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      Thursday, November 07, 2002


catstuff
03:55 PM - 11/07/2002

The topic: I’m alive! I bet you were really, really worried!
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I've been working on my Disney trip report. I've gotten about eight or nine pages up. It wouldn't be so slow going if I hadn't gotten this wild hair up my butt to play with the graphics. And play is what I've done. I made a page just so I could see what I needed to do with table backgrounds, what they'd look like, my options, a table of 25 different colors (some of the backgrounds I made have transparancies, so I can change the look just by changing a background color), just lots of stuff. I'm having a blast doing it, but I'm not getting much else done. I am considering doing more backgrounds for my free backgrounds along the same lines. I just can't get over how good some of them look. Even though the Disney Report isn't finished, feel free to check out what I've done so far. Disney Memories, go down to the trip report dated 10-17-02.

DeeJay is finally starting to do better. His diarrhea seems to be under control (knock on wood) and his appetite is perking up little by little. I bought some more periactin, though, just in case. I did realize that even though he loves that sliced deli turkey, his system can't handle it. That was one of the things he was throwing up and I believe it was also giving him the runs. I threw out anything we had left so I'm not tempted to give him any. I also set up his chair here in the office with a heating pad under about three towels. When I did this is when he started doing better. It makes sense, because he's just so darned thin and has absolutely zero body fat. So his body was busy trying to stay warm instead of getting well. Since the heating pad, he's getting better much more quickly. And I looked in my Veterinarians' Guide to Natural Remedies for Cats book and looked up pain remedies. Arnica Montana was mentioned and I began giving that to DeeJay right away. That also helped him. It was obvious he was in pain when he walked, the way his butt end was lowered. Within a couple of days of giving him the Arnica, he was walking much better. I did have a long serious talk with him last week, telling him how much he meant to us and how important it was for him to get better. I told him that it was imperative that he eat, because if he didn't eat, he wouldn't live and that was totally unacceptable to us. I explained why he had to eat. I let him know how much we missed his grouchiness, even though we gave him a hard time about it. I know this all sounds wacky, but it certainly didn't hurt and I truly believe much of it got through to him.

Lucky's eye is almost back to 100%. And she's starting to be my little pest again. As a matter of fact, right now I'm typing and she's rubbing her face on my fingers and licking them. It makes it really hard to type properly. Now she's looking at me and purring. Ah, what a little cutie pie!

My mom won't be spending Thanksgiving with us this year. She told me Friday that she had been asked by one of her neighbors and she accepted. She said she just wasn't comfortable around my sister-in-law, the one who absolutely hates me. She said that this woman would just keep looking at me and giving me dirty looks. It doesn't bother me, like I've said before, if someone has a problem with me, that's their problem, not mine. And if I let it bother me, that makes it my problem. But mom has a hard time with that philosophy. I told her it was okay, that I understood. Poor mom. She loves her kid. And her kid loves her. It's really too bad that my sister in law has to be like this. It's possible that Brian won't be here. He's been talking for a while about taking his mom and going back to see his brother, Stephen, in Colorado. He'd mentioned going when there was snow. I recommended trying to go back on Thanksgiving and it looks like that might be happening, depending on how work goes. His mom said she'd go (not a moment's hesitation) and he called his brother last night and it's not a problem for he or his wife. Obviously, I can't go with them because of the animals. Junior and his insulin shot every morning and DeeJay's fluids three times a week. I think remember from my single life that Carl's Jr. was open on Thanksgiving....*lol*

We went up to the Sticks last Sunday. I took more pictures, but haven't had the chance to post them. There were big cat tracks again. And there is more growth, more green. It's very nice. Brian just left to go up there today. One of the neighbor's complained that the water tank attracts coyotes, which make his dogs go nuts. So, today, Brian is going to move the tank. He has to dig a hole for it, the drain the tank, then move it and set it up again with water. He and Mark have gotten the pipe that far. (Hey, did I ever mention that the trencher broke again? but this time it's an easy fix, or so I've been told.)

Well, I gave up on my Spam Buster email program. There's a major conflict with one of my other programs and I have no idea which one. It doesn't really matter, because I'm not going to get rid of any of them. I found another one that I like more anyway. SpamEaterPro. I've finally gotten wise. I take full advantage of the trial periods I'm offered before paying for the software. This one is pretty easy to use. Once I'm real sure that it's not marking any valid emails (which it hasn't done yet), I'll go ahead and let the mail get eaten before I see it. Besides, anyone I don't know, who wants to email me should use the email form at this site.

Annie had some sort of owie on her bottom lip. I didn't notice it until yesterday when I saw that she had a fat lip. I cleaned it off with a Kleenex, which she didn't like. It looked like it may have been a little abscessed, but she was eating and acting okay. She probably got into a slap contest with one of the other cats. She can be very territorial.

Last weekend, we went shopping and one of the places we went was Michael's craft store. We picked out some yarn, because I want to make covers for the sofa, chair and loveseat in the family room. I hope I remember how to crochet. *grin* Don't seem to be able to remember much of anything lately. And I got a candle making kit. I'm going to try my hand at making my own candles. I ordered a double boiler early last week and haven't heard from the company I ordered it from. That's not good, but I see that they have charged my card, so chances are it's in the mail. I also ordered some fragrance online. Gardenia, sage and sandalwood. I hope it's not too hard to do.

We've only gone walking once since we got back from Disneyland. There's something wrong with my big right toe, the one that was bit by the spider. I didn't have any problems with it at Disneyland, thank goodness, but once home, it really began to bother me, especially when I was wearing shoes. It's like a rubber band inside that someone keeps plinking when I walk. I don't have this problem with shoes on. The toe does seem to get a little colder than the others. It's strange. I'm wondering if my bunion is finally getting to the point where I may need to have something done about it. I found out doing a search on bunions that they're hereditary. I never wore closed pointy toed shoes, I hated them. I figure if God wanted women to wear closed pointy toed shoes, he'd have put our big toe in the middle of our foot. I always preferred the wide open toed shoes. I didn't wear too many spike heeled type shoes, I liked the platform heels much better. But it's been a long, long time since I've worn anything other than my sneakers, sandles or boots.

Hey, have you ever checked out a website on Alexa.com? I've been checking mine out, boy, what fun. There's even a place for people to write reviews. Ya think I should give my site a review? *lol* lisaviolet.com on Alexa.com.

We bought many candy bars to give out at Halloween. There were two boxes of mixed bars (Nestle's Crunch, Baby Ruth, $100 Grand and Butterfinger) and a box of Snickers. Brian made me promise that all candy not given out would be gotten rid of. He would have thrown it out. Friday morning, I took it all to the vet's office. The girls were happy to lighten me of the load. I was sad. And I didn't even accidentally drop a bar or two into the bottom of the freezer. We kept count of our visitors Thursday night. We only had 40 kids. Our largest group was over five years ago, over 160 kids. I told Brian that I think what's happening is people aren't moving, they're staying put and the kids are too old to trick or treat any longer. We got the cats all in before anybody knocked on the door. In the past, we've let the cats stay out and it was really hard getting them in after the kids quit coming by. Of course, most of the cats were in hiding. The out fronts wanted to eat, which made for a little excitement. Brian had moved all of the vehicles to one side of the driveway, so that people could walk to the front door more easily. We ended up taking the food for the out fronts and placing it in front of the car at the far side of the driveway. But when it had been a half hour since our last kid, I moved the food back into the entryway and shut the gate. I was pleasantly surprised that the cats weren't all weirded out.

Speaking of the out fronts, I think OC has started living on this side of the street. I see him in the mornings when I put out food. But I haven't seen him across the street in a while. He is here in the afternoons, when the sun hits the bank. So, I'm thinking he may be snoozing under the junipers on the bank until the sun warms the area, then he comes out. Most afternoons, you can see OC and MeezerKitty snuggled up together on the bank, laying on a bed of pine needles, the afternoon sun shining on them. I'm in the ongoing process of explaining to OC that there is no need to run everytime I come out of the house, that there's nothing to fear. And I explain about the guy in the cowboy hat, too. This worked with Meeze, I hope it works with Oce. The other night, I heard Brian telling Pete to tell his brother, Repete, to come live with us. Brian really cares about these guys.

Well, I guess that's it for now. It looks like it's going to be a nice day. I should really go make the bed, then take a shower. Maybe clean off the windows that have been peed on when it warms up a little. Then get ready to watch the Charger game. Oh, yeah, and try to get my trip report finished. So then I can put up pictures from our trip to Ranchita last week.

