English and Russian animal sounds video

You all get a huge treat tonight.  Not only do you get to see my smiling face and Jon's, well, not really smiling, face and an extra post; but you also get to hear the difference in English and Russian animal sounds.

In case you're not sure what this is all about, check out this original post.

(Oh, and make sure you're sitting down and not drinking water...or other beverages that you don't want to spit out).

This happened to me last night

It was 2 am and I was sleeping soundly.  Suddenly, Cailey (the white dog), started pacing the room (imagine little dog nails all over the hardwood floor: tap tap tap tap tap).  I woke up, turned over and shushed Cailey and told her to go to bed.



I went to pee (because that’s what happens when you wake me up – I have to go pee almost immediately. Overshare? Maybe.)

Then I climbed back into bed and tried to fall back asleep.

That’s when Travis (the black dog) started growling.  I shushed him too.



Then both dogs started making all sorts of annoying noises that made me a little nervous.  So I shushed them and tried to listen.  That’s when I heard noises of someone digging around on my porch (it ends at the bedroom window, so it’s pretty easy to tell).

Now I have to take you back to that evening.  It was pouring out and I was cleaning up from dinner.  The trash stunk, so I decided to remove it from the kitchen but I didn’t feel like walking down the stairs and underneath my porch to put it in the bin.  So I did what I often do – I threw the bag on the porch and closed the slider door.

Okay, we’re back to 2 am.  Travis and Cailey are being annoying (read: trying to warn us that there is someone on my porch) and I’m starting to really freak out.  So I shake Jon awake (who is Mr.s Grump-grump if you wake him up at night) and tell him that there is someone on the porch.  Mr. Grump-grump gets up and walks out of the bedroom, closing the door behind him.  Now I’m super freaked out because my man just left me in the bedroom with two dogs on high alert and was walking directly into danger-zone (read: my porch).

There was the sound of the slider being opened, followed by some scrambling on the porch, followed by some other weird sounds, followed by Jon’s (I was hoping) footsteps approaching the bedroom.  He mumbled, “raccoons” under his breath, slid back into bed, and promptly fell asleep.

The dogs, too, settled right down in their dog beds and fell asleep.

I stayed up the rest of the night, wondering if the raccoons were coming back to get me.  Or if the bat that attacked us on our first year anniversary was back for more.

I'm singing in the rain

Okay. So there's no rain.  And I'm not singing.  But my dogs are!

If you're feeling a little glum today, check out this video of Cailey and Travis singing when our house phone rings.




Funny story.

The first time I learned about Cailey and Travis's beautiful singing voices, I was taking a shower.  I was home alone on a warm summer day and, since Cai and Trav have a tendency to get into some trouble when we're not looking, I decided to shower with the bathroom door open so I could keep an eye on them.

As usual, the two pups settled down on the rug in front of the bathtub with a deep sigh.  I dumped way too much shampoo on my hair.

Suddenly, both dogs jumped up in alert and bolted out of the bathroom and into the hallway.  I tensed up.  Then I heard the horrible howling that sounded like someone was pulling my dogs apart limb by limb.  Panicking, I jumped out of the shower, soaking wet, with shampoo in my hair, squinting through the soapiness, and ran into the hallway.

Now I have no idea what I was thinking.  Maybe I thought that the sadistic burglar ripping my dogs' limbs apart would take one look at me in my birthday suit with soap in my hair and bolt.  Maybe I wasn't thinking at all.

But I didn't find a burglar.  I found my dogs.  Sitting in the hallway, staring at the ringing phone, singing.

A pregnancy must have - the body pillow

Right around the time Peanut made her presence known to us via a positive pregnancy test, I started experiencing a lot of back pain.  It was kind of "fun" at first because it was my first real pregnancy symptom, but it got old pretty fast.  On top of it, I totally stopped sleeping.

By about 4 months it got so bad I actually started seeing a Chiropractor to help me out.  It helped so much with the back aches, but I was still having trouble sleeping.

