9.21.2009

Tiger's Big Adventure

So last Wednesday morning, sitting on my laptop doing something on WoW with Josh once he got home from work, Tiger was sitting in the window behind me, grabbing at my hair and bopping me on the head with her claws. I had Josh throw her out into the other room and close the bedroom door, as we tend to do when she's being obnoxious. A little while later, after 530am, we hear a lot of banging around, which sounds like it's coming from the balcony above the window in our living room. I figured maybe the neighbor above us was rearranging balcony furniture before they left for work or something, so didn't think much of it.

About 20 minutes later, Josh leaves the bedroom to get a drink and notices his chess set is all knocked over. Yelling about the cat messing up his stuff, I tell him to find her, show her what she did wrong and then put her in the cat carrier. He informs me she's gone. "What do you mean she's gone?" "Gone... as in, she broke through the window screen and is gone."

We got shoes on and ran outside trying to find her, but it was too dark. I couldn't sleep and spent all morning looking up lost pet info online. I slept out on the living room couch too, as they said to keep the exit point clear and stay near it, in case they return. We went out searching some more that afternoon, then after dinner and before Josh left for work. I went out around midnight on my own and drove around our neighborhood - they said indoor cats that get out don't tend to go too far from home, within a 2 block radius. We did this again on Thursday - going out several times during day-light, then again at night. We tried using tuna to lure her, as well as her ball toys too. We hung flyers around our area on Thursday and I went to the animal shelter as well, but no luck.

At one point we thought we might have seen her - as we went out once before Josh went to work and saw a cat that wasn't black but wasn't light coming out of a bush. We called to it and tried to lure it with tuna, but it took off running when we tried to get close and we couldn't find where it went.

On Friday, I decided I was going to thoroughly take the time and poke through every bush, brush and other small place a cat could hide. I visited a website on the pamphlet the animal shelter gave me that described several types of indoor cats that get out, and the one that fit Tiger best stated she was probably hiding nearby, scared. They say often when an indoor cat gets out, they'll freak once they realize they aren't in their territory anymore, and even tho home might be nearby, they'll stay hidden and won't respond to anything - their owner, favorite food, favorite toy... nothing. If they get the courage to come out for food, they will only do so at night and then retreat to their hiding spot.

I went out our building's back door and started poking along the back of the building and property. I got over to the planted area near the garage and dumpster, poked in a bushy plant and out ran a cat - grey with a black tipped tail with rings around it and black stripes all over - it was Tiger! She went running behind the garage. I called Josh to get out there, as I was going to need his help in catching her. He stayed where I was standing and I went around the other side of the garage, to try and head her off, as the only other way out was to climb the fence behind the garage. She was crouched down in the leaves and fallen branches, hiding, but Josh spotted her and talked me to her, as I couldn't see her from my angle. I got close enough to her, held my hand out so she could sniff me. She looked at me and gave a scared little cry. I picked her up, but everytime I stepped on a leave or branch, she'd squirm and try to get out of my grip. I handed her over to Josh, as she doesn't squirm nearly as much when he's got her. She was missing her collar though.

We took her inside - her eyes got real big when she saw 'home' - she knew where she was. We gave her a bath right away, which she didn't like at all! She looked really skinny too - probably hadn't eaten since before she ran off. We dried her off then let her eat some tuna, cat food and water. When she wasn't chowing down, she spent the rest of the day sleeping. She seems uninjured and okay though. We'll know in a few weeks if she's pregnant or not though.

I got a call on Saturday from one of the neighbors saying they found her collar. I went over to get it - it was right next door, one of the main properties we had been searching for her. The lady said they found it on one of their wood piles, where the grass had been matted down a bit. She said her cat and dog had picked up a scent there as well.

I asked her about the black kitty we see coming from their yard all the time - the one that stops by our windows and 'plays' with Tiger through the window (they follow each other back and forth along the window and then take turns banging on the window - he's the only stray that comes by that Tiger doesn't puff herself out and hiss at). She said he's a stray - the people that lived in a nearby house used to leave food and water out for the strays regularly and when they moved, people found like 15 strays living under the porch, including the black kitty. The lady said he used to get in fights with her cat and dog though so she started bringing them inside, but he still comes up to their door all the time. He just wants love and a home. She said she took him to get fixed, so he wouldn't get all the neighborhood strays pregnant, and that she's tried putting ads in the paper 3 different times finding a family for him, but with no luck.

