Wednesday, July 30, 2008

A salute to kitties!



Well, Ashley came down to pick up the new friend. We were supposed to meet her half-way, but the communication lines became crossed and she ended up all the way in Portland! (So sorry Ashley!). She loves the cat, and knows Wendel will too. Ron and I had both grown attached and were sad to see her go, but we're happy to know she is in a great, loving home! and Wendel will finally get his cuddles, as many as he could want! I hope he names her Felicity, because that name seems to fit. Or, he may have a better name for her in mind. :) As a parting gift, Ron and I gave her a micro-chip identifier, just in case. She's so sweet!

I realized that my new tradition of quotes every post didn't last very long. But, here's a new one, in honor of our furry friends (and I can vouch for its veracity):

"Be nice to [animals]. [They] bring so much joy to so many people!"
-linda bee, about max

Sunday, July 27, 2008

A new friend




Today we were at the temple taking pictures so we could hang one on our wall. We found this great new cat that was SOOOO friendly. She came and jumped on our lap and licked us like she knew us forever. She was a little bitey, too, so that made us think she was hungry. We ran to get some cat food and came back and she was still there. The way she was ravenously devouring the meal we brought for her made us decide that she needed a new home. I remembered hearing that my brother, Wendel, was wanting a cat that would let him cuddle. His wife Ashley has two cats, squeak and kitty, but they don't let wendel have any lap time... I figured this one would fit perfectly -- she lets anyone have lap time! So I'm going to post an ad to make sure no one lost her. I'll probably get her scanned too. But, isn't she cute?

Friday, July 25, 2008

*sigh* ... much better!


OK, it wasn't the drivers at all, but a cable that was loose from the top of the scanner to the base. It didn't know it had a light on top! Any way, the film is coming out much clearer now! I'll put a sampling here, but there will be alot, so maybe I'll create a photo album...

You can see more pictures here: http://super8schultz.blogspot.com/

Super 8 previews

I have "inherited" a big box of Super 8 movies from when me and my siblings were very young. I have undertaken the task of labeling them and shipping them off to be transferred to DVD (Using a high-end service that will literally take a picture of each frame and string them together). I have several reels (14 to be exact) that are not labeled whatsoever. So, I'm trying to use my scanner to get a sneak peak. However, my scanner isn't working right because I just got a new computer with Vista installed (Stupid OS!) and I didn't have the driver disk so I had to download the drivers/utilities from Epson and for some reason the "film" option is disabled so now I have to go find the disk so I can scan in film without having to treat it like a photo (which is why the image to the left is so grainy and dirty....). Anyway, I thought I would share the previews. Maybe some of the family can help me shed some light on who/when they are.... I think this one is Wayne in a pool or puddle out back because mom is holding a baby that I think must be Meagan or Britney? Hard to tell....

Anyway, when I get more scans in (after I find that dang disk!) I will post more. It might be fun! :)

And, don't worry, the guy transferring these to DVD will clean them first, and has special equipment to take care of very brittle film. (This has been stored in the Arizona heat for upwards of 30 years.... I'm amazed I can still unravel it).

Monday, July 21, 2008

Meet the Cats

Adrianne (left) and Anna (right) are the softest, furriest cats I've seen in a long time. How do I tell them apart? Everyone asks. It's because I've lived with them since they were 6 weeks old, and that was 4 years ago. Adrianne is "my" cat and has fluffier hair (usually looks fatter, even though she's not). Anna is "Ron's" cat and her hair is slightly more coarse and a little darker.

Anyway, They are very affable, and they love to cuddle in our laps. Their favorite thing to do on a long car ride is to sit in the passenger seat where there is a seat warmer and snuggle together. Of course, when I'm in the passenger's seat, they are relegated to the back seat and they don't like that as much. They usually push their way back into our lap. (Yes, even Ron when he's driving). Aren't they cute?

