stripethree

He’s doing better, but not after yet another vet visit. Friday morning he was not comfortable and trying to pee anywhere he could. He was in some pain and not a happy camper. I dropped him off at my regular vet, Feline Limited Cat Clinic, and they kept an eye on him until they had an open appointment at 2:30. They went over the test results from the emergency visits as well as tests they did and the verdict is that Llama has a bacterial infection that probably caused the blockage in the first place. More tests are being done and we should know more on Monday, but the vet sent me home with a third medication, an antibiotic, for Llama.

It certainly is making a difference. Today he’s been his old, usual self and he seems happy and active and like he’s feeling much better than he has in recent days. I am hoping this upswing continues because it was not fun to watch him and know he was uncomfortable, even before things escalated on Friday. Once the additional test results come back, he’ll probably be on antibiotics for the next three weeks. I’m just so happy my kiddo is feeling better and hopefully he’s on the road to recovery.

So before we went to Nebraska, I had to make an emergency visit to the veterinarian with Llama, as he was having trouble going to the bathroom. The diagnosis was a partial blockage of his urethra or an infection of the area, so we got some meds and monitored his use of the litter box. About half way through our trip he finished the meds (we had friends staying at the house) and seemed to be back to normal doing just fine.

Then today, Summer noticed him squatting on the bed looking like he was trying to pee. His lower belly area was swollen and he was in obvious discomfort and could not go to the bathroom. So back to the emergency vet we went, and this time it was not so simple. He developed a full blockage in his urinary tract and needed to stay overnight. Last I heard he was unblocked with a catheter and was resting, but still with an IV for fluids and a catheter to monitor his urine output. He’s going to get a ultrasound done, blood work, urine-analysis… all in hopes of figuring out what the deal is. This is not uncommon in male cats, and there are options, but all of them are unfortunately somewhat invasive, the success rates are not bulletproof, and the financial commitment is substantial. It feels horrible to have that last reason in the equation, I do not have to want to choose between one of my best friends and my modest savings account, but it’s an unfortunate reality. One that brought me to tears upon hearing how much a potentially life saving surgery could cost for Llama.

It was just as upsetting to sit in the vet’s office and have to think about how things could turn out, today, next week, whenever. Even now the house isn’t the same as he’s staying over night. He could very well come home and have this happen again next week. Or it could never happen again, depending. If kidney stones caused it, he’d need surgery to remove them. It is was crystals in his urine, it depends on the type. If it’s something else… who knows. I’m hoping for the best, really, really hoping.

Tonight’s Chipotle visit:
Me: Chicken Fajita please.
Distributor of Delicious Burritos: I’m sorry we’re out of faijita veggies.
Me: :looks around: :brain hemorrhages start: I’m sorry, what?
DoDB: We are out of the veggies, would you like some beans?
Me: :still struggling to comprehend this travesty: No… thanks…

I went through the rest of the order in a haze, amazingly still able to order the rest of my toppings and a drink. I left to take my dinner home, still perplexed. How does this happen? It was still a good meal, but, it was like a chocolate chip cookie with the chocolate chips. It made me sad.

Then watching the start of the Illinois/Duke game, the announcer rolls off this gem about 45 seconds into the game:
“And Illinois up 2-0, the largest lead of the game…”
Read that again, think about it, and read it one more time. Seriously, did he really just say that? I swear I’m not still disillusioned from the lack of peppers and onions in my burrito, he really did reel off that awesome stat.

And lastly, my younger cat seems to enjoy chewing on packing tape hanging off the many boxes I have already unpacked. It’s entertaining because it’s obvious he does not like the taste and/or the sticky aspect of the tape in his mouth, yet he sits there for minutes at a time, chew chew chew, awww crap what’s this stuff on my tongue, chew chew chew, awww crap. Weirdo.

I had to take Llama back because he was doing nothing but puking after I got him home. Turns out he had an uncommon allergic reaction to the vaccine he got, the kind of reaction that doesn’t occur when kittens are young, only once they’ve grown to ‘near adult’ or adult status. Poor guy had to go get another shot after another ride to the vet. Thankfully he’s fine now and the vet was super nice about it and apologetic, even though it wasn’t their fault, there was no way to have known since this had never happened before and isn’t exactly common. They made a note that now, whenever Llama gets a vaccination he’ll get a little bit of meds first that prevent the reaction. He’s wiped out now and sleeping in the cabinets somewhere.

