Windy Sydney

Know what I hate?

Computer viruses.

Last night I was making a window's movie and some stupid program installed itself on my computer. I was so freaking mad! It kept telling me I had spyware on my computer and telling me I had to purchase some program for sixty bucks to get rid of it. I knew it was fishy so I did a search for it online (it's called AntiVirus Live... stay far away from it) and found a way to get rid of it. It took me a while though... I had to find a free one, start my computer in safe mode, and blah blah blah...

People say that they have fallen victim of this little spyware scam and actually gone through paypal and charged the fake software on their credit cards. I'm glad I didn't do anything like that. I don't have the money to do anything like that... hahaha...

Anyway, I am back and it looks like the computer is back to normal.

Ahh, how I love the websites of internet computer geeks! Without them, I would be slitting my wrists by now. Believe me. I use the work geek with love, because I am one also. I would have lost my mind without a computer.

Since I am on a hating spree... here is a list of more things I hate:

• Tomatoes
• When you can't find a pen
• WhEn PeoPle TyPe LikE ThIs
• Cheaters
• Liars
• Religion
• Being Broke
• Bill O'Reilly
• Sarah Palin
• Glenn Beck
• Bigots
• People constantly popping their knuckles
• Animal Abusers =The sorry excuses for human beings that hurt Abbey Road and Spooky Bear before I adopted them into my home.
• Violence
• Homophobia
• Black Licorice
• When people won't answer a direct question.
• Kent Hovind
• Kirk Cameron
• Ray Comfort
• Loud Neighbors
• People who lack empathy
• Football (It's just men running into each other to me)
• Internet Trolls
• Brooks and Dunn
• Tea Baggers (not the gay sex act, the large group of people who want to complain about everything Obama does just because they can).
• Birthers (not expectant mothers, people who are convinced Obama is not an American citizen and should be kicked out of office).
• The fact that I am a vegetarian that constantly craves meat. It's hard to stop myself from having a hamburger or a hot dog at times. Really, really hard. I know I would regret it, though. Probably cry myself to sleep.
• Donald Trump
• Cell Phones
• People who can't think for themselves
• People who tell me I left Mormonism so I could sin, drink coffee, have sex without guilt and be a crazy person.
• Meeting people who think they know everything
• Being sick to my stomach
• People who throw litter on the ground. How hard is it to hold onto it until you find a trash can?
• When the battery in my camera dies and I see something beautiful I want to capture.
• Ann Coulter
• Wal-Mart
• Parents who have no control over their children, nor do they seem to care
• People who think they are too special to follow the rules everyone else follows
• People who complain about using self-checkout while going out of their way to use self-checkouts. If you don't like them, don't use them.
• Bugs
• Being an insomniac
• People who think praying for someone will actually do any good.
• When people don't dim their headlights
• When people see you in what is clearly a uniform of some kind and ask, "Do you work here?"
• When I find a vegetarian frozen dinner I really like and they discontinue it immediately.
• 80% of the comments on YouTube
• The wackjob who created Antivirus Live and made me waste so much time getting rid of the damn software.

Andee

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It's been a while since I posted, and I am sorry about that.

I have been dealing with a lot of stuff in my personal life. My roommate's Dad needs major surgery, and that means he has to move out and take care of his parents until they don't need him anymore.

I understand it's the right thing for him to do. I am just really sad about it. We have lived together for 10 years, and he is the best friend I have ever had. He is all packed and gone, and he took sweet Abbey Road with him. My heart hurts. Bad.

I turned on my computer and the first thing I saw on my screen was this photo I took of Abbey a couple months ago.

I am going to miss them so much and I can't stop crying.

Andee

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It's no secret that I am a huge animal lover. I can't even bring myself to eat meat anymore... of course, I still buy it for my animals. I guess that doesn't make me a real vegetarian, does it? Hmm... inquiring minds want to know...

Last week I received a flickr friend request from Biscuit Fund. I was curious, so I clicked on the link they provided me and my heart was warmed immediately. Biscuit Fund is a fund for providing emergency medical treatment for homeless and wild animals. Both Abbey Road and Spooky Bear, my "children" were rescued, and they have brought me so much joy in my life. I wanted to share some of the stories, so I added Biscuit Fund as a friend, and asked permission to share the photos and stories of some of the animals on their flickr page. Thankfully, they gave permission :)


No, this isn't my Abby... although they both have that cute stripe thing going on. This is Abby's story:

Meowy day to you good people, my name is Abby and I am an 8 year-old Tabby cat. When I was living with my previous family I knew that something funny was going on. I started to see all these boxes and all of their things kept going inside the boxes. Then one day I meowed at the back door to be let in and no one came to answer my call. My guardians had moved and left me behind. This was especially hard on me since I had been declawed and that's a pretty scary situation to be in outside minus your defenses. The next people that moved into my house were very nice but they couldn't keep me either so they brought me to the Comox Valley SPCA. Thanks to the Biscuit Fund I am going to receive a full dental cleaning for my very dirty teeth and then I will find a new home where I will hopefully stay for a very long time.

