Tuesday, December 04, 2001 Where does the time go? Huh? That's what I'd like to know. Damn. About twenty years ago, it would have only been about three days since I last wrote in here. I look at the last time I made an entry. Last Wednesday? Gah! This getting older is for the birds. Time sure flies. Anyway, let's see if this feeble mind can remember much of the past week....Nope. Sorry. That's it for today. *lol* Just teasin'!!

Well, my new cap feels funky. The dentist obviously needs to do some filing. The back is all lumpy and of course, I can't keep my darn tongue from rubbing it.

Last Wednesday I got printed out the checks to pay bills. Got them all signed and in envelopes and stamped on Thursday, after my morning out and wouldn't you know that I heard the mail truck go up the street when I was closing the last envelope? I ran out the door and put it in the people across the street's mailbox. So, bill went out.

Thursday was my four week appointment at the chiropractor. After that, I went over to CostCo and got Junior a couple more of those pillows and put them in his doghouse. He liked the one on the patio so much, that I figured he may spend more time in the doghouse when it's cold outside if he's comfy. It seems to be working. He absolutely hates being in the house. He wants to be with us, but he'd much rather we came outside with him. He has no problem coming in when I'm getting his breakfast or dinner ready, though. I open the back door and in he runs. He barks at me in the kitchen. Better me than the twits next door. He also does a little tap dance when he's excited. I think that's so cute.

I finally started working on the card page this past weekend. Brian was gone Saturday to look at some old equipment. Unfortunately, my friend Doris was catching some flack on a contest she runs. It's not a big contest, no big awards or anything, but on the last day she ran the contest, there was some cheating going on. It was obvious from the logs. Well, instead of having one winner, she gave the two top ten vote getters the top spot. So, it was a tie. Now, Doris isn't a young thing and she's been having some health problems. She shut down the contest a half hour early. You would have thought from all of the yelling going on that there had been a new Jaguar vehicle at stake. People were saying the contest was rigged. It was sad. And the cheating was pathetic. Of course, "nobody" cheated. You know, like that's something that someone would admit to. At least nobody was disqualified. But I was annoyed enough that I was able to come up with a different contest that should be a little more cheat proof. And with a little help from a friend, a javascript was put up letting the voter know the last time they'd come through the vote page. It's set for one vote every twenty four hours. I have my fingers crossed that it doesn't get so stinky again. If anybody here wants to check out the contest, feel free. The URL is http://dorissimo.net/contest/contest.html. As soon as I get the the new card site set up, the monthly winner will be a card selection.

The balmy weather went away. It's been cool to downright cold and we had a little rain the past couple of days. Saturday, I finally got the weather station code change all caught up. I was having a problem with the rain total and yesterday I heard back from the author and found out how to fix that.

One of Benny's eyes was runny, also had some sort of discharge that was goopy. So, I started him on terramycin. He didn't like it the first day I put it in, but he's okay with it now. And, two days after I started putting it in, it's looking much better.

And I guess that's about it. Nothing major with the cats and Junior is getting used to not having Buddy around. So, I guess I'll get back to work on the cards.

Thursday, December 06, 2001 Woohoo!! Got the cards all finished last night. I still have more to do because of moving the page, like fixing links. And in two weeks I'll completely take the old page off, just leave a page with a link to the new. I'll have to check the hit counter and see which pages still get hits. They are linked by card pages across the internet.

Oh, remember the neighbors hosing Junior the night before Thanksgiving, when we had walked over to Brian's mom's house? Well, I guess they're on vacation. I guess they've been gone since Sunday. Remember they have a dog? Guess who's been barking/howling nonstop since yesterday morning. A hint, it wasn't Junior. Their dog was still out there barking last night when I finished up in here, after ten o'clock. I feel sorry for the dog, because it doesn't look like anybody is spending any time with her. I'm sure that someone is coming over to feed her, but that's it. She's probably lonely. I admit, it's irritating because of how little slack they've cut Junior when he barks.

