Yo Pam and Rob....PingPingPingPing

Rusty agrees with the mexican restaurant down the road for dinner
tomorrow night if we haven't eaten too much bbq. We've had several
invitations from a couple of teams for all of us to come by and eat
bbq and ribs after the judging is over so we may not have room for
mexican. .....nahhhhhh. Rusty has the remains of a nasty cold and he
wasn't feeling well when we were coming back from Charlotte but I
didn't think anything about it. After we got back from dinner he went
to the room to take our stuff upstairs and he sat on the bed then fell
asleep. He was treating a sore throat when I got up here. That
explains whey he was't down in the lobby telling cat stories with us.
See you at breakfast - sleep well. Tell Jim and Manda to turn off the
puters and get some sleep. Lack of sleep causes a girl to grow pink
monster toes

Julie

To keep this on topic - watch for we have finally, after all these
years, all these dramas, joy and tears.....Julie and Rusty, Pam and
Rob, Manda and Jim have found themselves in the same state, the same
city....even the same hotel!!!!! Pictures will be posted if we ever
stop talking long enough

Awww! Looking forward to hearing all about this historic meeting!
Christine
"GaDragonfly" wrote in message
...
Rusty agrees with the mexican restaurant down the road for dinner
tomorrow night if we haven't eaten too much bbq. We've had several
invitations from a couple of teams for all of us to come by and eat
bbq and ribs after the judging is over so we may not have room for
mexican. .....nahhhhhh. Rusty has the remains of a nasty cold and he
wasn't feeling well when we were coming back from Charlotte but I
didn't think anything about it. After we got back from dinner he went
to the room to take our stuff upstairs and he sat on the bed then fell
asleep. He was treating a sore throat when I got up here. That
explains whey he was't down in the lobby telling cat stories with us.
See you at breakfast - sleep well. Tell Jim and Manda to turn off the
puters and get some sleep. Lack of sleep causes a girl to grow pink
monster toes

Julie

To keep this on topic - watch for we have finally, after all these
years, all these dramas, joy and tears.....Julie and Rusty, Pam and
Rob, Manda and Jim have found themselves in the same state, the same
city....even the same hotel!!!!! Pictures will be posted if we ever
stop talking long enough

"GaDragonfly" wrote in message
...
Rusty agrees with the mexican restaurant down the road for dinner
tomorrow night if we haven't eaten too much bbq. We've had several
invitations from a couple of teams for all of us to come by and eat
bbq and ribs after the judging is over so we may not have room for
mexican. .....nahhhhhh. Rusty has the remains of a nasty cold and he
wasn't feeling well when we were coming back from Charlotte but I
didn't think anything about it. After we got back from dinner he went
to the room to take our stuff upstairs and he sat on the bed then fell
asleep. He was treating a sore throat when I got up here. That
explains whey he was't down in the lobby telling cat stories with us.
See you at breakfast - sleep well. Tell Jim and Manda to turn off the
puters and get some sleep. Lack of sleep causes a girl to grow pink
monster toes

Julie

To keep this on topic - watch for we have finally, after all these
years, all these dramas, joy and tears.....Julie and Rusty, Pam and
Rob, Manda and Jim have found themselves in the same state, the same
city....even the same hotel!!!!! Pictures will be posted if we ever
stop talking long enough


The Mexican restaurant was great, although the waiter kept trying to get
Julie tanked on sangria. Mandy changed her pink monster toes for her cookie
monster slippers, and they ordered pizza so that we grown ups, (you can stop
giggling now) could yak. I need to get a new battery for my camera so that
I can post the pictures in my photo bucket account.

We talked for hours. We reminded each other of various highlights of our
group's existence, compared notes on various insanities in our owners,
agreed that the barbeque competition was really fun, and gave each other bbq
prezzies. Julie and Rusty gave us an apron that says "You can smell our
butts for miles," and we gave them a North Carolina bbq association cook
book and apron.

It seemed like everyone there had dogs with their bbq teams. There were two
fat little pugs that looked like they missed the cooker by the skin of their
teeth, they were that fluffy, a beautiful husky mix with light brown and
white fur and blue eyes, labs some pups that looked like miniature spaniels,
and so on. No cats ;-(

We have found our dream business. LOL. One of the venues there was a
mobile book store. I took pictures of it and copied down the web site. You
can see it's WebPages at www.bookin-it.com. They started out in a tent
trailer and then the owner's husband and partner modified a fifth wheel for
her and their son to use. David, their son, is a charmer in his own right
and easily talked me into a wash off tattoo. It was wash offable that I had
to scrub it three times with soap and still had to scrape it off.

