Monday, April 01, 2002 Saturday morning, Rusty didn't look good. He didn't look good at all. He was having a very hard time keeping his balance when he walked. I started him on amoxi and I took him in to the vet this morning. Unfortunately, my vet is out sick. But the techs gave him fluids and I have an appointment set up for tomorrow for more fluids. They also weighed him and he's lost three pounds in less than two years. Hopefully the vet will be back. They tried to take blood this morning, but they couldn't get any. So, we'll try again. My thinking is he's in renal failure. I considered maybe he had an ear infection or something like that, but at the office Liz pointed out his bad breath. And what happens when the kidneys quit working is the toxins aren't cleaned out of the body. I don't know what to do. I guess it depends on the stage of failure. I'm still going to be giving him amoxi, Liz said it might help keep any secondary problem from occurring. But right now, I'd have to think hard about prolonging his life with fluids. I wouldn't hesitate if it were Boney, who is the same age as Rusty (nineteen). But Rusty hasn't groomed himself in years. Rusty can hardly walk because of the arthritis in his back and legs. It takes him a minute just to sit. Pooping is definitely not comfortable for him. Rusty has the problem with hearing that causes seizures. The quality of life just isn't there. I think even the act of purring bothers him now. He would try this weekend and stop short. I think that has more to do with his hearing than anything. I hate this. *tears* He deserves better. He's been such a good cat for so many years.

Mystie has discovered the trees. And she's discovered she can climb them. The first tree she went up was the one on the bank by the doghouse. She not only went up the tree, she went over the fence. We caught her over there twice. The second time, Brian added to the barrier at that tree. Well, that worked. Then she went to the next tree. She went up this one, but not over the fence. I've caught her up there twice. She's pretty smart, she comes down fairly easily. And she doesn't try to come down via the branches, she knows to come down the trunk. The last time I watched her, she started out on a limb, but I kept telling her Nononononono! and she came back to the trunk. She kind of slides down to a branch, the looks for the next lower branch, positions herself over it, then slides down. She does this until she's close enough for me to grab. I did try trimming her claws. I'm going to do that every week until the claws are really short and not good for climbing trees. I did see where she was getting over the barrier this morning, so maybe Brian can figure out something to keep that from happening. Mystie is quite a jumper. Brian saw her jump from the floor to the top of the entry into the tv room from the dining room. There used to be a shelf there they could lay on it, that was accessible from the kitty entertainment center. Well, all that has been moved since we started redoing the tv room.

So, it would be no problem at all for her to jump up to the barrier. So, now, when we leave the house, we lock her in. The other cats can come in, but once in, they can't go out. What a pain in the butt for all of us.

I've figured out why it's hard for me to do the diary. Use to be, I'd get up in the morning, let the cats out, then come back to the office and start typing. But now, I get up, feed the cats, start up the computer, get dressed, then go walking with hubby. When we get back, I feed the dog, maybe cook breakfast. I don't have the rhythm I used to have when I was keeping up on a regular basis. I had considered doing this at night, but I'm too tired to think. So I'll just do the best that I can, when I can.

Saturday, we spent hours looking at furniture. First we went to Jerome's in El Cajon. Found a sofa and loveseat I liked. Brian would like something that reclined, but he didn't care for the selection of recliners. He definitely doesn't want a rocker/recliner. We would look elsewhere. We came home and passed one of those little storefront furniture shops. Um, definitely are catering to a different clientele than us. Younger, hipper and edgier. One of the chairs they had was a big platform shoe. Okay, not quite what we were interested in. Came home, grabbed some tile samples, then drove thirty miles up to Escondido (the whole time I kept thinking about Rusty; was he okay? would he be alive when we got home? is it nearing his time?). The store Brian had been interested in was no longer there. Sears HomeLife. Out of business. But on that stretch of road, there were many, many stores. And we hit most of them. Bassett, Ethan Allen and the leather store were passed by. *grin* One of the places we went into, "Mor Furniture" had some really nice selections. The first we tried out was this little number, from Douglas Furniture:

