The Family

Well…it’s Chris’ birthday…and I had to. I mean birthday without cake…sad panda time. So without further ado I show off the cake and brag a little. I think it turned out quite lovely.

Chris will get to have some when he gets home from work and…then present time!!!

Thank you to the people that have given us many great things to help us in our upcoming move and to help us with our (soon to be) new baby.  (right now it’s still under development; version is 0.8.3 or so)

Anyway, all the boxes of stuff are just waiting for that happy time when they get to be unpacked, assembled, and put to use.

Another thank you to dad for the air conditioner; it might have been a pain with leaks, but rest assured you are the source of continued marital bliss in the car.

well at our trip to the vet (it’d been a couple of years due to the 3 year rabies shot) our new vet got a good look at the kitty teeth. blue has a good amount of build up, but mo had enough build up to have irritated gums (in other words gingevitis). for a 6ish year old cats with no dental care…not bad.  aside from being big boys that could stand to lose a bit of weight (we’re working on it) their report was otherwise good.
poor mo, i know i don’t like having my gums all irritated. the vet recommended that we consider having his teeth cleaned in the very near future and have blue brought in for cleaning later this year. i knew that if it was me, or chris, or crabby we’d be at the dentist getting routed, scraped, scaled, polished, etc ad nauseum. we don’t want the cats to have teeth fall or out have it get so bad that they need to be removed. so the cleaning was scheduled last week for today.

early this morning mo went to the vet…scared and annoyed with morning breath that would stun a herd of yaks. after a mild sedative and a healthy dose of anesthetic he had his very first “feline prophylaxis” complete with some antibiotic to help the gum irritation… think what they do at your teeth cleaning only on a cat (note to self…must find new human dentist in Austin).  chris and i went after work to pick him up. poor baby, he was still groggy and while happy to see us, annoyed. his teeth are much cleaner and they said everything should be fine, no need for drilling or extraction (YEA!!!).  i wonder if he’s noticed his fresher kitty breath.

blue will get his turn later this year…but for now mo is torn between sleeping it off and making us feel guilty for taking him to the evil place.

I got this site from a friend.. one of the things you can do is send your snowflake to others, but they require your email address and i did not want to give them mine… so if you go and you do find a snowflake made my neljaz iit is mine but i gave a not my email address so i could not send it on… I have always liked making snowflakes.

I have copied Terri’s site…

It looks much the same as it did before.

As i worked on it i began to envision how i would like to see it.
The second one is only the first page. The only change you might not notice is that i took the biography page out and put the important parts of it on the first page. I also added in that what you see in the pictures are one of a kind items. Terri does not have the ability to buy bolts of fabric so she can make the same item over and over in case she does get orders. I think the one-of-a-kind angle could work……

I am also trying to get lighter brighter pictures and fuller descriptions. I had thought she needed details like fiber content, but i have loked at a number of similar sites and fiber content is seldom given, nor do they mention washability or suitability for children. I think those things are important. (What do you think is important?)
I posted a question about the site name on craigslist and got some feedback. I don’t know if Terri will accept it, but she might.

And i know i have asked you before… but the more input i have, the better so i am putting it before you again……

Last night I had my first dream of Grailing.  I’ve been asking and asking, but this was the first.

Grailing and I were on the front porch.   Something startled him, and he ran through the railing and down the street.   For some reason I couldn’t get off the porch directly, but immediately went back to the closest gate I could use and chased after him.

A few houses down, there was a woman holding a bundle, not immediately recognizable as anything in particular, but I instantly knew it was Grailing.  I went up to her; she asked if this was my cat.   Yes,  I said, this is my Grailing.

She asked what I fed him, saying that he often came over to her house and ate.  I started to list what I was feeding him until she stopped me, laughing.  She said that I obviously fed him very well, far better than what he had at her place, but weren’t cats so funny and opportunistic when it came to food.

She handed him over, and Grailing settled into my arms and purred.  The lady again remarked that yes, he was obviously my cat, but she let me know that he was welcome at her place any time because she did like him and he would always have a safe place with her.

Took Grailing back to my house, set him down and started working on the computer.   Then he called to me; he was chasing one of his crinkle toys and wanted me to play with him.  So I got up and we played.  We played and played and played, with the energy and focus and interest he had when he was just barely into adulthood, and he looked his most perfect, most beautiful, and he so obviously enjoyed playing with me and including me, inviting me, into his world.

It was a good dream.

I’m glad to know I can recognize him, from whatever distance.  I’m glad to know he’s staying with someone who cares for him, but who acknowledges that I care for him more.  I’m glad Grailing is happy, and that he still wants to be with me and is happy with me.

I’m glad Grailing has finally made the full transition to the point where he can be with me in dreams.

Just thougth I’d help everyone close on this happier note.   Grailing and I are both healing, both adjusting to our new states of being.  But we’re still together.

ok ok…now before some of you get totally offended…

this is about CROCHET.  i’ve actually been waiting for this book to come out for a while. the person that writes it has had a few books on knitting by the first part of the name and has gotten very good reviews. i believe the names comes from knitting/crochet parties where the women aired the dirty laundry while doing thier work (bitching while you stitch).  hehehe makes me smile
i don’t have the book, but i just think it is all too cool…and well the name…it makes all the prim and proper blush

OK…… I want to change the color of the search button on the 8 of us message board. It is driving me crazy. I can find how to do it, but i do what the book or site says and nothing works. It is probably because this message board thing has a style sheet and everything refers to it. Maybe i am writng the right code and not linking to it right.

So if any of you have time on your hands (that’s very likely, i know) and knows how to change the color of a button using a style sheet……..??

And now i am going to try to stop being obsessed. 🙂 I have spent a good 6 hours reading and searching and trying things. Nothing works and the words are beginnig to blur together in my mind when i try to read.

Another note in the ongoing Grailing saga….

The constant moist food routine was begining to wear on Kevin. So I called up the nutritionist to see if there was any dry food option that was permissible … well, actually, I called to see if re-introducing dry food for a meal would do any damage. I had no thought that there would be a permissible option available.

Turns out there is. And, as you would expect, my cats LOVE it. Finally, some real food, they tell me. Enough with this moist whatever-you-call-it. Sure, sure, it’s Turkey and Salmon, or Sardines and Crab, or Chicken and Herring, but whatever. Give us some of those tasty dry kibbles.

Wretched beasts.

So, in case any of you are interested, I thought I’d share that dry food option with you. The thing that makes it special is that it is all meat and fruit/veggie – no grains were used in the making of the food. So it is very low carb. And cats, as carnivores, don’t do so well with the carbohydrates. Not to mention the whole tumors metabolize carbohydrates side of the equation, which hopefully none of us will ever ever ever have to consider ever again.

The main webpage is http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=home-tab

Go to Foods > Foods for Cats: Innova EVO Cat & Kitten Dry. Or try going there directly.
The store finder is at the top. There are plenty of stores in Austin and Houston. I don’t know if they all carry EVO; you’d have to call and verify that.

But anyway .. it exists, there it is, and if you try it let me know how your cats react.

Actually, don’t let me know if you try it. Your cats reaction would probably be confusion.

Let me know if you get some and feed it to your cats, and if they like it or not.