Work, work, work.


otherstuff
03:57 PM - 11/07/2002

The topic: 11-06-02
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Wednesday, November 06, 2002 Pepper has been gone two years today. At about 4:45, an hour and a half from now. You know, I miss her like crazy. She always made vacuuming the floor lots of fun. She'd never run from the cleaner, she'd stand her ground, even smacking the machine. I miss those little smacksmacksmacks of hers. And her getting in my face when I was laying down on the sofa. All of our face kitties are gone. *sigh* *sniffle*

I found a new script to run so that I can change the updated information more easily. And it won't take as long to load, not like the little images I have now. I just have to get it on the various pages. It's a text scroller, not a GIF image. I'll be placing it at the top of the page, under the menu bar.

DeeJay had the runs again yesterday. He does so well for days, then BOOM, he explodes. I'm thinking it might have been some of the food we got this weekend. I don't know why the food companies came up with that sliced food in gravy, because our cats don't like the chunks of food, but they sure love the gravy. Usually, I mash it up, but I got lazy and didn't mash and DeeJay ended up with the poops. And his bottom hurts so much, you can see it in the way he walks. Sometimes I get frustrated with his progress, that it's so slow, but it is progress. He's eating fine today and no runny stool. Of course, I gave him the Immodium AD yesterday as soon as I saw the loose stool.

Speaking of Immodium, Sammy really needs some, too. He's not sick or anything, but he's got the runs, too. Blech. He's pretty good about going in litterboxes, but he's pretty bad about hanging his butt over the side. Cleanup is so wonderful!

Lonee talked to me the other night. She talked and talked and talked, but wouldn't come too close to me, not within touching distance. I'd really like to pet her again. She just loved having her lower back scratched.

And Jackie is actually sitting still for ear scritches. Then he'll stretch his neck to reposition my fingers so that his cheek and face gets a little of the action. Man, how I'd love to just hold him and put my face in his belly. I bet he's really soft.

We finally started walking again on Monday. My toe is feeling much better. That's a good thing. Today, we went up Icky Hill and we didn't see any of the kittens from that one house (at one point, it looked like there were kittens from two different litters). I hope they found good homes. Homes that will keep them inside and safe. This area of town is NOT safe for outdoor cats. I carried one of those kittens down the hill at least twice, she was all over the road. And her name was Cleo. Dang, I'd love to have brought her home. Heck, I wanted all of them, but I couldn't very well say they followed me home when hubby was walking right next to me, now could I?

I started crocheting Monday night. It's going quickly. The cats are being surprisingly good about not trying to grab the yarn. The pattern is a checkered pattern, you'll often see it on one of the afgans on the catcam chair. I have three skeins going at a time, so there is a lot of string around. Ciara has been the worst. And when I tell her "no" you'd think I'd just broken her little heart. What can ya do? I do have a slight problem working, though. The palm of my right hand hurts from trying to close the back door of the Bronco. When the hitch is swung over, the tire's big enough and heavy enough that it sags a bit and it doesn't go on like it should. I tried slamming it and just hurt myself last week. I told Brian I just couldn't do it like he wants it done. I don't have the height or the strength. Oh, well.

I got this scathingly brilliant idea yesterday. The stereo I got last Christmas for the office has plugs in the back for an auxillary component. So, I brought in the old Sony 10 disk CD player. The system itself has a three CD capability. I found that I'd just play the same three disks over and over again. Now, I can listen to the same ten CDs over and over again. *lol* Right now, I'm listening to the ones I burned a couple of years ago. I'm getting in the mood to burn some more. This is really cool. My favorite songs and no commercials. Woohoo!

Well, I guess that's enough excitement for one day. I just dumped a load of clean Levi's on the bed. I'd better go fold them and put them away before some kitty urinates on them.

One more thing. I'd like to thank Katherine and Honest for their great reviews over at Alexa. Honest, they removed yours. I'm glad I saw it before they did. Maybe they think I put you up to it. *lol*


otherstuff
06:35 PM - 11/07/2002

The topic: 11-07-02
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Thursday, November 07, 2002 Let's try this again. I had a bunch written in and my stoopid computer froze. It gets real irruhtaytun.

As you probably notice, the diary looks a little different. That's because I found a new software that will hopefully make this easier for me to do. As it was, I'd have to make the entry in MS Wordpad, then upload it to my server. If I had to make any changes, I'd have to open up Wordpad again, make the changes, then reupload it. I can do this from my browser on any computer. I'm still learning about some of the things this does. One of the things is that the newest entry is first. That should help with download time. Readers can post comments about the content or give the entry a positive or negative Karma value. This should be fun.

DeeJay had the poops a little bit today, but not like he had been having them. I'll watch him closely tonight, hopefully he won't have them again for a while.

Georgie and Benny have been sneezing. I think they have allergies, because it doesn't happen all of the time and neither of them has runny eyes or runny noses. What was really weird was the other night, Georgie sneezed and within minutes, Brian's nose started to run. Allergies affect Brian that way, me, my nose dries up and I get headaches.

I had a real bad night's sleep last night. I think this change my body is going through is really throwing my system off. And I've been hungry all day. Usually, I might eat, but it's not because I'm hungry. Today, I was hungry. I didn't eat all that much, though, because we really don't have all that much to eat.

Right now, Jackie is going through a phase where he lets me pet him. I sure wish he'd let me do more. I'd love to hold him, I really would. I haven't heard him purr in years.

Well, that's about it for now. CSI is on and I really want to watch it.

      Friday, November 08, 2002


catstuff
11:03 AM - 11/08/2002

The topic: 11-08-02
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Friday, November 08, 2002 It's raining! It's raining! The boys have run into the house and they're wet. Oh, wait, one of the red boys is in the condo by the tree. You could probably see him from the camera on the roof. And I have to drive in it. :cry: Brian needs money so I have to go to the bank and DeeJay needs more fluids so I need to go the the vet's office.

Speaking of DeeJay, his tummy started burbling last night (that's the only way I can describe it) so I gave him Immodium and so far, he hasn't seemed to have a problem with runny stool. I wish we could find him something that he'd eat. There have been a number of different foods that seemed to interest him, but he didn't eat much of them. I won't give him any more of that deli turkey, even though he really liked it, his system didn't. I feel so badly for him. He used to be so strong and healthy. The only thing he seems to like at all is the Nutro Dry Salmon food. I give him little piles of it throughout the day and it's the only thing he'll finish. *sigh* I'm still playing soothing music and still have him sleeping on green cloth.

Boney has been very yowwee. Driving me nuts. He'll come in here, sit at my feet and cry. So, I'll give him food in the bathroom and shut the door. When he's had enough (or decided he doesn't like this stuff), he starts crying at the door to let me know. I let him out and he'll either go lay down or he'll come back and sit by my feet and cry. Then I'll put him outside. Sometimes he wants out and he doesn't realize it until he's out. Then he'll either go pee or he'll climb onto one of the lounge chairs and go to sleep. Or, he'll come back in and sit at my feet and cry. Sometimes it's so frustrating, I'll put him out of the office and shut the doors. Then he'll finally give up and go lay down in the bedroom window or one of the sofas and go to sleep.

Now playing (click on the album cover to find out more about the music):

cover
Kenny Loggins More Songs From Pooh Corner

cover
Leann Rimes Twisted Angel
(you won't find a twang on this one!)

DeeJay just went outside. He hates the rain. If it's pouring down hard (it's only drizzling right now) he'll go to one door, see that it's wet outside, turn around then try another door. His frustration is obvious. And now, he's just sitting there hunched on a mat. Guess I'll put him inside. Here he is, back on the desk. Silly boy.

Well, I guess I should go shower, then get to the bank and the vet's office. Maybe when I come back, I'll watch movies and crochet. Have a pleasant drizzly afternoon.

I'm back! I'm back! And somewhere along the line, I became incredibly crabby. There's no other word for it. Crabby is what I am. I'm short tempered right now, the cats are driving me nuts. Usually most of them would be outside, but today, that's not happening and they expect me to be able to help them out. Let's make this perfectly clear. Even if I could, I wouldn't. I love this weather. This weather gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. (Or wait, maybe that's something menopausal?)

Benny likes it outside and he'll come in, all of the water he brings with him evaporates, then he goes back outside. The worst part of this is he's so very pleased about the weather (he likes the rain, too), he'll come over to me and want to be held. Uh, no, I don't think so.

Richie found a nice dry spot.