Of course the first time I take the boys to a vet in a year it had to be an ordeal. I haven’t decided if I will brave taking Monkey back for a chip, if I do, he’ll certainly be hopped up on some kitty Ritalin. Now back to work since this killed bunch of hours during the day that I should have been coding.

It’s been a while, almost a year if not more, since Monkey and Llama saw a vet and they both needed vaccinations and could use a check up, so today was the today. I expected this to be pretty smooth sailing since they are pretty cool around people, are ok with being handled, and have been fine at all their previous vet visits. I was half right.

Monkey was fine in the car and fine in the carrier at the new vet, until we took him out to get examined. Then it was time to make life hell. He hissed and hissed even at me just sitting on the exam table. The vet and vet tech, thank god for their patience, were able to examine him while I distracted him (oh, but he was still hissing and fighting) and get him weighed. He was 13lbs, which is less than I expected since he’s a little chubby. Anyway, I held him for a few minutes while the vet and I talked about diet and stuff and how to get his weigh down a little, and he seemed to calm down. As soon as he set foot back on the table, it was on again, he jumped out of the techs arms as they tried to wrap him in a towel and on the floor. I lured him out and he did the same thing again. I tried to lure him out again and he bit me, hard enough to break skin, something he hasn’t done since he was about 9 weeks old. We got his carrier, he willingly crawled into it, and he had to get his vaccine with towels stuffed around him in his carrier so he couldn’t move or fight back, still hissing and spitting. It was kind of upsetting because I’d never seen him behave this way, even more so since there wasn’t much even I could do to calm him down. Once he was done and back in the carrier he was quiet again, and he’s back at home now like nothing ever happened. I feel bad that he was so agitated and uncomfortable, but at the same time I was kind of pissed at how badly he behaved, i expected better from him. The vet said they’ve dealt with much much worse, cats that they can’t touch without fully sedating, so I felt a little better. He’ll have to go back because I want to get him chipped but we decided this was not the right time given his behavior.

Llama, on the other hand, who I was afraid was going to be the squirmy one trying to run away and hide, was a doll. The tech let him walk around the table and sniff, and he sat quiet with me petting him on the head while the vet examined him. He let the tech pick him up to put him on the scale (11lbs), flip him over to check him over, and didn’t even make a sound or move when he got his shot. The vet and I were talking about some things with his health (which is basically perfect) while he walked around on the table and he was purring and nuzzling up to the vet and the vet tech. He’s such a little attention whore, but I’m glad that his exam and stuff went smoothly. I’d have felt awful if both of my cats, who this vet has never seen before, were basket cases.

Monkey’s fine now, and next time he goes he’s going to get some sedative beforehand. It’s weird since he’s the one that is always calm and cool in the car rides, with Llama crying and scratching at the carrier to get out. Oh well, hopefully next time will be a bit better.

So I have survived five months without the usually deemed ‘essential’ appliance known as a microwave. Weird huh? The last place had one built in to the kitchen and I just never bought one when I moved into this place. There’s really only a few times where I really could have used it too, so why bother spending the money? Maybe the next place will have one built in again, who knows. What’s the point of this thought? Well, while there are numerous things I know I miss and am dying to see again from the remainder of my belongings that will get back to me next month, but I wonder about all the stuff I’ve forgotten about and totally wouldn’t have used anyway in the last 8 months. I can’t even picture half of the stuff that’s packed away, I just see boxes and a mental question mark of ‘what the hell is in there?’. Maybe when I get some of it back I’ll be throwing out a lot of Craigslist for sale ads, who knows.

I am definitely going to move again in November but just somewhere else in Tucson (sorry Maryland folks if I got your hopes up…). This place is nice, but I keep seeing 2 bedroom townhouses in the area for about the same rent. This equals a real ‘office’ for work, perhaps a car port with some room to get small car things done, and generally, a more comfortable place to live. Plus, I’m absolutely fed up with the construction across the street. Every weekday morning at around 6:00am, sometimes earlier, the ridiculous amount of noise starts. If it’s not the actual construction noise, it’s the music the workers are playing loud enough to hear across the street. Seriously. I want to go annoy the hell out of them at an inconvient hour everyday for a few months straight. Trucks are constantly parked or moving slowly across the stretch of road in spanning the two entrances to the complex and the road itself is just tore up. Knowing that this construction would continue through the entire time I’d be here through a year’s lease just doesn’t make me very fond of living here. So come November, a change of dwellings for the third time this year. This also leads to a tentative goal for ‘08: no relocating, enough is enough!

