Is There Room in My Heart

About 2 weeks ago just as I walked in the door, Husband was calling me and telling me to head over to the PetSmart and bring the check book.
About 2 years ago, we gave our cat to Michael's brother and his family because he was going a little nuts being alone all day. Now the family is pretty tired of him and their little girls basically just torture him, so when they asked when we wanted our cat back, I decided that since they took him off our hands with the agreement that if things didn't work out, we would take him back, we should do the gracious thing and take him back.
So while we are still waiting for the return of our old cat, Nemo, Husband decided that Nemo would need a friend for when we're at work. I was apprehensive. Honestly, I've enjoyed not having to shut doors and vacuum everyday, not to mention that I don't love shoveling animal crap. Husband showed me the little guy that had won his heart. I still didn't really want another animal. I was done after the second cat died. I didn't want to be a cat person again. I was done with animals, I'm not a clean freak, so it makes my house that much dirtier faster, plus there's all the people that are allergic. My dad, my sister in law, my friends. I didn't want to go back to being the house where people can't go or the stinky house because I know that I'm lazy, and lazy people shouldn't be in charge of the litter box.
This cat is nice, he's very lovey-dovey and he's not black! He's a brown and black tabby with a white throat and paws. He actually looked just like the cat on the adoption flyer they gave us. So about $300 later we are the proud owners of a new cat.
So I am mildly allergic, I can't remember the last time I sneezed so much. I didn't want to like him. But Hayley loves him with the fire of the sun and he's really good with her, doesn't scratch her when she sits on him and he hasn't been meowing in the middle of the night and scratching on our door. We've named him Link because he has lynx-like black tuffs on his ears and Well, the Legend of Zelda rocks!
Last night Link and I were watching TV because he's the lappingest lap cat ever and I realized that i was smiling, grinning from ear to ear because of the little purring machine on my lap.
So I guess there is room in my heart for one more cat.

Newness Squared

Okay, I just wanted to draw attention to my new masthead. Most of you have already seen it, but I just have such a little crush on it. I love the colors and the way that things blend (except that part that doesn't. Curse you Photoshop!) I seriously spent a lot of time this weekend just staring at it. That was of course, when I wasn't staring at my new fish (see how this works, when the fish are interesting, they are mine, when they are lame, they are Husband's.)

Did I mention the new fish? My brother, who is a fish expert, heard that we only clean our tank once or twice a year and almost had heart failure right there. I guess we're suppose to clean it every week. Every week? Are you kidding? When we had a cat, he was lucky if we cleaned the litterbox every week and that thing stank! The fish tank doesn't bother us if it's all grimey, because we're like that. Anyway, my brother came over on Saturday and helped to clean it. He also knew that most of our non-guppy fish had died/were eaten and so took me and Hayley to the pet store to view fish. My brother spent a lot more time diciding what out tank needed then I even thought possible. Meanwhile Hayley was trying to run through the store and take things off the shelves. Note to self: No trip inside a store is ever too short not to get a cart.
So after getting 3 bags full of different fish our tank is full to the rafters. There are 3 fish that zoom back and forth and up and down all day long. If I had known there were fish like this, I would have gotten some long ago, because these fish, they make it so interesting to stare at the tank. I spend a good 15 minutes Saturday night just watching the fish. Not the the TV, not playing with my daughter or reading a book. Watching the fish swim. Back and forth and back again. I think it's probably just that I'm easily entertained now that I watch so much Hannah Montana on the Disney channel. But man, I even had think "Okay, you're just watching fish, go to freaking bed!" and it still took another 5 minutes before I left! Like the fish were going to start a conga line just as I turned the lights off. They probably did, just to spite me.