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September 27, 2007
funk. bagpipes.
there is some serious funk happening in my side yard, and for a change i don't think my garbage is to blame. there's decidedly some CAT PEEEEEE. and something else, kind of perfumey. like someone is dumping scented cat litter nearby? i can't spot a culprit, and i'm using feline pine these days, which is fragrance fee. also, mo no longer produces full power pee (i'm sure you wanted to know).
and then i forgot to take out the trash this morning, which i had planned to do because i knew if i didn't, it would produce some serious funk, which it is.
just as randomly, there were people playing bagpipes out in front of the high school i drive by on my way home from work. they sounded really good. it's an arts magnet so there's often something happening there, but this is definitely the first time i've witnessed babpipery.
Posted by lisa at 07:04 PM
September 26, 2007
the last remaining link to "she hates my futon"
don't ask me what made me think of craig mitchell's popular but never finished novella, "she hates my futon", but i did.
his site (either myboot.com or myboot.org) is gone, although a parking service claims that myboot.org was abandoned relatively recently.
aaaanyway, the novella in all its unfinished glory lives on thanks to the internet wayback machine.
come, read it, be frustrated like many others that it was abandoned many years ago. sigh.
Posted by lisa at 08:20 PM
good kitty!
moses' red blood cell count is up 10% since we started the epogen treatment a week ago. the vet says this is an unusually strong and fast response to the treatment-- and a very good thing.
the goal is to get it up another 10-15% and then we can try tapering off the medication.
Posted by lisa at 09:05 AM
September 25, 2007
the massive painting project
the wall color is complete; the cabinet interiors are complete, and the exteriors are under way. tonight i got a first coat in the baseboards and door moulding, and they will definitely need a second coat.
so fascinating.
i took pictures.
Posted by lisa at 10:56 PM
"..Rats!"
That's what the owner of Firefly said to me when I brought a pair of beautiful but painful shoes back to the store just after Christmas last year.
That's what I'm saying after the mail she sent out yesterday.
"Firefly is moving to.... the virtual world. At least for the time being, I'll be selling shoes on my website only."
She's put everything on sale until Sunday, including all of her furnishings.
Posted by lisa at 07:13 PM
September 22, 2007
paint tired
i guess i worked for about five hours on the massive painting project. between the room itself and all the furniture i'm painting to go in it, i think i'm maybe a third of the way through what i need to do. i suspected it would take longer than the weekend and now i'm sure it will. that's fine; i'll get the bulk of it done this weekend and that will motivate me to finish it completely.
moses seems to have bounced back after his bad morning yesterday. he was being really cute and wanting to wrestle and stuff this afternoon, which always makes me feel reassured that he's feeling okay. he got me pretty good a couple of times, too. i figure he can't be feeling that bad if he can still move that fast.
anyway, now i'm really tired. i got all cleaned up (i have to admit, i took a shower that lasted more than four minutes. does that mean i don't get to shower tomorrow?) and i think i'm going to get some chinese takeout and relax with one of the netflixen that have been languishing in my living room for some weeks now.
tomorrow the ladder work begins. ugh.
Posted by lisa at 06:33 PM
September 21, 2007
it was a dark and stormy night!
last night i think we got a pretty good rain, because i had a nightmare that water was pouring out of cracks in my living room ceiling, that the most recent repair caused even worse problems.
i am watching iron chef america: battle apple, and i swear karine bakoum is botoxed all to hell. she can barely make a facial expression. this is the first time i can recall actually noticing something like that, and it's very strange.
in the department of moses department, he was behaving strangely this morning-- didn't come for breakfast, but ate okay after i carried him into the kitchen-- and dr. c was obviously concerned that the anemia had gotten even worse, to the point where it was obviously kicking his butt. i could be wrong but i think he gave him an extra large dose of the epigen this morning. anyway, moses is back into perkyland tonight so either the epigen is starting to work (would it really be that fast? i dunno) or it was a temporary effect.
and in other news, i'll be painting all fucking weekend. in fact i should be painting right now instead of blogging, watching iron chef and eating milanos. but hey. i'll be painting all fucking weekend, so i get a little break right now.