Llama is in the midst of perfecting the habit of stealing bottle caps; Nantucket Nectars juice bottles, Powerades, whatever he can get his little paws on that I leave sitting unattended on an end table. He’s actually become quite good at it, grabbing them when I’m not looking and scurrying off to hide them somewhere. If I don’t notice and immediately give chase, he just parades around the place with his prize in his mouth, basking in the success of his thievery. Sometimes he even climbs onto the coffee table and stares at me, flaunting his conquest, until I appear to try and get the object back at which point he scampers off with it. It pretty entertaining, as long as he doesn’t get in the habit of stealing or destroying anything of any value, like, oh, say, a pair of iPod headphones (yeaaaaaaaaah… my own fault for leaving them out).

Myself, Summer, and what appeared to be half of Tucson went to the Beer Festival last weekend, which was fantastic. Pay your $40, get a 6oz plastic cup, and off you go. Roam from tent to tent filling said cup to your hearts content with beer and the occasional, quite delicious, twisted iced tea with lemonade. There was also tons of food that we sampled from the generic stadium hot dogs to various pies, appetizer samplers from BJ’s, pizza, surprisingly spicy seafood salsa, overly salted sirloin steak and… I honestly don’t remember what else. Definitely worth the price of admission, I know that Summer, myself, and each of the friends we went with downed enough beer to well surpass $40 at any nearby bar. Next weekend: Oktoberfest!

Lastly, is that the last quarter of this year is going to be filled with travel, travel, travel! My parents get into town this weekend and we will be going to Sedona and the Grand Canyon at the end of next week, it should be a lot of fun. It’s been fun just to gather recommendations up for things for them to see or do around here. Then next month I’m making the trip to California I alluded to earlier in this post, to pack up my stuff and get it back to Tucson. November and December I’ll be back in Maryland for the holidays, the 21-28 and 23-28 respectively. I’ve always been the one picking up people at the airports on horrible holiday travel days but this time, this time I get to see how bad it will be all for myself! It sucks that I am traveling the day before each holiday, but plane tickets aren’t cheap (especially three roundtrips) so the dates were dictated as much by cost as they were by convenience.

Forgive the lame title, I couldn’t think of anything better at the moment.

I just returned home from a meeting of the Sierra Sports Car Club, the organization which I am planning to autox with once a month while we are in the Grand Canyon state. It was cool, I’m definitely happy to get involved and it was nice to meet some of the folks other than through an Internet message board. Seems like a fun group that takes the existence of their club and their autox seriously, in a very good way. I’m really looking forward to Sunday, especially since the site is a mere two miles from our place. Rock. Hopefully, in return for some kickass autox action, I’m going to be ale to help them migrate their registration to an online process. So I get to autox and I get to do some fun (I know, nerd) web development. Rock times two.

Outside of my near giddy state and the fast approaching autox, this little town is pretty cool so far. It’s quiet during the day and I’ve been able to get a bunch done and not get distracted while working from home. The only wrench thrown in if when dweedle dee and dweedle dumb (also known as about 20 lbs of kittens) decide to get rowdy and run around. They jump on the ‘desk’ in order to get to the window ledge they like to sit on, regardless of whether the blinds are open or not. Luckily, I’m making headway on breaking them of the habit of walking on my laptop keyboards. They are slowly learning to step over them, or sometimes, with more interesting results, jump over them. I type this as they zip by my feet. Llama seems to be adjusting fine, he’s as curious and bouncy as he always has been and seems to be having a grand old time in the new place. Monkey still seems freaked out for some reason and he’s been more aloof than he was. He’s even made some attempts to get out the front door when we’ve had it open. Hopefully he’ll feel more comfortable soon. Both of them do enjoy hanging out on the balcony, except when the little one decides it’s time to jump and climb the walls. He doesn’t look like he’s going to jump, instead, just seeing how far he can look over the ledge, but I don’t have enough confidence in his ability to realize when he’s going to hurt himself yet. Definitely have to keep an eye on that one when he’s outside.