By 5-6 months I was feeling much better with the help of the chiropractor, but I could never really get comfortable.  At night, I tossed and turned like crazy.  I spent an hour or two each evening laying around in the dark, hoping to fall asleep but rarely succeeding. On top of it I woke up multiple times each night, unable to ever get comfortable. 

I know that many of you who are or were pregnant probably experienced a lot more than just some back aches and lack of sleep, so I never really thought too much about mine.  I figured I was getting off easy.  Yet, by 6 months I was pretty annoyed with the lack of sleep and the tossing and the turning.  And Jon was too.  One night we were both super annoyed with my new habbit of tossing and sighing and turning that Jon suggested I look up a body pillow that many pregnant women buy.  I didn't waste any time and read every review online.  I finally settled on this pillow:



The reviews were pretty good with the exception of the pillow taking up too much of the bed space.  I asked Jon if he would mind but by that point I think he was willing to sleep on the floor if only I would stop waking him up in the middle of the night.  He urged me to buy the pillow.  After a little hesitation, I finally gave in.







The pillow came in just in the nick of time.  Jon was gone on another one of his work trips for the whole week and the pillow arrived the first evening I was home alone.  I eagerly unwrapped it and put it on the bed.

Okay, so it took up a lot of space.  I guess it was a good thing that I was home alone?

That first night was the most amazing night of my life.  Or at least my pregnancy life.

Not only did I fall asleep almost as soon as my head hit this gigantic pillow, but I didn't wake up until my alarm rang.  I'm not even sure that's ever happened to me before I got pregnant.

On a side note, I've been getting up to go pee 2-4 times each night starting around 2 months.  That night was the first night I didn't get up to go pee in the middle of the night - that's how deep my sleep was.  By 6 am I bolted out of bed and barely made it to the bathroom.  I guess getting up in the middle of the night was probably a good thing at least for that reason.

The rest of the week went by smoothly.  I slept like a baby.  I woke up feeling refreshed.  My back was feeling great.  But I was a bit nervous about Jon coming home.

On Friday, the hubs returned from his trip and finally saw the new addition to our sleeping arrangements.  He laughed, but seemed to be okay with it.  We had to adjust a little the first night but generally it worked out really well.

Then Saturday morning I woke up early, refreshed after a great night's sleep, and decided to take the dogs for a walk.  I got back to this:

Somehow I don't think the hubs minded the pillow all that much.

In fact, it took me over an hour to get him out of it and to get going.

Needles to say, the pillow's a hit.

On a more serious note, here's some pros and cons about the pillow.

It is pretty big and takes up about half of our queen size bed.  This isn't so bad if your hubs is willing to share (mine's a keeper).  It's also kind of bulky on all accounts so if you're into really thin pillows (which I am), it takes a bit to get used to.  It's also super hard to get all the blankets wrapped up around yourself when there is so much pillow around you.  And the one thing that really does bug me about it is trying to get in and out of it.  When I was a bit smaller, it was no big deal.  But each evening it gets harder and harder.  Now in the middle of the night I find it to be a huge pain.

On the plus side, it is amazing.  If you find yourself tossing and turning, unable to get comfortable, this might be a good solution.  I just love how it contours my entire body from head to toe.  I feel like it hugs me from ever angle.  The fact that it's all around you is also super helpful when you want to turn around in the middle of the night.  No matter which way I face (there are only 2 options by this point), the pillow is always there for me.  I love the thickness because it aleviates the pressure on my back, allowing me to sleep even better.

Overall, if I had to do it all over again I might go for the pillow that's on one side of your body like tihs one:

I think it'd be easier to get up in the middle of the night.

But I don't know if it would allow me to sleep as amazing as I do now.  I do love my pillow and I'm super glad I gave in and bought it.

Heather & Jeff's wedding - continued

Let me tell you a story from my college years.

Heather and Jeff's first dance

Sometime around the end of our first semester at college, Jackie (a dorm mate) and I decided to be daring and get our faces pierced.