My heart broke. They just moved and left their cat... their declawed cat!! This poor creature!! Thankfully, they have raised $600 of the $750 needed for Abby's medical care and she will be able to find a new home soon!

Hello, my name is Alexandria and I am an adult grey and white female cat. I was a stray cat before the Surrey SPCA came to my rescue! While I was in their care they discovered that I was pregnant (oops!) so I got to go to a nice and fancy foster home to have my kittens. I spent eight weeks there, nursing my kittens, teaching them manners (kids these days) and breaking up the kitten fights. Before I can be adopted I require a dental cleaning, I think that will be a piece of cake after giving birth to several kittens!

Thanks to online donations Alex now has the money she needed for her dental work. I hope she finds a loving home as soon as possible... she deserves to live like a princess.

Hi! My name is Baby and I am a 4 month-old male tabby kitten. I won't be a baby for very long so I hope my name changes eventually! Imagine that, calling a big tough, adventurous kitten like me Baby. Meow! I was a stray kitten (tough stray kitten) living the stray kitten life on the streets of Kelowna before I arrived at the SPCA. I'm kinda glad I was brought here since it was starting to get chilly outside! While I was staying at the shelter I developed a cold and that led to my eye becoming infected. This is my before picture here but thanks to the Biscuit Fund I received a surgery to have my painful eye removed. Can you imagine how much tougher I look now? Grrr... no one's going to call me Baby again!

This kitten has been through so much. I hope "baby" finds a good home... and soon.

Hello, my name is Banjo and I am 4 month-old Blue Tick Hound. I was living in a puppy mill when I injured my leg. I thought it would be fun to go in the barn and to venture out into the loft, but then I slipped and fell and broke my leg. My guardian couldn't afford the cost of my medical treatment so I was surrendered to the Nanaimo SPCA. Even though my leg really hurt, I was a really good boy so all the shelter staff and volunteers really really like me! Thanks to the Biscuit Fund I am to receive surgery to fix my leg so I can go back to being an adventurous puppy!

I am happy to announce that Banjo has healed from his surgery and he was adopted into a loving home. He now enjoys being a puppy and doing puppy things. Thats how it should be.

The last story I am going to share means a lot to me.

I grew up in the middle of nowhere, and when you grow up in the middle of nowhere, you have the opportunity to be around horses. My Mom and I have always loved horses, although there is no way we could afford one right now. If I ever win the lottery, I will build a log cabin in the middle of nowhere and take in abused horses and other animals. I swear. Anyway, here is Benjamin's story:

Hello, my name is Benjamin and I am a 4 year-old Chestnut Quarter Horse. I was found by the side of a busy rural road in Quesnel with my front feet tethered together and I was wearing a halter with a rope attached to it. I was in a dreadful state when the BC SPCA rescued me. I was very thin, I had burrs in my tail and warts all over my face. I also had a tumor on my side. The shelter staff immediately found a wonderful foster home for me and thanks to the Biscuit Fund I received surgery to remove the tumor. With proper food and rest I found out the warts will go away. I will make someone a very good first horse as I am well mannered and have a very sweet nature!

UPDATE
Hello Everyone,
I'm so happy to tell you that I've been adopted by some wonderful people who have given me a super barn to live in with lots of fresh hay, water and delicious food every day.
Thank you all. I'm so grateful that I could just whinny!

Okay, so what was the point of this?

Everyone has the ability to help animals in their area. You might not be able to adopt an animal and bring them home, but if you have the time you could volunteer or even donate money to an organization like this that saves lives.

There are tons of animals on this website that still need our help. There are animal shelters in our own area that need our help. We can do it, we just need to get the word out and do what we can.

Animals mean so much to so many. We could do so much more!

Andee

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I have been busy practicing my fondant skills lately, and I think I am getting a little better. I really need to get some fresh fondant, because the crap I have left is old, gross, and crumbly.

This is what I have been working on:


Abbey likes them...

