Thursday, June 04, 2009

Much better!

Casey has improved considerably since my last update, and is back to sitting on the edge of the tub when I shower, curling up in my lap and acting almost like his old self. He’s not eating entirely on his own yet, but he IS eating on his own at least some of the time, so that’s a huge relief. He has pancreatitis, and the pain of this last episode was what kept him from eating. He just finished a course of antibiotics, and has another week of prednisone to go. Whew. I woke up this morning with him draped over my shoulder and his head tucked under my chin, purring up a storm. Awww.

So, that’s a huge relief. In other news, work is as crazy as usual, but not so much that I can’t enjoy the glorious weather we’ve been having. Alex and I are contemplating a roadtrip to the Northeastern US for our birthday in July, and I’m going to start crunching numbers and routes to see how we could pull that off.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Holding pattern.

Casey still isn’t eating on his own, but on the plus side, he’s not getting any worse. He hasn’t lost any weight nor become more dehydrated (though he is still a little dehydrated) and he showed some signs of life today too. I took a rather long nap around dinnertime and accidentally woke up around 9pm (so much for a decent night’s sleep), which is about 2 hours later than Casey’s scheduled mealtime. When I went into the kitchen to feed the cats, I gave the kitten a few Greenies (dental treats) and Casey actually begged for one too. I gave him a few, which he sniffed but didn’t actually eat, but when I spooned some canned food into a dish for the kitten, Casey ate a few bites of it. Hurray! It’s been a few days since he showed that much interest in eating on his own.

I still mixed up a fresh batch of “kitty pudding”, since Casey still needed to eat more food than what he’d eaten, but hey--progress. The “kitty pudding” is just a can of the canned food I just gave him, plus some water and a big squirt of Nutri-Cal (a high-calorie gel meant for cats who are nursing or aren’t eating), blended in the blender for a couple minutes. Casey seems to like it (he’d probably like it better if it weren’t being squirted into his mouth under duress four times a day) and the kitten LOVES it. In fact, the kitten loves it so much that after each feeding, he grooms Casey’s face thoroughly, which is very cute, not to mention extremely handy. One issue around assist-feeding a cat is that the food almost always spills a little, and even when you clean it off, a little still cakes into the fur around the cat’s chin and neck and can cause dermatitis. So having Moocher acting as the cleanup crew really helps out. (Not sure how Casey feels about it, though.) Casey has an appointment tomorrow at 3pm so we can see what else could be done. But right now, Casey’s been wandering around, sitting next to me and purring, showing increased interest in everything--I’m heartened by all this. I hope this means he’s getting closer to being on the mend.

Meanwhile, I think the three of us are settling in a bit better. The mooch isn’t *quite* so rambunctious, and we’re all getting used to each other and are able to deal with him better. I keep calling the kitten “the mooch” and “Moocher” because he mooches EVERYTHING. If I’m eating, or if Casey’s eating, or if one of us is paying attention to the other, the kitten invariably horns in and takes over in an annoyingly adorable fashion. He loves Casey to pieces, clearly, always seeking him out to snuggle against him or play with him. I wanted a buddy for Casey, and I certainly got what I paid for. He really is a very nice cat, but I wish that he weren’t quite so face-oriented. When he wants affection from me, he MUST rub his face all over my face, and for a 7-lb cat he has kind of a hard head. I’m getting a little tired of having my face conked and rubbed with wet kitty nose, or having him roll repeatedly all over my face and neck like a weasel, especially when I’m trying to sleep. Luckily for me, the kitten doesn’t seem to complain too hard if I decide to shut the bedroom door so Casey and I can have some alone time. Casey historically hasn’t been big on closed doors, always wanting them open regardless which side he’s on, but I think he’s grown a new appreciation for the concept. I do need to do something about the kitten’s claws, though--he’s already wrecked my balcony screen with several holes and while I’m not really looking to get him declawed (Casey is declawed), I think I’ll be checking out the Soft Paws claw covers.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Cat drama and other drama.

Jesus. It’s been an awful week and the weekend hasn’t been much better.

