A grocery store observation: Baggers are trained to give you as many plastic bags as possible.

Before, you might go to a grocery store to buy 15 items. The bagger would tuck them all into one bag (whether they all fit or not) and ask if you need help to your car. Now, you buy 15 things, you get 15 bags and the bagger's already eying up the next person in line. It's insane how many plastic bags you end up with, even without double bagging!

I must begin the holiday decorating. Need to put on some holiday music and start rearranging things. This is really the only time of year I decorate for, which might explain why so many of these boxes by the window are marked "XMAS." Now to find out which one has what inside. Every box is like a gift :)

A day late but full of things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving weekend.

Kurt's mom has been in hospital and is getting better, so that's something to be thankful for. :)

Philip's been in Anaheim for the past week with a friend of his, so yesterday morning I drove up to get him so he could join us at Kevin and Candyce's for Thanksgiving. We had a great time and I've just returned from taking Phil back to the hotel in Anaheim. A short visit, but nice and of course, we're thankful for that!

Mittens is eating regularly and drinking a bit. Chris and I have taken Candyce's advice on dripping liquids into cats and we've been successfully dripping since. Mittens has a follow up appointment next week so that we can see how much progress he's made. He looks so much perkier than he did last week; I'm very thankful to see him improving.

A host of other things come to mind to be thankful about, especially for friends and family. I'm a very lucky chick :)

Candyce is a treasure. An absolute treasure. If I were a guy, I'd want to marry her (except she's already spoken for...and I'm not a guy).

A long weekend ahead. Mittens must be shot with fluids. Who better than A++ nursing student Candyce to help me see what I've been doing wrong with my technique?

She very kindly agreed to come tell me what I'm doing wrong :) I made a little pasta and while we ate, Mittens came out to see who'd come for dinner. Then he spent the meal talking and wandering between Candyce and me, asking for attention.

Little did he know how much of our attention he was going to get!

After we ate, Kevin obligingly sat in the living room while Candyce and I retreated into my bathroom with Mittens. Candyce suggested that the small space would make him settle down because there's no place to run or be ambushed from. She gave me some no-nonsense advice and kept an eye on the proceedings (and a couple of hands on Mittens) until 150 ml dripped into him.

I feel much more confident now. And she's offered to come by again if I start wimping out again. I just love her.

Early yesterday, after sitting up all night worrying, I heard a very welcome sound: Mittens tucking into his bowl of kitty kibbles. I lay down and fell asleep, only to feel him tugging at my shoulder. I had rudely fallen asleep on my side and he wanted me to be where he could put his chin on my shoulder. He can have what he wants, little cherub, so I flipped over and he curled up, purring.

He hasn't purred in the past week, so that was another good sign. This morning he woke up and ate breakfast, then took a good long drink. He hasn't drunk on his own in over a week, so that was another marvelous sound to my ears. And then he came back to bed, nudged back the covers and snuggled up, purring purring purring.

He's not 70%. He's probably not quite 60%, but those are big mile stones for my sick little cat. After refilling his shoulders with fluid this afternoon, the vet assistant observed that he was much improved.

Keep those prayers coming...we may save him yet.

For about $18, the vet's office will fill Mittens with fluids. They did so this morning, making him look somewhat like a linebacker with massive (but watery) shoulders. They're closed on Sunday, but hopefully Chris and I will be stronger of mind and will be able to try again.

The gods mock me, for in the midst of this struggle to keep Mittens going, they killed the wireless connection of my XPS, turned the light off on my laptop monitor again and have generally made my life hell. So for the past half hour, I have unbundled all the crap on the XPS and moved it into the bedroom where I hope getting the LAN wire shoved up its ass will remind it that it's on a freaking WIRELESS network and should behave like it.

And then there's Melody, who is thriving. I told Chris that, Mittens' illness notwithstanding, Melody's always had a beefy body. We petted her and he agreed; she is packing some weight on her back. Not fat, but solid meat.

I can't help but wonder: is Melody putting a hex on the other cats of my household, to gain the upper paw on everything and get us to herself? For she has been awful cuddlesome, letting me pick her up and put her on my lap and even allowing Chris to pet her (she seems to hate him). I resent her abounding health. She's the bitchiest cat I've ever had, even compared to Remington. Why is it that she's perfectly healthy while Megan and Mittens had to get sick?

I'm bitter...grrr.

An update. I am no nurse. Chris and I tried twice to get the needle into Mittens back, but it didn't work out so well. We're going to trot him off to the vet in the morning to (hopefully) learn what the heck we did wrong.

When you're not feeling well, you just want someone to scritch your head and murmur comforting little nothings to you. Mittens is not feeling well at all; he curls up on the bed, but his eyes are staring at me, or off into the distance. Sometimes he'll look at me and meow, but mostly he seems to be wrestling with whatever is eating him up inside.

