Wednesday, May 03, 2000 Holy, moley, you see the date? It's almost summer.

I started back to work on lisaviolet designs yesterday. Almost got the shopping cart finished. Problem now is golden hosting secure server is down and nothing gets processed. *sigh* If it's not one thing, it's another. I also typed up the letter for the trademark office and sent samples of my webpage and the teeshirt designs where "lisaviolet" was used as a mark. I even sent a teeshirt. I hope they accept this. All the money I've spent will have been wasted if they don't.

Hey, I need you to vote and get all of your friends to vote for the cathouse catcam at Cammunity.com this week. The cathouse is up for "most athletic" (well, yeah, the cats are just plumb tuckered out from all that exercising they do...*grin*) and best pad. The cathouse won Sunday, but there's more competition now. So, go vote and get your friends to vote, too. Only one vote per IP per day, though, so you can't stuff the ballot box. We'd sure appreciate it. Get lots of people to vote, okay?

It's nice having our driveway back. With Brian's clubhouse gone, we have all sorts of room. And backing up is better, because you can see the street and any cars that are coming up the street. People have asked me if I'll be staying up there with hubby. Not likely. The major problem is he'll be working and there will be nothing for me to do. No TV, no computer, nothing like that, so I may as well stay home. Then Brian said "you'll be glad to have me gone, you'll be having lots of parties". Yeah, right. I didn't even want the refrigerator delivery people in the house because I didn't want to upset the cats. No, no parties, nothing to change our routine. It's not worth it. Yep, that's me. Lisaviolet, party girl. Me and my Ovaltine.

I thought that Lisa and Jackie were working it out, but this morning they're stalking each other again. Brian's finally getting tired of it. I took Lisa into the bedroom this morning and she was wet from Brian spraying her with water to get her away from Jackie. But within minutes, Jackie was walking down the hallway, looking for her. What to do?

DeeJay is all nice and snuggled up on the towel in front of the monitor. He's so cute.

Yesterday, I noticed some sort of dark, greasy gunk on Rusty's tail. I combed it out and bunches of his fur came with it. I thought about calling the vet. Later, I checked Boney's tail and his is the same. I'm thinking it has something to do with older cats (they're both seventeen) not being meticulate groomers. Guess this is another chore for me. But they both seem to like being combed. It shouldn't be a problem. I got a lot of loose fur off of Rusty, but not much off of Bones.

My leg had been feeling better. And this morning, my foot has a little more feeling in it. Yay!! My lower back is pretty sore though. We went shopping last night, for some office supplies and groceries and I got really tired out. My leg starts to ache and I think that sucks energy. I really think I've been overdoing it lately. Cleaning my bathroom, straightening up the exercise room (I called the doc the other day to see if I could exercise and he said if I start to get short of breath to stop....he's thinking about my blood pressure, not my back). On one of our local morning shows, they have a fitness expert, Pita Kelly, who was answering a question from a woman who had back problems. One of the things she stressed was drinking alot of water to keep the spine hydrated, which in turn will help prevent injuries. She also has a website, http://www.kitafit.com.

I think I'll lay in the sun a little today. I need the rest and relaxation. I have such a rough life.

Saturday, May 06, 2000 I'm back!! I'm back!! Did you miss me? LOL!!!

Okay, here's what's happening. Was working on the merchandise page last week and the secure server wouldn't work. Sent at least five emails to (spit) Golden Hosting and made three long distance phone calls to (spit) Golden Hosting. This was Wednesday and they still haven't gotten back to me. So, having no other alternative, I had to find another host for lvdesigns. Mike, who is setting up the shopping cart, referred me to another site that he's familiar with. I talked to the man on the phone and he was really nice. And he has cats. Always a plus. *grin* So, I went with him. The domain transfer is in the works and I'm not looking forward to recoding everything. I hate moving. And since there is CGI stuff here, I have to also get all of the permissions and stuff down correctly. Yuk. What a pain in the butt.

