Big changes…big move…

I got some amazing news today. The company I worked with in Seattle recently has offered me a job!

Of course this was unexpected and I’m excited but a little nervous…I did take it. I will be moving to Seattle in August. Thankfully I didn’t sign the lease for my new apartment yet!

I will still be helping out the Haunted San Diego team…they have been so good to me and let me take over their forums and blog…hee hee. Laurie, the founder/creator will be taking over everything I’ve been working on. She also does some freelance writing and we have very similar writing styles so I’m sure she’ll be great.

You can still catch up with me here.

Oh I have so much to do…and so little time now. I’m sad to be leaving my San Diego friends, but I’m looking forward to making lots of new ones in Seattle. The folks I worked with on the project there all wrote wonderful letters of recommendation for me to be considered for the position. And some of them flooded the boss’s email inbox with demands for me to be hired…hee hee.

I can tell you that Samson and Delilah will NOT enjoy the car ride…they hate being in their carriers. I tried taking them to PetSmart once to show them they weren’t going to the VET but they didn’t like it anyway. Cats are not great acceptors of change!

So much to do…so little time. I’ll blog as often as I can…best wishes to you all…

~ ~ ~ Jessie ~ ~ ~

Samson and Delilah

I’ve had several requests to show pictures of my babies, Samson and Delilah. Well, here you go!

Samson

Delilah

They are rather camera-shy, so it’s difficult to get pictures of them.

Samson and Delilah came to me when they were about two years old. They had been owned by a family friend’s neighbor, an older woman we called Miss Ruth. Miss Ruth said she paid several hundred dollars for her “oriental cats.” Being single and not having many visitors, both cats were very shy. Miss Ruth never treated Sam and Dally like pets. She spoke to them kindly on occasion and fed them, however, they were nothing more than a pretty vase or piece of art to her.

Miss Ruth named Samson after the Biblical strongman. Delilah was named after the Biblical temptress Samson loved. I’m afraid I don’t know much about the story. I think Samson is the man whose strength came from his hair; if his hair was cut off he would lose his strength. But don’t quote me on that.

I would sometimes visit Miss Ruth and help her take care of some household chores. Sam and Dally, as she called them, slowly warmed up to me and began to let me pet them when I was there.

When Miss Ruth died, we were all very sad. She was very nice and lived near us for a long time. She didn’t have any family nearby, so I took Sam and Dally to stay with me to keep them until one of her family members could take them home.

None of Miss Ruth’s family wanted to take Sam and Dally. In a way I was disappointed; in another I was thrilled. Miss Ruth’s cousin told me that she would take them but she was allergic, and since Miss Ruth always talked about how much I liked them, would I want to keep them? Yes, yes, yes, of course!

And that is how Samson and Delilah came into my life. They were shy at first, but after socializing them with friends and family, they quickly became loving lapcats. Delilah is in love with my brother, Adam. She purrs like mad and rubs herself all over him when he visits. Adam and Sam enjoy ambushing and scaring one another. They’re like little kids.

Sam is all boy. He loves to play and act goofy. Dally is quite a lady and will cuddle with Sam but if he’s acting silly she’ll sit on top of the bookshelf and look down at him like he has lost his mind. Sam is BIG. Dally is petite and ladylike. They are both about four years old now. They are the loves of my life!

Oh yeah…Siamese cats are very vocal and have very strange-sounding meows. Here’s a YouTube video of a Siamese cat “talking,” this is what Sam and Dally sound like!

~ ~ ~ Jessie ~ ~ ~

Cute animals abound!

I am a total animal lover. I saw these cuties on Ananova.com and wanted to share them.

This is Gus. He just won an Ugliest Dog contest in Britain. Gus is a Chinese Crested, and I don’t think he’s nearly as ugly as last year’s winner, Elwood the Chinese Crested. Gus’s owner said she will use the winnings from the award to help pay for Gus’s skin cancer treatments. Poor Gus, I hope he has a nice, long and happy life despite his illness. He obviously has a wonderfully caring owner.

Guai Guai the Dachsund from China loves to help his owner’s father push his wheelchair. According to his owner, if Guai Guai doesn’t get to “work” at least once a day, he run around the house and makes himself a holy terror.

The Chongquing Wild Zoo in China may soon have a troupe of singing wolves. Luo Yong, a keeper at the Zoo, said he discovered the wolves’ singing ability by accident. “Once I was playing guitar and singing the song ‘I Am A Wolf From The North’, and a young wolf I raised walked up to me and stared at me. Suddenly he howled with the rhythm, and even patted the strings with his claw,” he said.

