As many, if not all, of you know, I’m a sucker for freebies. I’m always sending away for free samples and whatnot off the Internet. I used to post them in posts called “Freebies Du Jour©“…but for some reason, I stopped. I think it was just that I got so tired of having to take pictures of every single item everyday.

Anyway, I got a sample in the mail a couple months ago that I’ve just got to tell you about. If you have a cat or dog…or multiple cats &/or dogs, this post is for you! During my searches for free samples, I came across a pet sample called Greenies©. I’ve gotten lots and lots of free samples for my kitties in the mail, so I was thinking something like, “Ah, cool. Hopefully they’ like these.” Some of the stuff I’d gotten in the past was stuff they absolutely hated.

When I cracked open the little bag of Greenies©, my kitties came running over at the speed of light!    :lol:     They must smell really good to kitties. They don’t stink or anything to me, but I’d not go saying they’re too appetizing, either. Well, I gave each of them a Greenie© to see what their reaction would be. Let me tell you - I have NEVER seen them snarf anything down that quickly before. Then they looked up at me like, “PLEASE give us more!!!”….so I did. I gave them a few more each.I’m so happy that I got that free sample in the mail. Ever since then we’ve been buying Greenies© for our cats. They adore them. When they hear the little bag rattling, they come running so quickly they peel out!  

For you who’ve got cats, here’s an excerpt for:

It would be nice if the only thing cats needed was our loving attention. But the truth is they require a bit more than that. That’s why, Feline Greenies® dental treats have added vitamins and minerals to make them 100% nutritionally complete and balanced.

Here is a short excerpt about Greenies© for those of you who’ve got dogs:

An independent third party dental test showed that using Greenies© dental chews once a day resulted in a 69% reduction in tartar and a 10.5% reduction in plaque (versus dogs who ate the same dry dog food diet minus the Greenies© dental chew). Isn’t a good healthy smile reason enough to start feeding your pet Greenies©?

Soooo, not only are these things really, really tasty to our furry friends, but they are actually pretty good for them as well. They’re quite reasonably priced, so there’s no excuse for not getting your pets some Greenies©! Trust me - they will love you even more for it!

 • Wow…I’m kinda scared with the way I woke up today. As soon as my peepers popped open, I was super happy. Don’t get me wrong - I’m glad I’m happy, but for me to wake up happy…well, that’s not common AT ALL.  I normally detest mornings! I think Amir is really rubbing off on me!  

• I’m wearing the miniature Martini glass earrings my Mom made for me. They really are adorable. I love them. Hmm…maybe I’ll send a pair to my BFF!  

• I’m rockin’ out to some KMFDM today. I listen to them once in a while. Usually when I have more energy than I know what to do with…today is the perfect day!

• I forgot to take my Paxil yesterday and I’m really paying for it today. I’m super dizzy! I hate it when that happens…it even makes me feel kinda pukey. I can’t believe that just one day without it does this to me. It’s very obvious that my body is addicted to the stuff…which I hate the idea of, but oh well. It keeps me (sorta) sane.

• I’m still not totally happy with the smilies I have on here. I will either look for a different pack or create a pack of my own. The latter would take more time, so I’m hoping I can find some premade ones that I like.

• My cat, Araya, is sitting on my lap with her arm and head resting on my wrist. Do you know how hard it is to type with a cat laying on your arm?   Carpal Tunnel, here I come!

• Lonnie just turned to me and said, “Can you put a sock in it? I need to make a call!” I’m dying over here…hahaha. That was so funny. He wasn’t being rude like it may seem…he was quoting “Zoolander” when he tells Billy Zane to put a sock in it. Everytime I see that part of the movie, I nearly hyperventilate with laughter! (I’m easily amused…in case you hadn’t noticed.)

• My leg is totally asleep now…but I’m feeling too guilty to move Araya. Wow…she’s so spoiled. I’m willing to let my leg die rather than have to disturb her while she’s sleeping.

