Where to Begin?

I haven't blogged in a few days and lots has happened.

We just finished another great weekend in Jacksonville and High Springs.

Of course, I cherished all the special time I had with Sophie. She’s in a particularly precious stage of her life—beginning to communicate with us and learning new associations each day. I didn’t take any still pictures on this trip but I did shoot video of Sophie. I thought that video was more appropriate to capture her at this stage of development. We were able to watch her for K&T, 1 day because she ran a fever and could not go to day care and also because K&T had to go to Orlando with the drum line. That provided a full day with Sophie. We then watched her on Saturday evening to give K&T a night out together without the kid. They did dinner and a movie.

Sunday we went to High Springs and took Christy on a clothes shopping spree as part of a late Christmas present. We had a good time and Christy got some neat stuff.

We had to drive back home Sunday evening because we had a FOCCUS couple to see today (Monday). This is our first session with them. They seem nice but they will have some work to do before they marry to understand each other better.

When we first arrive in Jacksonville on Thursday evening Sophie surprised me by remembering something I showed her on our previous visit at Christmastime. I made that popping sound that sounds like a champagne cork popping by snapping your finger out of the side of your mouth. At Christmastime she tried to do it but couldn’t—but she did try. On this visit when we first walked in the door she recognized us as her grandparents. She looked at me and excitedly stuck her finger in her mouth to try to make the popping sound. I didn’t know that it made that big an impression on her and I was amazed that she even remembered it and associated me with it.

She also pulled a mechanical pencil out of my pocket at Christmas time. It has a sharp point so I touched it to her arm and said “ouch”. Ouch became the name for the pencil. On this visit she found that pencil in my pocket again, looked at it and said “ouch”.

I guess that’s my allotted 5 minutes to write about Sophie.

I’m sitting in a new computer chair that I purchased on line from Office Depot on Saturday night. The chair listed for $200 and was on sale for $79.99. The reason I bought it was because I found a coupon at the Ben’s Bargains site (http://bensbargains.net) for an additional $25 off. I was getting a backache sitting in our well-used chair so at that price I figured even without sitting in the chair that it probably would be better for my back. The reviews written about the chair were good, too. The chair shipped for free and I could pick it up at our local Office Depot the next day. So far it seems to be good for my back.

Internet buying has come a long way. It was only about 10 years ago I made my first wary internet purchase—a book from Amazon.com. At that time Amazon was primarily a book store. The first electronics I bought were 3 Hot Shot 1-cup water heaters. That was Christmas 1998. I know that because I wrote that date on the back of the Hot Shot to be able to tell how long it lasted when it failed. This was our 2nd Hot Shot and it is still going strong after 10 years.
Now we purchase stuff on the internet at least weekly and in addition pay bills, download podcasts and keep in touch with the family through blogs. It’s becoming more prevalent that couples meet each other on the web. The couple we saw today got together after the guy, being so impressed by her but not knowing how to get in touch after meeting her, spent an entire evening tracking her down on My Space. Can you imagine where we will be in another 10 years?

Kitty Update—Last night when we returned 2 kitties showed up. The feeder worked fine. It has been very reliable now long enough that we can comfortably go away for 2 weeks and barring raccoons know the cats have a continuous food supply. I haven’t figured out a way to feed them soft food every day when we are gone but I’m thinking about it.

Tonight all 4 cats showed up at feeding time.