Month: December 2006

12/11/06

* * * I had my appointment with the ear nose and throat specialist – we’ll call him Dr. NeckDoctor – on Friday. Basically he reviewed my thyroid uptake scan (which he told me was kind of useless, because nodules don’t show up on those), felt up my neck, looked down my throat to check my vocal chords (I had to keep going “EEEEEE!” and I became amused at how I sounded, so instead of going “EEEEE!” again when he commanded it, I went more like “HEEHEE!”, but he didn’t seem to notice), and basically told me he didn’t think it was cancer (Hey, that was my diagnosis, too!), but he wanted to send me for an ultrasound, get a biopsy of the nodule (He kindly paused while I screamed and ran around in circles. Not because I’m afraid of the pain (a bunch of you have laid my fears to rest on that, thank you very much, you awesome readers), but the idea of a needle? Going into my neck? EEK!) and if it comes back normal (which I fully expect it to), they’ll go ahead and remove my ENTIRE NECK. Kidding! No, if it comes back normal, it’ll be a matter of just keeping an eye on it to make sure nothing goes Terribly Wrong. He was very reassuring that in his opinion the chances of it being cancer were very low, but that if you were going to get some kind of cancer, thyroid cancer would be the kind to get since it’s so incredibly curable and there aren’t even any side effects from the chemotherapy. “So, I don’t want you to worry,” he said. “Oh, I’m not worried,” I said. And I’m not. The good thing about me is that while I might talk about being worried about cancer and neck removals here in my journal, that’s not the sort of thing I worry about in my day to day life. It’s pointless to worry about it ’cause either it’s cancer or it’s not and I’ve got better things to fret about. (Such as the fact that I still have a few more things to buy for Christmas!) I have an appointment for an ultrasound tomorrow afternoon, then once the ENT gets the results back from that, they’ll schedule me a biopsy with a guy who’s so good at what he does – according to Dr. NeckDoctor – that he’s worth waiting for. In other words, I don’t guess the biopsy is going to be right away. Thaaat’s just fine with me. I’m okay with waiting!

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Tufted titmouse (hee!). I really need to clean the outside of the dining room window if I’m going to be taking pictures through it.
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This morning at the pet store, I am unhappy to announce, Catie, Flopsy, and Mopsy were all still there. Adoptions have dropped off a lot this past week, I guess. I was sure to give them some extra love, and Catie was perfectly happy to go back into her cage, but Flopsy and Mopsy gave me the betrayed looks and I was this close to just stuffing them in my purse and bringing them home for a few days. I hope they get adopted by next Monday, is all I’ll say. The Christmas kitties (what I’m calling our current fosters) are doing okay. They’re still very skittish, but they’ve calmed down a little. They flinch away from us when we reach out to pet them, but not as much as they are. We’re spending as much time with them as we can, and Jack Frost and Faith have started squeaking at us when we walk into the room. I don’t know if they’re squeaking at us in greeting or if they’re telling us to go away, but they’re squeaking whereas before they were completely silent. The best thing of all is that last night Fred got Faith to purr. And once she was purring, Kringle started purring, too. The other kittens milled around with little question marks hanging over their heads, as if they didn’t know what this sound was or where it was coming from. Fred suggested that the sound of the purring reminded them of their mother and they found it comforting. Who knows? All I know is that this was the first time we got any of them to purr (I got Kringle to purr again this morning), and it’s a step in the right direction. Noelle with troll hair. She’s the most skittish of the bunch, which is too bad, ’cause I want to pick her up and kiss her and squeeze her.   “Lady, why you flashing that thing at me?” “Bob! Hey, BOB! I hear you’re the man to talk to!”     All of today’s uploaded pictures can be seen here.     * * * * * * Previously 2005: No entry. 2004: And if I ever get the urge to go shopping at the mall on a Saturday two weeks before Christmas, I’ll lay down until it goes away. 2003: Thank god I’m not famous. I could handle being followed around by the papparazzi, but live interviews on the TV and radio? Fuck THAT. 2002: My favorite Christmas entry, ever. Chock-full of the Bitchypoo Christmas Spirit. 2001: Of course my world revolves around me and the people I care about. And yours revolves around you. Except when it revolves around me. 2000: I think they should hire me to play his girlfriend – the stripper with a heart of gold – because I just love that man right to pieces 1999: No entry.]]>

12/8/06

tried to take a bath together five years ago, he did NOT fart on my foot, I’m pleased to say. The cool thing about losing 145 pounds is that there’s more room in the tub. Not only was there enough room for the two of us, I think we could have fit several of the cats in there with us, if we’d been so inclined (which we were not). I was able to stay mostly under the water and not get cold, and we were able to move around into various positions (winkwinknudgenudge) without squishing anything, uh, important. And that’s all I’ll say about that.