Benny's eye is back to normal. And he's been sleeping in the house during the morning and last night, he came in on his own and even though the cat door wasn't yet blocked, he settled in for the evening. I guess he's getting old enough now that he doesn't like being outside when it's so cold. That's one thing about this weather. It's sure not hard to get them in at night. A couple of nights ago I went outside and three of the kittens were all curled up on Junior's patio pillow and Junior was in the doghouse. I picked up each kitten and put them inside the door without any fight. It sure is nice. It's cold out there at night and I don't usually feel like putting on shoes.

I don't know if I mentioned that one of the pool streams was leaking pretty badly back towards the end of summer. It was leaking so badly, that I put a hose into the pool and had a steady, though small, stream of water running into the pool while the streambeds were running (they can be turned off). That kept the pool from getting too low. If the pool gets too low, water doesn't go into the skimmer where it's pumped through the filter. And this can lead to failure of the pump. So, Brian had them turned off. Well, Sunday, he did some work down by the pool and ran the streambeds. He left them on. Wouldn't you know, that the leak was still there. It took a good half hour with the hose running at full speed for there to be enough water so that the filter wasn't blowing air. That's a lot of water. Then, about an hour and half later, the skimmer was getting low again, so I put the hose on low flow, once again and left it on. That night, I told Brian about it. He said "you can always turn the streams off". Yeah, I can, by trial and error, I don't ever remember which switch is for the streams. Then yesterday morning, I asked him, out of curiousity, why he'd turned them back on in the first place. He said "I thought they'd magically be fixed!" I told him that, no, the pool streambed fixit fairy hadn't dropped by. So, the streams are turned off again.

Boney has started to sleep on my pillow. Nice. And Autumn also sleeps on the bed at night, cuddled up against Brian's legs. The older kittens (I guess one of these days I can't call them kittens anymore) will walk across any part of the body and just lay down. Doesn't matter where or what end is in your face. They treat us like more kittens. This morning, Richie laid across my head and squirmed his way down next to my nose, so that his legs were still on me, but his butt was in my nose. Brian thought it was really funny, because neither of us like to move a comfortable cat. I moved Richie after I realized he wasn't planning on moving anytime soon by himself.

It looks like Boney needs a major claw trimming. Oh, joy. I should probably look at everybody's, just in case. It's been a while.

I need to clean the house again. Dust, vacuum, wash floors, my bathroom, launder the throw rugs and sofa covers. I guess I can get started on that tomorrow.

Well, I guess I should start on the help page for the new cardshoppe. I'm sure there will be some questions. Then I can finish learning flash and try my hand at designing some flash cards.

Tuesday, December 11, 2001 Is it any wonder I have a hard time doing paperwork?

From left to right, Boney, DeeJay, Mystie and in the back, Rusty. And these guys are also the mouthiest. The only one missing is Georgie and he's sleeping right now. I would guess he's storing up energy to drive me nuts after these guys settle down.

Well, I was all set to make an entry yesterday when I received an email from one of the pages where I'd gotten some backgrounds for the Christmas card pages. "Sorry, you can't use them." Gave me some sort of reason about clipart from CDs and not having permission to use them. I think she was unclear on why I wanted to use them. But I guess she doesn't want to get into trouble for sharing plaid. So, I spent all day yesterday making six backgrounds. Found some pretty cool new filters, even purchased a set.

Strangest thing. This morning all of the cameras weren't working. I don't know when they quit, but they did. So, I had to reboot. Maybe it was when I got the new filters for PSP installed.

Any of you watch Frasier? You know how Eddie will just sit and stare at Frasier? Well, Boney and Georgie do that to me. Georgie wags his tail and Boney reaches out and paws me. It's very disconcerting. I wish they'd not do it.

Mickey's back is horrible. He's chewed off most fur and it's scabby. On the off chance it's fleas (remember, I found one on Kirby last month) I applied Advantage last night. I should probably do all of the cats. After all, I paid for it. I should use it.

Jackson was hanging around the kitchen this morning while I was making breakfast. This is a first. He'll hang out in the morning when I heat up the chicken, but I've never seen him there at any other time.

