fit from training and the race!

If you’ve never had asthma, let me explain it for you. Think of the red air quality days here in the valley. You feel like you’re constantly congested, right? Can’t quite hack up that crap out of the lungs? Well, imagine that, and then imagine your lungs shrink, and you can’t get the air out, because when you try, your cells in your lungs enlarge. The best way you can try to feel what it’s like is to run around the room, and then try breathing through a straw. And don’t cheat and breathe through your nose! It is the worst feeling not being able to breathe, and anything I can do to help find advancements in treatment for asthma is all the better.

So, I’ve signed up to Tackle the Tower. It happens Saturday, February 28th at the Wells Fargo Building. I do have to raise at least $100 bucks to participate, so if you’d like to contribute, I have a page on the ALA’s website where you can do that…

https://www.mrsnv.com/evt/e01/part.jsp?id=2282&acct=0753069392&rid=0

I’m off to the gym tonight to start training! I’m excited to participate, as I haven’t done something athletically competitive since I played soccer in middle school. Here’s to trying new things and breathing easier!

Thursday, February 5, 2009

A little update

Well, my attempts to create a joint blog failed, but probably for the best :) Now you get to hear my side of life and all the excitement entailed!

I'm finally getting my own show to produce that will be exclusively mine! Starting in March, I will be solely responsible for the KJZZ News at 9am show on KJZZ 14. It's a bit of a fluffy show, lots of guests and about 4 minutes of news, but it's really exciting. Like today, we talked about what investments you need to claim on your taxes, funny Valentine's Cards for Singles Awareness Day, and learned how to organize jewelry using ice cube trays! Handy, right? And those Valentine's cards...nothing says "I Love You" like a card decorated with dead flowers that reads..."Don't you go dying on me!" Very clever, you can out these cards at www.crowellgreetings.com.

So I'm staring down the barrel of another Valentine's Day, the 5th of my coupled life. I'm also staring at a very empty purse (bastard thieves!) and wondering, "what do I get the love of my life on this special day to tell him how I feel, without dropping several hundred on a Wii system that will no doubt frustrate me later?" I was awesome and did Christmas on an extreme budget this year, so I feel I can pull off one little gift on this slightly-less major holiday as well. Thriftiness seems to be the theme of 2009, right? It's really too bad guys generally do not like flowers. And mine doesn't like cake, and we are on a diet. Hmmm...I'm going to have to take the week to think on it.

In the mean time, we work on finishing the wedding scrapbook this weekend, unpacking the rest of the house, and catching up on laundry. Sounds fun, right? Well, maybe I'll throw some geocaching in there. I do have some geocoins I need to drop. We'll see what the weather is like. If you want to come, let me know! If you don't know what geocaching is, go to www.geocaching.com to check it out! I don't know a single person who wouldn't enjoy this sport.