More Pretty Pictures

My dad recently reminded me that I was going to post some more Hawaii pictures. So, here's a few more that my aunt sent me. Gosh, what a pretty place! I want to go back now.









More to come later, probably.

Astronomy vs. Stir Fry

There is nothing that makes you appreciate the vast interconnectedness of all things quite so much as working a job where the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy deciding to burp can lead directly to your dinner getting cold.

Currently, It's Time For Some Currentlies

Current clothes: Dark blue sweatpants, maroon t-shirt that says, "I know just enough to be dangerous." (Which is true, but I'm still feeling pretty good about the way I managed to fix a problem earlier where my PC and my TiVo were refusing to talk to each other.) White socks. Cthulhu slippers.

Current mood: Today, I've been in one of those bizarre states that I sometimes wonder if only I am capable of: a weird, fluctuating combination of relaxed and frazzled. Sort of a "Yay, I'm off today! I can do anything I want to!" plus a "Gaah, where did today go? I have gotten nothing done!" I did just vacuum, though, which always makes me feel better. It's like an easy, sure-fire way of making myself feel like I've accomplished something.

Current music: Leonard Cohen's Old Ideas.

Current annoyance: Oh, there are so many of them. Which one to pick? How about the fact that my allergies have started acting up again? Stupid sinuses.

Current thing: Cooking! More specifically, crock pot cooking. I realized, finally, that part of the reason why I hate to cook is that when it's dinnertime, I don't want to have to jump through annoying food-preparation hoops. I just want to eat. It's actually a lot more fun if I do it when it's not actually mealtime. Hence: crock pot! I even went out and got a crock pot recipe book, and have made several reasonably successful new meals. Last week, I made a Cuban-style curried turkey thing that looked like a gloopy mess, but tasted amazing. As in, oh-my-god-I-can't-believe-I-actually-cooked-this-food amazing. Today, I just made good, old-fashioned pot roast, although I'm feeling kind of annoyed with myself because I forgot to put in onions.

Current desktop picture: A photo my aunt took from the top of a Hawaiian volcano. Probably Haleakala.

Current book: I'm re-reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. For some reason.

Current song in head: Brain Radio has been crazy noisy lately. Right now, it seems to be playing "In the Car" by Barenaked Ladies. I have no idea why.

Current DVD in player: Nothing in the living room at the moment, because I'm trying to get caught up on weeks worth of Tivo'd stuff. The last thing in there was season 3 of Merlin. Which is a show that ranges from a fluffy bit of brain candy that I like better than I feel I should to actually pretty decent television. In front of the treadmill, I've been watching season 1 of The Twilight Zone. And, wow, but that is just classic, classic stuff. Even better than I remember it being, most of it. How the hell it manages to hold up so well after fifty-plus years, when everything it does has become so over-familiar in the meantime, I don't know, but it does.

Current refreshment: Diet A&W root beer. I normally dislike diet sodas, but something in the root beer does a good job of hiding that nasty chemical taste from the aspartame.

Current worry: Again, there are many. But the kitten is really trying hard to dominate here. Her eyes are actually looking a lot better, which is great. But then for a while she decided to stop eating much of anything. It wasn't a case of not eating because she was feeling sick, though. She was in no way feeling sick. At one point, the only way I could get her to eat anything was to scatter some Kitten Chow on the floor so she could bat each individual piece of kibble around with her paws and hunt it for a while before eating it. That's not being sick. That's deliberately trying to drive me crazy. Finally, after enough days for it to start to get scary, she seems to be back to eating just fine again. What a relief! Except now she's out of the antibiotics she's supposed to be taking. The vets gave me a small amount of liquid in a big bottle and warned me that sometimes it coats the sides and won't come out, so I could come back for more if I needed it. A couple of days ago, it looked like there was several days worth, coating or no coating. Today, I tried to get some out, and there was nothing but dried stuff crusted onto the sides. And, of course, the vet's office is closed for the weekend, and I can't get any more until Monday. Yeah, going off a course of antibiotics for two days right in the middle is a great idea. New worry: that I am currently breeding resistant bacterial super-bugs inside my kitten.

Current thought: I want a vacation. I want to put all the damned cats into suspended animation and go lie on a beach somewhere and do nothing but read for a week, while people bring me drinks with umbrellas in them.

But It's March!

Holy crap, it's snowing! And here we were just having lovely already-trying-to-be-spring weather this week! Stop teasing me, nature! Don't tell me winter is over and then yell, "Just kidding!" and put it back again!

Oh, well. At least the killer winds we were having this morning have died down. Meaning my internet is now mostly staying up. Mostly.

Two Great Tastes

It seems Farscape's Ben Browder is going to be making a guest appearance on Doctor Who next season. Clearly somebody in this universe loves me!

Cat Update #703

So, Newt's test results did finally come back, but let's just say they were not exactly conclusive. On the upside, she probably doesn't have kitty chlamydia. But it could still be herpes. Or maybe something bacterial. Or an even an auto-immune disease. (That's right, House fans! It could be lupus!) Her ear is looking good now, at least, but she still has pretty bad conjunctivitis. And so we continue working our way through the veterinary pharmacopeia, hoping to hit on something that will work. Right now, she's got yet again still more different antibiotics. She's also got some corticosteroid eye ointment that might make things better and might make things worse. Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets!

At least there was some good news: Happiness' thyroid levels were just fine, meaning the dosage she's on right now is working great. Even though a couple of times she's missed a pill, because I thought she'd swallowed it only to find it on the floor a day later. Nova's limp is looking a lot better, too, so that's something.

Still... cats.

It's Meeeee!

I meant to post some of these sooner, but I've been busy. Plus, my internet was down for two days. Fun times!

Anyway, some more pictures from my aunt. The one thing lacking from my previous posts on my Hawaii trip, I think, was pictures with me in them. So here's a few, just to document the fact that, yes, I really was there:

SuperNova Is Not Able To Leap Tall Buildings In A Single Bound

Nova was still limping -- the shot really didn't seem to do much for him -- so I took him back into the vet today. Where they did another exam, took some x-rays, and decided that he probably really does just have a pulled muscle. And maybe he keeps kind of re-injuring it, since it hasn't stopped him jumping up on things. There was discussion of maybe confining him to a small space with nothing to jump on, but it was eventually decided that I could just take away the giant cat tree, because that's the only really high place he gets onto. Well, that and my computer desk, but he only does that when I'm home, so theoretically I can discourage it. Of course, even as I type this, he launched himself up here again, so maybe that's a little problematic. But hopefully it's not quite as bad as climbing all the way up near the ceiling.

And they still don't have all Newt's test results. Apparently they had to be sent to two different labs, one after the other, so it's taking a while.

Sigh. Cats.

Zippity Doo Dah!

I just got a couple of discs in the mail from my aunt with a whole bunch of photos from our Hawaii trip, including the ones taken of me riding the zipline. Of course, I couldn't not share them! So...

Here I am all excited and ready to go! Or possibly all finished and happy to have had the experience. One or the other:



Mid-flight:



And coming in for a landing:



Man, that was fun.

She sent me a lot of other pictures she took, too, some of which are just gorgeous. I'll probably share some more later. I wouldn't want to overwhelm you with all the awesomeness at once.

Sunshine On My Shoulders

Man, I started today off in an irritable mood. But it is utterly impossible to sustain any level of grumpiness in weather like this. Just stepping outside is like an instant hit of happiness.

More like this, please!

Here, Have Some Random Links

Novis Nerdfest - Sci-Fi Medley: An a capella medley of science fictional themes. Most of which are instrumental, so that's kind of impressive, I guess. See if you can name 'em all!

First Ever Star Trek®/Doctor Who Comic Book Crossover Coming in May : Clearly this is some kind of marketing ploy aimed at getting me to buy comics again, now that Farscape's run is over. And it'll probably work. But here I'd would have thought Trek might not want to call attention to Borg's suspicious resemblance to the Cybermen.

Portal: No Escape (Live Action Short Film by Dan Trachtenberg): An interesting little live action film based on Portal. Probably won't mean anything to you if you haven't played the game, though.

Tree Lobsters: #348 SHOPA: An interesting analogy for a certain recent proposed internet "copyright protection" act.

The Wonderful and Terrible Habit of Buying Too Many Books: I was all prepared to embrace the writer of this article as a kindred spirit, but then he referred to "the 371 books sitting on my shelves." And I laughed. Come back and talk to me when you've added another zero onto that one, kid.

Every Doctor Who Story 1963 to Now - A Babelcolour Tribute: I think I've probably linked to an earlier version of this in the past, but this one is very much up to date. Have I mentioned lately how much I love Doctor Who?

Currently, It's Still February

This is way, way later in the month than I usually do this. Which perhaps tells you something about what kind of month it's been.

Current clothes: Light tan jeans. White t-shirt with some weirdly psychedelic-colored cacti on it. (I have no idea what that's about. Somebody gave me this shirt years ago.) Long-sleeve blue denim button-down open over that. White socks. Black sneakers. Black belt.