A mother cat has adopted a baby rat as one of her own. The rat drinks the cat’s milk with its feline “brothers and sisters” and even plays with the kittens. The cat’s owner thinks maternal instincts must have overwhelmed the cat’s predatory instincts to allow her to adopt an animal she would normally see as prey.

A roe deer in Italy was born with one horn and has been given the name “Unicorn,” after the mythological unicorn of legend. The condition is believed to have been caused by a genetic flaw – the deer’s twin sibling has two horns. Since reports of unicorns have been around for so long, perhaps this type of genetic anomaly started the legend of the magical beast.

My race car toothbrush

I’m pretty picky when it comes to toothbrushes. I like a nice, big, soft brush. I don’t care what color it is or if it has a curved or straight handle or how much it costs.

I went to the market to buy a new toothbrush a couple of weeks ago. I spent quite some time looking at the brush heads, sizes and shapes. Finally I found one I liked. I took it off the hook and saw it was BRIGHT orange and had a clear colbalt blue handle. So what, it’s the bristles that count.

When I got home and started putting my groceries away, my brother Adam and his friend Mark showed up. They were making fun of me for buying things like spinach and oatmeal. I don’t have the metabolisms they have, and they manage to stay at a normal weight depsite the fact practically everything they eat starts with the word “Mc.”

Mark found my toothbrush and started laughing. “This thing looks like a race car,” he said. Adam looked at it and said, “Wow, it’s got stripes, spots, colors and everything!” They spent the next 10 minutes playing with my toothbrush and saying it looked like a Forumla One and should have Tide and number 3 stickers on it. I finally managed to wrestle it away from the jerks.

It’s a great toothbrush. And I don’t care if it is orange.

Oh yeah, here’s a picture of my brother Adam brushing his teeth:

 ~ ~ ~ Jessie ~ ~ ~

Hypothyroidism update

I visited Dr. P a couple of weeks ago. He said my thyroid level is still low but should be stabilizing soon. He isn’t going to increase my dosage at this point. I see him again in August so I can get another blood test and see how things are going.

Having hypothyroidism hasn’t changed my life any. Not that I thought it would; I just feel weird knowing something is wrong with my body. I take vitamins every morning, so I take my thyroid medicine with them, then I have to wait a half hour or so before I can eat anything.

I haven’t really changed my diet much either, though I have decreased my soy consumption as this was recommended by one of the web sites I visited. There are lots of good resources about hypothyroidism online. One of the ones that helped me the most was Endocrine Web. http://www.endocrineweb.com/hypo1.html It lists the symptoms of hypothyroidism, the common causes, the dangers, etc. The web site also has information on other endocrine system disorders, including diabetes, osteoporosis, adrenaline disorders and the pituitary gland.

I do feel a little bit more energetic these days. Dr. P said it would be a gradual process, so after being on my medicine for about 6 weeks or so now it must be beginning to work for me. That was my biggest concern – I wanted to have more energy.

More updates as they arrive. Thanks for reading.

 ~ ~ ~ Jessie ~ ~ ~

A general update

Hi everyone,

I’m still here in lovely Seattle, Washington. I’ll be here until Sunday afternoon.

I’ve been doing some freelance work for a company based in Seattle. When I’m not working I’m trying all sorts of yummy food and hitting every Starbucks, Seattle’s Best and Tully’s Coffee I possibly can. They’re going to have to peel me off the ceiling before it’s all over.

A shout out to my HSD peeps back home – Sam, Dean, Laurie, Dave and my bro Adam. Take good care of my cats or I’ll beat you sideways, you schmuck.

~ ~ ~ Jessie ~ ~ ~

Heading to Seattle

I’m going to Seattle, Washington for a week for business. I’ll be back next Saturday.

Though I’ll be stuck in a building all day working, I am excited to go. I’m going to try and do some sightseeing tomorrow and Sunday. I’ll work all week and return home Saturday afternoon.

I plan on checking out the city and definitely heading to Pike Place. I love the training videos called “Fish!” that were filmed at the Pike Place fish market.

My twin brother, Adam, is staying at my apartment and will take care of my cats. They absolutely adore him. When they get together it’s like a bunch of kids. They run around the place, chase each other, sneak up on and attack each other and generally tear the place up. I can’t imagine what I’ll be coming home to.

Blog to you next week…
~ ~ ~ Jessie ~ ~ ~