just because I

haven't posted anything lately.

I post this for

my fellow Alzheimer's patients-in-waiting:

TOKYO (AFP) - The age-old belief goes that alcohol helps people drown their sorrows, but in truth the bottle only makes bad memories linger, a Japanese study said Friday.

Researchers at the University of Tokyo concluded that ethanol -- an intoxicating agent in alcohol -- does not cause memory to decrease, as widely believed, but instead locks it in place.

a few from

the pep rally. Thank goodness another lady brought her camcorder since ours only got 8 seconds of it. Anyway, here's my contributions. It was pretty exciting.

right case, wrong strat.

meet one of the

happiest people around. Not only does Eric have his first performance scheduled for Friday (playing the Star Spangled Banner for each academic pep rally at the junior high), but he was also accepted into the high school jazz band today. He had to go in and speak with the band director and play something. He chose "Lenny" by Stevie Ray Vaughan.
He's excited to now have to play his guitar for homework.

vote

note to self:

consider relocation of big vase with even bigger twigs.

happy valentines day

I think we might go to La Strada tonight. mmm, tasty.

UPDATE: "mmm, tasty"? umm, not so much. We got a free meal out of it. For a decent steak and grilled chicken, avoid La Strada.

umm...

how normal ISN'T this?

First, not that I've paid much attention to cats, but I thought his resting position was strange. Second, I didn't know cats watched tv. I walked into the living room to find Strat stretched out in this position on the couch watching tv. To make it even more unusual, he stayed there while I got the camera out and took the pictures.

i know these aren't

great but I'm pretty sure these were the last drawings I did. They were just quick drawings from several years ago. The first is Eric watching tv before going to sleep. The other is the following morning before I woke him up for school. (Yeah, I know you're probably not digging his face being scratched out in one but I've never been good with faces.) So why am I posting these? I've been thinking about getting my charcoal out. I don't know, it's just an idea.

he's a little bit country...

not, but he is a little bit rock & roll. All the kitten collars looked so girlie. I couldn't wrap a pink flowered collar around his neck, I just couldn't. So I picked up a bell and headed over to the dog collars where I was sure I could find something more manly. I picked this one up which happens to resemble Eric's belt. Anyway, with a name like Strat, he has to walk the walk.

It was funny once I got it on him. I took the bell off until he can get used to the collar. (He was banging his head on the floor trying to stop the bell from ringing.) So, I took the bell off and then walked across the kitchen to jingle it and call him. He pushed his chin (is it called a chin on a cat?) against the floor and proceeded by pushing himself with his hind legs. I had this kitten coming to me, scraping his head and front paws on the tile as if that would pull the collar off. whatever. It was a sight. I waited for him to fall asleep to get a picture of it. Obviously, he woke up. But look at these pictures I also caught!

another of eric

and his guitar

eric and his most

cherished possession

back in the day

Lauren was quite fond of a little bunny puppet. After twenty years of neglect, it fell victim to a vicious attack.

Guess who won.

I walked out of my room to find the bunny in the death grip of Strat. They were rolling all over the floor. I caught some brutal shots but decided to keep it mild on the blog. There was one blurry one with the kitten's paw outstretched after the bunny had just been kitty-slapped, or Strat-slapped.

superbowl schmuperbowl

Maybe I'll go see a movie today.

at mom's request

I'm posting some pics of Strat.