They went in on Friday the 13th (13 isn’t an unlucky number, it was 4 that was the original bad number… people lose sight of that.) I had doubts about them staying at the facility over night and I was working out lots of ways to accommodate the doctor’s wishes (I like this guy, even Bunny liked him and that is saying something) including ideas like

1. If they needed to be seen in the morning: getting a hotel room nearby with the kittens and watching the kittens all night like a hawk (the facility is not manned at night, so they would have been alone…unacceptable)
2. If they needed to be watched all night by actual medical personnel but couldn’t take the long transport: find an emergency clinic and have a vet available but basically be a giant pain in the ass staying there taking care of my kittens all night
3. If they couldn’t be moved after: disguising myself as the resident cat and staying in with them all night or even just acceding to that thought and letting them stay (though I probably would have managed to put a webcam on them somehow…bribery and trickery was not out of the question)
4. If they did ok, take them home that night: this was the preferred outcome and frankly, my vet knows how I work with cat care, so I think he allowed a bit more leeway on this.

Drama queen maybe, but I plan for the worst and hope for the best. You can call me negative, but I will not be the one who said “Oh I’ll just be positive!” and then have others pay the price because I was too stupid and/or lazy to do the work to make sure that things are taken care of. I hate Polyanna types that sit around with their thumbs up their butts in situations and require other people to clean up their messes. Not going to happen here. Especially not with my fur babies.

So, the vet is awesome, the babies both did well and I took them home that night. (And you always know that all nighters are going to suck, but I think I might be getting to be a pansy, because they are some much more of teh suck now.)
Moon Pie was high as a kite and wanted OUT. Ottov2 was hurting a bit, but I gave them both a dose of pain meds and they settled down. I had set up a medium dog crate on my bed so that I could be right there and keep them a little more contained.
Long night, and I ended up having to put the cones of shame on both kittens as well as separating them so that they didn’t tag team go after their stitched areas. Ottov2 kept her cone on her neckular region for 12 hours but Moon Pie squirmed and squirmed in hers until she got her front legs through the opening (it was the smallest size, but still too big on her, so it wasn’t too tight.) and ended up wearing it like a skirt.

Punk ballerina kitten.

It was conveniently situated over her incision, so I just left it for a day or so to keep her away from it.
After that first night, they didn’t need pain meds, in fact they were getting pretty antsy about wanting out of the tiny cage (medium sized dog crate found at Marshall’s for $39). I let them out for a little bit at a time, but the minute they started gaining any sort of speed, they were stuffed back in the cage… I don’t think it really bothered them since they pretty much went right to sleep after that so I’m sure that they were worn out anyway. I had taken some time off to stay home with them, but by the end of MON they were back to normal. They were racing around the apartment by the next FRI.
I am really glad that is over.
Lots of things converged in the universe to help out so I’m pretty pleased about all the details… as tedious as the components were that made it all work, I’m relieved.

I recently vowed that I would not be stuck in a chair while visiting family and having to sit and watch a damn football game ever again. (I’m not certain how people think that having someone fly 4,000 miles to see you and then sitting and watching television with them is “visiting”. I could save myself the airfare and just listen to you on speakerphone (free long distance on my mobile) bitching at the screen while I do something useful like doing laundry or cleaning my andirons while still being home with my catlets).
Anyhoo, I’m sure this will happen again so I bought a Bluetooth phone headset that lets me listen to music or audiobooks through it and be a little more discreet about ignoring boring ass football games on freaking television. I like it so far. I also FINALLY read the dang manual after having let it sit on the charger for several months. I should have done it sooner since my radio in my car was stolen last May and I’ve been listening to audiobooks via the speaker on the phone. It worked passably well, but I think this would have been a little nicer.

Speaking of the rat bastards in Oakland who stole my radio… well, of the radio at least, I had a bit of a $ windfall and ordered a new radio (a wee bit more than just replacing the face that was stolen from my old one, less that my deductible on my insurance) which is much more advanced in the feature department (on sale!).
I’ve cast a spell on my car that does nasty things to people who want to profit from my loss (rather a specific spell in terms of karma, but still generic enough to cover the ill intent for a lot of the waste of resources and poor excuse for humanity that inhabit the East Bay trying to further their drug habits.)

I figured out my stance on forgiveness (yes, have been mulling this one over for a while…especially when people try to pin the label “bitter” on me when I won’t let them profit on my loss).
Here it is: I don’t forgive. I don’t forget.
The best I can manage is to still be polite and never let myself get into that particular situation where whatever bad thing happened again… nor allow other people to to get me in that position again. I even can let some things go a little when it was really an accident or a misunderstanding, but be sure that I won’t let that accident or misunderstanding again.
But I’ve mentioned before that i remember things (well, except for passwords that I need and javascript syntax) and feelings for a very long time without the edges softening. Its hard to forgive when the hurt actually still hurts for 10+ years at full strength. I suppose that dovetails in to project management-the preventative notion and all, but as usual I take things to 11. So you either love me or not…and I’m a pain in the ass, but I’m usually worth it.
Stealing my radio is not something I can be rational about though. Give me 10 minutes with the filth that broke into my car and I’ll be certain they will never want to steal anything again.
Hmmph.

