Answer Me This, Vol. 10 - Flowers and Firearms

Welcome to Answer Me This! The Q&A style linkup hosted by Kendra over at Catholic All Year which is super fun and easier than coming up with my own content. It's also known as the internet's favorite virtual cocktail party! (in my opinion, at least)

1. How often do you take public transportation?
 Never. N-E-V-E-R NEVER. Public transportation where I am sucks. The bus system makes no sense (and the bus drivers are, generally speaking, not very nice), the underground trains in LA proper are creepy and super-secret so I don't even know how to use them and there isn't really the right kind of infrastructure around here to make public transportation viable for a large audience.

I took the bus once when I was in college because one of my friends (from Seattle, so she was a bit out of her depth in the whole LOS ANGELES thing) insisted that we figure out the public trans because she didn't have a car. I tried explaining to her that I had a car because the public trans was inefficient but nooooo...... We got lost. So, so desperately lost that we wound up taking a taxi back to our dorm. It was a nightmare full of mean bus drivers, creepy side streets and it was not something I ever want to repeat. I love my car, thankyouverymuch.

This is the evil bus in question (not this specific one, but one of this same type).

But the MetroLink is supposedly extending a line from practically my back yard all the way to Venice Beach!!!! Soooooo depending on how the logistics work out, I may start taking the train to work on Saturday nights. We shall see...

We were big on public transportation when we were in Europe (because, you know, public trans actually works over there), and when we travel places in the good ol' U.S. of A., we either walk or drive. Depends. I'm great at public transport in foreign countries but at home (unless it's D.C. or NYC or the Bay Area), not so much.

2. How many cousins do you have?
 A lot. I am the 3rd oldest of 20 first cousins, and since I have 3 siblings that means I have *mental math* 16 first cousins. Plus about 15 first cousins once removed (still living) and I don't even know how many 2nd cousins or cousins twice removed... Our family tree gets veeeeery complicated after a while (Spanish and German Catholics have lots of babies).

3. Have you ever fired a gun?
Yes, and I'm actually a pretty decent shot with a .22.  When I was in high school I'd miss the day after Labor Day sometimes because that was the opening of dove season. My great-uncle (the one who passed out collector's edition Winchester rifles to my cousins and I at Christmas - crazy train) has a place out in the desert (waaaaaaay out in the Mojave) and we would ride our dirt bikes on the back of his property, dance in the wind, play with an old telescope and stargaze, and of course, get up before dawn for dove hunting followed by an afternoon of target practice.


4. Do you ride roller coasters?
With glee. The kind with vertical corkscrews are my favorite. The coasters at Disneyland are pretty tame but still very fun, I love going to Knott's, and sometimes I'll even go all the way to Six Flags once in a blue moon because that's where the big, crazy ones are.


5. What's your favorite flower?

 Clockwise from top left
Favorite flower for smelling: Star Jasmine 1
Favorite flower for sitting in a vase (and in general): Gerbera Daisies 2
Favorite flowers for meaning: Viscaria* 3 and Forget Me Nots 4
In general, though, I just love flowers.
*Viscaria means dance with me according to multiple flower meaning books and websites

6. Are you allergic to anything?
Stupidity. I once had an allergic reaction to lotion tissues, back when they first came out, but otherwise I'm only allergic to extreme stupidity.

                         

So that's it for this round of Answer Me This! If you have a blog, answer the questions and link up with us over at Kendra's in this post. Don't have a blog but still want to play? That's okay because this whole thing is made up and the posts don't matter - leave your answers in the comments either at Kendra's post or right here! I'd love to hear from you.



love,
Willow



*Author's Note: The "Answer me This" logo image belongs to Kendra Tierney over at Catholic All Year. The other image(s) in this post are not my property and I have given credit as best I can where possible. Thank you for not suing.*

1. Star Jasmine: By Dave Whitinger (All Things Plants) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons
2. Gerbera Daisies - Stock Photo
3. Source Wikimedia Commons. Photo by Jerzy Opiola
4. Forget-Me-Nots: By Noumenon (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Answer Me This, Vol. 9 - Hipster Tattoos

Welcome to Answer Me This! The Q&A style linkup hosted by Kendra over at Catholic All Year which is super fun and easier than coming up with my own content. (Or I'm just really self-absorbed and love answering surveys. Who cares!)