Yanno, today would have been a perfect day to go to Disneyland. :disney: For some reason, people don't go when it's raining. Back when we used to have rain (dang, I'm going fogey), we'd go up there for the day. The park would be almost empty, especially on Wednesdays or Thursdays. Too bad Brian had to work.

Well, I guess that's it for today. No, wait, there is one more thing. If you like the new look of my diary (keep in mind, this is the first major change since I started it back in January 97), go over to Noah Grey Photography and maybe drop him a "thank you" note. He asks nothing for this wonderful script, which is just amazing. Believe me, I've spent plenty on scripts I ended up not liking and I really do like this one. I did send him a little donation so I didn't feel too bad about removing his link a the bottom of the pages (it was an ugly button and clashed with the decor...:jester).

Now, I'm off to make the bed. It's only three in the afternoon, that's plenty of time, right?

Well, off to make the bed. I've been so busy playing with this journal that I haven't gotten much else done. Typical.

      Saturday, November 09, 2002


otherstuff
12:32 PM - 11/09/2002

The topic: Well, the rain seems to have tapered off.
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 We had over an inch in less than twenty fours hours which was pretty nice. I am glad we had the old plastic rain gauge outside, otherwise I'd not have known how much we did have. See, earlier this fall, Brian fixed up the wires into the house from when we got the new humidity/temperature gauge. And when he was trying to push the new wire into the house, he accidentally pulled the connector off of the rain gauge wires. He put a new end on it, but we didn't realize until this morning that it wasn't working. When we got back from breakfast, he poured water in the gauge (on the roof, in the rain :-whip) and it was dumping fine, which meant there was a problem at the connector. So, I did an online search and found that the wires do have to be in the right direction. I got all of the tools together and he fixed it (I could have done it if I were about eight inches taller). So, now, we have a rain measurement. Fortunately, I was able to change the amount we've gotten for the weather page. Now that we can measure, it's stopped! question

Remember what I said about Benny and the rain? I took this last night after we got the cats in for the night.

We tried giving DeeJay his fluids this morning and boy, did he fight them. I actually ruined two needles and he'd only gotten less than twenty ounces of fluids. Dangit. So, we'll try again later. I sure hope this isn't a new thing with him. This won't be fun at all when hubby if hubby leaves on that trip. Right now, the syringes are in the microwave with the light on. Hopefully, this will be enough to keep the fluids warm.

Brian just got home from painting his engine. I guess I have to put on my shoes and socks, 'cause we have to go shopping. I don't want to leave the house right now. I vacuumed the floor in here, I've got a candle burning, Larry Carlton Fingerprints on the CD player I just don't feel like getting dressed to go outside and fight the people at CostCo. And he just told me that he went and looked at bedroom furniture. Got a price on it, too. So, I know he wants to go order it. But the bedroom isn't even close to being finished, heck, it isn't even started. Of course, he asked the store about delivery. They'll hold it as long as we want them to. I don't want to go out... If we went to Mor Furniture, we could get free cookies. Flush

Maybe I'll be back later. biglaugh

We're back! I knew I should have stayed home. Gah, I hate spending tons of money. Brian doesn't have a problem with it. I should have known what he was up to. When we left, we went to the furniture store.

Not that I won't love having a new bedroom set. The one we got, well, Brian gave me the bed before we were married, back in 1985. Then when we moved into this house in '86, we got the rest of the bedroom suite. It wasn't the highest quality to start with and the wood is really soft and it's dark. It marks up with barely a scrape of a fingernail, so you can imagine how bad it is because of the cats. Not because they deliberately scratched at it, but from jumping here or there, sitting on it and scratching an ear with a back paw and losing balance, chasing one another through the house...all sorts of ways that the furniture got marked up. And then there is the ever present pee problem. New furniture will be really nice. The style and color match what we got for the family room.

First we went to one store, Oak Plus. In the store Brian explained to me how it would look. The bed would be under our window (we're not having a fancy headboard at all, so it would fit that way in the bedroom). Brian talked about getting a cedar chest (I've got one now that I got from my parents back in high school and it's needs some major refinishing), which I didn't understand. "Well, you'll need a place for your yarn." Ooooo-kay. Got a price on what they had there (changed from a seven drawer dresser for me to a nine drawer) and went to the place he'd been earlier. He showed me what he liked and then I asked where we'd put the television. They didn't have any little stands and I told him we didn't need a tv in the bedroom. "But you like to watch it when you fold laundry" he says to me. (What a considerate guy! :love) We look around, I'm opening doors and drawers and open the door to this tall thing, taller than me, which isn't saying much. Heh. I had no idea what this thing was and Brian piped in "that's for a tv!". So, we added this humongous thing to our list. I looked at the price and it was *koff* almost $2000. (I should have stayed at home, spending all of this money is making me ill.)

So, we talked to the salesguy and told him what we wanted. He wrote it down and said that there was another armoire in the back (that piece of furniture wasn't an expensive television stand, I found out, it was what is known as an "armoire") that we might like a little more. This one was scheduled for delivery, but we could look at it. We follow him and we like it. It isn't as deep as the other one (fine with me, I'm growing out not up, yanno), but is wider. There's plenty of room for it on the wall where we want to place it. And it has no back where the television will go and it also has many little drawers on it. Brian tells they guy we'll take that one, too. (I'm dying here, spending all of this money. Honestly, I'd have no problem with the thrashed furniture we've got, as long as we had no bills.) Our salesman got what the bottom line would be (holy crap, it's more than my first brand new vehicle! Get the smelling salts!), Brian doesn't bat an eye. As the sale is being written up, I walked around looking at some of the pictures and paintings they had. One of them really grabbed me. I called Brian over to look at it. It was just beautiful. It's really hard to describe. It's sunset. It's fall. It's overcast. The low horizon, through the trees (both pine and trees that have yellow and orange leaves), is bright orange-red. (The color on the water reminds me of the elk in the fire photo taken during those horrible fires a couple of years ago, here's the link Elk in the Fire.) Well, what that water looks like is what the water in this picture looks like. Brian was as taken with it as I was. And it already had a frame that would match and some really nice matting that would nicely match our new decor. The salesman talked to his boss and we got ten dollars off. Brian handed over the credit card (no interest until April 2003) and we should be getting the furniture at the end of December. Gah! I have seventeen years of clothes in that closet! I have much work to do! Less than two months to get rid of a third of my life. This I'm really looking forward to. mail

Then we went to Michael's where they still don't have the color of yarn in I need. Then to CostCo, where we left spending less than $100, which is some sort of miracle.Then we came home.

I found Meezer huddled up next to the cathouse that's at the corner of the house by the entry way. Above it is the overhang from the roof and I guess he feels pretty secure there. It's still raining and I worry about the ferals. Hardly any food was eaten last night. I did see OC this morning back in the heartless bastard's yard. We so wish all the ferals would move in with us. Wouldn't that just be wonderful? To open the door and have them walk in? I can dream, I guess. I know my chances are much better to win the lottery. And I don't play the lottery.

Time to go feed Junior. There's nothing really wonderful on tv tonight. Maybe we can watch one of the DVDs we haven't seen yet. Like maybe Monsters, Inc. Or maybe not. Maybe there's some old hokey movie on later that would amuse us. After I look for the yarn I need online, I'll go crochet some more.

See ya next time! I'm outtie!

      Monday, November 11, 2002


otherstuff
11:53 AM - 11/11/2002

The topic: 11-11-02
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Monday, November 11, 2002 Ugh, something I ate yesterday didn't agree with me, which I found out this morning at 2. And of course, the cats decide that since I'm sitting down, I should have no problem holding them. I'm doing better now, though. I'm hungry again. Really, really hungry. I wonder what the deal is.

DeeJay seemed a little off yesterday but he's doing better this morning. He never did have diarrhea, not that I was aware of and believe me, I'm sure I would have been aware of it. Saturday, Brian went over to visit with him mom shortly after four and we still had to give Deej his fluids. At six, I finally tried it myself. Had no luck on the kitchen counter, but followed DeeJay into the bathroom with the syringes, closed the door behind us, plopped him down in the sink and administered his fluids. It went much more easily. I think Brian gets so nervous that DeeJay picks up on it. DeeJay is eating more on his own, but he's not gaining any weight. This worries me :anxious. Maybe it will get better with time. I certainly hope it does.