Casey’s decided to stop eating and drinking completely. Now, he’s been a barfer all his life. Every 2-3 weeks, like clockwork, he’d have a day where he’d throw up a few times and be off his food, then go back to normal. I’ve changed foods periodically (about 4-5 times over his lifetime) to see if there would be a food that wouldn’t make him throw up and/or that he would particularly enjoy, but no magic. However, back in April I decided to mix some Purina One in his regular brand, and it turns out he was allergic and had to go to the vet for that. I changed his food again to a different, grain-free brand and in the meantime, got the kitten. I’d noticed Casey was slowing down in general but wasn’t sure what to attribute it to, and I thought the kitten might perk him up. And for a few days, that seemed to be the case. He ate his treats, his canned food, he drank out of the toilet while I wasn’t looking, he even played.

That all stopped on Monday. He had a particularly barfalicious barfing episode (several times instead of only a few) and I was worried enough to take him to the vet on Tuesday when I noticed he was trembling. (He’d never done that before.) They took blood tests, gave him subcutaneous fluids for his dehydration, and advised me to keep an eye on him, but I noticed immediately that he wasn’t eating or drinking at all. Since then, he’s only done so a few times on his own, and the rest of the time I’ve been force-feeding (or assist-feeding, as they call it) him with a syringe. His blood tests came back normal, so there isn’t an obvious underlying cause at this point. Casey actually puts up with the syringe-feeding with as much tolerance as he does anything else, but all his happy, purring, lap-hogging, sunshine-enjoying behavior is GONE.

Needless to say, I’m beside myself about this development. I read up on assist-feeding and they all pointed out how it seems mean but is actually not a big deal, that a lot of cats go through periods where they’re off their food and they usually return to eating once their situation’s settled down. I’m thinking, okay, but what the hell kind of life is this where Casey just mopes around and I have to clock-watch every 4 hours to feed him? Should I get rid of the kitten? I can’t have anyone take the kitten for a day or two (I asked a few people and they refused), but honestly, I don’t know if that will resolve the problem. Will Casey go back to eating if he goes back to being the only cat, or are the two not related?

So, basically I’ve been feeling like shit all weekend and like I’m about to go out of my mind. Unfortuntately I picked a bad weekend to be emotionally needy, since everyone’s busy doing their own thing, but at least today is better than yesterday. Casey’s not getting his usual amount of food (I would be syringing him every half hour in order to accomplish that) but then, he is a fat cat and maybe that’s not the end of the world. I am feeding him as much as I think he can tolerate, and I know it’ll be a slow process where I can gradually ramp up the quantity I give at one time.

But, Jesus. Here I am. Cat that needs to be hand-fed 3-4x a day, a kitten who is incredibly high-maintenance and constantly underfoot. My mom thinks I should send the kitten back and I don’t disagree with her, but I guess I just wish the situation would magically fix itself and we could all live normal lives again. I miss my buddy and to see him like this is breaking my heart. 

Thursday, May 14, 2009

It’s been crazay!

Holy shit. Tons of work, tons of late nights, and guess what I did?

I got another cat.

I haven’t named him yet because I can’t think of a good one. In the interim, I’ve been calling him “newbie” and “naughty”. He’s 11 months old (or so the adoption papers said) and even more obnoxiously cute and affectionate than Casey. And oh, poor Casey, is he feeling a little surly. He’s a good sport, though. Apart from a little hissing, there hasn’t been any combat between the two, and they already snuggle together for naps--Newbie’s idea, not Casey’s, though Casey tolerates it. Tonight they even took turns chasing each other up and down the hallway. Ha!

More on this later. It’s late and I’ve spent enough time looking at a screen.

Monday, April 06, 2009

Holy shit! It’s been a month already.

I should post and get the rather gloomy eulogy of Winston down into the archives. R.I.P., Winnie.

So what’s happened in the last month?

1. Alex and Jason got a new cat, Oliver, who is adorable.

2. I went to Florida and had a relaxing time. I read a lot of books, ate a lot of salads in Panera while taking advantage of their free wifi, shopped a little, and surprisingly didn’t spend much time at the beach. I didn’t take many pictures either, because if you look in my Florida folders in my gallery, it’s pretty much exactly the same thing. Still, the weather was gorgeous and I was gone just long enough to skip a last-ditch effort toward below-zero temperatures and heavy snowfalls. Ha!

