Hello. I am forcing myself into a state of complete relaxation.

Somehow, that seems like a contradictory concept.

But I'm doing it anyway.

I am happy to report that the Christian bookstore acted very Christian when I told them I bought two of the same book, one at their store and one at Wal Mart. This was done by accident. I read the one from Wal Mart and left the other book untouched. I asked if they would exchange the unread book and they said, SURE! So, to reward them for their niceness, which I appreciate very much, I bought two additional books, since I had a coupon, and now I'm all set. It was shocking when I discovered I had two of the same book. I guess that won't happen again. Like Robby not going for a spin in the dryer again. Some things are meant to happen ONCE ONLY, if that.

I'll tell you what, though. I've had several heart attacks since Robby in the dryer. You start the dryer, like normal, without thinking it through THOROUGHLY -- it's called auto pilot. Then you're doing something else and you hear the dryer on and you just have your heart flip over. Because you can't be SURE if you were sure he wasn't in there. Oh boy, I need some down time. I need to retrain myself to BE SURE, SURE, SURE!!! Like when you go on vacation and check that the stove is off 10 million times.

When I go to Greenville I get to have my hair cut by this fabulous stylist. My sister said my niece got the cutest haircut in the world by him. He actually studies your face and your hair and works with YOU! This is what I've been waiting for my whole life. Of course, when I go in there I'm going to have to announce, I am here to budge you out of your comfort zone (blast you out of your comfort zone, is more like it). 'Cause he might be wonderful, but he might have always had the raw goods to work with before. I'd like to see him try to make something out of me, it'll be a challenge. I'm so curious, too, I can't wait.

Last night on AOL there was a blip about Guinness World Records announcing the person with the world's longest nose. I was thankful to see it wasn't moi. It was some man from far away. He looked quite please with himself. More power to him.

I've pulled a blank. There was something I wasn't going to forget to write about, and, here we go again, I forgot.

But here's a good story. My sister's friend's daughter has(d) a hamster. The neighbors agreed to take care of the hamster while said friends went on vacation. It was in the garage but the neighbors decided it was too hot in the garage for the poor hamster, so they brought it inside.

Then the hamster was gone. The neighbors decided their dog ate it. So, when my sister's friends come home, there is no more hamster and some story is produced to make it less traumatic for the little girl (than a dog ate it).

Well, the neighbors got a brand new refrigerator. One week later it quit working. They called the repairman who diagnosed that a rodent ate the wires.

The neighbors called my sister's friend and said, You owe us a new refrigerator.

How's that for a pan of tasty turnips?

Okay, time for more forced relaxation.

Chillin' KEM P.S. Family Christian Stores is the name of the nice bookstore.

There was no blog yesterday because my psychedelic migraine mushroomed into pain akin to someone thrusting an iron fire poker straight through my temples. Combine that with hours of heaving, and worse, and you get the picture.

It was over 20 years ago that I was that sick, when I was expecting DTD. I know this because up to last night I can't ever remember going to bed without flossing my teeth, except for the one time. Here's to hoping I go another 20 years, heck, let's shoot for 30, before such a thing strikes again. If I can last 30 years, an incident like this will kill me, at 80 years old, plain and simple. Not a good way to go. It nearly killed me last night. I had to call in the guard, DTD herself. She suggested maybe I was being a tad dramatic. But, oh, no, my dramatics were appropriate. Then she suggested I get an MRI. Well. That ain't a ever gonna happen. Because you know KEM, the Klaustrophobik.

Robby was terribly sweet. I got up in the middle of the night to come wash my nose, if all else fails, I can't afford a sinus infection. And Robby, the night prowler, came right over and curled up on my feet. Animals know. How can they not, all the racket I kicked up. And dear little Jazzi Girl was happy to see me this afternoon when I arose.

Anyone out there have any good ideas or medications that might stave off migraines?

A friend posted this quote on Facebook, I love it:

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

That, my friends, just may be my ticket to my final destination.

Cheers,
KEM

One of my friends shared this idea for salad, it is great. Fixed it tonight and will fix it many a night.

Arrange the following on a plate:
Baby spinach leaves
Walnuts
Goat cheese (or feta)

Drizzle with Honey

There, can you beat that? One day I might try adding fresh oranges.

There, that is it! You can't improve upon easy-does-it, largely speaking.