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Meme, stolen from Nance. 1. What did you do in 2006 that you’d never done before? Deliberately met a Crazy Internet Person (PEOPLE, even!) that I’ve “known” (in the internet sense) for several years. And I lived to tell the story! 2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don’t think I made any for this year, and I don’t plan to make any for next year. 3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Nope! 4. Did anyone close to you die? No. 5. What countries did you visit? I didn’t leave the country. Maybe next year! 6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006? The proceeds from a vegetable garden packing my freezer and cupboards. 7. What date from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? January 30th – the day I went in for RNY (weight loss surgery). I can’t believe it’s been 10 1/2 months! 8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Meeting Nance and Rick and not acting like such an idiot that they screaming into the street. 9. What was your biggest failure? Not even thinking about getting started on that novel that’s always bouncing around in my head. 10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Yeah, I had the whole liver thing going on. 11. What was the best thing you bought?The Smallville house! 12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Fred’s. He didn’t over-the-top freak out while the whole thing with my liver was going on, he just freaked out quietly to himself. 13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? I don’t know that anyone else’s behavior could ever make me depressed, but that whole thing with Isaiah Washington making an ass out of himself was pretty appalling. In my personal life, I could go on and on about various people who’ve appalled me, but I’m going to just shut up. Actually, I think the number one most appalling thing of the year was my incredible failure to keep on top of my email. I LOVE getting email, I love reading it, but when it comes to responding, I SUCK. 14. Where did most of your money go? Disposable income? Books. Always books. I bought a lot of clothes to replace the ones I’d shrunk out of, but I didn’t spend a lot of money on the clothes, except for bras. Non-disposable income? The usual – house payment (now TWO house payments, thank you), car payments, phones, electric, gas, etc etc etc. 15.What made you really really really excited? Meeting Nance and Rick!!! 16.What song will forever remind you of 2006? Every Mile a Memory, Dierks Bentley. 17. Compared to this time last year, are you:a) happier or sadder? About the same, really. b) thinner or fatter? Thinner, by 145 pounds! c) richer or poorer? Poorer in cash (see: Two house payments), richer in property owned. 18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Writing, exercising. 19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Worrying, stressing, being pissed off at situations that didn’t involve me and I couldn’t influence. 20. How will you be spending Christmas? Christmas Eve morning, we’ll be spending with Fred’s mom and stepfather (and his sister and her family), Christmas Eve evening we’ll be spending with Fred’s father and stepmother (and his sister and her family, and his stepsister and her family). Christmas morning we’ll get up, open presents, hang out, at some point I’ll have to go to the pet store to feed the cats and scoop the litter boxes, and then around noon (maybe a little earlier, depending), I’ll be driving to Gatlinburg, TN to spend the week with my parents, sister, and nephew in a timeshare condo. 21. How will you be spending New Year’s? New Year’s Eve day, I’m sure we’ll be working on the house, New Year’s Eve evening I’m sure we’ll be watching TV (and going to bed long before midnight), and New Year’s Day? Probably more working on the house. 22. Did you fall in love in 2006? I remained in love in 2006. Well. I might have fallen in love with Maddy, but she did not return my affection and moved on to bigger and better loves, the brat. 23. How many one-night stands? None. 24. What were your favorite TV programs? Grey’s Anatomy, Survivor, 24, The Closer. 25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Yes. Well, maybe not “hate” – “find distasteful” is a more accurate description. 26. What was the best book you read? She Got Up Off the Couch, by Haven Kimmel. 27. What was your greatest musical discovery? There Goes Your Heart, sung by Caprice (also known as Chemda, of Keith and the Girl). It’s absolutely addictive! 28. What did you want and get? An iPod. Which I LURVE. 29. What did you want and not get? Uh… I can’t think of anything I truly wanted and didn’t get. Maybe a camera with a kick-ass zoom. 30. What was your favorite film of this year? The Lake House. Shaddup, I don’t care if it was sappy and not believable. I still liked it! 31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I don’t have a clue what I did on my birthday; I’m sure pretty much the same thing I do every day. 38. 32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? If I’d finished (or at least STARTED) the aforementioned novel. 33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006? Teenage boy: cotton pants (or jeans), t-shirt, sneakers. 34. What kept you sane? Fred, the spud, and all those damn cats. 35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? TR Knight (George, from Grey’s Anatomy). 36. What political issue stirred you the most? I don’t get much stirred by political issues, except the same-sex marriage issue (for the record: I’m pro). 37. Who did you miss? My grandmother, at strange and surprising times. 38. Who was the best new person(s) you met? Nance and Rick! 38. Side question…who would I like to get to know better? Um. I don’t know. TR Knight? He seems like he’d be fun to hang out with. 39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006: Pointless stressing over someone else’s life is just not worth it. 40. Favorite Memory of 2006? Stepping on the scale to see that I weighed less than 200 pounds for the first time in over 20 years.
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Want to meet the new babies? You know you do! Faith.   Jack Frost.   Kringle.   Merry. (Cat. She’s a kittycat. And she dancedancedance and she dancedancedance.)   Noelle.   I went with the suggestion Rhys made last week (when we were trying to come up with names for Seamus, Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail), to go with Christmas/ holiday names. Once I named Faith, I kind of wanted to go with Faith, Hope, and Charity for the girls (the torties are girls; the orange and brown tabbies are boys), but Hope had been used before, so I couldn’t. Kringle was almost named “Parson Brown”, by the way, but we preferred Kringle. Actually, Fred preferred Frankincense (Frankie), but I liked Kringle better. These kittens are real scaredy cats. They’re about 10 weeks old and apparently haven’t been handled much up until now. They’re not feral, by any means. They’ll let me handle them, but when I hold and pet them, they give me the sad eyes and say “Lady, why you torturing me with the love and kisses?”, and run off as soon as I put them down. They also sleep a lot, which is probably because they were all spayed and neutered Wednesday, and were also dewormed, given shots, and had Frontline spray sprayed in their ears (ear mites). I imagine if all that happened to me in a short amount of time, I’d be longing for the release that sweet, sweet sleep would afford me. I love love LOVE little long-haired kittens. And that is all. (All the pictures I’ve taken of them thus far can be seen here.)    
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Newton (full name: Newton “Newtie” McNewterton, the salty country kitty) is pretty, yet aloof. It drives the wimmins CRAYZEE.
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Previously 2005: “Us”? Who’s this “us” kemosabe? 2004: I suppose I need to actually start buying lottery tickets to make these dreams come true. 2003: And also because you Canadians are so cool that I want to canoodle with each and every one of you. 2002: No entry. 2001: No entry. 2000: God bless the internet and online merchants, god bless their little black hearts. 1999: More Christmas talk.]]>

