A true story about Iris and The Purple Purse

Please feel free to visit Iris here. I am so proud she made the pages of a big time CRIME blogger! So what if I'm a little twisted that way. It's sometimes how I roll.
Iris and the Purple Purse

It was a warm Fall day when Iris came to live with her new Mommy and her new kitty sister, named Lily.

Iris was very scared and nervous. Everything was new.

Everything, that is, except for her purple purse which came with her from her old house.

This was not just any purple purse.
This was a purple purse made of fake fur.
The kind of purse a little girl might use to hide her special things in.
It was Iris’s favorite toy.
It made her feel safe when she was nervous and Iris could be very nervous around things that were new to her.

For the first few days at her new house Iris stayed hidden in the bedroom under the bed with her face on her purple purse.
She would purr and meow when her new Mommy came to feed her and pet her but she would not come out of the bedroom.

One day her new Mommy came home and found the purple purse out in the living room!
Iris had come out from under the bed!
But where was she now?
Her new Mommy looked all over the house for her.

Suddenly, she heard a soft meow.
Iris had made a new bed in the hall cupboard which was really made for towels and things of that sort.
She was curled up in her new safe place, meowing and purring happily.
Iris loved her new cozy spot so much that she surrounded herself with all her special treasures.

In came the purple purse, of course.
Then some of Mommy’s little stuffed animals.
At night she would tuck them all under her and fall fast asleep feeling safe and protected.

One very brave day Iris decided to see what was outside in the back yard.
She had seen Lily come and go in and out the big door.
She saw Mommy do it too!

Gathering all of her courage, Iris carefully put the handle of the purple purse in her mouth and crept outside.
She had never felt grass before because before she lived with her new Mommy, she had never been outside.

The grass was scary! Everything was scary!
There were birds singing and flying around.
There were bugs and butterflies!
There was so much to see.

With her purple purse securely in her mouth, Iris touched the grass with one paw, then another until all four paws were on the grass.
Very slowly she walked around the edge of her new back yard.
She sniffed flowers and leaves.
She rubbed her face on the bark of the trees.

She was purring happily when her Mommy called her into the house for her supper.
Iris had done it! She had gone outside and nothing bad had happened to her.

She spent many days exploring all the new things around her.
Her purple purse was always with her.

One afternoon as Iris was sunning herself in a flower garden, a humming bird fluttered around her head as it drew nectar from the flower above to her.
With one quick motion, Iris was on her four feet and chasing the little bird.
The problem was, her purple purse made it impossible for her to run!
She tripped over it, sending herself head over heels as the bird took off over the fence in search of safer flowers.

Soon Iris’s need for her purple purse wasn’t so important.
There were so many more things she could do without it in her mouth.
Iris discovered she could be very brave all by herself.

Once in awhile when Iris became nervous, she would find her purple purse and rub her face against it. But this didn’t last for long.
Iris had figured out that all the courage and bravery she needed was right inside her all the time.

THE END

Pink Saturday!

Pink dolphins....amazing works of art!

Have a great weekend!

Fashionable Fridays!

I love hats as much as I love crowns so today, we are going to have a look at a few little lovelies a few ladies thought were a good idea to place on their heads.

The best place to view some of the most outrageous hats is always at the third day of Royal Ascot, Ladies Day, the day ponies run in the Gold Cup. The crowd is the biggest, the Royal Family is there and feathers, flowers and whatever the hat maker thought to stick on a hat is out on display. Here are a few "good" ideas the ladies have had over the years... however, before we get to Ascot, we must make one detour.

First up, SJP. She was not at Ascot in this hat but at the opening of the Sex and The City movie. She made this post because of the hat she has on and...

because Carrie thught it was a good idea to get married with a bird on her head. How could she not make the list?

Now, on to Asoct...

I think this fine lady will only see one half of the race...whatever is coming at her from the left! It is an interesting hat and for Ascot, quite reserved.

I like this hat. It's very fun in a Cindy Lauper kind of way! I think this girl is gonna have fun.

Oh my. You could follow this hat around all day and never get hungry!

This hat is very cool! And from the sweet look on her face, she knows she looks good.

What to say about this one? Other than maybe to ask her if she is picking up any inter-orbital frequencies? She does seem very pleased with herself!

Girlfriends with the same sense of humor or the same mad hatter? Grand hats!
Now this hat has it ALL going on! A crown for a base and all those flowing flowers....how much did that weigh and did she really keep it on all day? One does wonder...
And last but never least, Princess Diana at Ascot, understated and elegant as always, however, she learned very quickly to never wear polka dots again.

Fashionable Friday has been great fun! For more fun Fashonable Friday posts, go see Fifi and get the directions!

Rainy days with The New Yorker

I love rainy days, umbrellas, and The New Yorker covers!
When they all come together at the same time?
I'm a happy girl!

It's raining ....

a little bit cold in SoCal today....

So I better grab one of my umbrellas!

Hmmmm...which color shall I choose?

Happy Wednesday!

You have not been forgotten

The month of March continually marks another year.