Posted by lisa at 07:13 PM
September 19, 2007
garumph.
the enormity of the bookcase/back bedroom project is coming home to me. i cleaned the bookcases today and tried to remove all the cabinet doors. some of the hinges did not want to come off, however, and it looks like some of the screws have already been stripped. add to the sheer surface area to paint the fact that they have to stay outside until both they and the room are done, i'm increasingly nervous about rain and the amount of time the project is taking.
and in the unnecessary delay department, i discovered last night that the nbeast web site is dead. well, the important parts are, anyway. all the pages-- like registration-- that touch a mysql database are popping up errors like crazy. my host just upgraded a whole slew of things at once-- PHP, BSD, and other stuff. they confirm that this could be the reason but offer no real help in resolving the problems. it's three weeks before the event, and i have to hold off on some promotion i was going to do until i have registration operational again.
so that means that instead of making progress on the back bedroom, i need to spend tonight fixing the nbeast site.
meanwhile, work has been pretty interesting this week. we went live with a new version of the intranet home page yesterday, and then today we changed it for the day to have some fun with Talk Like A Pirate Day. i think the overall response to both was positive, but there were detractors for both and one person really had a meltdown over the TLAPD stuff. i don't want to go into detail about work stuff and it was really my manager who bore the brunt of the bad stuff, but it has been a stressful couple of days.
moses received his first dose of Epogen today. this is a replacement hormone that we hope will stimulate red blood cell production and alleviate his anemia, which is the most life-threatening condition that he has right now. he seems to be handling it okay, his appetite is crazy good and he seems pretty perky tonight. the vet said it can take from 2-8 weeks to ramp up though so it may be quite a while before we know if it's really going to work. in the mean time, he gets the shots three times a week at the vet's office and we do a blood test once a week, and i guess we hope it starts working before he needs a transfusion.
at $36 a pop, the shots aren't cheap, and then add in the weekly blood tests and... yeah. i was right to take my financial situation seriously and i'm glad i've already done as much as i have to keep myself out of a credit card hole.
however, i haven't done much toward selling the convertible, which is going to be my financial silver bullet. i haven't even washed it or taken it to the body shop for an estimate. i just haven't had time, and i suspect i'll be making another car payment before it's all said and done.
so anyway, i guess i should stop complaining and start working on the nbeast web site. yeah.
Posted by lisa at 07:25 PM
September 17, 2007
It's 61 degrees out. is your air conditioning on?
and to continue with the whining and complaining theme, i have to boggle at the fact that my neighbors' air conditioning is running. or is it the heat? one can only speculate.
somehow, moses and i are able to struggle through without running either one. ODD.
Posted by lisa at 08:33 PM
grumph.
a most irritating morning. a missed morning, actually-- no shower, no breakfast, and i was still late to work. i tried to get bpal packages to the post office, but the line was out the door. and i felt less than awake all day.
so i should get more done in the back bedroom tonight, or go to the store and get paint, but eh.
Posted by lisa at 08:14 PM
a mo-date
so after waiting days for my vet to call with the blood test results from last wednesday, i finally called him myself this morning. sheesh.
kidney values have not changed, which is good. he has not gotten worse in that regard.
blood sugar was normal, so the diabetes is under control.
anemia has reached the point where it needs to be treated, so on wednesday we're going to start medication that should stimulate red blood cell production again, hopefully.
so long as the anemia treatment goes well, we're in a pretty good spot right now, all things considered.
Posted by lisa at 06:01 PM
September 16, 2007
weekending
a nice and productive weekend. it took many people and two SUV's, but i now have four large solid wood bookcases sitting on my patio, ready for paint. J also helped me take a few large items to donate today. sadly, he spotted the woman handling donations putting the parts for my particle board bookcase (still perfectly usable, only in need of re-assembly, which I told her) in the dumpster, as we left. sigh.
we went to brunch at piedmont today with a host of characters, and the theme for this year's halloween party was born:
ROBOTS VS. ZOMBIES
so get ready.
last night we grilled steaks and drank cocktails out on the screen porch. the weather has suddenly become real fall weather, after horrible, mean, hideous heat these last few weeks. it rained deeply friday, and though we need a lot more, it seemed to at least break the heat.
today, out of curiosity, we looked at an open house in the neighborhood. it's an unusual house: it's new construction. years of living in houses from the 40's has spoiled both of us, though. it was a nice house, but seemed cheap in so many ways-- the heat coming through the windows, the undersized heat pump struggling to cool the house on a relatively cool day, and the doorknobs inside the house were terrible cheap things that we both agreed we'd want to immediately replace. having a garage and 900 closets wouldn't be worth it. of course, as i walked into first of two walk-in closets, i had to say it: "It's a little SMALL."
the kitty and puppy seem to have reached an interesting stage where they just ignore each other. they can be mere feet away and take no notice. moses came into the living room and spent the evening with us in his sittin' chair last night. i think it helps that he has his own chair now.
