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      Wednesday, February 01, 2006

catstuff 11:20 AM - 02/01/2006 The current weather is chilly The topic: About Annie ---------------------------------------------- She’s still got some problems, but she also seems to be getting better in some ways.  I do wish she’d eat more.  Earlier this week I watched her poop and she wasn’t doing a very good job. When she got back up here on the desk, she was walking funny.  I noticed that she still had some poop hanging from her tail/butt area.  It wasn’t stuck hard so I just got a tissue and pulled them off of her.  It was fairly dry, so I started giving her a little cat laxative yesterday.  I didn’t give her much since she’s not eating much. I did get her to nibble on some Felidae wet this morning, which was good. This is something that all of the cats can eat, so it’s not a big deal if I leave it out for her. She’s been very, very needy the past couple of days.  Last night and this morning, she wanted to have her back scratched and massaged for a long, long time.  I hope this is because she’s feeling more like being affectionate, not because she’s hurting in some way. Her skin is much less dry than it was weeks ago, the flakiness is going away.  And I found a couple of scabs on her back, which might mean some kitty bit her.  And if she was sore from that, I can understand why it’s hard for her to walk.  I know of at least twice that I’ve chased some cat away from annoying her.  The fluids went badly on Sunday, but were much better yesterday.  I don’t know why sometimes it’s so hard to administer them and others it’s like slicing butter with a hot knife, it’s that smooth.  *sigh* She has the sweetest purr in the world. | Permalink

catstuff 11:29 AM - 02/01/2006 The topic: Springtime ---------------------------------------------- Yeah, I know it’s not spring in most places, but the birds here don’t know that. And the birds are teasing the cats.  Not on purpose, I don’t think birds do that, but yesterday I noticed some bird activity in the back yard.  I didn’t think much of it, as I would watch the birds fly off before the cats got too close. At least that’s what I assumed.  When I got the kitties in last night, there was a dead robin down by the pool.  Since I was in the process of getting kitties in, I figured it could wait until later.  Well, later, in the middle of getting dinner ready, I realized that not all little black kitty cats were in.  I grabbed the flashlight and went in search.  Phoebe was the missing kitty cat and after some doing, I was able to chase her into the office.  And in doing so, two kitty cats ran outside.  Mystie and Lisa, which wouldn’t be much of a problem to get in later on. But when I was trying to get Phoebe in, I noticed the bird was no longer where it had been when I first spied it.  Hmm….  Maybe this was the reason the kitty cats were not wanting to come in. Later, after dinner and after I’d done the dishes, Brian and I came back to the office.  I played a game (kept losing lives) and he surfed.  I figured maybe one or both of the girls might be ready to come inside and looked out the door.  Mystie was waiting, so I let her in.  No sign of Lisa, although I called for her.  She wasn’t ready to come inside, yet. Mystie said something to me and she sounded odd.  I looked down.  I yelled to Brian “she’s got the bird!”   He went after her and she ran down the hall under the bed.  I told him to watch out, there was cat puke in the hallway.  When he saw her go under the bed, he told me to take care of the bird (gee, thanks) and he’d clean up the puke.  He grabbed some paper towels and I went into the bedroom.  Mystie had dropped the bird before she went under the bed, so I was able to pick it up by its legs.  Brian was cleaning the hallway and he gave me a paper towel.  I put the bird into it and gave it back to him.  He took it all outside and put it in the dumpster.  I hate when the cats get birds.  They don’t get many, maybe one every two or three years.  So, I can be grateful for that, I guess. | Permalink

otherstuff 11:45 AM - 02/01/2006 The topic: It’s a drought ---------------------------------------------- Last year, our water company changed the way it delivered.  They delivered twice a month for years and years and years.  Last year, that stopped.  They started coming about every four weeks.  Some months we’d get two deliveries, but most months just one.  And they sent out a paper replacement schedule at the beginning of the year, not a fancy heavy paper one, that you can stick to a wall. Well, this year we got the fancy heavy paper one and it’s stuck to the inside of one of the kitchen cupboards. And he was scheduled to come last Wednesday, the 25th of January.  And he didn’t.  Brian ran out of water at his shop and we were getting low here in the house.  (We ran out this morning.)  Brian gave me the job of calling and asking when we could be expecting more water.  I called yesterday afternoon and left a message.  I got a call back this morning. I was told “we ran out of the spring water you get”.   And that he expected to have some today, he’d bring it by. I paged Brian and relayed the message.  He said “so the spring ran dry, huh?”  *lol* I just checked, the water is here now. | Permalink

otherstuff 11:54 AM - 02/01/2006 The topic: The washer ---------------------------------------------- Still works.  Sweet.  I’m surprised, though, when I open up the towel basket.  There’s not much in there now.  It was always full when DeeJay was here.  The reason was we used towels for him to pee on.  And he wasn’t the only cat who used the towels as a toilet.  At one time or another I saw Phoebe, Lonee and Oliver using it.  I’m sure they weren’t the only ones since it needed to be changed at least twice a day. Now, there’s none.  Lonee still poops by the back door, but Oliver has gotten good at going in the litterbox that I’d put in there for DeeJay, the Rubbermaid container that has no lid.  It’s short sided and easy to get into. Gosh, I miss DeeJay and his skinny little body. Little reminders everywhere. | Permalink