1. When's the last time you got a new bathing suit?
 Ugh, it's been years. It's been years since I wore a bathing suit, actually. Ugh, let's move on...

2. Who made the last incoming call on your phone?
Red Cross, as usual. They call me about 4-6 times a week to ask me for a blood donation, even though I've told them to take me off the list because I'm severely iron deficient (even with a daily iron supplement) and anemic so I am not eligible to donate. I always ignore those calls.


3. If you receive communion, do you receive it in the hands or on the tongue?
In the hands. I'm a slight germaphobe, and the thought of someone putting their hands that close to my open mouth is a little icky. I mean, if I was holding a baby or pushing a walker or something like that, of course I'd take it on the tongue but not so much for the average Sunday. Also, I like the idea of holding our Lord in my hands - it's very humbling.

4. Do you have a tattoo?
Yes, yes I do. And it surprises a lot of people when they notice it. I got it the September of my 19th year in Venice Beach on a cloudy afternoon when my brother came to visit me at school on his Sunday off. We wandered all over the boardwalk and our goal was to find someplace for me to get my first tat but we weren't really planning on doing it that day. Until we found a place and we got talking to different artists and he decided to get his next tattoo right then and there. I was still hesitant but I talked to this guy more and more and told him what I wanted. He sketched out multiple versions of the design I wanted, even going so far as to stylize my own handwriting for the text, and gave me a killer deal. It's not perfect and I've seen similar tats that are better executed, but I love its imperfections anyway.

sorry for the poor image quality

I also successfully hid my tattoo from my parents and my employers for almost a year. My bosses didn't mind. My parents did.
(*Also, hipster moment: I had this idea and then had it done before these infinity sign tattoos were super popular, so there.*)
P.S. I have plans to get another. Maybe more. Sorry, Mom and Dad...

5. How many dinner plates are in your house?
A few. A lot. What counts? The dinner plates we use daily or the Fiesta Ware that is better suited to a Mexican restaurant than my tiny kitchen? We have about 10 standard dinner plates - Cornell I think - which I inherited from my grandmother. The Fiesta ware is that heavy, extra-large, brightly colored set of about 8 giant plates that I inherited from my mother who got them from a friend whose restaurant went out of business a few years ago. I don't use those very often because they're gigantic and heavy and not practical for everyday dinner use.


6. Do you have an accent?
Not really. I (I think) have a very bland manner of speaking that - in my opinion - is pretty neutral. I don't have the classic California surfer twang, I don't have my dad's hint of a midwestern drawl; I have my mother's generic SoCal voice. My sisters have accents: the older of the two slurs and has a lisp and sounds like she's from the Pacific Northwest; the younger sounds like a typical Valley Girl (omg, like, so annoying).
My dad says I'm a bit of a vocal chameleon. When we came back from Louisiana, there was a distinct hint of a southern accent in every word I said (it was worse while we were there, though, believe me). When my mom and I came back from London, I had an accent for a week. When we came back from Paris, I had a halting lilt to my voice. I adapt to the way other people talk so I don't feel out of place.  It's weird but it's what I do.
In general, though, the consensus among my family is that I'm the well-spoken one who talks like an encyclopedia would sound.


So that's it for this round of Answer Me This! If you have a blog, answer the questions and link up with us over at Kendra's in this post. Don't have a blog but still want to play? That's okay because this whole thing is made up and the posts don't matter - leave your answers in the comments either at Kendra's post or right here! I'd love to hear from you.



love,
Willow


*Author's Note: The "Answer me This" logo image belongs to Kendra Tierney over at Catholic All Year. The other image(s) in this post are my property. Thank you for not suing or stealing.*

Answer Me This, Vol. 8 - Kissing and Cleaning

Welcome to Answer Me This! The Q&A style linkup hosted by Kendra over at Catholic All Year which is super fun and easier than coming up with my own content. (Or I'm just really self-absorbed and love answering surveys. Who cares!)