Mittens' meow is very plaintive. Chris and I are in the habit of responding to him reflexively. "Maaaaa-ooooooh?" Mittens would say. And without even looking up from whatever we were doing, we would respond, "Maaaaa-ooooooh." This could go on back and forth for a while, probably leaving Mittens confused that we could speak his language and have absolutely no clue what he wants.

And so it is today. I have no idea what will make him any more comfortable. When I got home from work, he followed me around saying, "Maaaaa-ooooh?" but his voice is cracked and dry. He's not drinking or eating on his own.

When I sat down on the floor, he curled up into my lap and put his chin on my knee. I forced 3 separate pills down his throat, kissing his nose while waiting for him to swallow. Then I painted his lips with some wet cat food (which he normally hates), forcing him to lick his lips if he wants to remain clean. The vet gave me a syringe with which I can shoot wet cat food onto his gums, little by little, to force feed him.

Currently waiting for Chris to get home from work so we can hang the dextrose bag from the holiday wreath holder. Then I get to shoot Mittens in the back with 150ml of liquid, like he's a furry water balloon.

I hope he makes it. He's so my baby.

A later update: Mittens ate about a 1/4 cup of shredded KFC. I'm sure the vet intended for me to give him something bland, but she did say to let him eat anything he was interested in.

If he keeps it down (which he has so far) then I'm taking that as a good sign.

Mittens is experiencing liver failure though the vet thinks we might be able to bring him around, depending on the underlying cause. They gave him some IV fluids and an appetite stimulant.

He's hiding under my bed at the moment. I bought him some KFC since he usually likes people-food chicken. But he isn't coming out.

Moving my bed last night, I moved boxes all over the place and created a mess. I do not like mess in my sanctuary, so tonight I came home and started rebuilding the stacks beneath the window. I drape the boxes with a white cotton duvet cover so it looks slightly less like a pile of boxes.

Mittens curled up on the floor, Melody supervised from the top of my wicker armoire. I picked up Mittens to move him out of the way and nearly threw him over my shoulder because he didn't weigh anything what I expected. Upon closer inspection, the bones of his spine are starting to stick out.

I don't know what's wrong; he went to the vet for his annual exam at the same time Megan was sick. Mittens was fine then, got his shots and had maintained his weight over the past year. I don't know if he's sick or just rebelling against the food I'd bought last month. I've since gone back to the food he prefers. Melody seems content to eat anything.

She's currently in the living room; Mittens and I are locked in my bedroom so I can see whether he is eating anything. He drank some water. He nibbled at the catnip I sprinkled on the same high calorie nutrient that Megan wouldn't eat (it smells like molasses...with fish sauce). He is ignoring the dish of his favorite kitty kibbles.

I don't want him to be sick :(

Alas, no Irish pub last night, for Candyce wasn't feeling well. :( Good thing I checked my cell phone as I was stepping out the door and got Kevin's message! Or I'd have been a'chuggin in the pub alooooone!

TiVo noticed that I like to watch murder shows (I had stopped until Chris moved in because they scare me...but I like them), so it started recording Poirot and Sherlock Holmes. Most of these I'd seen the first time they ran on PBS but it's been ages. And I must say, that without a shadow of a doubt...Jeremy Brett is the best Sherlock Holmes ever. Ever! He can do amazing things with just a lift of an eyebrow.

I debated rearranging my bedroom again since now it's so cold beside the window, I'm worried I'll catch a cold. I might still do it, the night is young! :)

Going to the Irish pub tonight with Kevin and Candyce. Hopefully I won't have to chug anything.

Chris, Naomi and I were supposed to spend the day wandering around antique shops, but apparently my concept of "the day" isn't the same as theirs :) Since Chris had to attend the second half of his speeding ticket school (cough) in the afternoon, and Naomi was supposed to work, they were thinking the day meant from 5pm onward. I was thinking we would be antique-ing during daylight hours. And of course, I had no idea Naomi was scheduled to work.

When Chris gets back from the class in about a half hour, he'll come home and we'll go get Naomi then go pitter around someplace. She seemed disappointed that I didn't want to go get my nails done with her while Chris is in class.

It probably boils down to that I like to know in advance when something's going to happen so that I can plan for it, whereas the cherubs like to just do stuff. I'm also cheap and hate the idea of spending money on getting my nails done since they grow so fast that in two days or so they'll need re-doing. :/

I think I have flunked the first "day with Naomi" test.

Every so often I like to see what search strings bring hapless folks to this website. In the past, they were mostly looking for information about my shoe collection. Times, they are a'changing!

"Do owls have butts?" Last time someone wanted to know, all I could say was, "I don't know...do they?"

"What is an owl chick called?" I know this is going out on a limb, but..."owl chick"?