12/7/06

this picture, but if that’s not it, all the pictures I posted of Mia and her babies are in a set on Flickr, here.

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I ended up having a fairly productive day yesterday, all in all. I left the house a little before 9 to have my hair cut and colored. It hasn’t shown up all that well in recent pictures, but the last time I had my hair done, she left the highlighting bleach (?) on too long, and the highlights were way too light and I was hating it. I’ve always thought that maybe one day I’d go blond, but light hair tends to wash me out and doesn’t flatter me all that much. “What are we doing today?” the hairchick asked when I was sitting at her station. “I’d like to go about a shade darker,” I told her. “And no highlights. Highlights are more of a summer thing.” She agreed, and went off to mix the hair coloring goop. An hour and a half later, she turned my chair around so I was facing the mirror. “What do you think?” she asked. I smiled. “Looks good!” I lied. Now, here’s the thing. I like the way she cuts my hair, she does a good cut, but I will never understand why she styles it the way she does. When I got to the car, I called Fred. “I like the way she cuts my hair,” I told him. “But I do NOT understand the way she styles it.” “Sporting the big hair today, are we?” he asked. “I LOOK LIKE SID VICIOUS!” I said. I could hear Fred clicking around on his computer, and then he laughed. “What, she spiked it?” “Not really SPIKED, but… I don’t know how to explain it. It just looks like Sid Vicious did my hair. Or Gary Oldman as Sid Vicious, anyway.” You be the judge:
Gary Oldman as Sid Vicious Robyn And3rson as Robyn Vicious
I’m totally going to change my name to Robyn Vicious. That’s badass. I’m badass. It’s a perfect fit! Not only do I not care for the way she styled it, I’m not crazy about the color, either. The picture doesn’t capture the color very well, but let me tell you – in person, it’s Elvis black and I don’t think it does anything for me. I can’t blame her for the color, though – I was the one who told her that I wanted to go darker, she was just following instructions. It might grow on me, but it hasn’t in the last 24 hours, so I’m not holding out much hope that it will. If it continues to bother me, I’m going to get some hair color from the grocery store and lighten it a tad. I left the hair-doin’ place and headed into Huntsville to run some errands. The traffic was horrid, but I was a little less stressed than the day before, so I crept along and sang happy holiday tunes and ignored the fact that I was moving at, like, ten miles an hour the entire way. I had to go to Sam’s because I hadn’t been there in forever, and we were almost out of bottled water, paper towels, and a few other things. Sam’s, as you might imagine, was busy as hell. I just will never understand how it is that people don’t think anything of leaving their cart in the exact middle of the aisle, blocking it so no one can get by them, and go flitting around looking at various things on the shelf. Have they never heard of the concept of pushing their cart to the side of the aisle? APPARENTLY NOT. So I got everything I needed to get at Sam’s, though I was almost to the checkout when I realized I hadn’t bought trash bags, and had to go back and grab a box. From Sam’s I stopped by the pet store to pick up cat food, and ended up walking around in a daze for a good fifteen minutes, looking at all the toys. I did NOT buy a single toy, though (for once!), and walked out with nothing but the cat food I’d gone in for. From the pet store, I went to the grocery store, where I picked up a prescription and a few groceries, and I was home by a little after noon, with the whole afternoon ahead of me in which to Get Shit Accomplished. I didn’t get a huge amount accomplished, but I did finish wrapping presents, got boxes to my brothers and parents ready to mail, and then watched ER while cleaning the kitchen. I talked to my mother for about an hour, then finished watching ER, cleaned the master bathroom, the downstairs bathroom, and vacuumed the entire house. By then it was 6:30 and Fred was on his way home from Smallville (over the past few weeks we’ve established a routine where I accompany him to Smallville on Tuesdays, and then he goes alone on Wednesdays for a few hours), so I did some laundry and caught up on some journal reading ’til he got home. All in all, not a bad day at all, despite the fact that I look like Sid Vicious.
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While I was talking to my mother, she asked if I watched Boston Legal. I’ve seen a few episodes in the past, but don’t watch it regularly, so she started telling me about the most recent episode. And I shit you not, as she was describing the show, she said: “So William Shatner and that funny-acting lawyer, I can’t think of his name… Anyway, they’re very close.” She paused for a brief moment and then added hastily, “But not in a homosexual way.” Alrighty, Mom.
* * *
I have finally accepted the fact that all the crap I need to carry around with me on a daily basis just is NOT going to fit in a size small bag. I’ve tried to force all my junk into the purse, but the damn thing just isn’t made to carry all this stuff:
(Go here to see the fascinating details of what exactly everything is)
AND a hardcover book, an iPod, and a bottle of water. I’ve been shoving all that stuff in there every time we go to the house (not that I do much reading while we’re there, but the times I haven’t had a book, I’ve really needed one, so it’s better to be safe than sorry, I always say) and just barely getting the purse closed, then having to pull everything out and dig around to find anything. It’s a huge pain in the ass when all you want is a piece of gum or a tampon, to have to do all that digging. So I gave up and switched from the small size bag I was using to the regular size, and let me tell you, it makes a WORLD of difference. Before I left the house for my hair appointment, I had a hardcover book and two half-liter bottles of water in the purse, and if I’d wanted to stuff, say, a cat in there or something, there would have been plenty of room.
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“I likes to lick my chops.”
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Previously 2005: I AM SO HAPPY, YES I AM. 2004: (I never claimed not to be a dumbass) 2003: I would be ever so grateful if you would restrain yourself. 2002: No entry. 2001: I knew y’all were a hip and happenin’ bunch of readers! 2000: Stuff I’ve bought. 1999: And it tasted excellent, of course, which made the eggfart stenchiness more than worth it.]]>

12/6/06

dark facial hair – it’s that I have so much facial hair, period, and laser hair removal apparently doesn’t do shit for blond hair, so these visits to the laser hair removal place are getting rid of the ten or fifteen dark hairs on my upper lip, but doing nothing to the light hairs. (I got a prescription for Vaniqa from my doctor the other day; I’ll let you know how that goes.) I left there, stopped by the grocery store for a few things, and got home a little after noon. Then I spent the afternoon making dinner (to take to the Smallville house with us), cleaning the cat room, scrubbing out the litter box, and cleaning the kitchen. I’m feeling overwhelmed this week, because I have shitloads of things left to do for Christmas – wrapping presents, sending out packages – as well as non-Christmas things to be done – running to Sam’s for just about everything, for one – and I just have NO FUCKING TIME to get it done. I have appointments every day this week (hair cut and colored this morning, doctor’s appointment on Friday) except Thursday, which I expect to spend cleaning the house. I need a vacation, is what I need.