1. What's something you intended to do today, but didn't?
Um, all the things? I'm making serious efforts to focus on routine and eating every two hours and being more organized this summer but it's like, mid-June and I haven't done that yet. Partly because I just got back from vacation and have been putting in 10 hour days at the office but also I'm lazy and tired and bad at being a grown-up. Since I'm posting this on Monday I'm gonna say that I meant to deep clean the kitchen and the bathroom over the weekend but that sure hasn't happened.

2. What's your favorite grilling recipe?
I don't grill. I have a little Foreman grill thingy that I've used a couple times since I got it like 5 years ago and I got another little grilling appliance for Christmas which is still in the box but... I'm pretty sure I've said this before: I'm really, really, really bad at making myself dinner. It's ridiculous and laughable. My favorite thing to eat that has been grilled (not by me because I can't afford it) is salmon. Grilled salmon in the summertime is one of my favorite things. Really truly. I'm hoping to find frozen salmon fillets on sale at Target or something soon so I can try it with my new little grill thingy.

I have it on questionable authority that this is true.
Photo credit

3. What movie did you see the most recently?
The Fault in Our Stars, the critically acclaimed film adaptation of the best-selling novel by John Green! I read that book when it came out last May and oh, how I adored it. I saw it on Thursday night. I was supposed to go with my sisters and their friends (and a soon-to-be boyfriend of the younger one) but I worked later than I thought so I went to the later showing by myself. It was a really good movie! I laughed, other people cried (I don't cry in movie theaters), it was a really good movie.
READ THE BOOK FIRST BECAUSE SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY

Can I just say that I really don't like the caption? It's lame.
Via Pinterest

4. Would you say your tendency is to over or under react to medical situations?
I think I react appropriately in general. I mean, when I passed out on that train platform in France I was going into shock so I feel like unconsciousness was an appropriate reaction for the circumstances of being in extreme pain. I like to think I'm relatively cool-headed since I usually whip out bandages and whatnot. I dunno, maybe I underreact?


5. Do you squeeze the toothpaste tube or roll it?
Since I used a non-tube toothpaste for years I would just squeeze. However, I recently acquired a tube-tube of toothpaste and I intend to squeeze it until rolling it becomes necessary.


6. What are you doing for Father's Day? 
Since my dad is taking a business trip I think we're not doing anything. I'll be putting in additional hours at the office and then cleaning the house but that should be about it. BUT here is a picture of my dad, doing what he usually does: torturing playing with my cat

So that's it for this round of Answer Me This! If you have a blog, answer the questions and link up with us over at Kendra's in this post. Don't have a blog but still want to play? That's okay because this whole thing is made up and the posts don't matter - leave your answers in the comments either at Kendra's post or right here! I'd love to hear from you.



love,
Willow


*Author's Note: Only the last three pictures in this post are my property. The others belong to various other Internet Dwellers.  I've given credit as best I can where I could; thank you for not suing me. *

Answer Me This, Vol. 7 - Trains and Pains

 I'm on vacation in New Orleans!!! I will try to link this up with everyone but I may not have computer access at the hotel we're staying in so you may just have to be satisfied with the post and we'll do the linky-linking later.


Linking up with Kendra over at Catholic All Year for her Answer Me This Q&A type link-up, which is fun and way easier than coming up with my own original bloggy content.



1. Do you have a landline?

There is a landline in the place I live. It's not really mine, but I answer it most of the time. No one calls for me on that phone. We get a lot (I mean, 6-15 a day) of sales calls and hang-ups and crank calls. This is due in part to the fact that I'm positive our phone company sold our phone number, but mostly because the person I live with likes to give our phone number and address out to random strangers he meets at Starbucks and the grocery store. Mostly I'm not very nice to sales people and I usually count to three after I say "hello" before just hanging up because I don't have the patience for that nonsense.  It's not the nicest way of dealing with it but I have better things to waste my time on.

2. What is your least favorite food?

Spaghetti is evil and so are lima beans. According to my mother I loved spaghetti until I was about 5 or 6 - I have no memory of this and don't really believe her. Something about the sauce just makes me want to vomit. Over the last several years I've managed to not have to leave the room when sharing a table with people eating spaghetti but I still won't eat it and if the sauce is especially pungent I may have to excuse myself rather quickly.  I try not to be too rude about it since I know spaghetti is easy and cheap to make and a lot of people like it but I really, really can't stand it. Lima beans just taste like chalk and are therefore inedible.

