"Extinguish All Rational Thought"

The title is a quote from "The Independent".  They were commenting on how the royal pregnancy news has "instantly eclipsed all other news".

I hope Kate Middleton (Dutchess Kate) decides to go into hiding during her pregnancy.  The press is not going to leave her alone and is going to turn it into a circus.  I don't think she will, though.  The press is already speculating about her maternity fashions.

There has already been a scandal about the DJs that called the hospital under false pretenses, and now the person who spoke to them has been found dead.  Good grief!

I am happy for them, of course.  But I also feel sorry for anyone who has to put up with that kind of scrutiny.

Blogger Woes

I am woefully uninformed when it comes to Blogger and Google.  I stumbled onto Blogger years ago when I began reading other blogs.  I finally decided to set up my own blog using Blogger because it was all I knew.  Over the years, Blogger has forced several changes on me, and I have adapted as best I could.  Now there has been another change, and it has me stumped!

Suddenly I received a message that I no longer have space to post photos.  If I want more space I have to sign up to pay a monthly fee to Picasa.  Picasa???!!!  Where did THAT come from?  I never signed up for anything called Picasa.  I wasn't even aware of its existence.  I keep my photos in my iPhoto file, and I post them from there.

Apparently, Blogger or Google, or whoever is in charge, has linked my photos to this mysterious "Picasa" thing. Are they messing with my iPhoto file?  It seems someone has been.  Suddenly I can't find my photos in order of when I put them there; they are all scrambled up.  Some of them I can't find at all.

It's all very frustrating.  I don't even know if the Apple store can help me, because I don't think this is an Apple issue.  Is there a Blogger store where I can go?  Is there a Picasa "genius" somewhere I can consult?

I find that I am not alone.  I read other bloggers and suddenly they are facing the same issues.  Suddenly this "Picasa" thing is demanding money from them!  My blog friend Rachel in England has decided to create a new blog, on Wordpress.  What is Wordpress?  How do you find it?  How does it work?  I have no idea!  This blogging business has become a huge mystery to me.  Why couldn't it just stay the same?  How do I adapt?  I don't know!  I want to keep blogging right here because it's all I know how to do.  They aren't making it easy though...

This Is So Cool!

Watch this video if you want to be amazed.  These "strandbeests" were featured this morning, on "CBS Sunday Morning".

II

A New Month and A New Anti-Depressant

I like the drawing above because it has a dog and a cat in it, along with the Christmas tree.  They are wearing Santa hats, which makes them whimsical to me.  I like whimsy.  I like how the dog is behind the "b" and the "e" but the cat is sitting on top of an "e".  If I bring anything new into the house, one of the cats just has to go over and sit on it.

I went to my doctor on Monday, as I mentioned previously.  He diagnosed "stress" and gave me a new prescription. I have been taking it all week and haven't noticed much difference yet, but am hopeful for a "whole new me".  I remember when I first started taking Prozac, about twenty years ago.  I had been withdrawn and sad.  After being on Prozac for a while I found myself at a party, and to my surprise, I was talking and laughing with other people.  It was a dramatic change.

What I am hoping for now is a higher energy level.  I seem to be tired all the time, and look forward to my bed at night a lot more than I should.  I recently read about an iPhone app called "from the couch to a 5K".  I downloaded it and am hoping it will get me up and running (literally).

More Cats...

There is a new kitty on our deck.  She is younger than the others, and just showed up one day.  She seems very curious about us.

This is a really bad photo because there is a screen and a dirty window between her and me.  But she looked so cute posing up there that I took it anyway.

This is another recent addition to the colony.  We call her "Two Face".  The first time I saw this face at the window it startled me a little.

We're not sure where all these kitties come from.  There must be a network out there in which they tell each other where to come for food.  We have adopted three of them, and have had thirteen of them spay/neutered.  We really depend on our next door neighbors to feed them when we go out of town.  Thank goodness we have neighbors who like cats!

Could It Be Stress?

My head has been spinning...

and my tummy has been acting up.

Today I went to the doctor.  He said it could be stress.

I have had a couple of months worrying about my mom and helping her adjust to widowhood and aging.  She has been feeling overwhelmed by probate issues and by a house that's falling apart.  I am the oldest daughter, so I have been trying my best to help.  I think the worry has been affecting me more than I realized.

I have also been dealing with issues of where and how my husband and I want to spend our retirement. One issue is money; will we have enough savings to support ourselves?  It's a common worry these days, I know.  Another issue is where we want to live.  We used to live in Philadelphia area, and we have good friends there.  We just spent a week in Mexico with them, and it makes us realize how much we would like to be close to them again. They live in a condo designed for 55 and over residents.

There is a lovely condo that is just waiting for us there, if we want to buy it.

Right now we live in a cozy little house in Kentucky.  I like the house and we are near family, but we have no friends here other than our next door neighbors.  We have a little colony of feral cats that we care for, with our neighbors' help.  I worry about what would happen to them if we should move away.  I know it sounds silly to some people, but I feel attached to them.  Also, I have found myself feeling attached to the countryside around here, and I think I could miss it.

So, do I want a quiet, rural existence with little or no social life, or do I want to move back to Philadelphia and have a busier, more lively social life?

Or, on the other hand...

I would love to live in a cottage in Hawaii. I love Hawaii; it's my favorite place in the world and I feel happiest there.  I have suggested to my husband that we sell everything and prepare to move ourselves and our four cats to Hawaii. We could live there during our sixties and seventies, and be happy in our old age.  Who knows what will happen to us in our eighties and nineties, if we live that long?

The fact that we have only a few more decades of active life left is putting me into a bit of a panic, I'm afraid.  I want to make the best of things before we find ourselves in my mom's position.  So I am feeling stress about indecision and a sense of having only so much time.  I need to stop stressing.

The Day After Thanksgiving

Yesterday we went to my sister's house, where they were putting up their Christmas tree.  Last year they had a nine-foot tree, but the lights wouldn't work.  So Todd and Sarah went to buy a new tree.  Sarah talked her father into buying a twelve-foot tree this time.  It's pretty big!

The kids were playing games:

I think Molly has her game face on...

Sarah was using Sammy as a pillow (Sammy is a very patient dog).

Well, I solved my photo storage problem by giving up and paying for more storage.  I still think it was a big rip-off, but I tried creating a whole new blog and that didn't work either.  I guess I will have to stop using those extra-large photos.