Hubby and his bro went up to the Sticks yesterday. They got the water trough moved. He took pictures, which I had a devil of a time downloading. The computer wouldn't recogize the camera. No USB. I spent about forty five minutes trying to figure out what the heck was going on and read the documentation. You can't run the camera software while you're running an anti-virus program. Now, that makes absolutely no sense to me at all. But now I have two days worth of pictures to upload to the ranchita page. Maybe later today.

Remember the pictures of the scorched trailer over on the Ranchita page? Well, we got a check for little over a thousand dollars to fix it. This isn't what our agent had lead Brian to believe. We were looking for a check over ten thousand dollars, since, according to what our agent originally told us the property would be insured under our existing homeowners and we'd get ten percent of that amount. The day the check came Brian called the agent. This was about a month ago. We still haven't cashed the check. Brian said it wasn't acceptable. Now, the agent won't return Brian's calls. Brian called this morning, gave his name and was put on hold. I said "I'll bet you're told he's in a meeting". Heh heh heh...guess what? "He's with a client." An hour later, he still hadn't called back. So, I called 21st Century Insurance. I had all of our vehicles listed out, VINs and everything. For about a thousand dollars LESS a year, we'll have MORE coverage (and the trailer will even be covered this time). I signed up and when I get the needed paperwork, I'll call the old agency and say "ta ta!" Only problem is 21st doesn't do commercial or homeowners insurance. So, we'll most likely stay with Farmer's for that. In addition to the lower rates, 21st had agents around 24/7. Farmer's has them during the week. And our agent has been known to shut down the office at lunch. Real good if you need to speak with someone. This entire thing really bothers Brian because he and the agent had been pretty good friends for quite a while. Brian even helped him in the past with automotive stuff. :(

It's turning out to be a beautiful day. Yesterday, I checked out the pool and the pond was nastygross with stuff from the rain, so I set the pump to filter that water, got the streambeds running. The cats had a blast with the water, because it's been so long since we had the streams turned on (there's a leak and it was sending our water bill higher than normal). Richie, Opie and Sammy played with the water.

I noticed this morning when I was folding afghans from the loveseat, that some kitty had peed on the loveseat. Looks like they were low spraying/squatting against one of the pillows and it got on the covers and down to the cushion, so I have to strip that and run the little green clean machine. Just what I feel like doing, not, what I want to do is to take a nap. :yawn

I was futzing around with the GateWay before hubby got home yesterday because I kept getting a "low resources" message. So, I went in search of what this means and found out it meant I had low resourses. :lol I found some free software and trial software that is supposed to free up memory, but it hasn't seemed to do much good. What I really needed to do was upgrade my memory. And to get more memory, I have to know what kind of system I've got. Well, the documentation that came with my computer should have it. Guess what? I couldn't find the documentation, anywhere. I ended up at the GateWay website, where I entered my serial number and found out what I have and what I'll need. I went over to a memory website and found 128MG of memory for this machine @$20 each. My machine has three slots, so I ordered three of the cards. Right now, it's running 96MG so I'll be quadrupling my "resources". Let's hope this takes care of the problem. I had a brilliant thought about the old memory, since this stuff is supposed to be pretty interchangeable, I could put the old cards in the empty Dell slots. Alas, it isn't to be, because the Dell doesn't use the same ones the GateWay uses. Oh, well, the Dell has 256M, it's not like I'm going to run out soon. I'm hoping, though, with the new memory, I'll finally be able to get Discreet's Cleaner 5 (for video) to work properly. It won't even load on the Dell and tech support can't tell me why. I think they gave up on me. I've got a bunch of really cute QT movies of the cats and I don't want to put them up unless I can make them smaller. They take so long to load right now.

I guess that's it for now.

      Thursday, November 14, 2002


catstuff
09:21 AM - 11/14/2002

The topic: I found a flea!
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Thursday, November 14, 2002 I thought I saw a flea on Mystie last night and I went through her fur with just my fingers and couldn't find any. I know that was a flea, so I got the flea comb out and there it was. This isn't a fun find, because now I now I have to put Advantage on all of the animals. Some place around here I've got a chart with all of the cats' names (even Lola's :waaah) and a spot for the date I dosed them. Blech, this isn't something I'm looking forward to.

DeeJay is doing much better (knock on wood). He's doing his morning piss and moan thing (music to my ears) and he's really fighting his fluids. One of the things that had the vet so worried was that DeeJay was so compliant during his testing. Not at all a good thing. This morning DeeJay is outside and cruising around the pool. I hope it's just because he's checking things out, not that he's looking for a place to have the runs. He does seem more energetic than normal, I don't know if this is good or bad. And he's a lot more affectionate, to the point of demanding to be held.

I woke up this morning to the smell of burning rubber. Not a good thing to wake up to. I realized it was coming from some place fairly close to me, like Boney's butt! Dang, I can't let him lick my chicken and pasta bowl any more. Peeyoowee! :puke Nasty to smell so early in the morning. When I got up, I checked the house for any areas of diarrhea and found none. And when it was light enough, there was nothing on my pillow (I'm changing the bedding anyway today, because little Miss Ciara peed on my side of the bed a few mornings ago; not where I'd be laying, but they need to be laundered).

Brian still hasn't decided what he's going to drive on his trip. At first, it was supposed to be his truck that wasn't working, he was hoping it would be running by the time he's supposed to leave. Well, then he decided he wanted the Bronco (NO!! Not my Bronco!!). Then he said he'd take his work truck, it would be easy enough to remove the glass racks. (Whew!) Then, he said he wanted to take the Bronco. (NOOOOOOOO!!!) His thinking is along these lines. He can't take the Ranger because the transmission is ready to go out (we don't even take the Ranger to Disneyand). His truck, even if it was put together, well, he doesn't want to take that because it's newly fixed and undriven. He doesn't want to take chances with that. Which is understandable. He's reluctant to take the work truck because it has a nice paint job. That leaves the Bronco. Now, I don't want the Bronco to go because it's so darned convenient for me. My problem with the Ranger is that it's lifted and that's not really a problem unless I have to go shopping or, God forbid, have to take Junior to the vet. When I go shopping, say to Costco, I load the back and by the time I get home, everything has slid to the front of the truck bed and I have to climb up onto the tailgate to get into the truck (being short has it's drawbacks) and push everything forward again. And let's not even think about Junior. When the tailgate it open in our driveway, it comes to about my chest. And I'm supposed to lift a fifty plus pound dog up into it? Even putting him in the front is hard, and he just loves to lay on my lap when I'm driving which isn't safe at all. And if he positions himself just right, I can't turn the steering wheel. But in the Bronco, if we have the seats up, he can safely lay between the back gate and the seats. He can't position himself to climb over the seats and he's still inside with me. The Bronco isn't lifted, so getting him in is easy. And the same reason it's good for Junior, it's good for groceries. Chance are that I won't need to take him to the vet, but what if I do? I told Brian "fine, take the Bronco. If Junior needs to get to the vet's office, I'll take the Mustang". :argue Well, that didn't go over too well, but I'm not going to throw my back out lifting the dog. I'm just not going to take that chance. Remember years ago when I threw out my back so badly I couldn't even walk to the bathroom? The computer was down for almost a month because I couldn't make it back to the office. Maybe I'm just being selfish. I think the health of my back is more important than the paint job on the truck. Well, it may not really matter anyway, depending on the weather.

We were eating salad last night and I stuck myself in my lip with the fork. It hurts. I also cut off about four inches from the back of my hair. It feels a lot better. I asked Brian this morning if it looks better. He didn't know if it looked better, but it looks thicker and cleaner (more evened out). So how could that not look "better"? :hair

I hate waiting for the memory I ordered. I can hardly wait to get it in and see if it helps with the speed of some of my programs. I sure hope it does, that would be so very nice.

Last night, while we were watching television, we heard a cat fight back towards the office part of the house. Annie went tearing into the bedroom and behind the bed. I didn't see any other cat, so I figured maybe she'd gotten a claw caught. This morning, I saw dried blood on her ear, so I guess she got into a little slap fest with some other cat. I've got no idea who it would be, though.

I saw all five of the outfronts last night. I've been concerned because I hadn't seen SpotTee or Repete since the weekend. What a relief that was. And late last night, I heard the coyotes cry. I hate the coyotes. Their song chills me to the bone. Many consider it beautiful. I don't.

We walked up to the top if Icky Hill this morning. Since it was the shoes that were bothering my toe (I put a new insole in and I've got to figure out what to do with it, since I realized that's what the problem was) I washed my other pair and was okay to go this morning. I also took my little Chameleon camera. You know when the weatherman says "locally dense fog"? Here's a picture of the El Cajon Valley. That fog is pretty local and pretty dense if you ask me.