Current mood: I've been randomly stressy about various things lately. I was doing rather better today, but circumstances have conspired to irritate me since the moment I woke up this morning -- at 7:30 when the mailman ran my doorbell -- and I believe they have finally succeeded.

Current music: More random stuff, as usual. The last actual album I listened to was Wander This World by Johnny Lang.

Current annoyance: As you probably don't remember, unless you're way more obsessed with this blog than you ought to be, I was complaining bitterly a year or two ago that I had to keep buying new coffeemakers because the carafes would break, and I could never find replacements that fit, no doubt because the manufacturers cannily discontinue them almost as fast as they come out, just to keep you buying new machines. Back then, I mentioned that I had bought one that was a bit more expensive but had a metal carafe and should actually last me a good long while. Well, the carafe is fine, but the damned machine stopped working properly. It hisses and smokes and gurgles and takes forty minutes to produce a half-pot of sludge. This despite the fact that I have been conscientious about cleaning it regularly. At this point, I gave up, went out, and bought a machine with a glass carafe, figuring if I were going to have to replace it that often regardless, I might as well go for the cheaper option. Yeah, well, that glass carafe lasted two fucking days and broke before I had this morning's coffee. Aaaaargh. It is almost enough to make you want to give up the caffeine habit. Almost.

Current thing: I've been trying to be a little more social lately, again. But I'm not very good at it.

Current desktop picture: I finally replaced the palm trees with this picture of an eclipsed moon over the Rocky Mountains. But, pretty as it is, I think I really need to replace it, because just looking at it makes me feel chilly. Way, way too wintry for my current mood. Especially after those Hawaii pictures that preceded it.

Current book: The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power by Jeff Sharlet. Which, unfortunately, is going very slowly. I'm also dipping in and out of The Skeptic's Dictionary by Robert Todd Carroll, often while playing Laser Chase with the kitten.

Current song in head: "And So It Goes" by Billy Joel, which came up on random shuffle on my iPod on Valentine's Day. Which seems appropriate, as it's one of the few love songs that I find genuinely touching, rather than sappy or misguided or shallow or dumb.

Current DVD in player: Disc 2 of Profit, a very short-lived show from the 90s, starring Adrian Pasdar (later of Heroes fame) as a sociopathic corporate climber. It's pretty good. I do love watching a master manipulator at work, and this guy could give Elim Garak a run for his money. Also, for my on-the-treadmill watching, I have disc 2 of Futurama volume 6.

Current refreshment: Lemon zinger tea.

Current worry: Oh, there are many. But the most immediate one is Nova, whose limp seemed to actually get worse after I took him to the vet yesterday. He may be a bit better today, though. Here's hoping.

Current thought: And, just because today wasn't annoying enough, now my internet keeps crapping out on me. Meaning it's taking me forever to find the links I want, and this may or may not actually post. Hooray.

And Here I Was Just Calling Him "My Non-Problem Cat."

Apparently my cats have now started up some kind of competition to determine which of them is going to cost me the most time, money, and worry. Nova was far and away in last place in this contest, but he seems to be making at least a vague attempt to catch up. The last few days I've noticed that he seemed to be limping very slightly, so I called the vet yesterday and made him an appointment for this afternoon. Naturally, this morning he seemed considerably better, but I took him in anyway, and the vet says he does seem to be favoring his right front foot a little and his right elbow feels a little hot. (Me, I didn't even realize cats had elbows. I guess you learn something new every day.) It's probably just a pulled muscle or something, but the vet gave him an anti-inflammatory shot and told me to just watch out for signs of an abscess. Aaaand, there went another $80. Stupid cats.

Meanwhile, we're still waiting on most of Newt's test results...

The Cat Came Back

So, Newt is now back home again, although she's mostly staying in her carrier tonight while we wait for the anesthesia to finish wearing off. Which she really isn't happy about. She's pawing at the carrier door like crazy, in a groggy, stumbling kind of way. Awww. Poor kitty. Unlike every other pet I've had to deal with post-surgery, though, she gets to have a little bit of food and water tonight, because she's so very, very tiny. She also gets more antibiotic eye ointment, which is always fun.

The vet did find a "bump" inside her ear that may or may not have been causing the infection. They're sending samples of pretty much everything they could swab or scrape off of the cat out to a lab for analysis, to try to figure out exactly what the problem is. So even if we don't get improvement out of this, we'll at least get information. Personally, I'm hoping for both. It's going to be a while before the results are back, though.

Yet Again Another Cat Update

Just got back from yet another visit to the vets' office. The news on Happiness is excellent. She's actually gained weight just in the two weeks that she's been on the medication, and the hormone levels in her blood are now slightly below the normal range. Which means we can cut her down to half a pill once a day, instead of half a pill twice a day, and may even be able to go down to every other day later on. The vet was extremely pleased that we'd caught the problem so soon, while it is (apparently) very easy to treat. Yay!

Poor little Newt is doing less well, though. I took her back in because her eyes have gotten all runny again, and there was still gunk in her ear, which seemed to be getting worse. Sure enough, her ear infection is back with a vengeance. The stuff they were pulling out of there with the q-tip this time looked worse than ever. They're thinking that maybe the problem is that there's actually a foreign body stuck in there somewhere that's causing this, or maybe a polyp, since ear infections are very unusual in cats, and since it came back even after the industrial strength antibiotics. They can't tell, though, because there's just way too much gunk in there to see. So they're keeping her overnight and tomorrow they're going to sedate her, syringe her ear out thoroughly, and see if there's anything in there that needs to be removed. I'm really hoping that's the source of the problem. I'm especially hoping that it's just the ear infection that's also causing her eyes to run, which the vet seems to think is reasonably likely, and that it's not feline herpes. Because feline herpes, like every other kind of herpes, is forever and will keep coming back. Fingers crossed!

Maybe I Should Have Watched The End Of Inception After All.

I think I may have had a tiny bit of a lucid dream last night, except the more I think about it, the more I think maybe I was only dreaming that it was a lucid dream. This is very, very confusing.

Betty's Mini Movie Reviews (A Not Remotely Regular Feature)

Last night's DVD viewing: Source Code. This one turned out to disappoint me, mostly because I started out quite liking it. In fact, a little way through, I was thinking that this seemed to be one of those movies which is predicated on absolute nonsense, but is so well-constructed otherwise that it succeeds in making you not care too much about that fact. Which is something that always kinds of impresses me. When you get to the end, though -- and I'm going to try to put this in a non-spoilery way -- when you get to the end, you kind of have to care about the nonsense, and the whole thing falls apart in ways that just annoy me more the more I think about them. I think what really bugs me is the fact that clearly the people who made this movie either a) did not think through the logic and the implications for two whole seconds, or b) they didn't believe their viewing audience would bother to or be smart enough to think about it for two seconds. I'm not entirely sure which of those possibilities is worse. (If you'd like a spoilery analysis of what's wrong with it, I think Cracked does a great job of it, although I might have one or two things to add to their complaints. Also, I have no problem with their third point, although their discussion of it is hilarious.)

Man, I should have gone with my first instinct, which said that any movie with that title that wasn't about computer programming was clearly wearing its cluelessness on its sleeve and was probably best avoided.

Five Snippets Of My Life

1. Ever since my last haircut, the gray in my hair has seemed way more noticeable when I'm looking in the mirror. Clearly, the only solution to this is never to cut my hair again.

2. I have homemade chicken and rice soup in the crock pot! Go me with the cooking! Of course, I have absolutely no idea how it's going to come out. Could be disastrous enough to send me right back to ready-made microwave meals and peanut butter sandwiches.

3. Giving pills to a cat twice a day turns out to be less difficult and horrible than you might expect. Of course, that's just my thought on the matter. Very likely the cat has a different opinion.

4. Follow up on this post: even Stephen King appears to agree with me, as shortly after I wrote that, one of his characters made some comment about expecting to hear a Rod Serling voice-over any minute. And I still think he would have done it better.

5. It's rather disconcerting, not to mention disappointing, to wake up in the morning thinking, "Yay! I have almost nothing that needs doing today! Relaxing Sunday, ahoy!" and then by noon to somehow find yourself buried under an avalanche of housework that seemed to come out of nowhere. Bah! I demand another weekend after this one.

Confuse-A-Cat

If you believe the reviews, apparently this is the most amazing, better-than-catnip, must-have cat toy ever. Well, I just got one in the mail, and I'm slightly astonished to say that I'm thinking that for once the hype might actually be right. Even Mr. Fat Cat, who can barely even bestir himself to chase the laser pointer, was running and jumping at it. Which is good news, because his desperate need for even a little bit of exercise is precisely why I bought the thing.