3. I had a few productive weeks at work. I went biking a few times when weather permitted (and once when it didn’t particularly permit), read a bunch of books and wasted a lot of time online.

4. I paid my taxes last Friday, which was surprisingly less than I thought it would be due to selling some stock for a loss. That sounds like a lousy deal, but consider that the stock instantly lost more than half its value within two weeks of my selling it. So it actually worked out in my favor.

5. I then rewarded myself with a new TV! It’s a Samsung 40” LCD with all the bells and whistles, and was delivered on Sunday, replacing my vintage 1997 Sony 27” CRT. OMG it is a thing of beauty, and it looks like it was made for my living room.

And that brings us to the current day. 

Sunday, March 01, 2009

It’s the final countdown.

I’d just like to take a minute to say some things about Winston, my sister’s cat. He’s a large snowshoe sealpoint, basically a Siamese cat with white feet. While not the attention whore Casey is (but who is?), he nonetheless had quite the personality. When Alex and Jason first adopted him 4 years ago, he would walk around meowing CONSTANTLY, as Siamese tend to do. He enjoyed being where the action was, playing with his toy mice, following people up and down stairs, and hanging out quietly nearby while Alex worked on beads, or while Jason sat in his office.

In early January, Alex noticed he was eating and drinking more than normal, and a visit to the vet confirmed that Winston was diabetic. That’s not unusual in older cats, Jasper was diabetic as well, but unlike Jasper, Winston began a fast decline that several follow-up examinations and a rigorous insulin and feeding schedule couldn’t rectify. Winston quickly lost an alarming amount of weight and became virtually incapacitated, unable to see clearly or walk without great difficulty. Tonight, Alex and Jason made the very difficult decision to let Winston go, and will be putting him down tomorrow. So I’d like to reserve a moment to think about Winston, a great cat and friend who will be deeply missed.

In cheerier news, I’m starting another final countdown: FLORIDA! I’m leaving Saturday and will be in the little condo for 9 days, returning Sunday. I absolutely can’t wait! I’ll be bringing my laptop with me (though the condo itself doesn’t have broadband, there are plenty of places in town which will), and I haven’t decided whether to take my camera with me--I was thinking I’d just use my phone, since it takes decent pictures. Hot weather, here I come!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Still employed!

The main reason I’ve been so tired, crabby and stressed lately is because we had significant layoffs coming down the pike. I didn’t want to say anything until I knew for certain what my status would be, but I’m happy to say my job is safe. Hallelujah!

We now return me to my regularly scheduled life.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

The world is pissing me off.

Jesus, I don’t know what my deal is. All week, I’ve been just angry as hell. I have little patience with my friends, I have ZERO patience for dealing with people I *don’t* like (which is manifesting in some rather unfortunate ways despite my attempts to keep a lid on it), and everything in the world is aggravating. It’s not PMS. Maybe I just need a day off--lord knows it’s been a while since the last one. My upcoming vacation is only 3 weeks away, and I’m thinking it can’t show up soon enough. Mmm...warm weather, nice beach, people whom I want to shut the fuck up located hundreds of miles away. I can hardly wait.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

One down.

Someone sent me a friend request on Myspace, from an account using old images to impersonate me.

I stupidly didn’t follow the link so that I could report it, so I did the next best thing. I cancelled my Myspace account. I’m going to think long and hard about keeping this blog, too, since clearly they got there from here, and quite clearly they’re not doing it because they appreciate me or because they want to be my buddy.

I realize that once you put something of yourself in the public domain, it’s there forever, and no matter how harmless or fun it may seem at the time, some turd of humanity may very well choose to dredge up the past and use it to fuck your life up years down the road, just for the laughs. I hope those of you who read this will learn from my mistake.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

What a week!

