kageotogi

( Seriously. He is. )

Clumsy!Kitteh was perfectly fine when I left this morning, and meanwhile I'm functioning exclusively on four hours sleep and as much junk food as I can stuff in my face.

» Fact: I am in possession of far too much yarn. This means I have a new goal for myself: stop buying yarn. Or, anyway, stop buying it at least until most of it is used up. The problem with this is that accomplishing this using-it-up goal means I have to knit things. I am less than good at that.

» OMG, could I be any more behind on story/fic prompts? Not even counting the sixteen (or so) from LAST YEAR, there are two outstanding from last week (one of which is finished but not typed -- sorry, punctuates!). I'm really just a loser.

» I have already made plans to go buy new yarn. Whoops.

» Because she is clearly made of evil and other good things, masteroftrouble managed to get me addicted to Hyperbole and a Half with a mere link to an icon. I stayed up very, very late reading old blog posts. THIS IS WHAT I DO WITH MY FREE TIME, PEOPLE. And I realized that I've actually been linked to and read many of the posts before but somehow never realized that they were all from the same place, or how amazing they could all be when read consecutively and at three in the morning. So there's that.

» I am overwhelmed by what shouldn't be an overwhelming weekend. This probably means there will be a to-do list in my future, which is ridiculous because it will be very short. I really don't have that much to do. It just feels like it because everything has to happen all at the same time. Maybe I will write the to-do list on my refrigerator's wipe board and hope for the best.

» It takes about 10,000 hours to get really good at something, according to something I read on the internet (the internet doesn't lie, right?). That's lots of hours.

» I'm really hungry right now, and I think it's because I only ate a handful of cranberries and some M&Ms for breakfast (cranberries and dark chocolate-with-a-candy-shell are good for me). This is bad, because it means I am thinking of the chicken breast I have defrosting in the refrigerator (because yes, I sometimes eat things that are not dried fruit and candy) and all the delicious things I can do it later. Right now I'm thinking about chicken curry, which would be awesome if I had rice. I'm pretty sure I do not have rice. Failing that, barbecue chicken sammich. Except I'm not sure if I have barbecue sauce. Dilemma.

» I am almost out of babeh kitteh's medication, and need to get a new bottle from the vet. I called it in, so now I'm just waiting for them to call me back. It's a race against time: they have until eight tonight. Or eight tomorrow morning, if I have enough for tonight and tomorrow.

» Speaking of babeh kitteh, he had two seizures last week. One was about two minutes long, the other lasted maybe thirty seconds. This means he gets an increased dosage of his medication -- thus why I already need more -- and that there is little hope of decreasing the meds any time in the near future. Sigh.

» One of my cabinet doors managed to injure itself. Um. Basically, the little plastic thing that keeps the cabinet door from all but literally adhering to the cabinet itself fell out, and now the cabinet door sticks like crazy. It requires massive pulling on my part to get it open, and it's only a matter of time before I (a) yank it from its hinges or (b) gruesomely injure myself. Although at least if (b) happens, the cabinet door and I will have something in common. And who doesn't aspire to have things in common with inanimate objects, really?

And that's the end.

Today was neurology day! Babeh Kitteh and I headed out early this afternoon after a ten minute struggle to get him into the carrier (Other Kitteh was all excited. He hopped right in and looked at me like "So where are we going? :D", and Babeh Kitteh ran the other way). The neurologist was very nice, though Babeh Kitteh wasn't too enthused about being poked and prodded and whatnot. Ah, well.

In short, all the tests came back normal -- so there's nothing obviously wrong, neurologically. He recommended putting Gus on phenobarbital. I checked in with my regular vet, who agreed that that would be her way, too, so I put in an order, picked it up an hour later, and then bought a crapload of canned cat food (the stuff is a liquid, and it's flavored -- I got tuna flavor -- so that it can be easily hidden in regular cat food and there's not as much chance of them spitting it out). I need to make another appointment for him in three weeks so they can check and make sure everything is going okay (that the dosage isn't too high or anything), but for now that's all. Hopefully this will do the trick.

And, personally, I hope we can eventually wean him off the stuff. This medication needs to be administered every twelve hours, and I'm selfishly already considering how that will impact me. Selfish selfish selfish.

