Thursday, March 02, 2000 Well, the audit went well. She was only here for about twenty minutes. She said it's really nice to have everything so well laid out as I did. I spent Tuesday cleaning the house and cleaned the bathroom Wednesday morning before she got here. So, that's out of the way. I'll start working on the federal and state taxes for last year next Monday..

It was supposed to have rained yesterday, but nothing, not a cloud in the sky. Now, they're calling for rain tonight, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, into Wednesday. I told hubby this morning he had better get home early so that he can put the weather station (which got here Tuesday, by the way) up in time for all of this rain we'll be having. He said he doesn't want to do it Saturday because he wants to work on his tractor. I want it done so that I can get it running on my website. The battle of the wills. But this morning he said I should read the instructions and see what he has to do. *smile*

Well, the stock we bought Monday has dropped each day since. LOL!! I told somebody yesterday "you know those bumper stickers that say 'don't follow me, I'm lost'? Well, we should get one that says 'we just bought stock, save your butt, stay out of the market'." I swear. It's unbelievable how that happens. Jeez, even the Access 1 stock, which was only .40 a share has dropped to .15 a share. Oh, by the way, I don't think they're doing too well. They never have responded about returning my advance payment. So, while I think they're a great value, I can't in good conscience recommend paying in advance for their service, even though it's a lot cheaper. It's not cheaper when you don't use it and you want your money back. They owe me about two hundred dollars. Talk about refunds, Golden Hosting also owes me three hundred dollars for prepaid bandwidth. And they don't return calls or email either. It's getting really frustrating. Brian said not to worry about it, but I think it's stealing. If I use something, I don't mind paying for it, but I'll be damned if I'll willingly pay for something I won't use.

Mom's doing well. She had her last chemo treatment last Friday, it was a doozy. She said it was a booster treatment, was an hour and a half of chemicals instead of an hour. She's happy, she says she's getting fuzz on her head. She was pretty sick this weekend, though. She's sounding great, now.

I have no idea what happened with Kirby at the vet's last week, but he's just now starting to get used to me again. And even though I know he should take his medication, I just can't do it. He's so traumatized by me holding him and putting pills in his mouth that he was running every single time I came into the room. Even if it woke him from a sound sleep, he was gone and up in the rafters. Yesterday, he hooked the meaty part of one of my fingers with his claw and it's not only swollen, it's black and blue. And it hurts to type. If pilling him is this frightening to him, it's got to be putting major stress on him. Which leads to his problems. So, what do I do? I'm not going to give him any more pills right now, just hope that nothing bad happens because of it. I've tried disguising them in food, but the problem there is Pete. Pete's got his little nose right there, trying to eat. If I separate Kirby from the other cats, like closing him in the bathrooom, which I've tried, he goes ballistic. He does not like being closed in. I'll continue to add salt to their food at night and I'll play with him more often, to get him thirsty so that he'll drink more. It's the fluid intake that's so important right now.

Since we're supposed to be having so much rain in the following week, I've opened up the house. The kittens are outside playing. Jackie has figured out the joy of climbing up a tree. He seems to really enjoy taking off quickly and running up the truck as fast as he can. Then, he kind of drops down to get off. He holds on with his claws, lets loose, drops a little, grabs back on, repeating until he hits the ground. His face looks a little longer than usual this morning, too. I wonder why. Pete is sleeping alot, I'm thinking he's going through another growth spurt. I wonder how big he'll get. Since I told Brian that he's gonna have to be the one to put Jackie in the carrier when Jackie goes to get neutered, it's much less stressful for me. Brian rarely mentions it to me, but he sure does to Jackie.

Peter has a new little game he plays with me. Took me by surprise the first couple of times he did it. Well, it takes me by surprise everytime he does it. When I'm walking through the living room, he will run from hiding, jump up, slap my thigh (no claws), as high as he can reach, with both paws and run off. Of course, I go after him, that's part of the game. And when I catch him, he gets a tummy tickle. He's so cute. And he's so lovable.