Other than that, not too much exploring has been done. Most everything is on one main street. Still though, I’m somewhat indifferent. It’s much more laid back here, and I like it so far. I tell you what, and I never thought this was something I would actually take notice of, but the produce here, soooo much better than Maryland could ever hope to be. I don’t know if it doesn’t have to travel as far, if it’s because it’s a warmer climate, or what magically genetically engineering wool someone is pulling over my eyes, but it is magnificently delicious.

Well, that’s all I got for now, I’m hungry and about to wage war on some leftover stuffed shells. There will be more come Sunday. Oh yes, there will be more.

Yeah, Halloween was a few days ago, but the title is appropriate.

So we have these ‘Pounce’ treats for the kitties and they love them. Shake the little tube of goodness and they come bounding and meowing from wherever they happen to be in search of a piece of kitty chocolate.

We have seen them get a hold of the closed container before and were quite surprised at how they attacked the lid in an intelligent manner in attempts to open the treat jar. Despite their best efforts (even working together), they could not pry the lid from its place. It was entertaining to watch them tug and fight as the carton rolled around, tightly closed. I however, now believe this to be a game of possum so as we did not worry about where to keep the treats.

The first time it might have been a fluke, but again today it happened again. I came home to find the jar of kitty goodness on the floor, lip nowhere to be found, treats no where to be found. Our little fiends gobbled every crumb of Pounce deliciousness up. I picked up the empty carton and turned to see them sitting there, looking at me, holding the carton, trying to look as innocent as possible and avoid scolding through their cute kitten faces. The mischievous little mongrels are even watching me type; from on top of the ironing board they aren’t supposed to be on, no less.

Cumberland Airport, July 29 and July 30. It was hot. Too hot. At the same time, it had been too long since an autocross. Nearly two months. Way too long. Things did not start off in the best manner, as I discovered a broken bypass valve and an unusable intake when I thankfully popped the hood to check fluids. After some engineering (I use the term lightly) a short ram intake was born. Saturday runs I simply could not get things clicking right and finished nearly two full seconds and three slots behind the STX class leader. Saturday times:

1. 62.897
2. 62.126
3. 62.844
4. 61.955 2
5. 62.936 1

On run three or four, I cannot recall which, I pulled into the grid and was greeted by a scraping noise, which I discovered to be the driver side HID ballast dragging on the ground. Both sides came loose, probably due to the heat and harsh conditions. and the driver side fell through and was dragging on the asphalt. Luckily the damage was not bad and the ballast is still functional. Furthermore, the same torx screw on the inner fender liner of the driver side has popped out so right turns of more than a full lock are once again met with a rubber on plastic rubbing. Yum! I suppose it could be worse given the beating this car takes.

Sunday was better. Shaved time on almost every run, hit fewer cones, and cut two and three quarter seconds off from run one to five:

1. 55.943
2. 54.271 1
3. 53.978
4. 54.170
5. 53.261

Much better, well, the car that is. I could be better. I do not know how one catches such a nasty cold when it feels like 115 outside, but I got it. No, I have not been smoking even though I am hacking up a lung like I have been sucking down Marlboros for 20 years. It really needs to go away, as in, five days ago. I have too much shit to do to be sick.

The kittens, or should I say, the kitten and the cat, are doing well. After some initial friction, they have grown to like one another. Llama is a brave little pound of a kitten and Monkey has realized he is not being replaced and takes good care of his little brother. Monkey though, he is no kitten anymore. Hes still only four pounds, but he looks like an adult cat now, and he acts like one too. Both are mischievous little fur balls and its fun to watch them chase one another.

Yesterday marked something else very cool and notable. Yes, thats right, the start of some livin in sin. The apartment is pretty empty right now, since between work and other things, the move in will take place over a few weeks, but still, in principle, it has begun. As Ted proclaimed, “It’s all over for you now”. Hahaha. Im excited and happy, and so is Kharissa.

Ok, thats enough out of me, Im going to try and not cough up my lungs.

We adopted this little guy from Howard Country animal control, so now he and Monkey can do battle, I mean, play nicely all the live long day.

And yes, we named him Llama.