      Thursday, February 02, 2006

catstuff 07:00 AM - 02/02/2006 The topic: Ouch! ---------------------------------------------- Something happened to me in the wee hours this morning, a first.  It wasn’t a pleasant first. I was in a deep sleep, dreaming away (I hate my dreams, they’re so odd) and I was rudely awakened by a cat jumping on my head, claws out.  Whatever cat it was held on. This kitty had come from the bay window, the one that looks out onto the street.  And this kitty decided that he or she no longer wanted to be in the window, but possibly wanted to lap from one of the multitude of available water bowls, or maybe partake an early morning snack.  And this kitty obviously was concerned about the landing, it wasn’t the soft pillow as usual, but a hard human head with slippery fur on it.  And to prevent grave injuries that might be sustained by falling off of said head and onto said soft pillow, well, the claws were very important to keep traction. I bled.  It was like those cartoons where the cats latch onto someone’s head.  Of course, I got verbal about the entire thing, got up to pee and check out the bleeding.  Luckily it was under the hair, no visible damage.  And I’m glad I don’t do much hair processing anymore, because you aren’t supposed to frost or perm when you’ve got a scabby scalp. When I went back to bed,  I lay down facing the other direction.  Within ten minutes some other cat jumped onto that side of my head, but fortunately for both of us, this was a clawless landing.  I couldn’t figure out why this was happening after years of having the bed in this position.  Maybe it was because the darling Ciara was sharing my pillow.  But a cat on my pillow is nothing new, nothing out of the ordinary.  The head landings were. | Permalink

catstuff 07:57 AM - 02/02/2006 The topic: Well, I’ll be damned ---------------------------------------------- The past few weeks I’ve been obsessing over finding something for Annie that she shows strong interest in eating.  I’ve tried five different meat flavors of baby food, different cans of Fancy Feast,  Nutro foods, different dry kibbles and all she’ll do is eat a few bites, then turn her head. This morning, Brian made bacon and eggs, which he has twice a week.  He makes extra bacon for me.  Well, I walked into the office, having finished my last piece (I get two) and I let Annie smell my fingers.  Oh, my goodness!  Her head came up, she started looking around, sniffing.  She stood up.  I ran into the other room where Brian was eating and asked if he had any more bacon, save me a little piece.  It wasn’t as small as I wanted, but I brought it back to the office and broke off a tiny piece to see what she’d do. She snarfed it up.  I broke up the rest and gave it to her.  She ate every last bit.  I’m hoping this means she’s getting her appetite back.  Obviously, I’m not going to run into the kitchen and cook up a couple of pounds of bacon for her, bacon isn’t the best thing, but it was nice to see her actually finding food yummy, wanting more when she’d cleaned up what she had been given. | Permalink

      Friday, February 03, 2006

disneystuff 09:40 AM - 02/03/2006 The topic: October ---------------------------------------------- We made our reservations for the October trip.  Once again, we went through the Walt Disney Travel Company.  We’ll be staying at the Disneyland Hotel this year.  Last year, I was very disappointed in the quality of the Grand.  Running out of hot water?  Okay. Anyway, when I made the reservations I was informed about birthday cakes.  I told Brian that I want a birthday cake this year.  All these years and I’ve never had a birthday cake at Disneyland.  I was told they run from $18.00 up to $85.00.  I wonder how you get them.  I’ll have to call, but I think it would be nice to eat at Carnation one night and have the cake there.  They need about a seventy two hour notice, so I’ve got a while to think about it. | Permalink

otherstuff 09:47 AM - 02/03/2006 The topic: Grocery shopping ---------------------------------------------- I’m going.  I’m going early.  Today is the first day of the new sales.  I don’t often look at the flyer in the mail, but I did this week and there’s some stuff I’d like to get.  I told Brian this morning and he said “what stuff?”  I replied that I wasn’t going to share that information with him, because he always says “we don’t need that, why would you want to get it?” And that he always ends up enjoying what I get.  So, basically, I told him to just STFU. I’m going to get some garlic cloves and red potatoes.  I’ve got a hankering for garlic mashed potatoes and I think I shall serve them with garlic butter cod and French cut beans for dinner tonight. We had lasagna last night.  It was so good.  And for dessert, I had defrosted some cheesecake.  CostCo has cheesecake in the freezer and I noticed one of them had four different flavors, three pieces each so I bought one.  I defrosted four pieces and had only planned on having two last night, but Brian wanted seconds.  *lol* | Permalink

