It's Ali-i-i-i-ive!!!

Really. I promise I'm really here.

It's just the last couple weeks have been hella-crazy in terms of my work schedule. (Yes! I have a work schedule! Sweet!) I've been filling in at both places and have had like 1 day off at a time. Hey the money's good so I ain't complainin'.

Oh yeah and I had a crisis with my 15-year-old kitty Nutter Butter... she's fine now, but it took me a lot longer to recover. (Picture me holding my beloved cranky gramma kitty, crying into her fur "don't leave me, don't leave me". Yeah, lots of fun. Her? She was merely annoyed at getting wet, lol.)

So I'll post again the next time I come up for air. :D

darn blogspot!

So it turns out that if you start an entry & finish it a month later, it gets posted way back at the start date. So for "My Meme, My Own", please page down to April 15th. Bah.

working girl

Need I even say not that kind? Yeah didn't think so.

The Job Hunt may very well be over. Since The First Potential Job (FPJ) work interview was/is dragging out over a month, I decided to cover my bases & look elsewhere. I followed up with a veterinary-specific job hunting company and subsequently had an interview last week with a 6-doctor day (& night ER) hospital. I was offered the job before the end of the interview. (I am vet, hear me roar!)

Tomorrow is my working interview...I have a sneaking suspicion I'll tell them "yes" before the day is done. The FPJ has a lot of pluses: smaller clinic, location where the vast majority of clients can easily afford treatment for their pets, good workers, etc. Unfortunately, though, the FPJ has insufficient monitoring equipment, no I.V. fluid pumps, no dental drills, etc. The S(econd)PJ has all of these things, plus an ultrasound machine and a board-certified internist who uses their clinic as home base. Their doctors can have whatever drugs or surgical supplies they want (okay within reason, no multi-thousand dollar surgical lasers or stuff like that), PLUS they can almost certainly pay me what I'm worth; I doubt FPJ can match any of that.

Sorry this is a bit of a dry post. But hey I worked an extra day last week so my creative juices are a bit dry.

If not now, when?

It doesn't matter a whit if you are red, blue, or lime green: surely all can agree that the genocide in Darfur is an abomination. Unfortunately the U.N., NATO, and individual governments do not act on moral outrage alone; they need political capital. Here is your chance, as a decent human being, to provide that capital. Sign the postcard. Join one of the rallies in major cities throughout the U.S. this Saturday, April 29th Sunday, April 30th.

As the saying goes, all it takes for evil to win is for a good man to do nothing.

of peeps & yardwork

Sunshine! Oh 'tis glorious indeed. (Overly dramatic? Dude, I live in western Washington...any weather here that doesn't involve gray is equivalent to a national holiday.)

It's sunny, it's warm, and the back yard awaits my attention. The grass is gunning for 12 inches, the dandelions are forming conga lines, the doggie doolies are hungry, and the survivors of the Pansy Debacle await transfer to a puppy-safe habitat.

This will be good for me. Not just the sunshine, which for a person with dysthymia is like a big hit of cocaine jolt of caffeine...but the activity as well. Physical activity in terms of exercise. Physical activity in terms of distraction.

Since finding out The Potential Job is not (yet?) mine, I have had to scramble. I sat down & created a cash flow spreadsheet. I cancelled call-waiting, cancelled ProActiv (hey was thinking about that anyway because the stuff at Costco is SO much cheaper), put Netflix on hold, and (gasp) pared down to the most basic of cable (no SciFi! no Jon Stewart! oh the horror!!) (seriously, the horror!!!). I also took all automated payments off my credit card and have whittled groceries down to only the Must Haves (i.e., cat litter & caffeine). Good thing I'm a child of children of the Great Depression & a Costco shopper...my pantry is already stocked so I won't starve anytime soon. Gulp.

And oh yeah I haven't been to my therapist in almost a month. And unless she's willing to take $10 down payments, there won't be appointments anytime soon.

I'm not panicking. I've had a low-grade headache all week, but I'm not panicking. Nor am I complaining (no, really!) as much as I am just sharing/expressing. I told the job hunting lady to pursue 2-3 of the postings she sent me. Next week I'll go over the classifieds in the state vet newsletter again. I also have a classmate who said he's always looking for relief doctors. Something will work out.

Speaking of sharing....a disclosure of sorts. I finally, for the first time in my life, ate peeps. Shocking, I know. But it's true. They're all gone now, but perhaps the temporary sugar high will help with the yard work. Darn, if only I had thought ahead, they could have made interesting lawn decorations.

too lazy to actually write something

And then blogspot was too lazy to delete the entire entry. So here you go.

so NOW what?

