5/7/08

Someone reminded me that I hadn’t mentioned the bird Joe Bob brought in the house after I said I’d left it in the plant pot on the front porch. Before I left for Wal-Mart, I glanced out, and it was bouncing across the front yard. It seemed to be having a little trouble flying, but it ended up in a patch of weeds under a tree, and when I got back from Wal-Mart it was nowhere to be seen.

I choose to believe it recovered and took flight.

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It was no problem at all getting Sugarbutt into the cat carrier yesterday morning. I brought the carrier downstairs an hour or so before we had to leave, and Sugarbutt ran and hid on top of the cupboards in the kitchen, and then he forgot why he was scared and he came down and jumped up on Fred’s desk chair and went to sleep, so ten minutes before his appointment I walked over, picked him up, and put him in the carrier. I don’t think he was completely awake until we were halfway to the vet’s office.

The vet tech grinned when she said Sugarbutt’s name and said that they’d all been guessing why that was his name, so I told her the story (for you newbies: Sugarbutt and Tommy are from the same litter; I got them when they were itty bitty – here’s baby Sugarbutt – I guess they were close to 3 months old when I got them, and Sugarbutt was just a mess. He had worms, he had horrible diarrhea that scalded the fur off the backs of his hinds legs, he had what we thought was a prolapsed rectum, and when I said to the shelter manager “What do I DO?”, she said “Well, I’ve heard that if you put sugar on a damp cloth and hold it to his back end, it will help the swelling a little.” and so I did, and there was really nowhere to go from there but to name him Sugarbutt. His “official” name was “Sad Eyes”, but we never called him anything but Sugarbutt after that. Also, it turned out that he didn’t have a prolapsed rectum, he had impacted anal glands. Poor baby.) and it turns out they’d guessed right.

Sugarbutt did the frozen-in-horror thing so that the vet was able to look closely at his nasty toes, and he said he thought there’d been some trauma to his toe, and he had to clean out between and behind his toes (there was a lot of litter and dirt caked behind his toes) and they found a small cut. He prescribed an antibiotic ointment, and put the ointment on Sugarbutt’s foot and then bandaged it up and said that if we can keep the bandage on him, we could put more ointment and a new bandage on once a day, but if he pulled the bandage off, we’d need to put ointment on more often and spray bitter apple on his foot to stop him from licking.

Since he wasn’t up to date on his vaccinations, they gave him his shots, and then we were out of there, all in less than 20 minutes.

Rather than going straight home I had to stop by Wal-Mart to get new litter. If he doesn’t keep the bandage on, we have to keep him off clumping litter (it’ll just irritate the sore) and so I had hoped to find some of that Yesterday’s News litter. Wal-Mart didn’t have any of that, so I bought some Feline Pine litter (which some of you have recommended in the past) and I was in the car headed for home, when I started thinking about it, and I couldn’t quite remember, but doesn’t Feline Pine break down into sawdust or pinedust or something? If so, that was something I didn’t particularly want Sugarbutt to get between his toes, so I went up the road to K-Mart to see if THEY had some Yesterday’s News, and they did so I bought a couple of bags.

When I got home, I ran inside and changed out all three of the litter boxes quickly before I brought Sugarbutt in and set him free. When I told Fred that I’d had to switch litter for a little while, he sighed and said “Let the bed-peeing begin!”

I haven’t found any urine outside of the litter boxes yet, but the day is young! I can’t say that I’m all that terribly impressed with this litter. It doesn’t hold back The Stink at all and rather than absorb urine it seems to just kind of fall apart. I don’t know, it’s only for a few days, so I just hope the little bastards keep using the boxes and don’t decide to pee elsewhere.

Also, I have to keep the back door shut so Sugarbutt can’t go out into the back yard and get dirt in his sore toes, so every time I walk anywhere near the back of the house, Joe Bob comes along and gives me the hopeful eyes. It’s killing him not to be able to go outside, and Tommy and even Miz Poo are hanging out by the back door an awful lot. I gave up around 4:00 yesterday afternoon and let them all outside, including Sugarbutt. I let everyone BUT Sugarbutt outside, but he gave me such the sad eyes that I couldn’t stand it. Today, I’m determined not to let them outside, but they certainly are all up in my shit, gathered around and giving me Looks.

If the new litter doesn’t make them pee on furniture or a rug, I’m sure not being able to go outside will!