I'd take him in if i could, but our place is too small for another pet. Maybe if we get a house, we can take him with, since Tiger seems to like him, but we'll see.

9.15.2009

Harry Potter theme park opening soon!

I can't wait for future visits to Florida now!




It is officially OFFICIAL! Warner Bros. has teamed up with Universal Studios in order to create a Harry Potter “Theme Park within a Theme Park”. It is scheduled to open in 2010. The Harry Potter theme park will open around the same time as the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movie. This 20 acre theme park located in Orlando, Florida will enable visitors to experience scenes from the books and movies. And on that note, fans will definitely be glad to hear that construction for the Harry Potter theme park has begun! The 20 acres of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter are getting closer and closer - and now 2 years seems to be too long! Complete with the Hogwarts Castle, the village of Hogsmeade, and probably many other attractions, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter , which will be built in the Islands of Adventure, will not be a disappointment to most fans.

9.12.2009

Keep your stuff safe or burglars could rob you badly!

In light of a few people getting their stuff jacked this week, here's a few 'warning' stories that my boss was forwarded to by a friend of theirs and they showed it to me.

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Story 1 (which has been deemed by Snopes as being partly true)

A couple of weeks ago a friend told me that someone she knew had their car broken into while they were at a football match. Their car was parked on the green which was adjacent to the football stadium and specially allotted to football fans.
Things stolen from the car included a garage door remote control, some money and a GPS which had been prominently mounted on the dashboard.
When the victims got home, they found that their house had been ransacked and just about everything worth anything had been stolen.
The thieves had used the GPS to guide them to the house. They then used the garage remote control to open the garage door and gain entry to the house.
The thieves knew the owners were at the football game, they knew what time the game was scheduled to finish and so they knew how much time they had to clean up the house.
It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the house of its contents.

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Story 2 (which has been deemed by Snopes as being a legend, but it's still possible)

This lady has changed her habit on the hand phone after her handbag was stolen. Her handbag which contained her mobile, credit card, purse... Etc....was stolen.
20 mins later when she called her hubby, telling him what happened. Husband says "I've just received your SMS asking about your Pin number. And I've replied a little while ago".
When they rushed down to the bank. Bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn.
The pickpocket had actually used the stolen handphone to sms "hubby" in the contact list and get hold of the pin number. Within 20 mins he had withdrawn all the money from the bank account.

Morale of the lesson:
Do not disclose the relationship between you and the people in your contact list. Avoid using names like Home, Honey, Hubby, sweetheart, Dad, Mum etc....and very importantly, when sensitive info is being asked thru SMS, CONFIRM by calling back.

9.11.2009

9/11 - 8 Years later

Flipping through this photo gallery, I started to tear up.

I remember, 8 years ago today, when it happened. It was senior year of high school, just after 'zero' hour band practice. Luke and I were hanging out in the commons after band, waiting for Paige to get there, since they hadn't let us into the hallways yet. The big screen was on, but we weren't really paying any attention to it, we were hanging out by the pop machines, talking about the football decorations the cheerleaders had made.

Kirk came over to us and asked if we had saw what was going on on the tv, we hadn't, so we went over towards the tv and saw.

I was taking RVC classes my first 2 periods that semester and they didn't meet on certain days of the week, this day being one of them, so I went home for the 2 hour break (all the radio stations were broadcasting newsfeeds - seniors had open campus privileges that year, so we could leave when we had no classes going on) and watched the news with my mom while trying to take a nap. I woke up right before the 2nd tower collapsed.

When I went back to school, all we did in each class was watch the news on the tv's in each classroom.

I remember after school, I got home and my parents had me help them take all the cars over to the nearest gas station to fill up our tanks - right after we started filling up, a ton of other cars showed up, doing the same thing.