"What kind of research is being done on the elf owl?" I had no idea there was such a thing, but apparently there is! You won't find anything out about it in my blog.

"How are owl pellets energy efficient?" Beats me.

"chick+butt+photos" Hahaha! Boy, you must have been so disappointed with this search result!

"Do owl pellets come out of their mouths or their butts?" Euwwww!

"Instructions to make glass blocks into a xmas present" Trust me, you want to ask an expert on this one. :)

"How do you tell someone you love them?" Ah, if only I knew! I was intrigued enough by this one to see what this string brings up and apparently there's quite a few poetry websites asking this very question. Why the querent chose to visit my blog is beyond me. I hope if s/he finds the answer, s/he comes back and tells me what the answer is!

One sign of getting older is having back pain. My back problems started during labor with Chris (36 hours of labor, as I like to remind him now and again...it makes him feel guilty, so he brings me ice cream). Because of his awkward positioning, the only thing that made me comfortable was having his dad push on my spine. Dave obligingly pushed; he pushed so hard, he put me out of alignment.

Chris was very popular at the physical therapist's office. I'd arrive with all three weeks of him in his little rocker chair and the staff whisked him away while the therapist therapied me. They stayed open late just so I could come in. For five weeks, Chris and I went to PT and they were sad to see us go.

My back doesn't hurt right now, in case you were wondering. What made me think of it is that I realized that I still hoist my left leg into the car with my hands, just as I did way back then when it wouldn't move on its own. I probably seemed a little Igor-like, dragging my left leg around as I limped to and fro. I don't know if I've always lifted my leg into a car or if it's a by-product of the low seating in the Eclipse.

And that's my observation for today :)

Fall is upon us in SoCal. I'm using my down comforter again since I spent part of the early hours shivering and hoping Mittens wouldn't wander off from his spot against the small of my back. When game night breaks up, usually around 10:30 - 11PM Fridays, I usually stand outside for a moment and look up at the stars, but when it's cold like this I just hurry into the car (the had-$900-worth-of-repairs-this-week car) and drive home.

I take comfort in my two little cats, both of whom like to sleep curled up against me (one on my feet, one on my shoulder). Melody is curled up on my lap right now in fact, warming my knees :)

Just think! A month ago I was on my way to Hawaii for a week of sun and fun! Sitting here warming up with a cat and some cocoa, I wish I were curling my toes in the sand again.

Whose Side Are You On? by me

Setting: a gaming household, modern day.

[Enter Mom from the outdoors, looking sad, for she has had a bad day...her cherub rushes out from his room to give her a hug and a kiss, but is edging toward his room, from which come growls and menacing sounds.]

Cherub: Mom, can I go finish off this raid? Then I'll come back and sit with you.
Mom: Are you Alliance or Horde?
Cherub: Er, Alliance.
Mom: Well... Okay.
===

And a bad day indeed, for at lunchtime when Matt, Liz and I hopped into my car nothing happened. One of the coding dudes had jumper cables, so while Matt and Liz (who is fearless!) hopped into Matt's car to go get lunch, my battery got rescuisititatted. Rescceruertated. Resessitarted.

It got jumped and I drove it, upon Broos' recommendation, to a car place to have it checked. $117 later and three hours later, I have a new battery and a broken glove box handle (the worker broke it trying to put away a piece of paper).

Blech.

Chris' girlfriend Naomi came over. a bit ago and they've gone off to see a movie She's a sweet, giggly girlie-girl who asked me if she could come over sometimes and hang out with me. I think Chris has put her up to it because he's tired of me wandering out of my room and saying, "These brown shoes? Or these?" and expecting an answer.

A new cell phone after all these years (well, okay, two years). I've been spending all night trying to figure it out. Apparently my Gilligan's Island ring tone didn't transfer over from my old phone :( I'll have to call up T-Mobile and wrestle them for it tomorrow!

Of course, to get the phone I had to agree to extend my phone contract for 24 months. That's not so much of a hardship for me though, since I've had service through them since 1996. I used to be VoiceStream and got bought out. My phone, even my new one, still has VoiceStream showing on the screen (apparently it's imbedded in my Smart card, unlike my ringtone).

I notice that the newer phones come with fewer ring tones than the older ones did. This one has maybe 10 different tones, most of which are not my style at all. That's so we feel compelled to download new tones, of course! And I did look at the website and listen to several tones but ultimately chose not to get anything. Yet.

While I shopped for tones, I IMed with Dianne (since I'm out of cell minutes till my next billing cycle, tee hee!) and said I was considering "Who Can It Be Now?" as a possible tone. But it's so cheesy, I'm sure it's been done before.

I don't mind a little cheese...I just want mine to be different from everyone else's.

What kinds of tones have all y'all downloaded? Do you set different tones for your different callers?