nekosensei

Today, I took Cosette in for her three month appointment to have her kidneys checked. During the exam, the vet heard a heart murmur. She said that it sounded as if she were skipping beats. At first, they thought that her blood pressure was high and that that was putting strain on her heart. They tested her and her blood pressure turned out to be normal. It might have been that she was overly freaked out today, but they want to investigate this more because this is something new; they've never heard a heart murmur out of her before. That and heart problems can make her kidney issues worse. I'm going to have to take her back to the vet in the next couple of weeks-- as soon as Monday if the cardiologist is available-- and have an ultrasound done on her heart. Oh...and she also needs to give a urine sample anyway. They tried getting one out of her today, but her bladder was empty.

Great...just great. I really needed something else to go wrong this week....

* Bacon Bacon Bacon Bacon and Cheddar (Blame bottledgoose)

* Stashed the kitty cats in my bedroom because two couples with kids in tow are coming over for dinner. I figured they'd be happier up there because they tend to freak out around children.

* doomsey told me that I should bring down Cosette so that B. and D.'s two year old daughter could meet her. Yeah...that went over well. The girl poked the cat a bit too much, and Cosette freaked out and took a swipe at her. Thank God Cosette's declawed and thank God she didn't bite her (she has a tendency to nip when she doesn't like someone)! No harm done to the kiddo. She just got a little scared. Actually B and D. told me this is a good thing as their daughter has a tendency to chase cats. Now she knows that cats have pointy edges.

* almeda was also over and we added in more information to my family tree. We managed to trace someone on my mother's side all the way back to Ireland. Even better, we found out the year they emigrated, so in theory we *might* be able to find ship records. *keeps fingers crossed* Oh...and my friend B. said that the next time we visit Europe, we should go to Luxembourg. If we can find what church my ancestors went to, we can trace them back for generations.

* Posted by bottledgoose: in further WTF driving news today's asshole of the day award goes to the jackass in the gold Mercedes and the diplomat plates. DIES IST NICHT DER AUTOBAHN, DU SCHEISSEKOPF. Jay-zus. -- Bwahahahaha! Scheissekopf. Now I have a new word. Although...it should have been obvious.

The server holding my email is down, so I probably won't be able to read any of my emails until tomorrow morning at the earliest. What a pain in the ass! Let's hope that the computer it's on just needs re-started and that it doesn't need any other work. Otherwise, I will be email-less for a couple of days.

This morning I studied for German class. Then, in the afternoon fuzzyscribble and samcallahan showed up so that doomsey could help fuzzyscribble with her computer. It turned out that the poor computer died a horrible death. Fortunately, doomsey was able to pull off all the data that she needed. fuzzyscribble and samcallahan also brought their dog, Re-run, who is a Beagle Coon Hound mix. He's an adorable dog. Anyhow, they put him on a tie-down in the backyard so he wouldn't traumatize my cats too much. Don't worry! He wasn't neglected for too long. samcallahan and I sat outside with him for a while while doomsey and fuzzyscribble worked on the computer.

I also got some time today to do some reading, go for a walk with doomsey, and knit. I am four rows from being finished with the hat I'm making for doomsey! Aside from the computer server blowing up, it was a pleasant day.

* Arwen is a dumb ass. She just sat in Lysol. Imagine her surprise when I picked her up and hosed her off in the sink. Now she hates me. God, that cat is stupid. Reminds me of the time she sat in cream bleach and bleached her butt.

* The house is now clean. I'm sitting in the living room with my socks and shoes off and my feet up. Arwen is alternating between grooming her wet fur and giving me dirty looks. If looks could kill, I'd be dead. God, what a stupid cat.

* Today I found out that another one of my classmates from high school died. This is the second classmate in a month! Classmate #1 died from a heart attack at 33 and Classmate #2 died from liver failure. What the hell? I'm too young to have classmates dying from heart attacks and liver failure.

* This joke thread on the blog, Making Light, is amusing. (Blame almeda)

* This is pretty much what my day looked like yesterday: work, work, and more work, mad dentist appointment dash, clean up the house because my family is coming over for dinner next week, work, go to dinner at my in-laws' house, play with the Karaoke machine and surf the web until I fall over.

* I was due to have X-rays taken during this latest dentist app-- which they did-- and no cavities or any other problems turned up. Yay! Clean bill of health. On the other hand, the oral hygienist did point out that teeth with crowns on them are more prone to problems with the roots and surrounding tissues; some of the sensitivity I've been having could be the beginning stages of that. If that's the case, then I *might* need a root canal somewhere down the line. Anybody ever have a root canal? How expensive are they? Are they painful? (Yep...I'm a wuss when it comes to pain).