I have to say we both liked it. I went out to the truck to get the tile samples and we were pleased at how well they looked with the sofa. All three pieces recline. I was ready to buy it then and there, but Brian, after looking at the other furniture available said "let's look at some other places". Well, one of the places (we must have gone to five or six) was a bigger Jerome's. They offered the same cool sofa and loveseat from the El Cajon Jerome's. We really liked it and the tile worked nicely, too. But we really liked the set that we found at Mor's. So, we left Jerome's and went back to Mor's. Our second trip. We found Lorena and told her we wanted to buy the furniture that's in the picture above. She took us over to a desk and we sat down. She calls for availability. SEVEN WEEKS! Ack! Oh, my! She asked me "well, when did you want it?" I say "Tuesday". She was really apologetic, but we just couldn't wait seven weeks. I told Brian "no way am I sitting on lawn furniture for two months!" Brian had planned on taking our old furniture to the dump as soon as he could. We'd be without anything to sit on. I wasn't going for it. We figured we'd go back to Jerome's. Get the furniture we liked there and find a suitable recliner. We said our goodbyes to Lorena and made our way back to the truck (I hate shopping, have I ever mentioned that? If I can't buy it at CostCo or Vons or Walmart, fuggedabowdid). And back to Jerome's. We went over to the sofa and loveseat we planned on getting and I grabbed up one of the pillows and we were off to look at recliners. I swear, they must have had at least fifty and Brian sat in just about every one of them. The colors matched the pillow, many of them would have be complimentary to the sofa and loveseat pattern. But. Brian either hated the way the looked (the cushion doesn't wrap around the front) or the way they felt. So, we were out of luck. Brian looks at me and says "you know, there's no reason we just can't use our old furniture til the new stuff comes in". He was right. We've had it for almost sixteen years, what's another two months? So, we left Jerome's and *sigh* went back to Mor's. Found Lorena. Okay, we're ready. We'll wait. Six hours after our first trip, we came home. A couple of grand lighter. This house stuff is expensive! And on the way home, I started worrying about Rusty again. But he wasn't any worse. No better, but no worse.

When we got home, I fed the animules, front, inside and doggie, then picked up a brush and started helping Brian with the vinegar on the tile. (Had a problem with the grout, you can find out what on page 2 of the remodel section.) I got out the Hoover SteamVac and rinsed and sucked up the excess water/vinegar/crud mixture. The vinegar did a fairly good job, but not good enough, we found out Sunday morning. Brian used the sulfanic acid cleaner, doing a nine tile area at a time. When he had finished, he put down the baseboard and did the electrical, I did the phone and we moved the old furniture back into the room (see the picture above). Because the one roller had fallen off of each of the pieces, Brian had to put wood under the corners. Then, last night, he said I should go to Jerome's today and order the sofa and loveseat we liked for the living room. We can use them in the tv room until the stuff we ordered shows up. Then this morning, he says "maybe we shouldn't get that stuff yet. Maybe we don't even need furniture in there, because the cats own that room." I said "hey, I liked sitting in that room, I quit using it when Blackie started peeing on the furniture so badly. If the furniture wasn't yuck, I'd still be in there. I think we should have furniture out there." So we decide that it won't be today. We'll wait until the living room is ready for new furniture. Then, at breakfast he says "maybe we should get the furniture. We don't have to get it today, but if we got it, then we could get the new bookcases and then we could do the speakers." See, he's not going to put up speaker shelves this time. If we had nice bookcases, hopefully with glass, we can store more books. And we can get new bookcases to replace the ones in the dining room. All matching. *sigh* I want my speakers. I really do. I want to hear music again. I want surround sound. I've been going over the new connections for the audio/video ever since I took it all down. So, tonight, I think, we'll be looking at bookcases. If we find something we like, then tomorrow I'll go order the sofa and loveseat at Jerome's, then I hope we can pick it up that same night. With any luck, the tv room will be finished by April 15th.