Saturday, Brian worked on the set of disks he bought for the tractor. I guess they are the things that turn the earth? I don't know, but some of them were worn, so he switched stuff around. We had kinda sorta planned on going to Ranchita Sunday, but there were some sales on at Sears (I put the catalogs and flyers on his desk) and he really wanted to go there. So, we went to breakfast at a place we'd not been before (and had a pretty decent breakfast), then shopping we went. He got a bunch of tools and toolchests at Sears. I got a neat keychain with a little folding knife. There is a little knife, a nailfile and a tiny working scissors. While I was waiting for all of the stuff to be rung up, I had the urge to urinate, so I told him I was going to the restroom. On the way, I saw the most wonderful thing in the world. A front loading washing machine. I stopped (crossed my legs) and looked. I gazed in awe. I opened it up. I looked inside. I sighed. I longed. I could see this appliance in my home. I could see me playing Susie Homemaker with this appliance. Then, the urge was too urgent and I made my way to the restroom. On my way back to Brian, I slowly walked past the washer and dryer. When I got to Brian, they were still ringing him out. Finally, finished, I said "come see this" and dragged him to the washer. I point at it. "Look" is all I said. He sees the price. He "looks" at me as if I were nuts. "That's a lot of money." Yabbut, honey.... I start my justification for needing this amazing piece of machinery. "Brian, I use the washer and dryer more than any other appliance in our home. Can you imagine how much cleaner stuff will get in this type of machine?" He runs his hand along the top. "Well," he admits "the cats certainly couldn't piss on it and hurt the controls." (The controls are in the front of the machine, not at the top like top loading machines.) I'm thinking about how much better the clothes would be rinsed. Anyway, I'm to pay bills today and when that's done, we'll see how much money we have left. If there's enough, I can get the machines. Yay!!

From there, we went to Big 5 Sporting goods. I had found some coupons in the paper for five different things we didn't need. The sale had started on Thursday, so I figured not everything would still be in stock. But they had the machete (yeah, yeah, I know, but I just thought it would be a cool thing for Brian to have up at Ranchita) and I got one of those huge exercise balls, the ones you can lay on. Then we went to CostCo. Brian ran into an old friend (this was kind of funny, because before we even left to go shopping, Brian said he could go someplaces by himself and then we'd go to CostCo later together. I said no way. If I'm with you, you won't run into old friends and spend hours talking with them, while I'm at home waiting. He said "how often has that happened, three times since we've been married?" I was *lol* at him later, because there was an old friend paying his bill at breakfast, someone Brian hadn't seen in years, and then someone else at CostCo? Can I call it or what?). So, while he's getting up to date with his buddy, I'm checking out stuff around the store. Got some bows, got some wrapping paper. Got QuickBooks 2001. Got the DVD "Total Recall" (a special edition!). Got some Christmas cards, that I thought I could use year round (funny, I didn't notice they said "greetings" on the inside until I got home). And I found that they have those steam cleaners. I've wanted one of those for the hard floors. These don't use any chemicals, just steam. We got milk, eggs, butter, bread, the kind of things we use everyday. At checkout, I asked if they had QuickBooks 2002 in and the cashier thought they did. He asked and they didn't have it in yet, it was supposed to come in yesterday. So, we didn't buy QuickBooks 2001. I have to get more food for Junior this week, I'll pick it up then. I also need more Blistex. I think my lips are addicted to that stuff. Not the stick kind, but the ointment in a tube. Nothing else works like this stuff. They used to carry it at CostCo, but they haven't had it in a long, long time. Too bad, too.

So, that was the shopping for the day. When we got home, we unloaded, then Brian left to go check out the tools at Harbor Freight. While he was gone, I blew up the exercise ball and laid over it. It felt so good on my back, to stretch it out. My back had been sore, but Monday morning, it didn't hurt at all. The cats were curious about the ball. But I put it in the exercise room, because I didn't relish the idea of laying back on it and having it have pee on it.

Yesterday, I finally got caught up on our clothes laundry. I spent most of last week working on the cardshoppe. Which, I'm very happy with, by the way. Today, I'm going to do paperwork, then the rest of the week will be devoted to getting the house back in order. I've been keeping the windows in the dining room and tv room cleaned. When they get pissed on, I usually have to clean the screens as well as the windows. But it seems the more often I clean, the less they get peed on. I can't figure that one out, but I like it.

Well, I'd best get busy with paperwork. Not one of my favorite things to do, but it's gotta be done. And maybe I'll get a new washer/dryer!!

