Tuesday's Teaser

I listen to almost as many audiobooks as I read books, so some of these will not have page numbers!

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

White Night by Jim Butcher - the 9th of the Dresden Files.

Page 169

I lifted my face and the blasting rod to the sky, opened my throat and in a stentorian bellow shouted, "Fuego!" Fire exploded from the tip of the blasting rod, a column of white-hot flame as thick as my hips.

Where in the World Wednesday

In the spirit of St. Patrick's Day, here is a picture of Ireland. I very much want to visit Ireland and already have my vacation planned out!

This is Clonmacnoise, in county Offaly.

Raccoon Rescue

Well, I was a little busy last week rescuing one of the raccoons that comes to my backyard to eat. On Friday night, I'd noticed that she was limping very badly; she could hardly walk and at one point she curled up next to the food bowl and for a bit I thought she had died or was dying. But about an hour later I checked again and she was eating and then limped off. I borrowed a trap from NBCR and on Sunday night I stayed up all night hoping to catch her, but the only ones that showed up were a larger raccoon and the opossum. So I went to bed at 6AM and got up at 11 to try and find a vet that would treat her and a rehabilitator to care for her. I made calls most of the day but none of the rehabilitators returned my call. The vet I found was leaving at noon on Tuesday taking his kids somewhere for Spring Break. So I had a very narrow window in which I could get her treated. So Monday night I stayed up again and finally caught her about 4:30AM. I worried that the other raccoon or opossum would try and hurt her - she was almost too big for the trap and couldn't move - so I fretted about what to do. I finally decided to sleep on the couch with the window open so I could hear if anything went amiss. So after 2 and a half hours of sleep, I was up taking her to the vet. Besides a dislocated front paw, she had numerous wounds; she'd been attacked by something. The Doc cleaned her up, but couldn't put a splint on because in his experience, the wild animals do not tolerate splints like cats and dogs. The next problem in my raccoon rescue saga was that the vet had put her in a larger cage (the trap was too small to keep her in) and it would not fit in my car. So I had to wait until 4:30PM to call my friend Ruth - she works nights and is up by 4:30 - to see if she could help me out with her SUV. We made it to the vet with about a minute to spare before they closed, but finally got her home. She stayed in the garage until Wednesday when I could take her to the rehabilitator, luckily she fit in the other car. So she is recovering with a licensed rehabilitator and in a couple of weeks he will call me and we will release her back into our greenbelt. So here is a picture I took of her Sunday night, eating on the back porch, with Newman watching through the glass in the door.

Friday's Feature

Formula 1 season has started!!!!

Formula 1 is back! Today was the first practice session for the first Grand Prix of the season in Bahrain. New rules, the biggest change is the refueling ban, new drivers - Bruno Senna, Lucas di Grassi, Nico Hulkenberg, Vitaly Petrov and Karun Chandhok, comeback drivers - Michael Schumacher and Pedro de la Rosa and new teams - Lotus F1 Racing (not related to *the* Lotus team in any way but sharing the name), Campos Meta, Virgin Racing, BMW Sauber and HRT. Montreal and Spa are back on the calendar and the Korean GP at Yeongam is on the calendar, pending approval. It will be an interesting year!

Thursday's Thoughts - follow up

I know, I know, it's Friday, but I had to add another picture to yesterday's blog...last night I checked the wildlife cams again and saw...wildebeest and ELEPHANTS!!!!!!

Thursday's Thoughts

I've been checking the African wildlife webcams hoping to see wild animals with no luck until last night and this morning. I wonder what changed, if anything.

The Orpen cam is in NE South Africa, close to the Mozambique border in Kuger National Park.

The Nossob cam is in the Kgaiagadi Transfrontier National Park in the Northern tip of South Africa inches from the border with Botswana.

The Satara cam is not far from the Orpen cam in NE South Africa, close to the Mozambique border in Kuger National Park.

Where in the World Wednesday

Where in the World Wednesday has come again. This week it is Aachen, Germany. One of my favorite pictures from our trip to Europe in 2006. The stained glass in this cathedral takes my breath away every time. For a size perspective, check out the person standing at the very bottom of the picture in the back, middle of the picture, near the second of the gold reliquaries. He puts this into a whole new perspective, doesn't he?

Thursday's Thoughts

Today is Thursday, and I am supposed to have profound thoughts to share today, but between being sick and the allergy meds I'm taking, my thoughts are on the level of "See Spot run." So I'm going to share pictures of my kitties.