otherstuff 01:57 PM - 02/03/2006 The topic: Strange phone call ---------------------------------------------- So, I get home from shopping, get everything put away and the phone rings. Furriner.  Can hardly understand her.  Really heavy accent.  The caller ID shows no phone number, only private.  I rarely answer private phone calls but I’m glad I answered this one.  She asks for me by name.  I ask why what it’s about.  About an internet purchase for over five hundred dollars for a calling card. Huh?  This alarms me, just a little bit.  I ask who she was, where she’s calling from.  She gave me a website name and I’d never heard of it.  I told her that no, no one here ordered a phone calling card on the internet.  We both have cell phones with unlimited long distance, there’s no reason to need a phone card.  Especially one for over five hundred dollars.  She won’t tell me what credit card was used.  She asked me to tell her the number.  I’m sorry, but I’m not giving out that information to someone that I didn’t call first.  When she’s satisfied with my non-responses, we end the call. And I immediately came back to the office and started calling my credit card companies.  The first one I called is the one where they’ve had to cancel accounts and open up a new one twice.  No sign of odd activity.  The next one is the Disney card.  Bingo!  There’s a charge for $530.00 made this morning from a website I’ve never heard of. And there was also a charge to the Yahoo! wallet.  So, I’m transferred to the fraud section, we get the card cancelled and I’m advised not to try to use it.  Okee dokee.  When I got off the phone I called Brian and told him not to use it.  Of course, I have to do a little investigating when I’m done and the website page only says “if you have a charge on your credit card statement from this website, call this number or send us an email for more information”.  It’s some sort of credit card clearing house.  I move on to Yahoo! wallet.  I check in.  Odd thing is the credit card number used there is one that’s been dead for a while.  It’s old.  Oh, well, I cancel my Yahoo! wallet altogether. As for the actual charges, they were awaiting authorization, the company had not paid them yet.  Good deal.  No loss for anyone.  I bet someone’s going to get an unpleasant surprise when they realize they card that they thought was free money, isn’t. | Permalink

otherstuff 02:57 PM - 02/03/2006 The current weather is warm. Too warm for February. The topic: Stuff ---------------------------------------------- So, credit card problem taken care of, dishes done and put away, laundry folded and put away, garlic roasting in the oven, not much else to do right now. I think where I got scratched when I was filling in as a landing pad might be a little infected, because, boy howdy, does it ever hurt right now. Speaking of “boy howdy” Brian and I laughed about that and other phrases like that the other night.  Because you first hear them from old people.  Then you start using them, being funny.  Acting like an old person.  Thinking it’s frikking hilarious, you, this young thing, using those old folk phrases.  Then, before you know it, they’re an everyday part of your vocabulary.  And, OH MY GAWD!, it dawns on you.  You’re now an old person. | Permalink

catstuff 03:02 PM - 02/03/2006 The topic: Annie Nanner Bella Button ---------------------------------------------- Yeah, that’s what I call her.  My little Annie Nanner. She drinks from the tub faucet now like she did before that vestibular problem.  She doesn’t have to get into the tub and stand on her back legs, front paws on the tub ledge to get the water from the faucet.  She stands on the edge of the tub and leans over to get her drink.  Her balance is getting better.  And she’s eating dry Felidae now.  I caught her a few times before, but now she’s not hiding her nibbling.  This is good.  This is very good. It’s just going so slow. | Permalink

      Saturday, February 04, 2006

otherstuff 05:54 PM - 02/04/2006 The topic: This and that ---------------------------------------------- I finally got around to figuring out why the java cards didn’t work on my postcard page.  Got that all fixed and up and running.  Maybe I’ll start adding pictures to it. I also checked the errors that people get when they come here and took care of the ones I could.  There are a lot of spambots trying to post to guestbooks and forums I never finished.  Hopefully this will cut back on those messages.  I also tweaked some of the robots.txt pages. Took me all day to do this, but I feel like I’ve accomplished something. | Permalink

      Sunday, February 05, 2006

otherstuff 08:15 AM - 02/05/2006 The topic: Spam bots ---------------------------------------------- If you aren’t sure of what a spam bot is, let me try to explain it.  It’s some piece of software that searches the internet for places to leave a comment.  And this comment is spam.  A human sets the damned thing up and lets the bot do all of the work.  This is the reason this blog has the little thing in place that you have to copy what you see to post a comment.  Bots (robots) can’t see that image.  My working guestbooks have the same thing in place.  I’m notified when I get a new post on one of the guestbooks, which isn’t often.  Except for the bot spam and I did a little research and found a couple of test guestbooks I’d installed, which I never disabled or deleted.  I totally forgot about them, but the spambots found them.  And I got lots of email about a new message having been posted.  I usually just deleted them, but did some investigation yesterday as to why I was still getting so many. Anyway, my visitor tracking that’s available through my website’s control panel listed out the most recent visitors.  And I’m getting a ton from casino bots in search of a place to post their links.  And as I find the referer link, I’m adding it to a little program that will block that URL from accessing the page that it’s looking for.  And I’m always curious to see if there have been any new (easier) developments for blocking this crap.  This morning, I Googled “casino spam bots” and found a blog entry on a blog by the name of collision detection.  I read this entry and the comments.  Oh, my gawd, look at all of that spam bot commenting.  And it’s an incredibile PITA for a webmaster to have to take the time to remove it all. Now, the spammers really don’t expect people to go to those websites.  They don’t.  But what they want is for search engines bots, such as Yahoo, Google, Excite and the like, to see all of those many links. And in seeing so many different websites linking to those pages, well, that puts them higher in the ranking system.  *sigh* | Permalink

