Long Overdue: UFC 89 and 90

These events were on back-to-back Saturdays, one of which was free on Spike-TV. Both events are recent enough that I can still talk about them, but I'll keep them a little brief and talk about some of the main points.

UFC 89 featured a main event fight between Michael Bisping and Chris Leben. Before that though, Marcus Davis got an easy win over Paul Kelly by submitting him in the 2nd round by a guillotine choke that was easy to slip in. The next fight between Paul Taylor and Chris Lytle went the distance, with Lytle winning the decision. Though the crowd was unhappy (mainly because Taylor was the hometown hero), Lytle was definitely the winner, though Taylor put up a good fight. The upset of the night went to the next fight between Rameau Sokoudjou and Luiz Cane. After Sokoudjou threw some hard hits throughout the first round, he was already tired out, and Cane dropped him late in the 2nd, and the ref stopped the fight due to technical knockout.
Keith Jardine vs. Brandon Vera was the co-main event, and a fight where I was anxious to see Jardine beat the crap out of Vera. Jardine managed a split decision (should've been unanimous, but oh well), and hopefully Vera will get knocked way down the ladder. Then was the main event: The Count (Bisping) vs. The Crippler (Leben). Bisping was a slight favorite, and sure enough Bisping got the decision win in a fight that both made entertaining. Interesting to note that Leben actually dropped his hands, and allowed Bisping to take some swings at his face to show his toughness. Never seen that in a real fight before. The event was good for a Spike-TV event, and I was glad with the results.

My in-laws were nice enough to come up for the fights on UFC 90, and for me having as many people around to watch the fights together make it more entertaining. The first fight was between Sean Sherk and Tyson Griffin. As expected, this was the most entertaining fight of the night, both standing and trading shots. Sherk got the better of the exchanges, and won by decision. Very good fight between two of the best lightweights around. Immediately after was a shocking knockout victory for Junior Dos Santos over Fabricio Werdum. Dos Santos was in his first fight in the UFC, and Werdum was close to earning a title shot; so you would think this would be a "gimme" fight for Werdum. Just over a minute in, Werdum was knocked out by a huge uppercut. Should be interesting to see where Dos Santos goes now. After all this excitement so far, it got toned down during the Rich Clementi vs. Gray Maynard fight. As I knew would happen, Maynard took Clementi down constantly, kept him down, and pummeled on him a little to earn a decision win.
Next was another promising fight in the co-main event between Thiago Alves and Josh Kosheck. This fight was exciting as promised, with Alves getting the decision win (he came SO close to knocking out Kosheck a couple of times, which I would've loved) and securing his future welterweight title shot. He is definitely a promising contender. Then it was time for the middleweight title fight between Anderson Silva and Patrick Cote. Silva is one of my favorite fighters of all time, and I was expecting another impressive finish. Instead, I got a disappointing surprise. After a slow 1st round, Silva started rocking Cote throughout the 2nd, and seemed ready to finish him in the 3rd. Instead, Cote took a hard step that popped his knee, and forced the referee to stop the fight, and declare Silva the winner via technical knockout (due to Cote's injury). Up until the main event, the fights were impressive and entertaining. Although the main event ended badly, it still had the potential to be good. What did upset me was the aftermath where some general sports writers bashed the fight saying that neither fighter looked good. Yet when I talked to those who know the MMA sport, they saw that Silva put up a good fight, Cote stayed strong in a losing fight, and it was all bad luck in the end. Lets hope MMA gets some better recognition than that bull.

Anyways, the next event is in November, and has some promising fights. You'll be hearing about that soon too.

My New Haircut

I went to Matamoras today to meet my mom so that she could take Solo home (I'll get into that later), so while I was there I picked up my new glasses & headed over to the salon to get my hair cut.

I've been saying for months that I've needed to get my hair cut. I didn't want anything major, just a few inches cut off & the long layers put back in. Well I went to the salon & told the hair dresser what I wanted. After sitting in the chair for about an hour, & listening to the lady just go on & on about her whole life story; my hair is now 7-8 inches shorter than it was supposed to be. I only asked for 4 inches to get cut off! My hair was just above the small of my back, now it's just past my shoulders. Hell, I'm not even sure that the length is even! I'm a bit annoyed & this is why I never like getting my hair cut. It never gets done the way that I ask. It's really frustrating! I think from now on, I've got to tell hair dresser to cut half of what I really want in order to get it right. For example, if I want 4 inches cut off again, I'll tell the hairdresser 2 inches instead. I mean, if I want that much hair chopped off, I want to do something really fun with my hairstyle. Ugh, I know that other ladies out there will understand what I'm talking about. One point I do need to make is that Aunt Andrea is the only hair stylist I've had who listens to me. Perhaps it's because she understands my emotional attachment to my hair.