Yesterday afternoon, I kicked back on the sofa in the tv room, with a book. All of the windows and doors were open (except not for the cats to go in and out) and I had a blanket over me. I had a couple of cats come snuggle with me. Then, last night, after Brian went to bed and I had gotten Benny in, I went back and laid down on the couch, turning off the television. One by one, I got sofa mates. Georgie was at my feet, Pepper and Pete were next to me, Rusty was by my head (he kept trying to creep down closer and I kept pushing him back), and Ciara was laying on top of me, after DeeJay left. Nice. Really comfortable for all of us. *grin*

Well, guess I should go do something else. I have more stories to add to the declaw page and one of these days, I have to get the guest pictures up. I'm hoping to have that done by next Monday. It's hard, though, because there's a conflict between my email program and the webcam. And my email freezes.

Sunday, March 05, 2000 It's raining. It started this morning. And I'm happy about it. We got the weather station up and running. You can find it in ben's den on the wall to the right of the window. Just click on the thermometer to get to it. I'm really excited about it. Still playing with the different adjustments. I'm going to see if there's any way of changing the size of one of the jpgs, so that I can have it up on BDTV, the station nobody watches. I had such hopes BDTV. I still get an occasional email about an idea, but just an idea, nothing that anyone has done. I've only had the one show submitted. I guess I'll have to do the rest myself.

We went to breakfast this morning and I know Brian wanted to go to the mountains or even the sticks, but I didn't want to, really. I found out while hooking up my weather station Friday that one of my serial ports doesn't work. I don't think it's inoperable, I think it wasn't set up to run. The computer doesn't recognize it. I called to get someone out here to fix it and found out that my computer guy has help now. Four guys in the company, where it used to be just him. Somebody I've never met will be out tomorrow between ten and eleven. Of course, I have to clean all of the catpaw marks off of the glass in the office and a little dusting wouldn't hurt either.

Benny is just one big matt. Well, not one big matt, but it seems where ever he can lick, he's matted. All on his neck, around to behind his front paws seems to be one long matt. So, yesterday, I tried combing some of them out. Big mistake. The finger next to the one Kirby nailed last week was nailed by Ben. It's on the top, right below the nail. And it seems to be a little infected. I washed it off well with Betadyne when it happened, but not much blood came out of it, which is always an indication that there may be a problem. The flow of blood usually washes out alot of the bacteria. Oh, well. It was swollen and sore this morning, looks like a big red pimple. I soaked it and softened it enough where I could just scrape the scab off and I squeezed alot of that junk out. The puffiness went down alot. I'll have to do it a couple of more times before it's better. I must have one hell of an immune system. At least to cat scratches. My system knows what to look for. *grin* Brian and I talked about this over breakfast this morning. People are too clean and too scared of germs. If you don't get germs in your system for your system to know what to fight off, how will it know to fight them off? It won't. So, the little infection you get today, will help you fight off a big infection in the future.

Monday, March 06, 2000 So, as I was saying yesterday about Benny before I got sidetracked, I spent over an hour gently snipping out some of his matts Saturday night. I was so gentle doing it, that he fell asleep while I was trimming them off. It's time consuming, because I don't want to cut him, just the fur. I did between a quarter and a half an inch at a time once I got close to the skin. I would have liked to comb out the fuzz left from the matts, but Benny wasn't going for it. He used to lay on my desk and it was easier to clip the matts, but he's been spending so much time outside. With the exception of the past week, I have to call him in before I go to bed.

I've started the laundry already and cleaned the cat pee up in my bathroom. The computer guy is supposed to be here in about an hour. I still have to shower. I washed the blankets in the living room yesterday and wiped down the tablecloths. They didn't have much on them, so I think the cats are starting to not pee in there so much. Good. When he's here, I'll ask him to check the other USB port, because that's what the other camera will run from. Might as well make sure everything's in working order all at once.

Right now, it's sunny here, but we're expecting more rain as the day progresses. I can seen the clouds from here that are starting to come in from the ocean. Brian's sister-in-law called from the sticks yesterday, saying it was snowing. They say by the end of the week, our local mountains should get between a foot and a foot and a half of snow. That's pretty nice. Tomorrow is supposed to be a non-rain day, then the rest of the week, rain. It would be nice if Brian can get a day off and we could go up there.