I’m sure I wasn’t alone when I saw the headline, “Plane ditches into Hudson River” and immediately felt my heart sink in anticipation of learning of the undoubtedly high death toll. And I’m also sure I wasn’t alone in being amazed and gratified to see that everyone survived, most with only minor injuries. The more I read about it, the more amazed I get. CNN has some pretty incredible video of the actual splashdown on their site, along with the immediate arrival of one of the ferries. Note to self: fly US Air.

And then the next day, Circuit City announces that they’re closing their doors. Stick a fork in them, they’re done. I can’t say I didn’t greet that news with a little self-preservation-inspired relief, but it does mean another 30,000 people dumped onto the unemployment rolls, and that’s not good news for anyone.

For me, personally, the week was quiet. I had a good week at work, and gave myself a TCA peel on Thursday night. What’s that, you may ask? It’s an anti-aging treatment, which uses acid to remove the top layer or layers of the epidermis. There are three common types of acid used for this: glycolic acid, the most gentle; TCA (trichloro acetic acid) is the medium level, and phenol is the harshest and is only performed by plastic surgeons under sedation.

What does it do? Well, it gets rid of fine lines, age spots, sun damage, clogged and enlarged pores, and helps treat scars, as well as promoting collagen growth (the supportive layer under the dermis). Essentially it “refinishes” your skin and turns the clock back a couple years. You can do one treatment, or do a series of them, each a couple weeks apart, for a stronger, more cumulative effect. I’m doing a series of 3 peels, 2 weeks apart.

Does it hurt? In a word, yeah. The stinging can bring some tears to your eyes, but it only lasts a few minutes. After that, you protect your skin for the next 48 hours with a layer of Neosporin, then the affected layers of your skin gradually flake off, just like a sunburn (which is why they call it a “peel"). Then you have fresh new skin underneath. The best thing about it is that a peel like this can cost upwards of $1500 per peel for treating the entire face and neck, and it’s costing me $5. Rock on.

Anyway, so right now I’m finishing Day 2 and just took off the Neosporin. I’ll look like a flaky mess for a week and then it’ll be better. I also finally made an appointment for a haircut on the 30th, which will make it 9 months since my last one. My hair is nearly waist-length right now, and while that might conjure up visions of exotic temptresses standing under waterfalls, in reality it just kind of looks overgrown. 4 inches off and it’ll look a lot better.

I also need to make an appointment for an eye exam, so I can get a new set of glasses (FINALLY) and contacts. It’s been long overdue and it’ll be nice to get a pair of specs for the first time in damn near a decade. My contacts will be covered by insurance (my glasses would be, too, but my insurance only covers one or the other in a given 12-month period), so I’ll make sure to load up while the opportunity is there. I can always refill the contact prescription online as long as it’s good.

I had a funny thing happen on Friday. I use Gmail and have iGoogle set up as my homepage, which has some widgets on it like my horoscope, the weather, some local gas prices and whatnot. A couple days ago, I noticed that my weather widget had changed to a different location. I thought that was odd, but changed it back. Then I noticed yesterday that my horoscope had changed to Pisces, and both my weather AND gas widgets had changed to Dayton, where my friend Tim lives. I was mystified and IMed him wondering if he was messing with my Gmail. As it turns out, he was! I had sold him my old laptop when I bought my new one, and though I made sure to clear out all the data on the hard drive, I’d forgotten about saved passwords. Sure enough, it was logging in as me on Gmail, and since Tim uses Hotmail, he never really bothered to use the iGoogle page. It was only yesterday that he finally decided to take advantage of it and change the settings to his--and of course, since it was signed in as me, that meant I saw the changes too!

We had a laugh about it, Tim signed out, I signed in and changed my password. He’s disappointed because he didn’t realize he could have read my email, and totally missed his chance. Ha, ha!

And that’s all the excitement for the week. Tomorrow, I’ll hit the gym, do a little housework, maybe watch a movie and do some laundry while my face begins the molting process. Then, another week begins.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

I haven’t forgotten about you.

I had a great week at work last week. Friday, I went bowling with Alex and Jason and did pretty well, and last night I got completely wasted for no reason. This morning I woke up with almost no ill effects (luckily for me) and will be hitting the gym in about an hour. I think I won’t push my luck by doing a ton, but at least it’ll work the kinks out. 