Julie and Rusty were wonderful and can hold their own in a conversation.
Meaning that Rusty, Rob, and Jim all had evil senses of humor and should all
change their names to Dave. We were laughing almost the whole time we were
together. The only real blot on the weekend was that Rob get sick with a
combination of heat and lack of carbohydrates. We got him to the van
(thanks to Jim and Rusty) pumped orange aide into him and then fed him pizza
at the hotel. Apparently the little bbq we had wasn't enough to keep him
going. He's fine now and says that he wouldn't have missed the weekend for
the world.

I'll post the URL when I get the pictures I've got on the camera down loaded
to photo bucket.

Pam S. still jazzed about meeting Julie and Rusty

tanadashoes wrote:

Pam S. still jazzed about meeting Julie and Rusty

Sounds like the rpca meeting of a lifetime! Wish I could have been a fly
on the wall.

--
Marina, Miranda and Caliban.
In loving memory of Frank and Nikki.

There is no question that this was one of the most wonderful visits
I've had in a long time. It was crazy. I sent an email to Pam to ask
how far King's Mountain was from Fayetteville because we had been
accepted to judge a bbq at King's Mountain. By the next morning Pam
returned my email saying she had her rooms and couldn't wait to meet
us, lol! I was able to get a room at the same hotel and we just had to
hold our breath that everything went right. We daren't say a word
because of so much that could have gone wrong and kept us from a
chance to visit. We didn't get away from Atlanta early enough for us
to visit on Thursday but at 1 am I got a call from Pam on my cell
phone. She was so excited she couldn't sleep and she just wanted to
know we were in the same building. We made plans to have breakfast at
the hotel and meet around 8:30. We went downstairs and immediately I
knew who they were - although I wasn't sure about the huge pink
monster feet on Amanda's feet (lol!). We spent several hours visiting
- while everyone ate breakfast, while cleanup was taking place and
until they turned all the lights out of the breakfast area. Rob
looked like he needed a nap and Pam hadn't slept well so she needed a
nap and Rusty and I had planned to visit the NCUS Whitewater Center in
Charlotte so we headed to Charlotte with plans to meet afterwards for
lunch. We visited the whitewater center and then checked out the
location of the BBQ contest and determined that we wouldn't be needed
until the next day and called Pam to tell her we were ready for
lunch. We went back to the hotel, changed and met Pam and family
downstairs for a trip to a really fun American food - basically a meat
and 3 veggie type place. The food was very good. We returned to the
hotel and because Rusty wasn't feeling well he went to the room to
rest. I'm thinking I rested awhile and then we all went to the BBQ
location to walk around. This was when we first found the "Mobile
bookstore". I'm still impressed with that concept! What a great
business venture for someone unable to participate in a more
conventional type lifestyle. I'm really voting for Pam and her crew
to take up the idea. After quite a few books were purchased we went
back to the hotel and Rusty again went upstairs to get some rest - he
was really beginning to feel sick. Pam, Rob, Jim and Amanda and I
stayed downstairs and chatted awhile and when Amanda and Jim went
upstairs then Pam and Rob and I chatted. Rusty and I had to be at the
BBQ at 9:30 on Saturday so we called it an early night at around 10
p.m. and while we all had breakfast together Saturday morning Rusty
and I went on to the BBQ leaving Pam, et al to take it easy and relax
until they planned to come out and check things out. Rusty and I had
fun judging some good BBQ and at one point I looked out the window in
time to see Jim and Amanda walk past our window so I knew they were
here. When we finished judging we went out and found Pam, Rob, Jim
and Amanda and we all walked around a minute. We wanted to buy Pam an
apron she had admired the day before (It says "You can smell my butt a
mile away"). It was at that time we realized Rob had had too much sun
and too little food. Unfortunately he tripped and fell. We decided
that was enough. It was hot and he had eaten very little and drunk
very little fluids. We needed to get him out of there so he could
cool off. We were tired and hot as well so it made sense to head back
to the hotel. We all went to our rooms and took naps waking up around
6 pm to go out for a Mexican dinner with Pam and Rob, Rusty and
myself. The kids decided not to eat with us this time. We had a good
meal (thanks again, Pam, you shouldn't have picked up the check!).
Rusty went to bed when we got home. A combination of not feeling well
and knowing he wanted to wake up at 2 am to watch the F1 race sent him
to bed early. Pam, Rob and I talked for about an hour but Rob decided
to go to bed as well and that left just me and Pam. We caught up with
our individual masters, we discussed people we haven't seen in forever
and wish would come back, we discussed people we'd met and those we
wanted to add to our "Bucket List" and we made some preliminary plans
for this year's Mouser voyage. It was hard to ignore since I was
wearing my tall masted, USS Constitution t-shirt. We talked until
midnight when we decided we needed to go to bed. We left early on
Sunday, I had some family obligations that I really needed to attend
to - my stepmother died today, I was able to get back just prior to
her death. Any spare purrs for Alice Kay would be appreciated. If
there is a solid black kitty at RB that could keep her company while
they are each waiting for their other halves to arrive would be
greatly appreciated.