3. What's on your summer reading list?

All the books!!! I'm definitely planning to read a lot this summer since I've read I think only 6 books since the New Year. That's a little more than a book a month, which is okay, but not anything like what it should be.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
Behind the Beautiful Forevers (for the Nerdfighter Book Club)
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
The Privilege of Being Catholic

That's the list of things I'm requiring myself to finish independently. My little sisters and I are instituting a Sisters Summer Bookclub this summer to meet weekly and I'd like for us to get through at least 3 books this summer:
The Great Gatsby
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
and The Fault in Our Stars or another John Green novel. I haven't decided if I want to do that one or Paper Towns.

My goal is for us to have bonding time, but also to expose them (the younger one especially) to a broader world of reading with guidance. The older of the two tried to read Gatsby and had no idea what was going on. I feel like if we read them together they'd develop a deeper understanding of the books. I also want to encourage them to improve their verbal skills by reading aloud because reading aloud is important, even in teens.
 

4. Is there something people consistently ask for your advice on? What is it?

Grammar, spelling, punctuation. Since I'm a stickler for those kinds of things I'm often used as a walking, talking dictionary, thesaurus, and friendly neighborhood Grammar Nazi.

via Pinterest

5. What's the most physically demanding thing you've ever done?

I'm not one of those people who can't hack it physically. I mean, I'm not in great shape, but I was raised to suck it up and not be a whiner about things. However, the most physically difficult and demanding and awful thing I've ever done/endured would be hauling my heavy luggage through a variety of French train stations while trying to get to Paris and then walking around Paris in the rain after some woman dropped her heavy luggage on my right foot after she pushed me off of a train because she was in a hurry. Blood was everywhere, I went into shock, and I passed out twice right there on the platform. Thankfully there was a doctor in our traveling party (granted he was a dental surgeon but he had more medical experience than the rest of us), and he bandaged my foot and I had some water and was ultimately okay, but I still had to drag a suitcase through two more train stops and then through Paris. Also, when we got to Paris, it rained almost the whole time we were there and I could only wear flip flops for a couple of days, so I got a cold (my immune system was already compromised from three weeks of close quarters with strangers and you know, going into shock on a French train platform). It was physically excruciating and exhausting and generally left my experience of France with much to be desired.

6. How do you feel about massages?

My mom's a licensed massage therapist/holistic health practitioner so I generally have a very positive outlook when it comes to holistic health and massage therapy. Unfortunately, I'm apparently a delicate little flower so I have to have froo-froo massage - no deep tissue for me. I don't know if it's because my mom is used to doing deep tissue or if she doesn't realize her own strength or if she doesn't have the patience to deal with the fact that I like to be worked on gently, but I can't get massages from her. I usually go to this zen spa type place (they send me coupons in the mail!) and get an inexpensive massage. If I'm really hurting, though, I go to mom and beg for relief.



So that's it for this round of Answer Me This! If you have a blog, answer the questions and link up with us over at Kendra's in this post. Don't have a blog but still want to play? That's okay because this whole thing is made up and the posts don't matter - leave your answers in the comments either at Kendra's post or right here! I'd love to hear from you.



love,
Willow


*Author's Note: None of the pictures in this post are my property. I've given credit as best I can where I could; the images of book covers are available at their respective Amazon listings, even though Amazon is currently playing the part of evil corporate magnate overlord of evil. *

Book Review - Hemingway's Girl

I'm on vacation in New Orleans so you get a book review while I'm gone!!! Isn't that exciting? You know you're excited.

Please excuse the chipped nail polish in the photo
 

 Stats:
Author: Erika Robuck
# of pages: 321 (plus 15 page Reader's Guide including acknowledgements, bibliography, conversation with the author, and questions for discussion)
Publication Date: September, 2012
Publisher: New American Library, a division of Penguin Group
My Copy: First Edition paperback with reader's guide

The book I read in March (of 2013 - shhhh) was Hemingway's Girl by Erika Robuck.

It's another Target find. (Seriously, I find so many interesting things when I casually wander through Target's book aisles, it's crazy.) It sat atop my dresser for several weeks and then I started reading it for March. But I did what I seem to have been doing a lot this last year and a half: I took my time.