Oh, check out the cathouse cardshoppe for new pictures of the gang. They'll be in the "cats" section.

Sunday, December 16, 2001 Well, I had a couple of busy days last week. Tuesday, I put Advantage on Mickey. His back was all torn up and the only thing I could think of was fleas. Remember I caught one on Kirby a couple of weeks ago and Kirby had tapeworms. Since Mickey is very allergic to flea bites, I figured that's what it was. Thursday afternoon, he was still chewing himself, as well as scratching his face raw above the eyes. He also was biting on his fore arms. So, I called the vet and took him in on Friday. Flea Allergy Dermatitis. The vet said I brought Mickey in just in time, because it was on the verge of getting much worse. Mickey had licked a big spot on his belly, that I hadn't seen. So, Mickey is on prednisone for two weeks and cefa tablets (an antibiotic) for a week. Brian thought that maybe Mickey had a food allergy, but that wasn't my gut feeling. The vet said about Mickey that I should seriously consider dosing Mickey every month, just because he is so allergic. But he's looking better this morning. His back is starting to dry out and doesn't look so angry.

Monday, December 17, 2001 Gah! You'd think I'd know better by now. Another hot declawing discussion. When someone on a rodent board said that declawing wasn't mutilation, I had to object. I explained that it was mutilation and exactly why. Their response?

"Then isn't spaying and neutering 'mutilation'? I mean, they completely remove the poor cat's uterus and ovaries, or testicles. Shouldn't the owner just be more responsible, and watch there pet 24/7? Make sure they never go outside? And if they start spraying, or yoweling all hours of the night, the owner should not be lazy, and train them not to, right?

Or, if a cat was hit by a car, or attacked by a dog. They shouldn't operate, that would be mutilation! They should just put the poor thing to sleep!

I have seen a neuter, as well as a declaw. I do not find either are 'mutilation.' I, however only know a few cats that have been declawed. So, maybe I just got lucky in only knowing cats that recovered well.

Well, whatever."

Morons!! The internet is filled with morons!! I explained how declawing is for the most part, a surgery for owner convenience and rarely has direct health benefits. And I said the rest of the post was so ridiculous that I wouldn't respond to the silliness. Then I was a accused of flaming. Now, if I knew they were going to be reading this, I certainly wouldn't be opposed to adding a few insults. Hee hee. After all, I'm not related to them.

So, Friday I washed all of the bedclothes, make the bed. Brian was going to leave really early for Ranchita, because they had a lot of stuff to do (his brother went with him). He got up at 3:30 and told me his side of the bed was flat. Well, I couldn't do much about it, so he said to wait until he came home Sunday. Yesterday, we tried to fix it, thinking maybe the air tubes had loosened, but that wasn't it at all. We couldn't sleep on it last night, so we slept on the sectional in the tv room (with only local tv, as I said in my update note, I broke the satellite dish; local tv sucks). I called Nautilus first thing this morning. They'll be sending out new chambers for both sides, as well as new railings because they've upgraded their system. They're sending them out next day express. So, it should be here tomorrow. They'll also send a prepaid label for me to send the stuff we have that's not good back to them. And they're not charging us a cent. Brian said that's because we spent so much for the bed to begin with. Yeah, but look at how much we spent on our vehicles and we have to pay to get those fixed. *grin* Anyway, the bed wasn't made last night because we had to take the bedclothes off to get to the air chambers. I told Brian I'd make it and he could sleep on my side, but he said he'd sleep in the couch. We both did. It was awful. Usually, cats sleep in the bedroom and some sleep on the sofa. Last night, we had many on the sofa. Lola wouldn't let me move without complaining. I kept trying to make her go lay on Brian. I had Mystie and Boney was on my pillow. Georgie was at my feet. Ciara decided she was going to torment Georgie and he started growling when he saw her. It was awful. And we get to do it all again tonight!! Lucky, lucky us!!