Guess I'll go change the bed clothes and then crochet on my afghan. It's coming along nicely. I crocheted yesterday while watching old movies on television and doing laundry. It was pretty relaxing.

      Friday, November 15, 2002



10:00 AM - 11/15/2002

The topic: I will NOT open the doors when the weather is nice…
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Friday, November 15, 2002 I will NOT open the doors when the weather is nice. I will NOT open the doors when the weather is nice. I will NOT open the doors when the weather is nice. How many times do I have to repeat this before it finally sinks in? I will NOT open the doors when the weather is nice, not until Autumn acquaints her little self with the use of the cat door. Man. The weather has been really pleasant and I open all the windows and doors and the sliding screen doors are left open about six inches, so that the cats can go in and out. Earlier this year, Brian even put a doorstop on the side garage door so we could prop it open and we place a child's gate across the bottom so that the cats can come and go as they please and Junior cannot get into the garage and partake of the litter buffet (that would be great for his diabetes, I bet). Now, I know I've said before that if Autumn wants out, she can go through the cat door. But it's so nice out and I know she'd just love to be out there and then there's the annoyance of the cats wanting in and out, it's just easier to leave the darn things open. Well, shortly after sundown, I was still working on getting the bedding stripped and I was real sure I'd seen Autumn in the window, so I went through the house and shut all of the doors. Well, about seven thirty, I latched the cat door to in only and did the little blocking thing (put the gate up about six inches or so away from the door so cats can come in, but the little stinkers who can open the in only door to go out by catching the bottom with their claws and pulling it towards them, don't have the room to maneuver). Then at eight, I started the headcount. I couldn't find Sammy or Autumn. Brian said he'd gotten Sammy in and after about a half hour of looking for them, I finally found Sammy in the rafters laying down behind the fan. You can't see behind the fan from the ladder, which is why I didn't see him. But still no Autumn. We looked everywhere. Under the sofas, behind the beds, in closets, all through the office, in the exercise room, in the garage....no Autumn. I went out with the flashlight a couple of times, walking completely around the pool and shining the light into the water (scary thing to do, when you think of the reason I was doing it, always makes my heart beat a little faster), into the tall grass around the pool (maybe I'll pull some of this when Brian is gone, that would be a nice surprise for him), under the pool pump and in the tube. I looked into the catnip garden. Nothing. No Autumn. I came back inside and sat down to watch some of ER (we've got 4DTV, a big satellite dish and we get network feeds from back east and Colorado, so we have our prime time viewing done by 9:00 on Thursdays). I missed most of ER looking for cats.

Anyway, since the sheets were clean Brian took a shower then went to bed. At one point, he thought she was in bed with him, but it was Daniece. I filled the food bowls, because sometimes that will bring her out to eat. It didn't. No Autumn. I was convinced she was inside, but where? Since she still wasn't showing herself, I went back outside with the flashlight and looked under the wood at the side of the shop, the place where Daniece hid herself back in September. I banged on the wood with the butt of the flashlight, hoping this would scare her out if she was indeed hidden someplace in the wood. Still nothing.

Meanwhile, I figured since I knew that there would be no sleep for me until I knew she was safe, I came back into the office and turned on the computer, thinking this would be an ideal time to check for errors and defrag my harddrive. I unhooked the cable modem, turned off all of the programs (I thought) and started the drive error check. I left the office door open, in hopes that Autumn was snoozing somewhere in here. Then I went into the family room, looked for something to watch, found an old Nash Bridges show, turned the sound down and turned the lights down. But I just couldn't relax and I got the flashlight and went back outside. Somewhere between ten thirty and eleven, I started scanning the bank for the reflection of cat eyes at night. And I happened to flash on the cathouse with the deck. Could that be her in the bottom? I went closer. Yep, it surely was. I reached in and she ran out, towards the house, to the door for the living room. But it wasn't open. Then she ran to the side of the house, to the garage door, which was also shut. I went in through the laundry room to the garage and blocked the cat door to the house and opened the door to outside, turning on all of the lights. Then I went out to see if I could get her in. She was at the corner of the house when I walked toward her and she ran into the office. I went behind her and shut the glass door, then back to the garage, where I had to shoo Gracie back inside. I locked and blocked that door, opened the cat door back up to the house, and that was it for the night. All cats were accounted for.

That off of my mind, I checked the error checking on the computer. Crap. There was a message that the program had restarted ten times, that I should close all other programs. I thought I had. But I forgot all about the screen saver. I disabled that and restarted the disk check. I covered the computer, turned out the lights, got all cats out of the office, then went to lay down on the sofa and watch tv. I think I ended up on an old Dick Van Dyke show on Nickolodean and couldn't get into it and just turned the set off. I fell asleep, woke up around one thirty, came back to the office and saw that the error check had finished and I started the defrag. Then, I finally went to bed.

I woke up a little after five, came back to the office to see how the defrag was going (78%), opened the door to let some of the cats out, closed it before Autumn went out, got their chicken heated and dispersed, unblocked and unlocked the cat door in the garage, fed the out fronts their morning food (saw MeezerKitty, OC and SpotTee) and went back to bed. Sometime between then and six, Georgie came in and tried to get something going with one of the cats on the bed. Brian yelled at him, then we went back to sleep. I was rudely awakened by Brian yelling. It seems there had been some sort of chase or freakout (people with cats know about freakouts) and Brian's face was in the way. He got out of bed, very very upset, very verbal (can't repeat what he said in mixed company) and when I asked if he was okay, he let me know the cats just about ripped his face off. I went into the kitchen, where he was and saw that he had a wet papertowel held to his face. A very bloody papertowel. Oh, my! :what But his face didn't really look all that bad, the worst was the dig at the side of his nose. I found Georgie and put his little butt outside and Brian and I both went back to bed. It was after seven when I got up (gee, I guess we're not going walking today). The computer was still in the process of defragging the hard drive. That was finally done at about seven thirty. Then I did all the other drives, which were finished by eight, then I shut down, booted up and here we are.

I did the error checking and defragging because my memory got here yesterday afternoon. :yippee I got it installed last night, it wasn't really hard, but I'll tell ya, I sure get nervous working inside that cabinet. I unplugged everything and opened up the case, only to find that the area I needed wasn't right there in front of my face, I had to lay the computer on its side to access the memory boards. Then I couldn't figure out how to get the new ones in. I had skimmed over the instructions in my manual, so I read them more thoroughly and all went well. Of course, the room was fairly dark, none of my lamps reached the computer and I started getting some major power surges. I was holding the flashlight in one hand and attempting to snap in the memory with the other. And the sweat started. Just what I needed then, drips off of my nose. *sigh* Luckily, after I read the instructions it took less than five minutes to get the memory boards installed. I shut the case, started up the computer. Ah! It works! And there's all that memory. 384M of RAM! Up from 96M. :B-wave When I got my cereal this am, I noticed a spot of blood on the family room floor. Hmm... There's another, on the dining room floor. Two more in the kitchen. Crud, I guess some cat was bleeding. Thinking about it a little more deeply, I realized this was not cat blood, this was hubby blood. Cool, that's nothing to worry about. Let's hope the rest of the day goes a little more smoothly. It's 71.4° outside and it's not quite ten in the morning. I've got my first load of laundry in and I'm now going to go clean windows. Then I might do paperwork (which I really need to do) or I might just relax. Right now, relaxing sounds real nice.

      Monday, November 18, 2002



11:17 AM - 11/18/2002

The topic: I’m starting to feel sorry for myself….
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Why?  Because I’ll be alone on Thanksgiving.  *sigh*  It’s not bad if I don’t think about it.  Maybe I’ll buy a little turkey, do up some dressing and cook it up just for me and the cats.  CostCo has a wonderful pumpkin cheesecake, too.  I’m hoping, though, that I can get something done during this time, like maybe cleaning out my closet and my drawers.  Our new furniture should be in at the end of December and Brian said we’re going to have to move the furniture that’s in there now into the living room until the bedroom is finished (paint, new floor and we even have this beautiful mountain scene mural we can put up, one we bought years ago for the “exercise” room).  It will be a lot easier to move everything if my junk is already taken care of.