This Book Is So Big, I Think It Has More Than Four Dimensions

I'm currently reading Under the Dome by Stephen King, which is nearly 1,100 pages, as well as browsing through The Twilight Zone Companion (which is a lot fewer pages). Possibly this is an unfortunate combination, because so far King's novel isn't bad, but all I keep thinking is, "I bet Rod Serling could have told this story effectively in half an hour."

Speaking Of Cats And Aliens

I had an interesting moment yesterday when I went into Newt's room and couldn't find her anywhere. Usually I see her come out from underneath the bed, so I looked under there. No cat to be seen anywhere. At this point, I was starting to feel seriously confused, as I couldn't see any possible way she could have gotten out of that room. And just then, she emerged from a tiny little hidey-hole inside the box spring.

I am now entirely convinced that I named her after the right person.

Quicky Random Links

Rives: Is 4 a.m. the new midnight?: A shocking conspiracy uncovered? Nah, it's just a really funny parody of conspiracy theory thinking. Or is that what they want you to think?

My Day By Jonesy: A Cat's Eye View of Alien: That's right, it's Alien from the cat's point of view. Utterly hilarious.

The Joy of Books: I'm sure my books do things like this when I'm not home.

Clay Shirky: Why SOPA is a bad idea: A good talk about a bad idea.

This Week On Veterinarian's Hospital...

Just heard back from the vets. They can't find anything wrong with Vir, which is almost disappointing, because if he had some kind of obvious hormone imbalance, maybe we could actually fix him. But I'm glad to know he doesn't have diabetes, anyway.

Happiness, however, does indeed have thyroid problems. Which doesn't surprise me at all, as I realized after doing a little research that she has had some of the symptoms, including drinking more water than usual. Fortunately, her blood levels weren't too awfully high, meaning we seem to have caught it early. (Go me, being conscientious about the critters' check-ups!) The bad news is that she's going to have to take pills for at least six months. Twice a day. Yeah, as if giving pills to a cat wasn't hard enough... Do you have any idea how hard it is to do anything twice a day at consistent times when you work rotating shifts? And then after the six months, we get to figure out whether to keep giving her pills, or whether she should have surgery to remove the glands, or what. Apparently radioactive iodine treatments work well, but there are two problems with that: 1) It results in a radioactive cat who has to be quarantined for two weeks, and 2) because you need a special license to handle the radioactive materials, almost nobody does it. Apparently the last time they checked, the nearest licensed facility was in Colorado. I... do not have words for how much I do not want to drive to Colorado with a cat. But that was a while ago, I guess. They're going to check into whether there's anything closer now. We'll see...

Veterinary Blues

So, the kitten has finally -- I hope! -- gotten to the point where she seems to be better and no longer has to get to the vet something like once a week. (Although she'll still need to be spayed soonish. And she still needs a feline leukemia shot, because they didn't want to give her one while she was still possibly fighting off infection.)

But, of course, there is no rest for the weary at Betty's Home for Wayward Felines! Because today it was time for the adult cats' annual checkups. Vir, it turns out, is not only not losing weight, he seems to be gaining it again. I think he must be siphoning mass from a parallel universe, because it defies all the normal laws of physics. His breathing problems have been getting worse, too, which the vet still thinks is mostly due to his weight, or more specifically, to a buildup of fat around his heart. Meanwhile, poor skinny, elderly Happines has gotten even skinnier, and also has developed a heart murmur. Which is apparently unusual in cats, but is worrying because cats' blood tends to clot very easily, and heart irregularities can put them at risk for strokes. Joy. Well, at least Nova doesn't have any issues worse than a tendency to fur mats. He may be a little neurotic, but he's my easy cat, otherwise.

Anyway, they're doing more blood work on Happiness and Vir, to double-check for thyroid problems and, in Vir's case, diabetes. The vet is also going to call up a company that makes a weight loss drug that works very well on dogs and check whether they have data on its effectiveness in cats. Me, I'm starting to wonder whether there's such a thing as feline liposuction... And also why I took in all these cats in the first place, considering the size of my vet bills and how very, very ungrateful they are for their medical care. But I guess I love them anyway.

Political Thought For The Day

I admit, I haven't been following the details of this thing as closely as I probably should be. But is it just me, or does SOPA seem roughly equivalent to authorizing the use of full-scale nuclear weapons on purse-snatchers?

Relocation

I have my bathroom back! No, I haven't managed to unload the kitten yet. But I did move her into the spare bedroom, now that it's all back together properly. Now I get to shower without having to step around cat toys, and she gets more space to run around in and a bed to lounge on. It's win-win! At least until she and Happiness start fighting over whose territory it is the way Happiness and Mickey did.

OK, That Was Random, Hilarious, And Sort Of Awesome.

All right, fess up. Who left the bottle of "Sweaty Betty" beer outside my door?

Talk To Me In An Organized Fashion!

Whoa. Huh. I unexpectedly appear to have threaded comments now. Cool.

Hey, Look, I Have Accomplished Something!

My carpet is all padded up again! Yay! Only, what, a month and a half after the flooding incident? Although a large chunk of that delay was my own fault, really. Or maybe the fault of my work schedule. But once I finally figured out who to call to install the stuff and then actually called him, it only took a couple of days for him to schedule me and maybe an hour and a half total to do the replacement. Mind you, I've spent much longer than that since, cleaning the carpets and moving furniture around. But my bedroom is finally all back in order! Or at least as much order as it was ever in. The furniture in the spare bedroom is still scattered all over the place, though, along with all the books. So. Many. Books. And I still have to wait for it to finish drying to move stuff back in. Half of my brain is insisting that would be a good job to put off until tomorrow, while the other half is going, "OMG, this has gone on too long! Everything must be fixed now, I don't care how long it takes you!" Man, that half of my brain is annoying.

Still normalcy is at least somewhere in view now. It's kind of a good feeling.

[ETA: I listened to my worker-brain. And so, I am now done. Holy crap, I am done! My house is navigable again! I don't even know what to do with this kind of space!]

First Currently Of The New Year

A little belated, but here we go...

Current clothes: Gray sweatpants. Black t-shirt featuring the seal of the Guild of Calamitous Intent from Venture Brothers. White socks. Black sneakers with the funky heels.

Current mood: Man, I don't even know. I've taken some time off this week, which has helped me relax some, as has my current mantra of, "It's a bright, shiny new year! Everything will be better!" But I'm still sort of randomly stressing out over stupid stuff, and I feel weirdly tense today for no very good reason.

Current music: The soundtrack from The Muppets. I love the Muppets so much. It is impossible to be unhappy in the presence of Muppets.

Current annoyance: There have been so many lately, really, but the most immediate one is that I had an eye doctor's appointment earlier today, and I'm only just now getting to the point where I can properly focus on written words again. Stupid eye drops.

Current thing: Well, as mentioned above, I took some time off this week, with the idea that I would alternate getting some stuff done with some nice relaxation. But I honestly have no idea where most of that time went. I wake up at, like, 8 AM, surf the internet a bit, play with the kitten, grab a bite to eat, maybe throw on a load of laundry, and two minutes later, I look up and realize it's late afternoon. I may have to resort to the idea of alien abduction to explain all this missing time.

Current desktop picture: Still the Hawaiian palm trees. I really need to change that. Hawaii was so last year.

Current book: Lunatics by Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel. I got an advance copy through LibraryThing, which made me very happy, because I'm a big Dave Barry fan. This one isn't exactly the funniest thing he's ever written, but it's plenty entertaining enough, in its own ridiculous-wacky-hijinks way. I'm also dipping in and out of The Book of General Ignorance, a collection of fascinating trivia by the folks behind QI, a British quiz show/comedy that I absolutely adore. Or did, until the guy who was making it available on YouTube got his account suspended for copyright violation. Stupid copyright.

Current song in head: It's been Weird Al's "Party in the CIA" off and on for days, ever since I started reading a memoir written by an ex-CIA agent. I feel kind of ashamed of that, actually, because it's a hideously inappropriate soundtrack for that particular book. But it's so darned catchy!

Current DVD in player: Disc 1 of season 4 of The Big Bang Theory.

Current refreshment: Lemon-mint tea. Mmm.

Current worry: I'm still concerned that my computer might be having some serious health problems. I never did get The Sims to reinstall properly, and I've since seen more indications that it might have either some corrupt spot(s) on the hard disc or some problem with the registry file. Or possibly both.

Current thought: I just cleared my mind and went all zen for a moment. That's kind of relaxing. I should do that more often.

Just Watched Super 8. It's An Okay Movie, But...

Dear J.J. Abrams,

No one likes your lens flares. Seriously. No one. Please stop it.

Love,
Me

It Is Usually A Bad Idea.

Amusing sentence I never expected to be able to use #17: "Stop molesting Cthulhu!" (Said to a kitten who had launched a full-body attack on one of my slippers.)