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This position makes her look positively svelte. “Ah, zees lahf. Eet ees – how you say? – so deefeecoolt.” “I will cut you.”
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Previously 2005: When and if – and I mostly mean “when” – these two break up, I hope there’s a lot of interesting drama. 2004: It’s now my goal to make him CRY when he tries the next batch of chick peas. 2003: “What the FUCK? That is my BUTT you’re sniffing. And it TICKLES.” 2002: $4.49 for a freakin’ book? What the hell are they wrapping it with, gold? 2001: Is that a sex thing? 2000: Damn, isn’t Christmas here yet? 1999: Someone shoot me and put me out of my fucking misery, won’t you?]]>

12/5/06

Nance at some point in the past. 50 ODD Things about you! 1. Height? 5’4 1/2″ 2. Have you ever smoked heroin? Nope. I’m extremely inexperienced when it comes to drugs, and I’m fine with that. 3. Do you own a gun? Well, there are guns present in the house, but I don’t own them, per se. They really belong to Fred. Except for the cute little one I keep by my bed, that is. 5. Do you get nervous before “meeting the parents”? HELL yes. I get nervous before meeting almost anyone. 6. What do you think of hot dogs? I think this question is making me crave them. 7. What’s your favorite Christmas song? This year it’s tied between I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas and Sarah McLachlan’s version of River, but my perennial favorite is Little Drummer Boy ’cause it always makes me tear up. 8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Water, usually. If I’m cold and looking for something with some flavor, I’ll drink a mug of low-carb cocoa. 9. Can you do push ups? I can do the girly pushups, but not very many, and not very well. 10. Is your bathroom clean? It is nasty filthy. I’m planning to clean it Thursday, since that’s the only day this week I don’t have a midmorning appointment. 11. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry? Aside from my wedding band and engagement ring, I love love LOVE the ring that used to belong to my grandmother, that my mother gave me over the summer. 12. Do you like painkillers? Not at all. I’d rather be in a little pain than feel all dopey from the pain meds. 14. Do you have A.D.D.? Sometimes I think I might, but I don’t think I do, honestly. 16. Middle Name? Leslie. 17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? 1. I need to get serious about changing my middle name. 2. I need to vacuum upstairs. 3. Those bran muffins smell good. 18. Name the last 3 things you have bought: Two iTunes gift cards, boxes for putting them in, and something I can’t say, ’cause it’s for someone who reads me. 19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink: Water, low-carb cocoa, and the occasional iced tea. Okay, Nance. What the hell? Why are there so many questions missing? 22. Current worry? Too many and too vague to list them here. 23. Current hate? Those radio stations that play nothing but Christmas music. 24. Favorite place to be? In the Smallville house. I can be in a bad mood, but being in that house always relaxes me. I hope that continues to hold true when we live there! 25. Least favorite place to be? In the laundry room, ’cause the litter box ALWAYS needs to be cleaned, even if I just cleaned it. 26. Where would you like to go? Scotland. Australia. New Zealand. England. The Bahamas. Hawaii. 27. Do you own slippers? I own a pair of slippers for downstairs and a pair for upstairs. 28. What shirt are you wearing? A medium-blue fleece shirt I got from the men’s section at Parisian. It’s a size XL, and I could go down a size or two – but I’m going to keep wearing this shirt through the cold weather, ’cause I refuse to go out and buy it in a smaller size. REFUSE. 29. Do you burn or tan? I get so many freckles that it looks like I’m tanning unless you look closely. 30. Favorite color(s)? Bright yellow and smoky blue. 33. What songs do you sing in the shower? It depends on what song is bouncing around in my brain. Right now it’s Super Freak. 34. What did you fear was going to get you at night as a child? Bugs. I was super scared of all kinds of creepy crawlies. Which makes the fact that I’m willing to live with spiders in my house that much more amazing. 35. What’s in your pockets right now? I have no pockets in these pants. 36. Last thing that made you laugh? Fred discussing a scene from Scrubs that involved The Todd. The Todd cracks us up. 38. Worst injury you’ve ever had? When Fred splashed boiling oil on my right foot nine years ago. 40. How many TVs do you have in your house? Three. We used to have four, but we got rid of the one in the computer room. Oh wait, make that four – we have one in the garage/ gym. 41. Who is your loudest friend? Liz. 42. Who is your most silent friend? Er… I don’t know that I have any silent friends. 43. Does someone have a crush on you? I don’t know for sure, but I’m betting it’s “no.” Anyone want to fess up and whisk me away to warmer environs? 44. Do you wish on shooting stars? I can’t think of a single time I’ve even noticed a shooting star. I do wish on the first star of the evening, though. 45. What is your favorite book? The Stand is a perennial favorite, but I’m not sure I have a single hard and fast favorite. 46. What is your favorite candy? M&Ms are always a hit. 47. What song do/did you want played at your wedding? We didn’t have a song played at our wedding, and if we renewed our vows or something, I’m not sure what we’d have played. Maybe If, by Bread, since someone online informed us that that was “our” song, whether we liked it or not. 48. What song do you want played at your funeral? I think the scene in To Die For, when Nicole Kidman’s character played All By Myself at her husband’s graveside was hilarious, so I choose that. 49. What were you doing 12 AM last night? Sleeping, and probably being mauled by Sugarbutt the kneading-and-licking wonder. 50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up this morning? “I don’t WANT to get up.”