Well, with the exception of Rusty, all of the cats are doing well. Knock on wood. Junior is due for his glucose testing at the vet's. There are more cats showing up out front. Meezer pretty much stays here now. He has a favorite spot on the bank where he sleeps the day away. OC still comes over and sleeps on the bank occasionally. There is a new smaller meezer showing up. I guess it's time to get out the traps and start getting these newcomers fixed. Lonee, who had gone into seclusion after the kittens started getting big, is coming out more often. For a long while, she'd either be in the tube or the rafters. But now, she's back in the condos and laying on the doghouse. And she doesn't run when she sees me coming. She's even talked to me a little. Red is doing fine. As affectionate as ever. I was worried the changes in the house would affect him adversely, but he seems to be doing fine with them. So, I guess that's it for now. I have bills to pay.

Wednesday, April 03, 2002 Rusty is gone.

Russell Peter
Spring 1983-April 2, 2002
Rest in peace, sweet prince

I called the vet's office Monday at 4, to see if the vet would be in on Tuesday. Yes, he would be back. So, I made the appointment for 9:15. That night, I gave Rusty human tuna. He ate with a good appetite. Then he was crying and I took him to the litterbox, where he shat a small turd. Then he went into the living room and threw up all of the tuna he had eaten earlier. Brian was in the kitchen a little while later and Rusty wanted out the back door. Brian let him out. I grabbed the flashlight and followed Rusty out. He peed and then he did a huge poop. He followed me back in the house. He slept on my pillow.

When I took Rusty in yesterday morning, the vet checked him over and wasn't very optimistic. He said that Rusty's kidneys didn't feel right at all. Then he took Rusty in the back and it took three people to hold Rusty and draw blood. The vet said he'd call me later with the results. Before I left, he gave Rusty more fluids and a shot to calm Rusty's tummy.

The vet called a little before noon. The results were in and the results were bad. Rusty had less than 20% function of his kidneys. His phosphorus count was over 10%. The vet said that the blood readings were normal, but that was to be expected when the blood was as thick as it was due to Rusty's severe dehydration.

The vet said we were doing the right thing. I guess we could have kept him around a little longer with fluids and such, but the vet didn't really think that would be doing the right thing for Rusty. As I said in Monday's entry, if he'd had a better quality of life before the renal failure, I'd likely have done more to extend his life. But there was the arthritis, the sound sensitivity (it had gotten so bad, that even rustling paper bothered him), and the overall pain he was in. He'd gotten so thin, he was skin and bones.

Rusty hadn't slept at all since we had gone to the vet's that morning. I think it may have been because of the shot the vet gave him to calm his tummy. Rusty got to eat the rest of a can of human tuna this afternoon. He probably ate about a quarter of the can Monday night and puked it up. Yesterday, he finished it. The first time in his life he got a whole can of human tuna to himself. A fine last meal. I spent the afternoon with him. He'd come up onto my lap and I'd lean back in my chair and he'd stretch out along my arm, which was cradled around his skinny body. At one point, he even purred a little. Something I haven't heard too much of these past couple of days.

It was so sweet. I think the kittens knew something was up. Monday night, Angel groomed his head and around his ears. Yesterday afternoon, Opie groomed him while he was sitting in the backyard. Later, while I was in the office, watching Rusty and asking God for a sign (isn't it funny how we do that? "Dear God, please send me a sign that I'm doing the right thing.") Sammy Bammers jumped up and started purring and cleaning Rusty's head. Then Sams came over to me and plopped down on my chest, pushing his head into my arm. I think the kittens knew.

