Yasser Arafat died sometime during the night. I wonder who his successor will be? I have a lot more of in depth ideas about this, but it's too much to explain, and I'm too half asleep right now. Maybe later.

In just a matter of hours, I will be the owner of a CD/DVD burner. Maybe I should keep that top secret information, or my computer might be given a signal via Dell satellite to crash and I lose everything. (Note: This is a theory of mine that Dell has a satellite that sends a beam down to destroy your computer once it's either A) paid off, or B) has extremely important data stored on the harddrive.) Wouldn't that be awesome timing. And my luck. Anyway, I ordered it just yesterday from CompUSA, I checked the tracking status, and it's on the FedEx truck as we speak for delivery. You can't beat that with a stick. And it was about $15 less than when I looked at it about 2 weeks ago. Sweet deal! It's actually my Christmas present, but no one is going to stop me from opening it today when the FedEx man brings it to my door. No one! I've needed a burner for a LONG TIME. I've had a digital camera since Christmas 2002, and after awhile, the pictures really start piling up on my C drive.

Travis is so funny, and smart!! Michael is always saying "Who's your daddy?" and Travis heard him say it at the dinner table a couple nights ago and said "Who's your dada?" I about fell out of my chair laughing. And then this morning, I put the TV on PBS so he could watch Sesame Street, and once it was over, Mr. Rogers was getting ready to come on, and Travis said "I don't like Mr. Rogers. I want to watch Bob the Builder," so I tried to just change the channel to Nick Jr. since the Backyardigans was coming on, and he does like that show, but again he insisted on Bob the Builder, which we do have a DVD of that, I was just trying to get him to watch what was on TV, and then he said "You have to get the DVD!" only it came out "DDD", lol. Michael was still in the bed and he heard Travis say that. He was cracking up. Travis always knows when he says or does something really smart, too, because he'll get this proud grin across his face. It's too cute.

I think Kira is getting back to his normal self a little more. I saw him trying to pounce something earlier. He slept in the bed with me for awhile last night, but then I got up during the night to go to the bathroom and he was stretched out across the back of the green recliner, and then later on he jumped up in the window by Michael's side of the bed and stayed there 'til I got up with Travis this morning. I guess Kira's mad at us for leaving him at that awful place Tuesday. That's got to be really terrifying for pets, because they have no idea when you're coming back to get them or if you're coming back to get them. Plus there are all these strangers handling you, holding you down, poking, prodding, shots, surgeries, poor cat!! Animals have this 6th sense...as soon as you carry a cat or dog into the vet, they know that it's somewhere they don't want to be...even if it's their first ever visit...and immediately start squirming and trembling. Or maybe it's just that they smell all the other strange animals and it freaks them out. Who knows sometimes what they're really thinking. Kira is still a little skiddish today. When I've tried to pet him this morning, he flinches. I guess it'll take awhile for him to trust humans again. Then again, do cats ever really trust anyone?

I really can't believe how attached I am to Kira. I always thought I was a dog person, and didn't care for cats. Cats used to scare me when I was younger. Probably because the cat we had when I was a little girl would swat at me and hiss at me if I tried to pet her. She was a calico cat though, and they say calico cats are a "one-person cat". Either way, that set the tone for my dislike for cats. Dogs always seemed happier, more friendly to me. I still believe dogs are happier and more friendly, but they are harder to house train (we've never successfully housetrained a dog), they make a lot of noise, and they chew up everything in site when they are puppies. Cats housetrain extremely fast, with little or no effort, they are very quiet animals, extremely clean, very loving, and they chew some things, but not to the extent that dogs do. If you get them fixed and declawed (or use soft paws, which is what we're doing...declawing is like amputating fingers...it's mean!), they are virtually maintenance free. Just scoop the litter box daily, change the litter box weekly, and give them plenty of food and water, and you will have a wonderful pet. It's somehow soothing to see a cat stretched out in a sunny window or curled up in the middle of the bed. I've even heard owning a cat can lower blood pressure by 10 points. This works by spending a little time each day stroking the cat, which of course, this makes the cat very happy, too. It has a relaxing, calming effect.

I guess I need to get dressed before the FedEx man gets here. Nothing more embarassing than opening the door to the FedEx man, and he can see straight through my pajama top.