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I had my appointment with my primary care physician yesterday morning, about my thyroid. She said, basically, that the scan came back just fine, but she wanted me to see an ear, throat and nose specialist just because the one nodule (on the left side of my neck, if you must know) was so prominent and it’s such a specialized area that she’d feel better if a specialist took a look. So Friday I have an appointment with an ENT guy, and I have to go to the Medical Mall to pick up a copy of the thyroid uptake scan beforehand. Dr. MyDoctor said that the ENT guy might say “Yeah, it’s just a nodule, come back in six months”, or he might want to do a biopsy, or he might refer me to a surgeon to do a biopsy, and since the idea of having the nodule biopsied makes me want to scream and run around in circles, I can state with certainty that a biopsy will NO DOUBT need to be performed. The thought certainly fills me with holiday JOY, in case you were wondering. At least the ENT guy is in Madison so I won’t have to travel too far on Friday. Le sigh.
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We let Catie stay out of the cat room all day yesterday, since we were afraid she’d get lonely, and had no litterbox issues. The funny thing is that while our cats always get freaked out when we let kittens run around (I get exhausted just thinking about how constantly hysterical they were when I brought Maddy home), they freaked out a little at first with Catie, and then promptly began ignoring her. I’m telling y’all, this is the MOST mellow cat I’ve ever seen in my life. She loves to lay around and if you’d like to come over and rub her belly that’s fine, but if not ::catshrug:: whatever. I’d suspect her of being on the kitty dope, but I haven’t noticed her with a case of the munchies, so I guess she’s just naturally mellow. She spent most of yesterday on the second step, just laying there sleeping and keeping an eye on the cats as they went by her. Fred tried to convince me to take Miz Poo to the pet store in Catie’s place, and keep Catie. Evil man. Mellow kitty, with a soupcon of sass.   “KissKiss, darling. Want to come to my room for a snort of the ‘nip?”   I have an appointment on the other side of Huntsville later today, so I’ll be taking her to the pet store, since there’s room for her and adoptions are going on tonight. I don’t doubt for a minute that she’ll be adopted out by next Monday, because she’s such a sweetheart, and she’s so striking looking that there’ll probably be a fist fight between people who want to adopt her.    
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“The box ate Sugarbutt, and now it’s spitting out his tail!”
All of today’s uploaded pictures are hither.
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Previously 2005: no, I didn’t take anything for the pain. Then I couldn’t bitch about the pain. DUH! 2004: Yep, fuck that. 2003: The child is evil. EVIL, I say. 2002: (Close your email clients, you damn Crimson-heads. I know you lurrrve your football team and all, but really. Breaking news?) 2001: Woman of the Year. 2000: What can I say? I’m just the kinda gal who likes profanity in her daily email… 1999: “Let’s kill the Mommy bitch and eat all the canned cat food in the house, then lay around and lick the litter out from between our toes.”]]>

12/4/06

Cool new logo from reader Kitty, who responded to my plea. Thanks, Kitty!!!