• My son has been listening to Insane Clown Posse lately. I’ve never been ashamed of anything he’s done…until now! I mean really…yuck! They totally suck! I’m hoping this is just a phase that he will outgrow ASAFP!!!

• Uh, yeah…speaking of my kids and their horrific taste in music, my daughter asked me, “Will you please burn me a CD of Miley Cyrus?” I pretty much want to kill her friend for getting her into that crapola. She had no interest in Miley Cyrus AKA Hannah Montana prior to spending two nights at her friend’s house. Once again - I hope it’s a phase!!!

• My neck hurts.

• Wow! It’s like Araya knew what I just typed…she got up!

• If any of you use Twitter, please let me know! I haven’t found anyone over there that I know, and I would like to add my friends to my list of people I’m following.

• Awww, man! I didn’t realize National Left-Handers Day was on August 13th! What a total bummer. I would have celebrated like a mo-fo! Oh well…next year.

• We got my daughter a desk from a garage sale the other day. It was only 5 bucks…pretty nice desk, too. The only problem is that it needs to be painted. It’s white…some of the paint is chipped off here and there. It looks kinda trashy because of it. Well, we have some spray paint to paint it with, but the weather isn’t cooperating. It’s too hot and humid outside. The paint wouldn’t stick on there properly. Of course, my daughter is all bummed out about it…she wants her desk and she wants it NOW. There’s no winning!

• My feet are frozen solid. I’m going to go put socks on.

• Ahhh…much better!

• Okay, the time has come for me to shut the heck up. I have a lot of stuff I need to accomplish today. I want to come up with at least two new designs for my shop. I have an idea brewing in my head…just gotta make it work in Photoshop. I also need to begin the layout for a client’s site. On top of that, I need to figure out how to code a tree menu for another client’s site. I also need to clean around the house, figure out what to cook for dinner, and do a buttload of other stuff. Wow…I’m even more busy than I thought!

 

I just found out that Jinxy died yesterday. I’m beside myself. He was so healthy. Such a happy cat when we had to give him up. Apparently, he went into a pit of despair and depression when we handed him over to our friend back in Montana prior to moving to Oregon. The guy didn’t tell us that Jinxy was never the same after that.

Apparently, he had been getting more and more depressed…constantly hiding. He got to the point where he wouldn’t purr anymore or anything. All he did was mope and hide.

He was only 3 years old. No health issues. Current on all his shots. The friend walked into the bathroom yesterday morning and saw Jinxy laying there. He thought he was asleep…’til he didn’t move. Jinxy never woke up.

I believe he literally died from a broken heart…which breaks my heart. He went from a totally healthy cat that you see in the picture…a cat who was VERY affectionate and playful…a cat who would purr at the drop of a hat…very carefree, healthy, and happy…to death in less than a year’s time. With no explanation.

The reason we had to hand him over to a friend was that Jinxy had jealousy issues. He kept attacking our smallest cat…who ended up having to get a huge hole on her side stitched up from him bullying her. He wasn’t an aggressive cat normally…only towards her. He was jealous that Lonnie paid so much attention to her. We tried everything would could to keep him. We even kept him on one story of the house and the other cats on the other story so he couldn’t attack anyone. He snuck back to the other cats and beat the little one up again.

It broke our hearts to hand him over. All four of us cried and have thought about him almost daily. We all considered him family…he WAS family. If only he had been less aggressive to the little one.

Anyway, he’s gone now. I cannot believe it. I love him so much…always did and always will. I’m so sorry he had to go through such crap. I wish the friend would have told us about Jinxy’s emotional state all along. We would have done SOMETHING. I don’t know what, but something. Even if we ended up taking him back, getting him declawed…whatever it took. This entire time, we were under the assumption that Jinx was totally healthy and happy…just as he was the last day we saw him.