      Monday, February 06, 2006

otherstuff 10:45 AM - 02/06/2006 We found .30 on our walk this morning The topic: I was dreading this ---------------------------------------------- My Dell and my Gateway are getting sluggish.  And that means it’s close to time where I reformat the hard drives and set everything back up fresh.  Bleh.  The Gateway shouldn’t be too hard to do, since the C drive has very little on it. But the Dell is another thing. It’s very bloated.  I’m absolutely not looking forward to this.  But at least now I have some external hard drives that I can back the old files up to. | Permalink

mailstuff 11:45 AM - 02/06/2006 The topic: Maroons ---------------------------------------------- I just found an email that was sent via my email form.  It wasn’t sent to the proper address because I didn’t fix the link when I was having all of the problems last month.  Oh, well, it’s fixed now. Anyway, it’s from some breeder who didn’t like the comments that someone left for her on the links page.  I looked at the comments and there were a total of five, dating from last July through last month.  One was a good comment, the other four were not.  All were from different ISPs.  She threatened me with “legal” action if I didn’t remove her cattery link.  See, I was “allowing” a “breeder” to leave nasty comments about her (hey, I’d like to see her prove that allegation).  Geez, I look around this house and our cats and where they came from and I don’t see one of them with “purebred” stamped across its forehead.  And the only purebred cat we ever had was Maggie and she died from heart failure at the young age of six.  And it was most probably from poor breeding, which we had no way of knowing. Bad breeders will never get my sympathy. Link gone.  And good riddance.  And quit selling people faulty kittens. | Permalink

      Monday, February 13, 2006

otherstuff 12:35 PM - 02/13/2006 We found a quarter and a dime on our walk this morning The current weather is is wrong. Too hot. The topic: Routines ---------------------------------------------- I’m finding it difficult to get back into the internet routing since we started walking last Monday.   Last week, I was pretty sore since it had been so long.  But now, it’s just really hard for me to come back here, sit down and start typing.  Of course, the heat doesn’t help.   I’d love for it to cool down and to finally start getting some much needed precipitation. I started working on the Disneyland DVDs last week, but didn’t get too far.   I couldn’t view the pictures I’d been sent as a slideshow since they weren’t in the “My Pictures” directory on my computer.  I did find software that allows me to view them this way, though.  It works nicely.  It will go a long way in helping me do what I want to do. We had a repairman come out to look at the television, too.  The remote sensor is going out.  Unfortunately, for the work to be done, the entertainment center will need to be pulled out from the wall.  So, when they call to schedule the appointment (the part had to be ordered), I’m going to request a Monday morning.  If we have to wait a couple of weeks, we’ll have to wait a couple of weeks.  I want Brian to be here. | Permalink

catstuff 12:43 PM - 02/13/2006 The topic: Annie ---------------------------------------------- Annie had a good day yesterday.  She’s having a bad day today.  I don’t think the fluids are really helping all that much.  Or there’s something else going on with her.  Friday, she passed a fair sized chunk of nasty stuff while trying to pee.  I put her back on amoxicillan.  She was getting better, or so I thought, but this morning, she’s very uncomfortable.  I just hope I’m doing right by her.  She just looked so damned good yesterday, stretched out sleeping, more relaxed than I’d seen her in a while and now, this morning, she’s done a 180°.  I know this isn’t good.   Maybe it’s just one bad day and she’ll be better later on.  I did give her fluids this morning, today is a fluid day.  If she’s doing better tomorrow, I’ll try giving her fluids again.  I know the vet said every other day, but right now, I don’t think it’s really going to change the outcome.  She’s still not eating, although I just got her to eat half of the meat from the Healthy Choice dinner I had for lunch.  She did like it.  I thought about cooking up a little steak for her and freezing part of it and just giving it to her in little portions at a time.  Maybe I will do that.  I guess right now all I want to do is to keep her comfortable for the rest of her days. | Permalink

otherstuff 02:29 PM - 02/13/2006 The topic: Damned credit cards ---------------------------------------------- I just checked the balance for my Disney card, the one that got hijacked.  That $530 charge had been authorized, despite what I was told back on the day it happened.  So, now, we have to fill out the damned affadavit and get it notarized.  And they started charging us interest.  From the minute there was an amount due at the statement closing.  Not a “previous balance”, but an amount due.  If I charged nothing during the month, had a zero balance all month long, then I charge something on the day before the statement closing, I’ll be hit with a finance charge for the total.  The only way to not get the interest charge is to pay before the closing.  And it takes a couple of days for the payments to clear, even online, so unless we don’t use the card on the last week of their fiscal month, we’ll get hit with a 14.4%  finance charge. This is absolutely unacceptable. I just sent them an email via the online contact form letting them know I didn’t like this.  Yes, I know that they’re not making money off of us directly if we’re not paying a finance charge, but they do make money from the merchants where we use the card.   It may not be much, but it was more than they’d be making if we didn’t use the card.  Sadly, the rewards points I get aren’t enough to offset the finance charge.  The rewards points are 1%.   Finance charge is 14.4%.  There are promotions, where you don’t get charged for using it for Disney stuff.  Well, that’s what we originally had planned on using the card for in the first place.  Disney stuff. | Permalink