It wouldn't be so bad if we could watch something good on television, but, maybe you haven't heard. I broke the satellite dish Friday. Ah!!! We had been having problems with the receiver not going to the satellite we'd set it at. See, our satellite dish is a 7.5 footer. There's a set limit to how far east and how far west it will move. There are various satellites up in the sky, carrying broadcast television. On the eastern side, we can pick up stations like the NASA channel, KTLA (Los Angeles) and the Boston WB. These stations both carry the Gilmore Girls on Tuesday nights. We can watch it out of Boston at five in the afternoon, or on KTLA at eight at night. On the western side, we can pick up Denver. On channel (transponder) 23, we can watch Gilmore Girls at six. We can watch ABC, NBC, Fox and CBS on the back east feeds or the Denver feeds. Or, we can mess around with the antenna on top of the roof and watch local television at local primetime. And I'm usually fast asleep by nine thirty, so there wouldn't be much viewing. With the satellite receiver, we get a guide of what's on. We can go through all of the satellites and see what's on, at what time. If we're watching a movie on one channel and we see something else we'd like, all we have to do is take the guide to that satellite and station and push enter. For some reason, this wasn't always working and it got frustrating trying to change the satellite. Well, besides the receiver not responding to our requests for satellite changes something really went wacky and I couldn't get the satellite to move past midway between the east and west settings. Adding insult to injury, many of the programmed satellite settings had disappeared. It was nothing either of us had intentionally or accidentally done. So, I called 4DTV last Friday, hoping they might be able to help. I was on hold for a good 45 minutes before I ever spoke to someone. When I finally got through, we were able to set one satellite, but we couldn't do the others, because the dish wouldn't move that far. I said that the west linear limit had to be changed. She said she couldn't help me, that if she tried and the dish broke, she'd be responsible for the cost of fixing it. So, I got off of the phone, frustrated. I figured I could do it myself. And I did. I broke the satellite dish. All by myself. See, I took it too far west. And something snapped and it would no longer move. *sigh* It was drizzling outside and the windows were shut. I could hear the motor, but nothing changed on the tv. I went outside to watch the dish move. It didn't. Damn. Now what? I called the place where we originally bought the 4DTV we have. The satellite dish itself was installed years ago by a company that is now out of business. It's needed a tune up for a while, we knew that. Well, the first place I called was booked up through next week. They referred me to someone local. I call. I whine. I cajole. "No, we can't come out today, it's raining and we don't want to die." Electrocution type of die. We make arrangements for him to come out Saturday, if the weather permits. He says he has the actuator motor that we'll need for this dish. I call my mom. I tell her my tale of woe. She says she has some rubber boots she'll let the guy wear. In a later phone call, I relay this message to him. He thinks I'm serious!! Anyway, I'd called to ask him about the 4DTV upgrade that's available to current 4DTV receiver owners. Only $499.00 now through the 24th. A fifty dollar savings. We've considered upgrading for a while now, because we think maybe the old receiver has a lot of cat hair in it. (We're probably right, I can't think of much in this house that isn't filled with cat hair.) He said he didn't do that, I'd have to call and make the arrangements myself. Okay. We left it at I'd probably see him Saturday morning.

Well, of course I had to clean the house to get as much of that sweet pissy smell out as possible. I laundered and dusted, saving the vacuuming and cleaning of my bathroom for Saturday morning. I always clean my bathroom when workmen will be here. You never know if they'll have to pee. Brian had left at four and I started cleaning at six, Saturday morning. All done at nine, I stepped into the shower. It was sunny outside, no clouds. I knew that we'd have satellite tv back by the end of the day. At about 9:15, the phone rings. "Is this Dianne?" Yes. "Hi, this is Adrian. I don't have the right actuator in my stock, I thought I had one on hand, but this is the wrong size. I can't get it until next week." Oh. Okay. "But since you're considering upgrading your 4DTV, why don't you go ahead and order that and I can do it all at once? It only takes about two days to get after you've ordered it." Okay, that sounds great. "Call me back after you've called them." So, I found the number. I call. Woohoo!! Motorola is located in Sorrento Valley. Local!! The receiver is to ship today (Monday) afternoon and I should have it tomorrow (as well as the bed stuff). Hopefully, it will get here early enough that we'll have satellite television once again as soon as tomorrow night! I call Adrian back. I tell him the good news. I tell him it's shipping out of San Diego. Adrian says "I thought they shipped from somewhere else. I knew they were here in San Diego, but I was under the impression that the equipment comes from somewhere else." Well, that's not what he told me. "Okay, well call when it gets there." You bet! So, that's the story of me breaking the satellite dish. Now that I think about it, maybe the fact that it wasn't responding correctly before was an indication of a bigger problem waiting to happen. No matter. But local tv does suck.

