lisaviolet's diary

Saturday, December 16, 2017

catstuff
07:32 AM - 12/16/2017

The topic: And then, there’s number four
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During the sleep time on Thursday night into Friday morning, Mario was very growly. He's growly at the other cats, but he was particularly bad this night.

There was a lot of "shut up, Mario" from both of us.

Friday morning, I found out why. His back end was VERY painful. Ah, come on.....

I wasn't sure what it could be. Thoughts were urinary blockage or constipation. Neither were good options. As soon as it was eight, I called the vet's office. We made an appointment for ten am. Then I saw Mario in the office, on a throw rug. He was trying to poop. He had urinated. So, this narrows it down.

The doc checked him over, took a mini-blood test, and Mario got an x-ray.

Mario has always had a problem with his lower back. And it's gotten worse as he's gotten older (he's seventeen). We could see the deterioraton on the x-ray. The vet called it stenosis. And pressure was put on his nerves, think along the lines of sciatica. And it's hard for him to push out these hard, dry little stools you see here in the x-ray. It's not that he can't push them out, it's just too painful.

So, Mario got fluids, Mario got an enema, Mario got to stay at the vet's office until he passed the stools, then he came home with some steroids (for the back problem) and stool softener. And from now on, he'll get psyllium added to his meals. Of course, these will be special meals, just for him, so I know he's getting what he needs to be getting. Vet said if possible 80% wet food for him. Yeah, okay. I just wish he wasn't such a slow eater.

I finished one card yesterday. Four to go.

vet stenosis sciatica mario

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geekstuff
07:08 AM - 12/16/2017

The topic: Plan interference part three
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So, all the pieces for the last three cards were cut last Sunday. Fifty-three sheets of paper. At this point, I'm trying to decide what to use for sentiments and embellishments. I needed a certain text on a curve for a banner.

I decided to use my Mint stampmaker.

I got the stamp designed and started the process and the computer wouldn't recognize the stamp maker. Oh, if I disconnected it from the computer and reconnected it, I got the little box saying "installed". But I couldn't get the Mint software to recognize that it was connected.

I restarted the laptop. It stalled. NOOOOOOO!!!!

I restarted again. Same thing. I finally ended up doing a recovery (yeah, just like Brian's all in one). I did research new laptops, found a couple I liked, Brian said I could get one, but if I can get this one working again, I won't worry about it.

Luckily, I did get it working again. I'm not happy with losing my settings, but it's not like there's a lot of stuff on it that can't be replaced. And I did use the save your stuff option, so if there are any pictures on there that hadn't been transferred to the external drive, they are still available. Somewhere.

I got my stamp made. I did a test ink of one, not happy with it, spent some time researching the best way to emboss using a Silhouette Mint stamp, did a couple of test stamps and I figured I could do this on Friday. Yay!

Shut down for the night.

stamps geekstuff craftstuff

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otherstuff
06:49 AM - 12/16/2017

The topic: About plans
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Brian had an appointment Wednesday and I was going to go with him, but Tuesday night my IBS or whatever the hell it is flared up. This thing I've had since my twenties. I didn't want to be sitting in a waiting room and have the pain hit, so we decided I didn't really need to be there. Sleep that night was awful.

I spent the day dozing off and on. I lost a day of papercrafting.

I decided this time I didn't want to take any pills to help things along. I wanted my body to do it on its own. After Brian's colonoscopy a few months ago, he was told to take a fiber supplement for is diverticulitis. So, he said I should take it as well. If it would help this from happening, I was all for it. But my body wasn't used to the fiber, I guess.

Ever since my gallbladder was taken out, I've had a reflux problem. It's really been a drag on my activity level, having that acidic stomach. Omeprazole works, but it's not a long term solution. So, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to try a Zantac in the morning and at night (don't take more than two tablets a day as per directions). Yeah! No stomach problems. Well, there was some breakthrough, but it wasn't really bad. It really sucks to be wakened from a deep sleep by stuff coming up your throat, burning along the way. Burning is what acid does. But the Zantac has a side effect. Constipation.

And yeah. That happened. So, with the Zantac side effect, the upped intake of fiber, my poor intestines were lost. They didn't know what to do. So, they just hurt.

Funny thing, though, for years I've taken an orange soda flavored Zipfizz in the morning, before breakfast, with my BP pill. Well, Wednesday, I didn't have one. At all. I didn't have one Thursday, or Friday. And you know what?

No reflux. No upset stomach. And Thursday we had Taco Bell for dinner. Amazing.

So, Zipfizz will now be used for it's purpose. As a pick-me-up when I really need one (it has a ton of vitamin B). Not as a substitute for good old boring water. I'm not saying Zipfizz is a bad thing, I'm just saying I can't take it every day, first thing. My body doesn't process things like it did when it was younger. Your mileage may vary.

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geekstuff
06:07 AM - 12/16/2017

The topic: Life has a way of getting in the way of great plans…
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My plan was to have all of my cards finished and out at the beginning of this week. That didn't happen.

The problem, mostly, was that computer we got him. The all in one. Remember in my previous entry I mentioned having to find another outlet to run it on? I knew there was something just not right with that.

The screen blacking out did not stop. I added programs. I removed programs. I contacted the manufacturer's support and I was told to install these updates (there were three links, one for the BIOS, one for the chipset and one for the graphics card. "If these don't work, contact us and we'll set up for you to send the unit it for repair.". "Uh, no, this is a new computer, I'll just return it" was my response.

I installed the updates. For about a half hour, there was no flashing. Then it started again.

Frustrated, on Monday, I'd had enough. We would return the machine. I started the process of wiping the hard drive and reinstalling the operating system to factory settings. Got it up and running and it worked. No flashing. Great! Maybe we won't have to return it. It goes into sleep mode. It comes out easily. Just to be safe, it stays on sleep mode overnight. It wasn't turned off.

Tuesday morning, he comes in, brings it out of sleep mode. No monitor. Oh, I can talk to Cortana, but there's nothing on the screen. That's it. I'm done. Start the wipe of the hard drive again. It gets so far and stalls. To hell with it.

I unplug it, take everything apart and it's ready to be returned to CostCo. We were there when they opened.

I hadn't installed my new computer yet, it was still in the box, I was getting his up and running and working on the cards. It's not a priority. After the unit was returned and our card credited, Brian did the shopping and I went to the computer section. Found a really nice model, a Dell XPS, and checking it against the specs for my new computer, the one sitting at home on the coffee table in its box, the HP Envy, this was a more robust unit. 4GB graphics card, 16GB of RAM vs the 12GB of the one on the coffee table. I salivated. We got this computer, and this would be mine and Brian would get the one on the coffee table. He also got a new monitor. The man who worked in the tech area came over and we discussed the problems with the all in one. He said the problem with those is when something goes wrong, the entire system doesn't work. He said he didn't care for them at all. Yeah, me either. It looked nice and was great in concept, but possible downtime was a major consideration.

We get home, in less than three hours I had it up and running, most of the programs he uses installed.

He has had no problems since. And I started working on cards.

geekstuff computer all in one

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