I thought I had a job. I may still have a job...but at the moment I don't have a job. Confused?

Last month I had an interview. It seemed to go exceedingly well, and I learned that I was the only candidate that Potential Boss Lady was bothering to interview before leaving the country on a long vacation. I worked 4 days for her while she was away. During that time I was either brave or foolish and asked the office manager (who has been w/PBL for a loooong time); she had the same impression as I, that PBL would be calling me with a job offer upon her return. Yay, I thought.

PBL's first day back at her clinic was 2 days ago. I had realized on Easter that it was very unlikely she would call me on Monday, since her desk was probably piled higher than she is tall with All The Stuff That Happened While PBL Was Away. (An impressive pile indeed, especially after the Anesthesia Double-Whammy Disaster that happened on my last day. Thank heavens the kitty apparently is making a full recovery.)

By Tuesday evening, however, I couldn't take the suspense anymore.

I called.

I asked if she had made her decision.

No, she hadn't.

WHAT?!?

My brain did the mental equivalent of looking at The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and reading the words in big, pink letters: DON'T PANIC. Before I could get out any intelligible sounds, however, she had more to say. First, I received favorable reviews from her staff. (We all got along really well.) Second, she wanted to see how the two of us worked together. So I am working Tuesdays (w/PBL) & Wednesdays (solo) for the entire month of May.

Which (in hindsight) makes perfect sense: Gee, think it might be a good idea to see if you & the PBL can even stand each other? Hmph. Yeah.

So this will provide enough income to take care of the month of May. Unfortunately I was counting on considerably more to take care of what's left of April!

Time to get a little creative and see where the axe can fall.

how's your weather?

Sunny autumn day Your forecast: 52°F, 24 mph wind, 27% chance of precipitation

What your score means: Please note that all variables are scaled to a range of 0 to 100. I'd like to present some of them differently, but the OkCupid system doesn't seem to allow independent scaling of variables. Category names are not meant to be taken literally. They are only weather patterns that match your score for the three variables. A person might be classified as "hurricane" because he/she is outgoing, athletic and compassionate; it does not relate to any destructive behavior by any means. Temperature measures your relationships with other fellow humans. A high temperature means you are caring and compassionate, and you tend to keep a personal touch with all your friends. A low temperature means you are more independent, and although you may like to hang out with your friends, personal life rarely enters the picture. Wind measures your level of energy. A low wind says you are usually calm and composed, somewhat introverted, and perhaps do not prefer intense physical activities. A high wind says you are energetic, extroverted, and tend to lead an active lifestyle. Higher wind can also mean greater ambitions in life. In extreme cases and especially when coupled with high precipitation, high wind might suggest a tendency toward violence. Precipitation measures your mood. A sunny sky, as you might guess, is associated with a bright, optimistic mood. People like this tend to be satisfied with their lives, and might take the effort to help make other people's lives better as well. A rainy sky would be the opposite: people in this category tend to be moody or depressed at times. So, What do you think? Do the scores seem fair to you? If not, you can help make it better by sending me a message with your comments, suggestions, rants, death threats, whatever. Otherwise, your vote is very much appreciated. Thanks!

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: http://is1.okcupid.com/graphics/0.gif" border=0> http://www.okcupid.com/">%20alt="free%20online%20dating"%20src=" You scored higher than 16% on temperature http://is1.okcupid.com/graphics/0.gif" border=0> http://www.okcupid.com/">%20alt="free%20online%20dating"%20src=" You scored higher than 0% on wind http://is1.okcupid.com/graphics/0.gif" border=0> http://www.okcupid.com/">%20alt="free%20online%20dating"%20src=" You scored higher than 33% on precipitation

Link: The what kind of weather are you Test written by LTbot on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

My Meme, My Own

You know the drill, children...get to it!!

1. Comfort food: Ritz crackers

2. Comfort music: Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown TV music

3. I would happily listen to _______ read the phone book:
Dennis Haysbert

4. I won't answer the phone during these TV shows: 24, Lost, Battlestar
Galactica, Veronica Mars

5. PMS survival tool(s): chocolate

6. Food I prefer not to eat: olives, cilantro, green peppers

7. Food I refuse to eat: liver (especially chicken), anything involving neural tissue (prions begone!)

8. Food I can't get enough of that others won't eat: mushrooms

9. Dream car: VW New Beetle with Subaru AWD & a Toyota hybrid engine

10. Dream vacation: China, 2 weeks in the UK, RVing thru 49 states plus Canadian provinces (once they develop a solar-powered/hybrid RV).