* My cats act strangely every time I pull out the Karaoke machine. They start out by hovering. Then, Cosette trills, pokes at me, and in general, tries to get my attention. Arwen bites my leg before harassing Cosette, who has been busy harassing me. They never used to do this before my pulmonary embolism when I had to give up singing for awhile. So why are they doing this now? Do they think I'm sick or in pain?

* Today, I have to work, set up a character for a LARP (Live Action Role Playing Game), and study for German class.

* Wow...somebody really wants that poor Swedish cartoonist dead. Isn't that the second woman that's been arrested?

I guess it's not really appropriate to tell Kill Bill jokes here, is it?

* Yay! doomsey is home from downstate!

* Just finished an outline for my character for the LARP. Reading through the documentation and coming up with a rough sketch took me much longer than what I expected. And I'm still going to have to go to the character building session to get some help with choosing useful skills, advantages, and disadvantages. So far, my character is a snooty half-elf with a penchant for fire sorcery. And some of the backstory I came up with should be amusing. This is going to be so much fun...I can't wait until we start playing.

* Never did get to studying some more for German. Oh well...there's always tomorrow.

* Cute car. Now, my question is, what happened to the Volt? Is GM still going to be able to make it?

* I haven't even gotten out of my chair yet, and already Cosette is trying to steal my seat...the little shit.

* Did I mention that I really enjoy having artists on my friends list? Sometimes, they post links to more artists. A few days ago, kiwikat posted a link to Ashely Witter's art. Go look. I think her work is kind of neat.

* Great. I'm an idiot. There were two people I was supposed to buy birthday presents for, not one. Well, I will see the other person in a week or two, so it's no big deal. I can give them their present then. I still feel like a moron though.

* Posting these two links more for myself so that I can go back to them and read them. I really need to get back into writing that book I started in November. Or at least spend more time writing in general. But no, I keep saying I should do it and then put it off...

* There were eleven of us playing Apples to Apples today. judgys got the red cards bongos and bon-bons for the word, profound. I thought that was amusing for whatever reason.

* So...we're supposed to get about eight inches of snow Sunday night into Monday. What happened to the spring like weather??

* Bwahahahahaha! (Swiped from pisica)

* Awww....poor kitty!

* Finally! I just managed to accomplish one of the Special Missions on Ghost Trappers, which is a Facebook game for those of you who are curious. It's taken me for-freaking-ever to finish one of those!

* Tigers becoming extinct in the wild. So sad. (Link swiped from rm)

* I want one! *snerk*

* Dropped off my "emergency crutches" at my in-laws' house. My father-in-law slipped on black ice at work and twisted his knee. Now, I hope I won't need them in mean time. (And yes, I have emergency crutches because I am a klutz).

* Picked up two books I've been meaning to read from the library today: Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger and The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly.

* Remember how I used to say that Cosette was a seat thief? In other words, whenever I got up to get something, I'd come back to see that she was sitting in the place I'd currently vacated? Well, now when I walk back into the room and say, "You stole my seat," she gets up and gives it back to me. Such a strange cat....

* Groceries and some much needed odds and ends purchased. Also bought the fixings for bread pudding and fudge for a Superbowl party at a friend's house.

* I love it when people on my friends list are creative. That shouldn't be much of a surprise that I have a lot of artists friended on here. Oh...and let's not forget the two photography communities. Which reminds me that I should start taking the camera out again...

* Oh hey! The email is back up. Slowly getting my email from the past two days or so.

* Still haven't caught up on sleep apparently. Took my three mile walk, came home, put away laundry, and then passed out. Didn't even hear doomsey come home from work.

* Swiped from hakeber. Many Haitians want US to take over. So sad. Unfortunately, there's no way that's going to happen. With the economy the way it is, the US government has enough problems providing for its own people. There's just no way they can take on a devastated territory and rebuild it.

* Awwww...how cute. Unfortunately, cuteoverload and the Daily Mail got their story wrong. The impala wasn't spared; it was eventually killed and eaten. Hmm...me thinks not so cute after all.