Kirby has settled down. We're playing "stick" quite often. And since he's finally getting into it, I can give him one pill at a time, then we immediately start playing again. Just like before this last vet trip. I can't believe it took him so long to get over it. He's still peeing well, so that's why I started giving him the pills. And we used up the last of the Nutro salmon flavor, which is good. It's back to exclusively the lite formula, which is made to lower urinary pH. That's good. Normal is 6.0. When Kirby had his recent incident, his urinary pH was 7.0. Much too high. No wonder he had crystals. Poor guy.

Gracie is being very affectionate this morning. She has such a cute little trill. Peter woke me up this morning, as usual. Purring and pawing at me. He doesn't want to be held, though and he keeps walking around. I wouldn't mind except that he does this an hour before I normally get up. This morning, I figured I would trick him and put the covers over my face. Ha. That worked until he jumped on my face, with both paws. *sigh* If it was somebody else, like maybe my husband, it would have been funny. I told Pete to go bother daddy. It didn't work.

We put the dogs in the shop last night, because it was supposed to be pretty rainy. Junior did not want to go in, but when Brian let them out this morning, both of them were sleeping in the doghouse in the shop. All nice and warm and snuggly. I could tell that Buddy had a good night, because of how he was walking. I'm sure they sleep better, because there aren't so many distractions. And it's nice and warm, too. Of course, they have food and water in there, too. Brian said they must have slept through the night, because there was no pee or poop anywhere. I like them in at night.

Well, time to shower. I may write in here later. If the cam is down, it's because the system is apart. Hopefully, we won't need to have anything done inside the case. Hopefully, the system just isn't set up properly. Cross your fingers.

Wednesday, March 08, 2000 Well, the ports are all running on the computer now. It turned out to be a setting in my BIOS. That port wasn't enabled. All he had to do was change that in setup. *grin* I kind of figured it would be easy. I did ask him to check out the other USB port to make sure it worked and it did. And to check it out, he even installed the camera software, which is why the camera for outside is up and running. The cats were all over him.

His name is Dave. He was pretty nice. I gave him my second set of disks for 11th Hour. He wasn't really sure what to charge me, so he called Sean. And I talked to Sean and he said that his normal rate is now $75.00 an hour. Would I mind being charged $45.00? Maybe he was giving me a break because he realized that the BIOS setting was something he should have taken care of last July. But, I figured, Dave did get the camera running and he did make the trip out here. Not a bit, I told him. I figure that it's worth that to know that everything is working as it should. When I told Brian, he said the next time "You pay his rate". Brian, being self-employed, knows what it's like. But I didn't ask for a break on the charges. I certainly wouldn't have complained about it, but it was nice to save a couple of bucks. So, Monday, I spent playing with the camera and trying to get it set up on the weather page.

And I worked on the new weather page yesterday, all day, getting it all purtied up with new graphics (bars, banners, buttons and backgrounds). I think I did a nice job. I also set the other webcam. This one points outside. I tried using CamRunner software, but I can't get the full version and it had a little DCN logo on the bottom that I didn't care for. See, last November, the cathouse cam was "cam of the day" and my prize was a full version of the software. Being happy with my Webcam32, I never downloaded the other program. Well, I couldn't figure out how to run two copies of Webcam32 on my system, even though they say it's possible. So, I tried finding other software and remembered the DCN. I went to the website and downloaded the trial version and the full version is now free. With registration. Well, wouldn't you know of the thousands of emails that I have in my directory (I warned you I was bad about email; if I don't answer it right away, and set it aside to answer later, I usually forget and it just piles up) the email with my registration information wasn't there. Spit. And another little bit of frustration was the fact that the image kept compressing way past what I wanted and I couldn't get it to stop, no matter how I changed the settings. Arrgghh!!!! But, at least it was working and I had it set to send a picture every minute, which is automatically changed on the webpage. I'm not having archives of these images. Brian told me this morning that I had better be careful or I would end up on camera. "I know," I told him, "but the image is only there for a minute, then it's gone." And I can't imagine too many people watching the weather cam just hoping to get a glimpse of me. You can see the dogs and the cats, though, if they're sitting out there when the picture is captured. And early today I did a search for different webcam software, I found one and I downloaded it. It's called I Spy. It's much better than the DCN software and amazingly, the compression problem went away. I was really glad about that. The picture is a little dark now, because, (I hope) of the tinted windows. It's inside, pointing out. Brian is going to make a weather resistant box/case for it this weekend and hang it under the eaves outside. This morning, I was surfing a webring I joined yesterday for people who are using the weather software I got and found a place that has a four day forecast that you can post on your site, so I grabbed that. It took forever this morning to get it just right on the page. I can't believe how much trouble I had with it, but it's up now.

