I've never been good at blogging and even worse since all the health problems with hubby then myself hit. I had an "exacerbation" in July. Isn't that such a lovely technical term? After that I got a cold... for six weeks. When it rains it pours.

I suspect the exacerbation was due to stress which was the result of dealing with some people from the server where I used to play World of Warcraft. I found out someone had altered a website banner I had created and stripped my signature from it. When I told them they had no right to do so, it completely degenerated (on their part) into flaming me and basically them saying they had the art and they were going to do whatever they wanted with it. I was already in contact with a plagiarism and copyright representative and notifying those people and asking them to stop using my art was simply fulfilling my requirement in the legal process. I recently visited the site and see that my stolen art is no longer being used. I suspect that somebody really did do a bit more research and came to the realization that the law was on my side and all the libel from the site users only made the issue look even worse for them. The most hilarious bit was one person who claimed to know from my online galleries that I was trying to get back at them. Really? What galleries? I've barely been able to update this one! Is my Evil Twin Skippy posting somewhere and I don't know about it???!!

The best part of this summer was finally getting to see my dad! I hadn't seen him for at least four years. He drove down from Connecticut and spent a week with us. Thankfully, my dad is a low maintenance guest and we didn't do much other than visit a few restaurants, drive around town (he loved all the Historic District), visit the Cathedral Square Gallery, check out the used book stores and hang around the house. It was a wonderful week! We took him to Wintzel's Oyster House (the original one downtown) for some good seafood and then tried several BBQ places around town. He's already making plans to come back next year and a list of BBQ places to try!

About two weeks ago my husband found a week-old kitten (his eyes weren't open) in the parking lot at his work. He brought the little guy home, we named him Arthur and tried to hand nurse him. He lasted five days and died in my hand. We buried him in our back yard and we were so upset that we decided to go out and adopt another kitten. We visited the MSPCA and Mobile County Animal Rescue (went back and forth between the two several times) and finally decided on an adorable little female calico kitten which we named Ginger. Of course, we also looked at all the puppies and dogs and saw a Rottweiler that we liked a lot but she had just come in to County Rescue and had to stay a week for observation. I called every day and left several voice mails and they FINALLY called me back this Wednesday and told me to come get her! We've named her Sonja (pronounced Sonya) and although she has some health problems (heart worm & severe diarrhea) I think we got a wonderful dog!

Oh, and the real irony of all this? Canine Companions for Independence called the day after we got Sonja (our goal being to train her to help me with picking up stuff etc.) and told me I'm a good candidate for an assistance dog and sent me their full application. Well, I know with them I'll have a wait of approximately 4-6 months after I submit the completed application, so that's plenty of time to get Sonja basic obedience training and perhaps some more!

Our "family" is growing!