When I was younger, I would race through books because I wanted to know the story and be in that world and didn't want to come out of it until I was done with it but something changed sometime two  years ago when I stopped reading as voraciously. I started having a hard time staying focused, and I started having a really hard time remembering what I had read. Even now, the details are fuzzy on some of the things I've read this year and that's never happened before. I can remember details of Harry Potter and the Pendragon series and books I loved as a child but the things I've been reading lately don't seem to stick. I don't know if that's because I'm not reading as much, if it's because my life has devolved to 9-5 clerical silliness and I'm not learning anything new so my brain isn't retaining information or if it's just because I'm getting older, but things don't seem to stick as well anymore. And I don't like it.

Anyway, back to Hemingway's Girl. It's fiction - the main character and her family and the events of the book are drawn from the author's imagination. The hurricane and the fact that the Hemingway family lived in Key West during the Great Depression is all factual, and the author did a great deal of research on Hemingway, his family life, and general personality/habits because he absolutely came alive in these pages. I don't usually read historical fiction set anytime after the Victorian Era, and even then, I don't like stuff set in the U.S. or the American Civil War and prefer it to be British. Usually the historical fiction I get excited about is Tudor/Elizabethan/Shakespearean Europe or even ancient Greek and Roman stories. But the 20s? The Great Depression? World War I and II? Boring. (This is why I studied Classic Civilizations in college instead of just being an English/History double major. I would've had to write essays on stuff I could talk about with people still living. That's not history, that's current events in my book.)

But this one captivated me. Mariella's struggle to help her family survive the Great Depression was reminiscent of Katniss from The Hunger Games: younger siblings dependent on her, mother despondent and depressed after the death of their father, doing things and going places that were dangerous or rough out of desperation to make some extra money, a community of sad, hungry people wondering when things (specifically, the economy) were going to get better. There were no intense political overtones, though, just setting the scene that made it logical that a young woman such as Mariella would want to improve her family's situation by getting a job as a maid in the Hemingways's house.

Then there's Gavin. Gavin is a young veteran with a friend living in the Keys while he works on the Overseas Highway.  He makes no secret of his attraction to and affection for Mariella, but he really can't compete with wealthy, charismatic Hemingway - or can he?

The "love triangle" here was really, really convincing and it was - mercifully - brief.  What I know - historically speaking - about Hemingway is that he was extremely charismatic and could be the definition of charming when he felt like it. He was also prone to mood swings and losing his temper when he didn't get his way, and all of these characteristics were expertly portrayed. Gavin was real, flawed, and tries to get to know Mariella and get in with her family, but also has the issues that go with being a veteran - some symptoms of PTSD and being responsible for other vets who are in worse shape than he is.

There's also a bit of a mystery in this story. When Mariella's father died, there was some question about the circumstances, especially because his boat was never found. Mariella grew up on the water with her father, fishing and taking out the tourists, so his death is a bit suspicious. It lingers in the background and really isn't central to the main storyline, but it adds depth to the characters and the situation they're in.

The one real criticism I have with this book is after the climax. I wanted to see a bit more of Mariella's life after the hurricane and the events that came after. Also, the very last paragraph of the book is kind of sappy, like it's trying to do that misty-eyed thing to the reader. The epilogue was really well done and I thought it made a lot of sense and felt very real. The whole ending just worked and successfully conveyed a lot of information to wrap up the story from the first few pages, but I still wanted a bit more denouement before the epilogue.

This author also wrote Call Me Zelda, a novel about Zelda Fitzgerald's time in a psychiatric hospital and the (fictional) nurse she develops a friendship with.  It's got some good reviews, despite how many other books about the Fitzgeralds and that time period came out at the time. I got a Kindle version for Christmas so hopefully I'll get to it soon and review here.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars. This book wasn't bad, but it wasn't brilliant. I'm tempted to give it 4 just for the color and the way the setting and the period absolutely come to life, but the void between the ending and the epilogue was such that I can't give it that last half a star.

