How could I have forgotten...

...how much finals suck? Granted, I only have the two and one of them was take-home so I really only have the one, but still. Suck. I'm not going to dwell, though, because unless the planet tips on its axis I should be able to get an absolute minimum of a C in both classes. I'm expecting it to be two B's or possibly an A and a B, but the absolute worst would be a C. Which is average, and considering how I've felt the last month or so, average is totally awesome.

I'm listening to "Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who, and Roger Daltry wants me to stick my finger down his throat. I don't think I know him well enough for that. Also, he's old enough that he should know better than to swallow evil things, anyway. Right?!?

Anyhoo, I really need to get these index cards ready for my final tomorrow. So TTFN!!

Sooooooo lazy

So, secret admirer. Somewhat unusual, especially in this age of instant information. Well, mine was not actually all that hard to figure out (sorry, dude, if you wanted it to be a secret you should've picked someone who's actually dated more than half a handful of people). Anyway, his name is Mike and some of you may have actually met him. We dated briefly when I was living in Fargo and he came to visit once during my second attempt at Duluth. In the interim, he got married and had a kid or so. Fast forward to a couple of months ago, apparently he decides to google me and see what I'm up to these days. Lo and behold, I'm still in the area and still single. So he decides to get in touch with me. Neato.

Then comes the big news: he's still married. His wife has a boyfriend. Etc., etc. Drama worthy of a Jerry Springer episode. Whoo. Which brings us to now. We're going to be pals for now, with the dating thing to be possibly revisited at a later time when his life begins to resemble a slightly less "blender full of crazy" type of situation.


Wow, I'm tired now. I think I'll go eat some ice cream. TTFN!!

Dirty looks in the library

I has them. I should know better than to look at LOL stuff in here, anyway. This one is mostly for Shawn, although I'm not sure he'll know who this is ;-)


see Sarah Palin pictures


Another site full of funny, funny stuff.

Lazy and bewildered

Quite a combination, eh? I know some of you are probably waiting to hear more about my "secret admirer" which is the bewildered part. It's all kind of weird and trippy in a very Jerry Springer-like fashion. I will write more at some point, but now enters the lazy portion of the equation. That, and I have 2 papers due in 2 weeks, neither of which I have even started. Oh well. For now, though, I must listen to some medieval history, so TTFN!!

Babies are sooooooooo cute!

Short snippet today. My new baby arrived on Monday. She weighs in at 4.5 pounds and is machined from a single piece of aluminum. Even the box she came in is cool. I talking, of course, about my new MacBook. Go student loans whichiwillbepayingoffuntili'mdeadanyway! So I should be up and running and back on the interwebs for absurd amounts of time very soon.

Went to see Pride and Glory yesterday. It could have been good, maybe even great, but they just went a little too far and wrecked the whole thing. What a waste of perfectly good Ed Norton. One side note, whoever was done costumes on this film should be shot. He or she put jeans on E.N. that gave him total squishy girl butt. Now, I realize he doesn't always look like he did in American History X, but he does not have girl butt, dammit. That is all.

Otherwise, just going to school and having a very trippy experience with my very first internet stalker. OK, not really a stalker, but still, it sounds cooler to say stalker. More on this as events unfold. TTFN!!!

So, rabies

I suppose I should do that one first. Last Thursday I was doing my usual shift at the shelter and got bitten on my right ring finger by a fat cat who was wedged underneath a shelf. No biggie, right? I just slapped on a band-aid and went on with my life. Well, I got home that night and as soon as I removed the bandage the finger started to swell. Pretty soon I had a red, throbbing sausage attached to my hand. Now, I know infections from cat bites are the nastiest thing next to infections from human bites. So, did I go to the ER? Oh heck no. I think there was a Wild game on or something, and I didn't want to go out. So I wake up Friday morning and it still looks awful, so I call the clinic to get an appointment and called my English prof. to tell him I wouldn't be in class. When I did get to the clinic I got a bunch of disapproving looks because I didn't take care of this as soon as it happened. Anyway, my NP looked at it and then called in the Internal Medicine MD that was there. He told me to get a dog because they tear when they bite so they don't usually get infected. Other than that, I got mega-antibiotics and instructions about soaking and going to the ER immediately if anything changed. I went back to the Dr. on Saturday and Monday mornings. Whee.

Anyhoo, the cat that bit me was a stray who hadn't had any shots from us yet. Super. So the cat had to go to the vet to be euthanized so samples of her brain could be sent to the U of M for testing. The rabies test came back negative, though, and everything looks peachy. At this point you can't tell that boo-boo from the four hundred other boo-boos I have because I'm a klutz. So that's the story of how I didn't get rabies. Exciting, right?

