Friday, June 20, 2003 It’s raining again. Can you believe it? Tomorrow is the first day of summer and we’ve seen very little sun as yet. I hate this. Actually, it’s not really rain, it’s drizzle and there has been so much, it’s registering on the weather station (see the backyard cam above). I HATE IT! The weatherman on the KTLA morning news (channel five, Los Angeles) says the jetstream, which is usually way up north, is staying south. Well, Seattle can have their jetstream back, I want some sun.
I didn’t lose any weight this week, but I didn’t gain, either. One of my problems is I quit logging my points and I’ve been starting to eat more than I should. It doesn’t take much, I guess. A couple Snack Well cookies here, a Slim Fast snack bar there, a Healthy Choice fudge bar…it all adds up. So, I’m back to logging what I eat. I can get into size fourteen shorts, though. I still think it’s funny that I can’t get into size fourteen jeans. Leave it to the fashion industry to change the sizes so that women think “gee, I can still wear a fourteen!” when in actuality, it used to be a sixteen or an eighteen. I think this may be another reason people are putting on so much weight. Used to be, your pants got tight, you would try to cut back or exercise to fit back into them (unless you’re like me and found it easier to get a larger size). Oh, well.
I got this in my email yesterday, I thought I’d share it.
“Hello there! I saw the comment in your diary about the Daniece Daisy on the black shirt - I’m the one that ordered it. That and the Party Animal shirt (which cat is on that shirt, btw?) arrived yesterday, and they’re both stunning. Thank you so much. The cats would like to extent their sincere thanks to you and Benny for the catnip. I could hardly get my shirts out of the package without their ‘help’.”
I’m thinking I might put up a customer testimonial page at lisaviolet designs. And remember, the free catnip only is available while supplies last. It’s Benny’s Finest Kind, minimal pesticides (stupid worms; but I use Sevin, the same thing that is in many flea powders), homegrown and hand harvested. *lol* Brian has to leave the house while I’m working on it because itR#8217;s so strong, it makes him ill. My new crop is coming up nicely.
I’m almost back to normal with Brian. I still get my shots in about his spending money we don’t have on something we don’t need. I hope he doesn’t do anything like this again. I really do. After the registration was paid, that damned Bronco came to over $7000.00. Money I’d rather have put towards our home equity loan. *sigh* And he’s not driving it. It’s sitting in the driveway as a constant reminder.
The other day, he came in from talking with our good neighbor, Chuck. Well, Chuck is in the process of finding someone to rent out their other house. He had some copies of rental agreements from a local apartment and I guess he asked Brian if there was any way I could scan them and make it so that he can make changes to them on his computer. “Just put them on a floppy disk.” All Brian handed me were eight pages. One was an application, the others were the rules and guidelines. No floppy. I haven’t tried the scanning thing since the last time Chuck needed something done. When I got my scanner, it came with some software by Caere. OmniPage. Well, I ended up upgrading what I had (this was a few years ago) and it cost $99.00. And I only used it once. And it was on the old computer, I’d never put it on the Dell.
I figured I should be somewhat flattered that Brian thinks so highly of what I can do, but I was a little put out. I didn’t get it done the next day and when he got home, he asked about it. I admit, my response was a little sharp when I told him I hadn’t done it. I’m still put out because of the Bronco (it surely doesn’t help when I get email reminders that insurance is due on the other vehicles) and here he is volunteering my services. Which I never like. Anyway, it took me about three hours yesterday to do all that I had to do. I had to search for a 3.5 floppy, for one thing, which had to be formatted. Then some of the stuff didn’t transfer properly. But I got it done. Brian took it across the street when he got home. I’m sure Chuck appreciated it. I told Brian this morning he owes me. He owes me big time. He kind of laughed, sheepishly, as he agreed with me.
He did get started on laying cement around the pool Wednesday. The cats kept wanting to inspect the wet cement, Oliver in particular. Brian sat down there and watched until it was safe for a cat to walk on. He had a water bottle to keep them away. I ended up locking the cat door early, so that there would be less chance of a cat with cement paws.
Well, my flowers are still doing well. Some aren’t going to make it, not many. I think the cats have a big part in that, either by laying on them or peeing on them, or covering up what they’ve done close by and shooting dirt over the plants. I put little rocks in one area, hopefully that will work.