Just My Naturally Sweet Personality

I had yet another doctor's appointment yesterday -- well, technically this morning, but it was yesterday for me -- mainly just because my old doctor left and the new one wanted to discuss all those zillion blood tests I had. He also became concerned that I might have diabetes, and started going over lists of symptoms with me. Meanwhile, he called someone in to stick my finger for a blood test. Which led to the following amusing exchanges. (At least, they amused me. You take whatever humor you can get when people are poking you with needles and asking you personal questions.)

DOCTOR: Fatigue?
ME: I just worked a night shift, after less than five hours' sleep, so... yes.

DOCTOR: Dizziness? Light-headedness?
ME: Well, since she started fussing around me with needles, yes.

That one got a laugh. I only wish I'd been entirely kidding.

DOCTOR [already checking it off]: Sleep disturbances?
ME [not particularly trying to keep the "well, duh" out of my voice]: Again, shiftworker.

DOCTOR: Palpitations?
ME: Oh, well, sometimes, I do get a little... [makes fluttering motion over chest]
DOCTOR: Do you drink a lot of coffee?
ME [hanging head]: Yes.

Anyway, I don't have diabetes. Go, me.

First Cat Picture Of The New Year

Because you knew I was going to have to post one, so why wait? Here's Newt, caught in an embarrassingly goofy moment:



She was rolling around playing with that feather, and sort of fetched up against my foot. I'm not sure what her tongue is doing.

Poor Newt, though. I am worrying about her yet again, because, her right eye having been pronounced sufficiently healthy, her left eye suddenly started getting weepy. Well, she's already got another vet appointment for Tues, for some more shots. We'll see what they have to say then. Assuming I don't kill her over that chirping bird noise first.

Oh Dear God Make It Stop

Apparently I have now made my first major mistake of the New Year: I bought Newt a cat toy that makes chirping bird noises. Very loud chirping bird noises.

In With The New!

Happy New Year to all!

You know, I'm usually a little inclined to scoff at the idea that an arbitrary change of dates on the calendar means much of anything. But this year, I'm more than willing to take whatever psychological boost might come from imagining a firm dividing line between a somewhat disappointing old year and a bright, shiny new one. It is actually making me feel happier and more optimistic, and I'll take that for as long as it lasts.

I've actually kinda-sorta made some resolutions this year, even. It used to be, whenever I was asked about new year's resolutions, I'd say, "I made a resolution, years ago, never to make any more resolutions. So far it's the only one I've ever kept." If I'm honest, though, it was practically the only one I ever made. And I was young. From my current lofty middle-aged perspective, it seems to me that the young are much less in need of that kind of motivation. Anyway, two things about my behavior have been particularly bothering me lately. One is that my eating habits, which were never great in the first place, have gotten really, really bad. As in, "my fat jeans are now tight and I feel sort of unhealthy" bad. The other is that I fell off the book-buying wagon repeatedly in 2011, wiping out all the progress I'd made in 2010 and then some. So, in 2012, there will be fewer candy bars and fewer trips to the Barnes & Noble. In 2012, my watchword will be "continence"! (Yes, I know it's a stupid watchword. But it's the one I'm using, so shut up.) I know I am capable of a certain amount of self-control in these areas if I'm vigilant about it, because I've done it before. It never lasts forever, of course, but if it lasts six months it'll help, and I'll take it.

Speaking of my massive quantities of books, you can, as usual, find my list of 2011 reading here. I finished 159 books (counting a couple of re-reads of Harry Potter novels, which show up at the top of the list there). Not nearly as impressive as last year, but not too shabby, either.

For your edification, my best, or at least highest-rated books of 2011 are as follows:

FICTION:
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr.
Room by Emma Donoghue
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
Blue Heaven by Joe Keenan
Ready Player One by Earnest Cline
Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan
Locke & Key, Volume 4: Keys to the Kingdom by Joe Hill

NON-FICTION:
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin
The Character of Physical Law by Richard Feynman
The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention by Guy Deutscher
Columbine by Dave Cullen
The View from Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World by Carl Safina
The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe by Theodore Gray
No Life for a Lady by Agnes Morley Cleaveland
A Passion for Mars: Intrepid Explorers of the Red Planet by Andrew Chaikin
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

OTHER:
Every Thing on It by Shel Silverstein


And that's about it for my first post of the New Year. I'll leave you with this farewell to 2011:

Out With The Old. Seriously, Get It The Heck Out Of Here!

So, here we are. The end of the year, again. This time last year, I was reflecting back over the events of 2010 and complaining that, while at least it was free of horrible tragedy, it was chock-full of stressful annoyances, and my plea for 2011 was, "Less of that, please."

Fate, of course, laughs at such entreaties and instead saw fit to give me more of that.

I started 2011 with a spare kitten living in my house, being very cute, but costing me a great deal in vet bills and worry. I ended the year with his sister doing exactly the same things. We started the year with a winter that brought freakish snowstorms and record-breaking temperatures so low that the state ran out out of desperately needed natural gas, followed by a hundred-year drought of a summer, then more freakish snowstorms to round out the year. I spent too much of 2011 in doctors' offices, ending up with orthotics for my feet, pills for my thyroid, and the despondent sense that it really is all downhill from forty. There was, of course, the great pipe leak and all its consequences, which have not been entirely dealt with yet. Work became six different kinds of annoying, as we embarked on the process of switching over to new hardware and still-in-development software. My sister got divorced, my mother became an employment yo-yo, and my father's pancreas tried repeatedly to kill him.

On the other hand, it's hard to knock a trip to Hawaii. Vacationing is its own kind of stressful, of course, but the opportunity to visit a beautiful place and have some exciting new experiences did help to make the whole year a little bit brighter. And, suspicious medical test results to the contrary, I turned out not to have either kidney disease or breast cancer, so that's something to be happy about.

Still. Do you think it will be tempting fate if I once again ask, plaintively, for less of that, please?

In Less Pleasant News...

I think something is wrong with my computer. A few days ago, I tried to install an update for The Sims 3, and it didn't work. It kept giving me error messages about corrupted files. Yesterday, when I updated Malwarebytes, it did the same thing, although reinstalling it worked fine. Today, I ran a full Norton antivirus scan, which found nothing but the usual tracking cookies... but when it finished it gave me an "encountered an unexpected error and had to close" message, and I had to reboot to get it to come back up. My mind has been going through various unpleasant possibilities -- Is my hard drive going bad? Do I have a virus Norton isn't detecting? -- but my vague, half-informed guess is that maybe there's some kind of problem with my registry. Which worries me, since in my mind registry cleaners are mostly things that shady websites try to get you to download so they can infect you with nastiness, and messing around with registries is something not to be done by the uninformed, lest you accidentally screw your machine up beyond all repair. Hell, if I'm honest, I have no idea how the whole registry thing even works.

I don't suppose there are any Windows experts in the audience with suggestions? (Yes, any suggestions other than "Get a Mac!" or "Switch to linux," thank you.)

Sigh. The way my luck has been going, I almost expect smoke to start pouring out of my PC at any moment.

One More Kitten Update

So, I just got Newt back from yet another vet appointment. This time, the news was pretty good! Her ear is definitely looking better. It's still got some crud in it, but the vet says it all looks like earwax, not nasty infected goo, so she may be about over it. Yay! I had seen that her eye was looking a lot better, but I still wasn't sure about it, as every time I found myself thinking, "Ooh, maybe it does look all better!" I would see her squinting it just slightly immediately afterward. But I'm told it does, in fact, look okay, and that probably, after all her troubles, that eye will just always be a little more sensitive than the other one. Having an eye like that myself, I can sympathize.

I was also given the OK for her to be around other cats, so when I got her home, I took her around, still in the carrier, and gave her the very slightest and briefest introduction to the other kitties. The results are as follows:

Nova: Came over, sniffed at her briefly, then trotted off. Nova several times has gone over and stared at the bathroom door, or even caught sight of Newt in there when I opened the door, and he's generally looked more interested than hostile. He's also, of all my cats, the one that gets along most easily with other felines, so I didn't expect too many problems with him. Still, that little of a reaction surprised me.

Happiness: Happiness was lounging on top of a bookcase. I put a kitty treat in front of her, then held up the carrier so she could see Newt. Reaction: She all but exclaimed, "Oh, hell no!" and immediately shot off, leaving the treat behind. Well, after her experiences with Mickey, I can't really blame her. I did follow her and give her the treat, anyway.

Vir: Was lying under an end table in the living room. I sat the carrier down halfway across the room from him, not directly in front of him, but definitely where he could see the kitten if he looked at her. I then gave him treats. He did seem to look at the kitten, but did not react one way or another. This seems very promising, but it's probably a good idea not to put too much stock in it. Vir is the one who occasionally hisses at her door, or even at me, if I come out of the bathroom smelling like her.

Still, all in all that went not too badly. In the admittedly unlikely event that she manages to get along with all the other feline inhabitants of my house, I may be able to keep her, even though four cats really is too many cats. Most likely, I will have to find a home for her elsewhere. The vets said they'd keep an ear out for someone who might want a kitten. Which is a good thing, because Texas Lady never did call me back.