Anyway, we had to wait for about ten or fifteen minutes. While we waited, Brian paid for the cremation and the euthanization. Then it was time. Rusty was still in a daze. The crap in his system was really doing a number on him. He kept pacing back and forth on the examination table and Brian and I both gave him scratchs and pets. I picked him up and held him tight to me, crying into his fur. Finally, the vet came in with two syringes. I put Rusty back down and laid him on his side. The vet administered the sedative and I stroked Rusty as the drug took effect. I stroked his eyes and his face, I ran my hand along his very, very thin body. The vet talked with us until Rusty was asleep. He asked about Rusty, how we came to get him. I told him that I'd gotten Rusty at the trash company where I worked when I met Brian. That Rusty had gotten himself stuck at the top of a front loader, caught between the bar and the truck. If he'd fallen into the hole, he'd have been compacted with the rest of the trash. As it was, it took two drivers forty-five minutes to free him. I told him that I'd known Rusty longer than I knew Brian. Charlene, the tech, started to tear up. I kept smooching Rusty on his head. Finally, Rusty was in a deep enough sleep that the vet gave him the other syringe. That was it. The vet listened to Rusty's heart and Rusty was gone.

We came home, both in tears. Brian left to get dinner. He asked what I wanted and I said ice cream. Real ice cream. He got rolled tacos and a side of guacamole and ice cream. I'm gonna miss Rusty so much. You know, he was my bud for so long. He followed me around, he slept on my pillow. He was always by me. I can't say that I have or have ever had a favorite cat. But if I did, I think it would have been my Rusty Buns. He was so damned special. Ah, I'm going to miss that boy.

Now there is only one left of the original five. When I met Brian, I had five cats. Spider, who got hit by a car a couple of months after Brian and I started dating. Then when we first moved here, we kept the four cats in for two weeks. Then we let them out. We had a hard rain and I guess Jimmy couldn't find his way back. He was a friendly cat, so I hoped that someone had taken him in. This was back when things weren't so busy and hectic around here, before the apartments and so many of the new homes. Before the heavy traffic. We searched for months for Jimmy, for miles around, to no avail. Then Bobby died back in 99. That left Rusty and Boney. Rusty went peacefully yesterday. That leaves Boney.

This was a sad anniversary anyway. Brian's dad passed away a year ago, April 2, 2001.

Last night, as I laid in bed, I really missed that old guy, Rusty. I was so used to him shoving me off of my pillow. I was so used to him cuddled against the back of my head. He'd growl if other cats came around. He'd purr and headbutt me if I faced him. He'd sneeze and get my face wet. I miss him here in the office. He slept so much on the pillow in front of the monitor. It's empty now. Oh, DeeJay was there for a bit this morning, but not for very long. I keep seeing Rusty's staggering gait in my mind. How thin he'd gotten. I'm glad he's out of pain now. My pain will reside. I know it will, it always has so far.

Meezer has pretty much moved over here. He's always out front. Yesterday, he spent part of the day laying in the driveway. He sleeps on the bank and in the bushes in front of the house. I can tell that he's territorializing the area because he's begun hissing at me when I walk out front. As if I'm encroaching on his space. I just laugh and say "hey, Meeze, how's it going? You ready to come in the house yet?" On our way to the vet's yesterday afternoon, Brian asked him if he was ready to move in, that we had a vacancy.
*sigh*

I called the vet this morning to make an appointment for Boney. Just for a geriatric work up. It's been years since Bones has been in. He seems to be doing fine, though. Knock on wood.

Lucky has a bladder infection. I started her on amoxi this morning. She showed signs previously, but they seemed to be gone in a day, so I never followed through on antibiotics. I will this time.

We found bookcases for the tv room. So, I guess we will be ordering those tonight as well as the furniture from Jerome's. We really wanted to find similar bookcases for the dining room, but they could only be less than thirty inches wide. The smallest we found, so far, was 32 inches. That would stick into the opening and we don't want that. Hopefully, we'll have new furniture in place this weekend and I can get the audio system set up. Brian needs to run all of the speaker wire in the attic. Yish. It's nasty up there, even more so since the new roof was put on. Of course, when the furniture we ordered shows up, then we'll have to dump the living room furniture. So much work to do. One of the things I was worried about with Rusty was having a cat flap going to the garage. He hadn't done the cat door in years. He'd just sit outside. Guess that won't be a problem now. *deep sigh* He was such a good cat.

Well, I guess that's it for now.