      Wednesday, February 15, 2006

catstuff 08:28 AM - 02/15/2006 We found a penny on our walk this morning I'm listening to Paul Brown's The City The current weather is cloudy with chance of showers I'm mellow The topic: New boss? ---------------------------------------------- DeeJay used to sleep on my pillow at night. He woke me up many times during the years as he situated himself and his claws caught in my hair close to my scalp. I thought once he was gone, this would stop. I think I’m the alpha cat in the house.  Sometimes Oliver tries to show me differently, but I’m bigger and have opposable thumbs with which I can use the squirt bottle on him.  And he hates the squirt bottle. I think DeeJay sleeping next to my head was a sort of power thing. Not many other cats tried and if they did and he was of a mind to keep my company, the other cat quickly removed itself from what could become a volatile situation.  Not that he ever did much more that a couple of slaps. Well, a new kitty has taken his place on my pillow.  He’s a big kitty, he’s a lovable kitty and most of the other cats respect him.  It’s Marco.  Yep, the kitty cat who fell off of the retaining wall on the bank. The kitty who spent eight weeks in a crate.  Marco Warco.  As the weeks have gone by (I can’t believe it’s only been a month since DeeJay was put to sleep, it would have been a month on Monday, the 13th) Marco is showing himself to be frontrunner.  I think he’ll make a good cat king. | Permalink

catstuff 08:41 AM - 02/15/2006 The topic: Latest Annie update ---------------------------------------------- I don’t know.  I just don’t know.  She’s still showing little bits of progress.  But then she has a bad day and my hope balloon is quickly deflated.  Monday was bad, mostly in the morning.  As the day progressed she got a little better.  Yesterday morning into the early afternoon was horrible.  She was back to being restless and she wouldn’t sleep or lay her head down.  She went outside for a while, wandering around the yard.  I guess she did this the past weekend and Brian said she looked like she was having a good time, enjoying being outside again.  I don’t know if what she was doing yesterday was the same thing she was doing this weekend, but if it was, she looked more confused and lost than happy.  It was one of those times that thought kept bouncing around my head “is it time?”.  I’m glad I have Brian to talk it out with.  He’s more impartial than I am, or maybe more distant.  I’m here with her all day, he mostly sees her at night.  He sees her when she’s feeling better.  I see how hard it seems to be for her (and me). But this morning, she actually ate more kibble at one sitting than she has in a month.  I’m not talking about a lot.  At most she’d eat maybe ten pieces of kibble at a time.  This morning she ate about twice that.  That’s good.  But, as far as I’m concerned, it’s still not enough.  I’d love to leave a bowl of this out for her to eat anytime she wanted, but the other cats consider it a treat and they’d have it all gone in a matter of minutes and we’d be left with her still not getting enough to eat.  I’ve thought about moving her to the bathroom, but she’d be unhappy in a room with the door shut all of the time.  It just wouldn’t be fair to her.  I could leave her in the office and shut the door, but there would go the catcam and officecam.  I so look forward to a day where none of the cats need scheduled meds or scheduled times of being poked with a syringe.  We had Junior on insulin for over two years, then DeeJay with his three years plus of fluids, now Annie.  After Annie, I hope it’s a long time before I have to do this again. | Permalink

catstuff 09:05 AM - 02/15/2006 The topic: The worry ---------------------------------------------- I know there’s not a whole hell of a lot I can do about the ferals, other than feed them, but when they don’t show up for a meal, it worries me. Yesterday morning, there was no KittyMeeze.  Carla was out front, but she ran across the street when she saw me (it was still dark outside) outside of the entry way. His schedule is he’s here for breakfast, hangs around a little, then he’s gone until the afternoon.  I have a good idea where Carla is spending her days now, because both times she saw me yesterday, she ran to the same place across the street, the bushes where we finally trapped Cleo and was able to get her fixed years ago.  And I didn’t doubt, seeing how close it was to our house, that could very well be where Meeze spends his mornings after getting breakfast here.  He’s back in mid-afternoon, when the sun hits the front bank.  It’s nice and cozy and warm there.  If it gets too warm, a cat can always move to a different place where’s there’s shade. He wasn’t back yesterday afternoon.  I resigned myself to the possibility that we might not ever see him again.  Then he was back after the sun went down, eating the food I’d put out yesterday morning.  He ate most of it.  He was back again this morning. I wonder if maybe he got himself into a situation where he couldn’t leave.  Like maybe in someone’s shed or garage, then when they got home from work, he escaped to freedom. I wish they’d move in with us so I wouldn’t worry so. | Permalink