One other difference between the two is that Anna could care less about what food she eats. Mine, however, has quite the palette. I guess I shouldn't have given her ice cream and lasagna when she was a kitten, because now she thinks she has to have the good stuff all the time. Usually they get cat food (Friskies, Science Cat, or the like). Sometimes their eating gets a little slower and I couldn't figure out why, until recently. Here's the story:

I recently bought these Vittles Vaults to use to build up our food storage. (You know for rice, beans, grains, etc). they are air tight and FDA approved, and I figure if they're good enough for pets, they're probably fine for humans, too! I figured that our food storage isn't complete without some cat food for the kitties, so I bought a big 25 lb bag of Friskies and I opened it to pour it in. Immediately Adrianne was in the kitchen sitting next to me, just eye-balling the bag. She knew what it was. I looked over at her bowl, and it was overflowing with the same (though slightly older) food -- friskies. So, I think nothing of it and start pouring the vittles into the vault when some happens to spill out onto the floor. I couldn't even set the bag down to pick up the mess before Adrianne had scurried in and started frantically chomping down on the spillage. "Crunch, crunch, chomp, crunch," and then "click, click, click" as she tried to get her grip on the slick hard wood kitchen floor to scurry to the next little grouping of cat vittles. Then, "Crunch, chomp, crruuunnch, chomp, chomp" as she chowed down as fast as she could. Hmmm.... I think she likes it fresh? Maybe the vault will do its job and she'll never have to eat stale food again!

I asked Ron if we should switch it all out. He said, "no, they need to go on a diet anyway....". :)


































Adrianne (first pic), Anna (second pic), both (last pic).

And, my quote for today:
"I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them."
-Ian Fleming

Friday, July 18, 2008

Who says 34 is old?

I haven't been very good with Journals in the past. I think I have 4 or 5 of them that are half-started. Starting from when I was ~5 years old. I've read through a few of them, and they're mostly jibberish. So, my goal is to start writing meaningful things about my life. Without records and documentation, it's easy to feel as if it never happened...

I was inspired by my sister-in-law (Ashley) to start setting goals on my birthday. The ones we set at the New Year seem so fleeting. And, what better time to start than the start of your own birth year. Well, today is my birthday. Yes, I'm 34. And this is my blog! Here's a few pictures to kick-start this thing:
This is a picture of Ron and I in Idaho for the Edwards' family reunion that just happened over the fourth of July. They borrowed some jet ski's from Ron's cousin -- totally nice of Chris to loan these to us! They were pretty powerful little water rockets! We took them to Red Fish Lake where we outran any of the boats that were around. This was taken shortly after Ron had tipped us both into the water. You can see my mascara is running. You can also see how red I am. I got pretty burned that day! I didn't realize how long it's been since I saw the sun.


Here's another picture of the sawtooth mountains, very beautiful:


Today started out kind of crumby. We had an appointment with the Oregon Department of Revenue about our tax audit. This thing has been going on for about 3 months, with no end in sight! We did make progress today, so that's good. I happened to fall today because, in a cruel twist of fate, it was today or three weeks from today. Who wants to prolong these types of things longer than usual? We cleared up some stuff about our return and Ling (the auditor) said she would be done with the calculations in 2-3 months since schedule C's are low priority.... oh well, less time for the Fed's to get on board after she finishes.

After that, though, the day took a nice turn. We went out for lunch. Ron tried to get the waitress at Red Robin to sing "Happy Birthday" to me, but I asked her not to. I would have relented, but I didn't want the sundae that came with it since I was so full already. And what's the point of having them sing to you if you don't get a free sundae?

Ron and I had both taken the whole day off so we could spend time together. He asked me what I wanted to do, and I said "take a nap". I know that sounds lame, but you have to consider that we never get any down time.... He agreed, and we went home and took a 4 hour nap in the middle of the day. It was so great!! I haven't felt so good waking up in a very long time. I usually don't sleep very good at all. In fact, I just had a sleep study done and was diagnosed with severe apnea. Sucks. I knew I'd have a problem because everyone in my family that gets tested has apnea. Even aunts and uncles on my dad's side. I'll have to go back in 3 weeks to get fitted for my mask and CPAP. not looking forward to wearing that at night.

I hope this post finds you fat and happy! And here's a tradition I'd like to start: at the end of each post, I'll try to include a fun new quote.

My quote for the day:
"Being unforgiving is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die."
-author unknown