So, Sunday, Brian decides to get down our Mickey and Minnie Christmas scene from the garage attic. He also got down our fiber optic tree. He got the barrier down, too. He washed that off and set the stuff up in the bedroom window. There was now transformer for the tree. No electrical meant no lights on the tree. *sigh* So, off we go to WalMart. We picked up a gift certificate card for my mom (she thinks she's getting a CostCo certificate; she was, but she told me after I'd gotten the certificates for CostCo that she wanted a WalMart certificate, that it would be a better thing for her...heh heh heh "sorry, mom"....) All of the fiber optic trees were gone. Crap. Well, let's go out to Santee, to Michael's (a craft store, where we bought our current tree, the one with no electrical). We get out there and there are two trees left. He got one down from the top shelf and looked into the box, found the electrical plug. It was marked $25.00 but was only $19.00 at the checkout stand. Cool. We get home, the plug worked in our old tree. He tried it with the new tree. The new tree didn't work. *lol* So, he threw out the new tree, kept the electrical and now our little Christmas Scene is set up.

Brian was pretty cool about me breaking the satellite dish. He didn't say too much about it. Until the drive home from Santee. "Gee, I wonder if there's anything good on HBO. Oh, yeah, that's right we can't watch HBO because someone broke the satellite dish. Well, then maybe we can watch Showtime. No, we can't do that either, because someone broke the satellite dish." I replied "oh, shut up." At times, the shortest response is often the most appropriate response. He just laughed.

So, Saturday, he was gone. All day. It kind of shot my plans to hell when Adrian called and said he wouldn't be out to fix the satellite dish. The house cleaned, me cleaned, nothing going on online, and nothing on television. I can't believe how bored I was. I kept on doing laundry, got a bunch of stuff nice and springtime fresh. I tried watching the Charger game, but those guys are boring. I thought about reading a book but I didn't think I could get into it. I tried watching a movie, but nothing caught my interest. I have no idea why I don't get bored when Brian is home, but when he's not, I can't seem to focus on anything. Then I combed Angel and picked two fleas out of the comb. I came into the office, printed up a list with the cats' names on it and got out the Advantage I bought last month. It took a couple of hours, but I got all cats except Lonee and Jackson done. I was really surprised that I was able to get Red. He was sleeping in the entertainment center, I had the syringe filled with a small cat dose in my hand. I was looking for one of the kittens. I reached in and scratched his head and while he was occupied in this manner, I took the syringe and plunged it into the back of his head. That surprised him and he took off. I know it was only a half dose, but that was better than none at all. I even got Annie, who usually sleeps behind the bed.

She's taken to sleeping in here during the day, on a little table that's covered with a towel, in the direct sunlight. Autumn was the last feline I wanted to get, so when she was done (which was very easy, she didn't wig out or anything), I put away the bottle and the syringe and thoroughly washed my hands. All of the cats had big greasy spots on the backs of their necks. Then I figured I'd have a little fun and got one of the special cat toys and went outside with it. We had such fun. The cats were all happy and jumping and flying in the air. A little nervous about being on the concrete, I took it into the yard. At one point, Opie or Richie got it away from me and ran into the house, toy dragging behind, cats chasing that. I was kicking myself for not having the camera, so I ran into the house, got the camera, then went in search of kitten and toy.