otherstuff 11:25 AM - 02/15/2006 The topic: True love ---------------------------------------------- Yesterday was Valentine’s Day.  And I got the same thing I’ve gotten for almost twenty years. Nothing. You’d think I’d be used to it by now, but every February 14th, there’s a part of me that waits for something.  It’s not as strong as it was at first, but it’s still there.  My father never forgot.  It’s not that Brian forgets, though, it’s just not a big deal to him.  Obviously, he’s never been a woman. So, I’m getting dinner ready last night (stuffed chicken breasts, rice and peas) and the phone rings.  He tells me he wants to go to this agricultural show up in central California tomorrow (which would be today).  I say “okay”.   I kind of wonder how he could swing it with as busy as he is, it would be a long day.  At least ten hours (probably more) of total driving time.  Then checking out all the ag stuff. Then he says “can I take your car?”  “The mustang?  Sure, I don’t have a problem with that.” “No, the Escape.” My car?  He wanted to take my car?  Uh, no. I tell him my answer.  “No.” He does a little whining.  But…but…but…. “No.” He does a little more whining. “No.” Then I query “what did you get me for Valentine’s Day?” knowing the answer before I asked the question. “Nothing” came his reply. “Then, no.” When he got home, he said that Mark had talked him out of going (good).  Like Mark said that would make an eighteen hour day and they have a lot to do Thursday and it would just be too hard to do.  Physically and mentally.  So, he’s not going.  Like he said, there’s always next year. This morning he made breakfast.  I usually have cereal every day and on the day he makes eggs and bacon, I’ll have a few pieces of bacon. And if he slices up a potato and fries it, I have some of that (the potatoes at CostCo are huge and one can feed both of us…when I bake potatoes I usually do about six or seven, just for extras during the week).   This morning he made bacon, potatoes and eggs.  There were only two eggs left, which isn’t that big of a deal, the bacon and potatoes would be just fine for me.  I was back in the office giving Annie some attention when he called out to let me know breakfast was ready.  He had the table set and was putting the plates down when I walked in.  My plate had an egg on top of the potatoes.  He had the other. He split the eggs with me.  More thought there than a dozen roses or a box of candy or a card.  It’s the thought that counts, you know. That’s true love. | Permalink

      Thursday, February 16, 2006

catstuff 03:18 PM - 02/16/2006 The topic: Woohoo! ---------------------------------------------- Annie turned some sort of corner, I think.  A couple of days ago, I wasn’t very optomistic, but yesterday afternoon, she started eating.   She went outside for a while, came in and ate.  Now, what she had been doing is eat a couple pieces of kibble, then look away, like she was thinking about something.   “Do I want more?  Am I done eating?  Yeah, I guess I’m not hungry”, then she’d turn from the food and lay down. But yesterday afternoon, she she’d eat again.   She’s been doing this ever since.  So, she’s starting to eat more.  And her turd yesterday was twice the size of the previous ones.  It wasn’t much bigger than the top part of my thumb, which can give you an idea of how small it had been.  But if she keeps on eating more, she’ll be pooping more.  And I don’t have a problem with that, not at all.  Yay, Annie! | Permalink

      Friday, February 17, 2006

otherstuff 05:52 AM - 02/17/2006 The topic: The cameras ---------------------------------------------- The cameras won’t be running today.  Brian is going up to LA and I’m going with him.  Usually, I leave the cameras running, but with Annie’s situation, I’ve decided it would be a waste.  See, Annie’s food consumption depends on me being here to chase the other cats away.  And Annie nibbles throughout the day.  If I’m not here, I can’t just leave the food out, else the other bottomless pits would eat it all and when Annie finally decided she was ready for something to eat, there’d be nothing left. Thus, all kitties who are not Annie will have to be out of the office today and Annie will have it to herself with access to soft food and dry food. And since there will be no kitties in the office, I’m going to turn off the catcam and not run the others.  The catcam will be back on this evening when we get home. | Permalink