More coming. Don't worry. TTFN!!

I don't have rabies!

Which is good, right? I know I have been blog-less for quite a while, but this school thing has been harder than I expected. The good news, though, is it's midterm time and I have an A and a solid B so far. I'm just posting a teensy bit today, but I should be getting my own computer back sometime this week, so I'll go crazy then. I'll make a list:

• The rabies thing
• School
• Shelter
• Family
• Whatever.

I promise by this time next week you'll be so sick of me you'll want to hide in the corner. Alas, I have to go to class now, so farewell. TTFN!!

OMGWTFBBQTMNTAFLCIO?!?!?!?!?

Is it just me, or is Trent Reznor way less angry now that he's famous? I heard one of his new songs in the car and he's all, "man, this sucks I should really do something about it lalala," (or something like that) when in the past he would have been all, "man, this sucks and I'm going to kill everyone I see until I feel less empty which will never happen so fuck you all lalala," (or something like that). Maybe he's just growing up, or maybe having lots of money makes you less angry. I wouldn't know.

I started my history class last night, which is going to be interesting. I think I'm going to like it, but I don't think I'll be talking much, since about 90% of the class are history majors and have a better understanding of context, etc. We'll see. My English class starts tomorrow, which I'm really excited about. The professor is one I've had before, and he's charmingly odd. He's got long white hair and a beard and he always looks surprised to see that there are students in his class. He carries around a briefcase overflowing with stuff he doesn't actually use for class. And he wears corduroy and hiking boots. Win!

Other than that, not much happening. Except me being lazy about blogging. But hey, my thyroid ultrasound was normal, so that's good. TTFN!!

Memeage (aka two posts in two days wtf!?!)

But first, a few thoughts. First, yes, I have seen The Dark Knight. Twice (so far). I am not going to go into it, but if anyone wants to sit around and squee about the awesomeness that is this once in a lifetime cinematic event, just let me know. I'm pretty sure I could go on and on and on and...well, you get the picture.

Second, I saw The Pineapple Express and it is hella funny. And Huey Lewis and the News do the theme song! (And no, it isn't "I Want a New Drug".)

Here's the meme part. One of my LJ friends picked seven interests off of my profile. I can has telling you about them nao, k?

gopher hockey - I *heart* hockey. In the context of hockey, I *heart* college hockey. In the context of college hockey I *heart* WCHA hockey. In the context of WCHA hockey, I *heart* several teams, but the Gophers are the ones I can actually watch on TV, since I don't live close enough to any other team and they are the FSN North team. (I suppose I could watch the Sioux, but that would make me an evil person with a heart as black as pitch, so why would I? (Why does anyone?))

it's happy bunny - I swear, I liked Happy Bunny before it showed up on every teenage girl's backpack. I love the combo of the cute bunny and the horrible, horrible things they say. I have a sign book which I have in my cubicle (when I have a cubicle) and I have gotten many notes on my desk from people on other shifts who admire and adore the Happiness as well.

lupus - And/or Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. I am interested in it because I have it. Right now, I am pretty asymptomatic (without symptoms), which is great, but can change without much warning. It's kind of like living with a bomb that could go off at any time and really fuck up your shit. So far I have only had one really bad flare, but most of the time I live with aches, pain, random swelling, rashes, extreme fatigue, depression and all kinds of other fun stuff. Lots of Lupus patients end up needing kidney transplants, which sucks, but so far I haven't had any kidney involvement, which is great. The thing that's really hard is that I don't know when I go to bed at night what I'm going to feel like in the morning. I mean, I can kind of gauge from how I've been feeling, what I've been doing, and what I've been eating, but to a certain degree it's always a surprise. But like I said, I feel pretty damn good right now, so I'm just going to go with it. It's all good.

Hoban Washburne - Mmmmmmmmmm...Firefly... I love ALL the Firefly folk, but Wash is the one I think I'd get along with the best. He has all the best lines in the show. We have a very similar sense of humor, although I have to admit he's better at witty retorts than I am.

David Hewlett's heart-shaped ass - I saw this on someone's profile and thought it was hi-larious, so I stole it. I do like Stargate Atlantis and Rodney McKay and David Hewlett, but I've never been particularly obsessed with his ass, heart-shaped or not. Not that it isn't nice, because it is.

Philip K. Dick - One of my favorite sci-fi authors. I bet there are lots of you reading who are more familiar with him than you think. His stories have been the basis of tons of movies. Like Minority Report, Paycheck, Blade Runner, Total Recall, just to name a few off the top of my head. I like his stories because they always contain an unexpected element. I also like his version of the "future", which is clean and sleek. As with all sci-fi, the stories are really about society or some universal truth, but he disguises it better than some.