I had a fairly good dentist visit this morning.  No cavities, but two of my older fillings are starting to break apart and the dentist is pretty sure there is some amount of decay under one of them.  So, I’ll go back on December 5 to get them both redone.  And the fillings he uses aren’t the silver ones, but some sort of stuff that matches the color of my teeth.  That’s cool.  The hygeinist said I was taking very good care of my teeth.  *smile*

I was watching DeeJay in the backyard Saturday, when I noticed him digging in the dirt to potty.  First he peed, then he dug another hole to poop in.  I watched him strain to poo (he’s so skinny!) and nothing dropped off, but he came up onto the grass and there was the poop, hanging from him.  I guess he doesn’t have enough strength to squeeze it off.  He wiped it on the grass and it was a good sized turd, about the size of my thumb, nicely formed and solid.  Much better than the diarrhea from a week or so ago.  And he’s still fighting the fluids.  Saturday, I had to get him in the corner in the bathroom with the door closed so he couldn’t move away.  The vet would be so proud.

Kirby and Jackson really got into this morning.  There’s fur all over the floor in the living room.  I don’t know who started it, my suspicion is it’s Kirby.  Dang, here we have a cat with no testicles and no penis taking on a fully intact male.  Maybe he’s jealous?  Don’t know.  Anyway, it was so bad that Brian even got out of bed.  I opened the sliding door so that one could get out of the other’s sight.  Neither of them left, though.  Kirby did go into the garage and Jackie stayed in the living room.  Jackie was pretty upset, he was breathing hard.  I gave him some chicken, hoping that we could get things back to normal as quickly as possible.  And things are okay now, Jackie is back on his little hammock in the living room and Kirby is on the bed in the bedroom.  “Can’t we all just get along?”

Heh. I just saw this link in our local newspaper (I believe in multi-tasking, which is probably why I rarely get much done). http://www.nomoreaolcds.com I'm sure I'll be sending them all of mine. One of my big peeves is getting a notice at the post office of a package too big for the mailbox and waiting in line for a half hour to an hour only to find it's one of those AOL mailers. Well, that's about it for now. If I think of anything else, I'll be back.

      Wednesday, November 20, 2002



09:50 AM - 11/20/2002

The topic: I love this weather…
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This weather is so nice.  We’re having a little warming trend right now, today it’s supposed to get up into the 90s.  There is a mild Santa Ana, which blows in from the desert, bringing warm air with it.  The air is also fairly clear and crisp.  Last night, after I had the cats fed, the dog fed and the outfronts fed, I got a glass of wine, grabbed a blanket and put it over a lawn chair and watched the stars come out.  This was about five thirty last night.  I was barefoot and in sweatpants and a tank top.  It was so relaxing.  The sky hadn’t deepened yet and the outline of the trees against the blue of the sky was striking.  The wind would blow through one tree, then the next.  The sound of the rustling of the leaves was music to my ears.  Brian got home fairly late and he came out to sit and watch, too. The sky was so very clear, the stars were like diamonds.  We finally came in about seven.  At nine thirty last night, it was 64.4 degrees outside.

And our walk this morning was also very nice.  I didn’t need a sweatshirt, a teeshirt was enough.  As we walked up the street, we looked to the heavens and, although the sun wasn’t up all the way just yet, there was a jet that glowed orange in the rising sunlight.  The contrails were also orange.  And we also saw a late star or planet in the sky.  Brian believes it was the space station, but I looked that up and the space station wasn’t in our area at that time.  It was pretty impressive, though.  You don’t often see that as light as the sky was.

The outfronts barely ate anything last night.  The food was only picked at.  *sigh*  And SpotTee wasn’t here this morning, either.  KittyMeeze and OC were, but that was it.  We had the front windows open last night and I heard growling.  I walked up to the window and Richie was standing on his tiptoes looking out at Repete, who was getting a drink from the fountain (its right under the window).  I don’t know who was growling, but I told Repete he was more than welcome to come inside anytime he wanted.

I have to go shopping today for moist food for the outfronts and do some stocking up before Brian leaves.  And tomorrow is my mammogram.  mail

      Sunday, November 24, 2002



11:18 AM - 11/24/2002

The topic: I am so stinking bored…
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Well, he left this morning before 8:30.  His original plan was to leave yesterday morning, but he had to finish the job he was working on.  That took a day and a half longer than he had bid it for.  He had wanted to use Friday to wash and wax the truck and to get all packed.  He ended up washing the truck here late yesterday afternoon, then taking it down to the shop and waxing it.  He didn’t get home until eight last night.  He brought Mexican food, ice cream and junk pies from Albertson’s.  We got up early this morning, went for breakfast, then went by the shop, picked up the truck and came home.  He packed, now he’s gone.  He’s been gone barely two hours and I’m bored. What on earth am I going to do with myself with all of this extra time?  I mean, it’s not like I don’t have a lot of stuff to do, but knowing me, I don’t think I’ll get much of it done.  But maybe I will.

 

The place we had breakfast had a sign on the door that they’re serving Thanksgiving dinner for about ten dollars a plate.  I jokingly said I could go there for dinner.  He said then we could have turkey dinner when he got home.  Hmmm…  I don’t know, I think I’ll go ahead and cook for myself and the cats.  I need to go shopping, though, I’m out of milk.  I need celery and onions for the stuffing and we don’t have any potatoes.

 

I raked up a pile of leaves in the backyard this morning, hoping that I could get the cats to play in it.  I’d like to get some action photos of the cats, ya know?  But it wasn’t to be. They don’t know what a pile of leaves is for.  Maybe I’ll sprinkle some catnip in it later.  A few of the cats did check it out and I got this picture of Opie.

We've consistently had quite a bit of food left each morning from the outfronts. What's strange is that all five of the outfronts are still around. I'm thinking that what was eating all of that food was possoms and possibly the possoms either found another food source, or they're gone. I have cut back on the amount I'm feeding. I only mix one can of food instead of two. It's been over a week with the mega leftovers, so I think it's pretty safe to cut back. Besides, there's always dry food in the feeder. OC comes over often now in mid afternoon. Here's a picture I took of he and KittyMeez last week laying on the bank. It's not really a clear picture because I took it from inside, in the bedroom. Whenever I walk out front and OC hears me, he runs and hides under the juniper on the bank. He's cuddled up against KittyMeez in this picture and they're both looking up.

I was laying on the couch last night watching television (CourtTV’s Saturday night crime stuff) and the cats kept standing in my line of vision.  It’s only about eight inches wide, but they had to stand right there.  Boney first, Mystie, finally DeeJay.  DeeJay decided to lay down and then Lucky got on the coffee table and once again, my line of vision was cut off.  Brian ended up moving her since I was covered with cats.  Later, Ciara decided she wanted off of the sofa and insisted on leaving at the spot where DeeJay was laying and she jumped on him and he wasn’t happy.  wave2 Cats.

Oh, Friday was sentencing for the Westerfield trial.  David Westerfield was found guilty earlier this year of kidnapping and murdering seven year old Danielle van Dam (he abducted her from her bed during the night).  Well, I followed it and have to say that I was highly irritated by Mr. Westerfield’s lawyer’s (Steven Feldman) tactics during the trial. And Friday he was at it again.  He wasn’t ready to give the obligatory statement as to why his client shouldn’t get the death penalty.  He’d asked for a continuance on other grounds, which were rejected but he got his extension because he wasn’t prepared.  Honestly, I think he should get some sort of punishment for not being prepared.  The judge was very unhappy, said that he really had no options, since this is a death penalty case.  He gave Feldman until January 3, 2003.  And he said he’s inclined to give no more continuances.  Feldman knew damned well what he was doing.  Pond scum.  That’s what he is.  Pond scum, putting the van Dams through this.  No closure this holiday season.  This is for Feldman yunny

I’m watching the Chargers and Dolphins play right now.  Chargers are saying “hey, Miami, kick this :moon” and the Dolphins are being very obliging. The score is 17-3 Miami.  I don’t know why I watch this stuff.  Brian watched last week, got upset when the Chargers were losing in the fourth quarter, thought it was his fault, because “they alway lose when I watch”.  Honey, you didn’t watch the past two weeks and they lost, it’s not your fault. So, he watched them win the game in overtime.

I need to go take my vitamins and stuff.  For some reason doing that helps curb my nibble center.  With all the junk in the house, I’m making myself sick.  as-beat More water!

The latter part of last week I spent cleaning house.  I even got all of the laundry done.  I washed all of the sofa covers, the slipcovers, waxed the furniture, cleaned the windows, washed the floors and now, there’s not much left to do.  I’m so bored….maybe I’ll go take a nap.

      Tuesday, November 26, 2002



08:55 AM - 11/26/2002

The topic: Damn it!
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I could just scream right now, I had typed quite a bit and I guess I overloaded my system and explorer crashed and since I do this via my browser, all that I’d done went kaput.  Arggh!!