I've so got nothing else to talk about right now. I'll try to be more entertaining in the future.

Babeh Kitteh had another seizure early this morning (about 4am). That makes two in two months, and it makes me very worried. Once again, he acted perfectly fine after the fact, but I've nonetheless set up a vet appointment for after work at my regular place (although not with my usual vet), so hopefully something will actually be resolved in this one (as opposed to the last time with the emergency people, when they said everything was normal and it likely would never happen again). If it's something relatively un-scary or something fixable, I may literally weep for joy. Living in fear of waking up to another kitten seizure is not a good way to be.

Hope hope hope.

In happier news, my grandmother turned ninety on the fourteenth. We're holding a surprise party (don't tell!) on Saturday, which everyone I've mentioned it to says is a bad idea. This claim is ridiculous, however, because she is tough and not going to keel over because of a family gathering.

I've got to get back to work. I'm still really behind on, well, pretty much my entire life.

So yesterday was one of those "Why is this happening?" sort of days. Long story short, I woke up around four in the morning to Gus (the babeh kitteh) having a seizure. I of course called the emergency animal hospital down the road, packed up Gus (who at that point was acting perfectly normal), and headed to the vet. After two hours of them examining him and taking blood and poking and prodding and the like, I took Gus home with the knowledge that (1) seizures in cats are not particularly common but they aren't particularly alarming so long as they don't happen often, (2) there's really no way of knowing what caused the seizure, although blood tests and the like can lend hints, and (3) the emergency vet thinks my cat is weird because he likes to roll around on his back. Also, it's very likely that the seizure was a one-time thing and will never happen again. Fingers crossed.

Whatever. I went to work. I held myself together long enough to get through a super-long, super-important meeting, and then broke down and went home. My mom came over (I have the best mom), made me dinner, and hung out even after I fell asleep on the couch. She went home, I messed about on the interwebs, and then I went upstairs and slept like the dead.

Gus is doing just fine. I'm still waiting to hear from the animal hospital about his blood work (it takes forever), but since he doesn't seem to be at all upset and hasn't had another seizure, I'm making myself not worry about it. I was definitely more overworked about it all than he was. Big surprise.

So that's the story. Today is going to be very business as usual, although I'll be bugging the animal hospital about Gus's blood work if they don't get back to me by this evening. I figure that's fair.

A few random things:

• My mother bought me sleep-aids when I mentioned I'd been having trouble sleeping. She's the best mom ever.


• I've started writing daily to-do lists in a tiny notebook I've dedicated exclusively to this purpose. I never complete said to-do lists. I've pretty much decided I don't care.


• The kittehs are very excited about their upcoming vet visit. This is because I did not tell them what "castration" means, and because they can not reach my dictionaries.


• I've decided to re-try writing a huge, epic story-thing I've been musing over for ages. I just don't know how to do it, exactly. Making notes (and re-reading my old notes) is on my to-do list, and has been every day so far this week. I have not done it. No one is surprised.


• New recipe ideas: moo-shu vegetables, orange-sesame shrimp, hotty-hot-hot spare ribs. I've gone mad with power. And hyphens.


• Baltimore Restaurant Week. Best (two) week(s) ever? Quite possibly. Have plans for Friday, and am making tentative plans for next Friday as well. Good times.


• elevates owns too many scarves. Sixteen, apparently.


• I have been knitting the same baby hat for over two months now. It is the baby hat that will never end. My next project will have to be done on HUGE needles so that it can be finished quickly and I can stop hating myself and my knitting, I think.


• I am reconsidering The Novel From Hell. In that "I should really edit that" kind of way. My brother was supposed to help, but he's been completely loser-ish lately, so scratch that. I'll do it myself.

The end.

I made a chicken today. Well, a cornish game hen. This is only post-worthy because it's the first time I've ever made an entire chicken-esque thing, and I was impressed with myself. I got a small hen, but it was still enough chicken to last me for a few days. Or at least until I decide to use the broth (made from the carcass; I'm so resourceful) to make soup. So that was fun.

I realized today that I haven't gone ice skating since I was a kid, and that I really used to love it once upon a time. So my new goal-of-the-moment is to go ice skating sometime in the near future and see if I really do like it as much as I remember. If yes, I may actually invest in some goddamn skates and make it a regular thing. Could be fun.