King Arthur - I don't know what to say, man, I LOVE this movie. I've never been into the whole Camelot thing, but this movie! Yummy boys in tight pants with swords?!?!?! What could be better? Yes, the acting is a bit much, and yes, the story is terribly predictable, but WHO CARES?!?! Ioan Gruffudd and Clive Owen in TIGHTS, people?!?!?!? Need I say more?

Anyhoo, that's about all of that. TTFN!!

Whee

Two posts in one week?!?! What is the world coming to? I have news, though. My baby brother is officially engaged. It's crazy, right? No word yet on dates/etc. for the wedding, but I would guess sooner rather than later. His fiancee's name is Becky and she's pretty awesome. I definitely could have done a lot worse for a sister-in-law. So think a good thought for them. Or at least for Becky. If she's marrying my brother, she's going to need all the help she can get ;-)

I guess this officially flings me into old maid territory, huh? That and Shawn saying he only has one bachelor party left are really making me feel old. Also the fact that I know what that new JCPenny commercial (the Breakfast Club one) is referring to.

Congratulations to Ethan and Becky!!

I'm lazy and I just don't care...

AKA, the title of the book I'm going to write just as soon as I become motivated and interested in stuff. I'm not dead, just resting. I will talk about my trip to Michigan at some point, but not right now. In lieu of a real post, I'm going to post something from failblog.org, which is one of the best places to find funny shit. Viola:

see more pwn and owned pictures

Two whole days

Well, almost. That's how long The Dark Knight has been out without being seen by me. Shocked? You should be. I have had the countdown to this movie on my desktop for six months now. So why? Why have I not partaken of the grisly goodness? I'm going to blame my brother. I'm going to visit him this next week and he calls me on Friday all "Dude, we should totally go see it at the IMAX while you're here." And I says, "Hey. good idea!" It seemed like a no-brainer due to the fact that the closest IMAX screen around here is at the MN Zoo in Apple Valley. However, everywhere I look I see stuff about this movie. I may end up seeing Mamma Mia! just to give my brain something to chew on whilst waiting for the awesomeness of The Dark Knight. I'll probably live, though.

Yes, yes, I'm going visiting. I'm leaving Frazee on Tuesday to stay at my cousin Sue's house Tuesday night. I will leave painfully early on Wednesday morning to drive to Milwaukee (it's pronounced "mill-e-wah-que" which is Algonquin for "the good land.") to take the Lake Express ferry to Muskegon, Michigan where I will be picked up by said brother. I will return on Sunday to Milwaukee, from whence I will drive to Two Harbors to pick up my father. My plan is to just go with the flow. As long as there's Batman somewhere in there, I'm happy. There have been various activities mentioned, including Taste of Grand Rapids and a steak on the grill. Is it just me, or is anything more fun when there's food involved?

Other than that, there isn't much going on. I'm still volunteering at the Shelter, still planning to start classes at NDSU on Aug 25th. Still struggling with slogging through my accumulated crap from the past 15 years and throwing what I don't need. I'm also (apparently) randomly capitalizing things. I know you can't tell, because I fixed it, but trust me. Anyhoo, I'm going to eat a beef stick and go to bed early. TTFN!!

First of all..

You guys suck at audience participation. I've decided that, as a punishment, I will not bother with a real post and instead subject you to the funniest gosh darned thing I've seen in ages. Even if you aren't a comic book geek, you WILL squirt milk out your nose, so, you know, point it away from the computer.

I don't wanna

Blog, that is. So I'm going to cheat. This meme has been going around for a while, so I don't know who to credit it to, but whatever.


1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

(First of all, I'm not going to tag five people, since I don't know if there are even five people who read this thing. Second, if you feel like doing it, post your answer in the comments. If not, well, I don't like you, either! Nyah!)

My book is The Regulators by Stephen King, which I just finished last night. I never pick up my crap, so it's still on the floor next to my bed. Anyhoo...

He could smell the grass, like some sweet wet perfume. It was spiced with a tang of cedar smoke. God bless the lightning, he thought.

Wow. Probably the three shortest sentences in the whole book. Good sentences, though. I don't think I could've done better even if I cheated.

Garlic breath, I has it.