Sunday, May 07, 2000 I'm back again!!! I'm back again!!! Now that I have all of the stuff transferred and working, maybe I won't get sidetracked today. What a mess it was. I spent most of yesterday looking for a decent tracker/counter. Found three that I tried out, set up, put up on different pages and I didn't like any like the one I had on the old lvdesigns page. I still had that, but didn't think I was smart enough to install it. I would have had to start from scratch. But, disgusted with the other counters, didn't give me near the information I was used to and they limited the amount of information you could get, this morning I decided to try to get my old one working. AND I DID!!! I did it all by myself. It's much simpler than I thought it would be and that's nice. A bonus. Now, I will feel comfortable making them for other pages of mine, like when I get the Ranchita page up and running. I can't believe how easy it was. And all I had to do was apply myself. It took quite a while to get all of my pages changed. The worst was Ben's Den. The majority of those are in separate files and directories, so I had to do them one at a time. Not hard work, but extremely time consuming.

Anyway, Friday morning, I downloaded most of the files from the old lvdesigns site onto my hard drive. It's a good thing I did, because once the domain transferred from Golden Hosting over to MarkeTrends, I had no way to access the old directories. Usually, there's a number that will work, but since sometime during my residence on (spit) Golden Hosting, my site was moved to a different server, I had no idea what those numbers might be. Yesterday, I sent a final email to (spit) Golden, telling them that I would like a refund of the balance of my account. I've paid through December, but I'm not planning on holding my breath. I don't even know if they're still around. I'm not the only one who had problems, either. One woman I referred to them said that her site had been down more in the four months she was with them than two years at GeoSpitties. It's a shame. Up until the end of last year, it was a pretty good host. Just like Access1.net. I never did get any money back from them. With the new host, Brian said "DON'T PAY BY THE YEAR". I guess not. Twenty four dollars won't hurt as much as hundreds. Another nice thing is my new host (MarkeTrends) is on the west coast. I like logging into my directories and seeing the local time. And that's the time that my logs will show. No more trying to figure out the time difference. My brain needs all the relief I can get it. *grin*

Pete is turning out to be a bird killer. I don't like it. Not one bit. He brought two birds into me last week. I have no idea where he's catching them, but he can jump really high. And a hummingbird got trapped in the entry way and couldn't get out. Sometimes they realize they have to fly down and through the gate, but others keep trying to go out through the skylight. I'm usually pretty lucky and finding them and I bring the ladder out and catch them, take them through the gate ane release them. This one didn't make it. He died. I buried all of the birds and said prayers for them all. I hate it when this happens. After I buried the hummingbird out front, when I walked in, there was a lizard under the screen door. I shooed it out and it skittered off into the bark. That night, it was under the couch in the tv room. It must have come in under the garage door. I don't know why, there is food and water out front, no need to come in the house. I haven't seen it since. It was healthy when I last saw it though.

The weather cooled off a little the past week. That's okay, because I was busy inside with lvdesigns. But this next week, I hope to be outside more. Friday, I used almost an entire little bottle of catnip bubbles. I stood over at the side of the house and Pete and Georgie chased bubbles. Yesterday, Pete went after them again on the patio. He's so cute to watch.

Lisa and Jackie got into a fight this morning. There is fur all over the living room. *sigh* I know it's her instigating this. Before Jackie came to live here, she spent most of her time in the bedroom or in a basket in the tv room. Now, she stalks him. She even follows him outside. Oddly enough, she'll sleep close to him, too. Makes no sense. I'm working harder on getting him socialized. He's getting much better about sniffing my finger. And he's not running or flinching as often when I reach to pet him, after he's done sniffing. He even leans into my scratching of his neck and ears. This morning, he was laying by me up here on the desk. I'm rewarding him with treats of the Kirkland kibble, the stuff we feed the out front cats. I know the way to a cat's heart is through his belly. I just wish it didn't take so long to get there.

Well, I have a ton of laundry to fold and put away, as well as litterboxes to clean. Guess I should get something else done today.

Monday, May 08, 2000 Well, everything is running smoothly, I guess. Tried the blockbuster game last night and realized that it wasn't keeping the high score, changed some stuff, realized I hadn't uploaded all the needed files, so I did that. Still didn't work. The scores were saving, but the winner wasn't going to the win page. Contacted Mike and he got it working. Seems one of the paths was wrong, said lvdesigns.com, should have said lvdesigns. Gosh, this code is so unforgiving. Anyway, the shopping cart is off of test and it's ready to start taking orders. Except I only have two shirts up. *grin* So, I'll be going through my boxes of photos and working on more designs. I think I should have at least ten to start with. I hope that's not too ambitious.