KEM

Ha, ha, a brainy, beautiful person finally played R-O-B-B-Y. And I quote:

O is for oblong, obnoxious (sorry, but kittens can be), ordinary (sorry again), ostentatious, original, odd, odoriferous, obtrusive, orderly, organic, outstanding, overjoyed.

B is for beautiful, bad kitty, bouncy, black, bewitching, bemusing (C's suggestion), believable, bold, bony, bossy, best, brilliant, bashful, blissful, bubbly, breathtaking, balanced, belligerent, berserk, busy, bewildered (after dryer incident), beleaguer, brainy, boastful attitude.

Y is for young, youthful, yearning, yakking, yours, yellow eyed.

Ha, ha, some of these cracked me up. Yellow eyed, odoriferous, bewildered. Good job, Buckwheat! (and Dude!) (I have to use nicknames to protect the innocent, as you remember.) Anyway, super clever entry, thank you!

Tonight Mike and I had a wild and wooly time at the Trop. More on that tomorry.

Time to click PUBLISH POST and go eat 1/3 of a muffin,
KEM

Good evening. I am in a fierce, rebellious mood tonight and cannot blog. Ferocious KEM. GRRR! I know my friend Sweet Tulsa is laughing her head off if she is reading this. She thinks I'm a total cream puff. Hardly a toughie.

Well, I will say one thing. Robby loves suspension. For example, I had to shove my two ottomans together and drape a sheet over them. The ottoman upholstery is very nubby, just way too tempting for an as-of-yet unperfectly trained kitten. Huh, did that make sense? So I don't want him scratching it to shreds. When he was tiny he could crawl up under the sheet, you'd see it wiggle. But back then his claws weren't as slicingly sharp as they are now.

Now that he's bigger, you know, some of his tricks have gone by the wayside. But not crawling under the spot by the dishwasher. In fact, today something alerted him that he needed to dive into that little hole lickety-split, throw all caution to the wind. Really, he was a bolt of lightening shooting under there, no allowances made for a tight squeeze whatsoever. I noticed he had more trouble fitting his large little self back out of the small hole, like worming our way into a pair of two sizes too small jeans. Except he was worming his way out. I've had that problem, too, with clothes, now that I think about it.

Anyway, somehow the two ottomans got slightly separated, with the sheet still covering them. Robby discovered this little space in-between, where he can lounge in his hammock. Well, that's what it is, the sheet dips down with only air supporting it. He loves that spot.

He also loves to sleep at night on Mike's suitcase. That's right, I haven't vacuumed and stowed it from his last trip. It's unzipped on the bedroom floor, what else is new? So the lid, being unzipped but not unopened, has some extra "give." What did I call it? Suspension.

That Robby is a character.

A very brief, head-achy KEM

Today was simply a fog, a recovery mode fog. Robby, the Tumbler, was on my mind. He is fine, but I worried about brain damage from the beating against the drum. You know, your imagination is lit on fire, hot dryer fire, to be exact.

He certainly used up one of his nine lives.

Some dear friends suggested that bad things can happen to anyone, like when their kitty got locked in the broom closet all day, or the kitchen cupboard or the car trunk for a moment. That was nice of them to try to make me feel better. I told DTD and she was dumbfounded, who isn't? She tried not to laugh, too. That's what you do when news is too hard to digest...sometimes that's what you do.

My sister said, What if you had turned on the dryer and walked out of the house? Oh, perish the thought, are all the words I can collect for that little helpful piece, LOL.

I just picture this poor long stretched out animal being tossed about in a pitch black drum with heavy wet towels and junk knocking him to the floor of the dryer, only to be shot up in the black again, repeat. And getting hotter. It's like a gruesome cartoon. I'll never forget that pitiful muffled "meow, meow." If he hadn't meowed, well, I don't even want to go there. How long a kitten lasts in a medium hot dryer, I do not want to know.

I'm a little graphic here, in the hopes this sad incident saves some poor kitty down the road. If you can't get the picture out of your head, you will avoid disasater, that's my hope.

So, the moral of this story, for whoever needs it, mainly I do, is ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS check and double check and triple check your washing machine, dryer and dishwasher before you start them. Robby will now have to be shut out of the laundry room while I do laundry. My nerves were short to start with and now they are a mere stub.

Well, I trust this is the end of terrible tales of woe. Thank you everyone who was concerned, it means a lot!

LOVE,
KEM