I make the best Caesar salad dressing in the whole world. For real. Definitely not something you want to eat just before your Senate testimony, though. Just a quick post before I head to The Lake for the weekend. Nothing much going on around here. I did go yesterday and sign a bunch of papers so that Vocational Rehab can help me pay for school, so that's good. They're even going to pay mileage, which is a really good thing. We're going to try out the new cat harness this weekend. Hopefully it won't result in injury for anyone. Anyhoo, like I said, short post. TTFN!!

Somebody win the lottery, dammit...

Whoever invented money was a complete idiot. I'm sure it's nice when you have some, but when you don't it sucks almost as much as the underlying premise of the latest Indiana Jones movie. (I actually liked the movie, but the whole basis for the story was puh-leeze!) I've been going back and forth with myself about moving out of the parental homestead and when I crunch the numbers, it just isn't worth it. Yes, I would have more privacy and independence. And yes, I would have no cable, internet, gas money and possibly, by the end of the month, toilet paper. I also wouldn't be able to run an air conditioner very much at all. I've discussed this all with the mother and the father and they are in agreement. So I'm here for a while longer, anyway.

In other news, though, I am going back to school. Now, please don't sprain anything rolling your eyes, people, I'm just going to finish the degree I was working on at NDSU in Fargo. I'll take a half load to start with. Classes begin August 25th, and I'm actually pretty excited. Not necessarily about the degree itself (I'll graduate with a Bachelor of University Studies, or B.U.S. I'll have a bus!) but about actually, for once in my life, finishing SOMETHING. Yay for finishing stuff! So that's what's what around here. Hope you all are having a swell summer so far! TTFN!!

So, yeah

Last weekend was fun. I haven't gone anywhere or done anything is so long, it was like a vacation. Shawn and I had a good time on Friday night. We went to see You Don't Mess With the Zohan, which was really quite enjoyable. Obviously, it was fairly stupid, but within the context of an Adam Sandler movie, I really liked it.

On Saturday, I spent the afternoon at the Mall of, and stimulated the ever-lovin' crap out of the economy. Good times. Then I went over to my cousin's house in St. Paul. We went to a Cambodian/Chinese buffet which was really good. We had originally planned on seeing the new Indiana Jones movie, but both decided that sounded too much like work, so we rented The Mist instead. I'll have to say, it's one of the better movies adapted from a Stephen King story. I have to go read the story now, because my bro says the movie ending is different. And the movie ending was just brutal. Seriously messed-up.

On Sunday I slept in and then farted around in Maple Grove for a while. I'm totally in love with Trader Joe's. Their mandarin orange chicken is soooooooo good. Cheap and easy, too. Drove home the rest of the way in and out of rain. Actually, driving in and out of rain pretty much sums up the last two weeks worth of weather. Getting really old. Anyhoo, nothing interesting has happened since then, except that we didn't go to The Lake this weekend because of the crappy weather. Summer can arrive any old time, thankyouverymuch. Wishing you all sunshine days and caviar nights. Or something. TTFN!!

A bucket of prednisone it is!

Well, that and some more CellCept. Hopefully I'll be able to get away with just a short course of prednisone this time. Got my blood work results today and my white cell count is a little low, but nothing major, and my Sed rate is a little high, but nothing major. So, really, nothing drastic happening on the health front, just trying to get used to not feeling great all the time. I need to get my "Lupus brain" back. I'm getting there, but "healthy brain" keeps popping in to say hi.

I don't really feel like blogging today, but I thought I'd better get something up before I start forgetting what I wrote about last time. I promise a recap of last weekend's festivities tomorrow or Sunday. TTFN!!!

Sad lazy goober-head...

Yep, that's me. Actually I have been feeling pretty dang crappy for going on 2 weeks now. My temporary respite from most Lupus symptoms is sadly over. I haven't had a decent night's sleep in a week because of the pain from the pleurisy and I'm typing this with only 9 fingers because the middle one on my left hand won't bend. It's nothing compared to how I have felt at various other times, but it's harder to deal with because I had been feeling so great for so long. I just need to get back into the "Lupus mindset" that I had almost perfected before this recent spell of goodness. I'm seeing my Rheumatologist tomorrow, so hopefully he'll have some words of wisdom. Either that or a bucket of prednisone.

In other news, I have spent my "economic stimulus" check on something I feel confident 'ol GW would find terribly offensive. I don't really feel like going into the whole thing tonight, so I'll just say it's a website, and it has nothing to do with fishing. More later, I promise. I just need to craft a rather lengthy explanation of things before I go public.

Well, I'm going to head for bed as I have a long day tomorrow. I'll be driving to St. Louis Park for the appointment, and then I'm going to stay with Shawn Friday night. Haven't seen him in ages so it should be good. Plus he's the only person I know who's a bigger pessimist than I am, so that should be fun. Saturday night I'm going to stay with my cousin Sue, who I also haven't seen in forever. I believe we will be taking in the new Indiana Jones picture. I'm keeping an open mind. TTFN!!