First dance

Heather, the amazing and supportive friend that she is, decided to come along with us.  You know, to keep us company.  And to hold my hand.

The Bride with her dad - melt my heart

When we arrived at the tattoo/piercing parlor, Jackie and I picked our rings; hers - a small stud for her nose; mine - a dumbbell for my eye brow.

Bride & Groom at their table

A fierce-looking, tattooed and pierced head-to-toe girl came up to us and escorted us to the back room to get us ready.

Change of dress? Why, of course!

Jackie's nose-piercing took absolutely no time and, apparently, no pain.  I braced for mine.

Cutting the cake

Heather stood by my side and held my hand.  When the girl got ready to pierce my face, Heather squeezed my fingers hard and said "O-M-G-K-A-T!"

Awwww cuteness

The girl looked up at us and said, "Oh - is that some sort of a secret language?"

Heather and I just giggled and said, "No, it's A-I-M!"

Of course, my parents threatened to disown me, told me to never come home again and I had to take my eye brow ring about 2 weeks after I got it.  But you know.  It was still 2 weeks of rebellion on my part.

Clean up on isle 5

By nature I am a very neat person.  If you know me, you know that I have everything put away in tide little containers and my favorite container is a basket.  When we registered for wedding gifts, I put a set of matching baskets on my registry because I was dying to organize our new home.  We had just bought a ranch and were getting married a couple of months later.  It ended up that a few people bought the same sets of baskets for my shower, but I was ecstatic!  There was no way that I would register for that many without letting my future husband know my insanity with putting things into neat little baskets, but this coincidence was too perfect for me to pass it up.  I collected my lute and spent 3 days reorganizing all my shelves to perfection.

Over the next few years I collected many baskets and have put the majority of them out of sight to hide my crazy side from innocent strangers.  People who come in to my house don't tend to be overwhelmed by baskets, however, there are still a few tasteful ones around.

Like this little one.  This basket here is for the dogs toys in the living room.  We have another one full of dog toys in the basement.  We also have a bag full of dog toys that we keep in the closet and rotate the toys in the baskets to keep the pups entertained.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that we have a lot of dog toys.

Buddy just discovered our toy basket.

I think he likes it.

All the dogs and the people in this pack play this game where the dogs go to the toy baskets and pick up some toys,

they chew on them for a little while,

then they strategically place them all over the house.

Then they go back for some more toys.

and place those strategically around the house as well.  Preferably somewhere in the middle of the hallway so I can trip or stub my toe on it.

I usually swear a lot, then clean the toys up and put them back into their respective baskets.

Within minutes the toys are scattered all over the house again.

One time I was sitting in the living room, after cleaning up all the toys and putting them back in the basket when i noticed Travis going to the basket and taking the toys back out.  I sighed and leaned back because this was a losing war.

When he finally jumped up to lay next to me on the couch, I scanned the floor to see the damage.  What I saw still gives me nightmares from time to time.  Travis had taken all the bones out of the basket and stood them up around the floor.  Literally, the bones were all standing vertically.  I looked over at Travis to see if he maybe an alien had taken over his body, but he looked like he always does.

Cute and innocent.

Quack Quack

When I was a teenager, my friends and I enjoyed messing around and pretending that we were all tourists that didn't speak English.  We would go into convenience stores, coffee shops, and other random places and walk around, speaking gibberish loudly.  I have no idea why this was so funny to us, but it was.  We would pretend to be confused by common items like a plunger or toothpaste and giggle through it all.  People would give us dirty looks, but we would just giggle and move on to the next item.

One time we were sitting at a coffee place when 2 boys came over to talk to us.  My friends and I pretended we didn't speak English and kept giggling.  We would mix in Russian and gibberish pretending that we were Europeans.  The boys kept asking us what language we were speaking so we finally gave in and said it was Duck language.  We kept talking in gibberish and then starting inserting quacks for good measure.  They looked a bit confused but then decided that it must be true, because, after all, we were European.  But dare I ask what country speaks Duck?