I don't know if I mentioned this, things have been so off of schedule since my back problems, but we got the remote for the camera. Brian was going to work on it this past weekend. He had to work Saturday morning and while he was gone, I tried to see if it would work. There are three places at the side of the arm for connections. One is for power and only one is for the computer. Well, I put the cable I was sent into the wrong spot. When I took it out, the cable connector fell apart in my hand and I couldn't get it back together. *sigh* I emailed the company about getting a replacement and this morning, they had already written back!!! Duncan tried what I said I did and the same thing happened to him. He's sending me a new cable and he said they will find a fix for this so that other people don't do the same thing I did.

I don't know what I'm going to do with Lisa. She's getting very aggressive with more than just Jackie. She's going after Lonee and this morning, Kirby wouldn't leave the bank because she was sitting below watching him. I gave her some Rescue Remedy this morning and she's calmed down, back on her chair in the bedroom. I just hate it when they fight.

Kirby's being so affectionate. And he loves being scratched and having his belly rubbed. He's so funny. He doesn't really talk when I'm doing this, but he does make noises like "oh, yeah, right there, that feels good". And he smiles, too.

Boy, it seemed to get cold all of a sudden. I shut the doors, put on socks and a long sleeved top.

Have I mentioned how great our new bed is? Both of us are sleeping much better than we had been. Much less tossing and turning and trying to get comfortable. I'm so glad we got it. The cats like it, too.

Well, guess I should get started doing something productive.

Wednesday, May 10, 2000 Well, got a letter in the mail from the Better Business Bureau regarding my complaint about Access1.net. Guess what? They've declared bankruptcy. Nice, huh? They're trying to reorganize and I'll have to file a claim in hopes of getting any of my money back. *spit*.

I also got my latest jury duty notice. Well, even though I'm better, I still have to go to the doc twice a week and I can't sit for hours at a time. It just starts hurting too much. So, I called and since I've already postponed once, I had to talk with someone. So, we set it up for November. That's a good time. After summer, after our yearly trek to Disneyland in October, and after Halloween. Maybe I'll get to sit in on a trial.

What else, what else, what else....
I watched DeeJay poop yesterday and his stool was well formed. Not much there, but what was there looked good.

My mom finishes her radiation therapy tomorrow. She's looking forward to that and her hair is starting to grow back. She's *really* looking forward to that.

It's a little on the cool side this morning. It's strange, it seems like it's been warmer at 6:30 in the morning than 10 in the morning.

Heard a cat fight last night, it wasn't, it was a cat caught in the yard behind us. The guy who lives there yelled for the dogs and the cat went running. I heard it hit the fence. I hope the dogs are kind of used to cats because they have some over there. You don't see them in the yard anymore, not since the big dog came to live with them. But I do see them in the windows of the house. I'm praying the cat is okay.

Oh, somebody mass emailed the URL to my acronyms page. Got over 200 hits yesterday. That was kind of nice.

The new cord came for the robot arm. I told Brian. He said "great" with such enthusiasm. LOL!! So, we'll try again this weekend. I have to figure out which Comm line it's on, though. Still can't figure that out. Guess I'll just have to do it by trial and error. My favorite thing in the whole world.

Friday, May 12, 2000 Oh, it's Friday and it's a beeeeyoooteeeful day!!

I'm concerned about Lola. She usually lays on Brian and he hadn't mentioned anything, but a couple of nights ago I picked her up and she's like a feather. I felt her back and her spine and ribs are very noticible. So, I started giving her other food. The stuff we feed the outfront cats, dry and moist, and this morning I gave her some babyfood. She's hungry enough. She does this every once in a while, it goes back to her back problem. She hurts, won't move, doesn't eat, then, when her back feels better, she forgets to eat. I have to get her tastebuds restimulated. She definitely likes the soft food.

My mom's last radiation treatment was yesterday. She's happy this morning.

I know I mentioned DeeJay's stools the other day, but did I also mention he's putting on weight? Yay!!

Well, I'm back from the doctor, the bank and getting MD cards for our moms. I put the top down on the Mustang when I left the doctor's office. It's so nice outside. I'll probably go lay by the pool when I'm done typing here. I had a good visit, my bp was the lowest yet, 132/90. That is such good news.