Katie caught the toy; Daniece is challenging for possesion

Katie; you can see the pink feathers dropping to the ground in front of her

You never know who'll you land on; this is why I moved it to the lawn

It got dark, it was cold, I got the cats in early, around seven, locked up, put on my jammies, checked through the DVDs and chose "Thunderheart". Popped it in, poured a glass of wine, put on the surround sound, put a blanket over my legs and sat back on my sofa with the freshly laundered cover. I watched the movie and when it was over, couldn't decide if I wanted to watch anything else. I flipped through the local channels (local tv SUCKS) and found nothing of interest. I turned it off, pulled the cover up, and went to sleep. Imagine how surprised I was to be woken up by the ringing of the phone. I turned on the tv to see the caller ID box. "Unavailable" Then I ain't answering it. It was 9:52. The answering machine came on and it was Brian's older brother. Huh? I picked up. He wanted to tell me that they'd just watched Dave and how much they enjoyed it. Oh, okay...yawn.... I was asleep, I told him. Well, his wife told him that since it was the weekend we'd probably still be up. I told him that we usually are always asleep by this time. I didn't even think to mention that my hours don't change on Saturday. I still have cats that want to be fed and let out. So, Joanne comes on. Asks me why my ass isn't out there with Brian. *lol* I tell her that his brother is with him and besides, right now it's hard to do anything because of Junior. Junior needing the shot and scheduled feedings. She understood, her mom's dog has diabetes. Anyway, it was kind of fun talking to them. I wish I hadn't been sleeping when they called.

Then Sunday morning, after I'd been up for a couple of hours, I couldn't find Mickey anywhere. I hadn't given him his morning medications and I started looking for him. I looked outside, in the catnip. I looked in the tube. I looked all around the pool. I looked in the pool (had he somehow been left out all night? no, because I remember pilling him when I pilled Lola; could he have sneaked out when I was getting the others in? no, Mickey doesn't do that. man, where was he?). I got the flashlight and pulled the sofas out and looked behind them. I was continously saying his name over and over again, like a mantra, "mickeymickeymickeymickeymickey" which usually gets a response. Nothing. I pulled stuff away from the wall in the garage, shining the flashlight behind it all. I climbed the ladder and looked all over the rafters. Still calling him. Nothing. I checked in all of the condos, all of the hidy holes. I checked the bank in the yard. I was starting to feel a tiny bit of panic. It must have taken me close to an hour before I finally found the butt. In this box below the desk.

I had no idea he would even fit in something that small. Anyway, he mewed at me as if to say "what?" I was greatly relieved and let him stay in the box.

So, that was my very exciting weekend. Don't forget to vote for the cardshoppe. The link is on all of the cardshoppe pages. Give me a great rating, too, even if you have to lie. Thanks.

Monday, December 24, 2001 Well, things were pretty quiet last week. Didn't do too much. Got the vet's Christmas present to the office, finished up a little shopping. Got the satellite dish fixed.

The guy for the satellite was supposed to be out here Wednesday before noon. He never showed up and he never called. I ended up calling the company who originally installed our 4DTV, the people who had referred Adrian to me. They got a hold of him and they called me back. He was stuck on a job. He called me at five Wednesday night and said he would be out the next day at one. So, Thursday, I did my banking (the payroll deposit) and got home around ten. At ten thirty, he called and said he could be out early. He was here by eleven. When he went outside and looked at the dish, I heard him mutter "oh s#it". *lol* I told him "that's the same thing I said when I realized I'd broken it!" When he was finished, our bank account was almost $600 lighter, but he serviced the dish and the hardware, replacing a couple of different things. We were so happy with what he'd done that I cancelled the 4DTV upgrade. A mistake. Friday morning, the receiver still didn't respond like it should. Forget setting the timers, that thing won't move the dish. So, I had to call and re-order the upgrade. Luckily, the special is still in force. But it did put us at the end of the line to get the order filled. Oh, well.

Mickey's back is getting better. Last night, though, he was chewing at it again.

Junior came inside yesterday morning. He really, really wanted in. He sat with Brian for a long time. I can't imagine what had him spooked, but it was nice having him in.

We're thinking about going back to Sensible Choice food.

I've decided to cancel my merchant accounts for lvdesigns and go with Paypal. So, I have to set up the Paypal payment options just in case someone might want to order a shirt. heh heh heh.... The merchant accounts are costing me about sixty bucks a month in service charges, even though there is no activity. That's a lot of dough. It will cost me to cancel the merchant accounts, but it cost less in the long run than it is now. So, I'll be busy today.

Oh, yeah, I'm getting sick. Brian has had it for about a week now. I guess it's my turn. Oh, yeah, and something else. That hag Aunt Flo stopped by Friday morning. I was kind of hoping I would be well on the way to official menopause. Damn.

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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