Sophie's Story

Hi Everyone,this is Scamp. Sophie,Colby and I are taking some sun on the terrace (deck) this morning. Sophie has always wanted to enjoy a leisurely cup of tea out here,but has not seemed to find time to do so. Today is her birthday and she has the day off of work, so now she has time. I thought I would help her and write her column for her while enjoying the fresh air. It's already a bit warm out, but the terrace is shaded by a big maple tree so it', nice. There is a light breeze blowing to keep things pleasant. I am sitting on the cement part of the terrace. I like the word terrace better than deck by the way. Someone as handsome as I am should be sitting on a terrace, not on a deck. The cement is a bit cooler which is nice as my coat is pretty thick. Colby is out here too and has spotted a couple of squirrels. He thought it might be a good idea to catch and kill one of the squirrels and give it to Sophie as a birthday present. I managed to talk him out of it, than...

C and I are taking a dip. No, we are not going swimming and we are not dipping into any savings. (Did that last month for the furnace.) We are going to The Melting Pot. The Melting Pot is a fondue restaurant in downtown Minneapolis. There are many all over the United States. The first one we went to was in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I digress. I love fondue. I think it stems from the fact that I prefer to "graze". Maybe that's why I like sushi, appetizer platters and meals of more than one course. Fondue is a lot like grazing, it's bits of food dipped in cheese or chocolate or cooked in broth or oil. Yum! We like to go about once a year or so. Lately we've taken to bringing people with us. One year we brought all of my stepchildren and their significant others if they had them. We brought Carrie and her boyfriend, a boss of mine and his wife and another friend with her boyfriend. We have fun when it is just C and I, but it is even more fun when we s...

I saw a post on Facebook from a friend of a friend talking about how she was going to wait for Prince Charming to carry her away, love, cherish and spoil her like she deserves. It may be that I am turning into something of a middle aged grump, but I have little respect for such childish notions. I'm also scornful of the idea of the soul mate. That one person that was meant just for you. If you find this person you will marry and live happily forever. Barf. I've always been very disdainful of the whole idea of Prince Charming or anyone sweeping a woman off her feet. You can't get anywhere if your feet are not on the ground and eventually the person doing the carrying is going to get tired. It has to be two people walking together towards the same goal. My favourite example of what a good marriage should be starts with a woman named Elizabeth Wallace. Her mother was the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in town. Her father struggled to support his wife in the styl...

I didn't vote in the recent election. I'm ashamed to write that as I believe it is the duty of every eligible citizen to vote. After the contentious presidential and Minnesota senate races I've lost all faith in the political process. Watching Congress at work ( to use the term loosely) has made me lose even more faith, if that was even possible. I thought the way that this worked is that my neighbors and I elected people to political office to represent us. That means that they are to act in the best interest of the people they are representing. In exchange the representatives are paid using money that I give to the government in the form of taxes. In other words we are hiring our representatives to work for us. That means,to me at least, that those people running for office are actually job applicants. I propose that we treat them just like anyone who is applying for a job. I want to know what qualifications they have to do the job they are being hired to do and w...

"Superstition: noun 1.A belief held in spite of evidence to the contrary. 2 a. A belief,practice, or rite resulting from the ignorance of the laws of nature of from faith in magic or chance. b. A fearful or abject state of mind resulting from such ignorance or irrationality." The American Heritage Dictionary Second College Edition Earlier this week I looked at the schedule to see which techs I'd be working with . As I glanced across the days my eyes froze on Friday. I double checked the number over the day of the week. It was definitely a 13. I will be working a 12 hour shift on Friday the 13th. Rats! I am superstitious. I think it comes of being Italian and being in the medical field. In spite of the above definition I do know the laws of nature and I don't believe in magic. I'm not afraid of black cats, I regularly step on cracks, but I believe that strange things happen during full moons and on Friday the thirteenth. Several people including C have a...

The new air conditioner and furnace were installed yesterday. Scamp and Colby are quite pleased by it and so are C and I. Although we did manage the last few weeks without it, central air is quite nice. Whenever someone comes to the house to install or fix something I like to watch them. This goes back to when I was a kid. My Dad is an engineer and I would often go with him when things were broken and needed repair. I would watch him take apart the broken machine carefully and then put it back together again and it would work. I learned that the way to find out how things work is by taking them apart and then putting them back together. Our new system is pretty complicated. Two men were here for 12 hours and one of them has to come back today as he needed to make a part for our furnace so it would connect to the duct work. The furnace does not use a chimney, instead it exhausts to the side of the house. This meant he needed to find a place away from windows and other meters when ...

I was rummaging through my closet looking for something, when I found It. This happens a lot when I rummage through my closet. I find things I didn't know I had. Usually this is a good thing. The item I find is something nice to wear that I forgot I had or some other household good that could be put to use. Not this time. I pulled it out to take a look at It. I wanted to make sure It was what I thought it was. There was no mistake. There was also no question how It got into the closet. I bought It, probably for some special occasion. I may borrow books or CDS and once in a while a DVD, but I never borrow clothes so It was mine. I couldn't blame it on a moment of weakness or being under the influence of anything. The care tag had the name of the store printed on it. It was not cheap. It was also not one of my guilty pleasure items. You know what I mean. The things you like and you own, but would be embarrassed if anyone but those close to you knew about it. I have se...