Hormonal Tomato

Check out the size of this tomato I bought from Wal-Mart (Super Center…). It is sitting next to an actual size frog and lawn chair, mind you. Ryan and I grew Beefsteak tomatoes this Spring and they were the size of a squirrel’s head. I want to know the secret to juicy, monkey-head size tomatoes. Reminds me of this Jack Handey quote:

“As I bit into the nectarine, it had a crisp juiciness about it that was very pleasurable—until I realized it wasn’t a nectarine at all, but A HUMAN HEAD!!”

Seriously, we made sandwiches on Saturday and the sides were overflowing with incredible tomato slices. I kind of feel weird about buying a tomato that large, but at the same time, I feel great about it.

Kitty, plain & fuzzy

Meet Kitty. Yes, Kitty. Kitty is his name.

Ryan and I decided that Atlanta would be a fine place to start our lives/careers out of college. I come from a cat-loving family, and so does Ryan. After a couple of months living in the A-T-L, I decided that I wanted a wittle baby kitty. Ryan had a cat in college, Samson, who was living with adoptive parents. Samson is quite the rascal, so he couldn’t live with us (he’ll tear your face off, given the chance). I spent lots of (my company’s) time searching for kittens on the internet. The Fulton County Animal Shelter was slim pickins. I decided to go to the shelter myself. I was horrified at the sight of the place. So many animals, about to be killed or be adopted.

I saw Kitty. Kitty! He looked at me with such despair, much like the pic below, taken just hours ago. I knew he was the one. We connected, the sparks flew like a meth trailer gone wrong.

So I adopted Kitty. Ryan went to pick him up from the shelter, cause I had one hell of a drive through A-town to home. I got to the shelter about 30 minute after Ryan arrived. He had Kitty on his shoulder and he said, doubtfully, “Is this the one you wanted??!!!” I said, yes, its the one I wanted! We took him home and thus the transition began.

Kitty. We wanted to call him Axl. Yes! A name! No, “Axl” just didn’t seem right. “Azriel!” Yes! Just like the cat on The Smurfs! Yes! No. Nothing seemed to fit. We just kept calling Kitty, “Kitty!”. So the name stuck.

Kitty started acting weird so I took him to an animal emergency vet called, “Pets are People Too!”. Some nurse stuck a thermometer up Kitty’s b-hole and Kitty diarrhea’d all over the joint. Turned out Kitty had worms! What did I expect from a kitten who survived on Kroger-dumplins? The nurse gave us some pills and told us that Kitty would be well soon. She didn’t warn us for the stuff to come.

So Ryan and I are sitting in our schwank ATL apartment (schwank for fresh-out-of-college students), and all of a sudden I hear a weird sound. Kitty, little, tiny thing…just barfed up something (or I thought). I saw the pile and called for Ryan. “Ryan! What is this crap? It looks like shredded beef!”

Ryan came to the rescue and informed me that what was on our brand new carped was in fact, worms. Kitty had shat a bundle of worms the size of a taquito out of his little, kitten, b-hole.

So, that said. Kitty loves us to this day. We saved his life!

This is my favorite pic of me & kitty:

Zoo Time!

Last Saturday Ryan had to work on his side project, so I thought it would be fun to take Olivia to the zoo to kill some time. It was a nice day out, a little overcast so not really that hot. I bought her some new sunglasses for our little excursion, and she was pimpin’ all over the place, along with her pink Chuck Taylors.

The minute we stepped into the zoo, Olivia wanted out of her stroller. She ended up walking the entire time – the lil’ babe was worn out, which made for a nice, lengthy nap later. So we started out with the reptiles. Olivia liked the snake. It was right next to the window and she thought his tongue was so “silly”. Birds were all over the place. The monkey, gorilla & tiger ended up being the favorites of the day. The giraffes were entertaining, but I think Olivia was so worn out by that time that she didn’t even care. I tried to take her picture with a big, bronze bunny, but alas, no avail.

Overall, great Saturday excursion!

Weeee!

St. Simons Island on the Fourth of July

Ryan and I decided that we needed to take a trip to see his Grandmother, Gran Anne, who lives in St. Simons Island, Georgia. We were going to try to sync it up with our friend’s wedding on Tybee Island the last week of June. The thought of killing two birds with one stone seemed like a good idea, but as the weekend drew closer, we decided that we would skip the wedding and devote Thursday – Sunday of July 4th weekend to visiting with Gran Anne, since she had never met Olivia, her first great-grandchild.

We packed up the car and left around 8 AM on Thursday morning. Olivia settled in nicely and watched the DVDs I bought for her the weekend prior. I’m glad to say that The Smurfs are still a hit with little ones – she really enjoyed watching Season 1, and I have to say my motive for buying it was purely selfish.

The drive down wasn’t too bad. We finally arrived at Gran’s house around 5:00 ET. We ate dinner, settled down and went to sleep early. The next morning, we packed up our gear and headed down to the beach. We got there around 9:30 and thank goodness we did, because the crowd was nuts! For some reason I thought St. Simons was going to be a quiet place, but Gran informed me that others “found” the Island during the 2004 G8 Summit. Check out all the people!

The weather was perfect. We stayed at the beach until it was time for Olivia to take her nap, then we went back to Gran’s house. Ryan’s Uncle Jerry called and asked if we wanted to go flying in his 1983 Mooney. I will admit, I was really very nervous. Once we were up in the sky, I relaxed and enjoyed the view!

After the plane ride, we went back to Gran’s and took naps. When we woke up, it was time to eat dinner and get ready for fireworks! Ryan’s Auntie Bev & Uncle Jerry took us to a primo spot to watch the fireworks. They drove us to a $3.5 million house that had been on the market for two years! We sat on the back porch, next to the pool, and watched the fireworks from Sea Island.

The next day we went to the Village and did some shopping. I bought a cool silver pendant in the shape of a horseshoe, with a horse in the center. We had a fun day and ate barbeque. Olivia had her first taste of Jello that night.

She likes it!

Overall, great trip. I’m so glad we went to St. Simons and I can’t wait to return. I hope you had a happy 4th of July!!!