We went to dinner last night at Black Angus. Had a really good dinner and excellent service. We hadn't gone there in over five years because of the poor service. A couple of times, nobody even acknowledged that we were there, after we had been seated. The last time that happened, we swore off BA for a long time. But it's changed, they have an entirely different crew now. We'll be eating there more often, I'm sure. I had prime rib and got the horseradish sauce to go with it. I wonder who came up with that combo? I sure like it. Then, something happened that is very annoying. I started sneezing. Same thing happens after we've eaten at Home Town Buffet. At least at HTB, it doesn't start until we leave the building. But last night, our plates were still on the table. I don't know if it was somebody's perfume or what. I got up and went to the restroom, blew my nose really good, then went outside to wait for Brian. After dinner, we headed on over to the mall and got our mothers See's candy. Got my mom a five pound box and his mom a two pound box. My mom has been through a lot more this year and she's done so much for us.

Lola is out rolling around on the cement right now...ahhhhhhh, she's so cute. I hope this means she's feeling better.

Well, all of the cables and stuff for the robotic arm are here. I got it all put together yesterday and it's working. I had to do that before Brian got everything done for it outside that needed to be done. Like building the box for it (part of it will be glass), drilling holes in the wall. I thinking it should be up and running by Monday. I don't know if I'll have it set up for the internet (that's you guys) to make it move, though. If you are curious what I mean, check out this link: Surveyor Corp Live Demonstrations. I like the idea of moving the camera around during the day to different parts of the yard. It's aimed how it is now because the sun was too bright on it before. But with this roboarm, I'll be able to share some of our spectacular sunsets.

Anybody know where I can buy pinwheel headbands? The place I got them from before no longer carries them and I need them for the yearly trip to Disneyland. I did a search for the word combination "pinwheel headbands" and the only hit I got was the diary. *grin*
laterWell, I did some searching on the internet and only found one place that had the pinwheel headbands. Except they were no longer in business. And, even if they were, you had to order $150.00 of product. No thanks. I'm 46, but I'm not going to live forever. So, I decided to check out the website of Oriental Trading Company, the place I called this morning and did a search for "pinwheel". There were nineteen results and number nineteen was my headbands!! They are $4.80 a dozen. So, I call the 800 number and tell the rep that I made an order this morning, but that the person I talked to said that these were no longer available. I asked her if it would be possible to add them to the order I placed this morning. Well, the website doesn't have item numbers like the paper catalogs, so she had to do a pretty thorough search to find them. She finally found them looking at item costs. I ordered two dozen. That should do me for a couple of years. And she was able to add them to this mornings order, which is nice.

Life is good.

Monday, May 15, 2000 Saturday morning, I was watching Kirby. He seemed to be peeing a little more than usual. I got a hold of him and rubbed his abdomen, trying to see if he was blocked. It didn't seem like it. I did the same thing to Georgie and he felt the same as Kirby. But the third time I saw Kirby squatting, he knew and I knew. I called the vet's office, who fortunately was opened. I told Elena that I didn't think Kirby was blocked yet, but that he was on his way. She said to bring him in. I did. It wasn't easy to catch him because he ran into the rafters, but using the squirt bottle, I was able to get him down. The vet said that Kirby wasn't blocked, but that he would have been within a couple of hours. Once again, we talked about the PU surgery, something he's just doesn't want to have to do. He said that stones can form, because of infections, but they aren't life threatening like blockages are. Anyway, he was supposed to call me yesterday morning and he did at about 11:30. He had catheterized Kirby Saturday and he went into the office earlier Sunday and took the catheter out, left Kirby for a couple of hours to see if he would pee on his own. He didn't. He was blocked again. So, he kept Kirby overnight last night and will let me know today how Kirby did. If he's peeing on his own, we'll probably start giving him an ammonil pill a day to keep his urine pH at a level where crystals won't form. Talking to other people this weekend, and this is something that's happened with Rusty, is that after a certain period of time, the crystals stop. For no obvious reason. But if Kirby is still blocked today, like he was yesterday, Kirby will most likely be getting surgery. I have mixed feelings about this. It would be nice to be able to go places and not worry about Kirby blocking, which is why the surgery looks good. But if this is something that we only have to deal with for a few more years, then I'd prefer he not have surgery. We just don't know. It's not something to take lightly.

While I was at the vet, I asked Elena about Pew. He's still there. He's confined during the day and loose when there are no clients around, after hours. I'm glad he wasn't put down.