* Icons! Since we're on the topic of computer woes, I'm looking for a new computer trouble icon. Is there anyway someone out there can make this into an animated icon? I saw something similar floating around LJ many moons ago. I'm also in the market for a sleep themed icon. Bonus points if it's from one of my favorite tv shows: Buffy, Angel, Doctor Who, Dollhouse, Torchwood, Firefly, Star Trek, Heroes, Supernatural, or True Blood.

* doomsey and I went to see Avatar this afternoon. I thought it was amazing. It's a very beautiful film.

* Our server crashed last night, so most of the pictures on my picture-a-day posts have disappeared. doomsey is going to try to get it back up and running tomorrow. In the mean time, I've decided to start putting some of my pictures on Flickr. The most recent week's pictures are there.

* Cosette's appetite has been down this week. It started out with her being barfy, but she's not throwing up anymore. Now she's just picking at her food. She eats, but she's not hoggie dogging it down like she used to. She won't eat her dry food at all anymore unless I put moist food on top of it. I don't know if she's being a finicky eater because her IBD is acting up or if it's her wonky kidneys are making her feel sick. I'm hoping that she'll be better again next week so I don't have to drag her furry ass back to the vet again.

Yeah...aside from posting my picture-a-days and books read, I've haven't been saying very much. Lately, not much has been going on that can't be written in 140 characters or less on Twitter. I'm still reading LJ though, just don't have much to say. Having said that, here's an update.

* We have snow! Thankfully, we don't have nearly as much snow as Wisconsin. Our area stayed warm, so we got a good chunk of our precipitation as rain. Thank God. I was able to go out and get nice pictures for picture-of-the-day. Today I went to Graue Mill in Oak Brook, and took pictures in the snow. I got some good ones.

* I am sooo tired from shoveling snow today. I would have used the snow blower, but there was a lot of slush on the ground, and the snow blower wouldn't have done much good.

* I've been having a lot of weird dreams these past few weeks. Last night, I had two dreams. One was a nightmare about being married to this incredibly abusive guy. I mixed some sleeping pills into his drinks and left while he was asleep. When he woke up and discovered that I was gone, he came after me. Apparently, me leaving him besmirched his honor. Okay buddy... (I got the feeling from the dream that he was a very traditional Muslim). My family hid me in this hotel, and the dude managed to figure out where I was. I dreamt he snuck into my hotel room while I was sleeping. In the dream, I startled awake to the sound of his voice. He cornered me and I ended up fighting with him. Many things were thrown. I got away and someone in the hotel lobby called the police. I hid behind the concierge's desk until the cops came and escorted him out of the building. By the time the dream ended, we were talking about me leaving the country for awhile because the guy just wasn't giving up. We were talking about either Spain or Peru. I woke up and then complained to doomsey that I had had a bad nightmare. He was annoyed. I was just plain happy that I had a nice, rational, normal hubby and not scary dream hubby.

The second dream was an afterlife of sorts. If I had to describe the feel of it, it was a mixture of Harry Potter and art house film. Some of the images were surreal, but cool. Living people had a double because they were both body and soul. And omg! Creepy nun-like people wearing gray habits! Where do I pull some of these things out of exactly? I swear...this dream would have been perfect fodder for a novel. Anyhow, at some point, I had made some friends and we were traveling together. None of us knew exactly what was going on, but those that had been dead longer had a better idea how things worked than I did. We all got the impression that the place we were at was temporary, and that we would eventually pass on to another one in a hundred years or so. All of us looked like we were in our late teens-early twenties, which led me to believe that all dead souls took that form. I also didn't remember how I died. At the end of the dream, I was pulled into some kind of "support group" for people who had died young. That's where I found out that the jealous hubby from dream número uno had found me wherever the hell I had run to and killed me. Murder. Lovely.... (There was more to the dream, but...enh...don't feel like going into it right now).

* So...what's with all the dreams about death and dying lately? Well, I'm approaching the two year anniversary of when I damn near dropped dead. Maybe my subconscious mind is still sorting things out. Also, I think part of that second dream might have been motivated by something I had read in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which I had been reading right before I went to bed. That's a very cool book, by the way...

* cosettemonster is being barfy again. She was horking up her food last Thursday-Friday. She got better after I gave her a Vitamin B12 shot-- which is usually prescribed to animals with IBD-- but she's been puky again today. If she's not better by tomorrow, I'm calling the vet. She does have the funky kidney values, and the vet told me to watch for throwing up and loss of appetite. I'm not playing around with this.

* For those of you into photography, you guys should check out the LJ community, lj_photofile. It's a cool group. Lot's of amazing pictures. I think I might post more of my stuff over there...