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Recipes I have tried lately and consider worth sharing with you:

Friday for dinner, I made Pioneer Woman’s Marlboro Man’s Favorite Sandwich. I did NOT use as much butter as the recipe called for because, well, I thought I could get away with using less. And I did and I could and it worked out just fine! Basically, it’s just a steak and onion sandwich, and it is GOOD (though cutting the cube steak was a big pain in the ass – next time, I’ll leave the steak a little bit frozen for easier cutting) and she’s right, it would be good with mushrooms and (not for me, since I don’t like them) maybe peppers. I put cheese on mine and it was divine. Also, we used left over roasted red onion mayo and it was fabulous.

We enjoyed the sandwiches so much that we had them again for lunch on Saturday, and then again on Sunday and they were better each time.

Definitely recommended!

For dessert on Friday, I made Paula Deen’s Gooey Butter Cake. It was fairly easy to make, and while it was good, it wasn’t the kind of good that will require me to ever make it again in the future. It reminded me a lot of a caramel cake that we’ve gotten at the grocery store before. I had a piece and I enjoyed it, but if I never have it again I won’t be sorry.

AND THEN.

So we each ate what we wanted from the cake, and we put the rest in the refrigerator to feed to the pigs, and then next morning Fred broke off a piece and tried it and then he made me try it, and holy COW that stuff was good! Something about sitting in the refrigerator, I don’t know if it was just the flavors mingling or the act of being cold, or what, but man. REALLY GOOD.

(The pigs liked it a lot, too!)

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The other day when I whined about my uuuuuugly feet, a few of you recommended the Ped Egg. I’d never heard of the Ped Egg and didn’t know what it was, but I went and checked out the web site and thought that maybe I’d see about getting one of them, and then I completely forgot about it.

Then, Monday at Wal-Mart I was getting ready to check out and at the end of the checkout lane was, whattayaknow, a Ped Egg. I looked at it, considered the price, and tossed it in my cart.

(I’m the worst kind of impulse buyer, I know.)

I bought it, and then I drove by a CVS, and there was a sign advertising the Ped Egg, and I was all “Okay, I’m fine, I bought one, I get the idea!”, and THEN I drove by Walgreen’s, and there too was a sign advertising the Ped Egg and I was all “I GET IT! I need a Ped Egg! I got one! Jeez, stop harassing me!”

I haven’t used it yet, but I have high hopes for the deuglification of my ugly, ugly feet.

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Fred and I started watching Heroes the other night. We watched the first episode of it when it originally came on two years ago (or whenever the hell it started, I don’t remember), and after the one episode, we ended up deciding not to watch any more. Now, with nothing else to watch, we decided to give it a try again.

We’ve watched the first two episodes, and I think we’re going to keep on going. About halfway through episode 2, Greg Grunberg showed up.

“It’s Greg Grunberg!” I said excitedly. I love that guy.

“Who’s that?” Fred said.

“From Felicity!” I said. “The one-balled Jewish guy?” Fred never watched Felicity with me, but he wandered through the living room often enough to know that Sean had had a testicle removed and he was Jewish, so he began referring to him as the “One-balled Jewish guy” of course.

Fred considered the TV and said in confusion, “He… doesn’t look bald.”

One-balled, one bald. I SUPPOSE they sound alike.

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I would tell you how Kara and the bebbes are doing, but they’re doing just fine and I have no stories to share with you – except that I spent a long time in the foster kitten room yesterday bonding with Zoe while the other kittens slept and Kara snoozed in the middle of the room. Zoe and I had not spent much one-on-one time, and I’m pleased to announce that she is sweet and adorable and her belly feels like silk and she enjoys a good belly rub.

(pic) Inara.

(pic) Kaylee.

(pic) Zoe.

(pic) River. Best. Picture. EVER.

Tons of pictures up over at Flickr.

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Previously
2007: “GodDAMN I’m good-looking. Why am I taking orders from this old hag? Am I making enough money to put up with this over-polite shit*? I think NOT. GodDAMN I’m good-looking.”
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: Questions answered, and a meme.
2003: Once again, pot-kettle-black.
2002: You can imagine the temper tantrum that followed.
2001: I would have preferred a candy bar, but unfortunately, we don’t got none o’ them ’round these parts.
2000: No entry.