Seasonly Greetings!

Merry Christmas to those who do Christmas, and a very happy holiday season to everyone! We are having a white Christmas here, as the snow still has not melted, but since I don't have to go out in it today, I am feeling much more kindly disposed towards it. In fact, I believe I may have found some of my Christmas cheer. Or, at the very least, I am feeling much more relaxed and mellow after the stressful time I've been having lately, and that in itself is a nice Christmas present. Not that all the actual presents weren't nice too! Lots of books this year, which is not something I'm ever going to complain about.

Later I'm going to watch Doctor Who and make fruitcake, not necessarily in that order. I am expecting both things to be yummy.

This Message Brought To You By-- Oh, God, I Can't Feel My Toes!

Waterproof boots are awesome... right up until the point where you step into ice water deeper than the tops of the boots.

Random Links Are Home For The Holidays

Zombie in a Penguin Suit: And people thought I was strange for worrying about what I might be wearing when the zombie apocalypse comes.

Aliens on Ice: Why is this not being performed where I can go and see it?!

Missing Doctor Who episodes discovered: Kind of old news by now, but I'd feel remiss if I didn't mention this here at all. (Even if there was some discussion about it in the comments somewhere.) Admittedly, these are not the episodes I would have most hoped would be found, but the fact that even now these are still occasionally turning up is awesome. Who knows, maybe someday someone will unearth a complete print of "Marco Polo" from a box in their basement.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Trailer #1: Want to see this now!

Medium Large Comic: The Ebenezer Scrooge Collection : I thought there were no possible variations on A Christmas Carol that had not yet been done to death. I stand corrected.

Timeline of Doctor Who: There's a couple of small oddities here, I think, but generally it's a very cool and remarkably clear timeline of all the Doctors, companions, and episodes, in a spiffy infographic format.

Definitely Ragnarok

Jesus H. Christ on a flying bicycle. It is not supposed to snow like this here! Certainly not repeatedly! Is this what global warming is doing for us? Are the monsoon rains happening in the winter now?

On the latest installment of "ways in which Betty cannot catch a goddamn break," I had to stay at work for an extra hour and a half this morning, because the guy who was supposed to relieve me lives out of town and the highway was closed so he couldn't get in. Then I had to trudge home in snow up to my knees, which needless to say took me longer than the walk usually does, but was no doubt still safer than driving. (Not that I'm even going to try to get my car out. I don't own a freaking snow shovel!) Once I got home, I still had to tend to the kitten, who was now overdue for her dose of eye ointment, so I didn't get to bed until well after 10 AM. Then I slept for all of three hours, woke up, and couldn't get back to sleep, due in large part to the fact that even with an eyemask on and the curtains drawn, it was still eerily, unnaturally bright in my bedroom.

And, of course, I still have to trudge back into work in this tonight. Everybody else where I work is already enjoying a four-day holiday, but not us! We in operations are science's bitches, and neither rain nor sleet nor gloom of night keeps us from our appointed operating. (Well, not unless we have to use the highway to get to work.) Come to think of it, that makes me better than the postman, because he didn't show today.

It could be worse, though. I'm told the poor VLA operator got stuck out there when they closed I-60. And at least I wasn't trapped in a snowbank for two days.

Also, given the three-hours-of-sleep thing, at least I don't have to worry about finding time to go the grocery store today. Assuming the grocery store has managed to open. Which I really hope it has, because otherwise I'm going to be eating peanut butter for Christmas dinner.

And my internet has miraculously managed to stay up. I really wasn't expecting it to, since I figured my wireless antenna would be buried under a foot of snow. So, hey, I may be grumpy, sleep-deprived and covered in snow, but at least I get to bitch to the world about it!

Since I Have Places To Go

OK, it can stop snowing now. I don't need a white Christmas. Really.

Updates And Whining

Various things:

Just got Newt the kitten back from the vet. Again. It seems her ear has been getting worse rather than better, poor thing. And the eye might be related to the ear infection, or it might be due to the herpes virus, which causes eye and upper respiratory problems in cats. The vet is wondering if there might actually be some foreign body lodged in her ear. He says he can't see anything, but there's so much gunk in there that he's not sure he'd be able to, anyway. He pointed out that she's old enough that she'll need to be spayed soon, and if it doesn't clear up by then, he can wait until she's knocked out for her spaying and dig around in there to see if he can find anything. Which sounds like fun, doesn't it? In the meantime, she has still more and different antibiotics, and some new eye ointment. He also told me to give her lysine supplements, which I felt a little skeptical about, but I looked it up and apparently there is at least some science to indicate that it can help deal with the feline herpes virus, even if it's a little iffy. So, OK, we'll try it. He didn't have any to give me, though, so I had to buy pills intended for humans, crush them up, and sprinkle them on her food. I hope she's willing to eat it. She didn't seem to want to, but I'm hoping that's just because she wasn't particularly hungry. Anyway, stay tuned. The saga of Newt the Kitten will continue!

In addition to having to deal with a sick kitten, my roof is leaking (or leaking more than it has been), I still haven't gotten hold of anyone about fixing my carpet, and my internet has crapped out on me again. (I'm posting this via dial-up, which always seems to be even slower than I remember it being.) Also, my car needs some work soon, and the shoes I bought that I hoped would help with my plantar fasciitis may possibly be making it worse. And I have some more doctor's appointments coming up. Sigh. Sometimes being an adult really sucks. Even if it does mean you can eat cake for breakfast anytime you want to.

Speaking of my leaky roof, I want to know what the hell is up with this weather. After one of the driest summers on record, it now will not stop precipitating for more than a day or two, long after the end of what's supposed to be the rainy season. It's freaking bizarre. On the upside, though, my boss e-mailed me and said that there's no observing tonight, so if I want to take off instead of trudging in through the ice and the rain/snow, I can. Which sounded damned good to me. I had to get up earlier than I wanted to in order to make the vet appointment, anyway, and was not looking forward to doing the night shift today.

And, yeah, I think that's about all I have to bitch about at the moment. If I think of something else later, I can always post again, right? I know you all love listening to me complain about the mundane details of my life...

There Is Still A Kitten In My Bathroom.

I guess I haven't posted an update on the kitten in a little while, plus I've been informed that I am not meeting minimum standards for the amount of kitten cuteness required to be posted to the internet per unit time during all periods when there is a kitten in your house. So...

I had Newt back into the vet last week, and apparently her ear infection still hadn't cleared up any. Part of that may be due to the fact that I had a really hard time getting the ear drops into her ear properly, so they gave my a syringe to use, which at least makes it a little easier. (Kittens really don't like it when you drip cold, viscous liquids into their ears. Go figure.) I think she may be doing better overall, except that now her right eye is weepy and watery and squinted half-shut, or sometimes all the way shut. Poor kitty. My guess is that it's related to the ear infection, since the problem is with her right ear, but it's worrying me. If it's not magically better by tomorrow, I'll call the vet and see if I can get her back in before they shut down over Christmas. Maybe she'll need more eye ointment to go with the ear drops.

In the meantime, here is a picture in which said eye doesn't look too bad, although if I could figure out how to turn the red-eye-elimination feature on my camera off so it doesn't make her look like she has glowing blue-green pupils, that would probably be a good thing:

Update On Things

The dentist was able to get me in yesterday to glue the crown back onto my tooth. It took them two attempts, because I drool like a waterfall at the dentist, and apparently some spit got under it the first time and made it not stick, but it seems to be back on good and tight now. Yay for being able to chew!

Also, the insurance adjustor just came out and looked at my carpets. They're actually going to cover replacing all the carpet padding in both rooms, rather than just the damaged sections, which is great, because it means I won't have to worry about matching what's there right now. I just need to find someone who will install it. I'm pretty sure there's no carpet places in town, so I might have to find someone who'll come down from Albuquerque. Although when I'm going to be able to do that, I don't know. I'm on night shifts all next week, so that's out. I think it's probably going to have to be after Christmas. Which is a long time to live in the furniture labyrinth. Sigh.

So, how's everybody else doing?

Oh, Yeah, That's Just What I Needed Right Now.

So, who had what in the "what bizarre disaster will befall Betty next?" pool? Whoever had "lose a crown off a tooth," you win! Congrats!

(Seriously, WTF is up with my life lately?! Did I piss off a witch or something?)

"These Shoes! They Fit Perfectly!"

Well, I survived the mall. But it was kind of terrible. Man, the older I get, the more claustrophobic I get in crowds. This is not a good thing. I thought I could recover from the ordeal with a visit to the Barnes & Noble, but it was just as bad in there. And they didn't even have anything good on the bargain shelves. Bah.

But then I went to see The Muppets, and that did make me feel better. It was thoroughly awesome, even if I cannot remotely accept the premise. The Muppets became irrelevant and unpopular? Never! Certainly not in my mind!

