TICA Annual-post weekend wrap up

I almost forgot to post about the TICA Annual held over Labor Day weekend in Orlando, FL. We had an absolute grand time. The trip out was uneventful. The hotel was nice. Mom and I met up with Jon and Jan on Thursday for dinner after they came back from an airboat ride. Sounded like a lot of fun.

The whole weekend was a whirlwind. Arrive on Thursday. Dinner out on Thursday. Epcot on Friday. Welcome reception Friday night. Dinner with friends Friday night. Show on Saturday. Meet and greet our new kittens that we picked up on Saturday. Banquet on Saturday evening. Collect all the awards. Show on Sunday. Dinner on Sunday after the show. Monday fly home. Monday evening come down with bad cold. :-(

I was really happy that we were able to do some sightseeing. The hotel was really nice and tropical. We ate at some great restaurants. The banquet on Saturday evening was nice. We went home with some great memories. Got to see Cindy, Claire and Debbie again. Haven't seen Cindy in 5 years. It was like old home week. Put in an order for a Maine Coon with Cindy. Took lots of pictures, etc, etc, etc.

Now it's back to business. There's a show in Vegas this weekend. Alas.....we won't be there. Eventhough the counts are phenomenal just kind of decided that we needed a break. We have Arcadia next weekend and Lodi the weekend after that.

I'm going up to Jon's this weekend to check up on our future show babies. We have two little fluffballs from Mufasa and Sasha that are showing a lot of promise. If they shape up accordingly they'll debut at the November Arcadia show. The only problem will be which one to show? They are both really nice. Time will tell.

JJ, Polar's Mom, is due any minute. We bred her to Snow Fox, PJ's Dad. Hopefully we'll get a whole litter of show babies. I told Jon to rub her belly and wish for 4 show babies. I know someone in England who has been waiting forever!!

Sometime in all of the preparation for the Annual I decided to put together a cookbook to aid FIP and HCM research. Why? I have no bloody idea. Like I don't have enough going on right now. It seemed like a good idea at the time. :-) So now I'm collecting and organizing recipes. So please share your recipes with me. You can email them to me, megncats@cox.net Be sure to include your city and state or country on your submissions. I'll meow more about the cookbook another day.

Cuddling babies this weekend!! Can't wait. I think we'll be naming the little fluffballs this weekend. They are so incredibly adorable. Can't wait to hold them again!

Have a great weekend. Stay cool if you're in a hot area.

meow for now,
melissa

The day that changed our lives.....

I can remember that moment as if it was yesterday instead of 8 years ago. It was 7:36am and I was reading my TICAMEMBERS emails. I had WGN news on in the background. I had just finished reading an email from JP Demers when I heard something in the background about a plane hitting a building in New York. I stopped emails and went and watched the news for awhile. I changed channels to Good Morning America. I admit it. I changed channels because it looked like an interesting news story and I knew that the network morning news shows would be covering it because it was local.

Then I heard Diane Sawyer's voice talking about the second plane. I saw it on live TV, but it didn't register in my mind what I had seen until I saw it again. Just unbelieveable.

The flood of information that kept coming at you minute by minute, second by second. I still can't believe what I was seeing. Sometime during all this I called and made a reservation for a hotel for an upcoming cat show. Then the Pentagon got hit. Then there was another missing plane. Then the first Tower came down. Then the second Tower came down.

Was this really happening? What was next? Then all the planes were grounded. Grounded for days. It was eerie. We lived close to O'Hare Airport so the sound of airplanes was common place. The day we heard the first plane over head was creepy. We were in Franklin Park when that plane went over head. It sounded so loud, so close.

Our lives turned upside down that day. I remember keeping my TV on for days afterwards. It never went off. I slept with it on for the first few days, just in case they found a survivor in the rumble. I didn't want to miss it. Instead we saw the flag draped stretchers that carried out the firemen that went in and never came out.

I will forever remember that day, that minute, that second. Hopefully this country will never forget what happened. In spite what over inflated Hollywood egos seem to think. The US government did not orchestrate this tragedy. Religious zealots did this.

In my opinion, this day and December 7th should be national holidays. A day to remember a tremendous loss for our country.

I hope everyone will remember this day and what happened and how it changed our lives forever........

meow for now,
melissa