Well, we voted yesterday. We walked down to the polls in the light rain. I used my Mickey Mouse umbrella (the one I was holding when I had my picture taken, the picture which is up on my Disneyland page). I had been playing with the compression thing before we went and froze up the system, so I just left it running and got it running again when we got home. And speaking of getting home, I was surprised that even though the house had been closed up all day, it didn't reek. I could barely smell any cat urine. Did I mention that covering the couches with the plastic tablecloths is stopping a lot of the marking? And nobody is just squatting on the cushions like they had been. Another big Yay.

Then we went to CostCo and spent a gazillion dollars. I just hate going there. He told the guy at the checkout that the last three times we've been, we've spent less that a hundred dollars each time. I looked at my darling husband and said "that's because I wasn't with you". He laughed. We spent over four hundred last night. But, we got a lot of stuff. Sometimes I just feel guilty for buying some of the stuff I buy. At CostCo, they have compact disk collections from Time/Life. You know the ones on late night infomercials? Well, they have three disk sets. I got three of them. New Country Classics, which may help me catch up on the latest in country, AM Gold, radio hits from '69-'74 (who can forget Starbuck's greatest hit "Moonlight Feels Rght"? you know, I bought that album way back when, wore it right out I liked it so much; people made fun of me, but I was happy) and Love songs, thirty six "timeless" love songs, mind you. I really needed these like I need another hole in the head. And I also got this other neat looking thing, a CD labeler. You print up labels for CDs on the computer and attach them to CDs that you record. A must for any home CD recording afficiado. Yeah, right. I really shouldn't go to CostCo. They also had glossy printer paper for a good price. Sixty sheets for less that twenty dollars. Let's see, I bought some glossy paper years ago when I first got a color printer and I think I've used maybe ten, total. And that's a high count. At least we didn't buy a bunch of junk food. I did pick up a loaf of orange cranberry bread. Brian toasted me a piece this morning, buttered it and brought it to me back here in the office. I had forgotten all about it. LOL!! Me, forgetting about food. I checked out back, looked in the sky and didn't see any pigs flying. But it sure was good. They started carrying IAMS food at a little over twenty dollars a bag. And they still have their own brand, although not much. I sure hope they aren't discontinuing it. It's a cheap, quality food. When we got Maggie, it's what her breeder recommended and we've been using it for the outfront cats. And we've been going through a ton of it lately. Brian refills the feeder every other day. We bought four bags last night. Also got a case of lamb and rice dog food for Buddy. Brian thought he might like something soft.

Speaking of the outfront cats, when Brian brought the newspaper in this morning, he said a little black cat ran out of the cathouse we have out front. Yay!! They are finally sleeping in it. Monday night, I counted five black cats. Meezer and Blue were here, OC and Angus, too. I don't often see Little Opie, never see Big Opie. :-( I miss him. And there's another little tortie hanging around.

Last night, Junior was driving me nuts with his barking. I went outside to see what was going on and apparently, the dogs behind us had something caught in the corner. I would think it was the possom that walks along the fence every night. There was no crying or hissing, spitting or growling like you would hear with a cat. Just scrabbling on the fence. I sure hope the possom is okay. One of those dogs back there is pretty big. And she just had pups. Oh, did I mention I saw the pups? Mutts. Another irresponsible owner. Never got the female fixed. I guess the parents passed their ignorance down to their kid, because that's one of their son's dog. True believers in disposable animals.

Kirby is almost back to normal. Boy, I was worried about him. Still am, as a matter of fact. I'm playing with him quite a bit. Holding him, petting him, talking to him. Giving him lots of attention.