Oh, and, yes, I finally managed to buy shoes. In fact, I bought two pairs of shoes, which I would consider uncharacteristically girly of me, except that one them were men's shoes. (Waterproof hiking boots, on sale for $50! How could I not?)

I'm not entirely sure about these sneakers I bought, though. There I was, trying on various different sneakers and having immense difficulty, as usual, finding something wide enough for my stupid giant feet and roomy enough for my stupid giant toes. At which point the salesperson recommended the ones with the roomiest toebox they have... which looked great, except that they've got these ridiculous heels, with the little cylinders that look like they belong in the suspension of your car or something, not on your footwear. You've probably seen them. I think they look pretty stupid, but I let her talk me into trying them on, and OMG, most comfortable shoes ever!!! And, unlike far too many, they have insoles that pull out, so I can easily replace them with my custom inserts. At which point, I figured, hey, if you like to consider yourself the kind of person who regards practicality and comfort as more important than looks, it really ought to go both ways, and you ought to be equally accepting of the embarrassingly trendy-looking as of the defiantly no-frills. Plus, the part I can see when they're on my feet looks fine. So I bought 'em. I'm a little nervous now, though, because after walking around the mall in them for a while, I did start to notice a teeny little bit of arch pain. But I think that probably has a lot less to do with the shoes than it does with the fact that I've been inexcusably lax about doing my plantar fasciitis-fighting stretches.

And now I am never, ever going back to the mall again. Certainly not in December.

Wish Me Luck!

OK, I'm going out to brave the mall. On a Saturday. Two weeks before Christmas. If I don't come back, tell my cats... Actually, don't tell them anything. They won't care. Just come by and feed them.

Wait, What Am I Doing Now?

Current clothes: Light blue slacks. Red sweater. Cthulhu slippers.

Current mood: Not too bad, actually. A fair bit more upbeat, generally, than I have been over the last few days, during which I've been subject to random bouts of annoying self-pity.

Current music: Nothing today. Some random stuff on the iPod again a few days ago. It was playing a lot of Billy Joel, for some reason. (See "current song in head.")

Current annoyance: There are so many. So many. I guess the top of the list is the fact that parts of my house have been turned into a labyrinth of furniture, books, and random closet crap from the bedrooms, and I still don't know exactly when the carpets are going to be fixed. Then the list goes on for, I don't know, five or six feet, at least, and finishes up with the fact that my shoes are all wet from trudging around in melting slush.

Current thing: Not getting to Albuquerque. I really, really need to go up and, among other things, buy some shoes that will not get soaked quite so easily when I'm trudging around in the slush, but every single time I plan on doing it, something comes up. I have an important appointment, or the weather is awful, or something. I think now I'm going to have to do it on the weekend, and I really, really, really didn't want to be going to the mall on a weekend at this time of the year.

Current desktop picture: Still the Hawaiian palm trees. Wow, that looks so much nicer than slush.

Current book: On Language by William Safire. Also Geek Wisdom, which I'm reading in little chunks while hanging out with the kitten.

Current song in head: Billy Joel's "Don't Ask Me Why," ever since it came up on the iPod. Don't ask me why.

Current DVD in player: Just finished disc one of season 1 of Six Feet Under, which is interesting so far.

Current refreshment: Mango passionfruit tea. Mmm.

Current worry: I have become slightly paranoid about my plumbing now. Also, I am afraid of the mall.

Current thought: Man, I need to clean the catbox. I can smell it from here. I also need to put the laundry away, and answer my e-mail, and look in on the kitten...

OK, Now I'm Looking Forward To Christmas.

Official prequel to the Doctor Who Christmas Special! It made me go "Hee!" and then "Awww" and then "Ooooh!"

It's Ragnarok. That's The Only Explanation.

Current conditions where I live, as reported on the Weather Channel website:

1°F
Feels Like: -13°

You will, I hope, forgive me the following outburst:

Holy fucking shit!!!

Well, at least this time we haven't run out of natural gas. So far.

But, geez. Did I somehow move to Minnesota while I wasn't looking?

Not Going Out Today!

Wow. That's a lot more snow than I'm used to.

The Saga Continues

So, my carpets have now officially been pronounced dry and the big, noisy equipment removed. And no more nasty smells! Yay! The house is still in complete disarray, though, and may stay that way for a while yet, because I still need to get the padding under the carpet replaced. Apparently if these guys are the ones to pull it out, they have a policy of not also doing the replacement, that being something of a conflict of interest. Which is hard to argue with. But it means I won't be moving all my books and furniture back in just yet. (They said to talk to the insurance company about it. There's supposed to be someone calling back about my claim soon, so I guess I'll ask then. Heck, it may even be something I could do myself, if I find out where to get the material, except that I'm not at all sure I want to rely on my exceedingly shaky ability to cut in a straight line.)

But at least I get to sleep in my own bed now! At least for the few hours I'm allowed to sleep tomorrow, coming off of night shifts. Sigh.

Wet & Wild

So, the damage control people have now been and gone. They removed the nasty, wet padding under the carpet. The carpet itself they say is OK and not mildewy, which is good. There are now three fans and a giant dehumidifier in the affected rooms to get everything dried out, which will probably take a few days.

Of course, they had to move much of the furniture out of said rooms, including eight bookcases and several hundred books, as well as my dresser and most of the contents of one storage closet, so there's now barely room to walk around here. Both my bed and the spare bed are still in the wet rooms, however, mainly owing to the fact that there was nowhere else to put them, so it looks like I'm sleeping on the couch for a while. Yep, the fun never ends around here!

Someone recently told me that my tribulations reminded them of this. I must say, it's beginning to look more relevant all the time.

Heh

By the way, my insurance guy's name is Chance. It's only just now struck me how amusing that is.

Quick, Men! To The Carpetmobile!

So, after two days of playing phone tag with my homeowner's insurance company, I finally got to talk to the claims guy. They won't cover the plumbing repair, which is what I figured. And they won't cover the damage to my front yard, which I don't care about, because, hey, they filled the hole back in, and my front yard wasn't exactly pretty to begin with. They will, however cover damage to my carpets. Which maybe doesn't do me a whole lot of good, since I have a $500 deductible, but he did put me in contact with a company that cleans up flood damage, who will get the carpets dried out and replace the padding under them, which I think is a very good thing, because right now said carpets smell a lot like damp basement. And I would have had no earthly idea who to even talk to about something like that.

They were actually going to send somebody out from Albuquerque tonight. But then they called back five minutes later and said, uh, actually, could we maybe do it tomorrow? What with the evil windstorm and all? Which, hey, no problem. I mean, it's been this long. I doubt it's going to get worse overnight. Mind you, it's supposed to snow tomorrow, so for all I know they won't be able to make it then, either, but I guess we'll see.

Maybe She'll Develop Superpowers!

Just had little Newt back into the vet again. She's definitely doing way better than she was, all bright-eyed and playful, but she still sounds sort of snuffly or raspy a lot of the time, and there's still a little bit of discharge from her eyes. The vet said it might not even be that the infection is still lingering on; it might just be that there was some damage to her nasal passages from the illness. Which can open the way for bacterial infections, so he gave her some more antibiotics. (In shot form this time, which is nice.) He also said, though, that sometimes these respiratory infections can be chronic, and keep coming back. Joy. Also, one of her ears has a lot of gunk in it, so he gave me some ear drops for it. No vaccinations yet. He said to give it another week. Here's hoping she's all fit and healthy by then. She's a cutie pie, for sure, but I really do want her out of my bathroom and into the home of someone who can actually keep her.

Oh, and, yes, she definitely is a she! There is, however, still some mystery about her age. When I first brought her in, Vet #1 was sure she couldn't possibly be over four months old, since not only was she really, really small for a kitten that age, but she didn't seem to have all her baby teeth in yet. Hence the plausible two-similar-kittens hypothesis. Today, though, Vet #2 looked into her mouth and expressed surprise at the fact that all her adult teeth seemed to be in, which doesn't happen until five and a half months! He said he wondered if the reason why it looked like all her baby teeth weren't in the first time was because some of them had already fallen out. But if that's the case, she is really, really tiny. I don't know. Maybe she's some kind of mutant.

Letters To No One

Dear December,

Please be less annoying than November.

Thank you,

Me

***

Dear self,

You have to work night shifts this weekend. How is waking up at 6 AM helping?!

Befuddled and groggy,

Me

***

Dear internet connection,

Ye gods, but you suck. Having to spend five minutes buffering every time I want to watch a goddamn YouTube video is bad enough, but randomly cutting out on me multiple times a day is unacceptable. I'd see about replacing you with something more reliable today, I swear, but I've got too much on my plate right now, so you get a reprieve. A short reprieve.

Much loathing,

Me

I Can Haz Shower!

Hey, my internet is back up! Although I'm still sort of down a service, because I just realized my garbage wasn't picked up today. Probably because the plumbers' truck was parked in front of it.