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I just flipped on my television and caught the beginning of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on ABC. I have reviewed this show before on my blog, but this story hit me huge because of my love for animals... especially cats, since I now own three.

Two of my cats were rescued from situations that I don't even like to think about. Since living with us, they have felt comfortable in showing their personalities without being put to extreme punishment of some kind. Hell, Abbey Road was found nearly beaten to death when she was a tiny kitten! Who could do something like that? Someone without a soul, thats who.

Anyway, the family chosen for this weeks makeover run a non-profit rescue for all kinds of animals that SHOULD be found in the wild, but people tried to turn them into pets. Sometimes people bought the pet before realizing it was illegal, sometimes the animal was working and when the work stopped the owners didn't want to feed it anymore. Most of the animals they took in are large cats like tigers and panthers.

Some of these cats have been through unspeakable things that I personally consider torture. There was a close-up of one cat with its nails declawed (it's bad enough doing that to a household cat, what are people thinking doing that to a large cat? How could it protect itself and hunt food if it had to?) and a story of another cat who had the paws of his feet cut in strange places that required surgery to fix.

Imagine getting a phone call from someone who doesn't have the resources to take care of an animal anymore. They don't have the money for the vet, the money for the food, the time, or the space the animal needs. If you couldn't find the space for the animal, they would have to put it down. An otherwise healthy creature wasted because of unfortunate circumstances. It's not their fault, they deserve to live. If you can't do it, the animal dies.

The family that needed this home makeover deserved it. There is no question. They would spend money on the animals before putting the money into fixing their home. The vet that works closely with the family says that there are so many lives this family has saved. To know that the cats and other animals will be safe and enjoy life is a gift... one of the greatest gifts.

Jeff Corwin (most people know him from Animal Planet) volunteered to take care of the animals with the help of an extremely large crew while the family was away on vacation. Not only will this family get a new home, the animals will receive space and authentic living conditions, they will probably live in luxury.

They deserve to live in luxury after what they have been through.

I can't bring myself to understand how animals are treated in all corners of the world. I am not saying that everyone should stop eating meat (although that would be kind of nice) or that everyone should be forced to take in animals as members of their families... I just think animals deserve a lot more respect than they get in our society. Their lives don't matter to a lot of people, and it's a shame.

When I lived in Orlando there was a story on the local news about a group of horses that were abandoned by their owners when they moved. They were fenced, and once they ran out of food and water they became emaciated. Thanks to a concerned passerby they were saved. Who could leave an animal to die?

Every single animal I have known in my life has enriched my life.

How could someone purposefully harm a living creature in this way? How could they? WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE???

Andee

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A group of us decided to make post-Mormon LOLcats and share them.

I decided to use photos of my own kitties for mine... here is what I made:

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I was bored and dealing with a headache all day... so, I decided to make a slideshow of my favorite photos of 2008.

The slideshow is really long, and there are tons of photos of the cats... just so you are warned! :)

Andee

Make a Smilebox slideshow

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Make a Smilebox slideshow

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I figured it was about time that I posted about something non-church related. There are times when I wonder if people out there on the net think I am angry and bitter (I am angry, I admit that) at the church simply because it's all I seem to talk about on my blog. Today is different. I just wanted to share some thoughts about my "kids."

Growing up, I was never allowed to have cats. My Dad simply HATED them. Really. He hated cats. I never figured out why, but he claimed it had something to do with the fact that cats are not super-excited to please their owners all the time. Dogs on the other hand, were happy all the time no matter what. I understand why he thought this, but I wish he would have given a little kitten a chance to grow on him!


Roomie and I adopted our first cat, Abbey Road, from a shelter in Orlando, Florida. She was found by a group of kids almost beaten to death on Halloween night. They finally got the little striped kitten to trust them (thank God) and she came out from hiding. The kids took the kitten to a home of a woman who was known to take in strays. She gave the cat some first-aid type care and took her to the vet/shelter the next day.

When we were filling out the paperwork for her adoption, one of the shelter workers told us how she was found and I was floored. I knew right away that I would spoil the hell out of this little critter, and make up for the way she was treated.


I would love to have five minutes alone with the people responsible for hurting her... I would love to have five minutes with anyone who hurts an animal. It's sick, wrong, and shows a severe lack of love and compassion. It's quite obvious animals feel pain, and have souls. Each animal has a personality, likes, and dislikes. How dare people do stuff like that... would they do that to a human? I suppose they might, huh? Scary.