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Hmph. Those polls always make me feel like a, as much mother used to call someone she worked with, “fluff bunny.” Clearly polls are not trained to recognize my subtle badassery.
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Good god has it gotten cold outside all of a sudden. One day it was in the 70s, the next day I walked outside and the tip of my nose froze off and bounced off across the yard to areas unknown. Fred got all kinds of worried about Newt and Maxi and wanted to bring them inside the (Smallville) house so they wouldn’t freeze to death. I had to tell him “Look, if you do that, you might as well leave them inside, because they’re going to be our cats and I didn’t think you wanted to have eight cats, but since you clearly do, they need to be inside cats like our OTHER cats and shouldn’t be accustomed to being outside all the time.” Besides, it’s not like every outside or feral cat in existence freezes to death every time the temperature drops to 30, right? And most outside or feral cats don’t have a cozy warm HEATED (from the top AND the bottom) cat house in a sheltered area where they can retreat if it gets too nippy outside. Besides. They are NOT OUR CATS. They have owners, damnit, and they’re not us! Yeah, yeah. Shaddup.
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So it was cold this weekend, but it was also not rainy or particularly crappy (though it was a bit windy, at least in Smallville), so on Saturday and Sunday we worked inside for most of the morning and outside during the afternoon, after it had warmed up (HA) a little. We started working on the computer room (we decided to start at the back of the house and work our way forward) Friday evening, and continued working on it Saturday and Sunday. I’m pretty sure we’re going to be able to finish it out tomorrow. All in all, it went pretty quickly, and I have a feeling that the rest of the downstairs will go pretty quickly as well. Fred did most of the painting in the computer room and I helped him measure and hang the crown molding (that is, I held one end of the crown molding while he nail-gunned it in place), and in between the times when my help was needed, I spent a few hours in the hallway closet pulling down the paper that lined the walls. I’m not sure when the paper was nailed to the wall or why, exactly, but it had started to rip in several places and needed to come down. This is what it looked like when we first saw the house, for the record. I finally got all the paper ripped down and the pieces of wood that had been tacked in place to hold the paper up (I assume) yanked down, and now all that needs to be done is that a zillion small nails need to be removed, then I’m going to paint it and the door, as well. The door has been painted, of course, but only on one side. I had to leave the house a couple of times on Saturday (more on that in a bit), and I came back just in time to watch Fred cut down the maple (?) to the side of the back yard. We spent the afternoon dealing with that tree (which was rotten to the core and had a nice infestation of carpenter ants; I’m sure Fred will provide pictures at some point). Fred cut the tree in pieces and then split the pieces, and I hauled them over to the concrete pad and stacked them. (Eventually we’re going to build some kind of wood shed, but for now, the concrete pad is probably the most convenient place to put the wood.) We also added to our new burn pile. Sunday, more of the same – I finished yanking stuff down in the closet, Fred worked on the computer room, and then Fred cut down another tree and we spent the afternoon tossing the smaller branches on the burn pile and adding to our wood pile.
Brush pile. Wood pile.
Fred’s thinking he might stop cutting down trees until we have a wood shed to stack the wood in, but we’ll see about that. During our time at the house, I noticed that we’ve finally got birds visiting our bird feeders. I’ve had them up for a few months and the bird seed has slowly gone down, but I guess now that it’s cold, they’re visiting a little more often. The cool thing is that the bird feeders they’re visiting are hanging right outside the computer room (there’s a branch hanging in front of the computer room doors (to the outside), and it was the only branch I could reach to hang feeders from). I intend to keep that area a bird-feeding area because not only is it right outside the computer room door, which means I’ll have a good view of the visiting birds, but it also won’t be in the fenced-in area, so our cats won’t be able to pounce on unsuspecting birds and bring them inside.