This Tuesday, I'm heading to Boston with friend/coworker A. Eddie Izzard is doing an encore of his Stripped tour (seven US cities, one night each), and we managed to work our schedules and our finances so that we could go. It took some finagling, but we pulled it together (barely!) and it should be something of an adventure. Also, really, really cold. (What were we thinking? Boston in January? Brrrrrr.)

Have I told you all how cute my kittens are? They're cute. Adorable, even.



See?

Last night I dreamed I was watching Dancing with the Stars with my mother. Donny Osmond didn't do so well, so she called him up to reassure him that she still loved him and he didn't have anything to worry about because Aaron Carter was totally going to get voted off the island (direct quote) before him. I think this means that the season really needs to end. Or that I should stop talking about DwtS with my mother.

The kittens have their first vet visit tomorrow. They're excited, in that way that means they really don't know they have a vet visit or what a vet is or why they should (or should not) be excited. They also have decided it's more fun to push their water dish all along my kitchen floor (spilling water everywhere) than it is to just drink the water. That's mildly irritating, but workable.

Vet visit aside, it's going to be one of those weekends. You know. The weekends where I'm desperate for a little downtime. And because it's one of those weekends, I'm making a snapshot to-do list.

Because I can.

( Oh, the things I'll do on Friday... )

( Oh, the places I'll go on Saturday... )

( Oh, the crap I'll get away with on Sunday... )

Jeepers creepers, this week came up fast.

My vacation was a good one, and the visit with my aunt was actually a great deal less stressful than expected -- we had a pretty good time, all told. Saw the rock & roll hall of fame in Cleveland, and was totally overwhelmed by all the stuff they threw at us in one go. Enjoyed the Aerosmith wardrobe line immensely, and learned that Steven Tyler is not as tall as I imagined he was, but Joe Perry definitely is. Was in the car for well over thirty hours (not consecutively, mind you) with my mother, and listened to more Donny Osmond and Barry Manilow than was really necessary. I didn't have internet access for half of my trip, but did get a lot of good reading done. And, most importantly, I sated my need to just Get Away for a while.

Good times.

Anyway, I'm back now, and life resumes. In that "Crap, there's so much I have to do!" kind of way. Close to the top on that list is "buy groceries", as I think I have two eggs, an english muffin, and a frozen ham in my house, and that might be it by way of edible goodness. Which constitutes a pretty good breakfast (or breakfast-for-dinner situation), but won't do much by way of feeding me throughout the rest of the week. Not to mention tomorrow's lunch. I suppose I could live off cat food, but I'm not sure how the kittens would feel about that, all told.

And I need to visit an ATM. I really shouldn't forget about that (again).

Speaking of kittens (and spending money), it's about time to find them a vet and get all the kitten-y stuff done. Like leukemia testing (*bites nails*) and shots and neutering (bwahaha) and all that fun stuff. Poor kittens.

I realized this weekend how terribly unknowledgeable I am about eighties pop stars. This poses a problem (believe it or not). I should educate myself. But how? I don't have the attention span to watch VH1, and there's no guarantee they'll have an "I love the eighties" marathon any time soon. This really just won't do.

Wikipedia, here I come.

I decided to let the kittens have full reign of the first floor last night (usually they're confined to the basement whenever I'm asleep or away), just to see how they handled it. The answer is "not well", so they're back to basement-living for the time being -- or at least until this warm spell goes away and the nights start to get cold again. But there will be changes made, should that happen any time soon.

Grow up a little, tiny kittens. I don't want to lock you in the basement, but I don't want my pretty new house destroyed, either. :< Let me have my cake and eat it, too!

...which is really a silly expression, when you think about it. What's the point of having cake if you can't eat it? You could look at it, I guess.

My contact lenses are bugging me today. This is sad and unfortunate, and has already required one trip to the restroom so I could remove the lens (which had traveled -- OW) and reapply it to its proper place. I haven't had contact problems in ages, so this is a little not cool with me. And I've never had traveling-lens syndrome before. Maybe I screwed something up this morning when I put them in. I'll have to pay more attention tomorrow morning. Or start wearing my glasses. Blech.

Anyway, enough about me. How are all of you?