      Wednesday, February 22, 2006

otherstuff 08:46 AM - 02/22/2006 We found three cents Friday and four cents on our walk this morning I'm watching nothing The current weather is cool and crisp I'm miserable...sinus headache The topic: Stuff update ---------------------------------------------- So, we went to Disneyland last Friday.  Brian and I had lunch at Denny’s on Harbor, then he left and I walked over to the parks.  Disneyland was full.  Where the hell are all of these people coming from? I walked for an hour and forty five minutes before I finally sat down.  That was over at King Triton’s in DCA, the carousel with sea creatures.  I then found a place at the park where I could sit and relax without music blaring in my ear (pretty hard thing to do, usually I like the music, but Friday I just wanted to sit).  Brian called and said he was on his way.  I’d called my Anaheim bud and we talked for a while.  Then Brian called to let me know he was there, where did I want to meet.  I was on my way to the restroom at that point and I met him outside of DCA.  We went to the lockers, then back into DCA.  We went on Soarin’ Over California, then walked over to Grizzly River Rapids and sat and people watched for a while.  We made arrangements with Allyson to meet for dinner after six. We started getting cold, so Brian suggested we go into the Grand Californian and sit by the fire.  There were no empty places.  We tried the outside fire, but there were smokers there, so we went back inside and sat in the lobby.  I could have fallen asleep in the big easy chair I was in. By the time we left to go to the car, the rain had started.  Wonderful timing.  We ate dinner at Mimi’s cafe, then came home.  We were pretty much ahead of the rain the entire time, which was a good thing. We got home a little after nine (I think).  I turned the catcam back on and checked on Annie, who seemed to have done pretty good on her own.  She had eaten a fair amount of soft food during the day. Saturday, we went to breakfast, then to Walmart.  Came home and Brian got his stuff together, then headed off for the property, where he would be until Monday.  He called Saturday night and he sounded beat.  One of the belts on the Ranger broke on the way up and he had to stop and buy more.  He said it didn’t stop the truck from running, but it needed to be fixed.  That took a couple of hours out of his day.  I guess it was cold up there.  It was thirty Sunday morning in the trailer and it took an hour to warm up to sixty.  I was nice and cozy right here at home.  I even had a fire going Sunday.  It was pretty nice, relaxing.  I slept a lot and did a little laundry.  Not much of anything.  I did manage to make two necklaces (which I plan on trying to sell, more on that at a later date). That was it. | Permalink

catstuff 09:04 AM - 02/22/2006 The topic: Latest on Annie ---------------------------------------------- She’s doing much better.  I started putting the Pepcid in the gel cap with the morning lotensin and tapazole last weekend.  And she’s been getting amoxicillan twice a day, right on schedule.  I had to find my pill popper, because my fingers were getting worse with all of the little teeth holes in them. It took a little practice, but pilling her is much easier now.  Anyway, her sleeping is almost normal now.  When she’s deep into sleep, I can walk into the office, sit down and turn on the computer and she keeps sleeping.  This morning, she’s eaten three times already (if these other vultures weren’t up here, I’m sure it would be more).  Last week, I was happy if she ate three times during the day. Last night, I was in the family room watching television and Brian was back here surfing.  I came back to check on him and Annie was laying on his lap.  He said he’d been petting her.  She got up and came over to me and I put her food down.  When she started chowing down Brian said “I thought she just wanted to be held, I didn’t know she wanted to eat!” It’s slow, but it’s going. | Permalink

otherstuff 02:14 PM - 02/22/2006 The topic: Cue the spooky music ---------------------------------------------- My total at Michael’s craftstore was $111.11.  When I got home, I turned on the television.  It was 1:11. Then I emptied the change out of my pocket.  I had a dime and a penny. $.11 All those ones….. | Permalink

catstuff 02:17 PM - 02/22/2006 The topic: Carla gone? ---------------------------------------------- The last time I saw Carla was Saturday night.  I don’t know if she’s been around since, but the food was pretty much untouched last night (I think a possum possibly finished it off the other nights).  And KittyMeeze has been sticking around all day the past two days, where the past couple of months he’d leave in the morning after breakfast. Brian said this morning she’s either locked in some place, or dead. *sigh* Meeze seems so lonely. | Permalink

      Friday, February 24, 2006

catstuff 09:37 AM - 02/24/2006 I'm watching Magnum pie The topic: Annie outside ---------------------------------------------- I haven't posted an Annie pic in a while and most certainly not one of her outside. She really likes going outdoors. She doesn't go for much longer than a half hour, but she will walk out onto the lawn and lift her face to the sun, closing her eyes.     She’s still wobbly.  I sometimes wonder if she might have had a stroke or something along those lines.  No discernible head tilt any longer, but until she gets moving, she’s very unsteady on her feet. She’s still eating more. ——————————————————————————————————————-   Want to see more kity-cat pictures and more kitty-cat stories? Then head on over to Animal Family for the 101st edition of the Carnival of the Cats, | Permalink

otherstuff 09:42 AM - 02/24/2006 The topic: I coulda ---------------------------------------------- gone to Disneyland today.  Brian is picking up the painted metal he took up last Friday.  But this is a short month and I hadn’t even thought about that when it dawned on me bills needed to be paid. So, here I am, signing checks and stamping envelopes, working.  And I bet the parks wouldn’t have been nearly as crowded today. We are supposed to get considerable rain next week, so maybe we can go up on one of the rainy days.  Rainy days at the Disneyland Resort aren’t that bad if you’re prepared.  Rain gear, boots, towels to wipe off seats and a change of clothes for the ride home. I told Brian this morning on our walk that it would be nice if he cut up more wood for next week for the fireplace.  And this weekend I think I’ll wash the windows and doors, so I can have all of the blinds open when it’s raining outside.  Oooo, how I love the rain. Another reason for not going to Dland today is that I pulled my lower back out when doing the litterboxes a couple of days ago.  First time I’ve done that. | Permalink