So, my exciting plumbing adventures... Apparently the hard part with this kind of leak is finding the damn thing. They initially thought it was in the house somewhere, so first they drained and took out my water heater so they could get at the spot where the water lines come into the house. (This also involved cutting a hole in the wall behind the heater. Which, if you have to have a hole cut in your wall somewhere, is probably the very best spot for it. Hey, it's behind the water heater! Who cares?) So, they got in there, cut into those pipes, and installed some valves or something so they could shut off water to the part of the system where they suspected the problem was. But it turned out it wasn't there at all, as evidenced by the fact that the water meter kept running. Apparently that narrowed it down to the pipes coming into the house, though, so they then proceeded to dig a big hole in my front yard. And lo and behold, there it was! Not actually under the house at all -- which is a good thing -- but just outside. I think they spent about three hours troubleshooting and maybe fifteen minutes actually fixing the pipe.

Here's the hole, with the culprit pipe. (I believe this is after they cut the bad section out and before they installed the new bit.) The edge of the concrete slab my house sits on is visible at the top.



And here's a close-up:



That's a lot of mud! At least, as far as I can tell, it hasn't made my house list over any more than usual. So far.

So, anyway, there we go. Kind of a huge-ass mess, but it could have been a lot worse. And my carpets are already starting to dry out.

If It's Not One Thing...

I have water again! But now my internet is out. Because apparently it is wrong for all services to my house to work at the same time now for more than a few hours. But at any rate, the leak is fixed! I will blog about my exciting adventures in plumbing when I can post from a real computer. There may be a picture of the hole they dug in my front yard.

Damn It, I Want A Shower.

So, Sunday night I was without electricity. And today, I get to be without water! The fun just keeps on coming!

Yeah. I seem to have a leaking pipe somewhere. Presumably in the front wall of the house, or maybe under the floor, I don't know. All I know is that I suddenly realized that there's a spot on my bedroom carpet that is absolutely soaked, and we haven't had any rain. Closer inspection revealed more spots of wet carpet along that same wall, and wetness around the front of the house. Joy. And, of course, I discovered this right before bed last night.

Fortunately, thanks to an annoying-but-helpful video on YouTube, I was able to figure out how to shut off the water, so it won't get any worse. Which is good, because I'm stuck at work all day today and probably won't be able to get a plumber in before tomorrow. It was fun trying to do that in the dark, though, especially because my water shutoff mechanism appears to be situated smack in the biggest patch of goatheads in New Mexico. Ow, ow, ow.

Sigh. It's not like I didn't already have a huge list of annoying, time-consuming, and expensive things that needed to be done in the next few weeks, or anything. Or like I was hoping to get up to Albuquerque tomorrow to do some badly needed shopping and maybe treat myself to a movie. Or like I actually need water in the house, right? Naaaah.

SIGH.

More Cuteness

Powerless

Got home from work tonight and the power was out. Man, I hadn't realized how very dark it is in this house without all those zillion LED displays...

Possibly I Should Make This A Tradition.

Aliens turns out to be amazingly good Thanksgiving viewing. If nothing else, it makes me feel profoundly thankful that there are no alien lifeforms bursting out of my chest. And space marines vs. bugs is a way, way more interesting competition than football players vs. some other football players.

Also, man, that's just one of those rare movies that's the perfect combination of highly memorable and infinitely re-watchable. It'd probably been fifteen years since I last saw it, and I can still quote big old chunks of dialog. And yet, it also still feels suspenseful. You have to admire that. Plus, Newt really is the awesomeest kid ever, and deserves to have entire colonies of cats named after her.

There is just one question that bugs me a little. (Well, two, if you count "Why isn't James Horner capable of writing a soundtrack that doesn't rip off any of his other soundtracks?") And that is: if you were going to create an android -- excuse me, artificial person -- why in the world would you make him look like Lance Henriksen? I mean, that dude is creepy looking. Do android designers just have a warped sense of humor? Is there a Christopher Walken model out there somewhere, too?

Mmm, Pie.

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow USAians! No big plans for me today, no trips out to visit family or anything. Which, you know, is actually kind of a good thing. I'm still recovering from a stressful week and am fighting off a bit of a cold -- although fortunately I seem to be winning -- and a nice, low-key holiday seems like exactly what I need.

My goals for the day, some of which I have already accomplished, include the following:

Cooking enough turkey to feed a small army and then eating it all myself. (OK, admittedly, that last part is likely to take a while. But that's what freezers are for!)

Pumpkin pie for breakfast.

Feeding shredded turkey Fancy Feast to a kitten.

Eating Thanksgiving dinner while watching Aliens. (In honor of said kitten.)

And not changing out of my pajamas until after noon, if at all.

I think these are laudable and realistic goals, and I am optimistic about my ability to achieve them all. In the meantime, I shall also contemplate how appreciative I am for various things, like having enough money to buy ridiculous amounts of turkey and being able to rent Aliens via Netflix any time I want it.

All the best to the rest of you, and may you also have many good things to appreciate! And also pumpkin pie for breakfast. Everybody should have pumpkin pie for breakfast.

A Useful Random Encounter

So, remember how I said the vet told me he knew a woman who takes rescue cats to Texas and helps get them adopted? I just ran into her in the grocery store! She was standing in my way in the pet food aisle and apologized for taking so much time grabbing cat food because she had all these rescue cats, and we got to talking about that subject, and after a minute or two I suddenly realized who she was. So she gave me her number and told me to call her when the kitten is ready to go, because she knows someone who will probably want to take her (or, as the case may be, him). She also says the next time she's doing the run to Texas will probably be early December, which should be just about perfect, giving Newt enough time to get over the remnants of her illness and get vaccinated and everything. Hooray! Sometimes living in a small town can be handy!

(Also, after we got done talking about cats, she proceeded to geek out about the Doctor Who t-shirt I was wearing. I know that should not automatically make me feel that someone is a good and trustworthy person, but somehow I cannot help myself.)

Newt The Cute

Here you go. Obligatory kitten picture! Not only that, an obligatory kitten-with-book picture! You can see that her eyes maybe still look a little weepy, but they're way, way better than they were.

Arguably, I Do Kind Of Need A New Coat

Someone please talk me out of buying myself this for Christmas.

State Of The Kitten Report

Just got back from Newt's vet appointment. The doctor said pretty much exactly what I figured: that she's got a virus and it's just going to take her a little while to get over it completely. Her eyes are definitely looking better than they were, her ears aren't too bad, and her chest is clear, but she's still a bit congested. This stuff can take two or three weeks to get over, so I'm just to finish giving her the antibiotics and the eye ointment and see how she does. If she doesn't get all better, I'll make her another appointment. And if she does get all better, I'll also make her another appointment, to get her vaccinations. Also, the vet said that if I'm going to take her to the shelter, I should call him first, because he knows a woman who regularly picks up kittens here and places them in homes in Texas, and she might be able to get Newt adopted. Here's hoping!

Also, it was generally agreed that the kitty is very cute, and the vets' assistant got the reference and liked her name.

I know I still need to post some pictures of her. I did try to take some, but they came out terrible. I think the flash bothered her eyes. I'll try again in a few days.

Very Belated Currentlies

Current clothes: Dark blue sweatpants. A light tan t-shirt that says, "Will Work For Books." White socks. White sneakers.

Current mood: Lately I've been feeling, well... slightly weary, I guess. I've had a lot of stressors in the last week, and while I like to think I've dealt with most of them well, they do add up. And it seems like every time I start to relax, something new comes along to bug me. I desperately need some quiet time, I think, and I don't know how much of it I'm likely to get. At least today hasn't been bad so far. In fact, I'm really starting to relax again. Here's hoping this time I've broken the pattern.

Current music: Not much lately. Random stuff on the radio.

Current annoyance: Right this moment? Well, I must say, while kittens are adorable and often fun to have around, keeping one quarantined in your bathroom is a bit of a pain in the ass. Simple things like going in to take a shower become rather more complicated. And sitting on the bathroom floor for half an hour or so several times a day to cuddle and play with the kitty has begun to take its toll on my back and my knees, which is not only uncomfortable in itself, but also serves as a sad reminder of the fact that I'm not as young as I used to be. And, because I don't want to transfer any germs from her to my other cats, every time I handle the kitten I have to scrub my hands afterward, which has left them dry, scaly, and red. Sigh.

Current thing: Operating Betty's Home for Wayward Felines. Again.

Current desktop picture: Still the same Hawaiian palm trees from last month.

Current book: Riddle-Master by Patricia McKillip. Which I fear I have not been doing any favors by reading in my current distracted state.

Current song in head: Right now it's "Dancing in the Moonlight" by Van Morrison, because it was just playing in the supermarket when I was there buying milk and cat food.

Current DVD in player: Disc 2 of season 3 of The Big Bang Theory.

Current refreshment: Nothing at the moment, but I'm thinking a nice mug of some sort of herbal tea is in order.