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Happy New Year!

We did it.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Almost the New Year!

As one might expect in the retail world, this is the busiest time of the year. So, while everyone else is gleefully counting how many days off they get for the holidays, we’re furiously plotting ways to separate fools from their hard-earned dollars. In other words, I’ve been working a lot.

But it hasn’t been all work and no play. Christmas was very enjoyable--we opened presents (yes, we did the charity thing, but got small presents for each other), ate a lot of delicious food, and sat through the horrendous torture that is “Mamma Mia!”, which my sister gave my mother on DVD. My God, that movie is bad. Mom loved it, though (actually, her loving a movie is a reliable barometer on how bad a given movie is) and I found some ABBA online to download and burn for her.

This week is a little more low-key. The last of the big sales are being QAed this week, and next week’s work feels extremely light in comparison (when in fact it’s a “normal” week). I finished most of mine today, so I expect tomorrow to be an easy morning and a freebie afternoon. Woohoo!

In other news, I renewed my lease for one more year. This will make my fifth year living at this apartment, which is longer than I’ve lived anywhere else except for my parents’ house. Wow. My rent only went up $15 per month (a little more than I expected, but certainly less than it could have been), but I scored another coup while I was in the office. I asked if they had any garages available, and they actually DID! The complex has quite a low turnover, with only about 4-5 people moving out of my building since I first moved in in 2004. Correspondingly, actually getting a garage or a storage unit is an exercise in patience. I’d been on a waiting list for a year when I first moved in, then decided it wasn’t worth wasting money over for my poor, beat-up Neon. I reconsidered when I bought the Versa, but had no real hope of actually getting one because of the perennial waiting list. I figured I’d ask anyway, and when the office manager said she had one left, I pounced. It’s $35/mo extra, and I was able to get the key right away (which means I’ll be adding $35 to this month’s and next month’s rent, but so what?).

The garages are tiny, and modifications (like openers) and storing items in them are not allowed. (No big deal.) I did ask if I could put my bike in there, though, and the office manager said sure. Sweet! No more lugging my 35-pound beast of a bike up and down the stairs anymore! I also won’t have to move my car off the lot when they plow or sweep. Awesome. And only a few hours after stowing my car in my freshly acquired garage, we got about 5 inches of snow dumped on us. It was great being able to just back the car out and not have to brush and scrape.

So, I’m just about ready to wrap up 2008. I’m actually kind of sorry to see it end--it was definitely a good year. I hope 2009 has as much going for it.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Survivalism

Sunday, Sunday Sunday!

It’s been a pretty decent weekend. On Thursday, I turned down an invitation to go see the premier of Seven Pounds, because a blizzard was allegedly barrelling straight toward us and promising to make a living hell out of Friday’s commute. I was in Bloomington for the afternoon for a team outing at Southtown Lanes, and the movie was in the same area, but not until several hours later, which I thought would’ve put us smack in the middle of it. So I declined. Of course, then Friday arrived and it was a perfectly clear day all day. Bah! I used the opportunity to stock up on groceries.

Saturday, the blizzard definitely showed up. We got several inches of snow, the temperature plummeted below zero, and the wind picked up so that the windchill was about -35. Brrr. I did have to go out and pick up some fabric softener, and the driving wasn’t too bad, but man--not a good day to be out. So I spent the day doing laundry, playing Fashion Wars on Facebook, and fulfilling my weekly quota on ChaCha. Not the most exciting day I’ve ever spent, but at least it was warm and productive. Today will probably be more of the same.

It’s almost Christmas, and I have yet to complete my shopping, but I know what I’m going to shop for: a gift card from a local restaurant my parents like, and another gift card to Barnes & Noble for my little sister. Despite the fact that the entire family agreed to donate to charity instead of buying presents for each other, my mother apparently decided to buy presents anyway, so that means I have to buy something for them. Sigh. But, hell with it--they’re getting what they’re getting and that’s that. Everybody knew the rules. Alex and I already spent last weekend choosing a few “angel” recipients from a display in the mall, shopping for those items and dropping them off at the receiving location. I have to say, that was a lot of fun, and I hope we do it again next year. Hell, I hope I get to be the buyer next year and not the recipient!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Discipline

Well, it’s been a rough week. The entire week required a ton of rework and overdue new work for Sunday’s release, and I have not been as grateful for a very long time, for a Friday to arrive, as I was today. Man. Nonetheless, I accomplished a lot and I feel good about that.