Ok, now to kitten news. Solo has been adopted by my parents. She was also renamed "Ring-Ding". Yep, you read that right. They say it's because of the white ring around the kitten's neck, but I think that someone was eating a ring-ding for breakfast & thought that would be a good name for a cat. Joe is a bit disappointed with the name change. The rest of the clan is still here, energetic & awaiting a loving home. C'mon people, I know some one out there wants a kitten!

London

London
1997-2007

I know that my mom wrote her own blog about London, but since this marks 1 year since he passed away, I decided to write my own story about him.

I got London in June of 1997 when mom was working at Mid-Orange CF. Mom mentioned that there was a litter of kittens. There was a grey kitten in the litter, who happened to be the runt. Of I course I named him London before I ever saw him. I named him after one of my favourite writers. I nagged my mom for about 2 weeks to let me have him. The day before I left to go to flight school, we went to the prision & picked up this small, small little kitty.

London grew quickly into the largest cat that most people have ever seen up close. Once house guest remarked that London was not a house cat, but a mountain lion. He even had fangs that hung out of his mouth. It added to the intimidation factor, but the truth is London was a mush. He liked to sleep beside me or on top of me...apparently me breathing was an option for him. I always thought that it was cute that he would come wake me up when it was time for me to take the dogs out or when he deemed it time for me to get up. I think what makes me smile most when I think about him, is that when he was still small, he began to sleep on top of Hemingway's bird cage. As London grew, there was a sag in the top of the cage from his muscular mass. The bird never paid attention to him & paid no attention to the bird. When Hemingway was out of his cage & would go near London, it would cause the cat to run away. London was not much for confrontation.

London would spend the majority of his day asleep on someone's bed. When I was working overnights at ERH, I was London's bed buddy. He would come in my room, cloaked in black-out curtains & sleep with me, next to my stuffed animals.

Many people balk at the idea of having a cat who is FIV+. We never knew that he was until shortly before he passed away, but London's 10 year life proves to any naysayer that infected kitties do in fact live long & happy lives.

I visit my parents house now & still expect him to be loafing around on one of the beds. I have to constantly remind myself that he isn't there...at least not in a way that we can visually see him.

Breaking In

This weekend was off to a seemingly normal start, until Friday night when Joe took Ross out to celebrate Ross's 21st birthday. They went out to the Blue Ribbon for drinks, while I stayed home alone with the zoo, just relaxing on the couch, & watching television.

I heard the back doorknob start to jiggle. I popped my head up from my pillow paradise on the couch & looked at the window. I couldn't see anything because it's pitch black, but the dog started flipping out. I quickly got off the couch, ran through the dining room & was hiding. I called Joe to see if it was him at the back door just messing around, but his cell phone went right to voice mail. I knew now that it wasn't him. I snuck into the kitchen & looked out the window to see someone running away from the back deck & into the woods. I called security & Joe to let him know what happened.

Security arrived promptly & drive around the block with the spot lights on, inspected the back yard, along with the surrounding woods & came to the conclusion that it was probably some local kids. Security told me that a lot of times the kids aren't caught unless they're caught in the act. Because I was still upset I called my cousin Kevin, a local firefighter, to come sit with me for a little while. He arrived about 2 minutes later with some other people, who were all armed & inspecting the property again. He hung around long enough for me to calm down & until his fire pager went off.

Joe called home & I updated him on everything. Thankfully he didn't have to cut his night short. When he came home he stayed up for a little while. I was exhausted, so I went right to bed. The effects of the night lasted through the weekend. I was so drained that I didn't do the long list of things that I originally planned.

My Own Star

I came home from work today & Joe had bought me a little stuffed froggie while he was out at the mall. It was a nice surprise, especially because I had a loooong day at work. Well when he bought me the froggie now named "Smilin' Froggie" it meant that you purchased star too. So, I went online & registered to name my star & pick the constellation. Now I have a star named "rizzolovesme" in the pegasus constellation. I'll give the exact coordinates later, for those of you who may want to see.

How lucky am I to have a husband who will buy me a piece of the heveans...

Home Sweet Home

Our House

Since I seem to post pictures of everyone's home, except ours, I thought I would take some pictures this afternoon of our house. It's not fancy, but after all, it's our first home. It's got a long way to go before it's done, but at least some of you can see what it looks like now.

My fall gardening is no where near completed, so once I plop some more flowers in the ground & my folks help us cut down some of the unhealthy birch trees, I will post some more pictures. Speaking of which, I'm off to Ken-Do Nursery to buy some mums.

Morning View

This is a view from the window in my little section of the office.
I took it this morning at about 8am.

Later this afternoon when I was sitting over near the tree, I was watching some little birds sit on my tires & in the spokes of my rims as they were sunning themselves.
It was too cute!