Posted by lisa at 11:57 PM
September 14, 2007
500 things - relevant and timely
I'm taking the afternoon off work to remove as much extraneous stuff from the house as possible. Synchronistically (my spell checker says that's not a word, but you know what i mean) on my way home, my local NPR station was running an interview with a man who has decided to pare his possessions down to 500 things.
I think this is a permalink to the piece on the "The Story" web site. You can listen to it there.
Posted by lisa at 02:33 PM
and in the words of steve reich...
"It's gonna rain. It's gonna rain. It's gonna rain. It's gonna rain..."
Finally!
Posted by lisa at 08:54 AM
September 13, 2007
freakout!
and i don't mean the good, frank zappa kind of freakout, either.
i just moved most of the rest of the back bedroom into the rest of the house. now i feel overwhelmed by it all, and i swear... it's tempting to take tomorrow off and take as much of it as possible to the scrap exchange and goodwill.
seriously-- me and mo in the house like this is one thing, and it's not a great thing. me, j, puppeh and kitteh? what was i thinking??
sigh.
the other thing is that i'm not sure that my furniture plan is going to work. i've got the two big tables in the center of the room now, and they really dominate it. now that i think about it, i think i tried something like that in my old apartment, and it was kind of impractical. maybe i need to keep them in an L shape.
moving all of that stuff, i felt the weight of all of those possessions. i really remember that feeling from my 20's when my whole living space was one big crap pile. i REALLY want to be free of it.
:|:
i didn't hear back from the vet today on moses' test results, so i guess i will hear tomorrow. maybe no news is good news, or something.
he's been great this evening, following me around the house and just generally acting normal and happy.
Posted by lisa at 09:15 PM
September 12, 2007
lisa linn-simpson
this is so weirdly like me that i'm kind of freaked out by it.
via cyn.
Posted by lisa at 11:39 PM
not really a moses update
moses, by the way, has been doing great. really great, actually. he plays. he goes outside of his own volition and sits in the sun. he jumps on furniture and never falls. he wrestles the evil slipper. he sharpens his claws. he bathes (kinda).
today we went to the vet to recheck the bloodwork. they sent it out to be done this time, so i won't know until tomorrow what the numbers are like. the vet seems to be ever more impressed by his condition, which improves each time i bring him, rather than deteriorates.
not to be too optimistic or anything. his gums are still pale, so anemia is an issue. we'll see how bad tomorrow. he still gets dehydrated before the fluids. he's still a sick kitty. just one who doesn't really act sick.
last night ray and mary came over and helped with the fluids. ray's job was to keep him distracted with dinner for as long as possible. well, i have never seen moses eat for such a long time! i think ray patiently held the bowl and scraped the food around for a good 45 minutes, long after i had finished the fluids.
today, after fluids, a massive dinner, and a deep sleep, he's like a younger cat. like pow. he gave the vet a really hard time today. i couldn't feel too bad about that.
i must insert this: i think i just heard our barred owl! he's back!!
i think tonight i'm going to make a push on the back bedroom. i've removed about a third of the crap in a fairly orderly fashion. i think i could get most of the rest out tonight, and possibly begin painting tomorrow evening.
the boy and the puppeh will be coming on friday (rain, rain, finally!!) which makes this tricky; it's not good to have the house full of displaced crap when they're around. but i'm so ready to see the room change.
saturday we're picking up some bookcases from my mom. real wood, although battered from years in my brothers' bedrooms. i'll have to paint and otherwise rehab them, but they're free and they're not particle board. she couldn't believe i wanted them. but i think they're going to be a great backbone for this room.
my plan is to paint a very faint blue/green color (similar to or the same as stepsk8r's favorite seaside blue), but instead of a crisp white for the trim and furniture (most all of which will be painted the trim color), i'm going to use a creamy, yellowy white, the same as the trim in my bedroom-- in part, because i already have a lot of it, and in part because i think large masses of dead white might look, well, dead, and not warm.
well, enough jawing. time to work.
Posted by lisa at 07:30 PM
September 10, 2007
piecing together the past
i put this question to the internets: does anyone remember the name of the opening band when beck played the duke coffeehouse (which, as it turns out, was in march of 1994)?
i think it was a band from the northeast and i think the guitarist had a meltdown onstage and destroyed a valuable vintage guitar.
actually, what i really want is a list of all the shows that jeremy steckler booked at the coffeehouse, so i can remember all the ones i went to. mainly i remember harry pussy and beck, although apparently he also booked the ruins, and i'm sure i would have gone to that.
i really wish i'd kept records of that stuff.