Monsters Walk Among Us

I have reached a conclusion: There must be a plutonium stash under my house. What else can explain the insane growth of almost every creature in this household? (Now for a couple of the cats, all adults, it's a matter of different cat food & their mom still working out how much they need a day. Not how much they want, mind you...need.) (Their mom has been finding this also works well for herself, but is occasionally stymied by the fact that the one responsible for dishing out her food for the day is, well, her.)

But I digress. Yesterday on my way home from work (yes, work!) (relief work at the moment but more on that later), I stopped at a pet store to finally buy puppy collars. It's about that time when they'll be joining Peter on car rides (Caramel too, as long as she has her Dramamine), and I don't particularly want them off the property without ID. I carefully picked out brightly colored collars: blue for TwoSpot, green for Yoke, and purple for Brownie. These, I thought, are going to be seriously stylin' puppies!

I proudly brought home the new collars (ID tags as well) and got to work. I took each collar out of its packaging, made sure I had the appropriate tag for each, and then took the first collar into the living room to adjust to a puppy. I checked to see how far the first one would go around TwoSpot's neck. Lengthened it several inches. Checked again. Added another inch. Checked again...fine perhaps for a tightened choke collar but certainly not for a pup. Extended it as far as it would go. It still was too tight! Faced with the indisputable facts, as a relatively reasonable person I acknowledged the situation and made efforts to correct my actions accordingly. (ahem*BushCo!*cough!!)

So I think to myself, "Self, it's just that TwoSpot is a humongous boy. Go back tomorrow and exchange his collar for a bigger one." Satisfied, I take the next collars to adjust to the smaller pups. Much to my dismay, these collars are also too small. These puppies are only 12 weeks old!!! Stunned, I glanced around the living room. I looked at the snakes: twice as big as 3 months ago. I looked at the Aquarium of Doom: the red hook has grown by at least half and the tetras have tripled. I pondered this, and suddenly I was really wishing that Geiger counters were standard household equipment.

So perhaps I have found yet another benefit of going back to work: decreased exposure time to something akin to kryptonite (would that be the red one?). Tomorrow I shall return to the pet store & exchange the collars for medium ones. I can only hope that they won't have outgrown those by tomorrow afternoon.

THIS IS IMPEACHABLE

EXCUSE THE SHOUTING BUT THIS IS ESSENTIALLY AN ACT OF TREASON CAN WE F'ING IMPEACH HIM NOW?!?!?!?

Addendum: Ah damn. Damn, damn, damn!! From the Washington Post:

WASHINGTON - Legal experts say that President Bush had the unquestionable authority to approve the disclosure of secret CIA information to reporters, but they add that the leak was highly unusual and amounted to using sensitive intelligence data for political gain.

here here!

I do on occasion wax political, but when someone else says it best I'm happy to share. This guy supported invading Iraq, so see what Richard Cohen has to say.

aunt update

Okay the discombobulation isn't all gone, going by the nap I just came out of. Oh well.

I realized today that in the midst of all this craziness I never provided an update on my gravely ill aunt. She's home! The sepsis caused permanent damage to her heart (at least to the extent that she'll be on heart meds for life) and the antibiotics that saved her damaged her hearing so she has to get a hearing aid. She also doesn't remember much since my uncle's funeral...I keep telling her that's just her brain protecting her. (If you almost bled to death from ulcers and then got your body cooked by E.coli all within 6 weeks, would you want to remember?)

So sincere thanks to all those who said a prayer or held a positive thought for her.

Discombobulated Goose Eggs

It's probably only a duck egg, thanks to the ice pack. On my forearm, of all places. There would be another one on my knee if it weren't for the lack of sufficient soft tissue. Although I will no doubt have a lovely array of colored bruises on at least three limbs soon enough. (They will match nicely with the ones previously set in place by Caramel, who has yet to master the concept that my body is not made of the same material as the bed.) (Who needs tattoos?)

I have noticed a certain phenomenon when I take a spill. You know how they say that most of our brain processes are so fast we are not consciously aware of them? (Well I'm sure that someone has said that, somewhere.) When my brain realizes that a nose dive is inevitable, my consciousness seems to go into slo-mo. Before the fall gets underway, I am aware of my eyes scanning the target area, my brain recognizing any danger points, my brain then directing my hands/arms what to aim for & my skull/face what to avoid, and then my body getting the all clear to relax (mostly) and go with the flow. All this in what, a second? Fascinating stuff.