A whole weekend without internet

And I survived. I didn't even use a computer. I took it along when I went up to The Lake, but I just didn't take it out. I didn't start out the weekend intending to go cold turkey, but it ended up that way. Turns out there's other stuff to do. As a result, I have no words to write here right now. I guess I have to get back to my usual overly-wordy self gradually. More words soon, m'kay?

A little less needy...

So, Sarah reminded me about the time I had to have my appendix out. I'm guessing she's not the only one who felt bad about not being with me before the surgery, but the truth is the whole thing went so fast and I was pretty out of it, so I really don't even remember much. So stop feeling bad, people. The thing I DO remember is a ring of people around my bed when I woke up. The nurse told me they'd been there since before they even brought me up from recovery. That was pretty cool. Especially since my parents hadn't arrived yet (that's how fast the whole thing happened). It was pretty awesome to have such groovy friends. I still use the mug that held the plant everybody chipped in on for me. Every time I use it I think about how cool my friends were when I got sick that one time.

Shawn reminded me of the MS walkathon. I'm pretty sure none of us ever actually raised any money. I'm not sure the 15-mile walk was worth it for a t-shirt, and yet we did it more than once. I think Sarah was the smart one who sat out. I think that was the first time I met Shawn. I may or may not have had a bit of a crush on him. As for the summer of '97, I think that's all that needs to be said on that subject.

Keep 'em comimg, people. This is kind of fun! TTFN!!!

I'm feeling needy

I was going to post a really long rant about the so-called "series finale" of Scrubs the other night, but I've kind of run out of steam on that one. Instead, I'm going to shamelessly pander for positive reinforcement. I'd like this to be an interactive entry. You leave a comment about a memory of me that sticks out in your mind and I'll dedicate a whole post to something I remember about you. Is this shameless fishing for reminders of why I'm friend material? Absolutely. Had a crappy weekend and I'm in serious need of an ego boost. So, boost away... TTFN!!!

Movies that I'm not embarrassed to say I liked

One of which is Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. And I don't care who knows it. I laughed my arse off. If you go to see this movie, stick around until the very end of the credits. Awesome!!! And, as always, NPH stole the show. I am still crushed by the fact that he's gay. Apparently everyone in Hollywood has known forever, but I didn't find out until a year or so ago when my aunt gave me some old People magazines. Doogie was my fall-back guy. What am I going to do now? I still don't have a new backup. Why, NPH?!?!? Why!?!?!?

In other news, sorry I've been MIA lately. It took considerably longer than I thought it would to migrate to my "new" computer. Now that I've got most everything set up the way I want it, I am absolutely ecstatic about the switch. Now I just have to clean all my illegally obtained software off the old one so I can sell it for parts on eBay. Technically, it isn't completely dead yet, but it's definitely circling the drain. There is only so much pounding that it will respond to before the motherboard gives out completely.

In other news, there isn't any. Although the cat is starting to clean himself, so things are looking up. Hope you are all enjoying the snow-free May. So far, anyway, but I'm not holding my breath. TTFN!!

Crap noodles.

Is how I am feeling about the imminent death of my precious baby, my white knight of computing, my iBook. She's on her fifth motherboard, it's true, but I still love her in a way that is both poignant and slightly disturbing. She will be succeeded by a PowerBook that is a bit of an upgrade, but she will always hold a special place in my heart. At least until I sell her on eBay for parts. As soon as the new baby is broken in, I promise a long information-y post about all the cool stuff I've been doing. As if. TTFN!!!

R.I.P. Wild playoff run

Although, I'm not sure you can really call it a run if you lose in the first round. It wasn't entirely their fault, though. Nick Schultz's appendix had incredibly bad timing and damned if Kurtis Foster's BROKEN FEMUR refused to heal in a few weeks. Also Jose Theodore (my new dart board target, if I threw darts, that is) was just insane. It was like he was covered in flypaper or something. He just didn't give up any rebounds. Well, I guess I'll be getting my regular bedtime back. I mean, who wants to sit around watching playoff hockey while there is laundry to be folded, right?

I know, I know

I'm a slacker. Well, get ready to quiver in awe of my continued slackitude. Hence, a possibly offensive link about butts.