I have a new knitting chair! (new to me-I Craigslisted it after several abortive attempts to score leather versions at a great deal (STYMIED!) I settled for a regular Tullsta chair and ordered a leather cover (on sale!). Probably paid just as much as a new leather one, but this way I can change the slipcover to another cover if I feel like changing… or even just get another one off Craigslist if I score another deal. I also found a wee storage ottoman at Target.com (on sale!) that I hope will match well enough and will keep my knitting supplies away from the ‘only slowly calming down about yarn’ yarnicidal maniacs. They are getting better, I can actually knit in the same room with them, but I’m not kidding myself that I can leave them alone with yarn stored in a basket.
Still, is an improvement.
No pictures of the setup yet. Cover still hasn’t arrived and I’m sort of resigning myself to the fact that Moon Pie is a bit of furniture scratcher; she hasn’t destroyed anything yet (she ignores things covered by blankets-handy that), but she is only 9 1/2 months. Give her some time and a cloth couch and we will be having words. Perhaps the (faux) leather won’t feel so scratchable to her. Ottov2 was having some issues with peeing, but I think that was because she was further along on the development scale and was going into heat (confirmed by vet after spaying). We picked up all the rugs and towels that looked tempting, put out another little cat box and so far so good. Teh googles also said that the hormones that caused her to make so much pee should calm down after a few weeks post-surgery. I think we have it nipped in the bud, but I’m not going to tempt her with anything and when I do reintroduce the concept of throw rug I will follow her around and watch her like a hawk for a while.
So for now my chair is only unburied when I sit in it and the spare waterproof mattress pad that I have is over it now (along with a black throw blanket to make it not look like I’m a total hick.) I’m rather happy that I found a comfy chair that fits me and that I can knit in for a good amount of time even with the kittens on a tear. I’ll move my floor lamp in when I have all the pieces together…then I’ll figure out what to do with the tassel hanging off the lamp that Moon Pie keeps trying to eat…
I do love my kittens. I’m kind of ready for them to stop eating everything though ;)

I suspect I will be able to write a more interesting post after this weekend as I sit on the bed next to 2 very cranky kittens in a small crate recovering from neutering. They will not be happy with me, but ah well. Hard to explain that to the babies except for mind meld.

Happy Holidays!

Please deliver tacos.

Filed under: fredlet ]]> http://fredlet.wordpress.com/2011/12/03/reason-2-saturday-productivity0/feed/ 0 fredlet http://fredlet.wordpress.com/2011/12/03/reason-2-saturday-productivity0/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/fredlet/~3/CVBgTsPKO1k/ http://fredlet.wordpress.com/2011/12/03/why-ive-gotten-very-little-done-this-morning/#comments Sat, 03 Dec 2011 19:36:31 +0000 fredlet http://fredlet.wordpress.com/?p=6251 ]]>

Why I’ve gotten very little done this morning…, originally uploaded by fredlet.

Filed under: fredlet ]]> http://fredlet.wordpress.com/2011/12/03/why-ive-gotten-very-little-done-this-morning/feed/ 1 fredlet http://fredlet.wordpress.com/2011/12/03/why-ive-gotten-very-little-done-this-morning/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/fredlet/~3/63CWmmtcEKU/ http://fredlet.wordpress.com/2011/11/25/food-things/#comments Sat, 26 Nov 2011 03:24:10 +0000 fredlet https://fredlet.wordpress.com/?p=6249 ]]> Apparently I’m turning into a cooking fiend. I still hate exact measurements, I’d rather experiment with a few things than follow a recipe and little piles of fabulously artful flavors kinda freaks me out, but I find myself being inexplicably (and irritatingly) earnest about my feelings on food.
Yeah, sorry.
But when it comes down to it, I love watching what people can do with old heirloom recipes or a few really beautiful pieces of cheese/meat/veggies/whatever and it still startles me when someone likes my cooking (not just in the ‘humor the moron’ way)…
No I probably will never feel like I’m not in 2nd grade.
Anyhoo, I found a nice little trick on teh intarweb about substituting sour cream for oil and made a sweet potato bread. It turned out nicely, kinda spice cake-ish. Not as orgasmic as the banana sour cream bread I generally make but I’m on bit of a sweet potato bender, so I went that direction instead. Not too bad.
Thanksgiving was low key. I’m not totally amused with my life right now and I didn’t make it to the store the days rolling up to Thursday, so I wasn’t all that gung-ho about being too culinarily exciting.

I did make a roast chicken (one of the fabu fancy ones from Trader Joe’s)

Evil cornbread

Roasted veggies (sweet potato cubes, mushrooms, carrots in butter)

Sautéed mushrooms and baby spinach

Peach cobbler

I spent most of the day thinking about my dream kitchen (my dream kitchen isn’t over the top so I should probably call it my “if I could make actual changes to a kitchen” kitchen.) and what I wanted based on ongoing irritation or things that aren’t a priority for me despite other people swearing they can’t live without whatever item it is they are talking about.

It was a nice day and low key. I’m tired and sore but I don’t think it is from standing all day, I’ve been a bit tense lately so I’m sure that doesn’t help. I think something is due to change, but isn’t know if that will good or bad or just be different.

Kittens are cute, furry, messy and due to be spayed soon… I’m not looking forward to that.

Crazy cat

Flying with mama.

7.5 months, originally uploaded by fredlet.

Makes it hard to type, but is nice and warm.