So, starting from the beginning, as much as I can tell….Brian has been gone for two days now.  He’s called each night he’s been gone.  Sunday they were at Flagstaff.  He took our Disney Club Card and he said that they got a $150 room for $50.  The Disney Club has always had special travel deals.  So, just one night paid for the card.  Last night he called from his sister’s house in New Mexico.  And he finally took pictures yesterday.  Sunday night he told me that he saw a wonderful sunset but didn’t take the picture.

Brian asked me about the weather, said the weather channel said that we were supposed to have been windy.  Not yesterday, not that I noticed, but this morning, there are very strong wind gusts.  And if you watch the trees, you can see the gusts coming.  The pool is covered with leaves and tree crud.  The younger cats are having a blast chasing stuff.  My pile of leaves is gone.  Probably on top of the pool. 

I made it to the grocery store yesterday where I got celery and onions for the stuffing.  This morning my mom reminded me to make the stuffing a day ahead, so I could refrigerate it before putting it in the turkey.  “Cold into cold” is what she said.  I also got some of the single serving bottles of champagne.  And deli turkey, lettuce and tomatoes so I can make sandwiches. That’s what I had for lunch yesterday.  Flush

You know, I’m sitting here, trying to type and three cats are just right there.  Lucky, Annie and DeeJay.  It’s bad enough with just one sitting in front of the monitor, blocking my view of the screen.  But then Lucky will sit by the water, Annie comes over and wants a drink and they both just sit there.  It’s very, very annoying.  Well, DeeJay just left the room, I’ll put Lucky on the chair with the heating pad and maybe she’ll stay there.  Now Ciara is on my lap.  And she has bad rotten gas.  *koff*

Today, I’m going to do paperwork.  I’ve got bills to pay and I don’t know how many companies will be opened on Friday for business, so I’d best get the checks in the mail today.  I had considered going for a walk this morning, but decided against it.  I brewed a pot of coffee, have some relaxing music on the stereo (Touch-Windham Hill 25 Years of Guitar, Sounds of Wood and Steel, Vol. 1, and Sounds of Wood and Steel, Vol. 2; acoustical guitar music, very easy to work to; in my opinion this music should span all age groups for listenability, if you’re so inclined, click on the links and listen to a clip or two), a big pile of envelopes to the side and ARGGH!!  DeeJay sitting right in the middle of my desk.  Okay, I moved him, he got Lucky to move, she just left the office and will most likely end up back on the stove.

I just reloaded my coffee, Lucky is back on the stove.  Good, it’s nice and quiet and warm there.

Remember a while back the problem we had with the insurance company and the trailer (for those of you new, here, check out Ranchita Ranch and go down to the link for the fire)?  That when we got the trailer, Brian checked with our agent (who he’s had since before we were married) and Brian was told that coverage would be included under our homeowners?  If something happened, that we should get at least 10% of our coverage?  Well, we got a check for a little over a thousand dollars back in October.  Brian wasn’t happy with this at all and called the agent (who Brian considered a friend) and the agent just never got back with him.  Brian gave him about six weeks to find out more on the claim and when he wouldn’t return Brian’s calls, Brian told me to check on a different insurance company.  I went online and checked and called 21st Century Insurance.  For our five personal vehicles, we’d be paying a thousand dollars less a year.  For more coverage.  So, we went with them and yesterday, I faxed our old company a letter requesting that the five accounts be closed retroactive to November 12.  The only calls we got were asking about the sixth vehicle, the work truck, which we are leaving with Farmer’s until the time 21st insures commercial.  But Brian’s “friend”, the agent, never called at all.  I told Brian last night on the phone, because, to be honest, I was a little surprised.  But like I told hubby, maybe he’s on vacation this week.  Anyway, I finally deposited the check last week.  I can use it to pay personal bills, which I’m doing today.

What else, there was something else… :idea Oh, yeah.  The outfronts.  This morning I was pleasantly surprised to see all three of my boys out there.  OC, KittyMeeze and SpotTee.  I was worried about SpotTee because I hadn’t seen him in the morning in well over a week.  And yesterday morning, there was still quite a bit of food left even though I had halved what I was putting out.  This morning, there was still a little left from Monday night’s feeding, but it was just stuck to the bottom of the bowls.  And they ate all I put out this morning.  When I went out to get the paper, KittyMeeze even came running back in.  I had to give him something else, so I grabbed a piece of chicken from the frig and shredded it into one of the empty bowls.  I felt him say “thank you” when he checked it out.  He’s such a sweetheart.

So, what’s left on my list?  Bills today, chiropractor tomorrow, hit CostCo while I’m in Santee, get more humulin for Junior, a pumpkin cheesecake for my big butt, should I get more yarn at Michael’s?  Hmm..  Hey, I’m thinking about putting up a forum for crafting, since I’m an intermediate crocheter and very, very beginner candlemaker.  For the candlemaking, I’ve got a book and a kit and a doubleboiler, that’s as far as I’ve gotten.  But I’d really like to try my hand at other stuff, so if anybody is into crafts, or interested about learning more, I’d be more than happy to set up a new forum over at Benny’s.  Just leave a comment.

Hey, remember earlier this year when I complained that CostCo was no longer carrying Litter Purrfect cat litter and they started carrying Scoop Away Clean, which is scented?  And how I ended up really liking the scented litter? Well, guess what? They quit carrying Scoop Away and now only have the reformulated Litter Purrfect.  We looked for Scoop Away at WalMart and boy, was it expensive, so we ended up going back to the Litter Purrfect.  It’s more dusty and it’s finer than Scoop Away.  I didn’t think I’d like it at all.  I’ve been adding it to the boxes as they need it and all of them are pretty much just the Litter Purrfect now.  Well, last night I scooped and let me tell you, it’s great!  A very good job of clumping.  Nothing fell apart.  Scoop Away was good, this new Litter Purrfect is way better.  And even though it isn’t scented, it wasn’t really stinky, I didn’t get that old cat piss smell.  So, I guess I’ll be okay with it. Speaking of cat urine, I read this on a bulletin board today, posted by Angie:

I hope you think this is as funny as I did.

   My husband and I were discussing heaven and the hope that our cats will be there with us when we die. I said, sort of wistfully, “I wonder if there are cats in heaven.”

   He said, “Well, we’ll know if we get there and it smells like pee.”

I bet her husband and mine would get along well.  yes

That’s it for now.  Going to start on this pile of paperwork now.

Oh, wait!  Here are some more pictures I took this weekend:

From the front: Sammy, Opie, Richie, Kirby and Daniece

Lucky on the heating pad; she looks so small!

Opie and Richie

Well, I'm off to do something constructive. And then it won't be hanging over me head. Remember how bad I used to be at filing? Saturday night, Brian and I were in the office and he was trying to get stuff together for the trip and do last minute company stuff. He was so frustrated not being able to find stuff on his desk he said "my desk looks like yours used to!" I've gotta admit, being organized sure makes life a little easier. Which reminds me of my "to do list". I've also got the closets and drawers... disney

      Thursday, November 28, 2002



01:20 PM - 11/28/2002

The topic: I don’t have a baster!!!
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Thursday, November 28, 2002  Well, here it is, Thanksgiving, my bird is in the oven and I can’t find the stinking baster anywhere.  And now that I think about it more, I couldn’t find it the last time I wanted it.  Now, wouldn’t you think I’d have added it to the list of things to buy?  Stupid, stupid, stupid. :banghead And don’t you think I would have added it right away to the list today?  Nope, I still haven’t.  I did find an old syringe that we had way back when to give Kirby fluids, which we never did.  So, I washed it up really good and I’m using that.  Not as good as a real baster, though.



I’m a little worried about DeeJay.  He’s not eating much again and I weighed him and he’s lost more weight.  But then his weight really seems to fluctuate.  And this morning I heard his belly burbling, so I gave him Immodium and a couple of hours later gave him a half a periactin tab to stimulate his appetite.  He doesn’t seem to be feeling badly, he’s just so thin.  I hope he isn’t crashing on me.



It’s a nice day here, a little on the warm side.  Brian called last night and he’s not run into any bad weather at all.  He did say he thinks his mom is getting worn out from all of the traveling.  I bet she’ll be really glad when they finally get home.  She is enjoying seeing her kids again, though.  Brian was more animated last night when we talked than he’s been.  He said he took a bunch of pictures yesterday and he’ll be taking many more.  He said he’ll likely have to put in another memory card.  Good!  Hearing that helps me feel like I didn’t waste money buying them.  Colorado is a beautiful state, especially with snow. 



