"Long Live Buffy..."

Yes, the cat that could never get enough attention ever, has passed on at the ripe old age of 14 1/2. She went through a lot it seems. Her tail got run over by a car and it had to be removed, so Buffy would walk around like a bunny rabbit. But it was still a bit of a shock to all of us to not see her around anymore. Here are a few pix I managed to take of her over the years:



This was taken in 2005...I just noticed the green color differential in her eyes...pretty neat.



Fast forward to this year...she was one of the few cats who could do this ha ha. Should have gotten her on Letterman as a stupid pet trick.

So now Buffy has gone on to that great big ball of yarn in the sky, but fear not! The Garcia's have went ahead and found a new cat...and his name is Joey:



This cat has energy off the roof. Not like Buffy, who found that even walking from one spot to take a nap to another spot to take a nap involved a lot of manual labour.



The flash from the camera really lit up his eyes. I hope I didn't do any permament vision damage. I doubt it. Aren't cats supposed to see better in the dark anyways?



Yes, I admit, I'm more partial to cats than dogs. Wouldn't you be? Cats don't give a flip if you're around or not...they just go by their own drummer. Dogs, on the other hand...can't believe their good luck that anyone wants to spend any time with them...ever. Not a dog fan. All they do is smell. Bad.

So now that we have a new member of the family, things are returning back to normal. What is normal? Who knows really. The kids want a cat but we have literally nowhere to put a litter box and Cari doesn't want it going outside. But wouldn't all animals be more comfortable in their own surroundings? I think you could put any animal in a hous elong enough and it was get complacent after a while. Imagine a lion that jumped in your lap and demanded to be pet? Not easy to do. This is what I think about on a daily basis. I probably need something to keep me busy. But what?

"More Soccer...?"

But of course!!

When you live in our family, the weekends usually revolve around someone's soccer games! Somehow, Zach and Emmy's games haven't been scheduled at the same time yet, so we've been able to see all of them. Zach is 0-2 to start out right now but they're improving. A few pix:



Here he was getting his group picture taken. He is usually horsing around with the other kids, but in this shot he almost looks a little sad...who knows what he was thinking...



Zach: "Hey, you in the orange shirt! How am I supposed to kick the ball if you're always there also kicking it?"
Orange shirt: "Are you talking to me?"
Zach: "Yeah! Go sit in the bench so I can kick it more!"
Orange shirt: "Well, my coach will get real mad at me...but okay!"

Emmy's team, the "Eclipse", is also 0-2 but they look real good lately:



Emily: "Oh man, I shouldn't have eaten that Mexican food right before the game...darn you Pancho's!!"

She's been playing soccer for around...five years now! Let's see if I can find one of her earlier soccer pictures:



Wow...what a difference five years makes. Emmy is really good at soccer but lately her interest has moved to softball, so this will probably be her last soccer season. I know deep down she had more fun than she will ever let on. I played a grand total of one soccer season, and all I remember is the coach screaming at me until he was red in the face. I should get that picture out and scan it sometime. Maybe I will one of these days. Anyways...I knew right then and there that playing soccer was not in the cards for me. But it's fun to kick the ball around with Zach and Emmy during practices. Maybe they will take better memories with them as they grow up. Isn't that what life is all about anyways?

"What A Fun Weekend!"

But Mike, what on Earth was so much fun??

Well, calm down and I'll tell you...

Thanks to the magic of sick days, I took a long four day weekend and managed to have a little fun here and there. I always save some sick days for Cari's birthday because I like to go up to her office with some flowers and a card and try to surprise her. Well, this week she decided to work at home Thursday and Friday, so that took the surprise away. Well, I went and got her a card and some flowers anyway and managed to sneak them into the kitchen and fix them up real nice:



Pink! Kroger's didn't have any red ones but these looked really nice. They opened up nicely. I got her a card and usually I try to make it as funny as I can, but this time I really let her know how much she means to me. I used up the whole blank space!

I managed to also make my way up to the school and had lunch with Zach and Emmy:



McDonald's of course. Cheeseburgr Happy Meal with a Power Rangers toy!:



Zach is so into Power Rangers right now. It kind of took me by surprise because he was never really into a lot of typical boy things, but now he's getting into them more. Here's a Power Rangers clip if you don't know who they are:



Yes, we can now get back into Youtube here at work!! The drought is over.