Poetry is hard

I am trying to get that sonnet written, I swear. I'm going to use this post to introduce you to the new man in my life. Well, technically he's neutered, but he's also of a different species, so it's all good. And now, presenting for the very first time... (insert drum roll here) ...Linus. He's also known as my Sweet Baboo, Blankie-boy, and Dover (as in runneD OVER). He looks a bit scruffy at the moment, but his whiskers are starting to grow back.




And last, but not least, bow down in the fearsome presence of... ROBO-KITTEH!!!

Vegas, part deux...

...in which I will tell y'all about the rest of my trip, mostly. I'm saving my experience at Star Trek: The Experience for another day when I'm feeling more poetical, because it really deserves a sonnet or something. Now where did I leave off?

Ah yes, Saturday. Got up and all of us went to the champagne brunch at the Bellagio. I may have developed an unnatural relationship with some pineapple danish, but no one had a big enough purse for me to smuggle any out. It was definitely the best buffet brunch I've ever had. Highly recommended. After that we all walked around a bit, and then I went back to the Flamingo for a bit of a nap as I had majorly over-done things on Friday. After the rest of the crew got back, I packed up my stuff & went with mom & dad to the condo in the sticks (which was very nice and not anywhere near the strip), thus leaving the Flamingo room to Ethan & Becky for "date night". We picked up some BBQ on the way and spent the rest of the evening in 3 different rooms watching 3 different TVs. They had MTV2 so I even got to catch some Beavis & Butthead.

Sunday morning Ethan & Becky had to check out of the Flamingo and move their stuff to the sticks. Then we went to the Carnegie Deli at the Mirage for lunch. The pastrami was everything I hoped it would be. Then we split up so I could go to the Hilton for ST:TE and the winning of the moolah. As I said, I'll talk about the Star Trek thing later, but after I was done, I played some penny slots for a while and won $600. Unfortunately, I had to go over to the Dark Side to do it. I think I'm OK with my decision, though. They have better clothes, anyway. While this was going on, dad & Ethan went to a car show at the Imperial Palace and mom & Becky wandered around gambling and such.

After all that, we went downtown to have supper and wander around the Fremont Street Experience for a bit. We had the buffet at the Golden Nugget, which surprised us all by being excellent. They were making fresh sushi to order! Granted, there were a limited number of choices, but still. We then wandered around and watched a couple of the shows they play on the canopy over the street (which is apparently the largest video screen in the world), which were pretty cool. Then we went home and all went to bed early. On Monday morning, breakfast was prepared at the condo and I flitted off to the airport. One boring flight later and I was back in the land of ice and snow. Whoo. Overall, it was a really fun trip, even without the added bonus of paying for it with my winnings.

I promise pictures of the new cat (his name is Linus) as soon as I find the USB cable for my camera. I know which pile it's in, I just haven't begun excavation. Hope everyone had a nice Zombie Jesus day and that all is well. TTFN!!

Vegas post pt. 1 ('cuz I'm lazy)

Well, I made it back alive. That's all you wanted to know, right? TTFN!!!

Hardy har. Incidentally, though, I DID make it back alive. I also made it back a bit heavier in the wallet, having won $600 at a penny machine. That's later in the story, though.

I arrived late on Thursday and then waited around for Ethan & his girlfriend, Becky, to get in from Grand Rapids. The parentals picked us all up and we went to their timeshare at the Flamingo, which is right in the middle of the Strip. Nice place, a little small for all 5 of us, but not bad for a free (for me) room. On Friday we all went to Emeril's seafood restaurant at the MGM Grand. It was OK, but I was expecting to be a lot more impressed. We all went back to the hotel where mom & dad packed their stuff up to move to their second timeshare and E, B & I went down and sat by the pool for a while. Ethan and Becky hung out in the pool for a bit whilst I reclined in the full shade. Becky's a very fair-skinned redhead, so she's careful about the sun, too. Maybe she'll be able to convince Ethan that sunblock is a good thing.

After lounging by the pool, us kids wandered around the strip for the rest of the evening. Mostly we just looked at stuff, as there is an enormous amount of stuff to look at. We went to Cravings, which is the buffet at the Mirage, for supper, which was OK, but not good enough for the price they were charging. Then we went next door to Treasure Island to watch Sirens, which is supposed to be the pirate show. LAME. Last time we were there (when I was 12) it was really cool and they did it once an hour. Now it is basically a peep show with a couple of explosions. I definitely wouldn't bring my kids to it, but there were lots of them there. By the time we got back to the room, Ethan & Becky were done for, but I still wanted to see the fountain show at the Bellagio so I soldiered on. I went and got pastries from a place at the Bellagio (which were obscenely good, btw), watched the fountain show (which was really fun, btw), and bought some band-aids for the blisters I got from wearing brand new shoes (a really BAD idea, btw). We were all in bed before midnight.