Anyway, in summation, Pam is as friendly and as fun as you would think
she would be. She is down to earth, unpretentious and has a great
sense of humor. She remembers all that we write about and can tell
you what happened to al of our masters. She can talk forever if she
gets with someone who can carry their side of the story. Amanda is as
charming as we have all suspected. She enjoys the cats, has a funny
sense of humor and is unafraid of parading around the breakfast area
at the Holiday Inn Express in her pajamas, monster feet and cat ears.
Jim is more reserved, perhaps thinking if he is quiet enough noone
will realize he's in love with a woman with huge pink monster feet
An yes, Pam, I can see Jim in a kilt strutting his stuff and exposing
his tush at a Highlands game. He has a very viking type body shape.
Give him a sword and the appropriate trappings and I think he would do
very well. Now who does that leave to describe? Let me think, I know
I am forgetting someone Rob is just pure fun to be around. No one
in the Shirk family is afraid to discuss the elephant in the room
which is Rob's cancer. Therefore there aren't any awkward moments in
the time spent in his company. I spent a lot of time talking with Rob
and I can see the man and the personality he must have been prior to
the diagnosis of brain cancer. He has a very quick mind and is very
smart. He is a lot smartass and jokester. I'm sure that Rob's
reflexes are slower than they were BC (before cancer) but I kind of
prefer the slower, more laid-back Rob. He was never so slow as to be
annoying. He adores and is proud of Pam - you can hear that in the
stories he tells and the way he talks about Pam. They are both lucky
to have each other. I can't wait until we get to meet with them
again. We'll be judging BBQ in North Carolina again and hopefully
we'll be able to see more of these old friends of mine.

I do have a picture to post to Catslaves (thank you Jim for agreeing
to taking the picture). I will post it soon. I need to get some
sleep right now and get ready for the business of burying a loved one.
sigh

Have a good week everyone,
Julie

Another observation - Pam and Rusty are very much Type A personalities
and Rob and I are very much Type B personalities. This is probably
why we all got along so very well.

GaDragonfly wrote:
Another observation - Pam and Rusty are very much Type A personalities
and Rob and I are very much Type B personalities. This is probably
why we all got along so very well.

I envy you all, so far I've not met anyone from rpca, hopefully one day I
will.
--
Adrian (Owned by Snoopy, Bagheera & Shadow)
Cats leave pawprints on your heart
http://community.webshots.com/user/clowderuk

"GaDragonfly" wrote in message
...

We talked until
midnight when we decided we needed to go to bed. We left early on
Sunday, I had some family obligations that I really needed to attend
to - my stepmother died today, I was able to get back just prior to
her death. Any spare purrs for Alice Kay would be appreciated. If
there is a solid black kitty at RB that could keep her company while
they are each waiting for their other halves to arrive would be
greatly appreciated.


I'm sorry about your Stepmom, Julie. I know you cared about her very much.
I'm sure there are a lot of kitties of all sorts of colors that would love
to keep her company. I bet Berfert is already giving her head butts and
playing practical jokes on her.

What Julie didn't say is that Rob isn't the only male at that gathering with
a puckish sense of humor. Rusty had me laughing even though he wasn't
feeling tip top. Jim is also funny and I still say that the three of them
should change their names to Dave. If you get a chance to meet Julie and
Rusty, grab it. They have not only made my list of favorite cat friends,
but also my list of someone to be dumped on an island with, along with cats,
books, music, and plenty of munchies.

Pam S.

On Apr 22, 9:08*am, "tanadashoes" wrote:
"GaDragonfly" wrote in message

...

We talked until
midnight when we decided we needed to go to bed. *We left early on
Sunday, I had some family obligations that I really needed to attend
to - my stepmother died today, I was able to get back just prior to
her death. Any spare purrs for Alice Kay would be appreciated. *If
there is a solid black kitty at RB that could keep her company while
they are each waiting for their other halves to arrive would be
greatly appreciated.

I'm sorry about your Stepmom, Julie. *I know you cared about her very much.
I'm sure there are a lot of kitties of all sorts of colors that would love
to keep her company. *I bet Berfert is already giving her head butts and
playing practical jokes on her.

What Julie didn't say is that Rob isn't the only male at that gathering with
a puckish sense of humor. *Rusty had me laughing even though he wasn't
feeling tip top. *Jim is also funny and I still say that the three of them
should change their names to Dave. *If you get a chance to meet Julie and
Rusty, grab it. *They have not only made my list of favorite cat friends,
but also my list of someone to be dumped on an island with, along with cats,
books, music, and plenty of munchies.

Pam S.

I agree Pam. I treasure the memory of our all-too-brief lunch with
Julie and Rusty when they visited Sydney. Fabulous, warm, funny
people!

Tish