Response To Email Advice

This a copy of my response to an email giving advice about my job. I'm just putting it up here so that everyone can see some of my thought pattern with this situation.

With regards to my job. I would not leave it without having something else to go to, I know well enough how tough the job market is right now. This is not my first full time job. I worked full time hours with all my previous employers, despite often times of having an official status of "part time". When I would have to cut my hours, it was temporary & for school, which every business I have applied to or worked for considers an acceptable excuse for not working full time. The neurology office was full time, until I got promoted, which put me down to about 30 hours. Since it was only 15 minutes from the house, there was no significant loss of income to travel, etc, so it was as though I was earning a full time income. I have an extensive 10 year employment record in health care, most of which involved holding 2-3 jobs simultaneously for long time time periods. That alone makes any employer realize that I am/would be a dedicated employee.

My commute does not provide any down time, because I'm stuck on a highway doing about 80mph with all the other people in a rush to get home. I'm spending more in gas & wear on the car than I would if I took something close to home with a slight pay cut. It is something to think about when $50 is being spent biweekly on oil changes, not to mention the other routine maintenance on the car. My warranty (mileage based) would be done at the end of this year if I keep up at my current rate of travel. Again, one more thing to think about. My "disposable income" is being disposed of right into my car. Hell, if I'm going to drive 1.5 hours to work, I should just tack on the extra half hour & drive into NYC where my salary would be tripled.

Work Drama

Ok, everyone knows that I took a job with a prestigious ENT office in Middletown. I was going to be placed in the Port Jervis office at the beginning of November. Well, I found out yesterday that they will be closing our current office & not lease out office space in the new medical arts building near Bon Secours. My office manager spoke to me privately about it, but she did repeatedly express that all the doctors & support staff would like me to stay. It was expressed that my background & training are greatly appreciated, along with my willingness to pass my knowledge on. At this point, everyone understand that the drive for me is incredibly far & if I can't stay, no one will hold it against me. In fact, if in 1, 3, or 5 years they do go back to Port Jervis, I would be hired again instantly if I reapplied.

I honestly don't know how I feel about the whole situation. I'm at an office that I like, & finally have found a true full time gig in this ever-so-crappy economy. I want to stay, but the wear & tear on the car, along with gas is pretty hefty. Not to mention if I get sent to the offices in Newburgh or Harriman (which my office manager says she will try to avoid). I did express to my office manager that this is something I really need to think about. There is no pressure for me to decided right away, I can take the all the time that I need. I'm just angry to an extent because I can't help but wonder if this was something that they knew they were going to do, but because of the need for help in the Middletown office, hired me. I'm also angry because I would be looking for a new job just before the holiday season or just after the holiday season. At the same time, I know staying there until my MBA is completed would be a good thing.

Ugh, I'm just lost on what to do. I talked to Joe about it & he is cool with me staying at the office until my probationary period is over & then re-evaluating the situation. Maybe then I could even get a bit more money out of them.

Chilly Night

Tonight is the first really chilly night of the autumn. The Pocono's are in a freeze warning for the hours of 3am-9am.

So, tonight we lit a fire & have been watching it roar since about 6pm. I forgot how nice & relaxing it is to sit by the fire. Our ultra comfortable living room set certainly helps the with the whole ambiance of the night. Time to pour a nice glass of red wine & read a book.

Kitten Update

The kittens are 33 days old. Lily is weening them off of her milk & they've begun to eat solid food & drink from the water bowl. The kittens haphazardly get in & out of their box. It's cute. Every time Joe or I go out on the porch, the 3 of them come plopping out of the box to rush toward us. They seem to be fascinated by the activities around the front door. I bought a bunch of little plastic balls for all of them to chase around, plus all the other toys we have on the porch for them.

The nights have been chilly, but have no fear...we've got the space heater keeping them at a balmy 60-80 degrees at night. We go out to play with Lily, Orion, & all the kids. Orion is a good daddy; he has the kittens emulating him. For example, the other day he was cleaning himself as the kittens watched. After a moment they formed a line & were cleaning themselves just like Orion. The followed his every move. It was absolutely adorable!

At night, the whole little family curls up together in their blanket covered box to sleep. It's amazing to watch them. When one parent gets up, the other stays with the kittens. They take turns caring for the kittens in all different ways. It's a big surprise for most people when I tell them just how both Lily & Orion have shared the kitten raising.

We're still looking for homes for the kittens. At the earliest they can part with Lily in 2 week, but we are aiming to have them here for another 4 weeks. If anyone knows a good home for them, please let us know. Joe has said they can stay here if we don't find them homes, but that I can't ever ask him for anything else. Silly boy has yet to learn that I don't ask....I just get.