there are more than 500 million domestic cats in the world, with 33 different breeds.

it's been quite awhile since i've even looked at this blog. i started another blog, because i was doing SO well at keeping up with one, i thought two would be even better.

biggest thing that has been happening in my life lately is looking at buying our first home. it is a very stressful and emotional process. this whole thing has actually brought a lot of other emotions and problems i've had to light. things i've known i need to address and deal with for a very long time, but never have. it's kind of weird how connected where you live is so connected to who you are and what you've been through in all the different (or not different, depending on if you've moved a lot or not) places you've lived. my wife was expressing some of this last night and i was then making the connection better. where you live and how you live are things that can have a major effect on who you are and how you feel. maybe it shouldn't? i've heard that argument before. that we should NOT be so reliant on a place or things to make us feel good or identify with who we are. they are material things and therefore will eventually be gone. this is true in a sense. it can also be argued that where you live can have such a major effect on how you feel and who you become that it is only human to identify with that and feel it is important. this is also very true. it is a balance. as always. where we live is a major part of community and that is/should be a major part of who we are trying to be. we can feel inspired, safe, free, comforted, welcomed, loved, sad, sleepy, alive, depressed, pain, ecstasy, hope... somewhere that can have such great effects on you is something very important. it's been said that home is where the heart is, but if your heart isn't in the place you reside, then you will never feel at home.

kiddy often gets her poop stuck to her furry bottom. we call this "the dingle-berry effect".

this morning was filled with normalcy and wonder, all at once. i followed my normal routine (hit snooze 3 times or more, sat in a warm bathroom and took a cold shower, listened to news updates from tampa, fixed a blah lunch and ate a blah breakfast, watched some lost). but it was in all those things i found something more. my cold shower woke me more than i was planning on being awake. lost was more of mr. eko's story, at the end of which he resisted the Lord's prayer that seemed to have more truth and meaning this time i heard it. it's colts shirt and jeans day at work and everything i wanted to wear was clean and ready to go. i was out the door unusually on time. the second i stepped foot outside, the very second indeed. not just before or just after, it started to snow. it was more of a freezing rain. the kind of flakes you can hear hit each dirty leaf. each tree branch on the way down. it was so silent, yet loud and deafening. my car was cool, but not numbingly cold like it typically is. i start my car and listen to music about the child inside us... "hey!"... i feel filled with hope immediately... "we know a place where no planes go. we know a place where no ships go."... on my normal route to work i find hope and beauty in what is typical... "between the click of the light and the start of the dream..."... i start the rest of my day.

both humans and cats have identical regions in the brain responsible for emotion.

i've been avoiding writing...




...because i'm still trying, never doing.




"his name was not important. he was still the same. the world is dark. everyone no more than a shadow on a wall of darkness. the mundaneness of it all is what brought his curiosity. there must be more somewhere he hasn't looked. his eyes feel covered by this darkness. when you are a shadow and the world has no light, it is all seek and no find. he missed games with no winner and words with no underlying messages. he tried to hold things that he only felt were his. then he tried to move past them. that's the way. it was never the word though. he saw glimpses of what he knew were."
-n.r.m.

autum started at 5:19 pm est today. this season represents new beginnings, more than spring, to me. it's all that is worn falling away.

the place i am at right now is more eloquently put by the mutemath album 'armistice'. listen to it to understand me better.

the oldest cat lived 36 years

something that seems to be brought back again after i decided to avoid a decsion: "Lutherans To Allow Sexually Active Gays As Clergy http://su.pr/2mOzQY". it's very frustrating because i know how i feel, but my feelings have been "wrong" my whole life. i feel like He keeps forcing me to meditate on this topic, but i continue to ask the wrong questions. and then He throws the whole thing in my face again. where i'm at is this: are we making judgements based on scripture, or what God says? there is no way to unhear something you have been told for years.

the penalty for killing a cat 4,000 years ago in egypt was death.

it's weird, the things you remember and the things you will always forget.

all kittens are born with blue eyes.

i say i do,

but i don't fully follow through.

cats, not dogs, are the most common pets in america.

if you want a "everyday example" of what we look like, go adopt a puppy that follows you around and does shit it knows it shouldn't.

the manx (kayt manninagh or stubbin in manx) is a breed of cat with a naturally occurring mutation of the spine.

do you ever wonder what kind of impact you have on people? how a customer, friend, co-worker, or stranger views you and your actions and how that impacts there lives? why sometimes you feel like you know a person is thinking something about you and then it turns out you aren't even in there thoughts? when you help someone and feel like you really made a difference, but then they complain or say they wish you had done something different? what about the pleasure you feel when you notice a difference in someone you helped? is that selfish? should we even feel pleasure from something as simple as being nice or helpful? do you ever fake gratitude when someone helps you? are we really good natured at heart or is that another hopeful delusion? when do we truly know someone's thinking? should we ever?

feral cats may live alone, but most are found in large groups called feral colonies, which occupy a specific territory.

my soul and mind are in sorts. "what (really) matters more" to me?