BB is our oldest cat - he's a curmudgeon. He's diabetic and we are the only people who see him because he is afraid of everyone else. We found him in Round Rock, TX.

Nala is our New Mexico kitty; she wandered into my Mom's and she stole Johnny's heart the first time he met her. She's a Maine Coon Cat and is huge. She and BB both weigh 17 pounds, but with all of Nala's fur, she looks bigger. She is very vocal and can be playful.

Newman is our middle child. At 7 years old, he is technically a senior, but he thinks he is a kitten. We found him at our apartment in Plano; we think he'd been abandoned by people who had moved out. He just walked up to me one day and followed my to the door. He has abandonment issues and when we leave or go to bed, he will carry a toy around in his mouth and cry. He is our puppy-cat; he used to play fetch (and bring the ball back), he is a lap kitty and unlike other cats, he wags his tail when he's happy.

PJ is our girly girl. She is the only cat we didn't get as a stray/rescue. She was a souvenir from a trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas. We were shopping for postcards and found a store that had cat items and had to go in. She was 8 weeks old and soooooo cute. She reached out of the cage and tried to grab Johnny's glasses. That sealed the deal. She is a tuxedo kitty and we said that she was a white kitty who was trying to dress like our black boys (Newman and BB), but the costume didn't fit, so we named her Petit Jean after a local legend about a woman who dressed as a cabin boy to come exploring in America.

Here's where it gets interesting, Tiger is the next kitty we got, but not the next in age. After Boo Boo died (liver cancer), we were going to *not* get another cat, and keep the cat count down to 4. But then Johnny's mom called...there was a kitten (about 4 months old) that was found at the hospital where she worked and needed a home. I'd planned on giving this kitty to friends who'd just lost their older cat. But when I picked him up and he started purring in my ear, I was hooked. He's still the baby of the house.

The aforementioned friends asked us to go to a rescue shelter with them to pick out their new cats. I knew this would be a mistake, but we went anyway. Sure enough, there were 2 black kittens (about 4 months old) that were afraid of everything and everyone. Black, scaredy kitties have a special place in our hearts, but we were good and didn't take them home with us. I, however, did go to the website and check on them daily. About 6 weeks later, I got a call from Johnny - he'd been listening to PNR and there was a piece about people taking care of those that can't take care of themselves and decided that we could handle 2 more cats. So I drove to Operation Kindness and picked up Jupiter and Neptune, without going into the kitty room - I didn't want to see any others!!! They hid under the bed for weeks. Neptune was the first one to venture out when we were in the room and after another week or so, he would let us pet him. He is so loving and happy to see us. Jupiter took several more weeks before he would show himself; he still had his collar on so we could hear the jingle, jingle under the bed. He will now let us pet him most of the time, but that is all. We still can't pick him up - it's been 2 and a half years. Be he does look so happy when he does let us pet him.

Neptune and Jupiter

Then I started volunteering for New Beginnings Cat Rescue and we decided to foster - yes, you guessed it - a scaredy black kitty. While in the cage at PetSmart, he would pull the bed on top of himself so you couldn't see him. Who is going to adopt him when they don't even know he's there? So we thought that we could foster him and maybe Tiger and our Planetary Brothers would help socialize him. That lasted for a week and then he was ours. Since he is smaller than Neptune and Jupiter, we named him Pluto. Needless to say, we don't foster any more.

So as the TV show said, "8 is Enough"!

Where in the World Wednesday

My allergies are making me miserable. We took a walk in a neighborhood park last weekend and I didn't check the pollen count beforehand. What a mistake. So today's "Where in the World..." is from Los Alamos, where we lived for a time. "Why?", you might ask. Because it is the one place I've lived where I had no allergies. :)

This statue is located at the park in the middle of town with Ashley Pond and in the fall is quite pretty.

Tuesday's Teaser

I listen to almost as many audiobooks as I read books, so some of these will not have page numbers!

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

About 4:45 into CD 4

Ferguson and Harry wore flak jackets and each had an AK to hand. There was a chart open on the table showing the general approach to Drumore.

Monday's Mutterings

I was unaware of the pollen count yesterday until I started developing a sore throat due to all the sinus drainage; when I checked out the pollen count, the elm is high and the juniper (cedar for the Tx folks) is moderate. I should have checked it out before spending time outside. Arg! I spent the night not being able to breath well (I should have slept in the recliner.) and this morning I have a wickedly sore throat. Why is it I live in Texas? I think there are a total of 3 weeks a year that there isn't something blooming that I'm allergic to.