Day 55 - Water Balloon to the Face

This was summer.  Remember summer?  It's warm in summer.  It's cold right now. 

But soon it will be spring - and then it will be summer, again!  Yay!

This was taken at our local park - during what our church did instead of Vacation Bible School - a little something called 'Kids Camp.'  We sent out invitations, but also took in kids who were just at the park hanging out.  Like every VBS, we had food, we had songs, we had Bible stories, and we had games.  This night, it was water games.  Because it was summer.  And it was hot outside.  :)

I think I managed to grab a pretty decent action shot here.  Our former youth pastor, Rick, shares his love by exploding a balloon in a poor gal's face.  :) 

Day 54 - Bubbles in a Bottle

This was just one of those happy little accidents that Bob Ross used to talk about.  I was cleaning out this soap dispenser so I could refill it.  I dumped out the water and all of these pretty little bubbles were left behind. 

I had just gotten my digital camera and saw an opportunity.  I think it turned out kinda cool. 

Day 53 - Sophie Doo

This is the world's most perfect cat.  And she's mine.  You lose. 

Sophie was found in a church parking lot in town, young and pregnant.  She was taken in by a sweet family who found homes for all the kittens and then brought her to me for her vaccinations and to be spayed.  I still remember examining her prior to surgery and how loving she was and how much and how loudly she purred. 

Not long after she was spayed, she was back at the clinic again.  She was hurt.  She had been bitten by another cat and had an infection in her foot.  I gave her antibiotics and sent her home.  Then a few weeks later, she was back!  Again - she had infected bite wounds from being in a fight.

The owners had dropped her off and when I called them to find out what was going on, they said that their son had asthma so they couldn't keep Sophie inside.  But she was not getting along well in the neighborhood as the other outside cats were picking on her.  They wanted to find her a new home and asked me to keep her at the clinic until they or we found her a new family.

My staff all urged me "Dr. BROWN - you LOVE her!  Take her home!"

I wasn't as keen on the idea - Neema was still just a pup and although I knew she loved cats, I wasn't so sure that Sophie would love her back.  And I just wasn't sure about having two pets.

But I took her home to just 'see.'  :)  You 'SEE' what happened. 

She's so wonderful.  Really.

She's the kind of cat that when I sit down, she waits a while before she gets up on my lap.  But then she settles in and stretches out and purrs and purrs.  Occasionally she'll stretch her legs out and touch her paw to my face and just leave it there.  She slept at the foot of the bed for years - though now she sleeps right next to me.  I can move her down to the end if I need to and she'll stay.  She is friendly to everyone.  And when she has to bring up a hairball - she never does it on the carpet.  She always does it on the tile or on a little rug that can be washed.  And when her bladder gets inflamed and she feels to need to pee somewhere other than the litterbox - she pees in the bathtub.  Perfection!  You can't teach a cat that kind of behavior.

She does a 180 when she goes to the clinic, now, though.  She screams bloody murder like she would like to eat your face off - but she never ever tries to bite or scratch.  We just laugh at her because we know she's not going to hurt anyone.  Her only less-than-perfect quirk. 


The oldest cat patients I've ever had were Siamese - living to be 20 years old.  I sure hope Sophie Doo makes it that long.  Don't tell my other cats, but she's my favorite.  :)

Day 52 - Eliza and Maggie

My beautiful niece, Eliza and her sweet dog, Maggie.  :) 

No worries, her snaggle-tooth issues are over now.  

Day 51 - McAfee Knob

This picture was taken on the last of my backpacking trips.  This was September 23rd, 2005.  It was a warm day and there a nice breeze up on McAfee Knob - one of the AT's most photographed spots.  This was most definitely the longest backpacking trip I had taken - we hiked all day.  I can't remember now how far we actually hiked - but we walked along a very long ridgeline to spend the night at Tinker Cliffs.  You can see the ridgeline under the Knob - the cliffs are at the end.  I don't know if it's good or bad when you can stand on a vista and see where you are going.  I remember thinking "that looks really, really far away."

But Paul has hiked the entire AT before in one lump - so he's quite the expert.  Paul and I had also done a lot of hiking before so he knew my limitations.  Glenda is tough as rocks and had done far more backpacking and outdoor extremist activities than I had.  Paul had originally planned for us to make this a 2 nighter trip, incorporating Dragon's Tooth into the mixture, but for some reason we decided on a 1 nighter.   I'm really glad.  It was hard. 

Glenda is a nurse - and we set out on this adventure after she had worked an overnight 12 hour shift!  No sleep for her - just a brutal work-out of a hiking day.  She is so tough!

We had a feast of mac-n-cheese and tuna and then settled into our sleeping bags right there on the edges of Tinker Cliffs.  No tent.  No shelter.  Just a sleeping bag on the ground with a freaked-out dog next to me.  Neema and I again did not sleep that night - she kept growling at the deer and turkeys moving around behind us.  When we got up for breakfast, she crawled into my sleeping bag and passed out.

We hiked down a different way than how we came - I remember crossing over barbed-wire fences via these cool wooden stairs.  The AT winds through a lot of private land - and farmers seem ok with that as long as you don't mess anything up.

I also remember Paul's words "going up a trail is hard, but going down hurts."  That really is true.  

After a shower and a good meal - I also remember sleeping really, really well in my own bed.  :) 

So worth it, though. 

Day 50 - Glenda the Ghost

This is a picture of the living room of my house.  When I first bought it, Glenda was my roommate.  She came with me from the apartment we lived in for 2 years prior.  She looks like a ghost in this picture due to the long exposure.  :)

The living room looks exactly the same.  The only difference is the carpet is not as clean and the TV is bigger in the entertainment center.  EVERY person who came over always commented on how little my TV was.  I have to admit, watching football on that little screen while sitting on the couch was a bit tough.  Oh, I also have curtains now instead of those blinds.

I bought the entertainment center at Lowe's when they still sold furniture like this - got it on clearance, in fact.  My good buds Paul and Bob put it together for me and I stained it all by myself!  It was the first wood project I ever stained and I learned a valuable lesson:  always stir stain REALLY WELL before you use it.  I stained the upper doors first, then did the rest of the cabinet, and stained the bottom doors last.  The top doors were brown and the bottom ones were a really dark red.  Oops.  Time has evened them out and no one would even know if I didn't tell them.  :)

The night of this picture we had a housewarming party and so many of our friends came to wish us well in our new abode.  We had a ton of food and a ton of fun.  :)

If you look at the picture in full size (just click on it) you will see the African Sunrise picture that is the 1st post of this blog hanging on the wall.  :)

Day 49 - Hot Glass

This picture was taken at Sunspots Studios in Staunton, VA.  Matt and I went there the day after Christmas last year to make our very own glass ornaments.  It was super cool.  This was Matt's ornament - and the craftsman was putting the hook on top of it.  He would reach into this super hot kiln and pull out a blob of glass and make a 'hershey kiss' on top of the ornament.  It cooled very quickly as he formed it into a loop.  It was hard to get a good picture of it, but I think this one turned out pretty nice.