Tuesday, April 23, 2002 I've been fighting the blues. I've been fighting them hard. Rusty's death affected me more deeply than I could have ever imagined. And the ferals are still disappearing. The tortie is gone, Mr Fluff is gone. I haven't seen Chipper (Georgie and Gracie's mom) in weeks. Lisa's mom, who was an outdoor cat, a cat who my mom had been trying hard to get to live with her, a cat who had even started spending the occasional night in my mom's house, is gone. Coyotes. I hate the coyotes. The week after Rusty died, a coyote got trapped in the neighbor's yard. The same yard where we got Katie. It most likely jumped into a yard chasing a cat. I'm sure the cat got away, but the coyote couldn't get out. I hate the coyotes. There's nothing can be done, though, unless they go after humans. *sigh* When we go for our walks in the morning, I'll find myself thinking about the cats and start to cry. I'm crying right now. I miss the ferals. I miss Rusty. I miss Maggie and Pepper and Bobby and Buddy and Sandy and Blackie and I miss Little Guy and Blue and Bluetoo. I miss Little White Guy. And I hate the coyotes. I hate them a lot. I wish they'd all be hit by cars or something. I wish they were gone. I wish something would eat them like they're eating the ferals. I hate them. I truly, madly, deeply hate them. And there's not a damned thing I can do about it. I watch to see who shows up every night. OC, Meezer, Angus, now MeeToo (a little chocolate point Siamese) and SpotTee are the regulars. Although I haven't seen SpotTee for a couple of days. I resign myself to the day when there won't be any ferals left. God, I hate the coyotes.

Boney did pretty good at his geriatric check up on the 8th. One of the kidney values was high, but not terribly so. He's most likely lost a little of his kidney function, but the vet said that's not uncommon as cats get older. Keep in mind, Boney is 19. The vet also checked Boney's thyroid values and those were normal.

Then Sunday, I notice little spots of blood on the sofa cover in the tv room. I asked Brian which cat had been sleeping up there. He wasn't real sure. I knew Lola had, because that's where she normally sleeps. The spots looked like more than just blood, so I rubbed my fingers on Lola's bottom and they came away moist. She was leaking. Then I saw her squatting on the sofa and she left behind a clot of blood. *deep heavy sigh* I started her on amoxicillan. Then I put a call into the vet. I got through to him and he said that putting her on antibiotics was the right thing to do and that he'd want to see her Monday. So, yesterday, I took her down and she's got a bacterial infection, which he said isn't surprising because of her chemo drugs surpressing her immune system. She's going to be on meds for ten days. I'm glad she's so good at taking pills.

Brian finally got the clubhouse all cleaned up and got his mouse entry prevention measures in place (they were getting into everything so he brought the clubhouse down a couple of months ago). He had new carpeting installed because of all the mouse damage, put wire mesh over the floor vents and covered all the holes he could find. Hopefully, this will do it. The mice were sure doing quite a bit of damage. He took it back up on the 13th. I was glad to have our driveway back. I was afraid the coyotes were hiding behind it to ambush kitties. The week prior I found fur on the driveway that was awfully similar to Mr Fluff's and I haven't seen him since. (Have I mentioned how very much I hate the coyotes?) He left early Saturday morning, around 4 in the morning. When I got up, I turned on the tv and it was giving me grief. It kept going off on it's own, or the picture wouldn't show, but the tv wouldn't turn off and I'd have to unplug it. At one point, it looked like there was lightning going down the middle of the screen. I was very, very irritated, very, very annoyed. It took hours before it quit doing it so often and it was still doing it 18 hours later, but not so badly. Sunday it had calmed down a little, but it was still doing it. Very annoying. So, I started looking at the fillers in Sunday's paper and looked online. Finally found one I liked. I measured the entertainment center and printed out all of the information. When Brian came home, I was prepared. I ended up ordering the television, a Toshiba 36 inch flat screen. They didn't carry it at the store, it had to be delivered, which was set up for Friday afternoon.