Pam Neal, my girlfriend from high school, has been missing since 1983. I have looked for her for 26 years and have been haunted by this for 26 years. I have contacted people who specialize in looking into cold cases. I have contacted any agency, anybody at all, who might help. I know someone out there knows what happened to her. I look for her everywhere I go, however, I know she is most likely not going to be found alive.. My wish is that she would be found so that she could be laid to rest with the people who love her around her. There is nothing in the world worse than not knowing. If you know anything please help.

PAMELA LYNNE NEAL

Report Type: Suspicious Circumstances
Sex: Female
Race: White
Hair: Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Height: 5 ft. 03 in.
Weight: 110 lbs.
Date of Birth: 7/18/1960
Clothing: Light green colored dress with white print and a lace collar, Tan hip length leather jacket.
Last Seen: 3/31/1983
Other Identifiers: Foul Play is suspected.
Dental X-rays Available: Yes
Pamela was last seen March 31, 1983 in Englewood, Colorado.

Details of Disappearance
Neal was last seen on March 31, 1983 at her place of work, Key Savings and Loan in Englewood, Colorado. She was employed as a bank teller at the time of her disappearance. She was last seen leaving work to go on her lunch break at 2:00 p.m. She walked two blocks over to another bank and cashed a check, stopped at a grocery store to buy a lottery ticket and some take-out food, and apparently went to her apartment afterwards. Neal has never been heard from again. After her disappearance, her roommate found Neal's lunch bag sitting on the table in their apartment. Her shoes were under the coffee table and her purse was nearby, with her wallet and unscratched lottery ticket inside. The apartment's door was ajar.

At the time of her disappearance, Neal lived quietly and did not frequent nightclubs. She did not own a car and walked to work instead; her workplace was across the street from her apartment. She was born in Denver, Colorado, graduated from Cherry Creek High School and attended Western State College. She lived in Alaska for a year, then in Maine with her parents, before moving to Englewood to take the bank teller's job.
Neal is missing under suspicious circumstances and foul play is suspected in her disappearance. Few details are available in her case.

CONTACTAgency: Englewood (CO) Police DepartmentPhone Number:
(303) 762-2438Case Number: 83-7270

She is listed on The Charlie Project: http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/n/neal_pamela.html

I believe in 6 degrees of separation.

Someone knows someone who knows something.

Please hit reset and start again...

I've had a computer problem here for a few weeks. I think it's been a driver interface with Vista (HATE) that has caused the screen on my lap top to flicker so badly the screen eventually faded to the gray halo and then to black. I'm a computer geek and have always been able to think my way out of hardware and software problems but this one really stumped me. I could not for the LIFE of me figure out which driver was wreaking havoc with everything out side of the word processing programs. I called every help line I could think of, downloaded everything they suggested and then it happened. I was out of options....save one. Reset the whole damn computer back to the factory settings. OMG!!!!! I backed up everything, called my sister for input, and if you knew her computer skill level, you'd understand exactly how frantic I was to think calling her was a good idea. (The perfect amount of moral support was offered, however. Thank you, beauty girl.) I took a deep breath and did it. (more HATE)

Short of the BLUE SCREEN O' DEATH, there is nothing.worse.than.reset. Other than the obvious, my computer was perfect, broken in like a new pair of leather shoes that are finally soft enough to fit like a glove. I have moved on from crying and freaking out. I am in HATE right now. A computer has NEVER brought me to my knees before but then, I had never met Vista until last year. I am filing for a divorce. I will ask for EVERYTHING and I will get it. Bastards.

UPDATE: Reset did not fix the problem. (MORE HATE) Bigger bastards *cry*

The Queen of Gossip and my confession...

In addition to being a complete news junkie, I am also a confessed gossip junkie. I live for my daily dose of Page Six, Perez Hilton, TMZ and several of the very juicy daily UK tabloids. In the UK, however, these lovelies are called newspapers! I love it! However, the UK and their version of what is news worthy is not what this post is about.

It is about the fabulous Liz Smith who, after 30 years of writing her gossip column for many of the New York City papers, most recently 14 years at the New York Post, has written her last column today. At 86 years old, she has been fired by the new regime who took over the Post last year and decided her gossip wasn't trashy enough, although they tried to tell her was for economic reasons. She always delivers the goods in an elegant and sophisticated way. One might think that that is why many of the people she writes about actually invite her to their events so that she can write about them. Even when she has something less than complimentary to say about someone, she does it in a way that leaves the person with their dignity intact.

I'LL MISS YOU, NYC

"HAIL AND FAREWELL! This column marks my last for the New York Post, where I've been writing for 14 years. I am sorry to go. But I've lived long enough to know the closing of one door means the opening of another.
I will still be writing a five-days-a-week column for my syndicated TMS newspapers, also twice a week for Daily Variety and especially for the WowOwow Web site, where next month we expect 1 million unique hits (visitors), and it's growing. My daily column also appears in The Drudge Report. I am now a contributing writer for Parade magazine, and you can see my cover story on Liza Minnelli there on Sunday. And I'll still be a showbiz commentator for Fox News weekly on "Lips & Ears."
Tomorrow marks the first time in 33 years that the Liz Smith column will not appear in a New York City newspaper. But it's exhilarating to be fired at age 86. So, thanks for all your support and enthusiasm over the years and much love to each of you ."

Liz, you are a rock star! How many people can say they got fired at 86? Wow....wowOwow.com!