Current worry: Traditionally, this would be the place for me to be all worried about the kitten, but, oddly enough, I'm kind of not. Partly that's because I really do think she'll be fine, and partly it's because I've pretty much resigned myself to the idea that I'm not keeping her, but I think possibly I just used up most of my supply of kitten-worry on the last one.

Current thought: After another look under her tail, I'm beginning to wonder if Newt is in fact a boy kitten and not a girl kitten. In which case, she's he's not keeping the name, because "Newt" for a male kitten really does suggest Aliens less and Gingrich more. Not that it matters, probably, on account of that thing about how I'm almost certainly not keeping her. Speaking of which... Anybody want a kitten? Free delivery in the state of New Mexico!

Cats And Hackers

So, momma cat has successfully been spayed! She's also been vaccinated, de-wormed, and tested for feline leukemia (negative), since I know for sure I'm never, ever going to manage to catch her again, and I wanted to do as much as I could for her while we had her. I released her back into the wild this morning, where she consumed the food and water I left out for her like a very hungry and thirsty kitty indeed, then took off for parts unknown. Hopefully somewhere warm; it's a bit chilly out there this morning. I wish her well. And, no more kittens! Yay!

In less awesome news, my gmail account was hacked last night, apparently by someone in Russia. It looks like they only had access for a few minutes, and managed to send out all of six spams before gmail noticed and locked the account down for suspicious activity. Thank you, gmail! After careful inspection, they don't seem to have changed any of my settings or done anything else nasty to the account, so it could have been a hell of a lot worse. Of course, this has now made me paranoid in ways that the mandatory computer security briefing they made me attend at work this week never managed. So I've now turned on gmail's two-step verification process, where you have to get a verification code sent to your phone (or employ one of a couple of other backup methods) to get into your account when logging in from a new computer. Or even an old one, every 30 days. Which seems like a massive pain, but I guess it's better than being hijacked by Russian spammers. Damn it. Why can't people just be nice? Anyway, if someone spammed you from my account last night, I apologize. Obviously, it wasn't me.

Success!

Animal shelter guy brought the cat trap around this afternoon, and after maybe 45 minutes of nosing around it, trying to get at the food in it through the mesh of the cage, giving up, then going back and trying again, Momma cat finally got herself caught! Hooray! She is at the vet's office right now. They will either be doing her spaying tomorrow or Thursday, depending on their schedule. (They leave early on Wednesdays, so this was not the ideal time for this, but now is when I got her, so now is when they get her!)

Will post more when I hear back from them. Right now, I have to go get ready for work. And come down off this adrenaline spike. Biting your nails waiting for a cat to walk into a trap, and then dealing with the poor thing flailing around in the cage can do that to you, apparently, especially when you've got somewhere you've got to be. But I'm really glad I got her before I had to leave, so she didn't have to sit out there caged up in the cold. Animal shelter guy said that if I threw a blanket around the cage she'd be fine, but I was worried, anyway.

[ETA: By the way, in keeping with the Aliens theme we've got going on here... Do you know what a reproductively intact adult female cat is called? That's right. A queen. I took out the queen. I am so Ripley.]

In Space, No One Can Hear You Meow

Also, I believe the kitten now has a name: Newt. No, not after Newt Gingrich, thank you very much. After the kid from Aliens. Why? Because she's clearly been through a rough time, poor little thing, but I think she's a survivor, and I'm planning to do my best to make sure of it. Yes, that kind of makes me Ripley, which is awesome. And, no, I do not acknowledge the existence of the third movie, which is not awesome.

I think it's even extra appropriate, given the fact that a creature who will not stop having babies is currently causing me difficulties, and that I fully intend to put a stop to that. (Nuke her ovaries from orbit! It's the only way to be sure!) Now all I need are some space marines...

Kitty Update

OK. Kitten has been to the vet now, with the following results:

First off, it probably is a girl kitty. It's hard to tell at this age, but the vet thinks so, anyway.

Secondly, speaking of "this age," the vet also cleared up something that was puzzling me: namely that I thought this kitty had to be at least four months old, but she sure doesn't look that old. Was she stunted by poor nutrition?, I wondered. Is she just a very tiny cat? Was I somehow mistaken? But it's right there in my blog, on July 7th: "Mickey's mother appears to have another kitten." So what's the solution to this mystery? Well, given how quickly cats can reproduce, she's probably had two batches of kittens in the last few months. I have no idea what happened to the one I saw in July, but this is definitely not the same kitten. The mistaken identity is perhaps understandable, though, since they're both gray cats who look exactly like their mother.

Fortunately, according to the vet, humane cat traps are available from the local animal shelter, and I can bring Momma cat in for spaying immediately whenever I catch her. This is excellent to know, because, honestly, this has just got to stop. I'm going to call the shelter tomorrow and see about picking up a trap. (I'd do it this afternoon, but they're closed on Mondays.)

Anyway, as for this kitten, she's got a very bad respiratory infection, poor thing. Also worms. So the vet gave her a de-wormer, and she now has antibiotics and eye ointment and another appointment for next week. Here's hoping she gets well soon, because I don't mind nursing her back to health for a week or three, but she is not staying in my house for six months like the last one.

Two Temporal Complaints

1. I do not want this "extra" hour. All it means is that we're calling the time I got up this morning "8 AM" instead of "9 AM." This will not be helpful tomorrow when I have to work until midnight (or, the hour formerly known as 1 AM). *insert usual anti-Daylight Savings rant here*

2. I liked Christmas a lot better when it didn't last for two fucking months. Gaah!

Kittens, Kittens Here

Well, I found the kitten when I went out to get my laundry in. So she -- on closer inspection, I think it's a girl kitty -- is now holed up in my bathroom. Poor thing, her eyes really did look terrible, all full of crusted goo, and there were actually big old chunks of gunk falling out of her ears. Aww. She smells kind of bad, too. But I cleaned her up a little bit. Not great, but a little. I also gave her more food and water. She seemed very thirsty, poor kitten. And I petted her a lot, which she seemed to like. Aww. I spent about 45 minutes with her, all told, then figured I should maybe leave her alone for a little to settle in and rest, since she didn't seem too freaked out by her new surroundings. Really wish now that I could get her into the vet sooner, but for another day and a half, she should be OK. Better than she would be outside, anyway. It's supposed to get down to freezing tonight. I'll go and check in on her again in a little bit. The precautionary change-of-clothes and scrub-down to (hopefully) avoid giving my cats whatever she has is going to get old very fast, though.

[ETA: I looked in on her briefly a little while ago, and she was resting quietly in the cubical cat bed thingy I bought for Mickey that he never really used. I think I'm going to try not disturb her too much.]

Kittens, Kittens, Everywhere

So, Kittenworld (aka my bathroom) will have a new inhabitant again soon, probably. You may or may not remember that I mentioned a while back that Mickey's mother had had another kitten, and the the two of them are frequently to be found hanging around in my driveway, where I've been feeding them a bit. Being completely unable to accommodate another kitten, I've spent the last four months or so telling myself that this one would be fine, that she's taking much better care of him (or possibly her, I don't know) than she did the last one. But the poor thing always has runny eyes, and that seems to be getting worse. Plus, it's starting to get really cold out there... So I finally heaved a heavy sigh, admitted to myself that the poor thing would probably need some warmth and veterinary care if it were going have a good chance of surviving the winter, and called the vet to make an appointment. That was on Thursday, and the earliest they could get me in without difficulties was Monday morning. Which I figured was fine, because the kitty'd been more or less OK this long, so how likely was it to get into major difficulty in the next few days? Since I see them pretty much every day, and since the kitten's now gotten to the point where it's comfortable enough with me to let me pick it up, I figured I'd bring it in sometime on Sunday and keep it in the bathroom overnight. Except that I've since realized that the poor critter is in worse shape than I thought. Not only are his eyes runny, but he's got a bit of the inner eyelid showing, too, and his nose is all snotty. The vet being closed now, he's still going to have to wait until Mon. for his appointment, but I figured it'd be better to bring him inside and keep him well-fed and warm.

So, I went out and got some extra cat dishes and cat food, and set up a makeshift litterbox, and made all the other kitten-quarantining preparations I've become so very familiar with. Then I put on some old clothes, figuring I'd change out of them after handling him so as to reduce the danger of infecting the other cats. And then I went outside, to where I'd seen him just a few minutes before... and he'd disappeared. Sigh. Well, I'm sure he'll show up again, tomorrow, if not later today. He always does. I am a little worried, though, because he and his mom didn't finish the food I left out for them. I'm hoping it's because they found something else to eat this morning, and not because they're both deathly ill. We'll see how it goes.

And before you ask, no, I am not keeping this one. I think Mickey proved pretty definitively that I have all the cats I can handle. Not to mention all the cats my cats can handle. No, as soon as this one's healthy, he's going to the shelter. Unless anybody out there wants a kitten now? He (or she) is a cute little gray thing, maybe about five months old, and I'm sure he'd appreciate a good home.