He picked up the new bookcases for the tv room on Tuesday, the 16th and wanted me to hold off putting anything in them until he'd run the speaker wire in the attic. The tv was delivered at 12:30 Friday and I asked the delivery guys if they'd be interested in the old tv. One of them said yes, he'd take it, just don't tell the company. No problem. I gave him all of the manuals and remotes and said goodbye to that PITA tv. I had it on when they got here and it was being a good tv. I explained in full all of the problems we'd had with it, so there wouldn't be any surprises. Hopefully, the young man who took it can find someone who knows what they're doing to fix it properly. That evening, Brian got the neighbor Chuck to help him move the new tv into it's new spot (it weighs over 200 pounds). Well, guess what? It wouldn't fit into the entertainment center. Oops. Boy, was Brian pissed. At me. Luckily, Chuck asked why they didn't try pulling out the entertainment center and putting the tv in from the back. I took out all of the audio equipment (which I'd not hooked up yet) and they were able to get the tv into the entertainment center from the back. *whew* Then they waited while I hooked up the cords. Well, guess what? There are new types of connections since we got the ProScan. And they need special cords. Of course, it took about a half hour of trying to figure out why there was no picture to the tv from the DVD player before I finally called Radio Shack and asked them if something special was needed. Yeah. There is. And a six footer cost $40 and a ten footer cost $54. Well, what about a three footer? was what I thought about asking, but didn't. I found out they'd be open until nine, so I grabbed my purse and asked Brian for some money and I was out the door. Took about twenty minutes until I was home and hooking up. Still no picture. So, there I'm standing with the manuals to the tv and DVD player open, trying to find out what I was missing. Oh, a switch on the back of the DVD player. Yay, we have a picture! Everything hooked up from the tv, Brian starts zip tying the cords together and he and Chuck are ready to push the center back to the wall. Now, it probably weighs over a thousand pounds with the tv in it. Chuck came up with the idea of putting a piece of carpet under the legs so that it would move more easily and the tile wouldn't get scratched. That worked. Then I turned on the tv and the satellite picture was black and white. Crap. The connection must have come loose. They pulled the center out a little and Brian pushed the S-video cable in a little tighter. Still had the same problem. Then I checked it out at the satellite receiver, pushing it in there and we had color. Good deal. They pushed the entertainment center back to the wall. We were done. It was about nine pm.

The new sofa and loveseat, which will be moved to the living room once the ordered furniture arrives

Now, in between all of this, the cats were being real pests. Boney was clueless, didn't know what was going on. Brian and I were worried about him getting hurt. Chuck isn't real used to animals in the house, especially not cats and doesn't pay attention to where he's stepping and with Boney underfoot, Boney was sure to get hurt. I went into the garage to get their dinner ready when I saw Chuck putting Boney into the garage. This man sure didn't know how to hold a cat. *grin* But Boney was okay and we shut the doors so that the worst kitties couldn't come into the house. After Chuck left, I put all of the video equipment back into the entertainment center. I was wound up. Brian went to bed around ten. I stayed up, playing with the television, labeling the various stations and video connections. Then I laid back on the sofa, covered with a blanket. DeeJay was at my feet and I bothered him. He got up and stood on the coffee table, in a snit. Then, he puked. He puked big time. It was very liquidy. I'm sure the stress of the delivery men and having Chuck over and eating so late stressed him out. It took me a good fifteen minutes to clean all of the vomit off of the tile floor. I didn't even want to think of how bad it would have been had he puked on the new sofas or a carpet. I finally started to doze off around midnight.

The entertainment center and new television

Sunday, Brian got the wires run for the speakers in the tv room (the living room will be later). What a nasty job. He had to crawl around in the attic to do this. After he came down, and I was in the process of setting up the equipment, it dawned on me he'd not pulled a telephone wire through for the satellite receiver (for pay-per-view). I mentioned it, then said not to worry about it, we could just hook up the receiver as needed. He thought about it, then decided he wanted to run it then. I found the roll of telephone cable and he went back up into the attic. It didn't take too long and he was back down. I still have to put a connector on the cord line by the satellite dish (hmm...so that's what the extra connector was doing in my pocket, I forgot about it). Then he brought the speakers in from the shop, cleaned them off and positioned them on the bookcases. I pulled out the receiver and started hooking up the wires. I realized it was going to be a PITA to hook up all of the other equipment, so I just had Brian put the receiver back in and I'd hook the rest up when he was home and it was light out. It's hard doing this stuff at night with false light because of all the shadows it throws.