Abbey Road came home with us and she was scared out of her little kitty-cat mind. She immediately ran under our living room sofa, and it took a can of wet food, plenty of kitten milk, and a full hour to get her out. By the end of the night she was napping peacefully on my chest purring away. She learned quickly that we would never, ever, hurt her.


You know, after all the horrible things that happened to her that Halloween night (she was beaten badly) she has no problem being friendly to anyone that comes over for a visit. She is by far the friendliest and sweetest of the cats, and the only reminder of the horrible beating she received is a slight noise she makes when she drinks. She is a spoiled, happy girl.


Spooky Bear was rescued from a cat hoarder in Florida. Something like 65 cats were taken from this lady's home, and most of them were too sick to be adopted out. Spooky had worms, and she was scared to death of humans, but after helping Abbey we were ready to help another kitten.

It took us a long time to come up with a name for Spooky Bear. She was scared out of her mind most of the time, and we even walked slow to make it more comfortable for her. She was "spooked" no matter what. We found ourselves looking for the little dark gray kitten saying, "Where are you little spooky?" and it just stuck. I added the "bear" at the end to give her a proper name like Abbey Road. I am weird like that.



One night I was looking around for Spooky and found her in the corner of my old apartment in Florida, bend almost in half, trying to nurse on herself. I guess she was taken away from her Mom way too soon, and I am still pretty clueless as to what happened to her Momma Cat. Roomie and I did our best to get her to stop trying to nurse on herself like that and she eventually stopped.


Spooky is still spooked, but not nearly as bad. The move to Utah was hard on her because she was so frightened. She loves the new apartment though, it has much more room than she was used to in Orlando. The only thing she carries with her from her previous encounters is how she guards her food. She stands up when she eats, she never sits. Always ready to pounce on a cat that is willing to try and fight her for her dinner. We have to feed her separately from the other two to keep the peace. I think even that is getting better.


Spooky loves to eat paper and plastic, so we have to constantly make sure there are no plastic grocery bags or sheets of paper laying around that she can ingest. She can sit for hours chewing on a grocery bag, I guess she loves the texture or something...

Somehow along the line, Spooky Bear received a nickname. I have no idea how it happened, but I love to call her "noodle."


Buddha Belly was given to me as a gift from my brother. His cat had TONS of kittens, and I just had to take one home. Buddha was scared (they all were) when she came home, and the other two cats were trying to intimidate her. She didn't give a crap. She was so used to her brothers and sisters that she was oblivious to Abbey and Spooky. She just didn't give a damn... she was so small at the time that I worried a little about her.


I have never seen an animal that small take on two full grown cats and not give a crap. She has been a joy ever since the day we brought her home. She LOVES to play... even as a grown cat. She will walk into the living room, find a toy, pick it up with her mouth, drop it in front of you, meow, and paw at it while giving you the cutest sad eyes you have ever seen... EVER. She has us wrapped around her little finger... err... paw?


There you have it. My furry family.
Andee

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Today was pretty interesting. I had a job interview that I think went very well, I hope they will call me back for the 2nd interview. No doubt I will have another drug test to take in order to be hired, and there is nothing worse for me. I have never been able to pee on command. It's impossible. Last time I took a drug test I downed 4 glasses of water in the morning, and I still had that poor nurse waiting around for a whole hour because of my stupid shy bladder. Too much information... I know... I know... just rambling, I'm good at that.


After the interview roomie and I took a little drive up Logan Canyon and took some photos of the ducks and scenery. Every time I go there I get mad at myself for forgetting to bring bread or crackers... something to feed them. When I got to one of the docks all the ducks swam to me quickly thinking I had brought them some tasty treats. I felt bad. I hope I don't come back as a duck in my next life. I would be swimming around praying that some kind human is going to bring me diet coke.


My Mom and I made plans to go to Wendover, Nevada for her birthday. It's the first time going to a casino and being old enough to gamble. I don't have much money, it's going to kill me to throw quarters into a machine and mentally will the machine to give me my money back... hopefully I will win the big jackpot so I can build my log cabin in the woods.


Yesterday roomie and I gave all three cats a bath. That was fun. Poor Buddha Belly was scared out of her fluffy mind. I couldn't get over how skinny they all looked with their hair wet. Spooky reminded me of a rat. Now they are all nice, clean, soft, and they smell good. Now every time they hear me run the water in the bathtub they look at me with their eyes wide open in horror that they will get another one. Abbey scratched the hell out of my arm, I was worried that the person I was interviewing with today would think I was a cutter.


Here are some of the photos I took at the canyon. They are definitely not my favorite, but cute and worth sharing. Hope you like 'em.

Sydney

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