I was a little worried how the vet would react to me. I didn't know if he'd still be angry about the plans to find Pew a new home. He was a little standoffish at first, but since I didn't act weird, he eased off. He was almost chatty when he called yesterday. I did tell him this joke while I was there Saturday.

A man walks into a veterinarian's office with his dog. The doctor asks him what the problem is and the man says "my dog is crosseyed, can you help him?" The doctor picks the dog up and starts looking him over. He tells the owner "I'm going to have to put this dog down." The dog's owner, alarmed said "Why, just because he's crosseyed?" And the vet replies "No, because he's getting heavy." ba da bum

His back was turned to me and he was writing something down. I could tell that he was digesting the joke. He look up at Becky, said "that was a good one." When he called yesterday, he said that Kirby had a much better attitude about being there. He said that Kirby was only half psycho. Poor Kirby.

Saturday, I was cleaning my bathroom and I heard this really odd sound from the other room. I stopped and listened, didn't hear it again. Well, the way things go, once I started working again, I heard the sound again. I stopped and put the mop down and went into the other room. Boney was doing something strange, like coughing. Worried, I went to him and started rubbing his throat. There was a little piece of grass on his nose and I pulled it off. It was a full size blade. It was up his nose. Brian it probably got there when he was throwing up. Poor Boney, that had to be irritating.

Jackie is getting more used to me petting him. He doesn't really like it on his back, but he doesn't dash off when I start. Especially when I have treats. He'll even go to a certain scratcher in the garage in anticipation of treats, waiting for the fingers he knows are going to be scratching his ears, nose and chin. He likes those kind of scratches. But he's not too keen on a full body stroke.

Pete brought me a bug for Mother's Day. What a sweetheart.

Red recently started something new. He jumps up on the counter and calls me over. I go over, drop my head and am rewarded with a massive headbutt. Then he walks back and forth, rubbing against my face the entire time, purring loudly. This is great that he's now coming up to my level. I don't have to lay on the floor. And it's usually just the two of us. On the floor, there is a chance that we'll have company.

It's cold this morning. We might have rain tomorrow.

Brian made the box for the remote yesterday. He painted it and it wasn't dry before the sun went down, so the remote isn't working. I'm sure looking forward to it.
Update: Kirby's home. The vet's called about noon. He didn't need surgery. When I went to pick him up, the vet said that he had a really good urine output and there was only a little blood in it. He also said Kirby was back to his normal cranky self. LOL!! So, here's the plan. I know that we kind of alluded to this at the time of Kirby's previous blockage, but I guess what we're (I'm) going to do is give Kirby one ammonil a day. He's to get it at night while his body is digesting dinner. Since we've been home, Kirby has been following me around and talking to me, telling me all about his weekend at the spa. This is a first. Usually, he's gone and up in the rafters or hiding somewhere outside. The vet said he hadn't eaten the entire time he was there and that he would probably be really hungry when he got home. He ate a little chicken, but that was it. Now, I can just hope that he'll grow out of his chronic UTIs like some other cats have.

Wednesday, May 17, 2000 Sunday, when we went to visit our moms, we took the truck. I forgot when I jumped down from the passenger side, to use my left leg. I messed up my sciatica again, I guess. My leg has been aching since. This is getting old.

Kirby is doing better. He's still talkative and he's sleeping a lot. I'm hoping that he gets better with pilling because he's going to be taking them for a long time. We played a little stick last night. He didn't chase it with as much energy as normal, but that's to be expected. At one point last night, he was so mellow, he let me trim his claws. That's the first time he's let me.

It was cold yesterday. And this morning. I have the heat back on.

I've been really trying with Jackie. I've found the way to his heart is through his tummy. I have a little container of the CostCo cat food, the stuff we feed the out front cats, with me in the office or by the couch. He'll come up to nibble and I open the container and put it in front of me where I can reach over and pet him. His desire for the food is stronger than his fear of me. He also has a spot in the garage where he'll let me pet him.

Occasionally, I've seen a new little red cat out front. It has on a flea collar, which doesn't look too tight, but the fur is all worn off. And it had an injury to it's face, by the left eye. Monday night, I barely touched it on the head when it backed away from me. But it's not really afraid of me. I'm wondering if maybe this was the cat that was in the yard behind me last week.

My butt is really sore today. I should take it easy today.