Once the speakers were working, I set up the shelves in the bookcases and started moving books from the old bookcases to the new. The encyclopedia took up almost one entire bookcase. While I was moving stuff, Brian got a phone call from his brother. His brother's truck had broken down, he was by Palmdale (by Edwards AFB, where I went to high school). Since they had their trailer, Brian didn't have to go up until yesterday.

So, yesterday, I finished putting the books in the bookcases. I could have sworn I had more cat books. I pretty much emptied out the bookcases in the dining room and brought more in from the exercise room. Then I started putting the VHS movies in the old bookcases (we definitely need more storage space). Pleased with my progress, when Brian got home I proudly showed off what I'd done. He like the way the books looked in the case with the encyclopedia, but didn't care for the hodge podge of books in the other case. Indignant, I said "if you want them even, you buy books by the foot, not for content". Hmmph.

On of the new bookcases, the one with the encyclopedia; the light colored speaker will be getting a new black cover

So, now, the room is finally starting to look homey again. The window still needs blinds, which we bought at Home Depot Sunday morning. Brian was insistent on Levolors until the guy priced them out for him (almost $400 just for the living room sliding glass door; there are three more windows that need blinds and two of those would cost the same as the door because they're the same width, the third window is about a foot shorter in width). Then we looked at a different book, a cheaper company. Still too much money. Now, me, I don't really care much as long as they're easy to clean, hold up and look nice. I looked over at the in stock blinds and said "does it really matter who makes them?" We ended up getting blinds for all four treatments in the color "sage", the same as the furniture we ordered from MOR. Brian went over to the tile department and brought back two samples of tile. The sage went nicely with the tile that's by the wall. We settled on sage. I was actually lucky because another color had been picked out. They hadn't started cutting the slats down when I spied the sage blinds. Thank goodness. Anyway, we're storing them in my truck because we have no other place to put them. Well, we would if I'd get off of the computer and start moving more stuff from the exercise room. Which I'll be doing after I finish this entry.

And last week, an announcement was made that AcmePet was shutting down it's forums. AcmePet was bought by petSmart a few years back and I understand that petSmart online was purchased by R.C.Steele. And they want to shut down the AcmePet community (bulletin boards and chatrooms for animal owners). AcmePet was the first place I'd ever posted online back in '96. Well, there was a rush by the posters to find a new board, so I did some cleanup work at Benny's, where it's been fairly quiet for the past year. I upgraded the software and made some new graphics. I opened up a couple of new boards. Benny's Forums is the link. Feel free to stop by and talk cats. You do have to register before posting, it helps keep the trolls away.

Woohoo! SpotTee is here! I gave him a can of Fancy Feast. He waited outside the gate while I dished it up. He's a very hungry boy.

I almost forgot to mention that some of my free email boxes are going to be closed unless more people sign up for them. They are web based email applications, accessable from any computer. They are:

Ranchitaranch.com

Pinwheelmoment.com

lvdesigns.com

lisaviolet.com (not lisaviolet.net, it has plenty of users)

Please feel free to sign up for any or all of them. Thanks.

Saturday, April 27, 2002 Well, don't bother signing up for my email. I found out two days ago that to keep them, I'd have to pay at least $9.99 a month depending on the amount of people signed up. I'd rather use money to get more website space. A couple of them I can't even get into, they've completely discontinued them. I wish they'd give me a little more notice. *sigh* I have to get all of my MX records changed on my various hosts and now I'll be getting all this spam mail. I'm not looking forward to it at all. I had 110 pieces of email this morning and two were valid. It's only going to get worse.