I was working for Millward Brown back then and got a call that I had that night off work, obviously. When they did have us go back in, they told us they tried to take out of the system as many of the New York and surrounding area numbers that they could, but if we did happen to get a number or a person who was affected personally, to apologize and not press the call. For all others, we had a new intro, regarding 9-11 that we had to say for the following days/weeks.

Every since that day, my parents started watching Fox News constantly... I recall that was the only thing on the family room tv for months.

I just want to thank all our troops who have been fighting for our country, all the ones that have been over fighting this war on terriorism or will be in the near future.

I personally know a handful of people who have served and enlisted in the different various branches of our military: my cousins in the Army and Navy, my 2nd cousin-in-law in the Army, various friends in the army and Air Force, as well as friend's dad who is also in the Army. I also had many classmates in college who had enlisted in the military, awaiting deployment, or working hard as part of ROTC and later went on to serve our country overseas.

THANK YOU ALL for all you've done for our great nation!

9.10.2009

Food for Thought

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook and I thought it was quite interesting.

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."
- Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931

9.08.2009

My epic birthday weekend and then some

My 25th birthday was like a week ago, it went pretty well.

Come Friday, I hadn't heard anything from anyone confirming they'd be coming out with us and the ones that did earlier had to cancel, so Josh and I just did our own thing. We went to Chili's and got their 2 for $20 deal, which is better than Applebee's because it includes dessert. I had 1 Long Island too and wow was it strong! I was feeling tipsy after just a few sips, before our food even came! After dinner we walked around Target to kill time - Josh bought me a new purse for my birthday, since the one I had was on the verge of falling apart. We went and saw District 9 - it was pretty good!

Saturday we got up and drove to Chicago to meet Brooke and go to the last ever NiN show in Chicago. We waited in line for about 2 hours too and Josh and I were able to get good seats up in the balcony - I figured after the Disturbed show last winter where I nearly got trampled I was going to take this one easy and just enjoy it, especially since it was a sold-out show and the pit/front was more than likely going to be brutal. Mew, a foreign band from Denmark was the opening act... they played for maybe 30 minutes. They were interesting, to say the least, although Josh couldn't seem to comprehend how a guy could hit those high notes and still have his balls, lol... Trent Reznor and his band came out about 30 minutes earlier than scheduled and rocked a 30-song set for about 2 hours. I took a lot of photos and Josh got some video of Survivalism - because this was the final Nine Inch Nails tour, the venues gave permission for fans to bring cameras and stuff in to capture it. They did a lot of songs off of The Downward Spiral, and they did Right Where It Belongs, which I guess was a rare treat, as it's one of the songs Trent never does live. My only disappointment was that we didn't get to hear Closer - they played it for the Friday night show, but not for the Saturday show... I guess they almost canceled the show also - Trent woke up sick that morning and was sleeping it off all day during the set up and rehearsals... you could see him running back for water after nearly every song too. It was a really good show though! I'm glad I got to go!

Sunday we went over to my parents house for a birthday BBQ. My aunt, uncle and cousin came over, as did my in-laws, 2 of my brother-in-laws and my little sister-in-law. It was a fun time - we spent most of the day over there.

Josh's friend Gryn came up a couple weeks ago - we went out dinner and saw Inglourious Basterds. That was a really good movie! I liked it!

Jeny was in the area this past weekend. We drove out to Carol Stream on Friday to meet up with her, her bf Tim, and her friend Kim and drove over to Naperville to eat at Lou Malnati's, where they have really good Chicago deep-dish pizza. We went to a few bars for drinks after dinner, played pool for a bit at one until it got too crowded and you couldn't use the pool cues cuz there were too many people - Josh and Tim were making fun of the Cougars who were there, which was pretty amusing, while we all agreed that we didn't look skanky or trend enough to fit in at a Naperville bar (most of Naperville is full of yuppies). We couldn't find a bar that was more 'us' and so we all went back to Kim's place for a bit and played a few games and watched Family Guy til Josh and I had to leave. It was a fun night though and I'm glad I got to see Jeny again - I haven't seen her since like May.

Here's a few NiN photos:


First: Trent Reznor; Second: Trent Reznor and Peter Murphy (of Bauhaus) performing "Reptile"