I’m so, so sad. Finding it impossible to enjoy this holiday. I’ll be back tomorrow…and hopefully a little less mournful. Take care, everyone. Happy Easter to you & yours…and for those who don’t partake in Easter, have a terrific Sunday. :cry:

• First of all, Happy New Year to everyone. I apologize for not sending out individual messages and whatnot. Hopefully it’s not that big of a deal to anyone and noone’s all ass-hurt because I didn’t Photoshop anything or whatever. I normally would, but once I started throwing back some Fat Tires, that option was pretty much nonexistent. Karen + Fat Tires + Photoshop = Big Sloppy Mess.

• I hate how Vicodin makes my nose and forehead itch. Grrrr…I want to scratch it so badly, but I know that once I get started, I won’t be able to stop…and before you know it, I’ll be without a nose or skin on my forehead.

• I need to change my mood to ‘Afrolicious’. My hair is all over the freakin’ place tonight!

• I might drive my kids to Vancouver, WA to do some shopping tomorrow. We’ll see how tomorrow goes. If we do end up going, the kids will have shitloads of fun. They each got a fairly decent wad of cash for Christmas this year, so they’re dying to spend it. I tried talking them into saving some of it in a savings account, but nooo! They just looked at me like I’m insane…which I am.

• My daughter got some of those shoes with the wheels in ‘em for Christmas. You know the ones - they look like regular tennis shoes, but they roll. Yeah, well…my daughter takes after me a bit too much, I think. She’s not the most graceful girl on the planet, so she fell flat on her bony ass twice at the store yesterday…as the people around us gasped. No biggie - she’s fine. She just needs to chill and stop trying to be Evel Knievel.

• Speaking of stunt dudes, what ever happened to Super Dave? Holy shit, that guy was funny! I remember watching him on TV with my Dad & we’d sit there and just laugh our asses off! Those were the good days.

• Lonnie’s listening to some Arabic jive music on Napster right now. I loves me some Arabic music, but when they add rap to it…uhh…not so much. :s I’m going to have to give him the evil eye so he’ll turn that crap off.

• So, there’s this Walking With Dinosaurs thing coming to Portland soon. Depending on how much tickets cost, we are thinking about taking the kids to it. Even though my son is 16 now, he would still probably enjoy it. If not, we can save the money from his ticket and do something else with him. Either way, it looks pretty badass from what I’ve seen on all the commercials. I’d imagine it’d scare the shit out of the really little kids…which would make it worth the price of tickets right there!

• I just realized that my New Year’s resolution was to be more kind, selfless, and giving to others, so disregard that last thing I just said!

• Now he’s listening to Prince. Napster Radio clearly blows ass. Oh…but wait…now it’s Robert Palmer. (R.I.P.) He must have it on an 80’s station. We love 80’s music. I’m not kidding, either. We seriously do!

• I have a cucumber/melon candle burning on my desk. I love that scent. Sounds like it’d stink, but it actually smells really good.

• Sarah: I have been using the face cloths you knitted for me! Oh my! I am SO in love with them! They totally rule…and you rule even more for making them! Thank you again!

• I gave myself a manicure last night. It looks pretty damned good, if I may say so myself. And I may, so there! :p

• I just remembered that I need to resize the pictures of Montgomery Park and do something with them.

• Carlos and I finally webcammed yesterday afternoon! It was the first time in our friendship where we saw each other on camera. It was awesome! I also got to see his kids and they all got to see my daughter. Oh! He showed us his dog and we showed him my cat, too! It was really cool! Seeing a still picture is just not the same as seeing someone on a webcam. I’m totally hooked on that thing.

• Oh no! Now it’s Eminem! I think it’s time to pull the evil eye routine again!

• It worked…again!

• I got tired of feeling like I had an afro, so I put my hair up in a bun. I think I may have made it a little too tight, though, because it feels like the skin on my face is being pulled back! I should probably loosen it up a bit so I don’t cause skin stretchage!

• Okay - I’m going to wrap this mother up now. I hope everyone is enjoying the new year thus far! Now that I’m feeling better, I’m finding it much more easy to be optimistic!