Georgie was driving me nuts earlier. He kept crying, crying, crying. What do you want? I asked him. I follow him into the other room. He looks up at me and cries some more. I don't know what he wants. I even kicked him out of the office and shut the door behind him. Arrghh!!! Meowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeow sure gets old after about a half hour of it. He's finally settled down on the bed, probably worn out from all of that crying. I know I am.

Friday, March 10, 2000 Well, it's nice outside, I opened the doors and windows, let the cats out. Fifteen minutes later, Jackie comes limping in. I bet you anything he was stung by a bee. Spit. He wasn't putting any weight at all on his paw, but the last time I checked he was walking a little better. See, anytime I get close enough to him to look at it, he takes off. He even hissed at me. He's licking it right now, so hopefully, he'll get the stinger out. I called the vet to find out what to watch for. Luckily, it wasn't his face. If he had an allergic reaction, we could have had a pretty bad problem. Both Maggie and Benny have been stung. Maggie got into a wasp nest once. It wasn't pretty. Her poor little face was all swollen. She had to get a shot and antibiotics at the vet's. I remember that was the first time I bought Advantage. He had just started selling it. Anyway, Jackie ate almost an entire small chicken breast by himself, so he's feeling okay other than the sore paw.

Speaking of Advantage, I found a flea on Benny while trying to get the matts out (which is going pretty well, by the way, he doesn't have any around his neck or front legs any longer). So, I dosed all the cats except for Lonee, Red and Annie. I don't know how they know. I had Red rubbing against my head, loving me and when I tried to put my arm around him, he would scoot off. Usually, he lets me hold him to me a little bit. And he's one of the worst when it comes to fleas. They really bother him. *sigh*

I'm going to start working on the taxes today. And when I get those done, I'll start work for real on lisaviolet design merchandise. I haven't done anything on the trademark and I have to figure out the sales tax stuff for California. I guess there's some state legislation that's being worked on so that internet companies based in California wouldn't have to charge California sales tax. That would be nice. Sure make it easier on me. Gosh, there's so many different tax rates. You start with the base rate for the state, then start adding all of the local government taxes in. We had a thing on our ballet last year to increase our local tax by .05% so that they could build and improve libraries. It didn't pass. Here in California, you need a two thirds majority to increase taxes, not a simple majority. They have those little taxes all over the state and when we were trying to sell cathouses, found out that we have to charge accordingly when we sell. I thought that was kind of stupid. I'm selling out of San Diego County, the houses were manufactured in San Diego County, why do I have to pay San Francisco's additional taxes? It sucks.

We might go up to Ranchita this weekend. I mentioned taking the camera and tripod up there and taking pictures for the 360º panoramic program I got last year. It's pretty neat. You take pictures from all around you, then once scanned, put them in this program which lets the viewer, using the mouse or arrow keys, go around in the complete circle. I had taken pictures before, but they aren't at the same height. The software says that the best thing to do is to use a tripod, so that's what I'll be doing.

Man, it's beautiful outside. I just did a head check and Jackie came outside. Limping, but at least he was putting considerably more weight on that paw.

Oh, I got called for jury duty. Yippee!! I was supposed to go in on April 6th, but I called and postponed. I don't know the status of my mom's radiation therapy (she finished chemo February 25) and we don't know how she'll react. If she needs a ride or not. I postponed until June. I figure that June weather is usually kind of cloudy, so I won't be laying by the pool at that time. I was reading the instructions and it says about clothing "business attire". Huh? Business attire? I don't work. I don't have "business attire". And I'm sure not going to go buy new clothes that I'll wear only during that time period. Shirts and jeans is it. At least I can fit into my jeans now. I'm not looking forward to it. But I think I would be a defense nightmare juror. They most likely wouldn't want me. I've been told to be ultra conservative in my answers. *grin* They don't want conservatives. I know it's my civic duty, but some trials are just so boring. Well, at least I was called to a courthouse close to home.

Kirby's doing good. He's back to normal again. Yay!!

Well, since Ciara is already in the house, snoozing, Pete came running in after the dogs started barking at something, I decided to get Jackie in, too, and shut the screen doors. Jackie has almost no limp at all now. Whew.

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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