Chewable vitamins. Great idea.

Irradiated super-homogenized half and half in half-gallon containers.

Plastic snap-on lids for cat food cans.

Mute button on the TV remote.

2X liquid laundry detergent.

All good time-saving/or/comfort-bringing ideas.

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I have had a serious pain in my right rib area, lower ribs, but I think it is more internal because pressing on the rib cage doesn't bring pain. I am going to have it checked today because it is very debillitating now. I got about two hours sleep last night. Couldn't lie in any position without triggering more pain. I didn't do anything to cause it. No lifting, etc. Mystery.

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I sure miss Hobbes Fattytail. After this big art guild even on June 10th (I am event coordinator) I will begin writing BEING HOBBES FATTYTAIL, which will be the story of the cat and his human, the blogs, and the facets of the friendship, including the alter ego element, the friends all over the world, and eventually the loss and the vacuum of the aftermath. And anything else I can scrape up from his 6 years with me.

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This has been a long Spring. It started in what usually is a very cold and drab February and was drawn out for two months. Now it is back to normal, if there ever is such a condition in weather. The other shoe drops with the advent of tornado season, already here in parts of the country.

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I feel so much more comfortable now that I have used the remote to block ALL the political TV channels. The first one was FOX. That was last year. Then I declared balance and snapped away MSNBC, and finally I deleted CNN. I get most of my "news" off BBC America on the web, with spurts from the local very conservative newspaper, local channels 6 o'clock news, and the bartender down at T.J.'s. I want to subscribe to the Cleveland Plain Dealer to balance the local paper, but the cost has to come down and they really want subscribers so I am waiting for a deal.

I do subscribe to TIME Magazine and have since the early 1970s. I think I am paying something like 39 bucks a year. That is a real deal.

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I am off cigarettes again so I can raise cash for getting the two little kitties out back into bags and over to the vet for spay and neuter, shots, etc. Sacrifice works sometimes, but I know I will probably walk into the Marathon gas station again sometime and buy a couple packs of Camel Blues. It is a tougher habit that cleaning up from heroin or meth. That's what they tell me.