And, last but not least, I got Braum's for me and Emmy:



She is fascinated by really long french fries! They're pretty cool, I have to admit. Then we got a shot of us that turned out really well:



Then she went and posted it on Facebook and I was wondering who would go on there and say "Hey, you don't look sick to me!"...and they did...but twas all in fun.



Friday night we went to the Ranger game! Darvish pitched great and we won! World Series here we come! I even got to meet Randy Galloway in the KidsZone! He's one of my favourite writers / sports personalities.

Saturday night Zach spent the night with Mom and Emmy went to Keri's house and us, the Barkers, and the Morrows went to Choctaw!! I didn't do very well but I was up around $145 at one point but I kept going and going until it dwindled...ah well. What a rush. We didn't even leave until almost 2am, so we must have been doing something right. On the way there I alsmot hit the pylons along the HOV lane and skidded out of control but thank goodness no one hit us! We were pretty shaken but everyone was okay. Ugh, why do these things happen to me? Sunday we went to Chuy's with Cari's parents and they gave her a Kourig coffee carousel and some cups of coffee! She's been wanting one of these for a while. Now she just needs to coffeemaker itself which I am supposed to get her next weekend when there is some more money available. I really wish we lived in a world that didn't need money as much as it does. Zach seems driven to earn as much as he can and he's only six. I keep trying to instill in him to not put money before the things that really matter, like God and family. Hopefully he will get the hint someday. One thing I'm not worried about is his ability to take care of himself when he's all grown up. He's already said he wants it be president when he grows up. Who dare stop him, ya know?

"What A Long Week!!"

But Mike, you only had to work four days this week. Shouldn't it have felt like a short week? What's the dealio?

Well, I'll tell you what the "dealio" is. First of all, I haven't felt good at all this week. A combination of a bad cough and insomnia has just shut me down mentally and physically. I managed to go to work every day though! Very proud of me. If I'm planning on taking some sick days next week, I need to make it in every day whether I'm up for it or not. And that was everyday this week. Plus, Wednesday night, I had just taken some NyQuil and was planning on a goodnight's sleep when I saw this bug buzzing around our ceiling fan! I thought it was a moth, but when I turned the light on, it was a giant roach! Cari and I spent the last hour hunting it down. Literally. We moved dressers, curtains, TVs, clothes...and at 11:30 that night, I managed to stun it, and slayed it. Cari, who is normally freaked out by bugs, was quite invaluable as a look out and managed to see it when I couldn't. Maybe we should go into business together. Nah...

Sunday I woke up and Zach was already up, so we took a trip down to...you guessed it...the hidden park!:



Love this shot! I raved about it right after I took it. Zach wasn't as thrilled, which made me sad. Just kidding. Haven't met a 6 year old yet who was obsessed with the "perfect picture".



We managed to find the secret path down to the riverbank! The way we usually go to the park there is a steep wall that we probably could climb, but it just isn't worth it. So we drove around and went to the other side. The path was kind of steep but Zach and I are troopers. Was touch and go there for a while though. I almost got dirt on me!



Aww, what a good shot of us. Backwards hats and all...



We even saw a spider! I have no idea what kind it is but Zach had never seen one so big before. We walked away from it and when we came back it was gone! Maybe it thought we were going to squash it. What a life when that's always on your mind.

We also got together with Mom and Keri for the last of Emmy's birthday lunches:



What a great shot. Keri really does look like Emmy when she was her age.



And, what get-together would be complete without a shot of Zach doing THIS. A photographer's dream and nightmare all wrapped up together.

I found my baby book this week! It had been packed in with a lot of papers we held onto but now we need to clean out as it won't be 2005 ever again ha ha. So I'm looking through it (I'll scan some pics and throw them on here next week) and I wish I could remember the circumstances of some of those pictures, but there's one of me with our cat Frances sleeping next to me. I do remember Frances though. Just the nicest cat you ever met. Totally forgot there was a picture of me and her in there. Cari's parents' cat just died and they're looking for a new one, so that caused me to stroll down cat Memory lane a little. We should get a cat for Zach and Emmy. Hopefully we can swing one by the end of the year. Kids should have pets I guess. Even when they die.