Cathy Classics by Cathy Guisewite for July 09, 2012

Oh, this totally applied to me! I ignored life this past week, enjoyed a wonderful place to stay, relaxed, ate a lot and had a fantastic time!!! And we fly on most of our vacations (we only drive to FL)… I’m either very tolerant or it’s really not that bad. Sure, some planes are worse than others and have less legroom, but others are fine. And I’ve only been singled out once to be “special” x-rayed… no big deal. My husband travels every other week, so he goes in the frequent flyer lines and goes through quickly. I would only be upset if they mistreated my kids, but they’ve always been extra nice to them and my kids are fine with going through security. It’s all in the attitude, and we enjoy traveling too much to give it up over a line in the airport. Besides we can’t drive to Europe, which we go to almost every year.Glad to be back with you guys! I had a great time, but did think of you all. I didn’t have a computer though and the internet access was too slow on my phone. I’ll have to go back and read what I missed, but happy 4th of July to all! I’m glad that Aaron and Billy missed the bizarre storm and blackout in DC. I did have some stress when I was worried about my elderly mother without electricity, but she managed to find a hotel so that was good.Sorry for the long post, so a quick hello to Aaron, GretchensMom, Billy, KFG, Susan, rgcviper, lindz.coop, hendelca, Mona, serenasakitty, kittycatpawsare, gmforde, soonergal, lippyfish, Mai Tai, Willi Nilli, mollie, legaleagle, Hobbes and all the other Cathy nuts rolling around here today!

Getting ready to travel again myself to Great White North where it’s always cooler!! No flying though…hop in car and there in 8 hrs. Good Afternoon to everyone have a cooler day!!

Even in laughter the heart may be in pain, and the end of joy may be grief. Prov 14:13 The heart knows its own bitterness and no one shares its joy. Prov 14:10

Lordy, Cathy are her co-workers need help..lol…..I’m taking off to Chile in a few weeks…….actually know a few canucks that are working down there, and they invited me :)…….Can’t wait…Hello to Lightenup (welcome back :), Aaron, Billy, Susan, Gretch’s Ma, Mollie, viperdude, hendelca, lindzcoop, gmforde, serenaskitty, and all the other Cathy fans :)

Construction work in my area is actually UP these days! One of our bridges was recently shut down completely for 5-6 months for steel repairs . . . they’re currently replacing the decking on another bridge . . . and construction on 2 new bridges (that they’ve been talking about building for at least 20 years!) is supposed to begin by the end of 2012 / start of 2013. Of course, all this “21st century progress” doesn’t come without a price to pay: expensive tolling on everything that’s already been paid for by us taxpayers for the last 30 years or more in order to help pay for them! Of course, if they’d only build one bridge for now and wait to see if a 2nd one would even be needed or if they had built them both 20+ years ago when it would have only cost in the millions instead of the billions it’s now going to cost . . .But, hey! I’m not a money-wasting politician so what would I know, huh?!?!?

Glad to hear the Blueberry Coffee Cake turned out better for you than mine did for me! I was going to throw the recipe away and never make it again but I wrote down your suggestions and will give it another try sometime. Hopefully, the 2nd time will be the charm because there’s not a whole lot in life I hate more than the wasting of food (like 2 sticks of butter, for example!) to make something that ends up not tasting good to me. B.t.w.: my husband and mother said they liked the cake just fine. So what’s MY problem with it then??? Maybe since I’m not a coffee drinker I’m just not a coffee cake eater either!!! ;-)

lightenup & lightenupjr.: Welcome back from Maine! We missed you both!!! Hope you had a really great time while you were gone and didn’t swelter in the heat as much as some of the rest of us did! ;-)

Good afternoon, Hobbes (if you should happen to drop by), K.F.G., Susan, lindz.coop, rgcviper, gmforde, serenasakitty, kittycatpawsare, hendelca, Gator007, legaleagle48, Willi Nilli, mollie05 and all the REST of the “Cathy” fanatics joining us here today. Hope everyone had a nice weekend and weren’t too hot where you were (got up to 106 ° where I live in Indiana this past Saturday. Yuck!) I haven’t been online since last Friday so it’s really great to “see” you all again! I missed you all!