What else...oh, yeah, Tuesday afternoon, blue jays were going nuts under one of the trees on the bank at the front of the house. I was concerned that a cat had one of their babies and walked up to the street to check it out. It wasn't a cat, it was a SNAKE! A BIG snake. I saw the tail end of it and it must have been almost an inch in diameter. It was yellow on black. I did a search and I think it was a California King Snake. I told Brian to be careful when he was planting stuff up there. He hates snakes.

Today is his birthday. Forty five years old. My mom brought a card over for him yesterday to give him today. Since Brian was going up to the property (and Chuck was going with him), I left the card by his side of the bed. He yelled at me for giving him a card. I said it was from my mom. *lol* Brian and I don't exchange cards or gifts any more.

Boy, that coffee is good this morning.

So, with Brian gone, I think I'm going to put up more pictures in the family album. I've been having a great time with the camera's macro function.

Mystie

Sammy

Ciara

Opie

Mystie

Ciara

Katie

Kirby

Annie

Daniece

Sammy

Opie and Sammy

Opie

Junior

I haven't done anything with it for a very long time and I'm sure I could get lots of pages up.

Our new furniture will be here Monday! Kewl. I'm supposed to empty the big fish tank in the living room, the one that hasn't had a live fish in it for years, so that it will be easier to move this to there. And we also got a notice in yesterday's mail that our microwave has a recall on it. I called and they'll be out Friday to fix it. It could have started on fire. We talked about it this morning, how scary that is to think it might have happened when we weren't home. But then, maybe it would only have happened when in use. I'll make sure and ask.

Ciara peed on me Wednesday morning. I had to strip the bed. She had peed on Brian last Saturday morning. And I saw her squatting a couple of other places. So, I started her on amoxi, figuring that it's quite possible she has an infection. And Georgie is having problems, too. So, I started him on amoxi, too.

Some recommendations for you. Brian goes through Levi's like crazy. Figure that's all he wears. Usually, he gets them at Sears. He heard on tv that there was a sale on, lowest prices of the year, through Wednesday. Now, keep in mind, we don't watch local tv, we watch tv from back east and Colorado. He went to Sears Wednesday and the Levi's he wanted were $45 a pair! That ain't no low price. He was told that if he came in Friday, he could get 10% off by using his Sears card. Yeah, right. So, I started searching online. I found them for $32.98. No sales tax, no shipping on orders over $50. Well, two pair would put us over that. When he gets them at Sears, he gets six pair at a time. So, we ordered six pair. Saved almost $100 over what we would have paid at Sears. The place is DenimExpress.com. Now, I don't know if I've ever mentioned the candles I got from Susie's Scents on eBay, I got the sandalwood scent. A couple of months ago, I asked if I could get a votive sampler. She said "sure, just let me know what you want and I'll send it". Got a dozen votives, different scents. I fell in love with the sage and clove scents. I know this will sound really weird, but they reminded me of high mass when I was a little girl and the priest with the incense ball going down the main aisle. A comforting smell. Relaxing, I guess. Anyway, I decided to order some candles from her. She now has a website, I don't think she's selling on eBay anymore. Her website is Susie's Scents. Tell her where you heard about her. If you order over $100 worth of candles, you get a big discount. If I'd paid full price for the candles I'd ordered, they would have been $175.00, plus shipping. I paid $100.00 plus shipping. A great deal. And lastly, if you like DVDs (I'm in the process of replacing our tapes with DVDs), check out Deep Discount DVD. I found "the Unforgiven" for less than I'd pay at WalMart. And there's no shipping, no sales tax. I did upgrade the shipping for three DVDs, which was less than $4.00 for priority. A real deal! I got "the Unforgiven", "The Mask of Zorro" (special edition, whatever that means) and "The Princess Bride" (special edition, whatever that means) for less than $60.00. Let's see how long it is until I get them. ;)

Well, I guess it's time to get on with my day. I think doing the fish tank is going to be a big mess and not real fun since it's cool and wet outside. Nasty work. But it needs to be done.

lisaviolet is fifty something, married with no kids, takes care of lots of cats, likes taking photographs, loves Southern California weather and spends altogether too much time avoiding her responsibilities.

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