Everyone in Russia is named Bob

When we were younger, my best friend and I used to be very cruel and mean.  We also loved nothing more than to play with boys' minds, especially if they were dumb enough to believe whatever tales we spun.

One of these times we were out roller blading with some boys.  My friend and I had been speaking Russian to each other, our mutual first language, and giggling up a storm.  The boys asked us what our names were in Russia.  They were literally asking for us to make fun of this because her name is *retracted*...a very Russian name, and mine is Catherine...although Americanized, it's still fairly easy to guess that there is something similar in Russian.  We looked at each other, giggled, and in sync said, "Bob".   Then we giggled some more.  Because we were teenage girls and that's what teenage girls do.

The boys pondered at this fib and decided that it sounded a little fishy.  "Both of your names were Bob?" they asked us.  "Yes.  You see, Russia was communist when she and I were born and in a Communist country everything had to be equal.  So, everyone had to be named Bob.  That's why in Russian, both of our names are Bob.  And our parents weren't born during Communism, so they got to keep their original names."  I spoke seriously.  The boys looked at us and decided that this was just too weird to be untrue and so they agreed that we must, after all, be named Bob.  Because, you know, Communists are scary and weird.

Chicken beater

When Jon and I just moved in together to our first apartment in East Haven, CT, we were both just learning to be on our own.  One of our undertakings was learning how to cook.  At that point my most intricate meal consisted of mac and cheese and I'm pretty sure that I even managed to ruin that.

So about a month or two into our new independent life, I decided to call my mother and ask her how to make chicken.  She explained the many details that went into making chicken, like buying the chicken, salt and peppering it, breading it and then sticking it on the skillet.  One thing she did mention is to make sure that the chicken is kind of thin so it doesn't dry out when I try to overcook it, which I obviously would. 

Jon and I decided that this was totally doable and went to Wal-Mart to get some supplies, like a skillet and breading.  We were walking up and down isles looking for supplies, but I couldn't find the one thing that I really needed.  I walked up the Wal-Mart employee and said, "Excuse me, but do you know where I could find a chicken beater?"

This employee was a young girl who must still be in high school.

The employee looked at me and said, "Do you mean the meat tenderizer?"

Anniversaries and bats

Our first year of marriage was great.  It was everything we wanted.

Okay, realistically, it was fine.  It wasn't really that much different than the year before when we lived together and were engaged.  We laughed, we cried, we fought, we made up.  You know the drill.

Anyways, the story here is about our first anniversary.  Or rather, the night of our first anniversary.  Don't get nervous.  It's not that kind of story.

We went to bed at a reasonable hour and fell asleep like any normal night.  Until about 2am.  I woke up because I had to pee and tried to sneak out of bed as careful as I could without waking up my sleeping husband and puppies.  I slipped out from under the covers and went to the bathroom, then slipped back in, barely breathing.  I succeeded!  Both the husband and the puppies were still sleeping.

And then I heard it.  I heard a scratching by the back of the room, only a couple of feet away from my head.  It sounded like fingers on a black board.  I stopped breathing again, listening to the sound.  I couldn't figure out if I was hearing things, dreaming, or if Freddie Cruger was scratching at my window.  I didn't dare move or make a sound.

Finally, I felt Jon move in the bed.  He turned around and I quietly whispered to ask if he was awake.  He said he was and couldn't figure out what the sound was.  I signed in relief that I wasn't going insane.  Then my momentary relief turned to fear.  Freddie Cruger?  We heard the dogs start to move around as well and that was as much anticipation as we could take.  I reached over to my night stand and turned on the light.

It took a couple of minutes for our eyes to readjust to the light and we began to see a little shadow crawling up and down the window by my head.  I tried to concentrate as much as I could and I noticed Jon doing the same.

"Is that...?" I couldn't finish my sentence as my eyes readjusted to the light and I realized what it was.  Jon finished my sentence with a panicked "BAT!"