Ah, I love the smell of a turkey in the oven.  Yummy!  After I get done with this entry, I’m going to take a shower, then finish preparing dinner.  I have to peel potatoes and cook and mash them, do some peas or maybe string beans, the gravy, and that’s it.  I think I might have a very old can of cranberry sauce in the pantry.  If not, no big deal.  And I got my cheesecake yesterday.  This is going to be so good!



Can you believe this?  Just out of curiousity, I opened a can of Friskies Mixed Grill for DeeJay, mixed it with a little water and he’s eating.  He’s been eating for about fifteen minutes!  Usually, he picks and wants out of the bathroom.  Kewl.  Now, pray the he doesn’t get the runs and he can keep it all down.  If junk food is what he’ll eat, junk food is what he’ll get.  You know, at one point I thought we were maybe on the way to him eating his kidney diet, then his appetite took a nose dive.  He threw up a couple of times and I found little furballs.  I didn’t realize that his system was so fragile that the little he threw up was enough to turn him off of food again.  *sigh*



Hey, I got the crafting forum up:  Benny’s Forums.  It’s at the bottom and you’ll have to register before you can post.  Registering really helps keep out the troublemakers, I’ve found.



Darn, the neighbors have company and now Junior is starting to bark.  Good thing I’m home. Remember that one year they hosed him?  We weren’t home and it was night?  And it was shortly after he’d been diagnosed with diabetes.  Boy, was Brian hot.



Let’s see what else have I done the past two days? Well, yesterday I went to the bank on my way to the chiropractor.  Boy, was it windy!  I was really glad I had the Bronco, because it wouldn’t have been any fun in the lifted Ranger.  I could actually feel it pushing the Bronco.  Not a good time for high profile vehicles to be out there, that’s for sure.  There were even a couple of sprinkles on the windshield, but not much to speak of.  I’d sure like to have it rain.  I like the rain.



I don’t know why those kids can’t play on the other side of the yard.  I wish Junior would just come over here and lay down.



Well, I’ve got stuff to do now.  I may come back and add to today’s entry.  I took pictures of the food before I started this morning.  *lol*  There was a moment I wondered if the bird would fit the roasting pan.  Oh, DeeJay’s done!  I hope he keeps it down.



Later….  Well, I just wanted to make an entry of what I learned today while it’s still fresh in my mind.  Dinner was absolutely wonderful.  I wish Brian had been here, I think he would have loved it.  Oh, well….



On to what I learned.  Okay, we all know I learned that it would be a good idea to check my equipment before cooking a dinner that had some special needs.  I learned that a meat thermometer is worthless after having been washed in the dishwasher.  I learned to check my flour when I haven’t used it in months.  What a surprise it was to see a thin layer of paprika over the entire top of the flour.  Except paprika doesn’t move like that.  I learned that the people who supply turkey don’t forget to put in all pieces, you know, neck, heart and liver.  Just because all you can find in the big cavity is the neck, doesn’t mean there’s not another cavity with a little bag of goodies.  I learned that cooking that bag of goodies won’t make you sick and the heart and liver cook nicely.  I learned that even though the meat has set for a half hour after taking it out of the oven, it’s still really, really, really, really hot next to the bone.  I learned that an eighteen pound turkey has an awful lot of dark meat.  I learned that an eighteen pound turkey has even more white meat.  I learned that cooking a turkey with all of the fixins still makes a big mess in the kitchen.



So, that’s what I learned today.  I’ve got a few more things to clean up in the kitchen, then I’ll start the dishwasher.  It’s turned out to be a lovely day.  It was a little warm, 75? I think was the high outside, a bit warmer inside, especially in the kitchen.  Since the sun has gone down, the breeze has picked up.  When I took the well wrapped carcass out to the dumpster, I noticed some big water drops, so it appears there might be a little rain on the horizon.  That would be superb. 



Well, off to finish cleaning, then sit back with a nice big piece of pumpkin cheesecake.  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving day, too.

      Saturday, November 30, 2002



11:44 AM - 11/30/2002

The topic: The clouds, the rain, the thunder…
----------------------------------------------

Saturday, November 30, 2002  Boy, was it wet last night.  Around 4:30, the storm came in.  Thunder, lightning, rain, it was the real deal.  Unfortunately, the rain gauge on the roof once again wasn’t working, but fortunately, Brian had emptied out the rain gauge that’s on the fence.  We got seven tenths of an inch, which I manually added to the weather station information.



I brought Junior in, because the thunder terrified him.  Then, because I didn’t want to be outside looking for the cats when the rain got really bad, I called the cats in early.  I yelled for them to come in and set the cat door to in only, then put the gate up so that the stinkers who can open the door, couldn’t.  After the rain had started, I checked for cats and didn’t see Sammy.  I checked all over the house and in the rafters with no sign of him.  I grabbed the flashlight and barefoot, I went outside in search of him.  I found him under the pool pump.  I had to lay on my stomach on the wet platform to look.  I wanted him in the house, not under the pool pump and the only way I could get him from under there was the hose.  I ran it over the top and some of the water went down and he ran from under there, over to the side of the shop.  I had hoped he had run into the office, but he hadn’t.  I went back out, starting to get pretty wet.  I found him under the polycarbonate stack and chased him from under it.  Once again, I checked in the office and in the house to see if he’d come in, but he still wasn’t in.  I found him in the cathouse on the bank and when I tried to get him out, he ran to the four story cathouse.  Boy, this was a bunch of fun!  I got him out of that and he ran back behind the shop and I finally found him in the cathouse on the bank, on the top floor.  This time I was able to get to him and I cuddled him against me, taking him into the office.  I shut the sliding door and opened the office door.  He didn’t leave.  It took a little coaxing to get him from his hiding spot in the office and when I did, he promptly ran into the family room and under the sofa.  Good place for him.



Anyway, I finally relaxed when it dawned on me, I hadn’t seen Georgie.  Meanwhile, the thunder and lightning were giving the full show.  Those thoughts started going through my head.  When had I seen him last?  I was pretty sure he’d been on the back of the loveseat earlier in the day, but where was he now?  Had I seen him on the loveseat?  For that matter, had I seen him on the counter eating chicken that morning?  I was pretty sure I’d seen him on the bed when I got up.  Had I?  I hate this stuff.  Anyway, I ended up going back outside with the flashlight, looking all over when George didn’t respond to my calling him in the house.  And I’d looked everywhere inside, in the rafters, under the plastic tarp that covers the tile in the garage, under the sofa and loveseat (I saw Sammy under the sofa), in the bedroom closet, in the exercise room, in all of the cat condos, I just couldn’t find him inside.  With flashlight in hand, I walked around the pool, looking in the tall grass.  I checked the bank, I checked the doghouses, I couldn’t imagine not having seen him when I was looking for Sammy earlier, but he had to be somewhere.  I finally went back inside, dripping wet at this time and looked under the sofa and loveseat again. And there he was, under the sofa.  The reason I hadn’t seen him earlier is that he was behind Sammy.  I think the combination of electrical storm and dog in the house spooked him.



Junior was very good while inside, but when the storm had passed and I opened the door for him to go out, I could tell he was happy to be back outside.  He checked out the yard to make sure it was still there, then finished his dinner (he wouldn’t finish it inside) and peed.  Later on, Georgie wanted out and I let him, since he gets so wound up. And Junior was in his doghouse, nice and warm and cozy, not having to fight the cats for his spot.



And there might be more rain on the way.



My plans for the rest of the day are to finally catch on up my correspondence (the letters do Disney) and work on the website.  I have a couple of things to add to the declaw menu (by the way, Dr. Jean Hofve has joined the EDA forum),  I’ve got some globes by Fran to add to the ecards, and I think I’d like to update my sunset area.  I haven’t done anything there in years, but I have many more sky pictures to add.



Oh, if you’re curious about the bugs in the flour, here’s the link to the movie (it’s 2.2K and you’ll need the QuickTime player:  show me the bugs movie!  The flour was tossed out right after I took that little picture and the container washed in the dishwasher.  Luckily I had more flour in the freezer in the garage.



Well, off to work.  Maybe I’ll be able to have something other than this journal updated.  Finally.

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lisaviolet is seventy something, married with no kids, takes care of lots of cats, likes taking photographs, loves Southern California weather and spends altogether too much time avoiding her responsibilities.

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