Friday, May 19, 2000 Boy, my right elbow really hurts. My butt feels better, though. My pulse was pretty high last night. And I've had some sort of weird intestinal thing going on the last week. I'm trying to figure out if it's something I'm eating.

Kirby still seems a little depressed. I've been getting his pills into him without much trouble. He still fights them. I wonder if he'll every get used to it. I'm thinking pilling him may be one of the reasons my back has been hurting. To get the pill in him, I have to be on the floor and have him between my legs. I cross my feet so that he can't scootch backwards. I can really feel that nerve pull when I do that.

I received a fax yesterday from a domain registry that someone was applying for lisaviolet.net. Well, I don't really want anybody making money off of my name (after all, I am in the process of getting the name trademarked), so I registered lisaviolet.net and lisaviolet.com. This morning I signed up for service at virtualave. net and should know tomorrow if they can transfer the domain service. I don't intend on making full websites, but at least they'll be mine. What's strange is I can't find a website address for the company that sent the fax. They sent another this morning saying "final notice". Too late now. That domain is mine. I kind of wonder if this was a scam to get me to pay for it. Or maybe somebody tried to register a whole bunch of domain names at the same time, with the purpose of squatting. That's illegal now. I've set up temporary pages. Really funky looking. I didn't have much control.

I can't believe how dull my life seems right now. It's nice. Really nice. The cats are all doing okay (knock on wood), the neighbors are quiet, the weather is nice, my mom is doing fine. I have paperwork to do, I started yesterday, but got bogged down in one of our vendors invoices vs what we've paid them. Their statement shows a receipt of a payment of over ten thousand dollars when the check itself was for over twelve thousand. He was supposed to call me back, but he hasn't. I've called it to his attention, I'll worry about it next week.

All of the outfront cats seem to be doing fine. I sure miss big Opie. Brian's been feeding them about half the time now. Making friends with them. And he keeps the dry feeders full, because Cleo comes over in the daytime to eat and he doesn't want her to go hungry.

My elbow is really starting to hurt. I guess I should quit typing. Surfing, whatever. It's not helping. And I really have to get this other stuff done.

Monday, May 22, 2000 Well, we had a little excitement this weekend. That was yesterday. But first, let me tell you about Friday and Saturday.

Friday I finally got all of the invoices from our vendors input. Brian and I both went to the chiropractor and my blood pressure was up. It could be because of the pain in my butt and also because I have a little viral thing going on. The chiropractor said to take double the recommended dose of my multi-vitamin to help. We went to the mall after that and I had a salad and chicken gyro for dinner. When we got home we watched a little television, Brian went to bed and I went about an hour later. Early in the morning, Brian woke me up yelling. It seems that Boney was in the window and started to spray the blinds. Brian didn't close the blinds before he went to bed. Brian got it in the face. He wasn't happy. That's understandable.

Saturday, Brian went to Sears, early, because they had a big sale and he needed new Levis. We saw the ad on Friday and because they so often don't have his size later on in the day, because it's a pretty popular size, he went early. They only had three of the blue Levis he likes and he also got one pair of black Levis. He got a raincheck for six more pair. The normal price is $44.00 and he got them for $35.00. That's worth the effort.

When he got home, he started work on setting up the remote arm for my camera. It didn't really take that long. It's nice, but you can see the seam where the two pieces of glass are attached and there was a really bad glare from the wood. Brian had painted it white and the inside and edges of the box really would have been better painted black. Yesterday morning, he put a strip of wood painted black on the worst edge for glare. I sent an email to the manufacturers of the robotic arm to ask where I could find a big glass globe like they use on their outdoor cameras. Brian had checked at Ace hardware and Home Depot, but couldn't find anything large enough to house the arm and camera together. Eventually, we'll find one and that should help. Plus I'll be able to see a greater part of the yard. Right now, it's limited by the box itself. If I go too far to the left, I don't see the bank, I see the inside of the box.

Damn, I didn't save and I had a ton of stuff typed. Here goes again.

Saturday, while reading messages at one of the forums I frequent, one of the multi cat owners mentioned vacuuming every other day to keep the hair down. I thought about how much work that would be, but I bet her house looks nice. So, I figured I'd spend Sunday cleaning since Brian wanted to work on his tractor.