      Sunday, February 26, 2006

otherstuff 06:31 PM - 02/26/2006 The topic: Busy weekend ---------------------------------------------- I spent Friday doing some cleaning.  I got the windows in the dining room, kitchen and family room cleaned.  Vacuumed and dusted, too.  Saturday I got the laundry room, kitchen, hallway and entry way floors washed and waxed.   Got most of the laundry finished. I got most of it done early enough so that the cats were back to normal relaxed mode so they weren’t a royal PITA to get inside.  I also got a bunch of wood into the wheelbarrow and found one of the ugliest looking spiders in the wood pile.  It looked like a big tick.  Blech.  It didn’t last long, huh-uh.  Nasty thing. Today Brian cut up more wood for the fireplace after we did our shopping.  We were pretty low on dry cat food and Felidae has two bucks off of an 18 pound bag right now, so we bought five bags today.  Now, we wait for the much needed rain. | Permalink

catstuff 06:38 PM - 02/26/2006 The topic: At the petstore ---------------------------------------------- today I asked for one each of the catfood samples they have.  Two are kitten food, one was Felidae so there were only two that I really cared about.  Wellness and Natural Balance.  She seemed to like the Natural Balance.  Except she barfed it back up. Brian said the food wasn’t chewed.  The Natural Choice that I feed her is a bigger kibble and she spends more time eating it. She doesn’t feel as thin as she did, but that could just be wishful thinking. And watching her walk, it looks more like she’s having problems with her legs.  I dunno, it’s a tough call.  I take her in sometime in the next two weeks for a recheck of her kidney values.  I don’t doubt they’ll be better once again.  She’s a real fighter, I just wish she’d be more of an eater.  I remember her when she was such a round little kitty-cat. | Permalink

      Monday, February 27, 2006

catstuff 07:13 AM - 02/27/2006 I'm worrried The topic: Some good thoughts for Ciara? ---------------------------------------------- This morning, Ciara came into the office and jumped up on the chair, then up onto the desk.  I see she’s putting no weight at all on her back right leg.  *sigh* Normally, taking her to the vet is a no brainer, but this morning, I have to take my mom to the doctor.  It’s her (hopefully) final checkup for the breast cancer.  So, what I’m going to do is to call the vet’s shortly after they open, see if I can take her in and leave her.  (I’d also like the IBD values checked, to see if she can be taken off of the prednisone.)  If it’s broken, I think having her there as soon as possible would be a good thing.  She was fine last night.  A couple of weeks ago, she jumped down from the top of the bookshelf here in the office and did a little limping, but it was gone within the hour.  Maybe that weakened something and she did something last night that made it worse.  I just know she’s not feeling too hot right now. Update: Brian thinks I should wait until I get home to take her.  He hates the idea of her being there alone.  So, I will. And maybe, just maybe, she’ll be doing a little better and not need to go. | Permalink

catstuff 08:14 AM - 02/27/2006 The topic: And then there was one? ---------------------------------------------- Still no sign of Carla.  Meeze has been spending much more time over here than he had been.  But then there will be hours where I have no idea where he could be.  Is he looking for Carla?  I don’t know. The coyotes have been bad, I guess.  My mom, who lives about a half mile from us, said that Mama is gone.  Mama is Lisa’s mom.  She lived on the porch of a lady who lives across from the dumpsters in the park where my mom lives.  Dodie is in her ninties and has been trying for years to get Mama to come live inside, but Mama (like so many cats who’ve spent the majority of their lives outdoors) refused to come in.  So, she lived on the porch. Well, the coyotes like the pickins at the dumpster and it’s quite possible they saw Mama.  Mom told me about the conversation she had with one of the tenants where he was outside (I don’t recall the time of day), but he saw a coyote come up and snatch a cat off of one of his neighbor’s porches. The cat was just sitting there cleaning itself. I don’t know that a coyote would be the reason for Carla being gone, though.  As far as I know, she and KittyMeeze are the only two ferals left.  And now, there might be only one. I lay awake at night, thinking about how we could get him inside.  I don’t know if I could get him the same way I got Red.   By having him follow the trail of food into the garage.  He just doesn’t seem to be that food oriented.  And then there’s the problem of getting the other cats out of there.  Angel and Gracie live out there.  And he’s trap smart.  I just don’t know what we’ll do.  I wouldn’t even mind just having him live in the backyard.  He could come inside if he wanted to, but at least he’d be safe.  *sigh* Why is caring so stressful? | Permalink

catstuff 12:59 PM - 02/27/2006 The topic: Ciara update ---------------------------------------------- I’m glad I didn’t take her in.  When I got home, about two hours ago, she was in a deep sleep.  I didn’t bother her.  If she was in major discomfort, she’d not have been sleeping like that.  When she finally woke up, she was putting a little more weight on the leg, so I think Brian was right, that maybe she just sprained it.  Now she’s back sleeping again. | Permalink

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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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