Saturday, Squeakers left on his epic journey to his only home in Omak,
Washington.  His owner, Simeon, got out of the army and is taking
Squeakers home with him.  We're already missing them both.  They're
currently in Jefferson City, Missouri, staying with relatives and
waiting for the weather to become clear enough to continue their travels.

The cats were very needful after the Squeaks left.  Tanada went wiggy
and was upside downy head and was making sure that we know that she
loves us.  Huey moped all day and is acting clingy.  Poor kid.

Berfert is in sore need of dental work.  We're waiting for the money
from the closing of the house to get the work done.  We re-financed it
and should be getting some money from someone soon.

Rob went in for his first medical exam for social security disability
payments.  The doctor who examined him says that he's disabled.  Now we
have to get past the second doctor and hope he agrees.  Sigh.  We only
signed up for this three months ago.  We also have his VA
re-certification appointment coming up.  He has to prove that he's 100%
disabled for the VA to keep sending him the current amount of money each
month.  Rob has been depressed and thinks that the VA is just waiting
for him to die so that they won't have to pay out more money.

Having Smokey, Grayling, or whatever his name is and Speedy the wonder
mutt around has helped keep Rob busy.  He's been in charge of Speedy
when Mandy isn't around to take care of him.  Speedy has a delicate
digestion and cannot eat people food.  We discovered this over the
holiday.  Speedy ate turkey and ham with disastrous consecuences...to
the living room rug.  We went through a lot of Oxyclean this weekend.

On the bright side, Speedy is filling out nicely.  You can hardly tell
that he was skin and bones when we first got him.  Smokey, Grayling, or
whatever his name is has a little pot belly now.  Rob agrees with me
that he's got a happy tummy.

The family quilt is still in process.  I'll try to get a picture when I
get it finished.  It is going to be huge.  It seems strange not to be
doing cross stitch lately, and I haven't figured out why I haven't been
working on it.  Maybe it's Huey and Merlin's penchant for biting
threads.  Whatever, I have a lot of projects to work on.

Walmart has HP computers, complete with everything except the printer
for $500.  We're thinking about getting two if our escrow money gets
here in time.  Mandy will get his computer and Mike can have hers.  Rob
will have a great new toy to play with and I'll be able to get on the
net without the d*mn computer shutting down on me like it did the other
day when I was trying to send messages to Yowie.  Sorry Yowie, I just
got tired of the blasted thing.  I really HATE windows XP.

Because of the time thing, and the computer thing, and the laziness
thing, I haven't been on the group as much as I'd like.  Please accept
my apologies, and my cats' purrs and meatloaf meditations for everyone
who needs and wants them.  Just because I'm not posting offering purrs
and kind thoughts, doesn't mean we're not sending them out.  We all love
you guys and are already treasuring five holiday cards from some of the
most wonderful and creative people in the world.

Pam S. feeling all warm and fuzzy inside