Kittens and Surveys and Bears... Oh My!

From this article on the Ohio bear attack, where a bear killed its caretaker:

...There are no plans to euthanize the bear, Drozdowski said. Authorities will investigate before deciding on any criminal charges.

I hope that bear gets a good lawyer.

You hate to laugh, but that's funny.

Lauren decided on Kiptyn as a name for her kitten that we're getting next weekend. (Kiptyn Locke is from Jillian's season of "The Bachelorette.") We may take one of his sisters, too, although having two cats is a little overwhelming to me. When we were trying to come up with kitten names for Kiptyn, I was thinking how much time we spent putting together Lauren's name when I was pregnant with her. Lauren was one of my favorite names. It has favorable personality traits associated with it. It can't be shortened to an annoying nickname. It sounds great with our last name, unlike my equal favorite- Ashley.

Then I chose her middle name because I liked it, but it was way too common for a first name. Of course, mostly I chose it because it sounded awesome for those times you use the first and middle names, when you're yelling at them. We must have said it like that a hundred times before she was born, just looking forward to saying it for real. (Cuz that's the kind of stuff that's fun when you are preparing for your first child.) Problem is, she's a great kid and I have never used both names! DUDE. What a waste.

I don't have much time left. If she even looks at me sideways this weekend, I'm totally using it.


Saturday 9: Welcome Back

1. Where were you the last time that someone welcomed you back?
The first couple of days of our cruise, where the Royal Caribbean staff frequently said, "Welcome back, Mrs. Smith!" (They used my actual name, which has been changed here to protect me from crazy internet stalkers.) Your seapass card has your Crown and Anchor membership level on it, which indicates how many cruises you've been on with RCCL.

2. Tell us who is your favorite non-family member to hang out with?
All of them are awesome, but KathyL did make me brownies to go with my red wine. She gets brownie points for that.

3. What was the last thing that happened to anger you?
Jeff getting snippy with me for the first time in forever last weekend. I don't have much patience for that with him anymore, but I should.

4. What was the last thing that you saw that was shocking to see?
The "Deadliest Catch" episode when Captain Harris died from a stroke. Yikes. So sad.

5. What is your favorite thing to do on Saturday besides Saturday 9?
hike a trail

6. Have you had your summer vacation yet? If yes tell us about it.
Yes! We went to Orlando with Angel and her family, and then on a Caribbean cruise with Jim and Jaxon. FABulous.

7. Pick out one of your cousins and tell us about them.
Diane is a gorgeous blonde who can take all her hair and magically stick it up on her head with only a pencil or any other stick-like object. Two years younger than me. She lives in Spring, a suburb of Houston. She smiles and laughs a lot. She's also a very strong person. She's so fun and I love her to death!

8. Do you have any special plans for next week?
School starts. Also we are getting a kitten!

9. At what age will you consider yourself old and why?
Seventy-five. Why? Because I think 70 can still be middle age, depending on your personality and health, but 80 is always old, so I took the average.