This weekend, I need to catch up on desperately-needed housework, and think about where I want to spend my energy over the next few months. ChaCha’s a good part-time gig, but its profitability for guides has tumbled spectacularly in the last month and a half. It now takes an entire week of 8-hour days to make as much money as I used to be able to make in a typical Saturday afternoon, and since nobody over there seems at all concerned about this, then I guess that’s the way it’s going to be. I have to be honest with myself and acknowledge that I never expected it to last, and while I’m not quitting, I’ll be thinking about other income streams I could take advantage of.

Of course, part of me wants to put on my flannel pajama pants and wifebeater and stay in bed the entire weekend. I already put in a full day at my full-time job, plus a few hours at ChaCha, and I’m to the point where I literally spend about 16 hours a day at the keyboard. My shoulders are killing me from holding them in position literally all day long, and I try to go to the gym not to achieve arbitary fitness goals (although that would certainly be nice), but to just *stretch* and *move*. And here I am, thinking of yet MORE ways to spend MORE time doing MORE work.

But then, I think about where I want my life to go. I want to pay my car off early. I think back to a couple years ago, when I looked for ways to trim my budget and free up some more money. I did simple things: changed my W-4 from 0 deductions to 1, took long distance and call-waiting off my phone, reduced my web hosting package, lowered my car insurance coverage, switched from cable Internet to DSL, little things like that. Each one of them was an expense where I thought, “Oh, that’s only $5 a month [or $10, or $20], I can easily afford that.” And I could, but when I was finished, I ended up saving myself $260 a MONTH. Now that’s a chunk of change.

Now, I’d like to apply that same sort of principle to actually bringing *in* money. I don’t want to waste my energy on too many picayune efforts, because my free time is still very valuable to me, and goals or not, I need to remember to have a good work/life balance (something I don’t really feel I have right now, though much of it is attributed to the season). But hey, $5 here, $10 there, $20 another place--it adds up.

Tonight was fun. Alex, Jason and I went bowling, and I took a bunch of pictures and then deleted them because they weren’t exactly flattering. (Alex got a great one of me tying my shoe, where my ass takes up practically the whole frame.) It was nice to get out, and everybody bowled decently. We hadn’t been bowling in about six months, and I missed it. One of the quirky things about the alley is that there’s a waitress there who constantly says inappropriate and depressing things--she’s really nice, friendly and conversational, but the shit that comes out of her mouth is a total buzz-kill, and it’s hard to get rid of her sometimes. The last few times we bowled, she told us all about a friend of hers that had died in a car crash, and how depressing it was and so on. Okay, we really just want to order a burger and a couple beers. Thanks. We chalked it up to being depressed and needing to talk, hey, she had a tragedy in her life, no big deal.

But tonight, she brought our order and struck up a conversation about my NIN t-shirt and we chatted about bands. She then asked if Alex and I were sisters (she’d thought I magically changed my shirt in the course of 30 seconds, until she noticed there were two of us). I answered in the affirmative and elaborated that we were twins. That prompted her to launch into a story about how her mother had been a twin, but her grandmother fell down a flight of stairs while pregnant and the twin died before birth. Uh, thanks for sharing! At least bowling always provides a chance to escape when your turn comes up. Awkward!

Apart from Gloomy Gussie bringing her special joy to the proceedings, we still had a good time and left victorious after 4 games.

It was nice to get out and about. Alex and I went out to lunch both yesterday and today, which was a great change of pace from my usual slouch on the couch, though a little hard on the budget. It really brought home the fact that I need to branch out a little more in terms of my daily activity. So, tomorrow: cleaning and the gym! Then, back to the computer for more adventures.