Female woodpecker. Chickadee. My mother has a whole flock of chickadees she feeds, and I’ve come to love the feisty little birds, from watching them at her house. Anyone know what kind of bird this is?
Before we left the Smallville house on Saturday I noticed that one of the bird feeders needed to be filled, so I carried the ladder outside and asked Fred to hold on to the ladder so it wouldn’t wobble or fall over. Everything went well (even though I was higher than I like to be when perched on a flimsy ladder that will only hold twice my body weight), I filled and rehung the bird feeder, holding onto the end of the branch as I rehung it. “Don’t fall,” Fred warned. “You’ll pull the branch down with you and that’ll hurt worse than just falling ’cause it’ll hit you on the head.” “Har har,” I said darkly. “Just shut up and hold the ladder.” The bird feeder hung, I started back down the ladder. I’d gotten one foot on the middle rung, when something hit me VERY HARD on the back of my head. “OW!” I yelled, stopping and looking around. “What the fuck?” Fred laughed and laughed and laaaaaaughed. Because a piece of the branch I’d hung the feeder on had broken and fallen, hitting me in the back of the on its way to the ground. Fucking trees.
The branch that bonked me. AND IT HURT.
Two days later, the back of my head still hurts a little. Hmph.
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So I had to leave the Smallville house on Saturday because the shelter manager called and told me that there was room at the pet store for the foster kittens, and could I send her some pictures and their names, and take them to the pet store later? Even though we’d only had them about twenty-four hours, I was more than willing to take them to the pet store because the sooner they go to the pet store, the sooner they get into loving homes, that’s how I see it. Momma kitty would be staying with us a few more days, because spaying is a bigger deal for older cats and they need a little more time to heal. I drove to Madison and sent the shelter manager pictures of the kittens and their names, went back to Smallville for an hour, then went BACK to Madison, picked up the kittens, and took them to the pet store. Oh, their names. Thanks, you guys, for your suggestions, I loved ’em all! I was particularly taken with Beth from Long Island’s suggestion of naming them after Beatrix Potter characters, so I settled on Mopsy, Flopsy, and Cottontail for the girls. I named the boy Seamus because I think all orange kitties should have Irish names (what can I say? I’m weird.) (Stub would be a good name for a bobtail, wouldn’t it?) So anyway, the kittens went to the petstore, and Seamus (the buff tabby) and Cottontail (the dilute calico) were adopted on Saturday. The two Calitabbies, Mopsy and Flopsy were there this morning and I gave them tons of love and kisses before I put them back in their cage and left. They seem to be adjusting pretty well, and I suspect that they’ll be adopted before next Monday because they are SO FREAKIN’ CUTE. On to the pictures! Seamus the love bug.   Mopsy. Doesn’t she look like a fox in the face, in this picture?   Cottontail.   I love the look on her face, like she’s saying “Do you BELIEVE this?” Because those kittens, despite eating solid food and being pretty much weaned, would still try to nurse. She’d let them for a moment, then get up and walk away.      
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All of today’s uploaded pictures are here.
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Previously 2005: No entry. 2004: It is FUCKING cold downstairs in our house. 2003: And then I got the Best Picture EVER Taken. 2002: Fluff? Perhaps. But very entertaining fluff. 2001: “Who’s Robyn?” said the realtor. 2000: “You little bastard!” I yelled, and then ran at him 1999: Through three moves and a name change, they’ve managed to keep up with me, sending address labels all the way.]]>