I have to go scoop the cat box now, so I'm going to continue this later. Yes, I have a new kitty, I'll write about him later. TTFN!!

Vacation hangover

Sorry for no post about Vegas yet. I promise this weekend I'll give you all the (not so) juicy details. Just to tide you over, I did win $600 on a penny slot machine! Luckily, it didn't pay out in pennies.

Look ma, a real post!

Sorry for the lame-o posts as of late. I've been pretty down in the proverbial dumps, which is not conducive to creating words that aren't absolutely necessary. However, good ol' Daylight Savings Time has kicked in, and I'm practically a new woman. I've got a few random, completely unrelated topics that have been floating around my gourd, so bear with me.

First up: I'm going to Vegas, baby. And yes, I do know how money I am. Mom & Dad left on Saturday and I'm heading out tomorrow night. Mostly I'm going because Ethan & Becky will be there, too, and I haven't seen them since Christmas, which may not seem like very long, but it's the longest I've gone without seeing Ethan in a long time. Anyhoo, I'm not a gambler but I am embarrassingly excited about Star Trek: The Experience at the Hilton. I'll be back Monday night, so it's not a long trip, but I think overall it will be a good balance of vacation/vacation from the parental units (They don't come back until Friday).

And now to the fannish portion of the post. I have just finished watching "Band of Brothers", which is a 10-part miniseries about WWII. I cannot adequately explain how good this is. If you or any member of your immediate family has any interest in history, or the military, or good storytelling, or frostbite, or whatever, you owe it to yourself to check this out. I'll put it this way: if you liked Saving Private Ryan even a teensy bit, you will bow down and worship the box these DVDs come in. I'm also recommending In Bruges, which is in the theater now. Yes, it's Colin Farrell, but he actually does a really good job. I will warn, though, it's a pretty dark comedy, so if you're the kind of person who can't ever find attempted suicide funny, it's probably not for you.

I think that's enough for one post. Wouldn't want you to get spoiled, now, would I? TTFN!!!

Comedy Central has comedy.

I should be in bed, but I just saw a commercial for Lil' Bush and I can't stop laughing because Lil' George W. said: "Only you have the power to make no difference." I'm not sure if it was really that funny, or if I'm laughing so I don't cry about how true that statement is.

Was this a funny or a depressing post? Hmmmm...

Back sort of

Yeah, I'm here. Don't have anything interesting to say. I know I should come up with something, but my life is pretty boring right now. Although, I am going to Las Vegas for a few days next week, so maybe then I'll know something interesting. Until then, here's one of our dogs. Her name is Gracie:

I'm still sad

So no blog this week. I'll be back, though. I promise.

Sad news...

My heart is a little bit broken. Audrey had to be humanely euthanized this morning. I guess that the surgery was just too much for her poor little body to handle. She went peacefully, and now she's not suffering any more. I'm going to miss her. A lot.

Thank you to everyone who expressed warm wishes for Audrey's recovery. Unfortunately, it just wasn't meant to be. TTFN! :-(

Happy(er than I thought it would be) Valentine's Day!

Well, the kitty is home. She is pretty miserable and is missing the fur on her tummy, but she's alive enough to be cranky, and that's a whole lot better than I had myself prepared for. The vet removed a fatty tumor that was attached to her sternum. He thinks it was contained, and said that other than her liver being kind of compressed, her organs looked good. It was a huge blob of goo, he said it weighed over a pound. That's almost 10% of her body weight. Yikes! So I guess we know now why she was feeling like crap. That thing was taking up most of her abdominal cavity.

So all in all, Audrey is doing OK. Now the task at hand is to get her eating again. I'm hoping that maybe when her pain pill kicks in, she'll fell a little more like eating. I feel like I lost 50 lbs. (I wish!) and I think I'll be able to sleep well tonight. Thanks to everyone who was thinking good thoughts for Catzilla. She lives to menace another city. TTFN!!

My kitty is sicky

I don't know how sick, or exactly what's wrong with her yet, but the chances of it being something simple are pretty small. It all started a couple of weeks ago, she had been making squeaky noises when she was picked up for a while, but that was all. Then she started acting weird. Not bad, just, off. I took her to the vet and had an x-ray done, which showed that her spleen was enlarged and her belly was full of fluid. I took her home with some Lasix to try to get rid of the fluid with the understanding that if that didn't work, the next option was surgery.