I'm hoping that incident was the last of a very discombobulated couple of weeks. Funky sleep patterns. Getting the flu. Fighting off the flu. (Yes, the cells of my immune system wear super suits...why do you ask?) Bringing home Jackson's ashes. Working my first day at The Probable Job. C-pap machine acting up. Cleaning up after 5 puppies (4 of which were not yet house trained) who developed The Explosive Diarrhea of Too Sudden of a Food Change. Administering a couple of anesthesia drugs to a friend's dog in the wrong order (don't worry absolutely no adverse effects to anything other than my ego). Losing my little date planner book thingy. Cleaning up after Peter and his own personal version of gastroenteritis. Proudly leaving for my therapy appointment on time, getting 15 minutes late because I-5 was backed up wayyyyyy north of Seattle, not being able to call said therapist because I forgot my cell phone on the end table, and arriving only to discover that the appointment had been scheduled for 10:15 not 10:45 & it was now after 11:00. Frack-a-doodle-doo.

So here's hoping that the current discombobulation as come to an end. I think I'll pull an Opus and find me a dandelion patch.

As if it wasn't already obvious...

You are a Social Liberal (76% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (18% permissive) You are best described as a: Socialist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

The House of Vice Viruses

I can't do anything. Well that's not true...I can take a 2-4 hour nap at the drop of a hat. But that's about it. Did you know you can have the flu and not have congestion, sneezing, or a sore throat? It's true . Now we're not talking about the grossly inaccurate moniker of "stomach flu" here (that's usually food poisoning, unless your name is Mel ). Flu refers to influenza, caused by a multi-membered group of respiratory viruses. The "base camp" of all influenza viruses (viri?) is waterfowl. (So the next time you see Donald Duck at Disneyland...you may wish to have a word.) From here they mutate (& sometimes successfully) transfer to other species. Humans are quite good at finding these mutations (Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918, anyone?). Horses got their version started in the 1960s. The dog version is now making it's way across the U.S. The current scare of "bird flu" has been picked up by cats & humans (but so far ONLY from direct contact w/an infected bird). These are viruses that know how to travel!

But for me, we're just talking plain ol' flu. At least I think this is the flu. Curiously I have yet to have a "real" fever, although my melting body last night wanted to argue with the thermometer. I actually woke up this morning without the persistent, laugh-in-the-face-of-excedrin headache...at least for a little bit. But...I dread what should come next: The Cough. I cannot afford The Cough, not now. The end of this week I have my first of 4 days of relief work at The Potential Job. I...must...not...cough. My sole hope is that this is some other cockamamie virus of temporary duration and there will be no cough. Yes, that's it. That must be it.

I did say the house of viruses, did I not? Between myself and the antics of The Herd of Ravenous Monster Puppies (THORMP), heaven forbid that the cats be outdone. Ever since MaoMao staged the Great Escape last year, all the cats have been playing hot potato with a respiratory virus of their own. (Before I got sick, I considered naming this entry The House of Herpes...but that would imply something a wee bit different than intended.) Probably 80% of the feline population has been exposed to herpes (one of several "kitty colds" than kittens often have) & many of these cats become long-term carriers. Just like in humans, the herpes virus tends to pop back up during times of stress to wreak havoc once again. And trust me, THORMP provides plenty o' stress to The Orderly World of Cats.

So po' Benjamin has what's called dendritic keratitis; stereotypical lesions on his corneas caused by herpes, sort of like little ulcers. Treatable (no disintegrating eyeballs in this household, thank you) but for a cat that already objects to his daily pills, eyedrops 4 times per day are just such a bonus. This also means that at least B & MM will have to take lysine twice daily for the forseeable future; after all, herpes is The House Guest That Never Leaves.

Let's just hope it & influenza never hook up.

muah hah hah hahhhh

You Are 10% Evil

You are good. So good, that you make evil people squirm. Just remember, you may need to turn to the dark side to get what you want!

How Evil Are You?

David Horsey

Mr. Horsey is a Pullitzer-winning editorial cartoonist in Seattle. I'm hoping this link will stay on this particular cartoon.... http://cartoonbox.slate.com/hottopic/?topicid=11&image=0

Goodbye Old Friend

It's taken me almost a week to write this post. Jackson was truly one of the most gentle souls I have ever met. He was my parents' dog for many years; he loved Dad and just plain ol' adored Mom. He was there for both of them when they each left this world, and so I was there for him. Despite the "herd" running around this place, it seems a little empty now... or maybe that's just my heart.

Between my aunt and my dog, I don't currently have time to author much of anything. So here, let this fine fellow distress the bejeebers out of you:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031301484.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns