One year ago was the worst day of my life. I still look around for you sometimes, out of the corner of my eye.  I imagine what you would have had to say about things.  When I sit down to read a book, if I close my eyes for a moment I can still feel […]

And just like that, a grey and white kitten showed up…. Thank you for choosing that day to go exploring, Ed.  We are eternally grateful to you for bringing light to our lives at such a sad time.  You’ve grown into a fine Grey Cat and you make me smile every day.

Miss you, little Gulli.  You are never forgotten. I wish you were here with us still, so you could have met Ed, and Barrett, and Seamus.  Your kindness would have made their moving in with us that much easier.  Making new friends was your favorite thing (besides dessert), and I know that you would have […]

Aside from getting a dog, we’re also moving. Wish I could tell you that it was to Canada, or Maine, or Oregon, but alas, we’re just moving within the PGH city limits.  A number of factors came into play with this decision.  Dissatisfaction with our current ‘hood (Greenfield, for those in the 412) has been […]

I’d just about given up this blog because really, who reads personal blogs anymore?  But I have some major life events happening that I suppose might need more space and detail to discuss than what Facebook lends itself to. So as everyone knows by now, we got a dog.  His name is Seamus Arthur, and […]

Not sure if this qualifies as a #WastesofTime&Energy post.  Maybe I need to create a Wastes of Time & Energy: History Edition category?  Anyhoo… The world’s gerbil-like attention span has long since moved on from the Richard III discovery to other things, but for the truly invested, committed, and obsessed among us (We few, we happy […]

It’s been brought to my attention that my mom’s cat, Myrna is a reader of this blog.  That brings total readership up to four! In honor of that milestone, today’s post is for Myrna.  Actually, I stumbled across this while searching YouTube for educational videos about Siamese cats.  Were you aware that there was a […]

Happy 3rd birthday to my favorite kitty, Ed, Eddard, Eddie, Eddie-spaghetti, S’ghetti-cat! Seems like only yesterday when Fortune (thanks Gulli!) sent little Ed Chigliak-Greer (aka Pretty Boy *eye roll*) wandering into our path.  Since that start and after a nerve-wracking period as a kitten hellion, Eddie has matured into a surprisingly mellow grown-up.  A lap-cat […]

Feb.4, 2013.  A lost King is freed from the clutches of history, and returned to the real world to look us in the face.  King Richard is dead; Long Live King Richard. University of Leicester Announces Discovery of King Richard III I have been enthralled…ok, obsessed, with the story of Richard III for many, many […]

So I shouldn’t quit my day job and become a bookie, my prediction was wrong.  Though Shaun was trying his damndest and landing triple-corks at slope-style practice, he was not able to transform that into a win in the finals.  In fact, he came in 5th and fell pretty embarrassingly twice.  (Though for what it’s […]

  Five years today, and I still miss that face.  Love you, Heath.  Hope it’s nice where you are.

It’s been one full year since we adopted “Archie”, still sneezing and coughing from a URI, from Animal Friends. In many ways, it’s been a hard year and having Barrett hasn’t always been easy.  (That URI took months to finally clear up all the way, for one thing!) But if I had a dollar for […]

Today is Barrett Benedict’s Birthday!  Or so we have decreed. Naturally, since B came from a shelter, we have no idea of his birth date or even his real age.  All we have to go on is that the folks who surrendered him (at the end of Oct.2011) said they’d had him for 11 months.  […]

Of all the things I did not expect, I did not expect a Frank Capra ending for Nala’s story. But let me back up… Saturday we went to Animal Friends to visit Nala, and to hopefully convince my mom to adopt her.  We saw that Nala was happy and healthy and enjoying herself in the […]

Warning: Long, incoherent, stream-of-consciousness post. I think I need a life coach.  I want to be able to hire a professional to make decisions for me — why isn’t such a service available?  You go to some trained counselor-type person, present them with your options, your pros and cons, and they analyze your situation, read […]

All of the photos from our Ireland trip are here: https://plus.google.com/photos/105735591854862170461/albums/5804094132065303345 By the way, Google, I hate your new way of displaying photo albums. I suppose I should do a full write-up, but I feel drained just thinking about it.  There were some aspects about it that, in retrospect, make me glad to have gone.  […]

Today is a holiday in our house, although this year it will be tinged with sadness.  We always called it simply, “Gandalf Day.” Eighteen years ago today, a grey and white kitten with a pink nose took up residence with us, and used his great sorcery to transform our family forever after. What’s bizarre is […]

This is the update on Nala the Porch Cat, who was “owned” by my neglectful Jerry Springer neighbors, the same people who lost Ed.  Having been through this past week, I’m more convinced than ever that Ed was saved from a terrible fate and sent to us by a higher power (thanks, Gulli!) We (along […]

Last year, I spent pretty much all summer going to physical therapy 2 or 3 times per week after experiencing really bad pain in my right knee.  I’d started trying to up the speeds on my interval sprinting, and suddenly, OW!  The pain was on the side of the knee, and mainly hurt when either […]