12/1/06

PetSuppliesNet and found that a box of the big-dog Frontline costs about half of what it cost at the vet’s office. That means that I can get 24 doses for a little more than a buck a dose. That’s really pretty freakin’ awesome. Today I went back to the vet’s, this time to pick up new fosters. I don’t know that this bunch will be around for long; they’ve been spayed and neutered and we’re just waiting for room at the pet store. Momma Kitty.   Buff tabby, male.   Calitabby, female.   Calitabby bobtail, female.   Dilute calico bobtail, female.   None of them have names yet, so if you have suggestions, feel free to share them! More pictures are here.     ************************* Yesterday I spent a good part of the day roasting a turkey. I brined it before I roasted it, and I basted it with chicken broth every half hour, and although it was an 11 pound turkey and the recipe said to roast it for half an hour per pound (which would have been 5 hours), according to the meat thermometer it was done in two and a half hours. It’s been my experience that it never ever takes as long for a turkey to cook as the experts say it will. Once it was done, I covered it lightly with tinfoil, because Spot has become very aggressive in his pursuit of food lately, and if you leave ANYTHING on the counter or stovetop, unattended, you will come back thirty seconds later and find Spot’s face in the food and I can eat gross things (things with dust or cat fur on it), but the idea of eating food with cat saliva on it makes me gag. When the turkey was cool, I carved it until most of the meat was off, and then I tossed the carcass in a pot of water and let it simmer for a couple of hours. I’d originally intended to make stuffing (Stove-Top!) to go with the turkey, and have cranberry sauce and green beans, but I was so sick of dealing with the turkey by the time Fred and I left to go out to Smallville* that we ended up just having turkey sandwiches for dinner, and they were REALLY FREAKIN’ GOOD. I spent the evening making rice so I could make a rice and turkey casserole (2 cups rice, cooked, spread on the bottom of a 9×13 dish; top with as much turkey as you’d like; top that with two jars of gravy (or homemade, if you prefer); top that with bread crumbs mixed with melted butter OR stuffing; bake for 30 minutes at 350º. FABULOUS.) and finishing up my turkey soup while watching Survivor. The ENTIRE FUCKING TIME, Spot danced around my heels like he was starving to death. I had to keep chasing him away, and he’d run off, then come back and squeak his alien squeak at me until I wanted to kick him. I didn’t kick him, you understand, but I really, really wanted to. When he realized he wasn’t going to belly up to a big bowl of turkey, he shot me a look of hatred that clearly said “If I could figure out how to hold a knife, I would STAB YOU TO DEATH and run away with your delicious turkey, bitch.” We’re going to be eating turkey soup at least one night next week, and we’ll be eating turkey casserole, and I don’t think I will EVER get sick of turkey. I love me some turkey, that’s for sure. *It was due to be stormy last night, and Fred wanted to turn the cat house so that the 30 MPH winds from the South wouldn’t blow into the cat house and get Maxi and Newt wet and cold. You know, Maxi and Newt. The cats who AREN’T OURS. Also, he put the cat food over by the cat house, so it wouldn’t get wet. God knows they might starve to death in that 24 hours before we came to the house again.

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Previously 2005: “Vivacious! Tell her she’s VIVACIOUS, Dr. Phil!” 2004: I eat too much of the wrong kind of food and am lazy. 2003: “IT’S JESUS DYING ON THE CROSS! HOW CAN THAT POSSIBLY BE CONFUSING YOU DUMB MOTHERFUCKERS?” 2002: No entry. 2001: No entry. 2000: Here’s a tip: If they’re your own children, it’s NEVER “babysitting.” 1999: I’m feeling incredibly lazy today (like that’s something new). ]]>