Posted by lisa at 01:27 AM
September 09, 2007
caliente
i'm going with open windows and doors today. the trees around my house keep things cool enough until early evening.
and i'm cooking today. lots of food that i can put up in the freezer. the kitchen stayed cool enough to work in for the duration. now i can escape while the meats roast.
i made a lasagne first-- most complicated dish first, and that worked out well. used half sauce from a jar, half sauce of a sort made from J's canned tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, and herbs from the garden. the cat, true to form, appeared while the beef was browning.
second came mac and cheese, which would pair well with a pork loin i found i had forgotten in the freezer. at last minute inspiration lead me to season the cheese sauce with chili powder, cayenne, and a bit of paprika. wish i'd thought to add hot sauce. ah well.
the pork loin is roasting in similar (i hope) flavors: bone suckin' sauce mixed with "smoky campfire" marinade (both leftover in the fridge), with a little of the chili powder and cayenne. i'm also trying out my new meat thermometer-- the digital kind where the probe is on a metal lead, and the gauge sticks to the outside of the oven.
finally, i'm trying to make chicken stock, very bland chicken stock that i could feed to the cat (e.g., no onion or salt). if he likes it, it could be a good way to get some calories and protein in him if he loses his appetite; or he might just enjoy it. if he doesn't like it, i can season it up and use it in my own cooking.
lots of using things i already had in the fridge and freezer-- all of the meat was already there, and that's the expensive part.
Posted by lisa at 02:56 PM
a good day
today, sarah came over and helped with moseman. it went perfectly; she kept him distracted with food, and he never noticed that i was pumping him full of fluids. and he ate quite hearty as well, better than i've seen him eat in a while.
then sarah helped me get photoshop working on my computer. i was in this crazy catch-22 where i had a real copy that i could install, but in order to get it installed i had to have all these other things installed, and i could not get that first item installed.
i felt completely lazy today, but managed to do some really useful stuff, anyway.
like, i got my cube working again. it's been dead since the great hard drive disaster of aught-seven, and it took much fiddling and booting into different modes and such, but i now seem to have a working OS and it's bootable.
and moses actually wanted to play, really play! i got out the string on a stick and he got so caught up in it that he actually pounced and stuff. i almost don't want to get his blood work checked next week. i want to keep living in the fairlyland where my cat is suddenly acting like he's young and healthy again.
anyway, tonight i went and had tasty thai food and watched 'stardust' with m. it was fun, although there was an awful lot of "helpless blonde girl needs rescuing!" i guess as a buffy fan, i have a hard time with that now.
Posted by lisa at 01:04 AM
September 07, 2007
so that noise would be...
the bull durham blues festival.
i can hear every note. all my doors and windows are closed.
it's better than the beeping.
Posted by lisa at 11:52 PM
September 05, 2007
and there was much gnashing of teeth
i've already heard from one person who bought one of the first iphones and is bummed that they've already dropped the price by $200.
i wasn't able to muster a lot of sympathy.
Posted by lisa at 06:41 PM
September 04, 2007
everyone loves ice cream
at goodberry's tonight, i ordered my favorite, chocolate with oreo, and while the dude was making it the guy in line behind me said, "that sounds really good". "it's my favorite." "that sounds REALLY good."
after the goodberry's dude handed it to me, the guy behind me leaned in and changed his order.
at home eating it, moses was VERY VERY VERY INTERESTED. in fact, he stood up on the arm of his sleepin' chair and leaned in as close as possible. which i have not seen him do in... like, ever.
of course, something containing chocolate, lots and lots of lactose, and a heap of sugar might not be so good for a diabetic cat (given that most cats are lactose intolerant, and chocolate is toxic for cats).
but i decided to treat him with a little tiny bit of plain half and half. he is now curled into the Crescent of Utter Contentment. hopefully it won't hurt his poor little tummy.
Posted by lisa at 10:19 PM
beaks and snouts
vegetarians and the squeamish probably want to skip a lot of this first bit.
MORE...Posted by lisa at 08:48 PM
September 01, 2007
On The Road
Moses celebrates the 50th anniversary of the publication of Kerouac's On The Road with a road trip.
This was the expression on his face most of the way across Virginia. He was completely content. I think taking him to Virginia this weekend was a great idea, he's having a fine time.
He spent some time downstairs with everyone last night too. While J and I made and ate dinner, he scooted around, sat in the kitchen doorway while we made dinner, then settled in the hall while we ate.
Today J and I are going to Nearby Beer Related Theme Park, and moses will have many quiet naps in the Kitty Cave upstairs.
Posted by lisa at 09:22 AM