I ducked under the blanket and hid under the layers.  I was still hearing the scratching on the window.  And then I felt someone under the covers with me.

"Jon?" I said quietly as if the bat was going to hear me.

"Yeah?" he replied almost as quietly.

"Are you under the covers?"

"Yeah."

What the heck?  Was my strong, manly, head of the house shaking under the covers with me?

"Get out and get the bat!" I screeched.

"No way! You go."

Okay, this was an issue.  One of us had to be the man of the house and he wasn't stepping up.  What the heck?  It was a tiny little critter!  What was he going to do if a burglar broke in?  Hide in the closet while I beat him up?  This was ridiculous.  I nudged him under the covers.

I was terrified that the dogs were going to get some sort of disease from the bat, so I lifted a tiny corner of the blanket and quietly beckoned the pups to climb into bed.  They jumped under the covers happily since they weren't often allowed in bed.  And here we were - our family of 4 - shaking under the covers from a tiny little bat.

We finally heard nothing for a brief moment and Jon peaked his head from under the covers to check on the bat.  He said it looked like it was just sitting, so he bolted for the door and waved me over.  I peaked from under the covers just in time to see the bat move and quickly covered back up, letting out a little yelp.  Jon shut the door.  With me and the dogs inside.  On our own. WHAT THE HELL?

I yelled for him to come back and help us, but he was gone.  I panicked, but he was back quickly with a Tupperware to trap the bat.  He turned on the main light in the room and the bat started flying around the room.  I screamed, Jon hid behind the door, but finally captured the bat in the Tupperware and released it outside.

And that marked our 1 year anniversary.

Swine

I just got back from an amazing weekend in Boston.  There was no big party, no event, no concert or big game.  It was just a weekend with my two besties.  We went out to eat, sat on the couch and talked, went out to eat, walked around Boston, went out to eat and just hung out for 3 hours, talking.  It was amazing.  I miss my girls so much.

One of the things that came up was a story from some time ago.  I thought I'd entertain you in case you decide to check back on Monday morning and need some cheering up.

This happened about 3 years ago.  Jon and I were engaged and still working at the same company.  It was unheard of for us to work together since by now everyone knew we were 'together' together. However, this time they were short on staffing, so I was sent out with Jon to a school near Boston to collect some data.

We went to Tufts, the veterinarian school, to collect data for a consulting job we had.  Jon and I stayed there for 2 days, walking around every building, counting things like fire extinguishers and inventorying rooms.  We were sometimes escorted by a manager to allow us access to some of the locked facilities.  By the second day Jon and I were more than half-way through and the gentleman came to meet us after lunch to drive us to a second location.  We reviewed the map and I exclaimed that we were due to visit buildings Swine I and Swine II.  I was so excited!  I asked Jon and the manager if they thought that we would see real swine.  This was possibly the most amazing day of my life!  I had never seen a large quantity of swine before.  I couldn't believe I'd get to come near them.  Jon and the manager exchanged puzzled looks, but I payed them no attention.  I was going to see swine!  Real-life swine!  In large quantities!  We proceeded to the next location.

When we arrived at Swine I the manager handed us booties to put on over our shoes.  I was so confused - why did we need booties?  We put on the plastic booties over our shoes and followed the manager into the building.  The smell was devastating.  My eyes teared involuntarily, my nose was running, and I could barely breath.  I looked at Jon with inquiry.  Why did it stink so bad?  We started taking counts and descriptions of the rooms that were full of pigs.  There were so many pigs.  And they were so smelly!  They were everywhere!  We even walked into a room where the pigs were bred and little piglets were nesting under heat lamps.  I had to go outside just to take a breath of fresh air.

We finally finished our inventory and stepped outside.  Jon looked at me and I couldn't contain my disappointment.  "That was horrible," I told him, "but where are the swine?"  Jon looked at me and then smiled, "Kat, what do you think swine are?"  I didn't understand his question.  What exactly did he mean by that?  Didn't everyone know that swine was the plural word for swan?