Sunday morning I woke to the sound of cat sneezes. Continous cat sneezes. I got out of bed to make sure whoever it was wasn't in any other type of distress. It was Lucky and besides the sneezing, she seemed to be okay. Then, I notice the cats looking out the window. Curious, I look out, too. Oh, look. Meezer. Meezer in the yard. Meezer trying to get out. "Brian!!" I yell, "Meezer is in the yard, I'm gonna need help!!" Luckily, I hadn't let any of the cats out yet. I threw on some clothes, then went out. I talked calmly to Meezer, telling him he was okay. The dogs, bless their hearts, just watched, keeping their distance. I told them to go into the shop. They still just watched. Meezer was hanging on to the overhang of the barrier at this point. He looked a little wet, but the sprinklers come on every night now and the grass around the pool gets damp. I knew it wasn't because of the dogs. Brian came out, dressed in his sweats and took the dogs back into the shop. I got the gate opened and Meezer ran back into our yard, to the other side of the house and up the bank. *sigh* He ran into the fenced area, fenced to keep the dogs off of that part of the yard. That's where Junior kept hurting his leg when he was a pup. At each end of the fence, there is enough room for a cat to get into that area. Meezer went in by the doghouse. I opened the gate on that side of the yard and had a really bad time unlatching the latch. Brian had to help. We both stepped back and waited for Meezer to leave. He didn't. He just sat up on the hill, watching us both. We walked farther back into the yard. He didn't move. Brian went into the house and I went into the garage, getting a can of soft food and a bowl. I took it out and showed it to Meezer, thinking that maybe he would follow the food. Didn't happen. I tossed some chicken up at him. No dice. Same with tuna. Not interested. Great. I went into the house and just waited. After about an hour of him not moving, I finally went up onto the bank myself. He ran out of the hole down by the gate, but not out the gate, but back into the yard. Up by the doghouse. About then Brian came out and I asked him to slowly walk up and try to get between Meezer and the fence. Meezer freaked, tried going over the fence, but the barrier was there. Brian talked softly to Meezer, moving slowly. Meezer realized that I was blocking his access back to the gate, so he did a 180 turn and ran down onto the grass, along the retaining posts on the bank. Then, he went out the gate. Brian followed to see where he went. He ran across the street back by where OC lives.

Brian fixed the glare on the camera box, washed my truck and kissed me goodbye. I started thinking about cleaning, how to best tackle the job. I had to take it slow because my butt is still hurting from whatever I did to it last week. Bending is no easy task. The plan was to start by washing the throw rugs in the tv room, the ones that cover up the holes in the carpet. Then I would dust the dining room, living room, bedroom and tv room. Then vacuum the office, hallway, bedroom, entry hallway, dining room, living room, then the tv room. After the tv room was vacuumed, I could put down the clean throw rugs. And looking in my bathroom, I probably should clean that again, too. I started. The dusting went easy in the first two rooms, but I hadn't done the bedroom in a while. I took everything off of the dresser and cleaned it good. I even cleaned the top of the dresser, and the domed music boxes we keep up there. I cleaned all of the little music boxes on the shelf under the tv and put all of my cologne into my bathroom, pushing stuff back so that I could get them all in there. Next it was time to change the sheets. I stripped the bed, let air out of the mattress, took the rails off and pulled the mattress pad down, straightening it out. It was hard, not having very much room to work between the mattress and the frame of the bed. The sheets went on easier and I was able to get the blanket and spread without killing my hands. That done, I put the railings back on and re-inflated the mattress. Then it was into the tv room, where I dusted. Time for the vacuum. This went quickly and as I planned. I even pulled out the chair from the wall in the tv room to get behind it and the dining room table out to get under it. Vacuuming done, I put down the freshly washed throw rugs, plus another one over some new holes. I noticed that the new holes are where one of the previous owners had speaker wire running. The cats were really good during this all, not getting underfoot or in the way. They were either in the garage, where I had a fan blowing and the door to the backyard wide open, or outside in the shade. I had the television on, which helps when I'm cleaning, to the Western movie channel and they were running the first Lonesome Dove in it's entirety. It started a little after noon and ended a little before eight. Brian was home by this time, had taken a shower and was watching the movie. He hates this movie, it makes him cry. He was sniffling when I sat down, vacuum put away. I looked down the hallway thinking "I've gotta do my bathroom, I can't quit now" and I got up and took up the rugs in the bathroom, cleaned the spots off of the mirror, scrubbed the toilet, wiped down the counter, washed the floor (I can't believe how quickly cat hair accumulates) and put down clean rugs. Yay! I was done!!