Oliver has moved from the bed to the window. And Richie has been laying up there with him. So, where there used to be a couple of black cats, now there are red cats. The other day, Brian was giving Oliver his undivided attention and Oliver was loving it. Ollie was smiling, purring, making biscuits with his huge paws and he’d grab at Brian’s hand when he’d stop. Anyway, Brian said that he thinks Oliver really likes living here, that Ollie is really glad he came here. I think Brian is right. I got a couple of cat toys at Wal-Mart last weekend, one is a cloth mouse that squeaks when it’s moved or smacked. Oliver really likes that mousie. He’ll pick it up and throw it, chase after it, then lay on his side stretching out to bat at it. It’s so sweet. To watch this old guy be so playful. I remember when he came to live here how he had such a bad limp and such a bad attitude. Yeah, I think Brian is right. Oliver likes being here.
Remember I mentioned having Brian move the Igloo doghouse? Well, this morning, for the first time since he moved it, I see a kitty inside. Little Bit. I didn’t want to look too hard for other cats in case I spook them. But I wouldn’t doubt that OC and KittyMeeze are also in there with her. Now that they know it’s a safe and quiet place, maybe they’ll spend the majority of their time here at our house. I surely hope so. I wonder what took them so long? You know, right after it was moved, they weren’t even staying here during the day. I’m curious if it really upset them so much. I wouldn’t have thought so, since it had their scent on it.
I did a walk through the house and I can’t believe the cats who are in the house. Daniece? She’s hardly ever in the house when she can be outside. It’s this sucky weather. And it does suck. Have I mentioned that?
Mickey’s allergies are acting up again. He’s biting his back and scratching at his ears like crazy. I put some stuff on him this morning for hotspots. Mickey is the cat who is highly allergic to flea bites and I guess we had a few. I put Advantage on him last week, but he’d already started the scratching and biting. He seems to be a little more relaxed right now. I absolutely have to remember to get that stuff on him every month. I haven’t seen any fleas on any of the other animals, I didn’t see them on Mickey. In the past, I’d see evidence of fleas on light colored fabric or counters and I’ve seen none of it this month. *sigh* Poor Mickey. And I’ve searched the lighter cats without seeing any fleas. I wonder if it might be something else going on with him.
Lucky has started fighting her fluids. I suppose that’s a good sign. But it sure makes it hard on me. She’s so small and fragile, that I’m really careful with her and it makes me nuts when she pulls away from the needle and I have to put it back in. I can usually get about 90cc of fluids in her before she starts squirming. That leaves 30cc to go. She’s looking much better, more bright eyed and she’s starting to groom herself again. I got a little brush last weekend and I’ve been brushing her every day. I think she likes it and she’s starting to feel better about herself.
And our other tortie, Gracie, is really bad about grooming. I noticed yesterday that she had an awful lot of undercoat on her. I got out the comb and got handfuls of fluff off of her. I’m sure it feels much better on her. She doesn’t look like she doesn’t groom, but I can’t understand why this undercoat. This happens every year. Luckily, she doesn’t mind being combed.
Well, that’s about all for now. Have a great weekend!
UPDATE: early evening Some of you may have noticed a problem leaving comments. I’ve also noticed this, that it’s particularly bad mid-day Fridays. I’m unable to do quite a bit of stuff here at lisaviolet.com. So, I’ve done some research and I’m going to be moving lisaviolet.com over the next week or so. There may be some disruption in the site, but don’t worry, everything should be okay by the end of the month. The current host, Communitech.net, was a pretty good one, but then they got taken over by Interland.com and as so often happens, the quality has gone down. Looking at their support forums, there have been no responses from Interland in months. Really good for customer service, right? Anyway, I’ll be moving lisaviolet.com to a new host, bluevirtual.com. I understand it’s run by former Communitech employees. For less money than I’m paying now, I’ll get more than double the amount of webspace (up 400M from the 350M I have now) which means lots more pictures (I’m at 68% on Communitech). I’ll have a limit on bandwidth, a 75 Gigabyte limit. At Communitech, I have unlimited, but since I use less than 8 gigabyte a month, I don’t see where a limit will be a big problem. I’ll have unlimited subdomains, which is nice (think http://declaw.lisaviolet.com http:,//disneyland.lisaviolet.com). The only thing not available right now are the custom error pages, but they’re working on it. So, hang tight.
And, Vickie? I got the odor remover at planeturine.com. Your comment got lost today, thanks to a slow server.
 |