I spent the week freaking out and asking second opinions of everyone at the shelter. The vet we use asked if Audrey's vet had mentioned a needle aspiration of the fluid in her tummy. He had not, so I scheduled another appointment for this past Friday. On Friday, the vet called and wondered why I was bringing her in again. I explained about the needle aspiration. He impressed upon me exactly HOW large her spleen was, which I hadn't really realized. He said that a needle aspiration without anesthesia could make things go from not so bad to she's dead very quickly. We then decided to go ahead and schedule the surgery. They'll put her under and then do the needle aspiration. Depending upon what that shows, decisions will have to be made. If we decide to go ahead with the surgery, more decisions will have to be made. The best case is the spleen is just infected, they remove it, and she gets some antibiotics for a while. Worst case is, well, she never wakes up.

I spent pretty much the whole day Friday crying and snuggling her against her will. I know there are people out there who will roll their eyes at the fact that I'm so distraught about this, but they can all kiss Audrey's crusty butt. I love her and she never tells me that I'm doing something wrong, or that I should go out and get a job. She loves me no matter what. So now I'm in total denial mode and have decided everything is going to be just fine. Dammit. TTFN!!

------Edit------
Three hours since I started this post and Audrey seems to have acquired a cold or something. Great. Hopefully it doesn't mean anything other than the sniffles.
----------------

Whacked out brain thingys

Yeah, my head is all over the place today, so this may be a little, well, let's call it disjointed. I just got back from seeing Juno, which I really liked, but I didn't love. I don't know what it was, maybe they were just all way too clever. But, it did have Jason Bateman whom I have loved since forever (Little House on the Prairie).

My kitty is sick. I don't know how sick yet, but it could be really bad. Of course, it could also be not very bad at all. So I've got that to look forward to tomorrow.

On the way home from the movie, I was thinking about my long, long, loooooooooong romantic dry spell. Yeah. I've been ambivalent for years about it, which is at least partially due to my depression and the meds I take for it. I'd like to blame the drought entirely on that, but I don't think that's entirely fair. I'd also like to blame it on my various locational handicaps, but I think that's also a cop-out. I guess it boils down to a combination of laziness and not being entirely comfortable in my own skin. I think I may finally have the latter down, now I just need to work on the former. Either that or all of my married friends (you know who you are) need to get off their keesters and help a girl out, here. I mean, aren't all you married-types supposed to want everyone else to be married, too? Come on, people.

So, there's where my Thursday brain has been taking me. I also wanted to ask the people who read this whose email addresses I don't have (a Ms. DDM (or is it Mrs. DDC by now?) in particular) to either go to my profile and send me an email or comment with said address. That is all. TTFN!!!

Sweeny Todd for president!!!!!!

Yes, viewers, I finally saw Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I will admit, I went in to this movie fully prepared to love it. It did not disappoint. If anyone asked me, not that they will, if Tim Burton and Johnny Depp should ever make movies with anyone but each other, I would have to say NO! Well, maybe sometimes. But I really think they both do their best work with each other. OK, so they've each made some really good movies on their own, but come on, Edward Scissorhands? Ed Wood? Corpse Bride? All classics.

Not much going on around here. I've been putting in long hours at the shelter while they hire a new director. I think she starts on Feb. 1st, so hopefully things will calm down a little. Other than that, just the same old stuff. Hope you all had a good weekend! TTFN!!

I'm lazy

I know I haven't posted for real in a while, but I'm not going to now, either. I would, however, like to point out someone else's blog post which illustrates the fact that I have entirely too little time on my hands.

Gummi Bears, take me away!!!

In other, completely unrelated news, Heath Ledger died! WTF?!?!?!

TTFN!!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Honestly, I can't think of anything else to say. It's too cold to blog, people! TTFN!!

Did you know...

• More than 12 million dogs and cats are euthanized in shelters each year.
• As many as 25% of dogs entering shelters each year are purebreds.
• Approximately 61% of all dogs entering shelters are killed.
• Approximately 75% of all cats entering shelters are killed.

I'm just saying...

Oh, my achin' funnybone

This goes out to all the hardcore LOTR freaks in the universe (and if you don't know what that stands for, you're not one). I just finished listening to the funniest parody I have heard yet. Forget Cassie Claire's Secret Diaries, forget Bored of the Rings, even forget Lord of the Pants. It's a podcast, so it's audio, and it almost got me kicked out of the library. Go here for their website or else find it on iTunes under The Funny Lord of the Rings Podcast. I promise you will not be sorry.

Let the torture begin...

I am feeling about as excited about writing a blog entry as I am for the new Britney Spears album, so here are some pictures of my cat.





Note the Christmas tree needle sticking out of her nose on the last one. Yep, she's a dainty little flower.