Brian had bought some new ice cream (bad Brian, bad) and I sat down with a bowl full, feet up on the coffee table. I still had the litter boxes to do, but I figured I could take a break. I watched the end of the movie (sniffling) and got up to finish what I had started so long ago. I counted down doing the litter boxes. Five more to go, four more to go, three more to go, two more to go, one more to go....done!! I was really dragging by now. I had to sit on the floor because my butt hurt so badly at this time. I had to straighten up very slowly because going too fast made me want to shout. I got the kittens (which we call Ciara, Jackie and Peter), shut the doors and fed the cats dinner. Then, I took a shower. I wanted to watch the season finale of the X-Files. Oh, the shower felt so good. I scrubbed and cleaned and shaved and all the crud of the day went down the drain. I wiped down the shower doors, then grabbed a towel and started to dry off. I heard Brian talking to the cats. He was out front, feeding them dinner. What a nice guy. And Meezer was there, not too traumatized by the previous night's adventure.

In my jammies, waiting for X-Files to begin, I realize that I was out of cooked chicken for the cats' breakfast. *sigh* Out to the freezer, I got the bag and took it into the kitchen, put seven breast in water and started the fire under them. Two hours later, I was ready for bed.

Now, let me say that I still get very tired out. I can't sit for very long, but I can't stand, walk, browse or do anything for very long. It just wears me right out. And the last time we went anywhere, I got out of the truck wrong and reinjured my butt, remember, on Mother's day? That was the same weekend I had to take Kirby in, so hauling him was also a strain on my out of shape system. I'm not used to this at all, not getting this worn out. I used to be like the energizer bunny. Now, I'm using inferior batteries or something. I just can't take it. Coming home from the doc's last Friday, Brian and I talked about the virus I had and I said how did he get away with it not hitting him? I guess he didn't, but he took Immodium since he had to work. I just let it run (ha ha) it's course and leave my system. Then of course, I can't figure out where I picked it up. Then it dawns on me. The vet's office. When I went in to pickup Kirby Monday afternoon. Great. Thanks, guys. Well, I think it's finished with me, but it hit again this morning. While I was up, I heard one of the cats using the litter box down the hall. And this cat has obviously loose stools from the sound of it. I wait to see who it was. It's Peter. I think maybe he's eating too many bugs outside. But I'll keep an eye on him to make sure. So, Brian has been doing most of the shopping, bless his heart. Saturday, he got his new Levis, came home set up the camera, mowed the lawns (even my little garden lawn), came in and showered then went grocery shopping. He got most of the stuff on the list, but not the potatoes and sour cream. He saw no reason to pay so much at the grocery store for them when they're much cheaper at CostCo. Then he said "you go". Moi? Well, I guessed I could go after my doc's appointment today (great appointment, by the way, by BP was down. Last Friday it was high on both tries). So, I did. It's a mistake to let me loose at CostCo without a chaperone. I have no willpower. Besides the stuff on the list, I got muffins (a dozen, three different flavors, which of course I ate two when I got home), a peach pie (I've had the urge for peach pie for months now), chocolate covered popcorn (tastes pretty darn good, I ate half the bag, Brian can have the rest), (now for the goofy stuff) a set of five pens that light up (I can't believe I bought them, but they're so neat!!), a set of scissors with different cutting edges (I figure I can use them on the business cards I make), five paperback novels to read while I'm sunning myself, and of course, the stuff on the list. I also got some of those huge ziplock bowls, the ones with big plastic spoons and covers because they're so cute. I never think "now what on earth will I do with these" I just think "I want". Once at home, putting away the groceries I bought, including the thousand pounds of baking potatoes, it dawns on me that I'd really like to make some potato salad and these bowls would be perfect. They even have snap on lids. I just need some celery and onion. Darn, I wish I would have thought of it sooner. I'm feeling like crap now because of the muffins and the popcorn I ate, on top of being really tired. Serves me right, I knew better.

Now that I don't feel so good, I'm wondering if I'll make it to the bank today. I'll page Brian and see if he can make it. If not, I'll go tomorrow and get the celery and onions on the way back. I just want to take a nap right now.

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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