I just missed you, GretchensMom! (15 min) Hi!!After catching up on some things (grocery shopping, laundry, etc), I finally had a little time to read through the past 10 days. I missed everyone and reading your comments and the whole community here! Too bad you didn’t think of me, Aaron, because I thought about you…. :-)I read that you and Billy like visiting lighthouses… we went to 4 in Maine while we were there. I really enjoyed visiting them too and would like to see more if I can. If you know your lighthouses, we saw the Portland Head Light, which was commissioned by George Washington and one of the more famous ones. Beautiful!Reading about everyone’s heat problems, we mostly avoided all of that, lucky for us. Yes, it was hot for Maine, but it was great for us. At the worst, it was probably close to 90, but that was when it was close to 120 in Georgia. Sounds like you’ve been just as fortunate in NH, Aaron and Billy, which is fantastic. :-) How is your hip feeling, Aaron? Are you back in DC, Billy? I think it’s hotter there than it is here. Ouch!Hi GretchensMom! Sounds like you’ve been busy with baking some yummy things! Thank you for your nice greetings while we were gone! ♥Hi *Susan

Oops, my message posted too quickly… I was trying to say:Hi Susan! I hope you’re getting some relief from the heat!Hi KFG, super sister! It’s still really nice to know you’re back posting with us! Hugs to everyone!!

Hi lightenup Doing okay with the healing process. I’ve had a couple nightmares since that accident. Billy holds on for dear life so I’m okay. He’s staying until Monday the 16th. He’s got a couple short trips coming up. I’m staying here for the summer. LMB too, though he’s gonna miss Billy.

Yum! Want some? :-)Here’s the recipe: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/blackberry-peach-cobbler-50400000122185/?iid=news-di-070912&PromKey=XET

At first, the comic actually made sense to me. Then, after reading some of the comments, I came to my senses. :)

Good to have you back with us, K.F.G. And I must say that I really like the “Viperdude” nickname you’ve given me!

Welcome back as well to lightenup and lightenupjr. I’ve missed you both, and look forward to hearing from you on the site again.

Hello to everyone else as well. Hope you all have had a decent Monday.

Hi Cathyites!! So glad to hear that most everyone is cooling off as are we in the Detroit area. (Not for long, but we’ll take anything we can get.) We actually were quite cool up in the Georgian Bay area of Canada — tho it did get up to 87 in Parry Sound on the 4th, but that was the hottest (while at home everyone was suffering in 100 degrees).

Already went back and read all the Cathys for the week I was gone. You guys were busy!! Love Aaron’s 4th of July holiday treats — wow!!

Like others we were away from home over the 4th and worried about the house being set on fire (as happened to 2 homes near where my nephew’s lives). Our grass is like straw except where we’ve set out the sprinklers for the tomatoes. All over Canada there were warnings (no fires, no fireworks, etc). Most people are complying, but it only takes one…..

Oh yeah, then there is Cathy — travel is up and so is the price. We are flying to Norway in August and it will cost nearly 10 times what it cost us only 3 years ago to go to England. (And don’t even plan on bringing luggage at $100/bag). Oh well, we don’t do this very often so…

@KoolFunkyGrrl: I’m only going back to Ontario to home town, much cooler than Kentucky!!

Welcome back to lightenup, lighteupjr, and lindz.coop! Glad you enjoyed the cooler temperatures!

@lindz.coop. We detoured through Parry Sound a couple of weeks ago! Had not been there for over 30 years. Was still able to find my way around but there have been a lot of changes. I was able to find the street where my great aunt lived (and we visited for a week) but all the old stately homes are gone and big ugly condos took their place. Surprised to see the old railway bridge still there – remember watching trains cross over it way back in my early teens!

My wife and I travel by air anywhere from two to five times per year – mostly to the US but occasionally to Europe. We have never had difficulty with security officials – all have been polite and most are friendly as well – but maybe because we try to be polite and friendly (figure they meet too many surly people in a day so try not to be one). We both have our Nexus cards so can skip the customs agents and at some airports and all road crossings take the short line through security so don’t have to wait in line very long. We have more problems with Air Canada counter agents then we do security!

Good night (or morning) to my fellow Cathyites!

Hi GretchensMom good to hear from you as always.Hi Aaron & Dr.Billy hope all is well.Welcome back Lightenup & Lightenupjr hope you had a great time.Hi K.F.G. Susan,Serenasakitty and all the other cathy nuts out there A.M. & P.M. : ) P.S. So glad i’m not cathy lol