Recommended Reading Level: 16+ for some super brief sensuality, sexual references, alcohol abuse and violence. I gave it to my almost-16 year old sister to read because she doesn't read too much into things and probably missed most of the sexual references but is mature enough to discuss the things she was concerned about. I'm still waiting to hear what my mom thought about it.  **UPDATE: My mom enjoyed it! She liked the story and the characters and thought the relationships were all well-written.*

Who Should Read It: people who loved Katniss and want to read historical fiction featuring a really strong, female, young adult character; people who live in (or want to visit) Key West; people who really like Hemingway; people who like fishing; people who like books set during the Great Depression; people who love the ocean; people who like colorful stories about growing and carrying on after a difficult loss; people who like a tiny bit of mystery and drama in their historical fiction. I realize I don't really fit into many of these categories but I did really enjoy this book.


Further Reading to Consider:
The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway
also by this author, Call Me Zelda
www.erikarobuck.com 


**DISCLAIMER: I am not now and never have been an agent of Penguin Group, Inc. or any of its imprints and am no acquaintance of Ms. Robuck. This is an unpaid, unsolicited review of a novel I genuinely enjoyed and wished to share. The photo above is property of Whitney Miller as is all text in this review with the exception of those excerpts used for review purposes.**

Answer Me This, Vol. 6 - Love and Cats

Linking up with Kendra over at Catholic All Year for her Answer Me This Q&A type link-up, which is fun and way easier than coming up with my own original bloggy content.

1. Do you have a smart phone?
 I do. It's the coolest gadget I've ever owned. It's also the only camera I have right now, which is why most of my photos are, well... iPhoney.


2. Which is your favorite meal of the day?
 This is hard. I really enjoy breakfast but my breakfast is always rushed. Lunch is usually my most substantial meal, and dinner is always a headache because I always get home so late and rarely have the energy or inclination to cook a real meal but I don't particularly love either of them.

So I'm gonna cop out, and stick with the tea theme that all of my Answer Me This-es have and say my favorite is my tea time meal on Sundays. I have little sweet sandwiches and a big pot of tea and some biscuits or veggies and do that instead of a proper lunch.

image credit Cupcakes&Cashmere

3. Shower or bath?
I do love baths. You can add stuff to them like sea salts or green tea or essential oils or bubbles.  Unfortunately I can almost only ever shower at my current residence because I share a bathroom with someone who doesn't understand the concept of keeping a clean shower/tub and there's just no way that... Just no. Also, our "tub" is tiny. It's meant for showers. That doesn't mean that I occasionally take a Thursday night and scrub it to within an inch of its life to immediately have a nice long soak.

From the Etsy shop FunkiFolkArt, listing here
via Pinterest

4. Think of a person you love. How many days have you been in love with that person?
651 days. He is my best friend, my cuddle-buddy, super cute, and really sweet even if he's occasionally demanding and a bit selfish. He's not that smart, but we like the same movies and he finds my habit of stacking books haphazardly onto shelves and nightstands endearing rather than annoying or even crazy. He lets me talk endlessly and while I don't always understand what he's saying, he has interesting input to our conversations. OH, and his name is Gatsby.

Call me a crazy cat lady if you must, but remember: Hemmingway, Mark Twain, and many other famous people really loved cats. I think I'm in good company with the cat-lovin'.

5.  What's the best church you've ever been inside of?
This is tricky. It would be so easy to say St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican because that was so big and ancient and beautiful.

But there was another church, in Paris, in which a very beautiful thing happened - you could call it a miracle, I guess - and while I was hardhearted at the time, I look back on it fondly.

6.  Happy Feast of the Visitation! Has anyone ever come to help YOU? 
No, not really. I've never been pregnant or had a baby. When I had my appendix out the hospital kept me for 4 days after surgery and then I went home by myself and slept for a few days. I guess I haven't ever really had the occasion to ask for or need someone to help me. *shrug*


So that's it for this round of Answer Me This! If you have a blog, answer the questions and link up with us over at Kendra's in this post. Don't have a blog but still want to play? That's okay because this whole thing is made up and the posts don't matter - leave your answers in the comments either at Kendra's post or right here! I'd love to hear from you.


love,
Willow


*Author's Note: Some of the photos in this post are not my property. I have given credit as best I could where the information was available. The pictures of the adorable cat and all of the text in this post is mine so please give credit if you wish to borrow. Thank you for not suing or stealing. xo*